Puck Soup - Gone Fishin'

Episode Date: July 19, 2023

Sean and Ryan talk about the slow summer, remaining UFAs, and Erik Karlsson, then play a new game.   Sponsored by Factor (factormeals.com/puck50), Betterhelp (betterhelp.com/puck), Bespoke Post (boxofawesome.com promo code puck) and Athletic Greens (athleticgeens.com/puck)

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. And we were just talking about this off the air. This feels like the slowest summer.

in recent NHL history. Yeah, the slowest July. For sure. Right, right. It's always slow in August. August is always terrible. Take that as a given. But it's July the 19th as we record this.

And nothing has happened in a week. Like, it's like we got to the end of the second week of July. And everybody was like, yeah, we're done. Office chairs spinning. From people getting up out of them so fast. Yeah. A bunch of signs in doorways saying back in September. Yeah, it's crazy.

Which is not good for like the three good free agents left. Yeah, I'm trying to think like what was the last like non-RFA or like a team signing their own player, I guess, because a couple of guys have signed as UFAs since. I'm going to, it says here, July 12th. Jasper Bochrist goes to the Bruins and Zach Sanford goes to Arizona. I think that's it. No, someone named Justin Kirkland signed with Arizona as well. And Casey Fitzgerald signed with Florida, but I can do on the name. Congratulations, Justin.

Yeah. But though that's it for UFA contracts since, in eight days. There have been four of them. What's going on? What's happening? Yeah. So who's left? Maybe we...

Who's sitting by the phone right now that is not ringing? I had that for later in the show, but we can do it now because who cares? Maybe I should read the email that you sent me. Yeah, it helps. Luke Fox over at Sportsnet put together a list of the top 10 remaining free agents. And I was like, oh, I'm sure there were like six or seven that are good. And old Luke was like, not so fast, brother. You're going to want to slow down a little bit.

Number one, Matt Dumba. Yeah, sure, there's a guy. Absolutely. A classic player where because his contract was so big and he was kind of disappointing last year, everybody was like, this guy stinks now. Yeah. And he doesn't. He's good.

He doesn't. He's a good player. and you sort of, he was one of those guys where it was like, oh, do they have to trade him or do they keep them and commit the cardinal sin of losing him for nothing? They kept him, and now he's a free agent, and it's just, nothing. Well, nothing that we've heard.

I mean, he could be talking to six different teams every single day, but I haven't even seen any rumors or anything like that, have you? Um, well, there are, there are two rumors in this article. One is that, uh, the, the coyotes are pursuing him. The coyotes. Yeah. Well, I mean, they got to sign somebody, right?

Like they got to get to the cap floor. Mm-hmm. True. And, uh, that basically the dumba market is being held up by a will, they, won't they? Eric Carlson trade, which we'll talk about shortly. That does make sense. Sure. Yeah. Sure. So there you go. There's your Matt Dumban news. Patrick Cain. That's number two. And this is a guy that we already know is going to miss like the first two months of the season and has said all along apparently like, I'm going to wait to make a decision on this because I don't know what the future looks like for me yet.

Right. So that's that's the number two guy on the list. Yeah, a guy that nobody is expecting to sign. Biggest name, obviously, but not. Yeah, and a guy who, let's face it, wasn't that good last year, you know, and he's 34, 35 years old, right? Like, there's a lot of reasons teams would be like,

I don't know about signing this guy. And presumably a guy that is going to, like, really pick his destination. Obviously, yeah. on, you know, as opposed to he's not sitting there, like, you know, maybe some other guys we could speculate on where he's sitting there waiting for, you know, no, I need this amount of money, I need this number of years. For sure, yeah, yeah.

Kind of done it all already in his career and he can go wherever it is that. Yeah, the market for Patrick Kane is totally determined by Patrick Kane and not the other way around. Do you think especially if he waits, in there. Does Chicago winning the Baderd lottery, if you're Kyle from Chicago, does that at all maybe open the door to bringing either Cain or Taves back?

Well, now, first of all, do you remember how freaking funny that video was? They didn't even know that was the guy. That was crazy. I don't know if people, I think I saw like two people retweeted it and it was very, very good. I was actually in a restaurant yesterday,

and they were playing it on TV again. And I got to say, come on, still kind of funny. Still kind of funny. Once you've seen it like the hundredth time, it circles back around. The subtlety of the performance,

actually, by him is, is, I got to give him credit, man. That's, uh, he's, he's,

he does pretty well. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I, I guess, I guess, I guess to answer your question,

I don't feel like it's up to Kyle from Chicago at this point. I feel like he kind of burned a bridge or two there, you know? Yeah, maybe. Maybe. By being like, you guys understand that we stink, right? We're like, we're fucking horrible. And they were like, you don't know what you're talking about, man. I won three Stanley Cups.

Do you remember that? And he's like, yeah, it was like six years ago, right? Yeah, yeah. So I think that I just fully think that those guys aren't down with the whole thing. like, you know, they want to try to win one more time and all this kind of stuff. I don't think they'd be particularly interested in going back to Chicago. Although, hey, why not, right? Like, they live there, sure, you know?

Yeah. But I just think, like, he might think it's not a bad idea, but. A bit that I invented, that's where their possessions are. Mm-hmm. That's right. They want to stay there. A class, and it's, the reason that bit is so enduring. Yeah.

The way you say, it's just so catchy. Yeah. You know? Exactly. It just, it just rolls off the tongue. That's where their belongings are. That's right. He's mixing it up, folks.

Yeah. It doesn't, it doesn't seem like we're going to get an answer on the Patrick Kane thing anytime soon, nor maybe Vladimir Tarasenko, although, we've at least heard a few options that are out there. Yeah. And Teresenko is the interesting one, right? Because a Dumbo, we haven't heard much, but if it's a Carlson thing, then, okay, that kind of makes sense. Sure. Kane, we're not really expecting, you know, same with Jonathan Taves, who, you know, I imagine is probably also on that list.

We don't even know if he's going to play. Lots of things to figure out. Teresenko's the one guy where you really feel like he's like, no, wait a second, what the hell? Like, he switched agents, which is typically, you know, read between the lines. It's subtle. But when a guy switches agents a couple of days in a free agency, that may be an indication. Things haven't gone exactly the way that he wants. So, yeah, that's a bit of a tough one because, again, a guy who,

like Dumbah, like so many guys in the league, our perception of him gets, is largely created by the contract. So for the last few years, he's been the guy who wasn't productive and healthy enough to live up to the big deal. Well, what's he worth now? I don't know. I mean, he's still a pretty decent player. Didn't light it up with the Rangers, to put it mildly.

But, you know, you. you would certainly think somebody out there would be, would be grabbing him. So, like, with a lot of these guys where you wonder where it's, it's come down to, if this isn't, like, the Tyler Bertuzi thing and, and, and the other guys where it's like, yeah, you just got to take a one-year deal. Get as much as you can one year. And then try again next year.

I don't know if you've heard the cap's going up. And then. I think that's been mentioned once a twice. see what happens. And maybe Tarasenko is just like, no, I don't. I'm Vladimir Tarasenko. I don't have to take a one-year deal. There's got to be something out there for me.

Well, honestly, I think... With Tarasenko in particular, like, coming off a year where, again, you're right, he was a little disappointing in New York. Like, the way he got talked about when they got him versus what he actually did once he got there, you know, I don't think it's telling tales out of school. school to say like this might be his last chance at like a big contract. And so for him to have to take a one year deal and like try again, like that would be a huge financial risk for him. On the other hand, I don't know that it's really up to him. Yeah.

Oh, you want a multi-year contract? Sounds like a tough shit for you, brother. Like I don't. That's it. I mean, you're not getting seven million bucks a year on a mobile. multi-year deal. Now, you're probably not getting 7 million or anything close to that on a one-year deal either, but maybe.

Like, maybe some team out there is sitting with a bunch of cap space and they go, yeah, like... The Arizona coyotes. See, that's the thing, right? Like, with Dumbra as well, like, they've got to sign someone, but that's not the team I want to go

to if I'm doing a one-year bet on myself. Of course. I don't want to go to a terrible team. And to a lesser extent, I don't want to go to a team that gets so little attention. But more, I just, I don't want to go to a really bad team. Now, the flip side of it is you say, hey, somebody's going to get the number one power play time.

You know, that team is going to get three or four power plays a game or whatever it is. Someone's going to be on the ice for that. Go rack up the points there. But I don't, I mean, you want to go. You want to go play 60 games next to Clayton Keller and then cross your first. fingers at the trade deadline? Because that's the other thing, right? Like, you know you're getting dealt at the, you're getting flipped at the deadline. A hundred percent, yeah. Or would you rather go be a second liner on a good team? I don't know. I guess this is the discussion you have with

your new agent. And how much of a discount are you willing to take? Like, do you go to, you know, if a Colorado calls up and says, we've got like a million bucks in cap space? But how would you like to be taken two line passes from Kel McCar all year? Do you do that? And what's the calculation? Yep, for sure. I don't know. It's interesting for us.

I'm sure it's not, I'm sure it's interesting for him as well, but not in a fun. Not in a good way. Yeah, it's, that's like the one guy where there's like actual like, oh, I don't know what's to happen there. And here's how you know this list is like grim. Number four, Patrice Virgeron, a guy who's going to sign with one team and one team only. Arizona Coyotes, baby. That's right.

Hey, look, they got to sign somebody. Just like, yeah, I guess that's true that Patrice Bergeron is maybe the fourth best free agent available. Honestly, he's probably the number one free agent available. like if you could convince him to come to your team. However, you can't unless you're the Boston Bruins. So that bumps him down to fourth on this list, I guess. That is kind of a weird spot to put him in. I got to say, like I 100% get what Luke's doing.

But if he is a free agent, he's the best free agent in the league. It's not even close, I would say. And if he's not a free agent. which he really feels weird to describe him as. Then, yeah. Yeah. It would be so funny if he signed with Montreal tomorrow. Yeah, I mean,

what was it last summer? It must have been last summer, right? Because he was a free agent then too. People were like, oh, you might go to Montreal. You never know. Well, was it like, and I was like, I do know. And I was like, I do know. Wasn't that the connection?

Oh, that maybe that is. And like the Boston and whatever. Yeah. And also, like, his name is Patrice, so that means clearly he has always wanted to play for the... See, I don't know enough about Canadian geography to have the answer to this question. Is Boston closer? It can't be, right? Boston's closer to Quebec City than, uh, because that's where he's actually from.

Yeah. Montreal is, Quebec City is like further north than Montreal. Okay. So, yeah, see, this is, this is my lack of geography knowledge. but yeah anyway Thomas Tatar number five on your list he's a good player

that's fine I can see why teams aren't lining up to get him but like he'll help anybody we absolutely could have at this point started playing a game show called

has he signed or not and I would have been like I feel like he went to Columbus he must have right yeah I feel like that okay let's see here number six on the list

Tony DiAngelo the only player in NHL history to be bought out twice. Man, did he ever, like, that player to be bought out twice was, like, dangling over top of the ring, and, like, Ryan Suter was very slowly climbing the ladder. And then Tony DiAngelo just came in and hit his finisher. Did you see that quote from, I think it was Jim Nell and not, and not DeBoer, I'm pretty sure,

where he was like, I don't know why you people are talking about all, about buying this guy out. It's like you didn't watch the playoffs, man. Like, he sucked. He was fucking horrible. That was, yeah, that was a two, um,

to, uh, to, to, just, just, uh, just,

he was, he was insulted. Absolutely. Yeah, he was like, how dare you bring this up about Ryan, suitor? Like,

the guy who's, your worst player in the playoffs and who is signed for what, three, two, three more years and is old and it was really bad? And a pretty reasonable number, we should say. Is he four a million bucks? I think it starts with the three. I think it's a three and a half, something like that.

Oh, okay. Yeah, reasonable, but still, he, like, cost them games multiple times in the playoffs. That's not a player where it's unreasonable to say, you don't want to keep that guy around, right? Due to how bad he was? I would agree, yeah. but yeah go one down the list hey speaking of suitors

Pew Souter remember him played for the Red Wings No I don't remember him We can stop doing the list now We can stop doing the list If he is on Oh my God

He's not even I'll just give you the last three real fast Martin Jones Famously Bad goalie Zach Pireze Guy who Not good And Jonathan Tave's a guy

Who we all know Again yeah Probably is a good play ever again. Oh, okay. Well, I mean, so there's your top 10. It's mid-July.

Like, we're, there's not supposed to be a ton of great free agents left, but, man, don't, don't you hope with Teresenko that we get, like the behind the scenes? Kind of like we got with Klingberg a few years ago.

Was that last year only? The Klingberg where he, you know, he thought he was getting multi-years and everything, and then he ends up. He didn't. Overplaying the hand. I mean,

I don't know if anything will ever talk. Do you remember the summer of Chris Russell? Sure. Where we got like in the days leading up, it was a constant drumbeat from certain insiders about how Chris Russell was like the absolute bell of the ball. The ad, like the number of teams that were lining up to offer this guy five, six, seven years. And then just nothing. Like nothing happened over the end. He ended up signing like weeks later.

I feel like he got an okay deal, but nowhere near the sort of, like... Yeah, he got an NHL deal. That's really good for Chris Russell at that point in his career. Yeah. Like, what are we talking about? But yeah, just, if I can give you some of the guys from the honorable mentions here. Sure. Let's see.

Max Comptois is on the honorable mention list. Caleb Jones, Mark Stahl. And then this bottom line is unbelievable. Thomas Grice, who I believe formally retired from hockey already. Danton Heinen and Derek Grant. Those are guys who are on the honorable mention for best. UFA is still out there. So if you're currently like holding out hope that your team will do something,

in for ages. You're really crossing your fingers and saying, I hope they get Dennis Malgan. Let's do it. Boy. Yeah. Yep. Not great.

Not great. Let's actually, while we're mentioning him here, have you seen the drama in Boston around the Patrice Berseron thing? No. So Kevin Paul DuPont, a very famous, like, long-time Bruins beat reporter and columnist for the Boston Globe, wrote a thing of like, yeah, anytime now, Patrice, you want to get around to signing or at least giving the Bruins your decision. Uh-huh. That'd be great. Well, I get that.

But then this guy, Chris Gasper, who is like more of a general sports columnist. basically wrote the same article and like there's it seems like there's this growing chorus in Boston of people being like we need Bergeron to shit or get off the pot here what's this guy doing huh

isn't that weird that is a little weird to me only because like do we feel like like he's Boston holding up on something because they're waiting for this like are they waiting on Derek Grant and we're going to jump in on that?

Yeah, the Bruins currently have, it looks like, about five and a half million bucks of cap space, a good chunk of which would go to Bergeron. And they do need, I guess this is the issue. They need to resign Swamen. Okay. That's an interesting one, right? And Trent Frederick, but mostly Swamen, obviously.

So, yeah, that's... The Swainman thing is interesting. I think that's one of the more interesting kind of subplots. Because there was a surprising amount of talk about trading Allmark, which obviously hasn't happened. And you would think, well, I mean, who knows? It could. You know, we very often say, well, you know, what teams need a goalie?

But he is the Vesina winner. He would be an upgrade for a lot of teams. There's a lot of teams that don't need a goalie, but probably wouldn't mind having a Vesna guy on a not outrageous contract. Totally, yeah, $5 million. It's pretty good. But it certainly sounds like, like has there been a Vesna winner in recent memory that it feels like less people, including his own team, believed in, than all Mark?

Mark Andre Fleury? Yeah, maybe, but even. That was pretty recent. Yeah. And he got traded. So there you go. He sure did. I can't say he didn't.

But yeah, it's crazy just because he won the Vesna so easily. Like it didn't look like he broke a sweat all season, you know? But everybody was like, yeah, because of the team, though, not because of you. Yeah. And then obviously. It's like, so then why did he win the Vesno? What are we doing here? And obviously the way that the playoffs went, I think is significantly.

Yeah, great point. Great point. Yeah, it's true. But yeah, I just, I think it was the Gaspar article in particular, which every, like, they, like, it would basically be like, look, we all love Patrice Berserun, but what's this guy fucking do it? I mean, he had the best career ever, right? I mean, we all agree. This is an instant hall of favor, but he's got to figure his shit out.

Like, just every sentence had the qualifier to start and then was like, but also, what the fuck? And yet. He's pissing me off. Okay. Relax. But this just goes to my thing of like general sports column. It should not be allowed to write about hockey. If you don't watch hockey, that's fine.

You don't have to. I don't need you to. But I don't need you weighing in either. You know what I mean? Uh-huh. Anyway, look, who is more get this guy out of here or don't than me, right? But like, in this case, it's like, it's Patrice Berscheron. He was just one of the, what, top seven or eight centers in the league last season?

When even Ryan is telling you to ease up on the old guy, you know that you've maybe gone a little too far. Yeah, that's exactly right. Let's talk very quickly. I don't know why this all got started up again other than the NBA announced. I think it's like formal plans for the in-season tournament. but everybody was like, oh, when's the NHL going to do it? And so Gromp Budinski went in there and he got a quote and they said there is no consideration at this time for a season tournament in the NHL, which makes, I get why there's no consideration. But two years from now, they're going to be like, oh, the NBA made all this money off the in season tournament.

Yeah. We also have one. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Isn't that wild that we've completely copied their thing now that it's already like a little bit uncool because it took us this long? That's right. From the people who brought you NHL NFTs. Now, just so that we're clear, though, and now this is where you being the basketball guy can help me.

That might be overstating things, but sure. I like basketball. The NBA midseason tournament is made up of regular season games. entirely regular season games. That then overlap with it. It is not something where we stop the season and then play like a little, because I think when you say midseason tournament

in the NHL, everybody immediately thinks about the All-Star game and how absolutely unbearably awful it is. Yep. And also thinks about preseason hockey and how unbearably awful that is and goes, this is exactly what it would be. Everyone would be trying not to get hurt.

But no, this is, the games count. Yeah, they just say, like, on this day, your game against the Winnipeg Jets counts for the in-season tournament. Right. And it's just, like, the game that you already had scheduled. This is a regular season game that, you know, two or three points in the standings will be distributed,

depending on the outcome, but also the winner gets a win or advances in the tournament. That's how it works. And then obviously, like, as you get down to the knock, stages, they're leaving, like, kind of that space in your schedule blank so that you can be kind of, whatever,

flex, scheduled against whoever you need, like if you need to play the Devils next, they have the blank space in every team's schedule so that you can be scheduled against the Devils and this other team can be scheduled against Minnesota or whatever. So you actually, the better

you're doing in the tournament, you end up with a tougher schedule, though, then. I guess that's true. Some other team. I guess that's a good point. I guess that's a good point. I hadn't thought about that, but that's true. But I believe it is

in the NBA, if your team wins it, you get 500 grand. Like in much the same way, like there are, I don't know if people know this, but like the team that like as deep as you advance into the Stanley Cup, like you get more money. Like the lead cuts you would check that is

kind of outside outside like the cap system or whatever. So this is just something to think about, I guess. And I know I've seen some people suggest that when it comes to the NHL, because the All-Star game, they give you some money there too and nobody cares.

I've seen some people suggest other incentives. The one that comes up is like a guaranteed either playoff spot or play-in spot for the team that wins the tournament, which I know right away is going to make a bunch of people freak out. The sanctity of the 16 team playoff that many fans love very, very much and recoil at any idea of expanding or redefining that in any way. but yeah the idea would be that if if you win the midseason tournament the one version of it that I saw that it was that if you win the midseason tournament and you do not make the playoffs you get like a one game shot at the eighth seed in your conference to try to take their spot right and I know right away people go well but I mean the best teams are

already making the playoffs. So, you know, so what? Like, I mean, who's going to win the regular season tournament? It's going to be like Boston or Carolina or Jersey or whoever. They're already in the playoffs. I mean, when you look at like the middle of the season, like even in January, I know we often look at the playoffs and go like, oh, yeah, these teams are all going to make the playoffs. But there's really only four or five teams that are safely in the playoffs to the playoffs to the point that nothing could reasonably go wrong that would knock them out. So maybe? Like, you know, maybe that certainly would feel like an incentive.

That would get everyone, you know, really paying attention to it. But then you get to the end and like Colorado, who's already 10 points in first place overall wins the tournament and you go, what was the point of all that? They're just going to watch and see what it does in the NBA and when it works there. they'll copy it, but they'll do it worse somehow. 100%. I will say this. I think it was Scott Wheeler

tweeted this. And I thought this was the best idea. How do you get people to give a shit about this? How do you get people to give a shit about this? Each country has its own tournament. Okay. The U.S. and Canada. And then whoever wins those two countries

like they play for the championship or whatever. But the only, the reason this is interesting is, like TSN and Sportsnet, they already act like there's only seven teams in the league. Can you imagine how much hay they would make on like, oh my God, holy shit. It's Jets Canadians tonight in the, like the Canada tournament. It's a tournament game. Yeah. Whoa.

And you're looking at the standings in their like 29th and 21st or whatever. Honestly, that would work on me. I'd watch that game. I think I would. Sure. Yeah. No, that's what I'm saying. Everybody in Canada is a sickle.

I'm already mad at myself that I'm being suckered into watching that hypothetical Jets Habs game, but I'm watching it for the first 10 minutes. And then I'm like, what the hell am I doing with my life? That's right. Now, the problem, the problem, of course, is that that that also means, like, like there's a different number of teams in the other tournament. By a lot, there's, you know, one has seven and one has 24 or 25 now, now that I think about how math works. Sure.

And it's like, oh, well, that actually, that would be a problem, wouldn't it? You figure that out. Hey, I can fix that problem for you. You just got to give Canada more teams. Oh, I thought, see, I thought. you were going to go with get a bunch of teams out of the United States, which I agree with. We contract, yeah. There's a way to do this.

Let's get it down to 14 teams in this league, really make some money, you know? Hey, how about we do, how about this for a bonus episode? We contract 10 teams. Wouldn't that be fun to just make a third of our audience furious? I am demanding the Katie edit that out because that is what we will be doing next week now. Because they already suggest that every single one, man. Yeah, and guess what's going to happen now? because of you.

Don't vote for it, folks. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. I will just contract the original six, and I will do the entire episode while holding up a middle finger to the microphone. And we'll actually make him take a selfie of it, too. So, like, well posted as like the album art or whatever. I'll pixelate it out, though, because, you know.

Yeah, no, you can't. Because I don't swear on this podcast much to the delight of certain front office people and their families. That was a funny. That was a funny moment. Anyway, yeah, let's take a break. We'll be back with more discussion. We've got to talk about Eric Carlson and all that stuff. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Factor.

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You'll get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash puck. All right, we're back and yeah, I said it before. The Eric Carlson trade may or may not be happening at some point in the next seven or eight months. Must credit puck soup. If it happens, I said it may or may not. So that actually counts as will. Or won't, depending.

I mean, I stand by that they should have done it during the season. But. It's just so tough during the season. So complicated. It's such a difficult job. Here's what you don't get. It's really tricky. Do you think Mike Greer, like, I'm assuming GMs when they're done complaining to the media about how tough their job is, like maybe also. complain to like friends and family members, as I'm sure we all do after a tough day at work.

Do you think Mike Greer ever calls up his brother and is like, Bob, my job is so hard, we have this salary cap. It's so difficult. And his brother, who is the general manager of the Miami Dolphins, is just like, shut up, man. He's like, boy, it's hard to move this completely guaranteed flat contract in a hard. salary cap world with no restrictions on trading whatsoever. And his brother's just like, I hate you a little bit right now. So I guess I don't know.

I would have assumed it's easier to be an NFL GM because you can just be like, oh, this guy sucks. He's out of here. You can, but you could also renegotiate the contracts and then the signing bonuses get shifted. Like there's all sorts of incredibly complicated. gymnastics you can do, which, by the way,

I'm very glad we don't have in the NHL because almost all of it involves kicking the can down the road and creating future problems. So NHL GMs would act. Like, there would be some team right now that had like 70 million in dead cap space because they went for it in 2009

and just have been refusing to pay the bill ever since. That makes sense. Yeah, I... I guess the problem that the sharks really have here is that it's so much money that other teams just straight up can't just be like, yeah, we'll take the, we'll take the whole thing or even close to the whole thing. Yeah. And because of that, those teams are also going, yeah, we're not giving you shit for this. The guy wants to leave, and he's going to cost like $9 million against the cap when you're done with him, right?

Like, so why would you expect to get anything from us for that? Yeah. And it's like, well, you just won the fucking Norris for it, like we were saying with Omar. This guy just won the Norris. And there's like, yeah, but I mean, what's that going to happen again? That's it, which is why you should have done it during the season. But, yeah, and it gets into what do you do as far as, like, the retention and at some point, by the time another team has increased that retention number

on you enough that they're interested and willing to give up top players or prospects or picks or whatever, you're sitting there going, I can't go to my owner and tell him that for the next four years, we're going to be paying a Norris winner, five million bucks, to play for a different team. Right. Now, all that haven't been said, I, I was like kind of going, man, there's just no way this is going to work until I saw somebody point out,

I think it was maybe Eric DeHatchik in his column this week, something that like my eyebrow was raised. And that is we keep hearing that the penguins are in. And everyone's like, why have the penguins? That doesn't seem like it would fit. The penguins have got two bad contracts. Well, they got probably more than that, but they've got two especially bad contracts. It's Jeff Petrie and Michael Granland.

Yes. Grandland, infamously, the deadline pickup, and Jeff Petrie they've had for a little while now. Those two guys, their salaries combined, the cap hits, 11.25 million. Wow. Almost exactly what Carlson is. Both of those guys have two years left on their deal. So if I'm Mike Greer and Kyle Dubas calls me up and says, okay, the starting point of a trade is not salary retention,

but it's you're going to take these two guys for the next two years. And I haven't looked to see what their actual salary is. But I would guess probably. I have the page up right now. You talk for a second. If you take those guys, now the salary works without any retention. and now you can get into, you know, now what does Pittsburgh have? They don't have prospects, really.

I think they have their first round pick. Like, there's ways that you can, you know, you can get something of value. And from Pittsburgh's perspective, they get Eric Carlson without taking on additional salary for two years. And then in two years, they got to figure it out. Whereas for the sharks, I'm looking at this going, yeah, I got to take two bad contracts for two years. But first of all, I need players. These guys aren't terrible. Maybe I could flip them or something.

But then in two years, I'm done. I'm free and clear. And in two years, that's when I'm ready to, if I'm the sharks, that's what I'm pointing at is like my window to reemerge as a contender. I'm out of this deal. It's gone. I'm not retaining three or four million or whatever. They have enough decent young players, too, that two to three years from now you could very, very convincingly

say like we're going to be in a new era for the sharks. Now, okay, so real quick, Granland, $6 million in salary this year against a $5 million cap hit and $5 million next season. So they do have to pay him

$1 million more than his actual cap hit. And then for Petrie, this is the interesting part. Depending on when his signing bonus check gets cut, which is $3 million this year, 4.5 million against a seven and a half, or a six and a quarter cap hit.

And then next year is $2 million in signing bonus, $3 million in base salary. So the sharks could actually save quite a bit of money depending on when the signing bonus check got cut. If the penguin's already paid it, you know, he only costs you $12. $12.5 million for the next two seasons, Petrie. If I'm the Sharks, I like that a lot more than I like retaining. Totally agree with you. Yep. So, like, I got to be honest, man.

Like, I started kind of rolling my eyes when I was reading that, and now it makes sense. Now, what I haven't done is I haven't looked at other teams that have been associated and look to see if there were similar. The only other team that I've seen persistently is Carolina. And their whole thing is that they just don't have a lot of bad contracts. That's what's going to kill them. The lack of bad contracts. The lack of foresight to...

Yeah. Like, the only one that I'm like, I don't totally know about this is Kotkinemi, and he's signed till 2030 or something like that. See, it almost like, it's not just that the numbers of those two guys add up. It's the two years, that they're both two years, that's almost the perfect number. Because if it's, you know, obviously if it's four years, then you're not gaining anything if you're San Jose. If it's three years, that isn't all that, you're almost, you might as well retain. And if it's one year, that's almost two, like teams don't like to, we're almost into NBA territory where teams think about expiring deals and they don't want to move them off quite.

as easily, but two years, it's like the perfect amount for, like, for the penguins to go, screw it, man, Sydney Crosby, it's like our window is closing. If we're screwed in three years, then we're screwed. Yeah. But let's take a run at it now. Yep. I, that makes a lot of sense to me suddenly. Yeah. And again, you're not, if you're a Sharks fan, like, I'm not saying that you're going to get an amazing windfall in terms of picks and prospects, again, partly because the penguins just don't have it. But... Well, you're not, period.

Right. Like, that's the point. But now you're getting something. If you're taking those two bad contracts back, you're not, you're not locking in our retention. And you're saying, like, I mean, if I'm my career, I'm willing to take those two guys to make this work. But I don't, I'm not placing any value on them as far as my return for Eric Carlson. Right. So, it's, it's, and also, like, for him.

it's also interesting because the good news is those two guys don't actually help you that much right like in turn or hinder you depending on how you want to view tanking right like those guys like you play grandland and you pay him five million bucks like that's he's going to be a net negative for you you know like he'll you know he'll be worth something but certainly not five million dollars and and you sort of eat it for a year and then yeah next year at the dead line, who knows?

What team would be stupid enough to trade for Michael Grantland at the deadline? Well, that's right. Maybe by then. Yeah. But yeah, so I, I just, I'm shocked that it's taken this long.

Like, and I don't know if that's just the sharks are holding out or it's the other way around or what, but like, there's just not going to be a good return here for the sharks. Like, it's just not going to happen. Yeah, that's it. Do you have any thoughts on this Galcena situation?

Really, really tough stuff. He should not have done that. Yeah, that's right. But also, I mean, I think these days when it comes to the celebrity world, we're all a little hesitant when we see somebody get in trouble. and then immediately do the rehab and everything. But he's gone into the player's assistance program, which is good.

And also good that he still has access to. And I know a lot of people had kind of wondered if the fact that the coyotes had released him from his contract was, or terminated his contract, I guess, was somehow disqualified him from that. It doesn't. So, I mean, you hope that he gets the help that he apparently needs. And I can't imagine that we will see him again in the NHL, but...

Nope, that feels like it's a wrap on that for sure. But there's, he's maybe got more important challenges. And then, I mean, I guess the other thing to say is that there is a possibility that the NHLPA will turn this to a grievance and people will get mad and say, you know, are they defending this? Or how come they don't, you know, they'll try to compare it to like something that happens on the ice or whatever. This is what a players association, this is what a union should do. Mm-hmm.

You don't, you fight anything that could establish a precedent that you don't want. So if and when that happens, stand down on the, you don't have to be the guy who's making weird comparisons to like, oh, they'll defend this, but when Tom Wilson, blah, blah, blah, like, just let them do their job. Yep, the process has to just play out. Some other headlines here, Connor Bedard, signs with Chicago. I think everybody knew that was going to happen. He signed on his birthday, which is a fun little twist.

He's a regular Nick Wayne in that way. You know about this, Sean? I do not. Remember the professional wrestler Buddy Wayne? Nope. Okay, well, he was an old professional wrestler. His kid had signed with AEW on what they called a futures deal, and then he just last week had his first, like, televised, nationally televised match.

And he's really talented, he's good. And he's like the future of the business and all that. Same with Connor Bedard. But, yeah, like his match was like two days after. after his 18th birthday. That was the, that was the comparison. There you go. The bar has been set, Connor.

Yep. And meanwhile, Connor Bard not played a single hockey game yet. Just, yeah, classic, the contract. I did see one person make the like bait slash joke of like,

how are they going to give this guy three years and he never even played in the NHL before and someone took it. It was fun. But, uh, yeah, that's, it's no surprise that that's happening.

I think that means all three of the top three picks of signed now. Already? Okay. Yep. Because Carlson was last week and Fantilli was a little before that. Oh, did you see this Linae quote from this morning? Now you're like, oh, Patrick Linae, you famously don't like getting yelled at or whatever. Yeah.

Now you've got to play for Mike Babcock. And he was basically like, no, I actually. respect him because he's very honest. Yeah. Sure. Let's see how long that... That's definitely true. That's the...

I mean, everyone who is a huge jerk, that is just... You always know where you stand with him. You never have to guess. He's not like one of those people who is often saying things like good game and you've got to wonder like if he's serious. He just says you are absolute garbage and I hate you. You stay pee. on you if you were on fire and then you go yeah I know I know where he where he stands I like

this and then two comes around and you're like yeah okay I'm I've had enough sure but yeah I just I just thought that was so but like he you know he didn't famously didn't get along too good with with Torterella and he's like now this other guy who's who's famously not chill at all yeah I'm actually I think it's gonna work out great yeah This is the guy who managed to get, like, kicked out of the league for a few years, which even Tortorella never managed. Can't wait. Yeah. It's going to be fun.

No, look, I can't believe that was the call they made after they got, or I guess they made the call well before they got Adam Fantilli, but they knew they were getting a very high pick. Mm-hmm. And that was still their decision. It'll be interesting. Yep. It'll be really, really interesting. Adam Fantilli, when you are asked to submit a list of your favorite teammates and how hard they work and whatever else. Everybody's just going up to be like, well, no, everybody's going up to them after practice going like, you saw how hard I was working out there, right?

Yeah, yeah. You can see that? I got to hit the gym. See you later. I was really putting my head downs on those line rushes. Yeah, absolutely. Legs pumping the whole time. Nobody will leave the ice until Fentilly does.

Yeah. They all go out, the side exit. Wow, those guys have been out there for five hours. That's crazy. I guess one last bit of news here. Again, very slow newsweek. This episode is honestly, if it tops an hour, I will be shocked. The Flames are retiring Mika Kipersoft's number.

Okay. Makes sense. He won a Vesna there, you know? Yep. And, you know, classic guy where should he be in the Hall of Fame? No, but they love him in Calgary. Got him within a game of a Stanley Cup. And, yeah, I'm good with that.

Now, when you say they're retiring his number, they're actually retiring his number. It seems like, yeah. Okay. Because the flames famously are extremely weird about their numbers. They are. They have retired numbers. They have honored numbers.

And there's no rhyme or reason to. Al McKinnis and Joe Newendike are honored numbers in Calgary, but not retired. Right. Both those guys are all things. It says here, number 34 is heading to the rafters is what the Flames tweet says. Whereas Jerome McGinla and Lanny McDonald are retired, as is Mika Kippersoff, who is not in the Hall of Fame, even though Rundike and McKinnis are. And Mike Vernon, who, I mean, obviously not in the Hall of Fame, but still a solid... You know, now that I'm looking at this quote from Craig Conroy,

today we are proud to build on the Flames legacy by paying tribute to one of the all-time greats in Flames history. On behalf of the Flames ownership and the organization, we congratulate Meekers. on an amazing career in this well-earned and rare achievement. We are thrilled to have his number so deservingly displayed at the Scotia Bank Saddle Dome so Flame Fan can celebrate his contributions for years to come. And for me personally, it was a privilege to have him, have been his teammate. Under that mask was a fierce competitor who gave us the confidence and opportunity to win every night.

Thank you and congratulations Kipper. One thing I'm noticing there, the word retire is not. We're honoring him. We're raising it to the rafters. Yeah. You know what? The opening line of the press release does say the retirement of Kemparka Keprosoff's number 34. There you go.

So I guess that's as definitive as it's going to get. What they need to do, I mean, the obvious answer here is you just take New and Dike and McKinnis and you retire those numbers. Sure. Like there's, like, come on. And then you just, now you've got it all fixed and everything. I don't know why they ever started that, but like, I mean, you could understand, I know some teams have like a retired numbers and then they have like a kind of sub level of like level of excellence or whatever they want to call it.

But like Al McKinnis especially. One of the greatest defensemen ever, you know, certainly of his era. Like I mean, if he's not retired, what are we doing? But here's the thing that Al McGinnis, I don't think this is true of him. You know what the dead giveaway on this one is? Is Craig Conroy going, now when I played with this guy, dot, dot, dot. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's true. We're getting the Robin Regier jersey retirement coming up. We're getting the Jordan Leopold jersey retirement. Then Craig Conroy will be like, oh, who's next on the? Oh, look, it's me. I'm getting my dog. Oh, hmm, interesting. Jamie McLennon comes next, you know, like we're just, yeah.

Gets his moment. And Craig Conroy just keep going, man, when I play with that guy, oh, it was sick. Yep. Martinegeline, his number gets raised to the rafters, but just not quite all the way. That's right. Just short, and then we argue over whether it was far enough. I will say, we just did this on a bonus episode about great sports nicknames. Didn't occur to me at the time.

But Martangelena, the eliminate. Yes. Because he scored the way, for people who don't know, he scored the winning goal in the three, in three of the four series, the Flames played in the 2004 cup run. For arguably scored the fourth as well. Yeah.

Classic nickname that nobody ever used, but was still. It's so sick, though. The Eliminator. Ooh. That's like a good wrestler name, you know. It is. But yeah, so that's some news.

And I don't know, did you see the video that the flames posted of Kipersoff receiving the news? No, I didn't. He's like, yeah, I'm really happy. Yeah, I was going to say, there's... And someone said that's the happiest of Finnish person has ever been. He's like, yeah, I'm delighted. Great. Well, because famously, well, maybe not famously, but my Mika Kipersov memory out of anything was always that he was

the most unflappable looking goaltender whenever he would give up a goal like I don't know how he just like every goalie is almost trained that when you give up a goal

you know you flip the mask you take your water you look like you don't care but like he actively looked like he didn't care like to the point where you would watch him after a goal

and you'd be like did the goal get waved off like does this yeah he's like yawning and rubbing crusties out of his eyes like eh whatever yeah it was great

didn't even notice. Really enjoyed him. My favorite thing about Mika Kiprasoff is, so, again, for people who don't know, this is a guy, you want to talk about a workhorse. They truly don't make him like Mika Kiprasov anymore. I'm just going to read his games played from his time in Calgary. Comes over from the Sharks mid-season.

He plays 38 games. The next year, 74, then 74, then 76, then 76. then 76, then 73, then 71, then 70, then 24, and he was kind of cooked at that point. But you know why he was cooked was he played basically every night for like six seasons, seven seasons. That is crazy. Yeah. Like they do not. I feel like even back then people were like this feels like it's too much.

Yeah. And then his save percentages, his save percentages, 923. 917, two really good numbers. 906, that's bad, especially back then. 903, that's even worse. 920. Oh, wow, that's really good. 906, oh, okay.

921, oh, wow, he did it again. 882 when he's out of the league. This guy toward the end of his career, just on off, on off, unbelievable. And I believe at the end of his career, I think it was that last season, he was rumored, the rumor was that he was not just on the trade block at the deadline, but that he had been traded to the Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he refused to waive his trade. Nope.

He was like, no. I don't think he even had a no trade clause. He was just like, I'm not fucking going there. You might be like, I'm just not, I'll go home. I'm going to, I'll look that up, but I'm pretty sure he was just like, they were like, you've been traded to the Leafs. And he said, no, I haven't. Nope. I don't think I have.

What's that? I've been traded to my couch. Okay. you. Oh, you know what? He did. He had a no move clause. So it actually does work. But the deal was that he had been traded to the Leafs and was still like, man, not actually though, if you think about it. Good for him. Yeah. But yeah, no, and like he was bad that year. So the fact that the Leafs were even trying to trade for him, everybody was like, why? He sucks. And again, it's because he played like 600 games over seven seasons or whatever. Yeah, he was, uh, he was really, he was really, he was really. really good for quite a while there. But as you say, not a Hall of Fame guy, and that's fine. He won a Vesna. Wow, he was a Vesna finalist three seasons in a row.

Yep. And a classic, like, not quite came out of nowhere guy, but because he was considered a pretty good prospect for San Jose. He was the third shark's goalie that year, though. Yeah. Who was it, Nabokov and... Oh, who was the other guy on that team? It's somebody else who was good, and then...

Vestatostov. I retract my statement. Well, again, Toskola was good for a little while, and then he played for the Leafs and, you know, history. Yeah. All that kind of stuff. But, uh, yep, yep, yep. Um, I don't know. I think that might be it for, uh, news this week.

Hold on. Let me just, let me just check Twitter and see if anything is broken. Uh, uh, uh, uh, no, nothing. Oh, that was a close one. Okay. Well, why don't we take a break? We'll come back. I have developed a nefarious game show.

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that motherfucker is not real? Yes. Or whatever? I did see that, yeah. Okay. This game is called, That motherfucker is not real. Okay.

And the concept is this. Did this player play in the NHL last season, or is he a fictional character? Oh, God. Oh, God. All right. I'm in. Okay.

Now, some of these NHL players, I'll say, it's a little bit cheating because they played like one game. Sure. But others, I made sure to pick, like, a wide range of guys who were in the league last year. Now, can I just clarify, when you say fictional, like, are you, are these actual fictional characters from somewhere you've pulled or are you just like they've made up? Okay. No, it's the, it's the former. All right. So if it ends up being a character from, like, the one movie, I've seen.

seen this month, then you're screwed. I'll take my chance on that. Yeah, good call. Okay, we'll start out with Jalen Chatfield. Is this a real person or a character? Ooh, has enough time passed that we can get into the Jalens in hockey. I feel like, yeah, you know what? I feel like you're going to ease me into this with like a real player to start with. So I'm going to say real guy. That's correct. Jalen Chadfield played 78 games for the

Carolina Hurricanes. He went plus 23. He's good. He's a good player. Wow. Okay. Good depth defenseman. Hayden Hodgson. Okay. Now that that sounds like a book name. I'm going to say fictional. He played

one game for the Philadelphia Flyers this season. He had he played four minutes and 46 seconds. No point. Oh, I remember. Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course. It checks out. William Brandt.

I'm going to say that's fictional because I feel like in hockey, you've got to be like a Willie or a Billy or something. I don't think there's a lot of Williams. You're correct. That's Jeremy Renner's character from the Mission Impossible series. Okay. All right. Is he still in that, by the way? Is he like...

What? No, he hasn't been in the last two. Okay. I was going to say, like, does he fight a snowplow in this? new movie or Nope He's not in it He hasn't been in either

The last two Due to sketch Well okay So the back story on that is They wanted him to Kind of like ease into replacing Tom Cruise In Mission Impossible 4

And like that was all agreed to And then Tom Cruise is like Actually I'm just the fucking guy We're not doing this Jeremy Renner thing And so he was So Tom Cruise's character Was supposed to become like The Overse's character was supposed to become like

the overseer, like, he's not the guy who does the missions anymore. He's the guy who gives the mission. So he's going to be in the movies, but like not doing the stunts. And then in the planning stage of ghost protocol, he was like, yeah, but I'm doing all the crazy ass stunts too. I'm going to do all this. Like, have we as a society, like, prepared in advance for how we're going to react when Tom Cruise inevitably dies doing one of those stunts or?

Look, I'll be first in line for that movie, you know? Yeah. Like, he died to bring me that stunt. I'm not going to go see that movie. Like, I've seen the clips of, like, the stunt from the current movie, but, like, the behind-the-scenes clips where, like, the director is, like, just, like, I really hope Tom Cruise doesn't die right here, because that's really going to be the end of me. Yep. Yeah. Okay.

All right. So we're just all okay with the fact that Tom Cruise is very clearly. He has a death wish, and it rocks. Death by stunt. Okay. Yeah. All right. That's cool.

I think I'm two for three so far. All right. Yeah, you are. Yeah, that's good. Simon Benoit. That's a real player. He played 19 minutes and 21 seconds a night in 78 games for the Anaheim Ducks. That's a tough one.

Can't go and hit me with a West Coast team like I'm supposed to. Marco Ramius. I'm going to say fake on that one, too. That's correct. That's Sean Connery. character in the hunt for Red October. Aha. Nice. Scott Summers.

That's fake. That's fake name. That's, that dude's in like a romantic comedy or something. That dude is Cyclops from the X-Men. Okay. That's his shoot name, as they say. Okay. Gavin Mason. NHL player.

Wrong. That is a, the character spinner from DeGrassey. That's his full name. What? Yeah. Okay, first of all, you just hit me with the DeGrasi character, and I don't, that must be like the new DeGrasi. You know, I don't know, actually. I was asking my girlfriend for suggestions of names that sound like they could be. Yeah. Don't come, don't come hit me with some new degrassi name. Yeah, he's a class of 2007 graduate of DeGrasse. Get it. So he must be new tograssi. Yeah. I mean, he's not there. Yeah, he's on DeGrassey, the next generation of him.

I don't want to, that's, that's, that's, canonically that is not, I don't count that as real degrassy. That's totally reasonable. Yeah. Damien Giroux. Oh, I hope that's a hockey name. It is a hockey name.

He played one game for the Minnesota Wilde this year. An assist in two penalty minutes, 1357 of Ice Time. Nice work, Damien. Yep, that's right. J.J. Moser. Oh, why does that, sound kind of familiar in a

pop-cultory way. I'm going to say fake. No, that's the guy that all the coyotes fans got mad at us for not knowing he played 82 games like two weeks ago. Yeah, that's where I knew that from. Yeah, when you said that's ringing a bell, I was like, well, he's going to get this one. Nope. All right, one last one here. Michael Blomchrist. That sounds very hockey.

That is Daniel Craig's character And the girl with the dragon tattoo Okay All right So you didn't do too good actually No I don't think I did I think I did extremely poorly No

No Well I mean in my defense You took like the two categories I know the least about Which is like pop culture Movies and TV And then the NHL That's right

I mean You're just sit in a dark room all day Every day You know That's it. Not reading, not looking at anything. Eyes closed. 14 hours a day of telling my kids to put their phones down and do something.

It's, you know, and then I go to bed. That's right. I eat exactly one melatonin gummy and go to bed. That's my whole life right now. Yeah. I'll say this, because I was like, I need to, oh, like a Russian sounding name, you know. And I was like, oh, Sean Connery's character from the Hunt for Red October. That's got to be a Russian.

This name's got to be like Alexi or something. I haven't seen this movie in years. His name's Marco Ramius. It's like, he's not Finnish. What are we doing here? Marco Rameas is this Russian sub-commander? Get a fucking grip, man. Yeah, that's questionable.

Yeah. But yeah, then I was like, okay, okay, now I need like a Swedish-sounding name. And I was like, what's more Swedish than the girl with the dragon tattoo? You ever see that movie? I did see that movie, actually. I watch it and I have very few memories of it, but I feel like I enjoyed it well enough. Yeah, I like it a lot. Well, so.

Was it meant to be? I think the idea was that they would do more than one directed by David Fincher. My understanding is I've never read the books, but I have seen all three of the Swedish movies. They did them all in Sweden. And then I think Fincher was supposed to. to do more than one and then like this one did okay at the box office and they never followed up on it. Okay.

But there's like, so those books were written by this guy, Stieg Larson, who died, I think, after the third one came out or maybe even before, but after it had been written. But they've just like kept doing them. So like I think there's like five or six books now. But they're like not by the original. guy. It's very weird. I don't totally get it. And a few years ago, they made, they made like a movie called The Girl in the Spider's Web, maybe, which I think wasn't even based on a book, was just like based on the characters.

Really strange. Really, really weird. But again, I just haven't read the books like that. It's not a genre that particularly interests me reading-wise. I'll watch the movies happily, but I don't like reading a book where it's like, but he didn't know what was around the corner, end of chapter 18 or whatever, you know? Okay, yeah. I don't play those games. But yeah, I guess that's the show.

Yep. I don't know if we got over an hour. What do you want for us? I think we lipped over the finish line on that. Okay. Well, you look. Hey, all I know is I'm out here, When I write something on The Athletic, I get a bunch of people being like, well, slow newsday, why would you even write this?

So you can't then turn around and complain that we didn't fill a two and a half hour podcast for you. That's right. There's nothing happening. The timing on this one, well, I think we're off next week. Main show was. So I guess you're right that it will be worse. But like last week we did an hour plus on the mailbag because of the debacle. brinket trade.

True. You know? So it just, it's how the cookie crumbled on that one, I'd say. If the de brinket trade had happened like two days later, we'd all be sitting here going, wow, these guys did two hours in mid-July, and we'd be, look, we make it look easy out there, you know? But didn't break our way this time. No.

Hopefully, in nine days or whatever, the Eric Carlson. trade will happen and that we'll have a lot to talk about. We can hope. We can and will, I'd say. We can and we will. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, thanks for listening, everybody. Sean, why don't you hit them with the plugs real quick?

You can, as I just said, there's not a lot to write about, but I had a fun, fun for me, two-part series this week where I went through each and every team and told you the story of the very best player in the history of your franchise who played exactly one game for your team. One and only one. Not none. Now. Not two.

One. Did Hayden Hodgson make it for the Flyers? He didn't, but now he might. Gonna have to go back. Editor's note. Sean forgot about Hayden Hodgson. That's right. We are retracting the piece,

and we will be rerunning it. So that's a that I guess we could talk about this briefly, really fill up a minute or two. How's PuckDoku going for you? It's going well. I can't, I did achieve my goal of getting a single digit uniqueness score last week when it was the all original six. Oh, that was, they like Taylor made that one for you. I felt a lot of pressure for that one. So, and, you know, of course there are other ones where you really can.

can't get that lowest score because there's some where, you know, you're just not going to have that many. You've got to pick like a Vezna winner from the Vegas Golden Knights. Right. You're sort of limited. And I do it like slowly kind of throughout the day. So I can tell you my today's score yet. But I'll tell you my today's score.

Yeah. My best one ever actually today was 28. Nice. Yeah. I feel like when I looked at today's, I was like, This one is well set up for a nice low score. And, I mean, my mini-series this week of one-game players is absolutely. That's why I bring this up, yeah.

Taylor made for this sort of thing. So I will say I've had a few people ask me, I do not research. In fact, I have very strict rules for myself about, you know, I don't go, oh, what about that guy and then, like, go to hockey reference and verify. I play with fire. And I'm certainly not. I mean, when you go, they added the feature where you can like click on when you're done and see everybody's answers.

And I will say there are very clearly some people who are just going to hockey reference and finding the most obscure players imaginable so that they can get like a zero. And then tweet the zero at me as if, you know, I'm going to be. will say I had two sicko answers today, like sub 1% answers. Sub 1% is what you're going. But one guy, I'll just blast out a spoiler. I won't say the, one guy is a guy that I was very interested in as a teen boy because he had the same last name as me. Okay. That, that sounds, that, that packed a lot of drama into one sentence, but all right, yes. And then the

other one was a guy who, again, as like a young boy, I thought was a superstar because he was involved in a big Bruins trade. And this was before I really knew a lot about hockey or whatever. And so, like, he's just a guy who has always stood out to me as like, oh, yeah, remember when I thought that guy was like one of the like 20 best players in the league and he had a couple good seasons or whatever. But, like, just a guy where like I know his whole, like, league by our, I don't know, like all the teams he's played for.

I just like know that for random reasons. Do you have any tips for the people playing puckdoku wanting to improve their scores? Absolutely. I'm going to give you a tip, which is when you're looking at when it's a like a two-team combo and you can think of a guy like a famous player who play for both those teams, think of the trade that sent him from one team to the other. try to think of who else was in that trade. And that is my score.

That is my number one reverse engineer, a famous trade between those two teams. That is my number one. That is. Especially if you're a sickle, like a trade-loving sickle like me, where you can remember some guys like that. That is, that's how, like, and the original six, right? They had the Rangers and Bruins, if you're an old-timer like me, you immediately think, oh, Phil Esposito famously in the 70s, maybe one of the biggest trades ever.

Okay, who else was in that trade, though? Because Phil Esposito was going to be like a 10 or 20% answer even all these years later. So I went with the Carol Vodne answer and got a sickle score. Yeah. My other thing is This really only applies for college hockey heads Or I guess major junior heads You know

But like think just What I like to do is I'll think about a team I'll just go like Oh Wisconsin Who's a guy who played in the NHL from Wisconsin And I'll go like Oh Kyle Ok Pozo

There's a guy Did he play for any of those teams? Oh maybe yeah You play for the islanders, you know, that kind of thing. That helps. That really will give you a handful of guys you can at least think about and cross off the list, you know? Yep. In fact, one of the guys today I got because he went to Lull.

So, yeah, really, really fun game and really good. It's really good. The other thing I will say is because of the. the Journeyman game that we play on Puck Soup sometimes, where it's, you know, these are all guys who played for at least eight teams. You know, when I look at that list, if you look at that list,

you can usually go, or like familiarize yourself with that list. I'm not pulling the list up every day. That would be crazy. But if you're familiar at all with the list of guys who played for like eight or nine or ten teams, odds are good that you're going to find. find a guy who played for, uh, whatever, Anaheim and, and Tampa. Yep. So these are just some,

some helpful hints and tips. I, I feel like, like, between this podcast and my writing, I feel like I've been preparing you guys for this game my whole life. Like, I don't know what else I can do. I have to now, like, just kind of release the little curling rock and just let you slide down the ice on your own. And I feel like if, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, if I can't, I feel like I've done as much as I can. Yeah, no, totally. And let's be honest, that's what the fucking, every puck soup game is really all about. It's like, hey, remember when this guy played for that team?

Pretty crazy, huh? And you go, yeah. And I go, okay, well, so think about JJ Daniel next time, you know? Mm-hmm. He'll get you pretty far in these games. Why, in doubt, yeah, you got to have a few of those, like, 10. And can I just say, like, this is, This is more of like an honor thing.

Don't go Ray Whitney. That's, that's easy. Everybody can do Ray Whitney. Like, you gotta like get one of the tens. I will say I did use Mike Sillinger today. Sillinger, yeah. Sillinger is another one. Sillinger, the most team.

I think he played for 12 teams. It's the most in league history. But it is fun to like, like I got at one point, I think I had like a 30 score using almost all Hall of Famers. I think seven of my nine. It's where.

I didn't doubt, you know, Paul coffee, Larry Murphy, Doug Gilmore combo will get you pretty far. Phil Housley. It sure will, yeah. And then for me, E.P. Rinkside, you know what it is. I'm writing, I would say, less frequently during the summer than I normally would. But look, folks, you know, we were just saying. What do you want from the guy? He's ranking and rating every transaction, so.

Every single one. That's one every. I've got to go do this after these. I got to go update this for like the, what's his name? Ross Colton contract. Looks like he's going to get more rice time, you know? Better. Four million bucks?

That guy's going to be getting PP2 minutes. Just so you wait and see. I'm interested. That's a player I like. Colorado seems to like them more than I do, you know. They're the ones that signed them. But yeah, EP ringside. it out. I'm sure that we'll have a lot of prospecty stuff coming in the near future because

that's kind of what we do in the summer. So keep an eye out for that. Use the code. I love EP. You'll get three months tacked on to the end of your annual subscription. So 15 for the price of 12. We can't beat that. And then patreon.com slash puck soup. Like I said, we're not on the main show next week, but we will, of course, be doing a bigger than usual mailbag to make up for it. So if you want our summer thoughts, and we just did a bonus episode with me and Gorp and Sean

and SG talking about sports nicknames, you can check that out too, and all kinds of other stuff. Yeah, just the usual plugs. Nothing's going to surprise you. So thanks for listening, and

we'll talk to you in a couple of weeks. Bye-bye. Bye. We've got sportly commentary to whatever you commute, but we also cover movies, TV shows, It's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nancet. Bork Su.