The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL trade deadline recap (recorded LIVE!)

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

Ian Mendes and Sean Gentille cohost this special livestream edition of The Athletic Hockey Show to break down all the action from NHL trade deadline day and are joined throughout the show by guests Corey Pronman, Jonas Siegel, Arthur Staple, Bill Lindsay, Peter Baugh, Hailey Salvian, and Mark Lazerus.Please note: this episode was recorded live on Monday, March 21, 2022.Watch a replay of the show on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tj9M7aQBn8ERight now, you can get a 6 month subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody and welcome to the athletic hockey show trade deadline live. As you can see here on your screen, it's Ian Mendez, Sean Gentilly with you for, I don't know, next hour, hour and a bit to recap a rather eventful day, 48 hours in the hockey world leading up to the three buck Eastern time trade deadline. So in lieu of the usual athletic hockey show on a Monday with myself and Haley Salvean, it's this live edition with myself. Sean Gentile, we've got a cavalcade of guests, maybe even Haley Salvin. Coming into the mix, Corey Prondman's going to drop by. I think Peter Bob, maybe some Arthur's staple, Jonas Siegel. So we're going to have a whole cavalcated guest coming up here. I'll break down the trade deadline.

Sean Gentilly, my friend, I got to ask you, though, as we kick this off, you did the live blog all day with the two Sean's, McIndoo and you. From a humor perspective, did this trade deadline deliver some laughs or what? Zach Sanford, baby. That was the funny deal of the day. No, I think the Jets brought it for most of the, for most of the, the, the duration there. Are you okay? That's the question.

I know I was busy. I thought I was going to be the most flustered person in this, like in this live recording or whatever we're doing here. Your day has been, I think, more eventful than mine. Well, you know what? The thing was, we were supposed to start at five Eastern time. It's now almost six Eastern time. I'm with Senator's General Manager, Pierre, Dorian, was supposed to speak

to us we thought around 315 on Monday. He ended up speaking to us closer to 5 o'clock. It was like 4.40. So, you know, I came racing into the house after that Pierre Dorian interview. Look, and I got to ask you, we're going to bring Corey Promin in here in a second. I'm always a big fan of getting outside opinions on the team that I cover, which is the Ottawa Senators. And I want to know from your perspective, the Travis Hammondick trade.

what like what what goes through your mind when you see ottawa pick up Travis hammondick pay full freight for him and give up a third round pick when you saw that there was a third round pick involved i figured that that was also going back to the vancouver canucks so that the senators would take Travis hammondick and that's that's that's obviously not the case yeah it was wild i mean that's the sort of stuff i mean my god dude you you know it's better than anybody that's the sort of stuff that we've come to expect from the ottawa senators like head scratching stuff stuff also typically involving weird, weird contracts for D-Men. So yeah, I think it, in one regard, it was sensible. It also kind of fit the tone of the last few days, which was like crazy prices getting paid for defensemen, like in the wake of the Ventura deal. But man, that was a wild one. And it was wild to see Dorian, whether it was on TSN or whether it was with you guys, try to, you know, justify it because it was a head scratcher for sure.

Yeah. Well, I tell you what, I said we got to cavalcade again. guess, why don't we start wheeling them in? Corey Prondman, who of course does it just a terrific job covering the prospect side of things. I think we're going to bring Corey Prondman into the mix here. There we go. There we go. We appreciate your patience here as we had a little bit of a false start.

Welcome to this live edition of the Athletic Hockey show trade deadline. Extravagance of Corey Prongam, how are you doing on this trade deadline day? I'm doing it very well. It's been a very long last 24, 48 hours, but I've enjoyed it. I think the, you know, from an angel perspective, you know, it isn't like the NBA trade deadline, but I still thought we had a lot of action over the last couple of days. Listen, let me start by asking you, and we saw it, look, Ben Chirot got traded for a first round pick.

We saw some other first round picks in play, some second round picks. Just from a draft capital perspective, were you surprised at the number of picks that changed hands here, maybe the last couple of days? The one that I thought that was interesting is how many future draft picks were traded. I think you saw a lot of 23. he picks a lot of 24 picks getting traded. That's not something you usually see a lot of them in the NHL. I see it in other leagues, you know, other sports or I see it in the junior

leagues that stuff happens. But in the NHL, it's pretty rare for teams to trade that part in the future, especially for first round picks. I mean, Florida traded their 2024 first round pick in the Claudeau-Juru deal. And we presume Florida will continue to be good, but there's risk when you do that. You don't know where your team's going to be in a couple of years for the flyers. That's a very long time for now. if you're rebuilding to even get the player.

So that was the one thing that I thought was the most interesting. Corey, in terms of actual prospects, not just picks, who's the most interesting guy to change hands here? There was a couple that were interesting. You know, for one, I just mentioned Florida. I think Florida in general just cleared out so many of their main young assets, whether it was the first round picks in 23, 24, whether it was Owen Tippett,

who was the 10th overall pick in 2017. being traded to Philadelphia. You know, you look at this team now, they are all in. You know, they committed, you know, so many of their tradable assets for potential future trade deadlines in this current season. You look at Colorado who had several good young defendants in their system. You know, Bowen Byron, obviously was playing a little bit in the NHL recently until he got hurt. But then they go trade Justin Barron and Drew Hellson, both excellent big mobile, right-shareh. shot defenseman, an attempt to try and win, which I admire.

But I think those are the two teams that, I think you can argue that are the two best teams in the NHL, but they definitely committed themselves with their prospect capital at this trade deadline. And maybe you could, just following up on that, Jack McBain changed hands, too, going to Arizona. Did that surprise you at all? That one didn't surprise me. Nathan Smith going there surprised me.

a little bit. I think we knew Jack McBain was looking just for a place to play. I don't think there was a guaranteed roster spot in Minnesota, so Arizona made a lot of sense. There was a lot of rumors in the weeks and even months leading up to this trade deadline that Jack McBain might get moved. Nathan Smith, the Winnipeg third rounder, who just played at the Olympics and been one of the top players in college hockey. I thought that one was interesting to him going also to Arizona, who I had was really active at the trade deadline and been really active. and trades overall this season as they have a lot of draft picks and they use them with those to get some players in McBain and Smith who can play for them soon and while still having a lot

of capital to play with even though they didn't trade Jacob Chikrin. Corey, I wanted to go back to Owen Tippett. He's 23 years old. I think you're a little bit higher on him than some evaluators are. What have you seen from him over the last couple years that sort of creates that discrepancy because he's you know ultimately he's a 23 year old age L player right so what have you seen from him that you know still makes him worth being the centerpiece of a Claudeau.

Right well I don't know what evaluators are referencing but but I mean he's I think he's got like 13 points in or I think it's 18 points in 13 HL games this season and you know Florida's incredibly deep forward group he played up there for most of the season once they got healthy he went down and yes, because he's not in the NHL, he's 23. I think it's a reasonable argument that you would like to see that, but I think the circumstances were a little bit different. I think the talent is real significant.

He can skate. He's really skilled. He can shoot the puck. He can make plays. The compete level always kind of been the issue with Owen Tippett. There's a reason why he was a 10th overall picking his NHL draft is there is a real, there is clear top six tools there. I would argue, if everything ever went well for him, he has top line potential.

I don't think that's realistic to expect, given how his development has gone over the last four or five years where I think he's been rather good as a pro. I mean, when he's been in the American League, I think he's been very successful in the NHL. I've seen good glimpses from him even if it's not consistent. But I think he's going to help the flyers. I think the fact that he's a wing, not a premium position, I think is the one aspect of that trait that hurts a little bit. You didn't get a center. You didn't get an offenseman in that trade. It's a top six winger who are valuable but not extremely valuable typically in the trademark.

but I do think Tippett's going to help the flyers to go with that first round pick that they got. But it's fair to see when you trade like a star center, even with the rental center, the return was less than you expect, but Jeru held all the cards. And that's what happened. And I wouldn't mind also picking your brain. I'm always, when you see a trade for an NHL ready player now, like our Terry Lekon goes to Colorado, in exchange for prospects and in this case, Justin Barron, and a second round pick.

Should Montreal fans be excited about getting Barron? Yeah, I think. So I think Barron's an excellent prospect. I mean, he's 6-2, 6-2-and-a-half, excellent, excellent skater. I mean, the athletic tools are off the charts. Always have been with Barron. I mean, he was a guy who came into his draft year. You know, he went in the 20s, partly because he had a blood clot issue that season,

his performance wasn't all that good. But he's always been an extremely well-thought-of prospect. You know, not great offense, probably more secondary offense in the NHL, but I do think there is some offense there as a pro to go with the size, the excellent skating ability. I mean, that's a guy who, there's no guarantees, but I think he's got a fairly decent chance to become a second pair defenseman, top four defensemen in the National Hockey League,

who can maybe be a second power play guy, maybe not on a top team, but I think he's an excellent prospect. You don't see, you didn't see a lot of those guys switch hands, but that's because Lakin and has control beyond this season. And so once I kind of heard that he was going to Colorado, my thoughts went to Barron or potentially a future first round pick as the assets that made sense there. Was there a prospect that changed hands that surprised you? Was there a guy who you saw? You were like, up, wasn't expecting him to move today?

No, not really. I mean, I think you kind of know going into the trade deadline. You look at the buyers. You look at who their top guys are, who are the ones, the players that, are being covered by other teams. I think I said before, I didn't really know that Nathan Smith wasn't going to sign with Winnipeg. I think that was more of a reason development.

But otherwise, I think everybody who moved was mostly the way I expected. Going back to Barron, the one thing I wasn't sure, I kind of knew Drew Hellison was kind of going to move. I mean, he was a chip that was being discussed in NHL circles for a while, and Colorado was a contending team.

You knew they were going to move a second round pick would develop quite well, and it was garnering interest. But whether they were going to move Barron was one I was interested by, because after now that they've moved both of those guys, they don't really have much left in their farm system, now that Alex Neuhoek and Bowen Byron on the NHL team, they got some other guys that are somewhat intriguing,

but those were their two top prospects outside the NHL. But I understand why they did. I mean, they're the Stanley Cup favorite. If you find a guy, you think you really help your team for this, and a future playoff run, I think it's definitely worth it. Well, listen, Corey, before we let you go, trade deadline is come and gone. Next thing on the agenda, especially for prospect junkies like you, it's the top prospects game coming your way on Wednesday.

I'm just curious, like, can you give our listeners and viewers a name of one guy that, hey, maybe keep your eye on this guy if they're happening to watch the top prospects game on Wednesday? Yeah, sure. I'm actually in the Gulf Kitchen area right now, prepare, you know, for the CHL top prospects game. The Canadian Hockey League, there's going to be a couple of guys who will be picked really high. Officer everyone knows Shane Wright,

potential first overall pick. The Winnipeg, Ice Duo, Matthew Savoy, Connor, Geeky are very well highly thought of as well. And if you want one of the name, it may not be consensus. Keep an eye on Patelman, the defenseman for the Saginaw Spirit. which he's a guy who's garnering a lot of interest in the National Hockey League. And in a draft where there doesn't seem to be exceptional depth at the defense position,

he's a guy I think has a very good chance to go top 15. All right. Well, listen, terrific. We look forward to your coverage of the top prospects game and the showcase coming up on Wednesday. Appreciate you dropping by and kind of weighing in on some of the prospects and draft picks that move here at the deadline. Corey, as always, thanks for this. Thank you.

All right, there goes, Corey, probably. Before you bring Jonas Siegel on here, Sean, I got to, I got to, to read a couple of comments that have come in on the side of the screen here. By all means, jump in with the comments. Ready for it. Let's go. It's a live show. So we like this. Kyle Baxter

has written in, wow, Ian looks like that. I thought he'd look a lot more like a dorky dad based on the podcast. That's a compliment. Is it? Is it? Wait, actually, I'm not sure if I don't know. I think it's a backhanded compliment. Like, nobody could be as...

Like, that face does not make the commensure amount of puns that you do on the right or nobody could be as ugly as I imagined you to be based on your podcast personality that's not that's what he that's not that's cool and then Tim Lynch writes in if they ever did a reboot of unsolved mysteries with Ian as the host I'd watch the hell out of it

I don't even know what that but I mean first first off buddy I got some bad news they did do a reboot of unsolved mysteries and you are not the host of it so oh yeah they did hey listen the people want Jonas Siegel. So let's bring him in. The Toronto Maple Leafs, a lot of eyes on them. Heading into this deadline.

There he is. Hey, buddy. Jonas Signal. Ah, Siegel. Signal. Jonas Siegel. How are you doing, buddy? muted.

Oh, he hasn't unmuted himself. There we go. Hold on. Did we have him? No. A whole lot of nothing. Rather fitting for the guy covered in Toronto at the trade deadline, right? So there we go.

Okay. Let's see. Do we got him now? Jonas Siegel? No, I could read the lips. That could be a fun segment, actually. Jonas speaks. We have to actually guess what he's saying about the Maple Leafs based on the lip readings. I think he said Jack Campbell. Anyway, hey, I got to ask you, we do have some text coming in here. Vincent has written in. Hey, guys, what is the worst single or the single worst trade? that was made this deadline. So again, that one comes in from Vincent, and Vincent wants to know what's the worst singular trade that's been made.

Look, I know a lot of people would say Travis Hamanick. The most inexplicable one, right? I don't know what you think. If you're giving up an asset to acquire a player who was on waivers a few months ago when you're a go-nowhere team for the rest of this season. Look, I get the logic from Pierre Dorian. He said he ran the assessment.

he's better than what they could have gotten on the open mark in the summer. Understandable. But my God, that was baffling. I'm trying to remember what the other rough ones were because it's been such a slow burn, right, where we've gotten drips and drabs of other deals in the run-up in the run-up to today. But Hamanick definitely sticks out.

I'll tell you, Nick has written in. Nick says Ricard Raquel was a bad move. And I'm curious what you think of this, because obviously the team that you, for a long time, that was your beat, right? You were a penguin's guy. And I still think a lot of us look at you and think of you as the guy who follows the penguins and knows them very intimately. So Ricard Raquel, thumbs up, thumbs down.

I get a thumbs up. I mean, that's the cost of doing business, right? It's a whatever, conditional second round pick. It's Kelly Clang, who's a good goaltending prospect. It's Zach Aston Rays. It's Dominic Simone, who are, you know, roster pieces to make the money work. Aston Reese is more of a loss than Simone, for sure. Asson Races' defensive impact numbers were great, but couldn't score.

So be it. You got to send out money to add money, right? I think the single biggest thing that Jim Rutherford always understood when he was here was that having Sidney Crosby and Hvgeny Malkin and Chris Lattang was a gift. And you sell out every year because you never know when you're going to get that kind of collection of talent together again. And that makes for tough decisions and it makes for mistakes and it makes for a brutal prospect pool.

we see that now, right, where it seems like for the last three years, every trade involving the Penguins has been like, oh, can they get them for Sam Poulin? Can they get them for Nathan, Nathan Lagari? There's the same names to keep kicking around because that's how Barron the prospect was understood. That's the cost of doing business when you respect the gift. And I think that's what Jim Rutherford always did. I think that's what we saw with on Hextall today. You know, you look at what happened in the Eastern Conference, whether it was the Rangers, whether it was the Panthers, on and on down the list, they needed to do something, especially because they had a glaring hole on Afghani Malkins' wing.

They're taking Brian Rust off of Sydney Crosby's wing off the first line. That would have been shocking stuff a couple months ago, but that speaks to the issues that they had on that line, right? So Raquel fits in there. The price was gigantic, but this is what it means to run an organization that has Sydney Crosby and of Ganyi Malkin, Chris Lattang on it. They're still capable of winning and it made all the sense in the world to do it.

Yes, the price tag was high. Good work by the ducks. I think we deserved it. We should give a lot of credit to Pat for Bee. Because even aside from this deal, he brought in the hall, right? You look at everything. Whatever he got for Josh Manson, on and on. The list goes on.

Great work by Pat for Beek. But this is what it means to be the GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins when Sidney Krausey plays for them. And Ron Hextel understands it. And I think that was proof today. All right. Well, I'll tell you what. Let's try take two. shall we with Jonas Siegel.

I think he's on standby. Do we have him now? Hello. There we go. Yes. All righty. The first one of the day, baby. Let's go.

There we go. Jonas Siegel, a busy man, of course, who covers the Toronto Maple Leafs as part of our terrific crew that covers Toronto. Never a shortage of things to talk about, but let's start with the idea. A lot of us thought Jonas

that how Dubas needed to go out and get a goaltender. So explain to us the rationale. You listen to I'm sure to Dubus's availability. this evening, explain to us why Toronto didn't make a move for a goal. Well, I think they basically looked around at everything that was out there and came to the conclusion that nothing outside of Mark Andre Fleary was definitively better and or worth the price.

So, like, you could go for a sideways option. And we looked at, like, every different goaltender in Toronto that they could potentially acquire. And it's like, are these guys that much better than what they have? And I think they basically decided, no, not necessarily and not, worth paying for and then there's trying to fit it under the cap so there are all these working parts for them and they basically just came around to the conclusion that they have to hope you know that jack campbell finds his game again like that's kind of their only choice and like that's that's the conclusion i came to a few weeks ago and then it was like watching that outdoor game

was like they can't possibly just like roll the dice with this can they but like it's a salary cap and like there's just not that many guys out there and this is kind of where they're at. Was Satella getting claimed on waiver or something anticipated or was that just like, did that come out of left field? Were they ready for that? I mean, they're ready for that. But like if you're depending on Harry Sateri, when you anything, you're you're probably poached. And that's, that's kind of like, we in Toronto, I'm sure you guys know, we sort of obsess about like little tiny details. But the bigger issue is that, you know, there just wasn't a guy out there outside of Mark Andre Fleury.

And obviously they talked to Chicago about Mark Andre Fleury, didn't like the price. And if they get Mark Andre Fleury, they probably can't get Mark J. Ordano. So like there's a lot of like moving parts in the air for them unless they decided to sit Jake Muzzen for the rest of the season, which they weren't prepared to do. And I'm not even sure. Actually, not I'm not sure. It would not have made sense for them to sit Jake Muzzen the rest of the year. so that's kind of a non-starter. So, yeah, that's kind of where they're at.

You know, you mentioned Jake Muzin. I'm curious, Jonas, about the defense pairings now that Mark Giordano is going to be in the mix. So take us through. Like, in an ideal world, game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs for Toronto, if everybody's healthy, the sixth defensemen, who are they and what do they look like? Oh, man. And I'm obsessed with this stuff. Like, I could just, like, play on these combinations, like, who plays with who and, like,

what it looks like. I don't know. And I don't think they know at this point. Like part of it is, is Muzin's not back yet. And they just lost Rasmusandine to a knee injury. And it's not really clear how long he'll be out. It kind of feels like he could be out the rest of the regular season.

When Muzzins back, they have like some questions. Do they want to put Mark Sheardano back with T.J. Brody? Obviously, those guys have like as extensive a history as you could possibly have all those years in Calgary. do they want to play Mark Giordano with someone else? Do they want to play them with Justin Hall? Do they want to put T.J. Brody back with Morgan Riley? I think what's good for them now is they have options.

They can go in a lot of different directions. And the way I look at it is on every pair, they can kind of have a guy that you're comfortable being out there, like one trustworthy guy, at least on each pair. Like you can have Riley on the AIS at all times or Muzin or Giordano and then there's Brody. And so suddenly you look at their defense. and like there's not as many guys that you think in a playoff series

like I don't really know if that guy I trust that guy being out there so I think they're at a better spot than they were but like Muzin remains a really big question mark like there's coming back from a concussion multiple concussions and then it's like is he going to be better than he was before he got hurt and I don't know

he's 33 he's had a lot of injuries is Colin Blackwell going to last on the second one How long is it going to work? Like is that just like a day one experiment? What's going on? So he didn't practice today. Neither did Geridano.

So we'll see where he ends up sliding in. Like it kind of sounds like that's in the cards. Like Sheldon Keith brought up today the fact that he scored at a 20 goal pace the last couple of years. And he and Kyle Dubas like both brought up the fact that he's not just an energy guy. He's got some skill to his game. And they've had this like gaping problem on the left wing of their second line for basically a couple months now. They've tried everyone. Nothing is really stuck. And honestly, like,

I've obsessed about that spot a lot. But really, like, they just need William Nealander and John Tavares to play better than they have. Those are two of their highest pay player. They're two of their best players. I mean, we can point at that third wheel all we like. But if those two guys aren't playing at their height or maximum level, it doesn't really matter. I'll tell you what, before we let you go here, Jonas, something we do on the Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, we play a little game called Multiple Choice, Matt. I got a multiple choice question to ask you to wrap it up. We're going to fast forward to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Which member of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization, Jonas, is sitting on the hottest seat on night one of the Stanley Cup playoffs? Is it Kyle Dubis, Sheldon Keith, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, or Jack Campbell? Who's got the hottest seat? Dubis, Keith, Marner, Tavaris, Campbell. I love games, so I will play this game all day. I think, like, you could go with any of those guys, and I don't think any of those answers are wrong, but it has to be Campbell. I mean, with what's gone on this year, with the pressure that he's put on himself, the highs he's had this year. Like, we were at one point in, like, November talking about this guy for the Vesna, the U.S. Olympic team.

And it's like they're, I mean, this is hockey. Like, if your goalie doesn't play well, you're kind of like poached. So I'll go with Campbell, but I don't think any of those answers are. are wrong. I'm going to start incorporating pooched in my daily vocabulary. It's weird. I don't actually use the word that much. Most of my brain is mushy, and that's the word that just keeps coming in mind.

Yeah, because you're trying not to swear because you've been up for 14 hours or her. Terrific stuff. Hey, Jonas, listen, thanks for dropping by the live show. We always appreciate that. Your contributions here, and certainly we look forward to reading all about the Maple Leafs on Deadline Day in the Athletic. Thanks for this and have a great night. Thanks, guys. All right, there goes Jonas Siegel.

I think some moving parts here. I think we're going to go to Arthur's staple, if I'm not mistaken here. Yeah, we're going to go to Arthur's staple. Look at this. Boom, just like that. Arthur. Bring him in. He is our senior New York hockey writer and never a dull moment in New York.

And certainly I know you've got to run to a, what is it, a press conference here that you got to get to shortly. Eventually, yeah. Okay, but let's shoehorn this in. Let's look at the Rangers. There's people who think that there is Stanley Cup contender. There's some people who think they're a pretender. I want to know after the deadline, how should we view the New York Rangers?

Better than before. I have to say, you know, if the one flaw in their game or one of the major flaws was just not having enough forward depth where you saw guys like Dryden Hunt and Julian Gochier, who are basically glorified AHA's getting pretty regular minutes and sometimes in the top six, the moves that they made over the last few days, starting with Frank Vichano coming in from Florida for a fourth round pick. And then today, Andrew Copp, a big edition from Winnipeg and Tyler Mott, kind of a smaller edition, but certainly a guy who's better than what they've got. So three forwards that can go right into their lineup, and there's not a lot of teams that are headed to the playoffs that could say, hey, let's pick up three regular NHLers and put them right in our lineup.

The Rangers can, and then Justin Braun for maybe a little insurance on D because their defense's been a little shaky. So it seems like a lot to add for a team that's top 10 in the league, but they also. seem to fit and it seems to make a lot of sense that they didn't give up any of their prime prospects and maybe not even a first round pick depending on what happens. Where does Koff fit in? Is he a third center or is he like a second line right winger? Like what's the what's the ideal fit for him for them? You could list off a few more spots. Just just keep going. He could play top line right wing with Chris Kreider and Mika Zabanajad tomorrow night in Jersey and it wouldn't look that strange. This is a guy that you know I think when they were first.

investigating J.T. Miller and that was going on for a while. It made a lot of sense because there's a guy that can play center, he can play wing, power play, do some penalty kill, win some faceoffs. They need guys that can do a lot. And COP is maybe like a B, B plus version of J.T. Miller. Obviously, he's a pending UFA and they have some serious cap issues coming this offseason. But he's certainly a guy that if he does what they hope he can do down the stretch and in the playoffs, whether it's third line center, third line wing alongside Philippeel, second line wing with Ryan Strom, maybe if you need him, or fourth line guy to just go out and tough it out, play some PK.

If he can do all that and he fits in well, he's a guy you can see them trying to keep around. I know they have some issues and they got to sign Ryan Strom and they're going to need a number two center for the long term. But Cop is a guy that gives you a lot of options in the short term and a lot of options in the long term. That's why it's such a good addition. You know, Arthur, I think a lot of people would look at Igor Shisterkin and say not only is he a legitimate Vesda trophy candidate, but maybe a potential heart trophy candidate too. And that has made Alexander Giorgi have somewhat expendable. And I'm curious, was his name ever really in play for something that happened at the deadline? Or do the Rangers just feel like, you know what, we might need two goalies here. Let's revisit this in the subject. I'm sure they would have traded him if there was some sort of market for him. From what I've heard back in December, they had a deal in place with Arizona. And it wasn't for much.

of a return. It was for a very low-level goalie prospect from the coyotes. And that got scuttled because Shistarkin got hurt. And so then Giorgi, I played for a few weeks. He was okay, went back to his number two goalie spot. And, you know, he's not the most positive, hasn't had the most positive attitude. It's tough to be a backup in this league when you think you should be a number one. He's still a young guy. So the writing was on the wall for him to be out of here. In the summer, I'm sure he wanted to be out of here before then. But really, the way that he's played outside of last night where he stood on his head and played one of the best goalie performances in season when he shut out Carolina. There really just wasn't enough that he showed that any team that needs a goalie going forward here would say we're going to commit an asset for this guy.

And really, if you're not going to get anything back for him, why give him up? Like you said, you may need someone if they lose Shastirkin, they're screwed. So that's not even a question. But there's 19 games left. There's a few back-to-backs. you want to give this Shistark in a break before you get to the playoffs. So Giorga is stuck.

The Rangers are stuck with him and they'll part ways in the summer for nothing in all likelihood. So, you know, probably they would have hoped that they would have gotten something for him but just didn't work out.

I figured he punched his ticket with that game last night. He was unbelievable. I thought that was going to be the most fortuitously timed game by a backup goalie in like NHL history where he was going to net them something. Vegas was going to lose their mind

and overpay for him. That clearly wasn't the case. maybe in like 1988 if there's no no nothing you could watch on TV where you got a scout with like a phone like a dial up phone on the press box and he calls his GM and says we got to get this guy maybe but not now hey listen before we let you go here because like I said no you got something to cover here in a couple of minutes as you look ahead to the playoffs and right now boy I feel like the Atlantic and the metro divisions are so tough if you had to look at the ideal first round opponent for the New York Rangers who would it be probably Pittsburgh you know i think that's a weird one to say because the rangers and penguins uh you know have had some history penguins have gotten a better of them rangers have gotten the better of the penguins sometimes and it's been a while obviously since the rangers have been in the playoffs so it's hard to gauge but you know i've covered the islanders the last few years

and the islanders uh have kind of made the penguins look uh not old and slow but kind of old and out of it and certainly their gold tending has been suspect the penguins stood pat in gold They're going to go with Tristan Jari, who's having a great year, but had a terrible playoff last spring. And the Rangers have the best goal in the league. So I think as far as playoff matchups go, and especially psyche going into a playoff, the Rangers would have a pretty big edge going in against Pittsburgh, even with Crosby, with Malkin, with Latang. It's easy to forget that those guys really haven't won a playoff round in a few years. So I think Sean remembers, but not many other.

I do have a question. Are you rooting for Rangers penguins to happen so you have to come to tell you? and hang out because I'm down. That's good. We need that to happen. I wasn't going to bring it up, but that's really my ulterior motive here. So since I can't, since I can't go to Ottawa, it's the next best thing. There we go. Love it. Hey, Steeke, thanks for doing this. And we look forward to reading all about what the Rangers did today in the athletic here tomorrow. Thanks so much for doing this. Thanks, guys. See it. All right. There goes Arthur Staple. We've got Bill Lindsay on deck.

We've got Peter Baum as the avalanche and the Panthers have done some things. but before we get to them, Sean, we're going to take a little break. We'll be right back. It's a live edition of the Athletic Hockey Show Trade Deadline. There we go. We're back at it. It's Ian Mendigant, Tilly with you live here. The Athletic Hockey Show, Trade Deadline, Stravaganza.

We've got Bill Lindsay, Peter Ball coming up in a second. But real quick, Sean, the comment section, we do invite our listeners and, sorry, viewers. So actually, this is, I keep forgetting. We're actually on camera here. Viewers, drop into the comment section. If you got questions for us, your jawbreaker shirt, man. blowing it up. See, now, so what's the backstory here?

It's a ban that I think anybody who's paid attention to me on the internet for any portion of the last 10 years is probably not surprised here that I like. Yeah. Shout out to James Chang. He knows what's up. It is on brand. That's right. See, I thought it was like you were, I, see, if I, I, I'm a big fan of gobstoppers, Willie Wonka gobstoppers. I should have.

Hold on a second. Any of the Willie Wonka candy family I'm down with. more of a nerds guy than the nerds yeah but that's okay yeah laughing taffy anything at all really yeah I could go on I'm sure I'm sure Bill Lindsay's in the waiting room he's like what I did not agree to come on

to talk about Willie Wonka stuff but buyer beware my friend to talk about the Florida Panthers do we have Bill Lindsay all set look at this boom we're talking about Willie Wonka guy rolls in with a Mickey Mouse shirt I think we're good to go I got Mickey today Love it, man.

Love it, love it. Hey, listen, Bill, thanks for doing this. And this is exciting because I think for a lot of fans, the Florida Panthers are an exciting team. If your favorite team is out of the playoffs, I think a lot of people are kind of pulling on or jumping on the Panthers bandwagon, can you give our viewers a sense of the excitement level here

after they pick up Ben Shrad, after they pick up Claude Jureau? Like, they've pushed all their chips in the middle of the table, and there must be a lot of excitement in South Florida right now. Through the roof. We haven't seen it in a long time. really good year last year, finally able to back it up with another good season this year. The core that they built around Barkoff, Hubro, and Eckblad. Bill Zito's made some really good changes to this hockey team, and he had some salary cap flexibility this year going into the trade deadline.

Ownership group gave the green light and said, go ahead, let's do this, let's go and see what we can do with it. You only get so many chances to win the Stanley Cup. We needed a veteran defenseman, someone that preferably shot left-handed. Bench wrought fits that bill. He's big, sturdy, can eat up minutes. So we're glad to have him on our team. That was priority number one, in my opinion, that you've got some experience back on the blue line. So they addressed that immediately. And then you had some room left over if you want to make the splash for Clod Jeru. We had a hole in our top six that needed to be filled, someone to play a long bark off. And Claude Jeru comes in and he checks off a lot of boxes. We're bad in the face off circle.

or 29th in the NHL in the face off circle. Drew is one of the best, if not the best. Virs are on, but Drew's over 60% this year, which is a real value to this team, and he can kill penalties, play on the power play. We got top nine forwards that are legit. Our fourth line will grind it out. They can punch you in the face.

We'll punch right back. It's that kind of scenario. They can play it fast. Whatever kind of, if you want to grind it out, muck it up, this Panther team. team has all the abilities and traits to do everything that you want to do to be a Stanley Cup champion. The one question mark, Sergey Bobroski, can he make the saves when it matters most? He's been able to do it during the regular season. Can he do it in the playoffs? And it's pretty much

the same for this whole Panther team. Can he answer the bell when the playoffs come upon us? We've seen Alexander Barkoff click with a lot of players who are a lot worse, Claude Jureau, right? So that, to me, you know, as someone who really enjoys watching the Panthers, Like, I'm just, you know, and mine's racing at the thought of those guys consistently playing together, right? It should be a lot of fun. But as someone who's, gosh, watch so much Barkov over the years, you got to be, your mind's got to be, you know, churning at the thought of those two guys playing together because they seem like they're a perfect fit. Yeah, just the playmaking ability of both those guys and Parkoff to play both ends of the rink. So to come in there and you have that top line who rode Declare Bennett, get Verhege.

Verhegey's underrated with stuff that he's able to do with his speed and all of a sudden you get Barkoff and Jeru on a line. Those guys, this Panther team can play with pace. It plays with speed. They play the four lines. They're top guys. They preferably get them around 18 minutes, get that fourth line around 12 minutes and just go and just try and blitz you shift after shift.

And basic philosophy is try and keep up with us for three periods. See if you can do it. See if you can hang with this. and most teams around the NHL can't hang with the Panthers for three periods when they're playing their best hockey. It's simply not possible. They are that much better than everyone else across the board. And this was before the Drew trade.

So having Drew with Barkoff, that is just, yeah, you can't. It is exciting to get this group and this band together to see Barkoff's going to love it. Drew's going to love it. Down in South Florida, there's a buzz like there's never been before around this hockey team. talented team we've ever iced in the history of the franchise. So we'll see what happens when playoffs are all around. What do you think it means to the fan base, too? Like, Claudeau handpicked Florida, right?

Obviously, it sounded like some other teams. Colorado might have been interested. But he basically went to the Flyers and said, it's Florida or nothing. And I'm wondering for a franchise that hasn't won a playoff round, I mean, really, since you were there as an active player, what does that mean to get that type of seal of approval that he's thinking he's only picking Florida because he think that's his best chance at winning his Stanley Cup.

It means a lot for a veteran player that hasn't won a cup. It means a lot for Drew to come in here into the last locker room and have belief. And the big product that you see on the ice for the Florida Panthers is a lot what's happening off the ice with the chemistry that's been built in the dressing room, bringing Patrick Cornquist, bringing Joe Thornton in. These guys play for one another. They play for the guy beside them. And there's so much internal competition for ice time, they're really afraid to let the guy down beside them. So it's a group that's really developed a friendship off the ice and a real competitive spirit off the ice. So when you can bring someone in, Claude Jouroo that has that kind of leadership abilities, has been a captain on a team for a long, long time,

that really helps this club in that dressing room that's so strong. So I believe he's coming into a situation that he knows got a really strong core nucleus, a dressing room that kind of fits his bill as far as guys that want to get something together that they want to go to the – Joe Thornton hasn't won a Stanley Cup either. And he's another guy that came in the offseason and then wanted to go to the Panthers because he believed that they had a shot of winning a Stanley Cup. So to have someone, Claude Drew, pick us and believe in our team that speaks volume. of where we've come.

You mentioned 96 the last time we've won a playoff series. It speaks volumes of what they've been able to do the last couple. This franchise has been begging for some consistency, all these young good players, and they've been begging for consistency playoffs last year. Can you back it up and get in? So now the next evolution for this team is to win a playoff round and chase that cup. Is there concern on your part?

I mean, look, there's worse. those are champagne problems when you're talking about incorporating claud drew into a lineup right ben chariot whatever like robert hagg these are these are fine players is there concern on your part in terms of incorporating those three guys in the fly into a team that's been pretty unbelievable so far already not really because you look at the top six we've been a bunch of players in that top six we've had vitranow in there we've had tippet in there We've had Maxine Mammin in that top six. Ryan Hart's been up there, but he's better suited with Lundell in Marchment on that third line. That third line's really clicked with Reinhardt down there.

So we've had an evolution of guys in that top six forward role. So Claude Drew comes in. We need a piece there. So Claude Drew comes in, yet it fits in because there's already been a surplus of players that have played in that position. So they've been able to move those players, output Drew in. it's a natural fit. Brandon Montour on the blue line, he's had to play with Yalevi,

Nudavara, Lindbom, you just keep going down the list. He's had to play with all kinds of different pairings. I'm not sure if he's going to play with Montour at the start, but Montour's had to play with a bunch of different guys. And if you can get the six intact, ideally down the stretch, you'd like to have Montour,

whoever Montour's going to play with, have some consistency with him for the last 20 games going into the playoffs. So there's another piece that was missing. They've been having experiment after experiment in those roles. And then for the extra guys that have played a lot that are still here, for the Maxine Mammins that are on board, Lin-Bomb that we signed, we've had guys that have played a lot and played in those roles up and down the lineup.

So if there are injuries, you can plug and place holes. But there were natural fits for both Giroux and Chirot in this lineup. And a final one phrase, talk about Brandon Montour maybe trying to find the proper D-partner and Sherat coming in. How much concern is there about Aaron Eckblatt, who is out kind of, I guess they're saying week to week or could be indefinitely? How much concern is there, Bill, about Aaron Eckblatt, who arguably should be the Norris conversation every season right now? Yeah, there's definitely a huge concern because

what happened last year. He wasn't available in that first round. He had that really catastrophic leg injury that he rehabbed really hard just to get ready for this season and he wasn't available for Tampa Bay last year in the first round. So he has that injury and all you can think about when I was watching it going back to last year. And can we, is this happening again? So they came out and said there's no structural damage, but it does seem that maybe he's going to be placed on long-term IR and the hope is to get them back right, available hopefully when the playoffs start. But there is, yeah, that's harkening back to last year. that is something the Panther fans or no one wants to see is Aaron Echbaud not available for that first round playoff series.

So hopefully he recovers quickly and gets back, but it doesn't seem that it's not the case what it was last year, where it was the broken leg and something that you knew he wasn't going to be back in the playoffs. It looks like there is a chance for him to be back. Well, terrific stuff. Bill Lindsay, Florida Panthers, Radio Analyst, NHL Network, studio analyst. Thanks for dropping by this live edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, trade deadline and listen, we're hoping, fingers crossed. I think if you don't have a horse in the race, how can you not cheer for the Florida Panthers? So I think a lot of us are hoping they go really far,

but I appreciate you dropping by and spending a few minutes with us. Yeah, thanks, guys. Enjoy the show and joining the stretch run, the playoffs. Always great, great time of year. So enjoy it. Thank you very much. All right, thank you. There goes Bill Lindsay. Like I said, Panthers, radio analyst, NHL Network Studio analyst. We're going to take a break, but before we do, got some more comments to read from the inbox. We love these. And you know what? I like this one from Chris who writes in, Loving the Live Podcast Energy, it'd be neat to get another one of these

as a playoff preview. So, you know, probably six weeks from now. Maybe we do this. We bring down those brown in. Are we not close already? It's six weeks. Isn't it? Is it less?

I feel like it's less. Yeah, it's about six weeks. First week of May, right? I like this from Anthony. Ian has one of those generic faces that can match any face. It has a tone that makes you want to listen and believe in his message.

Wait, how do I have a. generic face. No, it's a generic voice. You have a generic voice. You do not have a generic face. I have a generic face. I don't know. Is there a such thing as a generic face? I don't think so. Oh yeah. Of course. Look, come on. I'm like, I'm like a creative player. I'm like bearded white guy number three on like on Madden or something. I appreciate that Anthony because I'll tell you what. I've worked 20 years in broadcasting. Mostly in television, a little bit in in radio. To be told that your voice is generic is about the highest comment. highest compliment possible. I don't know if you can say a nicer thing to me other than you have a generic voice. I love it. Congratulations on your non-regional diction, Ian Mendez. You're doing a wonderful, you're doing a wonderful job. I love it. Thank you, Anthony. Thank you, Chris, everybody that's doing it. Like I said, we're going to take one more break. We're going to come back. And before we get to Peter Baugh's take on the abs and what they did, I think we need to drill down a little bit on some of his hot food takes that have kind of been creeping into his timeline, right? I missed. I missed this. He's been a little iffy with some food takes lately. And anyway, we'll talk to him about that and everything that the avalanche did.

We'll get right back to it again. You're watching a live edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, Trade Deadline Special. And we welcome you right back live to the Athletic Hockey Show, Trade Deadline, Extravaganza. Ian Bennett, Sean Gentilly with you. And this is perfect. We're coming right out of that ad for Freshly. We're talking food. I'm telling you, I don't know how you missed this shot.

But Peter Baugh, who does a terrific job covering the Colorado Avalanche, Our guy's been taking some heat lately. He said, chicken wings are the most overrated food, I think, ever. He took a run. He took a side swipe and sushi at one point. Let's bring him in and ask him, Peter Baha, of all your hot takes with food in the last like six weeks,

what was the one tweet that angered people the most? Was it the chicken wings are the most overrated food? What was the thing that agitated people? Well, the chicken wings, I tweeted that, from Buffalo. The wind really got me. I was a little, I was like, I was, I was a little grumpy. Um, so yeah, I mean, I think. All right. Wait, did, hold on. Yeah. Were you like at a specific place in Buffalo? Or were you just in the environment of Buffalo and thought, you know what this is? I was just in the environment. And I believe it. I mean,

look, to quote the great philosopher Lizzo, truth hurts. And I think this is one of those situations. I just think that I don't think wings are bad. They're just more efficient, less messy. better tasting ways to eat chicken. And yeah. Pineapple on pizza, Ian, was one that really got people going to. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I love it. Anyway, listen,

you're a great follow on Twitter because, and I love the hockey, the media people that show some personality and it's not just, here are the line combinations for the Colorado Outlands. I love it. I love what you do. But let's, listen, the reason why we brought you on was to talk hockey. I mean, we don't have to talk hockey. That's a good.

We can keep it. We can keep talking hockey. I'm way more interested in talking about wings than, you know, the Avalanche's middle six or whatever. We're going to talk about Peter here. So I'll pretend that I'm interested in that. Yeah. Okay.

But let's start there with Joe Shackick on deadline day. Obviously, I think there was a little bit of pressure on him to do something in the last 48 hours or so. How were Avalanche fans feeling? If there was a trade grade to be given to the Aves GM, what would it be? Well, I actually, so I put out a Twitter poll just to like see, see what people were feeling. And I tweeted like A through F. And I think the poll had a, I think like most of the people were clicking B on the selection. So I think most people think you did a pretty good job. And I'd agree with them. I think it will kind of see how it all plays out come playoff time. But I mean, if you look at they solidified their bottom six with Lackinin and Nico Sturm and Andrew. Oh gosh, I'm blanking on his last name. He's played like 1,200 NHL.

Hugmano. Yeah, I can't I think of his name? It's been a long day. Because he's 15 years older than you are or whatever at this point. That's true. Then, yeah, they got Cogliana and then they got Josh Manson, who's been really good in his first two games with that. So they kind of had a well-rounded trade deadline where they gave up a lot,

but maybe not as much as they could have. They kept their 20-23 first-round pick. They missed out on Claudeau, but it wasn't for a lack of trying. So I think that if you look at what they did, I think overall it was a pretty productive trade deadline for Joe Sackick. Does Sackick get a B for just not being on Drew's list? Like, that's not his fault.

Yeah, I don't, I mean, I guess, see, like B to me is like, that's a good trade deadline. You did a good job. I mean, A is like you trade two seconds and get to Von Tates. Yeah, that's fair. Kind of like a fleecing. So I think a B is. is probably a fair grade.

Like it was a good job he did about as well as could have been expected, but he didn't do anything, didn't make any, but then, like Nico Stern could win the Khan Smite, and then it'll be an A in retrospect. Is this what, okay,

so we'd heard for weeks that the abs were kind of going to reject their bottom six. Is this what it was, is this what you were thinking when a month ago, we were talking about moves that they were going to make? Is this extent getting Lekinin and whoever else? I mean, that's a major overhaul.

Yeah, I mean, I think you look at they had Tyson Jost, who's been a pretty consistent presence in that bottom six for the last few years. They moved him out and brought in Nico Sturm, who's great on faceoffs, who's really good defensively and is bigger, has more physical frame, maybe less of an offensive ceiling than Jost. But like, for what they need him to do is probably a better fit for this team. And then they brought in someone who can bring a lot to the third line. And I think that if you look at like the avalanche, obviously the top line's been unbelievable for the last few. years. The second line has been really good this year. But the third line is kind of where it's like maybe you can have some more offense. And this gives you some flexibility of you could have a line of Lekin and New Hook Comfer, which is a really hard to play against, but offensively capable

third line. And it allows you to move Logan O'Connor down to the fourth line. So I think it gives to have some flexibility. And I think it probably is exactly what, I mean, obviously adding a quadru would have been quite, quite an upgrade like that. That's kind of a game changer. And they couldn't do that. So this is probably around the next best thing they could do. And they got a guy who has term and who they can have beyond this season. You know, Peter, when you get into trade deadline time and you have pending unrestricted free agents, there's always the narrative from the fans in media. Either you got to trade this guy or you got to sign them. Now some cadres having an unbelievable season. I think we all agree there's no way they could trade them because they've got

legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations. But like where do you see this going in the summertime? And is there any scenario in which you can see Nazim Cadry staying in Denver beyond this season? Yeah, I think there's a definite scenario. I think it comes down to what he wants. It comes down to what they hit him and his representation get the sense of is the market out there, which I think, I mean, realistically, there's going to be someone who's willing to pay a lot of money and probably more than is smart to play a guy on the older side of 30. Like, someone will probably pony up and give Cadre a lot of money. But I think that all things considered, I think that if Sackett can negotiate with him in the window between when the playoffs end and when free agency begins, maybe they can get something done.

I think it will be very difficult to keep the entire second line together of Nitchie and Katry and Berkowski. I don't know which ones leave or which one stay, but that's three players having. I mean, I think career best scoring years, all of whom are unrestricted free agents and who have been excellent for the apps. So I think there certainly is a sense of urgency of like this team is not going to look the same next year. It's still going to be really good, but it's not going to have quite the same forward punch that it does this year. Well, I'll tell you what, I got one more for you here because actually we're going to jump to Haley Salvia in a second. We're going to go from one first place team in the West to another. But before we do, I want to ask you this, finishing in first is obviously the ideal scenario.

But in the West, finishing in first this year, you might end up in a date with the Vegas Golden Knights. And I'm wondering, what would the feeling be in Colorado and in Denver, Peter, if round one it's Vegas and the abs? I mean, I would enjoy it. It would be good for me, good storylines, very fun, all for that. I think it would maybe bring back some nerves. I think the players are mature enough to know that it's a different team than last year. but maybe it's one of those things where if you go down to one, all of a sudden, the, like, thoughts creep back in your head.

But I think Vegas is a drastically different team than it was last year. I'm not saying better or worse. It's kind of like TBD, right? We don't know. But certainly they don't have the same forward depth, even if they have maybe more star power. We don't know if Mark Stone's back is going to cooperate and, like, what level he's going to be playing at.

So I think there's, Vegas has about as high as ceiling as any team in the NHL, but it also has as low a floor as, I mean, they could miss the playoffs this year. You don't. It's a weird situation. So I think that Colorado would probably be favored and rightfully so. And I guess if they were to play them at any point, the first round is probably the time to catch them out where they're maybe still like working some of this late season funk out of them. And maybe Robin Leonard is just coming off the injury rather than having some time to settle in. So it's definitely interesting that they could get their arch nemesis in the first round. but that's all, it could be a lot of fun too.

Yeah. Well, listen, Peter, thanks for this. You just saw his Twitter handle there. Peter underscore, underscore Baugh. Follow him for everything related to the Aves and for some hot food takes. Oh. And speaking of hot food takes. Hot food, bad.

Spicy food, not good. I'll leave you with that. Goodbye, everybody. That's Peter Vaugh. Mike drop. Mike drop. Hey, listen, thanks for doing this. There he goes.

He is the Avalanche Pete reporter, Peter Baugh. Have a feeling that the abs are going to go pretty deep. deep into the plus. And hey, listen, they might end up meeting, maybe in the conference final, the Calgary Flaves. I think we've got the usual Monday co-host of the athletic hockey show.

I think we've got her. She's in the airport, because I can see the aeroplans sign over her left shoulder. Taylor's. There she is. Have you been mobbed at the airport? People say, oh my gosh,

you saw you on Trade Center. You were awesome. Oh, my God. Sorry. It was so quiet. I thought I found a spot. Now, of course, there's like a flight announcement. No, I haven't been mobbed. I don't think anyone knows who I am. I changed into my

comfy clothes, so we're good. Wait, that's what the announcement is, actually. Everyone's saying, there's a celebrity by Gate B7. Yeah, I left the sticker. They put a TSN sticker on my laptop, and I left it on, so I'm sitting here with the sticker, like, in the middle of the airport. I didn't find a quiet spot. I sat in the busiest area with my TSNN. sticker hoping people would look at it and be like, hey, didn't I see you on TV tour? Yeah, I love it. I love it. Hey, listen.

I love, I love that. I love people talking to me. Yeah, but hey, you did a great. I only saw one segment. You just knocked, like you did with the Olympics. You knocked it out of the park. You're just natural on television. It was great.

Ian, if you saw one segment, you don't know. Yeah, she could have flop the other one. Okay, I've got to say. I watch all of them. Yeah, that's nice. The first segment wasn't very good. I was actually kind of nervous. The final two segments weren't very good because my brain stopped working because it was

seven hours of television. And I was like, I think I blacked out for four hours. The middle was pretty good. The middle was the sweet spot. So hopefully that's what you saw in. I think it is. I think it is what I saw right in the middle. Okay.

We just had Peter Baugh on. He talked about the avalanche adding some pieces here. I know that Brad True Living did some of his work ahead of the deadline, Haley, especially in getting Tyler Tofoli. You've written about, like, hey, they've got to be aggressive. This is the year. You don't know what's going to happen in the summertime. Now that the deadline is come and gone,

how do you think people should look at the Calgary Flames as a legitimate contender in that Western Conference? Well, I think they already were one. I think the Tyler Tofoli deal kind of solidified the flames is one of the top contenders in the Western Conference. and, you know, they're the team to beat in the Pacific Division right now. They're the second best team in the Western Conference right now. Who knows what adding Mark Andre Fleury is going to do for the Minnesota Wild on paper.

He is certainly better, excuse me, than Cam Talbot. But, you know, what's Flurry going to look like? He hasn't totally been himself this year. So we'll see, you know, there's some teams who are trying to make it interesting. But right now it's the abs who are above everybody. And then the Calgary Flames and the number two. seed in the West. And I think, you know, what they did at the deadline was just solidified their depth. You know, they, I would consider this an aggressive trade deadline by general manager

Bradtree Living for the to fully sign, to fully trade. And then adding Calle Yarncrope to the mix. He's somebody who, you know, just with one piece gives them so much more flexibility. I think the flames have struggled for most of the season with their secondary scoring. They had, you know, the most productive line in the NHL for three quarters of the year, but that was kind of their only line that was consistently clicking and adding to Foley and Yarn Croke, right away, Darrell Sutter was able to shake up those lines.

He split up the best line in the league. And what he did was he put Tyler Toffoli on that top line to give that, you know, Johnny Goddrow and Elias Lynn home, another guy who can score on the right side. And then he put Michael Backlin and Matthew, could check back together and Dylan Dubay on.

that line there to give them some secondary scoring. I say that in quotes because it's Matthew Kuchuk, but that should be something that can help give Michael Bathlin and Dylan Dube a boost. And then you get Yarn Croke with Coleman and Mongey and as your kind of shut down line who can transition defense to offense. And so right there, the planes are a much deeper team with more lines, at least on paper right now, who can be productive.

And certainly those lines and those combinations worked out when they beat Vancouver on Saturday. When did you learn that Kelly, when did you realize that Kelly, your own croak was going to be the perfect compliment for that team? I'd like to know specific a date if possible when you realize that he was a guy. I don't know if he, I don't know if I, I think I was kind of holding on hope. Like for me, I kind of thought like I went through different phases of the trade deadline. I think when I did my first trade board, I was like, oh, J.T. Miller's the best. Like, it's probably not going to happen though.

So like here's Andrew Kopp instead. And then as you kind of start working through the scenarios and realizing how expensive guys are, and then you start looking at someone like Callie Yarn Kroke, who, you know, is a very flames like Daryl Sutter type player. You realize how good of a fit he can be. And yeah, I don't know the exact date that I said that he was the guy. That's a weird question. Seriously, were you surprised to see that they were in on Hampus Lindholm and March Giordano by a lot of reports? because those are big ticket guys to a group that, I don't know,

I don't think you did mess with a lot much. Yeah, I think the concern with the D-Corps is that they're like one injury to the top four away from having a guy playing kind of out of his depth. We saw that last week with Oliver Shillington being out. He missed two games in Michael Stone, who only played five games this season, got put into the top four. And he was fine. But do you want to be in a playoff series against the Colorado?

avalanche and have your seventh defenseman on your second pair probably not so that was kind of probably why you saw the rumors of the flames sniffing around in that sense um i don't know how much i would pay attention to the geo stuff i don't even really know i didn't really see that i didn't really hear that i don't think that was like a realistic thing there was no way that the flames were going to be able to fit him under the cap unless they moved a body out who made a significant amount of money because Gio makes over $6 million. So that would have been a tough one. You know, I also don't want to call it hard feelings,

but I also don't think that would be like a super, I don't know. I think, you know, Dan Robson and I wrote a story about Mark Tierdano back in December before he was supposed to make his return to Calgary, and then the whole schedule got messed up, and that didn't end up happening until last month. But, you know, I think there was, it was an emotional, kind of take it personally thing about not getting protected in expansion. Like, you know, Gio got it.

He knows it's a business and he understood. But I don't know if that was something that, I don't know if that was a reunion that we were realistically going to see for, you know, financial cap and like personal reasons. All right. Listen, what time is your flight here? 755. And what board, okay, what boarding zone are you? I don't answer that.

Yeah, what gator you're at? Are you a number one boarding zone here? I just need to know that. Why? How come the Kelly Yarncrow awkward question got answered, but not this one. What are you angling at here?

I just want to know. What boarding zone are you? And then I got a final question before we let you go. I'm in zone one, I know the answer. I'm in zone one. Nice. Well, good for you. I didn't.

Is there something ahead of zone one? Zone A1? No, I don't think so. Possibly. I want you to answer this question for me. Now is a real question. If the Calgary Flames win this Stanley Cup this spring, is it more likely that Johnny Gujaro comes back or less likely?

Like if you were looking at this and saying, what's the thing that could bring him back? Is it winning a cup or coming really close and not winning a cup? I think it's kind of the same situation, honestly. I think the question is if they lose in the first round versus they make a deep playoff run. I think that I think realistically you're looking at a flames team who should make the Western Conference final. If they don't, that would mean they were upset by somebody who hasn't been as good as them all season. You know, whether that's in the first round looking at, I guess it depends on how the wild card ends up being.

like they should not have a problem with the Vegas golden nights. That team has been decimated by injury and they've been a disaster. Sorry, Lazarus is saying that I'm hogging all the time. I guess he really wants to come in and chat about what did Chicago even do? I don't know. Fly. Oh, right. He can take my place.

That's fine. If he wants a tagging, let's go. Yeah, if Lazar really wants this much airtime, he can just host the damn show. And that's not even his story. Flurry's not his story. That's for Russo to do. And he probably already wrote 10,000 words about it. But no, I think for Johnny, it's a lot more complicated than just can the flames make a deep playoff on it.

Can the flames show Johnny that there is a legitimate future in Calgary? And that has a ripple effect with players like Matthew Chuck as well, who has a ton of, you know, control over what happens with his next contract. He's only one year away from UFA status. He's a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer. So that's a big thing. And if you sign Johnny Goddrow to what he realistically earned based on the heart trophy like season that he is having, then how much money do you have left over to sign Matthew Chukh and sign Mongeau and sign Oliver Shillington?

So I don't think it's as simple as like if the flames can make a deep playoff run, is Johnny Goddrow going to stay? I think it's what happens with Johnny and then what happens with everyone else. but I think there's you know but then if Johnny leaves does Matthew Chucks see a realistic feature in Calgary you know I think it's going to be a really interesting off season for the Calgary Flames and I think what they can show they can do in the postseason is probably going to be an important piece of that they have not been able to get through the first round of the playoffs or in

the last six years that happens again I feel like there's probably some I you know I wouldn't look I think Johnny Godro I believe Johnny Godro I believe Johnny Goddrow and he says he wants to stay in Calgary. I really do. But I always do wonder what guys think when your team consistently can't get it done. Are you going to look for an opportunity somewhere else? Potentially. Is that Johnny? Is that Matthew? I don't know, but it's going to be a really interesting summer for the flames.

All right. Listen, we better leave it there because she's a zone one boarding person. And you never know. They might be calling your name. I've got to try to write a story before I board too. Oh, yeah. Trying to be nice and squeeze you in to my schedule. Yeah. Look at your face. Just full of disdain. I love it. Yeah. All right. Hey, listen, safe travels. Again, great work on TSN today.

We look forward. Next Monday, it's you and I. We're back in the saddle for the Monday podcast. All right. Oh, right. Oh, man. That sucks. I'll get Sean to co-host next week. There you go. All right. There she goes. Haley Salvi and a terrific writer out of Calgary, did some great work on TSN. And now we've had Mark Lazarus on standby. So let's bring them in. Let's bring them right in. there we go. He does a wonderful job covering the Chicago. Blackhawks, I think, is he on mute, though? That's the question. He's not on, he's not on mute. I think he might be on a, is he on a swing set or something?

Is it in the backyard? What are you looking at? I'm on my patio. There we go. I'm however many minutes this segment is away from my first PTO since May. So it's the nicest day of the year. I've been stuck inside all day. I'm going to enjoy myself. I mean, that sounds like a challenge is keep you on as long as we possibly can. Ian, for your benefit, I am United Platinum, which makes me Zone 1. And I am Marriott Lifetime Titanium, which means I'm basically a god. When, all right, hold on a second.

If anybody who works for this company mentions Marriott points or like flight final status, do you like, no, do you have like a personal kind of signal that's sent to your phone, unless you know that people are talking about us, so you can just tag in and talk about it too? Yeah, you ever see that when we get into a war where we start. screenshoting how many nights we've stayed in our lives. And then someone like Amalie Benjamin, who used to be a baseball writer just like puts us all in our place. Baseball writers, baby.

That's half the perk of the gig. Exactly. Eighty-one nights on the road. All right. Hey, last, thanks for doing this. Kyle Dubish made some comments that certainly drew a lot of attention north of the border in which he said, you know,

I'm really disappointed that all the Mark Andre Fleury stuff came out. And he kind of pointed the finger at Chicago general manager, Kyle Davidson. I'm curious, what was Chicago's general manager? What was Kyle's reaction to that? And are we going to have to rent a barn here? Remember, boys with Brian Burke back of the day, Kevin Lowe, let's get some GMs to throw down.

Like, what's the temperature at here right now between these two guys? Yeah, Kyle versus Kyle, 30-something GM versus 30-something GM, let's do it. I asked Davidson about it and he said, you know, he's aware of the comments and he's going to take care of that in private, which of course everyone on Twitter went, well, why didn't he keep the Flurry stuff private? We don't know that stuff came from Dubus. I mean, we've all been in this business long enough to know that leaks come from anywhere and everywhere. But it was interesting.

Like, you know, Kyle Davidson's the new guy in town. And, you know, he went kind of eyeball to eyeball with Bill Garron on the flurry thing. And, you know, now he's got Kyle Dubus calling him out. This is not stuff you normally see. And here's the 33-year-old general manager of the Blackhawks taking some heat. So it's kind of fun to watch. Let's, you know, it's such a cordial old boys network. Let's have a little friction.

Let's make a little pro wrestling out of this. I mean, that's the, like you said, it's a 37-year-old versus a 34-year-old or whatever. We need new blood. Right. Can only drag Burke into this for so long. Yeah, we need some fresh hatred, not the old, you know, 1970s hatred that nobody even knows about or remembers, but people just hate just because they think they're supposed to. Let's get some new blood in here.

Yeah. You know what? But listen, as much as we want to talk Chicago with you, There is a, you know, winners and losers that you helped put together with the Atlantic. And I think this is a great way for us to end this live show is by us talking about some winners and losers here, lad. So let's get to it. If you were to pick the biggest winner or two out of the trade deadline of this period, who you got? It's the sunshine state.

You got both the Panthers and the lightning, just saying the hell with it, we're going for it this year. And that's what you want to see. I mean, I'm in Chicago, so I know all too well that, you know, you'll pay for this down the road. like Julian Breezebaugh, his chickens will come home to Roos sometime in the future. But who cares if he's got three consecutive Stanley Cup banners hanging from Amelie Arena. That's what you want to see from your GM. You want to see them go for it. You know, some poor Sharks fans in the comments going,

but what if you always go for it and you never win? Well, that's what it's really bad. But that's what you want as a fan, right? You want your team to go for it. In Tampa and Florida, one of them is not getting out of the second round. One of them might not even get out of the first round the way that division is set up. But they're both going for it. So who cares about the first round picks?

Who cares about the 20-25 third round. or conditional. Who cares? Go get Claude Jureau. Go get Brandon Hagle. Go get Ben Chirot. Let's do something. Let's try to win a Stanley Cup here. And that's what you want to see. If you go for it every year and don't win, you sign those guys for eight years and like $64 million. All of them. Just take all those players and sign them for almost a decade. I want to feel bad for, I want to feel bad for Sharks fans.

But it's San Jose's gorgeous. I know you have to, it's like a million dollars for a cardboard box. But I don't feel that bad for him. I do. Have you seen Mark Edward Vlasic's contract? Mark Edward Vlasic, his cousin, just made his NHL debut with the Blackhawks. Alex Blasick. It's hockey. You're always related to a former NHLer. Every single player that's ever come. Does he have a hyphenated name too, or is it just Alex? It's just Alex Vlasic, and he's from Wilmet, Illinois, the north suburbs of Chicago. He's about nine feet tall. He was a second round pick a few years ago.

I hope he looks forward to his 15-year contract with the Syngo Sharks at some point. It's the Black Hawk, so it'll have a full no movement clause. I wanted to pick your brain a little bit too about, now let's go to the opposite end of the spectrum, Lazz and talk about some of the losers. And I know that you put Philly in there. I think you had Ottawa in there, Edmonton, you know, maybe you can walk us through the teams that you thought maybe came out behind here around the trade deadline. Well, you tell me, you're Ottawa, man. What was the Travis Hamanick trade?

What is that? Why is that? What the hell happened there? We try it up in every segment. Every five minutes we have to reset and talk about the Hamannock deal. One of the great things about doing the athletic hockey show is I can talk about other teams. It's a national show. And it's my window to escape this.

And now you guys are trying to drag me back. Fair enough. As the Chicago guy, I fully, fully understand that and empathize with you. Exactly. Philly you feel bad for it because Philly didn't do anything wrong, right? Philly had no choice. Philly had no options. Claude Giroux would just go to one team, and they did okay.

They didn't get what you should get for a player of Jeru's caliber. But, you know, it's just got to be, it's so disheartening to be, like, to be a fan of that team and to know how little hope you have in the near future and have your one big trade chip really not amount to too much. I mean, it's the Blackhawks with Mark Andre Fleury was similar in that there was one team he would go to. They did well enough to get a conditional second rounder that might long shot become a first rounder. Sometimes that's all you can do is get whatever you can and you just have to grin and bear it.

And that's the unfortunate reality of no trade clauses and rental players. And, you know, you're only worth what the market allows. I thought, I thought Chuck Fletcher said they were close. What are you talking about? The fires are right there. Right there. The flyers are always right there. Every team is always just one hot week away from winning the Stanley Cup. And did you guys find it a little, like, did you guys find St. Louis? Like, Early quiet around the trade deadline? Yeah, I mean, in the Central Division alone, you had Colorado was loading up, Minnesota's obviously loading up, and St. Louis went and got Nick Letty? I mean, Nick Letty, for a lot, yeah, they gave up a lot.

Nick Letty is, I mean, he's a great skater. He's still, he's only 31, which is mind-blowing because I thought he was like 78 years old at this point. He's 31. He's got a lot of life left, but he's clearly declining. He's a great skater and puck mover, but he's not a good defenseman, which is kind of what St. Louis needs more than anything else. So, you know, I mean, right here in Chicago, Calvin DeHan was right there. You could have had him for a third or fourth round pick. Kyle Davidson was just trying to get rid of him.

And that's a useful defensive player who could play, you know, a number three, number four role for you. So there's a lot of curious decisions. A lot of guys left on the table that you shouldn't have been left on the table for some of these contending teams. Like, you know, what are you doing if you're not trying to win, right? Are you just trying to be okay? Is that what we're doing now? I think so. It's right.

Like the blues are, the blues are fascinating too because everyone, you know, they got linked to charot and they got linked to some of the bigger defensive names on the market. And they were, they are capped out. They have no money to spend. It would have to be dollar in,

dollar out. So if you want to add like a $6 million defenseman, like good luck finding, you're robin to Peter to pay Paul if you're St. Louis. So yeah, I wasn't surprised to see them kind of play. Not surprised,

but it's, If you're a blues fan, you've got to be disappointed in that because you know it's an army. Everyone's looking at Colorado and to a lesser extent, Calgary, and you're like, well, how are we supposed to compete with that when they're adding good players and we're not? And we're already behind them. I mean, you know, maybe Daryl Sutter was right. Like, just why even bother trying against Colorado? Lazz, before we let you go, and again, we want to encourage our listeners to and viewers here to check out your winners and losers of the trade deadline that you. you put up at the athletic.

You had a great tweet today. You don't have to tell us the whole story, but you were like, oh, damn, Mark Andre Fleury got traded and it killed a great story. You don't have to tell us the whole idea, but maybe you can strongly hit.

No, I can, because it's not going to happen now. Look. That is like perfectly time. I was covering the penguins for a suburban paper in Pittsburgh. Okay, now he's back. He's back. I covered,

I know, that'll get Gentilly back into the discussion. I covered Mark Andre Fleury as a rookie. under coach Eddie Olcheck. So my idea was that team was just absolutely horrible. And Eddie Olchek was all about the idea, but we just couldn't make the logistics work, was to just have the three of us sitting in a room

talking about the 2003 Penguins, the ex-generation right there, right, Sean? And just shitting all over that team. It would have been amazing. If you wouldn't have tagged me in on that, I would have been so upset because that was my senior year, that was my senior year of high school. And I think I went to probably 30 or 35 Penguins games that year

because tickets were just like laying, we're like laying on the ground. So, oh my gosh, that's, I just thought it was, I just thought it was funny that the three of us were all,

you know, around the Blackhawks organization at the time. Like, I covered coach Eddie Olcheck. That was amazing. And like, 19 year old Mark Andre Fleury, when I was 23,

22, it would have been amazing and I never got to do it. And it makes me sad. And Ramsey a bid and Lassie a Bid. I was a big Alexei Morozov guy. I really thought he was the best player outside of North America,

right? Hold up. I got so many Bobble heads from that team. Oh, Dick Turnstile? Yeah, he was there. He was there, right? Yeah, Dick Turnstile. Wait, hold on a second. You mean leading scorer Dick Tarstrom? Put some respect on his name. What are you talking about?

He was amazing. Bobby Armstrong? Was that the year that Andrew Ferrence was a rookie? He was the best quote in the team. I was going to that guy all the time. Oh, amazing. This is now a podcast about the 2003 district penguins, by the way. I'm willing to stick around for that one. That would be gold. That would be goal. See, but those are the fun ideas for the summertime.

right, when we're batting around. Like you tweeted out as well today, I think it was today, where you're like, every writer just wants to get past the deadline. Then you get past the deadline, you're like, there's nothing to write about, right? I did an interview with Marcus Kruger, who has not been in the NHL for three years now at 1 p.m. central time today. So I'm working.

I'm trying to come up with stuff that's going to be for down the road. But yeah, that's how far I'm reaching. Okay. Olympian Marcus Kruger? That's right. Awesome stuff. Hey, listen, Las, thanks for doing this. Again, we encourage our viewers to check out your winners and losers of the trade deadline available right now on the athletic site. Thanks for doing this. And we'll get you getting down the road. Thanks, guys. There goes Mark Lazarus. See, you know when people say, and we're about to wrap this up and people are like, oh man, Ian has a really generic broadcasting voice. Does Mark Lazarus not have one of the best broadcasting voices out there?

It makes sense that his podcast does as well. He's got the side gig with an HL network and whatever. That dude, the first time I met him, that was like my first thought was like, how are you not, how are you not a radio guy? Did you know this? Las, big time Broadway guy, big time musical theater guy, loves to sing very, very into it. Okay, this is information we could have used 90 seconds ago. He could have sang us right out of the show.

Are you kidding me? You're talking about off-season content? That's like a, that's a June show all by itself, right? You know what? We just have Mark come on and do selections from lay-m-iz or whatever. You know what? A fun column would be, again, it would be very like inside baseball and maybe only we would enjoy it, but like the hidden talent of every writer who works for the athletic.

Like everyone's got something quirky or weird or something, right, that they can do? Nope. One trick pony, baby. I don't even know what I would do for a job. I'd end up being a bartender or something. I got nothing else to offer. Can you juggle? I can juggle.

That's about the only thing I do. I specifically cannot juggle. I've tried to learn how and can't. There you go. All right. I think we'll leave it there. We'll leave it there with us talking about how untalented we are. But we had a great collection of talented guests here, right?

Jonas Siegel and Peter Baugh and Haley and Mark Lazarus and Arthur Staple and Bill Lindsay. and I'm just going off top of my head. Is that everybody? I think that's everybody. Peter, Laz. Oh, and Corey Prondman. Corey Promin in the leadoff spot. Come on.

I talked to Corey. Did he say that Cory Prongman can juggle? I can't picture him juggle him. I wouldn't surprise me if he could. I've talked to Corey so much over the last three days that I just like, he just like, flew out of my head. I've talked to him more than anybody else in my life over the last 48 hours. Yeah.

He's always got the goods on all those prospects and stuff. Hey, listen. This was a 90 minutes well-stop. spent, I think for us, had a lot of fun. Appreciate all the people dropping in the comments section. I like Anthony saying, hey, the athletic is stacked. It needs a nickname like how California got Death Valley. Buddy, you misread that.

He's saying the Atlantic is stacked. He's talking about the Atlantic Division, not the publication for which we work. Oh, my God. You are a lot of my face. We are much, much, much less impressive. Oh, my God. That's hilarious. Because you know what?

There was back-to-back text from him. And see, the second one does say the athletic. That's very nice. That's what I was looking at. So we're not death valley. Anthony, you're welcome. Yeah, Anthony, this was a lot of fun. And Sean, this was.

And so maybe I'll let you tee this up. Athletic Hockey Show Tuesday edition with you and Custance. What do you got going on on the Tuesday edition of the fun? I think it's all Pierre all the time. I'm pretty sure that's it. We're going to have Lebrun. We're going to have Lebrun in. for the duration.

I'm just really, you know, really happy and really honored that he found the time in his schedule and carve some out for us. It's a big day. Good stuff.

And maybe he can give us some back. He may give you some background on what Ailey Salveon was really like behind the scenes there. Zone one. I can't believe if you got Zone 1 with the board a good for her. Big hit her,

yeah. All right. Hey, listen, we'll leave it there. I want to thank everybody for dropping by tuning in. If you did the whole 90 minutes

or just a few minutes, we certainly appreciated that. Like I said, coming up, Tuesday, we're back to the, original audio version of the podcast. It's a gentillion custom. Like you said, Biller Brun will drop by. That does it for us. We want to thank you for watching this

live edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, Trade Deadline Edition.