Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Land Bobrovsky + Free Agency Winners & Losers with Jason Bukala

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee continue their Free Agency Day coverage, beginning with the Maple Leafs reportedly signing Sergei Bobrovsky. They discuss what the two-time Stanley Cup-winning goalie brings to Toronto and the terms of his contract before discussing where Darnell Nurse might land, Ivan Demidov's extension, and which extension-eligible player -- between Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, and Leo Carlsson -- will take home the biggest payday. Later, former NHL scout Jason Bukala (31:40) stops by the studio to share some takeaways from the day's moves so far, whether the Oilers could be in on Jordan Binnington even after trading for Devon Levi, what Bobrovsky's arrival in Toronto means for Anthony Stolarz, why the Leafs should be cautious on a potential Zach Werenski trade, and much more. 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 kick it up on the National Hour. Sammy, is it national hour? It's not. Let's just pretend it is. Let's not. Let's just talk, Lee's. Oh, I mean, did I say that? Can I say we're live on Sportsnet?

Do words. 360, 590 The Fans, streaming, blah, blah, blah. I'm having a jujube. This hour of Real Kippoor and Born is brought to you by Bet365. It is brought to you by Bet365. Net Kipriot is Justin Bourne. Sammy McKee. All right, what's the latest here, Sammy?

Golly Bob, according to our Elliot Friedman. Golly Bob. I love the way that Frege tweeted this out. I do believe the Sergei Brabowski to Toronto arrival is upon us. We're in the Bob era. Wow. Bob and Stolars are back, baby. Yeah.

The former tandem of the Florida Panthers. They win the Stanley Cup together? Good dude. Yeah, they did. Edmonton, Kevin Levi. Yeah, he's. He's, he's, where did Devin go? Edmonton, who let Connor Ingram go to market.

Oh my gosh. I know, like it's just not the solution. Now it's another project. No, it's another project. It's the mean, is this something? Like, is the Levi thing? Forget it. Brovsky.

Brovsky. 38 years old, just most recently after, you know, watching Carolina lift the cup, did it twice in Florida at a very high level. Had an offseason last year. Leifes are hoping he can still regain that high-end level. What are your thoughts? 456 career goalie wins.

I believe that's eighth all time. I believe that part of the reason his year last year wasn't great, this combination of the team not being great and him just kind of, ah, this is not our year. I also think part of the reason their year was bad is because he wasn't great. So I don't know. If he can give them league average goaltending but play 55 games, I'm in. Give me a 897 and 55 starts.

For me, 52 starts. This is, I would say, a look ahead, not a look ahead, but the first sign that they expect that this team's going to be good enough to get them back into the playoffs. Because, like, he, you know, he's had some good regular seasons or whatnot. But over the past three playoffs, years. He's the dude. He has been undeniably the best playoff performer for the Florida Panthers in these

games. And I know there's Sam Bennett or whatever, but the key reason that they won their back-to-back Stanley Cops was multiple series. So good against Toronto. He was unbelievable against Toronto the first year. Like, unbelievable. He stole one. His playoff

numbers are really, really good. So I think that there is some massive risk, and we've yet to see the number here. And I don't It sounds like three years is confirmed. Elliot had reported some of this. I mean, we mentioned that. I don't hate.

Three could get it. I'm officially on board, is what I'm telling you. Yeah. I'm in. I don't mind it at three years. He is a different bird when it comes to the way he takes care of himself. A lot of people want to say, okay, is this Ed Belfour all over again? One guy takes care of himself off the ice a lot better than the other guy.

Yeah. And I think it's in play right now that he is this specimen. And at times you've got to get him off the ice. At times you've got to convince him not to play. Can the Leafs do that? Can they load management him? You know, Kauai is back with the Raptors. McCackney, get him both in a room.

There's the same guy. He can be 74, right? The one thing, though, that has stood out for me with Broborski, which I'll never forget what he said, is when Barker, on the ice, everything falls in place. And he doesn't have Barcov. Prime Matthews was a Selky trophy candidate and he's going to have a different, it's going to have a different feel for sure for him.

How quickly can he adjust? How quickly can Hiller come in and change the... Three times seven. Three times seven. Perfect. Fine. Okay, that's fine. Yeah.

The one thing that stands out to me, and this is one of my, core beliefs as a hockey analyst is that elite lasts. You know, like the great players stay great longer than you expect them to. They have one or two more years of, obviously, Crosby and Ovechkin are doing it. They're extreme examples, but Corey Perry continues to do it. These guys that are great, great players, they do it longer. And Bobrovsky obviously is getting towards the end of his career, but, you know, Lundkvist and Broder and these guys were good for a long time.

I think he's at least got one or two more good ones in him. At least league average. I got to tell you. Which I'm okay with. Him signing here shows me competitive nature. Well, that's Brett Fier of going to the Vikings, basically. I mean... I understand that the least gave him more than anybody else was going to give him, right?

Extra year. Yeah. A little bit extra. But the fact... I don't worry about that. The fact that he's willing to leave what is probably the most comfortable situation in the league, take less there, already made a ton of money in his career, two-time Stanley Cup champion.

The fact that he's willing to leave that situation to come here under the lights, under the eyeballs of the biggest fan base in the league, shows me that he's a competitive freak. I'm really surprised. And I think that's part of the checklist on why to do this. He has Stanley Cup pedigree, and he needs to show a lot of people, including 34 and 88 it. and I

not just mentoring the goalies there and Stolars has had that already but there's other guys underneath him now he's going to work throughout the organization with but he needs he needs to go in there and teach some of those guys

how to win I mean Hilda Bibi Bibi right I mean Stolars Actimov Hildeby I guess they He can't play on the Marley's.

Well, they can. No, he's got value to somebody. Like, you know. He's guys feel NHL. I would think if you ever have a chance or you want to throw a deal to Columbus now for Wenski, like Hildeby's in there. Back you up. You know.

You got Jack Reeves. Let this guy be your backup for the next. Something. Yeah. Something. Yeah. I'm just telling you right now that the position of goaltender, taking out wall and bringing him to St.

Graebrooky for next season. It's better. Yeah. It's better. There's a part of me that are Steve Valacette, our regular Tuesday guy. That's buzzing in the back of my brain, brother. No jury.

He said he wouldn't have touched it with a 10-foot pole. Hey, that means something to me. You know, I can't sit here and be hyper-confident. I just, all the things we mentioned, elite, you know, is important, is history, is competitiveness, his fitness, makes me believe that maybe this is fixable for, you know, for what Valley saw last year out of them. Here's to Hopin.

Can't have terrible goal to me all year. Yeah, I just, I think the value of having somebody after what we've experienced here for the past two seasons in terms of who's going to play net, who's going to be in there. Having the value of being like, we have the goalie, the goalie that this plays is going to be the goalie. And, you know, we got to bank on an inevitable Stolars injury in a game that he backs up in or whatever's going to happen. Then you have Actiumov, who's a guy that another Russian, though I'm not saying because they're both Russians, they have to be, you know, doesn't hurt. Doesn't hurt. Yep. To have maybe the best Russian goalie

in the last 20 years to be right there. So anyways. Three by seven. All right. Darnel Nurse. Mm-hmm. Only a list of three teams. Florida, or I'm sorry, Philly, Pittsburgh, and Boston.

And the San Jose sharks want them. not only they want him, they take full freight on his contract. Right. He doesn't want to go to San Jose. He ain't looking to go that way. Yeah, he's got family East, I believe. Yeah, yeah.

You know, I think Pittsburgh had interest. That name had come up. Yeah, but they want Ryan Graves to go that contract back. Oh, really? Yeah. Shaky Graves. He's a little dicey back there. Well, he's at five?

4.5. So 4.5 is 5-5 enough savings for Edmonton? Well, but if you don't want Ryan Graves, then... They don't. Yeah. They don't. But they can also take 9.25 and just keep it. Right.

What happened? We need a 30 for 30 on that Ryan Graves contract. He played for Colorado who looked awesome and had the best plus minus in the NHL playing third pair of minutes, and everyone was like, yeah, he's awesome. And then... That's where the analytics can trick. Ricky a little bit.

Totally. How much it is crucial? I think he has six times four and a half. If I'm not mistaken. But there is a demand for nurse. Everybody would love his toughness and his durability. I literally said I'd like him for the week. I'd like someone who could skate and punch.

Not that he wants to punch as a primary thing. Yeah. So we'll wait on that. But there are some, I think it's a tougher room to go back to for nurse than it would be probably for even others like Larkin. What about, why, just because he, they went to the cup final and he still said,

get me out of here. It's one thing when your team's no good and you want to win. It's another thing when your team's winning and you still want to. Yeah. He's been beat to Smith,ering. He won't play a hockey in the last. Playing Canada.

No? No. Just because of the media. So to your point for the least, it's not happening. Yeah. Really? He's next Canada. What about Riley?

because like, I think Pegnada tweeted something to the effect of San Jose, you know, signed 2D, right? They got Truba and someone else. Maybe just, oh, they got Marchman. It was the other big one D. So just the one D. Does that take Riley off the table for San Jose?

Seems like they're looking for some guys who can skate and move the pocket. Again, to kind of mirror Edmonton's philosophy with nurse, it doesn't sound like Chico has any interest in holding on to any of the seven and a half for Morgan. So if you just signed Truba and you're making all these moves, I don't know if they can even want to go down the path of Morgan Riley in San Jose. It is interesting.

San Jose is like, we got a bunch of skill. We're going to need some toughness, you know, that Truba. I get that Darnell Nurse is tougher. Yeah. But he makes $2 million more. and, you know, I don't think he's necessarily nearly as good offensively. Like, I don't understand why Nurse is so much more valuable than Riley. They're both brutal contracts that shouldn't have a ton of it.

Tough, Sammy. Yeah, but I know he's tough. I get that he's tough. Yeah. But, like, he's tough in his own zone sometimes, too, boys. Like, I don't know if you watch that series. Tough to watch. Did you watch the Duck Series?

Like, they skated circles around him. I still like to play the Florida Panthers with Dernel Nurse on the team and off the team and live with a few blunders. I'm with you. I think he's got value. One note I put in on Sportsnet.com was DJ Smith signing and becoming the highest paid assistant coach. He's getting a million bucks.

A million a year. Sick. That's good word. What does that mean, right? Like, what do you mean? What does it mean? Well, was there a second team offering 900? Like what?

No, I think for the most part, assistant coaches now are anywhere between 40750 and DJ Smith is regarded as a really good coach. Yeah, he is. I think he's great. And when he gets his chance

to be a head coach again, he's going to be better than he ever has been. No argument. There's just a learning process for a guy that young too as well to figure it out. Hiller, Hopefully after, you know, his stints is now that guy in a similar position. Yep.

So there was a bit of a tug of war between Toronto and Edmondson on. I thought there would be. On DJ Smith. I heard that I heard the seller was that Babcock kind of left a little bit money on the table to give it to DJ Smith. To get to get to get to the guy. He got to give it on the table? Well, if he's getting two, now he's keeping 1.75 and DJ gets a junk or something. Sure.

But that's how, that's how sought out he, DJ Smith was. Hold on. So I also wrote today that, well, why wouldn't the Leafs now that Paul Coffey's not going back? Go back behind the bench for Hiller and the Toronto Maple Leafs? Like, Paul Coffey to me is a no-brainer. He made that blue, that blue, mind so much better. He made Bouchard better. He made nurse better. Like, even if you brought Morgan Riley back, I'd like to see him work with Paul Coffey. Yeah. Do you have any concerns,

like things didn't go well in the coach's room with his name there, Knoblock? Oh, yeah, we know that. Yeah. We know that. Like is, is coffee tough to deal with in that way? Is there, you know. No, I don't think there was any other issues except maybe I think there's a certain element of old school kind of dealings that I think was well respected out of Paul. And Noblock had a softer, warm blanketish approach. Yeah, listen, I'm fine with it, right? Like, he did do a good job with Edmonton's D. I don't know about his relationship with Hiller, but you have some understanding that maybe they've talked or? No.

No. No, I have no. I think I was just throwing spitball in here because we got two hours and I got a tee off that doesn't start for a while still. Hot out there, Blame. I hope we got the gold bond for that round. That's going to be a hot one.

Oh, man, it's a misery. First thing here, I just find this hilarious. Kerfut signed in Nashville. Three and a half million. Has he made three and a half million every single contract? 10 years at three and a half. What do you need me to do? What a nice world for Cherfoot?

P.P. Three and a half. All do it. Three and a half. I'll play 15 minutes and 12 seconds. I'll get you, 43 points. How many years did he get? Two, three and a half.

By Nashville. Oh, Colton Sizzins, Toronto. Oh. Two times four point two five. Hmm. What was the other $4 million deal? They just did Ross if I get two point two times four. Interesting.

Sizzins is a six foot two, six foot one, two hundred and some pound. Penley killer. Penely killing. A good face off guy. Centerman. Pretty good skater. I saw some of the dorks talking about the 84th percentile scale. for a bottom six guy.

32 years old. Right hand shot center. You just need some of those guys to handle some of that load. Just new fresh, different look. Yeah, you hope it kind of clicks a little bit and they can find themselves in the thick of things. That's all. You know, I love having guys that either he's super tougher,

he's super fast or super whatever. Sisson's one of those guys. He's okay. He's fine. I can't sit here and drum up a Colton Sisson's opinion. I like that was hits. He like hits sometimes. But like 4.25.

The Nikola feel. Yeah, like I'm hoping it's... I think Nikwa's better. A little bit more dynamic, though. Like, is he a better skater? Oh, well, I'm sure he's a better skater, but I think Nikla would be a better player than Sizzins would be, wouldn't he?

Yeah, well, I just think this guy's clearly a defensive center. That's going to be more of the clear role for him. So, yeah. You gotta fill out the bottom of the order here. And I think one of the main contentions that a lot of Leaf fans had with Craig Barubei last year, is that all these defensive zone starts for Matthews and like his matchups or whatever.

I'm not saying this guy's Phil to know or whatever, but at least he's a guy that you can start in a defensive zone who was a little bit more defensive-minded, so you don't have to send Matthews out there to do all the grunt work. So he's a grunt, but 425 is quite a bit. Yeah, that's a bit high. That's a bit high. But this is what it costs.

Apparently free agent signings. Cost you no assets to get a guy. You got to pay to get them. So that's, they spent 15 and a half, million dollars on Colton Sizzins, Jack Roxlovak, and Sergey Barowski. Is that right, math? I didn't listen to the first part of your sentence, but... 15 mil?

Yeah, that sounds about right. Seven plus eight, yep. Yeah, I nailed it. That's a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot. Do you want to talk more before we do game time at the break? We mentioned it quickly as we went, but Demadov signing that massive contract with the Havs.

We can go through a whole bunch of stuff. Okay. The Demadov one... Yeah, we all like it. It's worked for them so far. They are going to need next level stuff, though, to keep the momentum going. And they need a stud.

They need a stud down the middle of the ice. Well, it's so funny because before we can, I read someone's tweet, I think it was Arp and Basu, and it's like under contract until 2030 is like Hudson and Caulfield and Slafkowski and Suzuki and Demadov and all these guys. and you know that's great but the next part of that is hope you're good otherwise you got a team that's not good enough locked up for a long time so you hope you reminds you have when the Sends we're signing everybody and they were like oh my god this we got everyone and it's all cheap okay well you better hope

you're good yeah otherwise you just got to add to it we got in a little argument about this at the desk and I wanted to bring it up here about you being like why would he sign that contract but like how much money is that total putting in front you two million or something 75 million? That's, I mean, hard to turn down. I mean, if he signs five years and they give him $8 million per

for $40 million, he gets to redo this again in five years, 40 bills are a pretty good guarantee. I guess you're right. And then the cap's just doing this. I think he's a player player. How old is he again? 20.

I just don't want to be the guy who everyone's looking at your contract and going, that guy's making peanuts. That sucks. He's making peanuts. And you're like locked up for three more years. Yeah, it's just such an individual preference on security and expectations and all of it.

There's totally the case that like how much money do you need? But then you can make that about all these deals. You know, it's like, I mean, well, guys are trying to make the most they can. I'm sure, I mean, looking ahead eight years, I'm sure Demadov's going to be able to sign another pretty sweet one at age 28. For sure. For sure. Something tells me he might be getting paid again. Totally.

Any thoughts on, okay, if we're going to see all of these kind of trickle in. My understanding is Anaheim's trying to lock in Leo Carlson. But I don't think 10.5 million on an AAP will get it done. Good. Leo Carlson is awesome. Right? 12, 13, 14. Where do you see Bedard?

Where do you? Let's go further on McCar and Quinn Hughes. Lots. Can anybody take 20 anymore and without looking like a pig? What's so funny, you look at the NBA deals and I looked like, I read Grange's article on Kauai Leonard signing. And he was like, oh, because of whatever, he's eligible to get X percentage of the cap, therefore that's $53 million.

Therefore, he'll make $53 million. Like, it's not even a conversation. There's no negotiating. Best player, that's how much he's allowed to get. That's how much he got. Leon Dricetel did it with $14 million. They didn't want to go $14 million. But that wasn't 20% of the cap, I don't know.

But it was still a big jump from, I guess, Austin and Connor and Nate McKinnon. And then it was like, that's the number. And then when they found out that that's really the number, then it's like, okay, let's sign it now. Yeah. And that's. And it's already a discount. I know it sounds high, but like, if he's available today, what would you give Leon Drysidal? More.

Here's 18 to play for my. My team, like... Much more. The numbers are going to be different, and we're going to have to make that adjustment. Mentally. But is Bedard? He's eligible to sign his now? Yes.

Him and Carlson are both eligible. Yeah. Badaard's got to be getting close to show me what we're doing here, time. Yeah. Yeah, I don't... No, but close. What's close for you? Two years?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Maybe. We're Bo Byron. We fixed it? Yeah. will any of these guys get sheeted?

Carlson's an interesting one. Oh, I would do it in a heartbeat. Yeah. I'd jack them up to 15, 16, 17. Go ahead and match. That's what you're supposed to do with an offer sheet. You're supposed to make the team go, oh, we're not doing that.

Sign them for a year or two, get them in your Oregon. They'd have no choice but to sign it. Anaheim. They wouldn't like it, but they would match it. Like you made yesterday, though, it's competitive. and you have to make competitive offers to make them pay them

if you're competing with them. Mm-hmm. You care? Yeah, sorry, there's just, Lawton went to the re-sign of the Kings. I saw Lawton's name come up and I was like, now, did you find out the number?

Because I think it started out, like he was in the ballpark of wanting five million. I mean, Colton Sisson's just got 4.25. Yeah. Lotton is absolutely $5 million after that. But Lotton wanted, like, five times four, 20 million, not two years. Right.

Yeah, yeah, that's different. I don't know. Did he get the money end term out of L.A.? Unclear on that, yeah. Just got a resigning. We hopefully should get that. Do you guys want to do game time? Sure, do you want to talk about Lidar or Marchment or?

I'll do game time first. He's here. It's game time. It's good by bet 365, an official part. partner of the NHL must be a team plus on tier only please play responsibly um heading down to the rogers center right after this game ends or this show ends it's not a game what time's first pitch three yeah 307 right after we're uh we are leading into it on the on sports i find out of the fan so it'll be coming on after our show uh i don't i think it's a bullpen game

for it is brandon fisher starting yeah And it turned into a, like, get a run game? 46 degree bullpen game on Canada Day. Going to be an awesome experience at the dome today. But the Js are favorites in this game, minus 115. Vlad back in the line, up hitting in the two-hole, Okamoto back in after his night off last night. So, you know, maybe they'll score a couple runs. So I'm looking forward to that.

And the other thing I wanted to bring up quickly, as we were doing our show here, England, when they beat, I'm just seeing if they have a lineup for it yet. I'm not sure they do, but England beat Congo late, two goals from Harry Kane. And I was just trying to find a line to see if it was going to be here, but it doesn't look like it's up yet. But now, on Sunday, I believe, it is England in Mexico City at Azteca to take on the Mexicans last night. I can't think of a more electric atmosphere. The game last night against, was Ecuador they beat, was unbelievable, scored two amazing goals. The Mexican gentleman has scored the first one for Mexico, top left, right?

Absolutely hammered that. We're heading into the sweet spot of the World Cup here where the games are really getting spicy. We got a great one for us on Saturday. So love it. Love it, love it, love it. Anyways, that was game time. It's done by Bet365. An official partner of NHL was 15.

Plus, a terror only, please play responsibly. And a reminder, this hour of Real Kipperman Born is brought to you by Bet365. Okay, let's take a quick break. Jason Bucola off the TV side will join us. We'll recap what we've watched, heard, seen in the last few hours, and maybe a few more will trickle in by the time we're done. That more when we return to Real Kipper and Bourne. Dive deep into Toronto Sports and the NFL, the J.D. Bunk is podcast.

Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back in studio. 2026 free agent day Canada Day on the real Kippur and Bourne show. Yeah, Kiprio's Justin Bourne. Sammy McKee in a few minutes. Jason Buccolo will walk through those doors and let us know on his thoughts on many things, including the revamped Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, the bottom six is getting a bit of a veteran overhaul.

Teddy Bluger has been added as a centerman, 31 years old. They can two times, two and a half. Like perfect fourth line sentiment. He's a fourth line sentiment. He killed two minutes per game of penalties, takes draws, you know, okay, okay. Okay. You know, like these are solid guys that are not, you know. The mandate was.

Good pros. Depth guys up front. Yeah. Right? Yeah. The support cast. Right. And just kind of waiting to see what else happens.

here, right? I mean, I'm looking at, like, it kind of laid out here. So you're still going to, yeah, I don't know. What don't you like, Sammy? I don't mind it, but you're still going to need, like, some contributions from one of the Marley's guys or two of the Marley's guys. Quillen is probably going to be a part of this picture at some point. It doesn't sound like there's room now.

That's a couple of centers that kind of blocks them out, doesn't it? Good point. Dakota Joshua was part of a very good line with Blugher in Vancouver once upon a time. I can see that as a sort of a depth lineup. At least the lineup makes sense now where your bottom six guys are like... Ryan's still in the plans. Why did he get three years again?

They got three years. They got three... Yeah. 3.1 or 3.2 million in cap space, but I do think Riley still goes out. But yeah, there's still decisions to be made. I feel like there's still stuff happening here. Bluger, Sizzins,

Rosslovick, Lebrowski. Busy day. Pizzetta? Will he play next year? No. Okay. I don't think so. No.

Where? Tell me. The one thing that stands out to me with all these guys is like it's just not a lot of guys with like a lot of, you know. It's scaring anybody. No. Like I like Teddy Blooker. He's a nice NHL player. Nice.

Nice. He doesn't scare anybody. He's fine. He had 20, yeah, he's like a 30-some pimsy year. Anyway. All right. Where do you want to go around the league? Marchment?

You know, Marchment. Five years, seven million a year. Nice story going back to San Jose. $35 million. Where his dad played. Wow. I was there the year. He was drafted and he played in the ECHL and 30 games with the Marley's.

And I cannot believe this guy's made 50 some million NHL dollars. It's insane. And... Why do you say that it's insane? He didn't have great feet. He was skinny. I'll tell you another reason. This is his sixth NHL team, if I'm not mistaken.

Like he, he's like a Seinfeld episode. You know how to take the reservation. You just don't know how to hold the reservation. Like they just, like, why can't he's, yeah, how come he can't nobody wants to keep him? He can do all these things. He has crazy good hands, like crazy good hands for a six foot four, six, five. whatever he has guy. He could do physically mean things where like, wow,

like he's tough. And then he's just kind of a rockhead at certain moments where you're like, oh, what? So I think people like see all the tools and they're like, all right. And then they see moments where they're like, oh, right. He played 370 games in his career on five different games. That's a lot of change.

Four with the Leafs, though. Nothing more shameful than trading him for Dennis Muldgin. Crazy move. Like an all-time Leafs trade. You couldn't see any of that. They did. I know for a fact they did. They thought he couldn't stay healthy.

They thought he would never be healthy. Really? Yeah. Interesting. I mean, Malgan's been healthy. Healthy is a horse. He never gets hit in the Swiss League. He plays 30 games a year in the Swiss League.

Never gets bumped. Anyway. Again, full circle. Size and toughness at a premium right now. This is a true Like skill was a thing where it was like it's an undervalued thing 15 years ago or something Now it's find someone with some bite to their game

Niko Hishier 11.5 mil times five years Yeah Nothing to comment on that checks out Ladar five years 27.5 million extension to be their starting goalie He's he earned a lot of respect in that organization for the season that he had last year

and he was certainly rewarded for it, but kind of snuck up on everybody a little bit. Expectations. Now, a lot of pressure on him. Florida, or I'm sorry, Philadelphia now. No setbacks, too. They got to move forward here. Is that lineup good enough to go back to the playoffs?

Philly just strikes me as that exact team that's like, how do you get those next level guys, those top end, like they need Mischkoff to hit. They need him to be a dude. There's Bookes. Really quick for the Leafs they've hired John Shaker, Chris Johnson tweeted out. The Outlist out wool,

Erson, Carlo, Benoit, Machelli, Robertson, the inlist, Bobrovsky, Radish, Andre McKenna, Sizzins, Rosavik, Bluger. We will get. Boost is taken all. Yeah, Jason Buchala, pro hockey group. Sportsnet, of course, does a terrific job for us.

Former NHL scouting director is now on set. as he gets settled in. Not a typical boogs. How are you, my friend? Jujube. No.

We had an embarrassment of sweets over there today. Oh, you did. You did. How did you find the day, sweet as well? Action-packed at the end. A little curious in the middle. This was the day about third and fourth liners. It was, except for San Jose. It's interesting with San Jose.

doing. Truba's not necessarily a pure top four anymore. It's called him more like a four and a half, but he played the, but, you know, maybe an overpayment there for him, but they can do it right now, can't they guys? Stan Jose is on the verge of being a real problem. I had said earlier that they were prepared to take Darnell Nurse's whole contract. Really? Wow. But he doesn't want to go there. That's a complicated factor.

So. Yeah, that's a whole other story. Yeah. Get me started on that. Yeah. So, clearly. to your point, money is not that much of an object right now as they build that blue line. Right, right.

And, you know, Anaheim not wanting to bring them back. Or I don't even know if there was an appetite to do that or not. It doesn't matter. Anaheim really has to get focused in on what they have to do with their money with Goce and Carlson going forward here. And that's... Yeah, they've tried... I think they've tried a 10 and a half for Carlson is my understanding. I think he's going to be more than that.

You like a man? Do you offer sheet him? For four first Well, obviously I'm thinking about it right now. Yeah, he's going to go to 13, I think. Yeah. Like his number 13. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, as soon as Bowen Byron puts pen to paper in Chicago at 12 and a half, that takes Bedard to 13 at least, right? So then. Oh, 15. Okay, so 15. Really? So then it takes, well, but do you think it's a long-term or bridge? Because I think he's kind of like, you know, prove it to me a little bit.

here guys my entry level didn't exactly go great we're not a very good team so where do we like maybe maybe three three at 13 or fourth i don't know i yeah but as far as the canadian franchises go i have to say edmonton's in a whole heap of trouble um they really are you think so yeah i do i just think that the the gold-tending thing there the devon levi thing is uh you know that's fine okay you know but another experiment though it's another that's what i mean it's just okay um and he's he wants to play. Part of the reason why he wanted out of buff so bad was because he wants to be the guy. And he hasn't proven yet that he can be that guy.

I know the goalie development people there in Buffalo very well. And it's not that they didn't like him. You know, he just wasn't, he's not, he's not that guy. So curious to see what Edmonton does there. But in the bigger picture in Edmonton, like, what are you going to do here, guys? Like, Freddie Anderson is still floating around out there. He only made 2.75 last year as a veteran guy. but I mean without being able to unload nurse and do something like when I heard

Bob Brodsky's name getting thrown around in Emmettin circles I just never saw that happening I never saw that happen no just because of the money no because you know I think Kipper and I even off air we had a little bit of a conversation about it like his wife lives in Miami or they live in Miami there's a real big Russian population in Miami they have a call they have a thing they have a community there okay and he's got a young family. So it's one thing to play in the east where you can hop on a plane from Miami to Toronto and be here in a couple hours and stay the weekend. You know, Santa Four Seasons in Yorkville. I don't, you know, eat, shop, do, you know, all the things that it's a great city. It's a culture

it's a culture thing. And it's, yes, a lot of Ukrainians in Edmonton, my people are all out there. Maybe not ideal. That might not be a good mix. That's not the right fit. Just to stay on Edmonton, a lot of players have a couple of different times that they submit no trade list. Bennington did his recently. And someone in Edmonton suggested to me that Winnipeg's on his list and Edmonton isn't. Okay. They should go get Bennington. Go get Winnington.

Just go win a ton. No, they have to. They absolutely have to. So I'm doing this off top of my head. I think they got five, nine left on their cap somewhere around there. So Bennington's at whatever, he's at six and six and change. The St. Louis Blues in the history of Doug Armstrong being there have only retained salary one time and it just happened recently.

Is that right? Yeah, it's the first time it's ever happened. So the owner there doesn't want to be retaining any money. All right, Bukes, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Like, this is a brand new team kind of feel. It kind of is, yeah. Yeah, it is. It is.

It needed to be. A lot of depth moves. A lot of depth moves, including Bobrovsky and, you know, you as a part of a scouting staff once upon a time in Florida. Your overall thoughts, 38 years old coming off an off season. Two ways about this. He can hit the high note as early as October, where we could see him kind of fall off a little bit like past. Hall of Famers like Mark Andre Fleury and Henrik Lunkwist. What side does he go?

I think he goes more of the Ed Bell for Dominic-Aashik way, to be honest with you. Yeah, I really do. I really like him. So listen, there's going to be days. We used to call it Good Bob, Bad Bob, back in Florida, and like anything else, there's going to be some days. Speaking to some of my ex-colleagues and just people in the game, load management and, you know, the Raptors just picked up Kauai yesterday.

I'm sure we're going to hear a lot about that. in basketball. I think it's really key to take a look at his body of work over the last three, four, five years compared to just last year. A lot of stuff went on in Florida in front of him last year. They were chasing wins until they weren't injuries, et cetera, et cetera. Everything was different last year,

and that affects your goaltending. He played 53 games, I think, last year. For me, personally, the threshold there is 45 games in regular season. So find your other games with your other goaltender, if that's so bad. be it. I have a thought on this as well, by the way, in a second here. But, you know, the, you're going to get a good version of him. He's highly competitive. He's healthy. He's healthy. He's in fantastic shape. And he, he has a process guys, practiced and with the goalie

coaching every day. Like, he wants to feel the puck so many times. He wants to go through a certain sort of a regime every day. He's, he's highly competitive. And he's a winner. He's a proven a winner. Yeah, absolutely. So now here's the thing. I think he, like, Atiyama, great playoff, great playoff run. Where are you with all of this here? Because Hildeby is not getting through waivers.

Something's going to happen there. He would get plucked from waivers. I think that in a perfect world, in a perfect world, you have Bobrovsky, Hildebe, Atiyamov, and. You're going to expose Stolars. And you expose Stolars. That's how I'm feeling about it. So now I'm picking up the phone.

It's a Western Conference team. This is where I'm looking at the Edmonton. The Oilers should be all over that. For me, the Eameteroles should be all over that. And, you know, see where that goes. Interesting. Yeah, that's an interesting fit. I think he's got a mentor, Akiyama.

But the thing with Akiyama, like Hildo be, these guys aren't young anymore. Like, he's going to be 26, Actiama. So, yeah, he's 25. I know he's just, he played in the KHL before he came here. Brandon Duhame, to the Leafs. which I really like. Yeah.

Really. Yeah, there's some toughness there. Really like that. So, you know, on the goaltending side, that's a lot of depth. Even before we get to the depth, the goal tending, yeah.

It's pretty, the defense has been. Yeah. I don't know what kind of market there is out there for Stolars and his health right now. It is a huge, it's a huge concern. Yeah.

But what's the number four? The number's four, right? On a brand new contract. Brand new, four over four. It's a big commitment. Stolars? Yeah. I think he's three and a half.

He hasn't started. Okay. So three and out. I thought it was 16. Yeah, Kip, that does sound familiar. And you may be right. It is 3.75. Okay.

Okay. So we started it off in the middle. Right in the middle. Guys, if you're Edmonton, do you not still have to take that risk? Oh, totally. You have to take that risk. You can't. When he plays, man, he's as good as anyone.

You get him healthy and you get the luck. But, you know, he is one injury, I think. And I don't, I don't have a medical on this guy or this guy or but I think he's a he's close to you know what he might be one injury away you know so it's he might be a on carry price island sooner than later fair enough it's not taken care of so okay go ahead no one of the obviously the main topic of conversation was uh wrenski today yes would he go somewhere you know we're trying to dream up potential trades where the blue jackets would be like okay tough to do i was wondering if any of the leif's just drafted 10 guys yeah any of those guys

have any interest by the Columbus Blue? Are any of them, like, ready in the next year or two that the Blue Jackets might say, all right, we're outside of Gavin McKenna, of course. Is there anyone else they drafted who might hold appeal? Because I'm out of guys to give them, boobs. To make a trade makes sense. Yeah, to make a hockey trade, right? I mean, it's my, my, yes, in the next couple of years.

Like, Balecki, really good player, two-way guy, understated offense. really competitive, got size, he skates. He's going to, I think he's three, I think everybody, I'll give you a shorty answer that I, then I, then we have that. Sure. I think they're all three years out. Okay. From getting games.

So then Columbus is going to have no interest. They're not going to have any interest because, you know, now here's the other thing. Let's be careful here, guys. Let's just take a breath because they just came off a very successful draft. Okay. Now they have infrastructure. Look at the draft capital, even minus their first rounders in the next couple of years. Look at how many picks they have.

Now think back to this. The three of us would probably agree. 2019, 2020, I think they had 20 or 21 draft picks. They got one guy out of that that played over 200 games. Right. And then what are you doing for the next three or four years? Skip, you're chasing, right? You're all, we're pretty good.

I'm going to keep investing draft capital until you have nothing in the coppers coming through the system. So I'm very, yeah, Worescu would be great to have. But let's really take stock of where our team is. Like, let's be realistic here before we start investing what we're, we didn't have before that we just bought at the draft. Right. You got to get that snowball running down the hill again somehow. Absolutely.

Matthew Nyes. The latest was the link to Dallas through the seventh pick overall, right? If somehow they could find a way to get it. Why do we keep hearing his name out there with multiple teams? I'd prefer that we weren't hearing his name out there is one of my answers. Why? because he's one of the few guys with value in the... I say a few guys in the league.

Well, maybe it is a few guys in league with value that you can trade. That you don't have to go to... This is such a weird time to be in the NHL. Don't you guys find? Yes. Players are coming to the general manager, and this is on the GMs, by the way. I'm not feeling sorry for any of the GMs,

but they're coming to the organization and saying, I'd like to be here. I'll sign for... By the way, I'm worth $12 million a year. I'm just spitball. Yeah. $12 million a year, over seven years, six years, five years.

It doesn't matter the term. By the way, I want a full new no move. And by the way, two years from now, when things aren't going the way that I want, I'm also going to ask out, I'm going to tell you where I want to go. Right. Craziness.

So how does Nye's value even escalate beyond what he really is as a player? That. Right. That you eliminate all that process, that noise. Yeah. No, that makes a ton of sense. So coming away from today with free agent signings,

anything in particular catch your attention that a team either didn't do something or did something where you're surprised by it or is it all kind of fallen right in line with kind of expectations are we on the national hour right now yeah okay well before everybody starts blowing my phone up i'm not a homer the Toronto Maple Leafs won the last two weeks for me yeah and I'm not saying that lightly I think they had a fantastic draft I thought mark leech did an awesome job at the draft I really did I see some value today and what they've added to the lineup yep they've gotten faster guys right they gotten faster and more determined I believe we've seen

this before. Now they have to do it. Right. Right. But it's a huge turnover. So the mood in the room should be different now. I think like it should be. Sure, they're heading a new direction. Totally new direction. So I like that a lot. One thing that I really thought was a cool people

just from a hockey ops perspective, like when Demadoff signed his extension and the number associated with that and people get bored to tears listening to me talk about it on TV, but I start planning out where the salary caps going in the next few years. Everybody always associates a value of a contract to the player and say, oh, he's not worth 12 or he's not

worth 13. That's not how you look at it from hockey operations perspective. You look at it, okay, Suzuki's my highest paid forward. Noah Dobson right now is an anomaly. He's my highest paid player at 9.5. What's the percentage of that contract in relation to the cap? And if they have a strategy that they want to try and keep all their players top, you know, the top tier guys between 8 and 10% of their cap value, they've done it. They're doing well. You're building a team that way. When teams fall off the rails is when you get two guys or three guys that are eating up between 15 and 18% of the cap

because then you have to, you go fishing in that bottom pool, that one million guys who are eating up like 1% of your cap, where does it really hurt you in the middle of your lineup? Okay. So I thought what Montreal did today set the bar going forward for the next round of some of their young guys coming through. To that point, we truly, really won't see a guy just say, give me the max then.

Like, Cal McCar could ask for $20 million. I think the max is $20.7 maybe. But then you're just a greedy SOB, right? Well, you mean, you're looking at it, if you're in a Stanley Cup contending window and you go to the GM. Which Colorado is. Which they are.

And you go to the GM is. Minnesota is. Yeah, I would say Minnesota. And that's curious, too, guys. So that's my example. There's one of my examples because you've got Caprizov at 17. Yeah. So Hughes is going to get, what, 18?

Probably. So now we're in that window, right? We're in that 15% window, whatever. It's, there's going to be, there's going to be, there's a cause and an effect in there somewhere. Something's going to happen, right? I don't see any way that McCar ever does that because he's not going to, by the way, you do that. And then two or three other guys drop off the roster because you did that.

How is the mood of that group now when they're, looking at you? They're like, wow, you thought we were going to want to stand. Cup, you took an extra three or four over the duration of your contract, which isn't peanuts. I get it. But for me, when is enough enough in relation to winning? Like, you know, you got to, I want to win. You know, I don't want to just hear to, there's cash checks that take great fancy

vacations with my golf buddies. I got to ask you in terms of your ex-team, the Florida Panthers, who I think feel like they're going to play against Bobby Clark and, you know, Dave Schultz and Don Celeski. And the Watson brothers. Oh my gosh. Like, what is going on with, like, the toughness now with Goudis and all the rest of them? They have a player type that they value. They feel like that's clearly what they won with in the past.

Justin thinks they're going to be slow. They are going to be slow. Yeah. They are going to be bad. But, you know, there's a difference between being slow and being smart and slow. Yeah. Okay. So some guys in league are just slow.

And they're routes to kill players. or find pucks. I remember Tim Kerr, remember Tim Kerr, back in the day, Kipper, this guy, or Dave Andrewchuk, let's do it by Trump. Tim Kerr was the king back then. Find a puck in the middle.

Like, it went from, like, Phil Esposito to like the Tim Kerr's to the Dave Anderchucks, not the fastest guys, but try and knock me off a puck on my route to get where I got to go to put the puck in the net. Slow, but effective. Yeah.

So the Florida Panthers have got guys that aren't going to play fast. They have some fast guys, but on balance your team isn't going to be fast. But I'll tell you, they're going to, it's going to be like, a bunch of linebackers coming at you although it's going to be,

where's the hole for me to run through and their route to get there? They're going to hurt you. I also think that there's a chance they once again make the playoffs as like a six seed or something and beat the hell out of everyone. 100%.

You know, like you can't play that like, Ger mentality, 82, 84 times. Okay. They could turn it off. Give me real quick. What happens to Werencki, Larkin, and Robertson. Werensky goes back. Larkin is going to be traded

by the end of the summer, I believe. And then Robert. He's going to re-sign in Dallas. Love it. Love it. Hey, Bookes. Thanks for dropping by. I know it was a long day for you, but we really appreciate your time.

Thank you. All right. Just like that, two hours. Done. Enjoy the rest of your Canada day. We are back the rest of the week, Thursday and Friday, before we sign off once and for all on the Real Kipper Inborn Show. Have a great night, everybody.