Puck Soup - Buyers, Sellers, and Everyone in Between

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

Sean and Ryan go team-by-team breaking down the situation as the trade deadline approaches. Sponsored by Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McAnew from The Athletic. And folks, the trade deadline is, what, 3 p.m. Friday? Is that right? Yes. So, listen, you look at any of these trade boards out there. I'll just pull up the athletics as a, to be illustrative, let's say, of what the hell is going on with this trade deadline. There's a bunch of teams that seem like they got to make a trade.

There's a bunch of teams that seem like they got to sell. And you're like, awesome. Let's find some matchups. Let's find some pairings here. Well, hold on. That sounds difficult. Do we have enough time to do that? Well, so.

I promise I'm not going to do this shtick all show. Yeah, yeah. But. Well, then you look at the athletics trade board. Number one, Vincent Trocheck. Well, I don't know that, man. You know, like, what are we doing here? Nazim Codry, Justin Falk, Tyler Myers, Blake Coleman, there's five of the top six.

I elided one that's actually like a player that I would be excited to get if I was most NHL teams. But like, Andrew Mangiopani, Evander Kane, Stephen Stamcoast, Oliver, Reckman, Larson. That's your top 10? Are you suggesting that Andrew Maggiapani is not going to be at the heart of a block? But the guy who was on waivers for free yesterday is not. Well, okay. So I saw somebody making the point that that was like some kind of a savvy cap move that I couldn't really wrap my head around personally. But people were like, well, you know, you got to look at like what it does for their cap two years.

Okay. All right. That's fine. I guess my thing, to your point, is like, I don't see Manjupani as like some kind of a big needle mover. And he's the number seven guy on the trade board at the athletic. Yeah. It's a strange time in the hockey landscape. And there are some bigger names, but they're less likely to be moved, which is why they're further down the list.

Oh, yeah, for sure. I don't, man. Yeah. But as we are recording this, bright and early Tuesday morning, crack a dawn, 10 a. Oh, yeah. I'm going to have to mute my mic every time the damn rooster crows. Exactly. It's crazy.

That's when I'll be betrayed, by the way. There have been, there's basically been no action this week with apologies to Connor Murphy. Nothing's happening. And we are now officially into like this is highly unusual territory. Yeah, I agree. Even factoring in that Artemi-Paneran did get moved before the break. This is, I mean, this is usually the time of year that we're all doing the schick about, oh, James Duthy is going to have to bring the llamas back because there's not going to be anyone left on Friday.

There's going to be everyone left on Friday. We might finally have to see, like, a full-power James Duthey on... Right now, he's got, like, a bunch of, like, course dancers. and everything, and they're, like, about to get told to go home because... Headed right to the damn glue factory. Or we're just going to get a huge dud of a deadline this year. Yeah, right. Or there's going to be six trades announced while we're recording.

Also, extremely likely. I mean, more likely is I say, okay, have a good day, Sean, goodbye. That's right. I send you a beautiful kiss, and then they go, Okay, well, Connor McDavid just got traded. So, oh, okay. Yep. Anyhow, because there's not like a ton to get excited about it,

but for almost any individual guy, I figured this year we'd do it more in terms of like what teams might do. And I have separated the teams into five categories. Definite buyers, probable buyers, could go either way or they might just hold. probable sellers, definite sellers. And let's just start right at the top of the list. I think what everybody considers the best team in the league,

although it hasn't gone so great lately. The Colorado Avalent. They have not been good. Do you realize they've been 500 for the last two months? Now, the Olympics are in there, so it's not two months. I guess I didn't know it was that bad. It goes January 3rd. They have been a fake.

five hundred teams since January 3rd. Well, it only, that only to me ups there should be, like, have to be buyers. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And so, to facilitate that last week, like, again, right after we finished recording the podcast, and we were bitching about,

I thought they were going to do something during the Olympic break and, you know, they'd have eight trades in the hopper. They actually did. We, we missed that by like an hour and a half. I think it was. They acquire Brett Kulak for Sam Gerard in a 2028 second round pick. In doing so, they free up

$2.5 million in cap space. Wow. So now, you know, we don't have anything to worry about if we're the Colorado outwe. We got all the flexibility in the world. They got lots of room. They do. They have, they can take on about $10 million in salary

as of right the second. according to our beautiful friends at Puppedia. And by the time it's the deadline, it might be even closer to 11. Right. The problem is, I don't know what they have that, like, they could, they have, you know,

they have their first round pick, not this year, but beyond. But other than that, like, they don't have a ton to, to swing around. They don't,

obviously, they're not, like, flush with prospects or anything like that, although they have some. But when I look at this team, and to your point, Sean, this is a team that surprisingly has Capital N needs on their roster. So, I mean, like, I think the Kulak acquisition means they don't really have needs on defense

because they never really had needs on defense. I think Kulak may be, you know, he's more of the, like, like stay at home version of Sam Gerard where it's like, yeah, he's pretty effective, I guess. You know, he's not going to contribute to the offense. But they need, I'd say they need either a wing or a center, you know, like I don't really have a preference between them. Maybe I'd lean center. Yeah, we've been talking about the aves needing center depth for a couple of years now. Yeah, and like, you know, when we said that earlier this year, everybody was like,

Brock Nelson's been unbelievable this year. Yeah, that's true. But again, like, is he in an ideal world your number two center? And if your answer to that is yes, who's your number three center? You know what I mean? Like, it's not, it's not that it's bad. It's that it could be better if this is a team with legitimate Stanley Cop aspirations. And I think it is.

So. Definitely. is, yeah. Yeah. So the question is, everybody's connecting them to Nazim Kodry. I think that would be totally fine,

except I don't know about how the cap works beyond this season, you know? Yeah, and we should point out, even for this season, when we talk about teams like Colorado having 10 million in cap space at the deadline,

they could go out and get a $10 million player, but they would then have trouble fitting that guy under the playoff cap, which is the new thing this year that GMs are now using as their excuse to not do anything, right? So they could go, they could get a $10 million player. They would still fit under the cap the rest of the season because of the pro-rated aspect,

but then the playoffs start and, uh-oh, we've got too many guys making too much money, which personally I don't think is like I feel like that falls into the category of nice problem to have but yeah I mean it's you don't necessarily want to blow your brains out to add a Nazim Cadry and then get into the playoffs and realize oh we've got to either I mean not that you couldn't use him but now we got to sit down a four million dollar pretty good player because we went over the cap. Right. Or somebody gets hurt and then you go, oh, it's a good thing we're proactive.

I love Nazim Cadre as trade bait this year. I've talked myself to him for so many different teams that I would love that if I'm, if I'm Colorado. Yeah, especially to your point about like winning the Nazim Cadre sweepstakes because I feel like there will be two, three, three, four teams in that mix. So, yeah, like, I don't know. Like, if I'm Colorado, I am worried about how the last two months have gone,

and I'm frankly worried about, like, how healthy is Nathan McKinnon. And also, I'm just going to say this. Now, I said that they've been not so good since the first week of January, which greatly precedes the Olympics. So I'm going to acknowledge that what I'm about to say is fake. But I'm going to write with it anyways. If they struggle down the stretch and go out early in the playoffs, I'm going to say the Olympics broke them.

The gold medal game broke the Colorado Avalanche. Yeah. Between McKinnon missing the open net, Taves missing the open net, and McCar and McKinnon being on for the gold medal goal. I'm going to say that mentally broke the avalanche. And they went from unbeatable, please ignore the results for six weeks

preceding the Olympics. They went from unbeatable to a wreck because of that. Sean, this is a good take by you. And I am going to pay out of my own pocket to fly you to Denver so you can ask Nathan McKinnon that on garbage bag.

Awesome. Cool. Remind me to stock at the airport gift shop and get a stuffed animal for them just to just eat. Well, I got to tell you, man. I'm flying you out. That's a one.

one-way ticket. They're fucking burying you in Denver. That's, you know what I mean? It is true. Yeah. They probably are. All right.

Let's move on to another team in that division, the Dallas stars. The news this week, Sagan's shut down for the season. There's the looming what's going to happen with Jason Robertson. They're buyers. Like, they have so much money to play with. Right? But what do they really, like, need? They're good up front, I feel.

Like, maybe you'd like them to add a little bit of depth forward-wise, but nothing that you're like, oh, that's a glaring need. Obviously, they're all set and goal. And that means their defense. And if you look at their defense, and then, so here's what I'm going to recommend to people. Sort, like, click sort by, like, right and left defense. I'm going to read you their left defenseman first, okay? Miro Heiskenen, Thomas Harley, Essel Lindell, Leon Bischel, if you want to go really deeper down the depth chart.

Now I'm going to read you their right side, D. I don't know what order that they would say these guys should be in, but this is the order that we're working with here. Elyle Bushkin, Nils Lundchrist, Alexander Petrovich. So I'm thinking... It's subtle. Yeah. I'm thinking maybe, maybe they need to upgrade the right side of that defense.

This is where we get into the Justin Falk discussion. There's a right shot defenseman. Tyler Myers is a right shot defenseman, although he seems like he's only going to be going to one team. We'll get to that later. That might be about it, unless we really want to get crazy and say like Dougie Hamilton and Rasmus Restlein and things like that. Those guys are in there?

the other guy who shoots right is what about John Carlson? Hmm. Sure. Well, yeah, I mean, not to spoil anything here, but I have the capitals on could go either way. Like, they're so close to the playoffs that it's easy to see them talking themselves into just holding and hoping things go a little better, especially after the last two years. But, yeah, I mean, John Carlson, fine. I mean, the one thing I'm always saying, the Dallas stars, and every team, really, they should be looking to get older, you know?

Sure. Did you know, and I don't even know for a fact this is true, but I saw it in a bunch of different places this week, that apparently Jim Nill is in the last year of his contract and has not re-uped yet. Don't ask me why I was looking up GM availability. It's not important. but yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, I mean, they've got the money.

Dallas is interesting, because I don't, I love Jim Nill as a GM, so I don't think he would fall into this trap. But the other interesting thing is they are, every year there's a team that at the deadline is red hot. Okay, Dallas has won nine straight, bridging the Olympic cap. Yeah. and as a fan you sit there and go, dude, you guys are on fire.

This is the time to add, right? Go and get it. But then there's the argument that, well, do we really want to mess with a good thing? Now, I would listen to that except the Sagan thing. You don't put Sagan on season ending IR without, and of course we're going to spend that. Like, you would look like an asshole if you didn't spend that money.

You know? Yep. that's my only thing with that. Like, I, and again, I just, the way the,

the playoff format works, like, are you super confident they're going to beat one of, or Colorado and Minnesota with that right side of their defense? They got to beat them both. In theory,

yeah, but, you know, if they finish first in the, in the division, that's all. Yeah, I guess that they only can't play one.

Theoretically in play, yes. So that, that's all. that's all I'm saying is like you know we're we're talking about such an obvious upgrade need and so much money to spend

just fucking do it like it is it going to get easier for you in the next two or three years but again it depends on what they want to do with Jason Robertson because if they think he's a bum then everything's on the table because you could I mean imagine what you could get for Jason Robertson in a trade for a defenseman and all this kind of stuff like that then you open up the Adam Fox discussion, right?

Like, maybe, theoretically. We'll get to Adam Fox later. Anything else on the Stars for you? Nope. Okay, great. Minnesota Wild, another team that everybody's just like, they have so much space and so much, like, of an obvious need

to upgrade up front. And they're willing to put their, to put their goalie play, their backup goalie in play. Walsett, of course. Like, they're willing to do it. Maybe they won't, but they have said as much, you know. And they just claimed Robbie Fabry.

So, you know, hey, they're still, they're still looking to boost the team even before the deadline. I just think, look, I think, like, Joel Erickson-Eck is an awesome center, you know? And I think Ryan Hartman is, like, credible. Like, you can just go down the list. We're like, yep, that's a pretty good center they got there. They don't have like the big knockout name. And this is another team. Not that I think, um, cadre is like a knockout name necessarily.

But I don't think they have what it takes to add like Robert Thomas, right? So you get into the, you get into the Trochequeca-Codry style guy. Prochek just feels like with the guarantee M-SA connection. Yeah, absolutely. But the other thing that is interesting with Minnesota is, you're right, they've got cap room. And if you're listening to this going, well, how do they have that cap room when Caprizov's got that massive contract?

That contract doesn't kick in until next year. Yeah, of course. So you're looking at an $8 million jump just in one player's salary. So can they go out and get a cadrearie or a, Yeah, you're right. You're right. We have term left. It needs to be a rental.

Because that's the interesting thing with this year, right? Is that a lot of the guy, like, we don't really have the big name rentals. So we're down to guys with term, which should be fine. You know, if I'm a team trying to win, if I get a good player, wouldn't I want that good player for more than one year? You'd think. But. Not your Minnesota, yeah. Maybe it doesn't work.

work out that way. So that's that's the interesting question for them to navigate. Yeah, they have, it says here they have 13 million to spend 13.8 million to spend next year. Cap's going to be up over $100 billion. So, you know, they, they do have more flexibility than I think you might expect. But do you want to burn it on like Vincent Trocheck, who's signed for like three or four more years at five and change? I want to say. I don't know. But you're, and again, like, you can't, I guess you could argue that Quinn Hughes is their big ad, obviously.

But like, when you're looking at that center depth and you're like, you know who will fix this is Vincent Troche? Or boost this in a meaningful way? Because that's the thing that I think about, again, with this division is like, you know, if Colorado is looking to upgraded center, Dallas doesn't really need to. And Minnesota's like, okay, well, if we just add, you know, Nazim Khadri to the mix, we're going to be all set. I don't know that that's the case, you know. But stranger things have happened, I suppose.

Let's move out east here. I think, would you say Tampa is the definitive best team in the east right now? Yeah. Yes, also, you know, Carolina is. I feel like we're kind of getting maybe a little bored of Carolina being pretty good to very good every year. But I would put Tampa. I do. I have Tampa ahead of them on my rankings most weeks.

Yeah. So they're not making a changing goal. They don't really need to do anything up front. That means kind of by default you're looking at their defense. And I don't know. like, what do they need to upgrade on defense? Obviously, like, Victor Headman has not been himself.

And they don't, and the other thing is they don't have a ton of cap space. So if they are moving some, like, they would need to move something out to bring somebody in. You know? Mm-hmm. I don't know who that is. I don't know.

You know, I don't know what that looks like, especially, like, again, Hedman just doesn't feel like he's a guy who should be playing at the top of any decent. teams line up anymore. They never have cap room. Nope. They always figure it out.

They do. Usually they figure it out by trading two first round draft picks and you go, wait, how do they have draft picks left to trade? I mean, the cupboard is pretty bare. They have all of their seconds and thirds for the next four years. So how would you like all eight of those is what they're saying to somebody? You know, like that to get you a Tyler Geno type of type of guy. Tanner.

that before. Tanner, you know, thank you. I saw that guy Shersie one time. There you go. Remember that? But yeah, I just, I just see like that, you know, to be really credibly competitive with, again, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Carolina. Like, in that mix, I think that's, like, the clear top five in the league right now. You know, with apologies to a couple of teams that are, like, maybe just a slight step below them. But I think that's the clear top five. And again, like, okay, what defensemen are they going

out to get? Is Oliver Recman-Larson any kind of a fix? I don't really think so, you know? Well, you know, I don't think he's bad or anything. Like I- trade a ton of assets for that guy if I could. But again, like, it's Tampa. So there's just something none of us are thinking of. And then they're going to do it and we're all going to go. Oh, sure. Like they'll trade for Adam Fox, and you're like, huh? What?

How's that possible? The other thing is remember, they sort of, they have a type at the deadline, which is youngish guys on cheap deals who play a little further down the lineup, but who outplay their contracts. Totally. and they are willing to pay a premium for those guys. Sure. And, you know,

Geno didn't work out. Brandon Hagel really did work out. Yeah, you weren't kidding, brother. Good Row and, uh, was it, Blake Coleman didn't they get one time? Like, those sorts of guys. So maybe that's where, where you look at it and at first you're like, they gave up that much for who?

But then you look, Oh, well, you know, retain salary, he's only going to cost him a million bucks for the next couple of years. Okay. I don't know. They're one of those teams where it's like they're smart, so I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and kind of see what they do. Yeah, I agree.

And let's do Caroline now really quickly. I would love to see them upgrade at the center position. That's just me. Again, I don't think they're touching their defense or their goaltending situation. right now just because Braden-Buzzy, like, can't lose, basically. So, like, they, maybe they finally have, like, the system goalie they've always been looking for,

and consequently, there's just no need to upgrade at the goaltending position. So that leaves you a forward. And again, center would be the target for me. Do you want to know how much cap space they have right now, Sean? Or I'm sorry, by the deadline, how much caps they still have? I would love to know. $40.3 million.

Okay. Like, that's the amount of salary they can add. They have, I'm pretty sure they have, like, basically, not only do they have all their picks, they also have two of Dallas's first round picks in the next four years, three years. They got the rule, man. So, so let's say the name that is out there for them. Elias Patterson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

Okay, I was going to say, like, I've seen people saying cadre. Yeah. But, like, I just think Cadry would be such a hurricane style guy, you know? Mm-hmm. And then, you know, you can bump everybody down the lineup of a smidge, and then you're off and running. I think that makes a lot of sense. but Patterson is an interesting one because he, I believe, has full control over where he goes, right? He has, I don't know if it's full control, but definitely a significant amount because that was the question.

The little anchor, the little anchor on Puckpedia indicates full control. Now, here's the thing with Patterson. The hurricanes, in my recollection, have done the thing of, let's buy. a little low on a guy that may or may not be washed and it has not worked out you know so I don't know

I don't know that like what is Vancouver looking for does he even want to go to Carolina like there's just a lot of moving parts there there certainly are and you know to to haul out that beloved cliche

this time of year. This might be a deal that's easier to do in the off season. It just, again, moving parts, you know, like that's the,

that's the thing with... I don't feel like Elias Pedersen loves it in Vancouver so much things. Yeah, no kidding. And the thing with Carolina, remember,

like, I, everyone's heard my well-worn schick about teams being timid and all that stuff. That's not, that's not the hurricanes.

No, no, no, no. Two Miko-Rant in trades last year, and a Mitch Marter trade that was kind of done except couldn't get it over the finish line.

So this is not like, out of all the teams, this is the one team that, you know, I don't know that Pedersen would be that guy. I don't think I would want to jump on that contract, but. Well, to that point, the guy I'm thinking of a little bit here,

if they want to go absolutely crazy, which I'm not, I'm not sure how much of a stylistic fit it is necessarily, but like, let's find out Robert Thomas. Yep. If we're going big name hunting. Otherwise,

I feel like you can fall back to your cadres in your Ryan O'Reilly's or whatever, you know, older center you want to say maybe is more of a stylistic fit. But if we're going big name hunting, I'd be more interested in Thomas than, than Petterson. Yep.

Makes sense. So anyway, that's it for definite buyers. We'll be back right after this break to talk about probable buyers and all the rest. So stay tuned. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Raycon and folks. This is like a spring ad read that I'm supposed to do right now. I'm looking out the window. It is snowing like crazy.

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All right, we're back And let's get into probable buyers now Like teams that I think we all agree Are probably around it But maybe won't do anything too crazy I think it's how I'm thinking of these teams I don't know, you can pipe up if you disagree.

Let's start with the Bruins because Don Sweeney had a press conference yesterday where he said they're not like going to be super aggressive, but they're probably going to do a little bit of buying, which I think makes sense for them. That sounds about right, sure. They obviously have some good players at every position, but they don't, you know, they don't have maybe the assets for like a game-breaking player. And in fact, in the press conference yesterday, this was how I knew this press conference happened because I saw this quote.

And it was Don Sweeney going, yeah, you know, did we overspend in recent years like pursuing, quote unquote, winning and not do that? Yeah, you know, in retrospect, sure we did. And he goes, I'm not going to apologize for doing that, but I will apologize for not winning. Okay. Which is, I'm going to try this around the house. I'm going to be like, did I take the trash out last night? No. I will apologize for not taking the trash out last night,

but I won't apologize for playing video games for six hours straight. Yeah, exactly. And then going right to bed. Yeah. Hell yeah, good for him. I mean, I'm just still somewhat shocked that the brones are even in this position. Sure. Yeah.

It's a little bit of a little bit of a house money thing. thing, although the next couple of days could really determine it because it could make a big difference on the playoff picture. Like, if they feel like they're already in, I don't think you necessarily swing big. Well, I don't think you hold a press conference and say, we're not going to swing big as like a smoke screen. You know what I mean? Sure.

Because, again, like, just what's... What's their, this is true of so many teams that I keep saying it, but like, their obvious problem is that they don't have any centers that are like, you know, to the level that you would want a set, your number one center to be or number two, a number, like it's a cascading effect. Right. Yep. But if all these teams are like, oh, yeah, I'll kick the tires on Vincent Trocheque. I'll kick the tires on Nazim Qadry, you know, go down the list. Like Thomas, Ryan O'Reilly, Elias Patterson,

like these are guys you're going to have to pay through the fucking nose for. Even like, and then like you get down into your Scott Lawton type of guys and it's like, okay, well, they have eight Scott Lottons. The lack of Scott Lottons isn't the problem. Once again, I'm going to ask you to stop picking Maple Leafs as your examples of guys who aren't that very good. Scott Lotton is minimum first round pick.

I mean, unfortunately for everybody else, that's probably true. Yeah, that could be true. Yeah, sure. But you see what I'm saying. Like, there's just not anybody out there that, like, addresses their biggest problem. And I don't feel like they have a ton of cap space. And maybe, am I wrong about that? I guess I haven't looked in a minute.

They have an okay amount of cap space. It's like $5 million. But, yeah, to me, I just look at these guys and I go, well, they have one need. And it's the need that. most of the big teams have, and they don't have assets to make it happen, really. So unless they're going out and getting, again, like a Robert Thomas, like a guy with a lot of term who's on the younger side, I just don't know why they would do it. Yep. Well, I mean, I know exactly why they would do it.

I just don't know that they're going to be able to win that bidding war. Yeah. All right. Well, let's stay in the Atlantic here. Now, let's go the Detroit Red Wing. again I mentioned it before they've been very connected to Tyler Myers the last little while and you look at that defense and you're like oh they have like six Tyler Myers style guys that's not true six is overstating it they have like four Tyler might like your Ben Chirot

Eric Gustafson he he's in that same class of guy to me where it's like yeah yes oh he's like overpaid though okay that that seems like a problem um but again like that's just they you want to talk about a team that should be all over adam fox though you know like he doesn't get they have a million assets he doesn't disrupt their they're they're like window to win if they acquire him in in in the way that again like a tyler meyers is kind of so this is this is the second time on a bullet wound it's the second time you've mentioned adam fox is do you feel like he's actually in play i feel like he had you saw the comments he the other day, I'm assuming, right?

I did. Yeah. Where he's like, I don't know. Maybe talk to me in the summer, blah, blah, blah. I don't know that that, to me, that means he's not long for the Rangers. And again, maybe this does just get addressed in the summer. He has a full no move clause. But if you're the Red Wings and you have like the level of assets the Red Wings have both in terms of picks and prospects,

and maybe even you would say like lower end roster guys it just makes all the sense in the world to me that you're like okay well like our number two defenseman by Ice Time has Ben Sherrod or whatever here you know Sider we're all agreeing this is an MVP caliber player this year he's been awesome

best player at the Olympics for Germany all that kind of stuff but then he leaves the ice a lot you know what I mean and Adam Fox is a guy that you can put him next to somebody on the younger side. And, you know, he can anchor that pair in a way that I think makes a lot of sense. Yep.

I mean, I'd love to see it. It makes a ton of sense. And the super patient Eiserplan could maybe use a swift kick. Yeah. And again, I think that like... even he must recognize that. Now, obviously, they could use some upgrades at forward as well, but I just think that, like, there's just one such an obvious area of need.

Well, okay. So let's, yeah, yes. Let's group in the sabres here because I think a lot of what I was, what I would say about the Red Wings, I would probably also say for the Sabres. Right. In that they've been waiting forever, okay, it's time to pull the trigger and, and take the bigger swing than maybe you normally would. Counter argument to that.

Well, yeah, but both teams and especially the Sabres have been playing really well, so do you want to necessarily mess with it? Counter-counter argument being this division is there for the taking. Like if there's... A billion percent, yeah. Even more so than the Pacific, which is the worst division, but I still think we all assume. that the Oilers or knights are coming out of that.

This is the division that you're going to look back at the final four and go like, who came out of that division? Could absolutely happen. We said in the first half that the lightning were the best team in the East, and I agree with that, but they're beatable. The Sabres, Red Wings, and Habs

could all very easily come out, not easily, but, you know, very plausibly come out of this division. Yeah, and at a bare minimum, you would have to say the Sabres or like the favorites in a lot of first round matchups. You know? I don't think too many teams want to play the Sabres,

which is a super weird sentence to say. Yeah. I might be the first podcaster to ever say that about Buffalo Sabres because I don't know if we had podcasting the last time they were in the phone. 15 years ago, you're absolutely right, man. And like the thing with them is they have so many young guys. And here's what I'm going to say that maybe is controversial. They should be putting Alex Tuck out there.

Let's get younger. Oh, man. Again, I just think that. I can't do that. Talk me into it. Well, again, like, everything you hear about Alex Tuck's, like, contract demand, you're like, Alex Tuck from the Buffalo Sabres. That Alex Tuck.

Um, gosh, I, I can't remember what the last number was, but I, I couldn't fucking believe it. Um, it was like nine's not going to get it done or something like that. And it's like, okay, well, then I let that be someone else's problem because I'm just going to Google Alex Tuck age. And if it's, yeah, he's 29 years old. He'll be 30 on May 10th. And if he wants like six or seven years at nine and a half or whatever. it is, that can be someone else's problem so easily for me. Because if I'm the Sabres, I'm not looking at him going, he's part of the long-term picture here. He's a very good player. And I get, to me, you're making a convincing case to be willing to walk away in the summer. Yeah, own rental.

I don't know that you're making a case. Unless, like, I'm trying to think of a scenario where you're going to move him to a team, where you're going to get immediately. immediate help back as opposed to picks and prospects. I just don't, I just don't see it. Like, well, I, so my idea here, and this is me going a little fucking crazy. I, I'll acknowledge that right off the bat.

I still haven't listened to the, to the, like, the PDOCast. They do, like, crazy trades we'd like to see or whatever. I haven't listened to that yet. But this would require them getting a trade done well before the deadline. but he's part of a package that brings Jordan Cairo to Buffalo. And then St. Louis can flip tuck further because he doesn't fit their window. Okay. Yeah, that I could see.

That makes sense because that's the blues are the team I'm holding in on if I'm the Sabres. For either one of those guys or hell, both of those. Yeah, that's where they got Tage Thompson, right? It's where you got Tage Thompson, right? And it's, that's the conversation I want to have. I don't see the blues taking talk back unless they've got, like to me, if you're the blues, you don't. Or it's a three-team trade or whatever it is. That's it.

You don't take talk and then go, we assume that we can move him in the next few days. Right. You do it because somebody else has maybe called the Sabres and said, we will give you A, B, and C for Alex Tuck. And the Sabres go, you know what? Hold that thought. would you be willing to give that to another team if we flipped it and then, you know, you have it all laid out. You can't take the risk.

God, imagine if the Blues traded one of their two decent assets and then, oops, Alex Tuck walks away for nothing. That would be, that would feel bad. Yeah. And again, like, I get the own rental thing, but again, at the end of the day, I just don't want to be the team giving Alex Tuck the contract that he wants. that that's really what it boils down to for me um but yeah i you know otherwise like i i think there's maybe a lot to like in in buffalo and you know you're you're happy with all of it but you

just they just do need like a slight up grade or three on the on the offense front i don't know what they're actually willing to do though um all right let's say uh let's say Pittsburgh now the only reason I have them as a potential buyer is because all they've done all year is make trades so why not keep it moving they're second in their conference or their division right now they're fourth in their conference which is fifth fifth um which is crazy to think about but they're they're in a position where they don't need to add like I I think we said this when they traded for Chinikov, who's been awesome for them, I think, in his role. But that was like the, hey, we're bringing in reinforcements.

You guys are having a really nice season. We're happy for you. But then they go get Sam Girard. And it's like, oh, is that the, we're getting reinforcements and we're happy for you guys? Or do they have one or two more in the hopper? The way it's going this year, I think they do. Probably one or two more. I don't know if it'll be anything significant.

But they've had a good year. Kyle Dubas has had a good year. Absolutely. Yeah. Wish my team had a guy like that. Yeah. What if you, instead of having him, what if you had a guy who was like every 34-year-old defenseman in the league, give me, give me, give me, giving.

Dude, let me ask you that. I want to know how if this is percolated past the Toronto fan base. If I said that, if I told you the date July 17th. Does that mean anything to you? I guess not. vis-a-vis the Toronto Maple Leafs? I don't think so. That's the last time Brad Trilliving made a trade.

Don't laugh. Don't laugh. In this dumpster fire of a season. Yep. He has not made one single trade. He basically looked at this team and was like, you know what? I'm going to get one defenseman off the waiver wire, and that should, after that, I'm all out of ideas.

Well, look, the coach already came out and said it. He can't give him one of these and I'm pointing to my head or one of these and he's pointing to the heart. Yeah. This guy's been watching a lot of the Wizard of Oz, it seems like. Honestly, you know, Barube is getting fired six seconds after the season ends if he makes it that far. But I don't hear anyone arguing with that quote. There's probably one more place he could have pointed. But we'll get to look.

We'll get to the Leafs later. And literally, that's the thing you're saying is the third thing that they're looking for in the Wizard of Oz. I think that was it, yeah. Right. Yeah. That's right. Bert Larr played the cowardly lion. I don't remember the other two guys.

For some reason, Bert Larr sticks out in my head. What a funny name. So, yeah, I'd love to see the penguins go out and just fuck around and get somebody fun to add to the lineup. You're Bobby McMahon or something like that. that. Why not? Fuck around. I have Utah here. Yeah. Now, where do you think the Utah's, the Utah mammoths' power play is ranked in the league right now?

Oh, I have, I do not know. Let's see here. It says 29th. Okay. 15.88%. Is that bad? Are there a lot of teams in the... Where do you think their special, their P.K. is ranked? I don't know. 21st.

Okay. And despite that, they have a plus 23 goal difference. So this is a very good five-on-five team is what you can glean from those two things. And so to me, they got to be looking for a talent guy. This is where your Kyru's and Thomas has come in. Again, they're a lot like Detroit where they have plenty of picks and prospects they can trade. They do. Was it LeBron last night?

It was like, you know, Bill Armstrong actually drafted Thomas in St. Louis. So that's just like the obvious connection of like, oh, this guy he used to be his roommate's friend's older brother's roommate, you know, that kind of thing. We always have that in hockey, but this is like a pretty direct connection. Thomas fits their window. He fits them financially. Like, oh, I scouted at this guy when he was 17. Yeah, sure. But like, Thomas is a fucking good player.

10 years of NHL numbers to look at? Yeah, but like. His mom cooked me a lasagna one time. Yeah, all right. Sure she. Yeah, he was actually, he was actually the billet dad for this guy's older cousin twice for him. Like, I get, I get that. Yeah.

But what I'm saying is Robert Thomas is really fucking good. Yep. And he, he just like totally fits what they need. and he can juice the power play a little bit. I guess don't look up how St. Louis's power play has done this year. But you know what I mean? Like that's just a body they can use.

And look, I guess I'm connecting Robert Thomas to half the fucking league. Well, that's the thing. And if the blues are going to trade Robert Thomas, and I still feel like this is a bluff, I've said for a while now, I think this, you put, you dangle Thomas and Cairo out there, the phone rings,

you pretend to talk about those guys, other names shake free in that conversation, and then that's how you wind up getting more traffic to your... Yeah, that's how Braden Shen gets traded, for sure. Yeah. But so here's my question. Speaking of teams that we're waiting to finally do something, I mean, we've been hearing about Robert Thomas for two years,

but we've been hearing about Utah being big players on something forever. Yeah. If Thomas is being moved, or Cairo, but let's say if Robert Thomas is being moved, in your Utah, are you willing to pay a premium that you may have to pay because you're in the same division? Or at that point, do you say, you know what, I'm not going to outbid Detroit or Buffalo or whoever plus the 10% division tax? I think for them, like you're saying, they need to make the kind of splashy move, right? like you don't what I guess what I'm saying is is kind of like you don't want to become Seattle where everybody in your market just kind of gets fucking bored with you

because you're like oh they're not very good it turns out it turns out that we bought the fucking Arizona coyotes at the end of the day that sucks for us you don't want that to happen playouts this year man oh I understand that but what I'm saying is Seattle made the playoffs one time what happened yeah no I'm saying Seattle's making the playoffs again. I'm saying don't use them as your... No, but I'm saying, like, up until two months ago,

everybody was like fucking loser franchise. These guys suck. They're never going anywhere. They're going to train Shane Wright. We'll talk about that in a minute. But, like, that's what I'm saying is, like, if Utah wants to put their balls on the table here, then fucking do it.

Like, who gives a shit? You're allowed to do that in Utah? You know what? I don't know if that's... That might break the honor. code. But you see what I'm saying, though. Like, I guess they could get Patterson, but he's, you know, he's a little bit more of a

misfit toy at this point for, like, it's almost a reclamation project. And I don't know how much he helps the power play. He's a good, again, who's a bigger long time of Lee's Patterson guy than me, but do you want, again, the cap's going up, et cetera, et cetera, but would you rather have Robert Thomas, who makes, I think, $3 million less? than Patterson and is a little more like doesn't have to prove it. Yes, I would rather have Robert Thomas. Yeah, so there you go.

Here's one for you that I think to wrap up probable buyers. I think San Jose is a really interesting team here because I'd be thinking about, you know, defense obviously first and foremost. But you go down the list of defensemen and it's like, oh, maybe we'll just kind of not do anything. I don't know how many, like, guys that fit their window would make a lot of sense. You know what I mean? Yeah, I would agree with that. Yep. Like, if you can get Dougie Hamilton and he can just kind of be a guy there, how long has he signed for after this year?

He's got two or three. Two or three more years? Four years. Now, was it Hamilton that? there was the report that they had a deal with San Jose or at least they were talking and he said no?

Yeah, he's a, I want to stay out east guy in my recollection. Okay. All right. So I mean, if he's an I want to stay out of east guy, that doesn't change. If he's a, I want to play for a contender guy, then I understand why

you'd say no about going devils to sharks in the summer. But now well there's also like at that point again just to circle back to Dallas here like what side of the ice does Dougie Hamilton play and that again that would require them making the it's going to be a no style decision on on Jason Robertson yeah and again I'm never advocating that like Dallas gets older here but Hamilton is a guy that like really solidifies things for most teams that have an iffy situation on their right side. I'm just thinking, I mean, if the devils and the sharks got far enough down the path last summer to approach Douggy Hamilton, then you would assume that there's a foundation already there now, which maybe gives them an advantage. That does make sense.

I kind of like that idea. Yeah, I'm Googling it here. I'm just seeing if there's any history. Yeah, another, this article says make another run at the, at the Dougie Hamilton trade. So yeah, why not? Okay, great. Now let's move into like kind of could go either way or might just like hold pat or whatever the phrase is there. And let's start with the New York Islanders.

I wonder if they're going to make the, we're going to reward you for punching way above your weight this year thing. They might. They absolutely might, yep. So, yeah, I mean, I just, I wonder, because they have assets, but also like, they're not that good, right? They're not. So this is where you kind of thread that needle, right, of, well, I want to give you something. Yeah. But I'm not going to move a first round pick.

I'm not going to move a good prospect. But I'll give you just enough that you're not looking around the room on Friday afternoon going, really? We didn't get anything. Santa didn't come at all. So the only thing I would say is they do have Colorado's first from the Brock Nelson trade. I wouldn't, if I'm there, I don't care about putting that in play. That's going to be like the 24th pick or whatever, right? Mm-hmm.

Yeah. So I put that in play. And I may, you know, they got, they got some prospects. Nobody like, you know, nobody's even close to Matthew Schaefer level that you would, you would even think about trading, obviously. But like, they're, they got some guys that they can maybe make some stuff happen with. And again, like, I, if on them, I'd be looking for a guy with a little bit of term. Just, you know.

Sure. This isn't, their window to win the Stanley Cup is not right now. in all likelihood. It's not, but there's a very realistic. They're like two years away. There's a very realistic path to winning a round at least. Oh, yeah, for sure. And also, like, they do, this is a team that was run by Lou Lamarillo up until very recently.

So there are a lot of like 34-year-old guys on this team, too. So like. I don't hate the idea of, you know, if I'm the islanders. And again, I wouldn't go crazy. But to just sit there and go, we're going to get some playoff experience. for Matthew Schaefer. Yep. Maybe win around.

Put it this way. I like the idea for Matthew Schaefer's development of giving him seven games to go against Sidney Crosby in the playoffs. That'd be fun. Yeah.

Then you go up against who, Carolina? Yeah, probably. With Ilya Syrokin and, you know, I don't know. Carolina ever have trouble scoring goals in the playoffs and now, you know, down on you go. We'll see.

I have a fun one for you that I think they can, they might have to move some money around. But one that kind of, I was like, you know it would actually be pretty fun? Patrick Lidey on this team. It doesn't cost you anything probably. Montreal just wants them off the fucking books. And, you know, like they're kind of a below average offensive team.

Yeah. Yeah, okay. And again, it doesn't really cause, maybe Montreal eat some money or something like that. I don't think it's, if anything, it doesn't cost you much. Because what was the deal that they made a month or so ago where they got,

they took some salary and got a pick? Why am I blanking on that? But it could be the same, no, the Islanders. Oh, the Islanders. Well, they just had the, the Pilat deal. They made the pull out and suzy deals. And this is why I'm saying maybe they're done, too, is like they did that, you know, in the lead up to the Olympics.

And so maybe they are just done here. But, you know, if you could get Patrick Line, hey, I'm fully understanding of the that wouldn't work thing, totally. but let's just fuck around and find out, you know? Why not? Let's just have some fun out there. Yep. All right. This is one that, like, when I say could go either way,

I'm opening that up to like a whole panopticon of options of what they could do, the Florida Panthers. Yeah. Because it's like, okay, they could sell. They probably won't buy, but they could just put a bunch of guys, like shut guys down for the whole season. Because fuck it, like the season's over for them. You know, just try to get a pick or whatever.

Now that I say that, I'm pretty sure they already traded their first run pick this year, but you know what I mean. And at that point, maybe they can get in the market to attract the kind of player that they've gotten in the past. Again, maybe they can't afford that just in terms of their draft capital or whatever you say. but I don't know they have two second round picks this year and if a guy's like I'll accept a trade to one team and one team only and it is the Florida

and it's always the Panthers yeah yeah then fuck it just go get that guy but I don't think they're going to do it if I'm Florida because you're right like I'm sitting here grumbling and crying about the Leafs rightly so the Panthers are behind the Leafs in the standing they're not making it

So, I mean, I would certainly trade anyone I have that's a rental. Because you know why? Because they're going to be crawling back on July 1st. That's, yeah, because they love it here so much. So they don't have a lot of rentals that anybody, like, I'll read you, their pending free agents. This is real. A.J.

Greer, Cole Schwint, Thomas Nosek, Jeff Petrie. He's still on an NHL contract. you can fucking believe it. And both of their goalies, Tarasov and Bovrovsky. Bovrovsky is the fascinating one here. He certainly is. And. But he has a 16 team no trade list, says here.

But if you're, I mean, you go to the Panthers and you, or you go to Bobrovsky and you say, look, you're in the last year. Are you going to play in the NHL next year? Yes. If you are, okay. Do you want to... We'll see you in Miami on July 1st. Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course.

And by the way, wouldn't it be nice if we had a couple of extra picks to work with in the summer? Totally. Or we're not interested. You're not coming back. Do you want to go into free agency having not played in the playoffs?

Now, Bobrovsky's a rare guy. And a stinky season. Brobrovsky's a guy that might actually say, yeah, I would prefer that because I've, you know, be able to say I won my last eight playoff rounds is pretty impressive versus sending me to, you know, wherever. I mean, I'm just going to say it.

Sergei Birovsky to the Edmonton Oilers makes a ton of sense to me. I don't know if you saw ESPN did a thing on like trades they'd like to see. Yep. And it was Ging. Wischnewski was the guy who wrote. Okay, yeah, I remember him. And he's got the Oilers get Brobrovsky, the Panthers get Connor Ingram and Isaac Howard. Sure.

That sounds like it makes sense to me. The Oilers currently have $200,000 in deadline cap space. But Broowski, I'm just going to remind everybody here makes $10 million. I don't think, I don't think Swarlingellon. Here's what Gein has to say. The money could work with full 50% retention by the Panthers and Ingram with an expiring contract being shipped out. Because Connor Ingram makes some money. One at 1.15, it says here.

Okay. Well, I'm not, I mean, I don't know who this guy is on ESPN, but he seems to think it works. I think Ingram maybe overall makes more than that because, yeah, he makes 1.95. No, like Utah's retaining some salary on him. I don't know how that works. I, the Oilers, like, definitionally are kind of a money-in, money-out team. Okay. But what if I did this? What if I just said, figured out? It's why they pay you the big butts, bucks, Stan Bowman. Well, you know, we should also mention that he might have written that before the Connor Murphy deal. He actually was, he goes on to mention that the Connor Murphy deal does complicate things.

And for those of you who don't know, complicate things is sports writer talk for completely screws up my brilliant idea. Yeah, so they got, we should mention here, They got Connor Murphy at 50% retained for a 20, 28 second round pick. Totally good defenseman. You know, he doesn't do anything special, but they just need guys who are like totally good. And to really just make everybody forget about how darn illness doesn't do that, you know? We'll get to the Oilers.

You put Murphy next to Jake Wallman and you're off and running, I feel like. Well, okay. So let's, let's, if not, Bobrovsky. what do you do if you're Stan Bowman with the Oilers in goal? Do you want to know

what my honest answer to that is? Yes. You're fucked. That's what it is. You know what I mean? Like, I'm going to read, again,

I'll just go back to the big board here at the athletic. I'll read you the four goalies on it. Bovrovsky's one of them. Wollstett. Jordan Bittington. Stu Skinner. Those are the four goalies on the list.

This Skinner guys got pretty good numbers, man. I wonder. Yeah, you know, I'm thinking. No, they'd have to be a moron to. You'd have to be the dumb ass of the week. I just, look, this is fresh in my mind. The answer to your question then is Bennington, right? Binnington or Burbrowski or, yeah, this is, I just finished writing a thing that's going to go up tomorrow.

And I'm like, if you're the Oilers, you have, like, Tristan Jury has not worked. Yeah, no shit. He has been flat out bad. I don't mean bad as in you acquired him hoping he would be Patrick Waugh and turn your whole season around and he didn't do that. I mean bad.

Worse than what they had. So, gonna do it like the metaphor that I use because I'm a very good writer and I use, I paint vivid imagery with my words, is that you took a big swing, you fell the ball off, it bounced and came up

and hit you in the nuts. So after you're done rolling around on the ground for a little bit, are you going to get back up and get back in the box and take another swing or are you just going to crawl off the field in tears and go,

I don't want to play anymore? Because I don't want to play anymore isn't an option. And you got three, this is one of your three Connor McDavid years. Stan Bowman did not get hired to build this team.

He got hired to push it over the finish line like he did in Chicago. Dude, I know it's hard. I know there's not cap room. I know you might be screwed. Figure it out. You have to. Well, again. This is what you're here for.

If there's one GM in the league that I'm pretty confident, can't figure it out at Stan Bowman. Do you see what I'm saying? First of all, there's way more than one in the league that you're confident. I'm saying if you put a gun to my head and said, who's the one GOM? GM that you would say this guy doesn't have the fucking juice. I would say it's Stan Bowman.

And again, I like that counter-mercary trade for them. I think he helps them. Yeah, but. But depth defensive defenseman for a second round pick is the most paint by numbers. Sure it is. Trade you can possibly. But any other GM could have made that same deal. This is, oh, sorry, guys, I tried in December.

I remember in December when they made that trade and a lot of people were pretty iffy on it, because I went back. I looked at trade grades and stuff because sometimes I'm like, oh, we all knew. that wasn't going to work and then that isn't backed up by reality. But in this case, there are a lot of people saying this, this is pretty dicey. One of the things I did like about it is I, and I said it at the time, maybe on this show, I said, by doing this in December instead of at the deadline, they've given themselves a couple of months, see if it works, and they can pivot if they need to.

All right, Stan, the pivot light is flat. Whirlers have got to do something. I agree that they do. I just don't know what that looks like, given what we know the goaling market to be. You know what I mean? What about Anthony Stollers? Great, okay, sure. Speaking of teams you could actually win a trade with.

No, you don't understand. We got the oldest defenseman in the world. Yeah. Oh, I'm listening, you know. Okay. Yeah, like I say, I obviously agree that you can't go into the postseason if you have Connor McDavid and Leon Dreisible with Tristan Jari as your starting goaltender. Can't do it.

Not allowed. I don't know that they have the choice. That's all. Man. All right. Tough. Okay. We'll take it.

Who's next? Next up, we kind of mentioned them in passing earlier, the Washington Capitals. Yeah. They're three, let me pull up the standings tab here. They are two points out of the last wild card in the east, but with three extra games played over the unbeatable Boston Bruins. Only two regulation losses in the last 10 for Boston. Tough spot to throw in the tallyer if you're Washington.

Oh, yeah. Well, that's why I, again, you mentioned John Carlson earlier, a guy that could maybe should be for sale. You don't trade John Carlson if you're like, and we're right there in the playoff mix. You know what I mean? I had somebody on Blue Sky, like, was like, where's that coming from?

And I was like, well, because he's old. He's an old guy with on an expiring contract. He's been pretty good this year, but his team is potentially going to miss playoffs. Could be sellers. So that's where it comes from. I don't, I don't really see it. I'd be surprised.

Put it that way. Can I, can I hit you with this? Sure. They should do it. Yeah. That, like they don't,

they're in a really interesting spot because all their best players are either like 24 or 50. And then there's like two guys in the middle. Like Tom Wilson's one of the two guys in the middle. You know what I mean? Yep. So it's a weird. I mean, I always say this.

kind of mix of ages where none of your best players are like in the in the primes of their careers just means you're not going to win much in the playoffs if anything right and look at what happened last year two years ago they've won five playoff games in the last two seasons and that to me i think is a function of just what again their age mix and and the kinds of players they have at the top of their lineup kind of are. And I think that, you know, if you trade Carlson who and you kind of otherwise keep your powder dry for the next few years or for the next few weeks, you know, like let's roll out some of the younger guys.

Let's, you know, let's up the ice time for those guys and just see what happens. Alex Ovechkin, you are exclusively a power play player at this point, you know? And by the way, Alex Ovechkin is still leading their team in scoring this season, which you don't want from a 40-year-old. No. Again, if you have like real playoff aspirations, which I don't think they do. So I think it makes sense to trade an older guy or two, or again, go out and spend some assets to get a guy who is in the,

I hate to keep doing it. Robert Thomas, Jordan Cairo age range, 25, 26, 27 years old, whatever you want to say. And then, you know, you can support your stromes and your chikrin's and your protuses. God, protists already 25, says here. That's crazy. I wouldn't have guessed. And then, like, be a little more competitive while Ryan Leonard ages into his prime and that kind of thing.

I think that would make a lot of sense. I just don't know that they're going to do it. Yeah, I think that's all fair. I think they are probably just the classic bubble playoff team that adds a little bit. Remember, they didn't add much in 2018 and won the cup. Yep. Kind of gives them an easy-o. By the way, we have some breaking news.

I went to Twitter and I looked at the trending topics. Uh-huh. And it says here, Toronto Maple Leafs emerge as betting favorites to acquire Connor McDavid at an NHL trade deadline. Oh, awesome. Great. Sean, congratulations, man. I'm just going to ask Grock if this is true.

And then, but this is, this is pretty. The ESPN guy? Yeah. No, that's, that was Greek. Oh, my. Yeah. It's all Greek to me. I wonder if, I wonder if they're related.

Probably. They might be. What's in the box at the end of seven? You're not going to fucking believe it. All right. A really interesting, another, a more interesting team, I guess, in the Metro division, the

Columbus Blue Jackets. I have no fucking clue what they're going to do here. Yeah. They are so interesting on this front. They really got sewered by the break. They were so red hot. Yeah. Yeah. And also being the Columbus Blue Jackets.

That also hurt. Boone Jenner is a name that is out there as far as on trade boards and that. do you move him? Do you, like on the one hand, he's a classic guy. I mean, you can do the Nick Folino thing again.

Find some stupid team that will overpay for your captain before a playoff run. But it's tough because they're close-ish to the playoffs still. And yet, I don't know. Well, so the other thing with that is, Three points back with the same number of games played as Boston. So here's what I think. With Jenner, with Charlie Coyle, who's like, you know, a very, very surprisingly effective player for them this year.

And they just got a couple of other older guys. I'd be being like anybody want Elvis Merz-Lekins. We'd love to make that happen for you, that kind of thing. they're in kind of the situation you're talking about where they have some older guys who are like overperforming this year or outperforming expectations, whatever you want to say, who are not guys that I'd want to be giving extensions to.

Maybe you feel a little differently about Boone Jenner. I kind of think he's washed. And he's chopped in unc as well. So to me, I'm just like, I don't know. I'd be pushing those guys out the door. I don't know if they're going to do it. It's like you're saying, it's just a sell high proposition at this point.

You know? But they're just close enough where they can talk themselves into actually we're not the Columbus Blue Jackets, it turns out. You know? They've got two more games. They've got Nashville tonight, Florida on Thursday night. So this could be another one. We'll get to Nashville in a minute.

If you're, you know, three points out, it's tough. Even five points out feels very different. Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. Wait and see. Yeah. I got to get your local guy opinion on the Ottawa senators here, because I have no fucking idea what they think they want to do.

Yeah, there has not been a lot of talk. around there. Yeah. Because there, this is a team that desperately needs to make the playoffs, but,

okay, I just said five points feels like a lot. There are five points back. And with, would need to pass four teams. I don't think they sell. They don't really have anything to,

like, I mean, obviously they've got assets, but nobody that you realistically view as like a rental. I think it's going to be quiet or like a small ad. Yeah.

Like a mid-round pick for, somebody will go into the top nine but so you say you did something you give them a little bit of a boost they've been they've been pretty good coming out of the break like they've been okay so yeah you know you try to keep it rolling but i i don't think i have not heard that there's much of an appetite for like a big swing now this time last year they they kind of surprised us a little bit with the dylan Cousins deal, which was, like, I could see them making that sort of move, get a guy who trade away a longish term piece to get somebody who drops into that spot.

So maybe that's where they come from, but I don't, as far as rentals, I don't, I don't see them being big players. Yeah, I guess I tend to agree with all that. I just look at these guys and I go, like, this is a team that needs an upgrade at like every position. and so because because of that I'm also therefore kind of going well if that's the case like you don't it maybe you just say it wasn't our year and and you move on you know especially yeah they don't have what happened with the goaltending situation and everything and remember they don't have a great pipeline and they don't have their first round pick because of the pierre dorian thing this year right which you know any Senators fans, you want to get their blood pumping, mention that. They're big fans.

They have, Senators fans have thoughts about how that all played out. Yeah, that's right. All right. Let's wrap up the Eastern Conference could go either way, and let's talk about Montreal. That guy's excited. Yeah. I don't know. what they do.

Similar, to me, similar to Detroit and Buffalo, although they, obviously, they were in the playoffs last year, so they don't have the drought to worry about or the, you know, get the monkey off the back. They're really nicely laid out. If I were them, all I'm saying, if I were them, I wouldn't be trying to remind too many people about what happened to the playoffs last year. You know what I'm saying? I'd be like, yeah, it's actually crazy.

We didn't even make it last year. Again, I feel like this is, you know, team. number probably 15 or so that should be calling St. Louis. They made the deal with them earlier, the, like the Logomayu deal at the beginning of the year. So, yeah, St. Louis is hanging up immediately. Fuck off. Is it right to voicemail? Yeah. But, and you mentioned Patrick and I mean, if you could get out from under that, I think they, they have. I believe it's only for the remainder of this year, though. It's not like it's like a huge. Oh, I thought he was, I thought he had time. Okay. Well, then. Am I wrong about that?

No, yeah, he's up this summer. Okay. That's why I thought it made sense for Caroline. I mean, I think if you can add a piece, it would be interesting, like, do you go after a rental? And I don't mean like a... But, you know, are you willing to cough up a second or third round pick for somebody who's going to slot in again?

Because just like we said, Detroit and Buffalo, like this division has a path, certainly out of the first round. And then... Absolutely. I mean, Tampa's going to be a favorite against anyone, but not insurmountable. Yeah, I tend to agree with that. Yeah, they're a, they're just an interesting team because, again, like, the future is so obviously bright for them with, with the number of their best players being like 26 and under or whatever, right? Like, that's how old Suzuki is now, right?

26. God, he's been in the league a million years, huh? Yeah. but like you know what i i forgot about this they went out and got filled to know already they still have a ton of cap space but um not a ton i suppose but like they have they have cap space but it'll be interesting to see what they what they want to do i if i'm them i kind to just like go well we really like our young guys so that's that um all right uh let's let's let's kind of speed round through the,

through the, you know, might hold teams in the Western Conference. Winnipeg, I think they're just kind of going to go, hey, it happens. Everybody has a bad year.

Every once in a while, we'll try again next season. They don't, they don't really just have anybody to trade out to me. Not, not any big, I mean, Luke Shen is always a guy in play at the,

at a deadline. There's always somebody out there who's, who's interested in him. Gustav Nyquist is the other guy that's always out there, but you're not getting it. You want to talk about a guy who's 50. Yeah.

Gus Nyquist has been doing it forever, man. Good player. If people missed it, somebody did ask Jonathan Taves, like, would you? And he was like, no, I'm not going anywhere. Fuck off. Okay, makes sense.

So, yeah, I think Winnipeg is probably going to be quietish. Yep. I tend to agree. The L.A. Kings, who they already made their big move this week, they fired Jim Hiller and they replaced him with DJ Smith. The only coach in the league whose name is two occupations. Dude, I spent way too much time trying to find another example, but I think you got me on that. Some guy really tried with, like, John Cooper. And it's like, yeah, I don't think, like, John is not, like, he said, like, got.

like guy who solicits sex work or whatever. And it's like, I think that's not a job that people have. Oh, yeah, okay. You know what I mean? Yep. And also, it's not spelled that way. It's not. No.

I was trying to make the case for Doug Carpenter, but I mean, now if it was Dig Carpenter. Even that, that's just like what you do as your, if it was Digger Carpenter. Yeah, that's fair. I'm going to say this, if it was Dig, Doug Carpenter. Because I feel like being. Dig-Dug is a profession. There's got to be a professional dig-dug player out there, right? Well, I'm just saying the guy Dig-Dug himself.

He's not on those islands, like, fucking around for fun. And maybe that's Dig-Dug, too. Anyway, shout-out to Dig-Dug, one of the best arcade games of all time. Very much. It feels like the Kings already made their big move. They did, yeah, they did with Panera. And the only thing that you would look at is, like, with the, injury coming in the Olympics.

Does that change anything? But I don't think so. I think this is, they've made their two big moves. I just think you want to talk about a dumb ass of the week. I think Ken Holland being like, oh, now I should fire Jim Hiller. Yeah, you should have fired him before the Olympics, man. How many guys did the Kings send to the Olympics? It wasn't that many, right?

Fiala and Doughty and maybe that's it? Yeah, Copa d'Ardingo. Nope. Yeah. Camper didn't go. So like why... Camper was there, but is the... Didn't play.

Oh, he did go. That's right. He did go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To me, I'm just sitting here going like, why not have three weeks of your coach, like meeting players, running practices? Well, I guess you couldn't run them the whole Olympics or whatever,

but you know what I mean. Like, it's just such an obvious, like, thing to do, but I saw Elliot Friedman saying the other day, like, well, it's because Ken Holland doesn't like to make a coaching change in the middle of the season. Tough shit. Make the change. Like, what are you talking about?

This was always going badly. Oh, you don't like... Okay, well, if you don't like it. Again, GMs are the only ones who get to do this. Yeah. Craig Barubei doesn't like mixing up his power play. Oh, okay. Then you don't have to, man. Sorry. Don't sweat.

We didn't know you had likes and dislikes. We're not asking you to go outside your comfort zone, even remotely. Unbelievable. Yeah, so I don't think the Kings are going to do anything. I think they're going to hold pat, and they're going to miss the playoffs. Congratulations to the beautiful Los Angeles Kings. You get to not lose the Oilers in the first round this year. But let's stay in Southern California and talk about the Anaheim Ducks.

Mm-hmm. The Red Hot Anaheim Ducs. It feels like they need to buy, but again, and they have so much caps. They could trade for half the fucking guys on the big board if they wanted to. But their roster feels pretty set. I guess you'd like to see an upgrade on the blue line because I don't, I don't really love what they're putting out there. but again, like, who's available on the blue line that you're, if you're the ducks, you're like falling all over yourself to get.

Yeah. Again, I'll read the big board to you. Falk, Myers, Ekman Larson, Hamilton, Ristelainen, Ferraro, Peak, Luke Shen, Alexiac. Like, is Zach Whitecloud your big target here? Again, I think you add something as sort of your, like, this is a young team. haven't been in the playoffs. You just, you know, just sort of, if anything, just to give him that little train,

like this is what happens. Down the stretch. Totally. You know, I mean, they're going to have a tough first-round match. They are. Assuming Edmonton doesn't drop and play Vegas first. Well, it's more assuming Anaheim doesn't surge to the top of that division. Right? Like the way things are going.

I mean, yeah, actually, yes. Uh, yeah. You could talk me into that happening. You could, for sure. Yeah. So, yeah, that's just kind of my take on the ducks. It's like I, obviously they have some areas of need, but it's nothing that, again, like, if I'm them, I'm like bending over backwards to like, we got to make it happen, you know? So I think they'll buy.

I think. But if they held Pat, I guess I wouldn't be very surprised at all either. Let's stay in the Pacific and go to Seattle. The big question here is what do they think they are? And is Shane Wright available? I guess that's two questions. And I think he is and he probably should be. and this is sort of your

your way to do a not a classic rental thing, but, you know, Shane Wright becomes your draft pick that you can move for some immediate help, preferably not someone who's going to turn around and leave in the summer.

But, I mean, at some point, we kind of do have to come to terms with the fact that the Cracken look like they're making the playoffs. They do. So they're and I mean they would play the ducks if the playoff started today Which they do famously do they? Oh crap yeah I gotta get okay I gotta go I got a preview to write

That's exactly it oh man But you see what I'm saying like they I don't think you're you're swinging big I don't think anyone is is looking at Seattle and going like Unless there's unless there's a selling team with like a guy who's actually a needle mover to move who they want like I'll give you a good example of who I think might be interested in Shane right team that's been pretty aggressive and they probably want to get younger would it surprise you at all to see like Pittsburgh try to find a way to make this happen with Trader Kyle yeah that makes that makes a lot of sense yeah but again like it depends on like what Seattle's putting out there for the ask. They don't have a

Pittsburgh doesn't have like a ton of assets to be moving around like they're making a lot of for lack of a better term hockey traits you know. So like if they think Seattle is like making too big of an ask which I think is you know a very like why would Seattle be in a huge hurry to move

Shane right, unless he like hates it there or something. I don't know. They could add a forward. They obviously need some difference makers up front. And maybe you say the penguins don't have that in a guy that they're willing to trade, which is totally fair. But I just don't know. Let's wrap up this group, though, with Vegas.

Another one where it's like, who fucking knows? That's it, right? Like, all signs, including, like, just what seems best, would point to them maybe staying quiet. But it's Vegas. They don't do that. Yeah. They don't do that. Now, is there anyone available who is a big enough star for Vegas to get in on?

Again, this is the, like, oh, you were surprised that Vegas traded for Jordan Cairo? Like, they gave up, like, a second and a third and somehow got him. Right. Like, this is, could absolutely happen. Yeah. But for now, I mean, they're not good, but the Pacific stinks. And is anyone going to be surprised when it's the second week in May and Vegas is in the final four and playing well? And you're looking at that roster going, oh, yeah, these guys are good.

Right. So, I don't know. I'm with you. I also don't know. Let's move on to probable sellers here. Let's start with your your Toronto Maple Leafs. Sell, sell it all. Yeah, of course, obviously.

This is, I mean. Well, I guess my question to you, Sean, is what are they looking for in selling? You're looking at. Do picks entice them? Yes. Picks and prospects, even if it's only to reload the cupboard for potentially trying again in the summer. Okay. The two first round picks that they've traded away looms over everything.

Yeah, you're right. As why they can't do a full strip it down, you know, rebuild. And keep in mind if what feels like the best case scenario, if they were to actually drop to the bottom five, which Dom had a piece on that this week, is very unlikely even if they were to completely tank. Even if they do that, keep the pick, great. Now their next two picks are,

unprotected. So, I mean, they just can't bottom out. But yes, you get whatever you can for Bobby McMahon and guys like that. Scott Lawton's a guy that I think you have to go to him with a very, you go to him with an offer, but it's not, it's not that you lowball him, but you go, look, man, you love here in Toronto, we love having you. Here's a reasonable contract. And if, this is not not like we we can't we're not paying people up we're not paying deaf guys a premium to stay in toronto so you move him you move whoever else and i like that includes to me all over recman larson yeah absolutely move him if you if you can this is his value is never going to be higher the rest of this deal so um this this is this is a test of like is there anything

any pulse left in Bradshaw Living's front office career that he can pull four or five deals off in the next few days. Right. But again, hasn't made a single one all season.

Well, I mean, it's just gone so well. I mean, and honestly, if he doesn't, then forget about, like,

fire him on Saturday morning. Fire him Friday afternoon. I don't care. At this point, I'm so checked out on, on this team, Not more checked out than they are on themselves, of course. But just...

I have a proposal for you, Sean. He's doing the, like, you know how every GM has to do the post-deadline press conference? He's doing that and someone comes in like George W. Bush 9-11 style like, hey, man. I just want to see like a hook, like a vaudeville comically long cane. Sandman comes on, sweeps him off the stage. Exactly. Yeah, man. Get him out of there.

So, yeah, I mean, the Leafs stink. And they should trade absolutely everybody they can. And if they don't, so the reason I have them in probable sellers, I kind of don't think they would. Yeah, because they're stupid. He almost said they're fucking stupid, folks. He almost said it. They're stupid and bad at their job. So yeah.

Yeah. Another team that's kind of in the same boat, but different also is Philadelphia, where it's like they should sell. I don't know if they will. I mean, Rustolanen sounds like he's certainly being shopped. Yeah. Is he, is his deal expiring? I think it is, right? I don't know.

Let's see here. It says here. Next summer. Next summer it'll be. So it's this, you know, a year and a half left on his deal. I mean, if you're, if you're, if you're him, you're looking at like what the Bruins did with Brian and Carlo last year and going, like, could we pull that off? Yeah, for sure. find a sucker.

That's what it's all about. Find a stupid, dumb ass. Yeah. But yeah, other than that, I think it's, they just don't have a ton. No, they don't. You know, again, like, there are guys I would like to see, or, you know, there are positions of need

that I would like to see them address, but I don't know that doing it at the deadline makes any fucking sense at all. Like, unless you're making up pure hockey trade, which I don't know that you really can. It's tough for me. New Jersey here, again, it feels like they should sell,

but will they? Who knows? Yeah, I mean, I think you certainly move Hamilton if you can. But this is somewhat like in Toronto, this is kind of a GM on the hot seat, and that's always a weird dynamic. How much can you sell when you're like,

you know, I said with Toronto, like you got to restock the cupboard. Okay, for who? Mm-hmm. But we'll find out. No, they should have done with. They should have traded for Quinn Hughes. Tom Fitzgerald is not only on the hot seat,

but he could be auditioning for that Nashville job. So, you know, maybe you've got to make a deal with Nashville. Here's what you do. You trade Dougie Hamilton and all your good players to Nashville for a seventh round pick. I'll see you guys down there. You'll flip a double bird. Yep. And you walk out.

What's the conspiracy theory on that? It was it, Hartford and Pittsburgh? Yep, that they had sent, oh, who was it? It's Ron Francis, right? Well, yeah, that the Ron Francis deal, but it wasn't Craig Patrick, was it? I think it was Craig Patrick. Somebody that they had, like, left Pittsburgh to become the GM in Hartford, traded Ron Francis to Pittsburgh and then rejoined the Penguins.

And it was like, oh, kind of a beast move, honestly. Got sleeper-selled. Anyway, yeah, obviously New Jersey should sell whether they will is, again, like the political intrigue around their, they're probably outgoing GM. I do wonder about the coach there, too. I really wonder that for the summer. I don't think it's an imminent thing. But, I mean, they've won. Maybe down the stretch.

They made the playoffs once and they won, I want to say one playoff game. I believe that's correct. Three years. I think good enough. For a team that was supposed to be a cup contender? They were. I don't know, man. I do know.

Bad. It's bad. Speaking of Nashville, Nashville. Yeah. They're an interesting one because they're in it, right? Like they're four points out, but with a game in hand on Edmonton, which is really funny. And yet, negative 30 gold difference. So, you know, they're only, obviously they're in the, they're in the central.

Their only path is the wild card. They're not, they're 18 points back of Minnesota. I don't think they're catching them. Somewhat like with Utah, it's like, I mean, you're going to get into the wild car, but you're going to get your doors kicked in. Oh, yeah, man. If you get the central slot, if you get the first wild card. I don't like these guys against Vegas. I'll just, I'm going to admit that right now.

That doesn't portend good things to me. And you've got a GM who's already quit, but it's still a GM. That's so sick. I mean, the two interesting things here are, no, we didn't talk about it with Tampa, but like the Stephen Stamcoast might be willing to go back to the lightning situation is, I love it. My cold, dead heart would love to see that. It loves a good reunion, but I just, I can't imagine how that would work.

the other one is Ryan O'Reilly with the mystery no trade protection that isn't there We all we all He doesn't have any and yet they're like Yeah yeah he does Yeah What's the mystery here?

So he's been I've seen him link to Colorado O'Reilly? Yeah Oh yeah you used to play there You know And speaking of where he used to play I did see somebody

mentioned they're like Look just as a player He'd fit perfectly with what Buffalo is trying to do sure, why not? It went great for him last time. Yeah, he was really happy there, remember? He was like something about his love of hockey.

I'm assuming it was positive. So that would be quite amusing. Yes, I simply agree. And then finally, the Calgary Flames. Again, I have them as probable seller just because it does feel like they're one of those teams or it's like it's actually really complicated for us to move. And they have done a bunch of selling. already, you know. Yeah, they already moved Rasmus Anderson six months after everybody thought they were going to.

Cadry's a guy I'd move. I would absolutely move on from him if I could if I'm Calgary and I think you should be able to. He's got some trade protection, but you think Nazim Cadry is like, yeah, I want to lose for the last three years of my career. I'm certainly not a guy who gets like overly hyped for the playoffs. I just want to chill out. So the three guys on the athletic big board from Calgary, Cadry, Coleman, and Zach White Cloud. Zach White Cloud, obviously, the guy they just got back in the Anderson deal. Yeah, I mean, Coleman, if you can, yeah, Coleman could probably get you something, too.

Oh, yeah, for sure, Ken. He's an all right, you know, player in his role or whatever. But again, they're just one of these teams where it's like, we'd really like to be competitive. And we think, like, that kind of thing. And it's just like, shut the fuck up and make the trade, man. I don't want to hear this. Uh-huh. You know, honestly, you know what Calgary should be doing?

they have $44 million in cap space. We'll take all the bad money you got. We'll be the third team in these trades, whatever you want to say. Like, they should do it. Whether they will is a different question because of how ownership works there, et cetera, et cetera. So that's why I have them as a probable seller. I think they'll make at least one selling trade,

but I don't think they're going to go as all out as the following teams here. The Vancouver Canucks, for example, I think this is a team with a lot of motivation to actually do the selling. Trade Elias Pedersen. They should. For whatever you can get, get out from under that contract. Yes. And if he goes somewhere else and rediscovers his game, change of scenery,

all that stuff gets back to be in 100 points, good. Fine. Wish him well. It's not happening in Vancouver. No. Absolutely not. Get out of there. Yes.

Brock Bessler was being mentioned a lot, which, geez, that's... Did you see his quote about that? He was like, oh, it wouldn't be the deadline if... That's more or less what he said, yeah. He's like, well, now it's officially the trade deadline, something like that. He's right. Yeah. My name's out there.

I'm Brock Bessor. I endorse this message. Yep. Kyle Garland, we've been waiting forever. And Evander Cain feels like a... guy that like someone's going to talk themselves. Like Colorado is going to be like, oh, yeah, we actually love a Vanderkain. Maybe that's not a great example.

They're actually a well-run team. But you know what I mean. Good point. Yeah. And then the other guy, well, DeBrusk's name is out there as well, but then it's the Tyler Myers thing where he's like thinking about do I want to move to Detroit. I'll send him a DVD copy of the show Detroiters. It's weird that it's taking that long for this.

Yeah, and they're holding them out of the lineup, right? Like, that's my, again, I just, I just go my thing with, with the Izer plan and all this is like, you're holding up all these potential other trades you could be making because you're waiting for Tyler Myers to make the fucking call, man. Just don't, don't worry about it. We're good here. Yeah. Yep. But anyhow.

Yeah, there is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven guys out of the 50, Like one in every seven guys on the trade board from the athletic, basically, is a Vancouver Canuck. Teddy Bluger and Jake DeBrusk and David Kamp for the other guys. Hey, why not, you know? David Kamp. Oh, yeah. I'm lining up to get. He's fine.

Whatever. He's fine. And the contract is better than it was in Toronto. All these guys are fine. You know, like, I think Teddy Blugher can play a role for somebody. Jake Debrusk, like. Yeah. Whoops a daisy on.

that contract, but like, you know, that's a guy that could, that can put the puck in the net sometimes. Especially put them with like David Poster knock or whatever. Anyway, yeah, that's the Canucks. Obviously, they're definitely selling it. It's just a question of like, how different does the, does that roster look on, on Saturday morning? Pretty interesting.

Let's do the Rangers here. I think we all agree that they're going to sell at least somebody. Yep. Yep. I mean, Trocheque sounds like he's out the door. The number one guy on the trade. Oh, speaking of, did you see the quote that he had about, he talked to his kids about getting traded? Yes, I did.

For people who didn't see it, his son was like, okay, well, it sounds like I'm going to stay here because I didn't get traded for my hockey. Yeah. He's seven-year-olds, like, I got my hockey. Like, sorry it didn't work out for you, Big Dog, but I don't see. I should have to... Yeah, this is a Vincent Trochec problem. I'm assuming his kid's name is like Skylar or some shit like that. But, yeah.

Anyhow. Trochek to Minnesota makes so much... Are they far enough east? Because this is, like, Trochecks kind of flagged. I'm not going out west. But Minnesota's the Western Conference, but... Well, again, it's just the like, this is the relationship deal in hockey where it's like you don't understand his loyalty now to,

uh, to, uh, Bill Garin for putting him on the Olympic team and believing in him when no one else did. That's it. I think he would, I think that's an easy sell. And, and again, I,

I think I mentioned it earlier. I think he would help the wild. Maybe not as much as, again, Robert Thomas or whatever, but just somebody. You know, that's a body for them.

It's a name. It's a guy with a gold medal. So. let's make it happen. St. Louis, do we have anything else to say other than No, I feel like we should trade Bennington more than any other team. Yeah. They should trade Bennington, though.

They should. Will they? Good question. And finally, Chicago is the other team that should. Again, not. That definite seller to me. Not a ton to move, but. Yeah, Dickinson and McKayev are the,

only other guys on the on the board here but like yeah fucking trade both of them who cares they already made the murphy deal they ate money to do it and they didn't get a ton back for it obviously like again they basically purchased a second round pick that's fine if nothing murphy probably would have been a fourth otherwise you know so I think that's every team I believe it is and apologies to the one like person who's yelling at us right now because are like, what about Portland? We just, sorry, forgot. I'm scanning the list here.

I'm pretty sure we got all of them. I think we got them all. So, there you have it. Sean, plugs. I got stuff at the athletic. Go read it. And I'll be on with Sean and Frankie tomorrow and subscribe to the newsletter

because I wrote it yesterday about like where are all the trades and then I didn't send it in until late at night because I'm like, there's definitely going to be a trade now that I've written this. And then it went out this morning and there's still nothing. That's okay.

As long as we get a bunch of moves on Friday, I'm happy. So yeah, find all my stuff over there. That's right. And then for me, head over to Elite Prospects.com. We're getting into playoff season over there in college hockey, a bunch of conferences starting their playoffs this weekend. And then I think it's the Big Ten in Hockey East, the following. weekend.

So lots of really good stuff over in the college hockey world these days. Lots of really fun stories and that kind of thing. So I'm covering all of it. Go check it out. And then you head over to patreon.com slash puck soup. All kinds of bonus episodes, including, Sean, I have a bonus episode pitch that I'm going to do right now on the show. Kind of like alternative hockey awards, basically.

Mm-hmm. But like Oscars. because it's Oscar season. I think the Oscars are the 14th or something next month this coming Sunday, the one after. So like a hockey Oscars style bonus episode later this month. How does that sound? That does. Sounds excellent.

I've come up with a bunch of different fun categories that aren't just like who's the best player or whatever the fuck. You know what I mean? So we're going to do something fun with that. And we're also going to do a bonus episode that we're going to go record right this second. So thank you so much for listening. Have a good one. Bye bye. Bye-bye.