Puck Soup - 3-Minute Trade Takes

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

Sean and Ryan try (and fail) to give every trade in the last week only 3 minutes of discussion time, plus other stuff.   Sponsored by Athletic Greens (athleticgreens.com/puck), Hello Fresh (hellofresh.com/pucksoup60), Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck) and Bespoke Post (boxofawesome.com promo code puck)

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prosperts. I'm Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. And, well, look, I'm going to just. say it right now. There will be trades that

happen while we record this show and between the time that this show is done recording and is actually put on the internet. That's just the reality of the situation, folks. I don't know how else to say it to you. And, you know, given

the, I guess, history of this show, one can assume that that includes the Jacob Chicken trade, right? Like, the Jacob Chicken trade will happen one minute after we're done Although, did you see Darren Drager's tweet right before we went on the air here? Was this the one where he was basically saying that they need to come down in the price

because everyone's sick of dealing with them? Well, that and all the teams that are lined up to bid on him, the second the price comes down. It was like Columbus and Buffalo and L.A. and stuff like that. Boy, if you're Jacob Chikrid, you're pretty excited seeing that list, aren't you? Well, that's the whole point is he's like, I'm sick of losing. I want to be on a competitive team, and the Ottawa senators are like, we're pretending we're playoff competitive this year. What do you think?

Tough look. Tough look for everybody, I think. But I guess, with all that having been said, we should get into the, all the, like, 20-something trades that happened since the last. time we did the show. And because there are 20-something trades here, I had a very good idea to keep the runtime of the show down. And that was, I'm going to set a timer for three minutes. And that's the maximum amount of time we have for every single trade that we're going to talk about. But we will talk about every trade that happened since we stopped recording. For a lot of them,

we'll just say, I guess I don't care. Yeah, that's going to be a lot of them. But it's a If I say I don't care about one trade, can I, like, borrow those three minutes for the trades I do care about, or is this... I really don't want to have to do that level of math. Okay, fair. It's mostly what it works out to. You can't, like, yield your time to... Look, I wish we had the technology, you know? You know what?

No, I'm not going to... Yeah, okay. We can do it that way. Yes. Yeah. I figured it out. I got it. Okay.

Okay. I don't know. So I'm going to press start. Yep. And then I will tell you when three minutes is up. Okay. On the Nikita Zytezev and Picks for future considerations trade. And go.

Yeah. Salary dump on a bad contract that's now on its third team, I think. That's right. Fourth GM, I believe, because it was Lou Laverillo. Yeah, of course. I don't think he was the one who traded it away. And this is one of those, like, bad contracts that it was, like, it was bad from day one. Like, the very first day, everybody was like, that's, it was like way too many years to keep the cap hit down, but then the cap hit wasn't down.

And it's, yeah. So. Yeah, but other than that, good trade. Yeah. Other than that, it's a plus all around. Yeah. I, I am shocked that it only cost Ottawa a second and a fourth. Yeah, it's what, one year after this one?

Yes, I believe that's right. Yeah. I guess that's, yeah, not bad. And then obviously the question is, what do they do with that? What does Ottawa actually do with that money? But they've, you know, they've got some guys to resign and that sort of thing. So, yeah. Well, that and, you know, they're cutting down costs for the new owners.

Sure. Although that's been delayed, apparently. They're pushing back the actual, like, bidding of it is the last. I saw. Okay. So anyway, that only took a minute 17. I think we're rocking and rolling here. And boy, we're going to need, we're going to need all the time in the world to talk about this next one.

I'm going to need you to talk about the Josiah Slavin for Hunter Drew trade starting now. Yeah, that was a thing that happened. What was her? Josiah Slavin. I know who those guys are for sure. That's. Well, Josiah Slavin, he's Jacob Slavin's brother. Yeah.

That's all you need to know. That's all I do know. It's an AGO, I'm crazy. Yeah. You know what? I probably saw it. I don't, did Hunter Drew play college hockey? I know Josiah Slavin did.

Did Hunter Drew play college hockey? He did not. He played in the QMJHL. No wonder I never heard of him. Well, I'm done talking about that one. Mm-hmm. Okay, great. This is honestly the first I've heard of this trade, so I'm pretty exciting.

Yeah. As the guy who has, who committed kind of as a. bit last year to grading every single trade. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And now look at me. How'd you hand out the grades on that one?

I think I said C's across the board. Who cares? Maybe C pluses, I don't remember. So we're going to go now to, uh, I'm going to start, I'm going to need you to start talking about the Garnet Hathaway, Dmitri Orlov, and, uh, André Svetlakov, who I don't know who that is. some KHL guy. For Craig Smith,

Boston's first this year, third next year, and second in 2025. Yeah. So this one, almost in hindsight, feels like the one that really

got the crazy week going. Yeah. I, you know, when I first heard this, I was like, man, that's, that feels kind of steep for, for Boston to get two guys that are, you know, neither one was really all that high up the list. But then, you know, the more you think about it,

the more I saw other people thinking about it, Dmitri Orloves, a good piece. Boston was the one team, not surprisingly given their record, where you kind of looked at it and said, there's no obvious spot that they need help. Right. So instead, they just kind of upgraded, I wouldn't say cheaply, but, you know, they paid a reasonable rate,

and especially in hindsight as, like, draft pick, the value of draft pick seems to have cratered in the last few days. So this is, you know, perfectly fine trade for the Bruins and the maybe the even more interesting piece was that this signal that the caps were tapping out, that they were done as far as, being buyers or sellers or being contenders.

Yeah, I think, well, okay, so part of the reason I think this was so expensive on paper is that they took back the Craig Smith contract. Yep. The guy Boston put on waivers a couple of times this year, I think, and certainly have wanted to get out from under that deal, even if there isn't any years left on it after this one. And the other thing I think is really important here is that Boston didn't give up that package of picks for Vladislav Gavrakov, who is like a poor man's Dimitri Orlov. And they got Orlov at 70% retained or whatever. Apparently, depending on who you listen to, they had that deal in place with Columbus. But Don Sweeney kept saying, I need to wait a little bit. He was working on.

And, you know, maybe Craig Smith being the guy that he had to dump. and instead the capitals came along and said what if we gave you a guy who's better than that and a solid depth forward that you know plays Boston Bruins hockey and all that stuff like this is the biggest no-brainer in history to me

if it's like oh you know a first and a third for Gavrikov or a first a second in the third and a cap dump for Orlov and Hathaway like you're taking you're taking the latter every time, I feel like. I would agree.

And this, and, you know, there's some grumbling out of Columbus and kind of led to a few days where you're wondering about Gavrokov and then we'll get to what happened last night. But yeah, I mean, thumbs up for the Bruins. I don't know of anyone who didn't like this deal for them other than to say maybe if you felt like I did the- Garbo-kecholine. The price.

Well, yeah. And maybe you felt like the price was a bit steep in terms of picks, but that, I don't even know how you feel that anymore looking at some of the other stuff that happened. Well, that and also just, if there was ever a team that was going to fucking go for it, this year's Bruins, you know, like, and now they can, obviously they're going to bounce them around the lineup until they find a good spot for Orlov, because he can play both sides in theory. but certainly in their first game since they traded him

or traded for him they ran McAvoy Lindholm and Orlov as their one two and three right defensemen How are you going to score against these fucking guys? It's crazy So yeah I really I really like this trade for the Bruins so you know

And for the caps like to recognize like you said, to recognize that, yeah, you know what we do have to kind of run the flagpole here or whatever. We just went over three minutes. Oh, no. Yep. So let us move on then to the Shane Bowers for Keith Kincaid trade. Boston carrying three goalies in the HL all season. it was never going to last.

Yeah. All right, that's it. Sure. Yeah. I don't care. Okay. And by the way, when I said we went over three minutes, I, yeah, I fucked up.

And we should have had more time for that Orlov trade. Okay. But. Thanks for nothing, Keith Kincaid. See, this is what I was saying. It's very complicated for me to do this, sitting here with a stopwatch. open. But anyway, we have, I think, until 10 minutes. So we have like three and a half minutes

or something now to talk about Will Lockwood for Vitaly Cravesov. See, here's the thing with the Rangers trading credit. I feel like they're freeing up cap space to do something else. Yeah, for sure. I feel like in a few days, they're going to acquire a bigger name. That's my feelings. What's funny is Crabsaw was only making 875 this year. Yeah. So it's not like they were even, now granted every penny helps when you're like, okay, if they do it after 3.17 p.m. on next Thursday, you know, like, if you're slicing it that fine, every dollar really does count. So I guess that's true.

But I think this is just more a thing of like this guy asked for two trades, you know. Yeah. And the Rangers have been trying to hold out and get. something of actual value for him, even just pick-wise. And they clearly just had other things on their plate and just gave up and took what they could get. Yep. And I like the bet for Vancouver as well. This was their stated goal, right? We're going to target 22, 23-year-olds.

And, you know, if they're kind of underperforming with their other team, we're going to kick the tires, see if we can get them going in the NHL. Yeah, and we all kind of rolled our eyes when they said that, because that's a bad strategy when you're trading Bo Horvat or Brock Bessor or guys like that. But when you're trading a seventh round pick, yes, absolutely. And Will Lockwood, who they, and he's basically the guy going to the Rangers who fits the description that the Canucks are putting out there, right? Like, they tried it with Will Lockwood.

It didn't really work out. So why not move on? I like this trade for Vancouver. So why don't we move on then to the Nashville Predators trade a Nino Nieder rider to the Winnipeg Jets for a second round pick? Yeah. So I guess first thought is similar to the Orlov trade. This was the Predators signaling that they were selling. And again, that's not that that's all that remarkable when you look at the standings, but the

being six or eight points out at this time of year is exactly the range where dumb teams can fool themselves into thinking that they're in the mix. And the Predators did the right thing. And they, you know, I guess, I don't know if as part of this or we need to talk about David Poyle stepping down as well. It probably not, you know, I'm sure it didn't feel great to him after,

30 plus years as a GM that his final season involves dismantling rather than taking one last swing at that cup. But it's the right move, the right philosophy, that's it. They didn't get a ton for a pretty good player. I like it for Winnipeg a lot.

Oh, sure. Yeah, especially because Niederriter has a year left. Yeah. That's a really nice deal for them. Which does sort of become a theme as we get later into these trades is it feels like there's a shift in how teams view term on guys like this where the cap hit is reasonable. So, yeah, not to, Winnipeg didn't have to give up a ton.

So I don't love the trade for Nashville in that sense, but I do like what it signals as far as them at least being realists about where they're at. Yeah, but why don't we, we got a little extra time here. Why don't we talk about David Boyle? Yeah. You know, I mean, time had come. I, when I looked it up, I couldn't believe. This guy started working in NHL front offices and like during the Carter administration.

Jimmy Carter is about to die. It's about 40 years. Yeah, no, over four. I think it was 78, 79 or something like that. Let me put it this way. His first year as a GM, I think, was 82, 83. That's before I was born. I'm 40 years old.

There you go. That's ridiculous to be like a, not even like a GM who was, oh, he was a GM for a little while. Then he became an AGM and then he got another GM job. This guy was just like a GM for 40 plus years. Of only two teams. And, you know, even. Which is crazy. When he, you know, when he started, he was known as the son of Budpoil,

who was a famous player and executive, but carved his own name out as well. Yeah. Just GM forever, the winningest GM ever in terms of games won, but obviously never won a Stanley Cup. Came close that one time. Came close a couple. Well, yeah, I guess it was really only once with Nashville. I was going to say Washington, but that was. He went to a conference final in the 90s, I want to say.

Washington was a, you know, he, he, and here's the thing, like, Washington went to the final in 98, but I, Poil was gone by then. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but he had, you know, he had obviously built a huge chunk of that team. For sure. It's, it's tough, because I was having this, this discussion with somebody about whether David Poil would end up in the Hall of Fame someday. And, you know, they pointed out that he's been GM for so long that just purely based on random. chance he should have a cup or two.

Yeah. You know, and my argument was, yeah, but he took over, he took over a Washington team that was the joke of the league in 82. They had never made the playoffs. They had been a few years removed from being one of the worst expansion teams ever and rebuilds them into a really good, you know, by the 90s, that was a good team. And then takes over a true expansion team in now. Nashville and this was not in the Vegas, Seattle era of expansion drafts.

This is when you started off terrible and built that into a pretty good team. So good career for him. I'm very, I feel like everybody loves Barry Trots, so I feel like we're kind of skipping over the fact that they just hired a GM who has absolutely zero front office experience. We'll get, we'll get to the Barry Trots thing on the next Predators trade because it feels like that'll be more, yeah. Okay, so let's do Evgeny Dadanov, Daddanov, whatever, for Dennis Gurianov. Sure.

Do I have thoughts on that? Yeah, this is just another one. Did they check the no trade clause is the joke we can all make? Right. Gourianov is just a guy that two coaches in Dallas said, well, we don't have a lot of time for this guy. And, you know, I think that there is maybe something there, and this is just two coaches just being like, I'm throwing up my hands here. I don't really know.

And, God, if anybody can coax anything out of a guy, like if a guy has anything to give as a young forward, it feels like Martens San Luis is going to be like, yeah, no, I'm going to figure this out for you. You're going to be my little project here. And so I like that as a bet for the Canadians, but I also understand why Dallas moved on and they get a guy who,

they're going to probably put him next to Tyler Sagan, for the stretch run here and, you know, there's a guy who can help. I guess my thoughts on this are, as a standalone trade, sure, fine, makes sense. I'm curious as to what this signals for Dallas, because they're a team that you haven't heard a ton about at the deadline. Sure. Given where they're at, like, given that this is, like, you could make a case, this is the best team in the West.

I don't know that I'd necessarily buy into that, but you could certainly make the case that they're the best team of conference. I think they're right up there if they're not. So, you know, and we can get into the whole the whole East versus West dynamic, which has been sort of a theme of the deadline. But you're kind of looking at this going, all right, this, I see what Dallas is doing, but is this their move or do they have something else in mind? is there, you know, you got to think that especially... Yeah, this can't be it.

Yeah. And so I think the spotlight really, after all these other trades, we're going to talk about, shifts to them as kind of one of the few teams that hasn't done anything yet of significance. Because I don't think this is the trade that you say, okay, now we're done. For sure. Yeah, I totally agree. The next trade here, boy, we're going to make up some serious time with this one. Ivan Barbashev from St. Louis to Vegas for Zach Dean.

Zach Dean, I think, was Vegas's most recent first round pick. Yeah, another similar... 2021 first round pick, my bet. Similar to what I just said, right? With Dallas, kind of similar to Vegas. We're waiting on them to do something, partly because it's Vegas, and they feel like they're always in on everyone. Nice little...

sure, but is this it or is this, you know, is this, is this getting a smaller piece while you're still working on something bigger? Yeah, and I, you know, I like, I think everybody kind of does like Zach Dean, um, but that, you know, again, Vegas is a team that's in, that's perpetually in going for it mode. They don't like to keep their first round picks if they can avoid it, it seems like. And so, like to get a guy like Barberchav, who I, who I like, um, I think it's like pretty close to a fair rental price honestly and then you know it it also kind of sounds like they're do uh st louis is going to try to do the uh keith kichuk thing that we were joking about with ryan o'reilly with iven barbachev where i think the quote was uh you know

he wanted to play in the playoffs and we respected that but dot dot dot you know um not a direct quote obviously, but that was the idea there, where the implication from the GM was we're going to try to bring this guy back. We just think he should be able to get to the playoffs, and Zach Dean is a guy who can help us like starting maybe even next year. So let's move on then to Andreas England for Jack Johnson from Chicago to Colorado. that's always nice to see a reunion. Yeah, I think somebody said Jack Johnson must be the nicest guy in the league if somebody like the Colorado Avalanche is giving up literally anything for him.

He has been horrible this year. Yeah, yeah. And as with some other guys that we'll talk about, guys on really bad teams who are horrible, you always sort of wonder how much of that is the team. Yep, for sure. I mean, you know, I guess the two things I would say on this is bringing back veteran defensemen is always smart

and defensemen from the Blackhawks are great targets because they're secretly better. I'm going to just believe both of those things, and we'll put a pin in those until a little bit later. Yeah, and then here's one where we're going to need to go over our, you know, prescribed time here. Okay. And then we'll take a break after this one as well. This is the Timo Meyer, Scott Harrington.

We're going to need three minutes just to read this one. Centeri Hataka, Timor Ibrahimov, maybe. And a fifth round pick to the New Jersey Devils for. for Andreas Johnson, Fabian Zetterlin, Noquita O'Hocchuk, Shakir Makumudulin, a 2021-R-2020, a 20-23 first-round pick, conditional, a 24-second round pick, also conditional, and a 2024-7th round pick. Who, and we should say Scott Harrington, already put on waivers and claimed by someone else. So not the devil's were just taking that contract for about 18. hours, I think. So, yeah, what were your thoughts on this?

I mean, the first, this was a fascinating one for many reasons, including the fact that the news of the trade breaks on, it was a Saturday or Sunday, I can't remember, but. I believe it was Sunday. Yeah, like in the afternoon. Yeah, it was Sunday. Tim O'Meer is going to New Jersey. Okay, we all thought that was a likely destination. You know, the deal's done.

now we're waiting to find out what's involved. And we kept waiting and waiting. And it, you know, it was hours. And then it turned out that apparently there was somebody involved in the trade that was injured. Yeah. An H.L guy named Max Verano. Only sickos know who this is. He was a guy on Princeton when Princeton was briefly good several years ago in college.

I didn't even know we had the name. I assumed it was Jack Hughes. but I guess yours makes a little bit more sense. Yeah. We'll go with that. Elliot, Elliot said it on 32 thoughts that it was, that he thinks it was Max Verino.

Okay. Who, yeah, you know, he's like an okay HL player. But this ends up being, as far as I can tell, the largest trade in NHL history in terms of players and picks involved. Like assets moving back and forth. Yes. 13 players, like nine players. four picks.

I believe that is the largest trade ever. The Doug Gilmore trade remains the biggest player trade with 10 players, but that trade had no picks involved. There have been other ones. Some of these three team deals, maybe depending on if you double count things that are moving twice. But as far as a two-player trade, this is the biggest. And we kind of always laugh at NHLGMs because they're always going on about,

while the trade's so complicated, and then it's like a guy for a fourth round pick. This one's actually pretty complicated. And I would love to know, I would, Tim O'Meyer's side, I would love to see a behind the scenes on just what the hell was going on with all of these other names. Like, how did this turn into this giant mess? But the key here is, Devils get a real good player. No extension yet. We'll see how that goes. but it is worth remembering that they still have control of him.

He is not a UFA this summer. There's the qualifying offer. So it's tough, but it's not like this is a peer rental where he's just going to bolt on July 1st. I feel like the consensus here that it was kind of an underwhelming return for San Jose. You can speak more to that as a prospect guy. but I don't know.

I mean, they, they, for, for a guy that you probably weren't going to keep, it's not a bad little package, is it? It, it's not a bad package. I gave, I, I pulled up the trade grades here and I gave the sharks a B minus. I saw people fucking killing them for this trade. What, this guy should be fired, all this stuff. Here's the thing. If Tim O Myers going, I'm not going to sign an extension, right?

Like before I, or agree to an extension before I get traded. then that necessarily is going to depress the value that a team get like the sharks get back for. Yep. This is true. You know, if he played for the Winnipeg Jets, if he played for the Calgary Flayette, like name a team that was trading Tim O'Meyer. If you go into next season knowing this guy has a $10 million qualifying offer and he will not be signing an extension, that's just like the reality of it. You know, like the value is going to be lower. than people think it should have been.

Yep. So it's it's really, it's really tough for me to sit here and say Mike Greer got fucking killed on this one, right? But with that having been said, it is a little bit of a, of a letdown just because,

you know, you've been psyching yourself up for weeks. Like, oh my God, the Timo Meyer deal is going to be massive. And you're seeing all these other guys get traded and you're going like this is, are we got the big guy who's left? and...

Yeah. I don't remember what what number, like, farm system that we, the devils are in the EPRinkside grades, but I have it written down in the trade grades. That Makumadul and Zetterland and Ohotchuk were the number five, seven,

and 14 prospects in the devil's system, and the devils were very highly rated. But that also means that the devils didn't give up any of their top, prospects in this trade. I think a lot of people kind of expected Alexander Holtz, who was their number two, to go in this deal and it just didn't happen.

Look, I mean, the 2024 second round pick can become a first round pick. Yes. If the devils make it to the conference final, I think. In either of the next two years, which is a little bit interesting, only because there's no qualifier that I've seen that Meyer even has to be on the team. So in theory, they could lose Timel Meyer in the offseason, make the conference final next year,

and it still flips to a first. Right. So in theory, because they control the Myers rights for next year. But like if they trade them this summer and then make the Eastern Conference finals, that could still, yes, you're totally right. But otherwise, like, yeah, this is just a, this is just the sharks, you know. I mean, they, they got a first, they got a prospect who's a recent first, and they got a potential third first round pick if the condition is met. Yeah, and like Zetterland is not bad, like as a prospect. You know, I think we can, we can debate it on a hook, but, you know, the, the, the, the,

Zetterland Zetterland is a was the number seven prospect And like the second or third best prospect pool in the league So like it's not like he's bad or anything It's just you know I think this is also the sharks kind of prioritizing Getting bodies into the system

As opposed to picks that you know Two or three years from now maybe Yeah Are bodies in the system And Mike Greer did have some like Somewhat concerning quotes about Accelerate rebuilds and, you know, that sort of...

Yeah, and that seems like it's an organizational thing where, you know, we heard last summer, like, this is a team, we don't do a tear-it-down rebuild. Right. So, like, that's not fair to Greer insofar as, like, what his vision for the team might be, but, like, you take that job knowing, I'm not allowed to do a tear-it-down rebuild.

Mm-hmm. And so I'm going to have to work within those parameters to get the most out of the, out of the season and all that, or the rebuild that we are doing and all that kind of stuff. So it's, it's tough, but what are you going to do? Can we just make one further point on this, which is that the devils who have been already one of the best teams and the best stories in the entire league all year,

going out and adding the, I would say unquestioned best player who is available at the deadline without subtracting anything significant off their roster, making themselves that much better,

and still lottery protecting the draft pick from this year. Not even lottery protecting. Talk to protecting it. That is extraordinarily funny to me. That is just, I would, again, Dimo Myers, great player, etc.

I would watch a 30 for 30 talk just on how this trade came together. And I want the scene where Tom Fitzgerald is like, hey, man, one thing. I need this year's draft pick, top two protected, which would require the Devils to not only miss the playoffs, which is already bordering on impossible, but they would have to miss the playoffs and also drop into whatever it is, the bottom 10 in order to win the lottery. They would have to basically lose all of their games and have all the games.

and have all the other teams. And then have the 1% lottery odds that that would result in come through. Yep. Oh, my, the, it's really, I feel like we're going to look at this as they should just automatically put in the CBA that every first round pick is lottery protected from now on. Because if this one, I thought the Islanders a few years ago with the Paggio trade, when they both lottery protected and had a condition about winning the Cup that year in the same trade. was the worst we would ever see. This is just completely out of control. Yeah.

Okay, why don't we take a break and then we'll come back and we'll talk about that other trade that you were saying that we're talking about we're going to be talking about draft picks a lot. That's a good one. We'll be right back.

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All right, we're back and we set it on the other side of the break. This is the draft picks trade. This is Tanner Genote to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Cal Foot, a 2023 third round pick, a 2023 fourth round pick, a 2023 fifth round pick, a 2024 second round pick, and a conditional 2025 first round pick. This might be the most interesting trade, I think, of the week. Not the biggest. Totally agree with you. But this is just fascinating. Because, I mean, let's just be real honest here.

If anyone other than Tampa and maybe a very small handful of other teams makes this trade, if it's anyone else, we all fall all over ourselves laughing at how much they gave up. But because it's Tampa and they're smart and Julian Breezeball is smart and because we've seen that, you know, this is their type, right? they have a type. They go and get guys that are, maybe you're going to play further down the lineup, but that are cheap and under team control and have term, right?

This is the Barclay Goodrow, the Blake Coleman, the, what was it, Brandon Hagel last year, those sorts of guys. This is that deal again. We all kind of go, all right, let's hold off. And then Breezeball had some really interesting comments about, you know, essentially the value of draft picks in general, but also specifically to a team like his.

And it does make some sense. And we've been hearing for so many years about how this is a draft and develop league and you've got to draft and you got to get as many picks as you can, trade down, get more picks. And this feels like a potential inflection point where maybe some views of that get changed. Or maybe not. And we just look back at this years later and go, holy crap, did they ever give up a ton for okay player to fit into their lineup. Yeah, I made the joke on Twitter when it happened that Nashville got one draft pick for every goal Tanner Janone had scored this year.

Yeah. He's not good. He's certainly not having a good year. And he scored, I think, 24 or 25 last year. Was good last year? Well, was he good or did he shoot 60% last year? Okay. Yeah.

Fair. You know? Yeah. And like, okay, let's call, let's say, let's meet in the middle and say this is a 15 goal guy. To give up Calfoot, who is a, you know, he's not even a prospect anymore. He's like 23, 24 years old. And he has like some NHL experience. So that's just like filling out a roster spot for Nashville in theory.

And to give up. because here's the thing, Julian Breezeball is right. Picks are overvalued in this league, especially like second and third round picks. They're worth almost nothing in reality, but then every time like one guy gets, you know,

is a third round pick, this is why you don't give up third round picks, you know? So like, on paper, what they gave up for Tanner Geno, the odds that, and again,

I don't even think Tanner Geno is that good, but the odds that more than, one of these picks result in a player who is good, who is as good as Tanner as you know, is it's not zero, but is it 10%? I don't know. You know, I don't think it's that high probably. I mean, if you could go back and make this same trade for like a young Tom Wilson, you would, sure, you'd make that trade. Sure. But, but, but, there's, there's a lot of other guys that fit that profile that don't turn into much. That's true. But, but, but here's the, but, but here's the

other thing. With the understanding that picks are overvalued in this league for someone to go out and be like, we'll basically give like an entire draft, almost an entire draft's worth of picks for one player. That would be like a really smart thing to do for like someone who actually is good and is having a good year.

For Tanner's you know to be the guy that as you say correctly might like shift a paradigm here, might be an inflection point. That's what's crazy about this. trade to me. Like, well, look, it kind of worked in the past. You know, they gave up a first for David Savard and David Savard didn't really do anything, but they won the cup anyway. Right. David Savard didn't really do anything and they won the cup anyway. Yes. Right? Like, that's the thing about that. Like, it didn't work in so far. Like, it didn't getting, trading the first for David Savard didn't hurt them that year. But did it help them win the cup? Probably not. Probably David

of art had very little to do with winning the cup. But he won a cup. And so this is like an unassailable. You can't say that as I did, this is a D-minus trade for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Yeah. It's like I'm very much of two minds on this. And I said it in the thing. The only reason I didn't give this an F for Tampa is the like 5% chance.

This guy's Ross Colton 2.0 and everybody's like, this guy's actually pretty fucking good. Yep. Yeah, and it, and again, the fact that it's, it's a non-zero chance. The fact that it's Tampa makes you probably think that's a higher chance. I, man, it's, the Breezebaw quote and comments were very interesting to me. Yeah. You know, that, because it's, it was sort of twofold. It was a kind of an argument that we're overvaluing draft picks in general.

Especially outside of the very high early picks. He's right. Like if it's not a top 15 pick, the odds that that guy's going to be a good NHL or like drops dramatically. Yeah. And then that view that, hey, all these picks that I have are less valuable than people think is then compounded by the idea that also you have to be willing to shift value around in your time. timelines of contention. And so that even if even if I think that these picks have are fairly valued, I may want to cash them in now rather than wait a few years and spread it out.

And that makes perfect sense, right? There's 32 teams in the league. If you are just keeping all your picks and drafting reasonably well, your team will always be pretty good but never great. So, you know, this is this is a way that you sort of try to cash it in. while you've got a championship court. It makes sense. But man, it was a really...

Again, for the paradigm to be shifted for Tanner fucking Geno... Yes. Is the weird part of that. It's kind of fascinating. And this is... The other thing about this is... One of my least favorite cliches at this time of year is when you hear a team say, well, you know, they don't want to trade this guy.

Teams are calling, but they're not going to trade them unless somebody really blows them. away. Somebody's got to knock their socks off, is the phrase that they love. And you're always sitting there going, then just say you're not trading the guy. Because nobody's going to come in and like completely blow you away with an offer for somebody that seems completely, you know, against what anyone else in the market would pay. Except this kind of feels like this is what happened, right? That like Nashville is like, no, this is a young guy.

We're keeping them. Unless you blow us away. And then Tampa was like, how about this? And they're just, you know. Great job by David Poyle here, a guy that I was, you know, more than happy to say this guy should have retired three years ago, you know. Yep. And I don't know if, just one last thing on picks. I don't know if you saw it, but I would recommend people check it out.

Corey Pranman wrote a piece on The Athletic where he looked at the deadline five years ago, 2018 deadline. And he looked at every prospect and top three rounds. draft pick that got traded at that deadline and did like a where are they now yeah and there was like one good player out of all of them like it was insane how you're just going down the list going never heard of them never heard of them never you know a lot of these guys like aren't even on n-hill radars anymore like they're not it's not like oh yeah he hasn't he still you know he hasn't clicked yet it's like yeah this guy's not in the organization this guy's in europe this guys. The only one was Condry

Miller and that wasn't even like the Rangers didn't get that pick. Somebody else got the pick and it got traded again. So there was literally nobody at that deadline who got a picker prospect that turned into something meaningful for them. I just found that

fascinating. Because going in I was like, yeah, I know we overrated but to read it laid out like that, you're just sitting there going like, man, none of these guys are again, It's just And as a Leaves fan It was an interesting weekend for that

As a Leafs fan Because there was a time Where Andreas Janssen And Kesperi Kappan Were our two big prospects Yep For the future And you know

One guy on waivers One guy gets thrown into a trade Okay we blew Way past our allotted time On that one We're gonna make up some ground Not enough though I think we're really

Fucked on this But Isaac Rackcliffe for future considerations Don't care No thoughts All right Next, okay. This one, we're going to be back in the soup here.

Unfortunately, you're going to be in fucking deep waters. Jake McCabe and Sam Lafferty and two fifth round picks for Joey Anderson, Pavel Gogolev, a first round, a conditional first round pick and a second round pick. Right. And the conditional first is basically just a, it is a first that is, I think, top ten protected. Because it's two years down the line. that's, you know, one of the interesting things about this trade is the fact that we're seeing picks several years down the line now getting moved, which is very common in other sports,

but not as much in the NHL. I mean, again, this is, obviously I was kind of nudging at this before when I was talking about defensemen on the Blackhawks. McCabe's kind of a guy that he didn't really think much of this year. And then you started to see like some people around the deadline saying, hey, this is a guy that could be worth something. I think the real key here is, yes, he's a good player.

He fits into the Leafs, probably top four. But he's got term left. He's got two years left on the deal after this one, and the Blackhawks are eating 50%, which makes him a $2 million player. At $2 million bucks, that is phenomenal value for a top four defensemen. And this is kind of the, you know,

what I feel like we're starting to see. And again, with the Genote trade, it's the same sort of thing is the term matters. We're so used to these GMs giving out ridiculous, dumb contracts that we just kind of assume the term is bad, especially at this time of year while. You know, they want to trade this guy, but I still got a year left.

Oh, forget it. We don't want that. But when you can get a guy, like the Leafs famously have got those four guys up front earning so much money, Morgan Riley's joining them. They need cheap players elsewhere in the lineup. And to get, if Jake McCabe is a legitimate top four guy, getting him for not just this year, but two years down the line at rock bottom prices, I think it has decent value.

So I don't mind it even though giving up future first round picks is obviously always very dicey business. I gave it a C plus and here's why. How many top four defensemen or middle-paring defensemen, I think, is what we say, what we mean when we say top-four defensemen, right? So how many middle-paring defensemen do the fucking Leafs need? It seems like they got a lot of them. And then there were more coming. Apparently more than this.

Yeah. And this is the thing with- That was why I was just like, what the fuck? And like Sam Lafferty is a guy I just don't have any real time for as an NHL player, but they threw them in anyway. The thing with the Leafs is they've got all these defense, but like the Leafs defense is better. than people think. Even before all these trades. Oh, no, of course.

Yeah, it's a good decor. But it's not a great deal. But it's not a course not because everybody just like this is the, you know, the way they like to look at the, oh, they don't play defense, flashy offensive team and just completely ignoring the fact that Sheldon Keith has spent two years now. It's not true. Just straight up not fucking true. But at the same time, the Leafs do not have, you know, they certainly don't have that Victor

Edmund or Charlie McAvoy or, you know, whoever Norris candidate. on the defense. So do you, I mean, but those guys aren't available unless you want to trade Austin Matthews for Carlson because you're Howard Berger. Sure. Other than that, you're not getting those guys. So I don't know. I don't mind this trade.

I would mind it if it was a rental, but the fact that you're getting a good piece cheap for two years down the road, I think tips it into I'm okay with the territory. Yeah, no, I don't think it's a bad trade for the lease. I just don't know why they made it. You know? Yeah. That's kind of my thing with it. But yeah, we'll talk more about the Leafs in a minute.

In the meantime, why don't we talk about the Buffalo Sabres acquiring Riley Stillman for Josh Bloom. And we have some time to make up here. So let's keep it quick. I don't, you know, this is extremely quick for you. No real thoughts. Again, this is just the. Canucks going like this guy's not going to work for us. We'll take a younger player and see if we can turn him into something.

And if not, we'll fucking probably trade him too. So that's it. Those are my total thoughts for this trade. So let's move on then to Yassapulyarvi to the Carolina Hurricanes for Patrick Pustola. I think I'm pronouncing that right. As many people said, a very Carolina Hurricanes type of deal. For sure.

And type of player. And they got him cheap I mean This guy's been on the trade block for two years now Edmonton I don't even know I mean you can't even be mad at Edmonton for not getting much back for the guy

I mean When someone's known to be on the block for two years At some point you got to assume All the offers that are out there Have been communicated to you And Yeah it's the Crabsaw thing right Where it's like this guy wants out

we're holding out for like a first or a second round pick for him and everybody's like they're not giving you that because we know this guy's getting traded eventually for way less than that and that's exactly what happened right now it should be said that the guy they got for him actually does like he's having a very nice season in Finland he's a 2019 pick so he's only like 22 23 years old something like that and um Yeah, like he seems like he could be on their NHL roster next year. I don't think Carolina had him in their top like 20 prospects when I looked at the list on elite prospects yesterday. But like that, you know, this is a guy who got in the long history of wings they plug into the Connor McDavid-Lee on Drysidal Factory. this guy could be yet another one or might not and at least they got someone to eat Pulley Arvi's $3 million for a different trade they wanted to make later in the day

So that's it, that's all I have to say I think Pulley RV is a nice ad for the Hurricanes Again, somebody said it on Twitter But it's like, hey, I'm a really good play driver But I can't score, is that going to be a problem? And Caroline is like, buddy, that's our whole thing Yep He will fit in nicely

Yep. All right, let's move on then to the San Jose Sharks acquiring the rights to Harvard defenseman Henry Thrun for a third round pick. Do you have any thoughts on this at all? I yield the floor to you because I... Okay. Who is this guy and what is his deal? He is doing basically the Adam Fox Jimmy Veezy thing where he says, I'm not going to fucking sign with you guys. And this had been known in college hockey basically all year. I think he had. announced it like formally a week or two ago. Like, I'm not signing with Anaheim.

I'm at UFA this summer. And Anaheim basically, I think he was a fourth round pick. So Anaheim turned a fourth round pick into a third round pick and obviously like reset the clock on everything there. But like he is a perfectly good college hockey defenseman who I think is like maybe a bottom pair puck mover guy in the NHL. And so the sharks basically get him for almost nothing. And the ducks get a little bit of value back for it. But had he said, like, he wasn't signing with the ducks, but he's open to signing with the sharks?

Is that, like, why would you? I think, I think, didn't, um, Carol, so this is a good example with Adam Fox, also a Harvard defenseman. Calgary drafted Adam Fox. Adam Fox says I'm not signing with Calgary. Carolina trades for him. Adam Fox says I'm not signing with Carolina. I'm only signing with the Rangers.

Carolina trades him to the Rangers for very little. Right. So I think this is the sharks trying to take a crack at it. I'm just looking at this going like, what happens if he says, I'm not signing with anybody. I'm going to become a free agent. and have the sharks just tossed away a third round pick for... Yes.

Okay. Yeah, that's what... I think Carolina maybe even gave up a second for Adam Fox, if I'm remembering. You know, that was the Lindholm trade. That's right. It was part of the Lindholm trade. I guess I was a little bit surprised on this that it was a third round pick and not a conditional pick of some sort.

Yeah. You would think there are two teams share the risk or something, but I guess it makes sense. Nope. Yeah. Yeah, this is just the sharks taking a crack at it. Should be said that Henry Thrun is from the suburbs of Boston. So one wonders if he's just doing the Harvard guy thing and going, well, I just want to play for the team that I grew up near,

which is what Adam Fox and Jimmy Veezy did. I think Adam Fox is from around there. Am I not right? Boston's not very good these days. They probably have holes in the lineup for college kids. That's right. Yeah, yeah. No, Adam Fox is also like a jersey kid, so for him to play for the Rangers makes total sense.

All right, let's move on then to Marcus Johansson to the Minnesota Wild for a third round pick. I mean, we're all kind of waiting. Minnesota is another one of those Western Conference teams we've been waiting on. Not a bad little move. For the other shoe to drop on that, yeah. You know, another one that we'll talk about in a big. They know the player he played for them before. Yeah.

Yeah, that was somebody pointed out to me. This is both the second time that the Wilde have traded for Marcus Johansson and the second time the capitals have traded him away. So that's fun. I don't know. Not a guy who moves the needle a ton for me, but the Wilde do famously have a lot of cap space for this year. And we would be all over them if they didn't use it to some extent. sure to add players and uh there's not a lot of huge names left so sure yep um i i think the other thing to say here is that there are rumors that jordan greenway is maybe on his way out

of uh of minnesota and he's not having a good season by any stretch of the imagination that's a player i have a lot of time for but like he's been awful this year um and so marcus johansen as Jordan Greenway replacement? Okay, sure. Or, I mean, we'll get to it. There's another winger who could be the Jordan Greenway replacement if you want to view it that way.

But they've just got like two guys who can help them out in certain situations on the wings and that's fine. Third round pick again, who cares, you know? So let's move on. Boy, here's another one for you. The Washington capitals

are kind of the buyer in this trade a little bit. Yeah. They get Rasmus Sandine for Eric Gustafson and a 2020, in Boston's 2023 first round pick. Yes. Your thoughts. Key to differentiate that it's not the capitals first. Yep.

But really interesting, I mean, from Washington's perspective, it's kind of signals that this, even though they are, as we said, tapping out on this year, at least as far as being buyers, that they're not signaling a full-on rebuild, which we would not expect that in the twilight of EVEch-canera. go and use that pick to get a good player. And Rasmus Sandin, but kind of a fascinating one, because Sandine and Pierre Engval, who we'll talk about in a minute, both guys that they've got some nice elements to their game,

and some of the numbers suggest that these are pretty good players. I mean, Sandine's, you know, numbers this year were excellent. And yet you've got a, in theory, pretty smart team in the Maple Leafs that not only is moving on from the guys, but even when they were here, like Sandy never really got that chance to play up the lineup. It always seemed like the Leafs just didn't like the guy.

Yeah. And, you know, he was a first round pick a few years ago. They, you know, they brought him along, but just not a guy that, for whatever reason, they seem to really feel comfortable as being a future top four guy. A ton, you know, a lot of talent thinks the game really well. Like, you know, physically doesn't do anything great, but is, you know, is a well-rounded player. But just for whatever reason, didn't seem to, you know, the Leafs didn't seem to believe in him.

And as I saw somebody say, there is a, there is a point where, you know, these guys, these young future top four guys kind of just become a guy. and the Leafs waited too long on Travis Dermott, who was a similar project. Totally, yeah, great call. And so to get a first round pick and a guy in Gustafson who's cheaper and I don't know if he'd say better. But yeah, like. Let's put it this way.

He has had pretty good, not even okay. He has had pretty good but not great results as a middle pair guy on an okay team this year in the Washington Capitals. and Sandine has had fantastic results as a bottom pair guy on a great team this year. But an extremely protected bottom pair guy. Correct. So one wonders if the capitals now do what the Leafs always kind of weren't willing to do and go, we're going to try this guy on the middle pair and see what happens.

Because they have the flexibility. They only, he's one of three defensemen they have signed for next year. And that's after they signed Nick Jensen last night. Yes. So they only had two guys signed for next year. It was like, oh, I guess Rasmus Sandin's like going to be on the top pair next year. Now maybe not so much. But like I think this is just like a nice little attempt at an experiment here for the capitals.

And if it doesn't work, then fucking trade them or let him walk or whatever. But you tried it. From, you know, from the Leaf's perspective, with the McCabe deal, you sort of said like, how many defensemen do they need? Well, Sandine looked like the guy who maybe was getting bumped out of the lineup. So instead, they flip them for another guy who's, you know, Gusufsen, I think it's fair to say, was for this year is a pretty similar player. Not the same future potential, obviously. Yeah, for sure.

And you get a first-round pick, and that's, you know, the elf in the room here is, we all assume that first-round pick is back in play and maybe is a chip that the Leafs used to get something else so we kind of don't know for sure how we're going to evaluate this. But all in all, it makes sense. And the other thing with Sandin is he's signed for next year, RFA after that. But remember, his getting him under this contract was very contentious, like went into September was, you know, it was. So in theory, you know, it's going to be not cheap after, you know, next year to hold on

to this guy. So maybe you just get out ahead of it. I think there's a good chance that we look back on this as either the Leafs making mistake on a good young player they should have kept or the Leafs selling high on a guy right before his value came back into focus, which means we'll either love it or hate it and probably not much in between. Right. Okay. The Leafs also traded Pierre Engval to the New York Islanders for a 2024 third round pick. Angval, similar, you know, nice numbers, penalty kill guy, a big guy who doesn't play physical, the Leafs just didn't seem to like them very much.

So fresh start somewhere else, Islanders need wingers, didn't cost them much. But again, this was a guy that you always looked at with the Leafs as being one of the first guys that would potentially have to move if they need a cap room. and I guess they did. Yeah. So, okay, let's just jump right into it here. Then they go out and get Luke Chen for a 2023 third rounder. I guess this will end Leaf's talk for now.

Well, let's see. Well, for now. I mean, again, I'm sure we missed three trades since the pod started. Yeah, I mean, I don't, you know, we all love a homecoming. Finally, a middle fucking pair defenseman coming to the league. I don't even think it's that. I think, I mean, you're probably right. This guy is probably your seventh defenseman.

Yeah. I mean, to give up a third round pick for that, I mean, think about bankball for that is really what this feels like, right? You're swapping one player out for another. He's cheap. He's dirt cheap. I just don't, you look at it, and you can say, well, this guy won two Stanley Cups with Tampa. Mm-hmm. Who they're going to play in the first.

in the first round. Yeah. He's going to give the Leafs all their trade secrets. Yeah. Industrial espionage. But he won those two cups while not doing very much for the Lightning. Like the Lightning as a Stanley Cup caliber team were like, we don't really want Luke Shen in the lineup very much.

Right. Again, it's the thing of like, well, you know, he played for the Lightning when they won the Cups. And it's like, that's true. But does that make him good? or the, like, the, the fact that they had him around good? Or was he just kind of like there? Yeah.

I mean, you love the story, right? Of the guy who was the high draft pick for the Leafs in their very dumb era and, you know, probably got, got pushed way too high up the lineup. Got, you know, and leaves and does a bunch of stuff elsewhere and then comes back as the gruseled veteran who's going to teach them how to win in their not quite as dumb era. I don't know. I mean, to give up a third round pick for that feels like a lot, not as much as Canucks fans were probably hoping for it,

just because you hope the market would get stupid over a veteran with a couple of rings. But I don't know. It feels like a bit of an overpay for a guy who probably won't be seeing the ice a ton in the playoffs, although injuries and all that stuff can happen. Well, again, it does seem like an overpay, but a third round pick. Yep. for the Leafs is effectively like a 1% chance that they're that it's going to like turn into an NHL player so look they got a better guy than they then they traded in theory right um but here's

a real they traded a third round pick for Dave Ridditch a year ago so right you know so there you go but um but here's the real thing that I want to say about all the those three Leafs trades uh they freed up two million dollars in California. Cap Space and added a first round pick, and I'm going, hmm. Hmm. Is that something? Is that anything? Now, they did need to free up, they did need to free up some of that room for Matt Murray to come off the injured reserve.

So it's not like they've freed up cap space, but it's not like they just have cap space to work with now. Unless there's something going on with Matt Murray, which would be. Well, sure. But like, even still, they freed up a million in cap space then. Like, I don't know what the number actually is. But, like, they freed up some space and got a first round pick. I wouldn't be, I would be shocked if they didn't leverage that. You got to assume that at the very least that that is very much in play.

I don't think Kyle Dubas is out here worrying too much about making sure the next GM has a nice cupboard of drop picks to work with. Yeah. So let's move on then. talk about another blockbuster. Austin Ruchoff to the Nashville Predators for future considerations. Now you know who this guy is, right? I mean, it's the old cliche, right? If Austin

Ruchoff can be traded, then I have no idea who this guy is. Yeah, no. You shouldn't. I looked it up. I looked it up yesterday. You know what he is? He's a 6'725-year-old who has two goals in the HAL this season. There you go.

future considerations, it feels like Nashville might have overpaid for this guy. But yeah, so that's that. I don't have anything to say about that. Next one up, this is a big one. The Edmonton Oilers, Aquas Matiasekholm, and a 2024 sixth round pick for Tyson Barry, Reed Schaefer, a 2023 first round pick, and a 2024 fourth round pick.

Yeah, people really seem to like this deal for the oily. I get it. I get why they would. I like the player a lot. I don't love the contract. Yes, correct. Three more years at north of $6 million. Not north because Nashville retained 4% of his salary.

4%. What is that? That's... It's to shame 0.25 million off his deal. 4%. Get out of here with that. So, you know what? Just about any other team, I'd say,

I don't love the contract, and if you don't love the contract, then you probably don't love the trade, but it's Edmonton. We've all been saying for weeks that Ken Holland has to do something. Go and get Eric Carlson if you need to. Well, you know what? If Eric Carlson at 50% retained would have come in at roughly the same amount and probably cost you less than this, or more than this, I should say. It definitely costs you more for sure.

So, yeah, good player, good fit on this team. at this time, when you've got Connor McDavid going psycho mode, then you do what you have to do. Yeah, I think this makes sense. Yeah, I really like the player a lot. Obviously, you're worried about two, three years from now when he's like 34, 35. There's a lot of miles on Matthiasek-Holm's body, you know. But this is the interesting thing. Remember there were rumors like a month ago maybe, maybe a little less than that,

where they were like, look, maybe they got to trade Tyson Barry and the Oilers are going to be so sad to do what he's really well liked in that room, all this kind of stuff. And, uh, and like that's all probably true, but also like, was that not just the most obvious beach softening you've ever seen in your life? Look, they might have to do it. And then like, the first fucking trade they make, they get Tyson Barrier. out the door, which like he's actually having a pretty decent year, but like for the money, you know, hey, go out there and have a decent year getting power play time on the Edmonton Oilers.

You know, that's the fascinating thing, right, is that you look at him as, you know, he's, he's the quarterback on this power play that is phenomenal. Yeah. And in theory, that makes you a little bit nervous because that, I mean, that power play is a huge part of the Oilers, any success the Oilers are going to have. So to move the quarterback of that powerplay

should make you nervous, except you're going like, yeah, is, is Tyson Barry the reason that powerplay is clicking or is it? Probably not, right. You know, these other few guys up front who seem pretty good. I guess we'll find out, though. Like, that's going to be

interesting to watch if, like, over the next month, we see that powerplay suddenly dropped down at 20%. 15%. It's like, oh, well, Oh, no, shit. This may have been a mistake. Yeah. But he was always the target to move out just because, look, as much as you'd probably like to get out from under that darnel nurse deal already.

Well, yeah. It's not going to happen, right? You can't, yeah, you'd desperately love to, but not going to happen. Yeah. Whoops. When they signed that deal? Like two summers ago? Yep.

Classic oopsie daisy. And then Reed Schaefer, like, I don't know that he's anything in. particular right now. I think they're, uh, the consensus is he's having a nice, but uninspiring, like not as phenomenal season in, uh, where is he playing the WHL? Is it with Seattle maybe? Um, these are just things I looked up yesterday and now vaguely remember, um, but like, you know, he's having an okay year, but he was, he was Edmonton's first round pick last year, which is why. So this is effectively as far as, Nashville is concerned two first round picks they're getting.

So we'll see. Let's move on to Gustav Nyquist for a 2023 fifth round pick. Any thoughts at all? Again, just sort of Minnesota adding a useful piece. They can afford to do it. And there was that whole weird thing yesterday before there were 40 trades made where like the NHL sent out a memo telling everyone that they had to not trade for guys like this, that they were going to watch the LTIR stuff carefully. But apparently that doesn't affect Minnesota because they're not in a situation where they have to stash him. So sure, you know, a guy, he's an okay player who sometimes can.

can help and they get them dirt cheap. Yeah. I just think it's crazy that you would get a guy where they're like, oh, he might be ready by the end of the season. Oh. Okay. Sure. Really interesting.

But, yeah, again, just they're adding Death Wingers. Salute to you. Minnesota Wild, that's fine for you. All right, let's move on here. This is like the big one. Patrick Kane. The Rangers, Patrick Kane and Cooper Zek is the other guy. It's a guy I don't really know much about.

Other than he played like one year of college hockey and then it was like signed right in the age. That's all I know about him. I don't even know if he's like doing anything this year. I kind of suspect he isn't. Four, let's see here. A conditional,

it's so, okay, it's so funny to me that they're like, this is a conditional second round pick, but it can become a first. Yeah. It's like normally you would call that a first round pick. I always wonder if teams argue about that,

like how they're going to. I think this is the Ranger. saying to all the insiders, say it's a conditional second, please. Yes. A fourth round pick, Andy Wollinsky, and Vili Sariarvi. Those are two guys I've heard of. And the coyotes get a third round pick out of the deal. Yeah.

For retaining some money on the king. So, I mean... Your thoughts. This is the big one we've been waiting for for a little while. You know, we talked about it last week of... And the week before that, even could the Rangers get back in on Patrick Kane? And it felt very unlikely after Teresenko. But once it emerged that that was the only team he wanted to go to.

Yeah. You know, sometimes if you lay down in the action figure aisle and Toys R Us and start yelling and stamping your feet, you get a fucking Ninja Turtle out of the deal. You know, like that's what happened here. I mean, yeah. And look, it's, it makes sense. I mean, there's, you get into no trades and no movements and players have rights. And I think certainly a guy like Patrick Kane, who's brought you three Stanley Cups, if anyone has the right to pick the destination, then it's him.

And obviously, if you're a Blackhawks fan, there's part of you that was hoping there'd be a big bidding war, and he'd be the big star of the deadline, and you'd get first round picks and prospects. was just never going to happen. It's the Team O'Meyer thing all over again. People are killing Kyle Davidson. Like, oh, how is this the only return he gets?

Blah, blah, blah. And it's like, the guy would say he would go to one team. And it's better to get whatever you can for that. Then to keep him for another three months and pretend like, and then see him sign with the Rangers or whoever this summer instead. Like,

you're still going to feel that bad if you're a Chicago fan. And like, this is your guy, right? like you're still going to get that oh boy it sucks to see him go feeling but now at least you get a couple of picks out of it so what do you give a shit yeah and and yeah and so look i mean i've been there as a leas fan long ways ago with getting burned by no trades and guys saying you know no we don't want to go and and all of that it stinks but it's life as a as a hockey fan and uh it's going to

be real interesting to see Patrick Kane in New York because, you know, as we've been talking about about him for weeks now, both of us, you especially have pointed out that he's not been good this year. Yeah. But now you put him, you know, recharge him, put him in a very different situation, put him, you know, theoretically with Artemmy Panarin. It's going to be real interesting to watch. I think they're saying he debuts against Ottawa tomorrow against the playoff-bound Ottawa senators. That's, uh, for sure. All eyes on that one.

Yeah. Um, I guess the other thing to say is like, I don't know that the Rangers, like, people are saying, oh, what a, what a steal for the Rangers. And it's like, it's a steal for the Rangers of Patrick Kane plays like he did for the last week, right? Like, if this guy keeps putting up a goal every game or a goal plus every game, like, you're, you're going to be like, oh, shit, okay. Let's fucking go, you know.

But if he plays like the guy he played like in the, you know, the season leading up to the past week and a half or whatever it was, that's not so good, you know? Like then, then you're feeling like, oh, we got Patrick Kane and it kind of sucks, you know? Um, I let me put it this way. You can totally see why the Rangers in Chris Drury specifically, I guess, were like, yeah, I guess I'd rather have Vladimir Tarasenko. you know and tarasenko like he hit the ground running and it's kind of slowed down a little bit in in more recent games like he hasn't uh lived up to that first game and a half hype where everybody was like look out for the fucking rangers now they got vladimir teresaico he's scoring on the power play whatever you know um he hasn't he hasn't been that and so one wonders what patrick came

but it's never a bad thing to have guys who can if motivated put the puck in the net, you know? So, like, I don't hate this through the Rangers, especially because they, they got the price, uh, grinded down a little bit, however you want to say, you know, um, but at the same time, you know, the, the amount of hype this trade is getting versus what the most likely outcome is, is like, I think, going to result in a lot of people being kind of disappointed. Yeah. Um, especially, worth the risks, though, man.

Like, they did pay a lot and there is. a non-zero chance that this could really work at well. Yeah, but again, like, if they're playing the Devils or the Hurricanes in the first round, are the Rangers the favorite in either of those series right now? I'm not so sure. Even with these two trades. They could be. We'll see, but, like, right now, I would say the answer to both is no.

You would, you'd take the Devils over the Rangers and a... I would, yeah. With the goaltending matchup? The goaltending is the question, right? But like the devils have a, I would say, a way better skater. Way better might be overstating it, but a better skater lineup. And look, like the Rangers barely got by the penguins, despite the fact that they played their third string goalie for like most of that series, right? Like so, and, you know, then they got Kachkov against the hurricane.

We don't have to fucking relitigate it. But the point is, like, you know, I think the Rangers' quality. one through 18 has been overstated. Look, it wasn't that long ago where people were like, geez, are they going to have to make a coaching change? You know? So, but then the goaltender,

the goaltender started playing like a Vezna Quality goalie again. It's like, oh, no, everything's fine. Yep. That's amazing how that works. Yeah, crazy. And then there's one last trade. It's not even official yet, but it happened after I went to bed last night.

And will be made official, certainly by the time, I think nine minutes from now, I think was, it's 10.51 a.m. as I say this. Let's not give any false hope to Jonathan Quick by saying this is not official. Right. The L.A. Kings acquired Vladislav Gavakov and Junis Corpus Salo for Jonathan Quick, a first round pick and a third round pick. I don't have the years on those picks in front of me. I'm assuming at least one of them is this year. But I don't think they've said officially what those years are yet, so, you know, get off my back. Yeah. I mean, we'll get to the Kings in a second, but this is a rough one for Jonathan Quick, okay?

Well, let me put it this way. So I woke up and I saw that this trade had happened like, you know, on the 4 U tab, it said like, oh, the kings are trading Jonathan Quick, end of an era, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, it didn't say what the return was. And so I started typing Jonathan Quick into Twitter's search bar. And one of the suggested results was Jonathan Quick retire. So. Yeah. So apparently he, well, put it this way.

According to reports, A, he was devastated by finding out he was traded after last night's game. As I'm sure many of his teammates probably were too. B, he flew back to L.A. with the team. Which is, you know, in a world where players often make a big show out of heading directly for their new team is maybe, it's completely understandable. And then there were reports this morning that Columbus will shop him before Friday. I think there's a non-zero chance that he never plays for the Columbus Blue Jackets, even if they don't trade him. I think it's a stronger. I think it's pretty close to zero that this guy plays for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Like you're right that it's non-zero, but I'm saying it's like a 2% fucking chance. I mean, it's tough, right? Because they can shop them around, but what playoff contender is going to be interested? Maybe some, especially if they retain salary and all of those little things. but I don't know. I mean, he's, he just, he's not having a good year, which is an understanding. He hasn't, he hasn't had a good year in a while. He's, he's not, he's not an NHL starting caliber goalie on a contender anymore.

And you could argue whether he's even a backup on a contender. Yeah, 876 this year. I mean, Jesus, that's. And, you know, unlike so many other guys where you point to bad numbers, on a decent team. So it's not. And obviously he's included in this deal as the salary considerations

and also because L.A. just doesn't want to have four goaltenders. I mean, if they can find a new landing spot for him, great. But otherwise, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they say, you know what, stay home. Don't worry about it. We're here to balance the salaries.

You know, the Blue Jackets don't want you showing up and winning games for us anyways, necessarily, given where we're at in standings. And Jonathan Quicks going, that would not be a problem for me. Well, I mean, the only downside is you're Jonathan Quick and, you know, so is this it? Like, this is the end of your career? Are you hoping to play next year? If you're hoping to play next year, then sitting out for two months isn't great strategy. Do you want to maybe go to Columbus and show that you still got it for some other team? I don't know.

I think this may be a guy who at his peak was an absolutely phenomenal goalie. Never won a Vesna, I feel like, right? Probably should have. Did he never win a Vesda? I don't think he did. Definitely won a Kahn Smyth, but I don't think he ever won a Vesna. Okay. Yeah.

Highest in Vesna voting was second in 11-12. And maybe should have won it that year. No, that's what I'm saying, yeah. In that 2012 year where a lot of people, kind of falsely remember that as him just getting hot in the playoffs. Like, no, he was, he was great. 929 that year. It's really fucking good.

Really con smite winners traded at the deadline. That's got to be pretty close to a record. You, yeah, you would think. Wait, who's the other one? O'Reilly, quick, and Kane. Oh, Kay. Yes, of course, Kane won one. That's right.

Yeah, there you go. What do you think of this for L.A., though? Yeah. So we all had been waiting for them to get help on the blue line and in goal. You wondered if it would make sense for them to do both at once. I thought that they potentially would and that it would be Arizona. Chikrin, obviously, being the big name. I guess the price wasn't right there.

This would certainly seem to signal that L.A. is out on Chikrin, at least for this year at the deadline. Maybe not, but I don't know. I mean, Gavikov, we've kind of beaten to death that it's a good marketing job by Columbus on a decent player, but I don't know that he helps a ton in L.A. Yeah.

Is it a goaltending upgrade? I mean, from quick it is, but I mean, from... No, I kind of don't think so. Like, he's having a nice year. Like, he's 9-10, something like that, 9-11. but also like, you know, he was like, he was the 870 something guy last year, right? And so, you know, I think this is L.A. kind of betting, you know, we can, we can be getting 10, 15 games, what, maybe not even that many out of this guy. And he won't kill us like Jonathan Quick has this year. I think, I think that's the bet is like that he'll be an upgrade only in so far.

far as he won't be one of the worst goalies in the league. And I think that's a reasonable bet, but I don't, I don't know that I'd be expecting this guy to steal games or start playoff games or anything like that. Again, like, if you're entering the playoffs with your goaltending tandem being Phoenix Copley and Junis Corpusallo,

like, I don't, I don't like your chances. That's who they're going in with, pretty clear. No, that, I mean, yeah. Again, I can't, I can't believe if this was the, if, because this is other thing. If this was the price for

these two guys, why not just be in on on Chikrin and actually do something with it, you know? My position on Gavikov is well known. I don't rate him as a you know, he, again, shutdown guy on a bad team is not a good job to have.

It's going to make you look really bad. But even before he was the shutdown guy on a really bad team, he was not a good, like a defenseman who was making a big impact, you know. So for him to be the bell of the ball at this trade deadline, that's, that's that Yarmow magic. Yeah. You know?

Give him credit. All the, all the credit in the world to Yarmo for continually tricking teams into being like, oh, this guy who's like the sixth, seventh best guy on my team. Yeah, he's like the number one guy at the trade deadline. And everybody's like, yes, we agree. It's an incredible skill. Like, if Yarmou Kekleinen is doing nothing else out there. That's an interesting one.

But yeah, why don't we take another break? That's it for the trades. We only went over by, I think, like, a minute and a half, something like that. Okay. Look at us. My math is correct. So I feel like we kept it on rails. But yeah, why don't we take another break?

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All right, we're back. So while we were on a little break there, I had to go to the bathroom, folks. I'm not going to lie to you. The Blue Jackets King's trade became official. It's a conditional first round pick, it says. And it says, if the Kings qualify. for the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs. It's a first round pick.

If the Kings miss, it's a second round pick in both the 20203 and 2024 draft. So. I mean, they're going to make it. So this is just another one of those conditions. I mean, the West playoff race is basically just Calgary chasing a bunch of teams. Yeah. All of whom are far enough ahead that, you know, they, they just need to hold serve. So.

Yeah, it's a, it's a five point gap between both them. Them, Winnipeg and Edmonton are... Edmonton and Winnipeg are tied. It's 72 points in 61 games. And Calgary is at 67 and 61. So, yeah, the odds that the flames are catching them is... It doesn't feel like it's particularly high. But that's...

And the Kings would have to majorly blow it. They're up four points with an extra game played on Edmonton and Winnipeg. So I guess we'll see, but that's wrapping up that trade discussion. I think it's interesting that a first would become two seconds if they miss. But other than that, like whatever. Yeah, really not. It doesn't really change any of the evaluations.

Yeah. We had a couple other things, not trade related that we wanted to talk about. Let's start with the cool one. Boy, that Linus Ulmar, like an empty-knit goal was sick. It was a really good goalie goal as these things go. It was, yeah. Straight down the fucking middle, yeah.

Right down the middle. One goal lead, too, which takes some guts to try with one goal. Usually goalies only do it with two. People were saying that, and that's certainly true. But it's like, look, I play for the Boston Bruits. Like, we're going to lose this game, even if I give up a goal here. Yeah. Please.

So, like, you know, if anybody was ever going to try it, it's a guy on this year's Boston Bruins, right? They are at 99 points in 60 games. It's ridiculous. But yeah, so, so I don't know, I don't have much to say about it other than that was fucking sick, dude. That was a really good goalie goal.

Dead center, too. Like, that was... Yeah, right down Main Street, one bounce in the slide, like, awesome. Couldn't do it any better without just like putting it into the net in the air. Boy, if a goal he ever does that, huh? Ooh, that'd be nice. That would be fucking really cool. My favorite is still the Ron Hextel when he scored, I can't remember which of his two it was,

but like he put it off the inside post and he led off the press conference saying like before anybody asks I was aiming for that post, which I just think is an all-time great. And probably the only good thing anyone will say about Ron Hextel all the week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I guess we can talk about that real quick. What are the penguins going to do here, man? Yep. They are holding on to a tenuous playoff spot.

It feels like they're about to trade for J.T. Miller? Well, apparently it was more Brock Besser that they were talking about, and now we're told... But then Rob Rossi was like it's not Brock Bessor. Well, I think he was saying that it doesn't sound like that deal is going to happen. Oh, okay, maybe I misread that. But I thought he was saying, like, Oh, they're not really talking about that. But yeah, there was like a very interesting story over the weekend,

which is like three months ago at this point, but that Mike Sullivan wants Jacob Chikrin and Ron Hextel doesn't want to give up the first or multiple first that it would cost, which, I mean, it's not, that in itself isn't that unusual. I mean, a coach is always going to want a short-term boost. Hey, GM, can you go out and get me the good player, please? Yeah, I would like that.

that would help. But, you know, the fact that it got out and was reported suggests that there's, you know, something going on in Pittsburgh beyond the usual. So, I mean, there's Jacob Chikrin's kind of the big name left on the board. Oh, my God. So, you know, there's not that many spots left for him. Maybe it is Pittsburgh. Yeah.

Let's, uh, let's briefly talk about that too. Boy, Friday is going to be a dog shit day for. If you volunteered to do live blogging all day long on Friday, you messed up. I bought tickets to see the new Creed movie. Good call. You know, Creed 3. And but then I was like, oh, fuck, I forgot that's the trade deadline day. So I canceled the tickets and not, and I all like, I already made this joke multiple times, but I'm like, maybe I will just go to the fucking movies in the middle of the day because nothing's going to happen.

I'll get out of there. And they'll be like, oh, yeah. Yeah, this fourth line guy got traded for a fifth round pick. That was the deal of the day. Oh, okay. So, yeah, it's looking real bleak for the rest of the week here. But let's see what the latest trade bait is. Oh, my God.

Number one, Jacob Checkren. No surprise there. Number two, Detroit. Actually, let's pause there. That's where it gets interesting now. Let's talk about Detroit. Tyler Boutuzi is number two on the trade board, but it seems like it's because I remember everybody was like, oh, the Red Wings are going to make it interesting during these next couple of games. They played their first meaningful hockey in five years, maybe?

Yeah. Oh, this is this is what it's all about. They want to sell out that building. They're into like an easier part of the schedule where their next five. games they got to play Tampa, Ottawa twice, Seattle, the Islanders, the Flyers, then Chicago, and then it gets hard again. And it's like, oh, they could make go on a serious run here. They've been outscored 15 to 3 in the first three games of this stretch. So they basically, they play Ottawa in a weird back-to-back series where both games are in Ottawa. Never happens. And it was because there was like a weather rescheduling thing.

and a situation where Ottawa basically needs to win both games to stay in the playoff race. Detroit needs, you know, as many points. And Ottawa just kicks the doors off the Red Wings back to back games. So, yeah, Tyler Bertuzi, back on the trade block, you go. And, and Dylan Larkin, what are we doing with Dylan Larkin?

Like, I mean, if Detroit misses the playoffs and Dylan Larkin walks away for nothing. Like, can we agree that that's... That's tough. That's tough. But, yeah, it's really funny. Because, uh, just like, again, they, they, like, the hockey media spent a few days going, this is Detroit's chance to hit the ground running.

They've got like six relative, five or six relatively easy games in a row. Then it gets really tough. Coming out of that stretch, Bruins, Bruins, Predators, Avalanche, Florida, like, oh, those are, those are not some, some games that they are not likely to win. Well, Nashville maybe, but, you know, and, and you're like, they got to get as many points as they can against, like, the Ottawa's and the, and the, uh, Chicago's of the world. And they're like, uh, yeah, we're going to instead play like absolute dog shit three games in a row. Mm-hmm. Well, no, I guess that's not true.

The, the, the, the, the, the Vaselevesky game, they dominated that game and lost. Right. 45 saves for Vasilevsky in that one. But yeah, they looked horrible against Ottawa the last two games. I mean, if you're, I don't know. If you're a GM and you're like, I mean, it was for both teams, really, you couldn't ask for a better like, all right, prove it to me. You want reinforcements?

You don't want me to sell. Prove it. And one team maybe did. Go right ahead. Redwigs were like, no, we're good. we're used to these having our springs off thing we're going to stick with that yep really really tough for for the red wings i don't know i don't know how like you can feel good at all coming coming down the stretch here they got 21 games to go or something like that and i don't if you're a redwings

fan i don't know how you're looking at this going yeah we can we can we can we can straighten this one out it's tough there there's just too many teams to to jump over now, you know? Yep. They are tied with the senators and the standings but have fewer wins. So like the senators obviously hold tiebreakers there. And then like, you know, there are a couple points behind Florida and Buffalo. Buffalo actually has games in hand.

And they're five points out of the playoffs right now. You got to say, man, the senators, we're saying, you know, they had five teams to pass. They've passed two of them. Florida and Buffalo. And, you know, a Pittsburgh team that who knows and they could also catch the Islanders, like, not out of it. The Pittsburgh is, again, they are five points behind the Penguins. That is, it doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a lot. But, okay, but there's six back of the Islanders and the Islanders have four games in hand.

Or sorry, the Senators have four games in hand. So, I mean, that's. Right. But, right. And, but like, Buffalo has a game in hand. You know, again, this is all just, yeah, like, they're going to make it interesting. And I didn't think they would be able to do it. So credit to them, but like, this is after the summer of Pierre,

you're like, oh, we're going to be in like 10th in the East. Yeah. Fucking congratulations. I don't know what to tell you. Like I said, I didn't think they'd be able to do it. They are 100% getting into the playoffs and beating Boston in the first round. Yes, sure. Nothing matters.

But yeah, let me close out the top five in the trade bait board. Yes. From TSN here. James Van Reimsdike. He has nine goals this year. Carolina's first round pick is fourth. That's going to be like, you know, 26th overall. That's the number four item on the trade bait list.

And number five, this is how you know it's fucking bleak out there. Lars Eller. I'm sorry, did you say number 55? No, you know, I can read to you the rest of the top 10 here. Joel Edmonds and Camp Talbot, Shane Gostis Bear, Brock Bester, and any number of St. Louis's first round picks because they have a couple of them and they kind of want to rebuild on the fly. I mean, Bester's a bigger name.

If he gets moved, he's probably right there behind Chikrin, but. He's just going to be tough to move because of the term on his deal. You know, the question is who does anyone else pop up? This is a guy with 11 fucking goals this year. So it's not like, oh, Brock Besser, he's having like a 30-gold season, but, you know, the Canucks aren't happy about it or whatever. This is, this guy's having a down season after everybody coming into the year was like, this could be the season. He scores 30 goals. And he's like, what if I barely break 15?

How does that sound? Really tough, really, really tough landscape out there. Kiehne Miller suspended three games for spitting on. Drew Doughty. Everybody involved kind of says it's an accident. But you still... And you could call it an accident, but I think you still have to suspend even for accidents because otherwise people do it and just go, oops.

Was that, yeah, I mean, it's... Right, but this was the third suspension since like December in the entire league. And, you know, I said it a kind of. not even joking, really, on Twitter last night. If he had just cross-checked Drew Dowdy in the face, it's two games. What a fucking league. It is a weird league.

But, I mean, you can't have guys spitting on each. I mean, that is, as always in sports. Totally agree. Like, you really. Totally agreed. I did find it interesting that it is apparently the Department of Player Safety that suspends for this, because it's not them for, like if you use like a slur or something on the ice

yeah i don't believe that's them right so that's big gary yeah the fact that this would be a safety thing seems a bit odd to me but yeah i mean it's i i i look at i think it probably was accidental um but it's still it's got to be an automatic three games you just can't let that door creak open even a little bit yeah um Like I said, I get it, but it's just so funny that that spitting on a guy gets you more than like trying to take a fucking guy's teeth out with your stick. Yep. It's, it's never going to make sense to me in this.

Now, if you spit on your stick before you do that, look out. Oh, shit. Then he gave suspension. But yeah, so I don't know. I don't, I guess I don't really have anything to say. Other than, again, like, there have only been, like, there was. a suspension end of last week, I want to say. And that was the first one since I think, like mid-December. Yep.

Crazy. Edbin, it would been 60-plus days since. Yeah. So I guess everyone's just really on their best behavior. Good job. Yeah, everybody. It's the classic situation where if you say, you know, if you say that, you're going to, like, enforce penalties more in October. And then you stop calling those penalties in November.

because everybody, like, was really nice the whole time, and not because you just decided you weren't going to call the penalties anymore. Nice and easy. Yeah, was there anything else we wanted to talk about? I feel like we had said one more thing, and it fell out of my brain. We got the goalie goal. We got the playoff races. We touched on the West a little bit, flames chasing everyone.

Yeah. We got, no, I feel like we've probably got all of them. I mean, there's... Okay, great. I don't care about the Flames Arena updates until there's an actual update. I mean, Batman was talking to getting in Calgary. I've been in the trade grade minds, you know. And we seem to have got through the whole main show without any trades breaking,

which GMs don't really like to get up in the morning and get to work. It's true. Most trades, like even on deadline day, the earliest trade you're going to see is like 11 a.m. I wonder if that's just out of deference to the West Coast guys where they're like, We don't want you to have to wake up at like five. Yeah. Briggled West Coast guys. This is why your conference is worse at hockey.

Either that or it's the GM's going, don't make a trade with me until I've had my freaking coffee. Okay, folks. That's right. But yeah, Sean, why don't you hit him with the plugs? Let's get out of here. Find me at the Athletic. I will be with Ian Mendez.

Tomorrow on the athletic hockey show, we will be talking about all the trades that happen two minutes after this show ends. And I will be live blogging on Friday with a friend of the show and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sean Gentilly. I think Haley's joining us and there will probably be rotating cast of characters, but we will be updating all day long with our thoughts on all three trades that will be left to happen on that day. Yeah, that's right. I'm doing the same thing over at EPRink side. I have graded every trade we talked about and every trade since. I can scroll down here really quick, but let's see.

The first trade I graded, do you remember when this happened? Matt Nietto and Ryan Merkley for Martin Cout and Jacob McDonald? Do you remember this trade? Not at all. Oh, okay. Well, it was before the Bo Horvatt trade, which I think was six years ago now. Yeah. So, yeah, Bohorvats extension has expired.

The Islanders, he's hitting free agency this year. That's right. So yeah, check out Epringside.com. Use the code. I love EP, all one word, all capital letters. When you sign up for an annual subscription, they will add three months on to the end of your subscription for free. So that's 15 months for the price of 12.

And look, it's not just trade grades. We're like when trades happen, we have like prospect experts who are saying, this is what you're getting when you trade for this prospect. And we have people like breaking down, you know, basically every team's like, oh, here's who they might trade and here's what you should think if they do trade and that kind of stuff. We got all of that going on over there. And hey, folks, it's getting to be about draft evaluation time.

And I'm sure we're going to be starting up that kind of conversation on EP Rankside, not long after the trade deadline. So keep an eye out for all that too. And then, of course, go to the PuckSoup Patreon. Patreon.com slash PuckSoup. Me and Sean are about to do a mailbag over there. And, you know, we're doing stick to sports. We're doing bonus episodes. We're doing mees and pod.

Hey, Top Chef is coming back sometime in March. So we'll be doing Top Chef episode recaps over there, too, because we like doing those, me and Greg and his wife, Ruby. So, yeah, a lot of stuff going on. They had the one on the menu, which I have not listened to yet, but I saw the movie. I'm very proud of myself. Wow.

What a world we live in where Sean is seeing the movies. Hey man, give me your five-second review of Knock at the Cabin because I saw that one. You did see that one. I think it was a movie that didn't have the tension it wanted to have. Without getting into spoilers or anything like that. But a movie carried by the big fella, Dave Batista, also. All right. I'll say more to you.

I didn't love it. It was fine. Yeah. I wish we had gone back to the beach that makes me. you old. Yes. Instead of knocking. But hey,

you know, beggars can't be choosers. I'll always watch an M. Knight movie. I think he's back, but they can't all be fucking grand slam home runs like old was. So there you go. Have a good next couple of days, everybody.

We'll talk to you next week and break down all the other trades that assuredly happen, such as I don't know, some other guy that you've never heard of getting traded for a fifth round pick. All right, that's it. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary

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