The Athletic Hockey Show - Connor McDavid on pace for 153 points, Bill Armstrong's plan to rebuild Arizona Coyotes and Team USA at the world junior championships

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

Rob, Jesse and Russo marvel at Connor McDavid's season, with 97 on an absolute tear during a 16 game point streak. The guys discuss the Christmas hangover with December 27th traditionally being a tough game to play for road teams with Arizona and Ottawa shocking Colorado and Boston last night.Bill Armstrong, the GM of the Arizona Coyotes joined Russo a few days ahead of Christmas to discuss the rebuild of the Coyotes, playing out of Mullet Arena and what Army's plans are for Jakob Chychrun.Dave Starman from NHL Network stops by to help preview Team USA at the 2023 World Junior Hockey Championships, ahead of Team USA vs Slovakia on Wednesday afternoon.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowThis offer stands until New Year's Eve: Get a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Well, happy holidays, everybody. Welcome to that crazy week in between Christmas and New Year's edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. I am your host, Rob Piesel from CBC Sports, joined as always by Jesse Granger in Vegas and Mike Rousseau in Minnesota. Happy holidays, boys. Happy holidays, Rob. Yeah, I hope you had a good one. I heard your whole family's been sick, though.

Oh, my. You know, people with kids will get this. You know, last Friday, the Friday before Christmas, we get the phone call saying my daughter has a fever, come get her at daycare. And it just powered through our whole family. And I'm finally starting to feel like a human being again. So Christmas was a little bit of me just sitting in the corner being, you know, trying to stay, keep my germs away from everybody else. That was my new tradition. Do you guys have any crazy Christmas traditions that maybe isn't the norm?

Or is it just egg-noggin presents? Jesse? I don't know about traditions, but maybe it'll be a start of one. My fiance and I went ice skating on the outdoor rink out here in Vegas. It was a lot of fun. We are very lucky in Vegas. Around the country, it is obviously brutal right now. It was 60s for us. So it was a very nice, brisk night in the mid-50s to ice skate outdoors.

We're lucky out here. Yeah, it hasn't been. Yeah. It hasn't been, thankfully, Buffalo out here, but it's been super, super cold. So a lot of staying indoors. I went out to my, to my cousins on a, on Christmas Eve. That was an absolute blast. Spent Christmas Day with a bunch of friends as well here, you know, a few miles from my house, which was just awesome, just watching sports all day.

And I finally got the Jake Middleton story done, guys, and it ran. Right. Yeah, yeah. It's a Christmas miracle. Yeah, I know. This is one of those. where you're like, God, it's taken me months to get this. I was been reporting on it. No. And you know what's so funny when you, like, I was like, I'm such a procrastinator at times. I like sat down and wrote the

story. I'm like, what took me so long? This was so easy to write. And it's really one of most fun stories that I've written so far this season with the wild. So hopefully everybody, even if you're not a wild fan, we'll read this Jake Middleton story because it's a real fun, but very sweet story on the wild defenseman. All right. I want to let everybody know what we got coming up on the show today. Bill Armstrong, the general manager of the Arizona Coyotes, Mike caught up with him a few days ago, recorded an interview, we'll play you that. We talked some world juniors as well with Dave Starman from the NHL Network, talk about that star-studded American team, got off to a great start,

and maybe we'll ask him a little bit about Canada, the lacrosse team that's been playing at the World Junior Hockey Championships that's been getting a lot of flack after that opening game loss. A few things I want to get to before we start talking World Juniors, guys. Battle of Alberta last night, third and final Battle of Alberta, which is interesting because December 28th. You know where I'm going to start, Connor McDavid, 31st goal of the season. It's the game winner. Extends his point streak to 16 games in which he has 15 goals and 17 assists. He is on pace for 153 points.

He's on pace for 71 goals. And this is the stat that kind of jumped out to me. he now has 10 regular season game winning goals against the flames, which is the most all time. I would have thought Gretzky had like 75 against the flames or something, but no, that's the most all time. It's that point of the show. I think it's just a regular point where we talk about how awesome Connor McDavid is. Rousseau. Yeah, I mean, this has become the Connor McDavid Athletic Hockey show every week and it's hard to blame us.

I mean, this guy is just, I mean, he's he's superhuman in a league with so much talent. And, you know, he continued, you know, isn't it funny like, you know, like, what, three, four weeks ago we're like, oh, maybe Jason Robertson is the, you know, is going to be the MVP frontrunner at this point. And then McDavid just says, you know what, let's stop messing around. He just goes on this absolute terror. And that's, by the way, no slight at Jason Robertson. But my point is sometimes we take his greatness for granted. And right now, I think that he's putting us in a position where there's just no way to take his greatness for granted.

I mean, if he stays healthy this year, this guy is going to be in the conversation with his, Rob mentioned last week, you know, Gretzky and Lemieux in terms of being the only 150 point getters in the history of this league. It's just absolutely phenomenal what he's doing. He is just unreal to watch. And I bet you he, you know, I don't know if he surprises himself at times, but I bet you that right now he's just wondering, you know, if he's in cheat mode in a game. My hot take is McDavid's 16 game point streak is more impressive already than Marner's 23 game one was. He's already got four more goals than Marner did in 23 games, and he's eight games short of it. You brought it up, Rob. Fifteen goals in this 16 game point streak is ridiculous. There are only 30 players in the NHL this year with more than that for the entire season.

So if you just take this point streak, he's 30th in the league in goals. He would be tied with players like Matthew Kachuk, Kyle Connor, Martin Natchez, and Nick Suzuki. Just if you count the last 16 games, he is unbelievable. He's on another level. And last night, in that we kind of started this with talking about that game, he was so quiet for the first two periods. I mean, he had a couple plays where he set guys up in the slot and they weren't able to bury him. But the Calgary Flames were able to minimize him about as much as you can through two periods. I don't think he had a shot on goal going into the third period.

And we're all kind of wondering, like, wow, what a job by the flames? Are they going to be able to keep him down for this entire game? So, of course, he scores the game winning goal with a beautiful shot off the post. It's hard to keep him down for 40 minutes. It's pretty much impossible to minimize him for 60. And that is what great players do, right? They can be shut down for two periods. And all of a sudden, they come out of nowhere and break your heart.

And not that Marion Gabbrick is anywhere in the same vicinity or conversation as Carmen McDavid. But that's the way he was when I covered him in Minnesota. he could do nothing for two periods and all of a sudden just break your heart the third. And that's what McDavid, that's, you know, watching that game last night, that's exactly what I saw is just a player that, you know, you wondered if he was even playing for a while, then he's just like, all right, enough is enough. Real quick, before we move on from this, did you guys see the McKenzie Weeger knee-on-knee hit on McDavid?

I'm curious your opinion on this because I'm not somebody who loves when a star player just gets a clean hit on him and suddenly that means you have to fight. I'm all for protecting superstars, but not when it's just good, hard hockey. I was a little surprised nobody took issue with McKenzie Uigher's knee-on-kid on Connor McDavid. And I don't care who you are. That's where your superstar needs to be protected.

And it seemed like it just nothing happened. And that's the best player on planet Earth and you're not protected. What did I say two weeks ago on this show? I said their bottom six doesn't scare anybody. And that's the one area. Like we all talk about the blue line and goaltending with the Oilers at times. They got to fix that bottom six.

And I think they need more ruggedness on that team. The Wilde happened to play them three times in 10 days. And that's my biggest takeaway with that team is their bottom six is not good enough to bring them to a Stanley Cup. So I think that's the one area that Ken Holland. But I totally agree with you. I am getting super, super tired of watching clean hits result in fights the other night in San Jose. Matt Dumba hit Nietto absolutely cleanly gets attacked by two players, not even an instigator by the referees. And by the way, the league has since said that was a mistake by the referees. And multiple

current and former referees reached out to me and told me that I was completely right, by the way, lamb-baseding the two refs that night for just an insane decision for them. But in that play the other night, when Uyghur is sticking his knee out on the best player in the world, we just talked about how this could be a special season for Connor McDavid as long as he stays healthy. That's where the league has to protect Connor McDavid, and that's where his teammates have to say, enough is enough. We're not letting you do this again. And that's why I still think that there's valuing guys like Ryan Reeves out there.

You know, you play a little, you know, I think there gives an element of doubt of opponents when you have a player like that in the lineup that could as long as he could still play the game. But you don't need to have a goon on your lineup or a heavyweight on your lineup to protect a star player like Connor McDavid. David. And I think that the guys on the ice and other players in that team needed to take exception to what happened is their best player in the league. I agree with a lot of what you said, but I covered Ryan Reeves here in Vegas. And there are things that don't make sense to me. Like, Ryan Reeves will never be on the ice when that incident happens, or not just Ryan Reeves,

but any player that's of that style, because they don't play on the first line. Right. So they'll never be on the ice when it happens. So they're not going to be right there to, to, to, like immediately retaliate, they're going to have to do it later in the game. And then by then, it's like, okay, it's like the emotion's already gone. And then there's the other part of it that's like, I remember things would happen. And then we'd ask Ryan Reeves after the game, why didn't you fight that guy? And he'd say, oh, well, I asked him. And he said no. And he says no. Like, what am I supposed to do? So it's like, okay, so they're never going to be on the ice when it happens. And also, the other guy has to agree to it. And Ryan Reeves is so terrifying and beats the

shit out of everyone. Why would, you'd have to be a complete idiot. You have to be a complete idiot to to agree to fight that guy. Yeah. I know, and I'm not, like, so how is he supposed to? It's like, to me, get rid of it. The oilers do need a bottom six. They need a bottom six that can score goals. So McDavid doesn't have to score all of them. Um, the protecting thing, I'm over it. I'm over the protection. Yeah, I don't, I don't necessarily disagree with a guy. I'm done with it. Yeah, I don't necessarily disagree with what you're saying there. But what I think that Ryan Reeves does, it's very old school from when I used to cover this league back in the freaking 90s is he doesn't just, you know, like he has no interest in just going to fight Curtis McDermott just to fight him.

But what he has trained, and I don't know if this has always been his way, you know, you've covered him a lot longer than I have. But here in Minnesota so far, what he does very early in every game is he gets in the grill of top players. He just, he doesn't try to fight him, but he tries to talk to him. He gets in their grill when Arizona was here. He was doing the chikrin. Last year he used to do it to Capri Sov.

And I think that's the one way. in this new NHL where nobody's going to fight them, that you get your value from Orion Reeves is to make the star players of the other team think like, hey, this guy's going to come and smack me. And it gets them to maybe play, you know, get rid of pucks quicker and not be nearly as strong in their offensive games. And, you know, to me, that's where maybe somebody from Edmonton needed to take care. Like obviously, you know, Weiger is not fighting there, anybody on the team, anybody on that ice, anything like that. But maybe the next shift is you got somebody out there and you go up to Elias Lindholm and say

hello. And that to me is the old mentality of hockey. Again, I'm not saying doing it dirty or out of bounds or things like that. But I think that's the only way when you're going to stop situations like this. But I agree with you. I mean, Reeves is not going to go with there and sit there and fight McKenzie Weeger. But I think that there's a way to go out there and still play a tough brand of hockey and say it's not acceptable what you just did to McDavid.

By the way, before we move on to that, Oilers Power Player right now, 32.3%. The NHL record 31.9 in 1977, 78 by the Montreal, one of the greatest teams in the history of hockey. They are flirting with that power play percentage. I know it's early, but I thought I'd mention that. One quick thing before we get to Dave and talk about the world juniors, two teams seem to have a little bit of a Christmas hangover. I want to know which one jumped out to you guys a little bit more. The coyotes beating the defending champs. I know Colorado's got pretty much everyone sitting in the press box right now, but I don't care. They're the Arizona coyotes. How the hell did they beat Colorado? And the Sands go out and beat the Bruins, Camtile,

but 49 saves in this one, three more in the shootout. He just stood on his head. Which one stood out to you guys a little more? Jesse? For me, it's Ottawa. I could be misremembering, but I think Ottawa's beat Boston twice already this year. Yeah, they have. Seven five win in their last one. Yeah. So I think that's like half of Boston. Austin's losses. Yeah, they were, they were almost favored in this game. I think it was even going into this game as well, the odds. Yeah. So the Bruins, like half their losses this year have been to the Ottawa senators, because they have like barely lost. But I was impressed with Ottawa. I thought Ottawa looked a lot like the team that like, obviously they haven't, things haven't panned out the way that

the optimism that we had in the off season. But they looked very good. Cam Talbot was spectacular last. and I think he had like 48 saves if you include overtime. And then he was great in the shootout. I was impressed with Ottawa. I think you mentioned the Aves injuries. Maybe I'm overplaying that. I just don't, for me right now, any win over the Aves is not actually a win over the abs.

It's a win over like the Colorado Eagles and with a couple of Aves players thrown in there. So I was more impressed with Ottawa. I thought they showed a lot, not just the fact that they beat Boston, but the way they did it, there was a really fun game. I thought they looked like they showed a lot of the things we wanted to see this offseason from a team that's trending upward. Yeah, I like Ottawa. I'm still so surprised. They're probably, you know, like they're the team that surprises me that hasn't been nearly as good this year as we all thought, because I look at that team and they really do have all the elements. So obviously they have one major injury with Norriscon, but, but that team, you know, as long as Cam is healthy, he could win you some games. They're blue line. They've got some great players on there. And up front, they could score. or, you know, incredible high-end talent. So I just think with a little coaching that that team is going to continue to rise.

You know, Arizona to me, first of all, you made me laugh, Rob, when you said that there were guys in the press box because there's really no press box in Arizona. Out of town reporters are going to soon learn that. It is a, you don't want to leave your laptop in the press box in Arizona. I'll tell you that because you're on high tops in front of concession stands. You go to the bathroom and your laptop ain't me missing. But, you know, the one thing that Bill Armstrong and he's coming up here as a guest that he and I talk about on this podcast that we did here is, you know, like management, and we've talked about this on this show, management might have their own objective every single time they go into a, quote, rebuild or tanking, whatever you want to call it. But it's hard to get the players and the coaches to buy into that same thing because they have very different priorities. And that's what happens.

That's what's going on with Arizona right now. those players are playing hard every single night. They're making Mollett Arena very hard to play in every single night. And I watched that game last night, parts of it. And what made that game so impressive is that McCarren and actually Rantin and lost his goal with a goal review. But they had scored within 53 seconds of each other. And that tied the game up. And Arizona, again, the goal was disallowed.

But Arizona just, it's like they turned their page and said, you know what, we're not letting them come out of here with a victory. And they wound up playing a super, super game. There are guys on Arizona playing really, really well right now. And so it really didn't surprise me at all that Arizona won that game coming out of the break. It's a very hard game coming out of the break for the road team to get on a plane that day, not practice four days and go out and play. And, you know, I think Arizona took advantage of a Colorado team that maybe had the heavy legs from Christmas. One other thing about Arizona while we're on that subject, I can't go through this without talking about Karel Vamalka.

I mean, he has been outstanding. Like, you're right. That team is playing better. players that are playing above their heads right now. To me, the biggest reason the coyotes are surprising some teams, and they've beat some good teams lately, too, just outside of Colorado, is Corel the Melka. I mean, he's, right now, goals saved above expected. He's third in the league behind Ilya Serochin and Linus Olmark.

And what do you think of with Boston and the Islanders is two structured defensive teams that are playing great defense? The shots are predictable because the team is so structured in front of them. It makes it easy on a goalie. I do not think when I think Arizona Coyotes, I do not think, man, they make things easy on their goalie. For the guy behind the coyotes to be up there. And like those three are honestly like building a gap between them and the rest of the league.

Olmark has been spectacular. Sorokin, to me, is the best goal in the league right now. Karelva Milka putting up stats with them behind a coyote's team. Very impressive. I don't know if he can keep it up for the whole season, but he's been outstanding. All right, guys, let's switch over to the World Junior. hockey championships are on the go in Halifax. The Americans look good in their first game with a five to win over Latvia,

taking on Slovakia in game number two to chat about that and a whole bunch more. Dave Starman from the NHL Network joining us on the show. Thanks for doing this. Looking forward to it. This is the best time of year if you're an amateur hockey fan. These kids write the script and we're just lucky enough to follow it along, you know? It's great. I mean, you know, I'm in Canada.

This has always been a huge deal for us. It's Christmas tradition, which is why I think the last one didn't really hit home as much as previous years. It just felt off. It's kind of like the World Cup with soccer. It just didn't feel like the World Cup because it's November and December. But let's jump right into this, Dave. I mean, that American team, you talk about a boatload of picks, six first round picks on

this team, 19 drafted players. So a lot is expected. I think with that, you know, early exit in the previous tournament we were just talking about. But your thoughts after game one of what you saw so far. I think one of the things you've seen through the two exhibition games in game one was starting a little bit slow and then gaining traction as the game goes on. And the one thing we always bring up in game ones, there's a couple of very unique dynamics. And we see it through the World Junior Tournament. I also see it a lot through the NCAA tournament.

And that is when you are a highly skilled heavy favorite, that first game in is really hard to win. And first game is really hard to play because you got so many dynamics in player, you're supposed to win the game. that's number one. You're playing at times an inferior opponent, that's number two. And then you get the nervous energy and the anticipation that build up and it just slows you down of it. But I thought as the game went on, they found kind of what they were. Passes were a lot of crisper. They attacked the offensive zone a little bit more with tenacity and a little bit more with structure as opposed to

players trying to play one-on-one and making the highlight real film play. And the biggest challenge for this group right now with this much talent, and Canada's got the same thing, is you've got a lot of guys who are used to having the puck, there's only one of them. And it's a matter of how well guys handle sometimes a lesser role, how sometimes guys who have the puck more wind up playing with it less, and then how it all comes together as you move forward. But I thought for game one, it was your typical game one, sloppy, choppy, but effective. Dave, you know, first of all, to kiss up to you, I'm a huge fan. I just absolutely love you on TV. I think you're, I mean, your cadence is just,

I mean, you're so entertaining to listen to and your knowledge. And you always, just pump up the Slaggart boys and Andy Slaggart, who I'm really tight with. So love that as well. So I really happy to have you on. I wanted to ask you about this USA team. I mean, going into the tournament, I think a lot of people just was worried about where maybe the goals were going to come from. You know, there was obviously Snuggaroo, Cooley, Chas Lucius. Do you think that will be something that catches up to him in this tournament? No, I really don't. I think they're going to score. I think they're going to score effectively. However, you know, I will say this. There are teams. in this tournament, especially as you go along, that defensively find their way and scoring becomes

harder. And I think when you look at the medal rounds, you look at those games on January 2nd, 4th, and 5th, that scoring really becomes a challenge. It's kind of like the NHL playoffs. It's a lot like the NCAA tournament, less space, less room to maneuver, less time. But I do think with the with the U.S. depth, especially with their sentiment, and then you get the elite level defense score that can really move Pucks well, move it smart, and move. with quick. I think if they're scoring three or four a night, it's not going to surprise anybody. On the other side of it, I do think they're so good defensively in terms of how quickly they can close on plays and how quickly they can get out of their own zone that they may, that may

down the road really enable them to threaten that a lot more and find some more goals with the elite level hands that they have. We've mentioned all the star power that this USA team has three top five picks in the draft. But one of my favorite things about World Juniors is I feel like this is where some players are discovered or maybe get the spotlight that they that they didn't have prior to this just on their junior teams. Is there anyone that that you've noticed through these first couple exhibitions in this first game or maybe somebody you're expecting to to take this spotlight and really, I guess, broaden their their prospects? That's a good question. By the way, Mike, thank you for the kind words. I was moving a cat from

jumping up to the discussion with us. So I didn't get a chance to say thank you for that. I do appreciate the kind words and likewise, my friend. I think that when it comes to this tournament, sometimes you look at guys that are in that bottom seven role up front or at the bottom of the defense pair on the line chart and you're saying to yourself, where are they going to make hay? And a couple of kids that I think to keep an eye on, I talked a little bit about one of them in game one, Red Savage from Miami University and Charlie Stramel from the University of Wisconsin. That's your three and four center. I think these two kids are going to play valuable roles for a couple of reasons. Number one is shramble is a monster on the face off dot. So I think when he's out

on the ice, the U.S. is going to start with possession more often than not. Savage is just a really smart, consistent, every day or kind of player. It plays with a lot of tenacity. He plays a lot of heart. And he's got a lot of skill and a lot of speed. So if you keep an eye of those two guys, I think that from the offensive perspective, you're going to see some contribution out of them. And on the back end, Luke Bidlstadt, like, holy smokes. What a player. You know, just up and down, smart. You had him penciled in somewhere on the depth chart during the summer. Really, they weren't sure if he was going to make this team. And he's one of those guys, as coach Rand Peckle told me this morning, he's put his hand up to ask for more ice time. I think that's

awesome. When a young player wants more ice, that's a great sign of confidence. So I think you keep an eye of those three guys. That would be for starters. Kenny Connors and Ryan Uffgo for the University of Massachusetts, I think are another two players to really watch. Greg Carville does a wonderful job with that program. And he gets his players to play hard. He gets them to play smart. He gets them to understand the game. They plan a little bit of a bigger surface.

So they're not to utilize space. And I think Offco is going to provide some really unique offense this tournament goes on now that he has had the bright lights turn on and one game to play with him. Along those lines, I wanted to ask you about coaching because I find this tournament so interesting in that you've got a bunch of players who are doing, wanting to do exactly what Jesse said. You know, this is, this is their big stage. especially if they're draft eligible,

they want to make a name for themselves. But at the same time, you're trying to win a tournament with a bunch of players who are so used to being the star on their respective teams. You know a lot about coaching. You were a coach.

You were part of the U.S. coaching education program for a long time. How do you find that balance? You know what I mean? I just look at it is so difficult because, of course, all the players are going to say the same thing. You're playing for the flag on the front of your jersey,

but at the same time, they know who's watching this tournament. You know what? It's a really good. good question. And I'm going to answer this from the perspective of my 11 years as an NHL scout. I would tell you this, this tournament in a lot of ways can get a player on a radar screen, but in no way, shape, or form, does this next five, six or seven games determine a player's future, whether it be the draft or anything else? Like, this is a really good

snapshot. But a couple of things I think to keep in perspective. Number one is they're playing in their age group more than likely against some players in their birth year that they've played against internationally for a couple of years now. So at least there's some familiarity at that level. So I think that's good for them. As I joke before with the guys at NHL network, you know, Connor Bedard can put the puck at his own net twice, go dash four and have no points. He's still going number one, right? So we've got that component. But I do think this is a good opportunity for players to get into a big tournament like this against the elite level players in their birth year and play their game. Like to me, that is what's more important than anything

else is you're on the team for a reason with a role. Go play your role because as scouts, as hockey ops. What we want to see you do is play the way you play and let us figure out how it translates to the next level. If you start getting out of your comfort zone, you know, we always say if you're a singer sing, you're a dancer dance, but don't reinvent the wheel in a short tournament like this with the bright lights on internationally and everybody watching it live. So I would tell you that if they can stay within their game, if they can play to their limits but play to their strengths, that's the number one thing that will help them convince somebody who is trying to figure out whether or not they're for them, where they should slide out in the draft,

that component to me is the biggest intangible for the world juniors, especially for the draft eligibles. Dave, we all know that goaltending is near and dear to your hearts and your blood. Is the goaltending with USA hockey? Is it going to be good enough to win the tournament? Here's a great question and a great thought process for us. And Mike, listen, you've watched the NHL a long time. I think back in the, when we were kids, you know,

You watch the Islanders, you watch the Orioles. And you said to yourself, the Canadians in the late 70s, if you had a great goalie, you had a really good chance to win in the Stanley Cup, right? You needed that elite level A plus goalie. I don't think you do it anymore because of the way teams play. And, hey, because of how big the goalies are, a lot of pucks flying them. I think you can win this tournament without the A plus goalie, and teams have. If you take a look at the U.S. goal attending, it's good.

Is it A plus? I don't think so. But is it good? It is. Augustine was excellent against the Latvines. He's a big shot. strong physical goal he who played at the top of his crease, and I think really helped out as defense score in terms of hanging down to rebounds.

Caden and Barrico, we all remember that game against Chequette last year when the U.S. lost in the semifinals. He wasn't great. Then he went to Colorado College, and he has been as good as any goalie in the country playing at a conference that generally is the best conference of the NCAA. So I would not have a worry about the goaltending in terms of leakers, in terms of fading under the pressure, that kind of thing.

I want to see how this plays out. But I do think between the pipes, the U.S. has enough to compliment what is a very good team in terms of those guys just doing their jobs. Dave, just how good is Luke Hughes? Just how good is Luke Hughes? Gosh, you know, better than that, probably. I will tell you this, it's sometimes it's really hard to play with great players because he thinks outside the box. A lot of it comes from his dad, Jimmy, who I used to do hockey schools with as a kid, who I scouted with with the Maple Leafs. I mean, I've known Jimmy a long time, and the guy's got a computer chip in his brain,

and it's an unreal hockey mind. And Jimmy is so good in terms of foot placement, developing skaters, stick detail. It's one of the things that separates in from a lot of other coaches, and all of his kids have it. Now, where Luke takes off is the fact that he's got it at 6-2, where Quinn has it at 5-9. So Luke's got some inherent advantages built in because of his size. But what gets overlooked with Luke is how well he plays off the puck and how well he plays off the puck, and how well he defends. And I think that's the part of his game that he doesn't get enough credit for.

We all have to talk about his offense and his skating and his vision. And there's a lot to talk about there. But you're watching the transformation of Luke Hughes from an elite level college and junior defender to a defender who could play at the NHL level, defending with a stick, defending with his feet, defending with his brain, and being able to play that style of game for 82 games. So how good is he? He's electric.

He's dynamic. He's a franchise player. and he's generational. But I also think you're starting to see the next wave in the development of Luke Hughes, and that is the all-encompassing 200-foot defensemen who can play with and without the puck through three zones. When that clicks, watch out. You mentioned earlier how tough that first game can be, especially for a big favorite.

And we all saw Canada get upset by the checks five to two. I'm wondering, how do you think the U.S. stacks up against Canada? Was that just kind of a blip on the radar? or do you think there may be some problems with Team Canada? And do you think this is as good of an opportunity as the U.S. has had to really put it down on them? You know, it's funny. I remember when I first started doing this 15 years ago,

I was sitting with the late Jimmy Johansson, who was the time Team USA, GM. And back then, the theory was to try to build a team that could beat Canada. Like, that was the be-all and all of going through the world juniors. Can we build a team that could beat the Canadians? And because the U.S. has gotten so skilled over the years to the point where they can almost put two teams in a series, tournament. I think the mantra for them is, can we build a team where Canada can't beat us?

You know, I mean, they have to do the same thing now. They've got to put a team together to beat the U.S. So how good are the Canadians? I think they're real good. I think that both the U.S. and Canada will always struggle with that issue of so many great players, how do they share the pocket? And the team that figures it out probably wins the whole thing, barring an upset somewhere along the line. But I think Canada's real good. I mean, they're high end. I think this loss helps them more than it hurts them. I'm a big believer from the coaching perspective that, If you could take a lump early, if you can get a loss early in this tournament, it gives the coaches the room back. And I remember when Dennis Williams was first starting out of Bowling Green as a head coach and building his resume, and he's a tremendous coach.

He's a really good hockey mind. I think this loss helps him because now all those high-end guys are going to walk into the room the next day and be like, okay, what happened? And now the coaches have the room back. To me, that is a huge bullet in the gun going through the rest of this tournament to have in your back pocket. you guys aren't as good as you think you are as a team, despite how good you might be individually. So why don't you pay a little bit more attention to us and the structure and the setup where we need you to play?

I think this loss helps Canada in the long run. I think so. That makes a lot of sense because obviously these guys don't want to be humiliated in their home province and home country. And now that suddenly I'm sure there's a little bit of concern in that room. Let me ask you, Dave, about all the flak team Canada is getting with their couple of lacrosse attempts that didn't go in. I mean, you know, obviously the loss to Chakchia, you know, probably compounds that criticism.

But do you think it's warranted or do you find it just kind of roll your eyes and it's sort of the same thing when everybody goes after, you know, Zegris and Milano and just say, oh, their showboating? I'll tell you this. And how many times have you heard coaches talking about situational play? There's a time and a place for any real good move to get tried. Here's the other thing. I was on NHL tonight right after that game. Scottie Hartnell and I were on the panel and I turned to him and I went, if you were sitting wide open just inside the hash marks when that guy came around the net and tried to do the

Michigan, you knew if the puck got to you it was in and what would your reaction be? And he was very good about explaining it, but he was very direct. And he would have been mad. And that's my point with over trying that same move is that more than likely, if you're trying to do it, you're coming from behind the net like that, you're going to get a lot of eyeballs. And when pucks are coming from the quiet zones behind the net, a lot of times you wind up with defenders with their toe caps to the net.

And if they don't shoulder check behind them, no head on a swivel, you couldn't wind up with two guys sitting in soft spots wide open. And if those guys don't get the puck, they're going to be really angry. So if it goes in, we're all gaga. When it doesn't go in, you've got a lot of disgruntled teammates who are saying to themselves, stop being selfish,

pass me the damn puck, and let me put it in. Because all we're talking, we're not asking how it went in, we just want to how many we get. So I think it's situational. If you know you got it, maybe you try it. If you survey nobody's open. Why not? The element of surprise is great, but it's not that much of an element of surprise anymore.

And again, if I'm sitting in a soft spot wide open, especially on the off wing, and I know I could bury one on a quick pass, I'm really aggravated. I didn't get the pocket. The NHL Network is the exclusive home of the World Juniors. You can catch Dave and, of course, Stephen Nelson, call every Team USA game. Looking forward to that as they play game number two of the tournament today. Thanks so much for doing this, Dave. Enjoy the rest of the tournament.

We'll talk to you soon. really appreciate to having me on guys thank you thanks Dave stick around after the break Bill Armstrong the general manager of the Arizona coyotes so Russo you caught up with Bill Armstrong this week I listened to the interview and I don't want to give too much away but I love when he talks about and you'll hear it the interview the difference between the old NHL and the new NHL in regards to a general manager players just to fear their general manager now it's more of a players league right Yeah, he talks about how, you know, guys would get on the plane and, you know, usually it snar a lot at him in the old days. And remember, Bill Armstrong was one of the toughest hombres in the, in, you know, in hockey. I mean, he was somebody that, uh, he talks about it on there. Those old, uh, you know, Utica games that he'd go after like, you know, the Billy Garens of the world and things like that. Billy says that he used to wear this, uh, this black, um, you know, uh, you know, mouth guard to basically make himself look scarier. Um, but yeah, I mean, now it's, you know, everything's so hunky dory and nice. And, and nice. And, and, you know,

making sure everybody's okay. And you can tell the Army is still reconciling with all that. But it's a real good sit down. We did it from the club level there at Mollett Arena, which, you know, was basically 10 feet from the ice. No, I'm just kidding. But it was, I mean, it really was a good sit down.

I mean, we talk, he's very honest about liquidating assets and potentially training his UFAs, continuing to take advantage of cap strap teams and acquiring cap space. He talks about Jacob Chikrin and, and his desire to still at some point trade him, but he's going to be patient and holding to his guns. He's got a price in mind of what Chickren is going to have to cost to another team, and he's not going to just give him away, especially at that contract with two years left on his deal in that age.

And by the way, Chikrin is playing unbelievable. I watched last night's game against Colorado again, and he's just been awesome. And so he talks all about that stuff and just really gives sort of a timeline of what this rebuild is going to look like in Arizona. So it was a real good catch-up with Bill Armstrong, the general manager of the Arizona Coyotes. Well, as mentioned, I'm really happy to be. joined by Bill Armstrong. GM of the Arizona Coyotes were coming to you from Mullet Arena here

before their game against the Montreal Canadians. And I know this is going to run after Christmas, but this will be a fun podcast. And, you know, Bill, Bill Garron is a huge fan of yours. And I know you've had mutual friends over the years. And he just told me a really funny story where he goes,

every time he played against you in the minors, he hated every time of it. Because he said, you were mean and unpredictable. He said the only thing that was predictable was that if you guys were losing, you were going to pay. He said he used to wear this black mouth guard that made you look like, he said it reminded him of jaws.

Yeah, I had that, I guess that role in the American League. And I think, to be honest, I think I fought everybody on the entire Utica team that particular year. We got into this weird thing where we got pinned down in a snowstorm and we had to play them like three times in a row. And I just went through a job. just about everybody. I don't know how that happened,

but, yeah, we used to have huge rivalries back in the day, and Billy was a hell of a player, strong. You know, when you're in the minors and you play somebody

that caliber, you realize, hey, listen, this guy's an NHL player, and he's going to be a great NHL player, and you could see it right from the get-go.

I was talking to Reeves about this the other day, and, you know, like Reeves, he, you could tell, he likes the fight. He felt like his first, he used to be really anxious

before fights, and then he fought Brian McGratton, a true heavyway, and that made him realize that he could do it. How was it with you, like, did you enjoy it or was it one of those things where, you know, you just realize it's your job, but maybe sometimes had that anxiety going into games? I had a lot of anxiety about it. And I could fight. As a kid, I was a boxer, so I knew how to fight. I didn't know how it translated into hockey. And that was the hardest thing. And my coach at

the time said to me, listen, you know, you're an actor. You're going to go up and play this role for two hours. It's not you, but the guys around you need you to play that. And so that's probably why I did wear the blackmouth guard and have the snarly face. And I had to get into that role. And, you know, I always had the ability to, you know, my dad always had these, these words, he'd say, be kind, be considerate. And if somebody takes advantage, you take a swing. And that was the Armstrong way. So I think I always had that in me. But I just had to find a way to get it out and make it translate into a hockey way. And it took me a while. to do that, but I figured it out.

I had Doug Armstrong on our athletic hockey show a couple of weeks ago, and I know he's a huge fan of yours. What was it like working in that management team to win that Stanley Cup, to just, you know, see the way that an organization can build and make bold moves at times and all that? Yeah, Doug was a great boss. He was great to work with, especially on the amateur side. Him and I felt at times we were almost dynamic together, and it had to do with our personalities coming together.

We really worked well together. I think for the most part on that staff was amazing. Sometimes you had Marty Breder, Al McGinnis, Keith Kachuk, Dave Taylor's of the world, Larry Plows of the world. It was just a great staff to be around. And I build my staff much similar to that where I always want smarter people around me. I want people with more knowledge, more experience to make better decisions. And this game is, I mean, there's so much going on from analytics to contract work.

You've got to have really smart people. around you. And I gained a lot of that knowledge from working with Doug and seeing the people that he surrounded himself with. How are you like right now, I mean, we're here from a Lodd Arena. I mean, this is, I was at the game the other night against Buffalo. It is a must-see atmosphere. I mean, it's fun. It's unique. But this is not just a one-year experiment. You're going to be here probably two, three years. It sounds like it's a, it's just a formality to get this arena approved in May. But what is this whole experience like right now for you? Well, it's good in, in a lot of ways. It's obviously a different taste. You know, we're not in the big rink,

like in Minnesota or a Madison Square Garden, but it has a different feel to it, which is kind of a cool feel when you come in here. It's very intimate. Our guys play extremely hard inside this building. They love the fact that it's packed. There's really a good vibe about it. And the other thing is, we've built brand new dressing rooms. So everywhere we are, you know, whether we're at the practice rink or we're here, we've got a new training facility over the practice rink. We've got new dressing rooms here. So everything's modern, everything's new. And to be honest, with you, living in AZ is a pretty good spot to play hockey. You come out of the rink, it's got some warmth to, it's got some sunshine to it. It's a nice place to

play. Along with the new facilities, it's good. It's not the perfect, and I explained that to our players, and we had a partnership with our players in helping build a lot of the dressing rooms. And I said to them, when it's temporary, it's never perfect. But it's good enough to get us by right now. You know, and that's how we kind of explained it to them. And they were great. about it. They embraced it. And, you know, listen, I think if we're in Antarctica, they might have some more rebellion. We're in Arizona where you get to sit by the pool on your day off, and it's a pretty nice. That's funny. I just had a flashback to my first ever blog I did when I worked at the Star Tribune. I did it from the pool at the Marriap Butes right up the road here. I will say when this arena is in

downtown Tempe, fans will love it, because it's almost sensory overload with the number of restaurants, bars, places that you could do right around this area. It's just a great area. It's just a great area downtown town. You know, it's, it's the new NHL, believe it or not, is really all about the players. You know, we used to get on the plane and the gym would snarl at you and the coach and snarl at you. Nowadays, you get on the plane like, hey, how you doing? How's your wife doing?

Hey, how are the kids? Oh, that's great. So, you know, your parents coming in. It's just like, oh, hey, happy birthday. Like, it's a different, you know, environment than we're in the NHL. And I think with, with the rink, we have a chance to be unique franchise in the sense that the quality of living here in AZ will be incredible for the player. You're talking about.

a ring being built in Tempe. It's 10 minutes from where we fly out of. You can live down in here, especially if you're a single guy like that. There's a good restaurant, it's good places to go out, but also underneath our building is going to be our practice ring. So everything encompassing, your 10-minute drive, no traffic in a great area. You're talking about flat tax and you're talking about sunshine every single day. It could be a unique place. And we always say it's much similar to Tampa. We want to become the new Tampa. This arrangement. ring, this ring will give us that chance. Yeah, I was in the visitor's locker room the other night against Montreal,

and that is as good at visitors' locker room as there is in the league. It's not the curtains that everybody has seen online, and maybe a couple weeks ago, the annex is built in the locker room. The other thing that, I mean, Zach Breesie texted me after the game the other night said it's by far the best ice in the league. Nate Schmidt said that the other night, Tage Thompson, Kyle Ocho echoed it as well. I mean, it probably helps that this is not the most multipurpose arena?

Yeah, you're right about it. It's not big, you know, so in the sense that it holds the cold, into the rink. It's, uh, um, I kind of, believe it or not, when I came in here, one of the, the, the things when I sent out a survey to the players was the problem of the ice. And they felt that a lot of the knee injuries, uh, in the, in the, in the, in the gila arena, maybe had caused them because of the chipping of the ice and the, in the the blades digging in. And so I, I ended up studying for my first year here,

the ice, how to make it better. Um, and we got it to an average standard. Uh, there was three different wells. They were drawn water. We couldn't hold the humidity was coming in. So we figured out a lot of things. I'd kind of forgotten, to be honest about it. We've come into the new building, and the first thing the guys say, oh, my God, the ice is incredible, which is huge for us here in A-Z, because it can be tough. You have different seasons, humidity at different points, and now that we've got the good ice, it's really just a great thing for our players.

And you can see it. There's not a lot of snow that comes off when they shovel it, and it's a fast game. And the faster we can make this game, the more entertaining it is for the fans. Let's talk about the team a little bit. I mean, you have to be, I mean, are you surprised at that where you are you are in the standings, considering you've been on the road for pretty much the entire season, and here you are, you know, you've put yourself with all the home games coming up, and actually a pretty good position, you know, at least in the standings.

Yeah, it's, it is, you know, our team fights, you know, we had the same thing. I think we've sunk a lot of our time and energy into culture and how to make players, you know, kind of thrive in that culture. And listen, we're not, we're going through the rebuild. So, you know, you can take poundings at times and it wears on you, you're on and off the plane, and you have a few losses. It really wears on you. But I think what we've done with our culture, getting our guys to really enjoy where they're at

and working through this process of getting better every single day, they've dug into it, and you can see how we fight every single night. I think we probably lead the league and being in a game going into the third period. Our guys fight, and that's due to our coaching, our culture,

and how we've kind of really dug into the process behind the scenes. Yeah, how does Andrea fit into all that? Because I was, I watched that, practice when you guys were in Arizona a couple weeks ago and he is a true teacher. He's a funny guy too. I mean, he was telling me, he had, what's funny is his nickname is the bear and I'm doing this story on intermissions. I guess he wears his hoodie during intermissions.

He's like, well, I'm not a polar bear. You know, like, you know, he just gets cold, but he just seems like a, just a beauty. I know I've talked to Marco Rossi a lot. He says it's the best coach he's ever had. Yeah, he really interesting guy. I go way back in junior when I was scouting and I was up in Ruin. And I always tell the story about them as, you know, I went into Ruin, and they were in first place at the time,

and I couldn't believe it because in my scouting history, they had never been up there. And I saw this guy behind the bench parking order, you know. And then there's one restaurant to eat afterwards in the town of Rewan. It's close to where Santa Claus lives. It's way up there. And I saw this big man walk in there with his players and talking and really having great relationships.

And that always stuck with me. And that is the new NHL, is to be able to be tough on the players and have high expectations of your team and what they should accomplish, but at the same time, the following day, not leave a scorn and be able to have that communication where you can really sit down and talk to them

and almost be their friends. The games change in that manner, and he does a great job. That's the best thing about him is he gets the most out of the player, but at the same time, he can have a great relationship with the player. Yeah. You know, there's always a difference in the NHL

of rebuilding and tanking. You know, those are like, that's like the dirty word, but it does feel like you guys are in that rebuild mode, that you're not in there and trying to go for that top top pick. Is that fair or not? Well, I think with the way that our team is built in how we've kind of liquidated our players

and got back assets, I mean, you'd be crazy not to think that way. Probably the difference with us is that our players on the ice don't really think that they're in the rebuild slash tank mode. They really believe that they got a chance every night. So that's the difference probably. And, you know, I think, you know, some of our guys have just kind of exceeded like Machellis of the world and the soldiers of the world and the Veggmalcos of the world have grown so much that they give you a chance. So it doesn't feel like, you know, that, you know, you're in that rebuild. You're in a game every single night.

Obviously, a lot out there about Jacob Chikrin. You're not immune to all that talk. Where are you right now with that whole thing? Obviously, he's under contract. Yeah, we're in a good space. I think we made a lot of progress. in the summer with Jacob, and we had a lot of meetings, you know, and a lot of meetings, and got a lot of things ironed out. And I think Jacobs, in credit to him and his maturity and

that he's been great to deal with. He's expressed that he wants to go to a Stanley Cup winner. We said we would, you know, look at that when we'd try and help him out. And if the assets on the other side were there, we would definitely make the trade. That hasn't come of yet. Doesn't mean it won't come. He's been a really, really good player for us. And he's dug into the fact. There's no moping with him. He's bought into everything. And it's been great on that end. And that's what we've asked of him on the other side was, listen, you know, we're trying to accommodate

your wishes. But at the same time, before that happens, you know, you've got to do this, this and this. And he's done a great job. And given his age and his talent level and his contract, I'm sure that you're going to be patient. You know, you have probably a price in mind and sticking to the guns. Yeah, we are. I mean, I think that's the big thing.

And when you're going through this is, you know, I always, always trying, you know, we've done probably, no, we have done more deals than any other NHL teams since my, since I've come in. And one of my thought, my, my thought process is showing the carbon copy of a trade that was done before and follow that. You know, let's put the values. And I think, you know, with us, it's hard to do big time trades in the NHL right now just because of the salary cap and we've got room to take it on. And not only that can they afford them next year. And so there's a lot of things that go into it. It's not just simple armchair quarterback behind it. Right. There's so many different variables that, that, that

factor in, do they have the assets that you need, whether is it the players that are there now or the picks, how high are those picks, you know? Yeah. So it's, there are a lot, the deals are complicated, but in saying that, you know, we've been open to it. We explore it every single day, and Jacob's been really good and credit to him through the process. You mentioned obviously liquidating players.

I mean, you have some unrestricted free agents too. You know, Bukestead under a great contract, Gossivar, having a great year. What is the next step there? Well, we always look to acquire players that we can move and grab assets. And that's the whole game plan for us. Whether it's taking on a bad contract and trying to get that player to his peak and then moving them and get more assets, if you look at the amount of draft picks we have over the next five years, you know, we're going to. Yeah, it's crazy.

And we're still trying to add. And, you know, obviously the cap, they said move probably $1 million. That could help us out again in our kind of our structure and the way that. that we're trying to kind of, you know, get the big plan done. Right. So it's coming, and, you know, I like where we're at, and we've had some success early on with the Gunthers and the Mosers already in the draft. So it's been an exciting time for us.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, the number of top prospects, I mean, what a draft you had last year. And then I know Wild fans are already, I mean, excuse me, Minnesota fans are already freaking out when you're going to take Logan Cooley. Yeah. Comes here with the gophers a couple weeks ago, scores a lacrosse goal. Yeah.

How excited are you about here? his year because I watch the gophers play a lot and they are outstanding. Well, we love him for a lot of different reasons. One is he's crazy competitive, you know, and you get to know him. The more you know them, the more you like them. You know, our staff, we just went to dinner with him and, you know, we got to meet him a little bit. We got back to the hotel and we were like, man, this guy, he's a competitor.

Like he didn't go to that interview just to go to the interview. He go to that interview. So we took him, you know, and he left a great impression. and we've never turned back. And we were so excited that we had the chance to be honest with you to pick him. The first game here, I thought it was okay. The second game in here, he was special. I said to Larry Plow, I said, you know, Larry's been around a long time.

He's three times Stanley Cup winner. He's in his 70s. I played for Scotty Bowman back in the day. He's our consultant. And I said to him, you know, do you think he's strong enough? You know, when Larry looked at me, he goes, well, for 10 years, they told Gretzky he wasn't strong enough. you know, he's strong in the right areas. And so Logan's done a great job.

And I felt like in his season, he got better and better. And more comfortable he gets, the more dynamic he looks. So we're really excited about him, and we'll see where his season takes him. Right. I said to him as a joke, you know, I said, you know, I expect you to dig into your team. Don't worry about the NHL. Just worry about your team. Drive the gophers into the final game of the national championship.

I said, you won't win it. You'll lose against BU. but drive them there and he looked at me in this stunt fashion. I go, my son plays for me. That's awesome. And he's starting to laugh, you know. That's hilarious. Steve from Arizona wants to know, you know, you got, it looks like a building on the way.

You got all these high-end prospects, a ton of cap room, the new arena, all that. Like, when do you know, like, what are you most excited for? But he wants to know when do you know when do you now take that next step in your process to make the most of this? Well, a lot of teams have made a lot of mistakes because they've gone through the rebrand. build and they got too excited and they didn't let it happen naturally. To be honest with you, a rebuild, the quickest it's ever done was Pittsburgh. So Pittsburgh drafted Malkin and Latang and Crosby Flurry and Flurry and you know and and they they really accelerated the process. I think it was five years, maybe in the six year. I think Chicago had like almost a rebuild that went twice and the last

portion of it, I think in their seventh year they got in and actually went to the conference final and the following year and the eighth year they won it. It takes a long time with the blues. I think we were 11 to 14 years. I think we were right in that mix, I think. So it's usually 11 year to 14 year process. I think with us, we still have players, the Chikrin's, the Kellers, the Smolts, and all those guys from in Krauses.

So it kind of accelerates it. And I think with us, you know, we're going to have more draft picks than any other team in probably the next five years. So that should help us get under our way. But you have to be careful. You don't want to rush the process. And, you know, for us being in the smaller rink here for the next few years, we plan to kind of grow the team as much as we can and see where we're out as we move into the big rink.

I was just reminded, I was sitting with Kevin Adams the other night, the Sabres GM. And we were talking a lot about Tage Thompson. And obviously, he wasn't the GM that made that trade with you guys in St. Louis. But, you know, you acquire Ryan O'Reilly. You get a cup out of it. Did you have any idea that Tage would be this guy? I was watching him closely the other night. He is unbelievable.

Well, I think we did to some degree because we traded up for him. You know, and he was the last guy in the board. See, in St. Louis, we had a tremendous amount of experience at picking in this range from 20 to 26, the Oshees, the Perons. You know, we were picking those guys in that range. And Tate was in that range for us. And because we just finished in that area every year, I think we got better at picking at that range. And our whole goal was, and we struck out sometimes. Don't get me wrong.

We missed, but we were swinging for a top four or a first line, second line guy or a number one goaltender. And that was our expectations. And I think you miss sometimes when you hit, you get the prawns or you get the Tage Thompson's of that kind of magnitude in there. And we were swinging there. He was the last guy on our board that we felt that had that. And we actually moved up and at Washington, trade with Washington to get up into that spot because we felt like if someone takes them, what's left for us is only a third line guy. Right.

You know, so we did feel there was some, I don't think we knew to this degree. In credit to Tage, two things about him that you need to know is that he's an unbelievable human being. He loves hockey. And so a lot of times now you see him and it looks so natural for him, he could do the same thing before. He just wasn't strong enough in that body to be able to hold people off. Now he is.

Yeah. And when you see him come through the neutral zone and hold the pucks out, there's no way anybody can get to him. And he's so strong at it. And his confidence has grown. He knows when he gets the puck in certain areas. You're not going to stop him. But when we were in a scouting meeting, one of our scouts said,

one of a management had asked us, well, where do you see, you know, all our prospects fit in? And what guy said, well, I see what I see having Pareko one time and on one side and Tage one time and on the other side that nobody's going to touch us, you know? So it never came to, you know, fruition. But, but, you know, we always knew we had that because in, in Yukon, you can see it. You can see slight glimpses of it. And when he went to the program in the summer to try out for the world juniors, you could see it again.

Just couldn't hold it for very long. Yeah. Which brings me to my last question for Bill. I mean, you got Austin Matthews from Arizona. You have Tage from Arizona. I know he mostly played his hockey elsewhere. But he was from here, loves here, lives here. And then you got Maddie Nyes, too, who is going to be a stud that's Logan Cooley's linemate.

What do you think this does for, you know, like having this potentially, you just rinked downtown, this rebuild, and then you have all these young Arizona-born and bred players that are now suddenly going to succeed in the NHL. What's that due for growth of hockey in this area? Well, I think it's a great thing. Anytime you have an NHL club and the alumni stick around and you can really see it dug into St. Louis or the Kachucks of the world,

Ramage, you know, McGinnis', you know, Jeff Brown State around his. There's so many players that stuck around in that area and they just created more players and they created better youth hockey. and I think that's what's happened here to some degree in Arizona, and I think we can even grow it more because now you're talking about this rink, the practice rink attached to the mullet, and then you're going to see the same thing when we build our new rink. We're also going to have a practice rink attached to it.

And so now you're taking a town of Tempe that had no rinks, and you're adding four rinks and you're adding alumni into that area, the Shane Dones of the world that are just great, that get back in there and give back to youth hockey. So I think it's huge, you're going to see some guys on this team retire, and their kids are going to grow up in Arizona. And it just makes the U.S. hockey one step better.

You can see the steps that the U.S. has taken over the years, and just because of the alumni of the NHL is hanging around, and they're just creating better youth programs. Yeah, well, I can tell you, this has always been one of my favorite trips in the NHL circuit. A lot of that has to do with living in Minnesota. It's not bad coming down here in December. And actually, the wild, which is my day job,

We're here actually in about six weeks, so I can't wait, right around the Super Bowl, too. So it'll be awesome. Oh, yeah. Well, it's great to play Minnesota. Billy Garrison has been a great job, and he's got some elite players there, and it's a good team. We look forward to playing them. And he has a lot of respect for you, Bill. Really appreciate you doing this.

Anytime. Thanks for having me on. So there he is, Bill Armstrong, the general manager of the Arizona Coyotes. After the break, we're doing rapid fire, but it's New Year's resolution style. So don't go anywhere. All right, guys, New Year's is obviously. this weekend. We usually do rapid fire here.

We're going to do this rapid fire style, but with a different sort of topic. I don't know if you guys are New Year's resolution type people. Some people love doing it. Some people hate it. I want two New Year's resolutions from each of you. One, a personal one that deals with hockey, either in your profession or as a hockey fan

or something in regards to hockey and yourself. And two, I want you to write a New Year's resolution for someone in the game. What you think they should have is one of your New Year's resolutions. Jesse, we're going to start with you. All right. So for my personal one,

so New Year's resolutions are supposed to be something that's difficult. Like you can't say you're going to give up something that's easy to give up. So I've decided my New Year's resolution is going to be to stop defending good goalies when they're having bad seasons and just admit that they're having a bad season because I am the king of John Gibson, perfect example. it's not John Gibson's fault. It's not John Gibson's fault. And I will go to the end of the world with it. I was doing it with Kerry Price there for a while in Montreal. I have to be able to admit that yes, they're a good goalie, but right now they are not playing well. It is not just the team in front of them. Sometimes the goalie, even as talented as they are, are not playing well. So that's my personal hockey fan, hockey analyst, New Year's Resolution to try to stop doing that. I'll believe it when I see it, Jesse. I'll believe it when I see it. I'll believe it when I see it. Not easy, not easy. My player resolution is Alec Martinez on the Golden Knights.

He leads the NHL in blocks. Maybe take it down a notch. He leads the NHL in blocks by about 100. And he blocked a shot last night. I don't know if he broke his foot or not, but he hurt himself. It's two seasons in a row that he's had serious injuries blocking shots. I know it's a big part of his game.

Maybe don't block all of them. Let the guy with all the pads block some. So that'll be my, that'll be my New Year's resolution for a point. player, Alec Martinez, try to save yourself. The Golden Knights are super injured once again. They need that guy on the ice. Russo, you're up.

Yeah, I won't, like my personal one, it'd be easy to say lose weight, but I've been saying that for 40 years and it never works. So I'll go to actually one from a professional point of view. I'm going to be nicer to fans on Twitter. That is going to be my New Year's reduction. I'm not going to tell them to F off anymore. I'm not going to call them. them toolboxes. I'm not going to call them donkeys. I'm going to just be, you know, really nice,

calm Russo Hockey on Twitter and just be super nice, especially to Avalanche fans. I'm going to unblock them all. No, I won't go that far. But blues fans, I'm going to be like starting, actually my last straw will be New Year's Eve because the wild play in St. Louis New Year's Eve and I'll be there. And that could be my last time of being super mean to them. In terms of a player, I'm going to go with the same team, Binnington. Like, stop acting like a donkey on the ice. Like, you're a good goalie. Just stop the park.

It's a good one. Stop the antics. Stop, stop melting down and yelling at players and getting into fist of cuffs and scrums and all that stuff. Just do what Craig Barubi you coach said and just stop the puck and that team will get into the playoffs. Being nice on Twitter and not defending goalies, man, I don't know which one's tougher from you two. my personal one is and I don't know if this is just the Italian blood of me guys I have to stop being so stubborn with my preseason picks

I said the Boston Bruins were going to have trouble making the playoffs this year I had all the sound reasoning in the world and I'd still keep waiting for this massive slide to make it so I was right it ain't happening just say you were wrong admit you were wrong Rob you don't know everything about hockey I got to just I'm not going to say get rid of

stubbornness because it just it ain't going to happen. I'm going to dial down my stubbornness as a hockey fan. My hockey resolution for a player goes to one Kail McCar. Stop being so nice. I don't want someone to not be nice, but stop being so nice because you're now costing your team power plays. If the game's tied, just reduce your niceness just a little bit.

I know that's a shitty New Year's resolution to tell someone, stop being such a nice guy. But I think even he realized by just saying, No, no, no, that's not a penalty. It may be cost us in the top place. So if you guys have some New Year's resolutions, be sure to send them to us on Twitter. And if you do,

Russo's going to be really, really nice to you. He's not going to call you out or say anybody back. I'm thinking this lasts like a day. I don't think mine can last a day. There are games on tonight. I'm going to be defending these goalies. Goleys cannot do any wrong. You have immunity until January 1.

That's true. That's true. That's why on December 31st in St. Louis. I'm just going after blues fans just to get it all out of my system for the next step. I can't wait to see both you crack. Boys, enjoy the new year. We'll see you next week. I want to remind everybody, you can still, of course, get an annual subscription to the Athletic

for just a dollar a month for the year when you visit the athletic.com slash hockey show. This offer stands until New Year's Eve. And we are going to be back next week. But, of course, the athletic hockey show returns Thursday with Ian Mendez and down. goes round. Let us know your New Year's resolutions and how long you think they're going to last. I don't give my two co-hosts 24 hours in mind. We'll probably go by the wayside not long after that. We'll see you next week. Thanks for listening.