32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Vegas, Baby.

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

In this strictly news edition of 32 Thoughts live from Las Vegas, Jeff and Elliotte unwrap all the news and notes emanating from the Strip. They begin with a discussion about which pick marks the official "start" of the 2024 NHL Draft in terms of action (4:00).  Then, Jeff and Elliotte park some time to talk about Ken Holland and the Edmonton Oilers parting ways (9:21). They also talk about Leon Draisaitl's future (14:14). Jeff and Elliotte unveil that Tyler Toffoli is on the LA Kings' radar (17:45), and they delve into Josh Manson's future with the Colorado Avalanche (19:00). The fellas talk about the Andrew Mangiapane trade (19:36), and they unpack the Juuse Saros contract extension (20:22).In the back half of the show, Jeff and Elliotte delve into the buyouts (23:00), and Elliotte talks about Sam Reinhart most likely extending with the Florida Panthers (24:12). The guys provide the latest in Guentzel Watch (26:15), and weigh in on all the moves made by the Vancouver Canucks in the past 48 hours (27:51). They also talk Chris Tanev as we get closer to finding out his future (30:33). Jeff and Elliotte weigh in on the Jake Walman trade (33:22), and shed light on Max Domi's future with the Toronto Maple Leafs (34:11). They wrap the pod with excitement as they look forward to the NHL Draft at the Sphere (35:34).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailThis podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.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. 

How we doing man? We feeling good? You look like number one bullcrap. How's it feel man? Yeah, I'm good man. For some reason you sound more Russian on YouTube. But anyways, this would be your second hard trophy win. Do you know where you put the other one or what do you do? Yeah, it's at my office. So much enthusiasm from Kucherov. Kucherov loving it up the top man. What are your predictions for the next season Nikita? What do you like? I'll try to win the cup.

That is such amazing advice for hockey players, man. What do you want? Okay, welcome to a special pre-draft edition of 32 Thoughts to Podcast. This will be a special news podcast. We're going to fire through as much news as we know, as is current. The show is always brought to you by the GMC Sierra Elevation.

And because there will be no Montana's Thought Line on this one, it is strictly news, a bonus pod. We want to shout out one of our key sponsors. We've had a great relationship with them all season. And that's Montana's, Montana's Barbecue and Bar, Canada's home for barbecue. Now, before we get going, we almost had one of the great fashion moments in the history of the NHL Awards. Do you care to explain what happened to you on Thursday late afternoon? Yes, I want to shout out Sheena Zar, who was the makeup artist at the awards. So one of the great things Sportsnet does is they ship our suits in the trucks so that

we don't have to carry them around with us and they stay in pristine condition the only minor problem in this particular case yeah was that the studs for the tuxedo shirt did not arrive who are you blaming for that names names who are you blaming say not blaming anybody else. Sam Kidderson and Back to School. Say it! Say it! They are far more good for me than they are bad for me. He's trying to get you in trouble. The problem about this thing was that if you thought the debate on Thursday night was bad,

what would have been worse would be my human sweater being released to the general public on stage. No debate about it. In between Jim Neal and Rick Talkett as Conor Bedard accepted the Calder Trophy. However... Hang on.

As I've told you, Paul Bissonette walked so you could run. Yes. He opened up the buttons so you could open yours for the great unveiling. But Sheena Zar, Las Vegas-based makeup artist, S-H-E-E-N-A-Z-A-R, she found some buttons and she sewed them on the shirt. Crisis?

Crisis averted. Gotcha. But what I really wanted to do was I wanted to shout her out because this is someone who I just met who went above and beyond. And I really appreciate it. So if anyone in the Las Vegas area needs a makeup artist. Or some buttons. Or some buttons sewed on. Yeah.

Look up Sheena. So I really appreciate it. I also wanted to just shout out quickly from the awards, in addition to the people who won, Noah Lalonde, one of the presenters. Oh, so good. Has a dog named Crosby. Yeah.

Yeah. I love that. Do you know what my favorite dog story is? Okay. Dog hockey story. Ready for it? Boy, we're really wasting the first of the pod. I know.

We're going to get to news. Corey Conacher named his dog after the goalie he scored his first NHL goal against. You know what his dog's name is? Holtby. Oh. That's actually. How do you think Holtby feels about that? I'll tell you who's not going to find that funny.

Yeah, Braden Holtby. Braden Holtby. Anyhow, we move on. We're at Vegas for the draft, folks. That's why we're here. We're going to plow through a ton of news. But you have some questions about the draft before we get rolling. Yeah, so I just want to talk to you.

We'll start our news segment here. We all know who's going one. Yep. Celebrini. So I looked at Jason Bukala and Sam Cosentino, our draft experts, to see where they think it's going from here. They both have Demidov going two, Levshunov going three. I had some people who thought that the Blackhawks were going to take Levshunov, but I defer to these two guys.

They know more than I do. What do you think is going to happen? Based on, now, I've only really been at this for a couple of weeks and the most recent conversations were this morning and that would be thursday morning and so i haven't been at it as long as uh books and sammy have so again i will defer to them based on my conversations is my belief that chicago will take cliff schoonhoff second. Anaheim will take Ziv Buim third. You think Anaheim's taking Ziv Buim? I do.

Third overall, Junior Duck turns into Big Duck. Yep. Caden Lindstrom goes to the Columbus Blue Jackets at four. Okay, I'm going to stop you there. Because I think that's where the draft really starts. At number four? Yeah. And then Debedoff falls to the Montreal Canadiens.

I will say to you, the Columbus Blue Jackets had a beautiful moment at the awards on Thursday night when Lindy Noel was honored, the living kidney donor for Aaron Portsline. I thought that was gorgeous really special and you know i talked to lindy briefly and she goes i've talked to todd shirock about you todd shirock is the outstanding media relations person of the columbus blue jackets and i said oh yeah how often does todd swear immediately after he mentions my name? And she said only about 20 percent of the time. Let's see if I can raise that number. I'll say this. The draft, I think, really starts here in terms of action. I think Columbus is the center of the universe when it comes to potentially moving down. And there are teams out there who believe that the Blue Jackets are motivated to do something

big. They would like to make a splash. Now, Pierre Lebrun had the report about Philadelphia. about Philadelphia. I didn't hear everything Pierre said, but he's right that Philly was in there. What I heard was Columbus wanted something big. The 12, which would have to be included because that's Philly's current pick. Philly has the 32nd pick and potentially Colorado's number one from next year

and that's that's from the Walker deal what's that from the Walker deal yes and what I heard was that was too much for Philly but the two teams were expected to speak again today, Friday. Now, I think there's another team in there. I don't believe that Philly is the only team in there. And this is a guess. Are you going to say Calgary? No, I wasn't going to say Calgary. Why were you going to say Calgary? I'm just wondering if Calgary has a feeling that Montreal is interested in T.G. Ginnla. Do they jump up? Okay. I wonder if the other team

is potentially Carolina. And Martin Natchez is included in this. That's the team I'm throwing a dart at. Okay. And we'll see if that dart is a triple 20 or i broke a light

a side of the board all right but i i think there's more than one team i i think people see that columbus is motivated to deal interesting So we'll see what happens later on today, a few hours after you listen to this podcast. Now, another team that made a move today with draft picks are the San Jose Sharks. Yep. So San Jose trades 14 and 42 to Buffalo in exchange for the 11th overall pick.

Your theory is what? Cole Iserman. Who is a teammate of Macklin Celebrini at Shattuck St. Mary's and going to Boston University next year. And you and I have had the debate whether Macklin Celebrini is going to be you next year. Yeah. And I wonder if this would warm him up to it.

You don't trade from 14 to 11 unless you think there's someone you can't get at 14 absolutely absolutely true and what it also allows you to do if you want to is even move up a couple more spots yep if it still scares you that's my theory and i i'm not the only one with it other people have, but I think it's a very good working theory. We shall see. A lot of drama, we suspect, at this year's edition of the NHL Draft here in Vegas. Also around the NHL, let's just start firing through some news here. We'll start with the Edmonton Oilers, and the big one is Ken Holland and the Edmonton Oilers. Or should we say Ken Holland X of the Edmonton Oilers? Yeah, we say Ken Holland X of the Edmonton Oilers?

Yeah, I think this was kind of the expected outcome. I think Ken Holland was ready to move on. There's going to be a new power structure there. And, you know, one of the things that happened because Edmonton went all the way to game seven is that they couldn't go search for anyone else. The last thing the Oilers wanted in the Stanley Cup final is that, oh, hey, they're talking to this guy so i think everybody knew that it was going to end this

way um i think everybody was okay with it and what i believe is going to happen is that edmonton is going to get through this weekend and they said we have to plan to do the draft and free agency without Ken Holland but we better have a plan and we'll worry about hiring someone in July and I think that's exactly what's going to happen now Jeff Jackson clarified one thing that he doesn't want to be the longtime GM. He's kind of the interim GM right now, but he's going to go out and he's going to get someone else. And when I was on with Bob Stauffer on Thursday night, the name I kind of threw out there is the type of profile, not necessarily that he's going to be the person,

but the type of profile is like a Jason Botterill type. Someone who's either been in the chair before or has been around a long time i think they're a little concerned about a rookie gm with the kind of decisions that need to make right and he also said in his media interview on thursday that he wants the new gm involved in the dry sidle negotiations. So that's, I think, where we are. And that's what we're going to do. Ken Holland said goodbye to the players on Wednesday. And, you know, I heard that was a little bit emotional. You know, I think, look, you can debate the goods and the bads of Ken Holland's tenure, but you can debate the merits of Ken Holland, good news, bad news.

I don't think his true impact was about that. I think the biggest and best thing he did with the Oilers was he taught them how to ride the wave. did with the Oilers was he taught them how to ride the wave. So I spoke to him the day before game seven and I said, how did they get back in this series? And he said that in Canada, you are always two losses away from total chaos. And he said that this team has been through so much craziness during the five years he was there,

ups, downs, crises, non-crises, that he felt they could handle everything. And he was like that. He didn't go crazy when a lot of us went crazy. About goalies specifically. Exactly. They made coaching changes, but there were times he would make a coaching change six months after people had started screaming about it. So I really do think that that was the biggest impact he had on them. voice you know I talked about this year there was talk that Cody Cece was going to be traded the players went to them and said you know don't do that now he didn't always do what they wanted but he did listen and they appreciated that and you know you think with Connor McDavid's former

agent Jeff Jackson being in charge now that that won change. But I know the leaders and the players really appreciated that about him. So I think the biggest change from Holland leaving will not necessarily be his moves, but it will be the way his personality affected the team. And I know that a general manager, that's not what most of us judge them on, but it was a very, very big part of what molded the Oilers into a team

that could come back from 3-0 down in the final and almost win the Stanley Cup. So I want to ask you about Leon here in a couple of seconds, but first, the future of Ken Hollandlland do we see ken holland again i think we will i think it'll be on his own timeline one team i could see being interested in him in a advisory or a consultant type role would be utah that's one team i could see utah would make a lot of sense um to leon dreisaitl the last time we talked about him we talked about not making decisions be Utah. That's one team I could see. Utah would make a lot of sense. To Leon Dreisaitl, last time we talked

about him, we talked about not making decisions when you're emotional. I would imagine he's still emotional. I don't think it's a good time to make decisions yet, but where is Leon Dreisaitl his camp at? I like people who make emotional decisions as long as it's not me.

Oh, I'm all for everybody making emotional decisions. Players, managers, everybody, mascots, name it. So I know everybody freaks out when something doesn't happen on July 1st. Or when players say, I need time to think about it. Yeah, well, the thing is, it became pretty clear to me during the cup final, this was not going to happen on July 1st. And who knows, maybe they surprise us all and it does. But it was pretty clear to me that this was going to be a middle of July

kind of thing at the earliest, Jeff. I think that he needed to get over the emotion of the situation. He needed time to think. And that's what agents do too like his agent mike liute he has been in the nhl for 5 000 years and true as a goalie as an agent so should have been the leader of the pa he'll slow leon down and just say hey like now as we said, and Jeff Jackson said, I think he wants the new GM to talk to Leon, too. And, you know, the other thing that happens, too, is that when you go to game seven of a final and you lose by one point, it can change what you're thinking. And I think that is the other thing

that Dreisaitl has to get through as well. But the number one thing that goes in my head is this is not just a Leon Dreisaitl negotiation. This is also a Conor McDavid negotiation. Can I throw one more in? Evan Bouchard? Yes. No offense to Evan Bouchard

because he's a good player this is about dry sideline mcdave saying the sidebar to this is i don't think he wants to make a decision long term until he knows what's happening with those fair enough fair enough but this is about those two guys and there's no way that there's going to be any clarity until both of them know exactly what each other is thinking. And I don't think the Oilers, especially as this went into the final, I got the sense that the Oilers were like, if this doesn't happen by the draft, we're not going to panic. If this doesn't happen by July 1stst we're not going to panic we'll see what happens you get time what's that you have time this why panic well i just think fans panic i get that but yeah management well they won't shouldn't panic no they so i think this goes

into the summer and i think it's like i said it's not just a dry settle conversation. It's a dry settle McDavid conversation. Because they're going to both want to know what the other one is going to do, plus what the team's plans are. They've got a billion unrestricted free agents, including the line that helped turn around the Stanley Cup, Brown, Henrik, and Janmark. Okay, let's fly through some other names and some other teams here. And we hope you get a chance to listen to this

because by the time Friday rolls around, it's late Friday afternoon, there'll be a whole bunch of new news to talk about. Los Angeles Kings are closing in on whom? Or maybe put it better, the Los Angeles Kings are interested in whom? I think Tyler Toffoli is very much on their radar uh I think I can't remember which pot it was but I recently mentioned Vancouver's must have been last Friday Vancouver Rangers our west coast hockey buddy John Davis say you forgot a team the Kings yep and I think they're going to be a very real contender for him uh you mentioned the new york rangers jacob truba so jacob truba switches

from a full no trade protection to partial on july 1st and as we know now they have asked him for the teams. That's true. It's not a big deal. However, Chris Drury has shown this offseason, if he has to make a hard decision. He is not emotional. That is not popular. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Always. He will do it.

And I think what that has done is definitely sent waves through the NHL that Jacob Truba can be be had so we'll see what he decides to do uh josh manson colorado now colorado also by the way uh re-signed casey middlestad um to a three year 17.25 million dollar deal 5.7 on the aav but josh man, what's the future here? Well, I just heard that teams had asked Colorado about Manson. He also goes to partial protection on July 1st, but I heard that Colorado had no interest in doing that, that he is their most physical defenseman, and they'd really be losing a lot if they couldn't keep him.

Now, of course, after I say that, he'll probably probably be traded 10 minutes after the podcast drops but i i heard they had like no interest in moving him um the washington capitals you know what they're doing adding salary adding players yeah adding andrew manjapani yes in exchange for a second round draft pick your thoughts here well that said to me that the flames were not going to extend him, that he was not a part of their future. It says to me that Washington

is, like we said, that they were going to be busy, and they are busy. Pierre-Luc Dubois, 8.5. Andrew Mangiapane, 5.8. Let's add some salary here. They're buying low. Mangiapane had a really tough year. You'd think he'd be motivated.

But what it said to me is he was not part of Calgary's future. And it leads to a lot of talk that maybe the Jake DeBrus to Calgary talk is real. Though I heard one thing about the Flames. They were going to be very careful about term. Right. With the amount of kids coming. Something you reported on Thursday as well, the Nashville Predators and UC Soros, eight-year going to be in the sevens. And I was like, what, really? And what I heard, and I heard this not from any of the direct parties involved, but I heard it from, I think, someone who would know, is that Yussi Saro said, get this done.

I want to be a predator. Get this done. And so it's getting done. You know, he's going to extend. You know, I think that there's a lot of talk about what this means for Askarov, and we'll see. But the one thing I love about Barry Trotz is he's super blunt. I think it was Alex Dougherty this week that was talking with Barry Trotz.

Dougherty covers the Predators for the Nashville Tennessean. And Trotz said some quote. He's so good. He said, Yaroslav Askarov will be ready not when you think he's ready or the fans think he's ready or I think he's ready he'll be ready when he's ready so I mean we'll see how the player feels you never know but the Predators um they are not rushing this guy and it was he's still only in his early 20s. Yeah, but you know how some kids are. I know, but it is.

They want to play. I know it's first-round pick and all that, but he's a goaltender. Hey, man, it's easy for you and me to say, but back when you were doing your show with Bill Waters and Bill was taking all the airtime, you were steaming on the side. You wanted more airtime. I know you're kind of like that. So, like I said, it's easy for us to say i heard that the predators had a chance to bring lankanen back that there was there's

something going on there but you know we'll see um and also you know one uh someone who reminded me that you know sorrows over marinated while renee was there right oh yeah so like going back to david poyle the predators aren't afraid to do this we'll see we'll see what see how it all works out listen to the 32 thoughts podcast ad free on Music, included with Prime. Okay, Elliot, buyouts. I reported Thursday morning Ryan Suter will be bought out by the Dallas Stars, the final year of his contract,

and we wonder about Jeff Skinner and the Buffalo Sabres as well first of all good scoop on Ryan Suter blind squirrel finds a nut um you know I think I think he you know Ryan Suter will be definitely motivated by that um yep clearly wants to play and I have no doubt he'll find something uh Skinner, Kevin Adams indicated here on Thursday, no decisions are final yet, but he kind of hinted that, you know, it's kind of, we talked about Skinner's not inclined to waive his no-move clause. Because the thing is, you know, why would you go on waivers

instead of picking your spot? So we'll see where this goes. But I've wondered about Seattle for Skinner. Again, every time I... What's that? Botterill factor. Yeah, and any team that team's looking for scoring. And the botterill factor, as you said.

You know, one thing about Buffalo too, I think a couple of the guys that Adams has kind of looked at, I think he's looked at a couple of Pittsburgh guys, Lars Eller and Riley Smith. I don't think either one of them is going to happen necessarily, but I think that was some of the stuff he kicked around. And I also wanted to mention, it really sounds like Sam Reinhardt, if not announced,

that's happening in Florida, I think. There's not a person in the league who thinks that Sam Reinhardt is going to free agency. And they wonder if it's one of those things that it's sort of like Bill Zito has that in the corner. And he says, okay, I've got my contracts. I've got that. How much other room do I have to play with? So everybody thinks the Reinhardt thing is done.

Yep. I assume around nine, nine and a half. Okay. And we'll see. And then. There's some tens on the board there. No. A goalie, a winger, a center.

I don't think. No, I'm just saying, like, how do you do this? Well, that's the thing. And now there's the Verhage rumors, which don't discount yeah i can see that and now you know the ekblad thing and i'll credit to dave peg the verhege rumors by the way are then resigning him like extending i'm not the verhege rumors are extended yes yes um you know dave pegnoto wrote about aaron ekblad uh potentially being available. I don't know that to be true, but I'm not

saying he's wrong because that rumor has been going around for a while. And he goes, during the Stanley Cup final, it's impossible to kind of deal with that. And Ekblad's going from a no-move clause to a partial. And, you know, there's definitely been

some talk that that could happen it's like ryan mcdonough uh a couple years ago when julian won the cast and ryan mcdonough right after they lost their attempt at the third straight stanley cup and say we got to do this so it's it's it's basically the same thing but you know we'll we'll see where that all goes. But I have multiple people telling me that the Reinhardt thing is done and whether or not it's signed by Monday, he's not going to the market. Jake Gensel, does he get to market? So Carolina wants to get Gensel done before the draft, really seriously. They've been aggressive and they're attempting to do it.

There are several teams who think it's going to get done. Nothing is done until it's done, I always say on Merrick, but there are several teams who believe it's going to get done. One of the theories about Vancouver's decisions the other day, in terms of re-signing a lot of their own players, is that maybe there'd been some intel out there that the Gensel situation was trending in that direction. We'll see what Friday brings,

but one of the other teams that was rumored to be into Gensel was Tampa. I have no idea how they'd make that work, but it fits their MO. There was some suspicion that Tampa was in on Gensel. Again, Carolina was trying to close this, and as of Thursday night, there was zero confirmation, but there are teams who believe Gensel's going to get done in Carolina. We'll see if that's right or that's bad intel. Because remember, around the draft, everybody lies. All right. Well, clock's ticking when you're listening to this podcast right now

on Jake Gensel and the Carolina Hurricanes, if that's when they want it done. You mentioned the Vancouver Canucks, and they've been busy. They've been getting rid of players to the Chicago Blackhawks and opening up room for Dakota Joshua and re-signing Tyler Myers and re-signing Teddy Bluger. Yes. McCabe and Lafferty, by the way, we should mention, go to Chicago.

Yeah, so they made the deal. Myers. He was really, hang on, Myers is really good for them i i like i like tyler myers i think he's a great person i know that rutherford and talk it really like him and talk it like size and they're worried they're gonna lose the door off so they couldn't i really think that they couldn't lose though both those guys that would fundamentally change the way they play defense. Here's the funny thing about Myers. Remember the last time he signed Vancouver?

It got out like a week early. He was going to the Canucks. Then everybody spent a week denying it, saying it's not happening. It's not done. This is a lot harder than you think. And he signed with the Canucks. We've been saying for weeks they were going to get something done with Myers, Jeff. And all of a sudden, oh, it's really complicated.

It's really convoluted. And they get something done with Myers at the exact number that we all thought they were. It's three times three. So in the future, whenever Tyler Myers is is a free agent we think he's going somewhere don't believe the lies uh anything else on vancouver i i think dakota joshua left money on the table for sure yeah you know you know what i'll by the way you know what i wanted to say this do you know what i heard really aside from the way talking is in a lot of ways but you know what i heard really won over some players in in vancouver this year won over some won over some players

so you think you have a good team he puts you in position to succeed but someone one player said to me today there was something else that he did that scored with them. What's that? Remember when Carson Soucy got suspended in the playoffs? They said he really aggressively defended Soucy in the hearing. He challenged NHL player safety a couple times. And it got back to the other players. I thought that was a nice touch.

Neat little touch. All right. Elsewhere around the NHL. I mean, Tuckett would have expertise at getting suspended. So he would know what it was all about. If anyone's going to go into a hearing with George Peros and be willing to take his jacket off and loosen the tie around his neck, it's going to be Rick Totten.

That was nice. A couple of players we have our eyes on in advance of Monday and the free agent window opening. Chris Tanev. It does very much feel like this thing is coming down to Dallas versus Toronto. You know, I have to say this.

I had people say to me Thursday night that they don't think Vancouver's out of this yet. I really think, I have to say this. I had people say to me Thursday night that they don't think Vancouver's out of this yet. I really think, I just don't know. Like, here's the thing, though. Like, I think Dallas really wants them bad. I agree. I think they're wondering what Toronto and Vancouver could do here. I think they want them really bad.

I think it's probably pushed it's pushed dallas a little bit already and it probably has to push them even farther into a place there they weren't initially comfortable going yeah but well like dallas can sell the no tax yeah and toronto can add years and so can vancouver so good vancouver like our stories that are willing to add years well look like tree living loves the player oh yeah and rutherford when he wants to do something he gets it done so but i i do think dallas is motivated to try to close this i'm just not sure they're going to be able to and remember we i think think William Carrier is a guy on Dallas' radar too. You know, other defensemen that we wonder about being on radars is Brett Pesci.

One team that I wonder about with Brett Pesci are the New Jersey Devils. I know Nashville is interested, Dallas. Utah. Toronto. Utah. Utah, yeah. Utah's going to get a defenseman somewhere here. I had wondered if they were going to get Brady Shea and Brad Pesci as a pair.

I don't think so. I got that shot down here in Vegas. Okay. I know a lot of people are thinking Nashville for Brady Shea. Nashville for Brady Shea? Yeah, a lot of people are thinking that. So I'm wondering about Brad Pesci in New Jersey. We speculated that.

It was speculated elsewhere this week. It had to be a subsequent move with like a John Marino. But I can see New Jersey and Brett Pesci being here. You look, there's several teams out there you're looking at for D. And several players. We haven't mentioned Montour yet. Yep. Matt Roy.

We haven't mentioned him yet.. Yep. Matt Roy. We haven't mentioned him yet. It's musical chairs, right? There's Toronto looking for one D, maybe two. There's Boston, I think, looking for a D. Yep. There's Nashville looking for at least one D. There's Utah looking for one or two. There's New Jersey.

Like there's a bunch of teams looking for D. So there's this merry-go-round here. Hey, I want to get your thoughts too. I know it's kind of a little older story considering that we've just gone through a week over the course of three days, but the pride of Armor Heights goes from Detroit to San Jose. Jake Wallman in a second round

pick yeah everybody wonders is just eiserman loading up to do something big here well i heard he was completely blindsided like he didn't see it coming um the fact that eiserman hasn't talked says something to me because i'm not gonna talk till it's all done that's exactly it like like the thing about eiserman is he doesn't duck it's not like he's afraid of us just doesn't like us well it's a long line of general managers who don't like us it's okay um but he will give explanations i I think you're right. I think there's something else coming here and he'll talk to us when it's all over.

Trying to make beliefs. Max Domi. I heard four times four was what Domi was looking for and I don't think that's unreasonable. Badly wants to stay. So what I think is going on is Toronto has kind of indicated

we got to sort out our D first and then they're going to circle back on some of these guys. Now the question is, does Domi go get something else? Does Bertuzzi get something else? So that's the question. I think Toronto has prioritized our best resources have to go to our blue line

and we'll see how everything else shakes out. I'm going to stay away from the hot scalding pot that is Mitch Marner, aside to say that I do think they're preparing to make him an offer. We'll see. One other note here. St. Louis Blues making some news the other day. Steve Ott gets the bump up from assistant to associate coach.

Yeah. And also, Claude Julian joins as an assistant coach. I'm pretty sure they're also talking to and may have offered the job to Bruce Boudreau as well. So just throw that note out there as well. Anything else you want to go over before you wrap up this special news edition before the NHL draft?

I mean, I hope you enjoy this podcast because it could all be out of date really quickly. We'll see. I got to say, I'm really looking forward to this year. So I was there on Thursday afternoon. I heard you're not allowed to take pictures. It is spectacular. Or you were allowed to take pictures, but you couldn't post them.

Can't post anything. No. And that's fair. Yeah. Because honestly, when you see it, you are going to be stunned. I was ready for it to be like, oh, this is cool. Elliot, it's incredible. It is incredible in there.

And to see what the NHL has put together and how this is going to look and all the different graphics, Elliot, this is fantastic. I just hope that it turns out good on television. That's the only question. Because when you walk into the sphere, it's spectacular. It's stunning. It's like the most hardened, cynical, I-hate-everything hockey fan looks at this and says, this is fantastic.

This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen from the draft. When you get there later on today, you're going to be stunned. I think you're going to love it. Yeah, I'm looking forward to the rehearsal on Friday morning and the draft itself. I'm very excited for it. It's going to be good. Yeah, I'm looking forward to the rehearsal on Friday morning and the draft itself. I'm very excited for it. It's going to be good. Again, thanks to our sponsors, the GMC Sierra Elevation

and Montana's Barbecue and Bar Canada's Home for Barbecue. Thanks for joining us on this pre-draft edition of the pod. Yes, Ali. And before you wrap it up. I just did. So you're taking a red-eye home Friday night, right? I am, yes. So what Dom and I might do, depending on your time,

if you have to run to the airport, because I know you like to be at the airport seven hours early. Closer to eight, but yeah. What's that? Closer to eight, but yeah. Okay. What I might do with Dom is I might just do a stream of consciousness. That'd go well.

You'll lack of sleep the last two weeks. And we're going to do one after July 1st. Oh, yeah. That will be our final pod of the year. So that's our podcasting schedule. That is the schedule. All right. Enjoy the draft.

It should be fantastic. We'll talk to you again soon. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. © transcript Emily Beynon