The Athletic Hockey Show - Are the Vancouver Canucks and Rick Tocchet a match, Mid-season team awards, and drafting unselected NHL All-Stars

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

Hailey and Sean dive into Cale Makar being a part of the Costco army, and for no reason at all, being blocked by celebrities on Twitter. In NHL news, if Rick Tocchet could be a fit as a coach of the Canucks, and John Tortorella vs. iPads. Next, they hand out some midseason award, and to wrap up, another patented Thriday draft, this time picking All-Stars from players not selected on the initial roster.Save on a subscription to The Athletic: theathletic.com/hockeyshowSubscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on Youtube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowPost your job for free at LinkedIn.com/NHLSHOWSign up today at StitchFix.com/HOCKEY to get $20 off your first purchase!Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code NHL23 at Manscaped.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Hello, hello, hello, everybody. It's Friday on the Athletic Hockey Show. Haley Salvi and Sean Gentilly here. Sean, I'm going to start this podcast with a very serious question. How do you feel about Costco? How do I feel about Costco? I'm sorry, it's distracting when you're holding the microphone, like,

Bob Barker or something. It's like an old... For anybody, obviously, all of you folks are listening to this and hopefully not watching it on YouTube. Haley's using like a classic stick microphone instead of a fancy podcast microphone. Why she is using this is not important. It's not your business.

But she's standing there. Like she's performing at a talent show or something. It's very funny. It's really uncomfortable. And I feel like this needs to be a. quick podcast this week because I don't want to just sit here and hold this. Yeah, and who rambles? It's you. Nope. I know what you're talking about. What was a question? How do I feel about Costco? This is about

the Kilmacar, Costco. I've said this in plenty of spaces. I have another podcast that basically devoted entirely to discussing things of this nature. Strongly pro Costco. Me and Kilmacar who said he's all, what he said? He says all about the $1.50 hot dogs? Is that what he said? Yeah. Kail McCar is part of the Costco army, and I stand by him.

There are no good corporations. All corporations are evil. But on the sliding scale, you know, as far as that's concerned, Costco is about as good as you can get. And part of that is because they continually offer the $1.50 dog and so, to combo. Kail's on board. So my, God bless him. And God bless Costco.

One of the only good corporations. I saw he, he got, I don't even know what the context has been getting asked about that was. So it was a story from Ryan Clark at ESPN, formerly of the athletics. And he had a story about like Kail McCarr and he talked to Gary. And basically, Ryan had tweeted, there was not enough space in my story. story. But here is what Gary McCar had to say about how much kale loves Costco. And this tweet has like 97,000 views. Like all these retweets. And it's, you know, you know those big sized M&Ms? There's a jar of those in his pantry. And at UMass, we used to take him and his roommates to the Costco. And they were like little kids in a candy store just running around. And, you know, Kale will call Laura and say,

like you should see this thing I got at Costco. I believe Laura is Kale's mother. And so I guess he just calls his mom often and says like, you should see this thing I got caught. This thing I got at Costco the other day. Like it's crazy how much, you know, chicken in bulk I just purchased. It's a remarkable place.

In the Costco food is unreal. It is particularly special. And that was the context that I saw Kale talking, was it was how great is how great the food court is. Yeah, he's just a regular dude. Yeah, I was just gonna say one more reason is to love Keel McCar, but he just rolls over to Costco and hangs out, hangs out in the food court,

buys a 72 pack of toilet paper and a five-gallon drum of, you know, ketchup and he's like the rest of us. He's just a normal boy. There was also this other thing from Keel Makar floating around. I don't know what it was from. It's probably one of those silly, like NHLPA, like, meet the player things where it's like,

you know, before every game, I always do this. And he wrote tie my skates. Uniformly terrible, by the way. Those are never interesting. Okay, but Kilmongar said tie my skates. I walk in the door of the locker room. I put on my equipment.

I go to the bathroom, usually a number one and number two. I get Starbucks. I wait. Okay, Kail, you don't have to go through every single thing you do before the game. Maybe is there anything, maybe a little more interesting

or different, different than that? No, okay, we'll go back to talking about Costco. I tie my skates and then I go to Costco after the game and get a bunch of chicken. That's the homie. Costco's great, man. That's my kind of guy. What an opening, that's like a perfect opening,

opening dead there. Well, I have another question. Yeah. I'm starting a little silly today before we get into the news. So random. So city. Who's the most famous person that's blocked you on Twitter?

Are you asking this because you know the answer? It's Chris Jericho. I'm also asking this. I'm also asking this because I realized today that one of my radio guests had blocked me on Twitter as I was trying to do prep for my radio show. Hayley Salvin has been blocked by a broadcaster for a Western conference team. Let's just, let's leave it at that.

And he was pre-booked by my producers at Sportsnet and did. You're like, whoops, this guy might hate me. I had that reaction. Saw that? I saw that. That it happened. And I kind of told I went super heavy on the first interview. So I was like, I am not getting stuck talking to myself on the.

radio for 25 minutes. And I had that reaction last week. Chris Jericho, one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, probably the greatest wrestler of this century. Also, the son of a former NHL player, proud Canadian, all that stuff. He blocked me for just like a one-off joke I made about him last year where he showed up, he wrestles me in AEW now and he showed up with a fresh hair diet, like a fresh hair dye job for a match and the dye was running like it looked like he clearly had just put it in

super cheap die and I made a I made a cheap joke about it uh Chris Jericho named searcher apparently which you know it's okay plenty of people are and he found that shit and he blocked me and it's hard freaking because Chris Jericho I followed him on Twitter he's like he's like my favorite wrestler is a kid and I figured it out just like last week that he dropped the hammer on me it was heartbreaking

here's so much I like Chris Jericho when we were talking when TNT got the broadcast rights to the NHL I wrote in the athletic like this is completely sincere Chris Jericho wrestles and works for a company

that also has a TV deal with AW I said they need to get Chris Jericho on like the TNT pregame show I was gassing this dude up at every turn. I guess he's not an athletic subscriber. Well, the idea that he just saw something from me and was like, nope, I don't need this guy in my life at all. Be gone. Yeah.

Was heartbreaking. But he also isn't a colleague. He isn't, like I said, a radio voice of a Western conference team, which is something that you're dealing with right now. It was very uncomfortable. It's like, so our guest in the second second second. actually won't be here. Now I have two follow-up questions before we move on. Okay.

Are you still blocked by Bobby Flay and Bobby Backelah? I am. Yes. Bobby Flay unblocked me at some point. A few years ago, one of my hobbies was watching beat Bobby Flay while I drink. And I may have said some unnecessarily aggressive things. I do think he cheats on that show. I don't know if anybody's,

I don't know if anybody's watched it, how familiar you are. He just put so many, like, it's just if there's what, like chilies in there? Yeah, that's it. Everyone knows.

Because there's chilies in there. It's bogus. It's bogus. He's tipping off the judges because it's like, whatever, he's making someone's, spicy apple pie.

Someone's signature dish is, you know, a shepherd's pie or something. And he throws ancho chilies in there and it's like the signal to whoever the judge is like, oh, this is Bobby's, you better pick it.

I said as much, and also there might have been some light threats of, cartoonish threats of physical violence, I would say. And he saw that and didn't appreciate. I don't blame him. I deserve that one. Can I say what the tweet was, or is that inappropriate? Yeah, go ahead. Sean tweeted, I'd like to beat Bobby Flay.

Could have been talking about the cooking competition. Who knows? And then the, yeah, yeah. If you're ever bored and feeling a little down, just search Sean Gentilly Bobby Flay. It was going through it back in 2015 or whatever it was. Yeah, this was pre-pandemic. This wasn't like a COVID, like depression. No, no, no, no.

And yes, I also have been blocked. Bobby Bacola is a sad one. Also, Steve, Steve Shrepa, aka Bobby Bacla of Supranos fame. I just made a joke about his podcast, which I thought was very, very lighthearted and very funny. And you love that podcast. I went and saw him live. I went and saw him in Michael Imperiali do a live recording of this podcast and just made it the entire. The dynamic of the podcast is that Imperiali is this very thoughtful, professorial.

Like he's a practicing Buddhist and he's like this like super duper, you know, thoughtful guy. And Bacca is just like a house on fire. He's telling funny stories and whatever. And I basically just made a joke about that. I guess Shrip, I thought I was calling him stupid, and yeah, he blocked my ass. Anyways, that's very sad. Chris Jericho, Bobby Backelah, no longer Bobby Flayy. Is the triumvirate.

I feel like it's been a long time since we've talked about random things off the top. I think it's always fun to do that right before we get into the hot. You don't have to apologize for being a normal person on this thing. This isn't the radio. This isn't, you don't have an interview coming up with, again, someone who bloters. you on Twitter. You don't have to worry about it. Very uncomfortable.

A few minutes talking about normal person things. Anyways. So one little piece of news we're going to talk about it off the top here. We don't have a guest this week, by the way. It's just Sean and I. We apologize in advance.

You don't like listening to us talk. If you like a little. We'll bring in Danielle to break it up. I apologize. Okay, so one piece of news we heard on the Jeff Merrick show on SportsNet today was Jeff. He has Elliott Friedman on every day.

And one of the things that they were discussing is, would Rick Talkett be a fit, a realistic fit, a realistic option for the Vancouver Canucks if they end up replacing Bruce Budrow? What have you heard? What do you know? Rick Tocket, Vancouver Canucks.

We know Vancouver's on this, you know, extended road trip. Your thoughts on all the whispers about Rick Tockett? Well, you gave me a homework assignment and I worked at it. And this is what I think, Jeff. I think that Vancouver and Rick Tuckett had some discussions a while ago. They didn't go anywhere. I think Vancouver talked to a few coaches who were available, potential coaches who were available.

And I think they re-engage with Tocket. And the best way I could put it right now is I think it's in the Canucks hands. Do they want to do it or not? and I don't think it's imminent. I think if they make a change, it's still probably a couple weeks away. But I, and again, I want to say if they make a change, I think it's a couple weeks away.

But I think when it comes to Rick Tocket, I think it's a decision that's up to the Canucks. Sean, do you think Rick Tocket would be a good fit behind the Canucks bench? I mean, that's like the zillion dollar question at this point, I suppose. In a vacuum, yeah, I do. I think a lot of things he did with Pittsburgh. in particular, where he was an assistant to Mike Sullivan for several years, won a couple cups,

built back reputation. Well, here's what I'll say that. He was the coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning for a few years. He left that job in 2010. The Lightning were a disaster at that point. There was an ownership change going on. You know, it was a mess. So that was kind of how Tuckett resurfaced in Pittsburgh.

He was also, yeah. You know what's... Let me take a step back. What's worth... What's worth saying here is that Rick Tockeet was an assistant in Pittsburgh under Mike Johnston. Because Jim Rutherford told Mike Johnston that if you come here and you take this job, Rick Tocke is going to be on your bench. He's going to be your assistant.

That was like a non-negotiable thing coming from Jim Rutherford, who coincidentally running the show on Vancouver now. So Rick Tockeet... was hired before a Penguins coach, survived that Penguins coach getting fired, end up being the top lieutenant for Mike Sullivan, where he was really effective in that role for years. He was the good cop, the Sullivan, the bad cop. I think he was a really nice buffer for players who maybe would get, you know,

Sullivan, he's a hard ass. And his stuff can, like with any hard-ass coach, the messaging can sometimes, you know, wear on guys, honestly. And I think Tocquet was kind of a necessary bit of buffer between, at times, between Sullivan and the players. And the other thing, and I think this is why this is particularly relevant to Vancouver, is that he was great with Phil Kessel, great with Phil Kessel. The Phil Kessel and Mike Sullivan dynamic blows up long before its eventual expiration date. If Rick Tockeet isn't around to be the Phil whisperer.

So, again, in a vacuum. you my look at this and I say this is a guy that makes sense he has a way of connecting with players he has a way of connecting with star players because he was a star player and I think that's what that's a big chunk of what is needed in Vancouver like you need to get all these guys on the same page I can imagine Rick Tocket dealing with JT Miller a lot better than Bruce Boudro has like on and on like you you look at the top of the lineup I think Tocke's a fit there the problem for me and Haley, like I, maybe I know you can jump in on this, is that Vancouver's problems go beyond that. Their defensive systems are atrocious.

Yeah. The game that they just played here, coincidentally in Pittsburgh, was abysmal. Somehow. No one was surprised, by the way. Oh, my God. They blew that three-nothing. They were up three-nothing in the first period and blew that lead in the first period. And I think that is probably the biggest statement about the state of the Canucks right now is no one was surprised.

not just was no one surprised Spencer Martin who's there who was in net that night gave up five goals for them which is you know you look at that you say not a great night it was still somehow 1.14 goals against above expected so he

yeah they can't defend the average goalie having an average night in there does way worse so that was that somehow would have been even it's crazy it's crazy how lost this team looks truly one of the worst offensive teams you can imagine. I don't know what talk it helps there. I don't know if you can't. And I think it's a good, it's so tough because at what point we have the conversation

around like is this a coaching problem in Vancouver? How many coaches can a similar group of players go through? It's a fair question to ask. I think if you look at their problems like in totality though, you look at Bruce Bidreau who's never been known as a defensive coach who's always had struck. And he very clearly, sorry to cut you off,

Sean, but Bruce, like, very clearly isn't and has not been the answer in terms of finding a fix for this Kinnock's team. It's not even a matter to me, and it's not even a matter to me of whether Bruce should say, because he shouldn't. He's gone. Like, it's just do him, you know,

whether it's, I know Elliot said, you know, nothing's imminent. Nothing's imminent. They're going to make that decision in a couple weeks. I know they're on a road trip right now. How many times are we going to talk about, like, Bruce, too, you know? It's a joke.

One of the conversations, Halford and Brough are talking about this on the radio, sportsnet radio host, you go on their show all the time. And the big topic this morning is like, or yesterday, when are they just going to mercy fire Bruce Bedrow? It's painful. It's painful. And you know what? Don't even hire a coach. Let the assistant take over for the rest of the year. It's done.

This team stinks. Yep. And I think that's- Tell what you can. let the have have a mass exodus regroup in the off season. Like the Canucks keep making these mistakes in the middle of the year. And I think the worst thing for this Canucks team last year, besides the J.T. Miller contract extension.

Well, that was in the summer, I should say. Yeah. Besides not trading J.T. Miller at the deadline is what I should say, was how good they got at the end of the season. Because this was the players essentially saying, like, look at what we can do and we click. like give us another shot look what we can do

and it was just they should have just been crap because then maybe more things would have happened because look at them now they're bad they're objectively bad totally and I know like I just gassed up

talk it whatever he's a good coach he's pretty he's one of the better parts of the TNT intermission and pregame show for whatever that's worth and he's also has a lot of friends in the media

because he's very approachable and he's personal and he's easy to get a hold of. Like there's a reason that Rick Tockett's name keeps coming up for all these jobs. I know I just gas him up. I know I just gas him up for a while. Like maybe do a real search, you know? Like hold off.

You're not salvaging anything. That's the weirdest part of all this. And it's like it's a weird tone, I think, in spots of the coverage of that team. Honestly, where I get it because the West, the Pacific is like not very good and there's like and there's you know a lot of teams playing below you know below their below their potential there I get that I got the desire I think until a couple weeks ago to see like say like what is is is there anything worth salvaging here

no there's no there's not it's over and I see I saw some people on Twitter I was just kind of name searching Rick Tocket because I never name search myself name searching Rick Tockett and there's a couple of people being like um don't We need to consider that he, you know, him and Oliver Ekman Larson in their relationship. I'm sorry. Who cares? No. Is Echman Larson really the guy that you're hinging the future in your coaching decisions around?

That shouldn't be. That shouldn't be any sort of consideration for good or for ill, right? Like that just not, that just shouldn't matter. He's not the guy that you should be basing these decisions around. The whole situation, like I said, it's, it's crazy. And I know Greg Wachianskienski. our buddy called them the biggest disappointment in the league in a post for ESPN, which is,

it was a, and it's a great fun, you know, set of, set of awards that he handed out, which we will be doing in segment two, by the way. His biggest,

but his biggest his appointment was the Canucks. And I don't see it. I don't see it. I like, are they terrible? Absolutely. But I think there was always a distinct. If you expected the Canucks to be a playoff team this season,

you were kidding yourself. Absolutely. And also if you look at the way the coaching situation went over the summer to me was just like red flags all over the place. Red flag, red flag, red flag, red flag because Boudreau and Hilly said this, the way they played at the end of the end of the season forced Rutherford's hand. He got backed into a situation where he didn't really have much of a choice because it was, you know, Bruce's contract had a coach option on it. So, like, what's he going to do? Like, the choice was made for him. There was reasonably that plenty of stuff happened over that offseason where, you know, over the off season where there's a reason that it took Bruce Boudreau so long to exercise that option on his contract. It's just cruising for disaster. And am I surprised that they're as bad as they are maybe a little?

Am I surprised that this has just gone sideways from the start? I don't think so. I didn't have them as a Western Conference playoff team. I had the Jets as a playoff team. It came down to them and the Jets. Like, and I just, I went with,

I went with, I didn't think there, I didn't think they were a contender. I didn't, I didn't, I went with the coach. I went with the coach and the goalie and Ben-Pakeg. Look how smart you are.

Way to go. He, hoo-hoo. Thank you. Thank you, Connor Halelukuk. Thank you, Rick Foness.

Yes. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Uh, whatever. Anyways, we heard from Jim Rutherford this week again. Everybody loves when Jim talks.

Just talking about, Um, essentially, like, there's lots of work to be done here. And he's right. But let's move on from Vancouver and look at our Philadelphia Flyers. Now, when I saw the announcement of who the coaches were going to be for the All-Star game, I was ticked off. You really huge out. You know what? Cheezed off. Rod Brindamore, we can call him a friend of the show. I think, I think we can say that. He should not have been the men. the Metro coach. I don't think so. I think he probably thought I was dumb. No, that's one that liked you more than me,

if I remember it correctly. So Rod's the Metro coach? He called me out. Remember for my Brent Burns thing? Does that out of love. But he also gave you a lot of credit on things too. Yeah, I think I was just along for the ride. Like, he was clear.

He was like, this guy's furniture. The other one's, the other one is the dynamic personality. What did you bring abroad? Hear me out. Hear me out. Rod Brenda Moore is the Metropolitan Division coach for the All-Star game. With respect to Rod, it should have been John Tortorella. This is penance?

Major L. They should have deviated from the system where the, or the, is that what it is? Whoever's leading the division ends up coaching the team. Oh, I have no idea. Point per cent. Not sure if I care. But right when we put this in the power rankings last week, we kicked on out for the week. I joined in.

it was lots of fun. And there was the quote someone asked about Travis Kineckney was having a great season. Had a hat trick the other night for the Flyers. Somebody asked John Tortorella, if he was disappointed in the snub for Kinectne, he basically was just like, I don't give a shit about the All-Star game.

I don't watch it. I don't like what it's become. I don't care. And then he basically ended the press conference because somebody followed up and he was just like, and then left. I think that was a mistake.

I think they should. have just made John Torrell coach because it would have been really funny. Just more more shade directed at Kevin Haynes. Because he's who he's who their All-Star is and he's like, oh, actually.

This player I just complained about also I don't care about the All-Star game either. Oh God, why am I in the tank so bad for John Tortorella? Why? Why does his shit still work on me? Why do I still think he's funny? You're a slave to big Torterella.

Like Big Big Big Day. Yeah. I get it. Anyways, the latest in Tortsland. No iPads on the bench. John Tortorello versus technology. Volume 7. I don't hate, honestly, when I'm watching the game and I see guys like watching,

like taking a look at the shift to see what they messed up, if they need to improve something, sure. But I always find it a bit weird to see guys sitting on the bench looking at their iPads. I don't hate this from John Torterlin. His whole point was like they're focusing too much on the last shift. Just focus on the next one. And I think that's a fair thing to say. He's just trying to get the guys to stop.

Like when you think of it, like you need to just stop thinking about what you may be messed up and just think about what you're going to do on your next shift or think, watch the game. I don't, I hate technology. Who is our previous, that the most high profile example of, a hockey man versus an iPad that we've seen so far.

It was when Chris Kreider ripped the iPad out of Zabanajad's hands during the playoffs. Chris Kreider, that is a John Tortorale player. Let me tell you. I don't have a problem with Tortorella doing that, honestly. I don't either. I think it's maybe throwing the baby out with a bathwater a little bit. Like there's probably something you can use them for. But it is funny to imagine like John Tortorale limiting his kids,

screen time or something. Like he's like he's a dad with a five year old. Yeah. You know what? John Tortorella's kids don't have iPads. And that is good parenting move. Joel Farabee, you're only allowed to watch

you're only allowed to watch five minutes of cocoa melon on the bench per period. Other than that. Cocoa melon. Those vegetables that just dance. Yeah. What are those called? I don't know.

Veggie tails? No, not the veggie tails. No, those are the Christian vegetables, I believe. Yeah, it's the hay bear sensory, funky veggies, fun dance. Whatever. And you just like put that on for your kids to just like watch the carrots and the peas and the corns just like dance around. Corns. Sometimes I watch it when I'm feeling down.

Very weird. But yeah, I don't know. Like I said a couple minutes ago, tortillas. shit just works on me generally. It's embarrassing. I wish it, I wish it didn't. But I'm on board. But I get it. I think there's, I think, I think, I think there's some benefits to it. I understand the logic behind it. But it's, it's funny. It's just, it's just, it's looped right in with torts raging against modernity, which is, I feel like, it's been, it's been an ongoing theme with him. Yeah. I'll take it, though. It's fun. I don't hate it. I don't think there was any other

news we missed. We're recording this again on Thursday night. It's posting Friday morning. That's why the podcast is called Friday. I don't think we missed any news. So let's go to break and we'll come back and we're going to hand out some midseason awards. It's segment two. It's Friday. Before we get into our awards, just got to say, I bought myself one of those really stupidly large water bottles that has like, the time slots on it. It's like 8 a.m. Get ready to go.

Start drinking your water. It's like 2 p.m. You can do it. 6 p.m. Almost there. Like it's really. Slay girl. It's a girl boss water bottle

that you got at like Target or whatever. Yeah. It's like super. Yeah. I got this for four US dollars at Target. And yeah, it's kind of dumb. But I've got to say

as a person who doesn't drink water, I feel great. Yeah. It's amazing what drinking, you know, 48 ounces of water a day will do for a person. And you should be drinking more. Anyways, I feel great. If you're noticing like an energy bump today in this edition,

it's because I'm properly hydrated. So welcome back to the show. We're going to dole out some mid-season awards. We're going to do three. We're not going to go too far off the board. Because again, yes, this is, you know, the midpoint of the season. guess I should say that.

It's a podcast host. The other day, Mark, the official midway point of the NHL season. Some teams are still at like game 39, game 40. Other teams trickling in 41, 42, 43. So yeah, we're halfway through the NHL season. We're going to judge some teams. Starting with the most disappointing team. Sean Gentile, who is it?

Oh, it's the Panthers. It's not even close. It's not the Canucks. It's not the Canucks. There's a similar, I will say, though, like this is worse for the Panthers, I feel like, than maybe people anticipated. The dialogue surrounding them was, you know, you looked at their offseason. You looked at the fact that they did give away two pretty big pieces to get Matthew Kachuk as great as he's been.

They had people leaving free agency. They had the ongoing question marks and goal with, because who knows what version of Bobrovsky, you're getting on a given night and Spencer Knight is unproven and all that stuff. People, I think people internalized all that, saw that they hired Paul Maurice, who's, you know,

been a mix, he's won a lot of games and lost a lot of games too, uh, over his, over his career. And I think people had them kind of, they put a pin in them, right?

When you looked at it, moving out their first round pick this year to, to Montreal. I think people realized that there was the possibility for disaster there. Right. But to intellectually understand, understand that until then to see where they are on January 12th after winning the president's trophy last year, which is they're squarely outside the playoff, the playoff picture.

They're 500 points percentage. They're, you know, behind the sabers and they're tied with the sabres and one point ahead of the Red Wings and the Atlantic standings. Like, to see all that in practice and look at all the things that have gone wrong on that roster is really something else. I was expecting more from them. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a mixed bag of things that went wrong. Like, I don't think it's, I think it's overly simplistic to suggest that, you know, oh, you know, letting Brunette go and bringing in Paul Maurice was a, was the huge issue. Maybe that's part of it. But I think you look at how many

players went out the door in the off season in terms of Ben Chirot. Claude Drew, whatever you think or feel about those players is kind of, you know, irrelevant. Yeah. Right. Because they're gone. And then you move out, you know, sure, you get the best piece in the blockbuster deal at Matthew Kachuk, but you also moved out two significant pieces as well.

So you're losing, you know, that volume of quality from your roster as well. And things just haven't worked out. there's some bad luck involved with the injuries, guys in and out of the lineup. You haven't seen Duclair yet, but their cap situation is a mess too. And that was kind of the whole point of moving out, Hubertow, and Weeger. It's because you were only going to be able to afford one of them. So it's like, okay, well, let's just get Matthew Kuckech instead, but your cap space is still a disaster. And they don't have a first round drop pick.

I mean, they said whenever Duclera got hurt, I think that's what the logic was there. it made people forget that they still hadn't completely addressed their cap problems because you could just say all right we're this is a problem for future bill zito and future paul maurice we'll deal with this in january or february or whatever we'll put du clair on long-term injury reserve and just address the problem whenever we have to address and i think people forgot about it so now we're now we're at a point where he's on the verge of coming back and they're going to have to send out salary or trade anthony du claire or whether it's Trading Anthony Duclair would get you a first rounder, don't you think?

Solves your cap space issue, gets you an asset that you probably really need right now. If they could do that, I would imagine they would. But teams have them over the barrel, too. That's part of it. They know that, you know, they're not negotiating from a position of strength here. But last time we said that, look at what happened. That's true. The whole situation, though, is just it's a mess because you look at how many individual players have regressed this season.

and maybe that's a Maurice thing, maybe it's just a natural, a natural thing, blame the player, whatever, the results are what they are. And you have a significant amount of players that are worse now than they have in the past.

It's led by Aaron Eckblad, who has been bad in his, seems like he's really fighting it just in general. Uncharacteristically bad? Yeah, absolutely. Aaron Eckblad's a good player. Like,

if there's one thing we've learned about him over the last three seasons or so, when he's been healthy, like that decision has been made. Aaron Eggblatt is a top shelf, you know, defenseman in the NHL, but he hasn't been up. So there's that, the power play is continuing to be an issue.

That's what went flat down the stretch for them. One of the things that went flat down the stretch for them in the playoffs, that hasn't been fixed yet. And the goal tenings been bad. Spencer Knight and Bobrovsky are both sub-mediocre or when it comes across the board, save percentage, goal saved above expected. Those guys are in the 50s and 60s

and that's stat league-wide. It's not good. Not a lot of stuff is going right beyond Matthew Kachuk and Brandon Montor's point totals. Brandon Montor is the one thing on that team other than Matthew Kachuk or the one player who you can look at definitively and say this guy has gotten better

and produced more under the current system. Everybody else has regressed. And I'm not totally surprised by, because you said, like we talked about, there's a lot of roster attrition, there's a lot of variables, but I did not think that we were going to be talking about them on January 12th as a team that's behind the Buffalo's sabers

and down with the Detroit's and Ottawa's of the world when it comes to the wildcard teams. It was not expecting them to be that bad. So the Panthers have gone from the president's trophy winners to a 500 hockey team that currently, as of Thursday night, before the slate of games, is a fifth in the wild card sandwich between Buffalo, Detroit, Philly, Ottawa. They have one more point than the Flyers and they play the same amount of games.

Yeah. Wild. So most disappointing team is the Florida Panthers for sure. Most surprising team. Like, we could use this as a most pleasant surprise this season. A team, like a dark horse team, that may be snuck up on you. I mean, it's the Jets. I want to hear you talk about the Jets

because that's your... Apparently that was my team. That's your... It is. You went on TV and talked about them. You talked about them here. I felt like such a dumb dumb. I got off air and went,

oh my God, did I just disagree with everyone and say that the Jets are actually going to be a playoff team? And it was because I looked at that team and they didn't make any changes in the off season. for stripping Blake Wheeler of the sea

and losing Paul Stasney and a couple other things. But there wasn't really any major improvements to that Jets roster on paper. The only change was they got a new coach in Rick Bonas, who after talking to Marat,

we know that he came in and told us a lot of the things that he's changing around there. And I just looked at the way that the Dallas stars played Yep. Under Rick a bonus and the way that Jake Ottinger

played as well. Like that's a really good goalie. Way younger, doesn't have the same pedigree as Connor Hallibuck. So I looked at

a team with on paper more offensive weapons in terms of like Kyle Connor, Mark Shifley, whoever you want to put down there. Nikolai Eilers, even though he's been out.

And I just looked like this is a team that probably has more, more goal scoring ability than we saw last year with a better goalie than the Dallas stars. Everybody loves Jake Ottinger. He's incredible. But Connor Halibuck Sevezna trophy winner.

And I just thought this is a recipe for success. The Winnipeg Jets are going to be so freaking annoying next season. I was like, I think they're going to play Rick bonus hockey, maybe an improved or changed version of it based on the personnel that he has in Winnipeg with an elite goaltender. An elite goaltender is back to having an elite goaltender too, by the way. Yeah, Hellebuck had a dip. They didn't get, they didn't get Vezna Hellebuck last year. No. And they're getting them, they're getting them this year. He's in 924, say a percentage, you know, fifth in the league and fourth in the league and goals he'd above expected. Like he's back to,

you know, Vezna finalist, you know. write it in pen. Absolutely. As a side note, I think if you're a flames fan and you're worried about Jacob Markstrom long term, I know it's a different dip. I think Markstrom's been worse this year than Hellebuck was last year. But that's probably what you're looking at to be like he's going to be okay because like even Connor Hellebuck's had a down year.

But again, those were different. In Hellebuck's been elite longer. Hellebuck too. I think last year is instructive for people. And if you want to see, I'm not, I'm not discounting safe percentage here because that's a very important stat. But this is why it helps to look at save percentage in conjunction with goals saved above expected. Because Hellebuck was okay in the latter and not so good in the former.

And that is indicative of a terrible defensive team, right? And that's what it gives you a better sense of the environment in which the goalie is playing in. Yep. He's facing high quality shots. He's facing a lot. And it's not just he's facing a lot of shots. It's facing a lot of really good shots, right? So Hella Buck didn't stink last year, but he also was not, he wasn't good enough to

wallpaper over their mistakes. He's back in that mode this year and also the team around was playing better. Like, period. That's it. My question for you, though, honestly, is why, maybe, maybe not why, what about Winnipeg surprises you more than Seattle? Honestly, the answer probably is Seattle. However, I think if I look at those two teams, I know these are mid-season awards.

We're not projecting out who's going to end up being better and more surprising. I feel like Winnipeg is going to hold on to this longer. Like I see what they're doing is more sustainable. I think if you look under the hood a bit, everyone keeps talking about how great Martin Jones is. He's in how great Philip Grubauer, he's much improved. and I don't have the stats right in front of me, but I had a really long conversation with somebody at ClearSight Analytics.

And it's all just relative to what crack and fans were used to last year. Philip Grubeauer was so bad last year that Martin Jones is like, oh my God, where would we be without Martin Jones throughout this season? Philip Grubauer, I did find it. So ClearSight uses a, you know, a different model and they track things far different than the NHL does.

And one of the things they do is the expected goal differential. So instead of the XG rate or goals saved above expected, blah, blah, blah. It's the expected goal differential. Last season, Philip Grubauer was a negative 25 expected goal differential. Is that bad? Negative 25. That was the worst in the league. Martin Jones has been significantly better than that,

but he's still like a below average goalie this season. And Grubauer's been much improved, but I think at some point it makes you wonder, is something going to start to catch up in Seattle bit? I think I'm a bit more of a crack and truther than other people. I think they added, I think what Ron Francis did in the offseason was look at, okay, where did we fall short?

We're like a goal short. You know, we don't have enough goal scoring. We had a bunch of injuries on the blue line. Like what, I mean, not on the blue line, excuse me. It was in their forward group with Brandon Tenev and Schwartz. So they go out and they add Bjork Strand in a really smart trade. And then they go out and I mean, Maddie Baneers has stuck and played really well. And they add Andre Burekowski.

And now the Seattle Cracken have the third most goals scored per game in the NHL this season. And when you look at like Gru Bauer and Martin Jones, part of the reason why those goal is, looks so good is they actually don't have to face a ton. They're actually living and playing in pretty decent environments for goaltenders. And so I think those are actually things that are quite sustainable. They're not way out kicking their coverage in terms of their goal scoring. They're getting it from up and down the lineup. It's not just Maddie Benyers.

It's not just Berkowski. It's Eberley and in Bjork Strand. Yeah, while they're getting vaguely competent at times. They're getting average goaltending at times. They're getting average goal tending, and it's enough because they're scoring three goals a game, like 3.6 goals a game. Martin Jones, by the way, since November 17th, he's played in 16 games. He has an 883 say percentage in those games. But it's better than Grubaugh last year.

He is 12-1 and 1 in those games. Yeah. Like that's what, like, that is, there's enough strength surrounding him. Yeah, they've consistently been, yeah, they've consistently been scoring at that rate all season. Yep. It's not like they've just all of a sudden been giving him run support. So, yeah, do you, are you concerned about an 880, say, percentage for sure, especially if the Cracken are playing as, you know, defensively sound and structured,

as people discuss them to be. Not great. It wouldn't be great in the playoffs. But again, I think the narrative around Martin Jones being kind of the savior at points this season, again, I see Cracken fans talking about, like, where would we be without Martin Jones this year? and it's because his average goal tending

is far better than Philip Grubauer last year. You could stick a shooter tutor in there and he'd be outperforming Grubauer last year. Martin Jones, by the way, I will say, in his defense, I totally agree with everything you said.

In his last five games, he's been legitimately good. In the fact that he has, he's put up a 934, say, percentage he's won his last five starts. He is still, despite that hot run, he's still under 900 on the season significantly. So, so wild.

I do think because of where they were and where they are right now, we probably walk that back and say that the Cracken are the best pleasant surprise because they're fun to watch. They had that wildly high scoring game against the L.A. Kings. Maddie Baneers has been fun to watch. Even the goaltending being a little bit better, I do think probably the most pleasant surprise team is actually the Seattle Cracken because they were such a freaking, disappointment in year one. And I think we start,

I think we're going to get to a point where, and we've got to move on from this to get to the rest of the awards, the last award. The last one. The last final award. I think it'll be interesting when we get to a point where we can really discuss and revisit the way we evaluated the Krakins draft strategy. Ron Francis got hammered last year.

Why didn't you get Vladimir Tarasenko? Look at everything they left on the board. How much better would they have been? if they would have went the Vegas route. Well, guess what? They went their own route and they've got Maddie Baneers playing on the top line right now. And Vladimir Tarasenko, sure, he played better last year, but is that really the player that you want to build around for the future?

I think we're going to get to a point where you can revisit the draft strategy and we're going to say that it wasn't as bad as we thought. Because we look at the Vegas Golden Knights and they're top in the Pacific and they're playing great, but what kind of cupboard did they have? Like the Cracken maybe didn't go about it in the way that people wanted for the fun factor in the immediate contention window. But I think they went about it and said, how are we going to build a roster that it's going to be competitive in the long term?

Like, we don't want to just get to the playoffs early and then completely die off because we don't have anything. Like, we're going to get to a point where we're going to look at the Cracken and they've built something and they're going to have draft picks and prospects and cap space, whatever we want to look at. and the Vegas Golden Knights are going to be out of that window of contention with a bunch of old expensive deals on the books.

For me, there's a middle ground there. I think there are absolutely some decisions that they made in the expansion draft that were just... Like, what's one that still sticks with you? Because it's not Teresanko. It is Teresanko. Trade him.

It is Teresanko. Pick those guys and trade them. Don't, like, I know they value cap space, whatever. Move them. I think the way that he played last season is why you say, why didn't you take Teresanko,

but look at how he played the year before heading into the expansion draft. Or am I getting my years mixed up? He was on a down year heading into expansion, wasn't he? Yeah, he was. So how are they supposed to project that he was going to end up, you know, actually be healthy and lights out

and have trade value? Because the blues were trying to trade him for a while. Right. You roll the dice and you say, we're going to play this guy and then rehab his value and move him. Like there's, we don't have to relitigate this.

Like, I think there's just a situation. Oh, we're doing it. No more wars. Whatever, we can't keep doing this. But this is just a situation where we disagree. Honestly, I think the jet, to me, the jets are more surprising because I think the crack and always had the bones of a good team that were let down primarily by, primarily by gold tending and also by a lack of pop, right, at the top of the roster.

They fixed that. The goal thing they got from Gruberauer last year was so bad that it was unsustainable. So I wasn't surprised to see them bounce. I didn't think the jets were going to work with bonus. I flat like that like that's a surprise to me. I thought Shifley was just that the whole the mix was bad there. And I'm surprised it worked.

And it's in it's fun. I'm glad that it did because I like seeing, you know, team surprise people and make jumps up the standings. But I personally, man, I was, I can't believe they're doing it. Okay.

Good point. And yeah, the point with like the, the Krakken and the Golden Knights not to say that I think the Krakhan had a better draft than Vegas did. And that's not to say that the Krakken are going to win a Stanley Cup before Vegas, but I do think we're going to get to a point where we can

have a really good debate and conversation around each team's draft strategy in what, the next three years, four years. Once we get a good chunk of seeing how things diverge, it'll be interesting. It's not just the draft strategy. It's what they've done since, right? Sure. I think you can, where you find fault with Vegas is what they did after the draft. Suki would look pretty good.

Totally. And sure, absolutely. That's all. And yes, you're right. It's not just the draft. It's just how they handle the first few years of running an NHL team. The final award. The best team in the league, not name the Boston Bruins because that's cheap.

They are, you know, on pace for potentially historic season in the NHL. I don't, I don't care. Hell of a hot take. They've won 32. I actually think it's New Jersey. Bruins have won 32 of their first 40 games in season. They're unbeaten in their division. It's horrifying.

Gross. The freaking Leafs, they have... We're not talking about the Leafs. No, yes. You know what? Stop it. Yes, we are. I think the Boston Bruins are like forcing teams like the Maple Leafs to just start

implementing load management because the leaves are just like, well, We aren't going to win our division. We're not going to win the president's trophy, so let's just rest Austin Matthews for a couple of days. Good. Anyways, who's the best team not named the Boston Bruins? For me, it's the Carolina Hurricanes. There really is such a gap

between the Bruins and the rest of the league. But in a normal season, we'd be looking at Carolina, points percentage like just a tick under 700 expected goals over 60 actual goals over 56 they've done it without freddie anderson they've done it with our buddy peter pietor as the starting goal turner there we go i was i was hoping i was hoping you'd help me there because i was going to screw that up i'm not sure if i said that correctly we should mention we would have talked about the 14-year-old phenom from Slovakia with the Michigan, but I don't know how to pronounce her last name.

There's hopefully more coming to the athletic on that young lady in the next little bit, I would say. With the pronouncer. The pronouncer. Somebody teach me how to pronounce. The pronouncer. I don't like, I don't like butchering people's names. Me neither.

So I'm just going to ignore it instead. It's a disrespectful thing to do. Yes. I apologize. Anyways, the, the, Yes, Sean continue. The Carolina Hurricanes.

I like what they've done. I like what they're primed to do. I think that's a big thing. Wait for Max Patschretti to be healthy and clicking, clicking, too. Patchretti clicking Freddie Anderson back in the mix. They activated him a couple days ago. I like the outlook for the Carolina Hurricanes as much as you could in a conference with the rolling juggernaut known as the Boston.

Bruins. And I do not acknowledge the Toronto Maple Leafs and I do not acknowledge the Western Conference. I was going to say like why. Goaltending. Goaltending. Why not the Leafs? Gold tending. Anything else? Care to explain? Tending the goal. That very is not good. Sorry. He played well last night. Sure. He got the first star in the athletics report cards. Uh-huh. We'll see what happens.

He's not playing in that, I would imagine. That's it back to back. I can't do it. I'm not going to sign off on a team with a hole that glaring in a problem that is revealing itself even more completely over the last few weeks is the Maple Leafs. It's not happening. Goleys count two. Carolina seems to have two of them.

And potential three. I don't think Toronto got one. So, sorry. I think you opt for the goalie tandem that won the Jennings last year. Yep. Over two reclamation projects in goal in Toronto, regardless of how you feel like they've been playing this year. We're playing poorly at the moment.

Yeah. And have been really since for the last however many. You can't do it. Again, Matt Murray had a really good game last night. He out goalied UC Saro. which I don't think anyone going into the game thought he was going to do that. But yeah, from December 15th onward, the goalie numbers don't look good in Toronto. More on that potentially.

Yeah, I was going to say, also coming to the athletic. Yeah, if I can get my shit together and off this podcast. You're also pro-hercans? We're in agreement there. There was a point where I was like really leaning in on the Devils. And I do think that they've obviously dipped. But then they had a good game, beat the Carolina Hurricane. the other day.

Yeah. But I still go with Carolina. I went into this season thinking that the hurricanes were going to finally kind of take that jump that we've been waiting for them to have, at least when it comes to the postseason. They're not just going to make it to the second round and be done this year. I don't think. I think they've had the internal growth to be better. And I think they've added the right pieces.

Absolutely. So. Martin H. just leveling up, I guess. That's a big thing. Yeah, that's the internal growth, right? They've got guys who are leveling up, playing better. Rod Brindamore is probably the best coach in the league, one of the best coaches,

we should say. And they added Brent Burns. They haven't done any of this with Max Patcheretti. Yeah. So in terms of future focus, in terms of the way they've played the first couple months, the first few months of the schedule here, they're both. Those are my guys. Do you think they can do anything at the deadline?

Or they kind of, they're pretty capped. I don't have cat friendly in front of me. They are capped out, and I know that there was some stuff that, at the end of the off season, whenever there was some trade stuff popping around. I think people expect them to get involved, but the cap. Well, they were in on, like they were, they were one of the three teams talking about Matthew. Yeah, I wasn't talking about a chuck, but like I, but yeah, they're pretty. Ooh, what are you talking about?

text me link twice if it was about they're projected to have more than two million at the deadline and stuff always changes you know whatever Anthony Duke Claire only makes three points something Florida can retain a little salary they can throw a first round

see that's the Anthony Duclair trade to me Florida keeps a little bit of salary gets the first round pickback hmm interesting is that going to far into the like let's add some scoring wingers to the lineup direction though i don't think so i mean i think the duclair trade is to calgary if you're a flames fan you're like give me anthony du claire it's the freaking perfect fit a scoring winger with speed who's a right shot who doesn't cost that much

money oh my it's anthony du claire but who are you going to bump down i mean you're not going to move Seth Jarvis or Martin H.S. Out of the top six. Third line, Anthony Duclair, with Jordan Stall and Jordan Martin Oak. Is that a fit? It's interesting. I don't know.

I think they don't, I mean, whatever, the money is going to be an issue. I think in a perfect world, if you're them, I think you'd probably like to add a center, but who wouldn't? I don't know.

We'll see. Maybe you don't touch anything. They're great. My favorite thing at the trade deadline where I just like literally everyone's like, well, I do really think that the flames need to add top four defensemen in the top six scoring winner who can...

Middle six center. Dominic Moore for a third round pick. That's like the classic deadline trade deal for me. Vladislav Nemesdeme Stav. Defensive Center who's cheap at the deadline. Do you know how many... I think there were three consecutive years that I wrote about the Penguins potentially

about him as a guy that Pittsburgh should take a look at. There's a reason he gets traded at the deadline every year. Teams are like, ooh, he could do something for us. And then he doesn't. I mean, he does the role. He does the role that he is tapped to provide for the team in terms of being a bottom six center who can just play defense. And you move on. Rue up.

Dominic Moore. We've got a draft that's coming up next on Friday. This is the only good segment on the show. Wait a second. Hey. Sean, what day is it? Thursday. Say it.

Anyone listens to our show, you'll notice that Sean never actually. actually says. I'm not down with the branding. It's Friday. Just say it. It's fun. Our draft this week is four rounds. We're building out the rest of our all-star rosters.

We're taking four players total. We must take one from each division who was not on the initial roster. Yes. No goaltenders. Skaters only. We don't care about goalies. No, it cares. We don't care about NHL.

This is why Daniel hates me. We don't care about NHL goalies. and we don't care about reclick gullies either. I quit. There it is. But, mate, I don't know how to edit the show. Suckus! I'm just a talent.

Good luck. Our audio's about to sound real bad. Yeah. Do I have the first round pick here? Yeah, you can have it this time. Okay. With the first overall selection from the Boston Bruins of the Atlantic Division, I select David Posternak. You son of a bitch.

Come on. Like, it's the easy. It's a no-brainer. Didn't make the team for whatever reason. I think what you have there is that they wanted to reward Linus Olmark for a solid for a job well done so far this season. You don't want to have the starting goalie on the best team in the league completely left out of the mix, which I would imagine they were concerned about happening.

And they're saying, all right, Posternak's definitely going to get voted in. Star player big time profile plays for a team that has a huge fan base. but blah, blah, blah, bah, assuming he's going to get in. I'll gladly take him. Dude has been unbelievable. He's making himself a million dollars every night. I feel like we're,

you know, can't wait to see what happens for him in free agency. And he's a blast. He's so fun to watch when he's healthy, and he's healthy as hell this year. So let's roll. I can't wait to see what fit he wears. It'll probably be a blue suit.

Or salmon. Yeah, he wears colors, actually. I shouldn't, I shouldn't knock him. He actually does dress well. Yeah, he's not one of those guys that wears like, you know, no socks. Everyone's like, oh. He's wearing driving shoes. Yeah, look at those boat shoes.

Anywho, from the Pacific Division, Haley Salveon selects Leon Drysaitle, who is not an all-star as for the NHL. Crazy, crazy. He is 63 points in 41 games. games. He's Gracie. I don't have anything to say other than Leon Dreight. Like Drysidal not being an All-Star is just a symptom of this.

Every team gets one player policy that is not a real All-Star game. This is one of the things, we got a bunch of comments when we did the power rankings last week. And there were some people, Wild fans, who were surprisingly not on board with our Ryan Reeves fun pick. They were like upset. that we didn't pick, you know, somebody. Yeah.

And there was a couple. There was a couple. Zucrello was a big one. And they're like, it's an all-star game. And it's like, no, it's not. It's something for little kids to watch on Saturday night and enjoy themselves. That's all, that's all it is. Seth Jones is an all-star and Leandro Seidel is not.

I don't care about this because I grew up, I grew up a huge baseball fan and also a huge Pittsburgh Pirates fan. and I know how much it meant to me as a child to see them get their obligatory one all-star even when it stunk, even when it was Carlos Garcia or Ed Sprague or whatever. Yeah, good point. Yeah.

That's what matters. That's all that matters is for a 10-year-old who roots for the, you know, for the Anaheim ducks to see a player they like. That might not be the best example because of the Uyghurs, but whatever. From the Vegas Golden Knights of the Pacific Division, I select Jack Eichel, miss some time

he's been you see what he looks like when he's at his top at his top level and you see what he adds to that team so why he go out and trade for a guy like that he's a star baby

that's what this weekend's about put him on the roster that's right okay so with the fourth overall pick second selection of the second round Heli Salvian selects

Adam Fox the New York Rangers from the Metropolitan Division. I think I see what you're doing here. You haven't taken an Atlantic Division player yet. What are you talking about?

You know that I don't have a strategy. Yeah, what is it actually? What is wrong with me? Oh, the things that I say. You silly goose. Okay, round three. I'm not saying anything. We got to make this quick.

I've got a Leafs game to report grade. Oh. Report grade. You're flustered. doing me. Kit Kat! Ampice Linome! Parties!

I like Laffy-Taffy. I actually do like Laffy. With the fifth overall pick, the first selection of round three, I select Rupa Hintz from the Dallas Stars on the Central Division. I'm just trying to get him and Robertson and Pavelski involved at the same time by Hooker by Crook. I want to see those guys play together as part of the four on four tournament all at once, whatever it takes. We got Stars listeners here, and I'm pandering.

I'm catering. Yeah, I was going to call you out on that. It's okay. You were absolutely being a Star Panderer, and that's fine. Whatever. Rupa Hens deserves it. He does deserve it.

Okay. Six overall pick? Mm-hmm. Second selection of third round. William Nylander from the Atlantic. Thank you very much. Wow. Shocking, I know.

He's on a heater. He's having a great season. He's on pace to obliterate his previous season highs. He had two, like the sale job on the primary assist for the game winner last night. Just made UC Soros in the entire Nashville Predators penalty kill unit commit. And left Mitch Marner wide open. William Nealander deserves to be an NHL. All-Star this season.

So he's on my All-Star team. I really thought you were going to take Matthews. Okay. No. Is that what you thought I was doing? You thought I was lining up to get Austin Matthews? But you're setting yourself up to take Matthews. And he hasn't been,

silly little bit of a, not he's been particularly good, but I mean, I wouldn't mind having him on a 4-on-4 team. I co-hosted the morning show of SportsNet 590 fan in Toronto. And basically every day just asked the listeners from the suburbs.

Like, why do you hate William Nealander? Are you done? And yet, hasn't he done enough? Anyways, it's the final round. Seventh overall pick from the New York Rangers, I select Artemy Paneering. I just like him. Why not?

I think he's a guy who belongs in, he pops in all-star games too. He just got so much skill. Throw him out there. I'm not trying to build a team here necessarily, but dude to star. Belongs there. 45 points.

It's fine. Way to go. The Metro, by the way, the metro I know there are people who are going to probably drag me for that pick but the metro group

is not great because you have a lot you have a lot of guys a lot of like I was going to say the central is not great if we're only picking one guy who's not already in the All-Star game

I'm looking at the Central and I'm like there's a lot of guys there's a lot of guys and this is true for the Central too but Metro specifically like there's a lot of guys

who typically you know, I'll take Chris a Tang on my LSA team or I'll take you know, whatever John Carlson or somebody and there's a lot of guys there's a lot of guys in that group that just aren't they're just not there. I mean, I couldn't bring myself to take

poor Johnny Goodrow. What that point is already in the office. He's already there. Oh my God, that's right. Oh, whatever. Take the cannon. Yeah, kind of a weird, kind of a weird, weird year. I think the issue is if we're not doing

in goalies. Otherwise, I would have taken Connor Hellabuck for my central pick. You don't care about goalies. But I despise them goalies. That's right. So, the way this played out, what a sweet, sweet fall, Miko Rantan has made into

my hand. Sean was so focused on his Dallas Stars friends. He just loves the formerly named Rambling Boys of Chaos so much that Miko Rantin has fallen to me. So I'm to take Miko Ranton because he's been, you know, the Aves MVP through all these injuries

and even Kail Makar basically said like, no, he should be the All-Star, not me, which is why Kail McCar continues to be a king. And now they can hang out together and go to Costco and so Florida. Love Miko Rantan. Tie each other skates, go to Costco. Go to the All-Star game. Haley, I think you just, I think you just won a draft. I won the last one technically.

The history is being made on the Friday show is I am actually. picking Haley this week. I don't want to because she's like goalies and as a recent beer league champion I take offense. Yeah. But Haley won. Deserved.

Great you. That's what happens when Miko ran and slides down to the last pick. What are you going to do? Cry, though. I accept the loss graciously. I think this is a great exercise to show how many star players are not currently in the

ulcer game. Uh-huh. These are going great. All right. These are all great players. Do the right thing. Will some of them in, if that's your thing? Or don't.

Who cares? And that's all the time we have today because I need to, you know, provide a letter grade for every single person on the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight and then get yelled at in the comments because I dared forget one moment from one of... Mark Giordano B-minus.

We actually got a podcast promo in here before we get out. Next week, actor Jason Priestley, joins the Wednesday roundtable. I hope Mike Rousseau asks him about the 902 and No reboot. Yeah. And Megan Markle being in it. Rousseau, I can guarantee you that Rousseau was not, did not watch the 90210.

He's an original of anything else. But that's cool. Well, Megan Markle was in an episode of the rebooted 90210. Jason Pierce, he's making a documentary about the Leafs. I believe that's why he's talking to those guys, by the way. It's a filmmaker. Oh, cool. Anyways.

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Bye.