32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Tim $tützle

Episode Date: September 9, 2022

And Tim Stützle is staying in Ottawa for a long time! Jeff and Elliotte discuss the contract (00:10), what it means for the Senators, and how it impacts other players around the league (12:50).They also touch on MacKenzie Weegar (21:30), Jake Allen (22:10), Joe Thornton in San Jose (25:00), Zach Aston-Reese and Toronto (23:30), Philadelphia (27:00), Shane Doan and the Coyotes (29:50), and Jack Jablonski (34:00).Finally, they are joined by a pair of Red Wings, Moritz Seider (40:00) and Jakub Vrana (52:45).Music Crystal Glass - No End TonightListen to the full single hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Bally Sports Detroit, NBC Sports, SiriusXM and WXYT.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.

Is Amal still listening? No, he's falling asleep or he's changing his diaper. Elliot, I think it's safe to say, oh, welcome to the podcast, by the way, 32 Thoughts, Merrick Friedman and Amal Delage. Good start, good start. I know, we're easing our way back into the season here. I don't have to get everything in order, do I?

I'll try to keep all the words in order. Watch me now. I think it's safe to say, Elliot, that two people love the Tim Stutzla deal and one person probably isn't thrilled. We're going to tell you who those people are in a couple of moments. Welcome once again to the podcast. Coming up in a little while, you will hear from a couple of Detroit Red Wings. This is part of the European Players Tour. These interviews recorded a couple of weeks ago in Paris. You will hear Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider and winger Jacob Verana, who if you're looking for someone poised to have a huge season,

provided he stays healthy, he's going to probably dine out on, you know, playing on the side of Dylan Larkin. So watch for Verana this season. Meanwhile. Oh, by the way, you mentioned the Red Wings. I just want to shout out and send our best to yeah one of the uh key members of the hockey blogosphere paul kukla had a bit of a health scare this week and he's back and recovering and everybody reads kukla's corner uh so we just want to send paul the best paul is one of the OG hockey bloggers. Way, way back in his infancy, he was pounding it out. I have

nothing but fond feelings about Kukla's Corner and I wish Paul all the best. As we all do. And speaking of the best, the best contract any player has ever received from the Ottawa Senators is Tim Stutzla's deal. Eight years, $66.8 million, AAV Elliott of $8.35 million. And all it took was a couple of days with Elliot Friedman in Germany. I swear, do you have a side hustle as a junior agent or something here? How'd you make this one work, Elliot? Well, first of all, I kind of blew this one a bit because when we were doing the interview with Stutzla one of the things that

I said to him off camera I heard there was serious conversations on an extension and that was the one time he clammed up you know you spent time with him Jeff and Amal who's listening to this has spent time with him and he's so gregarious he's such a nice kid and he was great guy you know he was talking and a great host and the one time he clammed up was when i asked him about the contract now on the interview for the podcast that we already aired he gave a great answer and obviously he knew that he was getting close to signing but i should have been on this one a lot quicker because it was kind of obvious that something was coming and when the sanders did

their outstanding reveal the other day with you know dorian basically announcing it to the assembled media i kind of kicked myself and said you know you should have been on this one a bit more and one of my friends uh i was telling him the story because we were out, and he accused me of quiet quitting. He said, you're quiet quitting on Sportsnet. You're just not working hard anymore. Again, like me with the mangled tongue and not figuring out how to do an intro properly. You're just easing your way back into the pool. You're not going off the springboard diving board.

You're just wading in like the rest of us here, Elliot. So it's clear I'm far from mid-season form. My antenna did not go up on this one. But Ottawa, look, this is like a whole new organization. I want to get there because there is this wave of sunshine and lollipops and optimism and like pure hockey joy. Rainbows and unicorns. All of it.

Like coming out of, like, it's been a great summer for the Sens. It's been a great summer for Pierre Dorian. Like there's a lot of really excellent good news stories heading into this season for the Ottawa Senators. And they haven't had that in quite some time. And it's not just like with the players, but, you know, with the economics, with the ticket sales, I would imagine sponsorships as well. Like they're hitting a stride right now. We can all recall when the Ottawa Senators were the best team in the NHL and everything

was clicking, right? And they had, you know, Alfredson, Spetz, Heatley, like it was in a murderer's row on the back end and Ray Emmerich, and then Dominic Hasek. We all remember that Ottawa Senators team. We look at it and we say, you know, for the last generation, along with the San Jose Sharks, maybe the best team to never win the Stanley

Cup from that era. And we haven't had, like, a real enthusiastic offseason in Ottawa for quite some time, but you're feeling it right now. Like I can only imagine how good finally it feels to be an Ottawa senators fan right now. Well,

and also Chris Neal and Chris Phillips back into the organization and Daniel Alfredson going into the hall of fame. It's a good summer. It's a really good summer. The only, the only person having a better summer is Aaron judge. Aaron judge is doing well. He's up at what? 55 home runs or whatever Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge is doing well. He's up at, what, 55 home runs or whatever it is?

Aaron Judge is going to club 60. The only question is how deep into the 60s does he get? Yeah. Aaron Judge having a good summer. The Ottawa Senators are having a good summer. And you asked Bill Daley in Paris about the Senators, and he said status quo about where this is going. I have a theory on this, and I just want to say this is my own personal theory

and it could turn out to be wrong, but this is my own personal theory as part of all this. And the senators doing everything they can to lock down all their players. And now I think Zub is going to be the next one. They're going to try to lock down. I wouldn't be surprised if while they're doing all this publicly and getting all this great publicity about the players and bringing guys back and signing everybody and ticket sales are going I got to think that the business questions are all going to get sorted out and you know one of the things is LaBreton Fl flats in the arena last time it was

all public and when it's all public it's not going well when it's private it goes well right now it's private and i think that's a good omen and i would bet too that they're also working on whatever litigation was tied up from the last time around they're going to work on sorting that out too so my theory and i can't prove it but that doesn't mean I'm not going with it because that's what we do in sports podcasting. My theory is you see what the duck is doing above the waterline. What you don't see is how hard the duck is paddling below the waterline. And I would bet that the Sanders are working on getting all these other

things cleared up too. So if I can read you correctly here, Mulder, what you're saying is all of these signings are a smoke screen for them to, to get their arena deal done quietly. They get the big business done. I don't think it, no,

I wouldn't say it's a smoke screen. I think this is important. Yeah. I don't think smoke screen is the right word to use because you can do two things at once but jeff changing an organization's image in a market is a lot of different things it's making your fans happy and this is making your fans happy but it's also taking care of business and sometimes the easier things to do are the public things but the equally as important things to do which are harder are the private things and it

doesn't mean you can't do both at the same time and i would find it really hard to believe that the senators aren't riding this wave of great publicity and saying okay how can we sort out our other not as sexy issues at the same time i've got to think that's going on too so you have a look at the core and what pierre dorian has done here and the shabbat deal is the eight million dollars brady kachuk is 8.2. Josh Norris is 7.9. Jake Sanderson, even though he's a rookie right now, all expectations are he's going to be a big part of this team once he actualizes and develops.

And I think one of the questions now that the Stutzla deal has done, and by the way, he does look poised to have a monster season. I know, like I tweeted this out the other day, like I know it's a lot of money. know that's a really high aav but he looks like he's right there playing the position he should be playing for that compensation and he'll do it with alex the brinkett and claude geroux and you know dorian kind of you know chuckled and said i had to get this deal done now because playing a season with those guys it might have cost me more i think he's poised for a humongous a humongous season and it leads you to the next or one of the next decisions for the ottawa

senators and i think the brink it's in the you know let's wait and see how the season goes mode but you know alex thebrinket is coming up. He's an RFA with arbitration rights, currently making $6.4 million. If things go the way we think they're going to go for the Ottawa Senators, certainly up front, that could be another big piece of business for the Ottawa Senators.

Like I said, I think Zub is probably the next one. I don't think Debrinket gets in any hurry to resign right now. I don't think that there's a rush on him. But I agree with you. They will get to Debrink at some point, probably. The thing about the Senators is what they've shown their players is all the excuses are gone. And I think the players see that.

You can look at your organization now and say, we're not sparing any expense on our roster. And that's the thing. Like if you're a player on the Ottawa Senators now, you're going to look around, you're going to look at your room, you're going to look at who's there, you're going to look at who's gotten paid, and you're going to say, we have no excuses.

Like if this doesn't work this is on us yeah and i like that if i was a player that's what i'd want you can't point to our organization is dysfunctional or we're not set up to win here yeah if i'm a player walking in the center's dressing room i'm looking around saying if this doesn't work it's the guy in the mirror and i always want that i think great players want that that leads into the question next which is what is a realistic expectation for the ottawa centers we know they're going to be better how much better will they be are they playoff better is that the expectation i just think that you have to be better how much better will they be are they playoff better is that the expectation i just think that you have to be playing a lot of meaningful games like right down to the end

right down to the end so it's not a hey listen we've just spent a pile of dough we've made some blockbuster deals so it's playoff time this is just, we need to take the next step. I know, listen. You know what, Jeff? If you're a player, you're saying we got to make the playoff. If you're a fan right now, you're sitting there thinking, oh my God, I got to start saving up money for playoff deposits. You want that, right?

Yep. But put it this way. Let's just say this team goes out and gets 90-something points and misses the playoffs on the last day of the season. I don't think that's a disaster. That's fine. You know what they remind me of? They remind me of Ottawa loves it when they get compared to Toronto,

so I'm going to do this. Remember that first Toronto team that made the playoffs with Matthews? The one that lost to Washington? They lost to Washington. There were, what, five overtime games in that series. But then the last weekend of the season, they basically had to beat Pittsburgh, and Anderson got hurt, and McElhinney,

Curtis McElhinney came on and won that game. And they got in the last night of the season, second last night of the season. If you're Ottawa and you're playing for the playoffs at the end of the season, by that time you and you're playing for the playoffs at the end of the season by that time you're crushed you feel like just like an idiot if you don't get in but you know you're you're crushed if you don't make it at that point but i think that's what you want all those sense fans that were just loving the way you were talking about their team all that

work you just did just completely became undone why because i said compared to the toronto compared to the toronto maple leafs so i referenced the two people that love the Stutzla deal and the two people that love the Stutzla deal one of them is obviously Tim Stutzla the other person i'm going to get to but the person who i'm sure is not a fan of the Tim Stutzla deal is dallas stars general manager jim nill the other person who loves the stutzla deal is jason robertson yeah you know now we talked about this the other day and here's that here becomes the question and you know that robertson's camp saw the stutzla deal and said oh yeah we like that if stutzla is 8-3-5, what's Jason Robertson? Sometimes I think these comparisons are low-hanging fruit, right?

Still nutritious. That's one of your great lines. Low-hanging fruit is still nutritious. Whenever there's a deal, some people are going to hate it. Like we talked about, there were some teams that really hated the Tate-Thompson deal. They were really bothered by it. I look at it like you have to decide what's best for your organization of course dallas might look at that and say uh but the thing you have to remember here is each situation if i'm jason robertson i'm going for the highest contract that i possibly can. I got no problem with that. Ottawa can do that now because they don't have too many other deals where

that limit them from doing it. Like if Jason Robertson, I just don't think barring a trade right now where they move someone out. I just don't think Dallas can do that deal. They can't. So until I'm proven wrong, this is three times seven-ish. And if Robertson keeps scoring 40 goals a year,

he's going to blow past Stutzla. With every contract, there's a debate. And I understand there was a, I'm trying to spend less time looking at Twitter debates. And I understand there was a big one on the Stutzla. My point, I said this to you many times is, if you have a player you think is a cornerstone player, sign them as quickly as you can for as long as you can.

If you're Ottawa and you look at Tim Stutzla and you think he could be a big-time point production center for years, you do this gamble. Now, one thing I understand is I understand there's some teams that don't like these deals right away. They'd rather see bridges not but you know what like you do what you think is right for your organization you make the best educated gamble for your organization and the other thing people forget is this isn't in a vacuum we spent the first 10 minutes talking about the Ottawa Senators and

their fans have been pissed off for years and the organization hasn't looked as good as it should for years. This is a calculated strategy. And I think too often when we talk about contracts and things like that, we ignore things like market forces and the direction that you're told by your owner or something like that. You don't always have the choice of saying, I don't want to do this. Sometimes you're in a situation where the world dictates or your organization dictates you have to do something. It's very clear to me here.

You really have to be obtuse not to understand what's going on and why they're doing it and why it makes sense everybody listening understands that right now you know who will dismiss that uh a killjoy no jason robertson's representation well but the thing is jeff like again that's the thing like you you you know there is that there is that effect like as soon as tutzla signs all of a sudden you know pat brisson will lick his chops saying okay this is great for us of course just like what we talked about with

Tate Thompson like as an agent you go to your players and say look if you have that type of season at the right time you could get Tate Thompson's money yeah that effect is real I don't have a single problem with that all I'm saying is I think that that at least

if you're Jim Nell you look at that and you go oh great I don't have a single problem with that. You know, Stutzla, who in two years, it was 29 points in his first year, 58 in his second year, as opposed to Jason Robertson, who's 45 and 79 and throw 41 goal season there. We're dealing with a cap, right? So it's not like you can make $11 billion. The players as a whole can only take 50% of it. So whatever you take goes away from someone else now one of the things i'm curious about here jeff is i've always wondered you know when is the generation going to come where they're going to say well i'm going to get paid what i deserve to get paid i'm not worried about that

we've talked about mckinnon right like there's a chance that mckinnon's going to be it's possible i don't i'm not it's not a guarantee but there's a chance that mckinnon's next deal is going to make him the highest paid player in the league these guys are competitive they want to win they want to score more than next guy and and some players want to make more than everybody else i've always wondered this next generation of NHL players, will they get to the point where they start to say, we want more of the pie? And so individually, I mean, because you're only going 50-50.

I had someone talk to me the other day. They think one of the most fascinating ones is going to be Dreisaitl. Why Dreisaitl? In some ways, he compared it to McKinnon. He said it's an incredible value contract. And actually, his point to me was he even thinks like McDavid, it's a value contract at 12 and a half. He is.

He should be making $11 billion a year, as I like to say. I tend to think everybody in the NHL is underpaid. Yes. I don't disagree with you a lot on that someone was listening to that podcast a team official was listening to that podcast where he talked about McKinnon and he said

it's a conversation among teams that when the cap goes up in a couple years if it takes a nice little bump some of these star players what are they going to say? Are they going to say you know it's time to take a little bit more of these star players what are they going to say are they going to say you know it's time to take a little bit more of the pie or do they still say you know what shave a bit here and there and i think people are really curious about this generation of

players and like i said someone said to me they're really going to be curious to see dry sidle because if mckinnon was below value time, that's the phrase I like rather than underpaid because it's a lot of money. But if McKinnon was below value and we get to a point where he says, no, no, no, I want to get more value. My own personal belief is when the salary cap finally goes up, those players that are due new contracts that have gone through the flat cap, high escrow era are going to be gobbling up as much as they can.

Because for the last few years, they feel as if their salaries have been artificially depressed. Although they haven't, we all know what the PA signed off on. But my own belief is they'll look back and say i'm gonna try to make my money back money that i should have been making the last four years i need to make as much of that back as possible i would tend to

agree with you and the reason i agree with you jeff is because during the pandemic when play was shut down there was that negotiation between the league and the players and one of the things the league said is if you want to do higher escrow for the next six years you can pay what you owe us back faster and the player said no so that says to me you're probably right so when Ottawa does Stutzla eight times eight and change I think that's looking at the landscape and saying we're locking them in now and if I had the choice that's looking at the landscape and saying, we're locking him in now. And if I had the choice, that's what I would do too. And Jeff, before we wrap up this conversation, another player who I think is, and he's up for a new contract in a year.

I think a lot of people are wondering about this is somebody who said on their last deal, you know, why is everybody saying that i'm underpaid i'm pretty happy with what i'm making and that's david poster knock yep it sounds like it was pretty quiet over the summer between him and the bruins and i assume that's going to pick up now uh as soon as he comes back into uh north america i'm sure everybody's going to sit down there and kind of figure out where they are but that's another one people are going to watch. This is a player who took a really good value deal.

And the way he's played, you could make an argument. He's a $10 million player. And Charlie McAvoy just signed for 975. So I think there are people out there who are really curious. They're looking at these negotiations. McKinnon, Pasternak, McDavid when it comes up, Dreissel when it comes up, Matthews is eligible for an extension next summer.

I think, you know, are we going to look at a situation where the kind of salary structure of the NHL gets reshaped? Okay, so let me ask you about a couple of players specifically here before we get to the Sider and and veranda interviews mackenzie wieger yeah i really like mackenzie wieger and i really like mackenzie wieger on that calgary back end uh he's got one more year at 3.25 and then he is a ufa anything there i think they're taking a run at it the two sides it's quiet right now but i think they're taking a run at it this the two sides. It's quiet right now, but I think they're taking a run at it. This was an interesting story to follow along on Wednesday.

Montreal and Caden Primo, net minder. So signs a three-year deal, 890K is the AAV. And I think one of the questions that people have here is, what's the future for Jake Allen? We all know about Carey Price, but what's the future for Jake Allen? We all know about Carey Price, but what's the future for Jake Allen in Montreal? Well, it was Kevin Weeks who first reported that there's talks underway. As we do this on Thursday night, I don't get the sense it's close, but I think Kevin's

right that they are talking. There was a time earlier in the summer that there were teams asking Montreal about what are you going to do with Jake Allen? And the Canadians said no to any of it because they didn't know what Carey Price's future was and they wanted to make sure that they had Allen there to sort of hold down the fort. What my guess on this is,

he's got a year left and then he's a UFA. I just think Montreal wants to have an idea sooner rather than later, if they can sign them. We interrupt this program to bring you a special report. Okay. Friday afternoon insert for the 32 Thoughts podcast, walking around my neighborhood. A couple of things have happened today,

and we want to make the podcast as current as possible. First of all, there were some PTOs. Danny DeKaiser in Vancouver, Calvin DeHaan in Carolina, and Zach Aston Reese in Toronto. These are good quality players for PTOs. I was talking about this with someone around the league today and he was saying to me that usually

and it's true, PTOs are older guys who aren't guaranteed anything and are trying to squeeze out another year because who wouldn't want to play hockey for another year? Or players who are fringe players in the NHL, who are battling to keep a roster spot.

And some of these guys, you'd think, are more than that. Like, for example, at the beginning of the free agency, if you would have told me that Zach Ashton-Reese was signing a PTO, I wouldn't have believed it. I would have said, no, no, that guy's getting a one-way somewhere. But this is a summer where a lot of players got squeezed. The cap is still tight. And I'd heard he wanted to stay east. I know it was reported that Edmonton was one of the teams interested. And I believe

that's true. But I think he wanted to stay east. I'm surprised to see him in particular on a PTO. I think one of the things that people ask is when someone signs a PTO somewhere, is it a guarantee that they're going to stay there? There have been some rare occasions where players have gone to one team on a PTO and signed somewhere else. I know that's happened before, but generally, if you're going on a PTO to an organization, you know what the number is going to be if it all works out. So one of the first things a friend of mine who lives in Toronto asked me was, do Elyse and Aston Rees have a deal?

The answer is no, but Aston Rees, he has a good idea what his number is going to be. If he signs in Toronto, I'm betting it's somewhere around $850,000 because Toronto really can't do any more than that they're in a tight spot the other question I got from Leaf fans today was does this mean that Rasmus Sandin is going to be traded because they look at the salary cap situation they say how are you going to fit this all in and I don't think that's what Toronto wants to do

I could always be proven wrong but I do believe that Toronto's goal is to re-sign Sandin. It's a standoff right now, but I still think their goal is to re-sign him. If you look at their defense cap situation or contract situation, it's not too long until you look down and there's only one guy signed, and that's Morgan Riley. I think they want to. The other thing I wanted to touch on briefly was Joe Thornton. I was working on this yesterday. Corey Massasack of The Athletic, who covers the Sharks, actually got it out first. And Thornton's back in San Jose, and he's been skating with some of the players there.

One of the things you're wondering is, A, he's going to play, and B, if he doesn't, is there a spot in the Sharks organization for him? Is he going to play? That's Thornton's decision, if he wants to try and play this year. But the one thing I do think is if he decides not to play, I do think there's going to be a role for him in San Jose. What that is going to be, whether it's hockey ops or marketing or whatever it could be, I think that's a conversation that will happen.

But I can't see the Sharks having too much of a problem with having Joe Thornton in the organization if he's not playing this year. A couple more things. One, I want to ask you about John Tortorella. And maybe this, we should have seen this coming a mile away. Maybe this is one of the most obvious things when you look at John Tortorella's history

and the recent history of the Philadelphia Flyers when you look at John Tortorella's history and the recent history of the Philadelphia Flyers and what they need within this organization but John Tortorella on Sirius XM saying as far as the room I have major concerns about the room as far as I've spent the summer going back and forth I live in New I've been going back and forth to Philly trying to relocate there, but spent some time in the office talking to players, talking to personnel, talking to Chuck, all the front office. And I have major concerns about what goes on in there. And before we even step on the ice,

situations and standards and accountability in the room uh is is forefront and uh you can't get squat down on the ice until you get your room straight down i think we have a little bit of work to do there we all know the philadelphia flyers elliot have talked about changing the culture within the room is this the opening salvo of the flyers changing the culture in their room the shot from torts i don't think this is the opening salvo i think this is the latest salvo he's been doing this since he got there and uh you know we talked about on our podcast that the last one that they they let the players know that this was going to be a brutal camp. Yeah. And apparently they sent an email to the players saying, basically, you better be back in town by early September

and you better be ready. And that's what someone said to me. And, you know, like I was looking at the notes today in Philly and it sounds like there's a lot of guys there. So they're getting the message. Look, a poor start this year in philadelphia is is not an option there's a lot on the line and look i i think this is tortorella getting on them early every year there's one team that sort of wins the exhibition title they go five and oh and they

they dress their best team and the the other team is 26 junior players and they beat them 10 to nothing i think philadelphia could win the exhibition title this year. They're going to be ready to go. And a bad start this year is not an option. And that's just what Tortorella's – he's going to be hammering them from the beginning. He knows why he was hired. Of course.

This was not like – this is not like, okay, we're taking our aircraft carrier and we're turning it around really slowly. This is immediate action. This is the coach first and that change has happened. And now it's about the players. I'll get one other thing here. And you wrote about this at sportsnet.ca. And I think it caught a lot of people by surprise because we've always looked at Shane Doan and said,

that's Mr. Coyote. Shane Doan and the Arizona Coyotes, of course, most recently working as a chief hockey development officer for the Coyotes, taking a step back. What happened? So I kind of heard about this on Wednesday night. I had a couple people reach out, or I was talking to a couple people, what's kind of going on out there, and I had some people say it to me.

And this one, you know, because of who it is and the sensitive time for the coyotes, you've got to go right to the source. So I'm a really sensitive guy in my old age. I don't send notes at five in the morning Pacific time. You know, you wait until a little bit later in the morning and Doan reached out and I told him what I was calling about. And, you know, I don't think you're ever surprised that this stuff gets out.

But the one thing that became very clear to me, very obviously, is that Shane Doan, whether he's part of the Arizona Coyotes or isn't, there's nobody who cares more about the success of that franchise than he does. He's Mr. Coyote. He played 1,540 NHL games games but all but 74 of them were in Arizona you know he led the team in goals assists points games played he was the captain for the last 13

years and all of that came across in those few seconds when he was collecting his thoughts and thinking about, you know, whether he was going to talk to me. And it was very obvious to me very quickly in the phone call that the most important thing for him was, I don't want this conversation to damage the Arizona Coyotes' chance for a new arena. And whatever issue might or might not be there he wasn't going to do anything that was going to pour gasoline on that fire and that was the thing he said to me it was the first quote i wrote like i do not want this to in any way hurt the coyotes if there's

something bothering him or if there's something making him unhappy he was not telling me about it he was like nope this is not going to be negative i'm not allowing it to be negative and so he's he's going to step back as he said he's not leaving the organization as a matter of fact it was interesting after the ran, I had somebody call me from down there and say Doan was on the ice with some of the players today. And so as he said to me, he's a big Tournier fan, Andre Tourney, and if they need him, he'll work with them. But he was skating with some of the guys in Arizona today.

He has four kids. One of his daughters just moved back home. Another's in university. He's got a son who plays football. And his other son, obviously, Josh, was drafted by the Coyotes and plays at Arizona State. He's going into his sophomore year. But, you know, like I said,

I think the thing that happened right here was the moment I got on the phone with him, the key thing he wanted to get out there was I am not letting this story hurt the Coyotes. Because I said to him, like, it doesn't make sense to me that the Coyotes wouldn't want you to be part of this while they're trying to get the arena. Like, it's the biggest no-brainer.

And he's like, he said, I'm just not, I'm not going there. So that's how the conversation went that all sounds exactly like shane doan like that is a perfect shane doan reaction and assertion everybody else would have just buried the team but you know he did okay before we get to these uh these interviews uh i would like to acknowledge jack Jablonski. Jack Jablonski announcing that he's gay on his social media. I think we can all appreciate the weight that's been on his shoulders for all these years.

I always think about like, what kind of sort of daily pain, you know, you must be in not being able to live being who you really are. I'd encourage everybody to read Michael Russo's piece with Jack in The Athletic. And whether it's Luke Prokop or whether it's Bane Pettinger I'd encourage everybody to read Michael Russo's piece with Jack in The Athletic.

And whether it's Luke Prokop or whether it's Bane Pettinger or now most recently Jack Jablonski, let's all remember that we love and support with our actions, not just our words. We love and support with our actions, not just our words. It was great to see this news. Jack Jablonski. I root for a day, Jeff, where these stories, people look at them and just kind of go, hmm, because it's normal. Amen. Where people just look at it and say, who you love is your business.

And as long as you're happy, great. I'm with you. Stay tuned. Mo Sider, Jacob Varana still to come. Okay, welcome back to the podcast. Now, you're going to really appreciate, if you're a Detroit Red Wings fan, the remainder of this podcast.

But I would like to add, Elliot, I don't think you have to be a Red Wings fan to enjoy these interviews with Jacob Verana and Mo Sider. We're going to get to the defenseman here in a second. But whenever I think of Verana, I think of the 2014 draft. That was in Philadelphia. And one of the 2014 draft, and that was in Philadelphia, and one of the big debates going into that first round is, you know, Verana versus Pasternak,

who's the best Czech sniper, and all that that played itself out, and we all know about the trade a couple of years ago for Anthony Manta that shocked everyone at trade deadline, the shoulder injury. He comes back at the end of the season, you know, 26 games, 19 points. He's going to play this season

with either Dylan Larkin or Andrew Kopp, poised to have a monster season. And I got to tell you, of all the interviews we did, and by the way, thanks to everyone who commented on the Pierre-Edouard Belmar interview. That was a lot of fun. We're really glad you enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed talking to Verana. What did you think? He's a pretty funny fun. We're really glad you enjoyed it. I really enjoyed talking to Verana. What did you think? He's a pretty funny guy. He is. Yeah, he's pretty laid back and loose. The thing I like most about him is that nobody at Sportsnet looks more like an unmade bed than I do. Of all the guests, Verana was the most unmade bed there.

He looked like he came right from the club overnight he looked great threw on a suit and just showed up now i should say steve eiserman yeah he assured us he did not do that because we asked see he can pull that off yeah yeah a lot of people in this world can't pull off that look but veranda can yeah you're gonna hear from jacob veranda here in a couple of moments but first more at cider and when i think of cider again i go back to his draft and i learned something when i was in manheim talking to people from adler manheim and cider goes sixth overall in the vancouver draft 2019 hughes caco Byram, Turcotte, then Sider. And you were there. You remember the gasps, right?

In Vancouver when Eisenman announced his name. Like there weren't many that had him that high. Obviously Detroit did. North American Central Scouting had him that high as well. But by and large, no one thought this way. He was going into the top 10. And when Al and I were in in Mannheim during the rink that first day the SAP you know I was asking about cider and someone there told me

we thought that LA was going to take them because of the Anschutz Association that you know the big supporters of German hockey with hockey teams with hockey arenas you know uh they fund a lot of initiatives they're there a lot they would have seen cider a ton i think eiserman would have went to germany to see cider i think it was three times elliot but they thought for sure that he was going to go fifth overall to the los angeles kings they ended up taking alex turcotte and cider went to the detroit red wings but he said everybody here was stunned because we thought that there wasn't a chance that the Kings were going to pass up taking Sider considering how close they were to him pretty much all season long in his draft year.

Your thoughts on Mo Sider before we hear the interview. I just remember interviewing Iserman after he made the pick. And I've told the story before i was like a bit of a surprise and he's like why he was right i mean the guy knows hockey what are you gonna do he he was right now i i have to say i think it's going to be really interesting to see how he does in year two not because he's not a great player he is but i always wonder about how the league adjusts to a great rookie and some rookies it doesn't matter they're just that good yeah i'm really curious to see do teams adjust the way they play

him i don't think anybody is going to be looking down at the puck when he's on the ice. I think those days are dwindling. But listen, he's not shy, and he's not shy about stepping up on a player. I don't think that's going to change in his game at all. Anyway, you'll hear from Jacob Veranda here in a couple of moments, but up first, enjoy Moritz Seider of the Detroit Red Wings on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. We're good? 3, 2, 1 3, 2, 1

3, 2, 1 3, 2, 1 Nice Alright, let's do this. Coming down in three, two, and one. Mo, first of all, congratulations on a wonderful first season in the NHL with the Detroit Routers. Congratulations on winning the Calder as Rookie of the Year.

And here's the hard-hitting question to kick off the interview. If you had a vote, who would you have voted for the Calder? It's okay to say yourself, by the way. Yeah, it's okay to say yourself. Who's going to say himself? I don't know, maybe you. I have to say to you, I did interview one player once. It was a baseball player, and he said himself, yes.

No, my vote would definitely go to Lucas. Just seeing him develop during the year was special to me, and just having someone on your team who's going through the same faces was really cool. You're obviously a defenseman, but when you watch Lucas, see him play, see him practice, team who's going through the same faces um was really cool you're obviously a defenseman but um when you watch lucas see him play see him practice like what do you think we need to know about lucas raymond it's crazy to see he's even younger than than me i always usually i am the youngest

on any team um usually but i mean people are just coming in and they're younger so he's really mature for his age so I think that's definitely something people should know about him I still laugh about your parents not going to the event in the way you talked about it at the when you won no obviously a big shout out to everyone who was sitting here. My parents couldn't make it. They just got back from Croatia, and they thought it was more important to go on vacation. No, big shout out to my brother, my girlfriend, Timo. It was such a great story.

Did they ever get anybody who said to them, how could you not have gone to see your son win the calder trophy yeah yeah they were definitely a little bit pissed i i threw him under the bus but uh no it worked out pretty well i think so they just they got back a night before we left yeah so um they just didn't have any vacation days left. So somebody has to earn money in the household. Yes. And it's definitely not me during summer. So, yeah, it just didn't work out.

But it was really cool to have my brother with me. Yeah, so it was nothing to complain about. You know, I got to say, that's the sign of a good family, though, that when you can make a joke about that and they can laugh about getting thrown under the bus. Like, that's the way I would want my family to handle something like that. That's awesome. Yeah, it was definitely special in our family. I think we're always good for some good laughs and some good jokes.

Definitely, yeah. All right, so the people listening to this don't really know this But you guys spent This is Wednesday in Paris And you guys spent Tuesday in Mannheim together Correct And honestly Moritz When you were with Jeff in public Were you like trying to hide so that people couldn't see That you were with him

I don't know We heard some comments Who's this good looking guy Next to the young guy this good looking athlete and Mo Sider so that was my take away from that day

one of the things that I didn't ask you about that I wanted to I'm glad we have a chance here to catch up a day later you were part of some crazy games this year and one of them was a really high-profile game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, where it seemed like whoever touched the puck last

was going to end up winning this thing. I mean, don't change the channel because this Red Wings-Leafs game is not going to come to a conclusion until the bitter end. What goes through your mind in a game like that? And what's happening on the bench? I know both coaches are pulling their hair out.

But as a player in the NHL, you're not used to games like that and what's happening on the bench i know both coaches are pulling their hair out but like as a player in the nhl you're not used to games like that where you get into double digits no not at all but uh it was so much fun uh just coming back and getting the crowd back on your side uh was electrifying for us and gave us a huge push and in my opinion we still had a chance to win that game and then just got scored on again and we came back and they scored and just went back and forth and I don't know if you ever see anything like this in the next couple years the thing is you had like big games against like the Panthers as well like putting up big numbers against some really big teams. Yeah, I mean, we definitely have the right guys in the locker room.

It's just about the depth and our team, and we just couldn't do it for 82 games. I think that's what we struggled the most with, but other than that, I think it will be fun watching us this year. Well, and that's one thing I wanted to ask you about is, and we were talking about it off camera, is that, you know, you live in the

off season in Germany, so the clock's ahead and so on, I guess on July 14th, you wake up in the morning and the Red Wings have a whole bunch of new players. Did you have any idea that was coming? No. So I texted Lars right away and he's like, yeah, man, I'm so pumped too.

And we just couldn't believe it. That will definitely be fun coming in the locker room in two weeks in Detroit and see all the new faces. And hopefully we can create some chemistry right from the start. And then I think it will be a really fun year for us.

So did you just wake up and you had like 5,000 text messages or how did you see that this had happened? I mean, I just scrolled through Instagram and saw all the new signings and new deal here, new deal there. And then some of my buddies texted me too and were like, man, your team is sick next year. Like, yeah, I know. It's going to be so much fun.

So it was a really cool experience. Is there anybody in particular you looked at and said, I'm looking forward to playing with that particular player or anything? I mean, just seeing Ben Sherrod in Montreal before and with the Panthers last year, I think great season he had. And I think it will be fun playing with him and in the decor like does Steve Eiserman ever tell you or any other player what he's thinking he's definitely not talking to me about his business plans with the organization but I think

we uh yeah we're all in this together and we're right where we want to be for now. It's a perfect spot to be a Detroit Red Wing in the present and in the future. So, I mean, I'm super pumped. He's a commanding presence. When he speaks, people listen. Was there anything that he said to you last year or you heard him say that

he really stood out to you in particular, the way he approached anything? There was a time we had a big low, and he was coming in and was making it real clear that we shouldn't take anything for granted. And that was eye-opening, and it kind of reminds you what you're looking for in the daily work and what you're aiming for. So it was crucial that he did it but then he just steps up and then and does it yeah he's i would say he's definitely the right guy for for detroit

for any rookie um veterans ex-players can be really crucial in your development i know that uh you and nicholas cronwall have something special bond and dylan larkin as well whom you lived with when you uh when you first started with the Detroit Red Wings do you have a few words about both those gentlemen and what they've meant for your young hockey career in Detroit both Dylan Larkin and Nicholas Cronwell I mean starting with Nicholas was uh was a big help just coming from from Europe first time in the U.S. living on your own and just try to figure out what you're doing in a different country and didn't know anything about the league just it's going to be really hard some really big

mean mean guys in the ahl but yeah he he helped me a lot he we were sitting down and cutting video and looking through through my games and finding spots where I have to adjust something or something I did really good, and that's what we're doing up to this date. He visited me in Sweden two years ago. So, yeah, definitely a really cool side story. And Dylan, I mean, he's a captain leading by example. and Dylan I mean he's a he's a captain leading by example he goes out there on the ice and just sometimes does it by itself or by on his own tremendous player and just a really strong guy off the ice too just uh just somebody you can lean on and just really fun to have someone like

him in the locker room last one then who was the meanest guy in the ahl good question um luckily i played with him um i think dylan mackrath oh boy um yeah so i was really happy i had him uh on my squad and uh wasn't facing him because he uh absolutely killed some of the other guys. He's a real big, tough dude. Dylan McElrath. A couple of things about your Red Wings. You mentioned putting it together for a full 82 games can be exhausting. Did you find that going through your rookie season in the nhl there was one

specific time where you hit a wall whether it's you know january or maybe early february was there one particular time in the season when you're like i don't know like this doesn't feel right to me um not really but there was definitely a little low um right before the uh also break but then it was perfect timing then you had a week to recharge the batteries and then you hit in the final stretch in the season which was really cool yeah other than that it was so many new input every day or every week because you travel around so much you get to know so many new guys and faces. So that kind of distracts you from the busy side. You know, one of the things,

you're so wildly popular in Detroit. Like they love you there, right? The team loves you. Fans adore you. And, you know, whenever I talk to any Red Wings fans, you know, they keep talking about, oh, it's so nice to have a crusher back there in Mo Sider. Because hitting is so weird right now.

It's more about angling and stick, good stick, good stick. Very few players play like you do. Where did you learn to hit? Because hitting in 2022 is a really difficult thing to do. I don't know. I think it just comes natural. I don't think about anything in in a situation when i'm on the ice it just instincts yeah and um because things are happening

so quickly sometimes it's the right moment to step up but as you said sometimes it's just about writing a guy off and just killing the play with with your stick and you guys it's just about finding a good balance in between was there one game that you had this year where you said yeah a guy off and just killing the play with with your stick and you guys it's just about finding a good balance in between was there one game that you had this year where you said yeah that was my best game like there were moments like we talked the other day about yeah you ragging the puck and you know playing keep away from the philadelphia flyers which is one of the great highlights from last season yeah but is there something else Is there another game or maybe a sequence or something that comes to your mind where you're like,

yeah, that was my best moment as a Red Wing? Yeah, maybe there was one game against the Islanders with the OT winner. Thought about shooting, spins it back to the line of Pugh Suter. Suter flipped it deep. Suter scores! What a shot! Oh, my God. Red W. Score! What a shot!

Red Wings win it 4-3! He's done it again in overtime! Mo Sider! I felt really good in that game. Had the legs at that time. And yeah, it was just a really cool day for me. Well listen this has been great catching up this week good luck, listen your

encore season is coming up now you've got the Calder Trophy in the hip pocket and a whole bunch of new teammates and some new expectations for the Red Wings good luck next season. Thank you, thanks for having me Thanks very much. Thanks. Jacob Veranda of the Detroit Red Wings. First of all,

thanks so much for stopping by. You are our last interview of the day and rumor has it that you've been outstanding all day long, as our producer Emil Delic was saying, no pressure. Hey, listen, the Detroit Red Wings, what an offseason. They had to pull the checkbook out of Steve Eizerman's hands, put the phone down, got a whole bunch of new teammates. Yeah, I feel like it's a great addition to the team. All these guys have been in the league.

We have a young group in Detroit in great potential within the team, and Mo Sider just won the Calder Trophy. Lucas Raymond had a hell of a season. Tyler Bertuzzi, 30 goals. I mean, Larkson. I mean, we have a potential in our team. We keep it constant, you know, within the season, and now we have a we have a potential in our team uh we keep it constant you know with within the season and and now we have all these additions so i'm really excited to join uh join the group at

the training camp and start the chemistry a little bit you know and get things started one of the fun things about you know being in europe is sometimes on that day depending on what you're doing you might not realize everything that's happened until the next morning. So on July 13th, the free agency day, did you, were you aware? Did you wake up the next day and realize I have a whole bunch of new teammates? Oh yeah.

It literally just started to pop up on my phone. So yeah, I was a quick change in one day, but I guess that's what all about it is. Yeah. You know, I text Kubalik right away and and i just saw him in check we had a little talk about you know the living in detroit and stuff like that where he should you know live and stuff i told him to live with me in downtown but everybody else live in suburb so he doesn't want to do that so he doesn't want to do that so you're't want to do that. So you're the only guy in Detroit

who lives downtown? Yeah. You're kidding. Yeah, I love it. You do, eh? Yeah. So close to the rink, man. I'm not a morning person.

I'm there in four minutes. So it's perfect. You know, I can really identify with this. And you know what? We have a training. We have actually a practice rink and a game rink at the one spot. So it's awesome.

I can identify with this because if I could fall out of bed and go right to work i would do the exact same know those winter times like you have to i mean i know it's not too bad it's 20 minutes drive but 20 30 minutes but do it every day you know and then downtown is getting better as well what do the other players say about you living downtown everybody Everybody's so surprised and shocked. I don't see a reason why, though. I mean, I'm nice and close to the rink downtown. I have restaurants down there. I mean, obviously, I'm busy with the traveling and all that,

so I'm not home much either. You mentioned Mo Sider a couple of seconds ago, called a trophy, rookie of the year, really impressive first campaign. What do you see in his game that's impressive? First of all, he didn't look like he played his first season in NHL. He was pretty solid, shocked everyone,

I think mostly with his toughness that he brings to NHL. And then, of course, offensively, he was great. You know, on both sides of the ice, he did a really good job. And I think he definitely deserved to win the Colour Trophy. I don't think anybody's going to argue that with you. Yeah. I think he was a very, very deserving winner.

And Raymond definitely deserved to be in the conversation. 100%. No question about it. I mean, that division has been Tampa, Toronto, Boston, and Florida in the playoffs for a few years basically now. And the job for Detroit and Ottawa and Buffalo is to break that stranglehold. How are you going to do it?

I feel like you can see the league is kind of like, you know, it doesn't matter who you can see the league is kind of like, you know, it doesn't matter who you play against. Anybody can surprise you. I feel like if we stay consistent and keep things together, obviously it's a tough division we have. But we have our new players now coming in. And, you know, like I said, it's a fresh start for everybody.

Everybody started at the same starting line. And everybody's going to be prepared. And we're going to just want it more than the others. And a new head coach. Yes. And I forgot about a new head coach. I actually talked to him as well. He seems like a really nice guy.

And I actually haven't got the chance to meet him yet. But I talked to him on the phone, and he seems really nice. And I can't wait to get to start how long did it take you to get to like sort of get past the trade i bet you figured you were going to be a capital forever i did no it's just a thought but no honestly i think uh it's I think it's, to be honest, like it's hard to go from day to day. You know, you wake up next day, you suddenly live somewhere else. You suddenly play somewhere else. And yeah, it's not an easy process,

but I feel like they give me a nice welcome in Detroit. So I was really excited about being a Red Wing after that. Still hard though, eh? Like I can see you. Yeah, well, I had five years with the Caps and, you know, I won the Cup there, but you're going to put things behind you, you know, life goes on

and I have a new motivation with Detroit Red Wings right now. You know, one of the things like, you know, Jacob, we've all seen your talent. Like we know how good you are. It's just staying healthy. Is there anything you can do to sort of help that? You can control that, though, you know?

Yeah. It's something you can control, and I think all the players will agree with me. It's you go through it. It's part of the game, part of NHL. It's part of any kind of sports injuries. But what you can control is how you deal with it while you're injured or while you're coming back or what you can do to get back and I think it's the best thing is just to put it behind you while you're done with it focus on the

future focus on what's in front of you live in the present and yeah it's not easy it's mentally really hard to watch hockey for five months, not being able to be out there. So just stick with the present, you know, focus on your next rehab and next practice you have, and then go out there and play, you know. Dylan Larkin. I just said that name and you smiled.

I know players love playing with him. I know he probably doesn't get the headlines that he deserves. You know, he had a fantastic, certainly his first half of the season was outstanding last season. Tell us your thoughts on Dylan Larkin. He's a great captain. He's really supportive. And I think the best thing about him that, you know,

whatever happens on the ice, it happens on the ice. He wants to take care of the guys, you know, out of the ice and on the ice. He wants the ice he wants to take care of the guys you know out off the ice and on the ice he wants everybody to be healthy and happy and you know he knows what's the most important thing in a life keep the guys together you know we are almost like a family and we want to take care of each other you know and if it's off and on the ice doesn't matter uh he's a leader you know he wants he wants us to to be where we should be because you know we have the potential as we all know so uh yeah so when you guys are on the road you guys go out as a group and things like that are you a good group like that yeah well

depends what you want to eat and you just find the guys and you can go i mean we have a bunch of checos so and then we have a bunch of checkos and we have some guys yeah we who's the pickiest eater oh i would say philip veronic oh yeah really he's never he never looks happy when he's eating i guess i guess i guess yeah he never looks happy even when he's not eating so i'm just kidding i'm just kidding. But yeah. You know, Jacob, you've obviously got a great sense of humor. You love to laugh and smile.

My favorite story about you, I always remember is at Vegas Stanley Cup Final 2018, you were struggling to score. There were two days off. Every Capitals regular took the first day off except you. You were on the ice on that practice.

I remember I walked by you and I said, you know, like, you're the only guy practicing. He goes, I got to score. I got to practice to score. And then you went out and you scored in game five. Yeah. With the shot. The Eagles had three good chances in this game.

Here's Verona moving out the way. Verona's in. He scores! You know, you like to smile, you like to laugh, but there's a really fierce competitor there. Yeah, 100%. But that was more because Batya said he took his first optional after 500 NHL games. So I was like, I'm going to go out there. That's Brooks Orpik, you know. He said to me, like, hey, you know, we had an optional practice.

He's like, hey, I took my first optional practice after 500 NHL games. I was like, okay, I'm going to go out there. That's funny. I never knew that story. No, he was a really, you know, old school guy. And you're going to get a certain amount of NHL games for sure to take your first option. But you were the only guy.

And also, it is also the reason that, I mean, if something goes wrong on the ice and doesn't go right, that you think you can do better. I mean, where else do you want to get better than on the practice rink or practice ice or when you go to train? Anything you worked on specifically in the offseason? better than on the practice rink you know or practice ice or when you go to train so anything you worked on specifically in the off season obviously gaining weight for sure gaining muscles but mostly just speed i'm going on the ice we we have a like a nice little game tuesday thursday

all the nhl guys get together we have like a competition it's a lot of skills so it's nice to so who's out there like tell us what happens uh well it's uh like pasta tomas hertel martinez philip hitiel michael campney i mean we all uh who else was there andre schuster yeah uh no there's guys from that play in the khl and league in czech too and then we you know we bet something and you play against each other it's it's intense man you know so what like what's on the line here like it's nothing it's a couple bucks okay no okay i don't know a couple of bucks but it it's it's a listen it's it doesn't matter if it's two bucks or two thousand no it doesn't matter it doesn't matter i was wondering if maybe you're talking about like it's at the end of the game like the loser has to do sprints or something like that is that oh we do we go to train after

two oh yeah oh yeah but we don't do it for like, I don't want to see him train. I want something from him, you know? You know what I mean? So you have a big decision to make as you prepare to head back to North America, and that is, I've seen you, we've all seen you with the short hair,

and now you've got the longer hair. What's it going to be? Keep it. Keep it. I look like one of the Russian fives. My hair is down. I'm going to get a haircut. For sure.

You like it? Just think of what it's going to look like under a bucket. You're a hockey player. What's my hair going to look like? Yeah, I do wear a helmet most of the time. When you go for dinner then or something, you know, taking care of that. Or when you go for interviews. We like this.

Sounds like his decision is already made. Keep it real. I think so too. Maybe I keep it. You will see. I hope so. Like I said, I had 40 good years of hair, and I would recommend everybody to keep as much hair as they possibly can.

Like I said, if it goes wrong, we can all fly to Turkey and buy it. You know? They do it there. Awesome. Jacob, thanks so much. No worries. And there you have it, Red Wings fans, and I suppose non-Red Wings fans alike.

Wings fans, you've been very loyal to this podcast and we thank you. We hope this, as a symbolic gesture, an offering, something to make you feel good heading into the season. Hope you enjoyed those interviews. Jacob Verana and Moritz Seider of the Detroit Red Wings. Elliot taken us out as a German artist who was inspired to make music from a very young age after being given a drum kit by his father. I love that. His love of music quickly evolved and Marvin Andrea, stage name Crystal Glass,

began to create a dreamy indie sound that makes you dive deeper into his music. With no end tonight, here's Crystal Glass on 32 Thoughts to Podcast. Dad never gave me a drum kit. My hands are warm Ready for your call Slowly going down

Urgent need to go I can't stop dreaming of you when I'm asleep But that's okay, my dreams, you're all I need