The Athletic Hockey Show - Preds storm free agency with Stamkos, Marchessault, Skjei deals

Episode Date: July 1, 2024

On today’s Monday edition of The Athletic Hockey Show, Ian and Laz recap the biggest deals from the opening hours of NHL free agency including the Predators making a huge splash with a trio of signings, Sam Reinhart staying with the newly-crowned Stanley Cup champion Panthers on a team-friendly contract, Jake Guentzel finding a new home in Tampa Bay, and many more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Welcome to it and a happy Canada day. Mark Lazarus is laughing at me right now. Happy Canada. You've been very upset about the fact that we have to record this podcast on Canada. You should be upset at the NHL. I am. I am.

I am. I am. I am every single year. I'm never upset at you and the colleagues. I'm always upset because I always think to myself, Lazz, would Major League Baseball hold its trade deadline on July 4th? No. Hey, what's more American than trading baseball players?

Yes. But no, every year we got to lose as hockey reporters are number one summer holiday. Like right now, as we're recording this podcast, I've had pool invites from friends, everybody, barbecue, come hang out. No, I can't. Worked out beautifully down here because July 4th is like two days after it all dies down. Yeah. You always make plans on July 4th.

There might be like a stray goalie signing or something like that. But for the most part, smooth. sailing, baby. Well, smooth sailing was not the theme of me and some other people trying to leave vacant. Yeah, at least you got back to Canada. You could have been celebrating Canada Day in the States like a lot of other Canadians are. Oh,

man, we were all trapped there. West Jet, the airline. In fact, even the Calgary Flames Lines, I'm sure they got home, but my understanding was on Saturday right after the draft. I think the Flames, a bunch of their staff got stranded. A bunch of our reporters.

Murat Attash, who covers Winnipeg for us, I don't, I think he's going to be having a Vegas byline for like four more days. I got home perfectly fine because there's like 30, 30 fights a day to Chicago from Vegas, piece of cake. Come, come live in Chicago and you'll be fine. Yeah, come live in Chicago. I guess, was that Kyle Davidson's selling point to people? What the hell? Easy travel. Blackhucks, are they good now? What's happening here? I don't know. They're old now. They're a lot older. I mean, oh my God, what they signed. They signed, uh, Tavo Tera Vine and Tyler Bertuzi, Craig Smith, Pat Maroon, Laurent Brasois.

This is suddenly not really a rebuilding team. And I don't know where they're going to fit the Frank Nazars and Landon Slaggers of the world. They'll be better, but look at what Nashville did ahead of them. Look at what Utah did ahead of them. Colorado, Dallas, Winnipeg, these teams aren't getting any worse. So the Hawks will be better this year, but they're not going to contend for a playoff spot in that division. That division just got even more insane. Yeah, and like I think if you ask people here, as we're recording this kind of mid-afternoon on, or early afternoon on Monday, if you ask everybody who won free agency, who won July 1st?

Like, it's hands down, it's Nashville, isn't it? Like, you get, you get Stephen Stamco's Jonathan Marshal, Brady Shea, all in the span of, you know, 25 minutes. Right after resigning UC Saros to a long-term deal and getting stability at goal. And they have one of the best trade chips in the league in Ascarov, who might be the, you know, Jesse just can't stop talking about the guy, about what a superstar he's going to be in net. So they have, you know, all these pieces. And, you know, they're in the toughest division in the league.

And all of a sudden, they're major threats. Like, like, should Barry Trots have always been a general manager? I don't know. He was pretty good as a coach, too. Like, you know, he would walk into a team. I remember when he came to the Islanders and he turns the worst defensive team in the league into the best in one year. And now he walks into the Predators

and he turns an afterthought, fringe playoff team into a legitimate contender in like one year. Barry Trots, man. You get stuff done. Like, I was always interested in what the Stamcoast, and we should probably back this up

a couple of days on Stam Coast because I thought, I even said this to you, I think, in Vegas. I was like, ah, no, he's going to stay. This is just like 2016. They're just posturing. But, you know, the minute that, you know, especially when Tampa started clearing out cap space. I'm like, oh, it makes sense.

They're going to bring it back. He's like, nope. They're going to go full cold detach mode here, Julian Breezeball, and we're going to bring in Jake Gensel. But then I was curious about the term and the contract. So four years, eight million per on Stamco. That feels about right, doesn't it? Yeah.

It's crazy. No, for a contending team that has to actually care about the cap, that's a perfectly fair deal. could a team like Chicago or Montreal, I don't know, some of these teams with lots of cap space gone and overpaid like a three-year, $12 million contract just to help them get to the cap floor and to convince him to come? Absolutely. But clearly at this stage of his career, Stamcoast isn't interested in just get in the bag. He wants to compete. And he sees what Nashville's doing. And four at eight, this is still a really good player. Like I have a lot of questions about what Tampa Bay is doing here. Like Jake Gensel is a little, he's younger, but is he that much. better than Stephen Stamco's. I don't know what Tampa is doing. They basically gave up their number one defenseman to swap out Stamco's for Gensel.

That is confusing to me. But Nashville, good on them, man, because Stamco's is still a legitimate elite scorer in this league. Like, they're still, that's still a top line guy. Like, are you curious to see Stamcoz away from Kucherov? Like, Nikita Kutrov has been an elite playmaker in the last few years, but like to me, Stamco, it's funny,

you would think to yourself, oh, yeah, like I heard like Stamcoe said kind of a down year and kind of off, guys scored 40 goals. 40 goals. Like, it's not like he was,

you know, 23 goals and he's, you know, however, he's 33, right? Yeah, 33 years old. Like,

Stamcoch's last three seasons have all been better than a point per game. He's played essentially 80, he's missed a grand total of, I think it's six games in three years. Like he's not the beaten down, broken down stamp goes from like, you know,

2019, 2020 where he was, you know, he was missing large chunks of the season. He's been healthy. He's been consistent. I want to see him away from Kuturov. Well, it's not like he's going to play with nobody. He's going to have Philip Forsberg, who is just the second team All-Star and left wing on his left wing. And Jonathan March is so on his right wing.

That's going to be a damn good line. Boy. Like I'm right on the fence When you add Roman Yossi to the mix I'm right on the fence of like Are they a cup contender now? Like not just a playoff contender, are they a cup contender?

I need to look a little harder at their depth But at the top, their top line is all world. Their number one defenseman is all world And their goaltender is all world. Like that's a team. And they made the playoffs this year. So it's not like they're starting from scratch.

That's going to be a really tough out for anybody. they made the playoffs and they and they did it. Remember they had that remarkable run of, you know, there was like six weeks where they were like the best team in the league. And then you thought, that's the team you don't want to play in the playoffs, right? Like remember there was a feeling of, I picked them to be Vancouver in the first round.

Yeah, they felt like the team that was hot. Yeah. Oh, Chicago writer picks against Vancouver. How fresh. Yeah, pro Nashville. That's a big Chicago trait. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But like, I look at their team and I think,

If you just, if you were like just being like you said, super top heavy and Foresburg, Stamcoast, Marcia Soe, I'm even willing to throw a little bit of Ryan O'Reilly in there. Sure. But, but, but Roman Yosi, UC Soros, oh, Brady Shea even like, man, like that's a pretty darn good group of six. There's certainly going to be one of the most intriguing teams next year, right, to see how much of a leap can you take by just going all in on. free agency like that in a jam-packed division. Like, again, Colorado is not going to start sucking next year.

Dallas is not going to start sucking next year. And Winnipeg's not going to start sucking next year. Like, it's going to be tough to make up ground, but they're going to be right in that mix now with those three other teams. And, you know, pray for Utah and Chicago, I guess. Oh, man. And by the way, this is the last. I forgot about poor Minnesota.

I always forget about it. And the blues. The blues. What are the blues and wild are going to do it? Like at least the Blackhawks have a reason to be bad and they're working their way up. And Utah is already well into a rebuild and now is getting an infusion of cash and talents. What do you do if you're St. Louis or Minnesota right now and you are just stuck? You're just stuck where you are.

And there's just so little help for movement. Like where St. Louis and Minnesota are, it's kind of like to me where Calgary has been the last year or two. Right? Like you're just kind of like, like, yeah, you're good enough to kind of be on the periphery of the playoff picture, but you're just not bad enough to be hanging out in the basement. And it's just, it's the worst place to be. And you're right. I'm thinking the predators have leapfrogged all of those teams now.

There's a clear top four, bottom four in the Central Division right now. Nashville was kind of straddling that line. Like there were three great teams. Nashville was pretty good. Looks like there's four great teams now. That's going to be just an absolute meat grinder of a division. And like a tip of the hat, though, to Barry Trots too, in that. Like you said, like, I don't know, two years ago, three years ago, I would have been on the,

these guys, remember they had like Douchain and they had a deal. Yeah, they were done. I was like, wow, there's going to be five painful years of Nashville. So maybe I should shut up about Tampa Bay because I'm saying the same things about Tampa Bay right now, that their time is over and they need to start thinking about the future. I said that about Nashville and they seem to manage. They seem to manage to retool on the fly. This is like the Boston retool on the fly.

This is what Pittsburgh tried to do and failed miserably at last year. It's really difficult to do this to make over your team when you're a veteran, pretty good, not great, not bad team. It's really hard to work your way out of that. And again, we'll see. I mean, Stephen Samcoast might just drop off of a cliff next season. Unlikely, but it's conceivable. So we will see if it works out. But on paper, man, the Brady-Shea contract was a bit much for my taste.

but everything else, I like the addition. You know, for the next few years, that's going to be a really good team. Call me in seven years when Brady Chase is 37 years old making that contract. But hey, caps going up and up and up and up and up. All these contracts will look. That's the one thing I keep coming back to going through this. I'm not seeing a lot of terrible contracts today. We're so used to this being overpay day.

And there's a handful of them out there. You see the Edmondson contract and you're like, oh, wow, really with that? and there's been a few of those going around. But most of the big deals have seemed really reasonable. The right around the contract projections that Dom and evolving hockey and everyone else has, and the term seems reasonable, there's a lot of fair deals happening out there. Well, the two that were signed in the state of Florida late last night and early this morning were the ones that I think drew the most attention and almost,

I don't know if they artificially set a ceiling on where everything else came in. but let's start with Stanley Cup champion Sam Reinhart who last had one of the best regular seasons of any player in the salary cap era 57 regular season goals then goes on to win a Stanley Cup a 70 goal season regular season and postseason and you're thinking man this guy's going to get paid this guy's going to be a 10 million dollar guy right what's it going to be eight times 11 whatever Sam Reinhardt he gets the eight years he gets eight

0.625. So it's basically under 70 million on an eight-year deal. I was shocked, shocked by, not by the term, but by the dollar amount, that this guy didn't even make 9 million. Yeah, and everyone's going to cry foul about the tax situation in Florida, obviously, and that certainly plays a role in this. But, you know, it's funny. You know, I mentioned earlier online, I said, you know, this is not a contract that the NHLPA

is going to be happy with. because it is not a rising tide lifts all boats contract. The NHLPA wants players to push, push, push for max salary as much as possible because it lifts salaries for everybody else. You always want to raise that ceiling. You don't like seeing guys. If you're in the union, you don't like seeing guys settle for less. But then on the other hand, this is what we're always saying guys should do.

You're in a good situation with a good team. And if you take less money, you can have a better team around you and have a chance to make another run. this is a selfless contract in a lot of ways. From a Florida standpoint, this is a guy doing what's right by the team. You know, $70 million is a lot of money. He's going to be fine for the rest of his life and so will his kids and his grandkids and their grandkids. So it's not like he's taking a huge haircut here, but he's setting up Florida to succeed by doing that and giving himself a chance to win another Stanley Cup. So from Florida standpoint, it's a selfless deal.

From the union standpoint, it's a selfish deal, right? Yep. Because it screws over the next time, you know, when Mitch Marner's out there looking for a contract, someone's going to say he's going to want $12 million, $13 million, and they're going to say, well, Sam Reinhardt, he had 70 total goals this past year. He just took 8.6. Why should we give you 13? So it's an interesting dilemma where you stand on that because it's selfless and selfish at the same time. Yeah. No, it's so true. Like if you look at it through the lens of the PA, 100%. They're like, hey, take your, get your 10 million, please, and, and bring everybody else up. But like, it would be hard.

Like, for me, when you, when you've played in a market like Buffalo, which is a great hockey market, but there's intense pressure, there's cold weather. You know, there's all the things that go with playing in one of those markets. Then you go to Florida and you win a cop and the weather's great. You take the golf cart to the practice facility. And nobody, you know, you could probably go hang out in South Florida. And not very many people recognize you on the street. And whatever it is, you can live to some degree of anonymity.

Like, what's the value of that? Like, even strip aside the tax thing, strip aside the tax thing. And ask yourself just the style of living in South Florida. And we're seeing more and more players embracing the low pressure of it all, too. You kind of alluded to that. But it's not just good weather and nice lifestyle. Like, you go cover a Florida Panthers game. and there's one or two, maybe two or three local reporters there.

You go to a morning skate and there's maybe just George Richards there. That's it. And 17 team employees, you know, asking fluffy softball questions for the web, for Twitter, basically. It is a, if you've played in a Buffalo, which is always an high drama market, if you, it's like, it's like Johnny Goddrow going from Calgary to Columbus. Some guys are just wired that way. They like the lower profile. And that's not like, oh, these guys can't handle the pressure. It's not that at all.

It's that sometimes it sucks to play in Toronto. Sometimes it sucks to play in Edmonton. Sometimes it's a terrible thing and you're just constantly barrage on all sides. And it doesn't mean you can't handle the pressure of the game itself. It just means you don't want to deal with all those extracurriculars that happen on the outside. Florida is quiet. Carolina is quiet. Columbus is quiet.

Nashville is quiet. There isn't appeal to that to some of these guys that have played in high pressure. markets, they'll never really say it out loud because it makes them seem soft. And it's not soft, though. It's just a lifestyle choice, basically. And there's a huge appeal to that. And when you're making $70 million and you're chill, that might be better than making $80 million and being stressed out all the time.

I'm just saying. Yes. Yeah, I agree. And that takes us to Jake Gensel, who was very closely, Las, linked to the Vancouver Canucks. And I think that was because of the, you know, his old Pittsburgh regime is over there. And it just seemed to make sense. And everyone thought, okay, at 1201 on Monday, Jake Gensel is going to be a Vancouver Canuck.

I think that was the feeling going into the weekend in Vegas. A lot of people said that that thing is almost, it's going to be a done deal. And then guess what? Here come to Tampa Bay Lightning. And you get like, but, but I'm trying to figure out like you are, what's happening in Tampa? Like they get rid of Tanner Geno, that made sense. That I understand it. Okay.

You didn't quite fit. You were never going to re-acquiring him certainly didn't given the price they paid for. Right. But that was a sunk cost. They were never going to recoup the value. Okay. He's out the door. But then, you know, once they started to do other things,

the Sergachev one was like, wait, what? Like, guys in the second year of an eight-year deal and you're moving surgachev? Wouldn't you rather have Sergachev and Stam-Cose? than Gensel and a prospect. If you're thinking short term, clearly the lightning are thinking short term here. They're still trying to win now. They're clinging to that.

Well, I think you have. Yeah, I think you're right. Because, I mean, otherwise you're not going to trade for, or sorry, trade for it and then sign Jake Gensel, right? You're not doing that. Like, you're letting Stamcoast go. You're letting Surgents have go. You're bringing in young prospects,

but that's not what they're doing at all. Like, I think. last year that it was starting to feel like the windows had slammed shut on their fingers on the contention window yeah i wrote that column when they got eliminated yeah that they're being delusional that they think it's not and here they are like i i believe that they're a playoff contender i don't dispute that i i i just don't know here like but i mean i guess do you owe it to kuturov headman vazolevsky point uh who else so sirelli like Do you owe it to those guys to say, okay, you guys are good enough?

Otherwise, we're going to become the St. Louis, the Calgary, the, you know, works. It's really dangerous to say you owe it to those guys because look at the last two, quote, unquote. You know, I hate this word, dynasty teams are Pittsburgh and Chicago, right? The last two. What defines a dynasty? Three Stanley Cups in a row. That's a dynasty. But everybody calls them dynasties.

So the penguins and the Blackhawks are the last two. dominant championship era teams, right? And both of them have tried to do right by the veterans, right? You go to what Pittsburgh, they edit Eric Carlson last year. Now it's like, oh, my God, they're paying Eric Carlson $11 million for the next four years. It's a disaster. And you go to Chicago, and this Tampa Bay trade, this sequence of events reminds me a lot of the 2021 Blackhawks when they traded Adam Bowquist, they got Seth Jones, they acquired, you know, they signed Jake. McCabe, they signed Mark Andre Fleury. They were, they went from an aborted rebuild to just like, screw it, we're going for it now. One last run with Taves and Kane. And it was a debacle.

They went one nine and one and Jeremy Colleton got fired. It was a total disaster. And then they did the rebuild in earnest where Kyle Davidson comes in and just tears it down to the studs. This is this, like Tampa is in a better position than Chicago was in 2021. Chicago was way further down the road, but it's the same idea. And, you know, Surga-Chev, you know, J.J. Moser is a nice young player. He is a significant step down from Surgachev, who is similarly age. I think he's like 25, 26, right? And geeky's a nice prospect, but he's still a prospect. He's not in the, he's not in the NHL just yet. So I just, it feels like they took a step back here by letting Stamcoast walk, replacing him with Gensel, who's already 30 years old himself. Like, what are the lightning trying to do?

Are they trying to win the cup now? Are they trying to set, what are the lightning going to be in three years? Do they have the worst prospect pool in the league? They have no draft picks. And they're still, you know, signing 30-year-old veterans to eight-year, seven, eight-year contracts. What are we doing? But again, I'll go back to the point of you've got Kuturov, Point, Headman, Soirelli. But are they in the same category as Florida as the Rangers as Carolina?

and no. They were like the eight pieces here for a reason. Yeah, I don't think so, but I think you're, you're just stuck in the middle, like you're going to be stuck here. But it's worth, as you've written before, it's worth it. I would rather have, give me my tight window where I'm dominant and I win multiple cups. If there's a downslope and it goes for a while, fine. But, uh, yeah, it's just, they're trying to do what Boston did. Boston's the only team that really pulled this off, that didn't bottom out and then got right back to Stanley Cup contention. But it's really hard.

They were trying to do right by Bergeron and all that and keep that core together and work around it. That's what Tampa is trying to do here. But it's 99% of the time it's not going to work. It's really difficult to do. But last, Boston only won one cup. Like, you know what I mean? And I know they went back to the cup in 13,

they went back to the cup in 19. I get it. But I'm okay. If you win multiple cups, to me, you earn the right to burn it down however you want to burn it down. You want to do a slow burn? Do a slow burn. You want to do it like,

but you've delivered multiple championships. I'm torn on this because I'm of the belief that, yeah, you try to go for it whenever you can. I hate tanking. I hate it. I cover a team with one of the most naked tanks of all time in Chicago. I hated it.

I wrote about how I hated it. It worked. It worked. And I still hate it. it. It was just gross. What the Blackhawks did was gross, and it worked, and that's the worst part because now everybody wants to do it. I like

seeing teams try to keep it alive and go for it. I just don't know if the Tampa Bay Lightning are better today than they were four days ago. If you keep Stamcoast, your leader, your heart and soul, your captain, who's a 40 goal scorer, and Surgachev, I'm not convinced they're better set up for

this year or the future now. If you were going to trade those guys, you've got to do it for futures. So that takes us right to Boston. Because you talked about, hey, Boston did a really good job. We thought three or four years ago they were on the downslope. And they've stayed up. They've been basically playing 700 hockey the last three seasons.

It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And on Monday, they add a pretty darn good centerman in Elias Lindholm. They get him for seven years at 7.75. they get a pretty highly coveted defenseman in Nikita Zedorov at a six-year deal at, yeah, $5 million per. So is that enough, Zedorov and Elias Lindholm, we were both with Vancouver last year at the end of the year,

is that enough to say Boston's window to be a cup contender is still open for you? Remember, Linus Olamark is gone, so it's just going to be the Jerry Swimming. So is Jake DeBrusk. He's gone to. To Vancouver. Right. So that's kind of a swap with Lindholm in a lot of ways.

Look, Boston, Boston's a factory over there. They just turn out good teams. Like, you walk into Boston and you become a better hockey player. It just works there. But they have very, like you said, they have very little to show for it. They haven't won a cup in 13 years, despite being one of the best teams in hockey over those 13 years. I don't look at them as a true cup contender. Like, they've been a phenomenal regular season team the last two years, one of the

of all time two years ago, and they've got nothing to show for it in the playoffs. I don't know if this team is built to win and losing Allmark, that goalie rotation, that stubborn goalie rotation where they just, no matter what, we're swapping goalies every game all regular season. It just played out so beautifully for them. And it's tough to replace a guy like Olmark. He's a really good goalie. I don't know if this team is better now than it was.

I don't think it is. But they've added good pieces. They're still going to be a playoff team. They're still going to be good. It's going to be the same Boston we've had for over a decade now where they're pretty good. And you can kind of squint your eyes and see a contender there. And there's that hope you get as a fan. They're competitive. They have a chance. But I don't see them in that elite tier that, frankly, there's a lot of teams in that elite tier now around the league. And I don't see them as one of them.

Wow. Okay. So Tampa and Boston. Do you see them as a legitimate cup contender? You know what? I guess my point, my feeling is I have misread them for so many years in a row. That's a good call. That, that I'm just afraid to say that, I've written them off so many times. Like, so many times. Like, at least with Pittsburgh and Washington, like, when they started to go down, we said they're going down and they did go down. They're not, nobody is.

What is Washington doing, by the way? I'm so intrigued by Washington. Like, they're, they got Jacob Chikrin from Ottawa. They got Matt Roy, right, as well. It's really interesting. Like, is this just? the, okay, OV is 36 or whatever he is

and we got to just keep this thing going. We can't bottom out while 8 is in the lineup. It might be. Let's get him to the 900 goals. Let's get him to the 900 goals. Let's like, because they're, I mean, they were in the playoffs last season, but I think we can all agree that they were there

because that that turtle derby in the east was so bad that somebody had to make it amongst Philly, Washington, Detroit, you know what I mean? And eventually, Philly and Detroit and Ottawa, Buffalo, they're going to make that leap that we've been waiting for for years here, right? And Washington is clearly, Washington is St. Louis. Washington is Minnesota right now. It's just like they're stuck in no man's land right now.

Well, it's funny you mentioned that they are, you call them Minnesota right now, right? Like, when you think of the wild, you think about a team that's always like just right now in cap jail, cap trouble, right, because of those bio-ials. The Washington Capitals, I was just looking at this. And by the way, this is the last time we could look at Cap-friendly before the... Devastating. Paps themselves take over. Damn you Leonces!

Yes. You would think that the AOL guy would have been able to just create his own cap-friendly site on it. It says stealing this from us. Puckpedia is the only alternative. The Capitals Cap-Hip hit for next season last right now is projected at $101 million. dollars. Right now, they're 13 million dollars over the cap. Hey, we always want these owners to spend, right?

Ted Leon's just is spending. But they've got some LTIR candidates, I believe, like Nick Baxter, for example, eat up a chunk of that. But, but like, what are they doing? Because they traded for Mangiapani, right? The other day. And he's got like a. pretty big cap hit.

Like, yeah, 5.8 million for Manji Apani. Like, you're trading for him because I think you believe that you're a playoff team next year. You're, like, you're trading for a guy with one year left at 5.8 million. You're signing Matt Roy for about the same amount. I think it was 5.8 million. You're trading for Jacob Chikrin. He's going to play for one season.

Like, these are all, and you traded for Logan Thompson, right? So you've done a bunch of things that lead me to believe. that you're aggressive, but I'm curious what Washington fans want. Like, it's one for you and I. I think you nailed it. I think this is all about Ovechkin. This is all about just staying as competitive as you can. Because that's the only thing selling tickets right now in Washington,

because everybody knows this team is going nowhere. You know, whether they make the playoffs or not, they're going to be in the playoffs for four games and then be done, just like they were this year. So this is all about keeping the team competitive, expediting Ovechkin to getting to, And I, because, you know, man, for the first half of this year, we were wondering if he was going to get there at all. And then he kicked into the second gear down the stretch.

And now he's going to be fine probably. This is all about you must have Alex Ovetian scores 894th goal in a capital sweater. And you want him to do it as soon as possible. That's all this is. I think you're right. You know what we forgot of all the, and I don't know how I forgot this? The biggest move Washington made in the last week or so, Pierre Luke Dubois. Oh, right.

Yeah. who's only signed for 79 more years, I think. Yeah. And like, again, like, you're not trading for that guy unless, like, but I'd be curious. I'd love to hear from Washington fans on this. Like, to me, as long as your, if the fan, if it makes sense to the fan base, but it doesn't make sense to a couple of, you know, national guys or people on the outside, that's fine.

If your market gets it and you believe that it's good, that's all that matters. But I just, I'm curious. What are Washington fans think? Because, yeah, I'm curious what Washington's front office thinks. I would like to get an honest assessment of what it is their plan is. What are they trying to accomplish here? Do you think that that's why they bought cat friendly, is so that people couldn't look up what the hell is going on?

It's a cover up. Yeah, we can't look up Pierre-Luc Dubois contract after tomorrow. It was all because they're just hiding it. Yeah, that's good. Oh, the Toronto Maple Leafs. An interesting day, they signed soon to be 35-year-old Chris Tannen to a six-year deal. Six years. Now, we should point out, because he turns 35 later this year, they sneak this in under the wire,

meaning he can retire at any point during the contract. They're not on the hook for it, right? Is that not the way it works? Because once you're 35, that's it. You have to be able to help, right? there where they, you know, you can't just nakedly sign someone for a contract you don't intend to honor when they're older.

Yeah. I think like, like you look at that and you say, okay, it's a six year deal. He's not going to make it to the age 40 season. Not the way he plays, no. No, the guy eats pucks. He's, he's like the quintessential. I will sacrifice my body. And those defensemen don't really,

uh, they don't really age, Well, unless you're Dano Chara, but even Chara is a bit of an outlier, right? They don't even get to 34 usually the way he plays. He's already, you know, a quote unquote warrior because of the way he's made, he's laid for him to be this good at this age, the way he plays. Not to bring everything back to Chicago, but I always equated in Nicholas Jalmerson. He's the same kind of player, this really defensive puck eating, just block shot machine.

And Jomerson, you know, I think it was Dom once or someone who made an argument that he's the best defensive defenseman of the modern era. and he absolutely fell off of a cliff at like age 32 or so because that's how those players, I remember talking to Johnerson, he said every time he signed a contract, he's like, I am assuming this is my last contract because there's just no way I can sustain this.

And that's what happens. So there's no way Christendix gets to 41. So this, this, the sketchy, it's a little bit of a sketchy, sketchy contract. Yeah. But at least it's not like the,

the tomfoolery or the, you know, that the underhandedness. It's not like they've signed them to this like very suspicious contract. Like 4.5 million a year. Ah, whatever, right? Like, like it's not, like you said earlier in the show, most of the deals from a cap hit perspective have been reasonable. The question is always on term, right?

You're always like, I don't know about the term. But the cap hit on Tanniv at that, at that price, I would imagine is a pretty good, it's a pretty good number for a guy that has been a good shutdown D, right? Yeah, here's a sentence I don't think I've ever said before, but I like what the Maple Leafs are doing here. Like, you know, I, I, Maple Leafs fans from what I can tell, the comments I'm getting on some of these contract rates, they're not happy at all with this. But this is what they needed, right? They needed a legitimate upgrade on defense, not the, with the crap they pulled at the trade deadline where they added a bunch of like, ooh, he's big and mean.

Chris Tanniv is a real defenseman. He gives them a real top pairing guy to go along with Morgan Riley. Oliver Ekman, Larson, just won a Stanley Cup, completely rejuvenated. his career in Florida. He can kind of man your second power play unit, give you reliable minutes on the back end. And Anthony Stolars, everyone's talking about the goaltending, how they have no goal. Like Anthony Stolars is great. He's been really good for a long time. I don't know if he can play 45-50 games, but he's going to give Joseph Wohl an actual run for that number one job. Stolars, he's 6-6-250 pounds. And if he can stay healthy, which has been only not, he had more,

he played like 20-something games this year. And he was like seventh in the league and goal saved above expected. like ahead of Sergey Bobrovsky. Stolars is a legitimate guy. He's a guy who's going to finally get a chance to be a number one potentially, or at least a 1B. I think that the Maple Leafs got a lot better because we know they can score goals. They can't score goals in the playoffs.

Well, that's a different story. But they give up too many goals. And the Leafs are actually out there addressing a need. I don't know why Leafs fans are so down on this. Stolars was very much giving me Laurent Brousswe-Vise, which is, you're probably. played really well in a, you know, 25 games, uh, behind the number one who a lot of people thought like that guy's the best goal in the league or whatever, but your team doesn't

make it to where they are without the play of Stolars and Laurent Broussua. So right, I like it. I, I, I'm with it. Yeah, Bruce, Brasquez coming to Chicago and it's the same thing where he's never been more than a backup, right? But Peter Marazek, with his health concerns, as good as he was last year, you don't want him to play 55 games. You want him to play 41 games. So Brasua is getting a chance to maybe push him and be a true 1B. And so is Stolars. It's a good situation for Stolars in Toronto. And I think he's a good option.

I know you always want like a UC Soros or something, but you're not going to get that on the free agent market. Rassois and Stolars were the two best goalies available and he got one of them. Be happy with that. Well, like Toronto is spending next season on goaltending $4.1 million. That's the cap hit on Anthony Stolars, Yosef Wall, And don't forget about two-time Stanley Cup winner, Matt Murray,

who signed today a one-year deal essentially for the league minimum, 875. So the Leafs are not going with the UC Soros or Jacob Markstrom. They're going with a, what if we put three goalies in a trench coat and we tried to pass it off as one goalie? But I don't mind. You have to do that when you've got four guys making eight figures. You have to. Yeah.

But I don't mind this trio. be honest with you, I think like if I had the guess, I think you'll Joseph Wall is your opening night starter I think. I think Stollars backs him up. And Matt Murray is likely

not a threat. Like if you ever have to waive him or whatever, put him in the mind, I don't think he's a threat to like be picked up off waivers. So I don't mind the three goalie system when you're only spending four million. Like it seems like a smart investment and you just hope that you

hit on one of them. You don't have to hit it all three. Just one. Give me one of those guys. And bringing back Max Domi's a nice signing at a good contract. He was a nice fit there. I like what Toronto's done. Did they get a massive upgrade anywhere? No, but they've got a lot better on the back end

and in goal, which is the two things they needed the most. I do want to ask you about somebody who left Toronto, and I know we touched a little bit on Chicago off the top. But, you know, Tyler Bertuzzi is a really interesting guy to me. Like he's a, he's a, he's a, a very, he can be a very productive top six forward.

He can also be one of the more colorful characters in the league. He's, you know, he's just, he's a lot of things. And so where, where Chicago is in their trajectory of their rebuild, where do you see a guy like Bertuzi fitting in? Like, is he, is he riding shotgun with Bidar? I think so. I think it's, I think it's, he needed a left wing, right? Because Taylor Hall's coming back from knee surgery.

You can't really count on him being. a top line guy right now. So Bertuzi, he can play on that top line. He can, you know, he offers Bedard a little protection because he plays with that snarl. He gets in front of the net. He can work in the corners. And, you know, you can let Bedard and maybe Phil Khrushchev gets to stay on that top right wing. Maybe it's Tavo Terra Vinen, who they also signed.

Maybe he gets to play up there as a, you know, Tara Vinen's a good defensive player, too. I mean, the big knock on Bedard, as any Minnesota wild fan will tell you from last year was his defensive deficiencies. They didn't ask him to play any defense last year. he had really difficult usage and didn't really play defense. If you give him some responsible winger, some guys with some, you know, either defensive savvy or some snarl to their game, it's going to make Bedard a better player.

And the problem Bedard had is he didn't have anybody who can keep up with him, right? His left wings were guys like Rem Pitlick and Anthony Bovillier and Nick Falino. He never had a really elite guy because Taylor Hall only played 10 games before getting hurt. So Tyler Bertuzzi, he can play on a top line. On this particular Chicago team, he can be a top line. He's a 30 goal score in his career. He's been a 28, I think some a couple of years ago. This is a guy who can play.

We've seen the effect he can have in both Toronto and Boston. It's a nice pickup. I mean, his age does, that's the weird thing is all the guys they signed today are kind of old. Like their ages don't really line up with the Black Hawk's plan here. But it's only a four-year deal, right? Like that's the only, Tara Vinen is a three-year deal for Tuesdays of four. Just about everybody else they signs a one-year deal. This allows them to put all their,

Bevia prospects, they're Frank Nazars and, you know, all these guys in Rockford for another year. Let them over, overripen. And I guess that's the plan here. We haven't heard from Kyle Davidson yet, who just, you know, four days ago was like, eh, I don't think we're going to sign anybody. And then here they are. So, but I just put down the list of forwards. And there is no room for Lucas Reichel, for Frank Nazar, for Landon Slaggart,

these guys who played significant roles last year as rookies. So it'll be really interesting to see how, God, this might be one of the oldest teams in the league next year. Alex Martinez. Alec Martinez, you know, they needed somebody to play alongside Kevin Korninski to be Seth Jones to their Alex, Alex Flassick. Alex Martinez is like 37 years old. Like, this is an odd spate of signings by the Blackhawks.

I'm not saying it's a bad one, but it's an odd one. Yeah. Well, and like you said, just the other day in Vegas when you're like, just as you mentioned, Kyle Davidson sounded very much like, I'll just be on the sidelines on July 1st. I bought it hook, wine, and stinker. to myself. I can't believe a general manager lied. I know. Media about like, how else your

intentions, sir? Be transparent with us. But yeah, it's wild. Like, you know, because Nick Felito's still there, right? At 30, whatever, 36. Yeah. He's just two-year extension. Yeah, like, Nick is 36. Jason Dickinson's there and, you know.

Yeah, like he's like Craig Smith is 34. They re-signed Joey Anderson do a two-year deal. They like him a lot. Like, there's no room for any of these young guys. Connor Murphy's still there, right? Connor Murphy's still there, yeah. He's 30, isn't he? Yeah, he's in the middle of a five-year deal.

Yeah, so it's like, it's funny because we're going to be like, wow, Chicago's a very young team on the remote. I don't know, I don't know. I'm interested, though, but at least this year, I think you go into it as a Chicago fan or you go into it looking to cover the team knowing, okay, they probably shouldn't finish bottom five in the overall standings. You know what I mean? Well, that's what Kyle Davidson said, you know, two months ago.

He said, we can't go and be in a bottom three team again. And that's one of the reasons I think that Kyle Davidson was so urgently trying to sell next year's unprotected first round pick to get Columbus's number four pick and get Ivan Demadov this year. How close were they on that? It was close. You and Scott Howard wrote about that. How was it close? Like in the wake of it, you know, I've talked to a bunch of people and ran in some people at the airport and at the hotel. It was like really like Montreal was sweating.

bullets because they wanted Demet off so bad. Like it almost happened. But if you're Columbus, I understand what, like, if you're Columbus, why would I do that? Because now I'm giving you the fourth overall pick and you're giving me your unprotected first next year. But if it plays out the way we're talking about, it's likely not going to be a top five pick.

It might be eighth or ninth or tenth or whatever. But so why would I, why do I downgrade that much? I don't know. Eighth, ninth or tenth is pretty optimistic. I mean, the Hawks had 54 points last year. If they have the biggest improvement from one season to another in Blackhawks history is 32 points, if they get 32 more points next year, they'll still be like 12 points out of the playoffs. Like, they were really bad.

No, they were. But like if Chicago said to Columbus, okay, we'll give you the 18th overall pick this year and next year's first unprotected, then I'm in if I'm Columbus. But I'm not taking the second round this year. and I don't know, that'd be a hard one to sell when you're in the midst of a rebuild yourself in Columbus. And Columbus had the guy they liked, so that's why they didn't make the trade. Yeah, yeah. Was there ever, and I know you're very well connected on this, was there ever a chance

that Patrick Kane, who signed a one-year deal in Detroit for $4 million, was there any chance at all he could have come back to Chicago? Every time you ask Kyle Davidson about it, he basically says absolutely not. He said that we've closed the door on that. We made a difficult decision. I heard through a couple of people that there was at least a discussion between the two sides that they at least said, hey, it's stupid not to even ask about this. But it never really seemed like it was going to happen.

I don't know what the next. I have not been able to truly ascertain why that is. If it's just because it was so difficult to make that call in the first place, they don't want to have to do it again down the road. I don't think it has anything to do with the 2010 team and the Brad Aldrich stuff because, you know, Brian Campbell's an assistant GM and, you know, Marion host is back in the fold. They had Patrick Sharp on TV last year. They have no qualms about working with people from that team.

So I think it's just as simple as they don't want to have to go through that decision again and piss off fans a second time. Yeah. Because wouldn't Patrick Kane, the contract he signed with Detroit, four years with 2.5 million in bonuses that could potentially carry over to next year. wouldn't that make more sense than even a Tyler Bertuzi or a Tevo, Tara Vinen? Isn't that the guy you want playing and pinballing off of Connor Bedard? I feel like that's a better option. Bertuzi's fine. Terra Vinen's a much better defensive player than Kane.

But if you really want to bring out the best in Bedard, you got to put a superstar on that wing. And they could have had one, I think. I think that Kane was much more open to it than the Blackhawks were. And like, you know, Kane goes back to Detroit. it's $4 million for the year but I feel like if you're Kane you probably could have gone to

some sort of situation where you're with a Stanley Cup contender I would imagine somewhere somebody would have would you think when you have three cups in your back pocket do you think that motivates you the same way would a guy who's never won the cup like I say you know him

you know how he thinks a little bit more than most people I think he desperately wants to go to a good wanted to go to a good team because it's been nine, nine years since that last cup. He hasn't, he hasn't been in the playoffs, other than that little stint with the Rangers in, which was less, which was one round, uh, in almost a decade, uh, or seven years, whatever it's been since that Nashville sweep in 2017. So I think he desperately wants to get back to that. Like, uh, maybe he doesn't need it the way a guy chasing a cup for the first time needs it,

but he wants it. And I don't think this is, this is not what he wanted. Like, he's, He doesn't have a problem playing in Detroit. He didn't want a one-year deal. He wanted a three-year deal. He doesn't like this mercenary lifestyle where he went from Chicago to New York to Detroit and basically like, you know, 12 calendar, six calendar months. He does not like that. He's got a young son at home.

He wants to be close to home in Buffalo because his dad comes to just about every game and comes to practices and stuff that matters to him. He wanted an Eastern Conference team and he wanted term. He got the Eastern Conference team. He got a pretty good team on the verge of something maybe. but it's probably not going to happen this year. So I don't think this is not the best case scenario for Patrick Kane. I don't think he was expecting to come back to Detroit.

Much as he did like it there. He did. And he didn't get the term, right? Like you just got the one year. You got one year, yeah. Yeah. So interesting. Now, sticking with Detroit for a second, you know,

last, the only thing better than three goalies in a trench coat is four goalies in a trench coat. Works every time. Detroit has just signed Jack Campbell. freshly bought out by Edmonton. Oh, my God. Here's what you do with that. Here's what Detroit has for goaltending this season. Jack Campbell signed today one year league minimum 775.

Pam Talbot signed today. Two years, 2.5. Alex Lyon still under contract next season for 900,000. And Villeghousso is still there one year left on his deal at 4.75 million. four goalies, just under 9 million, whoso, Talbot, Lion, Campbell. Well, I mean, Campbell, it's not like Campbell's going to get claimed if you send them down to the minors into Grand Rapids

is their HL team, right? Like, that's fine, I guess, but why? I don't really understand the why there. Clearly, Talbot is the best option of the bunch. This is a guy who's been an all-star. He's a perfectly capable goalie. It's not, he's not like a dynamite number one. but you know, you can combine him with whoso or lion

and have a capable tandem. But that's not, those four guys, they do not add up to be more than the sum of their parts. Yeah. And you'd have to think maybe one of them gets dealt. Like some team's going to need a backup, right? When the musical chairs game ends, someone's going to need to back up?

I was going to want. Like, would you, okay, would you, regardless, I guess, maybe Chicago's a good example, Ottawa, whoever, Jack Campbell at one year at 7th, 75 worth it? Like, why not, right? Like, why not? I guess, like I said, there's no harm in it because there's no risk.

If you have room in your AHL team where he's not going to be taking the spot of a guy who might actually be a part of your future, sure, take a flyer. He had a nice run. At one point, he was a pretty good NHL goalie it looked like. He's a great story. Everybody loves Jack Campbell and his story. But he is not good anymore. Like, it's just flat out.

It's hard to envision him regaining them. that for. Now, goaltending his voodoo, maybe he does. But he's got so much to prove. And I'm not going to risk letting him prove it on my NHL team. Yeah. Like, I'm having a hard time thinking of another goalie who, uh, has like fell off a cliff like in that manner. Like that spectacularly. That like, like, and I'm sure our listeners would give us examples of, don't forget this guy or that guy, but like this is, this is one of the all times. And I feel for the guy because it did look like, as we talked about earlier, we talked about pressure and playing in a tough market, it did seem like that might have been getting to them, a five-year deal at 25 million.

But I'm having a hard time thinking of a goalie who was just so good and it just got the yips or whatever. It just wasn't. I mean, I feel like we see it. We see these guys, these flashes in the pants, these like, you know, Andrew Hammond types who just kind of come and go real quick. But Campbell seemed like he was a guy who was going to be, you know, a capable NHL goalie for, like, there was no reason to think this was going to happen.

It didn't feel fluky at all. And it's a bummer when that happens to guys, especially guys who have a good story and you kind of want to rue for them. And then when the bottom falls out of them, it's just sad to watch. Yeah. Listen, let's wrap up our free agency podcast.

Let's go to the bottom of the standings again and look at a couple of guys who signed. I think the term of the contract, it's not eye-popping, but maybe the destination was. Let's start with Tyler DeFoli, Las, who I think was one of the most highly sought after wingers on the market. He's a guy that I think you can lock in and say, when he's healthy, he's just super productive. He's very consistent.

He's kind of a 25, like almost lock it in 25 goal guy. That's what I think about Tyler DeFle. He's 25 goal guy. You'd like to think that he would have had options, but he has chosen the San Jose sharks, who are clearly in the midst of one of the biggest rebuilds going in the league, he signs a four-year deal at $6 million as a cap hit. So what, like, if you're Tyler to Foley,

what's the mindset here? I just want to go somewhere and, you know, at my age, I'm 32. Stop. I mean, stop it. This guy's been on six teams in five seasons. I think he just wants to stay home somewhere. And you can do a lot more to live in the best.

Bay Area. And I'm looking on cap friendly right now. Usually they put the no trade terms in there. Right now there's nothing in there. And I'm sure he must have some trade protection. Like of all the people in the league who probably have asked for some trade protection, I think he's Tyler to fold. Maybe he's so numb to it by now.

He's like, yeah, I know how to pack a bag. I don't know. It's from San Jose's standpoint, I like the signing. This is, you know, Macklin-Cellabrini needs real players to play with. We saw what happened to Conradar last. year when he didn't. He suffered. He suffered by not having capable players because Taylor Hall was hurt. So Tyler Tofoli can play with Macklin-Sellibrini or Will Smith too, either one, and make him better.

Give him a viable option to play off of. You need that as an 18-year-old stud. So Tofoli can go there and live in an awesome area, make a lot of money, hopefully not get traded for a couple of years, and play with a stud kid and maybe put up the best numbers of his career and then he gets one more big contract down the road. He is a goal score. That's what Tyler Tofoli does. He shoots the puck. He does not pass. He just shoots the puck. And, you know, rookies tend to be deferential early on. They don't, they're a little hesitant to be aggressive. So Tofoli, he's up from San Jose. This is a home run signing for me. This is a perfect, you know, he's four years is fine because that's probably how long it's going to take to get back to respectability. The term is fine. The pay is fine. He is an ideal

winger for an 18-year-old stud center coming into the league. And another guy who was one of Tyler Tufoli's teammates in Calgary a few years ago, Sean Monaghan, kind of with a similar, I guess, rationale of I, maybe I could have gone to a better team. Maybe I could have gone to a contender. Instead, Lazzie signs in Columbus five times five and a half. So kind of similar to Tafoli in terms of term and dollar. It's five years, five and a half million. And maybe Columbus is thinking is, wait, what if we could rebuild?

the 2016 Calgary Flames. Who wouldn't want to do that? Sean Monaghan, Johnny Goddrow at the top of the page in terms of Cap hits. And we'll get to Patrick Lainey in a second. But Johnny Goodro, Sean Monaghan, reunited in Columbus. It's funny.

You know, we talked about this earlier. To Foley has a cup, right? So we can just go right out into the sunset in San Jose. Monaghan doesn't have that, but he's only, he's 29 years old. He's a bit younger. Maybe this goes back to another. I don't know Sean Monaghan at all.

I have not really dealt with him. Maybe he's tired of he's been in Canadian markets his whole career. And all the stuff that goes along with that and a guy who's been up and down in his career the way he has, he could just go to Columbus, play his game, do what he does, play with Johnny Goddrow, and maybe just kind of live the, maybe it's a lifestyle choice. I don't know. Because it seemed like there was a lot of teams interested in. They really drove the price up on him.

So for him to be able to get, you know, considering, how inconsistent he's been over the last handful of season to get a contract like that, good for him, man. Maybe it's as simple as that. Maybe that was just like, holy crap, this is a really good contract. I can't turn this up for another one year prove it deal. Yeah, five times five. I mean, hey, go secure the bag.

If you think that's the best deal you can get, I mean, it's hard to criticize. Columbus is a great place to play. People love it in Columbus. It's awesome. It's an awesome place. But let's wrap it up by talking about a guy on the jackets roster who I thought, Las, would be moved at some point at the draft weekend. And that's Patrick Line, who has an $8.7 million cap hit.

He's got a couple more seasons left on that. And, you know, clearly it has been a tough go for him. He's been in the NHL player assistance program. He's looking for a fresh start. He's a guy that when he's dialed in has been a 40-goal guy in this league. He's still only 26 years old. Are you surprised that we're sitting here midday on the 1st of July? Patrick Lina is still property of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

A little bit. I think that teams are really wary and they're going to want to do a lot of due diligence on this one. So maybe that's why it takes a little bit longer. There's not a ton of urgency. You know, the kind of teams that might be willing to take him on probably have some cap room to burn. They're not in a huge rush. Columbus, I don't think, is necessarily in a huge rush because they're not like in some kind of frantic win the Stanley Cup now mode. You know, Columbus is going to want to maximize his value.

they're not going to just sell them to the first bidder. And I think any team is going to have a lot of buyer beware in them and is going to want to do a lot of due diligence and make sure that he's going to be ready to play and in a good state of mind. Yeah. And, you know, it's, it's, it's just with his case, you know, I really pull for, like he is, I love Patrick Gleine, his personality.

You know, he, his fashion sense, his flair on the ice. It's great. I love, it's great. He's a, he is a really good thing for the league. It's good for the league for Patrick Linae to be relevant. Exactly. That's how I feel. So I hope he ends up somewhere.

I hope Columbus gets some fair market value for him because as we've read Aaron Ports line over the years, holy smokes. Like that franchise, can somebody, the hockey gods, like, just give those guys a break. In the absolute coldest, meanest terms, he's damaged goods right now, right? So you're not going to get the kind of value you should get for a 26-year-old. 40 goal score. But I do hope they get something more than like, here's a fifth round pick for him.

Yeah. Well, hey, listen, by the time the next athletic hockey show drops later this week with Sean Jens Chili, Sean McIndoo, maybe, just maybe. Patrick Linae will have found a new home. And I'm sure there's a handful of other free agents that will find a home between now and then. So your next edition of the athletic hockey show will come your way.

July the 3rd. And if I had to guess, there probably won't be an athletic hockey show in July the 4th. heaven forbid we make the Americans work on July 4. Wack, man. No, but see, I would much rather, to be honest with you, if I have to work on July 1st,

I got no problem working with you, Las. Got no problem working with Chris Flannery. It's the best. Do we have to mention Jesse Granger's 400-8-yard drive before the show ends? We just did. He bailed on us, but he did hit a drive 400-8 yards, and then I beat him on that hole with my 220-yard drive. Yeah, we had a blast.

Las, Granger and I, we hit a golf course, and it was 104, 103 degrees, I think, when we wrapped up. And it was awesome. We had a great time. And we're going to try and expense it through the Athletic Hockey Show podcast to say it was a team building exercise. We'll let everyone know if the receipts get submitted. Okay, we'll put that in.

What's this cart rental? Trust me, we needed to rent a cart. I had to rent it to get to the sphere. Yeah. That's what it was. Yeah. Oh, man. Anyway, if you're enjoying the show,

leave us a five-star rating and review. You know, we'd appreciate that. Like I said, your next edition of The Athletic Hockey Show comes your way midweek with Sean Gentilly and Sean Mack.