Puck Soup - One Week to Go

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Sean and Ryan talk about the outdoor game, Barry Trotz, trade rumors, Olympic injuries, and more. Sponsored by Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck) and Mint Mobile (mintmobile.com/puck)

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That's C-A-R-G-U-R-U-S dot CA. Cargooros.ca. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McAnew from The Athletic. And, you know, Sean, I don't have this on the outline, but I got to tell you this morning, I am freaking dragging. And you know why? Went to the bean pot last night. Okay.

Second game, BU Northeastern. Three hours long. How, like just a bunch of overtimes or what? One single overtime, five minutes three on three plus a shootout. Okay. injury like reviews for a for like a potential major penalty. I think there was a goal review mixed in there or something like that. Definitely somebody got injured so there was a stoppage for that.

It just, it felt like this game was taken forever. And then when the little box score said three, I believe it was three hours, eight minutes. I was like, yeah, that feels about right. I could have watched a Lord of the Rings movie the amount of time it took to to get through this game. So now I'm CPy.

Well, I mean, you got to see reviews. We love reviews. The most exciting part of any hockey game, for sure. We have to just get it right. You got to get it right. You got to get it. We have the technology. You got to get it.

What if there was like another referee who could like watch the game and just call down whenever there was a mistake? Because then all the calls would go my team's way. And my team would, win. That's right.

And that's just, I just want consistency. Okay. Well, so first of all, you say we have the technology. What we really need is the technology for minority report. We need the precogs on these, you know? Sure. Then guys are going to the box. They haven't even done anything yet.

Perfect. They know what they were going to do. That's it. Who said it better than that, you know? You know who we need to lock up with that technology? All the goleys. Mm-hmm. They're out of control.

They are. Especially the Russian. Well, you know, you say that. A Russian, well, here's the thing. A Russian guy, and I believe Jeremy Swayman is from Alaska. So what's going on like, you know, you get above a certain parallel. Let's get that's when. Let's get Sarah Palin on this one because.

She could bust out the binoculars. Yeah. There it is. We cracked it. Okay, so two things I wanted to say about the stadium series game. we get it with the goalie fights. That's plenty. No more, please.

We need this to remain special. Wrong. Faults. What I'm saying is I can do like one a season. Then it feels fun. Two in a month? Three, was it even three weeks? Yeah.

Okay, but it was seven years before that. So, or six years. Yeah, that's what I mean. I'm saying they can be more frequent. you're probably right. They can be more frequent than they were. Like I say, one a year sounds great to me. Two in a month are we not overdoing it?

Like, look, I got to salute the boys for doing it. It's the first one in an outdoor game. Sean, I got a trivia question for you about that, actually. The Bruins are also involved in the first fight, like plain old fight in an outdoor game. Oh, and I feel like I remember this because it was kind of... My question is, who? Who did fighting in that game?

Who did the fighting? I'll give you the hint. It's the second winner classic, the one at Fenway. So that's Bruins and Red Wings, was it? Uh-uh. Flyers. Correct. Yeah, I don't remember who it was.

Who would have been on the, like, what is that, 20? 11. Wasn't Loochich, was it? 2009. No, it wasn't Luchich. Guy who's more of a fighter-style guy. Colton-O'R is still around? Was he one of?

No, it's Sean Thornton for the Bruins. Okay. And for the Flyers, how do I give you a hint on this guy without just telling you his name? I don't know that I can. It's Dan Carcillo is the other guy. Okay. Yep. I just was at that game, so I remember it quite vividly.

So the Bruins living up to the reputation in a lot of ways of we do the fighting in the outdoor games. They're the outdoor fighting team. Have they, has there been any other fights in an outdoor game? Besides the two involving the ruins? I can't think of any off the top of my head. Although there's been like 70 of these things now. So who fucking knows.

I feel like there's been one or two others. Yeah. But yeah. And I, part of the reason I feel that is only because if it hadn't happened in 15 years, somebody would have brought that up. And, like if I remember,

remember right, like the Thornton Carcillophyte wasn't like a super spontaneous thing. No. It was kind of like, hey man, you want some history? Okay. Yeah, I believe that's correct for sure. They kind of, it felt predetermined in that way that it would happen. Like they must have texted, if I, you know, whatever. You know, since we're on fighting trivia, you know what I think is interesting.

And somebody can maybe help me out on this. one research-wise. But what I found odd about the game on Sunday with the goalie fight is that the goalie fight was the only fight in that game. There were no other majors. And I thought that's got to be rare because usually a goalie fight only happens during like a full-on line brawl. Correct.

Or at the very least in a game where there's fights somewhere else. And I looked it up and the Brobowski fight also fell into that category. There were no other majors in that game. And I'm thinking, like, that could not have happened very often in NHL history that goalies are the only ones in a game to fight, or at least to get fighting majors. Yeah. Yeah. No, I...

I think I saw somewhere that there... One of those things, how would you possibly look it up? Okay. Which is, you know, considering they basically didn't happen until, like, the 70s, that gets you to a about your one a year deal. Yeah, sure. But I, to me, goalie fights are like the, I feel about goalie fights the way you feel about the Avatar movies.

Like if, if it's good, if we're going to wait a long time, go ahead and give us a bunch in quick succession. We don't mind. I actually, I was on what chaos yesterday, because I was in Boston for the Mean Pot. And the, the subject of the Avatar movies came up, and I got yelled at for liking them. Straight up, people were like mad at me about it.

Wow. Well, I saw James Cameron said they got to figure out how to make them cheaper. We had $16 million where the goalie's fighting on Sunday. That's too much, man. That's got to be the most expensive goalie fight ever, right? Has to be. I couldn't. Well, Bobrovsky gets who'd Bobrovsky fight a couple weeks ago?

Yeah, Alex. Alex Nelkev. Alex N. Alex N. our buddy who does not have... That's too obvious. A. Nadelcovic. Yes. No, he does not.

But I mean, Bovrovsky makes a lot, so that gets you part of it. He's still the most expensive goalie to fight ever, individually. I would imagine he would be until Schisturkin gets in one, where Cary Price comes out. Did Cary Price ever have a fight? I get... This is, like we said last week, this is one of those things I would ask you, and you would go, oh, well, let me consult my notes here. Why do I feel like he may be...

did. He had apparently a fight against Tim Thomas. Wow. In 2011, so he probably wasn't on the big contract. Yeah, yeah. Tim Thomas had a fight in 2011. Man, nobody has

ever had a better year than Tim Thomas. Really unbelievable. He had time to work in a goalie fight against his team's arch rival. Con Smyth, Stanley Cup, Vesna, probably should have won the MVP that year,

but, you know, hey, we don't give those to goalies too often. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty hard to talk. One of the greatest seasons ever. And then... Just absolutely ridiculous how good he was. And then that's it. Mm-hmm.

Nobody... That's not true. We won a Vesna two years later. And then that was it. Nobody asked him any questions about his opinions on anything. Yeah. I don't know. He feels kind of quaint now.

I don't know. Look, now this game was crazy. This stadium series game. I don't want to, you know, this was like three days ago now. We don't have to dwell on it. But there is one bit of fallout that's pretty interesting. I haven't seen an update on this since yesterday. Anthony Sorrelli hurt in that one?

Yeah. And I had seen an update from John Cooper saying, like, they hoped it wasn't serious. which, you know, is obviously what they're going to say, but it's better than, yes, it is serious. Sure. But with the pros leaving for the Olympics in five days, who knows? I'm looking to see if there's been an update since, since that. No, there isn't.

like you said, just the, we hope it's not that bad. So that's it. Let me ask you this. If we're talking injury replacements, well, first of all, Sam Bennett might have gotten hurt last night as well. So that's even worse for Canada. That's a shame. But who do you, who are you taking? Who do you think goes if So, like, I mean, this is kind of,

Like when we were talking about the Braden Point thing, like who fits the role? And at the time, we had said, you know, would it be Sam Bennett? And we were kind of like, eh, that's not really, that's not necessarily the fit. And then they didn't end up replacing him at all. Bennett kind of would be the Sorrelli guy, you would think. Right. And we don't know his situation other than he was a center for the Florida Panthers, which is like being the drummer for spinal tap.

this year. You take a face off for that team. You're done. Scoreboard falls on you. So yeah, who is like on the defensive? I'm not even sure like as a defensive role player. Yeah.

I'll be a guy. If it's not Bennett, I don't know. Do you have anyone in mind? Not to fill that specific role unless you really want to like kind of go way deeper down the depth chart than you normally would, you know, like just all the guys that I can think of that it's like, oh, that's an Olympic caliber guy that kind of got left to the side. They're guys I explicitly kind of don't go.

That guy can play defense. You know what I mean? You know, Shifley is the guy that gets talked about as the, and I'm not looking at Shifley. Now, there's a defensive whiz, you know, like there's. What about, what about Seth Jarvis? Yeah, I mean, again, like I don't... Not a Selky guy, but a... No, yeah.

A guy who can, you know, he can play in his own end. Does he kill penalties? I'm not even sure. I think he might. Yeah. Again, I don't think... I just don't think of him as like, this is an elite penalty kill guy. That's what it boils down to.

Because you're right, because if you go too far down that, then you're into Rob Zamnerland, right? Right. Well, and so the other guy, the other guy that I was kind of thinking of, and he might have a certain familiarity with another guy on the Canada team is like Zach Hyman, which again, it's not a guy. I just think of him as responsible. I don't think of him as like, oh, lockdown defender Zach Hyman. But yeah, he can.

Not going to fuck up out there defensively either. Yep. So those are like the two that I kind of thought about. And then, you know, if you just want to go, okay, we'll put someone else in the shutdown center role. and we'll just bring like Connor Bedard, I guess that would be fine too. Mm-hmm. But other than that, I'm sure I'm forgetting somebody. Who can be your, you know.

Yeah, and like Crosby can, Crosby can back check, you know, like that's, if you're using Crosby as a matchup guy, like I think you're going to win that matchup 99% of the time. So. But yeah, just like the injuries keep piling up. And now that everybody's playing, I think. six games before they leave on Friday. You know, like every team is just like, yep, we have, we have to cram in like three more games. Maybe even more injuries and what have you piling up, which you don't hope for, obviously. It's the way she goes.

And it gets really, like, we're used to thinking of injuries, like in the playoffs. There's always guys that are kind of hurt. Will he play, will he not? Of course. I mean, this gets to, like, at some point, you have to make a decision about who you bring. I wonder how many guys have been told, like, don't make plans.

Don't book any non-refundable family vacations because, like, they can, can they bring someone over during the Olympics, or are they locked in at a certain point? I believe it is, once the tournament starts, that's it. Really? So even if you lose two forwards on game one, you're just...

Tough shit. That's hockey. Okay. So, yeah, it's, uh, it's getting interesting out there. I don't know what to tell you, you know, like it's, and the other thing about it is the, the club over country thing where it's like, am I banged up and I'll obviously run through a wall for the fucking Olympics. You know, like that's not a question.

But how happy is my team going to be that I'm doing that? Like, I guess what I'm saying is does like the politics of like, look, man, his knees at 80%. You're, you know, you're the GM of your team talking to John Cooper. His knees at 80%. Can we not like put him out there 24 minutes a night, please? and then how does John Cooper deal, you know, that kind of thing. Sure. And then does it anyways because he's here.

But that, you know, it's, again, it's just the- He should bring an injured Sam Bennett and then play them 37 minutes against Latvia. It's crazy what's happening here. Wow. Season ending, that's wild, man. That's interesting. And obviously the fact that Cooper is the team Canada coach and the coach of the lightning, with who seem to be the ones serving up these injuries.

Yeah. Kind of adds an element to that. It does. How do I get back on even playing field with all these teams in the conference? But it is. It's tough. Like when there will be, you'd have to think, some situations where there's going to be a team that's two points out of a playoff spot going,

hey man, you're banged up. Three weeks off before the stretch drive wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. you remember us, we're the team that pays you 10 million bucks a year to help us get into the playoffs. Like, no, thank you. I'm going to go and

play in the Olympics. And like, again, I've said it a million times. Obviously, the players, because it's been a decade or whatever since the last time they were in the Olympics, like, obviously the players are going, I must be there.

There's no two ways about it. but their teams are just like, fuck, I hate this. Especially because, again, like, they're just kind of cramming all these games in before the break and probably not good for anybody's knees. That every NHL fan thinks the Olympics is a good idea. A couple weeks from now, a couple guys will get hurt and certain fan bases will be like, I actually never wanted them to go to the Olympics. And then their country wins and they go the Olympics, the perfect event, we love them. That's right.

But yeah, again, I get why any team would be like, I fucking hate the Olympics. Why wouldn't you? Again, they should just, you know, summer games like they do with basketball. Basketball doesn't play in the winter. No, they don't. Even though the NBA season's in the winter. And then you could have the thing of like all the American. guys are living on a yacht in the harbor because the team accommodations or so.

Remember the Olympics and what was in Rio, the Rio Olympics? They were like, yeah, we're not staying in the Olympic Village. We're actually just going to rent a yacht that we all live on. Was it in in 92, did they stay in the Olympic Village, the U.S. Dream Team? I feel like they must have. I feel like that was a thing at the time. They're like, will these guys be able to handle like sleeping in a bunk next to some kayaker?

Yeah, well, it's funny because friend of the show, Matt Porter, he's been on the show a couple times, he worked for the Globe. They sent him over to the Olympics, and they had, like, the media tour of the Olympic Village yesterday. Like, an athlete from your country takes you around and goes, this is what our beds look like, and he posted a picture of what the beds look like. You know, I don't think that, like, a Victor Headman type is looking at that bed going, ooh, I can't wait to sleep in that.

Like a guy who's like six, six. Yeah. It looks like a toddler bed from IKEA. Yeah. It's a twin bed. It's a twin bed. And it looks like they put it together from IKEA like a, like two days ago. I couldn't believe it. Mm-hmm. But. Going back to the outdoor game. Like, what did you think? Because I, so I, in the, I, I, I, I tell this story. or I mentioned this in the newsletter that's going out this morning, which everyone should subscribe to,

Red Light Newsletter at The Athletic. I had like a, in my weekend column, I had like a little bit that I was doing in the lightning section about, oh, isn't it crazy there was an outdoor game? And none of us even knew about it, because nobody cares because outdoor games are boring now. And after the game, I was like, I have to rewrite that because,

that game actually ruled. It kicked ass, yeah. That was extremely cool. Yep. And I think it is potentially in the running for best outdoor game ever. I think it, I think there's one other contender. And again, I said this on what chaos yesterday. So I'm just repeating myself, but.

I don't listen to podcasts. I don't blame you one bit. They were really mean to me yesterday. Oh, yeah. That'll happen. Just because I said I like the avatar. Anyway, they're good. What do you want for me?

But no, so like I said there's one other game in the running for best outdoor game. And it's the first one. It's snowing. There's the shootout, et cetera. Can I, can I first of all? That wasn't the first one. The first one was Canada. The first one was the heritage.

Right. The first official one, regular season. But yes. You're right. You're totally right. First winter classic, sure. He is very often remembered. This season.

Sidney Crosby shootout in the snow. Yes. I would agree with that. I think the other one that comes up a lot is the first Toronto Detroit. Oh, yeah, sure. That's a hundred thousand fans. I think that one also went to a shootout. Man, all these outdoor games.

We love the shootout on this show. Let's just say it. Wow. Hey, the only thing that makes a game better is stupid shootout. Mm-hmm. I'm always saying it. Merrick Malik, remember that shit? Come on now.

Remember the exactly one time? Yeah. Remember when the shootout actually first came out and you were like, it felt novel. Crazy when like guys who don't normally do this are going to have to shoot. It's going to be so wild. And like Merrick Malik did a cool thing. And that's the only time.

Yes. That a shootout going along. And that was like what, round 11 of the shootout. Yeah. I happen to be watching that game live too. That was so sick. They should change the rule. so that if a shootout, if you go through all 18 skaters,

that the goalies have to shoot. It would never happen. But like, if that was the rule, like at what point if you saw a shootout was going long, would you tune in? Like when you got to like the seventh or eighth shooter, would you, it'd be kind of like, you know, someone's got a perfect game in the fifth inning.

You're like, I know it's not going to happen, but just in case. Man, was it a perfect? I remember I was at a bar with my friends like, for a trivia night. There was a guy on maybe like the Tigers or the Marlins or something like that where he had a perfect game with like, you know, in the, in the ninth inning, two outs.

They ground it to like a slow grounder. And the guy does not beat the throw, but the out calls him safe anyway. Yep. Remember this? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I was in a,

I was in a, I was in a bar like full of people watching it on the big screen when that happened and the place was going. It was, the environment was insane. That was the Armando Gallagheraga game, I believe. Yeah, and then after the game, the ump said, I kicked the shit out of it. Was how he. The umpire,

like, that umpire was like, absolutely disconsolate. Like, he would. And he should have been. He fucked up that guy's perfect game. And like, it, and bad, too. It wasn't even like. Yeah. Now, this,

it would be like calling seven straight penalties on one team in an outdoor game. If we had replay review. Oh, wait a second. Fuck it. Who cares? Barry Trots announced yesterday morning that he's stepping down at some point in the

indeterminate future. This was weird, right? It was very weird. Not just what, not just the fact that he announced his retirement midway through a season. But just the way the story played out. Because at first it was like,

The insiders were all like Barry Trott's is quitting his GM. Like they made it sound like it was an immediate thing. And you're thinking like obviously you're thinking A, like is he healthy? Like did he, has something terrible happened to him or his family that he's got to quit? Or B, is he going somewhere else to coach? Right. And then it turns out like, no, neither of those things. And also he's still the GM.

He's just going to not be the GM at some point in the, in determinate future. Yep. So it sounds to me like what happened is he, I guess he said at the press conference that he had approached ownership and said like 2007 is my target for retirement. And it sounds like management was kind of like, how about we bumped that up a little bit? Yeah, they were like. Because we were kind of thinking of firing you.

And, uh, yeah, I got to say that's actually a pretty pro move for a GM. If you're a GM on the hot seat, if you just like preemptively announce your own departure a year and a half in the future. Mm-hmm. Power move. Not bad. Because what are they going to do to, what are they going to do to Barry Trots? Like, in Nashville, you think he has such like cash there that he can't just, they can't just fucking fire him. And so, you know, like, you watch the press conference.

and he gets choked up a couple of times, like talking about the opportunity to spend more time with his family, blah, blah, blah. And like you said, you get the feeling that ownership was kind of like, yeah, but Barry, wouldn't you like to spend more time with your family?

Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, they were like more than happy to go. Maybe we're, because I, you know, there had been speculation about like a philosophical difference in what they should do. Okay. And I can't remember which owners said it, but during the press conference, one of the owners was like, this wouldn't, we're open to the idea of rebuilding, but not a tear it down rebuild.

And it's like, everybody on your team's 34, man. Like, when do you? Mm-hmm. Anyway. It's very interesting, though, because what's, when I think back on the Barry Trots era, what I, what I. I will think is this is a guy who came in, made a bunch of big, splashy moves,

and set his team back six or seven years. Yeah. Kind of, kind of did. Because he came in, if I have the timing right, it was 2003 he comes in. Yes, correct.

I don't need he does anything that summer. And then it's the next summer when he signed. Yeah, if I'm remembering right, it was one of those like, well, I got to look under every rock and really, you know, figure out what... I really take time to figure out, you know, like, okay. That's exactly right. I'm going to talk to everybody.

Just hit the snooze button on, you know, first day of work, like, oh, you know, I can't really do anything today. I just got to figure out where the bathrooms are, except... Which is a great, a great piece of advice for all you people starting a new job out there. Just go, look, I'm going to need six, eight months to get my fucking feet under me here. That's the thing. Usually it's like, oh, you know, the first day is just about getting your laptop set up. But if you're an NHLGM, you get a year to do that. Unbelievable. It's a great job.

And then the second year, he spent a whole bunch of money on UFA's, and a lot of us crowned the Predators' off-season champions. Mm-hmm. And I don't think they've hung that banner yet.

No, no, they have not. Hey, there's only three years left after this one, and the Marshes-O deal, though, so we're all set. Well, there you go. nothing to worry about it's fine and uh yeah and also i guess along the way there also makes the goaltending decision the askarov trade and so sticks with uc sorrows and i will say this at the time they signed the uc saros contract i got it i didn't necessarily

like agree with it i would have traded soros at the absolute height of just about any goalie's value quite frankly in in recent memory and gone with the younger guy. But when you have Philip Forsberg, who's probably in his 30s at that point, Stephen Stamcoast, Jonathan Marcioso, who definitely in their 30s, Ryan O'Reilly, like Roman Yossi, all these guys who are now 34, 35 years old, they were 32, 33 when the Soros extension happens. And you can't kind, I guess.

get the argument that you kind of can't like have a team that's all like 32 year olds as as your best players and then also your goalie's like 23 and not proven himself he's not even 23 yet i don't think so at the time you're like it doesn't line like the ages don't line up right of what of what makes you competitive with your with your best skaters so i get trading a scar up they didn't fucking get anything for him to help with the, you know, this is the benefit of hindsight, I suppose, but like, they didn't get anything from the sharks to, like, help now. You know what I mean?

So, like, I think it was a defensible trade at the time, even though I wouldn't have made it, if that makes sense. But, you know, now, what, three, two bad seasons from UC Saras later? And it's like, oh, maybe. maybe we did a whoopsie there. You know what a save percentage is this year? This is real. 893.

That's even below the league average. Okay. And 896 of the year before that. Yeah. It's tough, man. I mean, I didn't love the contract at the time because I don't like any long goalie contract. Yeah. But he had been like top six in the Vezna.

Oh, that's what I'm saying. Many times in a row, and they got him for like, doesn't the number start with like a seven? I guess it was it? 7.74, yeah. You know, so I didn't love it, but I was like, I don't love it for years five, six, and seven. No, totally on. I get it. But yeah, you wonder what they could have got for if they had moved him, but it doesn't really fit with signing Stephen Stamco's.

Nope. And like, again, I get the impulse to sign Stamco's. and Marsa and Brady Shea if you're trying to be competitive. But I guess my point is Barry Trots looked at the predators and frankly, let's be honest. He looked at the fucking U-2 trip

or whatever. Remember they win 58 games in a row after they get told you're not allowed to see them play in the name of love. That's right. Yeah. Those guys were so pissed that they went on like a four-month winning streak.

and then he's like, and obviously that's who this team is. Let's go get Stamco's and Marshes off we go. Maybe I'm getting the timeline wrong on this, but I don't think I know it was. It was the year after they had had the. Yeah, okay, great. Because that was the trick, right? Because you looked and you went, oh, well, I mean, they were pretty good last year. So you add these guys.

Yeah. They're on the way. And they actually, their record was fine, but they weren't good for most of the season. And then they were insanely good for like a month and a half. Yeah, it's the, it's the thing about the, the, the blue jackets recently or,

or Buffalo recently where it's like, no, you had to win like 17 out of 25 games to get back to like eighth in the conference. Don't you dare talk crap about my Buffalo Sabres. I also got yelled at about that opinion yesterday. But like, what I'm saying is you're going to take it on the balance, right?

You can't just, you can't just look at the, remember the article, uh, from a couple years ago about the blue jackets were like, if you just leave out the stretch where they lost 12 out of 14, these guys are a playoff team.

And it's like, well, sure. But if you take the, every team's 14 worst results off the board, they look pretty fucking good. Mm-hmm. And so that's my thing with the, with the predators, right? Like, they needed to win all those games in the second half to get to,

and it says here, 94 points. Yeah. You know, Christ, they went 16-0-2 in that stretch, in that 18-game stretch after they got told no you-2. Wow. I didn't remember it being that crazy. 16-0-2. Holy. If you take that away, I just want to say, just for the record on the Sabres last night, I was watching their game against the Panthers, they're down to nothing right away.

And I was like, they got this. Yeah. The Sabres are in a lot of trouble. back-to-back champions, they're going to win this game. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, the Panthers are in a lot of trouble. And I, you know, so much of it stems from they didn't have their best player and their goalie sucks. And by the way, their goalie's 37.

Can you believe that a 37-year-old goalie who's played probably 90 games over the last two years? More than that. Well, I can just look. I don't know why I'm guessing. I can just look how many games. Sergei Babrovsky is. has played. A hundred and twelve in the regular season and another 43 in the playoffs.

No, that, nope, I'm getting that wrong. 47 in the playoffs, that's even more. So, he's played over 150 games over the last two years. Can you believe a 37-year-old goalie? It's not, it's not holding up for him. Yep. I agree with you that he's bad, but. just let me know when I can ring the bell that says

Sergei Bobrovsky trade deadline speculation. Absolutely. Well, so here's the thing. A two-time Stanley Cup champion goaltender. You telling me there aren't some teams out there that wouldn't add that guy. All right. Let's, I agree with you, but let's save that for when we do trade talk in the second part here. And we'll wrap up this first segment by saying this about the Nashville Predators.

A, who's the replacement? Mm-hmm. You know, like, let's game it out. And B, this is the important part to me. What does the replacement, like, what's his mandate from ownership? Yep. And it's interesting because a couple of things that we learned from this press conference. One is that Barry Trots is sticking around.

Mm-hmm. Maybe as some sort of advisor. I don't think they said, like, they're booting them upstairs to president or something like that, but he is potentially still going to be around. So maybe the philosophy doesn't change all that much. They also said, like, it doesn't sound like they feel any need to hire anyone soon. Because when you change GMs in the middle of the season, if you're not promoting internally, which is what the Sabres did, you're pretty limited.

You're not going to get any other team's assistance or, you know, someone like that to come interview in the middle of the season. So you're sort of, there are guys floating around out there who have done it before, who don't have jobs right now, but not a ton. So it sounds like they may just wait until the end of the season, maybe wait until July 1st, see who gets fired, see who's. I don't know that you can wait until July 1. I think if they don't have a new guy in place by the draft, that's a big problem for them.

I would say so. Yeah. but if they've got their eye on somebody who maybe is, you know, on expiring contract. Anyways, the dots that I think most of us have connected is, Ryan, do you know who was the first captain in Nashville Predators history? Oh, geez, let me really, yeah, yeah, sure. A little guy by the name of Tom Fitzgerald.

That's right. Current GM of the New Jersey Devil, how's their season going? Probably pretty good, right? Yeah, it's going awesome, I think. Okay. Yeah. Definitely. But, you know, on the off chance that he should shake free,

that feels like a pretty, pretty good fit. Just based on how, I mean, this is how NHL teams operate, right? It's either... It certainly is, yes. This guy was my roommate in college, or, hey, fans, you remember this guy from 20 years ago, right? Yeah, we loved him. Every predator's fed. I vividly remember the 98-99 National Predators, and what a time it was, you know.

Yep. All right. So the Tennessean had a thing of like, here are six possible replacements. Alex Doherty, who does a very good job covering the predators for the Tennessean. And this is one of those things where it's like,

I bet this is, let's say, informed speculation. Sure. You know? And so I will start from the bottom. Mark Bergevin is on this list. They want to go a little old school, et cetera. Is he in L.A. right now?

Yes. He's, okay. I believe, I believe, nope. He joined the Buffalo Sabres as an assistant GM in December 2025. That's right. He made the, he made the, he's a Yarmo move. So he'd be, he'd be moving again very, very quickly. And it says here, it's no secret Bergevin wants to return to a general manager job.

And Nashville has worked with him directly on the P.K. Subin, Shea Weber deal. interesting. So because the guy made a trade 10 years ago? Yeah, what don't you get about this? It's no stupider than I was this guy's roommate in college, honestly. 100%. Another old name on here, Doug Wilson.

Sure, why not? Now, he had a health issue, right? He did. And so I guess if presumably if that has... been resolved. It says here he is an advisor with the penguins at this time. Okay.

I mean, he, you look at his overall record in San Jose. Obviously, there were, there were some things that, I mean, God, he was there for 20 years. Clearly there were some things that didn't work out. And he had the little feud with Joe Thornton,

which was enormously funny. But, yeah, I could see him getting another shot. Oh, it's, It's very easy to see, except to say that he's like, you know, he's got to be 70, 68. Wow, okay. That's in the Barry Trots. That's kind of getting up there, isn't it?

Like, do you want to be Lou Lamarillo where everybody's making the old jokes about every decision you make? You know. But, hey, if he wants to do it, like, I think he was a very good GM in San Jose for a long time until, you know, things conspired. Let's be honest, man. Lou Lamarillo was old, but also Lou Lamarillo looked 20 years. older than whatever he was. Oh, for sure. Doug Wilson, if he still got the hair,

if he still got the perm, hopefully that's, you know what, I'm not looking up any photos. I don't need to see like bald Doug Wilson or anything like that. All right. And then it's mostly new blood on this list. Bruins assistant GM,

Evan Gold. He's like their salary cap guy. Okay, the salary cap guy for the team that signed to Elias Lindholm. Okay. Well, he, look, He just manages the cap. He's the guy who's like, dude, guys, this is not going to work.

All right. Thank you. Yeah, he's going, I just work here. Another young guy, Rangers' assistant general manager, Ryan Martin. And first of all, what a great name on this guy. Ryan, wow. Martin, yeah. Well, wait a second.

But this guy has been in NHL front offices for 20 years, started with the Red Wings in 05. Works with the salary cap and scouting for the Rangers it says here. Then this is a name you'll recognize Sean. Brandon Pridham. Mm-hmm. Maple Leafs love them, et cetera. And obviously, everything's worked out really well in Toronto the last few years.

He's, he is the Leafs cap guy. He's super good. Yep. And it would be the most Leafs thing ever to lose him to another team like two days before they fire Bradford Living. Because the committee that authorizes firings couldn't Couldn't get a quorum until August because of vacation schedules or whatever. And finally, an assistant general manager, this is the internal hire, and this is one of those, I wonder how he got that job, guys.

Brian Poyle. Oh, hmm. Wouldn't that be interesting? It'd be something. I assume this is David Poyle's son. It is, yeah. So Bud Poyle's grandson. on good bloodlines for uh well yeah and i mean this is one of those things where it's like

are we going you know apart from the the the vizier who came in for a couple of years there is brian but like this becomes like a a job passed down by primogeniture you know what i'm saying yep like uh the scheming vizier came in he's like i'm going to sign stephen stamco's And now, you know, the true and rightful GM by birth is stepping in. Yeah, that's exactly right. It's been, I don't know, man, it's been a tough couple years for the nepotism. Like, Gretzky never got the job in Edmonton, Gretzky, and Lamerolo's kid didn't get the job with the Islanders. It's true.

What are we doing, guys? It also says other potential internal hires, director of scouting and assistant GM Jeff Kielte, Kelti, and I'm not sure how to pronounce that, and Milwaukee Admiral's general manager, Scott Nickel, which would fill the, hey, remember when this guy played for us? So, I think those are all interesting. I think Fitzgerald obviously sprang to mind for a lot of people as well.

But there you have it. They're doing a search committee. And meanwhile, they're doing it all with the team that's not that far out of the playoffs, considering how bad they were in most of the first half. They, I mean, up until recently, they did the, they did the thing they did a few years ago where they ripped off a bunch of games in a row. I'm going to look it up really quickly. But they're still, you know, barely fake 500.

They're three games above fake 500. Yeah, they just had a stretch where they won. Sheesh. Let's see here. They went 17 and 8 over 25 games. That's good. You know? And how many two of those?

No, more than two of those. A lot of those went to overtime. But five, it looks like. But still, 17 and 8, that's all you're looking for, you know. And then what happened after that is not kind of. counting last night's game, which they won, they were two, three, and two in their last seven. So that's kind of maybe what prompted everything of like, yeah, we gave it our best shot. We went 17 and 8 over 25 games, which is a good chunk of the season.

Unfortunately, we're still not in a playoff spot, really, and nobody really thinks we're all that good. So I think that's what prompted it. And I think, you know, a more disappointing end to the Barry Trots era as GM than I think. think a lot of us may be envisioned. I think we thought that a lot of us two years ago were like, they can be pretty good. They're not going to be like cup contenders or anything, but they can be pretty good. It was a fascinating hire. Like you very rarely, there's not a lot of guys who've been coaches and GMs, especially in this era.

It used to be. Like there was a time where like the Mike Keenan's and. Totally. Pack Quinn's and Jock Artans even, I think. Like they would work their way up. But usually in that case, even it was, there was a transition. Like, he had no front office experience. Right.

And he became the GM of a team. And he did some interesting things. He certainly didn't, like, reinvent the wheel, but he took some swings and just has not fully added up. And he will apparently make it through his GM tenure without ever taking over behind. the bench, which I feel like you would have got pretty good odds on. Oh, my God. As soon as he got hired, like, even with, you know, Andrew Burnett, like, you're like... Red dot on the back of Andrew Brunette's head the second he got hired, for sure.

Even if it was just to do the whole, like, I just want to be in the dressing room and see what's really going on. Like, nope, and he always said, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing, yep. Man of his word. You're lying. Right, we don't believe you. Yep.

He was, he was telling the truth. Yeah. So that's that on the on the predators, I guess. I would, if it's me and I'm taking over, if I'm, you know, David Poil, the fourth of his name, you know. Yeah. What I would be doing is I would be saying, hey, all these guys with no move clauses, what I'm going to need you guys to do is a wave those. All these guys are pretending have a no move clause, even though they don't. your ass is getting traded.

Yeah. All guarantees are off the table. Except not until next year because I'm going to need a year to get the lay of the land. Well, I mean, that's just good business. I mean, once you're just good business. You know. No, unfortunately, I do have to go out front of a Bridgestone Arena, lick my finger, and hold it up to the wind and see which way everything's blowing.

I got to sit down with the guy who runs the concession stands and really pick his brain. That's right. You know what? I'll say this for the Preds, too. I saw the other day there, big, big ice storms in Nashville the last few days, or last week, I guess it was. I did see this, yeah. And the Predators were like, if you can get here, come on down, we'll give you some fucking food. Pretty cool. Very good.

You can charge, they were like, you can charge your phone, you can get warm a little bit, have some food on us. Hey, can ask you a question? Yeah. Where was that, that day you and I were there when it was? it was raining really hard. Not one Predator's employee handed us an umbrella. Yeah.

Nobody came out with a sandwich. Nobody came out with like one of those little carts with like the heated trays. No. Poor Craig Barube almost drowned. Running out of there. He's had a tough go of it the last few years. He's had a rough one.

Yeah. He turned to us right before he ran out there and he was like, this is probably the worst thing that'll happen to me for the next few years. I don't know, man. I don't know, big dog. You're going to be looking like a shark bit your forehead.

Yeah, I'm going to be looking for... In about 25 months. I mean, I've seen a lot of leaf coaches look lobotomized before. Take it quite that far. That's right. Did you have anything on the current state of the Leafs? No. Are we good here?

Okay, great. That's it then. We'll take a break. We'll be right back. This week's episode is brought to you by our good pals at MintMobil. Folks, every group has that one friend who insists on doing things the hard way. That's the friend who's still paying for a subscription. They forgot they had.

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Thanks Raycon for sponsoring puck suit. All right, we're back. And so we kind of teased earlier. We're going to talk about what do the Florida Panthers do with Bobrovsky or for the rest of the season or whatever. Because right now, games in hand, all that kind of stuff, they are nine points out of a playoff spot. And I would not put it past the Florida Panthers to win a bunch of fucking games in a row. no problem. Yeah.

They go, they go Predators mode, you know. We're all winning for it. We are. And I would say they have earned that level of fear, respect. What, you know,

what do you want to call it? Like, just the belief that they can win 12 out of 14 and be right back in the race. Yep. But you look at the Eastern Conference standings. and there is now a pretty big gap for the wild card with the with the like dregs of the metro let's say

the top five teams in the Atlantic are all ahead of second in the metro that's not a good division but so like the capitals are alive to move ahead of the islanders but wild card it feels like that sewn up. The blue jackets are in the mix. My other favorite team, hottest team in the league. But yeah, if you're Ottawa, Toronto, Florida, not good. Not good at all. And again, like, it makes you go, well, what are they going to do? And with Florida, it's like, look, maybe you trade Babrovsky, but like, that's a huge contract, who can take that money. And, frankly,

you're hearing them more connected to Artemmy Panarin. Like, maybe they can figure out a way to get it done if, and again, we'll circle back to Panarin in a second, but like, they don't seem like they want to give up on the season and isn't that interesting. Yeah. Which, and totally earned it. They shouldn't until, like, even when I'm throwing Brobrovsky's name out there, like, that's a decision you don't make.

until like the day before the deadline. And I don't mean that you, yes, you only start talking about it then, because obviously you would have to have your fielders out to other teams, but you leave it as long as you can. Flags fly forever. We haven't had a team win three in a row since the Islanders in the 80s.

And remember, they went to a cup final year before they, yeah. They sure did. So, I mean, they have earned every right to, to have their swing at this. But, you know, flip side,

standings are what they are. They've lost four in a row in regulation with Matthew Kachuk. Because that was kind of the other member. The whole first half, he's not there. Then he came back. All right, here we go. The heart and soul is here.

Yeah. Not so much. Yeah. Like, it turns out for me anyway, like I obviously thought Barkov was one of the, you know, eight or ten best players in the world, probably. Sure. Maybe not like, you know, he's not a McDavid-McKinnon's level,

like absolute, no question about an MVP caliber, but he's a scosh below that. You know what I mean? I think he's more load-bearing than I was giving him credit for based on this season. Yeah. There are obvious, again, other factors. at play, just the sheer volume of games this team has played over the last three seasons.

Like, there probably aren't too many teams in the cap era that have played more games in a three-game stretch than the Panthers did. And that is absolutely part of it for me. But, you know, I remember saying going into the season, like, you know, they call Reinhardt baby Barkov, we're going to see if baby grows up. I'm going to say, he's still walking. rounded diapers. Yeah.

He's been fun. Good player, but yeah. He's not, yeah. He's not shooting 27% anymore. The existence of Sasha Barkov was not the only thing keeping him from turning into Sasha Barkoff. That's right. So here was the question I asked you kind of over a break.

How close are we to the Eastern playoff race, which we've all been all season, been like, oh, this is going to be crazy. Every team is still in it. Like, how close are we to this race actually not being much of a race? With the exception of probably some of those, a couple of those metro spots. Yeah, second and third in the metro are going to be up for grabs all year. But I'm, again, like the senators are seven points behind the Bruins now. As are the Leafs, the senators have a game at hand.

And the Panthers are nine behind those behind the Bruins. and that is an awful big gap to make up in 30 games. Yeah. And I mean, you look at the senators, the lead. It's not like, and again, the sabers are the object lesson here of like a team you don't think is all that good can rip off 18 games or 18 wins in 25 games or whatever the number is, right? It can absolutely happen. but the odds that it happens and they climb ahead of all these

like they would need the Bruins to collapse at the same the ruins and the savers to collapse at the same time for Ottawa, Toronto and Florida to get back in the mix and I just don't see it happening and maybe Montreal but you know they feel a little safer than Boston and Buffalo do to me a little bit but so I'm yeah I'm willing to say the top five in the Atlantic

will be in some order the top five in the Atlantic at the end of the season right now for sure. Such a big gap. And that, I mean, the Rangers are out. They've thrown in the towel. Yeah. The Flyers and Devils are actually in the kind of the same position as the Leafs and senators in that they're seven points back of those metro spots that they're chasing.

So even though their record is worse, slightly worse, they're, they still got a way to go. And again, it, it all comes. down to like, if you think that the Panthers are going to do this, fine. But then that's another spot. Yep. And like if the Panthers make the playoffs, it's not going to be by, and I punched in the numbers. For the Panthers to get to 95 points, they have to play at 109 point pace the rest of the way. That's not going to be feasible, I don't think.

That's a really good pace. that's an elite Stanley Cup contender pace. So if you think that's what, you know, these guys have that gear, which they kind of have over recent years, then, you know, maybe it's doable. But even, I mean, that's to get to 95 points. That needs some of the Atlantic teams to slow down

because they're, you know, Boston, Buffalo are on pace for more than 95 points. Boston's 7-1 and 2 in the last 10. I'm like, none of this makes. sense. Nope. Not even a little bit. And yeah, but that's part of it.

Right. Buffalo, Boston, both seven wins in their last 10 games. So you look at it like a team like the senators that's gotten pretty hot lately, not actually gaining a ton of ground. Even the blue jackets. Nine and one have gained like three points. It's a long climb. Yeah. And that's the problem.

When you have to pass a bunch of teams, like I would rather be 10 points back with one team to catch than 7 points back with 5 because if it's just one team I can get hot and you get cold and now we're doing something the six teams are not going to all get cold at the same time right

one of those teams is going to get hot just statistically you know it's and you know hot might just be winning, you know, getting a bit of a PDO bender and winning more games, but it's, it's just really tough. So, it's, like, we've all kind of been looking at the West as, like, the West is three good teams and then a bunch of junk. And the East is kind of a bunch of mushy middle teams, and, we're actually getting the separation there now. Like, yeah, Tampa is, to me, establishing themselves as the best team in the conference.

Carolina is... But they have the injury concerns that I would be a little... I feel like they've got enough padding, though, that they're going to be... If they can be healthy by the playoffs. Sure. But the other thing we didn't mention,

Nikita Kuturov, holy smokes. This guy's pretty good, huh? Does it feel like this guy was like, oh, did everybody forget who's one back? to back scoring titles? Okay. What if I score 30 points

in like the next six games? Would that remind everyone? Cool. He's going to do that. Yikes. But yeah, I don't, I don't know. And I don't know what to make of the West either because somebody pointed out

that heading into last night's action, if you just looked at wins and losses, Okay. Luser points count as a loss. Heading into last night, Vegas and the Leafs had the same record. And the Leafs were dead last in the Atlantic and Vegas was first in the Pacific.

Right. And they were both 25 wins, 30 losses. And the Leafs won last night. So the Leafs have now moved ahead in the win-loss record. What a world. But the Leafs have got, they've got nine loser point,

21 and 9 in their loss. but Vegas has split their losses, 16 regulation, 14 over time. And that's the difference. And obviously, you know, it's not a loser point, it's a bonus point. And, you know, you can look at it that way, sure. But the point is, I have no idea about Vegas.

I'm really not sure about Edmonton. I don't know, man. I know we're all trying to make Utah happen as like the next. But they've got, you know, they've got a wild card spot to win that's it because the rest of the central is on another planet. They're a mile behind, yeah.

By the way, we just got, we just got an update on Sorrelli, Paul, and Point. Will not play before the Olympic break. Not a huge surprise. Lots of teams are shutting guys down, but so it doesn't say anything about the Olympics themselves. Nope, it does not. Okay. But just that. Somebody out there might.

Chris Johnson just tweeted. There's still hope they'll join Team Canada in Milan. Word this morning is they're not yet in a replacement situation with any injured players. Okay. So there you have it. So anyway, trading Vovrovsky, trading Panarin. Let's talk about Panarin. Yeah.

Seems like now it's a situation where he's only going to be traded with an extension. that's what he's trying to to arrange. At this point, that is his stance, whether it's a bluff or not is open for debate. Yeah, and the size of that extension will, much like Brad Marshand last year, where it's like you're just going to hit the number. The details are up to you. You're just going to hit the number and the number is $50 million.

Is that four years, five years, six years, you know, you've, figure it out, but 50 million is the number. Alleged, you know. Interesting. Okay. That's what, that's what he's shooting for. Um,

I had seen some suggestion last week that the Rangers want to get this done before the Olympics, because you don't want this guy to, he sat out the last few games for the Rangers. And you don't want to go like, okay, now this guy hasn't played in a fucking month because of this. Yep. So let's just get this. done this week, but the, the demand for I do need an extension before I am willing to wave to go to

your team does seem to be scaring some teams off. A lot of teams might want him as a rental, not quite so many want him as a guy we're signing for another five years beyond this one. Yeah. Which makes sense because he's like 35. Yeah. Well, that's it, right? Like, do you want him as a rental?

and other teams might look at it and say, oh, if we can get an extension, that's better for us. I don't want to give up my first round pick and a great prospect or whatever else for two months of a guy. But people kind of want to see how he'll fit in and all of that.

And this is what interests me because what he's doing, he's just using leverage to try to get an extension. We see this. This used to happen in baseball, all the time. Where a player, because in baseball, you get like the no trade is unautomatic.

It's the five and ten rule. So we would see that. Where a guy, oh, we want to trade you. Well, I want you to pick up my option. I want you to sign up and sign a new deal. And, you know, in some cases, in the olden days, I want you to tear up my deal and give me a new one was something you could do in the NHL. So, okay.

I've got no issue with him trying to use whatever. leverage you can, especially the Rangers have basically told them, we're done with you. So, all right. You know, loyalty's a two-way street. You're treating this as business. That's fine. I'm going to be a businessman too.

What is fascinating to me is what happens if the extension doesn't materialize. Like, how much are we willing to play chicken here? And is our Tammy Panarin actually willing to say no extension? I don't wave.

I finish out the season in New York. And I have a hard time imagining that. If Chris Drury has a hard time imagining that or some other GMs, then, you know, what sort of situation do we get down to? Who blinks first? Assuming that obviously the ideal situation is some team approaches the Rangers and says,

yes, we agree to his extension demands and here's a bunch of prospects and everybody's happy. Right. But if it doesn't come to that. Because like I will tell you, right now, if I'm a team in the summer looking at Artemey Panarin as a UFA,

I don't know that, like, if he doesn't go to a contender and doesn't go try to win a cup and all I've seen is him play meaningless games down the stretch for the Rangers, like that's going to affect how much I'm willing to offer him. For sure. And to that point, too,

like, there was a lot of reporting that it was just like, he's played his last game for the Rangers. That's it. They will never address him again because of like, and now maybe that changes if you get to the deadline and the fish aren't biting. But to that point, did you see this tweet from Kevin Weeks? I think it was late last week, maybe Thursday or Friday. Per sources, as of today, I'm told the following have expressed interest in Panarin.

Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vegas, Dallas, Utah. Colorado, Minnesota, Seattle, Toronto, Carolina, Washington, Tampa, New York Islanders. Mm-hmm. That is 14 teams. I wonder where he got that information. Now, folks, what I would say is maybe if you want to figure out where he got that information, Google Artemey-Pan agent and then Kevin Weeks agent. And see if you can connect any dots there.

Oh, it's one dot. interesting. Like, I think it, and frankly, I think it's also in the Rangers' best interest to be like, you wouldn't believe the number of teams who are getting calls from. Sure. Like, player and team alike, they should be saying, oh, it's crazy. People are coming up to me in the street saying we'd love to trade tears in their eyes. We'd love to trade for Panarin.

I did think it was funny to see the Islanders on there, though. that would be so funny. They made, what was it, just the Carson Sussi trade was the first time in history? Yeah. Why not make it five? Cool five. Drive for five, baby. Let's do it.

But yeah, like, not surprised to see a lot of Western Conference, maybe contenders on that list. There's been a lot of reporting like, oh, Dallas would be interested if they decide they're moving on from Robertson, which they should not do. But, you know, hey. Finally, the stars are like, we get a chance to get older. Oh, awesome. I love it. But I'll tell you one team that was really interesting to me on this list is Utah. Because they're, like you said earlier, they're trying to make it happen out there.

They're in a playoff spot right now, like, fairly comfortably. I might be, okay, it's not fairly comfortably. they're two points clear of not in the playoffs, but games in hand and all that. But, you know, who are they connected to over the summer? Oh, Mitch Marner. Oh, they're going to throw a shitload of money at Marner, blah, blah, blah, because they need, they need like an outside star to show that ownership is like really invested,

blah, blah, blah. We've been waiting two years. Remember the draft in Vegas, right? Like, okay, here we go. They've got surrogate. And he got Sergachev, and everybody was like, that's okay, that's a good first step. Piece number one, yeah. And it turns out that was the only step.

Yep. And, yeah, so that can make some sense. I thought that was really interesting. A lot of these other teams, it's like, well, the Leafs don't have a first round pick. Minnesota seems like they already burned all their draft capital. And I think we talked about it last week, Walsett potentially being available. I feel like the Rangers are kind of all set on goalies. Am I right about this?

I mean, after they trade Shasturkin to Edmonton. Oh, they should, man. Oh, did you see Pickard on waivers the other day? Yeah. He cleared. Just remember the thing of like, I don't deserve to be treated like this. I'm an 870 goalie or whatever. It's like, okay, man.

And then how's Trusson Jari doing since he got there? Get that one shutout. Don't look up all the other stuff. Yeah, but yeah, absolutely. Well, if you take away all the bad games, his numbers are pretty good. A tale as old as time, in my opinion. Vegas, like, yeah, why not? That makes perfect sense.

They could do that somehow. You're not going to believe the number of guys that got injured to make this happen. Permanently injured. That's fine. Yep. But the one of the team... Mitch Warner, you are on LTIR. What?

Sorry, man. The one other team I thought was very interesting here is Tampa. Because, you know, like, you could say, oh, Florida would move heaven and earth to do it. They have the cap space to make it happen because of X, Y, and Z. Is that true? Well, you know, let's not look too hard at it. With Tampa, it's like, how could they possibly do that? That doesn't even make sense.

And not only that, but they don't, like, how? Haven't they traded all their first round picks from the last? Yeah, of course they have. Nothing. And yet, I mean, biggest Florida and Tampa are the three teams everyone wants to go to these days. Yeah, of course.

The fingers they need to taxes. Could you do it before the summer? Here's my thing. Like, remember when Panarin was in Columbus that year, that they didn't trade them? Yep. And there was all this talk of like, well, he's going to go to New York.

He wants to be in New York. He's done as, you know, he did a couple years in Columbus. He's a big city guy. Like, would he want to go to Utah? Right. Maybe. You know, there's a difference between being 28 and 35, but. For sure.

Are you like, you know what? I'm going to lock in Utah. Yeah. I don't know. I do think someone's going to try. I hope it's this week. That would be great for me. Yeah.

Talk about it next week on the podcast. Wow. What a dream. Hell, I hope it happens right now, but, you know. Yeah, but not an hour from now, please. No, when I say now, I mean like right this minute, because we're getting down to the end of things here. Ben Chirot signs a three-year contract extension,

three by $3.85 million. Yeah, and because it's Ben Chirot, obviously, all the stats folks were like, this is crazy. I mean, the guy's not good. And then all the I test people are like, yeah, but you don't understand. and his importance. And then all the

Detroit state media people are like, I get all the arguments about the stats, but what you got to understand is this. And it's like, okay, man, you got, we got it. That's fine. And again, all I need to point to what this is,

he was, he played with Moritzider last year. This year he doesn't play with Moritzider. How's Moritzider doing? Is he skating around out there like they untied the anchor that was tied around his waist? He knocked off the 16 donuts off the batting off the baseball bat.

Yep. This thing's a lot easier to swing now. Yeah. And it's not so much that like I think Ben Chirot is completely useless or I think that he's like, you know, so dramatically overpaid that this is like, what are they doing? But it is like, well, they gave him a no move clause for next year. like full no or no trade I mean and then partial no trades the entire rest of the rest of the run

and it's not a 35 plus contract so they can buy it out so that I guess is good but like if you're building it what I don't understand is why three years and the answer I guess is that's what the player said it took and they were like no problem or or it was a another one of the

those situations where the players said it's it's going to take nine million bucks all do two years and they're like you know what let's make it let's spread it out to three I mean two years from now some team will take Ben Sherrod at 50% retained yeah maybe to block shots and teach the young guys how to play the right way I it just if we're saying this is a team in its ascendancy because of Raymond and DeBrinke it and cider and sending Pelica and all it like all these young guys that they're well not that de Brinkets that young anymore but you know what I mean if we're saying this is a team in its

ascendancy I'm not sure that I'd be like I'd like three more years of 34 year old Ben Chirot please that's just me because you just you don't understand how important he is to I guess I don't and I read articles about no here's the thing I read the articles explaining here's why he's good and I'm just sitting there going, but I've seen the guy play. What are you talking about? Anyway, the other big extension this week, Sam Malinsky, four years, four and three quarters to stay in Colorado. This came up last year at a college college.

Sam Malinsky played at Cornell, and he was a pretty good player for Cornell. But we were talking about this at a game last year, where we were, me and me and a couple other reporters were like, I thought he was a good college player. I cannot believe that this guy is like extremely useful to the avalanche. Like, awesome for him. You know what I mean? And yeah, like he, he just got a shitload of money off the abs because of it. Good for him, man.

That's awesome. Yeah. I don't have a ton else to say about it, I guess. Yeah, I mean, it's, he's not a guy. I'm super familiar. with other than he's youngish. It's not a super long contract. And Colorado seems to know what they're doing.

They certainly do. Yeah. I mean, yeah, this takes him to his age 32 season, it looks like. No problem for me. He's a good defenseman. That's, if you find one you like and you're, you're like, oh, that's a middle six guy for us or whatever. Mm-hmm.

Five million, not even five million bucks for four years. Listen to this, Sean. He's like 27 or 28. He's not. He's 27, yeah. 33, right? He's... Yep.

That's exactly right. So, yeah. So, uh, last, last season when he was on the ice, they scored 50%, 55% of the goals at five on five. This season when he's on the ice, they score 70.5% of the goals. 59% of the XGs. good for him man that's awesome even with good players

on the ice with you it's uh it's hard to get it's hard to make a number say 70 in the NHL yeah you know that's really what it boils down to on ice save percentage 935 well I think we cracked this one uh anyway

why don't you hit them with the plugs and let's get out of here uh you can find me at the athletic I'll be on with uh other Sean and Frankie tomorrow and uh I get the newsletter out just this morning, talking about that outdoor game and some other things. And I'm going to have a post later this week, hopefully tomorrow where I'm going to look at guys who I think would have made Olympic teams

if the NHL hadn't stopped going in the Olympics for 12 years. Guys who were legitimately good enough had some other international experience, but we'll never get to go to the Olympics because they made the mistake of having their peak at the wrong time. And yes, your favorite player is on the list. Well, again, when we talked about it a few weeks ago when we were like, oh shit, Victor Hedman never played in the Olympics. He was like an alternate in 2014,

but never played in the Olympics before this year. That's crazy. So just a whole generation where it's like, oh, no, one of the best plays. players in the league? Yeah, he never played the Olympics. Tough shit. Too bad. I will say I am surprised at how many guys I've been like, oh, this could be great for the P. And then I'm like, oh, he was actually on 2014.

Yeah. It's annoying. Anything to make your job harder, you know? You guys don't pay me the big bucks to do the easy stuff. That's exactly it, brother. And then for me, you head over to elite prospects, all kinds of stuff. I believe we have a new Stockwatch up today. You know, it's all college for me right now,

but I'm, this has been a really fun, great college hockey season. Last night, look, the games took a long time, but I had a ball at the bean pot last night. James Hagen's, remember James Hagan, Sean? I do, yeah. That kid is going apeshet lately. He is fucking cooking because they put him with that kid.

Oscar Hemming, who's going to probably go like top five, top 10 in the draft this year. Three or four games ago, and those boys have found some real instant chemistry. It's a lot of fun to watch. So are you saying I should dust off my, the Islanders should trade down from number one and take vocal boy James? We're back in, baby. Back. Don't look up how Matthew Schaefer has done this year. But no, this Heming kid is a lot of fun to why.

I would recommend to people seek out. He had an assist on the first goal where he chipped it past a defender and went around him on the other side. And the defenseman from Harvard was like, what the fuck just happened? Like, just fully short-circuited, awesome play. And then they had a great given goal to get a second goal between them as well. So really enjoyed that. And then you head over to patreon.com slash puck soup. Get all kinds of bonus episodes, including a mailbag that me and Sean are going to go record.

right now. So that's it. Thank you for listening to the show, and we'll be back next week. And by then, all the boys will have gone to the Olympics. And the women's tournament will have already started.

Pretty exciting stuff. What a time to be alive. Hockey that everybody is excited about at the Olympics. We love. No HL guys. Wow. A novel concept. Thanks, everyone.

Have a good one. Bye. Bye. Thank you.