Puck Soup - The Big Big Board

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

Sean and Ryan talk about the recent trades and the possible trades that are coming up in the next few days. Sponsored by Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McAnneux from The Athletic. And the trade deadline is what? Three-ish days away from when they're hearing this? Three days and a few hours. Although, Ryan, I don't know if you know this. Trades can still trickle in after the 3 o'clock deadline. Well, I feel like if that were true, I would have heard about it by now.

Okay. I'll double check then. Just, yeah, call your sources, make sure. Okay. Make sure that's true. But before we get to all that, I think the thing that we really have to talk about is all the trades that happened already. I think maybe people thought the trade deadline was like Sunday, because on Saturday there were three trades really quick together. And I don't know.

Which one do you want to talk about first? You want to take them in chronological order? Let's do Seth Jones first. Seth Jones, it is. Seth Jones, with $2.5 million retained for another five seasons, and a fourth round pick to the Florida Panthers for Spencer Knight, whose deal is up this summer and a first round pick. You know, I was listening to a podcast last Wednesday

where some dummy was saying that there's no way Seth Jones could be traded. There's no way Chicago could get anything of value without... Name them and shame them. Without Renee, it was one of the shons on the athletic hockey show. That's probably the stupid one. Yeah, I think so. And here we are. I don't love retaining 2.5 for that long.

Yeah. But that's a hell of a haul for a guy who wasn't a good fit in Chicago, let's just say, for where they're at right now. Okay, so let's take it from the Chicago side first. I kind of push back against the idea that this is a hell of a hall, a little bit. Only because, now look, last night's game may have proved me wrong already here, but I don't know how much I like Spencer Knight behind that team. Like three years from now, if you come to me and say, oh, his safe percentage, you know, after they resigned him and everything, 897.

I'd go, yeah, that makes fucking perfect sense. He's on Chicago, you know? And then are we saying this is like the goalie of the future, like he was always supposed to be in blah, blah, blah. You know, I kind of feel like this is Florida getting out from under a contract situation they didn't really want to be in at this point, given what he makes now and guys typically don't take pay cuts when they get new contracts in their 20s.

That's fair, sure. And then the pick, I mean, you know, 28th overall or whatever. That being said, you can't have a guy going out there being like, I hate being on this team of fucking losers that suck. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, he so badly forced their hand by just being like, man, sucks shit being on this team.

Ugh, I hate it. Get me out of here. Like, what are they supposed to do? They had to trade them. They had to retain because otherwise they couldn't trade it. That's it, right? I mean, they sort of, I don't know that they had to trade him, but he certainly applied some pressure. Well, let me put it this way.

Which in theory should drive the value down. Yeah, and I feel like it did. I feel like if, if he, well, okay, two things on that. One, he, like, he wasn't going to get like, you know, a first, a second and an A prospect. It was just never going to happen because of the contract, even with retention. And second, he was like, oh, by the way, I have like a full no move clause. So you can trade me to either Dallas or Florida. Have a good one.

So that, like, that all, like, came together. And again, that's why I just kind of feel like this wasn't like an ideal return or not that you could get an ideal return. turn. Yeah, I just think factoring in the, I mean, this is a guy that we've spent the last three years talking about as one of the worst contracts in the league. Yes. And it feels like over the last year or so, people kind of went, all right, maybe we're over-correcting for the contract and we're dumping on the guy as a player when he's still

a good player, although a good player trapped on a terrible team. And put in a position where he was like he can't succeed. Like they need him to be a minute's guy and he's like not that. Right. Despite being paid as if he absolutely is that guy. So I mean, how many times have we said

a good player with a bad contract isn't a good player in a hard cap league? So the fact that they, like when he put his, you know, made it clear that he was, he wanted to be moved, my thought was good luck. Who's going to take enough of that contract that it makes any sense for Chicago? And I feel like they retained, the amount they retained was pretty much the ceiling of what they could probably go to and not have it be a total albatross for years to come. But even given that, even when you retain enough to make the asset worth acquiring, you're just making it worth acquiring. You're not making it worth paying a high price for.

The fact that they got a first and a young goalie that they need, who, as you say, may or may not be worth his next contract, may or may not be, you know, who knows. but something they didn't really have in their rebuild. I like it a lot for Chicago. I get it for Florida. I don't hate it for Florida, but especially the way that they're built and where they're at

and flags fly forever and all that stuff. But yeah, I like to steal a lot for Chicago. Yeah, like, again, I saw the take over the weekend. And Mark Lazarus had it and a few other people had it of like, this is why you don't tear it down. This is what. And it's like, the reason they traded for Seth Jones was because they were trying not to tear it down. Yeah. Right?

Like the idea. Oh, Seth Jones, Albatross contract. What are we doing here? This is terrible. And he's like bitching about it every day or whatever for a week right up to the trade. By the way, second time he got like, he like kind of forced. his way out of a city he didn't want to be in. You know?

And like we're all saying the contract's bad and he's like not living up to it and everything. But then they trade him and it's like, these tear down rebuilds. It's like, yeah, he didn't want to be there. And also, he wasn't like helping anybody do anything. Like he was a net negative to the franchise. What, just because so now, okay, we're going to go out and we're going to like sign Mitch Marner and Miko Ranton in the summer. Is that going to help Chicago get out of the basement?

The idea that like a tear it down rebuild doesn't work is like insane to me. Name a cup team that didn't like a cup winning team in the cap era that didn't at some point in their past like pick in the top three a few times. There's not a lot. There's almost none. Like Vegas. That's it. Yeah. You know?

Like oh, like, you know, it's not. not like a linear thing, right? Like Washington, it took them forever. But now everyone's like, well, that worked. That worked great. And it's like they almost traded Alex Ovechkin like 15 times. Like if you believe, or they should have almost traded Alex Ovechkin 15 times. If you believe like the, you know, you can't win with guys like that and blah, blah, blah.

Eventually they won with a guy like that. And now nobody's like, what a nightmare that like 20 years leading up to that cup was or whatever, you know? Yeah. The idea that like Florida didn't tank, where did they pick Ekblad and, uh, and, uh, Barcov again? Mm-hmm. Tampa didn't tank? Okay. What are we talking about?

And again, when you, in this case, when you say tanking, you're talking about just finishing towards the bottom, like not necessarily. Right. Stripping it down because, you know, there's always teams where people go, well, but they were trying. Well, Buffalo, right. Like, Buffalo is just the perfect example that you point to. And it's like, yeah, well, I mean, okay, sure, you got the one team. You know? Oh, it didn't work in Edmonton.

Well, it didn't work in Edmonton like the first three times they tried it, but then they got Connor McDavid and Leon Dreisdil. And now, and now everybody's like, oh, everybody wants to play there. It's just, again, it's like, yeah, it took him a decade with McDavid or however long it's been. He feels like that's probably about right, you know? It is, yeah. And it's just like, yeah. But now they're there. And people kind of don't remember, like, the Taylor Hall Jordan Everly Days anymore for some reason.

It's crazy. And again, like, it's the Detroit Ottawa thing, too, where it's like, okay, we got to stop losing soon. Let's just go out and get every Andrew Cop style free agent we can lay hands on. I don't know. Like, I think Chicago, like, again, Jones wasn't moving the needle for Chicago one way or the other. And he was certainly costing them a lot of money. So just go out and get a guy who does what Seth Jones does for half the money as part of your rebuild. Where again, they've only been doing it for like three years.

Can we relax, please? The other thing. You're like, oh, we got we got Kortinski. So rebuild's over, folks. What? If, if, I agree with what you're saying and I agree with what you wrote in your, your pieces. week. I do think Chicago's under a ton of pressure right now to get better. You know, you've got people are not just the Seth Jones comments and, you know, they made the coaching change already

and people are meming Connor Bedard gifts of him looking like he doesn't like being alive right now. Right. So I think they're under some pressure. That first round pick from Florida, could potentially be ammo to use on a shorter term deal, not necessarily now, but in the summer, I could see, I could see that playing out. It does give Kyle Davidson some options on how he addresses that, because I do think he's under some, if his, if his seat isn't hot right now, it will be able for now if this doesn't turn around. A million percent. But again, like the example I used in my article about, about this whole thing is like people people like kind of think oh well they drafted taves and

Kane in Chicago and then they started winning cups within three years right right yeah they were in the in the playoffs in year one in the conference final in year two Stanley Cup win the cup year three nice and easy yeah and it's like oh how many picks did they have in the seven years including the Patrick Kane draft is 77 they had already drafted Duncan Keith, Brent, Sebra, Cory Crawford, Dustin Bufflin. Like, you know, guys, I think it was something like 11 guys who won at least one cup was drafted by Chicago when they got, like within the same year they got Kane.

Was already locked in on the team. And it's like, yeah, that was like a years-long project. Now Chicago, they're like, well, it's been, it's been, six months. What are we doing here? Let's go. It doesn't work like that. That's what, that's what, what do you think? It takes like five years to do like a full tear down rebuild. I mean, it's, it's tough, right? It's because when does a rebuild end? Does it end when you make the playoffs? Does it end when you are a contender? Does it like, yes. I think that's what everybody, to your point about like, uh, everybody's Photoshop and Connor Bedard like, you know,

know, writing a suicide note or whatever. It's like, hey, remember when every summer for like five years straight, they were like, if they don't get someone to help McDavid right now, he's going to demand a trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Mm-hmm. I still think that could happen. You never know. It's got three. But you know what I mean?

Like, that was a thing for five years. Is anybody saying that anymore, apart from you, obviously? No. No, you're right. Like we, and we also got, you know, if I started talking about, oh, you know, the Mario Lemieux penguins, they tanked and you'd say, well, I mean, that's, that's from before the cap. That's a different era. Yeah, totally. Yeah.

I almost think we have to start talking about the early cap era the same way. Yeah, you're probably right about that. It's Chicago people do look at, and Pittsburgh's the other one, right? where people go, yeah, they got top picks, four years running, right? They get Flurry, Stahl, Malkin, Crosby, and then year two, Crosby's the MVP, and the year, what is it, year three, they're in the final, year four, they win the cup? I think that's right, yeah. I mean, it's almost like that gets held up as the ideal, and it's like, all you need to do is get two generational talents in the top two,

two years in a row. Awesome. That's a great idea. Why didn't Chicago think of that? Get the number one overall pick in the most stack draft ever. Get a top five player of all time and get a guy who's like an MVP caliber. And who's only available at the number two pick because the greatest goal score of all time goes first overall. Right. And then meanwhile, you've got... Nice and easy.

Yeah, you've got teams that like tank and then, you know, you're, You're the blues and you're like, oh, we get the first overall pick. Yeah, we'll take Eric Johnson. I say it all the time. Like with that oiler, like the run of Oilers first round picks and it's like, or first overall picks. And it's like, oh, they got, like, they blew it. They took Nile Yakopov first overall.

And it's like, well, the second pick in that draft was Ryan Murray. So like, which guy do you want them to take? That's going to, you know, turn into a franchise player. There's just not one available a lot of years, including in this. draft. Like, Celebrini looks like he's going to be the guy. I don't know that, like, anybody is, is on Celebrini's level and is Celebrini on Badard's level?

I, you know, people would probably say no, draft guys, you know? So, like, that's, that's my thing with, with Chicago. Like, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, no matter what they do, everyone's like, P, you guys suck. Mm. Anyway. And, I mean, the other piece of this is, like, you can't just measure it based on do you win the cup

in a 32 team league. That can't be the measure of success. And yeah, I mean, the Oilers haven't won a cup yet. Great. Find me a fan. Any fan where you go, hey, man, I just invented a time machine. Do you want to go back to 2013? Your team finishes is going to finish dead last for three straight years,

but you get Connor McDavid. Now, if you press this button, it's got click. Like, every fan is hammering that button right. Like, yeah, I have Connor McDavid now. Yeah, go ahead. Burn three years. I don't care. Right.

Trash the entire franchise, fire everyone. I don't care. Connor McDavid, yes, worth it. And look, the other thing I keep hammering, and then we'll move on to the floor aspect of this. The other thing I keep saying is, like, Chicago did the thing where it's like, let's go sign Cory Perry and Taylor Hall and Nick Fuline. and Tyler Bertuzi.

Like, let's surround Bedard with talent. We got to do that. All those guys have not been good for them to one extent or another. And also, you know, they, they signed Taylor Hall wrecked his knee. Yep. And Cory Perry, that whole situation played out. I mean, that's not. Yeah, that's.

You predict at all. So, and Nick Folino's the captain. And, you know, well, the other thing is Nick Folino's fucking Nick Folino. Yeah. You know, like, I, I. He's a pretty good player for what he is. But if you're like, okay, this is going to, you know, help us not lose a lot of games.

I don't know what to tell you if that's your take on a Nick Folino signing. And, yeah, again, like the Tyler Routuzzi thing's a fucking calamity. But everybody, oh, this will help them. Okay. Help them do what? I don't know. It's not like they didn't go out and get guys, is my point. Yeah.

But again, like the try to rebuild on the fly thing, they tried that. That's why they had the Seth Jones contract. It didn't fucking work. And anybody could have told you on day one it wasn't going to work. Anyway. So the Florida Panthers. They got Seth Jones. You know what this means?

Aaron Eckblad, thank you for your service. We'll see you later. It sure does seem that way, doesn't it? UFA this summer. Yep. Yeah. I mean, it's a little bit cold-hearted. The guy's been there for, geez, 11 years now.

Holy smokes. Yep. But, yeah, it certainly seems that way. And then the other thing is they've still got cap room with Matthew Kachuk now out for the year, out for the regular season. Yeah, they hope he can come back for the playoffs. Hope he comes back for the playoffs. I know everybody hears that, and they go, oh, yeah, he'll be their game one.

But, you know, I don't know. Croins are tough. It's that in backs where it's just like, I don't, your guess is as good as mine. So we'll wait and see on that. But yeah, he's on LTIR, will be for the rest of the season. That means they get that room. They could go get something else, man. These guys do not mess around.

No. And they shouldn't. I mean, they have to be in win now mode. Like a lot of their best players are, you know, they're signed for a long time, but they're maybe not going to be as, you know, effective, let's say, as they are right this second. A lot of guys on the wrong end of that, on the wrong side of that agent curve. So like, get to another two, three, maybe four, like, deep cup runs because you have to do it right now. That's why I don't like hate the Seth Jones ad for them, even though I still think $7 million is.

too much for them. You know? They kind of exist in a world outside the cap for me. Do whatever you want to do, just like maximize every dollar you possibly can. Which they tend to do, and obviously they tend to get guys on pretty reasonable contracts because of factors that make that an attractive place

for a player to go play. Chicago should try whatever those factors. What are those factors? I mean, it can't be that hard? No, I don't think it should be. I mean, as long as, you know, but the point is the cap's going up, as long as the economy keeps booming on both sides of the border. Oh, yeah, we're in great shape.

All these hockey players are going to make a ton of money. No escrow anymore. No, no, no. Never hear about escrow ever again. So, like, and this is the other thing I want to say about Seth Jones, being on that team now. They don't have to put them in. in a position that Chicago did,

because they have actual good defensemen on that team. You know what I mean? They can, we'll talk about it with Ryan Lindgren, too. They're just going to be like, you're on the second, you're on the second pairing now. And the, again, you don't want to be paying a second pairing defenseman $7 million until he's 35 or whatever,

but it's certainly better than fucking nothing, you know? And, uh, Yeah, to me, like, they can, the thing I always say, they can put him in a position to succeed in a way that Chicago could not. Yeah, fair enough. And I imagine he'll be ready to go, too. I mean, that's, we can kind of roll our eyes at guys with $9 million contracts, not having fun out there. But it would probably be pretty miserable to. Yeah, like, I don't, look, I, I was saying,

earlier he's bitching a lot or whatever. I don't like blame him for that. I wouldn't want to play for Chicago either. Hey, why don't you go out there get your ass handed to you for 60 minutes, you know, 82 times a year? No thanks. That sucks. Yep. You know, there's a reason people play like sports video games on easy mode. It's because losing a lot is bad. It's not fun to do. What am I doing here, you know? And you're not going to have that problem in Florida in all likelihood. Although, boy, that's a weird division at this point, huh? Sure is.

Crazy stuff happening in that division. We're not going to talk about that right now. Other than Florida beating Tampa last night is a nice, like, that's nice. You know, your GM gives you a little gift. You give them one back. Yep. That's right. And look, if we, you know, if it ends up, oh, geez, sorry, guys, it turns out we, uh,

we got to have a Tampa versus Florida series. Mm-hmm. Oh, that's too bad. I don't like to hear that, you know. What a shame that would be. Yeah, that would be awful. It's certainly shaping up that way, as long as the Leafs hold up their end of the bargain,

which, hey, they always do that. Yeah, I mean, I turned off last night's game when they were up to nothing, but I'm guessing they're fine. 8-1-1 in their last 10. Don't look into what happened with those losses. The other trades this weekend, Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vizi plus a defensive prospect. You know what? I wrote down a D prospect, and I don't know if I meant D is in like the letter grader, D is in he's a defenseman.

But it's both in this case. You can take that to the bank. A guy who's like a bottom half of the roster defenseman on a not very good college hockey team. Those three guys go over to Colorado for Calvin Dahan, Yuso Parson, and a second and a fourth. You know, I almost wrote a thing this week where I was going to make a joke that a second and a fourth is like the we wanted a first and couldn't get it. A million person. You know, that just always.

So it's, I mean, I guess the news here is. kind of selling by the Rangers Kind of I think is yeah Not like a full Like yeah we're out waving the white flag But definitely not a delusional We're all in sort of approach And then for Colorado I mean you're fine with it

I guess it's just you figure this is kind of their move For the deadline where you expecting something bigger If you're Winnipeg or Dallas Are you pretty okay with this being what the ads do. Right. Maybe. Other than that,

not a huge needle mover, but. Well, I think, I think I would say that going from the Rangers who aren't a particularly great team to the avalanche who certainly have that profile

in certain ways is like a way that Lindgren and Vizi can be like insulated a little bit. You know, Lindgren playing top pair of minutes in New York and when he's with Adam, like everybody's saying Adam Fox sucks now, you know. Well, he plays with Ryan Lindgren a lot. And I don't want to like, you know, A to B on that one, but, you know, you can draw your own conclusions. Lindgren's not going to be playing top pair of minutes.

They got two guys who handle that pretty okay in Colorado, you know. And it's the same thing with Seth Jones. You move him down the lineup, maybe all of a sudden Ryan Lindgren, who, you know, has a, a. You know, I can't remember what podcast or whatever. But, like, Ryan Lindgren's, like, a pain in the ass to play against. And they felt like in Colorado, they didn't have a guy like that. And so to move two guys in Dahan and Parson and that, like, they weren't really using very much, I think Dahan was under 15 minutes and Parsonin was, I don't know, maybe under 10 or 12 or something like that,

you can bump, you know, you can bump that up for Lindgren. and you can bump that up for VZ, and they're not going to hurt you, you know? So I think this is like kind of a slight upgrade. And, you know, maybe they feel like in New York, DeHan is a better partner for Fox or not. You know, maybe they fill some stuff around and we'll see.

But I just, I don't hate this for either team, but I, you know, hard to get excited at the same time. Yeah. I would agree. Yep. You got any Ryan Lindgren takes? No, not at all. Okay, that's fair enough.

Dumb name. Hold on a set. Wait a minute. Charlie's going to hear about this. Okay. Sorry. He's rich now. He got a big contract.

He is, yeah. We'll talk about that in a second, though. Gus Nyquist first. Well, Gus Nyquist for a second. That just feels like a... I haven't done the research, but I think this trade has happened at every deadline for the last 10 years. Yeah, two Minnesota specifically.

Somehow, yes. He's played for the wild. Who's like, isn't there a guy that would just keep going back to the same team over and over again? Who am I, why am I blank? David Perron with St. Louis, I think. That's exactly who it is. He's got to be angling in that direction at this point, right? Like, he's just been on the wild on nine different occasions at this point.

That would be a fun game show, that we should add. Is Gus Nyquist on the Wild right now? Just bring it out randomly and... Him and like Thomas Vanek, I feel like, are two guys who... Sure. Yeah. It's fine. I mean...

Hold on. Hold on. I just looked it up. You know how many games total? Gustav Nyquist is played for the Minnesota Wild. No. In his two stints with the team. Okay.

including last night four okay all right so we're like yeah we can't get this guy off the fucking wild he's played a grand total

of 61 minutes for them okay the fuck are we talking about I'll have a post later this week where I rank every shift worst to best uh oh that's really for me

a second round pick for some death scoring is is fine um yeah and they need I can't get too worked up on this. Nashville's got some other more interesting decisions to make, but I think this was a pretty easy one. Yeah.

Get a pick. Move on. Yep, makes sense. Yeah. And speaking of Nashville, like, good to see them just be like, you know what? Fuck it. Oh, yeah. Like, who gives this shit, man?

This sucks. All right, man. If we drop 30 points out of the playoffs, then we're definitely going to sell. All right. So to me, what it really, what it really boils down to a little bit is like, again, they tried to buy relevance, you know? That didn't work out, it seems like. The Minnesota once upon a time tried to buy relevance as well. And that didn't work out for them so good.

Anyway, Chicago, they should definitely just do that. Yep. That's right. Signed two big name free agents. What could possibly go wrong? Charlie Lindgren, three years, three million bucks. The Washington Capitals have their goaltending battery locked in for the next three seasons that I think about $8 million per. Yeah, I mean, we've said for a bunch of other goal of contracts that, geez.

8.85, my mistake. Just because a guy has one good year doesn't mean you have to go five times five. And maybe Charlie Lindgren should have signed his extension last summer, but he, this is fine. This is reasonable for it. I mean, it's, if he, if he really does get locked in as a backup to Logan Thompson being a real deal star, then it's a little pricey, but not so pricey that you can't move on from it or, or swallow it. Yeah. No, like, again, it's more the term. I wouldn't.

These guys are not awful for. No, no, for sure. But also, like, I just feel like you can get a Charlie Lindgren, you know, pretty easily elsewhere. And maybe it does, it, it only ends up saving you half a million bucks or something. And that's going to be a negligible amount. But I don't know. I just feel like they're buying high on both these guys, and I'm like,

you know. They are certainly, yeah, they are buying high. I mean, Lingren not as high as it would have been, like, last year heading in the process. Six months ago, yeah, yeah. He couldn't have signed then. Right. And by the time July 1 rolls around,

they've already got Logan Thompson. So it's, you know, the bargaining position takes a bit of a hit. But, I mean, you, You've got to sign guys when they're eligible to be signed. Yep. I guess it's not the worst problem to have when both your goalies are exceeding expectations. Right. Even though it does cost you some money at some point.

Yeah. No, I agree with all that. I think these are too serviceable to good goalies who are, you know, over the last two seasons, just punching way above their weight. And, you know, adjust your expectations long term. accordingly, but, like, I don't have it like a huge problem with either of these contracts. So, yeah, I guess that'll do it for, for the first half of the show here, unless you got anything you want to add. I do not.

Perfect. A quick Twitter check to make sure nobody has traded. Oh, Sidney Crosby to the Leafs. Oh, you know, I heard he was going to the abs, but, you know. It's one of those things. Oh, well. All right. Don't we take a break and we'll be right back to talk about the trade deadline.

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We're back. And, uh, well, I did what I did somewhat. I don't remember the last, it probably was around the trade deadline last year, where I took, uh, five different big boards or trade boards or whatever you want to say. And I, uh, wrote down everybody who's on it and like what they were ranked. And then I took the average.

of those ranks. And this is like the big, big board. Very simple. So I have TSNs, which hasn't been updated since the 28th for some reason. And then what's that? Slackers. Yeah. Well, Elite Prospects is another one I took, Cam Robinson, and he hasn't updated his

since the 28th, but he had a big project over the weekend where he talked to, like, a ton of front office people about, like, just how does it? work? Like, how does making a trade actually work and, like, what do you go through to do? It's a really interesting article. I encourage people to check it out. But that also hasn't been updated since the 28th, but everything else is from the last two days. So, like, you know, Seth Jones is on, is still technically on two of the lists. And so is Gus Nyquist, but, and Ryan Lindgren was still on the TSN list as well. But everybody else has yet to be traded. I'm eager to hear this because I will be honest.

I went to the athletics trade board today. Yep. Their new one. Kind of bummed me out. Gotta be honest. Yeah, you're not going to emerge from this less bummed, I would say. Awesome. Do you want to go from 1 to 10 or 10 to 1?

I'll tell you what, let's go from 1 to 10, and if I get too depressed, I will just cut you off. Okay. The most likely player to be traded. With an average rank of 3.2, he was first or second in everything but Sportsnet. Brock Nelson. Sportsnet had him 11th. Everybody else had him one or two. So that seems to be the guy that everyone's gunning for.

The guy who looks like a background character on Mad Men. That's right. And, you know, he's a good player. And he's a good player. Boy, he was, he's a good player. He looked invisible in the Four Nations. He did indeed. If you're looking for like impact player, that.

And obviously that you're playing against the best. That's what I was going to say. I don't know how many times he's going to play Canada in the cup, in the cup playoffs, you know. But you might at some point want him on the. ice against a team Canada-ish line or at least like a team Finland. And the fact that he was not remotely an impact guy there. But then again, it's the deadline. Those guys usually aren't available.

Sounds like the asking price will be high. The good news, I guess, is the islanders are sending a pretty clear saying. that they're not really in this, if there was any kind of... Well, sending a clear signal to who? I don't know that Lou's picking up on that one. You know what I mean? Yeah, that is possible. But losing...

They're now, yeah, they're five points back of a wild card spot. No games in hand. Just lost to the Rangers. Right. I think they... If Lou was just waiting for the green light to make them... move. I think he now has it. Now, as you say, if Lou is sitting there going, hey, and we've won one in a row.

19-Dickey-4, we were five points back and we got there. Then, yeah, but it sounds like it's going to be a pricey move to make. Yep. But, you know, there's a lot of teams that feel like they are going to feel like they have to do something. because there's just not a lot separating them from everybody else. Like, you know, everybody's within like five or six points of each other in the east, you know, to lesser or greater extent. Like, you know, Columbus is going to feel like, oh, you know, we're right there with New Jersey. Actually, New Jersey seems to actually be slipping a little bit.

All of a sudden, Jack Hughes is out. We didn't mention that. But Jack Hughes may or may not have a medium to long-term injury. They're not that far behind Carolina. Like, you can talk yourself into, you know, we're right there if we just add Brock Nelson. You know, I don't know that I would personally want to be talking myself into that, but teams will do it. You know what it's, it feels like to me is this is one of those guys, and there's a few of these guys at every deadline that you, you read about them and you read about the price and what it's going to take. And you're sort of like, man, I hope my team does.

and get in on this guy. I don't want my team paying that price. But then some other team goes and gets them and you're like, damn. Oh, I wish I got that guy. You know, nuts. Well, no, it's more, I wish they didn't get that guy. Yeah, yes, exactly that, right?

It's like, oh, this team that we're fighting for a playoff spot. And there's another guy that I think fits that description even better this year that I'm assuming we'll get to later in the top 10. But, yeah. I don't know.

You give up a first plus for Brock Nelson for a few months? Let's put it this way. I'm glad I don't have to be the one who says yes to that, you know? Yeah. I feel like someone will. I do, yeah. But, hey, I don't know. I'll tell you this.

The guy who's number two on the list, his name's also Brock. Whatever that, like, combination of assets is, I'd rather pay that for Brock better than Brock Nelson. Sure. Brock Basser comes in an average of 4.6. Everybody had him in the top four except daily face-off who has him 12th. You would think that would be the guy you would want. Now, it's interesting that so many, he's so high on so many lists with the Canucks.

Still probably the favorites to go to the playoffs in the West. Now, I don't think expecting them to do much, but. That has been a real race to the bottom for Calgary and Vancouver. No, no, after you, sir. Yeah. No, no, no. Apre vu. And like the blues are kind of going, what about us?

And everyone's like, I mean, please, man, you know. It's interesting. That race has felt like it's two teams for a long time and, you know, good for the blues for kind of getting back into it nominally. although Utah is still kind of right there as well. They seem like they're more inclined to sell. I don't know. But I think with Vancouver, they're just like, we might as well get something for a guy

we're not resigning this summer. And I think that's the right year. For them, yeah, they seem like you want to talk about a team that seems like they're headed for disaster. Oh my God. This is where you sort of need the clear eyes to say, guys, even if we make the playoffs. This is.

Winnipeg is going to fucking. nuke us. Yeah, of course. So, ooh, boy. Hey, playoff Pedersen versus playoff Halibuck. Whoever plays we lose.

That would be like, you know, that he shoots the puck and it just does that NHL 93 rotating on the goal line glitch. You just, oh. Matter and antimatter, you know. Yep. But yeah, I'd rather have better than Nelson

and not really it's I would agree with, you know, obviously the fact that Nelson's a center. Sure. You know, pure center and I've seen him described as a second line center. I'm not completely convinced he's a second line center. Yeah, maybe not on the kind of team that's playing for him. Yeah, but, you know, that's a big piece of it. But yeah, I know I'm with you.

And the other thing with if you go and trade for Brock Bester, you got a realistic chance. to sign him. Now... Yeah, if you want to. How old's Brock Besser these days? 29? 20s?

28. And he'll be... He just turned 28. And apparently, the rumor was that the Canucks had offered him five times eight and he turned it down. Okay. You know what? Earlier in the year.

I'm not trading for Brock Besser. Yeah. But, you know, who knows what that looks like now? And, uh, but you would at least have a chance. Whereas, you know, Brock Nelson, I don't think is a guy you're trading. four to to lock in. Yeah, that's right. Next up is Scott Lawton, top five on everybody,

but Sportsnet, who had him 19th, and so his average ranking is seventh. Another classic deadline guy. Like, there's no... Oh, my God. It's so, right? Like, I mean, if in the summer there was a report that, like, Scott Lawton was on the trade block,

you wouldn't give it a second of thought. but just with the playoffs coming up, you're like, you know what, this is our guy. But Philadelphia might be, I don't know, John Tortorella thinks they're still in the playoff race. I bet he does. That's nice for him to think. We should point out the Scott Lawton meme over the weekend

the last supper. That was good. That was well done. I want to know who took that photo. Like that was. They just gave a waiter. phone and said to you the photo. And he just cooked to an unprecedented degree.

They're like, holy crap. Can I say this, though? Yeah. We're cool with Scott Lawton framing himself as Jesus in this scenario? 100%. Yep. That draw, I mean, the price just went up by another third round pick. Hey, the guy skates on frozen water.

So that's pretty close. Yep. Yeah, you know, a good player guy. A guy that'll help whoever trades for him. as long as they don't give up a crazy amount, you know? Like, I don't know what the asking price here is. If it's like two picks and a prospect, I don't know. If it's one pick and like a B prospect, okay, we're having a conversation here, you know?

But who knows what Philly's asking for? This is one of those, it's this time of year where it's just like, man, you'd have to knock our damn socks off to get us to trade our like ninth most important player or whatever. You know what I mean? I love when the insiders put that out there. They're like, you know, this guy is available, but so far the officers haven't been there. People are going to really have to come with some big. All right. Like what GM is seeing that on his phone and being like, oh, really?

Oh, you know what? I didn't realize the Scott Lawton is signed for next season at $3 million as well. That does change the calculus a little bit. Does that help or hurt the calculus? one more year to reasonable I think it helps in so far as you can you can you can you can say to you know we're getting this guy for for whatever

16 months instead of four in an ideal scenario right so like that you're happy with that I think at the end of the day and you know certainly if you're if you're if it's between Nelson and Lawton and you're being asked to pay a similar amount

I don't know at that point wouldn't you kind of have rather have Lotton with the extra year? That's a tough one. I don't know that I would but yeah it's like the way... Lotton's also 30 and not

57 like Brock Nelson is, you know? That's right. It's just not the way we think of the deadline though, right? Like typically rent, oh, you want a guy on an expiring deal. But, yeah, I mean, this is,

I think it helps in this particular case. I think if it was two years or more, now it doesn't help. But I think one guy is the sweet spot. Yep, that's totally right. Next up, in a tie for fourth, one guy who used to be on Seattle and one guy who still is,

Ryan Donato and Carson Sussie. Let's do Donato first. This is what we got for this deadline. You don't understand. Ryan Donato, he's up to like 20 goals in Chicago or whatever. He's one of Chicago's most valuable players. Even strength. He's crushing it on.

Have you seen those things going around of, like, guys that he has more even strength goals than this year? No, but I did. see a real bummer stat, I think, last night that Matt Rempe has more goals in the calendar year 2025 than Elias Pedersen does. Wow. All right. That one hurt my heart.

As like a long time, Elias Pedersen backer. I was like, I might need a minute on that one. That hurts, man. That's, you want to talk about a bummer. Holy shit. I don't know if I want to do any more podcasting. No, who could blame you, you know? like an incomprehensible stat.

Anyway, Ryan Donato is a, you know, a pretty good player. And I have a feeling he will be available for less than Brock Besser. And I don't know. I guess I like Brock Besser better as a player, but like when you factor in the cost, would I rather have Brock Besser or Ryan Donato? now it becomes a conversation we've got to have. I think it does, yeah. So.

And again, maybe a guy that you've got a realistic chance to to resign in the rights. And he won't cost you, he won't be turning down five by eight for me. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, you would assume he's going to expect to, you know, this is going to be the Ryan Donato version of a home run contract. But that doesn't mean it's going to be. Yeah, that's like four times four. That's not five times eight.

Yep. Not that I'd be super psyched to give Ryan Donato four times four, but, you know, the cap's going up from what I understand. Oh, is that true? That's what they keep telling me. Carson Suisse is the other guy. Another, uh, oh wait, no, I forgot. Yeah, he plays for Vancouver now. Oops.

Yeah. Another X. Seattle. You're bringing the, that we're going to Brandon Tanniv here for a second. He's next, as a matter of fact. So I got, hey, isn't that interesting? All these guys that played for Seattle in the last few years, and we were told, actually Seattle, they're not that bad.

All these guys, almost all these guys are on other teams and about to get traded. Crazy coincidence. So, I mean, Susie's fine. Yep, he's fine. He needs a defenseman. He is, he's the first one on this list. Yep. Is he really the best defenseman available to the deadline?

I mean, if I'm vanquered. Is he the best defenseman or is he the most likely to be traded? I think those are two different things. The top target? I don't know. Yeah, you're right. Not the best, but is he the top target? I mean, I hope so.

Well, Jake Evans would be, Jake Evans would be the next defenseman on the list. And then after that, you're going to go all the way down to 11th where Bob Byram shows up. Again, another like Jake Evans that I saw one of the, one of the insiders was like, you He wants the GDP of like Belgium to stay. And it's like he does? Well, but they were saying like, you know, don't rule out. Things can change. And boy, it sounds like maybe there's some traction.

And it's like, okay, we again, like who's the GM who's like, oh, no, they're going to sign them? I better, I better offer a first round pick now. Right. Really get in. All right. Yeah, I don't. I don't have strong feelings on Susie. or TANF or Jake Evans other than...

I don't know, it's interesting that he's the guy that Montreal has put the focus on driving the price up and not... Well, he... Apparently, it's more... It's more that, like, again, whatever the report was a month or two ago, was like, he wants a shitload of money. And Montreal's like, oh, really?

Oh. All right, man. I don't know. Yeah. And that's why he's available. Okay, so here's the other thing, though. You know, there's, I mentioned Savard, there's other guys in Montreal. They've won five in a row. They're one point out of the playoffs now.

Are they going to be the team that goes, you know what, we're in this thing. Or are they going to be the team that even maybe says, you know what, I want Cole Cofield and Nick Suzuki to at least have a playoff race. So I'm going to keep, even if it means I don't get a second round pick for Jake Evans. Which I think that, like, I don't know that that would, with Montreal specifically, I don't know that that's like the worst strategy I ever heard. You know, like, do I think that team's any good at all? No. Like, would them making the playoffs, like, represent absolutely anything to me? No. Like, I'd still think, like, next season, they're going to suck.

And, like, they may be caught lightning in a bottle. And, you know, certain things have gone, like, there are so many players I like on that team. but like overall you look at that roster and you're like, this team's almost in the playoffs, huh? That kind of says more about what the playoff race looks like than what they look like. If they get that first wild card spot, they could play the Leafs, round one.

Okay, I'm in. Yep, there it is. The comedy potential off the charts. Who wouldn't be laughing, you know? I'm raising my hand right now. Oh, okay, interesting. But yeah, that's, that's that little

trance of guys there. Anything on Brandon Tannavit all? No? I just hope we get a live look at someone's there with the camera when he finds out he's been traded. Oh, that's going to be so funny. This guy's face is

crazy. He does it every time, man. Doesn't he know what he looks like? The only reason that's interesting to me is maybe that Seattle realizing, And, uh-oh, maybe we are really poorly built, it turns out. Like, for the ninth year in a row, I'm looking at our cap, and, uh-oh, this is a problem for us.

That is a very bad team. Yeah, and like, every year people try, oh, well, you know, they got Chandler-Stevenson, so it's actually fine and all this. Did anybody like Chandler, I know Montour was okay. I feel like Chandler-Stevenson was one of those that, like, the second it was signed, everybody was like, oh, no. Yeah, well, again, like, I think... Everybody was right. Well, what I think with Chandler-Stevenson is that's a perfectly good

complimentary player. And they needed him to be more than that in Seattle, especially to live up to that contract. And he was just, like, never going to, you know? Yeah. And, like, they just have way bigger problems, I would say, like then, like the fact that Joey Decord turned out to be a pretty good player for them

and sometimes even like a very good player for them feels like a complete accident, you know, versus like I like a lot of the guys they've drafted and that kind of thing, but I don't know when that team's going to be competitive, man. It doesn't feel like it's any time soon. So like good for them for just being like, you know what, fuck it. Let's just trade everybody. Better than the alternative.

Well, slightly better, yeah. Well, right, yeah. And again, like, this is, weren't they writing articles like last year? Like, you know, if these guys don't start winning soon, everyone in this town's going to hate them. Well, this is it. Like, you're not brand new anymore. Nope. You are year four.

Is it year four already? Yeah, that sounds right. Year one, they weren't very good. Year two, they made the playoffs by accident and then being Colorado. One around, which maybe was. In 10 years from now, we might look back and say that was the worst thing that happened on that team. I think I was saying a day, like that at the time. Yeah, you were saying it as they were celebrating.

I was like, oh, they fucked up. The whole crowd cheering, but if you look in the back, you can see Brian with his arms folded, just shaking his head. This is going to be a nightmare for their cap situation three years from now. Yep. Let them, you know, let people enjoy things. No, right again. But yeah, I mean, it's Like I say, it's better than the alternative

Of like, let's just stick with this and see what happens next year. They got to really rearrange the furniture there. I don't know that, I don't know that What they've been doing is going to work long term. No. But I don't know what that looks like. They just changed their coach. Like they're going to move guys.

Like, who knows? Anyway, that's more of an off-season discussion regarding the Seattle Cracken than anything. For now, sell whatever you can. Absolutely. Yeah. Hey, same with Ricard Raquel. Yeah, that's a weird one, right? He's up next.

You kind of, it seems like it keeps going back and forth between obvious trade candidate and, oh, actually, they might resign him. Yeah, apparently, like, some of the, one of the talking points, SG was saying this last night is that, like, if they, if they, if they re- or if they don't trade him, it's like kind of to trick Sidney Crosby into thinking they're competitive. And it's like, I don't, I don't know that Sid's going to be fooled by that. Like, you know, you can't, he's not a toddler where you can play peekaboo and he thinks you left the room, you know?

But, but if he likes having Raquel on the team. Yeah. Sure. I guess, yeah, but. I guess is exactly right. If that's where you're at. Well, look, he earned the right to go play injured at the Four Nations, and he earned the right to have his preferred coach who, you know,

they haven't made the playoff with for years. And, you know, he's earned the right to do a lot of stuff. And if that includes Ricard Raquel, like, who are you to argue? I still feel like this is just a bit of a bluff by Pittsburgh that keep putting it out there that, oh, you know, we're really not sure about trading the guy and just try to drive. Yeah, you hope for their sake, that's true, you know. That's, that's it. Yeah, if I'm Pittsburgh, I'm trading everyone who, you know, Sidney Crosby allows me to trade.

Mm-hmm. As the quote-unquote GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins. But, yeah, again, like, that's a guy who's helpful. Mm-hmm. And, by the way, I forgot to say, this is the first guy. who was left off one of the lists entirely, and he was left off SportsNets list. But otherwise, a couple of nines, a five, and a 16 for the rankings. Okay.

But SportsNets like, nah, and theirs was updated yesterday. So interesting. I don't know who to believe, but, you know, again, if he's available, I'd be interested if I was a, if I was in the position to want to trade for a guy. Yeah. He's a good enough player. Yeah, I guess Price is right. You're interested.

It's a little bit tough to fit under the cap, but that's a situation where you kind of assume Pittsburgh's like, yeah, we'll eat half to. Yeah, we'll eat half. You know, well, Chicago's out of retention spots, but, you know, Seattle, Utah, I don't know. I haven't looked at their situations in the last couple of days here, but I feel like they probably have some.

I can't even tell you the delight that I get every time I go to check Chicago's retention spots and remember that they have Miko Ranton on the roster. That is so fun. Well, the best part is they didn't know that they were doing that. That's right. Yeah. The secret. That's insanely funny to me.

Hey, can you retain roughly 50% of exactly Miko Rantaninan's cap hit? Yeah. Oh, why? Who's that for? I don't worry about it. You think they looked it up and they were like, oh, Randon's the only guy here, so it can't be that. Yeah, probably.

I mean, like, you know, they tell you the number. So they were like, huh, I guess we're retaining on Mika Randman? That's when you almost have to accept that deal just to see who it is. Yeah. We're either doing 40% on Connor McDavid. Yeah, 50% of what's in the box. Yeah, all right. You know what?

I want to find out. Let's go. The box, the box. The last guy in the top 10 here, the first Buffalo Sabre, Dylan Cousins. They've been trying to trade this guy for three months. Or have they? It's been the guy who's... It's impossible to know.

I saw the other day that they wanted to... They were like talking extension with Jordan Greenway, and it's like, what are we doing here, man? Again, that's a player that I think has utility, but Jesus, man. You don't got to keep everybody. So Cousins is interesting. Bowen Byram is interesting. Bowen Byram is a couple spots down from him. Separated by the aforementioned Miko Rantman.

Because the thing with Byram is you've got, you've already got two young defensemen locked in long term. So do you lock in another one? And the one way to look at it is he say, no, that's too many guys you're going to be paying him. First pair of money for, you're not going to be able to put all the guys first pair. The other is, what are we talking about here? It's, you're the Buffalo Sabres.

You need talented players. No team has ever complained about having too many defensemen. So just got the guy locked in. Look at Florida. What's, what's interesting with the Sabres is, according to the reports, when it comes to guys like Byron and cousins, this is not, they're not looking to move those guys for picks and prospects. It's going to be, they want established players, which then starts to make you wonder, okay, is it cousins or Byram or is it cousins and Byram, and now we're into some of the bigger names. Now, okay, so speaking to the bigger names. Yes.

Let me throw names at you and you tell me if they are on your list. Sure. By the way, in total, across the five things, 62 different players are on at least one list. Okay. So I'm just going to, I'm going to start at the very top of like the superstars and we'll work our way down. Nick Robertson. Okay. Is Pedersen on any lists?

Elias Pedersen is on at least one or two lists. Hold on. Let me sort it by name instead of rank. He is on, he is 25th from TSN, 25th from daily faceoff, and 21st from elite prospects. Okay. I mean, that's, to me, that's one of the two most interesting names. The other one, obviously, being Rantanin. Miko Rantan.

Yeah, and Rantan, just for the record, I go find him on here. Miko Rantan was on every list. He was third on TSN, first on Sportsnet, first on Elite Prospects, 45th on daily faceoff, like the very last guy, and 20th on the athletic, which is kind of middle of the pack for that's wild and and I'm laughing but I totally get it because if if he gets moved he's the biggest name of the deadline totally but it feels unlikely that he gets moved I just keep coming back to you know if if you're Carolina and let's just say that behind the scenes you've been told he's not signing here he's not extending he's not

standing anywhere. He wants to go to go to the market. He's this close. He's already been traded once. He's already got all his stuff in boxes. He's going to hit the market on July 1st. At which point, the classic way of thinking says, all right, can't let him walk for nothing. He now becomes available and he's a rental. Okay. Who's renting him? Well, it would have to be a team that had enough cap space to make it work. And it would be a team that would be a team that that, you know, it would have to be like a cup contender, but a cup contender that maybe, like, didn't have that forward,

that guy who's that, that electric game-changing top of the lineup forward. Well, that's Carolina. We just described the Carolina hurricane. So they become the, if he was on any other team and was available at the deadline, everybody would be like, well, the hurricanes. Oh, I see some dots that I got to connect here. Yeah, exactly.

So I don't see it unless, you know, well, I don't see it, based on the basic meat and potatoes information that is available to us. Yes. But if it happens, he's number one. Totally. So I sort of get the split. What about Eric Carlson?

Eric Carlson was on four of the five lists. He was left off a league prospects, but that was also they only went. went to 21. So, you know, he could have been 22 for all I know. But he was 40th from TSN, third from Sportsnet. Again, that has to be sorted by impact and not. 34th from daily faceoff and 42nd, the last guy through the door from the athletic. I feel like with him, I mean, the fact that Seth Jones got moved with five years left, Carlson's only got two years left.

Right. So it's doable. And if you're Pittsburgh, you're probably okay with eating a big chunk of that because it's two years. Right. Let me see what Pittsburgh retention situation looks like. Let me pull that up really quickly. I think Chicago is the only team that's maxed on that. This would be.

So I was right to remember that they had retained on Petrie and Riley Smith. So they have one slot left. Okay. You would think it's doable. I just, the reason I had been thinking about him for a while now was he did look good in the Four Nations. Yeah, he certainly did. So I was like, you know what? So Pittsburgh.

Sort of the opposite of the Brock Nelson situation, right, where you're like, hey, you put him out there, you know what, against the elite, big money moments. This guy maybe still has it. And then I watched the Leafs play the Penguins weekend. Yeah, boy. I would have traded this guy the Tuesday morning after the Four Nations. And holy smokes, did he look off? I mean, the giveaway on the Matthew Nye's buzzer-beater breakaway. Yeah.

That is literally one of the worst giveaways I've ever seen. That's up there with like Galcenaic in overtime a few years ago. That is, like that is the sort of like, like, Nyes is sort of like, like Nyes is, on the breakaway and he hasn't even scored and I'm calling Kyle Dubas and I'm like I rescind my office. Never mind. Don't worry about it. No, you're absolutely right that like this is, um, like the four nations had seemingly

should have had such a positive impact on like Jordan Bennington. Why have the Blues not traded him yet? I get that he, you know, they're like, oh, he's a big game player or whatever. you're never going to find a more eager bidding market for Jordan Bennington than right this second. And if I'm remembering right, he showed up on one list. He was on SportsNet's list. He was eighth. I'm not, I don't think they're going to trade him.

But should they? Well, that's a different question, you know? Again, you know, he should have been second into Vesna voting last year. I've said it before, I'll say it again. And he was awesome at Four Nations, and you can't say he wasn't, apart from the one stinky goal per game he gave up. You know? And when is his value ever going to be higher at this point? You know?

Yep. I'd think about it if I was him. So what are the goalies on the list? The goalies, let's see here. Is there anybody else? Bennington, Gibson, let me just scroll through. Dan Vladar was on one list. He was 41st from the Daily Faceoff.

Scroll, scroll, scroll. It would have been helpful if I had put their positions in this spreadsheet, but I did not do that. Yep, Gibson, Bennington, like you said, keep going, keep scrolling. That might be. Peter Morazick showed up on both the Daily Face Off and Athletic list. and not a guy I'd personally be super eager to trade for. What? Describe for me the scenario where a team finds itself calling the Blackhawks for that guy.

I think it's really just a situation where like both, you know, both of their, both of their goalies end up in a my cousin Vinnie style trumped-up charges scenario. Yeah, I was going to say, like, goaltending room, accidental. door lock. That's exactly right. The goalies all go to an escape room as a team building activity and they're really bad. They can't escape. Yeah. So yeah, that seems to be it for goalies, unless I, you know, glossed over one in the list of 62 that I put together here or whatever the number I said earlier was.

But yeah, that's it. And that feels like it's about right, you know. You know, maybe if you called up Seattle and said, we'll take one of the shitty goleys you have that isn't Joey DeCord off your hands. Like, Seattle would do that in a second. But otherwise, like, I don't know. Let me see if there's any other names on this. Do you have any Braden Shent thoughts? Like, he's fairly low on a couple of lists and fairly high on a few more.

That was the other Brock Nelson-like guy that I was saying, I don't want my team going near at the price that's being rumored. Now, the price that I've seen of like a first and a prospect and this is so wildly high that I think this has to be Doug Armstrong just trying to set a market. Yeah. And also, like, I don't really want to trade this guy. But if you want, if you want to trade for him. He's got two years left. Right.

But, I mean, I can't imagine. You could get both shins, you know. He might be broken already, let alone if you're going to lock in for. for two more years at 6 plus, which is not cheap, even with the cap going up, to give up a ton of assets or valuable assets. I just don't like, like some of the stuff, obviously I haven't following the Leafs rumors,

some of the asking prior, the rumored, you know, what it would take to make that deal is nuts to me. Yep. But if he winds up on, you know, the lightning, I'll be like, ah, crap. Yeah. So, yeah. No, that's the exact scenario that you were, you were talking about earlier.

Just like, I don't want to be the one to trade for him, but boy, I don't want the other guys to get him either. So you're really just rooting for like St. Louis to be like, you know what? We are still in this after all. Last name I want to hear just from your list, Brad Marchand. Brad Marchand, not listed by TSN. And that again was like one of the ones from a week ago. basically. Second from Sportsnet,

43rd from daily faceoff, fourth from elite prospects, 25th from the athletic. Okay. Obviously he's now injured and it, you know, it doesn't seem like it's long term. So, but like,

the injury does complicate things. There are a lot of ruins on this list, but, you know, mostly, like guys like Justin Brazo where it's like, okay, I guess, you know. I guess that's a guy that we could trade for, but I'm not, I'm not exactly, you know, lining up to do it.

You know, this isn't, this isn't that big of a deal. It does just seem like the Bruins were like, you know what, fuck it. Like, this is, this has gone poorly. We got to do something that's not this. Like, the message is clear at this point, you know. This out of everyone on the list. And Nelson maybe falls in this category too is. Marchand's the guy that, if I'm done, Sweeney, I'm sitting down at them.

I'm like, look, man, what do you want on July 1st? Let's hammer it out now. And then let us move you at the deadline, get some, you know, revitalize this team a little bit. And then day one, July 1, 12.01, you've got an offer from us. Because it's not, you know, you're not going to eight years on Brian Marchant. So the, the, the, yeah, the question is if he wants to go like, like three, you know, that that maybe becomes a problem. Right.

And, and I mean, clearly if, if you, if that conversation doesn't go anywhere, then even more reason to move him. I mean. Totally. Yes. But he'd be, he'd be a good one, man. That's, I could, I don't see him going to the leaves, but I could definitely talk myself into the Brad Marchand playoff experience.

Yeah, totally. And especially because, like, he, he's just another one of those players, like, you know, It doesn't even seem like I've heard a mention of what Boston would be like charging for him, you know. But if you can get it so that like you're not giving up, you're giving up less than you would for say Scott Lawton. Now, probably Scott Lawton's not a good example. But like less than Brock Nelson, you're happy to do that in lieu of getting Brock Nelson. But yeah, I'd be curious. I'd be really interested to see if they actually

Because it's easy to just be like Fuck it, who cares? Trent Frederick, pack your bag, see you later. We're not too broken up about it. But trading the captain guy who Borderline number retirement situation? Yeah. Maybe?

I think absolutely, yeah. I don't know. Let me hit you with a couple other names that are pretty interesting here. All right. Alex Tuck was listed on four of the five lists. Okay. Including he was seventh on Sportsnet, but again, I think that's sorted by impact. I'd be, again, like, what is Buffalo really, what are they keeping him for?

You know, he's not, you know, much like Seth Jones, he's not going to be around when they're trying to be competitive again. In an ideal scenario, you know. And he signed for next season as well. he has the ability to turn down trades to five teams. Who else? Who else was an interesting name? There were a couple other ones. Colton Pereco, but again, like, he's just on the Sportsnet list,

and that's the one that seems a little bit, the most fanciful, let's say. Jack Quinn, J.J. Patyrka. Basically, like, every guy on the Sabres is listed, which is it should be. Oh, here's one. Kie Andre Miller got listed by Daily Face Off. Okay.

Yeah. That's interesting to me. Rangers seem pretty open for business. Yeah. And in my opinion, they should be. So, you know, we'll see how that goes. But I, you know, again, he showed up on literally one of the five lists, so who knows. But yeah, I thought that was very interesting.

And I, if I, you know, if I have a choice between like Carson Sussi or more for Kiyaner Miller, I'm taking Kiannre Miller. Mm-hmm. There were a couple other guys that I thought was, I thought was pretty interesting. Oh, yeah, Ryan O'Reilly, that whole, do you know, you know that situation? Yeah, that's an interesting one. Like Nashville should be selling. They should be, you know, anybody who anybody wants from this. roster, you can have them as far as I'm concerned.

And at this point, I'm including, you want the goalie, you can have the goal, you want Roman Yossi, all yours. Not that that would ever happen in a million years, but like, the way that that's going for them, I don't, I don't know what their future looks like, you know. So Ryan O'Reilly does not have a no-trade clause. That's correct. Which is weird. as a veteran who was a UFA when he signed that contract,

the fact that he's got no protection at all, seems strange. But the predators are reportedly willing to treat him as if he does. Yeah. Dunts mode. That is so stupid. I mean, I get it to an extent, you know. You want to respect the guy.

Yeah, sure. You want to respect the guy and you want to be known as a player-friendly organization. But, I mean, how many times do we just? do this, right? Like, in all sports, some team does something, we go, oh, that's it. No one's going to, no one's going to sign in Tampa after what they did to Stephen Stampe. Oh, Jay Gunzel just signed there? Okay. Cool. And on down the list. My only thing is, like, did he ask for a no trade clause? Was this something that was a priority for him? What would his, like, if you're going to treat guys like...

Was Barry Trots to GM when they signed him? Yeah. Okay, that's what I thought. If you're going to treat guys like they have a no trade clause, they give them the no trade clause and presumably lower the AV to do it. No thanks. If you're going to pay a little bit more to not have the protection than to turn around and say like, oh, well,

barring some sort of unique situation off the ice, which I don't know. I were not aware of in this case. Yeah, I would, I would, definitely, you would like him, obviously a guy with a, you know, Khan Smyth and all that stuff. Just keep my, he, we learned a few years ago, doesn't like big markets, doesn't like attention, doesn't like spotlight. So, I don't know, that's a pretty good movie. Ryan O'Reilly doesn't like Spotlight? That's one of the better best picture winners of the last few years.

Yeah, well, he gave it a thumbs down. He said it was too long. It wasn't too long, Ryan. That movie moves at a very quick pace. Come on, Ryan. Come on, Ryan, indeed. Well, hey, hold on. Let's not turn that around on me.

Let's clip that sound. No, no, no, no, no. That can be our new segment. Come on, Ryan. Yeah, okay. So that's, yeah, I think that covers all the big names. Truly big names, yeah. Big-ish names.

Well, I mean, you say that, but there actually is one more on the list that we should maybe talk about. Trevor Zegris. God, I forgot we're still doing this. Just trade him, please. Just fucking trade the guy. Holy shit, man. There's no scenario where, like, I realize you feel like you're selling low, but there's no selling high here. At this point, no, there's selling lower, there's keeping low.

or there's keeping high if he were to really radically turn things around. But. Well, just the other day, Greg Cronin had a quote where he's like, he's actually, I know the numbers don't reflect it, but he's actually playing a lot better. And it's like, okay, man. What does that mean? What could that possibly mean in your scenario? I just don't, I don't get that, like, that talking point, you know? like, again, I say this all the time.

They hire Greg Cronin. First thing he does, there are certain players on this team who don't play the right way and we're going to fix that and blah, blah, blah. And like, if you looked at like the first letter of every sentence he said, it spelled out Trevor Zegris. You know what I mean? Like, that's what that was looking like for a good long while there. And, you know, now they've got him to the point where it's like, ah, he's like a 12 point

year player, whatever it is, right? Like, it's a fucking disaster. And you're like, but he's playing the right way. He's a, by which... To me, I'd rather have the 60-point guy who plays the wrong way. Maybe that's just me. But he's, like, getting suspended for elbowing guys in the head. So, yeah.

So that's all you really want. Wild to me. I don't, I don't know what they're doing with him. It doesn't seem like it's going to... How much longer is he signed for? I mean, he's under team control for a while. I don't know what his deal is. Well, right, but like, are they just trying to get it so that he'll sign a big long?

He signed for next year as well at 5.75. So, like, are they just trying to get it so they can be like, what do you think? Like $2 million next year? We'll give you $2 million for $6. What do you say? Maybe that's it. And then they start putting them on the power play again or whatever. So.

So badly. But, yeah, it's crazy. Weird situation. But other than that, I think that's all the guys who are kind of of note with all due respect to like Luke Cunnan or whatever, you know? Yep. It's good. See, I've said this a few times. We just talked about more big interesting names for the deadline than we do most other years, maybe any other years.

And yet there's a very – And the odds any of them get traded. The realistic certain scenario where none of those guys get more – moved and we are talking about Luke Coonan. It's just the worst deadline ever. Yeah, it does feel like, oh, you know, what if, what if like Buffalo offer sheeted so and so? And it's like, yeah, well, what if, man, you're right, what if? Damn, it would be crazy.

What have we lived on the damn moon, you know? Number one guy moved at the deadline. Carson Susie, have a good one, folks. Enjoy your weekend. Six hours of James Deltie, just. Just whistling while he threads a news. son. I do like that the deadline's on a Friday this year.

That should just be a thing. Let's all take a long weekend, you know? I like it except for as being a guy who like Friday is my only day off. Sure. But. Oh, well. Way she goes, you know? Yeah, league did not check with me.

It was very, very annoying. Well, I mean, again, they could do it on like a Monday and then they make that make it the long weekend that direction every year. But you know what? I like that a little bit better. I'm seeing here that that decision was rejected by Deputy Commissioner Garfield. Oh, no. Anyway.

You want to talk about Survivor real quick? New season started? Yeah. I'm going to say, what's that? Did you enjoy the first episode? I was just going to say. I'm like kind of all in about it. Like I like the vibes on a lot of the teams.

Like there's there's a lot going on immediately. People are playing really hard, which I always enjoy. So yeah, I'm a fan. Yeah, I think the one tribe that lost this week, I feel like they're going to get just completely wiped out. Yeah, I agree with you. I do not see how the producers felt like that was going to be a competitive group. Or maybe that was the point.

Well, I was going to say, I like when there's just like, and you got, Purple Team, you're the losers tribe. Yeah. Yep. You're Siva, you're Loggy, you're getting your shit kicked in for the first six weeks of the show. And they're all like, yeah, we got our buffs. Did you vote in the? You know, I forgot to vote. Oh, you have no right to complain about the outcome then.

I wasn't going to. Well, the thing that talks about that, like, I get that they have the long lead time of this, you know. But, like, I can't be in 50 mode yet, brother. I'm not even in 49 mode yet. 48 just started. Everyone's in 50 mode. We're, uh, this is, this is going to be the big one. It is going to be the big one.

No two ways about that. Hopefully they let us vote on something a little more interesting. What was the thing they let us vote on? Well, they, uh, there were a few things. So the idea of people don't know is they're having the 50th season is next, is a year from now, which means it's getting filmed this summer. They're going to bring back a bunch of players. And as part of hyping it up, they're letting the fans vote on certain things. And some of it was pointedly.

It was like the tribe colors and stuff like that. So what. Oh, give me blue. They're like, no. The one that was interesting was they had a, you could vote on whether or not there should be a library. union, which is just their way of saying we're bringing back a live reunion. Right. Because it's clearly going to win in a landslide.

Right, of course. Whether it then sticks around or whether you get, like, if this is just for the big 50. And then I think they're supposed to do more down the line, but I don't think they've announced what they are. Were those the two this week, though? There were four. Those are the two that I remember. And I don't think the other two were all that. interesting.

Oh, one of them was like, should the... Oh, no, actually, okay, one of them was interesting. One of them was, should they get rice or should they not get the rice the way they've been doing it? Whatever, who cares? But the other one was... They shouldn't get the rice.

Should they get rid of the Final Four firemaking? And just go back to how it used to be where the Final Four was just a vote. I like the firemaking. Yeah. I've come around on it. I hated it when it got introduced because it felt at the time like it was such an obvious way to get the producers,

a little golden boy, Ben, through the final. Whether or not it actually was, it just came. Like that was the season where the guy, Ben was like the military veteran who had like PTSD and was supposed like very clearly was supposed to be the guy that all the fans loved. he was on the verge of getting voted out like four weeks in a row, but then he would like wake up and like find an idol in his pocket or whatever. Yep, sure.

So that that's left a bad taste, I think, for a lot of people. But we'll see. I saw somebody point out that the most likely scenario is that people vote to get rid of it. We go to a final four. It's a two-two tie. And they have to do firemaking as a tiebreaker anyway. Yep, that's right. So. So yeah.

But yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I thought the first episode was good. Yeah. And I think there are some interesting characters on this one. I saw it pointed out somewhere that this season has more characters who are like, you know, I haven't really watched the show very much. Which could be. I think that's good. I think like all the people who are like, oh, yeah, remember on season 22 when Jeff and Liz?

they entered and I'm like, no. Even if I had watched the show at that point, that was 20 years ago. I'm with you, man. I don't remember. Even if you won your season, if you didn't come back and play at least one more time, I do not remember you being on Survivor. I remember nothing. My kids, like, you know, basically the kids have been watching since the pandemic.

And we watch, like, there's the YouTube videos of people. people who are like, oh, here's my top five, something that's ever happened in Survivor. And they're like, oh, dad, do you remember that? And I'm like, no. Nope. I don't remember that. Don't, like, I remember, like, five things that ever happened in this show. And I'm including, like, up to last season.

Right. Yeah, no, like, you could tell me, okay, here is, like, just read me a list of people who were on the show last season, and I'd be like, you're going to have to show me a picture. I'm not going to remember this, though. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy the people who are like, oh, yeah, my favorite player was Karen from season 2014.

I bet she was a real freaking Karen. Probably was. But there was a time like when the show first came on and okay, it became a hit and everything

and then there was a time for a few years where more than a few years actually they were casting basically like actors on the show. Not in the sense of like being like you know, fake contestants but they would go

and get like people for the look They would get people who look like models and just be like, you're going on a game show. And they had no idea even what show they were on. And that was, I think, a more interesting dynamic than everybody having memorized every piece of information. Yeah, I would be interested in a season of, like, you know, how they do like heroes versus villains or newcomers versus veterans, that kind of thing. People who have seen every episode of the show and have, like, detailed spreadsheets and all that kind of stuff. Like people from the survivor Reddit versus people who are like, I don't know what Survivor is. Yeah, people who think they're going on The Bachelor.

Yes, that's exactly right. That would be such an interesting dynamic and that's what they should do for season 50. We're going to celebrate this with a bunch of people who have never heard of Jeff Proops before. That's right. They just come on. They're like, hey, it's the guy from rock and roll jeopardy. There he is. Well, I think of Jeff Proops.

I think a rock and roll, baby. That's there you are. But yeah, I'm looking forward to this season. I think they've set the table nicely here. Yeah, I guess that's it. Oh, I want to shout out the guy who manages a pizzeria in Winthrop, Massachusetts. Yeah. Where he's like, listen, I've got to make tough decisions every day.

Who's going to put, who's going to open the pizza? pizza store. Who's going to close the pizza store? Who's going to put the pepperoni on the pizza? It's hard out there. And you're leaving out the best part of that guy is that he's wearing a t-shirt that says pizza. That's right. Yeah. Not the name of the pizza place or not any, just the word pizza. Yeah, you're not allowed, you're not allowed to promote stuff on there. You got to have like, you're going to dress like an MPC from the Sims on. Yep. I want that sure. When you're going Survivor. Here's the thing. You know, you can just make shirts now.

You can go on any website and just get a website or a t-shirt that just has pizza on it. You design every aspect of it. It's at your house within six days. Get there. And it costs $87. Well, hey, you know, can't want them all. But yeah, I guess that is it for the show this week. I am looking forward to watching Survivor tomorrow.

And tune in on Friday to see if Brock Nelson gets voicembrose. voted off the island. That's the team he plays for, so that's actually two jokes at the same time. That was for stupid. I apologize. Not much stupider than a lot of the other stuff we said. No, that's fair.

That's true. So, yeah, why don't you hit them with the plugs and we'll get out of here? If I made the athletic, I will be on the athletic hockey show with other Sean and Frankie tomorrow. And, yeah, Friday as well. I think we're doing like some, I almost said live reactions.

It's not live reactions, but we'll be doing reactions and stuff during the day. I don't know if I'm live blogging or anything like that, but I'll be around on Friday over at the Athletic, both written and in your earbuds. So, yeah, take a look at that. How about, you said you don't know if you're live reacting on, I'll be live writing. trade grades for every trade. It doesn't matter if it's two AHL guys, an AHL guy for future considerations. It doesn't matter to me.

I'm going to slap a grade on that fucker. I'm not afraid. So I head over to a lead prospects. You're going to be, you might be the only busy person on Friday because there will be 30 trades made. It just might be 27 of them. We've never heard of either player.

That's right. But I'm going to pretend I've heard of all these guys. Oh, no, you don't remember. he played for Medicine Hat in 2012? That's right. Everyone's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now I do remember. Now you mention it.

I made that man up. And then, yeah, head over to patreon.com slash puck soup, where we do all kinds of bonus episodes. We will be doing a wrestling episode this week with, I don't know if people know about this guy, Greg Wasinski. Because he never asks,

he never asks to be on the wrestling show, and I wouldn't bother him with that kind of. kind of thing, but he really wanted to talk about the John Cena heel turn. Wow. Which means I now have to watch the John Cena heel. I was going to say, are you going to play the tape of you, your live reaction? Well, your little, your little, uh, fruity pebble shirt, uh, and you never give up towel and tears streaming down your face.

It's time to go to work. It was, apparently it was time. You know, it's, uh, okay, well, I'm going to save this for the wrestling show. But again, like, I just feel like this is. This is one of those things where I feel like everybody knew that that was going to happen. And then everyone was like, can you believe it? And it's like, yeah, I thought everybody believed it. No?

Okay. I don't. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. I'm going to let you, you guys talk about that.

As much as I know people love when our podcast ends with 45 minutes of random wrestling talk. Well, I just, I just can't engage in it. I haven't seen the, I don't watch the product, you know. By choice, or could you just not see him? Oh, no. I don't watch WWE by choice due to how bad it is. It's a good call. New Japan Pro Wrestling, that's where it's at, folks.

They're back. There you go. What's the NHL equivalent of the John Cena Healtern? Is there even, are there any baby faces in, it's probably Wayne Gretz. Wayne Gretz. Yeah. Canada, actually.

All right, never mind. Yeah. Spray painting a yellow stripe done. Ripping off the NHL's long-term booking. Yep. Anyhow, thanks for listening. Again, Patreon.com slash Puck Soup, because we're about to go record the mailbag over there.

So check that out and we'll talk to you next week. Sean won't be here. So I've got to find a different co-host. But we're going to make it happen with all. All the trade deadline reaction and that sort of thing. I'm getting traded to spitting chicklets for seventh round pick. Wow. Crazy.

Anyway, that's it. Thanks so much for listening, folks. Have a good one. Bye-bye. Bye.