The Athletic Hockey Show - Should the Rangers rush to move Artemi Panarin?

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

The chatter has picked up on the Rangers and Artemi Panarin ahead of today's NHL Olympic trade freeze. Sean, Frank and Sean discuss if the Rangers should be in a rush to move him before the Olympic trade freeze and what teams are most interested in the enigmatic winger. The guys talk about the growing rift between the Flyers Matvei Michkov and coach Rick Tocchet and they ask, is Tampa Bay forward Nikita Kucherov under-appreciated?Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frankie CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometTake our listener survey: http://theathletic.com/survey26Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What up, what up? It's the athletic hockey show for February 4th, 2026. I'm Sean Gintili. I'm here with Sean McIneux. I'm here with Sean McIranoe and Frankie. Fellas, I put up the Sean and Frankie. What did Elliot say about, about Danny Breyer?

The Sean and Frankie signal. It went up. It was effective. We're going to talk about Matt Feyn Mishkov. That continues to be a little bit of a. mess in Philadelphia had some developments last night. Daniel Breyer talking to the media. We'll get into that eventually.

But the story for today, I think fellas, and we can come in haunt here, I suppose. Trade deadline or trade freeze, rather, pre-Olympics trade freeze goes into effect today at 3 o'clock Eastern. That's a few hours down the road for us. It seems like it's all about our Timmy Panarin. He's been held out of the lineup for the last however many days. There's clearly a desire. on both sides. This is from Vince McCogliana, who's our great rangers reporter. There's clearly a desire

on both sides to get this done at some point in the next, you know, less than six hours as we record here. Do we think it's going to get done? Let's start there. Can we handicap this McIndoe? Like, where are we on this? We're at five hours and 46 minutes as I look on my clock right here. I get why they want to get it done. But realistically, I'm not sure they need to get it done. I think they need to get it done before the Rangers are playing again after the break. Because, I mean, if the trade happens today, is he going to fly out and play somewhere tomorrow night? I mean, I guess he could, but I think this is more of an after the deadline thing,

which means they do have a couple of weeks. And I wouldn't be shocked if it happened, but you could see a scenario where there's, so many moving pieces and we've got to talk about the extension and we got to talk about the no move clause that maybe they get down to a point today where Chris Dury says, look, we're down to a couple of teams. We've got a pretty good sense of what the package would look like, but we just don't have time to get this over the finish line by three o'clock. So let's take a breath.

Take a couple weeks. No one's going to get hurt. No one's anything like that's going to happen. And so in two weeks when the deadline lifts, the freeze lifts, that'll be when we announce the deal and then we move on from there. That feels like the most likely scenario to me, but let's see how it turns out. If you're the New York Rangers, I don't feel like the Rangers need to have the same sense of urgency to get this deal done that other teams that would be on the receiving end of this thing would need to have. because, okay, he hasn't played since, what, January 26th? So if he doesn't play here, you know, you're going to basically go six weeks without playing.

If you're Artemey Panarin, if you make a trade, if you're a team that makes a trade for him today, and he's able to play tomorrow, so he's played one game now in six weeks or five weeks. Like, it doesn't matter that much. Like one game or zero games is not going to make a difference. So if you're another team and you're like, dealing with the Rangers and the Rangers want you to sweeten this thing up because they want to make the deal happen right now as opposed to before the trade deadline. I'd say, who cares? It's the same deal. I'm not like, you know, I'm not having that massive sense of urgency to get this deal done just because

you think that, you know, I need to pay a little bit more or I have to be the one that comes to the table. Now, the extension thing is going to be the thing that's tricky with all of this because like Panarin would probably want to go to, you know, Florida or Tampa. How can they make an extension happen today? But there would be other teams that would be able to make it happen today. But is that, is that okay with Panarin to go there? You know, like DGB, if you're thinking about Carolina, they've taken massive swings with Jake Gensel and Miko Renton. And they both left and they didn't take the extension. So like, you know, is if they trade for Panarin or if they try and get this done with

Panarin, is it three for three or does he actually stick around? It feels like when he wanted to go to New York, he went there for a specific reason. I feel like Carolina is a very different place than New York City. It is. And that was the story. When he left Columbus in 2019, everybody said, oh, he's going to New York. That's where he wants to wind up. Now, did he talk to other teams? Were there other possibilities? Sure. But it sure sounded like he had his heart set on New York City, the big city and everything that comes with that. Now, there's a difference between being 28 and being 35. Maybe he's got different priorities now. But I think that he's certainly a guy that likes to have some control. And I think at the end of the day, this is going to come down to what are his priorities? Because he wants to pick his destination and he wants to.

wants to get an extension. Great. You have a no move clause. You have leverage. Good for a player to go out and use that leverage. But there may just not be a destination that fits both those criteria of it's one of the places he wants to go and they're willing to offer an extension right now because it's very, very hard to see that working in a Florida or a Tampa. So, you know, what's your third choice? How far back is that third choice from the first couple of choices. Can we put this together, or is this a situation where you've got to go to Panarin and say, pick one or the other? Do you want to go to your very favorite place? We'll try to make that happen. Do you want an extension? Is that mandatory? That's a different

set of destinations, and you're going to have to let us know which lane you want us to drive down. So Vince, in his write-up that ran last night, he did mention a few other interesting teams outside of Florida. He also mentioned Carolina, of course, but he mentioned, the Kings, the Sharks, and the Caps is teams who are believed to be involved and probably have enough cap space or certainly have enough cap space to make it work.

Oh man, the Caps are interesting. I think the Caps make a lot of sense for him, not just because of the Russian thing with him and Ovechkin, because I think that's an open question as to how close they are or are not. I think he makes sense there in a lot

of different ways. As a short term edition and then potentially as a guy who could sign for a few more years and sort of keep that window like he lines up with other players they have I know he's he's older than pierre luke dubois and he's older than jacob and he's older than you know some of the in their prime guys that they've that they've gone out and added but I think he's I think he's of type with some of the players that they've gone after over the last little bit and keep in mind like ovi's not the only Russian that plays on that team like protis is there he's a good player, he's a valuable asset to them.

So if Ovi were to say, you know, I'm done in a year or two, they're still going to be like a Russian wingman, if you want to call it that. The thing I think about with the caps is Carberry, like very forward thinking, offensively inclined coach who's going to use Panarin the way he's meant to be used, right? And like, I think a lot of people would, but I kind of, that would get the juices running a little bit to think about what that match could look like between the coach and player. I've had a couple pretty long conversation with Spencer Carberry about player usage as they relate to Alexander Ovechkin

because this is going back to the spring when Ovechkin was chasing the record but you know it's kind of continued through then and Frankie man I think you I think you nailed it I think as you look at Artemi Panarin as you know productive as you still can be there he's he's aging right and he's and he's kind of a specialty player and in certain ways even in his prime. So there are going to be concessions and adjustments that need to be made for him as he gets older, but I don't think anybody's more equipped to do that. If you're Artemey Panarin and you sign a seven, eight year extension that takes you through the rest of your 30s, well, who's a coach who's found a way to maximize a player, an unoffensively gifted winger well into his 30s and into his 40s now in a, in a,

Veskin. I think the fit there, and also we have Chris Patrick saying a couple weeks ago, like, yeah, we want to go get a high-end winger. I think the fit there, in a lot of ways, outside of whether Panarin wants to go there, which I think seems like an open question. I think the fit makes a whole lot of sense. Are we surprised to see San Jose on that list, by the way? I'm surprised to see Washington on the list. I really, I don't, I mean, you guys are selling me a little bit, but I'm looking at this. I think the assumption, and maybe I'm too stuck in this, is that the capitals would try to squeeze as much juice out of the stone as they could for the Ovecunera. And then when he's done, which is going to be soon, then you could do maybe a little bit of a reset because it is an older team. And the problem is right now, there are five points out of a playoff spot. If I'm Artemmy Panera, I'm not going there without an extension. because I cannot risk going somewhere and missing the playoffs. And for what should be my big showcase, heading into free agency,

I'm sitting on the sidelines all spring. I can't risk that. I want an extension if that's going to happen. But do I want to be the guy, putting aside whether he wants to live in Washington, whatever else, do I want to be the guy who replaces Alexander Ovechkin? Do you really want to be that? Do you want to be Cam Newton coming in to replace Tom Brady? and you can say he wouldn't be that.

That's like a pretty good analogy, by the way. Cam Newton replacing trading. Except if Cam Newton had a seven-year contract and had to be there and every fan is sitting there going, oh, because I mean, look, when Ovechkin's gone, probably just the natural gravity of the NHL may pull the capitals back to the pack if they're not there already. Does Pinaran want to be the guy that everyone's blaming? because, oh, you know, they, Ovechkin left, Panarin came in, and they've been no good since. It'd be an unfair narrative.

There's a reason that we're not, that this interest or whatever, that this seems like a bit of a one-way street right now. There's a reason why we're not talking about Artini Panarin saying like, hell, yes, put me in Washington tomorrow. If that were the case, like, it would have happened already. And I know the caps, they have a decent stock of, you know, young players. I know they like, sincerely do like a lot of the guys at the top of that, at the top of the prospect group. So I can imagine them, the flip side is, I can imagine them trying to be picky about, about what they, about what they send back.

It's not, it's not a seamless thing. I just look at the on-ice fit and also the stuff that they've done over the last couple years, which is like, whether they like it or not, and they're certainly fine with it. But they're in a win now window, I think, because of Oveskin and because of other players that they have on that team. They've done well to extend that, say through Tom Wilson's prime or whatever, the next few years. That's been the work that they've done over the last couple years is that they've set it up

so they're not going to, theoretically, that they don't fall off a cliff whenever Ovechkin leaves. And I think that's where a Pinarian works. Is this kind of bridge for tomorrow into three years from now? Is that going to work seven years from now? That's a whole other question. And Sean, like you said, man, there's a reason this hasn't happened already. There's plenty of stuff to question or not necessarily love about it. Yeah.

There's a trust factor that I would have with the Washington Capitals because if you go back to when, you know, Backstrom's not playing there anymore, T.J. O'Shee's retired. And it's like the changing of the guard really happened for the caps. And you got to think to yourself at that point, well, here we go. like Washington's going to bottom out and and they're going to start the cycle again. Instead, you know, they make a trade for PLD and they make some other signings and they've drafted really well along the way. And furthermore to that, they've developed these guys in Hershey and they've won, you know, championships down there. And now they've come up and they're still a really good team. So I think that's important to keep in mind with this Panarin thing. If it were to happen there

and Ovechkin is gone sooner rather than later, I'm of the belief that, you know, Ovi being gone doesn't torpedo this team. It actually just kind of keeps them status quo where they are, and I trust that they will make the necessary moves and develop the right pieces to keep them in the mix. I had a crazy thought at the start of the season. You know, like at TSN, they were asking us, give us a couple crazy hot takes that could or could not come true.

and my one at the time was Caprisov and Panarin will sign with the Washington Capitals and join Ovi for like the goodbye tour. And that'll be Ovi's way of like restocking things and leaving it better than when he got it or something like that. Well, Capri Sov's in Minnesota, but maybe there's a chance that Panarin ends up there. And I don't think it's a terrible fit. And the other thing is, you know, a lot of guys in Washington, they had success last year. a lot of guys had career years. Strom, McMichael,

Protois, not every year is going to be a career year, but I think having like a little bit of an offensive, offensive firepower kind of guy helps those guys achieve some numbers maybe if you can get them linked up with Panarin. That's a hell of a prediction, man. I just want to say for the record, 50% of a correct prediction,

that rounds up to one correct prediction. No, it'll get to it. It's not, I don't know if that's prices. right rulers. Is that price is right rules? I don't think though. That's Mac and do prediction rules. That's how that's how they work. You got to take you got to take the wins where you can get them. Sean, you were asking about San Jose. Yeah, like eight minutes ago, like an idiot when I just tried to like shoehorn it in into a good caps conversation. Yeah, what about what about San Jose? So my initial thought is that makes a lot more sense in a few

Anyways, it may be a more desirable location. It may be a team that's trajectory seems to fit a little bit better. You know, I know they're a young team and, you know, you kind of look at it and you say, well, do they want an old guy? Well, sometimes you need to bring in the veteran to help you make the next step. They've got all sorts of assets. They've got the cap space. Chris Dury, I'm sure if you hooked them up to a lie detector, would rather trade or Tammy Panarin at West. and within the division where he's going to see him a couple times a year.

An Amtrak right away. Yeah, I don't think, I don't think Jerry ideally would. Here's what scares me a little bit if I'm Mike Greer. If you bring in Artemmy Panarin and you have to sign him to an extension, and this would apply to a trade or even if it's a free agency in the offseason, you're going to pay him a lot of money. Artemey Panarin has been a guy. He wants to get paid.

Even when he wanted to go to New York, he got a. a nice big chunk of change to do it. You've got a lot of young guys who are going to need contracts soon. Does this create, and we made it deep into this podcast without mentioning the Leafs, but does this create sort of your John Tavares comes to Toronto situation, where John Tavares has been very, very good in Toronto, but he came in at that $11 million number and suddenly all the young guys were like, well, I mean, if we're given out $11 million contracts, suddenly Mitch Marner wants that.

Awesome Matthews wants a little bit more. William Nealander wants a little bit more. And it just, it becomes a situation where I think John Tveris did everything on the ice the Leifes could have ever asked for him. But I think his contract really did set off a little bit of a chain reaction in that organization as far as what the ceiling was and who was going to make what. do you worry about that if you're San Jose? How am I going to get Macklin Celebrini signed if I just gave $12.5 million to 35-year-old

or Temi-Cannery? Is that not a fair question? You know what? It is a fair question because we've seen it happen and the domino effect of what that can do for a team. So it is valid. But Maclin Celebrini, to me anyways, is going to be in a ridiculous stratosphere when it comes to his salary. Like it's, it's going to be a super, super aggressive number. And so

Panarin at, what is he, 35 coming over as a UFA, I don't think it pushes the needle on that number. For me, anyways. The sharks, the sharks would probably love to sign Macklin Celebrini for whatever they're going to sign. Right. They would love to sign Celebrini to the Panarin contract. Celebrity is going to be an $18 million player. Right? Like, is he not? Like, it's going to be a really aggressive number. So, um, and right now their cap situation is so good. Any at least, like they have like Tyler Tofoli's making $6 million.

Like there's, there's not much going on there. Um, they're, they're in a good spot. I mean, I guess it depends. Who is Martin is Martin in this scenario? Is it Will Smith? I think it's Will Smith. Yeah. Oh, God. That's, I poor, poor Will Smith. Peneran's projectable number is probably like under 12 million at this point. It's got to be 10 and a half to 11 and a half, wouldn't you think?

I think with Panarin what it's going to be, and I've seen this mentioned in a few places, he's going to have an overall dollar value. He's going to say, you know, as an example, I want 50 million bucks. Now, if you want that to be over four years at 12.5, okay. you want to make it five, six, I won't be around to play those years. We all know that, but that's how this game gets played.

And we've seen the league kind of set a precedent by allowing the Brad Marchand contract in Florida. Maybe Panarin does the same thing. So as you go ahead, add is, I want four years at 50 million. If you want to add years to that for cap reasons, go ahead. I don't care.

But I want the overall number. I wonder if it's. What about five at 50? Five at 50. What do you mean the league set of? You know, whatever it is. I'll do seven at 50. Pay me $7 million a year.

And I'll be on LTIR for the last three years. And everybody will know exactly what's going to happen as soon as I signed the contract. But we'll all just pretend. Or maybe we won't. You know, the league has been weird about this. The league has said no, sometimes and yes some other times. So who knows? Maybe it depends on the team.

Maybe it depends on the scenario. Let's not gloss over the fact that it was not the Brad Marchand contract. that was the first one that I remember that was like this. It was the Chris Tanniv contract in Toronto that is like six years. And it's like he's not. He's definitely not going to be. Definitely not going to be around at the end of it. And there was talk, though, that the TANV deal, they were going to go even longer.

And the league said, don't get silly with it. And so. And the league does have to do that eventually or else every 39 year old is going to be getting an eight-year extension. and, you know, it just gets weird. So it's interesting. I just want, I'm really hoping we get just a replay of the Kobolchuk situation where they sign a contract and then decide it's not allowed. Sign a contract.

Don't approve it. Sign the same contract. Reapprove it. Years later say it's not approved anymore. Take away a draft pick, give the draft pick back, and somehow the Vancouver Canucks end up paying the salary cap. I still, I find myself randomly thinking about that way, way, way too often. All right.

That's a good chat. I mean, and also it went on long enough where, who knows, maybe it's been traded already. Who knows? Today is, again, the trade freeze day. We're going to hit a break. We'll be right back. We're talking Matt Famichkov, Philadelphia Flyers, maybe some other stuff. Stick around.

All right, folks, we're back. Mac and Duke, Correct. Gintilly here. The Breyer signal worked. He has it in his office. He answered the call a day or two after the Matt Feyn Meechkov, Rick Tocket, stuff seemed to hit its peak. Danny Breyer, who's the boss in Philadelphia, obviously,

talked to reporters, try to take down the temperature on all that. Here's what he said. A lot of this is from our guy in Philly, Kevin Kurz. One thing I can tell you, this is Breyer, one thing I can tell you Matt Fiamishkov is not going anywhere Let's make that clear One

That's one thing he said A second thing he said Tuckett and Matt Faye Have a good relationship Sometimes they're fiery When you're not winning Things are done and said But they always come back to the table

And what's best Best for this team And Rick wants the best For Matt Faye Rick knows how important he is The future of the organization And he wants to make it work This is obviously guys

We'll do a quick recap here I suppose This is obviously in the wake of a season where Mishkov came into camp, maybe not having trained as hard as he did, as he typically had in the offseason, comes in out of shape. Taka clearly noticed it.

It's been an issue. It's reflected itself in its minutes. It's reflected itself in its usage. It's reflected itself in the way Taka, talks about Mishkav publicly, which is something that bubbled up again a couple days ago, which was the reason for the Breyer signal from Elliott to go up in the first place.

And, you know, here we are. So, Frank, we'll start with you, I suppose. What do we think of the situation overall and what do we think of what Breyer did yesterday to try to get his arms around all of it? Okay, so there's a lot to unpack here. I will say this, two things can be true. Players want to be coached. They want guidance. They want to have hands-on communication with the coach.

They want all that. Now, with this Mitchcoff situation, the other thing that can be true is something. Sometimes you also have to build the player up a little bit, even though guy came into camp out of shape. There's no excuse for that. It's over, though. Like, he's a young player. And I think sometimes these guys, they just, they need to be convinced, to be honest with you. And I'm not saying that's right.

Not saying that's the way it always was, but it might be the way it is now. And it could be the way it is with this specific player. So with that being said, Matt Veimichkov comes into camp out of shape. it's difficult to catch up to everyone who was already in shape and now progressing with the season because those guys are all a little bit faster. They're just, they're, they're into their,

you know, hockey lungs a little easier. And this guy's trying to get up to like even par. Everyone else is making birdies now. This guy's just trying to get to even par. So that's the challenge for Mischkov. And it's not like he's, you know,

a really high IQ veteran kind of savvy. player who can overcompensate for being out of shape because he's going to think his way around the ice. I think of like guys that were the most intelligent players like Barcoff or Bergeron or Kopitar, right? Like those guys could think their way around the ice. He can't do that yet. He's got to do it with his legs. He's got to do it with his skill. So he's constantly playing catch up here. It's a tough spot for talking because he's got to coach him. He's got to hold him accountable, but he's also still has to find a way to build him up. So it's not a a great situation and you have fans planning, you know, fire talk at chance on Twitter

at 19 minutes to go in the first period last game. So it makes sense that Breer is out there. And I appreciate the fact that like he's trying to get ahead of it and talk to the fan base and put the fire out. So good on him for doing that. But I think where, and this is my final, you know, kind of concluding thought on this is the reason why this is such a big deal in Philadelphia is because they are starving for a highly skilled player like this. They have a lot of redundancies. They got guys that work hard. They got guys that have a certain ceiling.

This guy is almost like, we almost don't know how good he can be offensively. And they need him to work out because if he doesn't, the rebuild is right back to where it's been for a long time. And that's why this is such a massive deal in Philadelphia. I got to say, maybe this is just me. I did find it very funny that you've got a player who is apparently out of shape and or at least came into camp out of shape and overweight. And the GM says, well, the thing about him is he always comes back to the table. Yeah, yeah, we know, Danny.

That's apparently the problem. A little too much time spent at the table. The thing that really shocks me on this is Michkov, not this time around, but back in November, when we kind of lasted all of this, he talked about his offseason and basically said, I took four months off. No hockey, no nothing. I mean, he basically did the 1970s NHL thing

where you just don't do anything in the summer and then you show up and you work it off in camp. And I guess I get it to an extent where, I mean, this kid's been through a ton over the last few years. I can absolutely see that at some point he was going, I need a break from this. But I guess maybe this is my question of Frankie. How does this happen?

How does a team allow that to happen with any player, let alone a guy that you've sort of built the future of the franchise around? How hands on our teams? How, you know, wouldn't this kid have been given, you know, a workout plan, something for the offseason? And for him to just walk in and go, yeah, I haven't done anything in four months. What's going on?

Is that, is that a surprise to the team? Did they know? Were they okay with it? Is this a situation where they told him, go ahead and take the time off and now that it's not going well? He's getting thrown under the bus? Or were they as surprised as I was to hear that an NHL athlete apparently did nothing for four months?

No, they would be surprised. You know how competitive guys are now? Like, jobs are on the line every single year. There's more and more young guys. There's more opportunities. So it's not like they're going to sit there. and hold his hand and FaceTime him every day and be like,

hey, Matt Vey, it's 8 a.m. Are you at the gym yet? Like, they're just, they're not going to do it unless he's at their facility. Unless he makes the decision to say, I'm in Philadelphia all summer and I'm going to train at the facility, but can't necessarily force him to do that at this point. So, yeah, it would come as a surprise. I'm sure you're going to have check-ins, but how easy is this?

DGB calls me. Frankie, you in the gym today? Oh, yeah, coach DGB. Really good workout today. Oh, yeah, okay. Okay, great job, buddy. Keep us posted. Okay, DGB, bye.

Like, I don't know. Like, you know what I mean? Unless you're there, unless he's at the facility or unless you have someone there, wherever he is training, there's a trust factor that needs to be there. At a certain point, you've got to just move on past the offseason stuff, though. I get it. It was a disaster. Dude's 20 years old or whatever.

He tried to see if he could get away with it. He did not underline it, whatever. that's that's where we are you'd hope it doesn't happen again you because lesson learned i i suppose it's just wild to me that this is still i i i'm frankie i'm i'm on your side i'm on i'm of a i'm of the same mindset with you on this i get it you know guys want to be coached guys need to be coached at a certain point though it's like it's like talk it's on a he's doing a he's doing a podcast at a charity event and Mishkov is still

catching strays for being out. It's like, okay, it's February. Like, it's high past time for everybody involved, Michikov, Tuckett, the organization to have gotten their arms around all this. Because yesterday, in the day before,

I follow way too many Flyers fans on various social media accounts or various social media sites. I mean, this was like this was a 10 alarm fire for them. It was incredible how big a deal this turned into. And it should be, you know, I get it.

They've gone in the tank over the last couple weeks, but this is like the reset. This is the point, you know, everybody's about to have a few weeks off to train or hang out or do whatever. Like, this is, and all Flyers fans are going to do now is talk about this for another 10 days or, 14 days. It's a, it's a, it is a situation that was on the, it had already been toxic to some degree. And it, and it, and it was on the verge of turning into like a three mile island nuclear meltdown over there.

Over, over what? Like, he, like, he came into camp in bad shape and now he's playing 14 minutes a night. Like, figure it out. Because it's from the outside, like, just play, everybody get over it. Like, the coaching staff, the front office, Mischkov, the fan base, like, you got to, you got it. You've got to move on because this is really on the verge is spinning out of control for them. Well, guess what? Now Mitch Goff has an opportunity for a Mulligan because everyone's going to take off. Some guys are going to be playing at the Olympics and the rest of the league is going to take a bunch of time off. Guys will take, you know, however many days completely off of doing anything, then they'll get back in the gym, then they'll get back on the ice.

There's going to be like a reset here to see who's got their legs coming out of this break. this is Mitchkov's opportunity to be like, okay, I feel bad that I didn't come into camp and shape. I'm going to work out this whole time. I'm on the ice. I'm working out. And when the puck drops on February 26th, I'm flying and I'm ready to go. I think that's going to be a pretty revealing moment. Those games right after this break will be revealing as to how Mitchkoff attacked this last break, considering the summer, he didn't do enough to get himself in shape. Yeah. And in the meantime, he's the man who invented being lazy during the offseason.

It's just, it's just crazy to me. Do we want to talk? We should, you know what? Let's make it a Russian winger trifecta since we've talked about Panarin. We've talked about Mishkov. We'll close on this. It's a Nikita Kutrov fella. I think he's starting to, I think he's starting to figure it out.

He had four points last night in Tampa's 4-3 win over the Sabres. That's a sneaky, sneaky important game, let's say. Tampa 18, 1 in their last 20, also pretty good. The stats coming out of that related to Kutra of are incredible. In the calendar year of 2026, we're four months in a month and four days in. 11 goals, 28 assists and 39 points since New Year's. How does that work? Dude, you want to know how that works?

Yeah, I do. Can you tell me? You have three, four-point nights in your last five games. And I'll do her. And the other ones that aren't four-point nights are two-point nights. This guy's unbelievable, but this is nothing new. Like, this isn't, you know, this didn't come out of nowhere. Nikita Kutrov has been this.

but he's gone nuclear here the last little while. And Tampa, you know, it's funny. Like last night I was on the desk doing Senators Carolina, right? And we're all talking about could this be Carolina's year? And it's like, ah, no, Florida. Florida's not going to be in your way. That's an issue for Carolina with the way that they play. And then you're like, knock, knock.

Tampa's back. And there's Kuthorov and he's got another four point night. And it's like, oh, yeah, Tampa, they will. they will punch you, they will shove you, they will do all that kind of stuff that Florida does, maybe not to the same level that Florida does, but you're like, as soon as one door closes the other one opens and Tampa's back in the mix,

and there's Kuturov right in the middle of it. And you're just hoping, if you're Carolina or anyone else who has any hope in the Eastern Conference, that he's just getting this out of his system now, like an all-time heater, better in January and February than April. But I mean, this is crazy. This is, you know, we're on, you know, week five, almost week six of Wayne Gretti numbers.

You know, Dom had a very funny post where he's, you know, saying that Goudgerard was playing. Yeah, yeah. Got him. He said, he was saying he's, he was at like a 213 point pace. And he's like, well, so is this just, this is just what Wayne Gretzky did all year in the 80s? And yeah, as the old guy, I'll tell you, yes, this is what it was. But this was the 80s. To do this in 2025, 26 is wild.

I all respect to Wayne Gretzky, but those goaltenders, those stand-up goalies and those defensemen whose idea of gap control was, I'll just back into my own goalie's crease as soon as Gretzky comes over the blue line and let them wail a slap shot from the from the circle. for Kuturov to be doing it now. It's wild. And I got to say it, this is a staple of the takes industry. Nikita Kucheroa.

Here in the take minds, we all are. Underrated? Yes. Underrated? I mean, this guy's two scoring titles in a row. And now he's doing this. Like, are we going to look back and go like, man, I mean, McDavid was amazing. McKinnon was amazing.

but we didn't appreciate Nikita Kuturov. You know who doesn't who didn't underrate him? You know who doesn't who didn't underrate him? The Oilers, the Oilers, or the Oilers, the Oilers, the, the Sabres on that on that game time goal by Darren Radish yesterday. He gets, he gets the puck like at the top of the circles. Like the obvious terror in their in their games at that moment, he just did the gravitational pull of Kutrov over over on the circles. I think, I think any, I think me and DGB could have could have. scored on that. I think that's the word right there, DGV, underappreciated. Maybe not underrated,

but underappreciated for how good, how dominant can be, because he does it differently than McKinnon and McDavid, right? Like, he doesn't storm down the ice and with that intensity or that ferocity with the big galloping crossovers, he moves, like he shakes and bakes, but he is almost slithery in the way that he conducts his business. So optically, it looks different. But I think you're right. Like, underappreciated more than underrated for sure. 71 points in his last 32 games. This is from J. Fresh.

This is at, Frankie, you'll let you go after this. 71 points in his last 32 games, good job. 15 players in the entire 2014-15 had more points than that. His last 32 games would have put him in 15th in 14-15. Good God. What are we doing here? 2014-2015, I think I play together. Boucher up in the minors.

How'd that go? Oh, I'm pretty sure he was torching everyone in the miners. Yeah. Where are you the next couple days? I've lost track of you once again. You're in Toronto. No, but I'm in Philly for the Sends game. Oh.

Going right into the beast of Philadelphia, Sends, flyers, and then a little bit of a break for the Olympics. Very nice. Enjoy it, brother. I guess, well, it's not like that much of a break. We'll talk to you next week. We'll have our Olympic preview spectacular. You get a break from TSN, but not us.

Lots of fun. No, we got the Gino-Retta hits to do. We got that talking. We don't give time off, man. That's what the off-season's for. Exactly. You can go on the Mitchcoff plan in the summer, but we got you until then. Yeah, then we get to make fun of you.

and slash yell at you for six months after that. Exactly. Okay, boys, have a good one. Talk to you next week, bud. All right, there goes Frankie, Sean McIndoo. What have we learned, other than the fact that my headphones didn't work for the first 25 minutes of the podcast. What have we learned, Sean?

Oh, that wasn't really a learning thing. We're used to that. We're used to adversity around here. Play through it. Speaking of adversity, kind of. Maybe, not really. I learned that I guess birds are hockey fans, or at least Islander fans. I don't know if you saw this, but during the Islanders game last night, they scored a goal while Bo Horvatt was being attacked by a bird, which is not something you see.

I guess it was an attack? Did that pass the threshold of an attack? Or was it more of an encounter? You know, in today's hockey, that counts as an attack. You know, back in the old days, that would have been nothing. Today, it counts as something. But, yeah, Beau Horvett had to, you know, get a bird out of the way before he threw the puck in front for what turned into a goal. And, yeah, that is, it's been a while since we've had live animals on the ice.

I mean... Live animals. It's... And it went a lot better for the bird than it went for the bat back in the fog game way back when. And it went better than it went for the live chicken that got thrown on the ice in an LA Kings game in the 80s, which then proceeded to like... I learned about that from you. I feel like I'm the only one who brings it up and I'm going to continue to because it was. was a that was a staple of like the VHS blooper industry for for a couple of years there.

That's how we used to get our information. Like this is everybody's watching like the, you know, the YouTube clips of the bird this morning or like Bull Horvatt miced up the Islanders social media put out. It used to be you wouldn't know about this stuff until like two years later when you got like the wackity dackey hockey bloopers on VHS for Christmas. and then you'll be like, oh, there was a bird on the ice. Bought it out of some guy's trunk. Exactly. And they'd be playing Benny Hill music and there'd be a bird on the ice. And you'd go, okay, that's pretty cool.

But yeah, shout out to the bird, who apparently seems to be okay. And shout out to Bo Horvatt, who didn't let it distract him from putting a big goal on the board. This bird takes its spot on the Mount Rushmore of bird encounters during hockey games. It does not, cannot push out the Bakersfield Condor situation. You remember that? That was a big day on the internet, baby. We're not going to get into it, but if anybody wants to check, and I think both of us wrote multiple things about that one.

I learned, Sean, just how much NHL players seem to like Houston. That was a big part of our player poll part. three or whatever it is. It's live on the site now. A bunch of good nuggets in there about a whole whole whole whole host of topics. Houston, though, runaway winner for the players pick for the next spot to get a team. We're 118 guys pull it for this. 48 of them said that Houston should be the next spot, which is that a surprise? Like, not really.

It's a big city. It's in a warm climate. No state tax. That's clearly the sort of stuff these guys. these guys care about. But, man, 48 out of 118, 118, that's, that's a, almost just a straight up majority. I don't know, man. I wasn't, I wasn't expecting that.

Am I, am I, am I, am I, am I wrong here? Like, does that number feel right to you? I wonder how much of it is just players trying to give the right answer. And, you know, I think Houston has had a ton of speculation around it, you know, a ton of talk about them being the next team. not as much maybe recently as Atlanta. So maybe that's the surprise or maybe it's just the novelty factor. We've tried the Atlanta thing a couple of times. There's players in this league who played in Atlanta or at least as a visitor.

So maybe they kind of feel like, hey, it's time to try something new. But yeah, it certainly seems like that's where it's headed. It may be a mild surprise. We haven't gotten more traction on it actually happening quite yet, but it feels kind of inevitable at this point. 48 players said Houston, 25 said Quebec City. 15 said Arizona, just as a blanket. Most of the mean, Scottsdale, I think we all know that.

Nine said Atlanta. Then there's a bunch below that. That's surprised to me is that Atlanta is that low. I mean, Quebec City will always get, you know, I can probably guess what the passports look like for every player in Quebec City. But how many, if you've got in front of you, did anybody say Toronto is an expansion market? Yeah, two said Toronto. So there are two players who pay attention to the financial side of this league and actually want the capital be going up.

And two said Toronto, which is one more than the amount of players who said not Toronto. Okay. I was one person's specific vote. So Keith Kelly snuck in as a vote into the players poll. That's cool. Yeah, I was going to say this is Yarmow K or Terry P. submitting anonymous votes. I love, I love the one vote.

getters too by the way we had lake Tahoe we had Montreal for a second team not Toronto Paris San Antonio interesting choice there and then my favorite Miami we know we know that's that outside Fort Lauderdale which is where sunrise is is not quite the same as South Beach but second team in South Florida good luck Sean what are you doing this week I saw your post you You had a post go live this morning that made me feel extremely bad talking about the guys who had their, who missed the Olympics. That's what I was going for. Who missed their Olympic window over the last 12 years.

It was a personal affront to me who's like, I'm like the same age. I've already had feedback from people saying it ruined their morning. Yeah, I've just got to look at 10 players who have never played in an Olympics and are not going this year. In some cases, active, in some cases retired, where I make the case that they would have been. there in 2018 or 2022 if the NHL had gone. And, but because they didn't, you know, we never got to see guys like, you know, for example, Claudeau-Jourou, uh, playing the Olympics. Never happened.

Uh, there's other guys on the list who, you know, maybe they got to play in a World Cup. Certainly a lot of them got to play world championships, but, uh, they would have been there if the, if we had gone to the Olympics, because we didn't, it, it sure looks now like that window is closed and, uh, we would have been there. we're never going to get a chance to see these guys on the very biggest stage, which is kind of a buck. I'm just glad Chris Kreider got his Four Nations face-off moment, you know? That was big.

All right, but we'll talk to you soon. Thank you, folks. Thank you for listening, as always. But before you go, we want to let you know. The Athletic Football Show with Robert, Dave, and Derek, have got your daily episodes and your video breakdowns lined up from Radio Row in the lead-up to Sunday, Super Bowl,

and St. Clair, I believe. Plus a big recap episode straight after. So check those guys out. Love the athletic football show. Love my man, Dave Hellman. Check it out. Enjoy the games.

We got 10 tonight. And then, of course, we all go into Olympic mode. We're coming back next week, the three of us, next Tuesday for an Olympics preview. And Shane and Goldman and I are back with the normal show

tomorrow because Haley is somewhere in Italy? Unclear. Unware exactly. Maybe we'll get an update from her, maybe not. See you tomorrow.