The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 415: Sources Say

Episode Date: October 25, 2021

Chris Johnston and Emily Kaplan join the show to discuss teams that have our attention, things we're watching moving forward, and what people around the league are talking about. Topics include: How the Penguins keep winning without key players The Panthers building something special The likelihood of Vegas making another big move The Jack Eichel trade market Chicago's horrendous start and who's to blame The upcoming free agent class If you haven't done so yet, please take a minute to leave a rating and review for the show. Smash that 5-star button. Each one counts, and helps us out greatly. If you're feeling extra generous, you can also leave a little note about why you recommend people check the PDOcast out. Thanks for the help! 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.

On a beautiful run through the park, on a pleasant day, you can easily get lost. No, no, no. She didn't kill him. Huh? In your true crime podcast. It was the pool guy. So obvious. Whatever motivates you works for us.

It's all about letting your run be your run. And Brooks is here for every runner. Doing the research and sweating the details to create gear that works for you. It's your run. Brooks, run happy. progressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the HockeyedioCast.

My name is Dimitri Filipovich. And joining me is my buddy, Emily Kaplan. Emily, what's going on? I'm good. How are you? I'm really good. I'm excited. You've been busy.

I've been watching you on TV, the games. You've been killing this year. Thank you. Yeah, I started off hot. So I think the key is sustaining the momentum. We'll see if I can do it past three weeks, hey? Yeah, we'll do it. And also joining us.

is my pal, Chris Johnston. We're really reuniting the dream team here. Chris, what's going on? Not much. I mean, the highlight of my season so far is watching the games and Emily's between the bench and literally just trying to watch her every time the buck goes by her. See how spazzy I am?

I love it. Which is Jack, you're wearing that night, is kind of the highlight. Oh, thank you. My coat game has definitely stepped up. But did you see how awkward it is? I don't know if either of you watched the Cracken game, and I know that it was on ESPN.

plus, which is geo-blocked, but Todd Llewiki was giving that, like, big pregame presentation, and he's standing, like, right in front of me in the box. And it was, like, one of those moments where I realized that the camera goes to him and just be peeking behind him. And I just, like, slowly benched and leaned down. And it was so awkward, like a groundhog under it. And then I hit the entire time. So I'm working on it, guys. I'm guessing there's not a lot of room in those boxes, though. Like, sometimes there's probably nowhere to move, right? You're just, you're just in the back. Some of them are pretty spacious. Like in Tampa, I was getting my steps in.

I was going left. I was going right. I think I hit like 10K in that game. You're crushing it. Doing those TV hits just from like being in the rink is an insane experience. I remember when I was doing like Canucks intermissions and they were just recording them like from a random little studio booth in the rink. And there's just like music blasting in the background. You've got like drunk fans behind you just like yelling and trying to get your attention while you're just trying to be.

trying not to come across as if you're just yelling at everyone that's watching at home. So it's a pretty, it's a pretty surreal thing trying to juggle all those different factors. Yeah, everyone for me is like worried about what the players are going to do at puck, but like the drunk fans are the worst. And the players have been so lovely and polite about it. Like before the Canucks Crack and game, puck's about to drop and J.T. Miller just looks over at me.

He goes, hey, pardon for any of the bad words I'm about to say. It's pretty cute. Yeah, J.T. Miller says a lot of bad words. So I believe it. All right. So this is the plan. We're going to, we're just going to bounce around the league a little bit here. We were going to do this show before the season started. Our schedules are really busy. So we're finally getting to it now. But I just kind of want to talk about, you know, stories we're interested in, whether it's players or teams or teams or whatever, whatever, we're keeping an eye on moving forward. So Emily, I'll let you start because you've obviously gotten to see a bunch of these teams live and in person covering these games.

What's sort of standing out to you right now? What are you really finding your attention gravitating towards? in the league right now? It's just the surprise teams. I know there's a bunch of teams right now that are undefeated, which is pretty cool. We're only four or five games in. I feel like, you know,

as a lot of NHL coaches or personnel say, you don't really judge things until 20 games in. But like, how about the Detroit Red Wings, who like Steve Eisenman refuses to put a timeline on anything they're doing, but it really feels like they hit an inflection point and they've turned a corner. I've got a lot of time for Dylan Larkin. I think he's a heck of a competitor,

or a heck of a player. And it finally feels like he has a team behind him that has that energy. And then the game I was at opening night, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh. I mean, Tampa Bay put out a complete dud, but Pittsburgh without three of their best players. They were that night without Crosby, Malkin, and Genssel. They've been without a lot of guys because of COVID and injuries. And they've just been fast. Like, when you think of the penguins, you think old and slow and their prime is past them.

But they've got a lot of young guys in that lineup that are at. some energy and I feel like there's hunger there. Oh, I totally agree. I don't want to gloss over your point, first point of the Red Wings, because I think there's been a lot of positives to take from it. I guess that Montreal game on Saturday aside. And I love the way they've played. I don't think they're going to win a lot this season,

but there's certainly a lot of like future indicators to latch on to or at least cheer for as we saw Lucas Raymond's Hattrick. CJ, on the point about the penguins, though, because I had them listed on mine as well, you obviously got to see them lay a nice little spanking on the Leafs over the weekend. That performance said a lot about both teams, obviously. But I think sometimes the Penguins, we take it a little for granted, or we sort of, when we make jokes about Mark Dong and how everyone can just step into the lineup for the Penguins and immediately produce, it's funny and it's a joke, but at the same time,

it kind of overlooks what a testament it is to sort of that structure that they have. have in place from from mike solomon onwards that allows them to have this kind of blueprint where pretty much anyone can step in and and produce and not really drop off like i think drew o'connor is their current 5-15 uh leading score right now and it's pretty remarkable what they've done yeah i'm actually running out a ways to figure it out like i'm an idiot two weeks ago you know i wrote a call i'm just saying like this we might finally be witnessing the end of these penguins you know obviously with some of their contractual situations, Chris LaTang, of Gany Malik and Brian Rust, a bunch of other guys are UFAs.

and, you know, starting a year with Crosby and Malikin, both injured, I just thought, you know, looking at their roster, I mean, they were so hamstrung in the offseason by their salary cap that they really weren't able to add many players that you could anticipate, you know, pushing them to a higher level. And then here they are starting just fine, you know, managing their way through it. You know, putting themselves in position very, very early to make it a 16th

straight year with a playoff appearance. So I think where you see the visceral reaction out of that, that Leif's loss, I mean, obviously it's 7 to 1. But a lot of Leifes fans, I think, are looking for that team to find a similar structure, or find a way to maybe win games when they don't have their best or if guys are injured or whatever the circumstances are. And they haven't really proven to do that.

I think that's what made that loss produce the reaction it did, at least here in Toronto and among the fan base, because, you know, Pittsburgh fielded a good chunk of an HL team in that game, and they really took it to Toronto. And, you know, just kind of, I guess it underlines in the moment, you know, some of the gap between organizations. And, you know, I think there's an expectation at least would build into something like that. And there's certainly questions here locally, but whether they can.

So, you know, predate to the penguins, I still don't know what they're going to do. Like my sense is, you know, from management there that they want to, you know, see how the season plays out. I think that they're at least open to the idea of a rebuild at some point. But, you know, if they're able to carry through this and, you know, introduce their star players back to the lineup, you know, maybe they're adding in the trade deadline. I wouldn't guess that two weeks ago, but, you know, gotten off to a pretty good start. Yeah.

Don't worry about that column, CJ, by the way. I picked the Washington Capitals to win the Stanley Cup last year. Nice. Yeah. This is the problem with our game, right? Like, you got to make some, you have to put some opinions out there and they're going quickly be look stupid so real quick yeah yeah yeah yeah it's it's remarkable because i feel like you know them having a depleted lineup or sort of plugging and playing players we're not that aren't

necessarily household names isn't anything new for the penguins but one thing they've always had is is either crosbie or malkin in the lineup to kind of provide that um sort of structure driving force to help everyone around them and they haven't had either those guys so far and that's what's made this remarkable um yeah that that that that season opener against the lightning emily It was kind of a masterclass in terms of how Mike Sullivan wants this team to play. I think even when they're fully healthy where they just kept everything in front of them. Basically, they played this like defensive structure to a T where I don't think the lightning got any, any type of offense in that game. And, you know, you look at the stats.

Their fifth fewest high danger attempts against, fifth few of shots against, third fewest expected goals against. Like, this Penguins team is elite defensively when they add or when they get healthy to some degree. I think it's very encouraging now how long that'll last. And CJ, you mentioned that as well. Like, you know, what Balkan's going to be 36, I believe, Letang's 35, Brian Rust is going to be 30. And these are all big decisions that are going to have to make this offseason. So you don't want to make any wide sort of foundational decisions based on two weeks of hockey,

but they're going to be in a weird spot this season, I think. Well, especially if they're good. Like, I mean, in a weird way, if they just had, you know, precipitous fall. You know, I think it's easier, you know, with a new management team in place to maybe start thinking about what's next. You know, obviously that the Penguins, they barely made any draft picks the last number of years because they're going for it every year and they make, you know, a lot of futures type trades. You know, I think it would be easier to expedite that process if it looked like they'd lost it. But, you know, I'm not reaching any conclusions either

on two weeks at good hockey, but, you know, at least that it seems like it's still there. You know, maybe, maybe that delays those decisions. And, you know, I think when it comes to Melkin and Letang in particular. It's not just about what they can do next season to help them. I think it's sort of trying to think of legacy type of things. Do those players want to play somewhere else? Is there a way to allow them to retire as career-long penguins? I mean, those aren't maybe decisions tied directly to results or the performance either.

Yeah. Well, maybe you just let Malk and walk and you just, you need to give more room for Evan Rodriguez, who's, as she showed against the Leaps, is the number one center. I'll give you, I'll give you one thing. I've been really interested in so far. The Florida Panthers. I don't know if there was a team that I was more curious to watch heading into the season because they just sort of subverted my expectations more than when anyone really last year

where I didn't know what to expect from them. And they were fantastic all across the board. Basically every player they brought into their lineup immediately improved and started playing at career high levels and paces. And it was only 56 games, so you didn't necessarily want to go too crazy about it. I wanted to see more this year. and so far they're 5-0 they have a plus 13 goal differential

they're outscoring teams 14 to 4 5-1-5 they've only trailed for like 17 minutes or something total this season and they've done it by beating Pittsburgh Tampa Bay the islanders the avalanche and the flyers on the road and I know some of those teams have dealt with injuries and weren't necessarily at full health

but it's a pretty decent sampling of top teams especially out east that they're probably going to have to go through at some point this postseason and so whether it's Bobrovsky answering a lot of questions so far in terms of turning back the clock and looking like a top goalie that he once was or sort of their depth all the way throughout the lineup. They've been fantastic and I just can't get enough of watching this team. I love what I'm seeing from the Panthers right now. And I think not nearly enough people are talking about them because they are the Florida Panthers.

Well, and organizationally, there was reasons to question them, right? Just because they took a step last year, you know, and they made some more decisions. they gave it some big contracts in the summer. Like I think there's just worry sometimes that, you know, it was last season of Mirage. It was a shortened season. You know, maybe a few guys have career years that they can't replicate it.

And, you know, it's been a pretty strong statement as you're highlighting there so far now. And look, they're introducing Spencer Knight. He's played well, you know, Bobrowski's held the fort after, you know, not two great seasons there, you know, after signing his big for agent contract.

And so it's hard to poke any holes in what they're doing. you know, I saw a few people, speaking of picks, I saw a few people pick them as a surprise Stanley Cup candidate. And now two weeks later, that's maybe starting to look not so crazy from some of our colleagues out there. And so I'm with you. You know, Bill Zito and, you know,

the front officer has really had a lot of hit. They've taken what I would have viewed as some chances on players, but, you know, it all seems to fit together nicely. And I think getting Barkov locked up, too, is just a huge foundational piece for their team. and, you know, maybe they'll be able to finally kind of get some traction on that market. Because obviously, you know, I think a part of the reason maybe that they haven't been quite as big as success as, you know, some other of the newer teams in the league or the Sunbelt teams is, you know,

they haven't won a playoff series. I think since 96, right? Correct me or not wrong. I mean, they haven't had a long playoff run. And so, you know, finally, I think that they have a team where you can start to think, hey, that they're capable of doing that. I think you hit the really important point, CJ, because like ever since Bill Zito came in, it felt like he wanted to put his stamp on this roster and he made a lot of moves.

Like he's brought in a lot of players, got rid of some players. And it does feel like he has like an abnormally high hit rate where like all of the guys that he's brought in have just jelled. And that's awesome. Honestly, I don't see a weakness for them in any three of their position groups. And I think that, yeah, Sergey Braboski, who I have a ton of time for. Like I feel like he's been much maligned because of some of the playoff stuff that he had in Columbus because he didn't come out that hot with that big contract, but everything you hear about

him behind the scenes. Like, he's a consummate professional. He shows up every day. And if he's just in that right headspace, mental space, physical space, he can still be an elite goalie in this league. And we know that Spencer Knight is a rising star that's going to shine for Team USA at the Olympics and lead us to Olympic gold, maybe he was to say. So, you know, that's a tandem that I think can hold up against anyone. But, you know, before that season opener, we got to talk to John Cooper. And I asked him, I said, you know, besides you guys, what team do you like in the league? And he says, honestly, the Florida Panthers, I like them a lot. And if you're listening to the defending Stanley Cup, the two-time defending Stanley Cup coach, say who he likes,

you probably should listen. Obviously, that might be some recency bias after that preseason wild, wild west showdown that those two guys had. But honestly, the Battle of Florida, I think, is going to be really good for the game. And I'm excited to see those teams square at it. And then the other difference is for the Tampa Bay Lightning, I just look at them as a team. that needs to survive the regular season and they're built for long playoff runs and they know how to do it. The Florida Panthers are kind of the team that needs to win the division and make that statement in the regular season and then sustain it through the playoffs. Like it's way more important for them, I think, to get regular season success.

So it's nice to see them have that hot start. Well, I think the reason Cooper said that beyond the preseason was, you know, I know the Islanders technically took them to seven games and took a shorthanded goal to win one nothing in that game seven. but I don't think anyone gave them a bigger scare last postseason and the Panthers right out of the gate where with their speed and their depth and just how much they were attacking them. Like the difference was ultimately having Andre Vasilevsky versus the Panthers not having them. But in terms of how they played them, like the Panthers gave them every single thing they had. So yeah, I love watching the team play.

I would say just to listeners like, I'm going to do a watchability's ranking soon. And I'm flirting with the idea of having Panthers is my number one team just because if you watch their games, the pace they play at and how much they attack off the rush. it's the living embodiment of sort of having four lines and playing at a fast pace and they do it every single night. Ooh, big poll there. Yeah, I like it. I will say as well, we were talking about the penguins and sort of how much uncertainty

there is moving forward on what they're going to do. You mentioned Barkov there. I think it shouldn't be overlooked. The fact that they retained them for eight years and now they have this entire core in place, it's all pretty much between like 24 and 28 years old is really. is really interesting to me moving forward. I think whenever you talk to anyone around the league, before the signing, obviously they were like,

well, let's watch what happens with Barakov. I think there was some bigger market teams that were either holding out hope or kind of circling that situation as waiting to see what would happen. And now it's pretty clear that he's going to spend the rest of his career in a Florida Panthers uniform. And then that was a massive, massive move for them organizationally. It grew up of Alexander. To build something, you know, like it gives them a chance that,

like, this is the window of competitive. they're good now. Like why, you know, that will actually get to see if they can get their market going. Like I'm not as down on it as some people just because I do think you got to, you got to give some wins and get some

and get excited about it to really build a fan base. Yeah. And I was just going to say the glow up of Alexander Barkoff, like he's always been this good, but it just feels like he made that transition last year from the guy that was always being mentioned as the most underrated player in the league to just highly rated properly so.

And it's very nice to see. Yeah. We need to retire that underrated. the label. Everyone, everyone knows. Who's going to be the guy? Who's his successor? It's a good question. I can't think of it would be. I think it's like Nikolai Eelers.

I feel like he kind of carried it last year. Everyone's like, oh, no one talks about how good Eelers is. He's good. Yeah, yeah, well, the best winger in Canada. That sounds spicy. Oh, I believe it. I don't think it should be spicy. Maybe some people might find it spicy, but I think that's a very valid case that we made.

Are you counting dry-siddle as a winger? No, no. Okay. He's a center. How about Zach Hyman? That's right. Is that a great start, Edmonton? CJ, it's your turn.

Give me a story. Try not to make it about the leaves. This might say something about you too, that you started with like teams that have caught your eye for the good reasons. and my mind immediately goes to a team that I wonder about, and it's Vegas, honestly. And I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment because, you know, they've only played five games to this point. But, and then, you know,

they're dealing with some significant injuries in their forward group. But I'm just, I'm wondering about Vegas and how long they can endure, you know, a struggling period out of the gate because, first of all, a lot of people had them picked, if not the Stanley Cup favorites, you know, sort of in the top two or three anyway with Colorado. I'll interject. It was I, Stanley Cup pick this year.

There you go. And then, you know, Kelly McCriman and the management group there, they are aggressive. And so, you know, they're another team with cap issue. So it's not like making a trade is necessarily easy. There's like there's complicating factors there. But, you know, some players are on long-term injure reserve. And, you know, I just, I don't sense that they'll just sit around and be patient if this continues too long. And so, you know, early in the season, I'm just sort of fascinated by how. plays out in Vegas. I mean, that's a team really that's almost never struggled in its history. You know, it doesn't score to power play goal. You know, the offense is challenged for sure. You know, there's Jack Eichols out there. I know he wouldn't be an immediate solution given his

health situation, but, you know, it's hard not to at least connect the possibility of Vegas being a sort of team that would try to trade for them. And so, you know, I guess it's more just like seeing the storm clouds on the horizon and wondering how it's all going to play out that that has them, you know, be the team I'm kind of focused on or curious about how this, how this goes. Yeah, like every game I've watched, firstly, I'm so excited for Robin Lanner to finally get this opportunity to be the number one goal tender, which he's never had, you know, even despite being a Vezna finalist just three years ago.

Like, you know, there's just always been, people just didn't believe in him. And I'm so excited for him. That said, every single game I've watched of them. It just feels like he's under constant attack. And he just has to shoulder so much load and keeps them in. even though they shouldn't be there. Like obviously the forward losses they have are huge.

Mark Stone and Max Patchretti. Their two best forwards potentially. Alex Talk is out for a very long period of time. Zach White Cloud's out right now. You know, that's probably part of the defensive group finding their legs. But, you know, in their first year, they never had a number one defenseman. And now I look at this organization. I'm like, they really just need a number one center.

And like, I love Chandler Stevenson. I think he's a great player. But I always say, you know, my friend Isabel Kershutian, who covered the Washington in capitals for years, moved to Russia now. And like last year was just incredulous when I told her that Chandler Stevenson was the number one center for the Vegas Golden Knights, one of the best teams in the league. She's like, really?

How? Because I just think he's a bit miscast there. So that obviously is going to drum up the Eichol speculation. And you do wonder, you know, maybe if these injury issues do mount and it becomes, you know, a situation where, yeah, they'll probably make the playoff because the Pacific division is weak. but they're just not as great as they were supposed to be if they kind of write off this season

and take that risk for Eichol because as Chris said, you know, with either of his surgery options, we're not going to see him on the ice for a while, but he is a long-term solution there. Well, okay, that's an interesting point. I think it's almost impossible to evaluate them right now just because of those injuries,

like especially without Mark Stone there. Like, everything kind of falls apart and that I think explains a lot of the defensive issues that you're noting there. You say the long-term fit, though. like CJ, I remember you and I did a podcast maybe before the start of last season and we were talking about Vegas and sort of their tactics in terms of just ruthlessly trying to always improve their team and not kind of acting the way a lot of NHL teams traditionally do in terms of like if they see a way to upgrade their team, they're just going to do it regardless of it hurts anyone's feelings and they're going to go for it and they're not playing the long game or worried about what's going to happen five, 10 years from now. they're trying to just keep this kind of ball rolling of being competitive every single year of their existence so far. And Ikel makes so much sense to organizeously in terms of the fit down

the middle and what they need. At the same time, though, for a player that we don't know when he's going to be available to play or what they're going to get from them this season and a team that clearly has all their eggs in this basket of trying to compete again this season, that's where the fit kind of falls apart for me where it doesn't seem like a very vagus move in the sense of kind of punting this season in the hopes of building something for the future. It looks like it feels like if anything, they would go for it and try to double down even more for this season. And I'm not sure Eichols that type of player to do so. Fair, but I'm just, I'm thinking like what happens if this really goes off the rails,

if the health situation of those players continues to impair their ability to compete, if they're in the tank a little bit, look, I don't know what they're going to do. This is like anything I'm reporting. I'm just, I'm wondering, given their history, given their pensions, we're taking some risks. I mean, look, any team that trades for Jack Eichael, there's going to be some risk baking to that decision. You know, it's been a lot, it's going to be a long time between games whenever he does play

again. You know, obviously, I think you're going to have to be on board with the surgical option that he and his team want to pursue, you know, the Sabres doctors, and there are other doctors for other NHL teams don't think that's the way to go. You know, I just, I do wonder if that could manifest itself. if the struggles got bad enough. But it's hard to say. I just like, look, they, they, so they were in on Eric Carlson

and didn't ultimately trade for them. They trade for patch ready. They trade for Stone. They signed Petrangelo as a free agent. And it forces them to play 10 games last season with less than a full roster because of the cap challenges. Like, to me, they're just, they're bold and aggressive and going out and inquiring talent.

And getting later when they already had Flurry. Right. I think I call, like he's going to get sold for pennies on the dollar now. like Buffalo has overplayed the hand, I think, you know, basically. Like I don't see some massive haul coming from anybody. And so maybe, you know, to torture the gambling reference, I just think Vegas is the team to roll the dice on this one. And especially if they struggle, maybe it gets easier the idea that, hey,

this might not be our season that have everything lined up and go all in and just bite the bullet. Yeah, I mean, certainly if there's a team that at this point is desperate enough forward or you could see them conceivably blinking and maybe paying more than they're currently willing to or we think a team would it will be them i know emily you did some reporting on this in terms of kind of the market for ikele and sort of teams that were interested i just think yeah they are caught in a weird spot because teams like anaheim who have been linked to him i i don't understand that the logic to give a bunch of futures unless you're getting him for pennies and a dollar because

you're essentially just risking being the 2015 to 2021. Sabers, if you're a bad team trading a bunch of your future assets for a player making 10 million. And then on the other hand, if you are a team like Vegas and you're trying to win a cup this year, you're inheriting so much uncertainty of whether you're going to get anything from this player this season that's actually going to help you win. And so Buffalo is kind of stuck looking around with the no trade clause kicking in this summer looking around, trying to wonder what team actually makes sense for them. And I think that's why we're kind of in this holding pattern beyond obviously all of the

sort of medical dilemmas and trying to figure out what they're going to do with that. You know, when I reported on the market and it gets shifted, right? So there was, as of like two weeks ago, what I was told, there was like five teams still in on him. But none of those teams wanted to give up the hall that Buffalo is still asking for. As Chris said, they've kind of overplayed their hand and they're asking for a lot because of the medical uncertainty. That said, I feel like there's this discourse now where it's like, oh, is Jack, I go

really worth it. Like he's a top five center in the league to me. Like he really is and he's young and he's competitive as hell. And I just think that any team knows what they're going to get. It's just what do they want to give up to get him? And I, you know, you don't know how he's going to get, you know, recover from the surgery. But still, I think that's a risk a lot of teams like the ducks who just need something to rally around and get excited for and expedite this rebuild a bit would be happy to have. That said, that market cooled. And so last week, It was all about just trying to convince the Sabres to let him get the surgery, maybe waded out, maybe him play for them to op his value again, who's to say? But we'll see how it goes because it's, you know, deadlines for action.

There's really no deadline in this except for the fact that he needs to get a surgery pretty soon. My fear, honestly, is that this is going to go in the next offseason. Oh, I feel like, oh, we're trending that way. No, come on. The Sabres can't allow that to happen. I'm consistent with this. I actually said this in the summer. Like the minute they let it get by the start of the entry draft,

they lost any urgency. There would be teams to make that trade. Like to me, you build it around the first round pick that you could make like that day. If you're trading them, like, you know, Seth Jones got traded from Columbus to Chicago. And then plus, plus,

plus whatever you're going to get at that time. But then the market goes away. Free agency starts. Teams start spending money. They can't even imagine how they get the $10 million under their cap. You know, the closer you get to the season, and then it's further before you can even think you can play a game for you.

I mean, anyway, I could see it going to next offseason. I mean, I hope for everyone's sake, I don't think anyone wins if that happens. CJ, if that happens, if that happens, and then Jack Eichl says, I only want to go to the Bruins. What do the Sabres do? Well, that's it. This is what I mean. They're in a brutal spot. No, but they have to trade number four.

There's no trade clause kicks in. Obviously, like personally, I think Jack Eichl's in the worst spot here because he, you know, his health. is uncertain. His career is uncertain. He's got very little control over what's going on right now. But like if we're looking at how this is going to shape and evolve, like Buffalo, like they're, they're already in a position where all these teams that are interested, they're already saying, yeah, we're interested, but we're not paying that. Like the teams have the leverage because they know that it's, there's not like any urgency for any of these teams to make the trade. Right. Because even if Jack Eichol gets his preferred disc replacement surgery, it's like he gets back

on the ice in six weeks, but game. situation, we're still talking about three, four months away. That's not this season. So there's no urgency. Yeah. I think it would be a very bad decision for the Sabres to take this into the off season. But they're not going to let it get by July 1st because then they're really in trouble. But then so basically you make the best market you can in May and June and make the decision.

Again, I hope it doesn't get to that. I could just, I can see where that, I mean, it's totally rational to anticipate that's how it's going to go now. I think one team, I'm not sure how much has been talked about, but I think the flames are a team that makes a lot of sense here because I think they're actually pretty good right now as currently constituted. I think they fundamentally, like we talk about Vegas, I think they fundamentally need to increase their risk profile. Like they've been this team that's just been sort of the definition of average for years now. And I think whether it's good or bad, they need to increase the range of outcomes moving forward. and they have contract flexibility and interesting prospects.

Obviously, I think as a fan, it would be really fun to see Ike versus McDavid in Alberta for years to come. But I just think that's a team that is good enough right now, but also isn't necessarily so all in, where if they didn't get anything from him this year, I don't think it would be a disaster because then that means that they would just have him for the next however many years he's under contract. So it kind of four more years.

Like that's the thing. Anyone making this decision, it's really a long-term decision. I know that there's short-term uncertainty in pain or whatever you call it, but long-term, like you could get four. four more years of, as Emily says, one of the top five centers in the league, at least fair market value if he can return to the way he played, you know, prior to his injury. Also, like, him going to Calgary, it wouldn't be him versus McDavid. I'd be as excited about it, although that would be cool.

Him with Matthew could chuck. Like, I want those two playing together. Yeah, yeah, that'd be fun. All right, let's take a good break. They've got a fine way to sign Matthew could chuck first, so to make sure that. That's true. You know the issue of the flames? I don't know what they are.

And I've heard that Milan. Lucille just said this line where he's like, I knew what a Boston Bruin was. I don't know what a Calgary Flame is. I just feel like there's no identity. And there's, you know, big decisions they've got to make obviously, like you said, with Kachuk, with Goddrow, with Monaghan maybe. So I'm curious to see where they go. Okay, let's take a quick break here.

And then we're going to finish up this conversation on the other end of things. Champions aren't born. They're made. And the secret to make your business reign supreme, Shopify, the all-in-one commerce platform to start, run and grow your business. Forget the off-season work. Shopify makes it simple to sell to anyone from anywhere. Whether you're selling warm-ups or wall hangers,

it's time to start selling with Shopify and join the platform simplifying commerce for millions of businesses worldwide. With Shopify, you'll customize your online store to your brand, discover new customers, and build the relationships that create die-hard fans. Shopify fields all the sales channels to grow a winning business,

from an in-person POS system to an all-in-one e-commerce platform, even across social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. Shopify is a secret to becoming a business champion by making it simple for anyone to sell their products anywhere, taking the guest work out of selling. When you're ready to take your winning idea to the world, team up with Shopify, the commerce platform powering millions of businesses

down the street and around the globe. Sign up for a free trial at Shopify.com slash Bluewire. all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash bluewire to start selling online today. Shopify.com slash blue wire. Every deep playoff run starts with building an amazing team. Doing the same for your business doesn't take a room full of scouts. You just need Indeed.

Don't spend hours on multiple job sites looking for candidates with the right skills when you can do it all with Indeed. Hate waiting? Indeed's U.S. data shows over 80% of Indeed, employees find quality candidates whose resumes on Indeed matches their job description the moment they sponsor a job. Something I love about Indeed is that it makes hiring all in one place so easy because with virtual interviews, Indeed saves you time. You can message, schedule, and interview top talent all in one place. Indeed knows that when you're growing your business, you have to make

every dollar count. That's why when you sponsor a job, you only pay for quality applications from resumes in our database matching your job description. Visit Indeed.com slash Bluewire to start hiring today. Just go to Indeed.com slash bluewire. That's Indeed.com slash bluewire. Terms and conditions apply, cost per application pricing, not available for everyone. Need to hire? You need Indeed. All right. My next team, the Chicago Blackhawks.

Like, he gave you some stats. I'll give you some stats. I'll give some stats. I'll give some stats. And I'll open the floor to you, CJ. 05 and 1 minus 15 goal differential. Outscored 22 to 5 at 5 on 5, which is somehow even worse than the Arizona Coyotes. We've played 362 minutes so far. They've trailed for 270 of them.

And have yet to hold a lead, which I believe is a NHL record to start a season. Here's how they've started their game so far in terms of how much times pass before allowing the first goal. 426, 17 seconds, 15 seconds, 24 minutes against the Islanders, and then six and a half and 540. So, yeah, it's been bleak. It's been about as catastrophic a start the season as you can, especially for a team that made a lot of moves to try and kind of expedite the process and be much better than they've been the past few years. And there's a lot of obviously things to unpack here and sort of how to look at this

start for them. But I'm really curious in terms of sort of figuring out how to portion the blame and sort of what's the root of the cause of it and how they address it moving forward because obviously this is about as bad of a start as you can have. Well, don't they just have a talent issue? You know, like fundamentally, I think I understood on some level what they're doing in the off season. But, you know, I think that the people that looked at those moves and were like, all right, this team's now ready to compete for the playoffs. spot. Like I just, I didn't, I didn't quite understand that reasoning. Um, you know, they've got a couple high end players still, but there's, there's just not enough there. And so, I mean, if, if we're assigning blame, like, it goes to the front office, right? And, you know, I understand that,

you know, that Jeremy Colton is understandably under some heat here, but that, you know, they could have fired him in the offseason if they had those issues with him. Like, I, I, I think it, I think you have to go right to the top. this one. I mean, it's, it's been a long, a long time running that team for Stan Bowman. And, you know, I'm not saying he should be fired after six games necessarily, but if, if we're just talking about where, where the issues begin here, I think it's right from the roster construction and some of the calls that were made on the players they had. And I'm really not sure what you do. I mean, obviously, you just try to ride it out. You hope that something's

stabilize and you can win some games and, you know, take the heat off everyone for a little while and then do maybe a more clear-eyed assessment of where to get better. But this is, there's a few spots around a league, whether it's, you know, Montreal or Toronto, you know, Vegas, as I mentioned earlier, but,

but, you know, to me, this is, this is the most, like, wow, like, what do you do next situation? Because there's not an obvious answer to me. Well, I think part of what complicates it and really boxes the man is that, part of that Seth Jones trade beyond the fact this salary doubles next season is, you know, they already gave up Adam Boehquist.

They gave out the pick that became Coles-Lylinger, but they also are due another first-round pick here. And they give that to Columbus if they don't win one of the two lotteries this season for this draft. And so on the one hand, they risk potentially being a bottom five team and giving away like the fourth or fifth overall pick, which would obviously be a disaster. But if they do somehow win one of those lotteries and that would be fantastic for

them, shade right, but it doesn't guarantee them that they're going to be any better next season. And then they give away this unprotected first in a historically great or considered to be at least projecting forward 20, 23 draft. And so in terms of like your your motivations or how you approach this moving forward, they kind of are forced to sort of try to jam a square peg into a round hole in terms of trying to figure this thing out on the fly because they can't really afford to just throw away the rest of the season or future seasons because they don't even have that first round.

pick. It's, you know, CJ used the word, it's hard to have a clear eye assessment and they don't have a clear eye assessment, frankly. You know, I talked to some people in front office management last week because there was all the scuttle butt. Is Jeremy Colleton going to get fired? Because at that time, I think when I was making those calls, they had not won their first four games. Obviously, they haven't won since. And what they said is, I think people forget that only a year ago, we announced this rebuild. And we feel like we haven't deviated from the plans. People just got carried away and saw some of the moves we made and said, oh, wow, they're

in win now mode. And we never felt like we're in win now mode. Well, you see why people thought that when you give up first round picks. That's usually indicates that you're in win now. I think there's a couple of things. One, I'm not as panicky about Seth Jones as everybody else is. Yes, that is a lot of money to give to that player in a lot of term. I think that we underestimated just how much he might have been propped up or just reliant.

on playing with Zach Werenski, and that was a really nice pairing for him. And I think he's just kind of figuring out his feet in his new role. I don't think he's going to be as bad as he has been for the entire or the beginning of this contract. That said, he's kind of figured out pretty quickly or else he's not going to make a lot of fans of the United Center. You know, when you say that in the conflicting timelines, like that's confusing and that to me shows that there's no clear vision. And I just think there's a lot of compounding factors with this organization, given that they are investigating currently internally with an external group, something pretty serious and serious allegations. And we really don't know who's going to survive out of this. But what I do know is that

I don't believe Stan Bowman wants to fire Jeremy Colleton because if he does in his eyes, he's just looking for the next Jeremy Colleton. This is a team that doesn't feel like they need to bring in someone like a John Tortorella or Mike Babcock right now. I think Stan Bowman also knows he doesn't get another head coaching hire because he already made one too, right? He fired Jared and Joel Fenville and this is his guy. So if there is going to be any changes, I do think it would be at that GM level or in management level and we'll see what ownership decides. I mean, yeah, there's a lot to consider there. The team on the ice looks very disorganized and unprepared. I'm not sure whether that's the players just not being good

or whether that's a coaching thing. But it looks like honestly a group of players that just got together for the first time for like a beer league drop in. And they're kind of just skating around after work and they're not actually a team that's been practicing and playing together. And I'm much more worried about Seth Jones than you are. Emily, I think the analytics are bad. I think the eye test. You've always hated Seth Jones. No, I haven't.

I thought whatever two or three years ago, he should have been a Norris finalist. I thought he was fantastic. I think he just doesn't, he can't really skate backwards anymore and he's getting destroyed by by speed. He made like Gabriel Landisog looked incredibly fast when, when playing against him and that's not something that usually happens. So I'm worried about that moving forward and, you know, especially with the salary. But yeah, I don't know. There's a lot to unpack here, but it's, it's a mess. And certainly it's like, I almost can't. I've watched all the games so far because I just, I never know what's going to happen next because it's every game.

seems to get worse and worse somehow. So I'm kind of waiting for them to really hit rock bottom, but it feels like there's still more to come. The thing with Jones is, like his results went so poorly last year. And then, like, you have to see some kind of, you know, uptick at some point or else it's hard to have that faith. I mean, he's still young enough. Like, like, objectively, you know, it's not as though you have to say he's going to be

a disaster for the next eight years or something like that. but, you know, I think the concern for me would lie with the fact that it's, it's a fairly long period of time now where his game is trended in the wrong direction. And, you know, I know some people in Columbus thought that maybe last year he was one of the players that was sort of, you know, hurt most by COVID and the protocols. And, you know, that that was a difficult season for him, you know, unrelated to just the play on the ice. But, you know, now he's, you know, he's got his brother in the organization in Chicago. oh, he's got this new contract. I mean, you're looking for an updick. And if not, like, I, what do you even do with that?

I mean, there's almost, there's no option for that to be a fail in year one. Like, it's got to be good for like the first four years of that to even have it be considered a good decision. And so if they're still not, if they claim they're still in a rebuild, but you've made that decision and there's some doubt about it. I mean, I don't, I don't even know, I don't even know where you go from this. if he's if he's not a real difference maker and driver for their team right away. Yeah. I have to admit, I just don't don't see it with him. Like he's just not the same player he was before.

He's still young enough where it doesn't make sense that it's necessarily a fully age-related decline. But like how many times already so far this season has he basically just like watch someone take a shot and then go and get their own rebound and put it back on net? Like it's, I don't know, it's very alarming. And you mentioned his skating. His skating just doesn't seem the same like it was once. No, it's fine forward. Like when he gets the puck, like I still think he's got offensive ability.

And I imagine that was part of the allure for this team that does want to play off the rush and play fast. Like that's how they played last year. But they brought him in because they were one of the worst teams defensively. And they were hoping to turn that around. And we haven't seen anything in the results that indicates that's going to change moving forward. So it's a big time issue. And especially considering the contract extension has not even started yet. So yeah, we'll see how it goes.

But I figured we had to talk about them here because it's, it's been a mess. Either of you got any other teams or sort of situations that you're keeping an eye on? I'm curious about, I mean, the Rangers have, you know, some of the games that they've won this year. I feel like they wouldn't have won last year. Maybe that's the Gerard Golan effect. Maybe it's just these guys being a one year old, they're a little more maturity to some of the young guys that they have in here. but I feel like they're in a really good place. And I, you know, still contend, you know, with the management and coaching changes that they made,

any other team in the league would have looked at what they did in their rebuild and said, wow, they did it exactly the right way. I want to replicate that. And I do really feel John Tortorello said this on the point our studio show. And I stand by them. One night costs a lot of those guys their jobs. It literally was that game against the capitals and maybe a bit of an overreaction. That said, if I was a Rangers camp fan, I'd,

feel pretty good right now. Also, if I was a devil's fan, I'd have this cautious optimism that this young core is the right young core. And it's going to be fun to watch once we get Ty Smith back out there. I mean, Jack Hughes, he's sidelined right now. But him tossing that stick into the stands was probably the highlight of my season so far, just showing that personality, that swagger. I was told that when he got off the ice, the first thing he asked was, am I going to get finder suspended for that? And no, Jack, you're allowed to do that. So that was pretty fun. I'm excited to see him back out there because it feels like he's leveled up and take that next step. It's funny.

The Devils would be if you're doing your watchability thing, Demetri, like their team I've enjoyed watching more this year. Another one is Anaheim. I'm so surprised by them. I must confess, I didn't watch a lot of Ducks games last season. Why would you? But I, for whatever reason, maybe it's because they came through Canada already and those games were just in my mind or whatever. But I watched them a few times this year and I'm like, wow. Like, obviously they're not, you know, I don't see them making their playoffs or anything like that just yet.

But, you know, they got some nice young players. And, you know, I think that they've become much more watchable as a result of that early in the year. Yeah, yeah, I'm with you on the Devils. I really hope Jack Hughes comes back soon. But they are going to be high on the watchability rankings. You know who's not going to be high on the watchability rankings? Dallas Stars. You don't like two-one games or?

I joked on Twitter that like every single one of their games. It's just the exact same and it feels like they're playing on this endless loop. But I watch a lot of hockey. For watching these stars games, it's just such a slog. Like I just come away from them feeling emotionally exhausted. And I think they're in a bit of a weird spot or an interesting spot moving forward, though, because we talked about the penguins earlier, you know, for them, they've got John Klingberg, obviously, is going to be a UFA.

And I think he's going to look to get paid as much as he can, considering the sort of team-friendly deal he was on over the past seven years. They've got Radjolov and Pavelski both coming off the books with massive cap hits and they're both in their mid to late 30s. And so they're in this weird spot where they like they're the lowest event team. I think they're 29th or 30th in goals four, but they're also third fewest goals against or something like that. And so it's a reasonably effective strategy obviously and they're going to be in a lot of these games. I think every single one, every game they've played so far has been a one goal game and three of the five have gone to overtime. So they're going to be hanging around, but I don't really don't understand sort of what the plan is moving forward or kind of what they're going to do.

I guess the way the next two or three months go for them is going to determine a lot in terms of what they do at the deadline. Right. I think I saw a quote from Tyler Sagan where he was kind of unapologetic about what we might be calling a boring style here. I think they're leaning into it a little bit. Okay. I'm going to give you both. Sorry to got you up. but I'm going to give you both a little quiz here.

So say again, Radgelov and Ben are their three leading skaters in terms of ice time? Can you name the next three? Your Behanes? Radic Fax says fourth. Okay. Jacob Peterson is fifth. Oh. Michael Rofel is sixth.

Okay. Joe Pavelsky's playing 1527. Rupa Hans is playing 1438 and Goriano is playing 1230 per game. The thing with Pavelski, though, he's one of those guys. I think he took a huge. huge leadership share last year with, you know, not having say again and Radgel out the entire season and really stepped up offensively and kind of found that fountain of youth briefly. But he's one of those guys, like when I talk about the Tampa Bay Lightning, I'm like,

they have Pavelsky, but if they didn't just survive until the playoffs, like, he's a guy that like then his value just soars. Like having Joe Pavelski in the playoffs is worth it. But it is going to be an interesting off season for them because you said it. Like they're at this kind of inflection point where they do get to take some of it. of these contracts off the books and you wonder, do they reinvent themselves? Or as CJ says, like, can they just lean into this? It's like, we are the 1990s devils and it's freaking awesome. It's not freaking awesome.

As someone who's watching these games, I can tell you it is not freaking awesome. It's a style that wins in the playoffs, though. And I'm not just saying that because of their bubble run. You know, we do see the games grind down more at that time of year. If they can get there, it might bring them success. Yeah, but they got to get there first, right? Like, yeah, I'm really curious to see what happens to Klingerberg. I think obviously he's hurt now and hopefully he comes back soon.

But I just think like the, we've seen the market for defensemen just completely blown out of control. And it'll be interesting to see obviously if that carries over this coming summer. I assume it probably will. And he's obviously a flawed player. And I think he's very divisive in league circles in terms of how people rate him. And he's turning 30. So there's a lot of red flags there.

But at the same time, you figure there's going to be a bunch of teams that are just going to be lining up if he is available to pay through the nose for him. It's going to be an interesting summer for defenseman because Morgan Riley, like the Leafs can't afford him, right? No. In short strokes, no.

I mean, like they can if they make other cap moves, if they decide someone else that has a decent salary, you know, if he works with them a little bit on something sort of like a hometown discount, you know, there's a way to make it work, but it doesn't like. line up as, you know, heading in that direction right now. I think the interesting thing for Klingberg, too, is Hayskinin signed his long-term deal

last summer. I think it was around $8.35 million or something like that, like a little bit below where the market went for players with his, you know, statistics. You know, I don't see how they pay him more than Haskinen, but it doesn't mean somebody else might not. And so that might be, you know, it might become a question for Klingberg, you know, how important is it to, you know, maximize, you know, what he earns versus how much he wants to stay there. You know, I don't have a good handle on that myself. I feel like those, yeah, no, sorry to interrupt. I feel like pre-agency makes a lot of sense for him, honestly, like if we're just talking about dollars

and cents. Well, here's the thing. That's sorry, I'm like, I just want to make one more point. And I'll let you jump in here. The UFA market, I don't know if either of you have noticed, but this coming summer is, I assume some of these names might come off the board between now and then in terms of just re-opping with their current teams or whatever. But, it's loaded, especially with kind of like veteran players who are in that awkward early 30s range where you don't necessarily know how much term they're going to get. But there's going to be a pretty crazy spending spree, I think, in terms of the talent that's available and sort of the name brand value for a lot of these guys.

And so Klingberg should get, garner a lot of attention, but considering some of the names that are going to be out there, I wonder if you might fall through the cracks a little bit. Yeah, I was just going to say, I feel like sometimes when we talk about what guys are worth, Like we just forget how many factors go into it and how individual it is for each player. Like there's guys like Elias Pedersen, right, who are just so supremely confident and self-assured and competitive where he's like, I want a five-year deal with the Canucks. And I believe I should be the top of the market for five-year deals. And I'm better than Sebastian Aho and I deserve more money than him. And then the team's like, well, we're not going to meet you on that money.

So then he takes less years and less term, right? Or less money. And then for some guys, like, it is important. about fit or location or team or security is another really big one where, you know, some guys like Klenberg might look, okay, if I'm turning 30, who's going to give me that seven-year deal if I'm not saying because that's what I want. And I don't want to have to figure out if I'm moving two or three more times in my career. I just want one final home. So I just feel like those factors are never talked about enough. We just talk about, you know, we compare them like

apples to apples and it's really never that. Yeah. I would say, well, I think Klingberg is, I believe he made like 4.5, 5, and 6 million or something over the past three years of his deal. So I think as a guy who just played on a seven-year deal, I think he'll probably be comfortable just taking whoever gives him the most money upfront because he's probably probably been underpaid for the duration of that deal. But yeah, it'll be, it'll be interesting to see. CJ, is there anything else that we should, hey, what are, you know, when you talk to people around the league, whether just any league sources, like, what, what are people talking about right now in terms of like, oh, keep an eye out for this or like, oh, why aren't enough people

talking about this or sort of what, what's the most kind of common thing that you're hearing? Honestly, a lot of talk about Mark Bergerna's contract. Yeah. I think just because it's a little bit soap opera-e, you know what I mean? Like, it's not that it's, I'm not by any means saying it's the most important storyline in the league, but, you know, it's playing out quite publicly, you know, with Mark even doing a press conference after the Canadian started 0 and 4 and, you know, just sort of the, Some of the unique dynamics of that situation, you know, I'd say if they insist on having a francophone general manager to come after him, there's not a lot of people that have had a lot of senior experience that fit that box with what Julian Breeze was resigning and, you know, his extension in Tampa.

So that's, that's kind of been like something I find a lot of people sort of want to gossip about or are curious about. You know, a lot of talk about the Oilers actually, too. You know, a lot of people are, yeah, I think Connor McDavid. I don't know if we're at the stage where people just sort of take it for granted, but like he's insane right now. Like his last 82 regular season games is 51 goals and 151 points. It's like, you know, I don't know if Crosby or any of these guys. I'm guessing he never had a stretch, but certainly with 151 points. Like if you just captured any 82 games in a row, you know,

it's as close to Gretzky probably as we've seen just or Lemieux from pure offensive standpoint. you know, the Hyman signings worked out there. So, like, you know, I do hear some people on my ear about Edmonton. And of course, partly because I live in Toronto, but a lot of people that I talk to are always asking about to Leaps and what's going on and whatever the daily drama is there. Yeah, the McDavid thing is interesting, obviously, because it's scary to think that he's sort of getting better

or adding new things to his game. But like the big talking point or so far has been how much he was working on that one-timer on the power play throughout the off season. and we've already seen him score a goal like that. And just having Hyman and Puli Arvi around the net, just with their sticks down, basically converting all these easy tap-ins because of all the attention he garners,

like that it is kind of happening in the sense that he's finding even more sort of different ways to beat you in zone than he did in the past and not just being purely off the rush. And so it's pretty frightening. And honestly, like when I watch these games, if he doesn't have at least two points, I'm kind of like wondering what happened because it seems like two or three points

is pretty much just money in the bank at this point for him. Right. I saw it going into that Arizona game that the plus minus was said it, you know, plus two and a half, or it's like two and a half. And I was like, man, you got to hammering over on that. And I believe you got three points that night. Well, we need to, we need to adjust all these stats for whenever teams are playing the Arizona coyotes. I mean, my God. But it was interesting heading into the season, people were like, oh, who's going to be worse? Buffalo Sabres or Arizona Coyotes? And it's just not even close. It's testament to how hard Buffalo is playing, but Arizona's its own entity at this point.

to interject after you ask CJ what people are talking about. And he obviously offered what people are talking about in Canada here in the U.S. I've heard quite a few people say, the Sabres are good. Like they're a lot better than they thought. They're a lot quicker than they thought. And like you said, I think that's totally a testament to effort because we know that the talent level just isn't there on that roster. So I like to give credit for that to Don Granato, who I think is a really good coach and has deserved this opportunity. I don't think they're going to sustain it. I don't believe in them that much. But I have. have heard a few people, including teams that have played them, that have walked away quite

impressed. Yeah, I was watching that game. I think it was on Friday night against the Bruins and they lost that game. And you kind of see the talent disparity where the Bruins, with that top line, were just able to convert on their opportunities. But the Sabres took it to them. Like, they play fast. They play hard. They're just cycling the hell out of the puck. And it's not, it's not a gimmie when you see them on the schedule that you're just going to get those two points because they're going to make your earn. And thank God for their fans. Like those people have suffered, man. And it's a good hockey market. I've been to lots of good games in Buffalo over the years, but those people deserve to see some decent hockey at some point. Yeah, yeah, totally

agreed. All right. Well, that's that's kind of all I had on my list. I'll let you both you plug some stuff. I guess we should probably leave 20 minutes here for CJ to just plug all the work he's doing these days. But CJ, I'll let you go first, plug some stuff. What are you working on these days? Where can people find you? And then Emily, you can go off of that. Well, I had a big career transition in the summer. So, you know, I'm doing TV work for TSN up in Canada. I'm writing about the league and the Toronto Star and I've started my own podcast called The Chris Johnson Show with the Steve Dangle podcast network. So, so life is good. It's been busy. But, you know, I'm grateful to not have to work for a living. So it's been a fun few weeks. You say that so lately. You work

harder than anybody I know. But yeah, I'm at ESPN where we now have the right. So you can watch games, subscribe to ESPN Plus, only $6.99 a month. Only way to get all of the out-of-market games. Who am I to say? Am I in sales? I don't know. But I do have a podcast too with Linda Cohn, which has been a total blast because she's someone that I've looked up to. And so many people like just love this woman. Like I've had so many players to say, like, I watched her growing up and she was my favorite. So it's just been kind of a thrill to see her get re-engaged with the game. If you like Chelsea, I'll have a Chelsea podcast. Chelsea miced up. And you can just follow. all my stuff on ESPN.com or ESPN linear television, which people do still subscribe to as well.

I love it. Well, both of you, thanks for taking time. I know you have very busy schedules. This was a blast, and we're going to have to do this again. So until then, enjoy the rest of the season. Thanks, Dimitri. Be well. All right. That's going to be it for today's episode of the Hockey PEOCast. Thank you, as always for listening. Hopefully you enjoyed today's show with Chris Johnson and Emily Kaplan. It was a blast to bounce around the league and just discuss what they're hearing and what they're seeing. And we got to a lot of good stuff here. So if you did enjoy the show, please consider leaving us a quick little rating and review. I've been ending each of these shows asking you to do so, and a lot of you have already come through and delivered.

And so for each of you that have done so, thank you. It hasn't gotten a notice. It's greatly appreciated. Each one of them helps the show a lot. So if you haven't yet, it's super easy to do. You just smash that five-star button. If you're feeling extra generous and you got some free time, you can even write up a little review and let people know why you recommend they check out the PDOCAST or what you enjoy about the show. I love reading those.

So thank you for doing that. Thank you in advance to those of you that will do so now. And that's going to be for today's show. We're going to be back here soon with more PDO casts. And hopefully now that the season's kind of settling in and we're getting our footing a little bit here after a crazy first week or two of the season, we're going to be able to crank out more shows

and have a lot of fun stuff to discuss. So thank you for listening. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for rating and reviewing. And we will be back soon. The Hockey PEDEOCast with Dmitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich and on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com slash hockey pidocast.