The Athletic Hockey Show - How Timo Meier became the NHL trade deadline's top target, and five potential team destinations

Episode Date: February 24, 2023

Hailey and Sean start off the show with an apology to the Thriday fans, then Hailey apologizes to Sean, then the two apologize in advance once again to the Thriday fans before the Capitals make a trade with the Bruins that sidelines their conversation about the wildcard race in the East. Then, Sharks beatwriter and Timo Meier point-person Corey Masisak joins the show for a deep dive on the trade deadline's top prize, including why he is so sought-after, his potential price, and the five teams who could be a fit.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowTake advantage of MANSCAPED®’s best valued bundle and save 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code NHL23 at http://Manscaped.comTry Peloton risk-free with a 30-Day Home Trial, New Members only. Not available in remote locations. See additional terms at http://onepeloton.ca/home-trialGo to https://www.chime.com/nhlshow to sign up for a Chime Credit Builder Visa Credit Card today! Thanks to Chime for supporting the show.Get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase at http://athleticgreens.com/NHL Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. All right, everybody. That's right. It's me. It's Haley Salvean. It's Shand Tilly. Friday's back. We're here.

Don't send emails to our bosses asking where we are. No, don't do that. We're here. Whoever sent that one last week. Have no fear. We're back. We're not on hiatus. We were both just doing it.

We have day jobs. Yeah. We're supposed to write about stuff. And we were both, apologies to everybody. We were both neck deep in some pretty involved stories last Thursday. And I don't think either of us physically had the time to devote the hours and hours and hours. It takes to doing the show. It takes us to record this.

So sorry, everybody. You have no idea how much goes behind the one hour of podcasting. And most of that is my fault. This is like shooting a Judd-Apato movie where it's like they have... There's like three hours of... Seven hours worth of content that goes into a three-hour movie

that's too long by an hour. That's basically it. Yeah. My personal... I think it would be great. You know how some shows will take like a sound bite from the pre-show

and that's the intro? Because it's funny. Sure. Danielle should start doing that. Most of the time, it's just Sean telling me to like, I do have a question. I do have a question, though. I do have a question, though.

If I talk for like another 45 seconds or so, are you going to kick me out and bring L.A. Friedman on to take my place? Yeah. I didn't really want to talk about that. I'm still a little bit. I'm still recovering. So if you're a listener of my show on sports at 960,

and there's probably like two people who listen to that show, and neither of them are my parents. I had, I don't listen to your, your shit. I had, uh, Elliot Friedman book for the show today. And we're in a commercial break and he wasn't answering the phone. And I'm in like panic mode. I text Sean, because I'm not talking for 25 minutes by myself. I could talk for 20 minutes on this podcast and not let you get a word in.

But if you suggest to me, yeah, I know. I know you, I know you can. You, but if you suggest to me that I, have to go on my own radio show and do that. I'm like, I simply cannot. And so I got Sean to pinch hit for Elliott. And I asked John one question. And then my producers are like, actually Elliot's on the phone. You need to hang up on Sean. And, yeah, I felt a little embarrassed. Sean thought it was, everything was very funny. My producers in the group chat were like you should send Sean a box of chocolates or something to apologize for the inconvenience.

I thought it was funny. I can recognize that it was like good radio, but that doesn't mean that I wasn't personally a little wounded by it. I mean, I get it. Everyone, nine out of one hundred. Yeah, you're conveniently just heard about it now that we're recording and talking about it. You said it was fine. Here's a question.

Honest question. We should try to ballpark this and put an actual number on it. what percentage of people when they realized that I was getting tagged out for Elliot were like, oh my God, this is perfect. And was it 100%? Somebody on the text line.

It's nine days before, whatever, eight days before the trade deadline. Like, no, people care about what I have to say even less than they do under normal circumstances. And people care more about what Elliot has to say even more than they do under normal circumstances. I know. So I think the end-

That's why we were trying to get Elliot on because I don't have a show tomorrow. I don't have a show on deadline day. So it was like, let's get Elliot Friedman on. The end result is that it was like a 100% satisfaction rate when my ass got kicked to the curb in favor of him. So it's good. However-

That doesn't mean I'm happy about it. Doesn't mean my feelings aren't hurt. Well, I had the text line open for some reason. And somebody said, can we get someone to pinch it for Haley permanently? Pinch it for it in hell. I'm only listening for Elliot and then I'm going back to listening to. Hey, welcome. And then I'm turning the radio off.

I was like, okay. Welcome to the club. Both of us. People would rather hear Elliot speak than both of us. We can say that with a Dirk free of certitude. Except for our Friday show fans and listeners. I don't know about that. All right.

We love you so much. another housekeeping note as we apologize for not having a show last week we don't have a show next week that one is not our fault that's Ian Mendez's fault I just want everyone to know it's Ian I A-N

Mendez I can't spell it for you just kidding but it's Ian Mendez if you're pissed off yell at Ian not us he's doing the deadline wrap up show I believe you are involved with that and I think I am again

I think so. Did I volunteer for that? I think you may have been volunteered for it. And I am once again. You said you were going to co-host. Okay, so I forgot about that. So Sean won't be around on Friday, but I will be. Unless.

I'll be around. I am on alert in case my services are required, which is apparently the role that I fill now. I just wait around to see if, see if anybody calls me and asks me to pinch it for people who are better like them. I mean, that's fine. You know what, Sean? You're a good teammate.

Thanks. And a good friend. Yeah. You know, he's a good teammate? Who? Dmitri Orlov. Yeah. Garnet Hathaway.

They're both, this is from our pal. Actually, it's not according to Tariq. It's according to the Washington Capitals. They're both being held out from tonight's game against the Anaheim Ducks for trade-related reasons. So this is interesting because I think the capitals in this last week as the wild card race is kind of heated up. Right now, there's seven teams within nine points of each other. If we include the Ottawa Senators, I don't think I'm a believer. I think they'll maybe play some competitive games

down the stretch, but I don't know if I realistically look at the Senators as a team that could get into the wild card. But if we include them at seven teams, then nine points of each other to play spots. I think the Washington capitals with 11 unrestricted free agents are a team with a ton of uncertainty. And this signals potentially what they're going to be doing at the deadline. They're holding guys out for trade related reasons. Are the capitals going to become sellers? And is that the path they should be taking? We've gone back and forth on this a lot this season. We have waffled on the caps being good. They're bad. They're missing the playoffs. Oh, my God. They're back in the race.

And now it looks like they might end up selling some guys off. Yeah, because they gave us our answer. They've had five straight zero point losses. Four of them came against Eastern Conference teams. And two of them came against teams behind them in the standings, including the Red Wings, who are on a tear, which may or may not come up here in a second. They, the capitals, since February 6th, which was the first set of games after the All-Star break, which is 17 days. At that point, they had a 50% likelihood to make the playoffs according to Dom's model, which is the athletics, you know, playoff projection odds and percentages.

54%. Standings-wise, they were second in points percentage and first in points when it comes of the Eastern Conference wildcard. 17 days later, their percent odd, this is yesterday, but it doesn't matter because they haven't played down to 19, they're sixth in points percentage among all these, among all these teams, among the seven quote unquote contenders that we have for the two Eastern Conference wild wild card spots, six in points percentage and they're tied for fourth in points. That's what happens when you go five games without recording a single point.

So we've been wondering on our show elsewhere on our various other shows in our, in writing wherever what the deal is with the caps, right? It looked like they were cooked in November. They bounced back in December. Charlie Lindgren-bells a mouth. They end up, you know, in the top wildcard spot for a little bit. Okay. Elevators going up.

But now we have our answer. They've provided it for us with the way they've played over the last however long. And there's no clearer way to imagine them waving the white flag than particularly Orlov because they need him desperately. He's an important player for them. Anne Hathaway, who is a, Anne Hathaway. Sorry. Yeah, I just say.

That's really funny. And D. Hathaway. Good one. Who's absolutely a player that playoff teams are going to link. And even if they, you know, those are two guys. They have nine other pending UFAs. What they need to do is recognize, and it certainly seems like that that's what they've done, is recognized that it ain't happening this year.

And it sucks because nobody wants to waste a year of Alex Ovechkin's prime what's left of it or his late prime or whatever. However you want to characterize this. Nobody wants to waste that, but you also need to realize when the fight's basically over for you. Right. So reload, add assets, even if it's just draft picks, you know, move on from guys that aren't going to be a part of the solution next season and just recognize that this is, that it's time to regroup. This doesn't mean that they have to move on or do anything, but it was for all intents and purposes over for them this year. And it happened quick. Hathaway is an interesting one because he kind of fits the mold of the guy that gets dealt to the deadline, right? He's big. He's six foot three.

He's a right winger, natural right shot. He's only what one point two million dollar cap hit? He's not, that's useful depth. Garnet Hathway for a fourth round pick. It seems like it's going to be happening here. We're going to see that next couple days, I think. Yeah. Bring some size, competitiveness. Was he on one of those cup teams or was he in Calgary still?

That is a great question. I don't think he was on their cup team back in 20 and 2018. I don't think that's something he's got in the books. I think he signed after that. So, yeah, he doesn't have that Stanley Cup ring on the, the resume, but seems like a guy that could be pretty useful for somebody. We wanted to talk about your piece, the NHL playoff picture making sense of the Eastern conference's wildcard chaos.

I just stole a bunch of it to talk about the caps, right? Right. Turns out Ian Mendez already talked about this yesterday. That is your intellectual property. I actually don't think it is. I believe it is the intellectual property of the New York Times. Times Company. That's who we work for.

That's right. Anyways. Let's go into a couple more, though, because we talk about the penguins a lot. I don't think we need to do that again. You and Rob went super meta into the penguins, and nothing's changed. They're still in a weird spot. Like, their likelihood of making... Here's what I'll say about them.

Their third line is worse than anybody anticipated. Jeff Carter looks like he's done. Brock McGinn hasn't scored since December 22nd. and Casperi Kappan has scored twice in that same time frame. So you have two goals in two months from your everyday third line winger's. It's not good. It's crazy. It's crazy.

And it's a weird decision by Sullivan on some level, but also they don't really have another option. So yeah, they're in trouble. And this is what we talked about. I believe with Rob a couple months or weeks ago, we had them on. it's not the it's not the signing of Malkin and Littang or Brian Rust that's been the problem

in Pittsburgh this year. It's the other guys. And sure, maybe those guys because you don't have enough money to like go out and do better other things with your depth is a product of signing Malkin and Littang and Rust, but those guys were there before. I think like, you know, Capitin's been around for a while.

They can't get rid of that guy. Anyways, I wanted to. Well, no, okay, but they could have. They could have, though. And that's where Hex doll's great as failing. They could have cut ties with Casperi Kappan in last year and just used it as like a sunk contest or a sunk cost and said like, all right, instead of signing you for two more years and $3.2 million annually, which is what they did, just use that money allotted elsewhere.

And that's not what happened. Okay. So it isn't what they did. Not to cut you off for Elliott Friedman again here, Sean. Oh, Jesus Christ. According to Elliott hearing Hathaway is going to Boston. Oh, are you serious? And it's Elliot reporting.

Boom. We just said something was going to happen. Let's see if it's a fourth round pick. He said hearing Hathaway is going to Boston, we will see if more than him goes. I would say the implication there is that there will be more. I don't think he said that for no reason at all. So something to monitor while we keep doing this show here. Big footed by.

Big footed by Elliot again. Good Lord. Not quite because we were, you talked about Hathaway first today. That was all you. But before, well, we keep an eye on that before we potentially circle back if we see anything else going down with Hathaway. Wanted to go to the Florida Panthers. They are one of the teams that are in this race.

They are about to get a huge boost in the lineup. Anthony Duclair, he has been out since the summer after a summer. suffering an Achilles injury. He's back, expected to be back in the lineup, excuse me, on Friday. So he's still on LTIR, but he did a media availability today. He says he's feeling 100%. He feels great. It's been a long process for him, but he's feeling ready to play. And it looks like he's going to play for the Panthers on Friday night. So Florida, in this wild card race, they don't have a ton of cap space. They're flying very, very close to the sun, but they're going to get their deadline boost and getting a 30 goal score and

Anthony Duclair back. And there was a time, Sean, where on this podcast, on the radio, on trade boards, people were kind of putting Duclair's name out there as like, could he be on the move because the Panthers have no money? Like, they can't even afford to get him off LTIR without making a move. They have enough cap space right now, according to cat friendly. Their projected cap space is four. million. DuClair makes around three and a half if memory serves. And they just waived Chris Tierney. He only makes $750,000. But he got picked up by Montreal. Yeah. So what kind of boost do you think? Like what is this going to do for the Panthers? Based on what you already laid out in the story, everything that seems to be going well right now for Florida at Anthony Duclair. And now things are going to get interesting for the cats. Yeah. I was, um, I was operating under the assumption, like really for the last part of this is because

Anthony Duclair has been working out with that team for so long, right? Like he's been, he's been close for weeks. So you kind of internalize the idea that they're going to have to trade somebody to get him under the, to fit him on the active roster, right, to get under the limit so you can actually activate him. Because that, because again, we're talking a month ago, six weeks ago. however long ago this was,

which we didn't account for was that they could just string this process out long enough and it's a good bit of business by the Panthers to accrue that cap space ahead of the deadline, right? Or on the rest of the year where they only had to make kind of a fungible move in moving out Christianians. That means they don't have to, you know, trade whatever,

Sam Reinhart or any, they don't have to do anything funky. Or Duke or him or. or one of the Sam's or whoever, whoever it might be. Didn't have to do anything like that, could keep their, could keep the rest of their roster in shape. And now you're adding, you know, a 30 goal capable player

to a team that all of a sudden is looking a lot more like the one that we thought we were getting at the start of the, at the start of the season. And Dom's model loves them because they're a really good five-on-five team. They still are.

That's been, that's been true. and they're only getting better, right, with this. And, you know, the power play has been a little bit better of late. Duclare can help there. You know, the forward group makes a lot more sense now because you're adding a really creative, really, really, really skilled, really smart hockey player who's, who has, you know, a demonstrated track record of success with Alexander Parkov, right? Like, those guys, those guys have played together quite a bit.

And Barkov's been the one, ironically, it hasn't quite been clicking on, like, 100% for them. So it's interesting and the fact that they did it without having to subtract meaningfully from their from their previous, you know, roster is, is huge. Matthew Kuchukh is on pace to beat his career year from last year. I wonder if anybody saw that coming, honestly. Everybody was saying they're not going to, Matthew Kuch and Johnny Godrow are not going to be 115, 104 point players ever again. Matthew Guchuk is on pace for 108 points this season in Florida.

39 goal 108 point pace. He's a great player, you know. Like, it's, it can't be, it can't be said enough. You know, Dom overuses the unicorn line in relation to him and it gets annoying, but it's also, you know, it's also true. He's a guy who you can, and he also works with, works with Sam Bennett, works with Carter Verhege. That line makes sense, right? Yeah. Makes you wonder what would have happened if the flames actually gave Sam Bennett a chance to be a top six center.

Who can say, really? Who knows? But yeah, they're fun. And that's a good group of forwards. It just got a lot better. Carter Hagee, if people, I know there's people listening here who don't pay a ton of attention to the Panthers. Carter Hagee is a really, really fun hockey player. He's a blast to watch.

And that's a team when they're clicking and when Paul Marais is not, you know, not a not, not, not, not, not, not, not, overthinking things. That's a, that's a really fun hockey team. Okay, so. Did something else just happen? Your eyes got wide. Or Love and Hathaway to Boston. Oh, shocker. Shocker. I put this in, oh, and by the way, Corey Massasak is joining the show. Yeah. Oh, my God. And we pre-recorded about 40 minutes with Corey about Tim O'Mire. It was a great chat. He wasn't in an airport this time, but we had previously promised ourselves and Danielle that we would make a quick 15 off the top, but things keep happening and I love to ramble. So very, very quickly on the Boston Bruins. Yeah. I wrote this in our season preview. We, we have the previews

that from the preseason, then everybody goes back and does new predictions. You and I, Shana and Jesse Granger. I feel like, does anyone ever say Shana's last name? Everyone just says Shane a Shane a Goldman. Jesse, everyone. There's only one. I know.

We always kind of revisit them. And then the last one I had said, the Bruins are giving me like 20, 16, 17 Golden State Warriors vibes. Like they might not set, like this was the year they didn't set the records, right? Like they might not set a record for the best season ever. But they're going to wire to wire.

dominate and win a championship. And that's just, that is how I feel about the ruins right now. They just filled, they filled a hole. You know, they could have used some bottom six help. And they've been connected with every defenseman that's been on the market for any amount of time over the last month. Well, it seemed like they were going, like, it seemed like Gavrikov was going to go there from Columbus.

And we've seen that, you know, we've seen that kind of, obviously, we've, we've We've seen that wither and die on the vine because we know that Columbus's reported asking price is psychotic. But Hathaway, again, you know, helps the fourth line. He's a playoff player. He's a guy that, you know, a playoff style player. He's a guy that GM's love for better or worse. And Orlov strengthens up, I mean, like, what do you do?

You just drop him right on the third line and don't even think twice about it, right? Yeah. He's a left shot. He can replace Derek Foreboard. Like, it just got a lot better. I'm really curious to see what the final trade looks like because the Bruins only have about $1 million in projected cap space and deadline cap. So what are they going to do to fit Hathaway's 1.5 and Orlov's 5.1?

Also, you said third line. I believe you meant third pair, right? Did I say third half? Of course. Yes. I know what you meant, but yes, just Orlov makes $5.1 million. So there's probably going to be some salary retention

I'm not going to get. I'm not going to guess at this because it's going to, by the time I'll just look like an idiot. People listen to this like everyone's, everyone's going to hear it. But I would assume that Mike Riley's going to be involved here in something Oh. Yeah.

Swap as a cap hit. As a as a as a as a bit of cap maneuvering, I think there would be something that would, it would probably revolve on him. But anyways, ruins got better. Yeah, because that would alleviate the $1.875 million

buried penalty. They have them buried in the minors right now. Yep. Interesting. Well. Grimes get better, though. And caps probably wave, wave goodbye to the playoffs.

For the season. And then we'll see what they, we'll see what the Washington capitals in 20, 23, 24 look like. 11 unrestricted free agents. They're going to have some Cap space, they're going to have a ton of roster holes to fill, so they might

look very different. They will look very different next season. They literally do not have a defenseman under contract for next season. How gray will Alex Ovechkin's hair be? I don't know what's grayer it can get. He's going to be like, he's at the point now he's going to start going to start going white.

He's going to look like Steve Martin and by the time his career is over. Have you ever seen Steve Martin with not white hair? I've seen Steve Martin with gray hair, but he's like, there's not there's he was gray as a 30 year old so great stuff thank you you're welcome this now let's go do do you i mean i can i can start talking about like his guest hosting jobs on SNL in 1975 if no that's okay um okay hey i have a Elliott freedman on the line for you

Elliot Friedman actually wants to talk about Martin Short. He's a big only, big only murders guy. Yeah. But let's go to our chat with Corey Massassack. A big conversation about Timomeyer. He's the bell, the ball, for a reason. What can Timelmeyer provide? Who might be interested?

And what are the sharks potentially looking for in a Timomier deal? Let's go to that. We are psyched to be joined today by Corey Mazasak, who is the San Jose Sharksbyrider, and most importantly, for our purposes, the Timo Meyer point person. Corey, we were going to, I think, get into this whenever we talked a few weeks back, but then you were called as like a late border for a flight. Yeah, that's right. And that's what set me into an anxiety.

anxiety spiral, which led to the always popular black and white mad world remix from Danielle. Oh, God, I forgot about that. So we had to, we had to abort our plan to talk about Eric Carlson and Timel Meyer because you were in the Charlotte Airport or whatever, wherever you were connecting, whatever that was Chicago, was Midway. Okay. Great. You were back.

And Timelmeyer is a bigger conversation topic than ever because we're, what, nine days out, eight days out from the, eight days. Eight days. Jesus Christ, it's coming. But the trade deadline is here. Timel Myers is still number one A top of the list player despite some maybe shuffling over the last couple of days.

Are you even going to let him say hello before you ask a question? No, I don't want. I don't like welcome to the show. I got. Hey, Corey. We're glad to have you. God bless you.

I'm happy to see you. How's that? I'm satisfied. Okay. There we go. Corey. Okay, now we have some questions. Has anything changed with this situation over the last three days?

It seems like there's been some movement. There's teams that are getting thrown around. It's, you know, we've heard more about the blues. We've heard more about Vegas. But what's the movement on your end been like, you know, this week, maybe starting with Monday? Yeah. I think it's probably picked up some that seems, you know, it was a lot of the same two or three teams for, I feel like, multiple weeks. And then, you know, the blues have made some moves.

and now they have some, you know, they've sort of freed up some space. And then like even like even yesterday, like the Vegas moving Shea Weber's contract frees up some place for them. So now you can sort of see like other teams are like, hey, well, you know, maybe we need to get involved in this. So yeah, it's been, it's been pretty busy, pretty hectic. But it's certainly, I'm sure, I'm sure my career is not complaining about the fact that it seems like more and more teams want to trade for one of his, one of his best players. I think everyone kind of had this collective moment at first. In speaking yesterday about the Vegas and Arizona deal, you see the tweet and it's, you know, sources are saying Arizona coyotes have traded and everyone's like, oh, it's Chickren.

There's like the disappointment and the jokes about it not being the Jacob Trickren deal. And then there's the collective realization of like, oh, wait, crap, Shea Weber's contract is involved in this. What the hell are the Vegas Golden Knights doing here? and then the putting two and two together of like, oh, no, they're opening up some cap space for something. Oh, dear. It is funny that they have like, it feels like they've almost become like the league's boogeyman. Like they're just involved. Like, there's no way.

Like the year starts and it's like, oh, wait, they have $137 million on their cap. Oh, don't worry. They'll still figure something out by it between now and like that. Yeah. So it does seem like anytime they get involved, it's like, oh, okay. Yeah. They always have money. So I think the way Sean and I were going to go through this, we want to talk about Meyer, we want to talk about the asking price.

And then we're going to evaluate some of the potential trade partners that we've heard out there. So we'll circle back on Vegas. We'll talk about who I think should be the frontrunner in New Jersey Devils. St. Louis is kind of popped up. Who does Haley think should be the frontrunner in this? That's what's most important. Yeah, my New Jersey Devils should acquire Timel Meyer. St. Louis, Winnipeg, Carolinas, we can dig into that in a bit,

but I think we want to start, like, a little bit zoomed out here and just look at Tim O'Meyer and why this guy has become the bell of the ball at the deadline. And not because of, like, you know, it's kind of a, you know, oh, Jonathan Taves is off the board and guys are off the board. Like, Timo Meyer's kind of been the guy because of the player that he is. So, Corey, what can you tell us about? about Tim Omeyer, the player, and why people want him so badly on their team. Yeah.

It's funny. I've done a couple of these, like, list stories where you're looking, but looking back at trades from the last 15 years. And there are trade deadlines where it's like, the best player traded was like a number four defenseman. And it's like, oh, my God. You think, so. I remember a couple of those.

Yeah. So, you know, like, imagine if, like, Vladislav Gavakov is, like, the best player available right now. We wouldn't, this would not be as much fun. Timot Meyer is one of the best wings in the league. He's one of the best power forwards in the league. And like, you know, more than just like he scores lots of goals. I mean, he's kind of a really good all-around player.

You know, he's got like kind of a mean street to him. He's, you know, he's just, I think he's like, he's like one of those guys that like the stats say he's really good. And then like the scouts also say that he's really good. and it just sort of like everybody just sort of lines up and says like, oh, this guy's going to be a playoff player. There's just, he just sort of, there's like a list of boxes, right? He checks a lot of, he checks a lot of boxes, right? Like he's got, he's got, he's got the stat profile and the in the physical profile and the personality profile that it seems like, it seems like a lot of folks can agree on, right? Yeah. And he's just like really over the last two

years, I mean, the sharks have, you know, I've not had a lot of success, but he is just, there are so few nights where he's not, you know, just very clearly, like, you know, one of their two best players. And he's just a very consistent offensive force. You know, he's good at, he's good with the puck. He's good without the puck. He's good. He's good. Once he's in the zone, he just kind of does a little, he's just not like a, I don't know, he just really good at a lot of different things.

And, I mean, obviously the most important one is that he's going to score 40 goals this year. I think he's a classic case, too, of a guy who showed up at the top of, you know, when you're sort of. for stats, whether it's an evolving hockey, your natural stat trick or whatever, for years. I mean, three, four, or five years now, he's been at the top of those leaderboards, right? But over the last, it feels like what's happened over the last couple years, the production is kind of caught up with the underlying numbers. Not that the production was bad, because he's been good in that regard, really going back for five years now, but it seems like he's leveled up where the actual production is more in line

with whether it's, whether it's expected or chance numbers or whatever you want to look at the underlying stuff now matches the output, right? Yeah, he had, I mean, he had 30 goals and 66 points when he was 21 or 22. Basically, the last year, the sharks were good. Yep. Yeah, that was his, like, his 30 and 60 year. And then he did, look, he had, he had two years where the, you know, the number, the traditional, you know, box score numbers just weren't the same.

He just had a dip. And so, like, you know, he had 35 goals last year. He's on pace for 44, 45 this year. like it has sort of like I you know he's not like a he's not like a supernatural finisher like you're not he wouldn't be on a list of like the best snipers in the league but he's among the league leaders and shots on goal and uh you know shot attempts and he just he creates stuff on his own like I mean that goal he scored the other night um he goes against the penguins right which is like he literally got the puck at his own blue line and just you know went coast to coast

and scored. Yeah, he just sort of is kind of the complete package. And I mean, you know, after looking back at the last 15 deadlines a couple times over the past couple of weeks, there haven't been a lot of guys like this available who are 26 years old. And you can have, you know, like there have been guys like maybe like Patrick Kane that have been available. There haven't been 26 year old versions of this player available at the deadline and

possibly for the next eight years a whole lot. Everyone hears about the five on five production. I think that's a focal point. with Meyer, but he's also one of the best power play weapons in the league. He's second, what is his second goals per 60 till he und Dryside on the power play

over the last two years. Like this is, I feel like a lot gets wrapped up and, you know, we love that he drives play at five on five and that he produces there, but, you know, with the power play matters in the playoffs. Yeah. Right? Say it louder, actually. Say it louder, don't whisper it.

Yeah. And he's also, he's not like a guy that's like, you think of like Ovechkin or Stamco's or just certain guys have like a spot on the power play where it's like that's his like that's not really how it works with it like the sharks are pretty I mean their power play has been pretty effective just because they have guys that kind of you know you might look up and you know Eric Carlson is in the bumper and uh you know he mo's on the left side now he's on the right side so like I think um he just kind of was one of those guys that you could put him in front of the net you can put him on the wings he's pretty good wherever you put him on the power. When do we think the last time we can collectively answer this question, Sean? Oh my God. When was the last time a guy like this was available at the deadline? Was it Mark Stone? Yeah, I think, right?

Is that the best kind of comparable here? What was Mark Stone? Was he like, was he around that age? I don't remember. I don't know. I'm trying to think it was 2018-19. And I think he had a similar contract structure as like a Chuck. Because they have the same age.

Yeah, he was a pending on FAA. like he's a similar. Yeah. It's as close as we're going to get. I mean, I don't know. Is that really a, such a bizarre situation?

I don't know if that was even truly a deadline, a deadline deal, right? Like that happened early in the season, didn't it? I mean, the point. The point is like,

yeah, this guy is from a player profile and an availability standpoint. Like, it just doesn't, just doesn't happen all that often. Right. Yeah,

I mean, although you look at all the, I'm certainly spent enough time looking for comparable grades, right? It's stone. It's, Alex DeBrington at the draft last year

with the Cachuk thing which was kind of a unique situation Max Patscheretti when he got traded to Vegas maybe like Sam Reinhart when he was traded from Buffalo to Florida was a pretty good one but yeah those are that's pretty much the neighborhood

that we're talking about Stone was 26 years old and he had 28 goals and 62 points through 59 games this season so it was like it was about a month before the deadline It was a February trade. So they're pretty comparable, and they had the deal in the drawer for him in Vegas, too, right? How much? Oh, Vegas.

Oh, no. Okay. We'll get to them. How much of a role is Tomas Hurtle and Eric Carlson play in his production? Like, do we need to put any kind of asterisk with this? Because I think there, I think, and I'm not even saying that this is untrue, but I think people look at this and say, like, oh, how the sharks stink. When he ends up on a better team, he's going to be with better players in some regard that

might be true. But he's also playing with a legit number one center in a defenseman who's putting up points at a rate that we haven't seen since, you know, Ray Bork or whatever. So is there any concern with that in terms of like maybe any kind of drop off moving forward? And like how much is he actually driving the bus in terms of his own point production? Yeah. I mean, I think the biggest, like the biggest point in his favor is that like this year he's

played pretty much in the entire season with hurdle. But last year, it was like, um, he kind of went back and forth between hurdle and mature. It was like they, they had like a, the thing was it was like, he played 20 games with Kuture and,

and Logan would have like a run. Like he'd like, oh, look, and then he'd play 20 games with hurdle and it'd be like, oh, now hurdles having it. It's like,

it was like he was the common denominator. It was like, they have two good centers and they have one really good wing and whoever the wing was playing with was the good line that night. a lot of nights. Seems like David Quinn has abandoned the Meyer Kutcher deal for the most part.

Only a couple games, yeah. Interesting. He does play a lot with Eric. And yeah, I mean, there's no question that it looks like a different team whenever Carlson is on the ice versus when he's not. But I mean, I think Timo Meyer has a lot to do with that too. Great.

His numbers away from Carlson are definitely better than most of the other guys on the team. There you go. So, Corey, what do you think the asking price for Tim O'Meyer would be if you're Mike Greer, if you're the sharks? And has that changed in recent weeks, given the amount of first rounders and trade packages that we've seen kind of flying around for guys like Bo Horvatt and Ryan O'Reilly, etc? Yeah, I mean, that whole, that's been the most interesting part of the process so far is like the Boer Horvath trade happens and you're like, oh, like, that's a pretty good trade

package. It's not great. It wasn't overwhelming. And then also like just, you know, who is a better player, but Horveter, Timo Meyer is a pretty interesting conversation. Like they're, they're pretty close. Like one's a center, one's a wing, but one's a better version of the wing. Anyway. So, so that was like, well, you know, if they get, if they got exactly that for Meyer, it's, you know, it would be good, but not great. And then the Ryan O'Reilly thing was like, well, that seemed like a lot for Ryan O'Reilly, given what the year that he's having. But also there was all the cap gymnastics involved. So, I mean, I think the biggest thing that is probably, like, the biggest thing in, in my career's favor is just, it seems like there are more and more teams.

There's just, I don't know if there were going to necessarily going to be five or six teams that were going to be in the mix for Ryan O'Reilly or Bo Orvette, but it certainly seems like there's at least that many that could make a real, like a real push for Meyer. And in that case, then, you know, it seems like, I think, I think that's sort of the expectation, have been, there's going to be a first-round pick, there's going to be a high-end prospect, and I know, like, Pierre LeBron has reported that they want at least three things. So I think how good the first prospect is and how good, if the pick is definitely a first, is going to determine how maybe the third thing is something interesting or just a third.

Is there any chance that they keep him? Like, whenever the dust settles on March 3rd, is there any possibility that he's still in San Jose? Yeah, I mean, there's definitely a non-zero chance just because... That's the nature of things, yeah. Right. Well, no, yeah, but they have, you know, they have its rights for next year. I think you can just look at the De Brinket trade from last draft and say, well, if they don't get exactly what they want, just wait until Nashville and somebody will come along. And, I mean, for specifics, like, now that the blues have kind of come into the center of this thing, I mean, the most interesting thing that the blues have is that is their first round pick, which right now would be like the ninth. Three of them.

Yeah, but the one of their pick, the one that is like not at 25 or 28 or whatever, like that, that is going to be there in Nashville too. So like if they don't get exactly what they want now, they could definitely just keep talking to the blues and work out something with them, you know, the day before the draft or the day of the draft. But I, look, the thing is, like he's the most coveted player and there's a bunch of teams that want him and the team is pretty motivated to do it. Like I would say there's a very likely chance that it's going to have. We're going to take a quick break, and when we come back, we're going to go through five potential teams that could acquire Tim O'Meer ahead of the deadline with Corey Mastack. We'll be right back. Okay, so let's go into some of the potential trade partners then. And let's start with the Blues, because they're a team that's kind of popped up in the last week or so since the O'Reilly deal.

Like now all of a sudden the Blues have three first round picks. and they've got some young players like Robert Thomas and Jordan Cairo who fit like a new window for them. And Tim O'Meier conveniently fits in that window. So now all of a sudden it's like, oh, blues make a ton of sense. Like what do you think? And I know you had a story, Corey, with JR from St. Louis. So what do you think about the fit or the potential fit between the St. Louis Blues and the sharks for Timom I think they make a lot of sense just because, like, I think Sean and I were actually talking about this offline that two days ago.

Like, like what, like Doug Armstrong's idea of like, hey, let's just turn these 31 year olds into first round picks and then turn the first round picks into 26 year olds. Like, that's pretty smart. And like, more teams should probably try to do that instead of like completely yo-yoing from we're all in to we're all out. Like maybe that's the middle ground. But, yeah, I think, you know, they have. like the blues have five very interesting things. They have three first round picks and they have two very good prospects. And like,

yeah, so you mentioned Snuggardt specifically. We know he like he like leveled up. It seemed like at WJC, like he took some steps forward in terms of, uh, the public and, you know,

maybe private perception of him. He seems like him, him and Bulldoch, right, were the guys that you mentioned in the, in the story. Yeah. And I think,

um, like, I think if you look at this draft, people seem to think it's pretty deep. So like on one side, of things, the sharks would probably like to have their own, pick their own guy at whatever, 23 or 25 or 26. But if you're comparing like this year's like 20 to 30, or last year's 20 to 30, I think they would rather have their guys pick their own guy in 2023, except for him.

I think he's like the one guy that has like kind of risen above that group to where it's like, okay, he's worth more than the 25th pick in the draft this year. The really interesting thing about the sharks to me is too, is like there's, and I think you kind of got into this, yeah, and in the last, a couple minutes ago, there's no real, with the blues, rather, there's no real urgency with them, right? If anything, it's more beneficial for them to, like, the fit in the, in the offer in St. Louis, it's tough to imagine that changing in three months, you know, versus today, right? If anything, it's like, you can account for the fact, like, maybe St. Louis would say, like, all right, we just want to make sure that we don't miss the

playoffs and win the lottery, just to make sure that doesn't happen, you know, we're, we're going to hold off here maybe. And then, and then, but it's, it's tough to imagine the offer for them materially changing, you know, in the next few months, because they're not doing anything this, this year. And anyways. Right. And I think, I mean, well, two things. One, like, the blues aren't going to trade that pick without protecting, protecting from the lottery. Like, so it's, it's going to be top two or top five or whatever. And then the second thing is, yeah, top one. And then the second. They also, to make Meyer fit for the next eight years, they probably still need to do some tinkering.

They've got a couple of less than ideal contracts on the blue line. Maybe one of those gets shipped out. So it's a lot of a couple, a couple, a few, several. This is the other kind of late comer as far as far as the Meyer Derby's concerned. Vegas, mentioned them earlier, cleared up some cap for the. the summer, that was a necessity for them to really seriously be in on it. They did that with the Shea Weber contract dump with the coyotes. They have draft capital, first and third in 20 in 2023. They don't have a great prospect pipeline. What do you think of the fit there?

And what do you think of the push that we've seen? It seems like over the last 48 hours from them. Yeah. I mean, they're the one, they don't, if you look, if we're lining all these teams up together, They're the one that just doesn't have like the obvious, like, okay, here's what they would offer, right? Yep. But they're also the team that just seems to figure out a way to be involved in all these things. So I'm sure that there were probably people that didn't think that Mark Stone, like they were going to get Mark Stone with what they actually traded for him. So I would say that I would be very surprised that they were like, you know, the favorite at this point. But, you know, like it just seems like they're just, that's their MO is they just always hang around.

and maybe at the last minute, if the other teams don't make the big push that they were supposed to, then they just sort of swoop in and say, okay, yeah, we'll take them for this price. What's the equivalent of, like, what would that look like? What's the word? Okay, we're going rogue for a second, because this is something Sean wanted to bring up, actually,

because this is the time of year we do, who says no's, and fans are just going wild online with trade proposals. Like the Eric Brandstrom in a second, I think, was it for Mark Stone? it's like a fan proposal, right? That's what that would look like now. If we saw that,

like what's the funniest or best trade proposal you've seen online for Tim Omeyer? I know you've been tracking these. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, like, I mean, it looks bad now, too, because Brancstrom hasn't really panned out, but he was like a really, really, really good prize.

I mean, it would be, you know, that wouldn't be like Luke Hughes in a second, but it'd be, I mean, it'd be pretty close. Well, anyway. The Devils ones are all pretty interesting. Are you saying Luke Hughes is a bust already? No, no. Corey?

Where they, oh God, no. I spent enough time dealing with the Luke Hughes discourse. Mm-hmm. My previous chapter. This is a question specifically about the Devils. Like, we can just say that this question's in there because of Devils fans, because I saw some myself that are just bananas, like really, really funny, funny proposals. Luke Hughes is going to be a very good hockey player.

I don't know. Let's get out there. No, yeah, they have the most stuff. Like, they have the, they have the deepest collection of goodies that they can offer. But that doesn't mean that there aren't fans out there that still want them to trade like, you know, Yeager, Sharon Govich, Kevin Ball, and a first round pick. And it's like, oh, that's probably not. Yeah, but it's a first round pick.

Yeah, that's probably not going to do. I mean, there's this whole, like, you know, I don't know if it's the most interesting or the most frustrating. It depends on the day. Part of this whole thing every year is like, you get to this point. And it's like, okay. Okay, so Luke Hughes is untouchable. Okay, that makes sense. Samoa, let's say, let's say Simon Nemich is untouchable.

Then Alexander Holtz is untouchable. And then you just keep going down to listen. Like, okay, but you can make all those. Prospect hug in season, baby. Yeah, right. You can make all those guys untouchable. And you can also not get, you can also be the runner up to every trade. So, yeah, no, I think they're, you know, if we,

like they're the team that they're still the team that makes the most sense like he would fit absolutely perfectly there he would um be great for them and they they have the ability to sign him long term um they might need to do a little um you know they do some massaging of that contract and just for brass contract but they can make it work um and they would be you know a pretty scary team with him playing next to jack user and he's sure and they like I said they're the one team like out of all these teams we're talking about we're talking about like their very best prospects no question on the table that the devils can take their top two guys off the table and still have that because they're that good and can still and can still offer is there anything in

particular that has stopped team o'mire from getting traded to the devils already like we've heard them connect with them for for weeks like what if is there anything and they do have the most offer that's that's holding it up is it is it the contract is it Is it that is it the, you know, trying to work and get something done before the deal is actually consummated? Well, there was a report from one guy who covers the Devils who, you know, he said that my career has been asking for Dawson Mercer. And whenever I, the first story I wrote about Pimo Meyer and the Devils, it kind of feels like two months ago, but I think it was like three years ago. I you know that was the thing that I wrote in there was that that should be the first player later should ask for ahead of Alexander Holson ahead of I mean I think even ahead of Nemich is awesome Mercer he is a he's a 21 year old who was already a really good NHL player and he's going to be a very very good NHL player and

center capable too I believe he's he played a lot of it last year I know that yeah yeah he's definitely like a future one a one B captain center, you know, I honestly, like I think I mentioned this to someone the other day. Like I, you know, he, he kind of reminds me of of Logan Kuchior. Like they have like they kind of, I think they kind of play similarly. And like if he has that type of career, I think that would be a pretty good comparable for him. So. But, you know, I'm sure the devils don't want to trade him. I mean, he is there, you know, however you want to line up their their best young assets. Like, you know, it's, it's Jack Hughes won. And then, you know, Luke or Nico, he's, he should.

year too and jasper bratt like all those guys like um they don't want to trade i'm sure they don't want to trade dossom mercer but you know if it comes down to it and there's four different teams all with pretty good offers on the table you know micr is obviously going to try to squeeze what he can out of everyone so um yeah no i think that's you know they're he's just doing his job basically that's that's that's point is down to is it is is the mickere's done he's he's not doing anything that he doesn't need to do right no can we circle back on on that oh sorry no no I was going to say it's his first trade deadline. It's first year on the job.

He's kind of starting, you know, starting, you know, nobody wants to call it like a full rebuild process, but they're clearly moving away from this core of players that they've had for the 10th board riders. Yeah. Resetting, reloading, many, many reworts. Anyway, yeah, no, this is his, you know, we can talk about all the other people that they could trade,

but this is his meal ticket to making this, getting this thing off on the right foot is to getting, you know, As much as he possibly can. Two really good things for Timo Meyer, like a really good prospect and a good first round pick. And yeah. Do you say no? Like if you're the devils and Mike Greer is saying,

I don't want Nemich, I don't want Mukumaduland, I don't want anything. I want Dawson Mercer. If you're Tom Fitzgerald, do you say no? Sean or Corey. Corey, you can answer this too.

Yeah. I'm just listening here. I don't know this. I'm not Tom Fitzgerald. I'm not bald. I mean, I think in a normal situation. That was out of pocket. He's bald.

Tompest Gerald's bald. Whatever. Nothing wrong with it. I'm not. I'm also bald. I know. You came home. I know.

Actually, Tom and I, the last time I saw him, he and I actually talked about head shaving tips or whatever. Yeah. It's a more complicated situation than I was. then I was under the impression that was. Honestly, I did not do it for like almost a year because I had like done some research and I was like, man, this is going to be too much work. Like I'm just going to keep letting it look like crap up there and not work.

Yeah, no, but it was worth it. Anyway, if I was Tom Fitzgerald, that's a tough one. I, like, if Dawson Mercer was playing for Vegas or Carolina or Winnipeg or any of the teams on this list, I would definitely say no. Like, because I think he is like a inner circle core player on a normal roster that said, like the devil's on that on that on that team. Yeah. In that, in that pipeline, like maybe maybe less so.

He's more, more fungible than the other one. Yeah, he's never going to be more than a wing or the third center. And he's never going to be the captain in New Jersey. You know, they have they have their. They have Hughes and Heeshire and Brat. And if they're going to build everything around those three guys, those guys are all not big. This is spicy. I like this.

I didn't realize that Dawson Mercer's factored as significantly in here, as you're telling me. I think that's a significant piece of this is the size of the devil's core. And I don't want to sound like that boomer who's just like, we need big hockey man in New Jersey here. But that is something that I have personally heard as well. This particularly came up with Johnny Godreau in the offseason and people were floating like, do you really think the devils need to add another skilled, quick, small forward? Like they need to get some size in there and Timel Meyer would obviously check that box. He's not like a traditional power forward, right?

But he at least brings a bit more size to the table. No, I mean, he doesn't, yeah, he doesn't, he doesn't fight much. He fought once this year. But, like, he does, he does the, um, no one, no one fights anymore. He does he does the, uh, like, you know, he puts a defender on his back and uses his rear end and his butt. Yeah, he keeps him out of the way. And, uh, yeah, he does all the, yeah, he does all the, like, cheeks are hip. Yeah.

He does all the, like, modern power for stuff. Yeah. Great. I also, too, I was thinking about this, um, the shark. just played the sabers, like the last game or two games ago. And like the sabers are humongous. They're enormous. They're so many tall dude, like so many big dudes.

And so I was just immediately, you know, because my brain wanders during games, I was like, man, what would a, you know, an Eastern Conference final between the devils and the sabers look like? That would be pretty fascinating. So like, yeah, that would be a reason to have him on their team for the next six eight years. Okay. Let's move on to, okay, Winnipeg.

Sean and I were debating this a little bit. It sounds like they're a potential option, but they're probably a team. Like the Jets are really interesting in the sense that they could be a team that could be in flux in the next year or two. Pierre-Luc Dubois's restricted free agent. Everyone keeps talking about Ziegna-Force's way back home to Montreal. Mark Schifley only has one year left on his deal. after this. So next year's is last year and team control same with Blake Wheeler, but like team O'Meier could offset those losses, right? Like he could be part of a new

core, but I think they would want a long-term contract before they make a move like that. What do you think, Corey? What's your sense or your take on Winnipeg as a potential option? Yeah. I mean, on paper they make a lot of sense. Like I think I had done a story like, maybe in November or December, way before all this really got kicked off where it was just like, okay, let's look at all 31 teams see where would he fit.

And three of the teams that made a lot of sense were Winnipeg, Buffalo, and Detroit. And none of those three teams have really been super in this so far. But they have like Buffalo and Detroit have like the same like they're on the way up and they have all the assets that they could trade. But Winnipeg makes a lot of sense

because like you said, they, I mean, he could basically join the current group that they have and make them quite good. And then, yeah, whether it's if the Wally's or Wheeler leaves, like, they have a lot of money coming off, like whether it's this offseason or next,

there's, there's going to be the space necessary, you know, to do the deal. So, like, he's, they were one of the few teams where it was like, he fits right now, he fits in the future. But they also haven't necessarily been a team that's been like super willing to just like push all the chips

and make this kind of trade even. They've also got the Jets. Their prospect pool is 13th in Scott Wheeler's most recent rankings, but they have three kind of top-tier guys, which is interesting, especially if that's, you know, like we've said, and I know Pierre reported it, and you've said it to, you know, they want three elements, right? Yeah.

And if that's the framework that we're working under in your Winnipeg, you have Chas Lucius, you have Rutgers, you have Rutgers, and you have Brad Lambert, who were three forwards who were all, you know, at the top of, to varying degrees at the top of Scott's rankings there. So there are, you know, high-end players there that would be appealing to the sharks in a way that say like, does Vegas have that? Like, I don't probably, not in spades, not three of them.

That's for sure. So the choice gets a little bit more interesting with Winnipeg. Yeah. And, you know, from Winnipeg's end, like if they move one of those guys, well, I mean, one of those guys might be as good as Timel Meyer someday, but Timel Meyer might be that guy for the next five years. So yeah, no, I think they would definitely, maybe they're just kind of lurking in the weeds,

but there hasn't been a whole lot of chatter about them so far. Interesting. Okay, let's go to the final one, which is the Carolina Hurricanes. We know that they have a philosophy of do not overpay for rentals. Timel Meyer is not a rental. And they have cap space to resign. him like they could pallet the $10 million qualifying offer, though we should mention, this is always

something that happens particularly on social media when people start talking about qualifying offers. That doesn't mean that Tim O'Mire is going to sign a deal for $10 million. Right. We saw Matthew Kuchuk did not, like, I mean, Matthew's QO was nine, but then you go and you sign a long-term extension and your cap hits not always going to be exactly what your QO is. That's like only if he signs a one-year deal. Like they sign his qualifying offer.

one year 10 million. So we're not saying that's going to be what happens here. He's not going to sign for eight years and $80 million. Like, no. Not not, not by a matter of fact. Like,

right. But if that is what they do, I think the Carolina hurricanes could afford it in terms of their cap situation. Um, do we like Carolina, Corey? Well,

they seem like that's a no. No. Just kidding. They seem like a, they seem like a pretty good option of first. But, um, yeah,

they're, you know, they have, They have one or two guys that are interesting. Oh, they have a lot of guys who are interesting, but one or two guys that would sort of fit the level. At the level that we're talking about here. And the one guy, I mean, the one guy that was really interesting, like literally, sorry guys, I'm coughing again. That's okay.

The day that Max Patch already got hurt or the day after that or whatever, I was like, oh, they have that Russian defensemen that's not come over for a couple years. and that would sure would be an interesting thing, just because, like, you know, maybe the sharks don't need that guy to show up right away and just the timelines for both things sort of fit. And it's like, yeah, that can be pretty interesting. But then Pierre has already reported that Don Waddell is telling everyone the calls, like, no, you can't have him.

So after him, it's not quite as, not quite as deeper, interesting of a group. But I have seen a couple people think, you know, well, if the devil's, if they're asking Dawson Mercer for the devil's, maybe the last for Seth Jarvis, which again would be a weird. I think it would be weird for Carolina as a contending team to trade. Those are two good examples. That's a good example of what I was talking about with Mercer and the Devils.

Like the Devils have three other Seth Jarvis's on their team, whereas Carolina doesn't necessarily. So that would be an interest, like maybe a tougher deal for them to do. But yeah, no, I mean, they've certainly been in it for a while. And, you know, they're, I would say they're probably pretty motivated to do something. They've been trying to break through for a while here. Whenever it was kind of just Carolina in New Jersey, I thought that was a pretty interesting dynamic. You know, like, you know, like Mike Greer could go to one of those two GMs and be like, okay, if you don't want to trade me X, I'm going to trade him to the other guy and you're going to play against them for the next nine years.

But yeah, that's kind of where I've sort of landed with Carolina. And Carolina's cap situation is, you know, yes, stuff clears next season. but heading into 24, 25, they're going to have to worry about extensions for Sebastian Ajo and Brady Shea and Brett Pesci and Duvotter Vinen maybe, if that's still in the cars. But maybe the cap will go up to $90 million by then.

Yeah, sure. Yeah, it's definitely going to happen. It's not just fantasy land bullshit. Yeah. Yeah. But no, it is funny. It's been funny because everyone, we have it drilled into our heads, right?

that Carolina Hurricanes like a certain type of player assigned to a certain type of contract with a certain type of contract situation and everyone's like oh, this is a team of minor, great fit. And it's not that it's a bad fit, but it's also not as seamless,

I think, as people may be thought initially. So glad to hear you confirm this. Yeah. I'm correct in my analysis. The canes are actually really, I'm going rogue now because I'm looking at cat-friendly. They don't have a goalie sign for next season. Jordan Stahl is an unrestricted free agent.

Yeah, that's fine. They'll be fine. They'll be fine. They have a ton of, they have $30 million in cap space, but they have a ton of work to do. I think they are the one team on this whole list, other than maybe Vegas that it's like,

if they got him, they would be, that would be pretty scary. Like, I think the other teams would be like, oh, crap. Like, because they're kind of built, you know, the devils are, they might still be a year or two away

because all these guys have never played in the playoffs before, but the hurricanes are, Like, their battle test, they're ready to win. They're ready to roll. Yep. And we've all been waiting to see what they're going to do to replace Max Petrietti. So I think what the devils and the canes have in their favor is that they're Eastern Conference teams.

Like, I just, I wonder how Mike Greer feels about potentially sending Tim O'Meer to Vegas and what Sharks fans would think about that too. It would be weird. That would be tough. I think he would probably sort of talk around it by saying, like, look, we're, you know, we're at the beginning of this process and it's going to be a while. And, but yeah, like, there was, there's no way that they would want to see this guy play for that team specifically, you know, if they were competing with him right now because, yeah, that's their, you know, it would be like the, you know, the devil's trading Dawson Mercer to the Rangers or, you know, it's maybe not quite on that level, but, you know, yeah. Close enough. Corey, thanks for the time, dude. We know you're busy. You're at sharks practice. Guys are going on the ice, so we'll let you go and leave you with this.

It'll be over soon. The sharks are also retiring Patrick Marlow's number this weekend. So it's a- Oh, yeah, you said that. I didn't realize. You got a Patty Marlow event that you got to go to in a little bit too. So there you go. Other things are happening. It's not just Team Lauer.

Thanks, man. Thanks, Corey. Thanks for having me. All right, so that was almost 40 minutes of Tim O'Meier Talk. And I think it's worth it. He's the guy at the deadline, right? This is what we anticipated we were going to do a couple weeks ago whenever Corey was, Corey was at the airport.

Yeah, his talk for a long time and then he misses his flight and he's stranded in Chicago. And by the way, to you and yours, certainly Corey. Happy Patrick Marlow Day, everybody. Yeah. It's officially Patrick Marlow. L. O'Day, February 23rd, in the city of San Jose. And then there's going to be the Jersey retirement and the ceremony, et cetera. Nice little byproducts.

These insiders don't want us to get through the show. Oh, God. What happened now? Nothing. Just caps are getting picks and Craig Smith in return. I believe according to Pierre-Lebride. I said jokingly in the break, or not even in our break, when we were organizing this last segment, I was like, it's not like they're going to trade Craig Smith.

form or anything. I'm pretty sure you said it's not like they're going to take somebody off the roster. No, I specifically said. Danielle, is he lying? She's got this on the master recording. Daniel! Please go back and say, you should seriously go back and add. I remember he had mentioning Craig Smith.

As an example of what the trade was not going to be. A peek behind the curtain, we had a little break where we said, all right, let's, to end the show. Let's make it a quick one. Oh, I do wish that we had the full deal from the Bruins. And yeah, Sean goes, it's fine. It's not like they're going to trade Greg Smith or anything. This is just proof that we should pull the plug and get out of here before another trade happens. We have to parse it. We have to parse it live, I would say.

Right? Yeah. Well, my personal opinion is that because we missed last week and we missed and we're not going to have next week that this should be a two-hour show. I disagree. Time to go. For the people. Time to go. Elliot Freeman on the phone. He says no.

Get us out of here, Haley. I guess we'll just end the show on the cliffhanger of the Hathaway Orlov deal. You won't know what it was by the time the show posts. Don't look. Don't look at the spoilers. Just wait for the show and then check on Twitter. How will they know not to look without the show? I don't know. Now I'm confused. I've spiraled into a web.

You've confused yourself. Oh my God. I don't know what's happening. Sean and the show. We're getting out of here before any news breaks. Happy throughout you, everybody. Bye.