The Hockey PDOcast - This Year’s UFA Class, and Rumours of Marner Going to Vegas via Sign-and-Trade

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance for this week’s Sunday Special. They discuss things that could be holding up the trade market right now coming out of the draft, the supply and demand imbalance of how many teams have cap space vs. the talent available in free agency, the best bang for your puck players in this year’s UFA class, and the speculation of Marner going Vegas in the form of a sign-and-trade between the Golden Knights and Leafs. 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.

since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name's Dimitri Filippovich and joining me here in studio, my good buddy Thomas Trans for our Sunday specials, Tom, what's going on in? I'm doing well, buddy. How are you? It's a busy time of year, right? Like this is... Yeah, it's some things going on, certainly. And that draft was such a slog to watch and to cover. Well, we're not going to start with that. We need to start with like fun stuff. that's going to hook people.

We need to get at least like 10 minutes of people sticking around and listening before. Right. But this time of year is this log, but I'm really excited because I do think the next 48 to 72 hours are going to be thrilling to watch unfold. Yeah. I feel like, are you a little fatigued after watching at all? I feel like you're a little subdued with your opening monologue. Usually you come in hot here. I think the listeners, especially the members of the PO, I guess Discord, we're, you know, waiting with bated breath thinking, all right, what extension or trade is he, is he going to start off with?

what a just sort of general theme that we're seeing around the league. And instead, it was a very actually just answered my question and pitch it back to me. You know what, my bad. I'm still reeling from the draft. To be totally honest, I'm trying to turn off my draft brain and think about,

you know, tomorrow is really secondary market day. Looks like with sort of the waiver deadline passing here, NMC guys can still be bought out. But I mean, we're seeing very few bought out players, right? Vlasic and Valeno,

looking like the only options for Bill Zito to consider. in his annual buyout signing this season. Similarly, Frank Saravali's been reporting pretty consistently. We're not going to see a ton of non-tendered, high-end non-tendered guys. Cody Glass, Kyrushchev, Klim, but, you know, whatever. So the secondary market's not going to be robust. Everyone is signing. We're seeing Claude Jureh sign.

We're seeing John Tavares sign. Matt DeShane already signed. We're not getting what was already a pretty watered down UFA class even over the finish line. I mean, we're going to arrive on July 1. And especially in the event that Martner's rights are traded beforehand, you know, we're talking about the Nikolai Yelers and Mikhail Granlin sweepstakes. So that's going to be a really difficult route for teams to use to improve. Meanwhile, well, don't undersell the Nick Purbock's pursuit,

which I imagine a lot of teams are hot on right now. I'm in on the Nick Perbick's pursuit. In fact, I've built a list for you of 10 absolute sicko targets that I'm calling the Eric Robinson list. Yeah. I've got 10. Nice. I'm looking forward to that. So I'm teasing that for you right now. I've got like the most sicko value forward list.

This draft though, this unfolded. We saw very few trades aside from the Noah Dobson trade that involved futures in and players out. I thought some smart teams, Colorado, Florida, maybe zagged and decided to trade players for futures in return with the coil deal with the sort of deal. I think those teams zagged and played the market pretty wisely. And then at the draft itself, I thought there was a ton of teams that were picking, like, frankly, like, non-functional hockey playing projects, physical tools above hockey playing skill. And so, you know, I basically think the combination of a Florida Panthers team that won with like a heavy heaping of grit, the flat cap era, the passing, the desire the teams have overwhelmingly to avoid being Chicago. or San Jose, the ability that teams have to just hold, right? You don't have the same correlation of forces creating an incentive to problem solve creatively.

I think it's made for this like wildly competitive market in which everyone is holding as fast as they can to their talent. Talent is at an incredible premium much more so than cap space and that's created this sort of stasis. This like crunch, it's not a cap crunch. It's a movement crunch that it feels like we're dealing with. This team's really struggle to chart away forward to him. prove and it feels like that really shaped the last week and I think will shape the next 72 hours. Well, especially you look at the the UFO class and maybe we can get into this at greater length later on because I wanted to start off with the Martiner conversation, but just while

we're on it because I was in preparation for today's show, I was kind of looking at this and I do think that especially if Marner goes off the board before the market opens, it's pretty barren up top. I don't want to undersell. Like I think there's a very interesting list to mine from of like bottom six contributors that I think smart teams will be getting after, although you could argue that just because of the nature of the market, those guys might wind up being the ones who benefit and get paid more than they probably should. But it doesn't have, the market doesn't necessarily have like the types of players that I think we've become accustomed to that would command the amount of cap space and real estate that's available right now, right? And so teams are, I think that's

partly why we're seeing a bit of a holding pattern, especially once the draft started and what the guys, actual roster players who were moved during the two days of the draft where John Gibson, Jordan Spence, Declan Chisholm, and then the Timmins for a Clifton swap. And part of that, we heard a couple GMs come out and say that their hypothesis for it was that because of their nature of the remote draft, you kind of remove the element of the draft room for where a lot of GMs typically do a lot of their heavy lifting or groundwork for either present day deals or future ones they're going to do. And so I think there was a less discussion there. I think also a lot of teams are kind of in a holding pattern right now.

We actually, I do think we saw some really fun deals leading up to draft week, right? Not only the Dobson one, but obviously the Petirka deal a couple days before. The Zikris won earlier in the week. We've seen some fun trades. But everyone now is in a spot as we kind of switch gears and look ahead to July 1st. The number of teams with CapSpace is incredible. I was looking at this on Puckpacedia. 23 teams have 10 plus million.

In current Capspace, 20 of them have 15 or more. And then 13 teams have more than 20 million. to work with. And I do wonder whether once the market opens up, whether we're actually going to finally see teams really exploring the RFA landscape and trying to essentially use the cap space they have and then picks that they've banked to absorb other teams players who are on RFA deals that they might not necessarily want to pay rather than spending it in UFA. And that's actually probably the more, I mean, that's certainly the more efficient way to team build. And so in a way, it's kind of less entertaining right now,

but it's actually probably more lucrative, I think, for teams that it's setting up this way. Yeah. And I mean, there's also an element to which, because of that dynamic, we almost have to change for some teams, not for everybody,

but for some teams. And I'll give you an example, the Winnipeg Jets, right? Seemed to have 23 million in cap space, but then once you consider Valardi, Barron, and Samberg. Yes. Right?

That's what, two million for Barron? Yeah, I was going to say, what a glow up for Barron and getting included in that list with Volardi and Sandberg. He's a 26-year-old center with high-end skating ability. Like he'd be very, very interesting to a variety of teams, right?

I mean, there are teams that would be willing to pay the second to get him, I would think. Yeah, I mean, I think there should be, to be totally honest with you. What's the gap between Baron and Jake Evans? Like, not that wide. So anyway, you know, I sort of look at this and think a team like Winnipeg probably is going to need to think about it as like $2 million for Barron 6.5 at least for Valardi and five and a half to six for Sandberg. And I'm not saying those are the amount that they'll get. That's the amount that you have to spare to have like the moat to the defensive moat you require to make sure you're able to match. And so that's going to be an interesting dynamic here too where there, you know, Edmonton's another one where Edmonton we know is going to try and be aggressive and add some things on July 1. But but if they can't get Bouchard done beforehand, there's an element to which that'll tie their hands, right? really locking up certainty on Bouchard for a team in a, you know, desperate competitive window. I think it's fair to say, no, not because they've lost two Stanley Cup finals in a row,

although that's enough to create any sense of desperation, but also because it's entering the last year of McDavid's sweetheart deal, right? Like, this is a huge deal I won for them. And so, you know, there's even an argument to be made that more than like going long on Bouchard, something that I've been hammering on Twitter and reacting all these deals. Every bridge deal I'm just like absolutely panning for for good reason. think. But, you know, for Edmonton anyway, that's like one of those teams where because of this active dynamic, I do think there's an, you know, at least some incentive to just have certainty on Bouchard as opposed to really worrying about what this looks like from an upside

perspective three or four years down the line. But that's a unique situation. I'd say they're the only team in that boat. Yeah. I think it's been jarring seeing how players who I don't rate very highly are just being treated with such value or priority on the trade market in terms of just that salary and taking it on because there's so few options available and everyone has the cap space and then all of a sudden becoming a commodity whereas I think in the past we've become programmed to expect those guys to either be just pure cap dumps or even guys that you need to attach capital to just for the other teams to absorb their deal and now and now there's no free luncheon and everyone is now I think there's an enormous amount of teams that are in the same position

because I was talking about this on a reason short I forget with who but you could argue that the penguins are really the only team right now that actually wants to be bad right? Like I think all the bad teams that like someone has to finish 31st or 30th or 29th but all those teams I think at least have ambitions of like being more competitive whether it's the sharks and the blackhawks obviously the way we've seen the duck sack I don't think the predators they might fall into that spot certainly but I don't think like they it's going to be by choice like I think they want it to spend and be competitive and be in the mix the bruns are going to get mackovoi and linholm back you when you have Pasternak and Swayman that's going to elevate your baseline to begin with.

And so it's a weird spot where there's like really only one sort of active seller or team that's willing to be bad on purpose. And everyone else at least right now is kind of talking themselves into some sort of a vision of like, well, you know, if things break right and we get a couple guys and some some guys develop all of a sudden, we'll be in the mix. And so I think that's why you're just seeing this like weird situation right now where everyone's almost playing a game of chicken just staring each other down and being like, I don't want to give you this player that makes 4 million and isn't actually that good because I don't have to. Yeah.

And again, I think it's just this interesting dynamic. Like, do you remember in the summer or sorry, the, so it was the summer relative to the usual moment in the NHL calendar, but it was after that August, sorry, after that mid-October free agency, October 7th, 2020. Right. There was this month and a half, the six week period that passed from sort of the last week of October through to the Florida Panthers broke the duck by signing Anthony Declare to a one-year deal after he'd been, you know, non-tendered. But there was like a six week, nothing happened, right?

And that was a cash crunch where all these owners who had cash flow businesses didn't want to spend money without certainty about A, when the season would start and be whether or not there'd be fans in the building, which ultimately there weren't, except for a select few teams. And then in the years that followed, we had all these moments where it was like 85% of the league, could be acquired with zero acquisition cost. In fact, you might have to pay a team to acquire a decent player because of the cap liability because no one had cap space. And now we're in this moment where there's not enough players to go around who are worth

spending cap space on. And so hilariously, for three different reasons across the last five years, we've ended up in these real crunches from a league-wide system perspective. And with this one anyway, I do think it's just as the logic of where we're going and what this cap growth means. And frankly, now that teams have been, you know, reading the MOU briefing, right, as what comes next in terms of the CBA sort of filters through teams thinking and has them all, I think, realizing pretty quickly like, oh, man, it's going to be really hard to recruit. It's going to be really hard to amass talent. And the teams that have it already are going to

have a much easier time keeping their groups together, at least in the medium term here. what does that mean for us and how do we get better? Or it's probably not by subtracting NHL-level talent from our organization. To be clear, Anthony Duclair broke the duck, but Greg Cronin broke the ducks. Let's do, let's do, Marner, because I did a two-hour show yesterday after day two of the draft, and I had Steve Peters on. I had our pal, Harmon Dial-on, and we broke down a lot of the trades and transaction we'd seen. While we were recording, all this news started kind of coming out.

and bubbling to the surface about Martin de Vegas and what that would look like and some of the speculation there. And we referenced it at the end of it, but I intentionally saved it for you and I to really get into it here at greater length. It's a topic we've discussed in the past, but now I feel like we have some level of clarity at least in terms of pushing us in that direction, right? And I think we both agree that Vegas really was the destination for him. That was the most logical fit, not only for player, but for team as well, because the Golden Knights, you know, they've already taken a couple cracks of Marner, as has been reported, whether it was last offseason or at the trade deadline this year. They have an obvious need at the wing as well, especially looking forward

with some of their contracts and the current roster they have. And then this is kind of what they've also just done since their inception, right? This idea that they consolidate assets to upgrade. They kind of leverage good players into better players that prioritize what they deem as difference makers of the top of the lineup, regardless of the cost. And I think even at times when it feels like they've almost over leveraged themselves or they're running out of track and this is going to have to come to an end at some point, they find a way to shuffle things around and accommodate it. And so that's clearly kind of reading the tea leaves what's going to happen here. Let's discuss kind of everything we're hearing about it, the fit, and all that good stuff because

I think there's so many interesting layers to kind of peel back here. Yeah. I mean, from a fit perspective, let's start there because that's the most fun thing to discuss, right? Mitch Marner. for all the conversations that have been had about his puck management or his ability to score in big games or what have you, you know, the fact that he is the apple of Vegas's eye, right? This organization that, you know, I think we look at as knowing how to win, right? They've won before. They've been honestly probably the most consistently successful franchise in terms of being an excellent regular season team, but also one, you know, a team that has a shot every year. or not they actually in the conversation. Yeah, but really in the conversation, right? Like,

the avalanche have only made it to the conference final once, right? The, um, you know, Carolina hurricanes are always in the conference final, but we don't look at them as a team with the same level of ceiling that Vegas has had in many of those years. I think that's true for Dallas too, right? I mean, Vegas and the Florida teams, I think stand sort of alone, uh, you know, across this decade, like what we've seen in the 20s and frankly for a couple years before that as well. And the fact that Marner's their number one primary target, I think is telling, I think is extraordinarily revealing. I think it should have some people questioning some of their analysis of the player.

And from a pure fit perspective, I mean, I know there's going to be people excited about the idea of like Stone Eichael and Marner. And yeah, how can you not be excited about that? But I really think like the head-to-head matchup I'm now salivating for is 10 months away if we get McDavid and Drysidal on the line together against Carlson with Eichel and Marner. That's like as good a strength on strength matchup as I can design at the absolute apex of the Pacific Division. I mean, I think it's a tremendous bit, especially given that, you know, some of some of what Vegas has lacked, I think, is that pace, that that real like puck-carrying dynamic player through the neutral zone. Yeah.

Marner brings that in spades. And I mean, it worked out for them with Jack Eichel, who didn't have the reputation of a winner when they first acquired him. He had no failings in the playoffs because he had not played in the playoffs. Right. And he also was regarded as an incomplete player who couldn't defend and on and on. Now, Marner, I don't think is viewed that way because of his excellence on the penalty kill. But nonetheless, I think the fit is a dream for Vegas and puts them squarely in the mix to, you know, I think push Edmonton and Florida and really sort of hit that. level. Well, they finished fifth and goal scored last year, but especially when you watch that

series against the Oilers where they completely dried up and they got shut out by Stuart Skinner in the final two games of the series. And other than, you know, individual dashes by Aichael kind of set in the table for his linemates, there wasn't really consistent offensive creation there. And so I feel like it's going to help there quite a bit. The power play is, it's going to be tough for them to be better than they were last year because they were the second most efficient unit in the league, but just the idea of Eichl and Dorfeev on the two flanks and then stone goal line hurdle kind of in that bumper around the net and then potentially just going five forwards with Marner running the point, which was what we saw from the Leafs, certainly this past season.

And then mixing in theater, of course, would be very interesting. I think where it's going to help a lot is what it could even add to Eichol's game, in my opinion, because I feel like right now the way they're constructed, he did so much heavy lifting at both ends last season and it's just going to free him up some of those responsibilities, maybe even give him a few more off-puck opportunities to just like uncontested skate up the ice and get to his spots a bit more, maybe challenge him to be more of a consistent shooter as well because last year he had like 66 assists. He was such a brilliant playmaker, but I feel like he has more shooting talent than he's necessarily been able to demonstrate so far. And then obviously I think when Vegas is

at their best, like their absolute peak as a team, it's when they're creating turnovers. and then transitioning quickly off the counter, right? And so the idea of Marner with his stickwork and thiebary and all that stuff, creating more of those opportunities and then speeding them up, I think is a massive development for them. And for Bruce Cassidy, there's going to be so many opportunities to mix and match with those fours because they're all so versatile, right, just bumping guys around. I even think playing Marner with someone like Hurdle,

who obviously doesn't have the pace or the puck-carrying ability through the neutral zone, but then you allow Marner to dictate that and then just have hurdle getting open in these little pockets in the offensive zone. And then Marner feeding him, I think is incredibly exciting. So there's so many moving parts there that I feel like they could experiment with and get more out of everyone involved. Yeah, or even playing him with Carlson and Riley Smith, right, a duo that we've seen work really well in Tufts downline up together. And you sort of put an elite driver and puck carrier on a line with them. I mean, that that line would become very quickly one of the most defensively stout middle six lines in hockey and not by a little bit.

I mean, that would that would be a third line to rival, E2, Lusteran, and co. or the Anton Mondell line, if you prefer. Well, when we've seen this do this time and time again, I think part of this was the impetus or the logic for the Noah Hanifin transaction and signing that followed, you look at Stone and he's got two more years at what, 9.5. The actual base salary on it is like 3 and 1 though, and he's played 37, 43, 56 and 66 games the past four years.

He's basically being held together by duct tape and witchcraft at this point. And so he's going to be turning 34 in May as well. And so both guys are certainly going to coexist for this coming season, but just kind of of looking ahead because this would be obviously be more of a bet than just the one year. It's kind of like a natural replacement that's already going to be in place. And they don't necessarily wait for like the past expiry point to do this stuff. They kind of proactively make that upgrade, even if the guy that who you're replacing is already still there and setting up that succession plan more organically.

So I like it from that perspective as well. Yeah. And I think the idea of succession, a succession plan was also something that I think was notable about the Peturka deal from Utah's perspective, where to some extent they almost needed to remove a body from their back end to create the opportunities for real prospects in their system like Simashev and Duda. And so this is that, but at like a star level, right, at a more Vegas golden nights type level where they've been sustaining excellence for a decade here. the Toronto side of this. Now, the Maple Leafs, in addition to this, signed on Sunday, Matthew Nyes, to a six-year deal, 7.75 cap hit. And, you know, that's part of, I suppose, the flexibility.

Tavares stays on a hometown discount at 4.4, a deal that I think we all look at as tremendous value, especially when you consider that Tavares was the only UFA-bound player. with 30 goals or more and he had 38 last year. I mean, the way that he held up, honestly, across the entirety of that sort of third contract that he signed with the Maple Leafs is wild. I never would have assumed that he would hold up so well.

The area game is still tremendous. I thought his foot speed at center was a little bit of a problem against the Florida Panthers. I don't think that's... He's not alone in that, though. He's, A, he's not alone in that, but B, I don't think that's a hot take. I think anyone who watched it could see that.

And then Nyes on a, you know, a long-term deal. I mean, that's important, right? This is basically the Peturka deal. Like, it's a slightly jumbo-sized version of the Petirka deal. And I like it. Bridging Nyes would have been a tremendous own goal for the Maple Leafs. I think going past July 1, where he would have been the single most appealing offer sheet target would have been an own goal. Yeah, I mean, 7.75, that would be what, like a on the low.

end of a first second and third draft pick comp on an offer sheet. I mean, that's that's a no-brainer. I feel like just just getting him and Tavares for well, like 12 million combined is is on the lowest end of what I would have expected heading into this offseason. Especially with the term involved, right? It's not seven for Tavares or anything. It's four. And it's not three for nize. That's six. So they get favorable term on both in my mind anyway. At least it's reasonable on Tavares, given his production relative to the rest of the potential UFA class, and then nize, they go along. I do think, though, there's an element to which, you know, Mitch Marner and his speed and his pace,

despite the feelings that Toronto Maple Leafs fans have about him, which I think will look back, like in 12 years, everyone's going to deny, or sorry, 12 years, 12 months, I think everyone's going to deny having had such a negative reaction to Mitch Marner across the last six months of his tenure in Toronto. I think this is going to be memory hold, like Larry Murphy. but nonetheless, I am really curious to see what a Matthews Nye's line looks like without, in my opinion, you know, probably the single best, I mean, it's him or Panarin, right?

Like single best playmaking winger and play driving winger offensively that you're going to find in the league. Nikita Kutrov's listening to the show right now being like, Kama, come on, man. Okay, but you're right. He does it in a different way, right? Does it a different way. A little more Kutrov's like the yeah, anyway, we more master, more master puppeteer than like kind of forceful driver for sure.

And, and the master puppeteer like five on four, you take Kutchev every day. But in terms of entering the zone and setting up weird stuff off the Russian and sort of in zone with pace circling around the, you know, sort of the periphery, Mitch Marner stands alone in my mind. And so I am really curious to see what the Maple Leafs top line looks like. I think there's obviously ways for players as talented. and skilled as Nyes and Matthews to still have success. But I also don't see an obvious fit internally who can sort of mimic or replace some of that skill set for the Maple Leafs. I do think adding some pace and adding some playmaking to their top six forward group is going to be essential, even if they're going to cobble together something somewhat

like a Mitch Marner replacement here. Or Matthews and Nyes, I think, are going to have to find a new way to go about manufacturing offense, which they're skilled enough and smart enough to do. But I actually wonder if it might be a little bit more of an area game, a little bit more grinding teams away down low beneath the hash marks, because I do think it's going to really change how this Maple Leafs, how the tip of the spear looks for the Maple Leafs from an attacking perspective. I want to keep talking about this, but I feel like we should probably take our break here before I really dive into it, because I got a lot of thoughts on the Vegas, Toronto situation that we're going to get to after the break. You listen

into the hockey p.iocast streaming on the Sports Night Radio. network. All right, we're back here in the Hockey PioCast, joined by Thomas Trans for our Sunday special. Before we went to break, we were talking about Mitch Marner and all the speculation about him in Vegas and how that relates to the Leafs as well.

Let's unpack this even further, because I think this is where it gets really interesting to me. I think we're kind of an agreement that the leaves are going to, in aggregate, have a difficult time, I think, cobbling together the value they're losing from the player, and he's going to be a smash on the ice for Vegas.

No doubt about it. The reason why this is, is interesting to me, is because you look at Vegas' cap situation. And so they currently have 5.6 million in cap space. We also learned today that Petrangelo, as has been heavily speculated, is going to be on LTIR and miss the season because of a variety of injuries and surgeries that are going to ensue. And so that bumps them up to 14.4, right? Now, on Saturday, there is enough smoke in terms of pretty much every insider jumping on it at the same time that there's something there and this idea that the way this is going to be

accommodated and facilitated is via the sign and trade route instead of a pure UFA signing and going back likely would include Nick Wah certainly and potentially Nick Hay the two Knicks and I find that's so fascinating especially in light of the fact that the contract mariner would theoretically sign with Vegas will not be eight years which is why you see teams go the sign and trade route to enable that. Instead, it'll be somewhere around 12 million, four years, I assume, based on everything you're hearing. And the reasons why that would happen and why it's clear why Toronto would want that to happen to recoup some sort of assets and players in return so they don't lose over nothing,

why Vegas would do that. Now, there's certainly going to need to shed money regardless in some form, right? In this market where people are getting paid for advantage. under Kane and Mason Marchman and co you know I mean there's a million teams that want a Nikwa quality player well you know this is a topic near and dear to my heart because how long have you and I been doing the fake trades around the trade deadline and it's become an annual theme for me that every year I try to pigeonhole Nikwa into every single trade I can and it's not an indictment on the player at all in fact to contrary it's the exact opposite because I really appreciate appreciate

what he's capable of and I feel like he's probably there most easily tradable or I guess desirable roster player that they have because he just fits into everything because of that contract and the positional demand, right? He's a 28-year-old 6-4 right-handed center and he's been relegated to ninth among Vegas forwards in 515 usage last year, but that's just because the team has an embarrassment of riches down the middle, right? Between Eichael, Hurdle, William Carlson, he kind of gets bumped to the wing or playing bottom six or sometimes even fourth line minutes. And he's a player, I think that, you know, he's 28 now,

so maybe it's framing it in a different light than when I was doing this bit three years ago. But I think when you watch him play at that size, he still has this level of, I think, untapped because of line-made quality and just general usage, passing ability and playmaking ability that I feel like would fit within the context of most teams' second lines, certainly the third lines. and at $3 million for the next two seasons, that is just such a valuable asset. You were mentioning Charlie Coil earlier, a 33-year-old Wright Shot Center who makes $5.25 million for just one season.

We saw him and Miles Wood, who I value as a pure contract dump, and I can't believe Columbus let Colorado off the hook to that extent, but maybe they value him as a contributor. Regardless, they got a second to third and a good prospect in return for that, right? And so you think in terms of what the market would look like if Nick Wall was available, I was thinking about this. Like if you packaged him and Nick Hague, what would the Rangers add to go along with Kiannjee Miller to make that happen, giving them a reasonable partner that's better than Carson Sousie to play next to Adam Fox and then giving them a cheap third line center that allows you to then bump Mekis Abing Jadio to the wing where he was more effective after the JT. Miller trade?

What would the Canucks? I know they spent a good chunk of their cap space taken on a Vander Cain's deal for from Edmonton, but they're in desperate need and they love size and a six fours that earn a six six left shot D. I feel like they would voucherish those guys very dearly. And all of a sudden, those are just two examples that come to mind. I think you could apply it to 20 other teams, essentially. And so I get it from the least perspective for Vegas, though. I feel like I can't square it away because it would be depleting their resources for trade assets. they still certainly have, whether it's barbership,

if they wanted to move off of his deal or hurdle, I think that would be a bit trickier because of the term and money and also how valuable he is to the team. I don't think they want to trade William Carlson, certainly. There's other avenues they could explore, but depleting themselves of these two guys in accommodating this deal would be a really, really tricky situation, I think. So first off, I think the idea of the, like, updating the NICWA breakout now that is 28 to 25,

a usage, like a purely usage-based breakout, right? can this guy do more with opportunity, not can this guy do more because he's still got developmental runway as a 25 year old player. It's truly a reverse golden nights. You know, it's the 26 point Eric Halla, a new patron saying to the PDO cast, by the way, I'm going to work him in every episode we do, you know, going from Minnesota and being a 30 goal scorer and a 55 point player in that in that first year. It's 27 year old Jonathan Marcheseau with a career high of 51 points, going off for 75 points and becoming sort of the face of the misfits in that inaugural Vegas season. I mean, that's what we're talking about. That's still, I think, a completely

realistic path for a player as skilled as NICWA is, especially when you adjust for usage and the opportunities that he's got. I mean, there's no bigger gap between ability and usage, I think, that's been sustained across a multiple year frame of, like, time frame, then you'll find with him. So I'm still buying the NICWA breakout as sort of, a reverse golden nights. I'm not as hot. Yeah, of course. I'm not as hot on the Nick Hay conversation personally.

He was sixth in usage for Vegas defensemen last year, and he's still 26, and he's a 6-6 guy who's very physical and mean and can move, and I think has, I think he has, not upside at this point because he's already 26, but I think he has like an offensive utility beyond just your typical sort of massive,

defensemen, yeah. Nails. And you look at the market, and that's kind of telling for how teams value specific kind of player prototypes, we're coming off of a draft weekend where we saw the flames. They had a 6-6-25-year-old left-hand defenseman, Kevin Ball. Now, I think he's used more heavily defensively, certainly he was last year for them, and you could argue he's better in that area. But he got a six-year, what, $5.35 million.

Did you argue that he's been in that area? I'm a big ball fan. I just think the way he was used in the results he generated were really good, were exceed what Nick Hague has had to do necessarily so far in his, in his Vegas career. Not to say he wouldn't be capable of that if you just replace the two guys in the same spots. That's what I'm saying. But getting paid based off of what you just did. Sure.

I'm not sure necessarily it would be a commensurate deal, but clearly he would be valued even as an RFA, right? I think there's 20 teams that would be better off if they were able to sign Nick Hague to the Kevin Ball trade tomorrow, right? Like if they had the opportunity to do that, I think that would, I think that would be a meaningful upgrade for a wild number of HAL teams like solidly two thirds of the league. That's how highly I think of Hague, generally speaking. What's weird about the overall reporting on this is we usually see when a pending UFA's rights are dealt that they're dealt for like a fourth round pick, a fifth round pick, a mid round pick value. Nick Waugh would be a huge haul for the Maple Leafs. I mean, talk about turning. if they're able to do this, this is truly seizing victory from the jaws of defeat for a Maple Leafs Club that, you know, probably mismanaged this asset and it got tied up in the sort of timing of the Kyle Dubus departure.

And obviously the reporting around Mitch Marner not waiving his no trade clause is well documented. If Vegas is doing it and not getting the eighth year on the deal, you know, I heard what Elliott Friedman reported or was talking about on the 32 Thoughts podcast about the idea of like sort of a tampering charge that, you know, maybe this is a way to massage. that or word have you. None of it really adds up to me, Dim. And so I do feel like... Well, do you want to go through the potential explanations? I've got a full list of them. You've got a full list of potential explanations.

I do. Our pal, uh, Steve Warrior came up with a couple of them. Sure. I've been talking to people. I'm very curious for your take on them. So let's run through them. The first one is for image reasons. The idea that Martin earners camp would be trying to save face somewhat

in Toronto by kind of like a purestance. like the good guy in all of this in terms of helping the team on the way out to recoup some assets. And you just said, and I completely agree and co-signed that, the Nick Wall would be a massive ad in light of this. I'm not really buying that necessarily. The idea that doing this now as opposed to waiting until July 1st and signing him as a free agent would give Vegas a head start and kind of locking them in before July 1st to prevent other teams from being allowed to make pitches and potentially new teams emerging as candidates. I don't buy that either necessarily.

I think there is something to, theoretically, if you just remove everything we've seen so far this offseason, in making a move in terms of getting off of money to before you sign the player. Yes. So the teams don't notice that you're tight up against the cap and you have no leverage and they can squeeze value out of you. The issue with that line of thinking is we just saw doubt,

be up as tight up against the cap as you possibly could and still wind up getting two picks for Mason Marchman. So that doesn't necessarily check out. And people, I think, regardless of what their cap situation was, would still pay dearly for Wah, hurdle, Barbashev, any of these guys you would want to clear out to accommodate it financially. The idea that this allows them getting this business done to then switch their attention and be able to fully act on July 1st in the market also doesn't make.

make sense because they're going to have no money. And so I don't really think they're going to be very active beyond this in the market necessarily either. And then the most interesting one that Elliot Friedman floated on 32 thoughts, the tampering situation. And that we know the Vegas has been in on Warner for a while. They've obviously tried a couple times to acquire him. And that for lack of a better word, essentially they're being blackmailed into doing this type of a transaction so that the league doesn't look into the tampering charges and punish them accordingly. What do you think about that? I don't know.

I mean, like, well, I just don't, I wouldn't sweat that if I was the Golden Knights. I mean, what would you have to prove it anyway? Yeah, how egregious would it have had to have been to pass the best? baseline that's already been established in terms of like how much tampering happens already. And isn't there reporting is like part of the ranting and, you know, thing to Toronto that Vegas might have been the, like there's probably conversations that would have happened that would have been permissible, right? That like the. So anyway, it's, I think if you're, I think if your Vegas especially, I just don't think you even worry about that threat. I think that's

complete water off a duck's back unless you've truly had something, someone mess up in terms of putting something in writing, or been, like, you know, captured on camera, you know, with the player or something. I mean, I don't know. Like, I don't know how you do. I mean, how sloppy and brazen would you have to be to get busted for this in 2025 with like how many already in the shadows sort of like communication and feelers are sent out along the way regardless.

I think it, my, my view is non-factor. Here's the other scenario that you didn't pitch that I think was, is more likely is there's more going to Vegas than has been reported. Right? It's like Vegas is making a trade, but they're getting a lot more than just Marner's rights if those players are involved. Like what?

Well, I don't have the, I'm just saying there'd be more assets involved going to Vegas as part of this deal, right? That, you know, maybe it's Robertson or I don't know, like whatever, who's that center, the Swedish center? Holmberg. Yeah, Pontus Holmberg. You know, I mean, whatever prospects are like, there's something that makes it make sense, right?

Maybe it's a goalie. Maybe it's Wool or whatever. No. What do you mean? No. Why are you saying it like that? I mean, I think, I think wool is a very valuable asset at this point based on the contract. He has it how good he is.

And he just paid, and he just paid Aiden Hill very handsomely. That seems like a lot of money to be devoting to the goalie position. Well, it would make a lot more sense, though, for a piece of that caliber to be going back. if Vegas is parting ways with Nick Wah and Nick Hague in exchange for three days worth of Mitch Marner. You know what I mean? Like, what are we talking about?

Like, if those players are involved, the theory here is that the Maple Leafs have included an awful lot more in the package than what's been reported. So that's at least a theory we have to consider, no? Yeah, no, I think that's fair. I just... The reason why I just can't

taking it at face value, the reason I guess why I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around it is if the idea is that Marner actually wants to go to Vegas to shed that perception that you were talking about, that people have of them, and win in Vegas,

I don't know how you would justify going this route, right? Because you get there, but in the process, if nothing else is coming back, you're really weakening the team's ability to be at its absolute best

in the process, right? I think it's perfectly fine and explainable if Vegas internally has deemed that Nick Waaz 3 million is the best way to clear out money to fill out the rest of their roster. But Juan Haig are, for reasons we just described, like really, they're two best trade chips at this point to monetize, right? And so Petrangelo is going to be out this season. You're sending out Nick Haig. That's a lot of minutes you're replacing. I mean, Patrangelo is the only guy on the team that played over 22 minutes last year, right? So you do the math.

Let's say Marner gets $12 million from Vegas. You're shedding Niqua's $3 million in the process and not taking any money back. That leaves you with $5.4 million, essentially. And you're certainly not going to find a corresponding defenseman for that AAB on this UFA market. So then the next logical step is to say, all right, well, we're going to have to address that via the trade market. And you've just burned the two players that would have been most likely to actually make that a reality. for you, right? It kind of corresponding news over this weekend was that they had reached out,

unsurprisingly, to Calgary to kind of sniff around Rasmus Anderson, and that's very logical considering his AVs only 4.55, and that would make a lot of sense. And it clearly didn't go anywhere, at least as of now, but those are the types of trades that they'd be needing to explore, and they'd be using these guys to do so, and then now all of a sudden you don't actually have them available to you to make that trade. And so everything just becomes so much more complicated.

in terms of optimizing this team if that's the route. And the term of it all is also interesting to me. We've spoken about this, right? Like, I actually do think going four years makes more sense than going eight years for both parties because if you're a mariner, you're going to be 32 entering a market that summer. That's what, going to be over $120 million cap if things keep trending in this direction. And then if you're Vegas, even if you leave somewhere, all of a sudden you have 20 plus million just from that one roster slot essentially with the cap going up and then his salary

to adjust on the fly depending on what your needs are at the time and then for the player of course as well i think we expect four years from now Vegas is shown that we shouldn't count them out and they're going to keep trying to find ways to extend their window and make things happen on the fly but four years from now if all of a sudden they're in a different place as an organization and you're 32 and still looking to win it allows you to go elsewhere and accomplish that while still getting paid. So it makes sense for everyone involved, but in light of a sign and trade and then that being the final result, all of it is incredibly puzzling. I would say there's just something about this, some detail we don't know or some situation that hasn't, like where it just doesn't really

stack up. It doesn't make sense given the history of trades as we've seen for unrestricted free agent rights. It doesn't make sense that there'd be a sign in trade involving a player who's not signing for that extra year and taking advantage of that factor as part of the transaction. I, It just doesn't add up. And so this is one where I'm really in wait and C mode and fascinated to see exactly what the outcome is here for Mitch Marner and if he is in fact headed to Vegas. All right. I think we covered that to pretty good detail. Can we do it?

Let's look ahead because we're recording this on Sunday, of course. The market's going to open up on Tuesday. So this is our last chance to talk about this stuff before stuff starts flying around. So I built this with the connects in mind who need forwards, obviously, and I'll write about it at the athletic. But it's just such a sicko list that once I, like, considered it in full, I thought, man, Dmitri will love how insane this is. I'll either love it or hate it, but it's going to elicit strong emotion one way or another. It might not. I mean, we're really, this is my Eric Robinson list.

This is my guys where you're like, ooh, I don't know, man. but I think teams should be strongly considering swinging at as extreme value forward dart throws for agency. Honorable mention. Oh, my God. Chicago Blackhawks farmhand Cole Gutman. Zero thoughts.

Okay. He's good. By the way, you and I have done this exercise at the beach. Oh, yeah. Where we're just like sitting around having a beer and all of a sudden I had a push back against you because you were like giving me takes on all of these obscure players and I'm like there's no way you feel this passionately about it I you haven't done enough tape on them I'm not buying it and then you were like testing me you're you're trying to find the line of where I was cutting off my takes and I remember we got to lukeunner and I had all of a

sudden just like had this second wind and just so passionate I was like he takes too many penalties I'm not buying it and this was years ago while lukeun was still a thing of course um and I forget who it was but eventually we got to a point where I was like all right this is where I'm drawing the line it's a fun exercise well there was also the one in the park where, or maybe it was by text message at like 2 a.m. where I was like, I'm pretty sure someone should be signing Dakota Joshua. You remember that? Yes.

That was right. Angus Kirkshank, number 10, Ottawa Senator's Farmhand. This gets better, number. Number nine, Michael Posetta. Okay. Big? Yeah. Fast, relatively speaking, for his size.

Totally worthwhile as a bottom six dart throw. Likewise, number eight, same, this, nine, eight, seven are all this same player type, where it's like, I think they can play on your fourth line and be affordable and be serviceable. Cole Kepke from Boston Bruins. Number seven, Hudson Fashing. He's awesome defensively. I got Phil D. Giuseppe on this list as well.

So those are my fourth liners. Now top five is where it actually gets a little more interesting. I got Michael Asimont number five. Yes, of course. Sick. Yep. Robbie Fabri. Okay.

What do you think? Still a little bit of juice. I mean, he's a great shooter. A little bit, yeah. I mean, maybe this is not the way to be looking at it, but I'm just so sad about the way his career is unfolded because of all the knee injuries. Like, I was so excited about him when he was coming up. Well, his speed, I mean, it has zapped his pace a little bit,

but he can still absolutely rip a puck. And where are you finding a guy who can, you know, hit 15 to 20 goals for, you know, probably a million and a half in this marketplace? Like, it's Robbie Fabry and it's no one else. It would just need to be with the right coach, right? because if it's Greg Cronin and you're not pulling the shoot after what you've seen, then that's where I think you're getting in trouble as a team signing him. But if it's someone who's going to give it a chance,

and if it's not working out, adjust on the fly, then I'm okay with that. But I think that was probably applies to pretty much any player he's. Yeah, I think I think the, you know, think of him as like fourth line power play specialist, the old Sam Gagne role for torts. That's sort of what I'm thinking for Robbie Fabry, but I think he could be additive for a team in that type of role. Tanner Gino's number three. He might be expensive, though.

Yeah. His goal per 60 rate is solid for what he is. Number two. How do you have him behind Mike Yassamont? Because he's a rarer profile type with a higher goal scoring rate, 5 on 5. I guess. I mean, at the end of the day, you're scoring 0.7, 5 on 5 goals and you do one other thing. I'm interested.

Number two, Mattai Blumel. That's an obvious one. He should be number one, to be totally honest with you. But I had to have Justin Danforth as number one. he can skate, he can play some center, he's right-handed, he can win some draws. I like it. This is the UFA preview you're not going to get anywhere else. I guarantee it.

This is the complete sicko. I'm calling it the Eric Robinson list of guys that look dusty on July 1. But then you get to, you know, February and you're like, man, that player is playing a role for that team. Good for him. You have any other thoughts on this UFA market? I'm just kind of scared to ask after that list. But, I mean, you know, Dante Fabro went off the board today. as well with Columbus giving him four years

yeah and so the list of defensemen is certainly thinning although we'll see what happens with Eckblatt of course and whether he stays in Florida or whether it hits the market but yeah I do think as I said off the top there's an interesting list of bottom six contributors that are even in an echelon

above all the guys you just listed yes but they're going to go for more of course yeah like I don't think I think we have to prepare ourselves for 25 million for Pew Souter and 20 plus million for Jack Roselvic and three times for Mason Appleton. Yeah.

And yeah, two times four for Mangyapani and Anthony Bovillier beating his old cap hit and on and on, right? I mean, I think we have to prepare ourselves for that because I think the scramble for talent based on how this market's unfolded to this point is going to be really fierce. And so I think you're going to be making profile bets. And I would say, too, even looking through like the bets, the, the Eric Robinson. and tier bats. Erica Robinson and All-Stars.

There's not as many compelling ones. Like that's a softer list than what you've been able to find in years past where you could really tell yourself a story about a guy who's coming back from injury or who, you know, was on taxi squads and has never really gotten a fair shake because they couldn't go down to the American League without quarantining and XYZ. Like, you know, it's not just at the top end that this is thin. I think this is thin throughout. So I do think that that's going, like hopefully that results in more player movement.

once we get past July 1 like hopefully we're going to see some trades into you know mid and late July here because I do think there's going to be a lot of teams that you know have significant needs if the market continues to be sort of calcified with the fear of teams losing NHL level contributors I think we will as we said like the

it's kind of one of those things where similar to how insiders always pump up that this is going to be the most exciting trade deadline or draft and then it always winds up kind of disappointing. I think the same can be applied to offer sheets over the years. Yeah, you just look at the number of guys who are available who have already shown enough in the NHL, but they're

clearly valuable players, but you could talk yourself into a scenario where either their team doesn't want to give them the pay raise they're asking for, kind of like Marco Rossi in Minnesota, or guys you just feel like, and maybe this applies to him as well, and he's the best example

for this, a guy who's kind of jonesing for a bigger role to be featured it's somewhere new, right? Because I think that's what it comes down to. I think for all of our desire to see more offer sheets, it actually requires an interested party in terms of a player who is going to sign it and not just take whatever their existing team offers them. And it feels like there's probably more guys available there in that bucket as well. And I said how this current environment, while we kind of work through the kinks, probably will lead to, at least for the smart teams a more efficient

landscape that probably applies to the players as well right because oftentimes these types of RFAs have just kind of been you know they get strong armed into their fate by their current teams and then they wind up

taking really low AVs and being leveraged that way and just being okay with it and then we see the players who do get paid are the UFAs who are 28, 29, 30 who are getting paid for what they've done previously as opposed to what they're going to do in the future. And I feel like that dynamic might shift a little bit as well. Those can be famous last words after some of these UFAs wind up getting

four or five year deals for four or five million per. But yeah, I think it's going to flip entirely in that what a player should be pushing to is be bridged. That's the that's the main thing. Like you don't want, I don't think to be selling UFA years at 21, 22, 23. You certainly like, I think your best outcome is two or three year deals. Now, obviously there's risk. There's. There's less peace of mind with that approach. But, um, you know, the overall ability, I think to get your next deal in a $115, $120 million salary cap environment if you sign a bridge right now. I mean, I think that's in line with your sort of incentives if you're, if you want to

maximize your ability to, uh, you know, earn, earn during the course of your short plan career. So I, I really think that. that more than anything is where the flip should be is players should be absolutely dead set on trying to get bridged teams should be willing to pay a huge premium to avoid dealing with those players again in a in a reset cap environment there's only one way now to lock up the upside because there's not going to be upside in free agency right even even the old like 1.5 million bets on hey that guy has an interesting profile like a those players aren't going to market and

be they're going to be two and a half million dollar three million so your your upside bets and unrestricted for agency like that though they're going to be more expensive your upside bets on the trade market they're going to be more expensive and and frankly difficult to do without sending players out yourself that there's almost only one route to capture future upside and it's it's going long and sign going as early as possible on your own players and I think that applies to rfas in particular given how those deals tend to age but I even think it applies to UFAs. I think everyone who's every team should basically be trying to sign all of their pending 2026 UFAs in addition to improving their teams as this week unfolds. And I'm really fascinated to

see how many of those we get. You know, at covering the Canucks, I do expect Garland and Thatcher Demko to get done relatively quickly as an example. But I think that should be what a lot of teams are doing. Like that's a sensible approach in my mind from Vancouver, even if you quibble with sort of the risk profile and where they're at in their team building cycle. I think having your talent, controlling your talent, that's the ballgame. Yeah, the Matthew Nyes extension came while we were recording, so I didn't really have a chance to properly ruminate on it. But just the more I think about it, what a smash.

That is keeping under $8 million, right? Like I said, the comp for a first, second, and third goes up to 9.36, and I guarantee you there's a number of teams that would have loved to pay that price to get them, even if it came at 9.36. And so keeping it under 8. And it is six years, so it's not the 8. Right. So he'll get the extra year. I mean, yeah. And he's going to hit the market again when he's 29. So I get it from his perspective in that sense. Like this isn't the only payday you're

going to get certainly. Um, but for the leaves to do so in unison with the Tibera's extension and keeping those figures as low as they were, I feel like does open more windows than you probably would have banked on, I think heading in to the off season. So yeah, no, I love that one. I think that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And the, you know, he sells one less UFA year than Matthew Coronado did and gets an extra million point two five right so that's good job working it back to Coronado as as all things should right so I'm just saying like given the extensive breakdown we're going to do on that contract um you know all our listeners understand the implications I mean by year three that that seven point seven five is the equivalent of like six essentially

into the current landscape right like all this stuff is is shifting so much and and getting it done drama free now right that there's a huge premium for that because now the leaves get to dictate their terms, right? Even if they're going to match, and I'm sure they were always going to match no matter what, a Matthew Nye's deal, there is value in locking it up. And one other thing worth considering, you know, the offer sheet that might be the most poisonous to rival teams, like the, you know, the one year offer sheet, I honestly think is something that team should be, teams actually wanting to get that talent should be considering because you're bumping up there. Um, you know, first of all, you're tying up a team's cap space, but you're,

You're also bumping up the players qualifying offer. You're diminishing a team's leverage long term. You're massively increasing the probability that he leaves, even if that team matches. You know, you do the six-year offer sheet to Matthew Nyes. And it's like, the least they're like, thank you. Like, just like Carolina was when the Montreal Canadians tendered off. Right. It's like, thank you.

You've done our work for us. You do the one-year offer sheet. It's like you've guaranteed an uneasy relationship between player and team for years and years to come. And the incentive of getting that draft capital back. on a one-year deal. Like if you really want to land the player, I do think the one-year offer sheet is sort of a devious method that team should consider, especially if the UFA market is as flimsy as it looks. Most fun, Nikla Euler's landing spot, because if Marner does go off the board before July 1st, he's obviously the big winner because a lot of teams all of a sudden shift the entirety of their focus

towards trying to land him, and I think that bumps up his command as well. I think there's two that I want to shout out. I'm not going to pick a side, but I think L.A. and Utah are both up there because they both attack off the rush and have a lot of cool. players that can skate with them and I think are well positioned to make that bid and I expect them to both to be in the mix like I think they'll both pitch that player uh you know extensively and look they're more fun than Carolina so yeah that would be my answer I think New Jersey ooh yeah that's a that would be warp speed attacking hockey I'd love that yeah just adding some more firepower on the wing and puck carrying ability I feel like would be nasty um yeah I mean

Carolina New Jersey seemed like the obvious ones I think LA is a good shout I had Florida if Ekblad and Marshan both priced themselves out, we'll see. I think we're going to know between now and July 1st, but they would all of a sudden have the resources to actually do that if they just wanted to go cheap on replacing Ekblad on D. And I think that would be very interesting. I think Columbus as well, considering how much cap space they still have nearly 30 million.

They have so many fun forwards and just adding another attacker like that would make all those guys so much better. Yeah, so much rush attacking juice in Columbus. So yeah, I mean, there's a lot of fun teams. And teams that are already playing fast and already absolutely carving up opponents off the rush that he could add an extra gear to. So, yeah, I mean, Nicolagia is in Utah, Florida, New Jersey, L.A., sign me up.

Obviously, a far superior player, but I actually think, like, Marshand on Utah would be the most fun outcome. Oh, wow. Not Marshand to Toronto? Yeah, I mean, I just feel like with the young players they have and what we saw from them this postseason, and the idea that because their top six is already pretty well set heading into the season, like just having him alongside our guy Jack McBain and just having, building out like a total dog third line,

trying to replicate what Florida did in that capacity, I think would be incredibly fun. But you go through this list and I found myself every single guy. I was like, Utah would be the most fun destination. So they can't have them all, but dare to dream. All right. I wanted to talk about the Panthers and the CBA. We're out of time. we're going to have to go. But we should probably buy ourselves some more time as well to actually

look at some of the terms of the suggested CBA. And then maybe we can circle back to that. Because in seeing the Sam Bennett extension and Bill Zito doing it again and the details of it and then what that's going to look like in future CBAs. Yeah. I wanted to dive into that. But maybe we can post-UFA will have some more time to. I mean, we can do it in July to, you know, for now what's, you know, been sent out is still very much summary. There's not like the legal that I can like really dive into but I've already figured out some ways to puncture the playoff salary cap as it's written out so I'm very excited to go through like what loopholes and abuses are next we can do that as a as at least a segment in a in a pediocast this summer I love

that all right buddy uh what do you got to plug because I know you're going to be busy for all the july first coverage grinding away at the athletic I'm going to be on sports net 650 from nine to noon uh Pacific time so that's noon to 3 p.m. Eastern time if if you want to listen to listen to me and Jamie Dodd, break down all the free agent deals in real time. Ah, there goes Justin Danforth, number one on my list. So we're going to be killing time on the air so anyone can come join us. It should be a good time. And then, of course, you can read all my analysis and coverage at the athletic

and then listen to me across the Sportsnet podcast network, both on your program and on Kinnockstock. All right, buddy. Well, everyone can join the Pediogas Discord. I think that'll be the best place to follow along with all the upcoming news and UFA signings, give us those five-star reviews, keep them coming, wherever you listen to the show. Drans and I'll be back. I believe on Wednesday, we'll get back together Wednesday morning after the first wave of free agency and we're going to have some more time in real estate to discuss everything we've seen. I will be back on Tuesday night with a big two-hour show,

breaking down all the most important news items from day one of free agency. We're going to keep it going with one big final push here, so looking forward to that. Thank you for listening to the Hockey Ocast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.