Puck Soup - Panthers Powerup

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Sean and Ryan talk about the Panthers' repeat, the Oilers' problems, awards, Olympics, and more.

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McAnew from The Athletic. And we have a new slash old champion. Florida Panthers repeat beating the Edmonton Oilers in six games. And I'm going to say this, making it look pretty fucking easy. They sure did. The last two games, I don't know, I feel like we can maybe put the best series ever conversation aside. Because...

That was a fun three days, though, wasn't it? It was. The full credit to the Panthers. For the fourth series in the row, they made a pretty good team look like chumps. Yeah. To that end, I have a stat for you here. Since the start of the Eastern Conference finals, their goal difference in 11 games was 4927. Wow.

That's ridiculous. And that's from the start. So that doesn't even count the last couple of. the games against the Leafs. Correct. Like you could, you could do the arbitrary endpoints thing and get that even higher. Yep.

Wow. It's remarkable how bad they made some good. Because remember, everybody was like, oh, the oilers this year, better than the oilers last year. We thought. And I mean, here's the thing. On paper, that's true. There's no denying that on paper they are better than they were last year.

They upgraded the defense. you know, especially. But, oh, man, they just turned these guys into fucking paste. Just like pounded them relentlessly for all but like the two games at the beginning of the series. Two overtime wins for the for the Oilers. One for the Panthers plus three convincing regulation wins. That's right. I don't know, man, you got to tip your cap to them.

This is a good, this is an unbelievably good playoff team. Yeah. Which is, in today's NHL, that means you're an unbelievably good team. Right. Yeah, I mean, there's not really a ton else to say. Like, they just imposed their will on the Panthers, basically throughout, you know, the last four games of the series. like they're, you know, they lost one of those games, but like they just, like I said, through a switch. They were like, okay, we're done playing like this, you know.

And I don't know. To me, I'm sitting here saying like, this is a copycat league, blah, blah, blah. How does anybody come close to replicating this? Yeah. This feels like the sort of thing that a lot of people, a lot of teams will unsuccessfully, try to replicate. Get a bunch of dirt bags. Well, even more than that.

We talked about this a week or two ago, I think. It's getting like guys who were like first round picks who want to play like dirt bags. Right. You know what I mean? Like, what do we say? There's like five, six guys on this team that were top six picks. Mm-hmm.

And all of them, it's just like, oh yeah, yeah, you want me to like just go get in hard on the forecheck and, and create goals that way, no problem. Like, these guys are all dogs in a way that I think that it's just, like I say, impossible to fucking replicate. And the fun thing is it feels impossible to replicate, and yet two of them could be hitting free agency, which gives you a chance to literally take a piece of their formula.

For sure. at an outrageously high cost that you will regret almost immediately. Right. Unless some team will do it if they hit the, if they hit free agency. It feels like in the last few days we went from Sam Bennett, attractive free agent to Sam Bennett definitely resigning in Florida. And I kind of get that. Yeah, I mean, you know, even leaving aside the taxes thing, which obviously helps. I just think, why would Sam, like, let's say it's the Leafs go, we'll give you $11 million, right?

Like, that's where the conversation kind of feels like it would have to start because, A, again, the taxes thing, but B, he's taking a theoretical downgrade in the quality of its team, at least, you know, postseason success. I know all these, the Leafs actually are the only team to push the Panthers of seven, gate, but okay, sure. I'm trying to remember what happened in game seven of that one, but you know. Mm-hmm. But to me, it's like just such a perfect combination of he, you know, I think it was Elliot had reported before that like they offered him the Verhege deal, Bennett, which is eight times seven. And he said, no thanks. Wins the Khan-Smith.

And I went writing about this the other day. I was like, well, then shouldn't he just take this? the Reinhart deal. I think that's the next offer, right? Mm-hmm. And it's so, it's a guy named Sam. Pending Free Agent has an outsized good year for the Panthers. They win the Stanley Cup.

He goes all the way to July 1 and then right before the deadline where the Panthers can't offer him eight million dollars or eight years anymore. He's like eight times eight. Six25. Sounds good. If you give Bennett that same deal, yeah, you're right, that's a little too much. But what do you give a shit about three years from now? You're trying to win two more Stanley Cubs.

Yep. And also, you know, part of the reason I'd be so wary of giving Sam Bennett a ton of money and free agency is that you don't know how he's going to fit on a new team. Even if he fits well, there's going to be an adjustment, which is going to eat a chunk of the, good years of that deal. Whereas in Florida, they know what they've got. He hits the ground running. There's no, there's no adjustment period. Like, he's just more valuable to the Panthers than anyone else. And the Panthers are far more valuable to him than, you know, like going to Utah for an extra million a year. Yeah, because they, because they can give him the extra year also. Like that. Yeah. And he's at the age where that should matter like that. For sure. And that extra million for year. For sure.

And that extra million per year completely cancels out what Utah can offer him on a seven-year deal. Yeah. Right? It just makes too much sense. It makes way too much sense. Marshand, I'm less convinced about. I can't remember who reported it, but I saw someone say, basically the thinking is, whatever the biggest AAV is, or maybe most money, period. Like if, you know, give them an extra year to bring the AAV down, whatever it is.

Most money, that's where Brad Marchand is going. I've seen that reported, I think, in a couple of places. He's at the age where the extra year Florida can offer is a non-factor. The league isn't going to approve an eight-year deal, presumably. So, and it's not like some other team is offering him seven. So that doesn't matter. It's just down to, I mean, the thing is, it would be very hard for them to afford Bennett, Marjan and Aaron Ekblad, who's the other one?

Yeah. Now, Aaron Eckblad, I would love to hang out with his agent for a little while because like every interview this guy does feels like it costs him like a quarter of a million dollars on his next contract because he's just like, I do not want to go anywhere. I hate the idea of playing anywhere else. Yeah, unless he's, so what's he make right now? Seven-ish? Something like that.

Yeah, yeah. Unless he wants to take a pay cut, which, you know, like you say, might be the kid, he might be willing to do it to keep the band together. I just don't see. I think they have 19 million in cap space. We all kind of assumed when they made the Seth Jones trade that that was. Yes. That's right. But now it sounds like maybe not. And I, you know, to take a pay cut would be tough. But if he signed for around the same amount, which is a pay cut. but vis-a-vis cap percentage and all of that. I don't know. That's another one where it feels like if they want the player back. And it feels like there's a way to do that. I mean, yeah, keep the band together as best you can.

It's working. You've got, you found a sweet spot here, and who knows how long it'll last. And there's a part of me that feels like when the Panthers exit this zone that they're in right now that they may drop significantly and suddenly you're looking at this going, wait a second,

Sam Bennett is their third best forward. He gets 40 points a year. How did we think this team was going to be elite? But they're elite right now. Yeah, and all their, apart from Bobrowski, basically all their good players are like 28. It's not like these are all like 32-year-olds

where it's like, ooh, you know, even two years from now, I'm not sure. they have another three, four years with this group minimum. Yep. You know, Marshan kind of accepted because he's like the outlier in that age. And like I say, Sergey Bobovsky. Brobrovsky's a question mark, yeah. That's the only question mark you can possibly have about how long, because he's like

Marchand's age, maybe even a little older, if I'm remembering right? He might be like 36, 37, 38, somewhere in there as well. Well, no might be about it. He definitely is somewhere in there. I don't know. I just don't know if he's older than Marsha. But I say this all the time. You can be one of the best goalies in the world at age 35.

You go away for a summer, you come back, you're perfectly okay. A year later, you're cooked. That's literally the exact pattern for Hendrik Lundquist, probably the best goalie of his era. Is elite, still pretty good, 890 something. And obviously 890 now is different than it was five, six years ago. But, you know, it's just one of those things. Barowski have two years left or one?

No, he's, so Sergey Bobrovsky is he will be 37 on opening night. Okay. He's got, he's in the last year of that seven year deal. Yeah, that's what I thought. Right. So, man, that, that deal worked out for, you. You know, put aside the results timing-wise. I mean, the fact that he's still playing at a very high level going into the last year.

We all thought this was the worst deal in the league. I did. I absolutely did. So, yeah, like, it's interesting to think about what will happen with him vis-a-vis Echblad, because that's $10 million. And obviously, he's not going anywhere for, but, like, if you can kind of grind your teeth or grit your teeth and, get through this one year, in theory, depending on what Bovrovowski wants on his next deal

or if you want to give him that next deal, you could make all the money work. But you would have to figure out something or another that makes it difficult to get through next season financially. I don't know. But yeah, Conn Smyth, like I mentioned, Sam Bennett, wins it, hard to argue, 15 goals. They were rattling off the list of centers who had scored 15 goals in one

playoff. Did you see this last night? No, I did not. It's literally like, I'm not going to remember all of them because there were a couple where I was like, oh, huh, okay. But it was Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby, McDade, like, just go down the list. It's like, oh, those are five of the six best centers ever or whatever. Sackick might have been in there.

and they're like, and now Sam Bennett. And it's like, that's actually fucking insane to put it that way. You got to tip your cap to him, you know? Especially because Sam Reinhardt goes out, he has a four-goal game. And in a 5-1 win, it's not the game-winning goal. Or otherwise he would have had the game-winning goal in two cup finals in a row. He's not clutch. What can I tell you?

Doesn't have it. Does not have it. But, Did you see the, I think I put this in the outline when I sent it to you. Did you see this little post about Anton Lundell from Dmitri, Philpovich? No. Anton Lundell in the postseason. In his five on five minutes, Florida would scored opponents 24 to 8.

In the cup final alone, it was 8 to 3, with 61% of the expected goals and 64% of the scoring chances. He had 17 points at 5 on 5, tied with Listerainen for second most only behind McDade. he's 18. And he's a penalty killer. He doesn't really play on the power play as much. And when he was killing penalties in the postseason, across 37 minutes, opponent scored two goals on the Panthers.

And this guy didn't come close to winning the Con Smyth. They're a wagon. It's insane how good they are, man. Anton Lundell, if I said to you, what, like, what rank do you put Anton Lundell on the Panthers forward group alone. Four, five, six, seven? How deep do we have to go?

Yep. Six with Marchand. Right. Yeah. At the, at the best. And yeah, it's crazy. Yeah. Do we want to do a loser's corner here?

One last trip? Might as well. Those huge losers, the Edmonton Oilers. I mean, they have to feel worse. about this year than last year. They have to feel way worse about it. Yeah, it does feel like they took a step back.

And that's not how it's supposed to be. And maybe some of this is us falling in love with narratives, but you get the rematch. You're not supposed, you know, you get the rematch against the team that knocked you out at the final bell last year, last time around. You're not supposed to get

knocked out in the seventh round this time. And they did. I mean, they, they, this was less, a less competitive series than last year in a series where they were down three nothing. That's tough. So where, where do you go now? Well, let me start you with this. I'm going to read you the Connor McDavid Leon Drysidal, uh, like on off splits for just goals at five on five in this series. When both McDavid and Drysidal were on in the Stanley Cup.

final. At five on five only, the Oilers were outscored five to one. When it was just McDavid without dry-sidal, they were outscored two to three, or three to two, I mean. When it was just dry-sidal without McDavid, it was four to three for Florida. And when neither of them were on the ice, it was four to four. I think we cracked it. I think we figured out what the problem. We did, except what possible takeaway can we bring from that? Oh, I mean, the takeaway was those guys weren't good enough.

Yeah. Now, they're not the only ones who weren't good enough. Evan Bouchard and Matthias Echholm didn't look great in the series. Stuart Skinner certainly didn't look great in the series. And that was a foreseeable problem that I'm sure will be a major focus. And that is something you can address. and probably have to address. Yes.

But I mean, McDavid, so I mean, do we just say McDavid and Drysidl just picked the wrong week to get to go cold? Like, I guess what I'm trying to get it, and we talked about this on the other show a little bit that we just taped this morning. Is there a world where there's a take about Connor McDavid in the Stanley Cup final? dry saddle in the Stanley Cup final like that these are you know we talk about guys on the Leafs who are good regular season players and they can't get it done in the playoffs

are we even going to act like there's such a thing as a legendary great player in the regular season and the first three rounds of the playoffs but they're not a Stanley Cup final guy? No I mean look

again like when I say when I give you the breakdowns of all those like on off situation for McDavid Drysidal, saying it was 4-4 when they were off the ice, that means the Oilers scored four goals in 175 minutes at 5 on 5 when those guys were off the ice. 175 minutes is a lot of fucking hockey. That's three games worth of hockey, basically, at 5 on 5.

And so to only score 4 goals, that's a huge problem. You know, they needed to be better, absolutely. But McDavid had, I think, 7 or 8 points in the final. Only one goal and not a ton of scoring at five on five, obviously. But like, I'm willing to bet that he played hurt. I'm going to say that when you're matched up against Forsling and Barkoff, that's going to be a tough draw for even the best player on the planet, you know? But this game just didn't have, I don't super remember now,

but I feel like there was a signature like, oh, McDavid went, oh, it was game five last year, I think. Where McDavid went, like, absolutely fucking nuts and, like, single. We're dragging them back to Edmonton and all, or whatever it was. You know what I mean? And he just was awesome in game five last year. And he never found that gear this year. I thought he looked maybe like he didn't have that same explosivity to his, to his, you know, stride. Like he didn't, but mostly what it was.

And someone on Twitter said this when I wrote, I had written an article about like, are we going to get the McDavid game in this series? And someone on Twitter said to me, like, the difference here is like, McDavid doesn't, hasn't gotten to do the thing where he like winds up in his own zone. And by the time he hits the red line, he's going a hundred miles an hour. They just didn't let him do that in this series. Yeah. And that's a part of the game where he.

he gets to be super effective, that nobody else can really match. And they were just like, well, what if we just don't let him do that? And it worked. Do you think there's, did Florida do anything that other teams are going to be able to look at and say, maybe this is how you slow these guys down? Or is it just a case of like, yeah, have two Selky winners or two Selky candidates up front? Right. One of the best defensive in the league and a Hall of Fame goalie.

And you might be okay. You might be able to hold them to a point of game, which is, you know, we're all calling them a bum for. Right. Well, and that's what I mean, though. I don't know, like, people are going to be like, oh, what can we take from Florida? It's like, like, you said. Oh, just get like four of the best defensive impact players in the world. That should be pretty easy, right?

Mm-hmm. You know, I think this probably makes the stars feel worse. Like, oh, these guys fucking got nuked. most of this series. And they had previously obliterated us. So that makes us feel even worse. But yeah, I mean, look, you got to have the Stuart Skinner conversation because McDavid is up for free agency.

He's up for an extension on July 1. And you got to think like that's, yeah, we got other stuff to do. But one thing we've really got to do is give Connor McDiadie. David, $60 million or whatever it is. Mm-hmm. So let's have the Stewart-Skinner conversation. A lot of this series you were saying, oh, or I wasn't, but other people were saying, oh, it's not really his fault.

The Panthers are just, you know, blah, blah, blah, whatever you want to say. That third goal last night, like, I was shocked Connor McDavid didn't just, like, skate out there and tackle the fucking guy. Fuck off, man. Yep. That was a, that's the sort of goal you pull a guy when it happens. Yeah. I was a little surprised that they didn't. But this was, this was foreseeable.

And look, Stuart Skinner, like any other goalie in the league, has his ups and downs. He had the two shutouts wasn't it against Dallas? Like, you know, it was very good once he got back in against Vegas. but he also lost his starting job, got pulled twice in the Stanley Cup final, probably should have been pulled again last night. Yep. So this is now two years of, well, I mean, it's more than two years, but two trips to the final of the McDavid Drysadle Prime,

that different Oilers management has said, you know what, we're going to gamble this on Stuart Skinner. And I just don't see how you can do it. again. Yeah, it's the, it's the, okay, we're really confident in our team. We think we really have something here. Again, we're improved from last year when we went all the way to game seven of the cup final. And yeah, you can say McDavid and Dreis Eidel didn't really have the impact you would want them to have in this series. That's undeniable. But the thing that really sunk you was the thing that everybody said all along, all season, why aren't they trading for a goalie?

Why aren't they trading for a goalie? And then they said, well, the price for Vamelka or John Gibson or whoever you want to connect to the Oilers, the price for that guy was just too high. How do you feel about that price now? Mm-hmm. You know? And for once, this is not people like you and I suddenly being smart with hindsight. because everybody was wondering this last summer. Yeah.

Everybody was wondering it even during the season up to the deadline. And, you know, yeah, there's typically not superstar goalies available at, you know, in the middle of the season. But we did see teams address goaltending during the scene. We saw Colorado do it. We saw, yeah. famously. So. And you can say, well, it didn't work out for,

Colorado in the playoffs. That's true. And you can also say it was two games away from working out great for the Oilers. But I don't know, man. And it's especially tough to lose to a team that has got the Hall of Fame goalie that they took a huge swing at. Yeah. Yep. So I don't know. That's going to be a big question in Eminton. And, you know, Stan Bowman's got to figure it out. Because he was supposed to come. in here is the closer, right? The guy who was going to get them over the finish line. Yeah, another guy whose whole reputation is like he knows what it takes to win and what it takes to win is having Prime Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Jonathan and not very good goal is. It worked in Chicago, at least in the first year, right? I mean, and all due respect to Cory Crawford, he established his reputation as a very good goalie in Chicago as he was in the spotlight of

having to do it. Right. But it's, I don't know. I can't imagine you go into next season with Stuart Skinner as your undisputed one. Yeah. And I mean, so both their goalies are signed for next season. Pickard and Skinner at a combined, I want to say, 3.75 million. And look, you got to, you got to find ways to save money wherever you can when you have two guys who make whatever,

or combine like $27 million against the cap. You got to find ways to save money. The number one way that I can find to save money on this team is look at Darnell Nurse's salary and go, uh-oh. Mm-hmm. Look at Victor Arvinson's salary and go, wait a second, you know, like. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's a big part of it, right? The Jeff Skinner and Arvinson signings that seem like such slam dunks. So this is where the hindsight kicks in, right?

Good low money bets, yeah. We all thought, like, I mean, that can't lose. Huge ceiling, like, the floor is fine. Yeah. And yet, boy, man, Jeff Skinner. I mean, both of the guys. I believe Skinner was only on a one-year deal. Of a team that desperately needs secondary scoring,

and those two guys aren't even, can't even crack the lineup with consistency. Yeah, I mean, look, the other like really notably not very good contract on the team, and we didn't talk about this when we were talking more about the game itself. Evander Kane probably played his way out of Edmonton in this cup final. Just a guy, you know, kind of when the Leafs were like, okay, we can't do the Nazim-Cadry thing anymore. Yeah. Which, you know, look how that worked out. for all involved.

I don't think it would be a similar outcome for the Oilers and Evander Cain. Let's put it that way. But they just like a, we maybe just can't take this guy on our team anymore. Kind of a feeling with a VanderCain getting thrown out later. Yeah. I mean, he got thrown out. He tapped Matt Kachuk with his stick and the refs did the game management thing where get everyone out, which is fine.

Let's say to his credit, though, Matthew Kachuk totally was just like, hey, so you fucking lost to me again, huh? You know, and he got mad, and he, and he slashed him and got thrown out of the game. Like, I don't think, yeah, I don't think like he, you know, this was the equivalent of taking out of a sword or whatever. Any thoughts on the,

him not coming back out for the handshakes? I don't care. Whatever. I saw a lot of, not even coverage, but like, social media posts about that that made it sound like he, like they left out the important detail that he was tossed out of the game with five minutes. That's what I was going to say. Like, I don't know if he was even technically allowed to be back out there. I don't think anybody would have been mad about it. I assume you're allowed, but I mean, you've just got blown out in an elimination game.

Like, he probably went back to the room, tours. jersey off through his equipment and suddenly you're like, oh, are you doing the handshakes? And you're like, well, I'm sitting here shirtless. So no, I guess not. Yeah, I'm not going to put my skates back on to the fucking shit. Matthew Kachukh's hand. Yeah. But he, I mean, we said going into the series, he would be a key because with Zach

Hyman missing, which was part of this. Yep, absolutely. He was the guy that sort of had to, A, step up into that scoring rule and be, neutralize a bit of what the Panthers did as far as the extracurriculars. And I don't think he really did either. One year left for him. He took a few, he took a few too many dumb shit penalties in this series.

There's no doubt about it. And I wonder how much tolerance just, again, it's more of a vibes thing, right? Because remember the thing about the oilers are unraveling and I was like, it's more that they feel gotten to? Evander Kane is like the most easily gotten to guy on that team,

it feels like. You know, like you can bait him into taking a stupid penalty and that kind of thing. And I just feel like vibes-wise, I wonder if he's going to be welcomed back for next year. Although, I should say, I believe he has a full no move or something like that. Basically, all the guys with bad contracts, Nurse Arvinson and Kane have some kind of movement protection. and only one of them has like a 15-team trade list or something. I can't remember now off the top. According to Puckpeda, it's a 16-team no-trade list for Evander Cain.

So there you go. Had been a no-move clause, so they at least were smart enough to get it into the last. It's tough, man. And same with Darnell Nurse has got four years left, and I don't know for sure that you can move that without retaining. Yeah. And at what number does the retention just go like, okay, that's not worth it for us because we got to get it in a Vanderkane, or a Darnell Nurse replacement in there.

Yeah. You know. Just before we wrap, what were your thoughts on Matthew Kachuk's Connor McDavid comment after the game about how. What comment was this? He was like, oh, he's, man, playing against that guy. He's so good. He's definitely going to win a Stanley Cup at some point. Dot, dot, dot, dot.

little pause and then he goes wherever that is. Hell yeah, man. Hell yeah. Oh, man. You got to always be working. You know what I mean? That's it, man. Live the gimmick.

Rats don't take a day off from being rats. Yeah. The troll lifestyle is. Yeah. I use this example all the time. But in Mick Foley's book, the first one, he talks about being on the road with Abdullah the butcher in Diamond Dallas. Page when he was in WCW.

And they pull up to like a drive-through or a toll booth or something like that. And the lady's like, oh, how are you today? And DDP, who's driving, says to her, lady, if I was doing any better, I'd have to be two of me just to handle it. And Abdullah the butcher goes, Jack, you know why he's going to make it? I know he's going to be a star in this business. Because he lives the gimmick. He's always Diamond Dallas Page. He's never just Dallas Page.

Yep. He's always got the diamond in front of it. And it's like, I think about that all the time, and that is half the guys on the Florida Panthers, you know? I asked this on the other show. Okay. But who do you think enjoyed just the post game less last night? Oilers fans listening to Kachuk throw in the dig about McDavid leaving

or Senators fans watching Brady Kachuk. with a huge smile on his face, being like, wow, my brother who forced his way out of the small market really seems to be having a good time. Yeah, I'm going to say the answer to your question is Oilers fans. They just saw their teams get their fucking teeth kicked in. And then Matthew Kachuk was like, oh, and by the way, the best player on Earth who plays for you right now, I think he's going to leave probably. That would be my guess, would be that those guys were really upset, although I did see some Vancouver Canucks fans being like, and you guys didn't even riot grow up. Yeah, seriously. Gotta prove you want it.

But let me say this about McDavid. So he's eligible on July 1 for a big extension. I think all of us kind of expect he's going to resign there, but I guess you never know. what do you think if he resigns on July, you know, or this summer, what do you think that that AAB is? I mean, whatever he wants it to be. And I think the thing with him is how many years is it? Right.

Don't do the eight years. No, you should not do the eight years. Do three years at $15 million, which makes you the highest paid player and yet is still an outrageous bargain. And then in three years, if they haven't given you a goalie and something, you still are young enough to get the hell out of there. Yep. Because when he's eligible for, like when this contract kicks in, we already know what the,

the salary cap's going to be. And it's going to be $104 million. Meaning a team could give you. you over $20 million on your AAV. That, because that would be the max deal. Yep. And so to take 15 is doing the oilers an unbelievable fucking favor.

And so, like you say, going shorter term on that makes perfect sense. Because then three years down the road, four years down the road, the salary caps that, in theory, in such a place where, You can be like, it is 20 now. And that's not going to even be a max deal anymore. You know? I think if I'm, I'll tell you this, if I'm McDavid's agent, I'm sitting there going, we're going to wait to see what Mitch Marner gets. And then we'll circle back on what we're willing to sign for.

Because if Marner gets like 15 or 14, which is like dry sidel money, McDavid can go like, well, I'm not. better than fucking Mitch Marner. You know that. Well,

I mean, McDavid could walk into the Oilers' front office and say, I want X years where X is

whatever, anywhere from one to eight, whatever he wants, at the max 20%. Yeah. And they have

no argument against that. Yeah, what could they possibly say? That, they can't hit him with it

that doesn't work for me, brother. Oh, okay. Then I, then I guess I'll,

I'll, I'll, I'll be going to market on July 1, 2026, and also, you might want to trade me now just to get out in front of that. The only, what I think would be an interesting outcome for this, because look, we're all going to play this game of like, if McDavid doesn't sign, who's going to get him next year? He's going to stay in Edmonton.

Yeah. This is us just finding ways to make up interesting stuff to talk about until the inevitable happens. But I do wonder. It's only interesting because you wonder what the money looks like. and how that affects their. There's a part of me that, like, if I'm Connor McDavid, part of me wants to go into that office and say,

I want the max 20%. So whatever, what would that number be now? Like, just under 18? Yeah, something like that. I want 18. Now, before I sign this, if you want to borrow three million of that to put towards a goaltender,

be my guest. But you're going to make that move first. I'm not going to just trust you that if I give you a nice discount down to, you know, maybe I'll even give you four. Maybe I'd take $14 million if you're going to go get a real goalie or defts, whatever it is.

Yeah. But the point is I'm not going to just take your word for it. I want to see who you bring in. And then we'll figure out, Not whether I stay or go, because I'm going to stay, but what the number is going to look like. Yeah. I like that a lot, especially because he's already, like, his coach from junior is already the coach. And his old agent is already the president, I think his title is CEO of hockey operations.

Might as well let him be the GM too. Fuck. Yeah. Anyway. What do you want to talk about first? The awards they gave out that we didn't know when last we spoke or. Fenway Sports Group Maybe, maybe not selling all or some of the penguin.

Let's do the awards. Okay. As we noted, Hellebuck or Connor Hellebuck, it leaked last week that he won the Vesna in the heart and then that's exactly what happened. Your thoughts. Yep. It's the right call. I would have voted for him for MVP.

The Vesna is, you know, obviously. I would have voted MVP clearly, you know, with some benefit of hindsight in the playoffs, maybe not as much. I continue to say that I still think the MVP should be voted on after the playoffs. And I think it should include the season end the playoffs. But, no, that's me. Nobody listens to me. But that's why they have a second MVP award for the playoffs only. Well, that's it.

And people always say, well, whoever wins Kahn's might, they just win MVP. Like, yeah, Sam Bennett's win an MVP this year, you think? No, it would have been dry saddle. Would have won it. Yeah, it would have been dry. And I think that would have maybe held up better. But a goalie should win the MVP more often. So I'm good with Connor Hallibuck winning it.

That's what I say all the time. It's like, in theory, the best goalie in the league is the most. valuable player every single year, right? Like you kind of have to, if you're talking about their direct impact on the game and how much your team wins or loses, the guy who wins the Vesna is the most valuable player in the world 90% of the time, maybe more than that. Like there can be the odd year where Connor McDavid has 150 points and 60 goals or whatever it is, right?

Yep. Where it's like, okay, you know what? that guy broke the mold in a way that like nobody besides uh, Gretzky and in Lemieux did. So that, that changes the math on it. But for the most part, like when Carrie Price won,

everybody was like, yeah, well, obviously fucking Carrie Price is the best player in the world. Right? Like, at that point in that season, it was kind of undeniable. And what, so the way I think about it with, with this, not that I fucking vote on this kind of thing, uh,

the the best goalie in the world has to be like head and shoulders above the second best goalie in the world for for him to enter the heart conversation in a like he should win it way for me and that was hella buck this year even more so than last year it was better this year than last year and last year he won the Vesna so you know you can say the team around him was better if you want to really look at it the power play in front of him was better that's the That's the difference for the Jets this year. But with Drysidal, it's always going to be hard for people to go like, yeah, doesn't he play a ton of time with the guy we all acknowledge as the best player in the world? Drysidle had a fucking unbelievable year. But if you're going to take it away from Hellebuck for, well, the team in front of him scored all those goals. Look at fucking 97 over there, you know? This guy's pretty good.

And then, like, I think it was Kutrov third, right? Yeah, okay, sure. That's fine. He's a good player. I don't have a ton to say about it, you know? Yeah, won the Ted Lindsay. So. Yeah, and he should have.

Yeah, I get that. Hard to argue. I can't get worked up about it. And again, well, well, okay, why don't we just do this? Kail McCarwin's the Norris, your thoughts. Yep. Right call. Maybe not the slam.

dunk that the voting made it quite seem like. But in a year where Quinn Hughes is missing a big chunk of time, I get the Zach Wrenzky, but the argument, great story there. But Kilmaccar was the best defenseman this year. Do you agree? Well, I think when he was in the lineup, Quinn Hughes was way better than McCart. But he missed 20 games or whatever the number is. So that's why.

Like I still would have voted for for Hughes and I saw some people like left Hughes off their bet we can get into stupid votes in a minute here But to me like I get the McCar win I don't think he was the best defenseman, but if you know In the same way that like Mark Giordano had two years where he probably should have won the Norris and didn't because he missed 20 games Mm-hmm it's hard for me to argue if you miss a quarter of the season you should still win the best in the Bizz Award you know. Yeah. So I get why McCar won.

I don't begrudge him it. Wouldn't have been my pick. But my pick, I understand, is like kind of a little out of left field because of the injuries. But other than that, but what I was going to say, though, I think you could have made a pretty decent case for Hughes as MVP of the league if he plays the full 82. which he, of course, didn't. Right. And drags that Kinnock's team into the playoffs. Or even, you know, does the Werensky thing and gets them closer than anybody thought was possible.

But that didn't happen. So, like, I can't, you know, whatever. Do you want to talk about any of the silly awards votes? Only big takes? I mean, my only take is there's a couple hundred people voting. There should be a few L-L-L-L-L votes. Like, I don't. My only complaint, the only thing that bothers me is if, and this applies to any sport,

if somebody does a weird outlier vote and then does the big look at me call them, where they're clearly just doing this to grab a little bit of attention and grab some, you know, churn out some content, that bothers me. But when you see people, you know, point, well, this guy didn't have this person on the ballot or he put this person too high, they should lose their vote. Like, we don't have 200 people voting so that we can get 200 identical ballots. We could do that with five people. Just take the five, you know, most respected writers, let them sit in a room and just tell us who wins.

Well, I say it all the time. They should just have me pick all of the winners and I'd do a great job. That would be the easiest way to do it, I think. Who would do better than me? Nobody. Now, I'll say this, though. There were a couple of insane votes. the Minnesota writer who had Nick Suzuki as his MVP of the league,

that's a tough one for me to stomach. Yeah. I mean, that's crazy. It certainly seems crazy. But again, like, the MVP is one of those awards where there's a big chunk of interpretation of what even MVP means on there. Montreal was a team that nobody thought was going to make the playoffs, and they made it.

and Nick Suzuki is their best and most important player. So I don't think it's outrageous to then say if, and I didn't, I'm not familiar with the person who did it with their work. I don't know if they voted before. I don't know if this is something where you can go back and, like I say, if they drop the, hey, everyone, I voted for Nick Suzuki, look at me, call them and all that, then yeah, have that it. but maybe, you know, if that is how they're going to vote, I mean, we, geez, we gave Taylor Hall the MVP for being the best player on a team that nobody thought was going to make the playoffs. So, yeah. One vote for Nick Suzuki, I'm not going to lose any sleep on saying the system's broken because of that. Yeah.

I'm trying to think if there was any other agree. Well, Portsline had Werenski as his MVP. And to me, that's just a, you shouldn't get to vote. on the players you cover. Yeah, maybe, but you know what? That's always... If it wasn't someone from Columbus and you just, like, again,

like, the Blue Jackets were the best story in the league. They almost made the playoffs. If they had made the playoffs, there absolutely would have been multiple votes, I would assume, for Werenski as their most important player. So, I mean... But the thing about, like, if it wasn't Columbus,

well, you know, it was. And that's the whole thing. with my issue with the vote where it's just like I get it man you watch this guy be really good for 82 games I understand that aspect of it but like come on that's all yeah sure but and I mean again not even the best player at his own that now you probably he I didn't I don't have the Norris voting in front of me no I would imagine Portsline also had him number one for the Norris I don't even know but again like what is most valuable it's not the best player award it's most valuable and they leave that kind of up in the air and also

I also say this and, you know, like, yeah, it's a Columbus, right. It's not like this is some rookie Columbus writer trying to curve. Like, Portsy's been doing this forever. Everyone's got all the respect in the world for him. I don't think anyone's. This is why I think there should just be, A, a writer exchange program where you can't cover the team you grew up cheering for, and B, you shouldn't be allowed to vote for guys you cover.

And you could have that, but we don't. So I thought it was a totally reasonable, reasonable vote. Yeah. All right. Fenway Sports Group may be selling the penguins in whole, probably in part at least, but we don't have a ton of info except to say that it looks like Mario Lemieux and Ron Berkel and all the guys who sold the Fenway Sports Group want to buy back in or at what, you know, whatever percentage is being made available. Yeah. which is interesting times for FSG

very interesting and probably given things happening in other sports not feeling like the worst news if you're the if you're a Penguins fan yeah I mean you always have to be careful like Pittsburgh has never been a great market when they don't have a generational superstar

now luckily they've had one for like 39 in the last 40 years yeah But, you know, there have been time, so you don't necessarily. But, you know, you also are probably if you're a Pittsburgh fan, feel safer with Merrill and Mew being involved than you would otherwise. And, yeah, Fenway Sports Group not exactly being held up as owners of the year in Major League Baseball these days. If people don't know, the Red Sox just traded away who we thought. thought was their franchise player for not all that much. And it kind of felt like maybe it was a financial decision over a.

Well, but also like apparently there had been clashes with management. I'm not super familiar. But so basically what I, what the reporting I saw that they traded this guy, Raphael Devers, to the to the giants for like you said, not that much at all. Like more futures than one of one of the pitchers they traded for has an ERA in the six. at the time of the trade. So that's what we're dealing with for a guy who, as you say,

is like an all-star caliber player, certainly. And there was a report, I don't know how true it is, that the ownership didn't really want Devers shopped around because there was a feeling that they would have to eat at least some of the like $250 million

they owe him over the life of this deal. And they didn't want to do that. And so the Giants took all the money, and that's why the return wasn't very good. You know, in much the same way in the NHL, if you're eating bad salary, you know, the return gets better. If you're not eating bad salary, you know what I mean. And so there is that. at the same time, or around the same time, Liverpool Football Club, who just won the Premier League and are still probably the best club football team in the world,

they just spent $135 million on this German guy named Florian Wertz. And that's a lot of money. And you're going to get that money from somewhere. And so, you know, there was that consideration as well for, Fenway Sports Group to maybe want to get a cash infusion. But then there's this. And this is something that I saw brought up not as much as I would have thought. But Sports Business Journal reported last October that FSG was interested in placing a bid on the Vegas expansion team in the NBA whenever that becomes available.

Okay. And I don't know if you know this. it's really expensive to buy NBA teams. Oh, more expensive than the NHL? If you can believe it. I can't remember what the, so originally they were talked about in like they were in, remember the Celtics got sold last summer? I do remember that, yeah. Yeah.

So they were talked about as wanting to buy the Celtics or, you know, buy into the Celtics or whatever the gimmick was, you know. And that didn't come together, obviously. And so they shifted their attention over to. the Vegas expansion team specifically, with I believe the idea being that, like, LeBron James would be the face of ownership there once he retires. And, again, if they're, like, I think it was Elliot said, like, the reason the Penguins might want to sell,

or FSG might want to sell the Penguins, is that something bigger might be coming along for this. them. And I was like, well, I don't think they'd sell the penguins to buy another NHL team. That would be weird, right? Like, unless you really think the penguins are in for a down decade, which is possible. And so something bigger. And then all the expansion stuff we talked about with the, with the crack in a week or two ago, I just started, you know, making some connections in my head. Interesting. I'm very interested in this.

Okay. This is, you know, who owns the penguin seems like it kind of matters, to your point earlier, about not the most stable franchise when things don't go well. And clearly there was a report this week that Evgeny Malcon will not be back after this year, which leads to a question of maybe even what happens for this year. So the transition is coming in Pittsburgh, that we all knew had to happen. but um had to yeah of course but it's it's here yeah so that's that uh why don't we uh won't we wrap up well i know you had a lot to say about this new matt rempe contract so yeah yeah so i've got uh i've got about 45 minutes i want to do on that but first uh you know if there's which is which is about also the amount of ice time he'll get next season so yeah might be the number of games

he gets suspended. Could be. He just can't keep his elbow down. Well, what's he supposed to do? He's so much taller than everyone. Dude, can you imagine if they traded him to Florida? He would become the new Gordiao at that point. He'd be unstoppable.

Oh, yeah. Anyway. You want to do the first six for the Olympic teams? Yeah, sure. Any, anything? The surprise for me was Sam Reinhart being on Canada, and then he goes and scores four goals in a clinching game.

So I'm all shut up about that. Okay. That's what I was going to say is when they said Sam Reinhardt, I was like, yeah, I guess I can't really think of anybody. I was kind of expecting it to be Marner. And I wonder if, I wonder if his agents like, damn, that's like 100K off of the AAV that we didn't get that slot. Yeah, it's one of those things too.

Apparently, I was listening to 32 thoughts this morning. So I'm just saying a lot of what Elliot already said. But apparently it's a thing where like if guys don't have a contract for next year, they're a little more skittish about that sort of thing because it becomes like theoretically it becomes an insurance issue. Not that like Mitch Warner might not make a team next year and then you're, that would be a sure. Yeah.

But it is just like apparently that's part that's part of the consideration. I don't, you know, I don't know for sure. but that's what that's what they say um so there's that uh there was uh oh and that so the reason that came up is why uh j j puterka didn't make the german team when you would okay all right extremely on it over lucas reichel or nico stern but that's why um i was i was did you see that there was one like an real nchl prospect in on the Italy team, their goalie, Damien Clara. Okay.

Is a duck, is drafted, is drafted by the ducks. Oh, okay. That's interesting. You gotta have one, if you're a team like that and you got to have one guy, the goalie is, how many times we see it in the international, right? Like one guy just absolutely goes nuts for a week. Yep. And he's going to have to go really, really, really nuts for a week.

Did you see, by the way, I didn't have this on the outline, but did you see that they already announced what the full schedule for the opening rounds are? Yeah, I saw that just in the last 24 hours. Yeah, they announced them yesterday. Yeah, they like to get ahead of things. I guess so, man. But someone pointed out, like, on the East Coast, all the U.S. games are at like 3.10 p.m. Works for me. That sounds great.

Sounds good. I'll see you out there. I still can't. Like, the fact that they announced. players this early is crazy to me and the only reason that you would ever do that

that I can see is like well you know you got to you got to play the content game right you got to get some publicity so they announce it the day that the Stanley Cup is handed out when it's like the ninth biggest story on every

hockey site let alone right nobody outside of hockey paying attention you're not going to believe who's on the French team I guess you're right. Any thoughts on the Stanley Cup final ratings being in the toilet? Yeah, it's one of the teams and it was from Edmonton. Yeah.

I think that and the fact that, you know, they were down significantly even from last year, but last year was on ESPN and ABC and this is on TNT, and it's a smallish, like a smallish hockey market in the U.S., big TV market, but smallish hockey market and the Canadian one. So, yeah, I don't, I didn't think it was much of a story. I wasn't.

Yeah, well, you know what I was all was saying about talking about ratings. You don't care? He's a fucking business manager? Yeah. What do you give a shit? It's even, even someone like me who, like,

anytime the ratings are bad, it's like, oh, good, I get to talk about whatever is bothering me about the NHL and like that's the... Yeah, my hobby horse is the reason. Too many replay reviews is the reason that fans are, and also the,

loser point is why fans don't watch in the playoffs. Everybody is exactly like me, sick of Paul Morisse's whole schick. That's right. You know, even I can't, even I can't play that card on this one. I don't. It's like, yeah, it's not a big deal. No. Yeah.

Like I said, if I ever get hired to work for the NHL, like in the business of TV, like, adjacent stuff, then I can care about it all I want. It's my job, you know? But like if you're a guy sitting at home and you're like, oh, damn, that's crazy about the radio. Like, what do you give a fuck? Shut up. Fucking geek. Anyway, let's see.

I'm just going to scroll through here. Nothing else really crazy on any of the rosters, you know, except to say no goalie name for the U.S. team. Yeah. Or Canada, which is interesting for different reasons. Yeah. Well, there's almost a part of me that would be more expecting it to be in Canada where you just put Bennington on there and be like, we're going to lock in one. He won the gold for us.

And we don't have anybody else. Whereas in the U.S., they've got so many guys. But, yeah, not having Hella Buck on there. They should have left off McDavid to put Bennington on there. We don't know. Not having Hella buck on there days after he wins the MVP is interesting. The MVP of the league, the most valuable player in the National Hockey. league. They're like, look, you saw the second round, huh? I mean, Jesus Christ. And it's hard

to argue that. And it's, but the, the reason I think is that they just, USA hockey or whoever, you know, put together this top six, I would assume it's USA hockey, just didn't want to fuel the fire on that whole gimmick. And I get it. But, you know, I also look at it and I go, does Charlie McAvoy have like compromat on some people at USA hockey? Like, but then,

then someone said it's because he like basically had his season ended playing for the US. And I was like, oh yeah, that actually makes perfect sense that they would be like, oh, thanks for doing that,

man, you know, so that's fine. I get it. I can't be, I can't be too mad about it. But it is, you know,

McAvoy over Binnington, or Binnington, Hellebuck, or, Pottinger. I was like, oh, that's interesting. And then, yeah, somebody said, remember how we almost died? And I was like, oh, right, right, right, right. And that's it. I mean, if you-

He didn't almost die. If you decide you don't want him on the team, you just let your team doctors have at him for a half an hour or so. And that'll take care of it. Yeah. And I mean, look, he was going to make the team. I just wouldn't have, you're getting into the thing of who gives a shit if it's the top six or the top 20. You know, like what functionally is the difference of the case? I guess the, and there isn't one.

The only other interesting thing maybe on the Canadian side on that Ryan Hart spot was, Brad Marchand, not getting it, given that he was the guy last year and then has a playoff for the ages, almost wins the Khan-Smith. But it just, at his age, I don't have an issue with saying, like, let's hold off and just see how it's going. Oh, you know what? We forgot to say this earlier. I thought it was really cool that the Panthers, after Barkov lifted the cup and everybody

touched it or whatever, they were like all the guys who've never won one go first. Yeah. I thought that was great. That was cool. I mean, we've seen that sort of thing before, but it's nice. Not so strictly enforced, though, where it's like, okay, now I got to look and see, okay, that guy didn't want, you know, like, Belenskis or whatever didn't have one, so he gets to go.

And I just, like, when I picked it up on like the second one, because I think it wouldn't Schmidt then Jones, right? Yep. And then maybe the third guy, I was like, oh, they're doing guys who never won before. That's, you know, like, I thought that was pretty cool. So I guess that's it. That's it for the whole show. Sean, why don't you hit them with the plugs and we'll get out.

I don't know. I got a bunch of stuff. I don't even know what I'm writing. Okay, great. I, in the next day or two here, will be firing up my annual transactions grades for the trades and signings that will take place over the next month or so. And otherwise, you know, I'll have my weekly what we learned and that kind of thing. but getting to be a little slower around these parts on the writing side for me as well. I will say this.

I'm pretty sure right now the deal is 33% off an annual subscription. If you sign up for Relief Prospects premium, and that obviously gives you access to the draft guide and things of this nature that you're going to want it this time of year. So, like, not just the draft guide, but all our draft coverage and all that kind of stuff from, you know, the best scouts in the game, basically. So check all that out. I don't know how you redeem that code thing,

but like go to the website and they'll walk you through it for sure. And then go to patreon.com slash puck soup where we got all kinds of bonus episodes coming out in the next week and a half or so because now everybody's schedule is a little easier to manage, I think. So stay tuned for that stuff with me, Sean, S.G, Greg. Adam, the whole crew is going to be churning out content over there. Not just this month, but all damn summer long.

And in fact, you know what, that's a lot of times in the summer. We just take a week off from the main show, but we do a mailbag every single week. So if you want our take on anything that happens when we don't have a main show, patreon.com slash puck soup is the way to do it. So check all that out. Thanks for listening. I hope you had a good season, unless you're like an oilers fan or something,

in which case I know you didn't, it turns out. The whole thing was pointless to you. But, yeah, stay with us through the end of the month and into July, and then, you know, we'll get back to you about our summer schedule. Thanks so much for listening. Have a good one. Bye-bye.