The Athletic Hockey Show - Familiar faces Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci return to Boston Bruins, Max Pacioretty out longterm again and loopholes in the NHL CBA

Episode Date: August 10, 2022

Rob, Sara and Jesse discuss the latest injury to Max Pacioretty, as the newest Carolina Hurricane needs surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon.With NHL transactions slowing down, the roundtable takes a look at the 13 NHL teams currently over the cap and the most attractive remaining unrestricted free agents including Nazem Kadri who most in the Hockey world believe is destined to become a New York Islander, plus remaining UFA's Phil Kessel, PK Subban, Evan Rodrigues and Paul Stastny who are still searching for a new home.Billy Jaffe, studio analyst for the Boston Bruins on NESN, and Co-host of Morning Bru with Andrew Raycroft joins the roundtable from Prague to discuss the Bruins active last few weeks including re-signing Captain Patrice Bergeron, the return of David Krejci, extending new acquisition Pavel Zacha and Jim Montgomery being hired to be the new head coach for a Bruins team who are poised to give it one more shot at another Stanley Cup with this roster. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What's going on, everybody? Welcome to August 10th edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, the Wednesday Roundtable Edition. I am Rob Pizzo from CBC Sports, joined as always by Jesse Granger, who's in Vegas. How are you, doing well, enjoying August no hockey to be seen in any direction? Not. Well, we'll talk about a tournament going on that a lot of people are kind of ignoring right now, but we'll save that for later on in the show. And Sarah Sivion, who is in Bean,

I don't worry, Sarah. I'm good. Just in Boston, I was going to say, Jesse, the world juniors are on. Come on. Why would people be ignoring the world juniors this year? Is there something going on that has maybe upset people or the fact that it's also, like I said, off the top of the show, August, the 10th. We'll get to that.

We got a lot to get to, including, obviously, big news this week, the Bruins. Signing a couple very familiar faces in Patrice Bersian and David Crachie. So we're going to talk to Billy Jaffe, who's, of course, a studio analyst on Nesson and the host of the Morning Brew podcast. We'll get his opinions on obviously the Bruins going for one more, guys. But we'll save that for segment number two. The first, when we count three stories I got here involved the Carolina Hurricanes and the Vegas Golden Knights. Whoever could we talk about with these two co-hosts that I have here on this amazing show every single week.

Let's start with Max Patcheretti. Now a Carolina Hurricane after that deal. with a whole boatload of stuff going the other way to Vegas, right, Jesse, that fantastic hockey player called Future Considerations. Well, he tore as Achilles. He's got to have surgery and he's going to be out six months, prompting one Sarah Sivian to quote tweet it on Twitter and say the two words, oh no. So other than, oh, no, can you elaborate a little on what you thought when you saw this, Sarah?

Yeah, really low effort August here. But yeah, the first thought is that sucks. The second thought is obviously they can use LTIR. They didn't have much other than future considerations going the other way. So it's like they can go out and find somebody else to replace the replacement, right? And then he can come back and it's like a trade deadline acquisition. Yeah, it just sucks for Max. I mean, he cannot stay healthy.

And a lot of people were wondering why the Golden Knights chose him in terms of needing to make a salary cap dump. Obviously, they have several big contracts. that they could have traded. And I really do think that that was the biggest reason is the last two seasons, Patcheretti has been constantly injured. Even when he's on the ice, he's playing through things. It's, it hasn't just been one injury that's reoccurring. He just, for what, it's almost always lower body. For some reason, he just can't stay on the ice. So I think if you're Vegas, you look at it and you say, okay, well, I guess this is why we chose to sign Riley Smith to a long-term deal and sign Nick Waugh to a long-term deal rather than bring this guy back. But at the same time,

I did see some Golden Knights fans on Twitter yesterday almost not taking a victory lap, but almost saying like, yeah, we made the right choice. And it's like, well, they still gave Dylan Coglin to Carolina for absolutely no reason. So definitely not a loss for Carolina in this trade. They got Dylan Coglin for nothing. And like Sarah said, patch ready will be ready for the All-Star break or somewhere around there. Hoping for a quick recovery for Max.

That guy, he just is snake-bitten right now with the injuries. I've just seen some people speculate that he got hurt before the trade, and that's not true. I mean, he has been, I hate this term, but injury prone, that's true. And that's a good, like, risk analysis on Vegas to trade him. But at the same time, he was not hurt before this. He was practicing in Raleigh. So just for the record. There is no way that trade goes through if he tore his Achilles tendon.

This is not like a sprained ankle. And Achilles tendon is a major injury. And you mentioned his history, guys. Let me just run down some of his transactions here. Missed 17 games with a broken foot. Missed 10 games with a lower body injury. Missed four games with a lower body injury. Miss 12 games with it, quote,

undisclosed injury. But Jess, you followed him obviously closer than maybe me and Sarah did. Would you say he's a player who, when healthy, is still super effective or when he is actually on the ice, does it look like somebody who's been injury prone over the last couple of years?

Wow. When you say when he's healthy, When you say if he's healthy enough to play, to me, to me, Max Patchretti, there are some players that even when they're hurt, they can still be very effective. Max Patchretti to me is not one of those players. I think when Patcheretti's playing with an injury, he looks like he's playing with, he looks like he's playing with an injury. During his time in Vegas, when he has been truly healthy and he's on the ice, he's point per game player. I think he's the best offensive player on Vegas when he's fully healthy. but, and I'm not talking, like, I'm talking no Knicks, no nothing. When he is good on the ice, he is excellent.

They just, it just hasn't happened enough the last couple years for Vegas. I mean, especially the last two playoff runs. He's missed the start of the playoffs and then just not looked himself in the playoffs because he was coming back from those injuries. It's just, like I said, he's got a lot of miles on him. He's not that old, like in terms of just like his age, but he's got a lot of miles, a lot of hockey on his body and it's kind of showing. Sometimes 33 is super old when you've been.

injured that much over the last couple of years. Stick with the Cains. Martin H.S. signs a two years, $6 million deal. If you remember back in the 2020, 2021 season, he had 41 points in 53 games. He had 40 points last season in 78 games. Sarah, obviously, I'm going to start with you here. What do you think on this deal? Yeah, there's a lot going on here.

This is what I thought was going to happen. As I said, on Theathletic.com, a short bridge deal. I think that's a very reasonable price on both ends. Obviously, the Cherokee trade led the way for that. And I think it's an interesting case with Martine. I would like to see him maybe go somewhere else and take off because I think that the canes are kind of paving the way for Kokonimi to be that second line center no matter what because of the price that they spent in the investment

they put on him. And I think that's kind of strained their relationship with Martin. but two more years see what happens and trade if necessary, right? But he's been, he's having a down year last year, but part of that is because they're putting him on the fourth line and expecting him to do things. Like, I don't think they've been that fair with him, to be honest with you. Like, there was a stretch last season where he scored four goals and four games,

and they put him on the fourth line again. It's like, it's kind of tough with him. And they told him a few years ago to buy a house in Raleigh and that he can, he's going to make the NHL. and then he scored his first goal and he put him back to the HL for the whole season for his sliding contract. So they've kind of done him wrong. I'd like to see him have a great year this year. And Jesse alluded to this earlier, Waw signing an extension with Vegas, five years, $15 million.

Your thoughts on this one? Yeah, I've kind of expected this one for a while. I wrote a couple weeks ago saying, I expect Wah to sign somewhere around five years, three million a year. Might have had a hint that that deal was done a while back. But they were kind of waiting. They were waiting for Colossar's deal to get announced. Don't tell people that. Just make it sound like you're a genius.

That's why you should read the athletics. You can see my great predictions. But for Waa, it's kind of funny. It reminds me, I don't think he's the quite the caliber of player that Natchez is. But a lot of the things that Sarah mentioned there kind of ring true for Wals. So like, I feel like his where he gets put this year is going to have a lot to do with where his development is. I mean, Nick Waugh is a guy who, the life. Last three years, obviously came from Carolina in the trade for Eric Hall a couple years ago.

In his three years in Vegas, he's basically doubled his time on ice, his production, everything, every year. Like he went from 10 points to 15 points to 40 points last year. And he's gotten a lot bigger responsibilities. The question is, last year he filled in as a top six guy because they had so many injuries. When Riley Smith was hurt, Nick Waugh played up with William Carlson and Jonathan Marshesoe on what was pretty much the top line at the time. Now that all those guys are back healthy, does Waugh go back to being a third, fourth line center and not really getting those offensive opportunities?

Because to me, he's a young player. He's only 24. He skates really well for how big he is. He's got good hands and close. I think he has the potential to be a 20, 25 goal guy. He scored 15 last year. That was his career hard. But I think he's got 25 goals in him. The question is, will he get the ice time and the linemates to be able to do that? I think if, he does, then this deal is going to be a steal for the Golden Knights. Three million a year. Three million a year. I think he can way outproduce that. But I could also see him getting kind of designated fourth-line guy and playing nine minutes a night. And you're not going to score 25 goals playing nine minutes tonight. It just doesn't matter who you are. So it's interesting. I think this could go multiple ways. And I think it's going to come down to opportunity. And obviously, new coach coming in and Bruce Cassidy, we don't know what he thinks of Wa. that might have had something to do with this deal.

I don't know. But it's going to be interesting to see where Nick Waugh's progression goes from here because I really like him and I think he's got a good ceiling if he gets the right chances. Speaking of a ceiling, let's talk salary cap for a minute because that's just the nature of what we do in hockey nowadays. I kind of sometimes miss the old pre-2005 days where he just talked about trades and said, this player for this player, who's better? Who won the trade?

But now it's all about the cap. And according to cap friendly right now, 13 teams are above the salary cap. Their cap number is red. Tampa Bay in a shocking turn of events, 7.1 million over the cap. You've got Washington, Edmonton, Vegas, all 5 million or more over the cap. Of course, teams can get creative. We know about LTIR. You can bury contracts here.

You could have other teams retain salary who are no longer on the team. It's already been a wild, wild, crazy offseason guys. But teams still have a lot. lot of work to do. And I know we joke that it's August 10th and it's not really hockey time, but there's a lot of work to do before that puck drops and they've got to get under the cap. Are we going to see some more, let's call it craziness just for these teams to get under that number, Jesse? Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because I feel like for a while there, it was like, oh, man, these teams with all this cap space are going to get so many draft picks for taking

these contracts off. Like we thought Arizona, I mean, Arizona kind of did last year. Seattle, still waiting on them to weaponize that cap space. I was told that that was the plan and I've yet to see it happens. So maybe they're out there trying to do something. I don't know. Maybe they're just not going to and just continue on with their terrible ways. But I agree with you, Rob. It seems like there need to be some moves made.

And it seems like there are teams with plenty of cap space that could use some draft picks or some prospects to help these teams out. But I don't know. We're still waiting. We'll see. Sarah, do you expect one? Yeah, I don't know. It's been kind of weird. It is like, it's just so silly, like, to your point to sit here and talk about it because

it's like, I just want the cap to raise. I know the PA is part of the reason why it's not raising yet. They had to kind of secure the pandemic money and stuff, but it's just kind of like we got we got to raise the cap because we're doing all this mental gymnastics right now. But I do, of course, things have to happen. Like, what else? What's the other option? Yeah.

I mean, we're not talking a couple of. bucks over the cap with some of these teams. Five plus million dollars, you need to do some gymnastics. I totally agree with Rob that it's getting tiresome. It sucks that. It sucks that. Like, I had this conversation when we were in Montreal and we were all together and I was like talking to people and I'm like, man, I'm so jealous that you get to write about the Ross, whoever it is that writes at the athletic. I'm like, you're so jealous. I'm so jealous you get to write about this team needs a power forward that can fit in on the top six, like actual hockey analysis. Meanwhile, I'm over here. I'm over like running algorithms like, well, they've got two and a half million. Once they play this guy on

LTIR, that'll open up this, which will give them enough. Oh, this guy's got a signing bonus. They're not going to be able to. It's like literally all I do is, is math trying to figure out the salary cap numbers, especially with Vegas. Obviously, they're not the only team in that situation, but I cannot wait for the salary cap to finally start going up. These GMs, when they signed all these deals, they're projecting at when they sign them that four years from now, the cap's going to be X amount. It's obviously not there. And it's screwing up a lot of plans. And we do a lot of things like, well, if this pans out in years six and seven, this is going to be a steal. I mean, you set it with Watt like not 10 minutes ago,

which is just, it's strange hockey talk. And then, and then you've got deals like what Boston did. As I mentioned, we're going to talk more about it in the second half of the show with Bergeron and Creachie. And those guys left just a boatload of money on the table to help the team win. And I even had to do a little digging with performance bonuses because I was thinking, well, In what situation can you do a performance bonus and it doesn't count against the cap? And in case you're listening to this and you don't know, basically a team can offer 7.5% of the cap in bonuses, which works out to just over $6 million. And it only applies in one of three situations.

One, entry level contract. Two, a one-year contract for a player returning off the LTIR or number three, players 35 or over signing one-year deals. That's the only time you can have those performance bonuses. and we saw Berger on a crate you take that. As I was doing that research to double check for this show, I'm thinking that's where it really hit me. Like, man, hockey talk has changed because this is, this is, it's interesting and it's crazy.

But here we are in 2022. I mean, the salary cap was implemented after the lockout no five. We're still having to figure this stuff out. Like or dislike, Sarah? Well, some of these rules are so kind of, like not so arbitrary, but sort of arbitrary, right? Like after this age, you can have a bonus. It's like they're bending over backwards to justify where the cap is sometimes.

And it is all these hidden rules. Like I talked to one guy in one front office who, one of his main jobs is to just sit here and look for loopholes in these rules because there are so many that you can use. There's plenty that's bad about the cap. And like obviously us talking money with every contract that's signed and every trade that happens is one. of them. But it does, it does have, like, it is kind of working. I mean, you, like, I was just talking

somebody the other day and it was like, yeah, back before the cap, it was Dallas, Detroit, and Colorado in the West. And if you're not one of those three teams, why even show up? Why, why are we even here for this season? Because it was clearly going to be one of those three teams at the end of the season. And I don't think we're there right now. Like, the salary cap has worked in terms of, we're getting more turnover in the playoffs. We're getting different teams coming up where you're seeing the cap. like Tampa Bay, for example, if there was no salary cap, they would still have Johnson and like that whole third line. They'd be unstoppable. No one would ever beat that team.

They would just be, they'd be on their fourth cup in a row right now. The Black Cocks a few years back too, right? Right. Same sort of thing. Right. So to me, the salary cap is slowly chipping away at Tampa, making them beatable. But to me, it speaks to a larger issue. Why isn't hockey more popular in the States, right?

Because it was more popular. There'd be more revenue all around. people could get these bigger deals. At the same time, do you want the Golden State Warrior situation? I don't know. I don't, but I don't want to mess with the hands of God, you know, to be too into my hockey. I will say this. Every time I have to do one of these deep dives into the CBA and figure out exactly what's going on,

I understand how you could lose an entire year in negotiating a new CBA. You know, I remember in 0405 when they lost the year and people kept saying, well, lock yourself in a room and come out tomorrow with a deal. you kidding me like look at the fine points of this document it's it's insane it gets right down to things like after you played x amount of games you get your own hotel room and you get your own this and that and it's it's it gives you a headache but like i said sometimes i just long for the days of good old fashion like jesse said hockey talk speaking of gold fashion hockey top nazim cadry still hasn't officially signed anywhere uh the reports are everywhere that he is either agreed to or close to agreeing to a deal with the islanders in the range of seven

by seven. I said it was a wild offseason, so I'm going to tread very cautiously here, guys. We also thought that Gujar was going to New Jersey. We also thought that Kachuk was going to St. Louis. We all but said those things were done. But Nazim Kodry in an islander uniform. Your thoughts, Jesse? I think he fits what they do there.

I think they play a good 200-foot game. I feel like cadre obviously is that. I think he can bring a little more offense to a team that needs it. I don't know if I'd be wanting to sign him seven by seven. I've said this from the very beginning of the off season, that that guy coming off that year, surrounded by that kind of talent, I don't, I'm not a believer that he's going to continue that.

I don't think he can be a $7 million player. But I do think a long island's a good spot for him to land. I don't know about that number, Sarah. Yeah, it's far too long of a contract, but what are you going to do? you said it all there. Yeah. And but that's,

that's why players miraculously have those fantastic years when they are a UF. A. They just, it's one of those crazy things. They're like, really? So you can do it. What happened in years two and three of that seven year deal?

But he's going to get paid either way. We'll see if this officially happened. August 10th, guys. I bring it up every single week. We were worried that Nazim Khadry was going to sign on dead on the free agent day before our show went. online and here we are August 10 still hasn't happened and still hasn't happened for P.K.

Subben, Phil Kessel, Paul Stasney, Sonny Malano. It's just crazy. But two guys that did sign contracts, Patrice Bergeron and David Creachie, very, very cheap contracts. And we'll talk to Billy Jaffe, Bruins studio analyst from Nesson after the break and the direction of the Boston Bruins. So don't go anywhere. All right, guys, like we talked about in the first segment, Bruins making some noise, keeping the band together, getting the band back together, whatever you want to say. Berserun and Creachie signing one-year deals. And to talk about that, we're going all the way to Prague. Billy Jaffe, studio analysts for Nesson joining us.

How do we have four people here? We're talking Bruins. Sarah's in Boston and you're in Prague. What are you doing over there? Oh, you know, I'm hunting down pasta and Creachy. That's what I'm doing. I mean, you know, I'm the intrepid reporter on the road. I'm actually here coaching a youth hockey team because youth hockey never sleep.

sorests and it's an event that they thankfully have again my fourth time doing it called the Czech Challenger I think they called it now the Czech Lions Cup it's fun just a good good thing for the kids hockey culture have a good time kids come all the way here to play knee hockey gee we could have gone to Fondalek Wisconsin for crying out loud you know to do that but uh anyways no all good and uh coincidentally yeah ruins make some noise with a couple of big signings, and now all eyes turn to David Poshtonak, another check, you know. Is he going to sign the mega deal soon or not with the brooms?

Well, before we go to Pasta and before we go to Mega Deal, just your thoughts on the Bergeron and Create Chee deals because obviously you look at those numbers, boy, do they leave a lot of money on the table to help this team go one more time? Yeah. The team needed it. I think that's pretty obvious.

If they didn't have those two coming back, that would be a scary proposition for this team. So both of these players are as advertised. I know some of you, if not all of you, have dealt with these guys in the past. You know, I say all the time, Patrice Bergeron is like Nick Lindstrom, can't stand them. He's perfect, you know.

These good-looking, well-spoken, a very cordial, kind, sweet. You may not always get the sparkling quote out of them, but it's always fair, you know what I mean? And he's like, perfect. It's disgusting. And he's just, he's a Bruin. He is.

He's, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a Bruin, one big Bruin tattoo is what he should have because that's what he is. And quite honestly, it's the same thing for Craichie. Craty doesn't get the same overt love because, his personality is a little different, because he's an awesome interview. Actually, when I don't say off the record, but like when you're sitting down at the locker,

off the scrum, and he says things that can be sharp-tonged, but honest and fair and awesome, and I think guys great, and he probably hasn't gotten enough credit for how good he is. So therefore, you know, some people, you know, don't always, you know, give him, I think, the respect you deserve.

But the team long-winded way of saying, the team really needed these guys for at least this year, maybe even one more, to be honest with you guys, because, you know, I don't know what they're going to do without these guys if they retire after the year. And yeah, the money, look, you never look into anybody else's pocket. These guys have enough. But that doesn't mean that they don't deserve more.

I think they just said, we don't want to play literally. We don't want to play anywhere else. We're going to stay here. We both have enough money. We don't need to work for a couple of years at least. Billy, you mentioned he's a Bruin. It seemed like he was staying there the whole time. It was either going to be in playing for the Bruins or not playing at all.

I'm curious, do you think with the Marshaan injury, things seemed kind of bleak? It seemed like, oh, man, is this window closing? But now that they've got these guys back, how open do you think this window is? Well, I think it's a one-year window. I think, Jesse, that's the only, I mean, literally, you know, you can only look at today, right? You can want to look for tomorrow, but that's dangerous. And I know I'm not, you know, Tony Robbins here or, you know, Dr. Phil or anything. But it's just, it's true.

I mean, for these guys, you know, it's just this year now. That's all it is because we don't know what their cap's going to look like the year after. And they've overages and stuff. And how well are these guys going to play? I mean, I know Crage played great in the Olympics, but can he do it again? With regard to Bergeron, holy smokes, I don't know what number center he is in the league. But he's got it. He's no question. Top eight, seven, maybe top five, except for the fact he's not young and can't do the crazy stuff that Connor and Nathan can do. And Austin is sick, you know, but Patrice can kick their ass defensively. I mean, literally. You know, and that's no disrespect to them. That's just Patrice. So, you know, he should be making eight million a year. But, you know, I mean, he's back for this. Jesse. I, I, I think the window is definitely open.

You bring up the injury, and it's really injuries, plural. I think the biggest issue they have is the McAvoy injury, quite honestly, the way that he can control more than the pace from the back end, as much as I love Brad. And Brad is magnificent. Can you survive without one of the top 70, maybe five defensemen in the National Hockey League, and at least tread water and then make a playoff run? when I was growing up in Boston, like in 2011 and after, it felt like everybody would take a hometown deal to be on the Bruins.

And that made sense. They were always in the conversation of winning the cup or being in the playoffs. But this is still happening clearly. So why do you think all these guys take pay cuts to stay in Boston? Smart-ass answer is because it's the best freaking city around. I can say that to you. Okay. It's really just, I've worked in a couple of different places.

And, I mean, it's the best, in my opinion. I've worked in Chicago. I've worked in New York. I've worked in Atlanta. Atlanta sucks from a pro sports organization team. But Boston is the best pro sports town I find in the country. You know, people can app me to. I don't give a shit.

It's fine. With regard to that, the serious answer is, you know these are special these are special hockey players and let's not get all staff about them because you know but it's true they are they want to be Bruins there's something to be said about that they

I think they know that winning a cup won't be easy Sarah but I do think they believe it if the whole team's healthy that they could make a run whether it happens or not it's going to be tough I think you know that but whether or not it happens that's yet to be seen but they want to be wearing the black and gold. And that's just what it comes down to. There's, there's an affection between both players

and the city. I think there's a willingness to take less, to finish careers there, to both of them be only Bruins in their career, and to be, it's special milestones. And it's not so much numbers, but I do think the, the value, Sarah, of playing for a storied franchise for your entire career is so rare nowadays. That holds more umph, I'll add for a word than a lot of other things. I really do.

To all of our listeners outside of Boston, it's B. Jaffe on Twitter, if you want to add him about how every single city in the NHL is not like being town. Obviously, big change. Not just the NHL. Every other city or four major sports. Give me all the crap that you want.

Oh, you Boston folks are proud of that city. I got to tell you. Obviously, big change behind the bench to Jim Montgomery, new head coach who went through his personal struggles after Dallas, spent a couple of years in St. Louis. And I know the one thing I found interesting was, you know, those personal struggles with his battling with alcohol abuse. He said that was fully part of the entire interview process. But what do you think he brings to this team? And what have you been hearing maybe from players or people around the team of what he's going to bring? with this team. Well, and I've known Jim for a while, like same age, basically. You know, you know him who's such an amazing college player, had a stellar American League career, too. But I also have done some of his games, a couple of the games when he was at Denver, as the head coach there. So I'm not going to say I know him like best bud. I'm just saying, I know him. We have connection and talk to him. And he brings, boy, is he intense in a good way? He's passionate. He's really a guy. I think. that does bring people together.

I do think he will communicate. I think communication skills are very much his strength. And I think he's got a real good eye for the game. Now, that sounds like way to go, Billy. That's a real great analysis for a coach needs to be. But I think that, look, of all the guys out there, and there were a couple of other good ones, but I felt that he was the best one for the organization.

They did, and they got him. And I think he's got some innovative techniques with regard, or innovative, maybe the wrong word. I think he's got some good regret of ideas that getting the D involved, pushing Pucks more, looking to get more offense. And listen, with that said, I'm curious to see come September 21st how much of the structure he keeps from the Bruins, not just Pitch Cassidy days, but going back to Claude Julian Day. Because Butch took a lot of what Claude implemented. And you want to talk about keeping your team very much in games when the structure is played. And it wasn't sit on your heels and wait, wait, wait, wait. But it was definitely a structure very different than a lot of other teams in their own zone.

I tell you, man, this team last year, there were times I wasn't sure how good they were going to be. And then their goalies got going and they started making more saves. And then they didn't have to make as many saves. And you're like, this team's actually a good team. And then next thing you know, there were, what, 108 points or whatever they were? I don't remember. But it was like, wow. So Butch's system real good.

I'm curious to see what Monty does. I really am to see that. You mentioned Butch. I'm out here in Vegas. I'm curious. What do you think that matches like in Vegas? What do you expect Bruce Cassidy to do out here? I think that he is going also to bring the necessary structure that they didn't have their

Let's face facts. His biggest challenge I think is going to be Robin Lennar. I mean, how physically able, maybe mentally able, invested, you know, is Lennar? I think is he physically ready to carry this team to be able to? And Jesse, you know better than me if he is. And he can learn the system and that he can learn the structure. I think it will help his team in awful, in Vegas, demon awful lot. But, you know, Butch is real good on special teams,

the special teams with the Bruins have always been excellent. Yeah, there were sickups with the power play. I think that may have had something to do with losing guys like Tori Krug and David Krati, too, in the last year or two season. But I think, I think Bruce, I think he's an excellent coach. I do. I think you don't become a 600 and, what was it, 51 percentage coach in the last six years or something like that without being excellent.

I think he will be. And I think for, you know, if he can get this group, I don't see any reason, Jesse, why they wouldn't buy in right away. I think he gets them to a different level than what they saw. Billy Jaffe, the man with so many hats, studio analysts for Nesson, host of the morning brew with Jaffe and Razor, and mayor of the city of Boston. And maybe we'll throw in your head coach, of course, in Prague for your son's hockey tournament. Thanks so much for doing this.

I know you got a little bit of limited time because you got to go back to the ice. But thanks so much for doing this. Hey, there's a guy by the name of Punch. Punch, don't that. He's one of the few that I'll do whatever for. So he calls and it happens to be in between hockey time and party time and Prague. I'm happy to do. He's an asshole.

Thanks a lot, Billy. Nat, you're not kidding about it. Jeffie. Talking a little brew. We'll get to Rapid Fire. Coming up after the break. Big thanks again to Billy Jaffe for coming on and talking Bruins. Guys, your favorite time of the show in mind, the Rapid Fire section.

Number one, the Rangers have a captain. And this is big news because they haven't had one in a while. Jacob Truba, first captain in four years to wear the seat for the blue shirts. I don't think we're going to argue too much about the choice here, guys. But are you in favor of teams going four years without somebody as captain? Sarah, we'll start with you. It's better than when the Canes did co-captains, when Justin Williams should have been the captain,

and the captains were Jordan Stahl and Justin Ball. I'll say that. It's better than that. And I think, I honestly, that grew on me because now, not the Kane situation, but the Rangers, because they are sure about this captain, right? It's not like you're picking some guy by default, which seems to happen a lot until somebody is ready.

You know what? I like this. I totally agree. Gerard Gallant, that's the first time I've seen him name a captain here in Vegas. We never had a captain when he was here and in New York. I think, I agree with Sarah. If there's an obvious captain who's actually the captain of the team before you put the sea on his jersey and everyone knows that guy's the captain, name him the captain. If not, don't force it.

It shouldn't be a, well, one of us has to be throw the sea on somebody. I totally agree that if you don't have someone who's actually the captain of the team, don't put the sea on their chest. Rapid Fire item number two, 34-year-old. years ago yesterday. The guy by the name of Wayne Gretzky was traded to the LA Kings. It sparked a lot of things. It sparked expansion.

It sparked one of the most overused cliches in hockey. If Gretke getting traded, anybody can get traded, which sparked our producer punch to say, what would Connor McDavid get in a trade market? Because remember, when Gretzky got traded, he was the best in the game, arguably already the best of all time. Could we ever see the best player in the game traded again? Jesse, we'll start with you. Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's that unrealistic to expect, like, the way things have gone in Edmonton.

Like, they're going good right now. But just a year ago, we were all counting the days until he demands a trade out of Edmonton. I could see it. I don't know what the package would look like with, like, six first round picks, seven first round picks. Something like that. Sarah? No, I feel like I'm sitting here silent because I can't imagine what the return would be. and then you got the cap space to deal with now.

I don't know. I'm saying I don't think that would happen. Just to recap back in 1988, it was Gretzky, Mike Rusunneski and Martin McSorley, heading to L.A. In return, Jimmy Carson, Martin Gjana, first round picks in 89, 91, and 93, and $15 million in cash for the best player in the game.

And finally, number three, we alluded to this earlier, guys. World Junior is happening right now in Edmonton. Tickets are very, very, very, very much available and you know you're seeing pictures in some pretty empty stands i think for a couple of reasons obviously the scandal is put a dark cloud over this tournament with hockey Canada and the fact that it's in august but do you care about the world juniors sarah i'm going to start with you because you alluded earlier that you do care about the world juniors only because i'm bored and because it's i don't know these tournaments kind of interest me sometimes

from there's some Cain's players there and things like that. I don't know. I'm not really paying attention. It's just kind of, I'm interested because. It's hockey of any way, shape, or form. Kind of, and also because it's, like, particularly uninteresting this year, so I'm kind of seeing how it's all working.

I don't know if that makes sense. I have no interest in it. I feel like World Juniors is supposed to happen around Christmas, and that's, like, the time it happens, and I watch it that time of year. Like, I talk to players about, like, oh, yeah, family tradition is we all have Christmas together and we watch World Juniors.

Like that's where like, I don't know, it'd be like if they try to throw like a college basketball tournament on in like December. It's like no, call me in March. I'll pay attention. It's not the time of year for World Junior. Something about it. I'm just not into it. That's it for me. Obviously, you know, there are a lot of things surrounding the tournament.

But for me, especially in Canada, we have such a finite time of really hot, nice weather. I'm not, I'm not sitting inside to watch the World Juniors. Raps up another show, guys. I dare to ask Sarah for the third week in a row. You working on anything? Nope. Sitting tight. Jesse, what are you working on?

I am working on getting ready for vacation. I've got a vacation coming up this upcoming week. So, yeah, not a whole lot on the slate. Obviously, got some stuff. I just posted a Golden Knights fan opinion survey. I hyped that last week after Negranoo's fiery interview. And the fans did not disappoint. They were just as angry as Daniel Negranu.

So that's up on the athletic. Man, did that promo clip we put up on Twitter? Did it ever get a lot of responses? And I love the fact that if you missed it, guys, go back and listen to last week's show and then go and watch the promo clip on Twitter because everyone who wanted to debate with Daniel, he debated back.

He absolutely went back at him. He is a passionate Vakes Colden Knights Man, and he showed it last week and pretty much ever since. Guys, thanks a lot for another great show and I want to tell everybody out there. Remember, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Don't forget to leave a rating and a review. Right now, you get an annual subscription to the Athletic for just a dollar a month for six months

when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show. We will be back next Wednesday for Jesse, for Sarah. I'm Rob. I'll talk to you next week.