Real Kyper & Bourne - Inside Kaprizov's Contract with Wild GM Bill Guerin

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee react to the New Jersey Devils locking up Luke Hughes to a 7x9 extension. Then, fresh off signing Kirill Kaprizov to a record-setting deal, Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin joins the show (7:15) to discuss the NHL's rising-cap landscape, the plan to build around Kaprizov, the pressure on the star winger after becoming the NHL's highest-paid player, and how he's managing dual responsibilities with the Wild and Team USA. Later, Nick, Justin and Sam discuss the best-value contracts in the league, the Oilers trading for Connor Ingram, and the Canadiens' and Senators' scrappy preseason meeting. Finally, they play a quick game of 'True or False.'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.

Coming right back at you on the real Kipper and Bourne show, season five. Nick Kippery, is Justin Boren, Sammy McKee, Jake the Snake, Shultz, Derek Brandale. We are live on SportsF590, The Fan. Sportsnet, 650 in Vancouver, 960 in Calgary, Sports stat plus, always posted on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube following our show if you can't catch us live. Plenty to get into, including Billy Guerin, General Manager, Minnesota Wild, after that historic contract between him and Carill the thrill, or what do they call him now?

Carill the dollar bill. Carill the rich. Yes, he's doing well. Always a fun guest, Billy Garron. And, of course, plenty more throughout the National Hockey League, including a very big signing with the New Jersey Devils and their young star defenseman, Luke Hughes. Yeah, he's going to be there for a while.

If the Hughes family is going to pick a place to settle, sounds like they've picked one. Just a natural domino effect off of Carrill's signing that if New Jersey was contemplating, making Luke work a little harder for a number did that just yesterday signing just say wave the white flag and just give him 53 like he's a D man he's the you know 22 like there's really no connection between the two outside of no there's not but I don't know if there's not a direct relation but there is that overall ripple effect that that teams now know that

there's a there's a new there's a new feel for where contracts are going there's a article in the athletic today interviewing agents and one of the comments from one of the agents was that he doesn't think that the salary cap ceiling is going to be even what they projected to be he thinks it's going even higher like he thinks the top the numbers are going up up up so these guys who can lock in now if that's true lock in before these guys see what could be an even higher ceiling I just Kippen, tell me if I'm crazy here. I don't love this for a guy like Luke Hughes. Like, he had 47 points as a 21-year-old D-man in the league.

If he is a 60 or 70-point D-man, at 22. He's still learning his craft. I don't, has he played 150 career games? No way. No way. But like from boat, no. Well, yes, he has. He played 82 and 71.

So, yes, he's 153 at least 155. I thought he was hurt for like the whole year last year. He played 71 last year? Okay. Yeah, so he he's in a 155, you're right, Kim, 155. Yeah, like, okay, whether it's Carrille or Luke or anyone else is coming down the path, I don't begrudge anybody for getting whatever they can, okay? At the end of the day, careers are short, get the money, get whatever you can out of it.

I don't, it's not, it's not necessarily Kirill, it's not necessarily Luke, it's the system that is probably the most frustrating thing and like Luke Hughes is a prime example of our league now more so than the NBA or the NFL or anyone or any other thing I can think of is where we now have to pay top dollar on potential it's Luke's done nothing nothing other than break into a league and show tremendous promise at a much higher rate than most. But you're giving him now $9 million on what he, we think he should become. 63 million over the whole thing. There's something wrong with that.

But I don't even see that as they have to do that. They don't have to do it. They're making a bet that they're going to save a whack of money. This is an attempted buying low. And, you know, you look around the NHL. I look at the Minnesota Wild. So Caprizo's making 17 A.AV coming up for eight years. Matt Boldie's making seven flat for the next like six years.

And you get Anaheim and McTavish's deal. And Troy Terry's making less than McTavish or the same amount because he did five, six years. I think for a guy like Luke Hughes, yeah, I know it's security and I know he hasn't done it yet. I think he's leaving money on the table. Lots of money on the table. If he's a 70 point defenseman at age 23, I know, I know. He's 15 million. It's the if, though.

You're not really, it's not, it's the if that's dangerous. It's the if he gets hurt. If he doesn't become the guy, if I just, I don't, again, I don't see other leagues going, okay, that guy's could be good. What was the guy? Good. Let's give him $200, $200 million. What was the general manager in Phoenix at the time that was doing all those?

Chica? Yeah, he did a ton of these. remember he did it with he did it with chikrin he did it with chikrin he did it with he did it with there's one other guy that he did it with where he's trying to like project forward and it's risky but that kipper that's how you end up with he hedging's dangerous it's it's dangerous but it also in a cap world is so important to hit on a couple of these like i get where they're why they're doing it because like born he said this guy could be a you can't miss that you can't it's not just trying to hit on a couple of these you got to you can't get

one wrong. But even if they're just okay, like Jack Hughes did this long deal for eight million before he earned it, right? But he was real young. He did an eight million a year deal. If he's okay, what's an eight million dollar player now? Yeah. Like, like, if he's okay, he's worth eight, he might be worth 15. He might, he might, could he not be a hundred point guy this year in year three of his eight year deal? Like, I, I'm on your, I get what you're saying that it's risky. Here's the other problem I have with this system. is that it makes one of the first questions about someone like Luke or Carill, it makes one of the first questions to them is like,

are you being too greedy, right? And are you, you know, is this, is it, is it, is it, is it, is it a selfish mood, move to ask for so much money and not take in, how it affects the rest of the team. And if it's not on the players, for me, it's on the system. But, I mean, you look at, I mean, who would you say has the best contract in the league right now?

Jack Hughes owns pretty good. What about Quinn Hughes? Yeah. I mean, he's making, like, all the best contracts. Yeah, well, I mean, Connor's a different. But all the quote unquote, best, sorry, best contracts in the league were when they gambled on these things and they turned out great and you save on the cap. It's a gamble.

But anyways, okay, let's go to our first guest, as promised, general manager of the Minnesota Wild and a guy that's causing a lot of conversation on this show anyways. Billy Garan joins us. Billy, thanks for doing this. Congratulations on getting your star player signed. But I mean, with it comes a lot of talk around it.

And I know that as an organization, you're probably well prepared for it. But, you know, overall, the feeling of needing to get this done and how important it was to you, your owner, and the franchise? First of all, thanks for having me on, fellas. Good to see you again. Good to talk to you. Yeah, listen. I was just kind of listening to you guys while I was in the, I guess, the green room. But yeah, we're definitely kind of going into a new world. It's different because

we've never before known the ballpark of what the next three years are really going to bring and that's that's where that's where the difficulty I think lies you know the agents and the PA they see

this growing cap and well it might be a lot today but it's not going to be a lot you know in three years when the cap's really high and going to continue to grow so that's the difficult thing I'm sure like, you know, there are guys out there now from kind of like, you know, the old cap that seem to be on great deals. But look, we all signed contracts and that's just kind of it.

But there were great contracts at the time. I mean, listen, nobody's going hungry. Everybody's surviving this. It's just kind of, you know, a different world that we're living in. right now but you know for us oh sorry um you know for us you know i think every player has value different value in different situations different cities whatever it is you know for us krill's our franchise player he means a great deal to the minnesota wild to our market to uh to to his teammates um and you know to get him locked up for

for, you know, eight years plus the year, the existing year that he has on his contract, so nine years is huge for us. We didn't want him going anywhere. We didn't want to take a step back. We've been building for five years, six years, and that could have been more difficult being without him than just saving cap space and going forward like that.

As you guys well know, if there's a trade involved or you let him walk you obviously you never get the same value back so negotiating a contract of this size and it's the biggest one in NHL history does it lead to any resentment on your part or anyone's part when you're like gosh we're offering you so much why is that not enough or is it like I totally understand

get your money you're only a player once how does that I mean personally feel as you're going through that process Well, I can't imagine what some of the great players before me said. Yeah. Mike Bossy never, Mike Bossy never didn't score 50 goals. That's insane. And he doesn't make,

he didn't make what a 15 goal score makes now. So it's all relative. Like for me, you know what? It's just getting used to this new world. And you know what? We're paying guys at a younger age. We're paying them more for what they're going to do as opposed for what they have done, which I think is better.

You're paying when the players are on the rise. We kind of try to try to have to make an educated bet on some of these young guys if we want to go along. You know, others we go shorter on with these, you know, with these bridge deals that, again, nobody's going hungry on a bridge deal. it's just it's a different world and you know for for a guy like me that that played and um yeah it's it's different but so it was when i played as well so no these guys are going to make great money hey look at the NBA you know we were looking at you know comparing salaries and you know we've got some great players for the timber wolves Anthony Edwards makes like 46 million Is that good?

Seems good. I think so. I think he could probably buy a new car or something like that. Maybe a cabin up north. You know, and then you look at Major League Baseball and the NFL. But, you know, the, you know, the revenues support, you know, the amount that the players are being paid. And for us, it's keeping an elite player. keeping one of the top players in the league with our team and the fact that he chose to sign this long-term deal with us, I think says how much he loves it here, how much he likes the organization.

He believes in what direction we're going in and that he wants to spend the rest of his career in Minnesota, living in Minnesota, playing for these fans and being in this market. You're watching and listening to the general manager of the Minnesota Wild, Bill Garron. in our era a guy signs you're just happy for him but it was never about how that signing's going to affect my signing the reality and the hard salary cap is that's the case here so with the announcement of the next three years or where the cap's going the the feeling is that if whatever it's going up well you just gave it all to one guy and now what's left to build off of that or improve this hockey club. Is that a fair feeling?

Do you feel like, like, okay, whatever money I had in the future, I've given it to Carrill for the next few years, and how do I add to that? How do I build off of that? Yeah, listen, like, we didn't just offer up 17 right away. Obviously, we started lower than that. We would have preferred that,

but listen, they have other plans too. They were higher. than that at one point in time. Listen, he's, he is, he's an elite player. Elite players get elite money. We have to work around that. I think the, I feel confident in being able to do that because we have guys like Matt Boldy,

like Eric, Joel Erickson, like Marco Rossi, like Brock Faber on, on good deals, you know, For long term, I think, you know, the core of our team really is locked up. You know, could it affect some other guys along the way? Yeah, but that's a cap system. That's always going to be the case. It was when we signed Kirill. It was when we signed Boldie.

It was when we signed every single player. They all affect each other, some more than others. Again, it's a cap world, and you have to make your decisions. Yeah, some of the contracts that you do have there are exceptional, and that favor one is really favorable for you guys. He's a fantastic hockey player, obviously, Boldie as well. Looking at your... Did you say favorable?

Favorable. If I didn't, I will from now on. Looking at some of the young guys you have, you have reason to be excited, you know, saw some of the Calder odds. Bouem, I believe, was second to Demadov is some young talent with the Wild right now. Yeah, there is. And you know what? That's part of what I talked about before.

We've spent, you know, the last five or six years while we had those cap situations. You know what? We spent the last five years like drafting, developing, not trading away high picks. And we're starting to see kind of the fruits of our labor, like come to fruition here. We've waited a while to get guys like Boolean, to get Danilla year off, to get Liam, Ogren. Now Hunter, Hunter hate as a second round pick is making a push to make the team. These guys are starting to emerge, and that's really what we've been waiting for. Just, I want to take you, Billy, back to Memory Lane a little bit in the early 2000s.

When you ended up signing a pretty big contract, it wasn't by any stretch, I think, the highest paid salary. But you signed in Dallas, I think, in the early 2000s at, $9 million a year. That's when it was like a lot of money back then. That's what we refer to as the good old days. 2002, man. Skinny jeans and I think a dancing Elmo was around. Never, never skiing.

When I was with Bill at Islanders camp, Bill is getting paid by three teams. He was doing pretty good. My point is if it's one guy that can maybe relate to maybe the pressures of making so much money, on a team and could you relate now to Carrille a little bit of signing a big contract and having expectations really high and maybe it's even tougher for for Carrill because he's making twice as much as the next guy and you know maybe the worry that he's going to have

to think he's going to go out and have to do twice the work or twice the production or like is across i mean conversations about trying to try to manage this expectation mind a lot. It crosses my mind a lot and I told favor this when he signed his deal. Don't change who you are. And I said the beauty of hockey players is their humility.

Their desire to earn their contract to make sure that they're producing and performing in a way that they earn their money. They're not, the hockey players aren't the types of guys that say

hey, I got the big deal. I'm going to cruise now for, you know, the next so many years. Just, and we want Carill and favor and boldy and all these guys that signed big deals. Just be yourself. It's tough, you know, there's, you know, we saw it with with, with, with, with, with, with, with Trennan last year who signed a, uh, a long-term deal with us. He, he put so much pressure on himself to just try to be that guy and try to earn his money when all we really wanted was just be yourself and play the way that you're

supposed to play. I went through it when I signed with Dallas. And, you know, I remember talking to Doug Armstrong. He's like, don't worry about the number of goals. Don't worry. Play your brand of hockey. Be yourself. Bring what you bring to the table. That's really why we

signed you. And, you know, as a GM now, I see it clearer than ever. We don't want the guys to change. They earn the contract because of what they've done and what they're going to do. We don't want them to put all that pressure on themselves.

Just go out and play hard and be yourself and things will happen. Absolutely. So last year you guys finished fourth in your division, when you look around, have things shifted at all, Winnipeg, Dallas, Colorado, St. Louis is good, Utah is good. Where do you see your guys division compared to the rest of the league? It looks like one of the better divisions. It's unbelievable.

It's like, you know, going through the meat grinder in our division. It's so tough. and everybody's good. You know what? That's why, honestly, you have to be dialed in coming out of training camp. We have to be focused. We have two division games in our first three games, and they're tough. You know, we've got, we start off on the road against St. Louis.

We come home and play Columbus, and then the next night we're back in Dallas. Like, there's just no off nights. And, you know, we had a good first 30, 35 games of the season. year and that really helped us in the second half. So, you know, we want to get off to the same great start and perform because, I mean, they're, you know, it's not like, you know, back when we played, you know, you could kind of, you know, most teams made the playoffs. It's not like that anymore.

It's 50-50. So there are must wins in October and November. You have to be ready to go. You can't take off, you can't have off nights. On top of that, Bill, just the balance between your duty as general manager of the Washington, and getting a USA team ready for the Olympics and obviously how the four nations kind of maybe put the pedal to the medal

in terms of must win tournaments now for you. How do you do it? Yeah, well, hey, you know what? You're only, you can never do this stuff on your own. And you know what, I'm grateful that here at the Wild and with Team USA, I have great people around me. And, you know, with Team USA, you know, I've got Chris Keller, who's one of my assistant GMs here, you know, Billy Zito, Chris, jury, Tom Fitzgerald, and Stan Bowman. You know, we do things as a group.

We're all looking at players. We're all, you know, giving our opinions on decisions. I'll make the final decisions on things. But, you know what, I just have a lot of smart people around me and I listen to them all the time. always fun having you on the show bill thanks gentlemen if i do find a pair of skinny jeans somewhere like what's your waist

oh god i'm like honestly my way i'm like a i'm like a 50 20 28 but kipper i got some i got some old gerbos still hanging in my closet i'll break those out hey i got one more for you

before you leave yesterday's press conference or whatever i saw yesterday Did you go home and get in trouble for dropping an F-bomb? Buddy, my wife's from New Jersey. She swears way more than I do. Non-concerted. It's not an issue. Not an issue.

Very well said. Thanks for doing this. Have a great start to the season, man. Thanks, guys. Talk soon. Yeah, good luck. Thanks. Bill Garon, Minnesota Wild.

Yeah, got a Long Island wife myself. I love that guy. You can have fun with that. guy that humility comes from him first right and he he he has it in spades and he's right he's like you know some situations some team some places you just you got to get the player you got to have the player see that was this is where they were kind of sitting ducks that was established by the owner with we'll give him whatever it takes so first first comes i need a super I need to appease my season ticket holders.

I need, I got sponsors, I got television ratings, whatever the case is, it starts with a star. After that, we'll figure it out. And Bill pretty much admitted it on our interview that it's about building around him, whatever that means. We're going to build around him. So he's the first priority. Trying to figure out how to win is second. Yeah. A lot of teams do it the other way around.

For sure. But I get where they're coming from. I think they, you know, as much as this is a maybe not great precedent for some other players on your team or what your priorities are, I think they had to do it. And part of why I think they had to do it is looking at the way they're constructed. And he mentioned a lot of the young guys they have, but like prime favor. prime Erick, you know, they have a lot of these guys up and coming. And if all of a sudden you remove the star guy and say we're going into a, you know. But is it enough, right?

I don't know that it's enough. But the wild have won one round in 10 years and been to the conference final once in 20 years. They need to be in the playoffs. They need the fans to care. So it's kind of like the flames. Well, they look. They were just, they took, they refused to let him go and gave him a number that surprised us all. Well, and, you know, he may well have intended.

tended to go somewhere else but at some point they offer you so much money you go all right so just to go quickly back to our conversation about the risk involved in some of these contracts okay so i was googling while um you guys are on with bill yeah and just like the best so this is from the athletic uh dom wrote it about the the best value contracts in in the NHL okay so this is just going through here jack Hughes seemed like a big risk when they signed it to give him all that money for all that term turned out to be excellent brandon haggle right i mean it was a pretty everyone would kind of popped your eyes at that one when it was signed but again he makes six and a half million dollars poised he scored 90 points and kill for seven years yeah oh that's that hurts says jarvis he's at

seven point four for seven years like you go through these ryanhart i think is one that's a little bit of a different situation but it's an excellent one like there are some risks involved in these contracts and i think it's not going to be long before you look at hughes and be like that's one of the best contracts in the league well and also i know i know it's i know that the precedent of giving a guy who's made 150 games 63 million dollars is crazy but in a cap world you have to take a risk but he's also talking about paying the guys for what they're going to do and your point is they haven't done it yet but sometimes when you pay the guys who've done it they don't do it again correct you're paying for the past it's you can miss either either way what about the gunther one in in in in in

Utah. I was going to say in Phoenix. But he signed a contract for 7.1 times 8 million dollars. And he had, what, 80 games under his belt, 100 games? Yeah, but he's going to be a stud, Kip. He fires it in the net constantly. Like, he's a team Canada type guy in the future. Like, I just, there's a risk involved in it.

There's no guarantees in sport. I get it. I get it. Including the most important, and you can't, is the, whether or not the guy can get hurt, or he just doesn't show that he's, he's reliable. Would you say the Hyman contract

was one of those when it was signed? That people were like, oh, five and a half or that meant long. No, I'm no problem with him getting five. You know, I've been trying to think of one that didn't pan out and... There's a few. Don't get me wrong.

Jack Eichel, Jack Eichel in Buffalo when he signed 10. Yeah. And then it was a miserable, miserable run. It was just... Mine is Matthias Samuelson, D-Man for Buffalo. he did like four and a half times eight or something and I didn't know his name and since then he's okay I don't think he's earned that one yet maybe there's still time he's young as 25 but uh anyways

i'm just i think there's a good argument on both sides of it you know what uh you know bill just touched on it a little bit is the league announces what the salary caps are going to be for the next three years Like, why did they need to do that? If they didn't, I think there's a very good chance Carrillo's 17 doesn't exist. Interesting. So like, it's a year-by-year thing that they announced out to start a very season.

Yeah, they go next year, the cap's projected to be this. But what they did is they put a ton of pressure on general managers and owners now to hit marks for contracts, Three years from now, because we know exactly what that number is. Without it, it gets a little grayer. Counterpoint, maybe the NHL saw that it's going to go up so much that this gives GMs the chance to lock in at what are essentially artificial salary caps.

If they are higher than what they're projected to be, these guys are locking in at caps that aren't reality. This could help the GMs. I don't know. How much do you think the caps are going to go up? Do you think potentially more than what they're at? This could help the GMs if you're talking about 3. How much more revenue is out there?

How much more revenue is out there? How many, can you raise ticket prices? Is there another television deal in the U.S. coming in two years that you project will blow the last one out of the water? Like, is there more patches that you can put on a jersey, more stickers on a helmet, right? Thankfully. So, yeah, if there's more revenue out there to drive your,

seven billion to nine billion to ten billion i i guess yeah then you're right right but players association loves that they announced it early because for this reason you have a guy making 17 million bucks forecasting what he's going to make down in the future i think that the players association would be pretty excited about it but yeah anyways it's good chat with bill yeah i don't know it it's players association at the end of the day it's it's not it might be driving a salary up for a particular superstar. But it's not driving the salaries up. It's just redistributing it somewhere else.

That's fair. It's, they're not going up. We know what the number is. We don't care. The league doesn't care where you spread it around. Give him 19. Give the other guy seven. Doesn't matter.

Just I know it's going to equal the same amount. Yeah, assuming you're going to spend it all. I don't know the teams will, but. Well, that's a. That's a whole new ball game here because in a flat cap, everybody can kind of stay tight. But what does this do for the Winnipegs and the Ottawa's of the world now moving forward for the next five, seven years? Are they going to be able to support a $150 million U.S. salary cap? Yeah, it does feel like the flat cap was the time for, should have been time for small market teams,

not time for Florida and Tampa Bay and tax free teams. It's going to start separating again. Sam. Sam. Thank God. Quickly, last thing on the long-term contracts, it didn't work out. I looked at the John Chica ones that he did in Phoenix. It was Christian Dvorak.

He signed. He gave $26 million over six years for Christian Dvorak, which Christian Dvorak's very thankful for for getting that contract. And Nick Schmaltz, he gave seven years, and he gave him $40 million over those seven years. And Nick Schmaltz is okay. So, like, those are two of the ones that wouldn't say were, like the highest risk best ones but i tell you the one i remember because it was my era and

from my american league team the islanders liked franz nielsen right he was like 20 they gave him four years at uh league minimum which is 525 at the time and he scored 40 points 20 goals you know shootout specialists made minimum minimum minimum minimum for a pretty decent like andrew mcdonald they did that too yeah garth snow back he was ahead of the time franz nielsen backhand Chad every time. Literally named the blog, Backhand Shelf after. He couldn't, he would not be able to.

Anyways, let's go. All right, let's take a quick break when we return plenty more around the National Hockey League, including we get Sam's prediction on who the Js are going to play Saturday afternoon. That more,

when we return to Real Kipper and Bourne. Dive deep into Toronto Sports and the NFL, the J.D. Bunk is podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to The Real Kipper and Bourne show. Nick Hipperyl's, Justin Boren. Sammy.

Sammy? Yep. Laked watching baseball yesterday. Fabulous ball game between the Red Sox and Yankees last night, boys. Holy. It's intense. Not a fan of either team, and it was like, ooh, this is nerve-wracking. They flashed this Yankees fan in the crowd

And he was like, had his head in his hands And I was like, And then realize I was like, oh, crap, that's me in three days. What do you think now? Boston is a little scarier than New York for the Jays? I think if you have to face crochet in game one And game five potentially, that's really scary.

Chapman. The close-out games is... Oh, my gosh. He gave up 300. Up in the zone, 101, and then throws at 87, Splitter. Yeah, he gave up three straight singles, maybe on three straight pitches. And then it was like, he's like, okay, now I can start. And they didn't touch another pitch for the rest of the, it was ridiculous.

I think the Yankees, I'm hoping that they win tonight to kind of stretch it out, use more arms, a little more tired, coming in for Saturday. But I got a bad feeling Red Sox are just going to blow past him tonight. All right, the Edmonton Oilers have themselves a new goal. tender so jb is this the goalie that convinces connor macdavid to now sign yeah that'll do it i'd say that'll do it sorry that's sam's good should do the track little tongue-in-cheek on on connor ingram now uh an edmonton oiler but i do you like the move do you uh yes i do like that uh this will put pressure on skinner to get off to a great start with

with him over his shoulder. What does this do? Yeah. I, you know, we talked about the ways. What is it that happens where McDavid wakes up and he goes, today's the day? You know, seeing a huge contract signed by Carill and that commitment to the organization. And imagining the peace of getting things settled before going into the season with this hanging over your head. Could that be something?

Getting Ingram and feeling good that you have maybe another guy who's capable of getting hot. Could that help? You know, it doesn't hurt Kip. And I think to nudge it towards him being like, all right, let's just two or three years. Let's not talk about this for a Biltz. Try to win a Stanley Cup. I can see it helping.

I do think that this is maybe some Pickard insurance in terms of what Pickard has been at times in his career versus. I don't think they're going to be like Connor Ingram here to start and goalie. I think it's a lot like what we were hoping he'd be here in Toronto, no? Where he's a guy that can, you know, he cleared waivers, right? so that they traded for him so he can stay there and his money doesn't count against the cap so i think that's why they did it that way right wouldn't that that be the way they did it sorry explain so when you go down listen i am far from a cap expert but this is what i've gathered

yeah since the reason they didn't claim him is because his number would have counted against the cap and since he cleared then they traded for him and his cap hit doesn't count against him as he's playing in the minors i don't i don't know maybe i'm wrong maybe i'm not sure how that works i mean they got the guy if he's on the team you get his cap hit um but i thought he was in the Anyways, I'm an idiot, so don't listen to me. But I do think that it's a good... Maybe allows them to send them down or something different. Maybe.

I'm not sure of that, folks. Something that you may have a little bit more of insight on is off-ice issues for Connor Ingram. Yeah. Including an obsessive, compulsive OCD. And that's gone on record has led to excessive drinking for him. Yep. He's coming from Arizona, Utah. I think he's managed one season at 50 games,

but is there a big difference between now taking him from that market into Edmonton market, Canada, and I don't know, the worrisome about his issues? For sure. You know, I have no doubt in my mind that someone would have claimed Ingram if they were not a little concerned that, you know, he's been in the program a couple times. I think once was, he lost a family member.

I think his mother passed away. But, yeah, I think there's concern that maybe he hasn't had the ability to stay in the lineup. And that's, you know, I did the radio show with Anthony Stewart for years. And he loved the line that the best ability is availability. Like, you know, if you're not someone who can be counted on, that matters. So certainly I think teams would have considered that. For the Oilers, though, they know what Skinner can be at his best and how good he could be in playoffs. I think, to your point, they just like him as insurance a little bit more than the next guy.

And I think he has a higher ceiling. So roll the dice. And then in terms of the Edmonton market, I think it helps or it hurts. I don't think it's a wash. I think maybe it dials him in and he's excited to be there and they get the best out of him. Or maybe it is too much, Kip. And I think you don't know until you try. I'm sure these conversations have been ongoing ever since the first thought of maybe adding him to the roster.

and you just, you build, I guess, or you don't build, you have the best support system that you can possibly give him to give him the best opportunity. Totally. I mean, what's left to do after that? No.

At the end of the day, you know, I think about how for the Toronto Maple Leafs, they were entering the season, you went, between Stolar's and Wall, one of those two guys is going to be good and they should be okay. I think now you can look at the oilers and say, between Skinner and Ingram, I like the odds of one of those two guys having a good run. you know a good season so they got a couple of guys you like i think it's a great move curious

why exactly the trade thing if there was money retained or there was there okay yeah okay yeah i don't think that makes a lot of sense i don't think they're picking up uh one nine i can't remember the number uh utah's retaining 800 k there you go so now he's a league minimum guy essentially no risk you trade i think it was futures that went the other way future considerations yeah i like it i really like it for the oilers he he should be he should help them. I think it does lend to

how tough of a market it is right now for 32 teams to find two quality goaltenders. It's, there's a lot of teams right now that would love to change their back end or

their goal tending. And there's just, there's nothing out there like i mean would mark andre flurry still sit there and go am i sure everyone every insider and now you included has been like i don't think this guy's done everyone thinks flurry's coming back well because he won't go away yeah well that that's also yeah right

like in january you can see him being like well i'm bored yeah let's see if i can kick a couple two pad stacks you know he only go to a costco with the wife so many times Yeah, it's not impossible to see. But I, you know, I have always felt with goaltending that there's like 10 awesome goalies in the world, 12, whatever. And then there's maybe another 10 or 12 that are really good. And then the next 60 guys are kind of interchangeable to me. You know, like is the worst NHL guy and the best AHL guy, are they any different?

No chance. So I think you just get a guy in his career prime who's off a good summer and feeling healthy and you cross your fingers and hope he catches fire. What else can you do? All right. I did not catch Montreal and Ottawa, but I did catch a couple of highlights. Oh, my God.

Punchy, punchy match. I think these two teams are well aware that we both can't make the playoffs this year. Oh, do you think? One of them, one of us has got to go. Two jack eyes and one scrum was terrifying. That's the sense I got last night. out of that rivalry. Can there be a greasier player in NHL recent history than Nick Cousins?

I mean, my God, the slash on Demadoff is just like, why are you always getting fined and suspended? Stop. The year just started. It hasn't started. It hasn't started. He's already been fine. You'll know this.

You'll know this. When I was a kid, like, preseason was a jungle. Like every game, I remember when I was like, I mean, to pour over the tapes. But, like, I remember watching preseason games when I was younger being like, oh, my God, someone's going to die out there. It was way scary. It was a series of tests.

You had a bunch of H.L guys being like, I'll fight everyone until they keep me. Want to fight again? Some of those. You fight a bunch of exhibition? Philly and Washington, we had guys diving into benches. That was this last thing. And it would be like. Great drop.

Somebody somebody would most definitely be arrested Yeah after our exhibition games in the 80s I believe it 90s And last night at times Looked like it between these two teams

Good on them both Oh here we go Jack eye going absolutely to tell me Oh my on the Q-in too Like oh oh that was Unful strudence on Force back there you can skate I'll go back to four nations

Good for autumn. Look at this. I'll go back to four nations in the nine seconds. Yeah. Like, this stuff's making its way back. I don't disagree that there has been, everyone projects where the NHL is going to go, ah, it's all speed and skill.

And then, you know, it just, it can only go so far. It's a physical contact, competitive sport. This element is, whether the fighting is always there or not, this element of intimidation is going to be there. And if you have two,

Jack, on your team that's gonna that's gonna drive things up a little bit pair of jacks i mean yeah leaves gonna have to face two jack eyes and two jack guys two black eyes honestly in game one like so they're gonna send out posetta to deal with those guys like it's like you know it's you know everybody hated on ryan reeves for two years but like it was nice having a heavy to kind have to deal with these guys in the division like the mckeon and jack guys that is like Send one of them down. Oh, God.

He's a Florian, too. Like, like Nick Robinson cannot, right? You can't put him on the fourth line on one night. No, you got to deal with, I mean, Lawrence isn't going to fight anybody. Lawton might look at him funny, but he's not going to fight. Callan's not going to fight. I guess it's Joshua, right? Like, who else?

Joshua fought Giordano last year. Yeah, he's not exactly a heavy. He's willing. Anyways. Yeah. I got a couple quick, true or false, if you want him. We do. The NH ones.

Yeah. Quick ones. Nothing crazy, but just a little something to chat about here. Okay, how about this one to start? Because this is a Kibber's favorite player. True or false, this is the year Connor Bedard scores 30 plus goals. Absolutely true. No doubt in my mind.

Yeah, I think this is the year he does. You picked a low number. I did. Well, I mean, what's his career high, do you think? I looked at it was surprised. 22 or something? I'll go 36. 36 goals.

Yeah, 36, 37 goals. Wow. It's a good number. 20 years old this year. 20 years old this year? In July, he turned 20. So this season, he'll be a 20 year old. God, he's still so young.

Yeah. He's almost had 70 points last year. Everyone's like, oh, his kids are positive? What's his plus minus in his two seasons? Well, they've been. Are they any better? Minus 80. Are they any better?

Are they any better? Oh, no. Hold on. How do you dig a pit out of minus 80? How do you get back to level by the end of your curve? Minus 80. two seasons. That's a lot of...

Just got to make one season payment at a time at plus 10. That's a lot of puck's entering the net when you're on the ice, man. Okay, I'll take back the 37 goals. Yeah, they stink. They still stink. They're still banking on...

I think he's just such a... One more year. ...pure shooter that he's going to... He's just naturally going to find a way to score 35. He's also the guy who's going to have the puck in every situation. Like, Frank Nizar might help him out a little bit. All right, what else are?

Golly is tough to say. Cindy Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, and Chris LaTang all finished this year with the Pittsburgh Penguins, true or false? No, false. Do you want to name which ones? I'll say, true or false question.

It's not a name. True or false. It's not an essay question. I'll say true. True. I don't think Dubus wants to be the guy to trade the legends. I just don't.

False. Which one of those three is most likely to go? All three? False. That's all I was asked to do. I almost swore. I almost said. No one's wrong to that bomb.

You're playing a true and false game. Oh, my God. Stop being so obtuse. Which one of them's going? Listen, he's notorious for playing by the rules. I don't see Crosby finishing the season. Wow. Yeah, I don't.

With Pittsburgh. With Pittsburgh. Gino? Gino will probably be gone, too. Package deal. But I don't know if Gino wants to leave. If he's, if he's, if he, you know, Gino could end up easily in Florida.

What's the most insulting place for Crosby to go, and is it Philly? False. Washington. Toronto. I don't know. I'm just answering true or false. True or false? This is Alex Ovechkin's last season in the NFL.

Yes, true. I think false. I think, I mean, he likes money. He'll give him another contract. Oh, you don't think Dynamo is going to come up with some weird Russian deal for him? What's the next milestone? thousand goals I guess yeah like what's he need he's

I mean it's got to be at eight so he needs two more years I think he's three more years he's not going to get a thousand goals I got there's okay he's not going to get a thousand goals right let me look is he near 900 is that where we're at right now

he has he passed 900 what's he at he is at 897 297 we gotta celebrate that again the first ever guy to get to bong turn off the TV Yeah, I think he's contemplating, packing it in.

To get another 100 goals, he needs three seasons. Okay, quickly. So you're both false? Oh, no, sorry, true. Both true. True that is last year. True or false. The same amount of Canadian teams make the playoffs this season as last year.

Five of seven made it last year, only two to miss for Vancouver and Calgary. So five Canadian teams, true or false. This may be the first year that going into it, zero of them are openly bad. zero of them are projected to miss like Calgary had 96 points tied for the last playoff spot missed on tiebreaker last year almost had 16s in last year there's not one of them that I'm like they couldn't do it

yeah I think five get in Toronto I don't think Montreal makes it can Toronto Ottawa and Montreal make it no Toronto and Ottawa are making it in Montreal Tampa and Florida are going to make it so then you So the only chance is is if they get five

out of the Atlantic and three out of the metro. Three in the Pacific, right? Vancouver and 10 Calgary? Yeah, I'm just talking about the east for now, but yeah. I think five is a safe bet. I think so too. Do I have time for one more?

Two or false? Macklin Celebrini will make the Olympic team. False. Nah, not quite ready. False. I'll say true. True on the taxi squad. I don't think he'll be like one of the,

the featured guys, but he'll go. What's hard is like, it's the Rob Zamner thing. Like, if he's just going to make the team and be the 13th forward, is that the guy you want? The sharks are like, could you just leave him here? There's Thomas. There's Suzuki. Thomas is going to be on the team, right?

Robert Thomas. Robert Thomas. Nick Suzuki. You're going to take Celebrini over one of those guys with a little bit more. He might be fifth in the league and goals this year. He's nasty. Okay, we got a quick time. True or false?

A team. other than Canada, we'll win the goal that the Olympics is here. False. I mean. Canada. Yeah.

That's false. False. They're the favorite, but they're like, they're the favorite. There's a lot of good teams. A lot of good teams. So a lot of people...

You can't handle the truth. False. Some comments that I've picked up are asking us where Valley is. Right. And do we have an answer? Steve Aliquette. Steve Ellicott, we'll be joining us tomorrow

at three of us. 0.5 p.m. Eastern. We are going to dig in deep on this whole goal-tending thing. He's horned up. He's so ready. Oh, yeah. From Ingram to Joseph Wall and Stolars to Hickard, Allmark, to Demko.

Can't wait. Connor and Winnipeg, man. Tons to get into. We go deep into the valley tomorrow. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Enjoy your ball tonight. We're back tomorrow.

So, you know.