Puck Soup - Preseason Warmup

Episode Date: September 28, 2022

Sean and Ryan talk early training camp storylines, Survivor, rising salary caps, unsigned RFAs, and more.   Sponsored by Athletic Greens (athleticgreens.com/puck)

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McAdoo from The Athletic. And Sean, it's that time of year. Do you know what time of year it is?

What time of year is it? It's the time of year where a 26-year-old who's on his seventh NHL organization has one good game against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms or whatever. Yeah. And everybody in the local media is like, he's going to challenge for a third line spot. Yeah. It's congratulations to your favorite team. It's just incredible organizational depth.

I mean, they have got... They found a real diamond in the rough. They've got like 70. guys who could all definitely play in the NHL and I mean really too many guys and I think what you need to do is package like six or seven of those and trade for like

one superstar. That's right. We'll give you AJ Greer, one of the Cates brothers. Oh, okay, all these guys I've definitely fucking heard of. Yeah. I gotta be honest, I find it even weirder when it's like

you get these analysis of like some guy you've never heard of not playing well. It's like, yeah, he's weak on the puck. And it's like, yeah, I wouldn't expect him to be good. That sounds like you're describing an HL player. Yeah. That sounds about right. You could have just typed in his name.

And when I didn't recognize it, I'd be pretty sure how this was going to go. The kid from Seattle who got suspended the other day. Did you see this? I did. I saw the hit. Yeah. Well, like, everybody, you know, I saw the hit. It's a bad hit.

He should have got suspended for it. But it was just like, look, I know a lot about hockey guys and like young hockey guys and all that kind of stuff. Like prospects, never heard this fucking guy by life. And I was like, boy, if this is what we're starting out this season with, I don't know. Couldn't tell you his name off the top of my head. I couldn't. Last night. I couldn't either.

And I feel, you know, in a way, I feel bad for, yeah, actually, I do feel bad for it? Yeah, actually, I do feel bad for it because it was a bad hit, but it's like you were going to get one game, probably. You've got to do something to make it impact. You probably see someone you're like, this is my chance, and you hit him, and you're like, I screwed up. I blew that one. So, yeah. Yeah, that's, that's it for him. I also find it very, very funny this time of year where we get like, training camp opens, your team.

plays one game, two days later, they cut like 40 guys. That's like, oh yeah, okay, good. Yeah, we saw enough. We didn't like what we saw in that one practice and now everybody's gone. Yeah, you know, John Torrella the other day was talking about Wade Allison, a guy I bet you haven't heard of Sean. He was a big college hockey player for a while there. Take your word for it.

a classic thing where he couldn't stay healthy, but when he was healthy, he was scoring two goals a game. You know what I mean? Like just this is a guy who scores a ton and just can't stay in the lineup. That was true in college. That was true in the AHL. You know,

he's had a couple of cups of coffee in the NHL, right? And they're in the Flyers first preseason game. There's a big hit. he comes in as like the third guy or whatever and starts throwing bombs and the refs ding him for instigator so it's two five ten right and john torterella after the game is like hey it's really not fair to to give that guy an instigator and get him out of the game for 17 minutes that might be his only preseason game you know and it's like like, I guess that's true, but also, like, should a guy who's played, like, a hundred games over the last five seasons be trying to, like, feel like he needs to fight in the first free season game?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, like, this is a guy who gets hurt constantly. It's like, you know, John, you do have the ability if you want to to change that. Like, you're kind of insured. Well, I think his, his take on that kind of was, like, if you if you have to go sit in the penalty box for 17 minutes, your,

you know, your ability to, like even if you step back on the ice and you play the rest of your regular shifts, you're not as in the game as you were, because you just sat there and your muscles all tensed up or whatever, you know. I think that was kind of his point, but yeah, I don't know.

That to me, I was just, I thought it was insane because I was like, this guy's whole thing is he gets hurt all the time. You're going to be like, I'm glad he fought. That was cool. No, John. Like, this is the one guy on your team who maybe shouldn't.

Okay. Anyway. I guess we got to talk now about Survivor because we forgot to talk about it until late in the show last week. And then the episode happened, right? Yep. Here's a fun fact for you, Sean. I have a rooting interest in this one. Yeah, no.

I saw you mentioned something about this. One of the competitors went to my college. Okay. And she's the girl with the one leg. Okay. And she, you know, like I really only know this because she was in a bad ATV accident, I believe it was, and lost her leg while she was in college. And so, you know, a lot of news stories about this in the local paper, you know. And yeah, now she's on Survivor.

Nobody told me this. watched the show and I'm like, why does that girl look familiar? And then they showed that she had one leg. And I was like, that's exactly why that girl looks familiar. That's so we're team Noel on this season of Survivor. Okay. And I'm not sure. Like, I'm still kind of getting my feet under me. I don't know if you have a take on this, but like I feel like she's going to stick around for a while because they gave her a lot of time in the first episode. Yeah, usually if you get a lot of time in the first episode, that implies that you're going to stick around, but maybe not until the end. They tend to kind of do the slow build for the eventual winners, although the last couple

seasons, they did mix that up a little bit. Did you finish both of the last few seasons? I did, yeah. So, yeah. And she's also the sort where one of the ways that the game has kind of evolved over the years is everyone is now very hyper aware of like, who's got the best pitch to the jury. If people don't watch Survivor, you vote each other off, but then when you get to the end and it's down to three, then the people who got voted off get to pick. And anyone who's got a sympathetic story, like, for example, I lost my leg.

I was a Division I was a Division I athlete who lost her leg. It ends up being perceived as a threat. So I wouldn't think that she's likely to win. but could definitely stick around for a while. If she doesn't, I'm going to seek out Jeff Probst and I'm going to be like, this is bullshit, my friend. I'm kind of bummed out that they don't have, there's not a Canadian this year. There's not a young Canadian woman like there was in the last two seasons,

but I guess, you know what, got to even the playing field. That's right, yeah. The Canadian women were dominating to such a, an extent that it was like, I think, hey, the U.S. women's national hockey team is probably like, hey, hey, we didn't think of that. What if we just didn't invite the Canadian women? Perfect. Yeah, just do it without them. And maybe we can win.

I enjoyed the first episode. I will tell you that a weird thing about me is I have watched every season of Survivor. I have watched close to every episode of Survivor. I remember like six things that have happened in the history of the show. Like I enjoy everything. I've never once sat down and been like, I regret watching this. I've never thought about not watching.

And yet nothing sticks with me. So I will not remember anything that happened. Like until the end. And really, I don't remember any players unless they came back. Anyone who is just like, we watch as a family, like we watch Survivor,

but we'll also watch like on YouTube. there's lots of places to do like breakdowns and, you know, all that sort of thing. And they are constantly mentioning players just by name. They're like, hey, this person's got like a Joe Smith fight. And I'm like, I have no idea who that is. Right. And like, my kids have only seen a few seasons. So they're like, dad, who was it?

I'm like, I have no idea. Couldn't tell you. I have no idea. The guy just said that they won. Yeah, I watched that whole season. I watched them win. I have no memory of it at all. My girlfriend watches The Bachelor.

And if a season seems like it's going to be good, I will also watch it. The last couple have been duds as far as I was concerned. So I kind of bailed early. But it's the same thing on that show where it's like, oh, you remember Steve B from, you know, the Katie season or whatever? And I'm like, don't remember the Katie season. What are you talking? You know what I mean? Now, granted, I am coming to it much later.

So, like, that definitely helps or hurts rather my ability to know the guys, you know? Or gals, you know. But I definitely feel like, like you're supposed to know every single person who has been on the show. Oh, yeah, this guy was eliminated in week two five years ago. And you're like, yeah, of course, that's Tyler Q. Everybody knows that guy. Yeah.

Oh, all right. It's, it would be like if I was like a leaf fan at the level I'm at and yet you were like, you know, hey. How do you feel a little Matt Sundeen? Yeah. I was like, what? Which one was he again? Remember Darcy Tucker? No, no recollection of that whatsoever.

I will say this. Speaking of The Bachelor, vis-a-vis Survivor. So the Bachelor, Survivor, and Top Chef are the only three reality TV shows I watch. Jeff Probes seems like he's right in the middle between, like, Padma and Tom, where they really want these people to all do well. And the guy who used to host The Bachelor before he got kicked off the show, who seemed like a real dirt bag to me. Like, he seemed very phony to me. Jeff Robs is right in the middle where he's like, I'm, you know, challenging you to the most fiendish games I can imagine.

But also, you know, if you fall down and hurt your shoulder, you got to, I'm going to sit down and be like, I feel really bad about this. Yeah. Jeff is like, Jeff is like super into it and, and mostly sincere, but it's very, every now and then he will decide that he doesn't like a contestant, and that is very amusing.

As well as, this hasn't happened in a while, but if anybody if anybody quits or considers quitting, like the contempt that he has for those people is very fun. Okay, I did see that one, like I said last week,

week, and this will be the end of Survivor Talk. Sorry, everyone. Like I said last week, I went back and was just like, what's the best season of Survivor? Let me watch that and then see where I'm at with it. And it was like season 16. And a woman quit halfway through because she's like, I miss my kids. Yeah. And everybody was like, yeah, sure.

But he did seem to be like, I mean, it's your decision. But there was one famous one. And I think it may have been the first person, because there have been people who quit because they were injured or a couple of cases they got bad news from home or something. But there was just like, I can't remember if it was one or maybe even two players who were just like, we're not having fun. This is hard. I want to go home and be warm and not starving and all that stuff.

And Jeff, like, he was so disgusted. And then when it came, like, they announced this at the tribal council. And then, like, famously, Jeff, like, wouldn't even put their torches out. Like, that's the symbolic way that you exit. And he was like, no, just go. I'm not doing that. You haven't earned the right. Chuck their torch in the water.

Yeah, like they did. He was just like, just leave it behind. Like just dripping with contempt. It was very, very funny. Oh, yeah. See, I haven't encountered that yet. But maybe that'll happen this season. You never know.

All right. Back to the NHL. The thing I have written down here is injuries are piling up already. Mm-hmm. Let's start out west. The Vancouver Canucks are already going to be without Brock Besser and Ilya for weeks. Now, weeks does get you into the regular season, but maybe not much more than like three or four games. Yeah, we're at that stage where when you hear like out for two or three weeks,

that could be two games. That doesn't matter. I'm all, I'm kind of of the opinion that like, this is not the time you want a guy missing two weeks, though. I don't, like, I have no like evidence to back this up, but I feel like you kind of start behind the eight ball. if you miss two weeks of training camp or whatever, versus if you miss two weeks in February. Like, you miss more games for sure, obviously.

But if you miss, you know, two games plus, like three exhibition games and a bunch of practices and stuff like that, that is more damaging to, like, being in the, again,

like the flow of things, um, than if you, like, get hurt in December. I don't know. That's interesting. I wonder if that would hold, like if we look back at guys who got hurt and missed significant chunks of training camp and how many of them went on to have tough seasons.

I don't know. I mean, I think you look at Vancouver, I think you can, you could certainly imagine that it would hurt a guy like McKayev who's going to a new team more than Brock Besser, who, I mean, in theory, knows the systems and the setup a little bit. better. But, you know, it's not, it's also not like you're an NFL guy going over and you're having to learn a brand new offense or something. Like, you know, that what do we, oh, we clog up the neutral zone and forecheck hard. Got it. Okay. Yeah. Well, it was funny about Besser because at like, at Canucks Media Day or whatever, he was like, this is the year. I'm scoring 30 goals immediately injured. Yeah. That sucks for him, man. That is like, Jesus. But, yeah, so like, like you say, it's probably not that impactful. Maybe it is for McAev more than better, but like, are you asking McAev to really reach into his bag of tricks and pull out something brand new here?

Like that kind of player? Probably not, right? And he was heard a little bit in Toronto, but it's not like this is a guy who, that's the other thing that you're concerned about. If it's an older guy or somebody with a history of injuries and you're like, oh, here we go again. but that's not this guy. All right.

What do you think about this John Tavares news? Also out weeks. Yeah. So again, concerning in the sense that it's a similar injury to one he had a few years ago and he missed a month. But missing a month means two weeks here of the season. I don't think it ultimately matters a ton and maybe even with some of the older players. a little less wear and tear early in the season maybe helps. It's just a question of, you know, does he get back?

It's two things. Does he get back fully healthy? You know, does it linger, that kind of thing you're always concerned about, especially with an older guy and this sort of injury? And then the other thing is we all expect the Leafs are going to be good enough that they can go without their second line center for a few games. But the nature of Toronto and especially how it is, like if they get off to a bad start, the panic does set in and, you know, there won't be that benefit of the doubt that, you know, if Tampa is four and seven, like, people will be wondering what's up, but nobody's going to be like, wow, Tampa's screwed.

Whereas if it's happening to the Leafs, who knows? So, you know, you would love to get off to a quick start if you're the Leafs, but also if the Leafs get off to a quick start, nobody cares. So as long as he gets back and healthy, I don't think it's a high-level problem. I have been losing my mind the last little while, speaking of the Leafs, of Austin Matthews has two years left on his contract. And everybody in the Toronto media and, like, you know, sports net people are all like, we got to really start thinking about this Nathan McKinnon contract and what it means for the Toronto. Like, fucking relax. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Yeah. It's a preview of next year.

These people are psychotic. It's a preview of next year because this is, you know, he's, he can't sign an extension now. You can't do that until there's only one year left of your deal, which is next July for him. He can discuss one, but there's no point. I mean, until you've got this season under you, he could be back-to-back MVP. He could be a guy who took a big step back. There's no way to know. It is a story, though, because when they gave him that extension, everybody focused on the 11 million, but the fact that they only gave him five years, which meant he walked right up to free agency.

I'm with you. There's nowhere for the – I think it's a story, but there's nowhere for the story to go right now. So, I mean, we can't – we got to pace ourselves a little bit. But next summer, all bets are off. Next summer, it's going to be a major story because – you know, does, if he wants to stick around,

they'll pay him. Yeah, sure, but that's, but that's my point. Why are we talking about this now? Yeah. Why don't we talk about this in 10 months?

How's that? I don't, I don't know if you know this, Ryan, but one time, uh, Mitch Marner got a haircut, and it was the lead story on TSN for three months.

Uh, even though a Canadian team, I don't know. This is fake, fake stuff that never had. happened, but this is welcome, welcome to Canada. You can now complain that leaf stories are getting too much. I understand, but like, this is psychotic even for them.

Like, these people should be in jail for this shit. Like, this is, this is truly insane. Like, you know, look, as you say, this is, this is Canadian media. Like, this is especially, like, when it comes to the Leafs, that nobody has a normal fucking reaction to anything that ever happened. right? Correct. And like how long have I been on Twitter following all these fucking Canadian people? I've seen, oh, did you see this Paul Henderson goal?

It was 50 years ago, Paul Henderson. We're going to talk about Paul Henderson all fucking day. That, that like, I get that that comes with the territory, right? Much like I, you know, Canadians are always saying about like, oh, you Americans need to get over the miracle on ice. I'm sitting here going, I fucking agree with you. It was 40 years ago. Who cares? Now this one comes along and they're like, well, ours is different, though.

Because it was 50 years ago. Yeah. 50. 50 year anniversary. Today, I think. I think, yeah, no, according to all the tweets I saw, the second I woke up this morning. Okay. Did you know about this?

Yeah, okay. Relax, please. It was, like I said, I think it's even more pathetic to care about this because it was, even longer ago, and it involved NHL players. Oh, wow, and NHL players beat the Soviet national team. Crazy. Wow. You got like Bobby Orr out there?

He beat him? That's nuts. Well, we famously did not have Bobby Orr for that series. Right, but like all those other fucking guys. But, well, that's a, but I mean, that's why it's better in the miracle on ice because it was actually two good teams and not just like.

No, but that's my point. But much less of a upset It wasn't an upset. No, that's what I'm saying. But every Canadian's like, we did it. It's like, yeah, you should have done it. Well, because very famously, and this is even before my time, which is saying something. But very famously, when this series was set up, everyone in Canada thought it was going to be a sweep.

They thought they were going to absolutely destroy the Russians, absolutely, you know, proclaim once and for all prove their superior. then the Soviets come over to Canada to play the first four games here. Soviets win three out of four. And then everyone's panicking. And game five ends in a tie. And everyone's saying, oh, my goodness, we're going to lose this thing. And then the comeback comes. So it's sort of like a reverse underdog type deal.

That's why it resonates so much because we thought we were vastly superior. We found out we weren't, but we still pulled it out in the end. That's the way the thinking goes. And also, you know, with the additional fun part where we all hated the Soviets and, you know, they were evil, godless commies and whatever else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I just think it's like, you know, again, people rightly make fun of American fans for saying the miracle on, I should like get over it. And then the second there's a, did you know, Wayne Greta?

turned 72 today? Yeah, okay, relax, please. It's all right. You don't need to. Anyway, we can get back to the injury talk now. Nolan Patrick and Ryan Ellis done for the year. I feel like we probably talked about at least Ryan Ellis last week, but Nolan Patrick. I don't remember if we did or not, but I feel like that was not, I guess not a surprise. I mean, obviously the fact that they traded for him last summer and he played like, what did you, like single digit? Six games. Okay, wow. Like, was he hurt when he came over in that trade? You know, I was trying to remember that. I think there was maybe a little bit of concern, but just mostly because, you know, he has a lot of miles on him or whatever. Yeah. But, yeah, you talk for a second. I'll try to find out. The fact that he, the fact that he,

They've already pretty much ruled him out. I mean, it does sound like we may not see this guy again. And, yeah, so he came over from, well, he came over for Nolan Patrick. That's right. I forget that he was in that deal. And, oh, what's his name? Philippe Myers, right? Was that the other guy?

Yeah. So, I mean, both of the, I mean, Nolan Patrick as well, like, very sad to see that because this was a guy who, you know, huge prospect. or presumptive number one pick for a big chunk of his junior career. And, you know, was a prospect at the kind of, you know, up here. And you're the prospect guy, but, you know, up here, he was in the, like, in the Jack Hughes kind of level of prospect. Like, not a Connor McDavid, but, you know, this guy was going to be a franchise player. Yeah.

And the injury is just, I mean, it seems now as if it's never going to get off the ground. And you, like, I hate to see that even more than I hate, not that it's, with Ryan Ellis, it isn't awful, but, you know, Ryan Ellis at least got to play a big chunk of his career. As far as I can see, he was not injured when he went to the Flyers, from, like, quick Googling. So, yeah, I mean, that real, that real. Like, I think we said it last week. I don't really care how this affects the flyers. Like, with Ryan Ellis, without Ryan Ellis, it doesn't really make any difference.

But, like, for the guy, you're just like, you know, he's not an old guy. He's like 32 or whatever, you know? And so to be like, oh, well, you know, he's in a situation where, you know, he can at least like, you know, go through these surgeries. And if his career's over, that sucks for a lot of reasons. But like, you know, he can live a relatively normal, healthy, happy life, even if his

like hips a little fucked up or whatever, probably, presumably, you know, with enough rehab. Whereas Nolan Patrick, you're like, yeah, is this kid going to have to retire just to, at age 22, just to be able to, you know, breathe a little easy? you're like by the time he's 50 or whatever like that sucks dude yeah no it's it's it's just it's a terrible thing and it's yeah we we say it from time to time and it's it's maybe a little cliche but it's worth remembering like these these are people they are not just uh you know names on a on a roster somewhere um yeah it it stinks it's uh i mean you you cross your fingers and hope that, you know, we have seen guys that we thought were done and the comeback does happen,

but it's rare. And this one is certainly not trending in that direction, unfortunately. Yeah. Along those lines, let's talk about the other guy from the flyer, Sean Couturier, where it seems like people were like, oh, you know, he might come back in February. He might miss the whole season. and ruptured disc, I believe, is what happened to Hamlin. You don't like that.

But then I think it was Ren LaVois tweeted the other day, like, oh, it might only be like a month. And I saw no follow up on this. This is very weird, right? Because, like, we've seen everything from, he's going to be able for a while, potentially season ending. I've seen references to potentially career ending. Now, let me be clear. That was people asking the question. based on information that's filtering out.

This wasn't anybody reporting that or anything like that. But yeah, people asking, like, is it possible that this guy is done? And then you see maybe it's a lot less than that. It's tough to say. I mean, it's very possible that this is just a case where, you know, that there's a process in place and then we see how it goes. And I think pretty clearly. Well, I was going to say pretty clearly the Flyers season has a write-off and they're not going to rush anyone back.

Do they know that? I don't know. We all know that, but do they? I think, you know, again, you never want to talk about it like that it's bad. Like, it's good for these players to be injured or whatever. Like, that's not the correct framing. But, like, Coturi and Ellis, if they're healthy, they help the Flyers get an extra four wins between the Marines. whatever.

Which the flyers want. Which they want. According to the boss, right? The boss doesn't think they're rebuilding. It would be counterproductive for what the team should actually be doing. And, you know, even with them, I don't think, like, I think this is, you know, the 20th best team in the league or whatever. But without them, well, they could drop to like 24th or 25th. That helps.

I don't know. I think they could be lower than that. Yeah. I mean, a lot depends on Carter Hart, obviously. I don't know why we're talking about the flyer so much, but a lot depends on Carter Hart. They got a lot of the injured guys. Sure.

But like Carter Hard, that everybody was like, oh, he's been bad the last couple of years and everyone's like, oh, he's really taken the pandemic hard. He's really struggled with it.

Well, Joe Brandon came out there the other day. He said the pandemic's over. So now Carter Hart has to be good. And if he's not, which would be totally understandable, given the team in front of him, yeah.

I don't know what the floor is on this team. They're pretty bad. Yeah, Carter Hart is, it's been, well, one very bad year, and then last year was not very bad, but it was also not great. So we see where that goes. A little below the league average. Yeah, and obviously we don't know beyond that,

what situations he may be dealing with or have to do as this season goes on. So, yeah, we'll kind of wait and see on him. But you're right. It's not like they have a great backup plan in place there, you wouldn't think. Nope, nope. Let's talk about another young goalie real quick. Spencer Knight signs a three-year extension, 4.5 million against the cap,

kicks in not this, you know, not like three days from now, but next season. And so that means the Panthers are on the hook next season to spend $14.5 million on goaltending. Yep. Something has to give is my theory on this one. You would certainly think, because it's not like the goaltending has been amazing. No, for sure. So, yeah, you would think something has to give. And, I mean, Sergey Popovsky has signed four more years.

which means his contract ends at the same time as Spencer Knight. So it's not even like there's a staggered thing where you could say, oh, well, this is where the torch will be passed. I don't know. I mean, Brovsky's 34. You wonder if they're already in the mode where they're like, yeah, in two years he'll have some sort of hip problem and we'll shut him down. And, you know, that's the way it goes.

But the other piece is, does this, does having a contract, track in place makes Spencer Knight easier to trade. Yeah. I think it's just got to be a situation where they are desperately trying to move Sergey Vibrovsky this summer. You know, he has a full no move. Like, he has complete control. Yeah, it says he has a 16 team no trade list starting in July 2024.

So that's not happening anytime soon. Right. Well, but I mean, to use the old joke, like his $10 million cap hit is his no trade clause. Of course. Of course. Who is going to, it's so strange, eh? Like, you know, when they signed him, I think everybody went, oh, okay, that's too much money for a goalie. But when they signed him, he was a two-time Vesna winner. Like, you know, a lot of people were like, yeah, I mean, on the open market, that's what. what a guy like that cost you. And then almost as soon as he puts the uniform on, it's like, but by the way, he's now untradable because of that salary.

Yeah. Well, the consensus at the time was terrible contract. However, he'll probably be good for them for two or three years at least. Yeah. And then,

and, you know, he was bad, his first season, 900. The next season, he's average. Last year,

he was like not half bad, actually. Like, He was a 9-13 goalie, which is what he was when he left Columbus. So, you know, like, was he spectacular? No. Was he a little better than average? Yeah.

I think that's fair to say. And, you know, is that worth $10 million? Well, no, of course it isn't, you know. No. And I guess we should say the other part of it was when they signed him. It was sort of like, the Panthers need to do something. They have been irrelevant for so long. They, at the time, didn't have the goal 10.

ending. And everyone thought they were getting a canair in that summer as well. Yeah. So, you know, if you're going to, maybe they're paying a little bit of a tax of in terms of luring a guy to what at the time was a lousy situation. And they're a great team now. So in that sense, you know, maybe he at least stabilized a bit. But I don't know.

Because, I mean, didn't they get like, did they draft Spencer Knight that year, the same year that they? Let's see here. Spencer Knight, well, when was the Bobrovsky contract? That was 1920. So that sounds right for Spencer Knight. Brovsky, he signed it was 2019. Yeah.

And so they drafted Spencer Knight and then immediately signed Sergei Barbarovsky. Right. Which is one of, I mean, you draft a goalie. You're not expecting him for a few years. And it's probably one of those things where you say like, hey, well, what if this guy's ready and three? Well, it'll be a nice problem to have. Well, now you've got the problem.

Yeah. And it's bad. nice as you, not as nice as you hoped it would be. Yeah. It's a really interesting, I'm fascinated to see what they do. And I guess worth pointing out, they're, despite having Brobrovsky, despite the big contract for Kajuk, like, they're not in awful cap situation. No, they're not. Even with like, Barcov's new deal in that, like, they're, like, this isn't a disastrous. They've got Ekblad on a really team-friendly deal. Um, so it's not. So it's not. one of these things where it's like, oh, they're screwed next year. They got to move somebody

like, no, they'd be okay, but it certainly limits your flexibility. Yeah. The reason it feels bigger than it is is that they're eating a huge cap hit on Keith Yandel this year on his buyout, and then next year it drops to $1.2 million. That's why it feels like you're right up against the cap. But they have like $12 million to spend. next year. Patrick Cornquist comes off the cap too. Yeah, they have like 12 million bucks to spend on, and they have like, you know, what is it?

16 players signed. And that doesn't include any rookies they want to, not that they have a ton of rookies that they're ready to shuffle into the lineup or anything. But, yeah, so they're, you know, like you say, could be a lot worse. But they're all in. So good for them.

Um, yeah. The other thing to say about all this is that, uh, I think it was Elliot Friedman yesterday. It was like, oh, we got some projected salary cap numbers for the next few seasons. So, uh, it goes up another million next summer. So to 83 and a half. And then, uh, for 24, 25, 85, 88 for 25, 26, 92 approximately. So here come the big leaps. And again, this is projected.

This is the NHVs. ballparking. Any number of things could happen to prevent this. But this is the light at the end of the tunnel of the flat cap era. One more year after this one. And then it opens up. Just in time for Austin Matthews to be a free agent. That's right.

He's going to make it. Okay. Let's put it this way. The cap is going to be 92 in like five years. Who do you think is the first guy to make $15 million against the cap? Do you think it's Austin Matthews? I don't think so. Okay.

I might think that, I mean, it wouldn't completely shock me. But I think maybe it's, it might be McDavid when he's up in, because isn't 20, 26, I think. Yeah, that's. his runs through 25-26. So by the time his expires, the cap will have presumably already hit 92, at which point, you know, we're talking maybe 95 for the 26-27 season.

I think Dry-Sightle beats him to it, personally. Okay. When does Drysidal? The year before that. So when the cap is $92 million, he, again, projected, he will be, he will be on that

wait that's and so that is that is tough because it feels like that's going to be a tough tough negotiation for the oilers because it's it will almost feel like you're negotiating with both guys at the same time for sure because whatever you give

you got to give you you got to like start with a million more for McDavid you would think now maybe they agree to come in at matching deals or whatever I don't know that's that's also, Dresside will be the big one that summer. Mitch Marner is also up that year. And again, that, depending on what Austin Matthews got, that could play into that because last time around, Mitch Marner wanted to be in the Austin Matthews ballpark for because his friends told him he was.

So we'll see. You know, it'll be interesting. I, as a least fan, I hate to say this, but maybe some of these guys will hit the market. And that's like free agency is fun for everyone. other than the franchise that's getting absolutely destroyed by it. So we'll see. But it will be nice. And I'll tell you, I know I made this point before. You know, Nathan McKinn is going to be fine. Matthews, McDavid.

There are going to be at least some guys in two or three years that are superstars close to that tier who are still going to have four years left on like an $8 million max length deal. Yeah. And they're going to be looking at their agent going, what the hell were we doing? That we locked in for eight years when the cap was flat knowing it was going to start to shoot up in two or three years. Yeah. I just went and looked at Kail McCar. He's signed for $9 million through 2027.

Well, that's a lot of money to leave on the table, Kale. It's like Jack Hughes at $8 million or whatever. Or, yeah. Like, even like a Tim Stutzel, like, there's certainly more risk that he doesn't reach to that level. But if he does, like, and I know every time I say this, people are like, oh, well, you know, 8 million is enough. And it's like, yeah, well, but if 8 million is enough, then 7 million is enough.

And so is six. So why did they ask for 8? Right. Like, why, you know, at some point, like, you want to be paid what you're worth. And, I mean, we just saw Nathan McKinnick come off of it, right? Where he was like, yeah, I was kind of sick of hearing about how. great my contract was. I don't want to hear about that anymore. And it's like, yeah, you can imagine that. That you would get kind of sick of, imagine like every time you're just interacting in any way

with eventually it comes up like how underpaid you are, like how laughably little money you make compared to what you should. And you're just like, no, that's, that's great. I'm really, hey, and you got to like fake, like you did it on purpose for the team. Yeah, I wonder about like Robert Thomas and Jordan Khyra, who just signed $8 million deals. You know, obviously these guys are not going to be like the superstars of the league, but they're really good players. And, yeah, they're three years from now, they're going to be like, shit. It was stupid.

You shouldn't have done that. They could be. And, you know, I'd be, look, like, guys in that range and Stutzel and, like, I don't think I put Jack Hughes in that. But, you know, guys that were not quite sure what they're going to be, yeah, maybe some of those guys are like settled in as 25 goal guys and they're like, man, it's so funny that I got a max, like after my one good year. But boy, I'm Jason Robertson, man, I want to see that. Like if you're him, are you not sitting there going like, oh, I'll take a two-year deal? Yeah. No, we'll do this in two years when the cap goes up.

All right. Why don't we take a quick break and then we'll come back and talk about him and the other unsigned RFAs. How's that sound? All right. Great. Be right back. our next partner has a product that gets used in my house literally every day. Athletic Greens, still, to this day, the wife has taken it every day, ever since she started stealing it from me when they sent us some samples. I did get to try it a few times, and I was a fan, but apparently not enough of a fan to pry it out of my wife's hands, because she swears by this stuff. So what is it? Okay, with one delicious scoop of athletic greens, you're absorbing 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals, whole-food, source superfoods, probiotics, and adaptogens to help you start your day right. It's a special blend of ingredients that supports

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All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash puck. again, that is athletic greens.com slash puck to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. All right. So we teased it on the other side of the break there. Let's talk Jason Roberts. It's still no deal, not with the stars in camp or anything like that. Like you say, probably takes a short-term deal.

I think, you know, everybody's been kind of saying like two or something. three years under eight million bucks just to make it work for the stars cap and then two or three years from now he can get a $12 million deal or whatever and max it out like eight years

12 million I think would make a lot of sense yeah yeah for sure see but that my I guess my point is like if I'm the stars I'm doing the opposite and now maybe maybe this is Jason Robertson having a good agent and going like to not sign for eight fucking years. You'd be insane to do it.

You know, that very well could be. I would go that way, but then there was the, the star's owner, right, when he was on that podcast or whatever it was, when he was like, oh, these young guys, they get too much money too soon. You used to be that your second contract was, so it felt like he was arguing for the short-term side, unless I misinterpreted it.

No, that's kind of how I, how I heard it when I listen to that. Yeah. So I guess what it might be interesting is assuming it's a short-term deal, if they can get it to three years, then he basically gets Jamie Ben's money when it comes off the cap because Jamie Ben's got three years left on that very not good contract. Tyler's, again, I wouldn't even say how much longer that one's still got.

because oof. But you can do three years. But I don't know if I'm Jason Robertson, I might go, yeah, three years feels a little long. You know, that could be it. You know, you can sit here and go like, oh, would they really miss training camp over two versus three years? And yeah, maybe you would because what do you settle that number at if it's three years? If it's two years, how do you do that? I don't know.

It's interesting. But maybe I don't know. If you're Jason Robinson, maybe. maybe you want it three years because you don't want to be coming off looking for a new deal when Ben's still on the books, assuming he is. Yeah, for sure. I don't know. It's interesting to me. There's, I feel like if you could sit his agent down and be like, give me the honest, like, what's the strategy here?

They would explain something to you and you'd go, yeah, that makes sense. But there's a few different ways it could go. And I'm just not sure which they're leaning at. Yeah, I'm trying to remember. I have fucking cap-friendly open. Let me go to this tab here. Yeah, Ottinger just signed for three years. So he's up in 25-26.

Or that's when he'll be, he needs a new contract. It's 4-25-26, which again, that's like the $92 million cap year. Right, which is, which is, like you, we just finished with Brodowski. Like, you'd be crazy to give a young goalie. And I like Jake Ottinger a lot. But you'd be crazy to give them more than three years. Like, you want to go short-term on goalies because you have. there's so much more unpredictable than forwards are.

For sure. But like my point in saying that is instantly, if he's any good at all over the next three years, he's like, okay, money please. And then Jason Robertson is also going money please and you're right back where you start. You know what? That's true. I'm saying like, you know, Jamie Ben's aunt. That's got to be fun for Jamie Ben. You got two guys in the room that are like.

Everybody's like get this fucker out of the roster. A little beat up because... How's that knee? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Then he gives him the old Mo Sizzlack, right in the back of the knee, lead pipe. Pavelsky comes off the cap for them after this year. Yes.

That's true. Which will help. And he could stick around. Because he can still play a little bit. He could still play. He could still play. He played last year anyway. But even if he sticks around.

Yeah, he was great last year. Even if he sticks around, like, maybe the number comes down or maybe not, who knows? I don't know, maybe that's the flip side of having your owner go out there and be like, we used to give all the money just to old guys. And Joe Pavelsky, you're like, all right, give me my money. Yeah. Did you see, and again, this is fucking like training camp and practice lines and all this kind of stuff.

But did you see the thing that they're doing with Robertson out of camp as they put a rope hints with Dennis Gourinov and it like has looked good. in preseason games and stuff like that. No. And the only reason that's funny is Gourianov, like, couldn't get minutes with Rick Bonas. An actual good coach comes in. And he's like, oh, this guy should be playing with like our third best forward. Uh-huh.

Maybe second best. Nice. Depending on how you feel about Pavellski. But yeah, I thought that was so fucking funny. I'm like, boy, this sport is insanely just like, all these people who are like supposed to be high-level coach. Like, I know that in the NFL or the NBA, there are coaches who have different approaches or whatever, but it feels like they wouldn't overthink, like, I couldn't

possibly play the, you know, fourth most skilled player on my team in the starting lineup. Because, you know, like in hockey, though, everybody's just like, yeah, coach doesn't like Gariano. That's how it is. Yep. Well, that is. You do see that a little bit in the NFL where guys, like, just come in and they're like, hey, I'm going to actually put you on the field.

And let's see what you can do. Oh, you'd see, I guess I don't know. But you feel like, I bet you with that if you sat down, they'd be like, yeah, it's because we have this scheme and he doesn't block well on that. Whereas in hockey would just be like, I saw him laugh and practice once. I hated him ever since. He didn't back check in a preseason game three years ago. Yeah.

He's been on my shit list. He wore a really flashy. brightly colored tie to a team dinner. And I'm not, don't need this. His dress shirt was purple, so he's got to go. All right, let's talk about Rasmus Sandin. Doesn't seem like this is going on here. Nothing going on here yet.

This is the ongoing situation with the Leafs where they had Sandine and Lulgren. Lillgren signed the cheap short-term deal. I think it was hoped, maybe even assumed that Sandine would as well and hasn't happened yet. the injuries, you wonder if some of the injuries that the Leaves have already had, in a sense, give the player a little more leverage because it clears up some cap space as well as, in theory,

pushes them to get him into the lineup. But I don't know. I mean, he's a good young player. He would be a potential, you know, breakout is too strong a word, but you'd want to see him move up the lineup this year. But this isn't like, this doesn't feel like a Willie Nealinder thing

where like when he missed the two months a few years ago sitting at home and you're just like, oh, they can't, they've got to figure out a way to do this. Like I don't get that sense, certainly among Leaf fans that it's like, that there's a level of panic here. I mean, this is a guy that if he's,

you want him there, but if he's not there, it's like, all right, this isn't going to screw up your whole season. So, and it's, it's one of those things where in theory, he's got no leverage because, you know, he's team control, and unless there was an offer sheet, and that doesn't seem to be happening, what can you do? But he's trying to manufacture some leverage and maybe is doing so successfully, but it's just, I don't know, I think this is one of those guys where if it's not Toronto, I think most people have never even heard of this situation.

Well, only insofar as he's one of four unsigned RFAs after camp has started. Yep. Like that's why, because, you know, I don't expect him to really ring the bell here. Like, he's going to sign maybe three years a little higher of an AAB than he should get. And the Leafs clearly would like him shorter term, lower cap, and then you kick the can down the road on your. cap problems. Yeah, again, cap's going to be $92 million in like three years.

Yep. Yeah, anyway. But like what I guess what I'm saying is Sandine in that way is like Nick Haig, who is unsigned by, by Vegas and has in fact left Vegas. He's like practicing with an OHL team now. So it doesn't seem like that's going well at all. And could most Vegas Golden Knights fans pick Nick Haig out of a fucking lineup?

Yeah. like um you know i i was looking at like oh you know these are these guys are going to be the number one centers for all their teams and it was just their head shots it was like a little online quiz thing and i was just like these are the number one centers i don't recognize like 70% of these guys yep you know so like how far down the list do i have to go to before i'm like oh i know exactly what nickade looks like for sure yep um and you you know, look, Vegas obviously has bigger problems than whether Nick Haig resigns or not. Yeah.

You know, he's a good, he's a good, ish young defenseman. Dude, but like, maybe while you're practicing with your OHL team, like, strap the pads on. Just, you know, let a few, let a few of those photos get out there. See what happens. Who knows? But yeah, yeah, I mean, they're left side, you know, if they don't have Theodore playing on his, on his offside. It goes, Theodore Martinez, Braden McNab, Ben Hutton. Nick Hague's probably better than Ben Hutton.

And certainly, like, Vegas would have more of a reason to play him, you know, just because, like, he's 23 and they have had him in the system for a while. And Ben Hutton's just a guy, you know. But, like, yeah, that's a tough spot for him to be in, Haig, where it's, like, where it's, like, Like, you don't really have leverage here because they have three lefty who are better than you, for sure. I don't know. Anyway. Yeah. Again, he's going to sign for short money, probably.

Why would he deserve more than that? But, like, I don't think he's a bad player or anything like that. I, you know, I like him. Yeah, no, it's, it's, like, every now and then you do see a guy, like, in that zone get, like, four years. years. You're like, what? But, no, I mean, it's, it's. I wouldn't balk it in getting four years.

Like, I do like, oh, okay, as long as the numbers, you know, not, like, if it's four years, four million, I'm like, oh, but that Vegas doesn't really have the money to do that anyway. They got to, they got to make, that's the other thing is they probably going to make a trade or two before, obviously they got some guys that can put on the LTIR, but, um, well, I guess they, I guess they should be a pretty close. close to fine just putting Weber and Lainer on the LTIR because they're at 90, where are they? 92, 7 and those two guys probably are 12 combined, right? Like, Weber's over seven and Lainer's five by five.

Yeah. And I mean, you go and get Weber because you're trying to maximize and it's that whole weird thing where teams are going to go on LTIR actually want to get more injured guys and we all just pretend that we get it. But yeah, they'll get under there. But yeah, they may be limited on when they can do it and how it works and all of that. Right. So that also is playing a role.

But then here's one. You want to talk about one where you're like, what? Is Alex Formanton? Fermenton, Formanton. I never know how to pronounce it. Fermenton. Yeah, okay. He's like holding out or whatever.

Well, holding out isn't the right term, but you know what I mean. He doesn't have a contract, and he plays for the senators for those who don't recognize. But he was pretty good last year. He had nearly 20 goals last year as a rookie, first full year. And he was pretty good. But how do you do that? career games, 23 goals, 39 points. Like, I don't know how you're like, you know what I, you know what I deserve is like a bunch of money.

Yeah. You're 23 years old, brother. You're like, I get you want to cash out, but. Well, I mean, you don't know whether, you know, with none of these, we don't know what the ask is. We don't know if it's about years or term. The only thing I will say, and we'll kind of leave it at this, is Alex Fermenton is, in addition to being young and not having a body of work and all the things to make this complicated, he's one of the guys who was on that 2018 team Canada and has not, to my knowledge, issued any kind of statements or put anything out there.

So who knows whether that is having any sort of effect in the background? Who knows if that is contributing to any hesitancy on the part of the senators? or what. It's quite possible that it's not, and that's just, but it certainly is hard to ignore that fact hanging over it as, wondering if that could be part of what's going on. Yep, totally, totally forgot about that.

So there you go. All right, one other player who is, his name's kind of been out there of late, is Jacob Chikrin. Basically said, for the last two years. Well, sure, but like it came up again. because he basically said,

trade me right fucking now, was the general thrust on this one, I believe. Yeah, I think you're paraphrasing a little bit, but I think you've got the basic. Yeah, he wants to go to a team that's like good and stuff. Yeah. Hard to blame him. And, you know, the coyotes, his name was out there all last year.

And I said at the time, I was like, this feels like a bluff, or it feels like a bait and switch where they're getting, because his contract is so cheap. And you, you know, we all know what's going on in Arizona. We know they're tanking. We know this. But, I mean, you got to put some guys on the ice.

But maybe not. You know, maybe it's the Alex De Brinkett thing, right? We said the same thing with him in Chicago and, you know, they moved him. So I think if you can get the, if you can get the price, sure. But now he seems to be kind of going like, yeah, I don't really want to do another whole year of being on top of the trade board. And then, because he's still signed for, what, three more years? I believe so, yeah. And he's still hurt also, I believe.

If I'm not. Or recovering, I think he had surgery in the offseason. Okay. So he's been mentioned a lot in Ottawa as a guy that they would go after. Price, they need the help on the blue line, eh? They do. They absolutely do. And that's, it's, in theory, depending on how optimistic you are,

it's the last spot that they need the help. So you could talk yourself into it. But we'll see. You know, he's a good guy, a good player. Was a much better player two years ago than it was last year. But who knows how much having all this trade stuff hanging over you may have impacted that. Yep, for sure. And here's the thing, too, about him is obviously like he had that one big year.

And everybody's like, well, that's what he is. And it's like every other year he was like kind of not very good. And also this is a guy who never plays a full season. Never. Listen to this. 68 games in his rookie year. 50, 53, 63, 56. That obviously was a shortened season.

47. So, like, that's a guy who's missed a lot of games. And, you know, obviously, you know, the coyotes probably played 70 the year he played 63. And then the next year he didn't miss anything. and that's the one year he goes insane scoring goal. He scored 18 goals. That's what you talk himself into if you're trading. Right.

But this is a guy where if I'm looking at trading for him, I'm like, oh, well, I mean, this guy seems to have a health problem a little bit. And again, he's he had off-season surgery. He might miss time to start the year. I don't know. I don't know. Yep. And everything you just said, that's what GMs who call Arizona are saying. Sure.

To try to drive the price down. And obviously it hasn't worked yet. But maybe it does. If he's going to put the pressure on, then maybe. I mean, you know, we all know it's been talked about to death. The situation Arizona is going into this year in the arena and everything. But some guys are not really going to be thrilled about being in that. situation, especially for the next three years. So this, though, may be the sort of thing where

Arizona management is going to him going, look, man, get healthy, get back on the ice, score a bunch of goals, preferably on like a Saturday night on hockey night in Canada. Right. And then we get the Leafs. Yeah, do it against the Leafs. Have, score a Hatrick against the Jets or have two good shifts against the Leafs and that'll knock the price up and we'll get it done. Yeah, I'm really curious because it seems like this is a kind of untenable situation. And it's funny, I just saw a tweet from Travis Yost come across the timeline where he's like, as far as I can tell, like the coyote's a team with like no real source of serious revenue

here are paying Lawson Krause and Zach Cassie in a combined like seven and a half. million dollars. This is crazy. You got to pay somebody. Well, you got to pay somebody and, well, I mean, what do they care? They're trying to be bad. Call up every bad team in the league. We'll give you your worst player, fucking $8 million against the gap.

We don't care. It doesn't matter to us at all. Call us for every retained salary transaction you want to make. Like, that's what I'm doing if I'm the coyotes. Well, I mean, they're already the first call that everyone. it makes. For sure. And so, yeah, I mean, the idea, oh,

we couldn't possibly stand to lose Jacob Chikrin. Like, just trade him. You know, obviously you want to get a nice return for him or whatever. The problem is, like, he's like their last asset other than their cap space that they could get a return on. Clayton Keller. Could you get it for Clint Keller at this point? Like, Clayton Keller is one of my guys I can't figure out.

Is Clayton Keller good? I think he is. Yeah, again, maybe he's not, you know, like, what was he,

the seventh, overall pick or something like that? Like, maybe he's not like what you think of as, oh, this guy is a, obviously a number 10, or a top 10 pick or whatever.

Like, he was nearly a point of game last year, but, and I know it's Arizona. Like, I'm not going to sit here and act like I was, you know, watching the hell out of the coyotes down the,

stretch last year. But, you know, we talk about all these guys with their max-length deals. Clayton Keller is one of those guys. He got his eight years and you're kind of sitting there going, maybe that worked out okay for him. I don't know. Yeah, he's a guy where I think, you know, you put, you put him on, uh, on any playoff teams like second line. You're like, oh, this Clayton Keller guy. Like, you can play a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, look at the bums he has to play with for most of his career, you know? I don't know. I'm obviously not like saying, oh, the coyotes have so many guys you would want to acquire, right?

But they do have a lot of guys who are coming off the books next year. And, you know, obviously that Loss and Krause deal stinks out loud. It's fucking awful, right? But, you know, Nick Schmaltz, can he play a little bit? Yeah, I think he can, you know? And that's another guy. They have signed. He's signed for four more years.

Well, three after this one. But you know what I mean. And that's another guy they could trade if they wanted to. But like you said with De Brinket, at some point, like, are you just going to trade literally everybody? You know, you got to have somebody that. That is the plan. Yeah. Well, what's interesting is they're like, we're going to sell out every game this year.

Even with the higher prices and everything, they're like, we're 100% going to sell out every game. No question about it. And I think a lot of that is just the curiosity factor and out of town fans coming in and being like, yeah, I'll pay $300 to sit, you know, eight feet away from Austin Matthews or whatever. Not a bad seat in the house, as they say.

Yeah. I'm still kind of feeling like, let's believe it when we see it on this, we're going to sell out. Because didn't they at one point I'll say they were going to make as much money, like they were going to. Well, I think if they sell out every game at the higher, like just math-wise, that works out. That if they do sell every single ticket and luxury box and everything like that, it's going to be a situation where it's like, oh, yeah, no, they definitely made more money.

Because how many of those, let's say they had 11,000. people on average in the building last year. How many of those actually bought a ticket? Well, that's true. And bought like a $29 ticket or whatever. So it says more about how much they weren't making last year. Correct. Yeah, that is kind of my thing with it.

It's like, oh, yeah, no, we're, uh, it's like, yeah, you could, you could make more than you made last year, like, uh, collecting cans, you know? So, like, let's not, let's not, uh, spike the football on that one. But yeah, anyway. You know what I wanted to talk to you about? This is a thing that it's going on in the KHL these days. Do you know what Sergei Federov's thing is? No.

In overtime? Have you not heard about this? Did I hear about it? Okay, tell me, because this now is ringing a bell that he does, has like some weird thing that. If his team wins the opening draw in overtime, he pulls the goalie. Okay. Okay. And it seems to work more often than it doesn't, or as often as it doesn't, certainly.

Now, do they have the same rule with the loser point that we have in the NHL, though? I don't, but I think they must not. They must not, right? Yeah. But isn't that interesting? That's, it isn't. He does it a lot. Yeah.

A lot, yeah. So they win the draw and the goal that comes right off and they just go four on three. Yep. And we should say that, like, you know, the. The KHL is a lot different from the NHL insofar as there's a lot of disparity between the best teams and the worst teams. Like, or the best teams and even like the next five best teams, you know. So, like, you can maybe do that, like, you couldn't do that if against the Winnipeg Jets, maybe. Even if we're saying the Winnipeg Jets aren't good.

Like, the Tampa Bay Lightning couldn't do it against the Winnipeg Jets because the Winnipeg Jets are you know, they have enough guys that can hurt you, whereas maybe like Koonloon Red Star does not, you know? Right. So you couldn't do it in the NHL. People don't know. There is an obscure rule in the NHL that if you pull your goalie in overtime and you lose, you don't get the extra point.

You don't get the loser point. And that was to discourage a situation back in the day where there were ties where, like, both teams pulled their goalie, which to me sounds fun as hell, but I think to some people in the NHL felt like it would get kind of ridiculous. So they put that rule in place and it's still there even though in theory we don't need it anymore. We still have it. But if we ever got rid of that rule, which maybe they should. Hey, why not?

That would be kind of neat to see how that played out. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, that just like, you know, I saw that the other day. I think he did it for a second time in the preseason. over there. Maybe the regular season started. He's really interesting because his name came up a little bit with the Red Wings job. I don't feel like it was ever all that serious, but you kind of heard that mentioned.

And he feels like a guy who could be in the NHL coaching at some point. Yeah. And this is a guy who immediately rockets to the top of that hottest coaches list. Sergei Federer. Are you kidding me? Well, no, I mean, he's no Jay Woodcroft. He doesn't have the raw animal. You knew that one was, that list was fucked because the Derek Lalonde was number three.

And again, first of all, most fans are like, I don't know who Derek Leiland is, but don't know what he looks like. Yeah. But second of all, then you see Derek Leone and you're like, well, there's something wrong here. Yeah. Yeah, that whole. This is why you can't leave things up to AI, folks. Yeah, it almost feels as if like random shady gambling companies sending out lists are doing it just to get attention.

Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, let's talk about one more thing that we got here for you this week. Seattle Cracken, two news items on the Cracken here. First of all, when I was doing what we learned the other day, this is an actual headline in the Seattle Times. I feel like this is bad news for any team. This is the headline.

With novelty worn off, Cracken must improve to regain fans' attention. Uh-huh. Uh-oh. That's, I have bad news about whether they have improved all that much. Now, I'm assuming this is, is this related to the NBA rumors? You know, it's funny. We talked about those NBA rumors and I was like, oh, yeah, whatever happened with that? And I went back and looked like a week later and the guy, that guy had deleted the tweet. Oops. Okay. Classic whoopsie. Um, so I, maybe that's like not a thing at all. all. I haven't seen a word, you know, I follow a lot of NBA people. I haven't seen a single word about, about any of this since then. Okay.

But no, I just Googled it for Seattle. This is Sam, this is a quote from Sam Presti, who is the GM of the, the Thunder. but was GM of the Supersonics when they moved. And this is a quote from him. They will have a basketball team again. I think all of us here think that's a positive thing. It's a great place, great fans, and the arena they've built there, it's spectacular.

When it happens, it's going to be great. That's the quote. So other than that, I have seen nothing about this in the last three weeks or whatever it's been since that rumor came and went, and the guy who posted it is like, what rumor? So, good. Well, yeah, I mean, the Cracken are, like I wrote this on a thing that's going out this week.

Like, you look at him last year, and they're such disappointment, and they didn't make any trades, and they didn't do this and that at the draft. And then it's sort of like, yeah, but they're also an expansion team. And this is what every expansion team ever that wasn't the Golden Knights, look like. In any sport, yeah. Yeah, I'd be pretty much any sport. Like, it's, uh, you're supposed to be bad year one.

Like, I think you'd, the NBA, I don't really know, but even in the NFL, like, even the Panthers and Jaguars were bad year one before they, they got good in year two. Uh, yeah. But it was not a very inspiring year. No. And, and like, you know, I think, I think the number one thing that you're, if you're, if you're, if you're a cracking guy, you're selling, or yeah, you're selling yourself on full season of Yanni Gord. We got, I'm going to stop you right there because that, that didn't make my

optimism beater. He was supposed to be, like it or not, he was supposed to be their number one center. Yeah. So, full season. They got Bjork Strand for nothing. He's a good player. He is. and the goaltending can't be worse than it was last year. I'm not saying it's going to be good. I'm just saying it cannot possibly be as bad. And it wasn't like it was bad last year because they had a couple of bumps. Like it was supposed to be a strength. And it just wasn't.

But sometimes goaltending is unpredictable in good ways. So that I, yeah, I would buy that as my optimism. The other thing I'd be optimistic about, first of all, well, Maddie Baneers, but I'm not like, oh, we need Shane right in the NHL this year, send that kid back to junior. What's the point? But if they're really bad, maybe they go out and get a real coach. Yeah. Just saying.

Just saying that would help. Is that allowed? Are you able to do that? You know, some NHL teams would say, no, we're not allowed to go out and get an actual good coach. like look when Dave Haxdoll was coming out in North Dakota

I wanted it I wanted it to work and I'm going to say I don't think he had a lot of tools in Philadelphia or Seattle to really work with

but like the track record record just isn't there man you know like what else is there to say the guy the guy hasn't had a good season yet he's been the coach for what five years

in the NHL man and he was an assistant in Toronto and didn't, he was special teams and the special teams stunk there. Yeah. Which is why Leaf people were all surprised. I think it's fair to say when that decision got made. Yeah.

The other reason for a little bit of optimism. Now, if you look at the Seattle Cracken's very epic Twitter account, this is a team that's like, folks, we're getting a mascot soon. It's exciting. I didn't know they didn't have a mascot, but a little anthropomorphic cracking, I'm assuming, except you'll have like big googly eyes like Gritty. Yeah. Did you see Gritty was on the ABC show Abbott Elementary? No, I have no idea what that is. Okay, it's a good show.

I really like it. It's about an elementary school in Philadelphia. And so the try hard teacher is like, oh, I got Gritty to come to the school, but she's, She got him to come on the wrong day. And so he didn't really. Here's the thing. They're like, oh, Gritty's going to be on this show. And you're like, oh, he's going to, like, pour a bag of popcorn on somebody's head or something

like that. Like, he's going to get up to his wacky hijinks. Yeah. No, he just does the thing where he, like, wiggles his belly around. And that's, like, the only thing he does that's in any way, like, gritty-esque. And it's like, how do it? Look, I know this is the most boring league on the planet. But, like, doesn't Gritty have to do more than that?

on a TV show. I'm picturing like a negotiation on like what Gritty is going to do. Like when you're bringing like an old pro wrestler in, it's like all right, I'll come in, but I'm not taking any bumps. I'll tag in. I'll shake my belly. Hit the high spots and I'm out. Yeah, Gritty didn't even hit the high spots.

He did like, you know, like Brad Hart's five moves of Doom. Mm-hmm. He did like just the snap suplex and then it's like, okay, that's it. I'm not doing the elbow drop. Not doing the bulldog. Reverse bulldog. The heart attack, some call it. Not doing any.

I'm certainly not breaking out the fucking sharpshooter. Are you kidding me? But I will wiggle my belly around. Yeah. That's it. The backbreaker was the other one of the five. Yeah, of course. But yeah, it's just so, like, I was like, oh, this should be fun.

Gritty is like the one fun thing about. the NHL universally agreed upon that it is fun. And then he was like, that's not really the kind of comedy I do when I'm on TV, brother. All right, my bad. But yeah, the Crackens. Is it maybe like, do you think he's like a, is the mascot business, like the stand-up comedy business where like you don't want to do a joke on TV that you're still using

in the clubs? Because then people have seen it. Like, I wonder if that's it. if he has like a really good popcorn bit, but he's saving it. Like they didn't catch gritty nude or anything. It sucks. You know. But yeah, like I think I, here's, here's my take on what the Cracken's mascot is.

As you say, anthropomorphic, like squid, you know. The arms and legs are tentacles. There's no hands involved. And then there's like four other tentacles or six other tentacles on the head. And everybody's like, wow, this is great. That sounds right. to me. And his name will be,

hmm, what is a guy who was on like the Seattle Metropolitan's team? You know what I mean? Oh, it's going to be a throwback to that.

Christ, they might just call him Metro or something like that. It would be a stupid name, but like there, it will be in some, my prediction is it will be in some way affiliated with.

Loosely affiliated with like whoever scored the winning goal for the, yeah, that's right. Well, you know what? That's 1918. Like there would be some good mascot names on that team. Like there's definitely some dusties and phantoms.

Let's see here. Will hockey reference have the, have the 2018 cracking? Or Metropolitan's probably not, right? I don't know. Anyway. Here we go, NHL.com. Let's click and wait 45 seconds for an NHL.com page to load. That's right.

Oh, no results found. Awesome. Good. That was a good experience. I enjoy it. There's a guy named Bernie Morris on that team. There's a guy named Doc Roberts. Great name.

Oh, to be a man named Doc Roberts. I feel like Bernie Morris was the star on that team. Yeah, I'm seeing here. This could be a Bernie thing. Don't tell Hillary. Know what I'm saying? Yeah. But yeah, I'm not seeing anything that's like, oh, yeah, this is the name of,

Cully Cully Wilson Scored 44 He's their fifth All-time leading score scored 44 career goals Frank Foistin is their all-time leading goal score

174 And he played there for eight years Good name him Frank Frank the octopus or whatever Yeah I feel like you got to go burning Bernie Morris But you're right then

You got that situation I did What other famous Seattle athletes. Oh my God, there was a guy that played there for a name Smokey Harris. Okay. All right.

Just something to think about. Let's make this happen. But yeah, I can't I can't think of anything better than that. So with that, why don't we hit everybody with the plugs? And Sean, why don't you go first?

Catch me at the Athletic. We're well into preview season. I had my 22, most intriguing names that I'm interested in watching this year. Built a roster out of that with enough honorable mentions to get every team in there. So years will be mentioned. This week I've got my, later this week, I've got my like season preview big post where I mush all the teams into different divisions based on how I think they're going to finish.

And then next week will be prediction contest and oddly specific predictions. among potentially other things. Wow. Look at this guy. That's a lot of work. Yeah. But hey, here's my plug. For all you college hockey sickos out there and prospect sickos,

I wrote maybe the biggest thing I've ever written about college hockey for elite prospects this week. This is a college hockey season preview. It's between me and J.D. who also did some work on it with me. I think this is going to clock in around 7,000, 8,000 words. Oof. Now, I didn't do all of that myself, but in this rundown, we will have some of the big storylines in college hockey this season.

All the coaches that changed teams, all the new, there's a couple new teams in college hockey this year, Sean. I don't know if you knew about this. There's like three. They did like an expansion? Two teams were just like, oh, we're Division I college hockey team now, like starting this year. You just declared. And everybody was like, oh, okay.

Okay. Sounds good. Including one that's coached by Rick Zombo. You remember Rick Zombo? I do remember Rick Zombo. Lindenwood University just outside of St. Louis. Rick Zombo is their coach. Good to see that he survived getting crushed into the boards by Wendell Clark.

on one of those great 1980s hits that, like, at the time, you're like, this is amazing and you look at it now and you're like, that should have been a 40-game suspension. Yeah, he might as well have brought a gun to the rink and just shot the guy. Exactly. So, yeah, a breakdown of all the big news. A breakdown of every conference is like top four or five teams, like who's going to finish where in that conference kind of a look. my top 10 Hobie picks the best drafted players in college hockey this year

JD had a nice write-up on every one of those guys and the top college free agents who every team is going to be like oh we really got to sign this guy and every fan in the league is going to talk themselves into oh this guy's going to be really good for us and then maybe he's like a third line guy you know what in my

for the first time ever this year in my 22 intriguing guys piece, I had a college hockey player. I cheated. I'm only supposed to do NHL. But I threw in Adam Fantilli. Yeah, Adam Fantilli. He's going to be probably the number three overall pick

in this coming graph. And my thing with him is you've got, you've got obviously Connor Bedard. Yep. He's the next McDavid. You've got... Matt Vei Michkov. Matt Vey Michkov is...

the classic, like, Jack Eichel type, like, would be number one in any other year prospect. If Fantilli emerges as, like, not in the Bedard zone, but is like another can't miss franchise guy, that changes the whole math of tanking in the NHL because if you finish Deadlast in the NHL, you're guaranteed a top three pick. That's as far as you can fall. You're not guaranteed top two. In fact, you got a 50% chance of not finishing top two. because of the lottery. So if there's two guys, yeah,

it makes sense to tank. If there's three guys, shoot the pocket to your own net, man. Make sure you finish last because you're guaranteed to get one of those. This guy's as good as they think.

Yep. Oof. And it seems like he is. Yes, people seem to think so. There's a real thought that he could go number two overall because as good as Matt Mae Mitchcove is,

he's signed in Russia till he's like 22 or something like that. So you draft this kid, you don't get him for three years, minimum. Right? Yeah. Whereas Adam, you know, with Soviet players, it's... Well, we wish, right? Soviet?

They're just regular Russian now. Good point, yes. But Fantilli, you know, he might be a scosh worse than Mitchkov, but at least you get him for those three years that you don't have Mitchkov, you know? Like, Mitchkov is basically going to be Kiril Caprizov kind of a situation where everybody's like, I hope he comes over,

I hope he comes over, and then eventually he does, and everybody's like, wow, this guy's good. You know? He's not good, let's put it this way. He's so good that, you know, like that caused Caprizov to drop in the draft, for sure, like the question of when he's going to come over.

Mitchcov is so good, that will not be a question. There's no way he goes lower than three without, you know, he gets catastrophically injured. He has an unbelievably bad season. Those are the only two things that could really fuck him up. Yeah. So when you're talking like far better prospect than Kirill Caprizov. Yeah, that's right.

Not a bad consolation prize if you don't get Connor Bedard. But again, like you, like the example I used was when it was McDavid and. Eichel were the two sure things. And back then, you could only drop one spot. So it was the same scenario. If you finished last, you were guaranteed. And if you'd finish second last, then it was up to the lottery. And we remember how ridiculous it got with the Sabres and the Coyotes. Like fans cheering against their own thing. And it happened, right? The Coyotes, the Sabres finished last. They get Eichael, who at the time they thought was going to, you know, their franchise consolation prize. And Arizona ends up getting Dillon.

Yep. it can make a huge swing. So we've already got teams tanking this year. If there's three sure things, oh boy. It could get really ridiculous. Yeah, and he, like, he has a legitimate chance at the Hobie Baker, which Jack Eichel won his, in his draft year. He, he, uh, he won the Hobie Baker.

He had 71 points in 40 games or something like that. Unbelievable. You know, drag B.U to a perfectly good B.U team, but got them to a, national title game, where the goalie put the puck in his own net. The less out about that, the better. But, yeah, I mean, it's going to be really interesting. Michigan obviously has a lot of talented players,

but they also lost baneers, Kent Johnson, Owen Power, one or two other guys that I'm forgetting off the top of my head. But they also have Luke Hughes, who Devils fans are rightly excited about, and who had a better, freshman season than like Kale McCar and Adam Fox did. So the, now granted, he was on a much

better team, but the idea that Luke Hughes is going to be able to absolutely rip shit up in college hockey this year is like very much on the table. And Logan Coaley, who was the number of three pick in this past year's draft, is going to the University of Minnesota.

So like, they're in the same conference as Michigan. It's going to, the big 10 this year is going to be a blast other leagues will also be interested. Anyway, that's enough college hockey talk, I think. So, yeah, anyway, if you want all that, sign up for EP Rinkside. I love EP at checkout when you order a year-long subscription, and it will become a 15-month subscription, as if by magic.

And then, yeah, check out the Pucksu Patreon as well. Mishon and this other guy we found on the street corner. his name was Craig Minimpsky, and he joined us to talk about guys who recently retired or are LTIR retired, and whether those guys should go in the hall. And he did good, by the way. For a rookie with very little podcasting experience, I thought the kid did already. Yeah, pretty impressive. Yeah.

So check that out. Puck soup, Patreon. It's patreon.com slash puck soup. check that out and you know we do a lot of other bonus stuff on there including we're about to do the mailbag over on the puck suit Patreon so if you want to hear us answer some listener questions this week head over there check it all out and thanks for listening to the show thanks everyone bye bye bye bye sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons we've got sportly commentary to what if you commute but we also cover movies

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