Real Kyper & Bourne - Browsing the Trade Market with Frank Seravalli

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne start with the Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli who gives an in-depth breakdown of the Chris Tanev trade, how it impacts the market for defencemen and why the Leafs were never really in the conversation. Then, he gets into the Canucks' progress in extension talks with Pettersson, potential destinations for Jake Guentzel and what happens with Hanifin after the Tanev trade. Finally, they regroup with Sam McKee for news and notes - Hyman scores his 40th goal, Bruce Cassidy returns to Boston and a look ahead at some of the action in the NHL tonight.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

this is our national edition of the real kipper and born show i'm nick kiprios he's justin born he's sammy mckee derrick brandeo general roll roll nick along for the ride as well in a few minutes we're going to welcome in Frank Cervelli, hockey insider and president of Hockey Content, Daily Face-Off. Frank, along with Elliot and a few others, will be real busy between now and next Friday, 3 p.m. Eastern, when things shut down on the trade deadline. And I think there'll be a lot of happy people for it.

Yeah. So now that you're not like, you know, you don't do the insider role per se, are you watching those guys chasing down stuff that we just sort of like hypothesize about and just kind of enjoy that you don't have to do it? No, the last few years, for sure. Like you make your calls, you get your info, but you're not like breaking stuff. I really do it for the context of the it. You don't have to do it. No, the last few years, for sure. You make your calls, you get your info, but you're not

breaking stuff. I really do it for the context of this show, which I love, right? Because you just hear what you hear and then you have people like Frank come on or Elliot Friedman come on and then you bounce it off of him and what are you hearing and what am I hearing

and I hope everyone has a little fun with it. X has sort of ruined the, or Twitter has ruined the trade deadline experience. Because I remember being younger and watching it on TV and finding out on TV where guys were trading and you're sitting there, you're glued to the TV all day. It's definitely changed the relationship with it, having social media. But yeah, it's one of my favorite days of the year. There's nothing that gets people going like transactions, boys.

In the heyday of the show, before Twitter got going, I would hear of a trade, and then I'd... Hold on to it. No, I'd call the player. And then I could hear him. The phone picks up, it's his wife. And it's like, oh, it's that guy on the TV that's doing all the trades.

And I told Craig Conroy he got traded. No way. Yes. Wow. I told him. How'd that go over? He did a promo years later saying, I was watching, and then Nick Kiprios told me.

That's good. You know, that's the way it used to be back then yeah no you're right though sam like you don't see it happen on television as much as you know you just find out on twitter but yeah um no it is i mean rosters are remade the leafs are the perfect example where last year they got six or seven new players within a week of a deadline and you know you can reshape the look of a team entirely we had okay go ahead no you go i would say we had uh our conversation the other day about elias petterson yes um and you know we were just throwing things at the wall and frank who have on and elliot have both been kind of weighing in on that all right we're going to pick that up with frank cerevelli before we do that we want to make sure everybody knows this hour of Real Kipper and Born brought to you by Bet365. All right, let's welcome him in.

A very busy guy. And it kind of started last night, Frank, with the trade of Chris Tanov. First of all, your thoughts on the trade and did it set the market price for others to follow now? Hey guys, glad to be with you. I would say finally a trade, first one in 26 days. And second, I would say as much as I would hope that that Tanev deal to Dallas would sort of springboard or open up the floodgates on the market, I don't think that it has necessarily anything to do with market price and or what happens next, other than the fact that the

Calgary Flames can now focus solely on Noah Hannafin and what happens with him. But when it comes to Tanev, I think the market was more or less set for the most part. When you take a look at the defensemen over the last year that have been traded for a first round pick, it was really clear that Tanev didn't fall into that caliber. And more than that, there's been plenty of market history over the last 10 years to suggest that at 34 with his skillset, that he was certainly trending toward a second round pick. It was the flames that were really after Artem Grushnikov, who helped spur this thing along, that that's what ended up turning the tide here. So when it comes to some of the other D-men that are potentially available, someone like Sean Walker, who's rocketed up my board from the Philadelphia Flyers, for instance, I don't think the Tanev trade really has any bearing on him whatsoever. But do you believe that the delay up until now was Calgary thinking that they were going to get Toronto to bite on a first rounder?

Do you believe in that? No, I don't think Brad Treliving was trading a first round pick for Chris Tanev unless there was some kind of larger package that was hugely beneficial for the Leafs that checked multiple boxes I think they were pretty comfortable in their evaluation that Tanev probably fell into that second round pick bucket and unfortunately it's just not a world that the Leafs could be living in unless they found another way to get a second so I don't think they were holding out hope on the Leafs I think what they were holding out on was the idea that maybe some other team runs into some issue, whether it's an injury or desperation in play in the standings that they decided to step up and make it a first.

But the other part of it is the Flames also really valued Grushnikov as a prospect that they were considering that to be a huge part of this deal that helped put it over the top frank here in canada if you like look at the teams that have a chance at the stanley cup this year pretty much all of them would say boy or a right shot defensive d-man you know we would go a long way you look around the nhl for those names they're great in theory but they almost don't exist on teams that are uh you know making making them available. Do you see anyone outside of the box, say, like, that's on a good team? You know, I saw Jonas Siegel had an article that mentioned, like, Will Borgen or Adam Larson. Like, is there a way that we could move past Sean Walker

as the best available right D and someone go out and get someone who's an active player on a decent team in a bigger deal? Well, Bornyny you just nailed specifically why there's been a hang-up for 26 days it's because a lot of managers have looked at this market and said hey there's probably three or four real bona fide difference makers that are available and the rest are just kind of hey nice piece but not entirely sure that i want to trade my future assets for them. And so that's part of where they were at is making calls around the league

to try and get creative, guys that have term, guys that are part of, you know, you mentioned two really intriguing ones from Seattle that they just seem sort of dead set on staying the course of where they're at. And part of the explanation for that is, we talked about it on the trade market, about how thin that is then take a step back and look forward to this

summer's free agent market. And you see it's really thin there too. Like in terms of really finding clear difference makers and teams that have those guys want to try and hang on to them because you can go out if you're Seattle and make a trade to move one of those guys now. But the first thing you them because you can go out if you're seattle and make a trade to move one of those guys now but the first thing you're going to do when the summer rolls around is try and plot and plan to figure out a way to get one of them back we're talking to frank cerebelli hockey insider president of hockey content daily face-off uh frank you reported

the other day that the canucks have made significant progress with superstar Vancouver's Pedersen and what is working on what has been worked on is what you believe is an eight-year contract extension if we're sharing notes I had heard that he may be sitting on an eight-year deal in the ballpark of 96 million dollars here so uh what's the latest on that from your end yeah that intel certainly lines up with what i have uh i do believe that the aav on an eight year deal if petterson and the canucks can get this across the finish line is certainly give or take i would even say potentially on the plus side of 96 million. But it's right there in that ballpark. That's what they're working on. This has been a massive development for Vancouver. This has been something that they've been pining

over for the last number of months, trying to get Pedersen to come to the table and get this done. That development happened in the last 48 to 72 hours. There was lots of noise over the weekend about his situation, how perplexed some teams are around the league, and frankly, truly how frustrated the Canucks were that they're saying, hey, we'll pay you whatever you want. Just tell us. You want a four-year deal? Great.

You want five years? Sure. Eight? Outstanding. Whatever the case may be they've been trying so hard to get this guy under contract because he's such a big part of their future that it was really getting to an uncomfortable position like they could get through the regular season no problem fine but if you get to day one of the offseason all that does is start the countdown clock on the date that an arbitration filing could be made. Because if you have Pedersen file for Arb and he goes through with it on a one

year award, what you're looking at is the end of his days in Vancouver, more or less. And so to be able to get something like that done before you have to let this combustible market and bubbling cauldron get even more so fired up to just get that off their plate. Not to mention what it can mean planning and plotting wise, even over these next eight days is humongous. So if you're just throwing things at the wall, you want to say on PD? I do. Okay, go.

Yeah. For why this is taken so long, you know, like what would have conceivably changed? Why has he not been at the table? What has made him not want to sign prior to now? I'm not really good at throwing things. This is what we do. It's fun. Let's try.

Yeah, all right. I'll give you my best guess. Just from people who know him really well and have played with him, they say that he's a really introverted guy that a lot of the typical things that you think might move a player or motivate a player aren't necessarily what do it for him i don't think it's ever really been about getting every last dollar i don't think it's ever really been about anything other than enjoying to play.

And he's a really different guy in that sense that he's not hungry to be the focus of attention. He doesn't need to have the biggest contract. All those things to him are just kind of like, am I playing well this week? And that's really as far as his universe extends so in that sense i can understand why someone with the expectations that the canucks had internally this year if not around the rest of the league that his focus was just on playing and then either way you're probably still going to be a really wealthy man right so if it's not about every last dollar which most of the time it is is there any danger for vancouver canuck fans that pd is in a similar situation as matthew

kachuk was in calgary where he just springs it on him that I'd like to move on. Is there a danger in that happening, Frank? For whatever reason. For whatever reason. This would take that out of the mix, right? I mean, this would totally lock him in long-term as a Vancouver Canuck, which is what the Canucks have been after. And it would totally relieve any sort of anxiety and fear that probably exists in the back of a lot of front office's heads around the league when it comes to star players is players

have rights. They've always had some rights, but they're flexing those muscles more than they ever have and trying to do things a little bit differently and use that voice and power that they have in a good way, I would say, that just leaves people feeling a tad nervous at times. And when you can't get an answer, you're essentially being stiff-armed. You're saying, hey, I'm willing to roll out the red carpet for you. We'll open our wallet. Just tell us what you want. And you don't get an answer.

Can't get them to the table. That's the part that had been unnerving for Vancouver. So looking at your trade board, Frank, there's still some big names out there. There's Hannafin and Gensel. I know here in Toronto, there's interest in a guy like Adam Henrique. We'll start with, I think, Jake Gensel

is probably the most interesting offensive name. What do you see as a potential destination for him? If in fact the Penguins want to move this guy, now they're making a little bit of a push. Well, they're making a push and I think everyone's really closely watching the flyers and what's happening there because consider their sort of precarious position in the standings. There are only a few points up on some of these teams like a washington for instance that most people counted off for dead a few weeks ago they're six points back with two games in hand on the flyers that's just an example pitt is in that same mix but then consider rist

alignings out jamie drysdale's out and you might trade sean walker and or nick sealer and all of a sudden you rip off the top four defensemen on that team, and then what? Does that team sink like a rock in the standings that might open up the door for a Pittsburgh or a Washington? So I think there's still a couple things to figure out. And by the way, Washington has two enormous games over the next five days against the Flyers and Penguins.

They've got a few players on their list. But when it comes to Gensel, who you asked about specifically, I had gotten some intel and talked about this today, the idea that, oddly or interestingly enough, the Penguins have received more interest in terms of teams, not saying return, but teams, on Riley Smith than Jake Gensel. but teams then riley smith on riley smith then jake ensel so a lot more interesting interested parties i would say when it comes to riley smith then jake ensel which i find

fascinating because i think jake ensel point per game player four of the last five years is the premier impact rental forward available it's not really close like this guy is a clutch scorer he led a postseason in goals to think that teams aren't lining up to try and get this guy to me is kind of interesting how fast does hannifin move now that they've got tan of out there and is it a foregone conclusion he ends up back home in boston with the bruins or is tampa in the mix not a foregone conclusion that he ends up in Boston. I would say that the Intel I received is that this is going to be an absolute grind that it more or less,

if you want to explain it in the most simple terms possible, that the Hannafin camp has essentially hijacked this process that of the teams that have expressed interest, they haven't exactly been shy to some of them to whisper, Hey, you know, you're not a fit for us to resign long-term. So that has taken some teams out of the mix that's in bold in some other teams that potentially may not have inch or may have interest, but don't have the assets to think that they're going to be players in this situation with calgary and i think honestly it's kind of created a really weird dynamic in this situation moving forward that i don't know exactly what that list looks like but i can tell you at

least two of the teams that i have confirmed to be on it tampa and florida are teams that he's signaled that he'd be interested in re-signing with. I think some of the other teams, speculation but not confirmed, include Vegas, Boston, and L.A. And I don't know where that would leave some other teams. What about Detroit? What about New Jersey? There's a few other question marks around the league, but the number one player on our board and hannifin is a

pretty much locked to get traded uh the question is really in light of the 10 of deal what can calgary muster in a return given all that we just talked about you know when you're looking at guys who could make a difference in a playoff run and obviously noah hannifin is easily one of those a name that stands out for me is pavel buchnevich in uh in st louis really good player like big guy 28 years old 24 goals already this year back to the rangers do you see a fit somewhere where do you like for him and what's what's a cost for a player like that it starts with two first round picks is what dog dog Armstrong has told teams. And for my money,

Pavel Bucinevich is the most unheralded point per game player in the league. Agreed. And you say Bucinevich point per game, go look at his numbers, 193 games in St. Louis, 191 points. I mean,

it is as close as you can get. And when I look at some of those fits, I think the Rangers could be one. The Rangers have also spent quite a lot of time talking to the Anaheim Ducks about the potential of bringing back Frank Vetrano. The Rangers are also in the market for a center. So they're in that spot in that market. But I wonder about someone like Bucinavich and Vegas, Bucinavich and Edmonton. We know the Ken Holland, Doug Armstrong connection. We know that Barbashev went from St. Louis to Vegas last year

and helped them win a cup. Vegas has been in the market for a winger, whether it's Gensel, whether it's Bucinavich, whoever it might be they've got lots of different options there to load up if mark stone doesn't are they going to spend the stone money i would if stone is on ltir i'd be shocked if they didn't spend at least a portion yeah automatic vegas automatic they'd spend that money so leave slews out on tan of right-handed d they need a right handed d is they're just not gonna not get one they have to get one what are the names out there

could they could they be knocking on montreal's door for david savard potentially i think montreal is open to just about anything um i mean going going through the list, it's really not very pretty in terms of guys that can make a huge impact. There was some talk about Ilya Labushkin. Could a reunion be in order there? The intel I have on Anaheim is that they're not absolutely pressing to move him. They really like the fit that he's been with Pavel Minshukov. Who else?

We talked about Walker. Am I missing anyone on the right side? I hope so. It's thin. I wish I was as thin as the market. Nick Jensen. Maybe. Yeah.

I'm out of names. I know. As I said, I wish I was as thin as the right shot. Anything else off the top of your head that is of interest right now? I don't get the sense. I mean, famous last words, you know,

kiss of death. I don't get the sense at this exact moment in time that anything is, is imminent front burner, but life happens fast. Life is go look at Vancouver. It comes at you fast. Well, hopefully you get some action around deadline,

save it till the, till the final day for you all right we'll let you go we know you're busy on and off the uh the air and uh on and off the phone calls so uh really appreciate your time thanks frank have a good one guys okay frank cerebelli hockey insider president of hockey content daily face off that's fine let's just sit there and just throw names every guy's in my parking turning their lives turn upside down we're throwing out their names like it's uh having a beer unfounded in many cases you know just like what about nick jensen what about him sammy isn't that what you tell me all the day? This is what they do on sports radio.

People love transactions, boys. This is you guys naming off those names to me is why it's such a massive loss for the Leafs to not get Tanev. Like he is so far and away the best right-handed shot defense. You know what it is too that has had value for him is that he is, and go look at all the clips the last couple of years talking about the guy Tanev is.

Like that's another thing for especially the Leafs, they wanted him in the room. That is, that's so underrated. Part of the setting of cost in the real world is supply and demand and there's just no supply and so much demand so i don't think it would have been unreasonable to overspend i think calgary got him for a very reasonable or sorry dallas got him for a very reasonable price at 1.25 million against their cap yeah i'm so i i really am surprised that you know hearing frank there

who knows so much more than me and i'll ever know but just that like there's no first round pick offer for him i guess they love that prospect of the dallas that russian kid or whatever but to me it's just listen but he got like who's gonna have more value to a team sean monaghan or chris tanaf yeah tanaf i'm sure you talk uh uh yeah he scores but like you think about what he does for a team Tanev you think I don't know it just it's crazy to me the prospect that Calgary got was probably Dallas's third best defenseman prospect so he's not an a lister he's a b so most will have him in the third pair if this guy somehow develops in the next few years and gets himself into a three four then it's a huge bonus but this guy was not a grade a prospect mid mid, outside of that.

That's a great job. There is something to be said about the marketplace right now. Yeah. That Tanev's was, the perception was he was the best available right-handed D. By a long margin. By a long shot. Yes. And they couldn't get a first rounder for him. That's good if you're a buyer at the deadline.

You say Tanev didn't get a first. What do you think you're getting a first for i don't know fill in your name so we led the conversation off with frank there about the petterson stuff yeah i wanted to quickly revisit his answers you wanted to quickly revisit how we started it is that what you wanted to do i think there's been a lot of noise around like hey it's almost the deadline yeah there's a lot of noise in here for sure are you signing what's going on yeah you know frege did uh mention something that like it's not ironclad that it's going to happen you know but it does seem like it's going to happen here at this point assigning yeah i i hear mixed i i i i'm guessing that's all i'm guessing. That's all.

I'm guessing he'll stay here. He'll play this out longer. But it's funny watching the progression or the evolution of a free agent, either UFA now or RFA. It's been quite the process over the last 10, 15 years because... RFA used to get you a little bridge deal. Here's your million bucks. We'll pay you later.

The evolution is that, you know, you didn't have to worry about it until July 1st when they became UFAs. And then there was that kind of, you can get away with telling people i really like it here and i'd like to stay and we know it's bs that they're bolting but they were able to kind of mask it and hide it for many many many many years and then the last few that i think got away with it and off the top of my head is john tavaris and he's lost every fan he had no no for sure but what i'm saying is up until he signed with toronto he had everybody believing and especially in the long island area that he was not going anywhere because he's our captain and he really really likes it here and so now you've lost faith in that guy

that wants to just tell everybody, yeah, I really like it here, but, you know, so get off my back and don't ask me again. So they lost, there's a lot of trust lost in that. And then it evolved last year to the point where now it's like a restricted free agent, not unrestricted, can go into his last year and we need to know now. Like we're not even letting you get to UFA a year from now.

We need to know now. So the Matthew Kachuk took us all by storm, did it not? When it was like, I told them I'm not resigning. We're like, whoa! Whoa, where did this come from? And how did this happen? And wow, what a new strategy. Never seen this before in the history of our game

where a free agent, restricted free agent would come out and be so forthcoming on information, and I'm doing you a favor. I'm telling you I'm not coming back. You have the chance to recoup assets for me. But that was, like, in the summer. Now Vancouver Canucks are getting ahead of it because they're starting to ask questions in March for,

for, for Petey. And that is like, come on, you got to give us some signals now. Well, you know, this is a risk averse industry.

And I think that trusting that people are going to stay who don't have a contract to just walk in them to UFA and crossing your fingers is not really a viable strategy for a lot of people who again are risk averse so i understand why people want to know and i think you know frank said himself in that interview he goes if you go to arbitration that's the start of the end because you'd get a one-year award it's not getting to arbitration well yeah but that's the point is that yeah it's we know it's flushed out when i tell you you suck right it's flushed out yeah and he's in the arbitration order for 12 million one year to walk him to ufa and then

if he doesn't want to sign you got to deal him anyway so between now and i don't know when he's either going to sign a four-year deal a six-year deal an eight-year deal or he's not going to sign at all and then it's a full panic to trade him in the offseason just like matthew kachuk yeah i think those are the options here right you guys want 115 point guy for him the uyghur part of that trade was really good yeah he shoots right he'd be nice uh game time boys boys? All right, let her rip. Uh-oh. I don't have it in front of me here.

Give me one second. Give out some more bread. It's game time. It's game time. It's game time presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary. Bet365 must be 19+. On terror only, please play responsibly.

Now, a couple things in the game you guys are on the TV for tonight, the Leafs and the Arizona Coyotes. This is one of the more mind-blowing things I've ever heard. Let's have it. Okay. So, look at who it was that pointed out the stat I put in here, that the Leafs haven't got a home regulation win against the Coyotes

since October 17, 2002. That's a long time ago. How many games are we talking? So, they've – A couple a year. They have a – Well, I guess at least one a year they're 10 0 and 2 against the leafs since 2002 they've i guess they've lost in overtime twice to the leafs but the last time the leafs and this is uh credit to jeff bayette who pointed this out the last time uh the leafs beat the coyotes like i said oct October 17, 2002,

is also the day Matthew Nyes was born. The prodigal son. The chosen one. The day he was born. I know you guys hate those kind of weird numbers. That is insane. If you had said the day that baby was born, the Leafs won't beat the Coyotes in Toronto until this kid scores the game winner,

I mean, you'd have been like, what are you talking about? The crazy thing is, it's like, you have an embodiment of how long it's been. It's like, I always say, whenever I see my buddy's kids, I'm like, children are the great barometer of time. Matthew Nyes is the embodiment of how long it's taken the Leafs to. So, in saying all that, give me a Matthew Nyes anytime goal tonight at plus 320 there's never been a more sure thing yeah the curse of the like the curse of the Nyes Bino here he's gonna go out there and knock it off so give me that crazy um I don't know if it's quite as

crazy as Tyler Bertuzzi being the first Leaf to score a hat trick on his birthday but it's still up there uh another really good game tonight. Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars in Dallas. Winnipeg Jets are streaking a bit here. Back up on top of the Central Division, the Western Conference. Dallas Stars are minus 135 favorites. Give me the Jets as an underdog at plus 115.

They're hot, like the way they're playing. And no Tanev tonight. No Tanev yet. So, I mean, they didn't trade anybody off their roster. It's not going to affect them. I love the way the Jets are looking. Tanev's going to wear Klingberg's 3A. They're going to blow out of the rafters. That's a visa issue, right?

Yes. For Tanev? If he could have come to Toronto, it would have been fine. And the last one I had, since we talked about the streak with the Leafs and the Coyotes, there's something to this. It's a long streak. It's crazy. last one I had since we talked about the streak with the Leafs and the Coyotes. I mean, there's something to this. It's a long

streak. It's crazy. Is it that the Leafs have been bad since 2002? No, I mean, they've been good for seven years. They come here once a year. If you want to sprinkle on the 13 in a row loss, Arizona Coyotes against the Leafs tonight, it's plus

195. So I think they're taking into effect that they know there's some greater power involved here. 13 in a row is a long streak. They're going to win eventually. Maybe it's here. On January 1st, Arizona Coyotes had 40 points. The Leafs had 41. They're one point apart in 2024.

It is not yet March, and they are 22 points apart now. Wow. Big swing. That escalated quickly. Yes, no kidding. And that was Game Time, presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary. Bet365 must be 19+. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

Okay. We'll take a quick break, and when we come back, we'll get into a little Zach Hyman talk. You okay over there? Toughman talk. Oh, God. Yeah. You okay over there? Tough Leaf show.

It's been a bad week. Yeah, great. I want to talk about how, you know, Michael Bunting's lighting it up for Carolina this year. This is my nightmare. We're giving Zach some love here because he's earned every bit of it. 40th goal last night. Nice to see Kadri finding it in Calgary, too.

Oh, him? Yeah. Two assists by Connor McDavid. What's he now? Like one goal and like 25 assists. Yeah, he's on an unbelievable tear of non-goalness. All right, plenty more when we return to Real Kipper and Born. Diving deep into Leafs, Raptors, Jays, and NFL.

The J.D. Bunkins Podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Nick Cabrillo, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee, Zach Hyman. Hey, before we get into that, we've got to talk about this Chris Tan quote that I just trickled across my... Live news here on air. Some quick math from the newest dallas stars on why he picked number three three is kind of half of eight

to be clear is wearing three in dallas because it's kind of half of eight that don't make no sense i can't tell you how much i love that. That's the most hockey quote I've ever heard. Every time I throw numbers out, like contracts, it's like ballpark. Yeah. Right? It's like the vicinity of half. It's in the ballpark of half. Kind of half. Honestly, I truly do love it because it's what you want,

your shutdown demon, the way of thinking. You'd be like, I don't deal in exactitude or whatever. It's about half i don't know kind of half all right hyman sorry kipper 40th goal only two other guys have scored that many goals that fast in a season in edmonton history okay i guess yeah wayne gratsky oh my god uh yari curry yeah connor hasn't mcdavid hasn't done it no i don't think so Oh my gosh. Yari Curry? Yeah. Connor hasn't? McDavid hasn't done it?

No, I don't think so. Wow. I was going to try to go off the board to somebody, but I thought... Gretzky, Curry, Hyman. So Hyman has 40 goals in 56 games. Working out pretty nice. Sam tweeted last night about how his Leafs fan boo-hoo about... It wasn't even a Leafs fan boo-hoo.

It was... I said it was highly criticized, and he's got to be one of the best free agent signings ever. It's remarkable. There was no boo-hoo about it. And then in the mentions, I got a little boo-hoo. I said that him and Nazem Kadri should have been career Leafs, but other than that, not really boo-hoo.

He's just 31 years old. He had 27 his first year 36 is next 40 and on pace for 58 now this season alongside connor mcdavid i saw people saying to sam and saying other people oh mcdavid mcdavid you know doing it for him mcdavid sure helps but he doesn't help you know score you if he ends up with 55 goals i mean he, give him credit for 15. He's in the right place. He's in the right, at the right time, right place. Like, for me, when I watch him, for him to go into the areas that he does

and still hold an edge or a body position and how strong his stick is, is fun to watch. He's a coach's dream. He goes to the net hard. He stops in the paint. He puts a stick on the ice. He does all the things coaches are like,

do this and you'll be rewarded. Forecheck, backcheck, paycheck. And he's a product of hard work. He's putting time off the ice and video, whatever. Like coaches love this guy. Did we find a clip? I got a clip about him playing with David. Okay, we'll listen to Zach.

I got a stat for you when you're ready. Yeah, let's listen to Zach. Played with the best player in the world, so I'm very fortunate and very aware that I'm pretty lucky. It's obviously one of the big reasons I chose to come here was to have the opportunity to play with Connor. Which you're good at. Yeah, I guess. But, I mean, it doesn't happen overnight.

Obviously, you learn. And I think a lot of it just has to do with communication. He thinks the game so well. So if I'm able to think it with him and get to spots that he can get the puck to, then, you know, we'll have a good chance to score. Pretty simple, right? A a good chance to to score pretty simple a very good chance yeah so like i'm not saying mcdavid is not to credit you know for mcdavid mcdavid or sorry but hyman has scored without mcdavid there's chris i just want to say it's not on mcdavid however do you have the uh assist yeah mcdavid has assisted on 26 of his 40 goals. That is the second highest one player to another player combo in the NHL this season.

Yeah, I guess the first one is. Yeah. So what you're saying is Hyman and Matthews, same guy. Same guy. They're basically the same player. So yeah, 26 for McDavid and Hyman. Yeah. so yeah 26 uh for mcdavid and hyman yeah but it's safe to say if hyman stayed in toronto he wouldn't be scoring 40 goals right no but he might score 40 in a season he may not score 58

but he could get to 40 yeah not with matthews or tavaris yeah well let's see how many did he score with the leafs 30 do he get 30 in a year? Not even close. No. He never had more than 21. 21 in 51 games. So he had a 30-goal pace. We are talking about a guy in McDavid who, like,

and he's talked about this already, and it's not like he's consciously thinking, shoot less and pass more. He takes what he sees. Yes. It's a natural reaction right yeah but there is a sense there that he's an elite passer he's the most elite passer he's the most elite man in the league yeah he's top man he's the number one guy in england um yeah if you took mitch marner right now and put him with mcdavid all season long i gotta think marner's a 50 goal scorer that'd be a hell of a line be a lot of deception and

speed no comment you don't think he'd score 50 i do of course yeah i mean it's conceivable but he would have to change his mindset right yeah well that's a replay ping pong no no you're right you're right like hyman's not you replay ping pong no no you're right you're right like hyman's not you would never put them together because they're both distributors i don't know hyman's learned how to get to certain areas where it's not a give and go and give it back to 97 it's like give him god he's a trained dog go to the blue paint stick down do your thing you know but he's smart enough to do it to his credit i think back to when we had rob brown on i don't know how long ago that was to talk with the oilers but he said like he watches them every night and he said that he does just as much for him in terms of creating

space and getting pucks back for him like i just hate like he scored 40 goals that's great maybe it's above whatever his perception would like whatever you think he would score clearly yeah but he's really good and really important to that and it's like he's awesome and he's worth every penny of that contract probably not twice it but you know cut it in three and a half and i don't know what to do here but more if he was going into ufa right now yeah oh yeah yeah uh reinhardt he's got 28 games uh playoff games with the Oilers, and he has 14 goals in those 28 playoff

games. That's pretty nice numbers. Another guy I want to bring up for the Oilers, watched that game last night. God, Nuge is so good. I like the Nuge, too. Nice back check, eh? That play comes back on the breakaway. He's just, he is a really important, underrated guy. I don't know why he slowed

down. Because he thought he was going to shoot it. Yeah, on Thomas? Yeah, underrated guy. I don't know why he slowed down. Because he thought he was going to shoot it. Yeah, he's just like, no, you got to maintain your speed there. I think he just got into that. He did the Patrick Kane in OT, like, I'm going to slow this thing down. No, he's like, he went to the driving range, right?

Just drop the bucket of balls and Yeah, a little too casual. Shoot it. Yeah. Alright, we have Bruce Cassidy. Oh, yeah. He's making his return to Boston at the balls and yeah a little too casual shoot it yeah all right we have uh bruce cassidy oh yeah is making his return to boston tonight and uh you know that's a big game for him after getting fired a great quote out of him second it's the second one because he went there last year right and then he got asked about it again so if we can uh play that there what's different going back you know this time around the emotions different? Different. I think last year there was

the unknown. Didn't know what would happen. You come back in here, you get let go. You don't know if you're going to get booed out of the building or a nice hand. Anyway, we got that over with. It's nice to come back with a big, nice, shiny ring on your finger too. That's another good visit with that.

That's awesome. Just so you know, I'm coming home with a big old ring. I like Bruce Cassidy a lot. I do too. I think he's a hell of a coach. And I got no problem with that. You know, it's kind of a fun. No, it's awesome.

You don't get to fire someone, have them win a ring, then not come home and show it. You know? Big, nice, shiny ring on your finger too. I mean, it didn't end on the greatest terms. Yeah. Hardly ever does when you get fired. What year did he get fired after?

I'm trying to think. Yeah, so it's his second year with them, with Vegas this year. So I'm just thinking back to what happened there. But it wasn't a good finish. It wasn't the year they won. Montgomery was there the year they won 136-point teams. Yeah. So before that.

I can't remember their playoff run the year he got fired i don't know they get limited in the first or second round every year pretty much or have for a while now yeah they do they're lucky they got that one early because they would have the biggest choker resume ever yeah because you can you can never say it because they got the cup in this era of hockey which is a reminder years ago if teams get it you can kill that reputation for your leafs you know you just a reminder years ago if teams get it you can kill that reputation for your leafs you know you just got to get it got to get it although they and you say it was all a part of the process yeah that'd be nice new york rangers last night it was a quiet game uh or a quiet night in terms of the amount of games last night but we did watch a little bit

of the rangers against columbus where where Panarin scored twice with a revenge win against Columbus. But no Matt Rempe fight. No fight, yeah. No fight. Although there was a scrum. You guys happy about it? Yeah. There was a scrum, and they had the lion tamers holding him back

from getting involved. Yeah. But he played career high seven minutes and 46 seconds i love how much we're talking about this guy he's our favorite player oh listen i wrote an article today uh on on him yeah come on oh yeah oh no no no this is i love it 30 minutes in the league and he's uh 30 minutes in the league and uh this guy had the biggest scrums all week in the ranger dressing room okay so there there's there's a thirst there's a market for this guy right now and i wanted to acknowledge it without forgetting that we're in a new era here and

there's a constant watchdog on this behavior and the amount of hits that a guy can take to his head. Is Parris the watchdog? Who's the watchdog? Buddy, every fan watching the game. I see. Okay? Yeah.

Every reporter, every fan sitting there going, okay, we're not going back to even my era where I fought and got all the things that he's getting now in terms of accolades from teammates and coaches but nobody was sitting there going hey careful kid careful son you can get hurt they're going we love this kid he's right he'll fight it there's nobody nobody telling me about all of this but this guy from the moment we saw him drop the gloves against matt martin uh there's going to be a constant reminder there's going to be watchdogs guardian angels whatever you want to call them in his face saying buddy you can get hurt doing this so that's the biggest difference

between then and now but the the energy the thirst and like what do teams do now moving forward if this guy's going to be in the lineup playing eight minutes a night and maybe taking runs at some of your players like uh bastion uh with bastion and bastion in jersey man he just it's a scary thought this guy they think he might be six eight and a half now might have grown this morning he's since they drafted him, an inch and a half or something like that. One of my really good buddies, Dave, was at the game last night at Madison Square Garden. He was texting me about it, and he just said, like,

he had a play where he banged it off the end glass. The second he touched the puck, the play just, like, erupts. He's like, the whole talk of his whole section, everybody's just talking about Rempe. He's, like, sweeping the – he's sweeping New York. I saw him last night go down on a two-on-one. He almost scored, too. He missed a pass. When he gets the puck it's not like a panic it's not like he's chopping it in about 10 different pieces he had a he had a calmness a little bit when he had the puck

yeah you know how this goes though right like i mean now there's a lot of press for a kid who's got no time in the nhl we'll see if he can develop into an everyday useful guy that's it is it 15 minutes of fame here or is he going to turn this into a a career a role uh an energy guy can he put the fear in god in some of the opponents because i think he can yeah yeah but you know i think it's good to note you know and i think he's even said it too that you know he wants to be a player too but, you know, I think it's good to note, you know, and I think he's even said it too, that, you know, he wants to be a player too. You know, you can't play in today's NHL just being a puncher. You cannot. It doesn't exist.

Let me ask you guys. Rangers, Leafs, Saturday night? Hoping. See, first reaction. I am. And you are with probably, I don't know, where would you have that percentage now of the Sammies out there that wants to watch Ryan Reeves and Rempe fight Saturday night

on hockey night in Canada? Where are you? 50-50? No, it's way, way higher than that. 85? Yeah. 90? Yeah.

Yeah. I'd love that. I mean, how many people, if you're in the building, are you going, would you like to see them fight? Or are you going, no. No. Yeah, I'm sure the people, all the lubricated crowd on Saturday nights

will be like, no. Careful, though. Be careful, fellas. I'm here for the safety. That's when they pull out their ticket stop and go, 300 bucks. You're darn right I want to see this. Yeah.

So we're getting a lot of response to our conversation about Tanev's number. And people are saying that three is literally half of an eight. Oh, God. Now I feel so stupid. But it's like you cut a. I get it now. I'm so embarrassed that we ripped this guy.

But hold on. We sure? See, I just trusted you. No, it's bad. That three and a half. Are we sure that's what he says? Seven to eight. Are we giving him too much credit?

Can I get the quote again? Three is kind of half of eight is the quote. Yeah, that's what he means. You think? When would he say if you cut an eight, you get a three? I get it. He's a hockey player with limited vocabulary. He's just getting the words out with what he can.

He's going, it's a half of an eight. We're three guys up here with a limited vocabulary. He's just getting the words out with what he can. He's going, it's a half of an ape. We're three guys up here with a limited vocabulary. I don't know why I'm here every day. I got rocked for rain. That makes sense. Anyway, that conversation didn't happen.

I don't think that's what he meant. Somebody's got to be smarter than me up here on this desk. Please. There's supposed to be a producer. One on this desk. Please. Step up. Producers, help the talent. Step up. Step up. All right.

So unbelievable night in the NHL tonight. Unbelievable night. Vegas and Boston is, you know, one of those potential Stanley Cup preview type games. Islanders, Red Wings is a wild card battle but also red wings might pass the leafs the big game for both teams um also on the dog yeah the leafs are playing which i know you find there's a hockey game yeah uh tampa bay florida all the atlantic teams are in action it's going to be a really good late game after leafs action if you're into that sort of thing

la kings in uh vancouver la vancouver that's just looking for the other games that's that's going to after Leafs action if you're into that sort of thing. LA Kings in Vancouver. LA Vancouver. That's what's looking for the other games. That's going to be a big one too. Pittsburgh at it with Seattle. It's good hockey tonight. You and me are going over to the desk right now to talk about Toronto, Arizona. Yeah, I'm getting hungry.

Should we order in? What's the deal here? Suvlaki? What are you after? Call the king of the day. What's the deal here? Souvlaki? What are you after? Call the king of the day and pour it for us. What's the king of the day doing? George Kalinikos on the mission. Georgios. Georgios!

Souvlaki! You Greek? No, back of the line. It was really good. It was amazing. High quality stuff. So what is it tonight that's got your attention? Going into the evening here.

Set the stage on our way out the door. Yeah, I'd probably have to go with Vegas and Boston. I think it's got my attention here because Boston... Scotland. If you're the Leafs right now, are you Rangers or the Bruins? Who would you rather see in the playoffs? Assuming Florida wins the Atlantic,

would you rather get Boston or the Rangers? What do you think? Boston looks to me like... They went hard at the start with great goaltending. Yeah. A little vulnerable? A little vulnerable right now.

Leafs play them twice coming up. Yeah. 3-2-5 in their last 10 for the Bruins. All right. Get us out of here. All right. Make sure you're sticking around as Justin and I will be on air in about, what, half an hour?

Mm-hmm. On Leafs Regional tonight. Arizona Coyotes, Toronto Maple Leafs, but like the boys were saying, ton of games tonight. Pick yours, enjoy it, and we're back tomorrow. Please

correct me if I'm wrong. Off the rails Friday tomorrow? It is Friday tomorrow, yeah. Thank God. March 1st tomorrow. Wow. Almost golf season, boys! Enjoy the rest of your leap year. Almost golf season, boys. All right. Enjoy the rest of your leap year. We're out of here.