32 Thoughts: The Podcast - The Only Thing Bigger Than Hischier Will Be Kaprizov’s Contract

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman continue discussing the latest surrounding Kirill Kaprizov turning down a record contract from the Minnesota Wild. They also talk about how players and managers are reacting to this around the league (22:15). Elliotte touches on a few other contract negotiations including Mason McTavish and Luke Hughes (25:34).Kyle and Elliotte talk about the Ivan Fedotov trade (29:00) before touching on the Spencer Knight extension in Chicago (31:21). After the goalie talk they focus on the rookie showcases around the league, especially Montreal (38:23). The Final Thought focuses on the life of Bob Goodenow (40:46).Kyle and Elliotte answer your emails and voicemails in the Thoughtline (50:31).In the final segment the guys touch on Capitals Assistant Coach Mitch Love being placed on a team imposed leave (1:14:02), the show wraps with a comment on Elliotte's report on the players involved in the Hockey Canada trial (1:16:11).  Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This 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 have to say this. I didn't know that Portugal had private beaches. As a matter of fact, when me and my family went there a couple years ago, and it was beautiful, we were told that Portugal had no private beaches because the public wouldn't allow it. Maybe they just didn't want you there. You know what? I'm beginning to think that that's exactly what happened. Staff and Max, you guys could stay. He has to leave. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast, presented by the GMC, Sierra, AT4X. Elliot, Kyle, Dom, back with you once again. Elliot, you know the legendary lyrics from the man Frank Sinatra. Regrets, I've had a few. I understand those words in particular are resonating with you this weekend.

What's going on? I listened to the last pod, and one note that I made myself that I forgot to follow up on was to tell Don, to take the bit out of the Jack Hughes interview where I said, Nico Hissier looks huge because I was thinking to myself, what if I just don't see him enough and that's the way he looks? I made a note, tell Dom to take that out. Well, I forgot. And obviously it was in there.

And the moment I heard it the next day, I was saying to myself, this is not going to end well for me. And yes, then came the photo of the group dinner they had the other day. And what was the one social media account, the person who sent the picture and said, do you think that Jack Hughes is looking at his year like he's huge? I mean, he said to myself, that was a fail on my part, not to get that taken out of the interview. It's going to be something people are going to be laughing about for years, which is always great. I think that's funny, but I kind of wish I'd taken it out.

I can't wait for Heeshire's first goal of the season, how quickly the tweet comes at you. Like, wow, good thing he balked up over the summer. Yeah, it was Faith with a Swiss flag in her account on X. Heeshire Devils is the account. Anyway, that made me laugh pretty hard. I, when I saw that, I was, I was saying, I'm going to pay for this. And by the way, I saw you were at Morgan Wallen and Edmonton the other night. Do you think that Morgan Wallen was saying, if Connor McDavid can't do this, I'm going to ask Kyle Bacoskas to?

No, I don't think he was thinking that. I think there was a long, long list, the size of, I don't know, what's the popular? of Sacramento before my name would have came anywhere close to being someone he would consider. But it had to be him on the Friday night, didn't it? Had to be. Of course, it did. I think it's great. And I will say...

It's great. But I'm trying to think, Domynic says the population of Sacramento was 535,000. I will say that the list was longer than that until you... got there. A couple things from the show quickly. I loved how at the end of each of his songs, he goes, Thank you.

That's the end of each song. The crowd applauds. Thank you. Got a kick out of that. And the show ends. Big finish from the band. Thank you very much, everybody. Love being in Edmonton.

Have a great night. Most big acts like that. Bang. Backstage. right away. Lights come up. Everyone kind of around the stadium starts leaving, but those that, you know, paid to be down on the floor by the stage, he stuck around for, I mean, well beyond how long it took us to get out of the place and took photos with people, signed things, shook hands, a couple little conversations with the fans that stuck around

to try to just get a quick glimpse of them. I thought that was a nice touch for, I mean, one of the big music stars going right now. I didn't realize. Honestly, I'm not a Morgan Wallen guy. I didn't realize how hugely popular he was. Everybody I know was at one of those two shows. Hope you had a great time. But we're violating the Butchagros rule. We've got to get to it. Okay. And here we go. So we led our last podcast on Thursday with the news about Kirill Kaprizov turning down 8 by 16 with the Minnesota Wild. And I suppose we saw. We. start there again this episode as that continues to be a big big story around the National Hockey League Elliott. Is there anything fresh you can add

to that? Where are you at with that story? A few days after that was a bit of a big one that came down in the middle of last week. Yeah, so I just had some more time to do some work, look into it,

put some thoughts around on it, formulate ideas in my brain. And there are lots of ways that this could still go. As anyone who heard the pod knew, one of the things I talked about was that I think one of the reasons that he did not take the eight times 16

is because the smoke signals are such, Kyle, that he knows there are bigger deals out there. Or at least people telling him there are bigger deals out there. And I had a few people say to me, you know, it could be something as simple as he's choosing not to sign in Minnesota and he wants to go elsewhere. And that certainly could be true.

Although, you know, the one thing I'll say about Caprizov, one of the questions that I have asked people a lot over the weekend and anyone I thought who might have a connection to him was, does he not want, clearly not want to be in Minnesota? And I'll say this, like I had a couple of players say to me that they've heard or been witness to in situations where he's not in Minnesota or not around the wild when he has spoken very well of the organization. Like some guys get away from their team or their teammates and they're like, ugh, I hate this here. I don't want to be here. Caprizov apparently is not that. He has spoken very well. about the team, the city, and the organization. Although, again, he could still prefer to go somewhere else, but it's not like he sits there and says, I can't wait to get out of here.

So that's one thing. But yes, it certainly is possible that there are other teams out there that he might want to play for. I think the interesting thing about that is that if you look at all the usual suspects, you know, Florida, if the goal is to, get a massive contract and go somewhere where he wants to go, like Florida is not going to go where this is being talked about. And Tampa, I mean, I don't think they're going where this is being talked about.

And even the Rangers, I know a lot of people suspect the Rangers, would the Rangers go? Because that's not a no-tax state. Would the Rangers be willing to go where this is being talked about? So I think there's also a discussion about if the goal is to, A, move the needle, get a massive deal and go somewhere where he wants to go, I think people are very curious about where that would be because a lot of the places that people really want to go, they're not sure if they would or could do that either. Like one of the things about the Rangers is they have a lot of big contracts already.

and one of the most interesting things about the Rangers going after him is Paul Theophanas, who represents Caprizov, also represents Artemi Panarin. And could they even do both guys? Would the agent be sitting here knowing, okay, if I get my one client here, am I going to have to take my other client somewhere else? So there's a lot of fascinating developments to that. you know a couple of things I'm not backing down at all from my thinking that somebody is making it very clear out there there's a 19 or 20 times 7 out there at the end of the day we're probably going to have to wait a year to figure that out

but I 100% believe that is going on now the short term that's the bigger question right now what happens in the interim now one of the questions that's been asked around the league a lot, is okay, Caprizov said no to eight times 16. Did he give the wild the number that would say, okay, if you put this in front of me, I'm signing it. Or did the wild ask him, okay, you're not going to take this. What will you take? Give us the number. And as far as I can tell, that has not happened. That there's, that there's, at least in the sense that there's no magic number out there for Kaprizov now that he said or his representative said put this in front of me and all sign it okay you know the one of the dangers of this one is

nobody's really commenting here but i think this story is so explosive and there's so much talk about it around the league i think if there was a number on the table then i think we'd know about it So I'm saying right now that that's not there as far as I know. I think that one of the things that happened in a couple podcasts ago, you talked about it with Craig Leopold, the owner saying, we'll do whatever it takes to get this done. We can sign him to the biggest check. I think there's some people sitting here wondering if Caprizov and Theophanas

are simply sitting there saying, how far can we push this? will we get to the point where the wilder negotiating against themselves? Do they simply keep raising the number? Okay, we didn't get it done at 16. What about 16 and a half? What about 17? Like, I don't know exactly what the number would be here, but there are plenty of people out there who are good negotiators

who will say, if you have someone who says that about you publicly, sometimes the best thing you could do is wait for them to keep making offers. but, you know, if you're the wild, you have to sit back there and think and say, all right, is this really the best thing for us to do? Does it make sense for us to go any further? You know, it's sort of like dating, right, Kyle? You know, sometimes you ask somebody out, maybe they say no, and you're thinking, okay, you know, some people are like, oh, okay, they said no, I'm moving on to somebody else. But some people are like, all right, they said no this time. I'm going to keep trying. I don't, I really like this person. I'm not giving up that easy. Like, thank God that Dana finally said yes to you.

I could only imagine how many times you had to ask her out before she would say yes. But let's the question is, are the wild going to do that with Caprizov? And, you know, I recognize that Caprizov is not like a lot of other players. He's pretty unique. he's one of the best players in the league so and you know one of the things that i've talked about kyle is the book the bald truth by david falk the old basketball agent and he talks about how some players are more valuable in their situations than others like you might look at caprisov and say all right i don't think he's an 18 million dollar player or a 20 million dollar player

but he's so valuable in Minnesota that the wild might have to look at it and say, well, maybe he's not an $18 million player in Florida, but he might be an $18 million player to us. And I think that's one of the biggest decisions Minnesota has to make. Are they moving or not? And I think you, right now I think they're emotional, but I think you have to sit back, really take a deep breath, and decide are we are we being smart by increasing our offer like i do remember one one gm told me

about the story this weekend and he said it wasn't a player as good as caprice of but they were going after him in free agency and we kept on raising our offer and the player kept on hemming and he just said like he doesn't really want to be here if if he's going to be here he's only here for the money, and that's going to be a disaster for everyone involved. So I actually think the biggest decision is Minnesotas. I still got more, but I've been talking for about nine minutes straight, and I insulted your pickup ability. Do you have anything you want to say here?

First of all, I'll have you know, once upon a time, I used to be kind of charming. I know that's hard to believe now, but Dana and I started dating a long, long time ago. So that's the first thing I want to get off my chest, sir. Let me ask you a question, okay, okay, okay. The first time you asked her out, did she say yes? Yeah. That's, no, you waited too long. That's a no.

No, because I'm going, it's hard for me to believe that. But it was, it's a typical Canadian love story. We met at Cowboys in Calgary. really i didn't know that that's a great story right we're both living on campus i will say this anyway yeah that's a good story i will say this the first time i the first time i asked stuff out she said no much to her eternal regret she changed her mind later so this is where the stories come from now it all makes sense it's like dating you know, everybody gets told no initially.

That's right. That's not telling myself. Do you have, do you, okay, now on to the rest of Caprizov, do you have anything else you want to add here or before I keep going or do you is anything else you want to discuss? Well, like, the first thing about that was the idea that, to your knowledge, it hasn't gone to the point where this, from the player and agent side, this is the number where it'll get done.

If that hasn't happened, I mean, is that cause for concern if you're a wild fan going, oh, maybe he's really only looking elsewhere beyond next year, maybe he's not that serious about re-uping in Minnesota? The only reason, the only thing that I would disagree with you about that is, as I said, sometimes you're representative if you're negotiating and again there's lots of people out there listening to this podcast and negotiate things when you see leopold's quotes you say the best thing we can do is say no initially because they're going to come back to us with more and i and i think that's why that's why i think the next step here is minnesota's like did at some point in time they have to say

internally, are we coming back with more or are we saying this is as far as we're going? But I recognize why you're saying that. I recognize why you're saying that. And to your point about the David Falk line, I remember in Ottawa, when Brady Kachuck signed his contract initially, it was like, whoa, you're going to pay that guy that much money. But it was a unique situation in Ottawa about trying to retain a place. player like that and of course as time has gone on you're going well absolutely he's worth every penny when you're seeing the player he's become but i just remember initially there was that feeling going

maybe other markets wouldn't feel as strongly about paying that player that much but it made sense in ottawa and then it's just it's happened that it's worked out for both sides that that contract has aged very well to this point so to your point there is precedent yes and that's why i always say to people, right, that's why I always say to people, don't always look at it in a linear way. And we are going to discuss that in a couple minutes, but you can't always look at it in linear way. Well, if this player makes this, this player can only make this. No, because like I said, that was a David Falk argument. That was his situation. This is this situation. A good agent and a good negotiator will look at it like that. But what you, you know, you know,

you are discussing there will come into effect here. So remember also to Caprizov has a no trade. So he has control. If he doesn't want to be traded this year, like Marner last year, he doesn't have to be. But I think now the other big question is, how does Caprizov handle this news becoming public? And Mike Russo, a friend of the pod, wrote last week that Caprizov was on the ice as a captain's skate when the news broke and it was kind of awkward about how they go back into the room and they're all looking at their phones and this report comes out, right? And I heard that Caprizov was embarrassed about that. And then what becomes the issue and like I don't guess sources. I don't like when people do it to me. So I'm not going to do it to

anybody else. But I guarantee to you here that people are trying to figure out, okay, who was the source for the story? And second, the person who probably was the source for the story is saying it wasn't me. So, like, on some level, even

Caprizo is probably a little bit upset that this got out. Like, it's because now, like you have to have a strong room. Because now, like last week in Vegas, like, saw the reactions of the players when we were talking about the story like they were shocked that that kind of offer got turned down and so you know imagine what's going on in the room

and you know this is one of the things that's really interesting to me is that I remember there was a situation where I heard a player was he was unsigned he was in a contract as with his team this was a few years ago and players on his team his own teammates called them and told them okay this is enough and you have to come back and you have to sign we need you because it stretched into the i believe it stretched into the season i'm pretty sure it did they don't have it off the top of my head and i said that on air and kevin bexa and kelly rudy went bananas they were like wait his teammates called him and told him that he has to sign and I said, yeah, and they both said, like, that's baloney.

That should not, like, as a teammate, you should not be allowed to do that. That's his business. That's not your business. And they got really upset. And there was a player who went into the season a couple years ago, and he heard me, I told that story, I think, once, and he heard me tell it, and he called me. And he said, that happened to me too in my situation. I was like, wow, that's just knowing what, you know, I was taking a cue from

Kelly and Kevin who played, I just remembered how upset they were about it. So, you know, like, how is that whole room going to react? They know that this player turned down $16 million a year. Some of them probably want to ask them. And some of them are probably like, okay, does he have one foot out the door already? Like one of the Maple Leafs players told me that when the story broke last year after the deadline about the lease asking Marner to go to Carolina, which he declined, that it was at that time the players, some of the players didn't know that they weren't really negotiating

with Marner. Like there were no contract talks. They're like, there's no contract talks going on. And they were like, no. And so like, it can do things to your room. You have to be really strong and you have to be really mature. and you have to have a room where someone's going to stand up and say, we're not letting this be a problem for us.

And I think, like, there's some real strong personalities in that Minnesota room. I just don't know how that's all going to go down. I know in the past it's caused problems if he doesn't sign before Wednesday or the season starts. I know in the past it's caused problems. it's hard for me to predict where this is going to go, but I know it's been a thing before. And the last thing I'll mention, Kyle, and this goes to what you kind of discussed,

one of the things, it's interesting, like you talk to agents about this and you talk to managers about this, the managers really want Minnesota to hold the line. They really do. Like, they see where this is going.

You know, if Caprizov goes to 16, what is that? take Jack Eichel, maybe not 16, but we're talking 14, 15? Where does that take Kyle Conner? You know, where does that take a whole bunch of other players here? And if he goes even higher than 16, where does that pull some of these other guys? And I think there's agents who are like, you know what, our top players, they're underpaid compared to other sports. Like, you know, McDavid, if he would go to the market and someone said next year that he could get 20,

nobody's complaining about that. Nobody's complaining about that. But I think they're worried about like, to me again, Caprizo's a heck of a player, but people like, oh, he's a winger. You don't pay a winger that. Like, it's all coming out now. Like, Minnesota has to hold the line for the rest of us. There's a lot at stake here for everybody involved, a lot.

Right. Because it's not so much the number as it is what that means for the rest of their balance sheet. Where in other sports, it's a little bit different. Yes. A rising tide floats all boats. Now, what about the other managers? And you know, I should say this. The GM say hockey's different.

That you need a team. right you need a team especially in a hard cap world i understand all that but what about the managers that are sending up the 18 19 with the way it's about to change well those ones are obviously okay with it yeah uh man oh man that's a great question it's a great question nobody's admitting to that right now because they don't want to get penalized they don't want no draft picks until the 39th century so nobody's admitting to it 39th century that's good I like yeah because that's the problem like how many times have we seen in this era of the NHL a contract type story either before camp right in the middle of camp if it drags into the early part of the year that can really derail a team's aspirations for a season so you mentioned about having strong-willed individuals in that Minnesota room whether it's a Marcus Felino, a Jared Spurgeon,

a Jonas Brodine, a Zach Bogosian has been around a long time. I think you've got the right dynamic to handle however this is going to end there. But you've seen it be a big, big stressor in years, Pat, so you don't have to look that far into the past to see other examples. So there's a lot. I wanted to talk about this a bit more with some time to really. think about it. I mean, there's some other contract stuff this week.

We're still waiting on some of the RFAs. You know, McTavish and Anaheim, as we've discussed, that one's been a real fight, a real battle. Sounds like Evangelista and Nashville has been a real battle. You know, we'll see what happens with Luke Hughes this week in New Jersey. As I'd heard, that one was kind of dormant for a while.

You know, this is, I'm not convinced this is the biggest pressure point, but it is a pressure point. And we'll see, you know, we'll see who's in camp in the, by the end of this week. The other one I wanted to mention about this week is, you know, the Sabre signed Alexander Georgiev. And, you know, I'll tell you what was really interesting about that one for me. I had, so first of all, credit to Matthew Fairburn. He's the one who reported that there's an injury issue around Lukinen. That is the reason this happened. Someone said to me, and that they thought it was interesting,

that Yorgev didn't get NHL minimum. He got a little bit more. He got 825. And he said to me that when someone out of nowhere gets a contract like that, and it's like instead of like a PTO right on the eve of the season and the number is a little bit higher than the minimum, it's because the organization says we have to make sure we get this guy. So when Matthew wrote that there's an injury there, it made perfect sense.

Now, from what I understand, I don't believe as we sit here on Sunday night recording this podcast, we should automatically assume the worst case scenario. I think from what I'm hearing, the sabers just don't know yet. They don't know. Like, it's still uncertain. Whatever's bothering Lukinen, it's not, like I was warned. Don't come on and say it's uncertain. And that means it's terrible.

It's uncertain because I just don't think they know. And they wanted to make sure. I mean, look, like, we'll see, is he on ice at the beginning of camp? Is he on ice early in camp? You know, we'll know soon enough, but right now I've just been told they're not sure. Okay, and it is, I don't know if it's worth mentioning, but the fact that he was the Sabres representative at the European media tour, like usually if something serious is going on, players aren't going to those events unless it happened really recently. Kyle, the minimum salary this year, it's 775. So it's not like it's a huge number.

It's 50,000 more, but that's still, that got noticed. What it says to me is that maybe he was dealing with something that he thought would be okay. And then once he started skating in North America, it just wasn't. So we'll see. All right. I mean, the only other explanation is he got hurt like a week or two of. go for sure okay so that's one thing to keep an eye on a few gold-tending notes to pick at here at this episode Elliot the Ivan Fedotov trade from Philadelphia to Columbus for a sixth-round

pick what was kind of the the story behind this one I suppose it gives the flyers some cap flexibility but I think like the lengths that the organization went to to bring him over to North America just a couple years ago I know it was a difficult season for him statistically last year, just a tough year for the whole team. But now to flip him to Columbus, I know obviously they're looking for some help in that as well. What was the reasoning and the motivation

for both sides to make this move? Well, pretty simple for Philadelphia. They have a lot of goalies there. Like, they signed Vladar. So they have Kolosov, they have Lidar, and they have Erson. And so, you know, Philly was going to have to pay the bonus,

which was paid recent, but now like real cash I think he's 775 right so they paid the bonus and they clear the cap space and and also they clear some room in their crease and I and I don't think it's a given that Carter Hart will be back in Philadelphia at least again as we record this right now so at least three goalies you don't need four Columbus anyone who's a fan of the blue jackets you know it that that they've been looking for a third goalie. And they have, obviously, Merzleekins, they have Jet Greaves, who played very well at the end of last year, and I think starts the training camp as Columbus's number two goalie.

But they wanted to make sure they had another goalie there with some experience. And, you know, the one thing is, is that he's got, even though he's not a lot of cash, he's a bigger cap number at 325 so not a lot of teams could fit him in and the other thing too is everybody knew philly had him available right and he went for a sixth round pick i think if there were a lot of teams that were really going to chase that then they could have done it too so the fact that it was columbus and columbus could afford to be patient i think it's a reasonable gamble by them that if they need him to clear a waiver he'll be able to do so. All right, Spencer Knight, three-year deal with Chicago.

Just over a $5.8 million cap hit. I mean, he was the key piece going back the other way in the Seth Jones trade just prior to the trade deadline last year. Obviously, they're making that move with the idea that he is part of Chicago's future going forward and now the three-year extension comes in. Your thoughts on that signing? Well, I was a little bit surprised.

Like, we mentioned on one of the summer pods that Chicago, the rumor was that Chicago was looking to extend night. So I wasn't surprised at all when I heard that it was getting done. He's obviously a huge part of their team. What surprised me was you look at a lot of the goalie deals recently. It was Swayman 8 times 825, Ottinger, 825, Wolf 7 times 7.5 or 725, whatever it is. Now, Knight obviously doesn't have as much runway as a starter. He only buys up one year of UFA.

He's banking on himself clearly to set himself up as, that kind of a number, if not more, in three years. Like, if you take a look at it, Kyle, you know, what he could have done was he could have gone to arbitration next year, arbitration the year after, and then gone to UFA. But what he's saying here is that he believes in what he can do, that if he hits the market or he can hit the market at a time when a lot of other number ones are signed, he thinks he can really smash it big. It's an interesting bet because it, like I said,

it flies in the face of a lot of other deals, but it sets himself up to really hit it big at a time a lot of number one goaltenders won't be available. It's an interesting, interesting bet. It's a really interesting, interesting deal. If you're Chicago, you'll look at it and you'll say, we're happy not to do one of those deals right now. You'll take it and you'll take the gamble,

but I always believe people should bet on themselves if they're comfortable enough to do it. And clearly here, Knight is betting on himself to break through that current level that the likes of Swamen and Ottinger and to a lesser degree, Wolf of Set. Right. And then even after seeing that

And also digesting the Dustin Wolf signing last week, like I'm looking at, you know, who could be coming up a year from now, whether it's a Philip Gustafson or a Stuart Skinner. I know those guys are a little bit older, but just think about where things could be heading, goaltending-wise, in terms of what those numbers could look like. Like, we just talked about it a great deal of how this Caprizo situation could completely reset things under this new salary cap environment. feels like a similar sense is coming for goaltending. As you say, a year ago, it was the era of 8.25. What's it all going to look like a year from now as things continue to evolve? It's really something to try to digest and to try to time it if you're a player and an agent. It's not a perfect science, but you can certainly take a pretty good gamble.

Absolutely. I mean, that's what they're doing here. They're betting that they can set a new level in three years. You know, there were reports last week. week about Toronto talking to Stollers, that'll be an interesting one too, because at the very least Stolers has established himself, what do you want to call him, a 1, a 1A? When he's established himself is at the lowest end, he's established himself as a 1A, at the low end. So what's that worth?

and you know Toronto has wool making 3.67 I think the next two years so at least in a year from now because I got to think that that night number three times 5.83 even though it's two years of RFA and only one year of UFA but I got to think that that night number three times 5.83 even though it's two years of RFA and only one year of UFA. but I got to think if Toronto's looking at three years Stollers is probably saying I'm not far from that so I kind of wonder if that sets Toronto's market too and I guess that's a big thing too in terms of every team's got a different situation like you just brought up Joseph Wohl

like that's part of it too okay what is a guy worth like Stolar's a 1A at worst okay well what's what's the other guy in the tandem what's his his deal how much is that team leaning on the other goalie like I think that all plays into it too when teams are trying to determine how comfortable are we getting to a number like that Toronto's got some interesting decisions to make over the next couple of weeks. Like there's been a talk about Max Domi

getting the first shot at playing on Matthew's wing. But I think also like just on their roster they got a lot of forwards. Mm-hmm. A lot of forwards.

Where are they going with these guys? Nick Robertson, how legit of a shot is Easton Cowan going to have to crack the roster? A bunch of stuff going on. Like David Camp

wasn't really used towards the end of last year. Yeah. You're right. Yarn croak. Another guy. Blue line's pretty well set. You've got your tandem for at least one more year in goal.

Even though there was the big subtraction of Marner in the summer, they go into camp with an inflects and forwards. So main cabs get going later on this week. Do you watch any of the rookie games this weekend? I was just going to say. Yep. Like last year we were talking about that incredible scene in Montreal where every time Lane Hudson had the puck,

the crowd was like, what's going to happen next? The anticipation was so great for a rookie tournament. It was incredible. And they showed out again this weekend. I know Deminov didn't play on Sunday, but Saturday, I'm not sure what they were charging for the rookie camp games. I don't think it was much to get into the Bell Center,

but well worth the price of admission again, the one goal and two assists. You couldn't help but notice that. I mean, Yakim Chuck offensively looked exciting for Ottawa. So Michael Misen, Sam Dickinson has some good outings with the sharks, Oliver Moore, overtime goal with Chicago. Like, there's a lot going on already for fan bases to go. They're big names in the prospect pool going, all right,

they're in the headlines here early. Still that it gets from main camp, but the excitement started already. I spoke to one guy who talked about Matt Vey Gridden more than he talked about his kids. Yeah, with the Flames. Yeah, really liked them. Really liked them. So that game in Edmonton that Calgary and the Oilers played on Friday night, it was actually delayed by about a half hour.

And we did the drive up Friday as well from Calgary. And we sat through with just the influx of traffic, of course, with the Morgan Wallen concert going on. And so the Flames players are on the bus trying to get up two to Rogers Place, and they were stuck in traffic, so the game got pushed back a half hour. I saw that. Was it the Wallen traffic? I think so.

After seeing the amount of people trying to move around that stadium Friday night, I think so. So Morgan Wallen got that game delayed, that's power. Name of his tour, I'm the problem. By the way, Demadov, if you're wagering on the Calder Trophy, and I'm not, not allowed to, as long as I have a vote, which is the way it should be people are going to be losing money even if they win the odds have got to be so stacked against him right now yeah and that was kind of the feeling on mitchkov going into last year and he had a great season don't get me wrong yep and then the hudson train got rolling and it couldn't be stopped by the time he

got to the second half of the season. So no question the favorite going in, who's going to be the disruptor once the season is well established. That'll be fun to watch. All right, that'll take us to the final thought, which is brought to you by GMC and Elliot News over the weekend. Bob Goodenow passed away suddenly at the age of 72. So he was the head of the Players Association from 92 to 2005 to he worked as a player agent

Prior to that, he was a player himself, once upon a time, Captain of Harvard. I guess, like, for my era, like at my age, Elliot, when I think of his name, I think of, of course, the 0405 lockout because of obviously the ramifications that that year had in the Grand Scumble of hockey. But, of course, he was tied to much more than just the work stoppages, right? There was the World Cup of hockey and helping bringing that in 96, getting the players to the Olympics for the first time in Nagano and 90. So your thoughts on the life of Bob Goodnow. Well, we're going to do some interviews about this on a future pod because I think in the last 30 years, like the biggest non-player influences on the NHL,

I think are Gary Bettman, Bill Daley, and Bob Goodnow. They were the three people behind the scenes who had the most influence in shaping what, happened over the last three plus decades. There's a story I remember about Bob Good notes. The story I always remember about him. Like Bob could be like a real hard guy. If he didn't like something I said on television or in a blog, he would call me or he would have someone call me. And he was like he worked hard and he grinded. And I remember one of the people who worked for him once told me that, you know, like, there were a lot of things, like,

he demanded your time and your excellence. Like, it was pretty much understood there that, and I think a lot of people who work in sports are kind of the same, that this wasn't a nine to five job, you were on call a lot. If something happened, you were expected to drop everything and deal with it if it was your responsibility and he wanted you in the office. And I remember one of the people who eventually left the NHLPA because they needed a little bit of a lifestyle change. He told me that when he once asked Bob, like, why are you like this? He said, the players who make the NHL are in the top 1% of their field. This is the elite of the elite playing in the national hockey league.

And he said that if that's the way they are, they deserve the same representation, that they should expect that the people who are representing them at the bargaining table or to stand up for their collectively negotiated rights, they should expect that we are like that too, that we are in the top 1% of our field, the elite of the elite. And that is what drove him. And if you couldn't handle that standard, he would say, we have to get somebody else who can. If you can't do it, we're getting somebody else who can. And that's the way he was. And at its base, I've always believed in that attitude in that if you're going to do something, you should do it to the best of your ability. but he took it to the extreme.

And I know a lot of the people that even some of the people who moved on, they really respected that his base was like that, though. Like they said he really wanted to be the best possible representative for the players. And for a long time, he was. Like the salaries exploded in the NHL because, you know, people can say it was the strike or the negotiations. I really believe the biggest thing was salary disclosure. before he convinced the players to do it, salaries were private.

And I still remember that day in the early 90s. I was a student at Western where I picked up the London Free Press, and one day they, like every salary of any, every NHL player was published. And I think the first time it ever happened, the lowest paid player in the NHL, I think it was Doug Wickenheiser. and people went to him and asked him about, you know, how he felt about that. And if I remember correctly, I think he said something along the lines of, well, in the future, it's going to keep giving us levels to jump over.

Like, it would be interesting if Goodno was still in charge during this Caprizov thing right now because it's different. It's a salary cap and $1.1.1.1.1. player makes takes another dollar or takes a dollar away from another player right so it's not exactly the same but agents would tell me that if good no thought you signed a bad deal especially when there was no cap he would tell you and he would make it known he would say that's a bad deal and you know he would expect and some agents wouldn't play ball with him because good know wasn't always so friendly to all the agents he didn't always he battled with a lot of them so some

wouldn't play ball but some did like they would call and say okay i'm negotiating this contract and and good know either himself or he'd have the people he paid to look at the comps say this is what the player should be making and he fought hard for those rights i remember at the end during the 2004 lockout, the biggest, he would end up losing control of the Players Association. And the reason he did was he told the players, if you want to quote unquote, win this, you have to sit out for two years. And I just think that's unreasonable. You can't expect that.

You know, NHL players, their careers are what, four years? Even the best players, at that time, they were playing 15 years. But you can't expect people to give up two years, especially if they're in their primes. Like I don't, and also, too, if they had set out two years, nobody was winning anything. The sport would have been a total disaster zone. And, you know, I think he miscalculated there. also, you know, also, you know, the league did a 24% rollback of salaries that first year back. That was good and knows idea.

He actually was the first one who proposed it, a 24% rollback. And the league took it and said, yeah, that's a great idea. We'll do that. Plus, we're also going to do this, this, this, and this. And I remember there was a Hall of Fame player who called the Players Association the night before. He was still playing at the time. he called the and he said like i heard we're making a proposal tomorrow and what is it and they said you know we're not going to tell you we wanted to keep secret and the player was like come on

and they said no and then the next day he found out about the 24% he was like oh my god like no wonder they wouldn't tell me what it was and i just think at that time you had to realize betman had the owner's rally, they were going to change the way this went. And sitting out two years was just not feasible. But I know he watched a lot and I know he kept in touch and I know he still had opinions on a lot of things. Like there were times that I would run into him from time to time. And there were times I sent him notes and said, hey, I'd like to talk to you. And, you know, he would just say no. And then one of the people kept in touch with him, he said, to me, I don't understand why you keep answering them, he's never going to do it.

He's just never going to do it. But, like, he was a fierce fighter for the players, and he really fought the league, and the salaries the way they are now, he had a lot to do with that, a lot to do with that. He made the players as a whole a lot of money. and I think he should be remembered as such Yeah, really well said Especially when you consider where the players association was at And how they were viewed prior to when he took over back in 92

A critical, critical piece When you consider the history of the game And the growth of players' salaries And everything that comes along with that So to the good no family We send our love and condolences That was the final thought, which is brought to you by GMC. We will take our first break and come back with the first iteration of the thought line of the new season.

32 Thoughts the podcast continues after this. Okay, welcome back, Elliot. The time has come. The first thought line. of the new season and with all that has been discussed over the last couple of weeks, I'm sure you can guess what our listeners have been most interested in and have been most vocal about right off the hop. No, I assume it's the cap, well, I assume it's the cap, right?

Incorrect. Raccoons and barbecues. Oh, yes. You know what? I got a few. I wanted to say, I'm glad you reminded me about this. Thank you, Kyle. And thank you listeners,

because I got a few texts and tweets about it and DMs, and everybody told me to burn the barbecue. So what did the thought line people say? Wow. No, I differing opinions here in the thought line. So just a couple quick hitters. Mark says new grates, but you don't have to get a whole new barbecue. Okay.

Alex from Mississauga. You can clean the grill. Same thing happened to us, and we've had no issues with diseases. That's positive. Alex, just for you, I'm really glad to hear that. Okay? Fantastic. Bill the mailman from Copley, Ohio.

If you keep your barbecue outside, there are animals eating from it all the time. You just happen to see this one. You can keep it. You know, Bill, I can't argue with that logic. That's good logic. Very good logic. I'm not sure it'll work on Steph, but it worked on me. Matt from Midland, I had the same thing happen, but it was just down by the gas pipes.

I cleaned out the barbecue, and it was all good. Okay. And one final note on this file, okay? And it comes in the form of a voicemail, and I think you're going to want to hear this. This will help explain a lot of what you witnessed earlier this summer. Roll it, Dom. My name is Derek. I'm the raccoon that was inside of Elliott's Grill.

Let me let you in on a secret. I was actually hired by another company to eavesdrop on Freezing Conversation. I've been stealing scoops for months, but I'm sitting there listening to his scratchy voice drone on and on and on, and I just couldn't take it anymore. Honestly, I'm not sure how step does it, so I just up and lift. But anyway, just wanted to let you know that I won't come back anymore. no one could possibly pay me enough. Also, I won't go into any detail, but let's just say you definitely don't want to use that grill anymore.

First of all, that's outstanding. Well, I want to say there was someone who sent me an Instagram DM. His name is Jimmy Wang. He wrote on September the 5th, Just listen to the latest 32. You know what's going to happen in the first thought line of the season now. Someone's pretending to be that raccoon calling in. Jimmy, you nailed it.

You were right. You predicted that. It could have been Jimmy. Nine days ago. Good job, Jimmy. You know why? Probably making sure his prediction came true. Jimmy, if that is you, you're even smarter.

oh so good all right well i don't know if that clears anything up for you it helps make a decision easier but the thought line has set its peace you know i have to say we might as well just shut it down now we're not beating that this year it's a great start great start people great start dominic unmute yourself for a second don't what's up okay how do you pronounce the word P-U-M-A. Yeah. Like the clothing brand? Yes.

Puma. Yeah. You guys are all idiots. It's Puma. Oh my goodness. It's Puma. You just wait. Like you thought it was bad about the Nico looks huge comment.

You just wait. You know, so we were having this argument the other day we were wait. I can't remember who we were waiting for. But we were sitting with the whole crew waiting for our next guest to come in on the media tour. And I said the word, Puma. And I felt you looking at me, Kyle. And then the whole crew looking at me. And everybody was like, how did you say that?

And I'm like, Puma. And they're like, no, it's Puma. I go, no, it's not. It's not Puma. And then one guy says, I think in Europe, they call it Puma. So Elliot could be European. I'm like, I'm not European. I'm Canadian.

It's Puma. but all of you were against me. And did they not give you some sort of clue? No, you're all idiots. Case you're wondering how the dynamic works on this show and we're not recording. I have to say, that was a great crew. They did an unbelievable job, great audio, great set design, great work. Don't know how to say the word Puma.

Okay. Maybe Jason from Connecticut does. There we go. Hey, Elliot, Kyle, and Dom. Love the show. Question about what the process is like when a player's contract is traded, but they are no longer playing in the league. For example, like with Kerry Price, now contract traded to the sharks. Does he have to fly out to San Jose to get himself checked out with the staff, etc.? Or does his paychecks just start coming from a different team? And that's the end of it. Both.

So Kerry Price had to go to San Jose after the trade to pass a physical. Well, I shouldn't say that. Had to go to San Jose to get a physical. He wasn't going to pass a physical, but he went there to get a physical. So every year you have to, at the end of every season, before you leave your NHL team, you have to get a physical.

And if you fail it, I think it's called a Form 25. You're issued a Form 25 and told that you are not capable of playing. And then when you come back, at the beginning of next year, you have to take the same physical, and they have to judge that you're still not capable of playing. So when Chris Pronger was a member of the Arizona Coyotes, he had to go to Arizona every year and take a physical at the beginning of the season. Carey Price had to go to San Jose to take a physical just recently.

And the other thing, and this doesn't happen as much when guys have been out a long time, but in Kerry Price's first year, or maybe it was Shea Weber. And Shea Weber's first year when he didn't play. Yeah, like they could say, okay, Shay, where's your closest NHL team to what you live to? Oh, it's Vancouver. You have to go into Vancouver for a physical just to make sure you still can't play. So the NHL reserves the rights in that first year, and remember, there was a lot of fighting about Price and Weber, both being on long-term injury.

They made Weber in particular go to Vancouver at least once to get checked out. So that's normal. Now, the other thing is that, yes, now his paycheck comes from San Jose, and one of the jokes going around was after he got traded to the sharks, well, at least they traded his contract somewhere with better weather. His contract could get a suntan. But yes, then now the new team

pays him. All right. Matt and Raleigh. Kyle and Elliot. And actually, so he has a question about this and also Mark in Connecticut had a similar question about this too. So I thought I would amalgamate them and present it to you

here now, Fridge. Had a few questions about the new playoff salary cap and was wondering if you answer them so let's assume for argument's sake it's a hundred million dollar cap obviously it's a little bit lower than that this year but uh in this case is a hundred million dollars a team spends 95 percent of their cap for the first half of the season this would allow them to ice a team with more than a hundred million dollars over the second half because of salary cap accrual would they be allowed to ice this same team come game one of the playoffs

I'm going to say this. The short answer is no. And we have to kind of reprogram ourselves a little bit to how we deal with this. So basically, accrual can help you in the regular season. It means nothing in the playoffs. In the playoffs, your team, the one that you're dressing for the game, 18 skaters and two goalies has to be under the cap. So this year the cap is 95. million, your 18 plus two roster has to be under 95, okay? So accrual, it matters in the regular season, yes, to do things, but in the playoffs, here's the difference. If you acquire a $10 million player and you get him at 50 percent, in the playoffs, there's no pro-rated salary. He's a $5 million player on your cap. Now, in the regular season, you would get him at 50% at what his salary was remaining

for the year. You would get that benefit, the proration that no longer exists in the playoffs. He's $5 million. If you get a $7.5 million player and you do it at 50%, He's a $3.75 million player. So that proration number, it doesn't matter anymore in the postseason. Whatever his full salary was in dollar amounts that you picked up based on his full year salary, that now becomes his playoff number.

Now, if your overall roster is over the cap, $95 million, that's fine. but the one year dressing every night has to be under 95. Now, the one thing is here is that if you actually take a look at how many rosters have been over the cap in a game day basis, it's actually been less than you think. It started to happen a bit more in the last couple of years, but historically it didn't happen as much as you thought. So there's some people who think that this may not be as big a deal as we've been talking about because it's not your whole roster. It's just the 20. But one of the things the NHL did was they made tweaks like that one.

Only full salary matters in the playoffs. And like things like your dead cap, it counts. So for example, if you have buyouts, it counts towards your 20. If you have bonuses that have to be paid, it counts towards your 20. Like there's a whole bunch of things there that will count towards your 20 that they could walk you into trouble more than just your salaries. The more I hear more about these new rules, Elliot, the more I continue to not like them. It is fun police.

Yes, yes. Now, just, well, it's like we said, the NHL had a bunch of things that bugged it. That's what they got out of this. They closed a lot of loopholes that they didn't like. Yes, yes, they did. Now, let's just do this. You're right. the fun police one was there anything i said there kyle that you thought was confusing or i should

try to explain further i think for the first time in our year in a little bit doing this the answer is no you actually laid that out okay rather well if i could understand it i think you've done a good job conveying the message i'll put it that way okay Everybody, uh, everybody can let me know if, uh, I didn't explain it well enough. There's, or there was still something that I didn't clarify for you. Jesse from McKenzie, B.C. Hey, gang, I have had this trivia question in my head all summer and after doing zero research myself, wanted to ask Elliot and Kyle.

Last season, Nikita Kutrov won the Ted Lindsay Trophy as MVP, voted on by the players, but finished just barely in third place in the Hart Trophy votes, beating out Nathan McKinnon by a single vote. So since the Ted Lindsay slash Lester Pearson Award has been a thing, what is the lowest a winner of that award finished in hard voting? Is it Kuturov or has there been a bigger gap in the past? Oh, that's a good question. I assume you look this up.

I don't know it off the top of my head. I remember one year before the only the only one I remember off the top of my head there's been some changes year to year. I remember I think the year Pronger and Yager pronger won the heart and Yager won the Pearson if I remember correctly. But what would be the biggest one? So first off, I'll just say so that the Ted Lindsay Award and before that was the Lester B. Pearson Award's been handed out 54 times.

Of those 36, the same guy won the heart. Okay? So it's more common than not that it's a double sweep of those awards at the end of the year. And of those 18 times, it was different. Only seven times has the gap been third place in the heart or lower. So that's where Kuturov finished, right? He was third in heart. So only, and actually only two times,

hasn't been lower than third. The biggest gap for the player that won what is the Lindsay Award and where they finished in the heart was fifth. Who that player is might surprise you. So won the Lindsay and was fifth for the heart? Mm-hmm. I'm just going to look up,

I'm freely admitting I'm doing this now. I'm going to look up the Ted Lindsay Award winners. And I'm going to just look at it and say, is there anyone that jumps off the page at me and makes me say they came in really low and hard voting? Wouldn't be Marcus Naslin, would it? It would not. And as I say, the surprise is that this player finished fifth,

not that they won the Lindsay Award. Yes, I'm just trying to think of someone who won the Lindsay that I don't remember being near the top of the voting. Where did Kucharov finish last year? He finished third in the heart. So that's the basis of this whole question. Yeah. give me an era like what year about are we looking at we are we are i would say it's this era

this era but pre-covid did mac david well did macdavit have one where he finished low in the heart trophy voting he 17 18 he won the lindsay award and finished fifth led the league that year with 108 points but of course the oilers is a team sixth and three three years is a team sixth and Vision 12th in the conference. No wonder he hates answering all our questions. So he, that's the biggest gap. Jean Rattell in 7172 won the Pearson Award and finished fourth in hard voting. I have to say that was the other name I was looking at in the early 70s was Jean Rattel because I never

remembered him being that high and heart voting but when you said I would be surprised you threw me the fake you fainted

with the left and he hit me with the right was like Demadov doing the spinorama behind the net there the other night my ankles were broken

like that checker like that defenseman okay we have one more here to wrap up and it's a fitting way to wrap up the first edition of the thought line of this season, Elliot.

This one comes in from the Newfoundland newlyweds. Really? They wrote. Yes, they did. Here we go. Elliot, a quick elopement update from your Newfoundland friends. After multiple reroutings due to the Air Canada Strike, we did make it to Portugal and got married on a picturesque private beach. Praia da Ursa It looks beautiful Never been

Oh You know what I have to say this I didn't know that Portugal had private beaches As a matter of fact When me and my family went there a couple years ago

And it was beautiful We were told that Portugal had no private beaches Because the public wouldn't allow it Maybe they just didn't want you there You know what? I'm beginning to think That that's exactly what happened

Steph and Max You guys could stay He has to leave Yeah, I can't. Okay, they go on. As mega sports fans, there are always sports on in our house, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Sports fans in Newfoundland are troopers,

as most games run super late into the night, but that's a rant for another day. We do have one question for the pod, with the heavy increase in gambling ads appearing during NHL games, some of which include player endorsements. We are wondering if there are any player endorsement restrictions, i.e. gambling, alcohol, etc.,

in the NHL from the Newfoundland newlyweds, Rob and Steph. Oh, my God, I can't believe I forgot her name when it's the same name as my wife. That's bad. They included, you should have really remembered that one, they said. Add that to the list of things you don't tell your Steph. That's right. That's right. Well, first of all, and most importantly, I'm glad you guys had a great trip,

and I'm glad the wedding went. Well, that's awesome. Awesome to hear. Really good. So do you have an answer on player endorsement restrictions? There were a couple notes in the new CBA, not about gambling. They changed on alcohol. You can now endorse alcohol.

Obviously, you can't bet on games. That's a no-no. NHL games, no, no, no, no, no, no. one of the things that has happened is it depends on where you are located. You know, for example, Ontario did something recently. I think it was two years ago where athletes are no longer allowed to be used in online gambling and marketing. As a matter of fact, Connor McDavid, you might have seen his commercials recently, he does responsible gambling. ads where he talks to someone in a commercial about some of the gambling they've done

and whether or not that's really smart. But there are some locations such as Ontario that do not allow it. So I think that's kind of how it works, right? Yes, that is correct. And I think a lot of people look at that. You know, if it's banned in Ontario, then it's kind of looked at it. It's almost banned throughout Canada in a large way because if you've got a big online gambling company that wants to do a big marketing campaign.

campaign. Well, if they can't get into Ontario, which of course has the majority of the population of Canada, then there is a much point in them moving forward with a campaign with a hockey player, for example. And then just a couple other things, like just in that, the new CBA that's coming into play, you mentioned about the alcohol, but they said you can't do endorsements involving tobacco or cannabis, including CBD products. So that's one other restriction that's in writing, too. Yeah, I remember a few years ago at one of the NHL business meetings, I think it was Eugene Melnick who asked or made a push that wanted to do CBD ads at his games,

and the league really fought it. They were not crazy about that. All right. Thank you, Rob and Steph, the Newfoundland newlyweds. Yeah. For tying a bow. Glad you had a great trip. After tying the knot.

on the first edition of the thought line this year. Very good. A reminder, 1-833-3-3-1-3-2-3-2. If you'd like to leave a voicemail, if you're a human or a raccoon as we learned today, and you can email us at 32thoughts at sportsnet.com. We'll take one final break and a couple more notes to get to

before we wrap up this edition of 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Okay, welcome back. A couple more things we wanted to get to on the program before we wrap up here, Elliot. So on Sunday, the Washington Capitals put out a note that one of their assistant coaches, Mitch Love, has been placed on a team-imposed leave pending the results of an investigation by the National Hockey League. Obviously, the organization isn't commenting more beyond that. Is there anything else you can add to this at this time? You know, first of all, Kyle, we're going to be careful with this, sensitive to everybody involved. So Mitch Love last year was a serious contender for at least three jobs, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Seattle.

And I remember at one time I had said it would be a shock if he did not get one of the jobs. in this cycle. And I remember other coaches saying to me that they would have been surprised with all the talk in their circles that if he did not get one of them, and we were. And basically what happened was there was some correspondence, a note sent to one of the teams and the league, about something from Mitch Love's past. And when everybody who was searching was made aware of it, they all back. off. And obviously, as the Capitol said, the league opened an investigation, which they have not finished with as we record the podcast. We had looked into it. And I think the safest thing to say is at this point in time, which is Sunday night when we recorded this podcast, we were not comfortable with going with anything yet. But obviously now, I'm sure there were other reporters looking into it. Now that's in the

public domain. I'm sure there'll be even more. And we'll see where it goes and what the league uncovers and decides. But that's as far as I'm willing to go right here now to be sensitive to everybody involved. Okay. And the other one being Elliot, I mean, Thursday, you had the report that the five players said that were acquitted in the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial back in July. they remain suspended by the National Hockey League until December the 1st, but they are able to sign a contract a month from now on October the 15th. The NHLPA, I mean, we heard from Marty Walsh just a few weeks back, steadfast and believing they had a right to continue their playing careers.

Again, they're not going to appeal the ruling that has been made on this. I mean, this continues to be a story that can be very triggering. regardless of how you feel about how the trial went, the verdict, and everything that's come around since then, I just wonder if there's anything else to add to the report you had a few days back. Again, you want to be sensitive to everybody involved here. I think that when this trial was going on, everybody kind of believed that there would be that we could see a very large suspension

at the end of it. I think that that's what people across the league were predicting. When the trial ended, the verdict and the comments made by the judge changed the calculus. I think people in the NHL, the teams, the league itself, the forceful comments by the judge really changed the way that this process was going to happen. I know the commissioner met with the players after the verdict. individually. I think there were some talks that maybe some players should be disciplined harder than others based on what they were involved with, in particular in the room. I mean, the one thing that people have to remember is that whatever the judge determined

as legal evidence, Betman had more things that he could look at. He's not a judge in a court of law. And I know there were people who felt very strongly that there should be no further punishment, but Betman's powers as commissioner say to him that he can levy penalties for things that affect the game in a negative way. And I think even the players association would agree that this story was not good for hockey and that Betman had some leeway there. Again, I think that they negotiated this, the League and the Players Association, over a point of time, and there is precedent for this. When Shane Pinto was suspended 41 games a couple years ago, I think at a time a harsher suspension was on the table, but the league agreed to make it 41 games providing that as part of a settlement Pinto not appeal. and one of the reasons that the league was willing to do this

and the players are willing to do that is what you negotiate you have control over an arbitrator you have no control over the arbitrator has control and I don't think Batman wanted to risk that and I don't think the players association wanted to risk that so they settled on this and this is where it ended up

you know now as for the five players in their futures I would be surprised if any of them played in Canada I think that it's much more likely they all end up in the United States if they get signed and we'll see how the teams feel and how the various fan bases feel and how much the teams are monitoring the reactions of the fan base and does that matter to them

I don't think there's any doubt that the player with the most interest is heart. There's definitely interest in varying degrees to some of the other players, but heart is the one that I think has the most interest, and we'll see how it all plays out. I know there have been some teams thrown around out there as possible locations. I really don't think at this time, I haven't had enough time to really go around, and I don't feel comfortable throwing out any team names unless I really know that team is interested.

I just, I don't think this is the kind of story where you should do that. So we'll see where it goes over the next little while, Kyle. Okay, we'll leave it there. That'll do it for this edition of 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Once again, we appreciate you taking some time out of your day to follow along with us. We'll be back again on Friday when main camps are in full swing.

Until then, have a great week, and we'll talk to you then.