Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Closeout Show

Episode Date: July 4, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne & Sam McKee kick off their final show of the season with some final reflections on the Leafs’ 2022-23 season, the end result, the biggest storylines and how the offseason changes will address the team’s biggest weaknesses next year. Next, more on the Auston Matthews and William Nylander extension negotiations and how they will likely drag deep into the summer. Finally, the guys close out the season with some thank you’s to guests and everyone behind the scenes, as well as go over technical producer Derrick Brandeo’s best sound drops of the season!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.

Here we go. One last show. Thank you, Derek Brandale. One last show before a well-deserved summer off. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee, Derek Brandale, all along for the ride in the next hour. Guys, we are going solo. This is just the three of us as we wrap up everything and anything in this hour.

As much as we love our guests, and we've had some great ones, this is just going to be the three of us, raw, unfiltered takes of the season. I love listening to you when I'm on. That we just had. And we can go anywhere. The canvas is blank. Sammy, JB, we're going to paint in the next hour.

Anywhere and everywhere you want to go. So let's just start with the big picture of going back to september when sammy declared that he didn't care about anything about this regular season all he cared about is winning one round sammy you got your wish buddy you got your wish you should be be ecstatic today okay yeah that's a very nice way to start the show i'm thrilled i that's a great come on buddy i will say that okay i know it was a bad ending and it wasn't pretty but i have said this to you guys multiple times that how badly and how crappy the ending was can't take away from how electrifying that first round win was. It was. It was excellent.

It was amazing. The Leafs had three overtime victories in Tampa Bay. They came back from 4-1 down in one of those games. Ryan O'Reilly scored a tying goal late in one of those guys to send it to overtime. The captain who is much maligned scored a goal to send them to the second round for the first time since I was in high school. Like there was great moments within that first round, but yes,

it's all washed away by the fact that they laid a monster egg against, against the Florida Panthers. But yeah, I think it's progress boys i do i really do maybe it's just i'm feeling good summer's almost here but uh yeah it was progress one game progress you buy that crap you know it was moving goalposts all year about what was going to constitute a successful season for the Leafs. I will say the one person I know who held pretty firm on their belief was Nick Kiprios, who said it was a Stanley Cup or bust year. Get to the final.

You got to, you know, do something big. As the team struggled and things, I think we did shift the goalposts back to maybe just getting out of the first round is OK. I don't know. This to me felt like the absolute no definitive answer outcome. You know, kind of successful, kind of not. Didn't do terribly. Didn't do great.

It's just the, you know, more Rorschach test. You saw what you wanted to see in this season for Leafs fans. And now they have a whole new team. You know, if I look back at that first round against Tampa, you would have hoped that it would have played out, JB, like your dad's team, letting go of those, you know, those consecutive Stanley Cups to a younger, hungrier Edmonton Oilers, who, by the way, failed a few times before they got it right. Yeah.

And then once they took over and beat the Islanders, they never looked back. That's what I was hoping for when the Toronto Maple Leafs played the Tampa Bay Lightning that it was just it was just their time to take over that they would be younger hungrier the better team and it was just time for Tampa Bay to let go but that series never left me feeling that way and there was a strong argument argument that they the leafs got outplayed by tampa bay lightning they weren't the better team and yet they found a way to close this off in six games am i am i talking out of the side of my mouth on this jb did it feel like a dominated series for you you know what no but you know what bugs me about that kipper is no one cared when they outplayed tampa and lost you know like

i'm hearing all these people go on they weren't the better team in the series but they won it's like okay if you care about who's the better team then you must have been really impressed by their performance when they lost were you really really pumped no oh you cared about who's the better team, then you must have been really impressed by their performance when they lost. Were you really, really pumped? No? Oh, you cared about results then. And now all of a sudden they get the results and go, no, I didn't like how they did it though. So, okay, which one is it for me?

It's fair. I'll give you that one. At the end of the day, all that matters is who's moving on and who isn't. But I will say after that, I would love to listen to our shows because there was a common sentiment that was like, uh-oh, the weight is off their shoulders. They got past this thing that's been holding them back, and now they're going to be shot out of a cannon.

And then they came out and peed down their leg. If there's a defining moment of the pee down their leg with the Leafs, it's game two against Florida, where they put on one of the best performances that they've ever put on in the sort of Matthews era. It was dominant from start to finish outside. What was that? What was it? 60 seconds that we talked about where they scored two goals to start the second period. I forget who it was. It's sort of Barkov shot one in the net from the top of the circle on a wrist shot i forget who else scored in that moment but the least put on an absolute clinic the rest of that game and they couldn't beat brovsky they head down to florida down to nothing with no room for error they lose the third game in ot and then here we are but you know they find a win way to win that game too and it's obviously a completely

different story i just think that they got punched in the mouth pretty hard by that florida team they weren't expecting it they you can take me to my dying day said they would have had a better chance against boss and then they would against against uh florida after seeing it happen it's just it's a it was a bad way for it to end but yeah i don't know. I don't know what the greater point here is. The new general manager came in and got rid of everyone outside of the top four. So we'll see. So again, if we go back outside of your prediction of just winning a round to be successful, what was the biggest storyline for you coming into this past season?

Would it have been the goaltending scenario of who stands up it was really opened for debate whether or not matt murray was just going to be anointed uh the number one goalie or in fact he would have been in a race for it injuries kind of led us down that path though at the end didn't it yeah yeah i think so you know it's it was a weird goaltending year it felt like a lot of things were like almost trial like there was the training the season felt like training camp because we all said regular season doesn't matter so there was a lot of let's figure out what we have in this guy or in this line or in these different configurations.

Sammy got Colin Keefe Tinkerbell at one point, like he didn't stick with anything, the amount of lineup tinkering, but you know, so it just felt like trial and error. And to your point, injuries didn't let us get a clear picture of who was going to be the goaltender for them.

And, you know, at the end of the day, we sit there, Matt Murray's healthy, and they played Joe Wohl in round two. You know, so we got our – and imagine now that we're talking about they're going to bring this guy back, potentially, and this is the guy they didn't even deem playable in the second round for a guy who had played a dozen NHL games.

So the goaltending situation is in a much more concerning place here until we see Murray gone and Samsonov re-signed well I to me the biggest the biggest story to me is them letting their you know long-time general manager come into the season as a quote-unquote lame duck it was the last year of his contract and have him you know exercise at the deadline and do act like he was going to be here after and he traded away all the picks and everything and then have one of the most wild weeks in my career in my life following the leafs where kyle dubas gives a all-time press conference where he – Which we had live.

Amazing. Oh, amazing. He said he doesn't want to do it anymore, and he's like, you know, my family hates this. I'm tired. I hate this job. I hate the Leafs. I hate everyone in Toronto.

I hate Shanahan. Is that what he said? No. And then he gets fired, and then Brendan Shanahan somehow comes out and one-ups him with an even more electrifying press conference four days later. So to me, the Dubas thing all year was the biggest story. We talked about it every day, boys.

You know, and listen, I mean, we did call it back in September, October, that this could have potentially a distracting ripple effect. But it never did it feel like that to you that that it was headed to where it exploded in that famous, you know, five day back to back press conferences, because we had also heard rumblings, but it never got to the point where it was front page news that there was any dissension at all between Shanahan and Dubas. To me.

Except in Kipper's Corner. It didn't. Well, no, I didn't. No, I didn't. I didn't go there. I really didn't. I thought in many ways it was gonna sort itself out i mean i was as shocked as anyone that uh there wasn't a lot that led us to believe that it was gonna blow up in

that manner the the the car crash that that everybody pulled over to look at didn't really happen in october November, December, or even in the new year. It really happened within that small window. He was the guy to come back. He decided to play his negotiating cards at the very last minute in front of all the hockey world to see. No one saw that coming, especially Brendan Shanahan.

You just can't take that punch publicly as Shanahan did and do nothing. You know what I do wonder about is in the alternate reality here where he comes back, where he listens to Shanahan, doesn't do that press conference, and just decides that, yeah, he's going to extend. Is Keefe gone then? You know, like, did they then fire the coach? Did they then trade Willie or Mitch?

Like, a new guy has the ability to come in and say, well, I haven't been here. I'm going to take a look at this, whatever. You could not have had Kyle come back and just run it all back again. I don't know. I got the sense that they were all coming back, really. Like, Kyle comes back but has to get rid of his favorite coach. And the mere fact that Sheldon's still here without him, I think gives you your answer whether or not he would have been back

or not with Sheldon. MLSC does not look like they were ready to give him an ultimatum. And there doesn't appear to be an ultimatum right now from the board. Does there? MLSC's been in the – they've been firing coaches left and right. TFC, their coach got fired. Their big-name guy got fired. Nick Nurse gets fired like do they want to look make it look like everybody's getting fired in the same week

here like i think i think there's probably some stability stuff that they looked at too but yeah i the i think the dubious outcome is one that you could have predicted in terms of him not being here anymore but i think the way it happened was completely unpredictable. That is what no one saw coming. Like, you could have talked to me now at this point of the summer and said they just fired Dubas right after the year, and it was another year where they failed in the playoffs, and that's fine. But the fact that he was going to come back, and it was the leverage thing, and who knows what actually happened.

Well, we kind of know what happened, thanks to Shani. But I think it was a pretty surprising outcome because of the way it happened. Let's go back to the California road trip in which Sheldon called out his core four. Was that a bigger sign for what was that light ahead for them during the regular season? You know, what's crazy is what he said at the time was pretty inconsequential. Like it was like, our, you know, our elite players weren't elite. Or I think he said our best players weren't our best players, which they weren't. They were not at that time.

They did not play spectacular in the California road trip. And then I think what really, you know, we've talked about this as one of the pivotal spectacular in the california road trip and then i think what really you know we've talked about this is one of the pivotal moments in the season the next day to have to be like ah i'd like to you know walk that back was a big deal but but that wasn't this first time sammy that uh he's accused his team of being soft soft and purpos. Was that the year before? There you go. That was the year before. Yeah. Right? So Sheldon's had a bit of a frame. He played soft. Well, listen, he's back, and we've had a major shift. Soft and Purposeless with Max Domi, Ryan Reeves, right?

And Bertuzzi now. You're less apt to use that, to coin that phrase. Absolutely. You're just looking for some people who are jerks. Yeah. You know, like it's not that Domi's going to run over anyone, Kip, or throws a bunch of hits or Bertuzzi either. No, but he could come after you.

He could stick you. He can do a lot of things that could piss you off. Yes. And, you know, I think that's a little bit of what they're looking for you know there is an element we talked about bunting like do you want a guy on matthew's line who creates more scrums you know bertuzzi's not not going to do that um so you know it's going to be a little bit it's always going to be on a guy like matthews the best players you gotta get involved you just gotta be a part of that and stick up for your guy and and you know that's going to be a test for him next year is does he want to be a guy who sticks his nose in

there a bit he hasn't through most of his career here that'll be interesting to watch if there's any development on that front so with the exception of right yeah go ahead sammy well i was just gonna say that california road trip i just the thing that comes out of that and will always come out of that for me is the luke fox article luke fox who you know has never been the most scathing writer and he's a good friend of mine a good friend of the show just absolutely took a flamethrower to the elites room after that do you remember that article voice after it yeah like and we had we referenced that throughout the whole year being like he's gonna be right one way or another and it's like he kind of was he right like yes the other thing too i remember is uh b sonette on spit and chiclets talking about those guys. We'll call it partying too much on their way through California.

Potentially a little effed out. Yeah. You know, so I don't know. They got the number one party planner in the league right now about to join them. And, you know, there is a sense that not enough guys are getting dragged out to those events, according to Ryan Reeves. Yeesh. Well, that's all you can say.

JB is yeesh. Yeah, this is our solution, huh? What if we partied more? Anyway. In Kipper's Corner next year, Brass Rail Owner says the guys are there too much. You think it works? you think he could okay and maybe this is going to lead us into a ryan o'reilly discussion um because it's still kind of uh a fresh wound i think for a lot of Leaf fans that this guy, hometown guy, basically, says didn't really enjoy it.

Not that much fun. You know, in Elliott's, was it 32 Thoughts? Freed said something like, there's a lot. Oh, he said here. It's in quotes. There's a lot of theories about why O'Reilly. We have the clip? Is that what he said?

No, no. I just put the quote there for you. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of theories about why O'Reilly didn't come back to Toronto. One of the things I really felt is that I think Ryan O'Reilly likes his anonymity. Darn it. I should know that word. I say it enough.

All of the attention in Toronto, I don't think it really appealed to him. I don't know. It's not like it's his second or third year in the league here. I mean, he's, he knows exactly what it was like. You might want to mention that at the trade deadline before you, you know,

you, you give the blessing to this trade. Like, I don't get this. Someone explain it to me. I don't know. I get it. Come here, get a taste't know i get it come here get a taste go win with the team get a taste you know the taste everybody knows the taste here it's like

batteries come on acid i just so so you have to come and experience it to decide whether or not you like it or not. I mean, listen, I have the utmost respect for the player that Ryan O'Reilly is. But to now decide that you didn't like it and you want to just say that I want to, I just want to hide a little bit more off the ice to me is, is, is a real strange answer. I get it. I get it personally. I, you know, go get some attention and then go take my million somewhere where people leave

me alone. I get it. That screams to me as somebody who, you know, somebody in O'Reilly's camp that reached out to frege and told him that and that it's not like i don't necessarily believe that like frege is an excellent reporter to me it's to me he couldn't stand sheldon keith and he left that's what it comes out oh oh i read you've read that everywhere that's been smoke there's been fire that's all this stuff like to me it's pretty clear yeah it's like i don't know i don't know uh sammy if i just want to point it to one specific thing you don't have to i will

maybe maybe it's just the overall vibe and maybe it's just a little dabble here a little dabble there that uh says that uh you know i just i just, I don't believe in this program at the end of the day. That's wild. You know what's a big part of the program? The head coach. So are we going to go through the summer without Nylander and Matthews contracts?

We're just going to move on ahead here? How does that happen? Where else is there to go after that? Well, we have any, I mean, there's more smoke coming out about Willie here. And you saw what CJ was saying yesterday about how we talked about this forever. We talked about this last two weeks. I told you guys, this guy thinks he's up there with Panarin and Pasternak. He's not in the eights.

Never was. No. He wants to be paid like the big boys on the wings. So now everybody's surprised? Everybody's surprised that it's ten,

ten and a half. He's always, and his, and guess what? He's got numbers to support it, guys. But does he? Like, there's numbers that much better than sebastian ajo and have you seen active stick or one of my favorite follows on twitter said he put this tweet out today saying was curious about the comps so i'm just sharing this according to cap friendly here are the current contracts of the nhl forwards age 26 to 28 who who outproduced Willie Nylander last year. Would you like to hear the names?

Yes, of course. Short list. Connor McDavid. Leon Dreisaitl. David Pasternak. Nathan McKinnon. Mikko Rantanen. Mitch Marner.

Braden Point. End of list. Short list. Those are good hockey players, boys. The cap hits for those guys. Obviously starts at 12 5 then it goes down 8 5 11 12 9 10 okay nine and a half okay so so according to those stats he's got the leafs by the cojones okay the puck not go two ways can we please show them the clip of him defending against Florida in the playoffs? Does that not count for something?

You can have anything you want that counts for something. The bottom line is here is that, you know, he doesn't have to agree in July or August or September or October to take eight and a half or nine when he can string this out to see how far he can go to get to 10. I hear the bye bye bye theme. Is it Backstreet Boys in my head? NSYNC?

I don't know which one it is, but. OK, so let me let me ask you guys this. Is there any world where you just play it out? Yeah, that's there is no other world besides playing it out? Yeah, that's been Dubas' thing. There is no other world besides playing it out. Well, there's a trade. Well, no, but like, I mean, playing it out. Keep them until it's over. Just keep them until it's over.

Again, I don't know if there is much choice outside of that as of today. Like if you at least go into the year. Here's, I'm going to play the other side for the Leafs. Of course, Nylander, you know, the side is my numbers prove I can make $10.5 million. Okay. Here's the Leafs' point of view is, okay, if not here, you tell me where. You tell me where you're gonna go for your 10 and a half

million and i'm happy to talk to them and make a trade right now but there is not there's not a lot of options right now today under the circumstances where the cap is there's so that all the contending teams have no cap space so the question is you know do you envision going to anaheim now do you envision yourself you know let's just say arizona wants to throw you ten and a half you want to go there on his wing right so so that's that's the issue, is that it's not truly a pick where you want to play. It's do you want to go and get an extra million and a million and a half and not try to win the Stanley Cup, or do you want to try to take a little less and try to win now here for you?

Well, and the other part of this, K is when did david pasternak signed his deal fellas was it not mid-season last year yes you know do you want to go into the season what we're offering here is the toronto maple leafs is the mitigation of risk if you want to go into the season and maybe tear your achilles and maybe end up john klingberg if things don't start to go well you get hurt and you pass up all this money right now. That's a risk that Willie will have to take. And everyone in the world right now says, bet on yourself,

bet on yourself. It is not always good advice. Sometimes you have earned the chance to take a paycheck. And if you pass it up, maybe you're getting greedy. So for Nylander, yeah, you can go into the season.

Maybe Willie goes out there and plays at a 45 goal pace and earns himself a couple more bucks. Maybe he plays at a 28 goal pace and costs him money. Maybe he gets hurt. What the Leafs are offering now before the season is the chance to alleviate that risk entirely. So to me, yeah, I understand why Willie would dig in now. I understand why he dragged it out and even moved towards the season i just think that as you get towards the playoffs to or to the start of the season for me it's do you want to you know eliminate the risk and take the

money or do you want to go in that go ahead and maybe we trade you before the season starts yeah i think i you know 10 million to me looking at it it does seem a little bit ludicrous you know i know his numbers are there but like we've all watched willie for his whole career it's like giving him 10 on a long-term contract is a terrifying situation to me i know he's got nine years of contracts for willie who i know he's looked great but like i think there's you know a ton of risk involved in giving him that contract i know the cap's going up i know he's has i'm sorry but like you're you're happy at 9.5 but you're not happy at 10 no i'm not happy at 8 8 8 9 9 would be by ceiling that's a low ceiling listen uh i think at this point, if you're committed at nine,

you got to be committed at 10. And that's based on the fact that you think in two or three years, the cap could go up five, $7 million. It could be a $90 million salary cap in year three, 95 to 105 or six years. Yeah. Dubas bet on this five years ago and it didn't go up. Like, you never know, man.

I don't know. I just, I don't know. I think if you sign William Nylander to a $10 million contract kipper, what the hell are you going to have to pay Mitch Marner? Well,itch is gone mitch mitchell go with uh he'll be up there with the dry sidles he'll be up there with the austin matthews okay he he's the leader in points he's the guy that i know that plays more than austin he kills penalties he's he's uh the whisperer every time somebody's in a rut, they put him on. He is a top winger.

He will get, he'll be up there with all the big boys. Well, don't, Kipper, like, and Borny, at some point here, you know, doesn't your philosophy of just, you know, giving in and giving a guy more or, like, at some point, you have to put your foot down. And the previous general manager didn't put his foot down really ever when it came to these contracts. All these guys got their cake and eat it too. Like if you just pay Willie or whatever, like if you were to trade Willie, for example, for holding out here,

doesn't that send a message to Mitch? Doesn't that send a message to the rest of them that Trilling's not screwing around here? Okay. Oh, hold on. hold on, hold on. You said, doesn't that send a message to Mitch? And then you said, send a message to the rest of them. Who's the rest of them, Sammy? Someone else that comes in.

No, no, no, not somebody else. One somebody else. 34. Need to start. You want to start sending that message, Sammy? You start at the very top with 34. You want to get to Willie and you want to get to Mitch. Send it to 34 who absolutely bent this organization over five years ago with 11-6 times five.

Okay? That can't happen again, Sammy, if you want to send your message. I know. But, I mean, he's the – I know you don't think so, but he's the best player on the Leafs. Like, he deserves to make the most. That's how it should work. Like, I can't believe Willie Nylander would look at Matthews and be like,

I'm better than Matthews. I should make more than than matthews i should make more like this whole thing is a problem look at we talk about the bruins all the time they just take less they sign under a cap guys take less guys sign long contracts everywhere else except here where they have to make more money than everybody else we got to make more money than each other it's like can you just take a contract that maybe the team could win something for once in my life? Could we maybe do that? Is that allowed? So, so it's, it's just a foregone conclusion that 34 needs to be, uh, the highest paid guy, right? To me. Yeah, it is, but I don't think it is to you, but to me it's, he's the highest paid guy. I think that's the issue and that's what's debatable here.

Okay, let's have it. Especially for a guy like Mitch Marner, right? I know. I can make the argument I'm more valuable than 34. Why do I have to take less so he can take more? It's a horrible cycle that they started five years ago, but it is what it is. i i'm not sure they can dig themselves out of this one that's what it is so that's why go ahead morning get in here it is

funny just seeing like the day like mitch marner signed his deal last year sorry no last year whatever it was and then like ranting in signs later for rate and point a way less you know way less and everyone looked at the marner deal and said that is so not even reasonably a comparative it doesn't count towards the other comparatives it's just a wild outlier where the gm got hosed and then they went back to signing is that the talk at the time was that rfa deals are about to change and then they didn't it was just the leafs took the one outlier. It is going to be fascinating. The thing with Mitch, though, he earns his money. Mitch is an elite scorer in the league.

He's almost a 100-point guy every year. He is worth what they paid him now. 10-9. But at the time, it was crazy. But the idea that everyone else ranting in would have been worth 10-9 too if you looked back at his value versus what he got. But he got what was market value at the time. You know, it would be great to see the Leafs start getting market value at the time. And that's why for Nylander, your case about 9 million

is valid to me because that's the current market value you can make the case if it's Timo Meier at 8, 8. And, you know, You can make the case that he's around that 9 number as much as, for some reason, we only count offense today when we're talking about Willie. When the problem has been you're concerned about his two-way play, which should bring him back down to somewhere in the 9s for market value. I don't know. Just the Leafs got to get started getting the big guys under contract

at more reasonable numbers. There's no doubt it's handicapped him for half a decade. When you're in the UFA, it's not comparables. It's just one team with a number to pay. What they're willing to pay for him, right? But Willie won't sign until he hears from Austin. Now, there's a couple of theories out there. One is they're not close to signing Austin Matthews,

and the other one is they've got a deal, but they won't announce it until they get Willie signed. Okay. Which theory do you think is more true? Because those are two very different things, Mr. Kiprios. I know. But you tell me, what would help the Leafs more, finding out what Austin's making

or trying to get Willie signed first before announcing Austin? To me, I've said it to you before, there's no comparison in the contracts to me. Yeah, there is. No, there's not. Willie is not nearly as good as Austin Matthews. It's not the same conversation. I'll tell you what is the poison in the salary cap in every dressing room,

and that is if you're telling me to take less just so I can hand it to 34 and not necessarily spend it on a better defenseman or more depth or a better goalie, then I got a real problem. Then I want the money. I don't want it going to 34. That's the issue, Sammy. So if Matthews were to sign, what would be perceived as less? 13-1, 13-2.

Okay. All right? And I think if I think that they announced Austin at 13-1 or 13-2, then there'd be more pressure on Willie if he wants to stay to take the nine nine two five as you're suggesting you know there's it's all reasonable to suggest that austin matthews should do exactly that you know he's made 58 million dollars at 26 years old you know the to grind for the extra half a mil or whatever here could could go a long way to the other contracts, adding other players. That's definitely a part of it.

So to me, Kip, if you're waiting to announce Matthew's contract, you're concerned that it's too high. If you think it's a value deal, you announce it. I'm with you. Yeah. I'm with you. You know, so I don't know. I don't know.

You know, they are related. I agree I don't know. You know, these are they are related. I agree with Sammy that their numbers shouldn't matter. But the idea that the top guy should show some sacrifice, too, is not an unreasonable one. Agree. So who blinks first, boys? Who blinks first? If you're Bradtree Living, you can't come in and blink. Here's the first guy here.

You can't blink. You can't be the guy. All the previous general manager did was Blink. He was a Blink machine. He was looking into the sun. He was looking into the sun. All he could do was Blink. He was Trump looking into the eclipse.

This could go into March. March? March. Kip, what month is it now? I'm not doing a show with kip next year if i gotta talk about mitch marner's next contract i'm not doing oh my god who blinks first it'll be me i can tell you that in that conversation so hold on though so if like if your first or your second scenario is true that they're waiting

for matthews or for willie before they they announced Matthews, would they wait into the season to announce this? Like there's no way. And if they don't, then if you have anything remotely done, you need to announce it ASAP. Yes. It's so funny how emotional I feel about it. Cause right now I'm like, just trade everyone and let's lose. I don't even care.

I don't want to do this for another year. You know, just get frustrated. But I understand. You know whose fault this is all? What we're yelling at each other about today? You know whose fault this is? Gary Bateman. The Penguins GM?

Oh, Batman. Okay. Thanks for the cap. The $5 billion franchise has to pinch pennies to sign all the players they've drafted and developed into superstars. Thanks. Thanks, Gary. Appreciate it. Yeah, couldn't even give him the milk money. We've got milk on our jerseys now and no one sees a nickel leafs are the real madrid of hockey they have the most money in the world and they have to like imagine real madrid they're like yeah you guys you can't spend all the money

in the world they're like what why it's just the most frustrating thing in the world anyways we can move on we should maybe break here's the question how many hot dogs could you eat fourth of july uh today's the day joey chestnuts i don't know if it's canceled or not but no they cancel it and then joey chestnut marched in and got it restarted yeah joey is that the famous nathan's uh yeah coney island baby coney island where are you it happened it happened already? Today? I think so.

No, it got canceled earlier. It got canceled and they uncanceled it. We're not researched well on this. I thought I skipped through a channel and I watched it. Maybe it was last year's event. Here's what happened. This morning, there was some lightning and bad weather in the New York area. I don't know if you can confirm or deny that, Kipper, wasn't great weather there apparently correct so they they canceled it outright and the

internet backlash to joey chestnut not being able to scrounge on some glizzies was loud and mad there's a picture of joey chestnut marching towards somewhere. Vince McMahon again, I saw. To get it restarted. And they went ahead and they did it. And guess what? Joey Chestnut won 62 dogs, 16th career title for Joey Chestnut. Not as best showing, though. The GOAT. Oh, he's the question.

Does he make more or less money per year than a new signing Max Domi. It's got to be close, right? Eating dogs for three mil a year? I bet you he's making over a million. Salary cap on stuff. Can he put pickles and onions and tomatoes on that thing? No, he dips them in water, Kippy, so that the buns even, like he dips them in water so the buns more digestible it's disgusting he's just doing a

strip of mustard on each one taking his time preparing each dog can i tell you that at last year at loony dog night i went and i took down eight dogs and over two and a half hours over a over a baseball game over a non-pitch clock baseball game. So it was pretty long. I cannot tell you how horrible I felt. I felt so bad. So sick. Like my guts took two weeks to recover from that. It was horrible. And this guy, he does unreparable damage to his body every year to trace this.

17 and a half pounds of cherry pie the other day. That is 17 and a half pounds. That's more than my dog weighs. That's Lewis and cherry pie. He ate Lewis. Hey. Wow. Oh, my God.

All right. On that note, on that famous Nathan note, we're going to go to break and we'll come back and maybe talk about our favorite drops of the year. Oh, yeah. Derek Brandeo. I can't wait to hear those. After the break, more real Kipper and Bourne.

One last time before summer break. down the biggest stories in Toronto sports. The Fan Morning Show with Ailish Forfar and Justin Cuthbert. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Real Kipper and Born on Sportsnet 590 The Fan. Alright, just closing

out. Crossing the finish line on the 2022-2023 season. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. Before we get into our favorite Derek Brandeo drop-ins, some thought about do you guys think you'll see Eric Carlson traded between now and say September? JB what do you think? I do think so right? Like there's you know now that he's given his sort of green light to it the

Sharks aren't going to be any good they're really incentivized to do it. I know that it's tough with salary cap but the chance to make you know to add the biggest impact making defenseman in the league offensively is someone will do it. It's going to be Pittsburgh. It is.

Kyle tried, eh? Kyle wanted to engage a lot of talk to try to get him in, but it just was not happening. To Toronto? Yeah, to Toronto last year. The one thing, though, I think now I'm starting to hear that San Jose's willing to eat up as much as $3 million of the cap. So that takes him to eight and a half, and he still has four more years left, if I'm not mistaken. Is that enough to engage half a dozen teams,

maybe eight and a half million for, for the Norris trophy winner? Or do you need to, do you need to pay even more than that? Ah, Kip, like, look at like Seth Jones,

make a nine and a half. What's Wierenski make? He's making nine or something. I know, but this is a guy with a bad wheel that can, could blow a, another gasket at any moment. Yeah. With all the things you just mentioned though he scored 101 points i know i know yeah let me ask you something if if san jose

decides to eat more than say 25 30 percent would the leafs have been better off to back off of klingberg and waited out for for eric carlson it's it's so funny klingberg's played no shifts for the leafs and i'm already like yeah they might have to get off that deal you know like maybe he'll be great i don't know but yeah it surely you'd rather them go all in on the offensive defense and then the you know maybe get value from a guy at four million guy able to bring in him too and have three have him and uh him riley and klingberg and just never play defense dubas's dream it would be ironic if it happened well you're telling me willie doesn't play defense so right domi doesn't either by the

way are you now a willie guy kipper like what's happening i i goes to the hamptons and he starts defending i like i like i like willie in his proper place for sure he'll never be a guy that can lead and there'll be some nights you're just kicking yourself because he no could it affects mitch's money that's why he wants willie paid that's what's going on here oh no there's there's not enough room for everybody. Somebody's going to have to go. If you sign Willie, Mitch has

got to go, guys. What? If you take if you sign Willie at 10 moving forward, then I think you've made the decision that you've got to loosen up somebody here.

That blue line needs a major, major change up here, guys. That's why you have to trade Willie, because you can't trade Marner. And, like, we can have the conversation about if it's one or – if you have to pick between Mitch Marner and Willie Nylander, unfortunately, it's an obvious choice i think there's a lot of leafs hard decision i think there's a lot of leafs nation that might push back on the fact that it's an easy choice but for me like what mitch marner brings to your team is not even comparable to what willie newlander brings to your team what would you say you do here

that's one of my favorites as well all year oh Oh, yeah. But, like, Mitch, without Willie, it is set up for Mitch and Austin like it would be set up for McDavid and Dreisaitl moving forward in Edmonton. Wow. You think McDavid's staying there? What's he got, three years left on his deal? I think two after this year.

I love it. We've got six minutes left in this season, and we're about to trade McDavid. I'm not going to trade him. But I'll just say his, you know, we all saw how devastated he was when the Leafs did win that lottery. So I'll just put that out there. Oh, God.

Tavares's money is coming off the books here pretty soon here, fellas. 26-27. All right, so we got to give kudos to Sheldon Keefe for being one of our favorite Keefer's Clippers all year, do we not? Oh, yeah, absolutely. What do we got? We needed him. Shout out to Keefer. Yeah. And Derek's got a couple of problems. That's an all-timer.

Coach is going to keep his mouth shut. I got a few faves, too. I got Dubas had a really good one for us, which is things are great. Everything's great. That was a staple. I really enjoyed McKee's I'm Thrilled. It was a good one. I'm Thrilled.

And I think an all-timer on this season's got to be Brad May's Fight My Mom. I'd fight my mom to win another Stanley Cup. Oh, my God. Maybe the all-time best one. It's really good. And he would lose. I would love to see stats on most frequent drop on the show. He would lose against his mom.

I think the most common drop on the season might be, what would you say you do here? Could that potentially be the leader? Yeah, I would say so. But we had a – go ahead. Go ahead, Sammy. Well, I was just going to give a shout-out to some of the guests that we had all the time, like Gordo,

Doug McClain, McKenna was great to us. Luke Fox, Futes, lots, Jimmy Ralph, Panger, Brad May.

Like all of these guys are just so generous with their time with me as a producer. Craig Simpson, did you mention Simmer? Oh, I didn't say Simmer too. Like it just, you know, as a producer,

I appreciate guys that that love doing it. And that's the thing. Like, not to toot both your guys' horns so much, but people love coming on with you guys because it's just a different conversation than they get a lot of different places. Like, it's always they're really happy to come on and talk, and it's fun. So, kudos to you guys, too. But, yeah. It's crazy to have that show, boys. You know how I know we're doing a good job because it's almost 50-50 where people accuse us of being pro-leaf and anti-leaf. You guys, like I either am being told I love them.

I'm told I either love the Leafs or hate the Leafs. But there is no middle on our show. In the comments, these absolute Leafs homers. Leafs, but there is no middle. It is so funny. In the comments, these absolute Leafs homers, like, what do you expect? And then it's like, could we get a couple of guys who don't hate the Leafs? It's like, hey, calls it as we seize it, trying to walk the line. I'm literally both every day.

Like, I am the biggest homer, and I can't stand them. We need that. Like, it's like, I'm right. Every day is like, I love and hate this team with all my heart i'm thrilled and you know with all due respect to you know the blue jays and the raptors they can never compete with that uh no that history of loving or hating or being frustrated by their favorite local hockey team here. There's no misery like Leafs misery in this city.

That is like the number one misery. It really is. And the reason our show does well is because misery loves company. Yeah. Come on here to pour your heart out and have your therapy. Well, like, you know know when the raptors are bad

there'll still be the faction of fans that stick with them but they kind of go out of the lexicon and they're not as in the middle the jays were bad for a while there for after the batista years or whatever but when the least are bad like it's the middle of winter and nobody has anything else and they're just like stand in the pouring rain and you in the pouring rain i am sad i am mad and i need someone to be mad with me if this team stays as is going into training camp where do you see uh the fan base sammy i'll start with you first uh uh optimism uh i think enough change boys i think enough change has happened. I think there's enough new faces that are... It's not like last year with the one-year guys,

the mercenary guys. They're not bringing in Zach Aston Reese and Kubel here. They're bringing in faces that are going to be contributors. I think there'll be a new, different type of face. JP, before we break, how about you? Optimism? Optimism. Bertuzzi put them over the top it was a name people wanted uh just a quick thanks for myself to brandeo and roll nick and i know you're gonna say all those and putting us on the air fabbro and toman and sansoni and everyone for letting us have this show tank david sis boom ba all of them and more importantly to

our loyal listeners who have followed us on sportsnet 590 the fan sportsnets youtube itunes spotify you've helped us become one of the most followed and downloaded hockey podcasts there is passion emotion enthusiasm uh none of this would be worth its while so whatever happens for tomorrow who knows but it's been a great two years bringing you the real kipper and born show so till we meet again please have a safe and enjoyable summer from your friends at real kipper and born