Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 189: Featuring Jeff Marek

Episode Date: July 2, 2019

On Tuesday's episode of Spittin' Chiclets the guys are joined by Jeff Marek of Sportsnet to talk all things NHL Free Agency. The guys break down all the major signings and recap all the big trades while also touching on their trip to Halifax and RA's side trip to Montreal. The guys give a sneak peak of some of their content that will drop with Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon as well.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 189 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by New Amsterdam Vodka. Coming to you a little late this week because of free agency, but it was well worth it. Lots of stuff going on. We're going to jump into it shortly with our pal Jeff Marrick of Sportsnet. But let's say hi to the boys first. Mikey Grinelli, our producer.

What's going on? Hello, gentlemen. Big show this week. I'm excited. Absolutely. Lots to talk about next up biz nasty paul bisonette where are you that's not your house behind you victoria happy canada day everyone i know you guys got fourth of july coming up but i went seven weeks sober and after a great

two-week work trip uh we popped off in nova scotia or no excuse me halifax and then i came to victoria and uh i've been in one yeah you were even in newfoundland before that too we'll get to that i've been i've been snorting dhm detox that's how much alcohol i've been drinking all natural hangover cure living off that stuff and last but not least our boy ryan whitney what's going on buddy fellas what's going on we buddy? Fellas, what's going on? We haven't seen each other since Friday night in Hollywood. What a city, eh? Halifax, Nova Scotia.

It was exactly what I remembered, like the World Junior Days. It was perfect. We had a hell of a night. And listeners, let me tell you guys something. Paul Bissonnette was a fucking puddle. Dude, you were crippled. And you didn't even drink when we were golfing, but I knew

he hadn't drank. And what was it? Five, six weeks, it felt like? Seven weeks. Seven weeks. I was like, he's going to get waffled. Sure. Shit. All of a sudden, I... What was the second bar we went to? I don't remember much of the second bar. The last thing I remember

was Danny Green from the Toronto Raptors coming up, shaking my hand because somehow he was texting me. And I told him to come to this bar. And then, boom, blackout. Woke up at 5 a.m. from Pasha's calling me, FaceTime audio, and there was a girl next to me in the bed. Don't remember anything before that. And almost missed my flight. Got on a quick whack and to me in the bed. Don't remember anything before that.

And almost missed my flight, got on a quick whack, and then went to the airport. And thank God it wasn't international. 50 minutes right before my flight, first class, check the bags. How are you? Keep the change. So I'm at the second place. I think that was Ale House.

Yeah, I didn't make it there. That's where you went, though. Yeah, okay, so I never saw you, but I was like, where's Biz? Where's Biz? Because you were behind me, and then I was in there an hour, and I hadn't seen you yet. I saw you. So I'm over in the corner.

I'm like, where's Biz? Where's Biz? This kid's like, I think he's down the bottom. We're on the second floor, so it's like a dance floor. I look down, and I'm looking. I'm like, he ain't down there. He's not. I don't see him. All of a sudden, I take a step back back and I see this guy in a Michael Jackson

gold jacket. That's biz for everyone, for everyone wondering it was green. There was, there was like nine people around you as you were walking, like flashes were going off. It looked like Mark Wahlberg and rockstar like walking through a bar. Like I see, I saw your face. I looked like Mark Wahlberg in Rockstar walking through a bar. I saw your face. I was like, oh, he's in one too. We maybe said hi for one second, but you were gone.

It was a quick hello. Next thing you know too, I kind of had a nice little buzz. I was getting ready to leave. You guys were already gone. Danny Green's in my face. I'm like, who is this guy? He's a monster. So I shake his hand, having no clue who it is, and I turn, I think I was with a couple of Sid's buddies

or some random guys I was chatting with. I was like, who's that? They're like, he's on the Raptors. I'm like, does he play for them? They're like, he's the best sixth man in the league. Yeah, he is. I didn't have a clue, but that whole night was a blast. I mean, by the end, I didn't say goodbye to Sid.

I didn't say goodbye to McKinnon. It was just one of those, see you later, just an Irish exit to no one. I felt bad, but so I was calling everybody being like, what happened last night? Because I obviously blacked out. And Grinnell said that I was walking home, and he saw me on the way home. Yeah, I ran into Biz as we were walking into the hotel. No, we didn't leave together. We just happened to be like walking into the hotel at the way home. I ran into Biz as we were walking into the hotel. We didn't leave together? No, we didn't leave together.

We just happened to be walking into the hotel at the same time. The girl he was with, he walked in with his finger up. He was holding the number one. He just won the championship. No, no, no. She kept being like, put your hand down. Put your hand down. He just stick it right back up the second he walked in.

I'm not a conquest. It's always hilarious. I've never seen Biz so drunk though yeah you were you were buckled I was goodbye that pile was that dirty Nelly's was so fucking hot man I drank three glasses you were leaking you sweated everything though dude no dude at dinner I drank three glasses of red

and I had seafood chowder I didn't have one drop of sweat fucking we went that by it was like someone turned the fucking sauna on. I reached out. I'm like, who's got a bone fucking in Hollywood for me? By the way, Hollywood's the best name in the world, by the way. Halifax was a good time. Beautiful women. Very

underrated. No, it's honestly mini Boston. It's mini Boston. It's exactly like it on the water. Pubs and bars everywhere. Good restaurants. I mean, that place. I said to a couple guys from there, I'm like, people from Boston have to start coming here more.

Like a guy's weekend up there would be a time and a half. I'm telling you, I know guys' weekends. Any of you Boston guys want an hour and a half flight for an unreal time? Go up to Halifax. And 30 cents on the dollar. Yeah, it's like, dude, I just love that spot. I really do. We can't give too much away, boys,

but that might have been the biggest day in Spittin' Chicklets history. We got Sidney Crosby for an hour and 20 minutes. Unbelievable. McKinnon followed. He was about 50 to 55 minutes. Very candid. We can't thank those guys enough. These guys, like I said,

I would put McKinnon second behind McDavid right now. And based on Crosby's rap sheet, I think he's the GOAT right now. Three Stanley Cups and all the other hardware he has. But just, that's fucking massive for us. You guys also got to hit the golf course with him too. So we have some good content of that too. I don't think we can talk about this yet.

We have a nice content. McKinnon and Crosby brought us to their course, their home course. New Ashburn. Okay. Thank you very much. I didn't know the name of it, nor do I care because I ripped it up. I'm now known as a sandbagger. Fizz is an absolute bag fest.

No. Fuck you. Talk to anyone that I've golfed with, Ray Whitney especially. Send him a text. I don't blame you. I really don't. So I want everyone to watch the content piece, and afterward we're going to have to give it to public opinion to whether i'm a sandbag or not but i'm gonna plead my case and say definitely not

i just had the round of my life and that's all i'm gonna say no the only thing that you don't understand this is why i said i didn't blame you is that you thought because if you shoot like 18 over par say you shoot 90 you think you're an 18 handicap. Because you're like, oh, because you kept saying like, so you parred one and two, and then you tripled three, and then you parred four. So you were three over through four, but you're like, yeah, but dude, like that's three extra shots. So I'll end up being nine over after nine, and then 18 over after 18. But handicap is like your, of your most recent 20 scores i believe it's your best 10 so if you were to play like a decent amount more than say five times a

year your swing is good you'd probably and we we came to the realization you're probably a 12 maybe even a 10 handicap the natural but when you came in and said like you're an 18 we were just like oh we expected to see a complete hack. When I start biz, it's like, wait, some people hit ground balls and stuff. I'm like, yeah, dude, that's what 18s do. But he's hitting bomb three woods down the middle. And Grinnelly pulls up at one point. He's like, I played golf with biz in Vancouver last year.

He's unbelievable. I'm like, this motherfucker. You're on my team, and I was still disgusted. I didn't want to be known as a partner. Listen, we're not going to say anything. He's like, motherfucker you're on my team and i was still disgusted i don't want to be known as a partner listen we're not gonna say paul crosby's like are you shitting me okay all right i'm not gonna say any more than my last comment before everyone sees the content piece is we golf from the whites yeah we were shedding 100 yards off every hole or maybe 75 6200 yards it was yeah that was correct because you were hitting a plate from there eight irons or seven 100 yards off every hole or maybe 75. 6,200 yards. It was... Correct. So I never played from there.

Eight irons or seven irons. And we adjusted on the back nine. So that's all we're saying. We've already given up way too much. Now, R.A., we've got to shift towards you. Your flight was delayed and canceled eventually. And you ended up Saturday night in Montreal. Yes.

I thought I was going to be home eating fucking pizza in bed by Saturday night, but instead I was at Chez Paris in Montreal and eating some done smoked meat to close the night at 2 a.m. in the morning. Yeah, I got to the airport in Halifax Saturday. I was supposed to leave at quarter to 5 at 3.30. They're like, your flight's canceled. And it's like, well, what the fuck am I going to do now? And they're like, well, you can leave in the morning, fly to Montreal, get a connector,

and then fly home. Or you can go to Montreal tonight and then wait for your connector in the morning. So I figured if I leave in the morning and I get to Montreal late, I'm fucked. Then I'll be stuck there. At least if I go to Montreal Saturday night, it's a 13-hour layover. I won't miss the flight. So I got a hookup. Someone at Barstool was following along my Instagram. They hooked me up with a hotel room, luckily. And, yeah, I was two blocks from Chez Paris. Wouldn't you know it? My first time in Montreal was 30 years ago when I was a kid.

So I was like, hey, I'm going to go old school. Popped in Chez Paris for a couple beers. There was some Chiclets listeners in there. Get the fuck out of here. Oh, yeah, a couple come over. Hey, so. All right, what are you doing here? I was like, oh, man, I was supposed to fly out of Halifax.

And now I'm looking at fucking pussy right now. So maybe you'll buy me a lap dance if fucking pussy right now. How many lap dances? I just got one. You know what? It's been so long. I got one. It just happened to be nine songs. She come over. She's like $10 a song or $15 in the private

booth. I was like, eh, you know, $15 in the private booth. It's expensive. Portnoy should be paying for that. I go to the private booth and you pay like a 15 five booth but it's expensive portland should be paying for that so i go to the private booth and you pay like a five dollar fucking extortion fee just to go into the booth with them and uh you know she does the first song and she just has she has a top off on her bottom one i was like hey you know i want to see a little something here she's like oh no you only see if you pay ten dollars you get to see it outside the curtain but if you pay 15 you can you can touch them but they don't take their bottoms off you can't touch it outside the curtain but if you pay 15 you can you can touch them but they don't

take their bottoms off you can't touch them between the legs but i was kind of like shit man i wanted to see the whole package so i wish i spent the 10 bucks outside the curtain i didn't even get to see any fucking mud flaps so it wasn't even worth it fuck i would have venmo'd you fuck i spent more money on the inside but i didn't care about touching her i just want to see some all right you know us over at spit and Chicklets love talking about wrenches. So it's time for a little wrench talk brought to you by our new friends over at Trojan Condoms. Sex.

We all love it. There is no denying it. I mean, you all know we're pretty open about our personal love lives. I'm a single man still meeting girls and living my best life, just like I did when I was an NHL rookie. Whit is all wifed up now, but we all know back in his NHL days when Crosby was helping him cash checks, not a big deal. He was running wild. R.A. is an experienced vet that lived through the sex craze 70s. God, I don't want to imagine that. Fuck it. Even Grinnell is out there getting his pecker

wet. It's a big sexy world out there and damn and damn it, we at Spit and Chicklets embrace it. We all have done it, and we don't plan on stopping anytime soon, and you shouldn't either. Sex is the best. But when you're out there in the trenches getting the deed done, we want you to all be safe. You never know when some rocket at the bar

will want to bring you back to your place, and it's always important to be prepared. And that's why you should always have a Trojan brand condom with you. STIs and unintended pregnancies are something we all want to avoid and there's no other brand out there I would allow anywhere near my wrench or trust like I do Trojan condoms. I want you guys out there having a good time, but I want you guys staying safe while you do it. And no other brand out there would get my recommendation like Trojan condoms. So anyways, I spent the night in Montreal, flew back. Oh, then I got to the airport, and I check in,

and I don't have a fucking seat. I was like, are you kidding me? I was going to go nuts, and I ended up getting a seat, so I got home. It was an adventure, but I was dying, though, because I couldn't imagine if Whitney was with me, how much he would have been flipping out by like 9 o'clock in Montreal. I was on that flight originally. Yeah.

And the night before when we were at dinner and these clowns said they were leaving at like 6 in the morning, I was like, Daniela, help me out. She switched my flight. And if I was in the airport with you and that thing got canceled, you would have like gorilla filmed me having a complete meltdown because i wanted you know after a big night out like you just want to get home almost like i didn't want to wait around all day and if we had to spend another night and i was at chaperone with you i would just might as well just jumped out of the airplane on the way there

so i was happy that i switched but i did feel for you man when you texted me like oh flight just got cancelled I was like oh my god yeah yeah I was on my couch at that point it sucked but fortunately I really didn't have much to do so you know like I said when your fucking life gives you lemons you make lemonade and just to jump on the Halifax point again great city great town there was actually a couple bachelor parties guys were coming from Toronto

to go to Halifax just to piggyback on your point about it being a good party town and also two big thanks to Sid and Nate. Those guys, awesome guys, man. I mean, not just for doing the interview. They're just genuinely nice guys. We sat down, had dinner with them, had a lot of laughs. They're just regular guys.

I really enjoyed their company. And, you know, Sidney Crosby is just a fantastic fellow. So it was good hanging out with him. And before we send it over to Jeff Merrick, Grinnell, you can chime in here on the schedule. We have a lot of content that's going to be coming out. I'm going to Calgary Stampede middle of July. I would imagine that the Sid stuff and McKinnon stuff, including the content, comes out in early August.

We had the trip to Newfoundland and St. John's, which we got Terry Ryan and Terry Ryan Sr. I would imagine that's coming out late July, hopefully. If not, it would be coming out mid-August because we wouldn't want to overlap it with the Crosby and McKinnon content. So we have a ton of stuff coming at you. We will be dropping down to one episode a week,

as we mentioned, but plenty of stuff for summertime once we drop down to one episode in order to keep you guys entertained. All right, well said. Now let's go to Jeff Marrick to get the lowdown on keep you guys entertained. All right. Well said. Now let's go to Jeff Merrick to get the lowdown on a wild opening day of free agency. This interview was brought to you by Stitch Fix. Personal style is like a fingerprint. Everyone has their own.

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towards anything you keep from your box you'll never have to think about looking good again with stitch fix get started today at stitch fix.com slash chicklets and get an extra 25% off when you keep everything in your box. That's stitchfix.com slash chicklets. stitchfix.com slash chicklets. This is the second Chicklets Appearance for our next guest. He kills it every time he's on Sportsnet up in Canada. He's also co-host along with Elliot Friedman of the excellent 31 Thoughts podcast. He's also just a great guy. We love shooting the shit with. Welcome back to Spitting Chicklets, Jeff Marrick. Thank you very much. All right. Nice to talk to you. It's been a while.

Nice to catch up. Did I see you on Twitter actually having lunch today with someone who was traded? I did. Dubas ruined my lunch. Wow. Yeah, he does that. He's known to do that. So let me, okay, let me ask you. Let me turn this around. All right, I hate to do this and I apologize.

Can I be host for two seconds? Yes. Drive the bus, baby. Okay, hang on. No yelling on the bus. Hang on. Does he, so did he get the call while you were there with him and if so was it joe sakic or was it kyle dubas uh he got so he took a phone call quickly then came back to the table and he goes i just got traded to leafs and and i was like fuck you you didn't get dealt to leave

because there was all this talk between him and vancouver and yeah but you when you looked at his face you're like oh shit this guy just got dealt a lease. And he was very excited, of course, bittersweet because he's got McKinnon, who's one of his best friends, Colorado, and a team that's up and coming and is going to be successful, excuse me, that's a big word for me, for years to come here. But now he gets to go to a team who's, I would say, what, top five in the league? They're one of the contenders. Yep, and it's a fishbowl, right? here but now he gets to go to a team who's i would say what top top five in the league they're they're

one of the contenders yeah and it's a fishbowl right like i always say about about players and listen you mean you and web play you know this more than anybody else on this podcast right now like players always say and maybe coaches are a better example generally hockey people always say i know what to expect when i go to toronto and then when they go through the experience they say wow i had no idea it was like that. Like on the one hand, it's great. And you're treated like a King and oh man, look at this. The food is great.

Personal chefs and taken care of. And I can just turn my brain off and go through my day. And I can just be a hockey player. It's a lot different than it is, but man, when it's bad, it's bad. And the awful thing about playing for the Maple Leafs is for whatever reason, and I cannot understand this, and I hope this doesn't happen to Tyson Berry, but for whatever reason, Maple Leafs fans always pick on one defenseman. Like they get on, they find one defenseman,

and then all of a sudden that defenseman can do no good. Whether it's Corey Cross or Ackie Berg, Larry Murphy is probably the best example of it. I mean, Brian McCabe. Jake Gardner. Oh, Jake Gardner. Yeah, Gardner, they get on him. Zaitsev most recently as well, for whatever reason. And I don't know that it's like this in other markets.

But for whatever reason, Maple Leafs fans always fixate on one defenseman. And then he begins to epitomize everything that is wrong about the toronto maple leafs so of all dion for no one i would say the toughest position to play um on the maple leafs is always the friends and because the fans just pick one and then that's it it's like they find one note on the fiddle and they just keep plucking it over and over again. It went dark there pretty quick. Can we talk about the positive stuff? Well, poor Tyson.

Okay, yeah. It's all sunshine, lollipops, and it's great. Marching to the Stanley Cup, and where's it going to be your seat on the parade? Hey, you're just a realist. You're just a realist, bro. Are you in the midst of writing a hit piece on Tyson Berry before he's even played a game for the Toronto Nets?

No, man. I'm just truthing on your podcast today. I'm just like, that's it. Today was my No, man, I'm just truthing on your podcast today. I'm just like, that's it. Today was my last shift, so I'm just truthing on you. Well, it's just any D-man being high risk, you're probably going to end up being fucked. And I think the funniest part of all that is the fact that Larry Murphy was maybe the biggest whipping boy of all time for the Leafs

and ended up being this incredible shutdown defender with Nicholas Lidstrom. And like people said, it was impossible to play against the Leafs fans. You don't know what you're talking about when you're talking about defensemen. Thank you. Larry Murphy, by the way, and your fans who followed hockey in the 80s will certainly appreciate this. Larry Murphy, okay, was probably the best decoy I've ever seen. If you look at that 1987 Canada Cup,

watch the championship-winning goal. So it's Gretzky to Lemieux, and Lemieux scores. It's a three-on-one after Dale Howarchuk hooks down the Soviet player behind the scenes. And of course, no call. The game is in Hamilton, after all. It's a three-on-one. And you know, the minute Lemieux has the pocket,

that there's no way he's passing. He's taking that shot. But Larry Murphy goes hard to the far post. So the goaltender has to cheat a little bit to Murphy or at least respect Murphy. And he freezes him. And Lemieux sends in a perfect shot. To me, there's a lot on the play.

Howertrek wins the draw. It's fantastic. The Gretzky pass is great. The Lemieux shot is iconic in Canada. But to me, the unsung hero on that play is Larry Murphy, who goes to the post, stands there, and freezes the goaltender. To me, that's one of the great unsung plays. No, no.

He was never going to get it. One of those. Gretzky passes it over to 66, and you're going to feed it to Larry Murphy with the game on the line? Not a chance, but the goaltender's got to freeze. He's got to freeze. Good stuff. Hey, Jeff, we had a very rare offer sheet today.

Fans love these. I don't know just for the drama it causes, but Montreal Canadiens, of all teams, they signed Sebastian Ajo to a five-year, $42.27 million offer sheet. It comes out to, I got it or five year 42.27 million dollar offer sheet comes out to i got it right here uh eight was it 8.4 million a little over 8.4 million first off did you think the number was even that high for an offer sheet it didn't seem like a number that's going to be tough for carolina to even match right no yeah i think all right that they're they're banking on

you know the first year being front loaded to the tune of like oh is it 2121 million? That was going to be the pill that went down sideways on the hurricanes, and they weren't going to bite on it. But, you know, where the money averages out is, you know, fine for the hurricanes. I think it was like a 9.5 or a 10. You know, they would have, sort of, you know, stepped back from the table and said, okay, let's talk about this, folks. But I mean, this one, I mean, you saw Don Waddell in his press conference, almost even joking about it by saying, like, look, you know, like I don't have to do much work this summer. I don't have to negotiate a contract.

Montreal has made it simple for me. I think what, you know, the offer sheet is that boogeyman out there, that cautionary tale, ooh, offer sheets are coming, ooh, spooky offer sheets are coming oh spooky offer sheets are coming you know it's um it was kind of a letdown like you're right already like wow we finally saw the offer sheet we keep hearing about these these unicorns uh in the cba and there we finally had one but unfortunately it was it was weak like it's a it's a light offer sheet it's one that the carolinaricanes, we all suspect,

will match quite quickly after I would imagine Don Waddell and the Hurricanes kind of want to freeze Montreal here, freeze them out of doing business for seven days, and then just saying, okay, we're going to match on Ajo here. I think that we, A, wanted an offer sheet with some teeth, with some claws that would really force the team to consider not

matching it, but we didn't get that with the Montreal Canadiens today. I think this is one that's easily matched by the Hurricanes. Is it a lot of sugar in the coffee up front for Tom Dundon and the Carolina Hurricanes? Yeah, probably. But listen, after the season they just had – I get that.

He's cheap. The expression here in Canada, and you know it, is he squeaks up. Anyone who's like that squeezes a beaver on the nickel until she squeals. And we understand that. I get it. But if you can't sign Sebastian Ajo with that team after that season, then I don't know what you do with the Carolina Hurricanes. Yeah, exactly.

Then it's time to call up Houston and see if you want a team. Hey, Quebec city house. How's that new video Toronto arena. Look at me looking for a tenant. Like to me, this is the layout. This is the two foot pot. You max the offer sheet and you move on. I was actually not surprised at all to see him get offer sheeted. I mean, I guess the offer sheet as a whole is not very popular, but he's the type of player, he's so silky. I love Ajo's

game. So, he's worth the money. I really think he'll only get better and better. The other main guy offensively that at least I was looking at was Panarin. And so you're in the know. Marek's got all his buddies, all his sources. He always knows what's going on.

That's something about you people don't realize, Marek. You always know what's going on around the league. So why last night am I hearing, like, Panarin to the Islanders is a done deal, and then he ends up with the Rangers and it's under $12 million per year. So it's a huge win for the Rangers when everyone was saying Long Island last night. Yeah, I think it was a smart play by the agent, Paul Theofanis. You know, try to create the marketplace, try to drive up the price, and then sign where you want to sign.

You know, much like John Tavares last year, who left money on the table to San Jose offer, you know, it was more money than Toronto offered, but ultimately he wanted to play in Toronto, and ultimately Artemi Panarin wanted to be a Ranger. And I think, you know, although the league will never come out and admit it publicly, like the league has to be thrilled at this. You know, and if you're a player in the NHL and you're concerned about escrow,

you have to be thrilled about this because the NHL is a stronger league when the Rangers are a powerful team. And as a player, you want your wealthiest team not just making the playoffs, but going as deep as possible. It looks like this Rangers rebuild, although it's not the end, we're starting to see the beginning of the end of the rebuild and what this next wave of Rangers team is going to look like. And I think this was a really nice job of business being done by Paul Theofanis and Artemi Panarin. Wanted to go to New York. That was something we heard about going back to last summer. And they made the marketplace, whether it was Florida,

whether it was the New York Islanders, and ultimately settled into where he wanted. Was it the number he wanted? No. But I don't think anyone is crying about Artemi Panarin just making shy of $12 million. An interesting thing about him as well, you consider the level of his compensation and where he's at in the NHL.

Guy was never drafted. And Guy didn't come over to North America until he was 24 years old. And now all of a sudden he's one of the richest players in the game and the most highly sought-after free agent this year in the offseason. So good off an errand, and it's a real good story. Yeah, rumor has it Colorado actually made a pretty good stab at him too. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. I can see that, and he would have fit in well there.

But listen, I mean, as you guys well know, what is it, Brighton Beach, you know, that community where all the Russian hockey players made famous by, you know, Kovalev and Nebchinov and all those Rangers, the Russian Rangers that won the Cup back in the day. That is very much a preferred destination for a lot of Russian-born hockey players. I mean, as good as Panarin is, is it any bit of an overpay at $11.6 million? I mean, I know how talented he is, but obviously the market is what it is. You get what you pay.

But is it any bit of an overpay, though, Jeff? I don't know because I love Panarin's game. And normally I would say, well, you look at the age and you look at the term and that's a pretty big investment to make for someone like that. But when you look at where the game is at right now, RA, and where it's heading, I mean, he's a threat on a lot of different levels.

I mean, he's an elite level playmaker. He's one of these you know new wave of of uh of winger you know the playmaking winger normally that's the guy that just finishes but we're starting to see whether it's keen whether it's marner you know a lot more players coming into the nhl that you know they're not shy about carrying the puck over the blue line and making the play so he has that um in his in his bag of tricks and he's also a scoring threat as well and he makes players better around him. Like, normally, RA, I'm with you,

and I'd be concerned about, you know, that level of compensation and that term for that age. But when I look at where the game is at now, and I look at how the game is played, I say that this guy, this guy in a lot of ways embodies exactly where the game is at in 2019. Well, another former Blue Jacket and fellow countryman of Panarin Bobrovsky, right? It made total sense.

Everyone was saying Florida forever. Luongo retires. It's pretty much a done deal when we saw all that go down. But give me your honest opinion. Seven years, $10 million a year for that? Yeah. Could you not in two years like a complete disaster and be like oh my god we saw this coming

yeah I think the last 2 will be like that wit I think you probably stick that one in the long term deposit because the result there might be guaranteed I just don't know 7 years 70 million dollars I just don't know where the market was for that 10 million dollar hockey player you know was that what the Islanders uh were going to offer Bobrovsky should

he have you know come in as a as a pair with Artemi Panarin before they went the Varlamov route I just don't know you know where the the 10 million dollar market was uh for Sergey Bobrovsky I mean listen the one thing you know Friedman has talked about this on the podcast countless times. Whenever Joel Quenville goes into a new situation or whenever Quenville is interviewed for a new job, the first question he always asks the GM is, who's our goalie? And that's the goalie. So there's his answers or Joel Quenville has his guy in Sergey Bobrovsky.

But I think your point's a good one, that here's someone who we've seen have a brittle body before. This is someone that we've seen, although not so much this season, we've seen this player falter in the playoffs numerous times as well. There's players that get you there and players that get you through. I'll tell you what, there are two guys that the minute that signing was made whose smile just got deeper and richer, and one of them is Braden Holtby, and the other guy is tending net for the other team in Florida right now.

If Bobrovsky's at $10 million, those two other goaltenders in Eastern Conference just got a whole lot richer next season. When's the last time a goalie making that much won a Stanley Cup, though? those two other goaltenders in Eastern Conference just got a whole lot richer next season. When's the last time a goalie making that much won a Stanley Cup, though? I mean, Corey Crawford's making what, just over six? And he got paid after he'd proven himself by winning one. I think it's ridiculous to pay a goalie that much money. I mean, Carey Price, sure, because he's the natural.

But nonetheless, when's the last time a goalie making that much of a team's cap, even before that, even before there was the hard salary cap, has won a championship? Yeah, okay. Let me try to make the case on behalf of Dale Talon. Listen, I don't disagree with you. And then your facts are bang on. Let me make the case for Dale Talon.

You have the Florida Panthers, who last year offensively were a top 10 team in the NHL, the power play second in the NHL. This team had zero problem scoring and we suspect next season, this team will have zero problem scoring. The thing that killed the Florida Panthers is they couldn't get a save. And you guys played, you know what it's like when all your hard work gets undone because you can't get a save. And that's what happened. Luongo couldn't stay healthy. Reimer couldn't make saves. Like all season long, no matter what they did, it all got undone by bad goaltending. So maybe ask yourself, what's that worth to us?

Is it worth $5 million? Sure. Is it worth $6 million, $7 million? Now we're starting to get into dangerous territory. But if that's the market and you're saying to yourself, we're a top 10 team offensively, we are killers on the power play. If we could just get a save, look what St. Louis just did. Why can't that be us?

Then maybe you do make the case for overpaying with the net minder jeff some signings end up just as we expected bobrovsky to florida dushane in nashville biz called that one uh but what i did and everybody in the world said he was going everybody's tagging me in that like i was the insider no i it was like one of three teams he was going to i know it was a guitar joke. I'm having some fun with you. But, Jeff, what sign was the biggest surprise to you, whether it was total amount signed for or where a guy ended up?

What surprised you the most? I can't believe what Minnesota is doing right now, R.A. I can't believe that the Mets – The Mets took Arello to the Minnesota Wild, 6'5", at 32 years old, doubling down on age. I mean, when you're already – listen, the Central Division's not getting any easier. All right? St. Louis is Stanley Cup champions.

Chicago's on their way back. Stan Bowman's rebuilding that beast. Winnipeg's still going to be there. Nashville got Matt DeShane. That division is real tough. And already, you know, you've seen the past couple of seasons, the Minnesota Wild flame out in it. And now all of a sudden you double down on age by bringing in Matt Zuccarello

at 32 years old. Man, I know that they were close. I think the money was either similar or they're at the same spot with the Dallas stars who are, as we all know are at a different spot and they're winning cycle than Minnesota. And the holdup was the extra year. I believe Dallas was offering for, and Minnesota was the only one that was willing to go to five, but man,

that is a tough one to take. If you're a Minnesota wild fan, I know that Fenton's got a tough job. They're married to a lot of long-term deals. It's been tough to undo a lot of these contracts and get things going with the Minnesota wild. But this one to me is, this one to me more than anything else has me has made me shaking my head on free agent day. I'm also surprised that Wayne Simmons didn't get anything more than anything else has me has made me shaking my head on on free agent day i'm also surprised um that wayne simmons didn't get anything more than a one-year contract i know colorado was

interested i know there's a couple of other teams out there that registered in wayne simmons i thought that he would get more than a than a one-year contract that he ultimately ended up signing with the new jersey devils and apparently minnesota's option was phil kessel first but he wouldn't waive the no trade clause to them he He was like, no, I'm not going there. Who am I playing with? And yeah, and Jason Zucker was going to be the guy. How did he beat Jason Zucker through all of this? Like you go through the Calgary stuff with the trade deadline.

Now you go through this with the Pittsburgh Penguins. I mean, if there's one player here who's, you know, who feels, you know, like not wanted on the voyage more than Jason Zucker, I don't know who that guy is. And he's a good hockey player too. Like that's the thing. Like I love Jason Zucker. I don't know who that guy is. And he's a good hockey player, too. That's the thing. I love Jason Zucker. I think he's a hell of a hockey player.

And here it is. Twice, once a deadline with the Flames, and then with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Tell you what, whoever ends up at the end of the day, because he's not going to be in Minnesota, whoever ends up with Jason Zucker this offseason is getting one highly skilled and highly, highly motivated hockey players next season.

You know, we know Dallas and Florida both got better today, Jeff, but who got worse? Anybody? Who got worse? Well, I mean... The Islanders? The Islanders, yeah, Varlamov. Well, I mean, the Islanders kept what they had, right? Like, the Islanders, I mean, they lost Leonard, but they, Varlamov. Well, I mean, the Islanders kept what they had, right? Like the Islanders, I mean, they lost Leonard, but they added Varlamov. You know, some people, and we talked about goaltenders being brittle,

you know, sometimes Varlamov can fall under that umbrella as well. He was, I mean, last season, and we've seen this before from Sergei Varlamov, I mean, he's like a toilet seat at a stag and dough. It's up and down and up and down. He had that great October last year. And then months after months, after months, it declined and declined. And yeah, I was trying to down with them and then pick things back up again, losing a spot to Grubauer and back and forth.

Like he's had a very bizarre career in the NHL. The Islanders retained their captain. It almost feels as if that was the fallback plan to retain Anders Lee. If they didn't end up getting Artemi Panarin. I still wonder about the Winnipeg Jets here, guys. And I wonder if Winnipeg is going to be that team that gets more expensive but doesn't get better. I'm a big Kyle Conner fan.

I think Kyle Conner is one of the most underrated players in the league. All this guy does every morning is put his pants on and score goals and no one talks about him. Sneaky good hockey player. If you haven't watched Winnipeg Jets games, check out Kyle O'Connor. Not the biggest Patrick Laine guy.

As we've seen before, I know all goal scorers are streaky, but him and Jonas Donskoi take it to a whole different extreme. But I wonder about the Winnipeg Jets here. They move away from Trouba. Kevin Hayes, they couldn't hang on to. He ends up with the Philadelphia Flyers. And now you're looking at re-signing Patrick Laine.

That's going to be an expensive ticket. Telecon is going to be an expensive ticket as well. I like Brandon Tanev. I'm not sure that I like the money in the term, but I like the player. I like Tanev a lot. Rutherford knows something we don't. That's a aggressive move for a guy who's

playing on the bottom six for the Winnipeg Jets. I know. I just love buzz saws like him, though. He's a pitbull on a pork chop. I love the way Tanev plays. I just love buzz saws like him though. Like he's a pit bull on a pork chop. Like I love the way Tana plays. I just, I just love that player. I thought that third line was one of the best in the entire NHL. And he was a big part of it. I know it's a lot of money and a lot of term for him, but I,

I do look at Winnipeg and I say they got more expensive. I just don't know if they got better through all of it. You're busting out all the Dan Rather sayings tonight. I love it. I hadn't heard that one before. Like a toilet seat out of stag and dough. That's a classic, Jeff. Listen, I didn't come up.

I picked that up somewhere along the line. Trust me. But what's the old saying? Greatness borrows, but genius steals. I'm sure I stole that somewhere along the line. That's worth keeping. Now, Joe Pavelski went to Dallas three times seven. Did any elements of that deal surprise you?

I was surprised, I guess, just because he was a captain in San Jose, and he's 35, and he got a race to go to Dallas. I think just the whole, every element kind of blew me away collectively. But what was your take on it? Birthday is July, I want to say, 10th. So he can still be bonus. So he's not 35 until then. So he slides in on the technicality,

which is good. And listen, I like the fact that Dallas is going for it here. Dallas brings in Sakura after he gets bought out by the Edmonton Oilers. And Joe Pavelski is a huge upgrade to what they have right

now. There's a lot of reasons I think to be excited about Dallas. I mean, Tyler Sagan is front and center. I think Raddick Faxa is always a sneaky, sulky trophy candidate. Their blue line is a murderer's row. And if you haven't

had a look at, I mean, you guys have, but if your listeners haven't had a chance to watch Dallas Stars games, Miro Haskinen is worth the price of admission. Him and John Klingberg are fantastic. This is a really good Dallas Stars team and they just got better immediately by bringing in Joe Pavelski, who makes them better on the ice and makes them better in the room again. Like this is, this is,

this is an impressive showing here from, uh, from Jim Nill and they, they might already have the best goaltending tandem in the NHL as well. The goaltending was phenomenal. Aside from the coyotes. Sorry, just had to chime in there. Coyotes did a wonderful job. And what's going to happen with the starter next year or who's going to be the starter next year? Nobody knows that's, that's starter next year? Nobody knows.

That's Biz's problem. Da-da-da! No one knows. Well, the thing about Dallas is, too, that the goaltending was a question for so long when they went through the Letton in years, and then Bishop was so good this year. Then they added Pavelski like you're talking about. For me, it's like I look at Corey Perry,

and you're talking about Jason Zucker being a guy i look at cory perry and you're talking about jason zucker being a guy that's going to be ready to play and i think cory perry is going to have a bounce back here i i know that speed isn't exactly there but i think that he has a game where he doesn't necessarily need to be the fastest guy and there's been so many injuries in such a shit situation in anaheim i just wouldn't be surprised to see him come back. And him and Pavelski could make such a big difference. And Sequeira, who takes heat, mainly because he gets injured a lot too, he can add a ton to the back end. So that team actually could be ready to make a huge step.

And they lost Game 7 double overtime to the Cup champs anyway. So it's like they're right there. I know, man. And you're right there. And there's a lot to like about. Listen, I mean, i love the andrew cogliano story like i love players that realize that what they did when they're playing you know junior hockey in canada isn't going to work in the nhl so they recreate themselves and that's

what andrew cogliano does and for you know my money he should always be in that selkie trophy um conversation and should get that consideration like i I like, to me, it comes down to, you know, what are you getting out of your top guys? How far can your blue line take you? And to me, the lesson of the Dallas Stars, and we saw this a few years ago, and it was mainly due to travel. And so you want to, you know, minimize, you know, the fatigue that your goaltenders went through.

And, you know, Dallas, as we all know, has the worst travel of any team in the entire NHL. Like like i think you're really going to start to see more teams do what dallas did with their net mining and that is split the load you know that it's not going to be your traditional 80 20 starter backup sure you're going to have that in places like montreal now with carrie price and keith kincaid but you look at how ben bishop and anton hudobin split the duties and what ended up happening you look at all the teams that did it last year, right? Whether it was the Boston Bruins, whether it was the New York Islanders, whether it was the Dallas Stars, like all these teams,

the Colorado Avalanche, like all these teams that platoon the goaltenders, you know, all got out of that killer first round where everybody's healthy and everyone's every game is like game seven because you're playing balls out. It was fantastic hockey. And it was those teams that rested goaltenders throughout the season that were the ones that were able to excel. I think that for my money, the combination, the battery of Ben Bishop

and Anton Hudobin is probably the best combination in the entire NHL. A lot of it, again, out of necessity. I get that. But I think the Dallas stars have really stumbled into teaching the nhl a significant lesson on how to manage the load on goaltenders in 2019 jeff going back to the office sheet for a minute again uh you know we know the we know the canes are going to match it but will we see any actual repercussions against the habs by other gms for actually office sheeting that that's always the excuse why they don't do it, but repercussions. Are we going to actually see anything like of that variety even happen?

Like Carolina turn around and office sheet a player down the road? I don't know that Carolina has the budget to do things like that. You know what I do wonder about, R.A.? I wonder, so thinking about this today, I was talking with Berkey and Trege about this on our panel as we were leaving this afternoon. I wonder, I really wonder if Montreal did every other general manager with an RFA a favor here. By pricing Sebastian Ajo so low, what does that say about your negotiations with Marner,

with Braden Point, with Matthew Kachuk, you know, all these other teams, Kyle Connor, that have players of a similar ilk, we're all expecting to sign upwards of $10 million. All of a sudden, here comes the Montreal Canadiens, and sure, it's front-loaded and $20 million in the first 12 months of the deal, but all of a sudden, Sebastian Ajo is an $8.5 million hockey player. I wonder, RA, if that has any effect on negotiations with any of these other group two free agents in this offseason they're also eligible for opportunity so so i wonder confirm guys guy collusion is what you're saying you know you know they you know

they should settle it okay let me ask you you know they should settle it arm wrestling contest to win mark bergevin or rod Brindamore? Oh, geez. That's a rough and rowdy. Brindamore would beat who, too? Bergevin's jacked, man. Who wins that arm wrestle? Speaking of jacked, big trade by the Arizona Coyotes,

getting Phil Kessel. I was going to say, here's what I like about that deal. This is where I always find value in a player like Phil Kessel. Biz, you know what it's like to have to grind out for every single goal. And when you spend an entire game grinding hard for every single goal, it's hard, it's taxing physically, it's taxing mentally. What I love about Phil Kessel and players like this

is they can give you the easy goal. You know, the guy just comes down the wing and bink, it's taxing mentally what i love about philcastle and players like this is they can give you the easy goal you know the guy just comes down the wing and bink it's in and it's like oh god that's so nice so nice like just such a breath of fresh air up and down the bench we just got an easy goal one that we didn't have to work for one we just put the puck on this guy's stick and all of a sudden the red light is going off and the fans are cheering. That's one of the values to me of a player like Phil Kessel. Anytime you can have someone that can score that easy goal, and it's almost like a release

valve to players and a release valve up and down the bench. Oh, thank God. Phil just gave us an easy one. There's a huge value there, I think, for teams. What do you think about what they gave up for him? Galchenyuk, the all-in player. Yeah, I like Galchenyuk. I had a really hard time with the way he was

handled in Montreal. Here's a kid that was, he's a center, but when they brought him into Montreal, how many times did we hear, yes, we're going to put him at center, we're going to leave him at center, because that's where he's going to develop. Every time there was an an important, you know,

defensive zone face-off, yeah, Galchenyuk out, Lars Eller, you're taking the draw. Like he was false started so many times at center with the Montreal Canadiens that I wonder sort of how much long-term damage that did to this, you know, young player's, you know, development. And ultimately, do we still see the repercussions or are we still sort of coasting on those fumes?

I don't know. But I look at Galchenyuk and I say, man, if only Montreal would have just put him at center, left him at center. I understand you put Lars Eller beside him as a little bit of a babysitter here and there. I get that. But let the guy make mistakes.

Let the guy learn. Let the guy grow. Right now, to me, it's a guy that's now playing on his third team in three seasons, and I can't help but going back to how he was handled by the Montreal Canadiens and how things maybe would have been different for Golchenyuk had he been handled differently with the Habs.

Well, Jeff, we want to thank you so much for joining us on Short Notice. I know this is one of the busiest days of the year for you. By the way, happy Canada Day as well to you. I know it's a big day for you guys up north. Again, thanks for joining us. Love your insight. It's always top-notch. You boys have a

wonderful summer. Always good catching up. You got two dedicated year balls right here to keep up the great work. Thanks as always. I know you probably heard as a rock when you heard that no offsides anymore talk. Then it ended up being phantom. I know how you feel about the offsides i know man i had to i was like oh man i hope i'm wearing black pants to hide the boner on this one but no and then it was come crashing down with oh man

all right buddy my old my old rhi rules thanks so much man and uh as i already said happy canada we'll talk to you soon thanks Thanks, Whit. Thanks, Vince. Grinnelli, RA, you guys are the best. Thanks, guys. That interview was also brought to you by Quip. We're not the first to say it. Sometimes we need a vacation from our vacation. Delayed flights, hotel snafus, chatty travel companions.

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That's your first refill pack free at U I P.com slash checklists. Very special. Thanks to our boy, Jeff Merrick. Just a great guy. Very well informed, knows hockey, knows the game, loves the league. So it's, he's a blast to talk to him. And before he got off, I should have mentioned, but I'm glad I remembered congratulations to him and his wife on their newest addition to their family. They adopted a two and a half-old girl named Jordan Marrick.

So it's pretty crazy, and he said it was a five-year process that just finally was finished up. So great for them, very happy for them, and once again, thanks to him. And that was a hell of a little synopsis he gave of the crazy day we had here as a free agency frenzy broke down. Yeah, he's great at his job, and congratulations, Jeff. I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for sharing that with me.

That's a nice little heartwarming story to go along with that free agency breakdown. And, boys, we got an offer sheet. Like we did mention to Jeff, we'll give a little more detail on it than we did in our interview with him. Restricted free agent Sebastian Ajo signed a five-year, $42.27 million offer sheet with Les Habitants. The Hurricanes have a week to match the offer. They say they're going to.

Like we just said with Jeff, it's not that high of a number. Now, guys, I wanted to ask you something. Now, Sebastian Ajo, like we said, he signs an actual contract in Montreal. Now, of course, Carolina is going to match it, and he's going to be a Hurricane. Will he get any funny looks in the room from the teammates at all, or will they understand? No.

All the teammates say is like, man, you're going to have an unreal team dinner to pay for this. At one point. Money on the board. But, dude, that's just getting a deal put right in front of your face. Hey, and you sign it. And the funniest thing is you don't really – I shouldn't say you don't care,

but it doesn't matter who ends up giving you the contract. You're good to go. I'm going Ryan Hartman style. I'm going dark for a week after I signed that. I don't care who fucking, what team I'm on. I'd say the only, it was a snowball's chance in hell by Montreal. Carolina's going to match that. It was that front-loaded money that maybe Montreal was relying on the fact

that Carolina's owner is very cheap, that maybe he wouldn't want to pay that up front because that's hard. We saw it with the Shea Weber deal in Nashville. That was difficult at the time for a small market team. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I want to say he got paid like, what, $26 million in signing bonus money on that offer sheet from Philadelphia? Right around there. Enough where –

In the first 13 months anyway. Yeah, it's all right away. That was the one thing. And even though Caroline is cheap, I mean, it's pretty well known, right? When the new owner came on, I mean, they were looking to cut costs in every aspect of their organization. But that's their best player, right? And he has money.

It's just about not wanting to spend it. And on a guy like that, after the season you've had, Merrick said it perfect, like, how do you not? And I actually – it's shocking to think that he will be an $8.5 million player now because you look at around the league and you look at how good he is. I mean, that guy could easily next year have 85, points i mean he's he's that good he's that talented and if he's making that that really does affect some signings going on here in the future

it was a really good really good point that merrick made yeah he's his points have gone up 49 to 65 to 83 he keeps getting better and better every year uh this is the first offer sheet in more than six years. The last unmatch was way back in 2007 with Dustin Penner. But, you know, like I said to Marek, when you read the numbers, you're kind of like, why the fuck don't more teams do it? I mean, you can grab picks for, you know, basically giving up a few picks to get a guy as good as Ajo.

I think we might see more teams do it. I think they might offer a little more money than the Canadians did because they really didn't blow anybody out of the water with that number either. They should have thrown in some Chez Paris gift certificates. RAs, I took them all last weekend. Oh, well. So, anyways, that's the big offer sheet. Again, Carolina is going to match it, but that's our big throw for the day.

Now, let's get to the big signings. A lot of these weren't too much of a big surprise. RAs, not to interrupt you. Go ahead. Before you kind of go on a little list here, it kind of sucks. It all started breaking last night. I mean, I know that's what happens now, but what's the point of July 1st at noon if all of a sudden last night it was like –

I think at some point I saw a couple tweets like, will the Sportsnet even have a show? Everything was – I mean, not everything was done, but it kind of rattles me. It all breaks the night before now. Yeah, it's tough. When journalists get a scoop, that's their job. They want to get it out there.

But, yeah, you kind of wish they would sit on it a little bit because some of the trades, frankly, we did know about last night, and it definitely takes a little air out of the room. What's up, Iz? Well, now saying that, that's all because of the period that opens up in order for potential free agents in order to talk to other teams and that was something that the the nhlpa worked out for the players because like i mean ultimately they want to know their best option and how much they can make in order to go make it so i mean that that helped out the players we're a player's podcast so fucking right it's pay

the boys yeah well like you said it would be nice to they didn't take the surprise element out of it but whatever at the end of the day it all comes out in the wash so without further ado uh uh temi panarin he did go to the ranges after all a seven-year deal worth 81.5 million comes out to 11.642 million dollars That's a big hit. Whitney, what's your take on this one, brother? It makes total sense. It seemed destiny that he was going to end up a New York Ranger. All of a sudden, the Rangers in their rebuild and their letter to their fans

that year right around the – I think it was the deadline maybe when they said, you know, we're not really going for it. It's going to be one of those things where we are looking to rebuild. And that word is, I think teams try not to use it, but that looked like the case. Now things have quickly turned. I mean, if you look at the money that they spent on Panarin, I think every fan of the Rangers is happiest that it was under 12 million

per season. So if you look at Sabanajad and how good he's been, you can picture Panarin with him. You can picture some high-end offense. You still have Lundqvist who's continually playing, you know, out of his mind in a sense. If you look how old he's getting and he's still just top goalie, it seems like every year.

But he puts them on the edge of thinking that they can compete and get into the playoffs and kind of get away from this little rebuild and this plan of maybe being bad for three, four years. So I think that he's worth that money. I think that if you look at the seasons he's had, ever since he came over, he's dominated. At the beginning, it was only because he played with Patrick Kane, and then he was gone, and then he continually did it on his own.

And every single time people questioned him, he produced, he improved. In the playoffs, he was good. He was the top free agent on the market, I think. And if you look at the Rangers going out and getting that guy, I do think it makes a lot of sense when Marek mentions this is a top market. This is a big, an original 16. They're on national TV a lot. It makes sense for the Rangers to be good,

and I think they understood that in figuring, all right, forget this rebuild thing. Let's go after this guy and get going. Probably the top free agent winger available. I think he's worth every penny. I think if I'm him, I sign in Colorado. Not many people talked about the fact that the last minute Colorado offered him maybe even more than what New York had offered him. I heard it was around $12 million a year for seven years. I think Colorado is ready to win now. I think that Rangers have a decent squad. I don't see them as a playoff team in the next few years.

From what I've heard, it was a family decision on Panarin's side where they wanted to be in New York and not Colorado. So as far as hockey is concerned, I think it's crazy that he didn't sign in Colorado because automatically you're kind of on a – I would say with him in that lineup, you're an automatic playoff team, if not top, what, seven or eight contenders to win the Stanley Cup? So, whatever. If he's happy in New York, he

can be happy there, but I would have liked to see him in Colorado. That's all I'm saying. All right. Another big name we mentioned, Matt Duchesne. He went to Nashville seven years, $56 million dollars that's eight million dollar cap it ties fellow center ryan johansson for the largest in preds history

and speaking of johansson those two are going to make a nice one-two punch up the middle for the preds uh they were lacking in scoring last year you gotta you gotta imagine duchesne's gonna help that out big time biz what's your take on this one my man uh strength up the middle uh you said one-two punch and now now they got Kyle Turris, third-line center, making $6 million. I think it's a great signing. I think he fits perfectly there. It's where he wanted to be.

People stopped tweeting me and DMing me about the fact that I was the one who broke that news. It was between what? Who was either going to sign him? Columbus, Nashville, or who? Who was the other frontrunner to land? I don't even know if there ever was. He tried denying it with us. He was going to Nashville. This guy's

already recording his new country album and it's not that hard to predict it, folks. Happy for him. I regret not taking a shot in Vail. that's my single what are you guys laughing i mean i don't know i just what's he supposed to say i mean he was going there biz the fact that you think uh or people think you broke it is hilarious

i guess that's the power of the chicklets army. I wonder what the insider call me. He took the day off today. We never saw him. He must have been on the course somewhere. But Duchesne is going to make them really good in a sense that they haven't had a game breaker. I think Johansson is great at times. I think inconsistency is sort of an issue with him

where you'll see flashes of brilliance but over 82 games, is it there? Duchesne can take over games. You see nights where he gets 2-1 or 1-3. He has big nights where he's creating every shift. For them to have a guy like that through the middle

and also have a huge No. 2 center in 92 there it makes total sense their d's still good it's a team that you thought last year would have been better than they were and you're like oh man is there a window closing well no i mean david poyle he's not satisfied he knows there's still a lot there there's players players there that have a lot a lot left to give and and you'll see them right back in the mix this season. They transitioned from being strength from the back end, which they still have a nice back end, losing P.K. Subban, to now they want the strength up the middle of the ice.

Still a contender, I'd say top five in the league right now. And, yeah, that's all I got. All right, next up, boys. The Florida Panthers were probably the team to improve the most on Monday, and that's largely because they went out and they got themselves a bonafide goaltender, Sergei Bobrovsky. They signed him to a $70 million deal. That's $10 million per year.

Huge deal. But they do lock up their biggest issue. Last year, the goaltendants was a problem for them. Luongo battled injuries. They didn't get great work from James Reimer. And if they did, they probably would have made the playoffs. Now they bring in Bob Brofsky. They also added a couple other guys

too. They added Noah Chari. They signed him. Who the hell else did they add? Anton Strauman and Brett Conley. So Florida, man, they added quite a few guys to the roster this year. I'm sorry, today. Much better team than they were certainly yesterday. I did like the tweet from Frank Vetrano. He basically said to Bobrovsky, you can have my number,

but you're going to have to buy me a Rolex and dinner all year. I thought that was pretty funny. But with Doug, again, there's not much to add to this. Fucking Florida got their goalie finally. I would say if you're a Bruins fan, you got to be a little worried. This division's only getting better. Florida's a team that wasn't in the mix at all last season. Quenville coming in might be the biggest addition, right?

They got a goalie, but to get him as their coach, I can't see them not make – if they don't make the playoffs next year, disaster happened. Put it that way. Because that team now who, you know, we heard Jeff say, they can score. I mean, that's not an issue at all. They'll be the chance of keeping the pucks out of the net. It's just so much money. It's so much fucking money.

This guy is set for life now. I mean, I don't know. Every player isn't the same. He could easily be driven and be ready and be training as hard as ever for the next six, seven years. But he could also be like, I'm set. I'm living in Florida. This is the good life, man.

You'll see it in all sports. You get paid, and you're living in a comfortable place. I mean, it's an easy way of not living up to expectations or the money that you make. I mean, this is me guessing, right? This may not happen. He may be fabulous there. But if he's not, I won't be surprised at all.

I think it's a bit of an overpayment. Very desperate for goaltending based on their last few years. I mean, especially Merrick mentioned the fact they couldn't keep the puck out of their net last year, being one of the top 10 offensive teams in the league. History tells me when you overpay goalies, and not to say he's out of his prime because i would say he might not have success in the future but boys he's had some injuries i mean he's not playoff proven like i mean cory crawford as i mentioned during the

american interview he i think got paid just over six million and he proved himself at that point and and ten and a half million for a goaltender who's 32 years old is a lot of money uh i wish the best to them and i think that the that team deserves success and help to grow that market too but fuck me ten and a half ouch yeah a lot of money for a goalie no doubt about that uh we already mentioned joe pavelski went to the Stars three years, 21 million. I wasn't shocked by the 7 million, just to clarify my tweet from earlier in the day when I said, wow, he obviously deserves it coming off the year he had. Like I said, he was a captain of a team, and he went to another team for a raise at 34 going on 35 years old.

It was just the whole thing to me kind of caught me a little bit off guard. But he clearly deserves it. What else does Pavelski do for the stars here? Leadership and a guy who's been the ultimate pro his entire career. Anytime you have a captain come over to a new team, you know, he immediately gets respect. I mean, every guy in the room, when you're a captain of another club, I mean, dude, you have all the respect in the world from every guy in that room when you're a captain of another club i mean dude you have all the respect in the

world from every guy in that locker room i think that because of that uh he makes a huge difference so good in front of the net on the power play i mean like maybe one of the best if not the best in the league at tipping pucks i've always said that um i like speed isn't isn't his game it never really has been though like from the time he came into the league, he was never one of the fastest players. He's great positionally. He knows what it takes to, like, earn a goal, if that makes any sense. I mean, he takes beatings sometimes. You'll see him play injured.

Plays through a lot of different things. And I think Dallas gets a great guy who's proven it. And it's just three years, right? So, you're not looking at worrying about, oh, my God, five, six years, what's he going to be? I think he has three good years left in him man hyperbolic twitter was going nuts saying this is a bad deal this guy's had 30 tucks five in the last six seasons the only off year he had was 22 goals and that was the year before uh this past season um if you can provide them 30 goals again for the even the next two years,

that's a fair deal. They got a nice little window here to potentially take a stab at a cup. I think that's a great signing. You mentioned the leadership aspect in a team that, I mean, like Jamie Ben's a leader, but he's never taken his team to the next level. I mean, I know Pavelski's never won a cup, but he's brought them to the finals. I mean, they've had a ton of playoff experience, and it's just going to add to the next level. I mean, I know Pavelski's never won a cup, but he's brought them to the finals. I mean, they've had a ton of playoff experience, and it's just going to add to that locker room.

So I think it's a great signing. People are a little weird about the number 7 million. He's consistent enough where I believe that with that lineup, he's going to put up another 30 the next two, maybe three years. Yeah, great sign, man. He's one of the better goal scorers. I think there's only, like, what, three guys who have more goals than him over the last 10 years.

So, hell of a sign for Dallas. The Isles got to keep their captain as Anders Lee went back to the Island for seven years, 49 million, comes out to 7 million a year. This is a guy who's had 102 goals over the last three years. If he had left the Islanders, would have had a gaping hole up front, but he returns. What else does he do for this team there, Biz? I think it's a great signing.

I don't know if the fact that they signed him after they didn't line Panarin had anything to do with it, but another guy where he's going to add goals to that lineup on a team that's starving for offense. So they filled the big hole, and I think it's a fair number for him. Great guy, great leadership, and comfortable in that locker room. They had to re-sign him. It was a done deal once I think Panarin didn't go there that he would be back. But we saw a tweet earlier in the day.

I'm sorry I don't remember who sent it, but that he was in the $9 million per year range and that Columbus was going to be out of it because of that. I couldn't believe that. I mean, maybe that's a great job by his agent, but if he ended up signing for a yearly average of that, it would have been insane. But what he's done with the Islanders has made a huge difference,

not only on the ice, but the leadership stuff you mentioned is legit. And the amount of goals he's able to produce, not on his own, but just in ways that not a lot of guys can do it. Eberle's good around the net, but he's just such a beast. You can't move him. He's in front of the net all the time.

You know what you're going to get most nights. To lose him would have been heartbreaking. I know I said with the Merrick interview, they got worse. I just saw Phil Puller left. I know I said with the American interview, they got worse. I just saw, you know, Phil Puller left. I know he didn't do a ton. I mean, but still, he's a guy that had a really good season. And now he's gone along with Leonard, who was so great.

So Barlamov may be awesome. But in the end, the Islanders, we said even with the same team they had this year, would they be able to kind of do what they did again? And I don't think they'll be able to. All right. Thanks for that input. And there were so many free agent signs. We can't go over every single one.

Those are the bigger ones we wanted to get to first. We're going to talk about a few of the trades that went on. Go ahead. Go ahead, Biz. What else you got, buddy? Well,

he mentioned net front presence by Anders Lee. There's one guy that we need to mention. It's Wayne Simmons signed a one-year deal with New Jersey for $5 million. I think he's gambling on himself, and I love it, and I think he's going to go have a very successful season there. That's a great addition by the New Jersey Devils. Ray Shiro is hailing it in New Jersey. No doubt about that.

Yep, that was the last one I actually had written down. One-year deal for Wayne, $5 million, and like you said, he gets a year to kind of prove what he has left. I mean, people are kind of goofing on us because we were calling him underpaid and like, oh, poor guy only made $4 million. It's like, well, it's not that we were telling you to feel bad for him. We were just saying the timing for him sucked. He signed a good deal last time.

All right. We just talked about it. We're talking about guys getting 30 tucks a year, signing $7 million to $8 million, $9 million deals. Well, this guy was doing it in Philadelphia, making $4 million. So it wasn't that he's suffering for money. Yeah, $4 million a year is very nice, but based on what he was producing, he was underpaid.

Yeah, absolutely. No doubt about it. So if he knocks him dead this year, then he can get a nice little ticket for himself next year. But we'll see what happens. What's your take on that one, Whit? I don't know. I mean, I think that he's been as good as anyone in front of the net in power play

and playing tough for a long time, but I didn't see anyone giving him a four or five year deal. Even three years was tough. So I know you're saying he's betting on himself, but it's going to get harder just as he gets a little older. Still, though, if he goes out and has one of those wins, Simmons here gets 29 goals, 120 pims.

I won't be surprised. It's just what will he end up getting the next year? We've talked about it a lot. And the fact that people think that we're saying, like, feel bad from, what are you talking about? Shut up. It was just more the fact that a lot of guys were making more money than him that weren't as productive or as hard to play against.

And it was that way for a long time. Yeah, I thought 5 mil was probably a little bit more than I thought, just given the way he didn't end the season that great. He had kind of a tough playoff spot. We'll see what happens if he can prove it. Now we're going to move over to the trades. We'll check back with a few other signings a bit later, but these are some big trades, and one of the biggest names on the block

got moved Saturday night, as we said with Merrick a few minutes ago. Phil the Thrill Kessel, one of the most consistent goal scorers of the last decade plus, was traded for the third time in his career. Pittsburgh sent them to the Valley of the Sun to join Biz in the Coyotes. The Pens also sent defenseman Dane Burks in a fourth in 2021 in exchange of forward Alex Galchenyuk and defenseman Pierre Olivier Joseph. The Coyotes saw a huge need by picking up some much-needed score and punch.

They scored the fewest goals, five on five last season. They were 28th in goals overall. Biz, you going to show this kid the ropes or what? Very happy to have him. I'll go to Galchenyuk first. Had a really good start in preseason, was feeling confident. I remember he had two goals in one game, and then he went down with a lower body injury.

Had a real tough start to the season as far as battling off that injury and coming back in the lineup and finding his stride. Struggled in the first half of the season until they actually, funny enough, played Montreal. Of course, they were building up the Domi-Galchenyuk trade and Montreal fans were raving about how the fact that they'd fleeced the Coyotes.

I thought he had a very strong second half of the season, but, you know, never really got to show us what he was truly about. I wish him nothing but the best in Pittsburgh, an awesome guy, liked by his teammates. I'd imagine he's going to have success, excuse me, surrounded by all those skilled guys in Pittsburgh. They also gave up a very skilled defenseman in Pierre Olivier Joseph. He was an up-and-comer, first-round draft pick for the Coyotes. But I think Coyotes have that win-now mentality. Talkett wants to bring this team to the next level. Very comfortable with Phil.

There's a very good bond there. I think that he's going to provide that easy offense, as Merrick mentioned, a type of player that the Coyotes have not had in a long time. I mean, you're talking about an 80-point guy in the NHL. This is a big insertion for the Coyotes. I just hope that he comes over hungry and ready to prove himself in the desert. I think he will. I think the respect he has for Talkett

and the respect Talkett has for him goes a long way. I mean, he's not agreeing to go there if he doesn't really want to play for that guy. And I think that Talkett will be able to get the most out of him. He knows how to work with him. I don't think that being a hard-ass to fill is going to work. The little I do know him, it doesn't sense like any

coach that's going to try to be a tough guy to him will end up getting through. He doesn't give a fuck what you say. He goes out and scores goals, produces points, doesn't miss games. So don't try to bully him around. I think Taka talks to him like a human. They probably have a joking relationship

and it'll be a little different with him as head coach as opposed to assistant. That changes relationships for sure. But, Biz, it's true. They haven't had a game-breaker at all. And to have him there, they've got to have somebody make sure they're getting him the puck. But still, Marek said it best. You know, you can end up seeing that guy get a goal in a quick instant.

And all of a sudden, it's like, oh, wow, that was pretty easy. He just got in at the red line, beat a guy one-on-one at the blue line, snapped one bar down from the top of the circle. I mean, that's kind of what he does, and Arizona's needed that. Yep. We also had an intrastate trade between two New York teams. The Rangers sent Jimmy Vesey to Buffalo in exchange for a third rounder in the 21 draft.

Vesey will get to play with his boy, Jack Eichel. He's got one year left at 2.275 mil. What's your take on this one, Whit? I mean, third rounder for Vesey sounds about right. He's had a pretty decent career, but he hasn't really, I don't know, maybe his matched expectations, I think. But I think with Eichel, man, sky might be the limit out there. These two got some chemistry.

Yeah, I saw a funny picture. I think Bucciaross tweeted it of those two sitting at the Holby Baker award ceremony when they were at BU and Harvard. And now they're back together. And Buffalo was actually the team who traded for his rights. And he chose not to sign there when he originally signed with the Rangers out of college. And when R.A.

You said that maybe hasn't reached expectations. I mean, they were ridiculous and they weren't made by him. A lot's been made that the VZ watch was kind of nuts in terms of him having not played in the NHL at all yet. But still, if you look at people acting like, oh, this trade doesn't matter, he wasn't any good in New York. He had 17 goals last year. How many Sabres had 17 goals?

I don't know off the top of my head. Bet you it wasn't that many, though. So he's going to make a difference. I mean, they're looking for depth. They're looking for guys who can get 15, 20 goals. That matters when you don't have that. So I think Vizio will be good there, and the familiarity he has with Eichel is huge.

That's important. And, I mean, you could say that he's not a 65-point guy, but, I mean, to say that this guy doesn't matter and isn't a good player is fucking insane. I'm going to piggyback what Witt said. I think he's going to be better than he was in New York, especially with the familiarity. Did I say that right?

You nailed it. Did a word check, Stack Guy Witt. Yeah, I did it like a minute ago. Familiarity. With Jack Eichelel's gonna help him and uh hopefully he has a better go there than in new york yep um toronto very very busy team they had two huge trades there's a lot to follow here so i'm gonna slow it down uh we mentioned the tyson barry trade but we didn't give all the principles involved the leafs uh got tyson barry alex kerfoot and a sixth rounder in 2020 from the Avalanche for Nazem Khadri,

Callie Rosen, and Toronto's third selection in 2020. Colorado also ate 50% of Barry's annual average value, which is $5.5 million. Nazem Khadri, he's got three more years left at $4.5 million. That's a great bargain for Colorado right there. Barry's in the last year of his four-year deal. He'll be UFA after this season in line for a nice big raise. Kerfoot is an RFA

who made nine and a quarter last year. Rosen is an organizational depth guy making $750. What's your take on this deal altogether as far as Kadri going back to the avalanche? Do you think his suspensions played a role in getting traded or do you think he would have gone anyways?

I don't know. I don't think we'll ever know the answer to that unless Do you think his suspensions played a role in getting traded, or do you think he would have gone anyways? God. I don't know. I don't think we'll ever know the answer to that unless Aduba says something. But great value for what Caudry brings. That's a great second-line center for Colorado. It's going to get tougher sledding for Caudry, though, because now he's going to have tougher line matchups at 4.5 million. You know, he kind of – I wouldn't say hidden Toronto, but there was a lot of different

weapons and guys taking the eyes off him. So did they retain, did Colorado retain half of Tyson Berry's salary in order for Toronto to meet the salary cap? They did retain 50% of his salary yes so to me it's a very fair deal where the the little the little oomph and deals kerfoot i think he's a very underrated player yeah it's a great player going back to uh to toronto um of course you're only getting tyson berry uh for one year i'd imagine that they're not going to be they're not going to be able to afford to resign him so this is kind of a uh all my chips in the middle move by Dubas

in order to take another stab at making a run. You think for sure there's no chance they re-sign him? Very difficult. I mean, you'd imagine that they get Marner back. They're going to have Matthews and Tavares on those deals. There's no way you're going to be able to afford to pay two defensemen. Morgan Riley should have been a Norris finalist this year. He got snubbed.

And the reason he got snubbed is because the voters, I believe, favor older guys on the award. They don't want to give it to the new guy. They want to make them earn their stripes in that category. I would imagine if Morgan Riley puts up another season like he did last year, eight and a half minimum. And that's, I would say, eight at a hometown discount for eight years. And you're going to have to pay Tyson Berry if he,

I would say seven and a half minimum. I know I've said nine before, but I'd pay him 12 because he's a fucking beauty. But you can't pay two defensemen that much money. No. I would. I'd go over the salary cap because they're fucking awesome guys. He's certainly going to help them.

The way he moves the puck, I mean, it's like he's Gardner but better. You know what I mean? Gardner's kind of like a poor man's Tyson Barry. Does that make sense? I would say the risk to reward is not worth it with Gardner as opposed to Tyson Berry. Like Tyson Berry, yeah, he might throw a pizza now and then, but he's snapping that thing around.

And he's moving, and he's absolutely buzzing. He's an elite offensive defenseman, and that's what you should be expecting Toronto Maple Leafs. So lay off my boy, and if not, I'm coming after you. All of you. Like I mentioned, the Leafs also made a deal with the Ottawa Senators. That was a pretty significant deal as well. Ottawa got defenseman Nikita Zaitsev.

That was a deal Toronto was trying to get out from under. Ottawa also got forward Connor Brown and forward Michael Cassone. Toronto got defenseman Cody Ceci, defenseman Ben Hopper, forward Aaron Luchuk, and Columbus' third-round selection in the 2020 draft that was previously acquired by Ottawa. So like I said, Toronto got out from that Zaitsev deal. Has five more years at

$4.5 million per. They still need to sign Ceci. The Sens get a solid forward, and Connor Brown could be good 15-20 goals, and they also get some help on the back end with Zaitsev, with Doug. What do you got on this one for us? The craziest thing about this is Cody CC played junior for the Ottawa 67th NHL for the Ottawa senators.

And now it's been traded to the Maple Leafs. Like, can we get this guy out of Ontario? He's probably like, fuck me. Can I see some of the continent of North America? Jesus. But Zaitsev had to be moved. I mean, it's plain and simple. They had to get rid of five more years at four and a half.

And Cody Ceci, I think it's his last year already. Did you just say that? He's our FA. He has to be signed by Toronto. Okay, so excuse me. I thought he had one year left. But this is all based around Mitch Maher, right? You've got to create room.

Zaitsev wasn't producing offensively, I don't think, at the level that the Maple Leafs thought was legit for what his salary is. He had to go. Connor Brown's a big loss for them, though. I wonder that there's nights, you know, you see him play on a top line, you can see him play on the fourth line, but he makes a huge difference. I think the Kapanen's good enough where – and Hyman is similar in a sense that they're both righties and that they play hard, they play fast.

But still, he was a player that made the Maple Leafs better many times. If he could score on breakaways, I mean, he'd probably have 30 goals a year. But a trade that made sense – I mean, you don't often see interdivision trades, I don't feel like, but still, it made sense and it wasn't a surprise. I don't know nothing about either of those guys, so we can move on. Easy enough there. The Blackhawks got Andrew Shaw back in town. He won a couple of cups with them back in the day.

Well, they got him back from Montreal, and the bounty for that was let's see uh let's see they got andrew shaw the seventh and 21 he went back to chicago and they sent three picks to the habs a second in 2020 a seventh in 2020 and a third in 2021 uh the seventh round is event basically cancel each other out so it's really shaw for a second and the third he's got some miles on him, a couple more years left on his deal. He hasn't really produced a shitload from Montreal just because of his injuries. Biz, what do you think he might have left in the tank after his hard playing career?

I don't know. I don't know. I have nothing for that. And I'm fucking hammered. I would love it. It's Canada Day, Biz. You deserve it. It's Canada. I'm celebrating my nation's or my country's fucking birthday. What time is it? 6.50 out there?

You're going to start ripping it. I've been on a four-day heater, my friend. You're going to start ripping it after this. Andrew Shaw. Yeah. I mean, made a difference there before. I don't want to say he's not as good as he was, but he never really made the same

impact with Montreal that he did with Chicago. Chicago was so deep when he was there, though. It made total sense. He was like their eighth best forward. Then he gets paid a lot of money. I still think that he's familiar there. Quenville's gone, but a lot of his teammates are still there.

You know the type of game you're going to get out of him. It's just about what can he produce offensively and the number he earns. I mean, it should be probably a little bit more than it is. All right, a couple more here. We'll fly through if you have any takes on it. Speak up. Let's time it out for a sec.

I was supposed to remind Whitney about a funny story because we were talking about it with Sid and Barrett, that Vail, Colorado training session where they went one-on-one. That's all I wrote down on my memo pad. You should be reminded by that. Oh, yeah. I almost want to save it for Cleary because he's going to fucking come on at some point, Danny Cleary, Bearcat.

He ended up having a one-on-one drill where I think he basically lined up along the boards, and all going towards the red line, and you throw the puck out there. Then you start off one-on-one, and then a team gets a guy thrown in, and then the other team gets a guy thrown in, and it ends up three-on-three. Well, for some reason, it ended up one-on-one for like maybe three minutes. And it could have been down low. I don't exactly remember the story. That's why Cleary needs to tell it.

But it was him against Crosby and Bear was on one leg. He didn't have any cartilage in his other knee. He couldn't even move out there. And Sid was just – it was just embarrassing. Poor Bear. Was he working him? Was he working him? He was getting work.

I think you've never seen somebody get worked one-on-one in an ice hockey rink. So Bear will never forget it. He texted me. He's like, Jesus Christ, you're off my life chasing him around. He'll tell the story better someday when he's on. But, yeah. I figure we'll take a little break from free agency. All right, boys.

I know we got a lot of information, a lot of tedious detail to go over. So we got a few more trades. We're just going to run over these ones real quick. And listen, guys, there's a shitload of signings today. It's impossible for us to go over every deal

and analyze it because, frankly, there's just too many of them. And your fucking eyes will get glazed over listening to it as well as talking about it. So we're not going to go over every single sign.

We went to the major ones and we want to finish up on the trades. The Colorado Avalanche acquired forward Andre Burakovsky from the Capitals for forward Scott Kosmichuk and a second and third round picks in 2020. The Vegas Golden Knights traded offensive line and defenseman Colin Miller to Buffalo for a second in 21 and a fifth in 22. Miller's got three years left at $3.875 million per.

Vegas also sent Eric Holler to Carolina for Nicholas Roy and a conditional fifth and 21. Florida sent James Reimer to Carolina for Scott Dowling and a sixth rounder and 20. The Panthers then bought out Dowling so they'd have money to throw at Bobrovsky. And, again, there's so many other sign-ins. I mean, Tyler Myers went to the Canucks five years, 30 mil. Vegas re-upped a couple of hometown veterans. T Tyler Myers went to the Canucks five years, 30 mil. Vegas re-upped a couple of their hometown veterans.

Tons of Zuccarello, five years, 30 mil. Millions of fucking deals out there. Any take on those last few trades or what? Not really. Not really. Right now, it's like there's so much stuff that's happened. There's so many different moves that have gone on. It's information overload. It's like, what's going many different moves that have gone on. It's information overload.

It's like, what's going to happen to every team. Nobody has a fucking clue how people are going to fit in. So all these trades that ended up getting broken down and the winners and losers are named. Nobody has an idea of what's going to happen. So that's kind of where I'm at right now. You hear about all this stuff.

You got to take in where they'll fit in, in the lineup, where things will end up working out for each player individually. And at least see training camp to wonder what's going to happen here. Who will be the winner of this trade? Yeah. I think this is the first time we had a free agency where we couldn't name every signing.

It's just, you know, like I said, we don't want to bore our listeners reading fucking numbers off all day. Gustav Nyquist. There's another guy, four years, 22 mil went to Columbus.

So, um, he heard he could have gone to Nyquist, there's another guy, four years, 22 mil, went to Columbus. Heard he could have gone to Edmonton. Ken Holland in Detroit, there's a lot of familiarity there. That's how you say the word. And I thought that might be an option, but he wants to stay in Columbus close to his home in Detroit if he still has it. Hell of a golfer.

I've mentioned it before. But that's going to be a good player for Columbus. I mean, they lost a game breaker, but to add him in, that at least helps a golfer. I've mentioned it before. That's going to be a good player for Columbus. They lost a game-breaker, but to add him in, that at least helps a little bit. There's one other story, too. I blogged it this morning. Andre Nazaroff, who used to fight in the NHL years ago, he coaches T.J.

Gagliotti's old team in the NHL. I'm sorry, in the KHL. He got word of T.J. Gagliotti's comments on spit and chiclets. All he did was say that the town he played in was a shithole, and he had some words about the hospital. Well, Nazarov said that he should be arrested if he ever comes back to Russia and spend 15 days in solitary with no toilet for, quote, bad-mouthing Russia. I don't know if this is good payoff for spit and chiclets or not.

I don't know if we're playing with fire, but either way, yeah, we're getting that fucking, I guess, threatening with arrest if they go to Russia. Which you might want to stay far from the model. What would I get if he gets 15 days? And by the way, like, you guys can say, oh, yeah, they want you, but you're in now, all three of you. I've dragged you right into the mud with Russia. So it's not just Whitney, it's the whole spitting shit.

Buddy, I'm going down with the ship. Thank you, Biz. I'm going down with the ship with Russia. So it's not just Whitney. It's the whole spitting. I'm going down with the ship. Thank you. I'm going down with the ship, man. I know Russia's shit. There's no denying that. It kind of sucks that if I ever entered that country that I'm probably dead or I'm getting waterboarded or

something's not good going to happen. You're never going there. Or just having to be there is punishment enough. But yeah, it's not good. Yeah, I You're never going there. Or just having to be there is punishment enough. But, yeah, it's not good. Yeah, I'm going to have to start fucking having someone taste my teeth on me going forward. But, all right, a lot of news again. Free agency trades, a lot of stuff to cover.

I know we didn't get every single little bit, but we hope you enjoyed it anyways. We hope you enjoyed Jeff Marrick. What do you got for us, Grinelli? I just know Ben Biz wanted me to mention this. We have to give a special shout-out to our guy, Ben, who picked us up from the airport. He showed up in Halifax, was waiting at the airport for us

with a 24-rack of beer, just waiting for us. So shout-out to that kid. He's the man. This is where we're at in Canada. I mean, Grinnelli had two incoming flights to Canada. Or, no, I guess, sorry, you had one incoming flight to Canada from Boston into St uh to St. John's Newfoundland and there was three guys waiting for you there and then you went to

Halifax and there was Ben waiting for us do you think these guys are looking for residual kills though is this is this a 100 team play move or is this more of a 50 50 selfish move I think it's a little of both I mean why not kill two birds with one stone? You get a picture with Biz for your Instagram, and you can get a residual kill out of it. I think it's worth it. What? You guys are so stupid, honestly.

In the social media era, people are coming from different angles. Yeah, I know. I don't understand that whole social media lifestyle. I really don't. The Instagram stuff, it's like you got to get a picture with this person. Like everyone was all about getting you on their Instagram, Biz. Like that was big for everyone. So I don't –

Picture, picture, picture. Yeah, picture, picture. And they tag you on it and then maybe they hope you re-tag them. I guess that's – I'm like Biz is going to do plenty of tagging, but it ain't going to be with your Instagram picture, Rick. All right, boys.

I'm a shot. Thanks to Jeff Merrick and congratulations to every man who became very rich and set for life. This free, free agent frenzy. Peace out. And happy candidates. While our listeners up North, we hope you had a great day. © B Emily Beynon