Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Jeff Marek (FULL INTERVIEW)

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Jeff Marek Talks 2025 Free Agency, New CBA & More | The Insider HotlineThe Insider Hotline | Presented by Crystal Waters Plumbing Company https://www.crystalwatersplumbingcompany.com/Join Cami & Pinder as they welcome DFO's Jeff Marek for an in-depth discussion on the latest NHL news, rumors, and game highlights. From trade talks to player performances, get all the insights and analysis you need to stay in the loop! Don’t miss this exciting episode packed with expert commentary and behind-the-scenes stories from the world of hockey. Tune in now!#calgaryflames #calgary #nhlshorts #nhlhockeyislife #hockey #nhl #stanleycup Let us know what you think in the comments below ⬇️BARN BURNER BLONDE https://originbrewing.myshopify.comFLAMESNATION MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/shirts/FlamesnationBARN BURNER SHORTS https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9&si=jo8iNGxT4ImhS2Y8📲 Follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnbarnburner/X (Twitter): https://x.com/barnburnerfn?lang=en🎧 Listen on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/barn-burner-boomer-pinder-with-rhett-warrener/id1648562889Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mc6Qd5U22R2zbMlQ7RxIiProducer: Jack Haverstock Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeff, Hey, can I can I hop in on some of that talk about Benjamin Kindle? Yes, please do. A good news story for the Western Hockey League right now. Yep. Michigan thought they were going to get him. Oh, really?

If he wasn't going to sign with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Brandon Nerato, Michigan, the Wolverines were all over. Benjamin Kindle. Now we all have our eyes on Porter Martone. Whether the Philadelphia Flyers sign him or whether he ends up going to school, Michigan State just lost Isaac Howard. could there be a porter of martone replacement

a whole bunch of new wrinkles whole bunch of new wrinkles in this dynamic now entirely new year Calgary got him Calgary got him back that's right Benjamin Kindle's back extremely smart he's sharp cook oh no Calgary was like the scholastic team

of the year for us yeah no really eh yeah now I'm an old buddy of Paul McFarland I've known Farley for forever back when he was coaching with Ashawa we work out of the same gym together his younger brother, Johnny and I are our buddies. He helped train my kids.

But did you test him academically as well? We should have. I'm going to ask for his transcripts next. He's actually a smart guy. He's actually, he used his education package. I should point that out. He said he's pretty well traveled.

He was on a Toronto bench and like a very up and coming coaching. And now like I feel like this is a, if you're a big, strong Canadian hockey league, brand like the Calgary Hitman like this is a good spot to incubate have some success and who knows where he knows next but he's he was one of those young coaches like he's going to get a gig soon and I think that's still the case but they got them locked down for the hitman right now which is good yeah and they're doing a lot of good recruiting in the states too even like aiden park like the kid who yeah yeah yeah from the USA channel had a cup of coffee there in the playoffs in calgary yeah uh

jeff how's how's the summer been obviously this is the maiden voyage for the sheet but now we're to July and you got free agency's chaos and the draft is a ton but but now we're into the we really got to talk about Isaac Howard season she we really we really we really must and and he'd like to be referred to as Ike thank you very much oh really um yeah that's as we understand it he'd like to be referred to as Ike Howard but nonetheless he wants to be called Ike district it's not the Ike district is what they call outside the outside the arena there now um you know what I'm what I love about this and I'm I'm being legitimate about it I always hated not being able to do something in the summer because I would always have to scram, right?

Okay, everyone takes the summer off. Everybody goes back when I used to do local radio in Toronto, I used to keep my hockey show going all summer. Like the idea of stopping, like we're all Canadians. We all talk about hockey 24-7 every week, every year. It never really stops. And so I'm going to keep it hot for, I think, two or three times a week in July, maybe trail it down to two, maybe one, the odd week, depending on the nature of the news in August. But I'm keeping the feet hot, baby.

I'm keeping the feet hot. What interested you about or intrigued you about the draft end or free agency? I feel like when we looked back a year ago, we're like, wow, Crosby Free Agent, ranton and free agent, dry saddle free agent. Look at all these. This is going to be unbelievable. Wow. And then it's like, no, really the biggest guy was Nicola Euler's, who's a good player.

But it was. Yeah. This one, I mean, we always do this right. Now we're going to spend a year wondering about. McDavid and Caprizo and Jack Eichael. Okay, so we got Connor McDavid's going to go to the New York Rangers and Jack Eichael's going back. He's going to Boston. He's going home baby and you know, like Caprizov.

All the Russians end up in New York. He's going to be a ranger and oh my God. Like that's just all calm down. Free agency was, I don't know, mid. Yeah, it was. Really? I mean, Marna got traded to the Vegas Golden Knights. That was a big name off the board.

Nikolai Eilers took a little bit longer. Then we thought it came down to two teams. It was, it very much felt like, you know, he wanted seven years. And the two teams that it came down to, Washington and Carolina, it sounds like Washington was only prepared to go five. And because Carolina went six that he ended up going to the Carolina hurricanes. But really, there was nothing, there's been nothing sort of by way of major excitement so far. And I'll tell you, and I know I can hear people's eyes glazing

glazing over when I say CBA. But to me, the big story is how much of a non-story the CBA is. Yeah. It's an entirely different universe with the players representation now. Completely true. You know, I mean, I remember the war of, I was doing a daily show in 0405 covering that lockout, everything you always wanted to know about retirement pensions. and I would play an amateur actuary on television in 2012.

We went through that one as well. Like I know anything about pensions. Well, I always felt for the beat reporters. All my years is an actuary. What's that? I always felt for the beat reporters. They're like literally standing outside of Tower in New York for like six hours. And then like nothing's happening.

I remember all day. Just standing. We did it live at Sportsnet. I remember being on. It was, oh God, it was a Saturday morning. And my shift started at 6 a.m. and they had spoken all through the night.

And I was the only one on the panel. I think Doug McLean had got home. Brad May had gone home. And it was just me on the panel. I don't know. Like, the only people that I'm broadcasting to at that point are people that have fallen asleep with the TV on. Like,

no one's actually watching at this point. And we have like one bit of B-roll that's like 30 seconds of Bill Daly crossing the street in Manhattan that we just have on a loop. Oh, look at them. Sorry, that reminds me of covering court. That one walking B-roll. shot like and and my producer my producer keeps hitting the key and all he keeps saying is keep talking yep

keep talking keep talking the worst word in broadcasting phil Phil Phil yeah Phil and then he's like all right well let's get out to tell us straight let's get how we meet her in here now look at this he sees the curb cubing and really nice hip-clector activation he gets the leg up and it's a smooth transition into the taxi like but you know like if that happened now you would have like all of the armchair body language experts on I've talked like this is what we know judging by how Bill Daley. Well, hang on. It looks like his briefcase is a little more full than when he first went and talked to the Players Association.

Does that mean we're close to having a deal? Is he taking this back to his negotiating? Is that a memorandum of understanding in there? Is that what that is, Jeff? What are the big takeaways from the CBA? Because you're right, it used to be war and it used to be incredibly painful. And hockey fans, rightfully, have been very angry at the league for costing them a season and a half over the last quarter century and rightfully so.

But it's very different now with the PA head and Gary feeling more like partners than meeting in the trenches to like fight to the death. I'll tell you what, that loss of a season and the loss of a half season back in 2012 too, I think sent a major fear into the players association because I don't see wins here for the players. I really don't. Like you're going to have to like really point out where the win. There are there are wins for the owners that I see disguised as wins for the players.

I either going to the Olympics. We're looking at that and we're saying, oh, look at that win for the players because they want to go. Okay, sure the players want to do. You don't think the NHL wants to put their logo next to the Olympics? You don't think they want their athletes. Like I think the Olympic, the Olympic thing has been totally misrepresented here. and the NHL has positioned this brilliantly as something the players want and the owners will give to them grudgingly. You don't think they want their logo next to the IOC and the Five Rings?

Like what are we talking about here? Like yeah, how many players actually get to take part. Yeah, it's true. Players want it. And you're literally talking about less than 100 players. Yeah. Like I don't know.

And the other thing that I keep coming back to here on this one is one, there's obviously, again, for me, tiny little wins for the players, a little bit more playoff revenue. And really, outside of that, I'm not seeing any wins. And this all needs to be looked under the umbrella of expansion. So there's going to be minimum two more teams at $2 billion a crack.

Okay, so we're talking about $4 billion out there. And the players will see exactly, none of it. And even if they weren't going to, even if right away the owner's, owners said, no, it's a hill that we're going to die on, I would understand that. And if I'm the NHL, I don't want to give up the nickel of that either. And I would say the same things, or we're giving you new jobs. New expansion teams, that means new jobs. But the same

time, there's 4B sitting there and you're not going to fight for it. To me, one of the big stories is, why is the deal done now this early in July? Where are the pressure points? There is no pressure point to do a deal right now. If you're the players Association and you see $4 billion potentially sitting there, why not drag this thing out? You have no reason, because now with a signed document called the CBA, Gary Batman can take that to whomever in Atlanta or in Houston and say, it's $2 billion because we have labor peace. The EPA just surrendered that.

He's handed it right over without a fight. I mean, this went for this negotiation went from like April until last week. this one was quick because it didn't look like there were going to be fights over anything. Again, it's wonderful for fans. Let me position this properly. This is great for fans. I just don't know that if I am the Players Association, I want to put this one on a resume because I don't know where the wins are here.

I really don't. How do you feel about 84 games? I think the quality of hockey would be better if they shrunk but didn't expand the schedule. But leagues don't do that because home games are revenue. you. NFL is adding, like everyone's adding games. So I understand what they want it, but. It can be positioned as, you know, it's good for both sides because it's more hockey related revenue. So from that point of view, I mean, listen, the minute they signed off on linkage, the minute they signed off on salary linkage in the CBA negotiation, however many years

ago that was, the idea of shrinking the schedule went out the door because that takes money out of the players' pockets and owners aren't going to go for either. So as much as I may bark and moan about 72 games or 76 games. I know it's never going to happen. I'm with you, though. I think one of the things that we're going to see now, because now we're also getting a robust international schedule, Olympics World Cup, et cetera,

you're demanding a lot from your top players. We're seeing this in soccer. The schedule becomes way too busy and these contrived tournaments or the ones that we really care about and the ones that call in the middle and then, oh, they're probably going to expand the playoffs. Now it's 84 games. Oh, it's an Olympic year.

And we're holding this camp here. It's like, it's like a player in their draft year with the world juniors and the UAT. Like it's. Like a grads. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

So, okay. Okay. I want to see both of your reactions. Can we both get one shots right to camera? Right to camera. Both of you. Cammy, let's go right to camera.

Where'd you go, Pender? Pender. Right to camera. When I say, when I say this term, I want to see your reaction. Okay. There it is.

There it is. I'm sorry. It's so expensive. Can you imagine like if you don't live in a city? Like if you live in Regina, it's like I'm going to drive to Calgary. Yeah, it's my one trip to drop like 200 bucks per person on a ticket. Family of four. That's probably like an okay seat. Yeah. And then like how from my oh, oh to watch the back us. But it's cringy. I understand the sports science. You don't think of another couple of games plus World Cup plus Olympic. We're already seeing. it a bit, but not to the level of what we see in the NBA where it's just scheduled off days. Now it's like if you're dinged up, we'll give you some time. And, you know, Florida and Empton didn't care whether they were going to win the division or be three seeds or wild cards or home ice and two seats.

Like we're just getting in and then we want everyone to be ready. Like do what we need to do to make sure everyone's ready on April 19. That's in the playoffs start. So that there's load management in that sense, but not to like, hey, Kauai, every third game you're out. Like that and to Cammy's point, it just there are so much if you are a fan and you're spending huge money to go to these

events and say oh yeah, Sydney Crosby's out tonight maintenance. Yeah. I'm going to start doing that if I can't go to work. I'm like, I'm not sick anymore. I'm load management. We're load managing this summer. We're in two shows a week, Jeff. That's us. I hear you. So I just put it out into our nation network universe.

I think you'll be folly to think that it's not coming. Like, 82 games is hard. You look at what these guys look like by the time to playoff start. Like, it is hard. It's a tough season. And then you go, like the Florida Panthers have gone deep three years in a row and won it twice. You can imagine what they're feeling like. There'd be guys starting on LTIR after having surgery, et cetera.

Like, this is going to be the new reality. And this is what happens when you stretch out your season. I've always said, guys, like, if I could change one thing in the NHL. Like, if I could suggest one thing to Gary Bettman, every single year it's the same thing. Get your game out of July, out of June. Yeah. Get your game out of June.

Let that be for the draft and free agency and awards and all those things. Start September, sure. Don't compete with patios. When you have the truncated preseason, what does that do for bubble players or the young guys who are trying to make teams having less of a... They already have the rookie camps. I don't buy that. I mean, I understand the thought, but I'm just like, no, there's too much, too many.

Aren't teams, though, really made up? What's the last day of arbitration? guys, August 15th. At the last day of our, like by the time our station's done, teams are made up. There's maybe one. A couple of roster spots. Yeah. Who's going to be our fourth line center?

Oh, what about, which who's, there's seven, eight defensemen. One guy goes to the A. Oh, there might be a battle for a backup. Is it Presvatov or is it Kuli and Cal? It's the fringes of the roster. Right. That's what we're, that's what we're talking about. Fraser mentioned a couple years ago with Toronto. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So like there's, there's not, there's, there's, As far as like me, teams always say the right thing. Oh, no one's guaranteed. No, the CBA and the contracts. There's some one way to. It's funny. I was talking to Anton Funny yesterday. He's a retired agent.

He's a veteran of the CBA wars. And he's looking at how, you know, this, the, the system now for players has become even more restricted by way of, you know, bonuses and et cetera. And how much you can have in bonuses and how they can be structured and everything. He said, what you're getting to is like, contracts are going to be done by chat GPT. Do you need like do we really need agents anymore? Well honestly like you look at some of the

some of the hockey projections on contracts like they're all bang on like I think it's evolving hockey does it and the guys that of Minnesota from Chris. And they have a spreadsheet every year and they're like just by plugging in data here's what we guess the contract will be for said player. And seven, eight times out of 10 it's bang on. Like it's you're literally saying,

okay, we think the team's going to ask for 3.5. we're going to ask for four and a quarter. We'll settle at 3.8. Like it's just, okay, we do the charade and meet in the middle. Yeah, it's done. Like, yeah. And to your point, you can only do bonuses if you're over 35 or entry level. And you can't add them for most.

Structures getting even more restrictive to and teams owning players' rights for four years and don't have to sign them to a contract. Like, again, like, I'll come back to the point that I made at the beginning of our conversation. Where are the wins for the players here? Yeah. they're going to change term length, max term length. I don't know if you view that as a win for the owners again or owners because from the owner's perspective, it's like, okay, you're not going to get yourself into these gross,

you know, wish we could buy this out. This nightmare won't go away, bad contracts. But the thing that the players have done that I think is pretty silly is they've all been very keen to max out term. And then by the time their deals up, what might have been a high percentage of the cap isn't anymore. And so maybe forcing them back into the market more often could be a win for the players. I guess if you look at it, you could look at it that way very much.

Hockey players generally want security. That is changing. I should say that. The caveat is, it is Matthews is the one. So I mean, listen, Connor McDavid is also represented by Judd Moldaver-Wasserman. And same as Austin Matthews. If he follow the same model,

we all suspect that he will. I'll tell you, the one thing that I'd, and again, I've been banging on this drum for a while, and I know it's not going to go anywhere. But as much as we sort of, you know, bemoan the idea of players and all the no trade clauses that are out there and no move clauses that are out there and how tough it is come trade deadline time to move players how difficult it is to to be able to to make your team better we know with the cap of course is money and money out on

a lot of these deals one of the things that i've always believed is that and i know that it probably goes nowhere because we're talking about money outside the system but one of the things that i've always believed is when you ask a player to waive his no trade clause, what you're proposing is this. Give me something in exchange for nothing. That's not business. That's charity. That's do me a solid so I can get what I want.

What you get is the inconvenience of moving away from your family and your friends into a new city and so be gone, but we get a chance to make our team better here. how would you guys feel if they created a mechanism whereby if you asked a player to waive his no trade or no move clause he gets a million dollars. Rhett proposed this last couple weeks. Half million dollars. He's been hammered on it. And I'm like, yeah, cool idea.

So the next CBA will be up in five years. We'll talk about it then. Like it's done. But that's it. But again, like for a player, for a players win. Like, sure. I don't know if it did come. up in these negotiations.

But as I look for any kind of player wins in this CBA, to me, that would be one. Like, okay, you know what? You're asking me to do something for you. That's fine. This is a business. And what I get in an exchange for helping you out by waiving a clause in my contract that we both negotiated, both sides in good faith, I'm going to get a million dollars. That's to me.

And I don't like the word fair, but I'll use it. That to me seems fair. So this ties in nicely to the Rasmus Anderson conversation, because the situation you're describing is exactly the one that Rasmus and his camp are in with the Calgary Flames. The flames would like to get a great return for Rasmus. Rasmus, I think, has one shot at free agency in his whole career, or at least one last chance at a big contract. His next deal will likely carry him into his late 30s in the end of his career.

He's been on an undermarket deal for most of his career. He's been a very good Calgary Flame. He likes the city, but it's clearly. time that the team goes one way and the player goes the other because he doesn't really match their window. They're going to be young and trying to be competitive in a couple of years. And Rasmus is quite good very now, about to get more expensive and then we'll decline into his late 30s like all players do because father time's undefeated. Like how do you see this one playing out? I understand Calvary wanting to get more. But too many people are mad at Rasmus in my mind,

including Red, a former player where I'm like, he literally negotiated the right to have a no trade. He's allowed to use it. And you're like, hey, extend. end here. It's like, I get to your left. Like, I'm not really thinking about where I'm playing after that or like, maybe I would, but like, I'm not committing to that. Yeah. Um, you know, it's funny. Kelly Rudy would always say he thinks that it should be against, uh, again, there should be a clause in the CBA prohibiting teams from asking players to waive their no trade. Because, because it's, it was negotiated in good faith. And for the other reasons that I just sort of laid out, this is the proposition of give me something in exchange for nothing.

I have no problem with players refusing to waive their no trade. Yeah. Those are all granted. Those were all negotiated and given in good faith. And again, I'll come back to the same thing. I hate to repeat myself on your show, but here I go. Give me something in exchange for nothing is not a legitimate offer. And that's what waive your no trade so we can send you where we want is.

I have no problem, no problem. Yeah, I agree. I'm the same. I think maybe the only case you could make, and it's not really the same with Rasmus, but like Mitch Marner would be an example. It's like, Leifes are like, hey, we'd love to do a deal.

He's like, yeah, no, I'm good. Like I got the full no move. I'm not moving anywhere. And yeah, I'm going for agency. Now, at least they ended up. You know, he gets an extra year. He gets the eighth year from Vegas on the $12 million. The Leafs then get an asset.

So that's a bit of give and take. But what the flames are asking Rasmus to do from, you know, at least what we're picking up in the hockey Twitter sphere, they're saying, hey, like, would you extend places? Like, that's him doing them a favor. And it's like, he's been making not enough money for the last, all of his last deal. Yeah.

And he doesn't need to choose where he's going to play in his 30-year-old season and beyond yet. It's his right to wait. I think that, like, listen, if like, it's not exactly a secret that the Dallas stars have wanted to get Rasmus Anderson for a while. If, you know, if Jim Mill wants to approach Craig Conroy about it and if he's, if he's willing to extend, put that, put that offer forward.

Like, hey, this is what we have with Dallas, but they'll only do the deal if, um, if this contract comes along with it. And it's and, and RAS is is amenable to it. Sure. But if he's not, why, why, I think, I think all players, I've always felt this way. I'm not sure you guys are on this one. I've always felt that players should do a number of different things. And one of them is, I mean, if I were a player, I would,

want this just to just just to know for the rest of my life just to see what you're worth on the open market you know and plan and rasmus is right there and is is close to have uh having earned that right and i know that there's a lot of agents and darren ferris you just mentioned mitch marner and sam bennett's agent there a couple of seconds ago darren ferris is always a strong proponent of walk to free agency see what's out there doesn't mean you can't go back look at brock besser yeah um different agent albeit but that's that's that's And I think that I think that players have the right. And, you know, it's probably a smart thing that when you're at, you know,

some of the height of your powers, you go out there and test what you're like at the open market. That's the way this whole system has been set up. They have your rights. The team has your rights for a certain amount of time. And then those rights expire. And then you can go shopping. And I'll tell you what, the way that Isaac Howard just did it with the Tampa Bay Lightning, I wonder if we start to see more players doing it this way.

specifically now that in the CBA, you hold the players' rights until, well, if they're drafted 18 for four years, until they're 22 years old. So you do that, you know, you threaten with going back for the senior year and then essentially you can pick where you want to go. Like, make no mistake about it, Isaac Howard said, I want to go to Edmonton. It was a clear fit. I don't go to my senior year at Michigan State and then I'll pick after a year and you will get nothing.

Yeah, and I don't know that it's about. of that. The eight aldos or the little dolphins in the swimming. It's not about the mall. Like, it's a chance to play in a top six of the superstar. Yes. And there's not a lot of opportunities like that around the league for a guy to go straight from college next to one of the best five players in the world. He's got that opportunity there. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, this

one's a fascinating one because he's going to walk in there. He's going to be given a lot of chances to succeed. Like Howard's got like a ridiculous release. of a shot. And offensively, he's great. He goes to the net for tips mainly, but he will go to the front of the net. The puck is on his stick,

and then he's, then the puck is off of his stick. And he's ready to play in the NHL now. And he's maneuvered himself into a position here where he could play next to the best player in the NHL. Yeah. Like, as far as stick handling your career, Isaac Howard is a really good job here. Yeah.

It's kind of remarkable. We don't need to get into it, but, you know, something went sideways as soon as the season was over when he and Tampa were talking, you're like, oh, okay, that's, you don't usually see a player or a prospect of that caliber. I don't think he saw a path. I don't think he saw a path with Tampa. And you look at Tampa, you know, going out and grabbing Yanni Gord and Oliver Bjork Strand.

And he's saying to himself, like, look, I'm right here to play pro hockey. I'm right there. And now I've got all these players blocking me. How long does this mean I'm going to be in the American hockey league? And you got himself in a position with the idea of him going for his senior year to position himself to playing with the Oilers. It's funny about that like to know. Bit of business. Yeah, it's funny like the collegiate rights and no move closets.

It just makes me think of the rangers, like the best and worst of it on both ends with Jimmy Visi and how you see things. Pan out of Gujar with Truba. How ugly it can all get. Yeah. It's, uh, we can't. We'll see.

That's fascinating one. Prospect for prospect. Oh, you've taken too much your time. Thank you. We'll be on. You can check Stampede Watch. Jack, have you seen anything on socials?

I think he might be tired. You might need a breather after flooring it. like two weeks. Has he, one year off stampede, Matthew? Q, has he, has he, have, do we have, like,

a pot of black coffee for him yet? Has he sobered up since the celebration? I don't know what it's, I don't know that we've ever seen a team part. We thought that we saw it with, with Ovechkin and the caps. I don't know that I've ever seen a team party like this with the,

with the Stanley Cup. And that includes, like, the Phil Esposito, Bobby, or Bruins. How about the Mark Messier left the cup of a strip club Rangers?

There was some teams afforded, but these guys put on a master class this year. They really did. No, no, no. That's a very fair point. The cup may or may not have ended up at the bottom of, I think it was Glenn Anderson's pool. So yeah, you know what?

You may have a good point. That you know what? As far as the summer show would go, which is the most spot team. The cup loves a good dunk. To win the Stanley Cup. Well, I'll tell you what, there was one.

You can go see it on YouTube. When the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1967, Clarence Campbell, and he always loved vodka and orange juice. apparently had been drinking all day long. And when he went to hand out the Stanley Cup, he was over refreshed, let's just say.

And the speech is garbled. And you can barely understand what Clarence is saying is he hands the Stanley Cup over to George Armstrong. And I don't know that it's the only time, but it's probably, I mean, certainly I don't think Gary Bettman's ever done it buckled, but like the commissioner slash president has handed the Stanley Cup over in less than

sober spirit, let's just say. We've been over refreshed here in Calgary at Stampede Week. Thanks for joining us. America. Appreciate it. And yeah, big, big pots of black coffee everywhere. Sheet, what's next? Give us the tease.

Today, we got Steph Rosner, who covers the New York Islanders. So one of the more interesting teams all of a sudden, like, as soon as Lou Lamarillo moves on, all of the sudden, it's become one of the most interesting and entertaining teams and intriguing teams that we've seen in the offseason. And so I'm going to talk to Steph about what's next for the Islanders. Right when the dress code goes out the window. Yeah, mustache is like that. That's why he's actually.

They were hanging out to it just for Lou Cammy. Oh my God, I never thought about that. That's so true. Mutton shops, big old wax curle. Everyone's going to go wild. They have a new policy, only facial hair. Let's roll. Get sold patches, all the gross stuff.

Finally, Kyle Palmieri can grow his beard back. He's the one guy that looks so different without a beer. I can never, normally get used to it after. I can never get used to seeing Kyle Palmerie. without a beard. It's like when small children have their dad shave their beard off for the first time and they just cry when they see them. Don't recognize them. My kids would do that. We've never seen. Thanks, Jeff. Have a great one. Have a good rest of your show, guys.