Puck Soup - Slow News Week

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

Sean and Ryan talk about the Quinn Hughes trade, the Stuart Skinner trade, Kevyn Adams getting fired, and more.

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McAnew from The Athletic. And sorry, folks, it's a slow newsweek, new show. Yeah. Got to go. Have a good one. Bye-bye. See you.

Sean, you got any plugs? Just kidding. You know, it's funny because I had said to a friend of mine on Friday when Stuart Skinner got traded, the biggest trade of the week, of course. I said, I bet the Canucks. are going to do a fucking Friday 5 p.m. Vancouver time news dump on this. And I was wrong. It was Friday at like 4.35 p.m. Yeah. You're way off.

Yeah. Don't, don't be attention to this. We got, we got, uh, we got the whole weekend ahead of us. You guys like football, right? Absolutely. Which is, which is unbelievable, because. it feels like the general consensus is that the Canucks did okay on this. Oh, totally. Would you agree with that?

Yeah. I think, okay, we'll talk about it from everybody's different perspective first. But I think the perception perspective is an interesting way to start because the thing it reminds me of is when Calgary trade. Matthew Kachuk because he was like, I'm not fucking signing here. I don't know what to tell you. And they were like, okay, I guess we'll trade

him for anything we can get at this point. And I was very concerned for the Canucks that if this trade happened, they would do kind of what Calgary did and get like a 26 year old and a 29 year old who are win now

helpers and that kind of stuff. And they didn't. didn't do that. The Canucks. No, they didn't. So, good for them, I guess. It's, yeah, it's, it's really tough because if you step back and you look at the whole big picture, which is they had a guy who was already the best defenseman in franchise history.

Not even close, yeah. Maybe even on track to have a shot at being the best player in franchise history. and they let that situation get to a point where they had virtually no choice but to trade. That's bad. But we already knew that was the situation. So zooming in and saying, okay, now this is where they're at, how do they handle it? The trade itself was fine. I would say it's even better than fine.

Like with Calgary, again, they did as well as they possibly could have. There was no return that was going to be better for Matthew Cachuk. With Quinn Hughes, it's, again, like, you're just dreading, oh, fuck, they're going to, they're going to think they're, you know, two guys away from being playoff competitive, even though they're 32nd with Quinn Hughes, blah, blah, blah. And they were just like, you know what? We're going to just have to say the word rebuild out loud. that's life, that's how it goes. I expect everyone to get fired by the end of the season, you know. But again, as well as you possibly could have and how do you want to put it?

Like just, you know, putting the best possible face on an incredibly bad situation. And again, I think they did the news dump aspect of it because they were like afraid that people would be. be like, you didn't get a 28 year old to replace him, you know? Yeah. Because they are dumb enough to think that, like, or I would have thought they were dumb enough to think like, people don't want us to rebuild still. Yeah. And in fairness, it's a very different situation than Matthew Kachuk.

Oh, sure. That was the off season after the flames that just had 110 points. Right. No, of course. I'm just saying, like, in terms of doing as well as you can. Yeah. That's like the big trade that stands out that way. I guess both the best and the worst thing I can say is that if the Canucks had done a Kachuk type of deal here for 28-year-olds, I don't think anyone would have been shocked. No, for sure.

We all would have said it was the wrong move, but nobody would have been like, I can't believe the Canucks did that. So instead, they did the right kind of deal. Yes. I mean, so, okay, so let's get clear on this then. Did the Canucks make a good deal under the circumstances, or did they just make a good deal? Like, is this just a good trade for Vancouver, given where they are? And, like, did they do a good thing here? Well, you know, so I went on, I was asked to go on the Canucks podcast.

I hate this team who I will, you know, occasionally listen to when there's big Canucks news because they seem like the most level-headed of the, of a fan base I consider to be psychotic. Okay. And they, their perception is that like, you're never going to win the Quinn Hughes trade, which is true, of course. force. And because, you know, best case scenario for Zeev Buoyum is he's 80% as good as Quinn Hughes is, which makes him one of the maybe 10 best defensemen in the league. Yeah, you can get, you can get some Norris votes being 80% of Quinn Hughes. That's what I'm, so, so that's all fine.

But did they make a, no, I don't think you can make a good trade if you're giving up Quinn Hughes. Like I get from the point of view of because this is the other thing. And I talked about this on I hate this team. Like there are nine guys still on the Canucks who have full no move clauses for next year. Mm-hmm. Right? And unless you're getting rid of, I'm not even, you're not going to get rid of all of them.

But unless you're getting rid of two, three, hopefully four of those guys in the next. 12 months. Like, I don't think, okay, it depends on if the Canucks think they are, let's go get a top three pick. Let's go get Stenberg or McKenna or Verhoff, right? And then we're right back to it next season. If they think that's what's going to happen, that's extremely bad for the franchise. guys. But if they think this is more of a two, three, four year situation where they got to cycle through some of these veterans who were signed long term and have full no moves and all that

kind of stuff, I think it's, I think it is good. But it depends on what they think is happening. Yeah. And veteran players with no moves on rebuilding teams are a lot easier to move than those same guys on contending teams. For sure. But my only thing is that, you know, it limits the return because they can just be like, yeah, you're not allowed to trade me to the Buffalo Sabres. And they're like, fuck. You know, like that's the only thing is it necessarily limits the return on those guys. But you'd still rather have it than not.

You wouldn't. So, I mean, I guess at the end of the day, this. This is a better trade for the Canucks than what I would have expected on Friday morning. A hundred percent. Not even close. And part of that is that, you know, the question that was hanging over this always was, okay, we know the devils are in. Who else is in and how far are they willing to go in knowing that the devil still kind of hang over this in a year and a half? Like we knew that every team would pick up the phone.

You're nuts if you don't at least ask about a player as good as Quinn Hughes. But how far would a team, would a team be willing to outbid the devils? Knowing that there's no guarantees, knowing that you've got maybe only a year and a half of Quinn Hughes coming back. And the answer turned out to be yes, there was a team, at least one. At least one is right. Maybe more, we don't know. but at least one team that was willing to, you know, walk up and kind of put the offer on the table and say, here is a fair offer for Quinn Hughes.

What do you think? And the Canucks, I guess to their credit, said, all right, you know what? That checks the boxes. We're not going to dick around and drag this out for two more months. You've got a deal. Yeah, literally first offer was the report. Like Bill Garron called up. Oh, really?

Was that? Yes. I hadn't seen that. Zeebuy and Marco Rossi, Liam Ugrin, and a first for Quinn Hughes, and Jim Rutherford was like, yeah, okay.

That's, that always concerns me, man. Anytime, in, in fantasy football, if I send a trade offer and it immediately gets accepted, I'm like, I might have screwed up.

Yeah, we're supposed to go back and forth here a little bit. Uh-oh. Yeah, like, Rutherford, it's like, hey, you're supposed to try to get like an extra fourth out of this or something?

Like, you know what? we'll throw in a guy we kind of think sucks and you, you know, but nope, that's... But it does, you know, again, not... Good for you guys. It, not from the Canucks perspective, but from the Wilde's perspective, it does remind me the Kachuk trade, right? Because we all, everybody knew, you know, we made our lists of teams that we thought would take a run at Matthew Kachuk and we wrote the articles about like,

here's what they would offer. And then Florida, who was, you know, they've been retcon as the only team that was ever in the running, but they weren't. They weren't even on the list of teams that people thought he was going to go to. Stepped up with an offer that at the time felt like it was way better than anybody else was offering. Now, we don't know other offers here.

We don't know it was way better from Minnesota's perspective, but it was clearly good. It was good enough. Well, um... And it was good enough during a season where other teams may have been saying,

I can give you something good, but you got to wait, because I have to drop a salary here. I have to work this. I have to do that. My job is so complicated. And Minnesota was like, we'll do this today. We're ready to drive this thing off the lot right now.

Yeah, it seems like it was a pretty quick turn around on the, uh, on the whole negotiation. Like it didn't take very long at all. So, um, yeah, no, like it's, it's, if I may use the parlance that the Quinn Hughes used, Bill Garen sacked up on this one. And so, okay, let's talk about it from the Wilde perspective just in terms of, is it good to add the first or second best defenseman in the world to your roster when you are, you know, kind of upper middle of the Western Conference, let's say? I think it is good to add that player, yes.

I'm going to say the controversial thing. I'm a brave truth teller. It's no two ways about it. So you think the wilder better now than they were before? I do. And again, like, I think a lot of people get prospect brain. We couldn't possibly give up Zeebuey him for a year and a half of this guy. I don't know.

It's the second best defenseman alive at worst. Like on a bad day, you're like, oh, he's maybe the second best defenseman alive. You know? Mm-hmm. And I, I, Again, I just don't, you know, compare buoy him in his first season to Quinn Hughes in his first season. And Quinn Hughes is a way better player on that, on the basis of that comparison. And that's not, like, totally fair.

That's not like a one-to-one thing. But it's just like, you know, where the growth curve is starting from with Quinn Hughes, always hired. Right. So I love that Garon was just like, yeah, fuck. it, we'll go get that guy. Mm-hmm. If I'm the Wild, but with that having been said, are they getting out of the first round? Yeah.

And are we now doomed to do, I don't even say doomed. I guess we now know the identity of Ground Zero for the playoff format debate. Yeah. No kidding. It is so unfair that the Wild have to play a good team. team in the playoffs if they finish third in the division, which, who knows. But yeah, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota right now look like the three best teams in the lead, maybe?

Arguably the three best teams. Like, it's not out of the question. They ask me this on I hate this team. Quinn Hughes stays in the Western Conference. If he had gone to the Eastern Conference, would he be the best player in the Eastern Conference? Wow. Yeah.

I mean, that's... He probably would be. Off the top of my head, yeah. The only guy I could think of with an argument, I said on the show, was if he was healthy, Sasha Barkoff? Yeah. Yeah, Matthews

isn't that guy anymore. No, pre-injury Matthews is what they said too. He's good, but I, you know, he's... Yeah, no, that's... But he stayed in the Western Conference. though, so who cares? It's a moot point.

Yep. So, I don't know. We're destined to do this thing all year long where we're, like, complaining that the NHL doesn't give first round buys to every team that has a good season. That's fine. I mean, I agree that the format is stupid. If they lose in the first round to Dallas. Yep. Does that make this a failure all of a sudden?

Or, I mean, they've got them for two playoff runs. Right. And really one playoff run to make him want to resign. Because it's this summer is when you need to get the extension down. Well, okay. So I was thinking about this. And this only occurred to me like later in the day yesterday. Because it's like, are we sure he wants to go full term on any contract he signs?

Like, yeah, it's the difference between like six and eight years basically. and if he's getting, let's say, Coral Caprizov money, that's an extra $34 million or $35 million, whatever the number is, right? Like, it's a huge difference. It's that money up front. It's not like he's,

can't get that money at the end of it, though, by signing a new deal somewhere. Well, so if he goes eight years, he'll be 35. Hmm. The cap will be $200 billion. You're probably, yeah, I mean, but my thing is, what if he's like, what if I, what if I do the Connor McDavid thing? I'll re-sign with Minnesota for three years and then I really got to get over to New Jersey, be my brothers. Yep.

You know, like that point, honestly, if you get that if you're Minnesota, four and a half years, five playoff friends. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. I'm just saying that my thinking now is like that the time pressure thing is a lot less urgent, let's say. Because it's like, well, if he can, you know, if he can go back to market when he's 30 and get maybe then he takes the six year deal and it's for the same amount of money. $17 million or whatever, right? Like, I think that's, that's very much a live option here that is being a little bit under discussed, maybe. But that's fair.

Yeah. But again, if you're the wild and you're like, okay, well, I guess we got five years of Quinn Hughes. That sounds like it's pretty fucking sick, actually. We got, oh, we got all of his primers and we didn't have to pay him until he's, like, 36. What's the problem here? You know, like that, that sounds great. I mean, especially if three years from now or five years from now, you could trade them. If you don't think this comes back, I mean, ideally you're a cup contender still then,

and you don't want to, but you have that option too. So I don't mind it. I don't mind a big swing for the wild here. You've got to maximize the Prizzov window. Even though I acknowledge, yeah, yes, yeah, absolutely. Even though I acknowledge that there's a decent chance that we're saying, sitting here in April and the wild are out and we're sitting here going, man, they gave up a lot. They were losing in the first round anyway in this scenario.

Like it was a guarantee that it was going to happen because Dallas or Colorado was going to fucking nuke them. Like, you know, with Z. Buoyam and Marco Rossi. That was the most likely outcome. And now it's maybe still the most likely outcome, but it's more like 55-45, 45, 45 instead of 70-30. And that's worth something, you know? Yeah. That not, I guess what I'm saying is preemptively, like, I don't want to do this thing in the spring where we go, well, you know, only one team wins the cop.

So anyone else who, you know, and because I guarantee there'll be other teams where you'll be looking back going, hey, weren't you guys in on Queen Hughes? And they'll go, oh, yeah, but look what happened to Minnesota. They didn't even win around. So, I mean, it was actually good that I, that I wanted to keep Marco Casper or whatever, yeah. Yep. No, you know, it's funny because there were, like you say, like there were other teams out there,

Detroit, Philly, Buffalo, Washington, all teams that, like, you know, some report that they kick the tires on this. And again, for the while to just sack up and be like, yeah, we love Zeebuy. and we think he's awesome. We have less of a strong opinion about Marco Rossi. Like, I think that, like, this should be worth something to their fans, too, in terms of, like, the excitement in the market now.

Like, fuck, man, we just went and got Quinn Hughes. Like, that's how good they think this team is. They gave up Marco, well, Rossi, but I meant to say Z, boo him there. They gave up Buoy him a guy that we were all like, this is a friend. defensemen and they went out and fucking were like, we can upgrade that. I think that if I was a wild fan, I would be fucking

dancing in the streets right now. This is such a sick trade for a team to make in a league where these kind of trades don't happen in the season ever, basically. They're not supposed to, yeah. And and I mean, I think

Marco Rossi is a decent gamble for the Canucks. Oh, sure. I think, I wouldn't say his floor, but I think it's reasonable to say he's, he's probably a 60 point second line center for them. Well, their current first line center is like Max Sasson, right? Like, they needed anybody to be a set. I'm saying second line center in the like traditional, like, you know, that's what he maps to.

You're right. He might be their top guy right out of the gate. But, but the point is, like, I think that's a, that's not his capital effort. floor, but it's a reasonable baseline. And maybe change of scenery. Like it wasn't, it wasn't working in Minnesota as well as it was supposed to. No, for sure. I guess is my way of saying, I'm happy to get him if I'm Vancouver, but I'm not, I'm not

shedding any tears if I'm a wild fan. Like, I think you, you took an asset that was somewhat underperforming and got maximum value for it. Yeah, it seems like there was a clash between the player and the organization and, you know, in the, in the Trevor Zegris way of like, we need you to play this way. And he's like, I play the way

I play. And they were like, well, that's a problem for us, you know? And yeah, I think he's a really good player. Like, that's a guy I was high on in his draft year and all that kind of stuff. Obviously, some stuff happened in the intervening years. But he,

yeah, if he's like a 60 point guy forever, you're feeling great about that if you're Vancouver. We got a 60 point guy and a defenseman that seems to have a pretty high ceiling. And Liam Mugren, who, you know, whatever. And a pick that probably feels like it's going to be in the 17 to 20 range, 30, or not 30, 25, you know. Yeah, I mean. Yeah, I don't think it's going to be as high as 17 or 20. Well, again, if they lose in the first round, they would be somewhere in that range, probably.

So. Yeah, well, maybe. Maybe, yeah. Maybe, because it's standings, it's standing's based until the final four, right? So they could still, they could lose in the first round and be high 20s still. Oh, yeah, I guess you're right about that still. But, yeah. But still, I mean, it.

At that point, I mean, it matters, but it doesn't necessarily matter. Not to the wild, yeah. I mean, I said this about New Jersey last week. Like, what do they need picks for? They need to be, based on the age of all their good players, they need to be loading up the fucking roster. And they were like, okay, no problem. We'll do it. You know?

So that, again, I'd be really encouraged if I was a wild fan. So let's talk about the devils. and the other. Well, let's save the devils. You want to say, okay, because this is part of what I love about this trade is that it's such a big trade that it's immediately spawned all of these other, like, you're reading all this other stuff about, okay, what does this mean for this team or that team or, you know, were they in? Yep. So I like. But let's do the other, let's do the other team in the trade a little bit more, the Canucks.

just in terms of, again, like, you wonder what the internal thought process is here. Because I think this is a huge win for the Canucks in terms of they got their owner who hates rebuilding to let them say rebuild out loud in a press conference. I'm actually shocked that that happened, like quite frankly. And so again, it becomes a question of do they think this is a two-year rebuild and they have the pieces and the goalies and all that kind of stuff in place already and it's nice to get two rostered, three I guess, rostered NHL players for one and all that kind of stuff. Or are they acknowledging without maybe saying it out loud? this is a bit of a longer thing that we have to deal with. Yep. I think right now they're saying it's a longer thing.

Let's see how long that lasts. Let's see how the patience is. Like right now, I think there'd be very mixed feelings of Vancouver right now, right? Because Quinn Hughes was awesome. And this is the scenario that they spent the last year plus dreading. But partly because of it. confidence is so low in that front office, there's some excitement about who's coming in and, you know, William goes and has a great first game and, you know, all of that. So there's this kind of short-term

excitement of, you know, it's, there's new toys under the tree, right? Like, you get to check back in two months when they've lost eight in a row and suddenly Halford and Broughford lightened him up on the morning show every single day. And that's when, you know, suddenly Jim Rutherford gets the call from up above saying, we got to do something, man. Surely there's got to be some short-term help you can bring in to finish 28th instead of 31st. So what's interesting is that Alveen and Rutherford did separate press conferences at the same time, Apparently.

Oh, really? Yes. Do these guys even talk to each other? What is... I would love to know the situation. Yeah. What is the functional org chart? Well, the other thing that came, that is kind of related to that is apparently Rutherford was like, yeah, Patrick has a lot on his plate these days.

So I took point on this one. It's like, yeah, no shit, man. We know. He has a lot on his plate. Hey, man. You're pretty busy these days. So I'm just going to take over the single most important. thing.

He's playing solitaire on his on his PC. You know, honestly, we've all been there. We've all had a boss who comes in. He's like, you know what? You're super busy. So I'm going to handle the presentation to the CEO. Oh, are you now?

Great. That's interesting. Awesome. Here's, let me guess. You want my, the 90% of the work I've already done on it? Cool. So, you know, what comes out of those two press conferences is they said,

you know, what's the, plan with this with this pick that you got from the wild are you keeping it or are you trading it and they were and one of them was like we're keeping it and the other one was like we might trade you know if the opportunity arise that kind of thing like one was a little more non-committal to keeping than than the other which i got to say i i don't mind that they shouldn't they shouldn't turn around and do like a ronick kind of deal again where they flip it for immediate. Marcus Patterson, not Roanick, but yes.

Oh, right. Did they... Pedersen was the... Yeah. Yes. Yes. But they don't close doors. You know, who knows?

Who knows that somebody's going to call and offer? I don't, I don't mind a GM. Anytime a GM doesn't say preemptively, we're not going to do something. That's, so that's what I like about it, is that, But again, it becomes a question of, do they trade it for, do they trade? Now, granted, again, this is going to be whatever. Let's say it's the 22nd overall pick. There aren't many NHL, like actual NHL players that you could trade the 22nd overall pick for and, like, lose that trade.

Because the guy that you get at 22 overall isn't going to be David Posternock, 99.9% of the cases, right? You're not going to be like, fuck, in all likely. six years from now when the guy that went 22nd overall in 2026 is, you know, a three-time All-Star. Yep. That's just not going to happen in all likelihood. So if you, but if you trade them for like a 28-year-old, there's a difference versus like a 23-year-old who, you know, is an NHL player already in that kind of thing. That's all.

But, you know, it. if I'm the Canucks, I'm just kind of aggressively going out there and being like, who's a, who's a high upside young-ish guy that maybe isn't having the, like, who's a reclamation project that I can, that I can work with here? With that first round pick or just other assets that you can use. And I don't know, like,

I don't think a rebuck. a rebuild, you know, does have to be tear it down to work. I think in the Canucks case, it probably does, but that's a different story, you know? So, I like, I love that they did it. I think that, like, how it all worked out is, again, just as good as you're getting. I don't know about the long-term future of anybody in this organization at this point, except the owner who is going to keep... Well, the owner and the 11.4.4.

million dollar 55 point forward that you're locked into until the end of time. Yeah. Unless you're not. Well, and that's the thing. You can, you can, it might not be any time soon, but you can maybe two years from now when 11.5 isn't quite so big of a number, you can maybe make something happen there. Talk about a reclamation project. Yeah. So now let's talk about it from New Jersey's perspective.

And I'll just lead it off with this, Sean. This is a hypothetical scenario. Is it good hypothetically if when they talk about this, you not getting this player on 32 thoughts, Ellie Friedman has to say, now listen, I don't think he's going to get fired anytime about the GM. About Fitsy?

The Fitzman himself. Yeah. Yeah. It's a Rama. Like, it didn't even occur to me that, like, not getting Quinn Hughes in a trade might get you fired. But when Elliot Freeman said, I haven't heard anything about that. I was like, whoa. Yeah, that's, it's not great.

I mean, this was. And, and look, I, I remember saying, you know, a week, two weeks ago in, in just talking. about various things, various ways this could go. There were devil's writers, devil's fans, people saying like, why would we give a lot up? We're going to get the guy in a year and a half. And it was always like, no, not necessarily. I mean, first of all, a year and a half of Quinn Hughes is an awful lot of good hockey.

It's worth a lot in terms of assets, as we just saw. Two playoff runs, you know, especially when your goalie is 35. and all this other stuff. And also, who's to say? Who's to say that, that, you know, I mean, if anything, almost the worst case scenario

now for the Devils is Quinn Hughes signs that short-term extension that takes him to 2030. And, uh-oh, now him and Jack are both UFAs at the same time. And then go anywhere together? Yep. Either team or neither team.

And, oh, you know. And they're like, well, we still got Luke. You guys like Luke, right? They're like, well, I mean... Not really. Have you seen what Luke plays like and then what he makes? Yeah. Taking account of that?

It's... And there's a lot of talk that... So there's a lot of talk that the devils were in and wanted to do this, but they couldn't free up. They couldn't make the cap work. Yes, because allegedly, a player with a no-move clause on the devils was like, I shan't be waving that no-move clause.

to go to Vancouver. And this is, you know, like we just said, getting guys to go from a last place team and wave an O-Trey clause to a contender is one thing. Getting it to go the other way. Correct. Yeah. Now, I don't know if it was,

and maybe you've seen more direct reports. I don't know if it was a case of guys not wanting to go to Vancouver or if it was guys were going to get moved somewhere else and there were going to be multiple. Like it wasn't like, it wasn't like Fitzie wasn't trying. No, for sure.

But they couldn't make it happen, and a big part of that was the no trade clauses. And, look, I mean, some teams and the devils are one of those teams give out a lot of these things. Well, I mean, this is what you get. You know, this is what you get when you, I don't want to say take shortcuts, because, I mean, you can, it's a fair thing to negotiate.

But you're kind of making, And there's a risk. Yeah. A little easier today because you're more likely to get the deal done and a little harder tomorrow. And tomorrow happened to come around and it caused some Quinn Hughes potentially. Do we assume that the player we're talking about here is Dougie Hamilton, by the way? It feels like it would be either him or Andre Palat. Yeah.

Because the only other two guys with, well, I mean, there's a bunch of guys with movement protection. Andre Parade has a no movement clause. Yeah, well, so he has a no move but also like a partial no trade, one of those gimmicks. Ten team trade list, it says here. So, seven Canadian team. Vancouver wasn't on it for some reason. That's crazy. But like just the other guys with them, Timo Meyer, I don't think Vancouver's super interested in that.

Just for Brad, I don't think New Jersey's interested in moving him. he sure has a no trade list, 10 teams, but you wouldn't trade Nico Hesher. Well, I mean, I would have been more willing to talk about that in a Quinn Hughes deal than it sounds like the devil's were. Well, let me put it this way. If you trade Nico Hesher, who's your number one center when Jack Hughes misses 35 games? Yeah, but Jack Hughes is not going to get hurt anymore because he's got Quinn around to be like, Oh, hold on. Is that broken glass?

Well, Quinn would have been the Jack's shoulder exploded again, insurance for when Jack's shoulder exploded again. You know what I mean? So, like you can't, then you become the Vancouver Canucks where you're like, oh, I guess our number one center right now is Cody Glass. Can that be right? You know, like, you just don't have one at that point. Mm-hmm. So, Dawson Mercer, like, we can't be getting into these situations. So other guys, Connor Brown somehow has a full no trade clause.

I don't think Vancouver wants them. Stefan Nason, partial no trade clause. I don't think Vancouver wants them. Well, Vancouver doesn't want those guys, but I think Vancouver will take those guys in exchange for even more assets and getting a deal done. Well, and that's the other thing. New Jersey doesn't have, I mean, is Nemich close to Buoyum in terms of value? I would say no.

Do they have somebody who's in the Marco Rossi, like 23, 24-year-old center mold? Not really. So, I mean, maybe you would say Mercer, but certainly they don't have both of them at the same time, I wouldn't think. And so that that just becomes the thing of again, Vancouver being like, well, I suppose right now we'd rather have the younger, like we'd like to get younger.

So that like I just think at the end of the day, I mean, let's shout out the guy that that posted back in like May or whatever. Yes. Why are we not looking at Minnesota? Mm-hmm. well he didn't have Ugrin involved in that but he had that yeah people didn't see it he not only said he said the devils don't have the center that Canucks would need yeah look at the wild because

Rossi William William William Borgon though so forget it it's over you're not you don't get to take credit for this dumb shit so stupid um so yeah I I you know for New Jersey like again my my big takeaway is like I didn't think this was going to get our friend Fitsy fired, but it seems like it might, which is crazy, given where they are in the standings and all that kind of stuff. If I'm Vancouver, I'm like, L.A. Friedman, man, why didn't you let this slip before we made the trade? The guy's jobs were on the line. That would have been, that would have been something. So, I mean, if you take away the brother component, which is a big part of this. But, you know, I don't think New Jersey would be on its own high on my list of teams that should have been in on Quinn Hughes. So, I mean, it's maybe not the disaster, it seems like, but just the fact that it seemed like it was such a lock.

Maybe it still is, maybe a year and a half from now. So that's the thing is, it's like this isn't. Whatever. This isn't like fan casting where they're like, you know who I think should play freaking Captain America for and then he can point at the other Captain America's is like this guy. This is the president of hockey operations for the Vancouver Canucks. The guy that pulled the trigger on the Quinn Hughes trade came out like a year and a half ago and was like, oh, well, everybody knows he wants to go to New Jersey. That's where his brothers live. And so everybody was like, oh, right. Okay. Well, I guess we'll take your word for it. Now, maybe in retrospect that was him like, you know, salting the earth, sowing some poisonous seeds or whatever you want to say, right? I don't think sewing some poisonous seeds is a turn of phrase that anybody's ever used, but that's fine. But you see what I'm saying.

Like maybe that was him trying to, oh, I was trying to get to poison the well. That's what happened there. And create this expectation so that it maybe got. other teams involved. I don't know. Whatever. I'm ascribing 4D chess to a guy who's the president of hockey operations for the Vancouver Canucks. So like, I'm being a little generous in my opinion.

Maybe we dial this one back a little bit. Yeah. Oh, you don't understand. This guy's seeing through time in a way. Yeah, okay, man, sure. He signed Brock Bessor this summer. Calculated all 700 million scenarios and there was only one where he got Zeebubium. Yeah.

I don't think that happened. But my point is that he made the connection on the Quinn Hughes. Like, I didn't make it up. He did. You know? So that's where that all comes from. And like you say, year and a half from now, maybe we're just like, yeah, he was always going to New Jersey. That's crazy.

Who could have seen it coming? And Jim Rutherford's like, yeah, I was playing 40 chess. I was trying to tell you. Do you just a... dip back to the Minnesota side. How much do you put into the comments that Hughes has made since arriving about being open-minded and really being impressed with how much they gave up and all of this stuff? I mean, I think it matters at the end of the day how much success they have.

Like, they're going to make the playoffs, right? I feel like this is sort of being overblown that a new guy shows up and is like, yeah, no, it's night. Like, yeah, somebody comes over your house who's never been there before. They're like, oh, yeah, nice. You've got a lovely home. And you're like, wow, they love it here. They probably want to move in. No, they're just saying what you say when you get to a new place.

So certainly he didn't say anything that would make me feel negative if I'm a wild fan. But I think we're maybe getting out over our skis a little bit. Yeah, he didn't do the Brett Hart, like invisible writing, NJD. You know, like that didn't happen. But, yeah, I think he's saying what you say. There's nothing. Now, the thing is, he's not eligible to sign an extension until July 1. So there's always going to be that, like, no matter where he went, well, I guess if it wasn't New Jersey.

But if it, you know, any other team besides New Jersey, no matter where he went, there was always going to be the intrigue of what does he do starting July 1st? And if I'm Bill Guerrin. I am, what do you want, $25 million? Like, however much you want, you can have it just like, on July 1st, please sign. Please. So I don't have to listen to this for even a fucking week. You don't want to, yeah, you don't want to listen to it. Is it too early to start talking about, like, how much can you really pay two players in a cap world?

Could they have the two most expensive players in the league? Right. I mean, he wouldn't kick in for another year. What's funny about that is, you know, like, people always go, no team has ever won the cup with a guy making more than $10 million. And then people were like, well, you know, Florida, they have, Bobrovsky, he makes $10 million. I said more than if he made $10 million of one penny.

This would be a different discussion. So, like, I think there is a little bit of, of that, but also, I hate to be the freaking caps going up guy. But three, four years from now, if the cap's $125 million, and I have some interesting quotes about that, I want to read later. Well, fuck it. I'll just do it right now. Let me open the page.

So, Pierre LeBron went to the, like, Board of Governors meetings in Colorado. And he just, like, stuck a microphone in the face of a bunch of it. bunch of NHL owners and was like, so listen, man, what if like the salary caps like $120 million three years from now? And just got some, I thought, really interesting quotes from not just like GMs, NHL owners, the guys who are actually writing the checks here about what does that look like for you? And so I think pertinently, it opens with Minnesota wild owner Craig Leapold. And he goes, probably about 90% of the teams historically planned to go to the cap, but it's going to change.

The cap's going up, and it will, I hadn't heard that before, but I'll take his word for it. The cap's going up, and it will cause us and other teams to look at, is this the right number for us? And if not, we've got to make the right decision. So, interesting that he said, cause us and other teams. So he's putting himself in the, in the. that might start to get a little rich for my blood. Montreal Canadiens owner, Jeff Moulson. You know, that's to be determined, I think.

Most of the teams pretty much end up right there, in terms of the cap ceiling. We went through the pandemic and the flat cap for three years, and now it's sort of catching up, right? I'm as curious as you are in figuring out where it's going to end up in two to three years when the cap is quite a lot higher. I know that we'll do all we can to have the best possible

team as the Montreal Canadians. I can't speak for other teams. That's him saying $120 million, what do I give a fuck? That's nothing to me. Yep. We'll be fine. Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs. When asked whether most teams will keep spending to the cup or to the max,

I think that'll continue. I know we will. Okay, great. Then it was, then it was a senator's owner, Michael and Lauer. Senator's owner, Michael said. Oh, hey, my Uber's here. Got to go. See ya.

What does the new salary cap mean for small market teams? And this is Ann Lauer. It's a real question. It depends on what the ownership really wants. For me, when I bought this team, it was truly two goals. Number one is to win a Stanley Cup. It's my passion always has been. And the opportunity to do that is there.

And two, long-term sustainability in a small market, where it's had its ups and downs and various ownerships and bankruptcies, et cetera, there's a balance that needs to be had. There's a different ways to go about it. I think development is an important part. I've run a very successful logistics business, which has allowed me the privilege of owning a hockey club today. But that logistic business hasn't necessarily been about paying the highest amount, but about caring more and creating an environment where people want to be and then sharing. Ultimately, thank goodness, the only way it can happen is the way the revenue sharing and the NHL,

the revenue-sharing program in the NHL happens. Otherwise, the small market teams could never survive. So the cost-certainty environment that Gary Betman and the NHL have put together is a blessing. And whether I want to make money or not, you look at the goals. It's all about timing, too. We're in a position right now as the Ottawa Senators where we have a window of opportunity. As a proud Ottawa Senators fan, now I want to take advantage of that opportunity. All of which is to say, I maybe will spend that extremely high.

high cap if we're good. As long as the welfare checks keep coming in from the other. I got to say, I like Anlar a lot. I've heard good things. And certainly, given the guy he replaced. Oh, he's the graze owner in the tunnel. He's quite popular in Ottawa and all this stuff. And that's good for him because if it wasn't,

I run a very successful logistics business would have, that would definitely have some all drill another one. Well, potential. Sad ass quotes from NHL owners. The quote from this is, but that logistics business hasn't been necessarily about paying the highest amount. No.

But caring more. I'm a big week at the Cracker Factory. Sean. Energy. What you and me don't understand, we're not business guys. No. And what it's really about is caring more

and creating an environment where people want to be there. And I'll tell you. That's Jeff Bezos about, a logistics environment where people are caring and people want to be there. And by there, they mean pissing in a bottle in the back of a van. Yeah. Right. Hey, I got to say, man, if anybody knows my life, the one thing no one has ever said about me is,

that's a guy who has this logistics under control. So maybe I, I don't know, maybe is there a local Ottawa businessman who could help me with that? Find it. Yeah. And then, like, there's a couple other quotes from, like, Mark Chipman and Luke Robatai or whoever. And I thought this was interesting from Robatai. I'm of the belief that when you have a chance to win, every team will go for it. You've got to adjust the way you manage your team, whether you're on a rebuild or whether you're going for it.

You could say this year, it looks like 29 teams are going for it. So I think it's going to be different. I do think agents negotiate on a percentage of the cap. Funny enough, that might not change much of what's going on if you really think about it. But I think when a team has a chance to win, they're going to go for it. That might not change much of what's going on if you really think about it, except, of course, that, like, there's going to be a bunch of teams $15 to $20 million below the salary cap ceiling now.

And other teams will be able to take advantage of that. And from what it sounds like, Craig Leapold, not among them necessarily. Now maybe that this article came up before the Quinn Hughes trade. This article's a few days old and the quotes are from presumably the day before that. But you got to think he knew that the Quinn Hughes trade was possible. And even then he's like turning out his pockets a little bit. I thought that was really interesting.

Yeah. No, that's. And I mean, we've We've sort of seen this And I hate to bring this up Because I partly because it's a completely different situation But It's hard not to think a little bit back to the

Souter Parisei signing day Sure And everyone being like Minnesota's going for it They're tired to be in the team that has like You know, Miku Koeuv and nothing else And they're finally Taking their band

And then, you know, you look back on it, you go, oh, no, that didn't, that didn't really work at all. Totally different situation. Only one guy saw through the BS on that one, and that was me. I was a day one, this isn't going to get the Wild anywhere guy. But I think... My engraved Wild, Minnesota Wilde, 2013 Stanley Cup was a brutal, man. I remember, I wrote, I was writing, I wrote for Deadspin during the playoffs where, like, the Wild went with that one group of guys. that one time, and they lost in the first round

because they're the fucking Minnesota Wild. And I remember being like, yeah, man, you can't buy a Stanley Cup in Free Agency and people were fucking so mad. Well, check the fucking receipts, man. I don't know what to tell you, you know? Not that anybody's trying to relitigate this besides me, I guess.

But my point is, I remember that those are your two, but there was that one on Deadspin, and then you had the Hulk Hogan tape one. Well. Pretty big. RIP to a legend unproblematic fave, right? Oh, but my point is, though, this is the opposite of that.

You go out and you trade for Quinn Hughes before you have to pay him $18 million a year, whatever the number is. That's good. You get him for like the five whatever he's making right now. Awesome. Perfect. no problems with that. But I would be a little worried about, as you kind of said, can you have the two highest paid players in the league?

Not even from a competitive point of view. Because here's the thing. When the cap goes up to $113 million, which it's scheduled for 113.5, in fact, which is scheduled for 28-29, which that would be the first year of the Hughes contract, right one, 28, 29? Yes, yes, it would be. No, 27, 28 it would be.

But anyway, when it's up to 113. And a half million and beyond, quite frankly, you have those two guys and you still have like $80 million to play with. And a good chunk of your roster signed, you know? So it, to a certain extent, does come down to ownership's willingness to pay that much money. Mm-hmm. So.

And the other nice thing is, unlike the big free agent signings, Leopold isn't immediately turning around and causing a lockout because spending is out of control. Right. So that's cool. Yeah, there's only three or four more years before we have to worry about that again. Yeah. No problem. But that's my point, though, is like,

the same, like the same weekend, basically, that they trade for Quinn Hughes, he's in the athletic going. Yeah, we've got to be like strategic about when we, when we spend a lot of money, which I guess is true of literally any team in any sport. But, you know, again, it's the turning out the pockets one day, one or two days before the Quinn Hughes trade goes through. gives me a little bit of pause about what what is going to happen here. I do love it when sports owners explain them like the most insanely basic concepts as if they're brilliantly.

Like, see, the thing is, a lot of people don't know this, but what you can spend is impacted by how much you bring in. Okay, so there's supply on the one side. And then on the other side, you're not going to, you're not going to fucking believe what there is.

It's demand. And every NHL insider going, this guy's fucking cracked it. This guy, wow. No wonder he made it so far in business. Yep. But yeah, so I don't know. Like, again, I think it rocks that they went for it. I think they should have.

And it's more likely than not to work out very well for them in terms of how they're perceived in that kind of thing around the league. But congratulations on losing to the Colorado Avalanche in the first round two times in a row. You know, like, it does just turn into the Central's Meat Grinder. Sorry. They should do what the... First round by is for all the good teams. Well, was it the Leafs last year that kind of ducked out of the Atlantic playoffs to the Wilde should do that?

That's what they should do. They're only, the 47 points back of the avalanche right now. Make that up? Well, I'm saying they could be like, give us Vegas, please. That's an interesting question. Would you rather face Vegas or Dallas in the first round? If they finish third in the central, we're all going to lose our minds. They'll be like, why are they playing this team instead of, oh, right, they should be, they'd be playing Vegas in one through eight.

Right. We just go to one, what we do is do one through 16, and you invent. teleportation so that we don't have to worry about travel. Done. Yeah, this is easy. I could be an actual owner. These guys, man, these guys fly private. It's fucking, oh, it's so hard.

You got to get on a plane. Yeah. You don't have to go stand in line at TSA, man. Like, you fucking. But you're not, you're not factoring in the media that has to travel to. I think it's fun flying into Edmonton, six times yeah

I do it is so fun it fucking rocks there it is the one building in Edmonton come on man you get a window seat all these

all these reporters I know oh I don't I don't get to see so many movies blah blah blah what are you doing on that fucking play

and watch a damn movie you know yep that's my that's my opinion um So yeah, I guess that's as much as you can say about the Quinn Hughes trade. We did an hour.

That's pretty good, I feel like. That's not bad. Yeah. So with that having been said, when we take a break, we'll come back and we'll talk about the Stewart-Skinner trade. Kevin Adams getting fired, darn going on injury reserve. Probably some other stuff that's going to happen between now and the end of the show. Okay, we'll be right back.

All right, we're back. And as I mentioned, the Stewart Skinner trade is next up on the list. I got to say it's a bad sign for the Oilers that you're calling it the Stewart Skinner trade. Well, with that in mind, I have an important announcement. Stan Bowman, you are the Puck Soup. Dumbass of the week. This was a horrible trade. What are we doing here, man?

Got morning show DJ sound effects happening. quietly in the back. Horrible. Horrible. I'm going to actually have Katie edit in a better version of that. Okay. All right.

Because it didn't work the first time I pressed the button. Anyway. Horrible trade from Stan Bowman. Because remember when we were talking about this last week and we were like, Tristan Jari, why would you want to get him?

I guess if you have a battery of him and Stuart Skinner, that's acceptable? You have two guys that you can kind of rely on But they traded Stuart Skinner away The goalie that I was screaming His same percentage is 851 You kept that guy

What are we doing here, man? I thought you wanted to win a Stanley Cup And not make Connor McDavid mad at you Maybe I'm wrong Is that If we figured out what Tristajari's connection To Connor McDavid is Like, did they go to school together?

It's got to be something. It did like a group project in seven straight. It's got to be something. I cannot believe this trade. You gave up additional assets to take on a goalie who maybe is as good as Stuart Skinner, who's signed for more money than Stuart Skinner for two further years beyond this one. And a guy who was on waivers. Multiple times, I've been.

believe. Could I have him for free. It's been fine this year. And, you know, hey, goalies get hot and cold and goalies can make small technique changes and that sort of thing. It's a more volatile position. We know that. But I'm not put it this way. I think could it work?

Yes, of course. It's goaltending. Every scenario is always possible with goaltending. But it's probably not a great sign that one of my first thoughts on, you know, this deal was, well, they did it early enough in the season that if it doesn't work, they can still make a different deal. Like if Jarry gets there and he's 8.50 for two months. And it's one of those things too where, and first of all, how dare you, Tristan Jari

and his first game with the Edmonton Oilers stopped 25 of 28. Good for an 893 save percentage, the best save percentage of any goalie on the Oilers this year. So it's all going great, actually. Yeah. Um, good point. But no, to me, it's like, unless they're doing the thing where they were going to flip Pickard like this week, this is inexcusable. This is like why people were like, why the fuck would you hire Stan? The guy that ruined Chicago couldn't manage it, couldn't manage the way out of that.

The guy who ruined, the guy he won three Stanley Cups. over five years. Well, you want to talk about the boss being like, oh, you did 90% of the presentation. Dale Tallin's sitting there going, wait, who built that team? I'm willing to say 2010, we don't give Stan Bowman a lot of credit.

But by 2015, that team is still mostly Dale Tallon. Yeah. All right. That's what I'm saying. Like, again, the thing you can say about Stan Bowman is, He managed around the edges and managed the salary cap well and that kind of thing. But, like, everybody on that team was already in, like, every important player on that team, you could argue, was already in place by the time he got there. Right.

Like, you're not, you're not looking at the 2015 Blackhawks and going, oh, that's, that great player on that team, that's the guy Stan Bowman brought in. He managed the depth really well. And you can't say he didn't. He also did some other bad stuff, but that's a different argument. You know, to me, I think that, like, again, like, if you were saying,

what's the one concern you have about Stan Bowman, um, like coming into the Oilers? It's, he didn't get them over the finish line in Chicago, right? Like, that's the issue is he was being asked to get the oilers over the finish line. And Stan Bowman has zero track record of doing that. Well, I mean, he, no, he took over a Chicago team that was close and had, you know, in their case, their big three.

but he did get the more. He was the guy who, I mean, he got Hosa. He, but Hosa was always going there. Like, that's... Was he? I don't remember the timing on that exactly. He was fully chasing the cup territory.

Remember he went from the, he went to three straight Stanley Cup titles before he finally. He was always going to Chicago. I mean, it wasn't like, it's hard to remember now, but back then, Chicago was just a rebuilding team that had just gone to one conference final. Like, it wasn't like everybody was looking at them going, these guys are a lock to.

No, but I'm just saying he was like, who's a good team I can go play for? Oh, Chicago's a good team I can go play for. Yeah. And that's fair. And maybe some other GM would have got them there. But, I mean, this is, this was always the argument for Stan Bowman, is that the Oilers could see themselves as the 2009 Blackhawks.

Yeah, I get all there. Sure. But it hasn't clicked. yet. And he's going to be the closer. And he so far has not. Well, right. So, like, again, the thing with that Chicago team he took over, they had two, maybe three future Hall of Fame forwards, depending on if you want to give them how much credit you want to give them for Hosa.

They had one Hall of Fame defenseman. They had another very good defenseman in Brent Seabre. You know, people act like Seabrook, like, always sucked. And obviously, that's just not the case. Like, there was, there was a time when he was good. And what I would say is, I think, I think you can make a pretty credible case that, um, dry-sidal and McDavid are better, you know, their peaks are better than anything that anybody on those Chicago teams ever had, right? Like, McDavid peak better than Cain peak, tricytel peak better than Tavis-Speak, like, I think this is in arguable, right? But they just don't

have a defenseman who's anywhere near Duncan Keith and never did. Right? It's not like they traded away. I feel like the Oilers did have a defenseman who was a little bit like Duncan Keith, but... Well, okay. But yes. Prime Duncan Keith. Your point is well taken, yeah.

Yeah. And so, like, you know, it's like it's just like, oh yeah, well, the thing I did was I put some guys around three to four future Hall of Famers that I had very little to do with getting on the team, you know? And Edmonton only has two future Hall of Famers. And if you want to say that's the difference, you know, not having a number one defenseman is such a huge thing in winning or not winning a Stanley Cup as the case may. be.

Let alone, because, okay, this is the other thing that I meant to say, though, Auntie Ronta won the first Stanley Cup for,

for Chicago, right? Like, you don't have to have a great goalie to win a Stanley Cup. Look at Sergei Vovrovsky, right? Um,

a guy that we all thought was a bum right up until he won two Stanley Cups. And then everybody said, actually, he's a Hall of Famer, and we love him. He's always been. good. But you've got to have like a competent goalie. And Stambole's like, and yeah, I'm going to test that theory. You got to have a goalie that the team playing in front of him trusts enough that you can give up the occasional goal, which is going to happen to anybody.

Sure. And not have the team immediately go, here we go again. It's not a referendum on the entire team if your goalie gives up a point shot goal. Yeah. There needs to be a fancy stat where it's like, on what percentage of goals allowed, does the camera immediately go to the backup goalie on the bench? The higher that is, the worst shape you're in. And I feel like the Oilers bench cam per 60 was very, very high. Not great. Yeah. Now, and that's part of why, you know, I guess the logic of this trade

I mean, everybody agreed that what you couldn't do because of what I just described, you couldn't run Skinner back again in the playoffs as the primary guy, at least. Fair or not, and I understand there's lots of arguments you can make and numbers you could look at that say Stuart Skinner got a bad rap, he was better goalie than he was given credit for, and he just became the scapegoat.

Not completely the case, I don't think, but not completely off the board either. You had to do something. You had to give... And I guess the argument would be, look, Sean can write as many dumb columns as he wants about going out and getting Ilya Sorokin or UC Saros or whoever.

Those guys aren't available. Right. There's nobody out there who is a significant and obvious upgrade over... Stuart Skinner. So you just got to go and get somebody. And Jari's as good as anyone that you can go and get.

Get the guy now. Do it with enough time that if it all goes bad, you do still have time to pivot. And at the very least, you have, like, this is one of those cases where a change for the sake of making a change is actually good. Because not making a change was the death now. Yeah. Right. That's still giving up a lot of assets to Make a lateral move.

It wasn't like they gave up, you know, we're not, they didn't empty the cupboard here, but yes, for what? It's a pick of a roster defenseman and the guy who was your goalie in two Stanley Cup finals in a row. I think that's a lot of assets to give up for Tristan Jari. No salary retain. For a guy who literally seemed like he might be on his way. Who was on waivers last season.

Yeah. You could have gotten them for free. And the other thing that I find interesting is, as you mentioned, he's signed for two more years, and Bowman seems to think that's a good thing. Bowman seems to feel like, okay, now we've not only do we have our goalie, but, you know, Stuart Skinner was a UFA. We've solidified it. We've now got our goalie locked in for, and, as I said with some of the other guys, like, Seros and that, The next two years after this, so the three years, including this one, are the only ones that matter. There is no timeline beyond that because then McDavid's contract expires and you've either won a cup or done enough to convince him to stay or you haven't.

And it doesn't matter if your goaliest signed for two years or five years or 20 years. I don't know, man. It could work. But that's the best I can say about it. I wish they had swung bigger, and I say that knowing that I don't know how big they were swinging. Like they... Sure.

Yeah. They called about Jeremy Swayman. Right. Ten years from now, we'll find out that, like, they were 90% of the way to the finish line on an Ilius Roken deal, and Matthew Darsh said, okay, let me just make sure my team isn't in first place in the division in December.

And Stan Bowman went, yeah, no problem. Be my guest. And then, oops. Off the team. Maybe. My counterpoint to that is Calvin Pickard is still on the roster. What the fuck are they doing?

That's it. That's my whole take on this. Like, when it was Pickard and Kulak and a pick for Tristan Jari, I was like, that's not ideal, but you make it work. And maybe it's a money thing at the end of the day. I don't fucking know. But I just, I can't see. how you

again, we said last week, this would be a lateral move. Like, when you have Skinner and Jari, every night that you change who the goalie is, it's a lateral move. One is not going to be much better or worse than the other.

And what they did was they kept the worst goalie in the league. What? What the fuck are you talking about you kept the worst goalie in the league? It doesn't make any sense. None. all these Edmonton guys can defend it however they want

oh Stuart Skinner he was going to cost $7 million at the end of the year well if you got to the end of the year and he wanted $7 million and like you felt like someone was going to give him that money it's probably because you went really deep into the fucking playoffs again and maybe

even won a Stanley Cup Stuart Skinner isn't getting $7 million unless he wins the cup so yeah I so I mean is this just as simple as saying A, it's making the salaries work. And B, Pittsburgh's saying, no, I don't want Calvin Picker.

You want this deal. We want Stuart Skinner. Okay, bye. Like, the whole point is you need an upgrade over Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard as your pairing. Like, that's the point is you need the upgrade in the pairing because what's holding you back is one night you have an 891 goalie. The next night, you have an 8.51 goalie. And so now they go, okay, well, now we have a 894 goalie or whatever the number is for Jari. And we still have the 8.51.

Like, that's the problem. And the other problem is Pickard has fucking, he's played 11 of their 33 games. It's not like, okay, well, we got to ride Stewart Skinner into the fucking ground. We got to go Connor Halibuck mode, where the, other goal he plays four nights in the whole year. No, they're like every third game we have to give to the worst goalie in the league. Do you think it's driving fucking crazy? Do you think it's as simple as what I'm guessing some Oilers fans are,

are yelling right now, which is that actually doesn't matter because he's, he's just holding a spot for Connor Ingram once he's ready to come back to the NHL and he'll actually be the guy who'll. I'm going to Google how Connor Ingram's doing in the AAHL right now. Give me one second to pull up. Getting his feedback under him. Elite prospects Connor Ingram. It says Bakersfield Condor's 11 games 404 goals against 856 save percent.

Wait a second. 856. That's almost as bad as the other guy and in a league that's lower. The HL shooters are better than NHL guys though, right? Isn't that? Oh, let's see. How'd Connor Ingram do last year? 882.

Okay. And look, I understand the guy, you know, like you said, he's going to get his feet back under him. That's all. I get that. But if you're waiting for that, this is the help you're waiting for? Why does Sam Bowman still have a job? If this is the fix. The fix is we'll get, we'll take on salary and lose it perfectly.

serviceable defenseman to not upgrade in goal while we wait for the guy who's again his safe percentage in the AHL is 856. We can just get him to show up. We're in great shape. What are you talking about? There's no argument that this makes any sense at all. And give up a pretty high draft pick, which you should not care about using. No.

To be very clear. But that is, that's one of the, that's one of the bills in your wallet. One of the bills in your wallet that you can use to shop at the goalie store. And, yeah, no, that's fair. Okay, so I feel like I know the answer to this question. I'll throw it out there. What do you think of this from the penguin side? Um, who cares?

Like, they, they didn't want... The... Uh, I, yeah. Okay, so two things. First of all, I think it's better than who cares. because this was a guy they couldn't get rid of on waivers. Right. Well, okay, right.

I guess I was saying it. I was saying it in terms of how does it affect them on the ice this year. And I think that the answer to that is who cares, right? You're still kind of. Yeah, but how deep into the season do we have to go with the penguins playing at like a close to a hundred point pace before we acknowledge that this could be a playoff team? And I think it is a little bit. It definitely could be a playoff team. It is a little bit gutsy to trade your starter,

your 1A at the very least. Yeah. When you are not just a playoff team, but an overachieving playoff team. And I do think there's a scenario where three months from now, the penguins are out of a playoff spot and people go, you know what? It's trading Tristan Jari away.

Well, so... Really kind of blew up that thing they had going. I will take back my... take. I will take back my, my who cares then. You're right. But I think big picture this doesn't change the outlook for the penguins,

other than it frees up some money. Like, do I think Stuart Skinner is resigning in Pittsburgh? I do not. Right? And I don't know that they have any real idea of who their, their goalie is for next year right now, other than like they got some young guys in the system maybe.

I don't know. I could see it being Skinner, because I don't think he's going to have a lineup of. Yeah. We'll see. You know, he gets a few months to try it out and all that stuff. Yeah, but I just don't think, let's put it this way. I don't think in an ideal scenario, the penguins are paying, I agree that $7 million is probably not going to be the number. But let's say it's five and a half.

Like, let's say it's the exact Tristan Jari deal, but for like four or five years. I don't see the penguin signing up for that personally. Maybe there's some other stuff going on. I don't know. Whatever. Point is, I don't see this really affecting things one way or the other for them on the ice. But it is nice, as you say, that they got out from under the Jari contract.

For sure. There's no two ways about that. That's actually a real positive for the organization. But I do wonder how much. much them overachieving like Kyle Dubus is like I really really wanted to get a high draft pick this year. What the fuck?

God damn it. You know, I think that I think that's a very real possibility that he's not super thrilled that they're very competitive this year. But yeah, I don't know the

I can't, I again, I just see Jari as a very lateral move with Skinner. again, on the ice. Obviously, in the cap world and all that, there's different considerations. But that's why whatever for me, you know. Okay. That's, yeah, that's fair.

Anything else you wanted to say about this deal? I guess I'm interested in the goalie market writ large, because it does feel like there's a team or two that wants to upgrade a net and who's going to be there to let them do that. I don't know. Yeah. It's, it's, it is tough to find goalies in the middle of the season. Really is? It's the NHL, man. People are supposed to do tough things.

We've got the toughest players in the world. Everyone else, coaches, players, organists, guy who sells popcorn, are all expected to do tough things. The peanut vendors are standing up to them, remember that part? That's right. I haven't seen that in so long. No. Good movie in my recollection. Anyway, they fired Kevin Adams out there in Buffalo, New York.

Can you believe it? Whoa. Unbelievable. Wow. The timing is a little bit weird. Like, what did we learn in the last two months that we didn't know other than the Sabres are bad again, which... Look, here's what I think is. what we learned is that Yarmu now knows enough people around the offices' names

that, like, it doesn't feel completely insane that he's taking the job. He can be like, oh, I know, I know Deborah down it, you know, whatever. I almost said an accounting, but that's where Kevin used to work. Yeah. She's like, it's Danielle. And he's like, that's close enough. I, I, all right, well, let's talk Kevin Adams first and then we'll get to you. love to.

As the replacement. I had him, where did I have? Third on my list of the worst GM stints that were at least five years long. He'd been, five years ago. Currently or? All time. All time, got it. Okay.

All time. 2020 was when he was hired. No playoff appearances. I'm not going to sit here and say he did a top to bottom terrible job. Like, I think the Jack Eichael trade was, was okay under the circumstances, and, you know, he's to blame for some of the circumstances. So that's kind of a mixed compliment, I guess. But at the end of the day, like, it's, it was an unusual hire. Yep, that's true.

You know, people for, like, he had no front office experience. He had been working on the business side. Business development or something like that, yeah. And obviously he played in the NHL for a long time. He's a hockey lifer and all of this stuff, but was not somebody who came in with like direct hands-on experience. And the view at the time, fair or not, was this was the Pagula's hiring somebody they just like. A yes, man.

Yeah. Yeah. Someone who had figured out, you know, he knew how to manage up. And we've said it before. I mean, I've certainly seen a lot. That's a skill in the business. Yeah. If you've got, I mean, your owner is your owner.

and being able to manage up is a very important skill. That was what, I mean, Pierre Dorian here in Ottawa, for all his other faults, knew how to convince Eugene Melnick that everything was going well. And was that the same thing that was happening in Buffalo with Kevin Adams to maybe a different, slightly different degree?

I don't know. I don't, I'm, I'm, the older I get, the less I, take any, you know, can get all excited about people losing jobs, especially a guy like Kevin Adams, who I don't think there's going to be a long line to... Oh, you don't think that's interesting. But, yeah, I don't think anyone right now is like, I wasn't going to fire my GM, but...

Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I mean, this is, it is unusual for anyone in the NHL to last five years with this sort of track record. undeniable, yes, that's correct. Not a surprise. The timing, again, is weird. You don't see a lot of GM changes during the season.

No, you really don't. So would it have, you know, would it have been smarter to do it in the summer and then have a more open search? Maybe. But this is where we can get to Yarmo, because I don't, I, it's, he's been with the team since May, I want to say.

He's brought in as an advisor, which, and we all went. Oh, there's the next GM. Okay. Let's see. That's exactly right. But he was brought, he's been there not so long that you just consider him part of the problem. No, for sure you don't. But also, and this I think is key, he's been there long enough that he doesn't get to play

the whole, oh, I need a year to get the lay of the land card. Sure. That GMs love to play. Because they don't, I mean, they love not doing, and again, I identify so much with this.

I would love to have a high paying job where I did next to nothing for a year. Yeah. Just cashed some checks and was like sitting in meetings going, oh yeah, I guess, I guess I know who that player is. We hire you over the athletic and you like come in,

you're like, hey, guys, it's going to take me a year to figure out how my keyboard works. Is this a formal job offer? Yeah. I'm listening. Well, we can make something happen. You will have to change your name to Sean.

Okay, but I'm going to spell it bad. Nope, nope. Okay. No, not okay. Yeah, I, I, it's, I said something complimentary-ish about Yarmalkegeline and yesterday on social media where I was like, hey, I mean, one thing about him, is he made a lot of big trades in Columbus. Yeah, you can't say he was sitting on his ass there. He did not sit around.

He, and look, in a league where I am constantly complaining about how many GMs are just timid little, like I don't want to stick my neck out of the foxhole sort of guys. That wasn't him. Caledian and Columbus was, he was willing to make big moves. He was hooping. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And let's just say I got feedback from Columbus fans that was not necessarily the most.

Well, look, so I'm not a Yarmow defender by any means. But I think that he, in retrospect, like at the time a lot of Columbus friends were like he's actually one of the true geniuses of the sport and then the second he's out of town. This guy's a fucking idiot. you know, like there's a lot of that going on in Columbus where like if you talked any shit at all about Columbus, he's actually building something. You know, like, and I'm going Obama mode, I'm going, you didn't build that, you know?

But I, what ultimately did he build in Columbus? Not very much. But I want to go back to something you said earlier, Sean. You said the owner is the owner. And isn't that the fucking. a huge problem in Buffalo because, again, the perception is

Kevin Adams hired to go anything you want, Mr. Pagula. No problem for me, Mr. Pagula, you know, and who was the guy, you know, I feel like I've read before that, like, maybe

it wasn't Kevin Adams who was saying Jack Eichl's not allowed to get that neck surgery, you know? Someone was making that decision and I don't I don't necessarily think it was the guy who we're saying was the yes man. Right? Mm-hmm. And if that's the case, then how much of Yarmow's job is going to be simply managing up saying,

Mr. Pagula, please, this is what we need to happen for X, Y, and Z. and it's still the owner, just like in Vancouver, it's still the owner saying, this is what the team needs to be, this is what I'm willing to pay for it, blah, blah, blah. Like how much of the, and I say this all the time. The best owner in sports says, here's a blank check,

I'll see you at the fucking Christmas party. They just, they get out of the way. And I, the impression that I'm getting, getting here from from everything I know about the Buffalo Sabres and how they've operated these last however long 14 years or whatever is that this is this is an owner who has a little bit of trouble being the guy who gets out of the way just signs the checks and and goes off and watches Bill's games you know so my concern and again I don't I'm not the

biggest Yarmo guy my concern is that it doesn't really matter. It could be me and Sean or the GMs of the Buffalo Sabres. If we're just there to enact the will of the Pagula family, I don't think anybody can succeed in this scenario. And so the question I have is, not what's Yarmo's big idea here? What did Kevin Adams do wrong?

I think it's all, did the Pagoolas learn a lesson from the Kevin Adams era of the Buffalo Sabres? And if so, what is it? It's that simple. And I feel like lots of people in Buffalo have learned a lesson. I just don't know if it's Terry Bagua on down. And I think, like, in that sense, Yarmal Kekalayan is an interesting choice because he was a GM in Columbus for a long time. and then was sort of out of the league. So in theory, he wants back in.

And if that means he's got to play ball with the owner, then he does it. But also, this isn't Kevin Adams coming in as a young guy with no experience, knowing that this was the only path he was ever going to get. Like, I don't, I assume Yarmal Kekelainen is not, you know, he's not in there to tell Terry Pagula to stuff it and get, lost, but he's also, I'm guessing, not there to just be the yes man. Well, but again, that's like, that's kind of my whole question here is, is like, what, what degree of autonomy does he have to make decisions and push back on Pagoula saying, we need to do

X, Y, and C, you need to manage the team this way, whatever it is, like, I don't, you know, I don't have the intimate knowledge of like how it worked for for like uh what the workflow right is that the is that the term people use of like here's how decisions get made and are put into an into action and all that kind of stuff i don't know how that works in buffalo i it's a little opaque to me obviously so if it's as simple as you know kevin adams again was just kind of like yes, Mr. Pugula, whatever you say, then I, maybe Yarmow can push back on that a little bit. But also, like, as you say, when, when they acquired, when they signed Yarmokhek al-Lyin to be whatever his job title was before this, he was a bit of a distressed asset, right? Like, all the Columbus fans who had been like, we actually love this guy are like, this guy's dumber than dog shit and we hate him.

It was like the turnaround and so like he And the Mike Babcock thing Had a lot to do with that Oh for sure Yes of course But again Who's

That is another Who really made that decision thing for me Yeah Was that a Yarmow thing Or was that an owner guy thing I don't know the name of the owner In Columbus which by the way

Is a good thing I would be happy with that That's a very good thing Yep So So I guess my point is, again, how much autonomy are we talking about here? If the, however, what was the GM there for like eight years, nine, ten, eleven, something like that, long time. If that amount of experience running an NHL team is what buys Yarmoukek line and the ability to say,

every other GM you've hired in Buffalo, Terry, Terry, he'd call him Mr. Pagouli, he's not that powerful. Every, every, every, every, there's no way anybody's allowed

to call on that. No, Terry Pagula is the guy that like, when he's in a press conference, all the Buffalo media people are like, Mr. Pagula, how are you,

you know? To what would you attribute your runaway success as the owner of the Buffalo Bills? You just beat the Patriots, you know, like that kind of, that's how they, that's how they frame it.

but like to what degree does he get to say here's how it's going to work versus Pagula being able to be like when I hired you, you were you were down in the mud and I lifted you up and so here's what I think we should do with our third line right wing. You know what I mean? Like I don't know. I don't know what the dynamic is is my point. And if if what happens is, basically the same shit,

who would be surprised, you know? And then are we saying, okay, I guess it's going to be 18 years without the playoffs. That's the only thing. Yep. It's the whole thing. What's the plan right now?

The last thing I'll say, and then we can move on, is I've made this point before. Kevin Adams, for all his faults, was not wrong about the palm trees. he was not wrong when he said this is just not an attractive destination for players right now

and it won't be until we win people got mad at that and they held up the inflatable palm trees and that and yeah because he was at that point everybody was completely out of patience and anything that sounds like an excuse or whatever but he was like you go back and read those quotes he was absolutely right

but he was his path to being right I think was incorrect if that makes it like he got it Not there, but he really did not make it easy on himself. Maybe. Maybe that's the case, but what he said was just... Undeniable. Yeah, of course.

Yeah. The one nice thing, if I'm a Sabres fan, and I'm desperately looking for some optimism here, is Yarmal Kekelining comes over from Columbus, you know, a decade in Columbus, which is probably the closest market to Buffalo as far as. as being an attractive market, you know, U.S. market, but smaller. Taxes are an issue, weather's an issue, all of that stuff.

No palm trees there either. He did get Johnny Goodrow as a UFA. Now, that was more Johnny Goodroo wanting to go to Columbus, but... Correct. Yeah, they called him. But that's at least something or the other way around. He called them.

This guy did... If you're sitting there going, well, you know, he's maybe the only guy to land a a UFA of that quality in a market that has those challenges in the cap era. Yeah, and he didn't, he didn't do the Minnesota thing where he's like, we have to like basically break the salary cap

to give you these two contracts and also you're not particularly good. You know, like that is notable for sure. But again, like, as you say, that was more of a, was like, that's crazy. Philly didn't want to sign me? I guess I'll go somewhere that's like kind of close to that.

Like that, that's basically what happened there. So like, yeah, he got, he got the guy and there's no two. You can't say he didn't. I just, I just kind of think like, you know, the thing of like him or a potato. A potato could have made the Johnny Goddreau signing because he called the potato. Maybe. That's all. But, yeah, he's.

signed him. Can't say he didn't do that. He's, he's the GM in that video where they're like, hey, I have Johnny Godreau on the line. He's like, you do? And he's like, okay, really funny, Rick, you can hang up now. But Kevin Adams would have been holding the phone upside down. Look, again, if you're saying who's a better GM with like a better track record of success, Kevin Adams or Yarmoukek Linen, unquestionably, it's Yarmokhek Linen. I just think, much like Vancouver, it's all immaterial because of who the owner is until proven otherwise. Okay. That's all.

I can't say they didn't upgrade who the, at least in my perception of it, figurehead is. I would love, you know what, Yarno, give me a call. You want to tell me exactly how this is all going to work? I'd love to hear you out. I just don't have a lot of faith that Terry Pagula is going to be like an, an exceeding total control of the Buffalo Sabres franchise to you. That's all. That's it.

Very fair. Again, prove me wrong. I'd love to see it. Look, Buffalo's a great sports market. Their fans are psychos about the sports teams they like, you know? How long were the bills bad? And they were still like, yeah, I guess I'll light myself on fire in the parking lot for fun

before the game. That's no problem for me. It would be fucking awesome if Buffalo had like an engaged and enthusiastic fan base. But the guy who owns the team owns the team and he seems to not really want to give up the power that comes with that, which is his right. He owns the fucking team. He's signing everybody's checks. But again, prove me wrong.

I'd love to see it. I'm just not holding my breath. Yep. That's it? I'm with you. Okay. Now, Conrad, he's hurt.

Yeah. Looked like a shoulder injury, right? They just called it up or bon. Yeah. And he is going to be out at least until January when he will be re-evaluated. And so they, as Sean said to me, last night. Congratulations, Hockey Canada.

You found your excuse to not have Connor Bedard on the Olympic team. You did it. Congratulations. You did it. Kind of feels like that's it, right? This is their way to say, ah, you know, he wasn't healthy.

And, you know, because he's going to be back by the Olympics. Yeah. That doesn't seem to be in doubt. Yes, guys can have setbacks or whatever, but then you can remember. replace him. It's not like there's nothing here that makes you think, oh, he's going to be 80% for the Olympics and, you know, that sort of thing. But it gives them, it gives them a, a, a reason to chicken out.

Yes, that's right. Because, so me and KM over to Elite Prospects, we did our, what we think is our final projection for not what we would pick for the Olympic rosters, but what we think the, the, other guys, like the teams will pick for the Olympic rosters, right? Like, not our preferences. We were predicting, okay? And we both had, we both had, uh, celebrini on the team, but I had Baderd on and Cam said he didn't think so. And now I, now that this injury has happened, I am agreeing, you know? Mm-hmm.

He had, instead of Connor Bidart, he had Anthony Sorrelli and, and, and, you know, and, you know, Anthony Sorrelli, come on down, Big Cat. You did it. You're locked in here. We're all set. I, it sucks because, you know, I think he certainly played his way onto the team. If you, I'll put it this way. If you would come to me in October, is Connor Redard making the Olympic team?

I'd have said, not a fucking chance. What are you talking about? Yep. And he has made this a no doubter for me, but I'm not a 200 hockey man. No, you're not. You are in the recent rankings, you finished 201st, which... Tough one for me, but, you know, I have to accept it. I have to accept it.

That's just how it is. Um, so yeah, I, uh, I hate to see this shit. This sucks for me, because I, I just want to see the best players possible in a best on best tournament. And then they said, can we interest you in Tom Wilson 100% locked in on the Canadian. and team. And I was like, oh, here's the thing, too. Tom Wilson's absolutely played his way onto it. But he's played his way into the conversation for sure, yeah.

Well, now I'm saying I think it's a lock. Like, let's put it this way. There's not a big sports net feature on, wow, isn't it crazy? He's almost on the Olympic team. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Like, it's, we're all set here. So.

Yeah, to me, I'm just, I'm a little bummed about it, but that's hockey. People get hurt. I don't know. And tough for Chicago, too, because they're, oh, yeah. They are really, flatlining would be too strong, but they are. The bloom's starting to come off the rows a little bit for sure. They are starting to look a lot more like the, like what we thought they were. Yep.

They are what we thought. Remember that? They are what we thought they were. I do remember that one, yeah. The guy said it. He was mad about football. Cardinals? Is that who that was?

That was the Arizona Cardinals losing to the Chicago Bears. That's right. Dennis Green, I think, was the coach. Ask me what color my wife's eyes are. I'm just not a big football head, man. I know the memes. although you know what I started following this this account on Instagram that's called like film room or something like that

and it's like a 20 year old kid who just breaks down plays have you seen this kid? No. He's a fucking genius. He's explaining football is a sport I vaguely understand but he's like talking about it at a high level that makes me feel like I actually get this too I'm smart. You know what I mean?

I can't recommend this kid enough. He's a gene. And again he's like 20 years old. like visibly in college, you know? Awesome shit. Anyway. I guess that's it. Do you have any other Olympic team thoughts as we approach?

No, I mean, they announced that they're doing the announcement on New Year's Eve. Yeah. So, okay. So we've got a couple more weeks. I mean, I'm sure they've already made their minds up. It kind of sounds like they had in June. So. Yeah.

Well, again, I'll say this. I, we both, me and Cam both thought Celebrini and Schaefer had played their way onto the team. And neither, you wouldn't have said either guy was on the team in June. I would not have even been able to imagine a scenario where Matthew Schaefer gets on the team. And now he feels like a fucking lock. I don't know if he's a lock, but he's, he is strongly in the conversation and not just from like a hype perspective.

Like, you know, there are guys who sometimes he go like, Oh, yeah, it's just whatever. It's all politics, absolutely. Yeah. Because he plays in that big Islander market. Yeah, the pro-Ilander bias in the hockey Canada sphere is unmistakable and undeniable. But yeah, I think that I'll tell you who's had this roster locked in since June is the United States of America. I think all three goalies are the same.

I think there's very little turnover on defense. and they're going to throw the people like me and you who are like, man, you scratched fucking Kyle Connor for the championship game so you could play fucking Brock Nelson. They're going to throw us guys a bone and they'll be like, you can have one of Jason Robertson and Tage Thompson. You can't have both. But other than that, I think it's going to be pretty similar.

Again, I'd love to be wrong. Mm-hmm. But just not how it works in the National Hockey League. Nope. You got anything to plug, Sean? Let's get the hell out of here. Yeah, I got some pieces coming up later in the week. I got a Olympic-themed sort of piece.

Pretty simple question. Who wins? A team of Canadian players who played for Canadian NHL teams or American players who played for American NHL team. Currently? Come on down. I went back to like, no, like in modern history. What I found is if you do it currently, it's too stacked for Team U.

Yeah, there's just going to be too, yeah, of course. And if you go history, it's like, oh, Robert Richard, it's like, yeah, it's. I guess that's true. There weren't any American players until 1980. So, yeah, it's going to. Oh, if something happened in 1980? I feel like that never comes up. In international hockey, I feel like that was when they started preparing for

the Canada Cup in 1981. Very interesting. Yeah. And I don't know, I've been trying to get a who says no mailbag. This is the one where you have to propose trades that don't involve players or draft picks. And I put the call out. And I got to say, it's not great. Not great.

I think I've had two or three good ones. So if you're hearing this, please help out show. I know you've got one in the back of your head that is so funny about like Kevin Adams or Or you could just do what I'm asking you to do. Maybe. No, I get it. I get it. No, no, that is a good.

It's a good Kevin Adams joke that you've got. And it's also the one where people are like, Connor McDavid for a first round date. No, no, I'm going to stop you right there. That's not what we're doing. So yeah, I may have to pivot and do. As a guy who has to look at a lot of mailbags for his podcast every week. I'm just shocked.

Am I asking the wrong audience here? Do you think? Well, what I... People are super good at putting in ideas. Well, there's a lot... What you get is a lot of people going like, you know, tell me it's freaking Carter McDavid without telling me it's Carter McDavid. You know, like, who's the best player in the world and why is it freaking Quinn Hughes?

Okay. Do you want me to answer the question or do you want to get your joke off? that if you want to do your joke, that's fine. But if you want me to answer the question, they want to do the joke. Yeah, okay. Well, so as I said, that's fine. And listen to the athletic hockey show and subscribe to the red light newsletter.

Okay, great. Elite prospects.com. I don't know if you heard about this, Sean. The world juniors are coming up. And I don't want to cast any aspersions here at anybody else, but the coverage of elite prospects of the world juniors is going to fuck and nuke every other site combined? I've seen the content calendar.

It's fucking insane, the amount of stuff we have planned and the amount of depth that all the people who work for us are going to go into. Now, I don't cover World Junior, so I'm not, like, taking any credit here, you know? I'm just saying that, like, all my coworkers who are smarter than me are, like, going to fucking destroy coverage of the world juniors as they always do. So now is the time to sign up. It's like this and the draft guide are the two things that we do better than anyone on the planet. And again, I say we only as an employee.

I don't have anything to do with the publication of either of these things. What I do have to do with is the publication of college hockey stuff over there at Elite Prospects. And, Sean, I was just at the other day, I was at Matthew's Arena, Northeastern's hockey rink. I can't remember all the little caveats they had to put on it, but basically like the oldest continually operational hockey rink in the world or something like that. And then they were like indoor and also used for others. Okay, sure. But 115 years old they had to shut it down just this past Saturday against their hated rival Boston University. and it was, first of all, it was a great hockey game.

Really a lot of fun. But beyond that, like the ceremony they did to, like, close the arena at the end of the night was awesome. Johnny Bucic was there. Yeah, I saw your, you tweeted out like a photo of him. Yeah, because he was there representing, he was there representing the Bruins where Matthews Arena was the original. home of both the Bruins and the Celtics. They didn't get an old tall guy to show up, unfortunately. But, like, yeah, Johnny Busek was there because his, I believe, nephew was the athletic director

of Northeastern's college roommate. So he was like, well, we can get this guy who played hockey at Northeastern and his hall of famer uncle to show up. And then they got, like, a guy who had played for. for Northeastern in the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, Dan McGillis was there, current Bruin, Jordan Harris, who played at Northeastern was there. So it was, you know, a nice, like, through the years kind of a ceremony. It was cool.

So I wrote about, you know, what it means to close 115-year-old building and all that kind of stuff. And it was a great night. It was a lot of fun at the rink. Um, anyway, Patreon.com slash Puck Soup. All kinds of bonus episodes coming your way throughout this beautiful holiday season. So, uh, stay tuned for all that. We're going to go record a mailbag right now.

We have a, uh, a bonus episode with Greg that'll be coming out, uh, later in the month. So all kinds, all kinds of stuff going on over there, like I said. Uh, that's it for us. Thank you so much for listening. And, uh, have a good one. Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye.

You know,