Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: In-Division Duel vs. Detroit

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee get set for the Toronto Maple Leafs' Wednesday night matchup against the Detroit Red Wings. They discuss the decision to turn back to Joseph Woll after a bad series of previous starts, the significance of the in-division game, and whether Chris Tanev's status is complicating the Leafs' need to add on defence. Then, they look at the Red Wings and discuss how Mo Seider has raised their ceiling. Later, Nick, Justin and Sam react to the Leafs being named in Nazem Kadri trade rumours. Finally, Red Wings assistant general manager and former NHLer Kris Draper stops by (30:00) to discuss Detroit's growth this season, what would be considered a successful year, and how aggressive they might be at the trade deadline.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.

All right, let's get her going here. The Real Kipper and Born show. We're live on Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet 590, The Fan. Streaming always on Sportsnet Plus. Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube, where we really thoroughly enjoy the chats and the thumbs up. From our loyal followers, Nick Kiprio, Sammy McKee, Derek Brandeo, Jake the Snake Shultz,

Ethan Jaja Gabor. and most recently called up and will appear at the adult table tonight on Scotia Bank Wednesday night hockey is our very own Justin Bourne. Thank you, thank you. I do feel like a complete fool dressed like this on our show,

but tight turnaround after the show, so here we go. Can you take all this handsomeness, Sammy? I can't. I want to. in here and I was like, oh, we're doing this today. Like, Jesus. It's a big show. It is a huge red wings.

Your hands. Huge show. And, oh, by the way, your assignment tonight, if you choose to accept it. A mention of the real Kippor and Bourne show at any point during the pregame or any intermission. It's the only thing that I do with my life. So it comes up organically anyway. Tonight's game will revolve around a very important matchup. The Atlantic Division, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, division rivals.

You wrote an article today on the importance not only of this game, but maybe the next, what, six, eight games or roughly till we get to the Olympic break. Yeah, I mean, I did the whole block, the 12 games that get us to the Olympic break, but really, Kip, I mean, if they're bad in the first six, eight of that, it gets really hard. And we know they play Vegas and Colorado. after Detroit tonight. So it's like kind of go time here.

I did read your article. Thank you. I enjoyed the part, especially where you, and these are your words, not mine. Yeah. The fantasy version of your article. Yeah. Right?

There is. Yeah. And you. What did you think of that? Did I get it remotely right? Your tendency on our show is to look, Sammy, correct me if I'm wrong, the bright side of things. I mean, one day over the Christmas break, you weren't here,

and we traded awesome. We need you, brother. Right? But the fantasy version of your article is hitting a lot of the wish list. Yes. Which included trading for Doug Hamilton, Doug E. Hamilton. We're doing Doug now in this show. We're doing Doug. It's a Doug show.

It's a Doug show. Willie coming back, of course. A goalie catching fire again. Like there's- I was getting healthy. TANev coming back for playoffs. But that is. That's like the,

you know, I was thinking, what are the range of outcomes? And it's like, that is the fantasy one where just everything hits and the stars aligned. By the same time,

I looked at the opposite of that, which is Willie's too hurt to play in the big games. Nize is hobbling around. You know, you still don't have stolars. You're too tired to even hang with the Minnesota Wild

wild and you just get, you know, beat like a drum coming up. I think there is a world where there's some positive regression in terms of the injury luck and the luck that they've had to start this season. Like those guys could get healthy and they couldn't be a better deal. I mean, they've been banged up all year long. I mean, remember that stretch where they didn't have, like, Wall wasn't playing,

Nyes wasn't playing, Matthews wasn't playing, Taneb wasn't playing. Like there's a whole, it was even worse at certain points this year. So there's a world where it regressed positively where they get some injury health I'll get some entry luck, but they need it. They need it in the next two weeks. Yeah. In about 30 minutes, we'll welcome in Chris Draper, former Detroit Red Wing, of course, four times Stanley Cup champion, assistant general manager and director of amateur scouting

for the Red Wings. We'll go through that lineup and there's no slowing those guys down anytime soon, which makes that challenge that much more of a tougher one for the Toronto Maple Leafs. At the top of the hour, we'll also welcome in Ryan Getslav, former national. National Hockey League player relationship, relations advisor for hockey Canada. So a couple of past greats in our show tonight. In the meantime,

number one storyline for you, as you prepare for your pregame show at 630 on Sportsnet, is what? Number one storyline. Well, Joe Wall going back to back, they won't even be able to hang if this guy's not better, right? he's had a couple of tough starts so that's near the top of the list and then it's boring probably but like you need to play in their ends you need to break the puck out can you break the puck out

that would be really nice that would help you play on offense and any any surprise from you sammy on on joe wall getting the start here coming off of last week's huge game against colorado you would have hoped that it would have snowballed into something more it didn't and not that he's back to square one, but it's regressed since that amazing game in Colorado. I think you just have to kind of hope that he binds it. I think that, you know, you could have gone with Hill to be tonight, but we talked about it yesterday where if you go with Hill to be tonight and you get starched, you feel like a bit of an idiot being like,

why he probably should have just gone like Joe Wall. I think they just are kind of putting him in there being like he's bounced back in in other times and he's hopefully just going to look like he has. but I mean I'd be worried We're lying if I told you that I wasn't a little worried going into this game after the way he's looked in the last two appearances and especially the size of this game tonight

I mean it's a huge Atlantic everybody won again I think the Sabres won again last night like everybody wins every night so like your article said you're getting left behind so yeah I don't you win or you're done even going 500 you're getting left in the dust

I'm not surprised they went back to him but I am a little nervous about the way he's looked what do you have as a main storyline, what you're watching, what's on your mind for tonight? I think just overall the, the energy, maybe it's coming off that road trip, but they got a rebound tonight with it. If they look somewhat lethargic, which I saw a lot of Monday night, then it may tend to your article on this stretch here.

leaving them perhaps in the dust as early as next week. Yish. One of the things I did want to note, so I didn't catch the first few minutes of the Wild game. Sounds like the Wild handled it pretty well. They ended up with a pretty early lead. The Red Wings are 30th in the NHL in goals in the first period. They've only scored 32 times in the first period. In the second period, first in the NHL, they scored 66 times.

So they're slow starters who really get hot in the middle frame. Can you get out at home to a lead against the wings? That's interesting, actually. Yeah. And I don't think you would say that the second period has been at least best one this year. No, it's been very bad. It's been quite bad. I think it's improved since the mill part of the season so far

where it was really bad every night. But yeah, they need to be good in the second period. All right, let's go to Craig Brubie on his decision to go back to Joseph Wall, clip one. I got last game. tough game like I get with the travel and everything our team wasn't at our best I don't think we gave him you know the opportunity to be successful in that game um he's been our guy so that's why I'm going with him there you go see the one thing pretty simple that's for me when I watched joseph wall is the body language and when when he when he struggles he looks entirely different than when it's going

well. You can tell early. To me, it's just sometimes he can overplay his post. He can scramble back. We saw that on the stuff goal in Vegas where he's just, he can't get back. We saw it again against Minnesota,

where it just like, with him, I know throughout his career, much like Stolars, there's the health issues, but I'm beyond that. I'm just now at the point now where I'm not worried about him getting hurt. I'm worried about him losing his mojo, his confidence. Oh, yeah, really? When he's there and he's in the zone, he's as good and as talented as any goalie in the league.

But if he just finds this seed of doubt between his ears, to me, the body responds in that. We're going to get someone on tomorrow to tell us a little bit about this. Mental side of the game. Because it really is becoming a theme. And with goal tending in particular, Joe Wohl is a guy who spends the, you know, I think that's something he works on,

his mental side of the game. So tomorrow we'll talk a bit more about that. But I do wonder if tonight they look at Joe Woll and go, if he's bad early, it'd be a quick trigger tonight for me. Like last couple games haven't been good. This is a massive game. You don't have time to find out.

No, totally. Like it's 2-0. You didn't like one of the goals and it's 10 minutes in, that might be a nice. Enough. So you're, I mean, the, I should, sorry, but Rubet referred to all these games as playoff games. So what you're going to say is you're treating it like playoff game

in terms of the way you handle your goal tender. If he's no good early, you're, you're shipping him out of there. And I also think that is reinforced by the return of Stollars. Like this guy is now on the ice. He's practicing with the Marleys. He's been sent down to get some ice time with them. Do we have something on that at some time? Well, no.

No, remember the clip from yesterday where he's like, what's going to happen when he goes down there? And Ruby's like, well, he's going to practice some different. Looking kind of practices. Is he going to play a game? Don't know. So that was the update. But either way, I don't think he's too far away.

And so if you go to Hildo B quickly and then, I mean, Stolars probably gets a game within a week, right? If one of these guys is bad? I don't think a week's enough for Stolars. No, probably not. But if, you know, Wohl doesn't look like he's got it and can't have Ryddeby. I think he needs two weeks down there. Well, that takes you to the break. I'm sorry.

And so now you're talking about March. Why? Sam, he's been off for two and a half months. Exactly. You can't. That's why he should be ready to go. No, no, no, no. We're looking at this differently. He needs to practice.

He needs to practice. He needs to get back into it. It's longer than a summer off. I do think he's been gone. You just don't stick a guy in an NHL net in seven days, especially him. I disagree. If JW is no good and then you got Hilda B and A bunch of starts coming up.

It might rush the timeline a little bit and maybe in a way that you don't like. All right. Let's go to Craig Barubi on just how big this game is tonight. Clip five. Huge game. Obviously, I think all of them are. I mean, if you look at this stretch we have here, I mean, it's playoff type. You got to take a playoff type approach, in my opinion, to it every game.

You know, you don't want to get ahead of yourself. Just tonight's game, it's all it matters. But you got to have that mindset in my opinion right now. Playoff type mindset in January 21st is a different mentality than we've had in Toronto in this era. Guys, we had whole years. I want to say two whole seasons where we knew who they were playing in the first round in like late November, December for sure. Yeah. We knew it was going to be the lightning or whatever.

So this is different for us. This is higher stakes earlier in the season than we're used to, which also means that you could have no stakes very soon. I wonder how that toll, how they manage that toll of feeling that type of pressure to win every game and to scoreboard watch too. Like it's January for goodness sakes and you're peeking out of the corner to find out what Boston and Buffalo and everybody else is doing. Like I agree with you, but I can't help but think of the 136 point Tampa Bay Lightning that got smoked. by Columbus or the Boston Bruins that won the President's trophy that Florida beat them. These teams that scrapped their way to the finish line and still have that, you know, they've been on the fight.

There's some value in it in the first round, typically. I mean, there's a couple examples over the past 10 years. I mean, the Panthers went all the way to the final against Vegas when they ultimately lost it. But that was the game here where Maurice went cuckoo bananas and went red face and they went to playoffs. The Kings was going to say the Kings. They also won as a 60. Yeah, so there's some examples, but I'm not going to say the least for that, but. Sammy, I see you got a clip here, an update on 10.

Are you going to say this? No. No. No. Well, you know, I don't mind the idea of going through the Metropolitan for once. Take your chance with Carolina, this different look. Sure. They're probably fun.

I don't know. Had them lose to an authentic team a little bit earlier than usual. It's way too early to be thinking, like, there's comfort. I'm not thinking there's comfort. I'm just looking forward. Like, I mean, if they're. were going to make the playoffs, it's probably as a wild card team. I don't think they're going to

catch Montreal or they're going to catch Detroit. No. Yeah. It doesn't appear that way. It's going to be a wild card and you're probably going to play maybe a metro team, so something different. Anyways. Update on TAN, if we listen to this, can we read

into whether or not Dougie, Doug? Douglas Hamilton. Formerly known as the artist, Dougie, could be someone they might pursue. Let's listen to the club and see what you guys are. Not a lot. I mean, he's still working through things.

He hasn't got surgery yet, so we're still working through things. He's decided about surgery or he hasn't had surgery just hasn't decided more than anything, you know? He's, that's him. Like, he wants to play. So, does that answer your question? So if he doesn't get surgery, he could conceivably still play. And so he hasn't got the surgery in hopes that maybe he could still play. That's what I got.

Correct. Correct. So what does that mean that if he avoids surgery, somehow this groin will mend faster than if he has surgery? Mend to a level of usability? What are we talking about? like a banjo string holding everything together. Tried rubber bands. I think if that's the conversation,

one should surger themselves. Surger? Maybe time to get the old. You should get that repaired. Right. I mean, he's 36 or something. They got him on a six-year contract. Let's just get that thing functional.

Yeah. But every... You have the team some... Every day you're waiting is another day that you are pushing the decision, I don't know, are they, like, kicking the can down the road here? Is there a chance if he would have decided a week ago, he could have gotten back earlier?

Are they... If he had done surgery? Yeah, if they would have decided earlier, like... I think if you repair a groin, you're looking at, like, some real rehab, aren't you? That sounds like something, you're not coming back from quick. We're talking about two months for sure. Eight weeks?

I don't know. Eight weeks? Eight weeks? Eight weeks a lot? I don't know. They should probably, they want to try to make the playoffs. They should probably trade for a defenseman. They want to try to make the playoffs,

which I'm not sure that they want to. Oh, they want to. No, I know you're right. Red Wings. We're going to talk about them with Draper, but Barube had a lot of pretty in-depth things to say about them. So let's listen to the clip on the Red Wings, their turnaround. Clip two.

Clip two. I think, you know, if I look at their goaltending this year, it's been really good. Gibson's played really well for them. That's one area. I think the development of the two Big D they got, Cider and Edvinson, you know, getting a little bit, you know, more experience. You know, there's a certain amount of games, defensemen need to play in the NHL before they're at a real good level.

And I think they're there. And I think that pairing is excellent. It's big, skates, mobile, they do it all. You know, they're getting some pretty balanced scoring from their lineup. Guy like Raymond's a little bit older now coming into his own. Larkin's obviously been a very good player. And the Brinket's still scoring a lot of goals. But, you know, overall, I think, you know, their goal tenant and they're two big D are a big part of it.

Yeah, Mo Sider has really changed the team, in my opinion. So you go from Monday where Quinn Hughes in favor just owned you to Sider and this Edvinson, who's slowly turning himself into a stud. Yeah, it's, you know, you look around the league and we started to have a bit of the this conversation yesterday, but like a lot of the good teams now have a defenseman who is really tough to rein in. It's something you've talked about the Leafs not having, but McCar, Werenstke, Hudson, Bouchard, Hughes, you know, Morrissey, Sanderson, Heiskin, and Dahlene, Schaefer,

cider, you know, that's a lot of teams that have a guy that they're like, he breaks the puck out for us and he plays 26 minutes. To me, it's knowing and correct me if I'm wrong, but nobody's played more minutes on the ice or minutes and seconds on the ice than cider. In the league this year, is that right? I think he's at the very top. I don't know if he's, he's averaging. Never.

25, 16, and he's played 50 games. Yeah, I think that might be right up there. That checks out. That would be the most time on ice in the league. So we are talking just not over, it's just pace of play. when they're on the ice, as Quinn Hughes showed us Monday night, they dictate. They'll tell you when it's going to be fast, and they're going to tell you when I think I need to slow it up a little bit here.

Larkin fast, Raymond fast, Sprinket, Finney, they got guys who move, for sure. And I saw this from Matthews fan on Twitter, but John Gibson's been the best goal in the league, basically, since December 1st. I tell you, I love that when. he finally got traded. He's playing well for a team. Leads the league in goals saved above expected. He's a 15 and 2-2 record since then.

9-26, 2-12, 3 shutouts since the start December 1st. He fought leaving Anaheim for so long. Weird. I know earlier in the year, you weren't buying what the Red Wings were selling. You're right. The second day of the year, I forced him to say something stupid. But are we to the point right now where that this team's real.

They're not going to slip. They're not going to miss the playoffs. They're not going to go into a prolonged slump. Real totally depends on what we're talking about. I don't think they're special. I think they're pretty average. I think they're the league's most average team with Mossider. Like they plus mostider.

So that puts them a bit above average. But I don't, you know, they, everything I can find on them they kind of seem like they're okay they're right that they're not a bad team they're good they got some guys who can play they got some but I don't know do you think that there's some powerhouse that

I think they're fast like they got one guy above a point per game coming in on wanting one have won six their last seven games those scoring opponents 26 to 15 in their last yeah they're playing great I this is not to say they're a bad team I'm just saying I don't think they're I think from from the back end with those special with that

that first pair. Yeah. That separates them. A lead top pair. Yeah. Already. And the one thing I think Detroit also has going for them is that they're going into a trade deadline with a bag of cash.

Totally. And what you see now, I think, could look a little different by March 6. And let's not forget, Dylan Larkin, they're a bit. best player, their face of the franchise, called out his general manager last year, Stevie Eisenman, for not getting things done and being disappointed. Yes. And Stevie Eisenman is not going over two for this guy. I've got to tell you, I've long had this theory that, you know, GMs can buy themselves a lot of times.

Mostly these guys just want to have the jobs. They're coveted jobs. There's 32 of them. my GM job in the NHL. A very safe thing to do is a rebuild that's long and slow and patient. But at some point and the wings are

there now, everyone goes, okay, it's been five years, it's been six years, you have picks, you have cap space, let's go. And they were probably there last year, but now there's certainly at let's go a clock. I think there's also a lot of risk

when you hit this point because here's where people make mistakes and go, who's the biggest name available? And they throw the bag at someone who's maybe not, like is Nazim Kadri a great fit for them at his age with this contract? I don't know. You know, I just think there's risk if you got to be very careful about how you spend this. They go from Larkin to Andrew Kopp. Would you like to see Larkin, Cadry, cop,

Comfer? Does that win me a cop? Larkin Cadry cop, my three centers? It's a lot better. It's better, but what's our goal? Yeah. What are we trying to be? Yeah. You know?

You mentioned Condry there. I got to, I saw, I think maybe Drager was reporting that, like, there's the interest again from the Leafs on Cadry. How the hell? He sounds like Frank Costanza. How do they get him? The hell. Like, well, no. Like, I'm interested in one billion dollars.

Like, I'd love to have one billion dollars. I'd love to have a $1 billion. a brand new set top of the line irons for my golf bag. But if I keep, if I keep like texting my wife being like, oh, I'm interested in a new set of golf clubs, it's not going to happen. Like, there's no way. First of all, they don't trade with Toronto. Why is it not happening, though?

Is it because your wife's cheap? No, because she has. Do you have the money to buy them? Well, she, I mean, this is a different conversation. You don't deserve them. Both. But, no, I just, maybe it's not the right comparison. Do the Leafs have any money to buy any irons?

We've talked about it a million times. Why is their name in that circle? What on the earth could they produce? That's a big question. That Craig Conroy is going to be like, yeah, yeah, let's do it. I feel you can get some pro-staff iron. Yeah. Wilson back in the day.

Head to crappy tire button and get a set there. Like once you take Easton Cowan's name off the board. And I am. Yeah. What is truly left? Dan Bannford. Right? Yeah.

And that's the tricky part. But I just, I don't know why they would, it's even out there. Like I just, obviously I'm not questioning Dragher. He's great reporters. It's just like, why are the Leafs in that? Because it's just, they don't even trade it. Even if they had them, will they trade them to Calgary? They wouldn't trade Anderson to Toronto.

They wouldn't trade TANF to Toronto. Stop calling the flames. It's old. Like, it's just not. The flames aren't doing it, man. The tan of the tan of rumors and and Anderson were when they had a few more first rounds. Yeah, and guess what?

Prospects. Yeah. And now. It didn't happen when they had now. They went to Philly and they went to Boston. Right? And that's what you were left with at the last trade deadline. Mm-hmm.

I'm just surprised to see it. I just saw that again. I was like, we're doing this again, eh? I'm curious to see what ultimately New Jersey does with Doug Hamilton. With Doug, I doesn't, I feel like I came across a report that's like Toronto doesn't, didn't seem likely or something to that effect. Oh, James Myrtle wrote something about it where he didn't think they were the front runner, but and someone's hurt on the devil's back in.

Luke Hughes got hurt. Luke Hughes got hurt. So maybe that gives Hamilton more value to them. Everyone's still in it, man. You look at the standings in the East. devil's as bad as they've been. They're not done. You think they would want someone to help?

What are they three points back at the least? Yes. Yeah, exactly. The worst team in the league said by us multiple times is now three points back at the least. Yeah. Who've been very good for quite a while. Let's get a Craig Bruby thought on future Hall of Famer, Patrick Kane. Clip three.

Well, he's elite, like, obviously with the puck and the things he can do with it. I don't see that. he's still at a very high level. You know, he's dangerous off the rush and him and DeBrinkech got great chemistry together. And, you know, he can make things happen. He's a dynamic player still. So dangerous.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, he's at the tail end of it, but he's still got the vision and the talent. He's eight points, or sorry, eight goals, 21 assists, 29 points. in 35 games, almost a point per game. It would be now, if he gets three points tonight,

he would become the all-time lead American-born points getter. He got three points. He can't also underestimate what he does for the rest of the group on a daily basis, just the winning pedigree, just the overall. He's grown up a lot, Patrick Kane, hasn't he? I think early in his career maybe he had a reputation. is a party guy and whatever. He's certainly been a mature family dude for a while.

He always found a way to get the job done. Oh, yeah. Absolutely, he did. No, I'm a big Patrick Kane booster. I think he's an unbelievable talent and he's been hockey. Austin, including the breakaway goal the other night, showing that he's still rolling with this new kind of energy. Who else needs to step up with some energy tonight for the Leafs?

Yeah, Matthews is going to be taxed, right? Because there's a lot of minutes lately for the guy. You know, I've really liked the line of Waugh, Cowan and Robertson. So they're not much of a problem to me. You got Tavares, Nyes, and who's playing with them? McMan, no, who we got with him tonight? Either way, Tavarez could chip in another five-on-five one. That'd be handy, and then give me some Scott Lotton's playing up.

Well, he was when Nize is going to be. But Michelli's playing on that one. All right. Before we go to break, it's Leif's game day. Score a Popeye chicken sandwich for only six bucks. In classy or spicy, make it your new game day tradition. Get your $6 chicken sandwich out of Popeyes near you. Nice job, Sammy.

All right, we'll take a quick break. When we return, Stanley Cup champion, Chris Draper. We talk Detroit Leafs tonight, Scotia Bank. Wednesday night hockey featuring the star of the show tonight, Justin Bourne. Back when we return after these words. Hey, it's Ben Annes. And I'm Brent Cunning. We got you covered on all things, Leifes, Rafters, and Blue Jays.

Every weekday morning, 6 to 9. It's the fan, Sportsnet 590, the fan, and wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back to the program. Nickyprio's Justin Bourne. Sammy McKee. All right, let's welcome him in. Chris Draper, Stanley Cup champion, assistant channel manager, director of amateur scouting for the Red Wings.

Drapes, how are you, my friend? Doing great. How are you guys today? We're good. We're looking at the standings, Detroit right up there. And my first question is, what took you so long? Yeah, thanks, Gipper. Obviously, it's, you know, it's been a grind. It's been a lot longer than, you know, anyone certainly would want. But, you know, in a rebuild, it's,

you know, it's not easy. You know, we kind of stayed the course with Steve Eiserman and obviously his, you know, leadership and what we want to do and how we want to build our team. And I think right now you can see, you know, things are starting to come. It's, you know, made a huge trade to bring in John Gibson. He's, I mean, he's been outstanding for us.

What can we say about how Gibby's been playing for us? You know, and then some, obviously, some of the younger guys are coming in and playing big roles for us. And, you know, we've obviously had some veteran players that have been playing well. So with that said, it's a, it's been a great start. But the thing that, you know, you just, it's a, I feel like I've been scoreboard watching since October. You know, like right from the hop, we got off to a good start. But, you know, everyone in our division keeps winning.

You saw what happened last night in Montreal and they win again. And Tampa wins. And, you know, now it's us in Toronto battling out tonight. And so it's, you know, we're obviously, we're happy with where we are, you know, proud of, of how the guys are playing. We've been, you know, getting great coaching under Todd. And the players have been responding and put ourselves in a good situation. And, you know, we just got to keep this going and keep battling, you know,

right up until the Olympic break and then go from there. So, Chris, it takes a lot of patience to get in the position that you guys are in now. How hard has it been to sort of keep your powder dry? You've got all this cap space and assets. And how tempting is it now to just go out and go crazy at them all and spend it all? Well, you know, we've obviously, we've, you know, we've put ourselves in a good situation with, you know, good young players and, and obviously some prospects within the organization. So, you know, we know that, you know, Stevie has some assets. If he, you know, if it makes sense to do something, he's going to do it.

But, you know, not, you know, we need to stay the course. we've, you know, we've been through, you know, obviously some tough times. You know, we're putting ourselves in a good situation right now. And you know what? These guys are, you know, they're responding night in and night out by playing real good hockey. And, you know, we're playing competitive hockey. We're getting balanced scoring. Obviously, our power play has been very good.

I already touched on our goaltending with how John Gibson has been playing. And obviously, Cam Talbot as well, we've, you know, so happy with the way that duo's been. you know so with that said you know we just got a we believe in this team we believe in this group and we're just going to wait and see and see how things play out but right now um you know our belief is in these guys and they've responded with obviously some some real good hockey and put ourselves in in a real good situation right now and and like i said we you know it's it's it's it's it's every other night you're playing every other night it's unreal and these guys are showing up to the rank and and playing some great hockey for us.

so we're real proud of our group right now. You're watching and listening to Chris Draper. Four-time Stanley Cup champion, assistant general manager with the Detroit Red Wing. So Drape's longtime face of the franchise, Dylan Larkin, certainly wasn't shy about feeling like you guys could have done something last year at the trade deadline. That could have gone in a number of ways, you know, for Dylan and even you guys in terms of, you know, feelings,

being hurt or, you know, rubbing, you know, the wrong way. He's responded excellent. But does that kind of play in that these guys now feel like we're there? And, you know, let's give it another try here. And if it's wide open in the Eastern Conference, not why the Detroit Red Wings can't get to a Stanley Cup final, but why not? You testing our friendship right now, Kippe, with a question, I guess? No.

I'm just saying. Dylan's come back and done a great job. Of course, you have to ask that. You've been waiting for you. Like, yeah, you have. Yeah, you have. And that's okay. Yeah, that's what you do, Kippa.

I'm okay with that. Just like I used to bury you at Lamaroo track. I'm going to answer your question for you from back in the day with the Renzetti brothers. But you know what? I'll be honest. Like, we didn't have a problem with that. Dylan Larkin is, he's our captain. He's obviously a very passionate hockey player and he wants to win.

And he takes a lot of. responsibility upon himself and and he felt that you know that was something that um you know was going to be said but all all that shows us is that you know he cares about winning and he wants to win so you know we're fine with that and the one thing you know you you obviously played the game and and when you were playing and same thing when i was playing you didn't care about prospects he didn't care about draft picks he didn't care about assets you want you know how how is our team going to be better How is our team going to, you know, make us become a better or more complete hockey club? And, you know, no players are thinking about draft picks or prospects.

But for us, you know, we've worked so hard to put ourselves in this situation. You know, we have to obviously keep, you know, we have to think of everything. You know, absolutely we want to make our team better if there's something there for us. But, you know, we also have to be smart about what we're doing because it has been, it has been a grind. And it has been tough around here in Detroit and for the Detroit Red Wings. We're in a good spot right now. The players are responding with the way that they're playing. They put themselves in a situation.

It seems like every other night we're either, you know, first, second or third in our division and doing a lot of good things and playing well. So, you know, all the players can do, all we can ask of the players, go out and continue to do that. And then from there, you know, we wait and see if there's something that makes sense for our hockey club. Excellent answer to a very tough question. No softballs on this show here. drapes, none at all. Well, Kipper, you know what? I expected

this, you know, and I, that's probably why I've blown you off for so many years. I'm really happy to be a part of your guy's show. No, but it's, you know, like I said, it's we get it, you know, players want to win and, you know, I was, you know, I was very lucky, obviously, being a part

of Detroit Red Wing teams that, you know, it seemed every year at the trade deadline, we were adding players and adding pieces to give ourselves an opportunity. And you were never thinking about, oh, we should have kept this first round pick or this prospect or whatever. Players don't think like that. So we totally understand that.

And it's also, you know, when you guys draft all these young guys, it's hard to predict who's going to turn into what. And so when you have guys where it really works for you guys, it must be an awesome feeling. And I'm talking about Simon Edvinson here, watching what he's doing this year as a defenseman in the NHL. Did you, was this a guy you knew he would get to where he's at now? Um, I mean, obviously he's, you know, he's six foot six.

he's an excellent skater. He obviously has, you know, very good puck skills. And, you know, he and Moritz Sider have, man, they've just kind of formed such a great, a great duo or a great pair. They play in all situations for us. I mean, you know, what can we say about Moe, how he's playing right now, you know,

with the puck and away from the puck. And it's every night and every shift that he's playing against the other team's top line. And Simon has just kind of came right in and fit in so well on the left side. So, you know, those guys, they're big. They can skate. They're good with the puck. So, you know, Simon's, you know, he's doing exactly what we hoped he would do. You know, obviously the physical attributes that we just talked about.

And, you know, when you're six foot six and you can skate like that and pivot like that and move like that, you know, obviously it's a huge addition to your hockey club. And he's a guy that can log a lot of minutes. And he's playing big heavy minutes for us. And obviously has solidified that top pair for us for many years to come. So, you know, you draft those players. And, you know, when you're picking them, you just hope. You hope that they pan out and turn into that.

And certainly, you know, Simon's trending right in that direction with the way that he's playing. Drapes, you were blessed with Nick Lidstrom when, you know, I'm just talking to these guys earlier. We watched a pretty good one in Quinn Hughes controlling the game, pace of play. They get to dictate when it's fast or slow. Mo Sider, as good as he is right now, where is he? his ceiling in your estimation. And are we talking about a guy that could even get better from what we've seen already this season?

You know what? I think he can, Nick. And the reason why you can get better is he's such a passionate hockey player. Like he's never, he's never complacent. You know, he always feels that there's more to give. I think we've seen him kind of trend into, you know, a real good power play defenseman. You know, I think when we drafted him, we were looking at a demon that was going to be more of a shutdown, you know, hard guy to play against.

But, you know, it's every day of Moe working on his game trying to get better. His shot has improved. His footwork has improved. But, you know, he wants to continue to do that. And that's what that's what these great young hockey players do. You know, they just continue to work at it. They continue to get better. And for Mo, it's just, he just shows up and he's a low maintenance guy that just goes out in place.

You know, so obviously, you know, I mean, he's done everything for us. everything that we can ask, and he just continues to show up day in and day out. And he's turned into a real great hockey player for us. And that big right shot, D man, that, you know, every team wants. And when you have them, you covet them for a long time. And that's exactly what Mo has been for us. Hey, how hard has it been this year with the Olympic schedule? Like just everything being condensed, do you guys, do you find your teams getting run down at all?

You know, I think it's, you know, we have great communication. You know, our, you know, sports science department led by, you know, Mike Barwis, is incredible. They're in, you know, constant communication with the coaches, with the players, with the trainers, obviously with Stevie.

A lot of talk goes, you know, into this and when they, you know, when they should practice. There's certainly not a lot of practice time. It's actually almost sometimes you feel bad that these guys can't get a normal practice.

And, you know, the other day we had a day off. Then you come back to the rank and you have a practice, you have a skate. And then, you know, yesterday the, you know,

the team flew into Toronto. And, you know, so it's, you know, right up into the Olympic break. We're going to be playing every other night, you know, with some with some travel in there. You know, we go Toronto, Minnesota, Winnipeg,

then we come home for three, you know. So it's just so much travel and so very little time to practice. And it's really, you know, just kind of, you know, maintenance and talking to the guys and communicating. And, you know, when they feel well, you know, get a good skate in and make sure they can do that. And, you know, depending on how the night goes, you know, the night before or travel schedule or whatever,

might be. You know, if they need a day off, you give them a day off. And it's, it's, you know, it's, it's been unbelievable how much hockey, you know, all these guys have played. It's a credit to, you know, everybody within, you know, the 32 teams with how well they're playing, how competitive the games are. And certainly, you know, our guys have been doing an unreal job, you know, showing up night in and night out. Just one more for me, Drapes, and that's Pat Kane. We don't see the production that we've been accustomed to seeing over his career. But the influence he's had on some of your players in that dressing room? Unreal.

I can't say enough about Patrick Canaan. He's an incredible, you know, hockey player. You know, obviously he's going first ballot Hall of Famer. You know, here we are seeing, you know, after his 500th goal. And within, you know, a couple games here, he's going to become the all-time leading score for all U.S.-born hockey players. And it's incredible to see those accomplishments. And, you know, he's made a lot of.

And that's what superstars do, right? That's what Hall of Famers do. They just go out and they lead by example on and off the ice. And you just watch Caner, you know, practice. And honestly, like I was down at the rink yesterday, and once again, he's one of the last guys off the ice. He's always working on something. You know, so with that, he just kind of,

our younger players see that and they see what Patrick Kane's doing. So they're going to do the exact same thing, you know, the Marco Casper's, the Emmett Finney's. He's been, you know, obviously incredible chemistry with Alice, Alex DeBrinke, you know, watching how Lucas Raymond has really emerged into a superstar within this league. And a lot of that is credited to, you know, to Patrick Kane just by just by him being him, him being a superstar, him being a future Hall of Famer of what he does day in and day out. And that's what those guys do. They just make players around them better. They don't even

mean to do it. They just do it because they love the game and they have the passion for the game. And that's why Kane are still playing right now. And, you know, we're hopeful sooner rather than later. We know he's going to get it, but hopefully sooner that he becomes the all-time leading point producer for U.S.-born hockey players. Absolutely incredible accomplishment, really excited for him. Drapes, do you ever look back at the years that we trained together at the Fitness Institute, and I was your Pat Kane? You did inspire me, Kipper. There's no doubt about that, but in a lot of different ways.

Yeah, yeah. All I know is, you know, I just couldn't, I couldn't wait for our track days because those were always, always full of humor, you know, getting you, getting you and, you know, rest his soul, Peter Zezel out on the track. I knew it was going to be a career day for me every time we lace them up on the track. You were the gazelle, my friends. You were the gazelle. And just a quick note, you mentioned the Rinsettys, Johnny, Peter, and Ron, they lost their mom. and our condolences to the family. Yeah, definitely.

Thanks for saying that, Kipper. Incredible family. And I've always said it, you know, for my entire career, training with, you know, Peter and John, just what they were able to do, you know, for me every single summer was incredible. And a huge part of, you know, my success and certainly my longevity.

Hey, good luck tonight, but not too much on our Leaf Edition hour of our program. Drapes, always fun. Thanks, thanks, guys. A lot of fun. Kipper, thanks. Thanks for those softball questions and go wings. Thanks for your time, man.

We appreciate it. That is. Chris Draper, everybody. Future general manager somewhere. This has been really weird because I was looking up Chris Traper's playoff stats. Yeah. And he played in, according to HockeyDB and the NHL's website, he played in 222 playoff games. Okay.

Now I said to you, I don't know that many people have ever played more than that. That seems near the top. So I went to... It's only like 260 or isn't it the height? But I went to the NHL records page where they list all the all-time leaders or whatever. The all-time leader is Chris Chelios, but 266.

Lindstrom, Perry, Messier, Claudelemaud, Scott Stevens, Guy Carbono, Leonard Robinson, Glenn Anderson. And then it just doesn't have Draper on here. So Drapes has enough games.

His name is just not there. It's just not there. Maybe we need to alert the NHL that they're missing one. They're missing. Chris Draper's name. Like because Brian Trotche played 221. Draper played 222. That's more than 221, right?

I think. I think it's one more. Okay. And Glenn Anderson played two more at 224. And he's not on the list. That's not really weird? Scottie Bowman might have something to do with that. So Drapes told me this story where he got alerted one game that he was player of the month.

And that Draper was. Yeah, the Draper was player of the month. And they go out there and they're going to give you something. And, you know, you're good to go. He says, yeah, no problem. Scotty comes in and goes, okay, hold on for a second. I've got Stevie Eisenman. I've got Fedorov.

I got Lidstrom. And he's our player of the month. And I think they canceled it. No. No, they did. we'll get drapes on next time to verify that that story but that's the type of guy i think scotty was a little bit in the room so i don't know maybe maybe somebody has well kipper league office you should put it in a call for your boy yeah that's weird text bets that's weird i'm gonna have to give

that's bizarre you know the story about drapes and how he ended up in detroit yeah you got traded for like what like two bucks or something one dollar yeah i mean you got traded for a dollar is he on the prices right it just he could give away for free and that I think that was the official transaction from Winnipeg to Detroit. And I think our good buddy on Off the Rails Friday, Doug McLean, was instrumental on that trade. Oh, I thought he sold him. No, no, he bought him.

He bought him. What a courageous move by Doug McLean. That cheap bastard. No chance Doug ponied up. You might have. That's funny. You know, we used to do this drill in junior. where, you know, like people do the mountains,

just blue line back, red line back, blue line back, all the way down. But then they would pull the net out and they called them Zezels because then you would go around the net, blue line back, around the net, red line back, around the net, around the net. So it was just like it basically doubled the length of your standard mountains or whatever because I guess that was something that Peter Zezel did, who apparently was quite the fitness buff and you guys did some training with.

Yeah, yeah. And he was an all sports guy, professional soccer player. He could have easily gone down that redosels. Is that right? But we had a special group at the Fitness Institute, myself, Drapes, Peter Zazel, Rob DeMaio was part of that, Woodcroft Brothers. Scrappy group, let me tell you.

We'd Nottah wanted to dig a puck out of the corner on that game. Greg Walters, who, you know, tremendous junior coach. I'm missing guys now. But it was so much fun. Who you train with in the summer makes a big deal. interesting, like, who were we talking to about Jake Sanderson? And he goes to the hills of Montana and does it by himself. I think Sam Cozantino. But like some people need to be pushed by someone else

and need people with you. We had Mike Reachie at times. Yeah, it's just, oh my God. The laughs were off the charts. You guys had zero fun there. How did you motivate yourself? I'd go to Philly and I'd win cash awards and trophies for fitness. Yeah. So were you trying to beat the guys around you, trying to be the best at it.

What was your youth? Was your thought hockey? And Drapes was the gazelle out there. Yeah, he could run. Yeah, he could run. Not many people in hockey can run. It's not pretty. You get out there and do a lot of the...

Are you fast runner? Absolutely not. No way. Don't even look at me. No? Don't even look at me. No. But at least I wasn't strong either.

At least our knees are okay. All right, we go national next. Our thanks to Chris Draper. Ryan Getslav on the national hour. Don't go away. That's an order.