The Hockey PDOcast - Our First Sweep Through The Start of Free Agency

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Sean Shapiro to go through some of the most notable moves we saw around the league on Day 1 of free agency. 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.

dressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey-PedioCast. My name's Dimitri Philopovich, and joining me is my good buddy, Sean Shapiro. Sean, what's going on, man? I'm, uh, Dmitri, I'm doing my best, like, Canadian, like, hockey impression right now. Like, I paid attention.

We were tracked free agency all day. Stayed busy with all of that. And, uh, I am then tomorrow, morning. kids driving the kids up to the cabin for the weekend for the 4th of July. So I do have to return to my home on Monday afterwards, but I'm doing my best Canadian cottage insider impression right now. So I'm buying in. I'm buying in right now.

I like it. So as long-time listeners know, it's an annual tradition here in the PDOCast, you and I get together. And we do our July 1st breakdown, kind of sorting through everything that happened at the start of free agency, Now typically we have our pal John Matt is joining us. This time we've got the third seat empty in his honor because he is on LTIR and so won't be available.

So hopefully he has a speedy recovery and rejoins us soon for the next time we do this. Otherwise, it'll be the same vibe, maybe slightly less Habstock, although I certainly have a section on them in light of Ivan Demidov's extension. But we're going to have some fun. I mean, listen, we're recording right after things have slowed down here on July 1st. There's so much for us to sort through. I don't know if you feel the same way, but my head is spinning right now, trying to kind of recalibrate and figure out how all the moving parts fit. And so I've got a list of about 10 to 12 teams that I wanted to run through

that I thought did the most interesting stuff. And we're going to have some fun with it and go back and forth and go for as long as it takes us to get through the list. Yeah, for sure. And I think we, it's good we did this. Originally, I pushed back time a little bit, which I think worked well because a couple of things were able. There was kind of a slow developing,

space today. So I'm kind of happy we're doing it now. We've got a little bit more to diagnose and break down and everything like that. And I mean, we got to start with Mattis's habs, right? Like, I don't know how we start anywhere else other than by honoring the man himself by talking about what the La Canadian's did, right? Well, we certainly can. I was going to say that it really feels like this is shaping up to be the summer of Sean, because a lot of the biggest stories and most consequential ones, whether it's the stars and Jason Robertson and the whole Zach Wrenski saga from these past couple of days, the Red Wings and Dylan Larkin, Connor Hulloch and goalies. It feels like everything's kind of coalescing around your specific interests.

But I'm down to start with the HABs. I mean, they had a very quiet day, but got arguably their most important business done by on the first moment they could that Ivan Demidov was extension eligible. They got him signed for eight years at a very tidy 9.15 that encompasses his age 22 to 29 seasons. I'm generally a proponent of go as long as you can, as early as you can on this type of a talent. They now have Suzuki, Koffield, Slavkovsky, Demidov, Hudson and Dobson, all signed through pretty much their 20s. At 51 million combined, they still have about 14 million in cap space for next season, have a bunch more money coming off the books with veterans like Anderson and De No and Montembow's final year.

Got to figure out Bull Duke and Doc's RFA status, but it feels like they're positioned nicely here to really kind of scale up this lineup. Go big game hunting. I know they've been linked to Kirill-Marchenko quite a bit and that would be an incredibly interesting fit. They've got some stuff to figure out down the middle, but they positioned themselves really nicely and, you know, didn't necessarily add a player, but I feel like getting this type of business done in such a timely manner is very efficient and has set themselves up really nicely moving forward. Well, and the Demadov one, right, too. For me, that's sometimes, so many times teams play with their food and mess around and don't really get things done the right way. And this is

the last year. You can get an eight-year deal done. And just to me, it's a phenomenal extension to get that done. And while it wasn't the big USA day for them, right? There's still a couple things that I think they're interested in and a couple moves that they intrigue. But for me, it's just in addition to shouting out our boy John, it's the, it's getting, it's sometimes doing the smart, simple thing should be rewarded in a business where sometimes there are some, there are some other things done that I'm sure we will get through today right now on this list. Well, especially this summer where I think we're seeing in real time the pitfalls of contentious second contract negotiations, bridge deals that are poorly timed and how that can have serious repercussions

for your team building moving forward. And so it's not necessarily the most glamorous move because like I said, he was obviously a key member of their team last year and they didn't necessarily have an addition, but it slots in really nicely and sets themselves up really well. Do you want to talk to Alistars a little bit because they also didn't do much? But I feel like this whole Robertson thing kind of cast a shadow on the offseason and we're all waiting for the next domino to do you know it's hard not to talk about them right with the whole roberts and stuff and then obviously the big decision to today to trade maverick bork and use that deal to kind of get

out of ilia lovushkin's contract i think it's they are they were very quiet um obviously i mean i'm sure someone there's some some stars fan out loud is yelling at me for not um giving the accolades for the u l kivirontas signing that happened in the last 30 minutes or whatever, but like it was it was something where it's interesting to see all that played out because this Robertson saga has been going on and and now after they tried to make a Seattle trade last week, it did not go through, they tried to make a Columbus trade with featuring Thomas Tarley for Zach Werenski. It's a team that the two sides between the two sides being Robertson and the Stars now are kind of come to that point where they have to figure something.

out. It almost becomes that if you're Dallas, if you let Maverick Bork go and you kind of didn't get that, you kind of player, a really young player that I know Jim Neal really liked. And you let him go. And you don't get the Robertson deal done. You're looking at some really tumultuous thing. So it's it's kind of interesting to watch them both back themselves into a corner here on both sides. And I'm really fascinated to see where this goes. But it's obviously. also it feels a lot like an arbitration case coming too all at the same time. Dallas is really fascinating because it's one player, but there's lots of shades of gray where all this is right now. Oh, it certainly will impact a lot of other things. And I think certain teams are also kind of waiting for a resolution and keeping their powder dry a little bit until this option at least is eliminated. I do feel like through all of this, maybe not for Robertson necessarily,

because you don't get the instant payday. but I do wonder if going the arbitration route was kind of the most logical path all along beyond just acknowledging his importance through organization and paying him what he's worth and then figuring out everything else out after that because it'll likely slot in somewhere what, 9.5 to 10 million for one year on the ruling

and then obviously we'll walk him up to his UFA but the stars will have an opportunity to extend him beyond that and the reason why I mentioned that as we talked about is the stars are in such a weird financial window where, yes, they're up against the cap and everything's really tight and they're facing this crunch and that's why they lost Maverick Bork, but it doesn't extend beyond this season, right? It's really a one-off in that Sagan's deal expires next summer. The cap goes up again.

They have some other money coming off the books and they're going to have a ton of real estate to work with. And so assuming the relationship isn't too far gone at this point and feelings haven't been hurt to the point where they can't be many. I feel like there's a logical conclusion here where you go the one year on the arbitration, you wind up signing Robertson for seven years after that, making him good on the back half of it by increasing the AV to what he wants. And he comes out slightly ahead financially, taking on the risk, of course, of injury in this one season.

And the stars are able to keep at least some semblance of their team together in the process. And I think you're right. And it's the whole, like, I think one of my big takeaways from today and kind of doing a bit of digging today and just talking to some people is, well, there's been some contentious moments in this Robertson's camp, who is Andy Scott's aide, Andy Scott is his agent who also happens to represent seemingly every other important player on the Dallas Stars, Miko Raton and Y. Johnson and Thomas Harley, they all have the same agent. While there's obviously some contentious moments in this conversation, at the end of the day, Jason Robertson wants to be a Dallas star. He wants to be

the highest paid Dallas Star. And that's kind of where there's a little bit of this kind of friction point. And I think it's more of a friction point almost between not necessarily a Jim Nill thing, too. I think there's also an ownership part of this. Where for Tom Gullard, I think that's an important element of this. I don't think Tom Gullardi has a massive appetite for a $14 million player right now. I think that's kind of there's, he doesn't, he lets Jim Nill do his job, but there are elements where the owner comes into play and his his money.

So I think that's been another element of this as well. but I look at it and the people I spoke to today and kind of some others, it's they've come back to each other and they realize that they might be the best future for both of them is together, especially after what's happened with some of these other potential things that Dallas looked into and whether it was the potential Seattle move or I still don't, like, the Werenski thing, which I know we're going to have a long chat about here is interesting too, because I still think the stars have also shown at the same time. There's the level of if they can improve something,

Jim is willing to swing big on it. And obviously, I'm a big Thomas Harley fan. You and I both like Thomas Harley, even if there's been some little bit of a dip the past year or so, whatever you want to call it after the Four Nations kind of reputation. They're willing, there's still Robertson's camp, still like seeing a team that's willing to, if you can enter Thomas Harle and to Zach Wrenski,

you improve your team. And that isn't, I think a lot of Stars fans took that the wrong way. They're like, oh, how is Thomas Harley going to feel? You look around the, until you get the best 20 players,

you can always improve your roster. Well, one of the fascinating signals to me in terms of, you know, it's been reported at least in some circles that Robertson might prefer going the arbitration route as opposed to signing long term at some point right now, which signals his desire to stay with the stars

if it wasn't already clear based on him turning down crazy amounts of money from the Crackin and a Blues deal as well shortly thereafter is he's worried about signing a long-term deal which obviously comes with no trade protection in the first year because it's still an RFA year and then signing up for this deal and then having the stars turn around

and then trade him like he's clearly prioritizing wanting to stay with the Dallas Star as well also being compensated to a that he seems fair for his production level. And so I feel like there is still a way to make that work. You know, they get Artu-Huru signed at 875K. As you mentioned, they bring in or bring back Yol Kibiranta for $1 million. And I thought it was interesting.

And that press release, there was a lot in there about his penalty kill exploits and his shorthanded contributions. And I do wonder whether that's another signal that either Sam Steele and or Radic Fax's $2 million or so are going to be on the move to facilitate more money to kind of fit this roster together. And at that point, you could really kind of push towards that $13 million if you want for Robertson. So that would make a lot of sense. But I do think that some of the shrapnel in this in losing Maverick Bork is a big loss.

And we shouldn't necessarily overlook that, right? And to his credit, he signs that deal last summer, which paid him, what, $950K? And it was a real kind of bet on myself type moment. he comes back. He's used as their fourth most frequently used forward. A five-on-five this season scores 20 goals in his age 24 year. I thought in that playoff series against the Wilde was probably their second best forward behind Robertson.

You could really see his forechecking chops on display there. He was one of the only guys they had that could get to Quinn Hughes in any meaningful way. And losing him as a product of this, even if you get off the Lubushkin money and you get back the second and third, which theoretically is bigger than what you would have gotten if he signs a $4.775 million offer sheet is still a massive loss regardless. Oh, yeah. And I love the Maverick Bork story. It's one of those where there's a similarity in him betting on himself twice in his career now.

He had a really down year. And when he came, and obviously I've tracked the story quite a bit. And I texted this over to my pal Adam Vignan in Nashville to kind of share this story a little bit. Like he had a really down year, his first year in the AHA, and then really bet on himself, reinvested in himself, looked into kind of his off-ice training, his mental health, everything like that, and then went and won the HL MVP the next year.

And then he had a similar kind of moment where he could have taken a longer deal with Dallas. He could have done that. And he did the one-year deal to the RFA kind of bet on himself, invested himself a little bit and did that. So it's a success story. And it's an odd, it was an odd thing to kind of, from a Dallas perspective, it's kind of what they had to do and it is a loss.

To not call it a loss is a complete thing. And it's also to be clear, from my understanding, there was multiple offer sheets that he was mulling over. Like there was multiple, and I haven't been able to confirm whether Nashville was one of the actual offer sheets or not, but there was multiple teams where he was heavily considering over the offer sheet,

and the stars basically were like, well, we're going to lose them either way now. So now we find a way to get out of Lubushkin's money as well. but I think it's one of the I want to give Nashville a ton of credit here real quick on that because I think they did a really good job recognizing a young player that I have a lot of faith in that I think is going to allow them to

especially if you've said you've some guys in Nashville who as you kind of move some things around who are maybe playing center that maybe should be more on the wing at this point in their career that I like that you can kind of build Bork into that and your top six now too so I like to move for now

I like to move for Nashville obviously more So have been Dallas, but Dallas, it's cutting your losses the best way possible. I had the Predators on my list. We can get into that now real quick. The nice thing about the Bork ad for them is that, I guess technically it's still a central division rival that Chris McFarron is very familiar with from his matchups of Avs stars. But otherwise, the Predators really just went into their archives deep into them, loading up on former Aves players, which certainly isn't you when a GM. changes jobs, has guys that he's familiar with and likes, and swoops in and adds them to his new situation.

They, over the past two weeks, have essentially added Ross Colton, Jack Jewry, Alex Kerfoot from back in the day with the abs, Jack Ashahan, and then they go out and they also add Adam Edstrom, Neil's Oaklander and Bork and Lubushkin, of course. And the thing that I like about that, I know people are going to point to it and say, like, it's kind of where you were already to begin with. It's not necessarily needle moving. but beyond Drury and Bork, and we'll see what Bork's deal is, I assume it's going to be a longer-term investment.

All those deals are in that kind of one-to-two-year window. And I think Chris McFarlane, the Predators, very astutely noted that, you know, they have the leverage of cap space, this treasure chest of picks to work with. I think they still have double digits the next two years and time on ice opportunity and some veterans that are going to potentially be going out the door over the next year. or so and got into their accumulation phase essentially here and really leverage that to just add a bunch of assets. We've seen how teams are treating players who are under contract, especially short-term,

at salaries that haven't ballooned yet to fit the current cap environment. And they'll be able to recoup that and then build on those futures as well in the process. So I do like what the start, what the predators did there. And, you know, Bork is certainly on the higher end of that list. I like Neil Hoaglander, too, as like kind of a buy. low type move, right? Like, I don't think that's, like, is that the move that's going to shake and shape the central division?

Obviously, not at all. But I think there's a couple that that's another smart move, too. And who knows, right? The other thing within the accumulation stage for Nashville, you go and get Lubushkin, he's a right shot veteran D. What is the most overvalued thing at the trade deadline every single year, right shot veteran D? all of a sudden you look at potentially, if you're where I think they're going to be in the

central kind of out of it. and a little bit of still in that kind of accumulation phase, you got a piece that you can accumulate more with maybe with selling in season too. So I like that. Before we move too far off of this and get to some of the other teams, I do want to quickly circle back to Zach Wrenzki a little bit because within the context of the past whatever week or so for the Dallas Stars, as you mentioned, they had two very public failed trade attempts,

the first one sending Roberts into the Cracken and him turning down the extension offer and then agreeing to essentially swap Harley with other stuff on top of it for Werenski, which Wrenski turns down. And I'm endlessly fascinated by this. You and I have been exchanging some messages throughout today. Obviously, no insider information here for me, but just kind of reading the Tile's. It's certainly from an outside feels like Don Waddell essentially got peer pressured into frantically panicking. And Werensky bailed him out, at least for the time being.

now I do think that if you are going to trade Werenski, that was probably the best you're going to do in terms of getting a locked in prime age, left shot defenseman that we both think highly of in Harley. But it always struck me as strange that it was kind of this expedited process that happened so quickly here, right, culminating in Elliott Friedman's report on Tuesday evening that ends with the dramatic line of things have taken a nasty turn, right? And so much for the no soap opera was just hockey in the NHL because that was about as dramatic as it gets. But I always found it strange because this situation does feel dramatically different than, for example, the one that you're living firsthand with Dylan Larkin at the Red Wings

where he clearly wants to go out and go to his preferred destination for Werenski. It seemed more of, I have two years left on my deal. I'm not even extension eligible for another year. This Blue Jackets team has made a bunch of win-now oriented moves in the meantime to try and push them back in the playoffs after missing the postseason for the past five years and wanting to see what that looks like before making an informed decision down the line. And I get some of the, you know, fear that's attached to that when a superstar player that you've built your organization around expresses that level of uncertainty. You're like, all right, well, we need to maximize our return now

while we can. But I do feel like he actually, without knowing him, wants to be there, but just wants to do it in an competitive environment where they're making the playoffs. And so I think seeing it through makes sense. And I do feel like it was very sort of rushed and forced on their part to try to push this process through in the manner which they did. Yeah, I think the Blue Jack and said Don Waddell let themselves get bullied by the state of how things are going, right? Like it's the whole and I'm sure there was an overreaction to the team USA stories. Right. And like, while there is a very real kind of at some point someone's

going to get the like those lost files that are that group chat right like that's going to be the and maybe Mike Babcock will ask for it on someone's phone and see it but there's the whole like there's I think the Blue Jackets and Don Waddle overreacted to a lot of that and where this is when they go like for example

Werenski and Larkin work out together in Plymouth Michigan here about 20 minutes from where in the same place where they work out with the Hughes brothers I think there was a lot of the oh my god everyone's trying to force a move and so we're going to overreact to this and Orensky did bail him out because what if you go and you have the year this year that think that what if Ventilly takes the step that you think is going to happen and you get a couple

other things here and all of a sudden you're like you know what this looks like a pretty good spot and you didn't have to trade away a Norris trophy winner so in a weird way like it's kind of funny because you see the reaction of like oh my god you asked for the trade Well, it's the way I look at it. I don't think Orensky really asked for the trade. He was just a bit honest about, to me, this isn't the same as the Dylan Larkin trade request. I think the Werenski and Larkin situation while they get kind of roped together naturally by a couple, by some very similar things with who they are and where they played and everything like that.

I think they're two very different things. And you're right, Don Waddell got bailed out a bit from making a potential mistake to kind of bring things to keep to keep Werencki in the full. because at some point, who are you going to build around? Right? Like, yeah, like, it's a, I don't know. I do think that it's also a relatively negligible difference in terms of the value you'd expect to get back for him in trade. If you did it now, as opposed to, let's say, things devolve even further and you do it a year from now, right? Just purely because he does have trade protection.

And it seems like wherever he picks a theoretical destination down the line, it's going to be a team he's going to extend with and sign for it. and they're going to pay full, full price to acquire them as opposed to a rental where like, we've got to get what we can right now. So it all culminates with the joint press statement from both sides, which included Renski's name being misspelled and taking that down and then correcting it with the proper spelling. But it seems like at least for now, cooler heads profailed. And obviously the blue jackets still have some work to do. They have Ventilli and Grease as RFA's.

They got to figure out the Marchenko situation. but I feel like it's a lot more encouraging now than maybe it was 24 hours ago when it seemed like we were in absolute full panic mode. And I think there's something where there's some, I guess, for lack of a better word, forgiveness from Werenski's camp because I think it's one of those where it's like you and I sit down and be like, hey, I want to figure this out, but I'd really like to kind of see you do something that gives me a plan for two years from now. And then you turn around and like, all right, he's gone. We need to go get someone else. Like, like, it's a, it's a funny way to look at it. But yeah, it's, I could not help. But I had to double.

I had to read that twice. The misspelled name, that was just, that was peak. Yeah, I do think there's certainly some residual scar tissue from the history. Exactly. Yeah. And all the guys that are left and left them in a tough spot. So I do get it. But it seems like common sense at least prevailed for the time being.

All right, who's next on your list? Let's talk what you want to go. Do we want to go with the exit or into Florida spot on this? We want to go with because I just, it's the whole, I just can't help but laugh. And when we see guy, I mean, it's similar to the Harshon deal that they signed, but Rackogood is, if Rackogood is plays six years, I mean, he's not playing that six year deal, right? Like it's just you kind of look at the way that goes around. And I kind of want to just let let's start there as opposed to the. the guy, some of the guy who left Florida and obviously talking about, I bet probably with Bob

and another Columbus tie, but let's go to Florida for a little bit. Well, let's do it. So, yeah, the Radco Gudus contract is objectively hilarious. They give a 36-year-old six years to keep the AAB down at 1.5 and make the money work. It's the second guy now that they've given an extended deal into their 40s and are blatantly not even pretending to care about it. Now, I thought the most important business they did on July 1st was getting E2 Least Arena extended for eight years at $5 million beyond next season and that is now the ninth skater that they've maxed out with eight years while they still can before the CBA changes in September and

yeah to your point they also let Bobrovsky go to the Leafs they replace him via trade acquiring Jacob Markstrom and Akira Shmead as the tandem in Ned and I honestly find the devil's part of that with Markstrom and sort of the stuff they did here to be probably even more compelling. But I think that the Panthers are a fair shout because they've clearly maximized every single edge they possibly can under the current CBA to put this team together. And they didn't overly, like,

you didn't go and overpay A.J. Greer, right? Like, how often do we see teams sometimes go and do stuff like that? And I think Florida's kind of an example of sometimes knowing when to let a guy walk, like what, Grier goes and gets, what, 4.25 million from Anaheim, Like knowing when to let a guy walk is, I think, a valuable thing. And obviously the Bobrovsky one is the biggest one of just of kind of letting that go and then getting Marks from him. But I think that Greer one is just like a quiet piece of solid business of looking at we're

not going to overpay for a career year when we're looking at these other things. And it's like so. And once again, the Listerinean deal, though, that's a, that's, I love that extension. Yeah, I mentioned the devil's part. And, you know, of course, this is Sunny Meadows first offseason as the GM of the Devils. And I think he's done some really nice work, maybe not necessarily, you know, making the blockbusters that people would hope for. But I do think he's already shown a level of creative acumen and resourceful thinking in getting out of potentially troubles and deals and positioning them better for the future than anything we saw from the previous regime. They first, you know, get out of Nemich's looming contractual.

conundrum, let's put it. I think it was a pretty tricky spot given the circumstances based on what he wanted to pay and all the contracts he already had on the blue line, bank two extra firsts. Down the line in the process, they get out from under Markstrom's six million times two extension, wind up getting back, Evan Rodriguez, and yes, were Boquist, and we've spoken endlessly on the P.D.O.cast about how utterly useless their bottom six was last year. And so I feel like that's nice reinforcement. They get Gritzik signed for three years at 3.25. They walk away. from Paul Kotter's qualifying offer, which I like, that would have been a disastrous deal to keep on, even though he obviously signed just a very reasonable one-year deal with Vancouver.

But I think the right player to kind of walk away from, they purposefully target Barrett Hayden via offer sheet, and we love offer sheets, finally got to see one. We can talk about that more in a little bit. And I think just as importantly, you know, they get Nico Hissier signed for five years at 11.7. And that is a hometown discount based on what those going rates are going to be, especially by the time that deal kicks in. I think Don has his market value around 12.3, which strikes me as perfectly fair.

And actually, in this case, view the five-year term as a positive, right? Because I think he's going to be 29 by the time that deal starts. And you almost eliminate the risk on the back half in years 6, 7, and potentially 8 when he's already in his mid-30s. And you're going to get the rest of his prime, essentially, at this reasonable number. And so you put all that together. And I thought it was a pretty impressive start to this.

regimes run and kind of setting up the devils to start moving in the right direction. Yeah, I had a conversation with Elaine Waugh, who was Nico's agent last week, and we were chatting a little bit just about the Nico situation. And they were very, he was telling me, Nico's very impressed with what New Jersey's been doing. And that's kind of one of the things that kind of went into this term and this timing and kind of creating that flexibility. And that off sheet to me, like that's also a, I love it for, for, you know, You and I, we always talk about offers sheets don't happen or whatever, right? Obviously, St. Louis did a couple, a couple players from Edmonton.

But I love the way that Sunny comes in, Sunny Meta comes in and does the, it's one of the best done offer sheets you've seen, right? Because Utah, you want the offer sheet to be something that makes someone think about it. And I love the way that the Hayton one goes down where if they match, if they match, they can't trade them for a year. and it walks them right to the UFA spot, right? Like from a player perspective, it was the dream offer sheet to get. And I would love to see, like,

those are the, that's what you should see more of, I think. Yeah, then it's a 4.775 compensation, which keeps it at a second round pick. And I believe $66 more, very on brand would have cost them significantly more in terms of potential comp if the mammoth don't match it. And I do think it's a very purposeful,

beyond obviously identifying it, especially after all the moves the mammoth did, which we'll talk about, right? Acquiring Trochecks, signing Anders Lee, bringing back Kevin Stenland. They re-signed Yamamoto previously kind of setting up their forward group and sort of viewing the one piece that's still not bolted down as Hayden as a very interesting third-line center option for them,

assuming the mammoth walk away from it. And I think it's going to be an interesting decision for them regardless. but, you know, Hayden, I think some of the shine has come off of him because he was coming off his down year. He sort of fell out of the Utah's rotation. But 26-year-old obviously has the pedigree previously. But I also think just generally, and this is going to be something that's going to be very instructive about Sunny Mehta's background and how they approach this, is a prime regression candidate, right? You look at it and it and it shoots 3.3% at 515 last year. Well, that's not certainly going to continue. Register as a point on 42% of the goals he was on the

ice for. That's low and kind of out of his control. And then had great underlying numbers otherwise was used in a defensive role with ozone starts and still had shining underlying numbers regardless. And so it's a perfect target for them, very low risk, very reasonable upside. And we'll see how it turns out. But I think all this stuff is very encouraging regardless of how the shakes out. Yeah, I agree. And I like the couple of the bets they made. And I mean, it's, it's, it's, Yeah, I'm happy with what New Jersey did. And Utah is certainly interesting and intriguing in the way they went about some things. Obviously, they also went and made the trade for at the draft day.

They go and make the trade for Sebastian Kosa. They make the bet that Detroit has made the mistake on that, which I'm fascinated to see how that plays out with the two-year, $2 million deal for Kosa with Utah. Because he's someone who I think has all the physical tools and everything like that as a goalie guy. but kind of has to get it right between the ears. And maybe that works. Maybe that works there. So it really intriguing kind of time for both sides of that,

that hate and deal with both Utah and New Jersey too there. Let's take our break here real quick. And then when we come back, I want to jump back in to talk about the mammoth a little bit and some of the stuff they did here. You're listening to the HockeyoCast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right. We're back here in the HockeyOcast by Sean Shapiro.

We are doing our takeaways from July 1st and the start of free agency, running through some of the most. most interesting teams and what they did today, The Mammoth. So we started talking about it a little bit before the break. You know, at the draft, they kind of take a mulligan on the Parturka trade. Now there's no getting back Josh Stone and what he's become certainly, but they clear his salary, bank the two first. As you said, they use one of them, 23rd overall, to bring in Sebastian Kosa, which is an

interesting upside flyer for them. I think especially in light of the past two years with how much the overworked Karelva Malka and he was the only goal in the league that played 60 plus games last regular season. I think he had 64 games. And so finding a viable sort of backup to take some of that workload off of them. They acquired Vinny Trochevich for Sean Dersey, the 24th overall pick from two years ago, and a third rounder. And I thought it was a, you know, I was ready to sort of poo-poo,

whatever Trochik trade happened for the team that acquired him, because I do feel like his reputation and the way he's been, covered, particularly in light of all the TB USA stuff, has sort of overblown what he is at this point of his career. But I thought this acquisition cost was relatively reasonable compared to what some of the reported asks and demands were from the Rangers. And he'll be an interesting fit for them. You know, elite at face off certainly has the PK chops, I think is an underrated sort of interior shooter for them. And they go out and they bring him in, which allows a bit more flexibility up front for them. And so I don't know if you have any notes on that or if you want to

lump in the Anders Lee ad as well. Well, I really like the ad at the cost. I mean, one of the biggest things with the Trocheck part was his value greatly outplayed what he was at. The reported value in the perception greatly outplayed what he was worth. But if you had told, I mean, Dersie, Bodwin and a third round pick, like that's, I think this is, this is what Trochecks should been moved for. All the other stuff we've seen in the past, we've seen what New York was asking for how people have talked about him. So I love the move for Utah on that perspective. And I think Lee adds a really nice, it adds a nice kind of helps enforce the spine of that team, which just to be a bit blunt, right? Like the Central, I know we talked about Dallas before, and there's obviously a lot of

kind of figuring all of that out, but the Central is a battle, right? It's, it's, there's going to be this kind of, and I like, and I like. the, I like the way they've kind of set that up there and they didn't kind of have to blow everything the way a lot of people talked about Trocheck happening. So that is maybe a lesson in patience for teams when it comes to some of these guys, especially of let them win their gold medals and let them do all of that and maybe don't pay for the gold medal shine in February and maybe wait a little bit. Maybe that's not a, that's, that's a bit of a lesson here if you're looking at the Utah work here. Yeah, we'll talk more about

the Rangers side in a second, I will say from the mammoth perspective. though Jersey had kind of fallen into that third pair role, especially after they brought in McKenzie Weger and having that top four solidified. And I imagine part of the logic for them and viewing him as expendable. And I think he's got a really interesting skill set is creating some room for, you know,

Demetri Semeshev and Maverick Lambeiro and some of the young defensemen they've drafted to start kind of integrating those guys. And I think that's also been clear throughout this process as well, sometimes to my frustration because I'm so excited about this mammoth team. And I'd like to see them just level up

and take these massive, ambitious shots in the trade market, but they very clearly are very reluctant to move on from their top prospects, and they're very high on them, and they're looking at ways to integrate them into their lineup and kind of keep this steady flow of cheap talent coming in, and so we'll see how that shakes out. And instead of doing that, they make this move without really trading any of their premium assets for Trocheck.

They sign Anders Lee. And for Lee, there's always concern for a 36-year-old, right? I think his game lends itself to continuing to do kind of what he's been for the next couple years because of how already groundlocked his game is. Like, I think his strengths and relative weaknesses are pretty clear and well defined. At this point, I think his power play utility is something they clearly craved. They were 18th in the league in power play efficiency in the regular season, and that really killed them in that round one series against Vegas.

I think if they had a competent power play, they might have beat them in that matchup. his in-zone offense, we've seen him succeed with kind of fluid puck carriers like Matt Barzal previously, and so the idea of potentially putting him with Kooley and Gunther, I think is an interesting thing they explore, and if that bumps Krause and Yamamoto down

to third-line roles and they're not playing all of these high leverage scoring minutes the way they were previously, I view that as a win ultimately. And with all of these deals, right, it's always with a 35, it's going to be a 35-plus deal, I think it'll be 36 in a week or whatever it is, right?

A couple days, yeah. Yeah, you always know that you're going to kind of run into, you're going to run into some issues at the end of it. But his game has aged extremely. Like his game, like his game is aged. He's embraced his role. And then he's also kept the durability as well, which I think is an important thing as I've watched some other players at his age where it's kind of, you've seen the cliff hit at 34 or 35, whether it's in availability or fragility that comes into play. That hasn't happened with him. And that's why I like this move for, I like, I like, I like for this for Utah.

Let's keep it moving. I got a couple more teams I want to run through with you. We got to talk about the sharks who went. Yeah, with the shark sharks. Absolutely ham today. I think, you know, them and the capitals went the craziest out of all 32 teams. They go out and they sign base in Marchment, 6.75 times five. They signed Jacob Truva, 8.25 times four.

And they take on the full freight of darned all nurses, 9.25 times four. Now I wanted to kind of separate these, right? Because I think the Marchman signing is fine. Yeah, even if their wings are overcrowded, he clearly has a unique complimentary skill set with his size. He's 31, but compared to your typical 31-year-old, he's only got 360 NHL games on his legs, which is like four and a half seasons worth.

And he's shown that he can be productive 5-1-5 without necessarily getting premium power play time. So I think that gives them some options. The two commitments they made on D though are not ideal to say the least. And listen, I think in the grand scheme of things, they have so much money coming off the books the next couple summers to go along with all the caps they had here this offseason that it will necessarily be restrictive.

I still don't love taking on that money, particularly in year three and year four on players who are going to be pushing 35, have already shown deteriorating skills. you have all your young forwards who are going to be coming up on their second deals at that point, and you're going to hopefully have these defensemen that you drafted this year that are going to be pushing for legitimate opportunities with the team, right? And so you put all that together, and I get sort of the criticism for it, and it certainly isn't what I would have done.

You know, they had the openings on the blue line specifically on the right side with the Truba. They clearly valued these kind of veteran toughness to go along with all their young forwards. I just kind of wish they had done it in a more pragmatic way, especially they probably would have had to pay something more as opposed to just kind of take it on a salary dump. But a guy like Morgan Riley, for example, which would have been a similar financial commitment for four years, I think it would have been a much better stylistic fit, even if he's a lefty because he actually still has the puck moving ability and can get the puck to their forwards and advantageous attacking positions. and in this case with Truba and Nurse, I think that's going to be limited to a point where it's going to be very frustrating to watch. Yeah, you kind of hit it on the head for me.

Like the Marshment one, well, there's some initial sticker shock for me on that like, oh man, Mason Marshman's getting that much money. I know what Mason Marshman is, and that's the value. I think you're going to find good value on that. I mean, it's, the Trubo one to me is, I just

I just don't like the trouba deal right like the trouba deal really the nurse one I don't like the nurse one or the trouba deal but the true one to me is just you kind of come off the draft right and for me the sharks are a big winner at the draft right like I love what they did on the draft especially in that first round

where you go and get some some high bets on D as well and then Riley's a good example of someone I would have preferred to see as well there I just if you're San Jose I think it's a perfect example of how it's easy to rip it all down. Not rip it all down, but it's easy to kind of build and move some things. But then you also have to have someone in the room who says,

okay, we don't need to go and spend $8.25 million on Jacob, Truba per season, right? And that to me is I would have been okay. If you go with Truba or nurse, I can be like, you know what, that's fine. I can deal with one of those. The problem for me is the bet on both of them. and I think that's where you really run into problems. Yeah, undoubtedly.

It feels like overkill, and I get it. They had all this cap space burning a hole in their pocket. They're just trying to bring in who they view as reliable on each other's to fill some of those minutes. But like I said, looking at the hockey stats data, for example, through Corey Schneider's tracking, like Jacob Trubut, 21st percentile in defensive zone retrievals, Darnal Nurse, 18th percentile,

Demetriorloff, who they're still paying for another year, 39th percentile. And like these are guys who are going to struggle at helping out their forwards and putting them in a position to succeed. And get ready to learn one of my least favorite plays in hockey, which is darned Ler is holding the puck behind the net, waiting for all his forwards to run his routes, shaking a couple guys off. And then just sending a puck down the length of the ice and having to be an icing and coming back for a draw the other way. And, you know, from the other side for the oilers, like I feel like getting off of his money, even with the cap going up and, you know, people around the league valuing his toughness and skill set and ability to eat minutes. and do all that stuff, like I think is still really tidy work for them.

Not only getting off that money, but taking a bet on a younger, cheaper left shot defenseman and Shakir Muk Madulin, they go and turn around and use some of those savings on Ryan Shea. There's a bit of concern about his sample size where he's a 29-year-old with only 150 games. You're quite familiar with him, I'm sure, on his way up through the Texas Stars,

but I really liked his game last year. By comparison, was much better at defensive zone, Dreebles really good on the PK, a very reasonable contract they signed him to, despite being one of the few defensemen on the market who can skate and chew gum at the same time. The Oilers also take that flyer on Devin Levi, trading down from the third to seventh, essentially, bring in Freddie Anderson on a one-year deal, retain Casperi Kappen on a one-year deal. I thought it was a remarkably reasonable July 1 for the Oilers compared to what I'm used to from them. And so I feel like, While we're kind of bringing it down from the Sharks perspective, I think the Oilers did pretty well there. I mentioned the other team that went hand, the Capitals. You know, we loved in the Tuck sign and trade, acquiring Jordan Cairo previously. They spend 4.2 times four on Vinnie DeHarnay, which might have been one of the more surprising. Signings of the day, Boone Jenner, 5.7 times four.

I have a lot of concerns about Jenner as a 33-year-old, I think, with how much time he's missed every year of the past six years, essentially. I imagine part of the logic for them beyond having the cap space was bringing in a center and potentially bump in some of these younger guys like assortive for Nelia Proto's to the wing to maximize their offense. But they went kind of crazy with that. I got a couple other teams I want to run through with you. The Kings, the Rangers, the Lightning, the Leafs,

and then a couple of teams that I'm going to be watching for moving forward. Which one do you want to start with? Let's start with the Kings just because the Ken Holland special was on display of let's go bring a bunch of old guys and put value on getting into the playoffs over actually trying to maybe win this thing at some point. Yeah, then bringing in a 41-year-old, a 39-year-old, a 35-year-old, a 34-year-old, and then 32, Scott Lott and the Young Buck back for three years, is definitely on brand.

I will say like the Mad Zucorrella one, and I know there's the $5 million bonus attached to it. If he hits 10 games, which he will hit, is still a, a great deal. I think very highly of what he brought to the Wild and how valuable is on the power play, especially. So I love adding his playmaking. And I think, you know, the terms were relatively reasonable. I think Eric Gustafson's going to be interesting. We'll see if he gets any run with them. But I did want to note that pretty much the last time we saw him succeed in the NHL in 23, 24 was under Peter Lavillant. And so they bring him in for $1 million. And meanwhile, like the Wild lose Zuccarello there.

They lose Marcus Johansen who goes back to Europe. It looks like they're going to lose Ladd Tarasenko, and we'll see what they do in the meantime, but those are pretty valuable minutes. They just lost in the wing, and they don't really have a lot of resources to kind of backfill it.

The Wild, on that point, it's going to be interesting of when you're spending as much money as they are, and obviously the Matt Boldie deal is incredible, but obviously we're spending the amount of money that goes to basically five or six players in Minnesota. I'm fascinated by who is going to be, are you going to find that guy

where you and I are messaging back and forth after 35, 40 games, we're like, you know what? It's the Shaq meme. I wasn't really, I wasn't familiar with your game, but, right? Like, you're going to have to find that guy if you're in Minnesota because it's a lot of openings for that right now. Yeah.

You know, we mentioned the Rangers before in the trochick trade, they completely re-configured their blue line. They've got the Gabrikov Fox Bear coming back. They send out a 23, or 2030 first. I can't believe we're already getting to 20-30s with these picks. For Marcus Pedersen, they bring in

Sean Jersey in the Trochequech trade. They wind up sending out Will Borgon for a couple picks to Boston. I think a pretty precarious position. I know that both of the first they sent out via trade over the past week are top 10 protected, but particularly the 20131, for example,

where Adam Fox's deal expires in in 2029. I think it's a lot of risk they've inherited for a team that I think is still fair to be skeptical of how good and how competitive they're going to be, but they clearly had no appetite for continuing to miss the playoffs and suck the way they have recently. And so they go out and make all those moves. They bring in all of your brokerage at a very reasonable 4.5 times one, even though I was pretty frustrated watching them on the lightning last year. And I guess in combination with all those things, I find it a bit per play. I know they were ready to move on from it, and it's kind of in line with what they'd done previously, but sending out Trochec likely means that you're bumping J.T. Miller back down to center, for

example, and I think at this point of his career, that is an ideal if you're going to try and be as competitive as they are. So the Rangers were certainly very, very active today. They were active, but I don't understand the plan. I'll just be very clear, right? Like, you're looking at it, and you're kind of watching and you're trying to get a better sense for everything of why and how and what are teams trying to do. And I look at the Rangers, and it's very much, it feels like watching that guy, it feels like watching my college roommate who was just couldn't sit still

playing Madden because he always had to, like if he couldn't go an off season without making six trades, right? So I look at the kind of the Rangers and it's like the Trocheck thought process, the Dorothea of trade from last week, at the Trocheck thing, that kind of go into different angles

and then you go and then, like, I don't mind the Bjorkstrand deal. Like in a vacuum, I like that. But overall, I look at this and you kind of struggle and say, like, what is the actual plan here? Because I'm struggling to see it. Yeah.

Let's keep a moving. I got a couple more teams I'll run through with you. The Tampa Bay Lightning bring in Ilyae v. 3.85 times 4, 100th percentile P.Ker in Chicago. Such a perfectly on-brand Tampa Bay Lightning, bottom six player. They also bring in Jeffrey VL for a pretty crazy deal, I thought, but that allowed them to move off from Nick Paul after adding first two. Just definitely feel good for, yeah, like, turned to what, 11 and a half minutes per game into that job security?

Like, he sure did. Good timing. Yeah, it's all about timing. You know, they trade Nick Paul to the Leafs. They bring back Hill to be kind of similar to what I just said about COSA and the Mammoth. I think ideally getting away from having Vasilevsky pushing 60 games in the regular season, shed some money in the process. And the reason why I note that is, if you look at it now, pretty much with a full team, they have, just over 10 million in cap space and we still don't have any clarity or resolution on where

John Carlson's going to go but we know they've been linked pretty heavily to him and so that opens the door for that and would be a certainly an interesting fit and then the Leafs they signed Bobrovsky as we said seven million times three they other than Roslovick who they give four times two they bring in just a smorgasbord of bottom six defensive forwards in Colin Sizzins Nick Paul Brandon Duhame Teddy Bluger and I think a very clear mandate, despite not necessarily being an ideal allocation of resources, to reconfigure the bottom six to have reliable players that can actually eat up defensive assignments and take shifts in their own zone so that Matthews and McKenna aren't having

to do so because we've talked about how Matthews was just had like 99th percentile quality of competition last year. And all of this succeeding kind of hinges on him getting back to being the best goal scorer in the world. And so they, you know, certainly spent a lot on players who aren't going to score. The Roslivik one I liked better than I thought I was going to. Like I actually didn't mind that deal. I like that better than I thought. There's, I also think there's a level of that kind of appeasement for it. It all goes to, there's a lot of that kind of you build towards keeping Austin Matthews happy and putting the, but at the same time it keeps a lot of that pressure on where the points have to come from.

Let's talk about the Mabrovsky thing real quick because I was Robert and I were talking about it earlier today and I struggle with that deal because it feels like such a, it feels like such an overreaction legacy signing to me and someone was going to do it, right? But like where do you fall in the Bob signing? Because for me there was the,

I think people look at the resume and obviously it's probably going to be a Hall of Fame resume based off the Veznas and the Stanley Cup wins. but it doesn't, to me, that's not the answer. And so I want to throw back to you on what you think with Bob there. Yeah, listen, they're very understandably unsure that Stolarz is going to stay healthy and play enough games. And so I think the plan is to split the starts between the two of them.

Bobrowski's turning 38 and was not good last year. I know that the team around him crumbled with all the injuries and they weren't the defensive team they were previously, but he's going on a couple years now of very pedestrian regular seasons and then turning it up in the playoffs, especially with some of those highlight real breakaway saves. I think there's quite a bit of risk there. I mean, especially based on what we had heard about his asks for Florida, for example, with the term specifically, I was ready to absolutely hate this deal because I thought it would take him deep into his 40s. So for three years, I don't love it. I think he's been overrated previously,

certainly, but I understand at least the logic of it a little bit in terms of splitting starts between him and Stolars and I don't know. I don't have too many more thoughts on Bobrovsky. Honestly, he is, as our pal Jack Fraser says, a goalie. Yeah, that's true. I've got three more teams on my list, though. Well, the hurricanes are always kind of perpetual on this list of teams that were quiet and didn't do anything and wait to see what they do because they're certainly

going to do something here. But teams that did some stuff on the margins, but I think are still obviously bigger moves coming. I've got the Red Wings, and I like the Victor Arvison ad, 5 million times two. certainly at his age and with the injury risk, you don't want to over commit to it, but I think he's shown when he's on the ice. I mean, last year he was incredible.

And so I think for a team that has cap space, it's a very reasonable infusion of scoring. I really like the, you know, speaking of former Panthers goalies, Danil Tarasov at two million times one, I think is perfectly reasonable. They take on Colissar's contract, and we can talk more about that

when we get to the Vegas section here real quick. But all of it feels also kind of like, you know, nice window dressing, but ultimately the Larkin dilemma, is kind of hanging over it like a dark cloud. And I don't think any of this provide any more clarity on it. We're seeing the market kind of dwindle, although maybe Vegas has opened some stuff up.

But otherwise, like, the resolution, I think, still seems pretty unclear, and they're kind of in a holding pattern as a result of it. Yeah, it's possible to talk about the Reddums without the Dillon Larkin trade. And it's a trade that may not happen. Like, Eiserman is the guy who will be content. with, okay, show up to camp, you're still under contract, you've got five years left.

He was very blunt about that. Very blunt about that on Saturday after the draft when he spoke. And I like the, like, Arvidson to me is, I like, I like the move there. I think that's something that they definitely need, and I like to bring that in. I don't mind Colissar. I think he's a good little ad for that there, but we can, assume, I'm just assuming Kane is gone now, so

you probably, so Arvinson replaces some of that and in a little bit better way at five on five now because Kane had kind of just become what he was at even strength. And hopefully Teresov hopefully Terraceov can actually

push John Gibson because last year there was the kind of the end of Cam Talbot was not nearly enough and they worked John Gibson to the bone and it's a classic Red Wing storyline over the past couple years. You overwork your goalie and then

they break in March and then the team falls apart. And so hopefully Terraceoff helps prevent that. But until there's some direction on this Larkin thing, it's hard to really figure out what the Red Wings are. Are they a team that is

in an awkward fight with their captain or now ex-captain depending on how they plan to do that if he's still around? Are they a team that's going to be able to move for another piece that helps right away? Or are they going to really, can they really embrace the young, fun storyline of, hey, this is Mo Ciders team.

And it is already as Mo Cider's team, but just from like a perception standpoint. And from a Detroit example, too, just from all of that. And hear me out on this, the time to do that was a couple years ago. Like there's, it's been such a long, there's been, and it's, the fan base is starting to turn on them too. So it's hard to talk about Detroit without talking about Dylan. Larkin. I would love to be able to be to talk more about the other things, but at the end of the day,

until that's done, the Red Wings are in this weird, awkward, just holding pattern. They are. So that brings me to the Golanites who shed a bunch of money in the process. They still have work to do there, but they send out Corsax contract for Parker Watherspoon at 500K. They, you know, regrettably keep to their word and pay 30-year-old Rasm Sanderson, 8.5 times 7. which I think is a contract we're all very skeptical of. Doesn't that feel a lot like the, hey, we made the big trade for this guy, so we have to go through and deliver with a contract?

That's what that felt like a lot to me. It does. And if there was any organization that you wouldn't expect that from, it would be them. So it was a bit surprising. They dump Keegan Colossars 2.5 on the Red Wings for the two picks. And that leaves them with about 3.66 million in Capspace, as we're speaking with Petrango and LTI. are now, you know, whether it's Aiden Hill after his signing bonuses get paid and he has just a

$1 million-dollar base salary this year, although a five-year commitment on top of that or, you know, Tom Hersch Hurtle, 6.75 times four or William Carlson's 5.9 times one, they have other ways to create meaningful cap space and get into that near double digits range. And I imagine there's more moves coming here, right? They, you know, they bring in Victor Oliveson on one year. They have nine forwards under contract, I believe, right now. And so, I'll be watching that very closely here over the next couple of days and weeks. And then I mentioned the Penguins there with the Watherspoon for Corsack Swap. The reason why I think that's interesting is they also go out.

They sign Trevor Van Ramesdike. They, you know, including Harrison Brunick, who I think they want to get into the lineup, have five right shot defensemen now. And I'm curious to see if there's another move coming there to clear it up, particularly as it relates to Carlson and LaTang. So I find that really interesting. they also, you know, take a couple shots. They trade for Nick Robertson for a fourth.

They bring in Andreikuzmanko on a one-year deal in the Manta Memorial spot, and so they were quite active as well. But I feel like the penguins are still relatively unresolved in terms of making the numbers work. Yeah, it's the Robertson deal is intriguing to me, just because, from a personal level of just knowing Nick Robertson a little bit and seeing where it goes. And I know Kyle Dubas is obviously who drafted him and always kind of some intrigued to see how that goes there. but very much an incomplete team right now. And one of those I would put on the list of like,

all right, this is great. This is day one, but where and how are some of these things going to shake out when it comes to Pittsburgh? Vegas, right? That's the one where we see them linked in on everything and we know Larkin wants to go to Vegas and play with his buddy Eichol and everything like that.

And so like Vegas is the whole, because of their past history, you can't help. Well, something else is big as coming. There's going to be that other. big trade because that's the way they do things. They go and they make the trade. It's not necessarily it's going to. So when is that going to happen? And I think that's the way I'm looking at a couple of that with both with Vegas right now and the Pittsburgh. It's more of a curiosity, I guess,

of how is this? What is the kind of step here on this, right? Well, that's kind of a defining quality around the league, right, where a lot of stuff happened today and certainly we just spent the past hours talking about it, but it feels like some of the most interesting stuff or most cause of quintial stuff is still to be determined via trade. And so it should make for a fun off season. We got through as much as we could here today as our heads are still spinning and we're trying to sort it out. I will do a second sweep tomorrow and do another show and get to some of the other stuff

we didn't get to and kind of put a pin in it before we take a little bit of a break. I will let you on the way out here promote some stuff. I know you said you're going for a little getaway, but you've been very active, certainly on various platforms. And I'm sure you have a lot of other fun stuff coming. so I'll let you promote whatever you want here on the way out. Yeah, for sure. Robert and I have been working on our show.

Dimitri has been our most famous sports net guests so far on algorithmically incorrect hockey. We've got a bonus episode coming out tomorrow morning on that with Michigan State Strength Coach Will Morlock, actually, who is, if you ask Porter Martone, who is one of the most, who is the person helping get to the NHL and be ready for the flyers the most this year. He'll talk about Will Morlock quite a bit. So tease that. Get my own platform over. through substack shapshots hockey check that out and then

obviously with do much of work with our pals over at elite prospects so that's those those will be my shouts today and then I'll close it with if you're an outlet that's looking to hire a good person who's a really good writer john mattis is your man so give him a call as soon as he gets off LTIR and makes his return on the PDO cast um all right buddy well enjoy your time off in the little getaway uh live in the the Canadian dream going off to the cottage I will not be taking a break yet. As I said, I'm going to do another show here, breaking down some of the stuff from the start of free agency. And we'll take a couple days off after that. But I wanted a note,

unlike previous off seasons, where we just go away for all of July and August and come back at some point in September, we're going to be plowing ahead this offseason. We'll keep doing regular shows. So don't leave the feed yet and stick around. And it should be a fun offseason here. If you've enjoyed this show and all the stuff we've been doing, give us a five-star review wherever you listen, subscribe to the PDOCs, Patreon as well, plenty of extra comments. coming there throughout the summer. And that is all for today. Thank you for listening to the Hockey PEOCast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.