The Athletic Hockey Show - Is the Robert Thomas to Buffalo deal really dead?

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

With the NHL trade deadline fast approaching, Sean, Frank and Sean take a look at the teams that they want to see make a move leading up to the deadline on Friday at 3pm ET. It all starts with the NHL's hottest team since December, the Buffalo Sabres, who are linked to St. Louis Blues center Robert Thomas. The guys also want to see action in the East from the Detroit Red Wings, Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals, and in the West, it's all about the Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild and the Dallas Stars improving their rosters for the push to the playoffs.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frankie CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What up, what up? It's the Athletic Hockey Show. It is Wednesday, March 4th, my post-Olympic streak of getting the date. Correct continues. Thank you very much. We are 54 hours or thereabouts from the NHL trade deadline. I am Sean Gentile.

I am here with Sean McIndoo and Frankie Carrado, neither of whom were traded for Robert Thomas last night. Fellas, that's where we are going to start the. The Buffalo Sabres, they are 25, 5, and 2 since December 9th. They have outscore their opponents 120 to 80 in that span. In that spin, they have the second most regulation wins in the NHL. They are now two points out of first in the Atlantic. They have a 48% expected goal share. Let's just ignore that.

Beat the Vegas goal in 9-3-2 last night. And they did not trade for Rob Thomas. That was the scuttle. But yesterday, St. Louis is getting serious. serious, it seems, about moving Robert Thomas and Jordan Cairo. Robert Thomas, of course, first-line center signed to a little bit more than $8 million per year until the end of the 2030, 2031 season. And he's not going to Buffalo.

It would seem we have all the insiders reporting this morning, primarily Darren Dregor, that they couldn't meet the ask. This was the deal yesterday, wasn't it, guys? Like, we had some momentum. him. We had some excitement in the middle of the day that maybe we're going to see a marque player moved. They're chaining for him in Buffalo last night. It seemed like something was going to happen. And now here we are in Wednesday morning. And it's just like, it's disappointing. Don't you guys, isn't there a part of you that wonders why St. Louis is so eager

to trade a guy who would be seen by many people around the league as a premier two-way center, excellent playmaker, a guy you can trust to play against tough matchups. Like, I know it hasn't gone well for St. Louis this year, clearly. But if you were going to try and turn things around, doesn't he help you turn things around next year? Like, that's my big question that I'm wondering with all of this. Like, I wonder if they're thinking, is, do we know something in St. Louis that they don't know? And maybe we can get a haul for this kid right now. I don't understand it.

I had a GM tell me exactly that once where he told me that whenever there's a player he likes and he's talking about acquiring them, there's always a voice in the back of his head going, what does this team know that I don't know? Why is this guy even available? And why is the entire St. Louis Blues roster seemingly available? Obviously, the team isn't good. So, I mean, this is the sort of thing that they should be looking to make some moves. but there is that little piece. Now, that haven't been said.

What did you say, Sean, 56 hours? Something like that? That's a long time. 54. It's a long time. I'm not buying this. The deal is dead. Me neither.

There's, you know, everyone's still got each other's phone numbers. Everyone's still on speed dial. There is plenty of time to get back and figure this out. There's also plenty of time for the blues. to send them somewhere else. And that's the risk you're taking. We heard something very similar about Miko Randon at the deadline last year. That's right.

Where it was like, it just doesn't look like it's going to happen between Carolina and Dallas. You never know. But it seems like they're going to ride out of time. And then boom, you know, Rantan's a star within a very, very short period of time.

So, yeah, we're not right up. I mean, presumably they've got 90% of the deal done. And it's the 10% they can't agree on is, is everything. But it's not like they'd be starting from scratch, necessarily. There's a lot of time.

Geez, we see NBA GMs put together 17 trades in this amount of time starting from scratch. So I'm pretty sure the Sabres and Blues can close the loop here. But it's a bit of a game of chicken because clearly at this point,

the Blues or Doug Armstrong's thinking, I got him so close, I could squeeze just a little bit more. Yarmos saying, no, I'm presuming Armstrong's saying, well then I'm going back out to the market and someone else is going to meet my price and you're almost saying, all right, go ahead and see how that works out for you, but they're going to talk again. Don't we get to the point of no return.

Like if you're a star player for a team and your GM is basically dangling and taking dangling you and taking all these offers and you're basically one foot out the door, let's say something doesn't materialize. How does that, like that conversation is not a pleasant one to have. Like, hey, we did everything we possibly could to move you, our number one. one center, 26-year-old stud, because we didn't want you anymore, but we didn't get a return we want. So now we need you to fully, mentally, and emotionally invest in this team and help us turn things around. I was trying to think about what an equivalent would be. So St. Louis,

you know, they got into the playoffs last year. Montreal got into the playoffs last year, right? And then it hasn't gone well for St. Louis this year. That would be like if Montreal had this horrible season, them turning around and saying, we're actually listening on Nick Suzuki right now. Like in no world would that ever happen? Like it just, it just wouldn't. But in St. Louis, it's happening. So I just, it's so loud about Robert Thomas that if a trait doesn't happen, like I think it, I think it at this point it has to happen. Like, how do you go back to him and say, we didn't mean it. We want you. We love you. You're a huge part of our team because it's just not true. Because if you weren't wanting to have him today, you don't want him tomorrow.

He's also got a no trade clause. Like that's the funniest part of all this. Like yesterday afternoon, I'm like, are we sure? Like, I haven't heard anything about this. Are we sure Robert Thomas is cool? That would be, can you, that's like the perfect finish line for this, is that they hammer out the deal. They decide on, you know, Owen Power and Zach Benson and blood,

whatever the final deal would look like that. It's like, actually Robert Thomas decided not to wave, no deal. And I don't know how many teams are on is no trade, but I'm betting Buffalo is probably on there because it's a fair bet the teams would have you know would have been on last summer there's another dynamic here that I think is interesting in San Luis and that's the GM situation where you've got Armstrong is in his last year he's the GM theoretically and you've got you've got Alex Steen ready to take over I'm wondering if you think maybe there's a little bit of good cop bad cop getting played here where

you know, there's been a decision organizationally to, to strip it down and start again, but that's, oh, you know, that would be tough to manage. And Doug Armstrong just puts his hand and says, oh, I'll be the bad guy. I'll be the one who does it all, you know, up to the deadline. And then the rookie comes in with the clean slate and he gets to rebuild it up. And I, you know, I wonder if there's any of that dynamic here. But yeah, like, I'm trying to think, what are the odds? Robert Thomas is still a St. Louis blue on Saturday.

What are the odds that he's a St. Louis blue on opening night? Because I think it's probably under 50% for Saturday, but it's got to be close to 0% for opening night. I would totally agree with that. Like, okay, let's just say the deal is too complex to get done at this point in the off season. Like, I wonder if you would go to them and be like, you know what, you guys were trying to shop me around, do this and that. Okay, so put your money where your mouth is. is where I want to go. I'll give you four teams and you figure it out. That seems like that's where that's the leverage, I feel like for that that's kind of that that is an incentive for St. Louis

to move him now. It's like if it's, is if you go through all of this and we get to June or July or whatever, then it turns into like there's there's going to be some hurt feelings. And that's where again, full no trade clause for Robert Thomas. that's where he can really, really, really put the screws to you if you want. You're saying, I'm giving you, I'm giving you, you know what? Actually, here's where I want to go, figure it out. That's where it comes in where, you know, maybe Alex Dean comes in and says, Robert, that was the other guy.

Hold on. He doesn't. And I'm not. Is he still my boss? Yes. Yes. I'm not being dumb here. I'm not acting like Alex Dean is sitting at home watching the deadline show going.

I wonder what the, you know, I wonder what Armstrong's going to do. Like, clearly he's in on this, but just, you know. The perception maybe could play a role here. The one thing, Sean, you brought up that I want to circle back to is like, and I do agree with both you guys. Like there should be some degree of like, okay, wait a second. Robert Thomas is, you know, point per game player when he's right. One of the top three or five playmakers in the league.

He's a cost controlled 26 year old, you know, let's say one or one a center, a borderline, borderline franchise player. Like, why do you guys want to get rid of him? That's fair. That's a fair question to ask. But if I'm a team that's asking that question, I'm also keeping in mind that it's the St. Louis Blues. And like, God bless them, they want a Stanley Cup and flags fly forever.

That's a team that has been unable to turn itself into a legitimate, you know, even mid-card contender over the last five years. So yeah, you say, like, maybe the blues should know better. But like, are we sure that the blues would know better? Because this is the team that's been able, that's been unable to really turn anything into, into anything around this guy into and I'm not saying Robert Thomas is a perfect player I'm not I'm just and I would pause

before acting myself like oh before deferring to the blues experience with the player because they're the ones that over the last five six years have been unable to follow up that cup with anything with anything particularly meaningful the biggest thing that they've done the biggest splash that they made was prying away two young players from the Edmonton Oilers in Holloway and Broberg like that was the savvy move that they position themselves to make and take advantage of. But you're right, as far as their play along the ice, I think you can look at it this way. You know, they were, they were a powerhouse in the Western Conference for a long, long time realistically, right? Like when Chicago was winning

and L.A. was winning, the St. Louis Blues were that team that was kept getting knocked off by those guys that were winning cups. And through that, they made the playoffs last year. And then you look back and you realize, I don't remember St. Louis picking like first overall and really bottoming out. Like they, they never had that really like fall off the tracks kind of year. And then last year, they made the playoffs. And I'm like, oh, they did it. Like they found a way to get back to the playoffs without doing the bottom out. And their team looks good. And there's this youth. And it's like it's an exciting group. And now this year it's gone completely south. And it almost feels like they're just going to like say, check please and abandon it. And that, you know, that starts with moving Robert Thomas and maybe

if that's Cairo and if Binnington is gone, like whoever, whoever you want to move there. And then pretty hard reset there. Right. And then you start to see the offers that, you know, they would be looking at in return for a guy like Robert Thomas. I'm like, well, if you're Montreal, you're not giving up Michael Hage. Michael Hage could be a better player than Robert Thomas when it's all said and done. So you can, you can dangle your player out there. You can ask for like the moon and everything around it as far as your return. But I just wonder, like, does that do some irreparable damage to a guy that you might have to keep around and is going to have to be a big part of your team?

This was my theory initially because we've been hearing these guys' names all season long, if not longer, that the blues were open to moving these guys. It's kind of in the rumor mill. And I said for a while, I said, this is a bluff. This is a bait and switch. this is how Doug Armstrong gets the phone ringing for people to say is Robert Thomas available? Let's talk

and then you talk for a while and maybe they blow you away with an offer and you got to think about it but probably they don't and you go geez you know I don't think we're really going to have a deal here but you mentioned this guy would he be available in a smaller deal and you know would you and next thing you know

somebody's Yeah what about what about Pavel Bucenevich like we're probably we're not interested in moving Thomas It's been late. Shane is a center. Or whatever. And you play that.

And that's where I thought this was going, because it just didn't make sense for a team like the blues to be moving young guys like this. But it's been going on for so long. Maybe it started that way. I don't know. But at this point, I mean, how many, you know, how long can somebody be on the block before? Like you said, you've done some damage. I mean, there's enough smoke at this point that you got to go and light the fire. we'll go back to the savers package because this is primarily what we want to talk about today.

Our subject for the day is teams that we want to do something. This is in honor of Sean's posts of seven teams that should do something that probably won't. I think the Sabres are in that group for me. Part of me as a team chaos guy, like, yeah, send Owen Power. Like, send him back. Owen Power, Zach Benson, Yuri Kulik in a first round pick. Like, like, just do it. And I get the argument against it.

Power has been good during this stretch. He's actually looked like, you know, some, some, some similar acrum of, of the guy they thought they were drafting. That's a really, it's been a really good top, top four. Their top two, their top two defensive pairs are not necessarily something that you want to go mess with, but also, like, players like, players like Thomas don't hit the market every day. And apparently, like, the no trade clause is no, no, is.

is no kind of hurdle, because again, it hasn't been mentioned at all. I would I would love, love, love, love it if they did this, if only to have something to talk about. It sounds like he would wave to go to Buffalo, right? Good for him. Do you guys heard that, right? Like, I'm not just making that up. I did hear that because that's why everyone's having this conversation.

Yeah. And they've gone so far down this road. And he's from the GTA, so he'd be close to home, which is, you know, there's a novelty there for sure. but if you're Buffalo, okay, you've played really well. Everyone is starting to believe in your team now. And down the middle of the ice, you're throwing out Tage Thompson, Josh Norris, and Ryan McLeod. Like, if everyone is healthy there and able and that conversation really centers around Norris, it's a really good one, two, three.

Like everyone is slaughtered essentially pretty much perfectly. And so now you'd be bringing in Robert Thomas and you're probably. and you're probably saying, well, it hedges our bet a little bit on Josh Norris based around his injury history. We'll have to shuffle some things around like maybe Thompson plays the wing again. Thompson playing a wing. Right. But you've got, you bring them in and it feels like it gets crowded. But I guess if you're up.

He's against this. Frank's against this. I can't believe it. It's, I think it all centers around Norris. Like how much belief do you have that he can be healthy for a long. period of time because unfortunately for him like it's just it hasn't been the case you can't have that belief i don't think and and look the the other argument against the sabres doing something is they've been quite possibly the best team in the league since they made the junez

December 9th basically is when the clock starts for them yeah so i mean we're we're heading into the three-month anniversary of the sabers being an absolute juggernaut so don't mess with Right? This is always what we hear from GMs, and it drives me crazy. When it's not going good, well, now's not the time to make a deal, right? Now all the other GMs are throwing me, you know, they're not, they're throwing, what is it, cement blocks instead of life preservers. And when things are going good, well, now's not the time to make a deal either because things are going good. I don't think Yarmo Kekelanin buys into that. This is a guy who was an underrated gunslinger as the GM in Columbus made a lot of big trades.

Some of them circumstances forced on them, but this is not a guy who's ever been shy. And the other piece of this is, like, if you had told Sabres fans in the summer that their team would be in a playoff position at the deadline, they would have said, that's great. We'll take that. Because what are we supposed to do in the Atlantic? The Atlantic is so stacked. Guess what? It's not stacked anymore. The Leaf stink.

The Panthers stink. The lightning are good. But, I mean, the Sabers just. went into Tampa and smoked them. So they're two points out of first and then in the division. This is a winnable division. This is not, this is not what we see sometimes where you have a team that hasn't been in the playoffs

for a long time and you go out. They got to make a move. They got to like nail it down. And it's sort of like, well, pump the brakes here because we're talking about making the playoffs and you're going to get smoked and around. You guys are no fun, man.

This, well, the fun idea is this is not about the savers. Just get in. and then, you know, lose in five games and say, well, at least we got it. We broke the drought. They could win this whole division. And then who knows?

You get to the conference final. It's everything's in play. If there's a package. I don't think it's far-batched. I don't think it's far-patched. If there's a package for them to get Thomas that does not involve Owen power, I don't care how many elements. I don't care if it's five.

I don't care if it's Benson, Kulik, Heleneas, and two first-round picks, they should have done it yesterday. And that's what leads me to believe that, you know, that power was the stumbling block. And like that makes more, like, I get that. That's fair. But if there was something else to send back any way to get this deal done that doesn't involve that dude and you didn't do it, you were, you were crazy.

They're, my God, I said it at the top of the show. They're 25, 5 and 2 since December 9th. And in the rest of the conference stinks. Like, like, come on. It's Buffalo. And you know what's crazy? Did you watch the game last night? Sorry, Frankie, but that place.

was rocking. Yeah, Channing Robert Thomas. I know it was a gold medal night and all that, but that place was, can you imagine what that building's going to be like in the playoffs? It's going to be unbelievable. And the crazy thing about the Owen Power angle is that if this deal had percolated in November, they'd be throwing Owen Power.

Dude, they'd be like, please take him. Throwing dirt on that dude. I, like, publicly, privately, like in the off season, people were, we're ready to jump ship on this on this guy coming into this season and like I know he's been he's been good it's been a step forward I'm looking at his stats now since the run started on December 9th you know 48 expected goal share 54 actual goals like he's he's he's you know he's he's he's taking a step forward which he hadn't done for either the last two seasons I get it but I honestly I honestly think if I if I'm your arm wrong like okay fine let's like let's go

and maybe it still does get done, honestly. But we'll, we'll see. It's just, I think this is a, my, my take on this is there's some kind of like a buyer beware on this guy. And maybe it's not for Buffalo. Like maybe they should be diving into it and saying whatever we need to do, like reasonably speaking, we'll try and get this thing done. I just, I think if, if you see a player like this dangled out there, like, you got to

do some kind of like private investigative work to see what the hell is actually going on. Somebody, Yarmo's in a trench coat right now, just sneaking around. Let me, let me throw a mustache or something. I'm just going to throw one more thing out there to try to make this happen, okay? And I'm just going to, I'm just going to talk to a friend here. Yarmo. Yarmou K. Well, let's call him Yarmokay.

Yeah, yeah, we'll just, yeah, keep him anonymous. Yarmo, be honest, by this. This is just the two of us talking here. be honest, are you a little tiny bit sick of hearing about Kevin Adams and how smart he actually was and how he actually built this and how he's going to get a few votes for GM of the year even though you took over? Wouldn't you like to maybe just put a little stamp on this team, a little JK stamp that says, this is Yarmos team now? I'm just putting it out there. I'm just, I'm not saying. I'm just saying. And also like, you know, the Sabres where,

the team that sold low on on on on high talent centers like maybe you know maybe the shoes on the other foot now we're the team where we're the team that goes out and gets guys that's sort of inexplicably seem like they're the shines off them with their with their crappy team which is the situation that rob thomas finds himself in all right before you take a break let's go through this real quick because this was our original plan but i i think i think the rob thomas discussion was it was fun i also really love calling him, Rob Thomas. Eastern Conference team that you want to see do something, Frankie.

Let's start with you, my friend. Detroit. I think it's time for Stevie Y to do something at the deadline. The Detroit Red Wings have been a very resilient team this year. You know, points percentage in games coming after a loss, they're tied for first in the NHL.

It's like a 692 winning percentage. That tells me that this is a resilient group that will find ways to bounce back and win games. And now, you know, third in the Atlantic today, they need a defenseman for sure. And if you could do something to help out down the middle of the ice, you know, I don't know if that's Robert Thomas. Like, but just that's, that's where I would be looking if you're, if you're Detroit. And you see what happens when they don't have Simon Edmondson in the lineup. Like all of a sudden, everyone stretched a little more thin, right? and they don't want to play Sandine Pelica a ton.

So I think they absolutely need another defenseman. Someone who can play some significant minutes too. Maybe it's Justin Falk. Like that's the kind of player. Elise Pedersen, could I interest you in one of him for the Red Wings? Man. If there was ever a buyer beware.

Frankie, why would you go get Elias Pedersen for 30 cents on a dollar? If it costs you nothing, If you're basically saying, we'll take the money off your hands, Vancouver. How do you feel about that? But I'm still buyer beware on that. Just that's some serious money for a guy that might give you 56 points. Which is why Vancouver should be jumping at any opportunity. Get rid of them.

My team, I'm going to throw out there just, we haven't talked about them early as Carolina, only because they've always got something cooking. This is one of those teams. I have to do every year I do my whole shtick about, you know, these timid GMs and front offices who don't want to do anything. And Caroline is not in that in that ballpark. Remember, last year, they didn't just trade Miko Ranton in twice in, you know, trade for them and then trade them away. We later came to find out. They had a Mitch Marner deal done at the deadline last year.

And it didn't work out because of no trades and they ran out of time. But, I mean, this is a, this is not a team that needs to be. talked into thinking big. Most teams think small. Carolina thinks big. I don't know what that looks like this time around, but I bet they do, and I bet we're going to find out in the next couple of days. Cap should go get Jordan Cairo.

That's my big brain deal here. We know they won a winger. We know they want a top six winger. Chris Patrick has said as much they've been in on other guys and not had to work out. Artemian comes in mind. I don't know if it's going to work for them this season. they're four points out of a playoff spot right now, but they've also played three more games than anybody.

The math is starting to get pretty uncomfortable for them. Where Kairu works for them, though, is he fits in with the rest of their time frame. He fits in with guys like Pierre-Luc Dubois and Tomlis, like guys like that age-wise. And they potentially have a pretty big contract coming off the books next year. So it's in the form of one Alexander Ovechkin. So it's a lot easier for them to fit an $8 million,

dollar long-term deal. Jordan Kairu doesn't work for anyone, right? I don't think he's a guy you go out and get to be the centerpiece if you're a rebuilding team. That's not where we're out with him. You look at him as a player who's skilled but flawed and has some degree of cost certainty over the next years, over the next bunch of years. And I think he's exactly the kind of guy that they found a way to make work.

Like guys who haven't hit their ceiling in one way or another, Dubois, Chikrin, whatever, and they find a way to put them in positions to succeed and have them fit in the larger context of that team, right? Because there's no, there's no super stud, you know, $14 million player in the mix there, but they're also a team that's capable of winning games and winning playoff series. And I think, I think he kind of fits there.

Go do it. Yeah. Banging a, bang in a cartoon galvary now. And wait until Friday after 8 a.m. to do it. We have, we have certain people on this pod right now that need to think about their big board duty. yes, from 8 a.m. Eastern to 3 p.m. Eastern. I got good news, Frankie. Nobody's doing anything this year.

So the big board's actually going to be big. We're going to play this game with the Western Conference when we come back after the break. Stick around. All right, we're back a little bit more than 53 hours from the NHL trade deadline now. Gentilea McIndoo, Carrado. Fellas, we're picking Western Conference teams that we want to do something. We did the East and the first segment.

We're flipping over to the other conference, which of course none of us watched, because we're all East Coast guys who are asleep by 9.45 every day as the narrative goes. Look at these eyes. Does this look like the eyes of a guy who stays up past 10 p.m.? You don't say up past 10 p.m. but you're up at 1130 and 1.30 and 4.30. It was your pick, brother. You know what?

It's the Minnesota Wild because have you guys heard the Dallas Stars have won 10 games in a row? and have you also heard that the Colorado Avalanche are some kind of wagon this year, even though their game hasn't been as explosive as it was to start the season, they're still a really good team. And the Minnesota Wild made a big trade for Quinn Hughes this season. So now it feels like you're pushing a lot of chips in. And you've got to get through some combination of Dallas and Colorado to get to where you want to go. And Minnesota has had a very difficult time winning playoff rounds.

So my solution, you have to take it one step further and try and go get Nazim Cadry. When I think of the way that Cadry plays the game and the way Bill Guerin and the Minnesota wild, their whole operation is, like Joel Erick, you know, for people on the East Coast, I'm just joking around now, that don't watch Minnesota play. He's a bit of a, he's a bit of a firecracker, man. Like he sticks his nose in it. And so does Ryan Hartman. And you could throw Nazim Cadbury in that mix. It's such a great combination of like competitiveness, energy, playmaking, skill, shooting the puck. And Minnesota has, you know, $10 million in cap space right now.

They still have so much ammo to make a bigger trade if they wanted to. Like young prospects that they have, Riley Height, Caden Bankier, hunter hate and then you know David Yerechek, David Spachek, like they have they have a lot of artillery to do something big and I think the time is right for Minnesota to do it. You've already done the Quinn Hughes thing. Don't stop there.

You're going to need more if you want to get through those two teams in that central division. So go get Nazim Kadri. I love it. I love this time of year is when we get into the poker metaphors and I'm a poker guy. So there's a concept in poker. where your pot committed.

And what that means is you've already put so many chips into the middle, you might as well shove the rest in. It's not sunk cost fallacy at this point because the pot is still in play. It's not, you know, we're not talking about what happened last year or the year before. This is this year. And I like that a lot.

And I especially like that Frankie had Nazim Cadry there. Free Nazim Cadry. Let's get this guy back into the NHL playoffs. I miss the Nazim Cadry playoff experience. and I love the idea of him. Are you sure? Are you sure you do? I do.

I do. Nazim, on behalf of Leaves fans, you were right, we were wrong. We miss you. We miss that. The one guy who had, let's be honest, a little bit too much dog in him, but, oh, we, that's on us, man. We screwed up. You were right.

We were wrong. And, uh, he had the passion. He had the passion. he had apparently all the passion. He took it all with him. And all right, I'm going to stay, since we're trying to free Nazim Kadri, let me stay in Alberta for my pick. Edmonton Oilers, you need a goalie.

You need a goalie. I know, I know you tried to go and get one. I know you did this already in December when you went and traded for Tristan Jari. Has not worked. Tristan Jari has not been good in Edmonton. You cannot go into the playoffs. with Tristan Jari as your as your starter. It is, and when this deal got made in December.

Who could have seen that coming, by the way, that going into the playoffs with Tristan Jari is your I went back and looked at our trade grades because sometimes you sit there and you go, oh, everybody knew this was a, and then you look back and you go, oh, wait a second. There were some arguments at the time. We were pretty iffy on it, even back then. But I'll say, I defended the trade in one specific respect where I said, by getting this done in December, Stan Bowman is leaving himself enough time that if it doesn't work,

he can take another swing at it. I do remember you saying that. Well, here we are, right? And I'll use the same metaphor I used in the article today. If you're Stan Bowman, you took a swing, okay? You took a swing. Maybe it wasn't a swing for the fences. Maybe you were just trying to hit a single back in December,

but you took a swing, you fouled it off. Swinging bunt. Yes, that's what happened. You fouled it off. The ball came up and hit you in the crotch. And now you're rolling around on the ground. All right, man. Are you going to dust yourself up, get up, and get back in the batters box and take another swing?

Are you just going to crawl off the field and quit? It's time to take another. Motivational speeches for general managers from Sean McIndor. That's what the segment's turned into. We love it. And look, man, there are some goalies available, potentially. we've heard that Florida is over. I know that Bobroski, it's almost impossible to make it work cap-wise.

But how perfect would that be? The guy that beat you in the finals twice comes over to help you finally push you over the edge. Or I don't know, guys, is there, man, we're talking about the blues. Are there any goalies that have won anything with Connor McDavid? Are there any goalies that Connor McDavid has seen up close play really well in in tough situations? Jordan Bittington, I'd do it. I have the goalie solution for the Edmonton Oilers. And it's not going to cost you an asset.

It's going to cost you a little bit of cash. And I'm saying this in jest, but maybe I'm not. Leonardo Genoni. What did this is, I've had four straight pods where Leonardo Genote's come up. Leonardo Genoni. Do you guys know who this is, the 38-year-old Swiss goalie, who is one of the most decorated goaltenders in European hockey, like ever? Like three world championship silvers has been the MVP of the Swiss League,

has been the goalie of the men's worlds multiple times, like, MVP, like, all-star teams, you name it. The only thing he hasn't done is played in the NHL. You know what? I'm kind of joking. Like, that's not my. real solution, clearly, but it's kind of fun to throw out there. My take on Jari when that trade first got made, higher ceiling, lower floor than Stuart Skinner. And right now they're experiencing

that because their defensive warts are really bubbling up, even though they beat Ottawa last night and they found a way and they played better. But they're not getting the higher floor. And that's, that's hurting them. But if they, I don't know, like, I just don't know if Jari can find that higher ceiling. The good news is there's four goalies available on our trade board. The bad news one of them is Stuart Skinner. So you should trade for Skinner. Send his second round pick back to Pittsburgh for Stewart Skinner. I mean, Frankie, when you started talking about, hey, it's only going to cost you money. You saw my eyes light up. Is it time for another Mark Andre Fleury retirement tour? We haven't had a Mark Andre Fleury goodbye game. Frankly, I'm concerned. We talked to me and

Me and she didn't talk to Russo last week. And he mentioned Yesper Walsett, potentially being on the block as a way for Minnesota to acquire maybe a Nazim Khadry, perhaps of Vince Trochec, a player like that. That opens the door for another flurry retirement tour. And that's just, just make me. Dude, if that goalie is the guy that they're going to use in Minnesota to bring in a big name player. It seems like that's what's getting floated. It's Austin. You got to be thinking about Austin Matthews, not Vincent Trocheck.

You know what I mean? Like Vincent Trochec is a good player for sure, but that's one of your other prospects. That's not a guy who could be a stud goalie. I am totally agree with you that we are wildly overrating Vince Trove. People think Vince Trochec is still 27 or whatever. He's not. He's 32 years old. His stock's never going to be higher coming off the Olympics.

I think people are overrating him to some extent. So I'm with you conceptually that like the ask on Trochec doesn't match the player he is at this particular point. I just can't believe Frankie just broke the Jesper Wellstead for Austin Matthews trade. No, no. Must credit Frankie Corrado. Wow. I'm saying that's, if you're dangling that goalie, that's the kind of player that you should be seeking in return. That's, oh, that's what I was getting at.

That's, I guess I just don't know enough about Jesper ball. I know he's highly regarded and obviously super talented and has been great in the HL at various points. I felt like having him as this as the piece for, you know, whatever, a Robert Thomas trade or whatever we're looking at here. I get that that felt maybe a little rich, but man, if that's it, I am, Frankie loves Esper Walsh. I do. I do. I do. That's what I make take place.

The Oilers should try and trade for him because they had. no chance of ever getting him otherwise. Mm-hmm. Could have drafted him, but didn't. That went directly over my head. Okay. I want the Dallas Stars to do something. Frankie swiped Cadry from me, but I'll put them in the mix there.

How fun would, how fun would Cadre be? Not just on that team, but in that division for the playoffs. You know, you need some kind of answer behind Johnston and Duchenne at center. Codry, there would be a ton of fun. The other option, Stephen Stamco's. Just have an old guy line

with Dushan in between Stamcoz and Jamie Ben. Like, I'm trying to think of storylines here. I'm trying to think of narratives. Like, let's get, let's get the all, you know, older, elder millennial line in Dallas and see how it works out. The other thing,

The other thing, Blake Coleman is the obvious answer in Dallas. He's obviously one of Caduce teammates in Calgary. He's been connected with Dallas for a while. He grew up in the Dallas area in the Metroplex. So he's always going to be connected there. But that's less fun. I want him to go out and get a name brand player and put that money that they're saving on Tyler Sagan's season ending long-term inter-reserved to use.

Well, how about this one? If we're reading between the lines in Nashville and players are going to get moved out because they've made a couple trades now. And it sounds like they want to be very respectful to Ryan O'Reilly and allow him to control the process. But I mean, if he wanted to go somewhere, wouldn't Dallas make some sense for him? Like you're going to a great place to play. You're going to play a really like purposeful role on that team and fit in. And that that's one I'll take that. That's actually a better fit. You got me, you got me beat there again. Trocheck in Dallas might make some degree of sense, too, if the price is right.

Go out and get a center. Get an old center. That's what we want from the Dallas stars. If the dude is not at least 35 years old, we're not interested in it. 100%. Frankie, thanks to playing her today, brother. Yeah, I got my, what's it, Phoebe buffet when she loses her voice and friends and she starts singing. And she's got the Phoebe voice.

And then she, yeah, at some point, it'll get better. Anyways, thanks, boys. Nice to you guys. Drink some tea, have some throat coat, and then stand in front of a TV screen for eight hours tomorrow on TSN. How about that? How does that sound?

I'll do it on Friday. Tomorrow's Thursday. That's right. We just get a date error? The streak is over! Oh, no! Take it easy, man. See you guys.

All right, there goes Frankie, Sean. We're back, and I'd like to tell you something that I learned. I love to hear it. What have we learned, Sean? Carrel Capriza, I've scored his 220th career goal last night for the Minnesota Wild. That puts him ahead of Marion Gabburick

in first place in the Wilde's franchise record. So good for Carol Caprizo, I suppose. Condolences to Marion Gabbardick, because I'm sure that's a record. He held near and dear. He's got to lower the banner in his living room. That, sad. That, my friend, is such a good bit of shorthand

for why the Minnesota Wild haven't gotten out of the second round since 2015. Like that's the shorthand. And like, I don't know, I'm an old guy, so I'm still like, yeah, I bet they're an expansion team. 25 years, you would think somebody would have topped them

220 mark at that point. They should have somebody in their history that has more goals than a guy who's been in the league since 2020. Yes. In my opinion, I think if, I think if they will, If they would have had a guy who maybe finished,

I don't know, 305, 312, they probably would have, they probably would have made a second round at some point, at some point since 2015. That's just, that's just an inkling I have. Second round wild would be less of a joke. If Carol Caprizov wasn't in a position

to set the franchise's all-time goal scoring record as a 27-year-old, or however he, however old he is at this point. So congratulations to him. But if you want, My favorite team, Austin Matthews, just set the record at 28 or whatever he is. So maybe I need to be quiet when it comes to other teams.

Breaking news here in the third segment, producer Jeff, with a very nasty chat message sent here. Breaking news, all caps, asterisk, asterisk, the Washington Capitals of resigned Ford, Ethan Frank, to a two-year, $4 million contract extension. Okay. That's also something that I learned. day for the Franks. Two weeks in a row. Crosby gets hurt during the third segment last week,

and now Ethan Frank signs his big money extension in the third segment. Ethan Frank resides with the team that we definitely know he plays for. Yeah, he's a click goes to keyboard. A guy, a guy who's in the roster for them sometimes. Yeah. What have you learned? Speaking of breaking news,

I'm surprised this hasn't got more coverage. I learned that the NHL is a brand new CBA. that has apparently just been signed. I'm assuming because suddenly there are all these articles about how GMs and teams are complaining about the CBA changes. And surely this can't be the same CBA that's ratified like a year ago. Surely these guys haven't taken six months to figure out what was in the document that they signed off on. Except apparently that is what happening We're here

Wait, we can't do double retentions anymore? What's that hell? What's happening? There's a new playoff salary cap thing? Oh, that's going to completely screw up our plans. I aspire someday to be as good at anything I do in my life as NHLGMs are making excuses for why their job is too hard and everybody should not expect them to do anything.

You just don't. You don't get it, Sean. I love it. It's the only job in all of pro sports, certainly all of hockey. Just imagine for us, I pick the, imagine the number one forward on your favorite team being in a year long slump. And they put a microphone in front of them and say, why aren't you scoring goals? And he goes, it's just really hard. Scoring goals is hard.

It's hard. And everybody goes, okay, you know, coach, coach, how come the special teams isn't, well, coaching's hard. It's hard to be a coach in this league. Oh, okay. Sorry. Not apologies for even. Can you imagine?

It would be so fun, truly, on March 3rd or whatever day. You're an NHLGM. You pick up the phone. You call Pierre, whoever. And you're just like, man, this. This playoff salary cap, it sucks. Yeah. I finally got around.

I know, I know we've known it's been in place for a year. look, we've all got some unread emails in our inbox, right? You know, you scroll back. Google drops the little like the little Gmail nudge. Like, hey, this email's six months old. You want to maybe take a look? Take a little look. See, it seems important.

New CBA rules. It's like you got the, you know, you're getting the alert from your Gmail that you're running out of storage and you're thinking like, why? What's in there? What's in there that could be taking up all this space? Definitely not a hundred and hundred a page PDF that tells me how to do my job. I'm going to delete that. Somebody should have, you, I, they should have hit the little AI summary button or something.

Maybe it would have told them that there's some brand new rules. We can talk, we, we can talk off Mike about the GMs that are most likely to get, to get fooled or screwed over by relying too heavily on, on Gemini. We sure can, yeah. Got a couple of options in mind. So I guess that's really, what it boils down to. March 4th. The trade deadline is in two days, not tomorrow.

Frankie will not be on television on Thursday. He will be on television on Friday. Two days. When nothing happens, just blame, blame the lack of double retention and playoff salary. Blame? There's no way to know. Sean, it's a hard job. do you know anybody with a hard job that's expected to actually do their job?

No. Definitely not me. No. I mean, I'm 0 for two on the elements of that one, so I can't. Again, maybe I should be quiet. Can you hang out until Friday morning or do you have other stuff yesterday, though? No, let's just, you know, I do, but our editors are very cool about that sort of thing. I don't think they'll mind.

Do you got something dropping on Friday morning? What's the next? It's supposed to be a mailbag, but I don't know, man. That's easy. Oh, my God. Safe haven for the lazy writer is the mailbags. Like a little treat. Just remember, dear listener, if this isn't something you picked up on, we're going to wise you up now.

Written mailbags, podcast mailbags, that is the sign that we got. We got nothing. When your favorite writer drops a mailbag, that's the equivalent to when the teacher would just come in class and put a movie on. Uh-huh. Yeah, we're watching, we're watching, uh, we're watching the Patriot starring Bill Gibson in, in 25-minute increments for the next, for the next week. Melvags are like, I got some PTO scheduled for next week and I need a, I need a post to go up.

So we're going to, A, do a mailbag and make sure there's no real time, time-intensive questions that are asked here. That's it. And this week, I got to say, this is a little bit of veteran savvy for me, because I ain't writing anything for the next 48 hours that some GM that I've just finished making fun of could screw up for me by making a trade or not making a trade or not doing whatever. I'm not doing my whole Bradtre Living screwed up the trade deadline piece only to then turn around and find about the big Austin Matthews to Minnesota trade that Frankie wrote. So don't don't don't

tip your hand on our on our off-mic AI conversation either. Fair enough. Yeah. I think you have done. All right, brother, we'll talk to you soon. Have fun on the trade deadline, which again is not tomorrow. It's two days from now. Thank you. Thank you, folks for listening. Thank you, Frankie. Thank you, producer, Jeff.

I'm back Thursday with Haley. CJ's on the show, baby. We're bringing in the big guns. We're cutting the check for Chris Johnston to talk to Haley and I for our last pre-deadline show. I got a bunch of big deadline stuff playing too. We're going to be in and out throughout the day to talk about the big deals, assuming they do happen. we shall see just always remember trades are hard you know enjoy the five games in the NHL Vegas Detroit Islander's Ducks

I think I'll watch some of those if you watch a couple too have a good day