32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Welcome to the NHL, Kid.

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman begin by delving into the first slate of preseason hockey across the NHL. Matthew Schaefer dazzled while Kashawn Aitcheson had to pick himself up off the ice (4:22). They highlighted the debut of Michael Misa (7:09). Kyle Bukauskas comments on Calgary-Edmonton and how Zayne Parekh is the main focus in Calgary (9:43). They touch on some of the news across the NHL. They begin with the futures of Luke Evangelista, Luke Hughes, and Mason McTavish (17:56). The impact from the changes in the cap are playing out in real time (19:17). Elliotte has an update on Anthony Stolarz (24:52). The Final Thought focuses on the losses of Ed Giacomin and Bernie Parent (28:10).Kyle and Elliotte answer your emails and voicemails in the Thoughtline (49:58).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates

Aitchison's another guy who's going to be a really good player for a long time, but he learned, hey, just because you run roughshod over the O HL, these are men here. And Noah Juleson, if you're not paying attention, he's going to get you. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast, presented by GMC, Elliott, Kyle, and Dom back with you. Elliot, we had preseason hockey this weekend to dissect. You were back in studio. It was nice to see you there. It was great to see Carolyn back on the desk. I know she did some work in the summer being back with tennis again,

but great to see her back. Of course, had time off doing the maternity leave, becoming a mother, all those wonderful things, and looking like mid-season forum back with you and Nick and Justin again for Leaf Senators. My first question is, when you guys were in the green room, where on the monitor wall did you have the hockey game versus the Blue Jays trying to clinch the playoffs on Sunday afternoon? We had the hockey game on the main screen. We are true professionals, Kyle. Oh, good.

We are true professionals. There was some football up as well. But the Jays were up. Good sports Sunday. No question about it. I just wanted to make sure, though, are you okay? No, I learned my lesson today, but yeah. Because the Packers lost.

And your Senators lost. That I'm not as worried about. Did you wear your Senators' pajamas to the Flames game? No, but here is my issue. When we recorded earlier today, I showed you so a mutual friend of ours sent us a Minnesota Vikings onesie for our son. Arash Medanee, yes. Good on you, Arash.

A sick twisted joke. Way to poison the Bukasca's family. So I'm like, I have to put him in it one Sunday, just to humor him. It was a nice gesture, though it was sick. So I showed you him rocking it. The Vikings absolutely clobber the Bengals on Sunday. Yeah, no joke, girl, no problem. My Packers was.

whatever the heck that was to finish off against the Browns. So not doing that again. I think he's going to wear it. I think Berkeley's got to wear it every week. I think he'll never see it again. There's nothing he can do about it. I'm still bigger than him. Yeah.

How is that being back in studio? It was good, as you said. Great to see Carolyn there. Get the Kings out. See next game Saturday. One thing I'll say to everybody, do not get too excited about this first week of games. It is one of my rules. The pretenders and the contenders on the rosters are decided in week two of preseason hockey.

Week one, there's still a lot of young players around or guys that are fringe to make the roster. Week two is when the veterans really start to care and say, okay, let's see how, let's make sure I'm ready to start the season. For example, last pod we talked about Matt Vaigridden, who you saw in Calgary tonight, looked great in the rookie games. A bit of a pizza in the game against Edmonton that ended up in their net. So every week, every week, and he's going to be a really good player, but every week it goes up a notch and you see who elevates and who doesn't so whoever you're looking at this week is he the surprise of our team is he going to be the true surprise story of this

season give it another week and we'll see if that player has staying power there there seemed to a lot of Islanders highlights all over social media tonight. They had, Schaefer had one heck of a shift where he caught one of the flyers on a breakaway and then had a great scoring chance. And the Islanders fans were absolutely orgasmic about that shift. But then Acheson got hit by Noah Juleson. And here's Acheson. He'll take a hit in the neutral zone from Julesen.

He's in pain and that's, going to draw some commotion in front of the flyers bench atreson comes up and luckily it wasn't as bad as it looked because it did look potentially very bad he's out day to day so it's it's not that bad but the thing that surprised me about that is in the ontario hockey league acheson is the guy who's doing he's the hitter not the hittee and it's just another example of this is another level and what you know what you know One of the good stories I once heard about going to the pros is, and it might be not a real story, but it's, it fits, it works. There was a pitcher who went to the major leagues, and he said, he got lit up, and he said, in the minors, wherever he came from, he struck out eight out of every nine hitters.

and his manager said to him, you know that ninth hitter, they're all here. And that's what a line. What this is about. Acheson's another guy who's going to be a really good player for a long time. But he learned, hey,

just because you run roughshot over the OHL, these are men here. And Noah Juleson, if you're not paying attention, He's going to get you. Even in preseason, because that's a guy who's fighting for a job. Yep. And you could have the whole debate.

Is that necessary in preseason? Like fly outer. But especially, I mean, I know Jolson obviously knows Tocke it from their time in Vancouver together. So it's not a brand new person you're trying to make some kind of impression on. But in a lot of ways, I'm sure there's a number of guys going into... that camp there in Philadelphia thinking, all right, we're all back at zeros again. You've got to earn your spot. And for him coming in, the opportunity was there and probably felt I needed to step up here.

But good to hear that Aitchison was not nearly as bad as it initially looked. Okay, Allie, you mentioned Matthew Schaefer, wowing Islanders fans already. He played nearly 25 minutes on Sunday night, by the way. How about the number two overall pick from this past June? Michael Misa, getting in his first exhibition game with the San Jose Sharks late Sunday night. So someone took issue with me, basically handing the Calder Trophy this year to Demadov. Brought up Misa, said Mesa, always underappreciated, always overlooked. Everybody always counts them out.

It was the Mesa Apologist Papers I received from this gentleman this week. And as a matter of fact, he sent me a text while we were recording this program on Sunday night of Mesa winning, battling in a face-off against Cole Schwint from Vegas late in their exhibition game on Sunday night. Schwint's a bigger guy and he had a big face-off against him late in the game and he said, see? Mesa called her trophy and I wrote back Talk to me in a week Like I just said Being in the pod

Talk to me in a week But he's excited He's big time This fellow is big time On the Mesa train Mesa did get Exceptional status into the OHL So I don't know if he's been overlooked

His entire life I feel there may be times Where they're like Okay we see you Michael We see the potential Everybody's got a chip on their shoulder. Can I also say, too, being at the rink on Sunday, Elliot, it was a bit striking, seeing it in person the first time, the relaxed dress code into effect. Yeah, what did you see?

Well, a relaxed dress code, a lot of three-quarter zips, just golf polo and pants. a lot of that going on because in years past it was like the players were unmistakable when they came walking down the hallway a lot of it because of their size

but more than that how they were addressed and then Sunday I felt I was double-taking a bit going who was that oh yeah it was Roby Arvinty

I'm impressed you knew him by face well that's because I had my senator's pajamas on you know, he was drafted by. Anything to stand over for you, Calgary, Edmonton? Well, the big, I think the biggest story for the flames at training camp is how ready does Zane Perrek look? Like, I think he's going to get a real chance here to become a full-time NHLer this fall.

So he played the split squad with the Oilers. So the game in Calgary he played in. And you could tell obviously a very confident player, very confident player, very, confident. And as the game wore on, he seemed a little more assertive offensively. It wasn't a great night for the team as a whole, but he was trying to make plays. It was interesting sitting up in the press box actually with Jason York, who's going to be back doing games with us this year. He's in town for a couple of days. Oh, yeah? Over 700 games as a defenseman, of course, in the league. And he made the point of just when you get to this level now, the simple stick-on puck abilities. of the pros compared to

where he would have been in the OHL previous completely different so trying to make plays in small areas that's an adjustment for a defenseman

even as talented as Perrek listening to him I don't know if you caught any of his interviews but it's great for what we do very honest

he's talked about understanding there's a lot of pressure on him to make the team there's a lot of expectation that he breaks camp with the flames this year. And so for us, Revoin, that's all gravy. I wonder if everyone within the organization is loving that he's that honest about that

stuff. But I think that's just part of, again, a young player figuring out being in that role. And I'm sure the team will continue to work with him on those sorts of things. But I'll never criticize. besides the honesty. On the Edmonton side, Elliot, like it was a pretty thin lineup. Ike Howard did play for the Oilers. What was interesting to me, the Ice Man, the Ice Man, as we learned last week. What was interesting to me, and I'm curious your thoughts on this, Stan Bowman was there. He came to Calgary. I don't know if there are many instances where when you have a split squad scenario, does the general manager travel to the road game, the first night of preseason action? Maybe it was to watch Howard in person. Maybe there was another motive behind him going.

I just thought it was interesting that Stan Bowman was up in the press box at the Saddle Dome Sunday night. I like that, and I'll tell you why I like that. Because if you look at this league now, and a perfect example was Ottawa, Toronto on Sunday, I forgot that's Ottawa's only preseason game at home, right? Yeah. So you leave and the senators have basically given up on the Ottawa market, but split jerseys with the Nordiques. It's just crazy. But you dress your players, and I agree with this, if your home fans are going to pay for those tickets in exhibition hockey, you have an obligation, an obligation as the home team to give them the best possible roster.

you can. And if that means you go on the road with a roster that isn't your regular roster, I'm okay with that. I am okay with that. You should give, it's exhibition hockey. It's not very good, especially because there's a lot of kids who probably get in there to games they can't get into in the regular season. You can't get tickets or they're more expensive or whatever, you have as the home team an option to give your fans the best possible game. So if we were doing a split squad and I was the manager, especially early in the preseason, like Sunday, and I know that Calgary is going to have a decent roster out there, right, Kyle? They had a decent roster.

Yep. And I know that we're on the road, so we're not. I'm going on the road to see who of my. younger players or maybe my more unheralded players says you know what we're set up to be fed to the wolves here we are being thrown into the forest with raw meat tied to our neck and who is going to play hard who is going to try to make a difference who is going to say look I know I'm not really set up for success here but I'm going to compete to the best of my ability So if I was the GM, I'd want to be at that game.

Look, I know at home, I know what McDavid's going to do. I know what dry-siddle's going to do. I know what Nurse is going to do. I know what Bouchard's going to do. I don't need to see those guys. I need to see the guys on the road. Like you look at Toronto on Sunday. Who did they send to Ottawa?

They sent Robertson. They sent Yarncroke. They sent Kempth. They sent Ben Danforth. They sent Haines and they sent Quinlan. They sent Easton, Cowan. Okay? So the three forwards we mentioned, the first three,

those are the three guys that are battling to stay on the roster. It's not a secret. They've talked about moving camp. They've talked about moving Yarn Croke. They've talked about moving Robertson. Okay? Robertson scores. Yarn Croke scores.

I thought Camv scored. They gave it to Villan Croix. of a defenseman, no problem. I like that. I always watch for that. When you've got the bad roster in any of these games, who plays hard, who's noticeable?

And, you know, I thought a lot of guys for Toronto were noticeable. By the way, the thing about Perak, he's just wired like that. That's who he is. You know, some teams didn't like it. It's rumored to be one of the reasons he fell a bit in the draft. If you're drafting him, you're accepting who he is and how he is wired. Now, everybody grows, everybody changes, but generally how much do we really change?

A lot of our personality stays the same. Yeah. And speaking of personality, so he steps in to do the scrum post game, and the first thing he says is he stands in there is, I'm not too sure what to do with my hands. I don't know if he was deliberately trying to reference. I don't know if he was deliberately trying to reference. trying to reference the Talladega Knights quote, but it was expertly timed comedically.

He's a junior hockey player. They spent a lot of time on buses. I would guarantee his team probably watched Talladega Knights 600 times. But Elliot, remember, like, think about how long ago that movie came out. Yeah, but you can't assume that anymore. I can assume whatever I want.

This is my podcast, so I can assume whatever I desire. but for example there are a lot of kids who watch Slapshot and that movie is 40 years old right 45 years old yes totally I mean if you're a young hockey player do you think kids still watch old school I hope so I like that's the thing I hope so I just

sometimes you're like really you don't know what that is I guess every generation goes through that I bet you still watch old school I'm sure he's aware. And television nights. And Anchorman. Any other Will Ferrell Flicks you'd like to rattle off here? No, no.

All right. You want to go through, you want to go through some of the players? I don't think, newswise, Kyle, I don't think a lot has changed. Okay. I don't think a lot has changed. So now we know that Luke Evangelista, so we know that Luke Evangelista. So we know Mason McTavish earlier this week, he went back to Ottawa. He left California and he went back to Ottawa.

Luke Evangelista left Nashville, and I think he's on his way back or went back to Oakville, Ontario, just outside of Toronto, where he's from, which is a bad sign. I mentioned on the last pod that I heard that Jack Quinn's extension in Buffalo, which is two times, like three and a third, had. factored into that standoff and nothing I was told over the weekend has changed my opinion of that. And I think the predators are not close to that. So there's a gulf and we'll see where this goes. I don't, as far as I know on Sunday night, nothing had changed on McTavish. As far as I heard on Sunday night, nothing had changed on Luke Hughes, that there was still a bit of a gulf there and they were still working on a long-term deal. I don't believe anything has changed with Caprizov at this point in time.

It's interesting. I did get, I got some really interesting feedback just about us talking about the changes in the cap and what it's meant. and I think everybody wondered what the effect of it would be and we're seeing it. The agents are definitely saying, hey, the cap is higher percentage of the cap. But the one thing that I absolutely believe more than ever is that the GMs are, I don't know, like, I don't think it's collusion or anything like that. I want to be very careful with that. Like I don't believe this is collusion because I think ultimately these guys will do what

they think is best for their teams. But I definitely think there is a, we have to hold the line to some level. Like you can't look at what Minnesota offered Caprizov at 8 times 16 and say they're colluding. You know, nobody's throwing that offer out there if there actually was collusion. But I think that they are talking about how far are we really going to go here?

Like, what is the line? and everybody moves with it. We talked about Eichel. We talked about Kyle Connor. We talked about how this moves everybody along and higher. And I definitely think since the Caprizov thing got turned down, and I do think the while to some degree want to see where this goes over the next little bit,

and I'm not convinced they're going to be upping their offer. But I definitely think that the managers informally have talked about, there has to be somewhere here we hold the line for anybody who basically isn't named McDavid or on that level, not that anybody really is. I'll tell you something else I'm more convinced of, Kyle. You know, I think there are some players here thinking about, okay, like McDavid's going to get to a stratosphere

where he deserves to be because under the cap, pay him 20% and nobody's going to complain about it. I believe, I really believe more than ever, and I've said it a couple of times, but I've, I really believe it more than ever, if McDavid signs in Edmonton, if he does, it's going to be for a lower number than we all expect. Like, I think it's going to surprise people where it could end up, because... I just think he knows that with dry cellar making what he's making and nurse making, he can't go to a new stratosphere. So, and I will say this, like one manager called me on the weekend and said, are you sure about that prediction?

And I said, I'm as certain as I can think I'm right, right? but I can't say 100% I'm not in his head and he said because if his number comes in lower maybe that pushes everybody down and he sounded kind of hopeful right and then I use my old line about the bald truth and you know that's his situation and nobody should compare his situation with anyone else's situation like I think that if you're like if everybody's thinking here. Let's just say for argument's sake, for argument's sake, McDavid comes in under what Minnesota offered Caprizov, 16 million. Okay. And then does anyone think that, oh, Connor McDavid just signed three times 15.5. Do you think Minnesota goes back to Caprizo's

down and says, ah, McDavid signed for 15.5, we're dropping your number down. No, I don't believe that. I don't believe that happens, but I think that there are some managers hopeful that if McDavid does come in at a lower number than people are expecting, that could help push some of these things downward. We'll see. It's going to be, we've talked about this a lot, we're all figuring out our way here together. It's like everyone's just looking from the team side. someone to go first and a bit of friction to be created just to slow because if you look over the cap era there's been number of times where you're like that's a market resetting deal but the thing is with where we're headed over the next two three years the market resets

could be happening at a rate that we just haven't seen before right seems like that's that's the fear of the snowball gets rolling too quick downhill for the teams and managers to keep things as much in check as they can and now who knows where it goes from there it's interesting we'll have a question in the thought line later on in the podcast about trying to win a cup with contracts north of 10 million per year so timely i think the the other one here i wanted to mention, I had some leaf fans who reached out about Stollers, and I mentioned that in the Toronto broadcasts say, I think Stolers and the Leafs are going back and forth and back and forth. And I think when they started, there was a pretty wide chasm there, and I do believe it's

narrowed a bit. Nick and Justin both said they weren't crazy about Term with him, and I don't think term is going to be the issue here. I think it seems to me like this is going to be likely three or four years. I think the issue has been the number. And, you know, the challenge for Toronto here is that Stollers really has a lot of leverage. He's indicated that he doesn't want this to go into the season. And so that's a little bit of leverage his way.

And the other leverage he has is he can bet on himself at a time when there's really not a lot of other goalies available out there. Like look how many of these goleys are starting to get locked up. Swamen locked up. Ottinger locked up. Spencer Knight locked up. Wolf. There's Wolf locked up. He was farther away from UFA.

but you're you're in the market you're I understand where you're going with this even a guy like Kevin Lankinen locked up um you know Stollers has he has leverage if he's willing to bet on himself and don't forget like this is a guy who's bounced around a bit he's used to uncertainty so I still think they're going back and forth and when two teams go back and forth when two sides go back and forth, as much as it appears as these two are, it says to me there is a willingness to do a deal there. But I always look at it. Who's willing to take, who benefits by being able to take more of a chance? And it probably is the player in this case. Because if Stollers has a big year, then either Toronto's going to have the choice of we pay him even more than we

wanted to or he walks and we have to go get somebody else and we talked about this a little bit not too long ago but even comparables right now for him given his age given the injury history he talked about the term being something to when it comes to the number i mean you see where wool is at just over 3.6 they get something done it's probably going to be north of that, right? Yes. To me, the longer the term, the lower the number. For sure.

Like, I've got to think we're looking at somewhere between four and a half and five here, unless they go, like, if they're going more than five years, I think it's probably less than that. I'm just not convinced that that's where we're going here. Okay, and with that, but I'll get to the final thought, which is brought you by GMC and man, Elliot, the goaltending community has lost some real giants the last little while.

Tim Dryden passed away a few weeks ago. Then just over the last few days, at Jockeman at 86, Bernie Perron passing away at 80 on Sunday. Both of them, Hall of Famers, Jockeman considered by a lot of people that know much more about the history of the Rangers than I do, but one of the most popular Rangers

ever, didn't win. a cup there but just a huge role in turning that franchise around in the mid-60s became a perennial playoff team during his time there went to one Stanley Cup final Peron of course critical part of the Flyers back-to-back Stanley Cups in the 70s and I think just in reading a little bit over the last little while Allie you really get the sense that I mean he as the decades went on remained a real face of that franchise with the amount of work he did in the community in Philadelphia. I didn't know Ed Jackman really well at all, unfortunately.

I never had the pleasure. But if you're a Ranger fan, you know one of the famous Jockeman stories. And one of the great ones is when he came back in 1975 as a member of the Detroit Red Wings. and you know jockeman went to the Stanley Cup finals with the Rangers once unfortunately they lost to the Bruins a couple years after that Stanley Cup final he was cut and of course when Detroit brought him back to Madison Square Garden he started

and he got cheered they booed the Rangers when they scored and Detroit won that game six to four so it was I don't know if this part of the story is true Rangers fans can tell me I've

heard differing viewpoints on it over the years but one of the versions is that as Giacoman started to struggle in New York he kind of got booed out of town and the Rangers caught him and Emil Francis who was the general

manager of the Rangers at the time apparently had a comment along the lines of they boot him out of town and they cheered him against us when he came back. Like, what am I going to do here? But they definitely gave him the deserved return. He earned it. He was a great ranger. But unfortunately, I didn't know him that well. I did have a couple opportunities to work with Bernie Perrant. When they had the outdoor game in Ottawa and they created a rink on Parliament Hill, Bernie Perraunt was part of the press conference to announce that. And And that was a highlight for me to host that event with him there.

But also when the Flyers made the Stanley Cup final in 2010, when they lost to Chicago, the spectrum had not yet been torn down. And we went there one day. We did a shoot from there. Like we walked around the spectrum with Bernie Perrin. And he was so, like, he knew what I wanted. He didn't need to be prepped. He was more of a pro than I was during.

that shoot. I just had to say, well, here we are and he would talk about each place for a couple minutes. And he was always a great move. But as the shoot continued, he really started to get into it more. Like he remembered where the old dressinger was where Fred Schiro, their coach, had the great line, win today and you walk together forever. And he just got a big smile on his face as he remembered being told that. So that was a real highlight. That turned out to be a really good piece. It ran during the Stanley Cup final, and it really was one of the better pieces I did around that time. You know, I live in Toronto, Kyle. I grew up in Toronto. I've spent most of my life here. I don't think of all the things the Maple Leafs have done in my lifetime, and I was born in 1970,

I don't think the way they handled Bernie Perrant gets enough credit for what a disaster it was, the franchise and how much things how much the whole history of the n hl could have been changed if harold ballard hadn't been harold ballard with bernie pran and he had a contract dispute he was on the maples organization and they had a contract dispute with him and he left to go to the w h a and when that didn't work out he went back to philadelphia and of course won two stanley cups and was twice MVP of the playoffs. But Toronto had them. And if they hadn't pissed them off and annoyed them, how much different would the NHL be? Would Philadelphia ever have a Stanley Cup? Would the Broad Street Bullies ever have won? Would Toronto have spiraled into what Toronto

spiraled into in the 80s? It could have been completely different. And one of the books I just pulled off my shelf. So Greg Oliver did a book years ago. It's called Written in Blue and White. And it's just old Maple Leafs contracts and historical documents from the collection of a hockey historian named Alan Stitt. And one of the things they have in this book is a contract offer signed by Harold Ballard to Bernie Perron and his representative, a guy by the name of Howard Casper, from August 1972. And for 1972, 73, they offer them, and it's right here. They have the contract.

They offer them 42,500. And in 73, 74, they offer them 52,500. And in 7475, they offer them 62,500. And in 74, 75, they offer them 62,000. 500. So it's three years for a total of 167,500 plus bonuses. And, you know, the bonus is listed here. I'll give you just one year, 72, 73. It is $1,500 for the goals against average below two and a half, $1,000 if he plays two-thirds of the games. I think it's $1,500, if it's $1,500, if if the team finishes first or second and $150 per shutout.

So that's the contract they offer him. And also, there is a second contract, and it's not here, but they talk about it. In September, they offer them less, $150,000 for five years. So they go from a contract worth $50,000. something thousand to five times 30,000, and he walks. He goes to the WHA. And I can't blame him for walking. You know, if you're unhappy with the offer, go see if you can find a better one. But they also have a letter that the Mapleley send them saying, we think you're in violation of the contract, which obviously never went anywhere because he went to the WHA and ended up back

with the flyers. But if you ask Maple Leaf fans of a certain vintage and that's older than me, they will tell you that that is the biggest

screw up in Maple Leaf history that doesn't get the attention it deserves is fumbling Bernie Perrant. Really? Yeah. And I mean,

I guess that makes sense because for someone from my generation, I mean, I almost had to remind myself that, oh, yeah, he played in Toronto briefly. Like, when I hear Bernie Perron, I just think

flyers. Yep. Like, yeah. Talk about two years that could have been way different. Even more. The ensuing, right, that would

mean, the ensuing ones. So Perrault actually broke in with the Boston Bruins. Yeah. And Philly took him in the expansion draft. And he got traded to Toronto in 1971 for Bruce Gamble, Mike Walton, and a first-round pick. And Delis had him for a season and a half. posted relatively good numbers there. But it was Harold Ballard.

It's great that you've got those contract offers. What was the name of that book again? It's called Written in Blue and White by Greg Oliver. It's a phenomenal book. Like you, like these documents are pretty incredible. There's trade documents, there's contract documents, there's sponsorship documents, there's great stuff here.

It's really fascinating to read. Wow. Well, what a legacy left behind for both Perron and Jockeman. It said two more giants of the goaltending community and the hockey community at large that we lost over the last few days.

So sending our love to their families and those close to them. That was the final thought brought to you by GMC. We'll take our first break and come back with the thought line. You're listening. to 32 Thoughts, the podcast. All righty, welcome back.

It's time once again for the thought line presented by Dauberhockey. Dauberhockey.com for 20 years, your trusted source for player rankings, line combos, stat reports, and the fantasy hockey guide that serious GMs trust. Elliot, anything you want to get off your chest before we get to the latest batch of submissions? No, I'm good. Nothing weird happened to me yet this weekend, yet.

There's still plenty of time for that to change. There's still lots of time. There's never an off period for that sort of thing. No, I attract weirdness. I don't know why. I attract weirdness. Yeah. Yes, you do. You do. Maybe it's your deodorant.

I don't know what that has to do with anything, but okay. Okay. Let's start. Frank from Chestermeier, Alberta. Welcome back, everyone. It's great to hear your voices again. I, for one, am looking forward to hearing more about how big Nico Heeshire is, but I digress. Yeah. My question is about the CBA. One item I haven't heard explained fully yet, is the new e-bug, emergency backup goalie, rules that will now be part of each team full-time. Is this a professional goalie? Do their salaries count towards the team's cap? Do they travel and practice with the team? Any and all info would be appreciated.

Yes. The best way to answer it is yes. It's now a full-time position. And it, basically is a player on your roster, okay? And the player will travel with the team to all games. So, for example, if you had a goalie who played the night before or a goalie who's had a long workload, they don't have to practice. Now you'll have two goalies with you at all times. the e-bug must be declared 48 hours before the start of the season and 24 hours before each game. So if you have to have a change or anything like that, that's basically how it works. But there also is a level there that ensures it's not a true number three. Like it's not your number one goalie in the HL because one of the things that was an issue during COVID was the 10.

Taxi Squad guys didn't play all year, and some players and some teams felt that some of those guys lost a year of development because they never played. So basically, the eBug must never have played an NHL game and also can have appeared in more than 80 games as a pro. And I think there's also a time limit to how recently they could have played. I think it's three years. You're correct. Yes, it's three years. I wrote it down here. So that's basically, it's, the best way to put it is it's now a professional eBug.

It's somebody who can be with your team the whole time. And no, it doesn't count against the cap. But have you heard anything about kind of what that gig's going to pay? Because as you say, like this is in a lot of ways a full-time gig, like with travel and that, whoever's going to be taking up these roles, it's a lot of time you've got to dedicate to being available for teams throughout the season. You know what? I did hear a number, but I never double-checked it,

so I'm going to double-check it. It's not like an NHL minimum salary. It's not $7.75. No. It's considerably lower than that. Right. Imagine still something that would make it worth their while. Yeah.

Okay, up next, Joe. Hi, 32 thoughts team. I sent this in last season, but wanted to send it in again now that a new season is upon us. I am currently a long tenured season ticket holder with the Los Angeles Kings and an avid listener to the podcast. Thank you, Joe. And in LA Kings home game last season, Trevor Moore scored two consecutive goals into an empty net after Minnesota pulled their goalie for an extra attacker. After watching Trevor score the goals, I began to wonder if anyone has ever scored either a natural hat trick or hat trick into an empty net. Thank you guys. I look forward to hearing the reply. P.S. Elliot, it was great a few years ago when you graciously signed my Hockey Night in Canada T-shirt in Vegas prior to the award show. Nice. Nice.

Was that the year you had the wardrobe malfunction? I said, can I borrow that t-shirt for a couple of minutes? Always try to treat people right. Always try. Don't always succeed, but I always try. Off the top of my head, Kyle, I can't think of anybody. I assume you look this up. Has this happened before?

Yeah. It actually has not, which I guess isn't a big surprise, but no one's ever got three. Could you guess how many times in the regular season in the history of the game, like Trevor Moore, someone has scored twice into an empty net? I'll go with 20. Not a bad guess. A little higher.

30. 30 times in history. Five times. in the playoffs. So it is a rare occurrence. Joe, you saw something unique that night when Trevor Moore bagged two, but never three before.

You know when it happens. Joe will be the first to write in. Yes. Up next, Victor from Tiny Ontario. You ever been to Tiny Ontario? No, I've never been there. Where is it? I think it's up like,

in cottage country. You know what? If you're going to say, have you ever been to Tiny Ontario, you should know where it is. It's just outside of town. Simcoe County is Rob Blake,

John Stevens, Nelson Emerson. Oh, so why do I need to know where it is before I ask you? Because, and people out there can tell me if they disagree with this. but one of my pet peeves is when somebody tries to stump you with a trivia question and they don't know the answer.

This wasn't trivia. I was just asking if you've ever been there. I didn't ask you where it is. I just said, have you ever been there? Don't you think that you would go the extra mile and check where it is if you were going to ask that question? It just came to me in the moment, Elliot. I don't know what you want me to say here. I didn't realize I was going to be on the hot seat for asking you if you've been to a place.

What kind of guy are you? A very complex one. Yeah. All right. Well, now I've learned my lesson. I have to buy real estate in any town I have asked you about in the future if you've ever visited. I want to know the exact longitude and latitude of each place you've asked me if I've visited. Yeah.

I have to have contributed to the municipal tax for minimum of two years before asking. all right here's what victor wants to know hey gentlemen i'm excited for another season i have a deep dive for elliot oh way back when the fan radio was still on 1400 i was listening 14 30 yeah i was listening when bob mccowan dan shulman and i believe barb de julio switched over to 590 during the blue jays world series run. I remember you talking with maybe Gord Stelick and Damien Cox during a lunch bag letdown about how you used to record the entire March Madness tournament and then binge watch it all at a later date. I thought that was crazy when I heard it. My question I have wanted to ask for a while now is, do you still do it? Take care, have a great year, and go leave school.

No, the answer is no. It's a great question. question. I did used to do that. A long time listeners of this pod are well aware that I used to cover the NBA. And I broke in as a basketball reporter. Listeners that started a week ago. No, you used to cover the NBA. That's right. Even short-time listeners of the pod know that.

But yes, I did used to do that. I used to love college basketball. And to be honest, what kind of ruined college basketball for me was when the NBA showed up in Toronto and the Raptors joined, when you watch it Courtside and you see the speed, the strength, the skill of the players, the NCAA game just looks

so much slower to me. It could still be exciting. It could still be entertaining and the tournament is some of the best theater around. But on a day-to-day basis, you get so spoiled by watching the absolute best of the best at court side. I had trouble

watching the NCAA game after that. that. So the answer is no. I don't do it anymore. And the other thing that's different between now and then is I have a bit more of a life. Back then, I did not have one. Now I kind of do. So he used to just like load up VHS tapes. Yep. With March Madness and watch it all back. That's awesome. Yeah. That is really. And you know what? It was that was one of the things that helped me get started. So it definitely, aside from the fact I enjoyed it, it had a professional. professional benefit to it too. Colton from Peace River A.B. Hey guys, love the pod.

Thank you for that memory, Victor. Thank you. Yeah. Talk about a deep cut. My question is this. Since no team has won a cup with a player making more than $10 million per season since the 0405 lockout, when and who do you think will do it first? Also, do you think teams will have a shot at the cup with players making north of 16 million. Thanks for considering my question. I do think it's going to happen, and I do think it's going to happen over the next few years because you're going to see it. You know, I just, you know, all the conversation, by the way, Kyle, about these players getting to new stratosphere.

Someone who is a regular listener of our pod said to me, there's one name you guys have left out. and he said it's when you hear it you'll say how could we not have thought about this guy and this is a player who I don't know will go for the biggest number but certainly could get it if he wanted to and he's a UFA in the next two years Western Conference

defenseman Is that when Kail Makar is up? Yes. Oh. So that's another name. I guess you can throw Quinn Hughes in that as well. Yes. So I think it's going to happen the next few years because we're going to push there.

I mean, look at all the players who are about to sign for well over $10 million. Connor McDavid, Kyle McCar, Quinn Hughes, Jack Eichel, Kyle Eichel, Kyle Eichel, Kyle. Kyle Connor, Carill Caprizov, you know, and all the guys were already there, Nathan McKinnon, Leon Drysidle, it's going to happen. I think it's going to be a challenge. And I think that's one of the things that, you know, hockey is a true team game. You need stars to win. You need elite stars to win, but you also need depth. You take a look at Florida, and Brad Marchand was essentially a third liner last year.

And he had an unbelievable playoff. He was a difference maker in the postseason. So a lot of teams are going to say, hey, we need this depth. But yes, I would be shocked, absolutely shocked, if within the next even three years we have a team that doesn't win it with guy making more than $10 million. I would be stunned. Think about how close the Oilers have been the last two years.

They've had two. Now they have three with Evan Bouchard. and they're both to have four assuming he signs yeah Colorado I mean had they got through Dallas last year in the first round who knows how much further that goes

I think Jared Bednar was saying there's similarities in terms of the depth that they had in 22 when they won it all versus what he's seeing in the early part of training camp Nathan McKinnon at 12.6 they're going to be in the conversation and now you've got Mitch Marner and Vegas

they've loaded up again to try to take another run. I mean, there's there's legit reason to believe it's going to happen here in the very near future. Florida's got a couple guys at 10,

of course, nothing above at this time. And to your point, like just with where the caps going, there's just going to be more and more players that are going to be signing north of 10, and it's just the odds are going to tilt more and more eventually towards a team having

at least one guy above that threshold when it's a great question though Colton it is a great question because it's going to happen just a matter of when. All right one more here. Spencer from Trenton I do know where Trenton is. Glad to hear that.

Good en route. Welcome back gentlemen. Long time listener of the pod. I always enjoy your show as I usually have long drives for work. And I also enjoyed meeting Elliot when the show came to BP in my hometown of Trenton a few years ago. It was awesome. Upon listening to one of the more recent podcasts, I heard Elliot make a comment about how he forgot to text Dom to take a portion of an interview out. And that got me wondering, how much of the podcast gets cut out slash edited? Not asking for any details, but do you usually say something, not like it and have it cut often? Or

Are the episodes edited to meet a certain length? Just curious to some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. Good to have the podcast back. Can't wait for hockey season. Yeah, the raw record usually runs nine and a half hours. Spencer, it's a really good question. And over the years, I have learned that a lot of the fans like yourself, they really like the sort of nuts and bolts questions about how things work.

The answer is not a lot gets cut. Like of the main podcast that we do, Kyle and I normally don't cut much of anything. Dom will edit it if we stumble all over the place. There's occasional times we'll restart if we didn't like something that we said. But I would say it's very rare, Kyle, that will say take that out. Now, there will be times I'll ask Dom, especially when it's more sensitive subjects. I'll ask Dom to send me the audio so I can hear it and just make certain that I didn't say anything that when I hear it, I feel, oh, that doesn't sound right or that sounds insensitive

or that's just not going to come across very well. We do do that. But absolute pulling stuff out of the pod, extremely rare, very rare. Now, the thing about the interviews like the one with Jack Hughes is that sometimes we try things and you never know how they're going to go, right? Like you throw a question at somebody and maybe they like it, maybe they don't. Like the thing about an interview like the one with Jack Hughes is you've got a whole bunch of topics and you know some are going to work and some are probably not. And I don't think it's unusual in that situation to say, hey, maybe take this part out. Like the Stuart Skinner interview that aired the other day, there was a lot of stuff he discussed

for features for Sportsnet. So I didn't, so I just said take that stuff out and just go to the relevant stuff. Right. So that happens more in interviews. And also, too, I really do think that in some interviews, hey, you're lucky to get 20 minutes with someone. It's a great 20 minutes. There's other times I think it drags. And I'll say, you know what? I think it drags here. But the one thing I will do is I'll ask Dom, because he's most often, like, he wasn't in Vegas. Dom owes money to several casinos and is banned from the premises. So he wasn't there. And we had him listen to it and say, what do you think? There were a couple ones I said, I take this out. And he says, it's nowhere near as bad as you think it is.

So that's kind of the process that we go through. Yeah, I would say the most common instance where we're taking something out. It's usually if we're recording some of the news segment in the afternoon. And then later on in the evening, you said, hey, I just got new information on something we had discussed or something had changed. So now there is a re-record where we take something out and put something fresh in just so it's the most up to date when it drops the next morning. Yes, that would be the most common in terms of what you and I do. When you hear me updating things from my shower, which has happened before, it's usually because something has come in late. It's a good question.

I think. Yeah. And like I said, Spencer, I do think a lot of people are interested in. that kind of thing. Very good. Appreciate the question, Spencer, and everybody that wrote in, called in to the thought line presented by Dobber Hockey, 1833, 311, 321, 32, 32, if you'd like to leave a voicemail, or you can email us at 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca.

One final break, and we'll wrap up the pod. 32 thoughts, the podcast continues after this. All right, so that about does it for this edition of 32 Thoughts, the podcast, as we've said, we are back to two episodes a week again, but schedule could be a little different this week this week. episode could come out one day sooner than it typically would. Dom Elliott and I are going to be at a NHL Sportsnet sponsor event out in PEI for a few days this week. We will be taping a podcast while we are out there and just may come a day earlier than usual. So check wherever you get your podcasts because it may come a day early.

But we're heading out to the Maritimes. That means cows ice cream, Elliot. Can't wait. Plan your diet accordingly. Have a great week, everyone. We'll talk to you maybe a little bit earlier than we normally would. Take care.