32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Trade Deadline Wrap Up

Episode Date: April 13, 2021

The NHL Trade Deadline ended with a splash. Jeff and Elliotte discuss the trade between the Red Wings and Capitals (00:00), how it was structured, and why certain players (and picks) were in the mix. They also recap — Taylor Hall to Boston (17:30), the Pens picking up Jeff Carter (28:30), all the action from […]

I can tell Elliot's not reading his phone. No, actually, I didn't put my foot massager on. I didn't. The phone's not buzzing. I think I'm doing pretty good here. That's how you know he's serious about the podcast. He didn't put the foot massager on. To start the podcast today, the post-trade deadline podcast.

So we're recording this show at 8.14 Eastern on Monday night. We've just gotten home from Sportsnet. You had a quick power nap because you've had exactly three hours sleep, Elliot. I don't know how you're doing this, just coasting on fumes. And we're ready to rock and roll. And we're going to start it off with a tweet from legendary tweeter Dale Hunter's Helmet, who tweets, Is Christopher Stieg the first trade deadline host

to require a medical timeout? Elliot, that was the highlight of my day. First of all, I love Versteeg. I think he's- He's hilarious. He's hilarious. He's great. I'm so glad he's on our team.

Like Versteeg is fantastic. And for those that didn't watch, if you're stateside or didn't watch in Canada, we started out the show today, do the big open, come in. I do like a 30 second preamble. I think I threw to you guys first for an update, came back to do my desk,

which had Chris Versteeg and Jennifer Botterill. And I'm about to throw to Versteeg and I'm looking over and he's like holding his nose. And I'm about to throw to Versteeg, and I'm looking over, and he's like holding his nose. And I'm like, are you okay? He goes, I just got a bloody nose. I don't know what to do. Like right at the beginning of the show, Elliot. What did he do?

Don't know. He didn't even know either. He's just like, I don't know where. I just got a bloody nose. We have no clue. And so then for the entire, so of course like bx gets that information and then it's game on and so it was non-stop roasting of chris for steve

all throughout the trade deadline coverage for uh for opening up with the blade like i've always maintained just stay alive and you'll see some crazy stuff i'm glad i made it to this age because i got to see chris for steve open up a trade deadline show with a bloody nose. Did you know what was going on at the trade breaker's desk? No, I couldn't because Versteeg was facing the same way I was, so I wasn't looking at his direction. And secondly, there's all the cameras and the monitors between us and you. So when you said I tried to look, and I had to look around it. It was pretty funny. It was pretty funny.

It was pretty good. How was your trade deadline experience this time around? I don't know. I did a radio hit in Calgary on the drive home and I have no idea. They said to me, how do you feel? My answer to them was, I have no idea what planet I'm on. This day is such a blur.

It's interesting so last week the day that the ontario premiere uh doug ford said that we were going into a lockdown sportsnet and our corporate overlords at rogers decided that they were going to cut down the show and it's not only about us really it's also about all the people that work behind the scenes all of the producers the directors the technical people the camera people you know everybody else there yeah and they you know i mean we're all in a confined space and they amount to they decide to limit the amount of people and also they said instead of going on at eight in the morning eastern we're going on at noon and you know they, they asked me, you know, I don't think they were really asking me for permission. They basically told me we were going

to do it, but we're, you know, they're asking my opinion, you know, just what do you think? And I said, you know, I, from a competitive point of view, I don't like it, but I understand it in this day and age. I think it's the responsible thing to do and i can't argue with the health and safety of our co-workers right so i got in jeff at eight in the morning you were already there right what time did you get in 7 30 so yeah because i i noticed when i got upstairs for my rapid test you were already there my rapid test was 8 10 okay so i saw you up there and because we weren't on, like I thought those first four hours, they seemed like forever. Yes. Like the morning felt like it took 20 years to get through.

It took a long time to get to 12 o'clock. Yes, it did. And then we got on and things were happening a bit, but then it from two to about three 34 o'clock, it was busy. And then when it was over in the, in the Verana Mantha trade, the biggest surprise of the day came down after that was done. I felt like I crashed right into a wall. Let me ask you about that. We'll, we'll, we'll pick up on this here in a second but going into today you kept saying there's going to be something yeah that nobody sees coming there's going to be one thing that nobody sees coming did you know this

was coming no i didn't because that my first thought is this is what elliot's been teasing now for weeks no no i i believe there's always a surprise because first of all, you could be the best insider in the world, which I am not, and still not see things coming. I was once at a forum and one of the guests was Ned Colletti. Yeah. Currently works for the Sharks and used to be the GM of the Dodgers. He's a really tight friend of brian burke's and we didn't know each other before then but i was working on a panel with him and he said you know you're supposed to be this insider how much do you

think you really know about what goes on the league and i said 10 and he said i think that's actually a very honest answer he says unless you're really in the league, you don't know a lot of the stuff that doesn't go on. And I do agree with that. And I always believe there's going to be a surprise because I always think there's things that are being talked about behind the scenes. Now, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence that we could have potentially seen something like this coming after it was over. Number one, I think Mantha was kind of in the Detroit doghouse.

Number two, Vrana was definitely in the Washington doghouse, which I was sorry to see because I really like Vrana as a player and I like dealing with him. I don't know Mantha as well. C, I think we knew that Washingtonhington was trying to move ponix money and d you know when when i reported that detroit was willing to move anyone not named cider raymond or larkin it was because i had heard the red Wings had basically said, this rebuild is going to be longer than we realized.

And they signed Mantha to a big extension this year, four times, I think it's 5.7. And I think they knew that by the time they were ready to really be good, Mantha might be the end of that deal. And so I see a lot of reasons that maybe we could have seen this coming but I don't think anyone really had any clue and the other thing too is Iserman and McClellan they work pretty quietly which I think is another reason we didn't find out about it by the way I should say this I had someone else tell me that the Red Wings were not too eager to move Roenick either, who

might be their leading scorer this year. Right. That's the defenseman, Philip Roenick? Yes. So the interesting thing about Anthony Mantha is you say that he's in the doghouse with the Detroit Red Wings previous to this deal. Yeah.

Did it not seem like Anthony Mantha was in the doghouse with the Red Wings almost from the minute they drafted him? Because of what Jim Develano said? Yeah. Well, it was like, it seemed like at every single turn. And again, I'm not there, so I don't know the inner workings and the conversations and the practices and all of that. But it seems as if, you know, right from the get-go, and the Jim DeVolano thing really got on everybody's radar,

where he sort of questioned whether this guy's ever going to be in NHL or essentially. Just seemed from then, from that beginning, that here's Anthony Mantha, first-round draft pick, playing, you, playing Val D'Or in the Quebec League. That one season he scored 81 goals in 81 games. Are there flaws in his game? Yes. But does he do one of, if not the hardest thing in the sport of hockey, score goals? Absolutely.

You almost got the sense that there was no way this was going to be a long-term relationship between these two parties. Is that fair yeah i think that's very fair i think the other thing though that kind of changed made me wonder if it would be different though jeff was a he's a young guy and you always wonder how young people are going to change i mean sport is full of people who are young and i don't know if immature is the right word or they just have they have room to grow and then you see them when they're 25 26 27 and you see how they've changed

and you say boy we're really lucky that we held on to that guy like i look at matthews and marner in toronto for example i think they've become two of the best players in the league. And, you know, a couple of years ago, I think people really doubted that. So you have to be very careful about the judgments you make on people when they're very young. The other thing too, though, is that because, you know, Iserman has been taking over, I don't think he cares about preconceived notions.

I think he just decides what he sees in front of him right yep and i just look at it as okay i've seen enough i'm ready to do this now the other question that leads to me about the red wings is and i stress this is purely my personal opinion, Larkin has two years left at 6.1. If one of the reasons you're thinking of moving players is the rebuild is going to take longer, what do you think about Larkin? My answer to that, and again, just me, I would keep a player like him around.

I understand your answer here's why when you're going through rebuilds and you're flooding your team with young players yeah you need to have older players around them but here's the caveat they still need to be able to relate to younger players like you can't have a group of kids in their early 20s and some veteran players who are all married and have three kids and other responsibilities and when the game the practice the team event is done they're out of there you know fred flintstone 501 on friday yabba dabba doo i'm out of the quarry, gonzo. Man, that is a really dated reference by me. I hope everyone remembers the Flintstones. Next, Jeff will talk about his new favorite

show, I Love Lucy. And the Honeymooners. Here we go. I think they need to be players in their late 20s to at least be able to relate to younger players. You start to get into your 30s and then the common bonds are kind of strained, to put it gently, between younger players and older players.

What do you think of Larkin on that team? The other thing I think of is that you have to give your fans a reason to go to games, right? Yes. I think Dylan Larkin is a reason to go to games. I'm just looking at this. I'm just looking at this. All of a sudden, you know, Dylan Larkin is two years away from unrestricted free agency and the Red Wings are more than two years away. If I worked for another team, okay, I would look at this move today and I would say the

Red Wings weren't thrilled with Anthony Manta, but the Capitals had to pay a lot to get him. What it says to me is I have no reason to believe the Red Wings have a problem with Dylan Larkin, but if I make them a really good offer, what will they say to me? I think that's fair to at least entertain as an idea. See, that's the way I look at it from outside. That was my reaction. Let me do this on this trade then. Let me play amateur insider.

Okay. If I was on your panel with CJ and you were on my panel today with Bots and Versteeg. Yep. And you said, Jeff, what do you think of this Washington-Detroit deal? Okay. Here's what I would say to you. I'd say, well, host Elliot, it looks to me as if it's two deals. It's Anthony Mantha for Jacob Verana and the first and second in exchange for taking the contract of Richard Ponick. I would disagree with you slightly.

How so? I think the second is for taking Ponick's contract. I think Verana and a first for Mantha. Which is interesting because they're more similar than they are different statistically. I really like Vrana. The one story I love telling about Vrana was in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final,

I want to say it was after Game 4. Washington was up 3-1, and there were a couple days off, and the Capitals fans will tell me if I'm off. I know the story's right. I just might have the day wrong. But there were two days off between games. That's why I think it was game four.

And the Capitals told all of their players, their regulars, take the day off. Okay? And one Capitol regular skated and took practice that day. And it was Jacob Verana. And I saw him after the practice. And I said to him, you're the only guy skating. And he said, I can't score.

I have to practice scoring. And he went out the next game and he scored a huge goal. And I always remembered that. To me, that's a guy who gets it. So I've always taken real interest in verana but i think at their best i would take mantha over verana and the other thing too is mantha signed the capitals they need cost certainty with re-signing ovechkin they're going to get cost certainty here i don't think that that's insignificant. I can remember talking to

someone from the Boston Bruins. This would have been the 2014 draft. And I can't remember which tournament this was. It might've been the U18. And Verana had a great tournament, filled the net. David Pasternak was injured. And I remember talking to someone from the Boston Bruins who brought up the point that going into it, they valued Pasternak more than Verana. And in some ways, the fact that Pasternak was injured was a blessing because the entire hype was all around Jacob Verana.

And that's why he went 13th and David Pasternak fell to the Boston Bruins at 25th but going into that season there was the okay who's the better goal scorer here I'm pretty sure Boston was one of them that favored Pasternak and in some ways and look how it's worked out for David Pasternak yeah the injury actually helped uh the Boston Bruins for that draft just as a side note there. All right, we have a lot to get into on the podcast. Anything more with the Washington Detroit trade, or should we move things along?

Let's move things along. Let's do it. We've got a lot to get to today. Welcome to 31 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra AT4. Taylor Hall has been traded to the Boston Bruins. He and Curtis Lazar were traded late last night as GM Kevin Adams continues to make changes. In exchange, the Sabres will get a second-round draft pick and forward Anders Bjork. But it is reportedly part of a deal that the Sabres will still pay half of Hall's $8 million salary. This news came very late last night, and a lot of people are just waking up to it.

Lauren Hall is in the newsroom getting your feedback this morning. What are people saying, Lauren? Hey, good morning, Melissa. Good morning, Pete. Yeah, this is something many fans may just be learning about as they're waking up, so we're getting people's live reactions right now. Nick in the 716 Lazar is getting a lot of love from people this morning. Nick is just one of the comments we've gotten about him. He says he's more annoyed we lost him than anything else. Tyler May not holding back on Facebook. He says he's more annoyed we lost him than anything else. Tyler May not holding back on Facebook. He says we got robbed again. And then Richard on Facebook says he was hoping for at least a conditional first round pick.

Okay, welcome to the post-trade deadline edition of 31 Thoughts, the podcast. As I mentioned off the top, we had a lot to get to here. We're going to plow through as much as we can until we start to bore A, you, and B, ourselves. So, Elliot, Taylor Hall, Curtis Lazar, to the Boston Bruins in exchange for Anders Bjork and a second round pick. Buffalo eats 50% of the Taylor Hall contract. Your initial thoughts before we start to sharpen the pencil on this one. Taylor Hall confirmed a lot of things that i think we've previously reported and have kind of been known but it's different when someone actually comes out and says it number one he really wanted to go to boston number two i think he wanted to go to boston here because he wants to sign with them next year.

Number three, he came close to signing with them last year, but couldn't. And the reason I heard is that the Bruins had to move money around and make some moves and he just didn't want to wait. He wanted to play. So he saw, he wanted to know where he was going to play. So we signed with Buffalo. I think a lot of this, you know, he confirmed for us. I think Vegas was in, I think the lot of this, you know, he confirmed for us. I think Vegas was in, I think the Islanders were in, I think St. Louis was in, although I'm not sure how much,

and I just think he said, get me to Buffalo. So that is funny because I had, I got a DM from a St. Louis blues player who said, have you heard anything about us getting taylor hall and i said no and i don't want to bug this was uh sunday night so i don't want to bug elliot it's a busy night for him but i haven't heard that i said what about you and he said ah just rumblings around here do you know how close it was with st louis at all i just know they were in i don't know that it was close i'll tell you this i think it was close with vegas i mean as close as it can be without hall saying yes right i think it was potentially close with vegas i think it was close with the islanders but more close with the

islanders earlier in the week than later in the week that would have been pre paul mary's ajak deal yes like that was basically the islanders making a choice and been pre paul mary's ajak deal yes like that was basically the islanders making a choice and they took paul mary over hall okay you know i don't think the boston offer was the best offer that buffalo got but you know hall made it pretty clear he was going to flex his muscles as is his right kevin adams pretty much said as much, and Taylor Hall himself said... I'll say that, yeah, definitely the no move really helped me become a Bruin. You know, since I knew that I would be traded

for the last few weeks, it was a team that I really wanted to join and really wanted to be a part of. Like, to your point, like everything just pointed out, Taylor Hall said, this is where I want to go. If you want to move me, make this happen. Well, we have better offers from other teams. That doesn't concern me.

I have this clause and this is where I want to go. I'll tell you this. If the Islanders had chosen him over Paul Mary on Wednesday, I don't think he was saying no to that. But I think at the end of the week when Boston really got in there, because I had heard, and I don't know if we'll ever know the truth, I had heard Boston was in, and then they were kind of, I don't know if out is the right word, but it didn't look likely. And then all of a sudden they came back to the forefront.

So I really do think there was a time on Wednesday, Hall thought he was going to be an Islander. And then on the weekend, once the Bruins really started going, then I think he had his heart set on them. I want to get back to Taylor Hall here in a second. And if you can see this as a longer term opportunity for him with the Boston Bruins,

but what do you think of the return for the Buffalo Sabres? I know this raised a lot of eyebrows. Bjork in his second-round pick, and Buffalo eats half of the contract. What do you make of that? Well, I mean, when the player flexes his muscle, you lose your leverage, so you do the best you can do, right? Yep.

Now, I think at one time, Buffalo asked Boston for one of their two young goalies, either of Ledar or Swayman. And that obviously didn't happen. And then, you know, they moved on to whatever it was. They have a lot of guys

who wouldn't, I wouldn't surprise me if they were be interested in someone like Bjork Jason Nightingale was the assistant director of amateur scouting he worked for a year on Notre Dame staff just before Bjork got there their head of amateur scouting Jerry Fortin has a long history of NCAA scouting you you know, Don Granato, uh, with all of his years of coaching in the youth hockey, minor hockey level there. I'm sure he has people who knows Bjork. Like I was told the Sabres would have a lot of people who would have a lot of insight into Bjork. So I'm not surprised that he was a player that they focused on would you know not necessarily the

teams but what the nature of some of the other offers would be i heard the islander offer was similar to the one that they did with paul mary now obviously there was a bit more in the paul mary deal because zay jack was involved, right? Right. Like basically, I heard last Wednesday, and I think Chris has mentioned this, the Islanders were deciding, Palmieri or Hall. And the Islanders made their decision. They went for Palmieri. Back to Taylor Hall.

What are the chances? What are the odds? What are the desires? Or maybe you can just say, well, we'll see how he plays with the Boston Bruins here, Merrick, that Taylor Hall ends up signing a longer-term deal with Boston at the end of all of this. I'm essentially wondering, does he want to go through

the unrestricted free agency dance in a flat-cap universe right now? Well, if you listen to him today, you think he wants to stay. 100% is what he says. This is a test drive. This is a test drive for the bruins and for him he wants to be a bruin and the major reason he picked the bruins is he wants this to be a long-term relationship this i am glad that i i missed the era of online dating i am so glad that i miss dating apps i'm so glad i'm so glad i missed all of that

i did online dating but i was pre-tender did you like it no i hated it as a matter of fact what i did though and this actually did work for me was so as people know i went to school western one year i went back to western because they asked me to do a speech to their journalism students like a lecture so i agreed to do it i went up the night before and I met up with some buddies from a university there and we went out and we had a good night. Okay. So I looked like hell the next morning and honestly, I looked terrible. I really looked awful. And after like the student paper came to interview me, the Gazette, and they're like, can we

take your picture? And I'm like, do you really have to? Like you could pull one off the internet. Like you have to take a picture of me now. And they're like, yes, we'd like a, and a fresh updated picture. And I'm like, oh my God. So I did it. have to like you could pull one off the internet like you have to take a picture of me now and they're like yes we'd like a and a fresh updated picture and i'm like oh my god so i did it like a couple days later the picture appeared and someone called me from the university and said have you seen this picture of you in the university paper and i go no and so it was online and it was so bad

like if you find it you'll know which one it is it's so bad i look awful so what i did was i used that picture as my online dating profile awesome i actually said this is the worst picture of me that exists so if you can handle this i can assure you it's better than this and it worked It was an excellent opener. I only have one, and I got to be very careful how I say this. I have one, I think the dating app was Tinder story. I got a call from a friend of mine. She was, she doesn't play in the CW, the league doesn't exist anymore, but she used to play

in the CWHL and she called me up one day looking for a reference for someone, one of our colleagues who she was matched with on Tinder that I had to give a reference for. Oh, my goodness. And no, I'm not going to tell you who it is. Was it Dave Amber? It was not David Amber. Why would you go to David Amber first?

Because I think he would take the most offense that I would pick him I'm going with people who would be really bothered really bothered by saying that yeah was it CJ was it CJ I can see it being CJ no you're actually honestly you're cold like directionally you're cold

you're in a cold area right now was it Kelly Rudy it is one of our no it's not Kelly Rudy it is one of our, no, it's not Kelly Rudy. It is one of our colleagues though. All right. You mentioned Buffalo a second ago, asking for young Boston Bruins netminders. And I think a lot of people are interested to find out

or try to snoop around what's happening with the Buffalo Sabres and Linus Ulmark. He's on an expiring contract. And now is this not advantage player? Yes. Because trade deadline has come and gone, and they have not done a thing with him. You can have as many expressions of interest

and negotiate in good faith as you want, but Allmark has to know that after him, if he leaves, there's a whole bunch of question marks in Buffalo's crease right now. Yes, and Buffalo made the choice that they weren't going to extend, they weren't going to be able to extend them right now, but they weren't going to trade them.

And they have said that this is a priority. They want to get Elmark signed. You know, even though they have a really good young prospect, you want to remind us who he is? Ukapeka Laukanen. Yes. He's about two years away. Sudbury Wolves,

goaltender, Finnish guy, playing in the American League with Rochester. Last year played Cincinnati. Real good prospect, but still probably two years away. Uka Pekka Laukanen. And I think the other thing is that

I think the Sabres really feel that, and this is true, Allmark has played really hard in a very difficult situation and you always want to bet on the guy you know they know him so i think that's what's going on here is they're betting on the guy they know and they want to sign him and they made the decision probably about a day or two before the deadline that they were going to hold on to him and take their chances dangerous does it probably mean you overpay him yes it probably does but i mean first of all you always could walk away later if you wanted to but secondly i think that

if you're gonna do that do it with the guy you know. Elsewhere around trade deadline, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now, Ron Hextall last week did talk about wanting to do something down the middle. Also talked about wanting to bring in someone with a little bit of size. And they end up getting Jeff Carter from the Los Angeles Kings. I think they were in on Zajac, by the way. They're in on Zajac? Yeah, that was a guy they liked.

Then how did they get to Jeff Carter? And why Jeff Carter? LA, by the way, retains 50% of the contract, picks third round 2022 and fourth in 2023 for Jeff Carter. Well, I mean, Ron Hextall talked a lot about this, that he was a guy they kind of targeted. It's interesting because when I heard it, I was surprised. You know, last year, Philadelphia thought about bringing back Carter.

And Carter made it pretty clear he wasn't interested in the East Coast at that time. He wasn't interested in anything but LA. But obviously, Pittsburgh worked it, and they got the guy at the right time. And it'll be interesting there. There's very interesting cap recapture implications here too, right? If he retires, yeah. If he retires after this year you know there's not a big penalty

for anybody involved here to me the most fascinating thing about it is the fact that carter did it because there's been a couple times in the past couple years i think arizona tried to get him to at one point and he said no i i'm not doing that you know, this is a guy who went from no, no, no, no, no to yes. And to me, that's the most fascinating part of the whole story. And it's always been about family for him. To me, the most fascinating part of the story is there's an opportunity in our hockey world right now for the Pittsburgh Penguins to win the Stanley Cup with Jeff Carter

in the lineup and Ron Hextall as the general manager. It is kind of funny. You just let the gravity of that sink in for a second. And again, just stay alive and you'll see some, some pretty interesting things. Toronto Maple Leafs. Let's go over some of their moves uh nick felino is the big one and the big price and san jose helped hold some of the kitty here uh first round pick so columbus picks up another one they've got three now and two fourths in exchange for nick felino well i think that one player the maple leaves looked at was connor garland

arizona yeah he's uh arbitration eligible this season you know i think that would have been the most fascinating thing about it like i i do if you look at what the maple leaves did what did they do they added felino ufa yeah they added riley nash ufa They added Ben Hutton, UFA. They added David Riddick, UFA. And I think all of that was important because they want to keep Zach Hyman, and they need the ultimate flexibility to do that. So that's point number one. I do think they had some pretty intense conversations about Garland I don't believe it was ever close

but I think they talked about it and I think they talked about it with Arizona and one of the things that was most fascinating is because depending on how it all went Garland didn't have a contract for next year as you said he's arbitration eligible so you'd have this backup like this to me is the most fascinating thing about it about that possibility is if hyman leaves you have garland if hyman stays you know were they thinking we take garland for this run and then figure it out down the road i mean it's a really fascinating thing to me. But the price would have been higher, though. But then the potential would exist for them to sign Zach Hyman

and not qualify Conor Garland? I wouldn't say not qualify, but maybe you move him. Interesting dynamic. But this is, like I said, I don't know what they were thinking. I just know they talked about it. I don't think it was ever close. They didn't make the move for Foligno until they knew they weren't getting Garland. what they were thinking. I just know they talked about it. I don't think it was ever close. They didn't make the move for Foligno until they knew they weren't getting Garland.

Could they have done both? I have no idea. Because Garland's only making 775 this year, right? But I think they looked at it. He's due for a big race. Everybody's on the same page. This guy's getting a race. Anyway, I like what Toronto did. I think they made their team better. They gave one player off their roster race he like we are every everybody's on the same page this guy this guy's getting a race anyway i

like what toronto did i think they made their team better they gave one player off their roster barabanov who needed to go play they don't have a lot of draft picks the next two years but they didn't give up any of their best prospects like you know one of the teams told me after the deadline was over that when they were talking with toronto was pretty clear like Toronto said we're not doing Robertson we're not doing Sandin that I think they said we're not doing Lilligren and we're not doing Amaroff I think those were the four guys that Toronto told them they weren't doing so they basically knew that Toronto wanted to keep their prospects and they were willing to move picks like look we talked about this ad nauseum. They're all in.

This is their year to go for it. And they took one guy off their roster. Yeah. I don't know how you can be critical of that. And when you look at where that pick is going to be, like this is not going to be a top 10 pick. No, it's not. Like this is going to be a, we're waiting for this pick

the first day of the draft. We're towards the end when people are folding up chairs and folding up their notes. Dave Riddick comes in for a third round pick. You mentioned Ben Hutton as well. I think when it comes to the Maple Leafs, you look at the totality of the moves, and we'll get to Montreal in a second.

I think you do the same thing there. They got a forward, they got a goalie, they got a defenseman. That's what was on the wishlist. One of the things I think, I know Folman that's what was on the wish list you know one of the things i think i know felino's going to be the headline and riddick's going to be a story as well but going into deadline wasn't one of the questions who's defenseman number seven yeah for the toronto maple leafs and you were looking at a whole lot of inexperienced and maybe players

that you weren't necessarily that comfortable putting in that position. You know, apropos of nothing, just the night before the deadline, somebody was telling me that they thought Hutton would be a good pickup for someone because he'd been playing reasonably well. And the other thing too, is, and I believe, I can't remember who on the desk said this, was it Versteeg or was it Biexa? uh ben hutton he's never gonna cause you a problem yeah bx was saying that he's the guy that comes to the rink with a smile he's not gonna complain about anything get away from me i'm depressed i can't stand people like you yeah put it this way he's the kind of guy berkey would hate yes the eternally optimistic person the real

happy guy and you know what i i have to say that the other thing here is that riley nash he's gonna play for this team in the playoffs yeah uh fourth line center role makes a whole lot of sense he's played them twice the least i've seen a lot of them he played against them for boston in the playoffs and columbus i don't think it's a coincidence they did it for a cat move but they also did it because they liked the player Montreal Canadiens and before we get to the totality of what Marc Bergevin has done going back to Jake Allen and Joel Edmondson and Josh Anderson and Corey Perry etc what's the deal with the uh the tony d'angelo montreal situation so basically what happened was

the canadians decided that they were wanted to give d'angelo a look but they didn't want to pick up the five million for next year right yeah so what was going to have to happen was d'angelo and the uh rangers were going to have to agree to a termination and then the Canadians were going to sign him to a contract for next year now I don't know the exact number but basically from what I heard it was going to make D'Angelo whole because D'Angelo whole. Because D'Angelo's under 26. Yep. He was only, he's getting bought out for one third next year, not two thirds.

Okay. So by not accepting the termination, he saves just under 3 million. I think Montreal was going to make him pretty close to whole. That's what I understood between next year and this year, he was going to make him pretty close to hole. That's what I understood. Between next year and this year, he was going to be close to hole. However, he decided not to do it, and he'll take the buyout. He turned down the Canadians.

What I think is that he believes there's going to be other opportunities for him, and maybe there's something that he thinks is better, but he does seem to believe there's going to be opportunities for him. We'll see. We'll see where it goes this off season. But Montreal was definitely interested and they offered him a contract for next year

that was going to, if not make him whole, come pretty close to it. One element of the Montreal Canadiens at deadline. The other, and I don't know where you, maybe we'll just go right from the very beginning with Mark Bergevin. It seemed as if the moment they lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, Mark Bergevin in the bubble, Mark Bergevin said, okay, this is our shot at it. Okay. Last year at trade deadline, you can recall, you know, a year ago, Elliot, they're getting rid of everybody. What do you want?

We're firing bodies out the door. We got to do something. And then the NHL came back and by virtue of how they were going to construct their playoffs, the Montreal Canadiens found themselves in a playoff position and won a round and beat the Pittsburgh Penguins

in kind of spectacular fashion. And then ended up falling to the Philadelphia Flyers. And then Bergevin went to work replacing players, trades, signings, and they continued all season long, coach firings. Like it became pretty obvious that this was a general manager saying, we need to do this this season. They lose Victor Mete on waivers on Monday, make the move for Eric Gustafson, they make the move for John Merrill,

and the Montreal Canadiens are, quote unquote, again, reinforcing that they are all in. Your thoughts on what Bergevin's done? I mean, you can't accuse him of being inactive. I mean, at the end of the day, once his guys get healthy,

Sherrod Gallagher, I look at that team. I just think it should be better than it is. I don't know what's going on this year. I look at them and I feel they should be better than they are. On paper, that's a roster that I think should be challenging for first place in the North Division. They got a lot of guys.

They have a lot of guys. So it's funny because Versteeg and I looked at each other when you made the announcement of the Eric Gustafson. I think it was you that made the announcement or broke the trade that Gustafsson comes in. We kind of looked at each other and we said, how many contracts does Montreal have now? Like, does it not feel like Montreal has like 70 contracts when you're only allowed 50? Yes, it does. They have so many bodies.

I do wonder about that. I remember the one year Washington under Boudreaux where they went out and they got Scotter and a bunch of guys yeah and then there were guys who were unhappy they weren't playing yeah i i wonder about all that i do wonder if sometimes you get to too much the team is not equal to the sum of its parts right now it just isn't as good as it should be. Let's do the Winnipeg Jets, Elliot. And we went into trade deadline and you said, you know, Winnipeg Jets, you know, they're going to be looking for a defenseman and like everybody else, everyone was drawing lines between them and players like David Savard, who ended up going to the Tampa Bay Lightning. And Kevin Sheveldayoff sort of waited in the shadows

and waited and waited until the very last minute where he picked up Jordy Ben from the Vancouver Canucks. Your thoughts on the Jets? See, I think they tried something big. Okay, Kevin Sheveldayoff at his presser said that. You know, obviously there's a lot of teams did some other things, but you know, for, for yourself, um, you know, you, you, you look at what's available in front of you, what, uh,

what fits and, and, uh, you know, you make those moves accordingly. And we looked at a few other things that we tried to do a couple of other things today that, uh, um, you know, might've been some big swings, but, um, you know, the, the players that we targeted didn't move. See, I believe that's true. I'm not in the habit of calling somebody a liar unless I can absolutely prove it. I don't believe he's lying about this. I heard that they were really trying something big,

and at the end, they just decided it was too rich. Doing something really big with a defenseman? Yes. Now, it could have been a bigger thing. All I heard is that there was something big. I've tried to figure out what it was still early. So, you know, I'm sure by putting it out in this podcast, everybody will start looking for what it was.

I have some suspicions that maybe it was potentially Nashville or Buffalo or maybe even someone like Anaheim, but I don't know exactly. Like those are all guesses. Yeah. I do believe he really wanted to do something. And at the end, he just decided it was too rich. And doing this, would he have known that

Jordy Ben was in his hip pocket all along should he want to make that deal yes okay uh florida panthers uh sam bennett and brandon montour are now members of the florida panthers they tried to get david savard they also got nikita gusev they did after new jersey Jersey parted ways. If you take a look at it, it's a pretty interesting group this year, the Panthers, right? In the sense of Carter Verhage, Anthony Duclair, now Gusev, now Sam Bennett. I think in the NHL, you have to catch that lightning in a bottle sometimes, right?

Yep. For lack of a better term, the island of misfit toys. You have to try that sometimes. You know who's had a really good year for them this year? Mackenzie Wieger. Sure has. And there was a belief that the Toronto Maple Leafs tried to alleviate Florida of the burden of having such a wonderful defenseman on their roster.

They definitely did try. But that's the thing that I was really curious about here is that Florida, they've tried some unconventional things this year. And so far they've been working. And now they're going to try a couple more. I'll tell you, that first-round series, whoever it ends up being in, I can't even remember what these divisions are called right now,

but whoever finishes second and third of that Florida-Carolina-Tampa triumvirate, that's going to be one of the best series of the first round. Well, and in a lot of ways, it's the Central Division, by the way. well and you know in a lot of ways it's a central division by the way thank you you really kind of hope that it's tampa because you just want to get these two teams meeting in the playoffs a shame that one would have to go out in the first round but i don't care just these two have been in the league for too long that close together in the same state for them not to play against one another

the other end of that sam bennett deal is of course the calgary flames and brad treliving i thought he did well i thought his value was good basically two second rounders because they got a a prospect uh from last year i heard some like a couple a couple people texted me about that prospect after we put it out there emil hanneman there's a there, a couple of people texted me about that prospect after we put it out there. Emil Heinemann? There's a, there's a couple of teams that really liked him as a player. They say that he's going to be middle six guy

who's going to kill some penalties and drive people crazy. You know, they was, they said good things about him. What happens now with the Calgary Flames? I mean, this was a, this was a tough day for Flames fans. It's been a tough season for, for Flames fans. It seemed like it was a tough day for Flames fans. It's been a tough season for Flames fans.

It seemed like it was a tough day for Brad Treliving. Did some things that he kind of got the feeling he had to do. Like, this was not the plan for the Flames this year. Like, the Flames go out and pick up Tanev and pick up Markstrom. As a general manager, you're not expecting to have that type of press conference on trade deadline. No, I think they were hoping they were going to be able to move Ryan too. There were definitely some talks around him, but obviously it didn't happen. But you know what?

You got a third rounder for Riddick. You got the two seconds essentially for Bennett but I do think the Flames are pretty much doing their legwork what happens now the other team I heard that Chuck Fletcher had an interesting comment about I'm gonna fix some things in the offseason I think Philly's been doing a lot of their legwork too laying the groundwork for what's going on. Surprised they redid Scott Lawton? No, because I think Lawton wanted to stay. You know, the Tanner Pearson deal, that really changed some things.

I think it affected the Ayafollah deal, and I think it affected the Lawton deal, but those were two players who wanted to stay you know Iafalo wanted to stay in LA and Lawton wanted to stay in Philly and I heard that the Pearson deal kind of changed the landscape around them you know and you have to do your grinding on both sides but neither one of those two guys wanted to go anywhere. As a matter of fact, like in Philly's case, I think they investigated trading him.

Like they were checking the market. I heard LA, like Rob Blake was saying, yeah, I don't, even if we don't sign him, which they did, I don't know if we're trading him. I probably not. I want to get your thoughts quickly on the Vancouver Canucks. We talked about Jordy Benn from the Winnipeg

point of view. Jim Benning also moving out. Adam Gaudette to the Chicago Blackhawks. Matthew Highmore comes back the other way. It was interesting watching Christopher Stieg, who knows Highmore, played with him, go out of his way to mention how good a player Highmore is

and what the Vancouver Canucks are getting in this guy. Well, I mean, obviously the Canuck Twitter was not giving it rave reviews. So I was very interested in hearing what Versteeg had to say. You know, I think there's a couple of things at play here. Number one, I think think godette was ready to go from vancouver let's take the covid situation out of this okay let's just talk about it from a

purely hockey point of view well hang on one thing that jim benning did mention is this is the classic he needs a change of scenery yes you know We had reported a couple times this year that Gaudette was out there. I think they talked to Nashville about him. I think they talked to Boston about him, and probably more. Those are two I know of. I think Gaudette was ready to go. I think he felt his career was stagnating in Vancouver, and he was ready to move on,

and I think the Canucks were ready to, obviously ready to accommodate him. They did. Now, Ian McIntyre, who does a, you know, a great job of reporting out there for us, he said that there was no correspondence with the whole situation and Gaudette being sort of the patient zero of the covid situation out there

look i i i find this very hard to talk about in the sense that ian's my teammate i don't like disagreeing with my teammates unless it's bx who I'm happy to disagree with all the time. I just think that this whole last couple of weeks has put an enormous strain on the franchise. And I had one agent who told me that some of the players really thought the coverage of the symptoms and stuff was way overblown. And I had others who told me, no, you know, this is serious. And some players are really unhappy.

So the truth is probably somewhere in the middle, right? You know, Jeff, I just look at it and I'm like, it's hard to believe that the past couple of weeks didn't accelerate an already unhappy player's departure makes sense a couple things not things that happened and we'll conclude on this not things that happened but things that didn't happen the name ryan getzlaff was a surprise to a few people just hearing that his name was out there now we've talked about the Anaheim Ducks before and I think a lot of people looked at the Anaheim Ducks and said how come not more moves but I

think a lot of people were surprised even to hear his name involved in trade discussions despite the fact that he's in you know impending unrestricted free agent nothing ended up happening with ryan gets laugh but was it ever close i don't think it was close i think it was discussed you know like i said i believe montreal called and asked about him and you know i don't think he was going there i I think if it was anywhere, it was close. I think Getzlaff was willing to discuss the possibility of Vegas. But one of the things that Anaheim did was, the prices were really high for a lot of Anaheim's guys. One of the teams that was asking about Josh Manson said to me, it was like they were basically saying,

don't ask, but if you do, it's going to be so high that you're not going to want to do it anyway. So, you know, that's kind of where it was there. I really liked Anaheim's gamble on Hayden Flurry. Like I see two teams that got what they wanted there. I thought it was a good gamble for Anaheim, a younger player that needs more of an opportunity to play, and I think that Carolina got the kind of player that they were looking for. A right-hand shot D.

Physical defenseman. Yanni Hakenpah, he's a beast. If you've watched any of their games this year, he's a beast. He's making 750K and he's not signed for next year. I mean, those two teams got what they wanted. Third in the NHL in hits.

He uses that body. He's your bruiser. But I think a lot of Anaheim's other guys, they were saying, we're going to make it hard on you. Let's end on this. We've've seen this before but not as much as we saw it this season the third team holding part of the press san jose twice i don't know that there's a term for it yet but it'll come the bag man i'm gonna call them the bag man the bag man

okay the bag man oh san jose's the bag man on the on the the felino deal the bag man phenomena in the nhl in a flat cap nhl universe around trade deadline not even trade deadline just trades in general do we expect to see the bag man more i think so over the next few years you know the other thing i wonder too you know as contracts start to end and the world starts to reshape you know do teams have more cap room because they just are stricter or stingier with the contracts like i look at some of the contracts this week you know how many guys are going to get five five-year deals like lawton did and the other thing too is lawton's deal has only a million dollars in bonuses.

I think that's going to be, I think the big guys are still going to get their heavy bonuses. But again, this is the vanishing of the middle class. I have followed has no bonuses, but he got four years. There's not, there's not going to be a lot of guys who get four years. And all of these guys, they signed with their teams, right? Pearson too. You know, one of the things I really think is that some of the biggest issues were term. You know, I think Vancouver wanted to do two years with Pearson

and Pearson fought for the third year. I think for the longest time, LA only wanted to do two years with Iafalo, and Iafalo fought for term. With Lawton, I think there was a willingness to do five years. However, the biggest issue was getting the money up on that one, from what I heard. But I think these deals are going to be challenges. And, you know, Jeff, I think, yes, you are going to be challenges and you know jeff i think yes

you're going to see this more and more and i'm really curious to see how the overall structure of contracts changes my final question to you is as we sign off this recording 9 18 eastern yep on monday night from when you take the headphones off and turn the microphone off how quickly will you be asleep i'm gonna be asleep pretty fast because you know what i have a regional tuesday night calgary, and I got to get the blog done tomorrow. I'm going to do something that I've never done with this blog before. What's that? And that is I'm going to wake up at six in the morning and start writing then.

I've never done that before. Elliot, time for bed. Nighty night. This blog is going to be especially incoherent. Great job today, bud. Well done, both you and CJ. You too. Great job hosting.

The insiders at our insiders desk were fantastic. Yeah, CJ's a stud, man. Oh, dude, that guy is a beast. You know, he got up and ran this morning before we did all those hits, and we were in for our COVID test at 8 o'clock. CJ went for another run. Guy is fantastic. I thought I did a lot.

I did a Peloton. You did a Peloton at like 2 a.m. yesterday. Yeah, I did a 15-minute climb and a 20-minute low impact and a five-minute cool down at 2 in the morning. And I think this is crazy. And he got up and ran. I'm the laziest of the three of you. I said, forget it.

It's going to be a busy day I went to bed last night at 10.30 I woke up to the hall trade oh my god that's so funny and by the way the guy who DM'd me to start that whole Jeff Merrick fight conversation last week he sent me another DM

saying that he loved the conversation and he still says I'm taking Campbell plus 285 smart guy taking us out is an artist who's been He loved the conversation, and he still says, I'm taking Campbell plus 285. Smart guy. Taking us out is an artist who's been in and around the Canadian indie scene for quite some time. Nathan Lohr released a full-length album, The Minotaurs, in 2007,

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