32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Tarasenk-Go

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

And it begins! The Blues have traded Vladimir Tarasenko to the Rangers (00:20). Jeff and Elliotte break it down from the perspective of the Blues (3:20) and discuss how this takes New York to another level (5:50). They also close the book on All-Star (12:00), give the latest on Patrick Kane (14:55) and Jonathan Toews (17:10), Buffalo continues to make moves (17;40), Toronto signs Conor Timmins (19:40), Devils (30:50) lose Jack Hughes (22:00), what’s happening with Timo Meier (23:00) and the Sharks (33:00), a few notes on the Wild (35:15), the Canucks play Bo Horvat (37:20) and the guys chat about the future of the NHLPA (40:45).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailMusic Outro: Dolores Forever - When I Say SoListen to the full track HEREGET YOUR 32 THOUGHTS MERCH HEREThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman. Social support by Griffin Porter.Audio Credits: MSG, SNY, Sportsnet 650, Straight From The Source with Michael RussoThe 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.

It really is. Live from Mars, one of the great live albums of all time. It's really good. Welcome once again to 32 Thoughts to Podcast, presented by GMC and the new Sierra AT4X. Elliot, we will start with the trade and we'll start by going historical. June 6th, 1967, the St. Louis Blues acquired Tim Ecclestone, Gord Kanagiser, Bob Plager, and Gary Sabarin in exchange for Rod Sealing, who goes to the New York Rangers. That was the first trade between the St. Louis Blues and the New York Rangers. The most recent trade happened Thursday afternoon. Vladimir Tarasenko, Nico Mikula go and the New York Rangers. The most recent trade happened Thursday afternoon. Vladimir Tarasenko, Nico Mikula, go to the New York Rangers from the St. Louis Blues

in exchange for Sammy Blaze, 2023 first round draft pick, a fourth and 24, and prospect Hunter Skinner, St. Louis, retains half of Tarasenko's contract. Your first thoughts on this one. Obviously, it's a big deal. It's the second big deal after Horvath.

Maybe things are finally loosening up. I wonder if these NHL GMs felt shamed by the NBA general managers. Kevin Durant's getting traded. Doug Armstrong and Chris Geribo shamed by Wednesday night's occurrences. They're making huge moves. We got to do something.

Quick, quick. One of the things is Tarasenko had a lot of control here. There's no question about that. He had a lot of control here. He's the guy who asked for a trade almost two years ago and he had the no trade contract. You know, I remember this is about 20 years ago when Curt Schilling demanded a trade

from the Philadelphia Phillies. What did his general manager, Ed Wade, say? He has a no-trade contract. He doesn't have a trade me contract. So even though Tarasenko wanted to move, he was the one who had the say on where he could go. So I think that really limited St. Louis and what they could do. I think one of the things that we talked about was that the New York area really

intrigued him, whether it was the Islanders, the Rangers, or the Devils. And I do think the Devils had talked about him in the off season when st louis was figuring out what to do that was an area he was happy to go to and you know that's obviously where he ends up when people look at the return i think you have to remember that tarasenko had a lot of power in this one he could say well you might want to send me there but i don't have to go there. One of the great stories I always remembered was the Jerome Aguila deal when the Flames had a trade with Boston and the story goes, we have a deal with Boston and Aguila's representation said, well, you may have a deal with Boston, but we don't have a deal with Boston. And he ended up going to Pittsburgh.

You have to remember that. And I think, Jeff, that played a huge factor here. So we're going to go through what this means for both of these teams. And before we get to the New York Rangers and holy smokes, does that top line now look like it's loaded with firepower? What does this indicate to you about the St. Louis Blues? I think when we first look at this we say okay this is a i don't want to say it's a full teardown because no one expects that

but is this now the beginning of the teardown of the st louis blues do we expect ryan o'reilly do we expect ivan barbachev do we expect fill in the blank is this the beginning of the tearing down of that team that won the stan Cup? I think it is. I've been asked that question a lot today. One of the things that we all have to recognize is that I don't think Tarasenko was coming back at all. So of all the moves I thought would happen, to me, this was the one that was number one.

He wasn't coming back. They weren't going to resign him. I think there's been some push and pull on O'Reilly. I don't think the Blues have presented anything that in terms of long-term that would make O'Reilly absolutely jump up and say yes, but I don't think there was even going to be much of an attempt with Tarasenko, but there's no question this is a team going in a different direction. You know, one of the teams I wonder about for o'reilly is vegas you know they lost a player in mark stone o'reilly's not a scorer like stone is but he's a similar high iq great defensive player doesn't have to play at the fastest pace

but knows how to play like that's mark stone yep. Yep. And the fact that also Vegas has kind of talked to St. Louis about some of their other guys. I think the guys like Barbashev and Achari. So I kind of wonder if that makes a lot of sense. Look, the blues are, the math isn't good. They're probably not going to make the playoffs. Yeah.

I think they're going to breathe some new life into their team. Absolutely. Okay. So to Vladimir Tarasenko going to the Rangers, then it was about five minutes ago that we all enjoyed this quote. Yes, obviously. Yes. Because even Vladdy don't know the future of Vladdy. There is only one guy who knows more than me and his name is Doug Armstrong. I think that's the guy who you should talk about my future with the Blues. That was Vladimir Tarasenko, who's now a member of the New York Rangers. Here's the question that I have about the New York Rangers right now.

First of all, they get a little nastier on the left side of their blue line with Nico Mikula. They get more goal scoring power on the right side, up front with Vladimir Tarasenko. My question about the Rangers now is, are they done? And does that mean we should stop all speculation about Pat Kane to the Rangers? I think what it means is you can stop speculation about Patrick Kane and Timo Meier.

I mean, look what they had to give up. Bley was, you know, he was in a very tenuous spot on the roster. Skinner is a prospect. The other thing here too, is that the first round pick, it's going to be the later of two between Dallas and theirs. And those are two teams that have, you know, a lot of hopes. What it was going to cost them to get Meyer was going to be a lot more than that. And what it was going to cost them to get Kane, I don't know if it would have been more than this, but the one thing I think the Rangers are not sure of is Kane's health. And I don't think they're the only team, and I don't know how wide Kane is going to throw his net out there, but I do think it's one of the things that teams are wondering about is,

is how healthy he's back practicing on Thursday, but he took a maintenance day on Wednesday. And I don't think anybody is shocked or surprised by that. Tarasenko, he was just at the all-star game. The cost of getting him was not that high. You added Mikula in the deal, which is not an insignificant thing here. And you didn't add any costs. Look, both these players are UFAs after this year.

The Rangers are going to have some big decisions to make. Hedl's price is going up. Miller's price is going up. This is not going to be an easy puzzle for them to fit i'm glad you mentioned he'd all through all this too because the one thing like said if you're going to do some damage in the playoffs it always helps to have some of your high impact players on let's just say reasonable deals and i don't think that philip heidel is trending towards a quote unquote reasonable deal for his next contract it's going to be a whopper. The way this guy is playing right now,

and he scored again on Wednesday, he's got seven goals in his last five games, 19 total. It's a nice problem to have if you're Chris Drury, but it is on the horizon. You mentioned Hedl, you mentioned Miller as well. The players they picked up are UFAs, so they don't have to worry about that for the future. But I look at the rangers right now and

you look at the metropolitan division and i know we look at carolina and say okay they're going to do something big here they've got the cap space we see the same thing about the carolina hurricanes where do you put the rangers in this mix i know carolina hasn't made their move yet that's probably on the horizon we know new jersey hasn't shot their shot yet. That's probably on the horizon. We know New Jersey hasn't shot their shot yet, but where do you put the Rangers in the mix in the Metro right now? I think Trouba Miller is a really good pair. I think putting the kid line, the boys to men

line back together has really re-energized them. And you know, Panarin and Tarasenko, those guys have wanted to play together for a long time. There's been a lot of talk about Panarin and Kane and their relationship and putting them back together. I mean, you know, the famous story with Tarasenko where he told the Blues to get Panarin and he was told Panarin's too small. You know, they're tight and now they're going to play together. I think this is going to rejuvenate them. I like the way they're going. They were a little think this is going to rejuvenate them.

I like the way they're going. They were a little off kilter at the beginning of the year. Because of what Trouba does, they're a playoff team. He's built for playoffs. They're built for playoffs. They're going to be able to play you a lot of ways right now. They're going to be able to score. They're going to be able to play a hard game. We all know what they have in goal. I am really curious about Tarasenko. Like one of the things,

it's funny, I had a conversation with somebody about this on Thursday morning. There's some really mixed opinions on Tarasenko. There were some teams that thought he'd be rejuvenated by a move because he's going to be playing for his next contract. But there are other people who were like, you know what? I don't know about this player. He's clearly been unhappy. He hasn't looked great. We just wonder if his best time is behind him.

And I know of about one team that was just like, he looks so unhappy. I don't think that's the like, he looks so unhappy. I don't think that's the move that we want to make. And now he's in a situation where he's going to be in a place where he's happy to go to. He's going to be with a player who he wants to play with. I'm really interested in seeing what this does to him. You know who really doesn't like this trade? Who's that?

Milan Lucic. Because I think a lot of us have circled the date of February the 18th. Probably. That is a Saturday. That is Hockey Night in Canada. That is the rematch of what might have been the game of the year, which had a little bit of everything, including a little bit of extra spice in the chili between the New York Rangers and the Calgary Flames.

And if Luchich thought he was going to get his chance to get a lick in on Sammy Blay going back to the hit on the 6th of February, not so fast. He's now a member of the St. Louis Blues, and these two teams don't face off against each other for the rest of the season. Well, now I'm mad about that as a TV programming person. That's okay.

Jacob Trouba is still on the team. I think he's publicly enemy number one in Calgary anyway. And what a story he became this week as well. He's been a story all season long. And I mentioned this to you on radio, the presence of Jacob Trouba on this New York Rangers team. To me, he does one of the hardest things to do in the NHL, and that is to hit violently and cleanly.

to do in the NHL, and that is to hit violently and cleanly. I think he is one of the most unique and important players that really gives the Rangers an identity. But to your point, what's going to make this Ranger team great is their ability to play a number of different styles. And I think a lot of us are looking at, okay, is Gerard Gallant going to pop, you know, Vladimir Tarasenko up there with Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin, and what is that going to look like?

Just start drooling now, Rangers fans. Start drooling. If they can get that Trocek line going, they're going to score a lot of goals. Ellie, we've got a lot of other big headline hockey topics to get to on today's podcast, but I want to review something we talked about on theay morning podcast and you wrote about at your blog and i just want to sort of close the loop on it because you presented a lot of different ideas about how to you know

quote unquote fix the all-star weekend help the skills etc i'm very much of the mind that what hockey operations might end up doing here next time around when the all-star is in toronto is just drill down more on hockey and try to remove as much of the noise around the decision making as possible and just focus on these are the capital h hockey events that we're doing and we're going to do our best to try to do them well and not worry about all the frills around things. Agree or disagree? I think that could happen. I was surprised by all the feedback I got.

There was a lot of it. And this year, at least on Sportsnet, the All-Star game outdrew the skills. That doesn't happen. That's rare. That's very rare. And that's a sign of how rough that night was. I do believe there is something about going back to hockey, but I still think there has to

be something fun like the draft. And I still say this, you have to start your night off with a bang. And this year it was supposed to start off with a bang by Makar going first in the fastest skater. Unfortunately, it didn't work as he fell. And that's why I also wonder about making the

fastest skater a straightaway instead of a turn. But I think you need something there that's going to make the audience laugh. And I'm going for the draft. People can disagree with me. Fine and I'm going for the draft. People can disagree with me. Fine. I'm going for the draft.

The players have shown they're great at it and we're going to get one in the NBA in two weeks and I bet you there's going to be entertaining viral moments. There will. You know what I wonder about? I wonder if the league goes back to Connor McDavid and says, can you please reconsider

the fastest skater? But I think if you make it straight, maybe that's a different way because you do top speed. No, like I saw your idea and you've told me about it on the weekend and I like it to the point where, and you know how I am about this one, I'm not going to let it go.

Do the same thing with backwards skaters. If you're just going to do it straight and average out the time. Oh my God, not with the backwards skaters. Yes, Elliot. It is a skill. Ask any defenseman. Last time I checked, there were defensemen in the NHL, correct?

Like that is a position that's, I don't watch much hockey these days, but that is still a position in the league, right? All right, let's get to the rumors. People want to hear that over the all-star game. Okay, so a couple of things here. There's still a lot of names that are out there, whether it's Timo Meier, whether it's Luke Shen, there's a lot of names that are still, you

know, populating conversations. You've already talked about Pat Kane a little bit. We expect a decision from both camp Pat Kane and camp Jonathan Taves relatively soon. What's the latest as far as you know? I think the interesting thing about this is I think the Rangers really intrigued Kane.

I think what now the question is going to be is where else intrigues him? I think that now becomes the big question because I think they were a team that was high up on his list. I don't want to say the only team on his list, but they were very high up on his list. I don't want to say the only team on his list, but they were very high up on his list. And I think also that this is an admission of what you and I have discussed a ton over the past month is that there is concern about how he's going to be able to hold up.

Nobody questions his heart and playing through a lot of this, but now it becomes if we want to win four rounds is that going to be a problem at all that to me is the one that stands out let me throw out who i wonder about with patrick kane now that it seems as if you know the rangers dreams died with them acquiring vladimirenko. I wonder about Dallas. Yeah. I think Dallas is going to do something. I think they're probably wondering about who they can get, who they can find to play with Tyler Sagan and the name Pat Kane.

Despite everything you just said about the health and, you know, uh how much warren terry has on his body and holding up for as many rounds as dallas expects to play i wonder if that's an intriguing name for the dallas stars and i wonder if that's an intriguing team for patrick kane i wonder about that too like we know this right now he came out and said i know who's interested in me. So now we'll see how he feels. Like, look, we're still probably about 10 days away from knowing what he's going to think, at least based on his comments this past week. So now there's probably a reshuffling in his head. Rangers are out. So what else intrigues him?

You know, the one that's a little bit more mysterious right now, and you hope that everything's okay is Taves. Right. You know, he didn't practice again on Thursday. I believe he went to go get checked out for this non-COVID illness. And, you know, hopefully the news is good.

But I mean, that's another one. What are we dealing with here? Hopefully it's nothing and he's fine, but you know, the fact he hasn't practiced in a bit, that's kind of slowed that one down a little bit. You have a feeling on the Buffalo Sabres these days and the headline for the Buffalo Sabres this week was the signing of the contract extension for Dylan Cousins. Seven years, $49.7 million, AAV of 7.1. You wrote about it. We've spoken about it. This is how Kevin Adams chooses to do business with the Buffalo Sabres.

You've talked about this. Identify your key pieces and lock them up for as long as you can. See Thompson, see Samuelson, and now, Elliotelson and now elliot see cousins well i like what the sabers are doing you know kevin adams had a media availability on thursday and he repeated what he has said many times you can't fast forward okay and i i firmly believe this and i'm gonna keep saying it because i just truly believe it's the right way to build. I like what they're doing. I like the Thompson deal.

I like the Cousins deal. I like the Samuelson deal. Eventually, we're going to get a Rasmus Delin extension here, which is going to be a pretty big deal. You know, Kevin Adams is probably phoning reporters and saying, can you drop Darlene a little bit down your Norris list for me so I can save a little bit of money? And then, you know, there's going to be an Owen Power deal. Obviously, you can see what they want to do. They're going to want to give Power as much term as they can.

He's going to be a really important player for them. You have to give him term. The one thing about Power is when they're ready to extend him, the cap should be going up and that should help them a little bit. But I have no doubt he's the next guy they're going to go to and say, can we do this with term? But I think they're smart. Look, do I think they have some pieces they might move? Yes, but I don't think it's any of their core pieces. move yes but i don't think it's any of their core pieces listen to 32 thoughts the podcast ad free on amazon music included with prime

okay so thursday the toronto police getting some business done. Connor Timmons, defenseman, signs a two-year contract extension. 1.1 is the AAV. We've talked about Timmons before here on the program and what he would end up signing for. I still have questions about, you know, what Michael Bunting's deal is going to end up being. But for the current time, the latest bit of news coming out of Toronto is the Connor Timmons extension.

Your thoughts on this one? And on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being greatest, how intrigued are you by the Maple Leafs this deadline time? Probably a 10 because there's so much on the line with them, right? Yep. This is a season where you know that so much is on the line. If they don't at least get a first round series win, what's going to happen here?

And that's why I think they're a 10 out of 10 on the list. Timmons' number is one that's easy for them to handle. I think he was a great bet when they made the deal. And I think that contract is a great bet. But I still think in a lot of ways, they can't do a lot of their long-term business until they know what Matthew's number is going to be. So they're going to be careful.

I think until that occurs and also what happens in the playoffs could determine a lot of their decisions like Gavrikov's market. I think that's LA. If they don't get Chikrin, I think that's LA if they don't get Chikrin. I think that's Boston. I think that's Toronto. I think that's Edmonton. Like those are the teams I look at and I say they're probably around with Gavrikov. And I think there's a few more because he's shown some indication that he's willing to sign for a bit of term if he thinks you're a contender so I don't think those are

the only ones but I think Toronto is in that group but the other thing too is I really do believe Toronto was looking at forwards I think they're trying to find another forward out there somebody who they think can make a difference for them. Like I look at Dubas and the thing I'm wondering is how high he can go here on a forward. And I think that's what they're trying to figure out too. Okay. Elliot from the Maple Leafs has pop over to the New Jersey devil side of

things. And as we expect them to take a pretty big swing, come trade deadline time, some news today, not exactly good and that is jack hughes week to week with the upper body injury and you had some people i believe reach out to you asking if there's any correlation between this announcement and the incident between hughes and kachuk at all-star and the answer is no i was told the answer was no. So that puts that one to bed for now.

One quick other final thought on Jack Hughes. I mean, I saw this news and to me it's a drag because I kind of love following stuff like this. I was, and I hope it doesn't, I still hope that he's in the hunt for it, depending on how long he's out here. I hope it's at the shorter end of things.

I was really hoping that Jack Hughes, and maybe he still can, become the first New Jersey Devil to register 100 points. I don't know why, but I really love stuff like that. And I think a lot of us had our fingers crossed that Hughes could be that guy and could do it this season.

Okay, well, what about the big fish then? What about, I mean, as a shark, what about the big fish? What about Timo Meier? Is a shark technically a fish or a mammal? I can never remember these things. Hang on. Is a shark a fish?

Sharks are fish. There we go. There we go. They live in water. They use their gills to filter oxygen from the water. Sharks are a special type of fish known because their body is made out of cartilage instead of bones like other fish.

Are sharks fish, Elliot? Yes. Sharks are sharks. That's all I need to know. Thanks, Mr. Science. No problem. Okay. So Timo Meier, look, the arms race in the

Metro New York area, Islanders grab Horvat, Rangers grab Terrasenko, Mikula. Everybody's sitting here and looking at what are the Devils going to do? And I do think the Devils have kind of said to the Sharks, before you do anything on Meyer, make sure we get a final shot at this. That's kind of the word around the league right now.

I think they have competition. Just in conversations on Thursday, people think there's a bunch of Eastern teams after Meyer, a group of them, and maybe a smaller group, maybe one or two Western teams. What everybody's trying to do is think about here, who's in it to sign Meyer and who's in it to rent Meyer. And it's complex because as everybody knows, Meyer has a $10 million qualifying offer

for next year if you're not signing him long-term. And the one thing I will say, Jeff, is that there certainly seems to be a feeling out there that if what he considers a legit contender wants to sign him long-term, then he is prepared to be reasonable. Now, it's not going to be inexpensive. It's still a big contract, but it's not $11 billion. He's willing to look at this. The qualifier is 10. So what is reasonable? 10 so what is reasonable but the thing is jeff like if he just says give me the qualifier and i'll play it out which i i think he might do if he doesn't think he ends up in a contender or a

place he doesn't want to be look like you can do 10 million for one year or say you sign for 64 million for argument's sake what's the better deal i'll take the 64 million. Thank you. You might take the 10 and this is why you're in radio and not a financial planner. Okay. So I thought there was, you're going to go with the bet on yourself line. I like the guy that takes the 10 on the one year and bets on himself. I think it's smart to bet on yourself, but I think it's, you know, it's also smart to do some other things. I get it.

You got 64 looking at you. Hey, take it, take it off the table. So like I said, I think a lot of people are wondering what New Jersey's thinking here. Yeah. So one guy said to me that there are teams out there who think that Toronto at the very least has considered, do we go get Meyer for this run

and then sort it out later? Wow. Basically punt the decision to the summer and say, all right, we bring him in, we see how this goes, we see who has a good playoff and who doesn't, and figure this out in June. And I don't know that Toronto's thinking about that. I would bet at the very least,

knowing the way that Dubas thinks, that I would bet he has at least thought about the idea. Here's the flaw in that theory. Dubas had a media availability on Thursday and he reiterated what a lot of us believe, and that is that he's not dealing his best prospects and picks for a rental. Now, if you trade for Meyer, it doesn't mean he's a rental, but I think in Toronto, it doesn't mean he's a long-term guy either. You're kind of in purgatory there. You're in no man's land. He's a restricted free agent with a $10 million qualifier. The only way I think you consider that if you're Toronto is that at the very least, if you can't keep him, you're flipping him for what you traded.

So again, I'm quoting Doug McLean. I don't know if it's true. I'm just telling you what I heard. This one person told me that there are teams that think that Toronto has at the very least considered this. I think one of the big questions is though, what is San Jose looking for in a Timo Mayer deal? Toronto has good prospects and they have some picks. They don't have a lot of capital, but they have some. Everybody knows what we're talking about here.

We're talking about Nyes. We're talking about Topi Nimela. We're talking about a high pick. And Toronto has some of that capital, but not a lot of it. And there's two reasons that people think that Toronto's considering this. Number one, because Dubas is in his final year and I don't buy that.

I don't think he's doing anything stupid that could tent his resume for a long time. But number two, Toronto has a really good team. And, you know, the way this is set up, they're going to playa and it's a nightmare scenario for the maple leaves just because of who they've got but as a couple of guys said to me you take your shot with a really good team and they have a good team ah tampa's not that good how'd they do against colorado tonight by the way did anyone check you want to know the funny

things remember last year we having this debate is Tampa too tired? Are they finally going off the cliff? I had a couple of guys tell me today, Toronto has to go for it because Tampa looks tired and then they win. They just wiped out the avalanche. Five nothing. No Makar but it's still the avalanche. Five nothing. Yeah. They have Brandon

Hagel with a pair of goals in this one and Sergeyev by the way, did you see the Sergeyev goal? Because right away, whenever he scores one of these goals, guess what I got tweets about? The sifter? But one person said, and this is your accent on it as well. You put the accent on one very... The snifter.

That's right. You put an accent on the snifter syllable. Yes. And one person to me say, does that qualify as a snifter? And yes, it does. Well, that's interesting. That's the thing about Toronto. And I had a couple of guys who said it to me about another team, and they're not as convinced this other team will do it

because this other team tends to be a bit more conservative, and that's Winnipeg. You know, Kevin Sheveldayoff was down in Tampa the other day for Tampa San Jose. I think we all assume, you know, he's not, not like he's going to tell us, but we all assume he was there to watch Meyer. Now, I don't know if Winnipeg thinks they can

sign Meyer long-term, but like I told this theory about Toronto to a couple other teams and they said, it's a good theory. And they wonder if Winnipeg would consider doing the same thing winnipeg has a good team i've wondered if they're going to be more in the jvr kind of conversation expiring contracts i think that fits but when i said toronto and the fact that shovel day off was down there i had a couple teams say geez i wonder if there's any chance winnipeg would be considering the same thing like again you're giving up big assets and the jets don't like to do that unless

they have certainty they want to know that they have players who are going to be there or locked in for a while they wouldn't have that with meyer it wouldn't fit their historical profile but boy would that be a ballsy move. That would be a bomb. Jeff, the other thing I just want to mention about Jersey, I think New Jersey is getting asked about some of their D prospects whenever they're thinking about stuff here. Defense prospects, you mean? Not like D level prospects.

You're talking about defense prospects. Okay. Yes. I don't think Nemech is going anywhere. I can't imagine that. No way. No way. But Riley Walsh, right-hand shot defenseman who's in Utica right now.

Shakir, do it for me, Merrick. Muka Madulan. Shakir Muka Madulan, another really good young right-hand shot prospect. As you remind me, first round pick. He's supposed to come to North America next year. They've got a lefty in Utica, Nikita Okochuk, and I think he needs waivers next year.

So teams have been asking the Devils, you know, what they're thinking there. You know, they have two defensemen at the NHL level next year who are UFAs. One is Severson. The other is Graves. One's a ready and one's a lefty. We don't know what the Devils' plans are yet

for those players. I don't know that the Devils are going to trade a D prospect because they might need some of these guys next year and they seem to like them, but I do know the Devils are being asked about them. Did you see that New Jersey-Seattle game? No, I didn't watch that game, Jeff. There were some other games that I watched ahead of that one.

Sorry, Devils and Kraken fans. One thing, and I don't know why I'm always interested in this one, so it's a 3-1 Devils win over the Seattle Kraken. All four goals in the game scored by defensemen. Larson for Seattle, a pair by Hamilton and John Marino. This is what impresses me and intrigues me on a Thursday night, Elliot. I'm very excited.

You know what impresses me about the Devils? The big hat that says hat on it. Oh, it's so good. The big novelty hat that says hat. It's great. I absolutely love it. I'm with you. Jasper, hat heavy?

It's pretty heavy. I got a pretty small hat too, so it's kind of sinking down a little bit. A couple of other things. You mentioned the San Jose Sharks and eyes are on Timo Meyers, certainly Eric Carlson as well. Do you get a sense at how aggressive Mike Greer wants to be in how many bodies he's willing to move this trade deadline? I mean, this one is his first.

Like we're all learning about Mike Greer and how he's going to stick handle in this new position as general manager. Listen, I don't think it would be a stretch to say, don't be surprised if Nick Bonino goes, he's on the expiring deal, but do you get a sense of how deep Greer wants to go? Is he retools this thing in San Jose? You know, first of all, I don't think he's eager to make moves because of his first trade

deadline. I don't think one thing has anything to do with the other. I think he's interested in doing things because of where the sharks are and what they're trying to do. And that is basically trying to start all over again. I do think he's active out there. I think everybody knows he's open for business.

Everybody understands that he's got good players out there. To me, one of the biggest questions about Carlson is how much are the sharks willing to retain? Hmm. And that's a sliding scale right now. For one thing, I'm not convinced it's a ton unless the package is so good that they have to say, we're going to have to eat more because the package is so good. But I think other teams are saying to them, if you want us to keep that much money for so long, then you know what?

We're not going to give you as good a package. I think they're willing to try things. They've indicated that. Edmonton and San Jose did have some conversations about Carlson. It never got close. I think the others said with what it would cost them and the salary, it didn't make sense to them. So that's my question is, how does San Jose see that whole situation evolving?

But look, LeBanc is out there. Carlson is possible. Meyer's definitely out there. You mentioned Bonino. They've got good pieces. And everybody knows they're willing to talk, but you know, Greer is a confident guy. He knows what he ideally wants.

He's in the poker game. Yeah. Minnesota is the other team I wanted to talk about here. I heard a lot of rumblings about a Besser for Greenway kind of deal. After really looking into it, I don't see it. You know, Bill Guerin kind of talked about it

on Mike Russo's podcast and. It's tough because, you know, right now asking prices are a lot and. You just saw that with the Horvat trade. Yeah. And you don't want to, you know, we're not, we're still just not in a position where we want to give up first and second round picks.

You know, for somebody we know that will be a rental. And then we hope that Greenway can start scoring more. Hartman can start scoring more. Foligno can start scoring more. Guys like that can just start contributing offensively a little bit more. And that would be the best scenario. Then we can then we can, you know, we can solve a lot of things, a lot of problems internally. And that's, that's what I'd love to see happen.

I think Vancouver would like to make this move. I think Besser would like to go back to Minnesota. Yeah. One thing that really made sense to me was Greenway because it took some salary off of Minnesota's cap next year. Like they can't take Besser without Vancouver eating a chunk and some salary coming off.

And Greenway I could see being a Rick Tockett type player. But I'm still hearing, Jeff, that they can't do it, that that doesn't make sense for Minnesota to do cap-wise. So I've heard it. I checked around yesterday. There were a few other people who heard it, but I just keep getting told that the wild can't do it.

It doesn't make sense for them. Wild searching for goals. They are definitely searching for goals. Like I've wondered about Van Riemsdyk there. Like I've heard Winnipeg's looked into Van Riemsdyk. I don't think they're the only ones. I think there's a few teams that have looked

into him and I think he gets dealt his, you know, as we get closer to the deadline, I think there's some interest he can score. You know, I wonder about Minnesota. I wonder about the Jets. I, I wonder about a few places for him. All right. I swear we're not going to do this every week,

but this week is kind of special for Bo Horvat and the New York Islanders. A pair of win to kick off the week, a loss against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday. Horvat scores a goal against his old team. There's behind the net, center in front for Horvat. What time did he score? Eh, should have had to,

but that whole goaltender interference thing. Well, his first goal was disallowed, but this one's going to count as Paul Horvath scores against his former team to make it 4-2. Anthony Bevilier scores against his old team, and the star of the game with a pair of goals, number 23 and 24 on the season, Elias Pedersen. Underline for Besser.

Goes right wing. Pedersen shoots. He scores. Elias Pedersen has his second goal of the third period, and the Canucks the home crowd wanted to go home with, but that was a really exciting game. 6-5 Vancouver beats the Islanders. What did you make of week one in the Horvat era? Because they are chanting.

First of all, how much money do you think was on the board in that game? Oh, a ton. It was not Detroit, Toronto, but I bet it was a lot. Did you see Horvat's contract,

sir? Did you see what Horvat just banked? I'm sure it was a big number. First of all, I would like to talk about Pedersen for a second. In our interview this week, you asked him Who was like the unsung caduck And he mentioned the guy who just got traded Yeah

Elias Pettersson went out against a guy Who he has a ton of respect for On the road In a game they were down And had every excuse to lose And he scored twice and brought them back into the game. And as you said, he was the best player on the

ice. Hands down. You know what that is? That is a player who's a killer. That is a player who's a winner. That is a player who's going to be your captain because I can't tell you how many times I've heard over the years, Jeff, and I guarantee you

have heard it too, where people have said that guy's my best friend on the, uh, off the ice, but on the ice, I want to beat him so bad. You have no idea. And in sports, if you are going to be successful, when the clock starts until the clock finishes, you put your friendships aside and you go to win the game.

That is the thing that stood out for me about Patterson on Thursday night. Now about Horvat, I mean, aside from the result in this game, it's a really, really good week for the Islanders. The fans feel great. You can tell they love them. Oh yeah.

It's a big W after they lost the likes of Ryan Smith and John Tavares over the years. They've gotten two big W's this year in Barzell and Horvat. Those guys are going to be playing with each other for years. This is a really tough loss for them. And the real problem for the Islanders is their math isn't great. Like Pittsburgh's math, despite the fact that Pittsburgh has been kind of lurching, even though they had that big win the other night,

despite the fact that Pittsburgh has been kind of lurching, even though they had that big win the other night, their math is much better than the Islanders is. Well, they got five games on them. They have five games on the Islanders. This one really hurts them. It hurts. It's the only bad thing that happened to them this week.

Big picture, good. Thursday night, bad. Elliot also wanted to mention the National Hockey League Players Association and their search for a new executive director drilling down on Marty Walsh. We've talked about him a couple of different times, either on the podcast or on the radio show. As the week winds down, you know, I had a conversation with someone last night, as a matter of fact, who bluntly said, it doesn't matter who the executive director is

because collective bargaining is tilted so heavily in favor of the owners that it doesn't matter. Agree or disagree with that statement? I don't know if I, if I buy that. Um, I think this, and I've always said this, it's, you know, the owners all have other businesses and those businesses could last for a long time the hockey player has a finite existence yeah and so i do think that's an enormous challenge the players have to overcome but you know we've seen before there have been times where players have won important things in collective bargaining again it just comes down to what is your will. And I've said this to you and I'll say it to you again. I don't think the players are anxious for

an enormous fight. I think they'll take a fight if it comes to them and they feel that what's being asked of them is unrealistic. But I think at the end of the day, I think they want to make deals. They want to grow the sport and they want to make deals. I don't think they're interested in missing games or striking or anything like that. I think they want to fight for what they believe in, but I believe they want to play. The thing is about this is with the players association, it's a never clean. It's always bloody. It's always bloody.

It's always bloody. This is the first time it hasn't been, Elliot, going back to Eagleson. The thing that's happened here is that, look, I think the players are very excited about their choice. One of the things that a couple of players told me was that the committee members, those who were part of the selection committee, they were very excited about their choice and that enthusiasm rubbed off on the other players. I've asked everybody I can think of, do you think that this is a big deal about the fact that he got donations from the Jacobs? He got donations from John Henry, who now owns the Pittsburgh Penguins. And some people say, no, I don't care.

That's politics. Some people say, yes, I do care. But the fact is, this is a big position that pays about $3 million a year and people want these jobs. And so I mentioned those emails to you. There was another one this morning. And I think there was another one yesterday. There are people who are not giving up here.

And it's anonymous and it bothers people. And I get that. If you're going to do stuff like that, put your name on it. But I think this is too far along to be stopped and we'll see where we go. The interesting thing here too is, and the one thing that we see specifically during lockouts is the owners are very much on the same page, singing from the same hymn book. Like they understand the united front. And you're talking about the players, you wrote about this this week in your blog,

about them presenting this idea that this is unanimous and they are united on this. And that's fine. And that's wise. One of the things that I wonder about here, you know, one of the most influential person in any player's career slash life is their agent. And agents all have different perspectives. Some have different, you know, agendas than others, different clients, obviously, that they represent.

Do you think the agents are as united as the players are presenting themselves to be? I think publicly they are trying to be, yes. I don't think everybody is crazy about this. Like I said, I think they feel very strongly that you have to present a united front because if you don't, you get crushed. Okay. And with that, we will finish up and hope that you have a great start to your weekend.

Taking us out, two musicians who met on the roof of a house party in London, England. Hannah Wilson and Julia Fabrin make up the duo Dolores Forever. With the deep knowledge of their craft, Hannah and Julia want to change the way we listen to music. With their latest single, When I Say So, here's Dolores Forever on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. I get around, I'm not a non-genie Kicking us out, watch who you're talking to, running aground

Hold on, it's way too soon, I'm not ready Who the hell decided, running to the sun like you know where the light is? Why are you excited? No, it won't be fun if you fail to invite it. Oh, open your eyes and you're sitting alone. Hanging around while they're trying to close. Somebody's always the last to go. It's only over when I say so. When I say so When I say so