Puck Soup - Together At Last

Episode Date: June 29, 2023

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But 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 McAnneux from The Athletic. And we're in Sean's hotel room in Nashville, Tennessee, home of the 2023. NHL draft. That's right. Not my hotel itself, but my hotel is the home of the San Jose

Sharks of the... Wow. So that's exciting. You know, I was in the bathroom at the draft, I was going out, Patrick Marlowe was coming in. So there you go. Pretty exciting. Okay. Pretty exciting. We got eyes all over you, San Jose. That's right. Um, so what's up? How's Nashville going for you? Yeah, Nashville is, it's been fun. It's, I don't know, I think all the old people are sort of all Nashvilleed out. I think the young people are excited. We still got one more night.

Most people go back on Friday. So the young people are looking forward to a fun night tonight. And the old people are trying to make sure we don't wind up at Tootsie's again. I cannot imagine wanting to go back to that. I refuse. Oh my God, horrible. So we, Sean got in on Tuesday. I got in like halfway through the award show.

My plane landed. They'd already given out like three awards. And so, yeah, like people were like, oh, we're going to Tootsies. We're going to Toot's. Okay, sure. And well, first we went to this place, The Stage, and they had a truly awful cover band doing the worst songs you can imagine. including Weezer's Beverly Hills, like a country-fied version of Weezer's Beverly Hills. P-U, it stinks.

And then we went to Tootsie's, and it was like worse somehow. Yeah. Because the stage didn't have a lot of people there, at least. Yeah. Nashville, man, this is like a, I'm sure. Look, I'm sure there's somebody listening to this who's from Nashville who's like, yeah, you guys went to like the touristy block. And you're complaining it was too. too packed and crowded.

We've found some kind of more hidden gems along the way that I've appreciated it. So overall, it was fun. We got stuck in the arena today because it absolutely poured rain. It's true. We were trying to leave. And nobody could get out of the arena except for St. Louis Blues coach Craig Barubei, who just kicked the door open and went for it. Well, he looked out, he was like, oh, wow, it's really coming down out there, huh?

And we were like, yeah, we can't even get a car to come pick us up right now. And he was like, okay. We just ran out into the rain, throwing haymakers. When you're not afraid of Bob Probert, you are not afraid of a little bit of rain. So he just... It was pouring and he was just like, whatever. So he was either, yeah, he either had some place he really wanted to be or he just wanted to get the hell out of the Bridgestone arena. And on that note, by the end of that draft, I was with Craig Barrowby on that 100%.

Okay. Okay, so let's get into the draft because you and I made the conscious decision, as I'm sure people have figured out, not to record on the usual Wednesday. Yeah. Because it was, we'd miss all the action. It's true. From the draft. And in hindsight, we should have just done it yesterday. Yeah.

Nothing happened. But if we didn't do it today, people would have been like, why are they going to break down the Josh Bailey buyout trade? That's right. Yeah, good point. Well, you got to break down the Josh Bailey buyout trade. Yeah. Man, that was a, look, it wasn't, it's not that it was a bad draft. We got the Conner-Ber-Dard pick.

Yep. We got a little bit of fun at the, at the very top, because we thought Fantilli would go two, and he goes three. And we had the Mitchcoff soap opera out of play out of where he'd go. Now, that ended, I mean, that was, that felt like a bit of a bust because we thought maybe teams would be trading in and trying to snipe each other on the pick and, you know, would he fall way too far? Was there maybe a smokescreen? Was he going to go in the top four? What would Montreal do?

And then it ended up being he just fell to seven, which kind of felt like one of the most likely outcomes. It's funny because I had heard every, like I had people telling me on on Tuesday night, like Wednesday morning, like watch the ducks. They might take Mitch Cove at two. And I was like, whoa, really? That's crazy. Yeah. And I had heard people being like, oh, he might drop out of the top 10.

And so for him to land at 7, like, I was telling people who asked, like, were you hearing on Mitchkov? And I was like, I've heard everywhere between 2 and 12. And 7 feels like it's right in the middle there. Yep. So we nailed it. So in theory, like at the time, you sort of went, okay, well, that was pretty boring. But there was a little more intrigue behind the scenes now, we think. Yeah.

Yeah, a couple of people have reported, including people who told me directly, that Mitchkov, and now that, like, even the flyers have said, like, yeah, this is what happened. So Mitchkov, when he got to the United States a few days ago, his first stop was Philadelphia to meet with the flyers at their practice ring. And apparently everything went really well. But they, according to Danny Bererer, when he was talking to the media, they fell in love with this kid. Like whatever he said really, yeah, worked. He, it's surprising, I guess, because he's, I mean, I was standing next to him for a minute on Wednesday night. And he's not, he's like about my size. And I'm not a big guy at all.

And it's like the flyers are going to make like a five nine guy. They couldn't figure out how to draft a former flyer. So. Yeah, that's right. But it's just, I mean, you, you know, you would have thought that. they'd be like a little more gun-shy about it, because he's only like 5-9 or whatever, but. But Danny Pereira is the GM, right?

That's a great point, yeah. I guess I guess the Flyers alumni, the famous Flyers alumni, they're just not holding that much influence anymore. Congratulations to Madhvi-Mitchcock, who now has a job for life. He is a Philadelphia Flyer forever. Yeah.

So I'm obviously not plugged in on any of this stuff. I kind of had them penciled in for Washington. Yeah, I think everyone. And I think a lot of us sort of, and, you know, in hindsight, I mean, there was the Ovechkin connection and that sort of thing. But maybe it was actually Philadelphia all along. I'd always heard Philly or Washington. Okay. And so, but like what's interesting is, you know,

obviously Badaard's going to go one and maybe you would have said Fantilli Carlson are the next two but still you know a few other teams had to pass on them and like we're not talking about Connor Baderd right now or Fantelli or Carlson

because like everybody just took those as a given. Yeah well we've been talking about Conor Bacard for better part of a year but my point is for a while there up until eight, nine months ago. We were doing the same thing about Mitchcock. It was always the Badaard Mitchcock draft. And then it just, because of everything going on in Russia and Ukraine, obviously.

But like, you know, a bunch of NHL teams pulled their scouts out of Russia, or at least most of them, like if they had more than one. But the Flyers kept a guy in Russia and had pretty good eyes on Mitchcove basically all season. So. So if we run it down on the teams that passed on, I mean, again, I mean, it's, Connor Bedard, we've been talking about him for so long that, and we all knew where he was going as soon as the lottery happened. So sort of feels like that's done. You being the elite prospects guy, walk me through Fantilli not going to, because that had felt like a lock for a long time.

I guess that came down. Like, because it was always like, if it's Mitchkov, Bedard, then it's Carlson, Fantilli. Like, you know, basically it comes down to preference a little. Well, obviously there's a bigger gap between Bedard and Mitchcov. But, like, I think, I think Fantilli Carlson just came down to preference. And then the ducks go Carlson. Yeah. The blue jackets pretty much sprint up and take Fantilli.

Why not? Yeah. Yeah. And then San Jose, there'd been a little bit of Mitchcoff talk, but that always felt like they were just going to, there were the four non-Michikov picks at the top of the draft that felt safe. Like, they felt like top and prospects. No one's going to beat you up for taking them.

So San Jose takes Will Smith, who walks up to the stage to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Do you think he's ever gotten that before? Yeah, no, I probably had never. occurred to him like that's the what's the uh guy it sounds so old here but the uh uh the old body python sketch with the guy's mr smokes too much and the guy goes oh you better cut back and he says what he explains the joke and goes oh yeah that had never occurred to me that's will smith going like yeah no that definitely that tv show from 10 years before i was born is uh uh really well i guess

what you might not understand is that they rebooted the show is like a drama on peacock So it's actually more relevant than it's ever been. More relevant than ever. But yeah, so they take him and then Montreal goes Ryanbacker. That's where it's, it gets interesting to me. Because that felt like the first pick where you really felt like we were in the Mitchcove zone. Totally. And Montreal is a team that they're rebuilding, and they've certainly got some talent.

but who's their top end talent? I had somebody... Well, I mean, they got a number one center. Everybody knows that. I had somebody who works for an NHL team kind of just make the comment that if, you know, if Nick Suzuki and Cole Cofield are your two best players, do you have enough of a high end to really compete?

And we'll see. Those guys are still... I think you don't. Personally. Yeah. But Mitch Cobb would have. really felt like that guy, but maybe doesn't fit with the timeline. So my feeling is that there's a lot of Montreal fans that are disappointed because instead

of getting the ultimate high ceiling guy that you're ever going to have available at a number five pick because of the circumstances, they take a guy who has been generally sort of described as a high floor, safe pick, is the number one defenseman who goes in the draft, and most years you'd be happy for that. But it feels like a little bit of drafting based on position, a little bit of drafting based on not wanting to swing and miss when that means that you're just trying to punch the ball over the infield

and not put it in the upper deck. Yeah. And that's not, The time to do to play it safe and just try to manufacture a run if we want to continue the baseball analogy. It's, that's not the time for Montreal, right? Like, that's when you got, that's when you have a Mitchcove or a, or a fantilia or whoever, in your system already. And then you can be like, okay, let's just lay down a bunt here. Not even a bunt.

Like, let's just choke up on the bat, make contact, hit it where they ain't. So that one, it didn't feel like a surprise, because. Because you never know around the draft what is going out as a smokescreen. But Montreal had done just about everything short of hang a big sign at their draft table. It said, we're not taking Michko. I mean, they had put that message out through various channels. And yet just kind of wound up. Again, it feels like a bit of a disappointment.

Again, you get the number one defenseman on most draft boards. And they've got the potential for a nice young blue line coming along there. So it's not like they've reached for somebody or went off the board or anything like that, but they did play it a little bit safe. And then you come to Arizona at 6, which is the weird situation where depending on how you look at it, you could say this is a team that they can't afford to wait three years for somebody. They're trying to get an arena built. They're trying to be something now.

And then the other thing, you could look at it and say it's exactly the opposite. What's the rush? That's how I saw it for three more years. Minimum. Playing in the Mollett Arena for at least two of those, have the guy over there. And then whether it's in Arizona or wherever, you finally make your home, you've got this star ready to show up. But no, they instead go to Russia, but not for Mischka. Somebody last night made the...

the very interesting point that with two picks in the top 12 or 30, yeah, they picked 12. They took two Russian guys, neither of whom was Matt Bay Michigov. Yeah. Crazy. And, you know, again, not to belabor the point, but the other piece here that surprises me a little bit. Because, again, Montreal had been pretty open about this is, Mitchcock wasn't going to be their guy. I feel like the tea leaves had said that Arizona wasn't going to take him. was nobody picking up the phone saying we want to jump in ahead of Philadelphia and Washington?

Because it always felt unlikely he'd make it past those two. Was would a, you know, a Detroit. St. Louis that has all this draft capital were any of them interested in? And as with any of these sorts of things, we'll never know whether those conversations happened, whether anything came close or whether teams are just not picking up the phone. owner saying, you know, I'm not interested. I think that's probably, you know, based on what we know now, I bet that's exactly what happened with the Flyers, right?

Where teams maybe were trying to get into that seventh spot to get ahead of Washington. And the Flyers were like, right, but we're taking Mitchcock. Right. In which case, I mean, then you, they'd call up Arizona, you'd think. But yeah. Oh, sure, yeah. And Danny Breyer even made reference to the fact that he did explore trading up to make sure he got Mitchcock.

Right. Presumably would be five or six. seven or sort of five or six but that the price was too high so at the end of the day which is funny because montreal's like got to get ryanbacker bro i couldn't possibly trade down two spots yeah exactly you could have though yeah so end of the day uh we get a first round with no trades at all we won't go through every every pick of the the first round in fact if if you had flipped off your tv when the mitchcock pick happened you didn't really miss no all that much else the rest of the way.

Yeah, you'd have to be a true draft sicko to be like, I can't believe this guy's dropping. And even then, there were like, there weren't, I guess Gabriel Perot would be the one guy who felt like kind of draft. But, I mean, he dropped maybe 10 spots. Yeah. This wasn't somebody who dropped out of the first round. Right.

And I'll take the blame for this one because we were, there was a group of us sitting around talking about how nothing all that interesting was happening. And I said, man, nobody's even reached for somebody. Like everybody was going like five picks away. And then the Leafs were the one team to reach for a guy who was more, it seemed to be more of a second or even third round pick on most of the league. What did you guys have Easton Cowan?

That's a great question. Let me look really quickly. I don't have the full. It's crazy because like any time a draft pick was made, someone would instantly be like, he was our 24. Like we had him dead on. Like we had him at 14. it's crazy.

We had him 66th. Okay. The consensus across all the ones we look at and like kind of aggregate was 70 and it looks like the highest one was Craig Button had him at 34. Okay.

So nobody had him as high as the Leafs. Nobody had him in the first round. And the Leafs are in a situation where they don't have any other picks until rounds five and six. So it's not like, you know, if he's your case, guy, it's not like, well, you could get them in the second round.

They don't have a pick in the second round. Now, could they trade down? There was apparently, I wasn't down on the draft floor when the Leafs pick, but apparently there was a ton of action around their table and people picking up phones and all that. No way to know if that was them calling to try to move down or if that was other teams calling them. But I don't know, pretty dicey pick for the Leafs. But then Kevin McGrand tweeted out the picture of a very young Easton-Easton at a Leafs game. standing in front of Mitch Marner, which feels impossible. Like, it's, that's like, you know, the pyramids are closer to the woolly mammoths.

Yeah, totally. It doesn't feel like that you could be a small child who saw Mitch Marner play for the Leafs and then it was, but. It was like when Jack Eichol said he grew up watching Johnny Godrow and I'm like, isn't he like four years older than you, dog? Like, what are you talking about? That's it. But, yeah, I mean, the joke I made when the Leafs made that pick and I was,

I said, you know, that's why Bradshaw living left behind such a great farm system in Calgary, right? Like, come on. Talk me. This is you're supposed to. There were lots of people all of a sudden saying nice things about this kid, but. That's how it always is, right? That is how it always is. So we'll see on that.

I guess the other thing we should talk about just on those early picks, we talked about somebody moving up for Mitchka or whatever. There had been a lot of late buzz that the predators were trying to jump up. And they had the two picks in the first. they obviously they're hosting the draft so you know if there was a chance to make an impact and and it's again starting in that san jose montreal Arizona zone yeah the the the rumor was that they were gunning for the five by offering i think the 15 in escarov the their age l goalie it's a pretty good offer right i mean that's is he still considered that he was the the goaltender was it a couple years ago went something like he was 11th overall yeah

He's still trending He had a good season But he if I'm remembering right Didn't get a ton of Playing time in the playoffs And there's some question about whether like he can Be good very consistently He's also quite young obviously

But whether he can be good consistently Like over the course of a full season Or if he's more of like a 1A 1B guy And at that point Do you not say Like sell high He had a good season and the HL as a rookie.

It's interesting, but again, Montreal is like, we got to kind of take a weird swing at Ryanbacker. So nothing happens in the first round as far as trades, which leads a few of us to say, oh, you know, day two might really be something. Nope. Nope. Not really.

Yeah. A few happened within the first, like, 45 minutes of day two. Yeah. And I was like, oh, it is, okay, we're going to actually have something talk about. For people who aren't familiar or aware, I guess is a better word. My job this week was to be the trade analysis guy. When a trade happened at the draft, I was supposed to be the guy churning out like four or

500 words on it. There were, I think, three trades at the draft. None of them on the first night. And none of them after like the middle of the third round, I believe. It might have even been the second. Did you break down the New Jersey news? Nashville, seventh round draft pick trades. You know, I get David Boyle, a standing ovation.

I thought that was nice because Tom Fitzgerald was the first captain of the Predators, as was pointing out. Okay, that's cute. That's nice. But no, I was not involved in, like, it had to be like an NHL player involved in the trade for me to be. Because, you know, I'm sure some teams, like, moved like the 72 to drop down to 98 and 112 or whatever. There didn't seem to be that many. No, there really weren't.

If people, if you watch the draft, but you're not up. plugged-in-insider, like we are odd. David Poil's retiring. I don't know if that was mentioned at all. Might have come up. By anybody on Wednesday night. Yeah. One last thing on the draft.

Bedard and Oliver Moore. Oliver Moore is kind of like the... Anything could happen, but people like his ceiling a lot, and he's very fast. And it's like if they have Bedard and who's their other, like, good, prospect. I can't remember.

Maybe they've got a few guys. But guys who can move very quickly and aren't that big, that could, you know, is that like the future of the NHL as like smaller? Everybody really seems to like, you know, I mean, it sounds obvious to say people like what Chicago did, but when you get Connor Bedard. But even beyond that, I think everybody kind of liked where they were going with a lot of what they did. Yeah.

And it was freaking Kyle for freaking. Chicago That was You know what People obviously have seen the clip by now I imagine where He got stopped Every reporter you follow

Retweeted it with the crying laughing emoji That's right Yeah So Kyle Davidson gets stopped for a man in the street But is not recognized And I got to say I would A I would not recognize

Kyle Davidson And B I would definitely not Think this young guy in a ball cap Walking down the street Is an NHL GM So I'm not not making too much fun of the site that did that because it would 100% have been me.

Yeah. You know, I say this all the time about hockey players especially. They dress like NPCs and the Sims. Yeah. You know? So, like, it's funny, being at Tootsies on whatever Monday or Tuesday night and just looking around, it must have been Monday, and just looking around and going, works for a team, works for a team, media guy, media guy, works for a team, works for a team.

Yeah. Bill Garrett. Former player. Like, and yeah, I mean, it was a truly star-studded cast. Like half the people from front offices in the league were at Tootsies on the roof deck on Monday night with all of us dwebes in the media. Yeah. And we're all just shooting the shit or whatever. But.

I do got to say on the Kyle Davidson thing, everyone's, you know, because at no point does he say, like, you know, I'm the GM of the black guy. He plays along. Yes. And everyone's like, oh, that was so great. He was so funny. Yeah, except at the end, they ask him, do you think that the NHL rigged the lottery so that the Blackhawks would want? And he just says no.

I mean, if you're going to be funny, throw something at us. Just being, you know, hey, yeah. So here's the thing. He turned to the camera and he was like, I don't think that. You know, like, and the way, like, he gave a wry smile. He gave a fleabag style take to camera. camera. All right.

I'll give them that. Yeah. But it's really funny that nothing happened to the draft because what did, the insiders lied to us. Let's just be honest. They lied. They said, oh, this is going to be a crazy week. Damn, this is going to be crazy.

Got my hopes up. Yeah. Nothing happened. I don't know if, I don't think I'm more disappointed than Alex to Brinkett, but I'm probably close. Yeah. Okay. Let's, let's move on to a few of.

the the transactions. And let's start with Colorado. They were quite busy in addition to drafting Connor Bidard. Made reference to the Josh Bailey thing. People are like, why would they trade for Josh Bailey only to buy them out? They have all this cap room. It's like, well, now it costs the money next year too. Like, do we not see the wheels turning on this one?

I don't. Yeah, I guess, yeah, that makes sense. Spread it out. And also, Josh Bailey is washed, done, cooked. Yep. Right. And this works out probably better for him, too, because... He doesn't have to play for Chicago.

He doesn't have to play for Chicago. He gets to be a free agent. He'll presumably get a contract somewhere. So, yeah, I mean, this is... The story of the week, or one of them, was how tough it is to move money. Yep. This is another example. Although, I guess, based on some of the recent precedent,

giving up a second round pick to move out, what was it, $5 million? left on one year. And a second one, I picked like three years from now, too. Well, yeah, that was kind of strange, too. Somebody pointed out, like, it's funny to put it in these terms. They traded a ninth grader. Yeah. Yeah.

That sounds like that works. But yeah, let's get to some other deals. Obviously, Chicago traded for Taylor Hall. And the rights to Nick Folino immediately gave Nick Folino four million bucks for one year. Which is too much for Nick Felino, but also... They got to get to the floor, baby. They got to get to the floor. They got to put a roster together.

They got to have a few people around Connor Bedard to teach him what being in the NHL is like, so I don't hate that at all. No, yeah. And it's funny. One of the things... The Flyers' second pick was Radick Bonks kid in the first round. And one of the things that I was told was that they really are going to go for guys who's like dads or pro players or something and stuff like that.

But not for the reason that you just rolled your eyes at. More for the reason of like they've been around the NHL. They've had a guy telling them basically from birth what it takes to be in the NHL and not in a way that it's like, you know, a fucking coach is like, yeah, I spent two hours with this kid a week or whatever. These are all miserable kids who have had no childhood. Right. They didn't get to play or have toys.

they just have been in the on the terrain to the NHL. Well, I mean, if that's their philosophy, I have good news for them about 80% of the draft eligible prospects because there are, man, it is depressing to see some of the people. And the fact that I don't know why Yanuk Perrault's kids being in the draft is bothering me as much as it does.

It's the passage of time, man. Yeah. That's really, like you said, thing with the kid looking like at Mitch Marner and he's like 12 years old or whatever. You're like, well, this shouldn't be. Yeah. You know? Isn't Mitch Marner like 12 years old?

Like, I totally get it. Anyway, I like the Taylor Hall pickup for them. You get someone who can, who's played first line minutes plenty in his career. Very versatile. Like, he can move up and down the lineup, depending on who else they go and get this summer. And they obviously have the flexibility to go get just about anybody they want. And what a great guy to have around Connor Bedard because you talked about... Who's played with more first round picks?

He's played with more first round picks. And who as a first round pick has covered the spectrum... First overall, sorry. First overall. Covered the spectrum of... Taylor Hall has been... He was picked first overall. He's been the disappointment.

He's been the star. He's been the guy who got traded away. He's been the MVP. He's been back to like now he's the journeyman. Yeah. He's kind of done it all. He's been on shitty teams. He's been on the...

best team in the history of the regular season. Yep. So, and, you know, if you're Chicago, it's with Felino as well. If it works out well, you can trade these guys for actual assets. And if it doesn't work out well, for most teams, you'd say, you know, I'm worried about the cap hit or this or that. But again, it's Chicago. They've got, that is the beauty of having nothing on the cap to worry about. You can afford to take a few gambles.

So, yeah, nice work there by Kyle from Chicago. Absolutely. Riley Smith traded to, I didn't write down the team that traded for. It was Pittsburgh, that's right. And then they give Barbashev his exact cap hit. The Golden Knights are such a cutthroat organization. It rocks. On my other show that we recorded this morning where we got Jesse Granger, he's the Vegas guy,

and he was just talking about how it is, I mean, they do not let any personal feelings go. I mean, we just finished winning the cup, celebrating the misfits, the original misfits. Riley Smith gets the first cup handoff because he is that important to this franchise. Then they wheeled a fucking catapult out of the bottom of the basement of the building and launched him out of the city limits. And launch him out. You know, it's not like we just don't have a room and somebody's got to go. It was like, no, we just like this guy that showed up two months ago better than you now. So. Yes, right.

And quite possibly rightly so. but that is there's a lot of teams that wouldn't do that and the the way I described it on on the other show this morning is it the Golden Knights approach their their roster construction like it's a video game yep like you're just you're you're you're in on everything there's no loyalty there's no long-term oh you know I've had this guy you just do it anything if this guy's two percent better than that guy then you make the switch you make that move and obviously as they're saying, it works. Yeah.

It has worked for them. And, you know, Barberyshev, like, it's interesting because the way he played once he got to Vegas, and especially in the playoffs, he was a fucking murderer in the playoffs. But the way he played in the playoffs and the chemistry he had with Jack Eichel or whatever you want to say is like undeniable, right? And so if you give that player $5 million, that might be a bargain. Yeah. But you have the entire rest of his career before that. We're a really perfectly good player, but he's not a $5 million.

So you really have to buy into this idea that Vegas was the perfect fit for him to unlock things. Which might be true. And you know what? If it's not, Vegas will ship his ass out too. He will be gone and somebody else will be in. So, yeah, I mean, it's, it is just, it's brutal the way Vegas is. Vegas does business. I mean,

ever since the Mark Ander-Fleurie thing, nobody can be surprised at anything that's happening there. And, I mean, it's got, it's got to be a little tough on fans to see a fan favorite like that. But again, you just won the Stanley Cup,

but you're, you're, now's the time to make the things that fans would otherwise make the moves. I don't think anyone's, yeah, no one's going on like Vegas sports radio, calling for Kelly McCrimand to be fired.

That's exactly right. Canceling by season tickets. Oh, okay. Sure. We'll call one of the 10,000 people on the waiting list right after you. Yeah. Now, here's an interesting thing with Vegas. I think it was Monday.

Elliot Friedman was like Aden Hill is going to get two years, $4.9 million. And then like nothing happened. Yeah. And, you know, I think McPhee was on, like, the broadcast during the draft today. And he was like, obviously we re-signed Barbushab. We're working on it with Aiden Hill. And it's like, where did this report come from? Like, was it a done deal and then it wasn't?

Yeah, especially since it sounds like it's going to be a two-year deal, like not, nothing super complicated. It still sounds like it's going to happen, but maybe it was just. I just wondered if that, that much, because like when they said 4.9 million, I was like, for the guy that was their fourth string goalie, right? Like, because that's, that's the crazy part. Like, yeah, he won you a Stanley Cup. But him winning the Stanley Cup is proof you don't need to give him 4.9 million. Yeah. pick up anybody walking down the street with a pair of goalie pads in Toronto

and you're gonna get a 9-10 save percentage out of him. That guy made himself a lot of money. He sure did. Between the end of the first round and today. Yeah, again, he didn't even start for them. Didn't play at all. I don't think of the first round. Like didn't start for the, yeah.

Wow. But yeah, I would be not giving that guy $4.9 million if I was them. Again, as much as much as, as much as, is he was phenomenal. It's like, you're the cutthroat team. You don't give the goalie who played three great rounds for you, $4.9 million. You're right.

It feels like a loyalty play that you wouldn't think it's in nature. Unless you think Lainer's not coming back. That's the only thing I can think of. Yeah. And it does, maybe that's the sign. Because he makes five. Yep. Yeah, it works.

That's the only, yeah. But they'll be interesting. to keep an eye on. We, okay, yeah, let's just do the run of,

uh, of New Jersey moves here. They extend Tim O'Meyer, 8.8 over eight years. Um, I saw people losing their minds about this, felt like just about fair value. Maybe they saved 200 grand.

Yeah. Eight year deals are always, if, if they're not for, you know, A guy just entering his prime. Obviously, you can get Jack Hughes for eight years. You do it.

And they did it. And they did it. And this is the payoff to that. Because now they've got all this extra cap room because they manage their guys coming off. Well, I mean, yeah, I guess guys plural. Because high shooter, you would say the same thing. Yeah, he only makes like six and change, right? Yeah, I think it's more than, I think it's seven something.

But it's, you know, reasonable. Yeah. They're not unlike some. teams I could mention, they're not blowing their brains out on their guys going into second contract, so it buys you a lot of room to make moves like this. So I didn't, I mean, I like the signing fine. Seven and a quarter for a future, yeah. Okay. Like I like the signing fine. I didn't feel like it was some huge bargain, but it was also, it always felt like when they made the big move at the deadline, that this was coming. Sure. So, you know, that this wasn't just going to be a

rental from San Jose and now it's now it's not yep and i think we talked about the bratt contract last week so i so instead we'll talk about uh they traded yeager sharongovich uh who was a pending rfa to calgary for tyler to foley and i think there was a third uh they threw in a third round pick the devils as well um and like even if you think sharon govich is pretty good which i'm not convinced of that. To Foley is such a clear upgrade and obviously he's only a year away from UFA and he's going to want to make a shitload of money so maybe this is like kind of a pure one-year rental if you want to put it that way.

But yeah, they got Calgary's number one right wing for nothing. Right. And another- Basically, a guy they didn't want. Calgary guy that, I think Calgary wanted to keep but didn't want to be there. we're still waiting as of now on Noah Hannafin and Elias Lindholm. We don't know that situation. So a lot of pieces still in Calgary, but this is another one moving on the way out. Yep.

And then they traded Mackenzie Blackwood for a sixth round pick. Not surprising. No. But I do not. I'm willing to now say I don't think McKenzie Blackwood is starting for Team Canada in the next Olympics. I think. Well, if the NHL doesn't go back, he has a really good chance. That is true.

Well, yeah, we may have been premature on that one. So, yeah. Man, the devils look really good for next year. They don't have a lot left to do, obviously. And apparently they're perfectly comfortable to enter the season with the goaltending of Akira Schmidt. Who's their other guy? Uh-oh.

The double V. VJECV. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I forgot about him. Yeah. And lots of talk as far as just pure rumor mill stuff about them potentially being in on Hellebuck. Yeah.

They got a couple RFAs to sign and $10 million. So like. Not a lot of cap room. Right. You never say never, but it's some pieces would have to move. Yeah. If the jets want back a certain. double V goalie.

You know? Yes. Maybe that can... Maybe that's the hold-up. It's... Shake up some money. No, that guy. Come on.

You know. He was on the capitals. He kind of sucked. And you're like, the guy on the Leafs? No, no, no. Not him. The other one. But yeah, they look so good for next year.

Man, oh, man. They're going to really, they're going to be really like... Yeah, they're at the end of the season, like just showing up. And, you know, speaking. of showing up Sean. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's right. I didn't know we were doing this.

Yeah, I thought, oh, this is exciting. I thought this would be fun, right? Just going back old school, all this kind of stuff. You want to show up to the event that you want to go to, right? You want to go to a game? You want to go to a concert? I sure do, but how? How do I do it, Ryan?

I guess what you would do is go to game time. Now, this is a... Tell me more. Okay. This is a company. They're offering you last-minute tickets and really good deals on, too. Okay? Because they believe buying tickets to your favorite events shouldn't be stressful.

Have to agree with that. I agree with that, yeah. Impossible to disagree. And that's why GameTime has made themselves the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater near you. With killer deals on last-minute tickets and their best price guarantee, you can stop stressing over the tickets and start. Start getting hyped for all the fun you'll have.

Now I have to pull up the GameTime app right here. And let's see. What do we got? See, like, because usually I'm reading. I'm looking at it right here. Okay, what do we got? On my phone. And I'm looking to see, oh, wow, look at all these bands I haven't heard of.

And that's not a knock on the bands. That's a knock on me. But Blackberry Smoke. Yeah, that's not. I'm not. A Venge sevenfold. I heard of them. Yeah.

Do we know them? They're coming to the Canadian Tire Center. I'm in. I'm absolutely in Rod Stewart. Heard of him? Yeah. You ever hear the faces? Yeah. Now that's a great band. Good old Peter Gabriel. And I've already got my Smashing Pumpkins tickets, so... Don't tell Greg.

Don't let anybody ever tell you that Ottawa doesn't have a thriving concert scene. But yeah. Now, Sean, if you would buy your Smashing Pumpkins tickets on the Game Time app, you know what you could have gotten? Tell me. Flash deals and last minute tickets. Easy to find and buy tickets for every kind of event in your area. Okay. Now, you go in there, you're like, oh, where am I sitting? I don't know what these seats are like for the...

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Download game time today. Last minute tickets. Lowest price, guaranteed. So, next trade here. Colorado gives up on Alex Newhook. They get a late first and an early second forum. Then they flip that second to Tampa for Ross Colton. Yep.

And this is a few days after they got Ryan Johansson at 50% retained. for basically nothing. For, yeah, nothing at all. Nice work. Really nice. A smart team. I mean, I don't know how else to put it. So the new hook deal, I don't know, did they give up on him or is it?

So here, I think that last year was his chance to show he could be a number two center. And J.T. Confer was their number two center instead. They're not going to be able to afford J.T. Confer because he had a nice season. Yeah. So they go out and they get Ryan Johansson, who didn't have a great season, but certainly seems to have a higher floor than... It was very good a year ago. Yeah. After a lot of us had written them off as being kind of done as an impact player.

I mean, that deal was interesting more so just for... I don't know that we've... Have we ever seen a 50% retention with nothing going back on a player of any sort of... Yeah, I guess that's the question is like. Like, how low down the depth chart does a guy like that need to be? Ryan Johansson feels like he's certainly the highest of what you're describing. I mean, if you're in Nashville and you're trying to get rid. I mean, this is the most you can do to get rid of a guy.

A hundred percent. Short of taking back even worse contracts. You know, they do a 50 percent retention. So, yeah, nice, decent gamble for Colorado. like the deal they made with Montreal, especially when they turn around and then flip one of the picks to Tampa. I know that from a Montreal perspective, I had a few people mentioned.

The obvious comparison to what they're trying to do here is last year's Kirby Dog trade. Sure. Which is very similar and worked out. A lot of us said, I would say that a lot of us looked at it and said, based on what he's done in Chicago so far, he's not worth the price. They've got to be able to, I wouldn't say fix it, but they've got to be able to get him to

another level. And they generally did. I would call it a success for Montreal. And it kind of feels like they are going back to that card again, but maybe a little more aggressively slash recklessly than they were last year. Just because it worked last year doesn't necessarily. mean it works this time, unless you believe that you've figured out something organizationally that's going to help you get the most out of players in this situation.

Right. Yeah. But back to the new hook of it all is I think they, like I said, they were like, the second job is yours if you can beat out J.T. Comfer, and he didn't, right? And so they're like, okay, well, we can't just give him the job easily for nothing now. So they get Ryan Johansson. New Hook's a pending RFA, if I'm not mistaken, or maybe he has one year left. But it was just like, we'll just get Ryan Johansson and Ross Colton.

And if you want to look at it, like combine all the transactions into one deal. So I guess it's three trades. They gave up the rights to, oh shit, I just had this open and I forget already again. the rights to Galchaniuk Right Which is nothing Nothing

Um The Alex New Hook For For a first Ross Colton And Ryan Johansen At 50% return

Yeah Because the seconds Cancel up I mean that's The second Yeah That is a great bit of work

That's unbelievable Yeah That's unreal Now Do you know the hook on why Montreal though? No.

Guess who's agent Kent Johnson or not Kent Johnson, Kent Hughes. That's it. Yep, that helps. That's it. And that's how the entire league works. Yeah, that's it. It's, okay, so, so I mean

the charitable view of that for Montreal would be that no one's going to know the player better than they would. But yeah, familiar. Except maybe Colorado, huh? Except maybe Colorado who just... Yeah.

It was like we're actually... Very interested in not having this person. Yeah. Yeah. So, but yeah, what an upgrade for Colorado on that front. Really, really good. Another big... I guess this is like the closest thing to a blockbuster we had this week.

Yeah. Is Pierre-Luc Dubois does indeed get traded and extended 8 times 8.5 for Gabe Valardi, Alex Ayofalo, Rasmus Kupari, and a second round pick. Now,

your use, if I remember, right, you were not as impressed with this package for Winnipeg as some seem to be. I think this is

the king's selling a bit high on all of these guys, basically. Well, maybe not so much Kupari. But Valardi and Ayafalo both had really good

seasons and seasons that were, let's say, a little bit out of step with what they had been before that. And maybe you say some of that's, they're maturing. They're getting better deployment opportunities and all, maybe more power play time, that sort of thing. Very possible. But, you know, the example I often use is, who was it? Was it when Vancouver traded Cody Hodgson?

They were like, you're starting 90% of your. shifts in the offensive zone and you're not coming off the ice on any power plays for two months. And then they traded them and he immediately turned back. I think it was Cody Hodgson. It was one of those guys. You always want to boost the guy up. I don't know, though. I look at it as when it was made clear that the Jets were going to move this guy and that they didn't want to do it rebuild style.

They didn't want to do it first round picks and prospect. they wanted NHL players. Putting aside whether that's the right approach, if that's the criteria, this deal feels like as good as they possibly could get. Totally. A guy who's been at his peak, a 60-point player, a good 200-foot 60-point player,

but it's a 60-point guy who's already wanted out of two teams and needs now an eight-year deal, I thought the Jets did well on it and from an L.A. perspective I've written a bunch about the shiny new toys, right? When you acquire somebody in trade and then you got to sign them, those very often end up looking like mistakes.

And we're talking about can Montreal win with the top end talent that they have? Is Pierre-Luc Dubois and Philip Dainaut your future? I mean, you know, Coppita. is great. We all love that guy, but you're not going to be around forever. Is this really what you're going to build around at the top of your lineup? Not that they don't have other guys.

Yeah, like I think the hope would be Quentin Byfield steps into that. One of those two roles. It's a hope, yeah. Yeah. So like, I guess what I would say is people might be, based on everything I just said, is that I like Valardi and especially,

I have followed. Like, I really think they're good players. And I'm like, clearly, or certainly not as high on Dubois as say the Los Angeles Kings seem to be, right? Yeah. Like, I don't, I'm not, you just said he's a good 200 foot player. I'm not sure he's that good for 200 foot player. Yeah, you sort of, yeah.

I think, like, I think he's a competent defensive player and almost all of what he delivers to you in terms of, like, above average value. is offense. And again, 60 point. Yeah. And like 60 points, it doesn't sound like a lot. That's like a low end first line player. You know what I mean?

Like production wise, 60 points is good. How many first line spots are there in the NHL 96, right? So like, that's probably top 100 in scoring. 60ish points, probably. I would imagine it is. And for a youngish guy, but not so young that you're just. already building in future increases in production. So, yeah, it's, yeah, it's, I, I've heard more than once this week, people use the phrase,

I, I, I just don't see it with Pierluke de Blas. Same. Where the it is this guy being an elite, we want to go out and get this guy and build around him. Yep. Peace. Yeah, you don't build around, like, he is a really good second line center on a, good team. Maybe not even a great team, but a good team.

He's a great second line option. And is that worth $8.5 million for eight years? Today, no. Yeah. A year from now. As soon as we know, the cap's going up. We're going to go back to that being the explanation for every contract that seems high.

And we'll see. And maybe in the right set of circumstances, this guys never seem to be happy anywhere he was. Yep. Maybe if he is, he finds that extra level. The one last thing I want to say about this is even leaving aside differences in age, whatever that that might be, and positional value and all that kind of stuff, 10 times out of 10, I'd rather have Tim Omeyer at 8.8 than Pierre-Loup de Bois at 8.5.

Yep. It's that simple. Yep. I would agree with that. But are you surprised the Jets didn't do anything with Halebuck or anybody else? I think Conor Halibach is the most interesting player of the offseason because it's possible he is not traded. It is possible he gets traded in a blockbuster and the Jets get a windfall from some team

that is convinced that, hey, meet goalies almost never go on the trade market and you almost never get the opportunity to lock one down. It's possible that he gets traded in a very underwhelming return because of the Aden Hill factor. We just saw that you can win a Stanley Cup with Aden Hill as your goalie. So why would you go out and give up a ton of assets? And I'm just talking about the assets you give up to make the trade and then you got to sign them. Yeah. And again, shiny new toy.

You're, you've just traded for this guy. Now you've got to lock him in. Does he, is, does he want the seven year Vasilevsky style deal? And you have a guy at that. The rumor is he wants nine and a half million bucks too. That's not cheap. That's, that's not cheap.

For a guy who's going to be, I think, 31 or 32 when that deal starts. Yeah. That's crazy. And again, like, the term is key. Because if it's, if he wants that for shortish term, I, I'm, I, I, I mean, this guy's been an elite goaltender for years and years. We always hear that those guys are never, ever available, and now one is. And, hey, if you had had the chance to acquire Andre Vasileski a few years ago,

you, in hindsight, would have paid whatever it took for that kind of consistent goaltending. Yeah. But the age is different. I mean, I'm just, I really want to see where that goes. I have no idea what the market would be for gold. And if you're Kevin shoveled out, there's 31 other teams in the league. 29 of them can think that they can win with Aden Hill. You just need two of them to think they need an elite guy

and have them bid against each other and then you're all right. I'm just not even sure he's going to find those two. Yep. Quick sidebar on other guys who seem like they are going to be traded. The Calgary remaining trio of Lindholm. Hanifin and oh who's a backlin backlin yeah um i'm a i'm a little surprised we didn't see one more of those guys go this but you know uh this is the thing of like teams going well i can just get he's going to be a uf a year i'll just get him then and i won't give calgary a first

round pick for him or whatever yeah and you know almost uh Craig conray almost boxed himself into a bit of a corner i think with his comments about johnny grigreau and you I would never let that happen because now he's almost said if these guys don't want to resign, I have to trade them. And you never want the people you're negotiating to feel like you have to do this. So it does put him in a bit of a tough spot. And the other one, and there was some amount of conjecture that something might happen this weekend is Eric Carlson. I had heard Edmonton and I had heard Seattle this week. Seattle would be, man, that's interesting.

I wonder. Trade him in the division. I just wonder where he's thinking on that. Because he's been clear. I'm pretty sure he has no trade protection. Is it no move or? I think it's a full no move. So he's got to be on board with this.

Now, he has said he's willing to be traded. This isn't a situation where he's going to, he doesn't want to go anywhere. And he wants to go win. And it seems like from his comments, he's more or less not even just like willing to go. It's that he's like, get me out of here. It's time to go. Do you feel like Seattle offers you that? I don't, certainly. Yeah. So Edmonton obviously would. Man, I still, I still think that the time to do the deal was during last season. I think this is going to be a very tough move to have happened. I do, if Carlson wants to go,

So that puts a ton of pressure on the sharks to do it, obviously. Full no move, yeah. Full no move. I mean, they're going to have to eat significant salary to make this happen. And it's significant salary for four more years. So this is not a case where Mike Greer can say, you know what, I'm going to take a little bit less and just do a favor for Eric Carlson. You can't do that because you're locking in on such an expense.

I still wouldn't be shocked if he doesn't move. even though all the signs are pointing that way. That would be crazy. I think, well, now it's reminding me of the time that this guy Eric Carlson got traded to San Jose. Heard of them, yeah. Where it's like, it's got to happen before the draft. It didn't happen before the draft. It's got to happen sometime in the summer.

It didn't happen during the summer. It happened, I believe, the first day of training. Yeah, it was into September and there had been talk even the year before. And you know what? Maybe that's the good counter example because Ottawa kept waiting. They kept kicking the can down the road. And then they made a trade that at the time we all thought was very underwhelming. And in hindsight, it was brilliant.

I mean, they won that trade hands down by a mile. So speaking of Ottawa, I guess De Brinkett's the other one. Oh, yeah, right. Sure. We all thought was going to be moved by now. and Pyrradorian saying trying to now put the spin out there that he's that there is not pressure to get this done anytime soon. Yeah, he's like, I think he said we have up until the arbitration date. Yeah.

Which would be in August, I think. Yes, that's in August. And it, but it's still, I mean, technically, yes, that is, that's the deadline. But you've got to think July 1st is an inflection point because as soon as everyone starts. start spending the money. Yep. Who's got $9 million or whatever it ends up being for Alex DeBrenkitt. Totally.

Ready to go. The only other trade of note this week that I wrote down is Kevin Hayes at 50% retained to Seattle, or St. Louis, rather, for a sixth round picking. That's it. The big rumored trade involving 58 different players broke down because Torrey Krug was like, I don't want to play for the fucking flyers. Yeah. Who can blame him?

Torqueh doesn't waive the no trade. I don't want to play for John Tortorella. And people are like, what? Really? Let's see. I could go and play for a bad team with a miserable coach. Or I could stay in St. Louis, which will also probably not be a particularly good team. But at least I, like, own a house there and I've lived here for a few years.

As somebody would say, my stuff is all there. Yep. Yeah. I'm not. And it does sound like that deal is, is. Maybe not dead, but certainly the... Not going to... I mean, the fact that they went ahead and did the Hayes thing.

Yeah, we're weak for the Flyers, because they had the TOTI DeAngelo thing with Carolina as well. They got nuked, yeah. Apparently because the NHL objected to the fact that they had already sent him to Philadelphia. Yeah, Philadelphia was going to be retaining to send him back. Yeah, and you can't do that within a calendar year. So, like, I think... I think whatever, I don't remember the date off the top of my head.

Now, see, I thought it was the other way, though, that it was one year you can't retain. I can't retain on a player and send him to you and then have you send the guy back to me. But. No, I think it works both ways. Okay. Like, for example, say you're the Toronto Maple Leafs and I'm the Florida Panthers. And I'm like, I'll give you Sergey Brobrovsky. I'll eat half, or like, we need you to eat half his money.

And then send them back to us. And then send him back. Right. Okay. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Although it was, you know, Philadelphia signed the contract that he's under. So I get that there's, this feels like it's maybe not as precisely spelled out as you might think. But anyways, if that is the case, then they, in theory, could make that deal in a couple weeks, I believe.

Because that's one. Right. Yeah. I'm trying to look up now when that trade actually happened. It was July 8th, 2022. So on July 9th, I guess, they can go back on that, I guess, apparently. All right. So there you go.

It would not be a shock if that happened, although who knows? Who knows how things change between? Nope. Now and then. The only other thing that seems to be, like everybody's decided this is happening, which kind of makes. the Tory the Tory Krug thing

interesting too is Luchich is going back to Boston it seems like one year like a million 900 K something like that

and you know get the whole band back together because I don't know if you saw this but David Pasternak retweeted or

faved some Bruins fan going we should get Tori Krug back too so I love

a man I love any any hockey player liking a tweet becoming the basis for a story. But the Bruins are like, you know what? We just had the best regular season in history.

Let's get rid of a bunch of guys who helped us get there. And let's get back to the guys who were around when we kind of sucked a little bit. That'll fix everything. Yeah, I mean, like, I think this would be stupid from Austin to do. You could get a player who's better than Milan Lutechich for. You would think, also, I mean, for a million, Yeah, it doesn't matter.

You know you're going to get the most you can possibly get out of him. So, yeah, I don't know. If I was a Bruyad's fan, I think I'd be in on it. So who am I to say? All right, do you have any award stakes? Not really. I didn't even watch him. So I don't even have any thoughts on that.

By the time I got to the elite prospects, Airbnb, Jim Montgomery was walking to the stage. To give his touching speech about alcoholism that I guess was then followed by a pitch. Free beer for everyone. I'll say this. Yeah, I'll say this, by the way. A bunch of, not all the media members, but a lot of the media members got like a gift bag from

the predators. Yes. With people who were like, oh, there's a bottle of whiskey in there. And I'm thinking like one of the little like dollar at the liquor store ones. Yeah, Airplane ones. No, this is like a $60 bottle of Jack Daniels. And I tried it last night like once we got back to the house.

Pretty good. Pretty, pretty good. There was also like some New Amsterdam vodka in there. There was the official whatever of the national hockey. They know the media, man. Yep. They know the way. There was a wireless mouse.

there was a portable speaker. How did you get one of these? No, I just, this was just like two people. If people don't know, there's like, there's two classes of media. Yes. There's the ones who get to sit out in the arena, and then there's the ones that are shoved in like a cargo space. Where the internet kind of doesn't work, yeah.

Yeah, and the TVs don't work. And it's either freezing cold or 105 degrees. Yep. Yeah. But all the pretzels you can eat, so. Yeah, that's true. They had free free, uh, free, so, uh, that's right. We can't complain.

Um, except we just did. Yeah, that's right. Uh, but no, so like, uh, two, we, we had two people who got to go out in the arena and they brought back the bags. And I was, I was rifling through them. Um, and I was like, fuck, man, if I had, if I had, uh, checked a bag, you know, I'd be sitting pretty with this, with this whiskey. Yeah.

But I didn't check a bag. And so. I don't get to take the whiskey home. That's sad. Well, I guess the thing is, was it that much better than, like, a standard bottle of Maker's Mark? I wouldn't know. Oh, you're not a big whiskey guy? I'm not, I, you know, I'll have whiskey, I'll have scotch, anything like that, but I do not know what's good and what's not. I could tell the difference between this and a regular bottle of Jack Day.

Really? It was just a little less pointy in the, you know what I mean? Didn't burn as much as. That's right. But like Maker's Mark is just a little bit smoother than standard Jack Daniels, and I would say this was on par with that. All right. So there you go.

I do enjoy. I don't want to be like a bourbon guy. Was that another live ad read? Did you just? Yeah, no, that's right. We have a new sponsor and you just. If Maker's Mark wants to sponsor the show, you know, get in touch. All right.

I will take payment in the gift bags. Yeah. Though like one bottle of whiskey I go through per year. year as a fun 40 year old man. But yeah, the awards, like, whatever. Like, no real surprises. I wrote a call, like, because they were like, oh, you should write a column. And I get back and I was like, oh, I don't have any time to, like, I was planning to go to the awards.

And flight delays made it so that I couldn't. And so I was like, well, I guess I got to throw something together. And then as the awards were coming in, I was like, yeah, no shit, you know shit, you know shit. And I was like, oh, every single award, like if you would put a gun to my head and said, you have to get, you have to go eight for eight or whatever it was on the major awards, I, I would, they would have had to let me go on Monday night. It was, it was so predictable that we all had to pretend to be really mad at the one guy who didn't vote for Connor McDavid. Yeah. Because clearly, if 160 people vote on something and they don't all vote the exact same way, then the system is broken. Yeah.

needs to be. Now, I did run into Seth, who I've met a few times now at, at Tootsie's on Monday. And he, like the first thing he said to me was, before you ask, I was the guy who had McDavid-Fift. And I was like, really, eh? Like, that's, oh, okay. I wasn't going to ask. I assumed it was a Boston guy. Yeah.

Or I assumed it was. Okay, the three people I thought it could have been. Boston guy, obviously, because that ballot had passed for an act one. Calgary guy saying fuck McDavid. Or Toronto guy for the reason of like, yeah, but like, you know, he's not, he's not earning. Yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah. But what Seth said was like the classic thing Greg does sometimes, or it's like the definition of value to his team.

Okay, but then how does David Pasternak on the greatest race? What I said was, did you see what happened when he left the ice at five on five? Right? Like, that's... Yep. But, you know, I think, look, all of that shit is overblown. Like, look, I used to write an article that was like the 10 dumbest award votes. This would be number one on my list this year if I still wrote that article.

But there were... Dumber than Gord Miller getting his stalls mixed? up and throw in a selky vote to Eric Stahl of the Carolina Hurricane? Who sucks and it doesn't play there anymore? Yes, I would say that, that, that, that, the, because it's like intentionally, like, it's a vote where the guy was like, no, I meant to do something insanely stupid. Fair enough. And, like, I like, I like, Seth, but like, come on, man. Okay.

But, you know, like, J.T. Miller got a selfie vote. What are we fucking doing? You know what I mean? Like. Anybody can get a selfie vote. Selky. 100%. You just have to, like, backcheck once in a game that that voter watch.

And then you look back at the hockey reference page. You're like, oh, this guy was in the top 20 for Selkie voting one year. And then it's... Yeah. And it's like, oh, he had one game with two takeaways. And it's like, oh, great, perfect. He broke up a two-on-one or he lifted Connor McDavid's stick on Hockey Night in Canada. Take us home.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, you're the guy who has to do the plugs. Oh, yeah. Find me on The Athletic. I wrote a couple of things. My show with Ian and Jesse Granger's already probably out. You probably heard it before you heard this one. Yeah, we're recording this way late. Yeah. And but... Oh, she goes. Just find all my stuff. We have one of our semi-occational $1 a month offers. So jump in on that. get all the draft coverage,

plus all the free agent frenzy coverage that's coming up in the next few days. Oh boy, I'm already not looking forward to that. Not in your coverage, the fact that I have to

just set a computer. Pretend to care about where Michael Bunting winds up. He could go anywhere. Wow. He really could. Yeah, and then for me, I, as alluded to earlier,

wrote very little this week. Really earned my keep here in Nashville. But I did hop on a big Matt Bay Mitchkov take where I had real actual insider information that then, but before it published became public knowledge. And then you got scooped, yeah. I don't, hey, look, I'm not saying I'm good at being an insider. You know, I just occasionally get a scoop or two.

Yeah, you should have tweeted out that you were hearing something. Yeah, see, that's the thing. I save it for the takes. Yeah, I can't do that. Rookie mistake. my ass. Rookie mistake right there. Yeah, E.P.Rinkside.com. I love EP. I don't know that the draft guide code still works.

Try draft guide 2023, all one word, all capital letters. And you'll get 50% off an annual subscription. But, you know, now's the time to look at the draft guide. Your team just picked like eight, nine guys you've never fucking heard of. We have probably like three or four pages on every single one of a minimum. So check it all. Well, I don't want to say minimum. because like there's probably like a seventh round pick that we were like oh yeah he seems like he's good

or whatever the guy the leaps took has only got a pair of that's right that's right um and then patreon dot com slash pox soup we did a bonus episode yesterday with me and sean and the other Sean and gorp and we were all in one room for the first time ever in one or so if you ever wanted to hear all four of us talk in slightly different volumes uh that was that was fun people definitely seem to like that one yep I haven't listened to it but I don't know how good the audio is. I don't listen to podcasts. That's smart.

I will never know. And then, yeah, other than that, we got to probably go get bullied into going back out. So we're going to go do that unwillingly, I think. If you see me on Broadway tonight, help me, because I've been kidnapped. I don't want to be there. You could send an extraction team. We need Chris Hemsworth. Extraction to tracking shot, getting you, getting,

you down the stairs at Tootsie. Yeah, exactly. I'll go over the railing. I don't know. All right. Thanks so much, folks. Have a good one. Bye bye.

Bye-bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots 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 Hagi and Nancet. Park Sue.