32 Thoughts: The Podcast - What To Watch For In 2022

Episode Date: January 3, 2022

After a bit of a break, Jeff and Elliotte kick things off by explaining what the league might do with the schedule going forward (2:00).They then give their top stories to look out for in 2022 including job openings around the league (11:45), the return of Jack Eichel (15:50), if we’ll see changes in Edmonton -- on the ice and behind the bench (18:50), the future of the Arizona Coyotes (23:00), big moves and big names (26:00), the leadership at the NHLPA (36:00), the future of women’s hockey following the Olympics (42:30) and if we’ll see Owen Power represent Canada at the Winter Games. The guys also take a few of your questions as well as a voicemail from the Thought Line (50:30).Leave your thoughts, comments, suggestions and questions using our toll-free THOUGHT LINE (1-833-311-3232) or email the podcast at [e-mail] Outro: Star Parks - Oh Boredom (Schmaltz City, USA)Listen to their sophomore album “The New Sounds of Late Capitalism” hereThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Boston Bruins.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.

This message for Jeff Merrick is Igor Shisterkin. Please stop talking about me. You're going to jinx me like you did guy last year. Please stop. That's not really Shisterkin, is it? That's amazing. Is that really Shisterkin? No, it's not.

I didn't think so. It was somebody called in. Get the hook out of your mouth, Frege. Welcome. What a great way to start. No, no. I just felt I should just clarify for the listeners that that was not Shisterkin. Because somebody was going to write that, oh, my God, they got Shisterkin off the top of the show to get Merrick to stop talking about him.

That's awesome. Because you did it with Shillington. I did it with Carter Hart last year when I pumped him up for the- No, no, no. I'm talking about Amal did it with Shillington. Oh, Amal did that with Shillington. That's right. Yes.

Got us that. Yeah. Welcome to the first podcast of the year 2022. This is 32 Thoughts, the podcast brought to you by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup, Jeff Merrick alongside Elliot Friedman. Thanks for putting up with our little brief seven-day pause or however many days it was. And thanks to everybody. By the way, thanks to everybody who downloaded and actually listened to the holiday Christmas party. That was fantastic. I'm always impressed to find out how many of you actually listened all the way through. We thought it was going to be shorter this year.

We said, okay, we can't put people through four hours of us blathering. So it was only three and a half hours and still you persevered and you listened to the whole thing. So bless you and thank you for that. Hey, Frej. Happy New Year, everyone. Absolutely. Okay, let's jump right in. So what we're going to do today is have a look at stories we're going to be watching coming up in the next weeks and months to come. But before we get there, what's the very latest with the schedule?

For people that may not have seen 32 Thoughts on Hockey Night Saturday, what's happening with the sked? So basically, Jeff, what it's coming down to is everybody out there, how many games has your favorite team had postponed? You've all seen what's going on in Canada. We're back to minimal capacities in the States. We're just going and teams are, whether you have an outbreak or whether it was some of the Canadian teams saying they don't want to play under limited or no crowds, they had games

move back. What you basically have to do is do each team's math especially in canada where a number of teams have had several games postponed after about january 16th they can't keep moving games back you're gonna have to play at that point even if you don't like what your crowd is going to look like you're gonna have to play because at point, they simply don't have enough time during the Olympic break to put games in and still have the regular season and right at the conclusion of April. So what I was basically told was do the math. How many games can a team play during what was supposed

to be the Olympic break? And for the Canadian teams, we're getting there after January 16th. So that third week, you're going to have to play, it looks like, unless you get a situation where you simply can't field a roster. So I think what you're going to see is during what was supposed to be the Olympic break, a number of teams that have had a lot of postponements

are not going to have a break. And they're not even going to have a week off. Basically, they're going to go right from the all-star game to playing. And I've reached out to some of those teams. I've reached out to some of the players and look, the teams understand that they have to make up the time. And some of the players are like, look, you know, we're not playing right now. So we don't have as much of a problem with playing during the Olympic break because we've got time off now.

Now, some of them will lose vacation. I don't think they're crazy about that, but I think in the general grand scheme of things, they understand. They don't like it, but they understand. One of the things that everyone's going to have to get used to here, specifically players is four game weeks. Yeah.

You know, you look at most weeks and it's okay, we're playing three games every now and then you have a four thrown at you. I think this is going to mean a, obviously less practice because rest will be at a premium. It'll be less practices, obviously more games.

And I wonder about, and I'm not using this as a pejorative because it can be really good. I'm wondering about sloppy play, but just good enough that the sloppy play makes it more interesting than if the play is precise and crisp and robotic. Like I've always felt that hockey's at its best when it's not played perfectly. Or there's no defense. That's what I'm wondering here. I know coaches hate it. Coaches will scream at a lot of these games,

but I wonder if, and now fatigue is an issue that I can hear every player saying, oh, hold on a second here. We're going to be exhausted and there's an injury factor. From an entertainment point of view, do you see these games being sloppier and therefore more entertaining?

Yes, I sure hope so. Look, we've seen like a bunch of these teams in the 8-7 game between Arizona and San Jose. Look, Pittsburgh just came back and they played an 8-5 game. So that definitely happens. You know, what happened with Toronto was, you know, initially when they were having a whole bunch of games postponed, we asked, and by we, I mean Sportsnet, we asked, look, we need these games. And so we asked them to play Saturday against Ottawa and to continue keeping their Wednesday game this coming Wednesday against Edmonton on the schedule. And first of all, it's in our business interest. It's in the

league's business interest because they have to make a make good to us. If those games don't get played, we have to do make goods for our sponsors. Then it came to a situation where there, because of the government, there was going to be no, or the government's rulings, there was going to be no fans there. So the Leafs were told, look, if you don't want to play, you don't have to. And I think some of the business people in the organization quite rightly said, why should we do this? And then ownership stepped in and said, how do the hockey people feel?

And they said, look, we need to play. If we don't play these games, we might not play in 25 days. And the other thing too is the two games that they play now, they have a bunch of games to make up. That's two less games they're going to have to play in February, March, and April. And so I think a number of these teams are already looking at these kinds of situations. One of the things I wonder about Ottawa is they've had so many games postponed and so many games moved around.

They must be looking at their schedule too and say, I don't know how many more games they can afford to move. Ottawa's only played 29 games. So when I see that their road trip through Western Canada is still going on next week, I wonder if part of it's because there's just not enough plays to put too many more of their games. Yeah, there's no more runway for it.

And listen, we all know this is going to have damage to hockey-related revenue. We all know this is going to damage what many thought was still going to be a $5 billion season. I think that's out the window here. Damaged maybe to the idea of the salary cap going up, Elliot, by a million dollars. I mean, these aren't whispers anymore. This is part of the conversation, how much this is going to damage financially the NHL. And I guess the only question at this point is, and we don't know until attendance restrictions get changed in Canada, specifically your large markets like Toronto, we just don't know how much damage is going to be done. That's all true. And we're all throwing darts at it. And and we're saying we hope the salary cap goes up we hope the players have paid off their escrow debt in three seasons but at this point we don't know let's move on let's do one fun thing then not a fun thing one interesting thing that you

brought up on saturday players asking if they can dissolve their contracts for the olympic break so i just wanted to mention that story on Saturday night because I thought it was kind of interesting. And we all know how Brad Marchand spoke out. It's very disappointing. You know, that's something that was promised in part of the CBA when we last signed the deal. It almost felt like they were trying to get out of it for a while.

And they didn't want us to go you know there should be something in place or put in place where we can we should be able to go and experience that you know guys work their entire lives and i know that at the end of the day they don't care about the olympics they don't make money on it and that's ultimately what this is it's a business you know and and we're an asset let's just call a spade a spade you know and and they don't want to risk us getting hurt over there and you know so that's're an asset let's just call a spade a spade you know and and they don't want to risk us getting hurt over there and you know so that's obviously part of it but you know it should be the player's option to to go play in the tournament it's the olympics the best of the best

and if you've earned the right and you've heard the yeah the opportunity to go there you should have the option to go play so and there were a lot of players who wanted to play at the olympics and you know one of the things that it's obvious to me here is i don't know whose fault it was i don't know if the players didn't pay enough attention or it wasn't properly communicated to them or or what happened in particular but i don't think they realized that the league could uniformly just say look too many games have been postponed we can't go to the olympics i think the players always thought it was going to be their choice and if that meant that zero canadians and five swedes and 20 americans and 25 russians voted to go that was going to be the way it was going to be and i'm just you know throwing those numbers

out there without just off the top of my head. They always thought that was the way it was going to be. It was going to be each player's own individual decision if they wanted to go or not. And for whatever reason, they just didn't seem to be aware that the league could step up and say, you know what? Too many games have been postponed. We're not going. And that seemed to catch a number of them by surprise. And what they were doing was they were asking,

okay, what loopholes can we use? Like there's one player who told me that a teammate of his asked, can I be put on waivers to terminate my contract and go play in the Olympics and then re-sign with my team? And there were other players who were saying, like if I retired and didn't sign, I should have mentioned this, didn't sign my retirement papers and then came back,

could I just do that? The NHL was ready for all this stuff. Like, basically, I don't know if Bettman was said in advance, I know that some guys are going to ask this. He was prepared with the answers. Or people started asking questions like could guys do this the nhl is like not a freaking chance but it was definitely happening and players were telling me about it so they were all trying to think of different ideas where they could try to play and the league was on top of it and they were

like none of this is going to work. Nice try, fellas, trying to weasel out of it, but no chance. You can't shoot a guy for trying. That's what I always say. All right. A little bit later on, we're going to get to some of your phone calls

at 1-833-311-3232 and your emails at 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. But things we are following in the year 2022. So now the new year, what are the hockey stories we're going to be looking at? Let's go table tennis style in this one, back and forth, Elliot, starting with you. Give us one of your hits. Well, I think one of the big storylines is going to be some of these openings.

For example, in Montreal, in Chicago, and in Anaheim. What's going to happen in these particular situations? And Montreal, we reported a while ago that we think an agent, Kent Hughes, was high on Montreal's radar. I don't know if they're still counting on that to being a possibility, but they're going to start their interviews just in case it isn't. You know, some of the names that have gone out there,

I mean, people have expected them. Roberto Luongo is one. Daniel Breer is another. Matthew Darsh is another. Someone suggested to me they wouldn't be surprised if Jeff Gorton interviews as daniel dore a former first round draft picker of the quebec nordiques who's a scout for the rangers and obviously gorton would be familiar with that's another name there but i think they're going to

be going out and and starting to talk to interview people i think the same thing's going on with chicago they hired mike for Ford of Sportsology fame, who we've interviewed on the podcast before. I think they're going to handle what Chicago is going to do. And I think Chicago could do something a little different, but I would expect that Kyle Davidson, who's the interim GM there, I think he's going to have a role there. I don't think this is

a situation where they're looking to completely clean it out from what they've got now i've i've heard they really think highly of davidson and i would expect that he stays do you think there's a chance that davidson keeps the big chair i just don't know i don't want to i don't want to say yes or no i've just been told not discount him, not to assume that he's going to be out of the picture. That's what I've been told. So I don't want to guess. I'm just passing along the information I heard. And I also still wonder about a guy like Ed Olchek.

I still do think there's going to be a role there for someone who's very popular in the market. I don't know what the role specifically would be, but I do wonder about someone like Olchek still. You know, there's also Anaheim. You know, Anaheim has some big decisions to make. There's Hampus Lindholm. There's Ricard Raquel. There's Josh Manson. There's Dallas Akins. There's Ryan Getzzlaff like they're gonna have to have somebody in the chair to make those decisions and they do have experienced people there now dave nonis and jeff solomon but you have to decide are these going to be your long-term people or is there

somebody else coming in to do the job because they've got to make those calls in advance of the trade deadline right uh they do and even though they've got to make those calls in advance of the trade deadline. Right. They do. And even though they've had a little bit of a step back in the last couple of games, I mean, safe to say Anaheim is one of those teams that surprised us here, Elliot. Like many of us,

you know, myself included looked at Anaheim and said, they changed the assistant coaches. That's one thing, but on the ice, this is the same team. So we should probably expect the same results. Not so fast.

It's a much improved squad. Do you want to add Vancouver to that mix? Even though Jim Rutherford is there, there's still the hunt to fill out that front office. Do you put Vancouver in your mix as well for you? Well, absolutely. Patrick Alvin is a name in there very much. I don't think it's going to be Jason Botterill. I think it's going to be someone like a Patrick Alvin is a name in there very much. I don't think it's going to be Jason Botterill. I think it's going to be someone like a Patrick Alvin.

I wonder about a Scott Mellenby type too, to be honest. I know there's been some rumors out there about Chris McFarlane from Colorado. I don't believe that's the case, but those are the kinds of names I'm hearing out there. And I would expect something happens not too long I would say one of the biggest challenges for Vancouver could simply be you know as Omicron goes through its wave here are you able to set up in-person interviews do you just want to hire over zoom or do you want to do it in person and that's a challenge for them a bit do you think there's any hurry for Rutherford here?

He seems to indicate that he wants it done pretty quickly. As we've talked about before, one of the things that dominated this podcast for weeks, if not months, was the Jack Eichel saga. And that's going to get fired up as the new year is upon us now, as Jack Eichel has an impending return to the National Hockey League. Where does he slot? Who does he play with? National Hockey League. Where does he slot? Who does he play with?

How does he look? How does he perform? Does he jump back in and bang? He's that top 15 player in the NHL that we saw before right away. And where does that put the Vegas Golden Knights in their Stanley Cup pursuit? As we've talked about before, the Vegas Golden Knights seem to be on every big name that hits the market, whether it's the aforementioned Eichel, before that Alex Petrangelo, etc. A big name is available that can help the team.

They're all over it. To me, the Eichel story is going to be fascinating once again for a number of different reasons. Because A, if he comes back and he's successful, Elliot, great on the Vegas Golden Knights, great on Jack Eichel. And two, you wonder if that becomes the moment where ADR is now an accepted surgery in the NHL. Is it enough to have one? I know that Tyler Johnson has had the same type of surgery as well. But one of the things that I wonder about outside of how will Eichel perform

and what will that do to the Vegas Golden Knights in their pursuit of a Stanley Cup is, what does this mean for the future of artificial disc replacement in the NHL? Does it now become common practice? Look, I think that's a huge storyline for 2022. I completely agree with you. Eichel, I think they were hoping that he would be able to rejoin the team in early January. So that's something we'll keep an eye on in the near future.

The thing is, like, I'm rooting for it to work because at the end of the day, you want athletes and people to get the best care, right? Yeah. That Vegas team, if they get Eichel there and he's going full bore, they're going to be a load. You know, one of the things that I think, Elliot, I think a lot of people have forgot just how good Eichel is. Like, do you get that sense too? Like, we haven't had one of the best players in the game

in the game now for a long time. I think we've forgotten just how good this guy is and how unique a hockey player, maybe how unique a hockey skater he looks. Nobody skates like Jack Eichel. Colby Armstrong and I, when we would do regional games together or do Hockey Central together, we used to always compare. He skates like he's a raptor running

with the back straight and the legs shooting out. A Vince Carter raptor or a Kyle Lowry Raptor? Jurassic Park Raptor, like a real Raptor, not a NBA Raptor, but an actual Raptor is what he looks like. And I'll be honest, Eichel's one of my favorite players to watch. I just love Eichel.

I'm excited to see him back. I think that it's been a loss that I think that we've underappreciated. I'm really excited to see this guy come back, man. I don't think you're the only one. What else you got? You know, now after that, I start to think of Edmonton. You know, what's going to happen with the Oilers?

Big game Monday night, Rangers. You know, all of a sudden, you know, you're looking at their situation and look where they are in the standings. You thought for sure they were going to be a playoff team. So while we're taping this on Sunday night, Jeff, the Flames have now beaten the Blackhawks five to one. So in the Western Conference, Edmonton has dropped into the second wildcard spot. 38 points.

Tied with Colorado, but the Avalanche have four games in hand. Right behind them, the Kings, the Jets, the Sharks, and the one team that's really interesting is Dallas, six points back with three games in hand. So it's a dogfight. Did anybody think Edmonton was going to be in that dogfight? No, but I think a lot of people

are looking at what ken holland did in the offseason and are saying those same holes still need to be filled that they still need one more left side defenseman they need a goaltender they need another center up front and it's got to be a cash in cash out deal you know the other thing that happened too is there's a report and it got taken down about babcock and i think everybody's kind of wondered that if ken holland ever felt he needed to make the change that babcock would be around there i worked the the regional with Dave Amber on Saturday afternoon against the Islanders. Yeah.

And, you know, I just sent Ken Holland a note and I just said, look, you know, this is going to come up. And he said, I saw Babcock at,

so TD force is Edmonton's athletic therapist. And Mike Babcock hired him in Spokane a long time ago and Forrest was being honored in November for a thousand games in the NHL. Babcock was there and he saw him there. He said, but he has not talked to him or any of his representatives about the job. But unfortunately, this is kind of where we are right now, right?

The speculation is starting to begin. I don't think missing the playoffs this year for the Oilers is an option. And, you know, first of all, you don't want to miss the playoffs. But the other thing is, we always talk about Pittsburgh, and we did earlier in the podcast. You know, their motto was Crosby and Malkin,

you go for it every year, right? Obviously, Edmonton is not at that level, but I do think with McDavid and Dreisaitl, to keep both those guys happy, you owe them now to go for it. So everything then gets put in play. First round picks, high-end prospects. No, like the thing is, I think you've got to be smart.

No, but here's the thing. This is how Ken Holland kept it alive in Detroit because he looked and he saw Lidstrom and he saw Zetterberg and he saw Datsik and he saw a murderer's row of hockey players and said i owe it to these guys and also they wanted to keep the streak going and they wanted to keep the streak and i owe it to these guys i don't owe it to this first round pick or this second round pick or this prospect playing in gr i think that you can't be stupid like you're not trading evan bouchard or anything like that right like i don't think you're trading first rounders for rentals right now i wouldn't be doing that

but if i could trade for someone that you know there's other teams out there they want to cut for because they want to save money or whatever they want to do you know there's going to be teams out there they're going to say we need to make moves we want to lighten our low we don't think we're that good i gotta think there's sensible moves out for the owners to make that it's not just a first rounder for a rental like i don't know if you're doing ben charot now for example for a first round pick not when you're battling for eighth in your conference but i think you have to be looking around it maybe is there another defense with a bit more term that you can go out and get, you know, those are the kinds of moves I'd be looking at. You know, one of the things that I think annoys a lot of people because, oh, here's this conversation again.

And I kind of want to put a newer, a newer twist on it here or some new speculation on it. One of the things that I wonder about, and this came up at the Board of Governors meeting in Florida a couple of weeks ago as well, the future of the Arizona Coyotes and where they're going to play. And if they don't close this $1.7 billion development deal in Tempe, what happens to this team? Is there a chance that what we're seeing right now between the hockey team and the city of Glendale is essentially the closing scene of Reservoir Dogs where everybody's pointing guns at each other? And maybe at the end of it, you're just trying to double the rent on the Arizona Coyotes until they get a rink done. I wonder about a couple of things. There are people who think that. There's no question about that. For sure.

For sure. Oh, yeah. This is posturing. There's no question about that. For sure. Yeah. For sure. Like, oh yeah, you know, this is posturing. They're going to, Glendale is going to double the rents, get their tenant for a couple of more years, squeeze as much money out of the Coyotes as you can before they jettison off when the rink is done in Tempe. But there's no guarantees about the development deal in Tempe. And what if they don't get that rink done? Like, I know the Coyote story can be annoying for people that follow it going back to the elliot going back to the days of judge redfield t-bomb and

there's a name i thought yeah you probably thought you wouldn't hear uh again but there it is i wonder if at the end of all of this if they've exhausted their options for places to play. If we could see a Montreal Expos type situation in the NHL, whereby much like the Expos sold the team to Major League Baseball, I wonder if we see a scenario where the Arizona Coyotes would sell the team to the NHL. That team then gets put up for auction, goes to a new market, and then essentially you get an expansion fee. We're reaching into the high hundreds of millions here. Essentially, you get an expansion fee for a relocation

instead of just relocating a team. I'm just putting it out there as something to consider as we put together, you know, what the options for the coyotes could be here. Well, until we have an answer, all these theories get thrown out there, right? They all get thrown out there. Let me just submit that one for purposes of the conversation. But I am like a lot of people curious to see, you know, what happens with the coyotes for the remainder of this season? Like we know what's happening on the ice. Like it's obvious.

And you've talked about Jacob Chikrin and we all, I think that's probably the first big deal of 2022 is Chikrin. It just makes so much sense for chicken to be married to Edmonton. Doesn't it though? Elliot. I heard it's not going to be them. I know you told me and I'm like, what makes so much sense?

But I think we're all interested to see what happens with the Arizona Coyotes. One of the most intriguing teams, perhaps for all of the wrong reasons historically in the NHL right now. What else is on your radar? Well, I think too, like what are the big deals that are going to get made?

You mentioned Chikrin. Who else is going to be out there? We know that Phil Kessel is going to be out there. Phil Kessel, yep. Is there going to be, for example, a Claude Giroux deal? I've got to think that if you're Jeff Gorton, nobody's touching Suzuki, nobody's touching Romanov, nobody's touching Caulfield.

Who else is untouchable on that team? Like, look at that roster. Who else is untouchable? I don't think anyone's untouchable. I think that Brendan Gallagher's contract would be a tough one. Brendan Gallagher is a conversation. Like, before you're trading Brendan Gallagher, even if you're even considering it, you're going to him and you're saying, look, you've earned the right to help make this decision.

Yes. Okay. But here's the thing about Gallagher. Gallagher has talked about this publicly. If we're going through a full rebuild here, do I necessarily want to be part of that at my age? Well, that's the thing. I'm saying you sit down, you have the conversation.

Problem with Gallagher is he's a $6.5 million cap it, but you're going to see actual cash of eight and nine in a couple of years. I just think that there's going to be someone who's going to be interested in him. I think that the way he plays is a thing that a lot of people respect. I really think that you're going to be able to find somebody who's going to be interested i don't think that's going to be a problem now the other thing there and i should have mentioned this earlier is price now one of the things that's happened is the olympics are out of the question right now right yeah so what happens with price you know one of the things i'm wondering is he hasn't skated a lot

as far as we know so he's got to get the knee going and i just wonder if we get to a situation where price just says look i i want to practice i want to get going because it could go two ways here and this is just me talking. I don't have any inside information on this. I'm just thinking about this. And also, let me just say that I think we all recognize that Price's mental health is the most important thing. So, you know, he's obviously been around the team.

He wants to be around the team. That says to me, he's at least interested in trying this well now that the olympics are out there's two ways this can go number one is he can say you know what there's no olympics this year i'm gonna like this team's not playing for anything i'm gonna take the rest of the year off and get healthy physically and mentally and i'll see you all next september you know the other thing he could do is, look, if there's any chance that, and I'm talking about both the Canadians and the, like we talked about with Gallagher, would Gallagher ever say, you know what, it's time for me to go elsewhere.

Well, would that ever happen with Price? Would the Canadians and Price say, well, maybe another team might want you. Well, the only way that, you know, that could work is, is if you get healthy and you play some games this year, so other teams can see that you're all right. So I think at some point that decision, that conversation is going to have to happen.

That's one of the things I'll be looking out for as well. You know, one of the other teams too, that I think I'm curious about when it comes to trades, and this will all depend again on performance from here up until the trade deadline. And at times they've looked great, at times they've looked the opposite, and that's the Dallas Stars. And there's going to be some major decisions made based on their performance in the next month and a half. If you're the Dallas Stars and you've fallen out of it, what do you do with Joe Pavelski?

What do you do with John Klingberg? What do you do with Braden Holtby at trade deadline if you're Jim Nill? Steve Greeley's coming in. I don't know what the exact title is going to be for Greeley, but Steve Greeley's coming in to the organization, and I believe he's going to have input on the decisions. Listen, Jim Nill holds the pen. We all know that, but there's going to be input here.

And if this team falls out, I wonder what happens to some of these names come trade deadline time for the expiring contracts. If they think they can win a Stanley Cup. They're adding. Or do they just stay the same? I don't know if they're going to add. I really don't. They might just say we're going at it with this group.

I don't see them as somebody who's giving up something for the future. Unless they fall out of it. That's a caveat. I don't know if they're going to give up to add. something for the future. Unless they fall out of it. That's a caveat. I don't know if they're going to give up to add. I think they'll say, do we think we can win with this? Do you know what I'm saying here?

I do. But the thing is, you look at the Dallas Stars and how many times have we looked at them this season? I mean, I know they've had a couple of blips on the radar, but at times these guys have looked fantastic. But my point is, is that, talked about earlier,

they've got, only Colorado's played fewer games than them. Colorado's talked about earlier they've got only colorado's played fewer games than them colorado's played 28 and they've played 29 yeah so they've got time to show that they're that good but i think if dallas thinks they can win they think is with the group they have i don't see dallas and i could always be wrong later and maybe the way they play will change this but i don't see see Dallas trading a high draft pick or a good prospect for a rental this year. I think they're going to say,

if we can win it, we win it with what we have. But if they're out of it, or they don't like where they are, I look at Klingberg, I look at Holtby, I look at Pavelski, and I think they say, with what we can get for these guys, we think we can come back really quickly. I've been thinking about one thing a lot lately about the Dallas stars,

and that's how much they dodged a bullet with Ben Bishop. Oh, the cap situation. So the reason they went out and got Braden Holtby, because there was an uncertainty if Ben Bishop was going to be able to go at all. And I think maybe even Ben Bishop felt that himself. And then once he started to skate,

kind of felt like, well, you know what? Maybe I can try this year. Maybe I do have one shot in me. I wonder what went through the organization's mind when they sent him down to the American hockey league to try it out and see, because if he would have sort of passed the audition in the American hockey league, you know,

they would have had to have traded two players to make salary cap space. And then what happens if Bishop comes back and then he's injured again, that would have been devastating. Yep. For the Dallas Stars. That's why I think Dallas believed it was never going to happen. They really dodged a bullet here. Well, you saw, like, hey, there's four goalies on the ice,

Bishop skating with them all the time. What's going on here? They got lucky with this one. I think they were content to have him try, and I think we all understood exactly why he wanted to try, but I don't think they believed it was ever going to occur. Their doctors knew him better than anybody else. For sure.

But I think everybody respected an elite athlete wanting to give it a shot. I do think that whole thing with Dallas and Steve Greeley is really interesting though, because I think that says to me that they want a fresh approach in the way they do things. And you know, that's not always easy. And now it says to me that there could be some philosophical changes in the way that Dallas does things. And those are challenging things to manage internally. You know, I'll tell you something else, you know, we're talking about teams and you know what do they add or what do they decide not to add you know who i wonder about that with is toronto again i think this year that number one spot in the atlantic division is going to be critical oh yeah to avoid the florida teams now it's not necessarily going to be easy no matter who you get. You're going to get the wild card one or wild card two,

and right now that's Pittsburgh and Boston, and Boston's got games in hand. But right now, Atlantic 1-2-3, and it's going to stay that way, barring a miracle, is Tampa, Florida, Toronto. And as we do this, Tampa Bay, 34 games, 47 points. Florida, 32 games, 46 points. Toronto, 31 games, 44 points. The amazing thing to me is on plus minus,

Tampa's plus eight, Florida's plus 27, Toronto's plus 28. I didn't think the difference between Tampa and those other teams would be that much. Well, Tampa's played more games than the other two. And you look at the- Well, but still, it's two 28. Yeah. Like I didn't think the difference between Tampa and those other teams would be that much. Well, Tampa's played more games than the other two. And you look at the, but still it's two and three games. Like,

I mean, it's, that shouldn't be 20 goals. I'll tell you what though. You know what? It's proof. The true MVP. I know.

I know where you're going. It's Vasilevsky. But you know, like if you, if you're Toronto, what are you adding? Knowing that they don't have a ton of draft prospect capital to trade are you just saying this is our team that would be my thought yes i mean like everybody else a

deadline you look to add another defenseman for a run but if i'm the maple leafs this is the team it's interesting i mean listen i'm sure if they had a a redo on peter morassic or could bring in a different net minder, they would. Different contract anyway. Or a different contract, they would. But I know that the health of Jake Muzzin is occasionally a concern, but I think Toronto's team is the team that they have. That's it.

That's what I wonder too. Don't look for them to do anything major at that, unless there's an injury that puts someone on LTI and they have to snap into action to do something i can't see barring injury i can't see toronto doing anything significant i think this is their team you know one of the other things and you would have more of a handle on this uh than i would although i think our curiosity about it is the same the leadership of the players association yeah you know once that investigation is done into the handling of Cal Beach by the executive director, Donald Feer,

what does that reveal? And then what does that mean for the future of the executive director of the Players Association? And if it means he's no longer holding that title, who goes into that spot? I don't know what's going to happen here because I don't know what this investigation is happen here because I don't know what this investigation is going to reveal.

I think we're all expecting that there's going to be a new leader. At the end of this investigation, there's going to be a new leader. I just think we all kind of see that, you know, Donald fears in the seventies. I think more what people are kind of wondering about is what the succession plan is going to be,

or is there going to be a going to be, or is there going to be a search group and who's going to lead it? And the other thing is too, is do they feel it has to be a labor lawyer? Do they feel it has to be somebody with quote unquote hockey experience? Do they think it has to be somebody who's got a marketing ability? I think all of those things are going to go into it. The name Mike Gillis is definitely around there. And Matthew Schneider was one of his clients. Gillis is working in a consulting role with the Players Association right now. I definitely hear his name out there, which was a name that was suggested to me a a former player who's very smart guy

and was active and when he was a player and now was in the financial business it's craig adams oh yeah you know you wonder if there's any current agents who are going to want to look at that like the thing about agents suggesting agents is a lot of them don't like each other, right? I don't know what you're talking about. So anytime you suggest one, you get three more that come in. There's people like Ian Pulver who used to work there. People wonder if Alan Walsh would be interested. Walsh certainly likes to take his runs at the NHL. But, you know, I think one guy that I do get, you know, people say begrudgingly, although he's a little bit older, so I don't know if he has the interest, is Mike Liut.

Like, he's been a player advocate ever since he was a player, which is 40 years ago. You know, all of these names are going to be out there. See, a lot of it comes down to what the nature, the way I look at it too. Like you mentioned Ian Pulver. And Ian Pulver was there with Bob Goodenow when the nature of the relationship between the NHL and the Players Association was very much adversarial.

And there was very much don't give an inch, you know, either way, everything was a negotiation. I'm not going to do you any favors. If I do anything for you, I better get a cookie at the end of it. That's just the nature of how that relationship was. And part of that 20405 lockout was about a couple of things. One, salary cap, and two, the NHL trying to get rid of Bob Goodenow. And they succeeded with both. And Ian Pulver was there with Bob Goodenow. We know how they ran the association. You can remember what free agency was like and they had everything, everything was charted,

right? This player is going to go first for this amount of money and then it's going to flow downwards and everybody's going to get rich. And then the salary cap came in and it became, I would say, perhaps more advantageous for the relationship to be less adversarial. And I always wonder, you know, what leader of the players association best reflects the mood between the two, between the players association and the NHL? Like certainly at times it's adversarial at times it's chummy. That's just the nature of business. Could you describe, I'm not asking you for a person, but would it be possible right now in your mind to have a profile of who the right leader

of the Players Association would be given the nature of the relationship between the PA and the NHL the common goals that they have the places where they differ sometimes subtly sometimes profoundly is there a profile of someone that you think could fit depending on what happens with Donald Feer here because that's what i always wonder about like who's the right person for the job like you mentioned alan wash you bring in someone like alan wash look out well i do think the one thing i do believe jeff that like i think the last negotiation was about saving the business during covet correct that's why it happened so quickly. It wasn't easy, but I do believe that

Donald Feer and Gary Bettman looked at it as we have to save the business through COVID. And you're always going to get people who think you did a bad job. And there's always going to be people who argue that no matter what you do, they're going to hate it. I know some people who don't like Bettman and don't like Feer who said that they did what they had to do. And that was the job they had to do at that time. And I think most people get that. I think the next one will be adversarial. And I don't think it's just going to be about money. One of the things I think we're finding out here, and Jack Eichel is one example of this and brad marchand is another is that i think generally the players are concerned with the economics how much escrow

am i going to get like ovechkin you know for example he'd get on calls and he'd be like escrow escrow escrow he hated escrow but now like in the last few months jeff what have we had we had the players realized that they kind of lost control of their own medical decisions, right? Correct. And it took Eichel being willing to be the face of that and stand up and be the face of that for all the players to kind of realize, okay, what happened here? And then the Olympics, they all thought it was going to be their own choice. And all of a sudden they lost. And now Marchand is kind of the voice of it. What happened here? So I think the next negotiation, I think it's in five years, it's not

going to just be about the money, although, you know, it's always about the money, but it's also going to be about control of medical care and Olympic assurance. So, you know, in five years, we could all be hit by a bus. Who knows what could happen? But I do think that negotiation is going to be a challenging one on a lot of different levels. Okay, I have one more big one here too. And it's the pressure point coming with women's hockey.

After the Olympics, there's a decision that a lot of members of the PWHPA need to make, like a lot of the women that have been centralized and are competing for their national team their olympic team uh in beijing you know once that's done then that olympic cycle is over and there's four more years of question marks and what do they do is there going to be any type of nhl involvement in the women's league so far the nhl has politely said thanks but no thanks we're not in a position to do that right now i mean the phf very much exists they're in season seven um they're looking forward to season eight next year is there going to be a thawing between the PWHPA and the PHF? Or as we've heard rumors from

time to time, is Jaina Hefford and the PWHPA, are they, because they have at least started to, over the past few months, investigate the possibility of doing so, is there going to be another women's league created? Now I've heard everything from a fully funded big league to a smaller Canadian-only league. We don't know, but there is another pressure point coming in the future of women's professional hockey, and that's going to be right after the Olympics. And I would imagine that the PWHPA specifically would both recognize and try to

capitalize on that. I don't think it would surprise anybody, Elliot, if right after the Olympics, there's like a, again, provided that we all get through as much as we can the COVID situation, I wouldn't be surprised if there's like a PWHPA North American barnstorming tour across North America after the Olympics to sort of capitalize on that momentum. But something is coming. We just don't know what it is, but we know that that's the next big pressure point for the women's game. I'm curious to see, Jeff, how many of these players retire and go to work for teams? Oh, I think that's going to be a big, I think that's a huge one, Elliot.

I think that's huge. At the end of every Olympic quadrant, I guess we call it, there's always players who say, you know, this is my last one, it's time. And this came to the forefront a bit with us and Jennifer Botterill, but I heard that there's a lot of conversations

about adding more women to front offices and who are the right people to look at. And I wonder if some of them are players that are currently playing and might be retiring. So that's the other thing too. But as long as the NHL's position is you've got to clean up your own house first, like I do wonder if that's going to come down to the playersL's position is you've got to clean up your own house first. Like I do wonder if that's going to come

down to the players to saying, all right, let's get ourselves under one roof and then we can go here. I think we all went to the same thing. Absolutely. Okay. Here's my last one, Jeff. Okay.

Does Owen power play for Canada at the Olympics? There's going to be a lot of intriguing names at the Olympics. No, but he's the one. He's the one. It's funny. You no but he's the one he's the one it's funny you know he's the one i want to talk about you know i i will tell you what you know ron made an interesting point it's not going to happen but he said never mind no one power how about conor bedard uh going to the olympics like 16 years old that's how great he looked at the juniors i just thought power because i think power is the one who was physically ready for it

if you want to take bedard and anyone else to go ahead yeah no i think the only one that shane would consider would be on power at the university of michigan so someone else asked me about this today our old co-worker chad walker was asking me about this today. Like I thought a lot about what my Shan road and I understand where Marcian is coming from. You know, last summer I was one of several people from sports net that CBC asked about going to Tokyo and Rogers said no, because we were needed for the hockey, right?

It overlapped and they said no. And at the end of the day, who's our ultimate responsibility to? But at the 2018 Olympics, when the NHL wasn't going, CBC asked for me too. And Sportsnet said, if you want to go to the Olympics and miss a couple weeks of Sportsnet hockey, you can go. And I really wrestled with it because I love the Olympics and I love CBC,

but I ultimately decided not to do it for two reasons. One of them was that Ron had given up his hosting position at the Olympics. So I thought if Ron had said no, I felt it was tough for me to leave. But the other thing too, is I just felt like I'm hired for a job and you shouldn't leave your teammates while you're in the job. Right. And it was agonizing for me because I wanted to go. I love the Olympics. I wanted to go to the Olympics.

It's a great experience. It's what I wanted to do, but I thought it was the wrong thing. And I don't impose my morals on anybody else. I recognize people feel differently. You know, I've been fortunate enough like you to cover Olympics before. You know, the thing about Owen Power is, you know, Michigan, they could win the national championship this year. This might be his only chance.

And if you were to tell me that he felt loyal to his teammates and didn't think he should go for that reason, I would totally, totally understand that. But if he also said, this is my one chance to go to the Olympics and as long as I don't test positive, I'll be back in time to help Michigan win the NCAA title. I'm going to go do that too. Like I good with that i totally understand that but that was the only thing that made me think why owen power might not go and again i'm not saying he should go or he shouldn't go that's his choice to make not mine but that was the only reason i would not go if i was if i was owen power yeah because does it jeopardize your team's chance to win but you

know what the reality is and it's true of win? But you know what the reality is? And it's true of all sports, but particularly the one that we follow closest here, and that's hockey. Again, I always sound old when I say these kids, but here I go again. You know what these kids grow up doing? Leaving their teams all the time to go to showcases. Always.

This is what they've known, and teams just accommodate. Oh, he can't join us. He's at a showcase in, you know, Ann Arbor. Oh, he's gone to Montreal for this showcase.

Like, I don't know that it's, I don't want to say that it's baked into the pie for hockey players that they'll just leave their club teams throughout the season to better themselves individually. But it, it's kind of the way, you know, like that's like, I, I it's kind of the way. I wouldn't begrudge Owen Power and I think all of his teammates who look at it and say, you know what? This is the reality of growing up playing elite-level hockey.

And whether it's playing AAA hockey growing up, playing with your elite program in the States in youth hockey or playing major junior hockey and going to the U 18s or going to the U 20s or the, wherever the, or the Helinka Gretzky cup, like doesn't matter. You just go and everybody understands that that's how it's done. I don't know that anybody from Michigan would say, wow, what a bad teammate. I think they'd look at it and say, wow, what a great opportunity for, I don't know about that.

You don't think so? I think there's always people who look at the motivations for their world. But I think it should be one person's choice. And I think if he's invited, I think it should be Power's choice to do what he wants. Let's get in a couple of emails here. All right. So this is an interesting one.

Brad from Winnipeg. I've noticed the Edmonton Oilers seem to be the only team in the NHL with their team logo instead of advertising on their helmets this year. You've talked a lot this year about the NHL maximizing revenues for obvious reasons. Are the Oilers leaving revenue on the table? And is this at all an issue? So Philadelphia, by the way, is the only other team, I believe, that doesn't have sponsorship on their helmets.

There are some teams that will have the logos on the helmets at home, but not on the road or vice versa as well. So are these teams then leaving money on the table? Is it because they feel they're being low-balled? I don't know. I would have to ask Brad from Winnipeg that question. But it is just how quickly we're noticing that there isn't advertising now.

Yeah. You know, like we've- Wait till the shirts come up. Oh, I know. and we'll grouse about these jerseys sweaters sorry not shirts sweaters if you're canadian jerseys if you're american dressing room locker room but the second thing i would say to your question jeff is that yes i do think that there will be people who look at it and say, are we leaving too much money on the table by not having these teams with logos?

That always happens. Charles from Florida. My son and I were watching warmups of the Lightning Canadiens game. My son asked why eight Lightning players don't wear a helmet during warmups while none of the Canadians did. Is this a home team optional rule?

Do you expect this to ever be outlawed in the future first of all let's just get something out of the way quick the reason that players don't wear helmets in the warm-up is it looks and feels cool yeah that's it yes that's the only reason period now there are some teams that mandate mandated i believe that glenn sather when he was the gm with both edmonton and i shouldn't say edmonton because that was a long time ago but definitely with the rangers he mandated that you had to wear warm-ups and i remember when taylor hall got hurt in warm-up there were a number of players who started wearing helmets. However, there are always going to be guys who just don't want to do it.

Chris Pronger didn't do it. Yeah. But I do know that more and more teams think it's crazy not to. You know, you can't mandate it. There is a rule that these things have to be done in association with the players association. You know, for example, there was one team, I think it was Calgary that wanted to mandate shot blockers on skates.

And the PA said to him, you can't just tell them that they have to do that. That's all going to be collectively bargained. Honestly, I can see that being part of the CBA one day. I could too. I mean, if I'm an owner and all of a sudden my star player doesn't wear a helmet and gets a puck in the head in warm-up and he's lost for the remainder of the season because of it

and is maybe, I would be beyond livid. I could definitely understand that too. Okay, let's finish up the interactive part of the podcast here, Elliot. I'll finish up this part of the podcast with a phone call at 1-833-311-3232. It's a thought line as used effectively by Connor.

Hey, Jeff and Elliot, Connor from New York. If Eichel doesn't play a game before the Olympics, could he technically go represent the U. in the Olympics, of course, as a way to get himself into NHL readiness come, you know, springtime, just a thought. Connor, that's a good question. Thank you. It's a good question. The answer is no, he's on an NHL contract, so he can't go, but it is a great question.

I see. I like the way people think it's like the players were trying to avoid their contracts and then re-sign people are always looking for loopholes oh this is just a development skate for jack eichel here he's just getting himself ready and just helping to bring back a gold medal to the united states okay so that's it for the pod listen hey we are back back to our regular schedules, two podcasts a week. Thanks, as always, for joining us. Thanks for all the downloads.

We really, really appreciate it and are very flattered, as always, when the numbers come in. So thank you very much, Elliot. It's the stretch drive now. At least it feels that way anyhow. Just back from a little bit of a break and refreshed and renewed and ready to go. With that, we'll end the pod with this. This band currently performs as an eight-piece mini orchestra. Star Parks, formed in 2015, released their debut album in 2016.

After some reshuffling, the band came back with their sophomore record in 2020 of February. And according to the band, it, quote, seemed like a grand idea. From the new sounds of late capitalism record, here's Star Parks with O Boredom on 32 Thoughts, the podcast that's appropriate. Like the faces of the railway station Sentimental types Sleepwalking Sunday drivers Breathing out the oxygen And I fall to pieces I fall apart

Just a sigh of knocking down One by one I come undone I'm out. Smile, feel it all the while Like a wave crashing a cavern Out of four pieces, I fall apart It's a crack and a mess and I One by one, I'm a commander Thank you.