Puck Soup - Fake Drama and Real Drama

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

Sean and Ryan talk about the Bruins drama, the tight Wild Card race in the East, trade boards, and more. Sponsored by Mint Mobile (mintmobile.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McNeu from The Athletic. And I guess we got to start this week with the biggest news in the NHL. There's another pair of guys on a team that's supposed to be better than this, who hate each other's guts. Didn't we do this already? Well. Is it a hard-nosed North American and a high-skill European? any chance. Some might say mercurial, you know. Okay. Yeah.

But, well, no, they can't be enigmatic. Neither one of them is Russian. Well, I didn't say enigmatic for that reason. I know the score here, you know. But of course, we're talking about David Pasternak, Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins. The big report on Friday. I don't know if, I think they went out of their way to not characterize it as a report for some reason. Well, I know what the reason is now, you know. Yeah. But this from Rich Keefe from the Jones and Keefe show on 937WEEI here in beautiful Boston, Massachusetts. This is Rich Keefe, who does get Bruins scoops is the notable thing here.

That's what I needed to ask you as our Boston correspondent. Who are these guys? I believe they're the midday show, if I'm not wrong about that. and yeah, Jones has been doing it for, Adam Jones has been doing it for a million years. More recently than that, they added Rich Keefe,

who I'm less familiar with. I've been on the Adam Jones show in the past. I have not been on Jones and Keefe, so I've talked to Adam a few times, nice guy, whatever. But Rich Keefe, this guy, he seems to have connections. He, most notably, I think, he was first with Jim Montgomery's getting fired.

Now, you could have said that every day for a month, and eventually you would have been right. But he had it day off. He's like, it's happening, and then it happened, you know? So, this is the quote from Rich Keefe. The locker room is a disaster, and David Osternock is at the center of that. David Osternock has told the team he doesn't want to be on a line with Brad Marshand, and it may stem from Brad Marshan calling out Posternak for some of his play. And then the official Jones and Keefe account followed that up with the like,

oh, big eyes emoji, you know, and then yikes. And then Brad Marsh and then Brad Marsh and it's like this guy shouldn't have a job. He's a moron. He doesn't know. I understand the media has a job to do. I like that they throw that in now, you know? Sure. Yeah.

You guys got to talk about shit. I get it. That's fine. But this is like this couldn't be more off base and, you know, they're playing on the power play together and all this kind of stuff. Good old the media. Yeah. When it's really one guy. But yeah, I mean... When all the media had our weekly meeting, we all did decide that these are the guys who would go with this.

What has happened since on the radio side? Have they walked it back? Have they doubled down? I don't think they have. This is going to shock you. I'm not the world's biggest Boston sports. radio listener guy, you know, but I can't... Absolutely shock me. Yeah. I feel like you're the guy, like, who calls in. Yeah. What do you think?

What do you think, Sidney Crosby for Justin Brasso in a third round pick? I'll hang up and listen. That sounds about right. Yeah. But yeah, you know, it's funny that there, it doesn't seem like there's been much follow-up on this other than. And of course, again, like the Bruin social media teams getting in on the jokes. And like, I think I think everybody just has to kind of, you know, look.

You know who else said they get along great is J.T. Miller and Eliza. Peterson, right? And I love this guy. That is part of it, right? Is that both of those guys in Vancouver came out and said, this is all made up. It's fake. And then everybody who's coached them and played with them has been like, What are you talking about?

Yeah. And yeah. So players can lie about this sort of stuff. Yeah, of course. And I will say the original thing from Marshand was a bit of, boy, this guy's protesting a lot. Some might say too much. Yeah, I kind of saw it the other way. Like, to me it was, that was a much more believable denial.

I agree. obviously. Then Miller and Patterson just clearly sulking through the motions of just not wanting this stuff out there. Yeah, of course. So, yeah, I don't know. Then they go out and they beat the Panthers. Well, that's exactly right. This is galvanized them.

They're about to go on a 14-game winning streak. Every problem they've ever thought they had fixed. They're minus 26 goal difference. By this time, next month will be a plus 26 goal difference. It's all going to work out great for them because, you know, it brought the room together. A common enemy, some guy, off we go, you know. But my big thinking about this is true or not, and I'm obviously leaning toward not here, this doesn't happen if the Bruins have nine more points in the standings, you know what I mean?

Right. If they're not in the midst of a six-game losing streak at the time that this report comes out, there's no, oh, this guy doesn't like this guy, this guy doesn't like that guy, you know? The Bruins only make changes when, like, they're really starting to go into the toilet. and this feels like it could be them really starting to go into the toilet. And I don't know. Like to me it kind of read like maybe some beach softening for somebody notable is getting traded here. Okay.

But then, as you say, they go out and they win the next game against their hated rivals. And they only get outshot like 42 to 17 doing it. So. Yeah. And they win the, they get kind of a lucky bounce in overtime. But the Asternet gets the winner. Did I slow-mo freeze frame the celebration to see if he and Marshaun were hugging?

Maybe. And I got to be honest, man, kind of a C-minus interaction between the two of them. Uh-oh. I was looking for something a little bigger, but. Oh, I thought you guys were friends, you know? Yeah, they were. It was kind of a side hug situation at best, so. Yeah, it's a fun little drama, but I mean, it's kind of, we've already done this storyline this year.

Like the writer. Yeah, and better too. Yeah, like, and I know everyone loved it the first time around, but that doesn't mean you just introduce it as a little side quest. It's a real Dante's Peak volcano situation. It did give us all the chance to, like, tweet and text and message our Vancouver buddies about Brad Marchand for J.T. Miller. Who says no? And the answer is everybody. I think, I mean, I think Ration would really shake things up in Vancouver.

Absolutely. That would be the ultimate test of the, ah, you'd love them if he was on your team. You're absolutely right. Yeah, absolutely. But I guess the real thing is with all this is that like this all comes at a time when the wild card race in the Eastern Conference is fucking insane. Yeah. I'm going to just say this. There are seven teams in the Eastern Conference with a positive goal difference.

That means one of them is in a wild card spot right now. Who is that team, Sean? Is it Columbus? No, it isn't. They're close, though. Is it Ottawa? It is Ottawa. Okay.

Ottawa is plus two. Every other team in the Eastern Conference that's not top three in their division has a negative goal difference of some level. Columbus, like you say, close. They're minus two. And they do occupy right now, you know, I hate this season ended today's shit. But if the season ended today by points percentage, it's Ottawa and then Columbus. And then both Detroit and Montreal, then Boston by points percentage. But even the lowly New York Rangers, the loser bums who are all the way out of it are only five points out of, or I'm sorry, four points out of the second wild card.

Now, there are one, two, three, four, five, six teams above them for that. And I don't know, what do you make, yeah, what do you make of where the, where the East sits right now? Is anybody in this conference any good? No, not out of that mix with the possible exception of the, I guess you have to maybe put a pin in the Todd McClellan era Red Wings. Well, look, if they can get their power play running in 50% all year, I have great feelings about these guys. The coaching thing, man. He, uh, he, uh, told him to get back to the puck shot, the pre-shot movement. Jesus Christ.

There you go. I, I don't think anyone's all that good. I don't think anyone is out of it other than Buffalo, which, yeah, man, how sad is that? I was on a Sabres podcast last night. Ooh. And they were like, you know, like of all the years, this might be the year where 85 points is enough to get you a wild card spot. Yeah. and they're the one team.

I mean, looking up at like Montreal is in the mix. Come on. Columbus, which great story. Everyone should be rude for the blue jackets. Obviously. Unbelievable that they're in the mix given, just, you know, put everything else aside. Just look at that roster. The roster sucks.

Yeah, exactly, man. Well, here's the thing. And I've been saying this for a while now. You know who's fucking killing it over in Columbus? Completely changed the top of their lineup is Sean Monaghan. Dude, I, so I threw this. He's been their best player. Everybody says Zach Werenstki, but.

I threw this into my car. I just slipped it in there. Just to, you know, sometimes you bang the drum. Sometimes you just plant a little tiny seed and see where it goes. Columbus makes, if Columbus makes the playoffs. And Sean Monaghan is a point of game player. With elite defensive numbers, well, borderline elite defensive numbers. You know, Selky conversation, he has to get some hard trophy votes, doesn't he?

I think it'll be Werensky because he's scoring at a similar pace and he's a defenseman and he's like the face of the franchise and all that. But you're telling you, you get a ballot at the end of the year. And you're looking at Nathan McKinnon and Dress up. If I get a ballot. All these boring guys that you're so sick of voting for. And then you have Sean Monaghan would be the greatest story ever. Yeah.

No. It's still January. I'm just saying throw him on the ballot. I'll wrap this up to him winning by April. But just for now, I'm just saying just a fifth. If I had a vote, it's Hellebuck won and Hughes two. Yeah. Right.

And then, you know, take your pick. You want to say Leon Drysidal. You want to say Sean Monaghan. You want to say Nathan McKinnon. You know, go down the fucking list. I'm happy to do it. He's absolutely in the conversation. That little seed is in there.

Just get some water on it for the next few weeks and we'll see where it goes. I just said, like, he, you know, he's in the heart conversation for me. I don't, again, I think they'd go with Werenstki, the voters, but that's because I have a low opinion of them, you know? Yeah. But yeah, I mean, look, Montreal playing phenomenal hockey lately, you know. Pittsburgh hanging around. It seems like every time you start to feel good about the penguins, they're like, we are going to lose seven to two to Buffalo or whatever.

You know what I mean? The Flyers, if they get a goalie, would be one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference probably. Their underlying numbers are very good. They just can't get a save. Who saw that coming? Oh, everybody interesting. I just saw this weekend. The Rangers are fixed.

Yeah. They figured it out. So them being 500 right now, look out. That's, that was the floor, the ceiling. You know, we could get all the way up to, well, you know, not third in the metro, but, you know, somewhere around the wild card. Even the islanders, man, they're only, they're only, they're only like, quote unquote, only five points out of a, that's a lot of ground to make up. And by the way, I saw this stat yesterday when I was clicking around on the various sports websites, you know. Do you know what the Islanders

PowerPlay and Penal Kill rank is? I do not. 32 and 32. Hmm. I don't feel like you can get any lower than that. Power play running at 10.6%. The PK. 65. Wow.

Can you believe that? I mean, that's literally unbelievable. That is Because, I mean, what's the highest any team's power play has been in recent years? In this era. Like, I mean, there. Edmonton going like 30% or whatever a couple years ago. So this would be like facing Edmonton's power play every single night.

Yeah, that's right. And then you shave another 5% off that. Yeah. It's unbelievable. Like, here's the thing. thing with the islanders. You look at this roster. They shouldn't be that bad. Look, they don't have, you know, they don't have like a really high-end guy with all due

respect to like Bohorvat or whatever, you know, Matt Barzal. He's been hurt, so that's not, you know, that might be a contributing factor, but even still, you would think a roster like the Islanders could get to 15%, 17%. Nope. it's unbelievable man. And yet. I mean, I believe that they're the Islanders. And that's exactly right. How are they only five points back with the worst special teams of recent memory, quite frankly?

And part of it is they're getting a bunch of loser points. They have one more win than the Sabres. Wow, yeah. And it is, it's how many teams you have to pass. Of course. Because it's to be five points back with one team to catch gives you two paths, right? Either I get hot or you get cold and I can make up the ground. Whereas when you've got seven, eight teams ahead of you, it's, that becomes the situation

where you go, you go eight one and one and you're like, what the hell? We gained one point because somebody went seven, one. two out of that group. Right. So it's, they're not really in it. No, I would agree with that. They're, they're not in it, and yet they won three in a row, and, you know, you bump that up to five by the weekend, and suddenly you're going, well, I don't know.

I mean, look, they're one game back of being tied with the Rangers for points percentage at 500. All they got to do is win one game, you know? I don't think they're a particularly good team. I wouldn't favor them to make the playoffs or anything. But like, to your point, all these teams are good enough to make life miserable for the other teams that are in this group. You know what I mean? Between from Boston to Columbus, Ottawa, Detroit, Montreal, Pittsburgh, the Flyers, the Rangers, the Islanders.

All those teams have you said they all go 500 the entire rest of the season. I go, sounds about right. you know, plus or minus a few points. Yeah, okay, I buy it, you know? And the odds that we get to the end of this, and it's just Boston and New York Rangers in the last year. I'd say pretty fucking good. The teams that we all kind of thought would be there.

Because, especially because of this. You know, you know who's been really good for the Bruins lately? Is Jeremy Swayman. Whatever was wrong earlier in the season, he's up to like 9.30 in his last seven or eight games. And he was like 50% of the problem. A million percent. Absolutely.

Couldn't make a fucking stop. So. And it's the same thing. The Rangers, you know what they need? One guy to get hot. His name's Igor's just circuit. You've probably fucking heard of him. And if he's good, they, if he's good, they win easily every night for a month straight.

That's such an easy scenario to envision, you know. Whereas, you know, the flyers. unless they get help, you don't really see it. The Penguin's same thing. The Red Wings, they stop shooting 85% on the power play under Todd McClellan, whatever the number is. That even, they're, I think, dead even like 50-50 in goals since McClellan took over. At five-on-five, I should say. And so all their hay is being made on the power play.

Montreal, obviously they're playing better, but like, come on, they're the Canadians, you know? Yep. And also, like, we'll talk about this in the, after the break, I guess, but like, some of these teams got to be thinking about trading, even if they're like hanging around, right? Yeah. Yeah, and that is, like, you look at this and kind of one of the first thoughts is the deadline's going to crater if all of these teams think they're in. Right. But, yeah, you would imagine that, you'd imagine, but at the same time, you look at which GMs are under the gun to make it. And that'll be interesting.

The other thing we should point out, senators are going to get Allmark back at some point. Yep. So they're one of the few teams on this list that you look at and you go, they might get better on their own. I'm almost, I'm being serious. I'm almost taking it as a given that the Ottawa senators will be one of the two wildcar teams. teams right now. Okay. It depends on the timeline for O-Mark, honestly, which I think they still aren't giving

anybody any real clarity on. No, and it's apparently like a back, so you never know, right? It's not like a, you know, it's not like a broken ankle where you come back and, okay, now I'm good to go. I'm 100%. You're sort of going to be wondering. But if he comes back and, I mean, certainly if he looks like he did for about a month stretch there in November.

December, then they're laughing. Totally. Yeah. And again, Columbus could totally put it into cruise control, keep playing like this. They'll be fine, you know. But look at the depth on that roster is the real problem, right? Like, I think we can all agree that it's like one line and a half maybe driving their success. But I don't know. I just, I'll tell you. I like I said earlier I think I think they're kind of softening the beaches For a big change in Boston

Once it uh once it becomes obvious that You know maybe maybe they just don't have the juice But again, Swamen could get hot Posternaut could get hot Lindholm could start doing something And all of a sudden we're like That'd be nice Same old fucking Bruins huh you know

We thought they were dead They weren't dead Like Jason Voorhees himself But Yeah, it's crazy. And don't think for a second that as a Leafs fan, I'm not watching this race going, what terrible-ass team is going to back into the playoffs? Right, of course.

Of course. And why is it Montreal? God, could you imagine? That would be so sick. I'm trying to think. Would Montreal or Ottawa be more painful for the Leafs? I feel like Montreal would be just because it would be like it happened again. Not only it happened again, they came out of nowhere to do it.

You know? Like, you know, the classic thing of looking in the rearview mirror, you've seen, you know, if you're in the Atlantic, you've at least seen the senators like a little dot on the horizon behind you for the last little while, you know. The Canadians are coming up over that horizon. You haven't seen those guys in years. And you're like, I got to think about these fucking guys again. Oh, no, you know. As long as it's not Pittsburgh, as long as we don't have to do the, how many shots of a GM can you show during one playoff overtime? We're about to find out, man.

We might be. I did want to also quickly talk about the Western Conference. You know who is currently in that last wildcard spot? The Calgary Flames ahead of the Vancouver Canucks. fake. Uh-oh. Yeah, a big O'O. A big one.

If you're Vancouver. Because, like, it's, it's right there for the taking. I mean, I don't, who's next? St. Louis, Utah. Then you get down to Anahe. I mean, there's. Yeah, and, like, St. Louis and Utah are a,

they're both playing to varying degrees, what you'd say, well. But, like, you know, taken as a whole. No, no, I'm saying, like, underlying numbers, like they're okay. And frankly, St. Louis has been downright good for the last little while under Montgomery. Again, not in terms of winning

games, but just, you know, underlying numbers, their expected goals, etc. So I really think this has turned into like, maybe you can pretend someone from that St. Louis, Utah group is going to make it, but it seems like it's

three teams jockeying for, or really two teams jockeying for one spot because Colorado's starting to pull away as well. It's crazy. They started getting a guy who could like stop 90% of the shots against him and that was the end of that. You know, we stayed at this party a little too long. See you guys later, you know? Yep.

Yep. But again, you want to talk about if the flames make it, Dustin Wolf needs to be in various awards conversations. He's been their best player. It's not even close. He's awesome. And one of these fun things where, especially when you look in the

in the east at all of these teams that had to make the playoffs this year and are struggling. Like, Calgary feels like a team that this was not part of the plan. No, I totally agree. I mean, they certainly, you'd like to make the playoffs,

and they have some veteran players on the team, but it was, you know, you move that all the guys, they moved, including a certain goaltender, and you're kind of going, all right, well. Yeah, and now it looks like they moved the starting goalie because they had a better option, who's, you know, 22, 23 years old. Not a bad place to be. Dustin Wolfsman, awesome.

He's, they're 14, 6, and 2 when he's in the lineup. That's a pretty good pace. They would be, they would be comfortably in a playoff spot if Dan Vlodar could, again, make a save. But he can't, so, you know. No. But, yeah, like, I. I just think that because of all this, and again, I'm teeing up for what we're going to talk about after the break coming up in a minute here. The only teams that are going to be looking to move guys out, I think, are like Buffalo and all the teams that are not in the playoff race in the West.

Everybody else is going to either pretend that they're in it or they are not in a position to really be sellers. And even, like, even the sabers, again, this is the guys I were talking to last night, we sort of went into, like, you could make a case that the Sabres should be buying not for this year, not rentals. Of course. But that, like, now is the time to start taking some of those future assets and turning them into young present assets. figure out a way to do that. Man, it might be shaping up to be a good year to be a seller if you have veterans. No shit, huh?

If you have a center, yes, yeah. Guys are just beating down your door going, give me that guy. I'll give you four first round picks. Bonnie Gourd watches now. That's exactly right. So on that note, as a matter of fact,

why don't we take our break, and then we'll come back and do a round of, round up of the four big trade boards I saw in the last week. This week's episode is brought to you by Mint Mobile. 2025 is here, and Mint Mobile has a resolution for you. Skip the gym, skip the fad diets, skip the BS resolutions you'll forget about by next month. Instead, make a resolution to save some serious cash by making the switch to Mint Mobile. And right now, you can get half off their three-month unlimited plan.

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February 2nd to get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month and get the plan shipped to your door free. Go to mintmobile.com slash puck. That's mintmobile.com slash puck. Forty-five up-front payment required, equivalent to $15 a month. New customers on three-month plan only, speeds slower above 40 gigs on unlimited plan, additional taxes, fees, and restrictions apply C, Mint Mobile for details. All right, we're back. And I mentioned there are four trade boards that have come out in the last week or so that, you know, have, I would say, wildly different rankings for the most part, honestly.

You have TSN Daily Face Off the Athletic and Bleacher Report all put out. trade boards are very 2530 one of them was 15 guys I think that was Bleacher Report and a total of 48 players are named in those four different trade boards so obviously a lot of overlap but some guys where it's like oh you're the only one

with this guy on your list for example and so what I thought we would do is I would take the average of these these four trade boards and we'll just go through the top 10 of guys who made the list here. Do you want to go from 1 to 10 or 10 to 1? Let's go 1 to 10. 1 to 10 it is.

The number one guy likely to move this year, according to Daily Faceoff and Bleacher Report, number 3 from TSN, number 7 from the athletic, Brock Nelson of the New York Islanders. You feel the excitement for the 2000? Yeah, no, that's exactly right. Okay, so there have been a few pieces about him that I've seen, including a very weird one in the Toronto Sun that made me wonder if somebody somewhere is not already working on pumping up the market value. But, yeah, I mean, classic sort of deadline guy in the sense of respected veteran does play center.

not having a great year, which usually is part of it because if guys who are having great years don't necessarily get moved. Right. And don't necessarily find themselves on teams that are way out of the playoffs. Last year of his contract,

all that sort of stuff. Yep. So if you're the Islanders, I guess question number one, do you move a guy who's, you know, been there his whole career. And you and I would say, yes, absolutely. Of course you do.

But who knows where. It's Lou Lamarillo is at. But, yeah, I mean, it would seem to make sense that he's a guy who's going to check enough boxes in a very thin market that some team is going to give up a first and who knows what. Yeah, and he had a 30-goal season last year. In fact, he had three straight 30 goal seasons pretty recently. So, you know, 21, 22, 23, 24, or inclusive of those seasons, he scored 107 goals.

I don't imagine there are too many guys that are going to be ahead of him on that list, you know. Having a down year this year, like you said, but, you know, he's 33. I would say this is a guy that like if he's your number three center, you're in great shape and if he's your number two less so. But he can help you for sure. His underlying numbers are good on a team that that's not always, you know, a reliable thing. And again, like this is a guy who has, he's on pace for like 25-ish goals. And, you know, again, like they're not scoring on the power play. So if you can put him in a situation where he's getting a few more power play points,

suddenly we're back into that maybe, you know, probably he can't do it at this point. He'd have to go a little nuts in the second half. But like, maybe we can get into a conversation about 30 goals with this guy. But the long of the season goes on. A huge dude. So clearly in the playoffs, everybody wants the big heavy team. Yeah, he's good player. Would you, if you had a team, would you move a first for two months?

Brock Nelson. You know, as I go down the list, like I said, we're only going to do 10 guys here. And I'm not seeing, apart from Yannigord, too many other centers that I'm like, oh, yeah, there you go. There's a guy. Well, let's do Yenigord then. Let's, we'll skip a couple names and come back. a head, yeah. Because he's sort of the other,

is he the poor man's Brock Nelson or the other way around? I'd say they're, it's like a Walmart versus Target thing. I don't think either of them are making, but with that having been said, of course, Yanni Gord does, you know what,

then I guess Yannigord is the Walmart here and Brock Nelson's the target because Yannigord doesn't have 107 goals over his last three seasons. In fact, he has, Let me do the math really quickly. 46, so less than a half.

He's only got six goals this year in fewer games played, obviously, because he was hurt for a little while, I think. But, yeah, you know. But here's the flip side, because he's also, and he's also, it doesn't have anywhere near Brock Nelson's size, but a reputation is a bit more of a two-way player and two Stanley Cups. So some GM out there you could absolutely imagine talking themselves into him.

Well, the other thing is... To me, Nelson's the better player pretty cool. Yeah, for sure. The other thing is Gord has some trade protection, I think, 23-team trade lists. So, like, he can be traded to 23 teams in the league. And Nelson has half the league he can say no to. Right. So he might say, again, when you've got both guys being rentals that is, in theory, a bit less of an issue.

Yeah. Then it would be for some other guys showing up on these lists who have a few years left to go where now you're really, you know, this isn't like, all right, I'm going to go get an apartment, go have a playoff run with, you know, insert big market here and juice my value. and then maybe even come back to in the off season, which rarely happens, but the door's open. Yeah. So, you know, I guess I would rather have Nelson. And, you know, if it's like you said, if it's like a, who am I trading my first round pick for? I have to choose one of these two guys. It's definitely Nelson.

Yeah. If the price is the same, it's Nelson. Yeah. But also it depends on what you need. You know, like if you're, if you're looking to shore up your bottom six, like maybe you do talk yourself into Yanigord, but again, personally. You're right. Gord's more of the classic third line center.

Yes. Feisty is a term you see thrown out with him sometimes. But yeah, Nelson's the better player, assuming both are available. But that makes it interesting, right? Like, how do you play this if you're Ron Francis? Do you, you know, you know your guy is maybe going to be viewed as number two? Do you try to get ahead of the market? Or do you let everyone talk themselves into giving up a first for Brock Nelson

and then wait for those teams who don't get them to circle back and see what you can shake loose? No way that that could mean that you end up waiting until the very last minute. Well, I'm sure Ron Francis will handle it perfectly. Yeah, I mean, the track record in Seattle is right there, you know, obviously. But yeah, so it's, like I say, it's one of those things where it depends on the role, but if they're trying to really jack up the price on Yanny Gord, like it's not really a discussion you want to have at that point, I think. the two guys that we skipped over jumping from Nelson to Gord from one to four

at least better said to JT Miller now you got to understand folks how trade boards work some of this maybe even more than half of this kind of thing is getting you the person reading it to go oh damn they're going to trade those guys that's crazy you see a lot of the big names closer to the top of these lists Like, you know, there aren't a lot where it's like, oh, Brad Marshand, yeah, he's 38th on our list or whatever. You know what I mean? It's all about clicks. It is all about clicks. This is a damn clickmate.

It's me, me, the media knower. Mm-hmm. It's clicks. So, TSN. It is very, very interesting, the split of where Pedersen and Miller rank on these four boards. Because there's an outlier here. Right. So TSN and the athletic have, well, okay, TSN has them tied at one, which is part of what I'm saying here about like the clickbait.

The athletic has them one and two. Bleacher Report has them three and four. And Peterson is 25 on daily face-offs list. And I put Miller at 26, Sean, but just so you know, their list only went up to 20. Okay. So he wasn't on their list and basically to not skew the averages, anybody who wasn't on the list who appeared on other lists, I would just put like 26, 31, whatever the, you know, first number not on their board was.

So yeah, Miller, Miller at, not on their board and Pedersen, the last guy on it for Daily Face Off, which is interesting because everybody else has them top four. And again, I think everyone would sort of, even though there's that huge split, I think everyone would kind of agree that these are two guys that are certainly less likely to be traded than the Brock Nelson's of the world. A million percent, yes. But if they were, the impact of that deal blows some of these other moves out of the wall. Obviously. So it's kind of the.

You know, how do you say, you know, if someone's got a 10% chance of being the biggest blockbuster of the year, how do you rank that up against all of these guys who are going to get traded for third round picks? Right. So the way I was thinking about it was this. As we mentioned before, the flames have now passed the Canucks in the standings, both by points and points percentage. And the flames are getting hotter, as they so often do. and the Vancouver Canucks 3, 3 and 4 in their last 10 games. So they're getting loser points left and right,

but they're not like playing well. And, you know, Pedersen had a great game the other night. First time in a while, that had happened. But I do wonder if the gap starts to widen between Calgary and Vancouver, even a little bit more, do they kind of, I don't want to say panic button because this has been simmering for a long time now, you know, this wouldn't be like a rash decision they're making to trade one of these guys. But do they just go, you know what, we got to fucking do it.

Yeah, and not so much because, you know, normally when you see a team drop out of the playoffs, you go, okay, well, it's the season's lost. We get what we can get for guys on expiring deals. These guys aren't expiring deals. It would more be a case of. if I'm Vancouver, I'm going, if we can't make the playoffs, like if we're losing out to the flames for a playoff spot, something's broken here.

And we just committed huge dollars to this core. And we have one chance to get a do-over to break it up with Pedersen. And Miller, obviously, you've got to figure out a no-trade situation there. That might be the reason you do it. So it's interesting. they can still move Pedersen after the season for a few weeks. Right. Yeah, he doesn't hate July 1.

So it's not, the urgency isn't quite what you might make it out to be. But it's up there. Yeah, if this trade board extended out to July 1, I think we're having a very different conversation about where the Daily Face Off ranking puts them, you know? Yep. but yeah, I mean, it makes total sense to me that to circle back to like putting these lists together makes total sense that these guys would either be one or 25. Like you can't put like, oh, Anderson like 17.

You can't do that. Because it's like, if it happens, it's the biggest thing in the league all year. And if it doesn't happen, well, you know, how can you trade a guy who's making. 11.6 million against the cap in season, you know? Mm-hmm. So you want to talk about a drop-off here. Ivan Provorov is up next. 21 on the TSN list, 8 on daily face-off, 3 on the Athletic, 2 on Bleacher Report.

Again, a pretty wide gulf. Yeah. But I wonder how much of that is just Columbus is in the playoffs. and or, you know, around it, way more, and they might not be a seller. Mm-hmm. Which, and I think very clearly, if you're, if you are Columbus, if you're in the mix, you got to go for it. Yeah, of course.

And, and, you know, that could also even mean potentially looking to re-sign a guy. Extend. Hey, they just reigned Zach Aston-Reeze. They're locking guys in. If you fall out of it, which is still very much a possibility over the six to eight weeks that we've, what if we've got? Six weeks. Yeah, that's about right. That's a long time.

Even with, even with the four, it's not as long as we think, right? Because the Four Nations is in there. That's exactly right. Like, we are basically in trade season at this point because it's a month out from the deadline, apart from the two weeks the league is going to take off for four nations. And I did hear from somebody. that apparently there is nothing preventing trades from happening during four nations, but nobody thinks that there's going to be any, like, the GMs are going to be focused on that. No, you have to.

If I had the hardest job in the world, I would maybe take those extra two weeks to work on it. Oh, well, if it's, I mean, if the job's so hard, maybe you just need to take those weeks offset on your ass, you know? Yeah, I think I might do that. Smart. So if they fall out of it, then yes. You move this guy. He's having a decent year. He's still got some name value.

That might be overstating things. He's having a decent year as far as what gets you attention on the show market. Yeah. He's playing big minutes for him. You can't say that he's not. And they're having success, even if it's not necessarily with him on the ice, you know? Yep. So, but yeah, again, I don't, I just, if I'm Columbus, I'm, I'm kind of hanging on to guys just for, for the story.

I mean, if you've got a, like you, you, there's no way you would move somebody like that now. Like even if a G.Up calls you up and says, I want to get ahead of it. I'm going to knock your socks off with an offer here. No, no. Not, not now. Not when we're a point out or holding down a spot. We've, if there's a chance for this story to happen, you got to take a swing. Yep, I agree. Taylor Hall is up next. 12 from TSN, 3 from Daily Faceoff, 19 from The Athletic and 7 from Bleacher Report. I, about once a month,

have to be reminded that he's on Chicago. That might be true for him as well. It might very well be. It might be true for the coaching staff. He's just not... They've got a different guy over there. That's not fair. He might not be...

He might not be... good. God, he's only playing 15 minutes a night for them. That's crazy. I thought it would, like, when they went and got him, I mean, like most people, I was like, okay, well, this is eventually going to be a deadline bait. But in the meantime, have him play with Badaard, you know, coach him along. Hey, I was the number one overall pick two. Let's, you know, here's how you be a pro in this league and all of that stuff. And it just, I don't know about the off ice, but on ice, it just hasn't worked at all. But is some team out there going to talk themselves into, well, you know, former MVP? You would think so, but it didn't.

I mean, he was a deadline guy a couple years ago and the market never materialized. There certainly, you know, we talked about Yanni Gour to having rings and, you know, Brock Nelson being big and there are just certain guys that GMs like that type of player for a playoff run. Taylor Hall seems to be the opposite of that. I agree. He's a good player, you know? Fair or not? But the rep is just like, this guy doesn't have what you want in the playoffs.

And, you know, I don't think it's unfair based on how he's played the playoffs in his career, honestly. He's not like, he's never been bad in the playoffs, I would say. But when's the last time you were like, fuck, Taylor Hall had an awesome playoff? Just that one with Boston, right? And they lost in the first round. Yep. A couple of years ago. So now, granted, this is a guy who hasn't had many opportunities to play in the playoffs,

but you think a GM's going to be like, and that's why we got to give him the opportunity now. I don't know. Look, if he's available and he's relatively cheap, there's not a big line of people trying to trade for him, if I'm a GM, I take a stab at a guy like Taylor Hall, a good player, you know. Yeah, you take a swing in it. But, I mean, even $6 million A-AV, even if the Hawks eat half, that... It's tough. It's tough. Still is not super easy to fit in.

And they do, yeah, I just check. They do have a retention spot. Okay, great. Do you know who their two retention spots are used on right now? You don't. Jake McCabe, they're still paying half of him for the leaves. And Josh Bailey. Did they launder his cap somehow?

They must have, yeah. And both of those... Oh, no, didn't they trade for him and then buy them out immediately? Oh, was that? Wasn't that what it was? Is that what it was? Oh, you're right. Yeah, it's a buyout spot.

So they've got two retained spots. Okay, so they're certainly well set up to eat half of Taylor Hall. Yeah. Well, there you have it. Next up is Trent Frederick, 914, 11. 12, everybody's just kind of like, ah, it feels like he's getting traded, but who cares also?

Because he's still only, you know, he's a decent enough player, but like, you know, in a role, you know, as opposed to you can, you can build a team around him. That playoff role, right? You know, bringing a heavy guy, third line, bang and crash.

You could see. Yeah, he's enormous. What's interesting is the, the question of, like him showing up on a trade board suggest that, you know, obviously we're acknowledging the Bruins may not make the playoffs. But even if they are in a playoff spot, you get a sense that he could still be moved. This could be one of those things where a team actually does move a UFA because I've certainly seen lots of Bruins fans going move this guy, get a pick, get a prospect, get some.

Yeah, sure. But whether Don Sweeney does that or not, knowing how his seat could be warming up is, is, will be somewhat interesting to see. Man. It's, I mean, it's crazy. Like I, like I said, I'm surprised there aren't more Bruins names on this list. I think there's only like two out of the entire 48 guys that these lists had on them. There's only two Bruins and not, and it's whatever, Justin Brazos checking in at like 26 or something like that.

There's not a lot of expiring contracts on that team. Well, they're all up front, you know, and not for guys making a lot of money or anything like that. That's why I said like earlier, like Marshand, it might be beach softening because he only has an eight team no trade list and he's on an expiring contract. Does he expire this year? Mm-hmm. That would be a guy that you want to talk about a market. Now he's the captain of the team. So that wouldn't be maybe the best look in the world.

But that hasn't stopped the Bruins from trading a captain before, has it? Let's ask Chris Drury. How does that work if you put your captain on the trade market? Probably good, right? Players probably love that. Yeah. No, it's intriguing to me that Marshand wasn't on any of these lists. I'll put it that way.

Given some of these, list have come out since that news thing on Friday or whatever day, Thursday. I don't remember what day it was. But, man, that'd be... Okay, it's just Brazzo and Frederick? All right.

That'd be fascinating, eh? If you're a Bruins fan, would you want them to put them on the market, knowing that, I mean, you would get it. Absolute ton for the game. You would? He's a...

Absolute ton. Can I say this? If he has a good run in the Four Nations, I'm moving him way up my trade board from not listed to pretty high. You know what? Maybe that's it, right? You floated a little bit now and then you tell you what? Why don't you guys all watch him play next to Sidney Crosby for a little while?

Wow, he looks really good. Oh, interesting. By the other thing to say about Boston, of course, and I guess I neglected to mention it earlier. Hampt is Lindholm's still out, although he's skating now. So he might be nearing a return. And, you know, maybe that turns it all around for the Bruins. I tend to doubt it, but that might be what they're holding out for.

It's like, let's get Lindholm back and see. But, yeah, anyway. Next up is John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks. It does feel like this is the year this is going to happen. TSN has him four. Daily faceoff has him 26 or I guess not listed that means, sorry.

The athletic has him 10, Bleacher Report has him eight. And in his case still has a couple years left so not necessarily complicates it. Complocates it but also not necessarily a situation where the market is limited to

cup contenders. Because this is what you always get into this time of year, right? is if a team is a cup contender, they probably already have a goalie. There's usually not teams where it's like, yeah, we're fantastic minus goaltending. But could a team like, you know, Detroit or a Pittsburgh or somebody like that go and make a move? Are there any contenders that you could see making sense for him? Carolina, depending on.

Carolina is number one with a bullet, yeah. I think is the obvious one. Edmonton, I don't see it yet. I think they're going to just ride or die with Stu, and that's fine, you know. The Kings, I don't know that the money works unless you put Kemper back in the deal, and then... And why would you do that? If you're the ducks, unless you're getting it, like, you're... Yeah.

And hasn't Kemper been pretty good this year? Am I wrong about that? He's been good enough. Yeah. So, I don't know. To me, it's got to be, he's probably going to the Eastern Conference. I just don't see anybody else that really needs a goalie that badly in the West. And the question is, like you say, does he go to Carolina?

Or does he go to one of the many, many teams that are like, oh, we could use a goalie. We're four points out of a playoff spot. now or whatever, you know. Like you said, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit. Columbus, maybe? Less so Columbus. Here's a maybe for you. Maybe Montreal.

If they feel like they're ready to go a little ahead of schedule, maybe? I don't know. But yeah, it's really, really interesting because, like I said, it does feel like... Is Philadelphia just the team there? Like, is there, I know we've already had our Flyers, Ducks, trade drama. Yeah. Well, now they know how to work one out, you know. Yeah.

If they can do it under acrimonious circumstances, they can almost certainly do it, you know, being friends. Jamie Drysdale for John Gibson. Hey, that game went great for them the other night, you know. Yeah, did. The other thing I wonder about with Gibson is, is 6.4 is kind of a lot of money. It is. Even for a goalie who has been pretty good.

And he has some amount of trade. He has a 10-team no trade list. He hasn't been amazing. Correct. Now, you might say he would be amazing on a team that didn't stink. Yeah. And that's what we get into, right? And we start ignoring the last six years of his resume or whatever it is.

Yeah. Well, you know, there are like the goalie guys would say. that there are... Jesse loves them. Yeah. Jesse's still, you know, Jesse's my goalie whisper, and he has been telling me for years

that he put John Gibson on a good team. So here's the other question, though. They already made a salary retention trade this year that extends beyond this season. Do they want to make two? I think you're going to have to. I think the same word's true. Yeah.

Like... But yeah, like I say, I think this is going to happen. I just don't know. the particulars, you know? But they could probably get a lot for him because everybody needs a fucking goalie. Like I said, like six teams need a goalie.

He's the best one on the market by far. There's like barely any other ones even getting their names put out there. And it's like, yeah, if you trade for him, you're really desperate for a goaltending. And then you get into the whole, well, do you do it during the season or do you wait for the playoffs

for some teams goaltending to not, to implode and then... Yeah. I don't know. It just feels like it has to happen before the deadline with Gibson specifically. Kind of around the same area here.

Rasmus Ristolin, in terms of... He's 18 from TSN, 10 from Daily Faceoff, four from the athletic, 16 from Bleacher Report. So, again, another guy just feels like they are trading.

And a guy, kind of a fascinating guy as far as like his reputation going up and down over the years and he is he's got two more years left after this. Yeah, that's tough. So

here's what I'm saying to myself. Wait a second. This is a 30 year old defenseman that the Philadelphia Flyers don't want to keep around. You know, red lights are flashing all over here. If the flyers

are like, we don't need defensive help that bad. That seems like it's a bit of a problem. Not a guy I've ever really rated. You know, you can check the tape on that one. He got the big contract and everybody was like, oh, he's not actually that good. And then he wasn't that good. And people took a victory lap. But then he started to play a bit better.

And you're like, well, maybe he's figuring it out. But still, I don't know, without salary retention. 5.1 million is a lot of money for this player. Yeah, I don't know that I'm offering a lot without retention. And as soon as you start doing retention, if I'm the flyers, I mean, I'm already, if I'm paying the guy already, maybe I'm on the team. Yep. But the next defenseman on the list is the last guy in the top 10 here. And it's really only because TSN has him 6, the daily faceoff has him 17, athletic has him 14.

Athletic has him 14 Bleacher Report has him 16 It's the great Will Borgon Remember this guy? I do, yeah I feel like we just did the Will Borgon trade Not that long ago Oh interesting

And at the time wasn't it like Well the Rangers have liked this guy for a long time Yeah They don't like them that much Apparently they got a look at it They're like oh you know Oh yeah You know one of those things where it looks good like

From far away Wow what? Let me get a little closer to that. Not so much. It's actually a bit of a bummer. But this is, you know, that's the end of the top ten, but this is around the point where a bunch of defensemen's could start coming into it. The next guy's upper like, well, I'll just go down the list quickly.

Brandon Tanev, David Savard, Marcus Patterson, you know, Chris Kreider, Matthew Olivier, Boland, Byron. Chris Kreider is the interesting one that wasn't in the top ten that I was wondering about. Yeah, two lists had him in their top six. And one didn't list him and one had him 20. So yeah. It feels like the Rangers maybe would like to move him. I just don't know who's buying. Yep.

Some other guys who got at least one or two top 10, Bo Byram, like I mentioned, it'll be interesting to see what Buffalo does there because, you know, they're not very good. And he is a guy that. How much was he showing? Dylan Cousins. This was another interesting one.

Only 22 from TSN, but five from daily faceoff, not listed by the athletic and ninth from Bleacher Report. So not a lot of consensus on where he's going to go. But, you know, he's a guy that he's been talked about a lot in conjunction with Detroit. Detroit is apparently pretty interested and has taken a long look here. all that sort of thing. But, you know, I guess it depends on how Buffalo wants to do things. Did you see that the other night, Terry Pagola was at the game where they got absolutely smoked? Yeah.

They're chanting to fire Kevin Adams. Kevin Adams had to be sitting there going like, come on, not tonight, guys. Just hiding behind an inflatable palm tree. I look, I know. shows up. He's just such an inspiration for that team. Whenever he shows up, they just go, all right. Bosses here look busy.

Yep. Like I said, some other guys here. Brandon Sod was fifth from Bleacher Report and either low or not ranked on all the other lists. Feels like maybe that's because St. Louis might want to pretend they're competitive. And again, especially under Jim Montgomery, they're playing well. So I get it. Ryan Lindgren was fourth from Daily Faceoff. Daily Faceoff had a lot of guys on the Rangers relatively high.

So I took note of that. Maybe not a lot. Maybe a lot is overstating things. But more guys on the Rangers made their list than like they had Keandre Miller, nobody else did. For example, they had him pretty low. But yeah, I thought that was a little bit interesting. Let's see. Joel Farabee, if the Flyers decide to sell. He was at sixth on Daily Faceoff, which Frank puts that list together.

Frank's very plugged in in Philly. That makes sense that he might have heard something that other people didn't. But that was the only list he appeared on, and he had Farabey sixth. Okay. I thought that was the best. He had Morgan Frost as well, which is. He did have Morgan Frost. Where was that?

Morgan Frost was way down there. He was 19 and nobody else had him listed. So, yeah, I guess. those are the kind of bigger names that are Ryan O'Reilly. Do you want to talk quickly about the Ryan O'Reilly situation? Yeah, that was a bit interesting. Elliot Friedman had a report on Saturday night saying that they're getting calls on Ryan O'Reilly, which is not surprising. Makes sense.

But that he does not have no trade protection, but Nashville has told him he will be treated as if he has no trade protection. That's right. So I would assume he's not going anywhere. Again, this is a guy with years left on his contract. So not a case of just going to be in a rental somewhere. This is pick up your life and move it to wherever. So I don't think he shakes free, but would be a, you know, he'd have some value. Yeah, definitely you will.

Go out and pay a first round pick for Ryan O'Reilly for a playoff run. How could that fail? One other name I thought was funny on this list. I think it was, yeah, it was the Daily Faceoff had him at 26 and Bleacher Report had him 10, Jacob Truba. Oh, wow. Yeah, I thought that was funny. Neither of the other list had him. I mean, it, none of the other two.

In theory, kind of makes sense that. Yeah, totally does. As a big dollar veteran guy on a team that is not going to. one of the playoffs, but, uh, oh. Oh, yeah, do you want to know who the other two goalies on the list were? Yeah. The, the aforementioned Dan Vladar, of course. And, uh, boy, his season's going great.

Alexander Giorgiyev. Oh, boy, the, where does the line form? Yeah. He was only on two of the list. He was pretty low on, he was 25 on the athletic and 16 on bleacher, or unlisted on Bleacher reports. Three lists didn't have him and one had him low, but interesting, nonetheless. I don't know who's trading for that.

You can see why San Jose would be interested in moving. Oh, of course. Yeah. Escarov looks awesome. You know what? He is a UFA this year. Right. And they could eat some money or whatever.

Yeah. And he doesn't. And I think is Colorado not already eating money? Well, that's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you're kind of, I guess, if you needed some depth, you could do worse. Not much worse, but you could probably technically do worse.

Yeah. Way she goes, I guess. But yeah, that's, I think that's all for the trade board. That's really notable, unless you really want to get into the nitty-gritty on like third-line wingers and stuff like that. But I feel like you don't. I certainly don't. I mean, it's only six weeks to go. We cannot.

There's not enough time. That's exactly right. By the way, we should mention the breaking news coming in. Oh, I didn't see this. Emil Heinenman out three to four weeks, hit by car. Whoa. That's Montreal. Yeah, apparently Montreal, they're in Salt Lake City.

and he was hit by a car yesterday as a pedestrian. Jesus. Sustained an upper body injury and will miss three to four weeks. That sucks. He's having a really nice year for them. Yeah. That is not, you don't see that on the injury report too often. No.

That's crazy. But three to four weeks, you know, no. Clearly serious, but also, you know, he'll, he will be back. But, yeah. That's wild. Holy shit. Not good news for Montreal. I'll tell you that.

Oh, you know what? By the way, I just looked on the Sharks page. They cannot retain. They have all, they've used up all their salary retention sports. Really? Okay. Burns, Carlson, and Hurtle makes sense. Wow.

Okay. So they can't retain. They also have two buyouts on the books. They're paying $8.9 million in dead money this year. But you can. they can't, so they can't retain, but somebody else could. In theory. There would be ways to figure that.

Some other news from around the NHL this week is mostly on the business side. There's not a lot going on on the hockey side that's not just like teams jockeying for position or whatever. But here, this is from CNBC. Comcast and Harris Blitzer to build new NBA NHL stadium in South Philadelphia. There was, I'm sure you aren't aware of this because this is NBA news, but there was some talk that the flyer, or the, not the Flyers, the Sixers might move out of Philadelphia and maybe into the suburbs or something like that. They wouldn't leave the market, but they were just like looking for a new place to play.

And it seems like a lot of the other owners in the city came together and were like, we're going to build up something, just stick around in this new arena, blah, blah, blah. The project is Harris Blitzer and Comcast Spectacore have entered into a binding agreement for a 50-50 stake in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex project, which is slated to open in 2031. It will include a revitalization of Market East and Center City, the original proposed location for an arena. In December, the 76ers received approval to build a $1.3 billion arena downtown, after more than two years of California. contentious negotiations. The deal announced Monday will give Comcast a minority stake in the 76ers and naming rights to the arena. The Philadelphia-based company will also join HBSE's bid to bring a WNBA team to Philadelphia.

Now, they had done a bunch of renovations. Yes. So that money is just gone? Did that? Or? Well, I mean, they should say gone. They did renovations. They did renovations, but they're going to get a few years out of it and then...

Yep. Yeah, I mean, 2013-1, so that's six years from now. Six and a half probably by the time the NBA and NHL season start in 2013. A little more than that. So this is a ways away, you know, in the end, they probably get, what, like a decade out of those renovations. I don't remember when they did them, but it was a few years ago now, I'm pretty sure. And so, yeah, I mean, look, it makes sense.

I do like that it's just like, yeah, the Flyers Arena is next to the Eagle Stadium, which is across the street from the Phillies Ballpark. I love that. That's so cool to me. But that building, I haven't been there in several years now, but it was getting creaky several years ago. So it felt old. You know. So this is just kind of a thing that was bound to happen at some point. And it seems like they're going to figure out a way to make it work.

And I like the bringing the WNBA team to the market as well. Why not? Sure. So yeah, there's not much drama with the Flyers leaving town or anything like that. That was never going to happen. But yeah. Then the other bit of news that we, I guess, neglected to talk about last week because it wasn't super, there wasn't a lot of details about it other than Gary Bettman met with local leaders in Maricopa County via Zoom about bringing an NHL team back to the desert. Right.

which we all assume is happening at some point. It's just a question of circumstances and... In looking stuff for this up yet last night, I saw that there was a quote from Betman saying, like, we will be back, basically. Like, it's not even a question. We'll be back. It's not goodbye.

It's see you later or whatever, you know? And so in looking this up, because I did, I felt like it warranted mention here. It turns out that the county board chairman newly named to that position did an interview with 12 news in Phoenix. There's a helicopter flying over my house right now. I don't know if you can hear that. It's very loud. What have you done?

I mean, where do you want to start, you know? But anyway, he did a big interview with 12 news. and about a lot of stuff, but they led off with what did NHL's Betman tell Maricopa County leader? That's the headline on this one. And I watched the, whatever, pertinent portion of the video, and I got some quotes here. He says of local politicians, I think they let people down. The guy's name is Thomas Galvin, by the way. He says, I think they let people down over the last few years with how they handled the coyotes situation.

I also think the coyote's ownership at the time did a really terrible job. That's a direct quote. He reveals that he personally cold called the NHL and was like, we got to get a team back. It's a, quote, black eye for the community. And he's called this a long-term project. He said he wants to get together. Yeah. He wants to get together political business and sports experts to bring back a team the right way.

And basically the job is twofold for this, for whatever they're calling a blue ribbon panel. You know, he didn't use those words. But like, whatever group of experts they get together, there's two jobs. One, find a billionaire. Okay. Two, find a location for a, quote, world-class facility. Other than that, I mean, sounds. Well, I mean, other than the owner and the arena, the two things they couldn't find in 30 years.

Well, as has been pointed out, like, the political leaders just didn't trust the previous ownership at all. And now they'd be like handpicking a guy, which is a little different than like just going, any billionaires out there want to buy this team? Anybody? What do you think? And also meeting with resistance from building stuff up. I think if you're working with the local government to build stuff up, like from the outset, you know, that just greases the skids a little bit, makes it a little easier to have like believability around it. You know what I mean? Betman was totally encouraging of the move.

That's also a direct quote, totally encouraging, which why wouldn't he be? But the fact that he even hopped on Zoom with them kind of says to me that like they'd like to do this sooner than later. you know, next five, six years or something like that. Wouldn't surprise me at all. And then asked about using public money. He says he's like a fiscally conservative Republican or whatever. So he's like ideologically opposed to that idea. But also he's like the state might get involved and they might give some money.

I don't know. I got to say you, so I hadn't seen the story. You sent me the bullet points. Yep. And your last two bullet points were that Betman was encouraging. says he's ideologically opposed to you. I read that as Betman. And I was like,

when did this happen? I don't feel like that's. Yeah, that was two separate bullet points. Yeah, that was two separate bullet points. Yeah, uh, view on public money.

But yeah, they, they straight up asking him. I think his view on public money is, uh, gimme, gimme, gimme,

he summarized as gimme, give me, yeah. Um, but yeah, he, uh, the,

the sky galvin was like, pretty straightforward about like, I'm gonna, I'm going to really try to make this happen. So. So. We'll see. It certainly feels like it's going to happen.

Yep. You know what? Just go back without an arena. Like just you can get the arena figured out later. I love this. It's the worst that could happen. There's got to be a high school that has an arena that could go over a few years. That's right.

But other than that, I think that's about it for the show. Yeah. Kind of a slow week in the NHATO. But, yeah, I've got various things on the way this week, as well as we'll be with Sean and Frankie tomorrow. So I think we got Frankie tomorrow. Yeah, we do. Wow.

What a world. That's my guarantee to you. But, yeah, it's, we're chugging along. What do you got? I am continuing my college hockey coverage. I'm going to see Boston College a few times in the next little while here because their schedule just so happens to line up where they're playing highly ranked teams each of the next two weekends. So Providence College, who's like one of the three or four best teams in the country and Boston University, their big rivalry weekend, are back to back. So very exciting times for me in the college hockey world.

And then I'm still putting out my trophy picks for halfway through the season. So the only one left his heart, I think that's going up either today or tomorrow, but I'm not totally sure. So. You know, I think he's definitely in the Selky article. I guess I can look at my heart article really quickly and give you the- Sounds like there's time to add him in. Yeah. A little seat.

Look, he rocks. A little tiny seat. I know, oh, I don't have him in because I, it's based mostly on like what I think the voters will do. So I have Werenzky as my Columbus guy. Okay. But I have him 10th because I, you know, I'm still not super enthusiastic about them making the playoffs. But like, enthusiastic's the wrong word. I'm not a huge believer that they're going to be.

able to do it. But if they do, I think it'll be Werenski as the as the pick. But Monahan for Selke, sign me up, brother. I'm in. But yeah, that's all over at Elite Prospects. But Patreon.com slash puck soup. All kinds of bonus episodes coming your way in the next little while, including a mailbag, which we're going to go record right now. So head over there and check that out if you want. And that's it for us. Thanks so much for listening. be back next week. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.