32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Total Domination

Episode Date: June 19, 2022

Touchdown! Jeff and Elliotte recap game 2 (00:10) of the Stanley Cup final, Valeri Nichushkin being a priority for the Avalanche this off-season, talk about their early Conn Smythe trophy candidates and wonder how game 3 will play out in Tampa Bay.They also touch on several coaching searches around the league (15:15), the future of Connor Brown in Ottawa (12:45), Nicklas Backstrom surgery (23:40), the Sharks GM search and potential candidates (25:20), Jesper Bratt and the New Jersey Devils — possible offer sheet (29:00), and the latest on Johnny Gaudreau (35:40).Check out the limited edition 32 Thoughts merchandise line HEREMusic Outro: Laura Misch - ClimbListen to our 32 Tracks playlist on Amazon Music. All the tracks you hear on this podcast during the playoffs are featured there.This podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman. Production support by Mike Rogerson.Audio Credits: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM.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.

that was a rich just went by me okay okay game two is in the books we look forward to game three between the colorado avalanche and the tampa bay lightning alongside elliott friedman and amal delich you know normally in playoff games when the tamp Tampa Bay Lightning are trailing, I always say to myself, Tampa's still not out of this. But on Saturday night, Elliot, I caught myself not saying so much, Tampa's not out of it. More so, I kept saying to myself, when's Tampa going to get in to this game? That was a dominant performance. We just saw a clinic, some would say, by the Colorado Avalanche.

Your thoughts? I have just left the arena to go back to the hotel, the start of the pedicast, as it were. Nice. And I am still in shock, Jeff, by what I just witnessed. Like, I was walking by Mike Lane, who's a producer here for TSN. And we were just talking to each other about that might have been one of the most dominant performances that we have seen considering the quality of the team that was absolutely dominated. I cannot believe what I just saw.

I am literally without speech. I am speechless. We'll see what happens in game three, of course. But listen, 31-17 the shots, 7-0 is the final score. Kael McCarr with a pair of goals in the third period. Valery Nachushkin scores a pair of goals as well.

It was odd man rush. It was breakaway, and you know what, Elliot? This was obvious really early on, and we talked about it in game one as well. I don't know that I've ever seen Tampa hemmed in like that. Like, how many times did you say to yourself, Tampa cannot get the puck out of their own zone and couldn't all night long on Saturday.

And when they did Jeff, like there were times they were coming out of their zone and I saw a really good player with the pocket. I'm like, okay, something good is going to happen here. But then it didn't, it was just shut down.

And one of the advantages I think colorado has over a lot of other teams is not only they have great players but if you see them there's a lot of players in phenomenal physical condition and they get to places fast and one of the previous teams they played against i can't remember who it was, but one of them was there were guys saying, you think you have room to do things against the avalanche, and it just closes on you so fast. When you play poker, one of the things that your strategy is to force someone to make a decision, right?

It's easy to sit there and just throw your antis away. Nope. You have to force them to make a decision. And I think what Colorado does, I'm watching this tonight. It's like they're playing poker against Tampa. We're forcing you to make decisions. And before you really want to. And Tampa is really struggling with that all over the ice.

And you know what too, Jeff? I'm really seeing it here in person. When Vasilevsky is not playing well, Tampa sags. And he was not playing well to be in game one, and they were getting run out of the building. He started going, and they started going. And tonight, he got run out of the building early, particularly that Manson goal.

Kelly pointed out how he lost to Nance. Two-on-one developing, now a three-on-one. Manson holding, shooting. He scores! Man-o, Manson! It's two, nothing, Avalanche. Connor, I may be wrong, but this goal was scored because Cogliano has a broken hand, or whatever he's got with that left hand.

was scored because Cogliano has a broken hand or whatever he's got with that left hand and he gave it immediately to Manson because he knows that it's not going to be easy for him to shoot. And I just think the Lightning sag. They saw that he didn't have it and then they didn't have it.

Now I don't mean to insult Josh Manson here but one of the things I didn't expect to hear on television is Josh Mansson leads the rush and beats andre vasilevsky clean clean far side now i want to get to the blocker thing here in a second with vasilevsky and it became really obvious after andre burakovsky scored he got a breakaway shortly after and right away he goes blocker side, and that's where Colorado tried to dine out all night long. We'll get to that in a second.

But did you think that Vasilevsky was going to get the hook at any time tonight, Frej? Not in the first intermission, because I still think at that time it's 3-0. You still have to think you can win the game. At that point in time, it's too early. But I did wonder if at some point in the third period now john cooper uh was asked about it a couple of days ago and he basically

said i couldn't imagine any situation where i would pull the guy and tonight he was asked about it again and he basically said look we battle together and I'm not sure he would have come out anyway. If I was the coach, I might have just said, you know what? I think it's more valuable if you get 10 or 20 minutes of rest here. But Cooper, according to Wikipedia, Jeff, he's got two more Stanley Cups than I do. So I defer to him in this particular situation. It might have been nice for Brian Elliott,

even in a six, seven, nothing game to get to say he played in the Stanley cup final. And I might've wanted to do that. But again, it's hard for me to take issue with a guy who's been so successful in Cooper making these decisions. The only thing I wonder about freeges,

has there been a conversation and is there an understanding between Andre Vasilevsky and John Cooper, which goes along the lines of even if i'm in trouble i don't want the hook i know you may be tempted you may think you're doing the right thing for me and the team but i don't want to be pulled out leave me in the game yes as long as i'm healthy leave me in there i i just wonder if there is that understanding or that conversation's been had between the goalie and the coach i'll be honest with you free agent the third, that's what it felt like, specifically after Makar scores that shorty. You know, again, I could see that, Jeff.

I totally could. It wouldn't surprise me if you were right. Again, though, I look at it like, what's best for the overall team? And I think if I was the coach and I looked at this situation and I said, Andre, you might really hate me right now, but I think this break will help you and us.

Then as a coach, you have to make that decision. But again, I'm not privy to all the information. You know, Vasilevsky has earned every bit of rope you want to give him. But I think it's up to Cooper to make that call because he generally pushes the right buttons with this team. I'm just going to say a name and listen, Jennifer spoke about him. Kelly has spoken about him.

We've spoken about him, but tonight was another command performance. When I say Valeri Nachushkin, number 13, Colorado plays either side. Doesn't matter. Plays up and down your lineup. Doesn't matter.

What goes through your mind when you hear that name right now? Cha-ching! It's true. I was having a conversation with a friend tonight trying to figure out, okay, of all the UFAs that are in this series, not who's going to make the most on their next contract, but who's going to get the

biggest bump in pay in their next contract? Nazem Khadri's going to get paid you know we know that Andre Palat is going to get paid we know that you think Valeriy Nachushkin might be the one that gets the biggest bump in pay of anybody I think it's a great point I think it's very possible so I got a call from someone on Saturday morning and they said, are you doing 32 thoughts tonight? And I said, no,

out of respect for the great Jeff Merrick, we don't call it 32 when he's not there. But I said, I will be doing some news. And he said, you better do something on the avalanche in the Chushkin. And I said, what's that?

And he said, and this is someone from another team. He said that he's under the impression that the Avalanche have gone to Natchewskan, have told him that aside from the McKinnon extension, he's very high on their priority list. They don't think that they can keep Kadri, but they do think they have a chance to keep Natchewskan. And one of the reasons they feel they have a good chance to keep Natchewskan

is that he knows what it's like to be in a situation where it didn't work for him. You know, if you think about how it ended in Dallas, you know, he ended up in Denver. He knows the difference between being in a place where the fit makes sense and the fit might not.

And he might not be able to make the same money in Denver that he could elsewhere. But this person said to me that they've heard that he understands what is important and they understand that they have to make a competitive offer to keep him. He didn't say the number, but he said he would give Colorado

at least a 50% chance, if not more, to keep him. A couple quick thoughts would wrap up here, and then we'll get on to some news from around the NHL. A big third period, but a big game altogether for Kael McCarr. A pair of goals, scores a shorthanded goal, the 6-0 marker, the 7-0 marker as well. As we're looking to start discussing consmith trophy candidates, where do you place Cale McCarr?

He's one right now. Do you disagree? I mean, I've been a Valerian Natchushkin fan for a while now. The other guy that I think has really distinguished himself is a guy we just talked about, Valerian Natchushkin. But going into the Stanley Cup final, if you asked me who's my favorite for the consmith,

I would have said Cale McCarr. After game one where he was you know shut down uh to some extent by the tampa bay lightning from an individual point of view um i might not have said kel macar but after tonight it's kel macar without a doubt right now vote today it's kel macar for the consmith i have a vote and and if Colorado wins, I think McCart is my guy. I mean, there's two more games to let me figure this out, at least if Colorado wins,

but I'm leaning in his direction if it's the Avalanche. What do you think, we'll end on this one, what do you think happens in game three? I'm not asking for a prediction of a score or a win, but just what do you expect out of both these teams? Let me go one better to you. Okay.

Do you think this series is over? No, I don't. I still want to see Tampa at home. The thing is, my buddies were texting me tonight, do you think this series is over? And I said, Tampa could be down 3-0 in the series and 10-0 in the third period, and I might still be hesitant to stay in the series as old.

Such is my respect for the Lightning that it's very hard for me to say that. I want to see Tampa at home. I want to see Tampa in game three. I think what Colorado has done is spectacular. What Colorado was able to do in game two was phenomenal to the point where you're saying, I don't know what we've seen.

And I'm like, I don't know that we've ever seen a team handle this squad like this. Like this is the Tampa Bay lightning two time defending Stanley cup champ. This does not like teams have beaten them. Sure. But nobody handles them for three periods. That's spectacular. But I'm still not counting him out.

The only other thing I look at with the avalanche is that they just got Pagliano back from a finger injury or something like that. They're waiting for Kadri and hoping they'll get Kadri. And he's got a thumb injury. And Burakovsky, they lost tonight, which I think that might be a thumb injury too. So that's the only thing I wonder about. They've been dominant without Kadri. You know, if they don't have Kadri and they don't have Burakovsky and all they said was more evaluation needs to be done,

which is never a good sign. Do they ever run out of bodies, Jack? I don't think they're close yet. Well, I'll tell you this. I think this is still a team that can withstand losing Andre Burakovsky. Now, Burakovsky is an important piece. Make no mistake about it. But I think this is still a team that can absorb the loss of an Andre Burakovsky.

You know, I got to tell you, the way it's going right now, they could have a fourth line from Faywood Public School in North York and they might have a shot. That's a very cool and self-referential reference, Elliot. Well done. Let's get to some news from around the NHL. Let's start with, actually, let's start with some of the stuff you discussed with David Amber today.

And we'll start with Connor Brown and the Ottawa Senators. We've seen him come close, but say, now I'm going to resign. And maybe now Connor Brown is saying, hmm, maybe I do want to see what's over the other side of the hill. Yeah, that's kind of what we're hearing out there. Last time he signed, as you said, he signed a three-year deal and he gave up a couple of years of unrestricted free agency. And now the word we're hearing is that he's thinking about testing the market. I want to make this very clear. I don't think Ottawa has tried to trade Connor Brown yet. I don't believe that's happened.

I was told it hadn't happened. And I found no evidence that anybody was being untruthful to me. However, I do think what this is going to do is punt the ball right into the senator's hands, and they will decide how this goes. Do they hear this news and trade him now? Or do they keep him and say, let's see how next year goes for us, and then we can make a decision later. I don't know the answer to this question, but that's kind of where we are. I think the senators know that Brown at this point in time is going to be tempted to check the market. And that's kind of where we are. Conor Brown, so everybody understands and everybody knows,

has one more year left on term at $3.6 million on the AAV. And the other thing I would say about Connor Brown is this has been a playoff where a lot of Connor Brown type players have proven to be very good. Like you look at Zach Hyman, you can go up and down the playoffs and you can find people comparable to his game and his skillset. And they have thrived,

thrived thrived i haven't seen anything in these playoffs in terms of what good teams will see in him that will hurt his value i think he's exactly what a lot of teams that have playoff aspirations could use i think you're bang on about that. And I think that, you know, whether it's, you know, the example of Brandon Hagel, whether it's the example of Nick Paul, Paul, of course, formerly of the Ottawa Senators, I think the one thing this playoff has proven is that these players are more in demand than ever before and more valuable than ever before and connor brown certainly fits uh right into that mold the coaching situation around the nhl so john tortorella gets named the head coach of the philadelphia flyers this week that was part of the big news uh and we're still waiting for

barry trotz so maybe before we get to florida and dallas etc what is the latest with barry trotz well he's going into winnipeg next year. And that's going to be a huge meeting. You know, if I was the Jets, I would kidnap him. It seems like every business in Manitoba is essentially demonstrating he'll never have to pay for anything so long as he shall live, as long as he takes this job. Or what I would do is I would say to Barry Trotz, he could get into a room and then I would bring in Chris Walby and I would bring in Doug Brown. And I would bring in all the biggest and baddest current and former Winnipeg Blue Bombers or the biggest people in Winnipeg and say, Barry, you want to get out of here

without a signed contract? You have to go through them. Even in the 60s, we'll all be still intimidating. Oh, yeah. He's a big, big man. I like Chris. Yeah. But that's the thing.

I would say you're not getting out of here until you get a deal, until we have a deal. Well, I mean, that's certainly what Winnipeg Jets fans would want and certainly the Winnipeg Jets would want as well. Well, I mean, that's certainly what Winnipeg Jets fans would want and certainly the Winnipeg Jets would want as well. It does seem as if, you know, the entire province, Elliot, the entire province right now is on Barry Trott's watch. There's no question that that's the case. And the other thing, too, is, you know, you take a look at kind of who you've considered your main competition, right? You've seen Vegas go somewhere else.

You've seen Trott say no to Philly by the way there's one guy on in my DMs who said a couple weeks ago I'm sorry I don't have his name in front of me he bought a Flyers Tortorella jersey because he was banking on Tortorella being the Flyers coach wow and he's very happy to congratulations Congratulations. That's a great purchase. And so all of a sudden, you know Trotz is still out there. I don't think it's Dallas. Nope. I think that ship has sailed.

Yep. I don't think it's going to be Boston. I think they're going to go somewhere a little newer and a little different. You know, I still think Detroit's been around it. There's still some people

who think it's going to be Halpern or the lawn from Tampa Bay, but until Steve Eisenman closes the book, you don't close the book. And I don't think it's going to be Florida. I really don't. Like I've heard that Trots and Brunette have a good relationship.

And like, I had some people throwing theories out there that maybe Trots would go to Florida. Brunette would be his, like the Jedi. You learn at the feet of the master and then brunette would take over but i don't think that's where we're going here trots would have a good relationship and that like people who know trots said they would be shocked if he would do that just because of the relationship he has with brunette i mean we'll find out but like i said said, I heard some optimism on Saturday that that Florida situation was going to be resolved.

We'll see. But anyway, getting back to Winnipeg. So all of a sudden, you're thinking, you're looking at this and you're playing process of elimination. You're thinking, okay, it's us. Maybe Detroit. Maybe he takes the year off, or maybe he goes into Nashville's front office. But if he wants to coach, it's looking much more optimistic this week

than last week for the Jets. I don't care what smoke signals the Jets are sending out. I think Barry Trotz knows if he wants to coach in Winnipeg, he's going to have a comfortable situation. But they are going to say, Barry, what do you need? And we'll make it work. We'll see what happens there with Barry Trotz and the Winnipeg Jets. You mentioned Andrew Burnett and the Florida Panthers there

a couple of seconds ago, and it has felt very much like he's been on the outside looking in, as that team, as you mentioned a number of days ago have interviewed people for the head coaching position should we count andrew brunette out however no we shouldn't there were some rumblings on saturday that things are kind of shaken down and maybe it was optimistic for brunette i just think that that's taking so many twists and turns i'm hesitant to proclaim anything but as you know i don't think florida handled this great you know sometimes you have to be cutthroat but i think you've also got to say to people look here's

the lay of the land and this is the way this is going. Look, they definitely did Zoom interviews. I don't know if they did anyone in person. Again, I've had people dispute to me that they talked to Trotz about the head coach job, but whether they talked to him or not specifically, they definitely talked to some people. Like I said, I got some people telling me they think they're circling back to Burnett, but one thing I do believe is

he's going to have someone with experience next to him. I don't know if it's going to be Travis Breen. I don't know if it's going to be Jeff Blaschel, but there's going to be somebody like that, I think, next. Dallas Stars and Peter DeBoer. Kind of sounds, Frege, like the ball is, in some regards, in Peter DeBoer's court right now. How accurate would you say that is? I think we're going to know in the next couple of days if it's DeBoer's court right now, how accurate would you say that is?

I think we're going to know in the next couple of days if it's DeBoer. And I think in Boston, it's going to be someone a bit fresher. It's going to be Montgomery, or it's going to be Leach, or it's going to be Quinn. I've heard Vellucci's name in there. Spencer Carvery. Spencer Carvery is an interesting one because I forgot this, that when Toronto hired Carvery, the Maple Leafs were already down the road. And I think Boston tried to talk to him. And it was just a situation where it was too far gone.

The other names for Boston I'm kind of wondering about are Nate Lehman. So we talked about in the last podcast or one of our more recent podcasts that they almost hired Lehman for AHL Providence a couple of years ago and it fell apart. And the reason I think it fell apart, Jeff, was not a lot of money. Like I heard that the two sides were not that far apart, but they just couldn't make a deal. And from what I've heard, the two sides consider that just business. Nobody left with hard feelings. They just couldn't make a deal. You know, someone said to me, there's still a lot of mutual like between those two parties. It's hard for me to figure out where this is going to go here.

But I think it's among that kind of group of people. And I don't know if i mentioned but your buddy mark savard too i i do wonder about that it's a good name it fits with it fits with what they're thinking jeff it really does you know i was also told that carbury was a big uh bruce cassidy guy going back to his days in the echl so that does sort of fit part of the story that you were telling a couple of seconds ago. So Savard is interesting.

The Boston Bruins kind of fit and listen, we all know how much, you know, Mark Savard, you know, still to this day adores the Boston Bruins and adores that organization. Like I said, last podcast,

I was told he's scheduled to talk to a couple of NHL teams. We'll see where that one goes. By the way, I want everyone to know how much, yes, I was told he's scheduled to talk to a couple of NHL teams. We'll see where that one goes. By the way, I want everyone to know how much Jeff hopes that Derek O'Lan gets the Detroit job because he wants to do a victory lap. Because he called this from the beginning. We'll see. But now that you said that, it's going to take him out of contention. Right.

Knowing how Detroit is. Edmonton and Jay Woodcroft, we expect this one shortly. Well, Kevin, I saw the tweet. I didn't see the video, but that one's going to happen. That one is going to get done.

I think he called it a developing and fluid situation. Jay Woodcroft, I'm pretty sure, is going to coach the Oilers. I think it'll be a monumental collapse if it doesn't occur. But I just don't think they're there yet.

As someone said to me, the pace of this negotiation is crawling. So they'll get there, but they're just not there yet. A couple of more things here. The Washington Capitol is announcing left hip resurfacing surgery for nicholas backstrom he had that on friday no timetable provided but just indicating that rehab and recovery will be lengthy for nicholas backstrom and the washington capitals for each your thoughts i had been told that if he had to have surgery the issue was going to be the amount of time it would take him to recover, that it would be a long recovery.

And the other thing too, is Backstrom from, you know, hockey purposes is not a young man at 35. And I think that was one of the issues too, that the older you are, the longer it takes to recover. And it sounds like we're at that point. If you take a look at the history, you know, Ed Jovanovsky showed incredible determination to come back from that. Yep.

And he lasted what, 35 games or 37 games? Yeah. The work he put in to get back was awesome. And it really showed his commitment, but that's a tough, tough thing to come back from it really is and so listen with with stuff like this because i don't know i know what i read online so i asked our mutual friend and former colleague dr ali rendley what resurfacing hip surgery is because it sounds like a very specific type of surgery. And this is what she texted back to me.

She said, it's a type of hip replacement generally done in younger patients. The hip is a ball and socket joint in a typical joint replacement. The bones that make up the ball and socket are removed and replaced with metal in resurfacing. The bones are shaved down and covered with metal, but not fully removed. Eventually, that may progress to needing a total hip replacement. Sounds disgusting.

San Jose Sharks and their general manager search. search yeah so the sharks have been uh very careful about this one i'd like to reiterate it appeared unlikely that it was going to be a president of hockey ops gm structure and it also appeared unlikely as if it would be a former GM. Although I think in one or two cases of the final 12, there were former GMs. We'll see. But one thing I do think is that the former shark component was a very significant part of this. I think there were people like John Ferguson interviewed who were once in the organization or former players. Like I do believe now that Mike Greer got an interview. You know, we know Ray Whitney has been a part of this. I think Scott Nickel, who's now based in Nashville was also another interviewee. I'm not sure how

many of them have gotten to the final three to six. I heard that the former shark, like the understanding of the market and selling hockey in the market was a very big part of it. And the other thing too, is I heard there was an international candidate and Jeff, you and I kind of dug around this for a couple of days to try to see who we could think about. Like the first thing I did was I looked at, you know, who's the head of German hockey? Cause I think of Hasso Plattner, the owner, and he would have a lot of tie-ins to German hockey.

And the head of German hockey is Franz Reindl, but he's 67 years old. And this is someone they want to have a long future with the team. And I just don't know if that's the case, but I did come up with a name. I asked around like who could be an international person? And this is purely a guess. But one of the names that came to me was Reto Raffner. His last name is R-A-F-F-A-I-N-E-R. And he played in the Swiss League and now runs Davos.

So I don't know if that is right, but when I was asking people like who's an international individual, someone blurted out that name to me and I asked a couple other people and he's 40. I don't know if it's right, but you know, I just kind of wanted to say that this is some of the investigating you and I are doing.

And you had some other names, right? A couple of names that were shared with me are actually brothers from Sarnia, but they work in Sweden right now. And that is Cam and Chris Abbott, 38 years old. I mentioned they're from Sarnia, went to Cornell. They're running Rogla. Chris is the general manager of RoglaGLA and Cam is the coach. Maybe I'm stretching it, you know, the idea of an international candidate because they are Canadian but working in Europe right now.

But those were a couple of names that were sort of said to me as potential candidates that would fit the profile of A, international candidate, and B, fit that age demographic? San Jose wants someone that they're going to work with for a number of years. Here's a couple of brothers that are in their late 30s. Jeff, I think that's a great name. And I should say two great names, but I don't have any clarity. But I heard there was a serious international candidate. And when I asked around, I had a couple of people tell me that Raffner, he fits the

profile. He makes sense. A former player who's now in management and is a guy who's seen as a pretty smart young person, which I think is what San Jose is kind of looking for. Let's end on one name here. So wrap up another podcast here. Sure. Jesper Bratt and the New Jersey Devils. Oh yeah. Thank you for reminding me of this. I've said a couple of different times in a couple of different places as we all wonder

about the, you know, the, the fun summer of offer sheets. That's one of the people that I wonder if there'll be offer sheeted or not. Do you have a thought on what's happening with Jesper Bratt and the New Jersey Devils right now? Well, first of all, I don't know if it makes a ton of sense to offer sheet Jersey. I think that what you want to do is you want to offer sheet a situation where you're going to put a huge squeeze on them to be able to do things. I don't think New Jersey is necessarily that team. They have, according to CapFriendly, 25 million in cap space right now. Yeah. But listen, but that's the nature of

offer sheets, right? Is you price someone out of the area of comfort that you have for that player. Yeah, I guess. By their definition, they're always inflationary. I see a team with a ton of cap space and I think a desire to keep Brad. I don't know if that makes any sense. I guess if you thought the ownership there was too cheap to pay the player, but I don't see that in New Jersey. That ownership, they just gave $63 million to Dougie Hamilton. You don't think they're going to pay Jesper Brad? If you offer sheet them? For me, if it's Jesper Brad, it doesn't even come to that.

Like, I think so highly of this player. What do we know about the New Jersey Devils? You know, down the middle, it's Jack Hughes and Nico Heischer. I think that New Jersey thinks that Dawson Mercer is their third-line center, although, you know, some might say we're not sure whether Dawson Mercer is our third line center, although some might say we're not sure whether Dawson Mercer is our third line center. But nonetheless, we know that one of the top wingers on this team, a top six winger, is

Jesper Brad. And sometimes when teams see RFA with arbitration rights, they sometimes get a little bit nervous or scared because that player's decimal point is not controlled by them. But for me, if I'm running the New Jersey Devils, Jesper Bratt remains a New Jersey Devil for the long term. Now, there's something I think going on here. I think that I have kind of an idea. Now, his last contract negotiation was a tough one. Like both sides really grinded. That's what negotiations are. You know, some of them are easier.

Some of them are really challenging. I heard that was a really challenging, hard negotiation. And the Devils got their money's worth. Like, you know, Bratt fought for that deal, which obviously was higher than the Devils wanted to do at the time. But, you know, he came through for the money. He was appointed a game player this year. So there is a theory going around there that knowing how hard the last negotiation was, everybody's kind of preparing for a tough one here. And so I've had a couple of teams wonder if this is like a little bit of saber rattling.

Not that the Devils don't want to keep the player, but that the Devils know that this one could be a challenge. So they've kind of just, like, I suspect, I don't know, but I suspect there was a negotiation earlier this year that didn't end up close. And I think what the devils did was they just said, okay, if we have to do this, what's his value? And the other thing that someone reminded me today, and this was an agent, he said, the devils are going to qualify, Brad. And then arbitration is going to come. So they could really punt this

into arbitration if they wanted to. My theory on this one is that both sides are gearing for another negotiative clash. There's a little bit of saber rattling going on here. Hang on. Are you trying to make a case for offer sheets here? I just don't see how in this case it would work. I mean, you're right. It's inflationary for sure. I could see a lot of teams interested. For sure.

Who wouldn't be? In Jesper Brat, 23 years old, high-end skill, fantastic winger. I get that this Albert negotiation may be tough. I get it. I understand that. Although, man, if I'm New Jersey and I'm seeing, like you can see all the pieces coming together and whether they keep the second overall pick

or turn it into a significant player that helps them, if they fix the goaltending situation in New Jersey in this offseason, and I have to think that that is job number one with all due respect to the Jesper Bratt negotiation. Can't you look at New Jersey and say this team is right there and making that turn? That's why I think that any talk of trading him is a little bit premature. I could be proven wrong. I don't do it.

Like, I'll tell you this. When people say teams want to trade for him, I'm with you. I believe it. I think there's 31 teams that will want to trade for him, I'm with you. I believe it. I think there's 31 teams that will want to trade for him. When people say that his name's been out there, like I said, I suspect that there was a negotiation at some point earlier this year that wasn't close. But what I think this is about until proven wrong is that you've got a team and an agent that had one very challenging negotiation last time, which by the way, worked out. And I think they're just preparing for another tough negotiation this time. All right. And we'll see what happens in New Jersey for each.

Yeah. And just before we go, I had some Flames fans tweeting at me, Johnny Goudreau, what's going on with johnny goudreau and i think he's got a big life decision to make and i think he's thinking about it he knows what the flames are willing to do this is a huge decision and i think he's thinking about it and we're thinking about wrapping up and we'll do it taking us out as a saxophonist from london england who's always looking for ways to present her music in the most unique way possible. Oh, saxophonist, cool. Laura Misch spent last summer traveling the British countryside with the filmmaker Greg Barnes, shooting her solo performances in Sunset Fields and Rivers, all with a belt that featured a preamp, looper,

and modular effects. Offered 2017 record Playground, here's Laura Misch with Climb on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Enjoy. Thank you.