The Athletic Hockey Show - Montreal Canadiens-Logan Mailloux bombshell with Arpon Basu, Buffalo Sabres-Jack Eichel trade waiting game with John Vogl, Multiple Choice Madness, and much more

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

To kick things off, Ian and Hailey are joined by The Athletic’s Arpon Basu to talk about the Montreal Canadiens drafting Logan Mailloux with the No. 31 pick in Friday night’s NHL Draft despite Mailloux’s request not to be drafted following his criminal conviction in Sweden, the Habs’ rationale for going ahead with the controversial pick anyway, what message the decision sends to women both inside and outside the game of hockey, and more.Then, The Athletic’s John Vogl joins the show to discuss the state of the Buffalo Sabres, including the team’s asking price for their disgruntled captain, Jack Eichel, the deals sending Sam Reinhart to the Florida Panthers and Rasmus Ristolainen to the Philadelphia Flyers, Owen Powers’ extremely likely return to Michigan next season after the Sabres took him first overall in this year’s draft, and much more.Plus, Ian wishes Hailey a very happy birthday, thoughts on pending free agents Dougie Hamilton and Zach Hyman, and Multiple Choice Madness, featuring questions about the most surprising trade from last week, where Gabriel Landeskog will end up signing, and the most interesting celebrity Hailey shares a birthday with.And, don’t forget, you can sign up for an annual subscription to The Athletic for just $3.99 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Well, after a crazy week in the hockey world, we're back to try and make some sense of it all. It's another edition of The Athletic Hockey Show coming your way on this Monday. Ian Mendezs and Haley Salve. And ahead on this show, we've got a pair of guests on deck, including Arpan Basu, who's going to join us from Montreal to discuss the Canadian's controversial decision to draft Logan Mayhew in the first round of the 2021 NHL draft. Buffalo Sabers made some splashy moves on the weekend involving Rasmus Ristolinen and Sam Ryanhart, but they did not move Jack Eichel.

Our Sabers beat reporter John Vogel would drop by to discuss the latest on that front. We'll hit on Kail McCar, Seth Jones, signing some lucrative contracts, what that might mean for Dougie Hamilton, some other free agency stuff. Multiple Choice Madness is always to wrap up the show, but as we kick it off, I feel like we need to say this. Happy birthday to our co-host. Haley Salveen, who made sure everybody on the group chat knew it was her birthday. And now, you have some sort of birthday button or badge or some sort of flare that we need you.

There we go. She's putting it on for the Zoom call. What is it? What does this thing say? Number one birthday. No, it says today it's all about me. So how's that different from any other day? Yeah.

Ask my parents. There's no difference. I've been staying here visiting for about a week or a month. Excuse me. A week. Geez. I'm here for about a month. and I, yeah, I put on the button and said every day's about me.

I'm an only child, and it was probably the most bratty thing I could have ever said. I'm not really like that, I swear, for anyone listening who doesn't know me. But yeah, my mom got me this little button. She was very excited. And she forced me to put it on this morning, like the moment I woke up. So she's proud of the birthday button she found. So I'm wearing it here today, just so you know that today is about me, Ian. It is. It's about you. It's the 26th of July. Now, my birthday's right near Christmas, December 28th. So I usually get, I often would get combined gifts as a kid, which wasn't necessarily bad. Sometimes it'd be like I got a Nintendo as a kid. That was a really big deal. What's the best, before we get into a jam-pack show, what's the best birthday present Haley Salvians ever received? Even back when you're like eight years old, nine years old, whatever.

That's tough because I don't really remember. I feel like the last couple of years I've always just said, like, I don't need anything. Like, I'm not a, I'm wearing a freaking birthday button and I made sure everyone knew it was my birthday. But I'm not like a huge birthday person. My mom will always say, what do you want or what do you want to do? And I'm like, mom, I don't need anything. Like, we don't need to do anything. It's fine.

Don't worry about me. We'll be fine. We'll just have like a nice dinner or something. I can remember a Christmas gift that was my favorite though. And I don't know why, but it's just like the best gift that I ever got as a kid. Because I was obsessed with Harry Potter and I still love the movies. And at Christmas, I got a polyjuice potion set. And it was just like a little Harry Potter kit with the little caldrons and like basically

gummies and like weird little things so you could make potions. You're looking at me with such like dead eyes. It was the best. I'm just sorry. I'm just wrapping my head around the fact that I'm co-hosting a show with somebody who's so young that she got a Harry Potter gummy set for her birthday. So I'm just a look on your face was just like there was nothing behind those eyes. Dead eye. And it was the Brandon Tanev look for those people who could only listen to this podcast.

I saw a ghost. I saw a ghost. But no, I don't remember birthday gifts. Like I said, I try not to make a huge deal about it. Usually I'll get, you know, things that I need for work or when I was in the university was things for university. So, but it's always been good. I'm just more about spending time with the family, having a nice dinner.

My grandpa will usually come over and my mom and dad, my dad will usually like barbecue steaks and stuff. And we just kind of spend time together, which is more important. Look at you. The gift is spending time with family is the best gift you ever receive. I am the gift. Yeah. It went from so family-friendly to so gross and conceded so fast.

Yeah, so fast. All right, Haley, yeah, like we said, this show this week is all about the headlines and all about the guests. And let's get right to it because I thought Arpan Basu did a terrific job on the weekend with back-to-back columns on arguably the most seismic draft pick of the weekend. The one that really had us all shocked and surprised Montreal Canadiens taken Logan Mayu with their first round. pick on Friday night. Arpin is nice enough to join us here on the athletic hockey show to kick off this week. Arpin, listen, let me ask you how this all played out for you Friday night because I'm sure the way it was for me, I'm sitting there starting to kind of put together my column. The Ottawa senators make their draft pick and I'm kind of paying attention to Twitter and the draft.

And I see that the haves have taken Logan Mayu. And I think, I honestly thought it was a joke. I was like, what a joke. And then like six, seven tweets, boom, boom, boom. I'm like, oh my Gosh, this really happened. So could you walk our listeners through what that sequence of events was like for you when that news broke on Friday night? Well, you know, the Canadians making the Stanley Cup final means they're drafting at the bottom of the first round. The first round is interminable, never-ending sequence of non-events.

And so, no, that's not fair. But the draft was taking you a long time. I had to wait to see who the Canadians were going to pick. you know, probably not a hugely consequential draft pick at that point, was preparing to write, you know, just a standard, here's who the Canadians drafted, here's what he did, here's why he's good, here's why he might not be, you know, you're pretty standard stuff.

And, you know, I'll be honest, at around the 28th pick, I poured myself like a half glass of wine. I was like, okay, I think I can sneak one in, you know? Like, it won't be that big of a deal. And then they make the pick. I stopped drinking the glass of wine. I put it far away from me. And I just go into, you know, it's almost midnight at this point.

And I can't write the pithy column that I had planned on writing. I got to write, this is obviously a very serious thing. The Canadians have a prepared statement. Mark Bergerbe is on a Zoom moments afterwards, like maybe two minutes later, reading that prepared statement live. and you just have to jump into action. I mean, the team that you cover has done something that's very difficult to defend. And their statement didn't do a very good job of defending it.

And their general manager speaking after making that statement didn't do a very good job of defending it. So you're placed in a position where, I mean, to me, the actual Logan Mayu case, or the details of it mattered less to me in that moment than, the fact that this team that I cover, that is a pillar in its community, that has an incredible reputation, it has an incredible history, and it's just been known for decades as being sort of the gold standard of how you're supposed to operate as a hockey organization, goes out and does this, and it's not justifiable in any way. So you have to try and capture that. You know, I feel uncomfortable, you know, bearing a kid without knowing all the details of,

but he admitted doing what was reported to be done. So there's no, there's no gray area there. He did it. He admits it. Everyone recognizes it. So I had to play with all this in my mind. And so it took, it took some time in terms of, you know, I tried to find ways that the Canadians could maybe justify this.

And I spent some time doing that. And I just couldn't find one. So ultimately the story had to reflect that. In your piece, I think you did a really good job kind of illustrating the situation with this kind of specific area. When you say, Bergevin used the word unacceptable to describe what Mayu did. And he used that word four times in 12 minutes. But maybe he doesn't know what the definition of unacceptable would be because by drafting a player who did something unacceptable, they were basically accepting it to be okay.

Yeah. I mean, listen, it's, listen, I know what he meant. He meant what he did was unacceptable, but that does not make the kid like not redeemable. You know what I mean? That's, I guess, where he was coming from. But my, I guess my thing is that how do you go from unacceptable to acceptable to acceptable enough to draft the kid with our first round pick in a matter of a week or three days even? I mean, you know, and the one thing I think that should be made clear that we weren't aware of on Friday night. is that Logan Mayu informed the Canadians of this whole situation prior to Frank Seravale reporting it on Daily Faceoff. Prior to all of this coming out, he said it to them in their interview. And he was very upfront about it, according to Trevor Timmons, who's the Canadian assistant general manager.

He said, listen, there's this thing that happened in Sweden. This is what I did. This is what's going on. This is how I plan to fix it. So the Canadians were obviously satisfied with that interview. that he had recognized what he did wrong and hopes to fix it. But still, you know, it just doesn't seem like the team went about doing its proper due diligence with that information. And optically, from the outside, it seemed like they did that due diligence in a span of three days.

Because Logan Mayu made a statement three days prior to the draft. And next thing you know, he's being drafted by the Montreal Canadiens. So on Friday night, I'm thinking, how do you reconcile this? In the span of three days, this kid comes out and says, don't draft me, which I don't know about you guys. I don't remember a kid ever coming out and doing that. And then three days later, the Canadians are like, yeah, now, you know what? We know better than you. We're going to draft you anyway.

So how they went over that span. But, you know, as we learned later, they had been mulling this over for a long time and obviously had a statement prepared and we're ready to do it. but ultimately the crux of it is, I don't know how unacceptable the Canadians found it at the end of the day. And you know what I think it's interesting? You brought up the name of Trevor Timmons, who's the assistant general manager,

and there was a clip that went viral. We're going to play this for our listeners here in a second. Just to set it up, it is your podcast partner, our colleague at the athletic, Mark Antoine Godin, who asked the question to Trevor Timmons. So folks, you're going to hear this question asked to Trevor Timmons, and then you're going to, if you're going to think that something cut out with your podcast, it didn't.

There is a significant amount of silence here. It's 21 seconds. 21 seconds of silence, but we are going to play it so you can understand the awkwardness here. So have a listen. This is, again, our colleague from the athletic Marquay Antoine Godin, asking a question to Trevor Timmons on the weekend. Regarding Logan, in his statement, he says that he thought that he did not earn the right to be drafted.

Why? I mean, based on that, if the player is. thinks that, why do you think the opposite? What do you mean? What do I think the opposite? Do you expand on that a little bit? So listen, Arpun, we know how social media works. That's the type of clip that people love to just tick at, isolated, retweet it. Can you give us a little bit more context there and why was there such a delay in that answer

from Trevor Timmons? Yeah, well, there's not a whole lot of context necessary. The question was pretty clear. I think Trevor was grappling with how he should answer it. Now, the context is that I had asked a question just prior to that, saying, basically asking,

because Logan Mayu spoke to us on Saturday morning and, you know, I mean, listen, what he did was reprehensible, but I still doing that Zoom call with Logan Mayu, I felt kind of bad for the kid. I mean, he's staring into this camera and he knows what's on the other side of that camera. There's all these people judging.

It was difficult for him. But in that, interview on Saturday morning, he revealed that not only had he not spoken to the Canadian since he made that statement three days earlier, he had not spoken to any teams since he made that statement three days earlier. So then that's when it clicked in my head. I'm like, well, why, how? How do the Canadians draft this kid without speaking to him? So, so right before Mark Antoine asked that question, I asked Trevor, you know, A, are you allowed to speak to these kids just prior to the draft? and B, if you are allowed, why did you not do that?

Considering what he said three days before the draft. So his answer to my question was that, you know, they reached out to his agent after that statement. They came to the conclusion that he was very emotional. He acted somewhat rashly and that ultimately everything was fine. They confirmed that with his agent and they felt comfortable making the pick. So he explained all that to me. And then I asked him another kind of question that he dismissed.

and then Mark Antoine asked his question. And so I can't explain why he was silent for so long, but I got to say he's not, you know, Trevor Timonds, his job is as a hockey evaluator. He's not, he's not the face of the organization. He's not a PR guy. And this was a very, this is a very broad question. This was a question of like organizational philosophy, organizational ethics. And I think he was just grappling with what am I supposed to say in this situation?

He's not used to situations like that where he's speaking like on behalf of the organization on something. He's used to talking about a kid's, you know, a kid's ability to skate well and shoot the puck and do very basic hockey things. And the one question he was asked about Logan Mayu when it came to hockey, spoke eloquently about what the Canadians really like about him as a hockey player. But in this case, I think he was put in a position that he's not used to being put in and didn't know how to tackle it. And ultimately, when he comes out of that silence and says, can you explain. expand on your question. I mean, let's, listen, you all heard the question is a pretty straightforward question. What I, what I think is really interesting in all of this. And Haley, I really want to get your opinion on this because I think a woman's opinion matters. And it really matters a lot.

Because I feel like there's not enough credence being given to how women in the sphere of hockey feel after a story like this. And I'm, and I'm very curious to know what, what you think of a story like this where a young man who engages in such, you know, reprehensible behavior is essentially still a first round draft pick. And I don't feel like he paid the price. I don't feel like there was consequences for this young man. And I'm very curious. I think we don't do a good enough job of getting women's voices into opinions and topics, sorry, that matter. And I'd really like to offer you the platform here to speak a little bit from that perspective. Yeah, well, I think we've seen so many young women or women of all ages who are either in hockey or working to get into

hockey, they really voice their opinions on social media this weekend talking about this is one of the things that makes it an uncomfortable environment. And this is what sometimes makes it hard to break in for women or they don't feel comfortable working in a space where something like that is deemed acceptable enough to be a first round draft pick. I think it's difficult because in many ways I see, I know that hockey has a lot of things that maybe make things worse for women, but I also believe that sports, hockey, the NHL is just a microcosm of society. So that's one major point that I always have with stuff like this is I'm sure that there's women in tech or business or marketing who feel very uncomfortable in that space. But with a story like this, like Arpin said and like you said, and like I just said too,

I just think this is a young man who, you know, this was a crime. Like this, he admitted to it. He allegedly or has admitted that he shared these photos of consensual sex with this girl in Sweden. And that's just not okay. Like anybody, I've seen so many responses on Twitter and stuff of people saying, So he shared a couple of photos with his buddies. Like, who cares? And if you don't think that sharing photos of a woman in a sexual position is okay or something

that you can just gloss over, it's just, I mean, don't reply to me on Twitter, unfollow me, whatever. It's just beyond gross and disrespectful. And it's such an utter lack of respect for women and for just people in general. So a story like this, I think it's difficult, I think, for, for. for a lot of women because, you know, this is, this was him with, with a, with a, with a, with a with a, with a, um, sexual encounter. This wasn't like him objectifying a reporter. So it's difficult to put myself in her shoes because I, that's not the position that I'm in. Um,

but it is just such a blatant disrespect for, for a woman. Um, and I think that's difficult for, for a lot of people who want to work in this business, um, to think, are there people like that in the locker room that I'm about to walk into. Maybe they're not taking photos in that kind of situation because, again, we are working and we're professionals, but is there a person who disrespects women to that point in this locker room that I'm about to try to talk to or do a story on and, you know, have to see on a day-to-day basis? And I think that's where some of the, you know, feeling of discomfort comes from is there just might be really shitty people in there. And that's not great. And I think just further

that, you know, sharing the photo is despicable. Taking the photo to begin with is despicable. Like, you talk about consensual sex that woman did not consent to either of those things happening. So there's, there was a non-consensual aspect to what he did. And so it's not, you know, it's not assault. It's not, like, it's not the most severe case of non-consensual, but it's, it's non-consensual. He didn't, he took her photo without asking her. He shared it without asking her, without asking her, telling her. And that's not okay because every aspect of a sexual encounter should be consensual on both sides. And this girl, she has to, she still lives in that town. He left. She still lives there. That hockey team, those guys who probably saw those photos of her are still there. Who knows

who else shared that photo? Like she has to live with the fact that there are people in her city, in her town that she might know, that might know her family have seen her in this compromising position. and that's just such an invasion of privacy. And I mean, it's embarrassing. Like you talk about women having being anxious or self-conscious, all these different things. I mean, that's not great for somebody's mental well-being, walking around your town, wondering who has seen those photos. Like, it's, it's incredibly damaging.

Yeah. And I think, you know, just, I think we need to do a better job, Arpin, as men in the hockey industry, of holding these young men accountable. And this is what makes it disappointing is that the guy is drafted in the first round. So I don't feel like we as a hockey community held this man to any young man to any degree of standard.

And I think what really upsets me is I see all the replies and Haley alluded to them of, oh, he's just young, he's a teenager, he makes a mistake. You know, what really aggravates me is, you know, young women don't exist in the world to be teachable moments. Like young women don't agree. exist in the world to be your learning experience. I'm sorry. And we need to cut this bullshit out

of the hockey world. We really do. And I think, Arpin, here's what I think should happen. There should be from the junior level up, if not even sooner, maybe even in, when we're talking about 12, 13 year old kids. The hockey world needs to have some sort of mandatory training on consent, respective women, et cetera. Let's fold it into, the grassroots element of this game because this is clearly an issue in our game. And I think, Arpit, if we can do that with kids that are 12, 13, 14, teach them how to treat women, teammates, people of different backgrounds, whatever it is. If we can fold that into the fabric of the game,

then we're not going to have these moments where we're trying to teach somebody after the fact. We do too much teaching. You know, we got to be proactive. We're too reactive. And I think that's, to me, that's what I'd like to see. The OHL, all the leagues come together and say, we teach kids and coaches about concussions, and we teach them about all these things,

and we don't teach them how to treat women. And it's wrong. It really is. Well, here's the issue I have with all this, because, you know, I was, you know, Logan Mayu himself said that I hope to be able to, you know, I hope to be able to use what I did for good, tell people that this is not what you should do. The Canadians said that they hope to make him a better person. My problem with all of that is that, you know, and I mentioned it in the piece. I asked Mark

Bergeret, what do you say at all the young women who are fans of your team who are extremely disappointed right now? And like I finished, the question came out of my mouth and I knew I worded it wrong because it shouldn't only be young women that are upset by this. It should be all of us. And I personally, I was disappointed and frankly outraged that they made this pick. But the point I'm trying to make, to your point, is that if Logan Mayu wants to go out and tell a bunch of young men who I think are the real issue, that the real wrong message is being sent to young men, because this young man did something that was reprehensible. And now he says he wants to go out and talk about his story so that it doesn't happen again,

except all these young men saw what he did and he still got drafted into the first round and the Canadians still took him and he's still playing for this iconic franchise and nothing bad happened as a result. So what's the lesson that you're sending to all these young men out there who might have seen what he did instead of him going undrafted or being, you know, in a best case, being drafted far later than he should have been. But frankly, the real answer should have been he shouldn't have been drafted that weekend. but according to several people, including the Canadians themselves,

they believed he was going to go in the second round. But still, I don't know how much weight Logan Mayu's message can send if he close out and says, hey, don't be like me, except look at me. I'm making millions of dollars in the NHL as a first round pick. You know, kind of, it's a conflicting message. And so I agree with you that this needs to be nipped in the butt. It's a part of hockey culture that goes way that's set in stone or established far before kids reach the NHL.

But Logan Mayhew's story could have been, it could have been a great tool to teaching kids not to behave this way. And instead, it turned into a tool where you could be like, hey, you could do whatever the hell you want. You're still going to get drafted in the NHL because NHL teams don't care what you do. As long as you could shoot a puck in the net, that's all they care about.

So behave in whatever manner you feel as appropriate as you can be as inconsiderate. and just be flat out disrespectful and not take this other person's feelings and dignity into account in your actions. And an NHL team is going to look at that. And as long as you can fill the other side of it, as long as you can hit a guy really hard or shoot a puck really hard or skate really fast, they will disregard all that other stuff that you did.

And Logan might use the poster child for that right now. Well, that's well said. Arpin, we'll leave it there. And I just, you know, I think, you know, probably on behalf of everyone at the athletic, the way you handled your stuff on the weekend, those two columns you wrote, you managed to do it Arpin with, and it's a hard, it's a tightrope to walk. It's doing something with sensitivity and empathy, but also bringing the heat and being critical and being passionate. And you did that.

And I hope you're very proud of the way you handled this story on the weekend because I think five, 10, 15 years from now, we're going to look back at the columns you wrote this weekend. and we're going to use that as kind of the, you know, the stories of record. So listen, we really do appreciate you dropping by and chatting about this a little bit further with Haley and I here on the athletic hockey show. It was my pleasure, guys. I appreciate that. And maybe next time we could talk about something that's a little more fun.

Yeah, absolutely. That sounds like a plan. Okay. All right. That was a terrific conversation, Haley, that we had with Arpun. And we're going to stay in that same division because, you know, the Buffalo Sabres, were a team that I think a lot of people were looking at thinking they're going to make some big moves, and they did, right? Rastas Ristelainen traded and Sam Ryanhardt traded.

But the one guy that didn't get moved, at least at the time of this recording, is Jack Eichael. Let's bring in John Vogel. Does a terrific job covering the Buffalo Sabres Forest with the athletic. So right now is John Vogel sleeping with his cell phone next to him all night, ringer on just in case this deal goes down at like two in the morning? I've actually been doing that since Locker Cleanout Day when Jack Eichael pretty much made it sound like he was ready to go. So, yeah, no, it's been a long two months. But I think it's got to be the next couple days, I would assume. I mean, the number of suitors are going to drop in a hurry once people start signing guys and that 10 million cap hit that Jack Eichael carries.

I mean, some teams can fit it now, but they might not in a couple days. Now, I guess selfishly because I cover the Calgary Flames. We've heard from Elliot Friedman. Lots of insiders have been talking about the flames interest. Even months ago, I wrote a piece about the flames. Would obviously be interested in a player like Jack Eichel, but what's it going to cost? And it sounds like over this last stretch,

the flames have kind of been in and out. So they'll pop in, see what the price is and be like, no, we're good. Pop back out and they'll pop back in. What is that asking price that is making this take so long to your understanding? The Sabres have been very quite. about what they're asking about, but our friend Mike Russo over the weekend, Minnesota's been deep in talks with the savers about Jack Eichael. They definitely have a need for him. He said Mike Russo

reported the asking price is four pieces who equate the first round assets. So that could be guys who were picked in the first round. It could be a couple first round picks. So they're asking a lot. They've been asking a lot for a while, which is the only reason he's still here. Jack's ready to leave. That's been obvious for two months now. He's wanted to leave. He's wanted to leave. of the savers four days after a locker cleanout date. Kevin Adams made a point, we're going to go forward with people who want to be here. So obviously, if the captain doesn't want to be here, you can't go forward with them after saying this repeatedly for two months. So in the next two days, either the savers asking price is going to have to come down from that four first round asset thing or someone's going to have

step up and do it. Obviously, Jack Eichel is a superstar when he's healthy. He's, you know, an elite, elite number one center, but is that asking price or reported asking price unreasonable? If it was, this was last summer, I'd say no, because he was eighth and MVP voting. He was more than a point per game player. He's one of leading goals scores and leading assist guys. So like you said, when he's healthy, he is an elite top five center in the NHL. But we didn't see that this year. It started right away. He broke a rib and before training camp started, that hampered him. And then he suffered the herniated disc in his neck. And we don't know the situation with that. His agents, I've been in some pretty regular contact with them, but they,

that's the one thing they won't touch. All they said, his agent sent me a message the other day. Jack feels great. Now, that could be, he feels great for a guy who's healthiest could be. Feels great for a guy who still has a herniated disc. He feels great because he's sitting on the beach, sipping a margarita. I mean, they've been very quiet about exactly what his health situation is. So that's what Scott some teams worried I'm figuring. You know, John, I think it's interesting. You said right four days after locker clean out, Kevin Adams said, we'll go forward with guys who want to be here. And then Kevin Adams spoke again on draft weekend.

And the tone was kind of like, well, I guess we could start the season with Jack Eichel here, right? Like, so come on. Is there any scenario, John, that Jack Eichael is at training camp third week of September in Buffalo? No, no. I think he said that because Friday when he talked, it was very obvious he'd had enough for the Jack Eichael. situation. It was Friday night, a little after midnight. There was a report that they had traded Sam Reinhart to Florida, but there was a lot of glitches going on. So it wasn't official. So he couldn't talk about that. So that had him a little flustered at the news conference. But there was

three or four questions, of course, about Jack Eichael. And you can tell by his body language, he's, he's had enough. I mean, there's a lot of, as we said, we've talked about this and written about this almost had nauseam. And he's, he's had enough. So I wrote that. I mean, Kevin Adams done with Jack Eichael. It was obvious in his words and his tone. So the next day, he had to come out and say, no, hey, that was, no, we'd more than be ready to welcome him back on the opening day training camp. And then yesterday, his agent said, no, Jack's getting traded soon. That's what we've been working towards. So he can't, like I said, he can't carry those two messages where we're only going forward to people who want to be here. And then, oh, well, except for that guy, who makes $10 million.

Well, he's fine. Even though he doesn't want to be here, we'll put him in the corner of the locker room. Yeah, that's not going to work. And maybe, you know, just I guess looking back to this weekend, we already touched on the Sam Reinhart trade and in your piece over the weekend. It said this was a no-brainer. Reinhard is one year from unrestricted free agency and wasn't going to resign in Buffalo following six seasons of pain. Can you maybe just give us your thoughts on the Ryanhart deal and Rasmus Ristelainen

and kind of what this means for the Sabres, you know, including what they got in return for these pieces? when you balance the two trades out, it was good. It was a good return. When you look at the wrist of lining, maybe they got too much for a guy who's not been a very good defenseman, to be honest. And then when you look at the Reinhart one on its own, they probably didn't get enough for a guy who scored 20 goals plus in five of his six seasons. But as Kevin Adams said, just going with what the market gives. Right now, the big defensemen were asking, we're getting more and wingers weren't getting as much. So I don't think Kevin Adams went in with

the Sam Reinhart deal and said, oh, give me the worst deal. And I'll, pass up some good ones. So I think that was the best deal he could get for Sam Reinhart. And it goes along with the things. Razmus Ristice to line and on Locker Clean Out day said, hey, I'm ready to go, which is something he had said in previous years. Sam Reinhart, he was asked during the Zoom call after the trade, whether he had asked for a trade out of Buffalo. And he said, well, I don't want to get in. What happens behind closed doors, stays behind closed doors. Obviously, you could have just said no. So that was two of the three guys that the savers knew weren't right, weren't here and they didn't want to be here anymore six seasons of pain it's been but not fun they

had they have obviously had a lot to do with that they were three of the core players but yeah i mean they've got two of the three out of town and jack's jack's next so it's funny we're deep into this conversation with you and we haven't even brought up owen power it's like oh yeah buffalo had the first overall pick on the weekend so uh usually john when somebody gets taken first overall there is a legitimate chance they could play in the National Hockey League that following season, like right off the hop. What's the plan for Owen Power? And I mean, is there any chance he could potentially, you know, give it a go in the NHL this year? Is it better he just goes back to Michigan? If I were to put odds on it, I'd say it's 80% chance he's going back to Michigan, maybe even 90.

It sounded like that was what he wanted to do before the draft, no matter which team took him. and the Sabres head of amateur scouting, Jerry Forden, he was a college coach. He was the head of collegiate scouting until this year when he got a promotion. He said yesterday, hey, I've seen what sending guys back to a second year of college can do, especially defensemen. He mentioned Kale McCar and Charlie McAvoy and Zach Wrenski, and they went back to another year of school, dominated at college and came back and they were ready for the NHL.

And I think that's what the Sabers want to do with Owen Power. It's funny. You guys mentioned the buzz. Hey, we didn't even talk about the first. round pick. And that's kind of the situation in Buffalo. I mean, normally when they, when they drafted Jack Eichael second and when they drafted Rasmus Dahlane first, the draft was the talk of the town. Like, hey, we're getting these great guys. Right now, it's just an afterthought almost. I mean, yeah, great. We're going to get another prospect who should be good. But 10 years of

losing is really weighed on this team. The fan base has seen prospect after prospect get billed is, okay, this is the guy that's going to help this core and this guy. And it hasn't happened. So there's a combination of so much going on with the big names in town getting traded that they just, yeah, the draft was almost an afterthought this weekend. Okay, so here's a question for you looking ahead the next year. It'll be a 32 team league. If you look at the very bottom of the teams that a lot of people think will finish near the bottom of their standings, Buffalo would be one, maybe Columbus has, you know, gotten rid of some

talent, you know, Detroit is still kind of in that spot. There's, you know, maybe a California team in there. Do the Buffalo Sabres finish 30 second overall? If you were to look at this next season, John, and give an honest assessment of where you think the Sabres finish, is 32nd about right, or do you see them maybe finishing ahead of a team or two? No, 32nd would be a surprise if they're anything above 30 second, to be honest. A, they don't have a goalie at the moment.

Linus Allmark is an unrestricted free agent. They're trying to sign him. But if I were him, I'd be looking at the market, which I'm sure he's 48 hours. away he's going to do that. They don't have a goalie. They don't have, they need two. They don't even have one. The top center at the moment's going to be Casey Middlestad, who had a nice finish to the year, but he's still only 22. The number two center is going to be Dylan Cousins, who, for a rookie, he did good, but obviously he's only 20. He's only at 13 points. He's not ready

to be a number two center, but he's going to be the number two center. So yeah, this team is just, they know it too. They're building for the future. They care more about 20, 23, 24, then 2021, 22. And it's going to show on the ice. Yeah, there's a lot of, most of this core is 18 to 22 years old. They're just not ready yet. Obviously, they're going to get some valuable experience this year. And then a couple of years that should help.

But yeah, they're not going to be a very good team this year. All right, John, hey, listen, the only thing Haley and I hope for is that that trade doesn't come down at 2 in the morning while you're dead asleep and woken up. So hopefully it comes during business hours. but we appreciate you taking the time here on the athletic hockey show to give us the very latest in the Buffalo Sabres. And I'm sure this is going to be a busy week ahead for you. But thanks for joining us, John. Oh, it's always my pleasure.

And I just hope it, personally, I just hope it happens before August because it's already taken up May, June, and July. I don't want another August. I just hope it doesn't happen today because it's my birthday. Oh, yeah. I'd rather not. All right, Haley. Great conversation there with John Vogel, who does a terrific. job covering the Sabres. Just want to get your thoughts real quick because the team that you cover

the Calgary Flames, Haley, is they're in the market for Jack Eichael. There's certainly been linked to him. So when you hear John Vogel tell us and our listeners that, hey, the asking prices for pieces and those pieces should be somewhat equivalent to first round value. What goes through your mind? Well, it's a lot. And I liked what John said because I think I agree with him. If this was last season and Jack Eichel's coming off of a great year. Four first rounders, you hear that. For a player of that caliber, you go, it's a lot, but you know what? It's Jack Eichel coming off a great year.

Let's do this. You hear it now and you're a little bit, I guess, timid about it. I just, especially, you know, we've heard the reports as well that the Sabres have been holding his medical records close to chest too. I think teams have requested to look at them, but they won't let teams look at them unless there's a serious offer on the table. So how are you supposed to go and give up the equivalent of four first round assets for a player that you don't even know what's going on?

Like, can he play next season? Can he be back to 100% next season? What version of Jack Eichol are we getting? Are we getting an injured, angry, doesn't want to be, I mean, he doesn't have any trade control. but does he, if you trade him to a team he doesn't want to go to, is he going to be unhappy? I just think there's a lot of unknowns and question marks when it comes to Jack Eichel that for the Flames perspective, I would be tentative to give up that much because I don't believe if you're the Calgary Flames, you're one player away from contending if you're giving up

four pieces. Because if you're the flames and you're thinking of what could get the Buffalo Sabres to pull the trigger on this deal. As great as Johnny Gudrow is, he's one year away from UFA. And he, I mean, if they're going to be 32nd in the league next year, he's probably not going to resign. So you're probably not looking at a Johnny Gudrow. You're probably looking at a Matthew Kuchuk, one of your first round pick prospects

like Conor, a first rounder, and then maybe another first round pick, or someone like Yuso Valamaki or Dylan Dube, like you're wiping multiple. roster players and future assets off your plate for Jack Eichael. So you're filling a massive hole with an elite number one center. Um, but how many holes are you opening and moving out all these assets? And like I said, I just don't know if the flames are one trade away, um, from being competitive if that means they're giving up that much. And that's probably why we've seen the flames reportedly be in and out on this process. The door opened behind you. And I'm really afraid for you. Is there a ghost? That stupid cat of mine. Is there a ghost in your house?

No, it isn't a cat. Pickles the cat just to interrupt it. His name is Pickles? Oh. Not named after Mark Edward Vlasic though. Oh, so cute. But yeah, those are my thoughts on Jack Eichol. And Pickles the cat obviously agrees because he's come running to listen. Yeah. Pickles is all in on this. Okay. So I got to ask you about, you know, we didn't see Eichael get moved. but we saw some significant trades on the weekend. We'll get into this in multiple choice badness, what you thought was most surprising. Seth Jones signs for 9.5 in Chicago.

Kail McCar signs for 9. You surprised that that happened, that we had a situation where Kale McCar's A-A-V is lower than Seth Jones? That surprised me. And do you think at all that that potentially sets the market for Dougie Hamilton this week? Yeah, well, it's interesting because I think, and I sent this to you not too long ago, and it was something that I was going to do with Ryan Clark when I was on the Sends beat and Ryan was on the Aves beat, we were both really curious to look at how Thomas Shabbat's eight times eight contract would set the market for the next wave of defensemen coming out of their ELCs. And we've really seen that, you know, with Kail McCar, with Heiskinin, their deals were, you know, more. significant that Thomas Shabbat's because I think their camp. Like it just, his contract laid the foundation for these players to say, look at what Shabbat

got a year ago or two years ago, excuse me, look at where our players are at. I think those players, and no disrespect to Thomas Shabbat, but Kail Makar is, has a higher ceiling. He is a better player than Thomas Shabbat. Miro Heiskenen had a great season. And they, those, their agents probably set the table and said, look what he got. look at what our guys can do tack on a little bit more. And I think we really saw that contracts at the table. When it comes to Seth Jones, that was a lot of money for a guy who is coming off of

not great year. So it's difficult to compare because I think I look at Cal McCar's deal and you think that's great. You know, he's locked in there with the abs. He even posted about it on Instagram or Twitter, you know, how excited he is to be there. I think Joe Sackick, you know, they struck a balance of giving him a huge deal while also not breaking the bank and knowing that they are quite tight to the cap and they need to sign Philip Grubauer and they need to sign Gabriel Landisog still. And Nathan McKinnon's really affordable deal isn't going to last forever either. So I think that contract is great for both sides. I don't know what happened with the Seth Jones deal. And if you're Dougie Hamilton, you're probably looking at that contract and saying, well,

you know, I was pretty high up there in the Norris voting. I had to be a lot of another great season in Carolina. Like, why can I not demand this plus more? Maybe the team that he ends up signing with will say, like, that contract's a bit of an anomaly. Chicago's doing whatever. No, we're not going that high. But if you're Dougie Hamilton in his camp, you have some, you have a really set contract comparable that is very, very high. So I'll be interested to see what Doug you'll be able to get on the open market. Will it be an overpayment? Maybe, depending on how many teams are interested and how many teams are willing to go that high and really depending what Dougie Hamilton's looking for. Is he looking to sign the most lucrative contract on the open

market? I mean, he could, but I really, I really don't know. Their camp has been pretty close to chest with everything, but that's some big, those were some, Friday was weird. Whatever was going on like Friday, Saturday with these trades and these contracts, I was like, oh my God, like, I actually said in my story about the flames, I was like, I know Flames fans really want Bradtree Living to do something, but it's probably a good thing he didn't get involved in whatever happened on Friday afternoon because it just got wild very quickly. There was so much money and assets thrown around. It was very hard to keep up with everything. And there was always one clear winner and one clear loser. They were very lopsided and a lot of teams got saddled with huge contract.

So what that means for Dougie, I mean, he's probably going to be in for a payday regardless based on his body of work over the last couple years with the Cains. But it all just comes down to does he want to find some stability in staying Carolina? Or does he want to go and make his money? And that's his right to go and do as an unrestricted free agent. So it'll be interesting to see. This is going to be another busy week, I think. Well, and you know what?

That sets the table for us in the segue to talk about Zach Hyman, because there is a guy that absolutely is going to go out and get paid. And it looks like it's a done deal. He'll go to the Edmonton Oilers. Look, Haley, Zach Hyman's 28 years old, has, 21 goals is his high. He's never hit 50 points. The Edmonton Oilers are about to get on Zach Hyman

on a long-term deal at pretty good money. My question is, and whether that comes into five and a half or six or whatever the number ends up being, there's going to be people that suggest the Edmonton Oilers are making a mistake. by overpaying Zach Hyman. The counter argument is Zach Hyman's

exactly the type of player the Edmonton Oilers need. So how do we look at the fact that Hyman is on the precipice of signing at Edmonton? Is this a good deal? Is this going to be a mistake? You know, I think that there's,

like you can be talked into this being a good deal for the Edmonton Oilers because everything that Zach Hyman brings to the table, look at what he did with the Toronto Maple Leafs. There's a reason why the stars

liked having Hyman on their line. He gets into the gritty areas. He makes plays happen. He brings that energy. But it's not just intangibles with Zach Hyman. He's also shown that he can actually bury the puck in the opportunities. He does get to, you know, to shoot if it's Mitch Marner making a play to him or or him making a play himself.

You know, he was on pace for back-to-back 60-point seasons over the last two years if memory serves. And like, that's not just some right. wing grinder who creates space for the stars. He's not, I wouldn't call him a star in his own right, but he's a good player in his own right. And he's probably going to get paid as so. And I do think in the latter half of that contract, it will end up being an overpayment because that style, you know, he could be, look, he missed significant time due to knee injuries over the last couple seasons as he ages, are those knee problems going to come back? You know, there's always going to be age-related regression with players, too. I know that the flames, I reported this a couple

of weeks ago before Edmonton really came out as the frontrunner, but the flames were, there was mutual interest between the Calgary Flames and Zach Hyman's camp, but it was my understanding that that interest was to a point. And I don't think the flames were very interested in Zach Hyman. I think he would be a great right winger to play with somebody like Johnny Goodrow, who's a great playmaker and Hyman could go into the gritty areas and do all the work. But the flames weren't interested in going where the Edmonton Oilers are going with the reported contract that he's going to sign. So I think, look, I think the Oilers probably see him as somebody who could be that perfect linemate for Connor McDavid and could maybe help them finally get over the hump and, you know, be more

competitive. So if that's the price that they're willing to pay for what they believe will be successful for their team, you know, I think there's a lot of fans and people who can get behind that. But at the end of the day, like you said, he's 28 years old and signing a 28 year old to a seven-year contract, you know, it's not going to be a great deal by the end of it. And that's not, you know, a disrespect to Zach Hyman because I think he's a great player. But he's almost, he's pushing 30 and that contract's going to take him into his mid-30s. So it's just a natural thing to regress, but he's still going to be making a ton of money by that time.

All right, Haley, as we always do. We're wrapping up the Monday show with a little multiple choice madness. We've got a couple questions here for us to tackle, including the fact that, as you alluded to here in this last segment, boy, there was just a flurry of activity in the NHL, a whole bunch of trades that went down. Actually, I kind of had the vibes from that day in 2016 where, like, it was Suban for Weber and Hall for Larson and Stanley.

Like everything was going on. So here's my question, though. From last week, Haley, what was the most surprising trade that went down in the NHL? Last week, was it A, that kind of monster deal involving Arizona and Vancouver that sent Oliver Ekman Larson up to Vancouver? Was it B. Carolina Hurricanes trading their Calder Trophy nominee in goal in Alex Nadelcovic, trading him to the Detroit Red Wings. is it C, Philadelphia Flyers giving up a lot. First round pick involved to get Rasmus Ristola line in from Buffalo, or is it the sticking with Philadelphia?

Philly sending Jake Vorichek to Columbus for Cam Atkins and Haley. What was the most surprising trade in the NHL last week? I'm tempted to say that just the Philadelphia Flyers' body of work was one of the more surprising ones because they also had the Shane Gostis-Spare deal. That was basically just like a salary cap dump. Um, like they made a ton of moves, um, to load off players. They're in this kind of, you know, similar to the flames.

They're in this, you know, we had a really disappointing season. We thought we were going to be better things need to change. And like they're really changing some stuff. So I'm tempted to just say everything that the flyers did, but I think the Carolina hurricanes sending Alex Nadelcovic to Detroit was probably one of this most surprising ones. And I mean, the package for Ekman Larson was huge. And I remember I saw that.

I tweeted that little meme that says, like, mom, come pick me up. I'm scared because I was like, what is happening right now? Like, there's, what is happening? Everything just got so crazy. But then Dadelcovich one was, was quite surprising to me and not in a sticker shock kind of way, like the Ekman-Larsen deal. It was surprising because of, you know, just how much we were talking about this, this young goalie's crazy year and this path. Like, is he now the Carolina Hurricanes number one goaltender? and he was put on waivers, and then he ends up coming back,

and he ends up stealing the starters crease and being great in the playoffs. Like, it was a great story this season, and he's a very, very strong goaltender. So I think a lot of people thought the Keynes had their, finally had their number one goalie because that has been a position of question for the organization. So that was really shocking to me. Again, it's been kind of explained they were afraid of, because he has arbitration. rights and, you know, the ask was a little bit higher than they were willing to go and they were, you know, afraid to go to arbitration because they didn't want to end up overpaying for a

goaltender because he probably would have got a pretty decent arbitration award. So they just made the trade for Jonathan Bernier and the pick from Detroit. But, you know, I understand that. The whole arbitration stuff, you know, in this flat cap world, teams are a little bit timid to go to because they don't want to get locked into a high award. But still, it was still really surprising. and that was just another another moment where I think people were like

Steve Eisenman, man, like this guy is all over it. So long story short, I'm going with Nadelcovich to Detroit. You know what? I'm taking the Philadelphia trade, and this might sound weird, the Vorecheck for Atkinson.

And I'll tell you why. It's because it was like a legitimate hockey trade. It was like a one-for-one trade that wasn't like, oh, by the way, they're dumping this much salary. And then they're like, this was like a, actual hockey trade? Like, what have we traded you

one player for another player? And I think there's a one year difference, but like the amount of money isn't that, it was refreshing. It was like, hey, teams are trading players one for one in a hockey trade. So I love that. I wish more teams did it. So I'll take that. Okay, on the question number two, Haley,

fallible choice madness. What happens to Gabriel Landiscag this week? Is it A, finds a way to re-sign and stay in Denver as a member of the Avalanche or B, signs elsewhere as a free agent. I'll go first on this one. Haley, I say he finds a way and he stays in Denver. And I think maybe it's just a one-year deal or something.

I think if you spent 10 years with a franchise like Landis Cog has and you're the captain of that team and you're knocking on the door to win the Stanley Cup and Kell McCar has just come back and you got Nate McKinnon and you got all these pieces, doesn't it? Don't you probably kind of feel like you might have unfinished business? And maybe you don't sign a four or five-year deal. But maybe you sign the one or two-year deal and you're like, I'm going to give this a world. So I'm going to say somehow, some way Gabe Landiscag pulls his damn coast and he ends up sticking around. Is that Pickles the Cat coming back? Yes. Can we see him?

No. Oh. Okay. Yeah, no, I agree with you, Ian. I think, you know, we've heard from Elliot Friedman again that, you know, he believes or he's heard that things have kind of had gotten a little bit personal with those negotiations. because all the things that you said, you know, he's been the captain since he was 19 years old, all the time that he spent with the team. And it seems like his ask is pretty high. And, you know, maybe there we're thinking, you know, you've been with us for so long. Why are you trying to break the bank in a flat cap world?

And he's probably saying, well, I've been here for so long, I deserve to get paid. So it's a difficult situation between the two sides. But I agree with you. I think that they find a way to get Gabriel Landisog to stay. again, if he's looking to make the most lucrative, get the most lucrative contract in the world, I don't know if they do make it work, but, you know, I know Joe Sackick said just a couple of days ago that they're really hopeful that they can get Gabriel Landisog and Philip Grubauer under contract before they become unrestricted free agents. And maybe he test the waters and maybe, you know, he can't make the most lucrative deal as a UFA and maybe he circles back. I really don't know how this one's going to play out, but I think I would like to see them work it out. Okay, next question.

Multiple choice. Madness here. What has a better chance of happening next season? A, the Seattle Cracken win a playoff round in their first season in the NHL or B, Tampa pulls off the three-peat as Stanley Cup champions. Haley, we kind of have a rough idea of what the Cracken roster and lineup might look like. Could make some trades and free agent signings.

But based on everything you know right now in late July. What has a better chance of happening? The Cracken win a playoff round where Tampa wins the Stanley Cup again. That's a good one. I don't know. I feel like the 2021-22 iteration of the Tampa Bay Lightning is going to look quite different

just because for all the jokes about being over the cap, they are very, very tight, if not over the salary cap limit. So I think there's going to be a ton of changes. We've already seen Barclay-Gudrow leave, Blake Coleman's going to hit UFA. They're going to have to move some significant pieces. So while they're still going to have, you know,

we assume they're going to have Braden Point and Nikita Kutrov and Stephen Stamcoast and Andre Vasselowski, that's still a really elite core group of players, but a lot of the window dressing is going to be different. And some of those pieces were, you know, quite critical in what they've done in the Stanley Cup playoffs the last couple years. So I think Tampa is going to be competitive, but I I don't know if they're going to three Pete. Right now, it's really hard to say that the Seattle Cracken's going to win a playoff round,

but the Pacific Division's not going to be particularly strong next year. Maybe Edmonton with their signings ends up being competitive, but you've got the Vegas Golden Knights up at the top, and the rest of the teams are just kind of, we don't know what they're going to be next year. So the Cracken could maybe sneak in, and as this year showed, all you have to do is get in. So I think it's more likely that Seattle wins a playoff round between the two, but I don't know if I see either of them being all that likely. Yeah.

No, yeah, I'll tend to agree with you. I think that that Pacific Division is so weak that the only automatic playoff team, like for sure lock it in as Vegas. And then after that, I think Edmonton's a playoff team, but then even then, like Calgary is right on the bubble. Vancouver might be. Listen, Vancouver might be a playoff team in that division. And then Seattle could squeak in or they could.

And imagine their scenario where maybe Seattle plays a, Vancouver in the in the first round or you never know how it could all play out you never know so but I do think that that's more likely I think Tampa Bay winning back-to-back cups in the cap era is remarkable winning three in a row would be I don't I just I don't know that that happened so I'll agree with you okay Haley last question in multiple choice madness as you may have heard off the top of the show it's Haley's birthday today and I decided to look it up and see what celebrities does Haley celebrate her birthday with? Who does she share a birthday with? So here's my question, which of these people should Haley be most proud of sharing a birthday with on July the 26th? Is it A, Sebastian Aho of the

Carolina Hurricanes? I was kind of hoping it was the other Sebastian Aho of the Islanders, but it's not. It's the real Sebastian Ajo. I get so confused all the time. Like, wait, when did he leave Carolina? Oh, never mind, you idiot. Sebastian Ajo. It's just the other one. So, okay, so the following people are born on the same day as Haley, who should she be most proud of sharing the birthday with? Is it A, Sebastian A. B, Mick Jagger. Z. Sandra Bullock. D. Helen Mirren.

E. Jeremy Piven or option F. This is hot garbage. And Haley should, Haley might arguably be the best person on this list. And this is a lame list of celebrity birthdays. Yeah, Haley, I'm going first on this one. You got to be proud. Listen, Mick Jagger's the front man of a pretty successful band. I think that's the name I would be.

If I were you, I'd be like, I share a birthday with Mick Jagger. But I think you're also a Jeremy Piven fan too, right? I am an entourage fan. Yeah. It's true. It's why I wouldn't slide into Connolly's DMs. Exactly. But I think you should be proud.

You should be proud. By the way, I looked it up. There is not a single player born on your day, a hockey player, that has ever appeared in a thousand games in the NHL. No one, it's not a great birthday for NHL players. I think there's an argument that Sbashinajo might be, maybe the best. But anyway, that's my pick for you as Mick Jagger.

Yeah, no, I agree. I'm a huge Rolling Stones fan. That was my mom and dad's like favorite band. And their wedding song was Wild Horses. And we got tickets to go see them when they had the big concert at the Boots and Hearts Campground. So I'm a big Rolling Stones kind of gal, you know, the type that will wear like the Rolling Stones band T-shirt and actually be able to name like two of their songs, more than two of their songs. So no, it's McJager.

I love Sandra Bullock, big entourage fan too, but it's always going to be Mick Jagger. And I knew that. When you had that question, I was just like, it's Mick Jagger before you even read them. It's like, I already know that I share my birthday with Mick Jagger. He's at the top of the list. So good list. and it was not heart. I can't speak.

I'm getting all excited about my birthday. It was not hot garbage. It was a good list. All right. We'll leave it there. As soon as you said your parents' wedding song was a Rolling Stones, I was like, oh my gosh, is she going to say you can't always get what you want? Can you imagine how?

That can't be anybody's wedding song, can it? That was my first thought. How uncomfortable would that be? Yeah. Okay, I'm going to cross my fingers for you because you've got the rest of your day. it's your birthday. I'm going to cross my fingers that the Calgary Flames don't do anything so big that it requires you to potentially, you know, have the rest of your birthday are ruined.

But hey, listen, again, happy birthday on behalf of all the listeners here. I'm sure they're probably going to fill your timeline with some tweets. But listen, enjoy the rest of the day and have a great week. Yeah, I actually am not a huge birthday person, so I hope people don't. I like to stay invisible. So don't wish me happy. No, just kidding. Thank you.

I appreciate that. And I'm going to go get myself a coffee. There we go. From my friend Ian. Yeah, that's right. Well, you're guilty of us. You told us we had to get you a coffee on your birthday. I know.

Like, I'm not a huge birthday person, but I also, for everyone listening, we have a little group chat with Ian and our producer Chris. And in the group chat, I said, hey, guys, Monday's my birthday. Who's going to Uber eats me as Starbys? Who's going to send me a coffee for my birthday? And it was Ian. We're going to shame producer Chris. It was Ian who did it.

Okay. By the way, we don't have to ask you how old you are because you just referred to it as Starbies. Starbies. We're going to leave it there. All right, folks, I hope you had a lot of fun listening to us today. We had a lot of fun putting this show together. A reminder of the athletic hockey show, we're five days a week right now coming up. It's the Team USA edition on Tuesday.

Custins and Gentilly, make sure you check them out. And if you're not a subscriber with us with The Athletic, you can get a subscription for just $3.99 a month when you visit Theathletic. I'm sorry.