Puck Soup - The Reverse Puck Soup Curse

Episode Date: July 4, 2022

Sean and Ryan talk about a busy week for coaching changes, trades, signings, and more in the lead-up to the draft.   Sponsored by Trade Coffee (drinktrade.com/puck), Betterhelp (betterhelp.com/puck), Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck) and Brooklinen (brooklinen.com/puck)

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McAdoo from The Athletic. And you might notice it's Monday. It's not Wednesday.

That's because, you know, travel and stuff. scheduling and stuff like that around the draft. We wanted to have an episode this week. There was a lot of news and things of this nature. But it wasn't going to work on Wednesday. So here we are on Monday instead. And it's also the 4th of July. So like if you're at a family gathering or something right now and you just saw this pop up,

go home. You have to leave and go listen to your favorite podcast. You can at least go try to hide in the bathroom for like an hour and a half. That works. wait for the mailbag to come out. But yeah, so it's funny because, you know, normally when we do a quick turnaround, you're like, I hope there's like enough news to make everything happen. And then every team in the league hired a coach, 15 trades happened, a bunch of contract signings, etc.

So let's just get right into it. The thing that I want to talk about the most, though, is everything that's going on, in San Jose. They fired their coach on Friday morning. Everybody else is like, we're not going to hire anybody. We're done. And they're like, now's our chance. Now's our time to jump. What were your thoughts on this? Well, it's, yeah, it's clearly very weird that they would, first of all, that any team would make changes like this this late. They fired,

Bob Boogner and his assistance. Yeah, his entire, the entire staff, yeah. Which is, you know, that matters as well because if it was just one guy, you might think, oh, maybe something happened. Maybe they found out something. But no, it's the entire group. I don't think San Jose at the beginning of the offseason would have been a crazy team to put on your list of teams that might make a coaching change. Absolutely not.

No. And Bob Boogner has been an NHL coach for. for five years and has never made the playoffs. The track record is insanely bad. I looked this up yesterday. Since he took over the sharks, they are 25th in all situations expected goals and 30th in, or expected goals percentage, and 30th in goals percentage. Yeah.

That's really bad. They're horrible. And look, I mean, the sharks are a bad team on paper. I don't think anyone ever looked at that team and went, oh, they're underperforming. But, I mean, he also was not great for two years in Florida. Correct. And then Florida became a powerhouse shortly after. So, anyways, I don't think he's a bad coach.

I think some of this perception out there that, oh, he would have got a job for sure if they had done this earlier. Who knows? This has been a weird year. This has been a year. Well, hey, they got a bunch of AHL teams. Yeah. Well, yeah, yeah, that's true. That's true, too, and assistance and all of that.

So it is, it's a rough one. The thing that makes this especially strange is they don't have a GM. They still haven't hired a GM. So who's making this call and why now? Like typically, you expect a GM to come in and the GM gets to make that decision. And yet they've done it before they hired a GM. My theory is that the two or three remaining candidates depending on who you believe, Mike Greer, Ray Whitney, and I almost said Ryan Whitney.

He's got his own job. And maybe Scott Mellonby, depending on who you believe, are the three finalists. And my suspicion on that is that all two or three of those guys were like, oh, yeah, I'd fire the coach immediately. So they were like, oh, okay, great. That's exactly my thought, too. When you're interviewing a bunch of people and you sit down, you go, what would you do with our team? And sometimes it might not even be someone you're seriously thinking of his candidate. but you're just trying to get as many.

It's free consulting a little bit too. Correct. And if everybody's like, yeah, I'd do a coaching change, then maybe you figure, all right, we might as well bite the bullet and get it done. But it does look weird, especially if they bring in a GM soon, there could be a perception out there that the new GM

just didn't want to get his hands dirty with firing a coach and had them do it for him. that kind of makes you look weak to start with. So I don't know, it's a strange situation. I don't think it's a, you know, a terrible decision. No, agree. But the timing and the circumstances, everything are very weird. Well, I guess my thing with it is that I just can't believe they named an interim GM in like early April.

Yes. It's three months later they don't have a GM and they just fired their coach. What are they doing over there? And not only that, but I mean, remember, Doug Wilson left the job because of health concerns during the season. Correct. Yes. So, I mean, they have, and we don't know exactly what his situation is, but presumably they, you know, they weren't caught off guard by this. They had to know that it was a possibility that he wasn't coming back. So there just doesn't seem to be a plan, which suggests that often when it looks like to be.

There's no plan. It's because there are too many plans and competing plans and, you know, struggles going on. But by all accounts, they, and maybe this is part of the issue. They still feel like they're going to contend for a playoff spot. And, yeah, again, like we've said a million times with these guys, they're so locked into so many bad contracts that it's either going to be a real tough job for a GM. And that's the other thing. Like, you know, it's, you talk about, well, you want a GM in place by the draft. Well, I mean, by now, every team's got its list already.

Like, there's no, I don't see a GM coming in and radically changing your draft plans. We've got to take Logan Cooney first overall. Oh, really? Yeah, exactly. But this is the busiest trade week in theory. And, I mean, if you're ever going to trade a Brent Burns or an Eric Carlson or, you know, somebody like that, this is the week to do it because everyone's going to be, you know, after this, everyone's going to, in theory, have made their moves. And then within a few days after that, it's free agency and everyone's spent all their money.

So, I mean, you've got to get somebody in soon, you would think. But I don't know. Probably an hour after we were finished recording this. Yeah, that's what I was going to say is I think the evidence seems to point to it's going to happen within the next day or two. But again, like, how did it not happen yet? Mm-hmm. I just, that's what I don't understand. Even then, like, is it enough to, does that give whoever it is, enough time to come in and actually, because we know the deal, right? We know the song and dance. A new GM comes in, especially when it's a brand-new GM, which it sounds like that will be here.

And it's always like, oh, I got to get the lay of the land. I got to figure things out. Talk to me in two months. Well, two months from now, you're not going to be able to do anything. And maybe that's, you know, maybe that's good. for the GM because it buys time, but it's not good for the team. No. And yeah, I think it was Frank, Frank Sarvelli used the term delusional to describe Hasso Platner in terms of, oh, yeah, no, we think we're going to be good right out of the shoot here. It's not going to be a problem. Like, you know, maybe Mike Greer or Ray Whitney or any of these guys, maybe they're going, no, no, yeah, of course.

course we can be competitive. I mean, I think you and I don't think that's true. But if you're trying to get a job and you're just telling the owner what he wants to hear. And even just, I mean, just selection bias, right? Like if he talked to 10 different GMs and seven of them were like, no, you need to burn this to the ground. And three of them were maybe. And those are your three finalists because it's what the owner wants to hear. But again, like you look at this cap friendly page.

It's grisly. And so there is an argument that says, like, are they good enough to contend? No, probably not. But if you can't tear it down and rebuild, and I mean, I'm not sure. I don't, everyone on this team is either signed super long term or somebody that you wouldn't get anything of significance for, or in a lot of cases, both of those things. so maybe you just have to go for the playoffs because you don't have any other options. Yeah, and along those lines, like, you know, everybody's a 930 goalie away from being a

playoff team, right? So if the sharks can get Aiden Hill and James Reimer to be that for three months, like it wouldn't be like because they change the way things are, like, just any goalie can get hot. And if they get the hot goalie, well, suddenly, you know what, we're looking pretty good. Now, maybe not in the Pacific. That looks like it's going to be a tough division next year, too. Is it? Yeah.

I don't know. I mean, we all agreed the Pacific was the worst division heading into this season, and then Calgary kind of surprised this. Yeah. I mean, I think it could still, you know, again, if I'm looking at this with teal-colored glasses, I could look at that division and go, it's probably Vegas one. And then who knows? I guess what you would say is it's really tough to see the sharks being the team that makes the big jump.

Obviously, Vancouver should improve under Boudreau for a full season. Obviously, I would say Calgary is not going to be as good as they were last year, but they should still be a difficult team to beat most nights. And L.A., you know, obviously they will talk about it in a bit. but they obviously went out and got Kevin Fiala and I suspect they're not done trying to improve the NHL roster. So that's another team and it's like, okay, so how many teams of the, and then obviously Edmonton has two of the five best players in the world.

So how many of those teams do we say, and if San Jose plays it exactly right this summer, they are ahead of those guys. Yeah, tough one. It is tough. It is tough. And especially because the other thing is, you know, any coach you're getting now, that's a coach that like 12 other teams was like, no thanks.

You know? Look, I mean, there are good coaches out there. I would argue, like, Claude Julian. Okay, Barry Trott says he's not going to coach, although who knows? Maybe if it's San Jose instead of Winnipeg, who knows? even Elaine Vino, like, I think there are upgrades on Bob Boogner. Yeah, no kidding. And I say, I mean, look, we don't know what Bob Boogner could do with a really talented team,

but this isn't it, so it doesn't really matter. I don't have a logical argument for why the sharks could be good next year other than the caveat that you slap on all hockey analysis these days, which is, but weird stuff happens every year to a few teams. And maybe they're the weird stuff. team next year. But that seems like about the best case scenario. Yeah.

Which, hey, you know what, if you're entering an offseason, no coach, no GM, and you're going, well, maybe we'll be the weird PDO team next year. Yeah. The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, would love to see how that works out. Um, oh, the other thing about that is, uh, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, one of the big qualifications for the, for the sharks' GM position was played for the sharks at some point. Gosh.

Yeah. How strange. Yeah. Now, like, I do, I do kind of think of Mike Greer as a shark. I mostly think of him as a buffalo saber, but I kind of think of him as a shark. And then I looked it up and he was there for like three years. Okay. And then Ray Whitney hasn't been a shark.

He was the shark for like five or six years. but not since like 2002 or something like that. It's been a really long time. Got Melanby ever played for the Sharks? He did. He for sure did. I can like picture it. Maybe like early 2000s.

I got to look this up now. But yeah, very briefly, I would say he played for the Sharks. No, I guess he didn't. That's why everybody was saying, oh, he's not actually in. Yeah, that's it. Sorry, Scott. It's not going to happen. So strained.

I feel like I can picture him doing that. But no, well. Maybe I'm thinking of his stint with the thrashers at the end of his career. Or the Panthers. That's any of those 90s expansion teams. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah.

So good luck to the San Jose Sharks. Let's talk about the other coaching hires that got closed this week. And hell, let's talk about the one that got officially closed yesterday. The Jets hired Rick Bonus. out of nowhere. Yeah. That's a, hey, you made a choice.

Are you like me where when Dallas moved on from Rick Bonas and he was like, it's not a retirement. I want to keep coaching. You were sort of like, sure, Rick. Good luck with that. Yeah, it's not a retirement to you, sure. Yeah, of course. And then, yeah, here he is jumping the line and getting a job nice and quick,

which I don't. I was surprised, and maybe this is just a weird cross-section that I, that I, of the fan base that I saw. I didn't see a lot of pushback from Winnipeg fans on this. And I know I get like when it's done, it's done. And as a fan, you're going to look on the bright side. And I do think Rick Bonas, I mean, he's a good coach. He certainly brings a ton of experience. I mean, literally more than anyone else ever when it comes to.

standing behind an NHL bench, but this is not, you know, if I'm Winnipeg, I want either the best guy I can get or like the young, you know, future guy that I build around. And, you know, they took their big suing with Barry Trots. You can't, you can't argue that management didn't, didn't aim for the top, but they didn't get it done. So this is an interesting consolation prize. Yeah. But I want to find the quote from this guy who I used to do a podcast, but it's called Craig Winooski.

Okay. And he goes, as a fan of surprises and someone who thinks bonus is a genuinely okay guy, I'm hoping for the best here. I just have no idea how you sell this to your fan base. It's like being told, we're getting you a Nintendo Switch, and then you get a Game Boy Advance. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah. I do love that his top shelf compliment is genuinely okay.

That's right. Hey, he seems like he's all right to deal with, I guess. That phrase appears on my resume in three different sections. But yeah, like, to that point where you spent months kind of pumping people up to be like, we're getting Barry Trots. He's from here. He never played here, but he's from here. Now, Rick Bonas, he did play and coach in Winnipeg. And that's why they hired him, presumably.

But, you know, like, the thing I was thinking about was, you know, everybody's like, oh, Barry Trott's free beer for life. You'll never have to pay for an oil change again, whatever. Rick, bonus, they're like, we can get you a 20% off coupon for an appetizer. Yeah. Yeah, I don't. I feel like there's an alternate universe where the Winnipeg Jets, when they have their opening going into the season,

don't go very, very hard after Barry Trots. And we see like a report from Elliot or Pierre or somebody saying, the issue in Winnipeg is they're worried that if they push all their chips in on Barry Trots and he says no, that they're going to get stuck with like a Rick bonus. sure and people like us go what a bunch of chickens man like you got to swing big you got to aim for the gold ring all that stuff you got to go for the best guy out there oh i think my reaction would have been like yeah why would barry trotsko coach there he has all these options there was that too but he apparently was very interested and and then chose not to not to coach this

the other piece of this is you're getting a guy who's a decent coach people seem to like the guy you know, he's, and I do wonder if part of this is, look, we could hire Claude Julian or somebody like that and give them a five-year contract, or we can bring in Rick Bonas, who everybody knows is going to be like a year or two. And maybe Barry Trotz next year is interested. Or, like, is this just your placeholder coach? Yeah. The, that you're not going to be in an awkward situation where, you know, you get 95 points next year and then you have to fire Elaine Vino because Barry Crotts is now taking your phone calls, whereas when it's Rick Bonas, he could go, hey, Rick was a great transitional coach for us, and we loved it, and now we move on to something else.

I think I read two years team option for a third, and I was like, I don't think anybody's going to be picking up that option. Two years team option is two years. Correct. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and they're in a very similar spot to San Jose, where it's like, well, even a better spot than San Jose because at least you're like now if there's a goalie in the league who could go 930 for four months.

Yep. Connor Hellebuck is the guy. It's not James Reimer. It's not Aiden Hale. This is a guy who is really good. And they have some bad contracts. It seems like they're going to at least try to move Blake Wheelers in the next couple of weeks here, which should be a big deal.

Yeah. Oh, huge. He's their captain and he's on a monster contract. but seems like everybody involved is like, yeah, this didn't really work out as hoped. And they're a team that, like, are they likely to make the playoffs, even if they make every smart change? I would say, probably not. There's only so much you can do. But they're certainly more likely, both because you go, unlike the Pacific, where you go, there's probably three teams that are legitimate, like, put it in.

Inc. kind of playoff teams versus in the central where you go, well, it's Colorado, it's St. Louis, probably. And then who? Maybe Dallas because they have Pete DeBore. Maybe Nashville because they have Yossi Soros. And they seem pretty intent on rolling it back as much as they possibly can here. They just, quote unquote, upgrade it on defense.

We'll see. but yeah the central seems a little bit more wide open than the Pacific to me so there's that as well the other coaching hires this week obviously the Boston Bruins went out and hired Jim Montgomery gave him his second chance that I think everybody kind of knew he was going to get and as we suspected the second the lightning were out of the playoffs, Steve Eisenberg was like, we want to get one of those lightning coaches. Yep, which I think when that spot was not filled as the playoffs dragged on, I think people sort of put two and two together that that's what was going to happen. And it was.

And, yeah, I mean, I think for. Can't argue with results, right? Yeah, I mean, he's certainly, he's not like a well-known guy outside of, you know, I don't think, well, I didn't know a ton about him, but everything I've seen has been good. In a way, it's a little bit of like a kind of like the Lane Lambert's situation where it was like, because it's somebody new coming into a first job, you're like, oh, it must be like a young up and coming guy. And it's not that. Yeah, especially with the name Derek. You're like, oh, surely this guy's like 39 years old, right? Yeah, yeah, that's...

I remember the first time I saw Derek Lalonde, I was like, they had that name back then? Yeah. I was born in like 1968 or something. Yeah, he did get to... Actually, this is funny, I'm just, I'm looking at our athletic coverage of Derek Lalonde, and there's a piece from December after he took. Remember John Cooper missed a game or two of COVID? Yeah, I do.

And so he took over. That was his head coaching experience. And the first quote is a quip from a guy, Red Wings coach, Jeff Blash Hill, says, I hope the TV cameras weren't on him a lot. Well, guess what, Jeff? TV cameras are going to be on him a lot more because he's got your job now. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, finding out Derek is like a guy who's like 50 or whatever.

that's like, I don't know if you know this. It was apparently not uncommon for people in like the middle ages to be named like Chad and Tiffany and stuff like that. I've heard that, yeah. Tiffany is the one that you're like, huh. Well, that can't be right. Yeah. Yeah, because everybody's all like, oh, Arthurian legend. Everybody has names like Lance a lot or whatever.

They're like, no, no, no. They're all, everybody's named like Bill. back in like 1,200. Don't worry about it. The scouting report on Derek Lelon, he's not shy when it comes to ribbing his buddies and he enjoys pickleball, wiffleball, and board games.

This guy might be 100 years old. Respect, brother. Those are all cool things. Those are fun things. I mean, we're in his peer group, right? Like, that's the thing is... I didn't need. You're not wrong, but you didn't need to say that.

I know. That's right. What did you think of the Bruins hiring Jim Montgomery? Um, I like it. I think I like that he's getting another chance. It's always one of these weird situations because we don't know the exact circumstances around his departure in Dallas. So, I mean, you don't want to go overboard talking about how wonderful it is that he's back. And then like five years later, we find out that, uh, you know, they did something awful to somebody.

But they fire him because he was the BTK killer. You're like, oh, I don't want to have been on the record saying the. beat the Kielder deserved the second chance. Pulling up the old, hey, what's the podcast where Sean defended that be? But from what we know, it sounds like this was a guy who was in a bad place and took the steps to get out of that place and now has worked his way back and was a good coach. Yeah. Other things aside. So, you know, I'm still, is he an upgrade over Bruce Cassidy?

You know, that is still. You got to say he is not. but is he an upgrade from Bruce Cassidy for this specific Bruins team? Obviously, they think so because they made a move on. And I don't, yeah, I don't mind. I think he's an upgrade over most of the candidates we heard about for sure. Yes. Yeah.

So there's that. That's a good way of putting it. Yeah. You know, again, like David Quinn, that's the, oh, that's the thing I forgot to say during the Sharks thing is already people are like, if it's Mike Greer, doesn't necessarily have to be David Quinn. They're both B.U guys. They might have even played together at B.U.

I don't remember exactly how they line up. But that wouldn't surprise me, certainly, that a guy who is the GM just hires a guy who is his friend in college. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, you know. I really don't know that don't get the whole Quinn thing. And I guess this is where I had to defer to you

was the college guy. This guy must have been a great college coach. Well, he got Jack Eichael to go to BU. There you go. Jack Eichael's an unrestrictive free agent, right? Yeah, I mean, he won the coach of the year award in college the year Jack Eichael played at BU. And I think the hardest part of his job was remembering every like three and a half minutes to go, hey, Jack, you're up, bud. Yep, go, Jack.

That's, I remember, yeah, that's why I remember. I remember Jerry D, the comedian had a bit where he was, like, making fun of Pat Burns. This is going back long ago, but making fun of Pat Burns winning coach of the year. And he was like, like, what was that? Like, oh, oh, we got a power play? Okay, Dougie, get out there. Yeah, you're up. Oh, oh, the penalty's on us.

We're killing the penalty. Okay, Dougie, get out there. Oh, coincidental minors. All right, it seems to be a duggy, get out there. Like, that was the coaching job, but it sounds like it's similar to that. Well, the sharks probably have a whole bunch of Jack Eichel level players, so. Yeah, no problem at all. Yeah, the stat I always think about with Jack Eichel at BU.

I believe the stat is when he was on the ice for the BU penalty kill, they finished the year plus two. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, okay. The other small piece of coaching news that I think this is actually older than last week, but we didn't mention it. and it did catch my eye, is Dan Bilsma getting the job as the head coach in the HL for the Seattle Cracken. Yeah.

Dan Bilsma, I think, is second only to Mike Yao for like his ability to lurk around vulnerable coaches. Like he was, wasn't he the assistant in Detroit for years there? He was. Yeah. And now, I mean, he's, he's in. Jeez. Yeah, he's just like.

I still can't believe Dave Haxill is a head coach in this league with all the movement and, like, all the guys out there. Well, it's interesting because I haven't found a single thing on on Cap Friendly's like coaching contracts page, he's technically listed as unsigned for next year. And I, and I think, I don't know if that's because it never came out like that he had signed a one year or a multi, like, I can't imagine he signs a one year. But like, what, what is multi year? If, if he signed that, there's just no terms of his contract have ever been publicly

reported as far as I can find. Yeah, that must be it. They must have given him at least a few years. Yeah, you would think. That was, that was a choice. Yeah. Sure. But, yeah, as you say, Dan Bilesma, lurking in the tall grass, just like waiting for a sick buffalo to get separated from the herd. And he's like, okay. Yeah. And then him and Mike Yao just dash for it. That's right. Yeah, that is Mike Yo and, oh, who was the other one? They hired somebody. else too. The Canucks hired it. Mike Yo was an assistant coach and who's their

AHA coach now? Shit, this just happened. I didn't see it. Did not see it. Who was it? It was Jeremy Colleton. That's right. Oh, that's right.

Yes. Yeah. Which is kind of one of those. Hey, he had some success in the HAL before. So good luck to him, you know. But yeah, that's, He, you know, you want to talk about whoever the sharks hire.

Jeremy Collin. Now, there's a guy who's in a position where it wasn't going to work out for him. But don't worry. They're going to be fine this year. That's why they got to keep Alex to Brinkett. Everybody's mad. Yeah. That blows my mind.

People are like, well, you can't trade. You can't trade Alex to Brinket? Why not? Like, where's this team going in the next three years? You absolutely can't trade him, but you trade him because he is your. best trade chip and you're going to get a lot for him. And when people, we'll talk about the Fiala trade in a minute, but when people are like, yeah, that's probably what you're going to get for Drinket, then don't trade him for that. You don't, like Minnesota had to make a

trade. Yes, they do not. Right. Yeah. You know what? Let's take a break and then we'll talk about all that stuff. Sounds good. The Fiala stuff. Okay, great. Be right back. Now a word from our sponsor, BetterHelp. Here's a question. How well would you take of your car if you knew you only had one car to keep for your entire life. That's kind of how our brain works and we should be looking to treat and invest in the way that we treat our brain the same way. And there's lots of different ways to support a healthy brain. And one of them is therapy, including online therapy. Look, we've all been through it to some degree the last couple years in our own personal ways. And a lot of us are doing what we can to keep ourselves.

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gift-giving opportunities coming up, trade subscription is also the perfect gift for the coffee lovers in your life. All right, we're back, and we talked about it on the other side of the break. Kevin Fiala got traded. So,

as Sean said, trade the wild had to make. And I think it, uh, Honestly, I think this was a pretty reasonable return for Kevin Fiala. I think mid to late first round pick, like 19 overall, I want to say. And Brock Faber from the University of Minnesota, who I want to say was a second round pick, and who's fine. That's my big Brock Faye.

Like, he's a perfectly good NHL prospect. He'll probably be, like, at best, a second pair guy, would be my guess. Mm-hmm. Good player. Nothing bad to say about it. Good player, high pick. And again, given that you have to make this move, I think you are okay with the return. Yeah.

I don't know that you, you know, this is, if you had a choice, you're probably not doing that, but they didn't have a choice. This is what happens when you buyout two guys who's combined buyout cap hit is like $14 million or whatever. Yes, exactly. And we all knew that was going to cause an absolute mess, and it has. And now they are dealing with the mess. And it's not a rebuild, but also you need to – They couldn't really go and trade this guy for immediate help. Yeah.

And if – Not immediate help that cost anything. Right. And if he was going to ask for $7.9 million for eight years, I would also be like, good luck. Yep. You know, like that's, they wouldn't be able to afford probably even like five or six million. I do think their cap problems are overstated. But then again, or like I said that before, but then again, I didn't think Kevin Fiala was going to be like, I need like almost $8 million.

Well, I mean, he had a monster year last year. He did. No one's saying he didn't, but like $8 million. Like, I like Kevin Viala, but Jesus, it's a lot of cash. And I think we said it last week. The Kings need wingers, and he's one of them. He can make a difference for them in their top six. But it's a bit. And the nice thing for the Kings, well, the thing with the Kings is they, even if you

view it as a. an overpay, and I'm not sure that I do, but even if you do, they have a lot of assets to pay from. And so, you know, that in the context of them being a pretty rich team as far as future pipeline, then, you know, and this being not a phenomenally strong draft, I think it's a very reasonable price for them, especially, like this is kind of one of those things where as a GM, maybe there's part of you that says, you know, when do I start adding these guys? They got Arvinson last year. Do you say like, hey, my team made the playoffs.

They earned it. They passed expectations. And now I've got to hold on my end of the deal, which is bringing some reinforcements for them. I like it for L.A. Yeah, no, like I said, he's a good player. He will absolutely help them. They needed wingers. You know, like they have some pretty good wings.

But, like, you know, Victor Arvinson is by far your best winger on, like on paper. That doesn't exactly scream like surefire playoff team. But you had Kevin Fiala. You're like, okay. Yeah, I can see that. Maybe you need one more winger. And I guess the argument is, well, they should have gone out and gotten to brink it instead. Like if you had your choice between wingers from the central division who are,

likely to be traded this summer. You would, of course, take Alex to Brinket, 40 goal guy, Alex to Brinket, every time, right? But Chicago, understandably, again, he's a 40 goal guy. Chicago's like, oh, no, it'll, like, cost a lot, like a real lot. And as I say, they paid what I think is a totally reasonable price for Kevin Fiala. I don't think they're going to, they might miss Brock Faber, I guess. But, like, I don't think they're going to miss whoever the 19th pick is in this year's draft, you know? So.

And, yeah, it's, yeah, it makes sense. And it's, I guess the other piece for Minnesota, I would love to know how the market looked for them in terms of whether De Brinkette was screwing things up for them. Like how many teams were in the market for an offensive winger were, are, are waiting. on Chicago. Or maybe it's none. Maybe teams are, you know, do teams believe that Chicago is going to move this guy for a reasonable price? Because they know Minnesota will. So it's sort of like, do you take the sure thing and go and make this deal? Or do you wait and hope that De Brinkett shakes free at a price you can handle? And, you know, good job by Bill Garron doing the best he could, given the impossible circumstances that he himself, created. Right. Well, I mean, he didn't, he didn't, right? Like, he didn't sign those contracts, but he did.

Sure didn't. He did make the decision to do buyouts, which. Yeah. Yeah. No, it, like I say, I think this makes plenty of sense for both teams. A classic win-win. Don't see many of those. You always feel like somebody got ripped off, not this one.

Although I did say people saying that like one team or the, other definitively won the trade. And I was like, I, you know. And look, I mean, we can never say that when you're talking about future. One team getting future assets. And I know the team getting, you know, a 25 year old coming off a career year. But at the same time, this is what we do. We kind of have to. Every now and then, you know, I'll say something or write something. And people are like, we can't say that yet. And I'm like, dude, I have bad news about what my job is. Yeah, my job is, I have to say it. This would be a very boring show. Yeah, it's just as a reading head, lines of things that we can't really form an opinion on it.

Correct. Yeah, that's right. So there was another trade this week. And it was, as I was writing what we learned, and I get to the lightning section, I'm like, oh, I guess I'll just say like, oh, it's crazy that they're going to trade Ryan McDonough. And then the tweet comes out, we traded Ryan McDonough, and I was like, oh, now I have something to say. They trade for Philippe Myers and Grant Mismash. And Grant Mismash is like a HL guy.

Game. No, he's an NHL guy. He played for North Dakota. This is a guy I've heard of. You know, he didn't... I guess this is... They show off. I was going to say, like,

he didn't play for the Owen Sound attack or whatever. But I guess that any guy who's, like, just a junior guy is like, this guy played for North Dakota, who's going to believe that, you know? So, fair play. But, yeah, so it's McDonough for Philippe Myers, Grant Mismash. And I kind of can't believe that they made like a cash out deal only.

I figured they'd have to take back like one bad contract and one fine one. Yeah. Did not retain any salary. Right. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I'm a little surprised. And the interesting thing, well, one of the interesting things is Philippe Myers is if you've heard the name or you've

you're trying to place it. He's the guy on Nashville that he's in this unique situation where if you buy him out, you get more cap space, not less, like not just what you say about it's good, but you get a credit because of the way his contract was structured, which made him, we thought,

a pretty valuable trade chip for Nashville, that they could trade this guy to a capped out team, and it was basically like giving free cap space to a team. Now, Tampa has said, Julian Breezebaugh said that they don't plan to do that with this guy. Right. They like him as a player. But, you know, in any event, that was a name that, like, you saw his name on tradeboards and you were probably like, I don't even know who that is. And then you see what the circumstances are.

And so that is now, you know, Nashville gave up some assets of value here to get a good defenseman, but a guy who's still on the hook for four more years. Yeah, the problem is the contract. Like, Tampa pulled the shoot, like, at the exact right time. During the playoffs, there were a couple of times when they said, I think they said he's the guy who had the mangled finger or whatever. And I was like, and it wasn't his knees? Because there were multiple times during the last couple of series where I was like, this guy looks cooked. Yeah. He looked really bad.

Still, you know, still a guy playing 22 minutes for, you know, Stanley Cup contender. But he is 33 years old and he has, if I'm not mistaken, four years left, I believe. Four years to go on a contract. It pays him 6.75, which is not cheap, but it's not outrageous for even a low-end first pair, good second pair guy. But, yeah, I mean, this is, I see what Nashville is doing, I guess, in that they are simplistically, they are adding a good player.

They are getting by far the best player in the trade. And if he's a guy who fits in their, you know, Nashville isn't a capped out team. So they probably view it as we have cap space. We hear the term about weaponizing cap space. This is us doing it. We're going to get a guy for not very much, certainly cheaper than he would cost in a normal trade situation. if there wasn't a salary cap. So let's take advantage of that and get this guy in our lineup.

But for Tampa, like, I love this deal in the sense that it just, this is what makes teams like Tampa the smart teams. 100%. Because they know, you know, there's just like no emotion. There's no, you know, they are, there's no sentimentality. There's very little loyalty to, you know, anyone who isn't your absolute core. And even that loyalty is contractually obligated. Yes. I think they'd jenison one or two of those guys, if given the chance, two or three years.

It's the Bill Belichick way of thinking, right? Like, I mean, and this is what you really kind of need to do. And they saw a guy, they could see the decline either having started or at least on the near horizon. They looked at this and said, four years. Like, we could keep a. next year, but what's it going to look like a year from now if he has, you know, if he started to decline. Now we're stuck with an anchor as far as trade assets.

So they make the move now. Like be a little, be one step early instead of two steps late. And that's what the smart teams do. And there's, Tampa's one of the smart teams very clearly. Yeah. And you know, I think the play to keep

Phil Myers is interesting because as you said, they could have saved a ton of money. What's his contract? 2.55 is his contract. They could have saved another like 600 grand if they bought him out because as you say, his contract was structured in such a way that he would have then only cost them like 600 grand next year.

So it would have been like a very advantageous thing to buy him out if they didn't think he was like potentially a guy who could help and make a difference and all that. They say that. Which makes me wonder if they wouldn't consider flipping him. You know, you go out and say, oh, we really like this guy. He's a good player. And then you wait for the phone to ring.

Right. Toronto or somebody, some capped out team says, could we have him so that we could buy him out? And then you go, oh, gosh, I don't know. We really like him as a player. Yeah. I mean, how, like, what a smart Tampa thing that would be, right? Like you take someone else's asset of value that they could flip and you flip it instead. Yeah.

And then you also don't have to pay for that buyout. It's just saving like actual cash in addition to everything else. But the crucial thing about Phil Myers too is if they do actually like him and they can get him to figure out his problems, one, he's 25, two, he's a pending RFA after next season. So that's a guy where they could give him a Nick Paul deal. That's another thing they did this week. where they go, we'll give you not a lot of money per year, but we'll give you like four, five, six, seven years. And for a guy like Phil Myers, you're like, oh, damn, that sounds great.

And I live in Florida, and I play for a team that's perennially quite good. Sign me up, you know. But what's interesting with all this is now they are down to only negative $900,000 in cap space. And so as soon as they put Brent Seabrook on LTIR, at the starting next season, they're all set cap-wise, and they have about $5.9 million to spend.

Now, what would I say is a fair contract for Andre Palat at his age coming off that postseason, maybe right around that amount of money? Yep. It certainly does kind of feel like that is what they did here, is they chose Pilat over McDonald's.

And I think that's a good call. Yeah, I probably wouldn't have said that a year ago, but he did, he is a, it's a good piece of that team. Yep. The other thing we should say is the rumor is they're also trying to get Alex Clorne the hell out of town, which, again, makes perfect sense. 4.45 million against the cap, only for this year remaining. He has a modified no trade. I don't know what the 16 team no trade list here it says. So they can trade them to half the league, a little less than half the league, I guess.

And he has no say, but also they might go, why don't you work with us here? And you got you Stanley Cups. You made a bunch of money. Yeah. And, you know, Ryan McDonough just left, you know, happily and seemingly. Not happily. What are you? Not happy.

I think the quote was like. Smoothly. Tough to swallow or whatever, but yeah. Yeah. So, you know, yeah, they're smart, man. They're a smart team, and sometimes being smart doesn't mean always being the nice guys. We've certainly seen some teams that have tried to do that as their strategy. Let's keep everyone happy.

Let's give everyone what they want, and everyone will be so happy they'll reward us. Yeah. And Tampa is doing more of the Belichick thing. And yet they win, and it's weird. the winning seems to trump everything else as far as making players happy. Right. And the other thing about that is, you know, how many times have we seen a team win a Stanley Cup or even get deep into the playoffs

and go, well, we have to give all our third liners $4 million. We'd be crazy not to. These guys just went to a Stanley Cup final or whatever. And, yeah, the lightning are like, it feels like we can just go. go to the Stanley Cup final all the time. So we don't really need to feel like Alice Coulorne is the guy who's getting us there. This is, again, as you say, this is what smart teams do.

Let's move on and talk about the other big transaction this week was Brock Bessor's extension in Vancouver. Yeah. A little surprising that he took, like a modest raise at best. felt like this was going to be a chance to kind of cash in a little bit, but he didn't do it. Right. But, you know, coming off of not a great season. Correct, yeah. And, you know, this is a guy where I'm always a little surprised when I look at his numbers,

because, you know, he hasn't played, he's never played like a real, like a full season. Right. Obviously, the last couple years, part of that was because the season, themselves weren't full seasons, but never hit 30 goals, never hit 60 points. Like, he's a guy that to me, it almost feels like, when I look at this page, I expect to see that like

three years ago, he had like a 32-ball season, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, he's close. He was, he had 29 goals as a rookie, like that kind of set up in 62 games. Yeah, he was the runner-up for rookie the year, but, yeah, I mean, this, I think it makes sense for

both sides, even, as there is risk for for both sides because he's not getting paid like an elite guy, but he is certainly getting paid as a productive guy. And, you know, the concern with if you're Brock Besser is you've left money on the table that if you have the big breakout, you're tied to this team for three more years, under not, you know, under middle six money. and if you feel like you can be more than that, then you may have taken a discount.

And if you're Vancouver, it's sort of a double-sided risk, is that if he regresses, which I don't think he will, it would be surprising at his age. But if he does, you're overpaying. And if he doesn't, and if he does blow up,

you lose him in three years, very likely, because you have no team control beyond that. Right. But, yeah, I mean, there's, to me, it's okay for teams and players to acknowledge that, hey, there's unknowns here. There's some question marks.

come to a place where we're sort of sharing the risk and then we see what happens. Yeah. And the other thing is, this is a three-year contract. That's right around the time they think the cap will have started rising as normal again for a year or two. So if it works out for Brock Bessert, then he's about to get insanely rich when he's like 28. Yeah, which is probably something that more players should be doing right now rather than locking in for eight years right now. But much easier said than done when it's not your career on the line.

Yeah. The flat cap really does make everything interesting. I think Breezebois had a quote that was like, if it wasn't for the flat cap, we'd be keeping Ryan McDonough for sure. However, there's a flat cap, and so we didn't really have a choice, which, yeah, sure, that makes sense.

You know? They also signed Jack Rathbone to a one-way deal, so it seems like he's just going to be on the team next year. And that's a guy that they kind of like, I think. They think he's going to be a good defenseman. I guess the issue is that he's also a left-handed defenseman, and so they have to figure out how that's going to work because they

their problem is that their right side is what is bad. If you go down their left side, Quinn Hughes, Oliver Ekman-Larsen in a second pair role, and Travis Dermott, I think, is a lefty as well. And then on the right side, it's like, oh, here's Tyler Myers, here's Luke Shen. Oh, no. Yeah.

Tucker Pool. Oh, the Tucker Pullman contract. God, I forgot about that. Oh, my God. well maybe they can get him to play his offside huh maybe

yeah and then the other the one last without affecting his playing ability too much can he be worse than Tucker Pullman there you go and then the one last piece of of a

of a UFA news here is that uh Pierre Lebron tweeted this just before we started the show uh

seems like there's still timetable for the Evander Cain grievance and it's almost certainly not going to get done before the 13th, which is when free agency starts. Hmm. Ouch. Yeah, because there has been talk and I don't know if it was ever resolved

that does the grievance affect his ability to sign elsewhere? Does it... I believe he can sign but then he could still be told, no, you're San Jose Sharks property. Right, in which case he goes back, which, again, that all, it's such a mess.

You know, the sharks also, I'm sure, before a free agency want to know this. Like, this is all leading towards some sort of settlement where the two sides just figure it out on their own. You would think. Rather than wait for an arbitrator. But, yeah, I mean, imagine being a Vander Cain shopping yourself around and going, but just so you know, there is a small but non-zero chance that my contract I signed with you could be voided in a couple. weeks at which point there will be no free agents left for you. Yeah. And then at that point, too, like if the arbitrator says he is Sharks property, turns out the Edmonton Oilers never made the Western Conference final. They had a player that was ineligible to play for them. That's right. Yep.

They never made the playoffs. Sorry. Yeah. No, absolutely. Conner, David. A crazy, a crazy situation. I cannot believe the league is letting this happen. But wasn't it reported that it was like, oh, it's because the arbitrator was just like on vacation for all of June or something like that. Oh, okay. Well, then what can you do? What could a billion dollar league like the NHL do in that situation? He just turned over the sign. The arbitrator is out.

Yeah. Gone fishing. That, I, I can't believe that's a thing, that that's going to happen. I guess I can because, as you say, it is the NHL. But, yeah. a wild situation. But there's one more wild situation with the Edmonton Oilers that is currently playing out. And we'll talk about that after the break.

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plus free shipping. That's brooklyn.com. B-R-O-O-K-L-I-N-E-N dot com and enter the promo code Puck for $20. off and free shipping. All right, so we mentioned the oilers have a little problem, and I want to just read the headline here. This is from Mark Specter on Sportsnet. Once again, Poolyarvi wants out, and Oilers are ready to accommodate with a trade. Yes, the Pullia Javier and the Oilers are ready for a divorce. As he was three seasons ago, Pullia Javier is ready to move on for a fresh start elsewhere, sources as confirmed. The Oilers are ready to oblige and are speaking with at least, at least four teams in an attempt to push the return as high as possible.

This is wild to me. I know he did not have a good playoff. But he's a classic guy. Or any great seasons yet. Well, so that's true. But this is a classic guy where, you know, he shot like 8% this year. and didn't play the full season, which is obviously maybe you say that's an issue,

couldn't play all 82 or whatever. But everything that happened when he was on the ice tended to be in the Oilers' favor. Now, you might say, well, that's because he played a lot with Connor McDavid. But he's one of those guys where all his impacts playing with, without McDavid, whatever, were good. Now, I'm not saying this guy is unbelievable. or anything like that.

But this seems like a classic situation where the Edmonton Oilers, like many teams before them, have been like, how can we sell as low on a guy that we picked really high one time as possible? Yes. I think that is fair. This is a guy where all the underlying numbers suggest a much better player than the top-level boxcars,

which are not great for a guy who was, what, third or fourth overall pick, six years ago. I mean, he's 23. This isn't, you know, this isn't a 19 year old where we're still waiting. Just cracked the 30 point mark for the first time. Yep. Failed to match his career high in goals, which is 15 in a season. Like, this is, I feel like there's, and Lord knows, Edmonton is always ground zero of 200 hockeymen versus the smart analytics people. Yeah. Like it was that that was where that, that really, that movement felt like it blossomed out of that fan base. And certainly the media there tends to be very old school. And it feels like you've got like either this guy is a total bum, a bust.

It's just, just a right off of a pick, or he is an elite level player who just happens to never produce any elite level numbers. And it's, you know, the chances are it's somewhere in the middle. Like the chances are he was, you know, he's not a, he's never going to give you anywhere close to fourth overall pick production. And yet could he be a much more productive player in a better situation or even in Edmonton if he was just, you know, if they waited it out a little bit. But they have apparently convinced themselves in Edmonton that it's either him or Kyler Yamamoto

One but not both That they have room for Which I guess is This is kind of what happens When you give When you trade for Duncan Keith With no salary retained When you give Zach Cassian

Three million bucks a year Because he looked good with McDavid So that's the funny part about this Uh Poo Yarvey 65 games 14 goals 22 points 36

or 22 assists 36 points right now I'm going to read you Zach Cassian's box score from the year or box car numbers from the year he cashed in 59 games 15 goals 19 assists 34 points

and they were like we got to keep Zach Cassian this guy's unbelievable but a and he was what 2930 at the time whereas employee RV as you say he's no spring chicken really You know, you feel like by now he should be better than he is production-wise.

But they're like, we've got to get this fucking guy out of town at 23 years old. Zach Cassian puts up more or less the same numbers. And they're like, what are we going to do? Now keep this guy for four years? Yeah. This team is fucking awesome. Zach Cassian was the classic, like, this is what would drive me crazy if I'm Connor McDavid. Because you took a steep discount on your eight-year deal.

Even though you became the highest player in the league, you left tens of millions of dollars on the table. More than that, if you considered the option of just signing shorter-term deals. But you leave all that money on the table so that they will build a winner around you, and instead they put scrubs on your line. And then when those scrubs have career years because they're playing with you, they give your money to them instead. and Zach Cassian is an exhibit of that. And you know, you would think the Oilers would be trying to keep 23-year-old guys.

But, you know, at the same time, I'm very interested to see what sort of the trade looks like here. Yeah. Because are the Oilers selling low? Are there enough smart teams out there that like this guy that they will bid on him where, you know, even if Edmonton's not smart, If two smart teams are bidding against each other and Edmonton is just taking the best offer, they can still get a pretty good return on this guy, you would think. Yeah. So here is, I'm going to read from deeper in the article here.

Pulley-R-V is deemed, quote, a play killer, unquote, inside the Oilers dressing room, it is believed, where two of the best centermen in the world have not been enough to turn Pulle-Yarvey into a legitimate top six-winger in the NHL. The puck dies on his stick in the offensive zone too often to continue. to saddle Connor McDavid or Leon Drysidal with such a winger on a regular basis. So what is Pauley-E-R-Vee's value? Blah, blah, blah. He asked a bunch of people around the league. Holland would do well to find a second-round pick in return for Pauly-E-R-V.

Here is the sample of the replies. Probably more like a third for me. Should be able to get a second. Pull-Y-R-V is the equivalent of a third-line player with some upside. If you can get a second-round pick, take it. Those are the four quotes published by, You would think like front office people. So it feels like second or third.

If I'm a team with a second or third that is looking to upgrade its middle six and maybe get a little extra something out of it, you know, like if on the Boston Bruins, I have a second round pick this year. I have a third round pick this year. Let's make it happen, you know. But as they say, the play does seem to die on his stick a little bit. And maybe part of that is, again, he only shot 8% this year, and that's maybe not what you would expect from a player of his skill level.

But also, how many times have we seen a guy gets out of a bad situation where everybody has decided they hate him for whatever reason? And then he's good somewhere else. He could be Nile Yakopov, right? And I'm not saying this is a Taylor Hall situation. But I make that gamble. I gamble that second round pick, which doesn't, you know, it sounds like it has.

a lot of value. It doesn't really have a lot of value. You'd be lucky to get a Yes, to Pullia-R-V with a second-round pick. Let's put it that way. So, like, Carolina is a team, I'm calling Ken Holland, though, yeah, we'll give you a second-round pick, we'll give you

whatever. This does feel like a Carolina move. Yeah, a Ryan Suzuki, where it's like, oh, yeah, he's a good player, but he's not like that good. You know, I'm really interested to see how this shakes out because. And then what contract does he get wherever? Right, because that's the other thing. He's in RFA.

And I don't know, it feels like you give him two and a half million bucks or something. He's going to be like, thanks. Sounds good. We'll see. But yeah, one last thing, let's do this here. This is going to be the week of trades. There's going to be a bunch of trades. The draft is on Thursday evening. And it seems like there are more guys in play. than usual because of the flat cap. So I pulled up the athletics, trade board, whatever you want to say. That sounds good. How do I get that? Can I subscribe?

I don't think so. I think any deals on right now? There are certainly people who would know better than me about the deals. I'm paying full freight like a fool. Like a fucking idiot. But number one on their list. This was published on D. June 29th, and number one on their list was Kevin Fiela, who was traded on June 29th. Nailed it.

Now, this makes me say, did they maybe have Kevin Fiela like seven? And then they very hastily were like, no, number one. No, no, no. Nope, we had him number one. He was there for two hours and then he got drunk. The athletic curse, some were called it. Yes. Number two on this list, J.T. Miller with the Vancouver Canucks.

Seems like this is going to happen for sure. certainly probably should if you're Vancouver and yeah yeah now that they've now that they've got best or locked in at not an outrageous amount but that that should give them clarity on what to do next yeah um we're starting to see like the rain oh remember he used to play for the rangers he might go back there um and then it says uh i think it was eric yeah Eric Doochick wrote this one. And he goes, New Jersey and the Islanders might make sense too. Maybe get out of like the greater New York area.

There might be some other teams. Yep. But I agree that New Jersey does make a lot of sense. I don't know about the Islanders because, you know, he's not 35 years old and bad. So they probably don't want to sign him. Yeah. Yeah, but if they commit to him long term, he will become that. Sure.

Sometimes you have to develop the guys into what you want. Yeah, that's right. But yeah, I think obviously he's a difference maker. He's a really good player. He's a leadershipy kind of a guy. I think this is a guy that a lot of teams can really talk themselves into. If they think they can retain him long term, and that might be a thing where the Canucks let other teams talk to his agent or whatever.

But I don't know, good player. If I was a team that wanted that. little extra oomph to get into the into the playoffs or get past the second round or whatever. I'm calling the Canucks about J.T. Miller. He's good. Sure. Another guy much like that, Jacob Chikrin, number three on the list. Who we heard all last year and then didn't get moved. I still feel like that's, I don't know. I feel like this is Arizona keeping a guy's name out there going. If we can get a windfall, of course, we'll move.

move him. There's, there's no point keeping him for the next few years, given what we're doing, but there's also no pressure at all to move him. He's cheap. He's young. And he didn't have a great year last year as far as the, like, you know, the flashy. His thing a year ago was he scored 20 goals, so, you know, at that pace. So boy, don't we love goals. And it kind of wasn't there for him last year. Right. But, I mean, I won't be shocked if he's moved, but I will also not be shocked if he is in the top five of this trade board for the next two years. Yeah, for sure. It goes anywhere.

Yeah, you know, this is another thing where, like, if L.A. hadn't just traded their first round pick, everybody was like, well, L.A. makes perfect sense. And St. Louis was briefly connected to the McDonough trade. And so, you know, I don't know. Do they have their first round pick this year? It feels like they probably do, if I'm remembering right? And that would make perfect sense. Like you build a pet. Yeah, they have their first round pick the next three years.

You build a package around that for sure. And, you know, maybe you can get the coyotes to take Marco Scandelle off your hands, whatever, you know. But, yeah, I think there are plenty of teams that could use a Jacob Chikrin, obviously. Even if we're saying this is not a man who is a guaranteed 20 goal scorer forever. he's cheap he's signed long term ish and he's like 24 25 years old and he plays the left side which everybody likes for defensemen so hey um another another defenseman who's on the board here one this is uh did you see you ever see cody rhodes's last uh promo in a e w no so he goes out and he's being kind of cryptic and it's everybody kind of knows he's made

maybe not signed with AEW. He's on a per appearance deal or whatever. And he just kind of gives a promo, like, here's me giving my advice to everybody on the way out the door. And he says about Jay Lethal, I think it was Jay Lethal, one of the strangest things anybody's ever said in a wrestling rink. This man has the best cutter in the business. Avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid.

And that's me talking about Tyson Barry. This guy, avoid, avoid, avoid, do not help the oilers. by getting him off the books, this would be an inadvisable trade for anybody. If they call and they say, we'll give you Tysonberry for a seventh round pick, and you're like, I have the worst power play in the league last year.

Maybe. But that's a lot of money for a guy who, I wouldn't trust to play at five on five as far as I could throw him. And he's signed for two more years. Yikes. Yeah, as a, having gone through the Tyson-Berry experience, I don't know that I'd be lining up to jump on this guy. But there won't be a ton of big-name defense been moved.

So again, you don't have to, you just need one team to want them or two teams to kind of want them. and I don't trade him and then sign Yamamoto and Pliarvi. Yeah. Feels like a good move. Oh, no. If the Oilers can get a sucker to come along and take this contract off their hands, by all means. But he is like a third pair guy who is only really useful on the power play. And I'm like, who do the Oilers also have that's a defenseman who's really useful on the power?

It's like the guy they're paying $9.5 million a year or whatever. Darnel Nurse. So why would you have Tyson Barry out there if you're the Oilers? Yeah, this is, again, avoid, avoid avoid if you're any team that isn't, like, absolutely desperate for power play help. Another defenseman comes up next on the list here, and that's Jeff Petrie. I can't imagine how you can trade Jeff Petrie, but, like, as in find a taker for him. Yeah, especially because he has a 15-team no-trade list. says here. Well, he has a contract that is a, should be a 32 team. A hundred percent, yeah.

What is it? Two years left? Three years left. Six point two years left. He's 34 years old, six point two. I mean, you couldn't, if you, if you put this guy on waivers, nobody would take him for nothing. So, I mean, if you're trading him, it has to be a case of like how much are we giving up to get, if you can get a team to give any value at all for Jet Petrie, you've done a fantastic job. Can the Canadians eat money on this? Let's look at their cap-friendly page. They probably could. Yeah, they don't, they don't have any, they don't have anybody like that. Well, not only, not only, Che Weber is gone, but like they don't, they don't have any retained salary elsewhere either.

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. So, like, they could absolutely eat money on this. It would make sense for them to do it because, like, I think Petrie is still a perfectly good player. But as you say, the contract makes it extremely prohibitive. And if he costs $3.125 million, I'm maybe not super comfortable with the three years on that one. but I can at least maybe swallow it if Montreal again if Montreal's like we'll eat money and like give you a third round pick okay but yeah that that I don't know like I say he's a

perfectly good player but why would you want that contract on the books um six Alex to Brinkett we talked about him already why would Chicago do it well because they what's the point in keeping it as you say, they're under no pressure to keep him, but there's no real point in keeping him. He's going to cost a lot of money in a year, and they're going to be in a situation where they're trying to be bad. So he's counterproductive in that way. After that is William Carlson. Yeah, that's an interesting one.

He seems to sneak in and out of these lists. Mm-hmm. And I think understandably so just because of the contract, not because anybody thinks he's a bad player or anything like that, but the contract's a tough one. $5.9 million. It's a lot for a number three center. On this team anyway, he's probably a two on most other teams.

Well, that's it, right? I mean, you're trading him to be a guy to, and he's a good player. And it's not a crazy number for what he brings to the table. It's just a question of whether it fits for, for Vegas. And Vegas, again, is, you know, it hasn't been as successful, but kind of like Tampa, they're one of those ruthless teams. Like, William Carlson was a huge part of what they built there, and they're willing to move them if they feel like they need to. I can't blame them.

That one's interesting, though. Like, I don't, there's a lot of guys on this list. I'm like, why would you trade them? And there's a lot of guys where I'm like, why would you want him? But William Carlson, I think, fits as a guy I can see why they move him and I can see why somebody. out there would pay up. Yeah. And to that point,

I think he would kind of cost a decent chunk of money, right? Because right now, Vegas is looking at a cap crunch, but they're like, oh, we pay our backup goalie who's not very good, like $2.5 million. And everybody wants a goal. So, like, that would seem to be the guy that would want to trade.

But, as you say, if you can free up $5.9 million for a third line center, I think that's a fairly easy call, you know, and you're going to get something of value back, right? Like, because he's good. So it's interesting. Mm-hmm. Next up, another defenseman, Sam Gerard, from the Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.

Yeah, definitely a guy I'd be interested in taking a run at, but, yeah, that's a guy. a bit of a cap situation for Colorado. Again, we'll see, and the people who put these lists together know what they're talking about, but to me, a smart team like Colorado doesn't trade Samuel Gerard because of the cap. They trade somebody else to make room for Samuel Gerard because of the cap. And they have the cap room to sign him. It's more a case of do they...

Well, he's signed. Do they... Yeah, to keep him, I should say. Right. Do they want to keep the UFAs in which point they need to clear room? Right. Yeah, this is a, this is a cadre slash Burakowski or Gerard kind of an argument. And, you know, if you're the avalanche, you're like, well, look at our fucking defense, right?

Like, McCar, unbelievable. Devon Tees, maybe the best, like, number two defensemen in the league. Bowen Byram, obviously, is really came into. his own in the playoffs, but even like down the stretch in the regular season, you were like, oh, this kid like has something here. This kid's a player. Whereas Gerard is, you know, if he's your fourth best defenseman, do you want to be paying your fourth best defenseman $5 million?

Yeah, if I've got three awesome defensemen out of them. Yeah, it's, but for sure. Nice problem to have, but I do get where you're coming from. Yeah, and Byron, the tricky part is Byram's in RFA next, next summer. So then he gets to go, well, if Gerard's getting five, like, I should be getting six, and you go, oh, well, now it's becoming a tricky numbers game. Although I guess Colorado could say, well, Taves is making 4.1, and he's, when we got him, he was, like, a year away from UFA. So take less. But, yeah, obviously Colorado has bigger cap considerations coming up soon.

Yeah, next up on the list is, yes, Apollia Jarvi. talked about that at length, so no need to go there. Patrick Hornquist is 10th. Yeah. Good luck to the Panthers getting that contract of the books. Good luck to anybody who trades for him. Yep. I was going to say, this is, it's always interesting when his name comes up because we all get to learn what team it is that he was on. And then we go, oh, right, Florida, sure. And again, Not a bad player or anything, but I feel like it's just a contract that has not aged well, obviously. Although, I mean, we do this dance every year, right? We go, I, you can't trade that contract.

And then there's, you never know. It happens sometimes. Yeah, well, he also has a no trade of some kind, eight teams, it says, a modified no trade of eight teams. But he's 35. he makes 5.3 million against the cap and maybe it might even be more no it's it's dead even the month so it's not a backdiving contract that's the that's the gimmick um but so like you've got to pay this guy 5.3 million in straight cash over the course of the season um straight cash it'll it'll be uh it'll be interesting to see if they can move him like if you look at that that roster that's one million percent the guy you move. I don't know how they get it done though. It's tough. Any other names

in the, that's the top 10. There's a top 30 where there I've got a couple of names that did jump out at me. Number 16, Sean Monaghan really comes down. If you're the flames, the Johnny Godreau situation

as of Monday morning, still no news there. And Matthew Kachuk as well. Godro, UFA, Kachok You still have his rights. And they got to sign Lange Apani as well. Oh, did they? I didn't even say.

No, no, they have to, I'm saying. Oh, they have to. Okay, yes. Yeah. So in theory, you've got to get Monaghan out of there, a guy that, it's fascinating, right? I mean, he's got a year left. Him and Goodrobe signed almost matching deals. They did.

Here at the end of it, one guy you're just trying to flush out for cap space and the other guy's about to hit probably eight figures. on a deal. Interesting to see if they can find someone. Injuries really piled up for him. He hasn't played more than 70 games. Well, I guess that would have been the full season in 1920. But he just kind of can't seem to stay healthy.

And even when he's quote unquote healthy, he scored 30 goals two years in a row. 31 is a rookie, that kind of thing. Like, he always had holes in his game, but one of the things he could always do was put the puck in the net. Can't really do it anymore. So, yeah, if you're the, if you're the flames, you're like, get this guy the hell out of my. Right. And everybody knows you're saying that.

Yeah. I mean, he's the sort of guy that if you're a team that has some cap space next year and, you know, the flames potentially will attach assets to move him. In theory. You could do worse than get a guy like that. And, I mean, you have no commitment past a year. And if he works out, you know, he's going to be UFA. There's nothing that says he has signed another $6 million contract, right? I mean, maybe he's willing to sign for significantly less than that.

If he finds a good fit, like, it would make sense to me. But I'm definitely holding the flames feet to the fire to get as much as they'll attach. So I like that. And then the other ones that, to me, are interesting. and Eric's got them pretty much all at the bottom of the list is the goalies. Yeah, I did what, before we get to that, Pavel Zaka is the other guy that I'm very interested in because he's a good player, you know, but it just seems like a thing where the devils might not be able to sign him for whatever reason.

And, yeah, it says here, if the Devils and Canucks eventually do business, Zaka could be the player heading Vancouver's way. Like if it's Zaka for J.T. Miller, I think that's a clear. upgrade for the devils, but like it doesn't hurt the Canucks that badly either. That's an interesting connection to me that I maybe wouldn't have thought of. And then, yeah, let's get to the goalies. 25, Jonathan Quick, 26, John Gibson, 27, Ilya Samsonov, 28, McKenzie Blackwood, 29, Semyon Varlamov, 30, James Reimer.

Yeah. this is, it just goes to show what a mess the goalie market is, I guess. Because I would say maybe none of these guys I particularly want. I don't, I mean, yeah, Jonathan Quick is coming off a good year. One year left coming off a good year. Certainly if you're one of those teams that wants playoff experience and all of that, he'd be okay.

I don't think he moves, but he could. He absolutely could, especially if the Kings retain, which, you know, they're instilling good, decent cap situation. Yeah, it depends on what else the Kings want to do this summer, right? Like, if they really want to go like, oh, we do want Philip Forsberg, you got to get Quick out of there. I feel like what would make sense for the Kings right now is to call a bunch of teams that you know need goalies and say, hey, Jonathan Quick could move. We get that he's probably not your top priority, but call us back in a few days if whatever you're working on doesn't play out. I do not understand John Gibson. At this point, I don't understand why we're still acting like he's a Vezina caliber.

No, for sure. With that contract, I wouldn't take him for free. And yet, it might keep hearing. If I'm a team that needs a goalie, I might give that a world, say, well, look, the guys are not. Do you commit five years? Yeah. Six point four million? If it's absolutely free.

To a guy who's been bad. for three years? Yeah, look. Like I'm saying he, you put him on waivers. If you're a team, let's say you have the cap space, but, you know, you don't have unlimited cap space. Would you take him? Maybe.

Maybe. Like I say, I think there was a time where he was like a three or four year period where I think he was almost unequivocally the best goalie in the world. It was very good. He was really fucking good for three or four years. And then he hits a wall. where he's, as you say, he's been bad last three years. I want to say like a 906 save percentage on average.

Less than that. 904, 903, 904. Oh, okay, yeah. 904 then. And last year started off well and then just really faded. I guess maybe I'd want to see the medicals, you know? I mean, he's 28. It's not like it's the aging curve here that we're pointing to,

which is good news in theory if you're going to go trade for him. Yeah. I mean, there's nothing. There's no undoing age, but I don't know, man, I would just. Yeah, there was never a point where they really, like, ground him into, like, this isn't like a, who was it, was it Devin Dubnick got like just super. Yeah, it was playing 70 games. No, Cam Talbot, I think, right? When he was on the Oilers, they were like, yeah, we need you to play like 70 games.

And it was like, oh, well, that, like, you know, obviously he stayed in the league for a few more years, but was never. the same after that. John Gibson's career high and games played 60. Yeah. And that was back when he was good. He's been playing, you know, he played 35 games last year in the shortened season. So, you know, in theory, yeah, it shouldn't be that. But he has been a negative value goalie for for three years. Yep. Absolutely. 130 games. I don't want any, any part of that for, uh, for the huge Huge commitment that he still has left on his deal. But if you're the ducks, you're like, hey, remember when this guy was so good? You know?

Okay. Yeah. And can you find a GM who's like, well, I'm going to trade. I'm on the hot seat. I trade for John Gibson. He either goes back to the old John Gibson and I'm a genius or he doesn't and I'm getting fired anyways and I don't care about the contract because it's somebody else's problem. The other guy's, I mean, the kid is. Samsonov, I mean, the capitals are looking for a new goalie, so I don't see why anyone wants

they're probably looking for two new goalies. Yeah, yeah. Mackenzie Blackwood is, Mackenzie Blackwood is one of those like, this is how quickly things can change because a year ago he was in the mix for Canadian Olympic team and now he seems like he's a bum. Varlamov is interesting. I do think we all kind of looked at that and said that, you know, the Islanders would move on at some point in that contract.

He's not, the contract isn't awful right now because it's only a year left. But, you know, again, does somebody want to put him in goal as a starter? Probably not. And James Reimer, hey, he's a solid B goalie, which is not a bad thing to be. be in the league and yeah for sure probably be that wherever he goes

yeah um Rimer like a scosh above average in goals saved above expected last year same is true of varlamov honestly

but as you say 48 games for Rimer 31 for Varlamov like don't count on these guys to be your starters basically um

yeah it'll be really interesting especially because the sharks have three goalies. They have Rimer, they have Hill, and don't forget they traded for Capo Cochanan at the deadline. But do they, so, yeah. They have three guys listed as gold. Well, they have three guys on the books for next year.

Let's put it that way. And so I think Cochmaninan is interesting. I think he could be a goodish goalie, honestly. like maybe not for the San Jose Sharks, but like I think, I think he's a bit of a player. And Aiden Hill, not so much. But if you're going to trade one of them,

you trade the older guy who's good and you keep the younger guy who's good. Makes perfect sense. Because no one wants Aiden Hill, basically. Although if the Capitol's called, boy, do I have a goalie for you. The name's Aiden Hill. So yeah, that's

That's most of the big names on the list I guess it's interesting that the flyers Are maybe thinking about trading Van Riemsdyke Again, who's taking that contract? I don't know, but somebody might Yeah, we'll see Like I say, it'll be a very interesting week. And then there's always some guys

That you're not even expecting that get moved Which is the fun part two And it'll all happen the second we finish two hours two hours before you even downloaded this also while we were talking about that Mikhail Surgich have announced

he has changed agents and his current deal expires next summer he is late and this is Chris Johnson speaking he's likely to sign an extension with TBL in the coming weeks so that'll be interesting too because yep never a great sign when somebody switches agents

but nope. We'll see. But if they're saying he's going to sign an extension in the next week or two, boy. That's crazy. Anyway,

thanks for listening, everyone. Thanks for subscribing to the podcast and the Patreon and all that kind of stuff. Again, apologies for not doing like a regular Wednesday episode, but, you know,

circumstances. It's not up to us. Look, do I want to be? the draft would be on Thursday? No, I don't. Give me the Friday-Saturday combo. That's the sweet spot for me. But, hey, I can't complain too much. I guess it doesn't really matter. Sean, plugs. You can find me on the athletic. I will be, I'm heading to Montreal tomorrow. I will be doing live draft blogs for both Thursday night and Friday from the Bell Center.

Oh, Friday, it'll be a fun one. In the sixth round, the New York Ranger select this guy from the USHL that I've never heard of. You have, well, I mean, that's also going to be mid-first one. Sure. But yeah, it'll be, it should be a fun week, and I've got some draft related stuff coming later in the week, and Ian Mendez and I will be doing our show. In person. I was going to say live, not live, but in person.

Live to tape. So we may have some people jump in and join us. Who knows? One of them? A fun week. Listen on Thursday morning and see if you can tell, compare it to this morning's podcast and see if you can tell how hungover I am on Thursday. I'm going to say you sound pretty hungover today.

So it's going to be a tough one to beat. This is my baseline. So this is the test group. And, yeah. Oh, boy, oh, boy. My plugs, as I mentioned, I was, I wrote what we learned yesterday. It published mere minutes ago as we're recording this. And it's about the stuff we talked about with the sharks.

I don't understand what the hell they're doing. It's crazy. Anyway, yeah, I will also be doing, like, draft coverage. Obviously, I'm going to leave the, like, draft stuff to the experts at elite prospects, who have heard of every single player in the USHL and be. They have some takes on the NAHL3 that you're going to love to hear. But I will be doing all the trade reactions and stuff like that throughout the next few days. And then let's see, what else?

What else? Oh, the draft guide, of course. Now is your chance. You want to learn all about all those guys we were just talking about that you've never heard of. You will have heard of them if you download the Elite Prospects draft guide. it's comprehensive folks. I don't know how else to put it. And if you want to sign up for that,

the code I Love EP on an annual subscription will get you, our loyal listeners, an extra three months tacked on to the end. So it's 15 months for the price of 12. Can't beat that. And then, yeah, the PuckSoup Patreon. Patreon.com slash Puck Soup. We did a bonus episode last week

where we retired one number for every single team in the league, except Seattle and Vegas, because they don't have any players' numbers retired, and we retired a different number instead. So check that out, and then we're going to record the mailbag in like two minutes here. So check that out as well. Thanks for listening. Enjoy the draft.

Enjoy the trades. And we'll be back next week to talk about all the bad decisions everybody made. Bye bye. Bye-bye.