The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL trade deadline recap: Rantanen, Marchand deals headline the day

Episode Date: March 8, 2025

The 2025 NHL trade deadline is now in the history books and the group breaks down the day’s biggest moves, including the Stars acquiring Mikko Rantanen from the Canes and the Panthers acquiring Brad Marchand from the Bruins, winners and losers, how the balance of power has shifted in both conferences, and much more.Host: Hailey SalvianWith: Sean Gentille, Mark Lazerus, Sean McIndoe, and Scott WheelerExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducers: Chris Flannery and Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What's up, everyone? Welcome to this special trade deadline edition of the athletic hockey show presented by E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. It's Haley Salvean here with you after a pretty busy deadline day with some big names on the move. We're going to go over some of the top trades the day, the biggest winners and losers. And to break it all down, we have a lineup of athletic hockey writers, athletic hockey show hosts and guests. We have Scott Wheeler, Sean Gentile. Sean McIndoo and Mark Lazarus.

We're going to see how this goes with this many of us. What's up, everyone? Let's see how many people say hello all at once. Hi there. Voltron, unite. What? We're here. Hello.

I got the reference, Mark. It's okay. I'm old enough. Some of us are old. It's okay. We'll explain it to you kids later. Scott and I, the only one's confused. Undressing, meaning how old everybody isn't here?

I think. All right. So the big headline of the day, we'll get right to it, guys, because I don't know what Las is talking about. Miko Ranton gets sent by the Carolina Hurricanes to the Dallas Stars. Carolina gets forward Logan Stancove, in two first round picks and two third round picks.

Of course, Carolina only just acquired Rantinit a couple weeks ago. He gets moved again. Las, how do you kind of sort through all this? We'll start with you. and look at what Carolina has done and what Dallas just added to their lineup. Well, let's start with Dallas, right? Let's start with the positive side of this.

And, you know, Dallas, I think we can all agree might be the most complete team in the NHL. They've been knocking on the door of a Stanley Cup for five seasons now, two conference final appearances and a Stanley Cup final appearance. They got the best player available. So the best team, arguably got the best player available. To me, Dallas is now the team to beat in the NHL. They had the best, you know, Michael,

Randlin was already a nice addition, a point per game guy this year as a rental. Then you get Rantinen and you lock him up for eight years at sub-market value. Let's face it, if Rathinen hits the open market, Chicago is throwing $15 million a year at him. But he takes $12 million a year for the next eight years, another tax-free state win. Dallas has to be kicking his heels up right now. Who cares if they traded their 25 first-round pick, 26 first-round pick, 27 first-round pick. Stankovin's a nice player. He's not Miko Ranton and he's not Mardi-Ranthinen and he's not Marty Nade.

So Dallas makes out like bandits here. Scott, do you have a thought on what the canes are getting in Logan Stankovin before we maybe look at what just happened for Carolina over the last couple weeks? Yeah. And it's hard to sort of overstate what you're acquiring in a player when that player isn't Miko Ranton. And in this transaction, it's hard to sort of wrap your head around what Logan Stankovin looks like relative to Marty Natchez and Miko Rantin. in saying that, I am a big, big, big, big believer in Logan Stankovin.

He's one of the best young players in the NHL at the moment. He's been an impactful player in a third line role with the Dallas Stars since entering the league. He has been a top player at virtually every level he's ever played at. And I think he fits in really nicely with where the Carolina Hurricanes are at, the types of players they like to acquire. not the biggest kid, and there's a bit of a theme there with Seth Jarvis, with Logan Stankhoven, with Jackson Blake, even Sebastian Aho isn't the biggest player, but grinds, works, a ton of skill. And I think he's got a chance to really take a step in Carolina. He was playing 13, 14 minutes a night in Dallas.

He wasn't featured prominently on their power play. He kind of bounced around P.P1 and P2 with them. I think he's got an opportunity to play with the Seth Jarvis potentially in K. Carolina to factor in as their second line center. He can play center. He has played both wings. And I expect that Logan Stankovins going to be a legit 50, 60, potentially even 70 point player in the NHL someday.

Like I think that's the kind of talent that we're talking about here. Bit of a quirky player because he's five foot eight, but he's built like an ox. He's heavy on ox. He's up and under sticks. There's a ton to like about Stancoven. I think he'll be a great fit in Carolina. I think they're going to understand how to get the most out of him and to maximize him. And I think he's got an opportunity.

to play a bigger role there than he was ever going to get the opportunity to play in Dallas because of Rupy Hints, because of Wyatt Johnston. So there's just the hierarchy seems to fit nicer with Logan Stancoven in Carolina. And I'm excited for him and what this might mean for his career. I think he's got a real chance to take a step. Scott, everything you said there is dead on. But if he's a 50, 60, 70 point guy, then this trades a disaster for Carolina. They got those already. Disaster. Yeah, I think it ultimately comes down to what you do. with those two first round picks, right? If you can parlay, and I was disappointed that they didn't then use, immediately use one of

them on Ricard Raquel or Brock Besser, some of the guys who didn't get moved at the deadline because their teams weren't happy that their price wasn't met. Well, Carolina had then had the, it was a short turnaround, a couple of hours, but Carolina had a couple of hours to meet the price on Ricard Raquel or to meet the price on Brock Besser and make something happen and upgrade their roster and put themselves in a better position to contend in a weaker metropolitan division than the Atlantic division. So that, I think, was the disappointing part for me was now you have these two first round picks. And maybe that's for a move that they make. Maybe they've got cap relief and they've got money to spend and they make a big

splash this summer with those first round picks. And they can really transform the look of their team this summer. But they didn't pounce in that that time that they had between the Rantan and move and whatever came next. They didn't make the most of it with their assets. And I think they've left themselves a little short into the playoffs as a result. So where do we all land on the Carolina Hurricanes at 4.30 p.m. on Friday, March 7th? Because if we kind of like erase the Rattanan Saka, just hear me out. I'm shaking my head on Zoom. I know nobody can hear this.

If we ignore the fact that the best player available at the deadline, to Carolina and then left Carolina very quickly. The Keynes get Stankovin, Taylor Hall, two first round picks, some other picks and pieces for Martin Natchez's jury, a second round pick, a third round pick, and a fourth

round pick. That's not that terrible if you erase the random thing. Yeah. If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bike. What? Nobody ever heard that saying before? Is that a Pittsburgh thing? My God.

It might be. That sounds so rude. I was ready. And Sean and I talked about this because we did the immediate reaction to the rant and trade. I was ready to give them some grace. I was ready to say, let's see what this first round pick turns into. And who knows? Maybe the 31st pick in 2026 turns into something that everybody's going to want seven years from now.

maybe sure okay this is a team it's not where they're at right now whatever this is a team that could have won the Stanley Cup that theoretically still can but was acting as if they were a contender in a way that we haven't seen from them in the past like you don't go out and get Miko Ranton if you're if you're satisfied doing a soft reset and kicking the can down the road a little bit it's a it's a it's a mess and it's a huge disappointment like this doesn't mean that, you know, this isn't a franchise cratering deal or anything like that. But let's be real about the level of disappointment that this, that this carries along with it. Like a month ago,

we're talking about Miko Renton and bringing some of the Ab's secret sauce to the Hurricanes playoff run. And then who knows, maybe he's in, maybe he's in Raleigh long term. And that got blown up in a very serious way today. And I don't think that's easy to, easy to move on from. And And we don't know why. We have heard that reportedly they offered at least 12.5 times eight. Miguel Randin said no. There was talk that maybe Miguel Randen and just wasn't ready to commit anywhere and wanted to go to UFA. And then he takes less money in Dallas, sight unseen.

You wonder what that says about Carolina either as an organization, as a market, whatever. Now, that being said, are they not still the team to beat in the metro? right now. I mean, Washington didn't get significantly better and a lot of people don't really buy into Washington already. New Jersey didn't get significantly better. And we don't know when Jack Hughes will be back and if you'll be 100%. And I mean, I still think Carolina is maybe not head and shoulders, but has got to be certainly, if not the favorite, the co-favorant, in the metro. Which is what makes this so disappointing if you're a Carolina Hurricanes fan, right? Because, you know, sometimes, you just get a rental and you go for it and you win a championship and who cares if he leaves in the next year because you fly forever. Like this was an opportunity to really go for it. And I know that Ranton's numbers, his counting numbers weren't great. You know, in 13 games, I think he had two goals. Yeah. If you look at the underlying numbers. Yeah. But his scoring chances were higher than he was

creating with Nathan McKinnon. Like he was just snake fit. You watch those games. I watch a lot of Hurricanes games. He's hit in post. He's, you know, running into amazing saves. Like the goals are going to come. they were going to come and Carolina had a real chance. And they are significantly worse now than they were yesterday. And they're, you know, their Stanley Cup chances take a hit. Sometimes you just go rent a player and go win. I will say like the last point on Randen, because I feel like we could talk about this deal for a long time.

We don't have time to do that. I kind of appreciate, like I agree with you, Laz. I was on the fence on like, should they not have just kept him and made a Stanley Cup run with this guy and said, okay, see you later at the end? I kind of appreciate that from like Tulski to Randon and his agent that everyone kind of did things differently here. I know Ranan ended up signing an extension, but like how often do we talk about like why do these guys just immediately sign long term in places where they've never been before? And like I kind of appreciate that Tulski was like, no, I'm going to go and get something for this. Like who cares?

Like I I can appreciate the different approaches here from both the organization and the player. Sean, do you have one last point? No, I agree with you. And I think this kind of dovetails into that point. I'm disappointed that we're not going to see it's an ultra rare opportunity. We're not going to see an elite NHL player get overpaid by just a little bit this year. Because I think that was, I think that was on the books. It never happens.

I was really interested to see if Mikhail Randan was going to make it to July 1, reset the market for, for players of his caliber and then let the chips fall where they may. And it didn't happen. He signed a completely a reasonable long-term deal with Dallas. So we're, so we're missing out on some of the chaos. It's up to you, Mitch Marner. Yeah. Save us, Mitch. And you know what? I believe in Mitch's ability to come through in this one. McIndoo's just patiently waiting to see Mitch Marner go make above market value in like Florida or something offseason. I think now that Rentonin went down to 12 million, I think Marner has got to be willing to lower his demands to like 15. six, 155, maybe.

All right. Let's get to the other deadline day headline. The Boston Bruins have reportedly, we still don't have really any details on this. We just have heard that Brad Marchand's been traded to the Florida Panthers. Unless something's changed since we started recording this, we still don't have a return yet. Maybe a condition, reportedly, maybe a conditional second round pick.

I don't know. Nothing confirmed yet. right. No, there's no way. Let's just, we'll just wait. We'll let you guys know in real time as we're recording. We actually don't know what's happening. I'm refreshing so often here to try to figure it out because there's just no way that they traded

their captain who didn't want to go for a second round pick. No. They could have, they could have just swapped them for Anthony Beauvillier or Luke Shen or Brandon Tenet. There's a very real possibility that

Anthony Bavillier nets the Pittsburgh Penguins more than Brad Marshawn, that's the Boston Bruins after all this. That's appalling, but if this is, if this report is true, it's in play. What a world. I don't dubious

GM of the year. Yeah, that's a dubus master class if I've ever seen one. Who set a second round pick? It's broken containment at this point. It doesn't even matter. Who said that? Did I just say something insane and untrue?

Butchagros. Butchagrosse. Bucigrass. ESPN reporting. He headed as a conditional second that turns into a first if Florida wins the cup. Meanwhile, Brandon Carlo got a first. Yeah. And what, Fraser Minton?

Yeah. Is this like a six team trade? Like, is this just like a huge four to five team trade where that's all included? Anyways, this is crazy. We'll let you listeners know once we know. But all we do know right now is that Rod Marchon has been traded at the Florida Panthers, I listened to some of the live, or not the live, but like the instant reacts. And I think everyone could hear Sean McIndoo, like, softly screaming.

It wasn't soft. No. Can you imagine, though, you're in the playoffs and let's say Matthew Kitchuk gets healthy and Brad Marshan gets healthy, they could be on a line together. With Sam Bennett. With Sam Bennett. With Sam Bennett, exactly. They should be on a line.

That's his easiest fit is. on a left wing with Sam Bennett as the center and Matthew Kachukh on the right. That's where he should. It's not just, it's not, this isn't just us being funny. Like that's where he, that's where he should play and probably will play. Funny is the little graphic of the rats that I tweet every time. Matthew Kachukh does something.

That is fun. But if we're going to do this, if we're going to fantasy book this, let's just go ahead. Florida's now the best team. They're going to win the, the Atlantic. They're going to finish first.

They're going to face a wild card team. The wild card field just cleared out. One of the teams left standing, the Ottawa senators, they're going to play the Florida Panthers in the first round. So who's going to be lining up against that rat line? Oh, God. Brady Kachuk on the other side of it, let's go. How much fun is this going to be? Listeners, you missed out on McIndoo writing all that out on a whiteboard, as he was saying it.

It was incredible. What happens in game three of that series, the first game in Ottawa when the fans boo the American National Anthem and the Kachuk brothers are lined up next to each other on the face off? Like, do we fight now? Is this? Do we got to fight each other? I think we have to fight. And Marchand sitting there going, yes, do it. You got to fight.

Go. Imagine sitting in the dressing room and your coach, you're a D man and your coach tells you, congrats. Your assignment is Sam Bennett, Brad Marchan and Matthew Kachuk. And you say, no thank you, coach. And he says, okay, then it's Alexander Barkov, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaggy. Like, Anton Lundel, please, please. It's also still quite good.

Yeah. How much does this shift like the balance of power for you guys to the Panthers? Are we just kind of ignoring what happened out West? Well, that's what I want to ask because like the Panthers, you know. Well, I asked it on the host. Well, I agree. You did a good job there. It was a good transition.

But that's the thing, right? Because the Panthers, they're the two-time finalists here, right? With the Stanley Cup, they're the best team going in. We have seen over the years with Tampa Bay, with Chicago with some of these teams, that that third run is really different. Like that's where the miles start catching up with you. And I can remember in 2015, the Blackhawks on absolute fumes just crawling to the finish line.

But who in the east can really match up with them right now is not Carolina anymore. Toronto is still Toronto. Tampa Bay looks awesome right now. Maybe it's Tampa Bay. But the balance of power in the west is so much that you got, you know, you've got Dallas and you've got Colorado and you've got Edmonton, you've got Winnipeg. In the east, it feels like Florida is just this behemoth right now. You need a Vasilevsky series, I think, if you want to get rid of the Florida Panthers.

That could still be the first round. The Battle of Florida could very well be the first round. Or you need Bobrovsky to really fight it, which is, I think, as good as Bobrovsky has been for them in the playoffs, I think it's entirely possible that Bobroski in a series in a series in a series. that Brovsky's the worst goalie in the series. There was another tweet about 30 minutes ago that it's a conditional second for Marshall that could turn into a first. I'll just say this, because I'm usually the guy

who says, if you're a GM and you've got a guy, especially a rental, a pending UFA, you've got to take what you can get. and we can all sit back and go, well, you should have got more. But if everybody in the whole league knows a guy's available, and that's the best offer, you just take the best offer. If that's the best offer, they should have just kept Brad Marsha. They should have just kept him unless he wanted to go and he changed his mind over the last couple of days.

He's your captain. He doesn't want to go. You still have a chance to re-sign him. I would have kept him rather than get a second round pick. Well, because now where does this team go from here is the next big question. I know that's not top of mind because we're talking about the deadline. But like Bruins made a couple trades. Brandon Carlo's gone.

Brad Marchon's gone. You still have David Pasternak. you trade Trent Frederick, Charlie Coil. Like what, what do the Bruins do? Like, that's my big question is like, what, what happens next? What are we, what's the plan here? Is trading Marchand almost like the clear sign like this, this is the line of demarcation that we are no longer in contender mode and we have to, you know, you trade your captain away, you trade your guys, been there forever? Because I got to think, it feels like Patrick Kane a couple years ago where the Hawks, Kane kind of wanted to stay.

But the Hawks wanted to make a statement that the new era starts, and we want to start fresh. And I wonder if that's something, because I kind of think that Marchand would have signed for relatively cheap for what he's worth to stay, to spend his whole career with one team. He's been there forever. But what did the Blackhawks get for what, like,

what did they get for Taves? Well, for Kane, it was a, or Kane, excuse me. I think it was a second rounder, actually, from the Rangers. Oh, God. Oh, no. It's Claude Giroux. When Claude Drew was engineering a trade to Florida, it was a second round. That's what it feels like.

It feels like either Marchand engineered this where he said, you know, I want to go here and that's all they had. Or otherwise it's just Boston just cut and bait for the sake of it. And then also you got to, because you're, we're talking about Patrick Kane of the Rangers and Clodgerud to the, to the Panthers. Those were slow burns. We knew that those guys were on their way out. We knew that they really only had one or two destinations that they would accept. this was where did this come from? Like we were...

There was increased chatter. We talked about it on the show like a week ago, Sean, where it was just like, I feel like I came back from taking my dog to the vet and everyone just remembered that Broadmarshant was a UFA who was like old and it just like slid from there, really.

I just think that we were a lot closer. We had much more time to accept the reality that Patrick Kane wasn't going to play on the Chicago Blackhawks anymore. And here it was like, yeah, maybe it's something that happens. And then Pierre LeBrun said this morning on TSN, the talks had escalated over the last 24 hours or 48 hours. So it's like we have this crunched, you know, time span where everybody had to kind of come to terms with this. And then also didn't quite because the deadline passed.

That's the other, that's the other variable. Three o'clock rolls around. We're seeing and we're like, okay, I guess that's it. And then the bomb drops it at 302. So all these different factors are in play that just led this to be the most. I mean, this might be short-sighted of me, but this is the most shocked I've ever been by a deal on a trade deadline. I need Flutocinzawa's behind the trade story about this. Like, I need oxygen right now.

100%. Trade was such a big deal in Boston that Bill Simmons is tweeting about hockey. I know. All right. Let's take a break because we want to get into some of the biggest winners and losers of the deadline. and we're already kind of looking at the bigger picture for some teams. There's a lot more to get into. That'll be next here on the Athletic Hockey Show.

Welcome back to the Athletic Hockey Show, where we are awarding Jim Nill with the GM of the Year award again. I don't know about other days of the pod, but I feel like Sean and I have gone on many rants about how Jim Nill and the stars are the best. We love the Dallas Stars on Thursdays. It's the best run team. the NHL. Like, there's no question in my mind. Like, they always, they always do good business. They put young people in position to succeed. They maximize their assets and they just keep on rolling.

They got to win a cup at some point here. It has to validate what you're doing. Imagine how much we'd like the stars if they knew how to evaluate right shot defensemen. Like, we would just, we would, we would give them. I thought you were going to say if they were in Toronto. No, I would never say such a thing. Come on. That'd be a low blow. Not me. How does this affect me? If they were in Ontario. Well, then the tax jury would be different and then they wouldn't have any good players. We got to bring in Frankie Corrado in his little adding machine, which he breaks out with regularity on us. Does Frank have a little like accountants calculator with the receipt paper and everything? Frank is an amateur accountant, I would say, yes.

That wouldn't, you could tell me that was actually true and I would believe you. Like if Frank was filing people's taxes on the side from Cranberry, PA. be like for sure i i i could see that um okay from one team in the west to another the colorado avalanche maybe one of i don't know if it's fair to call them like sneaky winners because they did a lot of good stuff it's more just that they didn't maybe get like the big flashy deal of today but they get brock nelson last night um they add charlie coil all of a sudden their de depth or D-depth, Jesus. Their center depth looks a lot better than it did three days ago. What do you guys think of the abs? Are they one of the big winners of the day? My big concern when they traded for

Nelson was that that's an all-in move. They got better immediately. He's the best center on the market, blah, blah, blah, all these things we've said about Brock Nelson for what feels like six months. All true. In all points to Colorado for going out and getting them. I still didn't like their roster quite enough to put them in a class with the Dalluses and Florida's of the world, largely because of what they were rocking with down the middle. Still, they needed someone else because Casey Middlestead was not the answer there for whatever reason, right? So I was, I'm thinking like there's still work to be done on that bottom six,

even though they did do the chips to the middle of the table move with Brock Nelson. And then they go out and get Charlie Coyle. They send out Casey Middlestet. Charlie Coil is a, he's a better player right now than Casey Middleset is. And he's a better fit for what the Colorado avalanche need, certainly, than Casey Middlestead. So, so those two moves in concert, if they're one or the other, eh, maybe I'm, maybe I'm less all in on the abs. But the fact that they managed to pull off both of those things to get that much stronger down the middle, that's like all you,

all you could have expected from them. So the center depth in Colorado goes from Nathan McKinnon, Casey Middle stat to like question mark question mark in the bottom six. Sorry if that's rude. Aves fans hate my guts. I just know it. To now Nathan McKinnon, Brock Nelson, Charlie Coyle. It's significantly better one, two, three up the middle. But it is a pretty high price tag for the Aves.

They send a first rounder and their top prospect, Callum Ritchie. What do you think of that, Scott? What can you tell us about Richie and what the islanders are going to be getting for him? Well, Richie was basically the only legit prospect within the abs pool and their scouts are also going to hate me for saying that out loud,

but there is nothing, like literally, absolutely nothing else coming. They also dealt Will Zellers, who is a B-grade prospect, but another one of their prospects of any notoriety. They dealt him today. They talk about all in.

You look around the league. I cannot remember a time when there were four, or five prospect pools as barren as Tampa and Florida and Edmonton. Dallas is getting there now after graduating Wyatt Johnson and moving on from Logan Stancove, but there's nothing coming in Colorado. And Richie is a phenomenal young player. We're talking about after you get through the Michecobs and the Bedards and the celebrinis of the world, he's one of the better forward prospects in the sport, one of the better

young players in the sport. He is for me with Michael Mesa, probably the best player in the OHL this year. I think he's going to play in the NHL next year. I think he was going to play in the top nine in Colorado, potentially even as a third line center next year had they kept him around. He's a legit player. He's a six foot two center. He can play the wing. He can score. He can play on the power play. He might be a penalty killer even. I think I think he's a nice piece for an Islanders team that badly needs something sort of around the corner. It's looking pretty grim, if I'm being honest, in terms of what's coming for the Islanders as well. And the Islanders aren't in win now mode like teams with a prospect pool that looks like theirs typically are. So

Richie gives them something that they were sorely missing and at least gives them something to really look forward to for next training camp. And I would expect that he's playing with New York Islanders next year in the NHL. So what do we make of the Islanders? Like, Like you said, they're not really in win now mode, but they're not really in tear down mode. They're trading Brock Nelson, but they're going to resign Kyle Palmeri. What are the Islanders? You know, you've got Horvad, you've got Barzell and there's injury. You've got Sorokan.

Like, there's pieces of a contender there. And they're one of those annoying teams that just kind of clings to the playoffs every year and then can do some damage. But what do we make for them? What are the Islanders right now? And after a thought? I think the aisles are among the teams furthest from contend, in the NHL. I think they're in big trouble. I think Lou has put them in a sticky situation. That would be my very short and blunt answer. Like I, Noah Dobson looks horrible. He looks like a shell of his former. They just have very, very little going for them at the moment. Can I just go back to Colorado here? Yes. I do like the Brock Nelson acquisition. I like the fit. The price was high, but I like it. But as far as them being winners, they gave up, Scott says, their only good prospect and a first. and still fell further behind the Dallas stars in my mind because of Rattan.

And not just because Dallas went out and got somebody. Dallas went out and got their guy. Miko Rantanin is now going to be in the Central for eight years like we all thought he would be at the start of this year, except instead of with Colorado, it's with Dallas. I don't know that if I'm an avalanche fan, I don't know if I come out of today feeling good about it. And I like, last, I like your winners and losers. You basically had Colorado on both ends of the column. They were winners because of the trade, but they were also losers because how did they let this get away from them?

I think the difference is that Nathan McKinnon and Kail Makar are super saying right now. Like that's that's the X factor for me between those two teams were coming off a night. Last night, just last night, Kail McCar had six points. Nathan McKinnon had five points last night. Between the two of them, they had 11 points in an NHL game. they were playing the San Jose Sharks, but they had 11 points. Like they are just dominating teams right now. So I think come play, like if they're as good, if they play like this, come playoffs.

If Nathan McKinn is still the best player in the world come playoffs, it like it might not matter what the Dallas stars have to say about it or what the Dallas stars, even with Miko Renton have to say about it. Nathan McKinney could win them two or three playoff series. But it still has to gall them, right? that, you know, Ranton and signed in Dallas for basically what they were planning to offer. Like, he spurned the team that he allegedly wanted to stay with and he was mad that he got traded from. And then goes and signs the same contract.

I get it. Taxes. I know. Taxes, taxes, taxes. But it's got to just absolutely gall you as an avalanche fan that he signed for that contract. Well, wasn't that more on the Aves, though? Because Rantan said they were negotiating and he was willing to accept lesser than market value to stay. So if I'm a fan, I'm more pissed at the Aves for.

Wasn't the report, it was like 11.5 they were offering? I mean, that's close enough that you could have gotten there, I think. Yeah, it's penny wise and pound foolish. But then why would they trade him if you were that close? I think at the time, they didn't think they were close. And I think Miko Ranton and his side were giving a higher number thinking they were playing chicken and they were going to meet in the middle. Why did Miko Randon and sign this contract in Dallas? How did this happen?

Why did the Aves trade him? Why do you trade him three weeks before the deadline? Keep negotiating. He's still going to be valuable the day of the deadline if you guys can't make an agreement. They did this too early. Somebody screwed up is what happened. So much of this doesn't make sense. Like how this all ended up, how he commits to Dallas for eight years, having never lived there when his whole thing was, hey, I don't know Rale yet.

I was in team of team Finland and one on the road. and I'm going to sign with Dallas sight unseen. I mean, something doesn't add up here. Yeah. Also, we haven't mentioned Colorado's single biggest acquisition. It's McKenzie Blackwood. Come on. Our guy.

They have a goalie now. We also haven't mentioned that Marty Nietzsche is playing really well for them. Yeah. It's a good player. Sign through next year at a team-friendly deal, too. So Carolina GM, Eric Tulski said this on Miko Ranton. Our lovely producer, Jeff, just dropped this in the chat. I think we have a great organization.

I think we have a great coach. I think we have a great locker room. But it doesn't fit for everyone. And it just didn't feel like home to him as far as I can tell. And that's okay. So like I said, I think I kind of appreciate Tulski just being like, whatever, like let's get what we can.

And moving on for mix, a lot of GMs would have just kept him and tried to make it work and lost him for nothing in the summer. But back on the aves, I think we all agree that they're like both winners and losers of the entire trade deadline on the day. They did really well with yesterday at Nelson, Charlie Coyle, etc. We like what the aves did, but the random stuff is still still a little strange. Winnipeg Jets, what do we think about them? I know we said in one of our preview shows, like when we had a wish list for the deadline,

I wanted the Jets to go out and get somebody big. I wanted to see them go for like a wrist line in, not just like size big, but like a bigger name on the trade deadline board. Um, they get sensible depth today. Brandon, Tanev, Luke Shen. The West just shifted completely in Dallas's favor, the Aves favor. Kind of hard not to be disappointed in Kevin Shevoldaav's work today. What do you guys think? I think Marat put it perfectly.

He said the ground shifted underneath Winnipeg's feet, right? They didn't take a step back, but they find themselves farther back than maybe they were before it. It's a bad deadline for them. They just didn't do enough. This is a year that they can win the Stanley. up. They should have been more aggressive. It's tough for them in free agency to lure people to come up there. So trades might be your only avenue to get some of these guys. And sensible depth is not what you need in the Western Conference of the NHL. You need splash. And everybody wants to

win, but the Jets might need to win. Everything that's happening in that organization, first of all, as far as selling tickets and we've heard over the last couple of years, they've got the best goalie in the world. Who knows for how much longer that'll be true. You never know with goal. It was all set up there right now. And, I mean, Mark, you say nobody wants to go to Winnipeg. There was a time nobody wanted to go to Edmonton. But having great players and having success changes that. So a deep playoff run, obviously there's nobody can go out and get the guarantees of Stanley Cup.

But a playoff run maybe starts to shift those perceptions. And, you know, look, I hate the pile on Kevin shovel day off for a long time early in his career. He had a reputation as a guy who was afraid to make the big deal. that hasn't fully been the case lately. He's had some moves at deadlines. He's traded first round picks. I don't, I'm sure he wasn't in on Miko Renton and, you know, maybe he wasn't in on Brock Nelson. There had to be something.

I don't think any of the contenders took as big a step back relative of the rest of the division as they did. He's got $6 million in salary caps based. They didn't use. That rolls over into future years, right? I mean, that's using it. I think that's how it works. I'm not an accountant, but yes. What about the Vancouver Canucks?

Pretty easy to say that they're losers at the deadline. They were a team to watch, but really, they only move Carson Suzy. I mean, they already traded J.T. Miller earlier in the season. But they hold on to Brock Besser. He was the big one. And I saw this tweet from Dan Riccio. He's on Sportsnet. think it's 650. It's the Vancouver radio station. All of the numbers are the same. I'm so sorry.

Patrick Alvin said, if I told you what I was offered for Besser, I would have to run out of here because you would not believe me. And the insinuation is that the offers were putrid. I feel like if you can't get a good return for a 40 goal score, I don't really know what to make of that. Also, don't say that publicly. Like, you're just buried your own guy. What are you? you doing? Trying to sink his value so you can get a good contract this summer, good extension, but also Brock Besser probably is pissed at you now. I don't know. Exactly. I wonder if the winger market was a little softer than we realized it was, or if maybe people, there wasn't some stuff in flux because of Marchon and because of, because of, uh, Rinn and because of Brock Besser

stays put, Ricardo, Rale stays put. Those are the two guys who seem like there was close to difference makers is you were going to get outside of the Marchand, uh, outside of the Marchand uh, outside of the Marchion Ranton tier. And they, and they stay put. So I'm wondering if this is an instance of the middle

class getting squeezed out a little bit where you have, you're willing to trade for Brandon Tanev and you're willing to trade for Anthony Bavillier or whatever. But if, if there wasn't some mushy middle that kind of, uh, disappeared that, that we were honestly, I think we were all anticipating Brock Bessor and maybe Ricard Raquel and we're,

we thought we were going to have these discussions and we didn't. But isn't Brock Besser in a little, is he really in the Ricard Raquel tier? I think he was better last year than Ricard Rakel has ever been, but also that's a little bit of an outlier for Brock Besser. I think, I think at his best, yeah, but, you know, Ricard or Cal could easily have, by the time this is all said and done, he could have a season on par with what Brock Bessor did last year. They're not that far off, I don't think. two years from now, are we going to be wondering or having the same conversation about Quinn Hughes that we're having about Mitch Marner and Miko Ranin?

If this doesn't get better, like he's got two years left after this. If this doesn't get better in the next year and a half here, what kind of conversation is Quinn Hughes going to be prepared to have with his agent about what comes next in Vancouver? He's going to look so good on the Panthers third pair. The Panthers, the new big bad, like they're the new Vegas golden nights. Yeah. Speaking of teams we didn't hear from. They tweeted high today. Yeah. The social media team was busier than the front office typing two letters.

It's true. What are the Canucks right now? It's similar to that Islanders conversation, but just kind of from a different side of it, where we thought they were building to something significant here just a year or two ago, like, oh, this is going to be a good run for Vancouver. and now they're just lost and they're just stuck. Do you remember the interview that Jim Rutherford gave a few weeks ago when he was talking about J.T. Miller and Elias Pedersen?

He's like, if I trade one of them, I might have to trade both of them. And if I trade both of those guys, what do I do with Quinn Hughes? Here we are. It's deadline day. One of them's gone. The other two are still there. I think we're a little closer to what Jim was predicting than maybe we initially thought. To answer your question, Laz, they might.

be the New York Islanders with Quinn Hughes. Like that might be where they're at. And pretty soon, if Quinn doesn't look like he wants to stay, you're in a danger, you're in a job losing scenario. Sticking with the deadline, we'll do one more potential loser. And then I want to talk about the Leafs. Sorry everyone, other than Sean. Did the Edmonton Oilers do enough?

Because if I'm Connor McDavid and the team that just beat me in game seven of the Cup final just added Brad Marchand. And I'm sitting there. I'm kind of pissed. What do you guys think? Yeah, you got Colorado ads, a big name. Dallas ads, the biggest name. Is Edmonton one of the top four teams in the West right now?

I have Vegas ahead of them. I got Dallas. I got Colorado and I got Winnipeg ahead of them. They're not one of the top four teams in the NHL, that's for sure. But they were, you know, the preseason favorite, and they might not even be, you know, top half of the Western playoff field right now. But flipside, are they the best team in the Pacific? I know you said you had Vegas ahead of them. That's the only other team that I think they're worried about.

And I think you could argue based on what the other divisions look like, maybe Edmonton and Vegas are in the best shape of any of the contenders just because they have the easiest path you would think to the playoffs. So remember, if you're Edmonton, yeah, we're not better than Dallas, we're not better in Colorado, we're not better than Winnipeg. We only got to beat one of those teams. The rest of them are going to knock each other out. So that maybe makes me feel a little bit better. I would have liked to have seen them do something more aggressive either on the blue line or in goal. I think those options kind of disappeared the goaltending ones over the last couple of days. But I don't feel great about their deadline.

But I do feel like they're maybe in better shape and we give them credit for purely because of the division. they're in. Sure. That's fair. I feel like sometimes it's easy to make too much over like deadline moves when it was already solid team. L.A. Kings disappointing. They didn't do really anything. And so now they're just 100% can lose the Oilers in the first round of the playoffs again. That sucks. That makes me sad for the Kings. But let's take a break. We'll talk about the Leafs next. And then we can wrap it up. There was actually quite a bit that happened today. more losers than winners maybe. Anyways, we'll be right back.

All right, welcome back to the show. A few more teams that we haven't talked about yet. The Tampa Bay Lightning, but we already talked about the Yanni Gord, Oliver Bjork Strand deals on the Thursday show, so we don't need to dive into that. Again, Julian Breezebaud does not care about draft picks. We all know that already.

Let's get to the Toronto Maple Leafs. I think that in a vacuum, I don't hate what they did. Brandon Carlo makes sense. That is a Bradtree living guy. He's big. He's defensive. Good on the PK.

He could look great next to Chris Tanev on the second pair if you want. Good, good playoff D pair. Scott Lawton and other Bradtree living. That makes sense to me. But does any of this matter given what just happened in Florida and Tampa? The negative way to look at this, the pessimist view, some might say the Maple Leafs fans, view is they just traded two first round picks and two of their four okay prospects and still lost ground certainly to the Panthers and over the course of the week you could argue maybe also

to the lightning now the nice thing is in both cases they got guys who do fill it fill a need on the roster right now both guys have salary retained both guys are signed beyond just this year. So neither one's a rental. Carlos got two years left. Lotton's got one. And both of them are going to be cheap relative to what they bring to the table significantly cheap, which will help the Leafs fill in around the rest of it because we know that the top of the

leafs line up is never cheap. So you've got to find a way to save some money at the bottom. It reminds me a little bit Mark of the Jake McCabe deal a few years ago where you went, oh wow, they gave up a lot for that, but they still have them retained and they've since been able to resign them.

But no first round pick this year already, thanks to that deal. Now, no first round picks in the next couple of years. Scott, you were listening to teams that were pretty barren as far as the prospect pipelines. The Leafs are close to that already. They're headed in that direction pretty quick. Yeah. And I will say in the glass half full perspective for me, on top of the retention, I think the retention is a huge piece of what they did today because they got both of those players at bargain bin

prices from a pure salary cap standpoint. The other piece is the never-ending who who's going to play with Morgan Riley piece. And they've gone out in years past. They traded for Ilya Lubushkin twice. They traded for Luke Shen. In looking back at those deals, Brandon Carlo is a better player than either of those versions of Elia Lubushkin ever was. Brandon Carlo is a much better player than Luke Shen was at that stage in his career. Brandon Carlo is a legit shutdown defenseman in the NHL. So from that standpoint, I think they finally, they're clearly happy with what, uh, what they have in Jake McCabe and Chris Tannave as a pairing. They now get Brandon Carlo to slot in alongside Morgan Riley. It gives Riley a partner who, who probably fits

quite well with him in the grand scheme of things. And it means that you don't have to play Simone Benoit and Philip Myers and guys that they clearly, and obviously Connor Timmons is outgoing, guys that they clearly weren't comfortable playing. O'EL gets to slide down. There is a lot to like about the fit, but to your point, will any of it matter if they run into the, if the Florida Panthers are healthy and they run into the Florida Panthers in a first or second round playoff series, is it going to matter? Are they going to be outmatched? And the answer might still be yes. Not to get too deep into like Leafs Deep Hair stuff. I just feel like Brandon Carlo played some of his best hockey when he was with Hampus Linholm,

and that feels more like a Chris Tanev partner to me. But I also get wanting to keep a pair together that you like and then just finding somebody stable for Morgan Riley. I don't know. I just feel like him and Tanev would work so nicely together. I'd rather just fast forward to Brad Marchand scoring a backbreaking goal in the first round of the playoffs here, personally. Yeah. It's going to happen. It's going to be so fun when the Leafs play at Panthers team and the penalties are still two each every single game to keep them nice and balanced.

One of my favorite, one of my favorite McIndoo Hobby Horses baby. It would be fantastic. Leaves Penalty Diff talk. Let's go. Everybody knows the league hates its most lucrative team. That's right. Is Connor Bardard one of the losers at the trade deadline for you, Lazz? the Chicago Blackhawks, they trade for Shea Weber's contract.

May potentially because they're going to struggle to hit the cat floor next year. Is that really where we thought we'd be three years into Connor Bedard's career? Shea Weber could probably play on this team right now at his age the way he is. Rantaninan would have looked great. Like the Blackhawks had their eye on Rantan. There's no doubt about it. A big moose of a man barreling down the wing with Connor Bredard bouncing pucks off of him. That was the dream.

it leaves just Mitch Marner. Like that's the, that's the, that's the brass ring now for Chicago. They have to do something. And he's really the only option. And they can throw 15.5 million at him, as John was saying earlier. They have that kind of money. They have that kind of flexibility. It's just, is Mitch Marner going to want to, is, is the appeal of playing with Connor

Bedard, which is high worth the, all right, it's going to be still pretty bad for a couple of years here? You know, yeah, there's Carrel Caprizov down the way. I've talked about that and gotten in trouble on this show for talking about that, but that's certainly a possibility in a year. Brock Besser is probably the next best thing this summer after Mitch Marner, and that's a pretty steep drop-off. Marner is a great two-way player, a Selky caliber guy. He would make Connor Bredard a hundred-point guy probably.

Well, finally a chance for Mitch Marner to play. Finally a chance for Mitch Marner to play with an elite center who can score goals. Boy, that will absolutely. But if he comes to Chicago, he gets to really be kind of the man, I think, right? Where he's always kind of second or third banana in Toronto. I don't know if that matters to him. He's the second or third biggest athlete in Toronto. Where would he rank in Chicago?

Oh, significantly down the list. He's about 13 bears that would be ahead of him and six Cubs. 50th? Maybe. Dude, 10 years ago, hockey was huge in Chicago. Like, it's there if you wanted. You can go take it. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Taze ran this town. You can have it if you want it.

If the PWHL expands to Chicago, then Abby Murphy is going to be the best hockey player in the city of Chicago. Sorry, Mitch Warner. I'd love to see it. Certainly the grittiest. Well, as I was wondering, after we're done here, do you have, did they set up a media call for Shea Weber's contract? Are you going to get a conference call and talk to the conference call? They've got, they got Jake McCabe, Seth Jones, Josh Bailey is being. paid by the Blackhawks right now.

Shea Weber and there's more I'm not thinking of. Miko Redden. They're the new Arizona coyotes. Chicago Blackhawks, the darling of the league for an entire decade. The most, you know, the richest, most, you know, five-star team is the Arizona coyotes now. Amazing. That's great.

Well, on that note, that's great, Laz. Thank you. All the Chicago Blackhawks fans that are listening are deeply depressed. They probably all knew that already, though. Oh, it's a well-known fact, yeah. All right, it was a busy trade deadline day. Thanks to Sean Gentilly, Sean McAdo, Mark Lazarus, and Scott Wheeler. That is all from us.

Thanks, everyone, for listening to The Athletic Hockey Show. Max Bultman and Mark are going to be joined by Pierre LeBron on Monday for your next episode. Thanks, everyone for listening. Have a great weekend.