Puck Soup - The Puck Soup Curse Strikes Again

Episode Date: February 16, 2022

Sean and Ryan talk about more huge news in the NHL, where everything happened the second they stopped recording last week. They also talk Crosby at 500 goals, the Olympics, and trade rumors.

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I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects I'm Sean McAnew from The Athletic And Well we missed a lot of news Since the last time we did this podcast I think that's in the grand tradition of any sports podcast, the second you stop recording, like 15 people get traded or whatever. But in Puck Soup in particular, I feel like, you know,

in previous episodes of the show they had to re-record entire segments because certain hockey legends died and things like that. This is maybe less dramatic, but two coaches got fired, a guy got traded, one of the best players in the league is coming back from injury for the first time in like 11 and a half months. That all happened like in the last, like three, within three days after. Yeah. We stopped recording.

Not quite as bad as the time that Greg and Dave did the, isn't it great that Gordy Howe is a live special episode. That's right. But yeah, it's been busy. So let's get to it before all the new breaking news. news. NHLGMs are waiting to announce, but they're waiting until they see that the new episode disrupts. The podcast feed updates, and they're like, okay, we have fired.

Okay, yeah. The McDavid trade is official. Let's do it. Yeah, Ken Holland being launched into the sun at the end of this record. So, yeah, let's start. I think chronologically, it was Martens, San Luis. Louis getting hired by the Canadians, if I'm not mistaken. Interesting hire, let's say, a guy who I think his only coaching was like a youth hockey team,

like a literal youth hockey team. Yeah, so he's having to take a step down, but it's... I mean, we always kind of say that especially when it comes to coaching, that it's like the same guys getting recycled through the same jobs. Yeah, and nobody ever seems. Yeah, when's John Tortorella taking over?

Yeah. And whenever that happens, we always say, where's the new blood, where's the fresh ideas? I mean, this is, it doesn't feel like new blood because it's a well-known hockey name. And it's certainly yet a, another case of hockey men hiring their friends and people they have connections with. But it's not the same old thing.

We got to give them credit for that, at least. They tried something new. And like San Luis is out there kind of saying a lot of very interesting stuff about how he kind of approaches the game as someone who has to now think about it beyond even like, whether he's getting enough ice time or whatever, you know? The stuff he was saying about, like, playing with and without the puck and stuff like that, that was, you know, you don't hear coaches talk like that very often. No.

But I'm sure that many of them think like that, or, you know, at least think very critically about the game in that way, in the way that San Luis showed he does. but yeah is this did he just get hired because his his GM who also is a new hire and their sons played together and in fact still play together at in college yeah yeah I think that's probably why he got hired and lots of connections with Jeff Gordon and of course yeah all of that stuff and so I'm very interested to see how it works because you're Right, his comments that that sound bite he had about systems and how, you know, basically that the systems can kind of become a crutch and you're no longer thinking and being creative and he wants that. That's, I mean, it's music to my ears in a sense. I'm always complaining about how coaches just pummel the life out of what should be a very fun and exciting sport with systems. systems and and all of that. So I'd love to see it work.

The flip side is, you know, there's a long history in this sport of very talented players not making good coaches. Right. And the old, you know, the old joke is that it's, you know, Wayne Gretzky walking into the coyote's dressing room and saying, like, why can't you all just see the ice like I did and be Wayne Gretzky out there? Yeah. This is easy. And their players are looking at him going, no, it's not. We're not you. There's a famous story of Ted Williams when they, after he retired, he became manager of the Red Sox.

And the guy was in a hitting slump. And he's like, so here's my idea is why you just hit the fucking ball. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And it's and it did kind of sound a little bit like that, right? Because on the one hand, it's great to hear somebody say, we're not going to rely on systems. and we're going to let guys be creative.

Martense-Louis was one of the most creative, brilliant players of his era. He clearly saw things on the ice that nobody else saw. I'm not sure if whoever is on this Canadian's roster this week is going to be able to do that. And does that lead to frustration? Maybe. The thing that I kept thinking about with it all, though,

is like, there's no pressure on San Luis. He didn't get like a long-term deal, did he? I thought he was just in... No, in fact, he's the interim coach just for this year, and nobody is necessarily suggesting that it will go beyond that. Yeah, and I mean, it's not like the Montreal Canadians would ever hire an interim coach who maybe shouldn't be the coach of an NHL team. Right, and then have that interim coach

do just well enough that they then have to give him a multi-year contract. And because that's the thing here. Like I said this on the other show last week, people are like, well, what's the worst case scenario? You know, what, they finish last? They're already last. Even if they don't win a game the rest of the year. Is that really the worst case?

No, to me, the worst case scenario is he gets them to like 500. And at the end of the year, everyone's going. They have to win 80 games in a row together. No, no, I mean just plays 500, like the rest. rest of the way. And everyone's kind of going, oh, maybe this is the guy, you know, you can't walk away from the guy now. And plus, you know, everybody loves them. It's, you know, a little bit, Don Granato in Buffalo would be another situation and where that kind of happened, right? The guy was brought in. Everyone went, well, this team's going to stink. And they did, but they stunk a little

bit less. And he becomes the new coach. And the jury is still out on whether that was the right move or not, but does Montreal get kind of trapped into this with a guy that everybody loves and everyone's rooting for? And if he can get them even close to having a pulse, there is absolutely going to be a lot of people saying, you got to give Marty a chance, got to give him the full-time job. Let's see what he can do. Here's the thing with that, though. I think, you know, with Doucharm, they were like, oh, not only are we going to hire him because we made it to the cup final, but we also think we're going to be good next year. Right.

They don't think that anymore. Like, you don't trade Tyler to Foley, and we'll talk about that in the second, the second break or segment here, but you don't trade Tyler to Foley, a guy with two years left on his deal after this one, secure in the knowledge that you're going to try to be competitive next season. You know? Yep. They're bad.

They're rebuilding. Yeah. And, like, rebuilding, rebuilding. rebuilding, not rebuilding on the fly. They're like, oh no, we have to trade a really useful, like, 28, 29-year-old who's super, like, shockingly cheap and signed for two more seasons for a first-round pick, a B prospect. You know, what they're saying is we don't give a shit what happens the next three years.

It doesn't matter to us. And so even if they do hire San Luis and he's not particularly good, it's not really any skin off anybody's ass. Except to say it might hurt the development of younger ones. That's it. And that's all that it's about, right? I mean, there's an argument to be made that the rebuild coach who's going to get your young players to where they need to be is more important than the guy who just needs to get you into the playoffs. So that's the part that worries me. Now, having said that, it's been a week, so far so good.

I mean, Cole Coughfield looks like an actual player again. And, you know, I know that they're both short. So we instantly go like, oh, yeah, I mean, there's clearly there's going to be a mind meld here and they're going to get along great. And there's no guarantee of that. But early returns is, you know, like, I mean, I would argue the rest of this season, the number one thing for the Montreal Canadians is let's get Cole Coughfield looking like a legitimate

NHL player again. He's getting nine minutes of power play time per game. Yeah. You're just going to run them out there constantly. And this is, you know, this is the one thing where Martin Saint-Louis actually knows what it's like to be like the small, talented, offensive kid on an NHL team.

And he might be able to go back and be like, all right, look, maybe you don't see the ice like I do. But I know what the ice look like from the bench, and I know how that affected my development. So get out there and you're just going to, you know, if he gets, if he does nothing but get Cole Coughfield up and running again, that might turn this into a good hire all on its own. Yeah. And, you know, I think that because there's absolutely no pressure to win, you don't have to do the thing that a, let's say, Dominic Dutsharm might have done or, you know, any other coach in a similar position of like, Oh shit, we're supposed to be competitive.

I better put the veterans out there on every power play. You don't have to do that. Who cares? You're not trying to win games. And also you have no veterans, so that's... Well, that, yeah, that will increasingly be the case. But, yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah, I, you know... It's really a lot of this to me feels like it's kind of up to where Marta S. Louis is out with this. Like, if he's literally coming in going, look, I would like to coach in the NHL as a long-term, long-term career, here is a very rare opportunity for somebody like me with no experience to come in and get hands-on experience for a few months. I know that I'm not likely to be the full-time coach. After this, I will do it.

I will help my buddies out, give them lots of insight, and then maybe I either go down in the minors, maybe I stick around as an assistant, maybe I just go back to coaching my kids, but I've learned all of this stuff. And this becomes a stepping zone and everyone wins. That's great. If he ends up looking at this going, no, I want this job. And I know he said that, but he had to say it. But, you know, if he really feels like, no, this, I want this to be my job.

And I'll do everything it takes to do that, including, you know, playing the politics and the media and creating a situation where there's going to be pressure on them to lock me up. Then it gets maybe more interesting. And we don't know. We'll just have to see. Yeah. Um, another, another coaching change. Dave Tippett, shit-canned. Replace Jay Woodcroft, and, uh, we'll see, I guess, is the, is the, uh, the thing with the Edmonton Oilers is, uh, you can change the coach, but I don't, I don't know how convinced I am that they're actually going to get everything turned around here.

No. They've, they're 3-0. You can't say they're not. But those teams are the, those opponents are against the Islanders, the San Jose Sharks and the Los Angeles Kings. Three teams the Edmonton Oilers should beat. So I don't know if I'm going to give them credit for doing it. Yeah.

And they've got the ducks and the jets next, which would also be teams that, yeah. And then they get the wild lightning panthers and hurricanes all in a row. Which will be... That will be interesting. You get through that stretch with, you know, five or six points, then, okay, we really might be on to something. But I think at this point, you know, step one is stop the bleeding and get into the playoffs. And yeah, he's so far done that.

So good start. You know, when you're on paper third string goaltender can put a shut up for you. That helps a lot, as it always does when it comes to coaches. And yeah, let's see where it goes. But I guess the interesting thing to me here is any pretense that if this team doesn't make the playoffs, that it lands on anyone other than Ken Holland should be out to play. door now because he has finally played that car. First time he has ever fired a coach in his entire NHL GM career. There's there shouldn't be anyone else that you can throw in front of you if

this doesn't work. Well, I thought I can think of two guys that you can that you can maybe put this at the feed of if they don't make the playoffs. And that's Connor McDavid and Leon Dresaitle because they refused to play defense. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. That's been a thing. Maybe that's a boutique opinion, but for me, I just look at this team and I say, boy, if the leadership was better, there wouldn't be a problem here. Right. But not the Duncan Keith leadership. That leadership is great.

No, that worked great. That's been great. Mike Smith leadership, of course. You know, anytime you can get a 904 goalie going at age 39, you're feeling great about it. Yeah, look, like, obviously, everybody dunked on that article by Mark Spector. It was an insanely dumb article, really stupid. It's insane.

But here's a stat for you, Sean. And I'm going to see if I can pull it up really fast. But in general, I think over the last two, three seasons, it's a situation where, you know, what would you have said? Oh, the Oilers can easily outscore opponents when McDavid and Drysidl are on the ice, but the problem is that they can't get better depth scoring, right? So with McDavid Drysidl or McDavid and Drysidle this season,

and this was as of last week, I'm sure this has improved, but as of the time the coaching change was made, The Oilers were plus seven at five on five with those guys on the ice. When they were off the ice, they were minus 19. That feels worse to me. Yeah, that's not great. Now you're like, okay, look, you know, nobody's saying the depth is good. But, you know, Ken Holland, he really went out there and tried this year.

you know, he added Zach Heimann, and in previous summers he added, you know, half the bottom six guys in the league, basically. But over the previous three seasons, with McDavid-Drysidal or McDavid-Dreisidal, plus 25, and without either of those guys, minus 74. 38.6% over the previous three seasons, 38% this season in Goals 4 percentage. So it seems like the one thing that's been the problem all along hasn't been addressed somehow. It's fucking crazy. Yep. They're worse this year, depth-wise, when those guys are off the ice in terms of Goals 4 percentage. Incredible.

It's been ongoing forever and ever, always with these guys. And yeah, it continues to be the issue. And look, clearly this is not Connor McDavid's fault. I will say, as I've said before, if this team once again doesn't make the playoffs or once again flames out when they do get there, everybody is open to criticism. Like the, you know, the idea that McDavid and Draciel are beyond reproach, I don't, I don't buy into. I think if, you know, everybody has to be evaluated and as great as those two players are, they're not perfect players.

And they... Well, so here's the thing, though. Remember last year? How dare you say McDavid and Drysidal aren't. good defensively. In fact, what was it? Was it last year, a member of the Edmonton media gave Dreysidal, who, you know, his leadership is now so bad that you guys say that he's like,

he and McDavid are the reason the team doesn't play defense because they're chasing heart trophy votes and all this shit. One of the Edmonton writers last year gave Dreisdell a second-place Selke vote. Mm-hmm. So what changed? Yeah. And, you know, a couple years ago when Leon Dursaitle won the Hart Trophy, but was, there was a pushback on that because there was this idea that he wasn't good defensively and there was a lot of anger out of Edmonton at that idea. But, yeah, what's changed is who needs the narrative.

That's right. is clearly what has changed. Yeah. It's a cool league. The people who run it and cover it are, speaking of beyond reproach, you know. But, yeah, you know, I love the idea now that, well, look, if the Oilers make the playoffs,

you know, how could you possibly fire Ken Holland? And it's like, well, shouldn't this team, after all the money they've spent, and all the years they've tried to get into the playoffs and actually win around and that kind of thing. Shouldn't somebody, like, kind of raise the bar for them a little bit? Like, it's such a floating target, you know? Yep.

It's fucking amazing to me that it's like, well, no, all they got to do is get into the playoffs, and it's like, really? I can't, I just, it fucking blows my mind. I mean, I think they have to get into the playoffs and do something there, but they have to get in there first, is, you know, the, the obvious, useless thing to say,

because if they don't make the playoffs, it's disaster there. Oh, my God. It's so, like, this is maybe the least successful franchise in terms of where they should be in major North American sports. Because, you know, you just got to circle back to

they've had all these, like, high picks and blah, blah, and, like, actually, in terms of like getting players who are good onto the roster, you know, I guess you would say it's not hard to have all these like, you know, top five picks and actually get them onto the roster. But to not turn that into anything for like 15 years or whatever it's been is a truly remarkable achievement. You know, coaches, GMs change all the things. time, the one thing that stays consistent is the Oilers kind of suck. And it's like, okay, yeah, we have a guy who, you know, the second we traded him won an MVP award. We have a guy who is widely considered, like, you know, if Connor McDavid retires today, he's a first ballot hall of

famer. Like, yeah. The good news for Edmonton is, if you're an Oilers fan, is there are, there are no recent examples of a former first overall pick in a sport, wasting their career on a bad team, finally orchestrating an exit, and immediately winning a championship in a year one with their new team. So that's not something Connor McDavid has had to watch and listen to for the last several weeks. That's right. The other big thing that happened in the Pacific Division this week, and has already happened, I guess I should say, is the Calgary Flames traded for Tyler Tofoli.

Yep. Previously mentioned, I think that's a really good trade for them. Yeah, not cheap, but... Well, here's the thing, though. Makes sense. They gave up a first-round pick, which, like, you know, that's going to be the asking price for Ben Chirre who stinks, right?

Like, that's... Correct. And so to give up a first round pick, a fifth round pick, which, you know, it's not nothing, but it's pretty fucking close to nothing. A B-level prospect who's like sealing is bottom six NHL forward. And a guy who they weren't going to resign anyway, that's like really not that much to give up for a guy who, as I said, is signed for two Cs.

beyond this one at $4.25 million against the cap. Like, I think, you know, it's a lot in terms of they gave up four pieces for one guy, but like the combined value of those pieces is like absolutely not outrageous when you consider what teams are about to pay for, um, for like pure rentals. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's, that's fair. And, you know, this all happens in the.

on the backdrop of the flames, not just moving into first place in the Pacific, but now starting to put some ground. And they've won seven in a row. And I'm very guilty of spending most of the year, especially once it became clear that the Oilers were dropping out of the elite territory, of just kind of penciling the Golden Knights in for this division, Just saying this is their division. Yeah.

Good for Calgary. They're exceeding expectations. Good for the ducks. Good for the kings. But Jack Eichl is going to come back. The knights are going to roll over everyone and it's their division. And now, you know, the flames, they've got, they put some ground between them and Vegas. Vegas's guy will talk about their injury situations, some question marks there.

I don't feel like we're sleeping. on the flames, but because they've been a great story and we have talked about them, but I think maybe it's time to start taking this team more seriously than I have been, and probably a lot of us.

The thing is, is like, they are a two-line team, I think you would say. Like, I think it's, it's, you know, like the bottom two lines are solid, but not necessarily great. But the thing is, the top two lines,

you can make a fairly good argument that they have two of the four or five best lines in hockey right now. You know, and they just added Tyler To Foley to the mix, meaning they can move one of the wings down a spot and maybe make Sean Monaghan's life easier because God knows he needs the help. But they're, you know, the Godro, Kachuk, Lindholm line is like, up there with McDavid's, or I'm sorry, with Matthews' line and the Bergeron line, in terms of how well they're playing this year. Kachuk is going fucking psycho mode this year. He's been unbelievable. Goddrow has a legitimate, like, candidacy for the Hart Trophy, in my opinion.

And then you're like, oh, yeah, no, the second line just has, like, Michael Backland and Andrew Monsiopani. You play Coleman. slash, you know, swap Coleman out for Tyler Tofoli. And that's a really impressive team, especially if Markstrom can keep it up, which, like, you know, the track record is, Markstrom can keep it up. Like, he's a really good goalie. He's playing, like, the guy they traded for.

And we talked at the open about recycling old coaches. And, you know, has there been a less inspired coaching pick? in recent memory than bringing back crusty old Daryl Sutter off the ranch. And you know what? Turns out he's still pretty dark good. And he still knows what he's doing. They made some changes this summer that I think a lot of people looked at kind of sideways where they brought in like a bunch of defensemen who you would say, uh, stink.

Yeah. And let Mark Giordano go for nothing. And let Giordano go for nothing. And there were a lot of question marks on that blue line. and I, you know, I wonder how what the efficacy of those players will be, say, if they have to play Vegas in the playoffs. But for now it's working. And so, you know, I, I think they're real good. I don't know how good particularly, you know, but are they good enough to win that division now?

1,000%. Yeah. And here's where we talk about Jack Eichael is back. That's right. Jack Eichael's back. Jack Eichael's back. Tonight, as we record this. Yeah, scheduled to be back, I guess we would say.

But this is not, we said all along, you know, well, until Eichael comes back, we won't see the knights at full power, and we're still not going to see them at full power because it turns out. Mark Stone mysteriously needs to go on the long-term injured reserve, right as Jack Eichael arrives. Now, so, you know, they've said all along, like, hey, look, we got a plan. And I think there was a reason to be skeptical of what that plan may or may not be. Let's put it that way.

Just in terms of, you know, oh, yeah, we got a plan. It involves trading Alec Martinez, which, like, I don't love the Alec Martinez, contract, but you can't say he's not an effective NHL defenseman and taking him off your roster would be not good. And the same is true of trading like Riley Smith or William Carlson or whoever. You might have thought they were going to trade.

But the thing with the Mark Stone injury, yeah, it's one of those things of like, is it an injury that's going to take him really two and a half months to recover from? Maybe not, but also, like, he has clearly not looked like Mark Stone for the last couple of months, I would say. Yeah, much like the Nikita Kuturov, the thing that it's going to get compared to.

Or the Patrick Kane deal, or like even if you want to go full season and say like Marion Hosa or whoever, like nobody's saying these aren't legitimate injuries. Yeah. But with Mark Stone, it's sort of the, that category of like, you know, people will say, well, how come he could play right up until Jack? I go, well, because it's one of those hockey injuries where he's probably too hurt to play, but he can still play anyways. And that's why he was still able to get out on the ice. That's why he is legitimately hurt now. I mean, if you want to have him look at medical records or whatever, he's going to show up

is hurt. And he will potentially be able to play in game one of the playoffs because he, you know, is he going to magically be healthy? Not necessarily, but he'll be healthy enough. But also, you know, it's a. it's a back injury. Yeah. And those are famously like, who knows, you know,

it would really help his rest. And Vegas now can be like, well, you know, I think we're pretty confident in who our replacement is on that top line for him. Yep. Where we're like, you know what? We're not going to, we're not going to have to eat a ton of, uh, a ton of losses here because,

you know, uh, now we have Jack Eichel is our number one center. And, uh, you know, Does it suck to lose Mark Stone? Yeah, does it suck a lot less now that we have Jack Eichel as our number one center?

Sure does, you know. And like up till now, 80% of Mark Stone fucking kicks ass. You know, he's better than 90% of NHL players, even at 80% of himself. With that having been said, you know, this is a lot like Tampa where you're like, yeah, they just have like the talent on the roster and now the financial flexibility. that they're like, yeah, we're going to make the playoffs. We don't need this. It'd be nice to have them.

But we can wait. And so, I mean, there can't, you can't really muster any real outrage here. I mean, at this point, we know how. I guess we'll see once the playoffs start, whether people can muster real outrage. But we know how this works at this point. I mean, even with Kuturob, it was like, yeah, well, the Patrick King president had already been set. Yep. And, you know, we have it here.

And, you know, yes, could there be a point, you know, at some point in the future where some team takes a guy who actually isn't hurt and just kind of winks at him? Maybe, although there is more, you know, there's more to it than just claiming a guy's injured and sending him off. But that's not what's happening here. It's not, it isn't what happened in Tampa. And at this point, like, this is how the rules work. So if your team isn't doing it, then you can be mad at your team, but I don't see how you can keep. being mad at the Golden Knights or whoever else. Now, that being said, the other piece of this is the knights are probably not done because now Robin Linder's hurt.

And apparently it's a, what was it, a shoulder, he might need surgery or he does need surgery, but he might not need it until after the season. But non-zero chance that they might need a goalie now, which means. if you're mad about Jack Eichel, get ready to be mad about whoever the big name goalie they go and add and when Leonard goes on the long-term injured reserve and they stash even more

money into a cap that is supposed to be a cap but isn't. I guess the good news there is you can only play one goalie at a time. You know, it's not like, oh yeah, we brought back Mark Stone and we put him right next to Jack Eichel in the lineup. Have fun out there against that. Well, but it could be, you know, we went out and got whoever the big name goal he is and then, you know, we let Robin Lanner rest up and then he comes back for the playoffs and

we got two goals. We can cycle back and forth. Right, but I guess my point is, like, you can put Eichel and Stone out there at the same time. After having Stash Stone, you can't, you know, I don't think they'll let you put two goalies out there at the same time. So is that a rule you would know? It is a rule, yeah.

This is bullshit. Somebody would have thought of that, I'm guessing. Probably, yeah. Every NHL coach would absolutely have been on that. This sucks. I guess we should mention that there was a rumor since refuted that Vegas was interested in reacquiring Mark Andre Fleury, which like, what a heel turn phase turn. It would have been fantastic. That would have rocked.

But, you know, everything's wrestling, but maybe not in this. case, unfortunately. Yeah. And, and, you know, it was refuted more convincingly, I would say, than... Yeah, a little forceful, for sure. Yeah, like this wasn't, oh, you know, we haven't had that conversation. We're not, you know, looking. This was basically Kelly McCrimand saying, it will not happen.

I don't normally respond to rumors, but because of the player, because of the nature of it, I'm just going to say this isn't happening. I'm going to get out in front of this one. But, yeah. Yep. That's, you know, who knows, but for now at least that was a pretty, pretty strong. That was much stronger than you would need to go if you were actually considering it. If you were pretending.

Oh, geez, I don't know. What could we possibly do? Yeah. All right. One last thing with all of that having been said, I guess, what do we think the Pacific Division looks like at the end of the season? season. I know we kind of alluded to it already. Calgary is kind of running away with points percentage.

They're like 30 plus points ahead by percentage of the Vegas Golden Knights. The flames are, as we record this, have 60 points from 46 games, and Vegas has one fewer with two extra games played. So just... I wouldn't say running away, but definitely have got a little bit of a patty. They've got, they've created some space for themselves. There's nine and one in their last 10 games, like you said, they're on a seven-game winning streak. I still, you know, I still think I like Vegas to kind of under Jack Eichol go on a nice little run for themselves, provided the goal tending holds up.

But yeah, that's the question mark for me. Yeah, for sure. I want to know what they're going to do with with goaltending. At this point, I feel like it's give me the flames for the regular season top seed, but I still like the Knights as the favorite to come out of the division in the playoffs. Oilers are a question mark, and I continue to, you know, I said earlier that I don't feel like we're sleeping on the flames. I am sleeping soundly on the LA Kings.

Just absolutely, absolutely just eyes closed, burrowed under the covers. If you're a Kings fan, you can absolutely accuse me of that because I'm not buying it. And if my track record is any indication, that should move to Kings very high up your list of teams that could go on a run. With that having been said, I just looked at this. The Kings have a better all-situation's goal difference than the Edmonton Oilers do, plus three to plus two. And the ducks, for the record, are plus four. So, you know, let's put it this way. I can absolutely see a scenario where the Edmonton Oilers miss the playoffs.

Yep. 100%. It's harder for me to see a. scenario, I guess, where the kings or the ducks make it over them. But the issue is, of course, that, like, you know, the central is so strong that we're, I'm not totally unconfident that there are only going to be three Pacific Division teams in the playoffs and that the Edmonton Oilers miss as a result of that. Because they have the same, uh, points percentage and number of games played is the Dallas stars.

So do I like the stars or the Oilers better? That's a really tough call. I think they both kind of stink. Yeah. And the ducks, as we kind of covered last week, have got some very tough choices to make. As far as what do they, do they move some guys out? I still see them dropping back, although, who knows? But, yeah, it's.

Yeah, I mean, the only thing with the, with, the Ducks is they have John Gibson, John Gibson, you know, apart from, I don't know, the last, like, hundred games he's played has been one of the best goalies in the league, pretty much his entire career, or the last hundred games before this season. Let me amend that. And a good goalie can do a lot for you in a way that do I trust one of the Oilers goalies or, like, Jonathan Quick, to be... to be a huge difference maker down the stretch,

maybe not so much. Do I trust John Gibson? Yeah, I can see that, you know. So I'm going to go only three Pacific teams in the playoffs, and it's the three that are in right now, Calgary, Vegas, the Kings, in that order. That is my prediction. As of this moment, obviously,

I think there are going to be a lot of trades between now and then, so we'll see. Good call. I still like the Oilers, but, Uh, I'll give the Oilers that central wildcard spot and say that we do get four. All right, yeah. Hey, I get not trusting these Dallas stars for sure. I 100% understand it.

All right. Uh, why don't we take a break? We'll be right back. Hey, everyone, Sean here. Can I get a round of applause from everyone? Open brackets, start clapping, close bracket. Today, I'm excited to announce Manscaped has launched their ultra a premium collection. Believe it or not, it's not for your private parts. It's leveled up hygiene routine

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Get 20% off and free shipping with the code puck 20 at manscape.com. That's 20% off and free shipping with the code puck 20 at manscape.com. The power of attraction is now in a bottle thanks to Manscape. The other big piece of news that happened this week is all the Olympics stuff. Within the last 12 hours or so, both the U.S. and Canada have been eliminated from the men's side. And about 12 hours from now, the U.S. and Canada will play for gold on the women's side. I don't know if you want – I mean, we've been recording this podcast, so I didn't watch Canada get eliminated. I did watch the U.S. play themselves into an elimination scenario last night.

I don't know if you watched any of that. I didn't watch that one. I did. I had the Canada game on in the background as we were recording. Yeah, the U.S. loses an elimination game in a shootout. Canada loses an incredibly boring, basically one-nothing game where they got absolutely defensively shut down, reminding us that men's international hockey when it's not best on best

can kind of not be very good sometimes. But, yeah. And, yeah. As an American and a Canadian, we are, of course, saying this is a fake Olympics. It doesn't count. Right. Weird.

It's the second one in a row that is fake and doesn't count. but honestly like you know this is this was always likely to happen i i don't know anybody who like talked themselves into a team with like strous man and drew commesso and net had a legitimate shot at gold like wishful thinking i think you would say um and the same is true i don't even know like canada refused to play devon levi which was weird yep um but also like last night watching that game, Dave Quinn is like running out veterans on a critical power play. And it's like, oh, don't you think all the like really talented kids you have on the roster who are like dominating? Shouldn't, shouldn't they be getting power play time in a close game like this? Or shootout options, maybe?

No, no, no. Yeah. With a game on the line, you can't have a 19 year old out there. You got to have a guy who's 25 years old and on his 19th European team already. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? Hockey man, brain, man. We knew the men's tournament was going to kind of be what it was. Good stories.

Good, you know, lots of guys that you could root for, but not a great tournament. And that your feelings about the tournament would probably be dictated by whether your country made it deep in one. or whether like ours, they went out early. I don't know. I'm not going to bother pretending to muster up any fake despair over Team Canada getting eliminated. But the flip side of that is tonight we get a real main event. We get an actual best-on-best hockey game between two teams that are really good and hate each other. and that will make up for it.

I don't think there was ever any question about what the the marquee event of this Olympics was going to be and it certainly wasn't the men's hockey side. So here we go. This is the one that we've been waiting for and it should be, I was going to say a good one or a fun one, that'll depend. Half of you are going to find it fun and half of you are going to hate it.

And that's part of the beauty of it. Yeah. And, you know, it rocks that they're finally, like, as a group, like, of players and coaches and stuff, starting to acknowledge, like, yeah, we actually hate each other's fucking guts. We can't stand each other. We want to murder the other. There is literally only two levels between U.S. and Canadian women's hockey players. murder level hatred or they get married. Or that's it.

They're married and yeah. That's only the only two options. But for years, they were, it was always like, oh, I have a lot of respect for. Yeah. And you didn't really believe them. Player X. No, you definitely didn't believe them, but they, they were like, oh, yeah. I mean, what a talent.

She's done so much for the women's game. And now, and now it's like fully mask off. And they're like, Oh, she sucks. I wish she was dead. And I feel like it's the feeling, like they have felt that way ever since the Haley Wickenheiser flag on the floor thing. Like that felt like the turning point where it really became like, wait a second, I hate you. But there were maybe a few years who it was like, oh, I don't know.

We're the women. Are we supposed to feel that way? Do we have to pretend? And now it's just... We're trying to grow the game to say that the other person is a scumbag is probably not great. And now they're like, we have grown the game sufficiently. And I will break your ankle with a minute left just so that you can't be part of the medal ceremony. And I will do it with a smile on my face.

Yeah. Yeah. Which is great. And to be clear, this is cool. Yes. This is the way it should be. Absolutely. Full thumbs up.

Because like you don't even have the... that level of acrimony, I would say, on the men's side. Like, I think in part because Canada is so dominant, like, the U.S. is like, oh, it would be great to knock those guys off, but they're not like, man, I fucking hates Sidney Crossby. You know what I mean? Whereas on the women's side, it's like, she's the worst. God damn it, I hate it. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, you know, you see, we're so, we all love in the hockey world that, you're, you know, where like one team wins and they're celebrating and you see the other team with like tears in their eyes and it's and it's and it's always like oh I wish that was me I wish that I could experience the joy of winning and no tonight it's going to be like I can't believe that jerk is getting a gold medal I want to go over there and cross check her in the mouth uh yeah and and take that from her uh again beautiful all all all all in favor. I can't wait to be either overjoyed or completely beside myself furious later tonight.

And the other thing is, you know, again, this is not like the men's side where if the U.S. beats Canada, it's legitimately surprising. A miracle, I've been told, according to CNN. That headline, yeah. Whereas this honestly feels like a coin flip. I think Canada is probably the slight favorite, but nobody would be like, I can't believe the U.S. beat them. I think everybody would be like, yes, this was an eminently, as long as the goaltending showed up, this was an eminently possible result. Yeah. I mean, Canada won in the round robin, but the U.S.

controlled that for long stretches, yeah. It was. Yeah, they got gold, like the U.S. got goalied in that game. Full stop. Like, they should have. They had 50 power plays. And look, the U.S. power play looked like garbage in that game. But, yeah, Canada should have lost that game.

You play that exact same game 99 times out of 100. You know, you give up 50 shots to the American women's hockey team. You're going to lose. And Canada just happened to not lose that game. And, you know, we should not also mention Brianna Decker not playing. that's that's big you know game changer you know if this for sure if this was best on best

Canada U.S. men's and Austin Matthews blew his leg out we'd mention that so you know will it be an excuse yes absolutely it will be it will be an excuse for when the U.S. loses and I can't wait to deploy it if the U.S. loses

exactly but if and you know what if they win oh boy Canada couldn't even beat That's right. The U.S. without the U.S. is arguably best player. Yeah. You hate to see that, don't you?

Absolutely. Yeah. Yep. But, you know, it's going to be fun. It's going to rock tonight. Can't wait. Can't wait for it. But hey, speaking of, I mentioned Sidney Crosby earlier.

Did you see this guy scored his 500th career goal? I heard. Yeah. Yeah. It rocks that it was against the Flyers. That was my. main number one takeaway. And also it did kind of look like

Carter Hart was like really kind of going. Just put something on net. I'll let it go. I don't care. Because that goal he scored last night to get to 500 was a soft one. Really, really funny. Made me laugh how bad the goal was.

But, you know, five hundred. Knock those Flyers fans off their high horse that they've been on all year long. Yeah. Get over yourself. I'll say this, and I mentioned this on the mailbag last week, I think. Simultaneously, it feels impossible that Sidney Crosby has gotten to 500 goals and is only at 500 goals. Amazing.

What a weird feeling for him to have gotten there. Yep. And I don't know. I mean, I don't really even know what else to say is a take. guy. Sidney Crosby is good. I don't care who wants to argue. I don't think anybody, like, even, like, the most Died in the Wool Flyers fan is really going to be, like, I think actually Sidney Crosby's st. I mean, he's no Claude Chirut, but he's up there.

We'll talk about Claude Chou in a minute. But, yeah, like, God, remember. remember how many times they tried to say Sidney Crosby wasn't the best player in the world? Yep. They read that, like, there was a four or five year period where they were just like, we got to find someone who's not Sidney Crosby.

We have to do it. It rocks. That actually is the cool thing to me about this league is that you have to constantly be like, actually, you know who's not the best player in the world? It's the consensus best player in the world. We love the contrarian hot take. But let me ask you this.

Sidney Crosby, where do you rank him all time among foot? Let's not do all players, all positions, whatever, that can be tough to judge. Forwards alone, where do you put him all time? So all time, I mean, the big three are Gretzky Lemieux and Howe. When obviously you get into the era situation with error. I put him in that kind of next tier down with probably Richard Belavaux. You know, I'd put him ahead of the sackics and Eisermans. And I guess Esposito would be another guy in that range.

And Ovechkin probably too. You know, maybe with Bossie and that probably, I think, rounds out close. close to a top 10 that I just went down. Yeah, I think very controversial opinion is I don't have how in my top three. I have a young man named Sergei Fedorov. I think it's the third best forward of all time. Really? I go, and I think after that you can probably make a very legitimate case that

that Sidney Crosby is for. Interesting. I mean, I like Fedorov as a player. And obviously we have to, there's kind of what did they do in the NHL and then just what were they overall? I will say, you know, the one thing I'll say on Gordy Howe is, and obviously most of the people listening to this would have never seen him play. I never did anywhere near his peak. He played for so long and put up numbers for so long that I think, if anything, modern fans don't appreciate how dominant he was at his peak.

I mean, this guy, this was not like the original six era, Patrick Marlowe or Dave Andrew Chuck, like this guy was six scoring titles, six MVP's, first or second team all started like, you know, 15 years in a row. This, this guy just absolutely kicked ass for the better part of two decades. Yeah. And he was like a half a point. a game at age 51. Yeah, but I mean, that's what people, you know, people kind of remember that, oh, yeah,

this guy played even at 50. If his career had ended at 35, he still absolutely, you know, would have been, it's, you know, kind of like Yarmory Yager, right? Like, it's cool that Yager came back and played for the flames and looked adequate. But his legacy is that he was the best forward in the league for a long time. maybe he should be in that top 10 discussion too. Yeah, I think you got to put them in the top six or seven at a bare minimum. Yeah, you could make that, yeah, I'd have to sit down and work through it.

But yeah, that's, I think that's, that's. But let me say this about Sidney Crosby, though. And then I'll say something about Fedorov really quick. But Sidney Crosby, due to injury, COVID, and a lockout has missed like three. hundred-ish games in his career, maybe more than that. And, like, you know, I think you say the injury thing is, you know, the cost of doing business or whatever. But the thing about Crosby is that until he got hurt with the concussions and everything, people forget, he won a Rocket Richard. Yep.

He led the league in goals at a... 22, and then the very next season was when he got his concussion that almost ended his career. But in that season, he had 32 goals in Pittsburgh's first 41 games of that season. So he was on pace to score 60 that year, and then the next two seasons combined only played 58 games. Yep. Yeah. The fucking ridiculous. Really.

Wow. And again, we're not exes. exactly going out on a limb to say that. But, yeah, he's, and still going. Still, you know, that's the beauty of him and Ovechka. And, like, you keep waiting for one of them to kind of go into their, well, you know, back in his day, he was, no, I mean, their, their day is still now for both of them. Absolutely. And then, so this is what I wanted to say about Fedorov.

Federov comes into the league at age 21 is a pointed game player immediately. right? And doesn't win the Calder somehow. I can't remember who won the Calder that year, but it certainly wasn't him. He came in second. That was maybe the Bell for a year? It was the Bell for a year, yeah.

Which, like, fair enough, I guess, but also... Goalie wins of Ezina as a rookie is, yeah. Yeah, no, that's why I'm saying, fair enough, I guess. But with that having been said, the next year, uh, fair of again, a point of game player, but also second in

Selke voting. Mm-hmm. The year after that, uh, point of game player, well over a point-of-game, I should say here, uh,

fourth in Selke voting. The year after that gets up to 120 points in 82 games also wins the Selke. Yeah. That feels, that seems good. Then the next year, fourth in Selke voting.

Yeah. And so that is a thing where if we had advanced stats in like the mid-90s, people talk about him like they talk about Pavldatsuk. Yep. Right? In terms of, wow, what a 200-foot player. But also, Pavlatsuk probably didn't have a single scoring season like Fedorov did in those early years. Yep. Even in a high-scoring era, that was, he was still in his career, yeah.

Yeah, like I cut above the rest. And, like, you know, I just, I think that if we had a better appreciation for these, the things that Sergei Fedorov did well for a little while there, you know, like in the, like I said, in the mid-90s. He's in the Hall of Fame, but, like, I legitimately think there's a case, like, he's the greatest 200-foot player of all time. I think you could make that case. And yeah, that big year in 94,

second in scoring in the league. So, I mean, it's not like, you know, outrageous. This wasn't one of the, well, yeah, 39 even strikes goals. Yeah, 100, it wasn't 120 points, but, you know, that was just because it was everybody was whatever, no,

like he, like, imagine Patrice Bergeron at the height of his powers, but also like finishing 10 points back at Connor McDavid for the scoring title. Yeah. He was good. You're selling me.

He's not in my top ten, but you're, you don't really have to sell me on. He really. And another guy, he played till he was 39, and he was an extremely useful player at the age of 39. Yeah. You know. Former Columbus Blue Jacket. Yeah. Played for CBJ for a few years.

Here's the team I didn't remember. And does not have his number hanging in Detroit. fucking outrageous. You know, this is the thing that I kind of always say, but if he was from Etobico or whatever, we're having a conversation about how he's one of the greatest players of all time. And we're not allowed to do that because he's from the Soviet Union instead. So, hey, yeah, he fucking so good.

Selky vote, like top 10 Selkevoting into the 2000s. Let's put it that way. Wow. Wow. Sergay Fedorov. We love them, folks. Why don't we take another break? And then we'll be right back.

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Like I said, this podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp, and Puck Soup listeners can get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash Puck. So that's visiting B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P dot com slash puck. That's P-U-C-K and get started with BetterHelp today. And then the last thing we've got to talk about here is, you know, now that the Tyler Tofoli trade has happened, it's trade season. You're not allowed to say it isn't. And why don't we just, I pulled up TSN's hockey trade bait list.

And let's just run it down here. They have number one Jacob Chikrin. He's obviously, I would be surprised if he's not moved before the deadline, but also if they want to wait till the draft, I can see that too. But if, if, uh, If Tyler Tifoli at two years left and roughly the same dollar figure and age 29 coming off a not very good campaign with the Canadians, it's not really his fault, if he's getting you four pieces in trade, Jacob Chikrin is going to get you is going to cost you like six probably, it feels. Yeah. And we didn't touch on this when we talked about the Tafoli trade, but Brad for Living basically was asked, why do this now and not at the deadline?

He said, because I want this player. And we made the trade now so that somebody else couldn't get in between now and then. And maybe that helps spark, you know, this idea that, I mean, I feel like we've kind of moved away from the idea that you wait until deadline day. We've seen the week before deadline become much busier. Right. But maybe it comes even more than that. You know, maybe we start seeing teams. And especially, you know, obviously, I don't think Calgary is necessarily in this situation.

but if you're in Edmonton or one of those handful of teams in the West that's on the playoff bubble, you wait a month. At some point in that month, you might lose the game. You would have otherwise won that cost you a playoff spot. So we could get some action early. And, I mean, tell me if this matches your perspective, it feels like there's bigger names out there this year than there usually are. Yeah, I agree with that.

that they'll all move, but there's some legitimate, I would consider, like, star power on this list. And I, like, I had a running joke for a few years where I said you could always tell how good the deadline was going to be by how soon Luke Glendinning showed up on the list. And like, when he was fifth on the list, you know it was going to be a crappy trade deadline. And they're like, he's not on the list yet. And there's a lot of guys that are pretty good. So, yeah, that's. Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, you know, to your point, and people also made this joke at the NBA trade deadline because Ben Simmons and James Hardin got traded for one another.

Yeah. But, like, the fact that Ben Chirot is, not only is like second on the trade bait list, but we've heard all season. There's a line around the block for this fucking guy, who, by the way, stinks. He's bad. You know, he had a good playoff run last year. I'm sure it was all just like PDO-fueled and not that his underlying numbers were actually good. I don't have them. Well, I mean, he was playing with Shea Weber, too.

Yeah. If you have a Shea Weber guy and you're looking for someone to play with him, he might be your man. Sure. But like the fact that he's number two on the trade bait list, and like I said, everybody all season has been like, teams can't wait to get their hands on Ben Chirot. It's like, boy, oh boy. I was asked in my last mailbag, like, who's going to be this year's deadline mistake? and that was my pick that somebody's good.

Yeah, that's really good. Yeah, I think this is, let's put it this way. He is a worse David Savard. And he's going to probably cost a similar, like in terms of skill set, what he brings to the table is like very David Savard, like, but David Savard actually is pretty good at the one thing he is good at. And Ben Chirac kind of is just big. But to your point about there's star power here,

three on the list is Mark Andre Flurry. Yep. And apparently this is a classic case of, you know, it's up to him if he wants to go, but if he wants to go, Chicago is going to have no shortage of interested parties, which feels

right. He has been fine this year, I think you would say. He's been good. But also on his shit team. Yeah, and his numbers since, like he started slowly. And, you know, I saw something today where they said, you know, since they made the

coaching change, here's his numbers, kind of implying that the coaching change may have helped him. I think you could argue it was the other way. He just stunk for the first month. And when your goalie stinks as a coach, you get fired. And that's maybe the main thing that did in Jeremy Coulton. And he's been better since then. But yeah, you're right. And he does control He doesn't have a no movement clause, but he has earned the implicit no movement clause. And not only has he earned it, but last summer getting traded to Chicago and taking weeks to decide if he even wanted to go, I think sent a pretty strong message to the league that like, look, this guy isn't going to just, you know, if they trade him someplace he doesn't want to go, he could just be like, no, I'm done. Thank you. I've had a good career.

Goodbye. and yeah it's interesting because so we we mentioned in the last segment or two segments ago rather that he doesn't seem to want to go to Vegas again or Vegas isn't interested you know mutual disinterest I think you might say but also it seems like he doesn't want to go to Washington was a was a rumor that got out there okay um which is interesting now why is that it's not the rivalry thing with the penguins is Is it? It would be cool if it was.

Okay. But I don't know. I just, I thought I saw something where it was like he's not going to Washington. Okay. All right. Fair enough. That's fine. That takes a couple of the teams off the list.

I mean, but there's still, I guess Colorado isn't as prominent anymore. That's been what I've been hoping for. But would you go to Edmonton? Yeah. I mean, right. You know, because that'll be the other obvious. That becomes the question. But I don't know.

Like, is it, is it, you know, the thing, the thing with Edmonton is they've been so strongly anti-make-make-a-rental trade that it, you know, I can see a situation where they're like, you know, Mark Andre Flore costs too much. We have the, you know, 20th best prospect pool in the league. And if we dipped into that, you know, blah, blah, blah. I hope he goes to a good team. I don't want him to retire in Chicago. I want him to get another cracket. Maybe not winning a cup, but like a nice playoff run for himself. He, you know, he's just a very likable player.

And to see him languish and just end up in Chicago for the rest of this campaign would stink. I would not like that at all. I would love to see him in the playoffs. And as I've said, in the playoffs somewhere where he could cross pass with Vegas, I think that would be. Yeah, or Pittsburgh. Yeah. That would be fun. But, but, you know, with Pittsburgh, like, that's, I mean, it's the history, but it's more of a love in.

It ended so well, right? Like, it's no. I've never seen, you know, a star leave a team under, like, such positive circumstances. Whereas with Vegas, there's that, you know, like, Flurry versus Lainer, if he's healthy enough to play would be irresistible. That would be amazing. Even though they, by all accounts, like each other, you know, it's not a person. But that is, this is just another, like everything is wrestling idea.

So, you know, I think you can make a pretty good argument that, like, Flurry can help a lot of teams, especially teams that maybe are better defensively than Chicago. But it totally is up to him, so I guess we'll see. Next on the list is a guy who is almost certainly moving, and we almost certainly know the team he's moving to. It's Cloujuru, future of the Colorado Avalanche. That would make sense, yeah. I mean, look, like that's been everybody's idea for, for me.

months now and that always seemed like more of a thing of well if drew decides he doesn't want to be a flyer anymore and kind of maybe has now read the writing on the wall which is just go get a cup or at least try to you know Colorado last night they lost but it was like only their fourth regulation loss since like mid-December or something like that yeah unbelievable and if they can make the money work It was like... Third-line center. Not bad.

Yeah, I think you're better off using him as a wing option at this point in his career. He has not played a lot of center of late. But, yeah, if that is your third-line option, I think that that is not a bad thing for you at all. The only thing with Drew is we're sort of in that situation that didn't use to happen, but does happen these days where it's like the flyers are like, well, We're not going to ask him to go, and he's sort of like, well, I'm not going to ask him to trade me. And you just sort of want to slap him in that and go, like, guys, sit down. Just do it.

Have the difficult conversation. Like, you know, nobody thinks any less of Claudeau Rue if you, you know, if he's not demanding to be traded. But if he says, look, yes, I will move. Of course it makes sense for the Flyers to do that. I mean, bring him back in the summer if you're so sure. It's Ross and Rachel where it's like, we all know what's going to happen here. Just fucking somebody do something. Yep.

You know? Yep. Yeah. So he's going, and like I say, I would be shocked if he goes anywhere but Colorado. But, you know, hey, things can change. Next up, John Klingberg, absolutely getting moved. Every team that is in on Ben Chirot

should instead be in on John Klingberg. John Klingberg is much better. Yep. And probably much more, well, I was going to say much more expensive to acquire. Maybe not. You don't know how the hockey brain works. The fascinating thing there is going to be,

does he go somewhere as a rental, or does he go somewhere where they're intending to give him the six or seven or eight years that he's going to want? And how does that affect the price? Yeah, I wouldn't want to be in that business of signing a 30-year-old defenseman with a pretty lengthy injury history long term. but and and and that that doesn't that doesn't shock me to hear that uh that uh that you well no but especially let me let me say this then because apparently the ask is close to eight million bucks and it's like

yeah for you really okay man if you say if you think someone's going to give it you only need one I guess but yeah that seems that seems like a bit much and the only like his his name has come up a lot with the Leafs. But the thing is with the Leafs, there would be absolutely no question. It would be a right. There's no possible way they can afford to sign him. So can they then outbid a team that either wanted to sign him or at least had the door open that if, hey, this works really well, because you know, you should be willing and putting

aside whether you want to what this guy's going to do to your cap, you should be willing to about more for an asset you're going to have for years to come than for one that you're going to have for weeks. And it should be said, Clemberg has no trade protection at all. He doesn't get veto. And he wants out too. So,

I mean, no, yeah, but like, you know, if he wanted out and they were like, well, you know,

how does, how does fucking Montreal sound? Yeah. He can't say, you know, for example, I'll only accept a trade to some place that's going to sign me. And not,

not that we really sit down hockey. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. After that, you got the much talked about of late Tomash Hurdle. The acting G. M. in San Jose is saying, you know what? He wants to come back. We want to get him back.

We're going to make this happen. And the hurdle's kind of like, well, let's not go nuts. Yeah. Which is a very interesting dynamic where he's like, I'm keeping my options open. Like, I live here. I've been here my whole career. I love the San Jose area. This is my home, all that stuff.

But with all that having been said, like, you're going to need to pay me and stuff. Yeah, he's giving them the equivalent right now of like, I love being with you. And they're like, oh, okay. So is that the same? I still think he gets moved. But they should move him. I mean, you know, just for the long-term health of the franchise, like obviously they have a bunch of contracts that absolutely not going anywhere,

but this is a team that needs to start thinking rebuild, like full stop. They have a couple of like really nice prospects or whatever, but not enough to be competitive by the time Brent Burns is, and I shouldn't even say prospects, like young players, like Mario Ferraro is having a nice little season for himself and that kind of stuff. But, you know, at some point it's like, well, much like I've said about Edmonton in the past of like,

You can't just like keep resigning everybody who's been part of a bad team for years, you know? You would think, yeah. Right, I guess that's true. I would think that. But this is the NHL, so of course you can. But yeah, I'm very curious to see what they do. I think if he's available, there should be a line around the block for him as well. but he might not be available.

Let's Mark Giordano, a classic, like we're going to wait and see if he wants to move thing. Up to him, UFA at the end of the year. Seems like he does. He's 38, so he's not young. Is there any, do you think there's any chance he goes back to Calgary? I guess the thing is what does Seattle want for him? because...

Well, it's Ron Francis, so who knows. Yeah, well, just because now the flames don't have a first round pick to give up. They want seven first round picks. Right. And the plan B is to do nothing. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you know, I... I look at it and I say Calgary, obviously, like, what a good fit that would be they need, as I alluded to.

more guys who are actual good defensemen, you know, but whether they can actually go out and make it happen just because of what the ask would be, that's probably not up to them. Yeah, I'd like to see him also, like, compete for a cup, been a great player for a long time now and all that kind of stuff. Be nice to see him, like, play meaningful hockey, but might not be, might not want to do it. Christ.

Never know. Yeah. Yep. All right. Next up, we have Max Domi. And this is part of, like, I think, a bigger conversation about what Columbus feels like they want to do. Max Domi, having a perfectly fine season hasn't worked out at all in Columbus. Turns out Max Domey isn't as good as every team that's ever traded for him thought he was going to be.

Huh. Interesting. Yeah. But they're a really interesting team because. they have Patrick Linae coming up as an arbitration-eligible RFA, and he's going to want big, big money, and he has also recently complained about how he's been used there, and he has also recently scored a million goals.

So he's a point of game player this year. I, you know, I can see them wanting to keep him, but I can also see him kind of making it clear, like, yeah, I'm not resigning with you after next season when I will be an unrestricted free agent, which is after next season. So, I mean, he's got the two years. And this is another one where you look like him at $5 million in change is fine.

That's reasonable value. Him at half of that, if Vancouver is willing to retain, becomes enormously attractive, you would think, to some team out there. because, I mean, there's two questions. Anytime you talk about someone's cap hit, right, you say, okay, is he a $5 million player? Yes or no.

But then there's just, do we have $5 million to spend? And for a lot of good teams, the answers, no, we don't. Not this year, not next year. But if Vancouver's willing to eat some of that, then maybe they, I mean, they've got some guys to sign, but they should be able to. Then suddenly maybe the price goes significantly up to the point

that you're really interested in it, especially if you're a new GM coming in to tear down somebody else's work. Yeah. Apparently, Jack Rosavik might be available in trade. Yeah, okay. He's in a very similar situation to Line A, which is that he's arbitration eligible and then can become a UFA after next season. but unlike line A he costs almost not he costs 1.8 million dollars against the cap so and you know I really I think he's having a perfectly fine year but nobody is um losing their minds about it or anything like that I think um so yeah that'll be interesting and then otherwise you know they're

maybe or maybe not trying to get rid of Junis Corpusallo, but they apparently asked for the moon when Edmonton called about him, which is interesting because Corpicello stinks. He's awful. Good fit there. Yeah, it really makes a lot of sense. But let's put it this way. This is Corpusallo by season, and he's never played.

more than 37 games. Get ready for this. So 920 and 31 games is a rookie. Pretty good. 905 the next year. 897 the next two years after that. 9-11 in 37 games in 1920, the year where, you know,

they were so marginally decent, I guess. Yeah, I don't want to talk about it. Yeah. Then last year, 894, and then this year, 887. So that is a horrible track record. I don't know what that adds up to for his career, but it stinks. So not the kind of guy I would personally want to trade for, but they are trying to trade him and a bunch of teams are looking for goalies. So we'll see, I guess. Number nine is J.T. Miller out of Vancouver. J.T. Miller having a nice season for himself.

A good player. But this is another situation of like, does Vancouver really want to trade him? Huh, okay. Because if you trade him, he's signed for next season. The cap hits reasonable for a point-of-game guy who you can use in basically any situation. I don't know.

if they trade him I think that might mean there's like a cascading effect where they're trying to trade just about anybody they can Do you think he's the Rangers target? He'd be a nice player for the Rangers, that's for sure. Obviously they're familiar with him and all that

but yeah, I'm interested to see what they can do with him for sure. The Rangers obviously are going to want to trade for some help, but they're the kind of team where it's like, oh, they might be in on like just basically anybody who's any good. I don't know. We'll see.

But I really like J.T. Miller. I think that they should make a... I don't know that I'd trade him if I was Vancouver, but if he's available and if I'm a team that needs a forward, I'm calling Vancouver every day. single day trying to get them. And then number 10's Arizona cap space. Hey, why not?

Sure. And, and we'll love that in with number 11. Phil Kessel. That's, come on, man. Phil Kessel. Gotta happen. It's got to happen. Somebody's got to get, go out and get Phil.

Yeah, he rocks. Again, just a guy where I would love to see him go with another Stanley Cup. Yeah, that would be. We've talked before about like, like, Phil Kessel's reputations don't, like, he's lazy, but he's going to set the Iron Man record. You know, he's not committed, but he's won a Masterton. And he's not a guy that you win with in the playoffs, except he kicks ass in the playoffs. Like, he's been great in the playoffs.

He should have won the Con Spite, two cups. You know, even in Toronto, he was good in that series. So somebody please go out and get Phil Kessel. Yeah. we're begging you, you know, if Arizona wants to use some of that cap space to eat the contract, you know, they have the ability to do that. They have, I think, two retain salary transactions right now, so they have one more that they have available. It'll be interesting.

I don't know. Like there's, like you say, there's a lot of guys where, you know what, that's a legitimately good player. and I hope someone picks them up. But, you know, this is the NHL, so probably none of them would get moved, and the biggest transaction of the day is, I don't know. It's too complicated, man.

Mark pissing, yeah. What do you think these guys are? NBA GMs? No, it's not. That's right, yeah. I couldn't possibly make a trade. That's the one part of my job that, like, anybody actually pays attention to.

You got it. I just got to watch the waiver wire and see if this guy who would be our ninth defenseman becomes available. I might think about claiming him. That sounds fair right. Yeah. Okay. That's it. We're done.

We're done with the show. Sean, why don't you do your plugs first? You can find me at the athletic as well as the athletic hockey show. I have this week I got my rankings. I got my mailbag. And last week I wrote about the best players to never play for Team Canada. and people wanted to know if that team could beat a team of the worst players who did play for Team Canada. So we're going to do that later this week.

I'm going to say, yes, it probably could because I, you know, just in my lifetime of watching hockey, like, or watching the NHL very closely. So we're talking like 2002 to present. I got to say, there's been some real bums on Team Canada. You put some respect on Rob Zamner's name. Oh, my God. I forgot about that one. We haven't. Kirk Maltby, right?

He played for Team Canada. Kirk Maltby was on a Team Canada but didn't play. He's unfortunately not on my roster. But yeah, he was picked for the 2004. But Chris Draper played on a couple of Team Canada. Yeah, they're the same guy. 100%. And then, yeah, Take Town this week.

I just published that on E.P.Rankside.com, and that is just a collection of shorter takes, many of which you may have heard on this podcast today. And, yeah, you know, we're just, we're doing it all over there, and things are really picking up because, you know, again, like, if you have a team that trades for or trades away a prospect and you want to know about what that guy's whole deal is, No better place to go than the leap prospects. We have people who have seen every game by, you know, Emil Heineman or whoever, you know. I personally haven't, but there's a big article about what Emil Heidman's whole deal is with, I think, even quotes from his coach over in Sweden.

So we got you covered on all that kind of stuff. And, you know, we're getting into the end of college hockey. and major junior season. So even more prospect news coming your way soon, I'm very sure. And if you want to sign up for an annual subscription, use the code I Love E.P. And you get an extra couple of months tacked on at the end for zero extra dollars.

So that's a nice gift from us to you. And that's it. Yeah, we're done. Sign up for the Patreon if you want to hear our mailbag. We did a bonus episode this week where we did a bunch of, name Pat Falun's based on guys born on certain holidays because we've recorded on Valentine's Day. And so it turns out there are a lot of NHLers who are born on holidays. Way more.

Way more than you would think. So yeah. Very, very fun stuff. And for the most part, NHLers you've actually heard of and not just some guy who played eight games for Detroit in 1947. Yeah. Although I kept picking that guy. That's, he certainly did. But yeah, anyway,

uh, that's it. Have a good one, folks. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support. All that kind of stuff. Uh, see you later. Bye-bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons.

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