Puck Soup - Macklin Gets Paid

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

Sean and Ryan talk about the big Celebrini extension, what it means for the Sharks, trade rumors, and more. Get bonus episodes and more at Patreon.com/PuckSoup Sponsored by Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from the perfect takes a newsletter and the hockey news. I'm Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. I'm sorry, I forgot you had too many jobs. I do. Yeah, that's how they get you. You lose one job and you've got to get like four other ones. It's a real nasty trick. But that's, you know, that's the world we live in, isn't it?

Hey, it's the summer. It's the middle of the summer, in fact. And we got at least one piece of news that didn't get addressed on last week. week's mailbag episode, which is, I believe the same day, maybe the next day. Macklin Celebrini extends five years, $18.8 million with the San Jose Sharks, avoiding all the drama that would have come with going into this full next season with him unsigned. And him inevitably signing an offer sheet with your favorite team next summer. Yeah, that's right.

But what was the most interesting number to you? Was it the 5 or the 18.5? I guess it would be the 188 because 5 just feels like what the normal number is for guys who are going to be looking for more than one RFA contract. Yeah, as of now, right? Because Carlson and Bidar both did five years. Yep. So have we finally close? the book on the idiotic era

of players signing away their entire prime? Like, was Demidov the last guy to do that? Yeah, and like, obviously it's so market-specific or whatever, because it

I think you said it on the last main show we did, where it is kind of like a follow-the-leader thing, where if he had signed for eight and left maybe a little bit of money on the table, does that then mean everybody signs for eight

and leave some money on the table? You know what I mean? I don't know the answer to that, but what I really think it is is when Austin Matthews signed for, he signed for like five years or maybe even three at one point if I'm remembering correctly.

Yeah, he did, but he was the outlier, right? Like he was the one guy who seemed to get it and then Marner did six. But other than the Leaf guys. Everyone else was like, I'll take eight years at whatever, whatever is a fair number this year and I'm going to just assume the cap will never go up. Well, and that's exactly what it is, right? Like, that's exactly what it is.

It's like, frankly, I'm surprised they went five years. Why wouldn't they go three or even four? You know, like, I guess I should say that the other way around. That was probably more the problem, right? like the problem, the point of contention in the negotiation. I bet they spent more time talking about the years than the number. Yes. I would imagine so.

Mike Greer had a, had a quote basically where he's like, Macklin-Calibini did us a huge favor because he could have asked for the max and I would have given it to him. Do you think players like hearing that? I don't. I won't. I'll assume that players are just, like, just so happy to be good, good teammates and all that. But that would kind of bug me a little bit.

If I just negotiated a new, I mean, I'm not making $18 million, but that would bug me a little bit. If my boss was like, he did me a favor as soon as we concluded the negotiations. But as we always say, he will not be, he will not be eating canned tuna unless he wants to. yeah it's up to him now he can eat more yep um it's uh yeah it's awesome i think like this is a really good deal for san jose uh even even with the understanding of like you know the caps going up and it you know it should be whatever number we want to say it is like 130 or you know whatever um like celbrini is for the time being the highest paid player

in the league, that I wonder how long that lasts. I guess, you know, there's Cal McCar, Quinn Hughes, those guys are coming up I mean, they're eligible to sign extensions. So I mean, by the time his contract kicks in,

someone will pass him, probably. Like, I don't think he will spend a day as the highest paid player as far as because his contract doesn't kick in until next year. So he's not technically making the 18. So that's kind of what I'm wondering is like

I mean, okay, we'll circle back to that in a second. But let's instead talk very quickly about this being such a big number. Like I saw, there was a lot of discourse about how big should the number be, how big could it have been,

like Mike Breyer said, I would have gone 218 or whatever the max would have been. Did he leave money on the table and did the sharks overpay. Those seem to be the two central questions. The the sharks are saying he did leave money on the table. Other people are saying, well, he's not

the best player in the world, so he shouldn't have gotten that much money. And I think the fact that there's the plausible argument on both sides suggests that this is probably about right. Like, he's yeah, he's not,

he's making more money than anyone else in the NHL and he's not the best player in the NHL. He's a great story. He's a great up-and-coming player. Got a lot of MVP votes last year. He's not legitimately today in the conversation for, man, if you had a first overall pick and we're just playing one seven-game series,

you're taking Macklin Celebrini ahead of, you know, you can list five to ten other guys. But by the time this contract is over, he's going to be underpaid. Presumably he follows the development curve that his first few years have indicated. So, you know, there will be a day somewhere in between where he will be paid exactly the right amount, and that'll probably be pretty much around the midpoint of the deal. So, yeah, I mean, he could have, I'm sure he could have forced their hand into a bigger number. Now, would that maybe, you know, is, when Mike Greer says, I would have.

got to the max, is he, is he saying that on a five-year dealer? Is he saying, yeah, but we would have squeezed an extra year or two out of them then? Like, that's the other piece. That's exactly right. Yep. Yep. So it's interesting just because, you know, they have a lot of other contracts that are coming up in the next year or three here because they just have so many young guys on

the team, right? like Smith and, well, Colin Graff, we can talk about Colin Graff in a minute. I think that's a really fun contract to talk about as well. But, you know, they just, the thing I think, I guess, about the sharks now is they, because of how they maybe misuse some of their cap space this summer, are in a very interesting position. because in the next few years you got you got Smith, you got Chernoshov, Misa, I guess three or four years from now you got Stenberry, like those guys all need new contracts. Sam Dickinson as well, probably Ascarov is up, yep, he's up next year as well. So like that's a bunch of guys you're going to throw probably a good amount of money at. And you're just, is it all just like, yeah, let's get the Logan Couture contract off the books.

And let's see where the cap goes two, three years from now, maybe. Yeah, it should. You'd feel better about it if, like, not even, not even like if Jacob Trubo wasn't there, but if that, if that had been like a two-year deal, then it. And the oilers retain some money on. Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, yes, but also, like, I mean, you just named a bunch of guys who have not establish themselves as

NHL stars yet but who might and I think in a lot of cases we'd say should you know that's the expectation if they all do then yeah they maybe

won't be able to fit it but that's a cap world right you're not supposed to be able to have six superstars on the same team in a hard cap world like this this is the whole competitive balance aspect of it that they keep

telling it reminding us about. So, yeah, it's going to be challenging. And again, it's, it certainly falls in the category and nice problems to have. We have too many really good young players

at the same time. And, you know, the New York Rangers are like, oh, that's, that's terrible. We really feel for you. the red wings are like man you're breaking our hearts sure glad we're never going to be in that situation yeah I mean they're just

it seems like they're set up pretty well for the future it seems like they might be pretty well set up for this year depending on I guess how the goaltending shakes out because the goaltending was in the defense in front of the goaltending was the big problem last year and it does feel like that division's pretty wide open Yeah, I'm really interested to watch how it plays out in San Jose, because I feel like we're not, we haven't quite hit prediction time yet. Yeah.

But I feel like everyone's going to have the sharks in the playoffs. And I don't know, man, there's, it's, it's going to be, it's that time where you go from like the fun part of the rebuild to actual expectations, which means the potential for disappointment. And, you know, if they're not there this year, then this is the last year before they get there. And then things start to expectations change at the very least. And hopefully the team rises to meet them, but sometimes it doesn't happen that way.

Yeah, no, again, you know, you can say this about players and teams and all that kind of stuff. but like the progression isn't linear. I look, I think Celebrini's obviously an awesome player. I wonder if he's going to be like an MVP candidate next year or merely one of the very best centers in the league. You know what I mean? Like there is there is like a gradation there that has to be. The example I use all the time is Tim Stutzler in Ottawa where.

He had that 90, whatever, 92 point season, whatever the number was. And every Ottawa fan was like, and that means he's a 90 point player forever. And it's like, well, hold on there. You know, that didn't actually happen. And I think what you would say pretty confidently is that given the quality of the young talent and now some of the veteran talent as well, I liked the Marchment Dad this summer, you know, you would go. So, yeah, the sharks should be able to build on what they did last year overall, if not purely offensively, you know? Yeah. Like, say what you want about Truba.

I think he's not very good and that contract is even worse. But he's probably better than what they had at the bottom of their lineup last year. Nurse, same deal, right? And I would say nurse is probably appreciably better than a lot of what they had even in the middle of their lineup. So there's improvement there even if we don't like what the numbers are, you know? So like I said, it really boils down to goaltending. Like Ascarov kind of has to show, no, this is, I'm worthy of the hype, basically. Yeah.

Because he was bad last year. Yep. And, you know, young players and goalies both have lots of randomness built into them. And when it's a young goalie, good luck. but I would still rather have him than most options. And their backups, if you want to call them that, their 1Bs are Nadelcovic and Eric Comrie. So those are two guys you've heard of, at least.

They missed the playoffs by four points last year. Yeah. And they had more wins than the Kings by a decent amount. I was going to say, like, and we can all, I think, expect the Kings to take a step back, probably. Right? Yeah. I mean, I guess it's, is it as simple as that's the spot that everyone gives to the

sharks and. Yeah, I wonder about Utah as well. I feel like, didn't they have some crazy overtime slash shootout record last year? Uh, or like, they were like 12 and 6 or something like that. Something like that. Yeah. They were only a 500 team in regulation, but.

Yeah. well, there you go. Hey, they had the same record in regulation as the St. Louis Blues. What do you know about that? I wonder about the blues. They could be good. They could also stink. I don't know.

The thing is, like, you look at the Western eight playoff teams. Take out the Kings, put in the sharks. Everyone's going to do that. Everybody seems to love Utah as a... I mean, I don't know. Are they still a sleeper after a few years? I don't know. I mean, there's a bunch of other teams that think they're going to make a push, right?

The predators, the Blues, the Jets need to get back. Again, this is the NHL, right? You end up with 12 playoff teams and eight spots and you go, oh, wait a second. The thing with the Jets, like, I think the Jets really is the big question, like what they do, because if they trade Halebuck this summer, they instantly become one of the worst teams in the league. Basically. Don't you feel like? Yeah.

If not the league, then certainly that division. People are going to say Chicago improved. Man, I saw the athletic, like, player survey or fan survey of the, everybody's like, oh, they're not going to make the playoffs this year. They're going to make the playoffs next year very easily. It's like, okay. Always next year is going to be the easy one. Oh, this year they would be crazy to suggest.

next year though i mean who knows anything could happen big meteor fall out of the sky land on Colorado's rank in the middle of a game against the stars so that opens up two spots doesn't um anyhow uh let's talk i guess quickly about the other guy the shark's on Colin Graff uh three years four and a quarter I really like this he's like a half he's like a half a half a point of game player who's their number one penalty killing forward? 23 years old? Yeah, and like his, I guess this is the important thing to note here, is that he, this is his first full season in the NHL, and they're already like, oh, if we have to kill a penalty, this kid's

the number one guy over the board for us at 23. And again, he put up like 20 goals in 42 or 45 points, something like that. And that, I mean, this is, this is literally why you go out and just like sign, like, you know, use draft picks on college guys and, and let them sit in college for a couple of years, you know? Because every once in a while, they turn into call and graph a guy you can totally count on to be like a good penalty killer for you and also put the puck in the net 20 times. Yeah, 20 goals in, not not as a rookie, but as you said in the first full. season. That's not bad. I'll bet on that.

Yeah. Contrast that with Tommy Novak, who I, he goes three years and 4.65 for the Penguins. And like, he's a good player. I got nothing bad to say about Tommy Novak, but like,

has that guy ever seen the ice on the penalty killing his entire life in the, in the NHL? And he's been in the league for three or four years. You know, Like, I guess maybe you argued the fact that he's been in the NHL for three or four years is what earns him the extra 400 grand, right? But it seems like with Graf, there's an upward trajectory. And with Novak, we kind of know what we're getting, you know?

Yeah, he's been. And, you know, what you're getting, he's 17, 18, and then 16 goals in the last three years. That's pretty consistent. Yep. Yeah, I mean, this is, we talk a lot about, like, with Celebrini, the sticker shock of how high the number is and then just being like, look, man, you're just going to have to get your head around that three years ago, superstars made $12 million and now they make $18.

And it applies to the death guys, too. You know, everyone's numbers are going up, and I don't know exactly where that should settle in as the balance. but I know that the teams to figure it out first are going to be at a big advantage and the teams that don't are going to probably make some bad mistakes in the next a little while. Yeah, it's really interesting. I haven't really done like a huge dive on just like how many contracts this summer.

Like binary is this a good or bad contract? And I wonder what the number would be and how that would compare to previous. years, you know? Obviously, like, with the benefit of hindsight, it becomes a lot easier to say how good or bad a contract is. But I'm saying just like merely from the point of view of perception, like how people look at, not just me, but like, just broadly speaking, people look at these contracts. I don't think, I think that people very quickly adjusted to the, like, again, 4.65 for Tommy No. And you're like, okay, his career high in goals surely is in the 25 range and it's like not even close actually.

As a percentage, it's not close. And you go, oh, okay, well, I guess that's worth 4.65 then. You know, like nobody really raises an eyebrow at the, at anything under like five million bucks anymore, I don't think. You'd have to be pretty bad to be like, what are you giving this guy three and a half million for? talking to John Chica here all of a sudden. Yeah, and let me tell you about the new deals we got at Wendy's, by the way. Yeah, exactly. They got chicken fingers now.

You ever hear about this? Boy, I'll tell you, I got those Wendy's chicken fingers one time. They were like, that'll be like $20. I was like, I got like four. What are you talking about? I don't know what happened. And then they weren't very good also. Thank you, Biden.

Man, I'm always saying about Joe Brandon. Anyway, got any other thoughts on the sharks, on all these contracts and that kind of thing? Not really, no. Yeah. Hey, man, it's August. It's August. It's Thomas Novak contract debate season. We love it.

Good player. I got nothing bad to say about Tom. I just, man, the sharks had Celebrini, Will Smith had 59 points was number two on that team. That is so crazy. I don't remember Celebrini's total off the top of my head was the gap bigger

than what Smith scored? Almost. He almost doubled him. Celebrating had 115. I wanted to say 118, so I was right on the line there, yeah. I do wonder, like, I'm really hyped about watching the sharks develop, but like, are we getting out? over skis for a team where Alex Wenberg was the third leading score?

It is a very interesting question, isn't it? Like, again, I think that they aren't going to get 115 points out of Celebrini this year. And I'm happy to be proven wrong about that. I just think that's like a crazy number. I believe it is the second highest scoring season for a teenager in the cap era. Okay. If I'm remembering right. I think Crosby's second year was the only one where somebody had more points, and that guy got to play with Vigney Malkin.

You know what I mean? Like, there was a lot more help in Pittsburgh, let's say, than Sellebrini had in San Jose. And again, everybody thinks this team is good, really bright future, that kind of thing. but if Celebrini has 102 points next year and Smith doesn't raise his number by more than, let's say, 10, and the goal tending doesn't turn around, it's very easy for me to say, oh, they don't make the playoffs,

and then everybody goes, well, hold on a second. I thought, like, development was linear. Yeah. You know? You're going to tell me it's not. I don't like to hear that. So, yeah, I think there are, bubble playoff team right now.

At best. Again, Oskarov just needs to show me he can be the guy. And he was bad last year. I'd say bubble playoff team, but with a, and I don't know what the percentage is, but a non-zero chance of

taking a major step. They could go backwards too. Again, the range of realistic outcomes here is pretty wide, but like if they were a hundred point team next year I wouldn't be blown away it would be because of a scar of

yeah and and and the other young guy like a lot of the guys that they have that are the young guys like were probably not as productive as you think they were last year that's yeah that's right yeah you saying smith only had didn't even have 60 points i was like oh i guess that's true and he was by far the best of the young forwards because Well, I mean, Eklund, but he's not there anymore. And so that means there's a lot of room for progress, but just got to see if it happens. Yep, that's exactly right. All right, why don't we take a break and we'll be back to talk about a bunch of rumors that are still floating around out there.

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Go to buy raycon.com slash puck to get 20% off right now. Thanks to Raycon for sponsoring the show. All right, we're back and we got a, I guess you'd call it a rumors roundup here. And let's start with this. This isn't even really a rumor. They got Steve Steyos on the radio there in Ottawa, and they were like, you done for the summary.

He's like, well, we'd really like to add a pure goal scorer. Okay. And it's like, that's it. that, sure, I bet you would. I bet you'd like to add a Connor McDavid type player as well. Mm-hmm. You think there's, there's any of those available? And, you know, the answer, probably not.

I mean, not in free agency, you wouldn't think. Yeah. So they do have some ammo available to trade with, but you, yeah, I mean, usually by this time of year, a lot of that is settled down, but maybe not. Maybe he's out there kicking tires, as they say. Yeah, I mean, it opens up again kind of like around camp when teams start going, too many guys. Yeah, too many guys around here.

Let's trade our problems. Let's, you know. But I mean, when does that ever, when does that really happen? No, absolutely. But I, you know, it's not. Let's put it this way. Vladimir Tarasanko is still out there. Whatever you want to say about him, the guy puts the puck in the net.

Maybe not as much as he used to, but like, if you were describing his skill set, you would say that guy's a goal scorer, first and foremost. And you know what? It's funny. I was sitting here and I was like, man, that guy just feels like a senator. I can see him in a senator. Yeah, he was a senator a couple years ago. I was going to say.

He was. He's a guy who is on the senators one time. And he has been bouncing around. And, I mean, he hasn't scored a ton. What did he have last year? Like 18 or something? He had 23 last year. He only had...

Well, that's even more than 18. He only had 11 with the Red Wings the year before that in a full season, played 80 games. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, that's not great. But again, like, I mean, you would rather have a guy who scores 30 or 35 or 40. I don't think there's too many teams lining up. to move those guys. But again, the senators do have, I'm sure they would love to move the other first

that's still hanging around from the Brady trade. Yeah. Just symbolically, they would probably like that. But whether, I mean, that one, if I remember right, is like years in the future. So they're, I think you're right about that. Probably doesn't carry as much value. But the other guy that kind of jumps off the page as a UFA is Patrick Lainey. That's the one that's interesting to me.

that that it just doesn't seem like anybody's interested i mean and obviously we don't know what what he's looking for what he's asking for but i mean you you wouldn't think he's in a position to be sitting there with his arms folded saying it's you know i i need a multi-year deal like you roll the dice on that guy wouldn't you i mean in his 20s has scored 40 plus goals The rumor is that, um, and okay, I actually just clicked on the headline here. Someone who writes for NHL.com had posted something along the lines of like, the islanders are looking at line A on a PTO. Mm-hmm.

And, uh, and then that turned into they've offered line A a deal on a PTO and all teams are only interested in him on a PTO and all that. kind of stuff. And then he was like, I didn't say any of that. Okay. They had, apparently they had conversations with his camp when free agency opened

and, uh, they wouldn't be willing to offer him anything more than a PTO. That's going to be tough to hear on July 1. Yeah, that's, I don't know if you can, uh,

make money off us for sure, but you could stop by camp. We'll like pay for your flight. I mean, and look, there's, there's been, obviously there have been some issues with fit for him in a few different places.

So that's going to hurt him. But I mean, I'd be thrilled if my team got this guy on a PTO, you know, risk-free, bring him in. Oh, of course. This guy has in his last, I mean, he hasn't played a full season in a long time. No. but in three of the last five years he's played 50 something games and scored 20 or more all three of those years, which is a 30 goal pace. Like this is, I mean, with the obvious caveat that there could be,

there could be stuff about him that teams know that isn't public knowledge or teams think they know. Maybe it'd be a better way to put it. But I don't know, man. Like that seems like... And again, like what does he want? And it's, it's, you, you... Am I correct that you... Could you do a bonus deal with him, given his injury last year?

Or is he... I don't think he's eligible for that. Because that would be the ideal situation, right? I think not. Yes, I suppose. You come in, you get the veteran minimum. And if you score 40 goals, you'll be making... five million or whatever.

We're happy to do that, but I don't know. Yeah, I mean, just the other kind of older guys they've gone out and gotten, you know, like Andre Berkovsky. I'd rather have Patrick Line on, you know, whatever we think is a reasonable deal for him versus what they're paying Burakowski, which I think is around five and a half or something like that. but yeah, I don't know if I don't know how you can make it work on like given his injury history and that kind of thing. I know there are provisions in the CBA that might give you that kind of wiggle room, but I don't know what the exact numbers are.

But they also have like $4.2 million in cap space or almost that much the Sends do. if unless he's really dragging his feet on i'm i'm not taking a penny less than five or something like that like given what his options are don't you don't you just don't you just like i don't know maybe you don't you could imagine maybe on july first he was saying that but yeah and then a bunch of teams were like we're thinking pto for you how does that grab you it's the middle of august he's you would you would think he's at this point you might as well just wait although you know we said that that about Manta as well, and he signed a couple of weeks ago. So the other option, of course, is out there on the trade market.

And that brings us to the ongoing saga of Carol Marchenko in Columbus. Marchenko had 27 goals last year, and they can't, they're not allowed to say he didn't. I mean, you're allowed. It's free speech, but. I think he only had 20. 24. Wait a second. I did my own research.

You hear sirens in the background. My rides here. So yeah, like he could be available. He also might not be. It doesn't seem like he's going to stay in Columbus, but we've said that about a couple of guys this summer. I do feel like part of this is like Don Waddell is kind of feeling his oats a little bit on this.

You know what I mean? Like he got the Wrenski thing settled. At least temporarily. I was going to say until about November 3rd. And then it's like, okay, we have a big problem. And now it's, okay. I think he's ready to play some hardball. But it doesn't mean that there couldn't be an offer that gets things moving.

Yep. And one last guy I wanted to note here is this guy. played in the division for the senators last year, Pavel Zaka. The rumor is that like the Bruins are just going get this guy the fuck off our team.

Basically, please come make us an offer on this. This guy who has scored 30 goals last year. Yeah, that's weird. I understand where they're saying he's not worth that much and like when you take his game in total or whatever, but there aren't a lot of guys

who scored 30 less. 30 goals, 65 points, which again, Like you look, there's a lot of teams out there where that, they don't have that many 65 point guys, including the Ottawa senators. Including the San Jose Sharks, who we all love. Yeah. He would have been number three on that team in points and goals last year.

Yep. So, and I wonder if that could be a fit because, you know, normally you say, ah, it's Ottawa and Boston in a division. Would they really want to connect on a? Well, they did the Allmark trade. Same GMs. So they clearly don't have an issue working together. Yeah, I think the Bruins at the end of the day would maybe prefer to extend Zaka

just because, you know, guys who fit that production profile are a little harder to come by. But if he's going, how's $11 million sound? There's not a lot of 30 gold guys out there. The Bruins are going to be going, how's that? getting traded to the Ottawa Senator sound, you know? So it's, I would say that's not a this summer thing for the senators, but it is, again, a name that we've heard out there, kind of off and on this summer. So I don't know.

You know, I think that if the senators are looking for a goal score, they can get in line with basically every other team in the league. Yeah, there's not a lot of teams out there that are like, you know what, man? got too many goal scores yeah got to move some of these guys um the other thing to say about Marchenko by the way

is that there was some rumor mongering out of Montreal that the the habs were you know sniffing around it and basically it was I saw it reported and then I you know there was some pushback and then there maybe wasn't pushback who knows but um that they basically offered Columbus the same

kind of deal they offered Toronto for Nyes back at the deadline. So like Alexander Jarovsky, who's like a good prospect for them, another prospect undefined. Some people think maybe Michael Hage or something like that. If Michael Hage was the prospect, then he'd be the first guy on the list, right? Yeah, probably. I don't think that's, I think this is the old trick of, yeah, oh, yeah, it's a prospect. and everyone goes, oh, it's probably their best prospect. Probably not.

Probably not. Yeah. And a first round pick would be the other thing in that. So I don't know if Montreal, I think this would be a nice ad for Montreal, Marchenko, you know? Like, again, not a lot of 24-year-olds or however old he is that are scoring 27 in this league. So, you know. add that guy to the mix and you're feeling pretty good about maybe Nick Suzuki can reach

100 points again next year, you know? But yeah, I like that the haves are out there trying. Let's put it that way. They got to do a little more to make that 106 point season sustainable. But that's true of a lot of teams in that division these days. Hey, and let's just stay in that division. I saw a report where I think it was Max, Boltman said basically like,

we still don't know who the GM in Detroit's going to be. Doesn't seem like there's been a lot of public movement on that, which to me I'm like, it's the middle of August, guys. Are we doing this or not? I mean, but Max made the good point that, like, they're the only team that, needs a GM. So there's no competition.

There's no, oh, we got to snap this guy up. Someone's going to grab him. And, I mean, is it really that different doing it in the first week of August versus the last week of August? Yeah. If that's how long it takes to get your guy. I mean, they almost have, because they've left it so late, they almost have, it feels like they have more time. but yes like when it comes to certainly

Larkin to Brinket is it Simon Edvinson that they they need Edvinson remains unsigned yes you know the new guy's gonna have some work to do but it's man that was the timing on the Eisenman thing was so weird on that

it just sets everything else into a weird place it really makes you feel like someone stuck their head into his office and they're like are you gonna fucking do anything this summer? man? And he was like, no, yeah, I'm going to quit. How's that? You know?

But yeah, really, really a strange situation. But the thing Max said was basically like, depending on who they hire and what their vision for the future is, Larkin might just stick around for another few years. Yeah. Sorry you all got your hopes up. If they can sell them and we don't even know who's doing the selling. on what the vision is and we don't know what the vision is. Who know, right? New GM could come in and be like, no, man, tear it down.

We're going to be, and then Larkin says, okay, get me out of here. But here's only three teams I want to. And it's like, dude, those teams don't want you. Right. Or maybe they do. And Steve Eisenman was stonewalling it. Yep. Man, that's got to be, Dylan Larkins had a rough, like just ego-wise.

It had to have been a rough summer, right? Oh, yeah, everybody going, we actually think that guy had. It sucks. Okay, let's say new GM gets hired, sits down with Dylan Larkin. Dylan Larkin comes out and says, he sold me on the future. I had some tough questions. I like the answers. I'm back.

I want to be a red wing. What kind of reaction do you think he gets from the fans? Like, do they welcome him back? Does he get... No, I would be fucking pissed. Yeah. Yeah. They should, right?

Like that. Yeah. So, yeah, okay. Well, good luck with that. I just don't know what the answer is, right? Like, especially because, like, now you, like you said, you've got to be concerned about De Brinket. Where it's like he's up after this coming season. And De Brinket is a guy, like, he's what, 28, 29?

Like, he's no, he's no spring chicken. Talk me through this because I feel like, maybe I'm being unfair to Alex to bring it here, but he feels like a guy that is in this new salary world is going to get, you know, a number maybe well north of 10 that I'm just going to hate. Like, I don't know why I'm pre-hating this extension already,

but like doesn't he just feel like the guy who's, like, he's just not quite there? He's not quite where you want him to be, but you're still going to end up paying, him like again, like if he gets 12 million, like that's Miko Ranton in money. That's Mitch Marner money. But it isn't because caps and percentages and everything. But it is.

I don't know. Yeah. I'm already, I'm already worked up about a deal that hasn't been signed by a GM who hasn't been hired. Right. Ultimately, for me, what it boils down to is how many guys in the league can put 40 goals up on the board every year, you know? Maybe not every year, but more often than not in his career he's probably reached.

Is there any teams out there looking for a goal score? Well, that's exactly right. And if you're saying what do I as a guy who has multiple 40 goals season, like what am I worth? Let me ask you this. Do you think he has more 40 goal seasons in his career than Miko Ranton than does? Yeah. but it's all he does. I understand.

Yeah. But he will get to say, and the caps going up. By the way, please answer the question. Does De Brinkett have more 40 goals season? I'm going to say yes. He does. Three to two. Okay.

But he doesn't have a 50 goal season, let alone a 55 goal season, which, which Rantan did have one time, says here. but I don't know man like I like you say sticker shock and all that get used to it you know it's it's just one of those things I didn't get a chance to talk to you last week what did you think of the Jason Robertson deal um fascinating in the sense of just kicking the can down the road like it really feels like he wants to stay in Dallas it feels like Dallas wants to keep him but trying to figure it out. And maybe this is one of those like, hey man, one year deal, but handshake January 1st, this is what we do kind of thing.

But, yeah, Dallas is another team I'm really interested in. But, uh, uh, yeah, I mean, if Jason Robertson can get to UFC, holy moly, good Lord. You talk about sticker shock. Mm-hmm. And again, how many guys can score like he does? not a lot. Nope, especially if, I mean, boy, you talk about all-time contract years as far as what's potentially on the line.

That's got to be right up there. Yeah, and I wrote about this for the hockey news this past week where I was just like, are we sure that that Dallas team is going to have the same kind of success that they did in the regular season this past year? Do we think they're a 112 point team again, right? and maybe this is a point I made on a previous podcast. Who knows when I say stuff anymore, you know? But like, they fired one of the best coaches in hockey because he only got them to the Western Conference final three years in a row.

If these guys go out in the first round or maybe they make it to the second round, are we not looking at the coach or maybe the GM and going, Now hold on a second. We had a guy who he used to get us to the Western Conference final every year. You could set your fucking watch to it. It's really interesting. And at that point, do you not just go, we'll allocate that Chasing Robertson money elsewhere? I don't know what the answer is.

I mean, they could be an interesting situation where, like, yeah, they could be this time next year. Well, not this time next year, but next May going, we need to shake everything up. but yeah i don't know it you like i i like jim nil as a gm a lot so i don't think he'll fall into the same trap that other guys do but the old cliche about like you can't let guys like that walk for nothing you just can't

yeah so like what i'm saying what i guess i'm saying as part of the like if they don't replicate the success What if they are on the playoff? Even if they're on the playoff bubble, I think they would keep Robertson. But maybe that's true in January. Do they keep Robertson if they're looking at things in December?

Or not December, why did I say December? Like February, maybe, I don't know when the deadline is for this coming year. But like, let's say it's early March, like March 3rd or something like that. On March 3rd, are they still going like, let's just get into the playoffs? and see what happens, or are they going to your point? Maybe we got to move this guy just so we don't lose them for nothing. It's really interesting. Very much.

Especially, I mean, Minnesota, a full year of Quinn Hughes probably helps them. Maybe they do go out and get done large. There's a lot of moving parts in that Western Conference, I think, is the overarching theme of this podcast in early August. but I think that's probably about it for like big rumors that are out there. I don't know if I don't know if there's anything else really going. Oh, I guess the Canucks said, oh, we're going to, we have a memorandum of understanding where we're going to explore the possibility of building a, you know, that kind of thing, maybe possibly looking into considering that a practice rink.

Dude, that is the most August NHL story of all time. well it isn't it isn't because the yeah well the reason I say it's it's not is they don't have one they don't have a practice ring they're the only team in the league that doesn't have a practice ring are they really okay yeah I didn't know that that all right that does make it interesting

and they've they've mentioned like in the past like this is a huge problem for our organization like guys don't want part of the reason guys don't want to play for us on top of everything else going up with the Canucks, of course, is that we just don't have a practice ring. So, like, if, if for some reason the building is otherwise occupied, it's hard to find ice that's a reasonable distance from Vancouver itself. So, you know, it's important for them to get one, but let's say they decide at the end of

this little memorandum of understanding. let's say a day from now. Oh, we actually are going to build that rink. Okay. Well, what's the timeline on that? And they're getting pushback is apparently where they want to build it. They're taking rink space away from local hockey and that kind of thing. Yep.

So. Nope. Not great. But yeah, other than that, I think it's, you know, it's just waiting to see. see if Conner Hellbuck gets traded. It's waiting to see who the Red Wings hire, that kind of thing. And that's it. That's like the whole league, basically.

It's August 4th, you know, the fact that we got anything this past week, I'm kind of thanking the hockey gods. Big Mac they call them. Nobody calls him that. I wonder, do they? I can tell you. Let's see. Let's see on his hockey reference page if they, uh, because, you know,

know how they have like the crazy. Yes. If you have Mac in your name anywhere, somebody will call you Big Mac. Yeah. Hockey reference lists zero nicknames. Damn. Get on that, San Jose. Come on.

Now, I also have the Miko Ranton and Hockey Reference tab open. You want to guess his nicknames? Not at all. Let's say ranty. Rant. You were very close. Right. Okay. And then Moose, you've no doubt heard him referred to as Moose.

Mm-hmm. And then this last one, it says Hot Wheels. Okay. I don't know why. It's, you know what, I've got to dig back in and do another insane hockey reference nickname quiz because that is one of my favorite ongoing bits. Yeah, and it's all because of the devil's wallpaper or whatever, like. Satan's wallpaper. That's what it was.

Satan's wall was Mark Tam Broder. Because what happens is somehow hockey reference scrapes the entire internet for any reference to somebody having a nickname. Yep. And just drops it in there. And some of them get really where. You probably could on just Twitter or something. Just make up a nickname for somebody and get it on hockey reference. Yeah.

Maybe I'll do that. Yep. That's going to be my August project. Look out Mitch Marner. You're getting a bunch of new nicknames. Hockey reference, it says on there, one of Mitch Marner's nicknames now is the little weasel boy. What the heck?

Oh, what? Guy who should have stayed in Toronto. That's a little unwieldy. I don't. Now, there are a lot of nicknames for Mitch Marner on here already. I don't know if you're going to be able to squeeze them all in. Some of these suck. I know he's got,

if, Mighty Mouse, I think is one of them. Uh, nope, Mickey Mouse. Really? Mickey Mouse? And mouse,

but no, not mighty. That's incorrect. What do his teammates call him? Well, we can always start there. Well, they,

Marns. Marns is correct. There's something about Mitten's. He's got like mitten-related names, I believe. Not, not what I'm seeing here. Wow.

Again, this is according to hockey reference. I don't know anybody else's nicknames. Off Marns, you have Bruno Marns, which makes me sick to my stomach to read them. Mitchie, which I don't know if we can count that as a nickname, really. That's not a nickname. There's Magic Mitch. Sure, yeah. The magician, mouse and Mickey Mouse.

Wouldn't it be Mitchie Mouse? You'd think you could Yeah It's tough man And guy who Takes a penalty shot in the Stanley Cup final Without realizing They've switched goalies

Mm-hmm And the guy has And the guy catches with his other hand That's a bit long But I feel like we can We can tighten it up Well we'll wrap The episode I guess with this one

Austin Matthews One two three four five, six, seven, eight nicknames listed on here. Okay. So, uh, big poppy. They just have, they just have poppy. Poppy, there's something about like, like, I, I, I feel like I've used him before and it was like big cactus. Big cactus is one of them, yes.

Some stupid, yeah. You know what, though? I actually love that one. Start, everybody should start calling him cactus. Honestly, that, that at least is an actual sports nickname. Mm-hmm. Um Although compared to a lot of the cactuses I've seen

A guy who's like 6'3 isn't that big You know You ever see one of these Sahuaros? Yes Yeah A cactus Maddie Ossie

The mathematician You got Maddie They didn't have They don't have Ossie But in the In the vein of Maddie They have

A-Mats And Mats And then there's There's one more That I don't I wonder if you would get it. Is Matt short for Matt's the balding Toronto Maple Leafs captain?

Because we've kind of done that one already. That's right. Okay, there's one more that I wouldn't. Well, there's, there's one more thing that like three are pivoted off of that I, I wouldn't have ever guessed were, were nicknames for him. But I also don't pay attention to this kind of thing. You're, you're going to have to tell me. people are taking that his his first name ends with T-O-N and they're calling him Tony

tone and big tone nope that's what they're saying that's what it's not even not even like not even a tone loke I don't think anybody is old enough that he's on don't do this so you you know what somebody sent me once and it was there and I don't know if they came up with it or they saw it somewhere and I don't remember who it was so I'm stealing it. I just made this up now, is what I'm saying. Okay. But when the,

when the Leafs were running a Max Domi with Austin Matthews and Matthew Nye's line, they wanted to call it the Arnold Palmer line because it was two Arizona iced teas and a lemon. Poor Max Domey. That's, that was the good stuff. That, I mean, you know, when, when, when the, uh, The Siddines always had the best line names in my, in my recollection. The mattress line, remember that? When they played with Jason King, two twins and a king, pretty good.

That was good. Pretty good. That was good. Or what if we just took the first letter from all three of their names and either spelled a word or just didn't? Hey, it's the DQL line. Oh, okay. Nice, I guess. that's right um all right well look we're obviously just uh killing time at this point why

don't you uh say some plugs and we'll get the hell out of you can find me of the athletic eventually i i don't know man i just got back from a week away i don't know what i'm writing this week might do a contrarian had some some folks in the uh puck soup discord were pushing me to uh bring that back they pointed out that i haven't done that gimmick in a year so uh Might do that. Might not, though. How's that for getting meta on you? Actually, reader, you dipshit.

You're not getting one of those. Exactly. That's like the contrarian. Yeah. And I don't know when the podcast is coming back, but, you know, there's stuff. I'm back on newsletter duty next week. It's August, man. I don't know what to tell you.

That's exactly right. Well, first of all, I'll say this. I do know when this podcast is coming back. It's not this, like, next week, but the week after. The 18th, we will have a main show for you once again. But until then, we're over there on the Patreon. Patreon.com slash Puck Soup, and you can get all the bonus episodes and all that kind of stuff. You can get all those at your leisure.

We're doing the normal amount of bonus episodes. And in fact, during the summer, when we don't have a main episode, We do a big old mailbag that, you know, adequately fills in for. It's honestly kind of a full episode. Pretty much, yeah, we just answered questions at the end of it. We talk about all the news for like a long time. Well, except next week it'll be 45 minutes on the, some obscure player that I only found out existed that morning.

but I'll still have strong opinions about. Don't worry. I mean, you got to. And then you can read all my stuff at perfect takesop, beehive.com. You can read a lot of my stuff at the hockey news. I have a couple of series ongoing right now where it's like the top three players at every position in every division. You're churning out the content. You're making the rest of us look bad.

And honestly, it's kind of, you got to kind of ticking me off. You got to do it, man. you got to do it. And if you go over there, like, apparently you can follow me on that platform. If you follow me, that helps me somehow. If you just click a thumbs up on my articles, that helps me in ways I don't fully understand. But do not click thumbs down. And, of course, when I do like a ranking of, what about, you know, like the, I did the top three defensemen in the, in the metro the other day.

And all these guys were like, what about Adam Fox? It's like, oh, the guy on the irrelevant team who missed 30 games last year, yeah, I can't put him ahead of Eric Carlson right now. Sorry. So don't comment, you forgot the guy on the team I like. I don't want to hear about it, you know. But yeah, I got those rankings going on all summer and other kind of listical e-articles will be over there. And then the usual stuff at perfect takes. So thank you for your support on all that front.

And thank you for listening to Puck Soup. And me and Sean are going to go record the mailbag over on the Patreon right now. Have a good one. And a good couple of weeks. Bye-bye.