The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 185: Lightning Deep Dive, and Jagr Landing Spots

Episode Date: July 27, 2017

Alan Wells joins the show to help do a deep dive on the Tampa Bay Lightning. We dissect their medley of offseason moves (1:30), their organizational philosophy when it comes to developing prospects and handing out contracts (10:00), and whether they can return to contending form next season (35:00). Then we discuss why Jaromir Jagr is still available, how much he has left in the tank, and what the best landing spots for him are (49:00).  Sponsoring today’s show is SeatGeek, which is making it easier than ever before to buy and sell sports and concert tickets. They’re giving our listeners a $20 rebate off of their first purchase. All you have to do is download the free SeatGeek app and enter the promo code PDO to get started. 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.

Are you ready for the most ridiculous internet sports show you have ever seen? Welcome to React, home of the most outrageous and hilarious videos the web has to offer. So join me, Rocky Theos, and my co-host, Raiders Pro Bowl defensive end, Max Crosby, as we invite your favorite athletes, celebrities, influencers, entertainers in for an episode of games, laughs, and, of course, the funniest reactions to the wildest web clips out there. Catch React on YouTube, and that is React, R-E-A-X-X. Don't miss it. This podcast episode is brought to you by Coors Light.

These days, everything is go, go, go. It's non-stop hustle all the time. Work, friends, family. Expect you to be on 24-7? Well, sometimes you just need to reach for a Coors Light because it's made to chill. Coors Light is cold-loggered, cold-filtered, and cold-packaged. It's as crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. It is literally made to chill.

Coors Light is the one I choose when I need to unwind. So when you want to hit reset, reach for the beer that's made to chill. Get Coors Light and the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart. Celebrate responsibly. Coors Brewing Company, Golden Colorado. Regressing to the mean since 2015, it's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the HockeyPEDEOCast.

My name is Dimitri Filipovich. and joining me is my good buddy Alan Wells. Alan, what's going on, man? Not too much. How you been, Dimitri? I'm good. I'm enjoying this summer. I'm trying to stay plugged in and keeping up with NHL,

although there's nothing really happening these days as we approach August. So it's creating new interesting content. It's kind of tough. I feel like people are just doing prospect reports and lists and stuff like that, which is interesting in itself, but the news is pretty dry at this point. Yeah, this is, this is the doldrums of the summer. We got another month or so before things start to come back to life.

Well, I mean, luckily, to be fair, though, we do have sort of, you know, we can bridge the gap here between the moves we've seen in the summer with free agency and trades in the draft and sort of looking ahead and doing some preliminary previews. And the other day, I was going through, you know, who I thought were the most interesting teams to kind of highlight and keep a close eye on this season. And the Tampa Bay Lightning were really near the top of the list. I think they're amongst the top handful. And you're our de facto Tampa Bay Lightning guy.

We've had you on to deep dive them before. And I felt like it was a good opportunity to ring you up and kind of do that once again since we haven't really done it on this podcast since like I think it was January last time we did it. Yeah, I think that's true. I got to say, it's a pretty cool position, even though some of the moves, I think this summer we'll get into maybe weren't great. It's nice for us in Tampa to feel like this much irrelevant part of the hockey world because even just a few years ago, it seemed like we were really struggling to get to that point.

So it's cool even if the news isn't always great to have people really caring about the team and really interested in what's going on with the lightning. Oh, don't you worry. We'll get to the Dan Gerardy discussion. You don't worry about that. So, you know, following this closely, are you happy with, you know, just in totality looking at it now because I feel like most of the major moves they are going to make have already been done, and I feel like this is probably the team they're going to at least head into the regular season with.

Are you happy with the summer they've had? And do you think that the way the Tampa Bay Lightning look right now is better than the last time we saw them? I think it's better than the injury-riddled mess that they were for most of last season. Right. I don't know if they're better than a health. version of last season's team. I would actually feel pretty comfortable saying they're not, given some of the additions they made and Drew and moving out for a younger piece who may not be ready to contribute this year. So I think they're maybe a little bit, they've taken a little bit

of a step back from an optimal version of last year's team, but given how crazy last year was, I can't imagine it'll be anything other than an improvement in terms of results. Yeah. I mean, well, they were super busy. I mean, when I was putting together the show notes for this, I was kind of looking back at some of the stuff we've done this summer and, you know, they've definitely been active. I feel like, you know, we just go through it in chronological order to get our memories jogging here a little bit. I mean, I like the idea of, you know, I like Nikita Gusev and I can't wait to see what he's

going to look like in the NHL, but at the same time, he's already 25 years old and he just signed on for two more years in the KHL. So it makes sense that the lightning would be okay with moving on from from his rights and a couple of non-first-round picks to get Vegas to take Jason Garrison off their hands. And I guess just as importantly, stay away from Jake Dodson and Slater Cuckooke. I mean, do we agree that was generally a pretty smart move by them? Yeah, I think that was fine. They had, the situation there was they had to trade Garrison. Even though he only has a year left, they couldn't buy him out because the buyout savings because of the way his contract was structured would only have saved him.

I think they would have saved under $2 million on everything that he had left. So buyout wasn't really an option, so they had to find a way to move in. Vegas was the only reasonable place to do it. And I think they made best use of the Gusev asset, like you said, he's going to be 27 now if he comes to the NHL. So it's hard to say, you know, a 27-year-old coming over what exactly he projects to be at that point. So I think they use that asset as best they could. And then, you know, a second and a fourth. It's not ideal.

you know, you'd rather not be in a position where you have to dump contracts like that, but given the position they were in and then it had to go, I think they did about as well as they could there. And I mean, honestly, you know, we talked to those last time I had you on the show, but I'm just so happy that, like, I enjoy watching the Tampa Bay Lightning play hockey, but watching that Garrison, Andre Schuster pairing was one of my lowlights of the 2016-17 season. So the fact that we can just stop John Cooper from using that is a good thing in my book. but then, you know, they may go ahead and make that Druand for Sir Gatchev trade.

And I'm kind of curious for your thoughts on that one because, you know, on the surface, it seems like for a team that is trying to, you know, fancies himself a contender heading into next season, it's a bit of a step back just because, you know, we've seen that Drew-N is a contributor to NHL level already and we're not sure what Sergatchev is or will be or how long it'll take him to get to that point. But at the same time, I know that you've kind of been beating the drum about, while Drew N is, you know, this highlight real player who just is scintillating to watch when he's on. It hasn't necessarily translated yet in terms of his impact at five on five. So it seems like it might be one of those things where people can get blind a little bit by just how fun he is to watch. But his actual contributions are necessarily all that great.

I think you hit it on the head a lot in terms of him not, you know, the full body of work not necessarily aligning with those with those splash moments, with those like. super giffable moments that everybody kind of falls in love with. But I think the really interesting thing about this trade and I'm okay with it. And the way I've sort of positioned it is I'm okay with it given the information we had at the time. I'm not real comfortable with the fact that we had so little information on Druin at age 22 and having played so many games and still feeling like he hadn't been used optimally and that there's a lot of possibility for his ceiling to be higher than anything that we saw in Tampa

because of the way that the coaching staff used them because of the relationship with the front office. So my concern there is that he wasn't valued appropriately because we never got to see him in an optimal situation. And if you don't develop players correctly, then you could end up where you perceive a player as having not kind of reached their potential when really there's some organizational effects that are impacting it. So I think that trade is really interesting. I think both teams took a huge risk.

I think we could look back in a couple years in hindsight and either team could look bad in terms of giving up on something with a ton of sort of top-end potential. I think Sergachev is a potential top-paring D, maybe even, you know, number 1D if he evolves that way. Drouin has the potential to be one of the best wings, you know, in the league. So two teams giving up on assets like that, one for one is, that's the craziest part about

that is both, is that both of those teams were willing to take that risk to kind of feel a perceived need. It feels like we have done this dance with the Tampa Bay Lightning over the years here a couple times where, you know, they're kind of backed into a corner or forced to make a move on a young player and then you know i guess the team's apologists would go ahead and say well the team had no choice here they kind of had to act and do this but then you could kind of flip it around and be like well the reason they had to make that decision was because of the actions that led up to that point and it seems like you know now that uh the druan Tampa bay lightning saga is done with it's we can

definitely kind of conclude that they probably uh would like to to to do it over in terms of how they handled it pretty much right from the get go and they you know i think the return wound up getting is perfectly fine and very defensible, but it seems like they certainly did not optimize that asset from the moment they spent that high pick on them. They obviously have a very structured plan

for the way they want guys to grow through the organization, and that that's everything from the way that they've developed to the contracts that they get. Nobody in the Lightning organization has gotten a contract like Duran just got from Montreal. He just wasn't going to get it there. All those guys took bridge deals.

Kutrov took a bridge deal. And Drouin is definitely not that. So all those guys have taken, you know, two to three year deals in that spot, you know, at, you know, lower money with the expectation that if they perform, they'll get that big contract when they get to that, you know, 25, 26, 27 range. That's what Pilate and Johnson just did this summer. That's where Kowarn was last summer. That's just the organizational model.

And so I, to a certain extent, I appreciate. that and I respect that. But I think there needed to be a little more flexibility in this scenario. It's, you know, this summer could they have done anything better? I don't think so. I think they were in a tough place, given what he's shown so far, given the fact that they weren't going to give him this contract, given the fact that he's already shown that he has no problem taking a break from hockey for a little while if he's not happy with the way things

are going. So I think they were in a tough spot, but I think that there were things that they could have done over the last three years to give themselves more flexibility and at least a little more confidence in the value of the player that they were considering moving. Yeah, no, the point you make on the contracts and sort of this organizational philosophy is fascinating to me because I'm of two minds with it. I mean, it does make sense that with young players, there'd be a certain level of, you know, skepticism or risk-averseness in terms of you don't want to necessarily commit a bunch of money over six, seven years to a young player who, especially if you're not necessarily sure what that

player is going to look like for the, for the entirety of that deal. But at the same time, you know, you mentioned the Kuturov deal, for example. And while having him at 4.76 or whatever they have for the next two seasons and last year included is one of the best values in the league, you know, what's, what's his next contract going to look like in the summer of 2019? It seems like it's very possible it's going to be like double that and i just wonder if that is the best way of doing business because you know you could argue that they've cost themselves quite a bit of money by not committing to him long term when they had the chance while his his stats hadn't exploded although i guess you could argue that maybe kuturov was kutrov and his agent were betting on them on himself and

and not willing to uh to sign for a below market level deal at that point of his career yeah i mean they they were in a really tough cap spot last summer and they they were partially to blame for that as well but there was just no money to sign him long term by the time they got to the end of that summer after they got stambco's done and got headman done um there it just wasn't an option and that's why he had to take that contract essentially they they had no leverage other than to just not not play because there was no cap space um coming from anywhere else so unless somebody else wanted to step in an offer sheet and And I think that's one of those cases where we look at it and see if nobody offers

heeded Kutrov when the team literally couldn't afford to pay him, then it's just never going to happen because he's one of the best players in the league and somebody could have stolen him easily. And Tampa wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. So, yeah, I think overall, the thing I appreciate about it is I like having a plan. I like the fact that obviously somebody's thought this through, somebody's saying this is the way we do things, you know, we're going to lay this out, we're going to execute, and we're going to go through, you know, with each player like this.

And it sets expectations for the players when they come into the organization. You know, where am I going to be in year two? Where am I going to be in year three, year four? But to your point, I don't necessarily know that I agree with the actual plan. So while I like having a plan, I think it might be better to lock those guys up younger. We see a lot of these guys at 22, 23, signing these, you know, six year, six million, you know, kind of deals for good forwards. and they had some opportunities to do things like that and didn't.

And it will end up costing them in the long term. On the flip side, Steve Iserman seems to be really good at moving these deals on the back end when he has to get rid of them. So I'm guessing maybe there's a little bit of him betting on himself to say, you know, we'll sign these contracts through age 32, but we're confident that at age 30 or 31 if we need to move them that we can. Yeah, when are opposing GMs going to stop trading with Steve Iserman? I feel like that would be, you know, if I was a GM and I had a list of sort of. sort of a, you know, like a plan for my organization. One of them would probably be just ignore his phone calls if he ever reaches out to you. Yeah, the Philpola deal at the trade deadline was bizarre to me.

It didn't help either Philly or Pittsburgh. And it just bailed out one of their rivals completely. Just like, here, we're going to take five mil off your books. When we know you're totally cap crunched and you have all these RFAs coming up this summer. that'd be an interesting thing to try to study. Does the value that you get from having Philbola on your team outweigh, you know, causing Tampa to lose a player or have to eat another buyout or something? That was a, I really couldn't believe that he was able to move him that easily with no money retained.

That was pretty crazy. Yeah, he seems to know what he's doing. Yeah, no, the Shigach of a component of this, you know, it's very easy to key in on Drew and just because of all the really, reasons we've outlined. But with Sir Gatchev, the thing is, is like, you know, it seems very plausible that he could step into an NHL lineup right now and contribute and especially considering that he can't play in the AHL, but doesn't really have much left to prove or learn in the OHL. So he's in this, like, tricky little spot. And it just seems like he's probably best suited

for his development to just play in NHL and learn through his mistakes. But at the same time, you have this caveat in this deal where if he plays under 40 NHL games next season, and including playoffs, the Lightning essentially swap a sixth rounder into a second rounder, which is an immensely valuable transaction for them. So they're incentivized to strategically play their gatchap or maybe keep them down in the OHL for a while and then bring them up towards the end of the season for a playoff run, which is obviously kind of a tricky thing because coaches are very conservative. And maybe if he hasn't spent all year with a team, John Cooper might be less likely to all of a sudden

give him a valuable role when and when the season's on the line. but I don't know, like, how do you think they're going to handle that situation? And do you think that we could see them on the Tampa Bay Lightning from day one? Or is it something they're going to kind of push back and look ahead to their future? Yeah, I think that's one of the really interesting stories going into camp. And the caveat on that deal is 40 games, including the playoffs. So, I mean, if they make a deep playoff run, it's basically like he would have to come up for the last month of the season. And that that seems like a really tight timeline.

So it seems like it's either he's going to spend, the year in Tampa or he'll spend the year, you know, back in the OHL. They, counting him, they have 8D who would project to make the roster. And so it's tough for me to see them carrying eight for most of the year. So somebody's going to have to drop. It's not going to be Dan Girardi. So it's either going to be Sergachev or Kuku or Dochen would seem the most likely. candidates.

So we'll kind of have to watch those three in camp to see how it goes. But they've created a log jam for themselves at the blue line. And the problem is that a lot of those players aren't necessarily very good. And so that's kind of a weird spot to be in where you have eight guys that you feel like you should be carrying and probably three of them don't have a whole lot to offer. So I'm not sure exactly how they plan to approach that. I think it's going to be sort of a prove it moment for three or four of those guys in camp, and then we'll see who comes out.

Ideally, he should be in Tampa. I think he's ready to play. I don't know that another year in the OHL does him much good developmentally. So I would prefer to see him in Tampa, but I don't know if the roster is going to allow that to happen this year. Yeah, especially with the team's timeline and ambitions this season, like it makes sense that if he proves it. camp that he's ready and he forces their hand that they would just, you know, bite the bullet

and not turn that six-round into the second rounder. I mean, it's not the end of the world. But, you know, you mentioned some of those guys on the blue line. And, you know, like a guy like Slater Kukuk is very tantalizing to me because I watch him and you can sort of see the skills of why he was a first round pick and why he was highly regarded. But then, you know, we go back to this thing of how Tampa Bay has this plan for their. young players. And I feel like they've really kind of butchered their usage of him because it seems like he's just constantly being shuttled back and forth and sitting in the press box and not playing.

And so we've never really gotten this extended stretch of time to just let Slater Kukuk, just be an NHL defenseman and see what he actually is. So I, I just, I don't really know what to make of him as a player. And that kind of, as an analyst and a perfectionist, that that kind of irritates me a little bit because I'd like to know more about him. Yeah, this is, there's a, there's a, there's a Drouan corollary here where it's like at this age I should know this much about this player and I don't because he hasn't been used in any way that would help me learn anything meaningful about him and I don't you know I'm a little bit confused with him his numbers were not good

when he played last year they just weren't I mean I love the style of game he plays I want him to develop I expected him to be kind of a second pairing guy he didn't he just didn't show that when he was up last year, but he also didn't get much of a chance to play consistently and get consistent minutes. I still think back to the Eastern Conference final against the Penguins when he looked like the third best D on the ice for the lightning. It was like it was headman and Strallman,

and Kuku was the only other guy on that blue line who looked like he could skate with the penguins. So there's talent there. we'll just have to see if it kind of comes forward this year. It's interesting when you look at a player like Jake Dachan who came up at the end of last year and played with Victor Hedman for basically all of his time in the NHL last season. And then you compare that to sort of the treatment that Slater Kuckoo got

where he was the best partner that he had was Brayden Coeburn at any point. And it's kind of easy to see why Dachan, you know, looked really good in his minutes and why the team is so high on him compared to compared to where kuku is now so i think um a lot of people are hoping that maybe if he can get some minutes with somebody like anton strawman um at the beginning of this season and and start just get some consistent time um and a consistent role and and get his feet under him that that we could see him um finally uh take off this year yeah yeah no and i like sort of the uh just comparing him and, you know, Kukuk and Dodgett, because around the expansion draft, there was sort of this debate

people were having on, you know, if, if Eisenman wasn't going to make a deal for involving Garrison to incentivize Vegas to take him, who Vegas would prefer, and they're so stylistically different. And obviously, Dodchen looked really good in his limited sample last season when he came up. But, yeah, there's the fact that he was pretty much playing exclusively with Victor Headman, and I feel like you and I would probably look good in those minutes. So it's it's kind of tough. I never really know what to make of players like him because, you know, there's this argument to be made that he could be a very reliable defensive defenseman and do all that stuff

that more traditional old school, old school types would prefer. But at the same time, it seems like his upside is pretty capped and he's not going to contribute much offensively in terms of moving the puck. So I'm just not sure in today's NHL how valuable that guy is, really. Yeah. And I feel like I need. more time with those guys too because it's it's more difficult to assess like consistent defensive play and does he really shut down the other team of the blue line

and does he really make kind of difference making plays in his own zone because he doesn't contribute offensively and that's there's there's good defensemen in this league still who don't contribute a lot offensively but i mean i can count on on one hand the number of times that he made like a good pass in the offensive zone and when he was in tampa last year so he's really kind of a one-dimensional player but if that one dimension is good and you put him next to a guy like Victor Hedman and now Hedman doesn't have to worry so much about what's going on behind him and he can really focus on pushing the pace and sometimes that that can be a good fit. So we'll just have to see kind of how, you know, I would really like to see him in a different

pairing and see, you know, what the results are, Dachan that is, to see if he can kind of replicate that because his numbers with headmen were outstanding, but I think there's, you know, you have to take that with a grain of salt a little bit. Yeah. And with defensive defensemen, you can really get yourself into trouble because it seems like in, you know, in 2017, the guys we hold up as the gold standards for that, whether it's, you know, like a Mark Edward Vlasic or a Nicholas Jalmersen, who are guys that, you know, play heavy minutes against other teams' best players and don't put up a lot of points but are still valuable. Like, if you watch those guys, they're still good with the puck. Like, you know, they're not necessarily.

necessarily activating on the rush and generating a ton of offense in the offensive zone. But, you know, they can get the puck out of their own zone. And if they're relied upon, they can make crisp tape-to-ta-ta-ta-paces. And that's a very valuable skill that might not necessarily be measured by points, but is very conducive to being a good NHL defenseman. And we still haven't really seen that from Dodgians. So, like, I'm not sure how far, you know, clearing the crease in front of your goalie will take you.

and whether that's actually a repeatable skill that matters. So I guess with a guy like him, it's more of a weight and see basis. Yeah, and that's where stuff like the passing data that we start to look at and zone exit data starts to become important. You want that guy to be able to make that first pass, you know, at least get the puck out of the zone

and spring the forwards. And I'm, yeah, dodchin is still a little bit of a mystery for me. I'm really interested to see what he looks like in camp this year and what he looks like with maybe a little, a little bit different usage than the super favorable usage that he got at the end of last season. You know we're deep in the summer and deep in the trenches here when we're spending like a good five minutes on Jake Dodson. Listen, man, that's why people come to the Hockey P.D.O. cast and I can't find that type of content anywhere else.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if it was a little more positive, like, maybe his family would be listening and they would be like super stoked that we spent five minutes on that. But yeah, he, I mean, you can't, you can't dispute kind of the results that they put up with him on the ice last year. And he freed up that blue line. He let Anton Stromlin slide down to the second pair so that they could get that. That's what split up that Schuster Garrison pairing was Dodgian coming up. So him coming up was really kind of the turning point of the season for them. So it was huge. It'll just be interesting to see if he can continue that this season.

So defensive defenseman, analytics, Dan Girardi. You know, I have some notes here on my screen. but like general talking points or angles I want to steer this discussion in. And then I have all these moves they've done this summer. And then I just have the Dan Girardi contract. And I don't really, I don't know where to begin this discussion. I mean, there's so many different ways we can kind of get into this and peel back the layers. I mean, I think the most fascinating part of it is the comments that were made about how their own internal analytics value him maybe more than some of the publicly available main.

stream stuff. It's, you know, it's always tough to know how much of that is a smokescreen and they're just using that to get people to settle down a little bit and just defer to their decision to sign him. Like I, I, having tracked various things and also looked at, looked at some stuff that teams are using, haven't necessarily found anything that would signify that Dan Gerardi is a useful NHL player at this point of his career. But I don't know. Like, what could they possibly be looking at that is an actual thing that would lead them to believe that this was a good signing? So there's nothing. I think we would all feel pretty confident in that.

And so then you start to go to like, well, what's going on? Because they have, I think most people would say that the Lightning are a fairly intelligent organization. They have a fairly well-respected person leading their analytics department. And Michael Peterson, who's been at conferences and who's done some radio spots and stuff, talking about the way that the team uses analytics to help make decisions. So it's not like they don't know what they're doing there. So that's, and I think we're starting to see, you know,

a little bit of this kind of undercurrent across the league that some of these third-party data companies are maybe providing either raw data or reports that are kind of pushing teams towards some of these decisions. We heard those rumblings with the Chris Russell deal in Edmonton, and the stuff in Tampa with Gerardi sounds very similar. It's obvious that there's metrics floating around in the league that are suggesting that these guys add some sort of value, and there's a gap there between what they're seeing and what we're seeing publicly.

And I guess it's possible that we're wrong, but I have a hard time believing that there's some kind of impact that could justify just the fundamental, sort of gaps that we see in terms of shot share and expected goals share. And you don't even have to get into anything more complex than that to just see how bad his impact is. And I think he was the second or third worst qualifying player in DTM about Hart's goals above replacement statistic last season. So there's just sort of like a fundamental baseline where you don't need to dig a whole lot deeper into any kind of other specific metrics to understand that the player is having a negative impact.

And so I think there's still a gap there for teams. Obviously, they're still valuing, you know, some of the more, some of the intangibles, some of the leadership things. I think those things are value. It's difficult to put a price tag on those. It's difficult to know how much those things actually impact on the ice. So I think this is a pretty standard situation of they've got some measurements. metrics that it seemed questionable from the outside plus the intangible stuff.

And that leads to this kind of deal, which is ultimately going to hurt the team because it's hard to envision any sort of usage where Dan Gerardi is going to make the team better in any way. Yeah, I feel like if they were just transparent about it and they came on and they were like, listen, Dan Gerardi is just an awesome dude. Guys on our team are vouching for them and they really just want to hang out with them on a daily basis. And we feel like it's going to improve the vibe in our locker room. I'd be like, I don't agree with spending two years and $3 million per season on that. But at least, you know, I could understand how that would improve the atmosphere.

And maybe it would, you know, your players would be happier and, and so on and so forth. But it's like you go into this black box discussion about, you know, these proprietary metrics they're using. And I just, you know, whether it's with zone exits or defending zone entries or just purely watching them. I mean, I don't even think it's like the Chris Russell thing, because at least when you watch Chris Russell, just purely from the eye test, like at least the guy can skate and looks like, you know, a warm body. I feel like if you watch Dan Girardi in this year's playoffs,

hello, and he's just kind of flailing around there without really any purpose or plan, and he can't keep up with anyone. And I just don't see how you could talk yourself into that being a thing that you want on your team, even as like a seventh defenseman, really. But I don't know. I'm fascinated to see how it plays out and how they justify it when it doesn't work out. Yeah, it's going to be ugly.

And yeah, it's, it's one of those things when it happened. It's, it's kind of weird because usually there's like an argument, and I don't even feel like there's an argument to have here. It's just like, oh, they just signed one of the worst players in the league for two years and three million bucks, and he's going to eat up 15 to 20 minutes of ice time every night for the next two seasons. So we'll just have to figure out how to deal with that. Yeah, it's not ideal.

It's not ideal. I'll say that. Yeah, the other moves they made, I mean, listen, I'm not sure how much Chris Kunitz has left in the tank, but even if you're leaning towards a more skeptical end of things, it's still ultimately just a one-year deal. And I feel like as a sort of depth, even like a third line winger, like he could contribute some value there. So like I don't see how you could necessarily be too up in arms about that one. I don't know, like were people negative on that move? Or was it sort of just a, like, were you okay with it?

How do you feel about it? Yeah, I mean, I think that's fine. I personally, I don't know how much of a difference there is between Kuhnitz and Adam Ernie at this point. You know, I might rather Adam Ernie get those minutes and develop and see what he can become. But, yeah, I mean, they obviously wanted experience and, you know, rings and all that stuff. You know, playoff experience was really important to them this summer. So I think that if they're looking for those things, that's a reasonable way to get some of that. And it's only a one-year deal.

And the last thing I have here that they've done, and we can talk about Andre Pallat and Tyler Johnson individually in terms of the players they are and their extensions. But I think sort of just wrapping it up into a bigger sort of topic is they're going to have no trade clauses, I believe, in their deals. And I saw a chart that kind of broke down how many no trade clauses each team's given out currently. And I think the lightning will be tied with the Red Wings for most in the least. league with those two deals, which I think is an interesting discussion to be had because, you know, on the one hand, it's generally a sign that you have a bunch of really good players that are commanding those deals and that's a good problem to have. But at the same time, you really are kind of backing yourselves into a corner and potentially tying your hands when

those players either stop retaining value or you have to deal them to make room for future contracts. And we've seen time and time again how teams wind up regretting it and have to pay exorbitant prices to make it work or just have to bite the bullet on certain things. And, you know, it might not be necessarily be a huge problem right now for the lightning, but you could envision how a couple years from now, all of a sudden, they're going to be having to answer a lot of questions in terms of why they were comfortable giving out all these deals. Yeah, they, they seem locked into this core top six forwards for the next like four to five years. And nothing is really going to change there and they've assured that by giving everybody no trade clauses. They did structure

almost all of those deals so that those clauses drop to, I think, 10 teams on the back end of those deals, like on the last three years, I think pretty much everyone. It's another thing that they do. Everybody gets paid at the same time and everybody gets the same no trade clause. So they do give themselves more flexibility on the back end of those contracts. But yeah, I mean, they seem, loyalty seems to be really important. And there's so they, They're kind of saying to the players that, you know, if you're going to commit to this organization, we're going to commit to you and you're going to be here, you know, until you're 30. And then we'll figure it out after that.

But yeah, I don't love it. I think some of them are fine, right? Players like Stamcois, players like Hedman, Kutrov will have one at some point, even a player like Andre Pallat. But when you start giving them to Alex Korn long term, you know, Gerardi and Koonitz both have. one for for whatever reason. I know people say it's only one year or two years, but why are you locking themselves into those players? If Coonitz isn't good this year, why wouldn't you want to be able to flip him at the deadline for something or just to clear a roster spot? So that's the kind of stuff that's a little confusing to me with how much they're kind of throwing them around

at the lower end of the roster. I'm fine with it, you know, for guys that they want to commit too long term for a reason, but it seems like they're going a little overboard. Yeah, I mean, I get the logic of it sometimes where it's like, you know, you can save some money on it in terms of a player might be willing to take a bit less if you give him that type of security that he's not going be at risk of being traded. But with like Dan Girardi, I feel like he probably wasn't getting more than $6 million for two years from anyone else. So it seems like that no trade clause was a big gratuitous there and unnecessary. But it seems like they're comfortable with it. And we'll see how that works out for them. Alan, let's take a quick little break here to hear from

our sponsor and we'll get back to this lightning discussion on the other end of things. Sounds good. A big part of the reason we're able to keep churning out the show throughout the summer while everyone else seemingly has taken time off to enjoy their well-deserved offseason break is because of the fine folks at Siki Kik, who are sponsoring today's episode of the Hockey Pediocast. The other thing they're doing is helping make the process of finding and acquiring tickets to sporting events and concerts easier than ever before. While I know some of you out there fancy yourselves bargain hunters and enjoy the grind of

scouring various websites and trying to find the best deals, most of you probably are bigger and more important things to worry about on a daily basis. And that makes your time really precious. And Seekkeek knows that. And that's why they are doing all of this work for you. They put together a collection of the best values available for whatever event your heart desires. All right. So let's talk a little bit about the outlook for next season.

Where are you at with this team in terms of sort of your projection or your expectation for them? heading into next year. Like, do you think that they're immediately going to just step back into that kind of contender status atop of the east that they had heading into last season? Or do you think we need to recalibrate a bit and maybe temper our expectations for them? I think the Atlantic is going to be interesting next year. I think sort of the emergence of Toronto kind of changes the dynamic. You can't just expect to kind of run through that anymore.

I think they will contend for a division title. I think there's still a step below. Pittsburgh, Washington obviously took a pretty big step back this summer, so we'll have to see how they look going forward. So I mean, I think they're still in that probably top maybe four to five or maybe six teams in the east. It's just going to be about kind of how they gel, and it's going to be about, really a lot of it is about that blue line and how that all shakes out and where the pairings land and, you know, how they can make that kind of patchwork, defense work.

And then with Stamco's coming back, he's got to get back to the level he was at at the beginning of last season. And if he does and that top, that top six kind of performs the way that it can, then, I mean, that that on its own is enough to power them to a deep playoff run. So it's really about, you know, can he get back to his level? And then can the blue line not be, you know, a disaster? Yeah. Well, I mean, and, you know, last year they really were decimated by injuries. I believe only Kaloren Schuster and Coburn played in 80 games for them. So it's like, you know, if they have a bit better injury luck there and they're not having

consistently just cycle through different combinations of players and just shuttle guys back and forth between Tampa and Syracuse, that'd be huge. And the Atlantic, as you mentioned, is. is fascinating to me. I think it's, you know, it's definitely fortunate for them that they're not playing in the metro. I feel like most of their peers or teams are going to be stacking themselves up and measuring themselves up against will be in the metro division with the teams like the capitals and the penguins. You know, if you look around the Atlantic, are the least the only team in that division that there's reason to believe will be better than they were last season?

I feel like all the teams either sort of took lateral steps or even going to take noticeable steps backwards. I guess maybe the sabers, but they're sort of on a different relative scale here compared to the other teams we're talking about. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think Montreal is kind of always, when you have a goalie like that, you know, you're kind of always in it. So we'll see, obviously, they've done some interesting things to their roster since the trade deadline. And then again, this summer, they've done some. They've done some really good things and then they've done some other things that maybe aren't so good. So we'll see how all that shakes out for them.

But yeah, I think it's, you know, my top two going into the season, I think, is Tampa and Toronto. And honestly, Toronto terrifies me. The youth on that team and talent is, like, it's a little overwhelming sometimes. They still have some holes on the back end of their roster. and depth-wise, I think they'll still have some issues. But that Matthews' knee-lander combination is scary. And then when you throw a Marner out there on the second line, and that team is a nightmare.

Yeah, yeah, just like the natural progression of those young guys developing and potentially taking steps up next year is a scary proposition for everyone else. Yeah, the Habs, assuming carry price is healthy and able to play like 60-something games for them. They're going to win a lot of games in the regular season. I have no doubt about that. I think the race for the third team, Atlantic Division is probably the most interesting part of this because, you know,

like I think everyone expects the senators to take a step back next year, just based on the fact that they were very fortunate this season. And I, we'll see. Like, they obviously have some really high-end players that could carry them. So I'm not necessarily going to completely write them off, but I'm skeptical that they'll be able to be right up there again next season. And then, you know, with other teams, I mean, the Red Wings are a complete right off their,

they're an abomination at this point. And the Panthers, unfortunately, I think, have taken one of the biggest steps back of anyone in the league from last year to this coming season. So I'm kind of writing them off there. So it's between the Bruins and the senators for that third spot on Atlantic. I'd love to see the Sabres take a big step forward, but I'm not sure if that's realistic at this point.

Yeah, I don't know that the Sabres are there yet. I do like the direction their organization is headed. I think they made a great choice of GM. I think they've made some relatively smart decisions kind of getting started this offseason. So I think that they're an organization that has some interesting pieces and has some flexibility to build over the next few years. I think, you know, I'm kind of on the same page with you there on most of the other teams. The Sends, I think we'll take a step back. I just, you know, I lived the Gie Boucher experience.

and I just that that style of play that you have to win these these one goal games at an incredible rate to be competitive. I just think it's really tough to sustain that. So I'm I wasn't a believer last year and I was wrong. So I will continue to not be a believer and see if they prove me wrong again. Boston is always interesting. They have a lot of talent. You know, they made a coaching change last year that, you know, I guess maybe they felt like they need to make,

but I don't know that that made the team better. And so we'll see how that all comes together for them. They obviously still have enough talent to win a bunch of games, but their goaltending last year was a huge issue behind Tuka Rask. And so we'll see if he can give a superhuman kind of performance this season to get them beyond where they went last year. Yeah, and the thing with a team like the Bruins is we know how big of a grind the 82 game regular season is and I feel like they have very little wiggle room in terms of their

depth like if one of those top guys for them uh you know is out for any extended period of time or the guy like zedinochara takes uh another step back just because of his age and all the miles he has on his body all of a sudden like they could they could really be scrambling and i'm just not sure that they have the uh you know like we talk about with the leaps there's all these young players that it's very plausible that they're going to get better next season i just don't see that type of internal improvement that's there for the Bruins other than if you're just expected. You know, a guy like Charlie McAvoy as all of a sudden going to just take the league by Storm and be one of the best players.

But it seems like a risky proposition on my end of things. Yeah, I don't. I think, you know, if we're being honest, they'll look fairly similar to the way they did last year. And they had some bad luck shooting-wise last year. Some of that was systems-driven. So it'll be interesting to see what they look like under a different coach for a full year. and if, you know, if maybe a few more of those shots going then on their end and, you know, the opposite at the other end, then, you know, they'll end up in a better spot.

But, you know, I think it's Tampa, Toronto, and then Montreal, and then kind of, there's a scramble after that for the rest of the division. Well, one last thing on the Sabres. I mean, you know, you alluded to the fact that you like the direction they're headed in. And I completely agree. I think that pretty much all the moves they've made this summer ever since Jason Baderl took over have been very positive and encouraging. the reason I bring that up is because, you know, for a while now it feels like Bauderil and Julian Brisewa have been on these lists of sort of up-and-coming executives whenever there's an opening somewhere. They're the guys that kind of get cited as being warranting consideration or being interviewing for the job. And I'm just kind of curious, like, when a guy like Breezwal is going to finally get that opportunity of his own. Like, it's quite possible that

he's very happy with his current spot right now as Steve Eisenman's right-hand man. But at the same time, he has been at this gig since I believe 2010 when Eisenman took over the lightning. And it seems like eventually he's going to be able to spread his wings. And I feel like most people around the league are pretty optimistic that he's going to, that he's going to be the right man for the job. But I'm just, I'm kind of curious to see when that is finally going to happen because it seems like every year we've, we were talking about it, but it hasn't happened yet.

Yeah, I, I would expect him to, to take a job sooner or sooner rather than later. I think, I mean, I don't have any kind of inside information or anything. but I think there was a general feeling of sort of failure around the organization this year. And I think that maybe there's some hesitancy for anyone to kind of, I think there's a feeling within the team to like rally around and everybody come back next year and we have to fix what happened last year. And I think everybody's really committed to kind of seeing this team hit its ceiling. So I wouldn't be surprised if there's a little bit of that at play with him.

But yeah, I can't imagine that we go on. another, you know, two to three years without him taking a GM job. He's got, he's got too much respect around the league. He's shown it with the way that he's sort of, you know, driving some of the decisions for Eiserman and the way that they've incorporated different things. And the crunch have been a good team under him. So, in Syracuse. So I think that, I think his opportunity is coming. I also wouldn't be surprised if he's trying to pick his spot a little bit because we've heard his name for so long. I'm sure he's, I'm sure every job that comes up, he's at least getting a phone call. So he may be, you know, trying to wait for that exact right spot where he feels like he has

the control and the flexibility to kind of implement things the way he wants to. Yeah, obviously, I mean, for us, not having the inside information or anything or annoying, sort of the machinations of how the day-to-day process goes for these teams, it's always interesting to sort of just be able to kind of differentiate who's responsible for what and figuring out, you know, whether a lot of these smart moves they've been making over the years have been more and more eyes are driven or breezewater driven. So I think we'll eventually kind of learn a little bit more about that when he finally does move on to his new job. So I'm kind of looking forward to that. One final thing about the lightning before we move on to something else is I don't even know

if there's like warranting a discussion, but I just had this crazy realization that John Cooper is currently the second longest tenured coach in the league, which blew my mind because it seems like yesterday that he was this kind of just like new young, fresh coach in the league and was starting this trend of younger coaches that were this new wave of guys that was being brought into the league and all of a sudden now,

only Joel Quenval has been with his current team longer, which I don't know, maybe you were aware of that and you're following this more situation more closely, but it kind of blew my mind a little bit. Yeah, I think that's more of a function of the turnover rate around him than anything else.

But yeah, it's, it's, it's, It's crazy how fast teams move on from coaches. And then it's also interesting to start thinking about this is a very different thing for him. And there's a couple people at raw charge who have brought this up that this is the first time for him that he's really been in a position for an extended period of time. In both of his previous stops on his way through professional hockey, he won a cup in the second year and moved on. and in Tampa they went to the Stanley Cup final in his second year. And so this is kind of new territory for him in terms of managing an organization, ongoing as players grow and develop.

We've definitely seen he has his players that he likes that came up with him. And there's been some issues sometimes with integrating new players who didn't come, who didn't sort of grow with him up into the organization. So I think there's a lot. a room for him to improve. I think consistency is a great thing. I think organizations, part of the reason teams struggle is because they don't have consistency and they don't have a sort of a singular vision and where everyone is kind of aligned on what their goals are. So I like the fact that they're sticking with him, but I would like to see him kind of show a little bit more

flexibility and be willing to change things and willing to help the organization grow and him grow as a coach so that they can continue to be competitive. Yeah, I guess just some to keep in mind next time you see a team hand out a multi-year extension to a coach before his current deal even expires. I get why they do that because you need to show the players in the room that the coach is there to stay and they have to listen to him. But at the same time, the turnover is just so nuts. I mean, Cooper's been with the Lightning since March 2013 and he's the second longest ten-year-old guy. And I think Cuomo was in 2008 and then Vigno was a few months after Cooper. and then it's just like a medley of guys in 2014,

2015, and 2016. And it seems like, the shell fight for a coach these days is generally, like, I feel like somewhere between two to four years. And then all of a sudden, if they have a hiccup or a bad season, they're going to be the first ones to get blamed. Yeah, as soon as that,

as soon as that PDO dip comes now, and then it's time to move on. And I think Cooper actually is up next summer. So I think he's, I don't think he's working on a, I think he got his extension the previous year. So that'll be interesting. That's kind of an interesting dynamic going into this season. There was, you know, I think some frustration for everybody with the way last season went.

So everybody kind of has something to prove going into this fall and him included. Yeah. Okay. So enough about the lightning for now. Let's, you know, I was trying to think of other topics for us to discuss. And it being August right now, there's very few things to look forward to over this coming month in the NHL. I mean, you know, there's going to be a couple of big RFA deals handed out with guys like said on johansson but as we mentioned in the kutrov discussion there's no reason to believe that there's

any any teams jumping into the fray there so it seems pretty cut and dried i thought a more interesting thing for us to look at would be potentially kind of fantasy booking uh yarmur yager landing spots because i know that people have recently been uh you know discussing why teams haven't uh kind of looked at him or giving him a shot or why he's still around because it seems like he still could be a very useful contributor unlike most of the other guys who are currently still looking for deals. And I don't know, let's just kind of look around the league and try and come up with the most fun and potential spots for him to go to. Do you have any off the top of your head that you think he'd be kind of the best at just

in terms of rooting interest as a general NHL fan? The Tampa Bay Lightning have an opening on the right wing on their second line because Jonathan Drilling got traded. I don't think that they really have the, financial wherewithal to sign him. And I think that really becomes the issue is, you know, what is his role going to be? Where does his, where, you know, what kind of money is he willing to take for this year? And is he looking to play on a contender? Because because I would imagine that at this point in his career, if he's going to come back, he's going to be, he's going to be

looking for at least a playoff team, if not a shot, you know, at a cup. Yeah. Well, I mean, the interesting wrinkle with him is, you know, then this is probably a testament to his preparation and his workout regimen and how well he takes care of his body. But I mean, I think over the past four years, he's played 82, 77, 79, and 82 regular season games. And while I'm sure that, you know, as a competitive athlete, he prides himself on that and that consistency. And I'm sure he wants to make up for all the years he missed in terms of racking up points and moving up the leaderboards. There's also at this stage of his career, absolutely no reason that he should be putting that kind of unnecessary punishment on his body. And, you know, I'd love to see him, uh, we're,

regardless of where he goes, you know, be used strategically, whether it's sitting him on on back-to-backs or even kind of strategically giving him an occasional week or two off in soft spots of the schedule because it seems like, you know, I think every NHL player should probably only be playing around 60 to 70 regular season games. It seems like the ideal amount of wear and tear on them and then saving some gas for gas in the tank for the playoffs. But I think like even with him, you know, if he's, if he's playing around 50, I feel like that's the best for him. And which I guess begs the question of whether maybe he's just best off sitting back and waiting out the first couple months of the playoffs, a regular season, and then strategically picking a contender to sign on

with sometime around Christmas. So, I mean, that's been, that's been my argument. You know, Roger Clemens used to do that in baseball. He used to wait until, wait until later in the season, and then, and then kind of sign on board at that point and play the rest of the year. So I would like to see, but I think that would be interesting because if you do that, then you wait for teams to maybe develop a need that isn't there now. Maybe there's some increased cap flexibility with injuries and things like that. So I think that opens up a lot of different opportunities if he was to go that route. Yeah, or injuries.

I mean, you know, something will come up where maybe a team is better than expected or a team is worse than expected and you avoid having latched on with them. I mean, it makes sense for him to kind of wait that out. I think, yeah. So, I mean, just a value, like, I don't know. I don't know how much you watched him last year. I watched a fair bit, and I definitely think it's fair to say that maybe he looked a tad bit slower than he had the year before. But at the same time, I mean, he's not necessarily this guy that's relying on his speed. I mean, it's a lot of kind of positioning and smarts and just playing this grind-you-down puck possession style of game.

So I don't really like, do you think we're at the point now where he has actually started to maybe lose it a bit physically and have the game pass him by? Or do you think it's just he can still kind of keep being that player he's been for the past few years? and be a very useful contributor for some teams kind of middle six wing. So I think that's a really interesting point about him sort of losing a step speed-wise, because I think like the buzzword this off-season has been all about speed. And when people talk about the pens, they talk about the speed. And I think sometimes we get into these kind of, you know, what is the hottest thing right now in front offices. And so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a little bit of, you know, if he can't, if he's,

if he's a step behind the other guys on the line, and is he going to be able to execute the system sort of the way that we envision it? Are we going to have to cater to him to kind of fit, to kind of get the most out of him and that kind of thing? And I wonder if there's a little bit of that going on in front offices and teams saying, you know, we'd rather play our 24-year-old, you know, middle-six-wing, who we don't have to make any adjustments for than bring in a guy like Yager. I don't know if that's part of what's driving it or if it's just, you know, more of a money thing that he's still looking to make kind of first line money and and people aren't willing to commit to that.

But I do think he's taking a step back a little bit, but it's, it's, he's just, like you said, he's so unique in his, in his intelligence and his approach that he's still able to produce. So if somebody gives him sort of the flexibility to do what he can do, then I'm, I'm sure he would still put up results. It's just a matter if someone is willing to, you know, bring him in and kind of, kind of cater the game to him a little bit to get the most out of him. Right. That is something we do have to consider here in terms of picking a team for him. It's that stylistic fit because, you know, this discussion has come up in terms of like, I think you can make the argument that at this point of their careers, Yager would still be a more preferable player just in a vacuum than Patrick Marlowe. But, you know, for the Leafs in particular, like in terms of the pace they can both play at at this point in their careers. Patty Marlow probably with his skating ability makes more sense and can probably keep up with guys like Austin Matthews and and Mitch Marner or Willini Lander or so on and so forth. So, you know, we do have to factor that in as well. The other thing with him is, you know, wait, Alan, what's going on in the background there, man?

Do you have a pet or something? Yeah, I don't know what that is. Do you want to hold on a second? Yeah, sure. I don't know what that was if it was like the plumbing or something, but it stopped. I don't know. Okay, no sweat. I'll just jump back into it. Yeah. So the other thing with Yager is, you know, you look at his numbers from last season. And I think it's very easy to trick yourself into thinking that he was a different player than he was the year before just based on the underlying percentages. I mean, the Panthers as a team in 2015, 16, had that magical, you know, season, regular season where they had that long winning streak and really surprised people and made the playoffs. And Yager was no different from a lot of his teammates where he was riding this insane 5-on-5 on-ice shooting percentage. I believe it was like nearly 12% in 2015-16 and it dipped back down to a much more reasonable 8% last year.

And, you know, personally, it pretty much got cut in third from what it was the year prior. So it's one of those things where, you know, fewer pucks are going in. And then all of a sudden that's reflected in his point totals. And it's very easy with a guy his age to just kind of all. of a sudden just think that that represents some sort of, you know, loss in terms of his physical ability. And I think that that's definitely kind of in play here as well. Yeah, I, yeah, I mean, I think that's definitely true. And it's also, it's kind of hard to know how much other interest there was aside from Florida in the previous two seasons. So, you know, it really could be that

the rest of the league has just kind of decided that, you know, they have other, other sort of more affordable options or other players who they feel like they need to develop internally that they would rather give those minutes to. It's just, I think from a purely from a fan's perspective, you just want to see him play as long as he possibly can and kind of see just because he's such a unique player in terms of what he's able to do at this age and you just want to see, you know, can he do it for another year? Can he do it for another two years?

So I would love to see somebody who's got a hole, like you said, in the middle six and who's got a little bit of cap flexibility, maybe overpay for that role a little bit for a year, and let's see if he can do it again. Right. I mean, even just overlooking all the on-ice contributions and how much he has left, I mean, just for, it seems like there should be at least a handful of teams out there

that might be, you know, struggling with their market or engaging in their fan base. And, you know, he is essentially a living legend. And there's so many fun of things you could do in terms of marketing him and his, glorious hair and, you know, to use it to sell tickets and jerseys and captivate young fans and so on and so forth. And then that's before you even get into the fact that he still can probably play and contribute. So it seems like there should be some interest. Yeah, the Lightning, obviously,

if they had the money, would have a need there. I think, you know, like a team like the Flames, for example, I'd be fascinated because they currently have Michael Furlin playing on their top line or scheduled to play on their top line with Johnny Goodro and Sean Monaghan. And I'd, love to see a bit more of a skilled option play with those guys. And then you could kind of bump Ferland down to a, to a more, a role, but better suited for his individual skill sets. So, you know, a team like that makes a lot of sense. Or maybe even the Blackhawks.

I mean, listen, I don't need to tell you, I know that as a lightning fan, you love Dick Panic just as much as the next guy. But according to Daily Face Off, the Blackhawks current right-wing death chart is Patrick Kane, Dick Panic, and then Tommy Wingles and Thomas Yerco. So I feel like, you know, they also might be cash strapped and might have trouble fitting that in, but assuming that Jagger was willing to, you know, take a reasonable deal and latch on with a team that most people still consider a contender, whether it's right or wrong, that seems like that would be a good spot as well. I mean, pretty much, I feel like any contender could use Yager on their middle six wing, because it is, but I guess it's just like a personal preference thing and where you'd like to see them play the most.

Yeah, I think Calgary was actually going to be my second more serious choice, but purely because I want to see him and Johnny Goodrow skate up the ice at the same time on a break. And I just want to see Yager try to keep up and then have to take like a four minute like breather on the bench after after that. I think that would be awesome. But yeah, I think he would be a good fit there. Like you said, they have a need. I think they have the cap flexibility to do it. I think he would bring a lot of, you know, add some experience there. And then I think that would be a great market.

I think they would really embrace him and the sort of the historic nature of what he's doing. And then also on a relevant team that's looking to make a run this year. I think that would be a really fun fit. And then there's a lot of fun Flames bloggers that would have a lot of fun with that. So that that's an important thing too is like he has to go to a good team with like good bloggers and a good, you know, a good Twitter following so that we can, so that we can have a lot of fun with it. Yeah.

I like that. I like that Mike fail shot out there. Yeah. Yeah. No. When I tweeted out the other day about how a team should be incentivized to sign him for all these reasons we've outlined, I feel like at least one fan from like 25 different teams was like, ah, he makes, it makes perfect sense on my, on my favorite team.

So it seems like, you know, if the fans are, if the fans have anything to say about it, they're going to like single-handedly make sure that Yarmoryager's career continues in the NHL. So I'm looking forward to seeing him play again. I'm sure that, you know, maybe even if he does take a few months off here and does what we said earlier, where he strategically picks his spot sometime around Christmas or as the season gets going. I'm just looking forward to seeing what he has left in the tank. So, Alan, do you want to plug some stuff before you get out of here? Where can people find you online?

And are you working on anything these days? So people can find me lightning stuff at Raw Charge, which is the SB Nation blog that covers the lightning. You can also find my stuff sometimes at hockey graphs with all of the writers who are a lot smarter than me. They still let me write stuff there sometimes. So that's always nice. And then aside from that, I'm on Twitter at loser points.

I don't have any major stuff coming. When this runs, I'll have an article up looking at some interesting stuff. I think Vladislav Nemesnikov on the Lightning is a really interesting player and some of the things that he does. And so I have kind of a deep dive into him that's coming out that might be worth the read. So that's where you can find me. Well, I'm looking forward to it, man. I definitely recommend everyone checks that out. And I appreciate you taking the time out of your summer break to,

to come chat about the lightning and we'll make sure to get you back on sometime once the season that's going anytime man the hockey pdo cast with dmitri philipovic follow on twitter at dim philipovic and on soundcloud at soundcloud.com slash hockey pdocast