Shaun Newman Podcast - #1081 - Brother's Roundtable

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

Brothers are back in studio for one final roundtable to discuss all things NHL, Bluejays and the World Cup of Soccer. Cornerstone Forum 26’https://shaunnewmanpodcast.substack.com/Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

Welcome to a brother's roundtable. Jens, thanks for hopping. And we're waiting on Harley to get here, but regardless, it has been a while. We, uh, I'm going to chalk this up to Sean's leaving now in like 10 days. And this is totally on Sean. Yeah, this is totally on Sean. But it's May 13th or last one. I've been getting text.

When's the next brother's where are you guys going? I'm like, all right, we got to get back in one more time before I take off. Um, there has been a lot. I assume we start with Carolina. Well, they start with the champs. Yeah. Right? They're the chaps.

They, you know, it reminds me of that team that just they didn't, they just started it and they finished it. And there was just never, you know, everybody, oh, they're going to play Vegas. Now, they just kind of pushed through everything that came their way and they deserve it. They're a very well-run team. We were talking about this, that they're just a really well-run team from top to bottom. They've got everybody but two players returning next year. One now. One now that they signed.

They signed. This is what I loved about Carolina. Carolina is good for hockey, right? Like, the coach runs, I'm going to say a tight ship where they all buy in when you listen to Rod Brindamor talk about his team and the way they talk about him. It's like super cool. I think it's if you're any, if you're a hockey fan, you're envious of what they have. And then in their parade, their GMs up there and they sign Nick Deloree a 30, what is he, 35 or 37? Tough guy.

That's what he is. He is 35 years old. He's played everywhere. He only played seven games for Carolina. And they signed him to a two-year extension at 800. It's not a big deal. 875 grand a year is what the cap hit is. And they did that at the parade, right on stage.

So the only thing left for them then is Freddie Anderson? He's the only guy left. Yeah, but I don't know if they're going to resign him. Well, not, and that's the question. I don't know if they're resigned them either. Because they got Bustin night. They got that coyote. Do you see how much they're paying there two goalies?

next year it's like three million bucks or four million bucks between the two of them how they run how they run the team i mean versus how florida runs the team yeah and both are very successful as ridiculous well and some of the other teams namely emminton and toronto and vancouver could all take a page out of somebody else carolina when they won was 12 million dollars under the salary cap you know you know how many buried contracts they were paying out zero zero how many teams in the NHL have zero contracts that they're paying out. You hop to the Oilers. They're talking nurses, right?

All the thing that nurse is going to go out. Who's going to take nurse? I'm like, well, if you ate 50% of his contract, somebody's taking nurse. Yeah, but then what's the point of that? I agree, because what are you going to do with it? You're going to turn around and try and find somebody to fill the hole. Now you're paying a player not to play for you? Well, if you look at it the opposite way around, so you get rid of nurse,

eat half his contract. So now what's that? 4.5 million, 4.6, something like that. And you just signed Connor Murphy to what, 4.1? So now you're essentially, if you look at it a different way of looking at it, you're essentially paying Connor Murphy the same amount of money you're paying nurse. You're not, but you're covering that up in one defense. So we were talking about analytics.

And I said one of the things that Carolina has is one of the best analytics guys out there is in Carolina. And I think not that analytics is everything, but I think sometimes what those guys do in a meeting is like, hold on here, guys. We're not signing a 30 year old defenseman to an eight year deal. for an extreme amount because we're going to eat it at the back end. Right. And I think some of the, and like I said, analytics isn't all of it, but some of it sometimes is a guy just going, hold on a minute here. Like this guy just had a career year and we're going to pay him like he's going to do that every year.

Well, what irritates me. I just think Emmington is a, and Emmington's not the only team. They bring in a third line guy, pay him like a, you know, pay him top end money for a third line guy. and then are disappointed after a year or two because he's the third line guy. And you're like, what is your expectations? You watch Carolina, they have guys like Martinuk there and Jankowski, and they're there to play the fourth line.

And they're paid appropriately to pay the fourth line. And nobody's disappointed. So they're not then eating contract because, oh, we sign this guy. Like, what did you think? Who's the guy that they signed for eight years in Empton? Trent Frederick. Frederick.

Like, what did you think he was going to turn it to? Did we think he was going to turn it to? Did we think he was going to be a first-line winner scoring 40 goals a year? So if you thought he was going to be a third or fourth-line guy, which, by the way, are a dime a dozen in the NHL. You don't sign a eight years. Well, if you're going to sign anybody in your bottom six, the first prerequisite they should have over anything is there a good guy that people like him.

He's a good teammate, and he understands the system. And then, okay, next thing we want is someone who can skate really well, or is tough or scores 10 goals. But I don't understand how some of these managers get, get lost in this. How do you sign third and fourth liners to eight-year deals? Because they're a dime a dozen. Why would you commit long-term?

I'm going to go back. So I'm watching Carolina, right? They just won the cup. They have their parade. And they signed Nick Deloree to a two-year deal or extension. He appeared in exactly seven regular season games for Caroline this year. He was traded at the trade line line, or essentially, from Philly. And it says he played in one playoff game during round one versus Ottawa,

but had limited overall postseason ice time as the team favored it's established. Now, I could be wrong, maybe he appeared in a few more games. I'm like, that's who they're... Meanwhile, then you watch the news. Yeah, but he's feeling... Then you watch the news coming to the Eminton Oilers, right?

I mean, this is in the same time frame. Florida's picking up Brady Kachuk, and you're like, holy... Okay, that's going to be, like, they're going to be legit again. There's going to be another wagon. And the... Oilers are dropping, you know, all this millions on, and I like Connor Murphy.

I'm not against Connor Murphy. I think it was a good signing. But, you know, it's just you watch the different teams and the way they position themselves. The Oilers are going to spend right to the cap, probably over the cap, and try and find ways to navigate the cap. Yeah. You got other teams that, you know, and Carolina is the bell of the ball right now because they won and the way they're doing things is going to show other teams how they can do it. See, the win like Carolina wins, though. You have to be very mature and disciplined with how you go about building a team.

It's not like, oh, we need a first line winger. Let's go spend 10 million on this guy that just had a career. Like that's not what they're doing. But they did bring in Rantanin. Right? I mean, if you take out this year, right, the years prior, they also moved out. Because they've been to the conference finals how many times and they'd lost how many times. And did they get lucky by getting Stan Kovinaw and that whole thing and then how he turned into?

Maybe a little bit of luck there. But you've got to be lucky to be good. But they moved on rent. And though, like they brought him in and he said, I don't want to be here and they're like, fine. They made a decision. Going back to the McEwen thing, though, right? Zach, what's his last name? The guy that got signed at the.

Delorea. Deloree. Not Deloree. Yeah, Deloree. Nicholas. So, Zach. I'm thinking of Zach McKeown. Nick Deloree.

The reason that they signed him is because exactly what I'm talking about. They don't expect him to be a second line guy. This is their 13th forward who is. tough as nails, and when they play a team like Florida, why do he play one game in Ottawa? He played one game because they put him into the lineup to make sure that if Brady Kachuck wanted to be an idiot, they had a guy that could go up there and say to Brady, settle it down.

Then they got the win. Ottawa settled down. Carolina didn't have to play him. But that's why they got him. For them, they're going, and they know exactly why they have them. They're not signing him to go and play on the second line. And he knows his role. He's going to play 20 games a year.

He's going to be there with the boys. The guys must really like them. I agree. You don't do that for a guy that everyone's like, eh, it's kind of a jerk. And what did I say? Your fourth line guys for sure, and even your third line guys,

have to be room guys. If we go back to the first brothers roundtable, which you have to go back to episode before. The very first one. If we go all the way back, how much did we tease dust about Taylor Hall? That's years ago. 2019?

Yeah. He looked pretty good out there. I tell you what. But can I point something out? To me, Taylor Hall reminds me a little bit of Phil Kessel. He needed some maturing. And he didn't need to be the guy. And he couldn't be the guy.

So Phil Kessel, when he was in Toronto, was the guy, and they couldn't win with him being the guy. But he goes to Pittsburgh, and they got Malkin and Crosby. He fits right in there, and they win cups. Hall in different places couldn't be the guy. He wasn't leading Jersey to a cup, even though he got an MVP that year. But he comes to Carolina. He's playing second, third line. He gets to be who he wants to be.

They put a couple kids with him, and he fits in. Do you see what his contract is right now? He's like one of the best value deals out there. Right. He's just over $3 million for the next couple of years in Carolina. But it's understanding who he was. So Carolina brings him in and goes, you don't have to be our guy, right? We've got other guys that can be.

We got Jordan Stalls or captain. We got Aho. We got Jarvis. We don't need you to be that guy. We need you to just come in, be a steady force. Go play your game. He also said he was out of shape when he first came to Rod's team, said the pace at what Rod wanted to play him.

He had to get in shape for it, which was, you know, it's a maturing thing, too. He's closer to the end of his career than the beginning. having a, you know, a coach say, this is how are you going to play and having that guy. But he's also to go to with Dustin's. Hardly, nice to you to show up. But to go to Dustin's point, he's paid like he's not the guy, right? What's the problem everybody's got with nurse?

He's paid like he's the guy and he's not the guy. Yeah, if you're paying him $5 million, everybody would love him. Everybody would be happy with him. I tell you what, how would Taylor Hall look on Oilers' second or third line right now? It looked great. How, you know, we talk about Carolina all through the playoffs? No injuries. No major anything, right?

I'm sure they're banged and bruised and everything because you've got to win a cup and you've got to play that many games. Anderson was the only one in the finals. Colorado, they were world beaters. And I think, well, is it luck or who knows? It's just the importance of staying healthy. If Colorado meets Carolina in the finals healthy, man, I still tip my hat to Colorado.

They were world beaters. Florida. Florida didn't make the playoffs. And if they're healthy, they make playoffs. Edmonton Oilers, they were all banged up too. Yeah. Right. Can we cover off Toronto trading and signing Radish for eight years as a 30-year-old?

He just had a brilliant season, which I'm not taking away, but they signed him to eight years. The only thing I'm going to point out about Radish, because I thought like you, Dust, is they said that three years ago he was, I want to say, like, 33rd in the league for five-on-five defensemen scoring. And then two years ago, he's like in the 20s. and last year he was like, I don't know, 18th or 15th in the league. Like he is, his five, it's not that he can just run the power play. His five-on-five play is very top-in. He's just a late bloomer. So it's eight years too much, maybe.

But eight-and-a-half million, if he turns into the type of defenseman that he's been playing like the last couple of years, it's just he had it. So you're looking at a career year last year, because he got more minutes because headman was hurt. Yeah. But his, his trend was going up with that, with that five-on-five play. He's 30 years old. He is. defensemen mature a little bit later look at Harley

only took me until I was 42 now he's now he's a shutdown defenseman at noon hour by the way they threw the Duzinski's and the newmans all in the same team for the last series this could be interesting you didn't see the series set up no I haven't seen it both too Todd must be going you know what this is Sean's final

hurrah can we win it in four I think I only got well I got till next Friday so like it's coming awfully quick it's put up or shut up yeah that's fun I'm glad he's doing that. I didn't see that. Okay, the big news this week is Mike Babcock being the Oilers coach, right?

So Oilers can knoblock, go after Cassidy in the middle of playoffs. Vangis says, nope, you're not touching them. And you're like, oh, my goodness, what are we doing? Listen to Babcock's presser yesterday, two days ago, whatever it was. And he talked about the meeting. had with McDavid, Drysettle, and Hyman. And basically, if you're not going to do it Babcock's way, I'm not coming. And they were all along, nope, we want to be pushed.

This is Babcock's words, obviously. Your thoughts on Mike Babcock being the new coach of the Emmington Oilers? I didn't think he was going to end up being the head coach. And the reason why is he's pissed off a lot of players in the league. And they put in, I thought he was going to get buried under the accusations. Now, credit to the NHL, they looked through it and said, yeah, no, we've already looked at this and no big deal. I didn't actually think he was going to, they were going to end up getting him.

The common knock against him is he's only won one playoff series outside of Nick Lidstrom. And so, you know, in all his other years of coaching, right, to only win one series, right? How good of a coach is he? I guess we're going to find out. He needs buy-in by the guys, which it looks like he has from his top guys. we talked about earlier that McDavid and Drysidle needed a Scotty Bowman type guy to walk in and say, do you want to lead the league in scoring or do you want to go win cups? And so that's what Babcock's bringing.

We're going to find, we'll know by the end of this year, barring what you said about if they run into major injuries or something. Well, the Oilers are in a type timeline here. Right. But I mean, they've got to get it together now. If you look at the Oilers roster as it sits right now, they're legit to go and push against Colorado. Colorado and Florida than them guys. And if Babcock, I mean, what is our biggest complaint about the Oilers last year is that they're

running dry saddle McDavid everywhere. They're playing two minutes on the power play. There's no team. Oh, you know, one of them's out for a bit and everybody has to play as a team. They started winning. You imagine if Babcock has both them guys, and he's told them guys some of the things he doesn't like, they need to buy in 200 feet.

They need to have everybody playing. Can you imagine if get some guys to buy in the whole teams like that? They are going to be world beaters. And I don't care when anybody says, you might have the odd soft guy not want to play there because of Mike Babcock, but they start winning and you got a chance to go win a cup with McDavid Drysettle, there'll be vets that go there. Hockey out of all the sports is a team game. Like you look at some of the other sports like basketball and you can get away with one or

two stars and they just run the show and it's less of a team game, right? Hockey's the ultimate team game because your top players, even in football, your quarterback plays all the reps. And if you got a great quarterback, you can make a lot of noise. And the NHL, McDavid plays what, 20, 20, 25 minutes? And it's a game. So he's gone on the ice. Your top defensemen are 26 or 27.

That's right. And so you need everybody to buy in. And this is what Carolina essentially was, was a team. They didn't have any major superstars. You know, always good. What do we like at an Anaheim this year? Their fourth line was shutting down Oilers top line. And I'm scoring them at times.

Right. Well, if you got guys that work their bag off and buy in, you can make a lot of noise. I'm certain. I understand what the elders are trying to do here. I'm uncertain about what we're going to know here in 40 games probably if Babcock's the guy or not but the idea is right is just is that the right guy is he the modern day Mike Keenan or well they did what they need it like we talked about all the time I mean Rod Brindamore John Cooper guys like that would walk in and hold everybody accountable and guys would respect them

is Babcock able to do that well at least from preliminary meetings you know, take what he said. He told him it's going to be Mike Babcock's way, right? And if you're not here, I'm not coming. They're like, no, that's what we want. So, I mean, once again, is it going to be 40 games? It's probably going to be 20 games. 20 games you're going to know.

Like if they're going to be, because like when triseletal was hurt, Hyman was hurt, we were watching those. I was watching those games. I was like, wow, they actually looked like a team right now. When everybody's playing, the fourth line scoring, third line scoring, like everybody's pulling. Yeah, you got the best player in the game in McDavid, but he isn't getting overtaxed. We all know this from coaching hockey. You can't play your top player for 30 minutes in game because by the end of the game they're just toast.

Not to mention you get into playoffs and they start keying on them. Keying on them, right? Like how tough was it for McDavid in the playoffs? They made sure his life was difficult. Yeah. And so you've got to have a team pull the same way. in order to win those games. What are they going to do with the goaltending situation there?

Because you look at the rest of the lineup. The Ford's the defense, I can buy into that team. You know, signing Dickinson is your third line center. Like they're going to be deep down the middle because they have Nugent Hopkins there too. And then you look at the defense with signing Murphy and they, you know, you got at home, you've got Walman, you've got some pieces. Like I can buy into this team. But I look at the goaltending and I go, that's got something's got to,

shift there what what happens there it's such a new problem that uh it's tough to figure out who's who's who's who's who's are they going to get Anderson or Bobrosky is that what they're going to do is that the answer can they afford that they can't afford Bobrovsky even if you can how old is Barbarovsky he's 36 no I think he's older than that isn't he 82 but that's what I mean like they say hella bucks available but is hell about going in Canadian market or is he only only go in American market. This is where

Havanski turns 38 this year. This is where having people are good with numbers plus some scouts that are good at what they do and you pick up a goalie like Carolina did for for nothing rather than Jari for 5.3. Yeah. Yeah. Like are they just stuck with Jari and Ingram?

I don't know. Don't get me wrong. I think are serviceable enough to get them through the regular season. But do you see that tandem winning you a cup? Well, this is where you go back to a good GM would find that hidden gem, right? But we haven't, we just haven't had that.

No, we haven't had Broberg and Hallway at all that room. In the last couple of years, Thompson went from Vegas, right? Yeah. World-class goalie. Bessie's playing for Carolina and watching the Stanley Cup Finals, and you're like, how did they get this guy? Yeah, right? Spentzer.

Spenceor Knight. Spencer Knight. Went from Florida to Chicago. Years ago, you know this, everybody here knows this, but like Mark Andre Fleury, when Vegas was, literally giving them away. They were going to pay you to take him. I was like, oh my God, just pick him up.

He'd be great. I could be wrong, but I believe Minnesota has two goalies. So there's goalies sitting out there. It's just whether or not you can make the deal to bring them in or find the pain point of another team and leverage it to bring him in. Everybody looks at Bobrovsky. I go, you can't afford them.

You just can't go out. What about the guy in Vancouver that keeps having injuries? Demco. Demco. Do you want an injury riddled goalie? I don't know, but when he's on, He is lights out. He reminds me of a guy.

Is it one leg of Demko better than a two-legged jarring? Yes, probably. He reminds me of a guy that could come in and do what Rollison did. Like if he gets healthy at the right time in the playoffs, he will win you a cup. And that's what you're trying to do right now. Now, to answer your question, Horace, no, if I can go get Hellebuck or I can go get, you know, right? Sroken or some of these guys, right? Let's talk about, let's go back to the Florida Panthers.

They picked up Brady Kachuk They're all in for the next couple of years And they didn't have to give up a player No, like they're They got to be if not the Stanley Cup favorite right now I mean I know we're early but okay so I want to Health and everything I want to look at this a little differently Sure

So they're not going to resign by Broowski Right So everybody goes well how can they afford it well the cap's going up by what 8 or 9 million this year right And they just got rid of their 10 million dollar cap hit of the goalie right so they actually probably had 18 or 19 million am i correct with that now they maybe got to bring bark off bracket and now they just had a brady kachuk who could they trade to winnipeg so they say there's no chance florida can get hellabuck

from winnipeg 8.5 million goes up to a hundred and four million right so who i am interested to see because i think florida's all in on hellabook i think he's all in on that thing about Because if you put Hellebuck in that net with the Cichucks, and Seth Jones and Eckblad. Name a GM in the NHL that is better at pulling off these deals than the one in Florida. The only other guy is Vegas. The two are the best. And the other guy that I'm loving right now, which I wish was the oldest GM,

who's a former oiler is Mike Greer in San Jose. Connor Hellebuck signed. What do you think they're going to trade for? There's a lot of rumors right now that Hella Buc, see, what they said happened with Brady Cichuk, and has happened with a couple three American players. Is playing in the Canadian markets? After the Olympics, they felt that, you know, being in the Canadian markets,

that there was some turmoil, some negativity towards it. Well, there's constant negativity in Canada, both the U.S. right now. That's right. And so you've got a couple of these American guys that are going, what, I could maybe force Winnipeg's hand and I can go play in Florida? The only problem is is what can Florida give? I mean, I'm sure that's the question. They didn't have to trade Lundell.

So now if you're Florida or if you're Winnipeg and Hala Bucks going to leave anyways, now they do have them under contract. So it depends how messy that gets. But what can you get back for them? But I loved San Jose's deal. So they've picked up Misa and they've got Celebrini and they got Will Smith. And so kind of the fourth, fifth forward they got that they drafted real high was William Eklund. They had a decent year last year, 53 points.

Software player than them guys. so then he goes and turns around and trades them and gets the ninth overall pick from Ottawa I love how San Jose is building that team that team is going to be a wagon in the next couple years and I think Greer is one of the best GMs out there former oiler as the oilers here slog along well you're look at some of the

there's that we were talking about this is a couple days ago I was talking about a couple guys about some of the Oilers GMs they had Kevin Lowe and Craig McTavish former players Right? And you look at some of the former players right now that are like jamming masterpieces. You got Sackack in Colorado, who's done a pretty good job. You've got Garen in Minnesota. When he first walked in, bought those contracts out there, and you're like, holy man.

Pat Verbeak with the ducks. Pat Verbeek with the ducks. Greer with San Jose. Iserman with Detroit hasn't had the success. He had the Tampa. But Iserman, like, I, you know, why does Dylan Larkin want to leave Detroit? What is it that he doesn't, like, he just keeps. built,

Isman just keeps building that team like Eisenman does. They are going to be a really good team here in the next couple of years. You'll look at what they've got for defensemen and goalies coming up and where their forwards are at. I don't understand where Larkin's at with that. The other thing too is they were up near the top at Christmas time and then they just started tank and throughout the year, right? And they still had a chance to make playoffs last year.

And like what happened there, right? Yeah, like, I don't know. Well, the thing you like about Stevie Wise, He comes from, I think what I loved about Holland was he seemed almost stoic. Like he just doesn't get rattled. He doesn't get emotional. It doesn't matter with the fan base or the media is saying. He just doesn't get a, he's got a plan and he's just seeing it through.

And so they, you know, I don't know, is it because they're a young team, they just fell apart? It could be as simple as that. It could be something more serious. But you go, who would you like to handle that? Bowman or Eiserman? I'm pretty sure Eiserman in my books, right? Like just somebody to... Which Bowman are we talking about?

Stan. Stan. We're talking about Stan. I mean, if it's the older one, it's a different story. Scotty never was... I don't know what Scott did a lot of GMing. No, he was just the coach. He was an assistant GM at one point, wasn't he?

Yeah. Chicago, speaking of Chicago, picked up Bowen Byron. How's an interesting trade? Trade the fourth overall pick. So you're going... So is Chicago trying to do what Vegas and Florida does and they're going to trade away all these top picks and pick up legit hockey players?

But like the fourth overall picks, pretty legit. pick. The only thing is, is now you're starting to wait how many years for them guys to to start coming in. Fourth overall should be what, two, three years? But all your guys are already young. How old, Bader? What is he? 21? Two, three years for that fourth overall, he should be, like, number one overall should be in the league this year. Right. Your fourth overall should be two, three years max.

And he should be, I mean, what they're looking at there, you've got, you've got three forwards and about three defensemen in the top six that are all supposed, the three defensemen are all supposed to be legit number one, two, defensemen. And the three forwards, Mahaltra probably is the bottom out of the three fours, but he's looked upon as going to be a very good pro. You know, second line center type guy. And then, of course, then you got McKenna and Stembrook. Right.

So I don't know. Like, you're giving up that for Byram, who's kind of floated around. Yeah, I could play top four. Is he the answer in Chicago? Is that what I'm seeing? I thought that was an interesting move. Well, the other thing about Chicago. It reminds me even an Empton-Oiler move.

What's interesting about Chicago is their windows not yet. No. And so why are you adding, you might as well keep adding young kids. Yeah. Because your window hasn't started stockpiling it until your top player is, you know, in his mid-20s. You know, it's interesting. And then at that point, then you start trading for those guys. Well, and if you really, if you really want to compare GMs, this is exact comparison.

So Chicago trades their fourth overall pick with a young team to get a, How old's Byron? 26-year-old guy on the back end. San Jose trades their oldest young draft pick that they had, because Eklund's like 22, 23 years old. Boeum's 25. 25. To pick up a ninth overall pick to keep stockpiling all these young guys

because this is supposed to be a deep defenseman draft. So now if you're San Jose, you've got the second overall pick and the ninth overall pick. Now you're free to take a forward with the second overall pick and still pick up a legit defenseman in the top 10. San Jose and Chicago are kind of in the same spot too. They've got a bunch of really good young players, and their window hasn't started yet. Right.

They're getting close, but they're not there yet. And that's what I mean. Look at the two deals. So you got Mike Greer continuing to build that base of youth and Chicago trading away fourth overall pick for a 25-year-old guy. Very two different ways of looking at that. Jonathan Taves, I just thought I'd bring it up. He did retire officially. And I don't know. If we go back like probably 15 years now.

that would have been probably him and Crosby would have been the two guys you would have picked first overall in an expansion draft you can take anyone to build your team around correct? Yeah, probably when people look back on Taves just the ultimate leader. You know, Messier is obviously number one for, you know, is considered to be the number one leader

of all time in the NHL, but Tave's got to be right up there. Like he led by, he did everything and won. There's a couple moments of Jonathan Taves. One is World Juniors where he scored three shootout goals. Yeah. For Canada to win it. I remember that one. And the other one was they were down by one in game seven of the playoffs.

I'm trying to remember who they were playing. And he scored a goal late in that game. And he was going like one of those games where all of a sudden the leader decides, I'm doing everything. And they just kept coming and coming. And they ended up scoring a goal to tie it late in the game. Those are the two memories I got a Jonathan Taves. Yeah.

Just a real. And his career later got derailed by injuries and sickness and stuff. which was too bad. Hockey Hall of Fame. They announced the class of 2026 and the people that are added. Patrice Bergeron, another great leader. Kerry Price, Peca Rene, Keith Kachukh, Cindy Curley, and then from the builder category,

a former guest at the podcast, Brian Burke got added into the hockey hall of fame. I don't think I have any problems with anyone. I find the Kachuk name just interesting because he's been on the ballot for a few years, This isn't his first year on the ballot. And it's this year when all the, like, there's been so much happen with the Kachucks between the Olympics and now the trade and everything. And now he's a hallfamer. Like, I find that interesting.

Is Patrice Bergeron the greatest two-way center of the last 20, 30 years? Well, they talk about him and the other guy that comes to mine. Copatar. Copatar, Datsuk. Datzuk, yeah. He's right up there. Right up there for sure. And he was like a really good goal score, not elite goal score, but to play a

against. He was a nightmare. Well, I just, you love them guys that, I think that's sometimes the difference is Bergeron's winning cups because he's putting up 70 points rather than 100, but he could put up 70 points shutting it down the other team's top player. Yeah. How many awards to win? He won a lot. Did he not?

Patrice? Well, Selke's, I think. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Well, I think I remember Sidney Crosby really like playing with him, right? Mm-hmm. Back in the Olympic days.

Well, you love playing with that 200-foot guy. Yeah. Right? And then you don't have to back check. They do all the hard work for you. Like I play with a really good 200-foot guy like Corey Dallan. He goes all the way back. I just got to get to the red line.

Right? Then I get the puck. Then I give it to Corey because he skates really well. Like it's a real easy game playing with a guy like that. He won the best defense before, Patrice Bergeron. He was nominated 12 consecutive seasons. He won it six times. Wow.

And then HL record. NHL record. There you go. So, I mean, to say he was one of the best, defensive two two way players of all time is right there it speaks for itself yeah um okay before i let you out of here any uh blue jays are are rolling they're starting to get healthy again just any final thought i know jay i know you love talking jays so i thought i'd throw it in well i i think i think the jays are the exact thing we talk about injuries i think people forget how much injuries can

affect they they just want plug and play plug and play oh kirk gets hurt put another why aren't you winning you know how many how many games did they they start a reliever pitcher and have like five guys pitch, maybe more than that, and you're like, holy man, they're band. And they, like, they have the lineup. If they were entirely healthy where they probably have maybe the best starting pitcher lineup in the league and their, and their, their eight-man crew, they can throw out there every day, never mind the DH is, you know,

really good. But when half your, I don't know, like, they have gone through injuries like you can't believe. team to watch. They are. You go back to the heyday of Batiste and all them. They were a fun team to watch because they hit the long ball. This team is fun to watch because they play baseball.

I agree. You know what I love about this team? So you got Vladdy, you got Kirk, kind of your two all-stars, you know, maybe barger down the road, Springer, you know, a former all-star. But they've surrounded them with a bunch of ballplayers, guys that can catch, throw, run bases, hit base hits. See, this is my problem with this team this year is they've got a couple of guys, and Barger being back in the lineup would be huge.

because some of their outfields like Jesus not so good in the outfield no and uh pinyango or whatever his name is yeah not so great in the outfield it kind of taken away from who they were absolutely you get you get barger back like him and right field throwing the throwing the guys out at home plate yeah plus he can hit like plus he's a great hiter well if he's healthy the whole year he's a 30 home run guy no and so all of a sudden now your outfield is Lucas and and uh varsho and and barger with straw is your fourth guy as straw is your fourth guy as straw is your fourth guy, right? And now, a sudden you look at your infield and, and you got Clement, you got, you got Vladdy, you got Jimenez, and then Yocomoto's leading the team in home runs and has been

everything that was advertised. And then you get Kirk behind the plate and all of a sudden you've got a team. Absolutely. Who's the other catcher? Venezuela. He's actually been really good. Yeah. Well, I tell you what, he came in and stole a job. Yeah, he did. Well, who was the first guy they brought in? And then they, they, did Hineman? Was it Hineman? Well, Hineman was a backup catcher, and they just traded him. They just got rid of them because Venezuela came in and he was so good. He caught and then he made the mistake and then it was like the next game.

Venezuela came in. Venezuela? Valenzuela. And he's been really good. He's made a few mistakes as a young catcher. Put you this way. When you're sitting there looking at a team, if they're all healthy there's very few spots that you go back to probably if they need an upgrade is maybe in that late innings. Like

Varland's been lights out. But could they use one more guy back there? Probably. Rogers is really good. Rogers is really good. Yeah. But they could probably, like Hoffman's not fit the bill. So could they find one more legit closer type guy, put Varland in the eighth,

Rogers in the seventh, and a legit closer comes in for the ninth? But that team's pretty set up if they're healthy. Well, you talk about starting pitching, is they're starting to get guys back in there. Well, no, I was watching the game, Bill, was that yesterday? And like, you've looked on the bench and all the faces were back. Yeah. That's what it looked, because for a long time, you're like, ooh, the heck are these guys. Yeah, I know.

And everybody's mad because they're losing. Yeah. Then they want to play Vladdy because he's not hitting home runs. And you're like, yeah, but he's hitting the ball. Like, it's not like he's totally terrible. Just having a tough stretch with the long ball. Yeah, there's three top pitchers right now. Yeah.

And we'll see if Beaver can get back in a shape. But their three top pitchers right now are legit pitchers. Well, they'd all be number one pitchers in other teams. They had like 10 pitchers that were all out all at once. I know that. Their top three, though, is ridiculous. Yeah, it is. It is.

Well, gentlemen, it's going to be a while. until we get to do this again. So, uh, did, uh, did, did you want to touch on the World Cup? You want to touch on the World Cup? All right,

let's touch it on the World Cup. Well, I just thought, we hadn't, we hadn't made our predictions. Nobody, nobody knows. This is, by the way,

just for all you listeners out there, this is, this is Harley's thing. Okay, so the World Cup's Harley's thing, I think he knows absolutely very little about it. I don't know of a sudden, he's this World Cup.

I think Harley likes soccer because he was always the flopper in the family. Oh my God. It's great. I've been watching with the kids, and any time they, like, get even remotely touched and act like they've been shot and have the trainer come out and they're sitting there, and then you watch the replay.

I'm like, do they realize the replay is going to show like 18 times in slow-mo and they were hardly touched? And the kids are like, why is he laying there? And I'm like, that's a good question. So you know why they flopping soccer so much is because a penalty kick? Like, goals are so hard to come by. You get a penalty kick, it can win the game. That's right.

And so they flop everywhere. They flop like crazy. See, they would change that if all they do is come in a rule and say, if you were found to be flopping, the other team gets a penalty kick, that would change. It wouldn't even have to be that, just yellow card. If you gave out yellow cards to people that are flopping, it would stop everything. But can you imagine if you got flop and the other team gets a free penalty kick? It would solve it in a hurry because it's bad. It is bad.

It looks bad on the sport. Because the sport itself, you know, when you're at the very top level like that, there's some great players. And Massey just broke the record for World Cup goals, right? There's a lot of great stuff about it. The flopping really takes away from the game. It's one of those games where you don't need to pay attention to the whole game. It's good to have on in the background. And then there's a big play and oh, everybody kind of turns around.

But like, am I a soccer guy? The only time I watch soccer is when the World Cup's on. The fans have been cool to watch. There's been some cool, cool stuff come on. And you get some good storylines like Cape Verde. Where even is that? that. I have no idea where that is. It's a made-up place. So the best sporting event I've ever been to was a soccer match in Rio de Janeiro. If you ever get a chance to go down to Brazil, and this was not

the big stadium in Rio, this was like a smaller stadium, but we went there. And it was the most intense sporting event I've ever been to. I never sat down the whole time. I didn't even have a seat to sit down in because it was just concrete slabs that you stood on. And the fans never stopped chanting and jumping and setting off fire crackers and fireworks from the stands. When we were in Milan, it was the same way. And so they have the home team fans

on one side and then the visitor fans on the other side and then anybody that doesn't want to be associated with either those groups. But then after the game, the visiting fans aren't allowed to leave the stadium for an hour after every, to allow the whole building to clear out.

Right? Don't you like, you know, the NFL is going like Rogers Place. nobody's going to argue how nice of a rain it is, but the atmosphere in it compared to Rexal or the Coliseum, it's not even comparable. It's just completely different. And when you go to an experience

where the fans are that into it, I think if I went and watched Elite Premier League or whatever it's called Elite League in Finland, the game was unreal, not because of the hockey, because of the atmosphere the fans created. But don't you think European fans are like that

with any of their sports? Yeah, it could be. Like even they talk about hockey. They'll chant in the hockey But you talk to WHL players about playing in like Portland and a couple of the other American teams, and they talk about how nuts it is there. Right. And you go, if I was running a team, I'd probably go experience and be like, what the heck are they doing here?

And how can we recreate it? Because as a fan, I want to go and experience that. Everybody in our area talks about the rush in Saskatoon and how cool of an experience it is. There has to be a way to recreate that in the NHL. and Vegas did it with their show and everything else. Can everywhere be Vegas? Absolutely not. It's its own little, I don't know, place of they do everything bigger there, right?

Like they just, all the entertainment factor. But in Eminton, there's things you could do everywhere else when you're building a new rink. You think you go around all these places. If you want to get it crazier, don't kick out people for giving the bird. Sometimes you just got to. How did we get on to this and we're talking about soccer here? So you want a crazy place. As soon as anybody does anything, they kick me up.

No, no, we're going to sit. Right? And then we wonder why everybody's sitting there all nice. So remember going to Mexico, which wedding was it? Where we went to that club? No, that was mine. That was Harley's. And remember how much energy was in that place?

I remember. I came out of there and I was like, it's four in the morning. I do not stay up until four in the morning. And I was just like vibrating. There was so much energy. And it was because of the way they structured the place and what they did there. And I think some of the new arenas missed that. And I'll add a second point to that is my kids last year

love going to Kids Scotty midget hockey games, U-18 games, because it's a little tin can and all the high school people would be there, and it was an experience. You take them to the hub and watch a AAA midget game, or a U-18 AAA game, and my daughter's like, ah, it was boring. Because it's so big and there's not a people.

I agree with the big. I also think it's the rules. What I remember about play at El Carmen is losing Renee. I got back to the bus at 4 in the morning, and I thought, I have lost Renee forever. How are you going to find a girl in Playadal Carmen? But no, there she was. That's what I remember.

What was the best part about Rexal when the Oilers made it to the playoffs? Was having the big Derek come down on and all the things. Them taking out the Derek was stupid. But you're losing. Don't get me fired up about the Derek. How about the Vikings? What did the Vikings make the change of in their stadium? What did they add?

They added the big, huge, long Viking horn where they started blowing in. I added it. It just, the entire, football is a different sport in general, but the atmosphere at the Viking, everything is, I don't know, is just unreal. You hardly, every third down, you're standing up again. You're up and down, you're up and down. They've got a ton of stuff going on with chance. When you came back from that, I remember you talking specifically about how cool that Viking horn was,

and it just woke the whole crowd up, right? All of a sudden, well, and it happens multiple times because there's third downs. There's things going on that they've, I just go, if you're trying to create an atmosphere, you should go experience the world and see what other places are doing to create that atmosphere. Everybody's got nice buildings. Okay, create a nice building. So does this tie into the Calgary Stampede deciding that they're going to have noise limits at night? Is it the same thing where it's like, well, someone complained?

So we got to take, you know, and we've got to make everything safe. So it starts to come down. It starts to come down. And pretty soon it's lost the energy that you're talking about. For sure, it's all safe and secure and everybody's got to. it's the Canadian woke attitude that we have now where we're so red tape, so much rules, that

it does take away from some of that stuff because it's, you're not allowed this, or if you get too out of hand or if you, right, the noise level's too high. It's all of that starts to play into it and pretty soon that's, you know, the people that want to have fun aren't there. So it's changing people who are going.

Yeah. Not to mention the cost to going. And the cost. So yeah, it's expensive to go to an oiler game. Yeah. Anyways. Jens, thanks for Oh, Haralds, did you want to do predictions? We got to decide. Well, we're, yeah. Dustus has got to get out of here.

We were so excited about soccer predictions, we forgot about it. Didn't we already pick our soccer pool winners? Is not our prediction? Yes, we did, but it's not on here. So I'm just going to read them off. He wants to announce it. I picked group C&D. We got Scotland and Brazil, USA, Paraguay.

Sean picked next and went Argentina, Austria, France, and Norway. Jay went Portugal, Colombia, England, Croatia, and a lot of beaking going back and forth. Finally, Dustin, Mexico, South Korea, Canada, Swiss. And then there was one pool left for each of us to take. So dust went Spain, Uruguay, Jay went Germany, Ecuador, Sean went, Netherlands, Japan. And I took Belgium, Iran.

The only one I'm disappointed with is Uruguay. So I was actually in Uruguay. The day they actually qualified for the world. Cup that was back in like 05 or something. And it was a great atmosphere in Uruguay. And right now they've tied two games and they got Spain left in their third game. And I'm like, this isn't good. But I did have a port.

I picked Ecuador. Now I look at it and I go, what's the population Ecuador? Like that was probably a dumb pick too. The only reason why I wanted to do this was when I was traveling, nobody was interested. And I remember actually when we came home and Dustin and I had our host together. And nobody was interested in the World Cup. So the one way you get people actually that aren't. interested and you start picking teams.

So just to let you know I've picked teams, I still have not watched a minute. And this has got to be the longest we've ever talked about soccer on this program. Well, my only time I ever paid attention to the World Cup of Soccer is when we were biking and we went to a bar in it was... Southern Ontario. No, no, no, no. It was Cape Britain. Remember we met the couple from Maine?

Yeah, that's right. We just got on the boat and we were sitting there watching. I'm like, this sucks dust. And he's like, oh, no, you got to put it. And then we started talking to people's and everybody was there to watch it. still remember that. Yeah. And so, yeah, you're not wrong, Harals. You pick a couple teams.

Have a great trip. Yeah. Enjoy yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the podcast will still be here, but the Brothers Roundtable will have to wait. And somewhere down the road, we're going to go to an NHL draft and we're going to have the Brothers Roundtable there. It's a bucket list.

It's a bucket list. Absolutely. Jens, thanks for doing this. And, well, we'll catch up to you at noon hour, I'm sure.