The Athletic Hockey Show - Jim & Ellen Hughes celebrate Luke's 4th overall selection. Accessing winners and losers so far in the NHL Off-season.

Episode Date: July 27, 2021

Craig and Sean take an early look at winners and losers in the NHL Off-season, including the Philadelphia Flyers who have revamped their blue line and the Columbus Blue Jackets who dealt Seth Jones and drafted Kent Johnson and the Florida Panthers who acquired Sam Reinhart.On the loser list, the Seattle Kraken may have missed out on making some big bold moves to get their franchise off the ground.Jim and Ellen Hughes, the parents of Luke, Jack and Quinn join Sean and Craig to celebrate Luke Hughes being drafted 4th overall in the NHL by the New Jersey Devils. The hockey super parents discuss the work to be done by Luke to make the Devls, the excitement of Jack when he heard his brother's name called and Quinn's progression as the number one defenseman for the Vancouver Canucks. Craig and Sean also marvel at the impressive wall of fame in Jim's office with countless pictures of the Hughes family's connection to hockey.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, this is Craig of the Athletic joined one last time. I don't know how we're lumping the season together or however we're counting it, but it is the last day of school for the Tuesday edition. School's out, baby. Oh, I've joined by my best friend, as always, Sean Gentilly. And this is our final episode until we get, I don't know, like a few weeks. And then it's next season, but we don't need to talk about that. I was going to say that it was senioritis, but I don't think that applies.

No, no, because we're not seniors. We don't get to go to college or. We're going to be in school until we die. Were you saying my yearbooks? Did you have a yearbook quote? Yeah, I went, well, actually, no. I went to a shithead all boys Catholic school and we were so bad that we weren't allowed to have. We weren't allowed to have.

Your book quotes. No, because they knew we would use it for something horrible, which is true. Sounds like a great time. The class of, what was that the class of 98? What would you be? Class of nine, class of 2004. Oh my gosh. You're that much younger than me?

I don't think you realize this. I'm like, yeah, exactly. It's going to be tough for me not to call our guests, Mr. and Mrs. Hughes today. I feel like I'm talking to my peers' parents. parents. We just had this discussion with our kids because a lot of our, I'm a, I'm a purist, like Mr. and Mrs. Hughes are here kids. Say hi to Mr. Mrs. Hughes. A lot of our friends are big Mr. Jim and Ms. Helen, like do the first name. You know, Mr. Mrs. Hughes are my parents. And I'm, and I don't, and I don't want to overstep them. It's like if that's what they're

asking, but I don't like that. My kids are running around calling people, you know, Miss Nina and, you know. Yeah. I don't, I don't have kids, but I have a lot of friends who have kids. that are at the age now where it's like, you know, they're five or six and it's time to decide that sort of stuff. And I just defer to whatever, whatever, whatever they want to be called. Yeah, but I can say that I would rather, you know, fall down a well and call most of my friends' parents by their first names. Oh my gosh. I have friends, I have, you know, my best friends were my best friends when I was five. And I, in their parents, I'd rather croak than call them by their first names. Oh, I wouldn't, yes. I would.

I would never in a million years. Wouldn't cross my mind. Wouldn't even consider it. There is, my daughter's friends have, they were just raised this way. It's like, they come over and it's like, hi, Cassie, to my wife. And hello, Craig. And I'm like, I'm like, hello, kids. Welcome.

Hello. I'm not going to, hi, Cassie. Hello, little boy. Yes. It's unbelievable. So this is all to set up. We are our guests today are Ellen and Jim Hughes. Of course, the incredible parents of Jack Quinn and the recently drafted Luke Hughes set up one of the best moments.

And I would say since I've been covering a draft, because actually watching it on TV, it's not something we always do. So we don't always, you know, the reaction we get is in the stands and it tends to be the same unless it's more excited. It's they stand up and they clap and they hug and they shake hands. Jack Hughes is pure celebration and exuberant. It was amazing. It was one of my favorite moments. Yeah, I wish the rest of the draft would have gone as well as the number four picked it. Oh, my gosh.

It was highest of highs to lowest of lows by the end there. I know. So we're going to we're going to say this is, I don't know if they've officially taken the first family of hockey mantle away from whoever the Kachucks probably hold it in this moment in time. But the Hughes, I mean, three boys that that are just, you know, standout superstar franchise kids. And I'm excited to talk to them. I got to know them a little bit in Sweden a few years ago. So it's going to be fun.

So that's later in the show. Sean, we haven't prepped this, but I was telling Jeff, our producer, while we're waiting for you to join the Zoom for hours. This is like the first time I've ever, like you're usually the second one on.

This is the first time I've been five minutes late and you're throwing me out of the bus. You, S-O-B. I think, because it's our last one, and I know the offseason isn't over yet, but I think there's been enough where we can assess some winners and losers to this off season. Like, we can take a step back, even in the throes of it, and we don't know what's going to happen in free agency as we record,

but I've seen enough to make some calls. And so I wanted to spend this first segment on doing some winners and losers in terms of teams or, you know, if there's players that jump on to you that would fall to those categories. And because I sprung it on you, I'm willing to start, and I'm willing to start because I'm going to defend the Philadelphia Flyers, who I think took a lot of heat in trading for Cam Atkinson, which I was perfectly fine with. And that's not why they took heat. They took heat for the Rist of Line and trade. And it was a huge package sent to the Buffalo Sabres in that deal. And they also traded for Ryan Ellis. I would say, as a whole, as we start with winners and losers,

the Philadelphia Flyers are in my winners category. And I will concede that they gave up probably too much for Ristelainen. I will also, I would also suggest that the reaction on Twitter and from the analytics community that that trade was that lopsided, and I think you might have given it a Z or whatever

in the grades and, you know, we have fun with the grades. I gave it, I gave it a J. Yes. You gave it a J. It was a good bit. So I know you disagree here. But I, I, Chuck Fletcher has, you know, that defense needs to be fixed. You have a young goalie and Carter Heart that needs to turn around.

Clearly they, you know, they wanted to add physicality and deed. We've, we've seen the high cost of that. Like, there's a, there's a huge, huge value amongst GMs. And I think it's valid. Like, it's not to sit there and say they overvalue it. It's unnecessary when it comes to time to. playoff time because it is necessary. I think when you look at their offseason as a whole and you're saying, okay, sometimes

you make change for change sakes and I think that's what the Atkinson deal is. And I think he's good on the PK. He's a more complete player than Voracek. And I like Jacob Voracek, but I think in terms of what he brings to that team, addressing their defense, making this team a little bit tighter and more responsible in front of a young goalie, they're in my winners column. So that's, I'm going to deposit that to start. I think that's pretty reasonable to an extent.

Honestly, they went, they went two for three. Like, I don't. I don't like the Rissolining deal. Like, we have just, I mean, I feel like we have years of, years of evidence there, and they gave up a premium and, you know, whatever. Can I just say, we don't need to litigate that. The only thing I will say is people in the hockey space, like scouts and people, and they didn't hate it as much as the public did.

That's all. And I'm not, I think sometimes the. immediate Twitter reaction, and we're all guilty of this. I'm going to put myself in this. The response is the response, but also it's written in a way like it's impossible that this works out. Like, he's a terrible player. Buffalo is better for getting, and it's like, you know what, they might be better as a whole

as a team with him on their defense. And I understand why this trade was made. And people in hockey believe that at some level. No, I get that. And, you know, whatever. I gave it a J as half a joke. Tom gave it an F-minus. But, like, even when I wrote it up, is it possible that if he's used correct?

Because here's what I'll say about Rasmus Ris-Lylin, is that he always played against brutal competition and always played way too much because he was on a terrible team. So I think there's definitely a space where you can see him maybe playing on a third pair, playing against some easier competition. And then you're like, okay, fine. I mean, but if they expect him to play against, you know, top lines, we have years of evidence of it, of it not working out. And they gave up so much for him that I feel like it, I don't think you give up a first and a second rounder for a defenseman. You have to shelter and a guy that makes $5 million a year.

I just fundamentally don't believe that. So that's why, you know, I dumped on it so hard. Like so, but that being said, really like the Ellis deal. Yes, I really like the LSDL. Very much so, very much so, to the point where it was almost disappointing to see that from the flyers, like on my end, because I was like, I was like this sort of negates, you know, the big win that they'd gotten a couple of his before that. And I think Atkinson Voracek, like in a vacuum, it's kind of a nothing move, right? You feel like you're just flipping, you know, guys who are on similar contracts and their age similarly.

And, you know, they've declined similarly over the last couple years. But I think at this point in time, Kim Atkinson makes more sense for the Philadelphia Flyers than Jake Ford. Than Jake Ford Check does. So I'm certainly not willing or, you know, or inclined to just say that the Flyers, you know, offseason so far has been whatever. An F minus or a J. I don't, I don't agree with that. I just don't have them. I don't have them as a winner and I don't like the rest of the line.

So our expectations or whatever, everything is. I'm so out of whack that one of my favorite moments of this, I mean, I mean, I guess that's hyperbole. I was amused when the Gossus bear trade came out. And it was Gossus bear for two seconds or whatever. And you're like, oh, good for that. They got two seconds for Gets. Like they were able to salvage, you know, something. And then it was like, no, they had to, that was the deal to get rid of that contract. And it's like, wow. The valuation of defensemen is just all over the map. Like it's tough to track. Like you're like, you have to throw in sweeteners to dump Gossus Bear, who to be fair is not is not remotely what we thought it was going to be. And then

Rasmus Ritalin costs the first and a second. Like it's, it's wild. It's it's all over the map. The one thing I would say, like clearly there was other teams in Unrisalinen. And we know that from the report. Like there's this and we'll get to our losers in a second. Like, yes, there a premium, this is a kind of a coveted player because of his age and because of his style that's, that's, you know, teams want. So sometimes you have to pay a premium to get the deal down. I'm okay with that. The one that was confusing to me and we'll get to our losers, or maybe we could just jump

into our first loser, in my opinion, was Seth Jones because I think we all had a good sense that it was Chicago or Dallas. And so you didn't have the whole, so Yarmoukechalina did not have leverage in this case that maybe Kevin Adams didn't Buffalo. low through salina. We knew fairly early on, I mean, really with the Ellis trade that the flyers were out on him too, because they'd been connected to him for a while. So, you know, you see the Ellis deal and then you're like, okay. And then the Riss-Lyline deal happens even before the Jones one, the Jones one did.

So we're like, clearly, like, they were out. Yes. Early in the process or maybe earlier than they were out. Like, when I did the trade board, I wrote a line, the flyers were like at that point basically out on Seth Jones. And I think it was driven by Seth Jones. It was clear. I was told Florida, Chicago, Dallas, and, you know, I don't know if Florida was in a position to do this deal. I mean, the trade board, the trade board that came out a week before, right?

Yeah. Or basically a full week before. So, yeah, you know, maybe the, maybe the pool wasn't as deep as we thought it would be initially. So, so again, this is similar in, like, I don't hate Seth Jones. like everybody like this the reaction like I don't think like Dam and I have gone back and forth yes before before we get into that we'll just get my winner out of the way because oh okay sorry I didn't want to skip ahead no no no no no it doubles it it dovetails directly with I mean it's you know winners and losers of a trade or however you want to phrase it love what the

blue jackets did yes I love I love that deal for them obviously um I love what they did at the draft yeah they they they they we've said for yeas Years, years, I guess really until PLD, you know, broke out a bit last year, but what an organizational issue center was for them. Just haven't had a guy there for years. And they go and they use those two picks to just not just pick two centers, but pick two complementary centers, which are based on scouting reports again, we joke every week about how little of these guys either of us have seen to the point where we sound like. But you love Kid Johnson. Wasn't Ken Johnson on your, irrational love list, even though you'd never seen them a shift?

I watched like a highlight reel of Kent Johnson and was like, yep, love them. Great. Look at all this skill. Who cares that is skating is, you know, C plus or whatever it is. And that is still the way I feel. Like, it seems like he brings enough to the table where you're like, this guy could be a lot of fun. And then then you throw a coal cylinder in there who is, you know, again, the complimentary piece. you know,

that he's got, you know, to him and he's got skills in the space that maybe, that maybe Johnson doesn't, right? Like he's like the two-way, you know, right. You know, net, you know, net kind of gritty, you know, down and dirty guy. Love that they address that there.

Love that they got those two guys specifically. And then you throw in what they got in the Jones trade, you know, elsewhere, I'm down, I'm down with what they've done. on there, to me, they're the runaway winner of the last, you know, five days. Yeah, I thought they had a great. Didn't even mention Jake Bean.

My God. I left them out of there. Great, great set of moves by them. Yeah, they, I mean, and we'll even spare, like, how long until Ken Johnson has a trade request or whatever, because they, you know, they, I love what they did. They even survived exposing Max Domey. I don't know if they're trying, like, whatever, you know, it was like, hey, wow, they're going to lose Max Dome and they didn't.

the Jake Bean trade I thought was really smart. You're getting 23-year-old, you know, high-end pedigree there. You know, I'm sure they're sitting there saying the price of Zach Wrenski went up. You look at the Cal McCar deal and some of these other deals. And then the wildcard is, and I know Aaron Portsline wrote about this, they probably, or they may not trade a goalie, but we still haven't seen what, as we record this right now, Toronto and some of these teams that are at Carolina in on a goalie. If you sit there and go, boy, we don't love what's out there in free agency.

A guy like Mirzikins could be, you know, at 4 million if they retain, 27 years old. Like these, if Columbus decides to move a goalie, and, you know, I think that that dynamic has changed, obviously, that that's still on the table for Yarmel Kikolayin. And I thought with, again, with limited leverage, what he got in the, like, that was another one where it was trickling out, and then all of a sudden there was another first drum pick, and you're like, oh, not only do they swap places. You know, we're throwing in another first, like, I mean, great job. And, and I mean, it's, it's no fun for Columbus fans that they're going into a deep rebuild again.

But just the massive amount of players that have come back and forth, like at the very least, that team is super interesting. Like, it's not like it's been a 10-year slog rebuild. It's not like they've had superstars, now they're rebuilding. And it seems like it's fast. It's not like we've got to let five years of. contracts burn out. It's, it's, it's, everything's a breakneck speed in Columbus. Yeah, we get to ask the question, why won't anybody stay in Columbus yet again in three years? Right? Like, we get to,

we get to have that, we get to have that exact same condo a little bit earlier than we thought we would. Yeah. So, yeah, I agree. There, there are my winners. Um, they, as I look at my notes, they were definitely there. And so by, you know, by proxy, I think the Blackhawks, I, as much as I, I don't mind trading for Seth Jones. I don't, I think he's, I think he's, I think, he's, I think, He is a top pair franchise-ish defenseman. I am concerned about the underlying numbers, but I'm telling you, it's another version of the rest of line and deal where there are people like, no, this guy's a great player.

And it's just as a gigantic bet at an odd time. And my only thought would be, you know, they sat there and maybe they said, okay, how many more years of Kane and Taves do we really have? It's got to be it. And we can't be as patient as other teams. in a rebuild. So I mean, Laz, I think it's like,

either you're rebuilding or you're not. And it's like, okay, they're done. Like, they're trying to win now when you make that deal. Clearly.

And you can quibble with the bet, right? But that's obvious. Based on their actions, they think they can win over the next couple years. Yeah. Because I just thought it was a massive

overpay for a guy that's a free agent in year. Oh my. Or could have been like, you could have gotten them, if you want to wait one more year, he clearly wanted to go to Chicago. I don't agree with the bet. I don't think that they're in a position

to win anything meaningful over the next few years, but that's clearly, that's clearly the mindset that they're in, because if they're not, then the deal makes even less sense. Because the timeline doesn't line up in committing that much money to Seth Jones when he is 34 or whatever towards the end of it. I mean, it's, it's the disaster potential to me is, is pretty high there by the end of it. But like, clearly they don't care. And I'll, I'll say this about Seth Jones, too, because I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm like the midpoint, I think, between you and we'll say Dom on him, right? Where like, you know, I, last year was, should be nerve-wracking for the Blackhawks because there was a drop-off

there that has yet to be explained. And he's young enough where he can bounce back. But if that's any sort of start of a downward trend, it's a possibility that we're looking at another Oliver Ekman-Larson deal. It's, it's not, that's not out of the question. it's the same, it's a similar set of circumstances to when OEL sign that, sign that mega deal a few years ago where you're like, yeah, he wasn't, he wasn't that good last year, but the, Badiou works there and we think by the end of it and da-da-da-da-da-da, it's the same conversation. And it could, it could play out completely differently because Seth Jones, massive talent, still very young, whatever, that book has yet to be written. But there's some

similarities between him and what has become maybe the worst contract in the sport that should make Blackcox fans nervous. Yeah, someone was like, hey, they should have saved that second first round pick to get out of that contract when they have to send it somewhere. Preemptively. We're like, you can just take this. You can just take this in four years because we're going to be sick of it. All right.

So I would say my other winner as I look, and we're squeeze here because we want to get to the Hughes is the Florida Panthers. I like what they've done. And, you know, it's confusing. I, you know, already had gotten for years Sam Reinhardt and Sam Bennett mixed up. So, you know, Bill Zito and his crew was certainly not helping there. But you have a guy in Alex Ander Barcoff whose contract is up after this season. Great contract, by the way, $5.9 million.

Probably the best value in hockey this year. And you better show him some, like this guy's been sitting there toiling in Florida. And, you know, I haven't had any conversations with people down there on Barcov in a while. But when I checked in, you know, the last time it was, yeah, the expectation is he wants to stay as soon under the assumption that he can win there. And he, you know, he's not going to sit there and keep playing for a team that is perennial in, you know, hockey purgatory just outside the playoffs are barely sneaking in. And I think, I think they've addressed it. Like they said, okay, we're, you know, we're not accumulating young talent. They're throwing around draft picks to get rid of contracts.

In this case, even for as barren as that prospect system is, and it is pretty bad in Florida, that's part of the issue. I don't mind it. I think Barkov is that special with talent. You have to at least take a run at keeping him around, surrounding him with good players. And I think they've done a pretty good job of that. I think they need to add on D. Maybe that's a Ryan Souter destination. Who knows if that's going to come out when this podcast records.

I think that would be a pretty fun spot for him. If your suits, heck yeah. Yeah. I mean, you did, like, Keith Yandel can still play. Like, they've cleared some money, but, like, they also cleared, like, you know, maybe Anton Strauman's not.

You know, they lost, they lost, they need, they need some, they need some players back there. If you're not done. Wait, how about, how about this is a winner? Ryan Suter, he gets to sign another, another deal, another big deal. Yes. Potentially in Florida, home of no,

home of no state income tax. Yes. This is a big, this is a big win for Ryan Suter, and it's a big win for Ryan Suter's accountant. Yes. Way to go. Do you know Ryan Souter's accountant? Who that is?

I got him on my phone right here. I went to, I went to school with him. He's a young guy. He went to Maryland. I do think, I haven't talked to Ryan about any of this, but my sense, like, I think there was shock and anger probably at the beginning. Like, Zach Pruise, you got the sense with Zach. He was like, hey, hey, this is great.

We saw that and we saw that, right? Because Preezy's, Preezy A, his personality is much different than Ryan's Tudor. And also, like, he'd made terms with this over the last couple years, right? Like, he, he knew he was out. Probably had a, probably had a handshake deal with, with our buddy Lou coming out of it or whatever. In that story that Rousseau wrote after the buyouts, I mean, he wrote it as such where it was like, you know, Souter got the call whenever he was on the phone with Peresey from, from, from, from Billy Garen. And, like, he was not, he was not ready for that.

But whatever, he's going to, he's going to land on his feet and make a bunch more money. I like Ryan, yeah, that's a good winner's column person, Ryan Suter. Totally. Because he's going to go somewhere. Either way, if it's Dallas or if it's Florida, he's going somewhere where he's not paying taxes on the next deal. Right. And the teams pretty good. By design, I'm sure, with Ryan.

Sure. Yeah. And good teams. Also, shout out to Sam Bennett. I have like an old time hockey man love for that dude. I know that it's, you know, the numbers are kind of dodgy on him on ice. But, you know, four years, 16 mil, I love watching that dude play. So it makes, it makes a lot of sense.

Nothing like giving out a contract based on like 10 games, whatever you played in Florida. It was like, we've seen it off here. Playoff Sam Bennett. Love it. Have you ever, ever at this point, seen a guy who can play for, six months worth of games, right? And you're like, yeah, he's fine. And then he goes into, you know, S-tier God mode during the playoffs. Like the gap is so significant with him. Like, it's, and it's, it's quantifiable too. Like, across the board, he improves everywhere, everywhere. Every

number you could think of gets better when that dude is in the postseason. It's wild. The only guy I would remember, like, it's going back a bit, but in Detroit, Johann Franz and what's like that. Like, the big mule was like, it was like, it was like, it. would kind of come and go in the regular season. You're like, is he okay with Frons? It just didn't seem like he was engaged. And then it would be like, game one, four goals out of Yon Franz. And you're like, where's this guy been?

What just happened? Yeah, it turns into Mike Bossie or something. My other winners, I like the teams that got their RFA defensemen taking care of in Dallas with Hayskinin and Colorado, even more so, with Cal McCar, you know, they, a $9 million is a lot for a guy that's 23 years old. What is he? 22? 22 years old. And it's a great contract.

Like you know at some point you're going to get the better end of that, assuming, you know, you're paying for an upward trajectory, which is hard to do when you're doing a big long-term contract. So big winners. He broke the scale for Dom's, for Dom's player comp and projection stuff, right? Like you, that's, that's the guy. He got, he got the Seth Jones contract when he should have. Yeah.

That's kind of, that's kind of, that's kind of what it comes down to. What do we give, what do you think of how, of how things look for Seattle right now? I was going to put them as losers. That was going to, I think, I think they might be there. I didn't want to do it. I want to, like, I don't want to be, like, the fans are excited. They finally have players. We've been waiting years for this.

Look, they're a winner. in a macro sense, they're in a winner. They're in the winners column because they have a team and whatever. Everyone's excited about it. And, you know, the roster's got some nice pieces on and all that. But we keep hearing about weaponized cap space. We keep hearing how they're going to use that to their advantage. We have not yet seen it.

And we have seen on the other end of things, Arizona go out and do basically what we thought Seattle was going to do by basically by buying, they're doing it again. They're buying bad contracts. I thought that's what we meant when we talked about Seattle. I didn't. I disagree. I didn't think,

I thought they would get useful players that maybe teams wanted to get rid of. Like, I thought they would use their cap space to get really good players that teams were trying to move. Like, I thought they wanted to win right away. Arizona's willing clearly rebuilding. So they're taking on terrible deals that are useless.

I thought Seattle could use their cap space to get really good players. The other thing that was wild to me, and I think, like, the obvious example is, is Mark Tirodano because, you know, whatever, multiple reports that they try to get a first and a third out of Bradtree Living to not take Mark Tierra Dano. You say, okay, fine. Like, good luck, like, because that's not going to happen. It's a lot.

It's a lot. It's a lot. Was there no step down, and I know it's an old Brian Burke thing. you set your price, you stick to it, whatever. But to come out of that draft with no extra assets based on the guys that they picked is not good. Not good. So find the guy, either adjust your ask so you don't have to come down from it or strategically pick the ask that you do drop from. Add some first rounders, add some third rounders, do what you got to do.

The fact that they came out of that with essentially nothing outside of the Pitlick deal, basically the only move that the added picks on. Don't know how that happens. So they're a soft loser for me. Like, yeah, great. They got a team. Like, this isn't going to, this isn't a sink or swim thing for them. But man, man, to walk out of there with the assets that they have is, is not great.

It reminded me of the, it was like, oh, yeah, that's, that's, that was what the knock on Ron Francis was, like the overly patient. and, you know, Ron Francis deserves credit for much of what the success in Carolina, but, you know, they didn't make the jump until they got really aggressive and they traded for Dougie Hand. Like, they started making these big, bold moves. And you wonder if Ron Francis is better at laying the foundation. I don't know. Like, it's really, too. They could make 10 moves today that were like, oh, it all makes sense because they're really smart there.

And they are. So whatever. This could be obsolete in six hours or two days or whatever. it is, but the early trend for them, especially in relation to Vegas, because we saw Vegas come in, and, you know, with an assist from Dale Tallon and a couple other guys, they, whatever, hit, they hit it out on the first pitch. So maybe that's an unreasonable expectation. GMs clearly got smarter. They learned from states, like, all credit, all credit there. But it still feels like there was meat left on the bone from the draft process that they just didn't quite get to,

regardless of how you slice it. And they could make, like I said, they could come back and totally redeem themselves. And I certainly wouldn't bet against it. But as we stand right here on July 27th, six days after the expansion draft, they do not have the raft of assets that we thought they would. That's a little bit of disappointment.

I agree. All right, that exhausts my list of winner losers. Do you have any other final thoughts? Yeah, biggest loser. Montreal Canadians. We'll get to them, I think, in our two. Here's, if we don't, and we got to wrap the segment up, but I, like, to me, I was, I actually wrote down hockey as a loser because I was so disappointed that I cover and spend this much of my life in a sport where that happens. I was angry about it. Let's make a point to talk about that in two thoughts. And we're going to get to Mr. and Mrs. Hughes here.

Are you going to call that? I'm trying not to. To Jim and Ellen Hughes here in a second. All right, we're back and we are excited to be joined by Jim and Ellen Hughes, or Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, we're calling him now. I don't, Sean, whatever, I want to be respectful here. I don't want to, you know, speak out of turn. But thank you for doing this, you guys. What a stretch this has been for you.

Thanks for having us. It's been a few crazy days. We've had, I don't know, 50, 60 people. Many of our guests were from out of town. And so we had a great visit with a lot of people. And now we're back to, now we're back to reality and back to the ground. You guys were at the house on Friday. That's where the celebration took place.

I was curious. Yep, that was our house. I mean, we've, but Jimmy has a big family. And I have a tight-knit family as well. So they all came to Dallas for Quinn's draft. So it became kind of just a, you know, a tradition. and then when we knew it was going to be a Zoom home draft, they all decided to come and we pretty much had everybody staying in our house

because so you can have gone crazy at West for a couple days. And Luke, it did because right after he got drafted, you know, the next morning he was back at practice and back in the hotel. Never ends. It doesn't, it was so weird to have that showcase. I was talking to like GMs are like, I'm like, are you going to be like, well, if the guy we take is there, we're going to pop.

Like, they're talking about players. They're drafted on the, ice as this is it was really bizarre and guys scoring goals seconds after their pick done day two it was it's it's been a weird setup but i thought usa hockey did a wonderful job and you know i know the swedish federation they allowed their kids to do some independent things with special people so everyone was trying to work hand in hand to make sure it was a special moment for you know all the kids yeah um So I want to start with Jack's reaction because I thought it was the purest moment at a draft. And the comparison I thought was just because it was so like in the moment was the more excited moment. I don't know if you remember his reaction of just pure surprise of being picked. Jack's celebration for Luke. Like I hope my kids are that excited for each other when things happen to them.

As parents, what was that like to see and witness? Well, you know, we found out when everybody else finds out. So obviously, you know, we've been down this road a little bit with Quinn and even Jack's situation. So the third time through, I think Luke was prepared for many different scenarios. And when it was the devils that called his name, obviously we saw Jack's reaction. And he was thrilled and proud and really excited for his brother. And it was really organic.

It was an organic, real mom. moment. And sometimes you don't see those images as much as we would like to as sports fans. So he obviously showed his true feelings. And it was a ton of fun, you know, with everyone in the room watching his firsthand. I would agree. I mean, there's such good friends. The one thing with my three boys is they're close in age. And when you grow up with a father that's in the hockey business, you know, there's a lot of moving around. we were fortunate enough to be in Toronto for a long time, but the one constant new life is your brothers.

And I think that really showed that night that these three grew up kind of as best friends. And I didn't expect that reaction. It was just so fun to see, like, organically, how excited he was. And, you know, he was prepared if it didn't happen either to be really excited wherever it was he went. But what a bonus that he's going to get a chance to hopefully play with his brother one day.

Luke seemed pretty surprised too. He said that it was the, what, he'd never seen Jack that happy or whatever. He was shocked by it too. It wasn't just you. Well, I mean, New Jersey did an amazing job having Jack there. Jack had no idea. None of us had any of it.

And so we just, you know, had prepared them if it doesn't happen. You know, of course, it was really wanted it if it would happen. But we never really talked about if it did happen. It's professional hockey. It's the NHL. And so we prepared Luke to be ready for anything and all of it. And so the devils were very professional about it. And obviously, they do their homework and they listen to their scouts and so on and so forth.

And so, you know, it was a really great moment for our family. And I think it was done it was really done the right way. So what is after the kind of initial shock and celebration wears off, the realization now that two-year boys are on the same team, like that are going to be going through this journey together. as that settles in, what does that mean to you? Well, I'll answer it first. For me, I think it's so far away in the sense that I'm ordering dorm room furniture this morning.

You know, it's all about back to developing. He's trying to make the World Junior team. So I think it'll really hit when he actually signed his contract and starts that journey. And I'm assuming that's kind of how you feel is. Yeah, I agree totally. it's um you know he he he's got a ton of work to do we saw the growth in quin's game once he got to michigan in his two seconds and he'll openly admit that that you know his game just kept popping and so between the world junior experience then luke's going to go off to off to school

um he's really excited about it you know going to college certainly after the 18 months we've had with this pandemic. So I think he's really excited about that next phase, that next experience. And I think he understands that, you know, this, this got to be, it's a process. And he's got to put the work in and he's got to continue to drive his game and help Michigan hockey and continue to be a great kid and a great student and so on and so forth. So there's a lot, there's a lot that needs to continue to go into this or we have a New Jersey Devils type conversation, but at the end of the day, that's where it'll get to. But we kind of, we're in the moment and we go day to day. That's what we do. And the thing with Luke is what you forget,

and you look at Quinn is like, Luke's 17 years old. He's four days away from being in the next draft. And so that was Quinn, his freshman year at Michigan. So we're super excited. This is behind us and he can really enjoy his next year and, you know, know who's going to develop them and have his development team. And it's just, he's young and we're super excited for him. And I think it's going to be a fabulous journey. And I think Michigan's the right spot for him. And we're excited to watch that next phase for him. I mean, we see how much they root for each other. Is there a rivalry at all? I mean, is there like, I want to, you know, do they push each other competitively? Or is it very, is it more of a supportive relationship? Well, as we've been discussing,

for three plus years, four years now. It doesn't matter if they're playing chess, whether they're playing ping pong, or they're playing basketball in the driveway. There always seems to be a competitiveness, but it's a good competitiveness. It's a healthy competitiveness. They compete against each other,

regardless of what activity it is. But at the end of the day, they are certainly rooting for each other, more so than anyone else. And so they communicate, on a daily basis regardless of what cities they're in. And I think they support each other in a way that's obviously really important for any siblings.

And I think they do a really good job at it. People in Vancouver were kind of freaked out about Quinn joining them. I think there was some throwaway comment of, hey, get them all together. And now an entire city panicked, which I enjoyed is. Quinn's in a great spot and great people. And we're excited about some of the moves that Vancouver has made in terms of our group. And, you know, we had so much fun watching Queen in Vancouver that during the bubble year. And so it's, we like to believe that all of our boys were in good spots with Jim Benning and Travis Green and Lindy and Tom Fitzgerald.

And then obviously, Mel Pearson and his staff. So we're really happy with the situations. all three. All right. You're not going to bite on trying to get Quinn out of there. That's fine. You got to do the right thing there. That's fine.

We were chatting before we hit record, but you guys have the best backdrop. I mean, this is obviously a podcast, so people can't see it. But there's a spread of photos. That's amazing. And, Jim, you mentioned the one with Danny Snyder, who I was covering the thrashers. That's how I got into the business. So I saw his impact on that. that organization, the kind of kitty was, and you said that was your favorite photo.

Why is that your favorite photo behind you? Well, I mean, we have it. It's a history of hockey up there. Yeah. With different things that have happened to either Ellen or myself or the boys, it's a collection of pictures. Obviously, that particular picture with Dan was special. He wasn't with us much longer after. It was the night we wanted to turn a cup for the IHL in Orlando.

And Dan was the one that actually skated across the icing hand and beat the trophy. So he was a wonderful kid. And we think about him often. And so he's right up here on the back wall. And, you know, we have Gordy Howe is right here with Jack as an eight or nine year old. Ellen's over here and the wall over here with when she was in TV broadcasting

probably the ESPN and it's with Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Oar so I mean we've got some decent players up there no big no big deal Quinn Hughes in a Detroit Red Wing jersey as a baby like he's probably

four months maybe four months and Samuel L. Jackson is holding him from that hold on of course yeah hold on a second

when we were doing a vignette was Samuel Jackson when he used to host and the producer back then Moore man who was one of my closest friends

who we also lost in the last two years she was a avid Detroit Red Wing fan so she put Luke Quinn in a Red Wings jersey

that's a pretty well anyway it's just sort of the history of our journey and those will be some of the pictures

that are up there so anyway, it's been terrific. We're starting to collect you know, some of the Spanatics has done a wonderful job

with some of the jerseys. And so, listen, it's all good and I like to believe that we're humble with all this

and we remain grounded. I think our kids do too. And, you know, we just try to remain to be good people and just keep moving along like everyone else. So do you guys have extra space on the wall, or are you going to have to swap out photos? Well, whenever. When everyone gets down, whenever you hang up.

This is one room that I have no saying. This is office and I have my own little office. But it is getting off. full and all I can say is I've never seen pictures along the bottom of someone's room so we have a big basement and there's like nothing in the basement so I'm really encouraging him to put some things in the basement

I'm going to be my own you know decorator I'm going to we'll see how it plays one of our closest friends and the boys closest friends is an interior decorator system when she walks through here she does one of these you know she doesn't look at this one but it's

I mean, it's like a Hall of Fame exhibit. Like, we don't have to, like, we don't have to be too critical of the layout. I think the photos are unbelievable. I think we can give a, we can give some, give a pass. I mean, it's amazing. No, we can take down this photo of Ellen with Bobby O'R and Wayne Gratzkin. It's just like, it clutters, it clutters the wall. Let's get rid of it.

Ellen, with, I'm curious because you are connected in that space, with ESPN getting the TV deal back and you know that that that company well like how do you how do you see that impact and them you know that this was their first draft and you saw it in action up close well I was I was so excited for them to get a bit interestingly enough you know you kind of lose your I've lost my um you lose touch with people and so I've been you know I don't even know who's still there and working there but I do know what the companies stands for and I know they'll do a phenomenal job, you know, but so did NBC. So we're just happy to see as much viewership as hockey can get across the country. And I think it'll be really fun just to see something new and different and make sure a little bit of a normal job because they've done it before. Same with Turner as well. They'll do a phenomenal job. You know, you say they've never covered hockey before, but I work the Olympics in Nagano and, you know, they've covered Olympic hockey And they do a phenomenal job with basketball.

And it's just exciting for hockey in the United States. And it's amazing to see where the game is grown. And I grew up in Dallas, Texas. So, I mean, it's just super neat to think about where the men's game is gone and where the women's game has gone in the last 30 years. Definitely. So we were debating. Are you guys now the first family of American hockey or the Kachucks?

Who do we, who do we crown that to? Well. the answer is no actually we have Keith coming over tomorrow night for dinner at our home and you know

you guys are going to fight it out tomorrow there's so many you know there's so many pioneers there's so many wonderful hockey families in the 60s 70s 80s 80s and so on and so forth there's

so many instrumental people in American hockey and help build the sport to where it is today. So, you know, people, people may make that suggestion, but we don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. If anything, you just mentioned the Chuck family with Keith having the career that he had. And then obviously Matthew and Brady doing what they're doing. So you can go all across the board and pull out the Broughtons and different. Grenados, Granados will be in the conversation. Very close.

Donnie and Tony and Tony and Cammy and so on and so forth. So, I mean, there's a lot of people and we're just a small piece to it. Yeah. Well, thanks for doing this, you guys. And I'm so happy for you. And congratulations. I know it's you're focused on, you know, dorm furniture and all that. But I hope you're able to enjoy.

And what an accomplishment this is for your family. And I'm thrilled for you guys. Wonderful. Thanks so much. So thanks for everything you guys do to borrow the game. Oh, we do whatever we can. We try a little tiny slice. We'll see you this afternoon.

I'll see you this afternoon. We'll see you another kid. Two hours. Okay. All right. Thanks. We'll see it. They're great.

You know, obviously, we are fans of the Hughes family. You can see why the kids are so grounded and, you know, like, they're so focused. And you can just see with Jim, like, you know, we're focused on getting hit in the ice this afternoon, not worried about the big picture. awesome. That's exactly that I was going to say. Before the interview, you know, before we started recording, you know, he's playing traffic cop. Like one of the kids isn't feeling great. They have to figure out what they're going to do for this event that Craig's about to go to. Like, all this stuff is just just wild to see.

Awesome. All right. Let's take a quick break. And then we're going to wrap up for the summer. One last segment. Get excited. You're going to close it. Close on a down note. Let's go. Well, we're four days out from the first round of the NHL draft. Closed on what I would say is probably one of the most repulsive 10 minutes that you could imagine. Yeah. Between the Montreal Canadiens selecting Logan Mayhew and then Stan Bowman coming out, you know, with a phalanx of women employees of the Chicago Blackhawks in the wake of the sexual assault investigation.

that's this ongoing there and in that entire situation. I think we'd be remiss if we didn't mention it, even though people much smarter and more articulate than us have done a great job with that over the last three or four days. But, man, what a downbeat way to close out what had been a pretty great night

and what a pall to cast over the rest of the weekend and really what a it was a I think it I think watching that happened put a lot of questions into a lot of people over what exactly it is we're doing here and the kind of the kind of sport that we're covering I think there were some existential kind of questions

that were raised on Friday night and it was it was pretty sad to see it and like my I mean we were actually on Slack together as it happened in the react we were like just stunned and waking up the pure shock Shock. From 20 or 25 people. It was an explosion in the draft in the draft room. And like, Montra, everybody had an out here.

So it's one thing if this hadn't come up or this kid hadn't excused himself in the draft or whatever. You know, like there was a free pass to do the right thing. If you're the NHL and the teams and any team. And this notion that someone was going to take him or there was a round where it was okay to take him, is ridiculous. It was... That's almost the idea of teams figuring out whether they wanted to take them in the first or the second or the fourth or the idea of teams sitting around and doing that kind of

calculus when they had the cheat sheet directly in front of them, the roadmap was laid out, they knew the right thing, they got the out, as gross as it was seeing the Canadians take them in the, in the, with their first round pick. I mean, that stands apart. But the idea of other teams trying to figure out like, okay, when can we actually get away with this? Can we do it in the second? Can we do it in the fourth? That's almost as bad to me.

Yeah. Like that the idea that those conversations took place is sickening. Yeah. No, it was. And it didn't, like, we spend a lot of time in the sport. And that's like, that was my feeling the next day. Like, we're back at it. We're second round.

And it really did take the win out of it. Like all the fun we were having. What are we doing? What are we doing? Why am I so invested in a sport that can't do like make decent decisions on a consistent basis? Like not even good decisions. And this is, and this is me and you saying that who were two white men who have had fantastic opportunities kind of laid at our feet by by covering this game. Right? Like we're, we're in. Like we don't have like we don't have to worry about it all that much. If you're a woman or a survivor or a survivor or, or, or, we're in. We're in. We're in. Like, we don't have to worry about it all that much. If you're a woman. Or, or. whatever, who doesn't cover this game professionally and get paid well to do it, imagine, imagine watching that. And both of those, both of those, you know, kabuki theater bullshit moves that we watched on Friday night, whether it was Montreal, whether was Chicago. It was appalling.

Apolling. So, yeah, you know, we can sit here and complain all we want and I was shocked and I was upset and whatever. But at the end of the day, like, I'm in an outer ring of the people that are affected or should be affected by this. It was, yeah, it was, it was upsetting, not just, not just to, not just to witness it, but to think about the message that it's sent to other, to other people watching. Well, I mean, there's no good way to transition here to wrap up Sean. No, there's not.

And now, now I'm not like mad again. There's not, but I guess you're. Have a great summer. I, right. This is, I mean, whatever, we're going to have, we have a couple months off. Who has a couple months off? We don't. How many, or a month off, a month, a month off from the podcast?

I seriously don't even know. We're not doing it. We're not doing it through August. You know, everybody has reflection points. Everybody has inflection points. That's what the off season is for. These teams at some point, coming out of free agency or whatever, they're going to have, they should have time to sit around.

and think about what they've done. And if that doesn't happen, you know, that's a lot to ask. There should be actual repercussions. And I hope, hope that they happen for both these franchises. I hope both of them pay. And, you know, maybe whenever we come back at the end of August, we can sit and do our silly little show again and, you know, whatever, start fake wars with Corey Pran. Fake.

Whatever. Start real world. start real wars with Corey Prom, excuse me. We can also say like, you know, we've started to take the route in terms of recompense and, you know, really payback for what these organizations have done. Well, here's how on this. First, like this show began this Tuesday edition, these Americans edition, began almost as a lark. I don't even want to say a lark.

It was people made comments. in the reviews to Canadian-centric. Like, let's roll out Sean and Craig and give some American perspective. Yeah. And I just want to thank the listeners who, like, it became like a surprise. Whatever the summer surprise hit shows, like, what was that one year with the show where people were like bouncing off balls and going on like, what's that show? Oh, wipeout?

Yeah, wipe out. It became the surprise, dumb hit of the summer one year because nothing else was on. It was the miniature golf show that Steph Curry runs. That's right. We became the surprise. Like nobody expected like, hey, it was supposed to start through the playoffs. It was like, we guys do something to get us in the playoffs? And let's focus on some of the U.S. teams, which I'm happy to do.

People seem to enjoy it. Then it was like, hey, can you get through? And now it's like, we guys run it back for the season once we come back from a couple weeks off. And that's because everybody seems to be enjoying it. And so I wanted to take a minute to, with sincerity, thank everybody listening to this that have, you know, that have put up with Sean and I, you know, Adrees and I mean, and whatever, like, ridiculous things that are going through. And so that's, I want to end that way. A sincere thank you to everybody listening. And the last thing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you the fans. And also thank you specifically to Don Granado, who I think set the tone for what this, for what this podcast was going to be. Yeah. I think, I think, I think we feel. figured out, you know, how we were going to talk to people based on, based on that. Because God knows you and I know how to talk to, talk to each other. We can talk to each other. But when

somebody jumps on who knows Sean, doesn't know Sean from Adam and starts just running down his drawers and socks hanging out. I told you. I said it. I moved. You literally moved because of Don Grado. Don Grotto burned me so badly. I had to switch apartments. Yeah. That's, that's, that's, that was the moment. That was the moment. All right. To wrap up. I do want to acknowledge, we always like to jump into the comments section on the athletic app because it's become, again, there's like, it's not easy to find. I will say that. It's like 40 clicks in the app. And still people find it.

And I like to interact with people. And that's where we've got a running list of banned phrases. And if you listen to the show, you know by now, Galaxy Brain and a few of the others. I forgot what the original one was now. Somewhere I've got the master list. we banned it's it was suggested we banned it's wild someone just suggests we go

we change it's wild to that's bananas I don't know I'm I'm guilty on that's wild in a big in a big big way that's tough I don't think I said it today you didn't say that's why I think

we got to be able to say something a request from Chris Jay to have Aaron Portsline on and I will say Aaron Portsline it was nearly on this show this specific episode and then the U's were willing to join us in the poor Aaron. You know, it's like the old talk show circuit when he was the third one in and the first one went long.

Yeah, this is Johnny Carson. This is, this is Jimmy Kimmel saying all apologies and Matt Damon. We've run out of time. But we will definitely, Chris Jay, we will definitely get Portie on. Alex R pointed out the crowds at Yellowstone. If you go, if you haven't listened to the Stephen John's interview, you don't have to go listen that whole podcast. That was last week's Tuesday episode, but... He pops up early, by the way, so you don't even have to search all that much.

He comes in in the fifth or six minute. Completely worth your time. It was great. Yeah, go listen to that, especially if you're planning your summer still. He gives some really good advice on traveling the United States. William T, this is going to be a tough one, Sean. He suggests, and we have to ban it because if it's in here, we have to ban it. We have to get rid of the phrase, flat cap era. which people love to use. I think we can do that. I think we can do that.

In this flat cap era that we're living in, in these uncertain times. In these uncertain times. With an abundance of caution. And the last suggestion comes from Yardina S, who says, we have to have Kuturov on the pod, which I, only if we're all like just pounding bud lights. That would be my only ask. I can do it.

I would, I would absolutely, that would be a good summer one if we could just do it. Like, we're on summer vacation. We're going to pop in and we're going to have some bud lights and we're going to talk to Cooch. I had a sixer of Bud Light pounders that appeared in my fridge a couple, a couple weeks ago. As if by magic, it was like, it was like someone, someone channeled the spirit of Nikita Couturav and distilled it into my fridge. I enjoyed them. Did you? Are you trying to get a Bud Light sponsorship out of this?

I think you should get to it. I've scammed. I've scammed my way and other free stuff on this. podcast so far, so why not? All right, that's a wrap. Thanks for listening. A plug for all the other days of the week. They're all fantastic. Every podcast on the Athletic Network is great. Listen to them all. And we're done for a few weeks here, but that doesn't mean that the show itself is done this week, right? Who knows for sure? We have Ian and Haley tomorrow, which is Wednesday. They're going live at 3 p.m. To cover the start of free agency. I actually, I really like what they did with the pre-expansion

draft show, lots of good guests, lots of good chatter. So that's, that's worth it on Wednesday afternoon. Yeah. And we got another episode of Scotty and Pierre on the two-man advantage. They'll be post-free agency there. So there's still stuff to listen to this week. And then we're going to go dark and come back. Come back stronger and better than ever, correct?

Will we? Stronger, smarter, better looking. I'd have a haircut by that point. I hope. Thanks, Sean. Thanks, everyone. You're not the only one with her. Ha ha ha