Puck Soup - I Need Cap Space

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

Sean and Ryan talk about all the trades, signings, and hypotheticals during draft week, the Hall of Fame, and more.  

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McAnew from The Athletic. And folks, it's the week of the draft, which means what it really is is the week where all the crazy shit happens. It's the off season. Got about eight days until everyone goes to the cottage to do an entire option. It might be more like 10 the way things are trending. You think? Well, the, not, okay, we're jumping the line a little bit here, but the rule.

rumor is that Mitch Marner is going to, like, do the thing where he takes meetings on July 1 and then takes a couple days. Good for him. Yeah. Which, you know, if I'm here, okay, here's my thing. Well, we'll just get this out of the way first. This is not what's on the outline first. That's fine. I have noticed that with, and I wrote about this this week, that with these trades that are happening this week, for the,

most part. There's a lot of like, hey, we're doing you a favor taking on bad salary or salary you need to move. And we're taking nothing back for it. Right? And I'm like, why are all these teams doing this? And then I realized they're like, oh, we have $20 million in cap space. This means nothing to us, but it also means nothing to anybody else. Right. If everybody has cap space, kind of it doesn't matter to have cap space. And that's why like Mason Marchment to Seattle for two picks that weren't particularly high or anything as opposed to last year would have been like a first and a fourth or something, right? That's right.

Yep. Everybody has cap room except Dallas. So if you've been telling yourself that your team was going to be fine this summer because the cap was going up and they were going to have room, guess what? they're competing with 29 other teams that also have room. And if they all have room, they're all going to be like, I can give this guy $8 million.

He might only be a $6 million player, but I can give him eight, make sure he gets in the door. And then like, if everybody does that, like if everybody overpays a million dollars on every contract in the league, or whatever percentage you want to say that is 12%

on every contract in the league, suddenly that $20 million in cap space has gone very quickly. And I don't know if that behooves Mitch Marner, who, you know, apparently is like, I might go short term and like really try to max out the money. And then when the cap's $115 million in three years or two years or whatever it is, max out the money again when I'm like 29. Yep. Which he probably should do.

Well, folks, they're calling him Sean the Sear because this is exactly what he said McDavid should do last week. And then McDavid goes out in his press conference with the Oilers like getaway day or whatever. And he goes, we're kind of waiting and seeing on this one. We're going to make sure everybody signed and the team's good before I want to commit to this. Sean the Seer they're calling him. Yeah, that is. I get that a lot. And yeah, it only took about, what, a decade for NHL players to catch up to NBA players?

Maybe. I mean, we're giving them credit for something they haven't done yet. That's right, yeah. Somebody said that there had only been one contract signed that was more than like 11% of the cap that was less than five years. years in the last, I don't think it was the entire, it wouldn't have been the entire cap era because there were short-term deals early. I mean, was it in the last decade? No, it was.

Like Taylor Hall doing that one year in Buffalo is the only guy. Yeah, no, it was, it was Austin Matthews taking four years. Right. Of course it was a leaf. What do you think? Of course it would be leaf. The guy's a pioneer. You can say what you want about him.

he started this trend of, of NHL, like star NHL players doing this. And, you know, I think it's to his benefit, obviously. But yeah, like, I don't know. To me, it's just, I don't, we don't know what it's like when, or we don't really have a good memory of what it's like when GMs just have $20 million to spend. And God, I think it was like 15 teams in the league have at least $15 million in cap spaces.

It's like there is potential that things could get very wacky on July 1. And I don't mean wacky as in, oh, that guy got one more year than you would have thought or, God, this guy got half a million more. I'm talking like we're sitting at the end of July 1st going, what the hell just happened? how did somebody have 11 million to give Brad Marchand? And then you just tear up all of the preconceptions of what contracts are supposed to look like. And then we all point and laugh at Jack Hughes. Right.

No, yeah, because that was kind of my point where it's like on July 1, be prepared. You are going to see somewhere between 20 and 50 contracts where you're like, how the fuck does that guy make that much money now? What are you talking about? And, like, definitely it's one of those things where six million, like a guy that made $6 million five years ago, you're like, how's that guy making six million? Like, you know, it's hard to, it's hard to shift so far ahead because the, uh, the cap spent flat since like 2019, basically. I think it's gone up four million dollars in six years. I think is the number. Um, and so for it to go up about as much as that in one summer,

I don't know that everybody, including GMs, fans, whoever you want to say, are really all on the same page about what that looks like now, you know. And some of them might be on one page and then at 1245 on July 1st, have to shift to a new page because suddenly all those numbers you got written up on the whiteboard don't make any sense anymore because agents are calling you back going, yeah, we've got somebody offering twice that. And you're like, damn. Damn you, Utah.

Yeah, like, so one of the things that I think is also going to be very inflationary with this is like Anaheim just traded Trevor Zegerson. We'll talk about that in a second. But in doing so, they cut like $4 million off their cap number and they already had like $32 million in cap space. You don't think they're going like, well, fuck it. We'll just give Mitch Martin like $19 million. Yeah. Especially if it's a short-term deal. That's what I mean.

Like $20,000, why not just give them the max? If it wants to go short-term, like, fuck it. Do it on a year or two. And with the assumption that the number will come down on a longer-term deal, but maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. And if you're Marner, you're not only maximizing your dollars, you're maximizing your control. Because, I mean, this is a guy, remember,

this is a guy who came into what you're not. should have been the perfect scenario in Toronto. Didn't work out. He didn't like it. Okay. But you had nine years to figure out how to like playing for your hometown team, and you never could. Are you going to be completely confident that you love the Carolina Hurricanes

after one good meeting on July 1st? Or are you going to say, you know what? I'll lock in for two years. Give it a try. And if, like, a lot of professional athletes, maybe you've got a bit of an ego and you also kind of like the idea of everybody sort of bowing and scraping around you and treating you with the respect you deserve,

it's a good way to do it. Make sure everyone's always on their toes. You always have control. Obviously, if you get hurt or something, then that's the downside. That's the risk. I was wrong. it was 15 teams have at least 20 million in cap space right now. And so much money.

And obviously all those teams have like their own guys to resign. And so it's not really 20. Maybe it's more like 10 or 12 or whatever. But like still, that's, yeah, GMs just are not used to this. 2018, 19 was the last time the cap jumped like more than like as much as it is this summer. That's how long it's been. Let me ask you this on Marner. The biggest contract in the league as of right now is dry-siddle, like for next season.

McDavid at some point, we'll blow that away, but that contract won't kick in until a year later. So for next year, it's Leon Drysaddle right now. What are the odds that Mitch Marner comes in at a higher cap number when this is all set and done? I think extremely good. You really am? Like better than 50-50? Because most of the numbers you see flown around right now are like, 12, 12.5.

I certainly think if Marner wants to maximize the dollars, and we don't know that that's the priority, I'm sure it's a mix of things, but if he did, if he said on July 1st, don't call if your number doesn't start with a 1 and a 5.

I still think the phone rings. For sure. Maybe not with all the teams he wants to call, but yeah. Right. At that point, it becomes a question of, like, how much is being, on a competitive team worth to him.

Yeah. And, you know, if it's a choice between Carolina, which is apparently a really nice place to live, and there's not a ton of media pressure like there is in Toronto, but that's a good team that is maybe a Mitch Marner away from being able to compete for something. Or does he want to just go to Anaheim or San Jose and get 14 or 15 million bucks for two years?

You know, I think there are pluses and minuses if you're the player for doing that as well. So I don't know what the answer is to your question, I guess. But I do think that there's a really, really good chance that he comes in above dry cycle for sure. For sure. Yeah. And then the other question is what teams are willing to wait? for two days versus. Yeah.

I mean, that's the question in the strategy, right? Like, you see the domino that everyone else waits for or do we see teams go, all right, Mitch, good to, good chat, but we don't have. Like, what are we doing here? Well, I got to, or I got to get to the 10 other pretty good free agents that are out there. And I'm not going to sit around and watch them all sign somewhere else so that you can tell me that I finished forth in your little personal derby.

No, no. I mean, he, I think he's taking kind of a risk in doing this because, like you say, everybody else is going to be signing teams. Like, let's say Caroline is maybe not the best example because they know exactly what they need

and what they need is a Mitch Marr style player, right? So maybe they're like kind of the only one in the game or it's again a team like the ducks who just are like we have so much money and so many guys signed already that it doesn't really matter we can we can wait for it but i do think he's limiting his market um by by playing the the uh parisei suitor game you know where it's like yeah we're actually going to wait a little while isn't that fun for us we'll yeah we'll see we'll see see how it goes. goes.

But yeah, I just, like I say, I think it's, there's nothing, you know, you go to the grocery store and they're like, hey, candy bars, buy three, get one free. And you're like, well, fuck it. I guess I, yeah, you know, what, what? That's a free candy bar, you know? I think there's going to be a lot of GMs who don't, who like me, don't have the ability to be like, I'm good on the, I'm good on the extra candy bar. I don't need to buy three of them.

I think a lot of GMs are going to be more than happy to spend all the cap space they have for next year right this second, you know? Well, I mean, we say in some form or other all the time on this show. What are they going to save the cap room for? Save it for next year so some other guy can bid on Connor McDavid after you got fired for missing the playoffs. Yep. And he looks like a hero because he's got all that space you didn't spend. Forget that. Well, to me, if you have $20 million in cap space,

the idea that I would be thinking about is, how do we spend $15 million of this really effectively? And that like, because if you're, again, just a competitive team and you're looking to add at the deadline and you go into the season with $5 million in cap space and you're pretty confident that you can be competitive during that time, like a Carolina could be in theory. I just think that that's like such a huge weapon where you're like, yeah, we can take on like $20 million in salary at the end of the year.

I think you can find a reasonable middle ground there, you know? Yep. Especially if you do take the step back and don't just go like, I don't know, who's like a perfectly okay forward who's hitting the markets this summer. Like, if you're like, let's let somebody else give that guy eight million and we'll take the guy who's pretty comparable for six. That's it. I was on the Leafs Report podcast yesterday. And I said most years, my strategy and free agency is figure out what your need is. Make a list of eight free agents that could fill that need.

Mm-hmm. Okay. And obviously here, I'm assuming the need is like second. pair of defensemen third line center, not 100 point right winger. Of course. There's not a ton of those guys. But for the more middle of the lineup guys, make a list to eight guys, and then don't pick up the phone until five of those guys have signed.

And then you call the other three and say, what are we looking at now? And that's how you kind of mine free agency for those bargains. I don't know whether that will work or not this year. Right. Because there's just so much, I mean, the guy you call might say, yeah, thanks for calling me on July 3rd. I've already been talking to teams and there's still lots of great offers out there. Well, right. I mean, it's about putting lines in the water.

Right? Like you go, oh, we're interested. But, you know, I think a lot of teams can very legitimately go, caps going up, internal budget. You know, we're, we got, we got some moving pieces here. We're not really sure. And that's going to be the other piece. It's going to be fascinating. Now that the cap is going up,

we're going to really start to reveal which teams have those internal budgets. Yeah. I think I wrote about this like February, where I was like, because in 95, you know, going up $4 million doesn't feel like a ton. But next summer when it's up over a, I think they say, I can't remember the number. It's like $102 million is going to be the salary cap next summer.

And it's like that will be the differentiator, I think. When the cap goes up like $10 million in two years, that's when we start seeing like, oh, fuck, like not everybody's going to be on board with this. But that's why, you know, that's why Mitch Marner and Connor McDavid would be wise to just like wade it out a little bit because being able to have a math. contract over $20 million is is a lot different than a, than a max contract that I think it's 18, nine or something like that right now for next season. So, or 19 something, anyway. Just the number starting with the two would just feel so huge to a lot of guys, I feel like.

And when the salary caps, 115 million, which is what they're suggesting it's going to be, two summers from now. Okay, well, then it's not so hard to see a $20 million contract happening. I feel like when I was talking about Connor McDavid last week, that one of the things that we said was that part of the reason he should hold off was to see, like, all right, if I'm going to give a discount, what are you going to do with that money? Right. And that's basically what he said.

And then the news broke that Trent Frederick might be getting. Yeah, man. A lot of money. But here's my, what happened with that? Because that never got announced. It got put all out in the media, but I don't think it ever actually got signed. Correct. I don't think it ever officially went through.

That's weird, isn't it? Yeah, it didn't. What was it like eight, four and a half or something like that? Wasn't that the rumored number? Yeah. I'll look on Puckpedia. It was eight, and they said like around four million, but just under. So, I mean, let's assume 30 to 32 million.

But that's like the sort of thing that would drive me nuts if I was Connor McDavid. Like, because that is, if he's somebody who should get a max-length deal. They don't have a listed on Puckpedia. So, like, that's, that four million is pretty close to the difference between what he should get, which is max length and what he probably will get, which is something like, in the 15 million range. Right. And then go and spend it on fourth line depth,

on an eight-year deal. Like, this is what we're doing. For a guy who, by the way, is 27 and doesn't exactly play the kind of game that I feel like holds up into your mid-30s. No. Like, you know. I don't know. Like, Trent Frederick's one of those guys that sometimes guys like us go,

oh, he doesn't do much. And then his teammates are, we love the dude. We love him. but yeah I don't part of me wonders if like Carter McAvade or his agent didn't call somebody and go what the hell are you guys doing so if you're doing that with the four million then Connor wants his max money yep and they went oh what deal no Trent Frederick never heard of him I just I'll say this too all the all these cap dumps and that kind of thing

if I'm the oilers I'm calling every team in the league going you know cap it's going up like crazy and we have a defense fenceman you might be interested in. Didn't shave, or he shaved a lot during the playoffs. Didn't grow the beard. You remember that guy? Pretty interesting how he didn't, how he didn't have the beard. One of the fun things.

But, yeah. I don't know. They're at a real crossroads as an organization, those Oilers. I don't know what they're going to do. Because I think, yeah, they have both their goalie signed for next season. Can you move one of them? Probably. They're cheap.

But then what do you do? I don't know. I would get a better one is personally what I would do. Follow up question. Where? Because the market for goalies this summer isn't exactly as good as you'd like it to be. Certainly not the free agent market. Yeah.

That is, this is where you've got to get creative, I think, on the trade front. because I don't feel like Jake Allen is going to do it for you. And he's probably the best free agent goalie. That's right. The best, you know, in terms of resume. Like, who knows? The best, the actual best free agent goalie will be somebody we're not even thinking of right now who'll just get hot. But, yep, they got to do something.

They have to. They have to. Anyway, let's talk about that Trevor Zee. trade. It finally fucking happened. They did it. Finally happened. We've been waiting for two years. Anaheim said, we're not going to sell low. And then they were like, you know what, screw it.

Like, I've seen that. I've seen some people say, like, they sold low. But when it's been low for two years, at some point, you're not really selling low anymore, you know? You're just selling. Yeah, for sure. To me, I, I, I, I, I, I, I don't think they're selling low. I think they're, when you're, when the guy had 12 goals last year, this is actually a pretty good return. Like, I'll put it this way. He's played 88 games in the last two seasons and he has 18 goals.

That's just like, I think getting a guy like Ryan Palin, who's a perfectly good player, but obviously doesn't have the ceiling. And two picks is about right for a guy with 18 goals over the last two years. obviously he's been hurt. Obviously his ice time's been limited because his coach didn't really want to play him very much. But I don't know, man. To me, I'm looking at it going, this is about right. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it's the upside, right? That's what you're trading for if you're the Flyers. That's what scares you if you're the ducks is that this guy for a while, look like he was going to be a point of game top line. sort of guy. So, uh, you take a swing. I, I, I don't mind it one bit for Philadelphia.

No, of course. You take, take the chance every every time you can on a guy like this. And maybe it doesn't fucking work. And if it doesn't, well, he's only signed for this next, for this coming season anyway. So what's the difference, you know, for if you're the, if you're the, if you're the, if you're the,

if you're the flyers. But, um, I don't know, like, I've seen, Obviously, everybody's like he's horrible defensively. And it's like, I'm not saying he's good defensively. But you remember this is the stat I put in my story about it yesterday. He was minus 45, his first two big years in the league.

You know, the two like 60-point seasons that got him on the cover of the video game. Mm-hmm. You know, minus 45, a ton of that was with empty netters. He was quote unquote, only minus 18. at five on five. And it's like, that's a pretty big fucking difference, actually. Like,

that's, that's actually really, let's put it this way. If he's minus 18, I think everybody just goes, well, I mean, the ducks were horrible

those two years. You know what I mean? Like, the perception around him is way more negative than I think it probably should be about his defensive game.

I'm, again, not saying it's good. But I don't think this guy's like a minus, minus, defender like everybody else is talking about. They just never asked them to do it on a bad fucking team.

And then they bring in the coach. And the first thing the coach says when they hire him is he's like, we got some players who, they can't be hot dogging it out there. They got to be playing the game the right way, you know, 200 foot hockey, all this. And it's like, yeah, man, I can't believe this guy's fucking career tank. That's crazy. Wow. Which, of course, leads to the question of how he's going to get along with the Rick Talkin.

I think the Flyers don't make this trade without Rick Tocky being like, give me that. Okay. You know what I mean? In much the same way, I don't think the Ducks make the trade without Quinville going. I'm good. I think that's definitely true from the Anaheim perspective, and I really hope it's true for Philadelphia. Now, if I'm the Flyers, my thing is like, hey, is there any, like, guy who we think should really be like a kind of,

highly producing center who might have had a kind of an attitude problem or some questions about like how Hardy wants to play the game. And Rick Tocke had a lot of success with that guy in recent memory. Uh-oh. Yeah. You know, that's that's the question I have. I mean, Rick Tocke had a lot of success with that guy for a while. and then not so much.

But what I'm hearing you say is they should go out and get J.T. Miller to really. Straighten up and fly right. Yeah, get this Zegers kid on the right path. Ship shape. Yep, absolutely. No, obviously you got to like it for the Flyers because they're buying a lottery ticket that pretty good chance of hitting. And they gave up a guy like impaling who. obviously doesn't have the ceiling, but right now probably an equitable floor, right? Like, Zegra said his worst is kind of paling average in terms of value that he provides for you, right?

Mm-hmm. So I like this for the Flyers. I like it for the Ducks, too, because it just wasn't, it wasn't going to work with Zegris. And we knew that two years ago, so, you know, it finally happened. it's just funny that they they fired the coach who put Zegress in the crosshairs in his like first interview and then like a month and a half later we're like oh and the kid's gone too yeah yeah

it was time man it was oh definitely it was time to move on the other interesting thing that came out of Anaheim was talk that they might be Paffirbeek might be willing to move the number 10 pick yeah we can we can get into every team the draft is apparently willing to move up or down depending on who you talk to at any given moment. Yeah.

And they never do. But no. There was a suggestion today that Boston wants to move up and it's like, yeah, I fucking bet they do. I don't know. Like, sure. They want to move up from like four? Aren't they? Seven.

They're picking seven. They fell as far as they possibly could have. That's a sure. Yeah. They haven't had things go their way for the last 20 years or so, so, you know. That's an overstatement. 15 years. Let's say 15 years.

But yeah, so we'll talk about the draft in a minute. Do you have anything you want to say about the marchment trade to Seattle? Not really. Good player, but Dallas has to move cap space, so you get what you can get. Did you see, by the way, speaking of Dallas, Did you see the suggestion that they might be in on Marner last night? I wouldn't doubt that. I mean...

Where are they getting this money? They will... Dallas seems like they are getting close to the Vegas, Tampa. Like, we will be cutthroat and we will do what we need to do. Which is cool. Yeah. I just don't know where... Unless it's like we're getting rid of Robertson, we're getting rid of, like, hints. You trade Jason Robertson and you don't bring back Jamie Ben.

And even then, that only gets you to like $8 million in cap space. And then Mitch Martner takes $8 million because he just wants to win. Great. My hat's off to him. Why not? I don't want to spoil my column tomorrow, but would that not be the funniest possible outcome for everyone other than Lee fans if Mitch Martner took like a cheap deal and was like, hey, I'm always been about winning?

Give me the dubs, baby. I'm just, you know what, I'll leave some money on this. Of course I will. What kind of person would I, what kind of teammate would I be? I'll say this, Sean. If he goes to a no-tax state for like $8 million, I will officially say it's a fucking problem. You're on board. All right.

I got a spot on the bandwagon. I'm patting the seat for you right now. I will join the one GM who came up with this three years ago and texted every insider he knows. It was like, this is a real problem for us. again, that's the GM of the century, or at least a decade as far as I'm concerned. GM of the century is probably the LTIR guy still, because they're actually fixing that in the new CBA. But, yeah, this one's great. And I would have to agree if Marner takes a discount to go to a no-tax state.

I would just have to agree with it at that point. But yeah, I don't know why Seattle's doing this necessarily. I don't know that they're a Mason Marchment away from anything in particular, but he's a good player. And of course, that also allowed them to trade Andre Berkowski to Chicago for Joey Valena. Yeah, and not have to give any sort of sweetener to get out of that deal,

which is... This is what I'm saying about everything. It's just like CapSpace. That's somebody else. Isn't that, I mean, yeah, you've got Cap Space until you don't. Like, I still... I don't think it matters to Chicago at all. Like, what are they going to spend in the cap this year?

I don't know. Well, I mean, they were supposed to be in on Marner. They were supposed to be under this pressure to take a step forward. Like, if I find 20 bucks in my coat pocket, I'm pretty happy. But I'm not, if I then walk into the store and they're like, yeah, here's a piece of gum for five bucks. I'm not like, oh, I'm going to jump on that. I mean, I got the extra 20. They have $22.5 million in cap space right now, to be clear.

that's a lot of money. Even after the trade? Even after the trade. And I think they only have, they don't really have a, you know, Kourashev is the only guy who's like, notable who's an RFA. With all due respect to Arvind's solar blount,

you know. So they can give Mitch Marner $19 million and still have plenty of cap room. Okay. Oh, okay. We have some, we have some breaking news, actually, speaking of trades, and moving up in the draft, the Rangers are giving the Penguins their 12th overall pick. This is interesting.

I find this because I saw this. So, okay, so people don't remember the Rangers, the Penguins own the Rangers first round pick from this year from the J.T. Miller trade. And that was the one that went to Vancouver and then immediately bounced to Pittsburgh for Marcus Pedersen, if I remember right? I believe that's correct, yes. So Pittsburgh has that. And as part of that, it was top 10 protected, which is, or what top 15 protected? Something. I believe it is because that's why they can, they get to elect to, yes. Yes. Top 15 protected, which meant if it was in the top 15, the Rangers keep it,

and the penguins get next year's pick, except that the Rangers had the option to say, no, actually, we're going to give you the pick. And what was interesting is it, there was a deadline, and the deadline was during this week, they could not wait until the draft. They couldn't wait until the pick came up in the draft and then see who's on the board. So that's point number one, because I'm sure a lot of people, people are wondering why they wouldn't just do that. Typically, when a team has a protected pick and something falls in that range, they keep the pick.

It's just a pick that you can make right now is always considered more valuable than one in the future. And also, teams tend to be very worried about what message they're sending by saying, you know, we're going to, we might be even worse. next year. Yep. But the Rangers might be worse next year and next year's a better draft. Yes. So did you want, and if they had not done this, then the pick next year is unprotected. So you can, that means you're in that nightmare scenario of going into a season without

owning your own first round pick and we've seen that backfire really badly on some teams over the years. So I want to say I feel like this is the right call, but it's a bit of a ball. It's a bit of a ballsy call, though, from Christuri, especially with all the pressure in New York to get back into the playoffs to say, you know, I expected him to just say, no, we're going to be a playoff team next year,

so we're going to give them the 20 or whatever it's going to be. That's right. Yeah, that's usually how it works. Remember when the devils had the penalty from the, a Kovilchuk contract where they had to give up a first round pick and it was in any given year and there was a year they finished

they finished fucking in the cup final and so it was as late 29th as almost as late of a pick as you could give up and the devils were like fuck it we're not giving that pick up we're going to do even better next year and everybody's like what are they doing and then the league was like you don't have to give us a pick for that and they were like

thank you have a good one that worked out great for them But that shows the mindset. The one I remember was... Being 29th and being like, we're actually going to hold on to this pick and next year we'll give you the pick. That's the mindset most GMs have. Well, and I mean, it's happening in Ottawa right now, right? Where they've lost the first round pick because Pierre Dorian screwed up that one trade.

And they've already announced they're keeping this year's pick. They keep kicking it down the road, presumably, because they assume they're going to be better each year. in that case, I think it's a pretty easy call. But in the Rangers case, it was a little tougher. But I like them doing this. I'm a little bit surprised they did. Yeah, totally. Yep.

That's the exact right reaction to have. One other trade here, Eric Howla to Nashville for picking a prospect. Why? Why did the predators do this? Well, I mean, when they had them, they were good, and then they didn't have them and they're bad. I don't know what. That's the best I can come up with, man. You don't have to do better than that.

But it's okay. That's almost certainly what the answer is. The cap's going up. I've heard. And it's not like New Jersey's in their conference. They're not really helping like anybody they're really competing with. I get all that, but it's just like, didn't you used to have to throw in a first? or a second round pick for this kind of salary dump?

You normally did. How old is Eric Howlin? He's going to be 34, 35, right? Is he that old? Well, got to be. Let's see here. Yeah, 34. Just turned 34, though, in March.

So, you know, hey. Fresh is a daisy, right? But, yeah, I don't know what Nashville's doing. They're, they're... Because I saw some report that was like maybe they realized that like they're not that good and they might need to rebuild actually. And they kind of fucked up last summer. It was kind of a suggestion I saw. And it's like, I don't know if you trade for Eric Howla in that scenario.

But who knows? Maybe they're just getting veterans together to trade to other teams. Maybe that's it. Other teams are going to want veterans. The cap's going up. Really? Yeah. Damn.

Can Nashville retain on anybody? Who knows? Who knows? Impossible to tell. I close the Puckpedia page. That's the end of that. While we take a break, we'll come back. We'll talk about some other signings and things that happened this week.

Yeah, we'll be right back. Hey, everybody, we're back. And during the break, we had some, uh, some, additional late breaking news. St. Louis Blues are changing their jerseys. And they're also changing their logo. The logo change is like, you know, you know how like your app logos will update sometimes

and you're like, this is 97% the same, but okay, sure. That's what they did with their logo. But their jerseys are now cornflower blue. I think they're called, I don't know what they're calling. They're probably calling it like St. Louis blue. You know, whatever the fuck they, they do. The blue represents the blue and the white represents the, the river. Okay, sure, whatever.

The yellow represents the archway blue or something. Yeah, whatever the fuck it is. But it's kind of a cornflower blue. And this jersey is very reminiscent of, um, of the jersey they wore in the winter classic a few years ago, more, probably more than a few years ago now. But just like that lighter, more powdery blue, this is a 10 out of 10 redo on the the jersey. It's kind of what do they call them

like fauxback where it's not really a throwback jersey but it looks like it could have been. Okay. You know? I just think it looks awesome. The numbers are very simple. It's just like a yellow number now. There's no lines around it or anything. These are 10 out of 10

jerseys for me. The roads are sick. Awesome. They fucking nailed it with this change. The Bruins are maybe going to introduce a new they certainly introduced a new logo so people are assuming like a kind of 90s inspired

look is coming with it. I'm very excited about this change. The blues are looking good now. And my read on it is it's fine. I'm looking at it. Somebody actually posted the new and the old side by side which is very helpful

for people like me who because I honestly looked at their new uniforms and I was like, aren't those the same? But you're right. Sure. The blue is a little lighter and a little more distinct in a league where there's like 10 blue teams. I will be honest, I've had to spend a lot of time looking at these two logos to figure out what the difference is. I would love to see.

I would love to see, as always, if you have the branding Bible document that explains why the little wings on the note had to be pointy and how that represents a new era of aggression or whatever, please send it to me. I will not publish it. I just want to laugh at it. But yeah, these are the same logo. I'm just going to say it. They're the same.

But the shade of blue is nicer. It's like when they fill in the sunglasses to be black on poochie. Yeah. And the executive's like, whoa, okay. Now, this guy has attitude. That's what the pointier wings on the note really indicate to me. This is a logo with Zaz, you know? Oh, I mean, if you're going to have Zaz, then that's...

You've got to have Zaz. Jonathan Taves, Winnipeg Jets. I think we all thought this was happening and then it happened. Yeah, and we all kind of went, oh, this is great. The hometown guy is going back to his roots. And then we saw the contract and we sort of went, oh, okay. There's a lot of bonuses in that contract. This is not a risk-free move by the Jets.

Correct, yeah. I still like it for them, but. I don't even know if I like it for them. Really? I think what I'm kind of expecting here is he gets his minutes managed a little bit, you know, like he doesn't maybe play a ton early in the season, doesn't play a ton of back-to-backs, that kind of thing. And maybe I'm wrong.

I don't know. I haven't seen this guy play hockey in like two plus years, right? Mm-hmm. So it's hard for me to say. And the other thing, people would say, well, you know, you didn't see Gabe Landisog play, and then he looked really good in the playoffs. Yeah, Gabe Landisog left when he was kind of, maybe not in the prime of his career. He wasn't at his absolute Tippety Top very best, but he was close.

I don't know that you can say the same thing for Jonathan Taves. And it's probably, I got to think just as a 42-year-old man, there's kind of a notable difference between coming back from two years off at like 33-vers. versus 37. Yep. Absolutely. That said, I think that the upside of bringing in a probable future Hall of Famer is worth it when it was a $2 million deal, $2 million deal. When that $2 million deal suddenly became like potentially $7 million.

Well, I guess it's more the five and a half is the number, I believe, that he can get to simply on game. games played bonuses. Mm-hmm. And then it goes up further if they... Yeah. If he gets to 50, his salary is 5.5. Right. Is it, that's it just 50 games to get to 5 and a half?

I believe that's right. And then it's... Let me double check. It might be 60, but... Yeah. Then it goes even further based on how they do in the playoffs, which, okay, you'll have, you can... If it ends up being 7 million because you win the cup, boo-hoo, we'll, we'll, uh, we'll

deal with that. But... It is 60. It's not 50. See, that's tough because I wonder, like, if they would sort of do the load management deal on him. That gets a little tricky when somebody has that many games played bonuses. I mean, you know, presumably you wouldn't load manage him down below 60.

But if he gets hurt and, you know, he comes back and there's 65 games left in the year and you say, hey, we want to sit you down every now and then to keep. you fresh, but it's literally costing a million bucks. I think the schedule is coming out later this week for next year. I'm very curious to see how many back-to-backs Winnipeg is playing, and then I'm very curious to see how many of those taves would play. Especially early on. Like if they have like four back-to-backs before the end of November,

five back-to-backs, whatever, I'm starting to go, oh, yeah, he's not playing any of those. But, you know, if, you know, if it's a relatively low number or if they're pretty spread out, that maybe is a different thing. So, yeah, it's not how I'd be spending my cap space personally on a 37-year-old who hasn't played in a couple of years. But I get it from their point of view. My only thing is, if they're apparently part of the pitch to keep Nick Eelers is you can play next to Jonathan Taves. And it's like, is that enticing if I'm Nick Eilers?

Nick Eelers? Yeah, I don't know. The guy who can't keep up with me? Yeah, that's a little dicey. The other thing I'll say is we have to factor in the context that this is Winnipeg. Not exactly a destination. I think when a star player says, I want Winnipeg, you've got to make it happen. What if this is a scenario where everybody's like, oh, he should play for the Winnipeg Jets

because he's from Manitoba and he used to go to Jets games? They posed a picture of him wearing like a Salani jersey or whatever when he was a little kid and looking exactly like Jonathan Taylor. I think in a world where all your fans ever hear is how nobody wants to play there, the taxes are too high, you're on everyone's no trade list, and you will never be anything other than a farm team for the rest of the league. I think you've got to lean into this as much as you can. I get it.

I get it. I'm not saying they shouldn't have done it. I'm saying I can't believe this was the price they were willing to pay to get it done. Okay. You know, just, again, this is the thing I'm saying of like these GM, maybe this was what Taze was always going to get, right? But these GMs just don't have the impulse control to be like seven, huh? What if it was six? You know, what if we what if we shaved 500 grand off that bonus structure?

You know, like you say, if they win the cup, they don't give a fuck about anything. I don't know that Jonathan Taves is helping them win the cup. And maybe he is. Maybe he's exactly the player we saw when he was 32 or whatever, you know? I just kind of doubt it. because he's 37. And guys generally, that's when they start retiring, not making a big comeback.

Yep, it's fair. It's a big risk. Especially if they're like, oh, yeah, we've got to keep all these guys. We don't want to lose Nick Eilers, all that. I don't know. Well, hell, I'll say this. If they're playing him with Nick Eelers,

that's actually a really good way to get the minutes restriction. Oh, you're only getting 14 a night big dog. You know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Anyway. Ryan Donato re-signed with Chicago. I'm a little surprised by that.

I think it was only four, four and a half somewhere in there. I thought for sure someone would give him six with the cap going up like this. He's just scored 30 goals or whatever. Mm-hmm. Good player. Was he pending UFA? I'm pretty sure he was, yeah. He's got to be 27, 28 years old for sure.

but I'm 90% sure on this, but now you got me second guessing myself. He's 29, yeah, he was a UFA. But yeah, good player. And I think it's wise for him to sign till he's 33 and go, look, if they keep playing me next to Badard, I'm going to get 30 every year for a little while, you know? Or not gonna, but like there's a solid chance.

for him to do it. Yeah. And so, like, you know, hey, why not go make the money in Utah or whatever? Sure. But if you like living in Chicago and who wouldn't,

beautiful city, you know, you like playing next to Connor Bedard, who wouldn't? I get it. That's fine. And I don't think Chicago like dramatically overpaid or anything. I think this is a totally

reasonable contract. Yep. I agree. Matt Dushain, four years, four and a half million to stay in Dallas. Pretty good. good deal for for Dallas.

Pretty good deal for Dushan, too. He's 34 years old. You got four years out of them? Not bad. What do they care about four years from now, I guess would be the answer. This is a classic, like, you agree on the money for the three-year deal and then you go, what if we tacked an extra year on? Totally.

To bump the cap down. Yep. What are your thoughts on, just since it is very much related, you would think to the Matt Duchin deal, the, apparently. John Tavares is not, it's not going that well with Toronto. Yeah. The deal we all kind of assumed would get done is maybe not getting done, has not gotten done yet. Right.

Well, I think he knows he has Toronto in a pretty compromised position, let's say, where if you're going to fight with him over two million bucks, all right. I'll fucking, I'll go to Utah, I'll go to Anaheim. I don't give a shit, you know. I'll make the extra $2 million. And honestly, I'm a bit surprised to hear myself say this. Because I like John Tavares. Go to Anaheim. If after seven years at $11 million and change,

if you need that extra $2 million so bad with everything else going on in leafland, this time, enjoy Utah, man. Go get some Anaheim Ducks bed sheets and do what you need to do because I've had it with these guys squeezing everything. Like at some point, you've got to win a negotiation, or you've got to at least not blatantly lose, if only to set the table for the next one.

So the problem for the Leafs, though, is that if Tavares walks over two million bucks, I'm just throwing numbers out there. Let's say he wants eight, Toronto wants six, whatever the numbers are, seven and five, whatever you think it is. If he goes over that difference, the Leafs really don't have a number two center anymore?

Nope. And what do you think a number two center costs? Seven, eight million bucks? Maybe. So like, I get what you're saying. So get a real one instead of one that's 35 and maybe you should be playing the wing now. Sure. No.

I agree with you. I get what you're saying. 100%. I also get why he feels like he can fucking twist the knife on this one. Again. And I don't, I don't disagree with that. But if he, if honestly, after seven years, if he's thinking, oh, I got a chance to twist the knife, go, go twist it somewhere. else.

Yeah. See you, man. Go chubby checker that shit, you know. Go, go get, go get every dollar you can get. And look, you can't complain because that, you know, if you can sit there and go, oh, John Tavares should,

shouldn't want, you know, shouldn't want, well, he wouldn't have been a leaf if he didn't want money. That's how he got him in the first place. Yep, totally. He'd be the most popular player of his generation in Islander's history. you know, right now if he didn't make business decisions. So you can't get him that way and then cry about it if he lose him that way.

But that doesn't mean you're obligated to give him whatever he wants. Yeah. The Pajama Boy thing really was a good smokescreen. He's always dreamed of playing for the Maple Leafs. This is his lifelong dream and all this kind of stuff. It's not like he took a fucking discount, you know? Yeah. He did it perfectly.

He had the bed sheets and he got like an offer from it. It was like San Jose or Dallas or someone that was slightly more than what Toronto offered. So that he could then spin it as he took less to come to the Leafs. And then like everybody was real happy. And then like a week later we're like, wait, didn't he get 11 million? Isn't that? Is that really that much less? And then off we went.

That's right. But yeah, I think he just realizes, recognizes, recognizes whatever you want to say. that he is in a position where he can say to the Leafs, okay, you don't want me, that's fine. Good luck for placing me. Mm-hmm. I think that's a totally reasonable position for him to take. It is.

And I think it's totally reasonable for the Leafs to say, yeah, fuck off, man. I don't know. It's not like we won with you, dog. This might just not work. Yeah, and that's fine. That's totally regular and fine to me. I don't. Here's the thing.

Not every guy has to resign with the team they're on now. Not every guy or not every team has to resign every guy. You know what I mean? Like, it's only getting this much play because it's Toronto. Right? Like he, if he. I don't know. This is like a borderline Hall of Fame candidate.

I mean, Joe Pemelski's signing got a lot of attention. What I'm saying is, if this is Ryan O'Reilly doing this dance with the St. Louis blues. Is everybody like, what do you think is going to happen? Everybody's like, yeah, okay. The blues don't want to pay that much. He wants more money. We get it.

You know? Yeah. All I'm saying is, this guy ain't Mitch Marner. And maybe it's the fact that it's both Marner and Tavares, two of the, the Corps four. Yep. What are they going to call him now? Got a rhyme.

Well, this is what I'm saying. Is someone getting promoted into the Corps four or the, the, the, the, I can't even think of what the... It's going to be... Yeah, it's going to be Matthew Nyes and friends. I love it. Why not? You know?

But anyway, yeah, I guess I don't have a ton else to say about old J.T. That's fine. Mm-hmm. Like you said, go to Anaheim, have fun out there. Who gives a shit? Like I said, they're not, they're not, he's not helping Toronto win. Let's put it that way. history has borne this out.

I guess only really two other pieces of news here. The Hall of Fame inductees, rather, will be announced later today, probably this afternoon. The mysterious committee meeting, I think, right now as we speak. I don't know exactly when they start, but they are 18 people are in a dusty smoke-filled room deciding who will make the Hall of Fame this year. And you will be told who makes it,

and that's all you will be told, and you will like it. Yep. Because otherwise people's Feefees might get hurt. Here are the guys who are up for it the first time who have even like a kind of semi-reasonable shot at it, I think. Joe Thornton and Zadano Chara, Duncan Keyes. I would say all three, guaranteed. Keith first ballot guys.

Yeah, I would say the first two, first ballot and Keith, 90%. He does two horses? Yep. Three cups? I think he's first ballot for sure. Carrie Price? Potential guy. I mean, that could be it.

That could be the four right there on the men's side. Is it four or five? Four. Okay. I can only do four. Well, then. And unlike on the women's side, they actually tend to use all their spots. They'll max it out, yeah.

And so those being the four. would be bad news for Ryan Getslaft, Tuka Rask, P.K. Subba, Jason Spetsa, all guys who are also, you know, I don't think Jason Spetz is a Hall of Fame or I don't think that's a controversial statement. And I don't. Suban has the Norris, but I don't, I don't think he has, even having the Norris, I'm not sure he's got a great case. And I think also just the, that committee. is probably I don't know

we know that P.K. Subbent tended to rub certain old school types the wrong way and... Is that true? Wow. Now he did kind of come out as being sort of Trumpy so that could certainly help him

with... But the only, right now Randy Carlisle is the only Norris winner to not make the Hall of Fame among eligible guys, obviously. I think Suban joins him. And Mark Giordano joins him after that. Yep.

I think it's... Chirdanos should have had at least two, though. So, you know, that's maybe a different thing. It really comes down to, I think, the big four of Thornton Chara, Keith, Carrie Price, as guys that I think are getting in, it's a question of whether it happens this year or not. Rask and Getslaff, I think, are solid cases that are worthy of debate. I was looking at Rask last night. And I got a lean no at this point.

Yeah, he has the one Vezna. And I think he was a finalist one other year. But that's it. And he played for a long time. There weren't too many years where he was considered the top three goalie. And this is the other thing I was looking at. They love to cite wins for goalies in their Hall of Fame case. He got to 308.

That's not like an incredible number or anything. Like that's like top 40 all time. Yeah. So like clearing 300 is obviously great. You had a great career. No one saying Tukaresk was a bad goalie. But I don't know that it rises to the level of, uh,

of Hall of Fame or to me. And Gets laugh, I think you would only really put him in on the strength of his international success. And like, I mean, he was. head the career numbers, played for one team,

yeah, good international numbers. You know, I could see him having a case. Yeah, I... But it's not, like, I would be very, very, very surprised if he went in ahead of those other four guys that we mentioned. Can I say this to you? I just looked this up. How many goals do you think Ryan Getslap has had in his 17-year-in-A-old?

I know he didn't have many because he was a, he was a setup guy. He was like, he got to a thousand points, but he was like a 300, 700 guy. 282-737. Yeah. One season over 90 points. I'm looking here. I'm seeing a few, one year he was, he was the runner up for the heart. Another year he was sixth.

And other than that, like a couple of times. top 10 Selke votes and that's it. I don't think, again, international success, you can't argue that. But to me, I got to say it's a big, big no thanks for me on Ryan Getslap. That doesn't, that hasn't stopped anybody over at the Hockey Hall of Fame Committee in the past. But I just don't think, it certainly won't be this year. But I think, I think it's probably a no. So is it, is it the four new guys just jump to the front of the first?

of the line because there is the backlog of other eligible players. Right. McGilney and Cachiocholny is the obvious one. Cachuk is there. Brindamore's name keeps coming up. Patrick Elyash. Like all those sort of borderline guys. Wow.

Palliash is borderline. If you say so. We don't have to have that one again. Let's not. Let's not. I'm just joking around. I know we're both on the same page there. Um, yeah, it's Curtis Joseph down the list.

Uh, I don't know. Prediction? I think they hold off on Price and they do one old guy and it's probably Keith Kachuk. Okay. So Keith Kachuk and who is, who comes out, Price? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. I can see that. Who would be on next year's ballot? Do you, do you know off the top of here? Ooh, that I don't know, but I can look that up. Okay. Great. I would love for you to.

do that. Class of 2006, there's only one real big name from what I can see, and that's Patrice Bergeron.

You know, I thought about it. I think he gets in. I'm not completely sure. I just looked at his offensive numbers. That's all that I ever

looked at. And they were okay. They weren't great. Did he end up with more goals than Getslaff? He must have. Yeah.

Wow. I'm going to look this up. I think he scored more goals and Gets left just in his games against the Leafs, if I remember. Oh, yeah, it's not even close. But I would never have guessed Bergeron got to 427 goals.

That's crazy. Wow, what a player. Pretty fucking good that Patrice Bergeron. Oh, Sean, you know what? You know what seals it up? And you can't say this about Getslaff. Patrice Bergeron won the Mark Messier Award. That's a great point.

I'm surprised Getslaf never won it. Yeah. Dude. We got some... That's how you know. He's not a Hall of Famer. We got some bald versus bald... Rivalry here?

Like, what are we doing? And as a member of the community, I hate to see it. It's disappointing. It really is. But yeah. So with Bergeron, I think Bergeron being the one surefire, is there anybody else that even has like a borderline case? Of the list I saw, no.

The other one would have been tapes if he didn't come back. he would have been eligible, but that seems to be it. Well, so, okay, I think, well, maybe in that case they go, fuck it, we'll just do all the old guys next year as like, it's Patrice Berseron and a bunch of old guys, or maybe they hold off price so he doesn't get the, like, because being a first ballot guy kind of matters to people, you know? And plus, you know that they'll love the idea of having like a Habs legend and a Bruins legend going at the same time.

I mean, I guess they could do that with Chara this year as well, but... Yep, that's true. I have those two. But wait a minute, Charra, that guy's an Islander's legend. Oh, he was a Capitol, but I'm saying he also played for some other teams other than Washington. Did he... He finished with the Islanders, right? Yep.

He went to the Islanders after the Caps. Yeah, I couldn't remember the timeline there. Finished where he started, the Islander's organization. Isn't that fun? Full circle. All you people who thought they lost the... Chara for Yash and trade looked pretty foolish

and they got him back for nothing. I gotta tell you, man. The thing I think about all the time is Chara didn't play for the Bruins until he was like 28 years old and he played a thousand games for them. That's fucking insane. Man, oh man.

Anyway, on the women's side, from what I read, like people really think it's only gonna be Breonna Decker as like a first timer. or like a first ballot. And then that opens the door for like maybe Jen Bauderl, who's somehow not in the Hall of Fame at this point. Yeah.

And they're just weird when it comes to the women's candidates. Not only in terms of not using the two spots, which we've... Criminal at the time. They did it last year. We all successfully shamed them into finally doing it last year. But even then, like, they picked, like, a Swedish player, which great. I mean, international hockey matters, but it was sort of like, oh, that wasn't even on most of our lists.

So who knows? Just use the two spots. That's what I said last year. They did. Okay. Use the two until you get caught up on some of this backlog. And then the builders, who knows? I do wonder

Yeah If there's any chance that this is the year that Don Cherry gets a builder Not given circumstances Yeah it's interesting Would obviously be Controversial to say the least Yeah I just I just pulled up the Uh the that adjusted hockey guy

the guy who's like Yep, Paul, yep. Yep. Yeah. He did an article for Daily Faceoff that says Thornton Chara Keith. Maybe not this year for Decker, but she would be in at some point for sure. Carrie Price, maybe not this year. And then basically all the guys I said get slav, Rask, Suban, Spets, Spets.

Other first-timers, Dustin Brown and Braden Holby, you know, I think that's, I think that's really nice of him to include them on this article. You got a statue, you get, you get mentioned in, in the article. I think, you know what? I think that's fair. And then he says, he does, kind of notably, I don't think mentions Kach at all. Oh, there, okay, here it is. Okay. So he says, the people's picks.

McGilney, Botterill, Zetterberg, Marlough. Brindamore Marlow was another one Yeah Previously overlooked Joseph Kachuk Gonchar Shannon Sabados

That's a fun one Mm-hmm John Leclair Ryan Miller Patrick Eliosh And then Um You know

He Yeah So he's predicting His predicted class Of 2025 Is Thornton Chara Keith Price Decker

Bauderil and Melody David as a as a builder because she was a coach for like four straight Canada gold medals. Sure. You never know what they're going to do with the builders. Like it's really impossible to say. Yeah. Another article I just scrolled past said possibly Poyle and Colin Campbell for builders.

Were they not, did they not go last year? Oh, maybe. Maybe I'm looking at one from last year. Let's see. Yep, you're right. Okay. So it was just an old article that I saw. So there you go. I think that's a good group for them, let's say. You know, there have certainly been worse Hall of Fame classes than the ones that Paul just projected. Although, again, Carrie Price, if they hold off for a year, who could be surprised. Finally, I just wanted to say the Abbotsford Canucks have won the Calder Cup. They won it last night.

I saw that. Like, how is this thing still going on? How does this run two weeks longer than the Stanley Cup? It's a great question. I don't have an answer for you. All right. And, by the way, it was, I think, six days, not a full week, or two weeks. but there's a rhetorical flourish.

I see. That makes sense. Just to say I lied just to make a point. Sure. Yeah, it's interesting. I have to assume it's the travel logistics are a little bit more difficult going from Charlotte to Abbotsford than flying private, you know. But my big takeaway is this.

this might be what gets Aquilini to be like maybe rebuilding is a good idea if we're winning down on the farm maybe that's something you know there you go but other than that you know I would just encourage people to not read too much into

what a team winning the Calder Cup means for the big club that's all usually the answer is very little to nothing Unless you have a ton of prospects on those teams. And even then, how many of those are going to make your big club versus how many you trade away, et cetera, et cetera. I just wanted to shout out the Abbotsford Canucks because I've decided I'm going to be more paying attention to the AHL.

I bought a Springfield Thunderbirds hat because they were having a sale on their website. And I said, now's the time, you know, go, go T-birds. That's what I'm saying. Good stuff. Yeah, hell yeah. Let's go. You don't have one in Ottawa, huh? An A HL team?

We do not. That's bullshit, man. Toronto has an AHL team. Why don't you guys? Yep. We could have a bitter rivalry on this podcast finally. Okay. That sounds fun.

Yeah. I got to figure out who's on the Toronto team, but. Well, no, you can't claim them. You know, I'm not from Springfield. field, but God, is it Utica? I don't even think

Utica exists anymore as an AHL team. I don't know who the Lowellock monsters used to be. They bounced around for a little while. They were Albany, then they were Utica.

I don't think Utica still exists. Anyway, that would technically be my home team, but look, I live in the Greater Springfield area now. We're saying, go T-birds. We're giving them a big

freaking salute. And we're saying we hate the Providence Bruins and the Hartford Wolfpack with our whole hearts. There you go. I hate them with my life. Added boy. Make that your whole personality and your mom board. I definitely will. And I'm going to actually start being like, you know, when guys on the Thunderbirds get suspended,

it's way longer than guys from the Charlotte Checkers gets suspended. It's a tax situation in Springfield. Yeah, here in freaking Texas, you're not. telling anybody anything they don't already know. Anyway, I want to you hit him with the plugs. Let's get out of here. If I may at The Athletic, I'll be on with Sean and Frankie tomorrow. Subscribe to the Red Light Newsletter and look for my posts there,

including I think tomorrow, maybe Thursday. We're going to have the Mitch Marner power rankings, all the different categories of where he should sign what would be funniest, what would be which teams need. need him and I might even do one, a serious one of where I think he's going to end up. That's what's up. And then for me, during the recording of this very podcast, a little article called Transaction Grades, finally hit publish.

And I got to tell you, we have over 2,000 words ready to go on all the transactions that we're talking about here. Dating back to the first one I graded was Marcus Johansson resigning with Minnesota. So that's as far back as it goes. Yes, I do give a grade to the Tyler Cleven contract, okay? That's how serious I am about this shit. And people are coming up to me with tears in their eyes saying

these are the best grades we've ever seen. Of course. I've seen a lot of grades. Never better than this. So check that out over to Elite Prospects. Now's the time, folks, now's the time to get in on all the excitement around Elite Prospects. The draft guide is like 16,700 pages, something like that. It's ridiculous.

And the draft's on Friday. We didn't really talk about it. There's not a lot to say because everybody's like, oh, if this guy who's rejected to go forth, if he drops to 8th, we'll get him there. Yeah. That's probably true. Yeah, if he drops. I hope that guy that your team thinks.

won't be there for their pick, actually is there for their pick. That would be cool for you personally. I mean, it just so rarely happens. Yeah. But yeah, everybody wants to move up. Everybody's willing to move down. The draft is bad. Or maybe it's actually sneaky good, et cetera, et cetera.

It's simply impossible to say. But a lot of very talented people worked extremely hard on the draft guide. and if you sign up this week, I believe it is one-third off your annual subscription. So you're not going to get a better deal on it all year, probably. So head over to elite prospects, read everything. Film breakdowns are going on behind the paywall, all this kind of stuff. Again, now is the time for your elite prospects sign up. And also, head over to patreon.com slash pox soup, all kinds of bonus episodes over there.

Meishon and Greg just did one yesterday, where we talked about how, or we just did a whole draft of how an NHL expansion draft would go if they used the expansion draft rules from the PWHL this past couple of weeks ago, I guess, right? So keep an eye out for that if you want to head over there. That was a fun one. fun was the word used by many, many commenters. Many is probably an overstatement. Several commenters. This was a fun one they said. That's what you're missing out on if you're not signed up at patreon.com slash puck soup.

And until next week, enjoy the draft. And you know what? Me and Sean have to talk off air about how we're going to handle next week because free agency is July 1 is a Tuesday. So probably not going to do the show that day. We'll have to figure that out. Stay tuned. Have a good one.

Thanks for listening. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.