The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 142: The Stars Have Been Starsing This Season

Episode Date: February 22, 2017

Carolyn Wilke joins the show to help try and unpack why the Dallas Stars have arguably been the most disappointing team in the league this season, and where they go from here. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 1:45 Using the bye week to reevaluate 5:30 How much is Lindy Ruff to blame? 11:00 Klingberg and his Defense Partners 14:00 Goaltending & Special Teams 17:30 Jamie Benn's declining numbers 22:00 Radek Faksa Fan Club 24:30 Selling at the Deadline 28:30 Patrick Eaves (and his beard) as a trade piece 33:45 Razor Reaugh's Motivational Speeches 35:45 Cap Management and Paying the Players Every episode of the podcast is available on iTunes, Soundcloud, Google Play, and Stitcher. Make sure to subscribe to the show so that you don’t miss out on any new episodes as they’re released. All ratings and reviews are also greatly appreciated. Thanks for listening! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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Filippovich. Welcome to the HockeyPEDEOCast. My name is Demetri Filipovich. And joining me today's Carolyn Wilkie. Carolyn, what's going on? Not much. How are you doing? I'm good.

I'm good. We're going to be doing a deep dive of the Dallas Stars, which I got an Can we not? Can we just talk about like happy, fun things for the next half hour or so? I mean, the thing is, you got to keep in mind. I mean, I'm not a Dallas Stars fan. So talking about them is entertaining to me because I mean, you know, I'm sure if you're cheering for them on a daily basis, it would be maddening and you'd be pulling

your hair out, but just as an unbiased observer looking at it from the outside. I mean, I'm just so glad they exist in the form they do. Well, see, that's the problem, right? So the great thing about the Dallas Stars, and they converted so many people last year is that they, you know, they're high flying, super offense, all the goals, all the time. And then this year, it's like the opposite of that. Right. Right. Yeah. So it's like a minute we're trying to gain some traction for getting the all-offence, no defense league running backfires. Well, okay, so I feel like there's a lot of stuff for us to unpack here. I mean, this is probably a good time for us to have this chat because they're in the middle

of their league-manded byweek and there's a week left until the March 1st trade deadline. And I think I know where you lean, but they're one of these teams that are at an interesting crossroads where, you know, if you squint hard enough, you could conceivably talk to yourself into thinking they still have one last chance to kind of make a run here. But I mean, if you look at it realistically, you know, it's not even that there's six points back of the flames or eight points back of the predators. It's that there's so many teams in between them. And with the point system, like it feels like every night these teams are going to be

playing in these three-point games where it's going to be so hard to make up that distance. So I think that, you know, we'd both kind of agree that they should be probably looking ahead to the future. I agree. Yeah, for sure. I think the biggest blow is knowing that. like for once in our lives we're really close to getting a very high pick but it's like the worst draft to do that in well i don't know if it's that bad i mean i understand that i mean it could

be worse like i mean it could be worse i've started seeing some mock drafts trickle in and stuff like that and it's not like you know there aren't some good prospects out there but also like even if we get first overall there's no way we're titing connor mac david you know yes well there's definitely no no like generational talent of even like, you know, Matthews or Lionator for free economy. But the thing that's interesting for their perspective is like, let's say they wind up with a pick in like, I don't know, the five to eight range or something like that, which seems-

Right now we're trending for number three. Okay. Let's say they go number three. I feel like this draft has a lot of like extremely interesting defense prospects. And if the stars have anything on this team right now, it's a lot of interesting defense prospects. Not that, you know, they're like, they're a gold mine, especially if one pans out. I mean, just having a guy like that on an ELC is such a valuable asset in today's league. So you want as many as possible. But it's like, I'm very curious to see where they go.

If they just kind of keep adding to that strength or if they make the mistake of thinking they have too many of them and going the other way. From what I can tell. And so here's where the stars really stand right now is it we don't even know who's going to be there to draft. It doesn't sound. like, let's be very, very honest, Lindy Ruff isn't probably going to be around past this season. In fact, the entire reason he hasn't gotten fired right now is that no one else that is kind of on the coaching market is a particularly great replacement for this particular roster. Right.

And so, but there's, it's unlikely, I can't find a conceivable way that they, the front office keeps him on given where they are current. So he's probably not going to be there. Right. There are rumors that Jim Nill might not even be there. But I can, I mean, just so to try and predict out the draft is, well, okay, who's doing the drafting, right? Is a big thing. Now, if it is Jim Nill is still there, he gets the extra time to try and fix the mistakes of this year, then I think he's a guy who does tend to take the best prospect available, especially, like, the higher up you go.

Right. They had a pretty late pick last year, so Riley Tufti was like a little, I think, overvalued, but they were still, I think, drafting in the 20s. I can't remember their exact pick. So it wasn't like a huge go-off the board move, didn't do a Don Sweeney. Right. And, you know, he's had, he struggled the first bit of his college career, but he's really turned it on lately. So he definitely sounds like he's a prospect who has a ceiling that we're not, you know, hasn't gotten there yet.

But yeah. So I think they will probably go with a good defensive prospect. I think Nill's very pragmatic about that kind of thing. He knows how much they're worth. Well, okay, before we, I promise we'll talk about the future more later in the show. But I feel like before we get there, we should probably try and figure out what's gone on this year instead. I know that you're eager to jump ahead and kind of forget this ever happened. But where are you at with Lindy Ruff?

Because I know that you wrote at length about him and I read it. I recommend everyone checks that out for more context. But just for the purposes of this discussion, like, do you think that it's tough to evaluate him because of all the injuries they had, especially earlier in the year? And, you know, he was dealt kind of a tough hand with the really young blue line after they let all those guys go in free agency. But do you feel like he's done enough to optimize the guys he has had in the lineup on a daily basis?

No, and that's really where I'm stuck. Lindy has been dealt a really bad hand and a lot of the off-season moves which were all management didn't help but I don't he definitely is to the point where he's kind of only stuck in this one path so last season the stars

were able to do so much run and gun offense in large part because the pairing of Gologoski and Klingberg were pretty much as perfect as you could be in an zone exit transition and getting the puck up ice. And passes were going exactly where they needed to be, and everybody knew what everybody's job was, and anticipation was, you know, off the charts on both sides of the ice,

whether you're talking forwards or defensemen. And this season, and then while there was a little bit of churn in the beginning of the year, I should say, with the defense pairings. By the end of the season, you knew exactly which pairs were going to play every night. Because he had found a couple

of groups that he liked that just stuck. Like literally, Klingberg played 99% of his minutes with Alex Kolooski. The only time Alex Kolooski didn't play with John Klingberg is when he was injured. So, and then you had

you know, a second pair of it was usually Johnny O'Douya and Jason DeMeres and then the third pair you had for most of the year Jordy Ben and Yerke Yokoaka and then after the Chris Russell trade that kind of got switched up a little bit but once he finds something he likes he's not afraid to stick with it the problem this year is he's never found a single thing he likes

and then so then he finally hits on this top pairing of Esa Lindle and John Klingberg and really Esa Lindel is a slightly better Chris Russell That's fair, I mean, what did Eselendal do to you? No, and I mean that what it is is he actually, you know, the things that Chris Russell, people like about Chris Russell in his own,

Esa Lindel does very well. And in fact, actually some of Ryan Stimson's micro stats like preventing zone entries and stuff like that. I can't remember exactly if it was Ryan's stats or if it was Corey's stats. But some of the preliminary microstat research, he looks fantastic defensively. Like his zone entry breakups are like off the charts in this small sample we have of the

Star's data. And I mean, far and away better than anybody else. on the team. But the problem ends up being when it's time when we've recovered the puck and trying to get out of the zone. And last season, Klingberg was used almost as a fourth forward. And you'll see this like with Eric Carlson and some of the better teams too, you know, really offensive defensemen teams.

So Golgoski would take care of that initial pass out of the zone. And that way Klingberg could join all the forwards going up the line, you know, going up to try and challenge the blue line and just really create a lot of havoc. And that's what worked really well for the stars. They worked best in havoc. But now, because Lindel is, I mean, in his defense, he is a rookie. Like, this is his first year in the NHL. So it's not like he's, you know, earned his space there through years of veteran experience.

He, whenever there's forecheck or pressure on him, he just tends to panic a little bit. And he just doesn't have the kind of. a vision that Gologoski did to make that very first pass out of the zone. And so you're seeing and then you combine that with the fact that there have been so many forward injuries that you've got lines kind of all over the place, that there's just not nearly as much anticipation. And so the passes are getting lost. They're getting broken up. And the stars are really getting stifled in the neutral zone because we can't make a good, clean exit. Yep. Well, I think, I'm glad you brought up the Gologoski-Klingberg pair because

I understand from the perspective, especially from Jim Nill's perspective, where he's looking at the big picture from a roster construction standpoint, like not kind of balking at the idea of giving Alex Gologowski a $30 million commitment or whatever he made just because it is quite a bit of money. And they had guys in the pipeline coming up. But the Klingberg thing is fascinating to me because I did notice that he spent like 2,000 of his 2,500 minutes or so at 5-15 in his first two seasons combined with Gologoski. So as you mentioned, they were like pretty much together for a very large majority of Klinger. Linkberg's time in the NHL so far, and they really did start to play well together. It's tough to describe to someone who hasn't watched them very closely last year, but it felt like when they got going, it just felt like the ice really was tilted at like a downhill where they're just like the ball would just go down, be rolling down, and they just get a full

head of steam, and it would just be one of the funest things to watch in the NHL. And Klingberg this year has looked off to me. Like I know his numbers have stabilized a little bit, I feel like as the year has gone along, but particularly early on, it felt like he was really struggling trying to find his footing with Al-Golagoski. Do you think it's as simple as that, or do you think it's like, you know, the league might have started slowly adjusting to Klingberg and now he needs to make that adjustment back to put it in his own favor? What's going on with that? I think it's a little bit of both, but I think it's more the fact that he was, didn't have a partner.

And then the thing about these really, really vision-centric offensive defensemen, because Klingberg isn't like the fanciest skater in the world. And he's not even like a very fast skater, but he knows, he can see the play developing so much faster than so many other guys that he plays a very different style and a very anticipatory style. And so he was rotating through a bunch of partners early in the season, and it just didn't work out and it didn't work out.

And so when he did end up getting with Lindel and sticking with Lindel, his game did stabilize, but the problem is that Lindel is just so, he suppresses offense so much. Like if you look at their defensive numbers, they're actually, I mean, they're not great, but they're no worse than the rest of the stars, right? Like they're not the defensive liability. The entire team is slightly a defensive liability, but they're not a huge defensive liability. And, you know, that's kind of what you've expected from the stars in the first place, right? So if we already are level setting that they're going to be slightly worse than average,

that's where these guys are. But their offensive numbers are actually quite down from where they were prior, where he was last year. And so that's really the problem is that they're just getting underwhelming results. And part of it's because of the breakout scheme. And you've actually seen on the couple of games where they've played well, I was lucky enough to actually catch the Carolina game in person. and they started doing this actually against the Sends too,

which was a disaster of its own kind of sort. They have started out with Klingberg trying to make the initial breakout and drawing that forechecker to him. And because he's very calm under pressure, most of the time what he ends up doing is passing off the puck to Lindel, and then Lindel has time and space to make a good decision.

And it's when Lindel gets flustered, he just makes bad decisions all over the place. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I think you hit the nail in the head there where it's like last year, they had, you account for the fact they wouldn't have necessarily the best defensive numbers, but the offense was just, you know, so overwhelmingly good that it was kind of making up for you, just take the good with the bad. But this year, it hasn't really been able to balance out like that.

And I know, the thing that really kind of catches my eye with just looking at their entire season as a whole is, you know, if I told you heading into the year that the start, would be where they're at right now. You'd, the first kind of inclination would be just the suspect that the goaltending just completely fell apart and, and that's a big reason why. But it's like, I know that all of the, all of the more nuanced models, whether it's, you know, don't tell me about hearts or manis or whoever's, when you see that Niemie is kind of breaking even as a roughly league average and anti-ne-N, and Carly Lennon is actually

near the top with guys like Holpe and Bobrovsky. And it's, it's obviously the, you know, the penalty killing has been an entirely different thing. but at 5-15, the goal-tending has actually been, I'd argue better than we could have hoped for heading into the year? Yeah, exactly. No, and it's like if you had these goalies with the team you had last year, then it would have been an entirely different conversation. But no, and then, you know, if Dallas had upgraded goaltending over the summer

and had gotten somebody who's a little bit better and a little bit more, you know, at the very least, better at penalty killing, right? Like, if you had gotten a better goalie over the summer, would we be, you know, third from the bottom in the league right now? No, probably not. But also, it's really, really spurious to say, okay, well, this is a goalie problem as so many people are want to do, just because on a whole, it looks really bad in large part because our penalty killing is so awful. Right. Well, that's the tricky balance where it's like, yeah, so there's six in the league as a team at five-on-five say percentage. And we know that, you know, going forward, that would probably be more predictive and also would tell us more about how the goalies themselves are performing because we know that, you know, penalty kills a percentage is kind of more volatile and more team-dependent.

But it's like when they're 30th in the league of that, it's kind of tough to overcome right now. It's basically submarine large stretches of their season. So it's easy for us to just be like, oh, well, you know, that's not Carly-Lennant's fault. Niamy's fault and there's nothing you can really do other than just wait for it to pass, but it's like we're 60 games into the year here and that's, they have the worst penalty killing unit in the league based on goal suppression. So it's a, it's a pretty big problem. It's a, it's a huge problem.

And it doesn't help that our power play isn't much better. Like, and they've got 10 short-handed goals against it this year already. And I mean, so, and that does come back to coaching, right? So what we were talking about with Lindy Ruff is like, we've had Lindy Ruff for, you know, since what is, 2013, 14. Yeah. And at no point in time is our penalty kill and our power play been great. You know what I mean? Like they've never been really like one in the league, two in the league, three in the league.

And with guys like Sagan and Ben and Spetsa, you should probably be the number one or number two or number three power play in the league at some point. and yet no. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Well, okay, I want to talk to you about Jamie Ben here for a second because if you're making a list of the reasons why the season's gone the way it has for the stars, his play would be much lower on the list. There's much bigger concern, some of which we've outlined so far. But I did notice that while he's hovering at a roughly around a point per game pace,

so it's like if you just look at the box car counting, you wouldn't think anything's off. But if you look a little deeper at his 5-15 numbers, they're definitely trending in the wrong direction, I'd say. I mean, particularly from a shot generation perspective where that was an area that he was absolutely one of the league's top guys at for a while. And I guess some of it might just have to do with the fact that he's playing a ton of minutes. So it's tricky to expect that, you know,

if you're playing 15, 16 minutes a night early on your career, you're killing it on a per minute basis. And then all of a sudden you start playing more. it's it's tough to just kind of extrapolate those numbers but at the same time even when you compare it to last year or the year before that or or especially 2013 14 which is where he kind of seemed to peak it's like the scoring chances are down the attempts are down and I just wonder how much of that is is the fact that he's now 27 28 years old like I know that for it seems for a lot of people like you'd think like what are you talking about like he's like just entering his prime now which is what

we thought for a long time. But if you look at some of these aging creditors, particularly for goal scores, it does seem like he might be out of his prime at this point, which is a scary thought, considering. You don't think so? No. So what happened? And this is still partially speculation, but partially like alluded to in certain interviews, he was, he was nursing some sort of injury for the first half of the season. Um, you could, I mean, you, you, could see it in his play literally um and then for me the big one was that um so jamie ben has the kind of a almost an alex of etchkin vibe right so he's a bull on the ice he'll throw his weight around but he's still got great hands he can still do all the other things right um Jamie Ben wasn't hitting

anybody for the first half of the season so if that and and the stars as you well know couldn't possess the puck for the life of them so you would think okay our main hitter Jamie Ben has led the led the team in hits for the last three or four years. If the guy who hits everybody doesn't have the puck and isn't hitting everybody, something's probably wrong. And you can also see like his really, his tight-in scoring chances went down. He was afraid to get to the net. He wasn't getting into those body battles.

He was injured for the first part of the year and still playing 20-something minutes a night like he does. And for a long time, nobody would kind of admit it. And then he actually got for real injured, had an ankle. issue and had to go out and they were talking. So after that happened, they kind of said, oh yeah, like he was working through something else earlier this season too. But he's actually gotten back to where he, what we would call vintage Jamie Ben, the last couple of performances from him have been really good. I think the other thing that's really affected his numbers and

pretty much everybody else's numbers was the injuries. And the fact that he was, you know, for the last couple of years, he's been playing alongside Tyler Sagan almost exclusively. you know, sometimes with Spetsa, sometimes with Sharp, but nearly always with Tyler Sagan. And with all the injuries that happened, Lindy was basically forced to put Ben on one line with two bottom six guys and Sagan on another line with generally two bottom six guys.

I mean, the guy who's having the best year on the Dallas Stars right now is Antoine Roussel. Right. Because he's been playing with Tyler Sagan almost the whole season. That'll help. They can go from Cody Eakin as your number one line mate to Tyler Sagan, and whoo, things happen. Yeah. Yeah, for no, for sure.

No, it's, you know what, I hope you're right. I'm sure you are. You're falling much more closely than I am. I was just kind of caught my eye that he had been trending a bit in the wrong direction. Yeah. No, it was really, really worrying for the first part of the season, but he's, you can see it in his skating now. You can see it in the way he plays the game now that he's definitely feeling better. I think the all-star break.

He didn't go to the All-Star game this year. I think there was a huge part of why he's feeling better. So I feel like we've been kind of down or a bit gloomy so far. Let's talk about some positives. I think one of my favorite guys to watch in the league this year, and I never thought I'd say this because he doesn't necessarily play the style of game that would just be super fan-friendly or, you know, very explosive. But like Radic Fax has really caught my eye,

especially the past handful of weeks. Are you as enamored with him as I am? I'm a huge Radic Foxo fan. I'm a huge Radic Faw fan. In fact, actually, I really started appreciating his game last season right before the playoffs. So right before the playoffs, Lindy put together a line of Fox on the center

and then his wings were Antoine Roussel and Alex Hemsky. And for, I think it was something like the last 12 or 13 games rolling into the playoffs, they had something like an 80% goals 4 percentage. I mean, it was ridiculous watching that. Like, no one else could touch the puck. And Fox is just such an excellent, like, play driver. He will get that puck up ice.

and the thing that's worked well with him is that he's not a great particularly great shooter and that's why that that line with with Roussel and Hemsky was great because he had somebody who he could move the puck up ice Ruse would you know do what Ruse does which is cause havoc or be the little pit bull on the puck right and then anytime they could they'd get it to Hemsky and Hemsky would try and put it on net and then one of them would go you know, try and grab any rebounds they found. And with having that kind of, you know, play driver, puck finder shooter combo is something that Lindy Ruff tends to really,

really like in his lines, and it just worked beautifully. And so he's really kind of, I think, missing his, that kind of shooter presence on his line. But actually, he was working pretty well. with Curtis McKenzie and Brett Ritchie with Ritchie playing in that shooter role as well. But yeah, no, he's a gem. Roddick-Faxi is a gem. I'm a big Radixel fan.

I recommend anyone listening if there are still some shares available to buy online somewhere, I would buy all the Radic-Faxa stock I can. Let's, okay, so let's spin it forward here, since we're both kind of in agreement that the stars should be looking ahead. So the trade deadlines in a week, and they have a lot of guys that could potentially be interesting to teams as rentals. I mean, I know that you've outlined in the past Johnny Oduya as a potential guy who could, his deal was expiring. And he's, you know, his underlying numbers aren't very good. So I know that people are generally skeptical of him, but he's one of those guys that kind of fills in the category of he's been around for a long time.

And coaches seem to trust him and rely on him in tough situations, which, would be interesting for a contending team that might think they're, you know, one or two reliable pieces away from taking that next step. Patrick Sharp's also available. I mean, you have guys like Kraknell and Korpakoski and Houdler for lower prices. But I mean, our-crackle won't go anywhere because he just got into a six-week injury. I feel really bad about that. Like he was one of my favorite, he was one of my big bright spots for this season.

Fourth liner just again, kind of like Fox Alight could move the play. up ice, not necessarily always going to score for you, but always move the play up ice. Just very earnest game. So I really, really was a big fan of him. And, you know, people say that about O'D's numbers, but, yeah, his relative coursey this year is like negative one, but it's really not that bad. And if you look at his overall numbers, they're generally quite good. He's good at playing in a system. And most contenders have a decent system. So, and he's a pretty decent penalty killer in general. So he definitely has value.

He definitely has worth, I think. And I think the name is really what I would be trading on. Right. And the rings, like, that's what you got to do. The weird thing with Oduya is that last year during the postseason, I really enjoyed that combination of him and Stephen Johns for a while there. And if you look at their numbers this year, like, I'm a big Stephen Johns fan. And it's night and day between when you,

you look at how he's done with pretty much every other partner and how he's done with Oduya. And I feel like a lot of that is probably just usage, I imagine, because Linder has probably relying on Oduya to play the minutes and no one else really wants to or can. Yeah. And you're spot on with that. The thing about, so I've done a lot of like work with analytics and trying to like provide better context of what should be expected. And so what you find and, you know, zone starts aren't a great stat, right? But we have. have them. And especially when you look at them from an all situation standpoint, they tend to help you say, okay, this guy does a lot of power play time. This guy does a lot of penalty

kill time because you always start in one zone or the other for your faceoffs. And so when you look at all situations and relative zone starts, your first pair defensive and almost always have very high ones, right? Because they tend to play a lot of power play time. Yeah. And then your middle like kind of 50 percenters that's your third pair and it's your second pairing guys who are your penalty killers

almost exclusive like as a rule you know obviously there are exceptions but so when you see guys who do take on the brunt of that kind of defensive zone stuff it's almost always going to be your second pair and that's almost always what O'Jonio has done so yes there's definitely like he's not your best guy for driving forward offensive play but he's pretty

fine like he's fine he's not going to he's less likely to mess up and he's also less likely to make a brilliant play which is perfectly fine for your second pair which is perfectly fine for your second pair and frankly what you want from a penalty killer yes yeah for sure um and so the guy we didn't mention amongst that list of guys that are available and should conceivably be trade targets as Patrick Eves. And he's been a bit of productive middle six-ish guy for years, basically whenever he's been able to stay on the ice. And I mean, his beard, I mean, I feel like I can do a full podcast on that thing alone.

So I don't even want to open up that box right now. Let's talk about purely Patrick Eves, the player, because I think the stars have done a really masterful job here, whether it was intended or whether it was just a kind of accidental byproduct of positioning themselves to really cash in on him as a rental piece of this deadline because, I mean, he has 21 goals and I feel like a lot of teams are still at the point where they just look at something like that and think, well, you know, we need an offensive punch here at the deadline. Let's just bring in Patrick Keeves. Look how many goals he scored without actually looking at the fact that a ton of them have come on the power play and he's had this power play

oriented usage, which he's never really had in his career prior. And I don't think anyone really expects if Patrick E's is suddenly a 30-goal scorer at the age of 33 when he's never really done it before. But I mean, we saw it happen with Mikhail Bodker last year where, you know, he was obviously younger and held in higher regard. But the coyotes just gave him a ton of these powerplay opportunities. And he cashed in just purely on a raw volume basis. And they were able to get an intriguing package for him. And I think that Eves should fetch something interesting as well. Yeah, no, I think he's definitely probably our biggest chip that we've got this year. I hope that whoever, you know, pays for him

understands the power play thing because I don't, I mean, I like the guy so much. Like, he's just a great guy. And I, you know, I'm so happy that he's, like, hitting these career highs right now that I want him to be successful. So, yeah, the thing is he's a great, I feel like he's actually a really good player on any line. he does what he does. And he's very much a net front presence kind of guy. And those guys are typically going to help you score regardless.

His shot is fast. Like you never actually really see him touch the puck. He just shoots every time. So if you're there, if you're a team looking to get shot volume up and you put him on a line with any sort of playmaker, you'll be okay. But if they just,

they're like, okay, we're going to add some depth scoring. Let's stick him on a line with like, you know, two guys who can't skate and none of them who can pass, you're not going to get anything out of him because that's what he does is he shoots really fast and he also goes to the net. And you've got to have somebody who can kind of compliment those

skills. And he's great on the power play. Like, I mean, I would never want to have a power play without him. Yes. I also hope he doesn't go to a team that has like a no beard policy or something. That would be disaster. Right. Leaves are right out. Yes. Yes. And the other thing is, I mean, he's playing on an expiring $1 million deal, which is extremely appealing for a team that might be right up against it. Cap-wise, it's pretty easy to fit in. Whereas a lot of these other guys that could provide relatively similar production that are going to be available or are going to come with much heftier price tags. Oh, for sure. I mean, I was looking at that the other day. And a lot of these guys who are the big names are going to be quite expensive, especially with, you know, because some of them

are still under contract. Like if you're looking at the avalanche, you're looking at Landisog, you're looking at Dushain. Well, not only do they have the cat pit for this year, but they're under contract for another couple of years. Yes. And so, yeah, I definitely think Eves is going to be a huge, huge piece for us. But, I mean, we're hearing rumblings out of, like, a lot of the beat writers, Mike Heiko was saying

that they really don't think anybody's off the table right now because just how bad the season has gone. And so I don't know if, you know, I'm really hoping that's not the case. I think there's some really good key pieces. but there's definitely, we definitely need to make room on the blue line. They've carried eight defensemen, nine really, if you count Honka, who's in the AHL, all year. And that's causing a lot of churn for everybody.

I mean, Lindy's got to shuffle his pairs because he's trying not to sit people for too long. And then also you've got these young guys, mostly rookies, who don't want to get scratched. You've got Jamie Alexiak, who, who, you know, he was a first-round pick and he doesn't want to be labeled a bust. You've got Patrick Nemeth who just wants to play hockey, you know. And so there's a lot of, the blue line is too crowded right now

with nine NHL players. And there's something to be said for having depth for injury, but also you've got to be able to have some sort of, at least like level set, you know, kind of expectation of what's going to happen. and right now they don't. I think you've got to make room for Alexiac regardless of how well he's playing just because there's few things that make me happier these days than when he does something good and Razor just kind of freaks out and just calls him big rig and just does his whole,

does his whole Alexiak's feel. I feel like it's, you know what, we've done like 30 plus minutes here and we haven't even brought up Razor's name yet, but I think he's been the stars MVP this season. You know what? the only thing I could potentially see fueling a stars miracle run is that man they needed an emotional win

for that Dave Strader comeback game and they earned it like the stars have really looked beaten down this year and most of it is no one's fault I mean it is hard to come back when they're I think they are third in the lead

for man games lost right now, something like that, and their first or second in cap hit loss, so expensive guys. And that game against Tampa Bay, they weren't the best team on the ice necessarily. They definitely, it was pretty even up until about midway through the second, and then Tampa took over. But man, if they didn't for once look like they cared. And that was important. and good for Stars fans to see. And so I think if anything could turn this season around, possibly it'd be that game.

But frankly, I'm, you know, the logical part of me is like, no, you've got to sell your pieces. Well, you've got to sell your pieces. So. Well, you know how sometimes when people try to, like, quit smoking or something? They, like, listen to those tapes while they go to sleep to try and, like, brainwash them a little bit. I feel like maybe a Fraser, like, recorded some of those for them to listen to before bed every night. Just get, like, inspirational talks. I feel like that could go along with.

You know he has like his own like post game show that the Dallas stars put on their website, right? Does he? I don't know. Yeah. Like the Razor's Wild West Emporium. Oh my God. What does he do? Does you just sit there and talk?

Usually with a cigar and a glass of Scott. Sometimes he'll do it from the bus on the way of the airport too. Oh, God. I love Razor. I wish I'd answer my calls. I want to get him on the show. But I feel like I put him off when I asked him if he'd adopt me as his son. So I don't know.

We'll see. We'll see what happens with that budding relationship. Before I let you go, I did want to quickly talk about something that we were discussing earlier on Twitter. And I wanted to save it until we got into the show. And it was sort of just the concept of cap management and how much you're paying out certain guys and what you're paying them for and stuff like that. And I thought that would be an interesting way to end the show. So do you want to get into that? Sure.

We've got time. Cap management is tough, I guess. I mean, that's where I'll start. Yes. Yes, I agree with that. I think I'm always of kind of two minds about this. I grew up, actually. My stepmom is a lawyer, a labor rights lawyer.

So obviously, I have a lot of, like, I remember from childhood her complaining about things that are unfair towards workers and stuff like that. So I see a lot of it And I get really angry about certain things Like when Kutrov contract this year I was like that's Oh, Steve Eisenman But then I mean I also see it from Steve

Eisenman's perspective in that he's got all of these really talented players and $73 million to work with And so he's got to put some pressure on somebody Somewhere to try and make up that that much money. I think it's really difficult to try and figure out where you go once you get outside of forwards because it's pretty easy to figure out, you know, this guy is going to put up more points and drive more play for us. And it's really easy to identify individual actions that

forwards do the drive play or that, you know, help the team and stuff like that. Points are obviously the biggest one, right? but once you get into defense then you're looking at like okay well what does this guy do for me and when you talk about defense almost exclusively your defense against numbers your shots against numbers are going to be system driven like the bulk of them right and then there's going to be maybe one or two shots against above or are under that are talent and that's where the bulk of it is and so then you go, okay, well, how much am I going to pay for those two shots against

that I'm saving by having this guy, especially if he doesn't put up offense? Right. And so you have that. And then you get to goalies, and then it gets even worse. Yes. Yeah, well, I think this is something that most fans,

most casual fans at least, don't really recognize. Like, it's one of those things. things where, you know, they complain about if a player is holding out for more money or something that. It's like they're complaining about how the, the player is being selfish or money hungry or something like that. It's like you realize that they are, I feel like I'm always on the player's side in any contract negotiation or anything like that because especially when they come into the league at a young age, like first of all, they don't get to pick where they play, which seems crazy to me. I'm a big kill the draft guy. Like I love, I love the spectacle.

of it and the event of and everything that stems from that. But I mean, if you're just looking at it from like a big picture human rights perspective, I feel like the players should be able to pick where they play, but forget, then, you know, they have this sort of restriction on how much money they can make for the first handful of years of their career and all this. And it's like, it's a great asset for the team. There's no doubt about it. But from the players perspective, I think that they're woefully underpaid, especially

the top guys. It's just, we need to figure that out eventually. ELCs are basically free money. Yes. That's what, they're free production. And especially with what we know about aging curves, with,

I feel like there's definitely, so for forwards and defensemen, we are pretty well sure that, you know, your peak age is going to be closer to 23, 25. Yeah. Then it is going to be to 27, 28, which is really when you get your UFA years.

Mm-hmm. What really can, kills me is not only do they have the draft, but then they have restricted free agency. That's what gets me. Like, it's just loving insult on injury, right? Like, not only can you not pick where you go, but you can't pick where you go until you're 27, basically. Yeah, and I mean, look at like Jacob Truba, for example, this year.

I mean, he missed the first however many games because he was holding out for an opportunity. I mean, even beyond the money, he wanted to play somewhere else where he could get more minutes and more usage and a bigger role. And eventually he just had to take this like preposterous deal where for the next few years he's making peanuts compared to what he's actually deserving as a player and a contributor. And it's just like, I feel like if you look at that and there's people there, I'm sure, think that, you know, the Jets were in the right and Jacob Trubo was was just being detrimental to the team and being way too selfish and looking out for himself rather than everyone else.

So it's like, I just don't understand how you could look at that situation and have that as your conclusion. No. Yeah. And that's, and so going back to Kuturav too, right? So Kuturaz is legitimately one of the best scorers in the NHL, right? And so, you know, I got a little bit heated about it. And then people go, well, he can just go play in the KHL.

Yes, because that's the same. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I get that he, at least he speaks the left. language, but like, also, no. Yeah. Like, that's, it's, the KHL is not the same level of talent.

It's not the same level of spectacle. It's not going to be, I mean, it's a different ice even. Like, I mean, it's just not the NHL. There's a reason that Yvgeny Malkin basically bailed on his country to come play in the NHL, and that's because it's the best league. And if you can cut it in this league, you should be in this league. Yep. Yep.

And the fact that they're, what really I think is going to be interesting to me is this upcoming negotiation for the CBA. So one of the things that kind of got glossed over a little bit in this whole, do we go to the Olympics or don't we go to the Olympics saga, was the idea that the NHL floated to the NHLPA, extending the current CBA for a couple, for, I think it was two, years, one or two years, to allow players to go to Pyongcheng. And the NHLPA turned them down flat, as they should. And so what I think the NHL understands is that they're basically, you know, screwing these young kids, you know, Johnny Godrow, Kuturov, Truba, right now. Everybody in restricted free agency right now. Last CBA, last lockout, you had guys like Taves and Crosby, leading the charge. And they had already signed their long-term

well, Taves had his second like Bridgy deal, but it was a decent deal. It was a six-something deal, six-five, I think. Right? So like he's not like upset with where he was monetarily. But then you've got guys like but this coming one

those guys aren't going to be leading the charge. Those guys are going to be the old guys and you will have Kutrov in his prime. You'll have Gidro in his prime. You'll have Trooper in his prime. You'll have Truba in his prime. And those will be the front running. Those would be the faces of the NHLPA that the NHL is going to be trying to negotiate with.

And so, yes, maybe they will try and pay it. Maybe they'll pay it forward again. Like, we had to pay our dues. You guys have to get screwed too. But I have a feeling that this is going to come back and bite them in the butt. Yeah, we're going to be missing some games in the future. For sure. Yeah, it'd be foolish and naive to think we aren't.

But you know what? We've already talked about this. Dallas stars 2016-17-17 season. I feel like that's enough depressing discussion for one podcast. Carolyn, where can people find your work online and check out what you're doing? So I am currently the managing hockey editor for FanragSports. So you can find all of my work over at fanragsports.com. And you should also check out. We cover the entire NHL and women's hockey. We cover a lot of women's hockey as well. And where can people find you on Twitter? On Twitter, I am Classlicity. Yes. Cool.

Well, I definitely recommend everyone checks out your work and follows you on Twitter. And let's get you back on the show sometime here in the near future to just chat about whatever. Okay, thanks for taking the time and we'll talk soon, okay? All right, sounds good. Cheers. Cheers. The hockey PDO cast with Dmitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Filipovich and on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com slash hockeypedocast.