The Athletic Hockey Show - Johnny Gaudreau turns the page to a new chapter, Kadri and Klingberg await new deals and the winners of the first annual Tuesday boyzzz America Hockey Awards

Episode Date: July 19, 2022

On the season finale of the Athletic Hockey Show USA: The Tuesday boyzzz, Craig Custance and Sean Gentille welcome Columbus Blue Jackets forward Johnny Gaudreau. The most sought after NHL free agent of the summer discusses the reason he chose to sign with Columbus, how excited he is to play with Patrik Laine, his look forward to the arrival of his baby this fall with wife Meredith, and Gaudreau finally sets the record straight, is it John, or Johnny?Custance and Gentille also present the nominees and winners in the inaugural American Hockey awards in a can't miss third segment, plus the guys discuss Saad Yousef's interview with Dallas Stars owner Tom Gaglardi and we wonder what is taking so long for Nazem Kadri, and John Klingberg to sign free agent deals?Have an awesome summer, from the Tuesday boyzzz!! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey there, dear listener. Welcome to the last day of school. Sean, it's got a vibe to it today, doesn't it, a little bit? Our last episode? Who's the teacher here? Is it Jeff? Oh, my God. Jeff is the teacher.

Jeff may be the principal. I'll tell you, it's not. It's not me. I'm not the teacher. You could be like the cool new teacher that comes in halfway through the season. What's up? Teach? Sit down. You let the kids call you by your first name?

Yeah. Sean Gentilly, in case anyone's wondering. frankly the other voices. I'm Craig Custin. This is a Tuesday athletic hockey show. But you guys can call me Mr. G. And I just grab, and I just grabbed the chair

and sat on it backwards in front of the chalkboard. Oh, look how cool he is. We have, this is it. Like, this is, for us, we're all in a good mood because we're, this is our last episode before taking a bit of a summer hiatus. We're not doing the whole inside or cottage thing. We're still working.

We're not just disappearing. like Pierre LeBron to his cottage. 1-1-2-2-Pogie-Wogie Avenue. Or Bob McKenzie, who now he just surfaces like two days a year and then slips back into Margaritaville. He's got the best job in the world. Bob's output is not distinguishable from what it was when he was technically not retired. I don't see any difference here.

No. But this is our final episode of this season. And it's a good, it's not even just a good, it's a great episode. We have Johnny Goodro as our guest. You may have heard him in the news lately. If that name sounds familiar. John Hockey, as we like to call him in the athletic podcast, whatever this is called. I think that's the single most important question that we got answered during our 20 minutes or 15 minutes with, with Miss.

Mr. Goodrow. We settled the, we settled the mystery about his name because it was an outstanding question. It was. I've heard people like, people are like, yeah, it's something, John. I'm like, John, are we talking about the, it sounded so out of place and like, no, that's what people call him and his family. And I'm like, are we doing this wrong? I don't want to spoil the answer, but I think there's, there is a distinction. It's a little, it is a little complicated, but here Johnny break it down. Makes sense. So Sean has to call him Johnny. Producer Jeff calls him John, And we'll explain that after the interview. He was so good.

Thank you to Johnny Gujaro for in the, you know, he could have just been like, I'm done with all of this in the aftermath and it's just been chaos. But he didn't. And he decided to join the show and he was great. So that's segment two. Segment three, we're doing the American Hockey Awards. As submitted by you, the dear listener in the comment section of the app, For the last several weeks, you have all been proposing American-specific hockey awards.

They're great. And I'm going to tell you one thing. We've put a lot of thought into who gets these. We've made little statues. We're going to hand them out. The process has gone on for weeks. It's definitely not something we're going to make up as we speak in the third segment. That would be crazy if we did that.

Can we just have Jeff read them to us and then we react in real time? I think that needs to be in. Maybe what we have happening there. Okay. That's segment three. But first, there's, there's a little bit, we're still mid to late July, you could even say. And second biggest name is still out there.

One of the best defensemen, and that's Nazim Kodry in free agency. John Klingberg's out there. Saad Yusuf had a great conversation with Tom Galardi. I want to get into in a sec. But let's start with cadre, Sean. clearly we can assume a lot of things Johnny Gujarro

and you'll hear this in a second he was just like let's get this done like literally literally said literally it was like yeah I don't this isn't going to linger that is not the case

with Nazim Khadry it feels to me like this is somebody waiting for somebody to make space for him right that's got to be what's happening yeah I mean I think it's one of those things where the longer this lasts the likelier it seemed that he's going to end up back with Colorado.

Is that mainly speculation? Like, yeah, sure. But if he was going to sign with one of the teams that actually has cap space, which is the fundamental issue here, and that's something that Johnny, you know, flat out said, that there just wasn't, you know, maybe wasn't the amount of money that anybody was expecting, you know, in the market because the flat cap. But, man, you look at the abs.

and it's it they're close they have they have four million they have four million in space and is that obviously that's not enough to sign to sign him but like that seems doable that seems like if they want if they want to move somebody out

Sam Gerard or whatever it's gonna say it seems it's not like we have to like completely reshuffle things where you're you're moving the pieces around the board of thought you know a million times and trying to figure out where it lands you can just go,

Hey, Sam Gerard, he's, you know, if the avalanche have four million available now, he makes five. Yeah. Top three agents are going for around nine. Hmm. Hmm. How about that?

Now, I don't, but I don't know. He's not, I think what's clear, though, is, is, you got to account for how much work the abs already did in UFA.

So they, of course, Gerard's a big, big time movable piece, right? because he makes five a year. But all those other guys are guys they either

brought in or extended in the last little bit. Because you have Josh Manson. They wouldn't have brought back Josh Manson if they were about to flip them. Like he makes four and a half. You got, you know, Cogneino and Helm and the,

in the depth pieces who have resigned. I mean, like, those are all guys who they just brought back. So there aren't a ton of of truly tradable pieces. Like Artury Lekinen, they just extended him. The Chushkin just resigned him. Yeah.

So there's a lot of money locked in on pieces that they've either just added or or just retained. Right. So the very, exactly. You're not signing these people to immediately move them. Yeah, right. Yeah. Okay.

Thanks for, you know, and actually Arturie Lachman, we're going to flip you now. Thanks for everything. Josh Manson, you know, salute. no, Gerard's the movable piece and whether they have the appetite for it or not, I guess we'll see. But that's it. Like, that's the guy who,

if they want to create meaningful space to a signed cadre, who still would have to take a discount to stay in Denver and then fill out the rest of the roster in one way or another, even if it's just with $900,000 players, like that's the guy who has to go out. So I don't know. We'll see because all the obvious spots for cadre, you know, they are no longer.

Like he's been linked with the flames for however long. Well, if he was going to sign with the flames, you got to figure they'd have done it already, A, and the flames are now locked into what seems like the end game with Matthew Kachuk. And whether or not he, whether or not he ends up there long term or whatever, because last night, obviously,

the abs elected for, you know, they called for team elected arbitration, which, you know, stops Kachuk from being able to sign his $9 million QO. Right. It at least extends the window where they can negotiate a long-term deal with him if they so choose or trade his now arbitration rights to whoever it might be without getting locked into the offer sheet possibility,

which is probably four draft picks and whatever else. I don't think that's something that Flames aren't particularly interested in. If they move Matthew Kachuk, it would be there would be some kind of roster play. a young player coming back on and on. And we'll talk about that more than a second. But that's a ton of uncertainty for the Calgary Flames, right? Like they have bigger fish to fry at this point than figuring out whether Nassam

Kodry is going to accept whatever, whatever offers they may or may not have floated towards it. So. Cadre already turned down a trade to Calgary. Like if he wanted to go to Calgary, wouldn't he already? That was a long time ago. It was a long time ago. You know, that was, I think his focus at that point was staying in, was staying in Toronto. So I don't know.

Maybe I'm people, people, like, obviously people change. We've seen Godre change over the last five years or, or haven't changed. I'm the same. I'm the exact same. And the interesting thing is all this may be related. So if John Klingberg's sitting out there, but Sam Gerard's available at a pretty, you know, locked in five million and you're looking to add D, you might be saying, well, let me see what happens with Sam Gerard before I see what happened, you know, before I commit to John

Klingberg or before I add cadre maybe I want to see what happens with Matthew Kachuk and all you know what I mean like so you have these pieces that are unrelated but kind of related because these because you have there's always an order of operations to that to this thing where you know whether it's the bit the bigger ones tend to go first and I think Klingberg is kind of an interesting case study in that right because people were like all right you know he's he's not moving for reason X and it's like well we got to see what happens with Jeff Petrie because Jeff Petrie is also a right shot three who's probably had a better, even though he's older, he's a better player at this point in his career. So we got to see what happens with him.

And if you are that sort of, you know, not like a truly elite player that's going to be a priority for anybody who's involved, like Johnny Goddrow, there's always a possibility that you get leapfrogged, right? If you're John Klingberg, you get leapfogged by Jeff, by Jeff Petrie. And then maybe you get jumped by the possibility, like you said, that Gerrard's on the market. And I think that's what, I think that's what we're seeing here. But at least with Klingberg, but Kodry's interesting because, you know, he's still the piece. Like he's, there's not, there's not an impact center. There wasn't, it, it, on July 13th, and there certainly isn't now.

So it is, it's fascinating to see. And what's weird, too, is like over the last, and we're recording this at 10.30 on, on Tuesday. So I'm sure he'll sign by the time, you know, we hang up here. But there's been like kind of, there's, there's, in terms of reports and the people you would expect to be reporting on this stuff, it's been radio silence. It's been wild. Yeah, because everybody's at their cottage.

Does everybody in Canada get a cottage? What is this? Oh, yeah, yeah. It's a birth rate. You get health care. In a cottage. It's actually a pretty good deal, you know, all things considered. The, you know, I've read Seattle is an interesting option here with some cap space.

But if you're a cottage, you're just coming off. You got a taste of what it means to win Stanley Cup. You're winning. Everything's great. Do you want to go and then be like the person that ushers in, you know, the great young centers coming in Seattle? Like,

clear, like, again, I feel like the same thing, what you said about Calgary. If you want to do that, he'd probably be there already. Same for Klingberg, right?

I mean, in the, in the names that you see tossed around, Klingberg, it's, it's Seattle, it's, it's,

it's the, it's the places, it's the, It's the places you'd expect. And for all that Ottawa was done, for as amazing as an offseason as they've had, like I can still understand some hesitancy to sign there. Because, you know, if you're John Klingberg, you're like, I'm the best right defenseman on the market.

Like, is there not, can I not sign with a right now contender? Like, do I have to sign with the up and coming team? Like, I don't blame him for that. Before we get to Johnny Gujarro, I wanted to Tom Golardi talked to the side of us. I think it was in Montreal at the draft. And a few highlights. Essentially, if I were to boil it down, and I would encourage anyone to go read it.

Because I love getting, not that owners ever say anything interesting, but at the very least, you're getting an owner on the record, their thoughts on what's going on. It seemed like he was focused on the lack of offense. Understandable. We have far too many players who are underperforming offensively. And there was some sections talking about Tyler Say Again, and Jamie Ben and conversations ownership has had with Jamie Ben about, I don't know, working harder the summer.

Like, I don't, like, you can call these guys out or, but I hope their solution in Dallas isn't like to try to squeeze more out there. Like, if that's what the plan is, that's going to be trouble. They definitely didn't have enough offense, but I don't think that was for lack of effort. Yeah, I don't think Jamie Ben wasn't like trying hard. Tyler, Tyler Sagan's not trying hard enough. Those guys are, I, sorry Tom Giff. but those guys are old and they make a lot of money and that limits that limits your your options there I liked I think I was like low-key one of my favorite deals on on the 13th was I'm signing

Mason Marchman and you know is it a lot of money for a guy who's 27 and and has really only had one full one full NHL season like yeah sure but he was great last year like he was almost a point per game I mean he played 51 games he's almost a point per game player And I think if you're Dallas, you need to try to take a little bit of a swing on a guy like that because clearly the mix you have it forward just isn't working out. The other thing I like about that too is that Carolina obviously was way, way in on marchment. And if Caroline is in on a guy like that, like a middle six, you know, forward, I'm immediately like, hmm, okay.

Like maybe try to swoop and steal these guys because we, We all know that our buddy, our buddy Eric, friend of the show, Eric Tulski is in his department are good at finding guys like that. So I think Dallas did well to add where they could, but that's still a team that just doesn't have enough. And it sounds like he's putting it on Pete DeBore, like one of the quotes is it's up to Pete to board to fix the offense without losing our defensive mentality, essentially. Good luck.

It's a lot. A lot to ask of Pete. The other thing is he says Jim Nill will get extended. I think ultimately that team has constantly been competing for playoffs under the Jim Nill. I think Jimson hasn't been perfect. Those contracts are suspect, but I understand why. Those contracts are suspect, but they're also the sort of thing that you sign when out of necessity you have to try to be really good every year. I mean, not really good, but, you know, a playoff caliber team because that is the reality.

In Dallas, you can't, you're not doing a Chicago Blackhawks. You just can't. You can't punt on three seasons. That's just the way it is. They don't have the luxury of rebuilding, which is what the Chicago Blackhawks have and some Canadian teams have and whatever else.

Detroit, they can suck for a few years. Dallas cannot. So I think that's a lot to ask of a GM where you're like, yeah, we need to be competitive every year. And it leads the stuff like, yeah, you're, I mean, what's the alternative? Even when they sign those deals, right? Ben and Sagan, A, they had no idea that those guys

were going to get banged up the way that they did. And B, like, what's the alternative? you let him walk and then try to replace him with other win-now players that help you turn into a playoff team. Like that's not, that's not an option either. So Nill's jobs, Nils job's tough. I think it makes sense that he's, you know, in line for a new deal. And they've drafted really, like they've got young players coming for a team that, you know, didn't bottom up. They got some lottery assistance on Haskinen, but otherwise, like they, you know, the Robertsons and the Ottingers, like those are really smart pick that have extended life there a little bit.

And it's just unfortunate because the amount of money that they have tied up in Ben and Sagan, who for as great a players as they've been for as long as it's been, I mean, you got $19 million locked up in those guys or whatever it is. That's tough. That's tough. I don't know. I don't know how you build out the rest of a roster whenever you have to account for the Hayskinin, the Hayskinin extension and whatever ends up happening with Robertson, who's, you know, RFA still.

Like they need to figure out his his long-term deal, right? That didn't, that hasn't happened yet. Let's get to Johnny Gujo. Unless your thoughts on Eddie O leaving Chicago, just a bizarre turn of events yesterday. I don't know. Do you? I don't know. What do you think about it?

You know what I thought was interesting is how like Scott Powers and Las who are like in John Greenberg weighed in. You know, I think we forget how much of a, maybe out, if we're not in Chicago, we don't appreciate what he, Edeo means to that franchise. These people that are off in the face of, you know, the connection with fans and people love them. And it just maybe it was callousness or they just didn't value it or whatever happened there. And all of a sudden, this guy's out. Just another weird thing.

Just I don't know. I don't have thoughts on it other than to say it's just a weird, another weird development out of the Blackhawks. Yeah, they're a totally normal organization that doesn't do weird stuff ever. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe someone told them that. you know, that old chick's salary counted against the cap or something and they just continued

slashing and burning or something. I don't know. I think Sarah Sivian had the tweet of the day on that, something like they're trying to win the color commentator. They're tanking to win the color commentator draft. See, that is, that is, that is a way better joke. Okay. I was, I was, I was fumbling. I was fumbling at that. Good for Eddie. He goes his brother works there and his kids work there and all this stuff. Like, of course he wanted to go. No, that's fine. I mean, I know.

And it's weird because he's a Chicago guy and that always counts for something, especially, especially in a city like that. But I don't know. I'll go, I'll go work in Seattle for a couple years, work with, work with my sons, work with my brother, work with John Forsland and, you know, J.T. Brown and Allison Lucan and all that, like, they have a really good, they have a really good. It's a great. It's a great group.

They have really good group there. All right. Let's get to Johnny Good Joe. We'll be right back. come back. He was great. John. John. Not, you can't call him that. Nor can I. We'll find out why after this break. We are now thrilled to be joined by the biggest name in the free agent pool, the newest member of the Columbus Blue Jackets,

proud American. We love to get the Americans on the show. Johnny Gujarro. Johnny, how are you holding up? Holy cow. My goodness. What a few days. Good, I'm good. It's been a crazy couple days. A lot of text messages, a lot of calls, you know, a little overwhelmed, but I'm excited. I'm super excited. It's been a world win kind of a couple days here. Are you in Columbus right now? I'm back in South Jersey. I'm going to have my house down in Avalon, New Jersey down here. Oh, great. So I remember, I was trying to think of a comparable. I mean, there's, you know, in terms of the process and in, what you went through. And I remember Brad Richards going through, he probably can relate, or you can relate to what he went through. Remember when he was a free agent. And he said,

as soon it was done, he did like his media hit. And he goes, I'm throwing my phone in the lake. I can't wait to throw my phone in the lake. So first of all, thank you for not throwing your phone in the lake because we were able to do this a few days later. But have you had that moment where you're like, I am done and I will see you all later for a while. For sure. I mean, I was getting calls from random Columbus numbers. I don't know who they have. are. I don't know if it's my GM, my coach, one of my new teammates. Someone, I've no idea. So I'm like the next four or five days. I finally went to Columbus and everyone's like, well, I gave you a call and I gave you a call. I'm like, yeah, I got a lot of calls and I got

back to everyone here and text messages and this and that. So yeah, I was, I was close to probably throw my phone in the water too. That's great. Any, like, what was the most fun person you got to communicate with after any like calls that stand out or text exchange? as it's over the last couple days? Yeah, I mean, to be honest, it was a lot of everyone, you know, old friends, you know, obviously new teammates is pretty cool, new coaches, parents. I mean, everyone was reaching out. And not only was, you know, people from Columbus, but, you know, people that I care about from home and,

you know, just really excited for me. Have you gotten a better sense of, I mean, look, you played in, you played, He played in the West for a long time, didn't cross pass with the Blue Jackets, especially over the last couple years with the way the schedule's shaking out. But, you know, as you've had time to sit there and digest it and probably crack into the roster a little bit more, you know, than you had in the past, who are those guys who have reached out that you've talked to that you're excited, that you're excited to be playing with?

I know Cole Cillinger is there and Jack Roslovick is there. They have some nice young pieces, but have you gotten, like, more, you know, more familiar with them and their work over the last little bit? Yeah, I mean, I talked to probably like 7, 8, 9 guys on the team already, just reaching out and, you know, telling me how excited they are that I'm a part of the team now and, you know, vice versa. I'm super excited as well. So, but like you said, I mean, this is all still really, really fresh.

You know, I just signed it, I guess, like three, four days ago. So obviously, you know, you looked at the roster. and try to picture yourself where you're going to play and you're going to play with. Obviously, that's the coach's, you know, that's the coach's rule and whatever he wants to do is is his say. But, you know, they've got some good players on their team and I'm really looking forward to, you know, hop right in with them. It's fun because I did, I saw one of your comments about playing with Patrick Linae and just that shot that he has and how, you know, you are such a great passer and we've seen that for years.

And it's almost like, it's such a different. setup where you like we talk about which which center fits with which wingers but really like you can be that you know set up guy which is fun to imagine i i have to think yeah i mean he's got like i said i said it earlier from an interview a couple weeks like a couple days ago but he's got one of the best shots in the league so i mean i try to consider myself more of a playmaker and uh you know just try to you know create space and find that open guy you know coming in through the slot or i mean with his type of shot, I can shoot it from the blue line and probably go in every single time. So when you have a type of player that, you know, has a shot like that,

you know, it excites a playmaker, a person who kind of pass first or sometimes. And, you know, it's exciting. What were your conversations with Brad Larson like? Good. Yeah. We, you know, we had a, you know, a good little talk there for like 15 minutes on the phone and just, you know, getting, you know, acquainted and, you know, talking about a team or our team now and you know yeah i got to get used to that you know let's switch over it's something that week the trip yeah i know it was weird i know but uh just talking about our team

and um you know what do you know expectations of me and stuff like that so um i think uh you know it was kind of more just getting familiar with each other and picking each other's brains a little bit and and um you know the system stuff and all that stuff will come when i get to get to columbus I saw Yarmo especially, I mean, this is, you said, you said it to Aaron Portsline, I think, whenever, you know, the dust was settling. This seemed like it was obviously was a huge win for him, but he specifically was talking about, you know, Columbus getting that rep as a city that players leave. Like, whether it's deserved or not, you go back. We don't have to rehash the list, but it's, it's long. And it was clearly too long for his, for his liking.

but what does that, what does that mean, you are proof that that's, that that's either not how it was originally or that it can change. Like, is that something that you have thought about throughout this process where you're like, I'm the guy who's going to Columbus after having so many guys leave? Yeah, no, I mean, to be honest, I didn't really think of it that way. You know, for me, I thought it was the best fit for me. I mean, you're not only just hockey and no nice as a player, but, you know, for me and my family, you know, We're just a short 45-minute flight from, you know, my family, my wife's family. And there's such good neighborhoods out there, you know, homes that you can, you know, start a family, obviously. My wife's pregnant.

So, you know, we're starting our own little family here. And it was just, it just sounded like a great spot. I talked to a lot of guys, you know, past players. I actually was in Columbus. He drove up to Cam Ackton's house. He was there. I got to see him and, you know, chat with him a little bit. And I just heard so many good things.

And it felt like a great fit for us. What was that? Like some guys do the whole dog and pony show, right, where they go city to city and it becomes a bit of a thing and it drags out for days or whatever. What was the process like for you to like? I can't even imagine you're making a decision that's, you know, the majority of your career at this point. And it has to happen fast, right? You don't have all the information until you do. So what was your strategy to process it?

but also have to make a fast decision. Yeah, it was tough. It was a hard day. I mean, I think with like the flat cap, you know, teams, you know, it's hard to sign guys to big contract sometimes when you're so tight to the cap and stuff. So, you know, I didn't talk to many teams and some of the teams that I was talking to, you know, Columbus was right up there on top of my list. So when they called, I was just like, let's get this done.

I don't even care anymore. I just want to, I want to start my, you know, my next chapter of my career here with Columbus. And I think this is a great fit for us. I've talked a lot of people about this city. And it's just, it was an overwhelming day. But, you know, finally, you know, towards the end of the day, he finally got done. And a big relief, to be honest. Yeah.

I'm not surprised I hear that. You seem relieved. Yes. Yeah, I would be too. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. stressful day for sure. Did you,

have you, like, was there, have you started the tour of the neighborhoods that start, you mentioned you've got a baby on the way. That's my question, man.

Yeah, like, what is that going to look like for? Me and my wife, we flew out there. It was Thursday. We did our media and our press conference and all that, and toured the rank and stuff.

And then, um, we went on a little ride through the whole city up through Ohio State into a couple like nice neighborhoods, checked out. a couple of golf courses and, you know, went and saw Cam, Atkinson, obviously, a good buddy of mine. And but we were looking through all the neighborhoods and it was just a vibe that was perfect for us, I think. Me and my wife, that's the type of people we are. And we thought we feel really comfortable in these, you know,

these little towns outside of Columbus. And we're obviously looking at homes now and try to come up with a list. And then we'll fly back out there and, you know, pick which one she wants. but, so, we're really excited about that, too. And it was just really beautiful out there, too. Well, it's a good thing the vibe was good after signing the contract. Yeah, yeah, you're, yeah, I mean, because there is, there was a lot that you did. And I'm glad to hear that, you know, you've spent time in Columbus and you're feeling it and you're looking at the neighborhoods and all that stuff. But that is like, you're backfilling there a little bit, right?

Like you, like you are, you're connecting the dots after after, after, after, after, after, the big time decision. Yeah. I mean, sometimes, I feel like sometimes, you know, people,

you know, sign they don't know what they're getting into. But I think I really, you know, kind of, you know, did my homework

throughout that day. When I had a few teams that I knew who I wanted to play for. And I talked to a few guys from Columbus and, you know, I talked to a couple other people that have lived in Columbus.

And I just heard so many great things. So I knew when Columbus called, I was like, I want to go there. I want to do this. And I already knew that I'd like it. And thankfully, we got there and it was even better than what we imagined. But, you know, it was a great, it was a great trip there out there.

I know Columbus people are going to listen to this and sound like Sean and I, like, don't believe you. I've been to Columbus. It's great. Like, you know what I mean? Like, there's been this weird, like, after the fact, people are like, I don't know if this is, you know what I mean? Like, the response has been interesting to me. Like, what have you thought of kind of the response to all this? Yeah.

Yeah. I get a lot of people are like, why Columbus? And for me personally, when I would play there, we were from the West. We only played there once a year. Half the time I was on a back-to-back. I'd walk from the hotel to the arena, back to the hotel for a nap, back to the arena for the game, and then we'd fly out of there. So I never really knew much about Columbus either.

And obviously, I loved playing there because their fans were great. and it canons a whole different story but um but I watched you I watch you the 2013 all-sar game by the way I saw that I saw that I saw that live from the press box is there a plan for that

is there a plan to address the discomfort there I'm just going to sit in the arena a couple of inches for a half an hour and just let them shoot off some canon exposure therapy for John for John to but um but like I saying I've never really I never ventured out in Columbus so I didn't really know and I think a lot of people kind of get you know if you're

not from Columbus or you know I haven't really visited and you probably don't hear the best things but you know once I like started talking to actual people that lived there and you played there and after I went solid I was just it's completely nothing like what I expected from when I was coming from a different team you know come and just playing Columbus yeah I know like I know how this goes you've Turn the page on Calgary, so you're not going to want to, like, dive into this. But were you, like, do you surprise about the reaction there? Or, like, how do you feel about, I mean, fans are going to be upset, right? You left the team that they're rooting for, right?

Yeah, no, I get it. I mean, you know, I was, you know, it's hard. It's, I obviously understand, you know, some fans are upset and, you know, not happy. But for me, I don't, I'm not mad at any. I understand. It's completely fine. I get it. I'd never take anything away from Calgary because it was such a great place to me.

And when I was there, the fans were amazing to me and restaurant owners, you know, everyone from all my friends that I didn't play hockey with, you know, just regular people that I met throughout the city and my next door neighbors, you know, everyone was just so, so nice. And that's what I remember the most about Calgary. I love playing hockey there, but, you know, the people were super, super nice to me, my family, my wife, and I was part of the organization for 12 years. I've played there for nine. It was just a special place to my heart. And, you know, it's kind of a pretty cool city that I got to

spend my first few years there with. Yeah. Did you say goodbye to the neighbor who shoveled your driveway or whatever that was? A couple months back. I gave him a stick and said goodbye to him there. He was hoping I was going to come back and rent the same house again. But maybe I'll stop by and say hello when we play there next year. Oh, that's great. So I was doing some prep and talking to people. And I wanted to see if we could maybe set the record straight about some people talk to you that seem to know you better than I do as John Gujarro. John, they call you, not Johnny.

That's my real name. It's not Johnny. It's just John on my birth certificate. Okay. Well, I figured that. But like, is that your preference? Can we, it's a fresh start. Should we, should we, like, move on from?

I like Johnny. Okay. For hockey. Is it like, okay. So like, so if we, if we, if we came on and we're, and we're like, hey, we got Columbus Blue Jackets left wing or John Goddrow. Like, would it sound like we were like, would it sound like we were your friends trying to like, trying to like bullshit our way?

Yeah. It sounds super weird. But if I walk into my house or my, my wife's not, parent's house, and someone's like, Johnny, I'd be like, what? Like, no. Are you a hockey person? It's John. It's not Johnny.

And then all my buddies is the same way. And I'm like, don't ever call me Johnny again. Like, she's my close friends. It's John. But yeah, I think just the hockey world, you know, it's big Johnny. I really like that, you know, playing on the ice Johnny. But when I get home, it's just Johnny. All right.

So that's the tell. Like you're off the clock. It's John. And when you're Johnny. Because John Hockey doesn't, it sounds like it doesn't have the same flow. Yeah, it doesn't win. Well, Johnny, thanks for doing this. It was, you know, I imagine this has been a stressful few days.

Do you have vacation plans or with a baby on the way you just got to chill? Like, what's next to you? Yeah, we're kind of chilling. She's due to September 30 of right in the middle of training camp. So we're just hanging out here in Avalon, New Jersey, you know, where our home is. And, you know, just that's like, that's like Kate. May, right? Yeah, it's down the one. 20 minutes north of Cape May, but, you know, we just go to the beach here.

We'll go. My house is right on the bay, so we'll sit by the pool and just relax out there and try to get as much family over throughout the week and the weekends. And that's pretty much what we'll do the rest of the summer here. So I've got a couple weddings, but. Oh, nice. Of course. Nice. It's that time of year. Yeah, that's right.

We'll enjoy it. Throw the phone in the lake or the ocean or whatever it may be for you. and congratulations again. Yeah, thanks, guys. All right. Take care, John. All right. See, yeah.

Welcome, welcome all. It's the only good segment on the show. And this is the greatest segment in the history of the show. I can't wait for this. These are, Craig. The American Hockey Awards here on the Athletic Hockey Show. presented by the Tuesday boys Reesies

This is the collection of awards that we've been begging you guys to leave in the comments for the last however many weeks we started reading them at the end of in this segment at the end of the show and realized that it was just too good to

too good to siphon off every week we needed to actually put these together and come up with a very organized, very serious awards presentation here. So we have several awards as chosen by you, our beloved readers. We're going to go through these. Craig, any thoughts? No, I'm just ready to present. I can't wait. I think my dream job is the host an award show. Do you want to lead us off or do you want me to? Can you make that happen? You think? Okay. Say the word.

Well, okay, how do we want to do this? We'll start off with a big one because this is the one that made us laugh the most, I think, because it was so, and I wish I would have, it is very unfortunate that I don't have. Oh, it's from William T. First award, the Custin Sinchintilly Satisfactory American Award, presented by Manscaped, an honor awarded to an American player that best exhibits absolute mediocrity in every way. This player makes between two and four million dollars a season. Scores no fewer than 20 points, but no more than 35.

Plays no power play minutes, but also plays a major role on the penalty kill that's mid-grade. He said 16th in the league, but... Really specific. I love that it's that specific, but we can give some wiggle room here. Also, the winner here plays in the world championships most offseason because they're not good enough to play on an actual... True playoff contender.

Perfect representation of the Tuesday show. This is from William T. And he's correct. The nominees are Derek Ryan, Nick Bonino, and Ryan Donato. And did William T. decide the winner here.

Somebody else picked this. We didn't even need to do any legwork here. Nope. The winner of the Cousinsonsonsons and Tilly Satisfactory American Award presented by Manscaped. Edmonton Oilers Center, Derek Ryan.

Congratulations, Derek. Bravo, Derek Ryan. I'm accepting on behalf of Derek. I just want to thank my teammates and Sean and Craig for constantly inspiring me just to be fine. Fine. Just fine. Just like the show. Derek Ryan, 10 goals and 12 assists and 75 games for the Edmonton Oilers last year.

No power play time because where would he get it? But also was part of a pretty mid-grade, mid-grade power play. Or the penalty kill, rather. And the Oilers were fine. Everything about Derek Ryan, like everything about his career, he's added a laudable career. He's 35 now, which makes me feel very old. But every year, man, whether it's the hurricanes with the flames for a couple years,

11 goals, 15 goals, 13 goals, 10 goals. And his player profile has been the exact same. Congratulations, Derek. Your, your, uh, manscape lawnmower 3.0 is in the mail. Uh, Manscapes, some free bonus, uh, advertising. They got a, they got a re-up, by the way. This is, this is wrong. Yeah.

Let's go Manscape. Coming up next, this comes from Steve N. This is the best American on an American team. And this award, again, we have a presenting sponsor that didn't know sponsored is presented by our favorite meeting place, tipsy mixed daggers. If you ever need to meet Max Boltonin to do

his review, you do it at tipsy McStaggers. The place for doing performance reviews and then driving home drunk, Tipsy McStaggers. The nominees for Best American Player on an American team, Chris Kreider, Charlie McAvoy,

Jason Robertson, Jake Gensel, and Adam Fox. It's a crowded field. That is a packed. Packed. A field packed with luminaries, my friend. And the winner is of the first ever

Best American on American team presented by Tipsy McStaggers. Your best friend, Chris Crider of the New York Rangers. Congratulations, Chris. Congratulations to Chris, to Chris, to the entire Crider family. I am proud to accept this award on his behalf.

Uh-huh. I'll bring it to him at the family reunion since he is my nephew. It's what he was still. I didn't know he was going to get it. This is great. That's a great bit. That's a commitment to the bit. Great year for Crider.

We always knew he had it, and he scored 75 goals this past season or whatever. Amazing season for Chris Criter. Well deserved. Hell yes. Well deserved. What is, okay. What's our next one here? It's the Jake Gottinger Award.

Is up next? The Jake Ottinger Award for Best America. goalie under 25. This is pretty, this is pretty straightforward. There is no presenting sponsor for this. We could not secure the bag on that one. The nominees, Jake Ottinger. Oh, hey, wow. Jeremy Swamen. Florida Panthers goalie Spencer Knight, who was not good. Still good goalie under 25. Joey DeCord, who I'm not sure how he's still under 25 because he's been the link for 15 years. and the Jake Gottinger Award for Best American Goalie Under 25 goes to Jeremy Swamen!

What? What? Come on. I mean, congratulations. I will accept, I'm happy to accept this on behalf of Jeremy. Jeremy would like to thank his family. He's born two years before me, two days before me, November 24th, he's a Sagittarius. In Anchorage, Alaska, a lot of people.

didn't know that. He's born two years before you. That makes him 63 years old. Oh, how dare you? Great year for Jeremy Swamon. 914 safe percentage, 23 and 14. Big upset in this award. You know, we gotta, we might have to go back and check the numbers on that.

I thought Jake Ottinger should win the Jake Ottinger Award, but Jeremy would like to thank his teammates and the voting panel. I was going to say that it's because Swayman started more regular season games than Ottinger. did, but he did not. So that was, I thought it would be a funny bit. Maybe they can split it. I don't know.

Those guys, those guys went ever there, the Olympic goaltenders in how are many years, they can talk about this. Be a nice icebreaker for him. The next award is the Connor Hellebuck Award, which is awarded every year on this podcast to the best American goalie on a terrible team. I don't know. I forget who could. What the bar for terrible is.

but I think we found it. Nominees are Thatcher Demko, Connor Hellebuck, Alex Dundalkovich, and John Gibson. Whitehall P.A. Native John Gibson. Oh, I'm excused. And the winner is,

it's Connor Hellebuck. Yeah. He's got to win the Conner Hellebuck Award. He can add this, he can add this to his very crowded shelf of Connor Hella Buck Awards. I think he's on year. He's won this award

for five out of the last seven years. And the only reason... Yeah, this is when they do the voiceover. This is the fifth straight year. Connor Hellebuck has won the Connor Hellebuck Award. Connor Hellebuck has won five of the last seven ConnerHellibuck Awards. Only taking a break because those were the years that the Jets were better than mediocre. Guess what?

Back in the toilet with you, Winnipeg. Sorry. For sure. For sure. Next award is the Best American Rookie, aka the Little Tuesday Urban Achiever Award. That comes courtesy of Tom P. It's very, very funny. Nominees.

Trevor Zegris, Cole Cawfield, really emphasizing the Little Tuesday Urban Achieve Award. Matt Boldie and Cole Cillinger. Wow, another good stacked field. Stackfield. The award goes to Anaheim Duck Center, Trevor Zegris. I think it's a no-brainer because of the production

and the star power and the memorable moments that he brought to the Ducks Center. this season and also he is the only one of these four players to have been a guest on the show. So any tiebreakers go to him. Congratulations, Trevor. I'm sure you've, I'm sure you're, this is the highlight of your summer, no doubt. Definitely not having a fun time in Southern California right now. I'm sure he's having, I would, I would, we should, we should explain the rules.

That is the official tiebreaker. If, if it's tied, the award goes to the person that appeared in the show. So Cole Cofield, if you're listening, you should be a guest next season. Matt Boldie too. I feel like, I mean... Yeah, Matt's... He will be. He will be.

I feel like Rousseau's got... The next award... Rousseau's got right of first refusal on all the... I'm sure Matt's been... What is it? He's been on the straight... Straight from the source ten times. Matt actually lives in an apartment above Rousseau's garage.

The next award is the Brian Rufalski Award. This comes from Michael Kay. Thanks Michael K for this award idea. The Brian Rufalski Award for underappreciated American defensemen. And again, we have a stacked class here of nominees. Your nominees for the Brian Rofalski

Award, Brett Pesci, Brian Dumolin, Alex Golikoski, his fifth straight nomination for this award. And Scott Mayfield. It's a good, I like that nominee. You put together a nice season. And the winner of the

seventh annual Brian Rufalski Award is Brett Pesci for the third straight year. Congratulations, Brett. I'd like to start a motion to rename this award after Brad Pesci because... Oh, motion accepted. He's almost there. Like, at some point, Brett Pesci is no longer going to be underrated.

He actually took the crown from former teammate Jacob Slaven, who definitely held it for a couple years. I don't know if you guys remember this. He won this award in 2017, 2017. He won it back-to-back years, 2017, 2018. A lot of people don't remember that. Next award, courtesy of Tyler M. The Alex Galcenaic Award for the best American player whose dad played in the NHL but is not American.

So this player is American, but his father was a former NHL player who was, in fact, not. The nominees are Columbus Blue Jackets, Senator Cole Selinger, who had a nice season as an 18-year-old rookie. Legendary, I think, at this point, it's safe to say. Islanders forward, Zach Preezy.

And Paul Stasney, His father was one of the Stasni brothers from the former Czechoslovakia who played in the 80s. The award goes to... I'm so nervous. Paul Stasney! Whoa! What an upset! Paul Stasny had a nice year for the Winnipeg Jets.

He's never won this award. I think it's a nice capper to... We shouldn't say caper to a career, but I think he's spent the last 10 or 15 years building up a resume worthy of accepting such a wonderful, such a wonderful award. So congratulations to Paul Stasney. Congratulations to Peter Stasney. Congratulations to the former Czechoslovakia and anybody from either the Czech Republic or Slovakia. This is, this one's for you. This next award comes from Julie Kay. This is the player you thought was American, but is not American. I love this. This should also have a name, by the way, like an all-timer when Julie Kay,

We'll leave it up to you to name this award. Or we can call it the Julie K Award. I'm going to give a little glimpse behind the nomination process here as I realize about midway through that I was just listing players with Italian last names. Mm-hmm. Which is unfair. Or unfair, I mean. Who are the nominees?

Nominees are Kevin Fiala, Robert Thomas, Kale McCar, and Anthony Sorrelli. The player you thought you, listener, thought was American, but is not. Definitely. And when we say you, we do mean you. We don't mean me and Craig saying like, is Phil Tomasito American or Canadian? And the winner is Kevin Fiala in an upset. Are we sure he's not American? Come on. Can we check that one?

Not only is he not American. Not only is he not Canadian. Not only is he not Italian. He is from Switzerland, which is honestly a, Honestly, a good guess because any time you, like, Switzerland's such a, such a, you know, a hodgepodge, you know, melting pot of ethnicities, honestly, because it shares borders with so many countries and whatever. You can get, you can get anybody from there. It's the Matt's, the Matt Zucarillo syndrome. Next award. This is pretty straightforward, actually. Do we want to do best, we're just going to do best American? Is it? No, we can say. We can say that for a lot. I think we go to the Phil Kessel Award. I think you got to present the Phil Kessel Award in your Phil Kessel voice. which is identical to my actual voice. Which is just your normal voice. This one comes from Tomas R or Thomas R.

I apologize for definitely getting that wrong in one way or another. The Phil Kessel Award for Skill Position Player to most likely be left off the American Olympic roster for a replacement level third liner that plays with an edge. The nominees. So Justin Ablicketer, right? That would be the Phil Kessel Award for Skill Position Player left off the roster for Justin Applicator. Let's just be real. We're talking about what we're talking about. We're talking about Justin Applicator.

Nominees are Kyle Connor, Alex DeBrinkeet, Jason Robertson, and in a bit of an upset, I think the sentiment remains the same. Defenseman Quinn Hughes. Wow, I didn't even know you could nominate a defenseman for this one. You know what?

I looked it up in the bylaws of this award show, and we were eligible for it. Okay. A defenseman has never won this award, listener. And the winner, is Quinn Hughes. Wow. Wow.

Oh, God, I can't believe it. Quentin Hughes. Quentin Hughes. He actually, in an award given out before the broadcast, he won a best interview of the season as well. Oh, that's right. That's right. Shortest interview in a season.

Two-time winner, Quinn Hughes. I think you got to... Multiple winner. In all seriousness, I think you almost have to give it to him because when we were, because so many of these guys, guys and me and dom were doing the we're doing the Olympic roster projections which thankfully we could stop doing in December because that's when that's when the horse left the stable on that because

those are those are those are those are pretty pretty brutal exercise a lot of fun i mean brutal exercise i like no i'm i'm kidding those those those were a lot of fun because we would we would have discussions like this where it's like could they possibly leave off kyle conner who was clearly in the middle of like another huge season could they possibly leave out alice the brinkett who has scored 40 goals in consecutive years. What about Jason Robertson? Is there any way that they could justify leaving him and bringing Pavelsky whenever those two guys were so good together and blah, blah?

And I sincerely don't think that they would have done that. I think by the time it was all said and done, all three of those guys would have been on the roster. I am less certain about our friend Quinton because he's short, and everyone hates that. Is he going to be on the enough? He'll be on the team. I would imagine he'll be on the next one.

But like you look at some of the guys on their way out. It's a good award. Some of the guys on their way out, you know, some of the older, the older fellows, whether it's Ryan McDonough or guys like that, who were kind of in their last national team cycle. I think, I think Quinn would have been left on the outside, honestly. I'm going to do the next two because they're similar. And we can breeze right through them. It's a limited audience. But it's fine.

These also come from Tyler M. I think Tyler M has, or maybe not, he's just a regular listener. This is the first one. The first, the Phil Housley Award for Best Minnesotan in the NHL. Nominees, Blake Wheeler, Justin Falk, Brock Nelson, Jake Gensel, not born in Minnesota, Brock Besser. And the winner is Jake Gensel. Yeah, wow, wow.

Where was he born, you said, Nebraska? He was born in Omaha for, for, For whatever reason, but I know he was raised in Minnesota. He had a hell of the season. He had a great player and honorary Minnesota. The next one in similar vein. I'm going to read it how Tyler nominated. Then we're going to correct it.

The Mike Madonna Award for Best Michiganite in the NHL. Now, that was like nails on a chalkboard for me. If you live in Michigan, you're a Michigander. You're not a Michiganite. No. Come on, Tyler. You know that. Everyone knows that.

Everyone knows that. What are people in Pennsylvania? Pennsylvania's. Yeah. Yeah, that's boring. The nominees for the Mike Medano Award, Kyle Connor, Dylan Larkin, Zach, I'm laughing because you know who I have to get it. Zach Wrenzki, Alex DeBrenkett, and Connor Hellebuck.

A lot of good Mishiganders in the NHL. And the winner is. My son. Zach Wrenz. Yes. The boys. I want to point out, and this is not my thought, but Aaron Portsline in his Sunday gathering wrote a bit about how influential Zach Wrenski signing that long-term deal on Columbus was

to getting Johnny Goodrow. Like that stopped the bleeding and was like, hey, good players want to stay here. I mean, you know, Johnny Goodro was going to do whatever he wants. But Zach, I think, made that commitment, wanted to be a part of the rebuild. And now they've got some great pieces there. So for that reason, I'm giving him the Mike Medina Award. I think I kind of class that over in the question of John. I was like, yeah, you're the first good player that's every sign there, basically, is kind of what I said.

I kind of breeze right past Zach, but this is enough of an honor to counterbalance, whatever. I would also say shout out to the Wrenski families because they frequent my brother-in-law's restaurant tellies often. Well, that's awesome. They're great people, apparently. They are. I've met them. I don't have to say apparently. They're good people.

It sounds like a conflict of interest, but that's okay. So telly, so you should all visit tellies, Barron, and Grill. I absolutely should. On Mac. A Mac Avenue in Gross Point. What's the point in doing this if we can't plug stuff like that? Best Pennsylvania in the year is Vince Trotcheck, by the way. We can move on.

Okay. This is the penultimate award, I believe. Oh, this is it, the last one. Oh, no, wait, no, that's wrong. We are saving that one for last. Oh, penultimate is not. Yeah, yeah. is the second to last.

Brush up on your vocabulary, big boy. I don't even know what penultimate means. Nobody does. Didn't listen to the Penguins podcast from a couple years ago. That's okay. Best American player on an American team. Pretty straightforward. Nominee.

We already did this one. No, we didn't. Oh, yeah, we did. So is this it? We can go right to the final award. We can go right to the final award. I'll let you present it. As suggested by our friend,

and staff copy editor for the for the athletic but limited to the comment section of our little show. I mean, we should put it on a payroll at some point. It checks in the mail. Yardana suggests the Tuesday Boys Leadership Award going to the most respected podcast guest

of the season, aka whoever you actually paid attention to during the interview, which I got to tell you, eliminates a lot of people right off of that. Sorry, Bill Zito. How dare you? A.k.a. the people you didn't actually interrupt while they were talking.

But I was going to give you a hard time. Poor Johnny Gujaro couldn't get his canon story out because you cut him off three different times. It was just once. He was going to fuck up the story. What am I supposed to do? Oh, my gosh. Nominees. I just realized I said the effort.

Now we got to put market explicit. Now you just made producer Jeff's job harder. Okay, we can just do it again. I was going to screw up the story. What are you going to do? Nominees for the Tuesday Boys Leadership Award. Paul Maurice. So good.

Our last guest of the season, fresh on our minds, but still very good. Alex Tuck, who came in like a house on fire, honestly, with the Sabres. He was like, I think he did a great job just being like, I'm the dude here when you need. to ask questions like this. He was great. Predators forward Matt Hussain, who, Canadian, unfortunately, but also was, I believe more interested in talking to us than we were to him at certain points to that interview. He was, he was so engaged in cool and fun to talk to. And insightful. Do you remember his answers? It was, I'm being facetious because I'm not saying we weren't, we weren't excited to talk to him. But it just shows you how, you know,

interested he was and having a conversation, which is cool. Cammy Grinado Great She was great He was like talking to one of my aunts That was awesome And Jack And Jack Hughes

Who we got at the absolute right time I think there were 15 minutes or so Before in between him Throwing the stick Into the stands After his game winning goal And separating his shoulder There was a very small amount of time

And we managed to talk to Jack We managed to talk to Jack in that space. Two notes here on this. No Cichucks nominated, which is controversial because they were great. We could just, I think we just think about them as like a Yeah, they're like co-os.

Collective, kind of. No Bobby Ryan. Remember how good Bobby was? Bobby was great. Again, he's a friend of the show. I don't, yeah, he's, that would be like, at this point, it would be like nominating Pierre or something. Max.

Yeah. Yeah, sure. And the word goes to Sean Shapiro. All right. Okay. Paul Maurice, Alex Tuck, Matthew Shane, Camer, Jack Hughes. The winner of the Tuesday Boys Leadership Award, going to the most respected podcast guest of the season is Buffalo Sabres Forward Alex Tuck.

Wow. Alex, amazing. Alex, I would imagine, Alex I would imagine here would accept the award on behalf of the entire organization. Because there were several folks from the sabers who talked to us over the course of the season. Heavy sabers. Tage Thompson. Tage Thompson was great. I don't think Donnie Meatballs is eligible because that was technically last off season.

So, you know, whatever. Yeah. But I think between, it was a tough call between Tuck and Thompson to even just figure out who to nominate. But he was, he was awesome. I think there was a level of sincerity in the stuff that he was saying that, uh, that probably, that probably got him this one. But in all seriousness, all the guests were great, except for a couple. And to wrap up the award shows, this is a bit of a surprise.

Sean doesn't know we're doing this. We're going to sing a duet to wrap this up on the cue the music. Oh, Canada, our hominidiv land. We're really slowing it down. True. love in all of us command. What a year it's been, Sean. First of all, I want to think, this is where now we can stump.

I want to thank all the listeners who, who, A, suggested awards, and B, carried the third segment on their back all year long. We were just talking about how fun that we have like inside jokes and you have all all created your own little world around a stupid podcast. And we love it. And it makes me happy. The best, I think one of the most gratifying things that I've heard about this about this is when people say that we find a way to make player interviews interesting for them. And that might be, and that is a backhand compliment. And I don't, I don't mean it as such. But like, it can't, it can be a grind. Like, let's be, let's be real. It can be, it can be tough talking to NHL players sometimes

and in having it packaged in a way that makes it interesting to listen to them for 20 minutes for people. Like, people struggle with that. Yeah. And if we did, if we even made it 10% better through all our goofy nonsense and talking over them and each other and looping in Bill Zito on inside jokes that he had no clue, like just stuff like that. That is, it's such a treat. And I'm so glad that I'm so glad that, you know, the folks like it, because that's all, that's all we're trying to do. We couldn't do any of this if you guys,

if you guys didn't actually enjoy it. And that means something. So thank you. And so as a thank you, Sean will be buying drinks at Tipsy McStaggers one day this summer. We haven't decided when, but really nice of them to do that, I thought. Also, you know, it occurred to me as we were cycling through our guests.

Huge thank you to producer Jeff DeMette for, for all the hard work he puts into the show that, you know, last show of the year, we're, you know, he's about to go on vacation, I hope. And he's still, like, fighting to get Johnny Goodrow on the show and doesn't mail it in ever. And we just had a list of who's who in the American hockey world as guests. And it was unbelievable. And it's all Jack completely, like, believe me what I say. I'm worried that whenever we say that, because we say it each week, I think people might think that we're,

not joking but sort of exaggerating or whatever like it's dead serious like we really just show up and try not to embarrass ourselves which we fail at i certainly do consistently this is all this is this is this is all jeff so if you've enjoyed a single if you've enjoyed a single moment of uh of the interview aspect here man that's all that's all him and beyond he does everything for us also want to thank johnny gajro for coming on the show during a time where he was probably completely done and tapped out. And Todd Chirac with Columbus Blue Jackets, I'm sure, had a hand in that. So thanks to Todd and Johnny.

Most of all, one of the most important people to thank here. Cormacustins. Oh, yeah. For providing the anthem of this podcast early on, which I guarantee is playing right now under our goodbye. I can think of no better way to, say goodbye to the show for for the summer

than having having our boy play under us I don't know is that it that's it yeah usual promo listen to the other days of the week follow us on the

on the platform listen to athletic audio athletic audio plus on Apple Podcasts 30 day free trial 919 give us a review is a going away present for the summer

that'd be great you know what I'm going to am I reading right, Greg? Wait a second. This can't be right. You can get an annual subscription to the Athletic for just $1 a month or six months when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show.

Can you believe that? That is true. I just found out about that today. Yeah. I mean, they're giving it away, folks. To sign up and we'll be back by the time your subscription runs out, probably. Hopefully. Have a great summer, Sean.

Hashtag Tuesday boys. Sad, will you sign my yearbook? No. But yeah, right? This is the last we're going to speak for. For six months, I'm sure. Yeah, right. Hashtag Tuesday boys, three Zs.

Goodbye, everybody. Bye, everybody. Three Zeds. Uh-uh. Never, we'll never. I'd rather, I'd rather be dead.