The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Hockey Show: Parade Aftermath

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

The NHL offseason is revving up, with the Draft taking place tonight and Free Agency beginning next week. Before we delve into some of the hot topics surrounding offseason moves, the gang recaps the Florida Panthers' second consecutive Stanley Cup parade in Ft. Lauderdale and shares their wins and fails of the week. Then, former Florida Panther Anthony Stewart joins the program to discuss Hockey Equality's upcoming 2025 Black Hockey Summit and his initiatives to grow the game of hockey. He also shares what it has been like to watch the emergence of the Panthers franchise after playing in Sunrise during the dark years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Proximo. Cuervo.com. Please drink responsibly. Cuervo. This episode is brought to you by Dzone. For the first time ever, the 32 best soccer clubs from across the world are coming together to decide who the undisputed champions of the world are in the FIFA Club World Cup. The world's best players, Messi, Holland, Kane, and more are all taking part.

And you can watch every match for free on Dazone starting on June 14th and running until July 13th. Sign up now at Dazone.com slash FIFA. That's D-A-Z-N dot com slash FIFA. I don't know if you can hear me. We're at the Panthers parade right now. We're celebrating the Panthers winning the Sally Cup. Oh, that's Michael Jackson, by the way. Welcome to The Hockey Show with David Dworka, The Hockey News news Ethan and Rosie in the other studio in the shipping container My name is Roy Bellamy. A lot of news has come out

From the nhl players are on the move. We got a potential deal being struck with the collective bargaining agreement They are having a meeting actually. They're gonna have a press avail Yep, and they're probably gonna end up announcing today and the draft is tonight. We're gonna get all probably gonna end up announcing today and the draft is tonight we're gonna get all in depth with that with Anthony Stewart and Greg Ruszynski coming up next but first to the Atchin Pat Show today yeah we got a lot to get through we gotta get through it right now for those of you watching on DraftKings Network you can watch Anthony and Greg and the rest of the show on YouTube it's the Levitard and Friends YouTube page. You're

gonna hit the playlist tab and search for the hockey show folder. You can watch the entire show there. We got all the episodes and everything and it looks good. Great production quality from Rosie and Ethan. Appreciate you guys doing that and the video team back there with Jason and Gino. Thank you very much for helping us out today. A reminder, we have merch. We have a Shut Down City shirts and we also have our shirseys. And until Monday, coming up on Monday, that is the last day, proceeds from the sale of the shirseys will go to a nonprofit by the name of Rescue Paws who is dedicated in finding forever homes for dogs.

You can go to rescuepawsfl.org for more information on that. The Florida Panthers held their championship parade on Sunday and as you can tell from the code open there, it was loud. A lot of people there. It looked good. It was great. People were complaining that there weren't a lot of people there. Well, that was a lie. There were a lot of people there. It looked good. It was great. People are complaining that there weren't a lot of people there. Well, that was a lie. There were a lot of people there.

That looks pretty awesome. I mean, how often do you ever see a championship parade where people can also be simultaneously in the ocean? Once before last year. So yeah, that happened on Sunday. So we saw that the players had super soakers filled with water. That water came from the ice that the Panthers won the Stanley Cup Championship on. It was melted down and put in those super soakers. That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's actually really cool until you realize that there's paint. Yeah, I would say, and when you think about like the players are out there, you know,

spitting and firing snot rockets into the ice during the game, which is totally normal. Yeah. So, but hey, you know, part of the game celebrate. Yay. Yay. At the parade, me and Rosie were there. We were at the riders table. I was there. Ethan was also there. He were person at the riders table. I was there

Ethan was also there. He has b-roll actually he took some video. I forgot I thought you had the I thought you're doing something else actually I didn't realize you were at the place It was a lot of fun. It was but it was a more packed than last year's I have to say it was incredible The turnout was unbelievable this year, and you didn't bother to say hello. Well you guys were in the media tent I was all the way over here. I wasn't bothering going down to that end of the beach. It was way too packed. There were too many people. What part of the neighborhood were you?

I was at this place right next to Elbow Room. We were really lucky. We have a friend who knew somebody, got us a table. We were right on the street. They came right by us right next to the Elbow Room, saw Chucky come out and go up. It was unbelievable. The energy was unmatched and it's just,

I think the coolest part was the chant was we want three, we want three. Like fans want to keep going. They're not satisfied with just two, they want to keep going. Yeah. Rosie and I got there early, real early. You kinda have to. Yeah, we had to beat the traffic. It was nine, we got there at nine a.m.

The parade was at 12. Now Rosie, I mean she was just there to go to the beach. And that's, I mean she came in there with a little sundress. Yeah, you were ready to get in the ocean. Like you were pretty annoyed at the fact that you got there three hours early. Yeah, it was eight a.m.

We got there at eight a.m., not nine a.m. I don't know why you say 9 a.m. Because of traffic you had to. Yeah, but it was 8. You were you keep saying 9. We were there at 8. Okay, all right, all right. I wanted to get there by 8. It was really 8.30. I was there at 8. But the thing is I was on the street. But yeah. Yeah, yeah. So we got there obscenely early to beat the traffic and it worked. And there were a lot of people there when we got there. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, so we got there obscenely early to beat the traffic and it worked and there were a lot of people there when we got there Oh, yeah. Yeah, so uh, it was good. It was packed early and they stayed throughout I was obviously to go to the beach now. I don't mean this year right? Huh? No lightning. No lightning

No rain, no scares of life or death situations. No, just heat stroke. That's pretty much it. That's south ford Now I don't want to speak for rosie. So I'm going to let Rosie speak for herself. It's time for Rosa in un minuto. Take it away, Rosie. Bueno. OK. Are we ready? OK.

Un minuto. Los Patos celebrated their second consecutive championship with the Ford Loading Del Vichy show. This time without rain, but with a hellish color. More than 200,000 fans lined up in the A1A to see the players arrive in two-story buses, throwing water with guns loaded with ice from the rink. Bobby and Tachuk couldn't stand the heat and went to the sea,

while Barkov, with a Tachuk shirt, smoking a pure, led the scream of war. Bobby went up to the stage in the scream of, Thank you Boston. And he even left... The first one to want to stay. Bennett publicly asked for eight years more, and he laughed, yes, he thanked everyone. Bennett asked for 8 years of matches,

and he laughed, and thanked everyone. And Paul Mariz wore a shirt with his two cats, this time both in front and crowned. The Oylers anthem sounded at Pink Bunny Club, then We Are The Champions, and everyone was excited in front of a crowd of crazy people. A celebration in the mobility, even though I ended up with my head burning under the sun,

it was epic. I don't know if I'm learning Spanish or not, but I understood a lot more than I usually do in that. Like there's phrases jumping out at me. I didn't understand a single word. So we are going to do it in English. It's time for Rose in a Minute.

Rose, go ahead. Let's take it away in English. Let's do it. Okay, the Panthers celebrate their second straight Stanley Cup as a massive beach parade in Port L'Oreal. This time on no ranges, bro heat. Over 2,000 fans lined up along A1A as a player rolled in the double-decker buses spraying water with a sprint gun filled with actual ring eyes. Barbarovski to chuck Jum into the water to cool off, while Barkov rocking a shirt to

chuck smoke and cigar kicked off Bobby Chan. Marshan in the stage to thank Boston Chants and tease Elahimite Stay. Bandit publicly begged for eight more years. Eklav laughed. Cito gave a heartfelt thank you. And Coach Maria show up with a cat shirt again. But this time the cats were crowned and in front.

Pink Pony Club played, yes, the other songs. Followed by the We Are The Champions and the whole team gathered at the front of the stage as the crowd went wild. It was an unforgettable party. Though I left with a sunburn, hit exhaustion, it was epic. All right, that's a rose in a minute. And that's very good. All right, so let's get to the actual player speeches. Let's start with Alexander Barkov. Let me start with the way it ended last year. Let's do it again.

Bobby. Bobby. Bobby. Bobby. Bobby. Bobby. Bobby. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah, so the players joined in in the back. Thank goodness. Because they didn't know what he was doing last year. No, you just let him go. You just let Barkey cook. Yeah, that's your captain right there.

Here is Matthew Kachuk. We thought about one of my favorite lines ever and it was, I would like to apologize to absolutely no one. Because I double champed as ever the f***ing once. of my favorite lines ever and it was I would like to apologize to absolutely no weeks like double champs is where the f***ing wands the double champs here is Sam Bennett you know a lot of people have they don't like the way we play they don't like they call us, they call us dirty. They call us nasty. They call us bullies.

So no, I would like to take this time to apologize. To absolutely, we're the double champs. We do what the we want. Let's go. Some fancy sunglasses, here's one in there. We do what the we want. Let's go. Some fancy sunglasses. Here's one in there. Yeah. That was your takeaway from that.

Yeah. I mean, not really trying to get the double champs thing. I like the let's go. Very reminiscent of Jeremy's less. Let's go. Let's go. Here's Aaron Echblad. It's funny. After 11, my agent called my agent called me said make sure you don't say whatever benny said you know a lot of leverage a very good

the uh... all i have to say is thank you thank you for this thank you my teammates thank you very eleven you believe in thank you my teammates. Thank you Vinny, 11 years, you believed in me. Billy, you believed in me. Dale Talon, all the people that believed in me. Wow. Come in and do what I do and do what we do best.

Thank you, thank you. Wow, you got a Dale Talon reference at the Championship Parade. The blueprint. I do have a, I have a bracelet on. Can anybody guess what it says? Oh, it's beautiful and Eklav says something beautiful there, but it's not blipped. So it's a bleep Brooks Kepka.

That's what the the bracelet said. Here is Sam Reinhardt in honor of DJ Khaled. We the best. Why did In honor of DJ Khaled, we the best. Why did he go to DJ Khaled? And I mean that. Another one. If I have to give a drunkest Panther award for the last Fortnite, it's got to go to Sam.

I have a 5 and 1 half minute video in my phone from Eleven of Sam Reinhardt talking. I'm going to tell you something. I have a five and a half minute video in my phone from 11 of Sam Reinhart talking I'm gonna tell you something I lost a little bit of respect of our players because when they disrespect someone else like Connor Mcdavid I know we don't like Connor Mcdavid, but when they start like talking like that and disrespecting I love respect for Rosie. Have you not been paying attention to this team for the past three years like the double champs? They told you themselves. They can do whatever the bleep they want. These are professional trolls.

Yeah, meh, me and the lucky. All right, it's time for wins and fails brought to you by Jägermeister, presented by, it's presented by Jägermeister. I just said, serve it cold, or don't serve it at all. Jägermeister, damn, that's cold. For more, visit jägermeister.com, drink responsibly. David, what's your win?

My win of the week, we go to Instagram, the account BarkovMemes, very funny account. Panther fans, if you don't follow it, give it a shout. Posted a picture. I remember back when Jake Wallman was laughing at Thomas Nosik at the end of Game 1 when he took that delay of game penalty and that aged like a fine milk

in the sun. BarkovMemes account reposted it. And who commented on it? No one other than the great Brad Marshand. Huh. He commented, you think he's still laughing? Probably not.

Brad Marshand is, I know I just said Sam Reinhardt might be the drunkest panther for the celebrations, but I don't know if anybody's having- There's a civil medal. Well, Brad Marshand's certainly living his best life right now and good for him. Speaking of Brad Marsh, on my winner of the week is Dairy Queen.

Now it's been a solid run of business for Dairy Queen over the past month and a half. And they've really taken a lot of the Florida Panthers money even after they actually won the Stanley Cup because according to Panthers reporter, Katie Ingleson, a group of Panthers won a trip to the Bahamas this week, found a Dairy Queen store on the island. Those blizzards, I'm sure, melted as soon as they walked out of the shop. But yeah, Dairy Queen is the big winner this postseason, fueling the Florida Panthers to another Stanley

Cup championship. That picture had Matt DeKuchuk, Brad Marshon, Sam Reinhart, Aaron Ackblad, among others. That was a star-studded picture that they put up there. So, yeah, good job on Dairy Queen. I hope you got a lot of money out of that deal. They're gonna have to be an online sponsor next year, right? They better, at least on the boards. Ethan. My winner of the week is Big C's guys.

You guys gotta know who this guy is. One of the best Panther fans out there. He had a week to remember, and it was all culminated at the parade on Sunday when Reinhardt and Kachuk pulled him out of the crowd poured some beer on him. They brought him on the stage at 11 he got the mic at 11 gave a speech trolled biz in the spitting chiclets boys It's just awesome to see them the way they've embraced the fans and especially a guy like big C's. So salute to him. He's having a great week and a great summer.

All right, Rosie, go ahead. Okay, don't hate me. My win of the week is going to be for the fourth season. Rosario Tijeras, Barbara De Gil, did it again. A season that I didn't think she needed and simply, well, the name sounds familiar to me, Rosario. I'll tell you, shut up. Barbara, if you want to do a season five, let's put it in a Guatemala. The fuck? I don't know. What the hell was that? I don't know. So don't know. I don't know. I'm just giving it to English. I'm just giving the winter of Rosario is very pretty. But what the hell? I'm just going to say that

the head of Barbara Hill did it again. Amazing season. Season of what? Love is blind. Put that. Is that the name of the show? Yeah, Rosario Tijeras. I should make that my fail of the week. No, that's season four. I don't know what this is. Great. And I wanna be on season five, so Barbara, if you wanna what the.

Are you begging for a gig? Yeah. Dave, fail of the week. I think we just saw it. Yeah. Yeah, I really should change mine, but I gotta keep mine. I'll stick with what I had.

My fail of the week is us, Roy. It's you and I, and I'm going back to a year ago now. What did I do'll stick with what I had. My fail of the week is it's us, Roy. It's you and I, and I'm going back to a year ago now. What did I do? It's what we did. And looking up right now at this picture, that was our Stanley Cup picture. We spent the entire summer trying to track that mother bleepin' trophy down

so we could get some kind of a candid moment with it, drinking from it, lifting it, kissing it, something. Oh, you can kiss my ass. And we failed, Roy. We failed. We were lucky. We were very fortunate that the Panthers put this event together kiss my ass. We failed, Roy. We failed. We were lucky. We were very fortunate that the Panthers put this event

together on opening night. Thank you, Addy. Thank you very much, Addy, Tommy, and that crew for doing that for everybody. But we never got our whatever lame moment that we would have put together that would have been corny, and nerdy, and awesome. So I am saying right here and now that this summer,

we have to make it happen. I've got to call in favors to people who don't owe me favors. I have to try to get us invited to cup day parties that we're not invited to. We have to really, we can't fail two summers in a row. They've won the Stanley Cup again. We have another chance. Second chances do not come along very often. So we got to turn this fail into a win. That's our summer job, our summer goal. Very quickly, my fellow weakest, Vannekeen. That's me.

Vannekeen got traded. He was so bad in, I mean, it was good in game one, but he was bad throughout the entire playoff of Stanley Cup final. 32 penalty minutes. 32 penalty minutes. And the misconduct in game six didn't come back out to shake his hand, or the rest of the Panthers' hands. So, yeah, it's just a complete fail on Evander Cain's part.

And you deserve it, sir. Have fun in Vancouver. Coming up next, Anthony Stewart. We are going to talk about the 2025 Black Hockey Summit, and we got Greg Rosinski coming up after that. You can watch that on YouTube, Levitard, and Friends. You can search the playlist tab and search for the hockey show folder. We will be there.

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They got over 400 kids across North America attending this year, Dave. This is big, man. It's very cool. Yeah. We have the chairman of Hockey Equality. He's our friend. He's a very good person. He is Anthony Stewart.

He's a former Panther. And I mean mean what? like one year Come on Played with some great Panthers on a at a time where it was not great to be a Panther fan Yeah, they added some fun teams back then of Stewie and Oli. I think Louie was there for a little bit I was not happy when he left. I was really not happy when he left. But yeah, he had to go somewhere because that

was a bad team back then. So the Black Hockey Summit, this is grassroots now. We're starting from the foundation here, trying to grow hockey in cities and towns that don't necessarily watch the sport or can't afford to play the sport. So this is big. This is absolutely big.

So why don't you talk about the Black Hockey Summit, how it got started and how all this came together? Well, we're going on our third year this year for the Black Hockey Summit. And what we're trying to do is sort of create an affinity space and be unapologetic for the work that we're doing. Yes, we're creating a space for everybody, but you want to be able to highlight some of the young black athletes and instructors throughout Ontario. And the one thing that people are amazed by, there's like, well, where did you find 15 instructors of colour. Then we have instructors that are South Asian background,

Black, East Asian, all over pretty much the entire world coming together to celebrate diversity in hockey. We're in a climate now where it might be going in a different direction, but for one week, seeing 400 kids from different backgrounds come together under one roof to play hockey, basketball. They subsidize, I think, 75%. It's $250 for a week. I think the cost is $600 per kid, but it's great because every kid gets a jersey, they get socks, they get to meet NHL hockey players. Tom Wilson comes out, Eric De Branson, Tyler Sagan has supported it in years past. So it's just a celebration of hockey for one week. And what's great about that, as there's a lot of kids that go through different issues, you know, racism or different barriers in

the sport of hockey, but they know for one week I can come together, meet my friends and at least get over, you know, sort of some of those other things that could be going through throughout the year. Stewie, you said you're getting ready for year three of the Black Hockey Summit this year. I'm just curious, in the three years that you've been doing it, how much change have you seen for the better just over the last few years, just because you guys have been putting in so much work? It's crazy. We're in an environment where we want to highlight the negatives of everything, especially with the sport. But when I see a kid that gets a brand new stick or a brand new set of equipment

and get on the ice for the first time, and I'm like, well, be careful, be careful. And within a day, they're playing the game of hockey. I'm like, that is change. Everyone talks about change and it's an adjective, but it's a verb. Right? So just seeing these kids get introduced to the sport or seeing kids go from single A level to triple A level or kids getting better and going on to the next level as, you know, there's a couple of kids from our program getting drafted to the NHL today as first round drafts.

It's that's the change that we're talking about. And for me, I'm just trying to create a space that, you know, for the needs that I wanted as a player. I grew up in, you know, probably poverty that would be described as poverty. But I had the community go above and beyond to make sure I was flowed. I had equipment, I had rights to the rink. So we're just creating that space. But you know, over three years, you know, it's grown, I think it's come from 250 to 300 now over 400 so we're gonna have to get a new rink if we expand any further but it's gonna be a great week. You have some alumni in this year's draft you got a Ke'Shawn Aitchison and Markham Spence why don't you talk about these prospects going into the

draft this year? Well if you're the Florida Panthers you better drop sort of straight up to get one of these. It's great, you know, sort of seeing, you know, young players that you've known from the age of 10, 11, 12, and get a little bit of extra mentorship or extra, you know, motivation to sort of help them guide them along the way. I had a lot of help as a youngster getting to the National Hockey League as a first round draft pick and it really takes a village. Seeing these kids at 13, 14-years-old and being introduced to the NHL and being introduced to Ron McClain from Hockey Night Canada, David Amber, Ben Johnson and saying, hey guys, you guys can do it and if you need any help, here's your support system and here's your rock or

your network, it's great. So both players, big part of the program, I'm really, really excited for them. But at the end of the day, the one thing I can tell you is, they can play. They can play, right? So I know you guys traded Swordith. Yeah, I was not happy about that.

Right? You might have a player in that, and they're not the Spence. So I'm excited for those players. But you know, seeing it's not about making the NHL, but when you see kids get drafted and have them live out their dreams, it's definitely, definitely fulfilling and rewarding. That kind of leads me into what I wanted to ask you about just in terms, I know how big family is for you and being a father, just in terms of growing the game through your own eyes and through your own experiences. How has big family is for you and being a father, just in terms of drawing the game through

your own eyes and through your own experiences. How has your work just kind of helping build diversity in the game, how has that kind of influenced you as a father and vice versa? How do you think your being a father has influenced your work helping so many young hockey athletes trying to pursue their dreams? Well, you know, when you're a father, father, you can do anything for your kids. I bring that thinking into helping these kids. Some of these kids, it's not just underprivileged kids or low income. Some of them just need somebody to talk to after a game. Some of them might just need a stick. Some of them might just need, hey, someone to go over some video. So going above

and beyond for these young athletes, you know, being a father, that's what it's taught me to do. But, you know, my first son, like he plays low level house sleeve hockey, he just likes playing games and he goes and it's social for him. Sits on the bench, has a good time and that's it. But now that I have, you know, three other kids, I'm now getting the extra, you know what,

if I'm helping all these different kids, well, I might as well implement that for my own kids. So I have a daughter that's playing high level hockey um I have a young son that's seven years old and you know he's playing with Miguel Griboski former NHL so he's now got the itch and the bug and he's ready to go as well too so um the sense of fulfillment uh but the sense of you know giving your giving your all to these kids, you know, that's what you do as a father and that's what I do for these young athletes and I feel that's why we're having success.

Since the time of the colored hockey league and the Maritimes around the turn of the 20th century, it's about 130 years from then to now. And there's been very little progress, some progress in diversifying and including everyone in this sport. Even between the time of you being drafted in 2003 by Florida and the time to now, there have been very little progress or some progress in diversifying

and including everybody in the sport. So how far do you think that we've come so far? And is the current hockey establishment still throwing obstacles in a way in making everybody feel welcome and playing the sport? I think someone from the league's listening. I'll tell you this, right? For me, it's I'll give the political answer. No, I'll give a real answer. Like, yes, you know, you look at the color of hockey, you know, our history goes back 130 years, 1800s, right? And the reason why they started that league is because, you know, they wanted to get people

into the church and, you know, just reading the history on that where, you know, they have to play their games leading into spring because that's the only time that they'd be able to get their ice and East Texas cancels the championships because of the weather, right? The ice melted. So to go from there to now, yeah, there's a lot of work to do, but you know, I tell the NHL, the NHL, yeah, you know,

with pocket quality, we're the barometer, right? We're the weather system and we're predicting the kids are coming. And it's my job to give them the tools to be successful, right? So I didn't have somebody, hey, maybe wait till you win the Stanley Cup before you go for the elbow room. Don't be going there the night before, game, right? Don I didn't have somebody, hey, maybe wait till you win the Stanley Cup before you go to the elbow room.

Don't be going there the night before game, right? Don't be you know, if I want this Stanley Cup, I probably be trying to swim the Cuba with it, right? That's probably why they're not allowed. That's why I know it's allowed to live in Fort Lauderdale. But I think just, you know, seeing this mentorship and seeing what these kids are getting, they are getting a taste of what's to come and they're gonna know what to expect before they get there.

And I look at myself and the Wayne Simmons is and the Chris Stewart and the Vontae Smith-Pallies, we had a lot of bumps in the road. We had a lot of bumps in the road because we didn't necessarily have, I had Anson Carter and some other guys, but no one to really pull us aside and say, hey, you have to do it like this.

You're doing it like that, it has to be like that. So now with these kids now that have the access and we're leveling the playing field, access to training, access to mental health, access to academies, you know, they're going to be catching up really, really quick. And I'll tell you this, it's not just black players, South Asian players. There's going to be a player from China drafted in the first two rounds today as well. So for me, it's yes, the past, there was some work to do, but I'll tell you what the future the players are. They're coming. Yeah, Anthony, that totally leads me into what I wanted to ask you just in terms of like a positive spin on what's happened and where we're going. Because you mentioned there's players coming from all over the world. We've seen the the the what is it the the Latam Cup that they have down here where they have teams from like, it's nearing a dozen central and South American countries that come and play ice hockey here in South Florida. Just, you know, in terms of positivity,

how nice has it been, I guess, to see the progress that has come lately that you were just talking about where we're seeing players, not just of different backgrounds, but from all over the world coming and really showing that they're getting really good at ice hockey. It's definitely great, right?

And I followed a little Adam prep quick, very closely. My brother was a coach a couple of years ago. And what you see is over the years, good luck today. Good luck guys. A couple of the young draft picks, William by Porter Martell. You got to pick, pick him. But every year you see, different countries, you know, there's Greece now involved. Pakistan had a team, right? There's India. So seeing all these different teams and countries get involved every single year is definitely very exciting. I mentioned the term grassroots earlier. We're talking about the foundation. We're talking

about growing the game in these communities. It's not just having a hockey team in your backyard or somewhere near, you know, in the Tri-County area or something. Like if you live in Miami as opposed to, you know, sunrise or if you live in West Palm Beach as opposed to sunrise, you know, like you're trying to grow a game. And a lot of this, as I said earlier, is can't afford to play the sport. It's expensive, you know. So what can be done in that area, because I know that this is all based in Ontario, but throughout Canada and throughout the United States, continentally, how can we grow this game in communities that doesn't necessarily,

that can't really afford to play the sport? know my dad was a jamaican immigrants and i've been a great and i'm not too sad and for and you do not be about talking right but he is it's a greats uh... he found the way to sort of get his sons involved a good for the Montreal canadians and what happened was you know me watching much roughly is as a master going up i decided that i want to but you can also have a sport and with that you know I started with ball hockey

and then started with rollerblades and I started with foot hockey. We used to play foot hockey in school where you literally would kick a tennis ball into a net. But once I got to the edge and I got on the ice, my dad found a way. So you have to find a way to introduce kids to the game. And I tell everybody, I'm not a baseball fan,

but I am a Toronto Blue Jays fan. Because when I was a youngster, our local church, if you got baptized, they would take you to dinner and would bust down and you go to a Blue Jays game. So let's just say when I was younger, I went to five Blue Jays games. So me going, that's why I'm baptized five times.

I don't know if that's a good or bad, but my story in that is I became a Blue Jays fan because they supported me when I was young. So find the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, get kids to the game, give them the experience, get them introduced to it and their parents will find a way because the cost of hockey is expensive, but the cost of bail, the cost of low grades, the cost of all these other things and socio-economic issues if you do not play the game and you're getting into other stuff is a lot more

deeper. So I think it's just introducing player to the game and Florida's done that. And one of the high schools was donated a rank by, Anthony Duclair and the NHL PA and the NHL, little stuff like that. You'll see the impact economically, but with the game, you know, a lot sooner than later. Geez, I didn't give, I didn't go to any malls games when I got baptized I mean, that's not fair Do you were on one of my favorite Panther teams as a kid the 08 09 team that

Tied the Montreal Canadiens for eighth and ninth place and just missed the playoffs That was as close as we used to get down here. Now we've won back-to-back Stanley Cups What has it been like for you to watch the emergence of this franchise? I'm jealous. I'm jealous. Right. And we had great players, right. But you know, for us, like, you know, I got sent down nine times one year and half the games I played, like I had to race literally we're in Rochester. I'm getting in at four 30 have to race down to get to the rink.

And I'm getting there just in time for warmup. So like how prepared was it? So I think management wasn't necessarily in the best place at the time, but did you imagine this team of the Steven Weiss? Did you imagine this team with a Jay Boney's still number four, right? You know, David Booth flying down the wing.

So we had some great teams. I just think the, our, you know, we just weren't put together at that time, but you know but it's great to see Hockey as South Florida because it was considered a non-traditional hockey market. But seeing Bill Zito and the work that he's done putting this group together, it's definitely been nothing short of amazing. So I'm happy for them, but I'm really, really jealous. I'm really, really jealous.

So at Great Campbell, shout out if you need an advising job. I have 20 jobs as it is and to make him fun you know what if you need any advising you know let me know I got some young players for you. Now we need to bring Stewie home for sure. Yeah Stewie tell everybody how we can help hockey quality. You can help by just going to our website hockeyquality.org www.hockeyquality.org we're always accepting donations the NHL the PA have been amazing, our primary sponsors. I like to shout out, you know, Kim Davis, Rob Kneserek, Jeff Scott from the NHL. They've committed over a million dollars over the last three years.

Definitely excited for that. But, you know, it takes a village. It costs money. You know, everyone wants to see the grassroots, the kids with, you know, ankle burning because it's the cheapest way. But these kids need sticks, they need skates, they need resources, they need mental health, they need you know everything that it costs you know how much it costs to feed these kids to get there. So any any supports you need volunteers would be greatly appreciated and I really appreciate

you guys having me on this program and this platform to really talk about my cause. The 2025 Black Hockey Summit is July 14 through the 18th at Scotia Bank Pond Arena. For more information log on to hockeyquality.org slash b h s and log on to hockeyquality.org and donate and show your time if you are up there in Ontario. Anthony Stewart, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. To the Panthers, if you're still partying, go home please. Your wife misses you, your kids miss you. Go home, get some sleep, and do it next year.

You'd be partying too. Stop, Stewart. You'd be out there. Oh yeah, you don't even know where I'd be right now. I'd be a Spongebob under the ocean. I know. Nice. Nice.

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ESPN's NHL Cupers continues throughout the offseason. They got the 2025 NHL Draft that begins tonight at 6 o'clock Eastern with the point on ESPN2 and ESPN+. That's followed by round one of the NHL draft on ESPN and ESPN+, at 7 o'clock Eastern. The rest of the draft, rounds two through seven, begins at noon Eastern on Saturday across ESPN+. And coming up next week, you can catch this guy on Free Agent F frenzy on Tuesday, July 1st begin at 11 a.m Eastern on ESPN plus this guy we know this guy He was a guy been a guy and will always be a guy this guy is named Greg

Roshinski a lot of guys a lot of guys We are gonna get started. This has been a big time week a lot of news has flown out a lot of players have gone You know to afro, you know trades and everything we got We got a new collective bargaining agreement. Apparently that has just been Finalized and will be announced later today. But first we are going to talk about the Florida Panthers. They won't stand a cup again so they are currently on their Worldwide Troll Tour and it seems like they're going after everybody right now. Greg, are they being bad boys?

What say you, are they showing good form in their trolling right now? Well, I mean, the only downside to me right now is that if there was any inkling of trying to convince Connor McDavid to come to South Beach, that's probably out the window based on some of the chants I've heard at the club. Did we really expect them to change the manner in which they won the cup after they won the cup?

Like, absolutely not. And, you know, I think it's, I think it's par for the course amongst championship celebrations to do a little boasting and do a little bit of Chest puffing and then you know the Panthers do that But then they also just carry over what it was that made them special. I wrote a big like essay about them After the the cup win great story. Thank you very much And and something when a current NHL player told me when I asked him, what is it about the Panthers that kind of sets them apart,

is he said, they try to embarrass you. But he said, it's not just like embarrassing you with their taunting and their antics and Sam Bennett doing the oopsie doopsie and the goaltenders heads and all that stuff. This player said, they want to embarrass you on the scoreboard. And anyone who watched them in the playoffs

understands that because that whole thing of the blood in the water, them scoring one goal and scoring three more after that within the next like six minutes, is just kind of how they are. And I don't think that you can turn that off if you're the Panthers. I think that, especially after you have the proof of concept

of two straight cups and three straight trips to the final uh, you're the you're the king of the mountain until otherwise, uh thrown off and I think that the uh, what they're doing is Is is awesome, but also, you know, I mentioned mcdavid off the top It's also kind of a recruiting video man like people people underestimate the messaging and the images that come out of that panthers locker room and like the camaraderie that they have and you know what NHL player wouldn't love to play in a place where you're constantly winning the championship and then also partying by the beach it's like it's pretty dope and Bill Zito has mentioned their GM has mentioned this a few times of like oh gee what a life you

got to drive around on a golf cart and flip-flops to practice. I mean, it's all part of the thing that's shifted for both the Panthers and for a while the Lightning on how much fun it is to win in Florida. We've been hearing the word harmony between the NHL and the Players Association, and they have apparently finalized their collective bargaining agreement,

and they are going to formally announce that in a little bit. No lookout. Are we looking at an 84-game season? What potential rule changes are we looking at here, Greg? Well first of all, the words I would use to describe the labor negotiations as a kid who grew up in a union house, my dad was an electrician in New York City, are fat and happy. The players have absolutely no desire

to rock the boat at this point because everyone is doing pretty good. The revenues are strong for the league. There's gonna be even more revenue rolling in through expansion, you know, coming up in the next maybe like, you know, five or six years at the most. And the smartest thing that Gary Bettman,

the commissioner did was he put out a projection for what the next three years of the salary cap looks like. And three years from now, the cap is like well over $100 million. And if you're a player and you have an inkling of, well, the cap sucks and we should have a luxury tax and all get paid more. You look at that and you're like,

or we can do nothing and just be happy with where it is right now. And I think that's kind of where they are. So a couple of the changes in the CBA that are significant that impact people. You mentioned the 84 games myself and my colleague, Kevin Weeks, broke the story a couple of days ago that there will be an 84 game season beginning in 26, 27.

It'll be in the CBA. And the reason for it is obviously like money but also if you look at the schedule and how it's currently constituted with with the 32 teams that we have, you don't play everybody in your division the same number of times. There are some years in which the Panthers play the Lightning four times, some years in which they play them three times. So by adding two more games to the schedule you even even that out. And obviously the more games against your divisional opponents, the better it is for your revenue and interest, right? To do that, they'll take away two games from the preseason

because who gives a shit about the preseason. And then they'll probably start the season maybe a week earlier at the end of September. The other two things in the CBA worth mentioning, one is that there will be a reduction in the maximum amount of years you can give a player on a contract. If he is on your team, you can give him seven. If he is a free agent, you can give him six. And that's significant because that will encourage

more player movement and also probably fiddle around with how big these cap numbers are because you won't be able to space out the money you give a player through eight years, it'll just be seven. And the other thing finally, along with the salary cap and the word shenanigans comes to mind, is long-term injured reserve. Now we have probably talked about that on the show before about how certain teams have been able to leverage that to their advantage

Evander Kane is out for the entirety of the season and then my god like Christ himself rises For the early part of the playoffs Many penalties, I don't know We've seen it happen with you know, every team's I mean a lot of very successful teams have done it. And so the way they're gonna address this is not by playing around with the long-term injured reserve rules, which are very hard to change because then you're getting into the dicey area of,

is this person really hurt? Are the doctors lying? Like, they don't wanna get into that area. But they will get into the area of putting a salary cap in the playoffs. And by that, I mean the guys that are on the active roster, the active lineup, I should say, not roster, but lineup, the defensemen forwards goalies

that are active for a playoff game, the total of their cap hits must be under the salary cap. And that's how they're addressing it. So as one agent told me this week, you can have a billion dollars in player revenue, player salaries, like on your roster entering the playoffs, but the guys that are actually on the ice have to be cap compliant. Interesting. You get into an 84 game season, you add the visual games, how is that gonna affect the tiebreaker in this situation? Insofar as like the

standings? Yes. I mean it'll still be the same stuff. I mean, it'll still be, you know, the usual, the regulation wins over time, plus regulation wins, goal differential, all that stuff will still be in place. I don't think it's gonna have a huge impact on the standings necessarily. Is that extra six points? It is, but I mean-

Oh, it's four points, I should say. Yeah, or if you want to, you know, swing it out to like points lost points game, it's an extra eight points. But I mean, it's just two games. The only difference for me is like now the Buffalo Sabres will miss the playoffs by two additional games. Yeah. It's really the only big change, I think. All right, so you talked about shenanigans among construction of teams, long-term, injured reserve, you throw all these very technical terms at us. You got me thinking about front offices and I have a very simple question for you.

Why isn't Bill Zito the GM of the decade? Why doesn't he get more credit for what he's done? I don't think any GM in maybe the history of sports, Greg, has had a run like Zito's first five years in Florida. It's been fantastic. Now, if you wanted to get kind of like conspiratorial about it, the reason he probably doesn't get it is because other teams are jealous

of the advantages that he has. We talked about the climate, we talked about the quality of life, and then we probably have to bring up tax advantages, which other GMs get kind of salty about. Maybe that's not a reason, because Jim Nill in Dallas has the same advantages and manages to win that award a lot.

But I mean, listen, I've been a Bill Zito fan going back to his days as an assistant GM in Columbus. I was one of the first people to put his name out there and say, this guy has got it. There was always a hesitancy about hiring him as a GM. He had gotten interviews before, but he had never gotten a gig. And part of it might be because of his background

as an agent at the time wasn't really in vogue of thinking outside the box. It was like, let's hire the most famous name for the organization to be the GM. But you look at what he's done and now everybody's doing the same thing. I mean, the Sam Bennett trade, when they got him from Calgary, was the template for, I mean, the Sam Bennett trade, when they got him from Calgary,

was the template for, I mean, you could draw a through line from what the Philadelphia Flyers just did with Trevor Zegras to what the Panthers did with Sam Bennett, insofar as finding a guy that's young, that a team is very iffy about, insofar as do they want to extend that relationship

multiple seasons, because he's a restricted free agent. In Calgary's case, there was also pressure about potentially losing him to Seattle in the expansion draft and then anteing up with a bunch of picks and prospects and getting that guy and then hoping that you bet right. And in the case of Sam Bennett, they like extremely bet right because the guy just won the Con Smythe. But those were the kind of moves that Zeta was doing.

It was identifying players, buying low, you know, paying a commiserate price, but not overpaying. And then just really smartly building out his team attitudinally, hiring the right coach. I mean, there's absolutely no reason why that guy is the GM of the decade. I want to ask you about a team that seems like they're going to be really active on draft night here

and it's the New York Islanders. It seems like Noah Dobson could be traded any second. And the reports are coming out now that they have pivoted from looking for players to looking for futures in draft picks. Does this signal that the Islanders are going in more of a rebuild direction than maybe many of us expected heading into this all season? I think it's possible and I'm fine with it. I mean, so as you guys can tell I'm not in Los Angeles, but I will be on the island tonight at the New York Islanders draft party because I think they are the most interesting team at the draft on day one with holding the first overall pick, with trying to figure

out a way to draft local kid James Hagens, and then obviously doing all these trades scenarios to try to reshape the roster. This is a deeper dig out of the hole that they're in than maybe they're willing to admit publicly. But Lula Murillo had basically doubled, tripled, quadrupled down on the same roster for multiple seasons. It hadn't worked. They're an older team, they're a slower team, they need to get younger, they need to get faster.

And frankly, one of the guys that, the guy who led the GM search before they hired Matthew Darich was John Collins. John Collins is a co-owner of the team. Before that, he was also the guy who like helped invent the winter classic for the NHL. The man understands spectacle. The man understands entertainment.

The man understands that this is a market that has kind of atrophied under the current style of play and the level of success. And they still got a real new building, man. That thing is beautiful and they got to fill it. So I'm all for them pivoting to maybe rebuild, retool, whatever, in the hopes that they can build something that's sustainable and exciting

and brings fans back to that building on the reg because whatever they're doing right now ain't working. You mentioned the Evander Kane, or in this case Jesus Christ, with a gambling debt problem. He got traded to Vancouver. Edmonton did not get much in return in this trade. What do you think led to this trade, and is this really going to help either team? I mean, first of all, from what I understand, and again, it's been a while since I read the Bible,

but I believe Jesus Christ was on Draft Kings of Samaria. And so there's something to be said about that. That trade didn't make any sense to me from a Vancouver standpoint. Like I get their logic that they put out there in so far as it's hard to find wingers that can score that many goals. They got to get a little bit more physical because they don't have JT Miller there anymore and he brings that. And then the biggest gamble obviously is that a guy that has been a bit toxic in the

stops that he's had and by the way no love lost with him at Edmonton from what I gather at the end of his time there that being in his hometown, the place where he played junior hockey, the fact that he's got a young family, all of that adds up to maybe a level of maturity that we have not necessarily seen from a VanderKane. I mean, physically, his body seems like it's breaking down. I still find it weird that a team that sort of imploded because of some tough locker room drama would then be like, we gotta be in the Evander Cain market. I don't quite understand that.

And I also don't understand taking on the full freight of that contract from a division rival without them sending at least some kind of draft pick sweetener the other way. So it was a trade that vexed me about the Vancouver Canucks. Just on Edmonton, do you think that Stan Bowman knew that you can re-sign a guy that is on your team and you don't have to give him eight years

in the case of Trent Frederick? Well, you know, that's a really weird one because the Oilers used to get hit with that a lot about giving out like term to bottom six players. A lot of teams have gotten hit with that. Give out term to bottom six players and you figure they would have learned that lesson. I didn't see anything from Trent Frederick that really set me up. We've got to be in the Trent Frederick business long term.

But I guess when you make that trade, you've committed a certain amount of capital to it and you have to keep them around. Yeah, obviously with the Oilers, the big question is McDavid. And I wrote about that this week on ESPN. There is a non-zero chance that he leaves Edmonton next summer if he doesn't like what he's hearing from a planning standpoint, from a stand-alone in the franchise. I'd be shocked if he signed on July 1st based on the way things are trending. He's going to take his time to understand what their plan is. When you hear that, I think it greatly reduces the chances that he'll sign a long-term deal

like Leon Dreisaitl did. It increases the chances that he might take something on a shorter term. Give Edmonton four more years to get this thing right. And then if they don't get it right, you become the single greatest unrestricted free agent in the history of North American sports since LeBron and the decision. I think that's kind of where he'll go, but we'll see how it plays out because as I've often said about impending free agents, his stuff is in Edmonton. And when your stuff is there, you tend to stay and sometimes you stay for quite a long

term. Jonathan Taye signed a one- year deal with the Jets. His hometown is in Winnipeg. He hasn't played since 2023 due to long COVID. What are you making this deal? Kind of an obvious one. I mean, I think it's in Tay's best interests to go to a place that is going to be less pressure packed

than say like Toronto would have been for him because he's just getting back into it. Got to see what kind of shape he's in. Hometown Winnipeg, not a whole lot of pressure cooker there for a guy like Jonathan Taves, who returns as a conquering hero. It's an incentive laden contract, so there's not a lot of risk on the jet side and no one's expecting him to be their second line center. But if it happens, great, they need one.

So I think I think it was a good a good gamble for them and a good match for him. And hopefully he can run it back. I mean, he was one of the most outstanding players of his era. And then it kind of all fell apart for him health-wise. So hopefully he can come back and make a meaningful contribution to a pretty good team. You can catch Greg on ESPN's coverage of the NHL draft with the points starting tonight at 6 o'clock. You got round one at 7 o'clock and you got free agent frenzy next week on July 1st. All that is gonna be across the ESPN family of networks. Greg Warshinski, thank you for joining us. Anytime boys, thanks for having me.

Alright, that's it for this week's hockey show. We are off next week. We will return the week of July 7th for everybody in the back for Gino, for Jason, for everybody in the other room over there with Ethan and Rosie. That's David Druk, my name is Roy Bellamy. We will see you in two weeks. Enjoy the draft. We will see you for free agency.