The Athletic Hockey Show - Bo Horvat dealt to the New York Islanders, Ryan Miller Victory Tour

Episode Date: January 31, 2023

Craig and Sean welcome Kevin Kurz, who covers the Islanders for the Athletic, to analyze the trade involving the NHL's premier trade chip, Bo Horvat. The guys discuss if this trade was made a couple of months too late for the Islanders, who surrendered Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Raty and a conditional first round pick in 2023. Ryan Miller joins Craig and Sean to look back on the ceremony in Buffalo last week, when the Sabres retired his number 30. The guys talk about the maturation of this years Buffalo Sabres, Ryan's plans for the future, and they look back on the artwork featured on Ryan's many awesome goalie masks.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowGet 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code NHL23 at Manscaped.com and shoot your arrow with MANSCAPED™ this Valentine’s Day Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is The Athletic Hockey Show. Hey, everybody. Welcome to today's edition of The Athletic Hockey Show. I'm Craig Custins, joined, as always, without fail, every Tuesday on the American edition by Sean Gentility. I don't like... Oh, hi, Sean. I don't like... I don't like this bit because you're making fun of yourself.

What's a bit? I'm introducing this. We're too... The implication, the implication is that I'm the one who's not around. And I don't appreciate it. There's no bit. I'm just. Because I'm stuck here covering for your deadbeat ass constantly.

As always, it's the Sean and Craig show on Tuesday without fail. Always and forever. Just an absolute. Maybe we say this every week. Maybe we don't. We're loaded. We're loaded up this week. We've got in the second segment, Ryan Miller, pre-recorded.

It's been, if you've been following, Ryan Miller's been taking a bit of a victory tour. numbers being retired. He's been inducted to a lost count. 15, 16 Hall of Fame from like the Niagara Falls to USA hockey. How many Hall of Fame do you think he's in now? It definitely just started out like his like the subdivision that he grew up in had a Hall of Fame and just kind of like built its way up. Well, not to get side check.

What would be the low like what Hall of Fame is most likely to induct you, Sean? Oh, me. I definitely definitely the same no I at St. Rosalia Hall of Fame. I would be honored that that was my elementary school. I wish there was a Greenfield Hall of Fame, which is the neighborhood I grew up in Pittsburgh, but I don't think there technically is. I'd love it if someone hung a plaque for me up at yesterdays or the soldiers and sailors hall or the Greenfield cogos.

That's where it should be. That's a joke for seven people, seven people. I'm sure it was really funny to those folks. I would put you in all of those Hall of Fames. So Ryan's great. We covered a lot of ground with Ryan, including just sidetracked about goalie mass, which ended up being probably my favorite part. So definitely worth the wait. But we have another guest who's waiting patiently here.

Last night, massive trade. First major trade of trade season goes down. Bo Horvats dealt from the Vancouver Canucks to the Islanders. And the Islanders are pushing. Lou Lamarillo is making a push here. So we are thrilled to be joined by our Islanders beat writer, Kevin Kurz, to break it all down for us. Cursey, how are you? Good.

Good. How are you guys doing? Oh, we're good. We're good. You know, I think the surprise or however we wanted to categorize last night has worn off and we've gone full into, all right, how much sense really does this make for the Islanders? I mean, we know why the Canucks made this deal and we can maybe debate the return. but let's start there, Kevin.

Why this deal right now for the Islanders? Yeah, the timing does seem a little bit odd. I mean, it feels like one of those deals that they probably should have tried to make in the summertime. You know, 52 games have been played by this team. There's only 30 left. And the problems that I think most people identified with this roster heading into the season have essentially shown themselves to be true. And that is this team has trouble scoring.

two or fewer goals in 12 of the last 13 games, just 22 goals in the last 13 games total, a power play that is just terrible, second to last power play in the league. So, you know, is this really a roster where you look at it and you look at the results so far and you think, boy, this team should add at the deadline. I think that's very debatable. Now, that said, you know, I think everyone's sort of been waiting around for Lou to make a move. And again, I think we we figured it would be over the summertime. And, you know, was he in on Johnny Goddrow and the Nazim Khadji rumors and all that? He signaled that he still thinks to

me that this move means that he thinks this is still a team that can chase a Stanley Cup this season. And that's, again, it's very debatable at this point. Do you think he just, do you think he just poured it over the deal that he offered for J.T. Miller for Beau Horvath? You're like, hey, Jim, remember that one? You're going to try it again. You know, I mean, I guess so. And I think this deal is probably, in the long run, this is going to be as long as they can get Bo Horvett signed, which right now seems like an uncertainty. This is, this is a better deal, you know, a 27-year-old guy who's a center who that you can, you can potentially put with Matthew Barzell, who you just signed to an eight-year extension for the foreseeable future.

And that's your top line. You can just set them and let them be for a little while. So in that sense, it's, it's, it does make some sense. But if you look at it through the prism of just this season only, it's, it's the, again, the timing is a little bit odd. Yeah. I mean, so like if we're talking just a pure hockey perspective, you said they, they struggle to score, need power play help.

I mean, from a pure, like, you're bringing in a guy with 31 goals and 40 games or whatever it is. Like, this is, this is the solution. This is like, this is exactly what they need. I guess it's, is it too late would be the, the question. Yeah, there's no question. They needed someone like this and they needed them now. And they needed them two months ago also probably. But, you know, it's the power play is what, Lou was pretty direct when he when he said, you know, this, this is a guy that's going to have

to help our power player in a way. And obviously I'm paraphrasing a little bit. But that's really been the most baffling part of this team. Because if you, you look at last season, from February 1st on last season, this team had the NHL's fourth ranked power play. Well, they didn't change any of the roster. The top power play unit is the same, but it's been terrible. So to me, that's on the coaching staff. Why can't this coaching staff get the same out of the power play this season that they did last season? So, you know, that's, but, you know, I guess that doesn't matter now because you're bringing him Bo Horvad. He's going to be the top line center. He's going to win faceoffs on that unit. And he's going to have to kickstart it right away because, again, this is a team that their biggest problem has been scoring goals.

Now, there are a lot of reasons for that. And one of them is they don't have enough finishers. And that's obviously reflected on the power play, but it's also reflected five on five. But one of the other constant problems that Lane Lambert has mentioned throughout the last few months is they've had trouble breaking the puck out of their own zone. So to me, that makes me wonder, are they going to go after a defenseman now that might be able to help them do that? Yeah. I mean, and that's what I wrote last night is this, this can't be the only move. If the goal is to contend for a Stanley Cup this season, this can't be the only move. I thought it was a couple weeks ago now, which is crazy because things haven't gotten better for them offensively.

But you wrote a piece just kind of detailing how, you know, the power outage across the board that's happened really since, you know, the start of, how it's gotten worse, really, since the calendar's flipped. is it I guess how many lines aren't working do you know what I mean like how much yeah right like is there is there anything as is with that team in their roster that you can look at and say like whatever extra moves they make whether they add a puck move or whether they add another forward is there anything is there any group of three in that among those forwards where you're like all right we this is fine they don't have to touch this well Well, Brock Nelson was cold for a little while, but I think he's been generally their best forward throughout the course of the season, least their most consistent forward.

Earlier, maybe you could say that was Matthew Barzell. He missed a game, I believe it was January 6th in Calgary, and then he only has two points since then. I think he was probably dealing with a little bit of some sort of injury that obviously we didn't get too much detail on here. You know, Anders Lee still has a respectable go total. He's a guy that gets to the front of the net. You know, the line that this team has essentially been identified with, and no pun intended, was that identity line. That was Casey Sizicus, Matt Martin, and Calderbuck. Well, Sizekis has been a winger with Matthew Barzell lately. They put Atu Ratu as the fourth line center. He's obviously gone now.

Calderbuck is out indefinitely, which, you know, around this team, you wonder if that's for the whole season. Oliver Wallstrom, too, you know, I've heard rumbling, he might be out for the season. And so they need some help. And obviously, Horvatt will help in that regard. And I think the best way to approach us is load up the top six. You put Horvatt with Barzell. You have Anders Lee and Brock Nelson. You keep them together.

You have Pajot as your third line center. I'm not sure what they do on the fourth line now because, again, Ratu was their fourth line center. He's been traded. So the depth issues are still there. You know, God bless Zach Perisi. He's got how. however many goals. I think he's third on the team right now with with 13 goals maybe it is.

And is he really a long-term solution? Is he a guy you really want skating in top nine minutes at this stage's career? I'm not, I'm not quite sure. So they're a little top heavy now. When you look at the forward group, again, that just leads me to think that there has to be, there have to be some more moves here before the deadline if they truly want to compete for the cup this season. reading Pierre's piece last night, he wrote essentially, you know, this is going to come down to whether or not they can sign Boho Rat to an extension. You know, reading between the lines, a guy like Lou La Merillo certainly is doing, I'm assuming, some sort of back channeling.

You know, there's like, can we get this done? You know, I don't think you make this trade completely blind or at least without some sort of indication. So maybe, you know, maybe those, that's been set in motion. But I'm just curious, here's a guy who, who's having a career year, when you think of the long-term kind of view of the Islanders, is this the right guy for them to be investing in if they ended up doing a massive deal with him, which he's going to demand based on the season he's having? Yeah, that'll be the interesting part is if they want to sign them to say an eight-year, $8 million deal, how do you do that?

And, you know, I look at a guy like Josh Bailey potentially. I think he could be a buyout candidate at the end of this season. I think that would save them 2.3 million last time I checked in Taylor Cap room next season. It probably means you don't resign a guy like Semion Barlamoff unless he wants to take a massive pay cut. So you'd be in the market for a backup goalie. Clearly, that's probably not a huge deal right now because Ilya Sorokin is just, we know he's going to be the man here for probably the next decade in goal. But what you're doing here is you are still mortgaging the future a little bit for a

group that is already a little bit older. You've got a lot of money locked up in Anders Lee in Brock Nelson. You cleared a little bit with the Beauvilliers contract going to Vancouver. So, you know, this is a team that assuming they don't have that 20, 23 first round pick, they will have gone four straight seasons without a first round pick, which is putting a lot of pressure on the young guys in the system you have to produce. We've seen improvements from some of them. You know, Wallstrom maybe hasn't developed the way they had hoped.

I think the jury's still out on him. On defense, you've got a younger defense group. Noah Dobson's improving. Alexander Romanoff they brought in from Montreal. He's a guy that I think they still hope will improve throughout the course of the, his time here. He's just 23 years old. So, but it's it's the forward group that you worry about their age a little bit.

And even, you know, you bring in Horvat, obviously, he was a guy in his, is in a, that's in his prime. And you would expect him to remain that way for at least two or three more seasons. So I guess you kick the can down the line a little bit further with this group. But again, for me, it comes down to, is this group good enough right now to contend? And that's where I think a lot of Islanders fans are looking at, at some of the results lately and asking themselves, was it really worth it to again give up, you know, pieces, assets that could help in the future for this team right here right now that so far does not look like a contender? The structure of the trade, and obviously the big thing going back to Vancouver is the pick, which is top 12 protected for 2023. And if that tolls over to 2024, there's no protections on it at all.

to me that's the fascinating part of it, right? Not just from a Canucks standpoint, but from an Islander standpoint, too, because, you know, you mentioned kicking the can down the road, that puts potentially even more weight on Ilya Serolkin's shoulders next season. If, you know, if they don't re-sign Hornabat, if things really go sideways, you're saying, all right, all right, buddy, let's redo that from, from last year and also maybe bail us out of trading away a potential top five, top seven, lottery win, whatever, whatever it ends up being, you know, you're just putting more on

Seroen's play. And he seems like he can handle it. He's been fantastic. But what have you seen from him, I guess, up close over the last little bit to let you know that he's, you know, that A, he's worth this bet because that, because I feel like that's a big part of this too, right? This is a, adding Horvette is a bet on how good Ilya Seroquen has been. And is he worth it? And if he is, why? And what have you seen from him? Well, every goalie expert I talked to seems to just love this guy.

I don't know if you guys have ever talked to Adam Francilia, the independent trainer that's worked with guys like Connor, you know, Connor Helibuck's one of his clients, James Reimer. And he loves this guy. And I talked to him maybe two weeks ago just because for me, from my standpoint, It was particularly impressive that Sorokin was still playing so well when he probably knows going into every game that he better allow two or fewer goals or he's not going to win. Because if you look at his record right now, I mean, I think he's 16, 16 and 4 or something like that. So his record isn't great, but he's got these fantastic numbers.

He's kept the team in every game. And this is a team that, you know, for long portions of just about every game, they seem to be hemmed in their own end. And early in the season, it was the beginning of games. Lately, it's been late in games. You know, they went 11 straight games without a third period goal until they finally scored one against Detroit on Friday. But Sorokin has remained just steady, just unflappable. He just, he has that ability to, I guess, compartmentalize what he has to do without worrying about the team around them. And obviously, he's got the skill set.

We've all seen him just make these incredible saves. And he just makes the difficult saves look easy. So I don't think there's any doubt that. the team will open up its wallet for him this off season. And that's really another facet of the Horvatt potential Horvatt deal is the Islanders are going to be, you know, able to extend Sorokin this off season. He's going to, you know, have that one year left on his deal at $4 million, which is obviously a huge bargain right now.

How much is he going to command and how might that affect what they might have to do if they do sign Horwett to an 8? mention. The money's going to dry it pretty quickly. And I know the salary caps set to go up, but it's going to be interesting to see what happens if they do, in fact, signed Sorokin to some sort of a massive deal of this offseason after agreeing to one with Horvett. At least they dump a dump a villiers. Yeah. Yeah. That helps. They don't have his four million on the books. That was something I don't think I paid enough paid enough attention to last week. And then if you, you know, if you do buy out Josh Bailey, that frees up more money, but then again, you're, you still got to get somebody to play here.

You can only fill out. You can only fill out. And Islander fans have said that. I've seen that in my mentions. Well, Bovilliers wasn't very good right now. Josh Bailey's still terrible. Let's get rid of these guys. Like, okay, that's fine.

But you got to replace them with somebody. And when you lack the prospects in the system and you don't have many first round draft picks, just from a lack of trading in the way earlier, I mean, you've got to find guys somewhere. Right. I know any Canucks fans listening will be really curious to get your opinion on Atu Ratu, a kid who went from supposed to be a top five pick or whatever he was in the 21 draft and ends up sliding to the second round, but has kind of recovered. I mean, so much of this trade from a Vancouver perspective hinges on this and then

whatever happens with that pick, like if it ends up being a lottery ticket later on down the line, what are they getting there and what's his ceiling? Yeah, I thought he was impressive when he came in. He played 12 games. He got a couple goals. They didn't really put him in much of a chance to succeed with better linemates, which I thought was a little surprising, especially lately because they have had so much trouble scoring goals.

Now, Lane Lambert did try him with Matt Barzel for a little bit. Not much at all. Not really anything significant. I mean, the last few games, he was skating with Matt Martin and Josh Bailey. So, you know, that's not, Bailey hasn't been good this year. Matt Martin is not an offensive player. So how much impact could he really have? I will tell you that off the ice, I was impressed with him.

I thought he was a really mature kid. I think he's a really headstrong guy. So I think from that standpoint, it's good. He won't be someone that's affected by having to spend more time in the minors. You know, I know he's gotten a taste of the NHL now. And I'm sure the Canucks, unless I'm mistaken, I think they're going to assign him to their HL team. He's not going to be anyone that's going to be adversely affected by that just from a mental standpoint. I think he's good like that. You know, his skating is the big issue.

That was something that I think has been labeled as a potential problem area. I didn't think it was that bad. I thought he was getting around the ice just fine. And maybe it'll never be to the level where he could be a top two center. But to me, it does look like he has the tools that this guy's going to play in the NHL. Whether his ceiling is third line center or higher, I guess he'll have to determine that on his own. But I do think he's a nice prospect.

I do think he's going to be an NHL player. And again, I was really impressed by the way he handled himself off the ice. And I think that really left an impression on the coaching staff in the front office to it. This is certainly not a guy that they were actively looking to trade. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind they would have preferred to keep him.

Gotcha. He's going to step in and be that connects number one center within days. You kidding me? He's the best guy that got. I don't know what they're center of the HL for. Let's go. Yeah. I mean,

that's, and you guys know how certain fan bases like to really drastically overrate prospects. And listen, he's a nice prospect. Don't get me wrong. Everyone loves a prospect hugger, baby. Yeah,

but, you know, a lot of times people sort of daydream and think he's going to become the next NHL superstar. I don't think that's going to happen. But again, I do think he's a nice piece. And I think that islanders

certainly in a perfect world, would I like to keep them around? Yeah. Well, Cursey, I know it's a busy time for you. It sounds like there's probably still some work for the Islanders to do, so it's going to be. It's going to be fun. So appreciate you carving out some time here. Great work and all your coverage and appreciate it.

Okay. Yeah. Thanks, guys. Take care. All right. Coming up next, we've got Ryan Miller and his victory tour, including a giant sword he got so much. Goodness from Ryan Miller.

It was a very evasive answer. you're about to sort, I think. Because it sounded like you wanted to buy it off of it or something. It was super... Anyways, we'll be right back with Ryan Miller. We're now thrilled to be joined here in the second segment by former NHL goaltender, Ryan Miller, from California, right? Is that where you're joining us right now?

Not to give away your location. Yeah, hanging outside L.A. and California. Nice. So we wanted to have Ryan on. And last week, the Buffalo Sabres honored him for his incredible career by raising the number of 30 into the rafters. And I have to imagine, Ryan, I was reading some of the quotes that you said, you know, going back to when you signed with Buffalo and seeing some of the other names and numbers up there and allowing yourself to think, hey, maybe one day that could be me. What was it like for you in the moment? I just imagine how surreal that would be.

Yeah, it's hard to put the words. It's kind of surreal. And that story, I feel like, yeah, I had this recollection of it. I think it's just like any building you walk into, you take it all in. But, like, I was signing a contract there. I never really been in that arena before. I'd been to other arenas. And at the time, Joe Lewis was, you know, still around.

You're going there. And there's all kinds of history. And I'd been to the garden. I've been to, before they tore it down in Toronto and, you know, even in Boston, same thing. Like, you know, there's certain times you walk into a building and you just take it all in. So I was signing that contract. It's like, I'm just standing in the middle of rink because the ice is out. They're doing maintenance and like, you know, cleaning up, you know, it was off season.

And, you know, I just remember trying to picture myself like, okay, the crowd's here. You know, you're looking around. You see a couple things. And then, you know, your eyes drawing up there. And I do remember kind of thinking, like, well, I'm signing this contract. And wouldn't that be amazing to have the kind of career where, you know, I could join that group. So it is very surreal and, you know, extremely proud of my time in Buffalo. And, you know, I think reconnecting with the city in the last, you know, a few months has been

extra special. Yeah, it's a kind of a crazy time to, well, not crazy, but it's a good time to do that given how things have gone for the team over the last few months. Your timing's been solid. What's it been like, you know, as if you're connected with Buffalo and maybe the org a little bit to kind of see, you know, the upswing in the on-ice stuff there? I mean, they certainly deserve it. I think they've had a long spell.

here where they're trying to find the right direction. But I can say from being around the team just a little bit more. It seems like there's a lot more of a positive buzz and there's a feeling that they have a good mix there. And you can tell like the players are, you know, they're buying into it. They all care about each other. And the little things are there too. Like I told a little story quickly, you know, in between periods. I went to the Ducks game and they had me on the TV there. But after that first game, you know, I brought Bodie, my son down. We were taking the chance that overtime would go well. Like they tied the game.

Okay, we just went down. He was like giving me a hard time because he was like, I want to watch the end of the game. You know, we have to be in transit. We're going down the elevator. We're watching on TV in the elevator, you know, hoping that either they score or they don't get scored on. You know, he's like, I want to watch it live. I go, dude, like you got to take the chance here. Like, if they score and they win, this is going to be awesome.

Like, we're taking the chance. You've got to take a chance in life. Right, bud? Like, you've got to put yourself out there. Something good might happen. Like, sure enough, we get down there and we're just staying high to some of the guys who weren't dressed at night and saying, you know, kind of cruising into the back room. And boom, they score.

Cousin scores. And the place goes nuts. And, you know, it's a great moment. Got to go out. And, you know, I just want to be there for the guys. And then, you know, Ocoso waves me out. And, you know, we have a nice little moment on the ice with a group of guys. and it was a really cool night.

But then coming off, you know, like a little moment that you don't see is the guys are doing their first, second, third star. And, you know, I'm kind of walking down the hallway, saying hi, the guys already cleared and kind of going to the room and some of the staff coming off who, you know, were there since I was there. And, you know, in that moment, Bodie kind of got behind me a little because it's kind of awestruck. The guys are in the gear that are sitting around, like, he's just kind of looking. And cousins came over game, like, hey, bud, how are you doing? And gave him a stick. And he already was holding like a game puck. I gave him the game winning goal pocket.

The cousin scored that goal. You know, it gives him a stick. And it's just like, I don't know. It's like he kind of understood. Like, okay, big moment for us as a team. Hey, this little kid here. Like, you didn't have to do that. I just think it's just, I don't know, with Octoso and Craig Anderson,

a few of the guys, it just feels like they kind of have a little bit better culture than going. For sure. And you can feel like, and I think they were pretty intentional about who they brought in. Like,

even like a guy like Alex Tuck, who we love and, like such a dude. Like, I don't know. Made a point to say hi and like connect and talk. Like a lot of those guys that made a point to say,

like, there really hasn't been that in the last few years. Even when I come in town just to play, it's like, not that you have to say hi to me, but it's like, I'm saying hi to, like, everyone I know over there. I've been a whole long time.

They should probably say hi to you. No, and it's just like, you give you heads up. No, I know, but it's just like this feeling of, I don't think they had that same feeling, right? I'll give them better for the doubt, but it's just kind of like, I'm already around. I'm saying, I'd everybody know, we're having fun, we're smiling. It's an okay time to say hi.

And it just seemed like they didn't have that confidence in that feeling. And it's definitely something different there now where they have this. They're stepping up. They have a confidence. We definitely just go out of our way to, like, ask for guys from that organization to come on with us at this point, right? We've had tuck on. He was great. We've had Don on a couple times.

We've had Tage. Like, the whole, the vibes there are off the charts good right now. Yeah. It seems like, which is, it's a necessary thing. But, like, how much of that, how much of that is the mix of personalities that are there? and how much of that just comes from, you know, stringing together some wins. Because, I mean, that's got to be part of that. They're good.

And they haven't been good in this way for a long, long time. Yeah, chicken or the egg, right? Yeah. I don't know. I mean, winning is fun, right? So it's hard to discount that. You got guys who are just feeling it. But it does take the right mix.

You could argue a lot of those guys aren't going to be able to feel comfortable and do what they're doing. without, you know, that right mix. And I think that's same said for our group when we were there. Yeah. You know, no one expected us to do anything. And we, none of, like, we were considered all good prospects, but were we all top of the league prospects where we all, like, the guys who were supposed to do it, you know,

like, I could argue now until we started to get a feeling about each other. And then people started to kind of say, oh, okay, well, they're good. I think a lot of it comes down to that mix, that vibe, the way you feel about your teammates, the way you feel about the city you play in. And that's kind of the point I was trying to get across my remarks is, you know, Buffalo is that kind of city where you have that expectation. You kind of want to do more because there's so much passion for the sport. There's so much passion in the crowd. And it was good. Like some of these guys haven't seen that yet.

and they're starting to see the fans click in a little bit more and pay attention more and that's good for them it feels like the expectation there is always that like they expect you to care like right is it is it is it is it more there with like they they want they want you to know how important it is to them and maybe they want it to be as important to you right i don't know if you see that in a lot of other places but in the same way yeah yeah i mean there's always I think every city has a certain expectation of a win. I mean, there's probably a few places where they're going to give you a benefit of the doubt. But almost every place they expect you a win.

But I do like that Buffalo mixes in that all we want you to win. We definitely expect for you to win at some point. But they want you to definitely buy and care and be a part of things. And feel like you're one of them. They're one of you and everybody's in it together. And then you can be awesome. and running, I guess. How old's Bodina?

He's seven. He'll be eight in March. Yeah. Yeah. I just love the shot. It was the picture from behind. It's you and the fam and the 30 going into the air. And like to have him at this age where he, I'm trying to think it with my kids,

remember seven. Like a moment like that he'll remember. And like how much more special is it to have that experience with him? Yeah. With him. Well, I was feeling bad for it. a while there because he was prime age to feel like a little locker room rat during the pandemic, right? Like I was still playing. We're in Anaheim. He knew all the guys from, you know, the previous

two seasons. And then I feel like he kind of lost out on that prime time when he could really skate and play hockey now. And we had him on the ice a few times where, you know, where he could sort of play and the guys would have messed with him. But like, he can really rip around the ice now. And it would have been primed for, you know, to mess around with the guys and really kind of get that confidence up there. But, you know, you just couldn't bring the families to the rink. Couldn't have them on the ice. Couldn't have extra people around who weren't under protocol. Just all that, you know, messy stuff that went along with the pandemic. So, yeah, this is a big moment for him where he could be a part of something. And we got back to Buffalo in the spring

last year to kind of show him. And it's nice that he gets to see the crowd. and take it all in and understand the kind of the real world buffalo and not the folklore of our family, Buffalo. Right. It's hard, you know, a kid's, you know, you got to imagine like a kid doesn't experience something, like, how are they going to process it? So this has been, uh, it's been nice in a way. It's like shows him a window into Noreen and my life in Buffalo.

Like, here's our friends that you've never met, a lot of them. Here's a lot of the people around the organization who are also our friends, but, you know, like, here's a chance to meet them. And here's what the team looks like now, but here's the crowd. Like, basically, like, here's the crowd. Here's the city. Like, here's the vibe. This is what we did for many, many years. And it kind of helps him understand his parents, understand his dad.

Was there a moment where you looked at Craig Anderson and said, hey, he still doing it? hop back up there. Yeah, we had a lot of moments together where we've been doing that. I've seen them a fair amount in the last, not a fair amount, but like when I was in Buffalo last few times, I've seen them and I saw him on the road in Vancouver in October. I went up there to do some stuff with the Sabres and when they were in town. And then on this trip, you know, it is kind of funny in a way. Like, you know, we played against each other in juniors in the North American League.

and he went to the OHL, I went to college. Then, you know, he started pro, I think, the year prior to me. And then I came in and then we're playing against each other in the American League for a number of years. And when he was in Norfolk. And, yeah, it was just funny to kind of have so many years crossing paths. And then he's, you know, he's maintained a level. He's played great hockey. He's still doing it.

And I just couldn't imagine doing the routine right now. Yeah. So it's amazing that he's, able to have the discipline to do that. I just was starting to feel like I was losing that. That edge where you stay in peak shape, you're biggest to be a grind after a little while. Was that like the single biggest thing that made you make the decision?

Like just the day to day of it? Yeah. The day to day of being away from the family, and we had other family goals. You know, we have our daughter, Kaya, who's almost 10 months now. And, like, you know, that aligned with my retirement. You know, Noreen was pregnant shortly after that. Like, it's like something we wanted to do is we wanted to add to the family.

And it wasn't really a great option for us with how busy I was. And Noreen was still trying to have her career going at a certain level. And it's just like, well, we have family goals. I mean, I think, you know, I felt good. I probably could have squeezed a little bit more, but like, what was I squeezing for? Like, I get to be around and I'm present for some stuff. And we definitely are trying to, you know, figure ourselves out now with two kids and I'm done.

But it needed to happen for our family goals. And I felt strongly about that. So, you know, I'm happy with, you know, wouldn't change anything. I wanted to ask you, which is the better beer? The Mills Pills or the 391 IPA? I guess is what you're in the mood for. Yeah. Yeah, the IPA was actually, we were talking amongst our family and the resurgence brewery who helped us out.

You know, they actually came to us and said, hey, we can have this great idea. And we can help out with charity and do some promotions. and we thought that was a cool idea because it's coming back to Buffalo, I think you need to have a beer. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we were talking amongst the family. The IPA was actually really smooth, a little lighter in a way the most time you're thinking about IPA. That was good. It was tasty.

Did you have a say in the, did you taste test them and say this one's Ryan Miller approved or did they just slap the label on for you? They asked me what ones I would prefer, like what style beer? And so that's how they went down that path. And then when we were in town in the spring, or not spring, in November, I went back for a greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame event. And we stopped, my dad and I stopped in. And they're like, well, it's going to be a lot like this one we currently have. And a lot like this one, we're going to take it down these paths.

So it was fun to be kind of surprised when we got there. That's great. Was the whole like, the whole scale, I mean, You're talking about the Buffalo Hall of Fame. I mean, you've knocked out a lot of things like that over the last. It's been a few months. It's been like a victory tour kind of thing. It's a little bit embarrassing because we've had to get organized and do so much of this.

And my family's just kind of like, oh, another thing for you, right? That's what I want to ask? Like, what are the logistics that go into this? Because we hear from, like, hear from other people like, oh, such and such hasn't had his jersey retired because it's like a whole or. Hill and they're trying to get it like they're trying to get schedules lined up. So it's just like, I'm blocking out. I'm blocking out two months. You're like let's let's go. No, it was like planning a wedding for the Jersey retirement. Like I was kind of in the middle of it's kind of in the middle of helping everyone get organized. We had different groups who wanted to

come. Like I had my buddies who I grew up with were very prominent in this this weakest event. And I had the guys from my class at Michigan State. And we had the alumni from the Sabres. And, you know, the Sabers helped organize everything. It kind of took it as, you know, they're, you know, Rich and Amber from the Sabers kind of acted as like, okay, we're just going to put up like a link with a form on it. You just tell whoever you want to come and do this whole thing, just send information to the link. So we had tickets and start blocking hotels. And it's great. like the Sabres ended up having like five suites open like I think only a few people in our party who were like had like five or six people were in the stands and then uh everybody else is hanging out in the suite having a good time so they did at first class for everybody uh you know they took care of everybody had some great events on the off nights uh so I mean it was it was really like it's funny as Norin with it has an Indian background and it's like it was pretty much an Indian wedding we had like four nights of like just events.

So got to catch up with a lot of great friends. I didn't see it in a long time. And I get some of the, you know, the Buffalo boys I played with got sent back to town. They did a nice job including them and a lot of the events where they got a lot of great recognition, got to have fun,

be around the crowd again. And it's something that I appreciated being in front of the crowd. And I know that we talked about that as a group. Like it's just, you know, when you play, we all played so long in Buffalo, all the guys who showed up, we're in Buffalo so long. And it's like,

I mean, if you're done for a certain amount of time, you know, some of the guys got traded or signed elsewhere, you know, it's been, you know, seven,

10 plus years for some of these guys being in front of that crowd. So it's pretty cool. That's awesome. Who, now that there's some, we have a little bit, you have a little bit of space between when it happened and now.

Who were you most mad about leaving Buffalo when you were there? Which player? well I think we did have a good chance if Jerry and Breyer's year where they signed in New York and Philly I mean if we could have gotten something done I mean our window probably stays open a little bit and we had a big transition year where like they left

and we stumbled and then we took us a second to get it back till like 09 and then 10 and I think in 09 I got hurt. Like I missed like six to eight weeks. I had a high ankle sprain like right in the bulk, right in the fun part of the season. Like right in like February and the January, February. So like right before like All-Star break, like I was having a really good season too. Like I was feeling good. So I mean, it took us a while to get our form back after mixing up the lineup. And those two guys were our co-captons. Right. So I, the answer is two guys. Yeah. It's got I mean.

That's the, that's, how, I don't know how much you were following it when it happened, but like, how, do you, how close was it to you keeping the band together? Do you have any sense of that and talking to those guys? No, it's just a, I think it's just a weird time, you know, like, I think between management ownership, the salary cap and, you know, coming out the lockout, you know, two years prior, I think there was a lot of uncertainty about how accelerated the cap would be. I think in that first year, the cap, like, jumped up. And I think it, you know, in Buffalo was, you know, a small market. I think at the time they're like, oh, man, like, will this trend continue? Like, what are we going to be doing about it? I mean, you can't fault anybody too much. I mean, they're trying to make business decisions and keep everything, you know, intact.

But purely from a window of opportunity standpoint, it would have been great to get, you know, more crack at it with like that that core yeah yeah did you know that they're did you know that they're gonna give you a saber at the retirement st.

yeah they mentioned everybody was like holy shit Ryan Miller has a sword yeah I was trying to let my siblings know not to mess with me anymore I was still yeah no they that's what they give the Hall of Fame so they you know they stacked in like the

Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame and that retirement And it's kind of like that's what they were presenting that for. So, yeah, that's the signifier of the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame. It's great. There's photos of you. You look psych to be holding it. You're like, all right.

I mean, how could you not be? I just want to know where the sword is and if I can buy one for myself, I think. Yeah, that's the question. That's what you're getting at. That's something to ask the Sabers organization. They sourced out that sword. John, you just got to have a hall of fame career. The thing I have to do is decide to be a Hall of Famer

and make the Sabres Hall of Fame. I guess that's what I have to do. Well, I think anybody can probably buy a sword. I mean, this is America. I don't look special to me. I don't know. You can buy whatever you want. This is America, right?

You can buy as many guns as you want. You might as well have a sword. It's tougher to buy a sword. Probably harder to get a sword. It's probably than a gun. Ironically, yeah, probably. Hmm. Only other thing.

I'm not even going to go on the account. I want to, though. It would be a way more fun conversation. Right. We just ran a story. Sean, I think you were a part of it that blew up randomly. It seemed,

it was about the goalie masks and the best designs. And it just, and like, fans love that. And I always am curious how much thought goes into that, you know, from a goalist perspective. if it's like something you cared about or did somebody say I'll handle

I'm going to be your goalie mask advisor in design. Well, everybody had a guy in East Lansing or something that was your guy or what was that? I mean, everybody wants like it's funny. Like all the guys, if you gave them an opening, everybody on the team would have an idea for the mask, right? That's right. No, I would, we'd have fun with it. I would design every single one. Like I would sketch it out.

I would draw it out. I would have an idea. Like, I would do, like, full, like, sketched out versions of it. And I work with Ray Bishop since college. He's an artist in Michigan. And Ray has done all my mass since my freshman year. And he did all my pro-mats. And we would, I would just email him or send him a picture or what I was thinking or, like,

just even typing out an idea. Like, hey, I have this idea. And we go back and forth on it. And then, like, once we got kind of. that final space, I'd just be like, okay, you know, you're the artist, run with it. But sometimes I would have a jumping off point would be more refined and sometimes it would be really loose. But I always love to kind of sketch it out and have like, make sure it was going to be like exactly what I had in my head. And we, the one, you know, once I got to a team,

I always had the tradition of it. I stick to a design, right? I wore the same designs for every team. I modify little parts, but it's basically the same. Or we'd mix in a fun mask, but I'd always had the same. My Buffalo head mask stayed the same the whole time. Vancouver was basically the nods of the totems in Stanley Park in a way. And then Anaheim was a, you know, a Ducks, you know, a goalie mask, you know, expanded over the whole mask.

And we stuck with that for four years. Yeah, and I just mixed up the colors. And by the end, I had a gold one, right? Like, I did orange, I did white, I did gold. You know, we just, the only one we didn't do is black. We thought that would go too far. Like, wouldn't be able to tell what it was. But the gold one actually turned out pretty awesome.

I was a little... I don't want to Google it while we're talking. Yeah, I was a little apprehensive about the gold one, but it turned out awesome. And then we did like a matte white version that I thought was really good too. But like the Buffalo. one we kept just playing with the colors and the different materials and then like the I think the sides changed a little bit over the years to kind of then the script of buffalo was incorporated at a certain point and I haven't I haven't looked at the gold one up close in a while I remember this one it was

great I'm looking at it now yeah it had you and it had you and Bodie and Noreen and the dog on the back oh yeah yeah we did like a each scene oh this is great this is really good audio when I'm just like looking at it I'm going to describe it for you in detail. People will love it. Well, then we always had like a fun mask or whatever. Like we did a Star Wars night in, in Anaheim, and I actually kept that one because I broke the American record wearing that mask.

That's really funny. And so I kept it, but it's funny. It's like it's Po Damarin as the pilot or whatever. So he just expanded his mask, and it's usually red, but we made it orange colored. And then all. the script on it, we look, and it's like, you know, they have their own alphabet, right? And I think, because you just look at all these things. And sure enough, I've Googled it. And it's like, oh, yeah, Star Wars alphabet for whatever. And so we put like all the same references

are spelled out in Star Wars alphabet, like Miller Times on the back, like all this stuff. Wow. Yeah. So we just, like you have fun with it. I think we did a military night one, too, or in Anaheim, which was like a copy of like, uh, uh, we had a former Navy SEAL, uh, was, uh, embedded with our team. And he was kind of helping us out. You know, he's a friend of Dallas Eakins, but we took his helmet they wore on like every tour he went on. And we just painted that onto the helmet. Like he, he brought it in and we took pictures of it and it's like, put it up. And then we'd auction that one off. So like, we've had a lot of fun. over the years with the bowling mask.

The black, red and gold one for the Vancouver skate jersey too. I'm seeing here, that seemed like the one you mixed in. That's you. Yeah, that was a mixed in. Didn't get to keep that. Had to give that one to the team. Some teams is easier to probably I'm away from. I've had the horse trade a little bit over the years.

So, like, for that Star Wars one was going to be sold. And I was like, well, I broke the record. I want it. So I had to trade one of my other ones to them. I usually don't let a lot of my masks go unless they're the one-offs. That's a big piece. That's a big piece to get away. Well, that's what I mean.

I have horse traded over the years. So the only mask who have really gotten out of my possession, it's like I was, I needed to trade them up. Or like when I left Buffalo, I gave away some masks to guys who helped me out for, you know, like 10, 12 years, you know, that's the only time I've given them away.

I have all the other ones. I didn't realize you had to, to trade your way back into your mask. I figured that would be like, thanks for your service. You can have, you can keep, you can usually keep like one for sure, right? Like, but now they have like a backup or if you do a special addition to mass, they're going to sell it off, right? They're going to make back enough, you know, they're going to balance out.

They're going to balance out, you know, all the other masks by selling one or two of everybody's. Got to pay for it somehow. Jeez. If you're the Knotch, you have to pay for your retro jerseys in one way or another, so you sell Ryan Miller's mask. Make sense? They sell, hey man, they sell everything. That's crazy.

For sure. What's next in the Ryan Miller victory tour? Vacations. We're done. Nice. Good. Awesome. Family deserves some vacation time, especially my wife.

She brought a child into the world and has been. just waiting for her time. So that and Bodie's got hockey and stuff. We got to, you know, do the hockey weekends. I think he's got tournament in February and stuff like that and maybe some springtime stuff for him. And the baby, she's, I mean, she needs to be doing stuff now. She's getting bored of just getting carried around.

She's ready to move. 10 months now. She's ready to roll. I know. Let's get going. Yeah, she's ready to roll. So, yeah, it's just time for everybody. to be doing interesting things for a while.

I'm still consulting with the NHL and hockey operations, so I owe them some more of my time. I told them I obviously had the victory tour. But after the victory tour, I would be able to slide into Toronto a few times and then ramp up to playoffs, and then hoping to be around for some of the playoffs series to understand how that works a little bit better.

Yeah, just making sure we're dialed in, ready for all the strange calls that are possible. That will happen. So now we can blame you, Ryan, when we don't agree with any call, we can say, I know Ryan's in the war room in Toronto right now. Well, if I'm there, sure. But it's just, check first. My job is, my job is to help the conversation.

And if I am in Toronto, I am there. But I don't have the authority to make a final judgment. If I'm there, I can help with the, any votes to happen. But, so you can blame me and you can check to see if I'm in Toronto and then you can get it before we start. Or you can be thrilled with me. I mean, that's how it goes, right?

Yeah, every one side is thrilled. That's right. That's right. Pissed. Yeah. Well, thanks for doing this, Ryan. Congratulations, again, on everything. All the well-deserved honors.

And I'm glad you're doing some family time. That's awesome. Yeah, no, it's been fun. And, yeah, it's been good to reconnect with people. I think that was the best part about all this victory tour is I haven't seen a lot of these people I meant a lot to me in you know seven 10 years consistently enough so it's been nice to be around and and just to be present it's a great excuse yeah it's like a wedding it just bring everybody together it's perfect I had I don't know how many technically I don't know how many separate friend

groups now are like connected and that's awesome that's really cool yeah it's great it's really cool yeah awesome well thanks right good stuff guys thanks always great to hear from ryan miller i like that's is like chill relax ryan millers i mean of course he's retired and he's being celebrated so what else can you expect but that was it's just great to see him in that kind of mindset because i've seen intense right it's not nearly as fun to talk to Yeah, mean, I would say. I would say mean. No, he's, he's always been interesting and cool.

And that was one of those talks, honestly, it went on for a half hour. Like, by the end of it, it really just, you almost forget you're doing an interview in situations like that sometimes where it just turns into shooting the shit. And I feel like that's where we were with Ryan there. So good luck to him. Good luck to his family. family and all that because it seems like he's in a pretty cool place. There's some cool stuff going on for him. Aside from receiving swords.

I mean, that's pretty cool. In a public setting. All right. Well, coming up next, we take your questions from our app and put them on the podcast. What's an app? From the athletic app that you can download off of wherever it is you get your apps. It's a really a good segment. You should stick around.

We'll be right back. This is the only good segment. segment on the show. It's when we dip our little, little itty-bitty piggys into the, into the comment section, or toes, Craig. I see that look on your face. Dip into the comment section, talk to all our friends, see how everyone's doing. It's a lot of fun. And Barry Trots was a lot of fun. These were comments that were left on the, on the episode page for our talk with Barry last week. I think it needs to be reinforced just how, like, that was story time with Barry Trots.

It was great. I don't know if it quite came. Absolutely. I don't know if that quite came through in the interview and the way that it did while he was talking to us. But we just let him, we just let him go because he's a, he's a thoughtful guy who, you know, winds together some, some interesting stuff. You've talked to him so much. A lot. A lot.

my favorite Barry Trots version of that was I was sent to talk to him to do a Q&A and I asked and I had like a limited amount of time it was I forgot what what publication I was working for this time but it was like specifically do a Q&A with Barry Trots I have a guess I asked one question maybe two and he was really great on it but it took all of our lot of it probably gave a 15 20 minute answer and so then I'm like thanks Barry appreciate your time and I'm like how do I turn I'd like fake some questions questions halfway through. It was supposed to be formatted as a Q&A. Yeah, it had to be like the format was, and I'm like, we've got to redo this because not a lot of cues on this Q&A. I kind of wish we would have talked to him this week because we could ask him about, about the Horvah trade. Bring him back, Sean.

I think he's in like Europe or whatever right now. Israel, which is not in Europe, but it's not here another. I'm sorry. This is the exact location. Yeah, you want to. I like to do that. Give us a dress for the kibbutz that he's day. Please.

First comment, I was sorting by newest. First comment. Adam P. Sean, what's the funniest thing I can get you to read on here? What about this one? And then Adam wrote some fake ad copy for the fitness gram pacer test.

It's a multi-stage aerobic capacity test. This episode of the podcast is brought to you by the fitness gram pacer test. Everybody loves the ad reads. The only reason I wanted to bring this up is because, If you listen to the show on Spotify or any other podcatchers, and you hate the ads, listen in the app. Oh, yeah. They get rid of them or subscribe to the athletic and listen in the app.

That's a good way to get around these ads that everyone loves so much that I have to do each week. The ads are the best part. I mean, many are saying that. More and more people are saying it. Shout out to Manscaped. Santa Manscaped. the best ad rate of all time.

If you guys, if you guys, if you guys want to skip these, it's a reminder that listen in the app, you don't have to worry about it. Richard S. Can't believe Sean said that about Venmo. That's the only good social network. Mind you. He says his brother asks about people's weekend

when they pay each other on Venmo, asks for favors by requesting money, sends invitations with one cent payments. That's amazing. This kid has it, this kid has it figured out. He doesn't know about letter, box, but I feel, I fear how he's going to abuse that when I tell him about Sean's comment. So wait, he's communicating solely by Venmo with penny payments to people.

I never even would have thought of doing that. It's genius because you know that people see them because everyone has notifications turned on for Venmo. So if, so if you're like, hey, what are you up to tomorrow night? You send someone a two cent, a two cent payment. You know they're going to see it. Did I ever tell you? Sounds like harassment, maybe. Is that harassment? I mean, did ever tell you about. how the time my mom

let her sister know about my dad's heart attack over words with friends what's true if you want to know how did he spell out did he spell out heart attack she didn't do it through that apparently words with friends has a communication

you can like chat with whoever you're playing against I think this is true it's it's either become family Custin's lore or it's a true story but we we have a bit of a communication issue in our family she spelled out he spelled out call EMT on it was like hey by the way Tom is in the hospital with and had a hard episode I and so that's he's doing he's doing fine because I'm playing words with friends at the moment

but it's your turn can I I I'm going to respond to Caroline A who said speaking in five star reviews Custons gave his own book five stars on good reads which is a true story I'm caroline I mean first of all you got to pump up the ratings. But, I mean, I thought it was a five-star. I thought about it really long and hard. And Michael Kay thought it would be better if I gave it four-stars, like a little more intellectually honest.

It could have been better. Yeah. I didn't like the author. I don't know. Should you not rate your own book? I give this podcast five-star ratings every day. And- If you don't love yourself, who's in it.

Justin Bieber said that. Did he? I think. Kind of. I give your book three, and a half stars. Really? You are a tough grader.

Yeah, it's okay. Yeah, right. What's the, it's a C plus. If you were to do trade grades for behind the bench. B minus. Kevin T, we probably should address this.

Awesome how you guys gave Trots a platform to tell everyone he'll be happy to take the least job when Keith is gone after another first round exit. It's not what we were doing. I mean, A, I don't, we had discussed it beforehand. We hope that he would say something like that, but it wasn't, it wasn't planned. He, he, he, he gassed up Sheldon a bit during that, including at the end. A little bit, probably because you realized that he had just spent 10 minutes waxing about

how great the leaves were completely unprompted, by the way. I shouldn't say, completely unprompted. Not completely unprompted. I asked him that question hoping he would say the Leaves and guess what? Barry didn't disappoint because he never does. And if you're wondering why on the American edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, Sean asked four Leafs follow-ups. It's because I could see the gears turning and Sean saying, oh, I can turn this into a Q&A that I can post on the site that will get lots of reads. And guess what?

The numbers back me up. Whatever. Did you think about Sheldon at all when you did that all that? I don't know, Sheldon, so whatever. Win a first round series, you know. Max Z's back. He says it's him. Cormick Zebediah Customs.

Cormac Zabodai Accustens. Sorry for calling you short. It's okay, buddy. Sean's not short. Either of us are short. Statistically average for American men in the year 2023, basically. By the way, Yardana called out exactly, not to go back to the ad reads, but we were just saying, oh, we've got to do the Manscaped again because there's a holiday coming. And she said, can't wait till there's a Punctatan-Phil Manscape ad.

Close enough. I mean, that's basically what we'll be doing. We're recording in about 30 seconds. Might ad lib on that one a little bit too. The Puxatani Phil or the Valentine's Day one? Yeah, we'll see. Jenneff, wish me happy birthday. Thanks, Jen.

I accept happy birthdays from you. not Craig. Why did you give me a happy birthday, Sean? What was your best gift? I'm an adult. I don't need birthday presents. Bruno L. says, hear me out.

That's right. Hear me out in a parallel universe. Vancouver treats Boudreau like a human being. They let him go at the end of the year and then go after Trots, who lives in B.C. And said because of what they did to Boudreau, they had to act quickly and then had to settle for someone and nobody was after.

I don't think he wanted to go to Vancouver. That's just my, that's my guess there. Huberti? I felt like he basically said it, didn't he? He was pretty direct. He was like, I had to call, I don't know, maybe I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I interpreted it one way in my head.

And that was, he probably could have gone. It seemed like, I don't know. Do you think sincerely that if Jim Rutherford truly wanted Barry Trout or if Jim Rutherford knew that Barry Trots was going to come coach his hockey team, that they wouldn't have just let Bruce flap in the breeze for even longer and then not and or hired an interim and not given Tocket a bunch of money in a bunch of years to come back. I don't think so. I think if Jim had an idea that Trots was, you know, signed, sealed, and delivered to coach's hockey team.

things play out a little bit differently than they were. Where do you think Barry Trott is coaching next year? That's a great question. Thanks. We should have tried to push him on the Rangers. He's always talking about original six franchises. He said it multiple, multiple times since he left, about how much he would love to coach an original six franchise.

I mean, the leaves are the easy one. Everyone loves that. Bruins would have been interesting. I would have, he said that there were multiple teams that he spoke to in the offseason about coming back.

I don't think that they were out of the realm of possibility. Detroit had an opening. There's another original six. So when you look at the original six teams that are cruising for openings this season,

or next season, ahead of next season. Not a lot of them. You know, where are they? Not a lot of them. But the Rangers are interesting. They're in an interesting spot as a team.

The interesting people at the top of that organization. They love big names. Who's bigger in coaching than Barry Trots? We'll see how stuff goes the rest of the season, but I can certainly imagine, you know, maybe a first-round playoff loss. Barry gets his original six-back, or original six team in the mix.

with an owner who is willing to pay up big when things are necessary. Imagine if you're an Islanders fan, Barry Trots goes to the Rangers and then wins anything of note. Goes to the Rangers in an off season where you're potentially looking at things really cratering for that team. Right. It's true. If Horvatt walks, this is a, it is, I don't know if it's the most likely outcome because who can say with any degree of, you know, certitude, whether whether it is or not on stuff like this, it is absolutely on the table that they miss the playoffs because they are on track to miss it now. They have games in,

they're in, they're out of the spot by a few points with games in hand, good teams in front of them, good teams behind them, depending on how much you care about the Florida Panthers. They could easily end up missing the playoffs and then watching Boeravet walk. And go walking in the night,

we talked about us with Kersey walking into a season where they're going to stink and they're just relying on Ilyosroke and have another Vezna caliber year to keep their ass out of sending the fourth pick back back to Vancouver with the unprotected stuff in 2024. Can you imagine that? That's your offseason. Watching that happen and then seeing the guy who is beloved by fans in that organization if response to the Trots interview and QA and all that stuff is to be believed, watch him go and lead the Rangers. Holy shit. You're almost better off.

Let's say they have the 11th pick or something, just saying take that one, Vancouver. Absolutely. Just take it. I know we put some protections in place, but. I know we're going, I know, and I know we're going, I mean, we're going back into the Horvett thing,

but whatever, it's the story of the day. Do you not, like, I think I would like maybe top 10 protect it? Yeah, I was thinking that. Top 12 seems like it's almost too much. The top 12 seems unnecessary. Like, I would top eight. Just get it over with. Get it over with.

Like, don't have. 100%. I think top 12 is too much. If there's anything, if there's anything that we've learned from seeing how much pick protections are in play, especially in the NBA at this point, they always backfire. Always backfire.

If you have, if you have pick protections that only lasts for a year or are conditional or whatever, the obvious one. is the Brooklyn Nets, you know, a bunch of years ago. Like, that's the biggest catastrophe ever when they had to, you know, they loaded up and, you know, paid the price for it. Dealer dearly down the line. But if you have these pick protections and they're, and they only last for a year,

there's typically some sign of, it's a sign of an old team that is getting desperate because you're like, all right, we need this guy. We need to make sure that it doesn't blow up in our face right now, but who knows what happens down the line. And I think that's what we just saw for like, from the island. Is there any chance that the island? Islanders were like, let's pick for tech, you know, top three in Vancouver said no, 12 is as low as we'll go. I think that's...

Wouldn't that be an interesting twist to the conversation that... I don't think that's a case. I don't think anyone's thinking like that. I think there are organizations that would have done that. I don't know that the Vancouver Canucks are or aren't in that group. But you say like, yeah, fine. Like, we'll protect the hell out of this one. tip the odds over

because like tip the odds over into our favor that something horrible goes wrong next year or not even horrible if this is the same if this is the same team

next season getting the same kind of results and if Ilya Sroken's like a couple clicks worse this is disaster shit for them so all right we do have to wrap this up

Gary B real quick instead of Mount Rushworth or last supper of hockey I propose back of the $2 bill of hockey Not only does this keep the American history theme, which we have a lot of American history in the show, as we know, but my research tells me this will get us up to 47 spots for hockey legends. The back is that true?

What's on the back of the $2 bill? Do you know? Is it the signing of the Declaration of Independence? That would be a great bit. Coming up on today's show, we name the back of the $2 bill of hockey. Who is number one? is who is in the Robert Morris spot. Just all these like random like sea list founding fathers.

Oh, that's. Phil Housley. I'm literally Googling who is on the back of the $2. It's a bunch of, it's a bunch of random guys. I think, gosh, that's, that's even better than the last supper. Yeah, look at it's. I agree. Okay, that's a really good idea.

And last one, does Sean have any Irish relatives between the name and the use of the word slagging? He's basically halfway to citizenship. It's from EFA, by the way. So, are you Irish? You ignored her name for a reason. Yeah, I do. Ifa, we talk about Eva. Ifa's a regular.

I know. It's why I know how to pronounce her name and you don't. I also know how to pronounce her name because, yeah, I have a lot of Irish. I have a lot of Irish blood on both. sides of my family. Yeah. I feel like you were, were your parents in the Mayflower?

I feel like they, I feel like there were, not your parents. How old is he? Are my ancestors on the Mayflower? Yeah. You think I've got, like,

I'm on American blue blood of some sort? I just can't imagine there being immigrants too far back in your family. You're a red blooded American boy. No, pretty fairly recent, I would say, within like great grandparents coming, like turn of the century coming in from Scotland and Ireland,

into Canada, ironically enough. Get the hell out of here. My grandmother was born in Moose Jaw. I'm serious? I don't like to admit it on the show, but I'm a quarter Canadian. It doesn't get me, I looked into it. It doesn't get me health care. I don't think my math was right on that.

At least, a quarter. Does that get me citizenship in Canada? How does that work? Can I get free healthcare? Yeah. Sure. But yeah, I don't mind. Both of my, I have grandparents that were first generation.

Like my great grandparents were the immigrants. Yeah. So I guess we're kind of operating on the same level there. We're basically twins. I don't know if I got that far. Jeff Chikrin. joins Rob Pizzo, Mike Russo, and Jesse Granger. I actually didn't Jeff, Jackrenner.

Jeff, I believe. I'm reading this correct. Oh, man, okay. I just totally glaze that over. I saw, I saw checkering and this. This is going to be one of those scenarios. But Jeff, Jeff's, Jeff's, Jeff would be Wayne Orange. I mean, Jacob's fine. But this could be a scenario where dad says something like, well, everyone knows Jacob wants to go to Toronto or whatever. That's what I'm saying. Jacob, Jacob's not going to get up there and say anything. as you shouldn't.

Like, that's just a smart move that just lay low. Yeah, but dad's sometimes dad's just, Jeff. Jeff's just, at this point. Jeff's going to be like, he's always wanted to be a ranger. In fact,

it almost happened this summer. Like, it's, we're doing one of those moments. I mean, did you see Patrick Mahomes's dead? I think he did a bit yesterday on the radio talking about how the bears

said he was drafted, they were drafted him, and he was ready, he couldn't wait to be a Chicago bear. I love that stuff. the the the patrick mohom's draft stories are all very i have an ungood authority that the pittsburgh sewers were like desperately trying to trying to get their hands on him there are a lot there are a lot of teams that recognized that he was really good and was going to fall to a point

where it was where he was getable well we'll save that for another episode or we'll save it for our super bowl preview of the of the of the of the of the Patrick mohom's show our highest ratings of the year came when we talked to nfl by the way is that true Yeah. Listener, back to you, don't forget to subscribe to the athletic hockey show on YouTube. You can do that by going to YouTube.com forward slash at sign the athletic hockey show. Is there an underscore after that? I see, or is that something on my screen?

Looks like an underscore. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform and leave, oh, look at producer Jeff's editing it out. And leave a rating and review and always make it five stars if you are the host or the author. That's what I, that's my belief. If you don't love you who will. Like I said, Beb's. Five star, you can say whatever you, you can say whatever you want. As long as there's five stars in that rating. Yeah, say what you want. Five stars. And last but not least, oh, we're back next week.

Oh, next week is going to be a good show. So really quick, the, the 99 project, NHL 99 project, comes to an end. And. Thank God. What's that, Sean? A merciful at that. What? Just great story. I would say 98 of the 99 stories. I've read them all were great. One exception, one notable exception was, I don't know, maybe not the angle I would have taken.

But the package itself is great. A lot of debate, though, and people are mad. Even, like LeBron jumped into it yesterday saying, well, the way I wasn't on the panel, that was pure trying to excuse himself from some of the debate, because it's out there. People are talking about it. So we are going to have as many panelists as possible without it being too much of a zoo. We've got, you know, we haven't pinned down, but we're going to have the NHL 99 panel come on and defend their selections. I'm going to moderate it because I didn't vote either because I don't, I don't believe in that. Who am I to say Nicholas

Littstrom is any better than Ray Bork? Hmm? Why are you doing this to me? First, first, First Pierre, now you. As if Pierre is a wise man and realized that there's no benefit. I declined. Put your name on shit on shit like that. Did you actually? No, I wasn't asked. Ian wasn't interested.

He's like, yeah, I don't remember how that shook out. But it's going to be fun. I'm looking forward to that. No, it's not getting, it won't be. This sucks. This sucks. You know, actually, the painful stuff's over. I think we're almost at the point now where people are going to have,

it's there's maybe only one more thing that's really going to bother people what that you that you not from me my my picks for my placement for these guys

was unimpeachable I was 100% correct well we'll find out next week unlike some others it's going to be fun it'll be fun to get everybody in in a virtual room anything else Sean Chris showed today

good work Thanks to producer Jeff for setting it up. Thanks for Ryan Miller for being super interesting. And to Kevin Kurz for breaking down the trade. Happy New Year, everybody. Bye. Bye.