The Athletic Hockey Show - Evander Kane gambling allegations, the Jack Eichel-Buffalo Sabres standoff intensifies, grading offseason moves with Dom Lusczyszyn, Multiple Choice Madness, and more

Episode Date: August 2, 2021

First, Ian and guest cohost Sean Gentille, filling in for Hailey, discuss the increasingly contentious Jack Eichel-Buffalo Sabres standoff after Eichel’s agents released a statement late last week detailing how “the process is not working” for a variety of reasons, including a disagreement over how to treat a herniated disc in the star player’s neck, the allegations levied against Evander Kane on social media by his wife that he bet on his own games and intentionally threw them, Marc-Andre Fleury’s decision to report to Chicago and play for the Blackhawks next season after being blindsided by a trade from the Golden Knights last week, and more.Then, The Athletic’s own Dom Lusczyszyn joins the show to grade some of the biggest moves this offseason including Zach Werenski’s gigantic contract extension with the Columbus Blue Jackets, featuring a higher average annual value than Cale Makar’s deal with the Colorado Avalanche, the Seattle Kraken’s signings of Alex Wennberg and Jaden Schwartz, Barclay Goodrow’s six-year deal with the New York Rangers, the goaltending decisions of the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes, and more.Plus, Ian and Sean close things out with Multiple Choice Madness questions, including if the NHL should push to join the Summer Olympics, the most intriguing remaining free agent, Western Conference playoff bubble teams, and the best rivalry-inducing playoff matchups for next season.And, don’t forget, you can sign up for an annual subscription to The Athletic for just $3.99 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back. It's another brand new edition of the athletic hockey show. As always, Ian Mendez with you in the host's chair on a Monday this week that we're changing things up. We're giving Haley Salvin a much-needed week off replacing her with our pal, Sean Gentilly. So we're excited for that. And even though it's early August, no shortage of juicy storylines for us to sink our teeth into in the next hour or so, including the latest on the soap opera between Jack Eichel and the Buffalo Sabres. some serious allegations swirling around of Vander Cain of the San Jose Sharks. We'll get into that. And Flower Power is headed to the windy city. We'll talk about whether or not we think Chicago is a legit playoff team

in the Western Conference. We'll connect with our analytics expert. Analytics expert. Imagine, I can't believe I screwed that part up, but not his name. Dom Lutz Chichen is going to join us, talk about free agent winners and losers. We'll wrap up with a little multiple choice madness as well.

We'll talk about whether or not we want to see the Summer Olympics be part of the NHL schedule. and what's the rivalry. We want to see next year in the playoffs. Speaking of rivalries, Sean, I think this is great. You guys, you and Custins have been pumping up your bald eagle, American pie, Chevrolet, USA. It's great to get you on when we got this great Olympic storyline where the U.S. lost the team Canada in women's soccer today.

How great is this? I would rather focus on me getting a break from dealing with Custin's. That's what's most important here. We don't need to talk about soccer. What's vital is that, you know, I don't have to worry about talking him tomorrow. I get to talk to you today. That's much better. Yeah, there we go.

So listen, we'll, well, but we've had some fun with that. I think we really appreciate the fact that, you know, in the summertime, you guys have really pumped up the American angle and we're having some fun with it. But, hey, listen, it's great. Thank you for pinch hitting here for Haley. Anytime, man. It's a major downgrade for everybody to go from Haley to me. but that's fine.

I'm willing to step in where needed. I'm a glue guy. Yeah. Well, the best part is you got to make sure, if I make any bad puns or jokes, just make sure you roll your eyes and then you'll be filling Haley's shoes perfect. Yeah, right.

That's the most important thing to bring to the table is the elite eye roll ability that she has for sure. Yeah. Okay, so, hey, listen, like I said, we don't have a shortage of storyline.

Usually like when you get to August, you're like, oh, man, like it's dead on the hockey calendar. Like, this was a crazy weekend. too, wasn't it? Like, didn't you find yourself all weekend kind of going to Twitter, hitting refresh and thinking like, man, like something, like I don't know what's coming next, right? I mean, before we started recording, we kind of went over what had happened the last couple days. And I forgot about Iql. I was like, yeah, Flurry and Vanderkane and whatever else,

all these, all these big stories. And I left out the, like, maybe the biggest on-ice story of the of the off season. So yeah, it's, it's wild to see typically in a typical year, first couple days of free agency comes and goes and it's cottage season and everyone everyone dips off and disappears but yeah, I can't can't get away with that this time, huh? No. And you know what? Let's start with Jack Eichael because I think the temperature got turned up like 100 degrees. That's 100 degrees Celsius, not even Fahrenheit. Okay, 100 degrees. That's like, wait, that's like, that's like 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, right? I'm not sure what the conversion rate is. Yeah. So let me just read for, you know, the benefit of our listeners who may because this was, it was the classic Friday.

news dump where Eichols' agents, Peter Fish and Peter Donatelli, released the statement. So just for the benefit of our listeners here, Sean, I'm going to read the statement, just to give people some context. So this is the statement from Jack Eichael's agents, Peter Fish and Peter Donatelli on Friday night. It says, quote, the process is not working. As previously stated, we fully anticipated a trade by the start of the NHL free agency period. After the agreed upon and prescribed period for conservative rehabilitation lapsed in early June of 2021. It was determined by the Sabres medical staff that a surgical procedure was required. The recommendation by Jack's independent neurosurgeon, other spine specialist consulted,

and the surgery Jack feels most comfortable having in order to correct a herniated disc in his neck to proceed is with artificial disc replacement surgery. A further point of concern is that Arkamp was initially under the impression that the Sabres specialist was in agreement with the artificial disc replacement surgery until that was no longer the case. What is being left out of the discussion is that Jack would be able to play in the NHL for the start of the season pending medical clearance if he were allowed to have the surgery he desires even as of the state. Repeated requests have been made to the Sabres since early June to no avail. This process is stopping Jack from playing in the NHL and it is not working.

So I'll tell you what, Sean, like that is the equivalent of a, you know, a five-ton megabond being dropped. They're basically saying there's a massive disagreement over a discrepancy in the way that they're handling this medically. Like, what does this do for the Jack Eichel situation? Does it end it quicker or does it just add, I guess, another week or two to the whole thing? Because it's clearly a mess. I mean, you can see why they ratcheted up the tension over the last few days, right? Because you look at the teams that made sense to get Jack Eichael. a month ago or two weeks ago or whatever. Who were they? L.A. Kings, Minnesota Wild, New York Rangers,

those were, you know, in some form or fashion, the top three. And now all three of those teams, in one way or another, are out. The Wild are openly out. The Kings signed to know and, you know, filled that hole on their roster, filled that cap space allocation. You know, the Rangers don't have Pavlovich to dangle as a piece in return. They're, they're in cap hell as well. So you have all these kind of top-notch destinations for Eichol places where you assume he'd like to go,

contenders, whatever else, and they're kind of fallen by the wayside now. And that really came to pass over the last week. So the timing of it, you know, like you said, and it's a classic Friday news dump, right? Like it's like you're closing out the week by dropping the neutron bomb.

But I think the timing, in that regard makes sense because the options all of a sudden are way more narrow than they than they were even a couple weeks ago. What I find fascinating about this is, and we had John Vogel on the podcast last week, and John was like, my God, just get this over with. I feel so bad for John, too, by the way. Yeah. That guy hasn't, he hasn't been able to, you know, I'm sure he hasn't, his phone hasn't left

his side since, you know, Valentine's Day or whatever. Tough break. Yeah. Vogel even told us that he's sleeping with his phone. phone on at night, bedside. You know, that's how you know that this could happen at any time, right? So I guess I'm going to set an arbitrary date here, Sean. I'm going to set an arbitrary date of Labor Day, which is only a month away. It's crazy. It is. Does this get resolved by Labor Day? I'm going to say yes, because it's clear that, you know, and again, with the amount of heat that

was turned up by Eichael and his camp over the last couple days. And also, again, to kind of further what we talked about a minute ago, teams need to get their roster in shape. This isn't some, you know, bottom of the barrel. You sign a guy who was non-tendered for one and a half million dollars, right? Like, this is a guy you have to account for in terms of assets going out in terms of cap space allocated to carry them for the next season. I mean, this is no small deal.

So it needs to happen sooner rather than later because, like you see, said, dude, Labor Day is a month away. You know, we're going to be in October before we know it, right? So it's time. It's time for everybody to bring this to a resolution. The issue now, you know, again, throwing it back to what we talked about before is like the list of potential destinations is more narrow than it was before. And that, to me, is the most interesting part of all of this is that, you know,

now you're seeing people are talking about the Calgary Flames and this kind of like next tier of teams outside of those original, outside of those original big three where everybody you know, at least expected them to end up. You know, what I think is amazing is that, look, there's clearly animosity here. And this is going to end up being one of those situations. You look back five, ten, fifteen years from now, you're like, man, there was like legit bad blood between Eichael and the sabres. So for me, Sean, the gold standard between a player and a team and like a nasty divorce

is Eric Lindrosse. Absolutely. Like that, Eric Lindross and the Flyers to me will always be the gold standard between superstar player franchise and a divide. Do you think that Eichel is kind of nudging into that territory? Well, think about what's at play? What were we talking about whenever the Lindrosse situation was at its peak? It's not just money.

It's the player's health and the long, like the longitivity of his career or whatever else. The fact that that's squarely at issue here, you know, Jack's health and Jack's future in the game I mean, there's a, there's, that disagreement is kind of what elevates it, I think, for me, to like a Lindross level of, of, of, of animosity for sure, for sure. So look, like we said, no shortage of storylines. And this one came out of left field, uh, kind of on the weekend. And this is in regards to Evander Kane. And we want to point out that everything around Evander Kane right now is we want to focus on the word alleged or allegations. And I think about that ifander Kane has been proven. But my goodness gracious, Sean, allegations from his wife, who I guess soon to be ex-wife based on these social media posts, she basically posted on the weekend and insinuated that Evander Kane, basically his wife

made allegations that he bet on his own games and in some cases may have intentionally altered the outcome of games for a gambling profit, claims that now the NHL are investigating. Kane, by the way, came right back on social media and wrote on Twitter, quote, I have never gambled or bet on hockey, never gambled or bet on a sharks game, never gambled or bet on any of my games and never thrown a hockey game. The facts are I personally had best season of my career last year. It was the most consistent I've been throughout any season. I'm proud of that. I love the game of hockey.

Would never do what was alleged. I look forward to cooperating fully with the league's investigation, having my name cleared and looking forward to this upcoming season. I think what can't be lost on this in all of this, Sean, is it's really sad because there's kids involved here. Yeah. And that's the thing that jumps out to me is that there's obviously a broken family here. And I hate that this is playing out in a public form. You know, it's easy for us to focus on the gambling end of things because that's the obvious sports connection and that's our job and whatever else. But I completely agree with you, man.

There's some serious allegations of mistreatment in a lot of, in a lot of disturbing. disturbing ways that are wrapped up in the gambling allegations, right? So it's prudent and understandable for us to focus on the gambling end of things. That's closer to our purview of the stuff we typically talk about. But it shouldn't be lost that, yeah, this is a terrible situation. And it's more allegations against Evander Kane, who has a pretty brutal track record when it comes all that stuff. As far as the gambling stuff is concerned,

I think the issue for me is whether it, it's true or not, we're probably, we're probably never going to find out. But the fact is, is that it, is that it could be true because of, like, you hear that and you think, yeah, that's, that seems like, that's not something I'm willing to immediately throw out, right? Because we saw, we, we saw Vander Kane declare bankruptcy and we know that he has a serious gambling problem. Those are, that's a matter of public record. That's, those are, those are, those are court documents. Like, we know that he's broke and we know that he went broke because he's got major, major gambling issues. So if you accept that to be true, the lines to, okay, maybe he bet on games to, for reasons,

X, Y, or Z, it gets a lot easier, easier to kind of connect. And that's obviously not to say that it's true or unsure or whatever, but the fact that we can even sit here and talk about it as a semi-legitimate possibility is a major, major, major concern. You know, one of the things that Andrews said was, look, I had the best season of my career. And look, Sean, he led the sharks and goals. He led the sharks and points. In any way, does that exonerate him?

Look, look, look. If I was minus 25 and I had four goals, I mean, look, and you could tell, but I arguably had one of my best seasons. Totally. And, you know, the thing is, the thing about that is you're saying that over the course of, you know, a 56 game season, which is all well and good. I mean, if you're in the Evander Kane did potentially gamble camp, you say, all right, well, all it takes is one. All it takes is two. That doesn't mean that he didn't have 54 other great games.

You know, the possibility is still on the table. What I think the biggest argument in his favor is that he's a forward and he plays less than a third of the games and it's really, really hard for one person to meaningfully affect. You know, if you say, all right, on Tuesday, we're playing the ducks and I'm going to go out and I'm going to try to shave a goal off off the over. over under total. That's that's that's that's really really hard. This isn't a goalie. This isn't a baseball manager. This isn't a quarterback. This isn't a point guard in in in in hoops. It's a lot tougher for one person to affect the outcome of this stuff for any reason, let alone for gambling purposes. So I think that's kind of the best the best argument in his favor, even though yes, he was great this season and that probably helps too. You know, and and let's for a second here, let's take a like we're going to remove a van der kane

from the equation. I'm going to ask you, do you actually think, Sean, that a modern athlete could be tempted by gambling? Because if you go back to arguably, well, not arguably, the greatest betting scandal in baseball history was the 1919 Chicago White Sox who threw the World Series. And part of the reason why they threw it is they were really being undervalued, right? They were being underpaid. And so you could understand how kind of these skeevy gamblers in the shadows would be like, hey, man, I'll pay you double if you throw the World Series to Cincinnati. But now in the year 2021 with athletes making the money, like, it doesn't feel like athletes would be at risk as much as they would have in the past, right? Like, that's my feeling on it. But clearly,

there might be the possibility that exists. Obviously, I don't, I don't even know if I, if I agree with this necessarily. But I think part of the argument there is you look at what's happened, especially in the United States, over the last two, three, five years, the added legitimacy that gambling has gotten just by virtue of being legalized in however many states that we're in. I don't know if that makes it more or less likely. I mean, my God, we have draft Kings ads during playoff games and partnerships between leagues and gambling companies and whatever else. That would have been 10 years ago, that would have been unthinkable, right? So I don't know if that kind of added presence and that added legitimacy makes it more or less likely, but

I think it is something to watch. It is something to watch. And it is kind of of, to some respect, it is a conflict of interest because you have on this end of things, we're understandably for revenue purposes and entertainment, whatever else, we're giving, gambling this extra layer of legitimacy. And, but you're also saying like, all right, but players, like, you guys are, you guys are still on the other side of this and you're apart from it. And I don't know that that's, I don't know that that's going to be the, uh, cleanest distinction moving forward. Like there's, the lines are blurred, whether we like it or not. And it's happened pretty quickly over the last couple years. Yeah.

It is. It's something to watch. It's, and it's a, it's a, it's a, it should be a concern. You know, we're going to, I mean, boy, we're going to be obviously monitoring that story for the next few weeks and we'll see what happens again. The NHL is going to launch their own investigation into the Evander McCain stuff coming up this week. So the other story I want to hit on that, I think a lot of people were floored by was the Mark Andre Fleury trade to Chicago because when it happened, Sean, the initial thought was Mark Andre doesn't want to go. His kids were crying. He didn't want to go. And you would know this. There's a lot of people that were drawing the direct line between Flower and Pittsburgh. Hey, look, they need a goalie. He's going to come

back. He's going to be this great redemption story. Were you surprised that Mark Andre Fleury on the weekend basically said, you know what? Hey, Chicago, I'm coming to play for you. No. And I think that kind of goes back to, you know, anytime anybody talks about Mark Andre Flurry, it's like it's a rule that you have to talk about what a great guy is, right? And that's, And that's true. Everyone loves flour and blah, blah, blah, blah. The way I kind of looked at it was that if the penguins did want to do it and it was something they wanted to make happen, there had to be an end there.

But it was based on Flurry holding strong over the course of a day or two days or a weekend and continually saying, like, no, I'm not coming here. I'm not bringing my family here. I'd rather retire than play for the Chicago Blackhawks. That's what needed to happen on Mark Andre Fleury's end. and it needed to happen for the penguin's purposes quickly. That needed to be a day one kind of thing. As stuff stretched on, even though it was only a day or two or three or whatever,

that Mark Andre Fleury niceness, right? Like that agreeability, the great teammate that we have heard so much about, I'm not surprised to hear that, you know, that conversations he had with the organization. I heard that Chris Kunitz, who was a teammate of his for a long time, finished his career in Chicago. I heard that Kunitz was involved with the cell process. you know, I'm not surprised to hear that he got, that he got swayed because that is part and parcel with the Mark Andre Flurry experience is that he is a great guy. And he, you know, is the sort of guy that would, you know, after some nice conversations with people who were there would say, yeah, fine, whatever. I'll, I'll give it a try. So I'm not surprised at the outcome. But that's not to say that I thought there was a real chance that the Penguins were going to go out and try to do something, especially that day before the market's opened up.

Is Chicago suddenly good now? The Blackhawks good because I don't know what they are, but they just added the reigning Vezna Trophy winner. They just added a pretty good defenseman in Seth Jones, and they're going to theoretically get Jonathan Taves back, and he wasn't there last year. They didn't blow up any of their young core to get these assets. So, right, Kirby Doc comes back, the Brinket comes back.

Is Chicago good again? I think they're close. You know, they got Kevin, by the way, they got Kevin Lankin and Annette, who was like really good for a chunk of last season too. So you have a legitimate 1A, 1B, you know, timeshare thing involving the Vezna Trophy winner, right? So you got a good group of goalies there. Seth Jones, I mean, I'm sure we're going to end up talking to Dom about him.

He's always, he's always a great conversation point. I don't know, they've added Jake McCabe, who's a nice player. I mean, like, they're adding win now pieces, obviously. It's tough to look at, it's tough to look at what they've done and not see, you know, a playoff team. I wouldn't pick them. I wouldn't pick them to win a cup or anything, but they're certainly better now than they were last year.

Not that it would have been very tough. But you're going to get Taves. You're going to get a full season of Kirby Doc. You have a Vesonet Trophy winner. You have Seth Jones, who on some level is good. We don't know how great or he is or whatever. That's a debate point for the next 10 years. But no, I think they're better.

And I think they're dangerous in some respects. And I would probably pick him to make the playoffs today, for sure. You know, I look at the team that traded him away, Vegas. They took a ton of heat for the way that they traded him and maybe kept him out of the loop. Look, like when Vegas first came in, we were like, oh, this is a fun, lovable team. And they got to the final. Have the Vegas Golden Knights officially become like one of those black hat villain teams? Like, do we all hate the Vegas Golden Knights now?

That's a good question. I think what helped me start to sour on them was their Twitter account. It really, really gets on my nerves. Yeah, I think we're there. And I think that Fleury is the most obvious example because he's, you know, the franchise's first icon. And Bill Foley told him he was going to be there for every other conversation in the elevator with Flurry and his wife. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, right, we were all sort of expecting him to play out, play out his last few years there.

He certainly was, like, for better or worse, whether that was naivete on his part or not. You know, he did not think he was going to end up anywhere, anywhere but Vegas. And that's the most obvious example, but there's, there's been stuff on the margins that's happened over the last couple years where it's like, yeah, this is a little bit of a milkshake duck scenario, right? Where it's like, they're not, they're not the lovable, scrappy underdog franchise because there is no lovable scrappy underdog franchise. It's pro, it's pro sports and it's cutthroat. And I think to convince yourself, whether it's Vegas, whether it's Carolina, all these teams that have like cute social media presences and, you know, they're in non-traditional markets and whatever else, everybody projects this sort of thing on them where it's like, oh, they're the fun team, they're this, they're that, and that team does not exist, whether it's Vegas, whether it's Carolina,

where Tom Dundden is the owner and he made his money on, you know, subprime mortgage loans and whatever else. It's a cutthroat business. Those teams don't exist. So to think so is to sucker yourself, honestly. And I think we've seen people disabused of those notions over the last week, which, you know, that's fine. It's better to come to terms with it at some point. Yeah, you know, it's funny because this Bill Foley, Mark Andre Fleury elevator conversation is taking on a new life. I know.

And all I can think about, I want, like, when somebody tells me elevator comments in sports, I always think of, remember Giselle at the Super Bowl? I think it was the year they lost to the Giants. And Giselle like went off and she was like waiting for an elevator.

She was mad. Yeah. And I think that this Bill Foley, Mark Andre Fleury thing, is going to be on the all-time list of greatest sports elevator conversations. Team Mobile Arena,

release the elevator, We need this to happen. We need, we need proof in one way or another, right? Exactly. All right, Sean, time for us to bring in our weekly guest. And I think he was on the fence until he heard Haley Salvean was out. And then when he heard that you were in, Sean, I think Dom Luch Chichen said, I am in 100%.

Welcome back to the show, Dom. Great to have you. And I think we need to tell Sean, like, the two of us are doing this podcast on like, it's a holiday for us in Canada today. Okay, wait, hold on a second. Ian Denhamie told me I did not know this was a thing. What's it called like public day or province day or whatever it is? Civic holiday.

Civic holiday. Cool. Congratulations. You guys get to work anyways. With me. Exactly. It's like a fake holiday. I don't even know if it's like a legit, is it like, Dom, is it like a legitimate

stat holiday for us? I don't know. I just work whenever I want to. I remember last year, I worked on Chris. and New Year's Eve doing season previews. So all days are suggestions sometimes. There was a year, a couple years ago, the Steelers played on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve,

and New Year's Day. I was ready to jump off a roof. It was terrible. Oh, hey, listen, Dom, again, appreciate this. And look, the two of you often collaborate in your power rankings. Before we start, maybe just give our listeners a sense of when we might,

do we get an off-season power rankings at any point? Or do we just leave that alone? Because that's always really fun when you guys do you do the power rankings. I think we got to figure out something to do this week, right? We should probably do a post-free agency one. We've been pushing it back for five days now or whatever. We should because I'm going on vacation on Monday. Me too. I'm going to disappear for a while. So this needs to happen this week or else it's never going to go down. Yeah. Good thing. I have a lot of articles straight on top of that.

Yeah, no, you're not busy at all. Go ahead. Okay. Well, this is perfect. We can kind of brainstorm. We can get the ball rolling for your power rankings here. Because, hey, listen, obviously, I think there's been some changes, Dom, with the way free agency is shaken out. So as you start to look at, you know, free agent winners and losers, there are a couple of teams that you guys look at, Dom, and Sean, that you say, yeah, you know what? I love what that team did in the last 10 days. And I think they're going to be a better team when training camp rolls around. Is that something we think after free agency? I feel like they spent so much money for, like, not.

like not bad players, but like, not like elite talent or anything. The Devils got the best player and that will take them from absolutely terrible to like maybe okay. And I think that is as good as like gets or me. I try to look at it in totality, right? Where everyone says free agency and it's just kind of like an umbrella term for the expansion draft and in the entry draft and whatever. I liked what the Blue Jackets did until three days ago or whatever. whatever it was. Like, they come out of the draft with, you know, Kent Johnson and Cillinger, and they move Jones, and they do all this stuff. We're like, all right, this seems like,

this seems like things are training upward for them. And in comes the Werenski contract. And now everyone's like, okay, wait, are they, are they a free agency winner? Where do we, where do we have them at this point? It's, it's, it's tough to say, man. Stuff changes, stuff changes quickly. We're not used to this happening in August. Which teams did nothing. That's, that's who won. Yeah. But, okay, just on Worenski for a second. Do you guys at least understand some of the thought? Is there a defense to this? I mean, they have watched star player after star player walk out the door, you know, go through the list.

And you can draw the line back to Rick Nash. You can draw wherever you want to draw the line. It's arbitrary. But guys leave Columbus. So for Zach Oranski to sign for six years, albeit, you know, obviously they're overpaid for him at 9.58 million per. Is there any, do you guys at least see the logic behind we need to do this for their fans? or nah, you can't be doing that? I think they're so far away from contention now that I wouldn't have done it.

There's always a chance he lives up to the deal. He's young enough. He is a really good defenseman. There is a chance he blossoms into this elite star in his late 20s. It's just Columbus seems so far away after losing all this talent that it would have been probably better to just go clean slate. And by the time they're ready to contend, it might be year five or six of the Werenski deal,

and he might not be worth it at all. This was the first off season. And you said this, it goes back to Rick Nash and whatever. The question for years has been, why don't people stay in Columbus, right? And I think you have to guard against that. It's not, that shouldn't be like the deciding factor in the way you're running an organization.

But this last, this last, this last six months or this last whatever, even if whether it's Jones, whoever, you can trace it back recently. This was the first time where I was like, I think they need, they need to figure out a way to find the guy who can at least set some kind of tone.

And I hate that sort of thing just as a rule, but I can see why they did it because they needed to find somebody who said what Ranski said when he signed the contract, which is like, I love being a blue jacket, I want to stay here, blah, blah, I think this offseason is the first time where that sort of logic kind of made sense to me. And Dom, you said it.

Like, is he overpaid? Yeah, he shouldn't make as much as, you know, Kiel McCar. That's crazy. But he's still pretty good. He's, you know, he has the profile of a guy who's going to come close enough to delivering on that over the next few years, even though he's not the perfect guy to bet on. Hey Dom, if I had told you a month ago that Zach Werensky and Seth Jones were going to sign contracts with a higher AAV than Kale McCarr and Dougie Hamilton, what would you have thought? I would have thought that Columbus was out of their damn mind, but they made out like bandits on the Seth Jones trade.

So good for them, especially since he's making that much. Dougie Hamilton, we know that for whatever reason, teams aren't as high on him, but to see him get paid less than Seth Jones still feels a little wild to me. Kale McCarr, RFA, obviously, is going to come in a little lower. So that one wasn't as surprising, but I definitely thought he might have gotten into that 10 million range, which is just how unreal he is. So if you told me that a few months ago, I definitely would have been shocked, but this is the NHL and weird stuff happens sometimes. Stuff happens sometimes. I like that. That should be the tagline for the list.

Absolutely. That's the title of this episode of the podcast. Stuff happens sometimes. Hey, what was the deal that made you guys be like, wait, what? Or like, as Dom likes to tweet out, what in this economy? Like, what was the one contract that you're like, I can't. I can't believe that that guy got that term and that deal. Oh, my God.

Where do we begin? That should be the power rankings. The power ranking of which deal made the least sense. Everybody's worst trade. Yeah. Man, that's a good. You know what's, I, Alex Wenberg is a, is a fine player, right? But just to see the Kraken sign him to that deal, especially when he was, you know, huff and paint on a, on a, on a 20%

sent shooting percentage bender i i was surprised to see that i i know they needed you know you look at their roster coming out of the draft they had they had a hole at center it makes sense on some level but to see them sign him to that deal that's when i sort of started wondering what the crackin were doing exactly yeah that was one for me for sure um it feels like they're going all in on uh having a lot of guys and really just being this like amazing depth team with no one who can like put them over the top and i thought they would be in on dougie and landiscag but they went in on jaden schwartz and alice wendberg and it's fine um but they spent what 10 million to do that and i just i don't really understand the point uh because these are guys who are going to decline over the

next few years. So it's strange. Four years for Cody Cici was a, was a good one. Oh, yeah. That was, that was a, that was a, that was a, you know what, we shouldn't act like we're surprised. We knew that somebody was going to do it. We knew it was probably going to be Ken Holland. But to actually see it born out and to see it come to fruition was, was, was, was pretty wild. Didn't happen all the day, but Barclay Goodro's six years. Sure. Why not? I'm going to love seeing him play without Blake Coleman and Yanni Gord. That'll be. a huge treat. You never know.

We'll see what happens. Maybe it works out. Well, do you guys think that this year the free agent market, it seemed like that type of player, whether it was, I guess, I mean, you could throw Zach Hyman maybe into that mix a little bit, but certainly Barclay Gludrow, Blake Coleman, like, those types of players really seem to be valued in a way that maybe we haven't seen before. Did that surprise you guys at all, that those contracts were handed out to those guys with that term and that dollar?

I mean, Barkley, Barkley-Gudrow is, that's Tom Wilson derangement syndrome, you know, grabbing the Rangers, right? Between that and trading for Reeves, like, that's, you can't underestimate that. I mean, it's crazy for people to be that, it's silly for teams to be that afraid of one player A, and it's misguided for them to think that Tom Wilson's skill set is like just replicable by guys being big, which is always baffling me. Tom Wilson is good because he's good.

Like, talk about whatever, the peripheral. stuff. But at the end of the day, dude's a great skater, legitimate, legitimate top line winger, can score 25 goals, like whatever else. That's why Tom Wilson's an issue. Like, that's why you should be afraid of Tom Olson is because he does all that stuff in addition to being, you know, insane and dirty in whatever else. You can't just replicate that by going out and getting a big guy. And I thought maybe that more teams would have wised up to that, but it doesn't seem like

that's necessarily the case. Yeah, Tom Olson wasn't a problem when he was on the fourth line. Right. No one cared. It's the fact that he plays on the top line and he can score and he's a legitimate power forward who is a bit of a shit disturber um that's what makes him tom wilson he was terrible early on in his career and then he started playing with ovi and he's like oh this guy actually has some talent that's why he's a problem barc of goodgerow is not a top line for it he's not a top six forward and i don't know how long he can even be a top nine forward he played on a great line with gordon Coleman, but I think those two guys did a lot of the legwork where I would be pretty skeptical

if Goodrow can replicate that, especially in New York's bottom six, where they're a bit of a top heavy team. I'm not surprised about Hyman or Coleman because they, those are guys who can push play, they can score, they have talent. Goodrow is not that caliber of player. We saw a lot of goalie musical chairs in the last couple of weeks, and it felt like there was more goal-tender movement than usual, right? And even like Colorado got in on it with Darcy Kemper.

We saw Grubao go to Seattle, Flurry to Chicago, Freddie Anderson switch teams. Like there was a whole bunch of movements here. As you guys look at it feels like the goalie carousel has essentially stopped. Do you feel like there's, yeah, there's a team that absolutely, you know what, I like what they did with their goaltending in the off season? Or is there a team that the opposite? You're like, I don't like that. I'm not feeling very confident with that tandem.

A lot of it felt like moves from moves sake to me. Like it was just, it was just your, you're moving a one time share guy for, for the money is a little bit different. You're just kind of reshuffling the deck. Honestly, there was, it was funny. I just did a radio hit and someone, and they asked me about this. And I don't know that I, I don't know that there's any team situation that I like measurably more now than I did, you know, two weeks ago. I will go in the opposite direction and say that I love what Buffalo and Arizona did for goaltending. Not spending any money at all.

knowing they'll be the two worst teams in the league and just going outright, greatest tank battle right off the bat. Yep. I agree. Speaking of the coyotes, they made a whole bunch of moves. At times people are like, what is going on here? But do you guys like what they did at the end of the day now that the dust is essentially settled and they got rid of a bunch of contracts and they took on some deals and they got a bunch

of draft picks? Like, it feels like they've loaded up for the draft next year. Do we like what Arizona did? I do, yeah. I think until Buffalo trades Jack Eichol, Arizona is the worst team the league. They have nothing. They have Clayton Keller, Jacob Chickren, and guys. Just so many guys.

So many expiring deals. So many second round picks. And they needed to reload because they peaked last year, I guess two years ago, when they made the playoffs with Taylor Hall and, somehow won the qualifying round against Nashville despite getting completely outplayed and then facing Colorado and just getting destroyed for five games. That was their peak. And if that's your peak, you got to be like, we need to start over here. This is not working. We're not getting better. And it's sort of amazing because they had this amazing prospect pool. Everyone thought they'd be this

future superpower because they had all these great young guys and they just did not hit on a lot of them. We got to find some way to get Kessel to Vegas. That needs to happen. Yeah, that would be great. We do need to see that. Do you know how much real, how much real world money, the acquiring team would have to pay him next year? It's $850,000. That's it.

I mean, the cap hit is what it is. But the amount of money that he, that he, you know, that whoever trades for him, if it happens, would be on the hook for it is just minuscule. And what, what's the cap hit then on Kessel? Like, 6.8. Yeah. And it's 850. in real cash? Because the coyote is already paid out his signing bonus

and the Leafs are still paying 150,000 of his salary. So what you're saying is he's coming to Ottawa. Like that, lock it in. Oh man. Love it. Make it happen. Fill and Melnick together at last. It's a marriage that we need.

Gosh. That would be something else. Hey, listen, Dom, we appreciate this. Look, we got the juices flowing for the power rankings. We know that Arizona and Buffalo we're going to be at the bottom, right guys? No, absolutely. Yeah, we'll say something shitty about Arizona and talk about their jerseys and get in it, get in and get out.

That'll be the end. I love it. Hey, Dom, listen, thanks for dropping by on this, whatever, this fake holiday, whatever this day is for us in Canada. I appreciate you taking some of your time out to chat with us. And listen, enjoy some downtime in August. You deserve it, and we'll get you on the other side. Thanks for having me.

All right, Sean. Well, once again, apparently I got his name wrong again. I thought it was Domloose Chichen. Luce Chishin. Luce Chishin. There we go. Haley said, Haley said it's like loose chicken kind of,

and that's what made the bell go off for me at some point. I thought it was Lishishin for the first, like, oh, so did I. Like Curtis Lishishin for the first, you know, year and a half I worked here. Yeah. Close enough. Well, anyway, listen, all was great to get him.

I'm looking forward to the power rankings. Got a little bit of preview. Yeah, we got to have a powwow about those later today. It's time to actually do some work. Put that kid to work for once in his life. My God. Yeah. Hey, listen, we're going to read a couple of reader comments here before we tackled some multiple choice madness to wrap up the show.

Mitchell writes in, and I think this is kind of a blanket statement that probably goes, Sean, for all of the athletic hockey shows, podcast shows that we do. Mitchell writes in and says, I appreciate how you guys never shy away from the hard to talk about issues. You guys never tap dance around them or bury them at the end of the show by saying things like, I know it's not fun to talk about, but we got to bring it up before we go. You guys always tackle it head on, put it at center stage, and go. out of your way to make sure your listeners understand its importance. Excellent work as always comes in for Mitchell and it is important, right? Like if you're tackling things, whether it's,

you know, Evander Cain would be one this week. Obviously, in a more serious way, the allegations around the Chicago Blackhawks from 2010. You know, obviously the Montreal Canadian is drafting Logan Mayhew. Like there's a lot of issues that sometimes make people uncomfortable. But I think it's our job to do that

and to tackle those stories and put them at the top, right? Like not to bury them and act like, hey, everything is great in hockey. And it's important to tackle these things. I thought you guys in particular were great last Monday. You and Haley dealing with the Mayu fallout and, you know, the continued ugliness of the Blackhawks. I thought you guys did a great job of setting the tone for the week. I mean, I know me and Craig took cues from that. I mean, we did it again on Tuesday.

If we're not doing that, we're not doing our job, right? And it's good to hear from people, you know, who appreciate it and whatever else. And we're just trying to try to do our best. That's about it. Yeah, no, exactly. Hey, listen, Chester has written in to the show here as well. Chester has written into the show. And Chester says, so last week was Haley's birthday, Sean. And on the Haley's show, on Haley's birthday extravaganza, I gave her some options of people that shared a birthday with her. And so I'm going to give you the option.

I'm looking at them right now, by the way. Yes. You got them. Okay. So these are the, and Chester says, Haley picked Mick Jagger. But here are the people that Haley shared her birthday with. And I said, who are you most proud to share a birthday with? Sebastian Aho of the Carolina Hurricanes, Mick Jagger, Sandra Bullock, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Piven. Or I said, hey, listen, this is a lame birthday list. She took Mick Jagger. Chester says she should have taken Helen Mirren every day of the week.

Who, like, who do you think is the best birthday to share with out of that group? I can tell you who it's not. It's not Jeremy Piven. He is at the bottom of the list. can't stand Jeremy Piven have never been able to stomach him so we can throw him out immediately Aho's boring

he's a hockey player too obvious I think I'm going with Jagger personally but I'm with Chester that damn Helen Mirren should get some real consideration she's a strong second choice also shout out to Sandra Bullock I've loved her for most of my life

do you remember that Jeremy like that random Jeremy Piven cameo in Seinfeld where he's like He plays that loser? Yeah, he's like, he's the guy playing George on the sitcom. One of my favorite things is watching old stuff like that. And you see bald Jeremy Piven. Before he got like whatever million,

zillion dollar hair replacement thing, he got like he gets more and more hair as he gets more and more famous. And by the time he gets entourage, he's got a full on, you know, full on 100% hairline. Yeah, he can't, he can't full us. I know, I know your tricks, Jeremy Piven. You're a bald.

guy. Don't lie. Exactly. All right, hey, listen, we're going to wrap up this show like we always do on Mondays and excited to have you in for a little multiple choice madness. Sean, this is where we just hit on some topics from around the hockey world. So listen, the Olympics are going on right now. And there's a great debate about hockey and whether or not the NHL is going to be able to go to the Olympics. And there's always this, you know, this idea that they're disrupting their schedule. And so here's my question to you. We'll start with this. Do you think the NHL should push to join the Summer Olympics. And the options are, A, yes, this was a great idea. Players could compete without disrupting the NFL schedule or B, no. That's a dumb idea. This is a winter sport. It does not belong

in the summer games. What do you think? I don't think it really matters because if you look at some of the summer games sports, like is handball like a definitive summer game? Like, I don't know, weightlifting. All this stuff, I don't, they're not inherent. Like, you don't have to be in hot weather to do this sort of thing. So the precedent is there. I am all for it because I want NHL players in the Olympics. I don't, if that means that the games get moved to the, you know, hockey gets moved to the summer, if it means it stays in the winter, whatever, whatever you got to do to get NHL players involved, I'm all for.

And if that means watching hockey games in between watching basketball, another winter sport, by the way, and in a lot of ways, like, go for it. I'm in. I don't care. Yeah, I'm kind of with you. Like, I brought Gary Bettman for years, was trying to, pressure the IOC and go with Reni Fasel with the double IHF and say, we'd like to move to the summer game. So I know Gary Betman in an ideal world would push for the summer games. Like,

I think it's a compromise. And I'm with you. Like, there's a lot of sports where it doesn't matter. But the problem is I think the Olympics look at it and say it's played on ice. And as a result, we can't have it at the summer games. But like, it just makes so much sense. I'm sure given the choice, I mean, NBC is not giving. going to, they'd rather keep it in the winter too because it's a, because it's a touchstone kind of fulcrum sport in terms of marketing the Winter Olympics, which are always going to be, you know, a step or two behind the summer games. That's just, that's just the way it is. So I'm sure NBC would love to, would love to be able to keep hockey in the fold. But if that, if that's what

needs to happen, just to guarantee the participation of, of hockey players, I don't care that the league shuts down, by the way, during the Winter Olympics. That doesn't matter to me. I, like, that's secondary towards to my desire to watch them compete, like, at whatever the cost. Like, I've always thought, like, some of the best hockey has been played in the summer. Like, even if you go back to, like, the Summit Series or World Cups or Canada Cups, like, those are late August, early September. Right. Right. Absolutely. So we're going to get best.

Like, I would love it. I would be all in. But I wonder, like, I was trying to think about it. And maybe I should have Googled it and I would have had the answer. But has there ever been a sport that's. switch from winter to summer or vice versa? Oh man, that's a great question. Like I looked it up and, sorry, I didn't look it up.

I was just thinking to myself earlier today. Like, I wonder if like if badminton randomly switched, like, who would know, right? Like, who would know if a sport switch? Handball was the one that popped in my mind immediately because I, it's one of those dumb Olympic sports that, you know, you love watching, you love parachuting in and checking it out for 15 minutes. It's indoors. Like, you don't need, you don't need to.

It's not weather dependent. Absolutely. I'm trying to look this up now, by the way. I'm not sure that it's happened all that recently. Obviously, we had baseball that got taken out of the Olympics, and now it's back. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't think that's something that we see with any historical regularity,

sports switching Olympics. But let's make it happen, man, whatever. Yeah, all right. Okay. Question number two in a little multiple choice madness. There's still some pretty prominent, as of our recording here on this Monday. some pretty prominent UFAs on the board.

I want to know, I'm going to give you a list of four guys who as of this time, Sean, they haven't signed. Like, who are you most intrigued? Like, hey, where's this guy going to end up? Is it A, Jack Parisi, B, Zedano Chara, C, Joe Thornton, or D. Thomas Tatar? So you have three Hall of Famers, right? Three, you know, staples of the game.

You're that high on Thomas Tatar? Yeah, yeah. And I hate Zadano Chara. He is not on my Hall of Fame ballot. Yeah. But I think my answer is to Tart just because of the way stuff ended for him in Montreal, where we saw him be a pretty, he was a legitimately good goal scorer for years. He's a big part of that top line. And then he just gets stuck on Scratch Island during the playoffs for whatever reason.

He's an interesting player because his statistical profile clearly doesn't match the way GMs feel about him. And those guys are always super interesting to me. So I'm interested to see where he ends up because I think he's got the most left in the tank probably relative to the other, to the other three. Is he like, is he the new Thomas Vanek? Seems that way, right? I don't know. I don't know if it's just because they're both they're both Thomases. They're both Tomases.

They're both Tomicies. I don't know what the plural of Thomas is. Tom I. Tomi. Yeah. So it might be just like an easy A to B kind of line to draw, but it kind of feels like that, right? Where he's going to sign some one year deal for, you know, three and a half million dollars and someone's going to. that someone's going to see what happens.

But I am. I'm fascinated with where he goes just because of the way the last six months have gone for him. Man, like I'm torn on this one. I think it's a Dino Charo for me because he's second, he's kind of. Yeah, he's kind of doing these one year. Like he's, I mean, even at the end of Boston, he was always one year deal, one year deal. But don't you get the sense that he's probably one of those guys that probably does want to play till he's 50 or close to it and keeps himself in shape? Like, I just want to know where he's going to end up.

Like, me personally, I just think he's this. And it's because I'm the same age as Zedano Chara and Tom Brady. And I want these guys to keep playing. I'm fast approaching that point, by the way. Like, I get it. Yeah. Whenever Crosby retires, I'm just, you just send me off on an iceberg into the, into the ocean. I'll be done.

I'll be washed. Oh, so you're an 87 birthday? I'm 86. 86, yeah. So, oh, you got lots, you got lots of time. I don't, hockey's a young man's game, dude. We're seeing lots of 34, 35-year-old players go away and never come back. It'll be here before we know it.

Parisi, by the way, does not get in consideration because his contract is just in a loose desk and he's waiting to file it until, you know, sometime in the middle of the month. We know where he's going to end up. Oh, exactly. It's with the Islanders. Exactly. Okay. Next question.

We kind of touched on this a little bit when you said you were pretty bullish on Chicago. I'm going to give you a list here of four teams that we would consider bubble teams. Like they're not like the Vegases and the Colorado's and the teams that you're like, yeah, 100% they're going to make the playoffs. These would be considered bubble teams. So which of these Western Conference teams, Sean, do you think, yeah, you know what? I like their odds to make the playoffs next year.

These are four teams. Chicago, Vancouver, Seattle, Minnesota. And they've all undergone some significant change. Seattle, obviously, the biggest changes, they had nothing. But if you had to pick one team, you're like, I think they're going to make the playoffs next year out of the Blackhawks, Canucks, Crackenin, and Wild. Which way are you going? You know, you can't say the Canucks, even though that division is so terrible, they're just a, they're just a train wreck. I still think it's, I still think it's Minnesota. And I might be, I might be overestimating them because, you know, their cap situation is a mess because the buyouts. I'm still not, the suitor buyout, by the way, it looks for, it looks strange because he clearly had value league wide. I'm not really, I mean, they're afraid of the stretch penalty and maybe that's reason enough to do it. But I think if they, if they do their business, if the, if the,

Caprizov thing gets taken care of. I still think that they're, they're my favorite team out of that, out of that group still. And I know I'm prepared for wild fans to be like, why are you calling us a bubble team? But I just feel like they, I'm with you. Like they,

they don't have the situation with Caprizov settled. They lost a couple of key players in Souter and Prizay. And then, like you said, the cap hit involved with that. It's tough. I just, you know, and it's a tough division too. Like when you look at those teams in that division,

it's, you know, it's going to be, it's going to be tough. But I, you know what, as much as you think Vancouver is a train wreck, that division is so weak. It's so bad, I know, I know. It's so bad. Like, I think, okay, Vegas is a surefire playoff team in the Pacific. Like, no questions asked. Right. I think Edmonton is too.

As much as people will mock their defense, I think they're a good enough team to make the playoffs. After that, who else is a, like, I don't know about Calgary. I don't know about Vancouver. I don't know about Seattle, and I don't, sure as heck don't know about those California teams. So you look at the Vancouver Connect, and if Elias Pedersen comes back and is healthy and gets his deal and, you know, you get, you add Garland, who I think's a pretty good player. Oliver Ekman-Larsin, I mean, at the cap head, I don't love it. But look, I think Vancouver's a better team year over year in the here and the now. And I think it might make them better enough to make the playoffs in that weak division.

I'll put and I'll put Calgary as a pretty strong three in that division. They're that they should go out and get Eichol. They should they should do it. That's that's personally where I want to see him end up. I think it makes a ton of sense. That's because they're in win now mode, clearly, that you don't sign Blake Coleman and trade for, trade for, what's his face? The defense member of Blackhawks, his name I just forgot. Zedorov.

Yes, thank you. I almost said, I almost said Kutrov. I got my Nikita's. crossed up in my brain there. I like what they've done. They should go out and just sell out and go all in and try to go good eye cold. Okay. That being said.

The fourth spot in that division, it's like, I don't know. Could Vancouver slip in? Absolutely. Like, it depends. Like, can Byfield step up with L.A. Take those sort of, you know, they're an interesting team just because of all those young forwards they have. And, you know, Calvin Peterson seems like he's going to be pretty good, like, whatever.

I don't hate the Kings, but there is absolutely nobody who you can pencil in with any degree of certainty in that fourth spot. So I see it. I see it. I see why the Canucks are a legitimate kind of choice. Just in a vacuum, I'm taking the Wild, the Wild's roster 100 times out of 100, but that's a tough division. And that's the rules that we're playing with. Yeah, exactly. All right. Hey, listen, you mentioned Nikita Kutrov. That's some good foreshadowing because he's part of this last question in multiple choice madness. So let's look ahead to next year's playoffs. And I'm going to give you the opportunity, Sean. You can pick any matchup because you want to sit back with a big old bag of popcorn

and just soak in the deliciousness of this matchup. So I'm going to give you three potential playoff series. You tell me which is the one you want to see happen the most because it would be the best rivalry or storyline. Is it, A, Chicago against Vegas because we would get Mark Andre Fleury and the revenge tour. Is it B, the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers, is how about seven games of Tom Wilson v. Ryan Reeves or C. Tampa, Montreal.

Yeah, it's a Stanley Cup final rematch, but really it's Nikita Kuthorov against the Bell Center fans. What do you want to see? I don't know if we're getting seven games of Tom Wilson versus Ryan Reeves. Someone's getting either scratched or suspended if we're looking at that. So I'm throwing that one out. As fun as I would see, you love watching two maniacs like that go after each other. But that's out.

I don't want to underestimate how pissed Montreal fans were in Kutrov because I wrote about it. I was like how Kutrov's great and blah, blah, blah. I was like I was all the way in. That was awesome and funny and we need more of it. And I got, oh my God, people in Montreal were so, were so pissed by that. So I don't want to discount that either. But I'm going, I'm going Flurry versus Vegas all day because of the level of personal animosity that has to exist. A, and B, we've said it multiple times throughout the show,

I think those games could end up being pretty good. It's crazy that we're talking about the Blackhawks' is, you know, a legitimate playoff team, but I think it's reasonable. So I'm taking that one because I think the hockey would be good and the personal drama would just be unmatched there. Man, you know what? I think I want to see 20,000 fans at the Bell Center all over the Qutra. It's tempting.

And here's the other thing on Kutrov, too, because he had the T's, shirt. He had the press conference. Like, we need to do it. Okay, but where was this Nikita Kutrov in the last three years? I don't know. There was this great coming out party for this, this great character that, like, how come we didn't know that this was what Nikita

Kutrov was? Bloodlight works in mysterious ways, baby. I love it. Give me that Stanley Cup final rematch because I think it would be great. All right, Sean, listen, we're right out of time. This was great. Listen, thank you for pinch. Thank you for pinch hitting. Hey, when I say

pinch hitter to you. you. Like, is there like a pinch hitter that comes to your mind? Absolutely. Who is it? Who's the all-time pitch hitter? Craig Wilson. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the early 2000s. I believe he led the league and pinch hit homers for a while and it was all he was good at. As soon as he had to, as soon as he had to like transition into being a full-time player, he was junk. That's my role. I'm ready for it. I'm the Craig, I'm the Craig Wilson of the group. I always think a John VanderWall. He was like a classic 90s pitch hitter. Yeah. Also, also former Pirates,

legend. That's, I think in baseball strictly in terms of terrible players who were pirates in the early 2000s, yes. Yeah. All right. Awesome. Hey, listen, thanks. Again, though, seriously, for Pinchin, this was fun. The hour flew by. And listen, looking forward to reading your stuff. I know hopefully you'll get a little bit of downtime here in August. But listen, thanks for, thanks for filling it. I don't have a cottage to go to, but if I would, I'd be there next week, yes. Awesome. And hey, listen, everybody, thanks for listening to this latest edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. is follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Leave us a rating, leave us a review.

We certainly appreciate that. And I want to let you know that annual subscriptions on the print side of things to the Athletic, they're available to you for just $3.99 a month when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show.