Puck Soup - The 10 Biggest Moves of Free Agency So Far

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

Sean and Ryan go through the 10 biggest moves since July 1, and a few that haven't happened yet. Get bonus episodes and more at Patreon.com/PuckSoup Sponsored by Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from The Perfect Takes a newsletter. I'm Sean McNeugh from The Athletic. And folks, I don't know if you heard, but there was a relatively minor offer sheet extended in the NHL in the last little while here. That's right. We're talking Barrett Hayton to know, of course. We're talking Leo Carlson, 18 million smackaroos for five years to the Philadelphia Flyers. this is a big deal. It is an extraordinarily big deal.

The Larways A-V in league history. I saw a lot of people saying this makes them the highest paid, like, single season in NHL history. That's not true. The, what was it, the Eisenhowerment offer sheet? Which one? Oh, Sergei Fedorov. Yeah. Oh, the Fedorov offer sheet.

This is going to sound crazy to people. Back of the 90s, there was a Sergey Federer. of got offer sheeted. And it was basically designed kind of like this one is to be like, you can't afford to match this in year one, basically. And then the Red Wings matched. And they had to pay him $28 million for one season of hockey. The beauty of that one was they put a bonus in there where it wasn't new money,

but it was like money from the deal all accelerated to year one. If whichever team he happened to be on, made the conference final. Right. And this was back when Detroit made the conference final every year and Carolina did not. Yes.

And I believe the NHL very quickly made new rules so that you could do stuff like that. They implemented a come on, man, clause. Yeah, that's right. So, yeah.

Leo Carlson, 18 million bucks. Yeah, so speaking of the, speaking of minor offer sheet, rule book nerd stuff I saw I saw something somewhere that about offer sheets

and I thought oh damn was there an offer sheet and I went and the first thing I saw was people were talking about the number 18 million yeah and I knew that there there was and I think still is a rule that a lot of people don't know about with offer sheets

where if your offer sheet is longer than five years, it just, for purposes of calculating the AAV for the compensation, it just gets divided by five. Right. So if you give a seven-year offer sheet, even if the actual AAV is lower, it's divided by five and you get higher compensation. I don't know why they do that, but that's what they do.

And so my first thought was, damn, somebody must have given him like a seven-year offer sheet worth 90 million which is like 13 million a year and then I thought could also be could it be six years

and 15 million and then I scrolled further and saw that no it was actually five years 18 million would be the highest full season cap hit ever

as far you know because there was no cap in the Fedorov days I just I mean, in a sense, this is exactly what we've been asking for for offer sheets. A million percent. You have to, yes, that is roughly the markup that the flyers paid to make this an actual hard decision. Like, this is not the Sebastian Ajo, like, hey, man, we're going to sign your guy to a ridiculous thing.

We're going to overpay him by a hundred grand. Yeah. Okay, man, that's fine. Thank you. Um, so it's, uh, yeah, it is something. What was, what was your first thought when you saw that number? Um, you know, that's about 50% more than I'd maybe want to give the guy, 33%? You know, whatever the, whatever the number you want to say is.

It's just, it's a crazy overpay. Yeah. And like, so the, the reportage on this is that like, the, like, the, the, the, day the offer sheet gets signed, which was, I think, last Friday. The Ducks and Leo Carlson and his agents have a meeting. And the Ducks say how's 12 and a half. And Carlson's people say, we were thinking 15. Yeah.

And then the Ducks do what the Ducks do, where they go, have a good one. Yeah. We're not interested. Yeah. Like that is been the focus of a lot of. of the commentary around this and rightly so but that being said like if i'm pat for b last friday and i'm offering this guy like connor mac david money and they come back and say like no actually we're going to need north of leon dry sidle money we need to be the second i i think

would 15 cap hit wise be the second highest yeah behind capizov yes okay caprice obb is at 17 i want to say or 175 maybe and obviously and obviously obviously this, you know, this is all temporary and 15 would be, is going to be, you know, 10th or lower pretty soon once some of these other extensions get done and the caps going up and blah, blah, blah. But when they say, you know, we want 15, I kind of get Paffer B going, all right, guys, that's not reasonable. We're not going to do that number.

They then go, well, we might get an offer sheet and you go, you know what, if you can find an offer sheet for $15 million, you go ahead and do it. Yeah, and then at that money, you're happy to match. Yeah, because you will match, but you don't want to. So you're kind of calling their bluff, but you're kind of not. Yeah, and then someone comes over the top at 18, and you're just like, well, that's, that's just a different reality. Wouldn't you love to have been on that call?

Like, do you think the agent, like, called him up and was like, hey, Pat, you're right. We couldn't get a $15 million. offer sheet. Good urge, it's 18. Yeah, of course. And wouldn't you have loved to seen Pat Forbeek's reaction to that? Like, is... Oh, fly on the wall. Oh, man, this is up there. We get that question sometimes. Like, what moment would you want to be... Yeah, and like, my answer that I've always said was always, well, it's just on YouTube of the decision to trade Tyler Sagan to Dallas, right? Please let the ducks be filming some low-budget reality show. I don't even need to see the call.

I just want to see Pat for Beak when his phone rings and he gets up and leaves the room. And then when he comes back in. Yeah. Like, what shade of red is he? Like, you know, when, uh, in like, I think it's Charlie Brown cartoons when there's like a storm cloud over an angry person's head. Yes. This guy's coming in with a fucking hurricane behind him. I don't, you kids out there might not.

remember Pat for beak, the player. I don't, so that's fine. He was not exactly the most even-tempered dude back then, let's just say. He could get cranky. So, yeah, he, uh, that would be something. So now, I mean, okay, so $90 million question. Like, what do you do? Well, let me say this, to, to tee that up.

The reason this is maybe a tricky decision for Anaheim, even beyond, because they have like almost $37 million in cap space or something like that going into this weekend. So on its surface, you're like, okay, so you give the guy that you think is your franchise center, half of that, that's not a big deal, right? What I think is a big deal, and this is, when I talk about, like, people aren't prepared for what, like, the future of the NHL looks like, this is what I'm talking about. The structure of this contract is his base salary for this coming season is $850,000. And his signing bonus is 19.95. And I don't know how that's structured if like you, you match this deal and you got to cut him that check today. Yeah. Or if that's spread out over the season or whatever it is.

Like the way signing bonuses work, you can structure it however you, you can structure it however you want, it just counts as one single signing bonus. They could literally do like, we'll pay you every week, whatever, you know, the rest of the season will give you that money in a signing bonus. Like, you could structure it that way, I believe. So that's where I think a team like Philadelphia or the Leafs or the Habs or the Rangers or the Bruin, like big money, big name teams can twist the fucking knife on. smaller market teams like Anaheim. Yeah, and he also, like, apparently has another equally huge bonus in year two that is early in the deal.

He basically gets... Almost all of this contract is bonuses. It's like total money on... 37 million, I think, was the total that he gets over basically 12 months and a bit. Yes, that's right. 37 million in one year. It might even be more than that, yeah. Could be.

Because the base salary... This is the base salary for the five years of the deal. 850, 900, 950, 1 million, 1 million. Every other dollar of that deal is signing bonus. It's of a $90 million contract. So, like, you do the math. That's not even $6 million, $5 million. It's not even $5 million bucks out of $90 million.

So that's the, like, people are misusing the term poison pill, but like if you want to misuse it, that's the poison. but the AAV isn't the problem, I don't think, in a league where three years from now, the cap's going to be like $135 million. I don't think $18 million is a problem. I do think giving a guy checks that big every year, all at once is a problem.

And so if I'm Anaheim, I think you have to match it. I think you just have to. Because the four picks you get back, unless you're immediately flipping them for, you're not going to get a guy similar to Leo Carlson, but like a guy in that ballpark, right? Like a guy that level of talent or quality

or wins above replacement, whatever you want to say, you have to have a deal in place to immediately flip those four picks. You can't take the four picks and then go, Okay, who wants to make a deal? You know what I mean? Because everybody knows you're fucking desperate at that point.

And I believe they have all of their upcoming picks, like in the next four years. So you have eight first round picks to work with. Go out and get somebody. But you can't just, like, let them match or you decline to match. And then you just have eight picks in the next four years. You're fucked. So I think you have to match. And the thing is, like, all of that makes sense.

But how badly does this screw up your salary structure going forward? Oh, totally. That's a big term that people are using. But it's, like, it is legitimately true that it feels like each NHL team just kind of sets their own internal structure and the players just go along with it. Or they don't. I mean, obviously, every team wants to set a low structure, but you look at a team like Montreal, where everybody just seems happy to leave tens of millions of dollars on the table.

Like that Demadoff contract that he signed a few hours before this, at this point, you're looking at that goal. Yeah, of course. Like literally tens of millions of dollars that he left on the table. and I'm sure he and, you know, he'd say, no, I'm made my decision. I'm happy with it. It's Cole Coughfield, Nick Suzuki, all those guys, Lane Hudson, like they've all got these huge discount deals.

And you assume they're happy with them and we'll stay that way. You've got a problem if that changes down the road, but it'll be a better problem than the one the ducks are about to have because, like, like, this makes. me think a little bit, and this is rare, but I think we can relate this back to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Oh, finally. I was hoping someone would do this. Because it makes me think back to like the John Tavares signing. Yeah, totally. Which was a good signing, and he lived up to that. But as soon as that happened, Matthews and Marner went, oh, okay. So if we're paying this guy $11 million, I should be in that ballpark too. And then it just

kind of went from there. And that might have worked if it wasn't for the pandemic, but... Well, that's what I was going to say. And so this is the other thing that I think needs to be kept in mind about this. I just said, like, the cap in a few years, what people don't understand about the salary cap now, I think, is that just because it's not, it's going, it went up like $9 million this year, maybe that's next year. It's going up nine and it went up like six this year. Is that right? Anyway, these are still agreed upon numbers between the NHLPA and the NHL. These cap numbers.

These are unmoored from like HRR, the 50-50 revenue split, all that. If the league says last year it made like seven and a half, eight billion dollars, right? Last season. And so that would mean that in theory, the salary cap for this season should be a little higher than that and $8 billion divided by $32 sets the midpoint. So that's, that means the upper

limits like $121, 125. I did this math the other day and now I don't remember. But like, the salary cap should be like $15 million higher than it is right now. So think about three, four years down the line when we're getting to the end of the Leo Carlson deal. But guys

like again, like, you know, Beckett Seneca and and, and, uh, um, why am I blanking on his name? Guys scored 50 goals for them, 40 goals for them. Cutter Goatee. Cutter Goatee.

Yeah, of course. I'm looking at their cat friendly page or a puckpedia page, I mean. And I kept seeing the name Tim Washy and I'm like, I know that's not. That's the guy from Western Michigan. Anyway, Cutter Goateeatier. Cutter Goateeatier is also an RFA this year, right? And so three, four years from now, when $18 million is like back to being 7% of the cap or whatever the number is,

everybody's like, oh, okay, then that's like, it's just a huge paradigm shift to go from nobody is allowed to make more than 15 or what's McKinnon at? 13 and a half maybe. Nobody's allowed to make more than that to we're allowed to pay Leo Carlson 18. million and it's not completely unreasonable in three years like the psychic shift of

that is difficult for I think a lot of people to wrap their hands around. Where do you think if you had to just guess where were that Leo Carlson number rank in three years league wide? Well I think it's as soon as Kale McCar and

Quinn Hughes signed their extensions, it's going to be number three at a bare minimum. Or tied for second or whatever you want to say. I just think this sets a new floor and McDavid will obliterate this number. Matthews will obliterate, maybe not obliterate, but Matthews will end up higher than this number. I think there's a reasonable case to be made and we can talk about it a little bit more

later that there are guys out there now, like, you. Connor Bedard, for example, that I'd go, I'd give him what's a max offer sheet right now. I'd give him $20 million just to see if it works. Because four years from now, when you're looking at Connor Bedard coming out of this contract, $20 million is going to feel reasonable for a guy with his kind of upside. You know, so like I don't think, obviously this is a crazy number for what we understand the cap to be. I don't think this is crazy for where the cap should be and where it's going. And again, like the thing that I think is so interesting here is that this is one of the big market teams, even pre-salary cap, the flyers were like, we're going to spend a shitload of money on 31-year-old All-Stars, which was the way you won in the 90s, right?

and they're a team that in theory can just continue to be like we will be at the tippy top of whatever the salary upper limit is. We're not worried about being up there. And Anaheim and Columbus and St. Louis and probably Nashville. Like they're at Calgary, Winnipeg, certainly. There are just a ton of teams that are going to have to really think about when they can see. spend $130 million on a team and when they have to rein it in. And Leo Carlson, if you want to call them the flashpoint for this is the new reality of like, you know, I'll put it this way and then I'll let you talk again.

Sorry. But I'm watching the, the TSN coverage on July 1st. And O'Dog is up there talking like fucking Carl Marx. He's talking about the haves and halts in this league. And when's everybody going to be mad? A lot of these fucking guys turn into Marxists really quickly when you start saying all the big markets are going to have all the star players again. And to your point from a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about this, they did have a whole lockout about this, right? It became such a problem that they had to have a lockout about it.

And they lost a whole season. And they had to redo how. revenue sharing works and all that. What I think, I don't think, I don't, I think everybody's smart enough now to go, we can't lose a whole season again. But I do think that there's a, there's a reckoning coming with like revenue sharing and like how much money the Rangers make versus how much money the, the, I don't know, the San Jose sharks make just to pick a team, you know?

And again, like Leo Carlson, you want to call him the flashpoint, I just think he was the the first guy through the door. I don't know. I don't know. Like, let's put it this way. Someone, if you're Leo Carlson and you're saying to Anaheim 15 and they're saying, fuck off. And someone calls you and says 18,

you sign the offer sheet every time and you don't even think twice about it. They offered 50% more almost than the ducks were. So it's an easy decision for the player. It is. But let me ask you this. Okay. Let's assume Anaheim matches. Yeah.

How do you go back? How do you, like, repair the relationship? Is there a relationship to repair? I mean, this guy just absolutely torpedoed you. And I'm, you and I are on the same page as far as players should get whatever they can get. Use whatever leverage you have. If Pat Verbeek wanted to be Ebenezer Scrooge, he just got visited by the ghost of payroll future. Yeah.

But is it like, can you just be like, all right, we matched and then the guy comes back and we just pretend that he didn't sign a contract with somebody else? Is this a business or isn't it? This is the thing I always think about, right? Like, oh, it's a business. It's, oh, fuck, who was it the other day was telling a story about like, a former player on Twitter was telling a story about like a guy in the shark's ownership or, the front office, I mean,

came up to me and told me to my face, we want you to be a shark for a really long time and they traded me two weeks later. And it's like that, and his point was like, that's when I knew it really was just a fucking business. And, and, you know,

it's, we're not all like friends out here. And, yeah, I got to tell you, man, like, I just,

I just think, like, if you're a GM and you're going to have hard feelings about this, especially after you're the guy that grinds everybody for like the extra five grand at the end of their contract, you know? Like, I don't know how you hold those two things in your head and go like, I'm being reasonable here. I think a lot of people could do that because a lot of people view everything that they do is fine

and other people is not, but you're right. And I mean, we should point out like Carolina just won a Stanley Cup, Sebastianahoe, playing a big role. didn't seem to cause any problems there when he signed in Montreal for eight seconds. So, man, it's just tough. And I guess this is, again, this is how you know that it's a good strategic move is that I honestly don't know if they should match or not. I can't, yeah. Yeah, you could, like I said, I think you have to match, but you could certainly talk me into it.

either way. You know? Like, if you want to say, like, hey, it's just got to be this way, I have a hard time disagreeing with, like, you got to let him walk. Mm-hmm. But. The other thing that can happen, I believe. Mm-hmm.

Okay. So the second pen goes to paper on an offer sheet, the ducks cannot trade this. Correct. Okay. They could not turn around now and be like, well, maybe the ducks don't. And by the way, the ducks are a small market team, but their owner is filmed. Yeah, of course. So he, this isn't like when the Habs thought they had Tom Dundon over a barrel or whatever.

Like, it's, it's couch change to this guy, assuming he's willing to. Yeah, well, and that's the thing, right? Like, he has to be willing to go there and who knows if he is. Yeah. But. And not to run the. ducks purely as a profit loss business, you know, necessarily. But, okay, some people are thinking, like, you know, can they trade them to the Rangers?

Can they trade them to, you know, whatever big market. They can't. They couldn't trade them for a year, even if they matched, yeah. And if they match, they can't trade them for a year, which we'll get to with the Baird-Hayton one because. But what they could do, they also cannot trade them. to the flyers. Right.

Except Pat Verbeek, in theory, I believe, could call up Danny Breyer and say, look, I'm going to match because I can't, with what I'm building here, I just can't take four future first round picks for this guy. Yeah, totally. But if instead of four first round picks, I was getting two picks and these two players off your roster. at that point, I would not match and you would get the player. And essentially what you're doing there is you're agreeing that I'm not going to match and then I'm going to trade the four first round picks.

You just gave me right back to you in exchange for what we've actually agreed on. Right. I wonder if there's any... And I mean, that's hard to do in part because there's usually a lot of bad feelings around something like this. But I wonder if that.

that would be a possibility at all. Yeah, no, I mean, and make it a little bit better. It's, in a way, it's kind of, it's, it's, it's a lot like what you were saying, which is figure out how you're going to trade those picks and turn them into something immediately, except you're doing it with Philadelphia. I don't know. Like, is there a Matve-Mitchkov scenario that could play out here? Is there, you know, something else like that?

I don't know. Just different, different ways to approach it. does feel like it's a no win for the ducks, which again, I guess, is the whole idea. Yeah, that's exactly right. And the thing to say, too, is like, yep, they got a, they got a sign Gautier. They just gave Minchikov a big contract five years, 7.2, which I think is part of the, part of the whole story here, obviously. But the thing that I keep thinking about with the ducks is they're like, again, they're in, they're in a tough. situation in so far as they're now going, how do we afford Cutter Gautier?

I'm going to read you some names and numbers. And you tell me if these are good contracts on this duck's roster. Michael Granlin, seven million. Troy Terry, seven million. Chris Kreider, six and a half million. Alex Coloren, six and a quarter million. Frank Petrono a little more than 4.5 million. Like, there are guys where have you found someone to,

take them off your hands. You just don't, like, you're thinning out your depth a little bit. But you, I don't have a problem where if you go, oh, Frank Vitrono, this guy shouldn't be on our roster anymore. Does someone want to take him? We'll even retain 20% or whatever. Then you don't have a problem with the money anymore, you know? Chris Kreider, a guy who's very useful for them, obviously.

You don't have a problem moving on from him in theory. if you can get out from under that and get Gaudhier locked up, you know? So, like, it's not that they're now in this impossible situation or anything kind of like it to me. I just, you know, at the end of the day, I'm kind of going, yeah, you don't, you don't have the ability to say no to this if you're Anaheim. You get this, you get this deal locked up, like, you match and you figure out, rest later. Because you'd rather be in a desperate position trying to move Michael Granland at 34 years old. And by the way, he has a 15 team no trade list.

But you're just, you'd rather be desperate trying to do that than desperate trying to find someone to fucking give you a Leo Carlson type player back for four draft picks, five draft picks, whatever it is. And just are we sure that like Leo Carlson, player is like, I'm not saying he has to be the best player in the league, even though he's the highest paid, because we all understand that's not going to last long. Doesn't he have to get, like, get some hard votes? Oh, yeah, totally.

Yes. Like, are we sure he's that guy? Like, are we should, like, what's his comparable? I guess my question would be, like, under this deal, like, who does he have to be? Like, I don't think he has to be McDavid or McKinnon. No. Or, like, two years ago, Matthews. But, I mean, he's got to be in the next tier, you would think, right?

Yes, he does. And are we positive he's that guy? I'm not. I'm not at all, in fact. I have a bit of skepticism that he can live up to this deal. But if you're the Flyers and you're building in, we're, over the next three years, we're going to gain $30 million in cap space just because of how the cap should be growing right now, right?

You're going, I can live with this guy being Tim Stutz the level for $18 million bucks three years down the line. And we're not that good right now, even with him anyway. We're good, but we're not like cup competitive. Yeah, I guess that's the other thing I wanted to ask you, because I've seen a few takes about, well, you know, if the ducks don't match, the picks they're getting are all going to be late picks. And I can see the Flyers, like, are certainly trending up.

But are we completely sure that even with Leo Carlson that the Flyers are a playoff team next year? In the East? Completely sure, no, because, well, I mean, they just gave them the big contract, but Dan Vodar is probably not having a season like you just had ever again. Yeah, I'm kidding. Right?

Like, yeah, the guy went from being like a perfectly good backup guy to he was like one of the best goalies in the league. I don't know, I don't know how you like square that if you're, if you're like giving him an insane contract. Well, that's what I mean. Like, I don't know how you square that that's repeatable is what I'm saying. So like if you want to say it is, my hat's off to you. Congratulations, you know, but it's not. And again, that's just kind of the reality of the situation. So you go, all right, well, we're going to do something to, again, raise our floor.

Getting Leo Carlson at a position of, I would say, significant need for the flyers is the way to raise the floor. Raise the floor how much? Great question. Don't worry about it, you know. And we should, I mean, just to state the obvious, I think, but because the, they're so, because it's so common whenever with first round picks move and they're always top 10 protected, these picks are not protected in anyone. Yeah, no, no, no.

And they are the Flyers picks, not anyone else's. And that's part of it, right? But the Flyers have the Leaf's unprotected pick because of all the shenanigans. So that helps it from Danny Breyer's perspective, right? Like, yeah, we, we, you know, if this goes through, we're still picking pretty high in the draft this year, you would figure. So I don't know, man. It's going to be fascinating. I can't wait to find out what, what they do, what for Beak says, how it all plays out.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it sounds sick. I mean, he already got, I mean, he already gave that, the, the defenseman way more than, you know, the ducks were ever planning to. so he's been, seems to have been humbled a little bit here. And like the good, like did you see the, um, um, like one of the agents was like posting popcorn gifts and stuff on like there, it really does feel like there's kind of like a collective like good. Let's put the boots to this guy a little bit.

Yeah. Oh, that's exactly what it feels like. Yes. They were like, this guy's been getting away with this bullshit for too long. And now he's gotten knocked down a peg by, by like a rich team. but anyway that is just one of the ten biggest moves of the free agency period so far we're going to go through the other nine I guess

on the other side of this break we'll be right back this week's episode of Pokesw is brought to you by Raycon and folks I don't have to tell you summer's here the beautiful weather beach days etc and what better way to enjoy these beautiful summer days, whether you're hitting the beach, whether you're working out, going for a run, something like that, you're just running errands. Just chilling around the house. I can't think of many better ways to enjoy it than with my pair of Racon Essential Open Earbuds.

Now, what do we mean when we say an open ear ear? They go over your ears so that you can still hear everything that's going on around you while you're still listening to your music and your podcasts and all that kind of thing. Maybe you're listening to Puck Soup, aren't you? Well, great news, folks. These are very comfortable. I have a pair of myself, of course, and they sound great. And right now, just for you, they're 20% off.

How do you like that? Like I said, I got a pair of these bad boys, and I said they're super comfortable. That's true. The reason they're comfortable is they, like, hook over your ears, but then they kind of, like, rotate in and out. So that they're always kind of right next to your ear. canal without actually going all the way in there, which means that you can hear everything around you in a way that like noise cancelling obviously cancels, I guess. So it's a little bit of a safer way to walk the dog as I so often do with my with my open ear ones. And on top of that comfort,

that ease of use, that extra safety, if you want to put it that way, these also come with the same thing you've come to expect from Raycon, your multi-point connectivity so you can pair it with two devices at the same time. 36 hours of battery life, 8 hours of playtime and 36 hours in the charging case, probably don't even need to charge them more than once a week if you're going a little crazy with it. So if all that sounds good to you, here's what you need to know. The essential open earbuds are a great option for everyday listening.

Go to buyraycon.com slash puck open to get 20% off. Thank you, Raycon, for sponsoring the show. All right, we're back. And the second deal that I think is pretty interesting in this. this off season is one that kind of didn't happen. The Zach Werenski trade, they were like, actually, that was all fake. I don't know why everybody got so mad about that. Did you see the Blue Jackets tweet of the like Will Smith with the.

Yeah, I did. That was cute. It was something. Annoying. Because here's the thing. They lose four games in a row next season and everybody's looking at Werencky to see if he's looking at the exit. Honestly, I'm not even, I don't know what the.

percentage chance of Werensky being in the opening night lineup for Columbus is, it's not 100%. It's not 100, but I do think it's pretty high. Yeah. But you're right. It's two years left on the deal, all of that. But that's another one. Like, man, what a fascinating, you know, we hear that he wants out.

He gets traded to Dallas. Yep. But then he goes, no, I don't want to go to Dallas. Yeah. So the thing about we hear that he wants out is everybody goes, okay, what are the logical destinations, right? And that's all in the media. And so you could, if you're doing the Zach Werencki thing of like, I don't know why this got so blown out of proportion. Dog, they tried to trade you.

It wasn't me sitting at home going like, oh, I wonder where he's going to go. It was the fucking GM of your team traded you to another team. And then you said, actually, I don't think. I don't think so. Why did that get blown out of proportion? Because you got traded. That's why. What the fuck are you talking about?

You just won the Norris trophy and you, yes. You didn't want to play there anymore. So, yeah, man, like that's. They traded you. So they, they agree to a trade with Dallas, which is either built around Thomas Harley. The rumor is it was Harley Maverick Bork.

who eventually got traded to Nashville and maybe one or two other things. I have also heard that it may have been just one for one, Thomas. Wow. That this was just, you know, but either way. Yes, in any event, for sure. Zach Wrenzky kind of says, no, I don't want to do that.

There's like a day of reporting that he wants, I mean, Tampa was always the team that got mentioned. The Leafs were all. also being mentioned. Maybe there were other teams. And then later that day, and then there was also the weird report that, like, Werensky and his camp were so mad now

that they were going to reject any trade. Yeah. Which is a bizarre, like, oh, I'm so mad at you that I'm going to not do the thing that you don't want me to do. Like, yeah, that I asked you to do. You didn't do it in a way I like so, You like what are you talking?

This pissed me off so much and not just because I want to see like it's always fun when like fun players get traded like great players get traded. There's so much to talk about obviously. That's the business we're in. It piss me off so much because he was like again, the statement said, I don't know why this got blown out of proportion. Because the fucking team that you were on that you were about to become the captain of probably just traded you. That's why it's interesting. That's why it got blown out of proportion Because they thought

That you wanted to go to Dallas What? How is this a mystery to you, me? What? That shit drove me fucking crazy The other day It'd be like One of my teenagers

Just getting mad at me And me like Screw you, Dad, I'm not going to leave my dirty plates On the counter anymore That'll teach you You're like, okay Cool Dad, take me to the mall

Okay No Not like that That's it I'm not even going I'm going to stay home and study All right You can do that too

Yeah So Fucking bizarre Sounds like he's sticking around But you're right It's still going to be Well and again

His statement said Yeah his statement said Something to the effect of I want to try to win in Columbus Oh I mean I don't think you're going to do that My friend Right

And so, again, two, three, I hate to keep doing this, but like, do we think Jet Grieves is going to have a season like you just had again? Okay. I feel a lot better about Jack Grieves and I do Dambler. Oh, a million percent, yes. But again, this required Werenski to have the best season of his career and he's a very good player, right? He's a great defenseman. In an era of great defensemen, he's one of the best ones. And so you go, oh, well,

Are you going to do that again? And he's going to do that again? And, like, Charlie Coil's going to do that again. And Sean Monaghan's like, go down the list of guys that have to have your career seasons. You just described, like, a bunch of guys having close to career years. Refresh my memory? How deep in the playoffs did the Blue Jackets go? Oh, they didn't make it.

It's crazy. And so this is what I'm saying. I don't think they're going to make the playoffs next year. That's my guess. basically things could change. They just traded for Valerian Nchuschen, which by the way, that trade now in the light of the

like Werenzky stuff is like, see, Zach, we're competitive, we're getting guys who are good and it's like, I don't know, like a team that just won the Stanley Cup a few years ago was like, this guy cannot play for, is not allowed to play for us anymore. I don't know that you get much better taking the castoffs

of teams that used to be cup competitive. But okay, sure. So again, like, you get to, let's say, January and they're eight points out of a playoff spot in the east, whatever the numbers are, right? Aren't you at that point going, okay, we got to have the Werencki conversation? Not like if you're the team, but if you're the media. Right?

And if the media starts talking about it, that means the media is asking about it. And if the media is asking about it, you're getting pissed off about it. and there's no way to stop that cycle, except I guess by making the playoffs and like winning and stuff, but this is the blue jacket, so, you know. And then we've got, it's a strange situation there. Who,

good player. Who also apparently wants out, uh, Don O'Dell said, no, he'll be here in September, but it doesn't sound like there was like, a makeup so much as what else was just like, no, screw you.

Not a lot of conviction behind the, yeah. Like, because this is the thing, you can't force a guy to want to play for you. Well, it just doesn't work that way. I did with Wrenski maybe a bit, but I still, it's so, you know, he's got to be ticked off here as Jim Nill in Dallas. Because now, like, first of all, I'm sorry, man, anytime of player goes, no, I choose Columbus over you, that's a bit of an insult. That's a kick in the teeth for sure.

Harley now knows you were going to trade them. And I think, like, you know, I mean, I got to think if you're a defenseman in the NHL and it's like, yeah, we're going to trade you for the Norris winner. Like, the guy who is a top three defensemen in the world. Like, you can't be that insulted by that, but you're still like, you know. Totally. And by that disposable, sure. And plus, you know, your doubt, you haven't done anything all offseason because this was your big move.

So, I don't know, it's interesting, man. It's, you're right. This is, this was the, this was the most fascinating story of the offseason right up until Leo Carlson kind of blew it out of the water. But let's stay with Dallas here and let's talk about Jason Robertson, apparently the reason he rejected all those trades was, that he wants to stay in Dallas. That is his goal. That is like his greatest wish, whatever you want to say. But also he doesn't just want to take 12 million bucks.

So he has filed for arbitration. I don't know if they've actually set the dates for those yet, but that would be like late July, early August. That would be quite a ways away here if it goes to like an actual hearing or whatever. And, you know, you're coming off a career season and you're already a good player. You're Jason Robertson. Like you can, you know, you can say even before this year, I've done some stuff in this league that people would want to pay me a lot of money to do again, right? But to the thing you're saying about like the salary structure, I can't, again, I read so much bullshit online that it's like I don't remember which actual insider reported this. but apparently there's a little bit of people in the players in Dallas going,

look, man, Miko Ranton is making $12 million. You think you should be getting more than Miko Rantan? You know, and Robertson's going, well, I mean, look at Leo. Now he can say the Carlson. And here's the thing. Like, circling back to Carlson, you know, people have said, like, well, this is going to raise the salaries of all the star players. And other people have correctly pointed out, well, you know, actually the amount of, the amount that the players collectively get paid doesn't change.

It doesn't matter if somebody's making the max or whatever it is. The amount of money out there is still the same. But it does, like, it opens a door for players, right? Like... The aperture of your imagination certainly expands when you're like $18 million for a guy who scored not even 30 goals last year. I mean, okay. I mean, McDavid's the wrong guy to use it as an example because I think everyone agrees

is that if McDavid tomorrow, if he said, I want the max. Of all time. Yes, of course. You do it. But if it's, you know, I'm trying to think somebody in the next level. Well, I mean, let's say Matthews, right? Like in two years, say Matthews gets back to being like a 50 goal. Like if Matthew says, I want 22 million,

it a Leo Carlson makes 18 million world. Somebody will do it. Maybe not Toronto, but somebody will. So, yeah, Jason Robertson wants. So I really, really want to stay, but I also want to make more money than anyone else on the team. I want to, I, again, as a percentage of the cap, I want to make what I, what a guy who just scored 40-something goals deserves. And I think that obviously that's a totally reasonable ask. It fucks Dallas's salary structure to a certain extent.

But again, like, you're, you're going to. let's put it this way. You're them, and he's a year away from free agency. Are you like, yeah, we'll do it. We'll do whatever, 13 million, whatever he gets for one year. And then we let you walk. No, you just give him $14 million and you say, sorry about all the fucking confusion there, Big Dog.

Yeah. Because, again, 18 million bucks now gets you Leo Carlson. Jason Robertson is a more impactful player right now than Leo Carlin. Again, maybe not three, four, or five years from now. But like, do you want the guy and you want to be competitive or you want to let the guy walk to free agency next year? Those are your two options. You get to pick. Are you a competitive team?

Are you going to be more likely to win with him or without him with that extra $14 million that you just saved? Think about it. So. But yeah, you're right. Like Harley, and it's easy to forget this. Harley makes 10.5. 106 almost it says here. Heiskenen only makes a little less than eight and a half.

And so like, you weren't so worried about the fucking salary structure then. And Heiskenen, I think you would say, has proven a lot more in this league than Harley did when he got his contract. Sure. And I think, to be clear, I think Thomas Harley's fucking awesome. But like, are we keeping up with the times or are we not doing that? Again, it's up to you to decide whether that's the case. I think this is such an easy call for Dallas, but will they make it?

I don't know. Find out. Hey, here's a guy who got overpaid. I think everybody, like I think literally everybody agrees about this. Sergei Babrovsky, three years, seven million bucks a pop to Toronto,

reportedly the exact same offer that his team brought to Florida and Florida was like, all set. Thank you, though. Yep. And cap number, fine.

Not great, certainly, but given all the space the team had, if they felt like goaltending was the big issue, then go out and spend $7 million on a starting goalie? Sure. Is this the guy? I don't know, given last year how bad he was. And, I mean, frankly, how bad he was for a lot of the last few years, minus the playoffs.

And yeah, maybe you're saying, we're getting this guy for the playoffs. Sure. Gotta get there. But the three years is like the best description. Somebody described it as like this is this is Marlowe-esque. And yeah, that's what it feels like. Year one, I think you can live with it.

Year two might be okay. But the odds that by year three you're not sitting there with a problem. And look, lots of problems go away. but I believe like I mean is it not the case that if he let's say he doesn't retire but let's say he's injured or he's too old to play like they still carry that cap number because it's a 35 plus deal is that not yeah so it's not like you can just LTA IR it and and that's the end of it so I yeah I didn't I did not love this let's just say they there's to me this kind of it wasn't the last contract they signed, but this kept a bizarre July 1 for the Leaf for me.

Because obviously in the lead up to that, they get Darren Radish. And there are a lot of rumors out there that Riley's gone. And maybe he even asked for a trade, like a change of scenery kind of a thing. I think he can read the writing on the wall and he's reportedly given them a list of a few teams. Yeah. And like, apparently the Leafs went to San Jose. and said like, I think Elliot said this,

and said like, what do you think? And they were like, we'd rather have Darnell Nurse for like $2 million more. That hurts. But maybe a little less term. I'm not remembering how much time nurse has left on his deal now.

But we'll talk about that in a minute. So they get the following guys. Colton Sizzins, Jack Rosavik, Nick Paul, Brandon Duhame, Teddy Blugher, and maybe there's one more that I'm forgetting. But it's like that you only, but definitionally you only have six bottom six spots. And I don't, I think they have more than six bottom six guys now. And the other.

And they don't have six top six guys. The other thing is I did a lot. well, I consumed a lot of postseason post-mortems on the Leafs. I participated in some of them. I don't ever remember seeing it said that, like, you know what the big problem with this team is? Is the bottom six.

They're not hard to play against you. The bottom six is the big problem. If they can get that fixed, so the fact that they used almost all of their cap windfall on bottom six. Bottom six in the 37-year-old goal. And a 37-year-old goal. And Darren Radish, which I didn't hate. No, I think if you're replacing Morgan Riley with him, I think that's totally reasonable.

But you've got to trade Riley now. So... Somebody made a really... Clock's ticking. Made kind of a good point to me, which is... And this is... Grandpa's going way back on this one. But when Cliff Fletcher first came to the Leafs in the early 90s, he just started acquiring oilers and flames.

Because those were the two teams that had been, you know, the best team in the league for the last several years. The terror of the Western Congress. The rivalry, all of that. And he was like, we're going to build around guys from those two teams because that is how we're going to like build up the culture here and everything. And to see Chica come in and immediately start collecting Panthers and lightning, because there was also like the Nick Paul trade. And like, okay, you can see that and you're like, maybe there's a little bit of that. I get it.

Sure. Here's the part that that really scares me when I think about it. So I try not to do it. I think most of us, if we were putting together a list of like the smartest front offices, would probably have both the Florida teams in the top five, maybe. Yeah, sure. And they're moving on from the guys. When they're the team, you know, like,

Florida says no to Brodowski, a guy who won them two cups. Like you would think, you know, we've said it's a business and all that. But there can be... He never won a... He never won the... He didn't win the consmight for him, right?

Yeah. But he, I mean... Probably should have that first year, but they gave it to McDavid. Yeah, played great. You would think there'd be, like, some loyalty there. And yet, they say, don't, not at that number. We'd rather have 36-year-old Jacob Markstrom.

Another move we'll talk about. And the Leafs go, okay, well, we'll take that guy. The lightning not only, you know, and the lightning are tight against the cap, but the lightning have given half their roster eight-year contracts. They look at Darren Radish and go, no. Not only are we not going to do it, we will happily facilitate a sign and trade with a division rival. That's exactly right.

Yep. You go, oh, you want Nick Paul? Yeah, we'll make, like, they're making all these moves with. these two smart teams, which means either they're also smart and they're holding their own, or they're even smarter, or they're not as smart. And I know which of those three options feels just statistically most likely. Yeah, I think that's all exactly right. Like, I have to say, like, all the guys they acquired, like, that we were just saying,

like, the bottom six guys. I think they're all good bottom six guys for the most part. You know, like, I don't think that's a huge problem for them. but like I do look at like what they gave Jack Rosavik and I go kind of definitionally they they have to elevate him to the top six and hope that he can regain the like remember when he scored 20 goals that one time season yeah and in fact you know what I'm looking here he scored 20 goals three times including uh last year so like he can do that for them and that's fine but like his underlying impacts are not what they were

And there's a reason I think that he was kind of like in the wilderness a bit like toward the end of his tenure in Columbus. And maybe he's the kind of guy that you put him next to guys who can play and he's going to score 20-something goals for you. The Leaves don't have a shortage of guys who can play in the top six. But it's a gamble. Yeah. And again, you're like, okay, they missed the playoffs last year. By a lot. And we're trying to get back to let's put Austin Matthews.

And look, this is the other thing. I don't think you can discount the amount of like Jim Hillerness that like a lot of these guys are bringing into the table. Jim Hiller, say what you want about how fun to watch his teams are, how successful they were when they got into the playoffs against the oilers the last several years, whatever you want to say. universally good defensive numbers. And so maybe you say that puts Brobrovsky in addition to all these bottom six guys who like, again, I think are good bottom six guys. That puts Bovrovsky in a position to succeed. How many goals is this team scoring next year? Yep.

I don't know if you're going to like the answer to that one. Unless they can really figure it out with Matthews and McKenna hits the ground running. Yeah. That's, I guess that's the main. McKenna really does feel like a big piece of whether they get back or not. And you don't want to put that on a kid who's going to be 18 when the season starts. You do not. Hey, all you're going to do is get the Toronto Maple Leafs back to being not a, not a kind of laughing stock.

Oh, okay. Sounds good. Yeah. You know I'm a child, right? Yep. Okay. Yeah. Unbelievable.

So let's quickly talk here, since we mentioned. mentioned about Florida trading for Markstrom. The other thing that Florida did that I thought was really funny was they gave Radko Goodeus six years. Hey, man. He's definitely going to play with that contract. This is a real thing that happens. But what you're seeing with the Markstrom trade is they're doing the thing the Leafs are doing, where they're like, we have a structure, we believe in, you know, all of our guys when we're

healthy, we can put Markstrom in a position to to be like insulated from high danger chances and all that in a way that New Jersey was like, oh, you want to go get a high danger chance? Have fun. That sounds great. And so I don't think that's like a horrible bet by them.

But to facilitate that and just to kind of keep their salary structure, they traded AJ Greer and Mackie Samiskevich and Evan Rodriguez. Guys were like kind of the glue in the bottom six.

And now they're going, well, like Garnett Hathaway and Lars Eller and, you know, like older guys that can kind of play that style. Those guys have to step up now. You know, those guys have to play that role that these other guys were already doing very capably. So I'm very interested to see where, like, where things kind of thin out a little bit for the Panthers here. If they do. Mm-hmm. Because I think when you have Barkov and Kachuk and the other Kachuk, you know,

they added guys that can make a difference in addition to these kind of riskier bets. But, you know, I'm interested. Yeah, they will be an interesting thing. There's a lot to consider there. I think we've all got them in the playoffs. But are they back on top of the division, conference, et cetera? I got that I saw Stanley Cup odds. yesterday that had Panthers number one.

Yeah, I think they're fishing a little bit with that. Maybe. Everybody's healthy. Okay. All right. Yeah. It tends to be the case in mid-July, but all right. Yeah.

Another one to kind of stay in the devil's realm here. They traded Simone Nemich to Calgary for picks, basically, and maybe one roster player. Am I remembering this right? That sounds right. Yeah. Let's see here. I can pull this up very quickly. So they get Nemich and Cyplikov for three picks, two of which are first rounders, and a prospect, basically. So, okay, basically nobody from their roster, for sure. And then they give Nemich, who I don't think was very good last year, seven and a quarter.

Isn't it amazing how Brandt Clark went from being like a bit of a letdown in L.A. or maybe it was usage or maybe was this or that to like the standard for young defensemen? Yeah. You're now here. No, it is. Oh, yeah, you got the Brand Clark deal. The Brandt Clark deal is the like, like, you were drafted high several years ago and you haven't really shown it in the NHL except in like bits and pieces and fits and starts and all that.

So here's seven plus million dollars of Leo Carlson's. You know what I mean? He, for disappointing defensive prospects who have become just young-ish NHL players, not even that young anymore, he did get the Leo Carlson deal in a lot of ways. So,

this and the reason the Nemich contract is interesting to me is because of Zane Perak who is I'm assuming going to be used more than Simone Nemich's in Calgary this season. So I don't know, they're on the same side. You know what I mean? Like are you going to give Nemich reps on the power play over Perak? If not, then a lot of that seven and a quarter goes away

in terms of his value, but not actually the money you have to pay him. So really weird, really weird that they were so aggressive going after this guy. Yep. I would agree. Think the flames are any good this year? No. No, yeah, me neither. It's interesting how that works.

But they traded for Jacob Middleton, too. Remember that? Sure. Yeah, why not? It's really strange. But let's say in the Pacific Division. here. Let's talk about everything the Los Angeles Kings did.

You want to hear the joke someone in the Discord made? I would love to. And I don't know where they got this, but if this was cooked up off the dome, this is an all-time joke for me. The L-A-A-ARP. Okay. Because all the

guys they signed are really good. Yep. That's pretty good. Well, I mean, when you're a team that's been so close to a cup, like LA has. Yeah. Just finishing four playoff wins away, series wins, year after year. Yeah, they're old.

So they were the oldest team in the league last year at 31.1 years old. Since the trade deadline of last year, they have added 34 year old, 34-year-old Artemmy Panarin, 35 year old Eric Howla 41 year old Corey Perry 38 year old Matt Zuccarello And there's someone I'm forget They brought back 32 year old Scott Lott Huh?

What's up? I think a lot of these guys are good Ish Right But the risk That a 41 year old guy shows up to Camp and he sucks Is like 50-50

Is there, you know, I'm not trying to afford to test this, but is there like, yeah, do you think some of this is like, oh, you know, we'll get these guys and then move them at the deadline when the season is going the way we think it's going to go or is that not, that doesn't sound like a. Yeah, I. Well, Lawton signed a three-year deal and so did Eric Halle. Okay. So that would strike me as a problem for that theory. but Perry and Zuccarello are both on one year deals and they get to go and it's only a million dollars. That's what everybody kept reporting and it was driving me crazy about the Zuccarello deal because do you know what his performance bonuses which are almost all of them are pretty easily achievable? You know what his performance bonuses are?

I believe it is when he plays 10 games this year, five. million bucks right in the right in the fucking direct deposit and then it's like every round they win subsequent or if they get out of the first two rounds it's 250 per round we won't worry about those but no i'm not i'm not super worried about that this is this is like but they're cutting him a check on like october 23rd for five million and of course the the benefit to that for a team is you can you because it's a bonus you kick the cap to next year, which doesn't necessarily, I mean, it still counts against your cats. Same thing with Ovechkin.

It's that kind of. Yeah, you know, I don't even have Ovechkin on this sheet. I guess that is a pretty important move. It's big, but we all knew it was that it was coming. Unless you're Darren Drager, which was, I don't know if you saw that. I did. Not to like bag on him or whatever, but like, for people who didn't see, Darren Dregor was telling everyone who would listen for like the two days leading up to the Ovechstein extension. He's done.

It's over. he's never coming back. And then Ovechkin signed an extension for, I thought, shockingly reasonable money for what his age is. But there are bonuses built into that as well, I believe. Oh, indeed, it is also an extra $4.75 after 10 games played. So I'm going to take back the thing I said about reasonable. Never mind.

But yeah. So, you know, the caps I thought did a lot of fun stuff this week, or this offseason, but most of it wasn't in the past week. They had already kind of laid all the groundwork for that with the guy route trade and what have you. So, yeah, let's talk about also in the Pacific Division, everything the sharks did, which I have written down on the lineup. They loaded up, or in the outline, I mean, they loaded up the blue line with crap. Damn. Got them. Got them. They add Darnell Nurse and Jacob Truba for a combined price of $17.5 million.

I mean, that's less than Leo Carlson makes. I think Nurse is an interesting reclamation project. I think he's a guy. I agree. He's kind of the, he's two things. He's both the classic guy who, because his contract was bad, people act like. We think he sucks now. Yes.

When he's actually like a good player with a bad contract. And also, I think a change of scenery may help a little bit because he, it's, it's tough. He was just over an end. Yeah, of course. Intense market with the bad contract and all of that. So I could see that working out in San Jose more than the true. I mean, even Truba, like, if that had been a two-year deal, okay, but. four like

maybe four is crazy who did you have to add the years to beat out in this bidding war that you I'll tell you this it wasn't his previous employer apparently the ducks were like have fun out there so it's it's been interesting how like we went from it feels like after the draft it was literally like okay well San Jose's went in eight of the next 10 cups these guys are so right they're so loaded that that the and then immediately it was like, oh, okay, maybe, maybe not. Maybe Mike Greer is not a... Are we going to have...

I like the Marchman. That's right. Pick up. I also really like... So they sign Mason Marchment, I believe it's five years, six years. Six years. Six 75, like fairly reasonable.

Maybe a little high, given his age and all that kind of stuff. But like, that's a guy who can definitely help them, at least in the next two or three years while you're still powering up. And, like, you know, he can provide a little bit of cover and take some of the tougher assignments from some of the younger wingers like Stenbury and all and all these guys, right? Like there's like a method to the madness. And also, I got to say, I got a little emotional seeing him talk about his dad who played for the sharks and was working for them when he passed away. He's going to wear his dad's number in San Jose and like talking about what like loving the sharks growing. up meant to him and that kind of thing like that I was like even if I think maybe they

went a year or two too long I was like that's really nice so look the sharks are going to have some some way bigger contracts to think about in the next little while here I think you know let's get Macklin Celebrini locked in ASAP is it has to be the move but you know I just I just thought this was like a totally defensible nice deal that I can't be mad at. Look at that. We found it, folks. We found the deal. But let's go back to this blue line.

It's not good. Right? Like, I think, I agree with everything you said about nurse. I think it's crazy that Edmonton didn't retain a dollar on that contract. And they gave, and they gave stuff up to get him. It wasn't like a cap dump. Awesome. We don't have this on the list, but would you think that Freddie Anderson signing?

He cannot be worse than what they had. Good way to put it. Yep. I like that. I like Freddie Anderson in one year a lot more than Sergey Bobrovsky, three. He's going to miss 35 games. Just lock it in. That's a guarantee.

But for the 30 games, he's healthy. He's a huge upgrade to me over Jari. And I like the Dev and Levi bet, too. Why not? fuck around and find out, you know? But anyway, I think this trouba contract is like, execrable. Like, just indefensibly bad. Stupid.

What's he going to bring to the table for you? Not only now, let alone three years from now. I'm saying right now, what's he bring to the table for you? A guy's the, a guy that ducks who didn't have a great defense last season were like, we're fucking all set. I like the Kessler Ring deal. You know, I think Orlov still has a little bit. to give. I like where

Dickinson's going. All that kind of stuff. Why the fuck are you adding Jacob Trubin to this mix? That's crazy. Especially at that money. He got a raise. What? Crazy to me. Anyway.

Quickly, let's circle back to the devils here. They attempt to offer sheet Barrett Hayton from Utah. But it's sounds like from the reportage, Utah plans to match on this one. Yes. So unlike Leo Carlson, the strategy here is not the number.

It's that by giving him one year, Utah will basically walk him to free agency. Because they cannot trade him. They can't extend him during that year. So it's possible that, you know, come January 1st, They can sit down and work out an extension. But he will be locked. They cannot trade him. They can't, quote unquote, get something for him.

And if he wants to, he can hit UFA next year. Yep. So the question, I guess, that you're trying to force Utah to answer is, do we want to just get a second round pick for him now? Do we think this is our guy beyond this year, basically? Do we take what we can get now, or do we bring him back for a year and then watch him walk for nothing? Or do we think there's an extension to go here? Yeah, the worst case scenario here is you get, you were essentially giving up a free second round pick for this coming season.

And so I think it's an easy match for Utah, honestly. Like, I'd rather have Barrett Heaton now, given where they think they're going. this coming season, then a second round pick that maybe we see in the NHL three seasons from now. You know?

So I think this is an easy match. The money's totally reasonable. But I also like New Jersey trying it because, like, again, you just try it. They all, they all, the background on this that I guess we didn't set up is that they thought they had a trade worked out

at the deadline last year. Or no, not at the deadline. What am I saying? At the draft. And Utah kind of backed out at the last second. And so New Jersey was like, okay, fuck you. We're going to offer sheet them.

I think that's great. I think that's how it should be. You know, all this stuff about, oh, they actually don't like each other because, like, there was going to be a pick swap and they didn't do it. And so now the GMs have hard feelings. Just like air them out, man. Now we can all move on. So that's fun.

One last, like, kind of notable move here. That gambit by the Carolina Hurricanes to trade for the rights to John Carlson didn't work. No. John Carlson goes to Tampa for basically the exact same money, I believe, as, as radish, right? Eight and a half? It was basically on a much shorter deal, obviously. Yeah, on two years and six. Instead of eight.

Two years is, and two years is right for a guy like Carlson. Sure. Yeah. No problems here. Yep. Good deal. Good, you know, again, like proof that Tampa had the space for Radish if they, if they wanted to. If they believed in him.

He's a very good, Carlson's a very good fit in Tampa. I mean, a little bit weird to see Carolina still getting rejected by guys. You know, after obviously, renting in most famously, and Jake Gunsel left to go to Tampa. And you would think after a cup, maybe people would be more anxious to play there, but not necessarily. Yeah, I don't know what the Carolina offer to him was, though.

We don't know the offer. We don't know what the role was. There can be a lot of things. Yeah, I would say that there's more of like a clearly defined, um, space for him in Tampa than there might have been. Because, like, am I going, like, he's a huge upgrade over Shane Goss despair on the power play? Other aspects of the game, maybe you can say.

But, like, most of Carlson's value now is the power play, I would say. Maybe not most, but, like, a very good percentage of it. And he's less of a reliable defender at five on five. And so if they were saying, like, we're thinking like seven for you. I think that's a totally reasonable number for guy his age. but obviously go fucking find if somebody wants to give you more than that and then somebody did. So that's, you know, I think it's totally reasonable. But otherwise, like, I don't know, I like what Tampa did.

They got Ilya and the Jeffrey Veal deal. I don't understand that at all. But I did like them getting the Hild to be back from Toronto. Yeah, not a bad. Finally, a goalie I trust more than Jonas Johanssen. Yeah. Yep, that's an interesting one. I know a lot of Lee fans were not happy to see him go,

even though there was the waiver situation with him was. Yeah, no room for him, unfortunately. Well, not if you're going to pay a 38-year-old for three years. Yep, that's right. Finally, let's talk about the moves that feel like they're going to happen, but haven't yet. Helibuck trade. Yeah.

Sounded like it was almost done with Buffalo, and now the question is, is that dead, or is it still in play with obviously different assets? And it sounds like it might be the latter. Yeah. Look, like I said earlier, we're always, in this business, we're always rooting for the big trade,

so we can get our little takes out there. And, you know, It's funny. There was an article on The Athletic the other day that was like, the headline was Kevin Shevleday off on Helibuque's future in Winnipeg or whatever. And then it was one of those things where they kind of buried it like 10 paragraphs down. And he goes, he's a jet for now and, you know, like, we're going to proceed. And it's like, okay, that's barely an update.

How dare you put that as the lead of the headline? But he did say it. So they weren't lying that he provided an update. But yeah, I'm very interested to see if they do this because if they do, that's the jets going, we got to rebuild. And it makes me wonder what that building looks like when they're actively rebuilding. Because they had a hard time selling it out like in the lead up to the president's trophy season when they had all stars on top of all stars on top of all stars. Yep. I don't know, man.

I don't know. and it's a small building. The other guy that feels like he's going to get traded, maybe you will, maybe you won't, Dylan Larkin. Yeah, still waiting. I think the fact that Werensky kind of went from definitely going to get traded to maybe not, maybe emboldened Steve Eisenman to play hardball here,

which he was probably already potentially looking to play. I've said it before. I mean, I'd tell them see you at camp. You give me a list of three teams. Throw in some sit-ups or something, buddy, because we'll see in September. Yeah, and again, like, I don't know if I said this before, but, like, if I'm looking to Capital W win,

like, two of the, I know at least two of the rumored teams were Vegas and Minnesota, was Florida the other one, or maybe Tampa? I think it was Vegas, This Florida, Minnesota was the initial list we're told about. So I know Vegas just went to the cup final. Do I feel like that's super repeatable? Well, you know, that's a different question.

And I don't know, like if I'm looking to win, I don't know that I'm that I'm super hyped to go to any of those teams. It's like, oh, you know what I'd really like to jump into is the dog fights in the Atlantic and the central. It doesn't square for me, but hey, there's only four divisions, you know. And I guess he's still in the, he's still in the Atlantic right now, so whatever, you know, he's used to it. But yeah, it's, I guess we're in wait and see mode on the American Olympians now that, now that Werenski's staying putt and Kachuk's gone. Eichl's not going anywhere, I'll tell you that. Probably not.

You think there's going to be any other offer sheets this summer? We had a, so I think it was Sunday afternoon. Yeah, Sunday afternoon. Player elected arbitration deadline. And most of the guys you would, like again, like Jason Roberts, and most of the guys who would want to give an offer sheet to were like, let's lock it in. Let's do this.

But not all of them. and this is so interesting to me because for example a guy like Connor Bedard didn't file for arbitration and who's the other one there? Adam Fantilly was the other one.

Van Tilly's one that feels like it's worth watching. I am calling his agent, if I'm a GM who is looking to give someone an offer sheet, I am calling his agent every day. And I'm going, 16 million, call back the next day. 16 and a quarter, call back the day. You know, like, I'm just trying to make this happen because it seems like a really fluid situation in Columbus.

It seems like a situation where, because this is the other thing about Columbus that, you know, kind of gets ignored with all the Werenzky and Marchenko stuff is. Remember how they just had this thing where like every year they'd be like, we have a new guy that we were hyping up as like a good prospect that we're actually going to run out of town instead? Wasn't that long ago, right? And if I'm Adam Fantilli, I'm like, when are they going to turn that fucking microscope on me? Yeah, Fantili's such a weird one.

Every time I see him play, I'm like, this guy's a beast. And then you look at the stats. And then he has 48 points or whatever. And you're like, oh, maybe he is. But it's just something I'm thinking about. And you know who I'm honestly thinking about it if I am them? It's, I'm Seattle. God.

You get rejected again if you're Seattle. You've got to try. What's your, the alternative is you rebuild in Seattle. Like you do a full rebuild. And we've said it a million times with the NBA coming. is that a strategy you want to employ? They're going to announce that NBA team like this winter probably. And everyone's going to fucking...

I just rewatched all the Toy Story movies because Toy Story 5 came out. And there's the scene where... And I believe it's in one where Woody has the nightmare that Andy's like, I don't want to play with you anymore and he throws him over his shoulder. You know? Might be at the beginning of two, now that I say that. I like isn't that what every sports fan in Seattle is going to do the second they announce

so the Supersonics are coming back in three years I'd be really worried about that and I'd be looking to make a splash and so I'd be off-ersheeding Connor Bedard or Adam Fantilli you know you just got to do it I think everybody else you know maybe you can make an argument But Dard's tough because A, does he want to sign? Because again, and by all, and all indications are he likes it in Chicago, yes. And I mean, that does feel like even a max is probably an insta match from Chicago. So I. But again, why not just fuck over Chicago then?

Yeah. Maybe. I honestly, like, there were people speculating that there was bad blood between Anaheim, and Philadelphia because of the Cutter Gautier thing. And that was apparently like people, people insider style people were like, no, that's actually not what's happening here. But you can't argue a dozen fuck the ducks over.

And if that's all you're doing when you have $19 million in cap spaces forcing some other team to make a hard decision, just fucking do it. What are they going to offer sheet a guy from the Seattle Cracken? in retaliation, okay, we suck anyway, man,

who cares? We'll take your picks. Yeah, that's what I mean. We'll take the third round pick for Shane Wright. Oh, that's the,

I didn't have this written down, but the Shane Wright thing is so funny. So his agent gets quoted by Elliot Friedman, like on Sportsnet. Like, they have agreed to

trade Shane Wright this summer. And behind the scenes, the pushback was, we haven't like agreed agreed. Yeah. We understand that he wants to be traded, but like, we're, they're kind of doing the larkin thing. We are acknowledging your trade quest and we'll think about it. Yeah. We have, we are in receipt of.

Yeah. Yeah. As they say on the bear, herd. Mm-hmm. Heard chef. So it's, uh, that'll be interesting. resting. Again, if I'm half the teams in the league, I'm like, what do you want for him?

Give me a number. He's still on his ELC, I believe. So like, somebody mentioned to me whether Shane Reich could go to Montreal. Wouldn't that be fun? That would be fucking beast. Hope you saved your t-shirts from the draft, everyone. I love that kind of thing. But the other thing I should say is, is.

the Badaard and and Fantilli thing. I just think it would be really sick of the first three picks in the 2020 three draft all got offer sheeted this summer on like crazy money. That would be fucking awesome.

Let's do it guys. Let's show them that this is a really new NHL. But in the meantime, yeah, I would certainly if, again, you know, like, apparently New Jersey wanted, uh, wanted Hayton to,

to be a up the middle guy for them. Obviously, Shane Wright is not as big as Barrett Hayton is. But like, if I'm New Jersey, I'm like, yeah, you want a first round pick for this guy? You want Calgary? We just got one. I guess they got Calgary didn't give up their own. They gave up Vegas's and the Rangers, maybe.

But yeah, you want the Rangers first round pick? We don't need it. We'll take Shane Wright. You think the Rangers are going to be good this year? I have news for you. They probably won't be. That's something for the for season. Seattle to think about, I think.

Anyway, a couple more outstanding UFAs that have yet to sign. As we're recording this, it's looking like Clod Giroux back to, you know what? It just went through two million bucks, presumably with some bonuses mixed in there. It's two million bucks, three million in bonuses, so a total of five. And the bonuses are 1.5 at 10 games played. $500 at $400, and then if you go to the conference final, you get $500 grand, and if you win the Stanley Cup, you get $500,000. So I think that's totally reasonable.

And what I was wondering about, and I was going to, you know, this is going to be kind of the central thesis of this little section here, was who is the guy that all the other teams are, like the veteran old guy winger that all the other teams are waiting to sign. Is it Drew in the damn breaks? Is it Patrick Kane in the damn breaks? Is it Tarasenko in the damn breaks? Let's find out.

And it seems like the answer is Drew now. Yep. Back to Ottawa, I like that. It's fun. And, you know, local kid, all that. Good stuff. There had been some fairly prominent reports that he was going to Philly. Yes, that came out on Friday.

I wonder if, I mean, it's possible those reports were just wrong or premature. It happens. I wonder if the offer sheet tied up money in a way that and, you know, which would be, because that's one of the things you often hear when there's an offer sheet is even if you, even if you're going to match, you should wait the full week. Give them the full week. Screw over the other team because they can't use that money then. Like it's locked up and plus they don't, you know, if they don't know if you're matching or not.

that would be interesting if Carlson ends up, you know, if Anaheim matches and we look back and go, oh, yeah, that cost the flyers Claudeauroo. I mean, I think I'm not saying they wouldn't do it. It's worth the risk, but I think it could be an interesting wrinkle. Patrick Kane is the guy that I'm interested in out of all the veterans. Do you think Buffalo is the answer there? They've been saying that for a few months now, I feel. like is that this is where you know is he going to take a discount there probably not but like

they've proven that they can maybe do something in the regular season and the playoffs in a way that that might have been the impediment for you know he's a competitive guy he wants to try to win one more time before his career's over whatever you want to say um i think that that would make a lot of sense for all involved but i also wouldn't want to be the one giving him like $8 million this year or whatever he thinks he should cost, you know? True. I'll put it this way. I'd much rather have Drew at five once he hits all his bonuses or four,

depending on where you think the senators are going this year, then Kane at like a similar number, let alone a higher one. Interesting. Yeah, I'm not sure. You might be right. I don't think it's like a number. I'd have to dive in a little bit, but, yeah. I got a question for you.

Who's going to sign Patrick Line? Who's going to take that flyer? Who's going to give him a million and a half bucks? And for how much his question? Yeah. And is it, you would assume it's a one-year kind of prove-it deal, but I mean, I think he's worth to gamble. I can't give him any kind of term.

And in fact, if I could give him a 40-game. contract I would, you know? But I'd try it. If I had, again, if the numbers, if it's a million and a half bucks and like, worse comes to worse, you bury it in the H.L or something like that. And, and you're only, you know, you're paying half a million dollars to not play him instead of two and a half or whatever he thinks he costs, you know. but if it's under two million bucks and I have that kind of money, which most teams in the league do,

got to do it. You got to just see, right? The risk reward is pretty clear on that. Yep, absolutely. Same to a lesser extent with Anthony Manta, who I'm kind of surprised is still out there. That one feels to me more like that's, he's probably got a specific number in mind. And he's like, I scored 30 goals. This is the number.

I know there's lots of cap room out there. We're going to hold firm until. Somebody will come calling. You're probably right. Yep. Well, heck, I think that's just about everything of any real note so far this offseason. This is what happens when you have a, like, historically bad UFA class of the type we had this year. And I'm going to assume most.

years going forward with the cap set to go up another nine and a half million dollars this next summer. So everybody's going to be able to do their business nice and early if they want to. And that's just, that's just going to be life from now on. So why don't you hit them with the plugs and we'll get out of here. If I meet me at the athletic, uh, be doing, uh, pod with, uh, other Sean and Frankie tomorrow. Wow.

And, uh, you know, have my usual. summer nonsense, content, newsletters, all that fun stuff. And for me, head over to the perfect takes newsletter, perfecttakes.bhive.com, and you can get all kinds of, all kinds of stuff,

including a very well-received thought, which I just kind of expanded on here or whatever, about the state of offer sheets and what it means for the league and all that kind of stuff. I just think they're going to be used way more, like I was saying, like as a way to attack another team in addition to getting a player you want, then they have been in the last decade or whatever.

So you can check that out again. That's perfect takes up, beehive.com. It's seven bucks a month. I feel like I'm putting them to $7 worth so far. And then head over to patreon.com slash pox hoop, all kinds of bonus episodes over there, including one that we will be recording later this week. TBD on the topic, but me and Sean will have a bonus episode later this week. And we're about to go record a mailbag over there right now.

So check that out. Again, patreon.com slash puck soup. Thank you for listening to the main show. And I guess I should say we do mostly have our summer schedule figured out. One more main show next week. And then it's going to be a lot of Patreon content for the rest of the summer when nothing's happening. So if you want our thoughts on everything that happens after next week, the Patreon's the place to do it. So check it out.

And thank you for listening and have a good one. Bye-bye.