The Athletic Hockey Show - Colorado Avalanche vs Tampa Bay Lightning is the Stanley Cup final we all wanted, Scott Wheeler's final draft rankings & New York Rangers take a giant step forward

Episode Date: June 14, 2022

Craig and Sean gush over the Stanley Cup final matchup between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Colorado Avalanche.The guys discuss if the Bolts are indeed the best team of the cap era, or if it's the Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks or Los Angeles Kings? The guys stick tap the development of the New York Rangers this season, and we answer your questions on Jacob Trouba's hit on Ondrej Palat, what Tyler Bertuzzi's trade value is, New Jersey's rebuild and if the Minnesota Wild's window to win has closed.Plus Scott Wheeler, the Athletic's national reporter on the NHL draft and prospects joins to breakdown his top 100 draft eligible players and if the draft will 'go off the rails' with the selection of the first pick? Will it be Shane Wright who goes first or perhaps Logan Cooley or Juraj Slafkovsky selected ahead of the projected number one? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody and happy Tuesday to you and to my good friend Sean Gentile, who is, I'm happy to say. Back in the United States of America. Hey, Sean? They finally released me from my holding cell at the border. I got uncle filled over the border like Fresh Prince of Bel Air by a particularly rude Mountie in Portle, North Dakota. I literally had this thought. So I recently drove through Canada to get to Buffalo. Really the only good reason for Canada is shortcuts.

And I was like thinking to myself, what if on the outside chance this guy happens to listen to the show and whenever we make fun on Canada? The guy at the border and it's just like, oh, finally. I'm like, there's like, there's no chance because, you know. It's just you. Where's your dumb little buddy? Yeah, yeah. Hey, what's funny now? Moose and maple sugar and whatever.

Yeah, you want to maybe sing the anthem for us a little bit. Maybe their encore performance by you. And then I'm like, oh yeah, this guy's not listening to our podcast and went through with no issues. He was really polite. He doesn't know who I am. He doesn't care at all. He doesn't care about me. He's thinking about what's for lunch.

He just wants to make sure that I'm not trafficking anybody back over the border. That's it. We have a great show. we're obviously going to talk about the Stanley Cup final, which if you haven't heard, it's the Colorado Avalanche against the Tampa Bay Lightning. We also love offseason stuff equally. It gets equal time, I would say, on the Tuesday episode. I'm kind of done with these games, bro.

Yeah, we've kind of moved on from the final. And so with that in mind, we've got Scott Wheeler who is a lot, I mean, this is the busiest time in a year for Scott Wheeler. He's our draft prospects writer. I think he's our only one. We may have another one. Yeah, that's it. You know what?

We got the other one. I can't remember his name. Kip? Is it Kip? Yeah, I think he'll love its name is Kip. So we've got Scott Wheeler on the show. We are going to talk the top of the draft. We are, there's a, I mean, his list, the fun thing about this year's draft,

and I don't know if it's always this way, but it seems like there's a lot of discrepancy in the list. Like, in previous years, you'd be like, okay, this guy, like one through five. and maybe somebody surprises and jumps in and it pushes down, there's some pretty varying disagreements between some of the people that are doing this publicly. And so you can only assume that the same discussions are being held privately. So that's happening. Let's just get all our questions for Scott out here now

whenever he's not actually on the recording. Like, Scott, what's the pivot point for this draft? Every draft has a pivot point. Where is it? I love that question. it is it is and that is truly is one of the interesting parts of this right because every draft has a point where every where like you can project to a point and then everybody's boards go to hell and I feel like being a complete diletton here and not knowing anything about prospects basically ever I feel like it's happening you know all being said I feel like it's earlier yeah one at this point perhaps I do want to also plug um um um Ian Mendez, who is it Wednesday? What day is today? Tuesday? Today is Tuesday? Today is Tuesday. For those of you listening? Possibly. For you? For you, it's Tuesday. For Sean and is not. Ian Mendez is hosting a live for you of the Stanley Cup Final on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter with Joe Smith, Peter, Indiana Jones, Baugh, Mike Russo, Laz, and Dom. Hey, if Pete doesn't, if Pete doesn't wear the hat, can you fire him?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's Browns for dismissal. It's in his contract. He must always appear with a goofy hat. That was what got him to jump ship from the Missouri football beat was he negotiated a right to wear absurd hats at any given time. So there's a lot of off-season talk. Sean, I do want your first impressions of lightning avalanche. It's the dream scenario. You know, we faked it and said we would have liked any combination.

Guess what? We lied. This is what we wanted all along. This is what we wanted all along. I mean, it is. It's the most storyline rich matchup we could have had because you have the lightning. You have that,

you know, whatever, two-time defending champs. And you have the abs who are on the come up and they jump the hurdle and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The narratives, the pre-series narratives write themselves. What I'm more excited about is,

is the caliber of hockey. I think that was, to me, the reason, maybe not to root for this to be the outcome from the start, but I think these are the two best teams. Like, I think throughout the course of the playoffs, it's not just that they're the two best teams. I think they're the two best matchups for each other. Like, as much fun as we all had watching the Rangers,

I think, you know, there was always some kind of expiration date on them and they hit it, you know, before they played the abs, which I think is beneficial for us. Because now we get, now we have our best shot at an all-timer, you know, Hall of Fame Cup final. Right. No, it could, it's all teed up there. I didn't want to have this discussion at all because the Monday show did it. But we were, we were in preparation for this show. And we do a lot of preparation, I might add. A lot. You guys, you guys really? You guys really don't know. You can gross doubt by it.

This is like, I don't want to get into how the sausage is made, but tons of preparation. And what basically, in this case, it was, hey, let's not repeat what the Monday show talked about. So what they talked about, oh, they talked about whether or not the Lightning are the best team of the cap era, the best Tennessee team. You hit three in a row. Supposedly, by the way. We haven't actually listened to the show yet. And we won't. No, of course not.

Sean, that's without debate. So I'm like, yeah, obviously they are. And then Sean's like, no, they're not. Sean. We've done this already. Like, you know where I'm, you know where I'm out on this. If they win this one, then yeah, sure. If they don't know.

No. No. I can't believe. I'm at the point now right where it's like, I can't believe that people, one team has three, the other one has two. Yeah. Like what's, what are we? what's the question here?

The Penguins have made the postseason 14 straight times and went three Stanley Cups. With the same core of players, mind you. With the same core of players, basically that the Tampa Bay Lightning have, if you look at Stamcoast and Hedman as their versions of Crosby and Malkin, the Lightning missed the playoffs. They got eliminated the first round a bunch of times, and they've only won two cups in that same time frame. If they win three, then, like, sure, we can start the discussion.

I thought the discussion was, if they would. win are they the best? So we're not, we're not, we're not even that. So that's, that's without debate. If they win their third and it's three consecutive, including one that was like played in a gym or something during the COVID era. Like that's, that's ridiculous. And not to mention they went to the cup final before that and they're in the, you know, this team, they may already be there. Here's a better question. They're not. They aren't. Like you, you, you're, I, you were the last person on earth who I would think would have a short memory. for this stuff. One team has three, the other team has two. With, with playoff misses and shitty seasons

mixed in. The penguins are better than the- Oh, the Penguins had no playoff collapses in round one. They made it every year. They went like 10 years without winning a playoff round. The Lightning missed the playoffs in that same time frame. It's math. The Penguins are better than the Lightning are right now. If they win in this next round, maybe the three straight probably. probably Trump's three spread out over nine, over nine season. Completely fine with that. But they haven't won yet. They aren't there.

They're with the Blackhawks, maybe. They're with the Kings. They're not with the Penguins. I don't know. You're wrong about this. I'm right. I don't remember. The Penguins,

look, this is not to run down the Penguins. Great team. I think that's what you're about to do. I don't remember any team. for a span of as long as the lightning have been doing this being this dominant. Like the Kings in that one stretch where they didn't lose a game, it was unreal. And they just steamroll teams. That was that one.

Yeah, the penguins were back to back. How good were the Bruins in 2011? But, like, this lightning team is now going on three years. Going back to whatever, you know, the Columbus series. And I like that Joe Smith got Tortoralla to basically say we created this team, which That was great. Way to go Joe. Joe who is on as good a run as the team he covers.

Like every day he writes a story. Here's a question. Is he a robot? Is Joe a robot? Does he just charge? Does he just like plug himself in at the end of nights? Here's what I, like, I would have run out of things to write about this team if I was the beat writer, like halfway through year one.

I think people who aren't the beat writers have already run out of things to say about this team. And Joe is like, here's a story idea. Okay, I'm going to, I just don't, I don't remember feeling for this consecutive stretch of time away about a team during the cap era like I do about the Lightning team. This is the best. Whenever they want to win, they can win. Yes. This is the best three year run that any team is at in the cup era. Okay.

Or in the cap era. Even if they don't win? Yeah, it is. It's mad. It's mad. No other team did two cups enough. It's true. So there we go.

You're right. You're right. This is the best three or four year run that any team has had. Like, I'm completely fine saying that. And so because they missed the playoffs one year, you want to just throw them? Say it's like, no. I mean, it's not that. If we're talking about the cap era, which like to me, that is like they're,

we're still in a generation of players who were relevant who started their careers in five, six, seven, eight. Like once those guys phase out, we can stop having the discussion. Whenever Crosby's gone and Stamcoast has gone. Drew Dowdy and Kane and Tay was like whenever those guys Oh Drew Downey retired three years ago. You knew it. Yeah. Right. No, he's, we're on the, by the Drew Dowdy calendar, he's going to be Norris

caliber next year. He got hurt this year, so that's the last one. He's going to be back being really good. That's right. That's the way it goes. It's like Craig Anderson, alternating years. By the way, you look to the sky when you were thinking about that. You just looked up to the ceiling like I did. Well, now that it's, I learned it. I learned it from you, big, bro. What do you want me to say? So best, we can agree. best three-year span. Also, I would disagree.

Not that we're being disagreeable this morning, but I don't think we end cap-era discussions when Crosby retires in this batch of players retires. It's all, like, that's the new demarcation point for, like, you had the, spend whatever you want, Red Wings era and Aves era, whatever, you know, Rangers, and then you had, you had to manage. We're going to have to change it at some point.

Like, we're going to have to change over from the cap era because we're going to have 30 years worth of the cap area. So we've got to figure out some line at the United States. The best team of the post, Crosby. I'm not saying to like divide the century of hockey up into, you know, pre and post and in the time of Sydney Crosby. That's not what I'm saying. But like at some point you say that the teams will have become so fundamentally different from each other

that you can't grade them against one another. And I don't think we're there yet. I think you're talking about all. all the teams who have won cups in the last 15 years, you know, outside of a couple outliers, they all still have their

principal actors. They all still have, they're all still run by the, that might, by the way, that might change in a month, depending on how with the Gennie Malkin and Chris LaTang. Like, we're about the phase out of that. But I mean, if you're talking on balance from the start of the salary cap era,

the Tampa Bay Lightning are not number one in the Pittsburgh Grand regard. That's just, the way it goes. Is this the best stretch that any team has had? Absolutely. But that's what the, that's what the discussion is.

Like, if the question is, what team has had the best five-year run or whatever of any team out of the last 15 or 17 years? Tampa, fine. On balance,

body of work, it's not them. It's math. Can you even count? You wouldn't say that, like, let's put it this way. You have three kids.

Like having two isn't kind of sort of the same. Three's more than two. Depending on how you, depending on how you feel about. Cormick? Mm-hmm. I don't know. Here's what I will say then. Fine.

You can throw all your fancy numbers around like two and three and all your advanced stats and all your analytics. Here's what I will say. Dom came up with a model. I just looked at, I just looked at the coding for it. Three's more than two. Guess what? I watched the games. So get off your spreadsheet for a minute.

I will take this Tampa Bay Lightning team right now against any of the teams in the Cap era. Crosby at his peak. Yep. All of them. Because Valzalowski, like, they go toe to toe in the depth. Yeah. Go for it.

That's a different discussion. Are they the best team in the cap era? I'm saying they are. You're saying they're not because of math. That's the same discussion. whatever god we didn't even get to off-season stuff

I don't even want to talk about the final I'm what's Wheeler got to do how busy could he be you just keep talking about this now we got a lightning round all the interesting things whatever do you want

you had some interesting thoughts I like when you're you're departing words to teams that are out the Rangers are eliminated nice run for them ahead of schedule they they fly they they they they're the team that flies in the face of you know my belief that you have to figure it out they seem to they're young and fun and in in won a lot of games next year's the step back right that's the next year's the next year's the next year's the tradition maybe

probably missed the playoffs i'm going to say it now they'll miss the playoffs next year i think it's possible because you look at so you look at them it would be unfair to suspect to expect just certain to keep us up for another season, right? Right. Like, I mean, that's just, it's no knock on him. That's just the way goaltending works. Like typically a season, you don't follow up a season like the one he just had with something similar.

That's just the way it works. Right. They're going to take a cap hit because next year is when Fox's mega deal kicks in. So they're going to say goodbye to Andrew Cop and Tyler Mott. And some guys who gave them the depth that made them a good enough five-on-five team to survive whenever Schisturkin had had a few bad games because that's really that's really what it was Chasturkin was pretty meh in the in the Pittsburgh series they had enough they were getting contributions from cop and in some of those other guys to the point where it allowed them to

sustain themselves whenever Chisirkin was whatever I don't know if they're going to have that kind of depth next year right and then you just throw in the weird I don't want to say luck because I don't think that I don't think that's a fair way to characterize it but some of the stuff that happened in the playoffs, whether it's playing against Louis DeMing in the first round or certain things that happened against Carolina, I don't know that that's repeatable. Now, do I, and then I think where you and I differ is,

like, I don't know that I would pick them to miss the playoffs. No, I mean, it's an extreme position, but I'm just saying this is how this sometimes goes. But look at the Metro Division. I don't know. There's, if you think that the devils are going to take a jump here, which is very possible depending on what they do in the offseason. When they have Johnny Goodrow, right?

When they inevitably reel in Johnny Goodrow because they're going to offer them $17 million a year. Whatever that is it. Whatever it takes. I think that division is. I think there's a few teams, let's put it this way. A still pretty decent team is once again going to miss the playoffs from that division. Like, who knows what happens with Pittsburgh.

Who knows, you know, maybe next year is when the caps completely fall off. It certainly seems like they're tracking. Yeah, that injuries. That is, that is, but that division is still tough enough where, you know, if you're not careful, a team like Pittsburgh or the Rangers is going to, is going to miss out. Absolutely. But they, the big issue for them, like I said, is that I just can't, I can't sign off on Chastirc and being in this good two years in a row. That doesn't mean that he won't be. Maybe he's just that dude.

Maybe he's the guy who's at 935 for six out of seven years. You know, he's Kerry Price. He's Henrik Conquist. Maybe that's who he is. Yeah. But until we see some proof of that, like I'm just not, I'm not willing to go there. Goaltending is too tough to predict and cold tending is too big a part of how they got here. Right.

Look, I was ready to crown Carter Hart, you know, the next great one for a decade. Like, and then this is, you're right. He's still, you know what's so funny about him? He's still only like 24 or whatever it is. No, he'll be fine. I think he's good. I'm just, you just can't pencil it in.

You can't pencil seasons like that in. And all these other things that you're saying are true. Now, there's the flip side where they're a young team and there's going to be, you know, players get better. Players get better. The kid line, all the, all the things that we like about the Rangers, you know, you can, Adam Foxx, all these players are still getting better. So that might cancel it out.

I just like I said The cap's about to get very complicated for them So All right Well we can Here's Wheeler Wheeler just appeared on our You can't talk yet

You're not We're still the movie first segment Scott Oh geez Nobody knows who you Who's the other voices The disembowl What are the

Disimbald You're murdering Wheeler Oh my goodness Are you recording from a food truck All right. We will be right back. And when we come back, this is the segment you've been waiting for, the Scott Wheeler.

We've been pumping this up for months in the Scott Wheeler interview. We'll be right back. I swear I thought you guys were just waiting for me. No, it's fine. No, we absolutely did that on purpose, by the way. It doesn't look like a food truck. Come on. Yeah, it's my kitchen table.

We are back and pleased to be joined by Scott Wheeler, the one and only prospect writer at the athletic. If there was more, he's the best, obviously. A lot to talk about, but Scott, everyone knows I'm a sucker for people writing books. And I just wanted to congratulate you on your book coming out in October. It's called On the Clock Behind the scenes with the Toronto Maple Leafs at the NHL draft. you've done all the hard work. It's out of your hands. It is now being birthed to the world.

That's a good feeling. How are you feeling right now about everything? It is a good feeling. I mean, as you know, it's a year-long process to put it together, in some cases more. And then it's a year-long process going through editing the manuscript and sort of getting ready for this moment, which is finally being able to share it out in the world. So I can't wait to, I'm just at the point now where I can't wait to have it in my hands, all of the legwork's done. and it just feels like a waiting game now. So I can't wait for October.

I think it's going to be a lot of fun for REACH fans and just draft junkies, very insightful for draft junkies in terms of the process and the way everything plays out and the decision making and the human aspect that goes into it and all of that. So yeah, it was a labor of love and happened while my house was flooded and while I was raising a newborn. So it was a crazy year writing it.

Yeah, you had to drop the as you know to Craig in there. Yes, as you as you both know, and as one of the other three people here does not know. Only I would understand out of the people in this conversation, Sean. It's, listen, Sean, let me explain the process. You might not get what we're talking about. It's really arduous. So, no, that's, and what I was talking to Sean about this, you, you know, you've created a template. If you wanted to roll these out for every team, I would read behind the scenes.

and every team's draft. Sean hates the draft. We've established it. But I love the process. I love the debates. There are a few more of them coming. They are doing a bit of a series of sorts. So I think there's a couple of NHL books that they're doing.

And then like three or four NFL, three or four NBA teams, that kind of thing. So I think there's going to be like eight or nine of them across the four major sports. We sniff that. Yeah, triumph. Triumph. They don't let a template go unused. Well, congratulations, man. Before we actually crack open the draft stuff, when you submitted the manuscript, what was the, what were you drinking?

What was the celebratory pour once it was all done? My wife and I had actually arranged that day to have a babysitter. So we just went to a local brewery, went to a local brewery down the street for the night. It was, it was fun. Well, since you asked, Sean, for me, it was, mine was submitted on New Year's Eve. Oh, wow. Yeah. It was due to January 31st.

It was, there's some fun pictures of New Year's. I was like just out of my mind. It was great. Celebrating. Oh, you were there. I've seen him on some dark corners of the internet. All right.

Now that we've lost everybody. Scott, the best question you can ask when you're talking about a draft leading into it is the pivot point. You know, where the draft goes off the rails where everything can change and everything gets thrown out. and we were deciding whether or not it's the first pick in this draft.

Is that possible that we're in a draft where the first pick could change the whole outlook of this thing? I don't think it's completely out of the question. I do still think it's going to be Shane and that no matter what Ken Hughes and Jeff Gordon and that that group of people say about it being in Montreal, I do think that matters. Even if it's not something that's sort of explicitly stated externally or even internally, even if they are talking about it in the other way, as in we shouldn't care how this is perceived, we shouldn't care that it's in Montreal. It just feels to me like there's going to be some sort of subconscious thing at play there where Shane Wright's the big name,

it's in front of your home fans. And if they don't pick Shane Wright, even if not picking Shane Wright's the right play, which it might be, if they don't pick Shane Wright, you just know there's going to be air sucked out of that building. And I do think that that does matter, at least on a very small sort of underlying level. And then on top of that, he's the 6'1 center, right? And that implicitly also comes with just that it makes it that much more harder to sort of pass on him and go a different direction. So but in saying that, I think I wouldn't rule out either Slavkovsky or Cooley.

Those are beloved prospects. Cooley, I think there is a little bit of a consensus that has developed that if Cooley hits and becomes as good as he's capable of being, then there's a real chance he's the best player in this draft. So are you prepared to live with that? If Shane Wright is a 60 to 70-point guy and Logan Cooley's an 80-point guy, are you okay with that if you pick Shane and Shane's your guy long term? And I think ultimately they would probably be okay with that kind of an outcome,

even if Shane becomes the third or fourth best player. If he's playing in your top six as a one-two punch with Nick Suzuki, I don't think they're going to be scratching their head or disappointed in that outcome. comes. So Shane just feels, and I hate to use the word safe because this isn't the way that I would approach the draft almost anywhere, but he does feel like a safe, comfortable selection for them. And I think he makes a lot of sense for them. I mean, that's just fine. That's just the way we grow them here in Southwestern PA, Logan Cooley, West Mifflin native. Yeah, he's going to be the best player in this draft when it's all said,

done. We can just agree on that and move on. He's got a little cousin coming as well. I almost said brother there, but L.J. Mooney, uh, he comes from a hockey family out. obviously, and LJ is frankly one of the top sort of recruits in the country for the national program. He'll play at the national program and likely be kind of a first or second line player there in a couple of years. So lots coming from Pittsburgh. A couple of years. So what is he now? 14? Yeah, right. The 2006s are entering next year and he's a 2008. Ugh. Oh, that's a 2008. Wait a second. Oh, gosh. I think I'm done for the day. I'm calling in.

Yes, my last year in college, 2008. Yeah. All right. The devils are still really interesting to me just because of all the stuff that's potentially on the board with them, right? You haven't taken Slavkovsky. Yeah. They have the centers in the fold.

So I don't know. Does that do you, how, I guess we'll go with a couple of different things here. How realistic is that they just take whoever, whichever center that Montreal doesn't take? Is that off the board? like are they are they really are they really locked in on slafkovsky or nemich or trading the pick or like what's what's going on i don't think them taking a center is off the board uh especially if if they really like logan if only because i think logan could could play the wing no problem or doss and mercer could play the wing i think there's this belief that because they have

dossum mercer jack hughes neco hichier that none of those four kids if they were to add a fourth kid to that group none of them are capable of playing the win that's just not true i mean Dawson Mercer played the wing for stretches this season. And Logan is with the way he skates and the way he handles the puck and how scrappy he is. He could play along the wall and attack the middle and play that style of game, no problem. So I don't think, again, I don't think it's completely out of the question, but that just feels like that weird scenario where a team almost wants a winner. And I feel like every time I come on this, Craig in particular sort of baptizes us in,

I would always take the center or the D. Always take the center or the D. D. And it's pretty rare where a team feels really comfortable not going that direction. And they almost always have to convince themselves to go the other direction, right? And it just feels like they're going to like a winger there. And Slavkovsky makes a lot of sense. Alexander Holtz is coming as a winger,

but Alexander Holtz isn't in the same echelon as Luke Hughes on D or the three centers that they already have down the middle. So it does feel like there's just a little bit of a sort of thinner nature to their depth on wing. And then everybody there is convinced, in my mentions, at least amongst the fan base, everybody there is convinced that they're too small, which I actually wrote in my piece is kind of ironic, considering I looked up their average weight and average height for last year, and both were, like, sixth and seventh in the league. So the devils were not a small team last year. But Slavkovsky's that big winger with a ton of skill that everybody still covets,

even if he doesn't play the premium position. That's because Dougie Hamilton's 6-6, so that's through, you've got to do the median. That's true. I mean, always take, always take the winger unless you're a half decent team that jumped up five spots in the lottery. And you have a very obvious need at the position, right? Like, that's the time that you would go. You always, you never want to pick for need. Yeah, I don't like any of this, guys.

No, but they have, they have the benefit of being able to just pick who they want. Like, they can straight up pick the best player. So they get lucky, so they can just. throw out how to properly build a team out the window? Because it doesn't mean as much somehow. It's a different situation. This isn't some garbage. Like, who are the worst teams that typically win lotteries?

They're teams that have no depth down the middle to begin with. And that's not, this isn't a standard situation for the devil because they jumped ahead, jumped ahead of a bunch of teams. Yeah. They just take what I think's best. You take Logan Cooley, if you think he's the best player in the draft, potentially. We're talking to, I personally just want to, I want to, I want to, Logan Cooley as, you know, a compatriot here.

I just want to keep his ass out Arizona. That's it. Yeah. So New Jersey can take him and just say it. I do think that that sentiment among some of these kids is honestly real. They would never come out and say it, but a few of the conversations I've had with agents kind of off the record and that kind of thing. They don't want to go there.

So I do think that's real. You don't think these kids are talking to guys who are in the league already who are just like, Oh, there's no question. There's no question. And yeah, I don't know. That's going to be sticking here. We're not in the age of someone pulling an Eric Lindross, but I do think there will be some disappointment amongst whoever Arizona picks at that pick.

And that's really unfortunate for those kids. Why aren't we at a point where people, like, I mean, hockey should just be like other sports with agents to say, don't take me, go public with it. If you're Logan Cooley, just say, hey, we're not interested in going to Arizona, we're going to hold out. Like, it's been a while since that's happened in hockey. And with the control, like, players should try to take some of the control back in my name.

But it won't. Yeah. I mean, yeah. They're already being RFAed into oblivion, right? Where they're just, they can't move until their mid-20s. And it's, I was just about to say, like, that'll happen whenever we start seeing offer sheets and all, all that stuff. It's just this pie in the sky stuff from people who cover the league.

And we're like, boy, it would be really interesting if the thing X happens. you might as well be you might as well be talking about you know whatever gum drops falling from the sky it's just it's just never it's just never going to happen yeah that would be great sure lots of things would so i think so maybe two is the pivot point because um and i want to get back to Shane right in a second Scott but i do want to ask maybe because max and i had a conversation at the combine about whether or not the red wings could package enough to get into two to get coolly um you know with bertusie and the eight and we there's never trades again this might be the gum drops falling from the sky scenario because teams don't trade picks at the top of the draft anymore is is this the unique case where

the devils need players who can plug plug in play a little bit and maybe we could say that's in play well it's been funny because it's been one of the most common questions i've received in the comment section of every article i've written in the last month it typically is i mean fans are all about the pie in the sky trade that never actually happens. But this year it just feels like there's more of that. Maybe that's uncertainty about this 2004 age group and the lost year and teams feeling a little bit less comfortable about their boards than they have in previous years. Maybe it's just fans getting overly excited.

My gut instinct would be to say no at two. I think there are more likely trades that could happen with that Ottawa pick at seven, for an example. I mean, that's already out there that they want a roster piece and that they want to move this thing along and they're getting antsy with the rebuild. So maybe that, if you can sort of package a decent roster player

to grab that pick, that would make sense. And then this year, there are teams with a lot of picks in the first round, which we don't often see. We've got two teams with three picks. I think we've got three other teams

with two picks, if I'm not mistaken. So that in and of itself is interesting. It's interesting because I think in the 20s, you're going to see those teams take swings. You're going to see them get cheeky with it, as they always do.

Every team will tell you that the guy that they drafted with their second pick was number one on their board, and we all know that half the time. They feel there's a real urge, especially for teams like a Los Angeles Kings, if they have multiple picks or Detroit Red Wings, teams that already have deep pools. It's human nature to say, okay, we've got our guy with our first pick,

let's play around with the second one kind of thing. So I do think there's going to be some of that. And then there's also going to be, as there always is, some moving up and moving down in the late first round as the board takes shape. This board is interesting in particular because I would argue that there's a consensus top 18 players, 17, 18 kids in this draft that every team feels pretty good about. And that's a little bit of a longer list than normal. Normally, it's 13, 14 kids and then things sort of start to get a little crazy. this draft, there's a strong group that emerged over the course of this season and kind of distinguished itself. So maybe those trades take a little bit, almost a little bit longer to happen because teams just take the guy who's available in the teens kind of thing.

And you start to see the moves happen in the 20s and 30s sort of into day two. So I don't know. I really don't think a place to be made at the top other than maybe Ottawa and maybe Columbus. I mean, Columbus for the second year in a row has multiple. picks, do they feel the same urge to just hang on to all of those picks that, say, in Arizona, who lost their second pick last year due to tampering and all of that, does Columbus really need those picks or feel that they need those picks? And can they package maybe the second of them?

I don't think they would move number six, but would they package number 12 in some kind of a move back or some kind of a trade for a roster player or that kind of thing? So I think Ottawa and Columbus make more sense than New Jersey. Shout out to the Blue Jackets for their quick. We were just talking about them beating the lightning in the first segment. And now they've loaded up pretty quickly with some aggressive moves. Anyways, I just want to note that. Like they had all those first round picks this year and last year.

And they did really well with all three of those. And they hit, it seems. They hit. Now they can sit back and do whatever. And all of a sudden they're going to be in great shape. Yeah. Good for that. Sorry, Sean, go ahead.

Who is your favorite skilled undersized for? I know there's, I know there's a couple, there's a couple major ones at the top, and that's, that seems like a big discussion point. So who's your guy out of them? Out of the guys at the very top, those three wingers, Matt Savoy. I think Matt is a fabulous player. I think the world of him. And in a draft that really doesn't have a ton of premium skill forwards at the top, a ton of guys that you can look at and say, okay, that kid's going to be a first-line player rather than a second-line player. I think Matt is capable of being that. played both center and wing. They like him a lot better in Winnipeg at center. I spoke on the phone

just a couple of days ago with James Patrick, the head coach there. He still really is, is firm in his belief that Savoy is actually going to be a center in the NHO. And I think he, I mean, he's one of the best skaters in the draft. His first three steps are definitely the quickest in the draft. He gets up to top speed in a nanosecond. And then on top of that, he plays with a motor, he's engaged physically, he plays much bigger than sort of 5'9, 5 foot 10, and he's got slick hands, the shot, the playmaking, it's the real deal. So I like him better than Joachim Campbell and Jonathan Lecquamacki, but all three of those guys are going to go top 10, top 11, and it's just a matter of sort of preference, I think. I would actually tend to tilt to

maybe at this point, Savoy being the last of those three to go. so that could be one of my I think that could end up being one of my favorite picks of the day Wet Carmacki was unbelievable at U18 Worlds and I think people will have that lingering in their head

and Kemmel is just a developed into sort of a bigger consensus, well-liked player than I think Savoy and then Savoy with the shoulder he suffered a shoulder injury on a big, big hit he got blown up in the playoffs

and suffered a shoulder surgery or shoulder injury and that plus sort of some lackluster play before that in the playoffs I think has just left people maybe a little bit lower on Savoy. So if he's available at 11 or 12 or that kind of a thing, I'm going to love that whoever takes that pick.

Do NHL teams think he's a center? I mean, you mentioned, you know, I think because of how Hardy works and because he's always moving, like he is well liked as an Energizer Bunny, I think there is a real sense amongst some NHL teams that he can play down the middle. But I think inevitably he's going to be because of his size and whether it's right or wrong, he's going to be the guy where if an NHL coach has three centers

and they want all three of them in the top six, he's just likely going to be the guy if those other guys are six foot, six foot one to move to the wing. That just seems to be how it plays out. It's the same reason it happened for William Nealander in Toronto after he was a center growing up. So yeah, it does feel like that's the kind of thing where if there isn't depth there,

he can definitely play center and maybe he's so good that he stays there for the entirety of his career. but if he ends up in an organization where they've got good depth down the middle, he'll probably end up on the wing. He needed to get to 510. That's the problem. Like he's still in the 5-9 and a half range. Psychologically, I swear to the coach is like, well, 5-10.

He could end up 5-10. Nope, no problem. Pencil him in. He's a first line center. I might have to play wing since he's 5-9 and 3 quarters or whatever. Yeah. It's funny too because I think there's also some back-of-your-head stuff with his brother. his brother was perceived to be the lazy one-dimensional out-of-shaped winger and that is nothing

absolutely nothing like that he's the extremely in shape extremely active extremely engaged center so obviously carter was a find at a hundredth overall for edmonton and they just signed him and he looks like he's going to be a goal scoring winner for them which is exactly what more of what they need to play alongside their big two down the middle so but very very different player than his brother and I wonder whether teams that didn't like Carter are thinking in the back of their mind about that as they consider Matt. All right. I want to, this is the last one for me, Scott. I wanted to ask about Shane Wright.

If you think we're like John Tavares seeing this thing where we've just been talking about Shane Wright now for a couple of years and are talking ourselves out of Shane Wright on some level versus the gap has actually closed. You know what I mean? I feel like sometimes this happens with that guy. I honestly, this feels like a bit of a copy. but I think it's both. I do think the tendency to pick apart the kids that have been around longer is absolutely real. We saw it with Atu Gratu last year. We're seeing it with Brad Lambert this year.

We're seeing it with Shane Wright. We saw it with Jacob Chikrin in his draft year. Chikrin was a kid who people had been watching since he was 14 years old. And then suddenly he's available at 17th overall. And Arizona says, screw it. We're taking him after a good year but not a great sort of top five season. And if you look back at that draft, What is Jacob Chikrin in that draft?

He's a top five, top 10 guy, right? So I think it happens all the time. It happened with Timothy Lilligeron. Timothy Lilliggan was a huge name in Sweden coming up. And then part of it was mononucleosis, kind of derailing his season. But there was that constant tendency to find things in him. And then the shiny new kid, the Jagger Furkus in this draft class who bursts onto the scene, everybody gets excited about him.

And you almost don't have the time to nitpick him because you're just seeing all of the things that you like about him for the very first time, and that's what stays with you. So there's definitely some of that with Shane, but by the same token, this wasn't maybe the second half was, but the whole body of his season did not look like the season of the first overall pick.

That's true in the data in terms of age-adjusted production and all of that. And it's also just true when you watch him play. He doesn't reach out and grab you and pull you in, and he likes to play off the puck, and he plays a lot of give and go, and he's not like Logan Cooley where Cooley just has the puck on his stick all game

and wants to hang on to it and make the individual play. That's not the way the Chainwright plays hockey. So you just watch him and there's just not that excitement, that thrill, that sort of flash that you see in a lot of other players at the top of the draft class typically. And as a result, I think things have closed.

But I still go back to, it's funny, people ask about Cooley and Wright, I still go back often to last year's UAT, World's where Shane Wright scored nine goals and 14 points in five games and Logan's Cooley had two assists playing in a prominent role as an underage or up a year with the national program but there was just that divide even then coming into this year and then Logan was so good really right from the jump after that in a first line role at the program with Petter Gote and Jimmy Snuggrood and that line was just so dominant all year that it became

hard not to get excited about Logan Cooley and that the excitement around Shane, vice versa at last year's U18 worlds, just faded so quickly when he was so quiet out of the gate. And even as he ramped things up in the second half, again, his playoffs didn't grab you either. So there were just these moments for Shane where they left you wondering. And someone like a coolie or a Slapkowski, there just wasn't all of that because every time you watch them play, you see the appeal. Give us a spot outside number one to pay attention to because I know it seems like you're keeping an eye on what the flyers are doing it at number five.

What's the deal there? Yeah, I've had multiple people tell me sort of unsolicited, watch out for the flyers at number five. They feel like the team that's going to start to diverge. I think we'll see those big three are going to be the first three picks, and then I would be shocked if the Seattle Cracken didn't take one of the two D. But the Flyers, who knows? I was told to expect them to actually go after the Flyers player, which when I wrote that in my column today for my mock draft,

there were immediately Flyers fans in my mentions on Twitter and in the comment section saying, oh my God, they're going to pick the Flyers player. I thought that's exactly what they shouldn't be doing right now. But it does feel like it could be, I mean, David Yerechek wouldn't be a reach, but if Yerichick's available, it feels like they're going to love him. And then Cutter-Gote is the other guy who has kind of worked his way from the middle of the first round for much of the year, really through the last couple of months of the season,

and then at the Combine where he really impressed people both in the testing and in his interviews, it feels like Gotei could sort of slide up into that five, six, seven range now. And then things will really get spicy because I think you'll start to see some darn good players begin to slip if that's the case. So yeah, I think it really starts to get interesting at five. And then at 11, I would say it gets really interesting too. I think the top 10, you can just about predict at least the position that they're going

to be drawn to. I think the Anaheim Ducks, for example, at 10 are going to take a defenseman and everybody before them is likely going to take a forward right up until Seattle at number four who are going to take a D. So you can kind of map it out. But at 11, I think things will open up in a big way as well. And I think because of that group of 18, if there are two or three of that group of 18 that are available in the 20s or in the early 30s, there's going to be some real value there, I think, for a few clubs. So it's going to be an interesting draft right into day two, I think. And then the one player who I always get asked about,

Lane Hudson, I think is another wild card, the 5'8 defensemen out of the national program. I think there's a real chance he goes in the early 30s or late 20s. And if that happens, that's another sort of very rare thing to take place at the draft. We've never seen a defenseman that size, at least not since every defenseman playing in the NHL was that size 50 years ago. We haven't seen that happen.

So maybe the game's... The Haiti for the 5-8. defenseman in 1940s. We missed out, brother. All right. Awesome. Well, Scott, thanks for joining us.

This was great, as always. Again, congratulations on the book. October. October. It comes up. The Barnes and Noble

in the States and chapters up here and Amazon, wherever else. Or as I like to say, wherever books are sold. Every airport, every garage sale. Christmas stores.

Costco's. That's right. That's right. Scott, thanks again. And good seeing you. And we'll see in Montreal. It's going to be here soon. Gosh.

I can't wait. What a city, too, eh? Oh, my goodness. And that's where we can leave it. Goodbye, Scott. Cheers, guys. This is the only good segment on the show. You guys all know how to do it by now.

I don't need to go over it. You know the deal. Climb out on your roof. Oh, it's a new first step. Go down the fires cave. Uh-huh. It's very, very confusing. S-K-H-406, somehow getting into the athletic comments with the student in, very interesting.

Can I just add one thing, Sean? There might be somebody who listens to this show right now for the first time that doesn't know what this is. These are our questions from the comments of our individual. I know we think we have the same cats. We didn't get the exact same people doing it. Maybe because we don't tell. Listen, hey, I'm only speaking right now to somebody listening for the first time who somehow has made it this far. First of all, to you, congratulations.

We appreciate it. Your trophy is in the mail. We have it. We'll send out. Yeah. What the third segment is, we read comments from our last episode of the podcast. And they're all user comments and they're great and it's really hard to find. So I won't give away the secret how to get there.

but that's what you really and you really wanted to give them the whole run down there that's fine I don't know we haven't done in a while and it's in the it's in the athletic app you click on listen you find you find our show that's where the comments come from

whatever moving on SKH I know it's almost the end of the playoffs but I want to ask a wild question will the wild ever play in the Stanley Cup final and what will it take no

nothing it's not possible they never will Wow. Craig? I like that wild team this year. I don't, you know what I mean? I'm so bummed. I'm so bummed for the way things worked out for them because it really does seem like this is they're about to be banished to the hinterlands for a little bit.

Yeah, it had to come together a little bit this year. And also, as we watch the avalanche emerge as kind of the next great team trademarked, that means the wild. You know, and you have the blues on the decline, but are never going to be an easy out for the next couple of years. I don't know. I don't see, I don't know. No. I agree with Michael K. Who answered it.

Nope. Nope. I do want it. Yeah, I would agree with that. I would like that. I pick them. I mean, I think they kind of go on for the duration of the regular season. I know,

I know Minnesota's had some wild up and downs over the course the regular season. But on balance, I thought they were the second or third best team in that conference, depending on how you feel about them versus the flames. Yeah. Which in hindsight is ironic. but yeah, I don't know. I expected more from them this season.

I certainly did not expect them to lose the blues. And you look at all the cap stuff now, and it's going to be, it's going to be a rough couple years. It's a shame because I wanted better for them. I wanted better for Caprizov. Like, we need them to take their lumps for a little bit here and then bounce back strong.

But they're going to take a step back next year. It's just inevitable. I would like to give credit to Riley D. to try to sneak in a Montreal Canadian's question. I know. I'm not going to be answering that, Riley. I stopped.

That's why I paused. Because I was reading Riley D's comment for the first time ever live on whatever, live to tape. And I'm like, oh, that's a HAV's question.

How excited do we think Haps fans should be given the new front office and other hires that have been made? I don't know. I don't care. Jeff Gordon's American. Oh, yeah. So they should be super excited.

I think it's cool what they did with Poulan for a couple different reasons. Like, A, she's doing exactly what she wants. She's part-time because that's going to give her an opportunity to pursue whatever, whatever the, however the pro situation shakes out certainly seems like the PWHPA is going to have something meaningful here soon. But no, I'll watch, I'll watch a team that's, that's gotten reflip in as a skill coach, absolutely. Michael Kay says the five Zs is much more of, so he wants, he wants five Zs on the Tuesday

a boys hashtag. He says it's a five-star show. That makes sense. That makes sense. Oh, a Z for each star. This is a, this is a classic Facebook versus the Facebook situation. It's three Zs. It's cleaner. Also, it's not our call to Yardinas. So, she's the, she's the, the unpaid. It's her style guide. It's her style guide. Unpaid copy editor slash style. Style guide author. Kyle P for the best American player where the trophy should be a bald eagle holding a hockey stick in an American flag. You said it, brother. This is the trophy that Craig and I are going to start giving out each year.

The Athletic Tuesday Show Award for American Excellence in Hockey. We should try to build one. Like, I'm going to try to make this trophy with our like shop skills, our eighth grade wood shop. I'm going to try to assemble this. And then I'm going to try to send it to Johnny Goodro. Yeah. Or whoever wins it this year.

But we have to, we also have to like, Just let him know when he gets the trophy that he has to take care of it and send it to whoever wins it next. Because we're not making another one. Yeah, it's on you, Johnny, to send it to whoever wins it. Whoever is it. Matthew Kachuk next year, whoever it may be. William T says the Cuss and Gentilly Satisfactory American Award presented by Mainscaped. That's it.

An honor awarded to an American player that best exhibits absolute mediocrity in every way. makes between 2.5 to 4 milose seasons, scores no fewer than 20 points, but no more than 35, plays no power play minutes, but a major role on the penalty kill that's 16th in the league, plays in the world championships most off seasons,

perfect representation of the Tuesday show. It's true. It's true. Slurms is in the response there, Slurms McKenzie, saying if you want to call it the Ryan Kessler Award, that is unfair. That is an unfair fit of shrapnel for Kessler to catch.

He was one of the 10 best players in hockey for five years. That's, that's, uh, mediocrity. It's disrespectful to Ryan Kessler. It's, it's, uh, discriminatory against people with bad hips. BS comments, lans. Come to expect so much more from you. Um,

Oh, Michael D. Here's a question for you, Craig. Um, Curtis, Michael D. Have you ever considered making a follow up to behind the bench? Where's that question? I've got, this is a long answer. And it's real boring. And it's super boring and I'm going to spare you.

Yeah, the answer is yes. But let's just say we're working on what that would look like in reality. Yes, but ultimately probably not. A conversation to be had this week actually with me and my camp we're going to assemble. How about you just, how about you just give me all the bits and I'll, I'll do something with it? It's, it's all about how we're going to package it, I would say. But yeah, there's some irons in the fire. There's like, there's a fire raging.

I do want to point out, Michael D. This is not untrue. We all know the real key to the Tuesday show is good Canadian kid producer Jeff. Absolutely. I mean, that is true. Absolutely. he's without him I don't even

probably break our computers or something too stupid for this William S had a nightmare this weekend waiting for the Tuesday show that was just the TV boy the Tuesday boys doing a TV broadcast but they look like Pat and Oswald and Steve Wozniak which is

not not far off obviously I did a 4 am Google image search and could peacefully return to sleep so he's saying that you and I are better looking than Pat and Oswald and Steve Wozniak and young Steve Wozniak Like the Apple guy? Yes. Who's Steve Wozniak?

The Apple guy. The guy that, the guy that, um... Oh, the guy that, like, sold his shares for a nickel or whatever. No. He was, he was the... He was the guy that Seth Rogen played in the movie. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, he was, yeah, he was the one everyone liked.

And then Steve Jobs was everyone hated. Which one am I? We're neither. I'm lost. William? I think you're... It doesn't matter. He just, he just, he had an idea in his head of what we look like.

And then it turned out that he was, and they were two pretty, you know, two dudes that were, I will just say it, they're uglier than we are at least. Oh, for sure. And that's, and that's, and that turned out to not be the case. Imagine Pat and Oswald like grasping his head and pushing his hair back. That's what gently looks like. Brother, brother, I got some bad news. You're Pat and Oswald.

Wow. You're the, you're the patent here. I like, we tweeted out the picture. of me, you and Matt Fairburn during doing the interview last week, which was great. Go listen to Matt Fairburn, Buffalo Sabers, Pete writer for the athletic. He was awesome.

And someone just goes, Red Beard. That was their only response. Talking about you. Or Matt Ferber. Yeah, we got a lot of good ones this week. Logan H. asked, what are your guys' thoughts on how every single fan base makes the absolute worst trade proposals? It seems like nearly every fan base has become delusional

and overvalues their assets to an absurd degree. You're right, Logan, but that's also nothing new. As someone who spent a lot of time on HF boards in my younger days, I don't think that's anything new. My running joke forever, and I say this is, you know, I grew up in Pittsburgh. I still live here. I have a lot of friends who are psychopathic Penguins fans

who are always trying to trade all their bad players for every other team's good ones. my running joke on it for a while was just, it was, oh yeah, you got Craig Adams and a fifth. That'll get you, Anzay Kopitar or whoever. Just throw in that fifth round pick. That's the key to making a truly good delusional, absurd trade proposal, is you just throw in, pick a couple mid players, like bottom of the lineup players,

and be like, yeah, we'll give you a fourth. That's what makes a great absurd trade proposal. But every team does that. Every fan base does it. That's why I, when we started doing the who says no and calling people in hockey, that's what, one of my favorite responses. I did one from a fan, you know, we would just take fan trade requests and send it. And one executive said, listen, you know when you're throwing a fifth round pick. It was like this huge package for Jack Eichel or whatever.

It was like, and a fifth rounder. It's like, you don't got it. You're not there. You're not there yet. Logan says anyway, the trade is Tyler Bertuzi for Jesper Bratness. Second overall. Sounds good. Sure.

Who says no? the wings do it I'll say that Hey quick quick hit here Sean is Tyler Bertuzzi on the Red Wings roster I don't know I love it I kind of think I think it's like 51 49 no at this point Yeah right am I right is that wrong you have a better handle on this I don't We need to get we need to get max on we need to get max on soon to like get it that some assessment of the state of the red wings

I think there are a very very interesting important team over the next of the next few weeks Brian M. Dyrushan and Craig regarding Kail Makar, how is it that all persons on our tiny blue planet with properly working eyeballs and a functioning brainstem know in their hearts that McCar is skating as elite, yet Pranman, and all his prospect in under 23 rankings, thinks it's only above average. Corey loves skating, and Corey places a significant,

I think that's like one of his big, that's one of his big tent pulls. And he is hard on people. There's not a lot of guys getting, you know, elite, elite caliber skating evaluations from Corey. But that is, that's a running, that's a running joke for me for sure, Kelly. There's nothing wrong with being above average. I would take above average in anything. God, both of us would in so many things.

I don't like, Corey has high standards. Elite means elite. He does. I don't mind this. Corey specifically focuses on skating is, is one of saying. That is a big, big, big thing for him. So, you know, just keep that in mind whenever you're checking his evaluation. Shout out to Brian M for the wording of this question. It's very fun. That's the main reason I read it. That's better written than anything I've

ever put together. Lance T said he didn't, who was the one who, who pointed out that I stammer and repeat words often. He said he didn't mean to come across as a tool and agree it's just two dudes having a convo. Keep it up, boys. Yeah, I know. I know, I know, dude. I was just saying that happens. I'm aware of it. I'm aware that I stammering myself. Just like I discovered I looked at the sky when I'm thinking of questions or answers.

I did not know that until that clip went on Twitter of me looking into the sky. It's because your answers, your questions are divinely inspired. We all know. That's right. I figured out that's where it comes from. God. You're better at asking questions than anybody else. And it's obviously a gift from God.

And you look skyward for your inspiration. I look skyward. And I said, is Bruce Cassidy the answer? answer in Philadelphia? Yeah, because he's going to bring Patrice Persian with him clearly. Yardana. Hey! Said she's going to come in here with some great jokes about what is and is not included

in the Tuesday Boys style guide, but frankly, I didn't want to do that much work because it feels on brand for the show. That's so good. Nailed it. I will, however, leave you with a fun mnemonic device for Dom's name. Domloos Chishin is a statistician. My last name is Schwarzky, so I feel his pain. That's true.

That's a really good way to remember it. That's loose chicken work for me. That was what unlocked the pronunciation for me. Lus chishin is a statistician. No, there's no Z. Everybody needs to... There's 10 Zs. I disagree.

That's the way to remember it is that you don't pronounce a Z despite the fact that his name being 10 Z's consecutively. Everyone needs to learn how to pronounce Dom's name. This joke is getting old. It bothers me. I would say. To Polish people, yes. If you're Dom and you're arguably one of the most prolific writers of the company,

you should probably go ahead and say, hey, everyone learned to say my name. Yeah, it bothers me. I think I'm there too, even though I haven't quite statistician. Yeah, so how about you say his name right now? I'm going to work on it this week. Steve ends. Official ballot for the Tuesday Boys Award awarded to the top American player on an American team.

We forgot about that. Sorry to Johnny Goodrow. He doesn't get it. Top American player on an American team presented by Tipsy McStaggers. That's so good, Steve. There's Steve's ballot. Cryder, McAvoy, Robertson, Gensel, Fox.

I'm with it. Too many good forwards on Canadian teams. I'll say that much. here's what Sean and I have committed to. Our last episode before we go on, I'm not going to call it holiday because I'm an American, before we take time off, PTO,

as we like to say in corporate lingo. We are doing an Americans award show. We have to make this happen, and we're going to glue together some trophies. One of the awards will be Best American on an American team, and I think we get a Best American on a Canadian team, and then we can have most mediocre, or satisfactory middle line forward.

That's a good one. So we are looking for other awards. Put them in the comment section. I'm not a big comment section request guy, but I don't want us to have to come up with anything. Best American on an American team is like us learning from the mistakes of the NHL over the last however many years. Like that is the equivalent of everyone being like,

there should be a best defensive defense. Yeah. Like call it the Rod Langway or whatever. Yeah. Like we're writing the wrongs of. We also will have the Joe Pavelsky Leadership Award where we just called Joe up and say, hey, who do you think he had the best American leadership? And he decides.

Yeah. And we're going to get a hold of Joe at the golf course where he's just hit like, you know, 280, dead ass down the fairway because he's, he's apparently a good, like the best golfer in the league. Is he? I didn't know that. I heard, I heard someone say that, yeah. I'm not surprised. No, he's a good athlete.

non-hockey related question from Carmela W, but a serious debate within the office. Do you eat mac and cheese with a spoon or a fork? I'm a fork by a country mile. Yeah. First off, if it's homemade, you shouldn't be able to, I mean, it should be thick enough and dense enough you eat it with a fork. Is that a question?

I think people do eat it with spoons, yeah. Children. Children. Babies. Dumb babies. Give me some craft macaroni and cheese spirals And I'm going to eat that with a fork Also, you see says resident reminder that Brian Rofalski is seriously underrated

Correct So that's another word, the Brian Rufalski Award Underrated. For best American defenseman Producer Jeff Eating mac and cheese with a fork Or with a spoon Oh my gosh

I take that really said about producing Jeff Hey, maybe it's a Canadian Is that possible? Who knows? Go to yell over to the other room and see if that's the thing eat it with a moose antler. Will there be a repeat of the anthem bet now that the U.S.

and Canada are both in the quarterfinals in the U-18s? Nope. Nope. Although we do know how to time it up, thanks to Steve. Thanks to Steve? Was it Steve? The teacher, the music teacher? Yeah, I just figured we needed a metronome or something.

Closing with Zane asked key in this question being on the only good segment of the show if not why. Yeah, dude. It can. Deception there. asking a question about the question to go on in this segment. No reason not to include it. Of course, same. Do we have anything else we need to talk about?

Well, there was a question about the Truba elbow. We like Jacob Truba on the show. He came on. He did the Ted Lassau bit. We liked them. And then he started eliminating people and became a villain. And man, that one that Andre Palat ducked. Do you see this question saying,

after we still fanboys of Jacob Truva after the miss, the swing and a miss there? I mean, he was clearly trying to remove Andre Pallot from the series. This is not a bit. This is not us just saying this because, you know,

Trub is American and we talked to him and all that stuff. I put the onus on the league whenever stuff like this happens, whenever players get on these streaks of doing borderline and or not borderline stuff and not getting penalized for it They're not getting punished for it. It is incumbent on the National Hockey League to stop these dudes from going on these weird tours that they go on. It's just a little kid.

It's just like a little kid. It's just like a little kid. As long as you can get away with it. They're going to get away with whatever they can get away with it. So the moment that Trubah hit Crosby and that begat nothing, like, why wouldn't he try to do it again? That's like it's the way he plays. It's the playoffs. there's no repercussions whatsoever.

It's on the league to stop these guys whenever they get on these runs. And maybe they want to, maybe they don't. But I don't know. And maybe that's taking too much off the shoulders of the players for their individual actions. But if your individual actions are not punished in any way and you're not told that it's that it's inappropriate or warned or whatever, then why would you? Why would you stop? Just keep erasing stuff. star forwards from the other teams.

Why not? Imagine if he had connected, Palat doesn't score the goal. There's a sliding door situation here where the Rangers are playing the Stanley Cup final and Jacob Trubas rewarded for his world tour. Great series by Palat, by the way.

I think the way he played got lost a little bit because of who was scoring the goals. He's fantastic. Great player. Again, Ian Mendez in the live preview of the Stanley Cup final on YouTube. Facebook, Twitter, everywhere you get social media.

Everywhere you get social media. Yeah, you can watch it on your video Zoom. VideoZoon. That's social media. Microsoft Zune. He'll be joined by Rousseau and Laz and Don, Dom statistician. Don. Don.

Don, Deshision? Follow us also. losing it on your favorite podcast. Oh, review. I like the reviews. We appreciate the five stars. And I like the people making fun of Sean in reviews. So keep doing that. Do we get any new ones? I didn't even try it. I haven't looked. Um, this, we've also buried the lead. Producer Jeff is typing this in the script as we're next week. Our Kachuk family tour continues. We've got Brady coming on the show. I wasn't sure that that came through to tell you the truth. All right. It came through. We actually already recorded

it, Sean. Me, you and Brady. It was great. That is going to be next week's show. I think Brady might be able to help us determine some awards. Like, what else are we going to talk about in June? Brady Cachev. I think we, like, some good American awards. He's so tired of answering the questions about the beers and the

the beers and the pocket and all that happened that happened months ago. That'll be great. So we are excited to keep. And then we could just keep going down our Cachuk checklist. and work our way through. So producer Jeff is just killing it,

getting us Brady this week. Also, subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts to get all the bonus content from our entire network. Start with a 30-day free trial, then it's just 99 cents a month after that. And as always, you can get a subscription to the Athletic

right now for just $1 month for six months. If you go to the athletic.com slash hockey show. And I don't know how long that deal is going to last. It may be gone. Forever. For all we know. Any closing thoughts, Sean? Three hours into this thing.

Oh, my God. This is, this might be one of our longest ones. It's okay. We're just having fun. Thanks to Wheeler. Again, the only prospect writer. Yeah, thanks, Scott. Thank you, John.

Game one, the Stealing Cup final tomorrow, which is Wednesday. Everybody enjoy. All right.