The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Hockey Show: Training Camp Is Here, McDavid And Kaprizov's Contracts Are Not

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Training camps are underway around the NHL, and two of the biggest stars in the league still do not have contract extensions. The gang breaks down how they see the Connor McDavid contract situation with the Edmonton Oilers playing out, as well as its impact on Kirill Kaprizov's contract stalemate with the Minnesota Wild. Plus, takeaways from NHL media days, Anze Kopitar's final season with the LA Kings, and wins and fails of the week. Then, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period joins the show to update us on the McDavid and Kaprizov situations, tell us where the New York Rangers go from here, provide a status report on the Toronto Maple Leafs without Mitch Marner, and give his opinion on where Sidney Crosby will be playing come April. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Conditions apply. Training camps have open. Preseason starts on Saturday. Hockey is back. You know what that means? It's time. Put a hockey show. We got there's a lot of the hockey news.

I'm going to go to the studio. We got David Draker, the Hockey News in the other room in the shipping container we got Rosie and Ethan. Welcome back, Rosie. You are not bothering Lucy for college football this week. Thank you very much. I'm bothering you now. Yes, unfortunately, you are very much fortunately.

Thank God you're here. The hockey show has a new YouTube page. follow us there at the Hockey Show DLS. So please go ahead and search for our content on YouTube. We also have TikTok at The Hockey Show 7 and on X, Instagram, and threads at Hockey Show DLS. Rosie, am I missing anything? No, you're not. We're just live right now on TikTok while we'll do this.

Excellent. We are live on TikTok while we are recording this show. Thank you very much. Anyway, you know what the season has started as far as preseason. train camps are concerned when this happens. That's right. Brandon Tanniv has his headshot. The new Utah Mammons player looks like a complete lunatic. It is a yearly tradition. We are ready to go, David. It almost looks like the logo, the Mammoth logo is like looking down like, oh, he's doing the face again. I got to do with this guy over here. I love those jerseys guys. I think they're going to look really

really good when they're on the ice. They've already, they've got great colors. And their jerseys were good last year, but now they have like a nice official logo on the front of their uniforms. I think they're going to look great. Also, something that looked really good came out of Buffalo, David. Yeah, for, are you complimenting Buffalo? I thought I was going to have to set that up. You said something nice about Buffalo. Buffalo is one of my favorite teams. It's been one of my favorite teams since I was going to say, didn't you grow up a Sabers fan? Yeah, it was the Black Hawks and the Sabers, right? Black Hawks and the Sabers and the Panthers. You've been holding their feet to the Coles for a while now, though.

Like, you're very hard on the Sabres. Yeah, I should be because it's not as hard as the Islanders. Not as the Islanders, which is not one of my favorite teams and haven't been and never have been. They're giving you good reason not to be. Absolutely. But yeah, take a look at this mask, Dave. So this goalie mask from former Panther and just all around great guy, Alex Lyon, this

is a mask that pays tribute to Dominic Hashek. Yeah. Best goalie in Sabers history. One of the best goalies in NHL hockey history. So just a little love to Haschick on the mask. I love it. training camp is here. I love that. Maybe the Sabres are going to be good. I guess that would make you happy. All right. Rosie, you said Sam Ryan Hart coming out of Buffalo. Thank you for that.

That you're welcome. Great call, Rose. Thank you very much. Now I know. All right. One of the biggest stories that we have is a couple of guys dragging out contract negotiations. Let's start with the first one with Carrillo Caprisoff. The situation in Minnesota, there's an update. Apparently, they don't want to talk about it. All right. Let's take a look at the Michael Russo tweet that he made, Michael Russo of the athletic. He treated a quote from Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin. These negotiations are private. I can't really get into it. Things are fine. The most important thing is that we want to sign Carrillo. He's a franchise player. We want to keep him here. He's a big part of our team. We're working towards that. We're doing the best

we can. Meanwhile, Kapritsov himself said some things to the media. He said that he loves playing in Minnesota. He wants to stay at this moment, and he has to focus on hockey. So... Saying all the right things. Refer all questions about his contract situation to his agent. David, where you make it this? It does not sound good.

It sounds like the next statement that they're going to make it's just going to be that gif of the dog sitting at the table surrounded by fire saying this is fine. Yeah. Like, that's what the situation feels like. Reading between the lines, it doesn't sound like Caprisoff wants to have a future, a long-term future in Minnie, kind of sounds like. when Mariko Ranton and went to Carolina. This great place, but get me the hell out of here.

Minnesota is offering him top dollar, and he's, like, hesitating. Literally top dollar. That should tell you everything you need to know. What else could he be asking for? Less money? No way. You guys already know I find this situation fascinating. Yes, you do.

I think Caprizov is a great player. I love him. He's one of my favorite players in the league, to be honest with you. But also, just because of all of the things that go into this that could make the situation really sticky, especially if. If he waits out McDavid, what happens with McDavid, and we'll get to that in a minute. But I think the big thing here is, first of all, Garin's quote, if we can put that back on the screen, sounds like a guy, like you said, the this is fine meme, David. Like, this doesn't sound overly confident at all.

You know, this is a lot of sentences, very like choppy speaking ways. So when I read this, I wasn't very confident. Now, if you're a Minnesota fan, you have to feel better when you hear that Kupreezov's agent showed up on an announcement. announced to camp yesterday and met with Garen and one of their other executives as well. So it seems like they're still open to negotiations. I think you have to be happy that Caprizov says, I like Minnesota. I'm inclined to believe him there. So, you know, I think that it's sticky right now, but I do think there are some encouraging

signs if you're a wild fan, but also at the same time that Garen quote did not sound overly confident at all. And I read something and I'm going to sound very intelligent right now. Oh, very good. Yeah, because they don't want to say anything also because it's starting camp. So they don't want to create an environment within Minnesota and the players to get down. Well, you got to keep in mind that all this happened during the captain's gate. Yeah, and apparently he was very embarrassed when it got out there that he turned down that offer

and then he had to face his teammates in the locker room that he turned down the highest paid contract in the actual history. Yeah, Rosie's absolutely right. That's the worst. You got to deal with your teammates over here, like, you don't want to sign. It's a tough line to walk. It really is because you've got to take care of yourself, but you've got to take care of your teammates, keep them happy. You want the team to win.

I also think we forget that a lot of guys are just kind of like, look, that's his situation. We're going to stay out of it, and we want our guy to get his money. They probably believe he deserves that kind of money or even more. So I don't know that it'll be as awkward as people make it out to be. I'm just interested to see how this next situation we're going to talk about affects the Caprizo situation. Well, you don't want to pocket watch as a teammate, you know. Like, you want to probably use his contract as a comparable, but, I mean, you don't talk about another teammate's contract.

Correct. Yeah, you don't do that. No. As we are, as you mentioned, there is another contract situation that's going on right now in Western Canada. The oldest, Connor McDavid, continue to slow the roll on contract talks. Connor McDavid said some things. He talked to Elliot Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast,

and he invoked his family on his particular. potential decision. Here's what he had to say as far as what his family has to do with. My wife, I obviously love being here in Emmington, and we have every intention, as I said, to win here in Emmington and have all the faith in the world in this 25, 26 season. And beyond that, still remains to be seen. We have time. It's our decision, basically. We've earned that, and we're going to take our time with it. He was also asked, what do you want the oilers to do to make the team a little bit more competitive and be a viable option for him to stay and his answer was this nothing you know

all the pieces are here um for 25 26 it's going to be a feeling you know it's going to be a you know when the time's right the moment's right i think it'll just be a a feeling um but As it right now, I'm excited to get the season going, really. Terrifying if you're an Oilers fan. As uncomfortable as that's making us, imagine being an Oilers fan listening to that. It's like, yeah, my wife and I, we love our house. We have a great house here in Edmonton. We don't want to leave our house.

Like, the city, we don't want to leave our house. This is going to drag on for a while, and I'm already annoyed with this. Just like I'm annoyed with the Sydney Crosby trade room. I'm tired of it. Oh, this is going to drag for a long time. You better get used to the story line because it's going to stick all. I'm with you, Dave. Sorry, go ahead, Rosie.

We're going to have an entire show just on Sydney's... No, no, no. Crosswalk. I like that. Crosswalk. That's good. I think the thing here is what is going to happen? Is McDavid just going to wake up one morning and be like, all right, we've got enough?

Like, that doesn't... That's not going to happen. He's going to play out the season, or at least a portion of the season, or maybe they're going to trade for a goalie, and then all of a sudden, he's going to wake up and be like, all right, I'm ready to sign my contract. I don't see that happening. They're going to play out this season, and then they're going to go into the off season, and that's where it's all going to have to happen. Edmonton's going to have to, like, empty their bank account, figure out a way to make it work with however much they're going to have to give McDavid, because he's going to get a lot of money.

Let's be clear. I don't think this is anything about money. This is clearly about, can he win in Edmonton? Does he think he has a chance to win in Edmonton? And from what he's saying, when he keeps talking about 25, 26, he made it very clear in that quote right there. We have all the pieces for 25-26. Beyond that remains to be seen. If I'm hearing... If I'm hearing that from as an Oilers fan,

I'm freaking out. That's terrifying. That's the last thing you want your star player to hear. Can't you argue that the Oilers are worse today than they were at Game 6? Yeah. So then when he says all the pieces are in place, I don't think he's saying all the pieces are in place to win.

I think he's saying literally, the pieces are in place. We know what we have. Big David and Drysidal are here. That's what he's saying. And he thinks they're probably enough to get him as close as he'll ever be. And right now, if you're Connor McDavid. He'll beat the Kings in the first round again. You have to assume this is as close as you'll get.

Like, you can't just assume that you'll ever get closer than you are right now. You've been to back-to-back Stanley Cups. You have another chance to go to a third one. This is terrifying if I'm an Oilers fan. You got to keep in mind, is that Carmen's not going to be in the lineup until November. Like, he's got that wrist injury that he's sustained in the Western Conference final. It's going to be a bad start to the season, Rosie. And they're not good starters.

They haven't gotten off to good starts the last few years. I actually like David's take. He should go to Florida if he wants to win because... Oh, for crying out loud. The only one that... She's got a point. Everybody goes to Florida. Exactly.

Why? Because that's the only team that cares to win. Why have they won two times? I'm trying to be objective here. Yeah, no, you're objective. No, I am objective. Two-time champions. They don't care about the money.

There you go. There you go. Paying attention. Rose is. I've been killing it today. Salary cap they have to deal with. Yeah, but Bill Zito is going to do something there. They have a lot of cap room next year.

Bob's contract comes off the books. The cap is going up. They have space. I don't know if they'll have enough to do that. And realistically, they're not going to. But I think the bigger point here is it doesn't seem like McDavid's signing this year. And if you're an Oilers fan and you play out the season, that's a lot of pressure to be under where we basically have this year to get it done.

And if we don't, he's gone. All right. Media Day for the Panthers, as well as a conference. the NHL happened, David, you were at Media Day. The biggest takeaway for me was Bill Zito, giving the timeline on Matthew Kachuk's injury. He won't be returning until sometime in December. Tomas Nosek will be out for a few months as well. What did you learn at Panthers Media Day?

I mean, those were the big things for Media Day. I think some of my takeaways, you know, like Brad Marchand's awesome. Yeah. He talked about, like we've talked a lot about the whole no-tax thing and whether it's an issue or not. And Marchand just basically said, yes, it plays a. big part. However, the team has to not be garbage. Just looking back, I looked at like the Stanley Cup, like Stanley Cup matchups. We've had a no tax team and what, what, five of the last

six Stanley Cups. Before that, none from 2004. Before that, only won the Dallas Stars. So before this little block of no tax success, there was nothing for decades. So let's all just pump the brakes. It's not so much about the no tax. It's about the fact that they've got competency in the front office that makes people want to come. But anyway, I did like that Marshan got into that. He's a very smart guy. And we love Brad Martian now. Not so much a few years ago, but yeah, we love him now. It's still crazy to me that it's on this team. For a long time. I'm over it.

He won a Stanley Cup. He's part of his team. It doesn't matter. It's crazy that he's on his team. It's crazy that he's starting the season with this team. And if he wins two Stanley Cups, does he go down as a Panther more than a Bruin? No. If he plays out the six years of his

contract, if he plays till he's 43 years old, and the Panthers win one or two cups in that span, And he retires with four cups, three with the Panthers, and what, seven seasons with the Panthers? I'm just saying. It's not crazy. Three? Three.

Three with the Panthers. Three. Okay. If he plays another six seasons. And they win two more, that would be three. This Florida team winning two cups in six years is not far-fetched at all. So, yes, I think that if that happens, it's very possible. I'm just saying.

But I think also he would be smart and he would play the card that Luongo played and say, I'm going to wear a Canada jersey, especially if he goes to the Olympics this year. Yeah. It's a gold medal, yeah. We can't assume that they're going to win a gold medal. I'm saying if they do, if they do. They're not going to win the gold medal. We already know that.

Greg Wischinski already told us they're not winning the gold medals. We can place our bets on Team USA and Wichinsky's got us covered. Yeah. So, yeah, that's what happened out over there in Panthers training camp. And it's pretty positive coming out of Fort Lauderdere right now in Sunrise. So that's a good thing. A little bit. Finally, this upcoming season for Anzei Kopital will be his 20th with the Los Angeles Kings and his last of his career.

So that's automatically number in the Rafters. He might just very well be the greatest Los Angeles king of all time. Not the greatest player that's played for the Los Angeles Kings, but the greatest Los Angeles King of all time. It's the same argument that we've had with Dwayne Wade and LeBron James with the Miami Heat. LeBron James is the greatest player to ever play for the Miami Heat, but Dway is the greatest Miami player of all time. This is the same situation here. Yeah, well, it's because Wayne Gretzdy played a few years for the Kings,

it weren't even his best years. But I know, I think it's, I think you kind of hit the Nail right on the head there. Like, you're not going to say that Anzi Kopitar is better player than Wayne Gretzty, but he's a better king. He is Mr. King. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, the Western Conference should be interesting. I think maybe the Kings might do it.

Maybe he might be the king. We were so sure they were going to do it last year. Were they up 2-0-0 in the series? They were up big in game 3 in Edmondson, and then they came back, and then Edmonton just didn't lose until the final, basically. Rosie, there is a question from a fan of ours. Yes, so now that we have YouTube, Klaus Hesler is saying, I love the DLS and I love hockey, really rooting for this show.

What are the chances that Florida can three-peat? And the second question is, do you think the stars will be any better this year? Yes and yes. Yeah. Yes, the both questions. Or chances are the Panthers. I don't know about the stars. They definitely get into the conference final.

Now, the biggest competition will be Carolina. They might be aggressive with the roster come trade deadline time. The stars. I don't know how I feel about the stars, guys. Their defense is. Well, he's got that Meele Ratonin's signed long term. They've got Renton for a whole year now. They might be better in the regular season.

They're going to end up signing him. Well, they did already sign him. He's got an eight-year deal for $12 million A-A-V. I think, I don't know. I don't love their defense. I think they might be a better regular season team, but I don't know how far they'll go in the playoffs this year, to be honest with you. All right, let's go to Wings and Fells, brought to you by Yeagermeister.

Serve it cold or don't serve it at all. Yagermeister, damn, that's cold for more. Visit yagamister.com drink responsibly. David, what's your fail? Win of the week? My win of the week. All right, well, don't get mad at me, Roy, but my win of the week is... Yeah, I know.

I'm a sous-sayer. I already know what's going to happen. This is about the Islanders, isn't it? It's about the New York Islanders. See, I already knew. But I think this is something that you can get behind. Okay. With Lou Lamearillo gone, the current Islanders players are leaning into the fact that they can now grow their facial hair out.

They can have beards. They can have goatees. They can have mustaches. And last week, a bunch of players were at a team golf tournament or something in their golf bowlos. And pictures were shown. There's Anthony Duclair. He's growing the hair back out. He's got the beard growing strong.

A bunch of the guys were there. Their facial hair was showing. I just love this. Good for you. Islanders, enjoy it, bearded up, and it lets, it's just the dumbest rule ever. I'm so glad it's over. Oh, so am I. I'm tired of stuff like this. You agree with this. I'm glad the Yankees did the same thing. I'm glad that's all done. The Yankees did it before the Islanders. Yeah. So you agree. I agree. A positive Islanders endorsement from Roy Bellamy. I agree with you. I didn't say

anything about the positive Islanders endorsement. I just agree with you. That's it. I'll take it. All right. So I've never seen this in the National I Can League before. This came in a prospect. game between the Maple Leafs and the Senator. Senator's prospect, Jibril Torre had his helmet taken off during the skirmish and it revealed that he was wearing a du rag. This is the first time I've seen

a dourag on a NHL playing surface. So that's great. That's great for me. That's great for the black community to see that. And I say this because Julian McKenzie of the Athletic talked to him about it,

and Torre said, as a black player. I just want to bring in my culture. I should showcase that for future kids to come. So I was happy that I did that. It's a good thing to hear. By the way, Tori, it's 6'8. Oh my God. Six foot eight defensemen.

Can we get like a CCM sponsor, Duraq? Can we get those mass produced now? Yeah. Yeah. A CCM durang outward and I don't wear Duranx at all. So yeah. I've never seen that before. Maybe I've seen it on like the Mighty Ducks or something. That's the

Closest thing. That was cool in real life. Yeah. Ethan. A bunch of good jerseys coming out around the NHL are my win of the week this week, boy, starting with the Red Wing Centennial look. 100 years of the Detroit Red Wings this season, and this look is beautiful. They already have great uniforms. These might be even better. Now, our friend Sarah Sivian said in the hockey group chat, these are the best jerseys

that have been released in the last decade. And then these next jerseys that I'm going to show you guys came out. And I said that take didn't even last for 15. minutes because look at these Washington Capitol sweaters. These should be their permanent home look. Love their colors, obviously red, white, and blue. And I love the screaming eagle in the red, white, and blue look here. That is delicious. Now, these aren't as good as the first two, but these are still really good. I like this look a lot. The Ranger Centennial, it's also their 100th year, this year, celebrating it with a bit of a lighter blue simplified uniform

with the classic Rangers diagonal text. I love all of these uniforms. that have come out recently. These are three absolute beauties. The Rangers one, I don't like the collar. No. I don't like everything but the collar. Yeah, the collar is a little weird. It's a little weird. It's basically the floating NHL logo with nothing around it. The Screaming Eagle jersey in this situation for the

capitals, as you saw the like the tail wing, the wing, it's forced the catancy designation to switch from the other side of the jersey to the other side of the jersey. So you saw in that picture with Alexander Vescan, the sea for his catnancy is on the wrong

side of the jersey. That's kind of what the Red Rings had to do a couple years ago. It's just like an annoying pet peeve uniform thing that I had to go through. Rosie, you don't have a win of the week. I have a win of the week. Actually, it's yeah, actually is that we have

the YouTube channel. I said that already. I know, but that's my win of the week. This is the promotion that she's been trying to push on. Exactly. I think it's something that we're very excited about. We already have like 226 subscribers in six days. That's very exciting.

And thank you for everyone that's following on us. And whoever wants to go subscribe, go subscribe. Thank you for everybody who's subscribed to our new YouTube page. That's awesome. David, what's your fail? My fail of the week goes out to California. Anaheim Ducks prospect goler, Thomas Shushanick. Goaler?

Goaler. Oh, wow. That's a nickname for a goalie. Well, I've never heard that before. So this goaler, this gole, this goler, he went out to play the puck at his faceoff dot, and accidentally shot it into his own net. You should call that a goaler. Yeah, I had to.

A goalie goaler, a goaler, goaler. It's just, I feel bad for the guy because I hate playing the puck as a goaltender, too, but I'm 5-8 with, you know, 5-8-sized arms. Yeah. But, yeah, that was just, that's a major fail in the definition of the word. Thank God it was just a prospect game.

But the poor guy was hanging his head. Yeah, feel for him. If you remember last year, the New York Islanders were a disaster. And I made fun of them, and I continued to make fun of them to this day. I'm not going to bring up why I usually make fun of them.

That's for, that's for, like, whatever, you already know. Anyway, remember when Patrick Waugh lit up the performance of Anthony Duclair, who you mentioned as you'll win so far this week. Raw said that Duclair was god-awful, not playing up to what we expect for him, following a loss near the end of the regular season. Now, Duclair took a leave of absence and did not play another game. Well, there's an update to the story because Waugh had drove to DeClaire's house in Montreal to apologize and both men have agreed to move past what happened this season. DeClair ended up telling Warr that the extent to his groin injury, the same injury that forced him to miss two months had hampered him.

So my fail in this situation is as the head coach of the team, how could you not know that Anthony Declare wasn't fully healed? Obviously, he's not going to play 100%. You're over here calling him God awful, not playing to what we expect from him because he's hurt. Yeah. It's a guy whose game is predicated on speed and he has a groin injury. Yeah. Like, hello. Yeah. And he was out for a major, major portion of the season. And he publicly called him out.

Yeah, not cool. That's not cool at all. And you have a racist on your team. It's just a bad look. And hopefully Duke does better this season. and I'm sure he will because now he's fully healthy. He's healthy, he's growing his beard. He's a happy guy, hopefully.

Yeah, hopefully, Ethan. My fail of the week, guys, it's been a rough few weeks for me. It's a football fan, and it's about to get a whole lot rougher this weekend. My teams are 0-and-5 in their last five games, and now the Gators are coming down to Miami off a game in which DJ Lagway through five picks. And Matthew Couchuck is going to be the guest picker, which means he's obviously not going to pick the Gators. He's going to pick for the hometown Caines. So this fail of the week is for me.

That's the only reason he's going to pick the canes. He's throwing up the U in this video where he says that he is going to be the guest picker. Yeah, he kind of gave it away, yeah. Going to have to watch him pick the canes over the Gators and then going to have to watch the gators get their asses kicked by Miami. So fail the week to me. It's been a rough, rough football season so far. Rosie, do you have a fail? I don't have a fail.

Okay, well, there you go. That was the one thing that she didn't have. There we go. All right, great. So if you are watching on DKN, we are going to have David Pignota to talk about the storylines that has happened so far and will happen in this upcoming season. David Pinoa, the four periods coming up next.

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premieres September 23rd on FX. Stream on Hulu. The twisted tale of Amanda Knox is an eight-episode Hulu original limited series that blends gripping pacing with emotional complexity, offering a dramatized look as it revisits the wrongful conviction of Amanda Knox for the tragic murder of Meredith Kircher and the relentless media storm that followed. The twisted tale of Amanda Knox is now streaming only on Disney Plus. Wait, I didn't get charged for my donut. It was free with this Tim's rewards points.

I think I just stole it. I'm a donut stealer. Ooh, earn points so fast, it'll seem too good to be true. Plus, join Tim's rewards today and get enough points for a free donut, drink, or timbits. With 800 points after registration, activation, and first purchase of a dollar or more, see the Tim's app for details at participating in restaurants in Canada for a limited time. We are joined by NHL insider David Pinola of the fourth period, and last week we mentioned that the five players who were acquitted for sexual assault,

assault will be eligible to play in the NHL later this season. David, you heard that a team has kicked the tires on looking at Carter Heart. Who is that team and why? There's a few teams. There's a few teams that have been engaged and have

reached out, now, to varying degrees. There are a lot of teams that are now denying it publicly. But there are a number of teams that have in some capacity reached out to inquire. about Carter Hart's availability. I know Caldubis

with the Penguins said he hadn't. I know the Penguins have, so maybe somebody else in the organization has. Utah has been engaged, Carolina's been engaged, Philly, although they were told no, he's going in a different direction. You know, other teams that have reached out, Minnesota and Nashville,

Vegas, they've poked around as well. There are other clubs. I also mentioned, I thought that San Jose was one of those teams as well, but that's not the case that I was able to later confirmed. But there are a lot of teams that have reached out on Carter Hart to see what the

availability is like and just what type of contract he'd be looking to get. You know, I don't anticipate this being a one-year, $1 million contract. You're probably looking at a couple years and probably going to be $3, $4 million a year kind of thing, maybe even higher depending on how things get negotiated. But there's interest in Hart. I anticipate him locking into a team or committing to a team by October 1st. and then, because players are able to do that. Those five guys are able to commit to a team

and agree to something in advance of the 15th, and that's when they can formally sign. Where do you expect him to be, Carter Hart, to be in terms of his physical abilities? Because he hasn't played, like, a game, really, like over a year. I know he's been training and doing what he can, but, like, let's just say he signs and he's with the team, you know, pretty quickly. Is it feasible that he could play and be, like, productive this season

and lead a team potentially into the playoffs? I mean, if he comes into any environment that he comes in, at best, it's going to be a platoon scenario. And it's going to take him probably half a season to get into that game mode, into game shape. Like you said, he's been practicing and he's been skating, I think, in Nashville for most of this, most of his time away from the ice. But to get to game readiness, it's going to take more than a regular training camp, which he is not able to partake in. So you can commit to a team by the 15th. He can't join that club for, you know, game day practices and things like that until November 15th. And then obviously eligible to play December 1st.

But it's probably going to take him, again, platoon-type scenario, probably going to take him at least half of a season. So for him, you're probably looking at, you know, February, March, well after the Olympic break before he kind of gets into his stride. The capitals that placed assistant coach Mitch Love on administrative leave as the NHO investigates improper behavior from Love. He was supposed to be a potential head coach somewhere. He was doing interviews. What information do you have about that? Yeah, you're right. He was interviewing for a number of different vacancies for head coaching roles. The issue that's related to him, and I don't know, I don't know how much I can really say, to be honest, because there is an ongoing NHL investigation, and I don't know the full facts of everything, but I do know that there's an individual

from a previous relationship that he was engaged in years ago that started to contact some of the teams that he was interviewing with and that caused obviously a bit of a stir. The league started to investigate this goes back to the spring. You know the league started to investigate things and that's been ongoing up until that point. I think letters were sent to Pittsburgh and Seattle to places that he was you know applying for and the capitals were well aware of that situation as well so I think as the investigation has continued the capitals felt

it was, you know, given the circumstances and the best interest of everyone to, you know, put them on leave until the investigation concludes in the league and everybody involved in that comes to some type of conclusion. Pags, I want to ask you about the two most interesting storylines, I think, in the NHL right now, the Karil Kaprizov situation and the Connor McDavid David situation. So one thing I'm really curious about with Kaprizov specifically is, let's say McDavid does eventually sign, which it doesn't seem like he's going to sign any time soon, in my opinion, maybe even at all this year. And let's say he takes a team-friendly deal around that 16 million mark that Caprizov just turned down reportedly. How is that going to

affect Caprizov? And is he possibly risking screwing himself out of a lot of money here by passing on this 8 by 16? I don't think so. I'm of the belief that Connor is going to resign in Edmonton and it'll be a shorter-term deal. I don't expect a full eight-year term. I mean, I don't expect six or seven. If you go six or seven, you might as well just go the full eight. So I'm not expecting that. I'm expecting two, three, four years as a bit of a feeling out to see how this team is going to do

and how they're going to kind of reshape part of this roster in the coming years. So I anticipate that being around that $16 million, $17,000, $7 million mark over a shorter-term deal, more term you get, more dollars are attributed, you know, certainly. So I don't think Caprizov kind of screwed himself out of this big ticket. He's still going to cash in heavily. You know, he spoke the other day and was just saying, look, this is my second home. I like it here. Everybody knows I like it here.

There's plenty of time to figure this out. Now, which leads me to believe one of two things. One, maybe he's considering short term is he wants to see how this team does moving forward before committing to a full eight, which will eventually be max of seven years. or maybe they are fighting for more dollars. With the way that the salary cap is going up, you know, it's projected to go up to 105.5 million now. Next season's cap is projected to go to 104,

and the following year is projected to go to 113.5. I keep saying projected, because there's a good chance that based on how revenues go over this season, that that may increase. If that continues to increase and the numbers continue to go skyward, and with the prospect of the league expanding, which doesn't contribute to H.R.R. the expansion fees, but everything else does.

You know, the cap may jump significantly more within a five-year period, within at least this next CBA. So he may say, well, okay, I'm willing to commit long term, but if I'm taking $16 million now, that's going to be equivalent to like $19 million in six or seven years. So let's find a happy medium. There's a possibility that that's part of the equation as well, and that's what his agent, Althea Phanos, maybe fighting for to say,

look, yeah, 16 looks big now, but in a few years, not so much, given the caliber of player. And if they believe him and the team believe he's going to be around a hundred point guy consistently, maybe it's 17 that they're pushing for. So let's say they can't get a deal done in Minnesota. I'm looking at Carolina

and they seem to want to be aggressive with the roster. Could we see, no? No, they're not going to, are they going to trade? No, no, I was agreeing with you. I was agreeing with you. My apologies there. Do you see Carolina possibly trading for Caprizzoff?

I think so some teams have reached out to say hey if you get to a point where you want to trade them give us a call and I think Carolina is one of those teams so I think there's an appetite to do it it comes with an extension kind of like I think they've learned that from the rankton in scenario where if you're trading for that caliber player it's got to come with an extension so we'll see kind of I mean obviously where this unfolds first they got to they got to figure out if they can get a deal done if it's concluded that they can't Then I think Billy Garan, their GM and everybody in Minnesota has to go on the offensive in terms of trying to move this piece out. But I think Carolina would definitely have significant interest.

Now, you trade Carole Caprice off. You're going to want a premium back. The premium's probably a home run, even though they'll want a grand slam. And I don't see a team willing to give up a grand slam because they can just say, well, the hell with it. We'll just wait a year and try to sign them as a free agent. now there's risk that he gets traded somewhere else and commits to another team the point is Minnesota if they do decide to trade and we'll get a good return but it won't be an astronomical return because of where he is contractually so not the greatest the most

optimal of situations for the wild if it comes to that but it's not going to be detrimental to the organization if they do decide that they have no other choice but to go this route but I think Carolina would absolutely have interest I think the New York Rangers would definitely have interest. I think you're looking at 20 teams that would probably have legitimate interest in at least exploring the possibility of getting their hands on Carreel Caprizoff.

Ten words or less, Pags. You said you expect the Oilers to resign McDavid. When does it happen? I don't know. It's honestly, it's up to him, man. It's when he's comfortable. He's ready to go and the Oilers are just saying, you tell us when, and we'll figure it out. Dave, I want to ask

you about the Rangers. Kind of surprised by how down of a year they had last year. Not a very busy off season. They lost Henry Miller. They lost Chris Kreider. However, they have a big decision coming up with Artemmy Panarin, who's going to be UFA after the season. What's going on with the Rangers? Are they turning it around? Are they going to maybe blow it up and let Panarin go? What do you foresee for the Rangers happening?

I don't think there's any blow-up scenario there, because I don't think Jimmy Dolan would let that happen. They tried going through their little quasi-rebuild, and then they got the lottery, then they won you know, that and got Lefrenier and they escalated things. I just don't see that type of scenario. Now, I do think they'll wait a bit

to see how the season goes before they determine whether or not they want to lock in Panarin long term. I know they'd love to keep them, but, you know, some people believe they may wait to determine how the season goes before they make that determination. You know, like, for example, if they do

get in on Caprisov, if the wild decide to trade them, Well, they have the same agent, him and Panarin. So I'm sure that's going to be a bit of a factor there. And it's probably going to cost you a package that includes Lafranier. So they're going to have to decide what route they want to take. I think they want to, in terms of making big impact, and I'm saying this, and they may make a huge trade tomorrow.

But the incest that I've gotten for now has been, they kind of want to wait to see how the season goes at least in the first half to get a good indication of where they're at. You know, is Panarin going to go back to 90,100.4? Is the Benajad going to rebound and have a good season? Is J.T. Miller, now their captain, going to be that 80 to 100-point player, a big gap, but a point-of-game at least, caliber player now that he's restarting a full season with the Rangers? How's Will Cooley going to adjust?

Is he going to take some next steps into his game and enter a more offensive, albeit physical role, with that club? How's the blue line going to look? And it's just Thurkin going to rebound after a subpar season. performance-wise for him last year. There are a lot of factors here for the Rangers that are going to dictate ultimately what they end up doing as the season progresses.

But again, preface this by saying if a player like Capri Sov is available to them, I think they take the opportunity to pounce as soon as they can. That would be awesome. Caprizov, MSG, that'd be fun. There are some other holdouts coming into the preseason. What team should be most concerned about their player not showing up?

It sounds like Mason McTavish. I think Luke Hughes and the Devils are figuring out an eight-year deal. Luke Evangelista in Nashville is going to be a two-year deal once they figure out the numbers. They've been so off on the contract. And the demand has it, from my understanding, it hasn't even been that significant. But it'll start with a three on a two-year deal. I know Nashville offered three times three. That wasn't going to get it done, but I think they're trying to focus on a two-year.

But it sounds like Mason-Marchman, unless there's a significant change of mind-es- set there from the Ducks. It sounds like that's the one that could linger more than anything. He's already, he went back home. He's in Ottawa. He's training with the Ontario Hockey League's Ottawa 67's right now. I mean, Evangelist, I think,

is still in Nashville for the time being. But depending how long that goes, we'll see where that ends up. But I think right now the trickiest one seems to be McTavish, because it's a combo. It's not just a contract of money, and they're far apart on both term and dollars. But it's also just

usage. He wants to know, is he going to take his game to the next level or be given that opportunity to claim a second line role on that club as a two C and cement himself in that position? Is he going to get more power play time? What's it looking five on five? What's his usage? He wants to develop and take the next steps in his career, whereas with some of the additions the ducks made, there may be some barriers, at least optically, for him to do that in the next season or two. And that's part of the concern as well from his camp. All right, so the Maple Leafs have lost Mitch Warner, okay? And had they made any suitable replacements for him?

Or what is the season going to look like? Yeah, I mean, you can't replace a 102-point player. That's for sure. And I'm just outside their practice rink right now. And the last couple of days have been a combo of, look, he's gone. It's a business. He made a decision, and we've got to move on, which is the right mentality to have. I think the structure of the Leafs has shifted a little bit.

Like a lot of their success is going to be their big boys. Like if Austin Matthews has, you know, a 50-goal season, 100-point season, you know, Tavares is in and around 30 goals. Willie Nielander's 90-to-100-point kind of player. Matthew Nye's takes next steps as a 70-point guy, cements himself as a first-line player. Then, you know, that offsets what Mitch brought to the table. Plus, you've got a lot more physical.

Like, they're rolling out a third line right now that's centered by Nick Waugh, has Dakota Joshua on it. They're trying to find another wing. on that on that right side um like that could be a grindy energy type line that could fit well for for this club that's what they're trying out right now they're deep in their bottom six um they're more physical they're bigger the decor is the same as it was last year gold tending is the same they were happy with that as they should have been um but it's all going to come down to what happens up front and it's a combo of the big boys providing the the offensive flare and the

the third line and the fourth line doing their jobs in a in a two-way shutdown capacity while also providing some energy to spark this group. It's a different kind of structure right now. I don't mind it. We'll see how Matthias Machelli does on the first or second line, how Max Domi does on one of those two lines. But I think Toronto's positioned itself decently, assuming the big boys do what they're supposed to do.

They need to stop low-balling their goaltender. Okay, the last question. The goaltender's union. Last question for me, Roy, if you'll forget me. Dave, when we get to April of this season, what color jersey will Sidney Crosby be wearing? It won't be black and gold and white. Stop that!

Stop it. Where's Crosby playing when playoff time rolls around, Dave? Man. Where's he playing? Whatever golf course is close to Pittsburgh, maybe he goes home to Halifax. He's not getting traded. I'd be surprised.

A very, very, very surprised because there's a few factors here. One, it hasn't been official yet, but the strong belief is that this is Gino Malkin's last season. And I can't imagine that he's going to play his last season and Sid not be a part of that for the whole ride. The other factor is there are going to be a lot more changes coming out of Pittsburgh. More guys are going to get moved out.

They're going through a full rebuild, even with Sid and Latang's got more term on his contract. Sid has one more year after this one. If they finish first, or excuse me, if they finish last and the balls drop where they do and they end up winning the draft lottery and get another potential generational player in Gavin McKenna.

Oh, God. I mean, to have Sid there for one season to usher Gavin along is very reminiscent of when Mario did the exact same thing with Sid 20 odd years ago. Bullshit. Bullshit.

They're going to do this again? They were the worst team in the league, though, when they got that lottery ball, first of all. The NHO will make it happen. Sidney Crosby is going to get Roof Florida. He's going to get the benefit of the doubt. It's just hard to imagine Crosby and Malkin, especially if it's supposed to be Gino's last season, going through a, we're trying to get the best lottery ball situation. If that's what they're doing, fine, but it's just like, really? I think they know. Look, these guys have, they've got three rings. They've got a gazillion dollars. They're gods in the city. Just ride it out. Just, I think they're comfortable.

Sid said this the other day. I know, and I even tweeted, like, he had a, he was given out, like the Penguins do every year. He's given out a season tickets to season ticket holders. and he goes, look, I don't know how many more times I can say it. I want to be here. This is where I want to be. This is where I want to finish my career. This is where I want to play. It's not going to stop people from speculating, but he's genuine in when he says that. Now, they don't win the lottery.

Gino's out. Maybe things change for next season. Maybe. But I think this year, I would be very surprised if anything happens with Sidney Crosby. All right, there you go. So we don't have to ask about Sidney Crosby ever again on the show. Thank you. Right. David Pinojota, thank you for joining us. David Pinojillo, the fourth period. Please check him out.

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