32 Thoughts: The Podcast - OEL UFA

Episode Date: June 19, 2023

Canucks make a big more! Vancouver buys out the remainder of Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s contract. Jeff and Elliotte break it down from Vancouver’s perspective (3:45), what the team might do next and how it impacts the Coyotes.They also have a few laughs thanks to the Vegas Golden Knights and their unbelievable Stanley Cup parade (17:40), the latest on Connor Brown (27:00), Edmonton and Jonathan Toews (28:30), the search for a new assistant coach in Toronto (31:40), teams to keep an eye on (33:00), Jeff predicts the top 5 picks at next weeks NHL Draft (34:45), the Winnipeg Ice moving to Washington (37:30), and they take your questions (40:00).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail!Music Outro: Bennett Coast - BenderListen to the full track HEREThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: KTNV Las Vegas.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Hey guys, it's Mark here from Amherstburg, Ontario. As I lounge out here with my children on Father's Day in beautiful Lake Erie, I just wanted to call and wish you, Jeff, you, Elliot, and of course you, Amal, you three gentlemen, a very happy Father's Day. Thanks a lot for all you guys do. Take care. Hey, that is very lovely. Thank you so much for that on behalf of the entire crew. Well, actually, not on behalf of everybody. Elliot, do you have a word?

Amel, do you have a word? Happy Father's Day to all the great fathers out there. There's no more important thing you do than teach your children a good example, or at least in my case, try to anyway and fail miserably. As a father, I serve as a warning to my children. That's my job as a parent. What about you, Amel? Extra special. It's Noah's birthday today, too. I know, it's good.

Extra special. That's excellent. Yes, happy Father's Day to everybody out there and to the moms doing double duty as well. Of course, yes. Okay, so a couple of things here. Let's do the intro. 32 Thoughts, the podcast as always,

presented by the GMC Canyon AT4X. Thank you for joining us once again. Even though the season has wound down, the podcast will continue in a kind of regular format here. Like we'll be dropping pods, three of them this week. We'll have something for the draft next week as well. We'll do plenty around free agency as well. So we still have a bunch more. So we haven't set sail quite yet.

So you still have to hear us, you know, barking out hockey nonsense for at least another couple of weeks. But before we get to the hockey, here's what I'm curious about, because I've never seen them and I've always wanted to see them. Not that I'm jealous about you two this weekend, but one of you two went to see Alexis on fire and the other went to see The Cure in Montreal. This piggy stayed home meanwhile, and didn't either. How was the cure? They were fantastic. Uh, I have to say I was very impressed. Max lasted 30 of 31 songs on the 31st, 31 songs. Yes. They Robert Smith and the. Smith's 64. The other members are in their 60s.

Wow. They played for two hours and 45 minutes. Holy shit. I'm 52, and I can barely get through a 45-minute podcast. And those guys were belting it out in their 60s. It was spectacular. We had a great time. That's awesome.

Thank you. And they played a lot of well-known stuff, and they played a lot of stuff that unless you were really a huge fan, you wouldn't recognize. Yeah. But it was excellent. Thank you for asking. Did they play In Between Days? Of course. Yes.

That would be the one. Yeah. If you're going, that's the one. Okay. Then if I went to the show in Montreal, I would have went home happy because I got to hear In Between Days. Emil, Alexis on Fire. They played a cover of Fully Completely by Tragically Hip. I know, I saw it online.

I was so jealous. It was unbelievable. That's fantastic. Those clips are all over social media. I'm sure you've seen them. How long did it take you to realize what they were doing? I knew right away. When George started talking about paying tribute to the past,

I was like, oh man, here we go. Oh, that's so cool. That's one of my favorite hip songs too. Well, I'm glad you two guys had a great time going to show. What did you do all weekend, Jeff? I had one kid who was sick and I had another kid at a tournament in Barrie for baseball. So while I stayed home for a couple of days

taking care of a sick kid, I did get to Barrie on Sunday to see the quarters and the semifinals for nice uh for brody's team so that was a great that's a great way to spend father's day yeah taking care of a sick kid and then going to see some youth baseball i love it guys okay you know what people love you know what really gets tongues wagging two things one offer sheets and sheets, and two, buyouts. That really gets the old curiosity machine going on the hockey social media, on the hockey Twitter.

And whether it was previously Darian Hatcher coming out of the lockouts, or Vincent Lecavalier with the Tampa Bay Lightning, or perhaps most recently Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. Oliver Ackman-Larsen bought out by the Vancouver Canucks. He did have four more seasons, Elliot, as you know, at eight and a quarter. That is now chopped by 85% and it extends over an eight-year period. We will get to the Arizona factor in all of this as well.

But first, your thoughts on Oliver Ekman-Larsen getting bought out by the Canucks. I was shocked when it came across me just because I had asked the Canucks earlier this, I don't even think it was before the season ended. I think it, when I was out there for the, um, for the telethon that they do in March, uh, I asked if they were going to be using a buyout this summer and they said extremely unlikely so I kind of put it out of my head and I know some other reporters there had asked if they might be doing buyouts and the Canucks seemed to indicate no and then all of a sudden they kind of surprised both us and Oliver Ekman-Larsen by calling him on Friday and saying, you know what, we're going to use the buyout.

Initially, Ackman-Larsen, through his agent Kevin Eppett, indicated that they had been told that that wasn't going to happen. So, you know, what this says to me is that, you know, Vancouver, they want a clear room. They want to be able to do some things this offseason. They want to compete for a do some things this off season. They want to compete for a playoff spot next year. And what it says to me, Jeff, is that everything else that they tried to do, it was either going to be too expensive. They would have to attach something they didn't want to

attach or they just couldn't do it. And so they said, you know what? We can free up 7 million of cap room and what we would have paid Ekman Larsen the next two years, they're now going to pay him over the next eight years. So they just decided this is the easiest way to rip off the bandaid. Now I have to say on some level, I think this is the best thing that happens to the player and the team. This could not continue for four more years. There's no way that Oliver Ekman Larson for four more years in Vancouver was going to work. And the one thing I do agree with here is that, you know,

don't throw good money after bad. If you have something here that doesn't look like it's going to work, you get out of it the way that you have to get out of it. And the Canucks have done that. And I think they will benefit. And I think Ekman Larson will benefit. It'll be interesting to see what the next contract is he signs in a year where there's not a lot of defensemen available and teams always need D. Like I had people texting me on Thursday before the Canucks officially announcing it saying, There's not a lot of defensemen available, and teams always need D. I had people texting me on Thursday before the Canucks officially announcing it, saying, are you sure about this?

And my answer was, God, I hope so, because I already put it out there. But there will be teams that will be interested in him. He'll have choices. It'll be interesting to see what the next contract will be, but he'll be able to pick a spot where he can go and kind of resuscitate his career. But that's the thing I kind of agree with the most is that this wasn't going to work. And I think it was the best move for the Canucks and

the player that Vancouver did this. We've talked about, you know, various teams that have made plays for Oliver Ekman LLarsen in the past. The Boston Bruins have been on that list and were on that list previous. And he likes them. And he likes them. That's one of the teams that I wondered about right out of the gate here. Listen, it's not exactly a secret that the Boston Bruins are going to have to do some things here.

And if you can get an Oliver Ekman-Larsen on the cheap, maybe that affords you the luxury of being able to do something that you otherwise had some misgivings about. So I do wonder about the Boston Bruins with Oliver Ekman Larson, whether that can finally come to some fruition because geez, Elliot, how many years did we wonder about Oliver Ekman Larson and the Boston Bruins? It's been a number of them. The other thing too, Jeff, I wanted to talk about here is what just happened in the playoffs. The Vegas gold, the Knights won the Stanley cup and the Florida Panthers were finalists. That's right. Where did the Florida Panthers finish in the regular season? He barely made it in. So someone said to me that, that Florida going into the Stanley cup final after the way they finished the year, that's going to embolden teams again to the, we just have to get into win situation. Did everybody forget that they were the first place team in the NHL a year previous, that this wasn't just out of nowhere, but they're not really the same team. If you think about it, they're a pretty different team. If you look at it top to bottom,

from where they were a year ago. They made a pretty significant move that changed their group. I thought a lot about that argument. I'm just not convinced it's a fair comparison because they didn't exactly come back with the same group that they won the President's Trophy with. Look, we've seen this in the cap era, Edmonton, the Kings, as you have mentioned several times. Oh, did I mention Los Angeles?

Yeah, you did once or twice. Someone's talking to me on the weekend that they really think that Florida going to the final on a hot run from a goalie that if you believe in your goaltending and you think you have some stud players and guys who can fill in a role you're gonna think you can do this now and when he saw the Ekman Larson buyout he wondered if that's what Vancouver's thinking. Okay. We've got Thatcher Demko. We've got some elite, elite level talent. Like he wondered, is that what they're thinking? This is what Florida did. Can we do the same thing with a bit more cap room here? And he thinks they're

not going to be the only team that thinks like that. You know, basically right now there's this whole debate. Do you need a goalie or not? Well, we're looking at two very different teams here. Florida had Bobrovsky go on a heater. Vegas used five different goalies, including two guys, Brassois and Hill, who did a great job in the playoffs. But they have that big, tall, mobile defense.

And he said what his team is talking about is, do you need a goalie? And what they think, and I think this is a really good way of looking at it, is the stud goalie becomes a little less important if you've got Vegas' defense or you have Tampa's defense or you have Colorado's defense from last year in the final. But he thinks the stud goalie becomes more important if you have Florida's defense,

which is not as big and not as long, right? And who does Vancouver have as their number one defenseman? Quinn Hughes. Quinn Hughes. And this is not to disparage Quinn Hughes. He is a great, great player. But his point was, if you're Vancouver, you can't build Vegas's defense, but you have a hell of a goalie.

you can't build Vegas's defense, but you have a hell of a goalie. You know, we were talking about how the NHL is basically divided in half right now, or it's if you're going to be a championship contending team, it's divided in half. The team that can build the big, tall defense and mobile and create a system that makes it hard for people to get through and maybe not need the elite goalie or the team that doesn't have the big, tall, long mobile defense, but you still have to play really well positionally, but you have the goalie and the team or the great team is the team that's got both and Tampa had both. So he's looking at Vancouver and he thinks they're looking at Demco and some of the talent they have and just

thinking, get in and then cause some headaches. So as a sidebar to all of this, I'm glad you brought us here as a sidebar to all of this, how many Matthew could Chuck lights are going to get paid this summer based on what Matthew Kachuk just did with the Florida Panthers? Who are we talking about? Much in the same way, as soon as Eric Lindros was both drafted and then traded and made his debut and played in the NHL, everybody wanted to get a Eric Lindros type.

And all of a sudden, Chris Gratton became very, very rich for a long, long time. There's no one out there that does exactly what Matthew Kachuk does other than Matthew Kachuk. He's a completely unique hockey player. But there are managers out there that are, I'm sure, thinking to themselves, get me someone like him. I know we're not going to get him, but anyone that resembles or does anything similar to Matthew Kachuk, this is a good time to be that hockey player. Do you think that we see the Kachuk effect in the off season? Go find that player. Good luck with that.

Oh, that's what I'm saying. I don't think it exists, but you know how teams think. Yeah, you know what I do, but I also think you look at, you know, what you've got, right? Like to me, it's not only Kachuk is who he is, but also it's elite level talent, right?

Do you have elite players? I think Vancouver looks at it and says, we have elite players. Another thing someone said to me right away is they have to have something going on. And I asked around, it doesn't look like it. I think now they've just opened themselves up to kind of figure out what they can do. But I don't think there was anything immediate. But I think there's clearly something they think they can do. Yeah. But I don't think there was anything immediate. But I think there's clearly something they think they can do.

They'll be a fascinating team to watch, both because of contracts that I think we're all waiting for and wondering about as well. And listen, like I look at the division and we know that Vancouver doesn't want to take a step backwards. And you're right.

They think they have the goaltender and they probably do. And Thatcher Demko provided he stays healthy and not that your division should intimidate you out of competing, but you look at the Pacific, like Edmonton is going nowhere. The Stanley cup resides in the Pacific. The Seattle Kraken just had a heck of a season and they're going to return with pretty much the same team,

probably plus Shane Wright. And they don't look like they're going anywhere. And we've talked a lot about the Los Angeles Kings. The Calgary Flames may be a wild card in all of this, but who's Vancouver jumping over? I don't know, man. Like I'm saying, it should not discourage you from trying at all all i'm saying you sound like homer simpson you know what the lesson is never try never try on father's day

that's my message to my kids never try oh that hill is pretty big let's let's try a smaller one here kids that's why i'm on the cover of today's parent magazine. Yes, that's me and Claire. Okay, a few more things here. And a couple more about the Vancouver connection. You kind of hinted at that. I do wonder what's next for Vancouver because I don't think that you clear up this

type of cap space without having something in mind here. But I guess we'll stand by to see what Vancouver has cooking. From the Arizona Coyotes' point of view, I do wonder, and perhaps you do as well, if this puts a chill on teams retaining salary here. So they retained on Oliver Ekman-Larsen. He gets bought out, and because of that, the Coyotes will now lose

one of their three retained salary slots for the next gulp eight years yeah i didn't know about that you know credit to the people at cap friendly who got the answer to that yes i wasn't aware of that i mean what are you gonna do look arizona would still take that trade it got them dylan gunther of course they would it got them dylan gunther so if you lose the spot for eight years i'll take my chances with Dylan Gunther. Do you think that puts any type of chill on salary retention? No? Teams look at that and shrug?

Ottawa could have the same thing with Matt Murray here if the Maple Leafs go that route. Yeah, but that's only for two years. Fair. I understand that. I guess now you look at it and say we better take this into consideration, but like I said, if Arizona got the ninth overall draft pick, I'll take my chances with that. I'll deal with the consequences.

Hey guys, it's Jay from Marion, Massachusetts. And yes, I'm a lifetime Montreal Canadiens fan. Yes, I was persecuted. This is a non-hockey related statement. Elliot, you don't get much support on this podcast. The Bionic Woman is the best. I used to fight with my friends over who was hotter, Wonder Woman or Bionic Woman. And Bionic Woman always won.

And it's so demented that she does those mattress commercials now. And I go, oh, bionic woman. I'm like, no, she's 80. Bye, guys. Thanks for everything. Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Okay, so a couple of people stole the show at the Vegas celebration. Oh, man.

Most namely the fans, and by that I mean William Carlson. And a very buckled William Carlson. And a very over-served William Carlson. Over-poured William Carlson. So, um, this guy. This effing guy. Yeah, I know. I know.

So, Riley, he was here day one. Yeah. Yeah. And I know you have been here day fucking

one. here they Hawking won you guys are so amazing we played Arizona in the first game and we beat the shit out of them. And I had no points. No points. But that's okay. Because at year one, I was pretty fucking great. But you guys were greater.

And we've been up and down on this journey to the Cup. I said to Marci, Marci you got something to say no no no no listen to me we've been waiting for six long years for this guy to be MVP. He had to drag the microphone away.

I felt terrible for that staffer. She did the best job she could. Oh, bless that woman. She tried. They were going to need the jaws of life to take that microphone out of Carlson's hands. There was no playing him offstage gently and with the novelty hook trying to playing him off stage gently. And, you know, with the novelty hook, trying to get them off stage. No way, man,

this guy was tarps off, buckled and going for it. Uh, what did you make of the weekend in Vegas? Well, first of all, I thought it was fantastic. You know,

one of the things, and this is kind of the legacy of the Washington capitals in 2018, right? Yes. Now, if your Stanley cup celebration, isn't off the charts, bananas, it's almost like,

why did you bother even winning it? Don't come out here unless you're doing something ridiculous. I couldn't watch it live. We were at the concert, but I watched the clips on Sunday morning and I could not stop laughing. First of all, all the shirtless guys, Aiden Hill doing his Ricky Bobby impersonation. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my hands. So funny. What does it mean to bring this city its first Stanley Cup? It's pretty wild. I don't know.

I like, I don't know what to do with my hands right now. That's okay. That's great. Keep them natural. It's all good. You know, even Eichel the day before working at the drive-thru of that burger place or whatever it was. That's because of Golden Knights Star Center.

Jack Eichel was serving up food at Raising Cane's. Cars were lined up in the drive-thru and hundreds of customers were also lining up in front of the store. Eichel worked a shift from 5 to 6 p.m. giving customers their chicken fingers, fries, toast, cane sauce and some slaw. Have you ever done a part-time job before you got drafted into the Knights? I worked at a hockey store for a little bit, but other than that, hockey's been my only job. I think it would have been crazy if Ico was there when I was ordering some chicken fingers. That is awesome. I thought it was hilarious. Carlson falling down the stairs.

You know, Kevin BX has told the story before about when they were in Anaheim together, the rookies, like their initiation was basically getting up in front of the group and, and talking about themselves for a couple of seconds. And Carlson gets up there. He grabs the mic. He says, my name is William Carlson. They call me wild bill.

And I love to party. And everyone just started cheering when he said it in Anaheim. And if there was any doubt that he liked the party we saw that on on saturday night oh yeah to me now unless there isn't some level of public carnage like i said wow it's almost like why did you bother winning the stanley cup the washington capitals have set a very high bar and everyone now is trying to reach it. And I thought it was hilarious. Like some people are writing like, is that acceptable?

I mean, come on, like no stop. Send the den mothers somewhere else. Like it's, you just want an incredibly difficult thing to win. You know, they call it the toughest championship to win in all the sports. When you win that, let it go, man. Let it go. What those players go through to win that thing. Now, the one thing I thought was really interesting was Bruce Cassidy talked about a repeat.

Here we go. Back to back. Back to back. Back to back. Back to back. Back to back. Back to back, back to back, back to back, back to back. And I remember when the Lakers won in 1987,

Pat Riley got up at the, he was the coach then, he got up at the press conference and he said, I guarantee we're going to win it next year. And they did. It was a really tough season. But before Riley could speak the next year at the parade, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar grabbed him and jokingly said, don't do that again. And actually, the next year, they made the final and they got swept by the Pistons. They were badly injured.

But it just reminded me of that LA Lakers moment. I like that, though. Yeah, it was great. I like it a lot. And honestly, we talked about this last podcast. When you look at, like, listen, you made a lot about that blue line, and rightfully so, from Petrangelo to Martinez to Theodore to White Cloud and McNabb and Haig.

Like, holy smokes, you want to talk about a blue line? To say nothing of everybody up front, and we'll see what happens here with Ivan Barbashev, who may have priced himself out of Vegas. But even though Jack Eich'll see what happens here with Ivan Barbashev, who may have priced himself out of Vegas. But even though Jack Eichel is lobbying the family to encourage Barbashev to resign with Vegas, this is a team that I think we look at and say, okay, why couldn't they repeat?

I don't see why they can't. Now, there's one thing I wanted to clarify from last podcast, and that is that I talked about Mark Stone and just the allegations of cap circumvention and i mentioned how there was one team that complained and they were told that this is mark stone's reality that he's battling a legitimate injury and the nhl considers it a very legitimate injury and another team actually after i said that on the pod told me that the NHL really went hard at Vegas this time in terms of like investigating them and asking for the medical

reports and everything on Vegas. And they said that this is the reality. He's got a bad back and it's going to be in and out. Well, one thing that I just wanted to add was I kind of talked about that in a past tense. I should have added as well. Vegas believes that this last surgery had this year is going to solve the problem and Stone's going to be okay. So hopefully that's the case. But during the season, there were teams that complained and the league backed them and said it was legit

and this is his reality. Vegas is very hopeful that this past surgery has solved the problem. And they don't believe this will be a recurring thing from here on in. So I just wanted to mention that. I think we all think that way. I think all sane people want to see Mark Stone.

I understand competing against Mark Stone isn't easy, but I think everybody wants to see Mark Stone in the NHL. It's a better league with Mark Stone. And I listen, I, you and me are on the same page about this. I just love Mark Stone. I like everything about everything from how he tapes the knob of his stick to how he plays, to how he flies in the face of what we think a hockey player should skate like and how fast the players should skate. He more than compensates with hockey smarts and body positioning, a real intelligent player. And with all due respect to Alex Ovechkin,

nobody Elliot's celebrates like Mark Stone. No, no one comes even close. I'm sorry. Nobody comes close to Mark Stone celebrations. Give me those for the next four years of this contract with a pain-free back and full health. I want four more years at least of Mark Stone goal celebrations. You know, by the way, speaking of players trying to come back to health, you know who I've heard a little bit about?

I don't even know if teams are even allowed to talk to him yet. Who's that? Connor Brown. What's the latest there? Well, he got hurt, and he's still a member of the Washington Capitals. But I've heard there's teams kind of looking in there. What's his situation going to be? What's he want to sign for?

Where does he want to go? I know there's a lot of talk about Edmonton just because there's a lot of history there. I mean, it's obvious, Connor McDavid. The Connor McDavid Association is twofold. One, same agency, and two, they played together in Erie. Yeah. In junior, just so all of our listeners understand that.

You know, this is a year where teams are going to be looking for the best bargain they can find. And, you know, Connor Brown, another guy, you just want him to get healthy because he's a really good player. And there's been some features over the years that Sportsnet's done about just what a tremendous person he is. It's true. But I think there's a lot of teams out there curious about what he's thinking

and where he's going and whether or not he's he's guaranteed to go to edmonton because edmonton's cap tight right so yeah they probably can't make him the biggest offer but you know that's a name i've heard quite a bit about the last week what's his situation speaking of edmonton, did you see Mark Spector's piece speculating about Jonathan Taves and perhaps the Edmonton Oilers? Again, Jonathan Taves has made no decision yet on what he wants to do, but I thought that was an interesting one to which one person told me, listen, if Jonathan Taves decides that he wants to play and is healthy enough to play, is seeking an extension of his NHL playing days here,

he's going to pretty much call the shots. Oh, yeah. If he's healthy enough to play, he's calling the shot, is what one person told me. But listen, I think that Edmonton would be on a long list of teams that would want Jonathan Taves, again, if he's healthy enough to play and if he wants to play, depending on the decimal point, how he feels, all of it.

And speaking of people that you want to see in the NHL continue, I'll take Jonathan Taves too. Understood. Who I still maintain. Who I still maintain. Jonathan Taves too. Understood. Who I still maintain.

Who I still maintain. Once the career is over, I maintain he may be the best interview anyone can get. He is that fascinating of a person. I just think he needs to get away from hockey, Elliot. You know what I'm getting at?

Like, I just think he needs to get away from hockey. I think he could be, and one day he will be for someone, the best interview of anyone in the NHL. You know who I've really tried to track down? And I don't want to bother him, but I've sent him a couple notes here and there.

Danny Heatley. Danny Heatley and I have had some contact periodically, but a guy who just walked away. Tim Thomas? You know, actually, he's on the list. That's a very good one. I've sent him notes periodically. But a guy who just walked away. Tim Thomas? You know, actually he's on the list. That's a very good one. I've sent him notes periodically. When I'm chasing a story in the moment, I can be, like as one guy said to me, you're like a dog on a bone.

But when somebody kind of retires or goes away quietly, I'll send a few notes once in a while. Because I know that when I go, I'm going into the ether. Oh, you're just going to be a rumor. Yeah. And I will not want people bothering me. So it's like treat people the way that you would want to be treated. So I send them a note once in a while, but I don't write a lot. Matt Niskanen. Amen brother. Cause Bufflin has showed up a little bit now. People have talked to Bufflin, but Matt Niskanen, after the bubble, he said, I'm done. And I've sent him a couple of notes here and there, but feathers.

Hang on. Is this what our podcast has come to, begging hockey players to come on the show? Pretty much, yes. Publicly outing them here. We'd love to Tim Thomas and Matt Niskanen and Danny Heatley and Jonathan Taves when he wraps it up. Is that what this podcast has become?

I'm not above begging. I am not above begging. Begging players to come on. Gilles Malache, if you're listening, please, please. Well, he was working in the league for a long time. Yeah, I know. You could probably track him. I'd love to talk to Gilles Malache.

I got a poster, Joe, a framed autographed picture from Amel over my shoulder. I get that question every now and then from the radio slash TV show. Who's that SEALs goaltender? Gilles Malache. Amel got that for me. Autograph too. Nice.

Okay. Back to business here. Instead of begging for people to come on the podcast. The Toronto Maple Leafs and their hunt for the replacement for Spencer Carberry. I had a couple of names float my way would you hear well there's one name that i think you've talked about before i believe elliot i can't remember which team it was around carl taylor who's the head coach of milwaukee in the american hockey league milwaukee admirals yeah yeah nashville's farm team todd nelson is, his Hershey Bears are in the Calder Cup final.

Actually, they're up 3-2. Yeah. On Coachella Valley. They can close out on Monday. Yes. So Todd Nelson coaches there. And listen, I think a lot of us wonder

about Mitch Love after he didn't get the Calgary gig. I sort of, I think we're all sort of wondering what's next there. But I don't know how far the Maple Leafs

are along in that process of trying to find the next assistant coach to replace's next there. But I don't know how far the Maple Leafs are along in that process of trying to find the next assistant coach to replace Spencer Carberry, but those were three that I had conversations about over the weekend. And in the end, it confirms what we'd suspected for some time, which is that Keefe is coming back. They haven't announced anything, but he's coming back. I believe that once tree living was hired it increased the chances and there was one moment where i kind of wondered if that's what the

rangers were waiting for but generally i've believed since tree living arrived that keith was coming back and that's going to be happening he's coming back uh before we get to emails before we get to voicemails anything else you want to bring up on the pod? Someone was listening to our podcast the other day. You know, we've been talking a lot about LA, right. And yeah.

And what they might be up to. They also said to me that St. Louis and St. Louis has made a lot of noise about willing to do things, but they, they haven't done anything major yet but this person said to me you would be foolish to think that they won't be doing something and he believes they're one of the teams that's going to be very interesting to watch as we get

through the draft and and around that time and you know what this person believes is that they're waiting to see if there's any chance like a keller becomes available that's a natural match because he's a st louis guy and yeah and that's where he's from but even if not you know he said to me that the blues at some point in time there's no way they're sticking with the status quo, none. And it's just going to be up to you to figure out where they're going. They have, by the way, three first round draft picks. Yes. And they've been open about a willingness to use some of them. You know, that's another thing you talk about Florida, you talk about Tampa,

you know, these teams have been unafraid to move late first round picks and they've been very successful. So if you really trust your scouting staff, unless you're truly rebuilding, you don't mind throwing some of those picks overboard. See what happens with Doug Armstrong and the blues. Merrick, before we go to questions and answers. Yes. I'm just curious, a week and a half before the draft, before we go to questions and answers. Yes. I'm just curious.

A week and a half before the draft, what's your one, two, three, four, five? Number one is obvious. Conor Bernard. Okay. Number two, although I think Leo Carlson makes a lot of noise and could make some sense with Anaheim, Adam Fantilli.

Okay. And Leo Carlson goes number three. Now, I think that that has the potential to be an absolute humongous tape measure home run at number three. That's how strongly I feel about Carlson here, but we'll see. So that's going to be a strong one there.

Then at number four, I really want to say Matvei Michkov. To San Jose? I really want to say Matvei Michkov to San Jose. Wow. But I don't think that I can, because I think he's going to fall, right? Yes. This one's a tough one for him, because he has, I mean, he should probably go number two. Wow But I don't think that I can Because I think he's going to fall Right? Yes

This one's a tough one for him Because he has I mean he should probably go number two So I'm not going to go with Matt Faye Mitchkoff I'm going to go with Zach Benson To San Jose Are you serious? You don't think Will Smith is going there?

It's going to be one or the other And Montreal is going to get the other one So you're going Benson four, Smith five to Montreal? Canadians would love that. Benson and then Smith to Montreal. Do you have a top five? Well, no, I don't. I don't follow this as well as you do.

Listen, I haven't followed this year intensely closely because of all the other stuff that I've had to do. This has been a lot of sort of casual conversations with people. I don't get to watch a lot of this like I used to in the past. So this is the dart that I'm throwing at this. And I think that like everybody else, Mieczkow is going to be the wild card to all of it. I think the Canadians would love it if they got Smith. There's a lot of teams who think if they don't get Smith,

they're taking Reinbacher. But under your scenario they get smith the thing about reinbach that i wonder about is the san jose sharks want two things and again this is like you know drafting for need as opposed to just drafting best player they really have gone out of their way to try to feed this pipeline with defensemen and goaltenders those are the two areas areas that San Jose has identified as we need to fill this quickly. And again, I don't think that Ryan Bacher goes that high,

but here's the other one. I wonder if San Jose trades down, if they're interested in Ryan Bacher and can get him at seven, do they trade down and let someone jump up to grab someone else why not they want defensemen they want goaltenders intrigue by the way i got a call about this the winnipeg ice going and into where did they end up wenatchee did a ushl team get blown up out of this or something like that a bchl a bchl team got blown up out of this or something like that? A BCHL. A BCHL team got blown up out of this, eh? Yeah.

I heard those kids were taken completely by surprise. A lot of people in the Western Hockey League weren't necessarily, but as I've been told, everybody around this story, like everybody, this was a super sensitive story. Everybody was NDA'd and they actually respected it. You know this world much better than I do. What happens to all the kids here whose BCHL team gets blown up? Those kids, Elliot, will become free agents.

Oh. And what, so what will happen there, I texted with someone about this, is no surprise, some of the top players will get snatched up by a couple of top teams as well and the other guys will,

and it kind of sucks, they'll have to wait for openings. I gotta just say I don't like it. I hope there's a solution here. I mean, I know this is hockey, and the higher you get, it's a dog-eat-dog world, it's a competitive world, and I get all that stuff. Life's not always fair.

But, you know, the BCHL just made a move because they wanted to control their own destiny a little bit and invite more kids to play for them. If you want to show you're a kid-friendly league, you know, I just hope they find a solution to this. That's all. All right. Quick pause. Back with your voicemails. Back with your emails after this.

Okay. Okay, welcome back to the podcast. Your thoughts now. 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca is the email. 1-833-311-3232 is the voicemail line. 1-833-311-3232. Brandon from Michigan has what he calls a very hypothetical question. So here we go. Since we so rarely see a successful offer sheet, but are there any rules about who picks originally belong to in terms of

compensation for offer sheets for clarity's sake? Yes. Let's say I am the Detroit Red Wings about to offer sheet Pierre-Luc Dubois or some eligible RFA making over $4.2 million. Before the offer sheet, could I use the pick number nine in this year's draft for first rounders in next year's draft with another team so that the first rounder that Winnipeg receives would be the 17th overall pick, originally Islanders from Vancouver,

or does it have to be the team's original pick or if i have multiple picks in the first round could i choose which one for example i trade for las vegas's 32nd overall pick using non-first round picks and winnipeg gets that one thanks love the show that's an easy one to knock down. Yes, there is a rule. It has to be your original pick. You have to have your pick to make an offer sheet. Now, one thing you can do is if you've traded away the pick, you can try to get it back so you can use it in an offer sheet. But one way or another, it has to be your pick.

Brandon in Michigan. Thank you so much for that one. Matt in Long Island gets this one. Good morning, y'all. I like when people say y'all. Me too. I don't know why. I love y'all.

Love listening to the show and appreciate all the hard work. Possibly a silly question. One of the advantages of a player re-signing with their club is being able to sign an eight-year deal rather than a maximum seven-year deal with another club and free agency.

Is there a rule preventing a team from signing a player to a one-year deal in free agency and then just immediately extending the player for seven years if so what is the criteria for being able to extend a player that you sign in free agency i don't think there's any rule against it, but they're going to make sure you didn't do it illegally. There wasn't a wink wink envelope in the drawer? And the closest thing where it happened this year was with the Los Angeles Kings. They have a defenseman, Mikey Anderson. And this past year, he signed a one-year contract in the summer worth $1 million. And then he signed an eight-year deal at a 4.125 AAV in the middle of February. So there is a recent example of this, even though it was their own player. Now, this doesn't happen in the NHL so much, but in the NBA, there was a famous case.

Because a player has to be under contract for three years before you can go over the salary cap with his salary. It's what's called the Larry Bird rule in the NBA. There was a famous case about 20 years ago where the Minnesota Timberwolves signed a player named Joe Smith to three consecutive one-year deals and then signed him to a big contract. And it turned out the whole thing had been papered in advance and the NBA nailed them. Timberwolves. I think they lost five first round picks and got a big fine. So like,

that's a big deal. I don't think something like that would happen in the NHL, but look like this happened this year with Anderson. He was their own player. I think if it was a UFA and it went one and then eight, first of all, you'd have to risk that nothing would happen to you, that you would lose the eight-year deal. And secondly, if anyone switched teams like that,

I bet you there would be some moaning. So you'd probably not want to leave a paper trail. But that's purely hypothetical thinking on my part. Matt in Long Island, great one. Here is, we'll finish on this one, Elliot, a voicemail from Mohamed. Hey, Jeff and Elliot. This is Mohamed from Starbro. I'm just curious to know how NHL video coaches or video rooms operate.

Is there a central video database which coaches have access to? Are they using the same feeds that we're watching on TV, such as a national or local broadcast? Or do they have specialized cameras just for coaches, like that follow the 12 people on the ice or 12 players on the ice?

This way they can view tendencies, what kind of tricks does McCarr have in his bag of tricks? They could catch that, I guess. Also, how far back does our video archives go? If a team wants to, let's say, see the Devils from the late 90s, early 2000s, can they view those games and then sort of implement it for their strategy? Lastly, how do video coaches prepare for an upcoming game,

an upcoming playoff series? Just curious to know how video data is processed, viewed, and obtained. Thanks. Good job, Amil. Good job,

Jeff. And great job, Elliot. I was going to say, if you want me to answer this question, you better include me in this one. By the way, that pause was fantastic.

That was very good. Muhammad, thanks for that one. There's a whole lot in there. Okay, so how do video coaches work? Well, they really serve a number of different masters here, don't they Elliot? I mean, they serve

the coaches and they also serve the players as well. Like players are used to having all that information, all their shifts available to them on their iPads at the end of every game. I remember that was a novelty once in the NHL. Hey, guess what our video coach does for us? Now everybody does that.

It's become a really important position at a lot of levels of hockey here. But from your perch, describe what video coaches do. Well, first of all, right now, it's very easy to get shifts, right? Well, first of all, right now, it's very easy to get shifts, right? There are companies that teams subscribe to that you can basically just call up a player and here is his shifts. It's a much faster process than it was, you know, even 10 to 15 years ago. It's much, much easier to get that. So that makes it a lot easier when it comes to pre-scouts and things like that. It's much easier to do that. So that makes it a lot easier when it comes to pre-scouts and things like that. It's much easier to do that. Another team's power play, another team's penalty kill, your own power

player, penalty kill. As Mohamed mentioned, the player shifts. That stuff is much quicker to get to than it used to be. One of the key things now for video coaches, now some teams hire two. I don't know what the split would be around the league. Does a team hire one or does a team hire two? But there are teams that have two video coaches. And during a game, one of the video coaches will be responsible for getting highlights or things that a coach is going to want to talk to in the intermission. And the other video coach will be responsible for looking at plays you know

for example entries zone entries like for example on goaltender interference or an offside challenge they don't make that decision after the puck goes in the net when a team enters the zone a lot of the best video coaches and most of them are very good, they've already started looking at that zone entry and saying, was this offside just in case? Because you only have, in theory, 30 seconds to make a challenge. You better tell your coach quickly and they'll be on it right away. So that's a lot of what the video coaches do is in game. That's one of their key jobs, you know, a correct challenge in a game. It's so huge because of the penalty that comes after it now.

That's probably the biggest thing they do. And so you have to be able to buy yourself that extra time by already having looked at it once it's occurred. So that's really important to teams now and and has been since this was introduced is uh for goaltenders player tendencies on shootouts yes and vice versa goaltending tendencies uh where they are weak where they are susceptible etc during shootouts that is totally valuable information yes and these things like things, like we said, are much more accessible than they used to be. Now, in terms of what cameras they have, they do get access to everything that's shown on the broadcast. Oftentimes too, the video rooms will ask to be put

in touch with, I don't know if they still do because I haven't been in the field as much, put in touch with i don't know if they still do because i haven't been in the field as much but they get access to the truck feed so whatever the truck is showing internally they can see it now the one scary thing about that is that they can hear what we're saying too and i know in the past some broadcasters like talking during an intermission or talking during a commercial have said something about a team where it got caught on the truck feed. I know that I don't want to say exactly who I know happened to, but I remember one of our guys, they were ripping something and, you know, the producers yelled at them and said, you know, they have a truck feed of this. And he was like, oh, too late. So you have to be careful of that kind of thing.

But I don't know if it happens anymore, but it used to, that the video coaches would ask for a truck feed of the game and we would provide it to them. Thorough answer and great question. I hope I got everything there. That was a lot. A great sign off too by Mohamed.

That's one of my favorites. That pause will stick with me for a long, long time. So on that one, Elliot, we'll wrap. By the way, coming up this week, we're having a sit-down interview with Chuck Fletcher, former general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers and Minnesota Wild. He will be part of our draft coverage. Look for that podcast sometime on Wednesday.

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