The Athletic Hockey Show - Oilers decline to match offer sheets to Broberg and Holloway

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

Mark Lazerus and Jesse Granger discuss the Edmonton Oilers decision to walk away from Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, declining to match the offer sheet by the St. Louis Blues. Arpon Basu joins from Montreal to talk about the Canadiens acquiring former 2nd pick overall Patrik Laine from Columbus for defender Jordan Harris, and Jesse and Laz discuss Yaroslav Askarov reportedly requesting a trade out of Nashville, after the Preds extended goalie Juuse Saros long-term, earlier this summer. Hosts: Mark Lazerus and Jesse GrangerWith: Arpon BasuExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Welcome into the Athletic Hockey Show. Summerstyle, I am Mark Lazarus, joined once again by the Athletics Golden Knights writer and guru of goaltending Jesse Granger. And for the second week in a row, Jesse, we have some fortuitous timing because we've got some actual mid-August news. We'll talk about the Oilers decision not to match the blues offer sheets for

Philip Roberg and Dylan Holloway. We'll have our excellent friend Arpaan Basu to talk about Patrick Lainé, the newest Montreal Canadian. and we'll dig into the trade request of Jesse's favorite goalie Yaroslav Ascarov, maybe the most exciting goalie prospect in the league. So Jesse, how are you doing with all this news? Yeah, the NHL has been kind to us lately. It seems like every weekend we're wondering what we're going to talk about on the show.

And then just in time, the league has delivered some drama that we don't usually get this time of year in the NHL. So it's been exciting. We got all kinds of stuff to talk about. It's great. Yeah, I'm sure there's some recency bias at play here, along with my own faulty memory, but I just don't remember there being in August with this much happening. I mean, it's still a far cry from the NBA and baseball and the NFL hot stove seasons. But when you're crawling through the desert, man, the content desert, take any drop of water

you can find. This is an oasis for us. Yep. Let's start with the Oilers. Stan Bowman, I guess this is his first real consequential decision as general manager of the Oilers. And he decides not to match the offer sheets to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway. they are now St. Louis Blues. What do you think, man? Yeah, it's surprising. I along with, I think most people, when the news of the offer sheets first came out, we all kind of just assume just

because this is hockey and exciting things don't happen. The oilers are going to match these. And it's just, we're going to forget that this offer sheet even existed a month from now, but they're both going to St. Louis. It shows you how bad of a spot the oilers are in with their cap and the upcoming contracts that they're going to have to sign. They just don't have the flexion. because you, these are not players you wanted to give away. This is not a case of, well, we don't really, we're not going to miss those guys. Anyways, like, these are integral pieces, two first round picks for a team that doesn't have a ton of young players coming up because they've been so good. They haven't had really high draft picks the last few years.

It's surprising, but like I said, it just shows you how bad of a situation they're kept that they're stuck in right now and St. Louis pounced on it. Yeah, let's give our listeners some just some background in case you've been under a rock for the last week. Broberg, he's a young defenseman, he's 23 years old, number eight pick in the 2019 draft. He was playing with Darnell Nurse in the Stanley Cup final, and he was holding his own. This is a big part of the future for Edmonton, or we thought it was.

Dylan Holloway, he was the number 14 pick the following year in 2020. He's just 22. He was playing on the second line in the playoffs for most of the playoffs. These are big pieces, and all the Oilers get out of this is, what, a second round pick and a third round pick, and they made one other like kind of, you know, minor trade that got him another third round pick in the distant future. Broberg was, I think, reportedly asking for about 1.8 and the Blues gave him more than 4.5. So it's a big, a big pay.

Don't get me wrong. And Holloway, I think, was looking for about a little over a million dollars and he got 2.3 from St. Louis. I get that Edmonton doesn't want to pay that. But, I mean, Broberg was a big part of the future. Holloway, a big part of the future. Oilers were already the oldest team in the league. The only team in the league that was an average age of 30 or older, and here they are getting rid of their,

arguably their best two NHL-ready young prospects. Not even prospects, they're players, they're players. It's, and like I said, I mean, you've got Leon Dry Seidl's contract due at the end of the season. And then McDavid will be due not too long after that. I think Skinner's a UFA who they just got. That's obviously not as big of a deal. But I just think that they look at all these pending UFAs

and they're looking at the future. and they just simply said, we cannot pay $4 and $2 million for these two players. And they are overpays. I think these AVs on these two players are probably higher than you should pay. But, and you have to give up the second and the third round pick, but it's the only way to acquire players like this. And I saw a blues fan on Twitter replying to when I tweeted out the story that Rutherford and Arpin wrote, well, we haven't had a top pick since Alex Petrangelo,

this is the only way we're going to get these players. And they're right. That is the only way the blues we're going to acquire 22, 23-year-old players with first-round pedigree with this type of upside. So yes, the AAVs a little bit of an overpay. Yes, you have to throw a draft pick on top of it. But it's a second and a third round pick. You're not giving up first and you're getting players with really high level skill and

high upside that you would otherwise have no chance at acquiring. Yeah, the second and the third is nothing. That is a pittance to get two. you know, former top 15 picks who have already proven they can play in the NHL. I mean, that is absolutely nothing. It is just a money thing is, do you have the cap space to do this or do you not? For Edmont, this is very on brand for Stan Bowman. He is in it to win it this year.

That's all that matters right now is this year. He did this for years in Chicago where it was just, you know, whatever we have to do to make the money work so we can win the Stanley Cup this year and damn the consequences. And the consequences came because, you know, the reason the Blackhawks had to tear it all down in tank is because, you know, the reason the Blackhawks had to tear it all down in tank is because Stan Bowman drove the ship into the, into the, into the ground, basically, those last handful of years. We have given up all of his prospects.

He'd given up all of his draft picks, but nobody in Chicago minds because they got three cups, right? That's what, Edmonton has to win the Stanley Cup this year now with this. But this doesn't make them a better team. Broberg is a big part of what they were going to do this year. Holloway was a big part of what they were going to do this year. This is, this makes the Oilers a worse team. And now we saw the spin cycle.

I always love watching the spin cycle on, you know, everyone tweets out the news and then everyone tweets out the spin because everyone's hearing from the same people. And at the same time, like 10 different insiders tweeted out, well, this does give them more flexibility throughout the playoffs to acquire players, throughout the regular season to acquire players because they didn't want to be tied up. And all that's true. But right now, the Oilers are a worst team than they were in June. Yes, they are. And you lose a defenseman off that right side. And they've got Evan Bouchard is that top right side defenseman. and he's a stud. But behind that, Troy Stetcher, Josh Brown, Ty Emberson,

that's the right side of the blue line for Edmonton. It's not great. It's not great. For a team that, like you said, has to win a Stanley Cup this year. The left side of the defense with that Colm, Nurson, Kulak looks fine, the right side all of a sudden,

you lose one player, a 22-year-old, and all of a sudden, the right side is looking rough. I don't know who they're going to add, but they need to add somebody over there. Yeah, they'll definitely be buying at the desk. line looking to fill that hole, but you still got to stay afloat all the way to the end of February here. Look, 4.5 million. Is that a lot for a player of Broberg's age? Yeah, but that,

you know, defensemen are expensive. Right shot, right-handed, right side defensemen are expensive and hard to find. It would have been paying a premium, but I still think that's a premium that's worth paying. Yeah. And if you're St. Louis, you have the cap space to do it. It's like, it's a home run for the Blues to acquire players that the other one this team the Blues are kind of in the middle of a rebuild right like it's it's sort of a rebuild but they still have some good players from from the old they're still trying to win some games they're not in a complete tank like the the Blackhawks and Sharks for this year this is how you can get these young players and man do I hope it starts a trend I hope teams that are in the same situation as St. Louis needing an infusion

of youth players, youthful, high upside players, realize that this is how you do it. Offer sheets. Give me more. Well, that's the question, right? Does this change anything in the big picture? Does the NHL look at this and go, oh, all right. I see how it's done. All you gave up was a second and a third and you had some cap space to burn. All right. Like it's weird because the blues are going nowhere. Like they said, they're still one of the 10 oldest teams in the league themselves. So this is a good way to get young talent, but it's not like they are contending this year. It's not like they're

going to make the playoffs. It's true. The central is, absolutely loaded and Nashville just like rocketed up the charts with all their offseason acquisitions like Stamco's. So there's no chance that the Blues contend for anything this year. But it does give them some players to build around, to retool around. Everyone wants to do, you know, what Boston did, which is like not bottom out, but like retool and re-figure out. And they got Charlie McAvoy and they're like, all right, well, we can work around this. And they got back to contention after a year or two. Everyone's trying to do that.

I don't know if St. Louis can. I don't like the way they're built right now. I don't feel like they have a whole lot of pieces, but this is what you have to do. So is this, you know, the funniest part about this entire thing was everyone saying that Doug Armstrong never would have done this to his buddy Ken Holland. But once and moment comes in, sure, whatever, because you don't want to piss off your golfing buddy. If that's not the NHL general managers world in a nutshell, you don't want to upset your buddies on the other team. I don't know what is.

Does this change anything, or is this just, or is this an aberration? I don't know. I think it could. I think that this is a, like, a window to rebuild a little bit quicker. Rebuilding through the draft takes so freaking long because you draft these players at 17 years old. They're not going to be any good for at least two or three years, for the most part. There's a generational guy every once in a while. But for the most part, you have to wait multiple years before you draft these talented players. And then you don't even know if they're like, then it could be five years. you realize that these aren't panning out,

and you have to start from square one again when you look at how long it's taken, like Buffalo, for example. Right. Or you can just get these 22-year-olds, and boom, it's the rebuild is started now. And like you said,

St. Louis probably isn't going anywhere this year, but it allows you to rebuild, retool, whatever we want to say, much faster. But like, we're talking three, four years faster by doing this. And I think that if it works out,

if Holloway and Broberg play well in St. Louis, you could see other GM saying, wow, that's an interesting way of rebuilding, giving up lower draft picks. You do have to overpay. You have to have the cap space to do it. That's the thing, especially in today's NHL, there are cap space is impossible to come by. So you have to have the cap space to do it. But if you are able to manage your contracts well enough to be able to overpay for a player in their early 20s,

this is an opportunity to take advantage of teams that are in bad cap situations like the Oilers were in. And plenty of other teams are in. The Oilers are not alone in that. Well, what'll be interesting to see is, like, on the one hand, the cap's going up. More teams are going to have cap space to do things like this. On the other hand, we might see fewer teams in cap hell unless, you know, salaries really start taking, like, you know, the oilers will still be in capel if they keep dry sidal and have to pay McDavid in a couple of years. But I wonder if we're going to see fewer teams in cap hell or if we're going to see more teams with cap space to burn willing to do this. Because these are the guys you get.

Like, you're not going to get Austin Matthews as an RFA on an offer sheet because the, it's like four, four. first round draftics. Nobody's going to, you know, it's just not going to happen. You have to overpay so much. But these are the kind of guys you get, guys that are like on the periphery of a really good team that are part of the future, but not the most important part of the present. This is how you get, like you said, young talent that's already NHL ready. I can't overstate how important that is because all we ever see in the NHL in trades is prospect trades, prospects and picks. Everything's a lottery ticket, right? It's like, well, we got a first round pick in two years. So seven years from, now we'll know if this was a good trade.

This is different. This is how you acquire, you know, a player who is under team control. This is how you get around RFA. This is how you get around team control. And the only way we're going to really juice up the NHL off season is offer sheets. And the Blues made a terrific smart move here. They screwed over an opponent in their own conference. And they made their team better. And it cost them a couple million dollars extra. And they had that space.

So I really, I don't believe necessarily that this is going to change things, but oh my God, do I hope that this changed things. Just the last week has been fun. Just contemplating it, talking about it, gaming out scenarios, doing the math on the cap. Like, this has been, this is what every other sport has that we don't have. We have July 1st and draft day and the trade deadline day. We have three days a year that the NHL office is, you know, transactional wire is interesting. Man, I want more of this because this is how you do it.

And from the players side, if this starts a trend, it could not be better for them, right? You look at two players. RFAs are so trapped in the situation there in. You basically, it's like, yeah, I mean, free agent is not the right term for someone who's a restricted free agent. It is incredibly restricted. You have no leverage whatsoever. I mean, we saw the offers that the Oilers were trying to make these players. It's $1 million. And now they're making $4 million this season, like four times the salary.

they would have made if no other team had given them because the Oilers was just sat there with that million dollar offer for 1.1 or whatever it was. And you either don't play hockey or you play for what we offered you. If it were to become a trend that all of a sudden, offer sheets are a regular thing. All of a sudden, these young players are no longer having to play for well below their value. They're actually going to start getting market value at a much younger age. So that part's exciting. Even if the offer sheets are matched, they're getting that money. So it's good for work. I mean, if you're pro-labor in any way, this is an anti-billionaire, then this is really good.

Offer sheets are good for the players. And that's what you should want. As a fan of the sport, you should want the players to be maximizing their value. 100%. All right. Well, when we come back, we're going to be talking to Arpon Basu about Patrick Lina, Montreal Canadian. All right. Very happy to be joined by the athletics, esteemed Montreal Canadiens writer, Arpin Basu.

Arpin, how are you? I'm good, Mark. How are you guys doing? How's the summer podcasting going? It's great. We keep getting stories. It's been amazing. This has been like the best summer ever for hockey podcasting, which is what brings us to you. Patrick Line is now a Montreal Canadian. This is a guy who is, you know, a 44 goal score is the second year. We thought he was the next Ovechkin. Hasn't exactly worked out that way. What is Montreal thinking with this acquisition? Well, two things. I mean, first off, the acquisition price. was cap space, essentially. I mean, with all due respect to Jordan Harris, who's a fine young defenseman, but probably didn't fit into Montreal Canadiens future plans.

They acquire a second round pick with Lainey, not give one up. So basically, they got them at a very low cost other than the $8.7 million cap hit, which is not nothing. But they needed an offensive player, someone who could produce offense, on a short-term contract. They tried and failed. to sign Jonathan Marcia So as a free agent,

wouldn't go past three years with him, which is why he ultimately signed with Nashville for five. But that was an indication of what the Canadians were looking for, a short-term stop-gap offensive solution to help the young players who have lost a lot of games over the last couple of years, but have shown improvement and shown to some extent that they're ready to take a certain step,

but they need some help in that. So Patrick Pliny, even though it's a very high cost cap-wise, and there's some risk there because he hasn't performed well over the last four years and has been injured a lot, provides that kind of sweet spot of a guy who has a lot of offensive skill, one of the best shots in the world, natural goal score on a very short-term contract, which it's hard to find in the NHL these days. And so when you get a player like that, of course you have to assume some risk.

It's not going to be ideal because you can't get these guys with this kind of offensive potential for that short of a term very easily. I know this trade just happened and obviously we're still a ways out from camp. But when you hear Patrick Linnaeus coming to the Canadians, who do you think in terms of guys he could play with? Like you mentioned, one of the best shots in the league still, even though he maybe isn't the player he was when he first came in in the league. a guy that if you can find distributors around him, you can put the puck in the net. Yeah, that's, you know, the Canadians pretty clearly had a hole in their top six when healthy.

Last season, Kirby Doc got injured in the fourth period of the season, first period of the second game, and was gone for the year. And he's, you know, the Canadians don't have the kind of depth of talent that you can suffer a blow like that and come out. on the other end of it. Doc, presumably, will be healthy. Alex Newhook kind of filled in at center last season due to injury, but I think the Canadians see him as a wing.

So I think those two guys on a line as a 1B or a second line behind Nick Suzuki, Cole Cofield, and Ureslovskie, which was from basically December 15th onward last season, objectively one of the best forward lines in the NHL by several metrics. this provides some punch to that second unit if Marty St. Louis decides to go that way. And pretty big combination, Kirby Docs, 6-4, line is 6-5. New Hook's not the biggest guy, but he plays a lot bigger than he is. He's a really strong guy.

He's good along the walls. I think that could be a good second line and really gives the Canadians kind of a legitimate top six, not saying it's like an elite or a high-end top six, but it's an NHL caliber top six forward group. So that's a step up because without lining, I think you were going to be shoehorning someone into that top six group that probably didn't belong there. You know, here in Chicago, it's kind of similar to Montreal.

They're looking for veterans on short-term deals that could fill in some holes while their younger players developed. This feels a little bit different. I mean, Patrick Line is only 26 years old. Are the Canadians kind of looking at this as almost like an audition to see if he can be a big part of the future? and if not, well, no harm, no foul, it's just caps base? Yeah, to some extent, listen, the Canadians have done this before,

and it's actually the synergy is almost eerie. On August 18th, 2020, the Canadians got Sean Monaghan from the Kylobary Flames, got a first round pick for taking on that contract. August 19th, 2024, Patrick Lining from the Columbus Blue Jackets, get a second round pick for taking on that contract. The Canadians provided Monahan an opportunity to reestablish himself as, you know, what he was before all the injuries hit and his hips kind of blew up. And turned that into another first round pick that they acquired for the Winnipeg Jets at the deadline.

And then Monaghan got himself a five-year deal with the blue jackets for five and a half million bucks a year. So really resurrected his career. Now, the Canaanes are in a bit of a different spot now than they were two years ago in the sense where whatever that looks like, they would prefer to not be picking in the top five of the draft anymore. They would like to move up, whether that means to the kind of the playoff bubble range or at least somewhere higher than bottom five. And so with Monaghan, I think it was pretty obvious to the Canadians all along, even though they did strongly consider resigning Monaghan just because of what a great fit he was in the room. But it was pretty obvious that barring something unforeseen that he was going to be a flip candidate. In Linnae's case, if things do work out and he does play well for the Canadians and he likes it in Montreal,

I think the Canadians would consider bringing him back because they'll be at a different place as a team. But his primary reason for being in Montreal is to allow this group to compete while they wait for Ivan Demadov and Michael Hage and Joshua O'N, Bech, and David Reimbacker and Lane Hudson. and Logan Mayu and all these young players that they have in the pipeline to mature and be ready to take on, you know, sort of frontline roles. And so, you know, I don't think it'd be fair to say that blind is strictly a stopgap measure, but I think he largely is. He's a temporary fix that will allow the guys who are on the team now to compete in the interim while they wait for a lot of the kids that they've drafted over the last three years to mature and be ready for for prime time in the NHO. You mentioned this probably isn't the window that they're looking to win in. They obviously have a bunch of young players that they're hoping to turn into something really great. But how close do you think they are to competing for a playoff spot this season?

I like their goaltending a lot. They both played great last year. Like you mentioned, they've got a legitimate top six now. Defense would probably be the weak spot. But I'm just curious, do you think that there's a possibility for this team to be in the mix for the playoffs? I mean, in the mix for the playoffs is a subjective term, right? I mean, I think that's what Ken Hughes has repeated. He said it again yesterday after the Lainey deal.

And he kind of said when I said, I wanted to be in the mix for the playoffs, that included adding an offensive player. So, you know, Lainey doesn't change that. You know, they don't think that adding Patrick Lines makes them a shoe in for a playoff spot. I don't know the extent to which, listen, the division is still a monster, right?

I mean, they have a lot of tough games against a lot of tough teams. And they're not the only ones trying to move up in that division. You know, Detroit's going through a similar process, and they're probably ahead of the game in that respect. Ottawa is ahead of the game in that respect. Buffalo has gathered tons of talent. They're just, you know, they're just kind of being the sabres for now.

But, I mean, at some point you would think that that talent will manifest itself in some wins. So the Canadians, you know, their ability to compete for a playoff spot, it's not a given. But I think what they want to see, like last year the Canadian led the league in one goal losses, for instance. So that's something that's really they're leaning on in the sense of saying, listen, we're more competitive in games. Our record doesn't reflect that,

but we're not getting blown out of the building like they were a year early. So they saw that as progression. But now, you know, turning those one goal losses into wins is no small feat. It's not an easy thing to do. But I think that if they stay relatively healthy, which they haven't, for the entirety of this regime under Jeff Gordon and Kenyon, Hughes, the Canadians have just been besieged by injuries every year. So if they can stay relatively healthy, you know, I don't see them making the playoffs,

but being on the outer fringes of the playoff race where maybe at the trade deadline, they consider standing pat. You know, I don't think they'll be buyers, but they could just kind of hold on to what they have. They have a lot of guys on expiring deals this year that could be of interest at the deadline, but I think the Canadians would prefer to be in a position where they would consider keeping those guys rather than moving them for more picks because they've got a ton of prospects and they have a ton of picks already. It's been fascinating to watch the Habs from the Western Conference because they're basically the Eastern Conference Blackhawks in a lot of ways.

They're in a similar state. Yeah, without Connor Bedard. Now Connor Bedard. That's correct. That's true. It's a pretty difference. Yeah. Although to hear Blackhawks fans tell it Ivan Demetov might be the next Connor Bradar.

They are still a lot of fans. If you read our survey that, man, there's a lot of people that really want to Dema. Oh, I don't know anything. I don't know anything about fan bases. are lamenting not picking a Russian phenom in the draft. I have no idea what you're talking about. I have not experienced this. Yeah.

There's a lot of parallels here. And the Blackhawks are talking about, they don't, Kyle Davidson's been adamant. We do not want to be a bottom five team anymore. But when you look at the standings, it's like, well, who are you going to leapfrog? And I think Montreal is in a very similar situation where they might be,

like the Blackhawks might be 25 points better this year and still be picking in the top five. That's how bad, that's how bad they were last year. And that's just how, you know, stationary the rest of the league is. Everyone else is getting better too. And you look at those teams, you know, every year, Ottawa, Detroit, Buffalo, this is the year we're going to make the playoffs. Well, who's going to fall out? And everyone always says the Islanders, and the Islanders always somehow back their way in anyway.

And now you're going to add Montreal to that mix. And on the West, you're going to eventually add Chicago to that mix. And the parity in this league, it's a tough thing to overcome. There's a lot of inertia in the playoff picture year after year. Yeah. And I think in the Atlantic, it's specifically, you know, there's been, it's been a top heavy division for a long time, right? You got Toronto, you got Tampa, you got Boston.

Florida emerged, obviously, a little bit more recently. You know, that's a pretty solid top four that doesn't look like it's going anywhere, not this season at least, but it will at some point that, you know, that situation is going to change. You look at Tampa, it's seemingly starting already. You know, they're aging. You know, it's a cyclical league. And so some of the teams, you know, they're going to need.

need to see some regression or some or just, you know, these traditional powerhouses in the east start to lose ground on these younger teams coming up. And I guess the one thing that the Montreal is in Buffaloes and Chicago's and Ottawa's, et cetera, of this league have going for them is that, you know, they're leaning on youth. And at some point that youth takes a step. And if you can make it so that your team's youth makes that step in unison in one perfect spot, then I think you can surprise. You know, I don't think Montreal is there yet, but like, I can see Ottawa doing that. Despite everything we see and I can see Buffalo doing that.

Like, I mean, there's, there's, these are, these are teams that have, I've had their young talent for a while and they've been given a chance to mature in the NHL together. I look at Ottawa's foundation and I like it. I think that's a team that could surprise and could maybe pierce that top four if everything fell right. But the reality is that you need everything to fall right and nothing ever completely falls right in the NHL. So yeah, and I think that's why the Canadians have been so guarded in their ambition. but what I think, you know, I think their limit, their three-year limit on March or so said a lot, and I wrote a piece about this when they said it, that that three-year mark to me seems like a time

when the Canadians feel like they'll be ready to actually compete, like not just make the playoffs, not be in the playoff mix, but be a team that can enter the playoffs with some reasonable chance of actually going deep in the playoffs. And so everything they do and everything they've done, has been reflective of that. And I think this line move is another example of it where the two-year term is the most attractive part to them that allows them to become more competitive

to whatever degree line is able to produce for them. It doesn't handcuff that window that they've identified where their youth will have reached a certain stage of maturity. Three years from now, Nick Suzuki will be 29. There's, you know, they'll be an established, captain and and Slavkosky will be 24 or whatever, you know, they'll have a lot of players kind of in those prime years at that time. And you just have to hope that coincides with the changing of the guard at the top of the

division, which I think it probably will. If you look at the way the lees are built, the lightning are built, even the Panthers to some extent, definitely the Bruins. There could be a changing of the guard at that time. But, you know, you need to take steps to get there. And I think that's what, you know, Montreal wants to take those first steps this season. What is the expectation with Demadov? I feel like he was the most interesting prospect in kind of the entire top half of that draft. He was the one that had the highest ceiling and maybe

the least certain he was going to reach that ceiling. Are we going to see him in the NHL this year? What is the expectation for him? Yeah. In the NHL this year, I'm not entirely sure. I mean, the KHL season ends before the NHL season. I think he is committed. There's still a certain degree of uncertainty about what Scott St. Petersburg is going to do with him. He was obviously cut right at the end of training camp last year by Skha. He was cut after Matvey Michkov was cut. He actually made it further in the process that Mitchkoff did.

But if he's not playing in the KHL, the Canadians are going to have some concerns about what's going on with him in Russia. But I think next season, everyone's plan, Demodal's contract will be expired at that point. and the Canadians, I think, have every intention of having him on the NHL club next season. Now, could that be bumped up a little bit? I think a lot's going to depend on what happens at camp in St. Petersburg, but I think everyone's intention is for him to play in St. Petersburg this year.

And then, depending what the Canadian situation is, and depending on his health and everything, maybe we see him at the end of the season. I don't really know how that would work. But for sure, by next year, Ivan Demanov, I fully expect him to be a member of the Canadians. and yeah, his ceiling is super high. He's a very unique player and represents something the Canadians have not had in a long, long time.

It's a pure offensive whiz. Which is, in a sense, what they've acquired in Patrick Plain, except he just hasn't shown that. But the short-term nature of Linus contract is largely attractive to Montreal because, you know, that basically aligns with the time where they expect Demadov to be basically a star player in the NHL for the Canadians.

I can't go through a whole interview without asking you a goalie question. So I've been waiting for it, Jesse. I don't know where you mentioned it. And the reason I'm curious, you mentioned the three-year window or that three-year period and that's kind of when they expect. So they just signed Moltenbo to a deal. And that is a three-year deal that starts this year. It'll be running out right around that time.

And I'm curious, do you think they've got young goalie prospects. Caden Primo's already shown some in the NHL. But I thought Hompambo was so underrated last year. Like his traditional statistics because he played behind a team that gave up a lot of chances weren't great. But if you look at like goals saved above expected, I thought he should have been in the Vez in a conversation last year. Like I don't think he should have won, but I think he was good enough to be. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh, good.

Every Canadian's game I watch, Sam Mondebo impressed the hell out of me. I think he is a phenomenal. Yeah. Do you think they see him as the guy to lead them when they eventually reach this winning window? Or do you think he is kind of a stopgap guy who they hope one of these younger prospects overtakes eventually in next few years? Well, the term on that contract, I think, kind of tells you everything you want to know.

I agree that Montenbo was underrated. I would disagree that he should have been a resident candidate. But he was, he was incredibly good. And I know his underlying numbers are excellent. I mentioned a lot of those one-goal losses, how the Canadians led to the league in one-go-old. Like San Montempo was a big reason for that. Those would have been two, three-goal losses were it not for him.

So, yes, I think they're very comfortable with their goaltending situation, but I do think, you know, Jacob Fowler looking like what he looks like. You know, I mean, he looks like a potential franchise goaltender, but you never know. We've seen a lot of goalies in college or in junior look like a potential. potential franchise goalie that just never pan out. And that's why taking a goalie in the first round is a big risk because it's very hard to tell. So Maltambo provides a certain safety net, but the three-year term on that contract, you know, Maltobo could have gone to an unrestricted free agency.

And imagine him hitting unrestricted free agency off that season that you just described. Right. And it would have nothing out there. Yeah. Exactly. Like he could have gotten himself a long-term deal, not for massive money or anything, but, you know, like something like what Darcy Kemper signed back in the day with Washington. Like, I think he would have been in line for something like that. He chose not to do that. He's very happy playing in Montreal. He's close to home. His family's here, obviously. He's Frankophony. He's living a dream. But that three-year term, you know, pretty much aligns if everything hits right with the time that Jacob Fowler would be ready to be a starter in the National Hockey League. So, you know, the Canadians, and that's when I said,

everything the Canaanians have done is in line with this window that they have seemingly identified that will allow them to sort of turn some of the team over to the players that they've brought in through the draft. And in Montaumbull's case, I don't know what's going to happen at that point. He won't be very old. I think he'll be, what, 30 at that point, which is right in your prime as a goaltender. And maybe he would be a great, you know, mentor. for Fowler and you can extend that for two or three years in a tandem role.

But for the meantime, Primo getting his first real NHL gig and looking ready for it, frankly, and I give Caden Primo a lot of credit. I did not think that he was going to develop this way. He's exceeded my expectations in terms of how he looked, I'd say two years ago, as a young goaltender, a seventh round pick, you know, not really a high profile draft pick, but had an excellent college career. He's outplayed my expectations,

and maybe he can continue to do that. Maybe he can be the guy who eventually becomes in a tandem situation with Jacob Fowler. You know, the goaltending situation, you know, after obviously Carrie Price's career came to an end, was really not in a good place. You know, they had Jake Allen and not a whole lot else. Sam Montaumbo was picked up off waivers

largely because Carrie Price entered the NHL, NHLPA player assistance program and would not be available and was injured, and the Canadians thought they would have him for like three weeks, basically until Carrie Price got back. Carrie Price never came back and Sam Multambo wound up being the guy who was still here and Jake Allen is not. And he is, for the short term future at least, the Canadians starting goaltender. And this is going to be the first time he actually has that job. He's not in a tandem and he's not the backup. up. He is a starter. So we'll see how he reacts to that because that's a bit of a different mindset for a goaltender than a guy who's trying to fight and claw and scratch and claw his way to that starting position.

Saint-Montamboe, I think enters training camp as the unquestioned starter. So we'll see how he responds to that responsibility. Interesting times in Montreal. Arpin Basu, you can read him at the athletic. There's nobody better. Arpin, thanks for all the inside, buddy. Thanks, guys. Enjoy your summer podcasting.

Up next, we really let Jesse geek out. because Yaroslav Ascarov is on the market, and nobody loves Yaroslav Ascarov in the way Jesse Granger does. All right, Jesse. Here's your guy. Your guy, Yaroslav Ascarov, is available to be traded. Why hasn't he been traded yet? He's supposed to be Dominic Hasek already. Maybe the other GMs aren't as certain about him as I am.

For anyone listening that doesn't know Yaroslav Ascarov, superstar prospect, highly drafted. a goalie from Russia. He was amazing as an underage player a few years back for Russia in the World Junior Championships. I personally have never seen a goalie move the way that Yaroslav Ascarov moves. The way he glides across the ice, his feet seem like they're anchored, like the only way I can explain what looks different about the way he moves than any other player is it looks like his skates have magnets on them. Like I've never seen a player more anchored to the ice, a goalie, more anchored to the ice that just seems. like no matter what move he makes, he's just got his edges.

Like, he is so well balanced. He moves so quickly. There's so much to like about this guy. The ceiling is incredibly high. I think the ceiling, if he reaches his potential, he's the best goalie in the NHL. Now, he's a young goalie who hasn't proven himself in the NHL. He's only played a couple games.

He is a fiery personality. And when I look at this and I say, okay, why aren't GMs tripping over themselves to draft this or to trade for this guy the way I think they should be? To me, it's risk. And I do think that with the fiery personality and he's just not a normal NHL player, GMs like NHL players that are quite. So we're back to GMs being cowards. That's where we're right back to this again.

They like players that are predictable and quiet and not doing pushups with the crossbar after they make stags in the shootout. I just think that this guy is very volatile. Volatile would be the word I'd use because I don't, as high as I'm, am on Escarov. I am not positive he's going to be what I hope he can be. There is some risk there. And I think that the predators, because the situation they're in, they don't have to trade him. They've got plenty of time. It's not like they're running out of time and his contract's going to expire. If they don't get rid of him, they're not going to get anything. They've got all the time in

the world to move him. So I would imagine the ask is probably incredibly high right now for the predators. And I would think that GMs are just a little bit afraid that this guy, yes, he could be one of the best goalies in the league, but he also could be, we haven't seen it at the NHL level. So it's going to be interesting to see which team eventually makes the leap. I think that a team that needs a franchise goalie, you're not going to get a chance to get a guy like this very often. A team just happens to draft the next superstar, but also has UCSarro, so they don't need him.

How often is a situation happen in the NHL? I think this is a great chance for some team to get a franchise goalie. It sounds like we need him from just a marketing standpoint. Just from the the HL clips I've seen of this guy in Milwaukee, I'm like, I want to see this guy in the NHL and I want to see him yesterday. He's a crazy person. It's great. He and like I said, he's so good. If there, if like if you're looking for faults in his game, he, his hands move a lot.

Like his feet are amazing. I just talked about his skating. There's no issues with the feet. It's the hands that maybe aren't quite as good. He is a, he catches with his right hand, which you don't see very often. and I think he could maybe calm his game down a little bit, maybe be a little more efficient in his movement, not quite as much movement with the upper body,

but like I said, he is spectacular. When you watch him and he's on, you're not going to see a goalie that's more fun to watch than Ascarov when he's having one of his good games when he's locked in. So I am excited to see him in the NHL, regardless of what team he plays for. I think he's going to be a stud.

We're in the era of the goaltending tandem with like, you know, Swamen and Elmark being best buddies. Why can't they just do that with Saros and Escarov, especially while Ascarov is cheap. And to be honest, that's probably why they're asking for, I would imagine they're asking for the moon in these trade offers because that is another option. And Ascarov from the reports we've seen, he says, I won't report to the HL. Well, he might not have to, right? Like maybe they just keep him in the NHL.

I mean, they did sign. Who did they signed a veteran back? Was it Wedgwood, I think, signed with Nashville? So they do have a third goalie there. It's not just Ascarov and Soros, but I have to imagine that if he's telling them he's not going to report to the HL, maybe you can't, because he is waiver exempt. Obviously, they can send him down there because he's still on his ELC. I have to imagine they're going to keep him in the NHL if they aren't able to trade him. But I agree with you.

I think that, see, this is the way I view it. You don't want to keep that as a tandem because right now, if you can get a haul for a franchise goalie, you do it. because Saros is so good that you don't. No, no, I disagree. The Nashville is playing, we talked about this earlier with Edmonton. They're in win now mode all of a sudden. They, when you add guys like Stamcoast, you're not thinking about the hall you get and guys that they'll be playing for you in five or six years again.

You have a chance. You can have the best tandem in the league potentially. You can ease this guy in too to make sure he is what he is. I, I don't see why you wouldn't just play the two of them, give him 41 games each and then, you know, see what happens. So when I say trade for a haul, I mean, you get two first round. picks and then you immediately use those at the deadline to get forwards. To me, I see Nashville, if they trade a scar off, I just see them moving their assets from

backup goalie to another top six winger or, you know what I mean? I just think that this team that's trying to win right now with UC Soros, one of the best goalies on the planet, what helps you win the Stanley Cup more? A really good young backup goalie who's not going to play once the playoff start, or if we could get assets for him and turn that into something that actually helps the team in another way. That's how I view it from the predator's perspective. But I don't think it's the worst idea to have a tandem of Soros and Ascarov moving forward. Like I think you're going to this, no team has handed the baton better at goalie than this

team between just the way that the line of secession has worked in the crease for Nashville. So that would keep that going. But like I said, I just think, I think that if they can get market value for Ascarov, is a potential franchise goalie. I think that that can help the predators in other areas try to win now, which is what they're obviously trying to do with the free agent signings they made this summer. If Escarov was finished, would he be locked in for eight years? Because that's the entire Predator's goaltending philosophy is just put a fin in there.

It'll be fine. It has worked, right? I can't argue with the philosophy so far. Karina and UC Saros have been pretty good. If I am an NHL team out there, I am happy to pay the moon. And it is really, like, I know we always talk about goalies are running backs now, that they're just a dime a dozen. You can patch anyone into a system and it'll be fine.

But boy, there's not a lot of, it's really, really difficult to get a franchise goalie, a potential franchise goalie. They're impossible to draft. They're impossible to develop. By the time they do develop, they're usually in another organization. This is, I'm surprised that a team hasn't jumped at this. Maybe it's just because, like, the goalie cycle had already completed and there's nobody that just, like, has a spot for him right now.

Like, I look at the Chicago Blackhawks. and he's everything they need and he's the exact age they need and they've got picks to burn and they've got prospects to burn but they have Peter Morazic signed for two more years and they just signed Braswa for a couple of years

so I guess it's where do you slot him maybe if this happened a few months earlier it'd be different. And the Blackcox have potential commasso and you got Drew Commesso, Adam Guy and yeah, there's guys, Bauervitz Soder Bloom but but nobody of Escarov's, you know, pedigree here.

Right. It's interesting to me because it's a different, so like I've been talking Jacob Markstrom trade for the last year and how the devil should trade for him. And like, it's interesting to me because the market of teams for Ascarov is it's a different type of team because it's not necessarily the contender that's looking for the goalie to, like, we need a goalie right now to win this season. You probably aren't pinning your hopes on a rookie that hasn't played in the NHL that

hasn't been proven. It's more so the teams that aren't ready to win right now, but feel like they're going to, kind of like the Canadians like we just mentioned, they obviously have the future of their net figured out. But I just think a team that isn't quite ready to win right now, but you're looking to get your franchise goalie that is going to be there for the next five, six, seven years when you are in your window that you expect to win, those teams should be, to me, it's a no-brainer trade for a scar. I think he's, this is a position that's impossible to project, but in the, in relation to projecting goalies, he is about as sure of a thing as you can get

in a position that you can't really project. I think he's going to be awesome. I can't tell if I want him to pan out for you or if I want him to flame out just to see what you do because I you are so all in on this guy. It's fun. It's fun because like it's a goalie. I have nothing. I can't tell you. You're talking about his edge work as a goalie. I always hear like, oh, that goalie is a great skater. I'm like, you standing still. What are you talking about? So I just, I love hearing you talk about this guy because you're just so all in on him. And it's fun. Yeah, I love him. I love him. And like you said earlier, it's better for the NHL if he's awesome because I want more of this guy. You don't get many personalities.

and we really don't get many personalities in net. Yeah, you can talk about his edge work. I want to see him bench press the net some more. It's great. And for those that don't know, look up Ascarov shootout celebration. Stopped the game winner in the shootout for Milwaukee and the HL, turned around and brought the net down and bench press the crossbar.

And then I think they made like a bobblehead night in Milwaukee. I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of bobbleheads of him bench pressing the crossbar. Phenomenal. Like, as good as it gets in terms of off ice person. We need this guy to be good. I need him to be good.

We as hockey fans need a scar off to be awesome. Come on. All right. We did it. We survived another summer Sunday, summer athletic hockey show. Thanks for listening. Please leave us a five-star rating and review

if you're enjoying the show. And if you're a Spotify listener, you can now leave comments on our episodes. Oh, God, we're screwed. Haley, Salvean and Sean Gentilly have the next athletic hockey show on Thursday. Be sure to tune in. Until next time, that's Jesse Granger,

and I'm Mark Lazarus. See ya.