Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 94: Featuring Jason Zucker

Episode Date: June 19, 2018

On this week's episode, the guys are joined by King Clancy Memorial Trophy Nominee Jason Zucker for an NHL Awards themed episode. Jason talks about the past year in Minnesota, playing with the team his whole career, who the funny guys are in the locker room and more. The boys then give their NHL awards predictions. From the Hart Trophy to the Jack Adams, the guys break down all the awards and give their predictions as to who will win each one. Ryan is also convinced that Pavel Bure wears number 94 while Grinnelli's landlord comes barging in mid episode. A great episode to kick of NHL awards week and the offseason.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

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Get 25% off today at drinkade.com or at Amazon. At the checkout, use the promo code CHICKLETS. That's C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. The same promo code works in either place. Drinkade. Go try some. Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 94 of Spittin' Chicklets. Pavel Pouret.

Pavel Pouret. Awesome player. Spittin' Chicklets brought to you by Barstool Sports. A little awards episode. I sound like Ted fucking Kennedy. Say what's up to the boys, Ryan Whitney. What's up, dude? That was crazy intro, but we're here.

We're ready to talk some awards. We got Jason Zucker, King Clancy Award nominee. We interviewed him. We'll be going over that in a little bit. We're going to give our picks on the awards. I was never up for one. Biz, no chance. Were you ever up for one maybe in the East Coast League?

No, just a two time all star. I didn't actually hang around long enough to because I got called up to the American League both years. Not a big deal. And all right. You're going to introduce Grinnelli first or me. You took the words right out of my mouth. Don't say boy, Mikey Grinnelli producer. Say hello, pal.

Hello, gentlemen. And, yeah, we're going to give the rundown of all the nominees, and we're going to give our respective pick so Biz can keep scoring and rubbing our faces for the next six months if he's better than us. Can I get a little bit better intro than that, though? For yourself personally? I'll give you one. Because I was not intro'd. Two-time East Coast League Hockey All-Star, Bumble All-Star.

And here we have two-time East Coast League Hockey All-Star Bumble All-Star. And now, except to Tariya, not a big deal, but a nasty best of night. Two years free of HPV, longest foreskin in the world. He's got a tattoo of a haunted house on his arm with an old, crusted up, nasty Halloween decoration. Come on. Is that better? The Halloween tattoo, that's a bit offside. The pumpkin is sick.

The pumpkin is sick. The jack-o'-lantern free cover charge on Halloween every year. How much did all your ink cost collectively? A little barter exchanging for tickets went down. That's probably why they're fucking so bad. This is like – I got them done in prison. I'll give you my kidney if you maybe just cut $100 off that. All right, Grinnelly.

So we got the awards. You're going to give us the award, the name, the description. You're going to give us the three guys who are up. We're going to give our picks. Oh, Biz has something to say. Well, also, shout out to all the fans online who are bullying R.A. for not mentioning Pavel Bure when we mentioned Mogilny in episode 89. But we did.

Yeah, you did mention him, and you were saving him for episode 94, which, guys, this is embarrassing. I didn't know Pavel Barry wore 94. I think it was number 10. Yeah, I guess. I mean, did he wear 94? Am I messing this up? I think you're confusing it with NHL 94, where he was very successful.

Or maybe I'm thinking where 94 was when the Canucks went to the cup finals against the Rangers. That's very true. If he didn't wear 94, this might be the cup finals. Yeah, what the fuck? We've been talking about it for 10 minutes. We're going to find out right fucking now because you're not getting off the hook that easy. This might be my worst look I've ever had

if he didn't wear 94. I don't think he did now that I think about it. As they say in the Fresh Prince, drums, please. I think he was 96, you moron. 96, oh my god. You are a fucking peasant. Way to start out this episode.

You know what? You started getting a little hot with your picks towards the end, and now you're a fucking muppet again. I cannot wait to... In my brain, I'm never wrong, and now you're a fucking Muppet again. I cannot wait. In my brain, I'm never wrong, and in 94, it was the magical Canucks run where Burry was the superstar against the Rangers.

So in my head, I wasn't wrong. No joke. That's what I relate 94 to Pavel Burry. So everyone, suck it. Everyone's already turned off the podcast up until this point because you're such a schmuck. He wore 10, and then 96 in Vancouver. Then when he was in Florida, he wore

10 and then when he finished up with the Rangers, he wore number 9, but no 94. By the way, what do you have? 779 points in 702 games. Not too short. I want to crawl into a hole and die right now.

Hey, speaking of Russian gas, I can fucking confirm that I'll tell you one thing. I want to crawl into a hole and die right now. Wait up. I'm building out in the back. Speaking of Russian gas, I can fucking confirm that guy was doing it. His knees exploded because his fucking muscles were too big. I heard his quads used to just be shredded, too. Oh. He wore number 94 when they were shredded. Know who he looks exactly like?

The Italian porn star Rocco Soffredi. You ever see? You ever familiar with his work, Miz? How are his load shots? He's the worst. I'm not sure. I haven't seen him for a while. Peter North status. He's Canadian.

If you look at Rocco Soffredi, him and Pavel Borea, like, stunt doubles. How long did we talk? Like, people are going to be losing their minds listening. Oh, yeah. We lost half our followers. I think our parents might stop listening everyone's chopping up the bit for that heavy duty awards talk though right

before I even realized it I think people could have given me I might have tweets like you know as they're listening live this could just be the end of me that might have ended my chances of being like legit I know I joked uh nhl network calling and firing you keep the fucking phone on just like uh no i gotta trade deadline day shut yeah shut the phone off now the good news is we're going to incorporate grinnelli a little more today who needs a pop dude we need we need the grinnelli a little more today. Who needs a pup, dude? We need a Grinnelli kick.

A little fucking C4 before our workout. Get a little swollen in there. He's going to be reading off all the candidates for each award and we're going to go through and give you our picks. It's the Ryan Smith episode, you boy wits. Oh yeah, he's 94.

He's going to haunt your fucking dreams this episode. He haunted me by doing that. Does he hate your guts? I don't know. Edmonton Oilers fans hate your guts for saying something negative. So Steve Mack,

I've told the story before Grinnelli goes. Grinnelli, what did he tweet the direct message to? Instagram or Twitter? before Grinnelly goes. Grinnelly, what did he tweet the direct message to, Instagram or Twitter? Did Grinnelly step away from his desk? Well, he sent a tweet. Whitney, I don't know if he thought I was running the spit and shake of the count, but someone forwarded to me and said, Whitney, I hear you're talking shit. So I don't even know what I said about him recently.

Grinnelly, Whit had a question for you. He wanted to know if that was a DM. Hold on a second. My landlord just showed up. Uh-oh. Keep it rolling. I'll pay for it. Don't worry, buddy. Send me the money.

Tell me what it costs, bro. You'll be pulling that falling down the stairs shit either. I'll Venmo that guy right now for you, Grinnelli. Fuck him. Hey, can we interview him? Why are you paying out? Hey, can we interview him, Grinnelli?

What's the matter? Why is he coming by like this? Uh-oh, Grinnelli, he's serious face right now. And Grinnelli produces these podcasts. So we now have cameras. Grinnelli produces this podcast. This is not getting cut. If this is cut, if this is cut.

I'll be pissed. Uh-oh. And my Beret 94 thing isn't cut. If this is cut, if this is cut, I'll be pissed. Uh-oh. If my Beret 94 thing isn't cut, we have issues. Hey, all I'm picturing right now is the, what's the bowling? No, all I'm picturing is the lady from something about Mary

and Grinnelli, oh no, from, what's the movie? Kingpin? Yes, that's what I was just going to say, but Beret cut me and I forgot what movie it was. Oh, you didn't settle the date? He had to muck her, too, dude. Yeah, she was... Hey, I probably would if I was 20 beers deep.

Ernie McCracken's the best villain of all time in any movie, maybe. Yeah. There he is. All right, sorry about that. Did everything go well? No. I'm sorry. My landlord just showed up.

She just showed up and came barging in, and I was like, you have to get the fuck out. You can't be here. Yeah, you can't do that. I couldn't do that at the properties I own. Not a big deal. And you know what she says? She goes, I don't have time for you making. I go, I'm recording right now.

And she goes, I don't have time while you make your little video right now. Oh. And my roommate stepped up and was like, he's not making a little video right now. He's recording. This is his job. And this is a recording of the number one hockey podcast in the world, possibly. I believe it's the universe. Are you moving or what happened?

Are you just late with the rent? No. What's the competition? Yeah, she's showing people the house. She just tried to show people the house right now. No, they got to give you like advance warning for that. Oh, yeah. They got to let us know. Whitney would know he's a landlord. He just tried to show people the house right now. No, they got to do it. They got to give you like advanced warning for that. They got it. Whitney would know he's a, he's a landlord. He's a slow mortgagor.

I'm finding out possibly the hard way in Massachusetts is such a joke. If someone weren't to pay me the rent they owe, they can just stay. Like I couldn't basically couldn't get them out for like eight months. Oh yeah. It's crazy. I was playing with a guy and his brother is a lawyer and he was dealing with with a problem where in one state i forget what state it was that it's legal if somebody like a homeless person breaks into your house that or apartment that's not being rented and you live in a different state let's say you come back a year later and they're in there,

they're legally allowed to stay. But it was the most obscene, insane thing I'd ever heard. You have to be getting this wrong, bro. I'm going to need a link to this. Wait. So I went as far. It was Vincent Laverde

and his brother's a lawyer in Chicago. And I had him call and I had him explain. And he was like, yeah, one of his buddies was involved in the lawsuit or something that was happening. I'll get to the bottom of it, but I'm sure someone who's listening is going to eventually chime in via Twitter and back me up. But there are some insane fucking laws when it comes to renters that favor them. Yeah. But this, this podcast has been full of fake news so far because that was fake news.

Tenants have a shitload of rights. That movie Pacific Heights with Michael Keaton, it's a little old, but it's basically like... They try to evict him and he plays every role in the book that he can, but it's kind of based on... They made a fucking movie about it?

Yeah, he's kind of like a stalker. Yeah, Pacific Heights, Michael Keaton, low-key Michael Keaton flick. But it's about the same thing. The tenants have tons of rights, and they can really fuck a landlord, as Whitney's found out. Well, either way, it comes down to the man who's going to somewhat host this, Grinnelli. You can give us the awards and fuck your landlord, because in the end, you got Witty and Witty's pockets to take care of you, buddy. You know you're my man. I'm Team Whitney now.

Get me a jacket, man. Get me something made. Why wouldn't you? I'm Witt Soldier now. But all right, let's get into this. So starting off, the Vesna Trophy. We have Connor Hellebuck of the Winnipeg Jets. We got Pekka Rene of the Nashville Predators.

And we have Andre Vasileski of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Let's go to Biz first. Really? You're going to start? R.A.'s goalie talk guy. I'm going to kick it to R.A. I want to hear his expertise before I give my opinion. All right, of course, we know that playoffs are irrelevant with the voting here.

I think Peck or Rene is going to get it. He had a nice bounce back here. His numbers, I believe, were the best of the three. I don't have them right in front of me. But, I mean, generally that's what it comes down to. I mean, say percentage goals against a guy better than the other two guys, he's generally going to win. I know Hellebuck had a nice year.

He broke Barrasso's record for wins by an American rookie. But, yeah, I got Pekka Rene winning this one. Yeah. Zaleski kind of tailed off towards the end there as he was pretty vocal about by telling everyone in the world that he's just tired and needed some time off. So he went back to

Russia. Went back to Russia, got a few IV bags, came back buzzing in playoffs. Yeah. Whitney, you you're probably a little biased towards the American players, but you also gave some pretty crazy stats about Hellebuck, but I'm going to completely agree with R.A., our goalie expert, and go with Rene.

He was very strong the whole year, especially towards the end of the season in order to lock up, I believe they won the President's Trophy, correct? Ho, or was that Tampa? they won the President's Trophy, correct? Ho. Or was that Tampa? Nashville won the President's. Yeah, so he helped them lock it up late because there was a lot of action towards the end there. So I was right. Yes.

Well, I'm on Connor Hellebook, and I'm going to make it be known. My picks are going to be, you know, my gut. I know there's going to be stats, but I'm going with my gut pick. So I don't really worry about the stats and the goals against and the goals and the assists. I'm going in my mind who's the award winner. That's how I'm doing it. I watch hockey all year. I do it for a living. I memorize guys' numbers.

I think you just subtweeted me. So either way, either way, Connor Helbuck broke the record for most wins by an American goalie. That's a big deal. He also broke the record for most wins by an American goalie. That's a big deal. He also broke the record for most home wins by any goalie in the NHL, the National League. Oh, so he can't play on the road?

That was a PFT line. That was pretty quick out of you, dude. That was pretty good. Yeah. Well, I just, you know, for me, he came into camp. He came into camp and Minnesota, sorry, Minnesota, what am I talking about? Winnipeg brought in Steve Mason this summer. They couldn't get goaltending.

Hellebuck struggled the year before. Pavlik struggled the year before. So they brought Steve Mason in and he was kind of the starter. And you know what happened? He got hurt. He didn't play that well. Hellebuck comes in and just has a season to remember. For me, what he did.

And then, you know, part of it in my mind is them beating Nashville. So that's kind of in my head. It shouldn't be. The votes were made before that. But I'm just giving my saying, I'm Hellbook all the way. All right. All right. Shocker.

Next up. Wits already 0-1. On to the next one. All right. So next up, we have the Frank J. Selke trophy. The finalists are Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins, Sean Couturier of the Philadelphia Flyers,

and Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings. This one is a very tight race. R.A., why don't you kick us off again? It is a tight race, but I think Bergeron... Oh, Schalkeon sometimes the nhl awards i think they're like uh best actor or best actress in the oscars like you know people are going to get nominated

every year no matter how they produce but having said that bergeron did have a great year uh he missed a pretty decent amount of time i i think it's his to lose though i think you know he's just in that spot where you know spot where it's almost like a heavyweight championship. You've got to knock the guy out to take the title. I think he had as good a year as we've been accustomed to. It's his to lose and I don't think he's losing it this year. I've got Bergeron.

I've got to step in here. R.A., I respect your Boston bias. I know you're a Bruin fan through and through. I respect the fact he was just under a point a game. He had 64 games played with 63 points this season, but I'm going to have to give it to Anze Kopitar because he got it done for the full amount of time over a point a game. He lugs ridiculous amounts of hard minutes for the LA Kings,

and I believe he was over a point a game, and he played pretty close to, I think, all games during the regular season this year. He was a beast. I agree it's Bergeron's to lose every year because he's such an unbelievable two-way center. But the problem was, is he just didn't play enough games for me.

So I'm going to have to give it to Kopitar. And which is crazy because we're not even acknowledging Couturier in the conversation and he had a fucking ridiculous year two career year for him this is to me the tightest race in all awards and fuck honorable honorable mention to to couturier which i think he's gonna finish second and patrice bergeron third no offense to your bruins bergeron is going for his fifth selkie he's in the finalist final three for the seventh year in a row i reckon and it's it's it's you know incredible he's he's deserving of it i'm on biz though i'm on kopitar part of me is weird when it comes to selkie because it's a defensive forward award, but

how you do offensively matters for the voting. They don't give it to some guy without who doesn't produce offensively. Kopitar had the most points out of any of these guys. He led NHL forwards in ice time. You know, I mean, that's, he, he led his team in shorthanded ice time. This is an offensive over point per game superstar in the NHL who's leading his team in shorthanded ice time. I mean, that's doing it both ways for me. That's doing it at both ends. So he's won it before in 2016. He's a finalist for the fourth time in the last five years.

And for me, it's Kopitar's award to win. The year he had offensively, I know that makes no sense with a defensive award, but it has something to go into how good he can be defensively playing against the other team's best line while also producing offensively. I know that makes no sense with a defensive award, but it has something to go into how good he can be defensively playing against the other team's best line while also producing offensively. So, Biz, there it is. Lock it up. Andrzej Kopitar. So many heavy minutes and he's so good down below the

goal line in his own end. He's a beast. He just weighs on guys. And, man, he's got the toughest line matches every night, too. He's not like a a forward trying to escape those minutes at home and get away from guys he is a fucking beast uh i played in the organization for three years with la's obviously in the minors but we would watch this guy every night on on tv when they're playing and it's fuck and what's what's even crazier with the

year he had he's probably going to finish third in MVP voting. So that's why I feel like they have to give him this award to reward him for the season that he had. Yeah, he's a great player, man. I got no issue with him winning. And I think he's a classic player. If he played in the Northeast a little closer to Canada, he'd be a much bigger name because he's definitely a superstar. What do we have for you, R.A.? R.A., I'll never be mad at your Boston bias.

How do you say that now? All right, so next up we have the Norris Trophy. The nominees are Drew Doughty of the Kings, Victor Hedman of the Lightning, and P.K. Subban of the Nashville Predators. Dude, I think Witt should start because he's the fucking defensive specialist. Okay, yeah, I was defensive specialist. because he's the fucking defensive specialist. Okay.

Yeah, I was defensive specialist. Actually, I remember one time I did a radio interview when I was lighting it up in my big year in Pittsburgh, just lighting her up. And at the end of the interview, the guy's like, that's possible future Norris Trophy winner Ryan Whitney. I was like, work it right, man. Talk about going downhill after that. Gee, that was as close as I came.

Was he drunk? This year, three awesome. I love watching all three of these guys play. But it's the giant Swedes time. It's Victor Hedman's year. The man who played for Modo, a team I played one game for and went minus three in the first period

and retired after the game. He led them to second goals this year. 17 goals this year. Sets his career high in ice after the game. He led the weekend goals this year, 17 goals this year, sets his career high in ice time per game, over 25 minutes, just under 26 minutes a game. I mean, it's just incredible amount of consistency for him. The first defenseman in lightning history to top 60 points in multiple seasons. It's 72 points the year before when he could have got it. It's his to lose this year. I he could have got it. It's his to lose this year. I think he'll get it, and it's his time to finally get one, so Hedman it is.

Excuse me. I concur with Mr. Whitney. Hedman's one of those guys, you know, he's a perfect example of why you always hang on to your young stud defenseman. I don't know if you remember, Biz, but early in his career, he was kind of always getting dragged into trade rumors. I don't know if there was much veracity behind them, but he's a guy that, you know, Tampa Bay almost got rid of a couple of times, it seems like, and they held on to him and he's blossomed into the premier defenseman. And I think he's probably been worthy of the Norris the last couple of seasons, but I agree with this is the time for him to get it. He's put the numbers up. He's a monster in his own end. He's basically the prototypical defenseman in today's NHL, physical on his own end uh he's a he's a basically the prototypical defenseman in today's nhl

physical on his own end and can produce in the offensive end so uh i i again i agree with wits i think we're going to be across the board here he put up the most points of any of those defensemen all pretty tight headman had 63 dowdy had 60 and 59 for pk suban uh i guess i'll start with uh or go to the other side of it uh doughty another strong season spent a ton of time watching him when i was part of that organization as well he he is i think he's very underrated defensively he plays great at both ends he's not a huge guy but he plays bigger than he is uh i think he's going to finish third i thought pk had another solid season uh he had 16 talks too so one behind headman who had 17 but uh and and and keep in mind headman also

missed a little bit of time so his points per game is probably higher than both those other guys um even the fact that he had more points so yeah we're gonna have to give it to headman and that's going to be his first norris i believe correct yes that's what i said i mean that's uh it's a pretty diverse award in a sense where i think pk's got one uh dowdy's got one carlson's got uh one or two now carlson's got two maybe yeah so it seems like it's been moving around quite a bit over the last 10 years, and it's good to see that there's a lot of diversity involved. All right, Grinnelly, what's next? So next up, we have the Lady Bing Trophy.

We have Alexander Barkov of the Panthers. We have Wild Bill Carlson of the Vegas Golden Knights, and then we have Ryan O'Reilly of Buffalo. Let's go to R.A. because he's the softest guy on the list, and that's what the Lady Bing Awards like, the softness. Oh, I am. You never saw me play in the show. You can't say that.

I thought he just meant like physique-wise. Okay. There's no dispute about that. Yeah, this is like one of those you want a three-sided die to roll the dice. I mean, I'll go Ryan O'Reilly. He's been around a little bit longer. I think he's a bit more of a name, but I don't think you can really go wrong with picking the Lady Bing. I mean, Ryan O'Reilly had two penalty minutes.

There you go. But Vegas had some magic this year. I was right about him all year, and the main guy about it, the main guy to bring it on was William Carlson. I mean, he jumps on the scene six goals in Columbus the year before. The guy gets 43 this year and leads the league with a plus-minus of plus 49. So hate plus-minus or think it's pointless. Plus 49 is no joke. Take that to the bank.

And he had six minor penalties. I mean, he played on the top line. Barkov had an amazing year. This is all three of these guys are very deservingly. But for me, William Carlson's story, if he's not going to be up for any other award, he deserves to get one award. And this should be it. Well, I think you hit the nail on the head. Some people want to get rid of the Lady Bing and say that just because, like, oh, what?

Like, big deal. You were the softest guy and you got an award. And that's not a knock to people who don't take penalties. But, man, it's a pretty tough game along the walls. And if you have two minutes, I mean, hey, are you, like, getting in there? Are you digging in a little bit? Well, that's the thing. These are three guys who, like, play tons of minutes.

Right. I think these are three guys who play tons of minutes. Right. And essentially for me, it's an award where we can reward a guy who had a great season who's not going to fit in the other categories. And that's why I'm completely agreeing with you as far as the William Carlson pick because I think he's just going to win because they've got to give him something for having that great of a year. It's unfortunate that Barkov won't get anything because that guy is one of the most underrated players in the entire league.

Yep. He could win an MVP in the future, let alone a Lady Bing. I mean, we're just here in the beginning of Barkov. Is that how a lot of guys in the league – I know we're joking about here, but do guys in the league think of it as like you're a pussy of that will they say that in the locker room though no beers in like alberta right but i'll say this is if if my number one center has two penalty minutes all year all's i'm saying and this isn't a knock to o'reilly it's like hey are you are you fucking digging in along the walls are you fucking like along the walls? Are you showing up aggressively every night?

At some point, there's got to be a little bit of conflict with someone that you're playing against all the time and playing hard minutes against. No? I know what you're saying. I'm questioning the compete level a little bit in a sense where if you play 82 games and you have two minutes in penalties. And once again, this isn't a chirp to ryan o'reilly as a player on my team if i knew a guy only had two penalty minutes i'd be like okay is this guy fucking digging in okay so i'm gonna play other side i'm not even playing it i'm i'm i'm agreeing with myself before I even speak. Nick Lidstrom, dude, would you say he grinded the corners? Dude, the guy didn't take any penalties, shut everyone down, never got hit, never had to take a hit.

Who cares? If you're amazing and really good at what you do and you don't have to take penalties, it doesn't matter that you're not gritty and against the wall no i i mean i i agree with with uh i mean that's it that was a pretty intelligent backup to your to your uh your stance well he was my like man people said i was soft i'm like nick lindstrom's kind of soft okay well now i guess going going back on that let's go check how many penalty minutes nick nicholas nicholas rindstrom would get a year fuck i can't even talk i think he wore 94 and that's right and talking about nicholas sindstrom i mean his this is his last five seasons playing he had 40 penalty minutes 30 penalty minutes 24 penalty minutes 20 penalty

minutes and 28 so this guy was getting minutes like you can't compare to my guy who's getting fucking two minutes two that. That's fucking insane. I understand. I understand where you're coming from, but just please stop putting an N in his name. It's Lindstrom. It's not Lindstrom. Don't mess up Nick Lindstrom's name. Grunelli, what's next?

Next up, we have the Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy. We have Brian Boyle of the Devils, Roberto Luongo of the Panthers, and Jordan Stahl of the Hurricanes. I'm starting with this one. Brian Boyle, Massachusetts guy, the big monster, 6'6",

played golf with him the other day, hits it about 330, no joke. It was a wrench. Wrench, wrench. Dude, what he's been through this year, not only the cancer that he got ends up going to the all-star game um he battles through everything teammates love him you know he's been a lot been through a lot with his family also uh he's just a guy that you want to have

on your team he's a guy that i know and and really kind of i think would would really deserve not think would deserve does deserve this award uh He's my pick for the Masterton. It's pretty special to be up for that. Yeah, once again, I agree with Witts. This year, it's really a no-brainer to give it to Brian Boyle coming back from cancer. You know, like we mentioned, I think we talked about it earlier, maybe off camera, that, you know, Masterton nominees are basically either a guy who had a calamity in his life or he's simply old or he had a calamity in his life,

you know, or he's simply old, or he had a real good comeback year. And we're getting one of each of those this year with, you know, Boyle with the cancer. Luongo has just been persevering through age and some injuries. And then Jordan Stahl really, you know, just had a really nice comeback year. I think we said that. They should probably have a comeback player of the year because, you know, Jordan Stahl, you know, he didn't have like a calamitous injury. He didn't really come back from anything. He just, you know, wasn't really used in a right role, had a nice bounce back.

So maybe the NHL should look into that, have like a comeback player of the year in addition to the Mastodon. But, again, Boyle's the no-brainer pick this year. Yeah, Boyle. I don't really have much to say about that one. Great job by all of them Luongo had a great season another cool moment when he when he uh talked to the fans before the game after the shooting in Florida which he's a big part of that community he was very emotional uh and credit to him just you know stepping up as a leader for that and of course Jordan Stahl

great comeback year but fuck man oil coming back from cancer that's a that's fucked up and he did an unbelievable job and that that goal that he scored in his uh was it his first game i believe it was yeah yeah that was that was one of the highlight moments of the season so boil all the way all right next up we have the calder memorial uh we got barzell of the islanders brock bozer of the Canucks, and Clayton Keller of the Coyotes. Let's go to this first. This one's as big of a landslide as the Jack Adams.

It's Barzell season. It's Barzell season. I wonder if he's going to rip it in Vegas. Boys, good kid. I actually bumped into him on the street here in Vancouver. He lives here. Do you want to come on Spitting Chicklets? Well, I'm i'm gonna text him and ask him and maybe we could actually add him to this episode because he's up for an award that he's probably gonna win unbelievable rookie season

his fucking skating is a joke you should have seen the fucking calves on this guy wit he was going to play he was going to play street basketball with his buddy and he uh you might want to sign a huge ticket and not sprain your ankle yeah that's true i better tell him to watch out and he was going towards we're all uh the bad area town so i'll have to be his bodyguard but uh he he uh he also we i got his digits not a big deal so i'm gonna pick him a shout out to clayton keller arizona coyotes i got to watch him all year because you know i've worked for the team and uh he had a great year he's he's probably gonna finish third unfortunately because uh brock besser was just tucking everything before his

injury but uh just a great all-around rookie class though yeah i think barzell is the easy pick here um it's just another year with more great talent coming through the pipeline. Keller was a joy to watch. Besser, I mean, 29 tucks is his rookie. That's pretty good shit. But Bozell seems to be the easy pick this year. What do we got next, Grinnells? All right, next we got the Hart Memorial Trophy.

We got Taylor Hall of the Devils, Andy Kopitar of the Kings, and Nathan McKinnon of the Avalanche. Let's go to Witt first. Hall's the 0-9, boys.on of the Avalanche. Let's go to Witt first. Paul's the 09, boys. Paul's the 09. My former roommate, the guy I taught how to do a lot of stuff,

like use an ATM card or open the fridge, things like that. I mean, this guy gets traded to Jersey. Edmonton has an incredible year. Jersey's struggling. He comes back this year healthy. Also Man Rocket, by the way. Man Rocket he is. And he's on fire. He's struggling. He comes back this year healthy. Also, Man Rocket, by the way.

Man Rocket he is. And he's on fire. He's got some luscious lips. Yeah, on fire all year. He carried that team into the postseason. His run at the end reminded me a lot of the year Corey Perry won the MVP award when he carried Anaheim on his back into the playoffs. I think Taylor Hall, the season he had and how far ahead he was of the next guy

in points on the New Jersey Devils, I believe rookie Nico Hichier shows, I mean, to be that dominant and to be that much of the best player on your club shows that this guy got them into the playoffs. He was their leader. He was their sniper.

And he's my buddy. Taylor Hall, MVP, Hart Trophy. I keep agreeing with Witt over here. It's like a fucking crazy moon or something. But, yeah, I think as far as most valuable to his team, which is the award, and that's Taylor Hall, man. Like you said, the numbers, everybody else without him were way below everybody else on the team.

He just did a... What is it? A rise in tide, lift all boats? He was the rise in tide and lifted all the boats on the Devil. I'm going to give my vote to Talsey as well. Boys, I'm trying to pull it up, and I don't mean to disagree with you guys. I think this is going to be a very tight

race. I'm going to have to give it to Nathan McKinnon, simply for the fact that, Grinnell, you can look it up. I think he had maybe more than 10 points than Taylor Hall. And I get that Taylor Hall was extremely important to his team and that he was so much far ahead of the next guy on his team in scoring. But, I mean, McKinnon did the same thing and put up double-digit more points. That's very significant to me. If it would have been a little bit tighter, I would definitely say Halsey. But I'm going to have to pick McKinnon.

And I'm not snubbing either one of them. Those guys had fucking ridiculous years. And the fact that one of them is going to walk away without winning an award is pretty wild. Agreed on all counts. We're in agreement in this episode for the most part, besides the fact that you need to muck and grind in the corners to be good. That's not what I said. I said in order to be competitive.

I don't want to get shit on for that. Don't twist my fucking words. All right, all right, all right. Grinnelli, what else before we send this to Jason Zucker? All right, we got the Jack Adams Awards, and that's Jared Bednar of the Colorado Avalanche, Bruce Cassidy of the Bruins, and Gerard Gallant of the Golden Knights.

The biggest landslide victory in the history of awards in the National Hockey League, including Wayne Gretzky's 215-point season MVP. This is Gerard Gallant's year. Done. In his city, Vegas, where he'd probably get loaded after yeah it's no brainer this year i think in another year bruce cassidy would probably be the easy winner but uh you know he did a great job with my with my squad the bees but galant and it's not not even a question man

bed not did good with a colorado but what galant did with that team in the first year we've been beating it that drum all year So he gets everyone's vote. Gallant gets my vote. And I told you guys a few episodes ago that as a radio broadcaster, I get to vote on this award. And, of course, I voted Gallant first. And I threw in third. I threw in the coach from Philly. Is it Haxtall?

Every Flyers fan hates his guts. Yeah, and I should have thrown in Cassidy instead, and that was just kind of maybe a brain fart, but I thought them coming back and making the playoffs after going on a 10-game slide at the start of the year was pretty miraculous and a good coaching job by him. So sorry, R.A., for not putting Cassidy, but I don't think he was going to win anyway.

That's all good. Well, should we turn it over to King Clancy Memorial Trophy finalist Jason Zucker or what? Yeah, here he is, Jason Zucker. Thanks for joining us. Listen now. This interview was brought to you by Lisa. Lisa Matches did a bunch of research.

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big or small, whatever, Lisa works for you. So again, you get $160 off Lisa.com slash Barstool. It's the deepest discount we've ever offered. So go there now, Lisa, L-E-E-S-A.com slash Barstool. it. So go there now. Lisa, L-E-E-S-A dot com slash barstool. We're now pleased to bring in star Minnesota Wild forward Jason Zucker, resident of Vegas. Going back there later, he was telling us he's up for the King Clancy Award this year. Thank you very much for joining, how are you? I'm great. How are you guys doing? We're doing great. We're doing great. I mean, you know, we have a bunch of questions for you. First off, though, the season was great in Minnesota. You guys went on a run.

You know, end of playoffs didn't go as you hope, but you had a really big year yourself. What was the year like for you, for that team? Big year out of Eric Stahl. Exciting things in the future in Minnesota. So tell us about this season, first off. Yeah, you know, it was a little bit up and down compared to us last year. I mean, last year when Bruce first came in, it just seemed like everything worked for us.

And I mean, anybody that's been around the game knows how that feels. It just seemed like every game we scored five goals. And if our first line was terrible, our fourth line scored a couple for us. And this year, it just seemed like it was a battle to score goals for everybody, you know, as a team perspective throughout the season. But as you said, we went on a little run at the end of the year, which was great for us. You know, we kind of picked it up and figured out what our game was going to be. And then obviously come playoff time, you know, Winnipeg was an unbelievable team. They outplayed us in almost every aspect of that game.

So that was tough. But, you know, it was it was good experience playing against a team like that in the playoffs. And hopefully next year we can kind of use that to our advantage and learn from that. Jay, you had a career-high 33 goals this year. Previous to that was 22 goals. What would you attribute that such a huge jump to? I mean, your goals went up 50%. That's a lot of talks. Everyone gets lucky every once in a while, I guess.

You know, for me, it was, it was, it was just trying to get better in, in a lot of the offensive areas of my game. Um, I knew defensively if I was, if I was smart and used my speed, I was going to be able to be good defensively, but I tried to do a lot of little things, better passing. It was going to set me up better offensively as well. Um, but realistically, um, just using my speed as much as I could. Um, I know that my speed is, is pretty much the only reason I'm in the NHL. So, um,, I'm just using my speed as much as I could. I know that my speed is pretty much the only reason I'm in the NHL. So if I'm not skating, then I'm not going to be very effective. I know the kind of trendy thing is to point out the shooting percentages nowadays. And

you had 14.9 this year and your career is 12.8. So it wasn't like you had this anomaly statistic wise with the shooting percentage. So did you just feel like you had this an anomaly statistic wise with the shoot percentage so if you know did you just feel like you just kind of put it all together this season more than you had in any other previous year yeah i think that was a lot of it um i mean it was funny talking about shooting percentage my dad um i mean i think early in the season i i i was i scored i don't know eight goals and in like 15 games or something like that. Did you have back-to-back hat tricks? No, I had a hat trick and then I had two.

I had two and then three. Little loser. Right. Stay hot. Figure it out. Figure it out. Slow down. Slow down, buddy.

Getting a couple weeks off. Right. That's exactly what happened after that. I took a couple weeks off. Bruce wasn't very happy with me but that's kind of the way it goes sometimes well you attribute your success to off-season training you spend your off-seasons in las vegas that's an oxymoron yeah it's uh it's a lot right it's a lot different of a city for me than than most people obviously i've been there since i've been there since i was two months old. So it's my home. Um, you know, I, I grew up playing hockey there. I grew up playing roller hockey. Um, my whole family still lives there. All my, my four other siblings and my

parents, my grandparents, I mean everything. So, um, you know, I knew and grew up in, you know, grassroots Vegas and in hockey there and just kind of everything about it was, was home for me. Um, the strip was never even, you know, something that I did. So it was just kind of everything about it was was home for me um the strip was never even you know something that I did so it was just kind of for me it was uh you know that was um kind of an afterthought I mean we never went to the strip we never had dinner there we never you know went to shows every once in a while my my wife and I now will go down there in the summers and see a Cirque show and have a dinner but other than that I mean that's just, that's not even part of the city. Well, what I was getting to was, I mean,

where would you find good off season training in Las Vegas? I know that sometimes you got programs from the team's trainers up, but is it difficult not having a lot of hockey guys around maybe and getting that proper ice time against guys who are up to your caliber? Yeah, you're exactly. I mean, on ice, it was the hardest part. On ice was – the only guy there at the pro level was Derek Anglund, and he spent his summers there. Him and his wife moved there.

Well, he played in the East Coast League there. I played with Engel, and I believe Witt did a little bit too, didn't you? No, I missed him. I missed him. Okay. The guy's a legend, huh? The guy's unreal. He's a great dude, and it's cool to see unreal. He's a great dude. And it's, uh,

it's cool to see the success he's having after the career that he's had. I mean, starting in the East Coast league in Vegas and, you know, ending up getting that deal in Calgary and now back, back in Vegas again. Um, but anyways, yeah, on ice, you know, he's really the only NHL guy that we can skate, you know, we skate together. Off ice is pretty good um um the the UFC training facilities there um and I for the last they just opened a new one too didn't they they just opened a new one exactly so you do that training I've done it uh for the past 10 years now

probably so um you know I used to train with Forrest Griffin and um Dan Hardy and Frank Muir and yeah I heard you gave him cauliflower here when you were training there one time So, you know, I used to train with Forrest Griffin and Dan Hardy and Frank Mir. Yeah, I heard you gave him cauliflower here when you were training there one time. I don't know about that. No, that's what I heard. That's the rumor going around. He's fucking pissed. Well, I'm going to stay away from him then.

But, yeah, so, I mean, that was a lot of the, you know, they have a lot of good trainers out there my my trainer now um is actually a former navy seal um and so i i trained with him quite a bit and um it's been good for me so i want to go back to uh you know earlier in your career before you were even a pro because we have something in common in that we were both national team development program members yes i like that for people who don't know this is a program it was in Ann Arbor when you were there, obviously, right? Now it's in Plymouth, Michigan. The best in the U.S. They gather us all together. They shoved us into two different high schools. I was

Pioneer High School. Were you here on a Pioneer? I was Pioneer. But actually, when I was there, they switched it to a 100% Pioneer. Okay, that goes back to my story then. My parents went out to see where I was going to live. I went from Massachusetts. You were coming from Vegas.

We're going a long way away. Kids from Michigan have the luxury of being there. My parents saw Huron High School where I was supposed to go. It was a bunch of hoodlums. They had fucking metal detectors to get into school. Absolutely not. They said, Ryan will not be going to that school, so I was Pioneer High. Now, granted, that was right across the street from the big house in Michigan.

Fucking cage eater. It was across the street from the big house in michigan people would park their cars and tailgate for u of m games so in all that how do you end up at denver and not at the university of michigan being a wolverine um yeah it was it was cool being a being right across the street from there i mean seeing yeah i mean going, I mean, going to the games, um, I went to a couple, um, that one of the guys I knew, um, was, was committed there. So he got us some tickets every once in a while and it was fun to go. Um, the big house is insane. Um, I mean, the way that they packed that place in it's unbelievable. Um,

but it's crazy to me how, um, how much of a lifestyle it is there. I mean, every single person in Ann Arbor just lives and dies by Michigan, and it's cool to see. Committed to the big house means something a little different than where I'm from. Well, and the short answer on the show. He was a backup chef in a movie? No.

Hey, Whit, I'm assuming the short answer was university of denver offered him more money than michigan did so he decided to go there did you win a national title i did not oh well you were then you were with drew shore you guys missed those years and nick shore yeah and nick shore exactly the brothers there must have been and we had a nice little nice little bundle package financially for the Shore brothers. Yeah, exactly. And Bo Bennett was actually there with us, too. So we had a pretty stacked team.

Jay, I wanted to ask, how exactly did you get discovered? I'm sure we're going to get a lot more future hockey players coming out of Vegas, given the success that the team's already having. But, you know, you were playing hockey in Vegas. How exactly did you get discovered by the national team because you know there wasn't i i can't imagine too much hockey going on at that time in boston um i was playing for vegas um and we went to a tournament back in boston um i want to say it was like the right beginning of the year um we did like a labor day i don't think i mixed them up labor day memorial day um tournament out in

boston went there and um that was the first time I got recruited and I was playing, it was my second year of Bantam and I played midget. I was playing up. I played midget AAA that year. Um, and so I got seen there. Then the following year, I actually played for, uh, Detroit Compuware. So I was in Michigan one year prior to the national team. And I think that helped me a lot. Just being there pretty much right in their backyard playing. I was playing in Plymouth actually where they're playing now so um that kind of gave me a lot more exposure throughout that season then I got invited to their top 40 camp and went from there now Bruce Boudreaux is obviously a coach now does anybody ever give him not shit I guess it's probably an honor being in Slapshot but is that something that

he that players ever bust his chops about or give him grief about it's come up a few times for sure um it's it's uh you know he definitely didn't have a starring role in it but um you know anytime you're in a movie like that it's it's pretty epic yeah how does how does he always have food on his collar and stuff bruce boudreaux? He's always got food all over himself. Is that not true? I don't know if I can comment on this. I got to be quiet here. I got to be careful.

It's hard to take a guy seriously when he comes in the room between periods. He's got like barbecue sauce on his lip. He's fucking trying to get his shit up on a bad pinch or something. Chris Borg told me. He's like, I love playing for him, but he'd come in, somehow there'd be ketchup on his white stretch shirt. I'm like, he didn't even eat anything with ketchup on it yet today. Yeah, 24-7.

He was doing that interview with, like, buffalo chicken sauce all over his cheek. He's a character, that's for sure. Sometimes it's at a whole other level. So we want to get into one of the main reasons we're having you on, besides just meeting a new player that we don't know, is you being up for the King Clancy Award this year, I'm sure, you know, means a lot to you and your family, especially being from Vegas. That's where the awards will be. Now, you have a relationship with it's Kyle Rudolph.

You have the relationship with the Minnesota Viking, and that's kind of where all this started. Can you give us a little background of what you've done with him? And it started a little bit before that, And then we ended up meeting Kyle through it. But there was a young boy we knew. His name was Tucker Hellstrom. And he had a rare bone cancer. It's called osteosarcoma. And he was at the Masonic University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital here. And it was kind of a routine visit we did with the team. You know, we stopped in around Christmas. And that's when I met him. you know he stopped in around christmas and that's when i met him um and unfortunately about two years ago july he passed away um at nine years old um and so carly and i you know we we got to know his family and um the hospital really well and it was it was it was really an honor to get

to know him and his family and it was a lot of fun going to see him we go see him every week every couple weeks and um you know play nhl with him, you know, he'd give me advice about how I sucked on the ice and the whole thing. So it was, it was great. And with that, um, after he passed away, we wanted, my wife and I wanted to do something to basically honor him and remember him. So we did an event to raise money for costs for his family, for, for funeral costs, for, sorry, for, you know, all those things. for for funeral costs for sorry for you know all those things and kyle rudolph actually was building a space in the masonic children's hospital at the time called the kyle rudolph end zone it was basically a play space in there for kids with basketball video games um a reading nook um you know a whole bunch of different different games for the kids to go

downstairs and just have fun and be kids again. And so after we covered from this event, we raised, um, I think it was $65,000 in 10 days, um, for this event that we did here. Um, and they, we, we gave the money to the, the allotted money to the family for funeral costs and those things. And then the rest we gave to Kyle, um, and the end zone and in the end zone, they have all these lockers set up and and it's from each sports team in Minnesota. So there's the Vikings, the Twins, the Wild, the Lynx, and the Minnesota United, and the Timberwolves basketball. And so with all of those jerseys,

they basically got one player from every team, and then Tucker has his own locker as well. So it's kind of a cool little spot for him to be remembered along with all the other professional sports teams and everything in that space. So that's basically how it started. And then on top of that, my wife and I announced this year that we're building a space in the hospital as well, just right down the hallway from Kyle. And ours is, it's called the Zucker Family Suite and Broadcast Studio. And basically it's going to be a replica wild suite that you'd see at the xlmg center where the kids can go downstairs and they

have to buy tickets they have to um you know scan their tickets to get into the room they have they have food there and there's going to be a huge projector screen to basically let them feel like they're at the xlmg center watching a game live um and then the other side of it and my wife's broadcasting she grew up or not grew up but um you know her career is radio and tv and all of that so we put the broadcast studio in there so they'll kids will be able to um do radio segments they'll be able to host tv shows they'll be able to do interactive games um music therapy there'll be basically a whole bunch of stuff they'll be able to do in this room. And so it should be a lot of fun.

Like me on NHL Network. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, not a big deal. And Zuck, not to completely go towards this subject, obviously there was some drama recently with NHL wives. And sometimes you read online and there's a bit of negativity like, oh, they're just like spoiled babies and they just like live at home and their husbands make tons of money. The amount of wives and girlfriends, I mean, like Carly, your wife, doing things in the community and for charity work and volunteering their time and energy towards things like this isn't talked about enough because things like that just happen

kind of overshadow it. I mean, just talk about the support system that your wife and other wives give these guys and the amount of work they do in the community. I'm glad you said that. I mean, that's exactly what you said. It's unbelievable because I can guarantee you that our space and what we've done, it wouldn't be possible without my wife. mean she's done everything she she answers every email every phone call every pretty much everything that has to do with this space she's done and you know for me that's why I wanted to

make sure it was the Zucker family suite because it was our family thing and it's something that Carly and I are very passionate about but with that I mean Carly's the one that makes sure that I have a snack before every game before i you know um here and helps me get packed for road trips i mean there's so much stuff that they do especially for the guys that have kids it's it's on a whole nother level so um you know the wives don't they don't get enough credit um and it's uh so you know for me it's really nice to see her get this credit um you know for all the work that she's put in with me um you know, for me, it's really nice to see her get this credit, you know, for all the work that she's put in with me, you know, and being up for the King Clancy just kind of adds to all that because I know it means a lot to me and her. And we commend you and your wife for that.

And not only to go even further, but all the other wives who do things just like that and for the communities that they're in. and for the communities that they're in. And we didn't even talk about the fact that if you have to pick up and get traded, they're the ones packing up the car while you're at the rink at practice and driving it across the country and setting things up. So shout out to all the awesome hockey wives and girlfriends out there. Sounds like Biz. Yeah, they definitely deserve a lot more credit. Sounds like Biz is yearning for a wife over here.

I wouldn't say that. Actually, well, I'm on bumble looking for my next uh hockey wife so stay away stay away stay stay from the boomble yeah the euro version um all right going into the nhl a little bit this season you talked about winnipeg i always am interested in asking current players uh it's funny i i i've been out of the league almost three or four years now, and it feels like it was 20. Who now for you is the toughest defenseman to go against? Who do you think is the best player in the league, the guy you're just like,

holy shit? Do you have opinions on that? Yeah. I mean, it's what everyone says for the most part. What about D, though? One of the most underrated is nick shalmerson actually um i hate playing against that guy he is so skilled he's got an unbelievable stick all the time he's always right in your face and he's such a good shutdown guy and nobody ever notices him

you know because he he's not on the stat sheet you know as much and he has terrible gear yeah that's true oh it's just because he's got a big melon because he's got a huge brain in there. No, he's just like this. He's just like, rawr, like, warming around out there, like, tongue long, tongues out. But he just gets the job done, like you're saying. He blocks shots. I mean, basically, he does everything simple and easy. And it can be boring to watch.

But as a player playing against him, it's terrible. Especially when he was in Chicago with, you know, Duncan Keith. I think he was with Seabrook a lot of the time. It was terrible. It was horrible to play against those guys. One thing I noticed, because I color commentate for the Arizona Coyotes, not a big deal, watching him all season, is he fucking

closes on guys quick, too. He's got a good motor on him, and defensively, he'll smother you and take away time and space with that good stick. So he's definitely – and off the ice, he's a beast too. Fitness-wise, he's got calves like Ryan Whitney. I thought that was impossible to imitate. Non-existent, bro.

That's a chirp from Bits, and I don't appreciate it. No, sprinters' calves. Sprinters' calves. They're just long like out of bounds stakes hey zuck zuck we were laughing um 33 goals this year fuck i mean not gonna lie that's ridiculous you get over 30 in the nhl i say that's 50 in the 80s now but i was still surprised to see we got a little uh text I should say, of bullet points from your PR team. You have a PR team?

That's pretty legit. So a lot of that was because of the hospital stuff too. Carly and I wanted to have somebody helping us a little bit more. And Lola has done a great job making sure that they help us with a lot of little things around with the hospital work and um and uh help getting getting the word out for events we're doing and those type things around the cities that's awesome man as as biz was saying i mean the the wives do so much as it is you know they have a million things going on so for for carly to have to um you know get on the phone and call some some um media here in town which she still does but if she had to do it every single day it'd be it'd be a lot more for her with with our kids

and the 900 000 other things that she's doing every day jason after you guys got knocked out of the playoffs did you continue to watch the playoffs yourself or were you just all set with watching any more hockey um i watched the finals um pretty close i watched every game there but pretty much um that was that was about it carly was actually giving me a hard time one night because um she she asked me if i had watched the nashville um winnipeg game or seen the score and i had no idea and she she knew a lot more about it than i did so um i try to get away from it. You know, I'll watch here and there if the game's on, but I never sit down and just watch them other than the finals. Did you have any buddies on either team you were pulling for on Washington or Vegas?

Well, Derek Anglin is a good buddy of mine, obviously. And our kids are good friends and Carly and Melissa get along really well. And then obviously Eric Holla and Alex Tuck were both playing with us last year. And obviously being from Vegas, I was pulling to them a little bit. But a little bit, you know, it can go either way, obviously. That interview was brought to you by Keeps. I know our listeners have noticed it's a little too late for me to fix my hair. I'm about 25, 30 years late for that. But it's not too late for you if you're losing your hair already.

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get your first month free. That's a hell of a deal for getting to keep your hair, because I can't keep mine. There's no reason to put it off any longer. Stop hair loss today. The only way with Keeps. To receive your first month of treatment for free, go to keeps.com slash chiclets. That's C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. Again, that's keeps.com slash chiclets. That's a free month of treatment at keeps.com slash chiclets. Keep, keeps, here today, here tomorrow. Well, man, we can't thank you enough for coming on. It's an honor to be up for the award you're up for. I'm sure that's going to be a special night with your family in town or they live there. So what am I talking about?

But we appreciate it and good luck. I got one last question, though. Yeah, what do you got? Who's the jester on the team in the Minnesota Wild locker room? The poor jester? Yeah, just the guy who's like the cloud, who's always bringing funny stories. He may be a little bit loud, but he's bringing the entertainment on days where the boys need it. You know what?

We don't have too many this year. In years past, we've had a lot more. That's an issue. That's the problem. You need a guy. Tyler Ennis is hilarious. He's not loud, though. He's pretty quiet, but he's funny.

Every day he's got something. Matt Dunn was always in the mix. Yeah, he's a funny guy. Yeah, yeah. He's always in the mix with something. But in years past, we had Ryan years past we had like ryan carter we had mike rup we've had um you know we've had a lot of guys that were that were a little bit louder and um i mean even keith ballard i'm sure you guys have played with him yeah it's a good dude too yeah the guy's nuts but it's it's fun to have them around um and and uh

the reason you went back to even rup is you've been in minnesota with the organization for seven years yeah i mean obviously you were drafted in the second round probably i'm assuming a few years before that but you've that's the one and only organization you've played pro hockey in yeah yeah and and for me that's that's cool i mean it's fun to to be with all these guys i mean i was drafted in the same year as Granlin and Niederreiter and Coyle. Coyle and Niederreiter both traded. That's a draft. Wow, that's a wild. That scout got a few year extension. Yeah, well,

Coyle got traded that next year. He was in the set of Gucci and Coyle for Brent Burns trade. Niederreiter got traded for Cal Clutterbuck a year after that. But the actual draft picks from that year were Granlin and myself. The year after we had Jonas Brody and the year after after that was matt dumba so we've had a lot of good draft picks and we all kind of came up together we had marco scandela and darcy kemper

that aren't here anymore but a lot of good young guys that we've all kind of grown up and everybody out yeah i'm i'm sure you know i'm next at this rate. Keep your phone on. Yeah, exactly. The NHL draft's next Friday. Hey, Jason, congrats on the King. I've got to talk about your new team. Congrats on the King, Clancy. You've been traded. Yeah, there you go. Have fun in Vegas.

We're going to need that award back and keep it with the Wild organization. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Well, thanks again, Matt. All right. Thanks, guys. I appreciate you having me on. Wild thing.

You make my heart sing. You make everything groovy. Wild thing. Wild thing.