The Athletic Hockey Show - Are you buying or selling on these 8 teams in transition?

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

Hailey and Sean take a look at 8 teams in transition with playoff hopes. Are you buying or selling on rebuilding teams the Blue Jackets, Canadiens, Kraken, Blackhawks, Utah HC, Senators, Sharks and Ducks. Can any of these rebuilding NHL teams take the next leap to the NHL's top 16?Hosts: Hailey Salvian and Sean GentilleExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Hello, everybody. It's Haley Salvean and Sean Jintilly here with you for another offseason edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. The last few weeks, we've been doing a segment called buying or selling, looking at teams across the league in different tiers and deciding if we're going to buy or sell, our imaginary stock and the team based on what we've seen this off season. We're basically vibe checking teams in a more official way, Sean. That's what we've been doing the last few weeks.

It's great off-season fodder for us. I can't tell if we've saved the best for, wait, this isn't last, never mind. Have we saved the best for third? Well, I think it's, we don't have to do, okay, maybe the fans can let us know. The listeners, the fans, hockey fans, not our fans. My thought was we would at least do these first three and then maybe not do the final one. because so we've done the

playoff hope bowls we've done the teams in the middle and this week we're going to look at the teams in transition if we want to be nice that's what we'll call them

otherwise known as the rebuilders of the bottom of the eight teams in the league so that would leave the top eight tier the true contenders tier but I was trying to think

are people going to care about that because we're probably just going to buy on all of them like did the did the Edmonton Oilers do something that made you want to sell your stock on the Oilers? Because they're the oldest team in the league. I don't care. They have Connor McDavid's the oldest guy.

No, Connor McDavid's the youngest guy on the Oilers right now. Is that true? I saw that on Twitter. I had not seen that. Oh, that's very funny. With the offer sheet. After Broberg and Holloway left town, yeah. Yeah.

McDavid is the youngest guy. Youngest skater, I assume. Yes. Just Skinner's younger than that's really funny. But I don't care. I don't care if you're old if you have McDavid and Drysidal. Maybe I'll eat my words on that. But I don't know.

I thought we could maybe just do these three. But then I also might have OCD and I don't think I'll be able to sleep if we do three or four segments of a show. Well, the good news is that there's a whole week left in August and plenty more time before a training camp. open up. So we're going to have to talk about something. Yeah. Because it feels like all the other shoes, the off-season shoes have dropped. Like we had our offer sheet. We had our random quasi-random mid-season, August trade, involving a name brand player. I'm not sure what else there is to do other than

just roll out guys for training camp. So there's going to be time if we're going to do buy or sell on our top eight. Maybe we'll do the top eight. What's not my top eight? It's objectively the top eight. It's no, I made this very, this was not a subjective, tiered list. It was the top eight teams left last season. It's not my top eight.

It was the top eight from last season. Maybe we can do that with Max whenever he comes back. He gave me a very half-hearted, sorry, I've missed three podcasts in a row. the other day. Lazy Max Boltman. I was like, who are you? Who even is this? He's on vacation somewhere.

It's like Sam from Sex in the City. Who is this? Don't call me. Unfamiliar with the reference. Okay. Anyways. So this week, as I said, we're going to be doing the teams in transition

or as Sean wants to say, the teams that stunk last season. I do think this is one of the better for last or best for third. because there's a lot of intrigue, and I think this gets to the heart of the exercise a little bit better than maybe the teams in the middle or the playoff teams did, right?

Because essentially the central question with the buying and selling is, do we like the direction of the team? Do we like what they've done in the off season enough to say, yeah, I'll buy some stock here. Nope, not into it. I'm selling. It doesn't necessarily mean that we think they're going to be a good team next season.

Do we think they're going to be better? do we like the direction that they're going in based on the moves? They did this off season. And if you're in a front office, nothing necessitates a sell job like a rebuild. That's by definition what's going on here, right? Like they're saying, do you like the, yes, we are in an unfavorable cruddy spot here on August 22nd, 2024, but things are going to get better. And here's why. Right.

You believe us or not. And that's where all eight of these teams are. Yeah. So I think we're going to start this week with the Columbus Blue Jackets because they've been in the news. They signed Cole Cillinger. And maybe I'm bearing the lead here a bit. But they also trade Patrick Linae to the Montreal Canadians. They get defender Jordan Harris in return.

Montreal also gets a 2026 second round pick in that trade. We'll get to Linae more specifically when we talk about Montreal. because that's going to give us a bit more, like, do we like what Montreal is doing and bringing in Patrick Linae? So we don't need to get into him right now. But what do you think about this trade for the Blue Jackets, Sean? We can start there. It had to happen in one way or another. I don't think it was all that feasible for Patrick Lina to play another season in Columbus.

I think that decision had been made to some degree. It's easy to forget about because we made it out of the transaction window with the draft and free agency and all that stuff. And it really felt like at some point. And this might just be me because I actually have to start doing work on my next season stuff. Right. But you're going through rosters.

Like, oh, yeah, Patrick Lernery's still on the Columbus Blue Jackets. And I feel like as soon as that light bulb went off from me, it was, you know, he's off to,

he's off to Montreal. But it's a, it's a trade if you're the blue jackets that, you know, I guess needed to happen. It doesn't make them, it certainly doesn't make them better for this year. and the return is such where, you know,

doesn't make them better for the future. Minimally. So it's not inherently all that important of a trade until you remember how much they'd invested, even if money, you know, emotional capital, whatever, and Patrick Klein, like, he was one of the reasons a year or two or three ago, that it seemed like they were, had reason to believe that they could be competitive, I guess.

And I'm using major air quotes around competitive. Like, that's why the presence of Patrick Lining and a few other, you know, key players in that age group are reasons why they can, or they're why the previous regime convinced themselves that, hey, maybe, maybe we can pull this off two years ago. And it just, it couldn't have, it couldn't have gone worse. But it's still not even a signal of we're no longer going to try to pull this off because you still have Johnny Goddrow under contract. And you have, you go and you sign Sean Monaghan, not that Sean Monaghan's going to be the guy that makes them a world beater or anything.

But it's not like they started steering into the skid either. So this has been my biggest issue with the Columbus Blue Jackets as I was lining up the show. And so other key departures. I should say, Alex Nealander, Alexandra Texier and Adam Boquist. They also add Jack Johnson as well as Sean Monaghan, which I'm not going to complain about because it makes him reunited with Johnny Goddrow, and I think that's very fun. But for me, as I'm lining this up, and we're thinking of the central question of, do we like the team's direction?

What is the direction of the Columbus Blue Jackets? because I think we can very fairly say that the Montreal Canadians, depending on how a line looks next season, and Patrick Linae himself are the clear, obvious winners of that trade, right? Blue jackets are not even in the conversation of, did they win this? This was just,

we've got to move this guy. He requested a trade. And Linae's better because he gets the fresh start that he wants and he hopes that he can get back on track on the ice in Montreal. Habs are winners because they get Patrick Line for nothing. Jordan Harris and, you know, it's a sizable cap. He has two years left on that four year, eight point seven million dollar AAV contract.

But again, as I'm looking at this, I'm just thinking what direction are they in? What are we doing? The best thing you can say about them, and this is something that Aaron Portsline wrote about in the wake of the line of trade is that like, this is a fresh start. You have Don Waddell in there.

You have Dean Everson as the coach. like those guys can they're freshly on the job they can decide the direction of this franchise to some degree now which is important because they don't have one you look at the roster it's

Adam Fantilli at the top of it who still seems like he's going to be a number one center blue chip kind of guy and then a bunch of other prospects who were stalled to varying degrees. And then a bunch of guys

who are later in their career and don't seem like they're good enough to assemble a true playoff caliber team, right? Like, it's Fantilli, there's Fantilli, and then there's Werensky

and Jenner and players like that who you're like, what is, is it possible for them to, for them to lead the team out of the Metro Division? It certainly seems like it isn't.

So, and that's what it is. It's a weird hodgepodge of, of players, right, across the developmental spectrum, where you have, again, one, one, one stud prospect at the top and then varying degrees of flotsam and jetsam throughout. If I'm a, it's tough to find a roster that I would less, that I, that I, that I like less. Yeah. For like, because, because they're not, they're not bottoming out. They're not truly trying to rebuild and they're not going to win squat with what they have right now.

is currently constituted. It's rough. Yeah. I guess that's why, and you said this off the pod before we started, when I kind of posed the question of, I want to start with the blue jackets because they are kind of confusing, but this is why they went out and got a new GM, right? It's because we're sitting

here several years into whatever path they've been going down and still thinking, what's the direction, what's the plan? And so I guess the goal is for Don Waddell to get them on a more specific track. I think what makes them interesting.

And maybe it's overrating Johnny Goddrow a little bit, but I did cover him when he was a heart trophy candidate on the flames before he signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets. And we're looking at a team that has, I think, the third most cap space in the NHL and how Don Waddell is saying that they've already had teams calling with other cap issues. So we're looking at a team that has Johnny Goddrae at the center of it,

making a big contract. And you're also saying, well, maybe we'll take on some bad deals from other teams to leverage our cap space. That's what they should do. That's what they should do. But they also, if that was going to be what you're doing in 2024, why did you sign Johnny Goddrow to a big ticket contract in 2022? It genuinely, genuinely seemed like they did not have a plan,

a plan if Johnny Goodro said yes. It was like, yeah, sure, we'll make him a software. pre- like he's what's he what's he gonna do accept it and then he everything everything about every choice they've made since then suggest that they were like that that that that they didn't know what to do like that forced them into into a into a lane change that they weren't expecting because right at least until then it was like very clear with the guys they'd moved out and the picks that they had made that this was a rebuilding team and then when you had a player like johnny goddrow for a gazillion dollars when he's 29 or however what he was at that point it necessitates a philosophical change that

I don't think they were really that they were really prepared for and now here we are it's a couple years later the names at the top are completely different of the organizationally and it still seems like they're part of two worlds and that's the worst possible place to be like the fact that they're as bad as they are despite clearly trying to win hockey games and not bottom out and pick in the top three or whatever is, it's as damning an indictment as you can imagine of an NHL team in 2024, honestly. So this is the hardest of sales for me.

Again, I don't think there's, I don't think there's, I don't think there's any situation that I'm farther out on than the Columbus Blue Jackets. Yeah. I would agree with that. Let's also not forget the team hired Dean Eveson as its third coach in four years.

And this was from a porty story as well. Eveson was hired by a team looking for a stronger personality and a firmer hand from its coach. We've heard we heard that before they hired Mike Babcock. That obviously didn't work. And now they're going to Dean Eveson. So we'll see if that works. This is a team that's basically running it back with a new coach and Johnny Goddrow's best friend after 2743 and 12 season last year. It's going to be another, it's going to be another rough go.

So yeah, I'm selling on the Columbus Blue Jackets as well. let's move on to the team that acquired Patrick Liney on the other side of that deal. And it's the Montreal Canadians. I think they are a little bit more straightforward to discuss, right? Because they do have a clear path. They didn't really do anything this off season until this week. They've kind of kept their core intact. They're not buying.

They're not really selling. That's kind of where they're at in their process of the rebuild in Montreal, which I can appreciate, not going crazy here for Kent Hughes. But now they add Patrick Line A to an already intriguing core headline by Nick Suzuki, Cole Cofield, Uri Slav Koski. What do we think about the Habs? I think I would be a soft buy on Montreal because I've said this before at different points in the last two seasons, depending on how Nick Suzuki or Cole Cawfield are looking,

is like, this is the most fun, bad team to watch in the NHL. I remember saying that a few years ago, they've got, good, fun, young players on that roster, I would soft buy on Montreal. I think they're just, in this context, they're just a straight buy for me. There's not, not much that's soft about it, right?

Like, I love, I love the core. I love that they drafted Demadov, which was a good example, of, there's some luck involved there, right? Like, they didn't take Matt Famishkov, and that's, you know,

everyone went crazy over that, but then you have a, prime prospect that slips a couple spots and then there you have it. Like there's your, you know, all-star caliber winger if everything goes right. I love the development from Suzuki. I thought he took a huge step up last season to the point where you can say pretty definitively that this guy is a number one center. I think Slavkovsky, you know, plenty has been written about what he showed down the stretch.

I love that. I love guys like David Ryan Bacher that's that are in the mix, you know, for the future. Lina gives them some actual bona fides, you know, in a top six or a middle six. Kirby Doc is going to be healthy. Like there's plenty of like. There's plenty of like.

Yeah. And they have Sam Monsonboe who might be, he might be a top half starting goal tender in the league right now. That is damning with faint praise because I think it speaks just as much to how brutal the starting goalie situation is across the league as it as it is a compliment of Montembo but he's pretty solid and

he's going to be able to go out and win them games so like all this stuff combined this is a very long-winded way of saying that like I like where they're headed I like them enough to the point where McIndoo and Dom and I are going to have a post coming out on Friday where all of us

picked long shot long shots to win all the major awards right we looked at we looked at we looked at a set of odds. Anybody 20 to 1 or lower, we picked our favorite one. Martine San Luis is my Jack Adams pick. I don't know, I don't know if I would put actual money on it, but I think all the recipe, a lot of the ingredients are in place to make that happen, where he's clearly a good coach based on how much these players have improved. The core of the team

is solid. You're adding, like, decent win now players in line it, and you have like a legit starting goaltender. in San Montembo. So I like the direction that things are going. I think this is a crucial year for them. I don't think they can get away with being a bottom five or bottom six team again. But I don't think they should be. I think this team should be pretty good.

And I think things are tracking well just generally for them. I really like the Montreal Canadians. The reason I'm saying I'm a soft buy is I don't know if they're going to go from a bottom team. into the playoffs per se. I still like the direction. I like what they did. I didn't know this until I was doing some research. I feel like I was just completely checked out

on some of the off-season stuff that happened because the PWHL season and World Championships got so busy that I was just like I'm done with hockey for a little bit here. But Ken Hughes said that they tried to sign Jonathan Marchesau. They went out and tried to get a big ticket veteran free agent on the open market. it obviously March so goes to the Nashville Predators, but it showed like a desire to grab a star player to help this team go from bottom five into maybe not the playoffs,

but into the mix, playing meaningful hockey down the stretch and at the end of the season. And I appreciate that from Kent Hughes. It didn't work. And so he didn't go out and say, okay, well, I think we can assume the reason it didn't work is either March or so just said,

no, I'd rather go to Nashville or the Canadians were like, no, we're not going to spend that much. on Jonathan March. And then they didn't go out and just throw that same contract at somebody else who they didn't really care about.

So I like what they've done. I think it would be a win if this team is just in the conversation. Like they're not in the bottom five by March. I just had a brain fart of like, how long do they play? The NHL season is so long. I'm like, wait a second.

It's a tough division, but I can imagine and then being in the periphery of the discussion in, we'll say like, I don't think it's crazy that they make it to the trade deadline before we can definitively say that they're out of it. Like I like, I like what they're doing.

Arpin did a nice, a really interesting and well-research story on how the Canadians could make the jump from the basement to the playoff mix, and he looked at examples of teams who have gone from the bottom five and into the postseason and what that team had. And I just don't think the HABs check really any of those boxes right now in terms. I mean, they could. Organic growth is the biggest one, right?

Colorado Avalanche go from being one of the worst teams we've ever seen to now a perennial playoff contender. But that's because they had that growth internally from guys like Nathan McKinnon. The Tampa Bay Lightning are another example. They're really bad. And then all the guys they drafted and developed end up being really good the way that they expect. You see like true, true franchise players. like the penguins did it.

They went from lottery to playoffs in one year. Well, they have Sydney Crosby. And the abs did it. And it's like, well, they have Nathan McKinnon. Like, I don't, for as much as we like the Canadians moving forward, I don't think they have one of those guys on the roster right now. But there's also more than one way to win games in the NHL. It's just a matter of whether they can make a leap.

But that's just one example, right? Arpin went through a few others. And another example is infusions of young high. talent. So not necessarily the Nate McKinnons, Victor Hedman, Sydney Crosby's, but the Johnny Gattrow's and Sean Monaghan's in Calgary in 2014-15. Johnny Goddrow is not

on the same level as a Nate McKinnon or Crosby, but the injection of him in Monaghan and then Matthew Cucuck a few years later, that got the flames into the playoffs. I know they didn't end up really winning anything meaningful once they got there, but that's an option. So that's maybe a more realistic way

to look at for the Habs. But you know, having that established star player come in, big veteran performance. Like this was, it was an interesting piece from ARPIN. I wasn't convinced that the HABs like are going to check those boxes to make the postseason. But again, I've had a lot of fun watching this hockey team over the last few years and nothing they did this offseason made me think otherwise. So again, I'm buying on the Montreal Canadiens.

I think they're fun. I like what St. Louis and Hughes are doing with this, with this team with this roster. So that's a pretty easy one for me when we're looking at the HABs. I think we can or I'll say, oh wait, I was looking at the wrong thing. Never mind. There were no big additions or subtractions other than Patrick Linae. For Linae, I guess we can say quickly here, tough year last season for him, nine points in 18 games, broke his clavicle, which required surgery, spent time recovering or receiving care,

I should say in the NHL, NHL PA player assistance program, he was cleared from that July 26th. That's when trade talks and teams started calling Columbus as well, according to Portie. He's looking for a fresh start, hopes that can be in Montreal. It seems like he's excited.

I saw a quote from him in NHL.com. I believe it was during an introductory press conference for him and saying he's not looking to just be a 20, like a 20 goal score in the NHL again. Like he wants to get back to the 40 goal guy that he had been in the past. And if he can be that, that's going to be just a huge win for Montreal. But even if he only scores 20, I still like that the Habs could go out and get Patrick Lainey. So, yeah, just hope he stays healthy across the board. Yeah. I think we can take a break here. When we come back,

there's three kind of interesting teams that we've lined up again. This kind of tier of team is really interesting. We're going to kick things off with probably the most improved team of the off season coming up in segment two. I'm not going to spoil it though, so you're going to have to keep listening. We'll be right back. All right. Welcome back to the athletic hockey show. We left you on a little bit of a teaser. We are going to be opening segment two with, in my opinion, the most improved team of the off season. Sean, would you like to wager a guess? It's not really a guess because you've seen the lineup. Why don't you just tell? Do I have to pretend that I don't know your opinion here?

Just tell everyone who it is. It is the Chicago Blackhawks. Do you agree? I think they're the most improved team. I don't think they're going to be very good. Yeah, they're still bad. Let's be real. There was only one direction for them to go, which was up after last season.

So obviously they're going to improve. But I think when we look at what they added, this is going to be a significantly improved Chicago Blackhawks team. They had Tyler Bertuzi, Tevo, Teravinean, Illinois. Leah McAyev, Pat Maroon, Alec Martinez, T.J. Brody, and Laurent Boisois, also totally forgot that T.J. Brody signed in Chicago. I always have moments when we're looking at things like in the NHL NBA, when I'm like, oh, he plays there now? T.J. Brody was a big one for me. Like, oh, I missed that in the summer. Gone would be Taylor Radish, Tyler Johnson, McKenzie, Antewistle, and Nikita Zyteziv. So we've got some addition by subtraction here.

they also add two top six forwards, two legit NHL defenders, players who can play with Connor Bredard. This is not going to be a team that's unwatchable when he is not on the ice. And I appreciate that Kyle Davidson had cap space and roster spots. Like he had the space to change this roster,

and he did it. You know, he didn't just say, eh, we're not ready yet. They did things to try to, you know, this isn't, again, it's not going to be, a world beater next season, this roster, but they're going to be a lot better. They're going to be an NHL team, basically, top to bottom, which...

And what's healthy Taylor Hall going to look like? That's another big piece of this. You've still got Dad Nick Folino in the mix. This is a... You look at this roster, and it is so much better than what they fielded last season. Yeah, and there's young players that, too, beyond Connor Bedard, right? Like, it's a solid prospect pool. It should have been given the amount of draft picks that they've made,

but it seems like they've hit on a lot of them, right? Like, Oliver Moore is a guy who's coming through the system that I know, that I know Wheeler likes a lot. Frank Nizarre is a guy who could potentially play, you know, a potential major piece at Forward that could be in the mix now. Kevin Kortinski hung in the league last year as, you know, a 19 or 20-year-old defenseman who's playing huge, huge, difficult minutes.

like that counts for something right so there's young players and key spots that are augmented by the tyler bertuzis and tevo terra vinen's and guys like that who are legit NHL contributors and have been have a have a have been for a while and b are still young enough where you know they they could continue to be for a little bit longer right like this isn't this isn't this isn't them going out and in adding a bunch of uh 34 year olds to the group necessarily for for conor badar So they're going to be much more watchable. They've done a good job of just generally adding. We saw this in a minor, in a more minor way from them last season, too,

where it's like they realize Kyle Davidson clearly does that it can't just be Connor Bedard and a bunch of other and a bunch of other 19 or 20-year-olds. Like, you have to have some adults in the room. You have to have some guys with NHL bona fides in the mix. They did that to a lesser extent last season. I think we've seen that to a pretty real one now. So, yeah, I still think they're going to stink. Yeah.

But it's fine. They're going to be an NHL team again, and I don't think that's quite what we saw from them. Partially last season, and to be fair, it was it was because of, it was because of injuries. They had some guys get hurt. But these guys like Alex Vlasic in the mix, who's a good defenseman, you know, guys like that. I like the direction they're going on it. Yeah. I think Scotty Powers did a great story, just looking at how much could Chicago improve.

Dom kind of helped him with that too. It was a break off of Dom's piece, which NHL teams would improve the most this offseason. And of course, in that one, we're looking at net rating. The Blackhawks were number one. Net rating added a plus 51. Again, I think everyone knows that this isn't going to be

a great team, but they're going to be much better than they were. And so I would buy on the Chicago Blackhawks right now. I would buy on them. regardless of what they did this off season because of Connor Bedard. Really? They have. They have,

they have the tough part. They could have run it back and you would have bought on the Blackhawks still. They have the tough part taken care of, you know? I think, I think their outlook moving forward is so solid just because of him that, man, that's a tough question. If they didn't add a single piece,

what would I still be in on them? I think I probably would have. I don't think I could because you saw what, like you need to insulate Connor Bedard. Connor Bardard's going to be a star, but you can't just throw him to the wolves every night. Completely. He's a horrendous defensive player right now, horrendous.

Like that's going to, yeah, yes, bad, very, very bad. And that's okay. That's rude. He had just turned 18 last year. He's alone. It's okay. Like, he's got room to get, for as bad as he was defensively, he was electrifying with the puck on his stick and in the offensive zone, right?

That's the way it goes with 18 more players sometime. He's going to get better. They all do. It doesn't change the fact that he was, that he was like a mess last year. And it didn't change my overall feeling about him. Like, I think, I think he's, if he's 90% as good as advertised and as good as everyone thinks he is there in fine, fine shape. I like that Kyle Davidson actually went out and spent some money on on totally actual improvements and like you said these aren't just 35 year old dudes

we're talking about legit top six players proven NHL defenders they'll be improved at both those positions next season so I buy on the Chicago Blackhawks the next team is a little bit more this I don't know if it's quite a debate but it's not as cut and dry. Like this isn't just I'm buying on the Seattle Cracken. That's who's next year. They made some moves this off season. Probably some improvements.

They signed Chandler Stevenson and Brandon Montour. We know that people have always said, people have always said with the Cracken in their lengthy existence. The thing with the Cracken has been they need who's going to score, right? Or they need elite talent or we need some more offense here. So in some ways, they check some boxes with Chandler Stevenson. Brandon Montour at the top of the lineup, at least in the top six and the top four.

But I do think that most of my feelings on Seattle heading into next season will hinge on the Maddie Baneers comeback season. Right. Like if we think that their biggest need is elite talent, can Maddie Baneers be that guy? Do they already kind of have that piece in Maddie Baneers? How do you feel? And by the way, they sign a seven year, they sign Baneers to a seven year contract extension. $7.14 million a AAV this week. So a little bit of news in this pod too.

But I think a lot of my feelings on Seattle surround Maddie Baneers. What do you think, Sean? I think he had a bad second season. And some of that... Yeah, that's why I said a bounce back. Right. And some of it was regression for him.

Like there was some luck involved in his, in his first season, in terms of his shooting percentage, in terms of a teammate shooting percentage. That swung almost two. far backwards in the other direction for him last season. So if you think that that's going to normalize, then you probably like where the Cracken are at. But there's so much hinging on him becoming a high-end one-see for them. And like he hasn't, it's, you know, he's still so young,

who knows where it goes. But if he doesn't, if he tops out as good second line center, which is certainly possible and frankly always has been based on his based on his skill set um they're going to be in trouble they're going to be in trouble like if if he can if he can get back on an upward trajectory and look like a franchise player again after a year in the wilderness then i think they're going to be in good shape and if he can't then they won't be they're tough i think this might this is one of the toughest calls yeah in this whole exercise for me i agree so key departures as well Well, Kyler Yamamoto, Justin Schultz, and Brian Dumlin. I think the Stevenson and Montour signings are a big part of this conversation too, right?

I think Stevenson is a very pricey gamble, 6.25 million for seven years. It's just not going to age well. And then they also signed Brandon Montour for seven years as well, which Shana had written this. the only other seven-year contract that Ron Francis had ever signed was Jacob Slavin. This is not a guy who has historically doled out a lot of term, but he does it on two kind of older, pricey, free agents this off season. I don't know. I think Montour works out better than Stevenson probably does.

I talked to a coach this week about Brandon Montour for the Player Tiers Project, and he was um he was higher on montour than i expected him to be like it wasn't it wasn't like i asked him a leading question or anything but i just assumed you know you see that many years and that much money for brandon montour whose best season had a lot to do with power play success and racking up power play points and you say like all right is this was this a mistake and the coach was basically like i it might be like it might be a little much for montour but i think

I think he is, he's also, he's, he's a more mature player than he was, even, even two years ago. And, and, you know, he doesn't need, basically what the coach says, he doesn't need to have 75 points to basically be worth it. Right. Which is a little, which is a little bit of a surprise to me. Honestly, I thought, I thought, I was going to be like, he, this guy, you know, maybe not a flash in the pan, but it's, it's, it's a contract that they might regret. And that's not the terms that he was being disgusted. So I like the Montor deal more than the Stevenson one, which just seems like it's going to age like milk. Yeah.

I think the maybe the more the plus side of the more positive way to look at the Stevenson deal is that the Cracken needed help down the middle after moving Wenberg at the deadline, right? Maybe Stevenson can help accomplish that. And if we think Maddie Baneers is going to be the one C that they need him to be, If you have Maddie Baneers, Chandler-Stevenson, Yanni Gourd down the middle, if that can be your one, two, three, then you can shift Jared McCann back to the wing where he was very successful in that position, right?

Then maybe it can neutralize or not neutralize. That's not the right word. Just make the top nine better, right? By not having Jared McCann be up the middle. If you can go back to the Jared McCann, Maddie Baneers, Jordan Eberley, top line. Maybe that helps Baneers have a better year three, right?

But that hint is on Bineers playing better and Stevenson actually being able to handle two C minutes and Yanni Gord being the guy on third line center again. There's some question marks and I think I don't, I wrote a big profile on Maddie Baneers. I think last season was maybe just a sophomore slump for him. I think he's a great player.

I don't think I buy on the craft. right now. And it's, this is where it's tricky though, because it's like, do I not like their direction? I mean, they had a tough year too, and they go out and they spend money on guys, and they re-sign Maddie Baneers. If they didn't do anything that bad, I just don't love it. Like, I'm not looking at the Cracken and saying I'm really excited about year three Seattle Cracken Hockey. And that's the problem. Yeah. Baneers-Stevenson is a problem for me. if I'm trying to buy them as a contender as a playoff team in 2024, I don't think it's enough.

And that goes with a huge, the big asterisk there is that Maddie Baneers could, you know, make the leap this year. Maybe at maybe six months from now we're saying, okay, he's a top 15 center in the league. I don't, I don't think that's impossible. But if he doesn't, if he doesn't get that done, I, there is sell.

Today they are a sell for me. Today I soft sell on the Seattle Cracken. And you said that they didn't do anything egregiously bad in the offseason. And that's true because Chandler Stevenson is not a bad, not a bad player. But man, you feel like that's a premium price to pay to pay. Yeah. Now next year, two years from now. And there's, I don't know, they're going to have to, they're still a.

center away. Yeah. And I don't think, I don't think now is the conversation for it because we don't want to do an hour and a half podcast here. But I do think, right. But at some point, someone's going to need to relitigate the expansion draft because I think people had problems with it before saying, well, they did all this so they could have cap space and so they could make moves like this. I don't think you go. And they just used a big chunk. Yeah, I was, you don't, you don't go cheap. You don't, you don't go cheap. an expansion just to use a big chunk of that expansion, that caps base on Chandler Stevenson two years too late. So it'll be, we'll see how it goes this season, but the Krakiner are certainly going to be interesting. Let's go from one newer team to another. We're looking

at the Utah Hockey Club here. They're going to debut this season. Of course, it's the core from last season's coyotes. It's not expansion, but this is new. We can call the Utah Hockey Club, a new team that transition works. They made a big splash in the offseason at the start, adding Mikhail Surgachev and John Marino. Dom was so excited about the Utah Hockey Club that he wrote on June 29th, that they're like, welcome to the playoffs, Utah.

Dom was super jazzed. I can't, I respect the optimism. I think on breaks a little. He was like, I waxed poetic. Maybe I was a bit overzealous. but they objectively improved their blue line. They also add Ian Cole. So they effectively swap J.J. Moser, Travis Dermit and Josh Brown,

three bottom pair defenders for a top pair, top four, and solid third pair guy when we're looking at Surgachev, Marino, and Ian Cole. So the blue line is definitely better than last year. Is that enough to make you buy on the Utah Hockey Club this season? I think so. I think it is. They're a buy for me. Don't love their center depth particularly,

but I think it's good enough, especially if Logan Cooley makes some kind of leap this year, and I've talked to people who think that he can. I like the players at wing. I think Clayton Keller gets better every single year. I think Josh Donne showed a decent amount down the stretch. I think Nick Schmaltz is,

a pretty effective top six player. I like the mix of forwards. I think their power play could be better. And the improvement on their top four is just too, it's too significant to ignore. Like, is Mikhail Sergachev a number, a true number one in the NHL,

we're about to find out, but he's such an upgrade on what they had before that it almost doesn't matter. Like, which version of John Marino are we going to get since he seems to alternate good seasons and bad at this point in the NHL, I guess we'll see. But if those guys are anything approaching what they've shown in the past or what we

believe that they can be, that's going to be a huge, huge upgrade, right? So I don't see a ton of weak spots there. I think you would like to say, you know, maybe a little bit more down the middle. But they have Connor Ingram, who was really good last year, and Carol Vamalka, who seems like a solid, who's a solid timesure option at this point. there aren't a ton of weak spots on that team because of the offseason that they had. Well, how many times did we talk about last year? It was last season, right?

Of just like, where are the coyotes without the Melka? Or was that two years ago? That was the year before last. And then they were in a similar spot with Connor Ingram for a chunk of last year. So they've gotten really solid goaltending from those guys. It points over the last two seasons. But now the skaters and the offense are. or maybe finally going to match up, right?

I don't like them as a cup contender. I'm not sure I'm not sure I would have flown the mission accomplished playoff banner, you know, after the draft, like certain other people do we work with. But I think they're going to be a lot better. And I think the outlook for them most importantly, and this is the, for this conversation that we're having, buy yourself, do I buy the future of the, of the Utah high, hockey club. Yes, yes, yes, yes, because Ryan Smith looks like a, looks like a, he, we know him to be.

Yeah. A successful, uh, professional sports owner. This is Bill Armstrong doing a great job. Now he has actual money to spend and like the avenue, like all, all these questions that are answered, it really couldn't have been a better summer for them, realistically. You know, which member of the now Utah hockey club was great for my. fantasy hockey team last year. Matthias Mazzelli? Sean Dersie.

Yes. I felt smarter than everybody for that one. Sean Durses. I got very late. Sean Dersy and Mikhail Sergachev top pair. Pretty interesting. John Marino, Yusel Alamaki's second pair. Pretty interesting.

And that is just miles, miles ahead of what they got from that group last season. Yep. Signed Ian Colt, too. I said that already. Okay. Well, okay. My bad. I missed it.

But he's, again, like, nobody listens to me. Ian Cole, yeah, right. Ian Cole on a third pair in 2024.

I'll still take it. You would take him over Travis Dermit or Josh Brown. So regardless of what you feel about Ian Cole on his own, it's an upgrade over what they had. I buy on Utah, especially when you factor in what's the, what's going to come when they're actually, when they're in Utah,

a new ownership, how's that going to impact things? They're not playing at the mullet. That's cool arena. Clayton Keller is a legit all-star at the top of that, at the top of that lineup. I was going to ask this, but I always find it to be kind of a corny question,

but is Clayton Keller underrated? I think he's probably properly rated. I think he's gone back and forth in the last couple years, huh? Do people talk about Clayton Keller? Like, that's what I mean. And I don't really hear him coming up in conversations about star winners. Like, what are you going to do? Is that, it's that simple?

It's just because he's been in Arizona. I think so. To some degree. Yeah. But I like, I like the time, like I said, not a ton of glaring holes in that lineup anymore. Maybe you'd like to see some elite center play. I think that Logan Cool, he's capable of doing that for them. So all that plus like the off-ice stuff and just,

the general uptick in the vibes over the last six months, man. They're pretty easy, pretty easy buy for me. We like the vibes. All right. We like the Utah Hockey Club. Let's take another break. We have three more teams to go. It's the Ottawa Senators, San Jose Sharks, and the Anaheim ducks in the final segment.

We'll get to those next on the athletic hockey show. But first, I have a question. What do you get when you mix a new, exciting, expanded playoff, with conference realignment and a stadium named after Pitbull. It's college football, Sean. Not sure if you've ever heard of it. Go Terps. That's all I'm going to say. Yeah, it's college football, everybody.

Until Saturday, the Athletics College Football podcast hosted by David Ubin, Chris Vinnyn, and former Alabama running back Damien Harris will bring you the passion, fun, and the new and college football three times a week, starting on August 26th. You can follow the show wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. We're going to kick off segment three in Canada with the Ottawa Senators, whose offseason is highlighted by the trade for Linus Almark. The senators have needed a true number one goalie,

probably since Craig Anderson aged out slash left the team. We have to see how this plays out, but I don't think the Sends we're going to do much better than Allmark in terms of a goalie upgrade this offseat. I'm interested in seeing what happens here because you're totally right. Like realistically, there was no better option than Allmark. I think it's going to be a it's going to be a challenge for him going from Boston to Ottawa based on what we saw from that team defensively over the last few years.

Sure. Like he's going to have to be a better, different goaltender who has to contend with rebounds and all that stuff that he didn't really have to do for the last two Cs. in Boston. That being said, I think he's good. I think he's as good as they were going to do. And I think he is a gigantic upgrade on Unis Corpus Hollow, which is the main thing they were looking for there. In terms of buying or selling on the Sends, it's actually very tough for me. I think this is another one. It's maybe not as difficult as the Cracken, or maybe it's harder because I like the Allmark deal and acquisition. Some of the rest of their off-season pieces, they add Dave

David Perron, Michael Amadio, Noah Greger, and Nick Jensen. I like shedding Corpusolec's gone. They move on from kind of fringe HL, NHL guys in Park Kelly and Mark Castellick. But where things get muddy for me is the Chickren trade with Washington, not qualifying Eric Brandstrom, and then sending Matthew Joseph to St. Louis. If they would have just done Allmark, I would have said, yep, bye. I like it. But these other ones are what makes it a little bit more muddy for me is I understand that

Chikrin didn't really work out well in Ottawa, but why did you have to trade him for, like, is trading him for Nick Jensen really going to be a value ad? Is it a value add because of whatever stuff we don't know happened there that made it not work out? Like, that's where I'm like, there's maybe some stuff we don't know. I need Ian Mendez back is what I'm saying. Yeah. He's a team employee now. We are not allowed to speak to him. Yeah. What do you think? Are those things that that matter to you? I think it's more that I think it's more that we've just heard this from them for too many years now. Maybe not too many. Like how many times we're going to have this conversation about the Ottawa senators like actually making a jump into the playoff picture? Like for real, we had it last year. We had the year before that.

the difference now is that they actually did seem to solve problems. Like it seems like this is not revisionist history to say like for me and you or whoever else was looking at the goaltending change last season and saying like I don't know about Eunice Corpusolo. Right. That's right. That's why I said like this is the big thing. They've needed a goalie since Craig Anderson, right? It's been a long time since we've been able to look at the send roster and say like they don't.

they don't have a hole or a question mark and goal. Right. And I think that team convinced themselves that Corpus Hollow was the guy when he clearly, you know, when he clearly wasn't credit, credit Steve Stales, honestly, for being able to move that, move most of that contract out in a one fell swoop with Linus Allmark, right? So I think they may have actually fixed the problem. Right. And I think Jake Anderson's continued maturation into what looks to be a not like a legit number one.

caliber guy is huge, right? So you have a guy who can fill that role at the top of the defensive lineup. We don't have to sit there and pretend that maybe Thomas Shabbat can do it or whatever. Jake Sanderson looks like he's the dude. And Lena's on mark. Their top four is set. I think their top four D is set. It all makes sense. Everybody, everybody now defensively, I think, is in a role that makes sense for them if you believe that Sanderson is the real deal. Like having that guy be able to be able to jump up and it you don't have a number two trying to be a number one you don't have a number four trying to be a number three anymore like the the lineup makes a whole lot more sense it does seem like you know even though even though i have my doubts over whether

lina's almark is going to be a besma finalist ever again i certainly is a major major upgrade there um and you know they still have they still have a really interesting productive group of forwards the Thailand by some by some top one by some top in talent so I feel like a jackass for saying this because we've done it so many times but yeah I'm buying the senators okay I think maybe it's because I've been buying on the senators for a while and I feel like they're hmm the lineup isn't more exciting to me heading into the season than it was last year I think that's maybe where my holdup is on the Sends and like how many years have we looked at the Sends and maybe this is just me sounding like a sad sense now, but wait a second.

Like the top six board group has had like significant changes over the last few seasons, right? And two years ago, it's to brink it. And we're all excited about that. And last off seasons, it's Vladimir Tarasenko. Like this year, it's David Perron. And maybe this is them saying like, let's just get like a veteran who's steady, who's going to work with Josh Norris and Drake Batherson or someone who's going to work with

Tim Stutzlil, although I assume it's going to be a Stutz, Kachuk, Klo-Drew top line. Like, David, David Peron, to me on paper is less exciting than to brink it or like Teresanko would be. But also those other two didn't work. So maybe this one will. Like, there's just something. There's just, it's not.

I get it. I get that. I have looked at on paper for the senators. But the other ones also didn't work. And I think a lot of what happens this season's going to hinge on if Josh Norris can get and stay healthy. How is Shane Pinto going to? to look, is he going to be their guy at 3C?

Ridley, Greg, on that third line. Like, there's things to really like about the top nine, about the top four. I think on the blue line, you probably have some questions, like are Tyler Cleven and Jacob Bernard Dock are ready to just be every day, third pair NHL guys? Where does Travis Hammondick fit in? Unfortunately, I just maybe have a few too many questions about a team that's been pretty far into this process for a while. Totally.

That being said, I don't think I said. I don't think I sell on the senators. I think I'm just nitpicking the senators maybe. Like maybe I've just, because I covered the team and we talk about this team all the time, maybe I'm just confused and nitpicking. All that stuff, like, all that stuff ultimately is window dressing when you have, when you're rolling out guys like Matt Murray and Eunice Corpus Hollow and the caliber

goal tenor that they've had, like, you can, whatever, you can convince yourself that Alex DeBrinit is, the guy that's going to turn them into whatever, what top four team in the Atlantic division, that's fine. But like, we'll see, we all know how that worked out, right?

Yeah. Like, it just comes back to the fact that for whatever's going on with the mix of forwards and like, I don't mean, we're not, we haven't even brought up Stutzler or or Kachuk in any meaningful way. Yeah,

because they're not changed, like there. Yeah. I think, I think between the coach, between the coaching change in a better mix, it, on the blue line.

And then a legitimate goalie, like relatively high-end starting goaltender, like I feel like their problems have basically been fixed. Okay. Are they, so you say maybe this is the way to look at the Sends, maybe this is going to be what does it or not. Do you think the Ottawa senators are going to be better than the Buffalo Sabres or Detroit Redwood next season?

You do. Yep. I think I would agree with that. Yep. I buy on the Sends because I did like what they, I like what they did in terms of Allmark. I think that does make them a lot significantly better. I guess when, so what we had like the big all 32,

all the beat writers answer questions about every team. And it's what was the Sends biggest need? And Ian said that it was third pair D. So that's the tough one for me where it's like, why did you move on from Brantstrom and trade Chikrin if you'd need third pair of defenders? If that's your biggest problem is trying to figure out your third pair, then you're in a much better spot than... That's true. Then you're number one bully.

Yeah. I think I'm just nitpicking maybe because the sense of burn me. Yeah. They burned a lot. They burned a lot of people, right? Yeah. And I get the desire to... you know, tap the brakes until we see it in action.

But as it stands on August 22nd, I like, I like the direction of the team. I'm excited to see what they do under a new coach as well. And I was the biggest DJ Smith apologist and fan on this podcast, right? I didn't believe, I mean, but still, I didn't think the DJ was the biggest problem with the team. It was what the GM was doing and that was Pierre Dorian. But at the same time, I'm excited to see what they look like.

under Travis Green. Travis Green is like he's gonna get, like he is primed to get Jack Adams votes this year. Oh, for sure. Like he's, he's in a pretty good situation.

Yeah. And like don't a lot of media guys just really like Travis Green too. We don't vote on the Jack Adams actually. It's TV guys. Well, TV guys love Travis Green because he did TV with them a few times, Sydney. that's right that's what I was yeah he's got who won the last Jack Adams

TV star Rick Tuckett they wanted to give it to Tordrella so bad it was going to be a death match between Torts and Tocket until the flyers finally fell apart down the stretch I'm glad I'm also joking because he was a very good coach not because he was on TNT don't scream at me it doesn't hurt it doesn't hurt he was my he was my preseason Jack Adams

pick talk it was because Montgomery was my two years ago. For a lot of reasons. Yeah. Yep. Remember that? I'm never going to let anyone forget it. I picked Jim Montgomery with the Bruins two years ago

and everyone said they were going to be terrible. Congratulations on all your success. Thanks. Let's move on to the sharks. I'll buy on the Sands. I don't know why I'm being so cruel to them. I don't know. Anyways, let's go to the San Jose Sharks.

I'm interested in them, mostly because of Macklin Celebrini. I think Mike Greer has done a good job over the last year or so in effectively tearing that team down. They get Celebrini. The summer, they add some guys to insulate Celebrini. They're kind of a year ahead in that regard of the Blackhawks, right? Like they did a little bit more than Chicago did in year one of Badaard. They are not going to be good, but they're not going to be one of the worst teams we have ever seen. in the NHL before.

So, and for that, I will buy on the San Jose sharks. I still, that, that defense is a total, a total catastrophe. And that's even, that's even with adding Cody Cici and Jake Woolman. Yeah. But those guys, I will say, like, even though they have their warts to varying degrees, I, I'm, I'm almost bummed that the sharks didn't try to get better, or didn't, that the sharks did try to get better defensively. after what they were looking like at the start of the off season.

Because we went through and did the positional breakdowns, dominated. And what they were on track to roll out there at the beginning of free agency was truly, truly remarkable. So the fact that they, you know, at least improved on that a little bit, is a positive. I'm a saw. This kind of goes back to what I said about Chicago.

I feel like they got the hard part done. They won the lottery. Salabrini, assuming he's the real deal, is enough to make me say, like, yeah, I'm good with, I'm good with where things are going with them. You have Will Smith, who's another potential young, high-end piece at Forward. That team's going to absolutely stink for a year or two or four or whatever it ends up being, but ultimately they have the dudes at the top that you want to see. And careers, after, you know, maybe a little bit of a shaky, after a shaky start. to the job, frankly, he's done a pretty solid, done pretty solid work since the trade deadline.

Yeah. Other key additions, we should say, Tyler Tofoli, Alex Wenberg, Berkeley, Goddrow. Sean already mentioned Jake Woolman, Cody Cici, and obviously Macklin Celebrini signs his entry-level contract. Key departures, Alex Barabanov, Phillips Edina, Mike Hoffman, and Kyle Burroughs. I buy on San Jose, mostly because of Celebrini and my career.

They're going to be better than they were last year, and they have the, star. Like, I think they're, they're going to have a chance to be fine. And I think that that, I think that's good enough for me. I'm excited to see Celebrini. I'm working on a feature on Chloe Permerano, a women's hockey player. She is a stud. She's going to college a year early. But she's also another one of those, like, BC products who's going to, in the same ilk of Celabrini and Dard, like these young stud kids coming out of BC. And I guess she has the same off-season coach as Celebrini.

So I was talking to her and her parents the other day. And they were like, the way this guy works just made Chloe feel like she needed to get her ass even more in gear. And we're talking about a female defender who led the entire high school prep in scoring last season and was like, I need a new challenge. I'm actually going to go to college here early. And she watched Celebrini and was like, oh, I need to work a little harder. So that's a nice little. That's pretty good.

He's been putting in the work before his first NHL season. Macklin-Cellibrini grew up around professional athletes. And I think there's something to be said for that, right? You can pass on the knowledge to the Chloe Primerinas of the world. And I mean, if you trace that a little bit more, Celebrini also kind of quote-unquote grew up, watching Connor Bedard as well. So there's this really interesting.

I was talking about the Golden State Warriors, but yeah. I know, but I'm also, I've been intrigued in doing the Primerano story and knowing that she's eventually going to be a first overall pick in the PWHL, right? So you've got this wave of like elite players coming out of not just Western Canada, but specifically. And like, why is that? And that's kind of, Drandt did a pretty interesting piece about that. And I do think a big part of it is like watching each other now.

Like when you've got a Connor Bred putting in that work and celebrating watching it and being like, I need to do that. And you get a Chloe Permanano watching that and being like, I need to do that. And then the girls who play with Chloe Permanano being like, how did she just score 90 points and 30 games this season? What do I need to do? Like there's this domino effect. The 14 year old watching Chloe Permanano or whatever. Yeah. So that's been an interesting sidebar of the Permanano feature I've been working on that had the celebration.

Brinian butard factor in there as well. Okay, let's go to our final team here. It's the Anaheim Ducks. There's not that much. Unfortunately, there's not that much to say. They took on some salary this offseason. Robbie Fabry is probably an upgrade on Max Jones, who's departed. Brian Dumlin adds some de-depth, but I'm not buying on the Anaheim Ducks.

Like, that's all they did. I don't. I don't, I'm not buying. I'm selling on the ducks. You got to do something more for me. I know the the prospect pool is still pretty solid, but without, uh, without a no doubter, like a baddard or a celebrini, like without that class of player there. And that's no knock on, that's no knock on, you know, Leo Carlson and Mason, guys who we, you know, who have, who have,

a, who have a lot of potential. Um, without a, without a, without a no doubter in that group, like, I just don't, I, I can't, I can't, I can't sign off. on it. I do I think everyone's decided Sean let me pose this question. I'm sorry. Has is everyone just kind of out on Zeggris being the franchise number one guy? Is that where people are at? Like Zegris is not the no doubt elite player. Absolutely. Yeah, he absolutely is not like you can't, you can't say that he's a top 15 player or whatever, a top 15 center. We don't even really know a position he plays at this point. Last year, last year was last year was not good for him. And they need to show real growth in a lot of different ways.

One of these guys needs to step up, right? Like, one of those guys needs to look like a franchise player. Frank Vitrano shouldn't be leading the team in scoring. No. No. Respectfully. Respectfully. So, they're a cell. They're a pretty decisive cell. Yeah. When you're a young rebuilding team that's supposed to have this young stud core 30 year old Frank Vitrano shouldn't be.

I like, I like Troy Terry a lot. I think he followed up a breakout season with another pretty good one. Like he's a legit, he's a legit first line player. I like Mason McAvish too. But whether it's Carlson or Gautier or Ziegress or McTavish or some of the, I know there's a lot of defensive players that, um, that the prospect guys like, like everyone likes Olin Zellweger and Pavlman Chikov and whatever. Like there's there's potential there, but we haven't seen it come, you know,

we haven't seen it come through in any real way. And I think we're at the point now where it needs to happen or else there's going to be big, big problems. Yep. I agree. I sell. So, okay, let's just recap very quickly. We both sell on the blue jackets.

We both buy on the Habs. We buy the Blackhawks. We sell the Crackin. were buyers on Utah. Buyers on the Sends, although I took some time to decide, we both buy on the sharks and we sell on the Anaheim ducks.

You'll be agreeing every single one. I think so, unfortunately. I know. Yeah, but I also was like, oh, well, uh, I had a few panics, so it's fine. You could have taken a truly courageous stance against the Ottawa senators

and then you thought the better of it. Yeah, but... It's on you. Well, I don't know if it would have been courageous because it's also hard to sell on a team. Like, I've been on the Brady Kachuk as a franchise player wagon since I covered the team. So, like, why would I sell on a team that I believe has a franchise forward?

I was just getting too bogged down in the third pair D situation. I was like, but... But Armstrong. The team's VP of Com said that their third... so that their third pair of defense needs to be better. It's putting too much stock in what Ian Mendez has to say. You know what's crazy? I'll never do that again.

It's like six months ago we did one of those two, one of the all 32s, where we had to like pick what each team's greatest weakness was. And Ian said it was their communications department. Can you believe that? What did he know? And when did he know it? We love you, buddy. there's no way he listens to this anymore

hell no where he's sitting there with a little notepad it's either one or the other I'm either never going to hear from him again or he's going to go into full you know hard ass mode yeah is he going to shake my hand at the Canadian Tire Center this season

I don't know very awkwardly in an Ottawa senator's quarter zip I'm happy for him truly he can just get senators patches sewn on his many existing quarter-sips I think is what he should do a quarter-sip guy I miss Ian he's going to be listening to this and then when I go and ask for like a lenus allmark sit down he's going to be like oh oh you want to come to me with a request now a hundred percent of my polo shirts no whenever whenever Tim Stutzla is in the whatever to be a category on play layer tears.

It's going to come back and bite me in the ass. Yeah, well, can't be worse than what happened before when I was in Ottawa. Anyways, thanks everyone for listening to the athletic hockey show. Next week, all week. Max Boltman and Corey Pranman host the Prospect Series pipeline shows, which I don't know why Max has been unavailable to podcast us, but he can do four shows with Pranman. vacationing air quotes means banking prospect series shows with Bronman okay yeah yeah right so beginning Monday through Thursday on the athletic hockey show you can catch that series on the athletic

podcast network thanks everyone for listening to another edition of the athletic hockey show with me haley and him Sean thanks everyone