The Athletic Hockey Show - Devils extend Jesper Bratt, Jarome Iginla hired as special advisor to Flames GM Craig Conroy, most interesting teams to watch in offseason

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Hailey and Sean discuss Jesper Bratt's 8-year extension with the New Jersey Devils, and Jarome Iginla joining the Flames' front office, before diving into the ten(-ish) teams that could have the most interesting off-seasons.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowNuts.com is offering new customers a free gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $29 or more at Nuts.com/hockey23.For 15% off MudWtr go to mudwtr.com/hockeyshow and use code HOCKEYSHOW to support the show and get a discount!Go to dave.com/nhlshow to sign up for an ExtraCash account and get up to $500 instantlyGo to grammarly.com/tone to download and learn more about Grammarly Premium’s advanced tone suggestions.Stay cool and dry all summer with Birddogs and get a FREE Yeti-style tumbler at birddogs.com/athletic use promo code ATHLETIC at checkout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Hello, everybody. It is a Friday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Haley Salvean here with you with Sean Gentilly. Sean, what's up? Welcome back. Welcome back from what? To Friday.

To Friday. You were on the Tuesday show with Max because Craig Custin's doesn't do anything. I don't even know what his job is anymore. You're with Max. Welcome back to Friday. This is Friday in its truest form.

Thanks, thanks. When was the last time we had a Thursday record? It's been a while. I mean last week. It's true? Yes. That wasn't Friday morning. Because there were no games, so we did Thursday.

But that's okay. But this is Friday as we used to know it. Because we're not waiting for playoff games. This is regular season, off-season the now, record Thursday, post-Friday, Friday vibe. Welcome back, everybody. This is where we're in a silly, goofy mood.

That's what everyone says when they're in a goofy mood. We're in a very, very silly mood. I'm drinking my fountain diet Pepsi. It's a Diet Coke. I don't know why I said Pepsi. I don't like Diet Pepsi. It doesn't taste as good as Diet Coke. I've got my Fountain Diet Coke.

It's really a... I'm in a silly... Courageous, courageous stand there saying that Diet Coke is bad of the diet I love a fountain Diet Coke. I'm just so random and unique. I'm that girl with a bag of chips on her head and says, oh my God, she's crazy. That's a bag of frozen French fries or something, but that's okay. Whatever.

Doesn't matter anyways. We're in a good mood. It's Friday. The cup has been awarded. Vegas wins a Stanley Cup. They're all partying still. Nobody's seen Jack Eichael. and 48 hours.

Is that true? No. No, I'm just making that up. I wasn't really. It was a joke. I could. There was a picture of Jack Eichel wearing Brendan Brissons

player tag their credential thing out at the bars and there's nothing going on behind the eyes and he's wearing Brendan Brissan's name tag. I'm like, that's very funny. They're in the clothes switching

portion of the celebration. I haven't been able to really stay abreast of all that stuff. I was I feel like I was doing stuff this morning and kind of couldn't check up on those guys. I saw that the nuggets are having their big parade day. Michael Malone, the head coach is

getting loose on the on the mic. So I don't know, man. They have a tough act to follow. We'll see. I'm glad. At this point, I think the celebration stuff interests me more than... Oh, totally. It has a chance of be more interesting than the last couple games of the finals,

that's for sure. Yeah, that's That's right. So the Golden Nights Parade is going to be Saturday at 7 p.m. At Flamingo. It starts at Flamingo in Las Vegas Boulevard. It starts with Flamingo. Okay, that's cool. Yeah.

And it starts at 7 p.m. So we're getting a nighttime parade. Feels like that's appropriate, given how hot it could get during the day. As somebody who covered a summer championship parade in just Toronto, Toronto doesn't get as hot as Vegas in June. Oh my God. But I covered that.

I was at that Leif's, not Leifes. Am I okay? The Leifes Parade. Wow. The one they've been planning for so long? For years. Enter jokes here.

The Raptors Parade. After they won their championship, I was there all day. And that one was a gong show. It took forever. The city of Toronto was madness. The, you know, double-decker buses they were on,

couldn't move anywhere. people were getting heat stroke. There was also a shooting that happened like right below me. It was a terrible terrible long day. So I hope everybody has a great time, stay safe. High grades, even though it's night time. Like, enjoy the parade in Vegas.

I did two. But also no. Sorry, Sean. I'm sorry. But also no, it's not the first championship parade in the city of Las Vegas. That's a good point because the Aces had one. We all saw Kelsey Plum with her cigar looking great last summer. Don't forget it. I wonder what the out was. I wonder if they started at the flamengo. I've done two or three, three championship

rates because I did two for the penguins and I did one and I went to Cleveland to cover the calves one whenever they won in 2016. It was. It's chaos and heat stroke is very real and so are like random guns going off because that happened in Cleveland too. It was a bizarre, bizarre experience. We'll say Vegas, I'll say this. Vegas knows what they're doing a little bit more than Cleveland or Pittsburgh does when it comes to holding events like that. So we'll see. Should be fun. Have fun, everybody. If you're in Vegas, Godspeed, drink some water. You can say that. That's what I'm saying. You could say it could be about anything. You can say that to anybody in Vegas anytime. Godspeed, hydrate. Mix in a water, have some fun. Make good choices, kids.

You're speaking directly to Jack Eichael here, I feel like. I'm talking to Jesse Granger. We are now in full off-season mode, and the Bruins are one of the most interesting teams to watch this off-season. We're going to dive into that a little bit in our second and third segments. Sean and I have a list of our must-watch teams for the summer, and yeah, the Bruins are included on that because their cap crunch is causing me a lot of emotional turmoil. Yes. Yes.

I'm having a hard time sleeping when I think about it. I go to bed with the Bruins on my mind. I can't sleep. But first, we have some news to cover. Jasper Brat. Signs in extension with the New Jersey Devils. Eight years, $63 million. That's a $7.875 million A.A.V. Third highest paid player on the Devils behind Dougie Hamilton at $9 million and Jack Hughes at $8 million.

A nice little nod to his jersey number. as well, $63 million contract. Ratware's number 63 on the Devils. He's only 24 years old. I know, isn't that crazy? It's wild. It feels like he's been around for a lot longer. He just scored 32 goals, which was a career high, and put together back-to-back 73 points seasons. I like this contract a lot and not just because it secures a foundational piece for the Devils at that kind of forward hierarchy price that we talked about last week. that it looks like the devils want to keep. They don't want to pay somebody more than Jack Hughes, although they might end up having to when we talk about Tim O'Myer in a few minutes. But it avoids

another potential conscientious, contentious, Jesus, contentious negotiation with Jasper Brad. Remember, he signed a one-year deal last year. He had arbitration rights again this season. Could have been difficult, but it wasn't. He's locked in long-term, eight years, 63 million. What do you think, Sean? I think a big part of this is they get yes per brat under contract well ahead of the start of free agency, right? That's step one, regardless of the number he would have been at, but it would have been more, less, whatever. This is a crucial, crucial offseason for the New Jersey Devils because of, because of Brat and because of Timel Meyer. Like, this is the year where they lock in their core completely, right? if you're of the mindset that Jack Hughes, Nico Hesher, Dougie Hamilton,

yes for Brat, and Tim O'Meyer in some combination, are the five players, you know, that are going to make up the bulk of, you know, we'll say that they're the guys that they're going to be at the top of the roster. They're going to make up the bulk of the salary cap expenditures. You know, they needed to have this done sooner rather than later, because now you have weeks ahead of the UFA date, even though, even though Timel Meyer, you know, has one more year potentially at that, at that big qualifying offer, you know, if need be, you have time to parse things out and figure it out

and, you know, work under, you know, the new framework with Yes for Brad, incorporated in there. So I think that's, I think that's a good bit of business. I think they did well to keep him under eight. I know, like you said, we just talked about that last week. Maybe he comes in over eight because he's at a different point in his career and a different point contractually than Jack Hughes was. He's not, right? So they do get to keep that kind of that sort of salary structure with Hughes at the top long term, which I think is solid. It's a lot of money for Yasser Brat. He's a good bet to deliver on it, you know, really across the board. And ultimately, I think this is where I land on it. It's like, these are the guys who you pay money for,

right? Like, and having Hughes at eight is enormous. That's, that's, that's, great for them moving forward that that allows them you know they don't have to nickel and dime yesper bratt if if he if it is getting from 7.5 up to 7.8 or whatever they don't have to play hard ball right they can't avoid that that contentious element that you that you talked about before so good on them yeah and i mean it's under 10% of the cap right now and that's going to continue to look better as the league exits this flat cap environment that deal already looks good right now. He already looks like someone who's a safe bet to provide value on his contract. And it's going to age better as he continues. Again, he's 24. So the devil's

look really good here. And this is just us assuming that he's going to continue to develop. I don't think there's anything that would suggest that he's not backed back to back 73 point seasons is a pretty good indicator. This is a guy who's going to get better. He's going to get older. He's going to have more experience under his belt. He's going to continue to grow in that way and the cap's going to go up. So this looks like a pretty good piece of work. And even if he doesn't, the cap goes up.

It's not like they're paying him double digits. If this is, if this is who he is, like if he's a reliable, you know, 75, you know, 70, 75 point guy moving forward, that's good for them. There are worse contracts in the NHL right now.

People, people, here's what, here's what people should do heading into this off season when they're looking at cap friendly and they're thinking about their teams and how things are going to look, moving forward. They need to start recalibrating how they think about long-term contracts now versus in a year from now or two years from now when the math. People are already there. For sure. But I will. I mean, they need make sure, if you're not, make sure you get there,

I guess is what I'm saying, right? Because a $7.8 million yes per brat on June 15th, 2023 is going to look a whole hell of a lot different than on June 15th, 2024 or 25. The jump is going to be significant. It could end up whatever, $8 million, $9 million, whatever the cap's at in a year or two from now. It's significant. And when you're talking about a guy who is already under 10% of the salary cap, like you said, Haley, you know, it's only going to look better. It's a good deal now and it could look like a steal in two years. Good job.

Good job, New Jersey Devils. Yep. It's a good deal if he doesn't get better. and if he does, holy hell, A plus plus plus. It's going to look great. Jerome Ginnla and Craig Conroy.

Bestie, it's the bestie hour. They're back. Jerome McGinla. He has been hired, as expected, when we talked to Craig Conroy. If you missed that episode,

go find it. I don't know why Craig Conroy couldn't just break the news when we were talking to him because we had him close. He was ready. Because they didn't do it yet. The news is that,

Jerome McGinlove returns to Calgary. He has been officially announced and named special advisor to GM. Craig Conroy, I feel like nature has healed. I have a lot of things to say about Jerome. You have a lot of things say about... He should have won the heart in 2002. A lot of things say about Jerome and Craig Connery specifically, too. I feel like that relationship has popped up and a lot of stuff you've written.

They are reunited. The old married couple, they are back in Calgary together. I wrote a story when Jerome McGinla got inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2020. It was one of my favorite stories to report out because I just had so much fun talking to Jerome McGinnla's friends like Craig Conroy, Shane Donne, Jamie McClennon, Jason Strudwick. It's a really funny group of people. It was a great time to just talk to them about their favorite Jerome stories. And yeah, the Craig Conroy Jerome relationship is iconic.

They are besties. They were attached to the hip. They would argue pre-game. game doing their Sudoku together. And I tweeted out that anecdote after the news. And people are like, how do you argue playing Sudoku? I think they are one person. Craig Conroy and Jerome McGinla, they are a great duo.

They talked about working in the NHL together. They talked about winning in Calgary together. And one thing that always stuck with me about Jerome and that I think him coming back to Calgary in this way is really significant. And by the way, we should say I think everybody knew once Craig Conroy, got named GM in Calgary that Jerome was going to follow because they are a package deal. Like that is the level of this friendship that we're talking about. But one thing that always struck me about Jerome. And we know the way that Jerome McGinnla kind of chase the cup at the end,

right? He gets trade to Pittsburgh because he wants to win. He goes to Boston, L.A. and Colorado. Unfortunately, he doesn't win a Stanley Cup. But his friends, his close, knit circle, you know, outside of the NHL. So I'm not talking about Craig Conroy. A lot of his friends were kind of pushing him. Like, you got to go. Find somewhere else. Like go and win somewhere else, Jerome. Like you've done enough in Calgary. You've tried enough. You've had the window. Go open it somewhere else. And Jerome always said to him, no, no, nope, nope. We have a good team. It's going to happen. He really wanted to make that work. He really wanted to win in Calgary. and Craig Conroy was the same way.

So it's really nice to see that they're going to be combining forces in the front office in Calgary. So he's just a special advisor to Conroy right now. Obviously, Jerome, as we talked about with Craig, is still going to be working. He's still coaching at Rank Academy in Colonna. So that's going to be his full time. He's coaching his son.

But seeing them back together again in this way is super meaningful. Like the king is back. Nature is healed. Welcome back, Jerome Gidla. It's 2004 again, baby. I'm 10 years old. Having, having, having, uh, having guys like that around is just always, it's just an undeniably positive thing.

Unless you have six or seven or eight of them, which is what the, they're out of the Philadelphia Flyers. But that, but that's not the other thing entirely, right? It, um, brilliant move by Craig Conrad too. Brilliant move. It's a best hour. What if it's like five years from now and it hasn't worked out and the flames are stuck in neutral or something. It's like, oh, you can fire me, but I've got to fire Jerome's too. Good luck. Operation Human Shield with Jerome McGinla.

Why would you bring those vibes into this equation? It's a good day. Machiavellian genius Craig Conroy has added a layer of protection to his. He's using Jerome McGinla as a human shield. That's actually the real, that's the reason he did this. Don't be fooled. He's fooled everybody all these years, Craig Conroy. I still laugh and laugh. at the Canadian man talks about the weather of Boston News. That person had no idea that it was Jerome McGillow. No, not at all. Zero idea.

Not at all. And the group text that night when that blew up was going off. Did you, I mean, I remember you talking about that, like when you were writing the Aguilma story. You included the bits, a bit about that, right? That was those. I'm glad. I wasn't sure if that made the cut or not.

I remember seeing it. It was basically, picture this, a news reporter goes up to Jerome near the gas station, doing a story on the weather, will you talk to me? Jerome's daughter's like, Dad, do it. Jerome doesn't want to do it because, you know, he's just getting gas in a snowstorm. But he's a nice guy, so he's like, okay, okay, they've got a hard job to do. I'm going to do this. And then, yeah, it blows up. And he gets home and it's all over.

He's like, ah. Oh, yeah, we're used to, we're used to snow. We're from Canada. It's like, okay, thank you. Thank you, Canadian transplant, man. Okay. Yeah. He's like, I'll do it.

But yeah, then it ends up on TSN and Jerome's like, ah, shoot. Anyways, that's great news. Calgary, good piece of work by the New Jersey Devils with Just the Brat. When we come back, we are going to dive into the most interesting teams of the offseason, because, yes, it's offseason mode. Here we go. All right, so the most interesting teams of the offseason, Sean. We've got a list of 10.

we will try to get through all 10 without talking for 90 minutes. I don't think we have a choice. Oh, we have a choice. We could make this a two-hour pod. How about this? How about this? We could make this a two-hour pod.

I'm choosing not to. How about that? You got to get ready for the Taylor Swift concert that's in Pittsburgh this weekend? Got to go buy our outfit for the Erez tour. The what now? You got to go get your green, Sequin outfit customized for your favorite era of Taylor Swift music for the Ares Tour?

She, she's in Pittsburgh. Yes. Interesting. I hadn't heard. Okay. That's fine. We have a list. It's true.

We do have a list. Let's start with the team that keeps me up at night. It's the Bruins. Okay. I was going to say, are we, like, we have a list, but we kind of just, like, threw it on there. So I wasn't sure if you're going to, like, count down or whatever. It's not like this isn't an order. So if you think one team's more interested in the other, you're right.

Totally, you're right. I'm stupid. It's not an order. So it doesn't matter. Boston, baby. $5 million in caps base to sign aid players. And they have Charlie Coil is a top line center. Pavel Zaka is a top line center.

Is that what's keeping you off at night? The idea of them going into a season with... It's the $4.9 million in caps. space for me and the fact that they only have 15 players signed. Yeah. Yeah. And it's the players that are free agents. It's it's Bergeron. It's Bertusie. Hathaway. There's a nice addition. Orlov. Craichy. By the way, Jeremy Swayman, he's a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. I feel like you're driving the bus on the Jeremy Swamman. in offer sheet stuff.

No. No, no, no, no. That's, that's your baby. No, I think he's a prime candidate. I think that if the Bruins want to spice up the off season, you trade Linus Allmark. He's got two more years at $5 million. He's probably never going to be as valuable as he is right now, respectfully.

Respectfully. Yeah, he's probably not going to win another Vezna, right? Who does? Right? Whomst wins to Veznas in the 2020s. Trade Linus Allmark signed Jeremy Swayman. And I wonder if Swamen would be, so this is what I was thinking of when I did my goalie list.

Best case scenario for the Bruins with Jeremy Swayman is that he wants to only sign a two-year contract that keeps the cap hit low. So he can then sign a big ticket when Allmark's an, unrestricted free agent, but then you risk Swainman being a UFA in 2025. So what you would probably want, if you're the Bruins, is to be able to lock Swamen in long term. But Swayman's closest statistical comparable is Jake Ottinger. They cannot afford Jake Ottinger money with Allmark on the books and under this current cap situation.

So the Bruins need to get rid of some money this offseason. The most obvious candidates for the Bruins to get rid of it's Mike Riley, it's Derek Forbert. The problem with dumping those contracts is you've got to find someone who wants Mike Riley and Derek Forbert. Somebody, multiple people teams will probably be into Lina Sallmark. A lot of teams need goalies. A lot of them need goalie upgrades. And you probably don't want to be trading the 24-year-old option of the two. Did you know that if Ulmerk wins the Vezina and then gets traded,

he will have been the eighth goaltender for that to happen to? I knew that it happened to Flory, obviously, because I was like 15 minutes ago. Trade high, trade high. I didn't realize it happened. Flore was the seventh dude who that's happened to in the next to leave. That's a great stat. I didn't know that. I know.

I, I, that's why I was, just like went, went dark while you were talking about swimming. Your eyes glazed over. Don't lie to me. I was just, I was just doing research since, yeah. Jim,

Jim Carrey had happened to, you know? Yeah, it's very, it's a very interesting team to keep an eye on. Can you convince, like, is Bergeron going to want to come back? Are him and Craychie going to take low tickets again?

Because what made the Bruins, what makes them so, compelling is last year was the let's get the band back together for that was the last dance run and it didn't they lost the first round so now do you have like a last dance 2.0 and you try to redo what you did last year

I mean they can't. It's not possible. They have under $5 million. And a bunch of holes that aren't just the sheer amount of them aside from Berser, aside from what happened with Berserano to happen to the Grachie.

Like, there's other, there's other problems too. It's fascinating. They still have Pastornak. They still have Brad Marchan. They've got Taylor Hall, Charlie Coil, Jake DeBrusk, as you mentioned.

There are good pieces there, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Linholm. But you can't just surround those guys. Even if you put league minimum, minor leaguer dudes in every single open spot, they are still over the cap.

They're going to have, they're going to have to cut. They're going to have to cut to add. There's just, there's, there's no way from then to do this without moving out some, some relevant piece. Keep an eye out for the Bruins. Mm-hmm. They need to shed salary.

They need to sign people. Bruins, very interesting. Moving on. Let's hit the Canucks quickly here. The Canucks are interesting because we love Thomas Drans. Personally. Personally. Professionally.

Drancer. But that team is interesting. because they're over the cap. Yeah, already. After saying that they need to shed cap space, they didn't. Not yet at least. Also, like, Elias Pedersen is eligible for an extension.

I mean, I know that's not. I was getting to that. That's not at the top of the, that's not at the top of the to-do list, I suppose, because it can't be, because they have to shed, they have to shed salary to, to add, to add long term. They need to become cap compliance, yes.

But the Pedersen element is very interesting. He, yeah, Pedersen is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights in 2024. So next summer, 2024, 25. And then his UFA year is 26.

So he's one year away from being one year away. One year away from being very complicated and interesting. Who's next, Sean? You do the Jets? Yeah, let's do it. Keep in Canada. That's an interesting start to Marat, Attesche's piece today.

Right. He's like, I don't think that Peerloch Dubois or Connor Hellobug or Blake Wheeler or Mark Schifley will play another game for the franchise. It's a good lead. Love it. Just like just bang, bang, bang, direct. That alone, and like, is that a surprise? I don't think, you know, not necessarily.

necessarily. No. But just knowing that those guys are going to be on, we'd known about Hellebuck, we've known about Dubois, but just to know that the four of those guys are in play and to see it stated that way, I think a lot of stuff is going to hinge

on what the Winnipeg Jets end up doing, aside from, and not just their own, like, future as a franchise. Sure. There's going to be a lot of teams that are interested. in those four guys. And I think that alone makes them at the top,

at the top of my list, honestly, what other team has four brand name players like that just on the market for all intents and purposes? Yeah, it makes them very intriguing because of the quantity and the quality, right? And for the fact that it's finally going to happen, I feel like we've been talking every offseason about should the Jets be making changes.

They didn't last summer. It didn't work. The biggest change they made was taking the C-O-Says, off Blake Wheeler and bring in Rick Bonus and Rick Bonus, rightfully so, ripped the team. No pushback. Leadership, blah, blah, blah.

Didn't work. So, looks like there's going to be lots of bodies moving out of Winnipeg this summer. I think thinking of the trade candidates or the trade partners, excuse me, is really interesting because I think a lot of people have bookmarked

Montreal as the spot for Pierre Luke Dubois because for years for years he just wants to go to Montreal he just wants to go to Montreal why would the Montreal Canadians make that trade is my question especially if now this is from Marat and I think this is really good context his story was great it's what we're hearing about pier Luke Dubois Connor Hellbook Blake Wheeler and the Winnipeg Jets future that came out on thursday morning at the athletic read it it's excellent marat does a great job marat says it's his understanding and this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's followed this team. The Jets still want to be in the playoffs next year and the revenues that come with

being a playoff team. They see the value in Josh Morrissey, Nikolai Ehlers, Kyle Connor, and the next wave of players like Cole Perfetti, et cetera. So they want to cobble together a wildcard team rather than obtaining futures for these players. So if you're making a move with Montreal, you're probably asking for a cold. Caulfield or Nick Suzuki or Kirby Doc and you're getting hung up on. So who like, who does Montreal give up to make that worth it for Winnipeg?

And why would Montreal do that given where the Canadians are at in their process? If Montreal had the, had the kind of players who you cobble together for a wild card around, they probably would have come closer to cobbling together a wild card on. And that's not the, that's not the knock what they're doing there because I love the way the Canadians are set up. injuries to the season, so it was totally banged up, but they don't have like Josh Anderson, maybe, he makes a ton of money. I know the Jets have been interested in him in the past. Right, but if you're going Anderson for Dubois, you're losing that trade.

For sure, for sure. If you're Winnipeg, excuse me. So finding the trade partner that is going to benefit what each side wants to do, it's going to be really hard. And Dubois, DeBois done them a solid here by opening up the field beyond Montreal, which I think that was a fair question as to whether he was going to do that or not. And, you know, whatever, the extension becomes a thing, like, whatever. We'll see exactly what happens there. But the good thing for Winnipeg is that there's more options, I think, than we initially anticipated their being.

And, you know, he's, you know, purely DuBois is a good player. Big Young Center. Like, a lot of teams would be, including. someone on our list would be very, very interested in having them. So we shall see it. Well, so let's go there because L.A. is one of those other teams. Colleague Eric Stevens did a very good job

laying this out as well. Should the Kings trade for Pierre-Lucrebois? Why it makes sense? Why doesn't? Why it makes sense? Kind of easy. As you said, good, young center. He's productive. He is quite polarizing the sense that he's already wanted out of two teams. However, those two teams are Columbus

and Winnipeg. Yeah, just two teams that are stuck in neutral perpetually. I feel like, I mean, with their own internal issues and stuff too, right? Whether it's players or coach, people budding heads, things not working. So, there's a bit of that polarizing part

to Pierre Luc Dubois, but as Eric kind of lays out, Copatar's turning 36 this summer. Drew Dowdy's turning 34. They are still very good at their positions. They're still very good for the LA Kings. But I think there is increasing pressure to make another

hard push at winning a cup while those two guys are still under contract and still effective, right? So adding a Pierre Luke Dubois adds a bit more goal scoring to the top of the lineup, makes them deeper, makes them more, better equipped to beat the Edmonton Oilers next season in the playoffs, right? That's why you trade for Pierre Luke Dubois. But I think the same issues arise when you're looking at why shouldn't they? And it's, well, who are you giving up? Who are you okay losing? Totally. And what's the, what's the Jets ask, you know, would buy? Beifield be part of it.

Are you comfortable trading Quentin Byfield? If it's a win now piece off a win now roster, like, what do you do with that? There's a lot of maybes and a lot of what-ifs and a lot of, I don't know about that, I think. And how much is next contract going to cost? Can they fit that under the books? Because the Kings have, what, $7.3 million available, according to Cat Friendly's estimate for next season. If Pierre-Luc Dubois is going to want $9 million, you're going to have to lose somebody in the trade and lose. That's the big thing, right?

Well, unless the person you lose in the trade is a big subtraction to the cap, which gives you more room to bring him in, but you might be in a spot where you're giving up an asset for the trade and then you're giving up another asset to make the money work. It's not an easy fit. Like, it's easy to look at the King's roster and say like, oh, man, they could use. They could use one more guy like that. But because of the ask, because of, you know, the asset match and because of the cap, it's also not a particularly easy fit. Yep. So this was what Eric said to. Moving salary is a given. It would mean parting with maybe, perhaps, any of the $4 million forwards that L.A. has, Victor Arvinson, Alex Ayapollo, or Trevor Moore. And then there's the cost to acquire. Do you buy himself. So there isn't going to be some perfect fit here, I don't think. Send them to Vegas. They always seem to make it work. Yeah, right. So that's something to track and that doesn't even be. dive into the Blake Wheeler. Where does he go?

Sure, sure. Connor Hellebuck. How much would somebody trade to get Connor Hellebuck? We talked about that. We talked about it on the Tuesday show. Max wants him on the, he wants him on the Sabres so bad. Matt Savoy,

Matt Savoy and someone else, because Matt Savoy had played in Winnipeg. I want Freddie Anderson on the Sabres. And let's transition to the Sabres. Okay. Yeah, exactly. here. So there's lots to love about the Jets this summer and follow Marat for all that.

So we've grouped together perhaps unfairly, but it's our show. It's fine. Yell at Daniel if you don't like it. I will. We've lumped together Buffalo, Ottawa, and Detroit because they are three teams on the rise in the east. Right? They're in different ways. Yeah.

I was surprised, honestly, to see how different their cap situation. are. I don't think I realize that the sins had that little, had that little money spent. But this is what I did to say we have a list of 10 and not, you know, 13, 15, 60. We're talking about the whole league. I want Freddie Anderson on the Buffalo Sabres. Love it. Because his sister, Omley, just signed with the Buffalo Butes in the Premier Hockey Federation. She's the first Danish player to sign with that league. She's a defender. Good, good stay at home. D plays for the Danish.

women's national team went to the Olympics, put the siblings in Buffalo. Sorry, Max. He's a good fit, too. We love Devin Levi. We said it before. I certainly, we said it on a Tuesday show list. 21 years old looked unbelievable. He's the future.

Whatever. You want to guard against that because that team is ready to make the playoffs. Like they also have a lot of dudes, Tage Thompson. I know he just magically appeared, but Tage is, you know, 26 years old now. or whatever, right? Like, these guys are, these guys are, they're not all 20. Some of them are, but, you know, the Tage Thompson's and the Alex tucks, like, they're not babies, right?

So you got to try to start the clock and try to start making hay while you can. And absolutely, go out, get Freddie Anderson. The God knows they have enough money to spend. Yeah. I love it. Yep. Because the ideal contract for Freddie Anderson's not a long-term one anyways. I don't think so.

I think the season, the season, he was great this past, the two seasons back, the one that ended in 2022, phenomenal. Yeah. Wasn't great, was injured. Yeah. You know, there's always that issue with when goalies leave Carolina that I think a lot of teams are heptu now where, you know, a goalie will look a little different in, in another environment versus what they,

the kind of stuff they face in Carolina, but I don't know, makes sense. Sorry, Max. And he only played 34 games this season with modest numbers. Totally. He's not,

he's really good in the first. He's another one. Not a spring chicken anymore, man. Freddie Anderson's what? Early 30s, 33, 34? I don't remember. I don't know. I could look it up,

but I'm not going on. I was trying to just drag it out until you looked it up. But that's fine. He's 33. There you go. He'll be 34 in October. Yeah.

And the Andersons are from Herding, Denmark, where I spent three weeks of my life last summer. Shut out. That's great. Seems great. But so Buffalo is intriguing for all the things you said. Ottawa, another team. Obviously, the sale goes through.

There's a level of intrigue there is Pierre Dorian. And our Pierre Dorian and DJ Smith, lame duck coach and GMs sounds like it. Really crappy situation for those guys to be in, honestly. Like seeing all the reports of who. And Lauer is probably going to bring in as his guys. Meanwhile, Dorian's like getting the draft board together and free agent lists. But they're interesting because that's another team that needs to take another step in the right direction this season.

And they don't have a lot of caps. And they need a goaltender. And they need a goalie. And they don't have the kind of cap space that they usually would. When I was covering the sense, it was like, how are they going to get to the cap for? And now it's like, okay, how are they going to maximize? the amount of money that they have. What moves are we going to see in Ottawa this off season?

And the Red Wings, let's make it this question, actually. If you had to pick one of these three teams to make the playoffs next season, Buffalo, Ottawa, Detroit. Buffalo. You think it's the Sabres. Do you think the Red Wings make the playoffs? No.

I want to see what Steve Iserman does this summer, because if they can get Alex to Brinket, then maybe they're a playoff team. be honest, when you look at cap-friendly and you see the amount of money that the Red Wings not just can spend but have to spend to get to the lower limit, they're almost $9 million below the lower limit. I was taken aback by that. I'm excited about the things that they could do with that amount of cap space. If I were a free agent, if I were an undershirt, and this is maybe the wrong year to talk about this because the free agent class is so overwhelming. Yeah, it's not.

If I'm a USA, every year, a high-end guy, whatever, every year I'm looking at Detroit because I think that they're in a better, obviously a better on-ice situation, but I just feel like from a marketing standpoint, from an endorsement standpoint, from a profile standpoint, that's a sleeping giant. Because it's been a long time since they have been good. And if you can, you know, if you're whatever, a Dylan Larkin type player that joins them from elsewhere, man, like you're going to have an opportunity to make a lot of money. Totally.

I like it. I think that's going to be a draw for them moving forward. If and when... Come play with Dylan Larkin and make a bunch of money. Come play in a hockey market. Come play in an American city that has, where people really care about the team and where there's, and where, again, there's a lot of sponsorship money and a lot of TV eyeballs. And it's kind of, and it was always, it's always been a prime TV market for, for the, for the, for, for

the American networks, it's intriguing. Get some Little Caesar's pizza. Little Caesars was a huge rival of mine while I worked at Domino's Pizza. It was a really bad day when Little Caesars opened in Fergus. Did you guys like have, yeah, did you guys like meet in the alleyway and like snap your fingers and? No. Brandish knives at each other.

We weren't criminals. We just made pizzas for minimum age. Actually, it was a great job. It was a great job. I'm still very good at making pizza. I've learned a lot of transferable skills working at Domino's Pizza anyways. Let's go very quickly. The Penguins are on our list.

We talk about that team all the time. They are interesting. Kyle Dubus talking about Bestie Hour. Kyle Dubus and Jason Speta, they are together again. Kyle Dubus gets his doctorate from Brock University and St. Catharines over the week. Yeah.

I saw his grandma was really excited about it on Twitter. So good for Marietta. Good for Mrs. Duvice, yeah. Big Day for the Dube's plan. Kyle Dube. You know you say it. Kyle Dubis has more than $20 million to spend on players this year if he sees fit, which is very, very, very interesting to me.

And he's already got the core. Not a ton of trade capital for obvious reasons. The Penguins have made one first round pick in the last 25 years or whatever it's been. So we joked about Connor Garland earlier because he does seem like the exact kind of guy that, you know, a Dubus administration, if they had the ability to go out and add him to the Penguins court would, you know, maybe target. I don't know how easy that's going to be. But they got money to spend in Kyle Dubus in his initial press conference when he was hired as the Penguins president hockey ops. He sounded more than willing to spend it, let's say.

So it'll be interesting. I wouldn't expect him to go out and sign 20 million dollars worth of free agent contracts for next season, but I think that money gives him flexibility, enough flexibility to be interesting. And that's all you can do, right? That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, shown, uh, shown, uh, shown themselves to be as create, is creative is, is, is, is, he's, he's going to have, he's going to have the opportunity. So, so, let's, let's see who ends up, uh, playing with Sydney Crosby for, for, for the last few years of his, uh, for the last two years of his current contract, let's say. Yep. We said this when he got hired if Kyle Dubus can figure out how to fix the depth players on the Penguins.

They're going to be a playoff team again. And he's got the money to do it. And we already know that he's been able to tinker with the bottom six in Toronto with way less money to work with. To varying degrees of success, we should say. There's some hits. There's some that didn't work out quite well. But obviously, Kyle Dubus has shown he's pretty good at shopping the bargain bin. And he doesn't really need to do that.

this summer. He has more money. He doesn't need to go to the thrift store. He'll be fine. Okay. Toronto Maple Leafs, they are interesting.

They are to watch because it's the Leafs. Uh, no, it's because the whole... Who plays goal? Yeah. It's Samsonov and Joseph Wall.

That's actually not that interesting. Oh, God, really? Yeah. Sorry, Sean. Sorry to first your bubble. Unless they want to go for some big upgrade, like,

I think Toronto was on a Connor Hallibuck. trade list, but I think the leaps are fine. I signed Aden Hill for five years and $30 million. Yeah, and hope that he's just as good as he was in the playoffs. I'm sure that'll happen. When is that gone wrong? He only, this is the first time he started more than 25 games in a season this year,

in the regular season at least. Yeah, Toronto's interesting because we're going to be watching the core for and what does Bradtree Living do this summer. I am a bit more like stay the course. because I think I've said this on the show before about different players. If you trade Mitch Marner, you're looking for Mitch Marner. Unless there is a trade out there that makes them better, and this is how Brad Tree Living operates,

unless there is a deal that makes the Leafs better by shipping Marner out and bringing someone else in, it's not going to happen. Tree Living is not somebody who makes change for the sake of change. He's not, he would have, if he was, he would have traded Johnny Goddrow three years before he ended up going to Columbus, you know, just because everyone told him to change the core, to make a change. It's not working.

They've already had their big change. Their big change is Bradshaw living right on the show. You know, that I think in some ways gives some cover to the core four, which is like one of those phrases. I've just like gotten so sick of hearing over the last few months. It gives, but it does give them coverage, right?

It says, all right, they get one more year with them to see, like, Living administration. It's also worth knowing July 1st. I don't know if you've heard this. Austin Matthews. Yeah.

Something, something. Each day is going to get worse that he doesn't sign. Each day is going to get more aggravating and more and more stressful for Leaves fans, certainly that he doesn't re-up whenever he can. So here's my question for you. Why would Austin Matthews sign on July 1st? He wouldn't. Why would he?

Like just reframe it, right? Obviously, if you're Brad True Living, you want to jet over to Arizona. You want to get pen to paper. You want to lock him in now. Why would Austin Matthews do that? The cap is going to go up by the time he's actually an unrestricted free agent. He probably wants to see the direction of the team and who stays who goes in the next year.

Like he, by not signing on July 1, he gives himself the flexibility, and he can maximize his contract even more. What if he has another 60-point or 60-goal season? He would do it to do the Toronto Maple Leafs of favor. That's it. Well, players need to stop doing favors to organizations. They need to look after themselves.

Totally, totally agree with you. But that's the only conceivable reason as to why we would see, you know, an extension for us and Matthews in three weeks. or two and half weeks. And hey, I'm happy to be wrong. My dad's a Leafs fan. If Austin Matthew signs, that rocks. Because I understand because he has a no move clause that kicks in on July 1, right?

So that's the other element of this is if they find, if they find out halfway through next year, Austin goes in the office and says, I don't want to be here next season. And this is actually the trick because if you're in the playoff picture and Austin slips that he doesn't want to be in Toronto. are you still trading Austin Matthews going into the playoffs? Probably not. Oh, my God. You're probably just going to lose them in a agency. I don't see a world

where you, unless it happens before July 1, but I don't see them trading Austin Matthews if he doesn't sign on July 1. Now I'm spiraling. They're going to trade Austin Matthews in 15 days. I just don't see that. No.

So you're either getting Austin for good or he's leaving for something. Now I understand why it leaves fans are. Truly opening ourselves up. to have this like clipped and put on old takes exposed or something in two weeks. I don't think I don't think awesome Matthews will get traded by the end of the month. No, that was a joke. We're just trying to walk through the options here.

I'm just, I'm saying like, I'm saying I don't think that's going to happen. So whenever he is traded at 635 on June 30th, everybody gets to say, I told you so. Yeah. And I'll take it. I'll be happy. Yep. Who's next?

All right. We're coming to the end here. I swear. I swear. Did we talk about the Kings yet? Yeah. Okay. Kings are on the list,

not just because of the Dubois thing, but they need someone to play a goal for them. They need to figure out what to do with Dubois, and if they want to truly get in on that, and they need to figure out who their goal is. Other than that. Check. All good.

Check. Okay. Ducks very quickly. We're staying in Southern California. Oh, right. the other piece of the off season to watch for the LA Kings. I look down on my sheet and it's like circled and starred. Oh, you have more to say about the Kings.

Yes. LA Live, the home outside of the Kings Arena that was renamed to Crypto.com. It's going to be Peacock Palace. Peacock Palace. That's what it's called now. Peacock Place. That's all. That's it.

That's the only thing you wanted to say. It'll be great. I mean, it sounds horrible. LA Live is like catchy. It's like, ooh, I'm staying at LA Live. LA Live sucks too. All those. And now it's like, I'm going to the peacock place.

And I'll be like, where's that? What's that? All those places, all those like arena district names, they're all terrible. Like, uh, power plants or. Yeah. And and O. C. vibe. And that brings us to the Anaheim Ducks and their O.C. vibe.

Ugh. The ducks are an interesting. team because they have loads and loads and loads of cap space. And they're probably, it's very comical. A new coach who you spoke with. Uh-huh. You want to check that out.

That's on the Tuesday show. I really, I really did enjoy talking to him. He was an engaging, interesting, interesting guy. Me and Max talked to him on the Tuesday show. I just said that. And they're probably going to get Adam Fantilli. Maybe Leo Carver. But I'm team Fantilli here.

I know Carlson played well. Pranman's really got he. I love it. The prongman gassing up Carlson to Anaheim. Oh crap. No, I'm just gassing up, gassing up Carlson in general. Well, he had a good world. That was a good showcase.

It beefed up his value. But I do think Fantilli is a good fit for the ducks. I would say so. One of those guys. They're going to get a big center. Really good center. Big, really good center on the ducks. We love big good centers.

Don't look folks. Listen to the Friday show if you want to hear more about it. Let's be honest. They need to spend $17 million. And but I wonder, are they going to start to turn the corner this year or do they have another year of drafting really well? What do you think? Did it say, did he say we're going to suck next year?

Did he say we're going to whip these guys into shape? Any insight? Greg Cronin doesn't sound like he has a ton of appetite for Trevor Ziegers to have another like quasi-lost season. I think he's gonna... That's great. Me neither. Justice for Trevor.

He looked so beaten down last season. I was like, I can't watch this. Trevor. They're gonna have to sign some players. You're gonna make so much money in your career. When you have as much as far below the floor as the Anheim Ducks are, you're interesting for two reasons. One is you're either going to go out and sign some players.

They're going to try to do some John Klingberg bullshit where they sign someone. and try to rehab them with the intent on flipping them at the deadline, or you turn into the dumping ground for other contracts, one or the other. So when you have that much cap space, also not for nothing, this isn't a situation where the ducks have $18 million to spend and like nine guys under contract.

No, they have 15 contracts on the books, 15 NHL contracts on the books, right? So if they want to go cheap and not break the bank and not add, you know, whatever new version of Frank Vitrono and Strom like they did last year, I mean, they could easily turn into a player when it comes to moving cap space or moving players

and brokering cap space. It's interesting. Yep. Ducks are very interesting. Okay, abs very quickly, Sean. Well,

we know that they can't go in another season without, they've already failed once at meaningfully replacing Gabriel Landiscag, right? We saw that last season. They know that they're going to be without them. for the duration of the 23-24 season, so they got to go out and do it.

Adding his $7 million to LTIR gives them more than $20 million in salary cap, which is interesting. But also they have other bits of business out there that they need to take care of. Devon Taves is going to be eligible for an extension in 16 days. That's a factor. You've got to figure out what you're doing there. Do you extend Sam Girard? What happens?

with a defensive group, very interesting. But also, ultimately, this is a cup caliber team that has a ton of money to spend, right? Like, I know they need to replace Lana Scott. Yes, they need to figure out what the salary structure is like with their defensemen. But we're still talking about Nathan McKinnon and Kale McCar and Miko Ranton, and these guys that won a cup less than a year ago, right? So we'll see what happens. They've got money to spend and a bunch of good players, you know,

as the bones of their roster. It probably helps too that they know that Landisog is going to miss the whole year, right? It's not going to be this. It's not the same. It's not the same situation as last year, right? Don't spend the money just to have to try to make room for him when he comes back kind of things. Like go out and find the right replacement. They're not just looking to replace Nazim Kodry and a little bit of Landisog.

It's, yeah, we need to address this. They know now that they need to look elsewhere for their improvements, right? After a season of trying to figure out who's the second center. and is can someone replace Landis Gag on the cheap whatever, those guys aren't in house. They're not. So if they want to get better,

they got to figure out someone to do it. Last year, it wasn't New Hook. It wasn't Comper. Nope. They can do that for a bit. But if that's, if that, if J.T. Comfer's your 2B center.

You're going to lose in the place. I'm sorry. You're not going to win a cup. Probably not. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. Finally, the New York ranges.

I think they're very, interesting basically because they bring up this conversation and debate that happens ad nauseum about retread coaches and what is Peter Laviolet going to provide that somebody knew couldn't or what's he going to provide that Gerard Gallant couldn't and I think we forget that Peter Laviolead is like a good coach. Things didn't go great in Washington. They had their most losses in a season last year under La Violet. They also had a lot of injuries last season. Tons injuries.

Tons of big ones to important players. I think he was the safe choice for the Rangers. It sounds like there were other people that they talked to or ideal candidates that were not available, i.e. Mike Sullivan. And I just think, I think the easy sell to ownership, if you're, Chris jury is look at Lavillette's track record of taking over teams and leading them deep into the postseason early and often. Like, he's not dissimilar to Pete DeBore. And maybe the ship

has sailed on this because he didn't do that in Washington, his most recent stop. But he did it in Carolina. He did it in Philly. And he did it in Nashville. Like, we're getting these blinders of, Wow, Washington was terrible. They mutually parted ways he was not fired. And he has a track record of helping teams early. Why is that a bad thing for the Rangers who are in a win now window? Like, we get so caught up in retread coaches that sometimes we forget how many good coaches are retreads. Mike Sullivan.

Are we really saying that the penguins made a mistake not hiring? another American or junior coach. Should they have just stuck with another Mike Johnston? I'm getting angry again. It takes me an hour into every show to get a little bit crusty. Jeff Ward didn't work in Calgary. Did not work at all. He was a new head coach, right?

Like there is a the same. There is a track record of new coach is not working. And there is also a track record of retreads not working. Let's be honest. Like I have. no problem with teams getting off the carousel. Greg Cronin, great example. The Anaheim Ducks, why would they need to go out and get some veteran coach?

Go out and try the new young guy. Not even the young guy because Greg Cronin has a very lengthy resume. He just hasn't been an NHL head coach. Calgary Flames. They go with Ryan Huska. Awesome. Great. I was on board for the Mitch Love hire there.

I have no problem with first time NHL coaches. But we get so wrapped up in retreads being this terrible thing. I mean, worked for Bruce Cassidy in the Vegas Colton Knights. Every situation is different. Exactly. Some rosters call for a different personality type, a different resume, like, whatever. And not for nothing, the Rangers tried to hire David Quinn as the first time an NHL head coach with a lot of the guys currently on this roster. Yeah, so it's probably a pretty, like a not so distant example of let's go for a vet this time.

And Lavalette's not some inspiring choice, right? Like he's the definition of like a life for NHL head coach. He's the easy choice, right? I think that was the way that I put it. He's the easy, he's the safe choice. But the kind of rosters that he took over in Philly in Nashville and immediately elevated them, they're a lot more similar to the Rangers than the caps are. It's a very convoluted way of saying that.

But those, but those teams were like, you know, in their prime kind of youngish groups that leveled up whenever he took over in the caps you know say what you will about him. Great as they've been. I don't think anybody's, you know, it's not an apples-d-apples comparison there. Nope. So I think

it's going to be interesting to see is he the right coach for this team? Maybe the retread was the wrong choice. Maybe the Washington Capitals in the last season was the sign that he's going to be past his prime and he's not a good coach. I don't know. So it's going to be interesting to watch the ways in which he maximizes the Rangers

in a way that Galant couldn't when it mattered the most. Because at the end of the day, I feel like that's what's going to matter with the Rangers. See in the postseason, see how you did. They're at the point now where a good regular season isn't going to be satisfying for people. Oh, God, no, no, because they had, they had one. And it wasn't, right? Yeah.

But, no, and then then you throw on the fact that, you know, got some caps based. What happens with Patrick Kane? He was just coming off hip surgery. How does, how does that factor in? What ends up happening with, like, long-term deals potentially for. Alexei Lafranier is a restricted free agent this summer. He is not our eligible, though, so a little bit easier of a negotiation. Same with Kandre Miller.

He needs a contract. because they have 11.7 million and estimate a cap space on cat friendly, but they've got some important young pieces to lock in. What are some of the other things that they can do to improve their roster? Because I think that's the big question, right? Was it the roster that was the problem or was it the coach? So do they need to make changes to the group? Both.

Or was it the coach that need to make a change? Yeah, it's probably a mix of both. So they've got the new coach, and now what are they going to do with the roster? Chelsea. see? We shall see. June 15. Do we finish with 10? Yeah. Well, 10.

If you include Buffalo, Ottawa, Detroit. I'm sorry for those fans. I wanted to talk about you. That's what I can provide. The Atlantic Division super team. Okay. Yeah, exactly. It's the Super Team.

Oh, that's like Team North America, but it's Team Buffalo, Detroit, Ottawa. They are in it. They're very close geographically. It's true. Mm-hmm. you could drive. You could drive in that little triangle.

You don't have to cross the border either. They're all the same. All right. That was our little off-season preview, kind of. Buffalo Katie. We're going to have way more. Shut up. We are going to have way more off-season content coming.

We have one more show before the draft. So maybe we'll get Corey Promin on the show. Well, that would, no, that wouldn't make any sense, because Corey has a show on Fridays. He's got his own show. So we'll get Scott. Scott Wheeler. I don't like that guy.

I don't like him. He did his superlatives today. He published his best shot, best skater, best vision, etc. Connor Bedard went all. Loved it. He went best goalie, too. Wild. He's so impressive.

I think he's going to go first. Lots of off-season content coming for you guys over the next couple weeks before we head on a little hiatus. I always close. Sabatical. Sabatical? Why?

It sounds very academic. Taking a sabbatical to work on my to work on one of my many my many my many books. I'm doing a research sabbatical. Oh.

Professor at University of Pittsburgh. Okay. That's nice. Well, not right yet because we've got Lots to still go off on. The draft has mentioned, one more show before that. Then free agency opens right after. Lots of things are going to be happening over the next couple.

It's crazy. Over the next couple weeks. So catch us all here on the athletic hockey show, specifically on Fridays, though. Specifically on Fridays. Not on Mondays with Ian Mendez. Or on Thursdays with Ian Mendez. And we just want to remind you all,

if you are not an athletic subscriber, you can join us at the athletic.com slash hockey show to get an annual subscription for $2 a month for 12 months. Thanks, everyone. Don't listen to Ian Mendez.