Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 490: Featuring Judd Moldaver & Frank Vatrano

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

On Episode 490 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Frank Vatrano (01:24:35) to talk about his hockey career, life in college, and what it’s like to be a Springfield, Mass legend. But first, the boys get into some wild weekend stories as well as breaking down an awesome slate of NCAA games. Later on, the guys talk Auston Matthews & the Leafs, Jonathan Quick & the Rangers, and Josh Doan & the Coyotes. NHL Super Agent, Judd Moldaver joined the show (02:26:42) to talk about his life as an agent for top talents such as Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews. Lastly the guys send their condolences to the family and friends of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller.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. Well, she's your love. They say a drunken speech is just so good. I like to poke a bear. I like to stir the pot. But then you come on in and take it up a notch. But baby, come on in and take it up a notch You hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot Hello everybody and welcome to episode 490 of Spittin' Chicklets Presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka

Here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family What is up gang? Only a few more weeks left in the season. Lots of drama to come. We don't know who's playing who yet, but of course we check with the boys first. Let's go to the Whit Dog first. Ryan Whitney, the handsome one.

The family man. What's shaking you, Easter Bunny? Just the cutest little Instagram post there with the boys playing hockey. I think it made its way to Twitter, man. You're killing us with cuteness on Easter. Well, you know, thank God that they didn't get my looks, right? I mean, I'm hoping that they get maybe my height or my athletic ability.

That remains to be seen. But the looks, I'm glad. I'm glad that skipped a couple boys in our family right now. We'll see the third. We'll see the third. I would say. I'm just like, oh, if we have a girl and the girl looks like me and the boys look like her like that poor little girl no but we actually started uh a nice little family tradition in terms of easter morning uh many

people go to church we go to the church of hockey now. We rent some ice. And so my wife, it's interesting. So she has uncles that are like her age. Her mom's the oldest of 10. So her younger brothers are my and Bree's age, basically. So it's her uncle, but basically cousin, kind of long story, unnecessary. But all their kids are our kids' age. And a lot of them play hockey. It's a football family. Bree's cousin, X, he plays football at Harvard. He's a stud.

Everyone's always played football. His dad played at Northeastern. And then the wit dog comes into the family. And all of a sudden, these are the rink rats everywhere. So it's been pretty cool to see all these kids love hockey and fall in love with it. So we started Renton Ice last year. Buzz around for two hours Easter morning. We did it again this year.

And Wyatt. I mean, this kid, I've talked to you guys about him. He's Squanto. Squanto Rainwater. He's out of his mind. I've mentioned many times that he's beating up Ryder. He's three. Ryder's six. I'm snapping on Ryder.

Buddy, you can't let this kid beat you up. He's three years old, but he's got that fire in him. And he also didn't get that from me because I was the kid that was running away from fights. No, no, no. Joe Pavelski, Tim Jackman. No. It's like Jordan Tutu knocked up your old lady. Just running around steamrolling guys, justing muscles funny there was jordan tutu

there was a picture of the uh four cousins all together on the ice i think they're ranging probably from um nine to five or ten to six and uh and keith texting me and you know they're darker that's that's my wife they're darker and so keith sent me the picture he goes this looks like the noon of it like it looks like tutu's team growing up all these four kids so it was a blast but yeah rider was in the mix with his cousin and all of a sudden i tweeted out the video randomly why it just he's pushing one leg he's got the left foot pushing he's right into the scrum and he threw his gloves down hard and heavy just coming in in hot on Easter Sunday for a brawl. I asked him after, what were you doing? He said, I had to help Ryder.

So I love that. As a dad, all I tell him is if he's in a fight, you're in a fight. If he's in a fight, you're in a fight. I just drill him with that. So it was great to see. Then we had an awesome day. The Easter egg hunt was a gong show. I probably loaded up 150 Easter eggs. I was getting two pieces of candy in each one. It was an excellent holiday. And what a sports day. And we're going to get into the NCAA

hockey. I finally won a couple of college basketball bets. So I'm heating up there. It was just a great weekend, guys. And Biz heard ra was in chicago biz i heard you were down with keith in florida oh yeah it was just uh it was a lot of action around the chicklets world and so i was very excited to get together with you boys today and kind of mix it up or chop it up as they say right biz i was gonna say earlier when you were talking about your kids cuteness i would say rider i didn't i didn't talk about their cuteness well how you did what do you mean you said that they're both i'm not like oh my kids are cute like oh my kids are so cute i'm like they look like my wife thank god oh i think you call them cute okay i think that that's kind of what you

were alluding to that he implied he applied a biz he definitely implied it but he gave brie the credit so yeah i think the lawyer i was gonna say it's like if people the people who are like my kids are so cute. Like, shut up. So I guess, yes, I did imply. I didn't say it in a way which was desperately didn't want to be that guy that you had to call me out in my tracks. Just coming in over the AP.

Why it was just canceled for dropping his gloves and starting to fight. Yeah, he's done nowadays. I was calling him Squanto Rainwater. Cancel. Cancel. Oh say Ryder. I was canceled for calling him Squanto Rainwater. Canceled. Canceled. Oh, my God. Here we go. I was going to say Ryder kind of has that cuteness of the kid from Sixth Sense, though.

Like that child actor cuteness. I think you've mentioned that before. Does he look like him? In the Oscars. Oh, yeah. He does. Haley Joel Osment. Well, I'll tell you.

Many people say, oh, your kids are cute. It's like, yeah, a very cute kid can grow into be like an ugly adult so it's like yeah they're cute now but you know you've seen some ugly ass kids grow turning well yeah the six cents ryan malone was i'll tell i told bugs yeah you were ugly as shit i saw a picture you as 10 and look at him now he's gorgeous so you take them as they come no but thank you biz yeah. Yeah. Tire pump. Big old tire pump. How was Florida?

Florida. Oh, boys, do I have a story for you? Florida was awesome, by the way. So I went to Florida to film episode two of Yandling Business. We actually got Matthew Kachuk. And I'm not going to say what we did, but we had a blast. He's such a great guy and a great ambassador. The fact that they had games like sandwiched in between days and he still came out and did it, it just speaks volumes to

him trying to grow the game and have a blast with us and be great for content. You guys know we love the content. So I got to hang out with Jans and his crew down there. He's got the one realtor buddy, Jason Beauty. So on Fridayiday after we filmed this we end up going to this tapas place it was awesome as soon as you walk in guy long curly hair he's just jamming out on the guitar so they had live music the entire night and then he had like a sidekick lady who's like playing the maracas just like a beautiful woman so the whole time we're just getting all this tapas to the table the food's incredible the music was banging all night like i was legit dancing in my seat we were laughing our dicks off

and um finally at one point after having so much fun i'm like i'm like the people here must love this guy the staff like they get these tunes all the time and he's like oh yeah you mean he hate his guts and like you know yeah it's just like saying that stops you dead in his track so we had a laugh about it and i wanted to get to the bottom of it so we call over one of the servers and we're like hey like uh you guys must love this guy right and and he's like and i'm like what do you mean he's like oh you know same songs over and over every night like so i'm like fuck like yans was bang on about calling her they'll call me calling me at my common out so i'm like fuck i'm not giving up this easy we call

over another server like hey you guys must love this guy a jamming every night with these awesome tunes and she's like no no it's brutal same we go we basically go through the whole staff and they all hate this guy's guts. Although it was one of the fucking best dinners of jamming out I'd ever had. So I was supposed to have a girl come meet me for the dinner, but it got bumped up. What's that? I said, Chaka. Well, okay.

So I'd been talking with this girl guys for about six months, just kind of back and forth. Beautiful girl. I'll actually send you guys the Instagram so you can get a look. So didn't end up coming to dinner, but I was going to meet up with her later on. So we, you know, the dinner ends, we go to the speakeasy next door. Sure enough, this entire tapas experience, they had a cameraman there. So they're selling us the pictures of us enjoying our dinner. So finally I'm like, Hey boys, I'm going to go meet up with that girl. And she sends me the location, tin roof. Now I like going on these dates to quieter spots. I'm like, Hey boys, I'm going to go meet up with that girl. And she sends me the location, 10 roof. Now I like going on these dates to quieter spots. I'm a little bit older.

I feel like 10 roofs, a spot where like, it's like, do you hang out at the 10 roof? Gee, is that a place that you go? I love the 10 roof. I believe we actually did a meet and greet at the 10 roof in Fort Lauderdale.

They're great bars, but I know what you're saying. It's a younger crew. It's chat, chat with a girl. You want to go just have a nice little conversation, learn her, get to know what she's all about. Yeah, you're not doing that at the team room.

I know you're going to chirp me for this, but I actually enjoy the dialogue. I know you do. That, to me, is the turnoff. That's why I already read the Playboys, too. It's all about the articles. They did interview Jimmy Cotta when he was a sitting president. I will you do. That to me is the turnoff. That's why I already read the Playboys too. It's all about the articles. They did interview Jimmy Cotta when he was a sitting president. I will say that.

I don't know how many people listening, but if it's a bimbo, it's just like it's an instant turnoff for me. I don't care how hot the looks. I'd rather a good conversation to get it going, and then if it proceeds from there, it proceeds from there. So I get the pin drop. I'm like, okay, I'll head over to the tin roof and you know, maybe we could bounce over to a different spot or maybe even go out on the patio or whatever they got. So, uh, I'm texting with her the whole

time. Like, Hey, 10 minutes away. See you soon. Okay. All good. So I, um, I get inside and I'm, I go take a piss quick and then I go look around for her and she's at the bar. So I walk up and as I walk up, I know she's like holding hands with a guy. So I'm like, oh, okay. Like, you know, maybe she was. It was all right. No, no. She's too old for me. So I'm like, oh, I kind of come up.

I was like, hey, how you doing? And I kind of see them and it was like a very awkward exchange office. She's because he's hand in hand with this other person. i'm like oh am i disrupting something and they kind of have like a whisper in each other's ear and then he walks away and then she's like hey how you doing and like it was like oh okay i was like i'm gonna grab a water here it's a little loud in here do you mind if we go outside and obviously because i don't drink i always bring those cones with me and i had a little bit of weed so i was gonna go roll one have a conversation a little quieter so get my water we walk over the table and i go hey like just so you know like you don't owe me fuck all

like if if that's your guy like no hard feelings like i'll smoke this we can have a quick conversation and then i'll fuck off like i don't give a shit right so she's like no no no no it's all good like so the guy walks over he's like hey how you doing i'm such and such i'm like hey man what's going on i'm like hey not to be disrespectful here but i don't know what's going on like she shot me a text to come over here like we've been chatting for a little bit like are you guys dating and he's like yeah that's my girlfriend so i'm like oh i'm like oh okay well i said i'm just gonna kind of keep scooping this weed up into this cone i'm gonna light it up if you guys want some and you know i could i could fuck off so once again there's a little bit of awkward conversation and all of a sudden they're kind of in back and forward each other's ears a little bit and And then he walks off and I'm like, what, what's going on?

Is this your boyfriend? And she's like, no. And I go, well, obviously that's an issue. If one person saying it's my girlfriend and the other was saying, no, it's not my boyfriend. Like what's up here. So I said, oh, this is fucking bizarre. Anyway, trying to kind of, I'm like, are you sure? But trying to then move on and like, just have a normal conversation.

If you can, after that, I don't know how you come back from this so start asking this is so florida this is so florida so i'm like what do you do she's like oh i'm a psychologist like i work with people i'm thinking oh my god this is where our society's at if this fucking person's help so i finally sparked a joint she takes a couple puffs uh the Sean Paul song comes on I thought Sean Paul was Canadian so in the midst of the conversation I'm like oh Sean Paul do she I'm like you know this guy was Canadian I thought he was Canadian apparently he's Jamaican now and she's like no he's not and I looked over to the table next to me and I'm like hey isn't Sean Paul Canadian and they all agreed with me so I thought i was right and next thing you know this guy's back over here they're locked in hands and she's walking out the door so what the hell

fucking nasty i thought you were gonna say you were her hall pass at the beginning of it i thought that's right i don't know what her motive is i thought this might have been like a i'm thumping and and this guy's in the corner of the room yeah this could have went anywhere at this point and keep in mind a lot of people are like oh why wouldn't you just have left i'm like uh because i'm on a podcast so i'm ingesting every fucking second of this being like this is a goosebumps choose your own ending right now so i am sitting there and i kind of just finished my j and i'm just my wheels are spinning and I finish it. I kind of have a chuckle with the people next to me at the next table.

Cause I think they were kind of wondering what the fuck was going on along with like, oh, maybe Sean Paul's not Canadian. That's still up for debate by the way. So I finished my water. I order my Uber. I walk outside. And once again, no hard feelings here. Well, the two start walking by me. They hadn't left.

They must've went the other way. I don't know if they finished off another drink in the bar and I'm just like, Hey, great to meet you both. And then boom in my Uber gone home. So never, never heard from her in terms of what happened. No, nothing. I'll say I'll, I'll, I'll read you what I wrote her. And I got to send you who this is.

Good looking girl. So Keith sent me, I mean, one of the funniest pictures of you I've ever seen in my life. That was the next night. I needed a rebound. I needed a rebound, Woody. I got a picture from Yand. I needed a rebound, Woody. I got a picture from Yand.

Boys, Biz is making out with what looks like a beautiful young woman with a straight up pornographic ass. Oh, her arse was a joke. He's on the main street. And then the next thing I get from Yandance the video of biz showing the text he just gets from raverd says you're an amazing kiss oh you think i'm not you think i'm not you think the nose gets in the way of my tonsil hockey are you fucking crazy look how flat this thing is full grab there oh oh buddy her arse was i was like oh i can't tweet out this picture but i want to tweet out this picture but i want to tweet out this

picture but i can't i love her so what did she respond when you ended up asking her what the hell just happened no i didn't send her that i go this is so this is uh right after it happens and i'm in the uber and my wheels are spinning on my i cannot wait to tell this story on the podcast like it's almost like you guys had planned this so I could come on and tell it. I go, no hard feelings, but I'm telling the story on the podcast. Amazing stuff. Smiley face. No response. If I planned it, Paul, you would

have got laid. My guess would be that you were her hall pass and then he couldn't handle it once you got there. That's your theory. I obviously told the story to Jeff right away. Like I went back to the hotel and he was my first call and, and he was just perplexed and he's like, what, what was her motive?

I've, I've heard five different motives. Your hall pass motive was a new one to me. I'd never even considered that. I don't know, boys. That's, that's all I got for the start of the pod, other than a DM I got for someone. And it was about the Ovi twig. So I just sent that profile over. But hey, listen, I don't also want to be judged

for the public makeout at this. It was like a dive bar called SLS. This is a fuck, dude. Yeah. Not that much worse or better. Well, I mean, all right. I mean, I'm being self-aware right now. I shouldn't be sucking face in public.

I was in Florida. Why? So I wanted to go full dirtbag mode. All right. You know what it's like. Yeah, Biz. I probably would have stuck around, too. If I was a single man, I probably would have stuck around.

I just sent you the profile, Whit. She's gorgeous. Yeah, she's gorgeous. So I'm like, ah. I was her cuck for the night. Maybe that's probably what it was, man. I mean, if her boyfriend was dead, they were holding hands that close. So it was probably a cuck thing.

I mean, he'll be on fucking Reddit. Ask me anything. Biz cuck. I got cucked by Biz. So here was the Ovi DM I got because we talked about his twigs. Now, I don't know how reliable this DM is, but he goes, hey, heard you guys talking about Ovi's stick change on the pod today. So at the start of the year, CCM decided that nobody except Sid will use the old graphics on sticks.

So Clayton Keller, Ovi, Paige Thompson, Tarasenko, McKinnon, all those guys had to switch to a new graphic, which is bizarre. McKinnon switched to Bauer altogether. Ovi used at least one new stick every game for like the first six to 12 games. Then he has been back and forth with his CCMs. The company Pro, ProStockHockeySticks.com, he probably works for this website, that's why he's sending me this, has made sticks for him and many other players in the past made sticks for little Ovi which is that's kind of bizarre they came in and built him an exact replica of a CCM stick and just blacked out the graphics and he scored with it and went on this run since he switched so I this is like some of you guys

they call it like stick porn I you could have gave me a fucking shovel it wouldn't have mattered but the slightest difference with some of these guys makes the biggest difference where i don't know if you were a stick whore and you were oh i don't know if the lie is different the kick points different i never knew about lie kick point a little bit i i my best year i always had synergies from from 18 till i was done playing Besides the year that in the AHL you had to use CCM. But one game in the middle of that season, I was hounded to use a warrior. Use a warrior by the rep. And I used a warrior.

And Sid gave me, dude, the biggest tap-in empty netter. The goalie was in the corner. And I put it through the crease and missed it. And I just remember being like, why did I even use this stick this game? And I got rid of it. Maybe it was mental. Maybe it was me stinking. Do you think that was the end?

The beginning of the end? The early beginning. But then I went back to the stick and had a good end of the year. So not really, but sort of. But I remember on the bench, I was just, why did you use the stick this game? I just kept asking myself over and over and over.

So the kick points are legit. The lies some guys may have an issue with. But they can make the exact curve. It's all about, like, you mentally being comfortable with what you're holding. Half the time, it's like being messed up in your own brain. Overthinking it. It's like cold tubs. Cold tubs, I think, really, really help me.

I think those are science-backed. Those are science-backed. I know, but people still say, like, I think it's mental. And there's an argument. You think the cold tub crowds are frauds? No, I don't, because I'm part of the crowd. I feel way better. But I do wonder if it's mental or if it's actually

Science where I'm getting some more Of what's the stuff that comes out of your body Serotonin No I meant out of your brain It's brain too It's not serotonin No no come on business

Dopamine Oh So that comes out of your brain adrenaline? No, no. Come on, business. Dopamine. Oh, so that comes out of your brain. I think dopamine comes out of your brain, yeah. Yeah. A lot of dopamine going on right now. What up, guys?

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New Amsterdam's own Pink Whitney. Biz, I was in Chicago this weekend. Yeah, what were you doing there, R.A.? Hopefully not getting stood up on dates or having boyfriends intertwined. No, no dates yet. Not in the dating phase yet. No, the movie I was in, The Late Game,

they were doing some promotional stuff out in Chicago, so we went to the Wolves game Friday night. I had the honor of dropping the ceremonial first puck. I know Whit had a shirt me about the photo that they just chose to display. Whit, I assure you, I did hold the puck up before I dropped it. No, I know, but why would you ever look down? Just look at the camera and drop the puck. It was your first time.

Yeah, first time, and I guess I got into the whole dropping the puck for the face-off aspect. It was ceremonial, so that was really cool to do. And I got to do a lineup reading as well, which is cool. They actually won the game. And what's his name? Keith Kincaid was the goalie. You know, I think we followed each other on Twitter the last few years.

And, you know, he had a little bit of a familiarity. He happened to be standing right there, so I kind of gave him a little kick to his pads when I gave the read. And then I went back in the coach's room, you know, shooting the shoot with the coaches. And they're like, oh the they want you to put money on the board I was like I was like okay obviously he'd never done it before

I'm like well you know what's the usual someone's like I don't have any my ex-wife's got it I'm going through a divorce my ex-wife's got a thousand on the board

that me yeah me getting blacked out by the second period no so I fucking I just walked up and you know someone's at 20 50 whatever and i goes 500 bucks first goal and slapped it up there

and uh everyone's like whoa and i was like is that legal i was like well fuck it is now so uh grand rapids scored the first two goals and merle texted the group he's like oh all right you just saved 500 bucks and i'm like well i'm, I'm thinking I'm like, well, I didn't say like I said first goal to the guys in the room. I didn't say first goal of the game. So I was like, well, I didn't look at it as like, well, it's great. Rabbit's good. Oh, good. I just saved the nickel. I was like, if you know, if Chicago doesn't score, then okay,

then there's nothing to pay out. So anyways, Max Comtois, former Anaheim Duck, he scored, you know, the first goal of the game for them. And then I was with Zach Bell, who's pals with him. And I was like, dude, tell him we'll meet him after the game. I'm not sniffing anybody here. So we met him after the game. All right.

What did you do? Pop a pimple or something? What's up with your neck over there? Another toothache. Fucking issue. I look like fucking Vito Cologne. Look at all the mouth. Look at my boy.

Before you got on, I asked, what's up with your teeth? He said he always brushed them too hard. Oh, I brush my teeth hard. said he always brushed them too hard. Oh, I brush my teeth hard. Oh, I brush my teeth hard. You brush for like 15 minutes too.

I brush my teeth for about 10 minutes. Yeah. If you're still a young buck, like worst thing you do is brush your teeth super hard. I always thought,

I was getting fucking anger out of somebody. I always thought that was I get the fucking shit out of it. Well, yeah, you probably have the fucking same toothbrush

you clean your toilet with. All the bristles are probably down. Yeah, yeah, you probably have the fucking same toothbrush you clean your toilet with. All the bristles are probably down. It's down. A lot of those molars. All right. What do you mean? Hey, all right. Oh, yeah.

All right. You're switching your toothbrush every month. Guys, you act like I'm a fucking Neanderthal who's in the fucking cave. I mean, I'm somewhat of a fucking Neanderthal who lives in the fucking cave. I mean, like, you don't think I've had the same toothbrush for 15 fucking years. You've had the same underwear for 15 years. What's different? I have definitely have t-shirts over in Grinnelly.

I definitely got to that. Some of those boxers you wear with the holes in them. Come on. No, maybe I'm being, maybe I'm being a little too judgmental. All right. Pump your tires.

All right. Pump your tires a little bit. Chris Terry, captain of the Chicago Wolves, he said your lineup read was outstanding. He said he thought you might have been gambling on the money on the board, like where you thought you could win money, but I think he was just joking. But he said the lineup read was incredible.

Oh, that's good. That's awesome. Thanks, Whit. I appreciate that because you never know how they go. You wait all day, and then it's over in two seconds, kind of like losing your virgin good. That's awesome. Thanks, Whit. I appreciate that because you never know how they go. You wait all day and then it's over in two seconds, kind of like losing

your virginity. What's up, Biz? I think there was one of my buddies who works for the league now. He used to work for the Coyotes where he put money

on the board and then after the game he's like, hey, he's like, yeah, like, where do I collect? And they're like, collect?

He's like, yeah, I put 500 on the board for a win and they're like, this ain't a fucking casino, buddy. We're going to go grab some beers And they're like, this ain't a fucking casino, buddy. We're going to go grab some beers with that. Like, fork it over.

So this guy, the highs and lows of a new NHL intern, for crying out loud. But, well, it sounds like we all had a great weekend. Gee, you must have had a great weekend. You and Fishy's video did Numbies. You went to North Dakota. Probably the best one yet, as far as the rink tours. Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day,

I think a monkey could have done that tour and it would have got 200,000 views just because of how insane those facilities are. I mean, you guys saw like the zero gravity beds, the high altitude rooms. They just have bunk beds off the locker room. It was insane. It was an awesome time.

Unfortunately, they didn't get the W this weekend, so I don't want this narrative to be created that I cursed teams. Yeah, right. Drake, shut up, Drake. Shut up, Drake. Aaron Ward is tweet me. I had my tweet written out about the Grinnelli mush. Well, they're going to lose now because he's got the tracksuit on.

BC ain't losing. I'll tell you that. It's such a little cut move that you're a BC fan. Knowing me, that we do the pod together, Jay Pandolfo helped you out in Burlington, and I just hate you so much that you're like

this BC fan out of the clouds, too. I know, and one of my best friends went and played at BU. So why are you this BC fan for no reason? Well, BC was very warm and welcoming to me this season for a Chick-fil-A video. Before anyone else signed on, BC was like, hey, we'll do it, and we'll give you the fourth overall pick, the highest draft pick in school history.

They welcomed me with open arms. They fed me. I mean, they gave me this for free. You were projecting when you chirped me about the global ambassador, about, oh, how much they paying you. How much are these fucking schools paying you? I want to know. What type of duffel bag money? That's a good call.

Yeah, what type of duffel bag? Now you're on your heels. Look at you. You're a fucking projector. No, they pay me in good times. I'll tell you that. Penn State paid me in a few nights at Champs. They brought me to a frat.

Yeah, Jesus Shuttlesworth. I probably should get some money from these. Jesus Shuttlesworth over here. He's got titties in his face at the frat house. Just kidding, Alana. But yeah, insane weekend in college hockey. I mean, BCBU National Championship still on the table. We're actually going to be in Minnesota for the Frozen Four. Game notes, Witt, myself, we'll be there.

Biz, are you going to come? You mentioned that you were thinking of coming. Boys, well, I'm supposed to just be hanging out in Atlanta because I'm not flying back out here. I'm basically going to be out east for the next two months other than FDNY, NYPD when I fly to New York. But I just, rather than sitting around Atlanta, you guys got me in this NCAA bug.

I'm all in. I'm ready to sit down., you guys got me in this NCAA bug. I want to love. I'm all in. I'm ready to sit. Do you have a Sunday game that do you have a Sunday game? Yeah, I would fly. I would fly back Sunday morning and I would come. Okay. I didn't know you were allowed to do that, buddy.

We'd love to have you. Now, here's the whole thing. And we should just get into the NCAA. Let's do it. And guys, we're going to have tons of NHL discussion. I know we've been long winded at the intro here, but it was nice for everyone to catch up. We're getting into NHL discussion. There's plenty to talk about.

But I think that NCAA hockey took over the show this weekend. From Thursday to Sunday night, there was one bad game. One bad game. And even the ones with higher scores, like they were close for a lot of the time. The thought of BC and BU and the national title, I don't know if I can even watch that. Like granted, they've ran our show this season. So that's part of it. But it's just my,

my arsehole will be this tight if they somehow play each other. But Denver and Michigan are going to have a lot to say about it. I just, I was not shocked, but so impressed at the hockey that was played. The broadcast by ESPN was phenomenal. Everyone did a great job. We can get into the discussion about the regionals and where

they should be. I was, I took a lot of conversations with people and digested them all in terms of people who don't want the regionals to be at the number one seed spot, I understand their point, but I still am in the camp of Grinnelli of get the number one seeds to host. But that hockey man and some of those players and the fact that Denver, BC, Michigan, BU, there's about 15 guys,

I think who could be star NHL players in the frozen. Have you ever seen this before, Whit? I was trying to think back, and I was texting a few people. I don't know if there's been a Frozen Four that, one, featured the four blue buds like this that just has so much NHL talent just ready to go. I love that Goche kid. The fact that he told the Flyers to fuck off,

and he's doing what he's doing on the ice, that gets me going. That just reminded me. I listened to your part in my take episode. to fuck off and he's doing what he's doing on the ice like that that gets me going that's like that just reminded me i listened to your part in my take episode you told the story then you haven't even told it on chicklets what about his old name calling you yeah his old man called me yeah great guy had a nice conversation with him yeah i mean i didn't agree with some of the things that he was saying but it was a great call i'd love to have him on the pod we got to get this cutter goche kid on when he fucking reaches the show or when i or maybe when he wins the national championship he's fucking filthy play you in order to pull a stunt like that and have the fucking balls to just go out there and do what

he's doing buddy that is just he's got he's got the juice i still think ryan leonard on bc somebody texted me i wish i remembered who it was. It was in a group chat. He's kind of Matthew Kachuk. Colby Armstrong. Army said it. Army. Maybe even a little bit of a better skater. Better skater, yeah.

This guy, Capitals fans, for anyone that's a fan of the Washington Capitals that hasn't seen him, hasn't heard much, you have no idea what you're going to get. He's a lunatic. He does a little bit of flopping, which the entire BC team does, but he plays like a motherfucker. Wow. He has skill.

You're calling them floppers? Oh, they're floppers. That team has been flopping since 1954, buddy. The Boston College Eagles are flop city. Population, Chestnut Hill, all the hockey players, they're floppers. They always have been.

But Leonard also will run you right over and then stare at you while he's laughing in your face. So the team is amazing. He's unreal. Gauthier, he's going to be something else. He can shoot the ball. He shoots it like Matthews. His release is incredible. I don't know if he's going to be something else. He can shoot the ball. He shoots it like Matthews. His release is incredible.

I don't know if he's going to be a goal scorer like that. But the entire tournament, and Michigan, some of those players, Rucker, McGrory, the Jets. You got a wagon coming to your team with this kid, Brindley. That assist by Nazar for the winner. It made it 4-2 against Michigan State. That was out of this world. That was fucked up.

That was a Blackhawks draft pick. I know. So if they get Celebrini, that kid, Bedard. Christ, they might make playoffs next year. Think about college hockey next season, Whit. If Celebrini stays, because there are rumors that Celebrini could stay next season. Iserman's coming in. Supposedly, the whole BC line is coming back

next season. Leonard's got to be gone, though. He has to be. Who knows? So Gauthier is gone, and I bet you Leonard's gone. I think Smith and Perot are back. Smith and Perot definitely should come back. That shimmy shake that Smith did on the, I think it was a power play goal at the line.

Just so silky smooth at the top of the umbrella did you see what was it was that was that who was that against Quinnipiac I don't yes that was I think it was I think it was their first goal of the game so he got them going with that little shimmy shake at the line now going back to the flop the Quinnipiac coach was saying that to the ref on the play in which I thought it was a bullshit call. So Quinnipiac was up three, two in that game. There's a back checker who comes back, goes stick on puck. And it just so happens that his shoulder catches Leonard's head. And then as you say,

the flop bar to show up, he goes down. And then I think he's on that fucking power play. Now, is it the same rule in college hockey i believe they called a five minute to begin with so they could review it but then they had to give them a two minute penalty the most bullshit call in hockey they should just have the ability to look at it and if it's not a penalty it's not a penalty let them out of the box because that they end up scoring to make it three three on that power play or or get rid of their penalty and then chuck a two-minute embellishment on the other team. There you go. There you go.

Quickly, I want to, just in the midst of all this college hockey talk. So I was told that all these Canadians were tweeting me that they couldn't even watch it. Now, apparently on TSN Plus or something, it's about $8 a month. So for next season, maybe everyone can kind of get involved that wants to spend the money. But I guess if you subscribe to that, you could watch all this college hockey action, which I highly recommend. I know there's unreal players and juniors, but at least this regional weekend, the hockey's out of this world. So for Canadians who didn't get to watch, I'm sorry. Hopefully we talk about some of your favorite prospects in the game.

In terms of BU, right? Celebrini, he was awesome, outstanding. But Lane Hudson, when I first saw him last year, you know the one-on-one skill. Montreal Canadiens fans, you're well aware of this guy. And then the speed burst. He's able to kind of slow down the game and then boom, he's away from you. It's crazy how he's done

it. Now, I kind of was like, I don't know defensively. He's small. He's a competitive kid, but he's small. But then over the course of this year and then talking to a few different scouts, I think he's going to be able to get to the NHL and be a 50-point guy.

I do. When he has the puck on the blue line, Viz, I can't wait to see, whether it's this year or next year, him on the blue line. He does these head fakes and his quick speed bursts. You can't stick with him. And, yes, there's going to be PK guys in the NHL who are a lot faster, bigger, stronger, quicker. So, Makar-like or Quinn Hughes-like?

So it's different than that. I would say they're a little smoother. They're like a little more elegant. But he is so fast from stop to start and his head fakes and these tight turns he does that I think it's going to translate to the next level. Defensively, it'll be an adjustment for him. But at the beginning of seeing him last year, I was like, this kid's an insane defenseman, college hockey superstar. I wonder what's going to happen at the next level.

Now I'm convinced that his point production in the NHL will be the exact same. It's crazy, man. I can't wait for you to see him and see what you think. But BU's on a special path. It's been a hell of a year watching these guys. Now, Denver, getting to watch them, they went in to Springfield, Massachusetts as a

one seed and basically played three home teams. They had to beat UMass, which is 20 minutes away. They got that done in an unreal game. Cornell then beat Maine, which was kind of surprising to me. And then this is all pretty Cornell, Maine and UMass.

You could bring fans to Springfield, Massachusetts. And then Denver got, got by a Cornell as well. This Zeev Booiam. Holy shit. Fizz. I think top 15,

top 10 NHL pick this summer. California kid. We chatted about him at world juniors. He's got poise. He's got the ability to see the ice. His brother is also a defensive on the team. They're on the power play together a couple times, which is cool to think about the thought of playing with your brother

in college. But Denver's got some wagons too. So it's like, I think people are looking at BUBC in the final. Michigan and Denver are going to have a lot to say about that. They should be getting Rizzo back too. Massimo Rizzo only played 28 games this season. I mean, I think he had over 45 points. So that'll be a huge addition for Denver.

I still got BCBU in the final though. So I didn't really see any standouts on Cornell, but I just thought overall the way that they played and their structure and their defense, they were in that game one, I forget who they play, but they just smothered them. And I think they got to the tournament only scoring 63 goals,

they said this year. So it tells you if they scored, if they got ahead and got the one, nothing. Maybe I'm crazy here. I heard that on the broadcast. Maybe it was for like a different stat, but if I'm not crazy, I heard that they scored goals

in the 60 range. What do you play? 30 something games in college? Yeah. They've always been like that. You are crazy. Yeah, that's what Merle was saying. Merle said on Game Notes, he's like, it just pisses me off because I'm watching them, and

it brings me back 20, 30 years when every fucking game you'd play against them, they just beat you down like that. They've always been big. They've always been strong. This was Doug Murray land, dude. Oh, really? I first was Doug Murray land, dude. Oh, really? I first saw Doug Murray. They had this kid, Stephen Bobby.

He was about 6'6". I remember this kid, Sam Paolini, injured about three of us in a weekend up in Ithaca, New York, just getting run over. They've always been a lot of Canadian kids. They've always been tough to play against. I think they're like 0-6 in their last six games to go to the Final Four. So Ivy League, ECAC team that has a lot of success. The guy Mike Schaefer has done an awesome job. My brother Sean played there for four years. He loved his time there. They got one of the best in-game experiences for college hockey. The fans are nuts up there.

Michigan, back to Michigan, they were without Seamus Casey, who we saw World Junior stud, devil's prospect, Pasha's loving that. Apparently, he's going to be able to be back for the Frozen Four, so that's big for them. But, yeah, the storyline's going in, and we can get to the NHL. But if you didn't get to see anything, you missed a big weekend of college hockey. Four days. It's Quinnipiac.

When it got thrown in their mixer on that OT goal, why didn't the defenseman just clear it? I know. I know. Just rip it against the glass. Because you're making that play to the weak side forward where like, what the fuck is he going to do with it collapsing to the net?

It's like, here, take my problem. He must be fucking kicking himself in the ass today. I kind of wondered if he was going to skate with it and then almost, you know, that's what I would have done with it. That's what I would have done. Yeah. Yeah. You would have been the ice and overtime ball. Well, speak to speaking to that. That's a hell of a point. All right.

That might be the best analysis you've ever had on this podcast. Hey, speaking of that Quinnipiac team, though, I would bet you in the next 24 to 48 hours, you see Colin Graff signed with an NHL team. He was one of the top 10 in points this year. Last season, he was third in points, only behind Logan Cooley and Adam Fantilli. He'll be able to jump in an NHL lineup tomorrow and contribute. I don't necessarily think, well, you can't use him for the playoffs

because you're signing him after the deadline, but you can get a good look at a guy now and know what you're going into the offseason if you get a few NHL games under their boat. Jacob Quinlan from Quinnipiac as well. I think he'll sign with the team. I wouldn't be shocked if Graff ends up with the Florida Panthers or Nashville Predators. He skated at both their preseason development camps. But speaking of the Nashville Predators, the transfer portal right now is insane right now. So Matthew Wood, first round pick last year,

15th overall, I believe, for the Nashville Predators. He's at UConn. He just entered the transfer portal. 180 kids are currently in the transfer portal right now in Division I hockey. These hoes ain't loyal. Did you talk to Nodak's coach about that, G? These bros ain't broil.

We did, yeah. We can play that clip right now. Throw it over. What are your thoughts on the transfer portal? Is that something you guys utilize here? Are you a fan of it? Well, it's here to stay. Yeah.

And it's part of the everyday side of it right now. And I guess I'm not, I guess, a huge advocate of it, but it has helped us over the last few years. Each year presents a different opportunity. This year we had to go into it quite a bit because we had guys sign NHL contracts. We had guys exhaust eligibility, and we had a couple guys that transferred. So we needed some players coming through us, through to our program, and we couldn't bring in 14 freshmen.

So we had to bring in some transfers, and they've helped group. You know, the freshmen have been outstanding, but the transfers have really helped us too, as far as leadership, guys that had experience playing college hockey already. You know, there's some years we take one or two transfers. Sometimes we don't take any, but at the end of the day, each year presents a different opportunity and what that looks like. How much are you helping kids too with, you know, hey, like, like, you don't have a spot on this team next year. I know you've been here a year or two, but there's just not a position on a team you should look to transfer. Or is it more they kind of see the writing on the wall, like, look,

I don't fit on this team anymore. It's probably time for me to go. Yeah, well, I think there's a little bit of give and take there. But it all starts with communication. And it doesn't really, you know, start at the end of the year. I think it's situations that go through the year and you see where that opportunity lies. And, and I think it's a situation where, you know, we're trying to do the best for both, right. For, for the,

for the student athlete and the program. And sometimes it's, you know what, Hey, you know, hunker in, dig in here. You know what, there's going to be opportunity. You're going to, you got to just get through the grind here. And, or there might be a situation where, you know, that player goes, goes well i don't really see the light of day i think i want to go uh try to have a fresh start somewhere else and we're open to that too you know so again like i said i think each and every uh situation presents a different um opportunity and i think we uh we do a good job of communicating so yeah that was brad barry brad barry he's the north dakota coach he

kind of went in depth on just like how much the college game is changing between the NIL money and the transfer portal. You have to be thinking on your toes, and you have to be scanning the league at all times. I mean, North Dakota had that kid from Lindenwood this year. He scored a huge goal in the first game. And yeah, you have to be on it for the transfer portal. I like the transfer portal in one sense, okay?

If you finish your sophomore year, you got some recruits coming in. You haven't played much. And you're like, dude, I'm kind of in one the next two years. I totally get that. I think it's fair. But it's almost like I wish it was maybe one transfer allowed because there's a big difference between finishing two years, not getting much ice time, not seeing much ice time in your last two years ahead of you and being like, I want to go somewhere

else, not have to sit out a year like it used to be. But we got kids now playing a freshman season, getting good ice time and just looking elsewhere. I don't love that. I think if you do one allowed, I think that that's more than enough. I think that's fair. It gives you a chance to get out once. But the hopping around, and I'm talking not just hockey, every league, every sport, it's crazy now. It's free agency every single season.

I don't agree with how often you can just leave to greener pastures. You should only be able to do it once. You shouldn't be able to transfer a bit more than once. At the same time, cream will rise to the top. Chickens will come home to roost. If you're that good, then it'll be worth it. If not, then people will be like, oh, that's the guy who transferred six times and he still sucked. As far

as the games, they've got to just make these games available everywhere. I know Canada is not as hip to the college business as we mentioned earlier, but if it's on TV, people will watch fucking hockey. It's like when leagues don't let you use their highlights or musicians don't let you use their music. If you're hosting a

podcast, for example, it's like, why would you want 800,000 people to hear your fucking song or see your highlights this week? I don't get it, but either way, that's one way they can improve. And as far as the final Frozen Four, if Michigan State had won, it would have been the first time that

all four number one seeds advanced to the Frozen Four. Still hasn't happened yet since they started the Frozen Four. Nice little nugget rear. Fuck, you're buzzing. Single RAs buzzing. We will be there, though. I mentioned it before. Saturday, we're going to do a little Pink Whitney party. I'll tweet out. We'll get all those details out there later this week. I got it before. Saturday, we're going to do a little Pink Whitney party. I'll tweet out. We'll get all those details out there later this week. I got two predictions.

We're going to show up, and it's going to be a BCBU final, and Cutter Gauthier is going to score the OT winner, and he's going to give us the fucking double barrel on the way out. And then my second prediction is the NCAA is going to wake the fuck up because all these coaches are now starting to speak up about this regional host being the number one seed. NCAA is going to wake the fuck up because all these coaches are now starting to speak up about this regional host being the number one seed. And people might, I saw a lot of people on Instagram commenting like, Oh, stupid idea. It's like, what the fuck are you talking about? Stupid idea.

More people think it's a dumb idea than smart biz. And I'm with you. Cause they're fucking morons. And, and, and the fact that the NCAA like prides themselves on like, you're going to school you should be making an educated decision so they try to quote-unquote test the interest of the St. Louis market because they're going to be hosting in 2025 and G made me aware that they played out of the fucking practice rink 2,000 seats in the practice rink and to make up for the lack of seats they jacked the fucking ticket prices up to like a thousand bucks.

I think that was the team's fan bases. I think that was the fan bases that created the... Regardless, it's like they made it impossible for fans to get to the game. It's a joke. Can I give you the argument for not having the number one seed? Absolutely not.

Move on, R.A. I want to hear it. I want to hear it. We got to hear it. Do you know what people who don't like the idea have said or are you going into this blind? Blind. What they say is that there are certain teams

and programs who rarely, if ever, will be able to get a number one seed according to them. So in their mind, it's so much harder to get out of the regional at the number one seed's home building than it would be in a, what's the word when it's random? Neutral. Neutral. Neutral site.

So they're looking at it like, we're never, like RIT said, we're never going to be a number one seed. That's not fair. And my argument, because I'm with you, is play better. Now, granted, BU, BC, Michigan, North Dakota, these Blue Bloods, yes, they will have a better chance many times to host the regional and be able to have home ice advantage for two games. But I just think it's more about the atmosphere and it's more about creating drama on the campuses than helping out these lower-seeded teams who think they need a neutral site to move to the Frozen Four.

Okay, that's a very fair point. Now, going back to you, G, of these coaches who have spoken up, are these like wagon schools that are typically getting the one seed? Or are these coaches who have been the coaches to be vocal? It's like the smaller schools, the Bemidji States, the Ferris States of the world. Those are the schools that I'm sure are worried about. You're telling me, though, that these kids from Ferris State don't want to go into fucking DU.

That's what I think. I think the kids would rather do that. And saying, I'll fucking go play the villain. This is about growing the game here. Oh, 2,000 people at a practice rink in St. Louis? Suck my dick. Fuck that shit. That's fucking Bozo land.

They're going to play this at the NCAA meeting. This is Bozo land bullshit. If you're doing 2,000 seat practice rink where all the tickets can get resold. And like, we might be off base on the fact that they were a thousand bucks on the resale, but it just shows you that nobody wanted to fucking go watch at a St. Louis practice rink. No offense.

Hasn't David Kyle spoken against it? Sorry, business. You have G. Didn't David Kyle have a statement? That's why I was asking G. Was it in RA? You're referencing my question about like, so these, these schools that aren't predominant have had coaches speak up, correct? I mean, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. I mean, Denver is a predominant school, but North Dakota, we talked, North Dakota is a predominant school as well. Bradbury was adamant that you need to change this. And so the Grand Forks Herald talked to a dozen anonymous coaches, and they said, according to conversations with a dozen college hockey leaders, I'm sorry, not coaches, leaders, there are athletic directors and coaches who are believed it's unlikely their teams

will ever be in the top eight of the pairwise rankings and have the ability to host. So they'd rather play in an empty arena in the middle of college hockey desert than a packed house on campus. They believe that gives their team

the best chance to advance. Which is just moronic. Hey, all I keep hearing is about the student athletes, the student athletes, the student athletes. Pull the fucking players and see what they want to do. And pull the ones that don't get the number one seat. But I'm telling you, man, if you don't want to go to an 8,000 seat sold out barn and you'd rather play at a St. Louis practice rink because you'd rather play at a neutral site? I don't know, man. Maybe the NHL is not for you.

Cutter Gauthier would tell you to fuck off. He wants to bend you over. That's what Cutter Gauthier would decide, my new favorite player. The quote from Coach Kyle, it's a little long, and I don't have the audio from it, but I think it's worth sharing. He said, it seems to happen to us a little bit. It's way too long. I saw this quote. All right,, but I think it's worth sharing. He said, it seems to happen to us a little bit. It's way too long. I saw this quote.

All right, so basically like 10 minutes to read it. All right, four score and 27 years ago. I'll read it. Let's go to the National League. Yeah, let's fuck it. Yeah, I know. Canada hung up fucking two hours ago on the show already. But either way, I wish that Canada could see more of these college games

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That's rocketmoney.com slash chicklets. rocketmoney.com slash chicklets. Moving's rocket money dot com slash chicklets. Rocket money dot com slash chicklets. Moving right along. Playoff standings. They haven't changed a ton since last week. The Bruins did clinch a playoff spot. Currently first with 101 points. Florida two back with a game in hand.

The Leafs still in that third place spot. But Tampa Bay, like we talked about last week, went red hot. They're only four points back. Both teams have nine games to go, but we have to congratulate our buddy, Austin Matthews, hitting 60 goals for the second time in three seasons. We're going to talk to his agent, Judd Boldave, a little bit later,

but Pablo, just the ninth player with multiple 60-goal seasons in the NHL. Gretzky, Bossy, Mario, Espo, Brett Howell, Pavel Bure, Steve Uy, Yari Curry. I mean, that's some elite company right there. Moving on to the Rangers, unless, Espo, Brett Howell, Pavel Bure, Steve Y, Yari Curry. That's some elite company right there. Moving on to the Rangers. I was just going to say, what's the hardest thing to do in the NHL? Score goals. He's doing it at a faster pace

than Ovechkin. If he stays healthy for another 12 years, he might be the all-time leader in goals. That's just how fucking good this guy is. He can score from everywhere. He has one of the sickest releases we've ever seen. It doesn't need to be a slap shot. He loves that spot that Dreisaitl loves.

It seems to be the new hot spot. You know how Ovi made that top-of-the-circle shot famous? I think Brett Hall was very similar in the way he was able to find those lanes with that fucking knee drop one- like a 60 flex that weak side off the goal line he's he's a fucking maniac from there so it's so impressive to be on a list of nine guys and the names i mean he's he's gonna be a hall of famer he's gonna be a first ballot hall of famer he's the greatest that's already locked that's already locked that's a lock those nine guys be two times 60 goal scores

he's a hall of famer and much like here's the thing about the goals biz well just quickly much like Ovechkin though the one thing that's going to be held against them is the Stanley Cup and the playoff performance hey look out for Pablo this year baby boys hey look out for Pablo

what were you going to say with dog so he's at 359 Hey, look out for Pablo this year, baby boys. Hey, look out for Pablo. What were you going to say with Doc? So he's at 359 goals and this is his eighth season, I believe. He was drafted in 2016. So you think, all right, you're going to do this again for another eight years. And you're still, right? You're still, you're still wouldn't be at the record. So to say, yes, he has as good of a chance as anyone of breaking what'll be Ovi's record,

I think we can all agree on. But it's still like so far away from happening and health is everything. But even not being healthy, like skills diminish quickly. I don't think it'll happen to him. But if you look at this run he's been on and he's got this many goals already, and then you double it with another eight year run like this, and he's still not even there. It's like, buddy, like for anyone to say

he's going to break all these record for sure. That's crazy talk, crazy talk. And if he actually ends up doing it, it would be like for it to be around that long and take this many years for Ovechkin to break Gretzky's. If it was just broken like somewhat pretty quick after Ovi. It's wild to think about. But people are so presumptuous that like, oh, yeah, Matthews is going to break whatever record Ovechkin scores. The reason I say that, though, is the way he treats his body off the ice. I know, but. I know that.

Listen, longevity, I get it's important and there's a lot of luck involved. And it's luck, yes. But when you treat your body and you're as dialed in and focused as he is, I think it's just a matter of time. And that's my opinion and I get, and maybe I'm off base by saying

that I think it's a guarantee. You know when Charles Barkley gives it the guarantee. That's what I'm thinking, baby. And as much as I've chirped you for, and I'm a lifelong Leafs hater, right? I think when I said the gloat three years ago, you laughed me off stage. I did.

And I've come back upon that one big time. Greatest Leaf of all time. Could be the greatest scorer of all time. Is currently the best goal scorer in the world. Yeah. But Leafs fans, can't stand you. But their presence in Buffalo, and it's always been like that, but their presence everywhere,

it really gives me some serious thought on your Yacht Club vibe of the Scotiabank Arena. Because when these normal blue-coll collar Leafs fans can go into other buildings, they're wild and crazy. And it makes me feel so bad for the Leafs players that they have to deal with this morgue of the Scotiabank Arena when they're playing at home.

These guys would rather play on the road. And Buffalo, it's always been that way. They've always been adamant on buying tickets and just driving down to see them. It's cheaper. But every building that the Leafs go into, their fan base shows up loud and proud. And it's pretty cool to see because their Leafs, their fans get a tough rep when you watch the games at home.

It's like, where is everyone? Why is it so quiet? Well, they have three home barns. They have Buffalo, Ottawa, and Toronto. Those are their three home barns. Buddy, when they're down in Florida, it's all Leafs fans. Yeah. Maybe not so much anymore.

Florida attendance has been good. But, R.A., we were going to move on to the Rangers. Now, I could potentially have the back-to-back President's Trophy winners missing playoffs. That's going to basically deduct my gloat comment. I got the positive flying high and then all of a sudden... That's long gone anyways.

Just real quick, back to Austin. To back up your point, his goals per game,.65 goals per game. Gretzky and Ovechkin,.60. He's on a good pace if he's going to smash that record. But to the Rangers, yeah, they grabbed the Metro

and the East by the balls with their five-game winning streak lately. 24-1 since February. But we got to doff our caps around the snaps. Actually, stay in the know. They're 24-1 in their last 25 games. 20-4-1.

20-4-1. Still impressive nonetheless. And a big reason why they're there. Quickie. Fucking what a story, man. Congrats, John Quick. He stopped 27 shots to beat the Yotes 8-5 Saturday for his 392nd career win. Wow.

He passed Ryan Miller for the most wins by an American goalie of all time. Obviously a future Hall of Famer even before he got to the Rangers. But, Whit, I love this second encore, second, like, encore of his career. I mean, I think everybody thought he was done last year. After, you know, they very rudely, I would say, traded him to Columbus. They didn't give him the courtesy of a heads up for what he did for the organization. Then, obviously, in Vegas, he got the third cup. And I think people thought he was done.

And, man, he's not only getting it done, he's got the numbers to fucking back it up. 17-5-2 in 24 starts. 2-5-4 goals against a 9-1-3 save percentage. Two shutouts. He's a 38-year-old guy. And numbers across the league are way down. I think the league average save percentage is like 9-1-5 right now. So I love this story, Whit.

I love it. And I respect the Rangers fans who I've heard be open and honest about the fact that not only does he break the American all-time win record as a Ranger, but he saved that team's ass this year. It was a signing where everyone was like, oh yeah, Quickie's got, what does he have left in the tank? They got Shusterkin. Does it even really matter? Well, Shusterkin had nothing. He lost his game. He had the yips and Quickie came in and just backstopped them to continue to be able to dominate the league and and without him with with a backup this year who was struggling as well i don't know where they

sit but because of him shisterka was able to take his time he's now at the shisterka level if not above what we've seen before from him and i think if you talk to him he'd say like thank god for quickie i had a guy filling in for me that was playing way better than me and our team was able to continue to roll when we could have we could have been in the shitter if i was playing the way i was and our backup wasn't able to come in and do the job so this entire season it's like that's a he you know what you know the bruins do the seventh man award and which is always like i don't even know how to describe it, the best non-star, the best depth guy. If the Rangers had that, that's Quick all year for me. Now, I know usually that's given

to a defenseman or a forward, but in terms of a depth player making an impact, Quick has done that tenfold for the Rangers this year. And I look at American goalies, to me, Quick is the easy number one. And Ryan Miller, like what I saw in 2010 in Vancouver, I don't know if Quick's ever played at a level that high. Yes, 2012, he was the best goalie in the world, and he's got the two cups, and I'm sure that his top-end hockey was right there. But I saw Miller steal games, so it's somewhat close, but the cups and the record now, Quick, to me, there's no argument but the cups and and the record now quick to me there's no

argument the best american goalie ever i think tom barasso's in the mix yeah mike brook would be in the mix tim thomas is kind of in the mix it wasn't the the longevity of these other guys but that one year tim thomas might have been better than anyone else so it's just cool to see knowing quickie a little bit as i do and all the guys talk about him, just old school, quiet guy, loves having a few beers and cooking pizzas in his backyard. But Johnny's a pizza. An American legend.

Yeah. They hit another milestone too, Chris Kreider, 300th goal as a Ranger. I mean, he's always been a good goal scorer, but the last three years for them, man, and what he's done for their power play, one of the best net front guys in the league. And he's, man, they are just humming right now. And they're buzzing so much.

They're getting shout outs from fucking Larry David, R.A. Oh, we got to save that. Save it for what, dude? We're talking about the Rangers and Larry David stroking Panarin off about his puck control. Panarin's getting cameos. Yeah. Well, dude, it was funny. I put it at the end of the outline this week.

Curb your enthusiasm. I don't know if you've been watching with the whole season or you, Biz, but episode seven, they had a plot line about group text messages and how much Larry David hated that people do these group text messages. I hate group text, too. He didn't know anybody on it. I hate group text, too. Other than the work ones we're on, I'm not a big group text messages. I hate group text, too. He didn't know anybody on it. I hate group text, too. Other than the work ones we're on, I'm not a big group text guy.

Exactly. Well, those are fun, but that was one of my grand new gears 100 years ago about that. And then this week's episode, it was another hockey reference, and he was telling his ex that he liked to have sex on the floor so he wouldn't have to cuddle afterwards. And she said, listen, you don't want to cuddle after. He says, wait, what about the bread man's plan?

We want to talk about the ranges. Basically, he said, I'd rather talk about the ranges after sex than cuddle with you. And he actually says, what about the bread man's plan? The way he controls the puck, it's really amazing, isn't it? And I'm like, wait a minute. Is Larry David maybe like a secret Chickens fan? I mean, you explain that as well as your movie review. That was brutal.

I mean, it was right. Am I crazy? Am I crazy here? That was terrible. I've seen it, so I know what you're talking about. You haven't seen that. You're like, what is he talking about? Who said what?

You describe it, please. Can you please describe it? Larry David is talking to his ex-wife, Cheryl, and he is discussing the fact that he's disgusted, basically, at the thought of cuddling and having sex and then telling your wife you love her and that he enjoys having sex on the floor so he doesn't have to cuddle after. talk about the love we have for one another and you wanted to talk about the bread man and the Rangers winning and his puck control and his ability to dominate play holding that little black biscuit, then I'm all in. But I would rather have sex

on the floor and then not have to cuddle afterwards. Round of applause here for Ryan Whitney there. Thank you guys. Hey, now keep in mind, R.A.'s playing his tooth game right now and he's battling probably a couple of Tylenols. we literally said right before recording okay we're gonna literally we're gonna save

this thing for the very I know but we're shifting because we're talking about the Rangers oh by the way I did get I did get quite a few tweets saying that my description of poor things is pretty accurate by the way all right we should do a little And my description of poor things is pretty accurate, by the way. Okay. All right.

We should do a little vote. I want to hear from you fans after about who gave the better breakdown there. I did put you that Larry David description. If you haven't watched Curb Your Enthusiasm, by the way, this is the final season. I think Sunday is the last episode ever. Whit, would you agree this is as funny as it's ever been, even the early years, like the season? I actually think the beginning was a little funnier. I loved it.

I love the show. I just look back at the beginning seasons as a little bit better, but I've always enjoyed all of them. I mean, the the the Palestine episode where he had the chicken that he loved from the Palestine restaurant and then all his Jewish friends. And it's kind of a tough topic now. But when he's at the end and he's got a woman that'll sleep with him that's hot

and the chicken he loves and then he's got his Jewish friends and he's looking back and forth, that's an all-time scene. An all-time show. I think it's amazing. And him bringing hockey into the mix was a surprise

because I didn't even know he was a hockey fan. Yeah, he shows up. I don't think he's ever mentioned that. Yeah, I know he does show up at MSG once in a while. By the way, what I love about the show,

I know everything's like nowadays, both sides, both sides. He skews both sides, whether you're red, fucking blue, green, purple, left, right, whatever. He just fucking goofs on everybody right now. He's just funny. He's just flat out funny. What a run, though. I'm sure he's ending it because he's exhausted

and he deserves to ride off into the sunset. How many years was Seinfeld going? And then to recreate something. I know it's a similar type of plot, but to kind of recreate it in its own way, just a remarkable entertaining career for Larry David. Jesus Christ. That guy's a legend.

Desert Island. You can only get one of those shows. Which one are you taking? So I haven't seen all of curb so i would probably pick curb because the you've seen all the seinfelds biz no but definitely more no no time out but definitely more whereas like every time it's on tv i'll finish an episode and rarely am I like belly laughing, but I, like I love, you know, I actually think George is probably the best character on Seinfeld if I had

to be honest, but I would pick curb cause it would be fresh to me. And I love his, uh, who's the, is it the black cousin? Is it his cousin or brother? No,

it was a family. He took in after hurricane Katrina, the black. Yeah. So that was when I kind of started watching, and I was like, this guy is unbelievable. So that was probably the top of Curb, I would assume, what you were referencing,

when all that was kind of, those were the best seasons, you would say? Yeah, it was even before that the show was on. But Biz, two things. One, George Costanza, all-time character. All-time character. All-time. What's funny, there's a Curb episode

that Elaine's in the episode. She's in Curb as herself, Julie Louis-Dreyfus or whatever. And there was a lot of George based on Larry. So this Curb episode is like people basically saying how much of an idiot and how much of a scumbag and a loser George is. And Larry's just getting furious the entire episode.

He's like, George wasn't an idiot. So it's kind of a good crossover. My second thing is, when you talk about TVs and movies, I always get a kick out of it. And Grinnelly and R.A., hop in if you want. I've never seen you watch TV or a movie.

No, I don't. You don't watch TV. So when you talk about TV, you don't watch TV. When I first met Biz, when I first met him. When was the last time you watched a TV show? Really? I usually binge watch them when I do.

It hasn't been years, dude. Yeah, a couple years. Because you haven't talked about one. Yeah, a couple years. Late night biz, we had that place in Charlestown a couple years ago. We watched a couple late night movies. I remember me and you. Yeah, I like watching old school. I'm a creature of habit.

So whenever I have a free time to throw something on, I usually just chuck on There Will Be Blood. I could watch that movie over and over and over and over again rather than watching something new. Buddy, I am the worst when it comes to routine. But as far as, yeah, I'm not a huge TV guy. I did Sons of Anarchy. I binge watched that.

Oh, the last thing I binged watched on television was the greatest TV series I've ever seen. And it was the one with Matthew McConaughey and True Detective. It was incredible. So the standard is so high that I don't know if like, what else am I going to watch? What's a comp to that, you guys think?

I mean, obviously the big three, The Wire, Sopranos, Breaking Bad. I couldn't get into The Wire. It's too old. It's too old. You'd love Breaking Bad. What does that mean? I've seen Breaking Bad. Sopranos is incredible.

Yeah, Sopranos is I need to binge watch it. But yeah, I don't watch a lot of TV. I'm a loser. Anyway, we can move on from me being a loser. No. I'm too busy going on dates. Wait, you mentioned Julia Louis-Drives. Did you ever watch Veep?

Yeah, it's funny. Fucking hilarious. Super underrated. All right, moving right along. Biz, we got to talk about Josh Doan. Unbelievable. We just mentioned the Rangers. That was his third NHL game. He did get an assist that

game, but he had a hell of a debut Thursday night versus Columbus. Scored not once, but twice, including the game, the first Coyote to record a multi-goal game in his debut. Took the customary rookie lap as well. His second game, he had two assists and a win over the Preds. The only

active player with multi-point games in his first two NHL games and one of eight active guys to putt two or more goals in his NHL debut. And with the assist on Saturday versus the Rangers,

he became the first Coyote to register at least a point in his first three games. Just the fucking awesome stuff. Awesome. I mean, obviously, we're friends with Shane and fantastic guy.

We're rooting for him. But, I mean, he just come out of the fucking barrel shooting hub is. Yeah. And you know, he spent majority of the year down in the American hockey league. Like even when they were going through their struggles, like he never got the call up and he was doing really well down there.

And, um, cool story. So, uh, we went to ice con and, you know, the coyotes are so nice to us and me and they allowed me to park in the

back. So as I was leaving donor was at the rink and he, and I, obviously I go give him nice to us and me, and they allowed me to park in the back. So as I was leaving, Doner was at the rink, and obviously I go give him a big hug, and he goes, hey, he goes, Josh just got the call up. I think he's going to be, don't tell anyone, don't say anything. And then they ended up announcing it like an hour later, but I think he's going to get his first NHL game

against the Columbus Blue Jackets. So right away, I'm thinking, great opponent. Like, he's probably going to get some nice time, and you know, fucking, and I sent out a tweet before the game. I said, he's going to fucking get one tonight. And sure enough,

he gets two. And no, I've had the ability to see him kind of come up enough. Like where I went to, I think one or two of his minor league games, like when he was playing for the junior coyotes. And then I went and watched him a couple of times at ASU and buddy, the hockey brand in the sky and how good he is around the puck and in the

offensive zone, much like donor, man donor was a fucking relic near the blue paint. And he's, I would say the only thing that holding him back from being a fucking true, like NHL star is maybe his boots, but much like everything else, buddy, he's just going to continue to work, work, work, and work. And for him to come in and get those couple goals right away, like you got to imagine it's hard following your father's footsteps, who the greatest coyote of all time is. And even when he was drafted in the second round by the team, like a lot of people, like even some check marks online, like, Oh, Nepo, baby, Nepo, baby, Nepo, baby, where it's like, buddy, fuck off. If you had any type of fucking hockey sense or, or, or watched any games when he was coming up with the Chicago steel and then the impact he made on the ice with ASU. And not only that, but his leadership qualities, much like donor, he's extremely calm demeanor,

great teammate. And imagine having a mentor like fucking Shane, don't bring any up. So I couldn't be happier for the guy. He deserves everything he's gotten. And to be able to do that in the same organization that your father came up in and fucking basically kept in the desert. Bravo. And I couldn't be happier for Donor and his family and to see all those

shots in the, in the, in the box. I think his, his one, his one kid. And then his, I think it was his uncle where tarps off, fucking swinging their shirts around like,

North Carolina, come on and raise up. Take your shirt off. It was awesome, buddy, and I couldn't be happier for him. And I don't know what you guys have to say about it, but bravo to Josh Doan. Yeah, Biz, Doan always gives off those positive vibes, the old man, but what do you have to do to actually piss him off in the locker room back when you played with him?

I'm sure you raised his Irish up once or twice. Fudge boys. What are we doing out there? We got to fricking get going here, man. Door slam. He, um,

but he was, there was a couple times where he would come and he would never like call individuals out. We need to be better. Starts with me. It always, he would always start it with, I need to be better and everybody else needs to be better. And it was, that's what made him the best leader. I would say throughout the course of my five years, not many times in the first three years, cause we had such success RA, but he was the guy where he would just shut the door. He would go tell tip, no need to come in and it would be a closed door meeting.

And we would have a conversation. And that was really the first time where like, you know, at the, at the end, I mean, I was such short time in Pittsburgh. So I just loved his approach as a leader and everything about him. I could go on and on and on. Like, so like never did he really have a snapshot. It was always about acknowledging that he needs to be better and bringing the team in more of a discussion. And then after that, he would be at the rink till 1231 o'clock talking to people in

the hallway, being the biggest coyotes ambassador there was. So just the ultimate guy, like you will never see me say a bad word about Shane Doan. If he called me to bury a body today, I'd fucking, right now, I would chop off the podcast. I am as loyal as they come for Shane Doan. So, love him and couldn't be happier for the family if I've, I know I was long-winded with that answer, but never any major snap shows.

I was, I was, I thought it was cool that they mentioned, I think when he was 14 or 15, Josh was 5'4", something like that. Yeah, I think when he was 14 or 15, Josh was 5'4", something like that. Yeah, he was short. He was a big-time kind of late bloomer, which is awesome because, you know,

like you said, your dad's this NHL star and legend on the Coyotes, and then you're just trying to, you just love the game, and you want to be like your dad, and I'm sure there was a lot of kids a lot better than him at a young age, and with a dad like that, stick to it, stick to it. You know, you love the game and you want to be like your dad. And I'm sure there was a lot of kids a lot better than him at a young age. And with a dad like that, stick to it, stick to it. You know, you love the game. Good bugsy. You love the game. It'll love you back. And then he is able to hit that growth spurt. And then he goes to Arizona state, doesn't leave after the first year, doesn't leave, says, I want to dominate a little bit more and I think I'll be ready. Dominates the second year, leaves

and then doesn't just get thrown on the NHL team. I'm a big believer in dominate the level you're at before you're ready or think you're ready to go try the next level. And he goes to the AHL and he dominated. He had an awesome season so far in the AHL. It's earn your stripes. He's done that along the way.

Andrew Berkshire just puking at home watching this Nepo baby. He just disgusted by his dad's success and his dad getting him a job with the Coyotes. But the kid's done it on his own. He's done it on his own and he's been able to kind of work through a lot of different things that were going against

him in terms of size, in terms of maybe skating. And it's cool. Knowing Doner, the little I do, I sent him a text and that monster in the press box with his shirt off who the it was like the mountain who was that guy i think it was their cousin or i thought he was an nfl or something yeah he looked like it he looked like a ufc fighter or something in the heavyweight division uh but no great point with like you know as you know he he hit that growth spurt late uh Uh, he was able to go to the USHL as a result of probably deciding that he was

going to go off to college where, you know, donor owns part of the Kamloops blazer. He dominated the WHL, but donor was also a man child. So for him to take that path. And I think we've talked about it before about, uh, the, the resources that the Chicago Steel, uh, provide in the USHL where they got the skills coach, they got the ice all the time, and the owner there has really put a lot of money

into helping develop all these players. So he was fortunate enough to go there where, I mean, it's pretty much ran like most WHL teams. So it's been awesome. And as you stress, like not rushing into the career where dominating at every level does matter. So bravo and a great story.

Yeah, good shit. We'll obviously keep tabs on. You just mentioned that Andrew Berkshire, we should jump right into that. I mean, Zach Hyman, we've been beating this guy's drum all season. He's become one of my favorite players. Just watching this guy grind. He got his 51st goal Thursday night.

His fourth three win overtime. And this guy posts weird shit about his 51st goal Thursday night. Boy, it was 4-3 win over time. And this guy posts weird shit about rich parents and money. The craziest thing I've ever seen. Honestly, Biz, when you can have everybody on hockey Twitter galvanize against you, then you're really done fucked up big time. Because hockey Twitter is like, it's like a round circle. Everybody's shooting at each other all the time.

And it's like he brings in parents' money and being rich and like, not talking about hard work. It was like, buddy, what the fuck are you talking about? It made no sense. It was just like babbling. And buddy, I'm the king of babbling. I had no idea what his point was. And obviously people dug up some of his older tweets. And, you know, I don't know if he has issues

with certain ethnicities around the world, but it was certainly a question that part raised. But Whit, I know you had a pretty fucking hotty dunk on him as well. I was just like, why? What the fuck are you talking about, dude? Yeah, it just made no sense. And you mentioned everyone was against him, which I found hilarious. That never happens.

There's always sides going against each other. Nope. It was just like, everyone, get him. And he deserved it. I mean, it made zero sense. And there is truth to hockey being a very expensive sport. And there's a lot of people that are good at it that come from money. Okay?

Well, you could be the richest kid in the world. It doesn't mean you're going to get to the NHL and score 50 goals as a 31-year-old. And he was just going at him in such a weird way. Like, Hyman, I think he has three or four brothers. They all have the same amount of money, and none of them are in the NHL getting 50 goals. It was just so, like, I don't know if tone deaf is the wrong word. It just made no sense. I was watching.

Feidelberg from Barstool, he wrote underneath my tweet. He's like, I just watched this. I thought he was kidding around. It came off as a joke almost. So the guy just got dunked on, deservingly so. But Zach Hyman has earned everything he's ever had. Yes, dude, having money, there are certainly some advantages, private coaches, things of that nature. But it doesn't matter. Once you look at the big picture, you got to be able to put your balls on the line and sacrifice so many things growing up, whether it's hanging out with your buddies, going to a school dance, partying with your friends, going on a vacation. You sacrifice so much, whether you're rich, whether you're poor, to get to the level that he's gotten to.

And to take that away or try to take that away by saying his dad was super loaded. That's it right there. It has nothing to do with it. It really doesn't. He tried to take away from his moment. It was bullshit. Now, going back to the parody aspect, maybe he's like, how can I garner the most clicks off of this situation? And that was his, his, um, mindset going in, but just, uh, uh, an absolute banana lands taken.

If anything, you would probably be positive towards somebody who could just not do anything and, and be a trust fund kid. And, and, and guys, if my parents were that rich or I would have been all right. Ripping the bong at 15, looking at porn. I would have been a disaster. What do I need to work for? And the fact that even since he's gotten to the NHL, he's continued to try to develop his game and make a name for himself. Like just a wild, preposterous take. So, um, damn, just a walking L.

I had, I didn't know what anybody was talking about because i've had that guy blocked for three years he came at me so he has tweets at you from 14 years ago dude he was yeah he's been coming at stuff nobody he's been coming at me 2011 13 years he's been going at biz yeah so finally i'm like all right block i just couldn't deal with it anymore it was just preposterous nonsense. Now, we like to joke around about funny shit, like the cop circumcisors, like the Vegas Golden Knights and stuff, but this is just a whole different fucking level.

He was mentioning, like, everyone who says hard work, you work hard, you'll have success. You work hard, you'll have success. That doesn't mean shit. It does not mean you'll have success. You work hard, you'll have success. That doesn't mean shit. It does not mean you'll have success. There's no doubt that there are very, very hard working people out there that are still struggling. But if you look at the other side and being lazy and having no drive and not caring and not putting your balls on the line, as I said, giving it everything you got, which one would you rather have? Which one's going to lead to more success in any aspect of life? It might not be what you're working hard towards, but your goals or your desire and passion and ability to work hard,

it's going to help you out in the end. Financially, yes, you can work hard and you can kind of get screwed over and it never can really work out the best for you. But that is a great quality to have as a hard worker, because whether it's being a father or a husband, if you work hard and you work at your craft, there is no downside to that. And his argument that it doesn't mean anything is bullshit. And could he be going at a nicer guy? Like direct your energy to the trust fund kids buying fire festival

tickets for 10 grand. Not Zach Hyman putting up with the punishment for crying out loud. Plus, like, money. Your parents' money. Anyone's money. You can't buy fucking NHL skill with fucking money. No matter whose money is. That's the stupidest fucking point of all.

I had every advantage in the world to be a good hockey player, and I wasn't shit. Same here. Same here. Well, Biz, you know the guy who worked very hard to get where he's been, an all-star for the first time in his career this year? Frankie Vetrano from the 413 Western Mass. Loved this kid.

Finally got him on the show, so we're going to settle with a Frankie V right about now. Enjoy. All right, gang. Before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at Game Time. Hey, gang. Did you know that you could go see the Rolling Stones at Gillette Stadium right now for under $200? $150.

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Create an account and use the code CHICKLETS for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. Download the GameTime app. Last-minute tickets. Lowest price. Guaranteed. Well, it's great to welcome this fellow mass hole to the show. Finally, after his time at Zoomast, this undrafted forward signed with his hometown Bruins before

blossoming in Florida with the Panthers. After a brief stint on Manhattan, he signed with the Anaheim Ducks, where he's now a team leader and an all-star for the first time. Thanks so much for joining us on the Spittin' Chickas podcast. Frank Vetrano, congratulations, my friend. Thanks. Thanks for having me, guys. Oh, my pleasure. This must be a crazy few to go undrafted, you know, spent some time in the minors down in Bustron from Florida to New York

to Anaheim, and now here you are, an All-Star at 29 years old. Yeah, I mean, something that I never expected, even just playing in the NHL. You know, maybe back in the day I thought I'd get a cup of coffee in the NHL, but to be an All-Star now, I never expected of it. But yeah, I've been fitting well in Anaheim and it's been fun. How cool was that way you found out, right?

Like went pretty viral, just having your family there to give you the news in the locker room. Yeah, it's awesome. I mean, they've been there since day one. So to share with them, I mean, I had no idea. I don't know how the picking goes. I don't know when they're making the selections, but to be surprised with my family, my stall, that was icing on the cake. Was it just such a relief this year?

Maybe not necessarily a relief being the right word, but starting the way you did, man, it's like it just opens up the whole season. Like the pressure gets taken off. It must have been so good. You're just lighting it up right off the bat. Yeah, I talk about it all the time, especially at the beginning of the year.

I think everyone always talks about the hardest goal to get is the first one. I know. And the more it takes, you're like panicking. I've gone through stretches where it took me like seven to ten games to get my first goal. So, you know, to get a hat trick in my second game, you kind of just play with kind of – you call it house money.

You get your cookies early. And if you go through a little bit of a drought, you know you have some of the goals that you scored in the past so you can get through it easier. Yeah. When you got to Anaheimim did you feel at home right away like did you know you were going to be given a good opportunity to get your ice time and be able to show them what you're capable of yeah i think that was part of the reason why i signed there um when i went to new york i think going to new york was the biggest thing that's happened

in my career being able to play with uh kreidz and zavinijad and playing a top six role in the playoffs on the highest stage once you a toxic troll in the playoffs on the highest stage once you can do it in the playoffs you know you can do it in the regular season so i saw an opportunity anaheim and obviously anaheim is a great place to live i was used to living in florida so i want to go back to another sunny spot have uh opportunity to play a little different than springfield yeah it's a little it's sunny there although if an nhl team is in springfield he'd sign a lifetime it's on a lifetime deal. It's a 10-year deal right now. What I know about Springfield,

I never actually went to it. There was this famous strip club. Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras. Oh, gee. That's like world known. Everyone who's been through Springfield knows the Gras.

Because then you have to get... The Gras. The Gras. I think they shut it down. I think there's some operations going on with that one. With amongst other things. COVID.

COVID and other things. But you could go there and go there you go there all day guys will go after practice because they had this unreal buffet too right yeah you can get a 12 ounce ribeye right next door at the 350 girl he's the mayor but like was it was it kind of like attached to that so you can kind of walk girls hanging from the poles while you're eating your ribeye you know nice all in Springfield. How much of your signing bonus went there? Funniest, I've never been there. Okay, all right. I usually try to stay away from downtown Springfield.

Yeah, the locals don't go downtown. All I hear about is this famous tattoo that you ended up getting, right? You have a Springfield tattoo on your leg? I do. I have the skyline of Springfield on my leg. All my buddies who played hockey, played college, all of us have it. I know you guys had Ryan Leonard on, so we told him he couldn't get it until he plays pro.

Exactly. We'll try to get him. So you guys are all kind of cut from the same cloth. Oh, yeah. So not to interrupt you before he goes, growing up playing hockey in Massachusetts, the Springfield Picks, I don't know if they're still the Picks. Yeah, they're at Mass Con United now, but yeah, the Picks.

Okay, buddy, when you were going out there to play these guys, they were workhorses. They played their dicks off rough. I'm like, everyone going out there, you're like, put the bootstraps on, boys. You're going out Western Mass. They're motherfuckers. Is that a good sale job for what you guys are doing?

For sure, they play it. It's always tough. You're probably playing at the Enfield twin rinks too. Every time. And that rink hasn't changed one bit the rings the size of this room the nets aren't regulation the parents are nuts out there you just got to know how to play in that rink but growing up like were you always one of the top players i mean you went undrafted like growing like were you kind of elite from a young age yeah i was I was always good. I always played a year up.

So I played 93s. So I actually played for the Picks, I think like Squirt Minor, Squirt Major. Then I actually played for the Flames. I played for the Flames. So all the best hockeys in Boston and for development. I was fortunate enough, my parents owned their own business. So they were able to take time out of their schedule to drive me an hour to practice every single day. So yeah, I did that.

But it was always good. I always played I did that, but it was always good. I always played a year up and I was always good. And then my parents weren't crazy though. I played hockey from September to March and played baseball. So you weren't a summer hockey tournament. I was not. My parents, maybe when I was 13 or 14, I played one tournament a year and I was like right at the end of the year. But other than that, I loved hockey.

I always knew I wanted to play hockey, but I enjoyed playing baseball. I was going to ask you, would you have rather gone pro in baseball or hockey, but hockey's the answer? I love baseball, but I just didn't have the art for it. Baseball used to get me so mad. Power hitter? Slap hitter, but power line drive. Use opposite field.

Go with the pitch. I'm a lefty, so I went left center. I wasn't a pull hitter. Yeah, yeah. The thing about baseball I didn't like was if you made a mistake, you couldn't do anything about it. In hockey, you can at least run someone from behind or talk shit to someone. Paros is listening to this.

In baseball, it's like you got to wait for your next opportunity. So I went through probably hundreds of pairs of batting gloves, maybe a few broken knuckles from the dugout. So you were playing for the Junior Bruin Drop Families commuting an hour and a half every day for practice? Yeah, it was about a little over an hour. Because when I was out there, I never had my license. I played at New England Sports Center from second grade

until 10th grade, and then I went to the national team. So, yeah, credit my parents with everything. They were able to take time out of their schedule to bring me there. Were you still in Ann Arbor then? I was in ann arbor uh yeah junior senior year so was it it wasn't they had moved to plymouth yeah i think they moved maybe a couple years after me but yeah pioneer high school alum who were the other big time 94 american born kids we had uh seth jones uh truba brady shea matt grizzlik like almost all of our

d-course playing in the nhl then Ryan Hartman, Indra Kopp. Oh, sick. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, was Trouba always that Trouba train? Yeah, he was probably one of the first commits. He used to decapitate guys. He's insane. He's still doing it.

Still doing it. He's playing the same way as he played when he was, what, 16 or something? Yeah. Yeah. Did it piss you off to not get drafted? Did it just sort of fuel your fight even more after that yeah um it was it was definitely tough i mean i interviewed with 15 teams and i part of part of what's that no i didn't go i think part of the blame was on myself too i wasn't in the

best shape i didn't take things seriously so really myself yeah um believe it or not at 18 years old i was 230 pounds. Oh, my God. You were a little fat. Wow. I was a whale. Yeah. What, no fucking ZD? No training.

No training. I was going to say, I saw some early interviews with you in the locker room. This guy looks a little bit chubby. Yeah. Then when I went to Boston, you have no choice but to buy in or else you're not playing. Yeah, you're done. Going to Boston, i knew how to train knew how to eat and you know it was tough at the time but i mean that's what you have to do to play

in the nhl was was it like umass kind of where you always wanted to go be in from springfield or like was that like you didn't have other options you get that workout you guys are gonna kick out of this not many people know the story so i committed to boston college. Okay. I got kicked out of BC. No shit. I got expelled from BC. Wow. So I committed to BC at 16 and went to the national program. I wasn't the best student. Okay. I had a 2.1 GPA in high school.

Just just by the way at Pioneer High or Huron High. That's like that's like a 0.8. So with the NCAA you have to get your ACT and SAT scores. You have to have it. If your GPA is low there's like a 0.8 so with the ncaa you have to get your act uh sat scores you have to have it if your gpa is low there's like a sliding scale so you need like a 24 if your gpa is this so i took the act my first time i got a 14 on it which i think you get like 13 points for signing your name yeah whatever so i called bc and they're like yeah i don't think those grades are good enough to get you in school so i was like okay so i take the next test i cheated on it i got a 24 on it call bc i was like hey this is like january february i have to sign my nli by like march or something i was like hey i got a 24 my ct like what should i do is like send the scores

in school but they might investigate your scores because you jump so high don't hear anything of it month goes by act contacts me you're being accused of cheating blah blah blah write a letter back while you do better write the letter back they denied it so it's like april now i was supposed to sign my noi like a month ago so i was like you need to take another test so i was like all right i'll just take the sat took the sat i got a 1550 on it not bad no that's pretty good which was equivalent to my 24 in the act call bc hey i got a 1550 sat as. As I told you guys before, my ACT scores are getting. And you didn't cheat on that one? No.

So my ACT scores were invalid. You guys already know this. I have the test scores to get in. They were like, okay, send those in. We'll see you in September when we get there. So I'm at school. I'm at BC. I do rookie party.

I'm doing classes. No games yet. No games. Practice. I was there for a month. Practicing. I get called off the ice by the coaches like hey what happened your act scores i was like you guys have been knowing about this for

five or six months now like i told you what happened like oh okay okay okay another week goes by hey so what actually happened the act scores like i told you guys i studied i just did better like no i know you cheated i didn't cheat so i just denied denied they got no proof yeah but at 18 years old and like you're young you nervous. You don't want to lie to your coach. I was like, yeah, I cheated on one section. Like, okay, it's happened to players in the past. We'll get you out of it. Blah, blah, blah.

I was like, all right, I trust you. So in order to go with, I would have had the red shirt at BC that year because my scores were in too late. So just deadlines and stuff, which I was bummed about. But I was like, all right, whatever. Bite the bullet for a year in red shirt. So in order to do that, I had to go through admissions again admissions again at bc oh no i barely did it the first time so ncaa was fine with me red shirting at bc but admissions had to be okay with it so i'm going

into the me and jerry you're have to go to the dean of admissions and tell him what happened so i probably are in there i probably tell my side of the story for 15, 20 seconds before I can get everything out. Dean and vision's like, yeah, um, this happened to a non-athlete last year. So we're going to have to let you go. No way.

And I'm just like, you crushed at the time. I'm like, like, what the fuck's going to happen now? You know what I mean? And then I really went to my room, packed my bags,

done 20 minutes. My cousin, Barry Almeida actually was in boston that time picked me up and drove me home holy shit and then after that i had my transfer penalty started and i had to get into uh umass by january i actually so my freshman year was 2012-13 i sat out right transferred to umass january i sat out didn't play all 2020 2012 13 didn't play 13 14 and played 14 15 and signed is that how you got to 230 yeah just lifting weights so you didn't play a game for like two years wow dude that's that's a kick in the dick development wise yeah for sure and especially

you know i probably would have been drafted after playing that year yeah if i played a year and you know everything happens for a reason i'm obviously at the time it sucked but i'm glad it happened it you know teaches how to deal with a lot of the first how uh how does one cheat and they said it was on one section so you only did it on one section was it a written part it was just it's a b c d fill in the bubble so so how did you know? He went like this. Like that. That's it. Although I actually thought that they had different tests,

so you couldn't do that. I thought they did too. You just risked it. Yeah. So people are listening right now. When you look over, you mean you look over at the next person's answer? Yeah, you get the eyes going. You just get the peripherals going.

Classic cheating. You're making it sound like this is like rocket science, like cheating, like how you look at the other person's test no no i just i guess i was a little confused as to how it all went down now you're saying that they they looked it up to the person yeah so they they look if you increase in scores even if you don't cheat they still investigate it so they can say whatever they want um they said my whatever i was I was test taker C. Your answers were similar to test taker D's answers. But I was a smart cheater usually, you know. Smart cheater. You got that one.

Okay, I'll make sure I'll fill in this one. You have the same pattern going. Well, when you finally get to play at UMass, you have like 20 goals. And it was that big of a year where you're like, all right, well, I'm undrafted.ed I could sign with anyone I'm ready to go yeah the the thing about it was Boston it was probably December January and and uh Don Sweeney called my agent and was like hey at the end of the year Frankie wants to turn pro uh we'd love to sign him and that's I

mean I didn't expect that at all I was having a good year but I didn't think I'd be a one and done kind of guy um well it was three and done but three that at all. I was having a good year, but I didn't think I'd be a one-and-done kind of guy. Well, it was three-and-done. Three-and-done. So basically, I was a senior, but I was a freshman. I can relate. But yeah, I think being undrafted and you get the opportunity to sign and play in the NHL, you never know if the opportunity will come across it again.

And for it to be in Boston, it even feels anywhere, but for it to be in Boston made it extra special. And I knew it was something that I had to do and had to do it right away. Was it harder to stay focused because it was the home team? Like, yeah, probably a lot of buddies asking you for tickets and asking you to go out and grab pops. Like, was it hard to kind of dial it in? Because you hear about guys who even like go back home to play and they get overwhelmed by the experience. Yeah. I always tell everyone, I wish I played in Boston later in my career. For me, I don't really get distracted

that stuff i like i love having buddies around hanging out with them um my family around and asking for tickets like i don't mind that stuff but i think to be away from home when you're playing the nhl is you don't have to worry about as much stuff like you said um like i wish i played there later on my career uh before i kind of figured out my game and how to play in the league. Obviously, there is some pressure too with the media being a hometown kid and all that stuff. And Boston's nuts with the media,

as everyone knows. Yeah. As much as you say you tune out the media out, if you go five, 10 games without a goal or a point, you know that they're talking about you regardless of looking it up. Well, you said before you figure it out, what do you think was the biggest thing

that you needed to learn at the NHL level? What was the hardest for you to grasp was it maybe like the defensive side of the game like where to find your spots to score in like what was the hardest thing yeah i mean you can score goals at every single level and you get to nhl and it's a different animal like people are people don't understand how hard it is to score in this league and how to be consistent every single night and i was always a goal scorer. So, you know, either finding, you know, areas to score goals or it's all about opportunity too. And, you know, if you're not getting power play time,

scoring even strength in the NHL isn't easy. So you're going to go five or 10 games without a goal or a point, but what are you going to do if you're not scoring goals? So for me, I kind of had to change my role and be a little bit more of a prick to play against, finish every hit, chirp guys, try to be live block shots finish hits so it's some guys can't figure that out and for me I knew I wanted to play in the NHL and I was going to do whatever it ever took to stay you've always had like a big shot like one of the top shots in the league like every kid grows up

shooting pucks but were you like extra about that or is that something that came natural like this release you have it just allows you to not need as much time and space to get it off and score as a kid i would always be on the driveway just my brother's beating the shit out of me you're just playing horse are you younger brother i'm the youngest of four so we'd be on the driveway just doing like stupid stuff like that but i never really shot pucks as a kid i shot street hockey balls really my release is a little bit different i think it's all credit to shooting street hockey balls just having like because you can is a little bit different. I think it's all credit to shooting street hockey balls. Just having to, like, because you can't sweep it like a regular wrist shot.

You have to kind of snap it. And that's how I shoot the puck. Every shot I usually take is a snapshot. I'm not really a wrist shot. Yeah. So I credit to using, as crazy as it sounds, shooting street hockey balls. So being the youngest of four, just getting pounded on. Cold fat, pounded on, loogies in the face, beef stew, everything.

You can beat up any of them. stew, everything. He named it. Could beat up any of them. No, nothing. That's awesome. Would you say beef stew? Yeah, you ever seen benchwarmers? They fart in kids' faces. Oh, yeah.

Wow. I was a younger brother, so I can relate. I just want to quickly just go back to Boston because you'd already kind of mentioned it. Being able to play there, though, around those guys and just kind of learn that pro game. I don't know. Maybe you've got a char story or bergeron story about just like the impact they had on you during your time there huge i think going through it now in anaheim like i get asked a question all the time like are there any guys you you know credit yours not success but

how you had to become an nhl every day and i And I was, I credit those, those core four guys, Cratch Z and Bergie and Marsh, the way those guys treat their bodies and interact with people and how they go about their business every single day is that's how you should, that's how you be a full-time NHLer. That's how you train. That's how you treat people. And when I got, I was fortunate enough to have those guys to lead, lead the right way and show you the right way. And I try to do as most I can for the young guys on our team now. But having those four guys there was huge for me, showing me what to do every single day. You left school and played a couple games in the AHL right away. But the next year, your first year pro, you had 36 goals in 36 games in the AHL.

Are you like, when am I getting called up? What else do I need to do here? Yeah, that was a crazy year easy for you there quit did i had a great team great power play and our team in providence was unbelievable and was josh hennessey there then he was not okay no he wasn't but uh yeah i mean i i had so much fun playing the american hockey league like obviously when you play in the nhl and you see the paychecks you don't want to go back down and um i went back down but i had fun going to back down to providence and whatnot and what no bad attitude that no i never had a bad attitude obviously i was like oh shit i want to be up and called up i'd never forget i went

one time just being a young guy in the nhl you know you the gm always tells you stuff they kind of control you for the first yeah four or five years until you have your own rights and stuff with free agency but i think we were playing playing Portland pirates and we won three, two. I had a natural hatch. I got three goals. And I remember after I thought I had a great game and come down to the locker room after the game. Swin's like, Hey, great game, but still need to work on your D zone.

I was like, all right. You're like, wow. I was like, okay, dad, ever going to get called up again. You know, I know you had Julian and Cassidy when you were in Boston. Two guys not exactly, I'd say, favorite young guys. Did it get frustrating at all? Did you maybe think you should have been getting a better chance? I know those guys were you treated fairly, you thought.

Yeah, I thought I was treated fairly. Klob was obviously a little different. He was there and won and had his guys, had his core guys. And obviously, he was a more of an old school coach and whatnot. But he was good. He was great to me. Now, as a young guy, you don't really get communication as much. But with Butchie, I had him in Providence, and he was great.

One of the smartest coaches I've ever played for. Then I had him in Boston, and I don't know what happened, but things changed a little bit. Obviously, I think he's a great coach. He's won in Vegas and all that stuff. But, no, he was a great coach. I've never seen a guy that can read the game like him, X's and O's wise. Really?

Yeah. I've never seen. He's a head coach and does the power play. The way he can dissect other teams' PKs in order to kind of use other plays to your advantage. He's so smart in that aspect of the game. Were you pissed off when they traded you to Florida? Just, again, being a local kid and all.

I was ecstatic, actually. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. I was going to say, traded you to Florida? Just, again, being a local kid and all? I was ecstatic, actually. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. I was going to say, watching you in the Bruins, like, never really got a top six chance. So in terms of getting traded, like, all right, I'm going to get a role now. Yeah, I'm so fortunate for Dale Talon.

You know Dale. Yes. He's such a loyal guy. I had him at World Championships after my first year in Boston, and he loved me as a player. And it was kind of behind the scenes thing but I know they were trying to trade for me all year the last year at my entry level and I knew it was definitely one of the teams that wanted to you know trade for me and put me in a

role to succeed and he did that and I was fortunate enough to go there and sign a three-year deal and he knew what kind of player I was so credit to him for you know seeing that in me what's cool is that like he he wanted you as a player you go there and then after you know that season ends that you got traded boom next year 24 goals like everything kind of went the way he saw it and you saw it yeah absolutely I mean I credit him with all my success to you know just seeing that player in me and put me in a role to succeed he's one of the most loyal guys I've ever met in hockey he always wants his players that he has that he signs and trades for it to do well even if things aren't going well for you he'll always try to find a place for you to succeed and that's that's all

you ask for as a player is someone that cares about you not just as a hockey player but as a human being yeah uh just with new york i know you were there only a short time but fuck man playing an msg you're gonna play playoffs there like that's like what prime time that's that that's that's the climax everyone always asks me how is it playing new york oh that's that's playing in the nhl just uh just the whole persona of new york city and you know you're coming up manhattan and you see msg and you see how busy it is and all the blue shirts and just everything about is first class the way they treat you in the organization like they don't cut corners on anything and um in order to you know to go to the conference finals and play at msg and we went uh game six we almost went to game

sevens and to see that building during game sevens is one of the coolest things i've ever been a part of were you hoping to maybe resign there and, obviously they got some money things there, but I don't know how that free agency went. Yeah, I mean, Peter Fish is, you know, obviously him and Drew are BU guys. So I knew Drew before I even went to New York. And I obviously have an exit meeting with him at the end of the year.

I wanted to go back. And at the end of the day, you know, you can't have everything. And obviously sometimes the money thing, the business side of things don't work out. And he was straightforward with me. He was like, I i don't know we have to sign some so and so and um but if there's some money left over that you know your appeals to you we'd love to have you back but sometimes that's just not how it works out and you gotta get your payday too exactly so

i was um i was fortunate enough anaheim was the second it was first or second team on the list that i wanted to go to if i wasn't going back to new york so um i'm thrilled to be in anaheim now i think we got to talk about anaheim and all the young prospects right like you've played a lot of places where you got there and these guys were established but you're kind of the veteran now and you got these young guys coming up like mctavish unreal he's a bulldog like who's impressed you the most and where do you think this team can like get to with all these young guys in the pipeline? Yeah, the young guys that they've drafted and whoever they've gotten through trades are, they're so talented. The way these kids can play at 18 years old now is, it's bizarre.

It's scary. Like think about what I was doing at 18 years old to see. You were 250. I was 230 in takeout Chinese food. I'm Marty Grah. Yeah, the Gras. Eating your beef tips, staring at beef curtains. But no, Leo Carlson's 18.

This guy is going to be, I don't even want to know what this guy is going to be like in two or three years. He's a fucking, he's a monster too. He's huge. Killorn was saying his hip plates aren't even- Yeah, they're saying his growth plates haven't fully grown in. This kid's probably what, 6'2", 6'3"? Hasn't even grown in his body.

And then you have Mac T who's 21 going on 40. He's old school, huh? He's a tank. He's 215 pounds, just an absolute animal. And then we just called up Zellweger. Like he's unbelievable. He got his first point the other day, right? He skates like the wind.

Yep. Quarterback, like definition of a quarterback on the power play. Then you have Linnell who is going to be unbelievable. And Mintikov, like you name it, just go down the list. Like our prospects are D prospects and forward prospects. Now, I saw Gauthier the other night. Yeah. That kid's going to be legit too.

Yeah, so I've heard great things about him. So he'd definitely be a good piece to add to Anaheim. I'm excited to have him. The Mintikov kid, that was like right off the hop like we're talking about all these rookies like he looks like a seasoned vet too like it's crazy this to just to see how many guys are coming up that in the next two three years like there's going to be a wagon growing there yeah i mean i think every single defense that we have is a puck moving defense yeah and that's so important in the nhl especially as forwards like we want to be out

there with guys who keep the puck out of that but also a guy that can move the puck up the ice and that's what we have i think we have the ohl defensive player of the year the q qmj defensive player of the year and the dub defensive player all three of those guys last year and then you just got rid of a stud on the yeah it was that hard he seemed like a very likable guy was very close with like all the young guys too yeah jim, that kid's the best. He's such a good kid. He's an unbelievable hockey player. Really?

Obviously, the news wasn't – it was tough. No one expected it. But we said, you're going to a place that wants you, and you're going to go with him being a great NHLer. It sucks at the time. I go, once you get to Philly, you're going to forget all about it. That's just the business side of things. Don't take it to heart. It's just how things work in this to Philly, you're going to forget all about it. That's just the business side of things. You know, don't take it to heart.

It's just how things work in this league. And as a young kid, you don't understand it. But as you get older, you understand how things work in the league. But yeah, I'm thrilled for him to be in Philly. He's playing in a big market now and I know he's happy there. I see.

Oh, sorry, go ahead. I was just going to ask about Cronin, like an intense dude. Is that blood pressure or is he tanning? What's up with the gold? He's got those gold glasses too. Those Armani's? Yeah, I don't know what they are.

I got to look next time. He surfs, so maybe he's getting the sun for sure. It's a tan. But yeah, he is the definition of intense. He expects a lot out of us as players. Really dissects the game with his X's and o's or little parts of the games um keeps you on your toes for sure make sure you're paying attention in meetings uh paying attention to details and not practice but uh for him he just wants the best out of everyone especially

with a younger team he wants to develop those guys the right way and making sure they're not slacking and trying to teach them how to be professionals every single day so and hiring i think that was the whole process of a hiring him was making sure he's holding guys accountable make sure we're playing the right way is verbique um one of those gms who's talking to guys or is he more just kind of out of i heard he's fucking hardcore intense yeah he's definitely super old school he's intense um expects a lot out of us he's kind of stays behind the scenes a little bit he doesn't really interact with the team much um he does a lot of scouting he's always trying to make the team better uh he's always somewhere and uh but no um good relation most players have good relationships with them but but for the most part he stays behind the scenes but frank i saw that clip you

a couple weeks ago last week at zellweger was going out for his rookie lap and you know i know you check with gibson the glory first then you say go head out so it seems like you've really taken on like a leadership role with the squad is this the first team you've been would consider yourself a big leader on the ducks yeah especially with how young our age gap is we have 18 year olds and we have henry's in 91 everyone acts like he's 50 years old he's only 32 years old so it's like whatever yeah i mean i try to just give to them what was given to me as a rookie making sure you're including them taking them out to dinners and make sure you're just treating them well and making them feel welcome,

especially as an 18-year-old and living on your own. It's not easy. Making sure we include them in everything that we're doing with the older guys. At home, it's a little bit different. Everyone goes home to wives and kids, but on the road, we try to include them as much as possible.

Do you get after Zegers quite a bit? Because you mentioned the coach is hardcore and make sure you're paying attention and all dialed in on time. Does he have a hard time with that being a young guy no he's good he's uh there's been some meetings where that don't go so well not just for him but for all of us so definitely uh that was eye-opening for him and a lot of us what do you mean he'll just like all of a sudden quiz you and then you'll be like a lot of rhetorical questions in video that's a panic for me oh yeah i don't know what to say i hate rhetorical questions what are you thinking here

like what's our system this situation just and then he'll call your name out and ask you for it but no just if you have like a little play in the game like you're you will see it in front of the entire team oh he's showing everyone he's showing everyone all the clips and stuff and i've had coach that done in the past they used to call my seat in boston the the hot seat uh oh sorry not the hot seat the roast seat so every video session with bruce cassie was kind of a roast session oh yeah and here's frankie again what the fuck i'm trying to go like this in my seat the 280 pound dot in the screen right there yeah what were you thinking here i was like i don't know i was trying to survive out here what's that what's

this thing about a day in the life video you masked that we hear about what's that all about oh yans church me for it all the time yeah i was like 18 years old i was like 230 pounds and showing this like interview interviewing of my hometown and showing like all my high school and yans will always tell you no one's ever heard of the tornado and the tornado that happened massachusetts was in springfield and knocked down your high school he goes that just doesn't make any sense to me but he always like yeah pizza's my favorite food here always yans always says that to me that's what i said in the interview and i had like in the video i had like cotton mouth so i had like spit like hanging right here so he just yans will like send it to me randomly

like you won't talk to yans for like a month or two months then he'll just send you like a random clip or like a random asking you a random question yeah he's and then you'll respond and he won't yeah then he won't respond back speaking of random they had the draft last night for the austin game now the last four guys that i guess they gave you like a randomly assigned uh picture but you didn't know what it was and that's how you found out what team you were on yeah so was that kind of like so they they didn't have one guy be last that hurt his feelings? It seemed like a weird way to do it. Yeah, I guess that's just how things are. You don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

Are you on Tate McCrae's team? No, I'm on Michael Bublé. Oh, buddy, he was on Shroom's. I know. People were sending me all the clips. I had no idea. He thought he took a microdose, and then he took a major dose.

Oh, so he was whacked out there. Yeah. He was talking a lot last night but i wasn't you couldn't hear anything on the i thought it made it he didn't you couldn't hear anything he was mucking up with reporters he was taking them i think he called brock besters name wrong at the wrong time he gave him a a song but i think it's good for the league it's great yeah as much publicity we can have it's awesome you ever taken shrooms before no panic attacks man pizza and beer did you score the other day and chuck your stick in the crowd yeah that was

actually more of a frustration really you're just finally like it went in yeah it was like six or seven games without a goal and i was like scored all-star break this stick's getting i need to get rid of the stick did you kind of like cringe a little after like you were gonna hit someone and they look like no i mean maybe i'll have a lawsuit waiting for me in Anaheim when I get back. But this thing would have touched the 300s. I took my two fingers and launched it right out of there. I know. It's a hilarious clip.

You just look. You look like mad, but you just scored a goal. That makes sense, though. Is there any guy at the All-Star game you kind of. I wouldn't say fanboy over, but you're just like, I'm maybe a little bit intimidated to meet him. Like who are the who are maybe the older guys you looked up to like yeah sid was my guy growing up that's who i looked up to um he was my favorite player growing up and obviously i've heard guys that play with him he said he's an unbelievable guy and

and whatnot so yeah definitely a guy i'm excited to meet and excited to be around who do you think the best player in the league is right now? Connor McDavid. Thank you. Not McKinnon? So it's different for me. I bet if you ask people that play in the Central Division, they'll say McKinnon, but I play against McDavid four times a year, and it's just like I've never. He's got me off the ice.

There's literally nothing you can do to stop him. He's playing in a different league. It's like you can't. You try to do whatever. You can't. You just can't stop him. Yeah, you guys will talk in the room league it's like you can't you try to do whatever you can't just can't stop him like it's yeah that's you guys will talk in the room about it being like who's got guys are like a guy like there'll be shifts sometime and he'll have the pocket like what are you supposed to do like you can't you actually can't just tighten it up i know i know

if the coach is a better gap you're like but once you start gapping he's he's by you and you're like you're known for your wheels but like even you, you're probably like, it's him. It's not even speed-wise. It's just the way he can change gears. He'll have you going this way. Before you even react to this way, he's already this way. And you're back at Mardi Gras. Yeah.

You're basically on Team Canucks. I think there's five Canucks on Team Hughes tonight. Anybody you want to skate with that can get you a couple of nice setup passes? Maybe Cooch? Yeah. Everyone wants to play with Cooch, one of the best players in the league, right? Absolutely. So hopefully, maybe I'll be in a checking line role, so we'll see what happens.

What about summers? Are you back to Springfield? Yeah, back in Springfield. And when you retire, you'll be back at Springfield too? Probably there or back in Fort Lauderdale. Yeah, I have a Florida place for winter. Yeah, I loved it in Florida. Did you buy and then keep the house or were you renting? So I bought the i bought the place in florida then i actually sold it before i was

i sold it that last year my car i made a killing though yeah especially before i bought my house before coven and then just all that's happened in florida after covid crazy it's insane the price i was looking in like just a del rey area yeah del rey is unbelievable i love it there but you look you're like oh this place this place is $3 million. I think that's a teardown. You used to be able to get a house for like a million bucks, like whatever, perfect, nice. Now you can't even touch anything under like $2 million.

Have you bought in CDM? I bought in CDM. Nice. Yeah, it's a good spot, especially in California. You can't go wrong. The real estate's always up and coming there. Yeah. There's the housing shortage too.

Made sure I buy. I wasn't paying $100,000 in rent. That's smart. You actually grew up, is it East Longmeadow or West? We grew up in East Longmeadow, Mass. I wasn't sure if it was actually Springfield or not. Born in Springfield. I thought everyone from Springfield. You mentioned your cousin

Barry. He had the eye yeah he did it's a crazy story his cousin was a hell of a player was it a campfire yeah he was it was actually i think it might have been the year before he was he probably would have been drafted smaller smaller guy kevin hayes told me he was sick yeah he uh was at a graduation party and a glass bottle exploded in his eye out of a campfire yeah so like he had to get eye surgeries blind to one eye and um yeah just just just terrible situation wrong place at the wrong time and you know credit for him though he's he had himself a hell of a career he won but i think it was two national

championships at bc um a chance to play in the hl in the east coast and you know for someone to do that one i can't even imagine. I can barely see you with two eyes from a little. That's ridiculous. That's what your winger said. Yeah, I know. Well, buddy, this has been awesome. We appreciate that.

And now you, man, congratulations on your first all-star game. And you guys are going to have a wagon in a few years in Anaheim. And you know, when you guys are there, we'd like to get you back on and talk about that. Sounds good. Thanks for having me guys. Love it. All right. Before we go any further, here's a few words from our good friends over at

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Thank you so much to Springfield's own Frank Vetrano. What a guy. What a career he's given himself. So we appreciated him hopping on at the all-star game. We're on to another story, guys. As the Philadelphia Flyers make this magical run to the playoffs, well, unfortunately, they're in a little bit of a skid, but they have some goaltending help on the way. And for anyone who's unaware of the story of Ivan Fedotov, and I hope I'm saying his last name correctly, it's a wild one.

Now, this kid's a Russian goalie, 6'7", one of the tallest goalies to ever play. Made in a lab. Obviously, a Russian guy. In the 21-22 season, he played for CSKA Moscow, and the Flyers signed him to a one-year contract in May of 2022. And he's getting ready to play. And he's training in St. Petersburg, his home city. And boom, he's snapped up by the Russian police. And he was sent to the Russian military on an aircraft carrier near the Russian-Finnish border for a season.

No hockey. Working on an aircraft carrier as part of a Russian I guess military they have to do that. What's it called? Yeah, shady Russia. So everyone who complains, USA sucks. Give Russia a try because they'll

snatch you out of a contract and stick you on an aircraft carrier. So this guy is stuck and then apparently after the year away, he's already signed a one-year NHL contract. Well, no, no hockey that season. So then he's coming back to play the next season, and they told him,

this year you should play for CSKA Moscow. He was kind of pushed towards playing for the Russian Red Army team. Well, he went and had a solid season. I think he was 21 and 20, not really as good of a numbers as maybe the year prior or the two years prior when he signed the deal and it was a two-year contract in the khl but nobody really knows i don't know if you've read anything already in

terms of why seska agreed to terminate the deal but immediately he was brought over to philadelphia he's there now now there's about eight games, so this is his one-year deal. Breer's already talked about getting him re-signed on a two-year extension, hopefully quick, but as the Flyers have hit the shitter and they're struggling with Samuel Urson, and they lost Carter Hart, right? So all of a sudden, they need this guy to come in. I don't know if he'll possibly play in the biggest game of the season tonight.

You're listening Tuesday morning, but Monday night, Flyers-Islanders. Flyers can bury the Islanders. This can be the end of the Long Island team. The Long Island, the strong Island Islanders could be done after tonight. I don't know if we'll see Fedotov, but if he can come in and make an

impact, what a story this would be. The kid has to miss hockey for a season. If he comes in, lights it up, and then they go on a little bit of run, it would be incredible. I'm story this would be. The kid has to miss hockey for a season. If he comes in, lights it up, and then they go on a little bit of run, it would be incredible. I'm happy for the kid. He finally gets to come over. Torts has to fucking play him next game. Oh, yeah. You think Torts is not going to unleash the

Ruski? Are you out of your mind, Woody? I mean, Woody, he's 27 years old. He was the KHL's best goalie two years ago. Is it Gagarin? Is that how you say it? Gagarin Cup. He's basically the Russian Stanley Cup. I mean, this guy's got a hell of a pedigree, managarin? Is that how you say it? Gagarin Cup. Basically, the Russian Stanley Cup. I mean, this guy's got a hell of a pedigree, man. I don't know how you don't throw him out there, Nick. Oh, I agree.

They should put the Russian national anthem right before the game to get him fucking going. I'm sure that would go over well with the social justice warriors. Remember when we had Andre Ron? By the way, it's a pride night. Hey, by the way, this guy gives up three in the first and comes into torts. He may be fucking wishing he was back on that aircraft carrier inside. No, he'd say the same thing McGillney did to Keenan. He goes, you think I'm fucking scared of you?

You know the shit that I've seen? No, I'm not kidding. I forget who told me the story. Was it Roenick? Somebody told us. Yeah, there's an old story for those of you who haven't heard it. I think we've told it a few times on the pod. Mike Keenan came in and started giving it to Alexander Mogilny,

and he just says, fuck off, bro. You don't know what the fuck I've been through. Get out of my kitchen. It was cool to hear Brierre talk about what this kid's gone through and how hard he's worked. I mean, taking a year off hockey at 26 years old like you got to be constantly when he wasn't doing his russian obligations as a uh whatever our army obligations i'm sure he's like maybe watching video if he was allowed to do that working out

like this kid deserves to get a chance and i'm i'm rooting for him because so am i to get dragged away from the game at the peak of your career right as you sign an NHL deal, I hope he plays tonight. I haven't seen the goaltending matchups, but a really cool story for him to finally get over and give it a shot. All right, you're going to be hammering the fires tonight.

If he's not, definitely. Seventh-round pickback in 2015, too, man. So waited a long time for this. Also, we got to give John Coulson a shout-out. He, we got to give John Collison a shout out. He's an alumni of the Chick-fil-A show. He became, I'm sorry, the latest member of the 1,000th NHL Games Club. The 60th play and ninth defenseman to score in his 1,000th game. He tied the game in the second period.

He also tied Kevin Hatchett for most goals by a defenseman in team history with 149. You know, this is also weird about Collison. Most goals by a defenseman born in Massachusetts. Pretty crazy stat. In NHL history. Wow. Yeah.

Yeah. That's crazy. That is crazy. Yeah. I was like, holy shit. More than Brian. Yeah. Wow.

More than Brian Leach. Brian Leach isn't from Massachusetts. Wow. That's a cool stat. Even though Carlson, I don't even know if he played youth hockey around here. No, we talked about it when we had him on years ago. Yeah. But just, I mean, it jumped out at me too, because I thought Ron Langway right away.

Like, you know, as far as a defenseman, an American defenseman. I'll tell you what, we talked a lot about how ridiculous this season is and how it makes no sense with the Capitals. But I kept forgetting they lost him last year. They were going fine when they had him and he broke his jaw and everything fell apart. So having him back, now granted the numbers are wild and it still makes no sense the Capitals are in the spot they're in, but having him just in the locker room alone, that's a huge difference.

That guy's the man. He's an animal to play against. I remember when he came into the AHL early and he was dominating down there. I think they won the Calder Cup. I'm like, who is this kid? And he's just become a star in the NHL. So congrats to him. Do you think

that they moved on from Mike Green because he was coming up or was that crossover not a thing? Oh man, they might have crossed over quick. They had such a good offensive defenseman in Green who I think the one year had 35 goals. And all of a sudden it was John Carlson's

time. Green broke the record. Remember he broke the record for consecutive games with a goal by a defenseman? Oh, okay. Remember 24-7 when he was like he had like, was he a Jesus on with a fucking scooter driving to practice in like a blizzard? Oh, yeah.

Carlson did play with Green. So maybe that was kind of... Green's last year with Washington, he had 72 games, played 45 points. That season, Carlson had 82 games, 55 points, and that was Carlson's fifth year. They played together a while, actually. Yeah, they played together five years almost.

Okay, yeah. I roomed with Green at under 18 for Team Canada. What a guy. I would love to get him on the podcast. Big tattoo guy. I think love to get him on the podcast. Big tattoo guy. I think he's got classic cars. He's an interesting cat. He went his second full year in the NHL,

56 points, 73 points, 76 points. He was the offensive guy. He was a machine with those stealths. Anyway, ARA, another 1,000 games. This one's tough, and I'm not chirping him. I think Skinner's the best. He seems like such a happy guy. He's doing those silly videos for Buffalo 2 between two benches.

What's the name of it? It's like a knockoff of between two ferns, but he's going to hit his 1,000th game. He's never played a playoff game, guys. That's fucked. That's fucked. Yeah. a playoff game, guys. That's fucked. That's fucked. I feel so bad for him. That's tough. I know that Big Cat account put

a tweet out. They're pretty good about it. I thought it was kind of mean. They listed every single game. He didn't have a playoff game after all 1,000 of them. Jeff Skinner, he's going to play his 1,000th NHL game tonight. Unfortunately, he holds the record of playing the most NHL games without ever appearing in a playoff game.

His first eight seasons were in Raleigh with the Hurricanes. No playoffs there. Last six in Buffalo. Of course, Buffalo is going on 13 years without a playoff fucking appearance. Since 07, last time they had won a playoff series. The previous record, Biz, was Ron Hainsey. He had 907 regular season games before he played a playoff game. Two months later, 25 games later,

he's the only cup champion with the Pittsburgh Penguins. So it could change overnight. And Guy Chiron, he played 734 games back in the 70s with the Canadiens, Wings, Kansas City Scouts, and the Capitals. Never saw a playoff game. How about this? Ole Jokinen played 799 games. He actually passed Guy Chiron before he played

his first playoff game at Calgary in 09. Ole Jokinen, 1231 games played, Biz. Six playoff games played. And it's not a knock on a guy like that. It's just the bad luck of being on tough teams and bouncing around. And being a cornerstone piece of where that team

wants to go. He he was a great player. He was great. He was awesome in Florida. I remember when he got shipped off to Calgary. He played 1,200 games, eh? Yeah, I think he played when he was 19, 18. And shout out to Ron Hazy. He's helping out with the PA now, too. So he's doing big things post-career.

Those are some interesting nuggets, R.A. I love, love single ra i'm upset i know hey hey and there's a lot of jealous people online right now ra about the we're talking about doing the game show and everyone's like no i would never watch that i think they're fucking haters and i think they're worried about the youth the fact that you're on the loose now they're they're worried about their girls is what the last thing about Skinner before we get to our race, single excopates. Cause it,

it is kind of a tough story. Thousand games, amazing milestone, but no playoffs. But once again, let's remind everyone in 1920 and 2021, I think he had 14 goals, then seven goals in like 60 games.

And he bounced back to it. Everyone was calling out the worst contract in the league. They were all over him. And he was able to really bounce back and have a couple of real good seasons. So you can't say, hey, it's on you, buddy. You haven't been in the playoffs because of your play. He's had some great years.

Yeah, I mean, I think back to like Big Walt, my pal Keith, when he played, he had bad luck, man. He should have had way more playoff games than me. He was on a Winnipeg team that, frankly, was mediocre for years. And then St. Louis took a while to get chugging. And Keith had a Hall of Fame-worthy career, but he just didn't get the playoff games because of the teams he was on. And, of course, I don't know if you remember back in, I want to say, 93,

he signed an office sheet with Chicago. He forced Winnipeg's hand. He knew what he was worth. He went to go get the money, and Winnipeg matched it, stripped him of his captaincy. They ended up giving it back. But, you know, some guys, man, they just, you know, it's just shitty luck with teams they end up on. But it's certainly not a reflection of

the type of player they are, like in a perfect example here is Skinner. So also, Biz, we want to send out our best wishes to Ethan Beer. He stepped away from the Capitals for a bit. He's going to receive some care from the NHL NHLPA player assistance program. So, you know anytime guys have the courage to go through that yes you know wish them the best because it's

it's not an easy thing when you go through that shit with your own friends and family to to acknowledge so let alone the whole fucking world so it's not an easy thing for guys whatever they're going through so we just want to wish them the best biz right yeah and and I think we talked about the last time a guy had gone into the program where it's if anything it's it's positive that when these guys are dealing with this type of stuff they're not just burying it and they keep going like in the past you know 20 30 years ago just given with where society was at you know guys would try to keep playing through it and in in some cases probably do more damage so uh you know i I hope he goes off and gets the help he needs.

Why did you make that face? No, I was like my stubborn Irish guy who refused to ask for help. Like I was goofing on myself. Yeah, because I tend to be the same way. And I hope that people who are listening who do need it, like go get it. Have conversations. Don't self-isolate.

So the hardest thing about playing in the NHL and it happening, though, is it has to become public information what sucks, but it shouldn't be something that's held against anybody. If anything, it should be commended for going to get the help they need. That's kind of a societal thing as well. Well said, buddy. Well said. All right, we got to check in on West.

Dallas right now has a three-point lead over the Avalanche for the Central. Avs do have a game in hand. The Jets kind of slipped a bit. They're in third place, nine points back at Dallas. They do have a game in hand, but I don't see them still in that division. All right, do you remember when I mentioned of the race to win the Central was the most important one so you wouldn't get Winnipeg, whether it was Colorado or Dallas?

At that time, Winnipeg was in the hunt. Now, that source that talked to me, the Jets, man, you might be better off getting second in that division playing Winnipeg than possibly getting Vegas, Nashville, or LA.

The tides have turned a little bit with the Jets. It's so wide open, man. I mean, there's so many good teams. You've got to beat sometimes the toughest teams you beat with the playoffs or the first round, second round teams. I know, but it can beat the shit out of you, buddy. No, absolutely.

Absolutely. But I do get, well, fortunately, if Winnipeg fails, I do have seven other teams that have a future. That's true. That's true. Actually, I got them right here. LA, 24-1. Ottawa, 37-1. Vancouver, 59-1.

Nashville, 76-1. Bruins, 16-1. Winnipeg, 19-1. Washington, 150-1. So I threw that late. Wow. There's no chance. There's no chance that Washington wins the Stanley Cup.

It's fucking crazy how they're even making playoffs. They might have just won it. They might have just won it. You should get paid on that ticket and the fact that they're just making playoffs. So anyway, it's remarkable what they're doing. What else we got, buddy? We were talking college earlier, Biz.

I also have North Carolina State. I got a 101 ticket on them. They're in the Final Four right now. That's a fun story. We don't do college basketball. I know we don't do college basketball. Shout out Rico Bosco from Barstool who told me before the first game of the tournament, the round of 64, that they were going to lose and that this big man Burns,

who's out of shape and was going to be exhausted in the second half. They're still playing, and this guy's dominated. Put up 30 points last game. My boy Rico, I'm a rider, but maybe that call, I'm like, they're still playing. When is he going to get tired, Rico? He put 30 up last game, and he's nationally known now. They're talking about him playing in the NFL. People are like, the NFL's interested in this guy.

He's too tired to play in the NFL. Also, Biz, Tampa Bay 18-1 and Philly 85. If you read off one more future, I'm going to fucking spike my mic. Just trying to fucking be open and honest. Out West, like I said, Dallas. I'd rather hear about your sexcapades

than you read off another future. What do we got next? There goes some tumbleweeds right about there. All right, Biz. Canucks, like I mentioned, six-point cushion over the Oilers in the Pacific. Edmonton has a couple games at hand. Vegas currently the third seed in the Pacific, but the Kings, right now the wildcard two squad, but two of their last nine games, Biz,

are against playoff opponents. Do the Kings end up in the wildcard spot or the third in the Pacific? I don't know, man. We talked about with the Leafs kind of somewhat being able to control against playoff opponents? Do the Kings end up in the wildcard spot or the third in the Pacific? I don't know, man. We talked about with the Leafs kind of somewhat being able to control your future and who you play against. I don't know, man. If I'm LA, I try to time it

where I avoid, obviously, Edmonton at all costs. But, of course, letting Vegas slide in there and then having a Vegas-monton first round series. No, no, no. I know. I don't want that. I know it's crazy, but obviously LA controls that. And I'm not saying throwing games here.

And the fact that they have a favorable strength of schedule for their case to get that third spot. I don't know, man. I might throw you in that ra for a couple of those games and it's it's it's gonna be hard because they got to rattle off some wins in order to keep wherever they want in that uh the wild card spot because you don't want to end up having to draw let's say the abs you don't want to go in a fucking colorado but if if it's d, if I'm LA, I'd pick my shot against Dallas much

rather than I do against Edmonton. Or Van. If they somehow got the one seed. Here's the thing. As an Oilers fan, it's like, and I remember Biz last year arguing, you should be scared of the Kings. Well, you were. I said they were

a good team. I think I said I'm not scared. I'm not scared of LA. And I was correct. They beat them in seven two years ago. They beat them six last year. Their power play was 55%. They'd probably beat them in five this year. They worked them last week.

I think it was Thursday night. 4-1, dominating win. I'm, as an Oilers fan, petrified of playing Vegas in the first round. Please, please don't do that to us. That's what Hurdle getting the sting from the raft is. Hurdle's coming back. They're 7-2-1 in their last 10. They're finally starting to get going.

I don't want anything to do with Vegas in the first round. Keep them away from me. So hopefully we can get L.A. And quickly on the Oilers, guys, I got to shout out at home. He's got he's got thirty nine points this year. Four of them are on the power play. He's got thirty five even string point. That's as many as Adam Fox has.

He's the true shutdown number one defenseman. He's a whole one of the best trades the Oilers have ever made for a defenseman. There's Chris Pronger and then there's the trade for Matthias Ekholm, and then maybe the trade for Ryan Whitney. Because we had a lot of success when I was there. But Ekholm is just that driving factor in front of the net. Don't even go near the goalie. He's a horse, he's a beast, and he's getting it done offensively five on five.

So he's awesome. And then quickly, in one of the all-time races for the Art Ross Trophy, guys, all-time, we have 127 points for McKinnon, 126 for Kucherov, 125 for McDavid. McDavid's got 10 games left. Kucherov's got nine, and I think McKinnon's got eight. So it's this run. I don't know if I might have messed it up a little bit. I'm pretty close to those numbers.

But just quickly here. Edmonton since Novolog took over, 42-14-3. That's a 737 winning percentage. Easily the best in the league. The next closest is Carolina at a 692 percentage since November 12th. So the Oilers have done this. It's been amazing. And it's been McDavid.

And a long time ago, Biz, I said to you, no, no. Even if McDavid comes back and wins the scoring title, he's not in my MVP. He's not my MVP guy. You're a turncoat. You're going back. Listen, let me explain quickly. I'm actually not going back.

I'm mad at myself because if he becomes the fourth player ever with 100 assists in a season, which he's going to do, he's four away to join Gretzky, Lemieux, and Orr. That is so mind-blowing and outrageous that the fact of the matter is that me saying he wouldn't be my MVP, I'm mad at myself. But I'm still leaning towards McKinnon because of how many more goals he has. Correct. So even if McDavid wins it by three points, McKinnon having 20 more goals, that to me, that's the MVP.

He could still potentially even get the Ted Lindsey too. The Ted Lindsey is voted on by the players. So there's still plenty of hardware for him to collect. But I think that anybody outside of Edmonton and Colorado, most people would agree that at this point right now, McKinnon deserves it. Lightning fans are flipping. Right.

And that's a story for another day, but come on here. No East Coast bias. McKinnon is on a fucking heater. Also, I want to say that Cooch does have a lot of empty net points. Not to take anything. Easy, Pasha. Hey, I was just about to say, not to take anything. Easy Pasha. Not a, I was just about to say not to take anything away. Now that could lead us into the discussion is,

did he get screwed on the point? He got screwed. Okay. Screwed. That's your, that's your feeling on it. There's a comparable video that came out where Barkov was able to, uh,

continue a point streak. There is a discrepancy in the video. One is like most like a poke tip where Lindgren does swipe and make contact with the puck. But do you believe that Rotten does make contact with the puck before Lindgren puts it in? Like does he touch the puck with a hair of a stick? Because if that is the case.

If people are a little confused, Does he touch the puck with a hair of his stick? Because if that is the case... If people are a little confused, McKinnon had this amazing home point streak going, and he didn't have one against the Rangers. And then late in the game, it looked like he got an assist, but they ended up basically calling it an own goal. And in that case, they're giving it a one point to the goal scorer, the last guy to touch it.

Ron Thunen. Right away, I kind of said, oh, he's going to get that. Like, it's at home. The last guy to touch it. Right away. I, I, I kind of said, Oh, he's going to get that. Like it's at home. This streak's that incredible. He'll end up getting it. Well,

no, they didn't give it to him in the league stood firm. No, he's you do not get an assist there. And then what happened in Florida, it was pretty similar. It was similar enough in my mind where you, if you're given that point to,

um, to Barkov and who was the other guy who got the assist? Barkov got the goal. They gave assist to Reinhardt, I think, and somebody else. And Ekman Lassen. Yes, and that if you're going to give them assist, you've got to give McKinnon one on that goal against the Rangers. I was really surprised. I think there's an argument to be made that the league got it correct in Colorado

and that they messed up the one in Florida. I know what you're saying, though, Biz, where it did look a little different, but they're close enough. Well, the one was a deflection. It was more of a poke, so it was on its way into the net as opposed to it wasn't. If Lindgren doesn't swipe at that puck, it probably doesn't end up in the net. So that's where I can understand it.

But the discrepancy is though is rotten and is swiping at that puck at the exact same time and it does look like the end of the stick does make contact with it so in that act is why i think that it should have been continued now everyone outside of colorado might be like who gives a flying fuck, but I'll tell you for a guy to potentially surpass a Gretzky record, that's got to mean a lot to, to at least enough people outside of the fan base. You explained it last podcast. Wayne Gretzky had a point in every single home game in the eighties,

but they only played 80 games. So it was 40 games at home. This one could have surpassed it where if he did it in all 41 home games, he would have been the lone record holder. So fuck man, that to me is a big deal. And maybe they do go back and change it. But ultimately guys,

this race of, of MVP, uh, even if you look at the second tier of guys who won't even be considered in the top three, like Reinhardt, 50 goals, Hyman,

50 goals, like who are some other, uh, second, uh, Pasternak, Pasterinhardt, 50 goals, Hyman, 50 goals. Like who are some other second tier guys? Pasternak, Pasternak, Paternak. Yeah, Paternak. Paternak's favorite player. Also, the thing that I wanted to mention about McKinnon, when McDavid had 10 points in 11 games or whatever and spent on this run, he's got 25 points in his last 10 games.

But at the same time, November 12th, McKinnon didn't even have a lot of points. So his run's been almost as impressive. I think he might have had 15, 16 points. It wasn't like he had been coming out of the gates and been hot the entire year. His recent run's been just as amazing. So I believe in 2023, he had the most points in the NHL.

Last year, same thing. He had this insane run in the second half of the season where now it's been more sustained throughout the course of the entire year and agreed with you. Maybe it's not as hot in points per game. It's definitely been on the rise. But from a full body of work perspective, the start or the end of the 2023 year was enough to have the most points of any player in the NHL more than

McDavid. And that just tells you the run that McKinnon's been on in the last 18 months. It's been so fucking impressive. It's a joke. And he had four the next home game when they waxed Colorado, which was shockingly, I think it was seven, four. Like I didn't see 11 goals coming out of that game. So, those are your...

Well, go ahead, Ari. Only player in NHL history to have two 19-point streaks in one NHL season. Yeah, we said that last week. That's wild. Damn. I mean, yeah, it is absolutely wild. You're just full of nuggets today, Ari.

Well, that nugget was from last week, but yes, you are. I love recycled nuggets. No, he hadn't. It's like eating a booger. He hadn't got the 19 games twice yet. Actually, before I send it over, I've got to actually get to talk to Austin Matthews agent Judd Moldaver shortly, but we've got to give the props to the National Predators once again. The FU Tour, they were calling, I guess.

16-0-2, it came to an end by Arizona, funny enough. But they basically guaranteed themselves a playoff spot at that point. They lost to the Yotes Thursday. First regulation loss since the 9-2 spank from Dallas, which sent them into this whole FU Tour. So

just an unreal run by the Preds. Basically, they got them in the playoffs. So I want to get a little shout out there. But, boys, I think we should send it over to Judd. Interesting character. Has some of the contracts. Super agent. Super agent. Judd, super agent.

Don't forget that. NHL runs through his phone. That's what he says. Enjoy. All right. Before you go any further, here's a few words from our good friends over at Verizon. Hey, gang. Like a lot of you out there, I'm always relying on my phone to keep up with the latest news in hockey. Every day something new happens, boom, you want to be on top of it, especially if you're in hockey media.

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That's why you rely on Verizon's fast, reliable network. Let's stream games. Keep up with what's going on in real time. Also, man, Verizon, the home internet is unbelievable. If you don't have Fios and it's available in your area, you're doing it wrong. Get all over this. You can stay up to speed on everything, on your phone, on the TV, wherever. Verizon internet, boom, so good, so much better than unnamed competitors out there.

And they get you covered everywhere, on the go, at home. Plus, when you bundle your mobile and home internet plans boom you save tons of money so visit verizon.com slash boss tool to learn more well folks it's finally finally happened a long time friend of myself and a few other guys in this room we have the executive vice president one one of three at Wasserman Hockey, super agent, Austin Matthews, Connor McDavid, Roman Yossi. The list continues. Judd Moldaver. Welcome to the Spit Chicks podcast.

A couple of plugs. Hey, we came to Toronto. We got him. It had to be in person. He's got a white buffalo. Hey, this might have been my modernized white whale to get him on. You exceeded Brett. We finally fucking got you. This is awesome. Well, i can't say uh how happy i'm to be here i appreciate the persistence uh and i feel

honored to be on the show fellas thank you and one of the things i respect and we've talked for a long time about this is you you've told me listen like the players are the players and i don't necessarily want to be an agent that's always out there getting quoted always in the media so it took a little while which i understand but has's always out there getting quoted, always in the media. So it took a little while, which I understand. But has that always been kind of your mind frame in terms of representing guys? I don't ever want to be the story. I'm behind the scenes helping you guys out. Yeah, 100%.

I mean, I'm only in this chair because of the guys, right? So I wouldn't have this privileged position that I have or be in this room with you sickos if it wasn't for the players and the families that have given me the opportunity so I think you guys know and those that know me and my clients I'm not shy and I'm certainly willing to speak my mind I just think that they're the talent they're the guys and my job is to make sure their career is in a good direction and I do my part but you know I'm here in Toronto very proud of W Walsman hockey, very proud of our clients are in the game. I grew up here. So a lot of emotions and a lot of excitement to be

here, but absolutely try and in some ways fly under the radar and just whatever it takes to get the job done for the guys, but I'm here because of them. And so, yeah, I don't lose sight of that ever. You grew up in a game. Didn't you, was it, you showed me a picture of you playing on the same team as Justin Williams? He was the captain the captain von kings he was the captain he's sitting in the

center were you the same height stud yeah it was the same height then that's why it was kind of juicy back then but it fell off you know no no no it fell off i'm big red cows don't worry and his dad was the coach so that might have helped hey gm gm even better hey the funniest part about the picture though is like you went to you and then your dad and you look the exact same yeah like what 14 years old yeah pretty much no stash though no okay i was a little lighter on my feet then too but yeah no willie it's incredible like willie and i put on the same team it was grade nine vaughn kings and yeah it's a crazy thing. I remember seeing him after he won the cons might and said,

Hey, we put on the Vaughn Kings. You went and played on the LA Kings. We want to call a couple of cops. Like you're welcome, bud. You're welcome. Mr. Game seven from your leadership on the Vaughn Kings. I played down the middle of two boys. Just so you want to see.

Willie was on the flank. Don't worry. So like how high level of a hockey did you get to? And was it always like, all of a like how high level of a hockey did you get to and was it always like all of a sudden i want to be a hockey agent like how did you how did that career path go yeah i well so growing up here right like hockey's everything and influence everything i was doing in life from where i went to high school and college i played at no high level and wasn't very good at the level i played at but i loved the always. And just was addicted to it every,

in every way playing it and obviously just watching it even more and just learning about it. Lucky my parents have always been super supportive. My older brother and sister are attorneys, my dad's an attorney. So all through high school, when it was kind of clear that hockey could be something I could use to play in college, and like two of these guys did at some level, it just became play hockey, try and get a scholarship, and from there use that opportunity, maybe go play in Europe in some league. And that was always the thought. But obviously, early in high school, I was pretty realistic that, hey, I might be able to play in college in some way, but a business career in hockey was more likely than an actual playing career.

way but a business career in hockey was more likely than an actual playing career uh had the fortune of great parents great brother and sister made calls um and found my way into an internship uh after my junior year in college um and played at colby right yeah that's right uh wish i would have worked out a little harder um might have had a little better career but yeah i did i did um and uh should have gone to bu but they didn't want me um but yeah i did i did um and i should have gone to bu but they didn't want me um but yeah i did that internship and in new york had nothing to do with hockey and then took another internship in a hockey department at a different agency um that agency became another agency that i previously worked at i'm now at wasterman and yeah just a crazy ride from growing up here in toronto and having a chance to play in high school and play in college.

And I'm pinched myself. You know, I really feel fortunate. It's been a blur. That's where I got to come in because Judd was, I almost got to call you one of my first agents. My first agent, when I was in the NHL, of course, I got Paperson. He's calling me all the time. I'm roommates with Sid.

All of a sudden, I get sent down to the minors. I got another guy calling me. All of a sudden, I get sent to Europe. And all of a sudden, I get sent down to the minors. I got another guy calling me. All of a sudden, I get sent to Europe. And all of a sudden, I'm getting these emails from Judd. And I got them in there. No shit, eh? Judd. Like, who is this guy?

I don't even know if he's an agent yet. Hey, I was grinding the Swiss League for you, buddy. Grinding it. Staying up till 1, 2 in the morning. Matt Murley can fly. Great team. And it's one of my bigger regrets. It was Beal. They were in the Swiss B. Just movedley can fly. Great team. And it's one of my bigger regrets. It was Beal.

They were in the Swiss B. Just moved up to the Swiss A League. And you're telling me, you're like, this is a good opportunity. Yeah, it's the low money end of Swiss, but they'll be happy if they win 10 games this year.

And at the time, I didn't know any better. And I was like, do I want to go to a team that can only win 10 games? This is going to suck. He's like, you should take the deal.

You're playing like 12 games over there. You're skiing. It's it's one of my biggest mistakes oh and then that's when you end up coming back and played another year in the ahl and then i went to russia later on well what i remember what i remember is and you could go more into it was you started low man you went through every single step and i think so many people want to just be at the top and you're a prime example of like you got you got to grind at the beginning. If there's no easy days and the whole time, I'm sure in your mind, you had the goal of being where you're at now, but that's a lot, a lot of years of being like grunt work. Yeah, no, listen, I think it just like you guys in any walk of life, you want to be successful. You got to go through it all. If it's not handed to

you, you got to grind it. There's good days, bad days, everything in between. Um, for all if it's not handed to you you got to grind it there's good days bad days everything in between um for me it's it's an even longer time coming than most people would know because most people haven't known me my whole life i wanted to do this really since i was you know 14 or 15 years old the seriousness to it picked up kind of in college and all that but uh talking to my family about it i've always wanted to represent players it was just etched in my head and then you know like i said I worked for some great companies prior to working at Wasserman and there's a lot of great experiences with players and families and people. And obviously a lot of credit along the way to my support system, family, friends, people that believe in me, my clients and all that. But I think, I don't know if it's Snoop that said it,

I won't quote Snoop, but you know, you got to believe in yourself, uh, and you need help along the way, right? You need a champion along the way. Players need coaches that believe in a management ownership. Um, take you guys, right? You start this show, there's doubters, there's, Hey, you never know when you want to do something great. Um, so for me, yeah, I'm really fortunate along the way. And, and certainly, um, try to learn everything I could along, along the way and and certainly um try to learn everything i could along along the way from all sorts of different people players different experiences and here i am it's uh it's fortunate but i'm uh i'm feeling strong so you're 42 now and was there any point along that run and that ride up where you were like fuck man like it's not going as quick as i hope like you ever consider

maybe something else or at any point or at no point where you're like no this this is what I'm doing no it's a great question I absolutely considered a bunch of other things really and nothing to do with hockey yeah you know I got to a point where some guys you played with some pretty special players you guys know well yourselves like I had some amazing experiences and just got to a point where quite frankly I just I wasn't stimulated anymore you know for all sorts of reasons and so I thought about different things, right. Uh, a host of different things, not that interesting. Uh, and there's a quote that, uh, not getting political, but it's, uh, I think an Abraham Lincoln quote, and it's been used a few times. It's something to the effect of I was brought to

my knees by the conviction. I had nowhere else to go. And every time I thought about doing something else, um, it's the job man and the fellas and their families kept bringing me back to it um and so for sure i went through a long period of do i want to do this i'm unhappy um i think like a lot of people go through their careers and i think the hardest thing to do is stop believing in what you believe in right because we all want vindication from everybody we all want validation And I just realized the most important decisions I made in my life, I didn't ask anyone but myself. And I'm like, I know this is right. I know what I'm doing with my life, whether that was at 16 years old, 19 years old, 34 years old, 40 years old, it doesn't matter. I think, you know,

for my clients, for anybody that wants to be successful in hockey or anything they're doing, like, believe in yourself. Don't be delusional delusional like fellas i'm not dunking a basketball this afternoon no matter how much i believe in myself there's some physics and some science that will defy some aspirations but by and large like you know grind and don't complain yeah like get it done find a way like no one's life is easy no one's life is easy. No one's life is peachy. No one's handed things. So don't make excuses. Grind. You're allowed to complain and vent, but push through. And for those that don't, then they will be at the bottom

of the mountain. For those that do, they'll scale the top. Not enough of them are willing to do it, right? Oh, buddy, they don't make them like this anymore, Juddy. They don't make them. Did you have an advisor when you were when you went to college? You said you made some calls. Hey, I wasn't that good, bro. So you know no one represented you because I know it was different back then. to college? You said you made some calls. Hey, hey, I wasn't that good, bro. So no one represented you?

Because I know it was different back then. He represented himself. But you made some phone calls. You're like, hey, hey, hey, I still want to play hockey. Is there an opening on the roster? And it's not BU, but it's like you still have to get in there. A hundred percent. What the four of you guys have done, however many games or not many games you guys all played,

you guys did play in the Asheville league like it's incredible uh i'm the example of someone i think that didn't make it didn't play at a high level and the level i played at wasn't anything special myself either but was able to take all of that and be in the hockey business so yeah i know i did not have an agent i should have someone would have called maybe i would have grown a little taller um but it was i was just obsessed with playing hockey in college, like from 13 years old on that was an obsession. Uh, cause I just saw it as the best way to keep playing and use as an opportunity. And I love the guys I love, you know, I love just miss being in the room myself, right? I'm sure you guys not playing anymore. You can't, you can never replicate that, right? This is

pretty close, but it's hard to, so I always wanted to play and just thought it would be good for my life you know that's why you're the captain of justin williams team and willie was yeah i listen to this guy yeah listen to this guy i when did i first meet you i think i met you it was 2005 or six sid's rookie correct we were in la and i was in i was roommates with him yeah you came over to like there's a jersey or do something with him or take care of something business-wise that's right for him and that's when i first met you just like a young gung-ho kid came in there hit it all you were like just like us so it was like so easy same age jumped right in same age what were you what was your title and were you just getting in then were you just grinding your way kind of through the machine a little at the start there exactly i mean i talk a

lot in hockey analogy so might as well stop i might as well not stop on this show uh yeah it's like you get to rookie you're a rookie in training camp you pick up the pucks you know you do all the little things you got to do to just grind and and contribute to whatever it is and kind of pay the respect just like you go into a dressing room and you act a certain way um putting the social life aside right you're traveling first guy on last guy off yeah all that all that it's it's everything is about the job and i became obsessed with it it wasn't so bad i was living in california in that way but it just became um an obsession the job is still an obsession.

There's no two ways about it. I wish sometimes I could manage that. Yet I believe that just, you know, being obsessive about something you love is what allows you to be successful. And so I've just always been just, I know this is a family show, but fucking obsessed with the game, obsessed with my job,

even when some other things were complicated in my personal life. And yeah, when I started, there was no real titles. I just started trying to help in whatever way I could, right? I didn't have much experience. Like runner, helper, everything. But you're like, yeah, I'm ready to go. Anything.

What age were the guys that you were representing when you first stepped in? Are you dealing with some unrealistic parents sometimes? Are you handed these types of- There's no such thing biz like you gotta have some insane insane asks here no no there's only there's only representatives that don't get the job done there's no insane parents or clients that's ridiculous um i look at this fucking i was through you ain't slipping i was thrown in uh i was thrown into all sorts situations. So it's kind of funny to look back like Colby and I met and been friends for a long time. Never worked on his bad professionally.

I did in Merle's case. I've known you two guys for forever as well. Obviously. Um, I just was trying to throw it in and, um, whatever needed to be done, you know, like got done. So if you're a player that was 15 years old and I could connect and add some value. Great. Um, you know like got done so if you're a player that was 15 years old and i could connect and add some value great um you know i think of i don't want to forget any names because i i was thinking not just before coming on today but just reflecting on the plane here two days ago like how many players i've been fortunate enough to work with over the years and i'm sure i'm not batting a thousand you know i can't call everybody back as fast as they want me to or i want to and the business and there's a bit of a pecking order uh you know connor't call everybody back as fast as they want me to or i want to and the business and there's a bit of a pecking order uh you know connor's calling a three in the morning i'm

answering it well you know whoever if you're calling a three in the morning i'm answering too but okay you know if i can solve your problems i'll solve them um but uh but no i i it was really it's been really a function of like whatever sense. So anyway, without forgetting anyone, I really, and I say this, and I know the fellows will chirp me and you guys should chirp me about this, but I get emotional about it because I'm definitely not batting 1,000. At the same time, I'm here because of players. I'm in this chair because of the players I've worked with and the information that I've learned from them,

not even by them saying things to me, the experience. I think of guys like Stefan Robita and Philip Boucher and Ian LaPerriere, and again, I'm bringing Daniel Breer, who's now GM, Sean Workoff, just a lot of guys that, and I'll forget names and I don't want to forget anyone else, so I'll leave the listing, but just so many guys that I learned from at the very beginning that were in the NHL and just saw so much on guys starting at different paths american guys you know going to europe canadian guys going to planning u.s markets vice versa everything you know um and they were teaching you a little bit right 100 thing like you're seeing

all right this is how it works for all them and i guess the whole process started so early that like you look back now and you realize without all that stuff, you just wouldn't be here. No, a hundred percent way. Like that's what it comes down to. You got to learn all of that. And I think it's in any business, right? You got to know how things work to understand how to fix them, maybe make them better. Sometimes things don't need changing or evolution. Like the CEO of Lululemon, you know, he'd make them work in the store, no matter what your position for at least a couple shifts a week, you got to have to kind of see how the engine runs. Totally. And I think a lot of companies are like that. Like the pride and know that they did, if they do that, I mean, a hockey culture, any business that's smart has people exposed to everything. I think someone was telling me the

other day and who's telling me this in some sort of, uh, uh, Italian culture that they like to do that as well. Someone was telling a personal story about how they built a property and then they wanted to show all the builders how to exactly do it like something to be said for right everyone at every level um from the builders to the owner excuse me like knowing how the faucet works how the garage opens like everything so that you're not guessing so yeah i think all that is important just like like you guys, picking up pucks, you know, last on the bus, whatever, sit at the front of the bus, whatever it is. Pain in the dues. Go ahead, Marissa. Yeah, I just say you've been around all the best players in the league. What is one trait that you notice that all of them have that maybe some other guys don't have?

consistency. It's just, I think it, it's, uh, it sums up everything, right? Like the other word I like is awareness. I like that word for life, not just for hockey players, but awareness is a word where it's, it, there's a lot of subsets under awareness. Right. And so I think consistency, I mean, the, not just the best players in the world. Uh, I think any guy that has a career of any sort, they, they care about what they do. Like, you know, uh, I often say there's kind of sort of three ways to, to kind of make it to the NHL. There's getting drafted, there's signing a contract and there's having a career, right. Uh, I want to represent guys that are in the third bucket. And I think every guy that I represent wants that and knock on wood has that right now. Um, so to me me it's that consistency you know you

guys know again i just say it because you guys lived it right so it's much easier to talk to you guys just because you lived it you guys know the grind of the nhl um and the draft's nothing that's just the beginning the beginning and then guys get there and the grind and even though yeah guys are treated well and they fly a certain way and they travel a certain way like it's not but it's hard on your body and to be to play 82 games and then if you're lucky enough compete to try and win 16 to hoist it like it's consistency it's how you take care of your body how you train you want to get better you know again i just liken it to other business like you can get to a point in your career as a lawyer as a teacher as a police officer and just say that's just enough i'm just going to do enough

to collect my paycheck and get by that's not limited to like hockey or anywhere else that's society so i think the best players are players that have a sustainable career like they're consistent they eat the right way they take care of themselves they still have fun enjoy being in the nhl and have a good time when it makes sense to have a good time but there's a there's a hunger and there's a consistency and a dedication that's like none other um no nights off yeah no nights off the consistency I think on ice like McDavid and Matthews like every night they're bringing it man like and you see a lot of guys that go up and down that wave and that is a good difference in terms of the superstars like you said

I got a question for you what do you you think a good, um, you know, we talk about traits of players, um, being an agent representing what, what do you think that you've been around a lot of people, uh, low level to high level and tricks that you've picked up? Is it just being yourself?

You're a good talker, smooth guy, get along with people, easy to walk into a room. Like, is that important? Like Jerry Maguire shit? Like what's an important, real important quality that you found from your clients that sets

you above or makes you what you are? Um, I just try to be myself. I know that sounds so effing cheesy. What a loser. Or fucking cheesy. Loser alert. Loser. effing loser or fucking cheesy loser alert. No, I mean,

you know, I try and be myself as cliche as that sounds, because I think that, you know, players need to talk about things that aren't just hockey sometimes too. And a little therapist action. Yeah. Just,

just, you know, BSing like, I don't know. You can call bullshit on this like i would have hoped that i would have called you once in a while and just said what's up and not had anything to tell you except just saying what's up and he never never called me with the 700 000 from the khl and in certain cases like some of these guys don't trust a lot

of people either yeah so you know you're one of one of the few that they can come to with maybe stuff that they wouldn't bring anywhere else yeah and i take that and i take that as an honor and a privilege right like in some cases i've represented players since i've been 14 years old and it's been that route some of my clients it's been later in their career you know i i try and get to know everyone's families or and you know girlfriends wives fiance that's just how you are i think that's just how you are right yeah that's not a shit well it's just yeah i don't i don't do it as a script i i you know i just think of like quite frankly like what would i want you know i didn't learn it in a textbook with all due

respect to my high school my college i didn't learn it from my family even though without them i'm i don't know where i'd be i didn't it's it's just you just have to like trust your instinct while learning along the way and i just think players have like you said biz there's a lot of like the lack of trust a lot of people want something from them um don't understand the lifestyle uh i think it's important to make guys feel like you you can have a an honest conversation with your agent and i don't really like the word agent, to be honest with you. I, I think it's a misnomer because I think the word agent,

depending on the business or vertical you're in, the functionality is different. I think of myself in many ways as sort of a glorified console Yeri, or if I get into Godfather speak, uh, or, you know, I love those movies.

Uh, or like the seat, or the, or the sleep or like the CEO. Yeah. What the fuck? All right. I show up. You're not CEO. Let's get R.A. in here. He's asleep. Or like the CEO. Yeah, what the fuck, R.A.? I show up, you're not here. Wait, you guys can't afford another lazy boy? He's a senior citizen.

He needs a nap now. All right. We got to look quieter for him. I'll give him a mulligan. But no, the other way I look at it is I've been saying this thing for a number of years. As long as I can remember, I'm the CEO of Guy's Life. And I'm my opinion. And inside that, there's agenting and there's advocacy and there's

negotiation but you know uh i've got wonderful colleagues obviously marcus leto and dave gagne are our other executive vice presidents of the group you know adam phillips and rachel fight are are amazing joe pinter several other agents in our group are awesome and for me it's just thinking through how we use each other how to use the group um and then that going back to what you said army it's like who do connect who i connect with and who connects with me right because this really on with humans well it's a little bit yeah it's trust and respect so i could be an expert at negotiating contracts or marketing deals or all that stuff but like if there's no, then it doesn't really make sense.

That's, I want to ask you about the marketing stuff. So you're one of the guys where you, I mean, I wouldn't say you're pushing it on these guys, but you're bringing them brand deals that we haven't really seen in the NHL before, right? Like obviously Conor's Conor, but the stuff that Matthews is doing and collabing, like with the Bieber stuff, like that's,

is that something like I would say that Wasserman is pushing or is that more of a you thing and and and where do you see that going in the hockey world because that that amount of money that these guys can make now from marketing dollars i feel surpasses any time we're in the game yeah it's funny you should say that and not i'll stay on the marketing but just i i gotta say this and um hockey is the greatest sport in the world and I don't like when players like you know even on the contract negotiations well I know we live in this hard cap system that somehow a guy signs a ticket and the amount of money he makes all of a sudden is

relevant to how much he wants to win like I think it's it's insane it's ridiculous and they've owners have pinned the fans on their fire well other sports a guy signs you know a kajillion dollar deal and that's amazing and no one's like like, Hey, does he want to win? Like it's absurd. Like let guys sign their deals. It has no measure of their desire to win with the caveat being obviously that in our university or is a hard cap and a hard salary caps. I don't know if it's a fancy word. It's a budget, right? Cap. It's a budget. And so teams have a budget. That's the system we're in. And yet that shouldn't be the discussion, right? A guy makes X, move on. That's his contract. I bring that back because it segues in the marketing. I feel like it's the same thing. If you bring the noise, if you're consistent,

if you show up for what you're supposed to do, then what you do off the ice is relevant. It doesn't matter. Yeah. Right? It's the guys that you know performance leads to deals deals don't lead to performance so there's got to be a mindfulness as to when guy do when guys do deals what stayed throughout their career but no i i think it's it's

the willingness of our clients i mean austin you guys all know him um and you know connor i mean they're obviously the players that they are but they're willing to do this stuff they they understand you know their importance to the game. Um, their commitment is to winning number one, but they're both in positions where there's these cool opportunities. So I think credit goes to them. I mean, Adam Phillips and Rachel fight, who are my colleagues were Rachel worked closely with Austin and Adam with Connor. I mean, we, we work as a group, um, and we just try and be creative. We look at, you know, go, goes back to what you guys are all saying. Like, you know, your clients, you try and know them as best as you can.

And you try and pair them with things that make sense. And so it's a constant search. We're always looking and thinking. When Austin did GQ, like you're not seeing many hockey players in GQ. So like, to me, I feel like that opens up a whole new audience to the hockey world as well. If your stars are coming outside that, that box that you're kind of saying that the, the establishment has put them in from a winning some,

from a signing and winning perspective. And even from the brand deals, it's like, Oh, he's doing too many brand deals. It's like, fuck dude. He's fine.

He's got 40 goals after 47 games. Like shut the fuck up. Right. No, no. What do you mean? Commitment to winning? Are you fucking watching?

Well, that's, that's just the thing. That's just the thing. And just the thing, like, if guys are showing up at the rink, and by the way, I'm happy to say that no one's making an issue of it, but I think some of the old guard old thingy was, oh, he's too busy doing deals.

He's got fucking signed deals. And listen, let's be real. Some guys do get distracted, right? And not just with deals. They get distracted because they get to the NHL or they get to a certain point in their life. Booze and pussy. That's what Merle says. That's when you really test the kids out. I mean, I played zero games, so I can't comment on that. But no, I think I appreciate you. That's taking you down, Judd.

And it was a tire pump because I feel like you... Appreciate you, Army charming good looking out it was a tire pump too because i feel like you see that where maybe traditional hockey agents wouldn't and it's not even a place where they maybe necessarily look but you have to push guys into doing it sometimes like hear me out hey hey hear me out a hybrid of that i mean like like the guys want to be educated okay what am i doing what's the purpose like how are they using me like so there's a normal education to it um Um, I guess I, I don't maybe subconsciously, I don't think about it. Like in my head, I just, it just makes sense. Like in my head, I don't even process it. Like,

like I know that they're non-traditional deals. Not like I'm delusional to that, but it's not driven to do it. Like, it's not driven to do that. It's just like, okay, there's these amazing hockey brands that have been in hockey for a long time there's some new brands they're now in hockey uh and are spending money in hockey in different ways that's great because there's a natural passion for it but how can we like you guys are saying take brands that aren't really investing in hockey like prime yeah prime is is is, is maybe with Austin Matthews who happens to be a hockey player. Right. I feel like a lot of the market in the past has been just their hockey players. Like it's about the person, the individual. I played with Drew Shore, a good friend

of mine, and he's now working for you. And he told me, I got to ask the first time you met Austin. Uh, well, yeah, well, by the way, Shorzy is a beauty as you guys know, amazing guy. And, and while you guys have chosen this path kind of after your guys playing careers you know think about you guys being in the agency business uh and having like that experience like the level right so you guys playing college playing in different markets playing in europe and going through the ahl bus riding that a lot most players of the nhl forget most guys ride buses right like i know you forget it's forget super humans that don't have to do it right even like the like another guy i'm very fortunate

to represent roman yosi i mean roman yosi played in the ahl right and people like wait roman yosi but it happens right um it's good for you yeah exactly and for many reasons uh yeah it's it's uh it's awesome um first time at aust Austin was in California. He was playing for the Arizona Bobcats and there were two players, him being one of them on his team amongst other good players on some other teams. There was a local tournament and got a tip on him and this other player from someone we knew. And I went to the game, went to see some of these teams play. I'd spoken to his father brian who's an awesome dude uh leading up to that uh my mom is from honduras i grew up here in toronto but my mom

was originally from honduras um austin's mom i think it's been well documented emma i was also an amazing person it's from mexico and so i was doing a little bit of my you know trying to speak Spanish to the degree that I can. Yeah. Um, and, and, uh, just, just jump it up. Oh,

yeah. He brings the taco. He's got a, he's got a suburb and he busts out the taco maker in the back. I got a pinata. You got a mariachi band. Fuck. I should. Where were you guys?

I should have called you guys before. You would have had him when he was 11. The tournament was on Cinco de Mayo. Yeah, exactly. Sorry, we derailed you there. Canelo comes out with a boxing match in the fucking parking lot. No, I'm just thinking about having a mariachi band. That's the one that really is sticking with me.

But I think he's the first of Hispanic descent to play in the NHL, right? Well, his mom is from Mexico, but weren't there, I mean, I think. Scotty Gomez. Sorry, yes. But certainly in a rarefied company from having Mexican hair, being a Mexican-American. Yeah. So, yeah, i'd had great

banter with brian before on the phone how old is he at the time sorry 14 14 14 um we'll get we'll get to my current practice in a second which doesn't include 14 year olds um but uh no way brian was really gracious about taking the call and he was getting a few calls at that time and uh i went there and then uh after the game his wife and actually their youngest, uh, Austin's youngest sister, Brianna, his oldest sister, wasn't there, Alex. Um, she was there, she's probably eight years old. Jeez. Uh, and we met in the parking lot and I remember, you know, speaking Spanish or trying to speak Spanish and to the degree that I can for my education here and my mom being from Honduras and just chatting. And I think,

I think Austin reminded me, I took one of his twigs and started like twirling it and just probably saying some ridiculous, crazy, stupid shit. A hundred million prime five-year deals instead of eight. The kid thing. What the hell?

Yeah. We're going to bet on this. See over there. That's how you say the initials. I make a great margarita. Salt and no salt. and yeah that was we had that interaction the parking lot and um yeah it's crazy to think uh that that's gosh that would have been probably i want to say 2013 or 2014 maybe and he just there was no leveling off huh here's

the thing like so we got a tip from a coach ron filion who's a great guy i knew him from la he was coaching the team he said i got a couple guys that are going to be good there's these two players so went out there uh to this tournament and obviously i trusted ron and yet i saw austin do something again i'm sure he'll say i didn't but i i did see him do this thing with his feet and I was like okay like he's not just good this is for sure we want to represent this player um and then while I was beyond impressed at that point uh the second time I saw him play was actually at a WHL it's for you army thanks uh WHL California showcase in Anaheim and I remember being in the stands and and truth be

told like I didn't well I love the game and i watched more nhl hockey than i think almost anybody i don't i wasn't going to a lot of rinks i wasn't doing a lot of that kind of stuff um so did you not have like a a keen eye for 14 year olds and what they know that's kind of hard right no and and there's people and no i i didn't and don't and there's a lot of really smart hockey people that are amazing at that right we've got a lot of those people that work at walserman there's nhl teams and other colleges and european programs and the chl like people have those people are really good uh at doing that you know a guy named ken hornick out here for us in ontario and and several people that do that i didn't but i knew enough to know also something's different i could tell something's there that's a perfect way to put it with and so i'm in the stands at the Anaheim, the showcase.

And I remember literally looking around. I'm like, is it just me? Or is he like not just better than everyone else, but like way better and like just looked really like something. And he was already a client at that time. And then honestly, I've said this a million times, and I can say this about Austin. I can say this about any client that's successful.

But I think obviously guys like Austin Conner or Certain Air, the mental, right? I mean, it's the physical, but it's the mental stuff. And then after that, I think the spike for me when people really realized how good he was, I think I was confident when I saw, but then he went to the US program and you guys might remember, you too may know this, you guys may know this or not know, this was a top 40 camp. And at the time-

That's the trial camp the year before. Exactly. And sometimes they give early commitments, sometimes they don't. Obviously with what we thought Austin was accomplishing, he'd be a player that maybe just would get that. Like come to the trial, but you're already on the team yeah right just and then that would clean the slate he'd know he was making the team and all that um you know maybe it had some function to

do with like there's where he's playing in arizona i don't know and it doesn't matter long story short he was not given that early commitment so he went to the top 40 camp and i'll never forget i i wish i had the voicemails i regret not having them but all of a sudden my voice my phone had a voicemail from every major college like hey it's you know hey it's david quinn from boston university like you know your client austin matthews has a full scholarship and and on and on and on and on and on it was the first day of the top 40 holy shit because at that point i think it was like okay he's really good but now we put him in an environment and you guys may or may not recall that 97 birth year for the americans was like think about all those guys were

on that team there were a loaded team you know warensky only played a year was there as well yeah the kachuk was on that team uh rossovic i think tage thompson hannifin mcavoy wow that's uh gosh whoever i'm forgetting right now but they had uh that's a heavier so he went there and then um yeah and then from there i don't think it was too much of a secret anymore so the amazing thing was that every every american kid well sometimes you go to junior but all right where is he going to college he's going to go to the oh whl no we're breaking the mold we're going to the swiss league that's why i was gonna ask like did you knowing about that league through through merles and what an interesting well oh wow oh my residuals but a ball a ballsy move right like yeah i mean the the rewind to that was for sure all jokes

aside merles chuck kobasu i haven't talked a a long time, who is an amazing person, who's an amazing client. We're exactly the same age, I think almost like you and I. And Kobe's another guy that had played in every league in the world. Literally, he was a captain of an AHL team, played at BC, played in the Dub, played in the AA, I'm pretty sure wore the cheddar, played in the National, played in the Stanley Cup Final, played in Switzerland. So he was over there, did a deal to put him in burn and, and knew a lot about the league from different guys, the lockout. I'd done some deals, a lot of familiarity with, with the Swiss league and throughout the year, it was just, you know, the late birthday players

are always interesting, right? Um, handful of top players in the league are late birthdays and you get that free year. And so it was obviously for most North American players, it would have been college or the dub and Everett had drafted him and he was probably narrowing down colleges to three or four places in reality. And it just felt like, you know, again, not putting a pressure on him, but that he might be too good in a sense. Not that if he would have played in the dub or D1 by any stretch of the imagination, that things wouldn't be how they are, but it seemed like he was ready mentally yeah and for a different kind of challenge and so i've said many times over the

years it was never done to create an archetype for people to follow it was just the right person the right player the right family his mom went over there his dad was going over there his sister like it was a really family commitment to enable it there was a lot of particulars and details immigration wise. It needed to get sifted through. That's got to be hard on the parents because you're basically like making life decisions all in. Trying to let your kid establish his dream. And that's who.

Well, it was really complicated. And again, just it was it was credit to his family and to him to have the mental ability to handle it all. Because you guys won't recall this. If you do amazing or the biggest hockey nerd losers ever, the, uh, under eighteens that year at the end, we're in Zug,

Switzerland. So it's one of those things where you also like, he was there anyway, that had nothing to do with the origin of thought. See the environment. It was like, yeah, because to think of him coming back,

having to make that decision, going back, it just may not happen. You don't know. Right. So we're just all think the, the passion to, to make that decision, going back. It just may not happen. If he'd never been there, you don't know. Right. So we just all think the passion to make it happen, the commitment from his family, the commitment to getting him there.

It just aligned. And I remember funny, Edgar Salis, who was the GM at the time in Zurich, he, I remember, I'm going to tease him for this. He got to training camp. He's like, yeah, he looks pretty good, but remember i mean it's he's in for this he he got to training camp he's like yeah he looks pretty good but you know it's a pro league because i i told uh we looked at his youtube and we saw him and i just tell he looks like he could play but we're not sure well that's all they do well i was just saying i was like guys like i'm not one of those guys that doesn't

respect the european leagues because i because I've done so many deals. The Swiss league, the Swedish league, it's good hockey. There's really, really good players and guys are man strong. And it's no joke, but I go, he's ready. And I said, I just think he's ready and he'll be able to handle it. He's got the right support around him. And it was the right organization at the time. Crow was excellent. It was just the right fit to be in Zurich.

And look look I think he proved that he had a great year there um he had a little bit of an injury but otherwise I think was close to leading the league in goals second I believe it was an amazing life experience like you just said with the a little bit well in Europe pro men that type of environment and then look I I it all worked out i think the way the aspirations wanted them to be is first overall rookie of the year and he's got 40 and it's not february 1st let me let me ask you um is that good is that good hey no he fucking finished it with a wink on the end the dismount of that little i said and he scored 40 before february 1st and then

gave me the wink I suppose he we have business so listen to me yeah we just lost another year on the deal he's been around forever but sorry wit I just feel like did that all happen like to you like Austin's not here he can't answer but I imagine he would say it was that like just like so fast did what happened did story like all of a sudden he's at the U S camp. Then he's like, teams are like, who is this guy? Then all of a sudden he's like, Holy shit. Now we're going to zoom. Four goals first game.

And then I'm just playing. And then all of a sudden, boom, he's in the show. And he's just like, it's like, Whoa. Yeah. Honestly, I think it's, it's crazier saying that because saying this, because in a different way, just was just been reflecting, right? Like not in a dorky way, but I'm being a dork about it. Like Toronto, you know, it in a dorky way, but I'm being a dork about it. Like, Toronto, you know,

it's the city he got drafted in. Like, not every player gets a chance to play an All-Star game, let alone several, let alone play one in your home city. So, yeah, I think he just embraces it. I think he said it from the beginning. You know, again, you guys know him,

so there's not much I can say. But for, you know, for what I can say is you know Austin's just he handles things really well he embraces it he loves playing here and I I think the going back to Merle's your point in question um the best players which isn't just defined by Austin or Connor or Yost or Wierenski these other guys that are amazing players players, it's just the ability to get through game one and whatever happened in game one, it's game two. It's that amnesia. It's being in the moment.

It's easy to say. Mental eraser, if you got that. That's the strength, right? That's the strength. That's why you pay these fucking guys because not many guys can do what they do in Toronto. You need to be a special type of person. And also, guys don't listen to the noise.

Obviously, you guys don't count. We create the noise, John. And when you guys say something stupid, I don't listen either. Which is every pun. I haven't listened to those ones

so I actually... How much did these guys fucking drink today? There's no scoop there. Patrice Bergeron's coming back. What's that? Bergeron's coming back. Says who? Patrice.

Those are the rumor boys. No, no, no. I said no. Right away, I said no after. No. So, again, put your player hats back on. And you guys play with some pretty good fucking players. Don't listen to the noise. I don't listen to the noise like i i don't listen to the noise the guys don't listen to the noise

because it doesn't matter like people are allowed to have their opinions you know players get paid because fans go and people are supporting it and no one's lost on that like that but if you start listening i think anyone in life like you're listening to many pundits too many opinions and you get caught up in that like why it doesn't matter that some guy says you had a bad game or a good game. Who cares? Like your coaches matter, your organization matter, your teammates matter, your general manager matters, your family matters. Like, you know, like who cares what everybody thinks? Like whatever, everyone. Easier said than done for sure. But that's the challenge. That's the truth of it. Who cares? And a lot of people talk like in opinion under the guise of fact right like two plus two is five

what like just because you said it with conviction doesn't make it fucking true there's things that are like yeah no i know i know biz does this how do you know you think you know or you know and i just that shit drives me right here on instagram yeah yeah exactly in this video he posted yeah but listen that's part of it like the part of the fun is that people are giving opinions analyzing speculating on why a deal happened didn't happen how come a marketing deal happened like that's all part of it like this there's no that makes it exciting but i think for the for the fellas, I think for me, who's just, you know,

trying to serve their interest to the best of my ability and our collective ability, it's like, I don't really care what anyone thinks because if I start to care too much about everyone's opinion,

then, and what am I doing? Right. Then you go, Hey, you take over. Yeah. Oh,

good luck. Jesus Christ. Dude, take this seven year deal for 14 million total, but I'll get you a side gig. Hey, I'll get you a side gig i'll get you gotta win the cup it's gonna win the cup so don't want to wait free so don't want to wait your per diem pack you're getting 120 a day every day you're on the road next year buddy talk about the contracts though whether i agree disagree don't know i have no i want to know your opinion on what like what these

top end guys should be making whether you think there should be a soft cap uh do you like the proposed idea and i think they're like gms are not gyms agents have said in the past about having like one player have a franchise tag where it doesn't count towards the cap where are you where are your stance on all this yeah no i i love this stuff my stance is uh i'm extremely confident about our sport i'm extremely confident about our sport for a few reasons namely the talent we have i mean obviously uh the guys that i'm lucky enough to work with and our group is but there's a lot of tremendous players uh across the league that i don't know and don't work with and so the game i don't think

has ever been richer with talent yeah i think we've got you know the canadian marketplace is a canadian marketplace you know we've got espn and tnt said we've got, you know, the Canadian marketplace is a Canadian marketplace. You know, we've got ESPN and TNT said we've got the right kind of things brewing. I'm a big supporter of the PA. I think Ron Hainsey

and Marty Walsh are doing a hell of a job and all the other people that are there. I can't rattle off 20 people. I think they have a healthy relationship with the league.

I think the key is for the league and the PA to do what they're doing, which is continue to harness this growth and work together to drive it forward. And that's more of a macro level statement. These, you know, things that are going to be coming out. I mean, you were here at All-Star weekend, so I don't know when this is airing or not airing,

but, you know, the Olympics are likely to happen and all these kinds of different things. You know, I love all that macro. Put that in a big stew. With respect to the marketplace, going back to what I said earlier, look, we live in our own ecosystem, right? So there's things in the hockey business that are not unique to just the hockey business. They're in every business ecosystem. And then there are the things that are unique to the hockey business. We have our own salary cap and our own structure, our own ownership group. So while you can pull from other sports,

we have to figure out how to actualize what's realistic, right? These improvements, whatever they are for players, which I think there's lots of things that we can do to improve it for players in the league, aren't going to be done in the court of public opinion, right? They're going to be done by thoughtful discussion on the realities of how to improve it. You know, escrow is, no one likes escrow.

I don't want escrow. You don't want escrow. But we work in a percentage-based system. That's the system we work in, hence the hard cap, right? Obviously, next year, we'll have a cascading upwards cap, just under $88 million. You know, you'll have some contracts expiring across the league or closer to expiry on some situations and i think the third prong of it will have teams needing to make decisions so

you'll have you know the cap goes up by four million some contracts are expiring you're getting close to expiry and like i said the third prong is the need to do some stuff right um you know we have a hard job as as an agent? You want to deliver for your people all the time. Uh, like I said, you know, I'm not batting a thousand. I try to, um, in every way possible. Um, I want to do that. Uh, I think teams want to do the same thing. You know, uh, I actually, as much as I know, business is going to tease me for this and, and you guys will jump on me like GMs have a hard job too.

Right. And I respect that. Right. Um, they're dealing with a puzzle a budget you know um it's the owners who don't have a hard job well well i guess it depends on one point but now they're kind of just laughing well yeah i think that's that's been the hardest part like we have this system you're right whether we like it or not this is the system we're in i definitely think there's ways that we should and can improve it i I'm not going to sit here and pontificate exactly what those things are,

not because I'm keeping it from you guys or because I don't know. I just think there's a lot of really good momentum. And I look at this like any deal, the PA and the league have competent people. There's a lot of competent agents. There's very competent players. And I think just all the smart people have to really harmonize in a way. I mean, I work for players and I work at Wasserman and that's all I care about, but it has to be a collective effort to grow the pie. Yeah. Like, so, so do you think

the top end guys are being paid fairly for what they're providing the league? Like, do you think that? I don't, I don't, I don't. And that that's what i said and that's what i said disrespectfully it's just math like yeah like i don't say it disrespectfully i think that they're not yet this is the system we're in so you know you try and come as close to what their value should be you have a thought in mind how you think that that would be able to happen is it uh right now i think the the most one player can make is 20% of his team's team's cap, right? Is that the rule? It's 20% of what the time of, Oh, it's 20% of the cap at time of signing. Do you think like that should be bumped up? Do you think that there should be like players who are maybe drafted? Like for instance, they drafted Austin Matthews, Mitch Marder, Nylander.

Should the team receive discount based on the cap? Cause they were homegrown talent. Like why should there be punishment to retain top end talent if you were able to draft and develop it it's a great yeah what's the what do you what do you think it can go in order to get these like connor where he should be making maybe 20 million a year for for his 82 game schedule i guess i'll answer it two ways the the first answer to it is macro level in the next few years with this CBA, we're all eating or drinking and butchering this from the same trough. So in the short term, it's how do we players, union, league sponsors, all the constituents come together and understand

the more we work together and collaborate while we have our own constituencies, the more everybody benefits. That's the the macro thought to answer your micro question which are fucking great questions i don't know yet and i think for i don't think anybody knows right um if they do great i don't think there's specific answers yet because right now quite frankly if the pie is as fat as possible there was a global pandemic and all those things players can continue to make money it's it's more the mechanisms in the system than the system itself right uh and yet how do you fix that i think that's what's going to have to be sorted and reconciled over the next year what are those specific things to give more elasticity to star players well one thing i would just say

quickly add you believe in the growth of the league from like a larger scale and is that why you're tending to say sign a four-year deal rather than a eight-year deal because like there's obviously a lot of money there guaranteed but you're saying well i think the trajectory is even higher that therefore i'm going to sign up because like that's like an unorthodox way to sign it right in your prime you think you'd sign an eight year but i think the best players that's what i was actually way to sign it, right? In your prime, you think you'd sign an eight-year deal? But I think the best players, that's what I was actually going to ask. It makes sense for Matthews and other guys. And maybe, like, oh, and Tippett just signed an eight-year deal. Yeah, who knows?

But the best players, like, dude, let's go a little shorter. Let's hit it again and again. And I think that's probably what was your thought process doing his recent deal. And in your system, that's the only way you could probably make it more fair for that player yeah i mean it's it's a combination of things right like i feel like every deal is its own unique situation every player uh so i look at them all like as their own um i think it's a combination i think yeah some of it is knowing that there might be some changes and some elasticity so there's no question that that's part of it i think it's also just you know uh a lot of people talk about

the long-term deals right as though it's some commitment by the player like i hear that too that it's nonsense when someone says oh well he's committed because he signed eight years huh why he can ask for a trade yeah the team could not want him so i i think that's completely the most security well it's a misappropriation i'm not not saying it's wrong. What I'm saying is when people talk about these contracts, like talk about them accurately, right? Hockey is a business where you can't reopen the deal. So if a guy signs a deal in 2021 and he wildly over exceeds it,

people can't shade the deal in 2025 because you can't reopen it, right? Like it's a bet. These are, these are bets like on how good is a guy going to be how much we're willing to overpay now to get cheaper later and vice versa it's not a novel concept i just think there's misappropriations though how people talk about the fucking deals like guy sends a year deal good for him that's great that's amazing i have some clients on eight

year deals no problem uh if we're talking about austin's deal specifically i mean i think it's the other way to look at these short-term deals is it actually gives cap relief so you know rightly or wrongly it's such a usually the more years you get the more cap money you get right so given there might be elasticity given there might be changes like try and pick the sweet spot to protect a player's individual value in the right way uh and also try and um preserve the team cap knowing that there's a budget there's a cap you know it goes back to if a player one player collection of players take too much money oh well they took all the money they don't want to win like that's not true like one doesn't equal the other right um i just don't buy any of that i think austin's deal

is his deal it fit for him it made sense flexibility like i said within the cap you know more years means a higher cap hit so what does that mean um more scrutiny what about in terms of like your business and dealing with gms and and it's it's like it's fuck you matches it's going back and forth but in the end it has to be you have a rubber strap on for each one when you're doing a deal that you put on while you're on the phone with them but you don't like in terms of like all right the deal we're so far apart right now but in a short time frame we end up becoming like together in this like it's got to work pretty quickly we'll also at one point thinking like this ain't getting done which gm have you bullied the worst um answering which

answering which questions uh first i'll get to business i'll get to business i'll get to business This ain't getting done. Which GM have you bullied the worst? Answering Witt's questions first, and I'll get to business. Have you made one of them cry yet? I'll get to business after. Like I said, I'm not saying this in a silly way. I'm just laughing because I can't look at business in the eye right now. Okay, sorry.

The GMs have really hard jobs, and their staffs. And yeah, sometimes I think in my case, conversations could be spirited um i like to think they're always respectful um i think i think uh i pretty much like every single gm i don't know how they feel about me um you know you get into heated discussions sometimes you know you're passionate about something a manager is convicted then his staff his team his agms are convicted that a player is worth x and this is why and as a representative and as the player and their family or the important people in their in their support network you feel it's a different number you you know things can get emotional can get that way i

really try to and again i'll see if uh if what kind of calls i get based on saying this i think of every deal is really a collaboration not a negotiation the collaborative uh you know concept can get difficult if you know again the collaborating to do that with our system you really truly have to do that well you you do you do you do based on the system in part um but i think also the best negotiations are done privately um you know i think that uh everyone has their own style you guys have been sneaky though you've been good with even the austin stuff like of course he's so high profile and so good but like no one really had any real until the very end well yeah well yeah right which you know look i try to put myself in and i know my clients do this you

jump yourself in someone else's shoe like if i was working for a team and you know uh there's certain things i'd be like why right and i'd like to think of how I would at least like an approach to me. Maybe I don't agree with the number, but at least how would I want to be approached? Whether it's a plane contract or something else. And so I feel like the best way to do it, even when it gets uncomfortable or you're at odds, you're in a disagreement and juddy, the numbers X and I say it's Y or whatever the case may be. I just think it's better served to be done private. Like, I just don't think like as pundits,

as people who love hockey sports fans, like how there's a million billion shows and talk about it. But like some decisions aren't made in the public sphere. So why put them in the public sphere? Like, like why do that? Uh, and why would I want my clients and why

would they want to be having their business out there like you do a buy and close doors sometimes like i said it gets how it gets but you know i i gotta say i i feel like ultimately even when it gets heated everyone everyone knows that we all have a job part of it yeah who's the gm you're chummiest with let's keep it positive like. I mean, I got respect for all 32. I'm just saying that to you. I'm just saying that to you. I just want to see how you react to that. Who you sending Christmas emojis

to on Christmas day? I don't think I sent any Christmas emojis. Different guys. Thanks for buying all my kids and family's gifts here. Yeah, there's a few other things I say. Some of them don't. Christmas emoji? no i it depends because there's some guys i i've known for a long time that's why it goes back to like sitting here and remembering we were at globe in vancouver 20 years ago and what we ate and now i'm sitting here and you're on this show it's crazy like you know i think of guys who

actually i worked on their behalf in some capacity whether that that's Marty Berder as a president of a team, and I represent Jeremy, his son, or Danny Breer, or Rob Blake, or Horkoff. I just think a lot of the guys that I worked with that are insidems like i've known julian breezeball a long time um you know chris jury i didn't know it was pretty intense yeah yeah but i think they all are yeah but they all are i mean it's really tough because i i think of julian just because i've known him for so long when he worked in montreal i'm thinking of the guys like almost as who i've known the longest we're coming up as you were coming yeah like jason botterill and i known each other for a long time had early early dealings for Jeff Gordon and I. Just for whatever reason, some guys I've known longer and different, like you said, and grew up with them.

Actually, Lou was the first GM I ever met when he was in New Jersey. Choked you out. Yeah. Well, at one point he gave me a cannoli. He gave him some sick Gucci cement shoes. Yeah. me a cannoli cannoli he gave him some sick gucci cement shoes yeah just a cannoli no shoes um but no i i don't know that i'm chummy with any one of them i i look at it differently i was having this conversation that's why i'm just thinking with someone else

in a different capacity how you know there's the ex-player gm right there's the non the guy who didn't play type gm uh there's the and then the legends like who were like like eiserman yeah then stevie was a player or blakey hall of famers right there's all these different versions of guys and so i was actually talking about i don't know if it's on with shorzy like just how it's fascinating for me on the 32 teams like how the structures are different how you can have a similar title but your functionality is different or like you said what kind of career did you have yeah it's all different so i don't know that i'm chummy more with one more than the other i'm not giving you the the bitch ass political answer um i'd like

to think i got a good enough relation with every single one of them i talked to maybe some guys more than others by virtue of um i got a client on their team there's guys i talked to like brad cheerleading here in toronto i've known brad for almost 20 years right relationships relationships it's just no way like it's it's i'm charmed and feel very lucky that just yeah like i've i've gotten older i've been in this business it'll be officially 20 years that i've been in the agency business come this august and you just realize like just fuck like, like lots of players, lots of people, guys are sitting, coaching, scouting. There are big shot TV people now or whatever I call you guys.

Liquor moguls, you know, all that. I know Ryan Clooney was here. Do you think Pig Whitney could sign Austin Matthews? Gambling professional. What about gambling professionals? Could we get Matthews and Connor in a Pig Whitney commercial? I mean, we'll talk about that. I don't,'t like i said i don't do business in the public sphere i was testing you i know i was talking about after but yeah i think it's it's just you know

it's it's funny and then like uh a gm i just won't name because i just won't name like i hadn't talked to him probably in four months i don't have a particular client that i lead on his team i texted him uh this was a few weeks ago. I said, Hey, long time. Love to catch up on, on something for quickly. And he called me back in like 20 minutes and we chatted as though we chatted every day and it was super bubbly. And to the point, uh, it was probably a 10 minute conversation, a little bit of yuck, yuck, and a little bit of serious. And that was it. So it kind of goes in waves like that um but yeah uh i don't know i don't know what uh i don't know what they would say but i don't really care as long

as uh as long as i'm listen my job is the players and i want to do it as respectfully and it was with his with integrity and and trying to do it the the best way i can um but uh make no mistake i will serve their interest and that's all I care about this month. This guy started at the bottom. Now he's here. Before we let you go, I gotta know. When you sign one of these big ticket deals, what do you do to celebrate

besides opening the pink box? You gotta get a time massage. And who do you tell when you sign the deal now? Because I know you do it private. Nothing leaks out. Any chance for a leakage for the boys. Whew. And then the celebration. Zero chance for leakage.

Okay. Okay. The rumor boys. I will start to maybe just either post your shows. I won't tell you stuff before. Cause I, you know, but I'll after I'll be like,

what the fuck are you talking about? Yeah. I'll let you fail and correct you after so you can see you in a suffering yeah could have been a room yeah i won't stop let's give it that won't stop let's tell a straighter up there and i'll break it down um no i i think it's just consistent in in just staying tight keeping it keeping it private as much as possible. I think the teams appreciate that. And I think, you know, our clients like that. I think that privacy is important to the plan. Also, you know, I play a lot of chess and think about chess all the time. I mean, I think about we're going to play after.

I don't think he knows the rules. I think about steals forever, right? You know, we think about them forever. Like I kind of obsess over the planning of it. the rules i think about deals forever right i you know we think about them forever like i kind of obsess over the planning of it so honestly when it actually happens it's like it's not that i'm not happy it's like okay i've been thinking about it it's almost like it's weirdly it's super exciting in a sense where it's like been living this deal yeah i've been living this deal um and then no i mean we didn't really do anything i mean we just it was just like

like you sign your deal everyone else gonna make a big deal of it and like other players let's get back to work you know and that's all the guys like you get to that point i'm not just saying that like not even a stogie or nothing like a no i mean you know have a nice glass of wine nice white tequila nice dinner but call up your eighth grade teacher like i told you i'd be somebody i think you just i think you know some things do the talking for themselves i mean uh and i think you just the more you just act like you enjoy it but it's not a big deal the more you guys stay balanced like you sign your deal you you keep going in and again like i'm really um lucky today i've got great colleagues great support system clients, but I really have a great relationship with all my clients and their girlfriends or wives, like I've said before. And I feel really, really lucky. Again, there's a bunch of guys that need texts and callbacks. So fellows, I love you for my slow callbacks and textbacks.

What do you mean? It's like 90 minutes you sat down with us? Or in general? You know, I think these 90 minutes Or, you know, in general There's always something That's kind of going on in my brain I do make the joke Which I will give to you, Biz You know, you don't call me a fool You know what?

I do often tell people That I do think the National Hockey League Runs through my cell phone That's what I'm sure he told me It does The least you can run itself In some ways it does I don't know

It's just Judd Yeah, you know? This has been awesome, man. This is great, Judd. We appreciate you sitting down with us. Real quick? Oh, yeah, yeah. Here.

I got to ask. I was told by a reliable source that you sandbagged pretty hard a tennis tournament this summer. Which, where was this tournament? In Arizona? It could have been in Arizona. Oh, because there was another thing I was accused of sandbagging. Judd's so small. He plays on a pickleball court. He thinks it's tennis. Um, actually you'd be, you'd be proud of me in my tennis game for my, I'm more like, uh, I play like Federer a little bit now. Um, uh, I love tennis. Um, a lot of our clients love tennis.

So we had a little tournament this summer in Arizona called the Camelback Invitational, which Austin and some of our buddies in Arizona organized. And we made it to the finals. And I lost, but no sandbagging. No sandbagging? Nope. Nope. I wish I would love to tell you guys that I sandbagged.

Yeah, he's won the title. Did someone go to a loser pool? He lost the first one, battled through the weak side, then came out the other side? I was just told Judd is a big sandbagger when it comes to tennis tournaments. Sometimes I am. Depends, but depends.

And then the same source also told me to ask about a birthday party that you went to this past year. If you went to any good birthday parties. A birthday party I went to? Well, as i'm looking at these sick jerseys um made by drew house um i think it's uh people know justin bieber and austin have become pretty good friends over the last several years uh and obviously exciting this this weekend and all all of his and and drew house's involvement um i was fortunate enough to be invited to a birthday party last March in LA and, um, went to Justin's house and it was very humbling. And I remember getting a text and, uh, he's,

he's an amazing person. His wife and him are just incredible. And it's been really cool to get to know them. Um, lucky that, you know, him and Austin hit it off so well and I've had that fortune. And so I actually was on a plane and Justin sent me a text and invited me and I texted Austin. I just thought it was like a joke, right? Kind of thing. And Austin was funny.

He said, show the person sitting next to you on the plane, see if they believe you. And so, yeah, it was pretty cool experience to go there. And yeah, he's awesome. He loves hockey. What do you bring a guy like, how did these jerseys come about with, with, uh, well, I think it's, you guys may know, like, so Drew House has had a relationship with the Leafs, obviously making those jerseys and other like apparel and things like that, which has been

really cool. Um, you know, we have our own stuff. We talk about just sort of Austin and Drew House separate from, you know, separate from, uh, the Leaf relationship and then in conjunction with and then now obviously they through all that getting more exposure you know justin's love of hockey and his passion to help grow hockey and make it uh even bigger and better than it is his love for the leafs i think it just came about is there a backstory behind drew justin's middle name and And so Justin and his best friend, Ryan Good, they founded the brand. And Laura is currently running it.

They have a great team of people out of Los Angeles. And so it's part of his middle name. And for them, I think it's more of a, you know, it's a sense of community, right? And inclusiveness and just a way of being and kind of spreading good love, good energy. And it's less of a clothing company than just like more about that. And so I wasn't part of all of it, but from what I know, based on our relationships there, yeah, the league obviously saw the great stuff. They were obviously involved too with the Leafs.

What was a Leaf project to know there's jerseys coming into the league. And so I think that just was like, look, the game's in Toronto. He loves hockey, loves the Leafs. Him and Austin have a great relationship. Why not make the jerseys and have some of that fingerprint on it? And you guys will see as it comes out, they did great gift baskets or gift baskets, like gift packages. I can't even, I'm butchering it.

For the players. For the players, like some cool stuff and swag. And it's awesome, right? You have a guy like Justin, as talented as he is in his craft and as popular as he is and swag. And it's awesome, right? You have a guy like Justin as talented as he is and his craft and as popular as he is loving hockey. And it's really cool. That's like, so not the NHL though. It's like, it's good though.

I know, I know. I think that that was pretty much it. Yeah, John, you're a legend, buddy. That was awesome. Dude, I can't believe they got you to come in here. Super agent. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for coming. Oh, yeah. No, well, sorry. I thought, no, I you to come in here. Super agent. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for coming.

Oh, yeah. No, well, sorry. I thought, no, I appreciate you guys having me. And hopefully I'll make a second appearance and make sure that we get Merle's a good job here soon. Yeah, that's what I, you're hired as my agent against biz coming up in a few months. I'm in, I'm in, I'm in.

Have you already done over a billion dollars in contracts? Like you keep track of that? I don't keep track of in. I'm in. Have you already done over a billion dollars in contracts? Like, do you keep track of that? I don't keep track of that. Okay. All right. Well, I think Alan Walsh does. And when you reach like a certain milestone, let's get you back on. Well, I don't need milestones to come back on.

Do I? We'll see you every week. Every week. Yeah, I'm not here for a week. I'm not here for milestones. You can give me a silver microphone. You know? I love it.

Well, thanks, fellas. You guys do an awesome job. And I appreciate having me keep killing it love your body thanks gents all right before we go any further here's a few words from our friends at kraken today we're talking about kraken one of the og crypto platforms. These guys have been around way longer than the hockey team, for over a decade, in fact. And Kraken's world-class security is like having an all-star goalie protecting your assets 24-7. It gives you peace of mind when it comes to trading.

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to 10 million clients already using Kraken's intuitive platform to buy crypto. Go to kraken.com slash chicklets and see what crypto can be. Not investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss. Big thanks to Judd for jumping on us. I'm so bummed out I missed this interview. I know we had a late schedule change. I wasn't able to get there, but it was fortunate to catch up with him at the All-Star game when I had some other adventures going

on. But Biz, Witt, I know you guys found out some interesting NHL trivia a couple weeks ago that if a team pulls their goalie in overtime and they lose, they do not get the point. And we saw it in real time. An empty netter overtime game-winning goal from Jonathan Marshall. So who else won that

fucking Vegas team this year? Wild team. Minnesota did need the two points, but I believe it's the first time this has ever happened. Were you guys watching live? Did you see it on Twitter? Biz, take us through your journey on this first E-N-O-T-G-W-G. Well, I love the move. You need points, right?

What are you saving it for? So why not do it in regulation? At the end of the game? Yeah. Because why? so why not do it in regulation at the end of the game yeah because because i think that i uh i don't know i guess they're chasing down a team like they don't want them to get any points oh yeah okay wow okay well that yeah maybe that's a great point now what i've read is that it's a lot easier to score uh four on three than it would be six on five right that's but it's a lot easier to score four on three than it would be six on five. Right. But it's almost like take the risk.

And it sounds like I'm dogging this decision. I loved it, and I totally get it, and it already worked once. But I think you've got to make sure that you try to get the two without Vegas getting anything. And so it kind of, to me, it's like, oh, just do that at last minute or two of of of regulation you're not getting the point if they score in overtime anyways yeah no it's it's a great point where this conversation goes for me though is we were having a talk this talk with wayne at tnt and i just love the aggressive approach and hockey wasn't always that way where he even explained and i had no idea this was the case before patrick waugh was in colorado as a goaltender so early 2000s

it was like frowned upon to pull the goalie if you were um more than even a minute and if you were down by two goals teams wouldn't pull the goalie they wouldn't even do do that. Like, were you, like, were you aware of that? I was like, what? You're telling me like, like if a team was, you know, down a goal, like, you know, they wouldn't pull it with like two and a half minutes left to maybe give their top lines a little bit more time where let's say that they don't score. Then you could call the timeout and then do no last minute is when they would pull the goalie until Patrick Waugh.

And then Patrick Waugh in Colorado was the first one to say, no, let's go get me out of the net. What the fuck are we saving it for down to goals? So I just found that like, it kind of tells you how of a conservative game hockey is. And I don't think anybody wants to kind of stand out and be the first guy to like, maybe try it and get scrutinized. But I love the fact that many took this approach down the stretch. And even to your point, Whit, they could have even done it even more aggressively by doing it at the end of regulation to not allowing a team ahead of them to get the point. Now, it was Vegas who they are chasing.

So, yes, it would have made more sense. So, I just found it fascinating that before the early 2000s, teams wouldn't pull a goalie down two goals. Did you know that? No, teams wouldn't pull a goalie down two goals. Did you know that? No, I didn't. I didn't even know that. I did know that it used to be way later that like, you know, 90, 100 seconds left.

You're waiting. No, we're waiting. Wait till 50 seconds left to pull them. Where it's like, if you have an offensive zone draw, minute and a half left, you're down by one. Do it now. Do it then. And it's become earlier and earlier. But I didn't know that they never did it with two.

Minnesota, getting back to them. First, let's talk about Brock Faber. It's going to end up being a tough, disappointing year for the Wild, but I think their fan base is just probably looking at a guy and thinking like we have, through a trade, not even the draft, we have a legit future 10 years number one defenseman. And I have been beyond impressed. I compared him to Charlie McAvoy, maybe not as physical, but even the way they look, I said that a few weeks ago, he can do it all. He can skate.

He can defend. He's got a great stick. He's got 40 points this year. He's been outstanding offensively. He really could do itly. He really can do it all. Minnesota kid played at Minnesota. Heartbreaking loss last year to Quinnipiac. Hops right in the league. No problem. He hopped in after the national championship loss, which probably helped him. At least, all right, I've played some NHL games. I'm going to go into

this season. I know I can dominate, and he has. Rookie of the year discussion. Wild fans are all up in my mentions that he deserves it. Your argument is valid in that he's played the full season. He's averaged 25 minutes a game. I'm with you. And I would say besides several other years, maybe the Crosby-Ovechkin year, Austin Matthews, he's your rookie of the year. I lean towards Bedard. I think it's Bedard, and it's mainly because Bedard dominates. So does Brock Faber. But Bedard's done it with the expectations being so ridiculously high that living up to them seemed impossible, and he has.

And Minnesota's a better team. And the fact of the matter is Bedard changes the game in an even greater way. So if they gave it to Faber, I wouldn't be like, oh my god, this is bullshit. No, no, no, no, no. He's deserving of it, but it's just Bedard's that much above him. And I know he's missed time, but I've watched Chicago games, and it's

watching a generational talent. He's doing things out there that you heard about and you heard, and WHL and World Juniors, and nope, it translates to the NHL, he's going to be a true superstar for years, so that's my rookie of the year pick, but I get your gripe Wild fans, I understand it completely

because Faber has been that good and to go into the season and be like, oh they got this nice player and he looked good at the end of the year well he's looked way better than anyone could even imagine. So that's great for them. And I'll know I'm long winded.

But my last thing in the positivity from favor and Kaprizov second half and boldly second half, ever since Heinz took over, there are some really bright signs. There's also a little bit of a weird weariness. I guess the word is from wild fans in that the future is a little muddled. I don't know if that's the correct word, but it's like, this will only be the second time they've missed the playoffs since 2012, but they only have two series wins in 2014 and 2015. So while making the playoffs

all these years or most of these years, they haven't really had much playoff success. And in that, you haven't really got a superstar draft pick. Now, Kaprizov, that's next level. You kind of got lucky where you drafted him, and you got lucky with the trade with Faber. I don't know where they end up heading because, yes, they're getting the cap relief of Suter and Parisi, but it is a weird time to be a Wild fan. They've always been good and solid, but not good enough, yet not bad enough. So they've been in no man's land a little bit. And I think going in next year, there's definitely some question marks

on like, can they get over the hump and become a true contender? Yeah, and it's hard to find the gems in free agency. More of the time, you're probably overpaying someone with that cap space they will be gaining. Another guy who i think is tremendous for that core and you might have said it as erickson act i think that he oh yeah so underrated so underrated and underappreciated so i agree with what you're saying wit and then even going back to the faber thing i think it's victim of circumstance where you just come in the same year as his generational talent. Bedard's also playing with the Rockford Icehogs. So he's got that offensive anchor, yet he's still doing what he does every night.

And to say that because Faber's playing on a better roster and a better team, it's not to say he's getting easier matchups or not having to play against the other team's top talent. It's more of a fact that you can you can disappear in a sense we're all not the pressure and the weight is is falling on you solely where night in night out it's like hey badar are you going to keep us in this one and if he doesn't score it's usually like i would love to see their record in games that he doesn't score when in the lineup like from like a points perspective so and even a goals perspective. So it's,

uh, the sample size with the time that he's played, I definitely lean towards Bedard, a generational talent and just eye test. It's fucking, it's nuts what he's doing at his age. So yeah, the eye test now in,

in, in, uh, another aspect for wild fans reason to get excited. Uh, you're going to resign Faber and the number will probably be a little shocking. I think you're looking at eight years, $75 million. Whoa.

Yeah, dude. Whoa, whoa, whoa. How much is that per year? That would be a little over nine per year. That would be like 9.25 a year. After one season? Buddy, he's young. He's already proven that he can do this.

He's only going to get better. The cap's going up. Buddy, fucking Kale McCarr makes nine and a half. I know, but Buddy, he signed it two years ago. That's not the level. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not the level. That's the ceiling that Garrett has him at, Biz.

He's going to get nine between probably nine, two, and nine, eight. If you ask Bill Garrett, do you think Faber can be good as Kael McCart? I don't know if he's saying yes. I don't know if one GM is saying that. But, Biz, when you have the leverage and you play like this and the cap's going to only – put it this way. In six years, if he's making 9.25, I don't think anyone says a word. No, I get that.

I get that. I get that. But I've obviously seen enough where if he does 9.25, I'd say, hey, great job to him and his agent. But as a general manager, and keep in mind, some people are like, how the fuck is this guy? You want low. How is this guy already up for contract? So he was fortunate enough to burn a year off where at the end of the season before he came up for a few games. And you know, when you're a stud player and that was kind of maybe some of the fallout with the cutter go chase thing where he wanted to be signed and have burnt a year

off his deal. Cause that way, maybe this year he could have came in, done what Faber's doing. And then all of a sudden it's July 1st, you've played one year in the league and you're up for the Calder and bingo bango 75 sheets on the way so I think of how many of these think of how many of these no no I'd say fuck you I do it all the time I just think that

I think that eight and a half and eight years if you slide that over if you're Billy G and he's going to say no I'm going to play this out buddy you're going into your sophomore. Go ask Marit Sider how his sophomore year went. I'm not saying he was brutal, but I'm saying his leverage was nowhere near it was after he won the Calder. I don't think Billy G cares about leverage.

I think he would have signed this yesterday if he could. I think Guerin knows what he has. He wants to lock it up. I don't think he has a fucking leverage. No, I do think that. Are you talking think Guerin knows what he has. He wants to lock it up. I don't think he has a fucking whole leverage. All right, no, I do think that- Are you talking to Guerin? He wouldn't come in- Are you talking to Guerin?

That's not his first offer. If he could ever get him an 8.25 a year, yeah, you're laughing. Yeah, it's not going to happen. If this kid wants to decide to go that way, he's going to get an enormous payday one way or the other. If they can come in at under nine a year for eight years, then that's a huge win for the Wilds.

You want to know what I would do? I would slide 8-2-5 over at the desk, and if he says no, I'll say, I'll see you in Iowa next season, kid, and you don't got to clear waivers. Sign the goddamn contract. I'll see you in Vegas in fucking August. Sign the fucking deal right now, or you're going to Iowa. It would be hard if you give them eight years.

That would be $66 million to say no to that. That's what I'm saying. Say no to it, kid. You'll be eating soggy subs in no time. You're not getting no tape-to-tape passes down there, buddy. Minnesota News just came over the live biz. Ryan Hotman, he had his phone hearing on Monday. DOPS

gave him a three-game suspension for chucking his twig in the direction of the officials. He did get high-sticked by Noah Hannaford late in the game. Was not called. He was irate. Vegas won the game shortly thereafter, like we just said with March. He chucked a stick on the ice. Didn't come close to any of the officials, but it's been

pretty much a guarantee you're going to get three games, which is what he got. So it happened. Oh, my God. That's a little aggressive. People were saying online, I never saw the clip, so he didn't throw it at an official? Well, he threw it onto the ice in the general direction,

but he didn't come anywhere close to hitting anybody. Well, there's four refs. They could be like, yeah, that thing was right at me. Yeah, I'll send it to you right now while we're talking here. Okay. No, it literally just came over the wire. No, he didn't come close to hitting him. I think it's just the idea, the action.

Plus, he's a repeat offender on Sports Mike Conduct. His third suspension in the last 14 months. Third of his career as well. He's also been fined nine times. He's going to lose about $21,000 per game this season. But next season, Biz, he would lose 49,000 a game because of the race he's getting. And also, one other thing with Faber

that we didn't mention, only six players in the NHL have more time of ice than this guy. He's a rookie, 21 years old, only six fucking guys get more ice time. 825 sign the fucking deal, kid. 9-3, 9-3. Also, Marc-Andre Fleury, another Minnesota note.

He could be back next year. A lot of people kind of, I think, had a raised eyebrow when he did not get traded at the deadline this year. Everyone was assuming it would be his last year, but he said, quote, the door is open more today for a return than it was in September or October. I ended up feeling better, and I started playing better. I rediscovered the joy of playing hockey.

Yeah, it's probably Minnesota or retirement. So, I mean, great news for the NHL biz. Anytime you have Marc-Andre Fleury in the league, it's a good time for the NHL. So hopefully he's back in Minnesota. I wish you would announce his final tour where every team would have rose petals on the ground leading him into his final game in that arena.

Could you imagine what they would do in Montreal for him if they knew that it was his last game there? Could you imagine? Why do you think it would be his home province as opposed to the teams he's played for having bigger send-offs? I just think Montreal, I would consider it the co-winner of the hockey mecca.

I think that they would give him a proper send-off, just as much as a team that he did play for. That's my opinion. A little Jaffe Jaffa style. Jake Ensel returned to Pittsburgh for the first time since he was traded to Carolina at the deadline.

A pretty emotional meeting. I'm not sure if you guys saw the clip yet. He did say, Uh, Jake Ensel returned to Pittsburgh for the first time since he was traded to Carolina at the deadline. Uh, a pretty emotional meeting. I'm not sure if you guys saw the clip yet. And he did say my intention was to stay. Uh, they thought there was a better decision. So obviously he moved on. I'll be curious to see if he does end up back in Pittsburgh. But, uh, since he joined Carolina, 14 points, his first 10 games tied the wizard Ray Whitney for the most points by a skater through their first 10 games with the Hurricanes. Wait, does he end up back in Pittsburgh, Jake?

No. No? Okay. I know that's been thrown out there. Why would he go back to Pittsburgh? He's going to get a bunch of money wherever he goes, and Pittsburgh's going to be horrible. I know playing with Sid is awesome, but I can't see that kid wanting to just go back

to what's going to be a pretty bad team for a long time on a huge, lengthy deal. Here's where I may disagree is maybe he does test free agency. And I know that people say, oh, the cap's going up, and maybe there's all these teams that are going to be willing to throw big money at him. But maybe it's like last year where some guys are a little underwhelmed by the market. So maybe, in fact, what he was asking for, assuming that Pittsburgh would have handed it over, they don't necessarily have to go there if the market doesn't,

where they could say, hey, come back at a, I don't know, an eight-time, we always throw out the eight times eight. What do you think that he was asking for from Pittsburgh? I have no idea, but... He was probably asking, what, nine million? the cap didn't go up last year it's going up four million bucks like that's not going to be the case this summer i mean i'm saying is maybe that free there's sometimes there's certain individuals who expect they'll be paid on what they think their value is where it doesn't come at them as as much as they expected to where maybe Dubas didn't like the number that they were coming in back. And listen, I'll say this for the second

time in a month here, I'm not a Dubas defender, but maybe they were like, Hey, we've, you know, we've won cup. We've won a cup here. And Sid likes playing with us hand over nine and a half or eight years. And he's like, no, he's getting a little bit older and I don't even think he would make that in free agency. Therefore, he has to come back. I don't know. That's just my only, that's my only other pushback on what you're saying. Like he's not, he's, how old is he?

Is he 30 years old? 32 years old? 29. He'll be 30 in October. Okay. I mean, it's, I mean, I think even Reinhardt's a year or two younger maybe. So it's just, it's, I mean, I think even Reinhardt's a year or two younger, maybe. So it's just, it's hard to throw, it's hard to throw a lot of money at guys

where, where we know it's, it's a young man's league now. So anyway, that's, that's all I got to say about that. So maybe back in Pittsburgh. Yeah. We'll see what happens. All right, gang. You know, we love to have fun and joke around. We know you guys come here. Guys and gals come here for an escape. Unfortunately,

the real world is what it is. Sometimes it touches us. We just want to share. It's terrible news since we last met up. NYPD officer Jonathan Diller. He was killed on the line of duty last Monday. Come to find out it's a weird thing to find out that

a guy who passed away was a fan of what you do. And we found he was a Chiclets fan. And it just, you're already sad that a cop died. Then you find out you have this sort of weird cosmic connection. It just, it makes it so much sadder. He was a 31-year-old conducting a traffic stop. He was shot by this fucking scumbag, convicted felon. He's been in and out of jail, arrested dozens of times.

Just a dirtbag. You wonder why he's on the streets. And the cruelest thing, he wasn't even driving the car. He was in the passenger seat, and he still shot this cop for no fucking reason. It's just a horrible tragedy. He has a wife, Stephanie, a young son, Ryan. We want to send our deepest condolences to his family, his friends, all his brother and sister officers on the job who risked their asses day in and day out. You know, being a cop, not much credit, man.

No. And, you know, it's it's a job that, you know, as I get older in Boston, you know, they were they were looking for recruits and I could have gone on. I says, no, I commend every guy who does the job. I have cousins, so many friends who work the job. I wasn't willing to do it, man, because you have to be willing to die for fucking strangers. It's such a commendable and honorable profession that these guys do. Also, I want to shout out Wayne Jetski, a buddy at Boston. His dad was killed in a very similar fashion 20 years ago. And he wrote a blog on Barstool.

And I thought it was such a courageous thing for him to do to be vulnerable and share what happened to him. And the circumstances were so remarkably similar. And he wanted to bring attention to it. And long story short, Dave Portnoy at Barstool, our boss, he's always been great to the firefighters and cops. And we put T-shirts on sale. We raised $750,000 in, I want to say, three days.

And Dave matched it. So we were able to give his widow and son $1.5 million. And I know everyone complains about fucking everything nowadays. And yes, they get widow funds and bereavement funds. People don't understand what this does to a fucking family, to a life. Like this just, you know, help some pay this bill or pay that bill. It's just kind of like try to live their lives a little bit. So it's an awful fucking tragedy.

I feel like I'm rambling a bit because it's so frustrating that this shit happens, that cops are killed by scumbags like this in and out of the jail. If you want to buy a shirt, I believe they are still on sale. All the proceeds do go to his family. So, again, our condolences to the family, friends, his brother and sister offices, NYPD, Jonathan Dillard. Just an awful tragedy. And, Whit, I don't know if you had anything you wanted to add or not.

No, it's a hard thing to say, all right. I'm sorry for rambling. No, you didn't ramble at all. It's just it's heartbreaking. And just to think that his son will never know his dad makes me sick to my stomach. And all I could say is that it's going to be it's going to be hard at the NYPD FDNY game because hopefully we're able to do something special for his family and his friends. And I think there was like 70,000 police officers from around the country, around North America that showed up to his funeral procession and the wake. And just like, yeah, there's no way to describe it beyond heartbreaking. And the fact that this fucking scumbag was wasn't behind bars, it makes me sick to my stomach. So hopefully we're able to honor his family and his friends

the best way we can, April 20th at the very special game. And before those games, each year they honor guys they've lost. And Ari's showing the shirt right now. So we're going to do our best to honor Jonathan and hug your loved ones. It's tough ending the show on something like this, but the fact that we ended up finding out that he was a huge chicklets fan, it almost hits you a little bit harder. Like, Oh my God, the fact, you know, maybe some shifts,

he was able to kill some time listening to us that it just, just hits you in a, in, in a tough way. So, um, thank you guys for listening. And as I said, you hug your family. And if there's a police officer, a firefighter in your life, or you run into one, you say thanks. They don't get enough of the thanks they deserve. They deserve a lot more. You see people at their absolute worst being a police officer. And that's probably a really hard way to make a living. And those guys, they risk it all.

So shout out to him. And we guys, they risk it all. So, shout out to him, and we'll see you guys next week. Yeah, and sorry, but just a couple of notes here. Thursday at 6 o'clock, Chickens TV is going to have you guys' Ice Con Chicago video, so at least we can bring a little levy there, some laughs there as well. Game notes

10 o'clock Thursday. And G, we have a collaboration with the incredible company here in Boston, 47 Brand. They used to be known as Twins. Yeah, a lot of people have been asking about these hats the past few weeks in the Instagram comments, YouTube comments. 47 Brand hats, they're going to be available Thursday.

Buy them in the Barstool Sports Store. They're awesome. Hold on, hold on. What do you got, R? Legit, legit. Yo, I just got two packets. That's why those 47 brands are coming to my house. I'm like, who's sending all these hats?

My future ex-wife just came in hot with a couple of boxes. Oh, for crying out loud. What a way to end the podcast. It is what it is, buddy. We're all adults here. I mean, oh. There it is. The one G's rocking.

Here's one of them. There it is. Let's see here We got the other one here I look like a brand nerd With the glasses And actually the Baltimore Orioles Hat I had on

That was an old 47 hat as well And this one This is like watching Mincy that time He opened that box At the basketball game No I never saw that video I thought I was going to

Open the box And it was going to be a bill of what he owes his future ex wife. Or a big, huge dildo. Um, all right guys, time to wrap it.

All right. Um, see you guys. Great chat with you guys. See you next week. The same. Chunk. And speech. Just so good. That. How much is your love? They say you're drunk at speech It's just so good that I like to poke a bear

I like to stir the pot But then you come on in And take it up a notch You hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot She hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot I said she needs a detox to cleanse her mind Another week rolls in, we're on the road again Thought I was safe and sound in my minivan But I said something that crossed the line

And I know she felt it Someone said she could have a free one on the chin I know she felt it. So I said she could have a free one on the chain. She went below the bell. She had it with a cheap shot, a cheap shot. She had it with a cheap shot, a cheap shot. I think we need a deep talk Even so, I'll die