The Athletic Hockey Show - Winnipeg Jets transition year, NHL Salary Cap to climb over the next three years and can Jack Eichel lead the Golden Knights back to the playoffs?

Episode Date: September 28, 2022

On the roundtable, Rob, Jesse and Russo discuss the NHL salary cap potentially climbing up to 10 million dollars over the next three seasons, and how that is a great thing for players, the teams and the fans.  The Athletic Hockey Show continues The 10 storylines to watch in the 22/23 NHL season, today, we ask Jesse, can the Vegas Golden Knights make it back to the playoffs with their goaltending and Jack Eichel leading the way?Murat Ates joins from Winnipeg to discuss the Jets transition year, including new head coach Rick Bowness, a bounce back year from Connor Hellebuyck and Blake Wheeler on the trading block. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What's going on, guys? Welcome to another fine edition of The Athletic Hockey Show, the Wednesday Roundtable edition. I am Rob Pizzle from CBC Sports, joined, as always, by Jesse Granger, who's out in Vegas. How are you, Jesse? Doing great. How are you, Rob?

I'm doing good, and of course, our new co-host for the season, Mike Russo out in Minnesota. How are you, guys? I'm doing great. How are you? Glad you survived that hurricane, Rob. You know, it's so funny. I have a picture of it. Actually, I got to send it to you guys.

I was on the beach. And this was after the hurricane. And I'll get to that in a second. And I'm like, you know what? My wife's taking care of the two kids are building a nice sandcastle, everything else. And I'm going to listen to the podcast. And I hear you guys come in and Jesse admirably doing, you know, a great job hosting. I always say one of these days, I'm going to get Wally pipped by Jesse Granger.

And I am paraphrasing here, but I was really touched when you said, You know, Rob Pizzo's out there and he's in the middle of a hurricane. But anyways, in NHL news, and I was like, oh, you guys, you guys are so concerned for my health and safety. Jesse might as well have just said, said, hey, let's hope Rob's not playing around in that hurricane so I could take over his host of the show. Exactly. Like, it was just the best transit. You're like, anyways, so P. P.K. Suban retired.

Let's move on to that. No, we were there. It was day two for us that we got told, you know, it's going to happen at about 2 a.m. We woke up. Our resort was beat to shit. I'm not kidding. Like massive, massive damage. The night before we'd all, everyone had gone to the buffet and like grab muffins and stuff

because we had a feeling we'd be stuck in our rooms and we were for the whole morning. But then after that, five straight days of sunshine and they cleaned it up. and it was all good. And I listened to you guys and it was a blast. So now it's back to work. Well, from somebody that grew up in South Florida, I used to say that about hurricanes. Like, I don't know the science,

but there's nothing nicer than the days after a hurricane. So I don't know if the hurricane just sucks up all the bad weather or whatever. But I just had a similar what Jesse did to you. I just did to Joe Smith. So Joe is getting smacked with a category five in right now in Tampa before he moves here. And he actually was in Minnesota, changed his flight to fly back. back down there to get his house in order because boarded up and everything.

And today is Wednesday that we're recording this, of course, the athletic hockey show Wednesday. And I sent him a slack. And I'm like, hey, Joe, just in FYI, today is the day that we're supposed to get our final tabulations for this goalie tandem tier project they're working on. So, you know, when the eye of the hurricane comes over your house, if you still have internet, make sure you get those into the vial. And I don't think he thought it as funny as I did when I sent him that. text.

You were that guy, huh? You're like, I know, like, your house could blow away. Anyways, back to work, back to talking hockey. I am a little darker, but vacation is done. So let's get into it, guys. Topic number one, money, money, money, money. Talking a little cash, talking a little salary cap, because according to a report from Elliot Freeman and Roy Boylan that came out this week and pretty much jumped on by everybody.

we have at least an estimate of what the salary cap could look like over the next three years. And I give up the numbers that I want to hear your guys' opinions on this and what immediately you thought of when you saw these numbers. Of course, we had the first increase for the first time in three years this year. So we know that this season's 82.5. For the 2020-23-24 season, it goes up to 83.5. Again, these are estimates. Then the next year we get a big jump.

up to 88 million and follow that. You got the 2025, 2025, 2026 season. Approximately 92 million will be the salary cap. The first multi-million dollar jump in the salary cap since 2019. You're looking at about $10 million raise over the next three years. As I mentioned, I listened to the show last week, guys on the beach. And I heard Russo and Gentile's talk with Bill Daly, who I agree with you, Jesse, on your reaction to that, painted a very optimistic financial story. that's what I took from that interview.

And then this story comes out. So, Jesse, we'll start with you. It's a lot of money thrown around and a lot of teams raising eyebrows who maybe have superstars to sign in the coming years. Well, what did you think when you saw this? Yeah, I mean, covering the Golden Knights, the first thing I thought was like, wow, like how hot they're probably going to be in the hundred. I mean, right now, today they are at 92.7 million.

Their salary cap, if you count all. I haven't they been over the cap since day one? Yeah. That team's never under the cap. So when you say, wow, it's going to get up to 90 million. I'm like, the Golden Knights are already there. I can't imagine how high they're going to get it by the time it's up to that. But, I mean, it's good.

It's great for the league. It seems like, like you mentioned the superstars. To me, the superstars are getting their money. Even in this period where the cap's not going up and all the teams are in cap trouble, it seems like the stars are still getting paid what they should be. You just saw Nathan McKinnon. There have been plenty of others over the last couple years that have gotten paid. To me, it's the older veterans, like the Phil Kessel,

that just had to sign for $1.5 million. There were a lot of veterans that kind of lingered into UFA this season that weren't able to find contracts. I think those guys are going to start getting paid probably closer to what they should is my initial reaction when I see it going up. Great for everybody pretty much. Michael, what do you think? Yeah, I agree. I bet Nathan McKinnon was like, you couldn't have announced this last week.

You know, Austin Matthews is like, thanks. You know, yeah, I mean, look, as you guys said, Bill Daley hasn't hidden the fact that things are, you know, they're forecasting things and the recovery of this league financially after the pain that it dealt with throughout the pandemic has been a lot faster than I even think that they projected in the league office. And so, you know, when he was on the podcast last week, as you guys said, he painted an optimistic picture. And, you know, Elliot's put the numbers to that picture. And I know that the neighborhood is, is accurate. And Ellie putting those numbers, you know, it's completely accurate. So I think that's really good. It's good for teams that, you know, might, let's just say teams that might have $12 to $14 to $15 million worth of dead money in those upcoming years as well. I bet they wish that that cap went higher sooner. But I think it just allows, you know, one, the agents are going to be happy.

But it just allows now teams to feel like they can, you know, not, you know, trade Max Patch Reddy's for zero. You know, Sean Manehands for nothing and give away first round picks. That still stuff is obviously going to still exist in problematic things. But I think when you see so many teams sandwiched against the cap right now, it is a scary thing. And you don't want to be giving players away for nothing. You know, these teams have dealt with a couple of expansion drafts here in the last four years where they've lost significant assets for nothing. Then you add in the salary cap issues here. And there are certain teams that have been unbelievably affected.

by the cap crunch and then expansion. And I think this gives them a little bit of a breathing room now. Yeah. And when I said superstars, obviously, I agree with the Jess is going to get paid. But I'm talking about teams who are looking to keep their player and keep them from bolting. You know what I mean? That also gives them the leeway. You know, Russo alluded to Austin Matthews, becomes a free agent two years.

I live just outside of Toronto. There's not a day that goes by that someone is not talking about whether Austin Matthews is going to bolt or not. I mean, anytime you get more ammo to keep a heart trope. trophy winner, you've got to figure that's a good thing for certain teams, right? Right. And there are, like Colorado, you saw them. They were, they had so much cap space and suddenly it's gone. Kail McCarrickickett gets paid. McKinney gets paid. They've got hardly any cats. I mean, it's tough to maintain, you saw Tampa lose a ton of their players. So yeah, I agree. It's definitely going to, these GMs, when they sign these deals, like I remember talking to

George McPhee just off air about it. And it's like, they got into such cap trouble so quick. And he's like, yeah, when we signed half these deals, we didn't expect the pandemic to, to, to keep the cap flat for three years. Like, you're projecting every one of these deals you sign, you're projecting to have X amount halfway through this deal at the end of this deal. And when suddenly, which is crazy, though, isn't it? Isn't that nuts? Like, that you almost have to guess? It is. It is. Kill you. But it's, but it's also been fairly projectable up until the pandemic. I mean, when the world shut down and we were all locked at our houses, it screwed up those projections. But prior to that, and now we're looking at, I mean, it looks like we're back to projecting it accurately.

We'll see how it goes over the next few years. But yeah, it's, I mean, these GMs are projecting this raise every year when they sign these contracts. When suddenly it doesn't go up, they're in a lot more trouble than they thought they'd be in. Just looking at some of the teams. Like for me, David Pasternak comes UFO after this season. How's that going to affect him? We mentioned Austin Matthews, Stamcoast, after two more years. And then the summer of 2025, you got Victor Hedman, Leon Drysidal, Mitch Marner, and Sidney

Crosby up for new deals. So this is information GM's sorely need after that crazy pandemic time that you talked about where, well, let's face it, the revenue split went all wacky. So we're going to see over the next few years where that money gets spent. We got this next segment in our fantastic producer, Jeff Domet, labeled appropriately, walking wounded. Guys, we've got, we haven't started the NHL season yet, and we're talking about so many key injuries.

Jesse, I don't know if you have any experience in dealing with injuries after covering the Golden Knights last year. But we got some big names. Let's go through a couple of the top ones, and then we'll talk about how this affects each team. But news out of Toronto, John Tavares, out for the start of the season with an oblique injury, at least three weeks, could see him missing four games.

They started last year without Austin Matthews. You got to figure your second line center is gone. What do you do? Is it curfut that slips in there? But it seems like this team can't start without one of their top line centers. Russo, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, it's unbelievable. I mean, we're looking at Landisog, Bessor, Cotorier.

I was texting with Chuck Fletcher today, and he's already inundated with Cotoria and Ellis. I mean, obviously, Max Petcher-ready before Camp even starts, ruptures of Achilles. But it is. I mean, this league right now, it's, you know, it's just injuries happen, right? And the good news is that it happens now, a guy like Besser who just cannot catch a break. It's such a shame. You know, at least it looks like he'll be back in a month. So, you know, maybe a week, week, two weeks into the season. But it is, it's alarming a lot of these teams like Philadelphia just feel like on a year that they've got to get back on track and put all of last year's, you know, unblank. believable turmoil behind them where at the end of the year they were basically without like seven centers and hardly feel the team they go into this year and they already have issues with ellis and catoria two of their most important players so um it's a shame here in minnesota the wilder without greenway to start the year and things like that and you know the biggest thing now is that

guys that are going for these spots they need to take advantage of these situations and so now suddenly doors open for a lot of players yeah you know what i think they should do in philadelphia is bag skate their players to death um yeah I wonder who's going to do that there. And Jesse Vegas, I mean, no Nolan Patrick, no Robin Leonard for the entire year. Shea Weber, I mean, duh. But I mean, do you ever go through a week of your job or you're not dealing with somebody getting hurt? Yeah, I mean, they're their preseason opener.

They had William Carrier go out with an injury and he hasn't practiced since. So, yeah, it's kind of just taking off right where last season ended. For Nolan Patrick, man, it really sucks to see for that kid. I mean, just for anyone listening that hasn't been keeping up on it, this is not a new injury. This is he got another, and they haven't said concussion, but we have to believe it is a concussion. It was an upper body injury that held him out of last year. During the offseason, Kelly McCrimman basically said, right now we're focused on getting him back to normal life. This is not even hockey right now.

We're not even to the point where hockey is considered. We're just trying to have him be okay. and they've already ruled him out for the entire 2022-23 season. So that just tells you how bleak things are. Really feel for that kid who just cannot, like Michael said about Bessor not catching a break. I mean, Nolan Patrick, number two overall pick. We all kind of knew he had injury concerns coming into the draft, but not to this extent. At this point, if he can just get back on the ice at any point in his life, it would be awesome.

Really feel for Nolan Patrick. You mentioned Landiscag, too. I mean, he missed a chunk of the end of the last season, comes back, hopes his team win the Stanley Cup, and now he's going to miss the beginning of the season. I mean, I don't recall this many key injuries, we'll call them that, and lengthy injuries going into a season. Like, it just seems strange to me. Yeah, I mean, well, even just, you know, patcher ready, you know, he gets traded there

for nothing. And then Carolina is, you know, jumping for joy that they get this guy. And then all of a sudden, you know, he gets. her training. And so, but you're right. I mean, this is just the league that they're in now. And, you know, again, it allows some teams to maybe, there is some relief, you know, like a team like Philadelphia, who is pretty much right at the cap now. They're going to get LTI relief. And so there are, there is some relief out there for some of these teams that that might have been close to the cap to get out there. But it doesn't, you know, when you, when you're starting

a season without, you know, Besser and Tavarice and Lannis got guys that you've plugged into play key roles, a Cotoria. And then they have this issue. And Chuck Fletcher, this Quaterre thing, it sounds like an absolute blueprint of what Chuck Fletcher dealt with here in Zach, with Zach Porese. And the one thing that I know if it's the same type of back injury is that, you know, you could rehab it all you want naturally. But eventually you're probably, you know, you can only have so many cortisone shots. But eventually you're probably going to have to have, you know, a back surgery, a microdicectomy. And, you know, Peresey in the wild tried to put it off for as long as they possibly could.

And eventually they just figured, all right, we better get it done. And it sounds like Cotorier is going down that same path where they're like, hey, we'll reevaluate them in six weeks or something like that. And usually, yeah, things will calm down. But eventually in a physical sport like this, you're going to get it again. We're going to see practices just full of the no contact jerseys. Like everyone just wear the red jerseys just so we can start the season. It's pretty, it's pretty crazy.

Sorry, go ahead, Jesse. They should do it like football where they just, you know, have no pad days. just go out there and just like just the helmet which I never really understood but yeah yeah no I was just saying that back that back situation sounds like what mark stone is dealing with here in Vegas I mean he was he was trying to rehab it for a year and a half maybe longer and it just kept happening and he he described it as electric shocks going through his back through his body was what he would feel and he would just lock up and he'd finally had the the back surgery this off season he's been in a red shirt he finally got out of the red

Jersey the other day. So he's finally back in a regular jersey and he's hoping to play some preseason game. So that's good for Mark. But yeah, it's even, and he was even mentioned, I didn't realize this, but he's like, yeah, so it's putting pressure on the nerve in your back. And even after you remove that pressure, it takes up to a year for that nerve, the inflammation and that nerve to just go back to normal. So like you, even after the surgery, you still feel it for however long, you don't have the sharp pains. But backs in hockey, it's just brutal. Backs. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I I'm certainly not trying to put myself in the same categories as an NHL player, but I had a bulging disc pressing up against the nerve of my back years ago.

And I couldn't move. Like I literally could not. And I remember thinking there were times where I'm like, if this place is, if my house is on fire, I'm going to die because I can't get out of bed. And I couldn't imagine hearing, you know,

athletes actually playing through that kind of pain, which is. Yeah. You should see, I should find it. I wrote a story for the athletic years ago on what Parisi was dealing with. And it was, it was unbelievable. I mean, you know, we all look and I'm like, all right, they can't play hockey.

This was affecting their life. I mean, Porezzi used to have to go to dinner, laying down in the back of his SUV while his wife drove, you know, things like that. And, and, you know, the back, I mean, everybody knows. I mean, you know, the pain that it causes is not just in the back. I mean, you know, like Porezzi's left leg, you know, if I remember correctly, it was absolutely, like, debilitated, you know, like, it's just amazing what, what these guys put their bodies through.

And unfortunately, you know, some injuries like Besser, you know, it's unlucky. And then there are other injuries that just add up. You know, I'm a member of a, I got to be careful, I'm a member of a, I'll just say, I'm a member of a cigar club in downtown Minneapolis. And there's a couple of Viking players that are blown there. And just watching these young guys get up out of a chair, it's, it's unbelievable. And these are young, young professional athletes, and they walk like they're 80 years old. It's crazy what these players put themselves through.

And that's such a short time frame that you are a professional athlete. And that's why they want to get their money because you can get out of whatever physical sport you play and have a good quality of life. That's a good thing. Let's move on. Continuing the athletic hockey show's run of 10 biggest storylines or questions going into this season. We've been doing it all week.

And it's our turn, guys. And we're going to talk about the Golden Knights. I mean, who better to talk about the Golden Knights, the man who covers them all the time, Mike Russo. No, that's just the team I wish I covered. Yeah. So it's a two-pronged question, Jesse. We're obviously starting with you here. Can Vegas win with Jack Eichel and their current goaltending situation?

Let's start with goaltending. Obviously, Robin Lennar, gone for the year. Is this a tandem that could bring them? at least back to the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, so I'm skeptical of the goalies initially to start. Obviously, they've got three guys, Logan Thompson, who played the last 10 or so games last year and played really, really well. Like, he played well enough to get them into the playoffs.

Logan Thompson was excellent at the end of the season. The team couldn't score a shootout goal. I think he stopped like 14 in a row and the team could not score a shootout goal. Otherwise, they're in the playoffs. But that's an incredibly small sample size for a guy who was undrafted, was basically nowhere close to being a professional hockey player three years ago. He gets a chance. He's the HL goalie of the year. That shows you that he dominated at that level. He came to the NHL. He looked good. With goalies, you're always skeptical of can he do it every night? Can he be the guy?

That's a huge step from just coming in and playing a few games to be in the guy. And he's got competition with Aidan Hill, who's another youngish goalie who hasn't really panned out, but he's also played behind two horrid defenses in Arizona and San Jose. And to me, I think it's wrong to judge a goalie and say he can't play in this league after playing behind two defenses that are just abysmal. And then you've got Laurent Berswa, who's currently not competing for the job because he had off-season surgery just like Lennar, but he is expected to be back at some point. So the Golden Knights have, the good news is they have three guys who I think maybe one of them

can't be good enough all season. But I think if you kind of mix and match and play the guy who, hot, I think you can get league average goaltending, maybe slightly above if things break right for them. It's going to be up to Bruce Cassidy picking which goalies to be right. It's not an easy spot to be in. But I did talk to him about last year in Boston, they had a similar situation. Tuka Rask was the guy there and they had had veteran goaltending forever, just like Vegas has. He goes out. You have Swayman and Olmark, two guys who have not been proven as number one guys. And Cassidy basically said, yeah, it reminds me a lot of the situation we had in Boston.

And last year, if you look at the goaltending stats, the Bruins were 22nd in the league. Not good. They allowed the fourth fewest goals in the league because Cassidy's defensive system is super goalie friendly. It makes their job easier. So I do think that while they didn't hire Cassidy to fix this mess because they weren't even sure Lennar was going to be hurt when Cassidy when they hired him, it seems like they hired the right guy to deal with this type of goaltending. So I'm skeptical on the goleys themselves, but when you look at the situation as a whole, I think the Golden Knights can survive. the goal tent. And the second part of the question is, can Jack Eichel be the man? Given what you've seen, I mean, when the trade happened, obviously the question mark wasn't, you know, whether he has the

ability to be Jack Eichael was whether or not he could get back and how quickly he can get back after the surgery. But is this a guy who could lead this team? Yeah. So last year, I'm much more optimistic on Eichol than I am the goalies. I, I am beating this drum. Jack Eichael is going to be a superstar this year. We'll see if I'm right, but last year he looked good. He was the best player on the ice most nights, and he was playing with 11 months. He hadn't played hockey in 11 months. He was playing on a new team for the first time in his career in a new system with a broken thumb. He broke his thumb blocking a shot, couldn't even take face-offs, and he was still the best player on the ice through all that. Through camp, he is, I mean, on another level. He looks incredible. He played,

he made his preseason debut the other night. I know it's preseason, but he was going against the King's top line of Copa Tar and Fiala. Like he was going against legit NHL competition. And Eichel looked like he was playing against children. He is so fast. He goes around the defenseman whenever he feels like it. His release, we've all seen it in Buffalo. His wrist shot is just incredible.

The release is otherworldly, I think is the tweet I sent after he scored his goal. He is ready to have a huge year. Now, Bruce Cassidy has basically said, look, we know the offense is there. I don't even have to tell him anything in the offensive zone. That all comes natural. He's going to score a ridiculous amount of goals. He's a playmaker. He's going to do all those things.

What Cassidy wants to do is he's like, you know what? You can have individual success without it leading to team success. We saw that in Buffalo with Jack Eichael. And he believes that he can get Eichl's game to where the individual success goes along with the team success and leads to the team success. We don't know. We've never seen Jack Eichael do that. We've never seen him play meaningful games at the end of the season. We've never seen him play in the playoffs.

So I think that's a big challenge for Bruce Cassidy. He's a guy who has worked with plenty of forwards who have some of the best 200-foot games in the league. I don't know if you can give Cassidy credit for that. Berzarin and Marshan and those guys were already that. He knows what it looks like on the ice. So I think it's a big challenge for Cassidy to get Eichael playing a 200-foot game, back-checking, doing all the things that make you an elite player in this league, not just scoring goals. That's going to be the challenge for Eichl.

But like I said, it's early. We've only seen a little bit. But man, I've been so impressed with Jack Eichael. He looks like he can be one of the best players in the NHL. Hey, Jesse, I have just one question. You mentioned the $92 million that they're at right now. You know, what are the plans here in the next two weeks to become cap compliant? Spend more money.

They're the Golden Knights. That's what they do. They see something shiny and they buy it. There's your answer. Yeah. I mean, the funny thing is they actually have $4 million to spend right now if they wanted to, even though they're at $92 million because they've obviously acquired the Shea Weber contract from Montreal knowing that they're not.

knowing that that would go on on the LTIR. That's a huge chunk. Robin Lenners, 5 million is obviously not going to count against the cap. Nolan Patrick's 1.2 million is not going to count against the cap. So if you subtract all the LTIR, they actually have about 4 million to spend. The big issue right now is one of the RFAs that is still unsigned as Nicholas

Hague. He played top pairing minutes for this team. I don't think he's going to play that this year. He'll probably go back down the lineup now that the injuries have kind of settled. And Alec Martinez is back and Burry and McNab's back. But he's a big piece. to this team, they still need to get him signed. I think he's probably going to cost about two million, so that'll take up about half of that space that they've got left. But he has not,

he's not practicing with the team. He's all the way up in Canada practicing with Kitchener right now, nowhere near Vegas. So that's not a good sign for the Golden Knights. Obviously, Cassidy's installing all his new systems. So Higgs missing out on all that. That's kind of the biggest question in camp right now is are they going to get him in here by the time the regular season starts? And are they going to get him in time to get him up to speed so he can play on opening night? Great casinos near Kichner though. Yeah. Just saying.

Quickly back to Eichel, your first half of the explanation had me clicking on my sports book over 71.5 points. Your second half, I thought talking about playing that 200-foot game made me wonder. Are you going over or under 71.5 points? Way over. Way over. I think Eichol's closer to 100 than he is to 71. Wow.

Okay. Well, everybody get on your sports books. click away Jack Eichel over 71 and a half points. So that is our continuing look at the biggest storylines going into the season. After the break, we're going to talk to Winnipeg Jets, guys. Maradatash is going to be joining us to talk about Blake Wheeler's captaincy that was stripped to talk about their maybe lack of action in the off season and what we can expect from Rick Bonas.

So don't go in. So as anyone who follows hockey knows, it's been an absolutely bananas off season. just trying to keep up with who's gone where has been a job in itself, unless you follow the Winnipeg Jets. I mean, I don't know about you guys. I expected a lot of craziness in this offseason. Yes,

they've got a brand new coach. And there's plenty to talk about, but it's pretty much the same team we're going to see on opening day that we saw at the end of last season. So to sort through what happened in the off season or what didn't. Maraditas is joining us, who of course covers the team for the athletic. Thanks for doing this.

Hey, thanks for having me. Good morning. Good day, everybody. Good day to you. So maybe let's just start right there. I mean, yes, you've got Rick Bonas behind the bench. Yes, Sam Gagne signed with the team. But are you with me?

Are you a little surprised, given what we saw at the end of last season, what players were saying at the end of last season, that it kind of remains status quo? There was a real evolution of emotions, I think, in Winnipegland over the course of the offseason. From the moment you had Mark Sheifley sort of openly questioning his future with the team, well, also saying that he loved Winnipeg at the exit interviews on May 1st, I believe it was, there was a sense that there was going to be something transformative, and then it never happened, clearly.

So the question is, you start to investigate why. And I think that for all of Shifley's frustration, that was a transitional move you cannot make if you're the Winnipeg Jets if you don't have Pierre-Luc Dubois locked down. So then they got into the Pierre-Luc Dubois situation, which was a bit of a purgat-twe, of will we be able to sign him long term? Eventually he takes his qualifying offer for just one year. He could be an unrestricted free agent as soon as two years from now too. So you can't move on from Schifley. I think that they mended the relationships that they needed to mend and they had the conversations that they needed to have. And from that point, the other transformative change was supposed to be a trade of the captain. Blake Wheeler for the first time seemed to be open to

the end of his relationship with the Winnipeg Jets and Winnipeg seemed to be open to the end of that relationship as well with a lot of respect but just a sense that his time as the leader in Winnipeg had come but the sense I get is they poked around and went shopping just a little bit you know when you have Max Patcher Ready who's a younger cheaper player with one year left on his deal instead of 8.25 million that Wheeler has has two years left on his deal going for just about nothing for future considerations right that became a tough market and then all All of a sudden, Winnipeg has all these competing priorities. They're not able to get what they want back.

They're not able to solidify their center group for the long term. And the hiring of Rick Bonus allows some of those relationships to be patched. I think it's a little bit underwhelming on paper to be sure. But that's the best I can do to suss out why nothing. Explain the defense to me why there's eight veterans with no waivers exemption and two young players like Villahenaena and Dylan Samberg. still competing for jobs. That one I can't do. I think that there's, there's some tension there. But that's how I can lay it out for you as far as I can.

How do you think that Blake is really handling this? Because it had to be just, you know, a gut punch to walk in that room and have this happen. And obviously, they put on the great face and did the dual press conference. But deep down, what do you think is going to be the repercussions of all this? Yeah, to lose the captaincy has to hurt. There's no way, around that. I just don't believe that that's not a significant emotional blow. On the day of the press conferences that Rick Bonas and Blake Wheeler had, my goodness, I thought Wheeler handled that with class because he knows he's going into a situation surrounded my microphones. And what other job is there? If one of us gets demoted, nobody's giving a press conference tomorrow, right? Like that's,

so he has to go and speak to that. And I thought he handled himself so well. I thought he handled himself so well. He answered reporters questions. He obviously wasn't opening up and expanding on absolutely every detail or anything to that effect, but his mood was good. So then you look for signs at camp. And what I've seen so far is the same old competitive wheeler that we've always seen. You know, what's happening behind closed doors. I can't speak to at this stage. He's battling. He's one of the veteran players. He's notoriously a slow starter. So, you know, even if he comes out of the gate a little bit slow, I don't think you could really tie it to the stripping of captaincy. The one thing that I'll say, of course, is he's done a lot

less media since then. He hasn't been available to us. And I think that he's going to be a little bit quiet for a while. But as, as the transition sinks in, but I think deep down that this is going to be something that's going to follow him around. And every time he goes, Mike to Minnesota or Jesse when he's in Vegas, like, that's going to be the questions from the outside markets too, right? Like, how's it going? If it's going well, that's going to be the story. If the season is going horribly, that's going to be story as well. And I think that that's going to be a source of tension until until perhaps he's moved to maybe midseason or off season or into the future. I know it's early. So you haven't seen them on the ice a ton, but I'm curious, like as Rob

mentioned, there aren't a lot of roster changes. But when you change a coach, their systems are going to be different. What do you expect to look different in Winnipeg this year? Yeah, Rick Bonas has been good on that front. Really, there's been a sense of teaching from day one. You know, I do these camp reports where I actually get. into the drills a little bit because you can tell that there's a sense of organization in Winnipeg. That's been missing. And at the end of last season, when all the players were questioning, hey, we don't necessarily play for each other all the time. You know, there's conversations about neutral zone systems and forechecks that nobody's committing to. It was a problem. It was a definite

problem. And to get there on day one of camp and Rick Bonas is talking about the video packages he sent out a few days ago, the video session they did this morning. And drills, after drill after drill, where you can see him building a legitimate structure of on day one. It was a 2-1-2-4 check. You know, on day two was the defensive zone. There's a lot of teaching going on. Drills get interrupted for corrections. Bonus looks like a professor in front of the whiteboard, but then starts screaming midway through the drill.

And overall, you see a sense of structure in Winnipeg's game that was missing at the end of last season. I mean, it hasn't completely translated into the exhibition games, which is a concern. but early returns in terms of what's being taught, how players say that they're receiving it, and just how organized things look. I'm modestly optimistic for how the coaching impact goes. Well, that being said, X's and O's aside, you know, he did allude to the fact that you've got to change the culture in the room if you want this thing to turn around. It feels like just yesterday, Paul Maurice was in front of a microphone saying about 50 times, they need a different voice. What do you expect on that front?

I mean, what do you expect needs to be maybe repaired that we're not seeing? in the dressing room that Rick Bonas is the man who's going to do it. Yeah, that's a terrific question. And really, if there's an improvement that coaching has, you know, on the ice, that'll be one thing. But off the ice, you're hoping that Winnipeg does everything that it needs to do. I think changing the captaincy or stripping the captaincy from Wheeler was part of that. It was my sense that he was a little bit of an island, perhaps along with Paul Stastney last year

from some of Winni's other players. That's, you know, that's something that we can't see. I'm not in the room for that situation, but that's kind of the sense that we've gotten. There's the opportunity for younger players, core players to step forward, perhaps have, you know, a couple more players with A's on their jerseys this year. That will be part of it in terms of shifting whose voice is most prominent to that core aged, that group of players, the Kyle Conners, the Nikolai Eelers, Adam Lowry is going to step into that, Josh Morrissey.

Mark Sheifley's had a great attitude so far as well. And I think that's the hope. But there's also a sense of accountability that was missing last year. where veteran players, and I'd put Shifley here, I'd put Blake Wheeler here as well, they could have the minute-long shift, they could make the turnover, they could get scored on, and they were still power play one, they were leading the team in Ice Time. You look around the league at how coaches handle their minutes, and other than Connor McDavid and Leon Drysidal,

almost no superstars are playing above 20, almost no fourth lines are playing as far below 10 as the Winnipeg Jets ran last year. So they continue to go back to Sheifley, especially Connor as well, Blake Wheeler, time and time again, without consequence for minutes. Last night, after Winnipeg beat Ottawa 5.3, Rick Bonas called out the veterans saying we can't be taking 55 second shifts. 55 was an interesting number choice. And you look at the average shift length. And Kyle Connor, Nicolai Eilers, and Mark Schifle are at a minute last night. And Rick Boness is calling that out, saying that veterans have to be the solution.

They have to be the ones teaching younger players the right way to play. We haven't heard that kind of talk in Winnipeg for an awfully long time. So I think those are the sorts of things that he's going to try to lean on. I'm always fascinated Mara about, you know, Connor Halebeck and not just because he scares the crap on me every time I see him like doing his tennis ball exercise walking around MTS Center or, what is it? It's not MTS. Is it still MTS? Canada Life Center now. Oh, there we go. Or Excel Energy Center. There's nothing like watching him do that, you know, his eyes and his exercise and things like that. But, you know, I'm always fascinated by him because statistically, it's like either has a great year and he alternates it with, you know, either an average or subpar year. And now he's, you know, what, two, three years removed from his Vesna. What do you expect from him after last year, what I think most people would consider, you know, a down year, almost a three goals against and what about a nine, ten, say, percentage. Yeah, those numbers are ugly by Connor Hellebuckian standards.

and there's no real way around that. You can get into shot quality, which I like, you know, number of chances given up from the slot, all that stuff, expected goals. And you can still see Connor Hallibuck saving more than he should. But he did that two years ago with better numbers, and he did that three years ago in the Vezna Trophy winning season with spectacular numbers.

So there's a sense that there's a higher level for him to be at and get to. I think by the end of last season, he looked fatigued as well. Winnipeg just had to play Eric Comrie three more times to hold on to his right so he's not signing a UFA deal in Buffalo. And they didn't do that. They were so desperate for the points that might lead to a playoff spot that they went with the veteran. And it didn't have good results. It really didn't.

That was a down year for Connor Hellebuck. So far at camp, you know, I am not a goalie scout. Goleys and small samples, all that stuff, right? You can see somebody look great for a short period of time and you're not sure. I think Connor Hellebuck has been dialed in. This is a really elevated version of Hellebuck from the end of last season. He doesn't have any competition whatsoever because David Riddick has not looked nearly as good and certainly is coming off of a couple of down years. I think this is still his crease to run with

and I think he'll have a great season. I just worry about what if they exhaust him all over again. This can't be something a goal he does over and over and over again when they depend on him so much. I first off, Hala-Halebuckian standards is one of the greatest things. We love doing that with names. it usually doesn't work, but Hellebuckian works just perfectly. Now go ahead, Jesse. I had to slip that in there. Phenomenal. I totally agree with you that he looked tired at the end of last season.

To me, it reminds me of Montreal, Kerry Price. That team was bad in front of him and he held it together for a couple years. And then he fell apart for a little bit until they got the team better. It's happened to Gibson in Anaheim too. So my question is the defense. You mentioned they've got eight NHL guys and they've got some young guys. Like how much the defense was bottom 10 in Bay. basically every stat you can look at last year. To me, if they can just get a little better and just

be close to league average, then you can really see Hellebock be himself. What do you think the odds of that are? I mean, I was optimistic last year when they added Nate Schmidt and Brendan Dillon. I thought the personnel improvements would do a lot. And then by the end of last season, you saw that, well, defense is a team stat. And if not all five guys on the ice are committed to the jobs that they're supposed to do, it doesn't work. And Winnipeg did. didn't get spectacular seasons from those two players. Josh Morrissey had a wonderful season last year. Neil Piong took a step back, I would say. But the biggest story to me was how poorly the forwards defended, how unwilling they were to track back, to do the little things at either Blue Line that

stop a team from having to play in its own zone, or even Mark Schifley, the superstar. You saw in our top 100 rankings, NHL executives are souring on him now that the offense is clearly spectacular, but people don't trust his defense. There's an issue team-wide in terms of how committed they were. I think the hope in Winnipeg, first of all, Rick Bonas is known as a defense first coach. I've talked to some fans in Dallas who think that it was all defense, no offense last year, and all of those sorts of things. So that's one of the bets Winnipeg is making. Personnel will largely be the same unless Dylan Samberg can take a job from perhaps Logan Stanley might be somebody who moves from the top six.

just outside. But the hope, it really is hope at this point, is that a rising tide will float all boats. If everyone actually does what Rick Bonus asks, then you get a little bit better results in terms of shot quality against as a team stat. How optimistic am I? Look at practice. I'm very optimistic. The teaching has been great. Look at these first two games of exhibition, which as we all know people are figuring things out, not optimistic at all. They still have a long ways to grow this Winnipeg Jets team. You know what makes me kind of nauseous looking at this Winnipeg Jets roster that I covered two of the players' dads.

Come on. Yeah, I covered Dave Lowry. You're an aging yourself, Rizzo. I covered Dave Lowry and I covered Dave Gagne. And it feels like Adam Lowry and Sam Gagne have been in the league forever. And I covered their fathers. And that, I don't know, I just had to throw that in there because it's just pissing me off. because I don't let me get there rock.

Oh, no, mate. I used to consider myself young and good looking like Marat. And now I'm just like, you know, just an old dinosaur that's covered this league for too long. No, no, you don't say old. You say veteran. That's the way to get around it. And then suddenly you gain all of this, all this response. And speaking of veteran, Sam Gondier, you mentioned his dad, but I'm going to ask about it.

Sam Gagia, the signing. The only one really in the offseason. but, you know, we talked about the culture and everything in the room. What's someone like him bring to maybe kind of help this thing go in the right direction? I've been so impressed by him. You know, certainly not expected to have that top six type of impact. He's not going to have the role even that Paul Stasney did a year ago in terms of how important he is on the ice. But he does have that sort of, I've seen it all, not in a not in and I'm done with this sort of way, but in an appreciative way.

And it's tough to throw this guy away attitude about him so far. He's had one scrum with media so far where he just showed such appreciation for the opportunity to be there. He wasn't talking as if his job was carved in stone, even though on Winnipeg's roster, it kind of is. There is a real sense of humility and appreciation that I think stood out in him and reminds me of that Paul Stasney kind of impact. Or maybe he should have more of an impact in Matt Hendricks did on the offensive categories

a couple of years ago. But Winnipeg brings these guys in, at the end of every summer, there's a veteran that you can count on being signed. And if you compare with Hendricks or Mark Letest, or Riley Nash, or Nate Thompson, all of these veterans who are good in the room, so to speak, I think Gagne will have a little bit more of an impact on the ice. And that's going to be something that Rick Bonas will need, because Winnipeg played its fourth line about six minutes per night last year. They're going to need to be able to trust people on and off the ice in that situation. and early returns on Sam Gagne, or he can be exactly that guy,

plus a little bit of special teams too. Marad, I'm doing a podcast tonight with Ben Hankinson. If you had to throw one question that you want to know about Dustin Bufflin at him, what would I throw him? Wow. I mean, you know, where did he go? Where did he go?

What's the story? Can I sit down with him? I told you, I saw him in December. So what was he doing in December? Hunting Fishing. I was at Justin Moreno's house doing that outdoor game thing that Justin Mornow and Joe Mower do with hockey players. And Buff shows up on a on a four-wheeler wearing like coveralls the most like ridiculous

gloves ever. And he starts just making a fire was as chill as could be and just was there to watch. What a beauty. It was like next door to Mourneau. I miss that guy. So any any preface that you can have just just share that his impact has been missed on on the ice especially, and then off the icy, you know, he didn't do a ton of media, but he was still great in it. I just want to know what happened down the stretch heading into St. Louis. That Jets team fell apart.

And I think Bufflin's injury is something you can point to. I wonder how healthy that foot was when he came back, played in the playoffs, banked a goal off of Jordan Bennington's head from the goal line. Like he was doing buff stuff right to the end. So, I mean, why did it end? Why did he leave Winnipeg? how did we have an impact if in any way? Is it something I said? Like, just help me out. I'm always, I'm always fascinated by the players that just, you know, they play, they have these great careers and they're, you know, all the fanfare and deal with media

all the time. And then they're just so content and willing to just fall off the face of the earth and not ever do a closing press conference. I can't even convey to you how often I have begged Danny Heatley to let me sit down with them in Manhattan Beach when we're out there. And he always writes me back like super, like super, super polite about it. It's like I have, I have just no interest right now.

And, uh, you know, I'm always amazed at the, the players are just like, you know what? I'm, I'm cool just saying sign an R to the league. Yeah, to be that secure about anything, eh? Just so sure. No. When I retire from this game, I'm definitely doing a press conference. Big athletic backdrop. Or get demoted.

Yeah. Get demoted and do a press conference like Blake Wheeler. Let's see if anybody does that. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do a big press conference. about the my favorite first round exit that I covered. It could work. It could work.

For the eggs of bringing the Atesian standards, we'll call it, because Helbucian standards was pretty good there too. Enjoy the season. We'll talk to you, I'm sure, a couple times throughout the year. So we'll talk to you soon. Yeah, thanks for having me. Thanks so much, guys. See, Marat.

Marat Etesh, who covers the Winnipeg Jets. We're going to turn things around with a new head coach behind the bench. Rapid Fire coming up after the break. All right, boys, my favorite time. The show and yours, Rapid Fire. the name indicates exactly what it is. We go through these topics pretty quick and get the opinions on some of the quicker stories

we didn't get to in segment number one. Let's start with the vaccine mandate lifted in Canada for the start of the NHL season. When I came back for my trip, we kept being told we had to download the Arrived Can app because they were going to ask us about it. They didn't ask us about it. So they got a head start on not doing any of the mandate.

Travelers now no longer required to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or wear face masks. does this really affect too much? Do you guys think as far as the NHL season goes? Russo will start with you. Yeah, not in the NHL, other than hopefully that does mean the elimination of the arrived can app because I can't stand filling that thing out. I never can understand.

Like, you know, they have that area there that, like, you have to say what your purpose is and nothing, there's not one of their 25 categories that, like, essentially means a sports writer coming in to cover them there's a little while. You just always scare that you're going to press the first of a while. You just always scare that you're going to press the wrong button in there. So, you know, and oh, sorry you can't come in. The other thing I will say that I found so strange was the face mask policy. It's like you needed it just at the airport, but if you leave baggage claim, you don't need it.

And there's like certain, like you only had to wear it at security. It was just strange. Yeah. I agree with Michael. Selfishly. It's going to make our job of getting into Canada a lot easier. My favorite part of going into Canada is that when you go up to customs, they're like kind of skeptical. like, you know how the guards always are.

And then they're like, okay, what's your business here? And you're like, well, I cover the hockey team. And the moment you say the word hockey, their face lights up. And they're like, welcome to Canada. Come right. I love it. I love it. My favorite part of the Arrivecan app was I had to fill out what the occupation was for my five-month-old

daughter. I haven't put it to work just yet, guys. It's like occupation. I'm like, what the hell are you kidding me? Anyway, so yes, that's not going to change too much except for people like us who got to travel. Rapid Fire topic number two, Spencer Knight signed that extension with the Florida Panthers three years, $4.5 million. It kicks in at the start of the 22, excuse me, 2023, 24 season. Kind of gambling a bit here. We haven't seen a lot of Spencer Knight,

gambling that he's going to be a good goaltender, isn't it? This is kind of what we talked about in the first segment with the cap and sometimes you just got to roll the dice on someone. Jesse, we'll start with you. Yeah, I mean, that is a lot of money in that position when you, Okay, it's Sergey Bobrovsky's contract combined with that one. But they've got their secession plan pretty much set. I mean, this is a league where goaltending most teams, even if you've got one good guy that you know you've got, what happens after him is usually a question.

You don't see many teams. Nashville has been able to do it really well, transitioning from one to the other, and they've already got their next one wind up. If you're Florida, you feel good in net for the next foreseeable future as long as they can pretty much see out right now. I think Spencer Knight's going to be great. I agree.

it is a risk giving him this money before you really see much and before he's ever been the guy because he's always kind of just coming in relief. But they've got to feel good at that spot. Yeah, and I think it's interesting there. I mean, devoting so much, investing so much money in their goaltending position, knowing that Bob is there assigned for a long, long time as well and how they're going to handle this for a team that's going to be at the cap for a long time that doesn't have a ton of draft picks anymore, you know, because they've sent so many out the door. But look, I like the way that they're developing this kid. I love that they've sent them back to the miners last year to play some games when Bob really caught fire there. And I think it's a good risk for a really, really good

young goaltinent. We touched on Buffalo earlier, General Manager, Kevin Adams, signing a multi-year extension with the team. In his time as GM of the Savers, he's changed coaches. He's traded to the captain and Jack Eichael. But this seems like a vote of confidence from the Buffalo savers. Your thoughts on this one? We'll start with you, Russell. Well, I'm a big Kevin Adams guy. I covered him in Florida. This guy, I could talk about Kevin Adams for about a month because I know so many stories about him down there. I mean, he was traded for Ray Whitney, which was a fan favorite down there coming down to Florida. And then he was traded, if I remember, with Brett Hedekin and a prospect for Sandus Ozilinch.

And the Panthers get O'Slinch. Next year he's in the All-Star game. Ozelinch gets traded while we're in Detroit before he's captaining the All-Star game and then the Panthers decide all right well they're hosting the Oster game we'll give him a ride back to Florida even though we just technically traded him to Anaheim gets on the team playing

falls off the plane when they land in Fort Lauderdale busts his face open and if you remember he didn't play in the skills competition because he had his face was an absolute mess and then so that was I know that's now talking about Sandus Ozlunch but not Kevin Adams, but there you go. Still a great story.

I was going to say, good story. Good story is a good story. I got to find my actual article that I wrote back then. But Kevin Adams, I remember covering him, and he was the most affable player to talk to. Like, you know, there's certain players that you cover in a locker room, and they're just always the friendliest person to go hang out at their stall at. And Kevin was one of those guys when I covered him in Florida, and he's still that guy as a GM.

So I'm just, I'm super excited for him in the way that he's worked up in the organization in a very odd way. I mean, he's basically doing business there and things like that. Next thing, you know, he takes over, Potterill as the GM. Kind of strange. But look, you know, they obviously believe in him. He's following what he thinks is the plan. And they've begun this rebuild there in Buffalo.

Yeah, they seem to be going in the right direction in Buffalo. I mean, you lose Ikel, a generational player, the guy that was supposed to bring you to the promised land. And it seems like that could be doomsday. But you look at the way they finished last season. Alex Tuck is a phenomenal player. He being from that area, I think, helps a lot. The local fans absolutely love him.

Peyton Krebs showed a little bit. I think things are looking up in Buffalo, considering where they were a year ago, when they were dealing with the Eichol neck surgery, things looked like they could be so ugly. They still aren't close to competing, but it does seem like they're going the right direction. I like what Adams has done.

And finally, in this fifth topic, or fourth topic, excuse me, you guys probably don't give a shit about it because you're both south of the board. but it is the 50th anniversary of the summit series between Canada and the Soviet Union. I don't know if you care about this. Being that I live in Canada, we hear about this approximately every 10 minutes. And it's the 50th anniversary. So think about that.

So allow me to rant just for a second. You know, I look back at that series. And again, this is, if you look at any list, you Google, greatest Canadian sports moments. This is top three all the time. Paul Henderson scoring this goal. I am of the belief that this series was important for maybe different reasons. It opened the eyes to the world that there's a different way to play hockey and that other countries can play this game and play this game well.

And you don't need to go up and down the wings. You can be creative and everything else. But after 50 years of hearing about this exhibition tournament, I'm one of those guys that's like, okay, enough. You know what I mean? Like it was an exhibition tournament that the Canadian team didn't want to go. it was just basically to make money. They said the Russians weren't even going to score a goal.

Why are we wasting our time? They went through the skin of their teeth. And every five years, we got to erect a new statue to Paul Henderson. No disrespect to Paul Henderson. But we're crying out loud. I can't hear about this damn summit series anymore. And I know there are people who are probably listening who made me watch that series and said, you're insane.

It was important. I'm not saying it wasn't important. But are we still talking about an exhibition series? Do you guys, am I the only one ranting here? Do you guys have an opinion on the Summit series? Not really. Isn't Paul Henderson like in government now? Like what's he do now in Canada?

I'm not sure exactly. I know he had some health problems. I'm not sure. He did. He was doing some of that as well. And there's always a strong, strong group of people who believe he's a hockey Hall of Famer. I'm not one of those people.

I mean, I don't, I don't think we should put people in the hockey of fame because they had a great exhibition series. What's next? Someone has like three good All-Star games. We're going to put them in the Hall of Fame. I just don't. I don't believe he's, you look at his,

his career in the NHL. He's a fine player, but that's not the hall. It's not the hockey Hall of Fame for fine players. But yeah, I mean, it's, we hear about this a lot.

It was 1972. Jesse's laughing at me right now. One of those times where my Canadian is showing. Funny hearing you say that because like, My only experience with this series is that, like, so I play this hockey rink run by this guy from Montreal named Dan Corsetia. And he's, he's an old guy from Canada. And he is obsessed with that series. No matter what happens, like, we'll play a men's league game and I'll be talking to him after.

And no matter what you talk about, he will relate it back to that series. Oh, that reminds me of this goal that was scored in the summit series. Oh, this speech that was given in the locker room. And he's told me it's so many times he absolutely is obsessed with the series. so I can imagine most people up in Canada are that same way, like of that age, like the older, the generation that saw that and that experienced it. Obviously, I'm way too young and I'm not Canadian. So that, it just, when you were saying that, I was like, man, it sounds just like Dan from the range.

No, but I mean, I'm the guy who's like, okay, we get it. Like, and I understand the Cold War aspects. I understand all of that. People are always trying to convince me. But after 50 years, I'm kind of like, it was an exhibition tournament guys in the summer. Like, I just, okay, cool. wow he's so i'm reading up on him here he's twice been inducted into canada sports hall of fame that's how legendary he is up there because of this series and uh he's in the international ice hockey

federation hall of fame but not the hockey hall of fame so um i'm perfectly fine letting um the canadian uh rip on this series and keeping the americans out of this um you know this way we don't we've already created enough controversy by talking about o's lunch falling off an airplane um i'll let you just I'll let you. It's not that I don't want to, again, it had a lot of, I've watched all of those games more than once. That's how ridiculous it is, but, and they're entertaining, but, all right, we're at the 50th anniversary, good for the Summit series. And that's a good way to wrap up the show. It's getting me all hot and bothered right now.

Guys, what are we working on this week? Jesse, we'll start with you. Yeah, I actually, I'll talk about the one that just came out this morning. It's on the Summit series, isn't it? Ten part series on the Sunmit. I've been working on it for 50 years. No, I, so since camp started, so it's been a week-long project, I decided to write about how a coach installs a new system. Bruce Cassidy is the most open coach I've ever spoken to in terms of talking about the nitty gritty details, the minutiae of what he's installing, what he's doing, how he's doing it.

And it was just really eye-opening for me. We talk all the time about new coaches coming in and installing new systems. So I went detail by detail exactly to the minute every film session, every ice, everything on the ice, how this team is installing a new system that's quite a bit different from the one they ran under, they ran under Pete DeBore. So obviously Golden Knights fans like that. But I think if you like hockey and you want to know how a new coach comes in and installs a system, it was really fun for me to write. Yeah, the thing I was going to promote was the goalie tandem tiers that was supposed to run on Tuesday, October 4th that I'm doing with Joe Smith, Sean. Shapiro and Corey Promen, but we've actually just pushed the publication date. Why? Why? Um, my guess is that Joe Smithson a hurricane. And I think Corey Promen,

doesn't he live in Florida too, but on the other side. Uh, so that might have something to do with it. Um, I guess my joke didn't go over well that he should during the eye of the hurricane put his tabulations today. So, uh, apparently I just got it pushed back. Um, I'm doing a couple really cool wild features. Tyson Joe scored a couple, um, X, uh, goals last night in Denver, you know, payback for not being part of the Cup championship. I think that you think that made up for it. You think that made up for the hip, him having to watch the avalanche parade around a Stanley Cup after being there for years and traded like two months earlier? I don't think so. So that'll be that story. I find it, I find it there's again my dark sense of humor. I'm going to have some fun with that

story. Working on a really, really, really cool Jake Middleton feature. I mean, I sat down with him for launch right before training camp. He is the most colorful athlete, one of the most colorful athletes that I've ever covered. The color and the anecdotes I picked up from him, his family, people on the San Jose Sharks as well. This story is going to be pretty cool

and hopefully transcend just Minnesota and people around the league, fans around the league, can read about a guy that, you know, just a couple years ago was laying brick to make money and now he's a millionaire, you know, on one of the top defense pairs for the Minnesota Wild. All right, boys.

And then after that, your Summit Series piece. Thanks for doing this. I want to remind everybody who's listening. It was your favorite. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform. If you leave a rating and a review, we'll like you even more. You can get an annual subscription to The Athletic for just a dollar a month for six months when you visit The Athletic.com slash hockey show.

The Athletic Hockey Show returns Thursday with Ian Mendez and down goes ground. Then on Friday, you got Sean Gentile and Haley with the new Friday Athletic Hockey Show. For Russo and Granger, I'm Rob Pee. We'll see you next week.