Puck Soup - Who's Out There?

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

Sean and Ryan talk about recent transactions, potential trades/signings, and more. Get bonus episodes and more at Patreon.com/PuckSoup Sponsored by Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck) and Mint Mobile (mintmobile.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from the Perfect Takes newsletter and sometimes the hockey news. I'm Sean Macon from the athletic. And we're in the dog days of summer, folks. I hate to tell you. It's July 14th, it says here on my computer. And we are just, there's nothing happening. I don't have a big, maybe Sean does. I don't have a big take on the Philip Rozichka entry-level deal that just got signed the other day.

Yesterday? Yesterday? Yesterday. Vigo Bjork, he's locked in, we got thought, we don't. Although I'll say this, Sean, I did see people going, oh, there were rumors at the draft that he was going to sign. All right, who gives the shit? There were rumors that he was going to sign?

Yeah, he wasn't going to return to Sweden. He was going to sign with the Jets. And it's like, okay, you could have mentioned that then. Sure. What good does it do me now? Oh, I knew from before. All right, great. doesn't matter.

So let's divide this episode, I guess, into old business and new business. Old business, for example, the ducks matched the Leo Carlson offer sheet from Philadelphia, five years, 18 million bucks a pop. They're on the hook, and they're loving it. They love being on the hook. They do. Everybody loves it, including the player who's like, this is what I wanted all along. I actually never wanted to leave.

And I didn't even think about leaving. I knew they'd match the whole time. You did? That's why I signed with a different team. Mm-hmm. As we said last week, when this was still an open question, I feel like this offer sheet was well designed to land right in the middle where you couldn't. A week ago, I couldn't figure out what the right answer was.

And I still don't think I figured it out. That's interesting. Even now that we know, did Anaheim make the right move? Did they not? I mean, a lot of this will obviously play out in the years to come. Like, does this guy reach an MVP level of play, or does he continue to just be merely like a good player who is not in the realm of some of the other guys?

And some of that will also depend on how crazy other salaries get partly thanks to this. So it kind of loops back on itself. If three years from now he's in the MVP race and he's like the six highest paid forward, yeah, he can live with that. If he's still the highest pay forward

and is not at that very elite level, then it's different. So I'm not surprised they matched. I default to assuming teams will match unless there are very weird circumstances in play. And so I wasn't shocked. Yeah, I agree with that. And again, like we talked about,

the structure of the deal, I think, was going to give more cause than, or pause rather than the number itself. You know, like the actual AAB, I think, was less of a concern than we got to write this guy like $80 million worth of checks in the next 24 months or whatever the number. It wasn't that much.

But you know what I mean. just like, that's a big, that's a big financial commitment to a guy who, again, like, all this stuff about, like, oh, he's going to be an MVP candidate. He's just not going to be. I, you know, I think he's, I think he's a really good player. I think his ceiling is higher, obviously, than we've seen because he's 21 years old, all that kind of thing. I just don't see an MVP style guy here unless he gets, I don't want to say a lot more help, but more help, basically. basically. And that, I think I said it last week or maybe the week before, like the way the

salary cap is rising. Like, $18 million just isn't going to be MVP level money like I think even in two years. You know, once McDavid gets on the market and resets it, we're going to go $18 million. That's nothing. Any idiot off the street can get $18 million. McDavid makes $24 or whatever the number. number is going to be, right? Like, that's just, that's just the financial reality the league is, is living in, but that doesn't mean it's like a comfortable number for the ducks with,

again, the, the veteran contracts they've signed and, and the way they try to play hardball with everybody that's trying to negotiate, like, can I actually have $5,000 because my puppy need surgery and Pat Rebeek drives over your house and kicks, kicks the dog just to show you? I'm actually not fucking around here, you know? So, I don't know. It's, they had to match at the end of the day because, like, the momentum around the team. I think, like, the way people are now talking about, like, oh, the future of the Anaheim ducks, and it maybe wasn't looking that way even a year ago, right?

So they had to match, and they just were never going to be able to, with the four picks, get anybody close to what Leo Carlson does. And that includes, like, the more pie in the sky. Like, well, what if they trade for Dylan Larkin with those big? Okay, yeah, sure. I think Dylan Larkin is worse right now than Leo Carlson. So, you know, there's that. But, yeah, I mean, like I said, they had to match.

And what I really wonder about is, like, what Philly does now. Anaheim, all questions are pretty much settled with the, of what they do to the Cutter-Gotiate contract, right? But what do you think for Philly? Yeah, that's the big question here, right? Because did they, did the Philadelphia Flyers look at their own roster and say, we need a number one center for the future? And then look around and say, who is the best guy that we have the best chance of getting

with an offer sheet? Oh, it's Leo Carlson? Okay. we put the offer sheet in. Now it's been matched and we still have that problem. So we move on to maybe the next guy and we see if there's more names on the list. Or was there something unique about Carlson where the flyer said, this is the guy that we need. This is the guy we want.

Sure. Yeah. And now that he's gone, it's okay. You know, there had been a lot of kind of, I would say jokes, although, you know, maybe this is, the truth said and jest type of joke about whether the flowers will go after Connor Bedard. Right. And,

and of course his injury, which we'll talk about later, affects that potentially as well. Of course it does. Yeah. Is an Adam Fantilli an option? That's where my mind immediately goes. It feels like it, right?

But the thing is, if, you know, if you throw crazy. money at Adam Fantilli, is there a world where Columbus doesn't match? Given everything they've been through this year, this summer with the Werenski stuff, and given that there is not a more old school combo in charge of a team than Don Waddell and Rick Bonas. Is there any scenario where Columbus doesn't go screw you? I guess short of their owner saying I'm not writing the

check, but I don't know. Now, I mean, you. could argue if you're Philly, yeah, go ahead and do it then. You're screwing over a division rival. Yep. Put a slug in them and then you're, you're, you're, you're, got one less team to worry about for the next few years. I mean, you want to talk about kicking a puppy, like, yeah, just sticking a thumb in the eye for, on, on, on the Columbus blue jackets, who have been through some problems in the last few months. And, and, and I'm not even talking about just the Werenski stuff, but like, the, Rick Bonas being like, these guys are

fucking losers. They think like losers. We got to change the mindset. We got to change the culture. If I come back, I am declaring war on losers. And then Don Waddell was like, we would like to have you back. Yeah. And without seeing the fucking red dot on his chest, right?

Like, we're declaring war on losers. Oh, I'm Don Waddell. But my track record as a GM is an exactly good. Hold on. The Thresher's made the playoffs that one year. They came real close to win in one of those games. Yeah, they got four kicks at the can. One of them was probably a one goal game.

So, okay, so the other option of course, I mean, if you're, if you're Philadelphia, you have to assume that they're still big game hunting. Now, there's not a lot of big game left, but is it, you know, is that Dylan Larkin, who I agree with you is not. you know, I mean, the flyers aren't on his trade list. We know that. But, you know, there's there's ways to potentially get onto a trade list if you're really serious about a player. I mean, he'd be much cheaper in contract. And you would think in acquisition cost, cheaper than four first round picks, although it would be a more immediate cost,

Detroit's going to want to help right now. We'll get to the, we'll get to the Larkin, what Steve Eiserman is putting out there that he wants, because this is obviously like a whole thing in Detroit right now. But yeah, yeah, just, I mean, I guess to wrap on the flyers,

I'm curious to see how it plays with the fan base as well, because from what I saw, there was obviously sticker shock at the dollar value like there was everywhere else. But, like, in general, fans love it when their GMs do stuff like this. Yeah, of course. Fans love it when their GM takes a big swing and is, you know, and a lot of GMs will occasionally take a big swing that doesn't work.

You know, you, and sometimes you hear about it afterwards, oh, the Leafs almost had Miko Ratanin for Mitch Marner. Okay. Right. But this is the rare case. where it plays out very publicly. It's public. You know that it's right there.

So at the end of the day, they didn't get the player, is that enough? Are we still, you know, we're still glad Danny Breyer tried and we always knew the odds were against him. But is it enough if he then says, okay, I guess it's, we move forward. You guys are happy with that, right? Or is it, all right, if you were willing to go, go crazy for Leo Carlson, who else out there is a possibility? Yep. And I think that's like the right way to think about it in terms of like, are they happy with having tried and failed? And I think this feels like something we definitely talked about and I definitely wrote about it last week, I think for the hockey news.

But basically like the thing with the Flyers is a lot of their success was, let's say, feeling a little unsustainable last season. Again, even if you just say, I think Dan Vlodar is taking a step back. I thought so. And then I read all this analysis about how these four first round picks they were going to give up. We're all going to be in the 30s because the Flyers are such a powerhouse. But this is the Flyers once you add a 30 goal, 21 year old or whatever, right? Like that is, I think, being built into the calculator. Obviously, I agree with what you're saying, right?

that there was a non-zero chance to these picks are in the mid-teens, let's say. Carlson obviously raises the floor on that, but now that they don't have Carlson, what I take the Carlson offer sheet ultimately to mean, like from the Flyers point of view, is they recognize they have to do more to upgrade the roster if they want to make going to the playoffs

a kind of perennial thing with this group. There's a lot to like there, but also there are some obvious roster problems and not having a really good number one center. Like, you know, Zegris played a good amount of center this past season, but like he wasn't their guy. He didn't take whatever. He took, let's say, 300 face-offs.

That's not number one center material, and that's them kind of recognizing, you know? So, whatever. Like I think that like I say, this is them going, okay, we got to we got to go back to the well on this one. And I, at this stage in the summer, I wonder, we'll talk about what their options might be. But it certainly isn't on the fucking free agent market. So who knows. I guess we'll also mention here, Utah matched on Barrett Hayton, who they now crucially can't trade until his contract is up.

and he, I believe, becomes a UFA. Yes. But again, kind of an easy to say. I mean, I wasn't, I certainly wasn't shocked. Part of me wonders on that one. The number that he got, that the devil's offered him was like right up against the limit, as is often the case for, for these offers to keep it at a second round pick. I wonder if in hindsight, if they wish they got a bit higher and bumped it up to, I think the next, I think it goes straight to a first and a third, which you could argue. is too much to give up, but that probably gets you the player.

Yeah, probably. But maybe at too high a cost. A crucial detail here that I think is getting skipped a little bit is my understanding is they cannot trade him, but they can't extend him. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. If they get to January 1st and he's having a good year and he's happy there, they can go to him and say, okay, here's what the new content is. track looks like. Now, of course, he's got an incredible amount of leverage there. So it puts him

in a bad situation. But yeah, I was not saying. Certainly out of the two, I would have bet that one to be matched with more confidence than the Carlson one. Yep. And like, you know, he's a good player. He helps Utah. He maybe overperformed a little bit this past season just in terms of like what we, you know, what we can say his reasonable like not sealing but like a fifth overall pick you'd like to think it wasn't

an overperformance but it may have been yeah but what I'm saying is like I don't know how much more he has to give I guess you know what I mean like the upside like this might be the ceiling and maybe the ceiling isn't like that far below or the

the baseline isn't that far below what the what the ceiling was this year, but you know, there's, I'll put it this way. I don't think he's going to suddenly score 35 goals next season.

Right? Like there's not some secret depth waiting to be plumbed here. There's just, this is a good player. And the devils could have really used him as like a two, three center option. Mm-hmm.

You know, but. So do we do the same thing with the devils of what's next for them? Or was this just sort of a unique opportunity that they took? I mean, I guess the thing is that, like, I think there are more Barrett Hayton's available in the trade market, maybe not, you know, before the start of the season, but let's say in November, in January, around the deadline, there's a Barrett Hayton out there. I don't know that there's a Leo Carlson out there.

That makes sense. But, you know, Utah gets a player. they, I guess we're willing to trade briefly? And then we're like, actually, no. And, you know, that, that, we'll talk about this when we talk about Jason Robertson and all that in this, in the second, the second part of the show here. But there's a, there is a component of like, oh, you guys wanted to trade me, huh? All right. And I guess the last thing we should say on hate is the, like, I.

I guess the small but non-zero chance that he does break through this year, in which case, look out if a guy who's like 26 hits the UFA market after a breakout. Yeah. It does have a 35 gold year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is, yeah, as far as contract years go, this has got to be, there's got to be an all-timer potentially here. Yeah, I tend to. He's calling up Darren Radish right now. Like, dude, what's the mojo?

What did you do? And he was like, well, I played a lot on the power play with Nikita Kutrov. You guys have guys like that around there? I can't do that. No. They won't even let me get traded to Tampa now. This sucks. So we're talking about RFAs.

Let's keep talking about RFAs here. Two teams avoided arbitration just yesterday. The Buffalo Sabers. give Peyton Krebs $4.5 million a year for the next four years. And the New York Rangers give Braden Schneider one year at five and a half. What do you think? Pick either one you want. I think they're both fine. Did you see Elliot Friedman initially misreported the Krebs number at like 3.5?

It was just a typo. And he corrected it like seconds later, but I can only imagine what the agent. Those numbers, yeah, those numbers are right next to each other on the keyboard. They are. It's a pretty credible typo. Yeah, that's right. It's not like he said out Peyton Krebs being traded to the, oh, that's, sorry, guys, fat-fingered the phone, meant to say. Whipsy-Dazy?

Arbitration settled. Yeah. I want to get a job as an NHL arbitrator. What an easy job. Yeah, you don't got to do shit. You never do anything. You don't even have to get out of bed. And then when you do have to do something, you just listen to two guys go, oh, I think it should be $4 million.

And another guy goes, I think it should be $6 million. And you go, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. How's $5 million on everybody? All right, have a good summer. At GBT, please add these two numbers up and divide by two. Oh, you're getting $47 million, it says here. That's interesting. That's right.

Yeah, I wasn't shocked by either of them. This is pretty typical summer business in the NHL for, I don't mean this insultingly, but like second and third tier players. Yeah, of course. Can I say this, though? Like, I think the Krebs number is totally fine. You know, he maybe scored a little more than he will going forward, but like $4.5 million for a guy that's very reliable defensively.

I didn't look back too far, but like basically every year he is better than his defensive expectation, basically every year. So like, that's all you want. And if that costs you $4.5 million and you're trying to build a strong forward group, you're totally happy with that. I think that's, I think that's a nice contract for all involved. Totally, totally good. The Braden Schneider deal, I think, is so good from the Rangers.

and I'll tell you why. I think Braden Schneider sticks. I think he isn't good. Wow. Okay. And he gets talked about and he gets used. Like, look, obviously this isn't everything, but like if you pull up one of these guys player cards like Jayfresh has a revolving hockey has, like single digit numbers for percentiles for a few key areas of his game, let's say.

And yet he is not talked about that way at all, right? People are like, he's good. I'm sitting there going, Braden Schneider, the hockey guy from the Rangers. I don't think so. And so I think this is good business from the Rangers because it's one year and he, I believe, has arbitration eligibility next year. So you can say to the team you eventually trade him to, well, you get another year of control. Doesn't that sound great? And they go, yeah, yeah, that actually makes us want to give you a first round pick for this guy who stinks.

Okay. That's pretty good. And then the- I'm impressed that you were able to go from this guy stinks to, that's a great deal for the team that kept him. But you're right, the term is- It's one year. You don't have, and it's not even one year, because if the Rangers are smart, which, okay, maybe that's a different question. But I just go, you can find a buyer on this guy.

Somebody's going to want him. And then the money and the control and like, do we give him a big contract when he's like 28 years old, whatever it is? You don't have to think about it. All these problems are solved for you because you gave him a one year deal and he took it. This is smart from the Rangers. Get a guy for him, you know. Rangers fans feel like we're not complimentary enough. There you go.

Good job signing your player who stinks. Thumb-up. He's not good. I don't know what to tell you. I'll pull up the evolving hockey card right now. I'm not afraid. It's bleak. Now, look, is that some of it like, oh, they don't use him in a way that puts him in a position to succeed?

Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's in part because I don't think there's a ton of good defensemen on the Rangers in general, right? But it doesn't change the fact that. The results have been poor. Three-year numbers on Braden Schneider, Sean. Ready? This is from evolving hockey.

29th percentile among all defensemen. 37 offense, 19 defense. A lot of the, like, positive stuff, I would estimate is because of who the goalie is behind him. Because it's driving a lot of, let's say, positive performance on goals above regulation, but expected, or replacement, rather. But expected goals above replacement, not so good. Guy doesn't really seem to get a lot of power play time. He's on their second PK unit. Like, I think this is a guy that I don't want on my team.

And soon that'll be the Rangers. They'll be saying, hey, we're good here. Thank you, though. And then that's the end of it, you know? So, yeah, those are my thoughts on Bradenstider, who I think is bad. Okay. Why don't we take a break and we'll come back and we'll talk about new business,

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And, well, let's start with this. Let's start with the guy I wrote this week holds all the cards. The most powerful man in the NHL offseason to date is Dylan Larkin. Because he recently, this is in the news just last week, he expanded his trade list by one teams. There you go. That's right. He's up to four, ladies and gentlemen. What a team player.

What a team. And I bet you the team he expanded it to probably stinks and is, oh no, it's a 110 point team and a no tax date. Cool. Cool. So now we're up to Vegas, Minnesota, Florida, and Dallas as potential landing spots for Larkin. And the more I've been thinking about this. And the more we've seen like reporting. on what Steve Eiserman kind of wants out of this,

which is basically not future. Or futures. Future like the rapper, I guess. I don't know why I said that. Do not offer that rapper. Here's the thing. It's going to cost you more than that. DS2?

All his collabs with Young Thug? I'd be happy to have him. Okay. This guy's a genius. Anyway. Yeah, so no futures for the Red Wings. Roster players. Give me roster players.

And kind of like as part of that discussion and, oh, you know what? We actually would like to see him traded to Dallas maybe. Dallas and Detroit have a little bit of a conversation. And what does Detroit ask for, Sean? What do they ask for? Well, what about Wyatt Johnston? Okay. And it's like, oh, the guy who's better right now?

See, this is the problem you're going to run into a lot with Dylan Larkin, I think, is that a lot of guys are better than Dylan Larkin. It's undeniable that this is true, yes. I'd just like to get like six or seven years younger and maybe a guy who scored like 20 more goals last year. How does that sound? Okay. Great, yeah. Again, though, I got to say I'm fully Team Eiserman on this one.

Wing for the fences, and if it doesn't happen, see you in September, buddy. So, you know when it's time to get on that little exercise bike in September? Let's just say yours, well, the stopwatch might not be working. Is it supposed to be 20 seconds? Someone really cranked up the resistance on this one. Yeah, that's going to be 45 minutes. We're going to lock you in this room. We'll come back.

So here's my thing. With that, though, I think that's all well and good if he's like the eighth best player on your team. I think that's all well and good if he's not the captain of your team. He can, again, how many times have we said it? Like, hockey is all about like, we're the toughest guys on earth, but please don't hurt our feelings. That's right. Pretty please. And there is nothing that hockey people hate.

more than capital A, capital D, a distraction. And if he shows up to camp, day one, it's the only thing anybody talks about. Day two, the only thing anybody talks about, day three, only thing. And you can just do that as far into the future every time they lose a game. What does Dylan Larkin think? Like, I think he is making this untenable for them, which obviously is his goal in a certain way, right? And I just don't, I don't see Steve Eisenman being like able to, um, really, what do you want to say? Like, hold the line on this one.

You know what I mean? I, yeah, it would be tough. And I would agree with you that, that probably two thirds of the GMs would cave on this. And the other third would maybe cave. So I'll put Eisenman in the maybe category. I still would just, I mean, again, there's, you give you four teams to work with. And I mean, Dallas is kind of the first where you even feel like there's any sort of opening there. Yeah.

Oh, and the other thing to say about this is they also said, what about Jason Robertson? And Jason Robertson said, I'm all set with signing in Detroit long term. Thank you, though. No, thank you. Oh, and this is all allegedly, this is all like reports. about, you know, that kind of thing. So who knows how strongly it was even brought to Robertson? Like, I don't think he was like, never trade me to Detroit, hangs up the phone,

throws it out the window. Like it's just, you know. The way he did with Seattle? That's exactly what I did. Yes. I think there's maybe a little less vociferous rejection of the idea. But ultimately it sounds like it got rejected. and that kind of puts the red wings back to square one a little bit,

but also Dallas, because they're still doing the Jason Robertson song and dance. It would have been a great pairing for Detroit and Dallas, you know? Like, you take our problem, we'll take yours, we'll see you in fucking October. But I just... And by the way, that would be a great trade for... Detroit, assuming they can get Roberts inside to pretty much anything. They win that one hands down.

Absolutely. And I guess what I'm thinking with this is we don't want futures, we want roster players. And isn't that interesting that that's the direction they're going in? Like, they think they are a downgrade from Larkin at center, maybe. Although if you're getting Wyatt Johnston, then, yeah, I, you know, I'll call up Edmonton and see if they'll give you Connor McDavid while you're at it. Yeah, you could definitely red paperclip your way up to Connor McDavid. Just trade. Absolutely.

And look, it's not like we don't have a ton of evidence that Steve Eiserman is one of the shrewdest traders in the league. He just got Justin Falk for a first round pick. Yeah. That worked out great, right? It was probably lottery protected or something, right? So to me, like, I don't know what Eisenman's doing here. What does he think this team is? It's not good.

I don't think it's even that deep. I think he is looking at this and saying two things. A, this market just cannot or will not take another rebuild. years out of the playoffs, we've got to show progress. Yes, if you hooked him up to a lie detector and said, is this a cup contender? Are there the bones of a cup contender here? He might have to acknowledge there's not, but I, these, this market can't take another step back and we're going to sit out for three years and then try again. Plus, and I'm more hesitant on this for Steve Iserman for obvious reasons than anyone else. But I, I, you know,

I also think any other GM would be like, if I trade this guy for first round picks, I'm not going to use those picks. That's going to be some other GM who's going to be walking up to a podium and looking smart drafting guys with my picks because I'm going to be out of here. Now, in Eisenman's case, maybe that means I'm going to be promoted to team president of whatever. But it's, I just, I don't think he legitimately thinks like he looks like he looks. at that Atlantic division and goes like, this is our opening. I think he's just in the, all right, man. Three years ago, we were

sitting with Montreal, Buffalo, Ottawa, they're all playoff teams now. I'm going to get run out of town on a rail here if I don't get this team in the playoff soon. Well, all I'm going to say then is let's get that rail greased up so you can

get a nice smooth ride out of town. This team's not making the fucking playoffs soon. What are they away from the playoffs? A goalie? Like, okay, sure, Trey Augustine. Oh, it's going to be his first year as a pro,

let alone an NHL player, right? How many guys on their roster are like, oh, he's just a step away from being like a 30 goal guy or like a clear elite defensive? Again, they didn't come particularly, close to the playoffs. I don't have the standings in front of me, but that's my recollection.

And they got a, I would say, Norris-worthy season from their best defense from them, right? And much like Werencki, how likely do we think he is to repeat that? And Werencki, by the way, did win the Norris. This guy wasn't even a finalist. I mean, I think Siders likely to play at a round this level for years to come, but you're right, even around this level could involve

is just as likely to involve a small step back as a small step forward at this point. Mm-hmm. And again, I just looked it up. They missed the playoffs by six points. Is he three added wins away? Like, from the scrape and claw into the eighth seed? Like, is that what we're fucking going for a year? And that's in a world where Florida's not in the playoffs.

New Jersey's not in the playoffs. Like Washington is not in the playoffs. Yeah, I don't see it, man. I don't. What percentage of expert picks in September and October and we all fill them out? What percentage of people do you think will have Detroit in the playoffs? 15. There's always a sucker out there, you know?

Yeah. And like, look, it's true of literally almost any team in the league in any given year. Look at the penguins this year. Nobody had the penguins in the playoffs. And they made it pretty comfortably. Don't look up how it went for them. And don't look up like what that probably means for their future. But like, you know, you take the wins where you can get them, certainly.

Now, let me just look at the Detroit roster. Do they have anybody as good as Sidney Crosby or of getting a moll? Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Well, they probably have a number one center. That's probably, uh, we can start. Oh, right. So, you know, like this stuff about like, we won't take futures.

Okay, I don't know. Again, I just don't know how you upgrade your roster by rebuilding Dylan Larkin in the aggregate. You know what I mean? Like you're playing money ball. You haven't made the playoffs in like 10 years, whatever the number is? All right, man, sure. I think this is, and you know what, I'll end with this. And we'll move on to the penguins, having other stuff.

going on. But the thing is, like, you look at the, the Red Wings, like, salary cap picture, too. Like, they aren't a team that's able to just go out there and give, like, in theory, they could do it. Like, give $18 million to Leo Carlson or Connor Bedard or whatever, right? Like, they are a team that like the Flyers. They could solve their problem with an offer sheet. but like Steve Eiserman just doesn't seem like he's that kind of GM right like you were saying about it doesn't seem like he's going to cave or whatever pat for be caved a little bit you know when when uh with the mitchikov deal where he's like okay I can't play hardball with every single fucking guy that walks through my door I can I can give a little bit here I think that's kind of

got to be what happens with Eisenman. Again, barring an offer sheet. Like, he's just going to, let's put it this way. And then we'll move on to the Penguins. But he's just got to like understand that if he not, like, if he stakes out the position of no futures for us, only roster players. And then he eventually takes a future because Larkin makes this an untenable situation. Not only does the team get worse. guarantees another year of missing the playoffs and all that stuff,

he looks like a dipshit for going back on his word. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know? So that's why, that's, again, why I say Larkin, I feel like, it's just the most powerful man in the league right now. Because he can, if he can make Steve Iserman look bad, and, like, maybe even put his job in jeopardy, that feels like a huge amount of power to me.

So, anyway, the, the, penguins, uh, reports are, they're sniffing around Jason Robertson as well. It is written that every brother pair must be united. Yeah. And look,

it was not worded quite so strongly as like, oh, they're, they're very interested in all this. It was, I believe the wording was like, they are, the penguins are aware that Robertson would resign there or something

along those lines. they actually have to like make a deal that the the stars would want though you know i'm curious what that looks like i agree because pittsburgh is sort of there's a very clear divide between guys that are old some of whom of course he would never trade but old guys that you wouldn't think dallas would be interested in and then young guys you wouldn't think pittsburgh would want to like there isn't that 26 year old good player that you could maybe build an offer around. Is there? Like, am I missing?

The only guy that I can. Brian Rust again for the sixth or eight year? Yeah, and I mean, like, you want to talk about a guy who's not young? I was shocked when I was reading about this earlier this week to learn that Brian Rust is 34 years old. Oh, Lord. Okay. Yeah, that's too old. Don't do that, Brian.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And same with Raquel, who was, I believe, connected to the hurricanes. I don't know how strongly earlier this summer. Raquel's 33. So you go down the list and it's like, Elmer Soderblom is 25, but he's like a reclamation project. Do you say Ben Kindle? Do you want this like 20-year-old kid, 19-year-old kid? Mm-hmm.

Who just had like a pretty good rookie year? I give that up for Jason Robertson. Absolutely. But then you're going to make the money work, right? Yep. And on the back end, it's kind of the same gimmick. It's like Sam Gerard is older than you think he is. And maybe, you know, I would say the upside that we once all thought was there isn't necessarily there.

Right. And other than that, like, hey, we just traded for Caden Corsack. You want him? he's fine, you know? But so I don't know how that trade gets engineered except to say maybe the penguins throw in a first round pick or two. Should they do that? I don't know.

Will they? Tell you, if I'm, if I'm Dallas, I'm, if I'm getting a first round pick, I'm not, I'm not letting you protect it against, you know, that's, I want it unprotected because that's part of, the appeal of getting a pick from a team as tenuous as the penguins. Mm-hmm. But Calduba probably would disagree with that, it's my guess.

Yeah, I think you're probably right about that. It does make, like, the fit in Pittsburgh does make sense, right? Like, it's absolutely the right guy to, A, come in and help push the, push the car down the road on the final few years of Sidney Crosby and the guy that's going to be ready to not take over from Crosby, obviously, but who's still going to be part of your next cycle? It's just a question of finding the deal. I don't see it. Yeah, I'm totally with you.

So, I don't know. It's interesting that that's like seemingly the most concrete, like, he'd go there, team that we've heard about. And to your point, like it, I don't feel like it's a guarantee the penguins make the playoffs next year, even if they do get Robertson. Because I don't know how much I trust those goalies and all that. And the blue line has some, I would say, issues. So it's interesting that Robertson, a guy who's like, I want to win, I would never go to Seattle. Those guys stink is like, oh, yeah, I'll go play with a bunch of 45-year-olds.

Yeah. You know what I mean? But you get to be friends with Sidney Crosby, that's going to be worth like a million bucks a year off your AAB. I mean, your brother is there. Like we've made the joke because he was in Toronto for Nick Robertson for the longest time. That like, yeah, Jason Robertson's the only star player in NHL history who doesn't give a crap about playing with his brother. Maybe not. Maybe he's now he's.

Yeah, maybe he loves it. Maybe now he's ready to go. Two brothers hanging out in Pittsburgh. get a couple of twin sidekicks. Run around at me. I'm seeing double eight brothers. That's crazy. Yeah.

Okay. I mean, as far as Jason Robertson landing spots, other than him just ultimately staying in Dallas, it's, this makes as much sense as any. Yeah. Really good player that Jason Robertson.

And hey, speaking of good players, there were there have been reports out there that not only is hellabuck uh conor hellabuck that is open to going to the buffalo savers some are saying he actually now actively wants to go to the buffalo savers get me out of here put me on that team that's interesting it it is yeah what was the last time somebody was like i want to go to buffalo yeah has it happened in the cap era i'm not sure it has If it did, I mean, they were good in like 05, 06, 08 era. So there were probably guys who did want to go there. Absolutely. And all they had to do, right, was a billion dollars for him. It's fascinating.

The Connor Hellebuck thing is both, it is now emerging as like simultaneously the best and worst argument against the whole, hey man, if you're worried about players not wanted to play there, just win. because Buffalo being a joke for 15 years, having one very good, seemingly sustainably good season, and the best goalie in the world is like, I want to go there. And yet also, he's like, and get me off this president's trophy winning team. That's it. Well, again, I've said this before.

Wait a second. Like, he, to analogize it as I, as I can here, like, Connor Hellbuck was like the kid who did all the work and then got the A plus on the group project. You know, like, there were a couple of kids who did like a little bit and a bunch of kids who didn't do shit. And he was like, no, I'm getting us the A plus on this. That's the president's trophy in Winnipeg. There's a reason he won the MVP. And it wasn't because, you know, like, was Mason Appleton on that team?

Mason Appleton did the heavy lifting. You know what I'm saying? So, like, for him to look around, see the, like, oh, if I have, like, even a pretty good year, we miss the playoffs. Get me the fuck out of here. Makes total sense to me. That's all. And look, I think it's awesome for Buffalo. Like, I hate when people do the, you know, the.

NHL's better when blank is good. Chicago is good. I don't give a fuck if Chicago's good. You know? But from the league perspective, Buffalo being a good hockey market again, because they'll just watch anything, you know? Yeah. Buffalo is, if people aren't aware, it's certainly not a big market in terms of

population or anything, but they watch the hell out of the NHL. It might be the best TV market in, certainly in the USA. And it's probably ahead of some Canadian markets as well. Yeah. In terms of like, in terms of like what we're saying is like every once in a while the NHL will release like, oh, here's the city by city ratings for our various games. And it's like, oh, Carolina and Nashville on a Tuesday number one market in the United States, the Buffalo market.

These people just love hockey. It doesn't matter if it's like a mid-season Winnipeg Jets game or the Stanley Cup final. The Buffalo is in the top markets every single time they release the city by city. And so to have that team be good, like I say, I don't give a shit if they're good or bad. It's kind of funny if they're bad still, you know, at this point. But for the league, they're going, we would love it if the – obviously they'd love it if every team was good. but like the savers in particular seem like they can help the NHL tap a, tap a richer vein in terms of like buying fucking jerseys and beer and all that kind of stuff.

So, uh, the other thing to say, though, is there was a report, I believe in the Winnipeg free press that said also, uh, San Jose and Carolina are kicking the tires on a, uh, on a hell of buck deal. San Jose is interesting. I mean, Carolina, you would expect, right? they lost Freddie Anderson, winning team, all that stuff. You know, let's see if we can turn one banner into a couple. Makes perfect sense. San Jose is interesting. Because you think they've got their guy and Ascarov for the future.

Is he, is this a stopgap to get to him, which you wouldn't think you would need? Is he the piece that goes back in a trade? I don't know. I mean, I would think, I would think the answer to the latter question. You would think. But I mean, San Jose is a team that, I mean, we all certainly, especially in that window between the draft and day one, a free agency. Everybody was looking at the sharks going, this is a juggernaut.

These guys are going to win eight of the next 10 cops. This is, you know, et cetera. But even then, and, you know, and then they did darn old nurse and Jacob Truba and people went, eh, maybe not. But even then, like even the most optimistic people weren't like, this team's window is open right now. So to go and get a 30 plus goaltender seems a little weird timing-wise? Well, then you look at what they did on their blue line this summer and you're like, oh, okay, that actually they're just trying to see some of the positive momentum for their franchise, which, you know, I wish them the best of luck, I guess. But yeah, I, you know, if you can get the best player in his position in the world, I guess you get him. So.

Yeah. This isn't exactly Jacob Truba. Yeah. I don't know, man. Yeah. That strikes me as odd. And it makes me more nervous for San Jose than maybe it should. I got to work through why that is.

But I don't, to me, you go get Connor Halibah. And look, I just said, you know, makes sense for Buffalo. And Buffalo is not, maybe not that far removed from that situation. But I do think it's, you know, Buffalo isn't sitting there, you know, is Buffalo a cup favorite with Connor Hallibuck next year? Probably not. But is their window as open for the next few years as it's going to be five years after that? I think so. So, yeah, go ahead and get better.

Yep. Let's talk about some UFAs who are still out there. The pickings are pretty slim. Anthony Manta, Patrick Kane, Vladimir Teresanko. That kind of, and I think we said last week, if you want to go a little crazy, Patrick Line. Those are the guys that are going to be getting any kind of like notable attention. Yeah, and it's the same list from a week ago. We've seen like we've hit this kind of

And I wonder why it is I've Okay so Patrick Kane obviously is a guy This state of his career He can kind of pick and choose Where he's going to go and And same with Manta Which you said last week

Yeah see the difference is I I still wonder if Manta's looking for term I'm I can't imagine he doesn't have a long list of team saying Yeah one year Five million seven million whatever, like, come, you know, come join our team, but we don't want to commit to, you know, he, he might be looking at it and he and his agent and everyone saying, like, man, the season I just said, I should get six or seven years. I should get my, this is my big contract that I'm going to sign as an NHL player. I shouldn't have to prove it again next year. Mm-hmm.

Whereas Kane in a different situation, I still feel like Kane to the Sabers makes sense. for everyone. I wonder how much of this is Patrick Kane kind of maybe preferring to stay in Detroit because I don't know if you know this, but his stuff is there. And, but wanting to see how it plays out going like, I'm not, I don't want to sign maybe my last contract to stay in Detroit. And then you trade Dylan Larkin for futures and we're, you know, we're an eighth place in the Atlantic by 10 points at the end of November.

Well, the rumor on Kane is that he's mostly choosing between Buffalo and Chicago. And I don't know how much of that is just like wishful thinking on the part of both media groups there. But there's a little too much smoke for me to say that there's not fire. But, you know, like I think Kane would help Buffalo for sure. I don't know about Chicago at all. Well, I mean, at some point you've got to put somebody with Baderr. And I understand this isn't like your long-term guy and he's, but just at this point, I'm like, Kyle Davidson, just get a winger, somebody.

And it would be a fun, feel-good story for fans and that. I don't mind it. Get somebody, please. Obviously, like, I get what you're saying. And, like, the funny thing is, like, I was going to say you're going to sell Patrick Cainter. Everybody has a Patrick Cain jersey that wants one, you know? That's true, yeah. Unless he comes back with a different number.

Hey, why not? I'm 87? nine, 67, 67, kids. Okay, wait a second. There you go. Do they still do that shit? Kiching. I wonder.

I think they do it ironically now. Oh, sure. There's no way to know. I certainly won't find out. No way. Whatever. Like I said, obviously he can still be an effective player. He scored quite a lot last year.

I think, I think if I'm Buffalo-eyed, rather, or like if I'm choosing the destination where he's going to get the most use, I think Buffalo would be the answer. But like, that doesn't mean the most usage. You know what I mean? Like, he helps Buffalo toward something. He helps Chicago toward a big 72 point season. You know what I mean?

Fair enough, yeah. But let's talk about Connor Bedard. Still unsigned for next year. And he just hurt his shoulder in training. He is out four months, which pushes him to like November-ish, mid-November. And because of how they're scheduling things with the new 84-game season, he might miss like 20, 25, 30 games. Is that, can that, it probably isn't that. In the 20s, yeah, because the season starts earlier this year.

It's an early start. So, yeah, bad news, bad luck. And, you know, you can kind of go, you know, he's going to miss X number of games on a team that wasn't going to win much anyways. But like any hope you had as Chicago of getting off to a hot start and any hope that this was going to be the breakout. Okay, the year three breakout we're going to do now on Connor Madard, who's been a very good player, but also has not lived up to the pre-draft hype, I think it's fair to say. And yeah, does this, what kind of season does he have now in the 60 games he's going to get? Can he hit the ground running?

You know, have that breakout season just in fewer games, maybe. But some guys get hurt and they never really get off the ground in a season. So it's very bad timing. for a Hawks team that seems still built completely around this kid as the main engine. I'll tell you, man, my prediction that I won't be saying it necessarily, but we'll start to hear late in this coming season. Hey, is Conor Radar kind of a bit of a bust, do you think? Mm-hmm.

I think that kind of talk is going to hear it, right? It's going to get louder. Not a bust in the sense of this guy stinks. This guy's nail Yakopov. But in the sense of this guy was supposed to, I mean, he came in with a, if not a McDavid level of hype. Just, just one step back. Totally. This guy was more hype than celebrating, more hype than Austin Matthews.

Yep. Maybe not Matthews. I would say, yeah. But the thing with Matthews is he played his draft year overseas, you know, So, like, it was, there was so much mystery around it. Nobody, nobody was tuning in for, like, Davos or whatever team he played for in the Swiss League. Yeah. So there is that.

But, yeah, I mean, the hype was, if not close, then certainly, like, in the neighborhood. And he's just never, for whatever reason, no help, injured. And this is his third, like, kind of major injury, got his jaw broken. I think it was his other shoulder that got hurt. Yeah, you're much more concerned about shoulder injuries and that sort of thing. I mean, you get your job broken. That's life. That's like, yeah.

Unfortunately, but yeah, and especially like if you saw the clip, like he went into the boards hard, came up, like immediately knew he was hurt, went off. It was like a bad collision with the boards, but it wasn't like so spectacularly bad. that you're not at least a lot, man, I don't know. It's, it's been tough. It's, he's, and it's, you know, we're in year three, right? This is where you have to stop and point out, like, Leon Drysidle didn't do much his first few years. Nathan McKinnon, you know, he had his, his infamous value contract was value because he wasn't very good the first few years when he signed the contract.

He had to work his way up. And I'm fascinated to see what they do contract-wise with Connor Bedard. Are they worried about an offer sheet? Does that change the equation? Because, I mean, it's like in theory, they could go to Connor Bardard and say, look, man, you're not producing at a superstar level. We're not giving you, you know, high teens. or whatever. Mm-hmm.

But are you worried that some team would swoop in? Maybe the Flyers, even. You gotta be. So a lot of this comes down to the player himself. Like, is he the sort of guy who would sign an offer sheet? A lot of players would not. So that could be the starting end of it. You know, I'm sure teams have reached out.

Maybe they were just told, like, yeah, it's not happening. Thank you. Yep. but I have no idea what the number is. And you almost, I mean, you kind of have to, like in the olden days, by which I mean like three years ago, we would have said, well, okay, so if there's uncertainty, you do a bridge deal. Do something shorter, smaller money. Bridge deals are pretty much out these days. Like, it's, you get your good young players, and he is a good young player, even if he's not the next big David.

He's a good, very good young player. You get them locked in for it, like teams almost never. regret going max length on these guys. All right. So what the hell number does that look like? It's really an interesting question because he, to your point about like guys didn't hit the ground running, like, there's a really good chance that like, if you can get them for 14 million, 15 million, which sounds like a lot of money. Two years from now, you're like, oh, this is like that Nathan McKinnon contract. where Nathan McKinnon was like, if someone brings up what a rip-off and it was,

I'm going to kill myself. You know, like. It's, it's really, I mean, I, and the other piece of this is if you're Kyle Davidson, like you've built your whole rebuild around this guy. This is like the one, I keep like, I'm talking about the Hawks in a way that diminishes all the other great prospects they have, et cetera. But this is your centerpiece. This is your crowning achievement of the, of the never-ending,

tank job. So, I mean, to turn around and be like, we don't really know if he deserves, you know, X dollars. I don't know. I would certainly much rather be Connor Bedard's side in this negotiation than Chicago's, but I still don't know where you draw the line. Obviously with you. Likewise, you know, we can kind of mention a lot of the same stuff with Adam Fantilli, who, you know, I think kind of in a vacuum,

a little bit, like, has maybe even pulled even, maybe even pulled ahead of Badaard in, in terms of how we should be talking about him? In some ways, obviously not in others, but like, he's a, he's had a 30-goal season in the NHL, you know? Uh, this is a really good player. Badaud, obviously just like, scored 30. in less than 80 games or whatever, but like, what I guess I'm saying is the,

maybe if you want to say we've seen what Fantilli can do in a way that we haven't with Badaard yet. You know what I mean? Like, it feels like Badaard, there's still more growth there and that kind of thing. And he was having a great season before he got hurt last year. And when I say great, I mean like a really, really good season.

And then he got hurt. People forget it was like up to December. He got shot out of a fucking canon last year. Yeah, we were having the Celebrity Bedard discussion. Like those guys were. Yeah, I'm actually going to pull up the neck and neck until he got hurt. Like not just for the Olympics, but for,

and then he got hurt and wasn't the same when he got back. And then it became last year was the celebrating year. But Badard was right there with him for the first half. So first, let's say, through the. end of December, we'll say. 44 points, including 19 goals in what's this, 31 games.

That's an unbelievable level of play. And then he comes, you know, from December on, it's 11 goals and Yeah, brutal stuff. Like he just, you know, like I said, never, never fully seem to get back on track. Whereas with Fantilli, obviously the ceiling's not as high. But you're like, oh, this guy can score 25 to 30 goals for me every year and be a pretty good 200 foot center and all that kind of stuff. I can talk myself into like, that's the guy I should target with an offer sheet.

You know, Columbus probably wouldn't let that happen. I just, yeah, I just feel like they would match pretty much anything, although, I don't know. But wouldn't it be nice to put the boots to them just because you can, especially if you're the tired of the Columbus Blue Jackets riding high on the hog? But like, again, if you're Detroit, if you're Seattle, if you're Philadelphia, and maybe they all tried and Fantilia or Bedard were like, we're good, thank you though. But we'll just never know that information, right? Like that stays under wraps.

But fucking give it a whirl. Find out. Let me ask you this, though. Speaking of teams that are looking at draft picks and things of this nature, you think anybody should be all that interested in Elias Patterson? Not at that number, but at a retained number, maybe. Well, let me start. off with this. And I wrote about this also in the hockey news yesterday. I was thinking about it because it's like it's so obvious that Vancouver needs to trade at least one, maybe even three veteran forwards. Patterson, Besser, DeBrusk seemed to be like the candidates there, right? But, but like the wingers, it's like, yeah, if I'm giving up stuff for that guy, why don't I just give Anthony Manta a deal? Yep. Right? But with, but with,

Petterson, this is part of the whole center market. Like somebody needs a center. Montreal needs a center. Philadelphia needs a center. And I was thinking about it, like you say, huge number, right? Wasn't Darnell Nurse a huge number? Didn't he get dealt? And it didn't cost the sharks hardly anything.

They had to eat the whole number. Right. But what I'm saying is if you can, if you have wingers you like right you I can see Montreal is the example that that keeps just like jumping to mind for me

of like they have wingers they like they really need upgrades down the middle yep it's a big number but it's not like Montreal doesn't have the cap space if they move a if he contractor too Vancouver takes money back

Montreal maybe does make sense because they've got, like, any other team, you go, yeah, they got caps a base now, but who knows about next year, who knows about, I mean, they've got the core all locked in, super cheap. As locked in as any core in the league. But even then, like six years or something like that. At what point, two years in a row that Elias Pedersen's been a 15-goal 50-point guy. Mm-hmm.

So it's not just, oh, you know, the numbers, you're getting a good player, but the number's high. Like, are we sure this guy is, like, forget about a one C. Is he even a top six at this point? Or is he a third line guy who produces some offense, but not, doesn't do much else and kind of looks like he hates being alive at all times? So I think that the getting him out of Vancouver aspect of it cannot be understated. That's just like a nuclear test site. You know, like this is the Chernobyl exclusion zone for like Elias Pedersen having good feelings about what's going on for him. You know what I mean?

So there's that. The other thing is, and I got to see if I can find the numbers here, but like he's top, like top 50 or so in points per game among centers over the last two seasons, which obviously. isn't great or anything. But like top 50, that's solidly top two. And that's with the kind of toxicity and the like it's got to be overness of the Vancouver market for him. So like I think if you can kind of get him feeling good. And again, maybe it's a loss cause.

The money's a lot. The term's even worse. But if you can get him for a guy you don't really want to pay and maybe like a third round pick or something like that, and you can put him next to guys on the powerplay, guys that can help him succeed, find his game again, whatever you want to say, with a coach that you like, like Martin San Luis, a guy that you're like, okay, this guy gets something out of players extra than you would think. I think it makes a lot of sense for Montreal.

I really do. And again, I'll write about this later this week. but like all this stuff about what you're saying, they've got the core locked up, but wouldn't getting Patterson blow up the salary structure and all that? What are you saving a million dollars here, $2 million there for, if not to spend it on someone who can fucking help you?

I'm just not convinced he's the guy. You know? Now, that is the only argument. I agree with you. that maybe he's not the guy. But I think two years from now, you're not really feeling what 11.5 or 116 or whatever his number is.

You're not really feeling that in the same way you were, whatever, a year ago, like this coming season. You're not really feeling that number. And if I agree with you that there is a pretty good-sized risk here, but even if you get Vancouver to retain $2 million while they rebuild, right? That's not a lot of money for them. That's enough money for you where you're like, if he's top 50 at his position in points per game

and he's making, it costs me $9.5 million against my cap, I'm pretty happy with that. There is a point where the, like, with some retention, there's definitely a tipping point. But he is, he signed for six more years. Yeah. I'm not saying it's not a problem. I'm saying if. The worst case scenario is pretty bad, is that you've got a 50 point guy sulking around and you're going, man, we had this beautiful salary structure all set up. And then we went and rolled the dice on this.

guy and now I don't know. I don't know. You're talking me into it a little bit. Let me wrap it up. Yeah. Let me wrap it up with this. If you are Montreal, and again, Montreal is just like the team that I think makes the most sense here.

Yeah. Structure-wise what they need for their roster, et cetera. As far as getting him out of the spotlight. No, for sure. They check the other boxes. Right. But if you're Montreal and you're like, well, Sam Montembo, sucked last year, and it was Doebish and Fowler who really got us into the playoffs.

Those are too bad. I don't think Dovish technically qualified as a rookie, but certainly like he played 40-something games and barely played maybe even a quarter of that. I don't have the numbers in front. Okay, hold on. Wait a second. He played 43 last year and 16 the year before that, and that's his entire NHL career, right? So if you're like, okay, those guys are awesome for us last year.

How confident are you that both of them will be awesome for you this year? Mm-hmm. You know? And we certainly saw what happened with Dobish as the playoffs went on, right? And the other thing with that is like, they, we kind of felt like, oh, they're cruising through the playoffs here. And then they ran into a fucking brick wall in Carolina who was just like, no further for you guys. and they little brotherdom in a lot of ways. And so like, and this is the other thing is Vancouver and Montreal have already shown they're doing business, future considerations in the Gallagher trade and all that, right?

What of one of those considerations is eat a couple million bucks on? The future considerations were Elias Patterson. We all just assumed it was, yeah. Well, again, Montreal retained on Gallagher. So they're like, you know what? And with Florida coming back in Tampa, I would say arguably upgrading for this coming year in UFA. And, you know, who knows about Carolina, the Bruins are always going to be a problem because you like their goalie and you like the top of their lineup. The sabers, especially if they get Hellebuck are a fucking problem for these guys, right?

And suddenly that path to top three in the Atlantic doesn't feel so safe. So it's just something I've been thinking about a lot this week. It makes some sense. It sure does. Something to put out there. Yeah. Yep. We got some arbitration dates yesterday, or maybe the day before.

Jamie Drysdale and Colperfetti, less than a week, a week from yesterday, July 20th. Trevor Zegris, July 22nd. Now, I think this might be what is holding the flyers back from doing anything else. is like, let's wait and see if we can get Zegris and Drysdale done and hopefully avoid arbitration. And then once that happens, and those are two of the first three arbitration cases that are scheduled right now, then I wonder if they circle back to let's see if we can fuck with anybody, you know, especially because the very next day, Jet Greaves from the Columbus Blue Jackets who control the rights to Adam Fantilli is up for. his own arbitration. And wouldn't that be a fun way to twist the knife on those guys, you know?

Then I think this is the other big one here. Jason Robertson on the Stars is July 25th. So that's really the last guy that anybody has to really worry about, I think, with all due respect to Kirby Dock and Akira Sheed. And Nick Robertson has signed as of this morning. They made that deal. Yes, that's right. Oh, and I guess I should mention Cole Cillinger is a couple days after Jetgreaves.

So again, like, the Blue Jackets just have stuff on their plate. I wonder if teams are waiting for that. Other than that, like that. I'm a little interested in Kirby Doc as well, just because he feels too old to be an arbitration because he's just been around for a while. But yeah, that feels like a weird one. But again, it's NHL arbitration. It almost never happens. And when it does happen, you just pick the.

halfway point, so. Yep. A couple of other quick things here. The Islanders are letting fans design their third jersey for next year. I think this is awesome. I think every team should not only do it, but be forced to do it. And it should have to be, we should pick a couple of random teams and say it has to be like a kindergarten fan has to design your jersey. This is as, this is as simple as fucking ABCs.

me. Get it out there. Whatever that kid draws, that's your new mascot. Make it happen. Absolutely. And by the way, I, I'm with you, and it seems like everyone universally likes this Islander's thing. So just shout out to future us having to talk about how it gets discovered that it's like actually AI slop that got turned into the jersey and it's going to ruin this story. Yeah.

Like it ruins everything. Yeah, totally. Let me, while we were recording, this has been rumored for a while and now it's official. Macklin Celebrini will be on the cover of NHL 27. And they're saying he's the youngest guy to ever be on the cover of the NHL game. It's crazy. Yeah, sure. I mean, I honestly didn't know that hadn't been announced already.

It had been rumored for a long time. Didn't feel like a super tough call to make, but sure. Well, the interesting thing is this is the announcement and the trailer comes out, I think they said Thursday or something like that. And the rumor is that this will be finally the year where NCAA hockey is in after meeting it for decades personally. is actually in the NHL games. Now, does that mean they've updated anything else other than like what guys on what team? Absolutely not. Here's my question.

Have they completely redone the AI so that it's the most realistic ever? Because that's, I only buy the game when they promise me that they've completely reworked it. And every year I look for the press release that says, okay, last year was junk, but this year is really good. and then we all buy. So I've bought every, every I've said it before. I, I, I usually take a few years off and then I'll circle back and go, okay,

what do they got for me this time? And then I go, the same old bullshit. Fuck. I'm an idiot. Why do I buy this? What if I don't like hockey, but I really like Pokemon and I want to like collect a bunch of cards and that

and have that be 90% of my experience? Is that fun? It does not, it doesn't make any fucking. sense to me that this is how people play sports games. Doesn't make any sense to me. I want to run my little teams. I want to be my little guy, you know? It's the only way to travel, as they say.

But I will say, if I have some credible information that there's like, not that I'm expecting that they would ever let me just like do franchise mode with an NCAA team in the game or whatever, but like, if there's more than like, oh yeah, you can play one game for Boston College at the beginning of your be a pro thing and then you don't ever see them again they'll get my 70 bucks if I can if I can play a season of

NHL hockey or NCAA hockey in the game they will get my $70 otherwise I think I'm all sent dude what's going to be great is the little mini game where you're playing college and then somebody insults your mom and it suddenly becomes a mortal combat's a little yeah like

Like where you're going to beat up the car and Street Fighter 2. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, exactly. Finally, we're saving the best for last on this episode. They told us who was engraved on the Stanley Cup and they said,

we have upwards of 40 Dundans on here. Got his whole family on there. You got Braden. You got Jaden. The rest. Mm-hmm. This sucks, man. This is...

Can I say this? I agree that it sucks. Obviously, it's so fucking stupid to have a kid who's in, like, first grade on the Stanley Cup. But I'll say this. I am shocked, absolutely fucking shocked at the universality of this sucks. Like, I don't know if you saw the other day, but like American soccer dip shit a lot. Lexi Lollis was like, oh, well, the reason that like, that like the U.S. isn't as competitive as these other countries and we really should be in the World Cup is that it's so fucking expensive to play soccer. And people were like, okay, so like the government should subsidize it.

And he's like, well, no, people have to make money on this. You know, like there's always someone staking out the contrary position to a thing that is universally accepted. I didn't see a single person going, it's good that they did this. Who cares that they did this? The only thing I saw was somebody going, well, there's like 40 illiches on the cup from when they won in 2008. And it's like, yeah, you're not even saying that's good, though. You're just saying there's precedent for a bad. This is, you're right.

Like, this is, I will say, I'll say two things about Hurricanes fans. First of all, most of the Hurricanes fans I saw also think this sucks and we're having some fun with it. You know, they're not furious about it as you wouldn't expect a fan base that just won the Stanley cop to be like, oh, this ruins it for me. But they agree that this is stupid. Many of them. The half of them that don't, you're right. It's like they're pointing it last year at Florida. right because the last two years the Viola family put he put several of his kids a couple of his kids on the cup and and there is a the funniest take I've seen floating around is oh typical Canadian media they didn't have any oh yeah you're the Canadian media that loves the Florida Panthers yeah you got it yeah boy the Panthers just just skate for get off scot-free in this country but the difference is

that in both the case of the illiches and the case of the violas is the kids had some ostensible role with the team. That's right. A make work job. Alternate governor. These guys were the assistant to the, yes, the assistant to the alternate governor's assistant's brother's friend or whatever.

And you're like, okay. Which we all agree was like is mostly a fake make work job. Like nobody thinks that like there's a Viola kid like scouting the, you know, the German B league because he's just such an important part of this team. But there, but yes, that does matter. The difference between I gave my kid a make work job with the team and the team won. So now my kid gets his name on the cup because he works for the team versus my kid who's in grade school. and all the other Dundon kids, none of them work for the team. They're on there, they're on the cup, they have no role with the team other than daddy's

billionaire and he wants our name's on the cup. It's garbage, man. I've seen people say that they are technically, they've been technically made part owners or something like that. But here's the thing with that. I haven't seen like anybody real say that. You know what I mean? I've seen people go, oh, they must be part owners or something.

And if they're part owners, then, like, I guess we do have to accept that this is just how they do it. You know, this is like DJ Khalid, you know, DJ Khalid. He heard of them. Okay. He makes his son, like, the co-producer on almost all his son, and his son's like a baby. So that, like, his son gets money from this independent of DJ Khalid just giving him money. and so like if it's like that I can see the argument

of it that doesn't mean it doesn't suck It still it still sucks It's it is People are right to be mad about it They should probably be madder than they are Because it's you know we're on It's Tuesday or whatever It kind of feels like this is largely blowing over already

I don't know man This is just Let me get you with this though What I think What my immediate reaction to this was if if the NHL

wants an easy PR win you say to Don Dundan we're putting the exes over your kids' names we don't give a shit

like Peter Pawlington's dad for people who don't know in the 80s I think it was the 84 cup maybe the first one the oilers one right the owner of the team

Peter Pocklington put his dad who was just some fucking guy on the on the his name on the cup and the NHL was like yeah you're not allowed to fucking do that

and they had the the keepers of the cup or whoever slap a bunch of X's over his name so that like you can't you can't read it anymore and you could so easily do this if you were the NHL but I don't even care about like you wouldn't want to do it to a kid

who gives a shit these kids are gonna be fine with it they're they're like you said their dad's a billionaire It's all going fine for them, right? And nothing precludes them from getting the make-work jobs in the future that allow generations of NHL suns to be. Child labor laws are no longer an issue. You can definitely kick that. Yeah. And so, like, it's just such an easy PR win for Gary Bettman to be like, you know what?

That is stupid. You're right. We're slapping X's over that. But my thing is, if you can't tell the guy who's the owner of like the 20th most important franchise in the league, like, you come on, man, you can't do this. Who can you say that to any? Yeah. And look, there is, like, there's a process. This got approved somewhere.

So Dundon screwed up by even thinking of this, let alone letting it get out of his head. but I'm almost the least mad at him because he's a billionaire. He's used to, he's surrounded by people who tell him he's a genius. Oh, I totally agree with you. Yes. And, you know, sure. I'm convinced that if, you know, let alone get becoming a billionaire doing subprime car loans or whatever it was, like you get to a certain level of wealth and power.

Your brain doesn't work anymore. So I'm not mad at Tom Dundon. people around him in the organization should have somebody should have been able to say no this come on Tom we're not putting the the great school kid on there like we but the league approves this ultimately for the league to approve it is that's and we'll never we'll never get a name on that they will but but but from what I could find out this is approved by like this crosses Gary's desk I whoever, I mean, it's whoever it is screwed up super badly, people are right to be furious. It is so insulting

from a league that jams tradition down our throats about how, oh, this is the hardest trophy to win and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Getting your name on the cup is so hard that you shouldn't probably be able to do it just being a few years out of dike. Yeah. And look, like, was it bad when the Panthers did it? Yeah, this is a lot worse.

You know, if you're going to feed me a shit sandwich, like, yeah, at least put a little frilly toothpick on it. Put some level of effort into at least acknowledging that you know what you're doing. And this is just such a, like, and I don't know what you do. Like, yeah, you could X the kids out. Like, it's, this isn't, it's, this is, it's the friggin Stanley Cup. This isn't a word. This isn't a word document. You can't just like control X a bunch of them out. You got to put, yeah, but then you end up with this ugly scar on the cup, not to mention they did it to Pocklington, but the last time they ex somebody out was, you know who on the Blackhawks?

And it's like, I don't know, it feels weird to break that out again. But like, we shouldn't even be having this conversation. And we know they're not going to do it. They're not going to do it. They're going to go, oh, yeah, interesting. The fans are mad. And it's going to sit there. and you're going to take your kids to see the Stanley Cup,

and there's going to be a bunch of freaking kids who had nothing to do with anything other than Daddy's a billionaire, and billionaires get whatever they want, and the rest of us can kick rocks. Mm-hmm. And like you said, this would have been the easiest thing in the world.

We would have never even heard of it. We just needed one person along the chain, one single person to have the sack to look a billionaire in the eye and go, no, dude, you can't do this. Come on. But that's not the world that we live in. So he gets what he wants.

It'll stay there and the rest of us can, the NHL just screw you, give us your credit card. Let us grab you by the ankles, hold you upside down and shake you. And that's all that we're interested in doing. And most of us will just go along with it. Yeah. And to the point about like nobody says no to like powerful. people anymore, right? I saw this interview with Mick Jagger from the New York Times the other day.

And basically they were like, how normal do you feel like you are? And he's like, you can't be normal when you're Mick Jagger. Like, even leaving aside like the sex, drugs and rock and roll thing, like, I've just been so rich and so out of remove from like everyday life for so long that like I have to acknowledge, I'm not a normal guy. And you can try to be, like, as normal as you can to, like, you know, have some level of humility or

whatever, but, like, I, how am I supposed to, like, go to the fucking grocery store was basically, like, the argument he was making. And it's like, that's absolutely true, right? Like, if you're, like, I think the average person couldn't

pick Tom Dunedin out of a lineup versus Mick Jagger, obviously. But, like, you were saying, If you're like, oh, all I've known for the last like 15 years, 20 years is people going like right this way to your private jet, Mr. Dundon. You know, like, how do you have a normal thing, like interaction with any aspect of life almost? And so like, yeah, again, this is a, an institutional failure by the NHL and not like. The NHL, the hurricanes, it pisses me off because it takes a. Again, what are the hurricane supposed to do?

Like, the guy, this is the guy signing the checks. You can't, like, I don't know, what would you do if he came to you and said, oh, I've decided, I don't like Sebastian Ajo anymore. Trade him for a seventh round pick. You wouldn't, like, you go, yes, sir, no questions asked, or would you pull him aside and go, is that really good idea? Like, if you can't even have a conversation with the guy. Maybe they had the conversation.

Maybe. And that's the thing. Maybe they did. And he said, no, screw you. that's possible too but that's I saw the Aquilini's running things in Vancouver for a really long time before somebody finally said maybe we should do a rebuild but this is a huge difference

between hey man can you not spit on the symbol of what we're all doing here every single day like the whole reason this league pretends to exist because we know it's a business we know it's all bottom line and that's why none of this is going to matter ultimately but can we at least like hey man K-Fabe, this thing is supposed to be important. Do you want to not like wipe your billionaire bottom with it, maybe?

No, you're going to do it anyways? Cool. All right, we're all going to go along with it. Don't worry. The fans will complain and we'll just roll our eyes at them like we always do. Like people are, I don't know, people are not mad enough about this. And nothing's going to happen. I'm going to get away with it.

That's exactly right. All right, why don't you do some plugs and we'll get out of it? Find me at the Athletic. Got a bunch of podcasts coming out. I don't know exactly the schedule, but we're doing like a... Oh, Mr. Podcasts. On the summer thing where we're fixing various teams. So we've already recorded the Leafs and the Blue Jackets.

I've got the Senators and I think the... I'm really curious to hear that Blue Jackets. It was an interesting one because, you know, Portsy knows his stuff, but he's also... He's a realist. And we got a fun post coming at some point this week. Do you remember, Ryan, the old way that they used to do offer sheets back in the day. This is even before your time. But it used to be that if you signed a player to an offer sheet, the team you were signing them from could not match in some circumstances.

but rather than getting draft pick compensation off a little chart, you had to then agree to a trade. And if you couldn't agree on a trade, it went to an arbitrator and the arbitrator would pick one of the two. And this was, it wasn't like arbitration today where they would just split the difference. They had to pick one of the two. This is how Scott Stevens went from St. Louis to New Jersey famously.

Right, right, right. We did a pick. I worked with Julian and Laz and we went over. eight of the most famous offer sheets that have been signed since they changed that rule, and we're just going to play what if. What if teams had to submit a trade offer instead? And I get to be the arbitrator. That's such a simple rule.

God damn. It's honestly, it was a lot more fun. If you're a team chaos fan, that was the way to go. That was the way to go. I certainly am. So I think that's going tomorrow or later in the world. Yeah, that's a fun one for sure. For me, head over to perfect takesoutbohive.com, sign up for the, well, there's two tiers.

There's a subscription tier where, like, you can read one article a week, my like kind of notebook thing that I do every Thursday. You can read that for free. It doesn't cost you a dime. If you want more articles than that every week, you can sign up at seven bucks a month. And it would be really, really nice if you did that. And then also, just this past week, I started writing probably one or two things a week. It's looking like right now, but maybe more than that in the future, I don't know, at the hockey news. And I, you know, you can find me on there.

I don't know how it works. I just email somebody a story and they post it. So that's how it works. But that's where I'm going to be doing a little more writing this summer. And I'm looking forward to that. They've been great to work with so far. and yeah, that's it for my writing, but for podcasting, of course, Patreon.com slash pox soup, all kinds of bonus episodes.

Me and SG are doing a stick to sports tomorrow, and then we'll have more bonus stuff all throughout the rest of the month, including, and this is the important stuff. This is the last main show until I think early August, at the earliest. So we will do instead of Instead of a main show on the main feed here What we call the deluxe mailbag where we

Where we take listener questions We talk about the news of the week All that kind of stuff For most of the rest of the summer So stay tuned for that It's five bucks a month for all the Puck suit bonus stuff And all the additional bonus stuff Like stick to sports and

The wrestling show And the the, you know, Greg's various podcasts and all that kind of stuff, that's eight bucks a month. So pretty good amount of content for your, for your five to eight dollars every month is all I'll say. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your support throughout the season. We'll be back on here in three, four weeks, something like that. And until then, have a good one.

Thanks for listening. Bye-bye.