32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Oettinger Gets the Sorokin

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle and Elliotte open the podcast by delving into the Jake Oettinger 8x$8.25M extension with the Dallas Stars. That transitions into a conversation about the Lightning's and Panthers'  start to the season (7:05). Then, the guys talk about whether the Sabres, Sens, and Red Wings should panic after slow starts (10:00). Kyle and Elliotte also talk about their read on the Predators out of the gate (20:56). The fellas dive into the rash of goalie interference across the NHL (27:55). They also talk about awards voting again and a tweak they'd be in favour of (33:00). The Final Thought focuses on the Columbus Blue Jackets' memorial to Gaudreau brothers (42:07). Kyle and Elliotte answer your questions in the Thought Line (49:40).The fellas close out the podcast with their sit down interview with LA Kings forward Warren Foegele from Manhattan Beach, California (1:10:54).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailThis podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.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.  

You know what, I'm a player, but I'm also a fan too, you know, you like seeing when, you know, offer sheets are happening, you know, and obviously trades are exciting too when it's not you. No, I think it's good for the game. Do you have a burner? Do you follow people with a burner? No, not doing it. Not on that. No, no, no, no, no, no KD here. Right. KD here. Okay, welcome to it. 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by GMC. Shramati, Friedman,

Bukaskis, all with you. Busy night in the NHL on Thursday. 11 games on tap. A lot to get to there. The Thought Line is back. Also, you're going to hear an interview we did a few weeks back when we were in Los Angeles with Warren Fogle, one of the newest members of the Los Angeles Kings.

All of that to come. But, Elliot, we will begin this episode with the news out of Big D. Big Jake Ottinger, a big new contract. Eight years, $66 million. The same 8.25 AAV that Jeremy Swayman signed. Lena Solmark as well, but a max eight-year deal. What was your reaction as this was coming together on Thursday? First of all, let me shout out the Islander fans who were upset that Sorokin is not given proper credit for signing the first eight times 8.25 deal. When I tweeted out that Ottinger got the Swayman, there were

a couple who made it very clear, no he didn't get the Swayman, he got the Sorokin and you don't want those Long Islanders mad at you, they've got long long memories. I don't think anybody is surprised at this deal. It sounds like the representative and Jim Neal here, Jim Neal, obviously the GM of the Stars, and the agent is Ben Hankinson. It sounds like after this deal got done with Swayman, they kind of said, can we do this quick and again it's one of those things where I really think that this is the value of an agent a good agent is that it's okay for you and the team to talk I mean you can even tell the player you're not even talking so the player doesn't worry about it what they said here is we'll talk about it quick so that if Ottinger likes it, we'll get it to him quick and we'll get the deal done.

And if not, we'll shelve it. Again, I just think you don't have to tell the player. You can work at it and come to him when it's done if you get there. And what happened here, it's pretty clear, is Jim Neal said, hey, this deal just got done. How about it? And Ottinger was happy with it. I think the thing that's really interesting about this to me is that I think there was a point where in the Swayman negotiation, one of the issues became like a guy like Saros, who's at the high sevens.

He's in a no-tax state, Tennessee, right? So the team goes and the team says, you know what? Here's a comparable. Here's a good number. And the player and the agent will say no-tax state. So you've got to make up the difference. So because there were some people who said to me that they saw a case for Ottinger to go higher than Swayman,

primarily because he's played 60 more games. Ottinger's approaching 200 and Swayman's at about 135. So that one more season and that extra season of UFA which would have been part of Ottinger's deal you could have argued that he could have had a higher number than Swayman but first of all Ottinger's happy don't screw with happy great life advice don't screw around with happy and secondly Texas no tax state he could look at it and say you know what even though the numbers are the same my take home is a little bit better I don't think it was was really tough for Ottinger to say yes to this.

This doesn't strike me as anything contentious like Shusterkin's been. This one sounded like it was pretty easy. I would bet now that Dallas gets started on Wyatt Johnston. I think they're kind of moving down the line. And if you look at it, Kyle, like their young core, Haskinen's in the eights, Hintz is in the eights, Ottinger's in the eights. You have to look at it and believe they're going to say to Wyatt Johnston, if you want term, what do you think about the number eight-ish? But you know what's interesting about that, Elliot?

Because you look at the Sagans and the Bens of the world, they're both north of nine. Like it's rare you see it go backwards for the next wave of players. The salary cap's going up here. It's a really good point. You have a really good point there and I can't argue it.

Your logic is good. I just think Dallas, this is one of those situations, I think, where the taxes absolutely help. And eventually I'm think Dallas, this is one of those situations I think where the taxes absolutely help and eventually I'm going to crowdsource this. Like I had one executive in the league who said to me, we need to solve this tax issue. Obviously he's from a team in a higher tax area and you know, you have the power to kind of, he said to me, you have the power to kind of get ideas. So eventually I'm going to crowdsource this. But this is a case where the taxes, I think, are a factor.

And if the player is willing, then they can all go into this one area. And right now in Dallas, it's pretty clear all these guys are willing. They're all together. And I think they're going to try to do the same thing with Wyatt Johnston. Makes sense, certainly when they're in a position right now where, I mean, back-to-back conference finals, and they seem to be putting together a team that's capable of going even a little bit further, potentially, next spring.

Are you picking the Stars to win the Cup? No, I'm not. I'm just saying they could. Can't you see it? I know we're only four games in. They're good enough to win. Power play is not going really well, and Peter DeBoer was not happy about it

after they lost to Washington on Thursday night, but that's a really good team. And what they're doing right now is they're getting this group together. They're one core, like the Ben Sagan core is, they're still going to be there and they're still part of the group. But this young core is starting to build itself into the central part of the team if it's not already. And it's clear that Dallas' plan is we're going to have you all around the same number. And the Logan Stankoven Calder Trophy charge

has got plenty of momentum behind it early as well, which has been fun to watch. So as you say, the Stars dropped their first game of the year on Thursday night to Washington, one of 11 games on the slate. Why don't we start in Florida, Elliot? There was a couple of great games in the state there Thursday night,

but you made a great point. We should shout out just the great hockey fans down there as well. They have been through a lot the last month or so with Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton coming through, particularly down in Tampa. How about the way, A, the Lightning, through all of that, have started their season and the way the crowd has propelled them along the way?

I didn't know what to expect in Tampa in this particular game, simply because this is the second home game for Tampa. And one of the things that happened here is they postponed the game on the weekend against Carolina that's an easy one to make up and ultimately the NHL and the Lightning are going to do the right thing by the region but when it's Vancouver and Vegas coming in those are Western Conference teams it's hard to get them back there. It's difficult, especially in a season where you've got the four nations face off, shutting things down for a couple weekends in February. It's not going to be easy to reschedule those games. So if they were told they couldn't

play or they really felt they couldn't play, they would have postponed them. But you could really sense that everyone wanted to get these two games in. And you just never know what kind of crowd you're going to get. As you mentioned, they've been through a lot. People have got other more important things to worry about. But I watched a lot of that Vancouver game the other night, and I watched a lot of the Vegas game on Thursday. And just, as you said, shout out to that Tampa crowd in particular.

Like, it was an enthusiastic sounding building you know Kucherov has six goals already that Vegas game was a great game like lots of high quality talented players going back at it the the Vancouver Florida game was a great game I was worried there for the Panthers for a minute. When Reinhardt left that game, it didn't look good. And you're thinking, okay, no Barkov, no Kachuk, and now no Reinhardt. Like the way he went down the tunnel, you thought he was really hurt. But two great games, really good hockey to watch, and Canucks get their first win.

And those were the two best games I watched on Thursday night. I had one on the TV. I had one on the iPad. I was going back and forth and back and forth. And it was good hockey. You know, Tampa's coming into Toronto on Monday night they play. And I'm really curious to see that one. You know, Toronto's off to a good start.

Tampa's off to a good start. Tampa's off to a good start. They really don't like each other. There's a real undercurrent of dislike and distaste for each other. Now, they both have games first, but that's going to be an early measuring stick for both these teams because they really can't, they really can't stand each other.

Okay, and elsewhere, Elliot, just looking through the games we had on Thursday. So Detroit falls big to the Rangers. Buffalo gives up six to Columbus. I was at the game in Ottawa. They fell to the New Jersey Devils. That was a good game, just Devils were the better team. All those, that whole group of teams in the Atlantic, Elliot,

that wanted to take and have plans to take a step towards a playoff spot this season. I know it's early. Yes. Are you ringing any alarm bells yet? I don't know if it's just recency bias because it's now, Kyle, but do you not get a sense that the panic meter is going off in a lot of places really quickly this year? I feel like every season, the first two weeks of the year,

there's more of a heightened emphasis on the results, particularly if they're bad, right out of the gate compared's more of a heightened emphasis on the results particularly if they're bad right out of the gate compared to the season previous remember last year there was the fire lindy and everybody was like okay is is this a real thing but it always seems to me like it's in one or two places and everybody cools down i look at about five or six spots right now where I'm sitting here saying, how serious is this? Let me ask you a question. If you had a choice, Ottawa's roster or Boston's roster, who would you take?

I'd probably... God, that's a really good question, Elliot. But it's harder than you think, right? Yes. Okay. I'll save you. Okay. Because that's what podcast co-hosts do.

They save each other. If you had a choice between Buffalo's roster and Boston's roster, who would you take? Probably Boston. You would take... That one's easier for you again maybe it's my own mind no I'm just asking a bias but I look at a team this is not a uh this is not an interrogation you are not a suspect in a crime I'm not under oath it's easier for you to take Boston over

Buffalo than Boston over Ottawa probably yeah and I think I would take Boston in both cases here who would you take okay but you but you thought about it okay I was I was talking to some people about this today on pure talent pure talent and we'll get into all the other stuff in a second. There's a point to all this. In pure talent, I was talking to several people who said they would take Ottawa's over Boston in pure talent. And they agreed that Buffalo and Boston was much closer, like you, but they thought about it.

All right? All right. But the difference is, you all come back to, is that whether it's Boston's experience, and you know what, if you really take a look at it, like the experience of the great Boston teams, like it's almost all gone now. But there is a culture there that's been passed.

First of all, it's a high IQ team. And even though they got unglued last week against Florida, they are generally a high IQ team. And secondly, there is a culture that's been passed down, like Chara, Bergeron, now to their leaders Pasternak Marchand and down to their group and it filters through by osmosis they're like for the last two years we've been sitting here and saying Boston is greater than the sum of their parts because we think they're going to fall off and they just find ways to stay there okay because

they're smart team they play hard they understand their system they generally find ways they they're better lately than I think we've been expecting them to fall off for years now and especially the last two years and they just never do okay and like I was watching a bit of Buffalo Columbus tonight Columbus is down Boone Jenner they're down good Branson Kent Johnson got hurt tonight and it looks like that's going to be a long-term one too we all know what we've they've been through and we're going to talk about that a bit later your visit there on Tuesday but the one thing you control is your effort and right now I don't know how long this is going to last but right now they are playing hard Columbus is saying that no matter what is happening we're at least going to go out and we're going to play hard.

And, you know, I watched Detroit and that was the thing that concerned me most about the Red Wings is there wasn't a lot of pushback. What was your line about Panarin tonight? Well, I wondered. So he's now what? Multi-point games every game so far this year. First time in Rangers franchise history, someone started the season with multi-point games

in each of the first four. Hattrick against the Red Wings, and for this whole argument about what Igor Shosturkin's next contract could look like, the idea that he is the best player on the team, he should be the highest paid player on the team. I wondered if Panarin started to do the Rangers a bit of a favor here with how he started and making the argument of, hold on a sec.

I was in the conversation for the Hart Trophy a year ago. I may one up my points total from last season. Maybe I'm in fact still the best player on this team. So are you saying that Chris Drury went to Artemi Panarin and said, we need you to prove that you're the best player on this team so we can keep Shesterkin's number down? I'm just saying I haven't seen anything denying that. You're just saying you can't prove that he didn't say that.

So we're going with 50-50. It's a good theory. And Panarin does look great but that's the thing like that's one thing i always look at is who's pushing back even when you're losing are you pushing back and are you competing like colorado like people are saying they're saying like is there any chance bednar's in trouble I'd be astonished like I would be really shocked I don't know if there's a coach that could fix what's going wrong like they're thin and they're not getting saves like no coach is winning under those circumstances but to me at

least Colorado is still playing hard like I don't look at them and I don't say there's a team that's giving up like those guys are still trying to play hard. I look at Columbus. They are playing hard in a really difficult situation. I look at Boston. They almost always play hard to me no matter what is happening. And that's the thing. I just look at, you know, and I'm not saying people are quitting or anything like that.

look at you know and I'm not saying people are quitting or anything like that it's just that those like Travis Green was caught on the bench tonight in that Ottawa game saying not freaking good enough not freaking good enough and and I think what those teams just miss I think too often and you know they have flaws and they have their own issues but what they what they miss too often I think is they just don't have the push back there and and that to me is what separates some of these teams even if you're not that good you still control your effort you still control your compete and that's the thing that just blows me away about those situations. At times, I don't know whether it's confidence or what, but they just wilt at key moments during the game. And Detroit was definitely like that,

and Buffalo was definitely like that on Thursday night. Buffalo just looked really disheartened after that way the game ended the other night against Pittsburgh. And they had moments where they looked like they were going to get back into this game and maybe steal it but they just they can't sustain it for for long enough I I don't know what it is but they just they they can't sustain their will on these games for long enough I I don't know why that is. We've all been, like, they have tried everything there the last 14 years to try to fix it.

But that's what I see. It's just that there's moments in games where it's there for the taking. It was the case. They were winning against Pittsburgh. They were losing against Columbus. They had opportunities to win both games. And it's got to be hugely, hugely frustrating

for those players and those fans. And that's why I asked you about, and the organizations, and that's why I asked you about Boston. Because on pure talent, I think you're looking at some of these other teams and saying, yeah, I'd take those rosters. But the Bruins, especially the last two years, they are better than the sum of their parts. They're like, we're the Bruins and we're going to find a way. And they did that again last year.

And they're looking to me like they're going to do it again this year. Yeah. I mean, think of a player like Charlie Coyle. I mean, a good player as he started his career in Minnesota and what he's turned into over the years now in Boston and certainly now with Bergeron not there anymore. But like there is a prime example of coming into that environment, being around the culture that's been created there long before he got into town. And now he's part of the one, he's one of the people that are carrying it. Absolutely.

And, you know, that's another guy that people were always saying, there's got to be more there. And he has found his role and he has found his niche. So interesting days already in the Eastern Conference, particularly in the Atlantic Division. And we should shout out Luke Shen, 1,000 career games on Thursday night. What an accomplishment for him,

for one of the true good people in the game. A guy that was seemingly on his way out a few years ago started working with adam oats completely turned his career around and extended it by a number of years what's your read on the predators out of the gate well first of all on shen the story i remember about him and you talked about it when he was on waivers a few years ago there was a rumor going around that he was going to quit hockey and I heard that rumor and I mentioned it to his agent at the time and he called me he heard that I mentioned that to his agent and he called me I won't forget I was on a it was a Saturday night and it was a hockey night game and I was going to talk about it in

the headlines or whatever we were calling it at the time. And he called me himself and said, do not go on air and say, I'm done. Like, I'm not done. I'm going to find a way, and I'm going to stay. I love hockey. I love being in the NHL, and I will do what it takes. As you mentioned there, he started working with Adamates and it was it was a much different outcome for him but I always remember that conversation just it's rare that a player you know takes the

pain to call you mid-season and say you need to say this about me correctly or don't say that about me because it's wrong and I thought that was that always stood out for me and I always thought very highly of Shen that he took the time to do that. As for the Predators, I think they're discombobulated. I couldn't believe the other night against Seattle. It was three all, and then I looked up, and it's seven to three. And you don't think about Seattle having the kind of offensive firepower that they could do that to someone.

But Nashville just broke down over and over and over again. Like, to me, I can see it. You know, the Predators, they have that great first line, right? They have O'Reilly, they have Forsbergberg and they have Nyquist and they're keeping that together and where you can really see the problem is is sorting out how it's going to work from there they had this night they tried Novak in between Stamkos and Evangelista and Marcia was playing with Colton Sissons and Mark Jankowski although it kind of moves around a little bit but that after the O'Reilly line they're really having

trouble sorting out how it's going to work and you know Tommy Novak is a really talented guy and I think they were hoping that he would be able to grab a hold of the second line center and and prove that he could take it and it's not working so far now I was on Nashville ready the other day I do a hit there every Thursday and I said Kyle the thing about something like this is if you really want to give it a chance you probably have to give it like 40 games. And they've moved away from it, and now they've moved back to it. And, you know, you're 0-4, I think, for the first time in franchise history, and there's so much on the line this year, it's hard to be that patient. And what's one of the hardest things to find?

I would say the two hardest things to find are a number one stud defenseman and a top two center. So it's not like it's going to be easy for Nashville to go out there and say okay this isn't working with Novak we're going to go out and trade for a number two center. Like those guys are really hard to find. I think they're caught right now between the season started, we're losing, we'd like to have patience, we need to have patience, we're just not sure we're going to be able to have enough patience here but that's one of the issues with where right now is figuring out how it's all going to fit behind that top line. Like they've been they were leaky, they were better in in this game you know the Oilers all of a sudden

nobody is freaking out about them right now because they've won two games in a row and that's sometimes that's all it does all it takes it's all you need to get people feeling better about you but just how it's all gonna fit is their problem now Colorado we mentioned them a few minutes ago i i had some people tell me that they think there's going to be teams looking at blackwood from san jose mckenzie blackwood and you know colorado they they have georgiev they have a Noonan, they picked Kakanen off waivers from Winnipeg. I think they've looked into Blackwood before he's been on their radar. Like there's no way the Avalanche aren't looking at this and saying, what can we do? Like, how do we fix this? And do we have to go elsewhere? It doesn't mean they will, but they have to be looking at it. And I wouldn't be surprised if Blackwood is the kind of guy they're at least saying,

okay, if we do decide to go this route, could he solve our problem? And I find it impossible to believe they're not at least looking at it, whether or not they actually do it. The other guy I wonder about is Gibson. And Gibson is still out after an appendectomy. He's supposed to come back pretty soon. You know, the thing about Gibson is he has to stay healthy. Someone asked me today if Gibson would be the perfect tonic for what the Avalanche need.

And in theory, the answer is yes, because he's a good goalie and he could make a difference but he's got to stay healthy and that's the thing like it's always been the case with him people look at the contract the contract you can work out if you think a player is good enough you'll find a way to make the contract work and the other thing too about Gibson he's only got two years left like people aren't going to be too afraid of that term if he can play. I just think that the health thing, he's got to prove he can play. But I find it hard to believe that the Avalanche aren't looking at the goalie situation. Like no matter, Bednar is saying all the right things publicly.

That's his job. Talk up the team. Don't let the boat take on water. Don't give anyone any indication that you're giving up on your guy. But it's the front office's job to sit here and say, what are our other options? And I just wonder if they're looking around. When I looked at the goaltenders who could be available or might be available or would even make sense,

you know, Blackwood was kind of the name that jumped out to me, that if a team's looking for a goalie, that's probably a guy who you can actually get. He's probably up there. All right, speaking of goalies, you want to circle back on the goalie interference chatter we had for a little bit there on Monday's pod and then a number of more instances of that throughout the week here. Yeah, there was one I thought, like, as you heard me say, I think generally they're pretty

consistent on that call. Although someone pointed out to me in the Wild Ottawa game the other afternoon, Monday afternoon, there was a play where David Perron's skate on the 6-6 goal. It touched Darcy Kemper's skate in the blue and the Kings challenged and they lost. Now, I don't think it really interfered at all with Kemper. I just think he got beat. But someone said to me you know there was contact in the crease and it stood and I'll just let me just concede

because it's a frequent listener of the pod and I want to say respect for that for keeping me employed but I generally think that it didn't prevent Kemper from making the save. However, there was the ones that happened the other night in Vancouver, Tampa, and also Edmonton, Philly. That's where I think the league has to come out and make a video. Like there is a video out there about goalie interference in the blue paint. And the funniest thing about it is the first shot is of like is of Corey Perry like it's Perry standing in on Bobrovsky and you can find it and it tells you it's a very good illustrator of what you can and can't do but I laugh that Perry's the first person

you see this one is is harder and I have a theory if and like well first of all i should say this the moment that mishkov scored that goal i knew edmonton was going to challenge it it is the goalie coach's job the goalie coach's job to sit there and say i have have to know the trends. I have to know what's been called. I have to know if I have a chance to get it right or wrong. I have to see what they're up to. Like an hour before the Edmonton-Philly game that night, the Ace Amant goal doesn't count. So the moment that Mishkov scores there, I'm like,

they're going to challenge it because they saw it. And they did. And no question they thought they were going to win. No question. And they lost. And I have a theory. My theory is, if you look at that goal, Ace Amant has one long jam.

Right. He jams hard. Almost like he's trying to stab it in the net. Like through, she lost Pat through it's one it's one hard jam it gets underneath uh the pad of silovs and he stays there if you look at mishkov it's not like that he whacks at the puck several times like to me asamon is like you say he's stabbing at the pad in the puck and he's forcing it back to me Mishkov is whacking away at the puck and he doesn't knock Skinner into the net as much as I think he just

wins a battle like he just beats him he physically beats Skinner in that moment but if I but I don't know that for sure I believe that to be right I don't know it for sure like that's one where they've got to put it out there first of all they should send it to all the teams so they know but secondly send it to the fans so they know like these Oilers fans they're so funny they're they're so frustrated in that moment they've had four disallowed goals they've scored three of them all season like they've got more disallowed goals than they have goals scored. Some of them were kind of buying what I was selling about the blue paint. But the moment that one happened, they're like, explain that.

The Vancouver goal just got disallowed like an hour ago. And I couldn't argue with them. I could not argue with them. Do I think my reasoning there is the reason? Yeah, I do. But I think that's one is the reason? Yeah I do but I think that's one of those things where you've got to put out a video and you've got to say this is why this one counted, this is why this one didn't count, so the teams know and it's important the fans know too. The people in the crowd have to be

willing to sit there and say okay I may I may not agree with it, but I get it. And they've done a much better job over the years of explaining how some of these calls are supposed to work. Like we've come a long way. That's one where they should send out an explainer too. Yeah. And I will say on the written explanation they provided the Michkov goal,

they did mention that like it is in the rule book about in a rebound situation, if an attacking player's trying to play a loose puck, whacking at it, and there's incidental contact through that, the goal can still be allowed. So you were correct in thinking that may be the reason why that one stood while the AC Montgoal was called back. Okay, Elliot. Yes. So last episode, we kind of went down a tangent on awards voting. And you got a note about that. Actually, you know what happened? I was at the morning skate in Toronto for Toronto LA. And by the way, LA should get some credit too. They got absolutely pumped in Toronto. And they've been on the road, I think, for 16 days.

Yep. So they've been away for a long time. And, you know, they haven't played a lot of games, too. They played those two games in Quebec City. And then they played a few here. And now they're going back home. But they have to go on the road again, even though it's closer. Because they don't have access to their rink yet to play home games.

Let me give some credit to LA, too, by the way. They've been on the road for 16 days and they haven't even played a ton of games they went to quebec city they opened with a few games here left they're going first i think yep they're going home for a couple days but then they have to go on the road again even though it's closer and they don't have a home game till after they've played seven on the road and they get absolutely pumped in Toronto and that game in Montreal I know it's not exactly a long road trip it's a short flight but that could have been a real schedule loss for them they could have been totally disheartened they could have been absolutely beaten and they went out and they

beat the canadians like and and the don't don't get me wrong as we're talking about like buffalo and detroit and ottawa here the buzzards were circling over the la kings too after a couple of those recent results like the heat was turning up on those guys. And that was a gutsy, gutsy win. With Byfield, by the way, moved back to the wing, which I thought was really interesting. But Joshua Cloak, who writes for The Athletic, he told me, he spoke to me at the morning skate, and he said that in MLS, they split the votes into one third.

So one group is the executives, one group is the players, and one group is the media. And basically, each third has an equal say into the voting. So all the media votes say into the voting. So all the media votes go into the one bucket, all of the technical staff goes into another bucket and all of the players go into a third bucket and they weigh each bucket. And that determines the voting. And he just mentioned that, that he thought that that was a good equitable solution if you ever wanted to go down that road. You know, I'll say this too.

One thing we were talking about, and I forgot to mention this to you. I don't think I could ever be an NBA awards voter. I just don't think I could. Do you know how the NBA awards voting works? You know what? I'm not familiar okay so in the nba if a player doesn't get elected or sorry voted to enough first team all nba it affects their contract like we're talking like 30 million at least least that was a couple of years ago. There was a player whose contract max value dropped by $30 million

because he didn't get first team all NBA. I can't remember who it was, but I remember it happening. And I just said, I could not vote for awards in those circumstances. I am never going to be the person. What's that? I said, knowing that that was what's at stake potentially i could i could not like i believe people should have the right to negotiate as much as they can for a contract i would not want to be responsible i first of all could you

imagine if an nh if i was an nhl player and you are an nba player because it's true and I didn't get first and I and my contract dropped by 30 million I know they still make a lot of money but my contract dropped by 30 million because of voting I would never talk to you again oh I'd be doing somersaults no I wouldn't yes you that's fascinating that is amazing so but anyway that's what he said the he was because he covers a lot of mls and he told me and i don't know what will happen in hockey i don't know if that's even being remotely considered um but i the one thing i still do feel very uh very strongly about is even if they gave it to say NHL employees or team staff or players it still all has to be public that is the best thing that the Professional Hockey Writers

Association does all ballots out totally agree and I'm glad Joshua brought that up he's a smart mind one of the things I thought about the last couple of days, too, once we discussed that on Monday, was like, what if you had, I don't know, maybe if you're a current player, does it get awkward? Like if you're Connor McDavid voting, are you voting for yourself? Situations like that. What if you had like a group of alumni that retired within like the last 10 years and there's a committee of them I don't know how many of them they are but they still want to stay connected to the game retired recently enough that they've they're still in tune with the way the game is played today played with a number of players that are still active and they come up with a certain percentage of the voting that was another thought I had through all this

well a number of them in broadcasting do get to do that i mean this could open it up to some people who aren't broadcasters but you know i mean i i still say this i i generally think that the people who do vote do a very good job there's always mistakes um like i think there's a big difference between ballots that you disagree with and ballots that are indefensible. Like, there's going to be ballots I disagree with, but I think they're very defensible. I may not agree with the decision, but I'll say, you know what? It's well thought out. I think there are very few indefensible ballots. And at the end of the day, that's the most important thing is can you at least look

at the ballots and say, yeah, I get the reasoning. I think the mistakes have really cut down since everything went public. And I don't care what happens as long as it's always public. It's very important. Yeah. Just like your argument that being punched with the glove on is worse indefensible you know it's funny i one of the people who said that i was stupid for saying that there was a there was a glove punch this week and i i sent him the video and he looked at it he goes that's a dive. Yeah. The only proper response to that. That's good.

By the way, the only other thing I wanted to mention was, did you see Berube? The timeout? Tear into the Leafs when they got soft in the third period? Yes, I did. Boy, did the Leaf fans love that. That was like, because we, Sheldon Keefe would do that from time to time, right? Call the early time out when things still seemed to be in control. And that was kind of a new thing early on.

It was like, oh, we haven't really experienced this a lot before. But it was more of a, we're okay. Still got a, how much time left? Let's get playing again. Different demeanor from Craig Berube in that moment as things were starting to tilt in their end a little more and more, even though the game still felt out of reach. The love affair between Leaf Nation and Berube is very high right now.

This is the good post- date feeling yes that's what's that's what's going on right now leave fans and craig berube they had a really good first date really can't wait to see each other a second time that's very good elliot okay anything else on your mind before we get to the final thought well just the one thing as we as we finish up wrapping up this podcast on Thursday night. Seattle has just exploded for three goals in the second period against Philadelphia. This is Fedotov's second start, and it's not going well for him. They have two weeks left before Kolesov has the ability to go back to the KHL, to go back to Russia. So I wonder if he gets an opportunity at some point here. You know, Fedotov is struggling a bit.

Kolesov, they've got to make a decision. Just makes me wonder if we see him as they're coming back from the West Coast, we see Kolesov at the NHL level at all all right normally Kyle does this but we're gonna flip it a little bit because we're gonna talk about his travels this week the final thought brought to you by GMC and Kyle you were in Columbus on Tuesday for a very very emotional but, but beautifully, beautifully handled night between the Blue Jackets and the Panthers. What did you experience? Yeah, it was heavy, Elliot.

It was. First off, just watching all the fans come into the building before the game. I mean, you were shocked in a way by how many 13 Goudreau jerseys there were there, only because he was only in Columbus for the two seasons, right? And so within that time, the amount of Jackets fans that went out and paid money to buy his jersey just in those first two years speaks to the impact he had there right out of the gate, of course, and the excitement when he chose to to sign there a couple years ago elliot i'll tell you i'm not much of a spiritual guy per se but

you know it was kind of a cruddy day weather-wise on tuesday the morning it was a little bit drizzly walking over to the arena for the morning skate early Early in the afternoon, it was like full-on hail for a period of time, some heavy rain. The doors open an hour and a half before game time, so 5.30. And as you know, at Nationwide Arena, there's like a bunch of kind of big windows around the exterior of the building looking into the concourse. And like right as the doors open, all of a sudden, just this piercing sunlight is coming through the windows as the crowd is coming in.

They had a beautiful tribute set up to Goudreau on the concourse. It was a lot of the stuff that fans had left in front of Nationwide in the immediate aftermath of what had happened. happened, you know, the sticks, purple Gatorade, the skittles, all the signs and little individual messages that fans had took the time to write, and some of the Goudreau jerseys that he had from different stops over the course of his playing days. And just seeing the sun come in there as the fans all stopped to take a moment in front of that that tribute there it really was something to to see I thought you know the one moment during the whole pre-game ceremony which was incredibly well done um I mean of course having the open space there on left wing at the drop of the puck and the fact that it was Monaghan throwing the puck over to Sam Bennett they had two ex-teammates

of his and leaving it there for 13 seconds. That was one, of course, but also just the shot of Noah's daughter in Meredith's arms as the banner's going up to the rafters, and she's pointing up, recognizing her late father's name and number, and then the fact that when Monaghan scored, he did the exact same gesture right away. That all hit me like a ton of bricks. fact that when monahan scored he did the exact same gesture right away uh yeah that that all hit me like a a ton of bricks it was incredibly emotional um it was you know beautiful but

heart-wrenching all at the the same time and uh what was interesting was i mean the jackets have done just a marvelous job through all of this. Dean Evison made the point in the morning that, you know, when he was hired here, he heard a lot about, you know, you got to change the culture here and this has got to be better and that's got to be better. And he's like, one thing I've learned since I've come to Columbus is there is a lot of really, really good people. really good people that's not the that hasn't been an issue with this organization over the last few years and that's really come through as they've navigated through all of this um you know talking to to somebody with the organization elliot i think there's kind of a figuring out as it goes on because naturally there's been a lot of teams around the league that have reached out to say you know what can we do in terms of when they go into to their buildings and they they want to honor johnny goudreau in in some way and seems to just kind

of be a balancing act between you know the the kind gestures of course that that all of that brings about but also allowing you know the the current players on the jackets to at a certain point just go play too right so i think that'll be one thing that that'll be sorted out yeah you know i understand i understand what you're saying there yeah yeah everybody wants to do the right thing but you you worry about it getting to be too much like you don't necessarily want that for i don't know 25 road games or anything like that. I understand exactly what you mean by this and you know you're kind of tiptoeing around it Kyle because you don't want to offend accidentally and the teams don't want to offend accidentally but everybody wants to do the right thing and

eventually you reach a point where it becomes even with best intentions a little bit too much and I can understand the delicate balance that everybody's trying to walk here I mean you go into every building at least once so that's 31 road games I could see like the Blue Jackets saying you know 31 times that that might be too much what's the what's the right answer here it's a delicate balance to strike but I totally understand what you're talking about here I think everybody listening understands what you're talking about here although we're trying to not to offend accidentally in the way we talk about it yeah Elliot that's the thing like there's just there's no playbook for handling all of this. There's really no playbook.

What did you think watching it on TV? I thought it was beautifully done. I thought everything about it was tremendous. I thought it was equally beautiful and touching the right tones that you want. touching the right tones that you want. I thought it was equally both beautiful and hitting the right tones that you wanted to hit. I thought the banner raising was incredible. One of Goudreau's children pointing at the banners that went up. That was a beautiful photo that was taken.

You know, I think we should also mention, too, Calgary. They did a fantastic opening and tribute for Goudreau as well last Saturday night. One of the things I heard, actually, was, Kyle, was that Matthew Kachuk was supposed to be in Sam Bennett's spot. I think that was initially the plan. But because Kachuk is sick and unable to play, obviously he wasn't there. But Bennett, who obviously played six years with Goudreau, was a perfect person to go into that spot. And as Katie Engelson reported, it was Kachuk who suggested

that all the Panthers go in with purple Gatorade and Skittles because that's what Goudreau loved. Like everything about it was, was excellent and extremely well done by both the Blue Jackets in particular and the Flames. Great. Okay. We'll leave that there for now. That was the final thought presented by GMC. When we come back, the Thought Line.

You're listening to 32 Thoughts, the podcast. The Thought Line. You're listening to 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Okay, welcome back. Time now for The Thought Line, a segment that seems to be growing in popularity week after week elliot griffin porter said he had tons tons of emails to sift through to try to curate for us for this episode a reminder the phone number to call 1-833-311-3232 the email address 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. And we thank everyone who takes the time to write or call in. Okay. Hold on.

Time out. Time out. Go ahead. Go ahead. Kyle, do you remember on the last pod when you said this? The one thing I may take issue, when the league put out its explanation it said Edmonton's Corey Perry had significant presence in the crease I mean I don't know if it was significant it was significant the same way the triangle player is significant in the orchestra but he was there

enough I have a vague recollection we have a note from a listener named Sean who wrote, I want to let you know that the newer host has offended an entire group of people, Kyle. He wrote that in capital letters. Kyle, you'll be lucky to keep your job. I had a bad haircut and was very awkward in high school. Know what that means? Yep, I was in the high school band and because I didn't want to shower in my own spit, I played percussion. Know what I played Kyle? Triangle and people noticed I had presence baby. Why would you say that about such a well-loved group of people? Triangle players have made hits like YYZ by Neil Peart. You insulted Neil Peart as a Canadian.

Come on. I bet you don't know the other famous triangle players. Kirk Herbstreet, triangle player. Morgan Freeman, triangle player. Nelson Mandela. I'm not sure on that one, but it sounds good. Be ready to be canceled. Triangled. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I guess I forgot because when we all think of Morgan Freeman, we think of the triangle. I forgot that part. That is fantastic. And I knew it was coming out of out of my mouth elliot i was like i'm gonna pay for this but purely was coming from the aspect of humor no don't back down don't back down you have once you're all in you stay all in you oh i'm not backing down okay good good i don't i don't want any there's no waffling, there's no backing down.

This ain't the Waffle House. That's right. This is IHOP, damn it. No, that's brilliant, Sean. Thank you for writing that in, and I hope you fixed your hair over the years. What a great way to start. Okay, so I'm following up with this, Elliot. That was awesome. Okay, so I'm following up with this, Elliot. That was awesome. Okay, yeah. That was great. We're coming out hot here this week on the Thought Line. So remember how our episode on Monday kicked off

with our discussion of cold pizza? Yeah. All right, so here we go. Dylan from New York. Hey, Kelly Dom. I'm not sure about that one. It sounds too familiar to the nickname of the previous iteration of this podcast. Hey, Kelly Dom. I'm not sure about that one. It sounds too familiar to the nickname of the previous iteration of this podcast. Yeah, Jelly Dom.

Hey, Kelly Dom. No question this week, but just some wisdom to bestow. After hearing about Kyle and Elliot's love of cold pizza, I felt compelled to share a pizza reheating hack that will change your life. No microwave, no oven, no cold pizza. Heat a frying pan on medium-high heat for two minutes, then add your slice. After about two minutes, add a spoonful of water

and cover with a lid for one minute, then you're done. Pizza is crisp on the bottom, cheese is incredibly melty, and it is better than when it was fresh. You are welcome. i have never heard of this before elliot but dylan's got my attention yes i am going to try this we are more than happy to accept all of your recipes and food hacks send them in send them in brilliant okay now to the hockey i'm gonna try it i will try it me too and we'll report back don will as well he's already thrilled about the idea tony from helsinki oh hi kyle and elliot yeah watching justin kirkland score his first nhl goal against the

oilers at 28 years old after toiling in the AHL for a decade, as the commentator put it, was a heartwarming moment. Seeing the players' pure smile on the bench after the goal made me chuckle happily. What a story. What other good stories that you guys might have about players playing for a long time in the lower leagues and getting a chance towards the latter stages of their career love the podcast go easy on kyle elliot keep up the great work anything come to mind for you is this is this a relative yes no lithuanian background not uh finnish for me to me a lot of the great ones kyle are the e-bugs like and it's funny because i think the people in the league really are starting

to hate the e-bug they especially you know and I kind of get it on one level because they know how hard it is to make the NHL and they're like that should be an NHL goalie who gets the opportunity to play or somebody who's like the kind of thing that we're talking about right like a guy who's been around the minors hangs on doesn't give up they should get that opportunity instead of an ebug it's fun for the fans there's been some awesome stories I love the romance of it but I know how some people feel about it you know one of the stories I remember was when I was a kid there was obviously a lot of mystery about Russian and European players not so much European

they started to come over when I was younger but Russians for sure and I remember going to a game in Maple Leaf Gardens the Minnesota North Stars was there and there was a player named Helmut Balderas and he was a really good player for the Soviet Union for a long time and he was the oldest player to score his first goal at the time he was 37 years old and I just remembered that story just about how here's this guy who got to the NHL at age 36 because of the way the world was at the time and finally scores. Like, I love that kind of stuff. There was another guy too, Warren Young. He played on Mario Lemieux's wing in Pittsburgh and he was a Toronto guy and he broke in like he had a 40 goal season playing with Mario Lemieux when he was like 29 and he scored and so like it's guys like that stories like that people who battle like

that story the other night with Kirkland was incredible like the smile on his face was fantastic and I forgot about the car accident too like you think of all the things that he's been through I love stories like that the other thing I like is the veterans who win the Stanley Cup like I remember when Dallas Drake won the Stanley Cup with with with Detroit he was like a puddle on the ice he was so emotional and you see that player who finally gets the cup after so many years that's something I really love too yeah I mean I guess yeah Ray Bork probably the most famous Ray Bork yep so the name that came to my mind was, again, under the topic of goalies, Elliot, Jeff Glass, because I remember him. That's a great story.

Right. As the goalie on the Team Canada World Junior Dream Team in 2005. And as someone who, I mean, I was a young guy back then. And that team was, of course, very impressionable on me at the time and how many players ended up becoming stars in the nhl from there and as someone that didn't follow jeff glass's career closely it's like all of a sudden you didn't hear about him forever spent some time in the american league he was a senator's draft pick went over to the khl for a long while comes back to north america and at 32 years old, made his first start in the National Hockey League with Chicago

during the 2017-18 season. Got 15 games that year, and then finished up with more games in the American Hockey League and part of one season over in Austria, too. So that was the first name that came to mind for me under that category. It would be Jeff Glass. All great ones.

Like anybody who really, like you really love hockey if you're doing that. And anybody who gets rewarded, like that's my, I was watching when he scored that goal and not only on the ice, but on the bench, you know, I was sitting, I was watching when he scored that goal and not only on the ice, but on the bench, you know, I w I was sitting, I was thinking to myself, it's a good thing that Ryan Husker is not putting him back out there. Cause there's no way he's going to be able to, to make a play. He's so excited and so happy. And it was, it was such a great thing. It's what, it's what it's all supposed to be about.

Yes. And that's almost like, it's as cool as watching the player living up the moment it's the teammates reaction too like yes and talks about it all the time um like watching uh michkov i know someone just at the very beginning of his career so the opposite of this but get his first point against calgary over the weekend on uh travis connect me's goal and so connect me buries it and instead of celebrating he like turned right to Michkov and put his fist out for a fist bump and said hey congrats like he knew that that was your first point in the NHL I thought that was a really and then he went for the puck too right

like the next thing he did was go for the puck yes they're so aware of that obviously yes thank you Tony from Helsinki for that question next we, we go to a voicemail. Philip in Chicago. Was curious with Tyler Bertuzzi playing for the Blackhawks, but starting with the Red Wings being traded to the Bruins and last year playing a year in Toronto, has there ever been a player that has played for all original six teams? Wondering if that ever happened way back when, but seems very unlikely in this day and age.

Thanks for the great show. Well, do you have any name, Elliot? So Kyle, the first name that jumps to my mind is an older player who won a Stanley Cup with Toronto and I think a Stanleyley cup with montreal larry hillman like he played for a bunch of the original six teams that's that's my first guess yeah it's a good one so larry hillman played for four of the original six teams there's one player like Bertuzzi okay correct there's one player that has got all six okay what what era are we what era are we in here we are in the 40s and 50s

I'm gonna I'm gonna make some guesses I'm gonna 40s and 50s I'm gonna try to see if I can think of anyone I can remember back there. Like, okay, my only guess, and I think it's probably wrong, but they were big stars there, and I think they played for at least two teams. I would go with one of the Bentley brothers.

I think they're both... Max is in the Hall of Fame for sure. I think Doug is too. Not those guys. Okay. I'll give is too. Not those guys. Okay. I'll give you one more hint. Kidline in Toronto. Howie Meeker, Gus Botter.

So Gus Botter is not, maybe it's a different Kidline, but I thought he was on the Kidline at the same time. Yeah. The only other guys I can think of from the Maple Leafs around that time would be like Harry Watson Todd Sloan um those like as either of those guys nope I'm out I'm tapping out okay there it is the late Vic Lind from Saskatoon Saskatchewan you could have given me 10,000 guesses. I wouldn't have gotten that. And no offense to Victor, but I wasn't getting that one. So he began his pro career.

He played one game for the Rangers in 42-43. The next season, three games for the Red Wings, then spent some time in the minors, plays two games for the Canadians in 45-46. Then he goes to Toronto, four years there, including back-to-back-to-back Stanley Cups. That's when he played on a line with Howie Meeker and Teeter Kennedy. Wow. Then a couple seasons in Boston,

followed it up with, in the early 50s, parts of two seasons in Chicago to round out all six. He is the only guy. Now, before we move on from this, Elliot, there is one active player that has played for five of the original six teams. Tyler Bertuzzi's done four. Can you think of who has five? So I'm going to be honest here with the audience. who has five so I'm gonna be honest here with the audience while we were taping this segment I had to go and do a phone call actually a tape an interview with NHL Network and I was totally distracted during my interview with NHL Network because I was thinking about this question and I didn't look it up. I I didn't look it up You know there were two guys who jumped into my head and I I really wanted to look it up

But I refused I I didn't want to blow it one of them was Dmitry Kulikov and the other was no it's not Ben Sherratt because but that jumped into my head Kulikov was the one guy who jumped into my head who is it no it's not you're ready for the answer yes Eric Gustafson oh man that is a great trivia question. I never... You know what? I never would have remembered that.

Never. Well, he's tagged most of them on late. Because he was part of two deadline deals, right? Montreal and Toronto. So he barely played in those places. And then New York last year and Detroit this season. Wow. That is a great question.

Really good. So thank you, Phillip. wow that is a great question really good so vick lynn eric gustafson two people who have never been in my kitchen those are their only similarities wow okay great question Kat from Sudbury is next. Hello, Elliot, Kyle, and the team. I'm a huge fan of the podcast and never miss an episode. Thank you. Thank you, Kat. Emailing from Sudbury, Ontario, home of the Sudbury Wolves. I'm sure you have heard of Quentin Musty. We have. First-run draft pick of the San Jose Sharks a couple years ago.

He was cut from training camp and returned to the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL. He chose not to report to Sudbury and stayed home in New York while awaiting a trade. Sudbury, I'm sure, without a doubt, are assessing their options, and they don't appear to be in a rush. My question is, can Musty move from the OHL to another league, like in Europe? The NCAA wants that all. The rule changes are finalized there the BCHL etc all the best and thanks for your time so the NCAA thing you're asking that's being voted on

in November but it won't come into play until next season they said it's not until a summer thing so he can't do that now and no you can't just go from one team to another without that team's permission so that's that's where it stands at this point in time is that you know he kind of has to stick with Sudbury until Sudbury works it out. Cat I would say this I don't cover a lot of junior hockey I just I don't have the time to do it but I did briefly look into this case and I do think there is a recognition here that it's not a great thing to make the player sit like I think it's reasonable for Sudbury to wait for the best to try to make the best trade they could make but one of the things that's been told here in the last couple years especially is that as junior hockey is really under scrutiny is

there's a difference between you know trying to make a good deal and simply make the player sit. And I believe there is pressure put on to make sure that the teams are actively trying to pursue a good trade. I will say these trades are complicated. I can't believe, like, these junior trades right now, like, Kyle, like, you know this world better than me. It's like two players, a first, 14 second round draft pick, 16 third round draft picks, and a truck full of apples. These trades are bananas.

So they are complicated, but the one thing I do know is a lot more subtle and not so subtle behind Behind-the-scenes pressure tends to be put on to make sure these get resolved quicker. Nobody wants to see these players sit out like a year or anything like that. Not at all. Kat, thank you for that question. Freed will wrap up with Noah from Northern Alberta. Hello, Kyle and Elliot.

My question is, with Philip Gustafson scoring a goalie goal that happened to be on the power play, with Philip Gustafson scoring a goalie goal that happened to be on the power play, is that the first time that a goalie has been credited with a power play goal? Has there been a shorthanded goalie goal? Thanks, guys. So the answer is no, that was not the first power play goal.

There's been three power play goals, right? Including his, yes. Yes, I remembered Including his, yes. Yes, I remembered that from that night. They said that was the third one. Has there ever been a shorthanded one? There has been. There's been one.

It makes sense because the other team would pull their goalie, right? Yep. Oh, was that, was the Hextall one, was one of the hexdol ones shorthanded yes nicely done yeah that one because that was in the playoffs right it was oh april 11th 1989 yeah playoffs that one was in the playoffs i remember that one nice so there's only the one shorty from a goalie and john hines by the way alex doherty who covers the predators pointed out that uh john hines is the only coach to coach two of these all right peca renee and was it sor No, Rene for the Predators in 2020. Because if you look at it, Hextall scored two,

but one was Mike Keenan, the other was Paul Holmgren, and Brodeur scored three for three different Devils coaches. Oh, nice. Excellent way to finish up. That was a fun thought line, Elliot. Oh, and I would also like to recognize a couple people who sent in some more notes about some of our previous thought line questions. Steven Six pointed out the Stahl brothers in Carolina.

Jordan, Eric, and Jared lined up 11, 12, and 13 once and provided a picture. And that was against Mark Stahl and the Rangers, right? So all four were in the game. Well, that's right. Good call. And then there was Sean Kelly who pointed out some more full-ready tandems. Garan and Mason, Theodore and Garan, McKenna and Domingue, he said, in Arizona.

And he mentioned Volcun and Theodore in Montreal so once again we appreciate all of our great listeners sending us their answers and ideas 1-833-311-3232 is the phone number to call 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca more 32 thoughts the, when we come back. Okay, welcome back to the pod. As promised, our interview with Warren Fogel of the Los Angeles Kings. As mentioned early on, this was a conversation we had with Fogel a few weeks back when Elliot, Dom, and I took a trip down to SoCal for a few days to spend a bit of time with the Kings.

Fogel was very gracious with his time. We talk about his new life in Manhattan Beach, in Los Angeles, his unique path to reaching the NHL, and of course, how close he got with the Edmonton Oilers last spring in reaching their ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup. Here is our conversation with Warren Fogle. So Warren, I mean, talk about a complete lifestyle change coming down here to Los Angeles. I guess first off, when you and your fiancee got down here, what was the one thing you were most excited about,

kind of your new world here in LA? Well, I think we're just excited for a new adventure. I think that's the first thing that comes to mind. Obviously, we're five blocks from the ocean, so that's kind of a new adjustment from coming from Edmonton. But I think we're both just looking forward to the new year and the new challenge ahead for both of us. Quinton was saying that you've been asking him a lot of questions about the area. He said like, he's almost like your vet, even though he's younger than you. So what kind of

guidance has he given you? He's, uh, he's been great, honestly. Uh, as soon as I signed with the team, he's, he's been there for me for all types of questions. It's, uh, kind of weird though, having a 22 year old, uh, kind of tell me where everything is and what to do almost. But he's been a great teammate and a great friend and just excited for the year. The Kings are really counting on this line. You, Fiala, Byfield. What have you seen early? That both those guys are extremely skilled and both very quick um i think uh for myself i'm just

trying to create space and use my speed and you know try to get them the puck more than anything and let them do what they do best we've heard just in our few days spending some time down here that you know fiala certainly how he plays a little bit of a wild card which can be great creatively wise so as a lineman of them like how do you go about playing off of that? I think I'm not really too sure how to answer that. You know what? I just know off the ice he's been super welcoming. He's been a lot of fun to be around.

And I find when you're close with your your line mates especially off the ice it makes it much easier when you are playing with them on the ice you know it's easier to you know give criticism or things like that so I've already told them tell me where you want me to go and uh you know I'll try my best to you know help them out but uh after that first uh preseason game uh the moves that he was making out there was uh pretty eye uh pretty eye noticeable i guess but uh yeah pretty uh pretty skilled player well all right so is there anybody that you met here and you're like i really didn't like that guy playing against them and now that i've actually met them they're not a bad guy. Put me on the spot here.

You know what? I'd probably say for three years, like battling in the playoffs, I'd say Kempe is probably the guy that was pretty annoying to play against. You know, he's a skilled player, but he plays hard too. And the first day I got here, you know, he came right up to me and acted like there was nothing wrong. So, you know, he plays hard juice and, you know, he right up to me and acted like there was nothing nothing wrong so uh you know he plays hard juice and you know he's got a wicked shot but he was pretty friendly when i got here right so how long after you signed and like someone addressed the elephant in the room and the

history of three straight years in the playoffs edmonton and in la meeting uh i think it was more the my oiler teammates giving me a harder time than the the Kings it was kind of funny when I signed with LA that on uh July 1st uh I had a couple of them come over up in Muskoka I had uh Bouchard and Ryan McLeod come over and uh my neighbor up there is Adam Henrique so then he came over and then they're like you had to choose the Kings out of anyone. It was it was pretty funny. But, you know, they were they obviously understand it's a business. And, you know, some funny laughs that night. Thanks.

You know, let's let's take you to the end of last year because Stanley Cup ends late June. You have to make a decision pretty quick. Can you kind of take us through those few days and how you ended up from Edmonton to California? Yeah, it was a pretty wild week, right? I think it was really hard to make such a decision because of all the emotions of just losing in a Game 7 by one goal. Those are the games you dream of as a kid is playing in a game seven.

And, you know, our team had gone through so much adversity throughout the year, you know, having a 2-9-1 start and just how we were able to come back and, you know, almost finish off a really great year. But it was pretty crazy. I think just, you know, on July 1 1st you're now getting calls from teams and you just lost three days ago so um you know I couldn't have done it without my my family and and uh my agent Joe Resnick for you know trying to calm me down and you know try to make the best decision for uh for myself moving forward. What what tipped it for LA what got you here?

for myself moving forward. What tipped it for LA? What got you here? I think what got it here was just, you know, them. I think any player, you know, when a team really wants you, you can kind of tell from when they're communicating with you. And on that day, you know, I felt that they gave me the best chance to, you know, maybe have a bigger role than what I had in Edmonton.

And, you know, I think at this stage of my career, you know, I think I'm ready to, you know, provide more and, you know, I'm ready for that challenge. You mentioned just the people in your life that helped you be in the right frame of mind to make this decision so soon after the Stanley Cup final ended. So like, how did you get to that point? Because I can only imagine like how, how you get to that headspace. Yeah, I think you, I think like the next day, you know, you grieve with your teammates, right? You know, this is the last day we're all going to be in the same room together as teammates. And then moving forward the next day, you know, you're packing up the house and, you know, getting ready to head back for summer. And I spend my summers

in Toronto and and then it's just talking with my uh fiance Alex and and my parents and my and my friends my brother and trying to you know make the best decision for us moving forward so the Amazon series is coming out as we do this and there's a couple of moments I want to ask you about because I think people are looking at it and they're saying wow like these things are very powerful and number one is McDavid I guess it's after game two in Florida when he gets angry about the way you're playing as a team not you specifically but what do you remember about that? that? Well, that game, I was kicked out early on into the first period. So I was just hanging out with some of the other players that were playing that game in the dry stalls. And all you could

just hear is loud noises. So I wasn't really in the room to hear all that. But, you know, Connor's, you know, very good leader. And, you know, I think he, you know connor's uh you know very good leader and you know i think he you know we needed that as a team that message it wasn't good enough you know you can't be down two nothing and obviously we put ourself in a bigger hole being down three nothing but you know he demands everyone to you know work their best and unfortunately you know that game i i think we we didn't play our best you know we kept their best. And unfortunately, you know, that game, I think we, we didn't play our best. You know, we kept talking about, we played a good game one, but we had to move on and focus on game two. And we just weren't good enough that game. And, you know, he's our leader. Everyone looks up to him and he expects us all to, you know, perform to,

you know, the best of our capabilities. And, you know And he's just trying to win just like the rest of us. But it was a good message from him. How often a year does that happen? Not very often. I think that just shows how competitive he is. And we were just at almost the finish line. And it's time to dig deep. And yeah, it was, it was the right message to be sent.

And so then post game seven, I mean, gosh, I don't mean to ask you to, to relive that, but given how much of a focal point and just the human interest, I think in that, that scene scene and being able to see it. What was it like? You know, I don't really know if there's much words to it, right? You're trying to process that you didn't get the goal that, you know, you've been chasing your whole life as a hockey player. And then you're thinking, you know, like this is the last time maybe this whole group's together.

There's so many emotions going through your head that, you know, it's not fun being on that side. That's for sure. I'll say that. Yeah. I think, yeah. Be more fun being on the other other side that's for sure we were talking the other day and there is a play that you remember from game seven right before the 2-1 goal that you think about can you explain what that play was yeah right before they scored their

second goal I uh I think Leon passed it down to me and and I just took it to the net, and the puck's bouncing around. It's just laying on the goal line, and I think Holloway's looking, but he can't see, and I think Kulikov just knocks it away. And it's just, you know, I learned a lot from my time in Carolina through Rod Brindamore always talking about, like, game of inches, game of inches. And, you know, the puck is just right on the goal line,

just inches away from maybe going in. And next thing you know, they break out the puck and they score on a three on four. So going through my head, I'm just like, wow, what if that went in? Like then maybe we have the lead. It changes everything, right? You can talk about many plays during the whole game of inches of what could happen but um for myself

that's one that just sticks out like oh wow imagine that one and then we're up to one instead of being down to one so okay i i mean we look at your journey as a player and it's clear just just talking to you your competitive edge your desire to win um when you think back to your life in hockey who are some of the names that come up in your mind that shaped who you are as a player and just the way you view the game? I'd probably say my brother, Reese. Oh, yeah. It's a big part of it. He was my older brother and, you know, all his friends played road hockey and a lot of battles out there and they would let me play I'd be the youngest one and um you know as a younger brother you just hate

getting beat up and did those guys beat you up oh they beat me up they always put me in net I do anything just to play with them right right so uh he's a big part of why I played the game and you know we would talk hockey um for days you know we'd watch hockey night in Canada and you know try to pretend we're players and mini sticks and things like that but uh he's definitely a big reason why I got into the sport and why I'm so passionate about hockey and then uh probably to to making it to the NHL would be my dad, who kind of just always told me, like, in life, if you don't work hard, you're never going to go anywhere.

And I feel like my whole journey is all about working hard, and that's kind of how I've made it here. And, you know, I couldn't have done it without, you know, their support. As you were rising, like, was there a point when when you were playing with your brother's friends that they noticed that well they let you out of the net number one and number two they noticed that maybe you were better than them they probably realized that but you know as probably the older brothers they would never admit that, right? You know, a lot of road hockey, a lot of mini sticks,

but, you know, they're my biggest supporters. My mom, too, and my fiance, Alex. You know, I'm pretty fortunate to have, you know, people surround me and support me, and, you know, you need that, because not every day is going to be, you know, there's going to be bumps in and part of the road you know during the hockey season and you need your uh your family and friends to to be there for you now you had a pretty unique path you played prep hockey at st andrews and uh you know then you went to the ncaa and then you went to the ohl

and you know one of the things I've learned just around sports is that it's not always linear for people. As a matter of fact, for a lot of people, it kind of bumps around here and there. And, you know, just, I'm curious about the choices you made on your path. And if you were ever worried that the choices you were making weren't going to get you where you wanted to go? Yeah, so I started off, I wasn't drafted to the OHL in Meyer Midget. So then I said, okay, I want to go play prep hockey. So I played for St. Andrews College, and Coach Dave Manning was a big part of my success there. You know, gave me so much confidence, instilled, you know, a good work ethic and things like that. And from there, I committed to the University of New Hampshire.

I went to University of New Hampshire for a year and a bit, and I wasn't really playing that much. And I kind of came to a crossroads where I was like, if I want to make it to the NHL, I feel like I should be playing with the guys that are, you know. At that time, like, I just thought, you know, all the really top players that were my age were playing in the OHL. I was like, I think I should go play with those guys, and maybe I'd get more of an opportunity to play because I wasn't really playing much at college. And that was a pretty hard decision because, you know, my parents really wanted me to get an education,

and I think it was just one day I just kind of called them and said, like, no, I think I want to go to the OHL. And I was drafted by Kingston, and I kind of made that decision on my own. What was the phone call like? I think my dad understood. I think it was harder for my mom. She really wanted me to get that degree. And I kind of just told her, like, you know what, I believe in myself.

I think I can make it to the NHL, and this is how I'm going to do it. So I went to Kingston, and, you know, I had Coach Paul McFarlane, who was crucial for me. He really helped me put myself back on the map and had a good year there. And then eventually I got traded to Erie with Chris Knobloch, who I had last year in Edmonton. And we were able to win a UHL championship together. we were able to win a OHL championship together. So it's definitely not a unique route to get to play college and junior. But for myself, it was probably the best decision I ever made. What's your mom's name?

Leslie. And have you promised? First of all, what were you studying at New Hampshire? Business. Okay. And have you promised her you'll get the degree? Yes. So I

got to tell you, don't be embarrassed because I'm a crat and a half shy of my degree and I'm like 30 years older than you. I still don't have it yet. So St. Andrews College, that's a good school. Were you a top student there too? I was a scholar. I wouldn't say I was a top student. I was a scholar. I wouldn't say I was a top student. What were you good at? I thought I was pretty good at, like, math. And, you know, business was something that I really wanted to pursue. And, you know, my dad was in business, so that kind of made me kind of want to do that as well.

So I knew I did not want to participate in science, so I wasn't going to be a doctor. But you probably learned a lot about yourself going through that scenario of leaving college to go back to junior and the decision that you made. Yeah I feel I feel like I've gone through a lot of adversity and I feel like a lot of players do too you know like kind like kind of Elliot said, it's never really a straight line. And, you know, I've been pretty privileged to have, you know, like I said, my family and my friends in my corner. And they've been some big supporters for me because, you know, there's times where it just hasn't been easy.

And, you know, I think the one thing I'm really proud of was, you know, sticking through with it and not quitting. And, you know, I think going to the OH'm really proud of was sticking through with it and not quitting. I think going to the OHL is probably a big reason of why I'm in the NHL. So you go to Carolina, that's where you break in, and Rod Brindamore. I know you like the guy. What were your first interactions like with Rod Brindamore? Was he happy with your fitness?

I think so. I don't know if I was beating him because he always participates with the fitness testing. And I remember looking at him when he was on the bike, and I'm like, oh, boy, like, I'm in for one. But, you know, Rod is someone I really respect. I think everyone respects him. And, you know, he gave me that chance to play in the NHL. And I remember my first year, you know, I wasn't really producing that much.

But for him, it was about just playing the right way and, you know, always competing. And, you know, I'll forever be grateful for that. And, you know, I think any player who plays for him would you know go through a wall and um you know he's always honest and i think that's what i probably respect the most about him is you know there's uh it's just pretty black and white with him he'll tell you how it is and you know nothing better than hearing it like that right what was the hardest thing you ever told you oh i don't know the hardest thing i don't know. Sometimes I get a little, I'm trying to think here. I think with him, sometimes he gets upset with turnovers,

and sometimes I'd get, I see some other skilled guys do it and think I could do it myself, and he would have to put me in check. And, you know, Justin Williams was pretty good at that too with me. He'd be like, we're skilled grinders. We're still grinders. So each time I'd have a turnover, he'd always say that to me. But, yeah, I was pretty privileged to play with some great leaders there. Jordan Stahl as well.

And, yeah, I was surrounded by some really good people there. Okay. I think what's become one of the great stories, interesting stories of this summer was the day of the offer sheets between Edmonton and St. Louis and the group of players that were skating in Toronto. You were there. A number of Oilers were there. Robert Thomas of St. Louis was there. Can you give us your account? Because there seems to be some dispute. There is. What happened? I think I'm going to side more on Robbie Thomas' side. I think that was a pretty entertaining day for myself.

Yeah. Just because with all the commotion going on, I think there was four or five oilers there. And as a former oiler, I was trying to stir the pot up. I remember I texted, I think Zach Hyman and I were sitting together getting treatment. And I ended up texting Brett Kulak because he doesn't have social media. And I said, hey, you may have to call your agent with the news today. And he says, what do you mean?

So I send him the screenshot that Halsey and Broberg got offer sheeted. So he immediately FaceTimed Zach and I. And I said, yeah, I think you're on the block again. It's kind of a relationship him and I had in Edmonton where we kept joking with each other. Who's getting traded between the both of us? And I don't know, it was a pretty funny day for me just seeing the chaos. But yeah, I think it's kind of great for the game, to be honest. We're in August and we're talking about offer sheets and you know it's pretty exciting when

fans and players are all talking about that so i don't know how executives feel about it but uh it's a pretty funny day and um i don't know if they were angry but the the the guys at the gym but there's definitely some tension there. There's no question. There's no question. Maybe they'll kill me for saying that. Well, they're going to kill you anyway. Yeah, it's all okay. Well, let's talk about the Kings, where you are now.

Byfield, who we brought up earlier, I want to ask about him because you know him a little bit in skating in the summers, 22 years old. What do you think he's capable of this year? think he's gonna have a strong year you know i've trained with him now for three to four years and you know i thought summer he he looked determined like he was he's ready to go on a mission um he's so big so fast so skilled and you know i think him going back to center is going to be really good for him because that's something he's real comfortable with. Right.

Is it going to be weird for you to go into Edmonton for the first time or line up against those guys for the first time? Probably, yeah. I think it'll be, I don't know, I think, yeah, it'll be weird. It'd be weird not to say it wouldn't be weird. It's a great line. But at the end of the day, I'm a competitor, and they're competitors too,

and a big part of my game is competing, and I don't like to lose, and so we'll be friends off the ice, but once that puck drops, it's war, it's on. I'm excited for that. It's fun to go against them. The two guys that everybody is says are the kings there's kopitar and there's dowdy kopitar the quiet leader the

calm presence dowdy the low loud boisterous personality both hall of famers forcing drew just got hurt gonna miss a bit of time but what have you noticed about both those two guys now that you're on the same side as them? They're both just great people, I think, on and off the ice. And, you know, I haven't got to know them too well as I just got here like two weeks ago, but you can tell they still have the desire to win. You know, those guys are competing out there hard in practice. And, you know, I look

forward to, you know, getting to learn a lot from them. You know, they're two-time Stanley Cup winners. Obviously, Drew has won in the Olympics. But they're elite players and they've been playing in this league for, I don't know what it is, 16 to 19 years. It's pretty cool to, you know, hang around guys that have played in the league for that long and try to be a sponge and soak up as much information as I can. In the little bit of time you were here, were you on the receiving end of anything from Doughty? Like any comments or any loud barbs or anything like that? I think he made a joke about how he blew me up like two years ago in the playoffs.

And I said, oh yeah, i remember that and i said i tried to get you back last year but i don't know if i got you and he kind of said no i'm i i i don't know what he said he said no and i was like all right well there we go but uh yeah it's it's funny the i've been playing against those guys for the last three years so it's nice to now uh be on their side yes yes i understand you came into this year uh talking a big game after your fantasy football triumphs last year in edmonton but a tough start out of the gate here with your your new team what's it like i imagine that's got to be one of the better ways to get no get to know your new teammates is fantasy football yeah for

sure um obviously uh well last year i won at edmonton. Yeah. So I come in here to L.A. and I tell everyone I won, and now I think I'm in last place with the first overall pick at McCaffrey. Fell into the trap. There are a lot of people listening to this and playing fantasy football who are going to identify with you because McCaffrey has blown up their seasons. Yeah. I'm in shambles right now. There's no questioning.

I'm going to have to figure out what I'm going to do. And we've got to figure out what the punishment is for last place and make sure I'm not last. Yes. So there's some rumors about waffles and things like that. So but no, it's a lot of fun. I love watching football. And like you said, it's a great way to interact with the guys, especially coming from a new team. Last one for me, Warren. I remember last year when we were chatting at times during the playoffs, one of the Oilers players said to me,

Warren Fogle is the guy in this room who is most on top of what's happening in the league. You love knowing about what's going on in the league. Is that true? Uh it's probably true yeah. I think I love the sport. You know I love watching games. I love you know keeping up what's going on. I'm trying to think there's another guy on that team. The funny thing is there's a couple guys on the Oilers who say they don't keep tabs but then they know everything I'm not going to say names but uh there's a few that say oh yeah I'm not sure and then they know all these things so uh but I'd probably agree to that you know I love watching the game I'm super passionate um you know it's something probably after hockey, you know, I'd love to stay in the game.

You know, I, you know, I just a huge passion for it. So I like to keep tabs. You know, I'm a player, but I'm also a fan too. You know, you like seeing when, you know, offer sheets are happening, you know, and obviously trades are exciting too when it's not you. No, I think it's good for the game. Do you have a burner? Do you follow people with a you. No, I think it's good for the game. Do you have a burner? Do you follow people with a burner? No, not on that. No, no, no. No, no KD here. Great. We hope you have a great year, Warren. Seriously, thank you so much for the time. This has been great. No, awesome. Thanks for having me and hope you guys are enjoying California.

Thanks for having me and hope you guys are enjoying California. Okay. Yes. One final thank you to Warren Fogle for his time down in LA. A thank you to the crew we had on site there capturing the audio and the visuals during our conversation with Warren coming up. Hockey night in Canada is back on Saturday. We have an early game kicking off the day. Tampa is in Ottawa at 1 o'clock Eastern. That game can be seen on Sportsnet.

Hockey Central Saturday comes your way at 6.30 Eastern, 3.30 Pacific. The Rangers are in Toronto, an early heavyweight tilt in the Eastern Conference. The Canadians are on Long Island. The Canucks continue their road trip into philadelphia against the flyers the late game on hockey night this saturday seattle kraken hosting the calgary flames plenty of great action to keep you occupied and entertained over this weekend enjoy it all thank you for listening and we'll talk to you again on Monday.