Puck Soup - We're Also Signing With Columbus

Episode Date: July 20, 2022

Sean and Ryan run down the transactions for every team in the league in the last week, and some trades and signings that might still happen. Sponsored by Athletic Greens (athleticgreens.com/puck), Trade Coffee (drinktrade.com/puck) and Betterhelp (Betterhelp.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, eats and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McAnew from The Athletic. And we're only one week in to... The free agency period, and I already feel like this is maybe one of the more eventful free agency periods,

both because of who is signed and who isn't. Yeah. And, of course, where certain guys went. I figure what we're going to do is we'll go team by team here. Just talk about everybody in the league, even the teams that really didn't do anything. And there were a shocking number of them. say like six or seven teams are like, yeah, we're not going to bother. We're going to sign like a guy, and that's about it.

So we'll go team by team, but some teams are not going to. Like, don't get mad at us if we talk about your team for 30 seconds, because that might be all that they get. Yeah. So, like, for example, I have written down that we should start in the Pacific Division for, I think, obvious reasons. And one of the teams in the Pacific Division, the Los Angeles case, I don't think they've signed anybody to a one-way contract

that wasn't already on the team. There you go. There's the Kings. Done. Yeah. Brandon Lemieux, I think, is the only guy they've signed who's, like, going to be on their NHL roster. The Kevin Fiala trade was obviously their big move that they made.

So anyway, we're going to start in the Pacific Division because the Calgary Flames are in a crisis. Yeah. It's been a rough couple of weeks for, a good team? Past tense, question marks? Absolutely a good team. I mean, that's...

So, Johnny Gerdro leaves, obviously, goes... Wait, what? Is that true? Yeah. He went to Columbus, which I guess we will get to partly in the Columbus section, but surprises a lot of us. Not a surprise that he left. I think once he got to free agency,

And, you know, it had been made. I think even the day before, he basically said, I'm going. Well, so it's, you're right that it's not a surprise for a couple of reasons. The first one is he let it get as far as, as far as it did. The second one is, haven't we been hearing for like four years? Oh, he's leaving. He's leaving the first chance he gets. He's going back to Philly.

He's going to New Jersey. Whatever. Yeah. But was it ever that much of a sure? Like, I feel like certainly under the circumstances, there was talk of it. And then obviously, once you get to last summer and he's eligible to sign the extension, every day that goes by that he doesn't, makes you wonder. I do think a lot of us were still figuring, if you got a bet on what an NHL player is going to do,

staying where he is. Yeah, sure. is still the best bet. And, you know, I think if it had been Philly or even New Jersey, then, I mean, it's your hometown kid's story. The fact that it was Columbus, I think, kind of caused some people to revisit their priors and go, wait a second. What? Yeah, well, I mean, we'll talk about it when we get to Columbus.

but like, again, just the fact that, like, again, and the other thing I wanted to mention, the third reason that I was like, oh, I don't, you know, I wouldn't, I was never going to be surprised. I was surprised that he went to Columbus. I wasn't going to be surprised that he left because some members of the Calgary meeting, not everybody, obviously, but some members,

they've been trying to trade to get this guy the hell out of town for like three years. He's a bum, you can't win with him, et cetera, et cetera. The second he leaves, oh this guy he never wants to win okay all right um so like those are all reasons i wasn't surprised that he left yeah i mean like two columbas wasn't a shock at all that he that he left uh but it was the circumstances are certain now let me ask but here's you know you make your point then i've got to i've got a question for you all right here's what's crazy to me and i wrote about this on Monday.

The Flames backup plan. Don't have one. Sorry. They thought this was a done deal, apparently? Like, they were just like, oh, he'll re-sign with us. We'll figure it out once the free agency date starts. Other teams can start talking to him. Really?

Like, the fact that, because the other thing is, Calgary hasn't signed anybody. I think they signed, like, one fourth line guy from the Rangers. And that's like their only transaction of the summer. They re-signed Trevor Lewis. Great. I don't know how you justify that if you're Brad for living. But you, like, just didn't have a plan B. I mean, the argument would be that there is no plan B to losing a 110 point guy.

Absolutely. Godreau had one of the most valuable, like, 200-foot seasons in recent memory. He was fucking awesome. all year. So I definitely get that argument. But now the flames are just like, yeah, we lost him. So it doesn't seem like we're going to replace them. Anyway.

Like not even slightly. Yeah. It doesn't make sense. Yeah, which, you know, there's a thin line between a plan B and a panic reaction. Like, I don't doubt for a second that Calgary could jump in right now and throw seven years at Nazimps. Cadry and probably get him to to take a deal and then everybody says, oh, okay, so they've, they've replaced Johnny Godreau, but that might not be the right move. That might be a disastrous move.

You look back, but. I guess my point is, how as you're, as you're like going into this season and Goddrow's like I don't want to talk about an extension until the off season, until after the season's over. Yeah. That you don't go, okay, let's operate under the assumption that he's not going to sign here. Like, let's make a plan, like, here's what we'll offer him. If he takes it, awesome.

If not, then this. And then this was like, I guess we kind of have everybody sulk about it in the local media. Yeah, and it was tough because this is, you know, you know, You know, the comparison here is the John Tavares thing four years ago, but the difference there is the Islanders that year were not a great team. They absolutely could have said, we're going to move this guy during the season. And part of the reason that Islander fans are still so angry about that

is they are under the impression that John Tavaris had told them, don't worry about it, don't trade me, I'm not going anywhere. We're going to get this done and then pull the rug out from under them. Whereas with the flames, I mean, they were the best team in the Pacific for most of the season. They were a legitimate cup contender. So any talk of they could have moved them is, I mean, that wouldn't have made any sense. So because for most teams, that's the plan B, right, is if we can't get them signed by the deadline, we move them. And that wasn't an option here.

But you're right, they do seem to have been caught pretty much completely flat-footed by. the fact that he's that he's moved. And now we've got the Matthew Kachuk thing going on, which is, seems to be rapidly deteriorating. Yeah, and again, they've been saying for like two years. Second, this guy gets the opportunity to go to St. Louis.

There is going to be a Matthew Kachuk shaped hole in the side of the saddled up. He's leaving. He's getting the hell out of them. And, you know, last year, he only took the one year. I don't remember if he took his, now I'm struggling to remember the details

about his current contract. But it was something to do with like, he took a short-term deal. Yes. Specifically for this reason. He's been doing what we've been saying that guys in his situation should do, by which I mean, like young star players,

and he's been leaving his doors open. He hasn't, he didn't sign the, first eight-year contract that got put in front of him. He has been maintaining his leverage. So here's his contract. He signed a three-year deal with a $7 million AAB, but it went $5.7-9, and the nine was to force a $9 million qualifying offer so that he could say, either pay me $9 million for one year or trade my ass, basically.

And that, like, that looks like that's exactly what happened. And if you sign him for the one year, then he hits, you see, UFA next year? Yeah. So then he walks. And, and so what happened was he didn't file for salary arbitration. So he could have continued to be a restricted free agent who could sign an offer sheet. And so the flames waited a few days and they filed for arbitration, which doesn't happen nearly as often. Usually it's the players filing for arbitration.

Because the flames knew he could take them to the cleaners at an arbitration hearing, right? They'd be like a $50 billion. You're one of the most valuable players. I've seen, like some places have said that the flames doing that was to defend against an argument. offer sheet. I'm not actually convinced that they're, like if they're, if this guy is giving all the signals that he doesn't want to stay, an offer sheet isn't the worst thing in the world because an offer sheet you can match.

And then presumably, I mean, some team could sign him to like a one-year offer sheet, maybe that's what you're worried about. But if some team offers him five years, you can match that and now you've got him. That might be your only path to a long-term. Sure. Relationship here. But if you don't want him to be pouting for five years or whatever, you know, like, I really, I get it from the Flames point of view of like, this just buys them a little extra time

to work out a more favorable trade. Because the thing with the offer sheet is, you know, as you say, they can keep him and he's not happy to be there or whatever. Or they could allow that offer sheet to happen and they get like five first round picks or whatever. He, you know, this is a guy who would. I don't think an offer sheet would really realistically happen because as good as Matthew Kachuk is, I don't think any team would want to give up five picks for, you know, a guy who was the second best winger on his own team last year, you know, he's not a center.

He's not like an elite defenseman, certainly not a goalie. So, yeah. That probably makes teams a little more. And believe me, I think he's unreal. he's so good but I'm not sure anyway point being this just

this just gives you a little extra time to work out a trade because I don't think they've announced arbitration dates yet but it would be for another couple of weeks And even when they made the arbitration announcement I think a lot of us kind of went okay well you know that there's still time

to work this out but then it was I think it was Eric Francis in Calgary who reported that a deal basically saying a trade is coming. And he said within the next week. Yes. Which I think that to most of us, you know, felt like an escalation where it sort of went from, hey, you know, a trade is possible to know this is ending in a trade.

We'll see if that turns out to be the case. But that's, I mean, I can't remember the last time a good team lost two players as good as Johnny Goddrae and Matthew. 200 point players last season. Yeah. I mean, that's almost unprecedented. And obviously you get, you know, this trade situation, you're going to get a ton back. But how much if it's going to be futures, how much, I don't know.

And it's a tough thing. And this takes back to the question that I was going to ask you, where are you at on this idea that we've heard out of Calgary that Johnny Godreau owes Flames fans an explanation, more of an explanation than he is given, that he owes something. Yeah, I don't care about that. The guy, he used to work there, and now he doesn't work there anymore. He decided he didn't want to. So he didn't.

Like, what else is there to say? Oh, all my family lives on the East Coast. My wife is having a kid. She wants to work. She's like some sort of a doctor or something like that, right? A nurse, maybe. And Columbus, say what you want about him, has great hobbies. hospitals. She's like a pediatric nurse, I want to say, now that I think about it.

Columbus has a great kids hospital. So maybe there's an employment opportunity there for, on top of, they want to be closer to the in-laws for when the baby comes and all that. What other explanation does he need to give these people? Yeah. I'm kind of on the other side. I actually buy into this idea that he owes the fans there more than he's given, which is not to say that he's got to beg their forgiveness or that he's got to justify it to the point

where they say, okay, we will allow you to... I mean, I don't buy that, but like I just, I saw some in the media in Calgary say, Johnny Godreau owes more of an explanation. And then like this immediate pushback, people going, he doesn't owe you anything. He has a contract, he can do what he wants, he owes you nothing.

And it's just like, yeah, I mean, contractually, he doesn't owe you anything. But this whole league exists as entertainment for fans. And the whole reason that not only guys like Johnny Godreau get paid millions of dollars, but guys like you and me get paid at all to talk about this stuff is because fans invest in this stuff and care about it. And then when a player that those fans have been told to invest in and care about leaves, we like immediately scold them.

Like, what are you a fool? You actually care about? about this guy, you actually had some sort of connection to him. And that always bugs me. It bugs me with Tavares. I was probably the only Lee fan who defended Islander fans for freaking out the way they did. And I get it here too. Like this guy, there had been talk that he was going to go home, which was Philadelphia, New Jersey.

He didn't go to either of those places. He went to a place that's like an eight-hour drive from home. He went to a team that is not good. he took less money to do it I think fans there have every right to go dude what the hell like what's going on and also

and this is kind of where it gets to Kachuk looking to leave you know if I'm a Flames fan I'm sitting there going is there something wrong organizationally is it the coach

is the GM is there something that's driving these guys away because if there is please tell us please don't give us a bunch of you know like oh it's a great town and I just it was time for a change I'd like to know that

okay I, I, look, if, if Gidreau wants to air out some grievances publicly, then, you know what, he does owe me an explanation. As long as he's like, I get some dirt for you. I think Daryl Sutter sucks or whatever, you know. If he wants to do that, I'm happy, but like, you know, again, all the stuff I said, like, he didn't, I don't think he said any of that. I think everybody kind of, like, put the pieces. But that was because he was not saying anything and kind of, and kind of, Correct.

Left void for, I don't know. Yeah, but what I'm saying is, if he comes out and says all of the stuff that I, that I just said, is anybody like, you know what, I accept that? Versus, like, do I, do people need to hear it from him? Or can people just infer it from, like, all the other stuff that's on? I think we, he owes to the fans is to hear it from him and not to just let it hang out there to be inferred. And look, like my villain origin story on this is still like the Matt Sundin thing where he says, I'm not going to get traded because I don't want to be part of a team for part of a season. I want to be there the whole season.

And then he takes half a season off and signs in Vancouver and people go, he doesn't owe you crap. And you're sitting there going, no, actually, as a fan who cheered for this guy for 14 years, I would like him to explain why he said one thing and then did the other thing. So let me ask you this. what is the line on of player quality where a guy note like does Ryanstrom oh rangers fans an explanation for why he went to an eye i'm the franchise player it's like the franchise player it's like the best player on the team i think the quite i think if you're the number one jersey sales guy in your town you do have a little bit more responsibility to to put

some out there especially like again this godreau thing i really think if if it's philadelphia that he goes two, and we'll get to the flyers and talk about why that didn't happen, then I think people go, yeah, I mean, he went home. That's the thing. I mean, John Tavares, Islander fans, I've got no issue with them being mad at him, but he did tell you what the deal was. You didn't like what he told you, but he told you. Sure.

And Johnny Goddrow, you know, with him, it was such a weird situation because, like, I don't know if you heard the interview that he did with Gentile and Custin's on. The Tuesday. Didn't get a chance to listen to it. Athletic show. It was, because he's like, you know, yeah, so like we signed in Columbus. And then the next day, my wife and I went and we visited. And it was like, oh, yeah, the neighborhoods are really nice.

And we really thought it would be a good place. And, like, Gentile's like, well, wait, you did all that after you had signed there. Like, lucky break, I guess, because it sounds like he didn't, like, he'd never been there before, you know, thinking, like, as a potential long-term home until he, you know, He had already signed the contract. Like, he just signed the first place vaguely close to home and got the hell out of Calgary. I don't have an issue with Flames fans going, hey, I'd like a little bit more than a crappy newspaper ad that your PR people put out. I'd like to know what was going on here.

And look, it could be as simple. And again, the part that sucks here is I'm saying give an explanation, and yet there's no explanation that's going to make Flames fans go, okay, that's fine. That's the other thing. But if he just says, look, like, if he just said, guys, I'm American. I've got a child on the way. I want my child born in the United States. I want to raise my family in the United States. And so I wanted to go to a U.S. market.

Like, I feel like that's going to piss a lot of people off, but also that's a valid reason. And people are already pissed off. So at least let people be pissed off about the real answer as opposed to whatever they fill in in their heads now, which is kind of what you're getting. Yeah, I guess my point is Doesn't fuck it Like you say Nobody's gonna Here's my list of 58

Perfectly valid reasons You think I knew Flame fan's gonna go Well then Johnny Goodrow I tip my cap to you sir And I thank you for all the years of happiness Nobody's nobody's gonna be No But it's like

You're either Like the people who are mad about it Like this mad about it Are either gonna be in or out On You know what I mean? To me To me, it's like if you break up with someone after 10 years,

anything you say isn't going to make them go, okay, I feel great about this, but you still owe them an explanation as to what's going on. You don't get to just go, oh, you know, sorry, things happen, and then that's it. You walk away and, you know, I do think he owes them a little more than he's given them. A little more, sure. But, yeah, I don't know that he needs to go to whatever,

the fan 960 or whatever, the race. station in Calgary is, and go, I just want to apologize. He needs to go and take calls for six hours. That's right. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Okay, let's stay in Alberta. The other team there, the Edmonton Oilers, they got Jack Campbell, they got their goalie problem, punitively solved, and Matthias Yanmark, and also did retain Evander Cain after

all that. I think that's a nice little summer for the Oilers. I mean, Evander came cheap. Yeah, he did. Assuming they do, you know, we've talked about the very strange circumstances with the Sharks' grievance and how that could, that contract he just signed in Emmett and everything could be negated. But I think the odds of that are still very small. I think that he, uh... It would be cool, though.

It would be very funny. But, oh, geez, just right now, Johnny Goddrow has just released his. his Players Tribune article for the two Calgary Flames fans. So anyways, maybe that's the explanation right there. I'm not even going to read. It's the Players Tribune. I wonder if Johnny Godreau writes in the exact same voice that every other pro athlete writes in.

Wouldn't that be interesting? It's hard not to see any free agency decision as a betrayal, is one of the big pull quotes. Before I was a hockey player, I was a hockey fan. Was that actually true? This guy was a hockey player when he was like three years old.

But all right. Well, anyways. Yeah, Van der Kaine, good sign, just purely as an on-ice signing. Very good signing. Jack Campbell, it's, you know, the five years,

the Leafs didn't want to do it. But I think the Oilers are in a position where you probably do do it and you take the upgrade and if it doesn't work, you can at least say that you took a swing. Yeah. Yeah, you know, boy, the Pacific just got really weird for next season.

That's the thing I keep thinking of because we'll do another team here. Vegas, they gave up Max Patcher Ready for nothing. Yep. Pretty much. Max Fats you're ready and another player. No, entirely. They gave him away. Yeah.

Which is a very interesting deal because other than the other, player who got thrown in. They gave him away for nothing but cap space but didn't have to add like picks or sweeteners or that sort of thing. It's almost like usually with deals like this, we see guys either get traded for something or they get traded along with draft picks and everything to get someone to take the deal. And this is, it's almost like they're saying this is the exact moment where his value hits neutral territory. So we're going to basically give him away. Basically, they chose Riley Smith over Max Patcher Reddy, which is interesting. Yeah.

Yep. That's the other thing is they re-signed Riley Smith and then signed Sakari Mananin, Monon, who's, I believe, a Finnish player who did really well at, like, the world championships. And he's like a 31-year-old, you know, like a guy who's always a guy who's always, was played in Europe, basically. And those players are a bit of a wild card. Sometimes they're pretty good. Sometimes they're not.

You never know. It'll be really interesting. I think Vegas still improves on the aggregate if everybody stays healthy next year, obviously. Like, I think they're a playoff team, I guess, is my point. But it's so strange. It's so weird. That they're just like, oh, fuck it. No more patchy ready, I guess.

But you know what? But like, in a way, it's weird, but to me, like, as a, as an NFL fan, you see this all time in the NFL where, because contracts aren't guaranteed in the NFL. So a team will have a guy on the team who's a perfectly good player. And they'll just go, you know what, we're cutting him. He's off the team. We don't get anything for him, but we need the cap space. So we just walk away from him.

And this was like the closest to an NFL style. Like, yeah, he's just cut. Like, we just, he's not on the team. anymore. We don't get anything in exchange, but we need the cap space. So we just walk away from this supposedly guaranteed contract. And you know what? In the NFL happens all the time. It's just good management. So I don't, you know, we can argue over whether they picked the right guy to do this with. But I don't, I don't hate it as. You know, you got your guy. You, you, you know, you turned him into a couple of years of productive play and now you move on. And, and now you move on.

And you move on before you have to attach assets to move on. I don't completely hate it. Like I said, I just think it's more, I kind of can't believe they did it strange than like indefensible. I don't think it's indefensible at all. You had injury problems last year like everybody else on the team. And he's a winger. It's not like William Carlson where it's like, you're going to give a sense. like a perfectly good middle six center away for nothing.

He's a winger. I get all that. But I don't know. I think I looked it up the other day, and over the last three seasons, he's like 10th or 11th or something like that, and goals per 60 in all situations like this guy can fucking play still. It'll be interesting. They send him to Carolina a team that needs a guy who can put the puck in the net.

Well, it's like the only thing Max Fetch already does, so it works out. Two teams I was very surprised by what they did this summer. Anaheim goes out and gets Frank Vitrano and Ryan Strom. And then Seattle goes out and gets Justin Schultz, Martin Jones, and Andre Burakowski. Yeah. Martin Jones, is it Drieger, like has an ACL tear or something? Who knows when he's back kind of an insurance. But like they spent some money.

Both of these teams definitely improved. I don't know how much it helps. I think Anaheim would say, oh, this helps us at least push for a playoff spot. Right. Because remember, Anaheim was leading that division like halfway through the season. Yeah, they hung around for a little while longer than everybody. They really went off a cliff the second half, which I think was more like what they really are. But they could at least look at L.A. and say, we're here behind those guys.

I think that's reasonable. Yeah. Yeah, I guess my big thing is like, for Anaheim, if you're going to go and get a middle six winger and a middle six center, get two guys who played a little bit together. You know, why not? You kind of have proof of a concept there. Work for me.

All right, rounding out the Pacific Division. We got the Vancouver Canucks. They really only signed Curtis Lazare. and a backup goalie best wishes to the Vancouver Canucks. I can see it going well for him next year. I don't think, you know,

Lizar and a backup are necessarily the difference between... And apparently, you know... Maybe the most interesting thing there is they've given their goalie prospect D.P. Petro the ability to seek a trade. So it seems like that's... Which, I mean, when you got Thatcher Demco, yeah, I get that. Congratulations to Curtis Lodzar for still existing. That's big for him.

I think it was the Don Sweeney quote was like, he was a great Bruin. It's like, oh yeah, he was on the Bruins. That's right. Sure he was. Yeah, okay, sure, okay. Do you think when he ate that hamburger, he was like, this is it for me. This is my most memorable moment. I've peaked.

I just ate a dirty hamburger off the ground. He's making like $8 million or whatever. Like, you got a four-year deal. Good for him. That's great. And then obviously the San Jose Sharks are the last team in this division. They traded Brent Burns. Also pretty much for nothing.

They got Stephen Lawrence back who's like, whatever. He's fine. And then they re-signed two guys they had previously traded for, Luke Cunnan, who they got in a cap dump from the Predators. I think the Predators won that trade. And Capocacan, who, you know, he creates kind of much like Vancouver had, like a, wait, so they have three goalies at the NHL level situation, and I think they're going to trade one of them. They've yet to do it, also they don't have a coach for next year. Right. But the new G. I mean, Burns is probably

out of him, Carlson, and certainly Vlasic, he's the most tradable of those three. So the new GM comes in and doesn't. And, you know, when you're a new GM, you have a little bit of maybe more leeway with the fan base. I think that's a smart move. Obviously, they need to start unloading contracts,

and that's probably the only one they really can out of that list that they've got. Yeah, and even same with the forwards. Like, I guess they could move Logan, sure, but I think he has a no-move clause, that kind of thing. It's, it's, tough. Like, they're, they're in a really tough spot. They're not going to be good next year. They couldn't

do anything to meaningfully improve this summer. Like, they're right up against the cat. They're like almost a cap team. Like, well, I think they have a million dollars in space. I don't have cap-friendly open in front of me, but they have very little cap space, and it's like, well, for this team, huh? Okay. Sorry to hear that.

But where are you going to do? Like you say. Mike Greer knows what the score is. I think all the fans know what the score is. And then ownership's like, oh, we have to be somewhat competitive. Well, the only thing that I think is newsworthy there is that, yeah, Mike Greer does know what the score is, and he got hired, which means, at the very least, ownership is not out there looking for someone to tell them what they want to hear, which is, no, no, you guys are contenders. So I guess that's good news, at least, if you're a Sharks fan.

Yeah. Let's move on to the Atlantic Division. the other like real big news division i think personally um because you got ottawa they go out they get uh clod jeru on top of all the trades they made around the draft and stuff like that you might have heard of some of them sean real good week for pyradorian which is interesting because he's a guy that not a lot of people had very high on their list of uh uh in the gm rankings but he had a real good couple of weeks. The knock on Dorian has always been...

It just goes to show. It's always been that he was the yes man for Melnick, right? Like that was the knock on him. Right. He's only there because Melnick likes him. He kisses Melnick's behind and agrees to, you know, work with no money and all this stuff. Maybe not. Maybe we all had it wrong.

Maybe Melnick was holding this guy back and now he's, you know, the reins are off and he's, like I said, it damn good couple of weeks there. Can't argue on. I mean, the thing is like, the speed with which things have changed post Eugene Melnick's death. I know they said like it was always the plan to kind of be spending this money, whether he was alive or not. But like it does really feel like the gloves are off now,

that you don't have that limitation where, You wonder how much Eugene Melnick was like, you got to go trade for the Alex Burroughs of the world and not go actually go get somebody who's good. I will say I'm, I do feel like maybe, and this isn't, I'm not even saying an Ottawa fan thing, I feel like we're maybe inflating what the senators have right now a little bit. Oh, well, right. Like I already saw something where it was like, is their top six better, like as far as the forwards, is their top six better than Toronto? And it was like, what? Absolutely. Yes.

No questions. Yeah. So I mean, I do still think this is a very borderline playoff team, even if things, a lot of things go right for them. But they're a borderline playoff team with some good youth on the way. It's not a bad situation to be in at all. Right. I don't trust that goal pending, first of all. And second of all, the idea that Camp Talbot is like a huge upgrade who fixed their

goal-tending problems. I'm not completely convinced on. Right. And also look at their defense. I mean, good look. It's a wasteland. Yes. The defense is like all the,

worth noting that all the guys they got who people were excited about were Cam Talbot or forwards. And I would have said, oh, you've seen Ottawa's blue line? That is the problem. Now, if they go out and get John Klingberg, a guy who remains unsigned as far as we know, that's a different issue entirely. But right now, I look at that blue line and I go, this is a team that is being set up to, you know how people were saying like,

like Toronto or Florida or whoever, this is a team set up to win four, three games? I think Ottawa is currently a team set up to lose four three games. Yeah, that's quite possible. But they'd be fun. It'll be fun watching them do it at least. Yeah, and you can't say they didn't dramatically improve this stuff, because they absolutely did. The other team in kind of the same boat as them,

the Detroit Red Wings, they went nuts so on Free Agency Day. Andrew Kopp, Ben Chirot, Dominic, Goli Mata, David Perron, Mark Pissick, and that's on top of the Villahuso trade. Yeah, it's a lot of guys. It's a lot of guys. Is it a lot of improvement? I think, again, definitely is improvement. You can't say it's not.

Now, is it meaningful improvement? Does this, it's the same thing with Ottawa. Does this push them, whatever, make up the 25 points out of the playoffs they were last year? I'm not convinced of that, you know. I think what I would say is the goaltending in Detroit was so bad last season that getting whoso and presuming he's even like league average that covers a pretty big gap for me personally. But yeah, they missed the playoffs by 26 points, Ottawa missed by 27.

I don't see 13 wins of improvement from either team. that especially that leapfrogs them over. I honestly think if you're, you know, all these other. If you're Detroit, you've been waiting, if you're a Detroit fan, you've been waiting very patiently for Steve Eisenman to actually start improving the team. He does that. I think you could argue if you're Detroit, you feel maybe further from the playoffs now than you did two weeks ago because you haven't, I mean, there's still the big four,

if we're counting Boston in that. And it feels like now you've kind of been passed by Ottawa at the very least as far as teams likely to make the playoffs. Like it feels like Ottawa is that team lurking if a spot opens up more so than Detroit. I feel like Ottawa improved more than Detroit did. And well, here's the thing. You know who else improved and finished ahead of the Red Wings? Buffalo. They got very slightly, they haven't done a lot.

They got Ilyle-Lewski and Lawrence Pillet. But like they finished. a point ahead of Detroit. I think if you're going to say Ottawa, Detroit, and Buffalo are the clear, like, first teams out, maybe Detroit is the best of the first teams out now. Maybe. I don't know that that's a position you want to be in. Like, again, like with Ottawa and to a lesser extent Detroit, you go, okay, to what end, though, all these improvements?

Like, here's the difference. Detroit, goal difference, just according to the NHL's stats, which are not, like the NHL standings page, which are not like, this is an actual goal difference, as you point out in your calling every week. But they were minus 82. Ottawa was minus 39, and Detroit somehow ended up with one extra point more than the senators. So, like, I think that's the bigger problem for them. I don't know that Huso is making up minus 80, whatever, goals of difference. And the thing with Detroit is you kind of look at it and go,

like we've talked always about how when you're rebuilding, like the stripping down and getting the picks and prospects is the quote-unquote easy part. And now, like if you're a Detroit fan, you just, okay, they just spent the money. They went and brought in a bunch of guys. A lot of their young players are now in the NHL. They're ready to get. And you're kind of looking at the roster. going like, is this it?

Like, is this, you know, they're presumably not going to be in the mix for Connor Bedard? Like they've kind of moved past that, maybe, we'll see. But like, if this is it, like, have you actually, has the rebuild yielded a team that's going to be championship worthy at some point? Even under a best case? No, absolutely not. Yeah. No, definitely not. as you say

so let's just get to it Boston I would say unequivocally the worst of the quote unquote top four teams in that division now in theory yes the only thing they've done

all summer that isn't just like resign restricted free agents or whatever is trade Eric Hala for Pavel Zaka which is an upgrade to me that's an easy upgrade I think they got better in that respect. Yeah. But we still don't know

if they're bringing back Bergeron. We still don't know for sure if David Craichy. I suspect Craichy is coming back at the very least. It sounds like both those guys are going to happen, but it hasn't happened yet,

which does make you wonder a little bit. I think, you know, Burgeron coming back, you don't, I mean, that's not an upgrade just because he was there last year. Creachie does help. Yeah, but the thing is, and you got to say this,

about the Bruins. Again, Bergeron out till November. I think Marshan out until November. Grizzlike out till November. McAvoy, maybe out even longer. I think it's McAvoy, who's the guy who's like maybe out even longer. And it's like, well, again, that just thins out your results. Even if you want to say, hey, look, this is a team that was whatever, like 30 points better

than the Sabres were last year, 32 I'm seeing here. and so like how thinned out can can you be that much worse if those guys are only out a month and a half each or whatever probably not like i don't know that you're making up that gap but with all the improvements that these it's it's at least a little dicier if swayman and and uh Olmark aren't are great next season which they weren't for parts of this past year parts of it but though Olmark ended up being better than at least than I thought. Like when I sat down at the end of the year

and I was like, oh, holy crap, this guy was better. And I thought, and Swamon's young enough that you can expect improvement. Yeah. But yeah, so, I don't know. I don't see Boston dropping out of the playoffs. But if one of the four Atlantic teams is going to surprise us, that's probably it.

And that's the path for Ottawa or Detroit, because I don't see five playoffs, spots in the Atlantic. I mean, technically you could have that, but that would feel, I mean, you look at who would have to fall out in the, in the metro. But so here's the thing, though. Toronto, their goaltending, I think, inarguably, like much worse than it was last year on paper.

Mm-hmm. Right? Yep. And then their big ads this summer are Victor Mette, who's like, okay, he's a Reclamation Project. Jordy Ben, who's like a bottom of your lineup, okay veteran.

Kelly Yarn Kroke, who bought him two lines guy, but he's good, and they re-signed Pierre Engfall. That's it. And now that's what happens when you're capped out and all that. I'm not saying they could have done more.

But like, if the goal tending is as bad as like some people think it could be, again, eight more points than Boston last year. So that's not nothing. But this is a team that could definitely, there will be more points up for grabs

in Toronto Maple Leafs games than there were. You would imagine, yeah. Like unquestionable. The optimist note, and it's, I mean, it's not even very optimistic sounding, but in Toronto is that this team had 115 points last year with bad goaltending. Like, overall, their goaltending was like 900 on the year.

So even if the goaltending is, bad again. It feels like there's more of a cushion here. The interesting thing in Toronto is at the end of last season, unlike previous seasons, Kyle Dubas seemed to leave the door open to bigger changes. You know, he didn't do the whole, we believe in this core, we're not trading anyone, don't even start lecture that he's done. He was sort of like, well, you know, we'll listen and we'll see what's out there. And then they didn't make any significant changes to the, to the core. So, run it back again, I guess, and just take the same thing that hasn't worked for the last few years

and do it with worse goaltending. That's a plan. Yeah. It's a plan. It is a plan. And let's do a couple of teams that did almost nothing. Montreal trades for Mike Matheson, Petri and Petrie and Ryan Paling for Mike Matheson, and I think a pick.

Yeah, Petrie wanted out. Doesn't matter. Matheson is maybe worse, but cheaper. Definitely worse. But signed longer, but, yeah, younger. That's just a half headache. Can't say he's not younger. Yeah, that's a nothing move for a team that doesn't care what happens.

And I guess the interesting thing in Montreal right now is what's happening with the goaltending, is Kerry Price back. If not, what do they do? Because they've got Jake Allen and then a bunch of guys who we learned last year are not good. And Jake Allen has been mentioned in the trade market. So is that a guy you move? But then if Kerry Price isn't back, then you get to spend all your... If Carrie Price isn't back, and you're Jeff Gordon, you're like, oh, geez, I really thought he'd be back. Anyway, here's these two AHL guys.

And we finished dead last. where we will draft somebody other than Connor Bedard because we saw them look good in the world championships. Florida, I think their one move, again, like at the NHL level, is that they sign Michael Delz Otto. There you go. Somebody has to. It's the law.

For them, it's the coaching changes the news there. Well, yes, of course. Not anything else that they've done in the... I think we covered that, though, on the podcast. Yes, I believe we did. I think we might have talked about that guy? Really? The big thing in Florida is Jonathan Huberto waiting on an extension now.

And hey, that's the Calgary Flames. That kind of thing works out great. Yeah. Yeah. And then one last team in the division, and then we'll take a break. Tampa Bay, they went out and improved the bottom of their lineup. I think improved might be over his team. It maintained the bottom of their lineups quality with Hayden Flurry, Ian Cole, and Vladislav Nemesnikov.

But that's not the news. The news is they gave eight-year extensions to Mikhail Sergachev, Eric Cheranak, and Peter, or Peter? Uh-oh. Anthony Sorrelli. If it was Peter Chierelli, that would be a bigger problem. That would be a worse. But it's Anthony Sorrelli. That's a different guy.

One of them is a hockey player, the other one's a GM. And I guess it's, it's, I mean, the, the, I don't know, I don't think it's, I don't think it's, I don't think it's, I don't think it's, I don't think it's, I don't think it's, I don't think it's, I don't think it's, I don't think, you know, three conferences with them, maybe you do. And you just, like, this is classic case of, we literally don't care. Like, during pre-spra's probably like, yeah, five years from now, we. We're going to be terrible. We're, you know, we are over leveraged. We've taken out third and fourth mortgages on the house, and it's all going to go belly up at some point. Who cares? We're doing everything we can to keep the band together right now.

Hard to argue. But it's going to suck in five years from now or whatever. But that's for five years from now and flags fly forever. Do you want to hear a very funny thing? I do. Speaking of five years from now? Five years from now. years from now, the Tampa Bay Lightning will have five players under contract as it stands

presently. They will cost $42.1 million combined. Uh-huh. Oofy-doofy. Okay. Those five players, Sorrelli, Vasilievsky, Chernak, Surgiev, Nick Paul. That's the thing. Like then Braden Point. There's like two of those players are actually.

good, but you do what you got to do. Yeah, no, I'm in the closer term. I guess this is even funnier if you really want to talk about it. Not in 2024-25, seven players under contract, a combined cost of $59.5 million. Oh, boy, they better hope that debt from the, that the, that the, that the, that the players, though, from the lockout, or not the lockout, the shortened season. Yep. They've ever hoped that that jumps or gets cleared basically this season.

The salary cap goes up like $30 million over the next two years. That'd be nice. Because they're going to be in a lot of trouble cap-wise. But hey, can, if you're maybe looking to power out of a rebuild, if you're the Montreal Canadians or somebody three years from now, can we interest you? in a slightly used, like, 33-year-old Nikita Kuturov? $9.5 million, please.

That's it. Yeah, I feel like Montreal and Kuturab might not be the absence. Best bet. They'll figure out a way to make it work. He'll publish a Players Tribune article. I actually think it was bad. We were over the cap.

Water under the bridge. I have purchased a shirt. Sorry about that. Yeah, let's take a break. We'll come back and we'll talk about the Metro. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Trade Coffee. And you know the thing with coffee, right? Everybody has their own little way of enjoying it.

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with that, you don't have to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy, and you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. So our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com Puck. That's betterh-elp.com slash puck. All right, we're back. We're going to talk about the Metropolitan Division. Now, they have a team in that division, Sean. All the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Not ringing any of those. Have you heard about this team? Barely. Okay. They're the, okay, this might sound familiar. They're the team that Johnny Goddreau signed with for no good reason, apparently. Right. Got it.

Although I did just finish that Players Tribune article during the break. and the reason is he was too far from his family. Yes. Which, again, I mean... Can you believe it? I'm glad that Johnny clearly heard what I said in the first half of the podcast, took it to heart, immediately wrote a Player's Tribune article, got it through their editing process within 10 seconds, and had it posted.

I think this is an explanation. This is what I was talking about. And, okay. Yeah, he said he missed his grandfather's funeral. Yeah. Mr. Grandfather's funeral? You can't say anything about the guy to the guy about that. He did.

I mean, there's a passage in there where he kind of directly addresses the whole idea of, hey, you're rich, man. Hop on an airplane and go, you want to visit your family. Just fly everyone up. Like, you can afford to do it. And he sort of explains why it doesn't really work that way. So I thought it was, I mean, it's the usual Players Tribune stuff. If you've read one, you've kind of read them all.

if you dig through that and get to the meat of what he's saying, I think it's a decent explanation. Yeah. The other guy they signed, Eric and Branson. Yeah. All right. Sure. And, you know, I think this was one of the contracts where, like, if you listen to 32 thoughts, they never really say any players are bad or whatever, which is fine.

I'm not criticizing them. But anytime you hear them say this about a contract, you know, the contract is insane for the team that signed it. They go, good for Eric and Branson. That's so nice. Uh-oh. You never want to hear that about the team that you like. Yeah.

That they signed a guy. And the contract was, wow, that's really nice for the player. Good for him. Yeah. Ouch. Oof. And so here's the thing with Columbus, though. Unless they go out and sign, I would say both Nazim Kodry and John Klingberg,

they're another team where I'm like, yeah, they were like 20 points out of playoffs, man. I don't know that they're that they're making up that ground. The goal tending is still a huge question. The forward depth is a huge question. Technically, they still haven't re-signed Patrick Line. It seems like they're going to, but who knows if it's for one year or two years or eight years? I don't know. But, yeah, like, it's funny.

In the last couple of weeks, whenever it's come up, like, oh, who's a playoff team next year that was out this year? I've always said, wouldn't be surprised about Columbus. Well, now they have, like, a guy who was, like, a legit MVP candidate last year. So that definitely helps. I don't know that it makes up, again, like 20 points in the standing. 19, it says here. Yeah, they got a long way to go, but clearly good Bretson makes up about 10 of those points. Sure, he does.

Yeah, no, I think. legitimately like Godreau probably makes up like 10 of those points. If the goal tendings... Yeah. Five percent better or whatever, that might be the difference. But, you know, they had a huge negative goal differences here. I don't know that that Godro is going to sort that out. But...

They've got seven years to get there with them. They have a lot of good young players that they should be excited about. So, you know, even if it's not this year, like two years from now, oh, Columbus is going to be pretty good, I bet. So I guess the thing is when a player like Johnny Godreau comes along, you have an opportunity to sign him. Sorry, Philadelphia. But you kind of go, oh, we need to get this player under contract.

Right. Yeah, you don't sit there and go, well, you know, we're not going to win the Stanley Cup this year, so we won't even bother trying. No, you jump at it. And you know what? We talked about the Godro. Like, this is great for Columbus.

Like, if you're a Blue Jackets fan and you watch this team get dumped on for years and, you know, people, especially people like me up north, you know, act like they're just like the, you know, some farm team for the real markets. This is great to have a star player be like, yeah, that's where I want to go. That's, it's excellent. Yeah, for sure. It does nothing but help, even if, you know, seven years from now we're like, oh, I can draw a contract, bit of an overpay now these days, huh? You know? Well, I mean, that's the other thing.

It's not even an insane amount of money. It's not. No, it absolutely, he should deliver surplus value for the entire contract. Like, this isn't, this wasn't like Tavares or Panera and where it was like, you know, he came in at the very upper limits of what it. Like, he left not just money on the table. as far as the eighth year in Calgary, but, you know, I think that he came in. A.A, V, too, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, then what most of us thought he would coming off the year that he came off. Yeah, so, so, right, like this is, this is a contract where even if the last two or three years aren't particularly good, again, the cap is going to explode at some point in the next three or four years, and that will make the 9.75 or whatever the number is, even more palatable. And that's true even with like lower tier guys. Like I saw people being like, ooh, that's a decent amount of money for a long time for like Andrew Cop or whatever.

And it's like four years from now, $5.5 million or whatever Andrew Cop got isn't going to be like that much money. It's going to be where it may not be a good contract, but people will think about the way we think about like a $4 million contract now where it's like, yeah, that's not good, but like is it bad? I don't know. Anyway Let's talk about the flyers

I just wrote down in my notes here Woof Yep That's good I think you got it They give a bunch of money And term to Nick DeLoree For some reason

Yeah They go out to re-signed Justin Braun Or they get Justin Braun back From the Rangers After he left as a rental Um Who else did they get?

There's one other guy I feel like I'm forgetting Maybe there isn't And maybe that's the problem. They got not Johnny Godreau, which is the... Oh, right. And they bought out Oscar Lindblon for some reason. Oh, yeah, so that they could have money for Tony DeAngelo, which we did talk about last week.

But yes, they bought out the recovering cancer patients so that they could bring in the grade A. That everybody liked him who was actually pretty good in his role. And not even expensive. But they did make a donation to, like, the cancer hospital. So all forgiven. Yeah, I mean, the news in Philadelphia is they had Johnny Godreau on a silver platter. Sounds like he, you know, he certainly wanted, we now know, out of Calgary. He wanted to be closer to home.

It certainly sounds like he. There's not an NHL team closer. He wanted to be a flyer, and they didn't have the cap room to even bid on him. and did not, we're not willing to part with whatever they needed to part with to get rid of a James Van Rheemestike or somebody like that. So this is just bad cap management for years and years

leads to missing out on a free, I wouldn't say generational star, but a free A star talent, absolutely. First line superstar player. So very frustrating if you're a Flyers fan. Absolutely. Apparently, apparently the ask for getting rid of Van Reams, or somebody taking Van Reams Dyke,

was their 2023 first round pick, which is sure to be bad. Yeah. And this is going to be a, you know, they're going to have a really good chance at a top three pick. They can get like a borderline franchise player at a bare minimum in the top three. So I get why Philadelphia would not want to, I mean, I certainly wouldn't move an unprotected first, but, you know, at some point. But the point is, they were like, well, how about one of our two 20-24 first round picks?

And every team was like, no, not interested in that. Let's do the one for this year where the players are good. So, like, there's your issue. And also, they probably don't want to give up on, like, Morgan Frost or Bobby Brinker, Ronnie Adderd, or Cam, Yor. like one of their younger guys who is like, you know, going to be an NFL. Again, like I get that you say, you know, I don't want to give up this or that to get rid of one year of James Van Rheemstike.

But if it's, you know, would you give this guy up for Johnny Godreau? Because that's what we're talking about. That's how it, you know, it works out. And yeah, I think, I don't know. I guess the fact that it feels like they did. even try is got to be what bothers flyer fans like what what are we doing here what what lane are we in you keep telling us we're not rebuilding it's we're reloading we're whatever else and yet when a a once in a lifetime chance to have a superstar who's like i want to play for you and you can't

even put yourself in position to try what are we doing well i mean the really important quote and this is what a lot of the the haters out there are not thinking about was that Chuck Fletcher said, well, look, it's really hard to move all these cap commitment. That's right. Yeah, he did have that quote. So did you guys think about that? People like you, Sean, all these, all these, you know, naysayers out there who are saying,

oh, you should get this guy. Did you think that it would be really hard to do it? Doesn't seem like it. You know what? I was basing everything I said. on the assumption that it would be easy. And now that, now that I now understand that it was not, in fact, easy, then yes. But yeah, this is the, yeah, the Armo Keck-Lycinan on Johnny Godreau,

when we realized it was possible and realistic, we got to work. We were excited. We had to crunch numbers and look at different things. We all agreed we couldn't pass on this opportunity if he wanted to come here. Chuck Fletcher didn't go after Goodrow because he would have had to move multiple contracts To get enough cap space And it would have been difficult

You're going to be picking up putting down the phone all day Yeah Well yeah This guy's got a life You know He's got a life outside of hockey Mm-hmm That's true

Work life balance is important And you know especially in July These days Self care You ever hear about self care Mm-hmm I'm with you man Like it's

Yeah all these people are being fucking ridiculous. Yeah. Elsewhere in the metro, the New York Rangers, they lose Ryan Strom. They trade away Georgiev. Right. But to replace Ryan Strom, they get Vincent Trocheck, seven years. Bit rich, but like I like the player, you know.

I like the player, but it's seven years is extremely rich. And it was a lot of money, too. Yeah. but like you know they think their window to win is right now they went to an eastern conference final last year was that a bit of a fluke sure it was but this you know the trend is up the trend is pointing up for this team very clearly the trend is up for sure as long as they have this goalie playing this well they're going to be competitive in the playoffs and in the regular season obviously so you go out you get a vinschritchie i totally get

get it. Their new backup goalies, he or Hallock. Okay, fine. No problem there. I believe this is Halak's 73rd NHL franchise. Yep.

I make that joke, obviously, but I do think that he has now tied the record for most teams played for in the NHL among goalies all time. Has he really? Okay. I believe that's true. I think Greg Millen was the previous,

like, this is like his eighth team or something like that. Okay. And I believe Greg Millen was the previous record holder with also eight. Very cool. I'll look that up right now. But, you know, he's whatever. He's like a replacement level.

One, two, three, four. This is his seventh team. So maybe he's one behind Millen now. Maybe that's it. But this is the seventh team in what will be 17 seasons. That's crazy. Yep. What's also crazy is pretty good almost everywhere he's gone.

Well, that's it. That's why the teams keep going out and getting them. Yeah. Yeah, he typically delivers exactly what you expect, like in this phase of his career. I would say they lost a bunch of games because of Georgiev last year. I know his win-loss record was fine, but he was bad, you know? If Halak is a slight upgrade on them, look out in the Eastern Conference. They're going to be a tough team to handle.

So I like the Rangers summer so far. I don't maybe like their outlook five years from now, but for next season, I think they're going to be better. Carolina, they get Brent Burns and Max Patcher ready for nothing. Yeah, pretty much. Stephen Lawrence, you get both those guys. Lots of cap space, but yeah, they. And both guys at the age where there is some risk,

but given the acquisition cost of essentially zero, the opportunity cost, which is, you know, not zero, but also I don't know that there's anyone that we expected them to be in on who they couldn't get because of this. So, yeah, this is the fabled weaponizing cap space that we always talk about. This is it being done. And yeah, we'll see if both those players can click. The hurricanes are maybe the, I mean, they were the best team in the Metro. last year by a lot of measures anyways, but maybe they can get up close to the top of the conference

and become cup favorites. We'll see. Again, hurts to lose Trocheck, sure. I think it hurts to lose Nino Nita Ryder, who remains unsigned, so they might not even lose him, in theory. But, you know, Brant Burns, if you're putting him in a position where he's a little more protected, like he doesn't have to play 28 minutes a night or whatever anymore.

And you're like, hey, big man, what are you like to do? And he says, I like to shoot it from the point. He's like, boy, do I have great news about our fucking power play. You know, like, if we're getting back to real basics with like what Brent Burns is good at and, or traditionally has been good at, and you're not asking him to do nearly as much as San Jose had to last year. I think that could be pretty solid, and especially because San Jose ate some of its cap money and all that kind of stuff.

That works for me. Again, maybe not three years from now, but Hurricane's Window to Win is right the second, so good luck to him. Let's talk about the New Jersey Devils, a team that, boy, they made a lot of trades of late. They trade for Eric Hall. trade for John Marino. Then they also sign Andre Palat. They win the big Andre Palat sweepstakes.

They trade for and then re-signed VTec Fannichek, which I think we talked about on the show last week. And they signed Brendan Smith as a depth option, which is, yeah, fine. Okay, sure. Yeah, another team that, another bad team getting better, but also, like, how much room do they have to make up? How much ground do they have to make up? And again, the thing with the Devils is did not get Johnny Godreau and did have cap space and did go for him and yet lost out to Columbus.

So again, that one stings a little bit if you're a Devils fan. It does for sure. He's from New Jersey. I don't know if you've heard that. That has not come up. Oh, okay. Well, it's true. It's a fun fact about Johnny Goddrae that not many people know about.

But yeah, no, again, they've definitely improved. but they're in the same boat as like Columbus and Ottawa and Detroit where it's like improved how much really. But I mean, but you do have to improve at some point. Yeah, absolutely. You can't just constantly be like, well, you know, like it's not like you're either dead last or you're the cup favorite. And if there's anything in between, you don't try. Like you got to much like to try, much like Ottawa. You got at some point.

The problem with New Jersey is they've been trying for a few years. and it hasn't happened yet. The other problem is look at that gold-tending tandem. Vanichek and Blackwood. That's a big big no thing for me. Pittsburgh, they also made a bunch of trades. They trade Marino for Ty Smith. They get Ty Smith back, and they are the team we mentioned it earlier.

Matheson for Petrie and Paling. Payling's kind of a reclamation project, has not really lived up to the pre-draft. or the pre-NHL hype, which, hey, that never happens from guys who were like middle round first picks or whatever. That never ever happens. But it'll be interesting. I would say the other, obviously they're bringing Malcolm back. I don't remember if we talked about that on the last show.

And they find John Ruda. I would say a big surprise by the time it happened because they'd basically say. They'd basically said he was going to go to market, but everyone's smart enough. Then they didn't. Yeah, and like, you know, they were a good team last year. The Raquel contract surprised me a little bit. That felt like. Well, because you would have said it precludes the Malkin contract.

Yes. But here we are. You know. And they sign Jan Ruta for their defense, effectively, I guess, to replace Marino and then Tysmith is kind of more of a future. But like, you can't say that. the penguins haven't beefed up their defense a little bit with Ruta and Petrie and Tremont Smith, you know, their defense was a problem last year. Now it's going to be slightly

less of a problem and they got the band back together up front. So, you know, again, maybe you're worried about this team three years from now, but they're going to be good again next year. Good for them. Stay competitive as long as Crosby's in the league. That's it. There you go. There are Trivals, the Washington Capitals. You want to talk about a team that improved. Now their goaltending tandem is Darcy Kemper and Charlie Lindgren. Yep.

They get Gustafson. I really like that Dylan Strom bet by them. One year is 3.5. That's solid. That worked for me. Yep. Kemper's the big one, and it is possible that we look and say

this was actually a mediocre goalie on a great team who won a Stanley Cup and Capitals got suckered in. But, you know, they are the right team at the right place to take that gamble, I think. I would agree with that. And also, even if he's not good next year or what he was this past season next year, which I think he probably won't be, he's almost certainly an upgrade on what they had last year, which is one of the worst goal-tending situations in recent memory, I think.

For a playoff team anyway. Obviously, like the Arizona Coyotes last year. Not so good, but whatever. I think they improved this summer. So, again, that opens up the question. If all the playoff teams, like, improved it, or not all of them, But most of the playoff teams at least improved a little bit. I don't have a ton of optimism for a big shake-up in the Eastern Conference, but it could happen.

I don't know. And then one last team here. Yeah, one last team here. The New York Islanders. Now, remember last summer they weren't announcing any signings? Oh, yes. And everybody's like, just didn't feel like it. And everybody's like, he's a.

genius. He's making sure nobody in the NHL knows what his cap situation is. But now he hasn't announced any signings. And everybody's mad at Lou La Merillo? He did the same thing. He might have signed Nazim Kodry and John

Klingberg. You don't fucking know. That's it. How do you know? Proof that he didn't. Exactly. So that, I've been laughing about that because now, like, headlines in the post or whatever, fans are fucking rip shit. They haven't done

shit. But at the same time, like, whatever, you can't... They've done... You can't be mad at the guy. Nothing. Again, another team that was associated with Goddreau didn't, weren't able to clear the cap space. Sounds like they maybe actually tried, but weren't able to.

And, yeah, I mean, they're a very interesting team to me, because they're old and they were very bad last year and they continued to be getting older and maybe worse, but also they were real good for a few years before that. And, you know, they aren't going to have to start with a 47 game road trip or whatever this year. Right. Let's see. I'll say this about them, though.

We say they were bad last year. They certainly weren't good. That they were above 500 for whatever that's worth. And they had a better goal difference than the Dallas star is a team that everybody was like, yeah, they're pretty good. I think they probably lost a lot of one-goal games in regulation that maybe under normal circumstances would have gone to overtime, gotten them at least a loser point in a 50-50 chance at the bonus point, the winner's point, whatever. With that having been said, it's the thing we just said about the Capitals. Do they have 26 points worth of improvement coming back to them?

Because if they don't, they're maybe not a playoff team again. See, it's hard to see how they would, and yet it was also hard to see how they would lose that many points last year. Right. The other thing to say about them, I'm going to just double-check this real quick. But, yeah, they were a bad team last season in the standings, with 920 team goal 10. Sorokin was awesome last year.

Yikes. I did not realize they were that. Yeah. Good. Yeah, Sorokin 925, Varlamov 9-11. And then Corey Schneider got into one game. He only, he pitched 900. That's fine for a guy who got into one game.

So I look at this team and I'm like, they maybe, like how do you improve on 920 goaltending team goaltending? I don't know that you can. So I don't know what the outlook for this team is. But here's one last thing to leave you with. I'm not optimistic about this club for sure. If you go to the TSN transaction page, this is true. Because I was looking at every team's transactions on TSN last night.

If you go to the TSN transaction page, the thing where all the signings and trades or whatever had been listed, maybe this was just for me, but it said, quote, the content you are looking for is unavailable at this time. Please check back soon for updates. Yeah. And this was the only team for which that was the case. That's so fucking funny.

Check back. Check back soon. Check back in like September. Lou might reveal to you that he signed, yes, another 35-year-old for a bonus-laden contract. Yeah, could happen. Absolutely. I don't know.

It's really, it's great that everybody's turned on Lou Lamarillo this hard, this fast. In Lou we trust. Oh, really? Well, no, not really. Maybe he didn't sign any of this. Trust feels like a straw word. Yeah. Why don't we take another break?

We'll be right back. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Athletic Greens. And folks, every week when we have an Athletic Greens ad, what do I say? I started taking athletic greens because they sent it to me, and I was always not on board with drinking green juices and that kind of thing. It didn't seem like it was for me, but I tried it once they sent it to me, and I was like, hey, you know what? Pretty good.

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Guess what? Yeah. So the entire central division, like that's true of. So we're going to play a little game here on Puck Suit. Which is the best player acquired by a team in the central division? or re-signed that wasn't like Robert Thomas basically

is the only guy that I'm going to hold out because he's the obvious answer to this question. So here are your options. Yep. Josh Manson and Darren Helm resigned with Colorado. Arizona trades for Patrick Nemeth his cap-dump

contract here. St. Louis re-signs Nick Letty. Thomas Grice gets signed. Dallas Marchman. Mason Marchman goes to Dallas, sorry. Colin Miller goes to Dallas. Andrea Sandeth the C.U. And Max Domi go to Chicago.

I forget, I didn't even write down who signed Andre Schuster and Nashville gets Zach Sanford. Those are everybody that has signed and is like an actual, like, real NHL player. Right. In the Central Division. This is what happens. I guess Robert Thomas contract.

Awesome. Great. But. This is what happens. Schuster was Minnesota, by the way. This is what happens when one team at a division is so good that like every other team is like, screw this. Running fucking scared. Like, forget it.

We're not getting involved. Yeah. I mean, if I got to pick one player out of all that, I'll take Josh Manson. Sure. Okay, let's leave Manson and Thomas off the board. All right. Then, I mean, Mason Marshman's coming off a good year. Yeah, he's a good player.

I think that's the answer for sure. But even then, it's like this is someone who is just very recently developed into that sort of player. So there's still some question marks. Yeah, and he's like, by Dallas's reckoning, the team that signed him, he's a $4 million player. Yeah, exactly. That's it. He didn't, like, nobody went completely nuts on, you know, on signing him, even given the numbers he put up. So, and he's 27.

So, yeah. Yeah. I think he's probably. the one, but I mean, this is a guy who had 10 points was his career high before last year. It was really good last year. Mason, argument, the other thing is

almost signed with Carolina. In fact, it got reported that he had on TSN. They were like, oh, he signed with Carolina. Then he didn't. Yeah, apparently, last minute, change your heart sort of thing. And obviously, he had gone through the week that he had been through with his dad passing in, in,

Of course. Of course. It was pretty wild. You can understand why, I mean, geez, I can only imagine having to make that kind of decision in one day under those circumstances. He will, of course, have to write a Players Tribune article explaining to the good people of North Carolina. He will. Why he went to Dallas instead. But, yeah, this is just like a nothing division.

Athansa you and Domi signed with Chicago. Classic. They're both on one-year deal. deals, I believe. So this is a classic thing of like, we're going to trade both of you at the deadline. How's that sound? And they were like, okay, great. You're going to give me three and a half million dollars for that? Sounds good. The one contract I wanted to talk about that is bat shit crazy to me is this Nick Letty deal in St. Louis. Can you explain this to me? Because I don't, I do not fucking get it. Well, NHLGMs love defensemen. Is that? Yeah. Does that work?

He was a second-pairing defenseman for them last year. He's 30 years old. And they traded for him. He was at the deadline. I mean, the argument, I guess, would be that $4 million for a second-payer defenseman, if you feel like you can trust him to hold that spot down, he is pretty good value. Do I feel like that about Nick Letty? No, I feel like you do not.

I think that... No, no, no, no, I definitely don't. That to me is like... I don't get that contract even a little bit. But hey, get to sign somebody, I guess. I guess the only other thing to say about St. Louis is we're kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop on Tarasenko, because now we're doing the thing of, oh, no, he still has that trade request in, and the GM's going, now we're going to keep them.

Oh, really? Oh, okay. And the other, I guess, obvious thing is that St. Louis would be a prime suspect for a Matthew Kachuk destination. Of course, yeah. We're kind of just waiting. So maybe we consider... Speaking of guys getting traded. Yeah, we consider them sort of...

I don't know. I mean, can you do a Kachuk deal with Teresenko as a big piece of it? Like, does that... No, Teresanko's 30 and he's signed for one more year. So... All right. Answer that, yeah, okay. Like, as good as Teresanko is, he was awesome last scene, he scored 30-something goals.

Yep. Right? do you really say to yourself, well, you know what? We'll take him for one year. Maybe not one year. Absolutely. I maybe say I'd like to talk to him before, you know, pick him out of St. Louis. What would it take for you to extend for a few years in Calgary?

I don't know. There's just, we're so trained these days whenever there's a big trade to immediately assume that one side has to be getting picks and prospects. Like it always has to be a future deal for one side. And if I'm Calgary, I'm coming off 100 plus point season, there's part of me that's like, do I not owe it to the guys on this roster to bring in some help now and try to at least make the playoffs? I don't know. Yeah, and look, like, if you're keeping Lindholm for, you know, obvious reasons and you get Tarasenko, like that's a pairing that could work for me, you know, like there's skill sets, how they mix and all that.

Yeah, okay, great. that having been said again like even if you're even if you're trying like the idea that you trade Matthew Kachuk and you're like but we got this 30 year old guy back who has really bad injury history how's that sound like as good as he was last year do the locals fucking accept that that I no thanks for me yeah that's then maybe it's hard sell um but again they They gave Robert Thomas an eight-year deal, like eight-in-change. He's a really good player. I like that contract for them a lot.

But it makes me question like, oh, when Jordan Kairu is up, like, he's going to want a billion dollars, right? Well, he could be the guy in a Kachuk deal. Oh, if I'm Calgary, I'm jumping all over that, then. Either one of them, quite frankly, but if it's Kairu, that's a guy that you're maybe a little bit excited about, right? like more so than Robert Thomas who I honestly I think probably 200 feet of the ice Thomas is a better player than Kyru but with that having been said like Kyru that speed

the finishing ability whatever that's a player to get excited about it if Kyru's the guy coming back the problem is he's an RFA after next season and do you want to fucking have this son? and dance again, again, like you said with Tarasanko, you would be like, at least let me talk to the guy first. Yep.

So, anyway. Yeah, I don't really know that we have anything else to talk about in this entire division. I still think Colorado is the best team in that division. Now, that's really bold of you to say. What odds would I have to give you, like, to take the field to win that division? like in the standings I see I don't I'm not like a betting guy

you know I don't know any of this like you still want plus much like do you if I gave you like for example I said I take Colorado you take the other seven teams yeah would you do like a straight bet like we each put a hundred bucks on the table would you take that bet or are you still wanting like you want I mean I need a little

I need a little bit of juice for sure but like I look at Colorado's goaltending situation and I go, well, you know what, Darcy Kemper, before he came to Colorado, was a competent NHL goalie. Mm-hmm. Right? I don't know that I feel that way

about Frantos and Georgiev. Like, they're perfectly fine, whatever, but like, I guess what I should have said about Kemper is competent NHL starter. And I don't have any proof of concept with Frantos and Georgiev. So that would be the issue for me, but is that enough to,

thin out the like 10 or 12 standings. I don't remember how far ahead they finished of everybody else. But like Minnesota is going to take a step back. They were second in that division last year. Is St. Louis going to improve? I kind of don't think so. And the same is probably true of Dallas and Nashville. Like notably enough that, you know, hey, you tell me.

You know, I would need some enticement. But, like, the Colorado goal-tending situation is enough that I'm not, like, well, obviously Colorado is going to win that division walking away. I wouldn't go that far, but I will say that they have to be the clear favorite. Yep. That sounds fair. Nothing groundbreaking there. Big scoop. Must credit.

Yeah, that's right. The other thing I guess we've got to talk about this week, and you hate to have to talk about it. the Hockey Canada thing is getting worse all the time. It's amazing that they keep, that they keep being like, no, there's a worse wrinkle to this. Yeah. So very bad for Hockey Canada. The latest news being that, you know, apparently there's, they,

this is one of those things where the details are, are maybe being distorted a little bit, but essentially that the payment for the lawsuit came from a fund that they had, basically a little, they had money put aside to deal with these sorts of situations, which has been then represented as, you know, oh my God, Hockey Canada was taking your kids registration money and putting it into a slush fund that they used to pay off sexual assault lawsuits without going through their insurance company, which, you know, I'm sure Hockey Canada would say that's misleadingly negative, but they also have burned through pretty

much all their credibility and benefit of the doubts. So the other news this week is the lawyers for the players who are in the room, who we still do not know the identity of, have gone, I don't know if I'd say on the offensive, but they have begun putting text messages and videos out into showing them to media to try to get their side of the story out. And look, these guys, whoever they are, are accused of very serious and significant wrong doing, they have a right to defend themselves, both legally and in the court of public opinion, and that's what they're trying to do here. And the rest of us have a right to consider that.

But certainly to take it with an enormous grain of salt when you've got lawyers who are trying their abs. And frankly, you know, if you didn't see the story, if this is the best they can do as far as defending themselves, it certainly, even that version doesn't come across as a great look. And then the other piece of it is more and more players coming forward saying, AI was not involved. It wasn't me. Yeah. Which is, you know, there's unavoidably is creating the scenario where people are keeping track and saying noticing which players have not said anything. I think certainly when you look

at some of the statements, people are noticing that there is a big difference between saying this player was not there, was not involved, had, you know, did not know anything about it versus saying this player did not commit any wrongdoing, which doesn't necessarily, uh, mean that they weren't present. Uh, we will say, I mean, this is, this is, very clearly any attempts, any thoughts that they were going to be able to sweep this aside. and is now gone. We will eventually know the names of all the players

who were accused of wrongdoing. We will probably not necessarily have any legal ramifications to that given that there was a suit and it was settled and what have you. But this will play out in a court of public opinion, both for the players and for Hockey Canada. And Hockey Canada is getting hammered right now and deservedly so. It seems like that's the least of their problems,

is that people are like, oh, we're mad about this. I mean, it's yes and no. I mean, hockey Canada is one of those things where it, if it loses the faith of people, then it potentially does not exist or does not exist in anywhere near the form that it does. So this is, again, I feel like we've said this, we kind of end on this each time we talk about this,

but any thoughts that this was going to go away should be put aside. And certainly if you're one of the players or representing one of the players that's involved, if your game plan was to just wait it out, your game plan is not going to work here. Yeah, like we said a couple of weeks ago, when the leader of your country is like, oh, this seems really bad. I'm going to keep an eye on this. That's bad news for you. It's not going to end well for you. So, yeah, it's, and I think we have to soon get to the point where, you know, not, it's, you don't want to encourage a bunch of speculation and you don't, you know, the fact that some player hasn't put a statement out doesn't mean they're guilty or whatever have you.

But you wonder if there, we are getting to the point where I'm seeing, I'm seeing stories and previews in that for next season that. are just kind of skipping over the fact that there may be some players who's availability or, you know, ability to stay in a market is affected by this very soon. And I'm curious to see. Yeah, and I've seen, like, to your point about the speculation, I've seen people who are like, here's a screenshot of the roster of the 2018 hockey Canada team or whatever, with names crossed off of people who have denied it or like have been proven that they weren't there.

And it's like you don't want to get into the we're crossing off names on a list to see who is or isn't. And it's bad, man. It's bad all the way around. And the other thing that that I guess we should just point out is because this has been a little bit lost in some of the some of the shuffle here. the accusation is that there were eight people in the room, including members of the Canadian roster, but not necessarily exclusively that.

So I guess what I'm saying is if you're one of the people scratching names off a list, like. And you're down to 10 guys. If you get down to eight guys, yeah, if you get down to eight guys, that doesn't mean you've got the list of eight now. And that's even assuming, obviously, that, you know, we're taking people at their word when they say they weren't involved. and maybe we shouldn't be. Yep. But the fact that if it gets down to eight,

because it's getting pretty close to eight guys that haven't put anything out, that, you know, to say, aha, that's who it is, isn't necessarily an accurate way of looking at it. Yeah, it's, like we said, it's going to get worse. So, like, as horrific as everything has been so far, we still don't know a lot of the details and that kind of stuff, and they'll probably come out at some point. and boy, you're not going to like him, I bet.

Yeah, there's, you know, there are going to be some fans and fan bases that are in for a rough summer. And I guess we'll kind of leave it at that. We'll see where it goes from there. Nice to end on a pleasant note on the show this week. But, yeah, when, you know, like we said before the show, when are we going to talk about it during the show? There's no way to really shoehorn it in there. otherwise. And it's, you know, it's important and it's worth talking about. Absolutely. So, yeah. So, Sean, why don't you say some plugs?

You can find my stuff on the athletic. It gets some fun set off this week. I have just today the results of my annual prediction contest. This is the one where I ask very easy questions and you give me easy answers. And then we look back at the end of the year and see how easy it was. 1,600 entries, you guys got absolutely destroyed. Yeah, of course. You, oh. Not me, of course.

I had a perfect score. Yeah. Nobody had remotely close to a perfect score. It's, it's, I recommend, other than Ryan, and we didn't, we didn't let Ryan, we didn't count him. But I, I reckon, even if you didn't enter the contest, I recommend checking out the article, because it is very funny to watch. There was literally a question that 1,600 people answered and not one,

person went five on the entire. Hell, I'm going to pull this up right now. Not one person. And there was another one, like the very first question, which was the coaches, name coaches that won't get fired. I think there was a 99% zero rate on that question. I bet. I fucking bet. It's, it's quite. Because everybody would have said, uh, Quenville, Trots, Bruce Cassidy. Like there, there were literally more people going old for five than we're, we're doing well on that question. So it's very funny. And then I've got a thing tomorrow, which to mark the one-year anniversary of the last expansion draft with Jesse Granger and Ian Mendez and I have put together,

keep an eye out for that. It's a fun one. Excellent. Yeah, like I said, I wrote about on E.P.Rinkside.com. This week I wrote about when GMs kind of just go like, ah, we lost that guy, that sucks. Well, I don't have anything better to do with that. like Columbus is the other recent example I use where they were just like,

yeah, I guess we lost Panarin and Babrovsky. Oh, well, you know. And I was like, oh, it seems like you should have a better plan than that. That was the thrust of the article. Check it out. I had notes on all 32 teams this week once again. So, yeah, lots going on. I did a mailbag yesterday, and then I'll have something else later.

This week haven't decided what it is yet. And then, yeah, if you want to sign up for elite prospects, you can get the draft guide to learn all about the guys your team drafted a couple of weeks ago and that kind of thing. All the prospects that might have been traded for, whatever. That's E.P.Rinkside.com. Sign up for an annual subscription with the code. I love E.P. And you will get three months tacked on to your 12-month subscription. So what a deal.

And then the other plug, as always, the Puck Suit Patreon, me and Sean are about to record a mailbag for that. And we're at the point of the year where more and more of the content shifts over to that. Right, because we don't have a main show next week. We're not going to do one, not going to be, not expecting a lot of news, not expecting, or we don't have any ads to sell to you. So that's why we're taking the week off. And that happens during the summer. It'll happen a few more times in the next month or two. And that's just how it is.

So, yeah, more stuff on the Patreon. Jump on the Patreon. It's a good time to get it. Me and Sean Gentile did podcast this week. Me and Greg Wasinski and Sean Gentile are doing a podcast this week. Me and Adam Vingen did a wrestling podcast yesterday. So like a lot of, boy, if you want to hear my opinions on stuff, have I got the place for you. Yeah, check all that out.

Patreon.com slash PuckSoup. And that's it. We're done. Thanks for listening. We'll see in a couple of weeks. Have a good one, folks. Bye-bye. See you.

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