The Athletic Hockey Show - Seattle Kraken reveal roster, Why Carey Price and Vladimir Tarasenko weren't selected and Luke Prokop's brave step forward.

Episode Date: July 22, 2021

On this week's Two Man Advantage, Scott and Pierre recap the Seattle Kraken's expansion draft. The guys discuss the Kraken's roster, the goaltending selections, the strong defensive core led by Mark Giordano and Plus, they dive deep into why Seattle didn't select Carey Price or Vladimir Tarasenko.Scott and Pierre look at the work to be done now in Calgary with the loss of their captain, and in Edmonton after they lost Adam Larsson.The guys also stick tap Luke Prokop, the Predators prospect who made history this week, coming out as the NHL's first openly gay player.Scott and Pierre also take your questions in 'Ask the Dorks' with many questions on how the Kraken did during the expansion draft, and how the Predators and Flyers are shaping up as well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody, Scott Burnside back for another edition of Two Man Advantage, the Hockey Show, part of the Athletics Hockey Show Network, Pierre Lebrun. Listen, we just started taping. You're already a little bit cranky with me this morning. You'd think that you had like a million stories to break yesterday leading up to the official release of the Seattle Cracken Expansion draft list. I want to make sure you're not over-caffeinating. tell me how you're doing. I'm good. I'm a little tired, but I also know I'm less than a week away from disappearing. So that motivates me.

The night of next Wednesday night after we're done for agency. Well, that's not true. I guess I got to tape another podcast with you next Thursday morning. That'll be my last act. Okay. Yeah, well, you should be in a better mood then. So when we do the final one of the season, do you have one of the season. Do you have one of those big clocks that is ticking down?

Like, you know, when you're in an NHL dressing, room and they have the clock ticking down to warm up and stuff like you got one of those in the office no but i will tell you like i don't remember the last i must have been in my 20s the last time i was working on july 22nd you know what do you know the last time that you might have been working this late is when you and i first met for the very first time covering the pan-am games in winnipeg in 1999 i think that was well there you go i was in my 20s i was uh late 20s then yeah so tell Yeah, tell me about your day yesterday. To me, it was fascinating and it's a function of being old.

And I was trying to think back to the Vegas expansion draft four years ago in 2017. I was physically in Las Vegas because, if you recall, they did the awards and the expansion release for the Golden Knights on the same night, which I didn't quite understand. But I don't remember that the names got out before. that night, but maybe it happened. I was just saying the same thing. I had no memory of it. I mean, I think we had Flurry. Yeah.

But I don't have no memory. And interestingly, well, we'll, I mean, we'll find out later today. Unfortunately, by the time people hear this, it might be dated. But I think the crack can have gone about this a bit differently. There are some Seattle deals that will be announced, I think, later today or over the next couple of days when the trade freeze lifts. But as far as, like, If you go back to Flurry, Pittsburgh had to pay a second round pick to Vegas to take Mark Andre Fleury, which to this day is still kind of interesting because Pittsburgh was in such a salary cap jam when they made the agreement.

They made the agreement, as you remember, Scott, at the trade deadline months before that. And so at the time, it was so hard to predict, you know, for sure whether there'd be a market for Flurry, believe it or not. I mean, that's how it is with goalies. You never know. So Pittsburgh got to pay a second round pick in order to guarantee that they, you know. Vegas would take Mark Andre Fleury. I don't know that you're going to see. So I think those would have been announced, you know, before the expansion draft yesterday

or during, in a way, is my understanding. There will be some Seattle deals and they'll say, oh, I see. Okay. But they'll be treated as separate deals, is what I'm saying. I think. But you could draw a line from the deals that you're going to see from Seattle to perhaps the player they picked, I guess. my point. Right. Right. Well, and I guess the upshot of it, things are still very fluid. I mean,

as you point out, later today, there are deals that were made will be revealed. Of course, we've got the draft, the first round Friday night coming up, followed by the balance of the draft on Saturday. And I thought you made a really interesting point in your rumblings column this morning. Well, let's start with that. with, you know, the fact that almost immediately Seattle is going to pivot from being the masters of their own destiny, holding all the strings, to a team that is, they're going to have to move assets because, and never even really thought about it. But, you know, obviously come training camp time, you don't have, you can't have, you know, whatever the number of NHL guys. So they dropped the 30 players. They drafted 30 players last night, and I went back and talked to someone in the Vegas organization about this because, again, my memory was so terrible.

And Vegas did a pretty masterful job. I went back and looked at the dates of the transactions. And basically within, well, in some cases, within 24 to 48 hours, and then a few more a couple weeks later. But within a couple weeks, they had flipped from their expansion draft list, Mark Mothot, which happened the next day, Trevor Van Ramesdike, which happened, I think, the night of, or the... next day and then eventually Alexei Yomlin and David Shlumko and I think I'm missing another one. I think they flipped five guys within a week or two. And that was key because you can't show up to camp with 30 players. You certainly literally cannot have 30 NHL one-way deals on opening night unless you want,

well, you'd have to expose a bunch of waivers to try and get down the minors. Anyway, the whole point is Seattle has to flip some guys now and that will be the intrigue. you know, some of those names I mentioned other, Markma thought, was still regarded as the top four defensemen at the time. You know, had been a really good partner at Eric Carlson in Ottawa, so he was probably the biggest name there. But otherwise, not the biggest names of the biggest have to flip, but that's what Seattle is looking at. And I suspect, from what I gather from talking to a few teams around the league, there may already be at least one or two of those cooked, which is smart. but yeah because if you don't flip enough guys here in a hurry you end up having you know you may have to waive players later and get nothing for them which you don't want to do so you know the key is as you know like Vegas felt they were not greedy on the other side of it they certainly you know Vegas in 2017 certainly had the all the leverage ahead of time just like Seattle did here but once they had their players Vegas basically took what was on the table in a hurry for some of these flip deals and that's what Seattle is going to have to look at now.

Right. Well, and the ripple effect is if you do some of these deals before free agency, then it has an impact on free agency. And you go back to Mark my thought. And I know, you know, I just, I know from a conversation I had like a year and a half ago with Carl Olsner that, you know, like there were, you know, spots that free agents felt that they might fill. And they got filled because Vegas was flipping those assets.

And I, you know, I don't. You know, and that's what, and I think it's fair to say, and certainly, it seems like the assets that Seattle is most likely to flip in the short term, as you laid out, will be defensemen, right? Because they've got a bunch. And whether it's, you know, like, whether it's Jeremy Lozahn or Will Borgon, of course, came from Boston, which is a problem. You know, I mean, now there's a, there's a team that now Boston was already looking for help, especially on the left side. So, you know, maybe that, you know, that changes or it amps up, you know, what happens with what the Bruins might be. looking to do short term and then once free agency starts and, you know, certainly I'm actually here in Minnesota and, you know, Carson Susie going, you know, the wild have some spots to fill

on the back end, right? Just look at their deck chart. I think it's a pretty long list of teams. I mean, Montreal, it's not like they're going to literally replace Shoe Weber, but, you know, there's a domino effect of no longer having Shoeuvre as a player for them. Certainly for next year, but maybe forever. So the Habs are making a ton of calls. I reported. earlier this week that they called them Ristelan, but they've got a, they're looking at other D as well. Calgary's lost Girodano, we're actually leaving us to go find a D.

Winnipeg was already entering the offseason, looking to upgrade their blue line, which was their clear Achilles heel law on a talented team otherwise. So, and frankly, probably relieved from what I gather that they didn't lose Dillan deBello and expansion, quite frankly.

Even though Mason Appleton's a real nice Ford, that was the lesser to eagles as I wrote because it had the Jess lost to Mello on top of already being in the market for D. You know, so you're right about Boston. I mean, I think, I mean, that's where the market is, entering both trade market here and free agency. So, yeah, can Seattle take advantage of that before free agency opens next Wednesday, right?

So that's part of the pressure on Seattle right now. Right. Yeah, because if you're a team acquiring, I mean, free agency, you know, by its nature, means you are likely paying more. And in a flat cap, you know, ARO or a lot cap. Although you're not paying an asset. So that's the balance. Well, that's the balance.

That's right. Yeah, if you let me finish, I'd have made that point. Wasn't sure you were getting there. I'm getting there. That if you trade, you know, if you trade one of these, you know, whichever of these defensemen that Seattle might be willing to move, that it is going to cost you an asset, but it may not cost you as much in real dollars and in cap space.

And that's, you're right. That's going to be the real. balance for GMS moving forward. All right, we're going to take a break. We're going to come back. I'm going to ask you some more questions. We're going to chat some more. I like to feel that you're evening out.

You feeling okay? How are you doing? I'm feeling good. All right. All right. Don't go away. We'll be right back after this brief break. It's a good thing we took that break then so you could then remind me of how the show

should unfold. But we started out. I'd like to give you a few dinks here this point. with the audience that you're on a secret assignment? I mean, I won't say aware, of course, but you're on a secret assignment? I just said, I was in Minnesota. No, it's, I already said I was here. You're not even listening to me. Oh, my God. I don't. Anyway, yes, I am here in Minnesota. And it's a good place.

It's a good place to, we can segue back into one of the, to me, one of the most interesting parts of what was, you know, how this all unfolded with the expansion draft is that there were, you know, a number of prominent goaltenders. I mean, let's start with one of the greatest goaltenders of his generation. And in my mind, a surefire Hall of Famer and Kerry Price, exposed by the Montreal Canadiens. You had Ben Bishop, who, you know, coming, you know, so uncertainty regarding his health moving forward, but also exposed by the Dallas Stars so that they didn't have to expose Anton Houdobin. But lots of goaltending options. And I was a little bit surprised that at the end of the day, Seattle took only three goaltenders and that they went sort of young and cheap with Chris Rieger. That was no surprise. I think everyone expected that

was going to happen. Really fascinated to see how he, you know, sort of response to what I assume he'll be the, you know, he should be the number one guy there in, in Seattle, barring changes of, you know, between now and then. But also Vitech Vanekh van der Chek from Washington, who, you know, played a lot once Henrik Lundquist was, wasn't able to play. this past season in Washington, and I thought played very, very well. And really interesting, I'm really happy for Joey Decor from Ottawa, who, you know, sort of slots in as the young third guy, but I know I talked to a couple of people who felt that both Vanichek, well, all three of them have really, you know, significant upsides as goaltenders, but, you know, it's not a lot of, you

know, they avoided the big names. And I don't know if you were surprised by that, but certainly the way that Montreal played their cards, they kept both Jake Allen and Carrie Price, and we'll see what happens. Right. Well, I don't know if we have to give the HABs credit for playing their cards masterfully or do we give carry price credit because of course, as we've been reporting, this was a carry price solution rather amazingly late in the process too. It wasn't until the last Friday that as Price and Mark Bursman were talking and Price who by the way today on Thursday is in New York getting his knee and hip checked, and I think it's the knee that potentially might need a procedure.

But he said, well, you know, why, like, if we know Seattle is going to take Jake Allen, I mean, probably not going to take my contract, essentially is the way that events were relayed to me. And the rest is history. I don't think I'll ever forget putting out that tweet last Saturday evening, Scott, because I was dumbfounded as I was typing the words. but Kerry Price exposed in the expansion draft. And from there, it was a real poker game. And I will tell you that I got a late-night text from Ron Francis,

the GM of the Cracken, because I think the question is, you know, why didn't you take him? And he just said, hey, you know, we talked about him, just decided to go in a different direction. He was tempting, quote-unquote. And I think that's a true reflection of. of what played out. I think the Cracken took a real deep dive on Carrey Price.

I know that they called Jerry Johansson, the agent for Carrey Price several times, asked a lot of questions. They had access to his medical file. They turned every stone. And it's interesting, Scott. I don't know how you feel, but I've obviously, it was the talk of the hockey wheel for three days.

What would the Cracken do with Carrier Price? and I will tell you it literally was a 50-50 split of executive, NHL front office executives who felt it was a no-brainer, they would take him if they were Seattle because they would say if there's a fear of durability, they would just LTI them at the end, just like Che Weber is going to be LTI. And I get that and then sell tickets and the branding and one of the greatest goalies in league history and everything else. That was their viewpoint. And then the other half, it really was 50-50, said no way would they touch the rest of the

of that contract, which is, of course, the bet that the house were making and Carrie Price. You know, until we hear from Kerry Price, and I don't know when that's going to be, because he wasn't picked, and now he's in off-season mode and notorious for once he's in off-season mode kind of disappearing, which is his right. You know, there are people wondering, you know, what were the true intentions here. I think they are exactly as laid out that he really felt, that it didn't make sense for Montreal to lose Jake Allen and that he wouldn't get taken.

But I will say, and this will probably never come out that deep down, if the worst case scenario was being taken by Seattle where he has an off-season home in Tri-Cities, he also has one in Colonna, but his wife Angeles from Tri-Cities three hours away, that's not the worst result either. That's my, I wrote that the other day. I mean, so I think it was in a way a win-win.

I think he'd much rather be at Montreal Canadian for the rest of his career. but the gamble was worth it, I guess, is what I'm saying, given all the circumstances. So a fascinating thing, I guess we'll never know whether Seattle made a mistake, but it turns out a brilliant bluff by the abs, as Mark Bergerman obviously agree with Carrie Price that this was worth it because now they keep intact, arguably, if not the best, one of the best duels in the NHL, right? I mean, the two best tools in the NFL semi-finals, Montreal and Vegas. And I don't know if Vegas is going to come back with the same

depth and goal as Montreal has. I guess I was a little bit surprised that not necessarily that they didn't take carry price. I'm with you. Could see it both ways. And certainly you can rationalize it either way. But I was a little bit surprised that there wasn't, A, another, like, as I mentioned, only three goal tenders selected by Seattle. We know there's a pretty good market for goaltenders, as there are for defensemen. And I was a little bit surprised that there wasn't more of a veteran flavor to it.

You know, listen, whether it was Jonathan Quick or, you know, maybe you're scared off by Ben Bishop's health or, you know, like the fact that the three goaltenders that Seattle ended up with are basically unproven quantities. Listen, Chris Rieger had a nice, nice run in Florida, really pushed Sergey Bobrowski. numbers were outstanding during the regular season, faltered a bit in the playoffs. You know, Vanichek really, I think, you know, must have learned a lot this year, you know, with his exposure, with the Washington Capitals, you know, Joey DeCors, you know, a young goaltender.

So I guess I was a bit surprised that they didn't, A, take more goaltenders and B, didn't at least sort of, you know, feather the nest a little bit with a little bit more veteran presence. Well, I mean, again, what we know of the Cracken roster this morning, may not not be exactly the cracking well we know it's not even a supposition i mean the cracking roster will look differently come october so who's to say they don't end up with a veteran goal in between now and then i mean i think you have to lay out that possibility i'm with you i wondered if they give jonathan quick more of a look but he's got two years at five eight you know he's he's not

played at carry prices level um so but he's not been terrible either two times tally up champion. So I'm with you. I wondered about that. I do think at the end of the day it goes to show you, I think that they were really dialed in on Jake Allen. Yeah. And I will tell you that, you know, they delivered quite a price, I'm told, to Montreal for not taking Jake Allen last week, which was two picks on a prospect. Interestingly, did not deliver a price to Montreal, did not take carry price, which surprised me. Yeah. Because I certainly thought they would have. but I think by then they figured Montreal was pot committed right I mean if they're exposing carry price they thought of all the angles and

and we're ready to lose them you know and the interesting thing you know I think Montreal very likely had a trade for Jake Allen had this whole carry price thing that happened so I don't think Sal ends up with Jake Allen either way I think they would have Montreal would trade to Jake Allen to get something for him because he had some market value at his extension being 2.8 million. It's pretty reasonable for a goalie of Allen's caliber.

And then, you know, Montreal, I think, had scoured the market looking at free agent possibilities to replace Allen behind price. So all of this was all before Kerry Price entered the picture with a solution. So interesting. But I think, you know, I think Seattle, how they had their way, would have ended up with either Jake Allen or Aiden Hill, who ended up getting traded to San Jose last Saturday. I mean, I think those were all guys on Seattle's goalie radar. Yeah, yeah.

And as you point out, and it bears repeating that there is going to be fluidity to what Seattle looks like on opening night. Is there one player on that roster that you're like, yeah, I can't wait to see what happens assuming he stays with Seattle? like, and I'll go first, they'll tell you, like, I think Mark Gerdano is so important there. Maybe, maybe he's one of the guys that Seattle turns around and flips, who knows? But to me, he's instant captain material. And I think I'm, you know, must be hard for Calgary and the fans.

So apparently it's a rule that if your next mansion team in the modern area, you need a Calgary flames defenseman as your captain, is that? Is that, yeah, exactly. He might be able to bunk in with Derek England or whatever. So I just, I love that fit there. It must be hard for Calgary and for Calgary. Calgary fans, no doubt about it. But I think it's, to me, he's, he's that person around whom you start to build your culture.

So I like that. Not surprised probably, but to me, that's one of those. Okay, that's a great place to start. Fabulous leader, yeah, that's a great way. And again, the price on not taking Giorado that Seattle quoted to Calgary, I'm told, was the first and a third. and as tough as it was for Brad Tree Living in the Flames, you can't pay that. You can't pay that.

I mean, Mark, Gio, Danos, 38 in October as a year left on his deal, you can't pay those asset prices. So that's the tough part, but I think the lesson from the Vegas draft was sometimes you just got to pick, you know, just sit back and take your lumps and let them take their guy. And we saw more of that this time around. As the GMs, by the way, told us we would. So they were true to their word.

but you know Vince Stein is interesting to me because I think there's more there in his game I think he struggled this year in St. Louis but he's 24 now as I wrote in my rumblings is he a guy I mean do they keep him or flip him

I mean I think they keep him but my point is I think there well I know there are teams that were trying to trade for him from St. Louis but couldn't make the deal happen before Saturday's trade freeze that no doubt I've already phoned Seattle back now on him and the Seattle have to at least listen.

Again, I think you keep Vince Dunn. But, and of course, the decision to take Vince Dunn over Tarasenko, right? Yeah, exactly. Which is interesting because I know that, again, there are teams that were willing to trade for Tarasenko that weren't willing to trade for him before Saturday's trade for easy with St. Louis because I think they wanted St. Louis to eat some of his deal. And St. Louis couldn't do that. But I think Seattle would have been a position to retain salary.

So that could have been a flip candidate had they taken Teresenko and gotten a decent return maybe, but they decided to go done, which is interesting to me. Now, I guess, again, the process has not ended for the Seattle Cracking. Right. So, you know, are there trades that the Cracking can make over the coming days where they do take guys just to flip them in a way, just traditionally, like a three-way? there's all kinds of options in front of them because of the cap space that they have. And not to mention some of the UFAs that they did have conversations with but they ended up not signing through their exclusive window, namely Landiscag, Jane Schwartz, Dougie Hamilton. They can certainly circle back to those guys come July 28th next Wednesday. And I think Schwartz, from my understanding is they went pretty deep in that process with it.

There were frameworks exchanged. So does that mean they go back to that, right? Yeah. Well, and I mean, you raise a good point with Teresenko. I mean, you know, the issues that led to him being, you know, placed on on that exposed list, don't go away, right? So you're right. I mean, there's nothing to stop, you know, the issues still are present there for St. Louis as it relates to Teresanko. And you're right.

Seattle's still got, they got miles to go before they sleep, my friend. All right. We're going to take one more break. we're going to go back. We're going to take some questions. And then we're going to go off into the day and see how the hockey world evolves after the expansion draft. So don't go away. We'll be right back. As always, we're going to, well, almost always, unless we get jammed up with guests. But we are going to take some questions. But I wanted to take some time and talk to you about a story that you had early this week. Just a fabulous piece and such an important piece. for the world of hockey, the world of sport, not to get too esoteric about it, but the world in general, but I thought your piece on Luke Procop, Nashville Predators defensive prospect playing in Calgary, who took the bold and I think courageous step to come out and talk about being gay and sharing that information with the world at large. I thought you handled

it so beautifully and I thought the piece was so um it just to me it just really resonated um you know going through you know what that process is like for uh someone like Luke Procop to come out and talk about it. What what's it what was the process like for you my friend? It was um because it's it's an important story and you handled it very well. Yeah. I mean listen as a as a veteran in the business like you are, Scotty. Um, Once in a while, a story comes along that really reinfigurates you. And I had a lot of emotions going through the process of this story, at the foremost, just excitement and the honor of being able to be the one to tell his story,

but also the burden of that, the wanting to get it right, and to make sure that I truly expressed his vision and his journey and his path and his courage. So there were some, I'm not going to lie, some sleepless nights. it's tweaking away at it and, and, you know, am I saying this right? Is this what he meant and going back and forth? And so I am, I'm happy with the way the piece turned out, but the piece turned out well, I think, because of the person telling his own story. That's the key in all this is Luke Procop is an amazing young man who, you know,

I don't know if I could put three words together when I was 19. and he is so eloquent and it is just, you know, so confident in his message. Now, within all that, of course, the anxiety and anguish and all the other emotions that he would have felt going through this, but I'm saying I think it's amazing to be 19 years old and to be able to share his message the way that he did. And not only in our interview over the phone for the piece and the athletic, but, you know, then I did a TV thing with him for TSN in which I thought he was unbelievable.

I'm the one that choked up at the end. They all grizzled veteran, but he held it together and was so smooth. And, you know, I think he did a good job with Emily Kaplan or ESPN as well. And, you know, I just think that I know that some of the comments, so the majority of the reaction was tremendously overwhelming. we paused. There were the odd comments of, you know, why is this a big deal?

And I just shake my head because I can't believe that someone would actually think that. I can't wait for the day where that's actually true. Exactly. But we're not there. Hockey's behind. And just like, people who made those comments didn't read through the article that I put out with Luke. Listen to his journey and how difficult it was. and what it was like being in a hockey dressing room when he was not out yet and some of the things that he heard,

if you think it's not a big deal, then listen to that. And fortunately, it still is. And I hope that we do get to a point where it's like, oh, by the way, I'm gay. I'm also a really good second line right winger. We all want to get to that point. We all want to get to that level of inclusivity and normalcy. But it's going to take courageous human beings like Luke Procop to, get us there.

And, you know, I thought it was great that we went all the way back, of course, to 2009 and Brendan Burke's courage and Brendan Burke's legacy. And, you know, Luke Procop, one of his first requests to his agent Jerry Johansson, was to be put on a call with Brian Burke to talk about all that. And, you know, Brendan Burke, who, of course, died tragically in a car crash in 2010, had an impact on Bain Penninger, had an impact in Brock McGillis, and an impact on countless others. And as Brian Burke, I thought, put perfectly in the story,

10 years from now, you know, a young player will come out and say, you know, I remember when Luke Procop did. That's not the number one reason, of course, that Luke Procop did this, but it's certainly because this is about living his true life and lifting that huge burden off his shoulders. But he does embrace the idea that he, hopes he can he can help others yeah do um just before we uh to move on did did you hear from anyone or did you have contact like after the story came out yeah no i i did yeah what was there

something that surprised you or something that was like oh okay that that was wow wow yeah i mean i want to be careful because some of the uh things are private but you know sure some i heard some really heartwarming stories about how that story touched a few people who may be struggling with this. And also heard you know, just in general from, you know,

from executives and agents and different people around the game and we just reached out to say how they just love that story. Again, this is about this, all the credit goes to Luke Pro Coppier. Yeah. And so the reaction was

pretty overhung in that way. You know, my phone had stopped buzzing for a couple of days. Good. Well, that's a shit. Let's take some questions. Then we'll get on with the day, my friend. This one from Baca Suban at Pred's Fan. It's interesting. Of course, Predators had a couple of high-profile players,

Matt Duchesne and Ryan Johansson, who were exposed. The Cracken ended up taking Cally Yarncrock. That was my pick when I did my own little draft. I thought Caldian Crock would be the pick. Yeah, well, there you go. I was one for 30, so no, wow, anyway. So obviously, if you're David Poyle and you expose

those players, you have at least some barring some sort of side deal, which I believe did not happen, but that you're okay with one of those big contracts leaving. $8 million each for those guys moving forward. Is there a place for them? That's the question from Bacusuba. Is there a place for one of those guys? And of course, what is also connected in Nashville,

the ability to sign or to re-up Philip Forsberg, who is entering his contract year. And I think it's fair that the two are linked, right? You've got two guys making $8 million. Where is the room for Philip Forsberg? Yeah, I'm not really sure. I know that they actually kind of agonize over whether or not to leave Ryan Johansson unprotected. So I think they're probably happy he wasn't taken. You know, I think Matt Ducheshaun has just not found his drive there. And five more years at 8 million a year, I mean, I just don't know how he's going to fit in moving forward there. But I also don't know in a flat cap environment how it's even possible to move that deal unless you pay through the nose with other assets.

Listen, Andrew Lad just got dealt by the Islanders. So anything's possible in life. So we'll see where that goes. You know, Mateus Sackholm, to be honest, I think even ahead of Forsberg is the number one off-season story for the Predators. They got to figure out what they're doing with him. I mean, they protected him in the expansion draft because they're going to try to extend them. But I'm curious if you get to camp and he's still not extended,

I guess he just becomes a trade deadline, you know, asset if the Predators aren't in the playoff race. I mean, that's going to be interesting. but they really do want to extend that home to the point where they protected five defensemen in the expansion draft, which was, well, that was the first. And it was very Nashville-ish. I kind of love it. And probably the right decision, because if they expose Carrier or Fabro or, you know, those guys probably get taken by Seattle or anything. Yeah, no, certainly that was a trend, and I'm sure that would have been borne out.

I didn't and I didn't, and I didn't, this allows me to ask you because you and I haven't spoken, um, because we talked a lot about to Philadelphia and maybe Seth Jones. Um, I really love, you know, I have, uh, all kinds of time for Ryan Ellis. And I just, I think that that's a hard move for Nashville to make. As, as you know, um, you know, he, if it wasn't Roman Yosey, it was Ryan Ellis when they were naming captain, um, a couple years ago or a few years ago in, in Nashville. And I just think, I think Ryan Ellis is going to be a great fit in Philadelphia. But that, you know, it speaks to the hard choices that a lot of GMs have.

And certainly Ryan Ellis is a significant part of that core in Nashville. And I think I like the fit in Philly. But that's a, it just tells you the hard work ahead of David Poil. Well, so here's the interesting thing is that. So, you know, I had talked about the possibility of the predators maybe trading a D earlier last week in insider trading on insider trading. because of their protection list issues, right? I mean, they had 5D they really liked. Now, I didn't actually think they could protect 5D. So that was one misstep I had in my analysis. But then when I saw that they traded Ryan Ellis last Saturday, I was like, oh, there you go,

problem solved. Now they can protect 4D. But then they picked up buyers in the deal. So I'm not shocked. They moved Ryan Ellis. I really felt that was going to be a possibility, unfortunately for Ryan Ellis. I'm just surprised that they didn't alleviate their protection list issue in that deal. They decided to still keep the same problem. But, hey, I mean, they lost

yarn crock, but I guess they can live with it. Okay. I went down the rabbit hole on that one, but I always like to get a little Ryan Ellis love in the podcast when we can. But you're right. I mean, a great pickup for Chuck Fletcher and the Flyers because they're right side had that void ever since Matt Niskenen retired on them last.

year, right? You know, Seth Jones would have been obviously a more luxurious upgrade, but let me put this very gently. I suspect that as the Flyers tried on Seth Jones, what they found out from Seth Jones camp is that he wasn't interested in signing an extension with the Flyers, is my guess. I don't know that. Yeah. But for the Flyers to essentially give up on going after him, I suspect that's what they found out. No, and that's going to be, I mean, that's part of the issue that confronts Yarmolkekekeleana, right? It's not just, you know, can you move this asset? But where does this asset?

Where's, where's the fit for the asset? So, and that's Seth Jones prerogative. So, yeah, good point. All right, let's move on. Matthew Jex. This is a good one here at M.Jex 19. Which new Cracken player will blossom like William Carlson did for Vegas? And that's, to me, that's one of the great things about the expansion draft process.

And, of course, it was illustrated in full living color in Vegas, where, you know, a number of young players, but especially William Carlson, given an opportunity they may not have had in their previous circumstances, really emerged. Somebody right off the hop, do you think, okay, this, maybe this is, maybe not 40 plus goals, but someone who would be step forward. Certainly not 40 plus goals. But a guy that I think now with getting the chance to play his biggest role yet in this career, I think will show himself to take on another gear. I think Jared McCann. And, you know, it's already his fourth team, you know, started Vancouver with Florida, then Pittsburgh. And it's like, geez, this guy keeps moving teams.

He's only 25. And I thought last year in particular, really, you know, in 43 games this past year, 32 points, 14 goals. And again, he's, you know, playing behind some pretty big. players are in that Pittsburgh lineup, sometimes with them, mind you, but from the most part behind them, I think he still has some ceiling. I mean, you know, we'll see how Seattle decides to use him, but I think he's got a, he can play center, he can play wing, you know, a two-way player.

I think if you're trying to find that match, I would go with McCann. I've been looking at the list and there are a couple like I'm really intrigued by Colin Blackwell who really sort of came out of nowhere to put up impressive totals with the range especially down the stretch right he had 12 goals 10 assists 22 points now he's older he's 28 but maybe that maturity allows him to you know play in that top six somewhere and really come up with you know sort of surprising point totals but the guy I will go with is the guy I will go with is the guy you mentioned earlier here, and that's Mason Appleton. Again, 25 years old, he had 12 goals, 13 assists. And to me, he's a guy that I think he fits in with what is clearly going to be the identity in Seattle. But to me, he'll probably get a chance to have that kind of those kinds of opportunities that maybe didn't quite get to him in Winnipeg where there's all kinds of talent ahead of him. So I'm looking at Mason Appleton.

That's what I'm looking forward to. Anything else? Anything else you want to get off your chest before we wrap this baby up? No, sir. Let's get to the day. Going to be a busy day. All right.

All right. What else we got on here? We got the Athletic Show USA. Is that even what we're calling it now with Craig Custins and Sean did Tilly? I wonder if they get better sponsors than we do. Anyway, they welcome former NHLer and current rollerbladers, Stephen Johns.

I just love what Stephen Johns is doing at the athletic. on their podcast, you should check out our comments section for each podcast episode at the Athletic app. And rate and subscribe to the athletic hockey show on Apple. If you aren't already a subscriber, go to theathletic.com slash hockey show and receive a subscription for $3.99 a month for six months. Buddy, we're going to do this again next week on Thursday. Our final podcast of the season that never seemed to end or start and just melded into the other season and the bubble. But whatever it is, whatever year we are, whatever month we are, next Thursday is the final podcast. We need the soundtrack from Europe, the final countdown next week.

That's what we mean. Maybe Jeff can get that for us. And just to wonder, next Thursday we'll go for what? hours, four hours, just to wrap it up? You could. I mean, it might be pretty silent on the other line, but you could go as long as you want, but it's kind of like a lot of years when we've had dinner, and you just kept going on and on, and I'm like on my phone talking to people.

All right, my friend. Listen, have a great week. Still lots of work to do, but good work by you this morning. Great work by you. Right on, right on.