32 Thoughts: The Podcast - This Is Draft Day

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman run through the hottest news and notes from around the league on day one of the draft. They begin with Vegas, Buffalo, and the New York Islanders (4:00). Elliotte provides an update on the Big Three free agents in South Beach (20:21). The fellas rattle off a few other notes from around the league, including updates on the Leafs (23:53) and Ehlers and the Jets (24:27). He talks about some free agents who will sign extensions on July 1st, including Garland, Fehervary, and Glass (25:48). Afterwards, the fellas weigh in on the Evander Kane trade to Vancouver (34:09). The Final Thought focuses on the new CBA, which is on the brink of being signed (37:04).Elliotte is joined by Sportsnet draft analyst Sam Cosentino to preview the NHL Draft (45:54).In the final segment, Kyle and Elliotte talk about some of the celebrity guests expected to make an appearance at the draft this weekend (1:02:12).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

So this is an audio only podcast. The listeners cannot see the video that we have right now as we record this, but if they could, they would quickly realize that if one of us was to have the sexy label attached to us, it ain't me. It ain't me. So I gotta tell you something. It's relax, freege. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra AT4X. Elliot Kyle, Dom Shermadi back with you. Elliot, we have arrived. Draft Day 2025. You are there in Los Angeles and you also anticipated at the start of this week that

there could be a lot of things going on leading up to Friday night and right through the weekend. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We've got to talk about the most important thing that happened this week. We're going to violate the Butch Gross rule. We're not going to get to the news right away. Well, we are getting to the news right away. Kyle and Dana Bacauscus are parents.

Woo! We did it. Oh man, I'm still wearing. You didn't do anything. Well, yeah, you're right. So, Berkeley Bacauscus, is there a middle name here? Yeah, Robert James. Nice, Berkeley Robert James Bacauscus.

Yeah, nice. Yeah, thanks Elliot, appreciate it. He's got connections to both sides of the family. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Thanks, Elliot. Appreciate it. How's Dana feeling? Very good. The usual exhaustion, but so excited and just an absolute star through it all. Berkeley's doing great. He's got a strong grip. Just a strong baby right out of the gate. It's just amazing to watch here. But yeah, we went into the hospital just after seven o'clock at night Tuesday. We got home, what is it, Thursday afternoon just before dinner. I've still got my hospital band on here, Elliot, as we're recording this.

So all I can say is that I didn't think about it at the time, but I've now realized that doing, being part of the show this past season, it has probably prepared me the best for the sleep schedule that awaits me over the next little while. Yes, that is true. That is definitely true. And, and, Berkeley's first words, if I heard correctly. 24th grade, right? Eligible. Good, Don. Yes, yes. That's right. He couldn't wait for the first round tonight. He decided to come a couple days early because his original due date was today.

But his first words, if I heard correctly, was, uh, Amber Anonymous-Coller. So he's a talker. Anyway, thank you for that, Elliot. Well, congratulations again to you and Dana. These are going to be the best years of your lives. And now, no more pleasure. Let's get to the business. Okay, good. Let's get to it. I know. So I've been wrapped up in other stuff the last few days. What do we have a CBA done yet? We're still waiting on that Yes, we'll get to that in a little bit We were supposed to find out this morning if there was going to be a press conference on Friday

Okay. Okay. Gotcha. All right. Well as You said going into this week. There could be a lot going on There's been a good amount of stuff that's happened already, and it looks like the table's being set for even more over the next couple of days here. And all eyes on later on tonight at the Peacock Theater for the first round of the NHL Draft. But in terms of teams you are keeping an eye on over the next little bit, Elliot,

right at the top of your list right now, Vegas, Buffalo Buffalo the New York Islanders where would you like to start with that trio of teams? Well we should mention that we're gonna have Sam Cosentino on to talk about the draft and in one of the later segments because Sam really knows the players and what he thinks could happen so yes those are the three teams I'm really looking at. There have been a lot of wild rumors around Vegas. You know, first of all, because of all the Marner stuff that we've been talking about, but also there were some crazy rumors that came out about them this week.

I've learned that, you know, there's no absolutes. But I would really be shocked if they traded William Carlson I would really be shocked if they traded Thomas hurdle and You know I think I said on the radio on Thursday with Mike and Matt that I'm getting mixed signals on Barbashev and then I got a call from someone who said add them to your you'd be really shocked list of barbachev got traded. Now I still do think you know they've got Riley Smith coming back they've got Brandon

sod coming back and but I do think there are some players who could be going out there. I mean there's been a lot of talk about Nick Haag. I think there's been some interest for them on Nicholas Wah. He's been another guy that there's been interest in. I think eventually here, and I don't want to put a timeline on this, but I do think eventually here we're going to get some clarity on Alex Patrangelo. And you know, it's been reported that they've had interest in Bowen Byram. I don't know as much about that and we'll get to Byram in a couple of minutes.

But I've also heard they've had interest in Rasmus Anderson. And so I think the Golden Knights have a lot of balls in the air, a lot of balls in the air. And of course, a year from now, Eichel is due an extension. But you know, he's a guy I think who really wants to win. And I think, like, I think, I think a lot of those guys, especially since they're again a place that people really want to play in a no-tack zone, I think there's a willingness to look, Riley Smith just came back for a pretty low deal. I think saw it and saw it had a market for him out there.

There were some teams who were disappointed to hear he was going back there. It sounds like he's taking a below market deal. We'll see what some of these other guys do, but Vegas is definitely a team, especially since I've gotten big pushback on the Carlson's hurdles and barbacheaus of the world in terms of their availability. So I'm really watching them. Buffalo made the big deal the other night with Paterka. Buffalo made the big deal the other night with Paturka. So after they traded for Kesselring and Doane, somebody wrote to me and said, I told you so.

And I was like, what is this person talking about? And I went back through my text messages, and I had a message from this guy in May saying, I'm telling you that this off season act, I forgot about it. That the, but he wrote, I am telling you this off season, the Buffalo Sabres are going to go after Michael Kesselring. He is going to be a big guy on their radar.

Now I think that the, the, the biggest thing about that was I think people expected When that trade was made between Utah and Buffalo there was going to be at least a pick-swap there They were gonna flip four and nine which didn't happen So I think when that didn't happen that threw people for a loop I had a number of people who said to me that that trade was a defensible trade from Buffalo it just looks

They said it from a name recognition standpoint. It looks really bad. They gave up the best player But and they didn't get anything quote-unquote sexy back. But there are a lot of people out there who like Kesselring as a player, like a right shot D 25 years old, like just not a really well known player, but a solid player. And if you can put him next to Owen Power for a long time, that trade could look better. You know, Josh Stone, he's still really young. You know, he can definitely be a player in this league. There are a bunch of people who said to me the other day that Buffalo traded for players that could really help them for a long time.

The problem is they didn't they gave up the player with the highest ceiling and they didn't get anything quote unquote sexy like Kyle Bacoscus back. That is Buffalo's thing. But like I said, I'm curious to see, I don't know, three years, five years, does it still look so lopsided or is there a chance this trade evens out a bit for Buffalo? You know, it's interesting. There were a lot of reports about what was potentially available to them. You know, I think that there were teams that offered draft picks, maybe multiple firsts or a player in some firsts. I think they had a few different options available to them. But I believe that, I think

this was a really hard trade for Buffalo Buffalo really hard trade for Buffalo in the sense that He was he was an organizational success story second round pick to 60-point seasons Like I think of real favorite of ownership and I think one of the things that came up was they didn't want to trade them. Then they got kind of backed into a corner. Player didn't want to stay, wanted to move on. I think they were worried about everything that that entailed.

And they simply said, we're ending this. It's not what they wanted to do, but they felt they had to do. And I believe that one of the points that was made organizationally was we're not, we're going for players. It's like what Bill Guerin is saying about Marco Rossi. We're not doing this deal for futures. We're doing this deal for players. And I think that when you hear what potentially might have been available in terms of draft picks and stuff I just don't think they were interested

I I'm not sure like some of the stuff out there. I don't know like it sounds pretty far-fetched But I do think there were other good deals out there And I think the one of the things you could we could ask the Sabres when it's time was could you have taken some of those other future deals and turn them into something better but like I said Kyle I think this team had targeted Kesselring they were looking one of the things they wanted to solve this summer was there someone who could play with say Owen Power for a long time and stabilize him?

And I think they targeted this guy. And you look at their draft capital, I mean, Buffalo's got plenty there. So that's another reason why, yeah, they were looking for hockey trades for the here and now and especially with how long it's been for them to be anywhere near a playoff team again. And that storyline that's followed them for 14 years and counting in Western New York. Yeah, that's an interesting one for Buffalo. And then, I mean, they've been kind of at the center of a lot of our off season talks over the last couple of months here, Elliot. I mean, terms of names like Bowen Byrom, Alex Tuck, I don't know if anywhere else you want to

touch on with their roster, like what else are they looking to do? I imagine this isn't well for them through I always scared of seeing this stuff, Kyle, because it changes so quickly. Yeah, but the word on Thursday night was that the market for Byram had been a little bit softer than they liked. Now, I don't think it's because Byram is a bad player or anything like that. I just heard they weren't getting the kinds of offers that they wanted. So now maybe that'll change on Friday. Like all it takes is one phone call to change things. But I just heard on Thursday night, they just weren't crazy. What was out there for Byron? Again, that can change. You know, I think the, you know, talk, they are at least determined to take a run at signing him. I could see that being a very big ask because Tuck is a really good player and the

cap is going up and we're seeing a lot of these asks going up. But I still think they're determined to sign him. The other thing too is what someone said to me is all of a sudden you look at that Buffalo defense, you got Dillin Byram, you got Kesselring, and you got Samuelson Bernard Docher. Like that could be in theory a real strength of their team. For sure. Like do you, and again, this, this, the Sabres might not feel the same way, but this was an executive on another team

He was looking at it and saying like that's not a bad defense You know would if Buffalo doesn't isn't crazy about the offers for Byram Maybe start the season with them Could do a lot worse than what you got there Could do a lot worse than what you got there. Absolutely. And I guess that's been the thing with that team for the last few years. I mean, you look at it on paper and you're like, wow, there's a lot of players there that you think, yeah, you can talk yourself into getting easily excited about. It's the collective and the history now that's gone on of results wise there that's

continued to plague that organization that they're still trying to figure out. And how about this deal, as you say, Utah getting as it stands right now, the best player in the trade, like you look at their forward core now as they try to continue to give their new fan base their reasons to be excited about the Utah Mammoth, Paterka, Keller, Gunther, Cooley. You go down the list. Still need some beef. They need some beef.

That's one thing they need is more beef. Utah needs to get a little bit bigger. Little more mammothy. Little more mammoth-like. Yes. Oh Yes By the way, someone told me like that trade day between Buffalo and Utah That's another one that could be a 30 for 30

Apparently it was just a crazy crazy day Really? Yes Well, those are pretty good behind the scenes from the Saber side of things when they made the cousins Crazy day. Really? Yes. Well those are pretty good behind the scenes from the Sabre side of things when they made the cousins Josh Norris trade. Yeah. At the deadline. Maybe they'll do that one.

I also heard Buffalo was one of the teams that was kind of a, like I think there's been a lot of interest in Brian Rust. And for good reason. For sure. Wouldn't surprise me if Buffalo was one of those teams too don't know if it'll happen but I like I think there's a lot of teams looking at that guy I would think Columbus would be another I think there's a lot more but someone told me that Buffalo was one of the teams around rust now the Islanders there's Dobson and There's a ton of noise on Dobson

I'm looking at the teams with kind of multiple first-rounders Montreal I know there's a lot of talk about Montreal. I'll tell you this, you look at Nashville's right side, that's a fit there too. Nashville has three first-rounders. I mean, you're going to have to pay him what he's asking for, which is eight digits, I think think in the 10 million range and we'll see how Montreal and Nashville would think about that but those are two teams that makes

sense to me for him but that's the Dobson one there's been so much noise around him the last week that Matthew Darce is probably gonna want it to be over as much as the Islander fans do and do you think it's a situation where if a trade does come together there's very likely an extension attached onto it as well. I got a thing. He's a year away from unrestricted free agency. I mean, I can't see you walking him to arbitration and then handing him like the ultimate leverage. Right. Right, right, right.

Okay. Anything else Islander wise? Or is Dobson just remains the, the big fish. To be honest, I'd wondered about Columbus for that too. Uh, on Dobson. Right. Cause your blog last week, he had kind of hinted as the jackets, potentially being a team waiting in the weeds that could do something big here before long.

And they also have multiple firsts, right? Mm hmm. So their right side is Severson, good brands and Harris. Yeah, there's a lot of teams that. Right hand shot guy could find. Yeah. So I wonder if I just wonder if the draft is more of a deadline for Dobson in order to get something done. Like the Islanders will probably want that first rounder. So either to make the pick or see if they could move up a little bit. All right. Also, just to go back to something you mentioned a moment ago on the pod. So this

is an audio only podcast. The listeners cannot see the video that we have right now as we record this, but if they could, they would quickly realize that if one of us was to have the sexy label attached to us, it ain't me. It ain't me. So I gotta tell you something. It's a relaxed fridge. So I'm on Eastern time, even though we're out west. So I was up at 5 a.m. on Thursday morning. So I went out for a walk. I walked for about two hours while I made calls

and just made some notes. And I came back to the hotel after about my two, two and a half hour walk. And you know the camera man we have, Brian Burnett, who's known as Burnout. Yes. And he says to me, you do realize your shirt is inside out, right? And I was like, no, I had no idea. That's great. Brian Burnett, big hugger. He did hug me as he told me that. Yeah, he tried to make me feel good. I'll tell you the other funny story

that happened to me this week. I was calling someone about one of the stories I was looking into. And when I told, I'm not gonna say who it was or what it was, but when I said, I've heard this, you know what his answer was to me? What? What took you so long? Oh, geez. That is great. Nice to hear. All right, Elliot, there once

was a time that in South Florida, the big three was known as LeBron, Bosch, and Wade. When it comes to the Panthers and their big three, UFAs, Marshawn, Bennett, Ekblad, what's the latest? I keep hearing the toughest one to get done will be Ekblad. I just think that even though there's a willingness for all of them to stay, there's grinders involved. Like, Bill Zito was a grinder his Negotiators in Florida in addition to him. They're grinders and the agents representing all these players are grinders and

Even though I think Bennett wants to stay and Marchand wants to stay and heck blad wants to stay there's some level of reality in terms of what's acceptable to all these people and then people and then the Negotiators involved they grind because that's what they do So I'll just say this as of Thursday night. We record this pod and again things can always change there's definitely a sense that the hardest one to work out is gonna be act glad and If you ask most people one to work out is going to be Eklat. And if you ask most people, you know, if they keep two out of three, it seems to be that most people will say that two of them would be Bennett and Marchand. I'm not saying that with any definitive statement, but I think the hardest one to close will be

Eklat. Because I think there's the biggest difference there between what Florida is willing to do, and what other teams out there after seeing how he was in the playoffs are going to be willing to do. But don't you think maybe it's a different situation. But with Bennett, you've got to think if he were to go to market, There's got to be teams out there willing to throw a ton of money his way Is it different just because maybe they're a little further down the line? I think it's also that Bennett's number like if Bennett signs he's gonna sign somewhere between I think seven five and

eight right mm-hmm and I think seven, five, and eight, right? But I think if Eggblad signs in Florida, and let's just say, okay, let's just say for argument's sake someone's gonna offer Bennett 10. With the tax situation in Florida, it's gonna be at least close enough that, you know, is he gonna be giving up something? Yes, but he's not gonna be at least close enough that, you know, is he going to be giving up something? Yes, but he's not going to be giving up a ton. I think when you factor in what Echblad's

number would be, I don't think it's going to be anywhere close to like seven and a half eight if he stays in Florida. Even with the tax advantages of the state, I think what's going to be available for him out there, it's going to be harder to walk away from. That's the way I would explain it. I know I have one huge Panther fan who always DMs me, and he was like, this is killing me, I got to know. I said, that's part of the strategy is that people who are good

negotiators, they drag it out because they want to see if the other person's impatient and can they take advantage of that. And I understand why I understand it's driving you crazy. But you look at the Panthers history that they use that as a strategy. They love waiting to the last minute even when they win. Yes, you know some other things You know Toronto I think I think the the if you look now with nice I Think you know why Johnson came in at five times eight point four P why Johnson came in at five times 8.4, Peturka comes in at five times, what was it, 7.7. I wouldn't be surprised if Nice comes in

somewhere around there. I think there was some movement Thursday on John Tavares. We'll see if that leads to anything in the near future. see if that leads to anything in the near future. You know, Ehlers informed the Jets. You know, Kevin Shevoldayev, I went back and I watched Kevin Shevoldayev's media conference and he said, we will talk, we will continue talking to Ehlers as long as we can or as long as it's possible. So he talked around it in a very smart way, but Ehlers told them he's going to July 1st. He didn't say, I'm

not coming, but anytime the door is opened, then I think you know that the chances are harder. And I think the Jets are trying to formulate other plans out there. But Ealers is going to market. I think a lot of people are pointing at Carolina for him. I wouldn't be surprised if Washington is looking for a scoring winger. It would be harder for them to do. But he makes a lot of sense there. Again, people kind of wonder about Columbus a bit with all their cap room, but there's definitely a... It's one of those things. Carolina's had interest in EELRs before, and I think a lot of people are looking at them and the cap room they have and their willingness to spend, and they think they'll be a very significant contender for them.

We'll hear a lot of reporting on extensions on July 1st, like Rick Dalwall reported that Connor Garland's going to do a six times six in Vancouver. Another guy I'm potentially looking at for July 1st, who's a quietly really good player, is Martin Fervare in Washington. I think they have a real desire to get him extended and I wouldn't be surprised if it happens. Another player I heard, there's a lot, not obviously anywhere near Ehlers, but I think has some interest in him is Cody Glass. New Jersey had indicated that they weren't gonna qualify him. I think their goal was to sign him to a smaller deal

that wasn't as high as potentially like an arbitration number or a qualifying number. But I've heard that there's a lot of interest in Glass, like right shot centers. And obviously he's not gonna break the bank or anything like that, but I heard it's going to be hard for the devils to be able to do that. One thing for New Jersey to mention, Dougie Hamilton's full no move becomes a 10 team

list where he can be traded to on July 1st and there's, I think people are very curious to hear what New Jersey is going to do with that. You know, the Canadians, I think, I don't know if there's anybody trying harder to do things than Montreal. Like I said, there's a lot of talk about Dobson, we'll see if that's them, but they are definitely trying a lot of things out there. They really want to maybe add another forward, someone to play with Demidov, use their draft picks.

The Canadians are aggressive. Columbus, Fabro, they're trying to work on extension with. It looked like it was really stagnant with Provarov. I've heard Provarov is going to have something out there. If Gavrikov doesn't go to LA and he's in the Rangers, could Provarov be the guy LA looks at? Or I just heard Provarov's high enough on the D chain. I think Columbus and him, they had some negotiations, they didn't go anywhere and they just stalled. And unless they pick back up, I think there's something out there for them.

I think Detroit's looking at the goalie market. I think Steve Iserman would like to see if there's a goalie out there for him that can help solve his problems. Philly, another team with multiple picks. Those are my East teams, looking at my West, Dallas, they have a decision to make at coach. Glenn Gullitzen had an interview. I don't think they're finished their process yet. I think it's definitely Gullitzen and Neil Graham, but I don't think they finished doing all the interviews there they're going to do with these guys so I

Just wonder if that's still gonna need a couple of days to sort itself out I think that's gonna be an interesting call for them. I think they they really like both guys and I'm very curious to see which way they lead here. LA, I think they've been around on Marner. I still think they're trying to keep Gavrikov. I think they have interest in Besser. I've heard Brock Besser, the interest on him is picked up, particularly because he recognizes that on a good team or a team that's a good fit with him, he might be interested

in not taking huge term. So because he recognizes certain fits could be really good for him. I've heard that the interest in him has picked up. I've heard Minnesota and Vancouver very aggressive, particularly for centers, really aggressive. Edmonton, I wonder if we get a Trent Frederick on Friday, finally, eight years, just under four-ish. Uh, you know, I've said, I think Kapanen's gonna stay.

Um, I think, I think they'll get a deal done with Bouchard. It sounds like there's both sides, so you really eye to it on that, on that one. Um, I heard Connor Brown's gonna be tough for them to keep you know he wants some terms some security now I think that's gonna be hard for them You know Corey Perry You look at some of these bonus laden deals like the one with Taves and Perry had a big year He had ten goals in the playoffs. I I just don't know that Edmonton's gonna be willing to go that high. I think that's gonna be, I think there's a willingness for Edmonton to

do a one-year deal there, an over 35 deal, but I just don't know that they'll be able to do the bonuses to the way that Perry's camp will feel that it's the right number. I'm not sure they're going to be able to do that. Arvidson, I heard that might be after July 1st, just so they see what the market is after some people strike out on some of their first names. I could see Arvidson being a guy who goes there. There've been some trade rumors about Darnell Nurse. I don't think that's going anywhere. So I wouldn't expect that. You know, Skinner, we've talked a lot about Skinner and his future there, Stuart Skinner.

You know, the thing that someone said to me is Edmonton is still tied to the cap and Skinner is at 2.6. And that's a, you know, one of my standard lines is it's always better to solve your problem as opposed to trade your problem. I don't know that Edmonton has given up hope on that. Like I said, Minnesota very aggressive. I've heard St. Louis also aggressive. I think there's a willingness to do something there. Kyra's name is out there as no trade kicks in on July 1st. I've heard they haven't shown a lot of interest in dealing with, in dealing whole fur away.

And I've kind of wondered if they're going to extend Cam Fowler. He was such a good fit there. I'm curious to see how much of a desire there is to do that. Oh, we talked about McBain being an offer sheet target in Utah. A few teams told me they think he's going to get signed. We'll see. Okay. They said Utah made a good offer to him. Anaheim's still

aggressive. I had some teams say to me that they wouldn't be surprised if Seattle's an offer sheet team this year. We'll see. Like there's, and Calgary, it was interesting, Craig Conroy said on Thursday that if Anderson starts, Anderson will be okay starting the year next year if he has to. I don't know. I still think that there's going to be enough good offers out there that they'll have something to think about. Joel Hanley is a player I think

might be moving on from Calgary. Like he's a good defensive player. I think if you're looking for a depth D, you could do really well. Nacho. Good depth defenseman. Like you need lots of D in this league injuries happen. He's he's a really good deaf player. Can I get your view on the Evander Kane trade to Vancouver like you think the Canucks just saw Kane at his best particularly through the second and third rounds there with Edmonton and thought well a there's a hometown guy that looked like

with where he's at in his life and his family, the chance to be closer to everybody, appealed to him, and the type of player when he's at his best. It's an element that the Canucks just don't have right now. I look at it this way. Sometimes the best opportunity to trade for a player or have a player is when they're playing for Contracts, right?

You know if vander kane next year is a big year For the future of his nhl career It didn't go well for him in the final. He became unglued this year, but he had three great rounds of playoffs Now I'll say this. The like I think the Canucks fans have a legitimate point in the sense that. They. Had a really hard year and they talked about just the room was

a problem. And now you're bringing in Kane who at times in his career has had issues. Like I think that's a legitimate question. But my point is, is that Kane in the last couple of years, I think he's come a long way in that respect. He's always gonna kind of, he's always gonna march to the beat of his own drummer. That's always gonna be the way it is for Cain and I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing as long as you're fitting in on the ice. Like do you practice hard? Do you play hard? Do you do what your teammates need you to do? Yes. Then I can deal with all the other stuff. Like, no, everybody

being the same all the time, it's not good. But, you know, I just think that next year, if he doesn't have a good year, his NHL career might be over. And that's a powerful motivator. It's a very powerful motivator. All right, Elliott, anything else here before we move on? No, I think that's it. Like that's, that's a lot. I told you everything I kind of got in my notes here and I probably left

some stuff out. And it's all subject to change here at a moment's notice too. As you know, better than most at this time of year. So notebook emptied. Everything changes. As we moved into the final thought, which is brought to you by GMC. Elliot, when we all descended on Edmonton for media day, just before the start of the Stanley Cup final, there was the belief that, okay, when Gary Betman did a State of the Union before game one, there was not going to be an announcement of a new collective bargaining agreement,

but there were the whispers was, it's close. It's really, really close. So where are we at with regards to a new deal between the league and the players as this thing drops on June the 28th? Could be Friday morning. They were working on it on a Thursday night. It's not the first time in recent memory that the CBA has been extended or redone without a work stoppage.

The one during COVID was. To be honest, there was a gun to their head. It was COVID and they had to get something done and they did. I think this is the first time during kind of quote unquote peace time they've got it done. I think when you take a look at where the cap is going and it's going over 110 million in a couple of years and potentially even higher, I think everybody here realized that what exactly is there to fight over?

Um, when your salary cap is higher than ever and therefore your, your league is making more revenue than ever and your players are making more on combined salary than ever, you'd have to be greedy beyond belief to screw that up. You know what? They didn't do it. They're getting it done. I think with everything, there's always things that people are going to look at and say,

I don't like it. I think on the agent and player side, and you know, I'll say this, the league gave a big update to their owners on Wednesday at the board of governors and the players gave a big update to their executive committee also on Wednesday in Vegas where they were meeting and you know when the reports were coming out of what could be in it I still had people saying to me what does this mean so I think there's a lot of people even among the NHL world that still don't know the full understanding or have a full grasp of how the whole deal looks. Like I'll tell you there are some players and some agents they really didn't like to hear what

happened with the contracts. You know right now the maximum terms were seven years for someone else's free agents and eight years for your own. That's going down a year to six and seven. Right previously, signing bonus money could be all but the minimum salary. So let's just say last year, the minimum salary was a million. Then if you had a $16 million salary in cash, a million of it had to be an in season salary, but you could do 15 million as a bonus. There was nothing that stopped you from doing that. And they capped it at 60%.

And also the variance, which means the difference from year to year is now maximum 20%. And that's down. And there were some people who heard this and they were upset about it on the player slash agent side. And so I think everybody's looking to see, okay, what's the full deal? What did the players get that is going to ease some of the people that are upset about this? So we'll see. You know, deferred money is gone. The draft rights are going to be till age 22. So if you're an 18-year-old draft, it's going to be four years, 19-3, 22. Right now it's four years everywhere except for two years out of the CHL. There is something

I've heard that if you're a 19 year old taken in the first round, I don't know exactly how it works, 19 year old taken in the first round, you have the option potentially to go to the American Hockey League. It's kind of tied into everything now with the NCAA. There were some teams and agents again who weren't thrilled about that because they're thinking you know if I don't have a first round pick or I have a later pick who's more developed why can't I send them instead? I just don't know if that got out quick enough that people could change it. I mentioned the deferred money. We've talked before Kyle about the permanent e-bug. There's going to be like a third goalie. I think the deferred money. We've talked before Kyle about the permanent e-bug. There's gonna be like a third goalie

I think the salary I heard the salary is somewhere potentially around 75,000 to a hundred thousand dollars where a player is always around a team can travel with the team That way for example, if you're one of your goalies needs the day off He can be available to practice for you. If you have a goalie injured in a game, that person can come on your bench. It's not the way it is now. So that's something that's going on right now. 84 games. I know there were some fans who didn't like 84 games. I was told that during the Board of Governors meeting, they showed a fan

survey that had a very high positive answer. I think between 85 and 90 when they surveyed fans, and I don't know how the survey was done, and they asked them what 84 games and fewer exhibition games it came very high 85 to 90 percent I also heard that fans really liked the idea of an all-star game every two years as opposed to one every year And of course we're going now with Olympics and world cups. There won't be one every year I heard that revenue sharing is going

to change a little bit to help the teams kind of in the middle. The other thing I heard that was really interesting, and it's not part of the CBA, but it's one of the things the league and players talked about, which is growing the game. I heard they've really done a lot of research on how to do it around the world. And I heard that one of the places that they're really going to do it

hard is going to be Germany. I heard that Germany is a market they feel that they can do a lot more in one of the best players right now is from Germany. And I heard that's going to be a target for them. Really cool. And with the announcement of the 2028 World Cup and the host cities, the chance for cities in Europe to make a bid to host games for that event coming up in a few years as well. One thing I want to ask too, Elliot, like, what do you think it is about the dynamic with Marty Walsh now in charge of the players and the relationship with Gary Bettman where it seems to be rather cordial between the league and the

players the last little while or is it more so a byproduct as you say where things are at economically where both sides are looking at it and saying well we might as well just let the good times keep rolling here. You know Kyle when when Marty Walsh got hired one of the things that the players did in the search committee was they wanted somebody who could be firm but get a deal done, right? Their goal was get a deal done. We don't want a labor stoppage, but we want the, we want quote unquote a fair deal for lack of a better term.

But the thing is, as you said, it's always easier. Hockey is making more money than it ever has, and there's always challenges. There's always things you can do better. But as a guy who's reported and been through several labor disputes, there's nothing here that's worth stopping the game over. It's always easier when it's like this. It would have been totally insane to have any kind of work stoppage. And the other thing too is Kyle, with the amount of secrecy they kept on for a long time, that's how you know that they were going in the right direction. You only hear stuff when it's going badly.

All right. Seem to be on the cusp of a new deal. That was the final thought brought to you by GMC. We'll take our first break and come back with Elliot's conversation with our draft guru, Sam Cosentino, as we march towards the beginning of round one of the 2025 NHL draft later tonight from Los Angeles. That and more on 32 Thoughts of the Podcast when it continues after this. All right. Segment two of this week's pod, the annual draft chat with Sportsnet guru, prospect guru Sam Cosentino.

All right, first of all, how you hanging in? It's been busy, that's for sure, because there's so much uncertainty. So there's like lots of calls, texts, phone calls, emails, all that stuff is going on just like you for a free agency. But it's interesting to hear the wide variety of thought for for the first 10 picks of this draft all right so what is the thing the craziest thing that you've heard that you said to yourself there's no way this can be true but someone credible told me this anyway Porter Martone going to to San Jose so now

they've been connected to Anton Frondel which is what I have in my mock draft. They've been connected to Misa. They've been connected to Marton. So I don't know if Mike Greer is just throwing out a bunch of smoke screens or it's just a bunch of talk about number two because that's what people do when they're so uncertain. Okay so one thing you do is you do your list about what you think the order is should be if you are making the picks right? So those are the those are the rankings right so and and they end in May and so when we get here then it's the mock draft so now what you're trying

to do is think along to what teams do you go back through their draft history I usually use a three or a five-year window and try and get a sense like you know Toronto under Dubas drafted 70% of guys that were either a not Canadian or B they were you know under six feet tall so that so that becomes a bit of a trend and then I look at Carolina for example they have they draft the most Russians out of anyone I think it was 10 in the last two drafts. And they typically have tons and tons of picks and they like to throw tons of darts at the board. Then you look at other teams like what's the Montreal Canadiens doing?

What kind of trend can you try and find in there? Are they size? What have they drafted lately that might be a need in their system? So you're trying to go through all that stuff, and then you're trying to think best player. So at the same time that you're thinking about a team's needs, you're thinking about what you actually think the best player is. And when those intersect, you probably hit it

or pretty close to it. And when there's a convergence there, then you lean towards best player. Okay, so I wanna ask you something first. So one of the guys who I really trust, and you know this stuff a lot more than I do I will concede that His top four he said the top four and his he thinks is gonna go on the draft is gonna be Schaefer to the islanders Misa to the Sharks and you've already told us you've heard different things

front out of the Blackhawks and Denoy a fourth overall to Utah. And then he thinks it's going to start going crazy at five. Do you agree with that? I agree with the top four. The order honestly, I don't know. And so for me and my mock draft, I put McQueen at five. So what do you think of him?

I heard he's a really polarizing guy. Oh yeah, he's a wonderful guy in the room. Like I didn't know anything about his personality. Right. So he walked into our combine draft room and he was like anxious to shake everybody's hand and it wasn't just like, Oh, okay. I got another TV thing to do. Like he was very kind of outgoing and I liked that. Right. And so that, that gives me pretty good feeling right off the top.

And I don't think it was contrived because in this situation, he probably has to go into every room thinking that he's got to win people over but some guys you can tell it's contrived it wasn't contrived with him so the way I look at it and trying to you know the last question you asked okay so Barry Trotz is the GM what does he want he wants a little bit more risk in his picks he wants a little more size and he wants more skill So if you look at Roger McQueen, he hits all of those things and then I think about Barry Trotz, Manitoba Who's more dialed in in Manitoba than Barry Trotz?

So if the medicals come up in a way in which they're positive about it You take that guy there because he's a unicorn in any draft But you can't wait until 23 or 26 when they pick next to expect that he's gonna fall there. So usually what you do in these situations where you have multiple picks, be a little safer first, and you take a shot at the title with your later picks.

I think the strategy is reversed this time around for Nashville. And the other part of it is I look at Nashville's team now, like could they be as bad as they were last year? I mean, I suppose, but that's an older team. And a lot of guys pissed off about what happened. So their current team might still be able to carry them where you could wait for a guy like McQueen a little while.

I just think there's so many things there with Nashville that fit for McQueen, but honestly, like, who knows? I don't think he goes outside of 10 though. Okay so you mentioned someone said to you Marton could go too. Do you really believe that as we sit here in my way too cozy hotel room on Friday night? I think honestly anything is possible. Now he's a winger and he's gonna play wing at the next level so you tend to knock those picks down just a little bit. But what do we all just watch? You watch the first hand. Bully hockey is the thing right now.

Yes that's a big deal. And Marton can play that style of game but he can play it with skill too. So you look at like he's not quite Tom Wilson in terms of his aggressiveness and his outward, you know, uh, protectionism type thing that, that, that Wilson has. But if it ever gets to that, there's no problem for him to go and drop the gloves into fight and he can do that quite well. He shoots at a ton. He works in the corners, net front. He's really good. So he can do a lot of things for you. Right. And if you got celebrating your Eklund feeding him pucks or Will

Smith feeding him pucks like that, that does make some sense to me. It would be a little bit atypical because he's on the wing and there is no projection for him to go to center. That would be a little bit odd but you know San Jose's they got a lot of picks and they got a lot of guys coming and so maybe this fits something that they need as well as being a guy who let's say maybe he goes two picks higher than everyone else

Expected okay, so I know you felt during the playoffs you talk about bully hockey You felt that benefited two prospects Brady Martin and Sean Coots. Is that the other one? Braden Coots is the brain brain Coots. Okay. Where do you think they're going? I got Martin inside a seven So he's again. he's such a strong kid. I don't know if he's you know aggressively going to look out and play that bully style of game but if the game gets in the trenches like that he's gonna have no problem handling himself. Coots is not exactly the he he's the type of guy who plays like you're pissed to play against them all the time because he's

just on you he's in your face he doesn't give you any space he's tracking pucks and he's good enough that when when it gets turned back the other way that he can go and put up points so martin is seven inside of seven uh seven and up uh you know starting probably at number four with with utah if they keep the pick and i look at Kutz around that 15 area so you know that's like I think I have him at I don't know maybe 16 to Montreal somewhere in that in that neighborhood and I think that's that's kind of where he fits so the interesting thing for me and and Bucs talks about it a lot too Utah at number four I can't see why they why they want that pick if they can't use it to go and improve right now.

So in my crazy mind I'm thinking all right you're Matthew Dersh, you get on the job, you have to take Schaeffer, but we really want Hagens. We want to really get invested into the community as ownership wants. So you trade Dobson, he's a guy who seems to have fallen out of favor there. Be it contractually, be it with the coach, whatever the reason might be. And you move Dobson, that gives Utah a live body. They just got rid of a right shot D and Kesselring. And then they get the four pick

and they go and take Hagens at number four, which is not a reach whatsoever. He perfectly belongs there. Matthew Darch hits it out of the park. He gets the hometown guy. He gets the best player available. And Utah fulfills its need with all the picks they've had lately. Can go and get a right shot D that helps him right now.

All right. You know, so we have talked about this in the pod and some of the teams that were kind of being rumored around this and it's been flying around. So sometimes you don't really know what is sensible Montreal, Columbus, Nashville. So we'll see what the Dobson situation ends up with. Okay. Let's uh, I want to talk about one guy who I've become fascinated with. He's becoming the kid I'm rooting for in this draft and that is James Hagens. Like every year there seems to be one guy who kind of falls and I'm getting the sense that if he does fall Hagens, it's

not so much because people don't like him it's because people have fallen in love with other people around him fair or not fair. Fair and bully hockey they just don't know if he's the guy set for bully hockey so I put him at 10 I think that's low I really do but when I try and go through all the teams and think about some of the bigger players and think think about where they're at and what they can offer those specific teams, he just kept kind of getting bumped down the list. Now if I look at Rudy Merca, who I put at eight to Seattle because they need defensemen, my goodness to get a guy like Hagens, but does he fit? You know, you got Eberly there, you got Schwartz there, you got Wright, he's not the biggest guy.

So they have kind of a lot of smaller forwards. Okay, so maybe he gets past eight. I look at Philadelphia and Boston, I think they have a prototype of player that's a little bit more physical and a little heavier than what Hagens brings to the table. But then you flip that around, you say Hagens went to BC, Boston's right there, they would have seen him in a ton. Like this guy is an unbelievable player. He is hugely, hugely skilled.

In terms of all around skill and the offensive side of the puck, he probably sits in there behind, behind Misa. And if not for sure in the top four. Um, but I think people are worried about the size coming off the bias that we've just seen, uh, watching the Stanley Cup. And that's why for me, he gets bumped down a little bit, but anyone from five on who gets this guy they're gonna be absolutely ecstatic. One other thing I think about Hagens is all the international marks he's hit. World Juniors nine points in seven

games they win a gold medal he drives a line with two first-rounders he's great in the power play. Go back to the under 18s he beats Kucherov single tournament record 21 points. Now no Russians in the tournament so that you can beat up on some of the other teams, but still that's a huge point total to get. Under 17 record, he's hit that as well. He owns that title for a single tournament.

So every time the games are supposed to be most difficult against the best competition, he answers the bell. And he was a point per game guy as a freshman in college. That's really, really hard to do. So he hits a lot of Marks Higgins. I think he's a wonderful player. He's probably pissed at me because I bumped him down to 10. I don't think he goes that low. But there is a scenario where I can see that happening.

Guys like Joe Carter used to get pissed at you. You can handle James Hayden. Yes, that's happened before. But guys that weren't pissed at me, Sean Green, and got to see him here in LA. Oh, that's alright. Yeah, how's he doing? Yeah, he's doing great. He's taking up golf and he's having fun with that. And he's got two girls that are 22 and 19 that are kind of getting going with their lives. I know I'm getting old when Sean Green's got 22 year old daughters, by the way Want to mention Sam took us out on Wednesday night for a fantastic dinner at the Dunsmoor and would you say Esquire? Magazines, it's the best ribeye in America. Yeah, that was the question they posed in their headline, right? So you get the Apple News feed you're reading it whatever else and I you know, I like to eat at good places

I like you know, I'm a per diem killer and anyone who travels with me going even back to CHL days, they know that. So it was cool. I thought their menu was pretty... It was excellent. A lot of different stuff. I don't know if it was the best steak in North America. I've eaten a lot of steaks, but still it was pretty tasty. It was a good meal. It was a good meal. Okay, so you talked about Islanders. Who else are you looking at here? Who's moving up? Who's the team that wants to make the big splash on draft day? I'd be interested to see what Buffalo has in store here.

Because they're in a good spot. So if you're looking to get into the top five, there's still a lot of viability in number nine. Montreal, I mean, two picks in a row. I could see Kyle Dew was doing something. I don't necessarily know if it's a move up. Maybe he takes the one pick at 11 and moves back and acquires more with with the 12th pick, because that to me is where the cutoff is.

And he's been known to do that in the past. Nashville's of great interest to me. Philly's of great interest to me. Both of them have three first rounders. in the past. Nashville's of great interest to me. Philly's of great interest to me. Both of them have three first rounders. If you look at, you know, maybe taking a guy that you're in love with, with that first pick at five and six, now you can look a little bit later on and say, all right, maybe we'll package those two and get into 20 or maybe we'll kick it down the road and move off of it because some team might be clamoring for that spot. So those, the teams with three first-rounders, those are of great interest, even if, you

know, one of them is the 31st pick. Who's taking the quarterback, West? Where's he going? Oh man, he's going in the second round. I don't think one of those, like you don't think Nashville, a team with like three, no, nobody's taking him in the first round? I don't think so and here's why. He is committed to going back to playing football

in the fall under the guise of, I wanna win a state championship with my football team. But he's talking out of the other side of his mouth when he says, I'm completely committed to hockey. So scouts right away are like, well, what are you talking about? And he got challenged on, well, I wanna win national championship with my guys.

The second he goes back and plays football, I think the D1 offers start to pile up. And D1 offers- Yeah, I can see that. If he has a big year, he stops playing hockey, right? Big money. And it might not necessarily be a quarterback. It might be a tight end,

which has been rumored to have happened. So if you go now and you cut yourself a three or $400,000 n dollar no deal I'm not so sure he doesn't go that way. So he's been a fascinating guy that he said I want to play hockey but I'm playing football first and then I'll go to the USHO when football season is done. I don't think everybody's buying that and I think that there's too much risk there with him taking off, even with teams that are three first-rounders and picking as late as they are. Okay. What is the biggest shock pick we see on day one of the draft?

I think Prokhorov is probably going to be the biggest shock pick. Tell us a bit more and why. Neil Prokhorov is really good in the MHL, like really good around the net. He looks a little bit like Protus part two. So that's why I have him going to Washington. And I think Washington, you know, there's only so many years left of the OV card where you can get a Russian player and really have him be part of your program and kind of follow along in OV's footsteps. Um, but he's a guy,

I guess he's starting to get some late love now. And I'm sure there's a couple people that have started putting in the first round, but I just look at it at a matchup, right? You're looking at team Washington always tends to drift off the board a little bit. They have the Russian card for a couple more years, maybe only one more year. Why might as well play it with a guy who after watching Alexey Protus and seeing what he's doing, who's a maybe a little bit longer Alexey Protus and seeing what he's doing, who's a maybe a little bit longer runway to get there, he's the guy. So he's probably the

biggest guy. Riker Lee, I have him going 32nd to Calgary. I don't know if that's a huge departure. Some people had him going in the first round. I don't know. I don't see any goalies in there right now. So I don't see anything really, really crazy. I think if you took all the people that do what I do and you put 32 names in that, probably 27 of them are gonna be the same. Go to bed. I'm out. Thank you, Sam.

As always, great job. Kyle and I will be back to wrap in just a minute. Okay welcome back Elliot before we go I wanted to ask you because now we're starting to see some names trickle out we knew this was going to be one of the fun wrinkles to this new decentralized NHL draft. The VIPs, the star names that will be making some of the picks later tonight. So whether it's Charlie Conway, Connie Moreau with the Ducks, whether it's Nikki Glaser with the St. Louis Blues. Who are- She's off remote.

Oh, okay. I gotta tell you, I was so disappointed when I saw that the Glaser was on remote. Because I was telling a couple of my buddies that she was here and they're like, you have to interview her. And I go, I'd love to. And they said, because we wanna hear how she tears into you.

Oh, that would have been so good. So good. So who are you most looking forward to seeing or hearing from? Is there any other names that aren't public yet that you're kind of here and whispers about? Names of people I'm interested in. Lou Dort is going to be here.

Great. I'm very interested in NBA champion Lou Dort is gonna be here. Great. I'm very interested in NBA champion, Lou Dort. On Trail Zone. I'm curious to see if I can do anything with Bayley, the WWE wrestler. Oh yes, yeah. And talk about people that are capable of ripping into you, she would be another one. Physically and mentally, yes. And so, you know, there's a few. I would say that those are probably the ones at the top of my list, but I was very disappointed

that when I heard, well, like, I was very disappointed when I heard that Nikki Glaser was not here. And so were my buddies. Yes. Oh boy. All right. Well, surely someone will be there in person that will have no troubles tearing you apart. Yes. And I'm here for it. Amber. Amber. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Actually, we've got to wrap this up. I need to go watch his day in the life video that sports that I got out to one of the days in the cup final. That's great. All right. Well, thank you

once again Sam Cosentino gave us some time and Going over where he sees things as the draft is just a few hours away here now Elliot to enjoy tonight in LA for those that haven't heard one final time We're on the air at 630 Eastern, 330 Pacific on Sportsnet. A little half hour pregame show leading up to round one of the NHL draft at 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific. Enjoy that. We will be back Sunday morning. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you then. them.