The Athletic Hockey Show - Nathan MacKinnon becomes NHL's highest paid player, Zdeno Chara, PK Subban and Keith Yandle retire, Mike Grier's rebuild in San Jose

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

On the season premiere of The Athletic Hockey Show USA with Craig Custance and Sean Gentille, discuss Nathan MacKinnon's monster 8 year extension with Colorado, making him the highest paid player in the NHL with an AAV of 12.6 million a season. The guys celebrate the careers of NHL defensemen Zdeno Chara, P.K. Subban and Keith Yandle who retired from their playing careers on Tuesday and we look back on the NHL's media availability in Vegas with the games top stars and praise MacKinnon and Jonathan Huberdeau who stole the show and Connor McDavid who missed the mark with his vanilla, polarizing comments on the Hockey Canada scandal.Mike Grier the new General Manager in San Jose joins in segment two to discuss the rebuild in San Jose, trading away Brent Burns, the infectious energy of Tomas Hertl, being a trailblazer in hockey as the first black GM in the game and Mike talks about his brother Chris who manages the NFL's Miami Dolphins, and if he is signing Joe Thornton to a PTO. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Oh, listen to that new music. New music, Sean. Same cast of characters back for the American show for another season. Brother, brother, we're growing up. We're not listening to guitar anymore. Oh, we got classical. What is that technically?

Those strings? Those strings? Those are strings. I'm a big strings guy, actually. That's ported over from a 1950s Disney movie of some sort. I think I might have been Fantasia. Probably. I think I heard that.

They play that at the Bellagio Fountains. Oh, I love the Bull. Oh, we're going to get to the Blasio Fountains in Vegas in a second. This is the Tuesday edition, the All-American, your favorite, I know it is, listener, edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. I'm your host, co-host, if you can say. Craig Custin. Star of the show.

And this is starring, Sean Gentilly. Great show. I mean, we're back. We're excited. We have a great lead-off guest. San Jose Sharks GM, Mike Greer is going to join us in segment two. He's got, boy, does he have his work cut out. Oh, man.

We haven't recorded Mike yet. We're doing that after this segment. I'm looking forward to it. And I think I'm just going to go back and forth between Ashton. asking him like, oh, wow, Thomas Hurtle. So nice, right? Great guy. And then be like, also, how are you going to do your job for the next five years?

Yeah, that's going to be the classic like compliment sandwich interview. Boy, boy, Thomas Hurtle, great kid. Great market. I love that. I love going to San Jose. That's going to be awesome when that team's good again. Also, have you looked at your cap-friendly page? But I wanted to start here.

A bunch of news drops as we're recording. Every defenseman from, I would say, my era of covering the league at a national level has retired today. Zedano Chara. Keith Yandel, P.K. Suvan. Some of our favorite people. Like, memorable moments. So we're going to get to the segment three. Your era?

That's how they all said, hey, let's get together. This is my era. Yeah. That's how, like, those were like the, like, there was a stretch where I was, you know. Also retiring. Larry Robinson. It's not my era. Sir Savard.

No. How old am I? I did feel old reading your story yesterday about the emo and punk songs that you test. A lot of those is brother. I hate to break it to you. A lot of those are old. We had people in the comments. First off, that was Arthur's idea.

And Arthur is older than, he's old. He's older than me. He's older than you. And there were like, there were Fugazi songs in there. like guy Pishado from Fugazi is like he's like 60 this wasn't targeted this wasn't targeted towards young people all the 90% of those songs came out when you were in in college yeah but it doesn't matter like you close the at 22 you close the book on new music as a human everyone knows the rules and then you just and that's it that's that so like maybe maybe if you're a coward I I think I closed the book when I was

about, I made it, I made it farther. I was probably like 32. Like that was targeted for, I would say, what, older millennials? That would be the target audience in that one. And you found it, by the way. Also, whoever runs a New York Times social media account must be an old millennial. I'm pretty sure that got some run on the New York Times homepage yesterday, which, you know, I don't know if I was paying attention to the news.

A little bit of a slow news day. big story of the afternoon was the Queen of England's funeral. And if you looked at that and scrolled a little bit farther down, you would see me into the bigger story. You would see me and Arthur and Charlie O'Connor trying to figure out which American football song applied to which team. It might have been your best work. It was Arthur's idea.

I was wondering about that. Can you believe it? I can. Arthur is Arthur's, Arthur's, Arthur. Arthur's an old punk. Yeah. And it worked. People loved it.

It sold a bunch of subscriptions and picked up by the New York Times. Hey, people like fun things and creativity, but also insight a little bit. I don't know. There's some. You had to work for it. It wasn't. It wasn't that creative. It's good.

Come on. Sean, I won't. So we haven't talked since you got back from Vegas. Sean Gentileeally covered one of my three favorite events on the NHL circuit. And this is the car wash. And if you don't know, the NHL Car Watch, this is where they bring typically the best player from each team. They try to. Or the most willing player.

Or the most available player. Most available players in some cases. But, I mean, Sidney Crosby was there. Connor McDavid was there. Nathan McKinman was there in the Al-McCarr. I mean, usually an all-star lineup. And, you know, you set up shop and they're just the players make their run. rounds. And what's fun about it is they're all generally in a good mood. Like it's it's,

they're back from summer. They haven't seen us in a while so they're not annoyed yet. In your case, they haven't seen people in the locker room in the years. So there's probably some of that. That was a big question. That was a big three line. Some guys brought up themselves. They're like, oh, man, I haven't seen you guys in a while. This is nice. It means like this is like the last step before things are going back to normal, which is like a thing that we heard multiple times. The fact, the normal being, like, them being mad at you, I want to go to the locker. Right.

Yeah. I'm sure whenever it's, you know, whenever it's March and the Winnipeg Jets, you know, have lost seven of 11. And Mark Shifley's getting hit in the head with cameras. It is. It is, it is, it is, uh, it is stall. He'll definitely be equally psyched to talk to everybody as he was a few days ago.

No cap in one think. But we'll get to that, too. Yeah. So Nathan McKinnon seemed to steal the show based on my followings from afar. What were your impressions? Is that a... Okay. So, yeah.

With McKinnon, I think there was some stuff. I think he was even better than the quotes kind of implied that he was. Yeah, okay. And I'm trying to find like a diplomatic, like, pod-friendly way to say this. A lot of the interview was spent with him being like, I'm not crazy. I swear like people think I'm people think I'm some kind of freak but you know I'm not and then he would go so he was trying to convince you yeah but he was he yeah he was also it's like he was also trying to convince himself and then he then this happened twice he

would say something like that and then he would immediately say something that just like completely invalidated like the first like the premise of the premise of him being right normal so yeah So he was like, and he brought up, I believe it was last year whenever, you know, someone finally asked about all the crazy rumors where he doesn't let, he doesn't let his teammates eat, you know, he makes him eat cauliflower pasta or whatever, all the weird nutritional stuff. He, I think that was at last year's car wash. He brings it up on his own.

He was like, you know, like everyone, everyone wants to talk about, you know, this, all the nutrition stuff. Like I'm policing, you know, guys. locker room at their stalls and like that's really that's really not the way it is and I'm paraphrasing here lightly and then he wait then he waited a tick and he was like but you know I just don't understand how guys can't like don't care about what they put their body in like whatever we're like okay like like there we look look you do what you want but pretty much you're a millionaire athlete you better eat cauliflower pasta that's that's basically that's basically that's basically what he said He was like, you got to be careful about which sports drinks you put in your body, right?

It's like biosteal only. This podcast is not sponsored by biosteal. Yes. The other, the other, we'll see what happens when it's released. The pinch. Yuck. It's like trash. The other, the other thing that he did, somebody asked, it was not me, about not winning a heart.

like basically like do you care about that anymore like when like I don't I don't it was a good time by the way I don't remember what was that when when he like he should have won it and didn't yeah that was it was it was uh the year before it was yeah I don't that's a good question actually yeah I mean it's happened yeah right right right that was the most excuse same thing where he's like you know yeah I'd like to win it but it's not something I think about all that much anymore you know it is it is what it is you can't you can't control it then he then he wade to beat and he was like but yeah you know like oh jim from philly doesn't doesn't have me in his top five so i don't wait one oh that's that's great that's great painful painful that's what that's what he said so

i got him rolling on that and i was like i was like yeah i don't think philly does he think like sports talk callers vote of that yeah right you know i was like uh i was like i don't think jim from Philly is here. He was like, he was like, he was a kind of Bob from Seattle. Like, well, like, whatever, whatever it is. Yeah, those guys, I, I guess, I guess I need to play better for those guys and then maybe, then maybe I'll win a hard trophy. Like, the standards for that award change every year. Like, he started getting, he started getting rolling and he had to stop himself. Like, he was like, oh, whatever. Like, da, do, do you know, but he had a bunch of good stuff. Yeah, he had a bunch of good stuff about Graskey and a bunch of good stuff about Crosby.

And, you know, seems lightened up enough to the point where he's willing to to actually, you know, almost show a personality, almost, almost, almost give you a glimpse. Like there's something about the way that he talks and about the way that he answers questions. And it might not be necessarily what he says. And this is the level of granularity, I think, that we're working on here sometimes. It's like talking to Nathan McKinnon, it seems like you're talking to a real person. Right. Like he gesticulates and his voice changes levels and he clearly gets like he like, he's like,

role he's like kind of demonstrative in a way that frankly a lot of those guys aren't so he's he's he's fun to talk to because to have an elite NHL player a top of tier 1B player if you're going to the to the to the tiers project yeah yeah of course you're not you abandoned it um it's rare to find a player that caliber who's actually kind of engaging and kind of honest and will give you something that is at least worth sharing with people. It doesn't happen all that often. So I think the combo of the player and the point in his career that he's at now, because he's won a cup, if you can scratch that off the list,

and the fact that we did catch him at the start of the season before stuff got really ugly. I think that combination led to some better answers, and that clearly was not the case for everybody. Yeah, I mean, so, I mean, there's a couple theories there. I mean, part of it's just personality. Nathan McKinnon's always been personality. I wonder how much of it. He's in Denver, right?

Like, he's not overwhelmed constantly. He hasn't been graded down by the media. I don't think. I mean, you deal with Peter Ball. That's fun. He's talking to Pete every day. Who wouldn't be in a good mood? That would be awesome.

You know, so there's that. And you're right. He's matured. He doesn't have to defer to anybody. He's won a cup. Like, he can, now he can be himself. I did want to ask you about Connor McDavid, who's kind of, when you talk about people who are maybe more reserved, you know, Connor has been living under a microscope since he was 14, where everything he says is magnified times a thousand.

So it's the opposite, right? Like he was the, and so I just, my fear with Connor is he's kind of, he's gone so far the other direction where he can't even, it just seems inhuman at times. I mean that in a way, like it just seems robotic. Like he just is so worried about him being quoted. So, you know, not to go like an unfund direction, but the Hockey Canada stuff came up. And it read to me pretty insensitive when coming, you know, reading the chance. Because it was. Because it was.

It was. And I think maybe it sounded, it didn't sound quite as bad as it read. Because I was, I was there. I was at the table. And on, on some level, I mean, I blew it. we all should have followed up a little bit, a little bit more, you know, strenuously on that. I don't want to turn this into like median navel gazing hour. No, nobody wants to hear me.

We are talking about a media access event. Yeah, right. I mean, well, because what else? I mean, whatever. It just, it just, it just happened. It's fine. Like, nobody, I'm not trying to like martyr myself here or whatever because I think that happens too often on stuff like this.

I, I, I wish we would have pushed back harder on that because it was such and I think because I think part of this because we're just so trained to accept like non-answer answers that are theoretically pretty anodyne. Right. That's everything that's everything Connor McDavid says. It's just like whatever. It's like he'll talk and it'll be somewhat relevant because he says it but also it'll be devoid of content really. Like there's just there's nothing. there. And he went into that, he went into that mode on the hockey can of stuff. It was just like, yeah, this is a hard time for everybody, like, whatever. And it was, and I think, I think we, I mean, I certainly just didn't, it didn't register with me as being as crappy an answer as it was. Because people were pissed and right for so, because that's, you know, and I think we run the, there are some things with hockey players where we run the risk of expecting too much.

much from them. Like we can't expect, like, I'm not expecting these guys to give like actually, you know, engaging political answers or be honestly, you know, be fun to be fun to BS with about, you know, whatever under the banner of heaven or whatever TV shows, like that, like, I, that's tough, right? You can't be like, hey, I caught the show on, on FX. Like, let's talk about it. That's like on a lot, in a lot of cases, that's not the level these guys are operating on. You're not expecting them to be engaging personalities. And I think too often, especially in the case of McDavid, and especially in the case that's hockey Canada stuff,

we apply that to things of real importance. Like, we're okay getting garbage answers from Connor McDavid about getting pucks in deep and, you know, we got the power play and, you know, whatever else. So we give them a pass. I'm saying we very, in a very literal sense, as in like me a couple days ago. Yeah.

You give him a pass to whenever he gives an actual trash answer for something, like with the hockey Canada stuff, which is just like you keep, again, standards really low. You look at what Keel McCar said. It was perfect and fantastic and didn't ruffle any feathers and not like, you know, didn't, it was, it was meaningful and insightful and sincere without like putting,

without putting himself in any kind of hot water. Even, even McKinnon had the same kind of line of answering, but added at the end just how it was just, how it made him sick and it was in this and that. He at least centered the victim, you know, the accuser in a way that McDavid didn't.

McDavid was like, yep, bad, bad deal for everybody, like, let's move on. Right. And I think we treated that in the moment, like we were asking him a question about,

you know, Mike Smith retiring or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's not what he was. He doesn't have an obligation to be interesting. He doesn't have an obligation to tell us tactical stuff or give us any look at his internal life. And I think we're trained to not expect that.

That's fine. Like that's, there's no obligation there. And people, you know, you can criticize them on some level, but it doesn't raise. It doesn't raise the level of biffing on an answer that badly and also not being pushed back on it, which is something we, anybody who was face to face with them could have done because it was. It was just, it was garbage.

It was, it was junk. And we treated it like he was, you know, again, answering a post game question about whatever. And that's not the case. Right.

The standard is, the standard for that stuff for hockey players is really low. The standard for Connor McDavid is even lower and he failed to meet it. And we kind of ushered him, you know, up to the door on that one. Hmm. It's interesting because Sydney Crosby for years was,

people were critical that he didn't you know he he could be bland and I think for many of the same reasons he was David is but I think Sid has found a way to he's more introspective Sid thinks like you ask him a question he thinks about it almost through the you can see it like processing through the lens of I'm Cindy Crosby so I you know I still have to answer this carefully but it's not always going to be just a completely bland answer it it it And without going, I mean, whatever, we're reading into body language and stuff here. There's no way around it. But like, if you ask Sidney Crosby a tough question, you can tell that he's trying to formulate a thoughtful answer.

Or at least you see the gears, you see the gears turning. Like he knows that there's stuff he can't say. And he sort of flicks it maybe the bigger point. And very rarely, you know, there's a difference between being bland and being. you know almost deliberately evasive right and I and I think that and I think that Crosby is on the right side of that certainly more so as he's gotten older and there's just something about maybe not in some cases what he says in some cases it's how he says it it's what it looks like as he's saying it and whatever else I don't

see that with McDavid most of the time honestly like it's it's there's a you know blankness there, I think that isn't, that isn't present with Crosby. Was there a guy, so, you know, you know, we kind of know Nathan's, McKinan's personality. We've kind of gotten to know Cal McCarre fairly quickly at a kind of a national level. The fun thing about these events is sometimes they bring up like, you know, Mark Stone. Or Mark Stone. Somebody who maybe you just haven't dealt with that you were like, that guy was great.

You nailed both of them actually Really? Who was it? It was Mark Stone, deadpan, really funny Had some great digs at Kessel Had a really great line about Eichel It's ass about Eichol I don't know

Probably wasn't even a line It just seemed like it was him being honest Yeah Like Mark Stone's Give a shit meter is way Is way Yeah Like, it's low.

Like, he's, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not worried. He gets asked about, I love when people get to that point. He gets asked about Eichl. Oh, it was like playing with, playing with Jack or tough first year for Jack or whatever, whatever the exact reason of him was. He goes, uh, yeah, when he got here, I thought he was a bad guy. We're like, huh? Yeah, I just figured, I figured he was going to be a bad guy.

And we're like, oh, damn. It was like with the way stuff ended Like whatever he thought that Ikel was a bad was a bad dude And then Ikel shows up and works harder than anybody And obviously shows him doesn't think he's a bad guy now But just to open a I thought that's an answer with that Where he's just like never had my mind changed or Yeah right actually I was I was kind of hoping there was like oh and you know

And here we are in here here we are in year too He's he'll have a full season to change my mind No, he just, he prefaced it with that. He was just generally funny. And Philip, no, I had never spoken to him before. He was great. He was a total low talker. I was worried my mic wasn't going to pick up anything he was saying, but a super thoughtful

dude. And seemed like he's going to be, he's going to be a coach. He's going to be in management or something if he wants it. He's got that. I think we can always tell. We're like, all right, that guy's. that guys at GM in 12 years or whatever it is and he's certainly he's certainly on that level um and jonathan ubertoe youberto was oh i like his what did he saying about like bill zito

did brats for living a favor or something there was some kind of money quote right like oh wow okay so all right so this is so this is so in the weeds so i like whatever You know, we're, we're there, we're there. We've disappeared into our, into our own navels on this one, I think. People are looking for like the three times speed button on their podcast. How can we get to the mic? So, yeah. So, so Euberdow is the last one of the day.

He's the last guy today. There's this huge gap in between, typically these are like, these are like rapid fire, right? Yeah. They're 15 minutes. They bring another guy. 15 minutes, they bring another guy. It's like once you talk to six hockey players for an hour and a half consecutively, like by the end, you're sort of cooked, right? Because there was no, there was no break.

It's like, all right, here's Camp Atkinson. Here's like, speed date. It's like, 100%. Yeah. So there's this big gap in between Uber Dough and everyone's like, all right. It's like two hours, right? So everyone's like, all right, we're some, some folks left. Some folks like me.

I'm surprised he stuck it out. Wait a bit. Me and Russo worked. We just like transcribe some stuff and we're like, whatever, we're here. We're not going to blow off. You were doing, I'm glad we didn't because he was awesome. The group was a little bit smaller. And he made our weight worth it.

You know, he was like super thoughtful and super sincere and like very clearly still kind of banged up from the trade, even though he's psyched for Calgary. Right. You know, he's like, you know, ready. He's thrilled about the director. of the team and loved all the money he signed for or whatever like you like fine he's great yeah but quinny hughes had this line where he was talking about how excited he was that how initially how excited he was to see stuff fall apart for the flames because he's like he's like oh you know i think it's great johnny and you know they look they look like johnny walks and that they're gonna have

have to trade chucky so like the arrows go and like whoop and he did like the roller coaster down motion and he was like and then you know whatever they trade for ubrodo and they sign gnaz and wiger and all this stuff and then it goes back up and like so like like quin was like I'm you know does he do it sound effects with the house too he he actually did yeah he did like the he did like the gesture and the sound I'm not I'm kidding because he liked us and doesn't like you personally I was going to ask about that the Quinn he's a gunson tour has started um but we at someone brought that up about you know about being like well you kind of like roller like roller coaster off season, people thought they were going to suck.

And then they pulled it together, like Bradtree Living, you know, pull it together. And Uberdo was like, yep, we can thank Bill Zito for that one. Come on. Yep. And we're like, oh, shit, okay. And then, no, it was, it was very good. He's a thoughtful, thoughtful dude. Heard, heard good things about Uberdo from Drancer, uh, Thomas Drans, you know, covers the Canucks,

but also, also was a lot of Florida connection there. comms VP for the Panthers in a very recent past life so he got to know you were to well and was like he had always said that he's a great dude and I think we got to we got to taste that but it was a good it was you know it was a good couple days it's always a challenge I think we regular listeners know you know we do our best to ring whatever we can out of this guy out of these guys at times and that was I got two full two full days of that would have been um too much to for you to get a little bit of audio for the podcast so I could sit down in segment two.

My goodness. You had a bunch of players dropped in your lap and you couldn't get some podcast audio. Okay, let's see. We're like 25 minutes in here. Do you want to just turn this into like the in the like inside baseball media grievance tour?

Yeah, we're already going to get the media stuff and now it's Sean and Craig's planning sessions about. That was not going to happen. And we see 32 thoughts. Elliot and Jeff have three different podcasts lined up with great audio of one-on-ones from Crosby and whatever. That folks is the benefit of being an NHO rights holder. Oh, we're not.

Sportsnet. Yeah, we know, we don't broadcast, we don't stream games on the, on the website. So sports net got guys in that capacity in ESPN did. But there was zero chance that we were going to be able to get, you know, usable audio, let alone, let alone one-on-one. with any of those guys, really. Hey, proudly independent since 2017. Is that true? I don't know if we're independent anymore.

We're independent. Who are we right? Producer Jeff says 2016. 2016. We are beholden to nobody. Other than the interests of the New York Times coming. Well, of course. That goes about saying.

All right. Let's great time. My favorite media outlet, I'll tell you that much. You know why? You know why? Because they love their work. They pump off Sean Gentilely so much. That's right.

It's me. It's me, Paul Krugman, Brett Stevens, all those great guys who would know and love. I knew it would take him about three months to discover you over there, and now they're like,

what is Sean written today? Yeah, you know what my next piece is going to be for the Atlantic NHL vertical? I'm going to be complaining about debate on college campuses. Well, can you tie that into the,

Florida Calgary trade. By the way, Bill Zito, I think, is our guest next week. So we will, I, Bill, be ready for a question about Uber Dode. Just, I mean, guys are going to be mad. They got traded. I would be mad. I think Bill is going to understand the guys are, the guys are going to be mad. He knows what he was doing.

They were talking extension and then you got traded to Calgary. Like, whatever. Bill's an agent for a zillion years. I think you realize is, that at some point, you know, it's about business and it's not personal. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, San Jose Sharks GM, Mike Greer, we're forward to that one. We are now thrilled to be joined by new San Jose Sharks GM, Mike Greer, who's had a busy summer.

Mike, first of all, thanks for doing this. I mean, congratulations. Oh, thank you. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. So I wanted to start. You jump into San Jose and immediately start making some changes. You know, growing the staff, I think I saw somewhere from, you know, overall from 29 to 35 in terms of player development and front office.

Really, you know, immediately kind of leaving your mark, how much of that was part of your pitch going in? And, you know, what went into the thought processes of going right away kind of making these changes? Yeah, I mean, it was something that was definitely that we discussed about in the interviews. And as I felt strongly about that we, there was areas of the organization that needed to be strengthened. You know, player development being one of them, you know, how the league is. Now it's you need young players. You need to draft well, but you also need to develop your young players and need them to contribute. So, you know, the staff was a little bit light here in the past.

and we're fortunate enough to get Todd Marchant from the Ducks who's been doing for 11 years for them. So that was a big get for us. And, you know, he's bought in Lucas Beezza, who had experience doing it in Tommy Wingles. Another shark guy has been really great with the kids this week. And we got Nicky Sonsstrom over in Europe helping our guys out over there. So the staff has grown.

And, you know, I just think it's such a big part of the game. now that we needed to nail that. And then we needed, like I said, you need to draft well and develop well. So, you know, we felt like we needed to add to our, on the scouting side as well. So those were kind of two of the big departments that we felt we needed to kind of give a little bit of a boost to. Well, Tommy Wingles and Lucas Bees. Are you going to name any other players that you hired that it's going to make me feel extremely old to know that they're working in front offices now? Oh, my God. That is brutal.

Oh, I know. I know. It's tough getting, tough getting old. I see it every day. Some of these kids are coming in here. They look like they could be my kids and they're walking around the ring playing. I love to. I mean, Tommy is such a personality. Just having somebody like that who who is so, I don't know, like, I'm sure he makes these kids feel comfortable immediately. He's just one of the, like, was that part, you bring in somebody who not only knows the game and knows it well, but can connect with these players. I mean, you bring in these former players that aren't too far removed, right? Like, is that part of the strategy there? Yeah, for sure.

And he's got a good way about him. Yeah. He's also someone who had to earn everything he got. You know, he's not someone who walked in the league as a high pick. You know, he went to school and had to kind of grind his way up through and work his way up and to playing in the NHL. So I think he's got a good story and he's got a good feel for kids and, you know, what they're going through.

It's not easy on these kids today with, you know, I think there's a lot of external pressure and social media and things that these kids are going through. So it's been really good to have someone who can relate to them and kind of make them, put them at ease and just talk about life as well as hockey. You mentioned the interview process and how you brought up some things, you know, where you felt like the org, you know, needed to beef up. But what about that job? What about the organization and the job appealed to you? Like what made it, I mean, other than being an NHL job, I mean, what, like, is there anything you focused on during the process where you're like, all right, this is, this is a job

I'm going to go after, like whole hog? Well, I think I, one of the main things was that, you know, I really enjoyed playing here. You know, I had that, that connection to the city and the fans, you know, the fans, you know, the fans the fans here are great even though there's been a couple lean years here now but the fans here were great i you know they treated me well and i really enjoyed it and then the other the other thing that was appealing to is to kind of have an opportunity to put your stamp on on a franchise and try and build things up and do things the way that that you see fit and would like to do so i think those were kind of the two things that appealed most to me how much does you look at like

the cap friendly balance sheet and go boy maybe Maybe there's somebody that has a cleaner books I can chip it to. Yeah, I try not to look at that too much. It's, it's hard, but like, I mean, you got, like, the Brent Burns deals, like, that's a good example of saying, okay, we, you know, we're turning the page here and, and there's deals to be made. And, and how is that process? Was that difficult with Brent and, you know, what was that like? I mean, Brent was good. We had good talks from the moment I got the job and he was, you know, he was.

he was pretty open about it. And I understood being an ex-player coming from his perspective. You know, as you get older, you kind of start to see the end of the line coming. And, you know, for him, you, he wanted to go somewhere where he had a chance to win a Stanley Cup in the next couple of years. And I was honest, I, you know, we all want to win. But looking at our group and our roster where we are, we're not ready to compete for the Stanley Cup. So we had good talks and it's never easy to move, you know, a defenseman who plays as well as he does and eats the minutes that he does and as good in the locker room. So that part of it was difficult.

But, you know, I think you just have to be a little bit realistic as well as to where you are. And with the money and the age of some of the players, I think we just have to kind of be realistic with that. And we tried to help Brent out as well. So it kind of, you know, worked out for both sides, hopefully. How much did he zero in on Carolina as a potential destination? Was that, like, at the top of the list, did he bring you guys a, like, you know, here's teams A through A through G of places I'd like to end up. Like, what was that end of the process, like?

There was, you know, a handful of teams he was interested in going to. You know, Carolina was definitely near the top. And I think, and they were, and it was, they were interested. as well. So, you know, Donnie was pretty, pretty into it right away, letting us know that he'd have interest if we were going to go down that route. So it just happened to work out. When you were hired, you said, you know, you're the first black NHL GM, and you said, with that comes responsibility. And that's a hard enough job just, you know, jumping in and all the work you have to dig in and do. What does that responsibility look like you? I was just,

I was curious if you could expand on that and what that means to you. Well, I mean, a lot of it is just how you, you know, how you carry yourself, you know, who I'm surrounding myself with, who I'm hiring, and just trying to do a good, trying to do a good job, really. Yeah. And, you know, so, you know, hopefully I can do well enough and show owners and other teams in the league that, you know, minorities and can, can, can, you know, can. handle this position and are worthy of, you know, if they're the best candidate,

then they're qualified that they're worthy of being able to handle this type of position. And it's, you know, it's not too much different than, you know, when I started off as a player and there wasn't too many black players in the league. It's almost the same way where you have to handle yourself a certain way, present yourself a certain way, and try and be successful to help kind of hopefully open the door for others behind you. So this is it's kind of a similar situation. You said your dad gave you advice.

I think he'd might have said it was the best piece of advice was not to read the newspapers. I don't think that's great advice. Somebody trying to sell newspapers on some level. But any other, I mean, the family is, I mean, it's well talked about. But, like, you know, Chris, your dad, any good advice come along the way here this summer? Yeah, you know, they've one, they've just. said just be yourself. Yeah.

Always be yourself, whether it's with the players, with your own staff, you know, with the owner. Just be yourself, tell the truth and speak from the heart and be truthful about what you believe and what you want to do. And the other one is, you know, he kind of told me when I first started scouting with Chicago is to, you know, have an opinion. Don't really sit on the fence about things. So those are kind of things that I try and do. Try and treat people the right way, be honest and upfront with them.

And then, you know, when it comes down to the hockey side, it's do your work, do your research, make sure you're informed. And you're watching the video and watching the games. And once you do that, you know, make your opinion and kind of stick with it. And hopefully, hopefully you make the right decision and it works out. But you don't want to kind of be second guessing yourself all the time, you know, do the work. And hopefully it takes care of things, take care of itself. caught up with Tamash Hurtle in Vegas last week. And we hadn't, we hadn't seen him face to face in, you know, a couple of years.

I mean, that guy is just, you know, a ray of light, right? He's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's unbelievable to talk to. I just want, I just wonder what your thoughts are on him is, you know, the new, the new deal. Obviously, it was signed, signed before you were there, but he's a centerpiece of the organization moving forward. I thought something interesting he said, and he laughed about it. but I thought there was some truth in it. He kind of came up and he was the young guy on those teams, right? Whether he was behind Pavelsky or Thornton, he was a little brother.

And now he's kind of at the top layer of leadership. He said he never had a chance to be like in the middle. He went up being a young guy to an old guy kind of quickly. So I was just wondering what your thoughts on him were as a player and also kind of transitioning into that next kind of phase of his career because he sounds like he's ready to do it. Yeah, he's been great. We've had some good conversations on the phone before we got here.

And then since he's been in town, it's been good to talk to him a little bit. Like you said, he's an upbeat. He's got tons of energies, excited. And, you know, as a player, he's the kind of player. I think every team's looking for, you know, a big centerman who can play at both ends of the rank, score goals for you, make plays, kill penalties, playing the power play. I mean, he's kind of the ideal center that everyone. one's looking for so we're very fortunate to have them and um you know he's someone that i can just see

the he's taken some some steps it seems from talking to joe and the other staff here you know he's he's excited about playing in prague to start the season but he's already trying to you know put together dinners and activity for the for the groups things like that he's kind of uh he's kind of step it he's kind of stepping up and uh and kind of leading the way and you know he's We had some on ice testing the other day, and he was, you know, he was at the front of the line doing that stuff. So I think he's, I think he's in a good space mentally. He's feeling good. Feeling good about himself and about where he is not only as a hockey player, but as a person.

Yeah, he sounded thrilled about the Prague experience, right? Like he was going through his itiner for those few days. That's going to be a busy trip for hurdle. I know. he's got a lot of things he wants to do and he's got a lot of people, I think he's got close to 50 people coming to the games and stuff like that. So it's, but he's excited for it. And, you know, for a lot of those guys that come over here and play,

this is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime experience for him. So I'm excited for him as well. But he's, yeah, we're going to have to find out a way to get him some rest to make sure he's ready for the games too. Well, before we let you go, can we break any news here? been Joe Thornton spot, spot in your sightings in San Jose. Come on.

Let's run it back. Let's make it happen. Yeah, no, I don't, I don't have anything for you on Jumbo right now. He's, you know, I think he's still kind of sorting things out and what he wants to do.

And I'll let him lead the way with that and kind of see what he wants to do. He's, I think right now he's enjoying time with his, with his family and being a dad a bit, but he's, you know, around the guy, so he's been around the rank here practicing a little bit.

So I don't know what's going to happen with him. He hasn't really, you know, if you know Jumbo, that's just kind of, whether he's a big kid, he's just kind of winging it a little bit. But, you know, I think at some point he'll let us know what he wants to do. But right now that I don't really have anything, anything for you, unfortunately. Would you be open to a PTO if he wants to? Yeah. I mean, I'm happy to talk to him about it.

I honestly don't, I don't know what he's, which way he wants to go or what he's leaning, but, you know, he's definitely someone wants either way, whatever he decides, he's definitely someone I want to have around the organization. Him and, you know, him and Patty, I think they're two iconic players here who have a lot to offer the game, even, you know, whether it's playing or when they're done playing, They're guys I definitely want to have around to help me and be around the organization.

So we'll have to see what he decides to do. Like, Jumbo, he always kind of beats to his own drum. So we'll see. I mean, the most important question, did you catch the Dolphins game? Oh, yeah. How much did you watch a second half? It was interesting. We had, so we had rookie camp.

So I saw the first quarter, I was like, oh, this isn't going so well. So we had some stuff with that. I actually came back and saw the fourth quarter and it was like, oh, well. So it was nice. It was nice. Nice win for those guys, especially. I don't think they've won it. It's been almost, I think, 20 years or something since they've won in Baltimore.

And I think those two little wide receivers are something else. So we'll see. Pretty good. Awesome. Well, Mike, thanks for doing this. And again, congratulations. We're looking forward to see what you build out there. You've got some great people you've already brought in.

David, I mean, it's been fun to watch what you've built already. So best of luck and thanks again. No, thanks for having me, guys. I appreciate it. Take care and I'm sure we'll catch up at some point. All right. Take care. Okay.

Thanks, guys. Welcome back for the first time. This is the only good segment on the show. Oh, this is going to be a great one. It's actually as bad as the other segments on the show this week. Because the break has meant that we have not had any episodes, posted. So we don't have questions or comments or sure people posted questions on the last episode you did back in June or whatever

July. This is not a joke. It's just it I'm sure they did. It just dawned on me. I didn't think to look until just now because I'm stupid. Um, but go back. Please go into the episode page to our jobs for us. Leave us questions. Leave us comments. We've got some questions for next week because we're like, this is like when the teleprompter goes out. We don't know what to do here without your questions. So please. Although, thankfully, the NHL stepped up with lots of news. That's it.

A million defensemen retired. Nathan McKinnon. Let's start there, Sean. Nathan McKinnon signs a contract that makes them the highest paid player. This is like the Nathan McKinnon hour. This all happened after we were in the first segment. We do love Nathan McKinnon. I remembered another fun.

quote from the media availability. Like we were busting his chops for being, because I mean, look, it's a standard question for however long he's been signed to that last deal, but it's like, oh, yeah, you're the last, you're the most underpig guy in the league. And he was like, yeah, it's not what you want. That's not the title that I'm looking for.

But then I asked him if McCar, if McCar took the belt and he, And McKinnon said that he has it now, and he chirps him about players who make more than him, which he didn't say any names. I wish I would have... Oh, he's going, oh, by the way, so-and-so makes more than you? Yeah, and he's like, I'm not going to name many names,

but, like, I feel like Jacob Trubo was in the back. He was in the back with his ears burning, right? McCar is now the most underpaid player in the league. I mean, McKinnon, that's a, it's so funny, man, that's a huge number for him, right? Like 12.6 a year for eight years is a ton. He's making more than, more than McDavid now. But it still just seems, uh, hockey player salaries are low. It's, they just, they just still seem low.

And I'm always glad to see, like, as someone, whatever, airs on the player side of things a lot of the time. I'm glad to see the bar raise because it seems like, um, I don't know, right? Like, that's this, that's this loop that we're stuck in here where nobody could make more than Oveskin, Norn, Indoor Crosby. And now nobody could make more than McDavid for the last hour of many years. And it's good to see McKinnon kind of break out of that mindset, especially after he left.

They don't win a cup without him, without him at that number. I guarantee it. So he's getting paid on the back end now. I'm happy to see it because, again, Nathan McKinn is my best friend. As we established. That's the last week. So, KAL Makar signs a contract last, it was only last summer. It pays him $9 million annually through 26, 27.

Look, he may be underpaid, I guess. He is. We think he's that that's the best contract in hockey then. I mean, he's a, if he's a tier 1A or whatever, you've declared him. Oh, God, it's tough because, you know, what goes into these, what goes into these calculations. I can't say that based on based on Dom's model in terms of market value

I mean it's McCar and I don't think it's particularly close I mean he's I don't have the number in front of me but he is outstrip like last season alone he outstripped that that extension by five six seven million dollars it's a tough

but it's a tough it's a tough conversation to have though because conceptually it's tough to wrap your head around a guy who makes $10 million or $9 million in change being underpaid. Like that doesn't jive off. It's not that hard. It's not that hard.

It's easy for you because you're a genius. Much smarter than me. No, I'm just saying. Like, it's not hard to sit here and say Connor McDavid's underpaid. Like, it's easier to say so, you know. But like, do you just go and turn? Also, how long until he's underpaid? Like, 20 minutes?

Yeah. Did we eat lunch yet? I don't know. It's around, it's around that point. I guess what I'm saying is like, do we go by just straight value? Like, do we say like, Cal McCar outperformed his deal by $7 million? Or do we say that player X outperformed it by 60%? Like, how do you define value?

Is it just straight millions or is it percent of the original salary? And this might, it's not interesting at all, right? I don't know that it's that interesting. It's only interesting. It's only interesting when we talk about it then. It's only interesting when we talk about the, about the top end guys because it is crazy. That is like the main NHL market efficiency is that star players don't get paid enough money.

That's it. But it's something that applies to every to every team. It's, it's an NHI too. One of the sport is like, let's squeeze the superstars so we can pay the, it's because these guys. Backup offensive linemen.

They're on, they're on this run of having top end players. And it's not a. that the most high that the best highest profile highest paid hockey players are leaving money on the table to a ridiculous extent that's bad news for the rest of the league that you have sidney crosby saying like i'm again i'm i'm a weirdo who wants to have my value set at eight point seven million dollar cap hit and then the end result is like okay uh sydney crosbie only makes $8.7 million.

So tough nuggets, you know, whatever. Like whoever else was signing was signing deals back after the lockout. That was, that was bait. That was the de facto cap on individual salaries. And I don't want to make it sound like this is like some undeserved thing for McKinnon because it's not. But the fact that he is a step or two below McDavid and is now making more money than him, that's a big deal.

That's, that's an important thing. And it's also setting the bar. not for nothing for Austin Matthews, who is a year out from being able to, you know, negotiate a contract extension of his own because that balls roll. And I said Jonas wrote it yesterday. Like it's time to start talking about, it's time to start talking about Austin Matthews. Or, you know what? Actually, I take that back.

It was CJ. It was Chris Johnson. He wrote in the last few days. It's time to start talking about Austin Matthew's next contract. And that's where we are. And that's a sort of thing that, you know, something that, the thing that happened today, with McKinnon is going to loom large with. How much is Austin Matthews making out?

I'm not privy to any of those conversations, but I'm guessing Austin is not going to do it. Anybody any favors? No, nor should he. No, I mean, he should like, he won't. Definitely not the Maple Leafs. Certainly not the Maple Leafs. Maybe the coyotes.

All right. Here, I want to have a quick draft with you before the end of this episode. And it's a three-player draft. and you get to pick Zadano Chara at the peak of his powers, P.K. Suban at the peak of his powers. Oh, my God. And Keith Yandel at 1.5% of the peak of his powers. We're doing the hand-cap for Yen-We're going to do a Yandel multiplier.

Keytie Pee-Kee-Yandle. Arizona, Keith Yandall is one of the great underrated players of our, great underrated slash underpaid players of our era here, I think. Remember when the Rangers got them and then got them at half off? And it didn't work. It didn't work. I love that trade for the Rangers. Everything about it seemed like that was when I feel like we hung on to for a while.

I was like, ah, yeah. Maybe this is going to slide into place here and it didn't happen. 1.5. So you get to pick one of those guys to anchor your D. It's You handle that 1.5 There were kind of with PK's a fun deal too

Like there were kind of whispers around Vegas And maybe Maybe he was done And then you know Whatever we're four days out And that comes to pass What if it's a bizarre career He was winning Norris's at

28 Probably could have won two By 30 he's a back bencher pretty much And now of 32 he's probably by some to some extent done by his own choice but is it bizarre bizarre run it really was who won the uh who won the weber for suvant trade

oh man is it I mean at least Vegas turned it into cap relief eventually or Montreal Montreal eventually turned it in the cap relief um I think you got to take Charo I think it's peak charra, yeah.

Peak charro is just So, okay, so what is the question? You get one game of these guys at the absolute It's not that well thought out. Yeah, you're trying to win a Santa Cup game seven And you get one of them at the peak of their powers. It's chara. It's charo.

It's charo. He was so good and intimidating. I was having a conversation with a media, with immediate buddy, Adi Joseph, who helps run CB. sports and he's not a hockey guy but he was just asking like to kind of stratify those guys right yeah i mean char is it's an overused term but the dude is a unicorn just based on his body type based on the way his career started based on some of the fitness principles that he brought to

they helped kind of bring to the league and strength bike to work every day on that stuff like to work i saw someone say that after a cup party the first thing he did was like send a send a cab bill into the team and try to get it reimbursed. I think that's the kind of kind of guy we're dealing with here. That's great. Every base covered.

That's how you play in the league for a hundred years is you always try to do, you do stuff like filing expense reports promptly on cab trips. I mean, it's him, right? Because like they don't. It's not.

The correct answer was Keith Endle at 1.5. Because he's American. Sean. This was a test. First episode. back and you failed it. I was hanging out too many Canadian people last week.

I think the question is like, who's the worst player that you could put at 1.5% instead of not on top there. Because I think by nature, like, that's just... Like an NHL, like, top pair. That's based on... Based on biology alone, like, one and a half of an elite player is going to be better than another elite player. Is McKenzie...

Is McKenzie Weeger at 1.5 better than peaks of Inochar? I think so. I think we should start messing with Dom's, like to start putting adding multipliers into Dom's model. And just to see how to whack things that it creates. I've started just asking for comps for random players. Just you think that I'm like working on something, but I'm not actually.

You just want cops? I'm like, I ask them for, we're doing season previews. I asked him for a coal cylinder comp yesterday. Didn't bother using any of it. it takes him two seconds to put all that together though he's got it all yeah but if you ask him like six times or eight times over the course of over the course of an afternoon it it evens out well sean it was good to see you i don't think we need to drag out segment three any more than we already have unless you have further thoughts on wait i i i mean oh you're ready you want to tack on another 20

minutes. No, I just want to ask you, like, as a guy who was, who was around for Pete Chara in a way that I wasn't, because you were, you were covering those teams and, you know, pretty, pretty closely in 2011 and whenever else, like, is there a takeaway for you? I think this might be the most serious question I've ever asked you on the, on, on Charra's career or his impact? I don't know. Do you, do you have, like, is there like a weird, is there like a weird moment that you have with him? Because you were, you were on the ice and Boston and all that. Yeah. No, you know, the thing about Chara was he was pretty like, like, like, P.K. was way more fun to deal with. I had, I have more memories of even, even whatever that year

was where they went toe to toe in the playoffs and it was awesome. And people were like, it was like going out of their minds and somebody like spit on. I don't remember. There's always there's water bottles or there was always controversy. And P.K. was just in the middle of it loving it. Like, just wanted to get the, he was like a, he loved playing the heel. And that was great. Like, for what we were doing. Like, Char, like,

they couldn't have been more different. Charot was so serious and so focused. And P.K. was like, we're going to, I'm going to shut that crowd up and we're going to have a great time. And I loved that. Like,

I loved covering P.K. And, and so, you know, of the three, the one I probably have the biggest memory of was he was Yandle. He was Yandled because I remember him being in the, like in the,

like in the trade conversation so much in Arizona. And I don't think he wanted to be trade. Like, it was just difficult on him. And I just remember somehow I just got sent city to sit. I kept dealing with them. And he was just, it was really,

you could just tell it was the anguish was hard, you know. And, and, um, like, it just, it really seemed it was as like,

like a personal thing. Like you're going from just speculating about somebody's future and yeah, and I'd like it traded. And then I would see how, like, he was pretty like open about how, you know,

it was a, it's a tough process. And I just remember, like, connecting with that and just being like, oh, yeah, this is, this is hard for people that are dealing with this stuff. But, I mean, all three great plays, especially at 1.5, he had that was a great play. You know part of PK's legacy really is? Is he annoyed Crosby? He could speak to that.

He annoyed Cid so much. It happened during the cup finals with the mouthwash thing. Oh, yeah, in the mouthful. said guts wasn't thrilled to be getting asked those questions let me tell you that's fun never well i'll miss having me i mean he's gonna move into tv and do a good job i think i think we're all going to give more than enough pk in our lives over the next over the next couple of years something tells me you can do whatever he wants and and that's good i'm just sad that these players are all retiring you talked about Tommy wingles being on the staff making you feel

oh my god that was part of this announcement today i'm like that was part of i think that It's fresh on my mind whenever we asked Mike about that, right? Because we talked about it earlier today. Like, Jesus. Like, all these guys are, all these guys are retiring. It's making us feel really old. And you hear that Lucas Beza is a, is a player development guy for the sharks. Like, God, almighty.

I know. Roll, Sean. This is a downbeat. This is a downbeat. This is a downbeat. This is why we need the comments. To tease us up for jokes. Hey, this will make you feel good.

guess where I went to lunch the other day to meet Brendan Quinn, one of our great writers. A nice halfway point between my home and his burning. Could it be tipsy McStaggers? It was Tipsy McStaggers. He's like, I go, he goes, hey, what do you want to mean? I'm like, oh, there's this place in Warren, Michigan called Tipsy McStaggers. And he's like, subtle. Like, you know, pretty subtle.

So the waitress comes over and she's like, you know, take my order. I get a cob salad because I'm, you know, fat. That's my attempt to not be fat. And she goes, do you want pita with that? Hey, it's got corn in it. Yeah, that's right. It's healthy. Does it?

I don't know. I think eggs. So she goes, do you want pita bread? And I'm like, no, I go, I just come from my doctor. He said, he goes, he said, I got to lay off the carbs. She goes, hey. Yeah, she goes, your doctor's an asshole. So I'm like, yeah.

The tipsy McStaggers. I'm like, yeah. I mean, he's just looking out for me, but thank you. And she said it. Can I just say it? Yeah. So then I'm like, well, I can't get ranch. And this became a thing, this whole discussion with her.

She was great, by the way. She's the way she would expect that tipsy McStaggers. Yeah, she was Mrs. McStaggers. She was Mrs. McStaggers or the daughter of or whatever. She goes, I go, I can't get ranch. I'm like, I don't know. She used to go vinegar and oil. And she's like, hold on.

I bring my own salad dressing for my lunch. And she brings out her, she's like, it was like garlic expressions or something. She's like, it's really good. It tastes great and it's not too bad for you. And she gave me like her personal stash of salad dressing. Did she like, was she wearing an overcoat that she opened up and like the lining of it had little bottles of salad dressing up and down them? That's what I imagine.

You're buying. You're Brian. You're blind buying a black market salad dressing. I mean, she could have been anything. I was very trusting. I just poured it all over that. And she's like, here, to try this concoction I brought from home. The other, the other, uh, the Americans meme or whatever running joke that came up was

last week. Um, when me and Russo were in Vegas talking to Bill Daly, which I believe the interview will be running during Wednesday's show. Why? Good. I don't know. Good. Good, good as always.

Why are we talking to Bill Daly? I don't know. No, why is it running not on this show? Rousseau calls the shots, man. you know this. My man, my man writes his own number. He does.

And he also had the recording equipment, I think that's the main thing. You couldn't get like a five-minute clip for this. So, all right, I'm going to paraphrasing this, we asked them about something. I think it was the critical dates calendar,

right? Where it's like you need certain dates set on the NHL calendar over the course of the next year. They haven't released some of it. It's a very, media-centric, up-your-ass kind of question. Rousseau asks it and Bill says like in the microphone like, well, I think, I think one of your, I think I owe one of your coworkers an email back about that one about the critical days

calendar. He's, of course, of course, talking about Pierre. Rousseau brings up Pierre. daily gets in like a nice little cottage season disappearing for a couple months' joke and I'm holding and me and Marissa are like passing a microphone back and forth and I grab the microphone like on

like on impulse on reflex to as soon as Bill brought up Pierre's cottage I grabbed the mic to say I do it one one two two boogie Woggy Avenue and I had to stop myself because Oh, you didn't do it? I would just had like

Bill wouldn't have gotten it. Rousseau wouldn't have gotten it. Bill would have been like, he would ring the bell. He would feel no. I thought you were going to say Bill Daly with one, one, one, two, two. I was, I was,

I would have been really impressed. But, I mean, we only had 15 minutes with with, with the vice commissioner. This is what Bill Dilley's title should be. It's what should be. 15 minutes with Bill.

You don't just get 15 minutes with Bill Daly, bro. We couldn't. We couldn't waste 10 seconds of that on my 1-1-2-2-book. We'll have a new joke. Sure you could. I would have led with that. Next time. This is a good time to plug the Wednesday show.

That is the Wednesday roundtable. You got Mike Rousseau, Jesse Granger, Joe Smith. Bill Daly is going to join. in an interview with Mike Russo and somebody else who was part of that interview. Make sure you tune into that. I think I asked two questions. Russo was holding the mic. I think I asked about jerseys or something.

Did you have to like grab it, like wrestle it out of his hand to get a question? Yes. Bill was holding one microphone. Mike was holding the other one. And I just was sort of like leaning in like, I was leaning in like, like Stephen Van Zantt, going back to back on the microphone for his friend's. tied a bunch of scarves around it. Also, you know the drill.

Follow us on Athletic Audio Plus and Apple Podcasts to get all the bonus content. I don't think we're this week. I hope we're not, but we will be one of these weeks. And you can start with a 30-day free trial. Then it's 99 cents a month after that. That's Apple Podcast, the Athletic Audio Plus. And right now, right now only.

You can get an annual subscription to the athletic for just $1. for six months when you go athletic go to athletic.com slash hockey show any final thoughts yeah good news from producer jeff we are not the bonus episode this week so we're back for another season and jeff is back to cutting up our food for us baby spoon feed it good to be back then good to be back