Real Kyper & Bourne - Easton Cowan Scouting Report with Mark Hunter

Episode Date: June 29, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne, and Sam McKee open the show with their reaction to last night’s NHL Draft, the Leafs’ drafting Easton Cowan, Adam Fantilli falling to 3rd overall and Carey Price's blunder forgetting David Reinbacher’s name. Then, the guys react to Sheldon Keefe addressing the media for the first time, and discuss Keefe’s comments to the re-signing of David Kämpf, extension talks and Kyle Dubas' departure from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Next up, General Manager for the London Knights Mark Hunter joins the show to address what Easton Cowan brings to the table for the Leafs. Finally, the guys wrap up the show with the awaited news of Auston Matthews signing an extension by this Saturday and the idea of Brad Treliving trading John Tavares despite his no-move clause.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 real Kipper and born on Sportsnet 590. The van. As the National Hockey League concludes their NHL draft in mere minutes. I don't know how long. We're not there. What do we care? No, it's that part of the draft there where it's like i don't know congratulations to noah chadwick and hudson malinowski who are now maple leafs

the latest ones yeah noah chadwick was just drafted seventh round six round six and it goes only to seven right yeah god new guys new hope i was part of a ohl draft that used to go like 16 just infinite Just infinite rounds. 17. Pick all the people you wanted. The only ones that left in the building were like people going up to teams going, can you draft this? Can you do me a favor?

My nephew's son's brother's kid. And it didn't cost him anything except a hat or a jersey or something, right? Yeah, yeah, sure. We'll throw him on there. Exactly. Exactly. Well, we? Yeah, yeah, sure. We'll throw him on there. Exactly. Exactly. Well, we're here for the next hour. We'll try to break down what we saw last night out of the first round.

Yeah. What we're hearing into the second round. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Derek Brandeo, General Nick, Sammy McKee. Of course, there are talking points with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Still, as we welcome in in about 19 minutes, general manager of the London Knights, Mark Hunter, of course, he is the general manager of Easton Cowan, who was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs,

and a player who many thought didn't deserve that spot or wasn't ranked in that spot, but the Leafs maybe made somewhat of uh some news with this maybe off the board pick so we'll get into that with mark hunter good um do you want to start there at all sure i think it's funny that everyone is like we're free of the duvis era and they took a 5-10 winger but i mean everything like everyone i i've never seen the guy play a shift everything i read about him seems like he has a lot of potential i like that they picked a guy they like well and that's why we're going to welcome in mark hunter uh and and he'll fill us in on

on what type of player and you know how off the off the board was this by brad tree living yeah the second half of his year was really good his His playoff run was over a point per game. They put him out in crucial situations. Works hard, farm boy, lot to like. I'm happy for him. It's kind of funny you mentioned Kyle Dubas in all of this because, I don't know, someone mentioned to me, and I didn't have time to actually look it up,

but when Kyle Dubas was general manager of the Leafs the last five years. Yeah. I never drafted a London Knight. I'm guessing he drafted a few Greyhounds. Best thing he ever did as general manager. Kyle Dubas leaves. Not drafting a New Englander in London?

Poor Sammy's having a tough time today. Kyle Dubas is out the door, and the first place they go to draft is a London night. Yeah. They, they, uh,

I sent out the tweet last night. I'll say it again. They really alienated the Leafs nation contingent known sound by reaching for a London night. Yeah. But if this guy, if this guy reeks of the character that everybody talks about, Sammy,

you can learn to love them. Yeah. I'll learn. I just got to say, typically with guys who are not ranked in the first half of the first round, about yeah sammy yeah you can learn to love them yeah i'll learn i will i just gotta say typically with guys who are not ranked in the first half of the first round you'd like them to have some elite thing they're like oh you gotta see this guy skate you gotta see his size you gotta see him shoot or whatever they're like this guy is competitive as all hell which is awesome i really

like that um but yeah it doesn't sound like he's super fast or super big or whatever so iq and competitiveness And a late bloomer, which is usually not the case for first rounders. He doesn't look like he's going to grow sideburns for four more years. He's he looked young. Yes. Like Carolyn Cameron could eat an apple off his head during that interview. I have no idea what that means.

Cause he's so short. She just looked a lot bigger than him. That's all. Yeah, okay. I can see it. Yeah, he does look like he's got some room to grab some testosterone still. But he can fight for a puck.

Great, great. And he had a strong finish. He got a lot better, a lot faster at the end of his season. I saw a highlight of him. You know, the highlights are great. Shoots it in the net. But it is funny that the first tweet the Knights put out was him scoring an empty net goal. All Sammy from Owen Sound over there is like, got any highlights of him scoring on a goalie?

An actual goalie? He's a good passer, apparently. I don't know. I just, I stopped caring about the draft so much when salise got good like when the lease were rebuilding and they were telling me where this guy's at in two years and like you know it was what you got excited for when you're a rebuilding team like look at the teams at the top of the draft like haves fans are excited you know you're starting to build flyers fans you get the you get mitch golf like you got you know at this

point of your rebuild you care about dress so i find it so hard when the least are in their competitive window to really care about like any of these kids like what will when will easton make an impact on the leaves what will the year will be 2027 like it's and it may be a great impact who knows but yes i get your point 100 years three years. Three years. Yeah. Right? So that's 2020.

Yeah, if he grows another inch or two and, you know, continues to show these same traits at the next levels, I'd use him. I get so jealous of, like, the other drafts, like the NBA draft and the NHL. Everyone just goes up there and they make their pick and everyone's nice to each other. Not one trade.

I got anything. Bing, bing, bing. All year long, all we hear is, well, they'll trade him at the draft. They're not going is, well, they'll still trade him at the draft. They're not going to trade him now. They'll trade him at the draft. Just wait until the draft. Then you got 31 teams who want him.

They went to the draft yesterday. Every team went up there and picked Dave Schmaltz from Regina. Great. None of you want to do anything all of a sudden? I mean, it was surprising to see Fantilli not go second. That was surprising. Right? Leo Carlson, they went with the Swedish center out of Fantilli,

who'd been, like, he was, was i think minus 600 or minus 500 second easton where the the book ends to surprising events the only surprising passing on mitch kov and philly getting him at seven mitch kov was you know kind of the story of the draft i would say outside of bedard just being the guy and kind of an awkward thing for carrie price right not pronouncing uh we have the clip you want to hear it uh i'll hear leaf show you okay sure okay let's hear it to make our selection i will invite up our former fifth overall in 2005, Carey Price. Bonsoir. Le Canadien de Mario are proud to select David. David.

You alert. Oh, wow We planned it that way David Reinbacher They didn't see that So would he not have known? No, he knew, he just forgot You didn't practice that one? No, no

David Oh, don't do it again I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't. Oh, it's so bad. Oh, it's a horrible form. That's a great drop right there. David. David.

He was trying to save it with we had that planned. But. Can't, can't. How do you? Okay. At least he was gracious about it and apologized to the kid right after. Honestly, like I know this is a maybe a hot take from a Leaf fan, but that's a really bad move by Carey Price.

That's the best moment of that kid's career, and you can't take the time to remember his name. Put it on a flash card. We planned it that way. David Reinbacker. Take a piece of paper up with you. That's brutal. A cue card.

That's so bad. That kid's fought his whole life trying to get drafted at the NHL and Carey Price forgets your name. It's embarrassing. Take it easy, Sammy. He'll get over it. It's embarrassing. He'll get over it. I'm sorry. Yes, it was embarrassing.

It's bad. Sammy told me he was in a mood today. Pounding Carey Price. I didn't see it coming. The kid will recover. Borderline gutless. It's will recover. Borderline gutless. It's not good. Borderline gutless. He better play well or else everybody will forget his name in Montreal. Yeah.

That's a big pick, right? I saw some people had him much farther down the board. Yeah. Over Mitchkoff, that's bold. Okay. So other news of the day, Sheldon Keefe spoke for the first time. Yeah, yeah. Since that.

Talked for 11 minutes. Incredible press conference. Season-ending press conference on the Monday. I will go down in history. One of the best. Oh, one of the best. One of the best. So where do we start?

Did he get asked about his extension? Let's have a listen. I mean, we'll see. In terms of that, you know, that'll play itself out. Brad informed me that I'd be back. He said, you know, we'll talk about an extension and just a lot of things on his list right now. And I understand that when the timing's right,

we'll spend some time and talk about it and see what works for both the organization and myself and go from there. But right now my focus is on the process of continuing to get to know Brad and work with him to the extent that he needs me to help put our team together here. And then also, of course, you know get our staff finalized here as well that's where my focus lies and get the rest sorted out all right no surprise there i think it's funny that he said you know we'll see what works for the team and me and my family and i was thinking like you know what works for you and your family all the years and dollars you can get that's what you want uh it's just's just something that we haven't really looked at much. Can I

just say that when I was, I hadn't thought of Sheldon, well I thought of him, I haven't listened to him talk in a long time and today was the first time that I sat down to like cut his audio and I just heard him talk and I just thought, crossed my mind like

we're doing this again, eh? Another year of this, eh? He's going to need some sort of award from our show for all the Clippers he's provided. Once we go into years three and hopefully beyond. Did it already feel like he was backpedaling on that comment a little bit for you? I just, I don't know. I'm just so shocked that he's back. It's getting redundant.

We've had this conversation. I'm just so shocked. I'm really shocked. I really, so shocked that he's back. It's getting redundant. We've had this conversation. I'm just so shocked. I'm really shocked. I really, really am. It is really surprising. As a guy who also worked for him and was a little intimidated, I had some PTSD hearing him again, too. It's just... We're doing it again. Run it back, baby. Maybe get Kerfoot back, too.

Let's get his comments on David Kemp and his four-year deal, then. Well, I think with Kemp, he's shown over his time with us that he can do both. You know, we've been a very successful team in this time playing in the three-hole, you know, and playing in that role. You know, if you add extra depth, as we did this year, and that pushes him down, I think it just makes the team that much better. But he has shown that he can take on big minutes and play against anybody so you know that's an important guy to have and the more depth he can have at center

as a coach you're thrilled about that okay can i get your take on no movement clause for david camp no movement clause i know i so this happened to me yesterday he told me there's a no movement clause and like a group thing and i was like like, I'm sorry, what? I didn't know that. There is. Complete no move. Not a complete. Surely not. No, I got to look it up here.

I got it sent. No, no. No move is complete. This would be a no trade. Yes. Wow. I mean, he's got to get your clauses correct there, Santa. Regardless.

Regardless. I think it's a 10 team no trade team okay well yeah listen here here was the issue for the leafs this is they got squeezed right out they got word this week in nashville that there were two or three teams that were willing to give them 2.5. And that's why they went four years. Yeah. And they asked him for 100 grand less at 2.4 and he took it. Okay. Yeah, the 10 team I was saying earlier about that no trade. It's like, if you're going to trade him,

it's probably at the deadline to a team who's contending, which means it's a good team, which means it's probably not on camp's list anyway. It's probably not a big deal. I'm not worried about a 10 team list for him. Yeah. And that's what it is, Sammy. which means it's probably not on camp's list anyway it's probably not a big deal probably i'm not worried about a 10 team list for him yeah and that's what it is sammy okay the increase in the amount of players around the league who get a 10 team no trade has to be crippling for teams that are considered to be in tough markets or less appealing markets like really hurts winnipeg's

chances no offense to winnipeg but let's face facts about you know where guys would want to go around the league that's hard you know it's hard for canadian teams the more of these go out just just 10 just 10 teams you're right um seven are canadian the one that uh we didn't talk about too is uh that didn't get nearly as much attention is Pontus on a two-year deal at 800 grand, which... Win, win, win. Kind of put up a little bit of a fight, Pontus. A little bit. What's the minimum?

750? Maybe his fight was to get to 800. Regardless, that to me is a huge coup for the Leafs to get him so cheap because I believe by the end of the year, Pontus could play a more significant role than David Kemp. That'd be great. Wow, really? I mean, that would be tremendous for them

to have that kind of money in a role like that. And also, if he plays for the Marlies, you don't take that cap at any rate. That's all variable at that number. So that's, that's fantastic contract. Wonderful for them. So,

and, and if Pontus is in a position to legitimately maybe hold down a third line center, I spot then, then it does bold probably a little bit more to move camp and is $2.5 million contract. Yeah. If you,

if as, as a fourth line guy, if you see that he's, yeah, taking those minutes. And actually Holmberg is waivers-exempt still, so he can go down to the Marlies whenever you want anyway. So good spot. But you're right, that would change things if he takes a big stride. All right, we got one more of Sheldon Keefe on core players.

Yeah. Well, I think Brad's put it very well, and that it's really hard to get good players and in the league and you know it's brad's going to continue to go through this process to do everything possible to get to give us the best possible team on the ice but uh you know i talk a whole hockey community comes together here in nashville and you know everybody you talk to just talks about how great our players are and the number of people that want to work uh on as part of our coaching staff.

That's the first thing they point to is the opportunity to work with elite talent. So that's a big part of it. And those guys, to me, as much as we haven't gotten to exactly where we need to get to, it's hard not to acknowledge the fact that there has been progress along the way, yet, of course, we still live in the reality of just how difficult it is you know along the way yet of course you know we still live in the reality of just how difficult uh it is to get all the way through it i mean nice nice stuff about the players uh you know what else is he gonna say except kind of having their back i guess well the one thing that that struck me was listening to brad tree live in the last few days

is that the information that he gathered from all the players is they like Sheldon Keefe and they wanted him back. And that probably resonated more with him than anything else. But the question is, is that necessarily

a good thing? They're comfortable. They're comfortable. I get my ice time. I get my cookies comfortable i get my ice time i get my cookies i get my stats i get my you're right like if that's daryl sutter is that we saw the flames players do that go in there and say we don't we can't play for this guy like that they like him they like sheldon so that has value but you're right and one of the things that stands out is tree living made some comments about you know in your second job and he's referring to keith in this role is this being his second job you know you know more you've got a fresh start with someone new is he going to be open to doing some different things or changing

or you don't have a general manager to hold your hand anymore let's listen to sheldon Keefe on Kyle Dubas. I'm on the sidelines, right? It's out of my control, and there's a lot of things playing out there. Give Kyle his distance and let that process play out. I knew that when it was my turn that I would get some sort of communication and all of that you know I work with Kyle for a really long time obviously in he's been a massive part of my career and I've grown tremendously working with him he's done a terrific job to put our organization a really good spot yet I've also worked without him at different

times along the way and I've enjoyed those as well whether it's Kyle Raffis and Sault Ste. Marie the time when Kyle left the Sioux or when Kyle went to the Leafs and I worked with Lauren Skilman with the Marlies I've enjoyed those those times as well and I think I reflect positively on the work that we did in those years too so you know with how things have played out here happy Kyle's landed on his feet in a good spot and seems happy. And then, you know, for us, as I say, I think fresh perspective and working with new people thus far has been really good for me

and I'm excited about it. Well, two things that stuck out for me is that he feels like he's got a new perspective, which means different ideas coming from somebody else besides Kyle. And the other one that struck me was that Kyle left us in a really good spot. And I'm like, well, that might be debatable. Yeah. I did.

He did take pains to mention that, you know, I have been without a babysitter before with when I had Raftis or when I had Gilman, you know, this would be not be my first time being without Kyle, but I think in both those cases, Kyle probably would have been close at hand and touching base regularly so it's certainly a different animal he's walking into this season ahead anything else from the draft stand out to you yesterday we got a few trades uh no today's way different though right where they just almost

look like they're just racing to get out of there yeah like it just briefly kind of every once in a while glaring at the television watching that second day it reminds me of like a auction yeah cattle you know yeah a little bit that's kind of where you're at now i guess the oilers traded yamamoto and uh with clem costin presumably because y Yamamoto's 3.1 million cap, it is not appealing. So they said, we'll give you Koston as well, I guess. What's left on that Yamamoto deal? 3.1 million. I think it's just this season.

Just this season? Yeah. Double check that for you. Sounds like a little bit of a, hey, can you do me a favor? Detroit from Ken Holland. It could be. But you know what? I can see them saying, not sure what's here with these guys.

But Koston was good in Edmonton. And he plays, he can play a heavy game. Yeah. And Yamamoto, you know, I don't think he, you know. Can he get you 40 points? Yes. But with nothing else, do you want 40 points? Well, yeah.

When I've missed the playoffs as many times as I have. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. You know, we talked about bad teams just trying to get hockey players. Another example of that Corey Perry got dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks.

And he's going to be a free agent, unrestricted free agent. Okay. So they just traded for his rights. I don't. I guess. Get that off hand. So Corey, he is a pending UFA.

So maybe Tampa Bay just needed a contract space here. Or they just want to get a jump on maybe signing him to help Bedard. I could see them wanting a guy like that. And then promising to trade him by the deadline right like felino's deal felino's deal is four million you know come the deadline you retain half you trade a two million dollar nick felino that'll get you something and good to have felino around during the season so perry could be more of the same we'll trade you to a contender i'll buy that yeah i'll you know these guys are okay with moving around it makes some sense yamamoto uh this is the last year of that deal uh fantilli didn't go to the ducks that

number two overall yeah blow your mind uh i you know i i liked him since uh the world juniors and then uh the world championship he carries himself exceptionally well uh anaheim made that decision to go in a different direction and uh columbus i think ended up with a really good player yeah it's kind of break if you're the blue jackets you're looking for i think okay let's welcome in the general manager of the london knights uh mark hunter huntsie what's going on are you in nashville nashville i am just watching the draft here, guys. Nice. Well, listen, as far as the Toronto Maple Leafs are concerned,

nice to see them digging into your stock in Easton Cowan. And first and foremost, can you talk about the type of player that the Leafs just drafted? You know what? He's a high energy player.

Plays both ends of the ice. Can kill penalties. Can play the power play. He can make plays. Got real good skills. Needs to get stronger yet. He's still a little bit light. But his dedication to the game is off the charts.

Hunts, what was his progression with you guys over the course of the season? It sounds like his role only increased as the season went on. Well, he started in Junior B the year before. We always kind of take our time with our players. So, you know, he skated with us. He was in our gym with us. Lots of development with him the year before and this year, we got him.

We want these young men to earn their ice time and we didn't give it to him. Every day, he came and practiced hard, played hard and by the end, by halfway through the season, he just took off and played some of our 18, 19-year-olds and deserved to play

and you know what? He had a heck of a run in the playoffs. Playoffs were, you know, fantastic for him. And he brought his game to another level. Huntsie, those type of players that are kind of late bloomers are left for second, third, fourth rounders. Did the Leafs really gamble on this pick? Because some teams are saying that they didn't even have him in the top 50.

Well, I disagree. They must not see him play enough because if you just went to, you got the eye test, you have video and you have the analytics and we have a company that's the athletes that does work for us and uh you know his numbers in the second half were off the chart um you come watch and play stood out against tough competition too like you're playing del mastro plays for sarnia who's a team canada defenseman uh you know what he did a fantastic job against stiff competition and if you watch them boys he, boy, he's the real deal.

So what changes now for a kid like him? Like, okay, now he's a first-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs. How does his opportunity with you guys change or how he'll be handled by you guys change in the season ahead? Well, one thing, he needs to get stronger. And he will do the work to get stronger, but he's going to be put in position to be the go-to guy. He was a go-to guy the last half of the season, especially in the playoffs.

So, you know what? We have a real good team here. He'll be a part of our formula here for winning. Hey, Hunt, just overall, we didn't see much movement in terms of moving up or down trades, especially in that first round, nothing budged. Does that speak to how deep this draft was or just the fact that money's still really tight?

Well, I think it's a little bit of both, Kipper. I think the money's tight. And you know what? There's some good players that people felt that they could get in the 28th hole, 27th hole. You know, years pass. It wasn't there. So in this year's draft, you know, everybody, you know,

was hungry for these young kids, like a guy like Cowan. I mean, he's got tons of upside. Someday he will be a Leaf and he'll play for the Leafs. So I was just looking through this list. Most players drafted from one franchise. London Knights sits amongst the very top. Like, is it the water? It can't be Dale.

It's not Dale. Yeah. You know, we've got a good coaching staff. We've got a good development team here. We spend a lot of time with these boys. And you know what? We try to draft young men that are really hungry

to get better. And we've been very fortunate with Oliver Bonk, Easton Cowan, Denver Barkey, Jacob Julian. These kids work at their game and translate them for winning and for them getting drafted high in an HL draft. And all it took was Kyle Dubas to go to Pittsburgh

for the Leafs to start drafting London Knights again, right? That's right. All right, Hansi, I'm going to let you go on that one, pal. Okay, all right. See you guys. Thanks, Hanson. Yeah, bye now. I think you got a good chuckle out of that one. I'm sure he's heard that in the last day or two.

Oh, my God. Listen, it doesn't sound like Easton's going to be that kind of front-line star for the Leafs. Yeah, I would say not a high ceiling maybe, but a... But if you're getting a versatile guy who's got a strong engine to play and compete and, you know, tenacity, that could be just exactly what the Leafs need.

Yeah, there's a scouting report here we've got from our pal Nick Richard on him. Love Nick Richard. Yeah, good dude. Talks about his work rate and processing speed um says his regular season numbers don't jump off the page but his play continued to improve as the season wore on um you know for a player with his size he covers a lot of ice elusive and transition find soft spots all sorts of good things so i think once you get past about 15 16 17 in the

draft you're kind of picking a guy a longer shot right none of these guys are locks at that point so you just pick a guy you like say okay this this guy matches up with our i do think though this is a guy that probably still fits the way they were drafting with dubas right like i doubt tree living came in and said change course entirely well les clark's their main guy. Yeah. He is, of course, a disciple of Kyle Dubas. For sure. So it does look and feel like, hey, you've done your work. I'm just going to let you continue to go down your path. Yeah.

And then, you know, the other kids they took, Sam, you were saying this Hudson Malinowski was a guy that had, what was the high praise that you saw on him? Like he had just missed some time for some freak incident? Yeah, he had like a freak injury and he'd missed some time, but apparently a good shooter, good vision. And the sixth round, I mean, if he plays 100 games in the NHL, it would be a great pick.

It's such a crapshoot at that point. So the London thing is very interesting. Like this not picking any London Knights in between. And he laughed at that. That was a great joke that you said to him. But in fairness, the Leafs haven't picked anyone. Yeah, it's true. They have no picks.

But, and it's really hard for me, personally, just on a personal note, that the Leafs, London should be a pipeline to the Leafs. Like, it should, if you were, like, doing it the way it should be done, they're one of the closest teams, they're the strongest team, they're one of the most famous OHL teams. It's like, you should be drafting from them. It's a good spot to draft from. That absolutely kills me.

It's just, it's so hard for me to get over this. The Kyle you know would be the guy that says, screw the Hunters and London Knights. I'm not going there. He definitely would do that. Really? Well, you know, because at that time. He has to draft at a suit, too.

I think at that point in the draft, you often have like a cluster of players you like. Like this kid and this kid about the same. I don't know, somewhere. If one of them is available, I imagine that would have been a tiebreaker in a couple of situations for him. So what happened to that pick from the Leafs? What was his name again? The one that had the freak injury?

Oh, Rodian Amarov? No. No. The guy they picked this year. Oh, Hudson Malinowski? He fell off a roof. What? There you go.

That's what happened. Sorry for laughing. That's not what I expected you to say. That's what happened. He fell off a roof. Well, I guess why was he on a roof? Maybe he was helping his dad roof. Was he partying or anything?

No, I don't think so. I think maybe he's helping somebody roof or something, but there you go. That's what happened to him. I don't know where to go with that one. You don't have to go anywhere. You can go to break if you want. Well, hopefully he doesn't end up at any roofs in any games. How about that? Alright, do you want

to go to break? Yeah, we can break. Okay, we'll go to break and then when we come back... We might get Bukala. I'm going to try to get Bukala on. Alright, we'll see if we can get Jason Bukala, who's been a good guest over the year, get his analysis of what's transpired in Nashville. Also, more talk that the Leafs are getting closer to an Austin Matthews extension. I saw your comment today, your column.

Also a column out on the Toronto Star, which lends towards teams willing to go 50% on contracts to get them out and whether or not Tree Living would revisit something, maybe with John Tavares to free up some salary cap. Really split on that with a lot of the comments, but we'll get into that and so much more still to go on the Real Kipper and Bourne Show. Breaking down the biggest stories in Toronto sports.

The Fan Morning Show with Ailish Forfar and Justin Cuthbert. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Real Kipper and Bourne on sportsnet 590 the van just prior to going to break we uh brought up the uh austin matthew situation there was a real strong sense uh in nashville the last two days that the Leafs are getting closer to a deal. Doesn't sound like it's done or even imminent, but there is hope that by July 1st, maybe 2nd, 3rd, there should be an announcement.

That wouldn't surprise you at this point, JB? No. And like, why wouldn't it be the first, right? Like, you know, everyone is waiting on this. If you're Matthews, like, no one should be, have around a golfer that can't get to a fax machine. It's a statement to me. You know, we prioritize letting everyone know this is happening.

You had mentioned in your column a potential salary range, anywhere from 13.5 all the way down to 12.75. So let's, three of us, right now, let's take your best guess. I bet it's 4 times 13 Alright 4 times 13 Sammy you're up 8 times 15

Oh my good Are you nuts Let's get nuts boys You want to get nuts Let's get nuts You're throwing that out there for the shock value of me just like going you're an idiot but you don't believe that do you maybe not i just think if you want to get him eight years is your hope eight eight years it's gonna have to be

yeah a number like that for sure okay but so i but... So, I would do that, yeah. You would do eight times 15? I would. 15 would not help you, Sammy, in the next... 14 and a half. Two years. 14 and a half. Can I get 14? I'm just...

Do you think he gets eight? I think if he gets eight, it's a way bigger number. Yeah. I think that's just how it works. Which maybe means both sides don't want that. Yeah. Derek Brandeis, you want a crack at this thing? He just threw a salt and vinegar chip in right as you asked him.

In fairness, we just stopped eating. Sorry, guys. I can't hear you. I don't have headphones on, but five at 12.75. Oh, okay. Five at 12.75. That is literally the best case scenario. Wow. That is as good as Leafs fans could ever expect.

Kip? I will go five years. That would make me very happy. 13.34. 3-2-2-3-2-3-4. Oh. I am very confident in your number more than mine. 13.34 is just cute enough and in the range enough.

Which in many ways would piss me off because every dollar counts and you're just going for cuteness. Actually, I hate that. I hate it. And I've railed about it before. It's like the salad caps are tight. It's like we need the number. I think they're both cute enough to try to pull it off.

Unless your number's double zero. Makes no sense. But okay. I would love that. That'd be awesome. I want eight years. I want every other guy does eight years, boys. Every other guy does eight years.

I think I know where you're heading. Why is it different because you you want a full commitment well every other fan base gets their guy on a full commitment why can't leave fans how he set the precedent great he got five last time great really glad they tested that baby out here i have his max term in the nba it is a long time to sign a guy yeah but you have the ability to sign eight so say he wants to go home in five and by then there's a new building in arizona great then they can trade him in five years can i talk about the funniest part of the draft yesterday which is arizona publicly announcing that they are seeking deals on private land so that the public can't

vote as in they're aware if the public has any say, they actively will vote for the team to not play in their state. They're like, if we let the public vote, they're going to tell us to leave. So we're just going to build a rink on private land and stuff a team down their throat. Great. That's a great relationship.

Like, we can't have the public weigh in on this. They're going to tell us to leave we know you guys hate this yeah but so yeah too bad like you just see every other superstar sign eight years you know i do feel sam that part of that is hockey's go along to get along culture of just like great fit in and do what everything else is doing no but here's the thing okay so what do you want matthews i've said this to you before do you want to be the richest guy ever or do you want to be the centerpiece favorite son of the most popular team in the nhl you want to middle it so you can be the richest guy in the world like you need to

buy a better balenciaga hoodie like you're the richest guy ever already so just sign the eight years stay at toronto it's not binary like that if he wants that he'd do three times something giving him everything man the organization's giving him everything he's been the centerpiece he gets every ad he's been in i can't open up my i can't open up my instagram without him being on every can't contain a wild animal these guys since they came in they they got his cake and eat it too every year that's right so maybe it's time to give a little cake back to the leafs well these numbers are he's here's your cake all right so you're talking tough love which kind of i'm not talking tough love i'm talking about a little bit of a meeting point.

No, it is tough love. No, it's not tough love. It's signing a massive eight-year contract with the most important hockey team in the league. No, you're saying you don't have a choice of five or six. You're signing eight. Yeah. That's tough love, my friend.

That's what Conor McDavid got. Edmonton, he didn't get an option of five. From my perspective, fellas, as a lifelong Leaf fan, and, you know, he should want to sign eight. He should want to sign eight. Because there's no way. Is there a guy that likes the spotlight more than Austin Matthews? You are the man.

You're the man. You're the number one man. Everyone loves you. You're the most popular player and the most popular team in the league. A little less last season. Everyone loves you. You're the most popular player on the most popular team in the league. A little less last season. Yeah, sure. You're right.

He wasn't as good as he was last year. But still, if he signs a contract at a decent number, probably not $15 million like this Bozo said, but if he signs an $8 million contract at your 13.4 or whatever, 13.5, he is beloved forever. You know, Conor McDavid only has three years left in that deal. It's a long three years, though. A lot, like, think about where the league could be in three years. It changes a ton.

And that's where the five-year deal for everybody, you know, we talk about AAVs, but that did a tremendous amount of damage just five years on an Austin Matthews second term. His last deal. Yeah. Yeah, brutal. It was, they got nothing out of that negotiation. You know what the thing they got was?

They didn't make him mad, right? It didn't drag into the media. There was no public discussion. It was just over. He was like here's what i want and they were like great let's not upset the guy who's gonna save us all all right i wrote an article today in the toronto star you can find it on my uh at real kipper uh twitter account uh and it really stemmed for me off of a couple of things number one was watching what i

thought were unmovable contracts get chopped at 50 kevin hayes ryan johansson and then the other one stemmed from doug armstrong trading a guy with a complete no move or no no uh no trade clause the crook thing that didn't happen yeah i want to get your thoughts on armstrong attempting to trade him knowing he has a no trade clause i think it's very interesting so first off i want to get back to it because this you know i love your written columns uh this is this one i disagree with i guess it's a good column but i disagree with no for sure um but the the thing that's interesting to me is that we know about the tory krug potential trade to me the first thing you do before you make a that we know about the Tory Krug potential trade.

To me, the first thing you do before you make a trade is talk to the guy and say, kind of working on something with the flyers here. If we were to get something, would you be interested? No, I would not. And then you stop working on it. Like it was announced as like a completed trade and Krug was apparently, I don't know, fishing or at a wedding or somewhere. And he was like, uh, guys like Doug knew he had a no move.

Why do we know about it? Because he's trying to push him out of town is kind of what you implied in the column. There's, there's, it's, it's implied that you're pressuring him. Right. And so your connection then is that what if Tarez were to receive some pressure is is this now a tactic by general managers to put pressure on players who have no trade or no no moves to say i want i respectfully am asking you to leave and guys are like you respectfully signed a thing that says I don't have to leave. No, no, 100%.

And you have that right, and you can hold on to that. Sure. But for Torrey Krug now to go back and pretend like everything's back to normal will never happen. Did you Google, like, the response of fans towards Torrey Krug? They wanted that cap space in St. Louis. They're like ripping on him. Yeah.

And there's really no going back from that. Like even if he says, screw everybody, I'm staying. He is now in a much tougher position to deal with the fact that there are fans out there thinking that you held our team back because a deal is a deal i do think that the remaining term on tavara's contract makes this more viable like he's got two years left if he plays past christmas this year you're down to a year and a half to get a team to take tavara's not a big ask at that point right like he's still going to be a good hockey player a good man a good a person you want around your team tons of teams would want him so i don't i think it's going to get easier to trade

him because even tavara's is going to see the end and say well i don't just want to play this to the end and you know like leave them the way i left the Islanders who got nothing for me. Now everyone hates me. So it's getting close to that time. So yeah, there's some merit. My only contention, Kip, you know, my problem with the article is just, I don't think you could,

Tavares had 30 some goals and 80 points as your second line center. You know, like it's tough to get for 7 million right now or whatever you would be left with after attaining four. It's giving up that up front, but it's also putting yourself in a position that if I can knock off a substantial amount off of his AAV, I can turn it into Orlov on the blue line, right?

Yeah, and so you think... That's taking out his space and filling it with someone else's space. It is, but it's four mil dead. He's 11 million. Yeah. But you bring. I'm just saying four is a number, sorry.

If four is the number that you're going to eat, that means seven comes back into play. Yeah. Could you sign Orlov? Sure. For six and a half million with the money that you can save with that logically you got to put that four on or loves numbers so now you're you got or love instead of tavarez is the swap you've made yes and yeah you're better you'd

rather would you rather give or love 11 million or whatever it would add to then tavarez in terms of cap hit correct okay in that case i would i hear it. I can hear that for Orloff. Who's playing second line center, David camp. Well, it's a big question. Then you, you find a way to maybe get revisit Ryan O'Reilly, but I don't know if that's the case with camp at two and a half million.

You know, it's tough too. Cause like, what if Tavares is a, still a point per game guy next year? That's a valuable hockey player. I don't know. Yes, I know. It's one that could really help you be a top three regular season team.

Oh, boy. Right? I guess Orlov is a good example of some way that you could maybe talk me into it. I just don't see many wins you want hannifin over john devarez you think you're better that way i'm picking a position jb yeah i'm just throwing names out there to say that it gives you a chance to take your core four and balance it out throughout the lineup just not in your your top six does john tavarez have any value on the open market at six million at 11 million no six i'm asking you i'm saying what if you're not i'm

saying can i trade john tavarez for nothing i can't give him no just like you couldn't for ryan johansson and just like you couldn't for kevin hayes i would be more interested in trading tavarez and eating one million or two million and trading a second rounder with them. But you got to start those discussions by saying, this is, John, this is where I'm going with. I think you got to protect that cap space. You know what I mean? Like even with assets and yeah. my point is, is Brad tree living doing his job if he doesn't explore it or if he does not go to John Tavares and say,

this is one of my options and this is what I'm going to start looking at from a PR perspective. Let's say Tavares or tree living does go to Tavares and have this conversation. Tavares says, I want to stay. And then Luke Fox says to him, have you gone to John to ask him about

if he'd be interested in moving or whatever? What should Tree Living answer? That question. Why don't we find out when someone eventually asks Doug Armstrong? Because it's the same scenario with Krug, is it not? It is the same scenario. Minus the fact he's not the captain of the team.

Does Doug Armstrong feel or sound real worried about people? He lives in the woods. So what? So what? It's Toronto. Everybody wants to play here. You get an endorsement deal if you're McKay of For God's Sakes.

Yeah. Achari did a cookie deal with Tim Hortons. It's Toronto. Osmos for O'Reilly. You think people aren't going to stop coming to Toronto because you told John Tavares in his fifth year his 11 million AAV is no longer welcome? My point is that if you're tree living and say,

yeah, I went to him, he doesn't want to go anywhere, then now Tavares is the bad guy. And Tavares doesn't deserve that. And that plays into Brad tree living, getting what he wants and what's best for the team, if that's what he deems. I guess that is a matter of how you believe people should be treated. Because to me, John Tavares has been a great leaf. And it's a kick in the teeth to say, beat it.

And if you don't, you're going to get booed. A great leaf is going to a conference final, a Stanley Cup final, not losing in the first round four out of five times and winning one game in the second round that's not a great leaf yeah you're talking performance not person which we're professional hockey it's a business of winning love that all year long we talked about you know the egos and worrying about guys and how they're treated and all that i you kind of got to be in one camp or another that who cares about these guys who are ruthless organization or not

i've talked to people on the inside that's saying like hey john like you're no longer our second line centerman we'll put you on the fourth line there'll be some nights you play some nights you don't is this the way you want to go out your last two years or you want to go play every day somewhere else i mean if it comes down to that it just you gotta admit it's crummy it's a crummy yeah guess what though uh brad tree living always said there's no assurances for anybody yeah does that include having a no move clause thanks for your 80 points captain john tavarez listen we don't want you it's not it's not hugs and kisses warm blankets all the time for these guys then do it with mitch marner and do it with austin matthews and do it with willie kneelander if he's not shopping those guys or did he not find out what's out there

then you're not doing your job and i include mitch marner yeah if you don't know what the marketplace is for mitch marner right now you haven't done your job yeah i that's why this whole draft thing coming and going without anything is kind of a little i don't want to say disappointing but you kind of thought the leafs might change something the longer we get into this and the more it looks like they're literally going to do nothing the more disheartening it becomes i feel like everyone's favorite three words boys run it back barf barf oh even matt murray's getting back in the mix matt murray through one of three goalies he might be our guy day one if i might be the opening day starter oh interesting not much news out of for samson

ave for a guy that everybody pegged going into the first round haven't heard as great and done his job not a sniff on is he coming back is he getting a long-term deal what's his number not even a peep such a good point samson off he RFA for, this is the last year he's RFA. They don't want to pay him. He wants money. That's why you haven't heard a thing. Because he wants a long-term deal. He's got a number in mind and the Leafs are going

not so fast. Murray and Wool, there's your duo next year. Samsonov's going to peace out. Oh my god, boys. Can it be the summer yet? So we are back tomorrow for our final Off the Rails Friday. We'll find Doug McClain. And then we're back Monday and Tuesday.

Two-hour show on Monday. Two-hour show on Monday and Tuesday. Just on Monday, one hour Tuesday. And then we're good. So we got still some meat on the bone here on the Real Kipper and Bourne Show. Give us a follow, give us a rating and review, and we're back tomorrow. David.