Puck Soup - Talkin' Trades

Episode Date: March 23, 2022

Sean and Ryan run down the big moves of the trade deadline.

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It's in tunes It's your weekly bowl of Huggian nonsense I'm I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects I'm Sean McAnew From The Athletic And I think we're still waiting To see if all the trades

From Trade Deadline Day are done Yep. They can still trickle in the NHL's absolute crack system of verifying trades is working like a well-oiled machine. You know, so I had to do trade. I think you also were doing like live reactions all day. Am I right about this? Yes, I was. So we're both sitting there. It's three o'clock or whatever. And I think it was Chris Johnson tweeted, by the way, there's like three. plus deal still in the queue. And I'm like, I'm going to fucking kill myself. I can't do this.

I've been up since 8 a.m. Grading trades. Yeah. That was wild. And I remember, I remember three kind of distinct faith. I remember when that happened, having pretty much the same reaction as you going. That's way too many. And then later when the whole Vegas Anaheim thing broke,

I was like, oh, okay, well, that must have been why. That was the traffic jam. But apparently not. Apparently, the league was just like, yeah, that deal sounds good, stamped. You're good to go. And it was only later when the player's agent was like, hey, guys. Funny story about this. You see, the thing is this.

He doesn't want to go there and he doesn't have to in Vegas is going. Yeah. What's up? So let's start with. Good old of Genie Dadaanov. Dadaanov, I'm sorry. So if we go back to the very beginning, Vegas trades for him this summer. Ottawa, apparently, does not tell Vegas.

By the way, he waived a no trade clause to leave on. Yeah, the beginning is really, Ottawa signs him to a contract at the beginning of, last season. Yeah, doesn't work. They give him a 10-team no-trade clause. He stinks. Vegas apparently misses this and trades away their most popular player in franchise history, Mark Andre Fleury, to create cap room that they then immediately use up by trading for

Doddanov. And I felt like at the time, people were like, great move. And I was like, am I losing my mind? This guy has not been good in Ottawa. why would you do that? It was a great move in so far as you shouldn't spend $12 million on goal tending. Sure. But to then use five of the seven that you just freed up on Evgeny Dadaanov, I think

every, to Donov, I did it again. Everybody was like, don't, like I'm going to correct you on pronunciation. I have like literally I have the athletic story about this thing in front of me and like to Donov is the first word of the first paragraph I have, like, scrolled to, so I shouldn't be messing it up this often. But, um, but yeah, so like, I think everybody was like, it makes sense that they move flurry, even like, you know, the value is never going to be high or blah, blah, blah. Oh, yeah, yeah, they got a, they got a windfall for them. Right. Um, but to, to get to Donov for five sevenths of the cat.

space they just freed up. And then Laurent Blasois for the other for the other two million. Everybody was like, oh, I don't know about this. And the funny thing here is that he's got, so he's got a 10-team, no-trade clause. Yes. Apparently, as he's being traded from Ottawa to Vegas, like that topic just never comes up, which is just funny to me. Like they're at no point in the process of like, hey man, we're trading you from last place laughing stock, Ottawa, to first place cup favorite Las Vegas. Do you have any objections to that? Like, nobody even thought to ask.

They're like, yeah, he's fine with it. And he was like, I am absolutely fine with that. There was a whole shape like him in the side of the building. He was getting out of town. Yes. Like, you know, the Simpsons bit where you hear like a door slam and then a. car drive away and then a plane takeoff in the space of two seconds. That's what happened when they traded to Donoff out of the auto.

Homer Simpson-shaped cloud of dust slowly dissipating. So nobody even thinks to ask if there's a no trade clause. And then this is, I guess, where it gets dicey, right? Because we don't know, according to Vegas, they are never told that there even was a no trade clause. Ottawa doesn't tell them and doesn't pass on this information. Now there's maybe alternate views of that as to whether they knew or not. But Vegas says we didn't know. Nobody told us.

And they apparently had this player on the roster all year, presumably had trade talks with various teams because we knew their cap situation. And he's a big number. never knew, never thought to check that he had a no trade clause, despite the fact that his cap-friendly page said he had a no-trade clause the entire time. Right. And that's, that's the tricky part, right? Because if you're Vegas and you're like, well, they didn't tell us, you go, that's a good reason not to know, except everybody who has ever been to their cap-friendly page knows about it. And, you know, that's where you get into the thing of like Gary Betman going, oh, do we have no need for that kind of thing on our end?

Everybody knows everything. All right. If you fucking say so, Gare. So that is the thing of like, you know, what's the saying about like ignorance of the law is not a reason to break the law or whatever? Like that is... Especially since this isn't some obscure crazy thing. And, you know, then that's the other piece of it is that a lot of people are like, you know, wait a way. a second.

Like, isn't, we always hear about central registry where they would presumably register things. Does this, does a no trade clause not go into, uh, into that information somewhere that's available to every team? Like, how could you possibly have a guy on your team and not know that he had a no trade? So here is an interesting wrinkle to that. Um, I got a, I got a look.

this up really fast, but it is, okay. So the language in the contract says, the club shall not trade the player to another NHL member club without first allowing the player to provide the club with a, quote, written list, uh, aka the no trade list of up to 10 NHL member clubs to which the player does not consent to be traded. The no trade list must be provided to the club on or before January 15th, 2021 during the 2020-21 league year and on or before July 1st of the 21-22 and 22-23 league years. What's interesting, this has been what's been pointed out by like lawyers is you would think, given the number of lawyers who look at this, that you've got to present it to the club. Who is the club in this scenario is the ultimate question here? Because he was traded by Ottawa after that July 1st date.

The story, at least as we've heard it, is that he did submit his no trade list to Ottawa at the beginning of the season on the day he was supposed to. So Ottawa had their list of 10 teams. Obviously, Vegas wasn't on that list. But then it becomes a case of, okay, first of all, did they tell Vegas, did they pass that list on? or does he, based on the wording you just read, does he actually need to submit his list to Vegas now? And does the fact that Vegas never received a list from him mean that there was no list? That's one way to look at it.

The flip side would be that you don't get to change your list after you're traded? I don't know. I mean, he didn't have an opportunity to provide a list to Vegas on July 1. And by the way, years and years and years ago, when no trades first started coming in, there was this whole argument over whether a no trade traveled with a player, whether if you waived a no trade, whether you were waiving it permanently. And that was all settled, which is, yes, it does travel with you, and no waiving your no trade once does not wave it permanently.

But the thing of it doesn't carry over, it used to be it doesn't carry over. It used to be it doesn't carry over. That was in the CBA. Well, there was. There was, okay, so there's two things here. There was a whole argument, and I feel like it was it, Luber of Vizanovsky or somebody like that with the Islanders, and it may have been the ducks, this was like over 10 years ago.

He got, he waived his no trade, and then they were like, okay, you don't have it anymore. And there was this whole case and arbitration about it. And eventually it was decided that, no, once you waive your no trade, you still have it. There was a separate issue, which was with players who signed contracts where the no trade kicked in at a certain point. If they were traded before the no trade kicked in, did it transfer?

This was the P.K. Suban situation where he signs an extension with Montreal, a few days before his no trade kicks in, they trade him, which they had the right to do, to Nashville. And then Nashville does not have to honor the no trade anymore because it didn't travel with him. which was a terrible, stupid, awful loophole that, thankfully, they closed a few years ago. Well, so in closing it, this is the theory that has also been advanced. Okay. In closing that loophole, it was right before he had to submit, like, it was in the new, the CBA that they signed to get the season restarted in the bubble and all that. Yeah.

And that's what, so that's when they officially. closed the loophole. And so there is something of whoever at Ottawa was supposed to communicate that, thought that that hadn't been closed or something like that. That's another theory out there that, okay, well, he's waving his no trade clause in theory or whatever, like he's being traded so it doesn't carry over. Is basically what, like, is what somebody in the Ottawa organization might have thought because like weeks earlier basically they had changed the rules.

So again, like who knows what happened is basically the point. It's very messy. Yeah, it's super messy. And also, like, even if it's messy just from a legal standpoint of, you know, who knew what, who was supposed to, where's the responsibility? Why didn't the league catch this at the trade call at the very least? Who screwed up? I think there's fingers pointing everywhere except, I guess, Anaheim.

the one team that you wouldn't expect. Right, yeah. They have any. You know, why didn't the agent, you know, had he never had a conversation with these guys? It's a whole mess. But then there's also, okay, how do you fix this now? Because Vegas needs this trade to go through in order to have enough cap room to open up to the guy, they're injured guys who are coming back.

And if the league comes back and says, no, I'm sorry, this is an invalid trade, they're now stuck with the guy he's he didonov now has to come back to a team that clearly doesn't want him it's it's it's very awkward and messy is there

Vegas could still if this trade is wiped out could still trade this guy somewhere else you can trade after the trade deadline but the players you trade cannot play for the rest of the year but if they're just looking to do it as a salary dump I know I saw one of the Buffalo writers say the Sabres should take this contract If they can get the second round pick, they have a bad contract to flip back replacing the Ryan Kessler deal, which was for LTIR purposes.

Unless he doesn't want to go to Buffalo? Unless he's on, unless Buffalo is on the list. And also, you know, Vegas could go to him and say, we've got 20 teams or 21 teams we can trade you to. We're going to trade you to one of those teams. And that means you don't even play the rest of the year. You're basically being shut down. Does he turn around, you know, at some point does he go, you know what? maybe it's best for me if I just go to Anaheim.

I'll just, I will wave, you know, and then does the league allow that? Does the league say, well, you hadn't waived it at the time? Three o'clock is the deadline. Do other teams get involved in complain and say, hey, wait a second, this deal didn't get done? You know, if you're Calgary or something, do you not jump up and say, hey, no, Vegas is, yeah, put a thumb in their eyes. Yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, there's all these things that can happen.

I still would not be surprised if maybe the resolution is that. didonov just ends up being allowed to waive to go to Anaheim, but I could see the NHLPA saying, like, we don't want that to happen unless there's some compensation or there's something or some punishment to these teams, because we don't want our guys who have no trades getting traded, having that publicized, and then being put in a spot where they have to accept a trade they don't want.

Yeah, it's really, and like, you know who I feel bad for here is, Kenny DeDanav because he's, yeah, he's in a situation where he's like, I don't know where I'm, whether I'm going for days on end. I don't, I do know that the team that I currently play for doesn't want me there. And like, did he, did he play for them the other night? I have no idea, right? He didn't, yeah, not after the deadline.

He's, he's in limbo right now. And that's the other thing. Like, meanwhile, they're getting shut out every second game. And he's a guy who, you know, had had at least lately been scoring. So it's, I mean, it's, it's just a mess. And it's one of those things where if you're not a fan of Vegas or maybe Anaheim or Ottawa, depending on how it plays out, you're just kind of eating the popcorn and watching this because it's pretty funny. You know, except for the people who are directly involved where it's probably not funny at all.

I think at the very least, Ottawa screwed up by not making this known. Whether they screwed up in a way that it makes this their fault and makes them open to punishment of some sort is to be determined. But at the very least, they should have given a heads up. They should have been like, hey, you guys do know about this, right? When I made a joke, like my initial take on it was like this is the only league where like five hours after a trade deadline is over. We find out that, you know, a guy can't get traded because a bad team that is like historically, very poorly run didn't fax over the right forms or whatever, like eight months ago. Like, this is the only league that would ever happen. You got to think.

I mean, it does, it looks bad on Ottawa and it looks bad on Vegas too, though, because like, again, call up the dudes' cat-friendly page. At some point you would think you would just be like, oh, it says that must be wrong because we don't know about that. Note to self, next time you're talking to the agent, you know, maybe check in on it. And again, and the NHL, I don't know. Why are we doing these calls and, you know, clogging up the deadline day if they're not going to catch the one time that there actually was a problem? I don't know, man. It's all a very weird situation. Yeah, I'm trying to find the timeline of like when he submits or whatever.

But oh yeah, here it is. He would have had to submit to Ottawa on July 1st, 2021, and he wasn't traded until July 28th. So yeah, this is all on Ottawa in theory. But like you say, Vegas should have been like someone in the Vegas front office should have at cap friendly. Like what's the issue here? Yep, you would think But yeah So it's a huge mess

And it kind of hangs over Everything else that happens on That happened on deadline day But with that all having been said Let's dig into every other Or you know Most of the like big trades Most of them

That happened around deadline day And we'll stay in the Pacific We'll start with Calgary They didn't really Ryan Carpenter was the only guy they acquired on Deadline Day itself. Obviously, they got To Foley on Valentine's Day and Kelly Yarncrow last week. So.

I mean, they made their deal early. And one of the nice things about making a deal early is it gives you enough time to see if that deal is working the way you wanted to or whether you need to look elsewhere. Yep. And it's working great. Yeah. Calgary looks awesome. Yeah.

Tyler, the Foley guy can play a little bit, it turns. out. Yeah. It turns out. 15 points and 18 games. Unbelievable underlying numbers. This guy rocks. Yep.

So, yeah, there's, you know, I think you would say Calgary kind of, I don't love their defensive depth, but, you know, if you're only going to add forwards to round out your forward group, to Foley and Yarn Croke take a lot of pressure off guys like Sean Monaghan. and Milan Luchich to do anything at all. And I don't know if you saw this, but I thought this was interesting, Pierre flagged that there had been some talk

and I had mentioned it of, should Calgary, if they need help on the blue line, go get Mark Gerardinnell, go get them back. Right. And it turns out that because he was on the team last year, Seattle could not have retained salary to trade him back to the flames. So that made it cost prohibitive in a way

that it wouldn't have been for other teams. So if you were wondering, like, yeah, where they, as I was, that's probably a big part of the reason why they did not do that. Yeah. And they, and I, see, I didn't check this, but maybe also like, hey, do you want Milan Luchich back? And either Seattle goes, no, or maybe. No, thank you.

Maybe he has a no trade and I don't remember it. But, yeah, he does. No point checking on that. Just make the trade and then. He has a modified no trade and a limited. Yep. Or a full no move. which means they can't like send him down.

So there you go. His contract is a full no move. That, well, you would have said that, but it's already been moved. That is true. All right. So flames upgraded. Everybody agrees no need to dwell on that. Edmonton really only adds Brett Kulak and Derek Brissard a little surprising.

Yeah. That they didn't go do more than that. But surprising in the big picture, but not surprising if you were listening to what was coming out of Edmonton, which was a absolute full court media press push to make sure we all knew that Ken Holland wasn't going to do anything. And that Evander Kane was their deadline pickup. That's correct. That even though they didn't trade for him, that he was the big addition. And it was made very clear that they weren't going to do much of anything. and they didn't.

Yeah, and, you know, it's like Kulak is fine. Brassard, hey, all-time great penalty killer. We heard all about that from the Edmonton media. Did you see this? Yep. Oh, yeah, he's very funny. Penalty. They've gone for his penalty killing.

He's killed like 100 minutes of penalties in his career. He's been around the NHL forever. But, yeah, you know, Did they need forward depth? Sure. Did they need an extra defenseman? Sure. Are either of these going to be the thing that pushes the Edmonton Oilers over the line here?

Probably not. No. No, I mean, we all know with the Oilers, it's going to come down to two things. Is the goaltending good enough? And we'll get into this, I'm sure, with other teams, the question is, you know, we all think it's not going to be good enough. But what was out there other than Mark Andre Fleury, who didn't want to go to Canada that was an upgrade. Yep. And then the other thing is going to be just how Supernova can McDavid and

Dracil go to drag this bunch along with them. And that's not really something that is affected by the playoffs. The one nice thing if you're Edmonton is it's looking more and more like you're not exactly going to have a killer matchup in the first round. You know, you were worried for a while that it was going to be Vegas. It still might be. you could wind up playing L.A. Yeah.

You can, it is, I mean, if Vegas finishes it's the fourth wild card and plays Calgary and Emmington ends up with L.A., like the Emmetton Oilers

are going to have the easiest first-ground matchup in theory of any playoff team. And, but the thing is, you could probably say that about their opponent.

Yes. Exactly. So, I mean, here we go again on the playoff format, right? You're like,

the two worst playoff teams are going to face each other. Yeah. And speaking of the Kings, the only, trade they made, they acquired Troy Stetcher, who, you know, he's fine. That's okay. Whatever. And yeah, so, I don't know. Like, the thing you said about, oh, they might get Vegas. Also, you know, the thing with Vegas is, they are, Dom says, 25% to make the playoffs right now.

Yeah. And just, and plummeting. I mean, just absolutely, it's like every, day I look at it and I'm like, it's, it's dropped another 10% and, you know, they go in and they lose to Winnipeg, one of the teams that they're battling for a wild card spot with. Regulation loss. Shut, shut out back to back. Well, Winnipeg's right there with them now. That's the thing. Like, if we're still considering, I wrote even a, like, no, not even a week, on the weekend in my

deadline thing, I was like, Winnipeg's not making the playoffs, so they should sell. and but you look at it, they're, they're neck and neck with Vegas now for a wild card spot. So if we're still counting Vegas as being in it. I think, sad though this may be to say, I think that's the stars spot to lose. And hell, they might lose it because they're the Dallas stars and they kind of tend to do that. But, you know, I think the stars. The Oilers last night, though, big comeback there. Yeah, no, I mean, like I, like I, the,

I guess the point is, and we've talked about this a fair bit, the whatever, the bottom four teams in the West, I don't think anybody's like, now those guys are impressive. You know what I mean? Or the West playoff picture, I guess you would say. Like, any one of these bum-ass teams could fall backwards into the last wildcard spot, and I don't think anybody would be surprised. But, God, imagine if the fucking Winnipeg Jets after all this somehow make the playoffs. Dude, what of those bottom teams, yeah, okay, Edmonton, L.A., Nashville, maybe. I know even though they're kind of, like, of all the Western teams,

I would say other than Calgary, Colorado, maybe Minnesota, and I still consider Vegas just because on paper, like maybe those are the four teams I have any faith in. Yeah. Can we just accept that one of those other teams, teams that we're writing off is going at least to the Stanley Cup final. Like, that's going to happen, right? I'd say Western Conference final, minimum, one of those teams.

Minimum. Yeah. Yeah. Where they will play the St. Louis Blues. That's right. For the, oh. Yeah. All right, let's talk about the Central then.

Minnesota is kind of the big mover in the Central. They go out, they get Mark Andre Fleury. I don't think anybody until. maybe Saturday had that one penciled in. Yeah. Well, yeah. That felt like it came together fast. Well, it came together fast and yet you had this like situation where for the weekend,

it was like, oh, man, it is a standoff because Chicago is not going to trade them without getting a first round pick. And Minnesota is not going to give up a first round pick. Right. And it's just a stand. It's a stare down. who's going to blink first. Chicago even played him on Sunday night,

which some people interpreted it as like a... We're not trading it, yeah. Which all of it felt like a very bad bluff to me, because like, why would you... You gotta get something you would think for a guy like this, but maybe not. And you're just sitting there, and it was just, it was funny to me because it was being portrayed as this absolute stare down.

Like there is no, both sides are dug in. And I'm sitting there going like, just make it a conditional pick. and then you can both claim victory, right? And sure enough, that's what they did. And I like it for Minnesota. Trading for goalies, who knows, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Flurry has not been great this year, but the team in front of them stinks.

But we've beat it to death, the cap situation that's going to hit Minnesota next year. This is the year to go for it. Or at least this is the year to load up as much as you can. They didn't blow up the future to do it. it's a great move. And for Chicago, if, as according to some reports, Minnesota was the only place Flurry would go, pretty good move for Chicago then.

They got a second that they can at least claim is a first. And, well, so correct me if I'm wrong on the condition here. Flurry, they have to make it to the third round, to the conference final, basically. Yes. And Flurry has to have at least four wins in that run or half the wins. Something like that. Or games play.

Basically, they have to make the conference final, and Fleury has to be a part of that. If he were to get injured or even lose the start his job back to Camp Talbot, then that would not trigger the clause. Yeah. But it's a pretty fair clause. I mean, if you're Minnesota, and you make it to the final four, you're happy with the trade. You don't really care that you're giving up the 29th pick at this point. Right. But you've got to get through Colorado for that.

So good luck. I'm just going to go ahead and call out a second round. I think that's a relatively safe bet. But again, it's hockey. And then, so because they now have three goalies on the roster, they flip Capo Cochanan to San Jose for Jacob Middleton. And was that it? Was it straight up? I should have it.

It was that I don't think there was much more than that. Which is interesting because, you know, they until pretty recently probably thought Cochanan was their goalie of the future. Yeah, there was a fifth round pick coming to Minnesota. Fifth round, that's right. And so, yeah, I mean, like, I get that you, I guess, keep Talbot because he's more of a proven one

than, or, you know, maybe San Jose just didn't want Cam Talbot, which is understandable. That could absolutely be it. But yeah. The thing with Camp Talbot is he's signed next year, not super expensive, but it's like three and change. So that probably makes him more. hard to move.

And it also makes it awkward because if you're Minnesota, you're presumably maybe going back to this guy next year as you're, you know, he's your, he's your starter again, but I guess you cross that bridge when you come to it. Yeah. And the sharks, speaking of having three goalies, have three goalies now. And they're like, that's fine.

I thought for sure they were going to trade like James Rimer. And then they were like, no, we like him. We're going to keep them. All right. Good luck. Maybe that just means they're going to fire Aden Hill into the sun or something like that. But weird move for them. Yeah.

The St. Louis Blues, Sean, what would we've been hearing about the St. Louis Blues for months? Oh, they need defensemen, plural. Their defense stinks. What if we went out and got Nick Letty coming off his worst season ever? What do we think about that? I mean, you know, as long as it's cheap, right, as long as it doesn't cost you a one-truth. Assets. Yeah, well, bad news.

Yeah. You know, like, Ledy's one of those classic guys where, in theory, this is a fun ad for them, you know, but in actual practice, maybe not so much. I don't, I don't know that he's fixing what the blues need fixed, certainly. I would agree with that. My only, I guess, defense of the blues maybe would be that when you look at the blues, you know, look at the price that was on some of the defensemen that were getting traded. Like we said, right, with Ben Chirot, we're like, you'd have to be crazy to give up that. And if St. Louis had made that trade, we would have said they're crazy. That's, they shouldn't. And so maybe this is just the guy

that fit in their price. There were still other guys who went for that price or cheaper that I like better than Nick Letty. But, you know, they went shopping in the more moderately priced zone. And I guess Yeah I guess this is what you get Yeah and I don't know Like I think the blues are good But I don't know that like

Again like like we said earlier Like is this this one's good Push them over the line from what they were To what they could be no You know like if let's put it this way If Nick Letty is playing like significant minutes for them Down the stretch they got bigger problems than whether they are going to truly compete for a Stanley Cup.

Speaking of teams that will truly compete for a Stanley Cup, the Colorado Avalanche, get Arturie Lekin, Andrew Klugliano, and last week they got Josh Manson. I don't remember if that had happened the last time we, the Manson trade had happened the last time we spoke. I don't remember what happened this morning. No, yeah, for sure. So this is, you know, this is, again, this is Colorado addressing needs.

This is not a team with a ton of needs. And I don't know. You know, I'm a little iffy on the Josh Manson ad. I think it's like, I mean, if that's what you want to do, go nuts. You're the Colorado Avalanche. I don't know that you. And I think when the charot trade comes down a few days later, we all go, oh, they got Manson cheap. That's pretty good.

Yeah. It not the big swing that maybe we were hoping for. It's not close to Rue. Let's put it out. It's not close Juru. And, you know, we'll get to the Juru situation when we do Philly. But, you know, it wasn't Mark Andre Fleury, which I had been pushing for. But Joe Sackick, I think, maybe wasn't.

And he gets, he has slightly more influence on what happens to that team. So, yeah, not a team that you looked at as having. any glaring holes, assuming that you trust the goaltending, so they patch it up pretty good and can't really argue with what they did. Joe Sackick did not go crazy as far as what he was giving up. So I like it.

I already liked a team to start with. You know, Cogliano came cheap. Yep. Lakin's a guy that, you know, a lot of us maybe don't view as a big needle mover, but he was sort of what, there's always a few guys at the deadline that you start hearing that, like, no, the smart teams are in on this guy.

This is, they gave up, and that was a situation where Montreal apparently was telling teams, it's got to be a first round pick, and they got them without giving up a first round pick, although they gave up a former first round pick prospect, and a second. So not cheap,

but also didn't, it didn't go over more. probably and yeah I don't know what to say Joe Sackick's good at this yeah I think with certain teams you go oh I feel I guess I feel like iffy about that that transaction or that acquisition or whatever and there are just certain teams where you go well if they did it they probably know what they're doing you know and that's that's Colorado and you know they did not have, didn't have a first round pick this year because of the Darcy Kemper deal, did have one next year, did have one in 2024, and didn't move either of them.

Still do, yeah, exactly. They've still got some ammo. They don't have a second round pick anytime soon, but you know what? You're trying to chase a cup. You're not too worried about banking second round picks. Okay, next up, the Dallas Stars at Vladislav Nemestikov and Scott Wedgwood. Again, this is another team where it's like, oh, I guess they just want like every possible NHL goalie. They can get their nasty little hands on.

Yeah. Well, I mean, they've had the injuries in that lately. Yeah. But I think with Dallas, the big story is that they didn't end up moving Klingberg. It never seemed like they were going to. Well, it did in like December. Sure. But leading up to the deadline, it felt like as we got further and further along and it became clear than.

that they were in the running, and then obviously, Pavelsky got his extension. It became pretty clear this wasn't a selling situation. So we'll see. They could still end up missing the playoffs. They could get into the playoffs and be very quick first-round fodder, and we look back and go, man, yeah, how did you not trade Klingberg? But at the same time, if they did, half of us would be beating them up for that.

And Jim Nill is a guy who's been at this for a while and may not, exactly be feeling like the future is a ton of job security for him. That's right. He'd rather win now, let's just say. Yeah. And so, yeah, like, and Nemesnikov, he's fine, whatever, you know, I don't, again, like, it feels a little bit like making a move to make a move a little bit. But, you know.

But GMs never do that. No, no, no. They're only looking to make hockey traits. but yeah, you know, if if you're trying to tell the boys in the room like, hey, we believe in you, here's Vladimir Meshnikov, you're like, that's not nothing, I guess. So, yeah.

And then we mentioned them earlier. The Winnipeg Jets kind of buy and sell simultaneously. And don't move Paul Stassney, which was... Right. everybody kind of thought that was going to happen. I guess other than Andrew Kopp, but that was their big. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, Kevin Shevoldavs trying to thread a needle here.

Yeah. Because you looked at Winnipeg and you thought, they should sell. This is a team that it's, the mix isn't working, hasn't worked under two coaches this year, hasn't worked for a few years, time to, to shake it up. And here's a chance to start doing that. And they, I mean, they kind of do, but they don't. And, and kind of buy a little bit. and sort of, you know, they could be the team that makes the playoffs.

And if they do, we might look back and go, hey, you know what? Good job by him. He still got some assets for cop, but he didn't, you know, he kept the team strong. But, oh, that's a tricky, that's a tricky tightrope to walk in a league where, for the most part, you're either fire sale or going all in, and there's not a lot of room for middle ground. Yeah, Zach Sanford and Mason Apple, nice for them to get Appleton back. that's a player I like a lot. And, yeah,

a cop, Nathan Bolia, and Brian Little's contract out. We'll talk more about that in a second. But I thought that was interesting that they tried to get out from under that. But yeah, so I think in all the Jets probably had themselves a nice deadline to get a good player

and to get all those assets for, for Kopp who, I've said this before, but like, I don't know why everybody was losing their minds. Oh, boy, we, we, lining up to get Andrew Kopp. Like, he's a perfectly good player, but like, let's dial it back a little bit, I guess. So, yeah, they, they had a nice, they had a nice day for themselves, so. Got a, got a decent, uh, I wouldn't say a haul for Kopp, but a decent package for him. And also dump Brian Little's contract, which is not, uh, not,

nothing. So. Yep. And we'll be right back to talk about the Eastern Conference. Hey, folks. So yeah, the trade deadline is done. And that must mean that spring is almost here. It is hard to imagine. But yeah, almost springtime, we are so close to feeling that soft grass under our feet. But first, we need to get our lawn back. And thankfully, Sunday gets your lawn growing and helps you to keep it healthy all season long. Sunday can help you grow a beautiful lawn without the guest work or the nasty chemicals. Their custom plans include fertilizer and everything you need to easily care for your lawn and with ingredients like seaweed, iron, and molasses, you can feel good with the kids and the pets being around. All you have to do is visit get sunday.com,

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All right, so Eastern Conference. I wrote about this on like Sunday night going into Monday and it published Monday morning The Atlantic Division is going to be a knife fight down the stretch Yeah The entire top half of the Atlantic bot pretty big I think In terms of what they gave up maybe not necessarily in terms of the players

But let's start with Now Sean, do you know about this team the Toronto Maple Leafs? I've heard of them They're the ones that are always on TSN, right? Yeah. Every time somebody gets a haircut, it's a bigger news. Yeah, you say always, but I feel like once you get out of the first round, you don't hear very much from them. Okay.

Have you heard about that? That's possible. Okay. Yeah, that might be a thing. I don't think, if I'm right, they have not won a Stanley Cup since, like, the late 60s, but I don't know that the action is not. Surely it hasn't been that long. but yeah they add Mark G. Yardano, the aforementioned Mark Gerdano,

and Column Blackwell, which I thought was like a nice throw-in addition on that trade. That's a player I always have kind of liked a little bit more than one would expect for whatever, like a third, fourth line guy. Good player. Yep. Now, how did you, as the resident Leafsman,

feel about whether this addition, addressed the Leafs needs. I think it helps on the blue line for sure to state the obvious. Even given that he's on the wrong side, he has experienced playing with T.J. Brody, obviously, in Calgary. That was his pairing when he won the Norris. So I like it. And it came reasonably cheap because even given all of the pressure that Kyle Dubas was under to make a deal or several deals,

he had kind of put it out there that he didn't want to move his first round pick for a rental, and he didn't want to move one of their top prospects. They have like two or three guys, and then there's a drop-off, and he didn't want to move them. And they managed to get the deal without moving, like gave up a couple of second-round picks. This could absolutely be another Nick Folino-type deal where you look back and go, Giordano was gassed, he didn't really help. They gave up a bunch of assets. But I think it's a decent, you know, it's a decent, you got to roll the dice.

It's a decent one. They made it work under the cap. Should they have at it a little bit more scoring depth up front, that would have been nice. Goaltending, it's the same as Edmonton, right? Yes, they need help on goaltending, but they, who's better? Who's clearly better among the goaltenders that were available? And as Dubus said on ESPN, he's like, we tried to add a goalie. Someone claimed off waivers from us.

So what do you want for me? Yeah, which I always found a little like, I mean, I had never heard of this guy. Over the weekend, they sign him. Yeah. And over the weekend they sign him. And it was like, okay, like, that helps as a death guy or whatever. I think if he was the plan to come in and be the new starter, then that maybe wasn't a great plan. but we'll never know because he gets claimed on waivers,

which was absolutely a... It was going to happen. Well, I don't know. I mean, it's, you know, he's a decent player, but at the same time, anyone could have signed him. So, and a lot of times teams don't, you know, if a guy signs, they might say, I don't want to claim him.

He obviously wants to go there. We're not going to pick him up, but... I just figured with the goalie market being what it was, there was no way it was going to pass to however many teams needed to get to Toronto before it did. You know what I mean? Yeah. So. Yeah.

The great take, I don't know if you've seen this, but apparently, I didn't hear it, but according to people on Twitter, Nick Kiprios went on the radio and said that the Leafs, the reason they keep losing guys on waivers. They've lost 11 guys on waivers twice as much as the next team or whatever. according to Dubes is because they should have kept Mark Hunter because Mark Hunter would have intimidated other GMs into not messing around with leaves guys on waivers. So, yeah, that's a new one. I didn't know that, I didn't know intimidation was part of front office. Well, Christ, you know, this is the war of the Kyle's. We'll talk about the war of the Kyle's right now.

Kyle Davidson, Kyle Dubus, Barn, in southern Ontario, near you soon. Yeah, they're pissed and steamed at each other because Dubus claimed Kyle Davidson leaked the details of the Mark Andre Flurry trade, and Kyle Davidson said, I'll address this with him privately. Yes. And you know what that means? They're taking their shirts off. They're wrestling around. They're going to throw down. And again, you know, if you had a Mark Hunter in the room, he wouldn't have to worry about that.

That's a corner man for you. They did. I mean, it was interesting to me for a few reasons because, yes, there was details leaked out of the parameters of a Mark Andre Fleury trade, which apparently would have never happened because Fleury didn't want to go to Canada, which is fine. But it did leak out. And, but I mean, we hear that sometimes, right? You hear like, obviously all the time you hear rumors about who's talking to who. Sometimes you hear parameters of a deal. And usually they just deny it, you know, where they give a non-denial denial.

Like Kyle Dubas could have just, when he was asked about it, could have just said, hey, we talk to a lot of teams. I'm not going to get into what we talk about or what names. And that could have been it. But he made a point to basically confirm the details in while throwing a bit of a, you know, a bit of a shot at the Hawks. And then even having seen that at his press conference, I sort of thought, oh, that was interesting.

Maybe, I don't know if he meant it to come across that way. But then he did it again later when he was on doing the radio rounds or whatever it was. He mentioned the same thing again. He was pissed. Which was, I mean, I guess it's interesting because, I mean, the deal was, what was it? It was Flurry and Hegel for, was it two firsts? And they were also going to send them Marazek. And I guess maybe that's what he was mad about, that Marazik heard his name was out there in trades.

You'd never want your own players to hear that you're talking trade. But also, you know what else players don't like to hear? That they're going on waivers. That's right. Yeah. And he put them on waivers. Like, so, you know, this is maybe, the best I can think is that this is maybe a case where Marazic didn't like it. Maybe that was communicated to the Leafs.

And this is Kyle Dubas kind of standing up for his player. and pushing back a little bit. But not clawing it back because he could have said, no, we wouldn't be interested in that. We're up here, but at least saying, like, you know, I'm going to stand up for you. And, you know, the Hawks will probably say, no, we didn't leak it out. The other piece of this is, like, let's not forget who Mark Andre Fleury's agent is, not exactly a shrinking violent. So, and not exactly a guy who's shy about getting word out.

there on when he feels it's to his team's advantage. So maybe it wasn't the Hawks that leaked it. Well, right. And it's funny because it's Davidson also could have been like, well, I didn't leak it. But he was like, let me talk to Kyle about this. You know what I mean? So like he clearly leaked it. If that, like, if we're going to go by just like the logic of that of like it's not,

it's not even a denial. Like it definitely came from the Chicago. Right. But it would have been. Yeah. I mean, it put it this way. The deal as described certainly would make more sense to leak from a Chicago perspective to drive a price up because it was a high price. It was two first and the Leafs' top prospect was going in the deal as well.

I think there would have been some significant pushback on the Leafs making that deal, especially since, obviously, if they make that deal, we don't see Hegel go to Tampa for two first round picks. Let's talk about that deal. came out of nowhere, kind of. You know, I don't think anybody was like, oh, yeah, Christ, you know, who was surprised by it. Was this guy Jonathan Taves, you hear about this? Yeah, he didn't sound. No. I don't think Jonathan Taves understands what a rebuild is.

No, I mean, like, I guess we can talk about this now. Jonathan, shut up. you're not the G I don't know if you know this John you're not the GM of the Chicago of Chicago Blackhawks you don't you don't get to make these calls oh I really wish I had input tough shit you don't though because you're like I know you're the captain and everything but like you know Kyle Tubis isn't calling Austin Matthews every time he wants to make a trade like are you okay with this only only when

it's time to design the uniforms that's right but uh yeah like but but also I will say in in in Tave's defense, like this is the, this is the competitive mindset of players. We always say, right? I guess so. Teams tank, players don't.

And this is, you know, it was kind of funny to me that, you know, the Hawks say, we're going to rebuild and the players are like, we understand. And then they trade a guy for two first round picks. And the Hawks players are like, but he's a good player.

Why are you trading players for picks? And it's like, dude, that's what a rebuild is. but they want to win now. Like they, that's how they're wired. That's kind of my point, though, is like, they already fucked up the team for years by being like, okay, we'll let Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith hang around an extra couple of years,

even though we shouldn't. And everybody knows we shouldn't. So, like, if Jonathan Taves wanted to be winning right now, you know what he could have done, was traded Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, or let them trade those guys two fucking years ago. And maybe they'd be. that much closer to competing. But, you know, anyway, point is, Brandon Hagle, who's what, 23, 24 years old,

on a sweetheart deal for the next two years. Having a good year, a good year, shooting 25%. I was just going to say, fueled by... I know you are. I know you are. But with that having been said, a good player regardless of that, you know, like, obviously that's helping, but he's a good player regardless. And if we're going to talk about a rebuild and oh, I can't, why do you trade a guy like that? Because by the time this sweetheart deal that he's on is up, he's 27 and he wants a shitload of money. And you also then at that point have multiple first round picks coming into your organization. Yep. Right. So that's why trade him now. You trade him at the absolute height of his value. He's probably never going to be more valuable than this because he's probably

not going to shoot 25% ever again, right? Like, that's, that's just what it is. So, they trade him for two guys who are roughly his age and who are, I think, both, like, pretty high picks or at least highly regarded at the time they were chosen. Yeah, 20, one was the second, one was the second, they were both second round picks, actually. But, like, you know, Tampa has a knack for getting guys who are really good players in the second round or third round or whatever. Like they do this pretty routinely. And this was the point that I made was it, I think all of us had sticker shock when we saw this trade the first time. Absolutely.

Like if you had heard that Tampa is going to trade two first round picks, you would be assuming that it's going to be for a much bigger name than this guy. Yeah. Even given that we understand, you know, it's the good Roe Coleman theory of get guys with term who are cheap, who fit, et cetera, et cetera. Well, that's the thing is two years at $1.5 million for a guy who is a very competent middle six forward. That solves a lot of problems for a team that, you know, big contracts are kicking in and all that kind of stuff. But even given that, we go, wow, two first round picks, but they get two fourths back. Yeah. And when you look at the gap between, you know, a first and a fourth, that sounds enormous.

But it's Tampa's first, so they're going to be late. You're going to be high 20s, probably. Chicago's force, you would think, are going to be early. So now, I mean, you're only talking a difference of, you know, maybe it's the 27 for the 95th. Again, big gap. But when you look at the curves of the value of draft picks, you'd rather have the first, clearly. but it's not a huge gap. And especially if you look at it in terms of value,

because I said that and I had people push back and they're like, well, if you look at the list of guys who play in the NHL or guys who play 100 games, I don't care about whether somebody plays a game or 100 games or 200 games. I want to know what value did they bring. There's lots of guys who are first round picks who play 100 games because they were a first round pick

and they stink and they have no impact. That's right. You know, even putting aside who's doing the picking, the gap isn't as big as it sounds. So it's basically a situation where I think Tampa sounds like they're giving up more than they really are, which makes sense for them because they're a smart team. And Chicago sounds like they're getting more than they really are, which makes sense for them because it's a rookie GM trying to sell a rebuild to a fan base

and having being able to say we have two first round picks, even if the gap isn't. Radish and Kachuk and being able to immediately put them in the lineup and go, look, we got these two guys who are, you know, so far they're playing pretty well. Yeah. And now put them on a top line and hope they shoot 20% next year. Right. Keep recycling through the, yeah, exactly. Radish has two points already.

I think Kachuk has won. I like it a lot for Chicago. Tampa is, you know, again, we said it with Colorado. We're going to say it again for another team coming up in a minute. Tampa is one of the smart teams. So if we'd seen Edmonton give up to first for a guy like this, we all would have been falling out of our chairs laughing. But when it's Tampa, you've got to think a little bit more and go, what are they actually doing here? And I think when you think it through, and I'm not trying to galaxy brain a bad trade into a good trade just because it's Tampa.

I don't think. I don't think. I don't think. I would be shocked if people were like, ooh, Tampa got robbed in that trade. You know what I mean? because I think people understand the cap implications, and you go, they got a guy who's good and signed for two years at just one and a half million dollars. And everybody's like, oh, perfect. Yeah, great.

Yeah. In 2020, I kind of went, oh, that's a lot to give up for Blake Holman. That's a lot to give out for Barclay-A-Drew. And obviously it worked. Yeah, there's a concept there. Yeah. You realize that to a capped-out contender, a $1 million third liner is probably more valuable than a $4 million dollar second. second liner and maybe even close to value to a $7 million first liner because you can actually

fit them going forward with term. It makes, again, Tampa's a smart team. And they make me think a little harder on this. One other point on that, right, is, okay, let's say they keep those two first round picks. And two, three years from now, those guys are ready to come to the NHL. They're like college hockey players or CHLers, whatever. why would they why would those players not do what Colorado saw with Drew Hellison when they traded him for Josh Manson or what Winnipeg saw with um shit who was it I don't know whoever whoever that guy that they traded to Arizona was it was or Minnesota with Jack McPain is another good example where it's like oh that guy looked at our roster and goes I don't have a spot in the NHL here fucking trade me, you know?

And so, like, Tampa, Tampa's in that boat, like, even more so because not only do they not have space, like, they have long-term commitments to guys who are taking, like, this isn't two years from now. Oh, we might have some space. No, they don't have that, like, flexibility in their, and their cap set up. So, like, that's the other aspect of this. But let's move on to the Boston Bruins, who. they add Josh Brown for, you know,

whatever, who cares. Their big trade was Hamas Lindholm. Yep. And speaking of giving up a lot. First round pick, second round pick,

another second round pick. Errol Vakanin, and who is like, I think a pretty good, a young-ish defenseman. He's 22, 23 years old. And they get out from under the John Moore deal,

which, you know, nice to be able to do that I guess and then they immediately extend Hampus Lindholm eight years for what is he currently 28 about to turn 29 is that what it is?

Yeah. No, he'll be 29 in January so that's actually that's fine. But he gets the eight years. Six and a half, maybe a little lower than we would have thought but I would say the eight is the term. And in eight years that they can.

That's another one of these rules that got cleaned up in the new CBA where they didn't have to wait like Vegas did with Mark Stone or whatever. You can trade for a guy and sign them immediately, yeah. Right away. I don't mind the deal. I mean, I love the fit. I don't love the price tag, but it's trade deadline. I hate the extension. I've written about this before, the shiny new toy syndrome, right?

When you trade for a guy and you give up significant assets, for a guy, it's very hard to then sign an extension that isn't going to look terrible. Because where's your bargaining power? You're going to go to his agent and go, we're not really sure how he fit. Dude, you just sold a farm to get him. We know you want him. And so, you know, maybe part of the reason, the argument if you're a Boston fan would be, they overpaid rental prices because he wasn't a rental.

They were bringing him on for the next eight years. So you don't mind throwing in the extra. picks or whatever it is. But in order to get that to happen, you've got to go, I mean, we know by now. Eight year deals to guys in their late 20s have a success rate probably close to the single digits. And that's even, I'm not even saying like, yeah,

he's great for four or five years and then it balances out at the end. On balance, it ends up being a bad deal. But this is what happens. When you trade for a guy, how many times do we see? I mean, Bobby Ryan in Ottawa, there's all. down the list. You trade for a guy, you turn around and sign him, it almost never works. Yeah. And, and, you know, this is a defenseman who, I think it's pretty clear. His best years are maybe a little bit behind him, just in terms of how he's played the last two, three seasons.

With that having been said, he's taking line rushes in Bruins practice this morning with Charlie McAvoy, who's, you know, he makes everybody look good. If we're going to get a a hampicissons, you know, like that, that instantly makes the state look. I don't say that again, but okay. Fair enough. I don't like that. The hampasants, let's call it. Better.

You know, that can make the contract look a little better. The other thing to say is this contract, it does seem to be designed around the idea of we probably aren't going to want him when he's like 30. 4, 35, 36 years old. And so a full no trade clause in the first five years of the deal becomes a modified no trade clause. And the money is way less than the cap hit. It's $4.8 million for the last three years as opposed to, you know, eight-ish for the first five.

Yeah. So, you know, it makes it easier to move. But also, this isn't, it's not a good concept. It's not the backdiving days where, it's like, oh yeah, but he's only making a million bucks a year. You can't. Yeah, no, for sure. You can't do that anymore.

But, yeah, the lack of bonuses does make it more buyout friendly as well. Yep. Yep. So there is all of that. And by the way, all of this said, you could make the case. We'll get to Florida. But I think you could make the case that just for right now, Boston may have improved more than any of those Atlantic teams.

And we've spent all year talking about Toronto, Tampa, Florida, and then Boston was settled in as the wildcard team. Boston's right there. They are currently, they are tied with the leaves. Toronto has one game in hand. They are one point back of Tampa who have one game in hand. And the Bruins are surging, by the way. The Bruins are playing really well lately.

By the weekend, Boston could absolutely be in those second. or third spots. Now, whether you want that or not, certainly, I mean, if you're Boston, you would love to play Toronto, I think, in the first round. But do you really want, do you want to move up and pass Toronto

and get to play Tampa when the other option is, what, probably Carolina? Right. Well, we'll, I'm not sure what you want. Let's circle back to that in a second. Let's talk about the Panthers first. Panthers get Ben Chirot,

pay way too much for him. They get Closuru. Don't pay a lot for him, quite frankly. They get Robert, hey, whatever, who cares? collectively, I think this is a clear step forward for the Panthers, obviously. You put Giroux with... The price tags balance out. Yep, they do.

Like, on the balance to get all those guys. So, yeah. Yep. I was on the PDO cast the other night, like right after the deadline. And Dimitri made the point of, is it better to pay for all this money for all these, or not money, all these assets? for all these rentals versus if you take all of those assets

and you add them up and you say to Arizona, why don't you give us Jacob Chikrin? Does that not make more sense? And I hadn't thought about it that way, but it absolutely makes more sense to have done that. Again, that's, yes, if that is, if you are under the impression that Chikrin was ever really on the market.

I'm still, this is like become my conspiracy theory that he was never really on the market. I'm kind of with you. I always thought this was kind of more, of a summer deal. But with that having been said, if the Florida Panthers call you up and they say, you know, we'll give you Owen Tippett a third round pick, a conditional first round pick, Ty Smilannick, a fourth round pick, a conditional first round pick, and whatever, like, you know,

one or two other thing, whatever they gave up for Hay. A sixth round pick. Two firsts, two solid prospects, a third, a sixth and a fourth. you don't think Arizona at least thinks about it? I don't know. They're thinking about it. They're not hanging up the phone. Yeah.

I think. They're, whether they do it or not. But yeah, that's an interesting way to look at it. So, I mean, you know, everybody knows my thoughts on Ben Chirot. It's an insane amount to give up for a guy like that. It's an insane amount to give up. But also, I think we've almost gone too far on beating up Ben Chirot to the point. point where we make it sound like you add him to the lineup and you get worse, he brings things

to the table that can help you on a playoff run. And now that he's there, they're better with him than without him. Sure, absolutely. Even though they gave up way too much to make that happen. And the thing that people would be like, oh, actually, you know, like when I would say he's not good, people would be like, oh, you know, he's actually a beast if you use him right. And the thing is, so he is by war, the least valuable player in the same. the league right now. He's like the worst player in the league by war.

Part of the reason for that is he was being used as basically a number one defenseman on the Montreal Canadiens, right? Yes. He shouldn't be anywhere near your top pairing. Everybody knows that, including the Montreal Canadiens, I would assume, but they didn't have a lot of options, right? So it's tricky because obviously Florida is not going to use him in that role, but also they do have to play the entire rest of the regular season at a minimum from what we understand

without Aaron Eklad. And so that also makes it so. Oh, is that, was that official that he's out for the regular season? That's what Sarah Valli, I think, reported at least the regular season, maybe part of the first round, if I'm not mistaken. Ooh, wow, okay. Because, I mean, it looked like a real bad injury.

And I think the initial reports were more positive, but I guess more positive was in the sense of not season ending, which, I mean, thank God. I can't imagine if he had gone out for the year again, that would have. Yeah, this guy can't stay healthy. It's such a bummer. Like, I, I mean, this is going to, like, he was going to be in, in Norris balance. Absolutely. Yeah, okay. Here's, here's, here's, here's Frank's tweet.

I'm told Aaron Eckblad will be placed on LTIR and will not return during the regular season, but sometime during during. the first round. Cap space is no issue for Panthers. Expect them to be active and maybe use that space after Hague deal to attempt to recoup some picks. They didn't really do that. They jumped into the

the Max Domi deal, but that's about it. They took on a little bit of his money. Which was weird, right? They're helping Carolina? Well, it isn't. It isn't. insofar as

they do get something for doing that. And also, this might be one of those things where, hey, they're GM. Where do he used to work? Columbus. What does he know then about Max Domey?

That he stinks? That he seems like he's kind of a shithead and everybody, he plays his way out of every market he plays in? Yeah. Okay. So this is maybe the, like, yeah,

I would absolutely love to help you put this in your roster. Yeah. Okay. That's, I guess a way to look at. Yeah. So, again, we definitely think the Panthers come out of the deadline. Maybe even you might say, like if Eckblad were healthy, significantly better than they were. And they were already one of the best teams in the league.

The Eckblad injury really throws a huge wrench in, are they? going to win that division and all that kind of stuff. I don't know. Yeah. But so this is. You've got a decent, decent lead, but yeah, that does that. I mean, if he's back for game one of the playoffs, that's what matters here. Yeah, of course.

And again, it's not, it's the east. Like, it's not like, yeah, you want to win the division. You want to avoid, you know, I, you'd rather avoid Tampa for sure. You'd rather play Washington than any of the teams in. I guess Washington is the prize there. And I think if you're Florida, you probably don't really want to play Toronto because you match up worse with them in the sense that Toronto's the offensive team, but the Achilles heel is in goal. And that might be true of you as well. Yeah, doesn't that sound familiar?

Spider-Man pointing. Yeah. So here's the thing. I had someone works in an NHL front office reach out to me and go, isn't it interesting that because of this stupid playoff format that you always complain about, that all but one of those teams could be eliminated by the second round in the Atlantic? Like if Boston gets Carolina, you know, then it's maybe Florida or right. Like I guess it doesn't matter who Boston gets. But once you get to the conference final, all but one of those teams is eliminated probably.

Yep. That's so fucked up. Which it is crazy. but, you know, there's like 16 playoff teams, and like 8 to 10 of them are, feel like legitimate cup contenders and none being significantly better than the others other than probably Colorado. Like, I know people don't like the playoff format, but we can't make the numbers any. Like, I can't have seven teams make the conference final, even though there's probably that many

that look like they deserve it. Yeah, I mean, I guess. But it is pretty messed up that the Atlantic is so. top heavy. Yeah, and just like they all, I would say those were the three biggest teams that added at the

deadline period. You know what I mean? Or the four biggest I mean, right? Like nobody, maybe you say Calgary, but they didn't really added the deadline necessarily. Yeah. You know, they were the ones that really cashed in all their chips and it's like, oh yeah, two of you are guaranteed to be

gone by the end of the first round, basically. That's a tough bounce. Whereas, you know, if you just went by conference, like, you know, like Tampa's... Conference doesn't really help in the East. Well, so... If you believe in Pittsburgh and the Rangers. I don't really believe in the Rangers.

I know. But, yeah, okay, so let's move on to the Metro. Speaking of the Rangers, they add Andrew Cop. and is that more or less it, right? Like, in terms of like really, like, I mean, they got, they got Tyler Mott and Justin Broughn as well. But like- I would say, I would consider Mott and Braun as significant pieces, not game-changers. But I think those are, like, Braun's one of the guys that I would, for them to get him for a third compared to what. Oh, absolutely.

Nick Ledy cost. I've been saying that for, I'd rather have him than Chirot, you know. I've been saying that for, I think. I also got Frank Petrono. I forgot about that. They took on some of the Panthers cap space. Right. So I like what the Rangers did because it's always tricky when you have a young team that is going to make the playoffs.

And you're thinking, okay, on the one hand, we're a young team. We don't want to be, you know, pushing too many chips in now. For sure. The window is just opening. Let's not go crazy. On the other hand, we know it's the N. H.O. Take your shot when you have it, especially when you're the Rangers. And on the one hand, as, as you're well aware, a lot of the underlying numbers suggest this team isn't as good as the record says. But the reason they are this good is because their goalie is having, or at least was, until the last week, having an all-time season. So maybe this is the year. And how do you balance that? And I think they did pretty good. They brought in reinforcements. They made the team better. But they didn't go crazy. They didn't trade away, you know, first-round picks or, significant prospects.

They, you know, they're, hopefully have made themselves good enough to be, to win a round. And then who knows from there, but even winning the round, I mean, Lefranier and Kako and all those guys are going to get the playoff experience. And, yeah, I like it. I think they struck the right balance. Yeah. No. And like, again, I said this on the PDO cast, but like, if you look at, if you had said to

me, oh, what are the Rangers needs? They need a reliable defenseman. Bron, he didn't have a great game last night in his debut on Broadway, but I think he's kind of the kind of defensemen they needed, not to say kind of twice back to back like that, but that's more or less what they needed in terms of the type of defensemen, the defenseman profile that they should have been targeting. Same with Andrew Kopp.

Again, I don't love him. Like, I think his value is maybe a little overstated in the trade market this year, or was. But he plays basically he's like a rush score and player and puck carrier and that kind of thing. And that's the exact kind of guy the Rangers need because they don't have anybody who can carry the puck up front after the first line comes off the ice. And the Rangers didn't give up like a ton to get him. They gave up some second round picks in Morgan Barron, who's like probably not going to amount to very much at the NHL level. that's fine, you know. Tyler Mott, I was shocked the Vancouver Canucks didn't keep him as the classic

own rental that we all heard about. But, you know, he's whatever. Well, they didn't, I mean, they barely did anything else. So I think, no, I know. I think you strike while it's the iron's hot on a guy like that or while the iron is lukewarm, maybe. Room temperature. We'll get to them, I guess. Yeah, we have a sellers roundup coming up. But, yeah, yeah. Which, like, I like. Apparently, Vancouver will be very surprised to find themselves on that list. Yeah, I like what the Rangers did, but also, like, is it enough to make me go? And you know what the Rangers are a real threat in that? No, come on, you know.

Not to speak ill of Nick Merckley, but let's be serious here. Speaking of teams that didn't do very much, the Carolina Hurricanes, only at Max Domey. Yeah. So this is, we. We referenced it with Colorado Tampa to me. This is the third smart team. Yeah. And I was surprised to see them not do very much and to see them add Max Domi.

It puzzling. Yeah. I mean, so the thing with Domi is his real value is in his playmaking ability and his vision. I, you know, do I look at that team and go, They have all the trigger men they need. They need someone who can set it up. No, not really. But if you're putting the thing with Maxomi is,

he's been playing up in the lineup the last few years. Shouldn't be. You move him down in the lineup on a good team like Carolina. I have a decent amount of confidence that they can put him to better use than Montreal and Columbus. And look, the last time we had this conversation, about I don't understand what Carolina is doing. It was the goaltending last year.

Yep. And that worked out. Yeah. So they, they clearly know what they're doing. I will say, I won't be overly critical, but I will say they surprised me.

Yeah, no, it's definitely a surprise. And the guy they gave, they gave up, I think, one real piece here, right? Am I right about this? Or two,

they gave up, they gave up a KH, a guy in the KH, right now who does it like he seems like he's an okay KAHL player and Aiden Ritzchuk who barely did anything in his freshman year at Boston College. He was a third round pick a year or two ago, but nothing I would be too excited about if I were Columbus. So like it doesn't really, it doesn't really cost them anything to get Max Domey at 25% retained. And if they like them, they, if you like your max doma, you can keep it.

But also like, you know, they, they retain his RFA, right. I believe he's still an RFA. I might be wrong about that now that I say it. But, uh, nope, he is a UFA coming up. But they, I guess, have right of first refusal to sign, like they can try to sign him or they can not. And, uh, it's up to them. But, yeah, I, you know, like I say, am I a big max No, do I think Carolina can put him in a position to succeed more than, say, Carolina,

or Columbus and Montreal did? Yeah. I think that's fair. Yep. Caps, the Washington Capitals, after mentioned. Johann Larson, who was playing a first-line role in Arizona and kind of acquitting himself pretty well, honestly, won't play a first-line role in Washington, and Marcus Johansson from Seattle, reunited.

and it feels so, so good. They love bringing back old players in the H.L. And, hey, it worked for Chicago all those years, so why wouldn't it work for them? Yeah, interesting. Interesting, I guess, and I would argue, along with Toronto and Edmonton, this is the third team that we all, a few weeks ago, said needs to go out and get a goalie. And they didn't do it. And they don't. And it's really kind of. Kind of the same thing where you say, who was an upgrade if it wasn't Flurry?

And apparently Flurry didn't want to go to Washington because he likes Pittsburgh. I don't know. Yeah, he didn't want to play against the penguins in the playoffs. All right. So, yeah, I mean, same thing we said for those teams. You would have liked an upgrade. But who was it? Yep.

I don't know. And it was the goalie, the coyotes claimed off waivers. Should have traded for him. That was the guy. While you're talking to the Arizona Coyotes. Wouldn't you love to know if any other teams put a claim in on him? Like if Edmonton or Washington did. Every single team in the league before.

Like just the way it's gone for Toronto, it wouldn't surprise me if everybody was like, yeah, I'll claim them to. That's fine. They're like, we don't actually need him, but I could beat up Kyle Dubas and he doesn't have anyone tough in his front office. That's right. I'm going to do it. The one interesting thing I thought, the caps gave up was they are, I think, the 30-second team

to cut bait on Daniel Sprung. Just a guy who everybody's like, the numbers are there, the performance is there, he just needs to maybe put it all together for more than eight or ten games at a time, and he never did it. So, penguins, ducks, capitals, now at what age 24, 25,

he's onto his fourth NHL organization. Maybe Seattle can make something out of them, but probably not. And then the last team in the Metro that added anybody, you get the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pittsburgh Penguins, they go out, they get, after saying we're probably not going to do anything. After Breiberk makes the rounds in the morning and says,

we're not doing anything. And you know what? I actually kind of believe them, because it felt like this may have been a thing where the ducks were kind of waiting on Raquel and maybe ended up circling back to a team like Pittsburgh and said, okay, price has gone down a little bit or, you know, maybe there's other things we can do because things fell through. And Pittsburgh goes, okay, we told you we'd take a deal if it was, if that's what it cost us, so we'll take it.

And the cost was not insignificant. Dominic Simone and Zach Ashton Reese, two roster players, who, you know, now that I say this, I don't remember if their contracts were up this year. I'm assuming they are. Yeah, both are UFAs at the end of the season, so these are like pure rentals for the ducks. Rentals, I guess. Jump the contract, balanced salaries. I don't think it's a tough value there. And then a second round pick this coming year.

and a goal-tending prospect, 19 years old. His name is Callie Clang. That's his real... Love it. That's his real name. Love it. Yeah, so that's... But also, he's a 19-year-old goalie prospect, so who knows.

Yep. Check back in seven years, and we'll find out. He, yeah, that's exactly right. At least he's not in the All-Svenskin this year. That's the second... lead, or that's the second tier league in Sweden. He's in the big boys league at 19. That's not nothing.

Good for him. Yeah. But Raquel, a classic, oh, you put him next to Evgeny Malkin, and he's going to score it like a 50-gold pace the rest of the season. Why not? Again, this is a guy where maybe his value's a little bit overstated versus how he's actually played the last couple years, but there's no reason to dislike him.

Yeah, I think that's fair. I like the player. And now we can get into the Sellers Roundup because we're going to talk about, first off, the Anaheim Ducks. Did what I say every team should do when they are selling and have unrestricted free agents pending, get rid of them.

Get them out of there. Go get everything that you want for, or that you can possibly get for those. guys because you're not you're not going to keep them anyway and you probably shouldn't keep them and so I'm going to I got to scroll you talk about your thoughts on this for a second because I'll get a scroll yeah what's what's interesting to me about the ducks is and we we talked about it last week I think Pat for Beak rookie GM comes in new to the organization typically this is when GM say oh I need a year I got to think I got to get the lay of the land he didn't have that

He had three big UFAs to either re-sign or move, and he moved all three of them. I would say reasonably well on all three. The Josh Manson deal, there was that kind of moment after the charot trade where you were like, oh, maybe they didn't get enough for Josh Manson. But I think on balance, pretty good. And also shows that Pat Verbeek has the, what I would argue is the number. one skill to succeed as a GM, which is the ability to recognize reality and act accordingly and not live in wishful thinking world. Now, that is always much, much easier for guys who are new to the job,

because you figure you've got at least a few years. But yeah, I thought the ducks did well. And, you know, now we know for sure that the rebuild is on. Yeah. And so here, this is what I was scrolling for in the sent from from the manson trade on this is what they added a first round pick from boston a second round pick from boston a second round pick from boston that was i believe or no i'm sorry a second round pick from colorado a second round pick from boston in twenty twenty four um a second round pick from Vegas that is either in 2023 or 2024, if the trade goes through for the Donov. A third round pick, Drew Hellison, Erho Vakeninen, and, you know, we'll figure it out with John Moore, I guess. But that and Callie Klan also.

That is a lot to get for four trades. That's a real lot. So. Yep. You know, if you're going to go scorched earthful, rebuild kind of a thing, that's how you do it. They're one of two teams that really loaded up on picks, and they have a very aesthetically pleasing selection of draft picks on their cap-friendly page now. As many as five second round picks, a first and a third. Not bad.

Pretty good. Not bad at all. I mean, you'd love to be getting multiple firsts, multiple blue cheques. of prospects, but they didn't have, it's not the market and they didn't, they didn't have those guys. Like, you know, Lynn Holmes is the best of the bunch and he's a good player. And he got a first in a couple of seconds. Yeah.

He's not a, you know, this, if you had made this trade four years ago and, or I guess Bob Murray had, then it's a different price tag, but that's, that's how it goes. So, yeah, good job by Papyr Beak, I thought. Yeah. The other team that was the big seller, obviously, the Montreal Canadiens. And again, going back to the Tofoli deal, which was a month ago at this point, conditional first, a fourth, a fifth, another conditional first, another conditional first, another fourth, a second and a seventh, plus one, two, three, four prospects, five prospects,

five prospects. Nathan Schnar, I guess, counts as one of those. So they get a ton of picks, ton of prospects. That's exactly what they should be doing. Yep. And again, this is another rookie GM, but even easier because the team is, you know, Anaheim at least had that, like, strong first half. Yeah. If you want it to be delusional, you could have said, hey, we showed something and we're going to keep. At Montreal, there's no level of delusion that would get you to. this being anything other than a selling situation.

I guess the only interesting thing from a Montreal perspective, other than, again, kudos to them on the sell job on Ben Chirot. I didn't think they were get it. They got it. That's great for them. The other thing is apparently they were trying to and maybe even close to moving Shea Weber's contract.

And then Arizona going down and getting Brian Little may have blown that for them. So I guess that's probably the only disappointment you have there. You know, honestly, nothing stopping Arizona from doing it again. Yeah. Why not? Absolutely will. I'm sure whatever conversations they had this time around

will lead to potentially something more fruitful in the summer. But let's talk about Arizona, because they didn't really do a lot despite having a ton of pending unrestricted free agents. Nash, Larson, that's about it for guys they gave up, Wedgwood, I guess.

That's about it for guys they gave up. This is what happens when you do such a scorched earth level of tanking that you just don't have anyone left other than Jacob Chikrin. Well, people thought they'd trade Kessel. They didn't do it. Well, Kessel, yeah, Kessel's interesting.

And this was another thing that Pierre mentioned that I thought was kind of low-key fascinating, where he said that in talking to some people around the league, that he thought that the Kessels Ironman streak could have come into play in that teams were thinking, yeah, we would, at half salary, you know, however we want to do it, probably wouldn't cost a lot asset-wise to get them. we'll bring him in and we'll even put him on the fourth line, you know, be a power play guy, be a, you know, but we don't, we also will scratch him if he's not fitting in our contending Stanley Cup caliber team's lineup. And they didn't want that to become an awkward thing where suddenly, you know, you bring this guy in and now you're ending, you're the team ending his Iron Man streak, which may, I don't, I don't know if Phil cares about that or not.

he may not even be aware that he has it, but maybe he is. And so that was an interesting angle. I really wanted to see Phil Kessel go to a contender. I'm kind of bummed out that he didn't, but even at 50% salary retained. Tough to make it work, yeah, absolutely. And then, yeah, Chikrin obviously now he's just going to be moved around the draft, which makes the draft more interesting, I guess. Or he won't be.

and we'll do this all next off season when he still has two full years left on his contract after the deadline. Another team that didn't really do anything and everybody kind of thought they would is the Buffalo Sabres. They only give up Bobby Hague. So I guess they'll content themselves

with their three first round picks this year, but I really thought they would try to, like, you know, if Andrew Copp can get all that, like why not trade Cody Egan? You know? Why not Colin Miller? Why not Will Butcher in a market where defenders are going for that much?

I don't totally get it. But okay, sure. And didn't add anything, and obviously you're not adding because you're trying to make the playoffs, but I think there was some thought that at some point they need a goalie. At some point, just something shake free? Well, do they need a goalie or can they just get Craig Anderson? again for next year. That's always something to think about.

You could always do that? The other team that people kind of thought would sell and didn't was New Jersey. They actually got an HL. They were a buyer technically. They got Andrew Hammond from... Which just needs some goal to ending death. No P.K. Suband deal, which is not a surprise. And not have not yet bought him out or released him so he can just...

In fact, that's no longer an option now because if I'm not mistaken, if they were to do that, he would not be able to play in the playoffs for whichever team were to sign him as a free agent. That's right. The Detroit Red Wings also kind of didn't do a ton. Again, they traded Nemesnikov. They traded Nick Letty. They traded Troy Stetcher. But, you know, again, people...

So this is where we get into the thing of, boy, weren't we promised a lot by all these insider guys whose job is to make us watch the trade deadline show? And then we didn't really get like the most active deadline. Well, it was super active. In terms of number of trades. Right. I was going to say in terms of like, oh, wow, I can't believe they're trading that guy. Because they were like, look, no, we didn't. Dylan Larkin might get traded.

Okay. We didn't even get the surprise. trade, which, you know, like last year with Rana and Mantha, we didn't really even get that. And we were kind of promised it, which, again, these are people in the entertainment business, folks, they're not. I have asked James Duthy for my money back. Well, you didn't spend any money, but you did spend 15 hours watching it. And you should be compensated for that, I feel like. That is true.

So, yeah. And then I guess the other team that kind of people thought, We're going to do something. And then quite literally, the only thing they did was extend to old guys. Cal Clutterbuck and Zach Brisei coming back to the New York Islanders. They didn't do shit. Keep the band together. Yeah.

Again, I didn't. Well, I mean, look at all the success they're having this year with those guys. Yeah. Zadano Char was the name that could have been interesting. And again, that name just seemed like he wasn't going anywhere. That could be as simple as him saying, I don't want to go in it. And it sounds like that was the case. Yeah.

I've won a come. No thank you, which absolutely. But it certainly would have been cool to see him go somewhere. Bruin should have gotten him instead of Josh Brown, but that's here nor there. I bet he would have taken that. Oh yeah, and then speaking of like being sold a bill of goods by the insiders, the Canucks only moved Tyler Maugh. Yeah, which again, like they didn't have to move Brock Besser.

They didn't have to move J.T. Miller. Both those guys are under team control. Miller's under contract. Bezzer is an RFA. But, like, at some point, are the conducts good enough as currently constructed, or are they not? You know, I have a theory, and it's that they aren't. Yeah.

What do you think? Interesting. Okay. So, and the thing was, there was, we talked with some of the other teams about, like, the messaging that gets put out there, and the Oilers weren't going to do anything, and the haps that were pumping charot and all of these. all of these ways that this game gets played where you can feed things out to the media and to the fan base. Vancouver had basically gone into the weekend putting out the message that, hey, we're still in this thing.

We want to see how it goes on the weekend. They had two big. They had Calgary. And then I don't know who did they. They played some bad team. Buffalo maybe on Sunday. And they're still picking up their teeth from those two games. Yes, exactly.

They knocked all over the damn room. And not just did they lose. But Calgary, they come out flat. They don't play well. I mean, Calgary is a great team. You would expect probably to lose to Calgary. But if you're trying to send a message, they got destroyed. They got annihilated, yeah.

And then after the game, they give a bunch of quotes about that was unacceptable. Like, we can't blah, blah, blah, blah. And they come out against Buffalo and look awful again. That's right. So, I mean, it was, again, we talked with Taves in that, like, everybody's competitive. No team, no players were ever going to run up the white flag. But this was as close as you will ever see. to a team just going like, we're done.

Like, this was like a boxer looking over at the corner. Like, you can toss the towel in any time because I'm, I'm kind of done here. I'll keep throwing and I'll keep taking. But we can be finished any time. And then they don't, they don't do anything. And again, like here's yet another new GM coming in. There's going to be time. There's going to be patience.

But I just thought they would do more. Yeah. And they didn't. although we have to say the Travis Hammondick, Travis Dermott flip, was fantastic. That was great.

I mean, yeah, it laughably great work or laughably awful work, uh, depending on how you want to view it. Yeah. And,

uh, have we ever seen a guy get moved out? And usually it's like, oh, you know, he didn't really fit in the room, that kind of thing. Uh, multiple quotes hitting,

hitting the, hitting the rumor mill or whatever of like, we hated that prick. good riddance we hate this guy he's a different a different cat was that how mark matot put yeah and then and then again frank saravali went on the radio and we're like multiple people reached out to me and to say like they're so glad he's gone yeah i mean that was let let me let me throw this at you yeah um because i mean well well first of all i should say from the ottawa perspective pierre dorian uh gave a very funny

interview after that where he talked about how his girlfriend, like, I guess he got home that night, and his girlfriend was like, don't go on Twitter. Like, she greeted him with like, don't, you don't want to go on social media right now. So he wasn't aware of the full extent to which he was getting destroyed for making that trade. Because Hamannick's got a contract next year. He's not good this year. He's still signed next year for not insignificant money. It's a $3 million cap hit.

And I think it's the cash. It costs more than the cap hit. It costs like 3.25 or 3.3 or something like that on a $3 million A.A.A.V. Which that senators hate to do. Anytime Ottawa gets a weird player, you're always thinking, wait, I bet you he makes like a million in cash. Yeah. But the cap hit. No.

So here's my question. Travis Hamanick and a third round pick to Ottawa for nothing. Is that a fair trade? You know, no, it is not. Or is that still bad for Ottawa? That's still bad for Ottawa. I agree. Well, maybe...

And I think it's still great for... And it's still great for Vancouver. Yeah, and the really funny thing is people were instantly like, oh, they're going to play him next to Jake Sanderson when Jake Sanderson comes to the NHL, either this year he's injured right now. But either the end of this season or start a next... Certainly start by the start of next year. And they're going to play him with this guy who both stinks and every...

Everybody on all his old teams hates. They're going to play their prize rookie defenseman with that guy. Have fun. Good luck. Yeah. And you can't even, you know, it's not even like you can put them with Thomas Shabbat and say, like, hey, me, let's see. Let's see if there's some magic here, the stay at home guy, the tough. Because Shabbat's out for the year.

Yep. So I don't understand that one. And yes, at the end of the day, it's a third round pick. Ottawa's been rebuilding. They have lots of picks and prospects. You do at some point have to put some players on the ice. I get it. It's been a long time since I've seen a trade that I just fundamentally couldn't comprehend.

Why go and do that way that one. Like if a contending team had done that, I still would have thought it was awful, but you go, okay, they're trying to win now. I don't understand at all what Ottawa's mindset was on that one. These are the years. It's not the end of the world, but it made no sense at all. These are the years of unparalleled success. We're in year one or year two, depending on how you interpret Melnick's comment. But I will say year one, unparalleled success.

Unparalleled success. And then, yeah, one last one here, I guess. Because we talked about the sharks in brief earlier, they kind of bought. The Seattle Cracken go out and get. Every second round pick in the entire league. Yep. Lots and lots and lots of picks. From the Yarncrope trade.

A second, a third, and a seventh from Calgary. The Giordano trade. A second, a second and a third from Toronto. The Lozon trade. That was a bad trade for Nashville. A second round pick. Mason Appleton gets him a fourth. Marcus Johansson gets him strong plus a fourth,

plus a sixth, and future considerations in exchange for Victor Rask, whose contract, I believe, is up this season. So they just helped out Minnesota for reasons that aren't totally clear to me. But that means this year alone, in the second round, they have four picks right now. Yes. And three more next year. Yeah, they need more firsts, but they didn't. really have the kind of season. Did not get a single first. Well, they didn't have the kind of season that allows you to say you should trade a first for

this guy. Yeah. I like it. Obviously, getting a ton of picks is pretty good. As I just finished saying with Tampa and Chicago that late firsts are not all that far from some of the mid-round picks. So being loaded up on seconds and fourths, it's good work by Ron Francis, especially given that his team is junk to turn. those into useful guys is good. Here's my two, here's the two things that I will, the two turns I'll leave in the punch bowl

for cracking fans, is number one, no first round picks, Vegas came away with two extra first round picks just from their expansion draft maneuver, which Seattle famously did not do it all. And yes, GMs have changed their mindset and everything. But just to point out, you know, you say, well, how is he supposed to get first?

The Knights got two extra firsts, which they turned into useful pieces that are part of their team today, just based on what Ron Francis chose not to do at the expansion draft. And the other thing is, when they didn't do anything in the expansion draft, and then they really didn't do much during this, what did we always hear? Capspace. Capspace, caps, we've got the cap space.

We're going to weaponize our cap space and just sit tight, be patient. and eventually the league is going to come crawling to us for cap relief, and we're going to be the team in the middle, bartering all these deals, laundering all the cap space. They didn't make a single, not only did they not make a single deal like that. Nobody in the NHL did other than that one is the Max Domey. The Florida Panthers, they capped out team. They were the only ones that were like, yeah, we'll do that. Why not?

So, I mean, all of us were wrong in the sense of thinking that that after last year, we're like, this is the new trend. It's going to be going crazy, and it didn't. But again, like, what is Ron Francis doing with all this? We were told the reason they didn't make any deals at the expansion draft was, A, because other GMs were resistant, which, okay. But also because they were stocking up on cap space. And they did use a little bit of it in free agency. Haven't checked and seen how that went, but I'm sure it went great.

Then nothing. And they go into the air with this cat. And what are you doing with the cap space? Sit tight. We're going to weaponize it. We're going to use it. And they didn't at all. And I guess now we'll probably hear that they'll do it in the off season.

And maybe they will. But, you know, for a guy whose entire strategy seem to be based around stockpiling this one asset that he could then spend from, he didn't spend a penny of it. And that strikes me as strange. Yeah. That's it. We're done. No more. No more teams to really talk about.

Can you think of any? I guarantee we missed one, and we're going to get like a email from a very angry fan of whoever. I feel like we got everybody. I'm trying to think. I think we did. I'm trying to think. Yeah, no.

If we get an email, we get an email, whatever. I don't care. Sean, plugs. Clearly, clearly if we didn't talk about your team, it's because your team is boring and nobody cares about them. No one cares. And, yeah. We're not going to.

talk about them anymore at all. I'm on the athletic. Check me out with Ian Mendez tomorrow where we'll be, I will be saying many of the same things I just said. And I'll, it's, uh, we, we, we had a million trade deadline things and reactions too. So, uh, check them out. I think it's still only a dollar a month for six months. Like, seriously, jump in now.

You're, you're, you're crazy. If you're, you're not getting a better deal than this. And there's not a better time of year because we have, uh, it's, it's a fire hose right now on the hockey side. Um, we have some late-breaking news. Brad Marchand has a new serial called Marchmunch. Stinks, bad name. Don't like it.

That is. Yep. Leif's New Jersey's are bad, but I'm old, so it's fine. And, uh, I don't know if you saw this. Peter Marzic is starting tonight. We love it. That's the right reaction. Um, yeah.

And, uh, okay, so here are my plugs. Uh, have you heard of this website called EPRinkside.com? I write for it. You know what? I was smashing the refresh button on your trade grades all day money. Wow. Higher praise, I could not. Because I was waiting to see if they'd get any better.

Wait a second. You can't. Folks, is that allowed to say? Yeah, so I, as Sean mentioned, I graded, I think basically every trade that happened, including the Dodonov deal that, well, who knows. maybe by the time people hear this all the stuff we said at the top of the show will be moot but the other thing this week

another big project that I have been working on for weeks is a preview of the NCAA Division I Ice Hockey Men's Tournament starts tomorrow and I believe tomorrow is yeah both both tomorrow and Friday

they start at noon. Tomorrow to me is the less interesting day, quite frankly. Friday is going to be white hot. You got Michigan. You got northeastern with Devin Levi, who Buffalo people will be losing their minds about. Minnesota, UMass will be a ridiculously good game, in my opinion. And Quinnipiac St. Cloud should also be really good, although we'll find out with Quinnipiac. But in my preview, I wrote extensively about Michigan.

and how, you know, they, in theory, are the team to beat, but in actual practice might not be. And then I did a fairly in-depth look at every single team, talked about every single drafted player on every single roster, at least in passing, or at least mentioned them, I should say. And so, yeah, if you want to check that out, that's E.P.Ringside.com, and you will need a subscription to do so. And if you want to sign up for an annual subscription with the code I Love EP, all one word, all capital letters, well then, folks, you're going to get three extra months tacked on for free at the end of that subscription.

So check it out. Check out the Puck Soup Patreon. You knew that part already. Yeah, we're about to go do a mailback. So we'll see you over there. Sorry to go so long with the plugs. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support as always.

And we'll see you later. Bye, bye. sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons we've got sportly commentary to whatever commute but we also cover movies TV shows it's and tunes it's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense book two