Real Kyper & Bourne - Extensions, First Impressions & Bold Predictions with David Amber

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee kick off the first two-hour edition of Real Kyper and Bourne of the season recapping all the action from Opening Night in the NHL! They touch on the Blackhawks' promising start and the Kings' stumble out of the gates, before sharing their thoughts on Kyle Connor's eight-year, $96 million extension with the Winnipeg Jets. Sportsnet's David Amber (10:12) stops by ahead of tonight's Maple Leafs-Canadiens clash to discuss the Buds' outlook without Mitch Marner and the optimism surrounding the Habs. D.A. also shares a bold prediction about the Senators, how the Canucks can bounce back, and what to expect for Connor Bedard in his third season. Later, they listen to some audio from Connor McDavid's teammates after signing his two-year, $25 million extension in Edmonton and discuss its greater impact around the league.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.

Welcome all in to the real Kipper and Boren show where we go now two hours. Cool. We can call it the fastest two hours in hockey. Nick Kippreel, Justin Boren, Sammy McKee, Jake the Snake Shultz, Derek Brandeo. We are live on Sportsnet 360.

650 in Vancouver, Sportsnet 960 in Calgary and streaming always on Sportsnet Plus, this hour of Real Kipper and Bourne brought to by Bet 365. We are well underway in the National Hockey League, three games last night, for tonight, including the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens.

And then the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers, which will be a double header right here on Sportsnet. And we can also include a baseball game. Are you okay? Do we have to? Are we okay, Sammy? And a few minutes, we're going to welcome in David Amber.

But in the meantime, we'll let Sammy explain to us what happened last night to our Blue Jays. I don't know. I don't know. Listen, it wasn't going to be easy. You're not going to sweep that team. That's the right answer. But I'll tell you what.

Sure wish it didn't look like. that. There's ways they can lose that game where I'm like coming in here being like, oh, it's just another chance tonight. That's not one of those ways. But there is another chance tonight and the Jays have, let me check, bullpen on the mound. Oh my God.

And it was great last night. So none of Bassett, Bacett, and Scherzer neither of them are on the playoff roster. But I agreed with both those decisions. Scher was brutal down the stretch. Bassett was injured. Burrios is on the shelf. So like four of their five, Four of their five opening day starters are not involved.

So for a team, this is just my take, okay, okay, for a team that has been stellar in defense. Oh, yeah. Right? In the outfield, every guy looking like Pilar Superman. They've been supermanning all year long. Unbelievable. One of the best defensive teams in the league, no question. And then it was the Yankees that kind of booted it around all year and shot themselves in the foot.

Correct. and then I'm watching the Jay's light last night and they're looking like the 1976 bad news bears yeah I mean didn't help didn't help you know like you look at the first inning if IKF doesn't boot one then you get Beber out of the first inning with less pitches and Barger Barger Santander taking a softball route to that

Santander so he he reminded me like of a kid in the outfield where he doesn't catch the ball and then he slides and then he just stays there for like two minutes he's like oh my wrist he didn't he didn't move he just stayed there like in a reverse snow angel here's what I'll say get up here's what I'll say okay the lights looked a little too bright for the Toronto Blue Jays last night

they had a moment where they're like we're up 6-1 we're going to sweep the New York Yankees and they completely went to sleep and it was a third inning and it was like there's way too much baseball game left and you know barger Listen, that's what I'm blaming the loss on. And the space time continuum, he catches that ball. They get out of that inning unscathed and they win that baseball game in my mind. So that's the biggest blame for me.

Lots to go around. And everybody is down on them tonight. It's a bullpen game. I understand all that stuff. Here's what I'll say. The unexpected always happens in baseball where it's like huge favorite, ace on the mound, blah, blah, blah, and the weird stuff happens. I got a good feeling about tonight.

I got a funny, good feeling about tonight. So there you go. Okay, great. Yeah, we'll take that. It was heartbreaking though. My son went to it. It was a long game. My son went to bed at 6-1.

He was like, all right, night. Morning, son. I did like Chicago and Florida, starting at 5 p.m. Eastern because you can watch the game. That was great. Jay's 8 o'clock start Eastern. No conflict. Tonight. And then, and then I bailed on the rest of the games.

It's just focused on the ball game. Yeah. But tonight, it's not an 8 o'clock first pitch. it's a seven which matches right up against our opening game of the Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadians. Two screen night. Can I ask you who's going to have a better year of the Chicago Blackhawks

or Chicago White Sox? Because I don't know. Yeah. I mean... It's tough to see how it gets better for the Blackhawks. Nazar and... Spencer Knight is good. Yeah. I think he's good. Okay. Nasar is definitely going to take a step. I don't know in terms of

what that means for wins and losses but they're already better with him i believe as long as he's healthy physically mentally i think it's a it's an improvement there okay well that's good uh watching badard he didn't have any points but he looked really good in command and dangerous nizarata goal and assist so maybe there's something there but got it you go through all the teams of the league doing some prep for the season everyone has players yeah you know it's like oh you got a few guys great You need like 14 good players to even be a contender. Wouldn't exactly say the Panthers look like they took a step back last night. Nah.

They were zipping around the whole night. Yeah, I'm with you with Bardard. I think he's looking stronger, which he should. I mean, he's not an 18-year-old kid anymore, right? I mean, it's third year now in the National Hockey League. No, I did have it pointed out to me that when he was on the ice shots were 15 to 2 for the Panthers last night. So there's work to be done. There's work to be done.

Okay, he popped in moments. Yeah. And did you watch any avalanche kings? Just the highlight. Okay. I watched the first two periods of Avalanche Kings because I needed something to take my mind off the horrendous happenings at Yankee Stadium. Fast.

And Colorado looks unbelievable, breathtakingly fast. And the Kings did like a weird jersey thing. I know. They wore their normal jerseys in warm up. And then they brought out their new jerseys. And they're like, check it out. Slightly worse version. Really?

Oh, yeah. Oh, I loved them. I loved them. They're nice. They're like. They're just black. Black, that nice classic logo, the silver bucket. It's a good look.

No, it's not a good luck. They didn't look. It's not look good. It's not a good, though, because they got run out of the building for us that night. I do. I worry a little bit about the Kings with the focus on Copatar in his going away party slash career. Why would you ever let people know your? retiring before you're like a full year out such a big distraction with the press

conference and yeah i just i i'm with you i i wouldn't have made it that big of a deal not like because they got to try to win now isn't l.a in that kind of win now mode with him and drew dowdy and like they've just been lambs to the slaughter for the oilers the past few years and how how do you think they're better what's it's just a lot of edmondson and Sisi and Duma and I'm like, oh, yeah, you know,

it's just real, real tough to see that's a better team. I like, you know, Kempi's great and Koppata is still there, Byfield can take a step, Fiala, you know,

had a good last part of the season. Vogel, decent numbers. They've got some players, but they're not a cup threat. No. Avs, however,

Cup threat. Serious Cup threat. Yeah. A lot of good players. A lot of good players. Perhaps the Cup favorite. Yeah. Maybe 10th.

Yeah. All right, in a few minutes, we're going to welcome in David Amber, studio host of Hockey Night in Canada NHL on Sportsnet. He gets going tonight with our double header. I'm sure he'll

have one eye on a monitor somewhere for the Toronto Blue Jays. But what a jam-pack night for us here at the network. Yeah, Bruins Capitals tonight, Flames Oilers, what a start there. Kings back at it tonight against the golden night. Nice start for them. Holy.

Yeah, they get old Colorado, Vegas back to back. So Jets talk? Quickly before get to the A? Sure, yeah, yeah. Kyle Conner with the big contract signed. Eight years, 96 million, 12 million per. A lot of signing bonuses and a rare

no move clause, which they don't give out a ton of. No, they don't. And it just seemed like they had this salary structure or cap within a cap. This was the one Canadian

market for sure where we're going to have to do things a little bit different and Shifley bought into it. Connor Hellebuck, of course, that ultimately at eight and a half, I think, what, a year and a half ago maybe. Yeah. And then Kyle Connor just comes out and just takes it right to

this is the going market. This is Rantaninan. This is Marner. And now it's me. And Winnipeg goes, Winnipeg goes, yep, yep, yep. for sure it is that's the price right yeah okay that's that's a that doesn't feel like a major change in the organization's kind of mindset or philosophy it's like inflation you know when you like go to

the grocery store and a year later bread is a dollar more your choice is to pay a dollar more not get bread yeah Doritos cost nine dollars for two bags all right plenty more to dissect on the signing in Winnipeg with Kyle Connor uh let's bring in a our first guest in terms of first time on the show this season, not first ever, because he's been on the past, we're lucky to have him. Let's bring in David Amber. Now, you know, we do amazing work here on features. But last year, my favorite feature by Country Mile. was on David Amber and the day in the life of David Amber. Did we do that?

Oh, yeah, we did it. Sorry, I missed it. And for those of you that don't have distills right now, this is David, David was answering the door at a hotel. And then they took them in the gym. And this is, these are leg lifts. I'm embarrassed of my body. Look at these leg lifts.

Oh, there's a closer look at the leg. Oh, look at the calves look amazing. Amazing. And I think pushups were involved. in this feature, David? And then they showed you kind of trying to get Cory Perry to notice you in the holiday. Enough.

Kipper. Yeah, it was awesome. It was awesome. He was walking into a roast here. Oh, my goodness. No, no, no. What was it? No, I've always wanted to ask you,

do you combine upper body with lower body? I do. Kipper, let's get on the squat rack. I know you're trying to mock me here, but I'm comfortable. No, I'm not mocking you. No, I'm not. Yeah, you know what? Yeah, I'm trying to stay as fit as possible.

But you look amazing. Mentally keeps me sane. I'm only, I only do this because I'm incredibly jealous. Yeah, yeah, okay. That's the only reason. How are you? Good, good. You guys have a good summer?

So, um, will we, are you, will you be tested for this season or are you like the players now where you don't need physical testing anymore to start the season? Drug testing? No, no. No, no, no, no. Are you jacked? Are you ready to go here besides, you know, your amazing pecks? Yeah, you know, and I'm ready to go.

I was, like Sammy, I was glued to the set last night watching the Jays and selfishly wanting them to win to sweep away the Yanks and also very selfishly hoping they'd win. So we'd have, you know, double our audience tonight for Scotch Bank Wednesday and hockey. I know, what can you do? It might be friends and family appointment viewing, but it is a really compelling doubleheader tonight. in Toronto, Montreal, and there's so many storylines with both these teams. You talked about Winnipeg. We don't have Winnipeg on the air tonight, but we also have Edmonton, Calgary, and really excited to see, you know, Dustin Wolf in his second year, how he's going to perform.

And obviously, we want to see what's going on with Edmonton, with the newly, you know, minted situation with Connor McDavid. That all quiet downs now. So, listen, there's so many good things to see. And, of course, we're going to see the Mitch Marner debut with Vegas tonight as well, another game we're keeping an eye on. there's a lot going on and let's get right at it. This preseason seems like

it's gone on forever, hasn't it? It's world record length. It is. And yes, thank you for joining us, Dea. Good to see you again, man. So you got Toronto, Montreal to start the season off. That's awfully exciting. I think all of us are looking forward to that. Two teams that both made playoffs and have high

expectations going into the year. You are a perennial Canadian team booster, rooting for our Canadian teams. Where do you see Toronto and Montreal compared to their seasons last year heading into this one? Well, Toronto, we have to wait and see. I mean, Mitch

Marner is a world class player and without him, how is their offense going to go? They were dead last in the league and goals by defense been last year. They clearly need more from their back end to make up for the loss of Marner. The one thing I'll say though, and talking to Craig Barube is this feels a lot more like the

type of team he likes the coach and that's not a knock on Marner. Obviously, I'd love to have superstars there. But I mean, as you guys just pointed out they're the biggest team in the NHL, 6-2-2-10 is the average size of a player on their team. Yeah, the biggest team in the NHL. And maybe

it just feels a little bit more like that 2019 St. Louis team that didn't have a bunch of superstars. It just had a bunch of blue-collar guys who could go to work. Yes, there's still Matthews and Neelander. Who are worlds superstars? What's us again? You're right. I mean, they, but they are

superstars. And you're just wondering, so is Is it dump and chase for like 70%, 80% of the lineup? And then the Nielanders and the Matthews get to kind of east and west it up? That's a, you know, listen, that's a great question. And I guess we're going to find out starting tonight. I mean, Craig Barube has been saying it's all about the process. I asked them, what would success look like this year?

And he says, I don't want to get caught up in going around, going two rounds and all that. It's the process that matters. And doing the right things. He says, we do the right things and learn to win games. the right way, come April, come May, those are habits that just happen and you don't have to worry about meltdowns in the fifth or seventh game or whatever. So, you know, I think for him, he's all about getting guys to play to their limits and do what they're most comfortable doing. They add what Roy, they add Joshua, these are big bodied guys. These are guys who will do,

as you say, Kipper, some dump in chase and bang some bodies around. Their blue line stayed the same. And I think that's actually probably a pretty important thing. If there is a strength on this team, maybe you're going to say now, instead of saying it's the offensive top side of the Leafs, you might say it's the defense. And the goaltending, we'll see what happens with Joseph Wall, but clearly if Stolars and Wall can come out and do what they did last year

and both be really formidable, you know, the Leafs might win games in a different way than they've won in the past. There won't be as many track meets in 5-4 games, but there'll be a lot more 3-2 and 2-1 games, and that might suit, you know, Craig Barubei and his staff. pretty well. So that's the storyline with the Leafs. We don't know what to expect because very few times you see

a superstar leave a team in this fashion, you know, really at the and still at the peak of his prime. So what they're going to look like without Mitch Marner, we find out starting tonight. And if you listen to what the Leafs are saying, they feel there's more depth there and maybe some more versatility up

and down the lineup, and that's going to have to be their strength. You're watching and listening to David Amber, studio host of the NHL on Sports Net, in Canada as well. Double header, of course, we go right into the Oilers and the Calgary Flame.

So let's just start with what you think that the Connor McDavid scenario has been put to bed at least for the next couple of years. What we think, just your overall thoughts on the ripple effect that it will have moving forward here for the Oilers.

And then ultimately, what you thought of the deal and how, how underwhelming you found it. Well, I mean, I think it speaks volumes to what Connor McDavid's all about. I know you guys talked about this on your show. I mean, he wants to win. He is showing his commitment to win, and he has made a sacrifice financially to allow Stan Bowman

and that management staff to fill the lineup up with his best players possible to surround him with, to give him the best opportunity to win. The window is right now, though, for the Edmonton Oilers. I had a chance to sit down with Stan Bowman and I said, you know, this has got to be tough. You've got to be probably the one team who comes into the season and it's Stanley Cup or bust. No one's going to say it's a great year we got to the final

or it's a great year we got to the conference final. You know, if the Leafs go two rounds and get into the third round, I think people in Toronto, a large group of the fans will say, okay, they're going in the right direction. When you've been to the Stanley Cup final and lost the last two years, it's Stanley Cup or a bust. And I think Connor McDavid really wanted to, you know, accentuate that point by saying,

I'm ready to make the sacrifices. I'm going to bring everything I can. I see this group around me. I trust this group. And when you look at the group, what does Stan Bowman do, guys? He got rid of seven players. One thing they all have in common,

they're all in their 30s, the skinners, the canes, the Perrys, the Arvidsons. I mean, they made a point of saying we need to get a little bit younger. And I know that sounds a little bit counterintuitive because last year they added all those guys, they added the skinners and the Arbotsons.

But I think they said, you know what, we ran out of gas a little bit. looked a little bit slow by the final, and we needed to inject a little bit more young energy here. So I'm interested to see what the Oilers can do. Connor McDavid, the one they'll say from an Oilers fan standpoint, because there was a bit of chatter, Willie leave, Willie leave. I just hope they appreciate. Like, we're watching, you know, you played, you know, you were in Gretsky's era, Kipper. And, I mean, we're watching greatness here. We're watching an all-time great player. And sometimes I think that gets lost in the shuffle. And the fact that Edmonton can now say,

whatever happens with McDavid in three years. You know, we had the first 12 years of his career, you know, in our home rank. They should just be incredibly appreciative and happy about that. And clearly the window is now for Edmonton and let's see how the dust settles in the next two or three years. But right now, I still look at the Oilers as maybe the favorite to win the Stanley Cup. And I don't see why we wouldn't. And I know there's gold-taining questions and other questions, but I still look at them and say, you have the two best players in the world and you have a pretty good supporting cast.

and they've been there. They've been right there on the precipice. Maybe this is the year. It's also particularly salient, I think, to point out to people to appreciate it, not because like, oh, he's going to leave, but because when you go into a season going, or cup is all that matters, you don't want to, like, not care about the season.

There's seven months of fun hockey ahead, you know, watching these guys and obviously elite special players. So, yeah, the oiler is going to be fun to keep an eye on. Part of the doubleheader you have tonight, Toronto's in Montreal. all. I wanted to get your thoughts on the Canadians who set the bar high, got into playoffs and they're saying they're not running from it, that it's, you know, they expect to be a playoff team and that's where they're at. Are you concerned for them taking a step back or do you like them to continue to build with some big additions in Dobson and Bulldoch? I mean, I love the moves

they've made. I think Kent Hughes and that manager group have done a wonderful job, you know, and Mark Bershman deserves some credit as well because he stockpiled a lot of these draft picks that they've been able to parlay into some of these pieces, trading two of them to get Dobson. I'm incredibly excited to see Demidov, right? Like that to me, he's electric. And all I hear is he's a rink rat. He stayed in Montreal. He trained through the summer.

All he cares about is working out and playing hockey. And I'm like, okay, this is going to be really fun to watch. You look at him and Lane Hudson. And they're two like hockey nerds, essentially. So you have two of the most young dynamic players in the league. You have Caulfield and Suzuki on the rise. Dobson, of course, looking to have a, you know, sort of a bounce back season after a tough year on Long Island last year. There's so many good young pieces here, and they're led by a coach with so much energy and such a great way of managing these young players.

Where they need to figure things out is defensively, right? They gave up the most five-on-five high-danger scoring chances in the league last year. You know, Sam Montembow deserves a lot of credit. If it wasn't for him, you know, the Habs probably wouldn't have made the playoffs. He was that good last year. So I'm excited. They kind of strike me as must see TV, the Montreal Canadians. You know, are they going to, you know, have another 90 plus point season and be that team?

I don't know that the Atlantic Division is incredibly tough. In fact, the sleeper pick I have, guys, I think we all did our predictions. I didn't, I haven't actually seen the article come out on Sportsnet. But I'm sure I'll kind of turn some heads because I predict the Ottawa senators are going to win the Atlantic. I really, I'm so, I don't know. I'm just, I'm all in on the Senators team right now. Huge Allmark fan, eh? Well, listen, Olmark is a great regular season goalie,

and he struggled last year until December, and then he was the best goalie in the league, if you guys remember from December to mid-January, he was amazing leading up to four nations. If they can get 82 games of Linus Allmark, or a full year, he's not playing 82 games, but a full year of Linus Allmark, that Vesna caliber guy that they had in Boston,

they had a full year of Dillon Cousins. They added Jordan Spence, It's a stealth move, a guy who was playing 17 plus minutes in L.A., a very stingy defensive team. And then Stutzla, Sanderson, Kachuk. I mean, these are guys on the rise. These are young superstars. You know, Jake Sanderson might be, you know, really one of those guys you're going to talk about as a Norse candidate for the next six, seven years. He'll win it if they win the Atlantic.

There you go. And think about that. And, you know, that's how strongly I feel. They need a lot of things to fall into place. But I really, really like the trajectory of this. team. And I like the makeup. And I like the depth up front. And I think they've done a good job of integrating the Claude Jaroos and the Lars Eller's that they brought in this year. Like they have a mix of veterans and they have a bunch of great up-and-coming young players. And it's going to be

exciting in Ottawa, I think. Well, there's no question that you, you know exactly how you feel about the Ottawa Senators. Can you tell me exactly how you feel about the Vancouver Canucks? You know, listen, it's a, it's a cup half full or a cup half empty. Can we all agree that everything that could go wrong in Vancouver went wrong last year? Yes, absolutely it was. Petey with, what, 45 points? The longest burning tire fire in Canadian history. It's almost like unheard of that that guy would end up playing a season with under 50 points.

So we all agree it was horrible. And they finished six points out of the playoffs. Right. They finished with 90 points, six points out of the playoffs with everything going wrong. Only five times in the first 41 games of the season. So five times in the first half of the season. do they have Dempco, Pedersen, Hughes, and Miller all in the lineup together. And I understand the fights between Pedersen and Miller, and that whole thing was a whole other issue on top of that.

But my point being, they weren't healthy. They underperformed. It was a disaster, and they still came up with 90 points. So if Pedersen can go back to Bean, Pedersen, Quinn Hughes, I don't think we have any doubts about him. Demko needs to stay healthy. I think there's some optimism to be had there. But again, we're asking for things to get back on track, and there's never guarantee. in the NHL. So I love that team, though. I think it still, you know, can show who they really are. And I think this is going to be one of those years. Adam Foote has his work cut out for him. But I think he's that player's coach in spending a little time with Vancouver. The guys seem to just embrace his style of coaching. And I think that was a big reason why they, you know, elevated him from assistant coach to head coach. He's been basically a mentor to Quinn Hughes. There's great relationship there. And I think that's going to count for something on the bench. And if Demko, again,

again, can go back to Dean, the healthy Vesna caliber Dempco, it changes everything for the Vancouver Canucks this year. Well, it's crazy. You know, last year we had five Canadian teams in the playoffs. Vancouver and Calgary missed. Calgary actually tied for the last playoff spot, lost on a tie break. Canucks were just six points out. Do we, we're going to get more than five this year?

Can we six, seven, DA? Have we ever done seven? We've never had seven. That would be, that's unprecedented. I, listen, I'm not sure we're going to get more. than five. It's just, it's also hard, right? You have three of them in the same division in the Atlantic. You have three of them in the same division in the Pacific. It's hard to get all those teams to matriculate through when you have, you know, the vaguses and the tampas and the

Florida's, et cetera, in those divisions. But, you know, I think five is a very realistic number, which five it will be is yet to be determined. We talked a little bit about Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal. You know, they're all in the mix, but, you know, time will tell. David, let's just go a little south of the border here and just talk about a few storylines that you're looking forward to. We watched Chicago play Florida, the Stanley Cup champions and it seemed like a pretty close game. I thought Spencer Knight looked good.

Your thoughts on Bedard now going into his third season. And do we have a better idea of what he is or what he could still become after this point in time? or is it just too early for sure to say, yeah, this guy will be good, but how great he'll be isn't what we projected maybe three years ago? I know there's some detractors. One thing I'll say is his heart is where it needs to be. Everyone I've talked to said all he worked on all summer was his skating,

which was his big sort of, you know, part of his game that needed some work. He seems like he's dedicated clearly to being the best. version of himself he can be he just turned 20 years old like we keep forgetting he yes he's been in the league two full years but he's still he's just stop being a teenager so uh yeah i think i have the utmost confidence in connor bradard and i think he's going to be that prolific 50 goal guy uh is that can happen this year with the group around him probably not but i could definitely see him taking a step to 35 to 40 goals that wouldn't surprise me at all um you know and nazar being this good young unheralded player you know he finally maybe has a running mate there in chicago somebody

can can work with a little bit because it's been hard he's been a little bit on an island and i think we can all agree kyle davidson you know hasn't done a great job in in insulating him you know in in a draft two years ago when it could have been demidov or could have been one of these other good great offensive players he kind of went with a more stay-at-home defenseman and lefshanov at the number two pick and i do wonder five years from now how we're going to go back and view that 2004 draft, where it was Celebrini and then a group of players. And Demadoff looks like he's going to, you know, move his way to Celebrini status. But I wonder if that will come back to bite Chicago or not.

And it's too early to know all these things, but it just would have been nice for him to have gotten a bit more of a running mate, someone he can really play off of. And maybe Nazar will be that guy this year for Chicago. So it's too early, Kipper, but at the same time, I'm still buying Connor Bedard. Are you guys not feeling it as much as I am? am no I am too I think I get skating I totally believe that you nailed it that he is very capable to be to hit that between 35 and 40 range which what this year yeah this year and on this team like you said for me the disappointing part is they don't they don't even have the he doesn't even have anything close to what maybe San Jose has already look at Eklund there and Will Smith and Who's the other young guy they got there? Celebrini. You know, Celebrini with him, though.

I mean, they've got another one there, too. I'm forgetting. But they, yeah, like. Well, they got, oh, well, Michael Misa. They took second door to all. Yeah. Yeah. And he's going to make his debut, I believe, tomorrow night.

I think they're playing Seattle or someone. But yeah, it's, yeah, it just, this is a question. Chicago, you want to see them be a bit more aggressive. But I think when you have this player, what did he, what did he play 172 games in junior or whatever and scored 172 games? goals. And I know that's junior hockey, you know, Kipper, you were a prolific goal score in North Bay. I get that. But, you know, we saw him at the world, listen, we saw him at the world juniors, right? Like set records. And Goldberg gets the best players in his peer group. I'm not giving up on

Connor Bedard at all. And I think anyone who is is prematurely doing that. They've got to get them some guys who can think the game the way he thinks the game. He's still a one shot score. There's not many one shot scores there. Guys who don't need to be given a ton of time and space. They just need the puck on their stick in a spot they're comfortable and boom, it's in the net. He's one of those guys. So, DA, one thing I give you a lot of credit for, and I give you credit for many things

is a wonderful host, but one of the things is that you will make a real prediction, a bold prediction, whatever, and the Ottawa one is bold. No, listen, you liked Columbus a couple years ago, you put your money where your mouth is. I've given you a lot of money. You thought Quinn Hughes to get 100 points. It's very close that year.

You're pretty good at this stuff. So when these predictions come out, or they are at any others that we need to know about that people are going to go, really? I've got a bold one coming out tonight on our show and I will probably be laughed right off the set. So I'll leave it. That'll be appointment viewing. It's a bold one.

Listen, I don't know. This is what I love about the NHL, though. There's 10 teams you can make an honest argument that they'll win the Stanley Cup. And you can make a smart argument for probably 10 teams. And usually make an argument for the 11th one. That's usually your M.O. And I feel we're going.

We're going into the season again with, you know, seven, eight teams legitimately who are saying we are expecting and wanting to win the Stanley Cup and making, you know, concerted arguments towards that. And that's what I think's fun. The salary cap isn't perfect by any means, but it does keep some level of parity. I'll go as far as to say, I don't think the Florida Panthers are going to three P. So I don't know if that's bold. I think that's bold.

Okay. They've been doing pretty good for themselves. It all, it all starts tonight. for you pal Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal lead the way here what time is the pregame and who's on the panel

with you this year? So it's 630 tonight is our pregame setting up Toronto Montreal and then Edmonton Calgary. It's going to be tonight Elliot Colby Armstrong Luke Gastic but it'll be sort of a mixed bag you know Sam Costantino obviously is going to be

prominent there Jennifer Botter will be on as well so it depends on everyone's schedules and week to week, but tonight it's Colby, Elliot, Luke, and myself and we're pumped, night one of the, at least the Canadian teams, the NHL and Sportsnet. Here we go. Good luck, man. Have a great year. Well, we traded you in for

Carolyn Cameron. I think it's a great trade for us. We had to make that move. Yeah, we had to make that move. We just, we needed to get younger. I got to tell you, we just needed to get younger. You know, and more skill. Yeah, I'm going to miss you

guys on the Leap Regionals, but obviously I'll be watching, and already I've seen you guys started out in the first three SportsNet Telecast. So, so far, so good. Carolyn is like me, but professional. Without a doubt, but we still love having you on this show, but thanks for doing this. Anytime. Anytime.

That is the lovely and talented with amazing calves, David Amber. We're getting to the gym, Kipper. All right, buddy. Sounds good. He's so much fun. Yeah, I got to, like, when I invite people on the show, you got to tell me you're going to do these things beforehand so I could tell you not to do it because it's what a good friend, David.

You're just like, you just like, it's a half a hour of his time. It's just a roast? So when we were- Real Kipper and roast? Like, what are we doing? When we were in the CBC, they had a water fountain in the, in the makeup room, and I rigged it. I found a way to rig it where it just fires like a hose, like a firing hose.

and then so he went to go press it and uh he jumped like 10 feet by and i videotaped it so are you going to show that next week next time we have him on the show remind me to show you the video he is a long history you do he is so much fun but okay i think he's got stuff on me too so can be careful really good that he doesn't have a show like ours uh got a few clips any of them interested do you want to do mac david on his contract a couple times he spoke uh i think it was yesterday 33 should do you want to i guess we should probably break well break can come back and do it you're right good uh good call uh and do we have anything uh no we're good oh we're good okay all right connor mac david plus a little bit more maybe on the signing of

kyle connor 96 million dollars in winnipeg big money that more when we return to real kipper and born hey it's aylish for a far and i'm justin cuthbert join us as we discuss the most sports stories of the day and tee up the biggest games of the night it's the fan free game 6 p.m weekdays on sports stats sports at 590 the fan and wherever you get your podcast a reminder that this hour of real kipper and bourne brought to by bet three six five neck kiprios justin boar and sammy mckee in for our full first two hours of the season Correct. I was listening to some of Connor McDavid's scrum today from yesterday about his signing his contract. And I found a couple of the clips somewhat interesting from it. So there's two that I cut.

The first one he was asked just, I think, is sort of his general feelings about the contract. If we want to play clip one, please, Derek. I guess it's a unique situation. Just, you know, we weren't going to sign a long-term deal. So, you know, two years at that number makes a lot of sense. gives us a chance, as I said, to extend our window here in Edmonton. Money's not going to go hungry with that money. So,

you know, we'll be fine. So it's about winning, and that's always what I've preached. So I think this deal gives both sides what they're looking for. Okay. Yeah, I didn't like his last line. Both sides, what they're looking for. That's not what the

Oilers were looking for. They were looking for eight times max. Oh, they want him to be an oiler for life. Yeah. Do you think they'd have gone eight years times whatever number he would have said? Whatever. Yeah. Whatever.

We'll worry about it later. And the second clip was basically like what changed, like what we've been asking about and what we've been talking. And this is really fascinating. So clip two, please, Derek. Well, I think obviously not wanting to be a distraction plays a factor, you know. It's, you know, it's a lot for guys. guys to have to come in here and answer questions for other guys, you know, the coach to get

asked about it, the GM to get asked about it every day. So nice to get it out of the way. No one's got to talk about it anymore. That obviously plays a factor. And then obviously just the, you know, myself not wanting to answer the question and and giving the oilers some clarity on what's what's going to go down. Okay. I don't think Oiler fans should take very big victory laps in this contract extension. No.

I, totally correct. Because they are. And, you know, my mentions, clearly I've been talking about this a long time, and my mentions have taken a beating

and people are reaching out to me and be like, ha, ha, ha, ha. No, there's no ha, ha, ha, ha. I'm telling you, from the fans,

there's ha ha ha. They don't, they can't, ha, ha, ha, is the mere fact that he signed and everybody thought he was not going to sign her. go to Toronto or go to New York, whatever.

And that's the victory lap. But the short, that short-sightedness, the bigger picture is he's giving you guys two more years. And I don't even count the third year. To me, it's two more years. And what he sees out of the two years and can it bring a championship and all of that. And Mark Spector wrote, I think, on sportsnet.com.

basically what we said all week. They're on the clock. They're on the clock. This is a message to the management group that I don't envision being here four years from now and I'm not ending my career here unless you guys step up

and we all step up together and win a championship. What if they win in the second year? Well, that's it. I think it's great. For a superstar who prioritizes winning a Cup to operate this way. I think he looks around the league and says, where do I have the best chance to win a cup?

And he's on one of the two or three best teams. So he says, and there's no definitive answer to that. Right. And so he's on one of the few teams that has a chance. So he says, I want to be here. And what would take away from my odds of winning a cup is if whole year, this black cloud of interviews and when are you leaving and why aren't you signed and he's captain humility. He doesn't want to bother anyone. He just wants his chance to win the cup this year. I got to tell you, listen to his scrum. You know, I make fun of him for being Captain Grump or whatever, but like,

the amount of respect I have for this guy is just unbelievable. Oh, God. Like, I mean, I know taking that contract and giving them that break, I know it's only two years, but he's given them now, like, over a decade of his career here is committed. I just taking that much less is what a lot of the all-time grades do. But I, I mean, I'm just, he's a Canadian guy. He's going to be playing for Canada at the Olympics. I love the guy. Everything he said, I'm just like, it's amazing. You got to give me huge credit. And I know the PA probably hates it and all this stuff, but like on surface level. There's a lot of people that hate it from the mere fact that, uh, too bad. He did what he wanted to do. It is too bad for those people for sure. But, and it's his call. It's his life. It's his

money 200, 225, 250 in career earnings. He doesn't really care. No. So you said Lenny's not going to 100 as his dog by the way. But it's it's it's not for everybody totally it's not for everybody and there's a lot of people that I've talked to that said it's not good it's not good for for our league to have the best player in the world not not not taking what is what he's due and what is rightfully his. I understand they're upset but like it doesn't matter because he doesn't matter but I also disagree with that it's like everyone when you say sign a contract, including us at our jobs and other people at their jobs,

you prioritize what's important to you and he got what he wanted out of the deal, which was the freedom to move if they don't win. It's unique, right? It's unique. It's not a domino effect. It won't, it shouldn't change marketplace.

No, it shouldn't. So, Kyle Connor got 12 like the next day. You know, it's like, but you know there's some teams some general managers out there that will point to it are you kidding me like it's like it's Christmas dinner yeah I mean the the superstars hate it oh okay you want I'll give you a million raise but you want two million when Connor McDavid did that for his team and it it it will guilt guys and they will use it

they will use it to negotiate I think it's great though that the complete opposite happened a week prior so that those guys who want that can go no i'm maybe i'm not mac david but i'm not that far off oh no there's there's going to be i'm a million or two less than him at yes there's going to be a lot of guys that are more like you don't want to pay me hey there's the beauty of the cb a we're free agent at 27 i'll just leave yeah i'll just leave yeah and it could be for various reasons but money could be one of them and that's we'll see that like no one's going to sit there and say yeah i'm not Connor McDavid, right? I'm not that good and I want to get my money. I could get

hurt. What's crazy is teams that have won Cups, we've seen the Boston Bruins had a bunch of guys, taken less, abs. You know, we've seen it. In Florida, obviously, you know, we're making more noise about that because state tax, but teams have done

this. But then Matthias Ekholm just signed a contract three years times four million a year. It's great contract. This guy has been a horse for them. And was so banged up last year. So he loves it. he knows he's at the end of his career he knows he could he could be retiring in a year or two with injuries yeah okay that's a different beast all in itself he was not prepared to go move again he likes it there four million right goodness yeah that's a steal but there's there's

like lane hudson my understanding it was fairly close to a new contract was close was close until the bar changed, until the bar went up. He read my article that said, don't give eight years away. Hudson's dad's like, that's boring, he's pretty smart. Just see where it's going here. Price of poker just went up. So where, you know, Montreal, I don't know,

can they turn around and say, hey, you know, Connor wants to win really badly and he's like, yeah, Connor's got a hundred sheets in the bank. You need to show that you want to win too here. Yeah. But it's coming. But if I'm a rookie who's made $2 million over two years or whatever Hudson's going to be at,

you know, it's not the time to tell me to think about the team. I know we got Leaf Hour here coming up, but it's kind of appropriate if you do have the sound of Austin Matthews being asked about Connor McDavid's contract and how maybe social media kind of twisted it a little bit. I do have the clips. I'm just putting them in here to make sure they're in there for Derek. And again, it really now comes down to all these superstars having that hang over their heads.

Well, that's it. They're all, every single one of them is going to have to answer the question. And some of them probably resent McDavid for whatever happened and for what he did. But again, that's not McDavid's problem. Like he did something that he thought was right for himself and for his team and for the chance to win the cup, which he needs to do. But yeah, like, I mean, Derek, do you want to play what McDavid? what Matthew said. So the first one is Matthew's clip won us from yesterday

on McDavid's contract, Derek. Yeah, I mean, I think for him, you know, it's all about winning and setting himself up for the best opportunity to do that. So, yeah, I mean, I don't really know, you know, I'm not like in those conversations or anything. Obviously, I have a lot of respect for him and I've been fortunate to get them to know him over the years.

And I know that my time around him, you know, that's the main thing. that he obviously wants to do is what everybody wants to do is to win and okay so social media had well i saw the the clip that got well in writing it was like for him it's about winning when he was asked about macdavid's contract and that's where it gets stopped that's right and i look at that got twisted i sent a snarky tweet and then i'm like you know what what did you say i just sent a meme of like somebody being depressed reading that like i sent a guy smoking a dart being like, oh, I'm depressed.

A verbal meme, Ben Affleck smoking a dart looking over a balcony. Anyways, I wouldn't actually listen to it. And I don't think there's ever been more of a nothing burger than what he said there. So did social media try to twist it like he cared about winning, but you never cared about winning? Correct. Because you took the most amount of money? Correct. That's basically what happened.

Okay. Yeah, it was like, once again, the least stars, milking everybody for everything. And the other guy would take him less. That's what it got to. That's right. Yeah. Not like Matthews couldn't have more money too. I mean, it's also there can be a pretty girl and another pretty girl, you know.

He could on his last deal, he could have gone above $14 million. I was going to say. And the Leafs would have stroked that check too. Sure. I would say that, you know, he took less, but I don't think that was his intention. Like, I think there's process versus results with Matthew, Matthews where he took the highest AAB in the league at the time, which I don't think it was his intention to take less, but he ended up taking less now that all these contracts are coming out.

I don't know about that. I don't agree that he tried to match. Kip just said he could get more money. I think he could have got more, but I don't think he's like, I'm going to take a whole lot less here. I think he signed a great contract for four years and like it turned out to be less.

I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know if it was his intention. It's funny though. You got lots of time talking about the lease. It's a... But this is all about the money. I don't want to get into the contracts

and the money in our leaf hour. It just... But I think it just... It just shows you what the appetite is on a fan base or social media for these guys now moving forward. They've got to be so careful on what they ask for and how much because there's a whole fan base out there that will turn on you because you're just too greedy and you have to make a choice, money or winning. But you don't get both in the NHL anymore. I think that's going to change, though, with the cash.

cap going way up. Oh, it's not. Because, yes, Kip, because it used to be, here was the pie. And when you took more, you took it from your ability to have more of the pie. If all, you know, right now how many teams? I think like 25 teams are within $2 million at the cap. In three years, that's not going to be the case. It's going to be 12 teams are within $3 million of the cap.

And so when you're taking a bigger. It just takes one guy to be a Caprice often takes 17 or 20 or 21, 22. Yeah. It certainly can happen. It depends if one guy, it depends if one guy hoards all the money, the new money. But it's just not going to matter when there's enough to go around if you're a team that's spending to the cap and the cap's 130 or whatever. I do think it's going to change a bit. But right now it is still a thing.

And I do think that it's part of hockey's culture where as Canadians in particular, we demand humility. We look at Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky and Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby and these guys who are humble and they don't talk about their accolades. And so we don't want to see our greats say, yeah, pay me, baby. You know, like it's, it's just been this culture, this sport. Because in other sports, you know, guys are taking supermax deals in the NBA. It doesn't matter. You just get the money you can. I do think part of hockey culture does play into it.

Totally. And not everyone thinks that way or feels that way. So you're right. You're going to have to be careful about admitting like, hey, I'm trying to get the bag here. We have one minute left in a national hour. Sportsnet just put out, they're like, their picks are on the way. I see my good friend Justin Bourne represented on here with a Stanley Cup pick of the Florida Panthers

really going on a limb there Kipper did you actually pick the blues I did I did the ones from St. Louis? Yeah. You know what? I love that pick. I've been going through the teams. Yeah.

They're not bad, man. They're not bad at all. Okay. They should have beat Winnipeg. Absolutely. Robert Thomas is taking a step to start. Was it perfetti at the buzzer? Perfetti at the buzzer.

buzzer. Miracle. Yeah. It was a miracle that they didn't beat Winnipeg in the first round. Yeah. But they might have got starched by. They would need an ad or two. The blues would need an ad or two.

It's an amber bold. Love it. But that's allowed. Nobody asked me, but Leifes. Oh, is that right? Yeah. I never got to ask, but Leaves. Do you, would you take them every year?

Yes, Lees. Oh, yeah. My cup pick is the Leaves. You're the John Garrett of Toronto. He picked Vancouver for 20 years. I like to think of myself as Boomer from ESPN. He picked the bills in San Francisco to be in the Super Rule every single year. So, Leaves, Leaves and Oilers, Leaveson 7 in the Stanley Cup lot.

Our thanks to David Amber, who's getting ready. Big night on the network. Montreal, Toronto, 7 p.m. And then that's followed by the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames. It's the NHL on SportsNet. our thanks to David Amber, by the way. So we got Leaf Hour coming up here. It is time.

Oh, Sammy, you got a lot to say. Cowan Talk. Don't go away. We're back after these words.