Puck Soup - It's Not Over Yet

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Sean and Ryan discuss the still-ongoing Stanley Cup Final, front-office changes, trade rumors, and more. Sponsored by Mint Mobile (mintmobile.com/puck) and AGI (drinkag1.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospect. I'm Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. And before we get into all this stuff about the Stanley Cup final that's currently going on, Sean, do you know about this movie Inside Out 2? I've heard of it. Yeah. Not going to see it. Refuse.

You are going to see it? I'm not. No, the first one, I have said this before, the first Inside Out was psychological torture film. Like that was the most brutally horrific film to watch as a parent. I'm not watching. I'm not supporting this enterprise any further. I understand.

It will maybe, you know, be a point in your favor here that it's, I would say, markedly worse than one. Okay. But also, and this is the crucial thing, this is why I bring it up, it is a hockey movie. Like fully, it's a little, it's a little, Like a teen girl trying to make her, uh, okay. Make her high school hockey.

Because in the first one, there was hockey, but it was like, you know, it just. Yes. For a few minutes. Yep.

So this one's a full on hot. You're putting this one. Okay, where does it rank? Slapshot Youngblood, love guru. I've never seen, uh,

young blood. But, uh, it's not, I'd say it's like a, uh, B minus C plus. All right.

It's fine. I thought it was like it had its moments. And some good voice performances. I assigned myself seeing this movie because I knew it was a hockey movie. Okay. And made a crazy amount of money, I think. I think they said it's the highest grossing animated film ever, opening weekend, obviously.

People love hockey. Look, we're going to see the number. numbers go way, way up on game five. People are going to be tuning in. This is the sport from Inside Out too. Then they're going to see that it's not this girl whose name I forget as the main character. Riley?

Riley. It is definitely Riley, yeah. They're going to be mad because she's not out there in some bum named Connor McDavid is. Get them out of here. I want to see Riley. They'll be saying. Now, does the movie end with Riley?

watching the other team take a slap shot into her empty net and the little red anger guy takes over the controls Yeah, she throws her stick through the other girl's neck. And she cross-checks the kid in the face and the... Yeah, I mean, that is...

Okay, can I say this, by the way? For people who have seen the movie, uh, you might want, you might agree with me on this. She gets called for two penalties in the movie and, like, there's a lot of great shame and anxiety around this, you know? Okay.

And the first penalty, she just muscles someone off the pocket. Like penalty for being too strong. Sure. It's bullshit. It's a complete, look, they don't show, they call her for tripping.

They don't show her stick, like in the skates of the other girl. But like, I'm just saying from the body position, there's no way, not a chance in hell that this was anything but being too strong for the opponent.

It's that simple. Second penalty in the game. She's coming across. Like she kind of cuts down along the left wing and cuts under the faceoff dot. And one of her friends is like right in front of the net coming to meet her. And they just collide. And she gets the penalty. She had the puck.

Yeah. What is this shit? Look at you working the refs for Inside Out 3. Yeah. They fucked her on this one. I'm picturing you just sitting in the theater with your arms crossed holding up your fingers. Show how many penalties. I'm chanting bullshit.

Bullshit. Absolutely. The other thing that happened in the movie was the little boy behind me. There's maybe 10 minutes left in the movie. Goes to his dad, I got to go to the bathroom. And his dad goes, it's almost over. And the little boy goes, oh, okay. Just sits there quietly the rest of the movie.

A plus stuff from that kid. Wow. okay. That's a first. It was unbelievable. Like, you know, whatever. It's a, I was at a children's movie. I'm not going to get mad at a kid talking or whatever. Yeah.

I did really respect that the kid was just like, well, if that's how it's going to be. Now, see, I, you know, should that kid have recognized that the narrative was wrapping up. Yeah, I feel like you should have. But. I mean, I just assumed that this story was going to end with, like, and then the house lights came on and the kid was just absolutely covered. In urine and other than... He just sat there quietly. He was a good kid.

Nice kid. Anyway. The Edmonton Oilers did not get swept. Speaking. Speaking of looking like you were going to pee all over yourself and then not. Mm-hmm. That's right. Didn't get swept.

In fact, they absolutely shit kick. The Florida Panthers in game four. Started early, continued throughout, I think is fair. to say. Surprising, I think? I don't know. Is that your take? I mean, I wouldn't.

The fact that they won is not shocking, but I was not expecting that. After three games of them barely being able to score, none of the offense, none of the stars going. Sergei Bobrovsky looking unbeatable. Yeah, I did not have eight to one on my prediction. No. And, you know, again, this is more of, um, more of that like, uh, is it better to lose eight to nothing or eight to one?

And it almost, and again, it just almost feels like eight nothing would be better at that point. Because when was the goal? Like it was like six nothing or something like that? Uh, geez, I don't even remember. It was so long ago. I, well, okay. Yeah. There is that as well, isn't it?

there. So where are we at now then? Like did this? Because I feel like if Edmonton had like chipped and grinded to a two one win, we'd all be like, okay, good for them. Extend the series, but Panthers still got this. Are we still in Panthers still got this mode or did that? Was it such a curb stomping that it changes some of your priors on who these two teams are? What would you say right now, down 3-1, with the, like, with the understanding that perhaps Connor

McDavid and Leon Driesidal have fucking figured it out? Yep. What percent chance would you give the, the Oilers here? I'm going to go pretty high. 25 percent? That seems crazy. 20 or 25, I would say. I think mathematically the odds are, have got them at like 10 or 12, depending on where you're looking.

would have been my guess is like 10 to 15% yeah um which is not look okay so i wrote this over the weekend like if macdavid and dry sidel they they don't have to put up a combined six points or whatever it was right and i think they only combined on like they had a point on the same goal on the power play goal if i'm remembering right um you know if they combine for five goals that they individually have a hand in? Well, I mean, you know, that obviously would win them the game 99% of the time, but they don't even have to be that good. They can just be, you know, regular Carlin'A McDavid, like a point and a half a piece or whatever. And it's at least a conversation at that point that the, that the Panthers would also need, would need to score four goals to beat them.

So, I don't know. To me, like, I don't find it particularly likely, but I was like, it does make you say there is a chance that these guys could just go psycho and win two, three more games, you know? I mean, it's really if they win tonight, and, I mean, it's, they lose tonight, that's probably bad. I feel like their chances would plummet. if they lost that fourth game tonight. But if they win, especially if it's in any kind of convincing style, who I would not want to be the Panthers.

Going back to Edmonton. That's right. You know, the momentum game to game isn't really a thing, but, you know. I did, I don't remember what the numbers were, but someone was like on the road in these playoffs, like, Bobrovsky hasn't been all that good. so that also obviously giving up five goals on 16 shots or whatever it was like skews those numbers

but you know it's it's at least possible here here's the big stat that I found four different times since they made the coaching change including this last game the Oilers have lost three games in a row immediately following those three games losing streaks. They went 8 and 0, 16 and 0 and 5 in 0. In those combined 29 games, McDavid had 58 points, and Drysettle had 42. Okay. So this might be a, you know, you don't want to piss the oilers off kind of a thing.

But obviously, the most likely outcome here is that, you know, the Panthers win tonight and we don't have a conversation anymore. Yeah. Or the Oilers win tonight and we all do like, oh my God, it's a series. And then Panthers just come out on the road and dust them in game six. You can see that. Yeah. I've been analogizing this. I think there's been a pretty strong one-to-one in a lot of the NBA finals, which the Celtics won last night.

in pretty convincing fashion, I would say. After getting absolutely humiliated by Dallas, I think it was like one of the worst finals losses ever in game four. And, you know, they followed kind of the same trend already. So, you know, like a 5-2 win tonight doesn't surprise me at all for the Panthers, you know. that's just the narrative or whatever. Sure. But it's it.

You got to say it's interesting. So, but. Okay, go ahead. If the Panthers win tonight. Yes. Who's getting your cons my phone that you do not have? I think it's tough, right? Because we talked, I think last week or maybe the week before about how the reason the Panthers are where they are and have kind of made it look so easy.

is that they had multiple guys who were, at least, you know, you could make an argument for him to win the consmith. You know, and I guess it depends on how much people want to say, you know, game four, what a nightmare for Vibrovsky. Not that it was good for anybody, but Vovsky in particular, stinky, right? Yeah. And with, um, With that in mind, I kind of feel like Barkov has pulled away from the station here.

The odds that were sent around yesterday basically had Barkov's a slight favorite over Bobrovsky. Yeah. And then the three spot well down at like 7 to 1, so still long shot territory. Connor McDavid. Which would be like there is some, there has been only one time. in history that a skater from the losing team has won the consmite. We've seen it with goalies. Yeah, of course. But the only skater to it was Reggie Leach and that was back in 76 and I want to say he set the all-time goals in a playoff run record back then, which may even still stand to this day. So yeah, I mean, you kind of, but I mean, what you really need is you need somebody to be having an all-time. time history-making performance and a lack of a clear favorite on the other side, which does

seem to be the scenario that's shaping up here. That's right. I got some stats for you. No one in the history of the NHL playoffs has ever had more assists than Connor McDavid does this post-season. That is wild, considering they used to have the NHL playoffs in the 1980s. Right, that's right. Yeah, what's he up to?

32, I believe, in 22 games. So that's pretty good. And if McDavid has two points tonight or one in game 5 and one in game 6 or whatever, he will be the third person to have 40 points in a playoff ever. Gretzky did it a few times and Lemieux did it once. Now, again, those were in like the 80s. You know? Gretzky did it three times total.

Three times, yeah. 85, 88, and 93 with the Kings. He got to 40 on the nose. Mario had 44 in 91. I'm going to bet... Well, let me look. Did Gretzky win the consmite in both those years? He did win in 95.

He did win 80. Now, he didn't win it in 93. Obviously, the Kings did not in the Stanley Cup that year. Patrick Wall won the consmite. But that's fine. And Mariel won the consmite both years at the Penguins won. So I don't even have to look that up. It is still like, this is crazy.

It's crazy numbers. Yeah. And I think the fact that there isn't like a real standout for Florida, at least opens the conversation. I don't think it's particularly likely. Although I say this all the time. Look up how many non-Canadians have won a Kahn Smyth. Now, Sasha Barkov was from like, you know, Finland, Ontario.

Maybe we're having a different conversation here. But I just think McDavid has at least opened the possibility. Yeah, I don't think the, passports really matter all that much. I think that gets used as a tiebreaker, let's say. Maybe. Europeans are won three of the last six, so it's... Is that true? Okay, maybe...

Ovejkin, Edmund and Vasselowski, so... You know what? Maybe I'm mostly thinking of the time Sydney Crosby won it over Phil Kessel. Yeah. It was ridiculous. I'm with you on that one, man. Mm-hmm. Thank you. But yeah, I really do think that's a conversation you have to have now.

But I guess what are the keys to game five here for Edmonton? Like Skinner was, I would say, quite good the other night in game four. But also, not really, like when he was tested, he made big saves. but it was somewhat infrequent. It says here he made 33 saves. Would you ever guess that that's how many shots Florida had in that game? I would not have no. No, didn't feel like that at all.

It was one-way traffic. But I think here's my big theory here. You know who finally actually got into a game here was Leon Drysidal. Kind of absent, I would say, early in that series. And then, you know, the one time he had. has any kind of production, they win comfortably. Yeah, he's, I mean, that has been a major story is that he is just not producing in this series.

And even given like, you know, the last guy, I mean, he's got two points. Right. Yeah, no. In the series. Like, it's, his big breakout game was, was two assists. It wasn't like he, you know, he went nuts out. He's playing huge minutes too, 22 a night in the final. Yep.

And he's had some good looks on the power play. Like there have been a few where he's gotten his look, you know, that down low one-timer and either just missed or had it stopped or it's. So yeah, you do kind of feel like he's knocking at the door. Yeah, 12 shots in four games. That's a number you'd like to see come up maybe a little bit for him. But it's also probably, you know, a very reasonable number given. the opponent, you know? I would call some of it bad luck, obviously.

But, yeah, I don't know. To me, it's just like, that's funny. He actually is averaging exactly three shots on goal per game in the playoffs. So, okay, that checks out then. But yeah, he's just had, I would say, a little bit of bad luck, like you said. there were one or two shots in game three that I'm remembering being like, whoa, man, he uncorked it and just, you know, it didn't work out for him. Yep. But if he's going and they actually have two weapon style lines, you know, instead of like McDavid comes off the ice and at best it's 50-50.

Yep. And more often than not, it's, you know, the bottom two lines getting pushed around a bit. If dry sidle's going, the Oilers have every chance in the world to win again. They don't need a ton of looks when he's actually playing at his, you know, what we think of Dricytel playing as. Yep. Oh, fair enough. I'm just looking at their stats for this series. Do you want to guess how many Oilers have played more?

than 70 minutes. So that would be, what, 17 and a half minute average? Yeah. Sort of an arbitrary cutoff. But, and which ones? Which ones? McDavid-Drysidal Bouchard, for sure, obviously. That's the top three.

At home, if we're saying Bouchard, then at home for sure. So Bouchard leads with 106 minutes, 20 minutes ahead of, of, Over 25. Back home's got 85, 85 minutes. So a huge gap there. But what I find interesting is Bouchard's number one, McDavid, Drysidle, and Zach Hyman are two, three, and four. And then Newt & Hopkins.

Ryan Nugent Hopkins is six at 81 minutes. I guess that makes sense as well. It does, but you almost never see this. You don't see a team whose forwards are getting more ice time than the defenseman. Those guys aren't off the ice on the power play. That's why. They aren't, right? It has to be why.

And I mean, this is what you do, right? Like, you ride your horses now, right? Like, there's no, you're not saving anything. But even then, it's, I don't know. Let me look this up really quickly. I would love to see what percentage of the power play minutes these guys are getting. Like, just by contrast, the Panthers, their top three minute guys are all defensemen before you get to Ryanhardt and Barkoff. So, um, yeah.

In this series on the power play, Bouchard's up over 20 minutes. McDavid, Dreisital, and Hyman are as well, and Nugent Hopkins is at 1945. It looks like they're giving the other guys about, like,

you know, max, like under five minutes. Darnel Nurse 48, Ryan McLeod, 449. Boy, man, the drop off on that second unit, it seems,

because it seems to be Nurse McLeod Fogel Perry and maybe Eckholm or C.C. Oof. That's kind of unbelievable. But yeah, no, it all makes sense that like a huge chunk

of these guys' minutes is just on the power play. Why wouldn't it be? Yep. Like you say, like, first of all, those are easier minutes to play than going at five on five. And second of all, like,

you know, I don't think any of those too many of those guys are killing a ton of penalties. Nugent Hopkins, of that list, Nugent Hopkins is the only guy over six minutes of PK time. And in fact, let me look here. Yeah, like the other guys are barely playing any PK time at all. Like Evan Bouchard, 125, McDavid, 25 seconds, dry-sitle 15.

seconds, Zach Heimann, no seconds, which is fine. Like, I'm not, like, criticizing them. It's just, like, this is how you should be apportioning, what you want to say, like, opportunities. You know, you can only play these guys like 22, 23 minutes a night before the wheels fall off a little bit. So, that's just, that's just, that's just good coaching. You got all summer to put them back on.

That's exactly. Yeah, I mean, you know, uh, How many minutes does Connor McDavid play in an elimination game? It's got to be a huge number. Yep. Definitely. I mean, we didn't really see it last time because they didn't have to. You know, the game was settled.

So, no, it's going to be, it's, it's, be good to get some hockey again tonight. Are you, like, where are you, what are you rooting for here? Like, are you, like, I know there are some people who are like, just get this over with. Just get it over. Let's move on. Do the draft stuff. where are you like, you know what, let's see how crazy this can get. I know we've all got our Panthers win stories all like ready to go.

And that's my business idea. If the Oilers come back and win, I want to collect everyone's finished Panthers win the championship. I'm going to publish it in a book. And I'm going to send that book to the same place that gets all the T-shirts and ball caps. Well, no, you send it to Edmonton and it's like the comedy book of the year, you know. That's true. Like the jokes, the joke book section in Barnes & Noble, whatever the Canadian equipment. Or I just send it to Calgary and they can all be like, oh man, I did my own research and it turns out Panthers won.

That's right. Yeah, really, you know, I'm glad I'm glad for the Oilers and their fans that they got the one party night. You never want to see somebody get swept, I guess, you know. I'm not, I guess I'm not rooting for anything. It would be fine with me if, you know, we got, we didn't have to wait another four days for game six. But also, like, if the Oilers make it a series and make it dramatic, who's going to complain? Mm-hmm. You know?

That's it. So, yeah. You going with the Panthers tonight? I think I picked the Oilers. This is where my. Yeah. Yeah, man. Hell yeah.

Swing the other way. But, yeah, I mean, certainly wouldn't surprise if back on home ice, the Panthers kind of go all right. That's about enough of that. Yeah, like I said, like if it's the Celtics thing, that game was close for a while last night, and then the Celtics were like, okay, we're winning Banner 18 now. You know, that's it.

You know, plus if, I mean, the Panthers don't want to have to fly to Edmonton again. Because what a nightmare that was. Yeah, they were all in coach. They ended up being delayed like two hours, I think, ended up being the final. Yeah. They arrived only 22 hours before the game or whatever it was. Now, did you hear these freaking pilot guys? Oh, they were having fun up there.

We love to see it. Anyway, yeah, I will go just to counterbalance and also to play the odds correctly. what seems to be correctly at least I'll go with the Panthers Close it out Get the title Sergei Popovsky You are a Hall of Famer

Sasha Barkov You need to win one more Selkie Before you are a Hall of Famer It's caught spite They'll help him along, though That's certainly true And Paul Maurice You're a Hall of Famer as well

Let's just get all three of them in there One class, what do you say? Just the Florida Panthers class. Yeah, that'd be fun. Just pack the building. Why not? Yeah, okay, we'll take a quick break. We'll be back with, well, it turned out to be a pretty busy week for non-Sanley Cup final news.

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check it out. All right, we're back. I guess we'll kind of take this in chronological order. Alexander Steen will be the GM of the St. Louis Blues like four years from now or something like that. Two years from now. No, I was just joke.

Yeah, it's two years. It's sort of a weird situation. You don't see this very often. I mean, there are teams that have succession plans that seem pretty obvious, but you rarely see it announced in advance like this. Yeah, it's funny. I think maybe even on the same day, the longtime coach of Cornell announced that he was retiring after this season. And they hired the coach of Clarkson, who's a Cornell alum, and they were like, he'll be the coach. next year.

I've never seen this before, I don't think. All right. And then it happens twice in one day, or, you know, 24 hours or whatever it was. Very strange. But yeah, that to me just reads as in both cases. We got this guy that we want to do the job. We don't want anybody to come along and give him a similar job. Yeah.

Although, I mean, what was, like, was Steen working at all with the blues? I believe he was. Okay. Let me double check that. Let me double check that. Um,

let me just, uh, make sure that's true, but I'm fairly certain that was the case that he had some sort of a, some sort of a role. Uh, yeah, he was a team consultant and European development coach.

It says here on a website called elite prospects. Never heard of it. He was also an assistant coach for the Swedish, uh, world junior team this year. that's fun. So it's somewhat interesting because Ryan Miller and Tim Taylor

are the current assistant GMs. I believe Tim Taylor was maybe just promoted to that. I mean, I guess go choosing Steen over that and Al McKinnis is there as well. You know who they're a VP of hockey operations is? I don't.

Peter Shirelli. You know what? Now that you say that, I did know that he was still kicking around that organization, yeah. So pretty cool. Yeah. But yeah. Wait a second.

And their skills coach, some guy named Michael Babcock? Wait a second. That is, I believe, Mike Babcock's son. Did he sneak in? No, this is, so Mike Babcock's son played for Merrimack in the NCAA for several years. and has had a lot of front office work since then, I think. Did Michael Babcock ever play much pro? I don't think he did, right?

I got to tell you. He's a relatively young guy. You want to remember some guys. Just go to any NHL team and click on the hockey operations department. Absolutely. It is just, oh, Dave Taylor's kicking around. Look at that. He played a season in France.

Glenn Wesley. Brian Elliott apparently is no longer an active goalie in the NHL. This is great. You learn all sorts of things. So, yeah, he was an assistant coach with his dad at University of Saskatchewan. Yeah. And then a development coach for the senators two seasons ago, it says intern and then skills coach for the Blues this past year. So, already pretty well traveled in the behind the scenes roles.

Yeah. Anyway, like I said, this just kind of strikes me as like a, we've recognized that Alex Dean is a rising star. He has like history with this organization. So let's just get this locked in ASAP and, you know, we'll take the rest from there. The other thing of this that will be interesting is. Doug Armstrong. Been GM for 14 years, I believe.

Yeah, he's been there forever. So, I mean, it's a long time. He's 59. Wow. He's not that old. For a guy who has that much experience, because he had been a GM elsewhere before he even got to St. Louis.

I do want, anytime you see a guy kind of get, I wouldn't say kicked upstairs, but promoted out of the GM spot, You kind of wonder how long that lasts versus does he get the itch to go somewhere else? You know, does he do the Lulamorello where the two times that happened to him, it took him about, I think, a combined 16 minutes to leave those jobs and go be a GM somewhere else? Or, you know, is it a Joe Sackick George McPhee situation where they stick around? We'll see.

Well, I mean, he certainly would have people interested in him. Like, this isn't a guy, you know, he's going to be 61. I don't think anyone's going to be sitting there going. He's, you know, he's maybe, like, he signed an extension as part of this for three years. Right. But we'll see. Do you want to know the scenario that immediately jumped to mind for me? Remember, this is probably about 2007, 2008.

They're like, and of course, Conan O'Brien will be taking over the Tonight Show. Yeah. And then, uh, they let him. do that. He did. He did take over the Tonight Show. You can't say he didn't. It didn't last very long, though, did it? It did not. Because, you know, the magnanimity of Jay Leno's stepping aside, letting Conan run the show there. You know, then it turned out, you know what, I actually still want to be on TV, and they gave him a 10 p.m. show for a while there. They tried to get Conan to push the Tonight Show back to like 12 or 1230.

Yeah. And to his credit, he told him to go pittle up a rope, and that was the end of him. Yeah. It turns out they just wanted Leno doing it. Well, that's what the people want it. Yeah, for sure. People love Jay Leno.

Yeah, no, he has a, like, I don't know if you're, sometimes there are typos and newspapers. Okay. Dude, I'm glad he's not around doing that bit anymore. Leto has a bit of... This guy holding up printouts of athletic articles. This guy, he's got a funny little pick on some time. This guy seems to think that Quinn Hughes is younger than Jack Hughes.

Oh, okay. Come on. Have you seen this? Have you heard about this? But sometimes, folks, you have seen it heard about it. Yeah. And, yeah, like I said, that was just like I, a classic thing of does Doug Armstrong really, you know, these guys, what do they always say? These guys are freaking competitive.

I don't know if you know this, but guys who have big hockey jobs, they're, they're unbelievably competitive. And so like, you know, two years from now, right when presumably the blues have a few good prospects in the system from being bad the last few years? I don't know that I'm totally convinced that Doug Armstrong is going to happily step aside for a guy who's never been in NHL. What other big market needs a G.A., you know, the Maple Leafs or whoever call up and go, yeah, we want to pay you a lot of money to come run the show here. Now, some people are going to sit there and go, yeah, I'm 63. I think I'm fine with working eight hours a week and golfing and doing all that other stuff

and not having people scream in my face over every decision I make. Yeah, man, like that's part. That is, I think about that all the time where they're like, Lula Amarillo, this guy, his drive to compete, I'm like, that guy's like 80. Yeah. Go watch Matlock. Like, not even like a get out of the game old man like way. I'm just like, don't you want to like chill out a little bit, man?

But again, I guess it's because of how competitive all these guys are. Yeah. I don't know if you heard about this. He doesn't have any, I mean, what are his hobbies? Making people shave. Yes, sure. And destroying fun. I mean, that's got to be in the NHL to do that, baby.

Can't. He tried coaching his kids' team, but like none of them were growing beards that he could yell at them about. Well, I mean, also, his kid's probably like 52 years old. Yeah, his kid is like, yeah, that's good point. His kid's the next GM. His kid is probably the one like, Dad. Why don't you go watch Matt Locke? But yeah, again, like, I think it's just one of those, like, this guy's a competitor.

All he knows, all he's done his whole life, whether he was a player or a coach or a GM or whatever. Like, it's just been compete, compete, compete. And he may just, like, I don't fucking want to, like, golfing with his, Also 80-year-old buddies probably isn't firing the same cylinders, you know? Yeah. I get that. Well, that's why you got to do the Michael Jordan and like golf for like $6 million a whole sort of deal. Yeah, that really, for Michael Jordan, the action is the juice, some would say.

But it's good for the blues actually having a plan in place and, you know, now we'll see if it works. But it's, you know, a plan is very often better than no plan, let's just say. Yeah, and again, I'm just curious to see if this actually plays out how they're saying it's going to, because I don't know, it might not. And that would be fascinating. Sure. But, yeah, you know, it's one of those things where it's like, I have no fucking idea of Steen is any good at this. Doesn't seem like he's ever done it before, like in the NHL. Yep.

So, you know, one of those like, oh, this guy's a rising star behind the same. scenes or whatever and you're like, okay, I'll take your word for it. I guess I have to. We'll see. I'm sure he's a smart guy. You know, good players to re-rule player, all that kind of stuff. We'll see. As the line being used in a few places in Toronto is his, he'll be a good GM as long as he can

avoid making trades like the one that got him in St. Louis in the first place. Yeah, that did not. reminds me of the old the old name Pat Falloon category the trade is Lee for me that's right guys that were traded for Lee Stempniak

and I think there were like four of them in his entire career and Alexander Steen is one of them the other higher where again it's kind of like well I don't know that there's really a huge track record in this one but let's find out

Ryan Worsovsky is now the coach of the San Jose Sharks. Not someone that I'm very familiar with. Yeah. I imagine I'm not alone on that, but I come up through that system, so it makes a certain degree of sense. Yeah, and also, you know, this is a guy assistant coach in the ECHL for a good long time, then a head coach in the ECHL, then an assistant coach in the AHL, then a head coach in the AHL, and then an assistant coach in the NHL. This is like much more of a linear, recognizable path, you know.

We've seen it before, I guess, is my point. And, you know, seemingly has had a decent amount of success everywhere he's gone as a head coach. He is, I wonder about this. Let me get your take on this. He's 36. Do you think we're starting to see a little bit more of a tendency for, let's say, rebuilding teams to go, you know what, let's get a young guy back there. Yeah.

I mean, it's, the question is always when you're a rebuilding team, are you hiring the guy where you're like, let's get someone who's going to grow with this roster who's going to, you know, build it up. And five or however many years it is from now when we're contending, they'll have all come up together. or are you hiring the guy where you're like, look, he's young, he's a good development coach. Let's plan to slot him in for three years and then we'll knife him on the way to get some veteran to come in when it's playoff time. Sure. Yeah. I mean, you know, this being his first head coaching gig, it makes you kind of, you know, want to give him a little bit of leeway here.

like it's not like he's being handed the keys to the Florida Panthers at age 36 and there's like stakes here, you know, which is, which I would argue is probably good for him. Like there's there's less pressure to like nobody is saying to him. Oh, and Ryan, by the way, you got to make the playoffs this year. You know, like it's just that's just not the conversation. So that is probably also, I would say helpful to him if I had to guess. but yeah, you just don't know. I'm curious. Now, do you know that there's famously Mike Greer went to Boston University?

Famously, so did David Quinn. And that was kind of the brain trust. And Macklin Celebrini is a BU player and that kind of thing. Did you know that Ryan Worsowski's brother, David, was a star defenseman for Boston University? You know what? I did not know that. Wow.

So pretty interesting to me that they don't know how to hire someone who's not that guy. That's crazy. You never see this in the NHO. I mean, this is taking it to an extreme, though, is my... Were they all roommates, is my question. No, they are all, I believe, different. Like Mike Rear's like mid-90s, B.U., David Quinston. like maybe late 80s, early 90s

and David Warsowski's like 2000s, 2010s maybe, like into the 2010s maybe. So. But, you know, they all know the same people, I guess is my point. But it does, it does make you wonder

what the plan is with Macklin Celebrini there. There was apparently, I didn't see the press conference, I just saw the quotes from it. And in introducing Ryan Worssovsky as the coach. coach, they asked him something or, they asked Mike Greer something or other. And he was like, yeah, I haven't talked to Macklin yet.

I mean, oops, because you're not supposed to say you're drafting the guy. Yeah. But, yeah. I think the cat's out of the bag on that one. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it. It's a big scoop. Mm-hmm. That's right.

Must credit, Ryan. You absolutely must. There's no other choice. But yeah, it's all the connections there, isn't it? That's going to be the new old boys club. You have to have gone to be you. That's right. Or know somebody who did.

The kichucks. Out of work coaches are like desperately signing up for to audit a night course. Who's Brudrow just sitting in the back of the room taking notes in psychology 101? That's exactly right. Were you at all surprised that they didn't go with a more established coach? I mean, there's always, I certainly wouldn't have been surprised if they had recycled a name, but no way. I think of any team in the league,

they would be right up there as far as, if you're going to bring in somebody new. And like I say, I'll be honest, they announced this guy's a head coach, and I was like, I don't know who that is. And then they were like, here's what he's been doing, last few years. And I was like, okay, makes sense for the Sharps. Yep, checks out. Absolutely. There's something to be said for having some continuity.

Yeah. And, you know, again, like he's 36. It seems like this is one of those like, well, he can really connect with the players, kinds of things. He's younger than Mark Edward Vlasic. That's crazy. It is fun to think about that sort of thing. What was, um, wasn't that Jeremy Colleton was younger than a lot of the? I think so, yeah, it's certainly not unheard of, but... It is always weird to think about. But, you know, obviously...

The weirdest one I remember was the, like, wasn't Mark Crawford, like, in his mid-30s when he took over the avalanche? Yeah, that sounds great. The sackick Forsberg era. Like, I mean, that wasn't a rebuilding team. That was like, let's go win a Stanley cop here, this adorable child with Eric Bischoff's haircut. can be the coach. You know what Mark Crawford's problem was, and I say this all the time? Wasn't a karate champion like Eric Pishaw?

That's right. Yep. Didn't understand that controversy created cash. Well, I mean, he learned that later in his career. I think you could maybe argue. Yeah, fair point. But yeah, some other coaching news this week. And speaking of bringing in an older coach, I guess you would say.

Pascal Vincent out in Columbus. Surprising? No. Surprising only in that, as I think I said on a recent show, like at one point, I was trying to remember who the new Blue Jackets coach was.

And I sat for like five minutes and then I finally looked it up and I was like, oh, they don't have a new coach. They never did fire. I don't know that there's ever felt like a more dead man man walking kind of season for a coach. Given how he got the job, given how poorly the season went, given, you know, frankly, some of the stuff he was doing as far as benching veterans and like it was a very weird,

uh, well, he was benching rookies, too. Remember all this stuff about? He was just like just picking fights with everybody, which you could argue, it may have come from the top, but then the top was gone. So there was no, it felt like there. Like, I'm completely agnostic on whether he's a good coach or not. I don't think last year gave us any evidence one way or another, other than that he's not a miracle worker.

Well, yeah, and I mean, as you say, you are kind of just trying to figure out what the hell's going on there. Like, he took over in what is undeniably like a non-ideal situation, right? Like, he's, he's, um, when was that, like September? right, like right around training camp opening? Yep. I think it was just before. I think it was just like on the eve of. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. And it's like, okay, also you need to coach this team that sucks on purpose. Right? Like, I mean, we're not going to sit here and say like, oh, we were really expecting stuff from the Columbus Blue Jackets last season or this past season. That just wasn't ever in the card. So like, would you prefer that your coach doesn't, again, like have young guys rumored to be asking for trades or any of that kind of stuff?

Yeah. Yeah. That feels like the sort of thing that you probably go with. So who do you, according to the reports, they want a guy with experience. Yeah. So even though in theory, you could look at this as similar to the San Jose situation. they apparently want to go in the other direction. And there are lots of guys like that out there.

There's still a lot of... Yeah, it's crazy that, like, how few of your, your Dean Evansons and Jay Woodcrofts have not gotten another job this season, this offseason. It's really strange. So, yeah, they'll have their pick of good coaches. They're there, but, you know, I guess who I think would do a good job there kind of depends on what they want to do in the next like two years. Do they want to try competing straight away?

I would imagine that with like given Don Waddell's age, like that guy's been around forever. That's it. If you end up with Don Wadell and a veteran coach, you're not really screaming. Although, you know what? Since here he's only 65. I wouldn't have guessed that. Okay. He started his coaching slash GMing career in the 80s, which is why it feels like he must be older than that.

But since here, he was the player coach in the IHL across three different seasons before moving, like actual GM slash head coach. It's pretty cool. I love the idea of a player coach. I saw a slap shot, I guess, in my point. but um there has there ever been a player coach in the NHL you would know this uh yes but not anytime right like back in the

you know in the old and olden days yes but man they should do that they should just be like you know who's the coach of the Edmonton oilers Connor McDavid we'll see out there pretty much pretty much what they did but that would kick ass man would in fact you shouldn't you should have to make your player a a coach. Like, you shouldn't be allowed to have.

You lose one roster spot. If you want to fill it with the coach, go ahead. If not, you know. That's, yes. Okay. Just imagine, like, you know, you're the, you're the habs or whoever and you're running around on the leaves a little bit. And you just look over at the bench and Barube is not there anymore. You just see him heading back to the dressing room.

Uh-oh. How about this? We messed up. How would it change the game? on this front if you said, you know, your player AAV, if you're a player coach, cut in half. Okay. You're getting Connor McDavid at, you know, Brad Marsh and Bunny. Yeah.

Do it, man. That would be so sick. I just want to see Brad Brindamara out there. Like, do you think he could get back into hockey playing shape by like eating enough donuts to like, like, slow himself down. It's like, sorry, man. You're a little too ripped for hockey. Yeah, you know, I... Sledge it up a little, buddy. Well, I mean, this is why you hire your 36-year-old coaches, isn't it? Can you skate backwards a little bit? Perfect. See, out there, you know? A little bit? That's better than Vlasic these days. You're...

Well, I'm saying, man. But, yeah, it's... It would be, it would be very, very interesting. Obviously, it will... I don't think it'll ever happen again, obviously. But, like, oh, it would be so sick if it did. It would be unbelievable anyway. Yeah, I'm really curious to see what Columbus thinks is in the cards for this season, for sure, just because it feels like they couldn't possibly be in any way competitive. And yet, a lot of the moves they're making seem to signal that they don't want to tank either. or at least make it look like they're tanking.

Classic stuck in the middle team potentially. We'll see. We'll see who they hire. Yep. Speaking of Columbus, it seems like it looks like Patrick Linae is going to get traded at some point in the offseason. Yeah, this is interesting to me. Because I've, just in clicking around,

there seem to be people all over the map on this, like in other fan bases. Yeah. To an extent that I can't really remember where it's like I have seen fans going like would not touch. Do not want, wouldn't take them for free off waivers at that salary given lack of production, given rumors of attitude issues, given personal issues, all of that stuff. Do not not interested at all. And then I've seen other ones going, well, I mean, geez, if you can get a guy like that, here's what I would give up. and it's like significant assets.

They really seem to still feel like this guy is a, you know, the same guy who got picked second overall and scored 40 goals or whatever in his second year. I mean, he does feel like a classic change of scenery guy, but he does. He's already had one of those. He has, that's true. I mean, look, when he's in the lineup,

which hasn't been all that often, the past three years? Two years, I guess, because of the 50... There's a season where he had 56 points, 26 goals and 56 points in 56 games. That was obviously the COVID shortened season, or the second COVID shortened season, I guess. But 22, 23, he plays 55 games, he has 22 goals. That's a good pace for me, you know, on a team that sucks. Now, again, we say it all the time.

Somebody's going to score the goals on a team that's... sucks. And, you know, a guy that, as you say, looked like a 40-goal guy forever, you know, and then just kind of slowed down. I don't know. Like, I'd take a flyer on him, but I'd need Columbus to eat half of his money or, you know, 40% a third of his money. He makes $8.7 million against the cap.

That's a problem for me. Yeah. You know? I'm very curious to see how they do this. In part because he is due a $2 million signing bonus on, I would assume, July 1, although that isn't always the case. And so I wonder if he gets traded like in the opening day of free agency or shortly thereafter, just to make it a little even more financially palatable.

But what's interesting is this is a backloaded deal, too. The cheaper year of his contract was the first year of it. Yeah, and he was, this year was a write-off, but the two years previous, he was pretty much a point of game player. That's what I'm saying, yeah. And he scored a lot. Missed time and, you know, all that. But he scores goals. He's, I mean, you could talk yourself into it, but I don't know.

It's a tough, it's a tough call. Yeah, look, I don't want to, like, malign him. him for this, but like he's coming out of the player assistance program that certainly I would think would affect his, his value on the trade market. Does add some risk factor? Yeah. And like, I think a change of scenery makes sense for all involved, right? Like, just get him out of Columbus.

It's clearly not working, you know, one of many players for whom it's not working in Columbus. And a guy who is still 26 and just turned 20. 26 in April, so it's not even like he's, you know, 27 at the start of next season or anything. And two years left, 8.7? Like I said, if Columbus can bring that number down, I'm at least kicking the tie. I'm making the phone call for sure. And now maybe Columbus has some outsized idea of what his value is.

But, you know, it's a new GM, like no... What's the word? No, like, emotional attachment, you know? Yeah. I think that this is really interesting. I'll put it this way. And maybe you agree with this. There's a lot of guys that are going to sign for, you know, again, if they're salary retention, let's say they get them down to $6 million.

There's a lot of guys that will sign for more than $6 million that I'd rather have Patrick Linae at $6 million. Yep. And, you know, for all the things that we've said about the risk factors, he's 26. Yeah. So if you get him and it is the change of scenery and he clicks, you're looking at somebody who could be part of your program for years and years to come. So the thing that worries me, though, is like you talk about Don Waddell coming in as a new, new GM without the attachment. So often those guys come in and go, well, you know, let's give him another season.

I got to see it with my own eyes. Right. For him to come in and immediately be like, maybe first order of business is moving this guy out. Well, I mean, the reason that I'm a little surprised that they fired Vincent and like the idea that this trade is kind of like both parties seem to want it to happen is that, you know, Aaron Portsline in his return to the gig,

happy to see that obviously had quotes from Waddell where he's like, yeah, I got to take my time on this. And I wrote an article being like, no, you don't. You know you're going to fire the coach. Like all this stuff about I got to get to know him and that kind of thing. It's like, just make the change man.

You know? And then he did it immediately. Like there wasn't, yeah, let's get to like November or something. And if it's not working out, we'll make the change. Like he came in. what, less than a month later, he's like, okay, obviously this change has to be made. So I like the decisiveness from Waddell on that front. And I wonder if, like I say, like, you know, at the draft or on July 2nd or something like that, he's just like, yeah, we're trading line.

See you later. If it's something everybody wants, I don't know why you kind of, and that's what's been reported. I don't know why you kind of just kind of go, ah, well, you know. let's give them 10 games and see where we're at. Harder to trade big money in the season, obviously. Sure is. Yep. So it's actually the hardest thing in the world.

Nothing's ever been harder for trading a guy. No team has ever made a bunch of trades in the NHL and then won the Stanley Cup. It's never ever happened. It's impossible. Yeah, that's exactly. You have to draft and develop. Did you see the stat on how many guys in the Panthers lineup were drafted by the team? Isn't it just Eckbladen?

Barkov? It's three. It's those two and I don't know who the third one is, but yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, isn't it? It's, um, it's Lundell, isn't it? It could be. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's right. Um, but yeah, no, they're a, uh, I'm going to look that up because it's going to bug me if I don't, uh, while you do that, we should mention that breaking news kind of, but not really is, as we're recording this, the Eric Tolski news has become official. So good for him. He is the GM, the Carolina Hurricanes. That's, you know, hey, good for him indeed.

It is Ekblad, Barkov. Kulikov was the first round pick. Obviously, he left and came back. Okay. And I guess the other guy is Spencer Knight. And, no, and Lundell. I was right. Lundell was a first rounder.

That's right. But obviously, Spencer Knight not playing for Florida, but he's in there. He's in the mix as well. So, yeah, I was right. It's Lundell and Barkov and Ackblad are guys who got drafted and stayed there. Hey, speaking of the Carolina Hurricanes, there is a rumor out there that they're making Marty Natchez available. But you've got to make it worth their while. Marty Natch is a good young, young.

player. So wait a second. Are you saying that they're listening but not shopping him and they're not just going to give him away? Yeah, I think that's right. I think that, well, wasn't there all that stuff about his dad was like saying stuff in European newspapers? I guess he's checked, probably check newspapers. Can't be doing that. Yeah, you really cannot.

And so, like you say, they're making him available, let's say. But, you know, this is a guy who he's 25. Yeah, it'll be 26 in January. This is a guy who he'd be a very attractive player for a lot of teams who are looking to get a little younger but stay competitive. I'm curious what you think of what NACIS brings to the table for your team, for a team, I guess. I mean, he brings offense, which is tough to find. And yet one of those guys who you kind of, over the last couple years, has left you wanting a little bit more.

But if he hadn't, then he's not available. So there's a part of me that, you know, if I'm another GM, I'm looking at Carolina and what typically happens to them in the playoffs and going like, all right, if you're moving the scoring guy, then how much of a scoring guy is he? But sometimes you just, you know, sometimes you need. new mix and also sometimes you might have other areas of the roster you want to address and you want to address it for real. That means giving up assets.

So contract situation plays into it. Yeah, obviously he is an unsigned, but RFA with arbitration rights. I wonder if they're a little maybe worried about what that number is given that he is a over the last two seasons, let's see here, he has 124 points and 159 games, 52 goals. This is a good player, you know. Maybe doesn't, like you say, kind of have it as much as the hurricanes would want defensively, but the offense is kind of undeniable. 28 goals two years ago, 24 this past season.

So we'll have to see, but I think this. is a player that, you know, it's easy to talk yourself into and if you can get a little more certainty about what kind of number he's looking at. What would his qualifying offer be? Let's find out. His qualifying offer would be, looks like three and a half. God, even if you're just getting them at that, that would be crazy. But then does it walk him right up to UFA? That's a good. great question. I don't, I wouldn't think so, but maybe. I don't think it would. I think you would have one more year. But yeah, it's interesting. Obviously, like you say, they're going to, want something. I would guess it's like a pick and a roster player. And like a, when I say a pick,

a first round pick and a roster player. But I don't know. I may, maybe it's also just like, it's got to be a similarly valuable player who's just older. might also be what, I don't know, but like you said, if they're looking to trade them, what's the story there, but undeniably an effective player. Along very similar lines, another one, Nick Eilers is getting talked about in trade rumors. A team in Winnipeg where you kind of feels like they have to change something. Now they've got the new coach, but, you know, do they have to change something on the roster after the way that the season ended.

Well, it also, a guy that a guy that he only plays like 15 minutes a night, 16 this past season, 1552 average ice time. Just can't get in, just can't get moved up the lineup for whatever reason.

And here's the thing. He only played 16 minutes a night. 25, 36, 61. 25 goals in 16 minutes a night. 61 points in 82 games. This is a Good fucking players. Seven 20 goals seasons for guys 27 years old. I mean, well, turn 20 during the season.

Yeah. Now, again, so obviously he's a little bit older. And his contract is, he's signed for next season at 6.75. He has a 10-team, no trade list. But like, this is, man. And maybe it just makes sense for Carolina and Winnipeg. to just, you want to just do this? You want to just make this happen?

I mean, this is a player. I have a lot of time for Eelers. What about you trade him to Columbus for this Patrick Linyy kid? I love it. Let's get it done. We can do a three-way trade. I haven't had a real good, legitimate threat. I'm not talking like the salary cap.

Picks and prospects, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm talking like three guys. A three-way hockey trade. they say. Oh, that would be so sick. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's get on it. That would be unbelievable.

I would love that, man. But yeah, I'm fascinated. Do the GMs in Carolina and Columbus know each other at all? Do you think they have each other's numbers? Probably. Maybe not. I mean, who knows how much enmity there is there now, you know? Oh, you left, you quit.

You quit on the Carolina hurricanes. Wadd L's in Columbus still has Tulski's footprint on his back. Oh, man. Yeah, I'm just completely making stuff up here. Of course. This is, this is truly to me, like, one of the bigger names available in the offseason. I would love to know what Winnipeg wants for them. But if I'm a team that feels like, you know, kind of in the position, like the hurricanes,

like we have a very good team, but we do need that extra jude. in the lineup, that actually little something. This is a guy that I'm very interested in. You wish he was a center, but you can't win them all, I guess. But yeah, he's awesome. He's a really, really good player. One last one here that's apparently out there. Jacob Markstrom.

Oh, yeah, remember him? They were maybe going to trade him? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy that, but it was just too complicated to get it. We're circling back, brother. Uh, yeah, let's see. Let's see how it goes. I mean, if you're Calgary, that sort of signals that you're throwing the towel in a little bit, but not necessarily, I mean, they've got, does Dustin Wolf ready to be, like, full-time guy? Yeah, I mean, maybe not full-time, but, like, one-b, maybe. Mm-hmm. So is it, is it, is it New Jersey, or is it going to be, like, has?

There's, that's the thing. There are so many teams that need a fucking goalie, man. There's enough. There's enough. There's enough. that if you've got the best goli on the trade market, that, you know, you should be able to do well for yourself. Now, there's no trade in play here, so... Yep. And the other thing is, obviously, the availability of Yossi Soros is... Right.

...up in the air as well. So maybe he's not even... Like, that obviously just dramatically affects things for Calgary. If he's available, you know, the price, the bidding... Well, it kind of... change it just changes it might but it could also be like you know you're calling up calgary and they're saying we want a first and a good prospect and you go i don't know about that and then you call up nashville and they want the moon for their guy which they should maybe it sends you

back to calgary going okay right you know what um yeah yeah the nashville situation is is interesting too but you know we don't really know which guy i mean are they going to trade a goalie and which one Right. We'll see. To be determined. But yeah, I mean, New Jersey, L.A. certainly seems like they need a goalie. There were rumors that Ottawa's been in the mix on goaltenders, which is... Makes sense?

It makes sense, but I mean, I don't know if Jacob Barksstrom's going to waive a no trade to go to Ottawa, but... You ain't kidding, brother. Maybe. But, yeah, certainly they're a team that needs goaltending. What's interesting to me is that what seems to be hanging over all this is, is New Jersey having the 10th overall pick and seeming to indicate that they would be willing to move it.

So does that get it done as the primary piece? It probably does. So, you know, for a 34-year-old goalie. Now, Ottawa's got the seventh pick. Yeah. If Markstrom's open, do you do you trump

the devil's offer with that pick or do you find that you can't even get this off the ground because Calgary is saying like look man

like we've New Jersey's offering us number 10 so if your offer doesn't have number seven in it don't bother I guess we see

we will indeed have to just take a look at it let's wrap up with this so I'll drive you insane a little bit. Are you seeing the latest Mitch Marner stuff? What's the latest latest? Well, I saw this while we were recording because it says trending in Canada, Drager, and I clicked on

Drager, and it was a quote basically saying like, are we sure that Brad Trill Living would prefer to not extend Mitch Marner? Are we sure about that? I'm not sure about that. I don't know, man, I'm not a hockey insider with sources incredibly close to the situation so maybe one of them could tell me. Okay. I mean, every indication, every bit of messaging that's come out has sort of suggested that this is just going to be

too hard, it's going to be too tough. And so they're going to wind up running it back. At the very least, you know, another season of Mitch Martin. Yeah. Go from there. The other Drager rumor

it says here is that he is saying that San Jose is interested in acquiring Cam Atkinson, but Cam Atkinson isn't too psyched about that idea. However, Daniel Breyer is willing to retain salary on Cam

Atkinson. Those are the two Drager updates. Mm-hmm. I mean, if you're Cam Atkinson, you're sort of, you probably, well, you may like it in Philadelphia, but there's, you know, the threat of a buyout is not really a threat to a guy like that, I don't think, if the option is going to San Jose. How about you buy me out, give me two thirds of my money, and I can sign anywhere I want. Right. Now, Cam Akinson, he makes 5.875 million against the cap. And the thing is, he does have a no trade list.

So, 10 teams, it says here. But, yeah, I'd like Cam Ackinson at like maybe $1 million. But, yeah, just a guy that, man, there was a while there where Cam Ackinson was like an unbelievably underrated goal scorer. a couple of 30 goals a 30 goal and a 40 goal season a bunch of 24 to 27 like he was really good there for a minute and then he just kind of got old

it happens right but yeah I guess I guess that's it you got any plugs for us Sean find me at the athletic we got our podcast with other Sean tomorrow various post going including today, the contrarian has returned.

Wow. I explained to you why, among other things, Brett Hall's skate in the crease goal actually was a good goal, why it was the right move to not let Wayne Gretzky shoot in the Olympics, and why I've actually got a better way to give out the Stanley Cup than just giving it to the team captain, among other things. We're also doing our Hockey Hall of Fame group project this week. So I don't know when that's actually going to launch, but just this afternoon,

I am going to make my pitch for Curtis Joseph. Let's see if I can get the votes. Wow. By the way, unrelated to that, the Philadelphia Flyers do have the most cap commitments for next season right now. It's fun to think about, right? Yeah. 87 million against the cap. Cal Peterson, one of them.

Not awesome. No, not really. For me, obviously, the Elite Prospects draft guide is up. It is available. It is extremely long and very good. Reports on basically anybody your team would pick for the whole draft. Like, a team would have to go pretty far off the board to have somebody who doesn't have at least some mention in the draft guide. So if you want to learn about the guys your team's picking, you can get on it now.

you can get on it after the draft, but, you know, when they make that pick at the draft, if you've done all your little studying, you can be like, I know all about this guy. You play from like Everett and the WHL or whatever. And all your friends will be so impressed if they know it. Use the code I Love EP at checkout for a one-year subscription, and they will tack three months on at the end of that,

absolutely free of charge. So, you know, big benefit there, big value. The other thing, of course, is that you should go to patreon.com slash puck soup and sign up for all our bonus episodes. We do mailbags every week. We do, I don't know, two, three bonus episodes a week, depending. Various projects featuring me, Sean, the other Sean, who is also a traitor. A little guy named Gorp, you might have heard of. Yeah, a lot of options on you there, a lot of content

In fact, some say too much content But they I'm not making you listen to everything we put out there You know You don't watch Top Chef, you don't have to listen to the Top Chef podcast Correct The Gorp does So check it all out Yeah, it'd be weird if we forced you to listen to the top

How would we enforce it? Honor system Well, I guess we're not forcing anybody at that point but yeah just something to keep in mind folks uh yeah Patreon.com slash Puck Soup Elite prospects that's all my plugs

thank you so much for listening enjoy uh game 5 enjoy what could be the end of the uh the season I guess and uh if not

well hope I guess game 7 would be before we reconvene next week huh uh would it Thursday we go what Thursday no

It would be Friday and Monday. Friday, Monday. You're right. Yeah. Next time we might be very sleepy from the quadruple overtime game seven. You know what? I said earlier, I'm not rooting for anybody. I am rooting for it to get to game seven so there can be a critical.

Can't believe Connor McDavid's breakaway goal in which he did the Bobby or flying through the air and scored the winner was waived off for an offside that happened. You would never hear about offside again. They would get rid of the fucking rule. if it happened. Good. Well, that's what I'm rooting for then. Yep. Okay. Thanks so much, everybody. Have a good one. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.