The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 305: Buyer’s Remorse

Episode Date: July 4, 2019

Harman Dayal joins the show to help pick the winners and losers of free agency, unpack the most notable deals we saw signed on July 1st, and set the story straight on the latest offer sheet drama. 2:00 The Panthers spending, swinging, and missing12:30 The Islanders lack of a Plan B18:40 The Leafs wiggling out of cap trouble31:00 Ottawa’s underwhelming cap weaponization34:30 The Rangers continue their prolific summer41:00 Montreal’s failed offer sheet and the drama that ensued53:30 The Avalanche picking their spots wisely1:00:00 The Stars taking chances on secondary scoring1:07:00 The Penguins continuing a worrisome trend1:12:00 The Oilers rolling it back with the same motley crewSee 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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My name is Dimitri Filipovich. and joining me to help me do a bit of a free agency, but just like as general off-season summer, Winners and Losers podcast. It'll probably be the last season of the show. We might do a couple random sort of kind of off-the-beaten trail summer shows here on the PDO cast, but in terms of actual sort of analysis of what's going on right now

in the current NHL, this is going to be it. And I'm excited to, for the first time, have my good buddy, Harmon Dyle, come on the show and chat with me. Harmon, what's going on, man? nothing much glad to be here nice Vancouver day it is a nice Vancouver day we're recording this it is mixing all the days up man now they're in offseason mode it's what's Wednesday I think late afternoon we're gonna probably run this Thursday morning so hopefully um I think we're mostly

gonna talk about stuff that already has happened so it won't be too time sensitive but obviously let's say we're talking about a team as a massive winner or a loser and then they do something ridiculous in the meantime and you're listening to this on Saturday at the beach and you're why aren't they mentioning it it's because That's how podcasts work. So let's get right into this. Let's stop beating around the bush. Well, give me a, since you're the guest, I'll allow you to start off here with your pick

of the litter. You can go glass half full winner's side. You could go pessimistic loser's side. Give me a team that stuck out to you so far with some of the moves they made. Well, with Florida, I mean, they spent definitely among the most cap. And to me, I definitely qualify them among the losers category. I think you start with the. Sergey Bobrovsky contract, a mammoth 10 million annually on a seven-year-old for a 31-year-old who

had a down-season. And you look at his past year, he had a 9-13 save percentage, just 3.4 goal saved above average. So definitely a down-year for him. And then you compare his performance to, say, Robin Lennar, who went for $5 million on a one-year deal or even Peter Marazek. Obviously, Bobrovsky's body of work to date is a lot more impressive. but I think moving forward, I'm not sure you're going to get that much more value.

And especially when you consider they just drafted Spencer Knight 13th overall. So to make that type of a long-term commitment to a goaltender, it's really, I don't understand. Like if I was in Dale Towns position, I would have gone all in on Lennar and Morazik potentially trying to go for a tandem there. And maybe it costs you the same cap-wise. Maybe it costs you $8, $10 million. But the key there would have been the term.

and that way it would have been a lot more easier to integrate Knight and to have him takeover because now the goal tend to increase situation. It really is muddied moving forward. You never know if a Knight will pan out, but if he does, it's tough to envision how that will shake out. And beyond that, they obviously missed out on Artimmy Panarin. And Brett Connolly, for as fine as his contract was, he's not a legit top six guy.

I'd say he's more of a middle six option. Nice addition, but not the big fish they would have wanted. beyond that, Anton Straalman. That's another, that's a really risky bet because he took a huge step back last year. He's turning 33 years old, 5.5 million times three years. Based on the evidence that we've seen from last season, if last season is indicative of what of the type of performance you're going to get out of him next year, then he's not a legit top for defenseman anymore. And the term really scares me the last two, two, three years of that contract could come back and really bite them. And so I love the last three years worry you.

It's a three-year deal. Yeah. And that's fair. It's fair to be instantly worried heading into year one of that deal. Exactly. And so I think all in all, they spent a whopping roughly 20 million after you also account for the Noel Achari signing. And they got back starting goalie, middle six forward, a wild card on defense in a fourth line.

So to me, that's a lot of money spent, but not a lot of impact players added. Yeah. Talk about the old dies. you know, die a hero or stay around in the NHL long enough to see yourself become a villain. Like Anton Strachlan was a guy that, you know, people like you and I would definitely have been talking up and talking about as an undervalued asset. And a couple years ago, like when Tampa signed him from the Rangers, similar deal like this, you'd be like, oh, like amazing, very astute signing. This guy's going to play way better than his counting stats indicate. And then now at this point of his career, just based on what we saw last year, I was, that was probably one of the more surprising signings, I thought.

just because heading into it, I was like, I could see a team taking a chance on him for like one or two years just to see if he can stay healthy. Maybe they think their medical staff can figure out all of the sort of ailing injuries he's been dealing with the past couple years in Tampa. And they can reclaim some form and maybe get him like some solid third-paring minutes where he can do some stuff for you. But this type of investment, it's like the Panthers clearly believe that

he's going to step in there and play like a lockdown top four. role for them full time and that just seems crazy to me. I don't know what they could have seen over the past let's say two seasons that would indicate that you could feel confident at all that that would be the case. Exactly. And I mean, I think if you step back and look two years ago that perhaps if Stroman had hit free agency before this season, then again, you could you might have seen that contract as as reasonable. But at this point, he really did take a legitimate step back. And at 30, turning 33 years old, I can't imagine that things are going to get any better for him. And even if you think about Florida's left side defense, I can't imagine really him playing

with a partner that would elevate his game. And I don't, I just don't see the type of defender being there that could keep him, that could elevate it and stylistically fit well with him and ensure that he's viable as a top four option for a lot longer. If anything, that would have been potentially the case in Tampa where that group on the back end is pretty pretty solid, although they have their own, they have their own fluctuations now with the cat problems and stuff, but I just don't think that he's going to be able to recapture his form as a top for a defenseman.

I really wonder what the timing and sort of, I'd love like a play-by-play of what the conversations were like in that room in terms of, like, I feel like, you know, they were definitely positioned for a long time as our Temeran, favorite as his landing spot, just because of bringing in Joel Quenbo, who he had a lot of success with him, by all accounts, really enjoyed playing under in Chicago.

There's no state tax. They cleared up all this money so they can sign both him and Bobrovsky as a package deal. It just made a lot of sense that that was going to be his landing spot for him. And I wonder if, like, they just found out that he was going to go to the Rangers. And they're like, oh, crap. Like, well, now we have a bunch more money to play with than we thought we were and just kind of splashed it around a little bit. Like, obviously, they were going to pay Bobrovsky regardless.

But even his figure came in at a higher annual salary than I was, envisioning. I thought he'd be something like maybe just under nine or nine million for like five or six seasons. That would make him the second highest paid goalie behind carry price. That would still take him well into his mid-30s and give him a ton of security. And when that 10 by 7 came in, I was just like, wow, that is, that is pricey. But I guess if you're Dale Tallon and I guess you can't fault him for this, he's like turning 70 soon. I don't think he, if you ask him, he gave some true serum, he probably wouldn't believe that he's going to be running the Florida Panthers five years from now when on track becomes a complete albatross.

So he's probably like, you know what? If Barowski comes in, we had the 30th ranked, same percentage last year. We were atrocious defensively. If he can come in and make us relevant defensively, at least a little bit or hold up enough that our forwards can score enough goals to make some playoff noise and we get in maybe this year or next year, who cares after that?

Like I imagine that is probably from his perspective. He'll never admit that publicly, but I imagine he was probably at least thinking at least a little subconscious. Yeah, and I think the funny thing is I think it was Garrett Hole who mentioned, And if you're a GM at this point, and I guess it's a similar sort of thing, if you think about, for example, Jim Benning signing Tyler Myers,

if it works out, great, it buys you a little bit more time and you get the immediate short-term benefits. But if it doesn't, well, then chances are, and I mean, I guess in Talon's case, he probably wouldn't be GM of another team. But say in Benning's shoes, for example, if he goes to another team,

well, then all of a sudden his competitor. He's making it tougher for his next competition. Now, that's 40 chess right there. That's, I mean, in that case, Peter Shirelli was doing a hell of a job of weakening Oilers. Yeah. And so I think you can, you can understand where a lot of these GMs come from. But I think that's on the ownership as well. I think that's when an owner or president really needs to step in and ensure that whoever's making the final call has the team's best long-term interests in mind as well.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's the, you know, Benning's a great example of that obvious here in Vancouver. where everyone's like rightfully pointing out the fact that he has one year left on his deal. They missed the playoffs for four straight seasons. They need to have something to show for this year beyond just a bunch of Lies Peders and highlight reels and magic beans and optimism for the future. And we can get into Tyler Meyer, sorry, and he signed later in the J.T. Miller trade. But obviously, like, it just seems crazy to me that anyone would argue that the fact that his

future is not secure at the moment within. this team wouldn't be a driving force towards making these sort of win now moves to make your team slightly better in the immediate future, in the immediate, like in the present and the immediate future, even if it means sacrificing down the line because that's going to be the ownership's problem. So you're right. In that case, I think it behooves ownership to make sure that the person pulling the strings and running the team as someone who actually has the long term interest of the team in mind and not just their own personal. Yeah. And I think specifically in the Canucksis case, too, I see a lot of people sort of pointing out that in a value,

And you can understand where they're coming from. They've made legitimate upgrades. Especially, you know, talk about the Myers signing in the Miller trade. But I don't see a lot of people talking about the long-term ramifications of trading a future first round pickaway when you're not in that contention window. Thinking about what the fourth and fifth year of a Thailand Myers contract is going to look like. So I think there are fans, I mean, and I can understand where they're coming from. I mean, you're just coming off of the draft. You've drafted a couple of exciting new prospects.

brought in some new guys. You're stoked for the upcoming season. You think you got a legit chance to make the playoffs, which they do. But I just think you need to take a step back in a lot of these situations and envision where the team's at in their rebuild. I honestly think at this point we can say based off the decisions that they're out of the rebuild. But beyond that, looking at the longer term picture, and if they're really doing their best to position themselves as long-term Stanley Cup contenders.

Yeah. Oh, well, I mean, I guess it's semantics. Maybe in their mind, they feel like they're out of the rebuild and the moves are indicating that they think they are. But we'll see where they actually are in that organizational cycle. Yeah. I mean, listen, we spend like 10 minutes or so here talking about the Panthers. We want to get to the rest of the leagues. I don't want to beat this point too much. But I think they were a clear loser for me as well, just to reinforce what you were saying purely because, you know, I actually liked all year. They were making all these moves where it was like they were telegraphing clearly. that they were going to be big player. Like they're moving out McCann's contract with Bukstad. They're moving out, you know, Hutchinson, Petrovich, all these guys. They're clearly positioning themselves. They trade Rimer to get the Darling's contract, which they can more easily buy out. They're clearing up as much caps as they can. And for them to come away with this with Bobrovsky, a nice player in Connolly,

and then like a bunch of unknowns, it just seems like a massive swing and a miss. So I appreciate the aggressiveness and the fact that they went for it. And also it does seem like there was a plan in place because they've been gearing up towards this day of July 1st for months now. But it just clearly they wound up swinging and missing. It didn't work out for them. And I think for that reason, they're a big loser. And to carry on with that theme, I also have the Islanders as a loser for me. And it's sort of a similar thing.

And it's funny, I guess whenever you're so close to a guy of our, are Temi Panarin's caliber. And you wind up missing. You don't often have a very solid contingency plan in place just because it was basically a Temi Panarin or not bust, but you weren't going to get an equivalent player in the free agent market of a skill set. And so for an Islander's team that we talked about since the trade deadline when they were a playoff contender and made the playoffs and made a bit of a run.

And then this summer, you know, we like their defense. We like Barry Trots' system. We'll talk about the goaltending more here in a second. But I think, like, their defense is, it might not be the best in the league again, but it'll probably be above average. I mean, Barry Trotz's track record speaks for itself there. But beyond Matt Barzow, they basically just brought back the same team. They pay Jordan, Ibrilly, Brock Nelson, and Andrews Lee, a ton of money to come back and play for their team. And there's no real tangible improvement up front.

Now, they still have some cast base and we'll see what they're going to do with that. But I just, you have to put them as a loser, in my opinion. Not a huge one, but just from the perspective of they didn't come away with a guy that they spent sort of the past however many weeks. position themselves to try and go get. Yeah, and I think really the direction of the team is now in a bit of a state of flux moving forward because you miss out on a star talent like Panarin and you don't make that addition

and all of a sudden you're looking at a team that I could obviously reasonably expect them to make the playoffs next season, but are they legit cup contenders? They're sort of in that flux where I see them moving within the next few years in that Minnesota wild type territory where they're consistently making the playoffs and I just don't think they have the firepower offensively to do much damage beyond that

and I think specifically even with the Anders Lee signing for example I know he's been a great islander for a very long time but I look at his season this past year first one without john taveris and he had obviously 28 goals but just 51 points and 82 games and i understand that he has a good two-way profile but seven years times uh seven million per and he's about like 28 or something and 29. Doesn't really profile as a type of guy that I think is going to age too gracefully. Like he's good around the net. So I think like he'll still maintain his hands and he can still,

he'll be able to score goals and contribute on the power play. But I don't necessarily think we're going to be like, oh, this guy's 33 and he's still playing at the top of his game. Like he just doesn't strike. Exactly. And so I think from that perspective, too, I can understand why you have to bring him back once you miss out under Panarin because you're,

because if you let him walk, then that would arguably be even worse. It's sort of similar to the Jeff Skinner situation in Buffalo where I guess you kind of just because of the situation have to overpay him because the alternative is letting him walk and then all of a sudden your team's a lot worse than the immediate short term, but long term, I just don't see between the Lee Nelson and Eberley contracts. I see a lot of money that could, a lot of contract money that could be regrettable in a few years. Well, on the really bizarre thing, I think if you told me before July 1st, you know,

there's going to be two goalies. One's going to get paid one million for five, one year, five million. for that season. Other goal he's going to get $5 million over four seasons. I'd be like, all right, yeah. I could see the Islanders giving Robin Leonard that type of a four-year investment. You know, such a great story culminating in the award show with that really heartfelt, important speech he gave about mental health and awareness.

And he was just a remarkable player last season for them and still young enough where I think he's still only like 27 or 28 years old, even though he's been in the league forever. If you told me that they were going to give him that investment, I'd be like, you know what? I never like giving goalies four years. But in this case, it's going to take him into his early 30s. I get it. It makes sense. Instead, they give it to Seminovrolamov, who, I mean, he's 31.

He's been below average in three of his past four seasons. I mean, his goals saved are minus 2.5, minus 14.4 plus 8.2, two years ago. He was really good. And then 0.6 this year. He was basically a league average guy. He got his role taken by Philip Grubauer, who asserted him. as the number one in Colorado at the end of the season. And so for me, that was just such a weird sort of like lateral slash backwards move for

them to take a net. If you told me that Barlamo was going to have a good year numbers wise next year just because he's playing great trots and in that system, I'd believe you. But it just seems like a weird use of resources. I know he was probably also similar to Wabrovsky. I think the Islanders maybe thought that they would be able to package him and Panarin together and they'd want to play together. And that was probably the driving force for it,

because logically I can't see why they would go from Leonard, considering what he got ultimately from the Blackhawks, and settle for what they wound up giving Varlamov, who is an inferior option of mine. Yeah, I absolutely agree on that front. And even just from a durability aspect, Varlamov's fought off some pretty serious injuries over the past few years. You look at how many games he's played in 2016-17,

just 24 in 2017-51 and then this past season 49 so he hasn't been a consistent 55 plus start goaltender either so from that perspective the track record is a little bit wonky there especially when you're making a four-year commitment to a goaltender heading into his 30s so yeah and i agree i just can't understand why they would make that sort of a commitment when you saw a lot of the other options on the market and and to me lenner was not only the superior option in the here and now, but moving forward as well. Yeah, especially after we saw what Marzic got from Carolina, like he was just kind of sitting out there and then they wound up getting him for a great bargain. I thought he might be able to cash in more. And yeah, it was, it was bizarre.

There must be something else going on there behind the scenes, but from a purely like, aw, nice public information perspective, it seems like a weird fit. Okay, let's talk about a winner. Give me, give me a winner. We've been way too negative. We're 20 minutes in here and we haven't said anything nice. Well, I think a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of People outside Toronto might hate this one, but I do think the Leafs had a really good office. Look at this Leafs biased two guys sitting in downtown Vancouver apartment talking about hockey. What an East Coast Leaf Park.

It pains me to say, but I mean, it starts with the Tyson Berry trade, doesn't it? I mean, to be able to, obviously trading way Nazim Cadry, he is a far superior player than Alexander Kerfut. But I think when you have that two-headed monster down the middle of Matthews and Tavares, your third line center doesn't need to be great. And I don't think that in that third line spot, I mean, Cadre you didn't have a great year last year. They're just not going to get that much out of it.

And Kerfoot, he is really underrated as a two-way driver. And beyond that, he's consistently put up the last two years, 43 and 42 points. So to me, Kerfut looks like a perfect option to slot into the 3C rule. I don't think that's a huge downgrade when you consider the different situations that those two, when you compare him and Cadre, would have played in.

And then beyond that, to be able to add Tyson Berry, I know there's a lot of differing opinion in the analytics community of what exactly is he, because there are concerns about his defensive playing. You look at those results, they have been quite erratic on a year-to-year basis. Right. But he's been a prolific offensive producer,

and he gives them that right shot that they so desperately needed. And I think the, I really like the idea of being able to pair him next to a good possession driver like a Jake Muzin and I think they could absolutely dominate there. And so from that perspective, to be able to add a legit top four right shot guy, he's only got one year left, but ultimately all it really cost them was a downgrade at 3C and they're already really strong up there. Yeah, I love the, I completely agree with you from the perspective of putting Barry with

a guy like Muzin makes a lot of sense. The big loser, there's Morgan Riley who, after years of playing with incredibly underwhelming, you know, anchors as partners, finally gets Muzin last year at the deadline. And we're like, oh, he's finally going to get a guy you can play with. It's actually good. And then now it looks like he's probably going to be playing with Cody's season. Poor guy.

Poor guy. Here we go again. No, you're right. I think it's amazing. I mean, part of it has to do with teams sort of helping them out, let's say. And that's kind of bizarre. But the old leaves have also created their own luck there. They, you know, especially with the, with the Nikita Zaitsev trade,

made with Ottawa. They clearly targeted them there as a bit of a sucker and wound up getting out from under his contract. And so when we headed into the summer, we were thinking, you know, the Leafs could be in trouble here. If certain things break certain ways, they're really going to be up against it cap-wise. And now after that trade, after, you know, it is a big price giving up the first round pick for Patty Marlow's contract to be off their books. But, you know, with those two trades and no one jumping at the opportunity to offer sheet, cap in and then, you know, Johnson, they get those two guys both signed for very reasonable medium-term deals. And all of a sudden, you look at it, and they've pretty much dug their way out of their

cap issues entirely for the time being. Like, after the, if they put Horton on LTIR, they've got 16.4 million in cap space. And only Mitch Marner really left to worry about it. And your foot though, I think. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, we don't expect him. Like, yeah, they'll be able to get him, especially if they bridge him or something. Like, it'll be, I'm not too worried about that from their perspective.

So the point is, like, they can make this all work. And as recently as like three weeks ago, I think we all would have been like, well, something's got to give here. Like, there's no way they're going to be able to bring back all of these guys. And you could argue their team got better in the process while they freed up money. And so, you know, that's a testament to the work Kyle Dupas did there, obviously. But it is also kind of an indictment against the team like the senators for sort of willingly helping them out and taking bad contracts off their hands without really making them pay any sort of a tangible price. Yeah. And I think a big part of it is because you, you see that still to this point it's ice time and an offensive production that really drives league-wide perception of a player especially when it comes to Zythev I'm sure dubus would have done a good job of selling him as hey this guy played in a shutdown rule for us against a patrice burgeon online with jake muzzan and and you can understand watching him that you can

sort of talk yourself into saying hey maybe this guy could in a better uh in a better situation be a top four guy for us because, you know, he is great defensively off the pock. He stops the cycles. He's a coach's dream in that sense. The problem is he can't make a breakout pass. And a lot of his physical tools really do sort of trick you as well because he's a great skater despite his size. But you really do have to dig deeper and sort of look at the objective picture as far as

what's happening when he's on the ice. And when you do that, you come away with the conclusion that many other teams have. that Zaitsev isn't really much of a positive force went on the ice, but then you look at a team like Ottawa that's typically not really invested in analytics and that sort of stuff. And so for them, if it wasn't Ottawa, I would absolutely have seen another team stepping up and taking that contract off their hand. So it wasn't a huge surprise in that sense because the league still is a little bit behind

in how they evaluate defensemen. but to me the really interesting thing to look at is, and I know we're jumping a little bit ahead, is next off season because both Muzin and Barry are UFA, so I wonder which one of those guys they bring back. Yeah, we'll see. I imagine that, you know, I think perception around the league of Jake Muzon's pretty high. Like, I don't think he's just necessarily sort of an analytics darling anymore.

I think people generally like his game, but it seems like Barry just in terms of his offensive skill set and the point total is I presume he's going to put up again next year. I think he had like 56 or something this year for the abs. Like stuff like that is you can see him getting paid quite a bit of money in free agency. And, you know, that was obviously a big time driving force for the avalanche, especially with McCar already in the lineup with Sam Gerard, with Bowen Byron coming probably as soon as next year, or I guess in 2020. They wanted to get some value for barrier because I think they probably looked at it

and they're like, we don't want to be the ones picking up the tab for this when he's 28 or 29 and getting paid on the open market. So let's get a player that's going to help us right away. And we'll save Cadre and sort of what the avalanche have done for a second here. But, you know, it's interesting when you were talking about Zytev there, and I know you mentioned how certain other teams would have stepped up to help the Leafs out there. I know you were very well-versed to talk about Sitesv, because I'm sure you were preparing for the Canucks potentially doing that as well.

And so you were doing your homework on that end. But it's funny, when you were talking about that and you were listing all the physical tools and sort of how if you just watch them and isolate them, you could talk yourself into this guy being a good player, but then you sort of look at the overall package and you're like it's not adding up and the numbers certainly suggest it's not adding up. I was like, is he talking about Cody Cici or Nikita Zaitze? I don't know which one he's talking about right now, but they basically like, you know, they're slightly different players, but in terms of that, like, they're big guys who skate well

and you're like, oh, this guy looks like, you know, a hockey jersey. He should be a pretty good player. And then he like touches the puck and you're just like, oh, my God, was that a grenade or a hockey puck yet on his stick? Good Lord. Yeah, and that was really interesting to see Cici coming back in the in the, in the, in the, in the Zaitsev trade, and I think what was even a little bit more surprising was that they're going to keep him around. And I can understand why they believe that way, because again, they still do need right-handed NHL defensemen the leaves. But it surprises me. I thought that, especially with the salary that he would have commanded even on a one-year deal,

and we'll see if he accepts the qualifying offer or not or if he goes to arbitration. But in CCC's case, I thought the Leafs would have. And they still, I think they still could. But I would have imagined that they would have tried to move him, perhaps, and then look to find another right-handed defenseman to sort of fill in that void. But we'll see. I imagine he'll have to play top for a minute, especially with Travis Dermott injured. Yeah, he will.

I mean, obviously, if you look at the guys who were eating big minutes for the leaves last year, like, you know, he's gone. Yeah, Hainesie's gone. Dermott's going to miss at least a couple months. Zites have obviously gone now. Gardner most likely will have walked. And they bring in Tyson-Berry. who can certainly eat a lot of those minutes and much more productively than a lot of those guys.

But yeah, I imagine from the least perspective, they're probably like, you know, they're, viewing it as a sort of short-term, minimal risk investment. They obviously prioritized getting out from under Zytev contract, and I don't blame them considering how onerissa was over the next five years. And, you know, for them, they're probably like, well, we're going to surround CC with better players and guys who can handle the puck and sort of make up for whatever he lacks in the puck moving department. And so maybe we can, you know, cover him up or strategically play.

this out and who knows, maybe you wind up putting him in a position to shine and he looks good, and then you can wind up even redirecting him and moving him on to someone else for more than you wound up paying for him. So we'll see how that works. But just because, you know, I think you and I would generally like what a team like the Leafs is doing. You know, they're obviously investing heavily on our legs. They're looking at this stuff and you give him the benefit of the doubt. But I have seen a little bit of like people kind of talking themselves into CC as well, like, oh, maybe he's not actually that bad because like it's very easy to beat up on a guy like that when he's on Ottawa, but then he goes to a team that people actually think of pretty highly,

and you're like, oh, well, if they see something, you know, there must be something there. And I just have to admit, like, I have not seen any evidence from tape or from the numbers to suggest that he might actually be good if you play him the right way. Like, I think he's just, I mean, we've seen enough of him in NHL right now to be like, this is probably what he is. I think from Toronto's perspective, CC wouldn't be that much of a downgrade on Ron Hainsey. So I think from, if you're looking at it, from, from that, point of view, well, then if you put him alongside

Morgan Riley, well, then that's not a huge downgrade. It's not as if you're going it's not as if you're saying, well, we're putting him in Jake Gardner's role. You're essentially looking at him as, well, hey, Riley, you want to babysit this guy? But that's a bizarre thing to me though. Like, NHL's teams do that all the time and I

get it, but do you not have like people in the HL that could like be like occupying space on the ice and you just never let them touch the puck? Like, it seems weird. to me, it's like, oh, this guy's been in the NHL, so I guess he's better than guys who've been in the AHL, like, I don't know, like, does he have any, do we have any reasons to believe that he actually is better than, like, you're generic above average AHL defenseman? I really don't.

That's a great question to ask, and we'll only see when the league is a little bit more volatile and more fluid and more willing to take chances on HL-type players, but if there is one reason to believe that he could perhaps not be a tire-fire, it's that he was put in a really bad position in Ottawa. He obviously took the brunt of the toughest defensive matchups on an atrocious team. And with, um, with a defense, did he play with Shabbat? I don't think he did. Did he? I honestly don't know. I don't even want to look up the numbers. Yeah, but throughout his, throughout most of his sense, in year, he hasn't really played with a great left-handed defenseman. So I think from, from that perspective, again, you surround him with a little bit better players.

And leaves aren't in a position where they're going to be in. in any sort of difficulty to try and make the playoffs. So I think from that perspective to Dubis, he has until the trade deadline if he wants to reinforce the right side and add another guy. So I don't think it's an immediate concern. But if you're looking at it from all, from a, well, what's going to happen next season in the playoffs? Well, then yeah, I don't think you want Cody Cici in your top four. I mean, well, another thing, and I think a big theme of this free agents period.

And obviously, you know, this isn't groundbreaking news, but it's like teams that are in good financial positions and have a lot of resources were sort of like flexing their muscles a little bit. We'll talk more about the Rangers and how they structured Panarin's contract to take advantage of the fact that they are printing money. And with the Leafs, like they could pay Nikita Zaitsev's signing bonus and flip them to a team like Ottawa where it's like, oh, his cap's, his cap hit actually exceeds the real money we're going to pay him over the next four years. That's a, that's a positive asset for us. And it's like for a lot of these teams and for the Leafs, especially you, you Nikita Zaitzeb as a difficult asset that doesn't make sense on their team and they're going

to desperately try to get rid of. And for Ottawa, they're just like clicking their... Bring them on board here. I love it, baby. And so that's why I had the senators as a big loser here, not to pile on them and not to beat them up. And there's nothing they really could have necessarily done this offseason where I'd be like, oh, wow, they really changed the trajectory of their franchise. They're headed in the right direction. But when you have as much cap space and leverage as they did, and as we see all these moves happening, especially around the draft of teams that are up against it's shedding good players just to clear cap space. For them to really have nothing to show for that so far, there's still time, but

is like Connor Brown is the only asset that they got for taking on sites as contract? Like, why weren't they jumping on some of these other opportunities to trade for guys and buy them out, the stash guys to, it just seems very weird to me. Like, I don't know, I'm just left very underwhelmed because obviously there was a great opportunity there for a creative GM and a creative team to be like, we have so much empty cast space here that we can take out all of your bad contracts.

Just give us all of your picks and prospects and they really did not do that at all. Yeah, and we've seen in the past budget teams, how long was Arizona the dumping ground for all these terrible contracts from retired players? And you saw obviously Carolina a few years ago when they were still rebuilding, they took on

Biko's contract and got Toyvueh Tervainen. And even this past off season, you saw the Paddy Marlowe contract moved. He basically took on Eric Hala just because Vegas couldn't. Yeah, exactly. And so opportunities, of course, still exist. I mean, I'm sure a team like Vancouver will want to move the Louis Erickson contract. Edmonton's probably knocking on the door for Milan Lucci, perhaps even Calgary with James Neals's contract.

So opportunities still will present themselves. But I think Ottawa certainly they missed out in an opportunity here to be really aggressive and weaponize their cap space. And it's a way for teams to get a competitive edge nowadays because you're really at this point, you're not trading players, you're trading contracts. Yeah.

Is what someone, I can't remember who it was once said. And I tend to agree because you look at a guy like P.K. Suban going for pennies on the dollar. You look at Eric Kala going for pennies on the dollar. So I think a lot of, obviously I'm not suggesting that Ottawa should have taken those players on because those,

Those guys were for win now situations. But the point here is when you're in a situation where the cap means so much and there are so many organizations right up against it, if you're a team like Ottawa, you should be inviting teams to send all their bad contracts and add a lot of picks and prospects as sweeteners. Well, I mean, the cap basement for next season set at 60.2, they're already at 50.7. So it doesn't preclude them from obviously taking on more money, but it also does feel like they're probably won't. won't be too much incentive from ownership to actually far exceed that and really like proactively take on bad money, which is wild to me because of that 58.7, like 20 million of it includes goalies, Gabbrick, Clark MacArthur, and DeOnfond of Spio. Like it's just the- created their own bad contracts. It's, it's man, what what a situation. They do have a lot of

picks coming next year. And so there's an interesting young name, so I don't want to beat up on them too much, but I did have them as a bit of a loser there. Do you want to talk a bit about the Rangers? Yeah, I mean, I think the situation that they've been in right now, obviously the draft lottery really helps them in being able to get Capocaco. To me, the Rangers are clear winners. Yeah. For one, obviously, Artemi Panarin, I think he's the exception when it comes to the landmines that are July 1st in terms of giving out big money and big term. And really, the problem you run to infregencies is when you pay good players or the second tier when you give them hefty contracts. But I think if you're giving up that same term in money to elite players like Panarin,

then that's a different situation. Because I look at Panarin, to me, he's a top 10, arguably top five winger in the league since entering the NHL. Only seven players have scored more points than him. And so there are other factors working in his favor as well as far as longevity, because at 27 years old, for one, he's on the younger end. of free agency and on top of that, there's more reason to believe that he could age more gracefully

than most other players entering into their late 20s. For one, he's been extremely durable in the NHL. I mean, missing just six games total over the last four seasons. And before that, he was playing in the KHL where he was on a much lighter 40 to 50 game schedule. So I think from that avenue, his body's taken a lot less mileage. And there's also the fact that Paneran's consistently been

among the bottom 10 players in the league as far as hits made and received. And so his elusiveness has put him in a position where he's been able to avoid unnecessary physical contact. And that's really what breaks a lot of players down. And so if you look at, for example, Dom Lushishin's model of the athletic, it suggests that Panarin can be a top line caliber forward

throughout his entire contract. And I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he was exactly that in his early 30s. So that's a big win. I think any time, especially if you look at the Rangers perspective right situation right now i think they're ready to turn things around quicker than a lot of people uh realize obviously the jacob truba trade was a steel yeah getting a top pair right-handed defenseman in his prime uh for just uh a first round pick it you'll take that any day of the week

adam fox it was such a steal of these sirens are coming to arrest you right now for talking i know i know and then adam fox is another name that could it wouldn't surprise me if he was another top four defenseman right away. Obviously, adding Capo caco, who could score 20, 25 goals maybe as early as next season. And then, of course, adding Artimmy Panarin. And then you look at some of their younger players, Lius Anderson and Philippaito. I like those guys, they could take bigger steps this coming year. And obviously, they're still a ways away because they've got to add a number one center, a lot of other areas to patch up. But there are a lot of really intriguing pieces to build around the Rangers. And so it's really interesting to see how

they've been able to stockpile picks, parlay them into real assets in the Truba and Fox trades. And then at the same time, use free agency as a tool to attract elite talent. And do so in the past year and a half where you have some other teams, you know, four or five years in still being like, oh, this takes time. You got to be patient. Well, you can be patient, but you should probably have more to show for it after this long after a team comes in and basically shows that in 18 months, if you have like a clear, concerted vision and you're not going to go against it, you're just going to follow that. It's pretty amazing what you can actually accomplish in this league.

And, yeah, winning the lottery and getting Kako second overall certainly helps. But they stockpiled so many picks there by trading their veteran guys at the deadlines that they were able to set themselves up to go and trade for Jacob, to go and trade for Adam Fox. And so, you know, you mentioned those guys, they have crafts soft interest, or can coming over from the KHL as well. We'll see what roles they play. But, I mean, whenever you can get a guy like Panarin, I understand people balking

at it because it is so much money. And I think this Rangers team is going to be much more fun to watch than actually competitive in terms of winning NHL games next season. They still need to add certain assets before they can really take that next step as a team. But you're right. I think two, three years from now, I think he's still going to be a top of the line elite point producer, at least for you, if not anything else.

And we'll fit in very nicely on this team and be able to drive his own line from the wing. And so I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, the move. I think pretty clearly, like, it seems very captain obvious, but it's like, yeah, the Rangers are a big winner because they got the best player in free agency. And it was really interesting to see, like, they gave him 74.5 million in signing bonuses of the 80. He wound up getting total. And I believe that's the most

that's ever been done. Like, I know Tavares got like just over 70 the year prior from the Leafs. And I remember at the time, everyone was freaking out about that. And so, you know, when you're the Rangers, it doesn't really matter to you. give them $70 million in straight up cash right now if you want. It's fine. It won't matter to you one way or another. And for him, it's like, all right.

Yeah, I would much rather take this than have like year by year base salaries and who knows what happened. And it's got bought out if there's a lockout. So it's kind of a win-win from that perspective. And I imagine that probably was a big driving force for his decision. Like he clearly wanted to play in the New York market. But when it came to, I know a lot of was made of like the Islanders technically offered a bit more. It's like there's no way they were going to offer it. structure the way the Rangers.

Yeah, and it's the advantage of being a bigger market team. And that's really, in a cap role, you have to try and find as many inefficiencies as possible in ways to flex your muscle. And you see it with a lot of other organizations like the Leafs. They invest so much into their scouting, their facilities, their player development, skills, coaches down on the minors. There are ways to try and, even though you can't exceed the cap, there are other avenues to leverage to be able to create an enticing, to be an enticing destination,

and the Rangers definitely did that. And I think over the next two years, they're shedding $35 million in cap commitments between Lundquist. I mean, obviously, I don't want to use the term shedding, but he's making 8.5. And obviously that'll come in handy to use elsewhere, Shaddenkirk, Mark Stahl, Matt Boleski, Ryan Strom and Vladna Mesnikoff. So I wouldn't necessarily characterize any of those guys as foundational cornerstones for them moving forward.

And so they just spent a lot of money on Panarin and they have a bunch of young guys that are eventually going to have to pay. But there's also the element that they're going to have more room to work with here in a couple of years when a lot of these young guys come up for their second deal. So I'm not too worried about the fact that they just like financially hamstrung themselves even though they aren't ready to compete next year or the year after. Yeah, I mean, the future is really bright with the Rangers. there's no denying that with the way they've set this rebuild up and it's going to be really

exciting to see them and see exactly how quickly they can progress and it'll depend a lot on the development of their prospects and younger younger players because they don't have a ton of established talent right now but definitely a fun team to watch moving forward okay we're 40 minutes in can we talk about offer sheets now and sebastian ajo and canadian and the hurricanes i'm I'm going to lead this one to start because I have a big rant to get off my chest. You can jump in lots after. But, man, the league has as conditioned us as fans and observers of it, it's beaten us down emotionally so much with low expectations and the bare minimum

in terms of entertainment value from a transactions perspective that when a team does finally sign a player to an offer sheet, like the buzz on July 1st when that happened was, like insane like people were freaking out they're like oh my god they finally did it like wow it's happening it's happening the floodgates are open and then you like take one second to actually think about it and look at it the details and you're like my goodness this was an absolute horrendous offer sheet and i feel very confident in saying that the montreal canadians got played quite quite nicely by sebastian ahho and his agent and i'm not sure i'm sure a lot of it is sort of posturing and sort of trying to save face and kind of a PR spin for Mark Bergevin

when he comes out with that press conference and he's talking about how Aho made it clear to him that he wanted to be in Montreal, he wanted to be a Canadian and he wanted to play for them. But if you look at this, I can't help but feel like, and I, you know what, I'm not taking the hurricanes off the hook here either because then they also came out with their own PR spin of like, aha, they fell into our trap. They did exactly what we wanted and we were masterminds and we were planning this all along. And I'm not buying that either. I think both teams wind up looking bad here.

I think the big winner is Sebastian Ajo, who now gets this five-year deal, which means that at age 26, he will be hitting the open market as an unrestricted free agent. He gets what I would describe as even though they were restricted free agent years, undermarket value, I think his value to the hurricanes or whichever team he would have wound up playing for exceeds the 8.5 or whatever, just under 9 that he's going to be making against the cap for those years. years. But he gets that, he basically gets what, like the $21 or $22 million payout in the one calendar year. He gets a ton of money up front. He doesn't have to spend all summer worrying about it with it hanging over his head, thinking about what's going to happen, where is he going to be playing, what are the hurricanes going to give them? And so from his perspective, like, it's a no-brainer. And he's really the one big winner here. And people keep, just because we think about NHL, it's not as much of a player-driven league. So it's not in like the NBA where we're like talking about it

more from a player's perspective. So I've seen a lot of like, what, like, who won this? The Canadians or the hurricanes is like, no, like the big winner here was Sebastian Ajo because he gets, he basically gets his cake now. He gets his cake and he gets to eat it too. Like he's getting the money now, but he's also going to get so much more money down the line. Yeah, and I think this is going to be really interesting because I wonder how it's going affect a lot of the other RFA negotiations because now this is the second time we've seen

a five-year term for a high profile, restricted free agent. you first saw it, of course, with Austin Matthews, and I think this is really where players are realizing that on their second contracts, they want to use their leverage because when you're hitting the open market at 27, 28, after, say, a seven-year commitment on your second contract, well, then you're not going to make as much because you're exiting your prime. And so from that perspective, it really is interesting to see that players are finding ways to use more leverage.

And I think it's better for the direction of the lead because it's really sad looking at Nathan McKinnon or Mark Schifley making just over $6 million and they're locked in these long-term contracts. Even look at Connor McDavid, 12 and a half and he's got his entire prime sucked up in a really tough situation there in Edmonton. So I think this could really, if anything,

as far as opening the floodgates, I think it could really start fluctuating the term that we see now perhaps maybe Mika Ranton Brock Bessor, a Mitch Marner. I think it wouldn't surprise me even Matthew Kuchuk to settle for shorter term deals than we've come to expect. And so I just can't understand why Montreal thought they had a legit chance of getting Aho in this offer sheet. Because I can understand that 21 or 22 million upfront and why that specifically is what might create difficulties for the hurricanes. But they really, like, if you really wanted to press them, there's no point of an offer sheet if you don't think you have a legit chance of getting that player.

Yeah. And looking at the figure that he got, I would have pushed up definitely to the next compensation level. Yeah, up top until 10.5 or whatever. Like, it's just an extra first, right? I think it's two first and second and third. Yeah. And it makes it that much more plausible for the Hurricanes too, because at first, second and third for your franchise player, the Hurricanes would never. Especially after the year they had.

Like, can you imagine, like, if you're going to do that, if you're going to be like, we can't. front $21 million for our best player, and we're going to just take another step back and get three picks after we just had this amazing season where we drew fan interest, where we were the talk of the league for large stretches of it, we were just this young, exciting team with a bright future. Like, it's like the biggest slap in the face of your fans. At that point, like, you may as well just sell the team, just move if that's the case. And that's not going to be the case.

Like, there's a zero percent chance they've already announced. They're obviously going to match it if they haven't technically filed a payable. work yet but this wasn't like literally a zero second thought process from them i don't care about the uprun money like that's why it was such a it was such a weak offer sheet from the canadian's perspective if you make a 10.45 per year i can i can understand a little bit it's like okay we're getting into double digits here they're still probably going to match it but at least at that point and it's an extra first round pick you're like okay well we at least need to have a conversation this was like literally like don't we'll probably heard about it and he's like okay yeah next

like yeah yeah it's don't even you don't even need to run it by anyone that's how silly it was and so that's what i wonder like what the end game was there like it literally like if there's zero percent chance of that player accepting it you're not financially hamstringing the the hurricanes where it's like oh now they're going to be up against it with the cap they were going to give them less money and now they're going to have to sell off a good player it's just to make it work like there's just no positive net positive here for the for the canadian so i guess like they didn't necessarily lose anything, but at the same time, they didn't gain anything. And just like, there was a lot of buzz for something that ultimately won't amount to much of anything.

Yeah, and I think if you talk about offer sheets, more than anything, it's the middle tier of players that are really susceptible. I think any time you're talking about the upper echelon players, I don't think that you really realistically have a shot at getting any of them. So I know Travis Yost has been a big proponent of this, of the dual offer sheets. And you could have, obviously, It wouldn't have been possible now that Toronto had, they had moved out, Marlowe's contract, but you do offer sheet in Andreas Johnson and Kessbury Caputon and will all of a sudden they're in a little bit of a flux.

Or you look at San Jose with Timo Meyer and Kevin LeBank, you say offer sheet Meyer in the first, second, and third range, and then LeBank in the step below. And then you're really starting to make it tough for the other team, especially considering that that's a player, realistically that San Jose they'd probably be willing to move one of those guys if they're really in a cat

crunch at that point, although Pavelsky did leave. But I just don't understand offer sheets unless they are coming. What do you accomplish? Yeah. Yeah, it's, and also the hurricanes as well. Like I mentioned earlier, they're like, oh, like, you know, this was our plan all along.

They fell right into our trap. It's like, no, they pretty clearly, they were ready to not. walk away from Ajo, but they were ready to drag this thing out a little bit, I think, because they really did want to buy up at least a year or two of unrestricted free agency on Ajo and keep the figure at what it is now and get a couple extra more expensive years. And for Ajo, as we mentioned, what Matthews did and what I think more star players are going to do, it doesn't really make sense to do so.

So he was going to be ready to play this thing out as well. And so they basically just had to find a team that was going to kind of force Carolina's hand to pay him immediately. And they wound up doing that. And so that's why they're the big winners. If anyone expertly play this at Zahou and his agent, and it winds up working out well for them. And we'll see if any of those other offers sheets do come down the pike. But yeah, it's sad that this was such a big talking point. And it was such a divisive topic.

And Canadians fans are so mad at me. and anyone that was suggesting that this was kind of an empty calorie offer sheet that wasn't going to wind up coming out. And then they started, you know, citing their original six status and how the hurricanes are a joke of franchise and don't make any money and they're poor and all that stuff. And it's like, I just devolved into this whole like perfect encapsulation of why the NHL can be the absolute worst sometimes. Yeah. I saw some really interesting debates there. but yeah i just especially there's no doubt anytime you offer sheet guy there is going to be ripple effects on both sides i think from montrealis avenue they

certainly are going to be like anytime you do offer sheet another player you are leaving yourself susceptible to the point where in the future carolina could be in a situation where they they want to seek vengeance for what they did so carolina's going to start flexing their financial might. Maybe if they, maybe if they do drive up that playoff revenue. Yep. And then from Carolinas too, I mean, say what you want about them being happy about the negotiations not driving out. But the fact of the matter is their star player did sign with another team, even if there was realistically very little chance that he would have actually gone over to Montreal. But I think especially among the fan base, there is going to be a little bit

of a ripple effect. And we've seen, for example, you saw Ryan O'Reilly. signed that offer sheet with Calgary and then eventually he did move out and same thing with Shea Weber. Obviously I don't think Carolina is going to be in any sort of a rush to move Aho, but I do wonder if that affects a relationship at all in the longer term picture when you're talking four or five years down the line and he's entering, he's about to hit Unrestricted Free Agency, maybe then some of the dynamic changes. But I do think there's some sort of an effect on both teams in the end, but I don't think it's a big one. Well, I hope there, I hope there isn't that sort of salary.

Because you mentioned like, you're not trading players, you're trading contracts earlier. Like, this is a business. And it's like, it's understandable. I see the perspective from both the hurricane as a team that's trying to get the best deal they can here. And Aho as a player trying to maximize his earning power and get paid immediately as well. And so it's from both sides, I think, yeah, it's.

The optics-wise, it's not great when your best player signs a deal like that with another team. But the end result is Aho gets what he wanted. And the Carolina Hurricanes got a bargain deal for the next five years as their best player is assigned to a figure that's going to be below what he's actually worth. And so we'll see five years is a long time and a lot can change between now and then. But I do think if you'd look at it from that perspective, it's kind of like a much to do about nothing. because both sides kind of came out okay here, even if the path there was a bit trickier than you usually see in the NHL. Let's do a couple more quick teams rapid fire here before we get out of here. I wanted to talk about the hurricanes a bit.

We sort of mentioned cadre earlier and how that trade affected it from a least perspective. I really love that trade happened because so many times in the NHL we hear it's like from NHL GMs that are just not doing much. It's like it's really hard to make these trades and they make it sound like it's like astrophysics or rocket science. It's like, oh my God, like, how can they make all these pieces fit? And it's like, the abs had a very clearly defined need for a second line center. And they probably were not going to get that player in free agency based on the players that were available. The Leafs had a very clear need for someone who can eat defensive minutes and do it productively. And from a fit perspective, as you mentioned, the Leafs, having cadres the third center was kind of like a point of diminishing returns where they weren't getting the most out of him because of who he was playing with.

I think having played, I think, his three most common linemates last year were Patrick Marlowe, Connor Brown, and Akita Zaitsev in terms of guys who played most of the 5-1-5. I think he's probably going to play with better players in Colorado. And so I'm sure he'll get back to maybe not the 30-goal status he was the two years prior, but be a 20-ish, 25-goal guy with defensive value who represents a very clear upgrade for Colorado, who didn't really have much down the middle beyond McKinnon in terms of sure-fire guys that can eat big minutes. And so I think both teams improved here.

year kind of dealt from an area of strength to improve an area of weakness and I thought it was a very fair very well structured trade and I really I want to see more of that because that's the type of stuff where it's like no one's trying to rip anyone off here no one's trying to you know pull off any shady stuff it's like two teams just made themselves better in a very logical manner yeah I think it's absolutely a win win for both teams especially because you consider I was actually thinking about this a few days before the trade I was especially when you heard a lot of the Tyson Barry chatter at the draft and whether he was potentially going to be on the move there.

I just figured that Colorado would be wise to test the market and definitely move on from Barry because with the blue line that they've got set up right now, especially on that right side, they've got McCarr and Connor Timmons is going to come up. Barry at whatever he would have commanded the $7 or $8 million, it just wouldn't have made sense. So I think moving him now was important as opposed to, to at the trade deadline, you could have been left in a situation with the Leafs were with

James Van Rheemesdyke where you're renting your own player. And I just don't think that that would be the best case from an asset management perspective. So they got some sort of value out of Barry in the immediate short run. And then to address their most pivotal need up the middle with Nazim Cadry, it's commendable. And then it's a nice piece of business. Yeah. And then you add a depth defenseman in Callie Rosen, the third round pick. I think it's a very even trade both sides. Well, and you look at it, so what else that Colorado have lunch? I think maybe, you know, when they went into it, especially after they dumped Soderberg's contract as well, you're thinking, oh man, this team is like 30 million in Capspace or whatever. Like, they could be a

big player. We heard that they put together a pretty compelling offer for Panera. And I think they didn't, they balked at the idea of committing a seven years, which makes plenty of sense. They gave them a very competitive offer for four years. And I was really sort of interesting to see that. And the fact that I imagine he actually did have to consider it. And so, you know, they, They take that flyer in Brokowski, who's still only 24 years old, and I still think has untapped potential, even though it's been a rough couple years for him. They get Eunice Don Skoy for four years, 3.9 per, and he was kind of one of, he actually wound up getting more than I thought he would, but for the, for the abs, since they did have

so much disposable income there to play with, it's fine to overpay him a little bit as a UFA, and he's going to come in and immediately be like a very reliable play-driving winger for them. They bring in Pierre-Edra Belmar as sort of that like traditional fourth-line center. And so all of a sudden you have all these pieces to coming together and they still have 27 million in capspace. They're probably not going to use it all. They're probably going to plan this out a bit ahead and be like, you know, a couple of years from now, we will wind up having to pay Landisog and McKinnon and McKin and all these guys more money than they're making right now. So we want to keep our financial flexibility. But pretty much they just sign, they have to sign ranten and come for Berkov's Kinsid all while it was RFAs. And that's like a pretty nice, like, tidy summer for them in terms of improving their team, while also not necessarily really, you know, diminishing any future possibilities for them either. Yeah, the one thing that I really like is a lot of times you see, for example, with Florida, a team with a ton of cap space going in and saying, well, we have all this space, might as well spend it. And that's what really stuck out to me.

They didn't overpay dramatically for a contract that they might regret. I mean, I look at Don Skoy as someone who was a bit marginalized in San Jose just because there were so many players up front. And I think he could absolutely be a really quality middle six guy. You look at his point production on a per hour basis. He was clearly producing in a second line clip. And it wouldn't surprise me if he was a 40 point winger who also brings a ton of transitional and play driving value. And then I also really like Andrei Berkovsky. I think, again, he was marginalized in Washington.

and he played on the fourth line for much of the season for the caps, and he didn't get any power play minutes. And again, on a per hour basis at five-on-five, he scored at a second-line clip. So I think, and even as far as his career pace, he scored at a 35, 36 points per 82 game clip. And a second and a third, I thought, was a little bit steeper than I would have imagined,

given the type of year Bergkovsky had. But there's a lot of upside there as well. So I think the biggest thing Colorado really accomplished was they added a legit second line. Their top nine is rounding out quite nicely. They have a lot more depth after that Super McKinnon line. So that is really key. And they did so without mortgaging the future. They did so without taking on any big risk in free agency.

So I like the offseason that they had. Another team that I like was the stars. I guess there's not like too much to say about it because it's like, in theory, I'm not sure, like, how much they improved. But the fact that they got all these guys, older players, obviously, and there's obviously risk involved with any player that's in their mid-30s in terms of what they're going to look like next season and whether the wheels are going to completely come off

or how much they'll have to offer. But, like, for example, I thought Joe Pavelski, some of the rumors were, like, he was going to get that fourth or fifth year from teams while not necessarily sacrificing much in the terms of AIV. And so for the stars, it's like, yeah, $7 million is on the high side, but it is only the three years. And I believe that that third year is pretty much entirely base salary as well. So, you know, you'll be able to get out of that.

You'll be able to buy it out potentially or move it on if at that point he's like 37 and just doesn't have it anymore. But, you know, they get Sechora and Corey Perry for one year each. They obviously are both coming off pretty serious injuries. But both guys, I do still think in obviously diminished roles, have some in the offer. for one year at 1.5 each. It's like if they don't, whatever, you swung and missed. You don't really have to pay for it.

And so they also didn't bite the bullet on the Zuccarello contract. And the Wild are a big loser because they gave him that five-year deal at age 32. But from the stars perspective, it was kind of like a double whammy because they also don't lose a future first because of the clause, the condition in the trade they made with the Rangers. So it's like they retain that. They get a second line guy. who can produce a pretty replicable amount, I think,

maybe even a bit more in terms of the power play usage and stuff like that. And so that was a nice piece of work I thought by Jim No, where it's like it's pretty clearly sort of a win now team over the next couple of years with a lot of the players they have and they've invested in in the contract. And they're going to go for it over these next couple years. And then we'll see where they're at to three years from now. But they didn't necessarily have to pay some sort of ridiculous price and give guys term just to make their team better for next.

Yeah. And especially you look at. At Pofelsky, obviously there's risk anytime you sign a guy who's 34. I think he's turning 35 or something. Yeah. Yeah, but I mean, he, last season was his least productive in a long while as far as points, and he still put up 64. Yeah, and he had 38 goals.

I mean, that's still a phenomenal season. So I think even if you project a little bit of a decline, you're still looking at a top line guy at worst, a second line type forward. So for the next two years, I'm 100% sure. sure that they're really going to, they're going to like that value. And maybe in the third year, you don't think that perhaps it's not very efficient cost, cost wise. But again, as you said, at that point, it's something that you could buy out. And you didn't have to pay that fourth or 50 year. And really, that Zuccarello contract, that was, especially given the wild's direction,

really didn't make sense to me. Yeah, like, you heard Paul Fenton. Like, I don't, it's a scary thought to try and put yourself in their headspace and their mindset and be like, what were they thinking? I love Zuccarello as a player. I think I've been a big fan of him throughout his career. It's a very productive player. I thought he was amazing for the stars in that postseason run he had. Like, if you're the wild with where you're out right now, where are you getting exactly with that deal? And to what level do you think he pushes you to? And why are you trying to reach whatever level that is? Like, the rationale behind it is just bizarre. And I think you and I would both agree that that's like the most frustrating thing as an analyst and as a fan in the sport it's like when teams make these moves that

it just like the logic doesn't add up yeah i just don't understand the direction of the wild at this point because they sort of have their foot on both sides where they made a couple of rebuild type moves trading mcale granlin for example for kevin fiala and and coil for donato so they got a little bit younger there but then you also heard about the next uh jason zooker deal that would have seen them bring Phil Kessel to the mix. Or Michael for a week before that. Yeah. And so I don't understand where exactly they're going because they haven't really committed

to a full rebuild and I can understand why it's a little bit tough to do so with the Ryan Souter and Zach Prys-A contracts. But in one way or another, I think they really needed to commit to a direction. And it's a little bit depressing from the Wild's perspective because they don't have a lot a lot coming through the prospect pipeline either. So you're left in the situation where you've got some good veterans, but you don't have any productive youth on the way. And I just don't see how they're going to position themselves to be a long-term contender.

Well, I feel comfortable saying that your theory about GMs weakening the team they're currently running to help themselves in the future. I don't think Paul Vendon is going to have to worry about his, the next GM job because I don't see that happening based on how the past couple of the past year or so has gone for him. Yeah, one final note on the stars there. So, you know, with the Zuccarello thing, I was mentioning the playoffs and sort of just, it was really eye-opening seeing how, because that team was such a one-line team for such a majority of the year and then seeing Zuccarello come in there and how he like unlocked Rupa Hansen gave them the second line and just how much better they were as a team after that. The reason why I'm excited about that is, you know, you bring in Pavelski and we, I think he's going to be fine in the power play.

I think it's definitely fair to wonder at 5-1-5. We've seen the diminishing shot rates. We, at 35, you know, eventually that's probably the area of the game that's going to slip more so than his production around the net where his fonded hand-eye coordination with tip shots and rebounds will probably help him be productive for a couple more seasons. You know, at 5-15, they'll be able to, I think, mask him a bit more because they're just going to, I imagine what they're going to do is they're going to put him with, say, again and Ben on the top line and they're going to bump Radjlov down to like this super play-driving. defensive line with Rupa Hints where like those guys are going to create offense but I imagine like they're going to be used much more for the heavy lifting as opposed to whatever Pavellski and Ben who's also kind of on the wrong side of his career alongside with say again where you're just going to unleash those guys to score as much as humanly possible for you. Yeah and I like that idea because

you're sort of balancing that scoring throughout your top six because it would be awesome to throw Rajlov on that top line but the reality of the situation is you only have so many of those talented offensive producers. And so I think if you want to maximize the value of a Pavelski or a Jamie Ben who had a down year, then I think you do have to look at a circumstance where you perhaps deploy them in a more sheltered role. And like you said, put that second line with hints and and Radjolov in a situation where they're doing a little bit more of that heavy lifting. And if you're doing that, well, then I think the top six is put in a situation where they have that one line that can take on some of the secondary competition and really unleash offensively

while that quote unquote second line is taking on the brunt of the matchups. Yeah, they're probably to be like the actual top line. Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree with that completely. So I've got I've got penguins, oilers, and blackcocks here in terms of teams I wanted to talk about. Let's do like two minutes on each of those. Which one do you want to start off with them?

I know you want to talk about the penguins a little. Yeah, I just, I think we can both agree for a guy that hasn't scored 15 goals or 30 points in his career. Six years, 3.5 million annually for Brandon Tanev is a huge head scratcher. Yeah.

So, sorry to interrupt you, but I think this is like a great sort of litmus test. Not necessarily, like obviously I think casual fans don't always like, just because they don't know a certain player doesn't necessarily mean

that they're not good. Like obviously, yes, with analytics movement, there's a lot of guys who don't put up a lot of point totals who can still be very productive players for you in terms of moving the possession needle. But I was,

uh, for July 1st, for this past long weekend, I was in, I went on a little bit of a vacation. I was out on the island. And I was like, I brought on my laptop and I was doing a little work by the beach. And everyone there, there was a bunch of families staying with us.

And everyone there obviously knew what I do for a living. And so as a date was going on, they were like coming by and asking me, like, oh, what's the latest news? Who signed for what? And I mean, I'm telling them to the Rangers. I'm telling them to the Panthers and all this and that. And then at one point, I just started like telling people, I was like, yeah, Brandon Tanna, I've got six years, 20 plus million. And like, literally everyone I told that to was like, who?

Like what? It was like flabbergasted. And you know what? I cover hockey for a living and I am also flabbergasted. Yeah. And I think you talked about there are a lot of situations where you have a lot of these underrated possession drivers. And the worst part is that Brandon Tanev isn't that.

I mean, you look at his numbers away from Adam Lowry and Andrew Kopp, who are extremely strong possession drivers. Tanev's numbers, his shot shares have been extremely poor away from those guys. So I think you, a lot of GMs can fool themselves into looking at that super line in the bottom six for the Winnipeg Jets and encircling Brandon Tannaev's name is a key cog for that one. In reality, he was more of the complimentary piece just riding shotgun with those two playdrivers. And so, and it's especially frustrating if you're a Penguins fan because last season you obviously saw Jack Johnson's contract. And I didn't think that they could top that. And it seems like they have what the TANF one.

What an amazing piece of work by Brandon Tannis agent. I'm going to have to contact him to see if he can strike some deals for me. I mean, 14 goals, 29 points, both career highs for him last year, I guess, well-timed production for him as a free agent. But, yeah, I believe he also gets a $1 million signing bonus for all six of those years. And it's like, man, he is, that's, it's interesting. And it bumps me up from a, from a penguin's perspective because I remember a couple of years ago, I looked at sort of their financial books in terms of how they were allocating

their cap space. And it was, you know, they clearly are invested in, like, they were very top-heavy, with Malk and Crosby and Latang, right? And then you look down the lineup and they weren't really giving term or real dollars to any of that supporting cast because they sort of realized that when you have those couple top guys, you need to be kind of careful with how you fill out around them. And you're better off sort of just bringing in guys to play alongside them as opposed to paying premiums for the supporting cast.

And they've completely done a 180 since then where I don't know what's happened, but, you know, taking on Good Branson's contract. signing Jack Johnson, taking on Bukes' dad's contract. You know, they signed Hornquist to a massive deal, which they're already reportedly trying to get out of. Now they sign Tanna to the six-year deal. And it's like, I think that's probably one of my biggest pet pee is it's when teams give massive term to these guys that are ultimately expendable pieces. Because what are the chances that over the next six years they're going to be happy with the signing? Like, I guarantee that it might be as soon as next year,

as we saw with Jack Johnson and how quickly they were regretting that. It might be a couple years from now where something else comes up and they're up against financially, but I guarantee there's going to reach a point during this contract where they're going to be like, wow, I can't believe we're still paying them for this many more years. It's going to make it that much more difficult for them to maintain that flexibility, which you need when you're giving such crazy amounts of money to just a couple guys to the top of your roster. I just don't understand what flip the script for Rutherford.

after he won those back-to-back cups because it seems like for whatever reason he had like that penguins team won because they had a ton of speed and skill and they had youth on entry-level contracts they were financially very astute as far as not overpaying for their depth pieces and very careful as you mentioned about term and those sorts of things and then after that you even saw for example trading the first round pick in the ryan reeves trade it just seemed as if rutherford wanted to change the identity of a back-to-back stanley cup winner for some reason. And I think that comes out in this TANF contract too because he, a lot of what must have enticed them with TANF or with Eric Adbranson or with Jack Johnson are those physical tools and those intangibles, the quote unquote pushback. And it just seems like they've handcuffed themselves for the foreseeable future desiring with with qualities that may or may not actually be helping them winning hockey games. Well, as we transition to the Oilers, I had them as a loser. I mean, there's only so much they could have done from the perspective of like Shirelli left them such a stink bum financially that it was like, and I get from Collins perspective, it's like, you know, we're going to take a slow build here.

I want to sort of figure out what we have exactly to work with. And there's no need to make any impulsive crazy decisions. But for them to basically just bring back the team that they had last year as of now is stunning to me that. you could reconcile that and potentially risk just throwing another P. Connor McDavid season out the window. I mean, you look at what they did and they bought out Sechre. They paid $2 million for Mike Smith to be their backup. They brought in the worst M. Granland, who we've seen quite a bit of here locally in

Vancouver. They brought back Alex Chassan. They brought in Thomas Yerico for a one-year deal, just under a million dollars. They basically, I know they were linked to guys like Brett Connolly, and I think they had especially after they bought out Sechira, you thought, like, oh, like they get kind of frisky here and maybe add at least one, if not two, like, middle six wingers that when you put them with Connor McDavid and Leon Dreisaitel, they can produce like top line wingers just because of how good those guys are and they didn't do any of that. And I'm just left very kind of like underwhelmed

and disappointed that we are facing the prospects of another year of the Oilers having that same supporting, supporting cast around a couple of really, really great players. Yeah, and I think even the trade market, there were a couple opportunities there with Berkovsky and Eric Hala. I'm not sure how willing Vegas would have been to move him to a divisional opponent. But to me, Hollow would have made a ton of sense as far as someone who could have conceivably been that third-line center if you want to throw a Ryan Nugent Hopkins or Leon Drysadle on the wing. And they needed to add that middle-tier type winger, if it was a Don Skoy or if it was a Don Skoy or, if it was a Connolly. And it just seems that they didn't do that.

And again, either through the trade or the free agent market, they needed to add some sort of depth so that they, I mean, they arguably even had, if you look at a lot of the goal differentials, one of the worst bottom sixes in the league. And they didn't really address that. They're still looking at Sam Gagne, potentially centering their third line. They didn't add any wingerers to try and play with Connor McDavid.

it, even if it was like a Brandon Peary type, yeah, low risk gamble, or even a Tyler Ennis, they just didn't sign anyone that could have conceivably, they didn't roll the dice on someone that could have been a potential fit alongside one of their really talented centers in the top six. Yeah, they basically rolled it back. I mean, you know, there's still names available.

I mean, as we wrap this up and, you know, we're not going to devote too much time to this, because as I said at the top of the show, by the time we post this, these guys might already have new homes. You know, especially with like a guy like Randa Zingle or something, it would be just so interesting to me from a fit perspective of like he has the speed to keep up with a guy like McDavid. And then he has an upper echelon shot as well. And so just the idea of a guy with getting extra space and passes right in his wheelhouse from Connor McDavid seems so interesting.

But who knows what's going to happen there. And if you look at the remaining names that are left, like hopefully we will see some, you know, fireworks with some of the RFAs. they're obviously the most notable names. Jake Gardner still doesn't have a home. Marcus Johansson, surprisingly, still looking for a new home to Zingle, as I mentioned, Michael Furland. I mean, it's pretty, it's pretty limited. It's pretty slim pickings.

I think, honestly, my favorite guy reportedly available is probably RFA in Akita Gusev because it does sound like Vegas just will not be able to come to terms of the money. They don't have the type of money to sign him what he's looking for. And for any other team out there, as we just mentioned, with, like, teams getting creative and finding new ways to hit home runs with low-risk guys. I think a guy like Gusev, who I imagine the acquisition cost won't be too high, considering Vegas just traded Miller for Colin Miller for a future second and a future fifth. Their kind of hands are tied there financially.

And for Guse's perspective, I can't imagine he's asking for that much on this deal. Like, it seems like at age 27, he'd probably prefer a couple years show me deal where he proves the teams that he can play at the NHL level. So if your team out there is still looking for scoring, it's pretty limited but there are a couple names that I just mentioned that would be interesting to at least look into yeah goose would be really interesting for a team like buffalo or carolina or even edmonton to roll the dice on because he's been extremely productive in the kachel and obviously a lot of those guys are hitting miss but you look at the type of home run season and impact that

alexander radulov's had after many years in russia panarin obviously paneran i mean it can work out and there's, to me, especially you mentioned the acquisition cost, that to me is a low risk, potential potential high, high upside move to be had there. And again, I just, I see someone who's extremely skilled in Yusev and was, of course, remarkably productive in the KHL. I don't see a lot of question marks as far as why his game wouldn't be able to translate to the NHL level. Well, Ennis look great in his limited like international viewings as well, in the world championships and the Olympics, obviously. And so, yeah, you're right.

I think, like, it's so hard to come by, like, legitimate game-changing talent and for what you'd realistically have to pay both Vegas to get his rights and then him assign him as an RFA. It seems like at the risk. And there are a couple teams here. Like, you know, the abs, we mentioned the devils, blue jackets. Like, there are teams out there that, I mean, every team can use more skill, I guess, other than maybe, like, Tampa Bay and Toronto.

But, you know, these teams could use more skill. They have a bunch of financial resources. have to play with. And so there's still are ways to improve your team out there even though most of the money has been spent. Most of the interesting names are off the board and we're going to be slowly transitioning here to a more quiet period of the season.

Yeah. And again, it's about finding creative ways to improve your team market inefficiencies. And again, there's very little risk in picking up a guy like Gusev and there's only like realistically this guy could be the ceiling if you put him alongside

at Talented Center. And that to me that could be a great you're going to get great bang for your buck even if it doesn't work out exactly as how you might envision it the acquisition cost just won't be that expensive yep all right harmon um let's get out of here plug some stuff what uh what are you working on where can people check out your work and uh what can we look forward to from going forward i so i write for the athletic vancouver i uh wrote a lot about the tylin meyer signing and then some of the recent moves that Vancouver has made. Moving forward,

obviously it's a little bit of a quiet time in the off season, so I'm not working on a ton right now, but again, you can just check out my work at The Athletic. You can follow me on Twitter at Harmon Dial 2, H-A-R-M-A-N-D-A-Y-L-L-2. Who's the first one, though? Who's Harmon-Dial one?

No, two is just, it's my birth date. Oh, okay, nice. I was thinking there was like, you know, another Harmon Dial who we should be following that, and maybe I should have contacted him for this podcast. All right, man. Well, this is a blast. I'm glad we finally got to do this.

And definitely recommend everyone checks out your work. And we'll check back in with you. Maybe as the season starts, we'll do a bit about Knoch's deep. Sounds good. Thanks, man. Cheers, man. Videocast with Dimitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich and on SoundCloud at soundcloud.

At soundcloud.com slash hockey p.ocast.