Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - The Biggest Questions Surrounding The Calgary Flames | Barn Burner

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

Gould, Bobby and Pike are back for another Summer Barn Burner packed with Calgary Flames talk. The guys break down their excitement for the upcoming season, Matt Coronato's next step, Sam Honzek's outlook, and whether the current roster stacks up against the 2013-14 team. They also dive into Craig Conroy's offseason moves, the future of Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee, Simon Nemec, and what the long-term future looks like in Calgary—with a few off-topic summer stories mixed in along the way. Which Flames storyline are you watching most closely heading into the season?Video Link: https://youtu.be/i-qYg9HeHVATIMESTAMPS ⏰00:00 Intro Sponsors02:00 Intro Banter04:00 Excitement Level For Next Season06:30 Flames Pending FA's08:00 Matt Coronato13:00 Flames Power Play17:30 Current Flames Lines vs 2013-1423:00 Hunter Brzustewicz35:30 Sam Honzek42:00 Season Outlook53:00 Commercial Break57:00 Ryan Pike Joins The Show58:00 Movie Talk01:02:00 Back To Flames01:13:00 Craig Conroy's Moves01:19:00 Frost/Farabee01:22:00 Post Backlund Plan01:37:00 Commercial Break01:42:00 Simon Nemec02:03:30 Big Contracts / Huberdeau02:14:30 10 Best Contracts02:19:30 Future Outlook02:21:30 Calgary SportsSubscribe to FN Barn Burner 🚨➡️ https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner📲 Follow Barn BurnerInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnbarnburner/X (Twitter): https://x.com/barnburnerfn🎧 Listen to the PodcastApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/barn-burner-boomer-pinder-with-rhett-warrener/id1648562889Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mc6Qd5U22R2zbMlQ7RxIi🛒 Barn Burner Merchhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/flamesnation🎬 Watch Barn Burner Shortshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9Powered by our partners:• bet365 – http://www.bet365.ca/• McLeod Law – https://www.mcleod-law.com/• Village Honda – https://www.villagehonda.com/• Outdoor Dental – https://www.outdoor.dental/• Capital Chev – https://www.capitalchev.ca/• Crowfoot Dodge Chrysler – https://www.crowfootdodgechrysler.com/• Renfrew Chrysler – https://www.renfrewchrysler.ca/• Crystal Waters Plumbing Company – https://www.crystalwatersplumbingcompany.com/• Bon Ton Meat Market – https://www.bontonmeatmarket.com/• Templ – https://drinktempl.com/• Sundre Golf Club – https://www.sundregolf.com/• Taco Time Canada – https://tacotimecanada.com/• Adrenalin Source for Sports – https://www.sourceforsports.ca/pages/adrenalin-source-for-sports-calgary• GMC – https://www.gmccanada.ca/en/trucks/sierra-1500• Greta Bar – https://gretabar.com/calgary/Business [e-mail]: Jack Haverstock#NHL #Hockey #CalgaryFlames #EdmontonOilers Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to Barnburner, Flames Nation's summer show. It's a presentation of Bet365, and Canada just hit the biggest home run of the summer, because Bet365 is now available in Alberta and here to stay. Download the app must be 19 plus. Please play responsibly. And hey, folks, well, you're with us. I mean, this is a presentation of McLeod Law. Visit them in MacLeodlaw.com, MacLeod-dashlaw.com. Call Peter Klein at 403254-386. for and tell them you're calling because you've watched the show here in the McLeod Law studio. So excited to have you along with us. Well, welcome everybody to another edition of Barnburner. And I suppose this one is really going to be called Barnburner and Friends because the people who you probably just saw in that intro, they're not here today, unfortunately. But we are. It is me, Mike Gould. It is I, Mike Gould, here with you whenever you are seeing this is you may find this out during the course of the show.

we're not really doing this live. We're here to sort of fill in space for you, but we're here to do whatever we can to make this an entertaining part of your day. Mike Gould once again, along with our buddy Bobby, Bobby Germany, Robert Munich. It's going on. Am I getting punked right now?

Am I on Barnburner? Am I on the biggest sports podcast in the city of Calgary right now? I mean, it feels like I'm getting kind of punked right now. You're on Barnburn and friends. You're on like the special edition. You know, they're base cell and we're kind of like, I can't believe it's not butter.

It's kind of like, you know, a little lowbrow. Right. Not quite as real as the stuff. We're doing our best. It is the summer. It is beautiful. I mean, if you heard the news off the top, Canada just hit a huge summer home run, Bobby. It's true.

And for the reasons of, I mean, it's beautiful out. All of our wildfire smoke is being blown down to the States, so we don't have to worry about any of that. It's just, it's gorgeous times. And there's no better time to be talking about the Calgary Flames. then of course in the middle of July. 100%. There's a lot of stuff to get into. I mean,

it's been a somewhat busy off season for Craig Conroy and company here in Calgary. They have gotten some work done. There's lots to talk about. There maybe hasn't been as much open public discussion of it for various different reasons. And so there's, there's an opportunity for us to get into it here today, Bobby. And I think I just want to sort of start everything off with the temperature check here today.

I mean, here we are, middle of July, coming off of a flame season that I think you could safely say one of the worst seasons they've had in a very long time, a season that was very difficult to watch for large chunks of it, especially a bit near the beginning. What is your overall level of excitement heading into the last year of the dome? You know, it's interesting you say that because I actually think that we're now through the worst of the rebuild. I actually think the previous seasons, you know, like the 2020, 24, 25, 26, even the year even the year before that, just watching this team with a bunch of veteran players, you know, they're trying to remain competitive and they're trying to rebuild at the same time. You know, that never works. And watching the team go through that process over the last three years here, I think, has been

really hard to watch. I actually thought last year it might have been even a little bit more enjoyable because they finally chose a direction. They finally made some trades. They moved out some veterans. and at least from the trade deadline on, they really prioritize young players. And from March 7th to the end of the year,

it was actually kind of exciting to watch Matt Vey Gridd and play on a top line and a top power play unit. Zane Perrek, you know, get top four minutes and play on the right side and play on the left side. He's on the first power play unit. Like, that stuff I thought was kind of exciting. And I know in this upcoming season,

like it's going to be rough. Like, they're going to finish in the bottom three again. But they are rebuilding and they are going in younger direction. And I actually think that's going to be really exciting. because we're no longer to be watching these veterans trying and push their way to the playoffs. It's like, okay, there's a real direction. And I think Flames fans are really going to enjoy watching that in this final year at the dome. A little later on in the show, we'll have Flames Nation managing editor, Ryan Pike, not Ryder Pike,

although we could call him Ryder, I suppose. He'll be joining us later on in the show to go over maybe a little bit more of what to expect at the Saddlelome in the final year of its existence as an NHL arena. For now, Bobby, I mean, sort of taking what you said about it being excited. more exciting as we get into this year. I think one of the big things that I'm thinking about looking into this year is we're not just waiting for the shoe to drop as far as trades that we expect to be on the horizon. Players who we know are going to be leaving town. I mean, it is still there. It's still an element of being a seller that will always exist for the flames

until they're ready to turn that corner. By the same token, though, I don't think there's the same level of fervent anticipation, both within the market, league-wide, about Morgan Frost's situation, about Ryan Strom's situation. These are not sort of foundational players to the level that we might have thought of with Rasmus Anderson, Noah Hanof and Elias Lindholm, and what have you. And I think that to its own level will make it just more interesting as far as watching what is already in place and as it continues to develop. I mean, I don't know you.

Did you not get a little sick and tired of just having the trade conversation? every single podcast drone talking to friends and family. I mean, the last three years, that's all we've been able to talk about. I'm kind of one. Are they going to trade cod? To not doing that. Yeah. No, no, it's different.

It really is different. And I think, I think over the last couple years, all that trade discussion, that shatter has kind of out crowded the, some of the discussions that need to be have about the players who are here, about, about, about where they stand in the organization. Because I do think there are some players who have kind of, kind of flown under the radar a little bit, just because while they're, they're here to stay, they're entrenched in the idea of they'll be part of this team when it's good. And I do think there has to be maybe a little bit of updating expectations, re-evaluating

where these players fit into the mix. And I know there's some players we're going to talk about. There's one I just sort of want to ad-lib and go about right away. And that's Matt Coronado, who is coming off a really interesting season, I think, a disappointing season. And, you know, I think he is your highest paid forward going forward now. He is the guy who ostensibly is viewed for better or worse as of the players who are here in Calgary right now, as maybe being the best bet to be part of that future core. He's the most established of the young guys who are sort of around. Where should the conversation around Matt Coronado be as we go into

26-27? You know, I'm not worried about him. I know last year, statistically, it was not a good year for him. I don't even think he hit 20 goals. No, if I'm not mistaken. 18 goals from Matt Cornell. So, yeah, obviously you want to see him score more goals, but I really thought last year that he was super snake bitten. I just, just watching his game, there were so many times where he'd hit a post or a goal he'd make an unbelievable save on him or he'd just kind of barely miss where he's trying to

get that puck. And I actually thought overall his game wasn't that bad. I just thought he actually got a little bit unlucky and just didn't get those bounces. And, you know, he's a guy I'm not really worried about. And with a rising salary cap with some of the salaries that. some wingers and forwards are getting these days. I think 6.75 isn't a bad deal for Coronado. Six and a half, but yeah, six and a half.

I don't think it's that bad of a deal for the next five or six years here. So, yeah, I'm personally not overly worried about him. And one thing I think I think is exciting is that I think he's going to get a chance to play with Morgan Frost and Matt Vigridden for a long stretch of time here. And I think they're going to be able to build some decent chemistry. And, yeah, I'm not too worried about him and where are you at with him. Well, I should say, I'll preface. I think I said Matt Coronado is their highest paid forward,

which of course, how are we memory-holling Jonathan Huberto at 10.5 already? But, I mean, goes to show a player spending the last 32 games the year on the I-R can really do a lot to cloud your memory. I am of two minds about Matt Coronado. I'm very reserved about the long-term with Matt Coronado. Obviously, right now, he is going to be on your number one power play. He is going to be a focal point. It is concerning to me that Matt Coronado was one of two players, basically, of the Flames, who is a mainstay on the number one power play.

power play all last year and he scored 18 goals. Right. Like that to me, I mean, there are a lot of players who had far fewer opportunities. I look at Joel Farabee, who finished with 20 and got not nearly as much time. Not even close. Like that to me at least is a little concerning. Michael Backlin finished with 17 goals this past season. Matt Cornell gets 18.

I do agree with you to a certain degree that it is him just having poor finishing luck, but there are a lot of guys on this Flames team who had bad finishing luck. Yeah. And like one thing I'll ask you is how much of it do you think is Ryan Haska and in his system, how much of it do you think is the lack of talented linemates that he's playing with? I mean, do you think that plays any role into his lack of goal scoring last year? Absolutely.

But everybody on this team is playing under Huska. Like, you're comparing apples to apples on this roster, right? Like, I think one of the main issues with Matt Corrano is a lack of coherent deployment. I think, I mean, I honestly, I'm with you on wanting to see him play with Matt Vagridden and Morgan Frost. I would love to see Matt Coronado get an extended stretch of games on a line with Farabee. I think because you want this guy to be more of a possession driver down the line. And this past season, there were two, three, four flames forward to a consistent possession drivers. And then the rest of them kind of just got smoked to varying degrees.

You had the middle class guys, not the Farabies, Farabee, was one of the good ones. You had the Coronadoes, the Zaris, the Short-Cross, Shepardt, who all got sort of smoked a bit. Yeah. And then you had Longbird, Clapka, uh, beach or who got smoked a lot. Uh,

and I think you have the, the, the real holdouts are backland, Farabee to an extent, actually, Huberto, uh, who posted strong possession numbers.

And so to a degree, I'm kind of almost wondering if I want to see, I just want to see them stick with some lines. That was, that was the thing that I think at the start of last year hurt everybody, was that nobody had a role. And with Matt Coronado, I mean,

it just sort of, I guess, depends on how you view him going forward. But at the end of the day, this is a guy who finished the regular season, I think with 11 even strength goals. And I mean, for comparison sake, sharing goal, which had 10. Like, that's not good enough. No, definitely not. So going into this coming season, that to me is the number one. Where is this guy?

Yeah, obviously you want him to drive play and you want to play with play drivers. But at the same time, I also think you want him to play with playmakers. I think you want him to play with guys that are going to feed him the. puck and put him in chances to score, whether it's a one-timer at the side of the net or just, I find Cortano, he has a really, like, strong ability to find those quiet areas in the ice and get open. And I think a guy like Matt Vaigridden, I think he's the best passer on the Flames forward unit. I think he's a better pastor than Jonathan Huberto is right now. I think Morgan Frost is a really strong playmaker himself. So I kind of like the idea of,

of him playing with those skilled forwards, those guys that can get him the puck, make plays, be creative, and kind of work off that. That's kind of how I would like to see him deploy this year. But you're right. I mean, at the start of last year, he was all over the map. He was a healthy scratch per game or two. You know, he was third line, fourth line, second line, first line. Literally all over the place.

And that can't happen again this year. So I still can't believe he was a healthy scratch. Insane. Absolutely. But I mean, a lot of the flames forwards were healthy scratches last year. And that is where at least moving Blake Coleman starts to open up a semblance of a role. A little bit. Well, to a degree, I mean,

The thing is, we have seen over the last three, four years of flames hockey, only a couple of default forward line combos, sort of guys who have been attached to the hip. Coleman Backland has been won. Yep. And okay, sure, maybe you put Farabee in that spot, make it Backland Farabee, but who's on the other side? And so I'm, that's one thing that I'm really curious to see.

I want to go into something similar. And then we did set some topics before the show, but I like where this is flowing. want to go off of something that our buddy pike wrote a couple days ago, I guess about a week ago now over at flames nation. And this sort of lends directly off of the Matt Coronado discussion, which is what will the flames power play look like in 26, 27? Because again, a big change where where you bring in Simone Nemitz, who is a player who is seemingly born to play on the power play. You have Zane Perak, obviously, who's a guy who the flames want to play on the power play. There will be

lots of opportunity for him there. But of course, we only saw a very small stretch of games last year where Nazam Khadri wasn't on the top unit after the trade. Jonathan Huberto missed the last stretch of the year. And while you maybe say the flames became more watchable down the stretch,

their underlines really struggled, or they suffered. And I think things were just in disarray to the point where on the power play, this is maybe an opportunity for them to reset the board a little bit, put new pieces, new faces in different places. I'm really curious to hear your thoughts, Bobby, about where the number one power play starts next year, how Matt Coronado fits into it.

I mean, I think it starts with Zane Perak. I know they brought in Namich. And like you said, he does have that powerplay skill set. But Zane is the guy. Like, that's the reason why you drafted him. That's the reason why you brought him into the organization is to play that quarterback role in the top unit. Like, that's his bread and butter.

It'll be a big storyline. Now, could you put Namich? You have two defensemen out on the top? unit. I don't know if I like that personally. I wouldn't. I wouldn't either. Yeah. But I think the power play starts a per rec and then it starts a gridden where he can play on the half wall and get off some one timers, get off that shot. And then also pass the puck. Like I said, I just, I think gridden is such a talented skill playmaker. So I think it starts with those two. And then you kind of just work in other guys. I mean, I think you'll have Morgan Frost on that top unit as a puck carrier and probably a net front guy,

slot guy. And then maybe Coronado is on the other on the other half wall. But the thing with Coronado is, like he's not he's not a guy that that's going to get off one time he's not going to score one time goals on the power play he's more of a walk down the wing and kind of snipe it or that that kind of patented snapshot he has so i don't know if the half falls the best place for him but maybe net front where he can use his hands and tip pucks that sort of thing but you know i don't think it's a guarantee that coronado is on that first unit well actually because i mean i mean just because of the fit like like like you're talking about there you need to have shooters uh and i mean i mean there there aren't a lot of lot. Coronado, I think, has the upper hand. You are paying a lot of money to Yegor Sharon Gova. I was just going to ask you about that. One thing I would like to see them do next year is maybe prioritize Yegor's game and try to kind of rebuild his value a little bit. What about putting him on the power play where he does one-time puck's? Like, that's a big skill set of well, and I do think there is a element to the idea of you paid that guy to be a score on the number one power play unit and you immediately took him off of it, which I mean, I get it. He had a tough

start to that year and he was hurt and then, you know, Coronado just started playing better, but you're not exactly coming off a year where anybody lit the world on fire. And like especially on that power play where if, if my numbers tell me the right things here, Sharon over scored more goals per minute on the power play than anybody last year, playing on PP2. Yeah. So and that was the thing that they also did. I don't know if you noticed this late last year, but on the five on three, when they had five on threes, they always put him on. And they took off. I forget who they took off. I want to say maybe Coleman off the top unit. And it just, it was interesting because it was more of a possession type of game where they

weren't, they didn't really have anybody crashing the net. And it worked actually relatively well. So that's something that I am kind of curious about. The other guy is who were. I was just supposed to mention where what do you do with this guy? Well, I, I mean, do you put him in front of the net? They did that before. I don't, and in that one year, I have 62 points. And that was like his best year as a flame. He was playing net front. And he was tipping pucks. And, and he was doing that role. The thing though, like with both power play units,

you could almost make an argument that there really isn't a true number. No, on this team. And you could have two units that are very similar with, Perak on one, Nemich on the other.

And then you got Coronado on one flank and you got Sharon Goldwich on the other. You got eight. You basically just need eight forwards. Totally. You can put out in different spots. And yeah, I think Coronado,

Gridden, Frost are three of them for sure. I think Huberto is one for sure. I think Igor's one for sure. Zeri, if he's here. Zeri, Very probably, you know, many candidates, Buffy. Yeah. Like it's, it's, we are going to be seeing, this is not going to be Matthew Cucke and Johnny Godreau on opposite, on opposite sides.

Yeah. It's going to be very different. The one area where I could see two defensemen on the top power play working is, you know, maybe down the stretch of Carson Carl's comes in. That'd be kind of cool. Really, super interesting. You know, Zane going down to one of the flanks and having Carl's up top sort of playing the Darren Radish rule. But that's, that's a ways out. Well, and another guy that we haven't really talked about is Hunter Brestevich.

Yeah. And if they want to work him into the lineup, I think in order for him to be effective, I do think he needs to play on the power play. So maybe you have a Nemich and Brestevich on like a second unit kind of thing. That's potentially another option too. That's a good idea. All three of those guys are right. He's Bobby.

Yeah. I mean, Nemich, Brestevich and Perek and Perek and you got to find uses for all three of them. And that's really interesting because what? Are you going to put Ryan Strom on over Brestovych? No, definitely. Like I think Ryan Strom is a guy maybe you throw on the PKK. But I think he fancies himself more. of a Matt Stagin at this point and the flames.

I mean, you were putting some stuff out this week comparing the 2026, 27 flames to the 2013, 14 flames. A team on which I believe Matt Stasion was on the power of play. Man, I mean, talk about the similarities. I don't know if we have those graphics handy, but I mean, just some of the names, Lee Stemniak, Mike Camilleri, David Jones.

Curtis Glencross, yeah. Oh, my goodness. I mean, this is. is an awfully similar forward group, Bobby. Oh, it is. And the reason I put that out there on Flames Nation is because both teams were in the similar situation where they're essentially in year one of the rebuild. They have traded all the veterans out. And this is kind of the lineup that you're stuck with now. And I think they're very similar. Really, the only glaring differences between the two is that

the 1314 team had Girdana Brody, which was an elite pair at the time. And the 26, 27 Flames has elite goaltending. Elite gold. You know, per Kevin Woodley, who's, you know, one of the great goaltending analysts out there the best. Got to get them on the show. He said on Sycarus and Price is a nation network show out of Vancouver that the flames, you know, according to adjusted metrics, they had they had the best goaltending in the NHL last year and Devin Cooley, uh, was the best goalie in the NHL, you know, when it comes to rates. So like, you know, there's, there's definitely some similarities there. Um, I think the 26, 2017 is a little bit better than

that one, but it is. Here's the comparison. Take a look at that Sven Berci, T.J. Galiardi. I don't think Sven played that entire season on that line. I think he played there for maybe like 20 games. This was from opening night when they played the Washington Capitals. That's kind of where I got that up front. David Jones, I believe, scored the first goal of that season. They got out to an early like four one lead and then they lost an overtime. I was always a big David Jones guy.

I had a jersey. He was all right. He was fine. He was that line with him and staging in Furland. That line won them a playoff series. They'll always have my heart for that. Yeah, I mean, I maintain that the Flames team from two years after this might have snuck into a wild card spot had Kari Ramos stayed healthy.

I remember that injury down the stretch. He never played another NHL game out of that. It was a devastating injury too. I believe the hip. It was horrible. Yeah, it was against the sharks. That was the Yonis Hiller game, if you'll recall. Didn't Hiller come in and save the day and they won in overtime? I remember watching that game live. Yonis Hiller came in cold. He looked absolutely like crazy shaky, but he made a number of ridiculous. Yeah, I think like two or three like highlight real insane saves he ended up winning the game. Like he came. He came. came in and you're like, okay, this almost feels like a David Ayer's situation at this point,

because Yonis Hiller that year, I remember looking into this back in the day, and I don't know if it's still true, but I remember at the time, Jonas Hiller that year had an 879 save percentage, which these days isn't that bad. It's bad, but it's not that bad. It was bad. Back then it was terrible. And I remember doing some math at the time, very circumstantial math, but at the time, Jonas Hiller played 26 games that year. And of all goaltenders who had 25 games play that year. The next worst had a 901 and he had an 879 and I looked back

and the gap between those bottom two guys, 22% of points was the largest in the NHL history. Jonas Hiller putting an 879 in 2016 is like kind of posting like an 840 today. It's like oh my God. So I just pulled up that game in San Jose.

So yeah, Hiller comes in late. I think the flames run a, they're defending a 5 on 3. So they were on the 10th. Yeah, it was something like that. And he made a couple unbelievable saves on the San Jose on five on three and then Chris Russell scored late. And then the Flames won in a shootout. It's Yuri Hoodler who won the game, I think, on like a little half clapper.

Yeah, that was shortly, shortly before the trade deadline. Yeah. And of course, that year. February 11th. That year prior to 2024 was the largest flames trade deadline selloff basically ever. They traded Yuri Hoodler to Florida for a second and a fourth, I want to say. Chris Russell. Chris Russell to Dallas for one of the many, many picks in the last 10 years that has not

converted due to a condition that turned into a second round. pick, which they used on a guy who's playing for the blues now. We're not going to say his name. Plus Brett Pollock, plus Yerke-Yoki-Paka, who I believe is featured on Flamesnation.ca today. And, of course, who am I forgetting? Jones to Minnesota for six-round pick that they used on Matthew Phillips and Nicholas Baxter, played in four games for them.

And of course, eight years later, they made a lot more trades. We're going to talk about Hunter Brestevich a little bit. This one of your topics, Bobby. Before we do this, though, this is coming out from Brad Elliott Schlossmann at the Grand Forks Herald right now. which if you're watching this in the next couple days, we'll give you a time as to when we're recording this. Flames second rounder, Chase Harrington,

had NCAA interest for 26, 27, but it sounds like he will return to WHL, Spokane, this season. So the Flames prospect pipeline out of their 26th draft class, their statuses for the upcoming season, becoming a little clearer across the board. Looking forward to seeing how that goes. Speaking of young players, 100% of which, not as young as Chase Harrington,

a third rounder in his day, not a second rounder, but a guy who I think has developed into a very steady young defenseman in the NHL, and yet Bobby the Calgary Flames continue investing significant assets under the right side of their defense. Well, yeah, between Nemich, you know, you got Henry Mews coming up, obviously Zane's there, and then, yeah, and Hunter Brestovich, I mean, they're absolutely loaded on the right side of the young defenseman. And, you know, I don't know if I want to call him the odd man out,

but if you're going to keep Zane on the right side, which is a possibility. You know, there's really no room for Hunter Bistewitch in this lineup right now. So I was curious to get your thoughts on how do you think they should use them this year? Because you're right. You know, we did a bunch of afterburners last year where you and I talked and we were both said to ourselves, he's playing great. He's playing a really smart, composed game.

Yeah. You know, very poised with the puck, making a lot of great plays. I was very impressed with him. But when you have Namich, Perak, and White Cloud on the right side right now, you know, how are you going to get into games? And would you be comfortable maybe putting him in the American Hockey League to start next year. Not really. I mean, I don't think he deserves to be there. I mean, it might be inevitable. It might be just because of the numbers game. But I think,

I think if you send Hunter B back to the AHA, it sends not only the wrong message about the player, I think it kind of sends the wrong message about him as an asset. And if I'm in a spot with the flames where I have a surplus of right-handed D, I just don't know if I want to be telling the league that Hunter Brestevich isn't good enough to crack my NHL lineup. And, you know, if you're going to be dealing from that position of strength to maybe address some other areas, which I think is entirely possible with Hunter. I would rather they didn't trade him.

I think he's really good. I think he's going to be really good. I see a lot of, I see a lot of guys around the league who remind me 100%. I think this guy can absolutely be in a very good NHL defensive group. I think if he hits his ceiling, I see a Shane Gostis Bear type where, you know,

really good possession player. I mean, I've been stumping for Gostis bear for years. and we just saw him in a cup in Carolina as a genuine PP threat. And that is something that I don't think

Restevich gets enough credit as being because he's just so smart. He's got a really good head on his shoulders. He pivots really well and he finds guys just like that.

So, again, I would rather see him on the team. It's going to be really difficult because, again, he's basically by default number nine on the depth chart because you have,

what, six guys on one-way contracts plus, Plus Hanley and Pahal. Well, or seven guys on one-way country. Yeah. Like it's, it's going to be really difficult. So you acquire Jake Middleton.

There are fans who are saying, oh, we'll just sit him. They're not going to sit him. He's going to play every day. He's going to play every game. He's a Ryan Husby. He'll play 20 plus minutes. He'll be Derek England. He'll be in the lineup every night.

So, yeah, I think it's really difficult. And I think it is a wonderful luxury to have. I still question the Nemitz edition, and just on that basis. In a vacuum, I think the value is fine. I think the player is good. I just don't necessarily know if Calgary was the team to do it, but it could end up being very fruitful.

So yeah, I mean, I have a lot of questions that I asked myself about Hunter Brestevich and what exactly his stature is because I just don't know. The thing to keep in mind, though, he is 21 years old. Oh, my God, I know. He's going to be turning 22 November. He's only played two years of professional hockey. you know, going down to the American

hockey league, in my opinion, I don't think would be the worst thing for a guy who's in his position. And I think when you have a guy that young, you want to play him as much as possible. And if you go down to the Calgary Ranglers, like, you know, he's waiver exempt, which is, and Kuznetsov is the only guy who is, other than

Zane, I guess. Yeah, but you're obviously not sending him down there probably. But with Hunter, you can play him on the first power play unit. You can play him on the first parrot five-on-five. Maybe you can give him a little bit of PK time on a second unit just so he can learn that side of the game, would that be better for his development than being the number six defenseman in the flames and might not even be getting power play time because you have

Nemich and Perak ahead of him? Like that's, I think that's the interesting part of the conversation. And then the other thing, too, is if you move Zane to the left to get Hunter Brestev in on the right, well, who's coming out on the left side? You just mentioned Jake Milletton. He's not coming out. Yeah. Ryan Huska's not taking him out of the lineup. He is a Huska kind of guy. And so then it would be Yan Kuzenetzov. Yeah. And do you want to take Yankeus Netsov out of the lineup? And I don't know if you do after the season he had last year. In my opinion, I would rather see Kuznetsov out than Bristevich. I think Brestevich has just more NHL modern tools.

I think that's a very, you know, a talented young player. And I think there's a lot of upside to him. I think at the end of the day, one of them's got to go. I don't know how it's going to happen. Well, what about White Cloud? What about him? Well, by all accounts, he has a ton of value on the trade market. I know.

$2.75 million for the next. two years. Bobby, I don't think it's going to happen. There's a lot of value there. I agree. But I'm with you. I don't think the flames are going to do. I think they love having him in that locker room. I like having him in the locker room. I do too. I really like him. Yeah. But if if you're desperate to get Hunter Restevich in the lineup, I mean, that's, I think the easiest way to do it. I agree. I just think, I just think it's going to be really tough. And I think it's going to be tough for him in the AA too. They did. They went, they went shopping. Like, they ever. time on the

HLD side. In part because they know they were unwatchable last year. They were so bad, the Wranglers last year, to the point where they were dressing guys who,

I mean, they had to play because they had contracts. But it was like, you know, there's a reason why end of the day when you had how many guys

to qualify 10 guys on QOs and you qualify three of them, there's a big reason for that. It was just a horrendous. They were unwatchable at the end of the year. I went to a couple, games and there were about 800 people there. Yeah, it was awful.

It was really hard to watch. So they had to revamp that whole roster. I love the Wranglers, love the people who worked there. But yeah, so that was, that was a big need. But so that would be a big boost though to have a guy like Bristevich go down there for maybe a couple months kind of thing. Yeah, sure. I mean, I just, again, it's going to be difficult because you've got a lot of competition

down there too. You're going to be going up against Michael Banning, who is a big time, HLD. But you're, you would prioritize a guy like Brestevich. Sure. I would assume. As the GM, you might. Yeah, as the coach. I don't know.

I mean, I probably. Yeah. But I mean, at the same time, I mean, not always. I mean, I don't want to make, I don't want to compare Hunter Brestevich to Jeremy Porre. Because I think they are. He's a better player. I think they are completely incomparable. But at a certain point last year, it came to the point where, yeah, no, we're not

putting JP on the power play because he's a prospect. JP is not on the power play because he shouldn't be on the power play. And of course he got traded away. You know, they were playing DeNeil Maramano. Right. And I don't think Hunter B is nearly at that spot at all. Like I think he, I want him to be in the NHL. I don't like, but at the same time, I mean, you were putting him against Michael

Banning, Andreas England, who has been around the block and then some. Like he was part of the Dionne Funf trade. Right. With Ottawa, all that time back. Jake Livingstone, who was like a highly touted free agent out of the NCAA, a few years got to make Cato. Abram Weave, who just came in. That's a lot of guys.

Oh, it is. Oh, for sure it is. And not counting guys who are going to be coming in, who are on two-way deals with the ECHL, AHL-only deals. Like, there's going to be a lot of ice time. So I agree. You can put Hunter B down there. He'll probably be a go-to guy.

I still know. I think it's a really, it's a good problem to have. Same time, I think it's a difficult spot to put yourself into. But like the American hockey league, I think the flames view the Wranglers as a developmental tool. I don't know if they're necessarily

viewing the American Hockey League as a win at all cost kind of mall. No, they're not the Coachella Valley Firebirds. No, and they're not the Toronto Marleys and that kind of thing. But at the same time, like, you need to prioritize a guy like Persege. I mean, the guys that you just listed there outside of Weeb, they're not going to be Calgary Flames one day. They're going to be HL or European players, probably for the rest of their career. I think you have to prioritize that guy and you have to communicate with Brett Sutter that,

hey, this is what we're doing here. And Brett will do right by the team. I think so, too. I think ultimately, I'm just worried. that if you send Bursdevich down, he gets past. I think he, I'm really worried about, by who? Well, that's the thing. You have guys who are going to be coming in very, very soon.

And like, setting him down this year, bringing him up midway through the season, there's a way where that works. But if you send him down and he's down there all year, then I'm really worried heading into the year after that about, you know, his value is an asset. Yeah, the other thing to consider, too, is you might ruin the relationship a little bit. I'm not even as worried about that as much. I think him and his representation would probably be pissed if he,

was down there. And that's another thing that the flames need to keep in mind a little bit. I think to a degree, sure, but my main contention would be UF. Fender Brestevich right now, who is a highly touted young right shot D, who you acquired as a main piece in a trade from the Canucks for Elias Lundholm. And he is coming off a season where he split it basically equally between the NHL and the HL. At this point, sitting here right now, you are basically at the spot where you got to make a call on, because that's all Bristavich. One of them, you know, one of them's either going to be sitting as a healthy scratch and going to be forcing you to waive somebody else or you're going to send the other one down to the A entirely. And what happens if that top six, top seven, top eight gets cemented in place, you've made that call.

And then all of a sudden, here you are a year later with Hunter Bustavich having played 60 odd AHA games, having not gotten another opportunity. Where does that leave you with the asset? You see, now, I don't really see it the same way. I don't think this is the make or break at your or the year that you have to choose. Because like I said, like Hunter, he is 21 years old. Like he's super young. And playing for, you know, three seasons of the American hockey league or three and a half season of American hockey league is not the worst thing for a defenseman, you know, for his development. And, you know, the way I would view it is like, I would be totally fine with him going down to the American hockey league.

And then come February, if he's undeniable down there, if he's dominating, and it's clear that this guy needs to play in the NHL, then I think you have the conversation about maybe you look to move Jake Middleton and move and moves correct to the left or you look to move Zach Whitecloud. If Bruce Devich is undeniable, it's like I think they have time with this decision. I don't think they need to rush it. It is so funny to be having this conversation about a bursting defensive pipeline. And then at forward, we're like, okay, uh, Sunniyev, maybe.

at some point during you Hoffman on the fourth Jonathan Jonathan Castania maybe it's just it is really a different world where at forward it's like who's who's there somebody come play number four center

for this Calgary Flames team because we got nothing the defense is fascinating defense is great I think it's the most interesting part of the team heading into this year like there's four or five guys I'm like really excited to see

how they play and what they look like well yeah I mean you've just used a very high draft pick on Carson Carl's with the expectation that down the line he is going to be, if not your number one, you're number two. You have Perek, you have Nemets,

both of whom you have used extensive capital on, both as far as draft picks and also in your own resources, with Porek specifically. And you want them to be top pairing guys. You got Henry Mews who profiles as well as anybody on the right side in the flame system aside from Porek pretty much. I mean, his OHL production was outstanding, his early numbers at Michigan.

We're outstanding. You're sort of sitting here saying, whoa, what's this guy? You have Macy O'Phillips who impresses you every time you watch him. And that's not it.

Like they've got lots of other defensemen as well. So it is a good time to be a fan of the flames if you like the idea of them being able to shut down their opponents. Right.

Well, even throw Kevin Ball in the mix. Oh, totally. He's still a younger guy. Yeah, because that's lots of players. So it's exciting. Not Pike. We're going to get Pike on.

and about 20 here. But Bobby, I want to talk to you about another guy who is in a similar position as Brestevich was drafted the same year by a different team, by the Flames. Of course, Brestovic dropped by the Canucks. I want to talk about Sam Hansa because I think there is a path forward here. And I put this out on social media a couple weeks ago. I think there's a path forward here for Sam Hansik to take on a bigger role than people expect him to with Calgary Flames this year.

I was putting out a spitball here because I know earlier in the show you talked about Matt Bigridden and Morgan Frost and Matt Coronado being in a line together. I was thinking, you know, if you want to have that line, have a little bit more possession, a little bit more, a little bit more oomph to it. A little speed, little physicality.

What if you do find a spot for Coronado with Farabee or where have you? And you put Hollinsic there. That's interesting. Isn't that interesting? Just a total thought experiment. I, like, because I mean, I feel like this is a guy who obviously has not

jumped off the page offensively since he was drafted. But I just wonder if there's maybe something there to this player as more of a pro-NHL molded player. Well, like, what do you see him profiling as? Like, do you see him being a top six guy that can score 20 goals consistently in 50 points? Or do you see him more as kind of a middle six defensive guy? I think that's kind of what it comes to. Complementary. Like, he's a big guy. Yeah. And I mean, if you're a Marcus Felino type guy at that size, you are useful on a line with skilled players. I don't want to make too many comparisons. I mean, obviously, you'd love it if he turns it into a Pavel Buccanevich who's like, you know, this big guy who's just unstoppable. I just see so many opportunities for a guy like Sam Hansik to

use his speed and to use his size to his advantage and become on a line with more skilled players than he's ever played with a truly impactful player. Again, there are so many back comparables that you can make for Sam Hansick because we truly don't know what this player is at the NHL level. You don't want to be sitting here in my chair saying, oh, this guy's going to be Tom Wilson where he profiles and he comes into the NHL and all of a sudden, you know, it takes a couple of years, but you're like, whoa. But I do think, I do think there's a path here where all of a sudden you're sitting here

five years out and you're saying, this Hansik guy, I mean, his attributes on paper, you can do anything. And I think when you watched him at the start of last season with his package of attributes, if he's put on a line where he doesn't need to be the skill, I can see the sky being really high. Yeah, absolutely. And right before his injury, he was really starting to come on. He was playing great. He was playing fantastic. His underlying numbers last year were as good as anybody's on the and he started to score some goals. He started to look a little bit more confident with the puck on his stick. And, you know, like before, before today's show, we were kind of thrown around some comparables. And the one guy, I think Hansig should mold his game after is Blake Coleman. Totally. If, if you're Sam Hansig and

you're the flames, you have bigger Blake Coleman. I think you do everything in your power to become that type of player. The type of guy who can play, you know, on a shutdown line with a guy like Michael Backland, who could score 18 to 20 goals a year, play on the first penalty kill unit, hit, you know, play with speed, you know, be tenacious. That's the kind of guy. I think Sam Hansick should be. Like, if I'm Hansick, I'm watching a ton of video of Coleman. I'm sitting down with Ryan Huska and Michael Backlin. I'm asking, hey, like, what are his tendencies? Like, what made him such a special player defensively?

Like, what made him so effective? Because like you mentioned, he has the skill set to do it. Great skater. You know, really big. He started to play with a little bit more physicality last year, which I really liked. And he's got, you know, some sneaky skill. Like, he's not the most skilled guy in the world. Yeah.

But I do think he's the kind of guy that could score that 18 to 20 goal range for the next six to eight years sort of thing. So that's the guy who I would look to mold them after. And at Flames Nation.C, I wrote an article looking at some different forward combinations. And the one I came up with was Hansig-backland Farabee as a shutdown line. Love it. Like, it's a pure shutdown line. First over the boards in a defensive zone face-off situation, playing against the opponent's top opposition. That's kind of the role I see Hansig being long term with the flames.

It's funny. Like, I think there is a gap in analysis, in public analysis. especially, and I'm part of this. But I think there's a huge gap in the way that players are perceived coming out of developmental into pro. And the way that I mean this is, in developmental, because there is a lack of available data, players are gauged on their production. And in the NHL, when you get to the NHL, a lot of times when you're evaluating players

and when you're getting into the online sphere, production goes out the window. Nobody cares about how many points you score to a certain, agree in certain conversations if you have good underlying numbers. Right. And to me, Hansik strikes me as the kind of player who goes from being the prospect who people are maybe a little down on because the production isn't there. And what we don't see is the underlying numbers have always been there. And the way that he plays the game to me at least seems conducive to him creating a profile

for himself in the NHL where he is a very strong possession player. And ultimately those kinds of players can be extremely difficult. fine. I mean, in a lot of cases, the profile from last season reminds me a lot of Farabee, who is kind of that big guy, who's not overly aggressive, but he does what he needs to do. He's feisty. And he's able to make things work. And Hansik's got better boots, in my opinion. Yeah, he does. He's a fast, fast player. I would argue he's probably the fastest player on the flames right now. Maybe. And so I just think, I just think, you know, health permitting, which is obviously a big caveat.

Yeah. I'm looking at Sam Hansik this year and sort of saying, okay, buddy, like, let's, let's maybe put yourself into these top nine, top six conversations because truly I do think he has the ability to be that kind of player. Oh, for sure. And I think the one thing he is going for him, too, is that I think last season he really earned the trust of Ryan Huska, which is not easy to do as a young forward in this organization. We saw that with Coronado and Zeri last year.

So he's kind of got the coach's trust and the coach. his ear a little bit and I think that's really going to help him. To me, it speaks volumes, the same coach who of course told Matt Big Gridden, I want you to make this team next year. And of course, Matt Big Gridden, it speaks volumes that that same head coach apparently feels the same way about Sam Hansa. And, you know, I think Huska is not without his issues as a head coach, but I think his assessment of those two young players, to me, speaks volumes.

And I, again, I just think those two together, just kind of feel like peanut butter and jelly to me, where Gridden can be the guy who makes the moves once he gets the puck, and Hansick's the guy who gets him to the puck. Yeah, that could totally happen. And it's super interesting. So, so just a thought experiment, but I would love, I mean, obviously this year is going to be a very different year for preseason games, 84 regular season games, which is I'm all four.

I'm all for that. But not as much time to tinker. A lot of deference, I would imagine, to players who are already established. I would imagine the age of the PTO is probably over to a, to assume. certain degree. I mean, there's not going to be nearly as much appetite for split squads and what have you. So, and the days of bubble players looking to make the team out of camp are probably gone now, because with four games, you're probably looking to get your NHL roster into at least three of those, I would imagine, to get them going. All of a sudden, the days of Rory Karen's playing six preseason

games and lighting it up trying to make the team, I think are kind of gone. Even beyond that, I will never forget being at the Calgary Flames 2016 training camp. Back when they had training camp, I believe open to the public, which I don't think it is anymore. Not anymore, no. I was there as a fan. I was 15 years old. And here's some of the names. Okay.

I will never forget being there and watching this with the following players all on PTOs. Lori Corpicoski was on a PTO actually signed a contract out of that with Edmondson. No, not with Edmonton. For Arizona? No, he was in Phoenix before. I believe he went to either Columbus or Dallas and then split the season with those two teams. Of course, Verstieg was a PTO that year in Emmington, came to Calgary. The flames had Luke Adam on a PTO.

I remember him skating around out there. They brought Chris Higgins back on a PTO, didn't make the team after he was with the Canucks, of course. On defense, did they have anybody interesting? They had Colby Roeback, former Florida Panther. How did you forget Colby Rowling? Yeah. And Lyndon, and Lyndon Bay. Right, okay.

So he played a few games in the Flames. He did play a couple games at the Flames. So, like, all of these guys. It's over. it's over. Like, I mean, we're, we're seeing, I mean,

these guys are still going to be on HL deals, but the idea of, okay, I've gone unsigned all summer. I'm going to sign a PTO with the Calgary Flames to make the flames. That,

I don't know if, like, I don't know if that's really a thing anymore. Yeah. And Alex, Alex Chase Son got out at the right time. Right. Yes.

I mean, with, with that fourth line center spot kind of up for grabs, maybe something like that happened, but who, who, I think you'd rather see a zary or a paucicil or a gross in that type of role instead of a PTO guy, that's for sure. I'm going to stick my neck out and say, I think there's a 100% chance.

99.5% chance. I think there's a 100% chance that Tyson Gross is the Calgary Flames opening night, fourth line center. I think that is set in stone. I might be foolish for saying this. I remember Pike and I disagreeing over Sam Morton making the team out of camp last year. He was right. I was wrong. But I do think Tyson Gross showed more in the last stretch of the year.

And I think Huska throwing him out for faceoffs late in the game. I mean, love or hate the idea of faceoffs being a differentiator at the NHL level. Well, it is. For coaches, they are. Totally. And he could play on the penalty kill and Huska can trust him in some situations. I am of the opinion personally that faceoffs are just another puck battle. Yeah, they are.

But it is what it is. And Gross is good at him. Really good. Yeah. So I, I think he's your guy. I don't know how long he stays there. It might be a Justin Kirkland thing.

Now, if they don't move out any bodies between now and the start of training camp, I feel like he's going to be in tough, you know, because who are you going to take out of the lineup then? Then it's going to be a guy like Conner Zeri is going to be a healthy scratch. Martin Phosphicil, Syplacov, like those types of guys are all going to be healthy scratches. I can take, I will say that I can take relief Marty Pospicill in the lineup. Oh, I totally agree with you. I'm just wondering from a Craig Conroy and a Ryan Huska perspective,

you know, would they be willing to make these guys a healthy scratch on a consistent basis to put gross in. If you've made Coronado, Sharon Golich and Zary Healthy Scratch as a point, you can make party pops a healthy scratch. Like I, I, and there is going to be a heavy rotation. Like I mean, you're probably going to have 13 forwards, 14 forwards. I don't know if you have 14 or 13. You probably, you probably start with 14 is my guess.

I think you probably go 14 and 7. Yeah. Depending. I mean, I think there's just more, I don't know. We'll see. Maybe 13 and 8. I don't know. I don't have possible still in my opening night lineup right now.

I don't think I do either. It's a shame. I like them. And I think there's an opportunity. Guys will get injured. Marty himself might get injured, but it's, it's just, it's, it's difficult when you've missed that much time. And he was not the same player coming back from that injury last year. Like he wasn't even close to being the guy he was in his first two years with the flames. The whole reckless, the reckless, the skill set that he had and the physicality was just, it was gone.

Yeah. It kind of looked like a shell of himself. I think it's going to take him some time to get back to that level, if he ever even can get back to that level. Really nice guy. And I'm hoping that Marty Pospicill can find it. I think at a certain point, Marty Pospicil, again, will be the sort of thing where it's like,

oh, the Buffalo Sabres want more toughness on their fourth line. They don't have that guy right now. Here you go. And that might be a year or two away. Because as it stands right now, Marty Pospisle's got three years. He's just starting that new contract this year. And so, you know,

the Calgary Flames of a few guys who I think are a couple years away from being trade bait. And I think Marty Pops is one of those guys. And for the time being, they got to figure out how to make it work. Yeah. He could also go to a rebuilding team, too, that wants to add a little bit. Well, that's what's a country Flamescar. Totally.

Yeah. Like, that's the thing is, I think almost any team could use a guy like that when he's playing at his height. The problem that I see, I look up and down this Flames Pubedia page, and I see, okay, Huberto, you can put them on the PP and the PK. Sharon Govich has played on the PP and the PK lots, like lots. Coronado, you can put on the power play. Strom wherever, I don't care.

Farabee can go anywhere. Frost can go on the power play. Zari can probably go on the power play. Backlin can go on both. You're not putting Marty Popsis on either of those. No. Because Marty Possible doesn't. That's the one thing that I remember, I remember years ago, like maybe six years ago, at a flame skate of some kind, talking to a guy, a well-known guy who said that

Marty Possible, the one thing that's going to hold him back is is skating. And at the time, I didn't necessarily agree. But I think that's the one thing that over the last couple of years, where we saw him come in, it wasn't an issue. And at this point, I think it's the number one issue. Last year specifically, I actually thought in his first two years, he was actually one of the better skaters on the team. And if you go look at NHL Edge data,

I believe that he was either at the top or near the top of the flames in terms of speed bursts and what have you. Yeah. So, yeah, I wasn't, I wasn't too worried about that then. but after watching him last season, he took a step back. Is it a conditioning thing or like? I honestly don't.

Maybe just coming off of the fact he hasn't played for a long time. And maybe that had something to do with it. But I mean, him and Connor Zeri, they come into the NHL at the exact same time. They have two really good years to start their careers. Both of them took a major step back. And I think the number one reason why was,

you know, for Zeri specifically skating, Pospicil skating a little bit too. But I also just think Pospicil, in order to be effective, he has to be playing like a maniac. Yeah. He's got to have that kind of screw,

loose and he's got to play physical and he's got a forecheck. And I just didn't see a lot of that from him last year. I think it's because he's just, you know, a little trepidatious when it comes to that, that head injury. And I don't blame him. Yeah, oh, sure. You don't want to remind me a little bit of was Tyler Tofoli. And I'm going to, you know, it doesn't make much sense.

But when the flames got Tyler Toffoli and he came over from Montreal and he, I don't remember if he was him who said it or if it was Darrell who said it. But the conditioning required to play on. that flames team, which was, I mean, under Darrell, they were so fast. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And Tofoli was playing on a Canadian's team that was horrible. Like, Dominic Douchon got fired that year.

I think they'd won eight of like 50 games. Like they were terrible. Yeah. And Tofoli was just like, he was suck and win. Like, and he's not a good skater to begin with. But he was like, there were legit concerns. People forget this about Tyler Toffoli after his first half season with the flames of like, can this guy keep up?

He was not productive. Does this guy? Well, he was okay. Was he? He was okay. He was okay. He had 23 points and 37 games. He was okay.

In the playoffs, he scored a couple of goals, but he was like fine. Yeah. Falling season, he was great. It was great. But there were like legit concerns about like, okay, the flames have two more years with this guy. It's like, and I think it was Daryl. It was like, this guy just needs to get up to his conditioning again, being on a legit team again. And we heard the same thing from Taylor Hall too

with the Carolina Hurricanes. And the hurricanes and flames played a very similar system. Yeah, super running gun, super possession. The flames were a killer possession team. Yeah, man on man defense. You're a ton of skating. Now, the good thing for Marty is that this current Flames team is a lot slow. A lot slow.

Slowest team in the league. Oh, it's pained hard sometimes. But that was what it reminded me up. Yeah, it was watching sort of relative to the teammates, Marty was just a couple steps back. And so, yeah, my hope is that there are a number of guys who, I've heard of or have seen, you know, videos up, they're training hard this summer. Like I think, I hope Marty's one of them.

I heard, uh, obviously Matt Big Gridden was at that whole statue of arts. I heard Igor Sharon Gov, which has gotten a new trainer this summer. Good. Like there are, there are a guy. I heard. I heard. I don't want to say. But, uh, but anyway, there are, there are lots of things that are, you know,

hopefully changing. And my hope is that Marty Popsil is able to come into this coming season. just and just sort of get off to a good, good start. Because that's, again, it's the sort of thing where when he is at, when he is at his best, he is not only a valuable player to the flames,

he is a valuable piece. And ultimately that should be one of the big goals of this season is making the flames, oh God, I don't want to say that, make the flames valuable again. Oh, that's horrible.

I get what you're saying, though, whether it's Zeri, Sharon Govich, Sipulkov, it's all about rehabilitating these pieces and putting guys into position to see. That's why I say earlier, like you sign Cherangovic to a five-year deal and you take him off PP1. That to me is like, where is the thought process there? You want to have a bad contract on your hands?

It's like you, I mean, I remember when they traded for Joel Farabee. In the first couple weeks, it was like, okay, yeah, you're going to play him with Cadry and Huberto. He doesn't gel right away and then all of a sudden he's like on the fourth one. Right. It's like, okay, well, you know, you got to find a spot for this guy and play him regularly. I see Zeri kind of in a similar light too. I mean, you sign him to a three-year deal. He shows that he has this dynamic skill set.

And then he's all over the lineup. He's a healthy scratch. Huska has no confidence in him. I mean, there's too many bodies to put everybody in a perfect position for them to succeed. But that's where Craig Conroy's got to come in this summer. And he's got to move out a one or two of these guys. I think it'll be easier for the forward this year. I think it'll be like, I look at it and I see, okay, yeah, you can throw Sammy Hansick on the fourth line to start.

And then everybody else is where they maybe should be. You can put guys on the power players. to be there. You can put guys on line two, line three, who need to be there. Defense, I agree. It's going to be difficult. And there's a lot to get into. There's a lot that we want to keep talking about. There's a lot more to dive into. We're about at the 55 minute mark of this show. Bobby, I think we're going to take a little break. We'll loop in our buddy, Flames Nation managing editor, Ryan Pike, not Rider Pike. And when we get back to you right after this, a little bit more Flames talk here on Barnberg.

Village Honda is proud to be your dealership for life since 1987 in Calgary, located in the Northwest Automol under that giant Canadian flag or online at villagehonda.com. Here's what's coming up this summer at Village Honda. The 22nd of August noon till 4 is the 6th annual Honda and Accura show and shine. Tons of great vehicles. Calgary, come on up. Check out the automotive community, some great rides, and we're raising funds for Kidsport, Calgary. It's just $10 to get your vehicle into the show and shine and free for anyone else to come up and just check out the cool rides.

Lots of awards to be given away and raising funds so kids can get into sports who might otherwise not have the means to do so through Kidsport Calgary. That's August 22nd at Village Honda in the Northwest Auto Mall, noon till 4, the 6th annual Honda and Accura Show and Shine. We'll see you there. Crowfoot Dodge up in the Northwest, 20 crowfoot rise online at Crowfoot Dodge Chrysler.com.

New ownership, same great northwest location. It's Crowfoot Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram. Part of the Capital Automotive Group, don't you know? The focus, simple, just make it easy. Don't begin with the runaround. None of the, you know, can we enjoy this? That'd be great. Well, you can at Crowford Dodge.

Big selection of trucks, SUVs, everything in between. The team up there going to treat you like a neighbor, not a number. Maybe you're upgrading your ride. Maybe you're looking to get something. You're going to splurge yourself. Get something big and beautiful. They're building something fresh and new,

and it's worth checking out. No drama, no run around, just solid vehicles and solid people. It's what you do. It's what you deserve. It's what you need. 20 crowfoot rise in the northwest, crowfoot Dodge. Crowfoot Dodge Chrysler.com. Adrenaline source for sports has been locally owned and operated since 2007.

It's Calgary's destination for hockey and baseball. Two locations in Calgary, 9309 McLeod Trail South. and in the Northland Mall in the Northwest. We're talking one of the largest goalie selections in the city. Custom True dealer, they're the biggest in all of Calgary, not to mention a massive selection of equipment for hockey and baseball. Super knowledgeable staff, and you can try the equipment before buying the equipment, shooting lane, batting zone.

You can use hit tracks to test bats head to head, see exactly which one gives you that perfect home run at the Northland location. Minor hockey team apparel selection, also available at both stores. North teams at the Northland location and the South teams at the McLeod Trail location, a total of 15 community teams available in store. And their pro shop is also at Flames Community Arena. Whether it's hockey or baseball, in Calgary, it's adrenaline source for sports. Get a look at our boy. Look at Jack.

What the hell's he doing? You know what he's doing? He is looking for a resume. He wants to get a job with GMC. What? It's the employee pricing for you? He thinks you need to be an employee to get the pricing. Well, I'll go get them. No, no, just let him go.

Let them go. GMC's employee pricing for you event is happening now. And the best part, it's for you. No employee badge required. Right now, you can get an up to $16,240 cash purchase credit on the 2006 Sierra 500 Denali Ultimate. Enjoy quality features like available 16-way heated and ventures. front seats with massage function and an available 12 speaker Bose premium sound system.

Head on over to your local GMC dealer today to take advantage of employee pricing for you before it ends. Back to the show. Back at you with the back half of this barn burner and friends. We've got Mike Gould, that's me, Bobby to my left, and a furiously typing Ryan Pike. He was probably working on a story for Flames Nation where he is the managing editor. And he's come wearing the wrong team's attire. Pike, thanks for joining us. I just like the colors.

It's quite the welcome, man. It's a beautiful color. He's typing. He's wearing the wrong stuff. He's got to Excel open. It does bring out the color of your eyes, though. I always said, very nice. Robert's such a nice young man.

Such a nice name. I'm just irritating you. Just throwing questions. Did you flip the table and get out of here? Before we went live, obviously, we spent the first half of our show talking about Calgary Flames players, Hunter Bristavich, Sam Hansick, and the variety of others.

But we got to bring the folks what they want. And so that's going to start the next segment, which I'm going to be calling box office corner. Because Pike, you couldn't stop talking about your eager anticipation of the upcoming Spider-Man film. That's right. Brand new day. John C. Spider-Man.

Named after Dan Slots, classic reboot of Spider-Man after they wiped everyone's memory. of his marriage. It wasn't the plot of that comic book that Spider-Man wanted one more day with his Aunt May. And so... That was the previous...

And then, yeah, he made a deal with the devil. And then to get out of the deal with the devil, he had to sacrifice his marriage to marry Jane in the comics. And then Mary wouldn't forgot, except for him and her, but the rest of the world forgot. It was very convoluted and very, very marvelous. You sacrifice your marriage for Aunt May,

who is canonically depicted in the comics as being like 95. Okay. So what happened was they did the, they did the, the, the Civil War where Spider-Man unmasked to say, hi,

I'm super cool and you should register to be a superhero or whatever. That's because I'm, I was doing this since I was 15 and I had no training. Isn't that terrible? And then he changed his mind and went against the registration people. And then because he unmasked his aunt got shot because of all his enemies, you can find them. The exact same,

the exact reason he didn't want to unmask for 60 years of, comics the first place because it was highly illogical. It didn't make sense in the context of anything. So his aunt got shot. So he made a deal with the devil to re-seekered his identity. So they used magic to make everyone forget it. But they also forgot he also had to sacrifice his marriage to the devil. The actual Marvel's devil.

Satan is an actual character in Marvel comics, Mephisto. Yeah, yeah. Played by. It wasn't he in the- Asher Baron Cohen played him in. Well, I was thinking of the, the, the ghost writer movie. Wasn't that Peter Fonda? Something like that.

Like I don't remember. Yeah, yeah. That's not Canada anymore. That's not in the NCU. He's played by, by Borat, Bobby Cohen. What do you think of Marvel movies?

I'm not a Marvel movie guy. I used to do. I was big into him, but these new ones are bugs. You just don't want to see movies that require homework. I would rather go see movies that require Homer,

such as the Odyssey. Ooh, gets a good transition. Oh, directed by a man who made some very good comic movies. Christopher. Terrific.

Terrific, terrific. I just feel like back to the one more day thing. I feel like if Aunt May heard about that plan, should be like, what are you doing? Give it up your marriage for me. It's the kind of storyline where if you sit down and explain it to someone, it's like,

what? They go, really? That's the story you came up with. Aunt May. So it's like, okay. But hey, the Odyssey. Have you seen it? No.

Good? Is it seen it? No, yeah. It's good. It's good. It's really good. Jack seen it. You saw it, right, Jack?

Big fan? Yes, I did. I love it. It was great. It's great. I mean, it's half as good as inception. Well, we are blessed here in Calabry. We have one of 41 theaters in the world that support 70 millimeter IMAX.

And it is just unbelievable. Go see. I used to work at an Xanax. Yep. No. If you're trying to splice IMAX, it's gigantic. Remember? You get an upper body workout just trying to lift the Tampa.

They don't, theater IMS is the O'Clair one. Remember the big, the fake IMAX that they had there? Yeah, it was. It was, it was. But the projectors weren't really IMX. Yeah. That was cool. I missed it.

Just, uh, yeah. It was the worst theater of the city, but it was up there. Oh, it's great. I miss it. There used to be a blood donation. You just like to be in any movie theater where you don't get sworn by your adoring public. So last.

The time capsule, too. We're going to, we're going to wrap up box office corner here by saying that I used to go to movies at O'Clair Market. I would go get my blood donation and then I would like go sit in a movie theater and feel like woozy. It was great. I mean, movies way more enjoyable. And that's the box office corner.

Thank you for tuning in. We appreciate you, humoring us for those, how long was that? 10 minutes? Oh, my God, this show's going to the dumps. All right, Pike.

Well, thank you for joining us. And you were in the studio to overhear much of Bobby and our conversation about the state of the Calgary Flames. You're still working on your spreadsheet, just furiously tapping away. I've got to work on Wrangler's line combinations. Wrangler's line combinations.

I would expect nothing less. But I guess we'll just sort of start the same spot and Bobby chime in whenever you want, but how do you feel as far as just level of excitement? It's the last year at the dome. The flames are coming off of a season, which was by all accounts terrible, but they sort of got what they needed to get out of it. And here we are now going to 26, 27.

I'm going to push back on the terrible because it was the taking your medicine season. It was the they did the things. Like anyone who says, oh, the flames picked a direction this year, no. They picked a direction when they started trading guys that they otherwise would have held on to. If you were trading during that, like Tyler Fofoli, I think, okay, he probably wasn't going to be a long-term piece either way, probably priced himself out from being on the team based on, you know, I think his camp felt he was a core guy and the flames felt he was like, look at when they added him. And they added him as sort of a, you're the last piece of the puzzle, but he's not the puzzle. You're not the piece you build a puzzle around. Great deadline.

He's the corner piece. He's not the middle piece. So he's a guy you could swap out And you can still say we're staying in the same direction Trading Tyler DeFoli doesn't really change that Nikita Zedorov, same kind of thing I think Nikita Zerov was the Tata Defoli of their defensive group

He was good but he was when everyone's healthy At the peak of their powers he's a third pairing guy But when you start trading you know Elias Linn home And Noah Hanifin the direction has been set Like you're basically going okay These are guys that if you were going for If you're trying to keep the band together Trying to keep things afloat you hold on

to those two guys. So realistically, they've been, they've chose this direction since to be, if you're being very conservative, January of 2024. They didn't go scorched earth though, which is what they've done now. You know, and one other thing too is like they, they kept bringing in NHL players in some of those trains, whether there's Andre Kuzmanko or Kevin Ball or Yeager Scheringovich. It always felt like they were, they were trying to get younger and they were trying to push at the exact same time. Whereas I think now it's obvious. It's a it's a full on regional now. I don't think it was that in 2024. They weren't tearing things down to the studs, but they were knocking out walls one at a time.

And so I don't think they really, I think if you, if you're trying to basically not obliterate your young kids, not turn them into the decade of darkest oilers where you're bringing in an 18 year old kid and being like, this is, you know, here's here's so and so. He's here to save the oilers. I think they've seen what didn't work in other markets and we're trying to be very intentional about what they're doing. So, you know, again, I'll look at the, I'll use the, the, the, the, the, I'll use the, the, the, the. Markstrom trade is a perfect example. You only trade Jacob Markstrom when you think there's a multifaceted benefit between you gain cap space and you get assets for them and you also open a spot for Dustin Wolf who had done everything you could do at the HAL level.

And, you know, you trade, you know, the same week, you trade Andre Majapani, not because you don't think Otramanji is good, but you can get a pick for them and you open up some tap space and all of a sudden there's a regular top nine spot for a Coronado or a Zari or whoever. So I think they've been very intentional about that. And I think they did accelerate things this year. I think they had guys like having, having McKenzie Weeger insulates your young defenseman a bit. But he also takes up a lot of his time. So if you're trying to, if you're going in the direction of going screw it, we're going, you know, let's just, let's just commit to this.

Trading Weir is the right thing to do. And I'll say this. I think last year, you know, I would categorize it as a success in the sense of they accelerate the direction they'd already chosen. and if you look at the aggregate, I mean, Matthew at Gridden from when he showed up and made the team at a camp, deservedly so. His game has a clear identity now. They did the same thing they did with Coronado.

They brought in Coronado in 23, 24. He earned a spot on the team. They brought him in. They tinkered around with them, went, okay, here's some things you need to work on. Send him down the Wranglers said, okay, here's some things you want to work out with the Ranglers. And his game, every time he got called up,

was better every single time in a lot of specific ways. They did that with Gridden. I thought he was really good. Bruce Devich, as you guys mentioned earlier in the segment, I think his game gradually evolved for the year because Netsoff from, I think he basically had a clear identity from when he came in because of all the time he spent with the Wranglers. And he had the benefit of, you know, your penalty kill is run by Trent Call.

Your Blue Line Group run by Trent Call to a guy who knows him probably better than anyone to the pro level. And he fit with the flames needed like a glove. You know, I don't think it could be understood. I know it was saying correct. people were kind of down in the season because the counting stats weren't good. But my goodness, like his, the level of, he went from being a tentative kid, you know, punk-ass kid in October.

He looked out of place for sure times. He looked at a place because the NHL's a hard place to learn. But from beginning of the season to the end of the season, the other season he had swagger. Like he was like that goal he scored against LA where he just made like good NHO players look silly. And he showed the ability to do that. He didn't score all the time and he did it. but you could sort of see by that, by April,

the shape of what he's, he could become, you know, and Sam Hansick, obviously, the weird injury aside of that, you know, again, second year in a row, he's made the team at a camp. He made the team because they had injuries

in the last week of preseason, but he took advantage of the opportunity. And I think, at least can be a guy who has to basically be, he has to play his way off the team in October. And so, you know, the fact that, you know, we're in the process of doing our prospect rankings,

they like, think four or five guys that played an NFL game's last, year to graduate from what we consider being a prospect. They're young pros now, but they're no longer college or eligible because they play enough games, the NHL as 19, 20, 21-year-olds to no longer be considered prospects. And they all, all their games took steps. I don't think, again, in the context of, did they have a parade? No.

Did they do things that could potentially be building blocks to having a parade? Maybe. And there's a lot of seasons, like, you know, I've watched a lot of hockey, a lot of, unfortunately a lot of losses over my tenure. I covered the flames during the post-A-Gindla mala, let's call it. I don't even know if it was a rebuild because if, you know, it was basically the clock ran out in a Gindla and the hand was. It was a one-year rebuild, really.

I mean, because the 1415 team had it made up making a plows and accelerated fry there. I think they bailed out of the rebuild really. Well, they absolutely did. I've said this before and I'll say this again. I really like the Hamilton trade as a trade. the timing of it was too soon. Yeah. And using their own draft picks,

like they didn't have many picks at the time. They didn't have many prospects at the time. And then you get to depth of spending with picks. Like this is, this is like this is the, you don't have to get inside baseball. But in 15 years of covering the team in 15 years of doing annual prospect rankings,

this is the toughest year by far. Like there's 20 guys who made the official list. There's probably like 30 guys that had a case to be in the top 20. And just so they're all going to get full profiles because they all deserve it. But this is easily, like, the deepest they've been because they had the stomach to basically go, okay, we're taking our medicine. We're going to commit to this.

Like, realistically, in the history of the Calvary Flames from the first year in Atlanta, they had wherever guys they could get from the expansion draft. From 72 to 92, they were constantly building. They never intentionally pulled the ripcord. In the 90s, they had to tear the team apart because economic realities. They could not afford to keep the band together. It was not a choice. It was, you know, them going, okay,

if we pay the market value, we're going to go out of business. Then, you know, the young guns was a product of economic realities, it was not a choice. Then, you know, when the flames finally, you know, started pulling the record in the Ginnla era in, you know, 13, him and Kippersok, he aged out, went UFA and Kippersov retire. That's not a choice. That's not intentional. This might be the first time in the entire history of the Flees franchise.

They went, okay, hold on. What are we doing here? Now, to be fair, though, I mean, they tried to sign Elias Lindholm. threw a lot of money in term at him. They tried to sign Noah Hannafin. I don't necessarily know if they like fully went into this, you know, from 2014 into this rebuild, you know, 100%. It still felt like they were still trying to keep some guys around and they were still trying to remain competitive a little bit. It felt like Linholm and Hanofin in particular made the decisions easy for them. I think I think Hanofin more so. I think with Lindholm, I think the the refrain that we heard from

Craig quite early after that deal was done was, we knew pretty early on that it was that it was that then we weren't going to make it worth but they still threw a lot of money at them like an eight times eight that was kind of the the rumored number I heard a lower number

no but neither there's it wasn't eight and it wasn't by eight it was a lower number okay but yeah like early early in the year but like before you sort of got a sense of what is he as a guy you build a line around yeah there was a lot there was an appetite

to throw some money money at him, like, because he was a big part of the team. And I think, you know, we will say, I think for a lot of guys, like, once you get a better sense of what guys are, I think the, the thing I like about the management group under Conroy is I think they've been really clear-eyed about who they are and what they are, what the players are. And sort of, what's the old saying, like, when someone, when someone tells you who you are or who they are, listen to them. I think the flames have sort of been very good at say, like, okay, like Jacob Markstrom, they could have held on to Jacob Markham another year.

But I think they, I think they got that relationship was done. I don't think they, even before, even before all the stuff would happen with the trade that didn't happen and the trade that did, I think you get a sense of, okay, Markstrom every other year being amazing and Markstrom every other year being not amazing. That's kind of what he is. And it's not to be the disrespect for the player. He's an excellent player. He was a Vesna candidate and rightfully so every second year. Yeah. But he's also a guy that is not a Vesna candidate.

every second year. And I think that is kind of what he is. And we're still figuring out what Dustin Wolfe is, you know, Elias Lindholm being on, when you put him with two, like he's, he's, I think you thought yourself, is he a high end complimentary piece or is he a guy who drives a line? And they found out he's a high and complimentary piece. And once you figure out he's not a guy you can build a line around, the amount of money you're willing to give him changes. And so you go from going, you know, throwing, you know, good money after bad to going, okay, what are we doing here? And I think they've been really good at having those, okay, what are we doing here, conversations?

And I'll say this. I mean, I think Craig's told this story multiple times publicly, so I don't think I'm telling tales at school. The late Chris Snow used to tease Conroy about like, oh, Craig, you know, Chris Craig's a former player. Craig, you fall in love with guys. And I think the best compliment I can pay Craig as an executive so far through three years and change of being a GM. is if you look at the moves that he's made, almost every time the easy move is to keep a guy. And almost every time, like, who they kept backland?

And every other time they basically gone, uh, it might be time to move on. Basically, they've kept RFA's. Yeah. Yeah. And not even all of them.

Like, again, even just look at the, the Wranglers. I mean, like, you could have been like, okay, let's give some guys.

Let's give another shot. Like, Art of Grushikov, I think, is a good HAL player. I don't know what he is at higher levels, but he's a guy. that you could make a case that Gushikov kind of got lost in the shuffle.

Because it was just, it was hard. You can make a case for Porre. You can make a lot of guys. You could have held on to Jeremy Porier and then reupped him and then held it on to him because he's the guy you drafted, a guy you developed, and maybe he can get it back. Maybe he can be the guy he was. Or he can make the tough call and go, okay, he might not be what we wanted to be here. Let's send him to Texas.

And he had a really good end of last season with the Texas jars. And you gave him a chance to do that. And I think in a lot of cases, you know, there. They're being really clear-eyed about guys up and down the organization from the third pairing of the AHA, right to the tip and top. And I think they've had the stomach to make a lot of those tough decisions where in other cases, maybe they would have been more sentimental, maybe they would have been more conservative. Maybe they would have been more like, oh, let's just hold on other guys, so there are guys.

But I think they've been very clear-eyed about the value their guys have in the marketplace and when to jump on possible opportunities to maximize their value, but also. So find them good landing spots. Again, Jamie Porier, he was struggling at times with the Wranglers. They did their best to find him a good landing spot, I think. And I think, you know, it'll be better for his career, the fact that he got a chance to go to Texas and show what he could be outside of the Wranglers

than holding on to him just because he's one of their guys. Well, and my feeling with the way that their methodology has changed, I guess, to a certain degree, is that feels kind of like, to me, over the last couple of years, when they have acquired players, it has been more so as a means to an end. rather than them attempting to solve a problem with their existing roster to fix something that

that was broken to push them forward. You acquire Zach White Cloud to make the Rasp Sanderson deal work. You acquire Jake Middleton to make that Minnesota deal work. To me even, and we don't know this, but I feel like when Craig Connery is presented with that Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee deal, he sits there and says, okay, I'm giving up a second. I'm giving up Jacob Peltier. I'm giving up Andre because he's macko. For two players who, in the end,

I will be able to extract more value for. To me, that feels to me more likely than him saying, oh, yeah, these guys are going to push up, push us into a playoff spot. I mean, at the time, they were competing. But by the same token, I don't think he makes that deal as a playoff push for that season. I don't think that is what he has in mind.

Jacob Pellche had been through waivers. He was in and out of the lineup. and you know Andre Cusmanco was going to be sold to the deadline anyway. They got ahead of their business. You can make an argument of, oh,

if they had held it on because they've gotten something else for him. But no, you know, I think they'd, they'd gone through the audition process with Cusmeco and bigger. Okay,

okay. Let's, let's give him, again, give him a chance to get out of this environment, go to someplace else, see what he can be. Again,

you give Jim, you gave Jacob Pell-J, you know, he, I don't think he was, going to get it to a hold in a full-time spot here. And so you give him a chance to go somewhere else with new, you know, he has a new car smell.

He gets a chance to sort of be the shiny new toy somewhere and they can see where he can be. And at that point, they already had an excess in picks, giving up a second to add the, the term, that the hockey people use is age group assets, guys in their early to mid-20s that they didn't have a lot of in that system. And guys that, you know, if you're going to move out, if the long-term plan was, I think it was and still is to you're going to move out guys in their 30s outside of baby backland you're going to move out the older to your guys and cycling to younger guys you kind of need some of those mid-age guys the 25-ish guys to fill out the team to play with them

to and and maybe you know maybe Morgan frost you know turns into a core piece you don't know I think ferribee let's be completely blunt here Joel fairby might have I think at the time because of how things had worked out in Philadelphia. Yeah, he felt like, oh, you got to move, you know, you're going to take on Farabee to make the math work. He was the David Jones for Alex Tangay.

But like, I mean, I'll give Farabby all credit in the world. He, it wasn't working for him in Philly. At times, I think he struggled in Philly. At times after the trade, I think he struggled to sort of figure out what his role was going to be here. But he came in, like last year, I don't think there was a player in the organization

or at least an established NHL player in the organization that did more to solidify themselves as a potential guy. A cast member of this team when the team is worth going out of your way to see in Farabee. Because I don't think you're as eager to make that play Coleman trade if Farabee isn't what he is.

Well, where are you guys at on just the future of Frost and Farab because one thing I'm looking at two, three, four years down the road is that you still need to surround your team with good veteran players. Could Frost and Farabee be those guys in the future? Do you think the flames are going to look to resign them, or do you think you're going to look at using them as trade assets? It's funny. When Pike was talking about that deal, I was thinking on my head, when they made that trade,

if you had told me that Andre Kuzmanko would still be in the NHL two years later, making $5 million a year. Yeah. I mean, nice work if you can get it. On a one-year deal. On a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins, good for him. The thing that Kuzmanko is good at, he's not as good at consistently as he could be, and that's make only making five million.

Well, it's only five. He's, uh, for one year. But I mean, he's, the things he's good at, he's really good at. He's a power. He's great on the power. Nice work if you can get it. But I, I will say like when you were talking about the piece that flames gave up, second frost or second Pell Che and Kuzmico and a seven.

Sure. And did they get it? They didn't get a pickback in that deal. It was just the two. It was just two for two for four. I think both the players they got are individually worth more than that collection of assets today. Oh, third.

If they're to trade them over the next two years, they will get more than that. My perspective on it is to keep one, you trade one. And my personal opinion, my preference at this point would be to trade Frost and keep Farabee. I think I think Farabee's the better player. He's the younger player. And I also think he is, I don't want to say less of an asset as far as league-wide asset. But I just think if you're looking at the center market for this coming year, only two centers last year, who are pending UFA scored more goals

than Morgan Frost last year. And they are Sydney Crosby and Pavel Zaka. Interesting. So, I mean, elephant in the room, granted, the NCAA Frozen 4 ends on April 10th. So if a couple teams are in that final, it might not all happen.

But, you know, they also, I'll get the place credit. Again, they all get Carter credit for it. He's not exactly throwing up a big smoke screen to his plans of, All right. So we're bringing the kids in. You know,

they're keeping contract spots open, very openly for Carson, Carl, Colrejny, Ethan Wittenbach, and Cullen Potter. And those are guys that, you know,

could potentially, three out of four could burn the first year of their entry-level deals coming in in March or April whenever the NCAA season's over for them. And so, if we're the flames,

I mean, I think Cole Regney is going to be a center of the NHL. I think they want to give Colin Potter a chance to be a center of the NHL. I think maybe because he's not huge. So maybe, you know, the stereotype is small standards at lower levels sort of meandered to the wings.

He hasn't played the wing in college. You know, we'll see how he does at the World Juniors. I think that'd be a good test to sort of see what he's going to be. You know, he's going to Michigan State. That's going to be a hell of a team. But, I mean, the cavalry is coming, so to speak. Like, you know, you have guys who be pushing. My big question is in an idea where it be,

if you're the flames and you're trying to bridge, like Backland is turning 37 years old. 30, yeah, he's turning 37. he's turning 38 in March, potentially the week that he surpasses Jerome McGillan's all-time games played mark for the flames. It could be in the same week. It could be a fun week for him.

But you're not going to build your centers around a 38-year-old, your 38-year-old captain who will be 39 when his current contract expires. So what's the post-backland plan? The post-backland plan, I don't know because... Oh, that's where Frost maybe comes into play. Frost maybe? But Strom is a UF. I don't.

Strom, I assume, is gone before the trade done. Right. And I'm almost, I'm almost wondering with Frost, wouldn't make sense to sign him to a deal. No. And, and what just hear me, well, just hear me out though. How long a deal?

If it's five or six years or whatever, you can use him as a bit of a stop gap, let guys like Reschney take their time to develop. But then, you know, say two years into that deal, you can still trade him. It's like, if you sign him to a five or six year deal, it doesn't mean that you have to hold on him for all five or six years. I'd just be a stop gap for a couple years.

A? I don't know if you throw five or six years the guy who would describe as a stopgap. B, I'll say this. I really like Morgan Frost. I think Morgan Frost can be a guy who fills a need for your team long term. I don't know.

I think the problem is, Farabee, you kind of know what his niche is right now. You know, like, worst case scenario, if Farabee is, you know, I'll say this, I'll say this not disparagingly because Blake Coleman is very good a two-time cup winner. If you're going like, oh, worst case scenario,

Joel Farabee is a poor man's Blake Coleman, you will take that every day of the week because a poor man is Blake Coleman is still very good and allows you he kills penalties, he can do tough minutes, great, you know, you can build, you know, if you throw Sam Hansick on a wing, on the opposite wing of Farabee,

you'd have a, you know, backland for now, and then who knows who else at center? Great. That's, you can set and forget that line for five years. You don't need to think about it. You've fulfilled a need. What is the thing that Morgan Frost can do for your team over the next

three, four, five years that no one else can do. What's going to be the thing that makes him indispensable? What's going to be the thing? Like, Backlin had the thing where he's just a guy who is very good

at just being a sponge and keeping offensive players from being good offensive players in playing against the flames. That's a huge plus. I don't know if we've seen enough from Morgan Frost to know exactly what that would be.

I hate bringing guys into the last year of their deals, especially their pending UFAs without really having committed to them. but Morgan Frost does kind of feel like a guy that you're like, okay, last 20 games of the season when, you know, Nassim Codry is gone and granted, let's be honest, teams probably weren't seeing the flames coming up on their schedule going like,

all right, this is going to be a tough game, let's kick these guys' asses. They were probably seeing them intentionally or not as sort of an easier night on the calendar. And I'll give the flames credit, they did their level best to make it a tough night for those guys. And I think they surprised a lot of teams down the stretch. But I don't know if you can say, you know, see the last 20 games, of Morgan Frost when he was very good and go, that's the real Morgan Frost. I think we kind of do know what his role is.

So, like, you mentioned like Farabu is kind of like a Blake Coleman type of guy. I think Frost is a defined middle six guy, either second or third line center, on a kind of mediocre or bad team. He can play in the power play. You can play three-on-three-over-time. The shootout, he's that highly skilled guy. I think that is a role that you can have on this team. And, you know, like when a guy like Cole Reschney comes up or Colin Potter, if they're

going to get looks at center, I don't mind the idea of having Frost play some tougher minutes. you know, and playing maybe in that Ryan Strom role and just allowing a guy like Bresche to kind of ease his way into the lead. If you tell me you want to do two or three years for, for Frost, all over that. I don't, I don't think you're, I don't think signing Coleman or, but like, you don't a longer term deal. I don't think you're stuck with Frost. I think you still could move him.

Maybe you don't get a ton of assets. I just don't think you could move him. I would be hesitant to do anything to the blocks guys. I mean, you, you, you start. I think they saw it for Kevin Ball, for example. I wouldn't, I wouldn't say that's blocking guys. So like, if somebody's ready to make the jump, then I do, I really do think you could move that ass. I think you can move him in the same way that you could move Sharon Golich if you really wanted to.

Like I would be really, and also. There's more value there just because the position. Maybe. Maybe. Like, I agree. I also think guys like Frost, that archetype can lose their value real quick. Like you can, you, I, the, the one that's been rattling around my head is Mikhail Grabowski. That's the exact.

Grabovs. exact type of center that I think of, a center on a bad Leafs team in early 2010s. He was calling me during a show, Mikhail Grabovsky, and signs a big extension with Leaves, gets bought out a year later. And that was a bad move by the Leafs to buy him out

because they didn't have a lot of them. They're the ones who signed him. But they're the ones who signed him. And as soon as he turned 30, it was over. And he was never a big guy, lost the boots. And all of a sudden, it's like, what am I doing with this player?

and I think of Sam Gagne that is always the name that I have thought of with Morgan Frost and that's the thing is you talk about a two or three year deal for Morgan Frost that's not happening no it's not that's why I keep saying it's never happening

why would you yeah it'd be great for the flames but why would he sign that? Charlie Coil is 34 and he just signed for six years right like it is not happening and so if I have by six yeah it's a horrible

good for you Charlie it's a great contract for him good for you again nice work if you can get it but like with Morgan Frost I look at the bad contracts on the flames and a lot of them end when the guy I mean, I'm thinking of Sharon Govich again. They end when he's 31.

And I don't want to sign Morgan Frost till he's 34, till he's 35. Like that's sort of the idea that we're looking at here. So I would, would you be against walking into January and then going, okay, if you see enough for the first 40 games,

you go, all right, you know, when the, when we reset the standings to zero and teams, you know, teams were playing meaningful games. games against us in the first half of the year and you were exactly as you were in the last 20. Here's here's five by five.

By the way, the reason the Leafs bought out, Mikhail Graboboski, if you'll recall, was to sign David Clarkson. Wonderful. They freed up that cap space for good reason. The one reason I just, I bring all this up is because I just, I do think they're going to need that stop gap guy. And whether it's Morgan Frost or whether they sign a free agent or make a trade for another guy, I do think they need to insulate that center group because Tyson Gross is probably going to

max out as a fourth line center. You're going to want to insulate guys like Cole Reschney and Colin Potter or Stock Seleus if they're going to give him a shot at center. That's the thing. Or Hextal. Like you want to have some veteran guys in there to take on those minutes and you already have a guy in house right now. The other way to replace them is to make a trade and you get rid of assets or you sign them in free agency. And free agents are getting paid like crazy right now. You can always sign an Eric Hala though.

Like it's like they're always like. And again, the, let's just throw out a game. There's a center version of Anthony. Samantha, you can go out in a year and be like, all right, Oregon Frost wasn't what we thought he was. You know, good luck out there. Throw, let's be, it's center. So you have to throw more money than you want to. But you can throw out a one or two year deal at someone in their early 30s to basically be a stopgap.

But I just think the idea, like, especially as you're getting further and further from the here's the flames, it is a group of guys to hear the flames. this is a intentionally cultivated team of 20 odd guys pulling their direction. You can only really airdrop guys in for a few more years and have it feel intentional. Well, and I will throw out another case of the you sign Ryan's or you sign, I give them myself away, you sign Morgan Frost to this contract and it turns into Ryan's strong. Like that's that to me like, again, these these, these centers who do not have the size, they can be fine players and Morgan Frost is a fine

player but as a player archetype they are not generally valued. They're centers so teams will take them the flames took Ryan Strom and quite frankly maybe that's your stopgap for 2728 but they didn't even just take Ryan Strom as soon as

the cadre trade hit they went out of their way to go this is the like I'll say I'll say this as much as as say okay Jake Middleton partially was included in the trade debate the cap math work. Zach White Cloud partially was included

in the Anderson trade to make the cap math work. Ryan Strom was partially traded for because they needed a human being who could play center for the Calgary flame. Who made money. I think they've been very intentional with like, okay,

everybody talks, hockey's a very small world. People have been talking about how good a human being Zapp White Cloud is since he was in college. He's been one of those guys when people who cover the Chicago Wolves are talking about like, oh man, such a nice guy.

Like, you know, stories talk. And when everything you hear, especially when you have a young locker room and a bunch of guys where some nights, it will be a tough watch. Some nights will be long nights at the office for the flames. When you have guys like Strom who've been there and done that and White Cloud, who's, you know, White Cloud, you know, basically had a clauseway in the NHL. And I think he's become a damn fine NHLer. You know, Jacob Middleton was a guy that sort of was sort of bouncing around for a little bit up and down in the Sharks organization until he got brought into the wild. I think they've been very intentional about the types of people they bring in and the types of assets. And they've been very fortunate that the assets they've brought in have been the right people.

And so I think, again, is there a center version of Zach White Cloud? You can bring, okay, they already have strong. But you know what I mean? Like is there someone that sort of like maybe, you know, someone's a little bit overpaid for their slotting on a contender? Or they, someone's who's, oh, you know, we want to upgrade this position, but we've been back. a little bit too much at center, maybe a guy who's a 3C on a deeper team, but come to Calgary and play for a couple years.

I think they're definitely, there's probably the things they want long term are, they would love to get a U25 center who they can build the team around. I mean, I would also love to have a solid gold house. As impractical as that would be, just because of the property value. I also think they would like to get sort of,

like a better term, a Middleton or White Cloud-ish center to help carry the culture load once back. Like back on that I think will play until the wheels fall off. And thankfully, knock on wood, he's healthy and he's probably in better shape than everyone here. That's a low bar. Speaking as someone whose shape has been described as no. But at a certain point, Father Time catches up with you.

So I think that they'd love to find someone in that age group that can sort of help keep moving things. forward so that it's it's not falling on the kids because again you know we'll constantly use the our neighbors to the north as a punching bag because before they started winning lotteries they were throwing a lot of kids into the deep end of the pool with no insulation no life reserve or no guidance and going hello insert name here linus omarck are you here to save the emminton oilers and it's too much pressure put out of kit and i think we get in this momentarily but circling back on the fact that this prospect base is probably the deepest we've seen in years. You're Carson Carls.

You're potentially joined the flames the end of the year before your 19th birthday. Are you the great hope coming into a year where Gridden and Perak have probably played the full year at the NHL level? Just reminded me of a Norm MacDonald joke. Jacques de get to know, only real ones will get it. You know what I mean? I think I always brought this up. Like when the, you know, it didn't turn out as well as some had hope. But remember the year they made three first round picks?

They got, you know, John Loneham, sick. Climma. Top, you know, highest draft pick they've had in years. He turned out to be everything we wanted to be. But because he hit so quickly and he had Godrola in the house already, it basically meant that Emil Pore and Morgan Clemchuk did not have as much pressure as they would in an organization with no prospects. And so if you are the fifth highest profile prospect in the system,

things are probably going to be okay for. you, at least you're allowed to, you have the breathing room to develop and do your thing. You know, Flames fans, I think would be ecstatic if Ethan Wittenbach turns into a good pro. But I don't think any Flays fans will, you know, be, you know, banging on their walls going, when is Ethan Wittenbach getting here to save the flames? I don't think they're saying it about any of the Flee's prospects. And I think that's because they've managed to build a team right now that the direction is very clear. But I don't think there's anyone, no one's expecting any.

one to come in with a Cape next season, the next two or three seasons, to basically throw the team in their back and, and, you know, like Chicago with Connor Bidard or San Josea. I mean, you'd love, you'd love to have a player.

Yeah, but they don't have that. But I mean, yeah, it's sort of the trick of the, it's sort of the, the, the,

the two sides of the sword, because you'd love to have the Maclin Celebrini. But man, if Macle's, like, Macon Celebrity, probably had so much pressure on him. Like,

I can't imagine when you'd like to be him on a daily basis, or Connor Bodard, or, you know, Osby years ago. When the Leafs drafted Austin Matthews, they had Nazam Cadry there, they had Tyler Bozac there. That's the kind of situation you want to put a young player in. I think

the flames are building towards that right now if they can get a top three pick in next year's draft, whether it's a top center or the year after that, like they're putting themselves in a position where they don't have to be the guy right away. Totally great. There's a lot of good centers 27. Oh yeah. Give me Milan Sunstrom. It's from the Cedines

hometown. He's 6'2. He's a left shot center. He might even be 6'3 now. Oh, he's good. Hey, there'll be a lot of good centers in this year's draft. We'll have lots of shows leading up to this coming at draft. One more, like, the little thing. Like, you know, the flames traded Nazam Codry. And like, they sort of set out that groundwork for, like, they laid the template for exactly what if they do trade frost, how to do it. You trade Codry for a first, a second. You get frost for a seventh. And then what is it? What are you going to do this year? You're going to trade more or you get you get Strom rather for a seventh. that's that's the template like to me I don't or the Eric howla like you said you sounded a two year deal for it with lots I'd be very wary I'd be very wary of that Morgan Frost yeah but it's entirely possible we'll see hey uh let's let's pivot to a defenseman uh because we've talked a little

bit of which one well we've talked a little bit of Bristavich we've talked a little bit about parac and carls haven't done a lot of talking about Simone Nemitz and all of a sudden this is your highest paid defenseman third highest pay player in the hockey team yeah he's being paid more than Matt Coronado. He's being paid more than Morgan Frost. He's being paid more than any of the other defense been on the raw. The only player is the thing's organization bringing home more is Jonathan Hubertow and Obscure 7-Huron draft pick, Dustin Wolf. Yeah. And I mean, if you go based on salary for this coming season, Nemitz is making seven and three quarters. It's a front-loaded deal. They're paying them the most this year. For a guy who I think is still a bit of a shrug for

a lot of fans in Calgary, who is sort of, I don't know, we haven't seen them yet. We don't really know. And yet 7.25 per year for the next five years. Dr. J. Patel and Outdoor Dental, one of the OGs on this podcast from day one, he was there with us. We appreciate you supporting him. It's, of course, it's the Solaya Laser, huge investment made by Dr. Jay. and it's paying off because it's changed the way you get your dental work done. Do you hate going to the dentist and they got the hooks and all that stuff in there?

This is what it's about. It's about being relaxed. It's about things taking. It doesn't take as long. Nice and easy. Sedation dentistry they do. They do the evisaline. It's a full line.

They do everything with that. Also, with the salé laser, it is the snoring treatment. Disrupts you. Disrupts your partner. People around you. You're not sleeping well. You're not deep and getting the deep sleep that you need. You're not as productive because you're tired.

You're not feeling good. You know how it works. outdoor dental two 15-minute treatments can last up to a year you go in you get one done 50 minutes you go back get the second one done easy peasy it's the tension in the soft palate reduces you're snoring most insurance plans provide coverage you can learn more book a consultation at outdoor dot dental and just in general find out more about everything that dr j patelle is doing he's doing it for you outdoor dot dental taco time yes every tuesday is taco tacco tuesday with taco time two dollar beef edgy tacos. I like to get the rice sometimes. I know. I know. I want you to. Unlimited. As many

as you can eat. What do you need? Two? Four, six. You can get to build your own taco box. If you've got people waiting. Well, you can bring them the, you know, here's a chicken. Here's a chicken. Here's a beef. Whatever it is. Or you could let them build their own. It's fun that way. Taco time. Find the nearest location at TacoTime Canada.com. But I'm betting you kind of know where there is one, right? Because you've been there. You can go back again. They're making a lot of the stuff in-house. Taco shells, taco chips, the salad bowls, the hot sauce. It's all being done right there in that location, which means it's fresh people. It's fresh. Every Tuesday, Taco Tuesday, every Thursday, buy one, get one 50% off on burritos because it's burritoful Thursday. See what they did there? It's

awesome. Taco Time Canada.com. Taco time. Hey, buddies, a reminder that Barnburner is brought to you by Bet365 where Canada just hit the biggest home run of the summer. Bet365 available in Alberta and here. here to stay. Download the app. Must be 19 years of age. Please play responsibly. Crystal Waters plumbing and heating your crystal clear choice for home comfort. Sean and the guys are the best. And of course, that's what we're going to tell you. But what I love it is I'll have people that will be saying, you know what? We did call Crystal Waters because we hear about Crystal Waters on the show. And you're right. They're the best. They are the best. You go to crystal clear cagre

calgary.com. You'll find all the stuff that they do there. Something goes sideways. You've got an emergency. You go to crystal clear calgary.com. You put it in there. They're going to be in touch with you in a matter of seconds. They're going to come. They're going to hot water tank explodes. Crystal waters plumbing and heating. You got something on the fritz, your AC, your furnace, whatever. Crystal waters plumbing and heating. It's Calgary. They're the very best. Anything charity-wise that we have, they always step to the forefront. Last year for our Christmas campaign donated a furnace and an air conditioner. These are the best people among us, Sean and the guys, get them done.

If you need, whatever, again, whatever goes on in your house, I, I can't say it any simpler. It's Crystal Waters, Plumbing and Heating, your crystal clear choice for home comfort. Crystal Clear Calgary.com. Bodies, stampeters, continue their three-game road trip this week in

Hamilton. Now, ordinarily a game against the Thai cats would be in a little reunion with our old friend from Katie, Texas, Bo Levi Mitchell, the old gunslinger. However, Bo Levi, injured in week five against Winnipeg. That's not why I'm joking of people, though. Bo Levi.

He got rolled up and injured his ankle. That injury required surgery, unfortunately. That took place just a couple weeks ago. Bo, I think, would like to think that, you know, I got time to get back. Not sure that the coaching staff feels the same way. Anyway, tease and peace to Bo Levi. Love to see you back in the field sooner than later. Stampeters need wins.

Maybe here without Bo a chance to take advantage. They've got to continue to work some things out. The offense has been pretty solid. The defense has had to tighten things up. This is a 1 o'clock mountain starts. So 3 o'clock in Hamilton, but 1 o'clock on the Calgary clock, the body clock in the hammer. We'll see who's better prepared for a matinee game in this one.

The next home game for the Calgary Stam Peters, Batman, it's a while yet. Thursday, August 13th. They host the BC Lions. Go to Stampeaters.com. Just sniff around there. different ticket options. Maybe the Coors Life Corral.

They got rush seating for students. They got group tickets and experiences. If you haven't gone to San Peters.com in a while, do check it out. It's the year of the horse, after all. Let's get a win here, Stamps as they take on the Ticats this week. And we're back with more Barnburner. Mike, I'll start with you. What do you think is going to be the outcome with Simone Nemitz as far as deployment?

And as far as, you know, do the flames have a guy who they can enter into these conversations around the league of, oh, yeah, we have Owen Power, we have Luke Hughes, we have Simone Nemitz. Is this that kind of player? We'll see. I mean, he's played in the Olympics. He was second overall, and rightfully so. He was very good to his draft here. And, you know, some guys, it just doesn't click for them in certain organizations. Like, you know, I think the devil's had the best intentions, but I think the devils, if you look at their depth chart, I mean, Dougie Hamilton, Luke Hughes, you know, a guy I'll speak. highly of until the days of the league.

Jonas Seganthaler, who's just cramling underrated at that. Really good. He's the, uh, Ryan Nugent Hopkins of defensemen, I think. Uh, guys that don't get the credit outside of their markets. And, uh, I hear you comment section. I'm not sorry. I will, I will forever talk about Newton Hopkins is a good player.

Uh, but I, I just think the thing is, okay, I think if you're the flames, you've committed to the guy and you got to go, okay, why didn't work in New Jersey? And the answer partially is just, can you, Could they have given him consistent powerplay time? And the answer there is, they don't know. Here, it's like, okay, PP1, or I guess PP1A will be Zane Perrek. P2 or PP1B will be Simo Nemitz.

And I think based on how good they were last year, I think Perix group will start as the top unit. But I also think at times last year, they did an A and B, and they basically rotated them through. And I think that's probably what they're going to probably try to do. because I think they have a lot of guys that could use the puck touches. And to be blunt, with a power play that was so bad as it was last year, you know what?

You're just going to, you're going to try everything. And I'll say this. He's going to be given as many opportunities to see as they can. You know, they have between Kevin Ball and Jacob Middleton, I think they have some defensive defensemen

that really compliment him. I wouldn't be shocked if he played with the Yankeus Netssev at times. I suspect we'll probably see, you know, My guess is the two extra defensemen will be, you know, probably Hanley and Paul will probably see them rotating from time to time. But I think based on age and based on just progression, those are probably the odd guys, you know, sitting out. But other than that, you got three regular, you know, left shot guys that sort of project a sort of stay at home meat and potatoes defensemen that complement puck moving guys. And then, you know, you have some guys who can play on the right side who, you know, I think White Cloud is probably the most stay at home.

of the three, but you have two, especially two younger guys. So I think you'll see White Cloud and whoever be eating defensive zone deployments in tough minutes. And then I think you'll see especially, you know, Nemich and Perak with whoever they're playing with, hell, potentially you might see them together. Who the hell knows? I think you're going to do your best to give those guys the high ground. And I think they have the guys who can play both with them and apart for them who understand that role. So I'm, I'm fascinated to see how there's, works out because you know nemoch we saw flashes of brilliance just might like we saw flashes of brilliance from preck and i love the idea of you know you have so many of these young guys that you

know when i mentioned that there's no one of a guy there's no nobody like dustin wolf's going to be the starting goal tender of this team until he's no longer with the team in 233 where the hell year it is uh and honestly i wouldn't be shocked be played long beyond his current contract but that's that's a 2030 problem But in terms of skaters, I mean, I don't think there's anyone you go, okay, this is our guy. So I think there's going to be a lot of internal competition. I mentioned the possibility of them rolling out two competing power play units. Great.

I think, I think, you know, I think this is going to be one of those years where they're going to try to see as much growth from within. And I think, I don't say, you want to put, pit your two high end defensive, or offensive defense against each other, but they're competitive guys, you know, at development camp. We heard so many of these young guys talked about how excited they are to go head to head with each other at the summer showcase. Go head to head with each other in the NCAA throughout the year and in the Frozen Four. And guys, you know, we, you know, we thought, you know, the flames drafted Chase Harrington, whose most viral clip is him chirping, cursing Carson Carl's his close friend from the bench when he was hurt in the corner laying on the ice convalescing. These are competitive guys. And I think that the flames would probably want to do what they can to stoke a competitive environment where the guys know, like, okay, if I outperform you, if you and I go to head head, we go, okay, I bet you I can have score you this week.

I bet you I can get more scoring chances than you. These guys, I think, are going to potentially rise to the occasion because you're creating an environment where nothing's guaranteed. There are no veterans where, you know, because of someone's years of NHL experience, they're going to get extra power play time. I think we're going to see potentially completely different groups in the power play from night to night, especially from October to March. And I think that's the kind of thing that excites me about this group because, you know, I think Simon Nemich is in a lot of ways the canary and the coal mine, so to speak, because I think bringing him in says to the team, we want to improve,

and bringing him in in a very single role potentially to what Zame Perak could play at the NHL level, says, okay, you guys can figure out who our top pairing is. Yeah, when it comes to Nemich, I think the most interesting thing about him is just, I think the range of outcomes are huge with him. I think he can absolutely turn into a legit top pairing defenseman, 60, maybe 70 point guy, depending on power play time. I can also see him maybe if he doesn't develop the way that we hope, he could be potentially a third pair guy, kind of like he was with the New Jersey Devil.

So I think that's interesting. But I think the key for his success is going to come down to deployment. And it's going to come down to Ryan Huska. Because everything we hear about Nemich and everything we saw from him in the Olympics is that when you give him a lot of ice time and when you give him a lot of responsibility, he usually comes up and he lives up to those expectations. And I just think it's going to be critical for a guy like Ryan Huska to give him those minutes to trust him early on within the first couple months. And I know gaining trust with young players and Ryan Huska, it's not an easy thing to do. But if Huska can just basically from the start of the season, put him out there for 21, 22, 23 minutes a night. I think we're going to see Nemich really sore to blossom.

And I love that point you made about him playing with a guy like Kevin Ball. You know, they played together in New Jersey for, I think it was like only like 190 minutes. But say this about they played well together. They played this about Huska and young guys. Matthew Griddencher earned a lot of trust, didn't he? Yeah, and Chris Nats has heard a lot of trust, did he? By the end of the year, I mean, once I think. But like there's like there's the back coronado.

There's the kind of thing that you can't remember. For a guy that is for, I mean, for even. Even Zane at the beginning of year, like he didn't trust Zane at all. Like you said, he was a little bit out of his depth, but there's a little bit of a history there. But again, again, like, I think they, like, if you look at how they, how they dealt with Hansick, I mean, you know, granted, you didn't have a full year of sample size to deal with him, unfortunately. And knock on wood, he, we get a full year of Hansick, because I think that would be a fun thing to watch. But Hansick, I mean, being put on that toughness line with Backland, early on, like, I think, I think we all vividly remember, there's a few games where he should have made mistakes in sort of deployment mistakes, puck management mistakes, just defensive mistakes. I remember there's one along the wall in like second, third week in October, one of his fourth or fifth games in,

where he just sort of whiffed on a defensive play and it was like an odd man rush the other way. You can sort of see him go like, oh no. Yeah. But then a very similar play he played at wherever the hell they call Toronto's Rita, Scotia Bankeria. I always forget how they renamed it. It will always be the ACC to me. But, you know, he made a, the play that preceded his first inning show goal was a really nice play in the neutral zone that basically led to a turnover, led to an oddman rush for his team because very similar play as what he played

a couple weeks before he made the right play this time and so I think I think Huska is probably wants to do what he can to give guys opportunities but I also think you know you want to have accountability so I think I think for him that's going to be a fascinating thing to watch how we juggle it especially with a group that's going to get progressively younger especially you know in March and April but you might have a night year old kid and a couple 20 or 21 year olds pushing for regular minutes. And are you going to be able to have the

the cash A in the bank, the currency in the bank with your group to handle them the same way? But yeah, I'm fascinated by Nemez. He's 71 is going to be a very fun number to watch. I love these weird numbers this year. It's going to be so much fun. There has been so much sad about Josein Perrek has not been able to produce in the NHL

at this point. There was a different show that had a very contentious debate among a couple of prospect experts about that very thing quite recently where it was just like, okay, if Perek is this elite offensive talent, why hasn't he scored at the NHL level?

And I think that was a slightly disingenuous argument to make, but I think it's understandable why on the surface, you're asking that question. If Porek can be this guy, why hasn't it happened? And, you know, he played 30 games in the NHL. He played 30 games in the NHL,

and he shouldn't have been there on a full-time basis. Well, why did he school? Anyway, I am saying this to put this out there. People talk about Simone Nemitz in somewhat the same way, where he has an unproven, untested guy who didn't have the ability to lock down that spot for himself in New Jersey. And as such, he was expendable. They didn't want to pay him what he wanted, and so they let him go. I'm going to throw out some names, and I want you to guess what these names all have in common.

Zach Werensky, Jacob Chish, Shikrin, Kail McCarr, Matthew Schaefer, Justin Falk, Evan Bouchard, Rasmus Dahlin, Brock Faber, Brent Burns, John Carlson, Josh Morrison, here in this chair the other day, Darren Radish, Matashemach, Bladislav Gabbercov, and Eric Carlson. People who haven't been in my kitchen. People have not been in my kitchen. Bobby, any guesses? All very good defensemen. All very good defensemen. These are the only defensemen in the NHL who scored more goals that even strengthened Simone Nemitz last year. and I mean maybe you're saying oh even strength goals who cares well I mean

even if you expand it to power play and all goals it doesn't really change the equation that much Nemitz was tied for what was it tied for 17th in the NHL among defensemen and even strength goals last year with 10 yeah he 11 goals overall is a 21 year

yeah alongside such names as Rasmus Anderson Noah Dobson Bowen Bowen Byram who just signed for 12 million a year and are almost flame favorite, Lane Hudson. Of course, all these guys had a lot more minutes per game. All of these guys had a lot more power play time. Simone Nimitz ended up with 10 goals and 68 games, again, at a relatively young age.

There are a lot of qualms that people have with his defensive play. But when we hear the same conversations about, well, if Perrek is so good offensively, why hasn't he scored yet? This is a guy who has scored and who has shown that he can play at the NHL level and score at the NHL level, which, again, is a very very good. Very good Harbinger for future success for a young defenseman who often have a lot of difficulty when it comes to adjusting to that NHL defensive rhythm. And I think Porek will get there as well. I think again, I think Zane, everybody agrees that he should have been in the HL this past season, which is why I...

I mean, all the things being equal. If he, what, the NCAA changed the rule like a month and a half after he... You scored 70 points at Michigan and people would be saying, oh my God. Like, it's, it's a totally different ballgame, which is what. why I chaf at the people who say, you know, why didn't me score on the NHL? It's because you just said he shouldn't have been there. He had nine.

Okay, he had, he had, he had, he had, he had, he had score goals. He scored some very, very convincing goals. As a team of the season were fantastic for him. Nobody talks about that goal against Dallas. That was a great goal to do. The goal against Vancouver was, unbelievable. That shows incredible. So I think there's lots of reasons to be excited there.

But I also think with Nemitz, I mean, you can say, he's unproven. You can say he's, he's young and untested, but actually there is a little bit of a basis here for that sort of money, especially in this new cap. That's why I just, I brought up the word deployment. Yeah. I just, I think if Ryan Huska plays the crap out of him and treats him like a first pairing defenseman, a five on five and gives him a bunch of power play time, puts him out in three on three over time, which he proved that he's unbelievable. Yeah. I think he can break out and be a very, very good player for this team. I also, I also, I always kind of want to see them roll out a three on three unit that's all, all defensemen.

Yeah. Wopsall defenseman, you throw out like, you throw up. Yeah. You throw a ball, ball, ball can play back and play D and the other two can just bro. Like, for Stevege, this is the kind of year where I,

if I'm Ryan, if I'm Ryan Husk, I go, you know what? We're going to try some stuff. I want to, the whole point of this upcoming season is, is experiment.

Oops all defenseman might be the, can you imagine being like, if you're the, the Oilers, the Canucks who are ever playing the plane three on three and it's whoops all defenseman. Wouldn't that freak you out? not if on the oil there's so I got a dry side of your dame i'm not too scared about can zane per rec take a face off at five at three on three we're going to find out well and i mean just the other thing is i think a lot of people's perception of this player is colored because of his draft stock and and i understand it you want these guys to be impactful right away but you look at the trajectories that these players are on and simone nemitz maybe looks like a guy who would have gone eight or nine as opposed to two in the way that he has progressed in his d plus one two three four

again, I think of the player who was sitting in this very chair, Josh Morrissey, who when he was Simone Nemitz age, had played one season. You think people are a little bit down on two-time Olympian Simone Nemitz? I don't even know if it's that they're down. I just think there is a level of confusion that is only precipitated because he is a known quantity to a certain degree that most players of his age aren't, where not many 22-year-old defensemen have 100 and what, 100. 555 NHL games. Yeah. And it was,

it very much feels like Noah Hanofin when Noah Hanofin arrived in Calgary and there were a lot of qualms about his analytics and there were qualms about his production at the NHL level. And it was like another guy whose, whose team was sort of, yeah, hardball on, I don't know what you are.

So he had Jacob Slaven and it was like, okay, we like this guy better. And again, the point being that most 21 year old defensemen don't have NHL analytics. They just truly don't. And the odd balls, you're comparing them to the ones who were really, really good,

the Lane Hudson's, again, players should have been aflame. But those are the, those are the outliers, those are the exceptions. And you are acquiring Simone Nemitz with the hope that he turns into that caliber of player, but the very reason that he's available,

the very, you know, if he was that kind of player already, Calgary wouldn't have him. I mean, I think of that quote with Steve Steyos when he acquired Warren Fogel, made away through this past season. And it was like,

well, if Warren and Fogel was on pace for 20 goals, this season, I wouldn't have been able to get them for what I paid for them. And it's like you have an idea of what this player is going to be. And you have to trust your evaluation of this player. And again, this is going to be a very big year. Simone Nemitz is coming up to the age where you expect, okay, you are a 20 point defenseman, you're now going to be a 50. This is sort of the jump that Noah Dobson took.

This is a jump that an Eric Carlson took. This is a jump that a John Carlson took. Like, you know, there's, there's all sorts of these players who have followed this trajectory, and this is about when it's going to happen, if it's going to happen for Nemitz. But I don't know. I think the, I think the precursors look pretty good. That's just, that's just my tip. Bobby, what do you think of that?

Like, even beyond where they are, where he is as a player, given up two first, though. Like, it's been, it's been a little while. Where are you sitting on that? I'm totally fine with it because it's not their own picks. Man, and it's because they have the surplus of assets they could use to go out. and get a guy like Nemich and you know giving up a Vegas and a Colorado first I don't I don't think that's that big a deal in my opinion like when those those picks 20 through call it 32 you know a lot of those you're just throwing darts at the dart board like the the percentage chance that you

hit on a true difference maker in that range of the draft you know it's pretty low like I think the percentage chance of a guy like Nemich who you just traded for becoming the difference maker compared to those picks that they traded you know I think it's significantly higher so I love the move personally but if they were using their own pitch picks, it would be a disaster, but because they had that surplus, I loved it. Would you have hypothetically traded, say, Jack Hextall and Cullen Potter and, I don't know, Alan Shagga's Lamoff and Beran for the two guys that got Simplikov and Nettis? Probably. Probably, yeah. Yeah, that's essentially what the picks were. The picks are going to be late firsts around the same, basically.

But they got Potter at 32. They got Hexel at 30. and they got a guy who was drafted second overall for picks that they got for selling. Yeah, a known commodity, a guy that has produced like Mike just talked about. And then also there's the whole Olympics thing too. Yeah, that's gone under the radar. I mean, he was unbelievable for Slovakia in the Olympics. I think probably one of the biggest reasons why they made it to the bronze medal game. Like he was outstanding.

And he was the number one guy. He got the ice time. And I think that's going to be critical. I think at minimum with Nemitz, you're looking at chain gospel. That is, that is the. median down the middle comparison for me, a guy who just has scored goals in every season of his career

has always been productive. Even when Philadelphia paid, I mean, this was the one thing that always never made sense. When Philadelphia paid to trade Shane Goss to spare, he was one of the leading goals per 60 defenseman scoring that year that they traded him.

The year, like, immediately proceeding. And it's like, why are you moving this guy? To make room for Rasmus for Stalinum? Like, okay. And again, has continued wherever he's gone, whether it's been Arizona, Carolina, to Detroit, back to Carolina, to be a highly productive defenseman every single year. And if Simone Nemitz doesn't figure out the defensive side of the game, I still think that's who he is. Which is still a valuable piece. Highly value.

I mean, we saw in the playoffs here. He won the Stanley Cup. Absolutely. And so it is like, okay, maybe, maybe that's not the most valuable player archetype in five years when, you know, okay, you'd rather not. maybe you'd rather have a you'd rather have an all-minutes, all-s-situations guy than a Cody Franzen. But you're still able to use that player

in theater with the others who you have. So that's, that's I think really exciting. You cannot to me discount the, the bird in the hand of the production that has already been demonstrated. And in five years, the cap, if it keeps growing at the same rate,

it'll be like 136, 140 million. So as, as but you're like, oh, you might not want to pay X, Y, Z dollar. I think I'll, I'll, I'll cope to, I'll, all with us up to being guilty of this. I think we're all still used to the flat cap. Oh my God. Like the 7 gene, cabillion, that's out rate. But then it's like, okay, I think that the idea that, I think someone brought up in the mailbag a couple weeks ago, the idea like, oh, do you think that Thleen's lever have a $50 million player or whatever?

And yes, if you, if you scale it to what, like the first year of the cap, they had joined. I don't know McGillamling making like 25. Yeah, the cap. The cap was, the cap was 39 million in the first year of the cap, and the Ginnel was making seven. And so if you scale it, that's, he's like a 16, 17 million dollar player. More. So if the end, if the, if you're looking at the, at the idea that we're going to be in a, like this year,

harder than four million, uh, then one 13, five, one 23. Those are all confirmed. And then next couple of years, you're looking at like, if they keep growing at like 5%, 129, 136, 140 something. You don't want to have to spend your way out of problems. You'd rather not overpay for guys. But in an environment where the cap is going to probably keep going for a while,

I don't think your mistakes are as pricey or as painful as they would have been in the previous environment. Think about this. The flames, I think the cap was like 45 million, like two years after the cap came in. And they had Jerome making seven and Mika making six. like that's that's bonkers and league men was like they like 350 or four hundred

yeah like they yeah it was it was beyond wild it is not even my new mantra that I have been saying repeatedly over the last few weeks is there are no bad contracts just bad fits for players like I think I truly believe that we will see so many more deals that are it almost reminds of the NBA where guys with bad contracts they get traded all the time

And it is, again, a means to an end, but it is also just sort of a mechanism in which obviously it's a different structure. You have guys who don't have guaranteed money. It's different. But I think we are going to see so, so much more of, okay, that $5 million player you signed back when the cap was this much. We have a $5 million player who we signed now and he's way worse. And let's just let's just, you know, we need a center. You need a defenseman. Let's just make this walk.

Look at Darnel Nurse. Oh, my God. They move that contract without retaining. You know which one? They kind of says it all right then. You know which one I'm really interesting to see how it goes is yes, very coquine. I think because they could have bought him out. They did for dirt cheap.

They could have bought him out. They didn't. And they've got four more years on that deal, barely used them, but his name's on the cup. He was like the only Hurricanes player with bad underlines this year, but he's a center. And I think that deal is going to get moved for value. And it would have been unthinkable two years ago. Totally.

I was thinking today about Huberto in this regard to. I've been thinking about that a lot. Like, I'm wondering when he has three or two years left on his contract, I've been thinking about that a lot. It's not a bad deal when the cap's going to be 131, 104. Well, and there's so much precedent. I mean, we have seen, do you know what the Hubert O deal reminds me up right now?

Another guy, a skier or a owner player. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You know who I am reminded of right now thinking about Hubert O. This just popped into my head, but it's been, it's been marinating. Another French Canadian player who was traded from a team where, He actually won a cup there, but went and had an inflated deal and nobody knew what to do.

Vinila cavalier. Remember when he went to Philly? Stanley Cup winner? Did he get bought out twice? I think so. Just the one time. At least once. Yeah.

And, but again, at the end of his career, I think he got bought out maybe by, by Tampa Bay, goes to Philly as a free agent, and was, again, on a very unwieldy contract. end of the day the LA Kings were gearing up for a playoff run they said we want me some Vinnie La Cablee

they traded for Vinny La Cablee on do you remember what the condition was either of you Nope the condition was Vinny we want you for this stretch drive you must retire at the end of this season so your contract is off our books that was the condition and they traded for him at the deadline

they got a run out of Vinny La Cablee and he was done but that's the sort of thing I mean, height of the flat cap or the low cap, remember Jerome McGinla making five and a half? Oh, Joe's down. Making five and a half mill. Just looking very much like he was the end of the vis rope with the Colorado Avalanche, had been on a three year deal there.

And he's 38, 39, maybe almost about to be 40. Same situation. L.A. Kings are like, we want us some Jerome McGinla. he's at the end of his career, end of his contract. Again, Jerome McGinnell was a winner. He didn't want a cup, but he was a winner. Vinnie La Cavillier. He went literally everything else at the very level of time.

Vinnie La Cablee did win a cup. You might have remembered it if you're watching this show. Don't recall. Jonathan Ubertoe does not have the same playoff pedigree at all, but by the same token in this world, which is a very different world from the mid-2010s, I think there is absolutely a possibility where another team says, we have a contract we hate way more,

who we're spending money on guys who can't even play. And we think there's a move to be made. You know which team I wonder about is Pittsburgh. They're about to have a lot of money off the books. They have Ryan Graves making a ton of money to play in the HL right now. But you're talking like a deal like this year? Not even this year necessarily, but just in a couple years. Yeah.

Mirosby and Malcolm are off the books. A couple of years. You know what happens. Again, now, Hubert, he's got to come back and he's got to, he's got to play. I mean, I don't think pit every servicing surgery is a solidly concerning. I don't think they're that worried about it. But it's, it's absolutely true. They're optimistic, but until he hits the ice in September, you're, you can say, oh, he's, he's skating, he's training, he's feeling good.

He's getting used to his new hip. You never want to hear the last sentence. Yeah. But, I mean, I'll say this. He's a guy who cares a lot. I think we can all name off the cover heads plenty of guys across the National Hockey League in the recent history who've been you know you got your check you're going up well don't have it anymore

whatever I and they just sort of they're collecting a paycheck I think Jonathan Newbertoe is a professional with a capital P he really like he completely remade his game two years ago because he wanted to help the team and I thought until his hips started bothering him I thought he was really good yeah he's doing It was good that year. Yeah. I think,

you know, if you, if you have that level of give a hoot and also a guy with hopefully no more recurring hip issues, but this shiny new hip, I think there's still some tread on the tires. I think there's still value to be at. So maybe he plays his way into a situation where instead of people going,

oh, man, that's an unbelievably bad contract. You can't move wherever. I think you'd love to him to be in a situation where he feels good about about his game and teams are calling you going, man, I'm kind of surprised how good Huber

I've been this year. I still think we're a few years away from that. A couple years. It's still a pretty big commitment and until you have you're not taking a body of work with hair years left on his contract probably.

Maybe you're three. But like again, no bad contracts, only bad fits. I look at J.J. Peturka getting traded. Obviously he's 24 years old. But after just a horrible season in Utah

where he was exactly what they didn't need and that's a player who has a lot of money, Utah signed him to a deal to match. his jersey number, which was a terrible mistake, 7.70 here to score 45 points this year. And they move them for two firsts because Boston needed a top six winger. And that was the best available. This is going to be a 32, 33, 34 team league. And I don't know, I think at the athletic today, they were putting out a projected expansion roster. And Pavel Buccanevich, who just came off,

again, one of the worst years of his career, just disastrous play driving metrics, was on the top line of a project in 33rd team. Makes me wonder about Yeager Sharon Govich. Huge. Like, again, another one where I'm just like, yeah, like there are, there are worst deals that could get, you know,

we'll give you this guy for this guy and a second, as long as we're getting the, we're getting rid of this guy. You know, like there's, I, like, again, Valerian and Trujuskin coming off of a year in Colorado where he was a fifth wheel. And unreliable.

Unreliable. The play driving metrics have gone down. The production's gone down. It's like, got four years left, making a little over six a year, coming off a couple of bad playoffs. Like this year in the playoffs, he was bad. Colorado explicitly made moves to their roster to address bad playoff performers. Over six a year. And Columbus just needs guys.

They give up three picks for him because, I mean, he's in his 30s. is going to be he's 31. He's signed until he's 35. And again, we are how many years away from 10 million being equivalent to what 6 million is now? Yeah. We might be there. So it's just like I think if Jonathan Hubertoe is a 50, 60 point player again,

which I don't think is that far off the table. It's a consistent 50 point guy that gives you value in both sides of the puck. You don't have the shelter him. That's a pretty useful piece for a team that has, uh, if he has a design. 50 point player in Calgary. That's sort of my mark. So again, I think this is still a little pie in the sky,

but again, we are talking about a league where Darnelnerce was just traded. We are talking about a league where guys on quote-unquote bad contracts are now being traded with regularity, which is why I say, no bad contracts, just bad fits. A lot of good stuff today, boys. Really good stuff today. Yeah, I thought Robert was on fire today. Really?

Yeah. Oh, that's great. What about me? You're fine. Thanks. Appreciate it. Jack, how is the show so far?

Well, hold on, boy. It's just about over. Yeah, we've been going on for a long. Now,

let's go through the Rapid City Res. Goaltending. I've got a I sent me on Kinovsky. Jack, I sent you a photo

earlier. This is a live, this is a live looking at Jack watching this show, sort of staring at what he sees in front of him.

This is Jack. You used the word malaise earlier on the show. He's history's greatest monster. Oh, come.

on. That's my impression of Guy in Springfield crowd in that episode. Because they didn't have the money that Marsh Simpson's Lemon Square to bring in. So they had to get a Jimmy Carter statue instead of the statue they wanted. No, I'm afraid we'll have to go with someone cheaper.

Do we have enough for that statue of Lincoln? I'm afraid we'll have to go on someone cheaper. That's how what NHLGMs are looking at their rosters. If we have enough money to fit this guy into the cap? No, I'm I don't have to go with someone cheaper. Hey, if you go to Puck Media this year, plenty of teams have lots of cap,

including the carry of flames. They do. Based on my beautiful spreadsheet. Yeah, what they currently have. Projected $120 million at the deadline? I have them with the projected roster I have, which is them going 13 for its eight defensemen and two goalies.

They got 14.6 mil to work with. That's less than I thought. They'll have much more next year. That's, hey, the Huberto contract is very useful in that particular sense. for the time being. When they're paying Matt Vey Gridden and what have you, that's maybe where you start to look at trading Jonathan Huberto,

but that contract is worth its weight in gold right now. They got, they still have another couple years before some of these young, you've loved to be in a position where you got to start throwing money at guys. Yeah, that means that they're good. Yeah. Oh, you'd love to be paying Perak and Gridden, like,

$10 million dollars. That would be fantastic. As much as I think, I think it came out recently the last couple days that, I believe, Jack Greaves and Columbus, This is you basically. His camp is using the dust of wolf contract. It's their arbitration comparable.

And yeah, I get it. I like Jek Reeves. He's very good on a team where sometimes it's challenging to be good. But if you're the flames, you look at that wolf feel, I think even with the challenging year the wolf had at times, and as you guys mentioned, kind of a challenging environment to be a goaltender last year,

I think you look at the deal and go, yeah, no, we're good with that. We're good with that. And I'm sure you'd love to be in a situation where you throw out kind of money you gave to Coronado and those kind of guys because that means you have guys

that you feel like you can build around. Even a deal like Kevin Ball is a home run right now. Is it 535? Yeah. Yeah. Slamedo.

Speaking of the athletic and of Dustin Wolf, this came out, I believe it was today of my buddy, our buddy, Dom at the Athletic Talk about the 10-Mus concession.

Dom L. Dom L. Dome. Spell his name. Spell his name right now. The L stands for letters. Our buddy Dom at the athletic. We are so used to

seeing the flames represented on the worst contracts list because of Hubertow. And there is a Calgary flame on this list on the best contracts list this year. And it is Dustin Wolf in it number eight. And I mean, for only chatter, we're not going to name names from out east about how, oh, Dustin Wolf was bad this year, guys. He had bad numbers. His safe percentage was bad. Oh, the Calgary Flames may regretting that contract that they say, again,

we're not naming names. We're not going to name any names. The thing I love about Mike is he loves starting fights. I'm not naming any names, but for all the conversation about how Dustin Wolf had a bad season, the eighth best contract in the entire league, according to the athletics model, sandwiched between Seth Jarvis,

who I'm told is good, and Rasmus Dahlin, who could have won the Norris this past year. Pretty good company. I'll take it. Absolutely. I will take it. And again, if you're the flames, you have Dustin Wolf,

you have Devin Cooley the Masters in Trophy nominee from the PHWA chapter this year and very good goaltender, very fun interview. They're both signed. The goalie battery is signed

for the next two seasons. And then maybe Arsenia Sergeyev undefeated NHL goalie is ready to make a push. Maybe Kriel Zarubin, who is very good, an MHL All-Star.

Maybe he's ready for push. Maybe to buy a Treeball follows in the footsteps of fellow Czech countrymen, Michael Horabic. Haramble. Ravel. Raoul, going from the USHL to UMass to the pros and dabbling. But again, they've got in a situation where they have, the NHL group is barely set for the next little bit. And if you're a young guy behind, there's no pressure.

There's no, you know, there's no gun to your head saying you got to make it or else the team is screwed. So you can just do your thing and progress and learn and be. go with the Wranglers and try to make them as best as good as they can be and have a fun year. I mean, at this point, we might as well start older than Russian to figure out how to communicate all the goalies. Dualingo is great for that, folks. Not a sponsor dream. They're just very fun. But I think that kind of approach is kind of what they're looking at across the board.

Sort of having, they have guys at every position. They have a couple guys that really like it every position. But I also think you're in an environment where you don't really need. to rush guys and guys will make it when they make it and you know people the the the the I think the our friends over at Calgary puck shout out to Darcy and the boys uh on the forums there there's a fascinating discussion going on where they're talking about like where are we in the rebuild and short answer is somewhere in the middle uh probably closer to the beginning than the end but honestly a lot of the tough things you know the the hardest thing to do is admit you need to rebuild

admit you need to tear it down and you look at the body where the last three years the admission was made a long time ago and we're seeing you know a zillion picks this year a zillion they have even with all the trades they made where they have what five picks in the first three rounds next year and the year after maybe the year after that the year up is it if we're talking about like they're going to be making multiple multiple multiple top 100 picks for three four five years in row I don't think that's a bad place to be and and they're going to add to it too and they're going to add to it and if you get the if it turn if it turns out that say a full year of Hansick and he turned out to be pretty good you got a full year

wolf is closer to the Vezna caliber wolf than we did a year we saw a year ago and that probably means the defensive group is better. Nemich is what people think it can be if you seriously some progression you do have some picks in the next few years that potentially you could use to upgrade and start a lift I find your next Nemich I still think this year will be will be We'll be doing a lot of draft coverage with an eye towards the top part of the drafts. 2028, I think it depends. I think the first year is a new building. They'll be.

They'll be bought in five again. I think they'll, I think it depends on, they're going to be so young that year. I think they'll be young intentionally, and I think how good there depends on how the kids are. Because if Cole Reschney turns out to be pretty good right away, that might change the calculus.

But I'm asking a lot, though. I think to steal a tree living is, you take your cues from your team. And I think they're going to make the. team on purpose young, but if the young guys should not be good, I also think they have the ability cap-wise, asset-wise. To make some moves. Yeah, they can, if you're, if you think, oh, they want to make multiple second and

thirds because they still need to keep, you know, filling the, the prospect base, they have the, they have the gumption to do that. Yeah. If you're thinking, oh, man, this group could actually be something if they want to add this, that, the other thing, I think they have the assets to that, too. And I think they've shown the willingness to, you know, again, when a Simone Nemich became available and the price tag was what they thought was fair, boom. They didn't hesitate. They just jumped on it.

They'll be in a position where like if a Jack Eichl becomes available like what happened in 2021, that type of player, they'll have the assets to go out and make that move. They'll have the caps space to make that move. And it's super exciting. And I think this is a manager group that has sort of the clear-eyed vision of what the group is and what the individuals in the group are worth. that I think if they have the opportunity to jump on something, I don't think they're going to hesitate. Yeah. And Conrad, he's got the balls to do it too.

He's proved it. Like he's made a ton of big time deal since becoming GM. And I think he's going to be swinging for the fences over the next couple years. When it's time. When it's time. Yeah. Boys, I think we've set a record for the most hockey discussion ever on a barn burner episode. I don't usually, I mean, people may not know this.

I don't usually watch this show. I've usually got other stuff going on. it's a good show, so I've been told. But hey, I think we've set a record today. I think that's what we're going to have on the sizzle wheel for the summer content. Jack, make sure you slip that. Just Mike off the top and be like, I don't usually watch the show. And then go to the good stuff.

I just have you guys set the record like an hour ago. Jack, you could turn this into probably three summer podcasts. We're doing any. God's work for Pindor right now. Well, and speaking of our friend Pinder, this is the time of the show where we're going to bring in a segment called the Pinder Report. And do we have any music for that, Jack? I don't know. I don't watch the show.

Is there any thought? No. Just fine, let's go. Zion, someone beatboxed so that he could do. Pinder has asked that we include some coverage for some stuff going on around town. If you're still around these parts in the summertime, which Pinder, of course, screwed off to wherever he is. But if you're watching, folks, there's lots of stuff that you can check in. Check out around town.

Either you fancy a trip down to Atco Field. Every now and then. I've been down yet. Have you been down to all this year? Really? Not at all. Oh, my God, Bob. Okay, where are we doing?

Jeez. And the show, we'll go down to. Oh, God. Well, it might be one of the most beautiful places to watch a sporting event. Great spot. Well, the Calgary Cavalry, Cavalry FC, playing a couple games, close out the month here, including, I mean, by the time this episode goes live, you're able to go.

But this coming Friday, they're playing, I believe, against Vancouver at, at Cofield. A couple games on the road. This one that you'll probably be able to go see on August the 8th. My parents' wedding anniversary.

It is going to be Cavalry against Supra. Oh, no, that's in Quebec. Oh, my Lord. Don't go on my parents' wedding anniversary. They mark it backwards on their website. This is a game that's in Calgary on August 3rd.

first at Aco field they're playing inter Toronto on August the first The super the game on the 28th is in Phoenix Calgary. Against the same team. Super out to Quebec. So I don't know if this will be up by them, but July 28th and August 1st. Calvary pretty good near the top of the table right

below Forge, I believe. Byrd. Damn. Forge. If you, if you're not a cavalry then Cavalries, their nemesis is Forge. They're always one and two in the league in some order. And the time when the cavalry managed to win the CPL playoffs.

They bested Forge. Forge based out of Hamilton, which will also be one of the Calgary stampeters' upcoming opponents here as they take on the Thai cats. Also on August 1st, of course, the stamps are out of town for the next three weeks, playing in Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Toronto, respectively. We haven't seen them in town since this past week

when they took on the alouettes and lost 3832. Those games have been incredible this year, by it. It looks super excited. Well, get this. Get this as far as total points. Week one, Winnipeg, Calgary, 58 points. Week three, the riders come to town. They beat them 40 to 37.

That's 77 points scored. The next week, they're in BC, 4133. That is 74 points. The following week, we were at this game, the Stampede Bowl. 5836. That is 94 points in a game. And then last week, 37, 303. I guess that was two weeks ago.

They lose to the owls in Montreal. In this past week they come to Calvary, and they lose 38, 32. That's 70 points. The previous week, 67. That is at minimum, 58 points every week. Unbelievable. And it's been going up since week one. And they just brought back Damien Alford, big wide receiver.

I think he's like 6.5. 2.20. The guy is an animal. So, I mean, if you want a high score in football game, three downs is the way to go right now. And so a couple of games coming up, they'll be playing three straight weeks at McMahon. August 13th, 29th, and September the 2nd, or September the 7th, rather. I guess that's not three straight weeks, but it is three straight games at McMahon. So into August and into September.

And so we've covered two sports. Another sport that is played on a field, or I suppose, Diamond. Baseball. That's baseball. Oh, in Southern Alberta, the Oaktoaks dogs. If you come on the right days, you might even hear me over the loud speakers, such as this Friday, although, again, this probably won't be live. in time. But the Brooks Bombers are in town on Friday at Seaman Stadium.

And then next week, they're taking on Lethbridge and Sylvan on Wednesday, Thursday, followed by a game on Saturday against Energy City, the cactus rats. Oh, yes. Which is a name that I will plead the fifth about discussing here on this show other than to say. Do they have fun logos? Not. They could be better. They don't even fairly up stadium. That's a question for another day.

The Energy City Cactus Rats visiting the dogs on August 1st. You know who does have a stadium? You chooks dogs. It looks fantastic. Don't tell me you haven't been there either. I haven't been there either. Oh. I just moved back here last year.

Robert. Give me a break. I haven't been living here. Have you ever seen? Have you ever heard of McLeod Trail, Bobby? McLeod Trail, I don't know what that. You ever, you don't go south at all? Dude, I just moved back here.

Oh, Robert. I've been hitting stampeter games. I've been hitting Calgary Surge games. surge. The surge are fantastic. Same PA guy as the dogs. My buddy Mike Mahoney. The best bang for your buck in terms of entertainment value is sports in the city is the Calgary Surge. Those games are so much fun.

I'll say until I'm proven otherwise, I'm willing to be proven otherwise, the mascot for Wild FC Echo might be the best mascot in the city right now. No. Well, we got lots of Calgary sports going on. Absolutely. A great scene. And and and and and and and and if you want a different kind of. a ticket. You know what? Tickets are hard to come by right now. We're going to loop it back to the thread

from the start of this segment. 70mm showings of the Odyssey at Scotia Bank Theater Chinook. I think, I mean, it's playing until the end of August, early September in 70 millimeter, and you got to reserve your tickets like three weeks in advance. I'm going again this coming next Wednesday. And again, go check it out. And still continuing on the Pinda Report aspect, Jack, I think we got this cued up. Earlier at Daily Faceoff, today, my buddy Hunter Crowther, had a chat with Sean Avery, an unlikely movie star who has now been in three consecutive Christopher Nolan movies with a larger role each time.

In this one, he's one of the main guys acting alongside Matt Damon on his boat. He's in, like, a lot of the movie. And Hunter had a chat with Sean Avery, who said, and we quote, I didn't understand how to be a great, great teammate until I started acting. And my response, oh, so that explains it.

How was the boat in the movie? Oh, it looks great. It looks fantastic. There's no CGI in that movie, right? There's a little bit of CGISD. Just a little bit. Okay. Well, like, if there's one thing Christopher Nolan loves,

it's practical effects. I will say this. Nolan's not a great action director. He never has been. It's sort of his biggest failing as a director. His action is never great. Like, he makes it better in the dark night

when he sort of show, of these big expansive shots, but close-ups are just not good. And it's the same in the honesty, but he makes it work. And the stuff that is CG, I mean, I don't know how familiar either you are with the honesty,

but there's a part in the main story where Odysseus leads his crew through a whirlpool, which the name of which is Cribdis. And they made the whirlpool. They augmented it with CGI, but they built upon an existing world pool that they created by driving jet skis in a circle.

That was how they did it. That's incredible. They filmed a oral pool, the big one that they built, they just sort of augmented it with CG. And then, but like there is so much, there's so much incredible stuff in that movie that is no CG at all. We're like when they're facing the giants, they're these giants called Laced Drogonians supposed to be 12 feet tall.

So they just filmed it in forced perspective. They had Odysseus and his crew replaced by five foot tall stuff. Dund doubles. And then they brought in like these seven foot five stunt performers to play the it's incredible. So go see it. It's going to win best picture. That is Mike's lock of the week.

And that is your Pinder reports, a presentation of us here on Barnburner. I'm not even sure if we've got a partner for that. But we're just going to go with it's presented by us. If you're going to say lock the week, you have to hold up a giant community large lock. Otherwise, it's not a lock of the week. It's just Mike's saying stuff.

Wow. The Odyssey will win best picture. And that is smooth. smooth jimmies oh, God of the week. And that's, do you get that reference,

Bobby? No, let's, we got to wrap this up. Smooth Jimmy Apollo. Cincinnati. Say Cincinnati. Cincinnati.

Cincinnati. Cincinnati. Mike, do you get it? Jack, Jack, just end this right now. This is getting out of control. All right.

We're going to leave it there. Put a burr. Before we head out, folks, we want to just tell you about something very new and very special here at the nations. It is brand new

nation gear. We have teamed up with level where to bring you the next era of nation apparel, starting with the off-season social club collection. This is gear built for everything that happens between the games. If you're going to golf rounds, maybe you're going to Cavalry games, maybe we'll go on the Oak Toaks dogs, whatever else the off-season brings. It's premium, it's versatile, it's made for fans who know that being a sports fan isn't just a season, it's a lifestyle.

the offseason social club is coming soon. Be the first to join. Like, follow, and subscribe to the newsletter at nationgear.com. It's big. It's exciting. You can wear this stuff to screenings of the Odyssey, one after the other. Just, just, you know where to find it. It's at nationgear.ca.

Bobby, put it in your bookmarks tab. I will. Find it. It's good stuff. Pike, you're not wearing your nation gear yet. You're wearing a Blue Jays jersey. They're not doing so hot today. I was afraid of bringing up the Blue Jays in that segment because I was afraid, you know, we don't want to say, oh, they're losing right now.

You know, you don't want to. It'll be old news by the time this show airs. But with the way they're playing right now, it won't be old news. They're losing every day. They're remarkably consistent. They sure are. They sure are. We don't want to keep Jack Hostage here too much longer.

We want to thank the folks at McLeodlaw and at Bet365. And, of course, again, go to nationgear.ca. my name is Mike Gould. To my left, or I guess right on your screens, whatever, is our buddy Bobby Germany. Bobby, we appreciate you joining us once again. It's been fun. We're going to do more of this, I'm sure. It's an honor and a privilege.

An honor and a privilege, as always. Hey, we've got some stuff in the hopper as well for future back burner episodes. I don't want to spoil anything or talk at a school. There is a very prominent Calgary personality who we are really looking forward to having. And if you go to Oak Toke's dog games, you might see them around the ballpark. That's my only hint that I'm going to sort of lay out here to the folks for maybe a future backburn. Maybe next week. I'm really looking forward to it.

So keep your fingers on the dial. Keep your cursor hovered over that like and subscribe and that bell to give you reminders. There will be lots to come. And maybe it'll involve our buddy Pike as well, Pike. It's been a pleasure as always. We'll see if I'm in the country. Yeah. Yeah, probably be.

You'll be in the social club. you'll be just vacation or are you getting deported? Whoa. Wolf and Calvay, let's out. I'm going to Japan. Oh, wonderful. I guess. Yeah, we're going to go to watch some pro wrestling in Japan.

Nice. Hang out with the snow monkeys. Coming out. Those are two separate outings. Come in. No, are two snow monkeys riding each other. God. Although.

You're getting Japan money for this? Oh, my God, pie. All right. Well, we know where to, where, yeah, but I didn't get free level where. True. So, I mean, my contract is obviously. not as good as it could be. All right.

Well, we appreciate it as always. You've been a fantastic addition to this program in this second segment. I think Bobby's been carrying the mail today. All right. We'll leave it at that. Everybody, thank you all for tuning in. This has been a very special summer flavored edition of Barnburner. We'll see you next time.