The Athletic Hockey Show - Decoding Alex Ovechkin’s retirement plans

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

Alex Ovechkin very well may have played his final home game in a Washington Capitals uniform Sunday afternoon, but The Great 8 isn’t letting us know one way or another… at least not yet. And so, Max, Laz, and Sean Gentille discuss if we are in fact witnessing the end of Ovi’s storied NHL career. Plus, The Athletic’s own Kevin Kurz joins the show to talk about the surging Philadelphia Flyers and, to close things out, the guys predict which teams will grab the final playoff spots in the East and West during this final stretch of the season. Hosts: Max Bultman and Mark LazerusWith: Sean Gentille and Kevin KurzExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris FlanneryWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Hey, everybody, Max Boltman here alongside Mark Lazarus for another episode of the athletic hockey show. We are in the final week of the NHL season. And some questions are getting answered. Some still resolve. The Atlantic race, the East Wildcard race, those are settled. But we still got a lot to get to in the Metro. The Metro teams are battling for the final spot there.

The Islanders, I believe, are eliminated now after losing on Sunday. Columbus is behind the eight ball. They lost to Boston. this might very well come down to Philly and Washington. So we're going to have Kevin Kerr's join us a little bit later to talk Flyers. And right now from D.C., let's bring in Sean Gentilly. He's been around the Capitals all week. Sean, we are going to get to the playoff race with the Capitals.

But we got to start with the story that everyone wants to know. No, no, no, no, no. I've been told over the last five days that the only thing that matters around the Washington Capitals is the playoff race. There's nothing else going on, yes. There's a little something else that we got to get to. It's Alex Ovechkin. I'm sure you were like me watching this one. for hints as to, you know, is this his final home game with the Capitals.

There were hints in each direction, I would say, maybe, or maybe more so in one direction, but you never know who's nudging what. Dylan Strome gets himself tossed from the opening face off so that Ovechkin and Crosby can have the face off. But kind of looked like Strom's having to shove Ovi into that moment a little bit too. And when the penguins are standing there waiting to shake his hand, another thing that I took is like, oh, they think this. Ovi waves them off.

No, what are you doing? Get off the ice. doing this right now. You've been around him all week. What do you make of this? What do I make of this? I think this is, well, what we're seeing here, I think he sincerely hasn't made up his mind yet. I don't think he's got his decision made and it's in has it sitting in a drawer somewhere. I don't think that's what's going on. I think there is some degree of uncertainty there. But I think every single sign points to this being it. Like that there's no other way around it. I don't think we would have seen what we saw at Capital One Arena today if there were

a 50-50 chance that he were coming back. Like that felt like a funeral. That felt that that that that felt like a wake kind of. It was it wasn't it wasn't a funeral. It was it was more upbeat than that. But I think the fact that we saw that go down the way that it did tells us a whole lot. Um, Ovechkin, we saw it last year. It points throughout the Gradsky Chase. He's not an overly self-reflective person. I don't think he's, I think he's sea ball hit ball when it comes to a lot of stuff. I don't, I don't think he has much time for, uh, overthinking things. And I think what we're seeing right now is that play out in a very real way. I think it's as simple as this for him. He hasn't made a decision. So he's, not going to act as if he has. And I think that is sort of the skeleton key for what we've dealt with over the last five days, which has been constant questions in different cities of people trying to get him to say like, yeah, this is probably it. And it means a lot to me for reasons, A, B, and C. And he's not going to do it because A, I don't think he's wired that way. And B,

the capitals, as you said at the top of the show, Maxie, they have a very real chance to make the playoff. So the fact that they're still in the mix gives him plausible deniability in a whole bunch of coverage to approach this in whatever way he wishes. It sure seems that everyone else thinks this is it for him. The way that Crosby and Malkin, they sat the home game to play the road game doing their down-the-stretch load management out of respect to Ovechkin, that was as big a sign as any.

And you've got like the Crosby trying to set up the handshake line, like Max said. In post game with his interview with our friend Tariq al-Bashir, he said, it's been tremendous. He's using the past tense there. It feels like even he thinks it's the end. But, yeah, I think you've nailed this. He just doesn't want to commit just in case he changes his mind. Well, we've seen it in other sports in very recent history. We saw it happen with Tom Brady.

You know, he thought he was done and then decided that he wasn't. And, you know, he paid a price for it. And personally, and I think reputational. I think we can look to that and see the hazards of committing to something like this when you're not 100% certain. So I think I think that's at play here. And I think another thing that's in play is that the fans, obviously, in Washington, certainly particularly in Washington, they wanted this moment and they deserve this moment

to be able to chant his name and go crazy in the full context of the event, knowing that this is potentially the last time. They deserve to say goodbye to him while he's wearing a uniform in skates and playing in a hockey game that matters. Not in July at a ceremony, not next season. They want it to happen now. And to some degree, they deserve that. and I think that's why this has played out in the way that it has,

is this is how we treat legends when they retire. This is how it's supposed to work under the best of circumstances. And I know it doesn't, lucky are the ones who actually get to have it play out that way. And that's why it's been strange, because this is Alex Ovechkin, if he leaves, he is going to leave on his own terms. But he's also, which we've seen so infrequently,

you know, even from players of his caliber. right, but he's also got, he's not willing to put ten toes down on it, which is understandable to an extent, but it's made for a weird vibe over the last week. Do you think if he said, if he said, you know what, I'm coming back one last season, he gets the Derek Jeter victory tour treatment, the Mark Andre Flore, Andre Coppittar to a lesser degree this year, where everywhere he goes, there's a ceremony, he's getting gifts from other teams. Does that strike you as something that he would enjoy? Does he want to avoid that? Does he not like the pomp in circumstance?

I think he got his fill of it last year. year, Dylan Strom told me as much a couple days ago in Toronto. He says, you know, it was a very fun. Mark, you're, you know, you know, you know Strom. I miss Dylan Strom deep. I, I, I miss Dylan Strom. And I didn't cover a team that had Dylan Strom on it for a full year, right? He said, you know, I don't want to put words in his mouth. But I think last year was tough for him. I think, I think last year, you know, because of the pomp and the circumstance and all that surrounding the change. Jase, I think he got his fill. That's not a direct quote from Dellenstrand, but it's close enough.

Like, he's like, I don't know if he wants to do this again. So I think that's absolutely at play here. But I also don't think that's the driving factor. I don't think he's approaching this in a dishonest way. I think he's just not 100% sure yet. So he's not going to act like he is. From a practical standpoint, there's really not much for Alex Ovechkin to chase at this point. There's always more wins to be had. You can talk yourself into, oh, you know, with the right

moves, could they get a little better? But I don't think there's really a path for us talking about the capitals as a top five or six team next year necessarily. He's not going to get to a thousand goals that would require like a 70 goal season. It's just kind of one more year for one more year's sake. And I got to imagine that's a factor in all this. At the same time, like, whenever he walks away from the capitals, Sean, like he's not the greatest player in NHL history. He certainly in like the top 10, but I don't think there's any player in Angel history who has met more to their franchise. Mariamian.

Singularly. Well, they got, they got Sid, too, right? I mean, like, the Penguins have, and they had Ron Francis, they had Yager, right? Like, the Red Wings had Iserman and Howe. Like, no one, Ovechkin is truly singular, completely of his own for the capitals. The thing about the capitals is they have structured their entire business around Alex Oveskin for like a decade now.

Like they, they avoided rebuilds because all that mattered was the chase for the goal record for years. That was the company's number one priority. And I'm fascinated to see what they might do if they finally have an opportunity to go in a new direction here. Here's what I'll say about where he ranks in that discussion. I do think Lemieux is number one there. That's is that hometown bias coming from me, maybe partially. He kept the penguins from moving three separate times. Sure. So I think that and I think you could argue credibly that there's not an athlete in the history of North American sports who matters more to one franchise than Mary-A-Lameau does to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The fact that Alex O'Vetchkin is maybe number

two is a tremendous testament to the importance of Alex of Alex O'Evetchin. So I don't draw the Lemieux comparison lightly, and I don't mean to belittle what he means of that franchise. Because if he's not, if he's not one, he's two, right? I completely agree with you there. You know, what they've said from the start is that it's his decision to make. So if he wants to come back next year, guess who's playing left wing on the first line with Dylan Strom

and hanging out on the left circle on the power play? It's Alex Ovechkin. They're going to do as he wants them to do. And I think that in and of itself is testimony to the importance that he has with head organization.

And it's a testament to the to the cred that he's built up. and also the player to some degree that he still is. I mean, he's a wild watch these days because he's not moving there not that much, but also he's going to score 35 goals. So, I don't know. Like, how do you reconcile that? It's a singular player.

He's a 34 goals last year, 33 goals this year. He's still a positive possession player. He is a black hole defensively, but he's still so good offensively. And he's got that shot. He can outperform every metric. He's still good. And he's got the benefit of having a coach who respects, him and understands his flaws and is willing to mitigate them in a way that also still shows

a very real degree of deference to, you know, his, to his accomplishments in Spencer Carberry. Like, I think that is, you know, as in Jack Adams last year deserved, right? Like, like, Spencer Carberry, his reputation is certainly intact. I'm not going to sit here and gas him up all that much. But I think the fact. that he has found a way to maximize what Oveshkin has left in the tank while also hiding, you know, some very obvious deficiencies in his game as a soon to be 41-year-old man. That is, don't underestimate the importance of Spencer Carberry to this entire operation, to the way things have gone for Alex Oveskin for the last three years.

Because I don't know that there are a ton of coaches that would have the patience or the use or the, I think to some degree, frankly, like emotional intelligence it takes to manage to manage what he's had to manage over the last little bit. If it's not a Washington Capitol next year, is he playing hockey in the KHL? I mean, I know I'm asking you to kind of crystal ball a little bit here, but I think that's always kind of lurked in the background here is that, you know, it happened with Pavl Datsuki, retires from the NHL, but he played multiple years in Russia. I mean, I'm of the impression that that's kind of on the radar here.

Absolutely. I mean, he's said as much. Like, he's at multiple points throughout his career. And we're not talking 10 years ago or five years ago. We're talking in November on the podcast that Jeff Merrick and Bruce Bucci do together. Okay. Like, he is, he has said that it is his intention whenever his North American career is over to play some amount of games with Dynamo, right? Like, we don't know if that's one game, two.

game, two seasons, three seasons, like it's going to be some amount of time. I think that's the variable. But the idea of him, you know, wearing that uniform at some point is, is, I would say, it's almost a fate of come play at this point. It's not hard to imagine him doing the Yager route and just like owning a team and playing in five games a year to get sellouts and just scoring one-timers every now and then and just being a part of it. For sure. And I think that's also, you know, you mentioned Yager, I think there's some parallels there too with what Pittsburgh has had to had to deal with as far as Yager's retirement was concerned. Yes, like the overall shape of their careers were completely different. But, you know, the way Yager's post-retirement, post-NHL retirement

plan kind of fanned out, he kept Pittsburgh waiting for a certain amount of time to honor him. And I think there is also probably some degree of concern. And I would say that it's short term rather than long term. But I think that's why we saw what we saw today. I think there is kind of a need to honor him while he's here, honor him while he's still in uniform, because we do know that when he's back in Moscow, he's going to be there on a permanent basis, right?

And once you're over there, we've seen it with Yager, we've seen it from plenty of other great players. like it's a little bit tough to get them back. All right, well, then let's do what Alex Ovechkin would have us do right now and talk about the Capitals playoff race instead of his future right now because it's real. It's still a little tepid. I mean, the Flyers have the inside track here.

The Capitals and the Blue Jackets are going to play what amounts to an elimination game. And it does not mean that winner gets in, but the loser is eliminated. The Capitals would need to win that game and have Philly lose twice, which is tall odds. But it's not impossible. Carolina is...

Carolina and Montreal, they got two legitimate opponents. And Carolina's plan to lock up the one seed, and Montreal, depending on what happens with Buffalo, could be playing with the division still in play, with home ice still in play. Those are two loseable games here. The capitals are on a little bit of a push lately. Like, do you see them finding a way to get in?

If they beat Columbus on Tuesday, they have one point to play with. Like, that's what, that's a major factor here, is you're not asking Philadelphia to lose twice in regulation. They can have an overtime loss or a shootout loss. Because of the tiebreaker. So I think that fact, and I haven't looked at the updated playoff odds, I'm sure those will be up on the athletic from domestician by the time this pod posts.

I don't know what their playoff odds are, but the fact that they own the tiebreaker with Philly is a huge, is a huge, huge deal because Philly does have, Philly does have that the schedule is tougher in Columbus. You know, it looks like a much more winnable game for Washington now than it did 10 days ago. It's really incredible how this East race has kind of come back down to Earth. I mean, the Capitol's lost, what was it, 8 to 1 to the Rangers and 7-2 to the Devils earlier this month. And in March, everybody couldn't, nobody could lose.

And now nobody can win. And, you know, the Flyers are the only team that's really playing well down this stretch. I mean, yeah, the capital's just swept a home and home from Pittsburgh. That was a Pittsburgh team that had nothing to play for. It was kind of amazing how they've gotten back into it. It was Pittsburgh and Wilkesbury, I think. Right. It was a baby pick.

Yesterday and Pittsburgh today. Yeah. Man, as you mentioned, the Rangers loss, that felt disqualifying in the moment for Washington. And look, if they don't, if they don't make the playoffs, it's going to be because they they didn't get two points out of the New York Rangers. Because if they miss, they're going to miss by one or they're going to miss by two with its eyebreaker, right? In all likelihood. So, you know, that felt seismic at the time as related to the Eastern Conference playoff race. And I think it's still bearing out that way, even though, you know,

this has dragged on a little bit longer than people anticipated and kind of taking a different shape than maybe we would have thought a few days ago. Yeah. All right. That is Sean Gentilly. Sean. Thanks for doing this. I know you've had a busy week. We're going to take a quick break right there. We'll come back with Kevin Kerr's to talk about the other team that we just alluded to, the Philadelphia Flyers. All right, we are back, and we are going to bring in now from Philadelphia, Kevin Kerr's, who was covering the Flyers. We talked about the capital side of this playoff race with Sean in segment one. Philly's the pole position holder, though, and they've been red hot, really not just for like

a couple weeks here now, but it is 16, 6 and 1 in their last 23, Kevin. What's gone right for the Flyers lately? Well, you know, to me it starts with the defensive play. and in goal. And obviously, goaltender's been in focus here for a little while. The Flyers had the worst goaltending in the league last year. And Dan Vladar has just been a complete home run in that.

He's been steady, really since day one. He's been consistent. He rebounds from bad games, which we just saw him do again the other day in that win in Winnipeg coming off of getting pulled in Detroit two days earlier. And defensively, you know, it's been a weird season because when Rick Tocket first got here, that was the part of the game that this team picked up pretty much right away.

And obviously, Tockeet is known for his defensive style and being a very, very strong defensive coach. And that was why if you go back and look at the standings, the Flyers were hanging in it around Christmas time until early January. And then it just fell off a cliff. I mean, they'd nosedived in January. They were given up high danger chances left and right. The gold tending wasn't bailing them out. You didn't really blame the goaltenders for that. And then coming out of the break, you know, maybe they just were fatigue.

Coming out of the break, they found that defensive style. And a lot of the offensive things that I think, I think Tocke changed a little bit too. He tried to simplify things a little bit. So there was a little less decision-making, both offensively and defensively. And the team has responded to it. You know, Travis Sandheim has been a rock back there. He's come back from the Olympic break, not fatigued at all. He even said he's playing his best hockey the season.

Jamie Drysdale has improved defensively. Cam York doesn't do much offensively, but he's been a good partner for Drysdale. Razmus Ristel Leinen, who his name was all over trade boards leading up to the deadline. He was a guy that Danny Breyer had a high price for. No team met that. He's been paired with Travis Sandheim on that top pair. He's been playing really well. So to me, that's where it starts. You know, they've, they've refound that defensive identity they had early in the season. And some other guys are scoring more often. And obviously, it helps, a little bit. I'm sure you guys want to talk about this. When you get Tyson Forster back, when you get a rookie like Porter Martone in the lineup, added to

an improving Matt Vaimichkov, you're going to score more roles. Well, let's hold off on Martone there because you mentioned Forrester. And you look at the arc of the flyer season. Early January, they're in a playoff spot. And then it all kind of comes undone. And it's not one for one. And now obviously they're surging back with Forrester. It's not one for one when all these runs happen, but it's kind of mapped a little bit to Forster's availability for them. And in Forster's health, is they were there and then they didn't, they were without him and they were, you know, in a huge lull. He's back. I know that the run back started before he came back. And like I said, it doesn't overlap perfectly, but it's pretty close. Yeah, I mean, you know,

he's a guy that I've always thought Flyers fans, even Flyers fans locally underrate him a little bit. But now we're on two coaches. Both John Tortorella and Rick Tocket have used the words Mark Stone when describing Tyson Forster's game as, you know, he's big, he's got the long stick, he's great along the wall, he's got a great shot. I mean, there are a lot of similarities between the two of them. Obviously, Mark Stone is the more, you know, he's the bigger name now. And Tyson will still have some growing to do. But at the time Forster was hurt, which was December 1st, everything pointed towards him taking a huge step forward this year. He was leading the team in goals. He had 10 of them at the time, which is a 40-goal pace. Defensively, he was outstanding. He was killing penalties. I mean, if you look at

Dom's analytics, he had Forster in the conversation for Asalki because of how proficient he was defensively. So he's just one of those guys that every coach loves and every coach misses him when he's not in the lineup. And from the Flyers perspective, there are two things that he brings that they lack when he's not in the lineup. Size, because he's a big guy. This, especially the time he got hurt, this was a smaller lineup. So they missed that right away. And a shooting mentality. You know, this team, there were too many guys throughout the course of the year when

Forster wasn't here, passing up shots or just not getting in those dangerous areas. That's never been a problem for Forster. He can get to the dangerous areas and he can rip it probably as well as anybody, if not better than anyone on this roster. So I usually get wrapped up in these teams that make a run at the end of the season to get into the playoffs. They're in playoff mode. I always think that team's going to go on a run. I am a flyer skeptic. I look at this team. I see a bad power play. I see a bad penalty kill. They've been the sixth best team in the league since the Olympic break. They've only got eight wins, eight regulation

wins in that time. Convinced me that the flyers, I mean, they're playing the penguins in the first round most likely. That's a winnable series. Penguins aren't scaring anybody. Convinced me that they would be able to handle the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round. They're at that kind of a level based on how they're playing right now. Yeah, well, I don't think they are from being honest. I mean, you know, I think they can get Pittsburgh a series because, you know, if you're looking at Pittsburgh, which is the team, you know, assuming they get in here, they're going to play, that that's a winnable series because I think the flyers are deeper now than the penguins.

And I think they have the better goaltender. Now, you know, the Crosby factor, I wouldn't even necessarily pick the flyers in the first round because of the Crosby factor, he just kills the Flyers. And because, as you mentioned, Mark, I mean, The penguins have a top 10 power play and penalty kill. The flyers are near the bottom. They have the worst power play. And I think they're 22nd or 23rd than penalty kill.

So, you know, I'm skeptical that they can go on in sort of deep run. I think they could be Pittsburgh. But, you know, what you're looking from this team, what they've been looking for, management has been looking for from this team all along is just improvement. It's a very young team. If you take their top nine, I averaged out their ages, the top nine forwards. the average age is something like 24.9. I mean, they got all these young guys in here.

Maybe they're too young and stupid to even realize that it's going to be pressure situations, right? It works. It happens. Everybody. But, you know, they were looking for this group to, obviously the additions Danny made in the offseason. He wanted the team to get better. He wants this young core, especially those young wingers, to grow with some of the veterans that he kept around and that he labeled as, you know, team leaders, so to speak, on and off the ice, like Travis. Kinnakeney, Travis Sandheim, Sean Cotorier. And they've done that. So that's, you know, the

encouraging thing, I think, if you're a Flyers fan going into the playoffs is that the team has gotten progressively better, even from the course of three weeks ago to now. I mean, you know, I know they lost that game in Detroit, but they beat the New Jersey Devils easily in a game they needed before that. They go to Winnipeg. They take care of business seven to one. They beat them. So, You know, they were getting those, you know, the shootout points earlier and the, and the loser points earlier. They're winning games more, more outright now. I mean, at least lately and more, more, more, a little bit more convincingly.

Now, you know, they still have to do it one more time here over the final two. But even some of the games they've lost recently, there was a game in Washington that they lost. And then, you know, Max, you probably remember the game against the Red Wings in Philadelphia. The Flyers outchance the Red Wings, like two to one in that game and they still ended up losing. So even the games that they've dropped lately, they've been in just about every game over the last little while. Well, they've played the Red Wings three times in the last two weeks. And so I've seen them a ton. And the first of those three matches, which in fairness was the only one, the Flyers won, it was a defensive clinic.

I mean, they were locked down, kept everything to the outside. You know, my skepticism with them kind of has stemmed from, do they have enough offense? Like, that'll keep the games low scoring in the playoffs. But there's been an answer to that with Porter Martone. and you inject this skilled top 10 pick into your lineup and he puts up a point per game in his first two weeks in the league. There's your skill. There's your offense that you've been needing. It's a lot to put on a young kid, but it helps.

I mean, the impact he's had was instantaneous. I mean, even his very first game in Washington, D.C., I think three and a half minutes, he takes to delay a game penalty. You're like, oh, geez, that's a heck of way to start your career. And actually, J.S.L. James Higgins, I think, did the same thing. Took a hook in the Penguins, Columbus game. But even throughout the course of that game against the Capitals, Martone got better as the game went on. And then by the third period, it was a 5-4 game and a close game.

He's getting in the front of the net. He's creating chances. He's causing all sorts of havoc. And then the next game, which I think was that Detroit game, you talked about Max. He had like nine shots on goal. Scores the overtime winner against Boston. That was only a week ago now, I guess, in a must-win game,

scored another power play goal, and then he finally got his first even strength goal in Winnipeg. I mean, it's every night this kid is making plays. And even a game like the Winnipeg game, he didn't really have a great game altogether, but he still found a way to make a play. He strips Adam Lowry to the offensive end. He goes the other way. He gets a great pass from Travis Kinectney, and he finishes it. And much like I just said with Forrester, the two things that this team has lacked are a shoot-first mentality.

and size. And he's got both of those things. And that's why, you know, Rick Tocket has likened Martone to Forster in, in that regard, as guys that, you know, they can win a puck battle on the wall. They can take the puck to a dangerous area. They can either shoot it or look to pass it. And, you know, what Martone has done so far has been remarkable. I mean, it's, it has not been a fluke. His seven points of seven games is, is a legitimate seven points. This is like, this is one of my favorite times of year when those kids, those 18, 19-year-olds, come into the league at the very end. Like, we're seeing it in Chicago with Anton Fondell, who's the third overall pick last year. He's been a point-to-game guy. He's centering his own line on the second line. They already took

him away from Badaard. It's fun to see that. But Martone, these are big games. Like, Frondell is doing this in like a vacuum where nothing matters. He's just getting his feet wet. The fact that Martone is playing like this in these games that just have the weight of the world on him, it's been really impressive to watch and play. And I think it actually kind of speaks to the way Danny Breyer has gone about this rebuild positively, right? Because you want to bring a kid into this sort of situation, but you don't want the weight of the world to be on his shoulders. And the way that this team has set up, I mean, they've got other guys, Trevor Zegris, Noah Cates has been playing well.

Connectney has hit a little bit of a skid lately, but he's still their leading score. You got Forster back in the lineup. Christian DeVorak has been, you know, great in the middle, especially lately. He's really been a nice addition. So, you know, whether the Flyers win tomorrow is, not when either the final two games, it's, it's not necessarily, you know, Porter Martone doesn't have to be going to bed tonight thinking, boy, I got to go out there and I better score to nut tonight or the whole city's going to hate me because we're going to end up the playoffs. I mean, there's other guys and other veteran guys that can get the job done, you know, just as well as he can. He shouldn't be thinking that it's all, you know, a playoff spot rides on his shoulders.

Well, oh, and Tippett's been phenomenal. Yeah, I didn't even mention Tippett, yeah. Yeah, and he's another one who can kind of be instant offense for you. Yeah, yeah. And he's hit a little bit of a snag these last couple games. But, I mean, he was driving the bus before the Flyers got Forster and Martone, even in the lineup. The whole reason they were able to stay around. I mean, a big part of the reason was Owen Tippett. And, you know, his name was floated out in some bogus trade rumors before the trade deadline.

And the very first game coming out of the trade deadline was really the first game. You're watching them. you're like, geez, where's this guy been all year? And I remember talking to him just one-on-one after that game. And I asked him flat out. And I said, you're, you know, the trade deadline's over. Your name was out there. Is it a relief at all?

And I forget specifically what he said. But he basically said, yeah. He's like, I don't like hearing that. It's, you know, you don't want to, it's part of the business, but you, you don't like hearing your name and trade rumors. And I actually go back to last year. And I remember talking to him in Toronto after Flyers traded Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee and Scott Lawton, who were like maybe his three best friends in the dressing

room. And he was really impacted by that. I mean, he's, you know, maybe he's a, maybe he's a sensitive guy. He's a human being, right? You know, when you lose your, your best friends and you don't come to work every day, you don't see him anymore, things are different. I think that really affected him. So I do believe there's something there that the weight of the trade deadline was, was a weight off of his shoulders. And, I mean, the way he's not just on the ice, but the way he's carrying himself off the ice, the way he's talking even to us. Like you can tell this is a confident guy that is 27 years old,

so he's not young anymore. He's locked up here for, I think, seven more years after this one, six or seven more years after this one. And he wants to be a part of this. He wants to be one of the guys leading the way. And, you know, more nights than not, he has been lately. You mentioned Trevor Zegaris. I know the focus is on the now right now in Philly,

but what kind of deal is he going to get? He's an RFA. He's having a career best season. He's got like 25 goals. like he's almost at 70 points. He's played every game, which is a big deal with him. What kind of contract do you think he's looking at? Because they've got some big contracts to give out in the near future. It's such an interesting decision because, or even just a conversation, because, you know, he's played center since the trade deadline. Now, he's done some nice things at

center. But like, is he, is Trevor Zegris a number one center on a contending team? Like, I mean, I'm skeptical of that. Even less, even the game against the Jets, he didn't do a whole lot. he's matched up against Mark Schifley, which is a tough assignment for everyone. But, you know, I don't think Zegris is a guy that can handle that. And frankly, that's why if the Flyers are to play the Penguins in the first round, if you're the Penguins, I think you'd be happy matching up Sidney Crosby on Zegris in the middle all day long. So, you know, he was having his early success on the wing as a left wing with Dvorak as his center. Now he's been playing center lately.

This team's strength is on the wing. Obviously, they still are looking for that top line center. and that's going to be, I don't know how they're going to go out and get that. That's number one on Danny Breyer's list. But I don't think there's any question they want to keep Zegro's around. You know, if I had to guess, if I just pull a number out of the air, I'd say five years, $45 million, you know, $9 million a year. I think that's the going rate for a guy that's about a point per game guy, maybe not quite

that much. But I think, you know, Rick Tocket really likes them. You can tell that there's a really strong relationship there between the two. of them. Yeah, and it's going to be interesting just because, not just because of Zegris himself, but because this team has so many young wingers now that, you know, do you, that's the first question I guess the Flyers have to answer. Is Zegris a center or is he a winger? And then maybe you go from there. Well, you could, you can mix and match a little bit. I mean, if you have Zegris, Mitchkov, Martone, Tippett, like I, you know, those are a great winger core to

build around. And if you need Zegers to flex in and someone gets hurt, you can do it. I mean, there are other wingers, I think, can play third line checking. There are. But in terms of money, I mean, centers make more than wingers, right? Yeah. No, no doubt. Yeah. I'm sure his agent is probably now looking at him. Say, hey, this guy's played center for the last four weeks. So he's got, he deserves top line center money. I don't think that's something the Flyers would want to do. Future problems for the Philadelphia Flyers, though. They got, they got present business to attend to. that's where the focus is.

Kevin Kerr's will be all over it for the athletic. Kevin, thank you for joining us. Yep, anytime, guys, thanks. We'll take a quick break right there. We'll come back. We'll wrap this up. All right, we are back. We've heard, Laz, from the capital side of things.

We've heard from the flyer side of things. So here's what I want to do. You know, on the Wednesday show, when Frankie leaves the pod, Sean and Sean always do, what have we learned? I want to kind of forward-looked at a little bit. We're going to do what will we learn this week. And it's just going to be the outcome of the,

three remaining playoff races here. So we got the guys we just talked to, Philly or Washington, or I'll still allow Columbus here. There's still a chance that the Columbus Blue Jackets can get in for the last spot in the metro. We can do Anaheim or L.A. for the last spot in the Pacific. And Anaheim, L.A. or Nashville were the last West wildcard spot. Unless you want to get really bold and say San Jose or Winnipeg, I wouldn't advise it.

But this is what will we learn. So let's start in the metro. I think we're going to learn. Oh, you want to go to the metro first. All right. I still think it's the Flyers. I think they have the inside track here. I just feel like everyone else is playing like mediocre to okay,

and they're playing well. They've got the juice right now. And we've seen it time and time again in these kind of situations where it's the team that gets hot at the right time wins this thing. And I think Philly's going to, I don't think Philly is necessarily good, for lack of a better term, but I think that they're going to pull this thing out. It's just they do have those tough game.

We talked about it with Sean. I think that Rotton, I think comes out to clinching. a lot of weight. I think Carolina comes out to clinch it. And then Montreal, it's like they should get that one done. But you never know. I mean, Carolina just played a game where they sat like 11 guys. That is true.

So, I mean, I don't know how serious they are worried about that at this point. About the one seed. Yeah, I just, I feel like that's not a huge priority at this point. Well, frankly, some of it might be you'd probably almost rather play Boston at this point than Ottawa, too. Ottawa also red hot right now, right? I mean, Ottawa came out in nowhere. We thought Boston was like in Sconson that first wild card.

Now they're flirting with the second wild card because of what Otto was doing. Absolutely. So there's no good, like, it's a myth that like, you want to play this team in the first round. I feel like that never works out. Like, who would have wanted to play the Florida Panthers in the first round three years ago? Everybody would have wanted to play them. They were the 8th seed. They barely got in.

They were bad most of the year, but they got hot at the end and they went all the way to the Stanley Cup final. You don't want to play the team that becomes the 2012 L.A. Kings. You don't want to be the eight, play that hot. eight seed. I'd rather face a six or a seven seed than an eight seed a lot of times because that eight seed's been in playoff mode for weeks already at that point. The thing is the capitals have also one seven out of nine here. Like I know the two losses in there are bad losses. They have one seven out of nine. They've been hot too, but I do, you're right. The Flyers have the inside track and all they got to do really is get one win out of those two games. All right. That sounds good

to me. Well, I'll ride that one with you. We'll know the Flyers. Let's go to the Pacific or the last Pacific spot, Anaheimer, L.A. As we're required, as we're this, it is Sunday night. So I'm asking you to do this on less information than our listeners will have. As we record this, the Ducks trail two to one against Vancouver. If they lose that game, it might even change your opinion of the Anaheim Ducks here. What do you think? I want to say the Kings win out, Leapfrog Anaheim, and we get Oilers Kings for the 17th straight year. I am openly actively rooting for it. I was just in Edmonton with the Blackhawks last week. And I was talking to all the Edmonton writers. I'm like, how much are you hoping to avoid

LA and they're like, oh God, not LA again. I think it'll be absolutely hilarious to get Oilers Kings again. And I got to think, if you're the Kings, don't you kind of want that? Don't you need to slay that demon? Don't you need to kind of get out there and you have to beat them? You have to beat the Oilers. I want to see it. I want to see it again. I think that the ducks find a way to hold on, but I say that knowing that it could look very stupid by the time anyone hears this. You know, it's amazing. The Kings have, as we say this, have 21 regulation wins. And they're I'm going to go on a tangent here. The Montreal Canadians are flirting with the number one seat overall in the east.

They've got 33 regulation wins. That's not a lot. The Minnesota Wild, I'm doing Stars Wild next week, so I was doing a deep dive on that. The Minnesota Wild right now, if they lose their last two games, will be the only team in NHL history to be a hundred point team with just 30 regulation wins. Overtime is so prevalent now in these shootouts that we don't know who's good and who's not. swear, we really don't know who's good in a Stanley Cup playoffs where there is no three-on-three overtime, and there are no shootouts. Cole Caulfield is awesome, but he's God

in three-on-three overtime. Will he be God in five-on-five Stanley Cup overtime? I don't know. He might be. But there are so little that we know because so many of these teams have patted their records in overtime, which is, hey, that's the regular season. That's the way it's drawn up. But it's just I would love to see three-point regulation wins to avoid this scenario, because I don't know if the Kings are actually good or if they're atrocious. They have like the same amount of regulation wins as the Blackhawks. Well, you could say the same thing about the Ducks, right?

I mean, the Ducks have 25 regulation wins right now. I mean, it's more than the Kings, to your point. But that's not many, especially some of the teams that we've been talking about here as we've talked about playoff tie breaks and stuff. Like we know the Colorado Avalanche are good. Do we know the Montreal Canadiens are elite? Are they Cup contenders? I have, they have 33 wins.

They have lost so many more games than they've won in, right? regulation. I don't know. I don't know. The issue that would scare me for the ducks is Dostal. He's had some stinkers lately. And he should be one of their biggest, like, aces in the hole here.

But he's not in form right now, and that would make me a little scared. But I will go with the ducks there. Are you at least taking the ducks for the wild card? You're taking the Kings for the Pacific. Yeah, I think Anaheim holds on. Nashville, I mean, Nashville has the tiebreak on the Kings, I believe. Well, they have the tiebreak on both of them.

They have the tiebreak on both? Yep. You can't count. them out. They've got what, San Jose and Anaheim at home? Those are winnable games. There's going to be a lot of juice behind those games because they matter to everybody involved. San Jose is still on the periphery here. A lot can happen in the West still, man. There's a lot more action in the West all of a sudden than there is in the East. Yeah, the pillow fight turned interesting. So I guess there's that. It can be, yeah, it's competitive. It doesn't mean it's great. It's still competitive.

Yeah, you still want to know who's going to win it. All right. Great week of hockey on tap. That's going to do it for us today. The Sean's will be back with you alongside Frankie on Wednesday. We'll talk to you soon.