The Athletic Hockey Show - Jack Hughes destined for a breakout season in New Jersey, Evander Kane suspended for 21 games and are we over the Seattle Kraken?

Episode Date: October 19, 2021

Craig and Sean welcome Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils. the boys discuss Jack's OT goal celebration, the outlook for the up and coming Devils, Jack's Olympic chances and Jack's interests outside hockey, including cooking for brother Quinn.Custance and Gentille also take a look at the ongoing mess in San Jose with Evander Kane being suspended for 21 games for falsifying a COVID-19 passport. With four seasons remaining on Kane's contract and the team employing other long term contracts with aging players, has Doug Wilson's time come and gone in silicone valley?Plus, are we over the Seattle Kraken? Are they bad? Can we make that call after only three games? The boys get into that, add their two cents and answer your comments and questions from the Athletic App.And, right now, you can save 50% on an annual subscription to The Athletic when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are those birds chirping? Oh, yeah. Great. Hey, everybody. God, this is going to be a good show. Hey, everybody. This is Craig Custin, again, with the athletic, joined by a flock of birds. Go, go, go!

In Sean Gentile. And you know you enjoy recording a podcast when you spend a half hour before the podcast, we hit record talking, and we probably should have just recorded our last half hour with producer Jeff and stories of me almost getting arrested in Canada for chipping trees down. But we're going to actually talk hockey, I think, a little bit. At the very least, we have a great guest to this week's show, probably the best guest of any athletic hockey show this week. Easy, hands down. Jack Hughes, as Sean noted many times, breakout candidate Jack Hughes of the New Jersey It's a courageous call by a smart man.

The number one pick two years ago is going to be good. Wow. And then you have the audacity to say to Jack, as you all will hear later, Hey man, don't you hate it when people identify you as a breakout? It's a valid question. It's like people forget how good he was last year. He already kind of broke out. He was awesome last year.

But you're the one saying it all the time. I think he's a breakout. I've never said that in my life, not once. I think this part, we already considered him a star. Like, we're not, like Jack Hughes to us, if you go back and roll the tape as we were doing our fantasy team, we picked them, we were, we were offended. He was in the leftovers category in the office schools. That is, that is a disgrace.

That'll go back. That's going to go back in fantasy hockey history as, you know, one of the most overlooked slights. We knew that we knew that we were screwing up whenever we didn't. Well, here's what I'll say. He would have been tough. He would have been tough to put him in Tier 4 in the players' in the Players' Tier project, right, that me and Dom and Corey put out.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's right. It's just like, he's just a little bit, it's a little bit too early. But we also knew or were cognizant of the fact that it could easily blow up in our faces. And there were, and there were a few guys like that. But he definitely led the way where we're like, you know, the production just isn't there yet. We'll see you in, we'll see in 2022, I guess. But we, you know, just, just, just knew that that had egg on the face potential, right? And I, I feel like a lot of people in various spaces were, we're kind of in that mode with Jack,

where you're like, okay, thinking about Olympic rosters. Like, do we, do we, do we, do we, put him on it? Do we wait? Do we put a little asterisk next to his name? Like, well, like, whatever, because everyone did need to see, you know, some increased product for as good as all his numbers were last year. He was a possession beast. He was an expect of goals beast. It just didn't quite, you know, translate into, into deliverable numbers, right? So people were waiting to see that. And yes, we're one game in, but I don't think it could have gone any better. No, as we mentioned, we're ready to call it. One game in. This is a huge year for Jack Hughes. one game in, it's time for the contract extension.

A big one. Yeah. Big one. Which we talked about. Big one. Big one. Yeah. And it's time for not just a spot on the Team USA roster, but let's make our guy. Captain C?

Let's make our guy. Exactly. Let's make our guy captain. Top six. It's good. Who's going to play behind Austin Matthews? Not going to be Jack Eichael. Nope.

So that's a great chat. Jack's great. So what I like about Jack, so I set my brother, my brother's a big car. guy, but he's into sports cards. He's not a huge hockey guy. But I said, hey, you know, he's always looking for like the hockey. I'm like, hey, you might, this would be a good time to pick up a couple of those upper deck.

Young guns, Jack Hughes, whatever they're going for on eBay. And, you know, he was just like, well, you know, how come? And then he brought a good point. He goes, and I'm like, he's a star. He's all this skill in the world. But he also has a ton of personality. Like, you know, as you'll see in the interview, and we saw the stick flip into the stands, We've seen it with, he's just, he's, he's having a good time.

And my brother brought this up. He goes, oh, ESPN, you know, they'll eat that up. Like, they're going to make, they're going to blow him up. And I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right. We're going to have Turner and ESPN. Wait a second here. Yeah, they're going to, they'll latch on. If he has personality, you know, the pedigree and he's also really good at hockey,

in a, you know, New York area market, they will latch on to that. The devils are like one of the defining teams. of the NHL and ESPN era. Like I think of... That's right. I think of them because they were at their peak, right? It's mid-90s stuff.

I don't know. Not that that matters, but like we've seen that from ESPN before, if nothing else. They're not afraid to pump up the devils. There's reason to do it now. That seems really interesting. I don't know if they're, I don't know if they're quite there yet.

I think there's a lot of teams like in the mush, in the kind of the mushy middle of that division. I think two through three, six, maybe two through seven can all, it's like, you know, draw names out of a hat when it comes to that, right? So I'd be hesitant to straight up pick them to make the playoffs this year, but I'm expecting them to be to be certainly better and possibly legitimately good. And he's a big part of that. So that's the fun. We're going to start on a bit of a downer because we've come here as a podcast not to praise the Seattle Crack.

But we're going to, I think we're done with them. I think we've seen enough. We're ready to, another thing we're ready to call. This is the, this is like the early election night coverage. When they start calling states, they're not, they're not good, Sean. Are the Seattle Cracken bad and can we make that call after three games? I'm saying yes. You are.

All right. I don't want to overreact. You hear that Seattle? The bad boys of hockey podcasting. Oh, my gosh. We're bailing on them already. What was that game against the Flyers last night? It was horrendous.

I checked into it for a little bit. I'm like, this is supposed to be a good defensive team. They got six hung on on by Philly last night. It was a disaster. Yeah, like that's the thing. Like you sat there and watched you go, okay, maybe we worry about how they're going to score goals, but we can definitely count on them being good defensively and they're going to get good goaltending. That much we knew, right?

Man, if group, imagine if Grubaugh turns into a pumpkin for them. If he reverts. He's been, he was good for years, right? There's no real reason to think that, but goalies are strange. and if he has some kind of, you know, rough run here. I mean, granted, they got treasurer, so, you know, God bless them. They at least have an option there. But to have your big swing, you know, show, not show out in the first few games,

that can't be, that can't be great. The other thing I noticed watching the, and they haven't even played a home game yet, right, Seattle? By the way, a funny situation with that. Yeah. It's Christmas Eve, I think, is when they play. That's right. The broadcast situation on their home opener is all screwed up.

We don't need to get into the minutia on that. But it's streaming only. It's not going to be on local TV. Like, it's not an ESPN game. I don't really know what's happening. It's a mess. I noticed during the first game, like, we, I'll say the collective hockey universe, wanted to draw these parallels to Vegas so badly

that I think there was some assumptions made that players that people would say, I heard this a couple times, oh, this will be their William Carlson. Like this guy is going to break out and go from, you know, a very average player to a star this year. Like that's some sort of automatic expansion. That's, like, there was a lot of like, hey, when you're an expansion team, you get one breakout star,

you get, you know, a player from each team. And it's like, no, no, no, there's no guarantees that these guys with more of a, more role or whatever are going to become Riley Smith. It's a fundamentally different set of circumstances. And part of that is because GM smartened up and weren't willing to do. There was, there's no, there was no Dale Talon in the room this year. Like, there was no, there was no Riley Smith and, in, uh, in Jonathan Marche-so's situation to be had.

But then, then you throw in the fact that they, uh, really do. seem to have overplayed their hand on on setting values on on trades and sticking to it to the point where you know what what were they looking for exactly from mark giordano right like to not take mark jordano like right they got they got they got they got they got left holding the bag on that and it happened a few different times so you have a worse roster and you don't have the war chest of first second and thirds that gms you know gave away out of fear So it's going to be tougher sledding for them than Vegas. And that's fine.

Like that's not the way it should work for an expansion team. You shouldn't have a ready, you shouldn't have a ready-made cup contender on day one, right? So I don't know. The expectations were maybe a little unrealistic. I don't think anybody was expecting them to be some super dynamic offensive team. But at the same time, there's some early issues there. Well, it was a good run.

It was fun while it last. said the Seattle Cracking. And, you know, now, here's their saving grace, because we'll stick in the Pacific. That division sucks. That division. Currently, in second place, you're Anaheim Ducks. I mean, we're really early, obviously. But, you know, Vegas is now banged up.

RIP to our officepools.com fantasy team already. We're already up the creek. We had patchy ready in stone, and they're both hurt. At least we didn't have Kutrov, I guess that's the silver line there. He's not hurt, though, so it doesn't count. Like Vancouver, I guess maybe as a team, I know we're not allowed to talk to them. I think of them because they just came through town. But I think they're probably not that good.

So Edmonton, I guess, is the, you know, Vegas is obviously the best team. But if they're going to be banged up, this might be the only thing that keeps Seattle around, I guess is what I'm saying, is the division's awful. Totally. like who's behind them San Jose, L.A. Yeah. The already warmed over corpse of the Vegas Golden Knights in Calgary who has dominated their first few games

but can't, their power play sucks and their finishing ability sucks as a team. It's the same story as it was last year for them. So you have a lot of flawed teams behind them. There's, we're obviously just screwing around here. Like there's more than enough time for them to, for them to turn it around. But it'll be interesting.

I will say a funny byproduct of all this of their home opener being as late as it is and we still have whatever a week and a half I guess but before it happens right like where are they going to like are they going to be

you know one and four like by the time that happens or like that that would be a bummer and I know there's there's not much that can throw a damper on like the vibe in the vibe in Seattle for that team is real. I was there I was there last month and people are legitimately excited about it. But if they get off to a flat start and don't play any of these games in front of their actual home fans,

it would be a bummer to see them come into the home open Olympic. I sincerely hope that that doesn't, that that doesn't happen. No, no, because you also want it to work, like, you know, Vegas is a huge success, but a big part of that is they were good. So fans were excited. Like, you only get so long of being a bad expansion team before fans stop carrying. I lived it in Atlanta. Like, you know, there's excitement and then there's apathy. And if you don't get good at some point, then you move to Winnipeg. I think that's the NHL bylaws.

They're not going to be bad. I'm still comfortable. I'm comfortable saying that. There's too much, there's a little bit. There's too much talent. I don't think Gru Bauer is going to, you know, look like the guy who was a backup in in Washington for a few years for over the course of an entire season. There's talented players there.

It's just a little bit of a little bit of a dud of a start. Because like, Philly's not any good. They get boat race by them last night. And we're in the sample size is still small enough where you can look at that sort of stuff and be like, I don't know. But no, they'll be, they'll be, I sincerely do think they'll be fine. But it is, it is, there's some, there's some issues there. There's some issues.

So before we get to Jack, let's stay in that division for one second to talk San Jose. A couple of things comes out. Evander King gets 21-game suspension. I got to say, having never covered a fake vaccine card attempt, I didn't know what was coming there. No idea what was, like, you know, then he's got everything else surrounding him. And top of that, you know. He broke a, it's a federal law, right? So is 21 light?

How do we What other federal laws can you break? It only get 21 games. My fun question, NHL's vaccination rate is wonderful, right? Four players are unvaccinated. We're at 99%. How many other guys in the league are going to a Vander Cain's card plug?

Well, I'm not going to that guy. Obviously. He got a bad batch number. I want to know the mechanics of this. Like, I want to know if he had an actual, the cards we all have. Like, did he just buy one and write in just a bunch of serial numbers and just fake it that way? Like, I want to know what the investigation process was like. Because if you had a real batch number, you know, I don't, I wouldn't know how he got busted.

I don't know if that's something any of us are going to be able to find out. But the, the specifics of this are. I want every detail about how, where it went wrong for Evander on the card. Anytime I had multiple friends text me yesterday who were, you know, they're not, they're not in the game. They're not, you know, huge NHL fans. They're like, what the hell's going on? Like, he had a fake card. I'm like, yeah, that's what it sounds like.

You know, but 21 games, yeah, it's a quarter of a season. I don't know that I didn't come into that with any expectations. Like you said, we don't know. Yeah. We don't know what the going rate for a vaccine card forgery is, but 21's no joke. No. Did you have a fake ID? I'm wondering what the mechanics of your fake idea.

Yeah. Did you have like a fake name that was your picture? I found a kid's driver's license who was. Oh, that's great. That's cool. Who had just turned 21 and I was like 18 when it happened. And he looked enough like me for it to work. Like he was shorter than.

me and had blue eyes. But other than that, it was like, other than that, it was fine. His name's Greg Berg. He lived on Pacific Avenue. Do you know him? You didn't know him? It's like Greg Bird is out there. This is no joke. He lives, he lives by my, he lived by my grandparents. I knew exactly where his house was. I would drive past his house whenever I went to see my grandparents. I had this kid's ID, fake ID for three years. And I googled him recently. He is now a doctor. Oh, the good doctor, Greg. And it's seriously him. Gregory, Gregory. He's like, He's like a, you know, a pediatric, you know, internist or something. Does he do fake vaccine cards?

Maybe that's it. Dr. Dr. Berg, what did you know and when did you know it? My favorite, my buddy had, somebody had a scanner and was doing something like we were, you know, doing some Photoshop work. Are you in? What, Photoshop? Photoshop 1.0? Jesus Christ.

Yeah, it was really like, you're making these in paint, MS. paint. So my buddy does his, and he grabs a random picture of himself with a hat on, which I don't think you're even allowed to do with the Michigan Secretary of State. I think you have to take your head off. And he had red eye. Like, you know, cameras, it's a flash. It has red eye. So we go on spring break.

Yeah, because he took a photo with a wind-up disposable camera that you buy, that you buy in Walgreens. Big square flash. That's like turns every time you take a picture. I remember we were going to Panama City, Florida, and trying to try. and he get in and the guy just look he's like what do you do you have red eye in your the guy's like it was like I don't know it's a medical condition please please don't ask me anymore about it and then he just added it back yeah let him I had an actual legit fake ID was like or not even fake idea like a real ID that scanned and stuff I mean I was I was I was I was

golden I had friends who had you know we would we would walk into walking to walk into bars on the south side here in Pittsburgh and there'd be seven dudes and six of them had Texas IDs because that was the, that was the template that we used to make the fakes. I mean, it was classic, classic stuff. And I was, I was golden. So shout out to Greg Bird. Greg Bird. All right.

Last thing on this. Eric Carlson. Curse, he's been, he's had a run of good stories. Eric Carlson's still saying he's one of the best players in the world. Yeah, the thing that Curse put out today, too, specifically about a Vander King. Yeah. It's a nice, nice look inside the vibes in the locker room. right now they're they're good and and it's probably and part of this probably because of

anir-kane isn't around um but yeah what's that so is that you the the the carlson story that's that's that's what you're bringing up it's tough to keep track with curders he's having he's having a good he's having a good couple weeks like carl like carlson i mean i guess what else is er carlson going to say like i'm toast but um 11.5 million per season through my goodness i'm on cap friendly and it's one of those red arrow contracts that doesn't even get off the page till the end of time that contract goes. I mean, that's the other thing.

Vander Cain's is, I feel bad for the sharks. Like, clearly you had a GM and Doug Wilson here trying, you know, desperately, and I don't mean that in a negative sense, to keep that Stanley Cup window going for a long stretch. And they certainly had it going for a long stretch, but, you know, bills are coming in now. And I don't, there's not an end in sight.

Holy cow. Can they get any value out of Carlson? Do we think at 31 years old? I mean, you just have to, you just have to play them on that team and hope that he, hope that he produces. No, that contract's untouchable. Untouchable. How good, how good, he'd have to be not, you know, Eric Carlson, 2015 level good to make it, to make it, but that deal, that deal is not movable.

It wasn't like the sharks were the only team. in on Eric Carlson. Have we ever seen something go sideways so fast? Like, he was Mark Stone the year before. So it was like, Matt, that worked out great for Vegas. Like, if you look back, like, people were, the Eric Carlson sweepstakes were a huge thing. And, you know, Steve Eichman, what if Tampa gets Eric Carlson? Like, that was a very, that was a real thing. That was, they were trying to make happen in Tampa. He's still only 31. He turned 31 at the end, at the end of the season. Like, I, the whole half. to be that he also I think there's there are some reasons for optimism with the way he played

last year at times like I think there's some underlying stuff there that's that's positive with him but like if he's good it's going to be for San Jose because God knows God knows nobody's you're going to trade for 11 and a half million dollar Eric Carlson who signed through you know 2011 D or whatever like you're going to you're going to you're going to you're going to trade for him in a flat cap for the next however many years, that's just, that's a, that's a flat no across the board. So they better hope he's good because that's their only option right now.

Good news is William Eichland looks like he's. I was just about to bring him on. Your boy, your favorite player from the last, the draft, if I remember correctly. Based on multiple viewings. One of the best 90 second YouTube clips that I saw in my, in my draft prep. Oh, this guy's good.

Slides. You were a big one. Slides of the Sharks. Well, because the other, the guys loved them, right? Wheeler, Wheeler, Wheeler was, Wheeler was all in on them. That's, that's good enough for me. So, you know, that's, that's found money for them. They got a bit of player dropped to them that I don't think they were necessarily anticipating.

And their reports on him are good. Curse wrote about him, you know, Jasper Weatherby is a decent young player. They have, you know, there's at least a couple players there to hold attention. but man, it's going to get dark early there, I think. I think a fun story, because we're all drawing this conclusion. That's just going to be bad for a while in San Jose, I think rightfully so. A fun story for Curse to do is what is a path out? What has to happen to get out of this in the next couple years?

Like, is it a hurdle trade plus a lottery bounce? I don't know. Like, what is this? Because we've never, like, I don't know what, what, like, if everything goes right for the sharks, what does that look like? their cap-friendly page is a bad dream. Couture through 2027, that's the least of their problems,

but for other teams, that would be huge red flag. And he's, what, their fourth worst contract or fifth worst, you know. Carlson with a red arrow. Mark Edward Vlasik is signed through 2020. for $7 million a year.

You have the cane catastrophe. And he's, God, when does his, when does his deal end up? I can't even, I can't even remember. How long is he, how long has he done the books for? Because they're already, they already have to be thinking about, like, what's the way, what's the way out there with him specifically? He's through 24, 25, 7 million a year through 2425. I don't know that, I don't know that there is one.

You have, uh, 15, 20. $26, $34, $41 million dedicated to Logan Couture, Evander Cain, Eric Carlson, Brent Burns, Mark Edward Lossack. Not good. No. Enjoy William Ecclin, though. He seems very fun. He seems good. Seems like a good player.

All right. Sorry, San Jose Sharks. Really negative for Seattle and Sharks fans. Stay with us fans. We love you guys. We'll make it up to you at some point in this podcast. in a few years. Enjoy the Jack Hughes interview, I guess.

Hope you like him. He's got bookwrecks everybody. He does. And he's a go-to meal. I don't know. I have reason to be skeptical of that, of that, by the way. Oh, you don't believe it? We'll see how that works.

You're calling Jack Hughes a liar. I need the answer. I need the answer from Quinn. He alluded to us asking Quinn about about his go-to meal. I'm going to have to hear from a second source on this one. All right, let's take a break and have a word from our sponsors. Some people say this is the best part of the podcast. It shouldn't be.

We'll be right back with Jack Hughes. We are now thrilled to be joined by Jack Hughes, who is, of course, we don't want to jump to any conclusions one game in. But we've been saying breakout on this podcast for weeks around Jack Hughes. and of course he delivers right away. Jack, how are you? I'm good. How are you guys doing? Oh, we're good.

We're good. So, I think we wanted to start first and foremost with the flip of the stick into the stands. Sean, like that when Jeff said you were coming on, Sean was like, hey, we got to talk that. That's it, man. We need 15 minutes. We need 15 minutes on that and we'll call around. And then we can just get you out of here. It'll be fine.

I don't even know how. went down like it was all kind of like a reactionary thing like it wasn't like I don't know it was just it was weird like it was pretty sick though like obviously looking at it now it's it's a crazy salary that's what was it okay so it wasn't it wasn't premeditated no it wasn't planned like it's definitely not something like obviously I scored in the second period like I couldn't do it there you know it's it's not like a in-game thing it's like it has to be overtime only so like I definitely wasn't planning it um But yeah, obviously the fans loved it.

It's pretty wild. Have you touched base with whoever caught it? There is a fight in the stands, dude. I don't know. There's like, I remember seeing the video. It's like, because it's not like a baseball where like they hit a homer and like one person catches it or like a football. It's like a whole hockey stick.

Like 10 people could catch it. It's break it apart and divide it up between the rail. Yeah, there's probably a wrestling match in the stand. So I don't know who ended up. up getting it, but it's pretty briefly. Yeah, how do you settle that? It's like one of those competitions where like the last person to stop touching the car gets the car or whatever.

Like, it's got to be whoever just wills their way to having the stick. Yeah, it's just a lot of will and I don't even know. It's just like battle. It's all will. It's will and grit in that scenario. You're getting sticks in deep. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

So that's like the bat flip to me. Like that's the walk off. That's the only thing I want to. see out of a hockey player after an overtime goal from now on. That's it. Is that the new standard? It's the new standard. For you, it is.

You have to do every overtime goal you score for the rest of your career. You got to do that. I hope you realize that. You set the standard. We'll see on that. We'll see. And like, what I love with the speed of it. Like, it's got to be like the goal is scored and the back, and the stick is in the stands.

Within, it's got to be like five seconds. Yeah. Yeah. It can't be like when you come out for the stars or whatever. So, Jack, one of the things you said after the game I was looking, and you said something along the lines of, like, the last time Chicago saw me, I was 18, and now you're obviously 20.

A lot has changed on a lot of levels since then. But where do you think you've changed the most from 18 to 20? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a pretty important quote, you know, not just for me, but for a lot of guys in the league, I haven't seen three quarters of the league in almost two years now. You know, like it's just different. You know, I'm a completely different player, a completely different person. From the last time I've played Chicago, and it's going to be like that for a lot of the teams.

So it'll be fun, and I'm sure a lot of guys will catch teams by surprise, just because there's no, like, reads recently or anything like that. But it's also extremely exciting, you know, like, for us for me to play caner again that's a lot of fun um you know a guy i haven't played in two years you know be fun to actually travel this year and and go to l.a get some nice warm weather um things like that it's it's yeah people don't really read read into that stuff no you had a lot of you had a lot of great time spent and you know long island and Pittsburgh and philly and whatever last year yeah that was that was that that was how that was spent February or whatever so yeah

You get to change it up. Is there a team you're looking forward most to seeing that you haven't seen in a while? The obvious answer would be Vancouver to play them. But I think, like, sneaky, my team I want to play the most is Anaheim. You know, I'm pretty fired up to play Z. So I think it'll be hilarious when I'm taking a face offers him. So I'm pretty much to play them. I can't, I can't, I can't imagine why you'd want to play in Vancouver.

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know what's waiting over there for you. That'll be good, but I'm, I'm really excited to play Anaheim coming up, so that'll be a lot of fun. Yeah, he's, I mean, what a player. I, like, I feel bad because I don't have a great feel for that team. Like, at least with the devils, you can sit there and go, that, they're on the upswing, and you can see where, what you're all doing, and now you had Dougie into the mix, and there's a lot of juice there. Anaheim, I feel like a little bit of spinning their wheels.

But I did want to get your thoughts on a couple big additions. What are your first impressions of Dougie? How's that gone for you? Yeah, I mean, we're one game in, so it's nothing crazy. But I think he played 20 minutes seconds in. So he's a guy that just, you know, we paid him 9-mill and he's probably worth more than that. And, you know, he brings so much to our team.

We have a clear-cut number one defenseman, you know, a guy that can really carry the load. and, you know, him and Grave, he had a great first game together, and we expect more of that this year. He's worth more than nine, eh? Yeah, I think, you know, he's, he had a great first game, so we're really excited he's here. We were also talking contract. You mentioned Quinn briefly, and he gets that, you know,

monster deal six times seven point eight five. Have you noticed any difference in him now that he's loaded? Big shot. Big shot now. Big time. I haven't, no, I haven't seen him, you know. Yeah. It's not like he signed in summer and then like he went bananas while I was there.

Like that wasn't the case. So I don't know. It's obviously, it's crazy. When do you guys head out there? When's that, when's that trip? Do you know? You got you circle? It's coming up, right?

No, I think we're in December, but we don't, we're not there. Like, I think we're on a back-to-back. Like, we play Calgary and then we play Vancouver the next night. So it's not much of a trip. Yeah, I think it's in December, maybe November, but I don't know. Did you talk him through any of that stuff, the contract stuff? Like, did you, was there any, like, conversations with you and him about what that, you know, what that should look like?

Yeah, but nothing crazy, you know, like neither one of us have been through that before. Neither of us have seen money like that our whole life ever, you know. So at the end of the day, anytime you can, you can pocket that money and, you know, you're setting yourself up and, you know, to play hockey, it's, it's pretty special. So we're all, our whole family is very excited for him. Yeah, it would be. Yeah, that's pretty good deal. He's locked in for a long time. I mean, are you, you, you're, you're, you're, you're about to, you're, you're about to go through that, right?

Yeah, I mean, I have a lot more work to do to, you know, two, two pretty good years heading into his contract year. So, you know, it's, yeah, you could talk about it. But, you know, I have a lot of work to do this year and then, you know, it'll come. Do you get, have you gotten tired of hearing about how you're, like, this is your breakout year? Because you're every, you're number one on everybody's list. Like, like, who's going to, who's going to pop this year?

And everyone acts like they're, you know, like coming up with some surprise answer. Like, yeah, Jack's, Jack's going to pop this year. Are you tired? Sean, I'm right here. I feel like I'm being talked about. I'm tired of Craig specifically talking about it. But no, is that weird to hear for you? I mean, it just means people have been waiting for a long time.

You know, I see it. I get it. Like I obviously went first overall, like, you know, guys come in and are unbelievable their first few years. But the same time, like I've played, I'm heading into my like 119th game coming up on two years. Tuesday. And I'm only 20 years old. So the end of the dam and I have a crazy long career with a lot of good games, a lot of bad games. But, you know, I've put the work in. I know last

year had a really strong year. And I just got to keep the train rolling this year. Was last season, was last season frustrating for you? Because there was so, you were doing so much so well. Like your like your underlying numbers were great. Like, like, what? watching you play, you look different. And for whatever reason, pucks weren't going in, right? The finishing, yeah, right? Like, that had to be.

When everything else, like, lined up, except for the actual results there, that was that a tough thing to go through? Yeah, I mean, it's obviously, I can make a case. I could have had way, way more points last year, you know, a year. You know, I had a solid year still,

but it wasn't, it wasn't a breakout year, and it easily could have been a breakout year, you know, it could have been, 15 more points to it easily. But it is what it is. And, you know, we're building something here. And for myself, I think I'm taking good steps forward and becoming the player they want me to become here.

I saw Larry Brooks story who he was one game in penciling you for the U.S. Olympic team, which I appreciated. We, you know, we all want to slot you in there. How much, I mean, that's, I think that's, that's not an easy roster to make. And you see the strength down the middle there. How much is that in the back of your head this season? Yeah, I mean, I'd be lying to you if I said it's not the bat. Like, of course, I'm an American.

I grew up loving USA hockey. I played with USA hockey all through the ranks. Like, you know, the Olympics is the premier step, you know. So, of course, I want to be on that team. But, you know, I have work to do. And it's not pro-clime. And it's going to be a hard team to make. But, you know, whether I make it or not, I'm going to have a chance of 24.

28, 32. You know, I got a lot of years. 32, come on. I got a lot of time. 36. I got some work to do here. But, you know, I'm more focused on the devils and seeing how that goes. And then we'll see where it goes.

Do you hear from the brain trust at all, like Billy Garon or Stan Bowman? Do they say, hey, you know, we got an eye on you or anything like that? Has there been any of that communication? Not really. I mean, I'm sure I'm in the mix. But everyone's busy, man. You know, it's like great. Everyone's focused on Olympics,

but at the same time, all these people, all these players, management, they all have to worry about their own teams, you know, so I think focuses will shift more throughout the season, but,

you know, right now we've played one game. We've not focused on the devils. And, you know, I'm sure the DMs are focused on their own teams and the rest of the players are focused on helping their own teams.

You see us doing work here? We're trying to get you a contract, extension one game in puts you on the Olympic team. We're doing some workover. So to wrap up, I'm going to be a very productive 15 minutes for you, Jack. Yeah, life's easy on the podcast. It's so easy, so easy, Jack. Oh, my gosh.

To wrap up, I sent Matt Williams to text. I said, you're coming on. And I said, any questions you want to plant? And he said, two things. You're a good cook or you're into cooking. I don't know. I forgot how he phrased it. Are you into cooking or are you a good cook?

I guess there's a difference there. I would give myself, I'm okay. I'm good. I actually, like me and Quinn got a place this summer, so we were cooking big time, like, cooking for our buddies and stuff. I think I cooked Maddie a few meals. So you got to get it. But I like it at a time.

Like, it's better than sitting, like, on the couch on my phone doing nothing, you know? So I'm not like a premier chef or anything, but I like the cooking. All you got to do is just get like a couple things that you do well. And then you're fine. You get like some sort of some sort of go-to dish. Do you have that yet? I got a go-to dish right now.

If you ever get Quinn on the podcast, he knows the go-to dish. Come on. Come on. That's great. That's a tease, baby. Yeah, we both. He kind of taught me a go-to dish. So it's good.

That's good. I made a chicken marsala yesterday. And you only use a little bit, Marsala wine and I drank almost the rest of the bottle and it's terrible Marsala wine. I don't think it's meant for cooking. You're not supposed to drink cooking wine. Well, I discovered that after the fact. But once you're on a roll while you're cooking and you have it. It's just kept kept on going. And the other thing Mattie said was reading. He said you were asking for book wrecks. So we're looking for book wrecks. We're looking for book wrecks. We're

good readers. Yeah, you guys got any? I don't know. I like I like reading. It's the same thing. It's everything on my phone, social media, things like that. And I don't know. I never went to college. So it's got to get smarter somehow. So I think that's pretty important. What do you go to? Are you a fiction guy?

Are you a fiction guy or are you like a self-improvement guy? Like what do you find yourself gravitating towards? I'll give you a lot of sports books. I think my favorite books I've read were 11 rings. Phil Jackson. It's a really good book. It's just like pretty like about life and how you see life. And then green lights from Matthew McCona. He's pretty good too. Those are two books I've read recently that are great. Good sports book playing through the whistle. It's a it's a book about high school football like in, in, uh, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in Southwest PA.

S.L. Price wrote it. He's a sports illustrated guy is, it's the, the, the best, the best, the best sports book I've read in the last few years. Yeah. Really? What's it called? Playing through the whistle? I think of the whistle. Nice. That's a good wreck. I just got this one, the baseball 100. I thought you a Pezzan,

Poznanski, book. Yeah, I like it. I like Breeden. I think it's important. Yeah. We got a lot of downtime, too, on the road, so it's good stuff. Yeah.

Well, Jack, we appreciate the time. I know you got a ton going on. So one game, we're ready to call it. It's a great year for you. And we'll see you when you come through town, but appreciate you doing. us. All right, boys.

Good stuff. We'll see you. That was great with Jack. No surprise. I mean, anytime you have the parents on and they're great, you know the, you know the interview with the kids are always going to be great. Shout out. Shout out to the guy who was like, hey, yesterday on Twitter who was like, hey, are you guys

going to talk about Jack Hughes because they ignored it on the Monday show hosted by, who again? Who are the Monday host? Who knows? I don't know. Who can say. That was a great. great call. I honestly, it was like, it was like we were being teed up. Well, I'm, I will definitely

send a link out. That was my, that was my burner. That was my burner. That was my burner. Bussed me. Yeah. So, well, we, we promise the Jack Hughes, uh, we'll keep it going. We will be flying the Jack Hughes flag because he's, he's a great player, fun star, Olympic captain. What do you? What do you say to the 2038 team? Well, because he's like, he's like, he's like, yeah, I could do it. I'm 20 or 24, 38 or 32. Like, I have 36. Like, go for it. It's not impossible. That's what happens when you're this caliber of player and you're 20 years old already in an Olympic season too. Like, he's line, it's lining up perfectly for him because a lot of guys because of whatever, whether it's what happened, whether it's what happened in the last Olympics or, or whatever.

Like, injuries, Stamco situation, like what happened? Like, some guys, some guys, some guys don't get to do it by, you know, through bad luck until they're, until they're 29 or 33 or whatever. Not going to be the case for him. Imagine being like 20 years old and just you're about to take on the world. Like he's, it's going to be a fun stretch here for him. All right. Let's take another quick break. And then we've got a few thoughts to wrap up. Didn't want to let the week go by, Craig, without, without mention Jimmy Hayes. We've got some really, really sad news about, oh boy, former Bruins winger, Dorchester legend. Boston

You know College National Champion Toxic College reports came back He died on it He died in August 23rd He found fentanyl and cocaine

In his system There's no Good way to Frame this or spin it Other than to say that It's just a Worst case scenario Tragedy

And we don't I mean this isn't gonna be The only space That we talk about The issues that this brings up, right? Like, we want to be thoughtful about it and give it and give it it it's just due. We have some, we have some plans for shows moving forward,

but we also don't want to, don't want to wallpaper over it and ignore it because that'll be disingenuous. But, no, you know, you read what his dad and his wife told Dan Channessie in the Boston Globe, you know, it was a problem that cropped up a year and a half ago and they thought he had it licked. and that's not the way it worked out. It's something I've seen in my own life. I think it's something that's affected a lot of people.

And, you know, it's a conversation that you just, it never, never gets any easier and never stops being really sad. So, you know, condolences the family. And, you know, again, we don't want to pay at lip service and don't want to, don't want to give it the space it deserves. And that's all going to happen. But we also didn't want to let a week. pass without mentioning because it's a it's a it's a it's a really sad it's a really sad story it's

really sad and and you know I'm I'm in Detroit where firsthand we've seen you know Ken Daniels's work with his son's foundation Jamie Dan the Jamie Daniels foundation and you know same problem raising awareness and and I've had a lot of conversations with with Kenny through the years about it and it's it's heartbreaking and you know in it's you know it's there's nothing good about it and I you know I would I would definitely if you're sitting there going boy I don't I want to help or I don't you know I want to learn more I would go to the jamie daniels foundation dot org check out what Ken's doing there and raising awareness make a donation I know Prashant Iyer's doing a fun thing on on Twitter if you want to like yeah you know the kind of thing

where if you want to do a buck per Dylan Larkin goals it goes to the Jamie Daniels foundation Sean we should definitely think of something on behalf of the pod like to do to get behind what Prashanth that's doing because it's a great cause. It's in it hits everybody. Yeah. And if there's, if there's good that comes out of it, I think, I think Jim, I think, you know, Kevin Hay's senior was was really, oh man, really, uh, touching and, and, um, well said in the, in the, in the, in the story that, that ran on the globe. I mean, an important thing to remember with this, and this is something that I, that I didn't really, an understanding that I didn't really come to I don't even think until recently is how it's is how easy it is for this to happen like this is this is a late

in life this was a later a relatively late in life thing for jimmy hayes where where it was after his after his career is when is when the problems really started and it's easy for stuff to snowball right where it's where it's where it was like Kevin hay saw something wrong a year and half ago like it and this wasn't this wasn't a lifelong thing this wasn't something he struggled with for you know starting as a teenager. Like it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, know, Kevin Hayes and the family are speaking out and trying, trying to do their part in it. And also there's, there's some other spaces in hockey that are, you know, making themselves known here too. So we got to, got to keep that in mind and just, you know, make it a discussion

point moving forward. This isn't, this isn't a one-day thing. This isn't just five minutes, five minutes tacked on at the end of a podcast. It can't be that for anybody. All right. Well, we'll, we'll figure out what, if you have thoughts on what we should donate, or something just to keep us talking about it with what Percentth, excuse me, is doing. I'm in, put it in the comments of our podcast episode. That's where we love to interact with you. That'll be a good thing to track.

That and the performance of our abysmal fantasy hockey team since everybody's heard. We're already done with that. Like, that team's toast. It went worse than I expected. I'm just glad we don't have to set lineups. We would already be in that mode where it's like, God, I don't care.

Did she line up in this week? No. Yeah, so put that in the comments. I do like going in. So to wrap up, let's, let's interact with our list. Oh, no, hold on. Everyone's the best. Hold on a second, but you had something you want to say about it.

Oh, I do. So I hope you all saw that Ilya Kovalchuk is now, he is the national, he's running the national team for the Russians going to the Olympics. And first of all, on a scale of 1 to 10, how old did that make you feel? Like, Ilya Kowal took to me is still like this young player. He was trying to make his way into the league. He's still, he's, it's Michael Terry and calling him Kovichu after, after a, that's who he still is for me. I, like his, his evolution now to, you know, management, I can't even wrap my head around. Like I.

Dude, he wanted. He was trying to hook on with a team on October 11th. I found an interview that was published in Russia where he was like, I'm staying in shape. I'm like hoping to play. I'm looking to do my thing. That was eight days ago. And now he's, you know, does he put himself on the team? I think it's a question.

We have to consider that. Nobody. So, Ilya, one of the things I hope people realize is this guy, this guy loved the game and loved scoring. Love, like he, like, if you ever watch highlights of him scoring. like just the pure joy of that accomplishment. And so I'm not surprised that he's just trying to find any way to get, you know, still get that. I just, you know, somebody, I covered him starting, you know,

when I broke into the hockey world, he was the young star of the Atlanta Thrashers and, you know, tracing that, you know, the huge trade rumors and all that stuff going to the devils and Lou like basically getting what Lou wants. Man, that was seriously one of the. first big stories I remember working with you on at sporting news was the was that was the was the covochuk trade yeah yeah it was and it took a whole summer like any of us who were covering it on a day to day basis lost a summer it was like 20 it was 21st 11 I remember I remember where I

was when I was finally went down yeah at like five in the morning it was one of those all nights and like who was still on Twitter it was actually at a fun time in Twitter right where hockey Twitter was like 11 people it was like me and you and you know wishinsky or whatever shinski or whoever. And this, you know, so this is one of those moments. I'm sure everyone's had those if you're in your 40s like me or your 30s where you're like, oh, like, I'm getting old because this person who I thought was a young player is now running a team.

Endless, endless march toward that. We just did it with the sharks. Jeff said it. Jeff said it during the break. Like Mark Edward Vlasic is 34 years old. Like, what are we? What is going on? But on behalf of, you know, Thrasher's Nation, I would.

would, if we're going to adopt a second team besides the Americans, it should be the Russians. We, uh, we also, we're on a really good stretch of getting thrash references in each week. Like, I think, I think we're doing it, we're doing a pretty good job of that. But yeah, Covochuk, man, the run he went on when the devil's made the finals that year. I know we kind of talked to Travis Ajak about it a few weeks ago. Like his, his play in that stretch, just what a, what a complete, what a beast. That was that, that was him. that was him in full.

He was doing, he did so much for that team. The minutes he played, like just an unbelievable player. Also doesn't, also didn't get credit for just being a complete player, I think,

in that phase of his career. Like, people see the goals and they see, you know, the numbers that he threw up, you know, early on in Atlanta. That dude,

that dude did a lot. So, yeah, I mean, if this, this seems like, it seems like it's finally it for him. But yeah, it's,

whatever. Meanwhile, Yager had, I think, three points. the other day. If you want to feel better about yourself, and maybe we're not that old,

Yager's out there still running. I'll set it, man. No one's old until Yager's done. I think the days, I think the day is coming here. But until the Penguins retire your armor Yager's jersey, I'm still a young man. That's good.

I can confirm that. All right. So let's dive into the comments. So if you have the athletic app on your phone, you can leave comments on our specific episodes, and it's now become a fun place for us to interact. So I think you have to subscribe.

So if you go to theathletic. com slash something. What is our, what's our promo to get some subs here? John's going to look that up. That's a great question, Craig. What is the promo? If you want a promo and you want to subscribe.

Theathletic. Theathletic.com slash hockey show, 50% off if you visit there today. Yeah. So go to that. If you're not subscribed. And so that way we can get some questions in here and interact. And we had a bunch on the last episode.

And this is, these are fun because I don't always see them until we're reading them. but I'm going to skip a few. Yeah, clearly, wait a second. It was clearly, clearly true because you started reading the ones last week where people were pissed at us. I was like, wait a second. Hey.

Wait a second. We got two mad people. Get ready. It's not all chuckles and fun. Barak N says Pierre's jukebox is my new fantasy team name in reference to, was this a question last week where someone was like described Pierre LeBred's cottage? Describe the cottage. He's got a jukebox.

He doesn't have to. pay for just notoriously like I can I can see his stance right now right he's got he's he's got the wide stance like blocking out on the jukebox putting in a hundred dollars and playing only only tragically hip yeah my my favorite thing and the beauty of this is we can talk about here all we want in this section because there's no chance he's listening never never that my so my favorite thing would be pierre would put his hundred dollars in put all his like you know 80s hair band guns and roses slash Warrant

like hair metal bands seriously I remember he played Mr. Rainmaker one time at the bar yeah yeah so he'll take

that over and then you would have people you know in the later advent of jukeboxes where you could overrule

if you wanted to pay a few extra dollars then it became a battle that Pierre wouldn't lose because Pierre has more money than God

and like he took a like he took it personally offended like we'd be sitting there and it'd be like you know, Paradise City would end.

And then, you know, Johnny Cashers, I don't know, some random, like, country song would come on. And he, you know, you might as well have been like the old West and the record screeching. And, like, kind of look up and kind of tilt his head like a confused golden retriever. And then be like, furious. Where's my, where's my rat songs? Yeah, he's like, I did not put in Garth Brooks. So, so, and then he would, of course, then he would just overrule it and then try to

find the person and then we'd get in fights. Good time. So Pierre's jukebox is a fantastic name for a fantasy team. How excited do you guys get when you see that Manscape to sponsor the podcast, Sean? We lost them for a couple weeks there. It was dark times. Dark times in my apartment, my friend. It's all I have to live for is Manscape, Dad Reads.

Do you think, honest question, do you think either A, they know we do it or the they like it or dislike? Like, is there somebody at Manscaped HQ going, hey, have you guys listened to these two jokers? This jerk? This jerk? No, I have reason to believe that they're on board with the bit here, yeah. Okay.

All right. We don't know. Shane C. asks, so when can we get a two versus two winner takes all showdown between you two, Sean and I, versus Ian and Haley in a street hockey match? Never. I would say never. Like, how good, we would get our clocks cleaned, I would assume, in this scenario.

The enforcer, Haley Salvean. Yeah, I think. She's going to play 30. If we were playing, like, street football, I would like our chances. This is like, I love, like, us alluding to, like, each week we have some illusion where it's like, oh, we didn't really play hockey growing up. No, no. Yeah. Jimmy L. says, the people want a women's hockey focus day for the athletic hockey show.

I agree. I think that's a great idea. I mean, we've already said we're going to adopt the U.S. women's national team naturally. And we'll get some guests on. But I agree. That's a good call out from Jimmy. That's definitely a spot where we can get some great guests, right? Because we're dilettantes when it comes to women hockey for the most part.

There's people who can speak to it 100 times better than them. So we'll get some of them lined up. So you can get some actual meaningful. meaningful contributions on woho, not from, not from two guys who were making educated guesses. Thomas M says, please open another manscape. Please open every show with Sean's Manscaped Adread. I was rolling. That's good.

There needs to be a greatest hits at some point. I'm looking forward to that. Like, hopefully it's not when one of us dies, like Norm McDonnell. What was that ad read when he died, the grill? Oh, my God. It was the funniest thing. Like, it's as hard as I've blocked. Well, it's the same vibe as Manscaped, right?

where it's like, manly barbecue. Like, all right, all right, fellas. The green eggs for girls. We need the,

it was a grill plate or something. It was like, it was a grill plate. It was like, revolutionary. Then he was like, one of the guests was like, what makes it revolutionary?

It cooks steak and chicken. You're like, that's not revolutionary. It trims your, pubic hair Thomas Thomas M also says T-Max squared

would like to challenge Pierre on his home turf Our bar had that Shuffle League every Thursday Sadly, oh we're talking about Shuffleboard I should have read the first part of it So if you didn't listen last week

Pierre has a great shuffleboard table in its basement of his cottage Again we gave the address If you want to go find it Try it triangulate at the location of Pierre LeBron. We've dropped hints throughout the podcast. You will be able to find him.

If you had all the numbers we referenced in the cap-friendly portion of the sharks, that was all, that was a latitude and longitude. So Thomas asks, oh, T-Max Square would like to challenge Pierre on his home turf. Our bar had that shuffle league every Thursday. Sadly, oh, the bar did not survive the pandemic. Oh, rest in peace. The herkimer. Herkheimer?

The herkimer. So shout out to any bar that had a shuffleboard table and didn't survive. That's terrible. Played some bar shuffleboard when I was in when I was in Chicago a couple weeks ago. Thought of. How'd you do? Thought of all the board. I believe it was a five game series and I think we won.

I think we won. It was this bar like off the beaten path like kind of in Wrigleyville like like up up by the field. And I forget the name of this place. But no, it was it was fun. It wasn't quite on par. that place in what's it called in tampo which is like shuffleboard shuffleboard ground zero but yeah it was a good time um Thomas asked that we shout out the Thursday league at the Herc on lake street in Minneapolis so here it is so rest in peace to the Hercamer the Hercan Lake Street love the Herc huge fans

I want a t-shirt Thomas if you can just send me a link I would wear a t-shirt on the next recording especially since we're gonna I don't know if it's going to work out with with this episode necessarily but we're going to have like video clips so we need to start dressing the part we need to start dressed yeah that's true so that's we would we also take some uh if you have any suggestions on t-shirts we should be wearing that only only people that put comments in our uh thing would get you know like pierre's jukebox we will we will we will take t-shirt recommendations if you subscribe and put them in the yeah you that's the only way don't do it on twitter i don't want any free no no no no no uh bill and to wrap it up bill in all caps says who cares this isn't real

Does he mean like... CFL, baby. The Matrix? Oh. C-H-L. I had to think about that too. I thought he meant reality as we know it. Yeah.

I'm ready for the new Matrix movie. I'm all in on that. Was that a thing? Yeah. The trailer's good. I'm ready for it. Oh my gosh. Are you a blonde guy?

No. Should I be? Sort of 50. 50. I think there's been two Daniel Craig movies I've really liked and two I haven't. Maybe that's maybe I do that this week. Supposedly. All right. New ones. My Daniel Craig. Like I didn't get to really know him until Knives out and was like, oh, this guy's amazing. Oh, dude, really? Watch layer cake. Okay. It's probably, it's probably on streaming. That's like the movie that got him that got him, the bond, the bond part like fit the, you know, 20 years ago or whatever. Okay. That's good to know.

That's a good wreck. Just like your book wrecked to Jack Hughes. Um, Rob Pee, from CBC Sports and Jesse Granger and Sarah Sivian have the athletic hockey show Wednesday. Yeah, how about that? We've got a new week. Sives and Jesse and peas. Great. I'm just going to shorten names for the rest of this. We don't have time to say full last names.

True, true hockey man. Joel Erickson, or Ack is I like to call him, is Mike Russo. Is that how you say it? Yes, that is. Confirmed. I guess on this week's edition of Straight From the Source. I'm not familiar with that. And that's a wrap.

Make sure you're subscribing to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts to get all the bonus content from our entire network. You should see a lot of bonus content from me and Sean. Start with a 30-day free trial, then just 99 cents a month after that on the Athletic Audio Plus. And as Sean mentioned, you can go to theathletic.com slash hockey show to get in at 50% off at the athletic. Shout out to producer Jeff for lining up Jack Hughes.

great work by him as always Sean just remember who cares this isn't real who cares this isn't real this isn't real