Real Kyper & Bourne - Lining Up Dubas’ Replacement

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee open with rumours of Kyper’s involvement in the sale of the Ottawa Senators before touching on some of the odds-on favourites for the Leafs GM job. They look at Brad Treliving and some other rumoured names, what the organization is looking for, who would fit best and the task at hand for the incoming candidate. Next up, Rob Rossi from The Athletic joins the show to give his take on Dubas potentially moving to Pittsburgh. Later, a chat on the feasibility of the Leafs poaching Doug Armstrong away from the Blues. They wrap with the Conference Finals and how long Jamie Benn should be suspended.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.  

This is Real Kipper and Born on Sportsnet 590 The Van. It's Real Kipper with bottom teeth that work. You know what, I didn't even, I forgot to ask you, what happened? Two hours in the dentist chair. And what'd they do? Dr. Stan. Stanimal. he's the animal he broke he broke three of my uh my uh bottom teeth that were capped from an injury yeah that happened in 1987

remember what happened he ate a stick of gum or one of the hockey card packs i'm in halifax hershey bears okay versus at the time the quebec card packs. I'm in Halifax. Hershey Bears versus at the time the Quebec Nordiques farm team was in Halifax. What were they called? Do you remember? I'm going to look that up. No, I don't. Senators or? It was definitely not the Senators.

I don't know. The Senators. Good thing it didn't start with a G. What's that? Nothing. It said the Senators. Good thing it didn't start with a G. I's that? Nothing. It said the Senatals. Good thing it didn't start with a G. I can't remember. I got no help here. Look it up.

I'm looking it up. Hold on. Jeff Merrick would know. Hold on. I'm looking it up. Started with a C, I think. Okay. Okay.

So Mike Weir is their first rounder, maybe 12th overall. Big tall glass of water behind the net. Mike Weir. Yeah, Mike Weir. maybe 12th overall big tall glass of water behind the net mike weir uh yeah mike weir i feel like i'm derailing your story i'm gonna let you talk i'll shut up are you thinking of jeff weir no i'm thinking of the golfer mike weir no this is w-a-r-e okay okay so he goes to take uh citadels i was close you were he goes to take a a follow through behind the net with a hard rim around. And I'm going to go now finish my check on a guy 6'8", 6'9". And I'm coming in hard.

And his follow through, the bottom of the front of his blade cut my bottom lip right open. You know, so that's the scar, eh? That's the scar. Went right through your face? So now I've got a hole in my bottom lip, and I've got five of my bottom teeth cracked. Oh. And I just want to go home now. Yeah.

Forever. Forever. Forever. I go straight to the hospital. They do about a 300 stitch micro surgery on me. Oh. Because it's not like you're getting sick on the surface, right? Because they're doing inside stitches.

You have to build. Yeah. It's just a buildup with micro stitches that took about three hours that's fun so now i go i'm finished with the with getting stitched up and now i'm at the front desk at the receptionist and we've like we're opening up the yellow pages looking for a dentist really what an era does anyone do dental work in this? We find a guy on his pager that will go open up his office and see me. So now I'm like, I still got my shin pads on, I think. I'm in that much pain and my lip was barely hanging on.

Oh, man. And this guy's work held on for 35 years. For 35 years. And oh, by the way, I went from like three hours of stitching up my bottom lip to about like seven hours doing five root canals. What kind of drugs do they give you? Good drugs? I could, when I was done, I was on the curb.

My lip was still in the office. Hailing, I was out hailing a cab and my lip. Just pushing your lip in a shopping cart in front of you? Yes. That's awful. The cap's held up until I bit something that... So when you cap a tooth, it's based on whatever's left

on the bottom that's real. But I cracked the real part. And, uh... Yeah, 30... Well over 30 years of these things. I'm impressed. Yesterday. Listen, you got it done out of some guy in the Yellow Pages.

I got my dental work done in Alaska, which God knows what kind of, you know, surgeons you're getting up there. Who knows? So we both survived. All right. Thumbs up to dentistry. Yep.

We need you. The Citadel's jerseys. Nice. Baby blue. Baby blue. Just like a lot like theadel's jerseys. Nice. Baby blue. Baby blue. Just like a lot like the colors of the Nordiques, obviously. And the Citadel is in Halifax. It's the Citadel Hill.

And it's up like right up on top of the city there, a big building. I spent some time in Halifax, so I know what the Citadel is. So speaking of teeth. A lot of hardles run up that hill. I'm back where you are, Sammy. I'm looking for a pen. And now I've got one that's completely chewed. And I'm wondering, like, whose teeth marks are on this pen?

Brendan Shanahan. David Sissboomba. Who? It's Sissboomba, guaranteed. Is that Sissboomba? A hundred percent. Wasn't there a Seinfeld episode where George found someone who owned a car because of a bite mark on a pen?

John Voight? Yeah. What was that? I don't know. I think so. Alright. Not a Seinfeld guy. Let's get it back on the rails here. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, David Brandale, David Siss-Boomba.

David, Derek. Oh, what did I say? I've also scripted the lineup. And Jen is back. Kip is still on the nitrous oxide. I'm on the gas still. The Russian gas. Okay, where do we begin now? Oh, I have a suggestion.

We've hashed out the past. Do we just look towards the future? And let's be honest here. We got an email earlier today from our boss who suggested let's be on high alert if anything comes down with the Toronto Maple Leafs we need to prepare to maybe go an extra hour on the show we will be extending the program I sent a counter offer with a bigger financial package anyways continue all right and your first message was oh did they get tipped off do they know something yeah what do they know what does sports net know and what did i tell you uh they don't know i said you really think there'd be someone with the leafs that would tip off

sports net yeah we couldn't even get a player to get on our show all year. That's pretty baffling. They are not tipping us off. We got John Tavares after 1,000 points. Oh, did we? After 1,000 points, we got John Tavares. Okay, our thanks to JT then. Yeah.

Okay, I know we're going to get into future candidates here. We have 15 minutes before we're joined by Rob Rossi, who's going to come on, senior hockey writer for The Athletic based in Pittsburgh. Is he going to tell us Kyle Dubas is going there? Probably. Yeah, I would imagine. Something to that effect.

We're going to get that news on a guy who was not going to pop up somewhere else in a week. Turns out it was nine days. But there is something today. I'm a big fan of Elliott Friedman's 32 Thoughts. I don't know if you guys read it. Excellent article. Can we save that for the end of the show?

You want to save it? What do you want to talk about right now? You want to talk about me needing a new co-host, according to Elliott Friedman, at the end of the... I don't, by the way. Relax, everyone. Look at the smile on Kimber's face. Okay, what is Elliott doing?

I don't know. I thought this would be a good place to confront you. Go, go, go, go. Get it over with. The fact there's a $1 billion bid for the Senators, and we, as of Tuesday night, don't know who will get first crack at closing the deal, indicates the Melnick family, the bank, and the NHL

have questions that need answering, ownership, structure, financing, debt, et cetera. We're getting there. A couple people who know Steve Apostolopoulos say it absolutely is a style to make a bully bid, so they wouldn't be shocked at all if he's the high bidder. We'll see. If he wins, Justin Bourne might need a new co-host.

Oh. Hmm. So, hello. Can't be. Nicolas. I've got to find out who the new... Elliot doesn't even mention me by name in this. I know.

Like, everybody's just to assume who your co-host is. We get no promotion, so they wouldn't know who I am. Majority of his readers wouldn't know who he's talking about. So what's up? I don't know. Ask Elliot. We all love Elliot, but I don't think I've talked to Elliot three times since I left Sportsnet in 2019. So, yeah, I guess there's a high likelihood that this Greek fella might land the Senators.

You have some... I have consulted. I have been advising, which is a miracle in itself, because every time I advise anything at home, people look at me and roll their eyes. Yeah. I'm familiar with that reception. And that's basically all I can say. The whole hockey world, I think Ottawa fans,

they're all in a wait and see mode. And it could happen. They can make an announcement in a second. They can make an announcement next week. They could wait longer. You have to believe it would be sooner than later so they can hire, make sure they have their right GM and coach and make some decisions, right?

I would think that this one's a big one because this one will reset a few things moving forward. Now, would you advise them of my candidacy for general manager were you to become part of the structure in some way? I told anybody and anyone in the National Hockey League, I don't move without JB and Sammy. Or a package deal. If I can't walk into an office and just yell, Sammy!

I would be the worst sends mascot of all time i'd just be giving the finger to all their fans like you guys suck hating on the team until you got your paycheck so we'll we'll all sit and wait for uh for that uh and uh I think you're okay with a co-host. Yeah, okay. You're good. Let's talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs. Okay. So we're starting to hear more and more names. You want to pick at a few here and just talk about what we think of a few of them.

The most obvious is everyone's talking about Tree Living. That is the biggest name out there as far as availability is concerned, as far as maybe a profile, a Canadian one that can resonate, I think, with Leaf fans. I don't know anyone that's more available than Brad Tree Living right now yeah i mean he is the betting favorite he is and it seems not a foregone conclusion but you know he is the most

discussed guy now i don't a lot of this to me feels like they have set the parameters at they need someone with experience or they want someone who's experienced in the role right it's a big job to take on potentially trading stars huge they got 20 million in salary cap space they have massive decisions and opportunity ahead so they want someone with experience but once you say that you rule out so much of like this little list we put together here and it's like tree living uh stan bowman mark bergevin yeah you know like there's just not that many benning's name is on this list mike food of course yeah it's our our good friend here on the show yeah feuts is it really did you say surely peterirelli's an option. Ray Shiro. Is he on the list? No, he's not on the list. So those type of guys are out there.

I guess it's really hard, right? Because one Stanley Cup gets handed out each year, and some of these guys have done a good job without winning cups, and maybe Tree Living could fit that mold. Someone who's been in Calgary nine years. The one thing that sticks out to me with brad tree living is this time last year he was up to come in here and face a similar fire. I mean, how much more intense would it be here, Kip?

Right away. It's an incinerator right now. Right away. To walk into. But it is, you don't know yet, and we don't know publicly, and maybe a few outside of Austin Matthews knows for sure, but there is a real chance that Austin could play out his hand just like Matthew Kachuk can last year.

And if that's the case, JB, I'll start with you. Would that make Brad Tree Living the best choice, Last year. And if that's the case, JB, I'll start with you. Would that make Brad tree, tree living the best choice or maybe the worst because it turned out so poorly for the Calgary flames. I actually think if that's your measuring criteria, he'd grade out really well. Cause he just had talks with all these teams about moving a potential superstar and has a sense for who

had pieces they were considering moving if just going off my gut matthew kachuk was super close to being a carolina hurricane you know would he say call her carolina and be like i got someone who's maybe more accomplished than kachuk you know in terms of what he's done in this game and his pedigree and whatever you know would you be interested in this guy so maybe by that in that way maybe he'd be better he also hasn't been out of the second round you mentioned that trade didn't go great for calgary in the initial returns um you know he he hasn't had a lot of success you know he hasn't had more success than kyle dubas had i know he's older, but he, I mean,

you get two more years experience in the league and no further in the playoffs. So I don't, I don't know. He's a name people know that seems to be the. How about you, Sammy? I'd be completely fine with Brad living named as the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Like, I think he's a capable guy.

Like, I don't think, you know know going the other way here like you know i look at some of these names you know tolsky or something like that like you want to hire kyle dubas seven years ago here like it's just to me if you're firing dubas and we know what happened it wasn't necessarily a performance-based thing maybe more of an emotional thing but if you're going in a different direction i I guess Brad Treliving is that. I don't think of him as totally in the opposite direction as Dubas, but yeah, I think that's a fine hire. I really do.

I think he's got some experience at Canadian market. Like you said, you can make a big trade if he needs to, God forbid. But I think if whoever you're, if Austin Matthews sees Brad Treliving come in, like, that's in, isn't that a little bit of stability? Isn't that a guy that you can look at that you know what they're doing if you're a player, if you're part of this organization? Isn't that a guy that you have some trust in as a guy that's done it and has been a general manager of a Canadian team before? Like, I don't think it's that bad an option. I just, I got two things here. One is that when you see someone go through a hard breakup that really hurts,

the next person they want seems to be just whatever they didn't have before, the complete opposite type person. Good cop, bad cop. Yeah, right. You just want the other side of things. And I'm not sure. Dubas did some things they liked here, and I'm not sure that it's terrible to have someone else who thinks similar,

even if they are not dubious themselves but the other thing is like you know i look at who tree living hired as coaches during his time there in calgary and it was who daryl sutter bill peters and bob hartley maybe like they're gonna come in here and make a coaching decision i don't know i. I am not as confident as Sam that it's like a no-brainer. And you? Yeah, there's lots of questions marks for sure. I like Brad. Yeah, he seems like an awesome guy. He seems like a straight-up guy. And no, there's probably not enough on his resume that suggests that he's going to come in

and really portray a winning culture. But it might be a process of elimination that gets him the job. For sure. You know, the one thing that I was thinking about with this job, this Leafs job, is just the vastness of it. You know, like, I don't think that other NHL teams have, think of the size of the staff here in Toronto and what you're managing you're managing you know departments that other players don't have or other teams don't have in

sizes that they don't have them you know the American League team just fired all their people and by all accounts that was it's been a bit messy at times there you know the community outreach and everything is so much bigger here like the role that you're taking on is just such a big one and like it's almost like you need a hockey guy and someone to manage all the people and some other aspects of it's brendan well that's a good point it is brendan brendan like he he's heavily involved in managing the toronto maple leafs he's not the president of hockey ops he is the president of Hockey Ops. He is the president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, which means he's as involved in probably Kyle Duvis' trade deadline day

as he is in Game Ops, sponsorship, relationship with the alumni. I mean, there's a ton. And that's why probably I really believe that, you know, there's truth to everything sometimes. But to what degree did Brendan keep Kyle handcuffed or will keep the next general manager handcuffed without me being all over him? I don't know if he physically has time to meddle in the day-to-day operations when he is uh in a meeting for sponsors and maybe a tv contract or or or how the game uh operations work that particular night

yeah no it's you know i would love to know what the total staff employed to make the may police run is but i'm sure it's hundreds of people and so if brendan's job is a lot of that and i know kyle was involved in a lot of the selecting of people for different departments it just seems like a really big job and so i get wanting someone with experience i'm just saying it's a hard one to walk into if you haven't won before set a culture before it's it's just a big job can i just make a quick point on people that are just so down on whatever guy that they may potentially hire it's like what is the undying loyalty to dubas about from fans because that. Because his faction of fans. Oh, this is. Everyone is crapping all over every other candidate, like,

for a living or whatever. And it's like, what? You know. Oh, there's. Results matter. And they didn't get any results. There's a big camp out there. Yes. A pro Kyle Dubas camp out there.

And many of them are in the media. And they get to dictate the narrative yeah and so but i don't know that those people i see them tearing down other potential candidates like you have to pick someone now dubas is out and so you're looking for the next best guy it's just there's not an obvious one to me even though tree living is getting all the press just the way that kyle dubas is treated by his fans is that he was some elite guy that's unassailably great as a general manager.

And you look at his record and a lot of important general manager things, and they were not good. Negotiations, trades, a lot of this stuff. I think how it happened with him going may not have been the right thing, but he was good, not great, you know, how it happened with him going may not have been the right thing. But, like, you know, he was good, not great, in my opinion. And I think it would be fine to move on to somebody else like Bradshaw Living.

I don't think it's going to be that big of a downgrade that people are portraying it as to me. We got Rob Rossi, senior hockey writer for The Athletic based out of Pittsburgh that we're going to join momentarily. Talk about potentially Kyle Dubas in Pittsburgh. I am an absolute horrible host because we've got a list of potential GMs for the Toronto Maple Leafs, 14 in all, and we've gotten through one in 20 minutes. That's bad. That's bad hosting on my part. No, because we're focused on you know it's going to

be one of a few guys and i mean tree living is one of those few guys right so we'll get rob on and then we're going to go right back to this list okay that sounds like a good plan i want to i i'm interesting uh i'm interested to hear who you think that, you know, outside of Brad Tree living, who would pop up as a second type of guy that you wouldn't hesitate too much to go to? It's a great question. Think about that one. Futes. Now, I had said yesterday that I still find it hard to believe

that Kyle Dubas would walk away from 20 plus million dollars from MLSC without sort of having a plan B. Yeah. Let's bring in Rob Rossi, senior hockey writer with The Athletic based in Pittsburgh to tell me if in fact Kyle Dubas has a plan B in the state of Pennsylvania. Well, I think he was always the Penguins' plan A, and then that got derailed a bit by the Maple Leafs winning a round. And then when the Maple Leafs didn't win a round and the drama in Toronto played out last week, their plan B became their plan A again. And I guess the simplest way of saying this is,

this is Kyle Dubas' job if he wants it. They were prepared when they fired Ron Hextall and Brian Burke and made the changeover that if Dubas were available to give him control of hockey ops. They thought extraordinarily highly of him. He meets sort of what FSG the Fenway sports group has hired in as sort of managers and their other sports teams with the Cubs, or excuse me, but the Red Sox and Liverpool football clubs.

So I think a lot of it's going to depend on and money won't be an issue. So I think a lot of it's going to depend on, and money won't be an issue. So I think a lot of it's going to depend on if Kyle likes the idea of the job, if his family wants to move to Pittsburgh, and if he wants to work next year. You know, there was a report today that he was seen with Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh. I'm sure you came across that. Does it sound like he's already there and going through the process of figuring it out? He is. He is in Pittsburgh, to my knowledge.

I don't believe the second part of that is. I don't have knowledge of the second part of that. Let me just say that. But he is in Pittsburgh. He was planning to come here midweek and talk to the Penguins, get a real feel for the organization. Not really surprised by that. It's a pretty short drive from Toronto to Pittsburgh.

It's not like he would have had to hop on a plane and go through the airport, go through all that if he didn't want to. And, you know, I think when you're thinking about a life decision like this, if you can get on the ground and, you know, go see the facilities, see the offices, meet the people that you would be working with and for, I'm not surprised by that, that he's here. And I would imagine Kyle's interviewing the Penguins as much as, if not more, than the Penguins are interviewing him.

We're talking to Rob Rossi, senior hockey writer for The Athletic, based in Pittsburgh. Rob, you have a fantastic piece in The Athletic today. It's titled Chaos, Loathing, and the Big Three, How the Penguins Unraveled. I urge anyone who is subscribing to The Athletic to read it. It gives great detail of

the Pittsburgh Penguins season, including resigning Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and ultimately the demise of Ron Hextall. And, you know, can you speak, Rob, in terms of based on what I read in your piece, what you would see as the biggest challenge

for Kyle Dubas or any other general manager if they started this job with the Pittsburgh Penguins? Well, first of all, thank you for the kind words and the plug. Secondly, yeah, I think based off the situation in Pittsburgh, the challenge is going to be with not significant cap space and some troublesome contracts, how do you build around this core? What Hextall and Burke got right was sort of building a top six that is bona fide. But after that top six, and, you know, Jason Zucker is going to be an unrestricted free agent,

but, you know, they're going to have Crosby, Malkin, LeTang, Gensel, most likely, unless they, for whatever reason, would decide to trade him, coming back. Those are guys that have traditionally produced in the playoffs. To get the Penguins back to the playoffs and to make a run, you're going to have to fill out around them better than the previous regime did. And, look, I will say one thing that impresses me about Kyle Dubas, not knowing him personally, but studying him from afar, is those Maple Leafs teams seemed pretty deep.

They might have been done in by some lack of scoring or lack of production from their best players in the postseason, but at least through the regular season, those teams seemed deep. So I could see why the Penguins would like him for that role. And so what's left in that core group? You know, they're obviously elite, you know, Hall of Fame guys. You know, is there enough in the tank there to build around them? Or do they need other, you know, high-end guys to help with the production side of things? I think they could use another defenseman, another top-four defenseman,

to go with Chris LePang and to go with Marcus Pedersen, who had a really good year. They could use a third-line center, a guy that doesn't need to score a whole lot, but can give you know, can give them minutes and can contribute offensively more than now and then. What they really need is to figure out the goaltending situation. Jim Rutherford's last years here, the previous regime's two years here, the goaltending situation just was never fixed. The Penguins have had sub-900 goaltending in each of their past four postseasons, and they didn't win a round in either of them. And I always say, gentlemen, I don't care how good you are up front

or on the back, if your goaltending's not at 900 in the playoffs, it doesn't matter. You don't got a chance. They need to figure out if Tristan Jari is the guy. And if he isn't, they need to figure out what they're going to do for that position. I suspect the way these playoffs have played out, that they're going to have some real conversations about whether to move forward with Jari or not, given that he's probably going to get a substantial raise

and he was injured last year. Hey, Rob, so much speculation on whether or not there was interference on Brendan Shanahan's part with Kyle Dubas or if it was just more president, general manager, day-to-day issues. But in your piece, you do talk a little bit about the Fenway group. And if, in fact, Brendan was the buffer and Kyle never really had to address or deal with the board of directors at MLSC.

How do you see that shaping up with the Fenway group? Would they be as hands-off to their general manager, or is there a chance that Kyle may have more dealings with them on a day-to-day basis? My sense covering them for a year and a half now is they feel like hockey really isn't their expertise, and they really want to rely on somebody to be the decision maker. Obviously, ownership is going to have import on the big decisions, and ownership will be one that kept abreast of things.

But my impression is Fenway wanted to focus on the business side of the Penguins and the development of the land across from PPG Pace Arena and, you know, getting the revenue stream shored up and, you know, the arena modernized and everything and kind of leave the hockey to the hockey people. So I think whoever is the new GM here is going to have, you know, with sponsors and season ticket holders and, you know, appear at the charity events and that. Um, but I, I've always been under the, uh,

belief that Fenway wants a general manager. That's going to control things, um, run a very organized club, and maybe not necessarily have to be sort of the public, you know, the guy that does all that other public stuff, and really focuses a lot on hockey. Well, we'll follow this closely for sure. Rob, really appreciate your time.

Thanks for doing this. Appreciate it, guys. Anytime. Thank sure. Rob, really appreciate your time. Thanks for doing this. Appreciate it, guys. Anytime. Thank you. Thanks, Rob. Okay, he's in Pittsburgh. Yeah. What more do we need to know?

You think it's done? You think it's going to happen, eh? I do, yes. And that's just based on my gut feeling. I know nothing more than anyone else. So what do you think it is when he says, I'm not going to pop up somewhere a week from now? Is that like,

he was so certain he was going to be back from the Leafs that this was kind of like a chance to show some bluster and be like, I'm here. You know, it's sort of, I just think that he got up, he got caught up emotionally in it. And it was just a,

it was just a card. He tried to play. He can easily get out of that by saying you know things change things change and uh you know my family supports this therefore why should i wait yeah that's it and it's fine no one cares kyle that you said that you won't go anywhere else. Oh, people care. No, no. But they won't care enough to like, you know, it won't matter. Like you can care and make no mistake that when you speak again, people will put that against your credibility and say,

well, you kind of lied just for saying this. And that's just, he's just going to have to live with that. But if the job's available and he thinks he has to wait because he said something in that press conference Monday, no, that's not happening. Yeah, you'll wear that on your reputation to sign the $20 million. No one will care enough for that to be a factor. That's all. That's all i'm saying it's just you know he talked about you know dubis interviewing the penguins as much as them interviewing him

which is a fascinating idea just because penguin's not a great spot to walk into like say what you about dubis here and sam you know you've been like hey it was good whatever the leafs right now have a core four of players that were here for the 115 point season followed by 111 point season followed by you know a playoff win this year uh you're pretty good team they have 20 million dollars in cap space freed up they have flexibility with their contracts like they you know nize is coming in this is a team in a good spot. He left it that way. Pittsburgh is not. Like, Crosby's old, Letang's old, Malkin's old. And you've told you can't move them.

Right. Like, you're already locked in. So, like, they're more likely to get quite bad before they ever have a chance to get good. Ron Haxtell fought like crazy to keep Crosby and get rid of Malkin and Letang. And he got killed by everybody fans players and the fenway group really yes yeah they're like get that done yeah get our name guys in our jersey that's right yeah so you know i appreciate what what rob just said about the

fenway group but like you can't tell me that they will not watch kyle like a hawk and we haven't heard from brian burke not to my knowledge anyways i wonder if we asked him behind the scenes how hands-off the Fenway group was. I think we'd get a pretty detailed response to that. So what you're telling me is very similar to the MLSE board. No, completely opposite. That they're hands-off, Kipper? Who? The Fenway group?

No, Fenway group, hands-on. MLSE, hands-off. That's what I'm telling you. That Kyle... That might be part of his negotiating there, that he needs autonomy there. At the end of the day, Kyle only had to deal with Brendan, okay? No one went through around Brendan

to ever talk to Kyle. If there was a situation where they needed to make a presentation and Kyle was part of it, it was always through Brendan. I'm not sure it would work completely that way. So I'm just, you know, the things that you hear is sometimes be careful what you wish for. I think it would be a lot harder on dealing with the Fenway group for Kyle than it would have ever been dealing with what he had here, despite his feelings for Brendan.

You know what's fascinating is like... You think a lot of this just came down to personal stuff. is like you think a lot of this came down to personal stuff sorry i think a lot of it could have come down to personal stuff with between kyle and brendan a lot more for kyle than i think brendan okay and that's why i believe that brendan was completely shocked and surprised by what had happened on monday i wonder if you know like if you're dubious and you go to pittsburgh and the team's not good there's a chance that like hyper competitive players may say i'll wave in my no trade clause i don't want to be here and all of a sudden you're dubious and you got to trade sydney crosby and uh you know start over You know, like, it's a tough gig if it is like you're talking about Kipper.

I would believe that they've played every scenario out in their heads prior to signing. And this contract for Letang and Malkin was to retire a Pittsburgh Penguin. If you didn't think that there was a range between winning the Stanley Cup and missing playoffs was part of the equation, then, you know, shame on them. But they can stink. They could lose every game. They ain't going anywhere.

That ship sailed. Letang has an $8 million salary and a $6.1 million cap hit. He's 36 years old, and he's under contract until 2028. I think he's had a stroke and... They're not going anywhere, no matter how many games they lose. So that is another factor when you're looking at your salary cap and making decisions.

They do have a lot of cap space as well, by the way. I should add that. Is this just going to come down to, like, everything we're talking about here makes this sound like a poopy job. Except it's just for payments. Are they just going to pay him a ton of money? Is that why he's doing it? There's 32 of them.

There's not that many. I guess. Sounds like not an enjoyable job. Like, if they told Ron Haxtell what he couldn't and couldn't couldn't do like i don't know where kyle thinks he's just going to come in and get the freedom to to make decisions well maybe that's part of his leverage here with them if he's the guy they want as plan a maybe that's part of what he says where he's like i'm not doing that i'm not going to be a part of that maybe that's a sticking point where he draws a line in the sand hey that was a deal breaker once

it could be a deal breaker twice sure could be okay now we're down to what 30 teams yeah now i'm out of a job now i'm at home on the couch it's like hey maybe kyle that's not available to gms anymore maybe ownership now wants to have say and that's the structure of nhl teams the last thing you want to be is kyle in january hearing those dishes aren't going to clean themselves bringing in zero dollars and zero cents just i don't know i i can't help but think there's a lot of regret on both sides here i agree agree. I totally agree that there is. I think they would love to redo the past 10 days. But you can't undo what's done.

You want to go to a commercial break? No, no. Quickly, before we go to break. Okay, go. I want to thank our friends at Burgers Priest who dropped by with a special lunch for the crew. Everyone here enjoyed the priest. I may have enjoyed... By the way, I did notice that there's three of us. They brought four hamburgers, and four were gone, and I only had one, and JB only had

one. What happened there? I'm not great at math, but you tell me what happened. Burgers Priest sent such an elite burger that I may or may not have eaten, too. And he didn't even ask us. No. No. You want that extra burger? JB, you okay? You want it? Nick, you want it?

Well, judging by the disgust on Borny's face when I said I might have two, I knew he didn't have it. So it's the start of the Burger Priest hashtag Smash Burger Summer. Because it isn't summer without a Smash Burger, always made with 100% premium Canadian beef and hand smashed

to perfection. Thanks to the folks at Burgers Priest and I have the meat sweats. So good. It was elite. The cookie was very good too. Let's hit the break and then we'll do playoff picks when we come back. Okay. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee, Real Kipper and Bourne.

More after these words. this is real kipper and born on sportsnet 590 the van all right jb let's pick up where we left off okay so uh you want to throw one more eligible name out or you just want to talk about what what the dream name is out there, and we all believe that's Doug Armstrong. That's the dream name. You know, like, that's the guy for me. I wholeheartedly agree. Won a Stanley Cup, has traded stars at difficult points in his team's tenure.

GM of the Canadian team, if we had an Olympic team right now, he'd be the guy, right? So, again, though, you though you mentioned yesterday it's not even close to being true or happening it's so i think i don't know another team where they would lose somebody and half their media would start writing about someone else who's under contract somewhere else it just doesn't exist it just goes to show you how powerful the Toronto media is, that they can take something that has no validity to it right now at all,

and they can turn it into a major story. That's how powerful the media market is here. You know who I think a great candidate for the job would be? Joe Sackett. And John Cooper is the coach. It's like, hey, Kip, you'd be great with my neighbor Nancy. It's like, Nancy's married. Yeah, but she could leave, you know?

That doesn't take away the fact that everybody knows that the Toronto Maple Leafs is Doug Armstrong's dream job. Pardon me? Is that a thing? Is that a thing? What's that? Is that true? Is it really? No, I'm dead serious.

It is. That's the job he'd like to have? Oh, like right at the top of the list. Okay. Well, now that doesn't that make it a little bit less of a pipe dream then if it's something that... No. Oh. Because there's so many other factors that go into this.

And number one is he's got multi-years left on a deal. Yeah. And I think I threw out the other day. You have to pay him more than you were going to give Dubas. That's for sure. Breakfast television that, you know, could they be in a position to offer draft picks or compensation to get him out of his deal to st louis but i don't even think that's a thing anymore i don't know if you can actually you can

actually do that at one point you could have in the past but i i don't think you're allowed to do that i may be wrong but i don't think you can it to do that. I may be wrong, but I don't think you can. It's like cash considerations. Do you remember that being a part of trades back in the day? I was thinking that like guys that are owed more salary than their AAV. 15 million for Gretzky. Yeah, like now you can't just tack a big check onto a trade, which I don't know if that makes sense or not. Maybe it does.

If you're the Hurricanes, you probably sell all your guys for money. Or was it 15 million for Lindros? Oh, I don't know. It was cash really real cash just here is money yes for that player the other factor that comes in is doug armstrong is the man in st louis okay president everything runs through doug armstrong you can't tell me for one second i believe that he'd come back to be the general manager to answer to Brendan Shanahan.

So he would want Brendan Shanahan's job. I don't, I don't think he wants his job. We're not stirring up whatever I'm just saying. He doesn't want his job, but he would want a job where he is the man like he is in St. Louis. Right. So if he rides it out to the end of his contract and Shani's got three more in his deal or something to two more, you never know here. Things don't get better.

You never know. I like Doug Armstrong a lot. Yeah. So agreed. I like Doug Armstrong a lot. Yeah. Agreed. The one thing that is also a factor in this is that if there is lack of success this time next year, is Brendan's job on the line? Yeah. Of course. It is. Okay.

I think we're all in agreement there does the general manager who comes in have to worry about who's the next guy if if brendan does lose his job next year and this thing does not turn around am i part of brendan shan Shanahan's regime or team? And do I go down a year later or do I have some sort of protection that if things don't turn around and you want to make a change at the presidential position, I'm still safe? Is that a conversation for Brad Tree living when he comes in? It's a great question.

We also have to do playoff picks in the next four and a half minutes and did you want to mention jamie bann or anything like that oh yeah we have no time that's okay okay well listen we'll we'll pick it up okay later on in this week we're not we're not here tomorrow correct four uh we got a jay's game that they're giving us the day off. So we're forced to go golfing, the three of us. Absolutely. Sammy, you will tweet pictures of us on the golf course tomorrow. Yeah, I'll tweet one. I'll tweet one for our listeners

so they can feel like they're there with us. Taking my boys golfing. We'll look into a couple of stogies. Okay, go ahead, Sammy. It's time for Playoff Picks, presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds. As you may realize here, the Golden Knights now are prohibitive favorites

to win the Stanley Cup. They are minus money now to win the Stanley Cup at minus 125. Do you think that should be the case with potentially the Florida Panthers waiting on the other side for them? So I've got a piece that's coming tomorrow one of those uh aws pieces on um like it's opportunity analysis florida this whole thing they create chances off turnovers so well 125 by the way yeah and they create chances off turnover so well but brovsky's playing so well i wouldn't want to bet against him like i like I like Vegas. I think it's Vegas. But before they even got out of this round, I wouldn't pick them at minus money to win the cup.

Yeah, I like Vegas a lot. I think they should be the favorites. I think they should be a prohibitive favorite. But the way Brovsky's playing right now, it's hard. You know when you're watching a goalie and it's hard to imagine a goal? That's when you know a guy's locked in. Yeah. It's like when I'm putting and it's hard to imagine a goal? That's when you know a guy's locked in. Yeah. It's like when I'm putting and it's tough to imagine it going in.

I know I have no chance. Two forces headed to a Stanley Cup final. Yeah, this is... I actually legit am excited about a Florida thing. You know, in terms of laundry, I wouldn't say it's the most exciting final in terms of markets and jerseys and kind of teams and history of these teams or whatever. But if this was Boston-Ch chicago with these two rosters it would be the sexiest final ever how do you dress if you're covering this series just shorts and a

tank top it actually is a dream you're going from like 90 degree in florida to 104 in nevada yeah it's pretty good. I've become a reporter. And just a couple same-game parlays for tonight on both sides. If you like the Panthers, Carter Verhage goal. He hasn't scored since game one of this series. He scores big goals for them in a big game. Matthew Kuchuk over a half point. And Panthers to win.

That's 7-1, which is a nice number. Very possible, obviously, on all those. half point and panthers to win that's seven to one which is a nice number very possible obviously on all those and if you like the canes to win canes uh with a seth jarvis goal and freddie anderson over 27 and a half pays 11 to 1 so florida bet both sides of that there for a same game parlay for tonight's game if you want to get in on the action that was playoff picks presented by bet 365 visit the app for the latest odds i just i just got a tweet that says the money's on brad tree living it is huh yeah yeah he is a heavy heavy favorite right now you know to sammy's point you could certainly do a lot worse he does have a lot

of experience in the league he just made a big trade by all accounts a likable guy how is he for kippers clippers can he he talk? I think so. I remember him doing a lot of radio. I think he can talk, guys. I think he's okay for us. He can. He is, and he's, like I said. As long as he doesn't hire Daryl Sutter for Clippers, we're dead.

He's a straight shooter. He is. He's always welcomed in our game. Yeah, I'm looking at this list and going, there's some names in here who aren't going to help us out very much. Yeah, yeah. All right. Clippers.

We done? No time to... Well, Jamie Benn, how many games? One. Yeah, one. Everything's one. One. I mean, it's the same as the slash on Petro. Intent, no injury.

One. The Petro one is so bad. It was such a bad suspension. Our thanks to Rob Rossi. None for me. None. All right, one. One. The Petro one is so bad. Such a bad suspension. Our thanks to Rob Rossi. None for me. None. All right, one. One.

Anything else? We got to go. No. Okay, we got to go. We're back Friday, everybody. Real Kipper and Boren. Thanks for joining us. We'll be you next time.