The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Fresh Start ft. Greg Wyshynski

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hockey fans, get ready for an in-depth look at the future of the game. The Sheet Draft Special is live on the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel Friday, June 27th at 7 o'clock Eastern, hosted by me, Jeff Merrick, alongside my co-host Pierre Maguire and a slew of live guests. We're bringing you real-time coverage of the 2025 draft, diving into every pick as it happens, from top prospects to surprise steals, team strategies to player potential. We're breaking down the entire night with expert analysis and insider insights. Don't miss the Sheet Draft Special, live June 27th at 7pm Eastern on the Daily Face

Starting point is 00:00:44 Off YouTube channel. Subscribe now so you don't miss a moment. Brought to you by The Nation Network. Welcome class. People in the chat. Watching on YouTube, listening on your favorite podcast platform, it is your humble host, Jeff Merrick, along with you today, alongside Zach Phillips and Greg Wyshynski, stands by from ESPN. Vander Canes of Vancouver Canuck. The Edmonton Oilers have an extra $5 million worth of cap space. And a tidy little bit of business that was...

Starting point is 00:01:28 Broken by the player? I swear this has happened before. I just can't remember the name. There was a player before that broke his own trade on social media. I just can't remember who it was. Maybe Wish will remember. Do you know what I'm talking about, Zach? This may have been like 10 or 15 years ago

Starting point is 00:01:47 that there was another player that broke his own trade on social media, which to be honest with you, I'm kind of surprised it doesn't happen more often considering how much more comfortable people are on social media now, players that is. Just busting their own trade on social media. But I swear that it's happened before and I want to say it was a Pittsburgh Penguin

Starting point is 00:02:07 but I'm not a hundred percent sure I know right Oh brain don't fail me now hopefully wish knows because I brought it up to you like briefly I was live on leave some morning take I hosted this morning with yeah Rosie and when he broke the trade I was pretty convinced that it hadn't happened and Rosie couldn't find anything. I did like very brief searching, but I couldn't come up with anything.

Starting point is 00:02:33 And then I kind of just moved on with it and continued the rest of show prep for today for us. But yeah, I've spent a lot of the day being like, I don't think this has happened before. Nobody in the chat. Nobody in the chat seems to remember. Or nobody in the chat seems to know. Maybe I'm making this up. But I don't think I am. I think there's been at least one other player that's done this. Well, first of all, congratulations to a brand new hockey insider, Vandercain, that when he's done playing hockey, he's going to get into the trade rumors business.

Starting point is 00:03:11 And we welcome him with open arms because we need more newsbreakers, tradebreakers in the hockey industry. But specifically those that don't spread misinformation right Kevin Adams We're gonna get to the Buffalo Sabres press conference yesterday. What's that? I feel bad. I feel bad for the fans I feel bad Randy workmen say okay, Jeff ignore me. What am I ignoring? What did I do? What did I say? No, I love getting tripped in the chat for things that I didn't see go on in the chat I guess where we need someone monitoring the chat that can just sort of call my attention to the longer Why try? Was it pronger?

Starting point is 00:03:49 It's listen. It sounds like a very crisp pronger thing to do Okay, so here's what I've got for you. Okay. These are the two Are one of them Pittsburgh penguins is? Yes, the problem is they both say they did not definitively break the trade. So make of that what you will. One is Max Domi in 2021. When he was traded from Columbus to Carolina, he posted a message on Instagram that essentially confirmed the trade was happening. Okay, didn't really say to who what but it was the one of those thank you, thank of those, like, thank you, thank you, Columbus, for all the great times I had.

Starting point is 00:04:27 But it didn't say where he was going, but also at the same time, the rumors he was going to Carolina were happening. So it like confirmed it without confirming it, you know what I mean? And then the other one is Phil Kessel. After being traded from Toronto to Pittsburgh, Phil Kessel didn't exactly break the trade himself, but reports at the time indicated he knew well in advance and he was already preparing. So he was like publicly preparing for the trade. Right.

Starting point is 00:04:51 So in neither of those cases did the player like break the trade, but they tipped off the trade was happening before the trade happened publicly. I'll tell you what. I'll work on it while Wish, when Wish comes on and try to give you a better answer than the nonsense I just gave you for the last half. No, that's better than what I've come up with. I've come up with feathers. I got two-thirds the square root of sweet FA. You at least have something. I'm serving up feathers on a plate. That's the best I got. Yeah, mayonnaise, cake, vanilla frosting. Nothing. Nothing here. Nothing.

Starting point is 00:05:25 By the way, have you ever thought about this? Like, if you were a player, like, how much you would F around with media? I've talked to Colby Armstrong about this a number of different times. Do you not regret, like, screwing around with media more than you did? And he was fun when he played. Colby is one of the go-to guys. He was always fun, good for a quote, good for a laugh, all of it. But now that he's retired and he's drawing the dark side,

Starting point is 00:05:49 I've always wondered if I was a player, how much would I love just effing around with media? Because he would tell me on trade deadline day, what he would do is he would always find an excuse to leave the ice just to get everyone buzzing. Oh, Colby Armstrong has left the ice, Duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh. Just to end and get all of his teammates to do it too. But just do stuff like that

Starting point is 00:06:08 and like fake breaking your own trade. Just thanking the people of Montreal randomly. Oh, is he gonna be, no, I just wanted to say thank you. That's all, they're wonderful people. No, I just wanna remind them how much- I just wanna remind them how great they are, man. The best fans, Best fans. Awesome. We'll have to do that.

Starting point is 00:06:26 Maybe we chat can send in throughout the show today. Who's the most F around with the media player we have right now? And I'm not talking about like fun person to talk to. Did you see who won the Stanley Cup? Take your pick. Yeah. OK, let's go outside of the Panthers, because we just had that. Who is the most

Starting point is 00:06:45 eff around with the media they have and not like have fun with them? I'm talking about like full on trolling the media and not trolling, but just like, maybe I guess trolling. Well, we'll get wishy thoughts on in a second. However, you want to put frames around this one, go for it. Because coming up on today's program, we gonna talk to someone very special we normally talk to on Tuesdays although that's been blown up we spent a whole week with him in Sunrise or Fort Lauderdale really and then now this week he's on Wednesday. Daily Outline is powered by our friends at FanDuel. Make every moment more with North America's number one sportsbook FanDuel and coming up on the program today, you love him, Greg Wyshinski.

Starting point is 00:07:26 Him and his bullshitty clickbait. More on that in a moment. Greg Wyshinski, I thought you'd like that one. Greg Wyshinski from ESPN. Even I have to stop and laugh at that. Greg Wyshinski will be fine-Buy. Talk about Evander Cain. I'm gonna try to keep it together. No promises. We'll talk about Evander Cain, new Vancouver Canuck. We'll talk about other trades. Wish has a piece at ESPN.com right now about Conor

Starting point is 00:08:00 McDavid and the future of Conor McDavid. There's a couple of real money quotes in there from a couple of sources, let's just say, that I wanna go over with him. We'll talk about the Hockey Hall of Fame, the class that was announced yesterday and one that we look forward to. And then if we have some time, we'll talk about free agency coming up on July the 1st.

Starting point is 00:08:22 In the mean time, here he is, you love him. And once again he's a presentation of Budweiser. Budweiser is encouraging buds to make time for hockey not excuses. Every goal, every check, every win is better enjoyed with your buds. Phone a bud, text a bud, ping a bud, and call out their excuses for bailing on hockey. When it's hockey time, it's go time. for bailing on hockey when it's hockey time. It's go time. Our man from ESPN, his latest available now at ESPN.com about Connor McDavid. He is the one and only Greg Wyshinski

Starting point is 00:08:52 and he joins me right now. Hi Greg, how are you? Been trying to figure out the answer to your question on which current player has the most fun with the media. I don't think there's anybody on the level of Kevin B. Exa impersonating Ryan Kessler during an interview, which was a real thing that happened. When both of those guys were playing with Vancouver. That is a real thing that happened.

Starting point is 00:09:16 Yes. But I think Zach was going for like the player today in the league right now. Like I really want to see the Carolina Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup just to see like the next level of fun that Seth Jarvis can have with the media. He could. So the guy that I immediately came to mind and he might not do it as much as he used to was Ryan Reeves.

Starting point is 00:09:35 Like Ryan Reeves very much understood what we were looking for and what he had to provide us, especially when it came to rivalries. Like for example, with Evander Cain. I would say the guy who is the most, I don't wanna say combative, but certainly conversational with the media might be Dry Cytl.

Starting point is 00:09:58 If we're leaving the Florida Panthers off the table, like Dry Cytl is honest to a fault, like really push back on the whole these guys are getting under our skin thing. Like he had the entire thing in the Stanley Cup final about how the Panthers don't drive him crazy. It reminded me of when someone called the Joker crazy and the Dark Knight and he like just kind of took offense to it. Right? So like I would say, I would say Leon has always been sort of up there as far as guys that like to interact with the media. But nobody on the level of like Kessler and the BXA. No one's even close there.

Starting point is 00:10:37 But I mean, there's a lot of guys that, you know, after they exed the NHL, one of the regrets they had is like, I wish I would have screwed around with the media more. You know, I've talked to Colby Armstrong about this, he's like, yeah, I did it to a certain extent. Like I was saying before he came on, he would, on trade deadline day, at the morning seat, he would always find a reason to leave the ice. Just to mess around with everybody, oh, getting on their phones, oh, Colby Armstrong.

Starting point is 00:10:57 But like, just little things like that. And a lot of guys like, you know what, I wish I would have had more fun. Wish I would have had more fun at the expense of the media. Now, what got this conversation rolling is, and I was trying to figure out whether this happened while we were doing the OG MVSW, or maybe I'm just making it up in my head.

Starting point is 00:11:14 So, Evander Cain broke his own trade today. It's a very Evander Cain thing to do. But didn't someone else do that previous, and wasn't that a Pittsburgh Penguin who did it? I was listening to you in the lead up, up and I can't I cannot remember who it might have been. I can't remember either. It's I don't recall if if that happened or if it's just one of those Jeff Merrick.

Starting point is 00:11:37 Like sometimes your memories are things that you wish could have happened and maybe you wish them to happen so hard that they actually did happen in your brain. I think you're probably right. That's why I do worry about you in the age of AI. I sometimes think about you and say Jeff's gonna see something and he's gonna believe that it actually happened and it did never happen. It's just AI. I think that's probably, we're like, we're probably like a month away from that happening on the show. Next season could be spectacular. Can you explain to me like what the hell the, um, uh, caducks are doing here with Kane? I think we're all, I think we're all wondering that. I think maybe they're looking at it.

Starting point is 00:12:14 It's, it's, it's a, it's a, a, a one year short term risk. Read the marketplace. We're having a hard time getting anybody in here right now. We need NHLers, we're losing Brock Besser, we need a top six winger. This is what's available to us. It's not going to cost us any assets. It's going to cost us cap space. And Vander Kane on the final year of a contract is most likely on his best behavior

Starting point is 00:12:47 and either he's gonna earn himself another contract or he's gonna be a trade chip for someone at trade deadline. Well, on top of that, it's also the bring him home thing, right, like the idea if you bring him back to the place where he's from, then maybe he's gonna be on his best behavior then, young family, yada, yada, yada. And that character leap of faith with him too

Starting point is 00:13:06 in that situation. And here's where they're insulated. They weren't the first, they weren't the second. The Vancouver Canucks were third in one category last year in the NHL. Do you know what that is? Pims? Pims? Penalty kill.

Starting point is 00:13:25 They're good. Oh, penalty kill. Yeah, they got this. Don't worry. Go do your thing. That's really funny. They got this. I mean, like, it's just really funny that,

Starting point is 00:13:36 like, what's the knock on Besser all these years? His inability to stay in the lineup. And they just traded for a guy who didn't play the entirety of the regular season last year. Two surgeries. Yeah, exactly. And then the other thing too is what's the knock on the cadux last year? Oh, the toxicity in their locker room. And they just traded for a band of canes. No, I know, but that is, I think that's more, in Edmonton, as I understand, this was not like,

Starting point is 00:14:01 this was not like the Winnipeg, this was not like I was not like the Winnipeg this was not like it's not a buffalo but again like the book look where the bar is set for Winnipeg and buffalo it was not Winnipeg his track suit was was dry it was not buffalo he did not do the things off the ice he did in buffalo but from why what I understand there's there's love lost here. There's no going away party with a giant bon voyage of Ander and balloons happening. Like I think they're pretty happy he's no longer part of this team. He's kind of like, that's just what I understand, okay?

Starting point is 00:14:37 It's not to the level of Winnipeg or not to the level of Buffalo. But he's still that guy. And frankly, like it's kind of a surprise that after all of the drama and all of the bullshit that they went through last year, like their idea is to bring in Evander Cain into that locker room. I have a totally frivolous question that you're probably not used to coming from me. Who will be the last Atlanta thrrasher standing in the NHL?

Starting point is 00:15:06 The Vander Cane or Zach Bogosian? We're down to two. We're down to two Atlanta Thrasher's. We're not even into the Vander Cane. Who? Nikolai Ehlers? No, Ehlers was a Winnipeg Jetstrap pick. Yeah. So, I think, I think,

Starting point is 00:15:28 I think it's Kane, because we haven't even gotten, maybe this is going to be the start of it, we haven't gotten to his one-year contracts with contenders, Corey Perry, we need truculence years. Like, we're on the precipice of it, probably. Look, I'm not trying to say he's not a productive player when he's in the lineup, he can be a

Starting point is 00:15:44 very productive player when he's in the lineup, and can be a very productive player when he's in the lineup. And, you know, I don't think it was ultimately effective. And he wound up with more penalty minutes in, like, the first three games of the Stanley Cup final than he had in the entirety of the playoffs leading up to it. But, I mean, there was something to be said, and you tried to sell me on it, the idea of a Vander Kane being a Florida Panthers countermeasure. So if you're the if you're the Canucks and you're like, we've got to increase our physicality and our truculence and

Starting point is 00:16:10 our, you know, we need a guy who can disturb the shit a little bit with JT Miller no longer there. Like I understand that that part of it. I just like all of the other stuff that is a Vander Cane and especially taking on the full freight of the contract. It's just kind of salary with a fourth round pick goes the other way. No salary retained. From the oiler contract. It's just kind of- Yeah, no salary with him. Fourth round pick goes to the win. Yeah. No salary retained. Yeah. From the oiler's point of view,

Starting point is 00:16:28 all of a sudden, like we know that Evan Bouchard is gonna probably take up 10 on their cap. Either- He gets 10. Either by Stan Bowman or by the arbitrator. One way or the other, he's getting somewhere in that neighborhood. But now, like what do they have?

Starting point is 00:16:44 Like $16 million worth of cap space, large chunk of that is going to go to Evan Bouchard. We know that, but they have room to play with now. Do they? Cause like the other chunk of it goes to dry cells raise. Like that's the other part of it too. He goes to 14 million against the cap next year. Fine. But they still have $16 million in cap space. And 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, next year. Fine, but they still have 16 million dollars in cap space. Between Bouchard and that contract you don't have a whole hell of a lot, but they'll clear some more out. You have 16 million next year. You have 16 million dollars next year. Is that counting Bouchard and Dry Cytl? No, that's

Starting point is 00:17:18 counting Dry Cytl, but not Bouchard. That's what I'm saying. So like you don't actually have... My point is this, is that they will have wiggle room They'll create a created room with Kane they'll create more room with Arvidsson and then it's just a matter of where they want to address and And and what they want to address You to figure its goaltending although Stan Bowman was kind of like a little a little hegy about that talking about how Skinner and Pickard outplayed Kemper, Aiden Hill and Jake Ottinger on the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

Starting point is 00:17:48 And oopsie-doo, things just switched all of a sudden when they got to the final. Three out of four rounds, they were great. I know, in Skinner's defense, Vegas, awesome. Dallas, awesome. And then it just all crumbled here. But again, like I've always maintained, like Edmonton doesn't need Shusturkin. They just need someone that can make basic saves

Starting point is 00:18:10 in the Stanley Cup final. They need someone where you don't have the embarrassment of trying to figure out who your starter is in a Stanley Cup final elimination game. Like that is- I know. You're a Stanley Cup contending team playing in the final round.

Starting point is 00:18:27 You're one of the last two teams standing and you don't know who's going to start and goal for you in an elimination game. It's insane. It's insane. I understand all that. And that's why that's what they have to go out and address.

Starting point is 00:18:39 The problem is there's no secrets here and no one's doing him any favors here. And everybody knows that if the other is going to get a gold ten, that's going to meet your criteria here. They're going to have to overpay because they've spent a lot of years saying, that's too much for a goalie. And then now we're asking ourselves, do you wish you overpaid back then? To get that guy? Like it seemed like ever since Jacob Markstrom sort of did the turnaround and said,

Starting point is 00:19:03 no, I'm not going to sign with Edmundson,on I'm going with Calgary they're offering an extra year everything has just been a scramble and net but along the way there have been offers but whether but you know mainly it's it's Ken Holland who's always said no that's too much no we're not gonna pay that much no we're not paying that right but this is what I talked about in the McDavid piece on ESPN.com today I want to get there yeah no but but, but like, so, you know, part of the situation right now is that the oilers do have to improve, and part of the situation right now is the oilers have limited assets with which to improve. McDavid himself talked about

Starting point is 00:19:38 the cupboard being bare as far as high-end prospects. They were ranked, I think, what, 29th by the athletic and prospect pipeline. Someone pointed out that the Panthers I think are 31st, but here's the difference between the Panthers and the Whalers. All of the prospects that they have that they no longer have and all the draft picks they had that they no longer have were sent away in service of Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, Seth Jones, Brad Marshand. These are the products of having shipped out all of those futures.

Starting point is 00:20:10 The Oilers don't have any futures, and they don't have Sam Bennett or Sam Reinhart or Brad Marshand or Seth Jones. They don't have any of that. And some Oilers fans, I think, misunderstand when we talk about their prospect pool being a puddle, like what that ultimately means. It doesn't mean they don't have young players to populate the lineup, although that would

Starting point is 00:20:32 help. And they certainly had two that are now in St. Louis. It's about assets. It's about the ability to then turn those assets into John Gibson or some other goalie that can come in and fix your problem and they don't have it right now and that's part of the math going forward for McDavid in so far as how long to sign, whether to sign. It's all part of the discussion right now that he's having internally and then also having with the Euler's brass. So let's get there. I really enjoyed your piece on Conor McDavid at ESPN.com and the money line in it is

Starting point is 00:21:14 everything's on the table. The other great line in that one from one of your sources, people close to this situation telling me that McDavid is looking for a reason to stay. Show me the reason to stay. Like we talked about this initially after his press conference where he wasn't willing to commit and there was a lot of, well having said that I need to take care of my family and need to talk to blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. With that being said, the four words that should the city to its core. I know, I know. And I agree with whomever gave you that quote

Starting point is 00:21:50 because I firmly believe that he is looking for a reason to stay. Give me a reason to continue this relationship. Now this is the Euler's auditioning for Conor McDavid to sign a contract extension. This is a really interesting piece. Walk us through from your point of view, what you think the more salient points are,

Starting point is 00:22:09 and I would direct people to ESPN.com to read this Greg's piece on Conor McDavid. Not bullshitty clickbait, by the way. It's not bullshitty clickbait. This is like real, this is real good stuff here. Yeah, I talked to a bunch of people around the situation, and then obviously Conor said his piece, and then Stan Bowman said his piece after Connor said

Starting point is 00:22:27 his piece and and the picture that I got it was a sense that like you said he's looking for a reason to stay and the reasons to stay are not just that Leon Dreisaitl signed a long-term contract which is something that you and I talked about in January. Others saw that reporting and felt it was bullshitty clickbait. They're clearly wrong. The entirety of the hockey media is now writing stories about McDavid's future, because it wasn't guaranteed that if Leon signed that Connor would sign, which is what I reported and I was right. So, I guess it wasn't bullshitty. I guess it wasn't bullshitty.

Starting point is 00:23:11 The thing that I wonder now is what do they have to show him in order to get him to sign long-term? Is it a plan? Did you know socks are one of the most requested clothing items by organizations addressing homelessness? Bombas also makes incredibly comfy underwear and T-shirts, which by no coincidence are also some of the most requested clothing items by homeless shelters. So far Bombas has donated over 150 million

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Starting point is 00:24:12 Reach out to their happiness team for easy returns, exchanges or replacements. So to feel good and do good, go to Bombas.ca slash the sheet and use the sheet for 20% off your first purchase. That's bombas.ca slash the sheet and use the sheet at checkout. You know going forward is it a plan for next season? Is it simply fixing the goal sending? I don't think it's just for the season. What are the things that he has to see in order to feel?

Starting point is 00:24:40 He said he didn't say something along the lines of like long-term success. Like I don't think he's just interested in one and done like he wants to be on a consistent winner I would still maintain you're on one right now He's been to the Stanley Cup final two years two years in a row Like you're the envy of these other teams around the NHL That's that's Bowman's pitch moments pitches like you're on a winner right now And and I think it's it's I think it's undeniable that the team went to the stand like a final consecutive season.

Starting point is 00:25:09 The thing I find fascinating is that one, there's clearly a debate within McDavid as to what to do and leaving is on the table. I mean, that's just a fact. The other thing is that obviously, like I wrote, he's got roots in Edmonton. Not only the team he was drafted with and played for for 10 years,

Starting point is 00:25:35 and Dry Cytles there, and Nugent Hopkins is there. His wife not only has investment in a restaurant, but her offices for her company are like two floors up from that restaurant in the same building. Like they've got a beautiful house, like they've got roots there. And so using the old Greg Wyshinski equation of is his stuff there?

Starting point is 00:25:56 Yes, then he'll stay. There is something to be said for his stuff being there and he will probably stay. As fun as it would be for him to hit the open market and have all of these teams clear in the decks to sign them, I'm not saying that's impossible, but I do think that his current thinking is, I want to stay at Edmonton, give me a reason to stay at Edmonton, give me a reason to stay long-term at Edmonton.

Starting point is 00:26:20 And so the question that becomes, Merrick, is like, if he doesn't get the answer, would he go four years to stay in Edmonton as a good faith commitment to the organization, a chance to try to win a cup while he's in his prime and Leon's in his prime and Nuge is still there, would he stay for a shorter period of time so that he could go and still cash out in his early 30s?

Starting point is 00:26:47 And that's the part of this that I find really interesting. Here's what I find interesting about this one. If there's anybody in the NHL who can just say, like, look, I want the max, I want the max percentage, it's Connor McDavid, right? Easily. Right now they're at the mercy of what Connor's ask is. Like when they get down to actually doing this contract,

Starting point is 00:27:12 it's gonna be quick because it's gonna be, what do you want? Just please leave us some dignity and let us try. There's no negotiation. And let us put a team together, right. And the last time he did a contract with the Edmonds and Welles, and it was all done, it was McDavid that went back and said,

Starting point is 00:27:29 no, you know what, take some money off because we need to have money for Leon Dreisaitl. Here's a situation too with McDavid and this clearly isn't lost on him. The one hand he wants to get paid and deserves to get paid, no one would argue with about that for one second. On the other hand, he knows every extra dollar he takes means it's less of an opportunity for Stan Bowman to create a winner there. Does he deserve more than Leon Dreisaitl? Even though Dreisaitl this year had a better season than he did?

Starting point is 00:28:05 Yes he did. Yes he does. Clearly. How much more? How much more does he feel he deserves? How much does he want? How much does he need through all of this? Knowing that his own criteria for staying is we need to be a winner.

Starting point is 00:28:25 You want Edmonton to win? Take a ten million dollar contract. We all know that's not gonna happen. We all know that's not gonna happen. I mean, it could if it's a one-year deal. That's feasible. I don't think it would happen, but it could it could happen. The only two guarantees we know about the money is that he's not taking 19, and he's not taking any less than Leon. His next contract will be the richest contract

Starting point is 00:28:55 from a cap hit perspective in NHL history. I think the range is probably 15-5 to 19, like anywhere in there is probably where it ends up from a cap hit perspective, considering where the numbers are going with the cap. Yeah. Um, but I mean, it's probably well closer to 15-5 because he does want to give the team the wiggle room. Can you win with that? I don't know. Well, you can because we have seen time and time again, the Oilers get dragged to the Stanley Cup to the Stanley Cup through the Stanley Cup playoffs

Starting point is 00:29:28 by virtue of having two guys. You could do it when the two guys are Dry Saddle and McDavid. And I think that's the difference between this and other situations where two guys, like when, you know, Taves and Kane needed a team around them to try to go to the Stanley Cup final. Like, look, Connor and Leon just take the Oilers there themselves as much as the supporting cast got the credit and whatever the hell we were

Starting point is 00:29:52 talking about for the last three rounds. Like at the end of the day, it's Connor and Leon. And so you if those are the guys that you're paying a large percentage of your cap that you just do it because they've shown that they can get you there. Anything more, and I'll direct people at espn.com and your piece on Conor McDavid. Anything else on Oilers? There's a couple more things I wanna do here. And one of them is pretty self-indulgent. I thought Conor was really interesting

Starting point is 00:30:20 in his press conference in the sense that he not only did the sense that he not only like did the, and that being said part about himself and his family and what's best for them, but the Oilers media, or Edmonton media I should say, was putting so many hooks in the water for this kid that just be like, I love it here, I'm staying. You know, this means so much to me.

Starting point is 00:30:45 And he never went there. He never took the bait. He always went back to one common theme. And again, this is the part that makes you wonder whether there will be the opportunity for him to leave. He always brought it back to the ability to win. And Stan Bowman himself said, I met Connor after I took this job from Kenny Holland, we went to his house,

Starting point is 00:31:08 the entirety of the conversation was about winning this Stanley Cup. Stanley Cup. That's all it was. Yep. Didn't talk about the dog, didn't talk about his fear of ketchup, didn't talk about any of that other stuff

Starting point is 00:31:19 we know about Connor. That's a Gary Roberts thing, I told you that already. Winning Stanley Cup. And so the fact that every time he was presented with a chance to be like, I'm an Edmonton guy, this is my spot, I wanna say, he never went there, he only talked about winning, whether it was in Edmonton

Starting point is 00:31:37 or just in general. And so that's like 5% of me that still thinks he could hit the open market and become like the LeBron James, the decision for the NHL, which is the comparison, but not totally because there is absolutely no way that Connor is taking his talents to South Beach after what they chanted about him in that club. But it would be fascinating. And I still think that there's a chance that it could happen.

Starting point is 00:32:06 Like I'm not writing off the idea that he could hit the open market, that he could go UFA, that he could end up in New York or wherever, all the other places we've been talking about. But after reporting out the story, like I wrote, like I quoted that one source, like he's looking for a reason to stay. Ultimately, I think they'll give him one. Um, it might just take a while for this to play out. And then it becomes a question of for how long does he commit to Edmonton? And at what point is he comfortable saying, okay, now you've, now you've given me

Starting point is 00:32:37 like Stan Bowman can go and, you know, redo large chunks of this team, this off season, but Conestal needs to see it in action. Still needs to see it on the ice. Does that mean Christmas? Does that mean calendar flip? Maybe he just hates Evander Cain and it's just like I'm signing July 1 now. Ha ha ha.

Starting point is 00:33:08 Who's to say? I want now? It's a little bit deeper than that I would imagine. I think the cat just wants to win. I really do. Okay, first of all, quick thought, not to dwell too much on it, but quick thought on the Hall of Fame announcements yesterday. From your Chars to your Thorntons to your Botterolls to your Parkers, etc. This one's a stacked field. It's one of the most accomplished classes from the players to the builders that I think

Starting point is 00:33:42 we've seen. A little bit surprised that they went Decker instead of Megan Duggan on the women's front. I thought Duggan. We all know she's gonna get there. She'll get there. And I wrote about the women today in my class 2026 piece. It's, there's some, I hope that this trend continues

Starting point is 00:34:04 where they're taking two women every year. They've done it now for two consecutive seasons or the first time, because there's a ton of people in the queue. No, no qualms with it. If you were going to take first ballot, first year people, these are the three that you should take. Because I don't think the Kerry Price nor Ryan Getsloff

Starting point is 00:34:22 deserve that honor, but certainly Zdeno Chara, Joe Thornton and Duncan Keith did. And obviously like McGillinly thing we've talked about a billion times. Like this was getting into Pat Burns territory for how embarrassing it was for the hockey hall of fame to have not put him in by now. Um, so they rectified the situation. Although the funniest thing that happened yesterday during the announcement was them talking about how they called McGillinly a.m. and said, hey, you're in the hockey hall of fame. And the dude just went right back to sleep and wasn't around for the media call.

Starting point is 00:34:52 That's perfect. Don't forget. This is the same guy as mentioned yesterday. This is the same guy that refused to fly back to North America to collect the Lady Bing trophy. Do not be surprised by anything that Alex McGilney does. I was telling the story about that scrum at the Maple Leafs. I can't remember which series it was. I think it was Bob Harwood that asked the question, you feel any pressure heading into the series? And he said, the only pressure I feel is in the morning when I have a cup

Starting point is 00:35:21 of coffee. Which is still one of the all time great scrum lines that I've ever heard from a hockey player. I miss Alexander McGilney. By the way, the MVP yesterday of the hockey hall of fame announcement was Duncan Keith because he was the only one of the four that was on the conference call. So it was literally Duncan Keith being like,

Starting point is 00:35:40 what was it like to play against McGilney? What was it like to play against Thornton? Are you happy for for Chara? So Good good job out of Duncan Keith keeping that thing afloat. Okay Here's I don't change a thing about it. Would you change a thing about that class? No, not not a lot. I mean I'm again, it's gonna take a group and I believe that there's a group working on this right now to nominate and and and and bring forward Red Berenson. I think Red Berenson, I'm really glad that Jack Parker

Starting point is 00:36:09 went in and that is certainly well deserved. I hope that, because we always wonder about, okay, who does this open the door for? I wonder if they dovetailed Jack Parker with someone submitting an application or a nomination rather for Red Berenson and that finally gets read in. That's what I hope. So I think that'd be awesome. Now you are significantly older than me as everyone knows. Significantly? Oh my hip. I was

Starting point is 00:36:35 unaware until I was researching Jack Parker a little bit yesterday that he was offered the 1980 US men's Olympic team job. And then turned it down. And that's how it went to Herb Brooks. I was unaware of that. I think I read that somewhere. Herb's a fascinating guy in a lot of, I mean, one of my favorite things about Herb was

Starting point is 00:36:56 he was the last cut on the 1960 team, the Squaw Valley team. The first, the original miracle on ice. Like Herb, there's a lot of, first of all, I would love it if Herb Brooks were here. I'd love it if Badger Bob Johnson were still with us here too, because a lot of great hockey history and a lot of great hockey stories have gone along with them.

Starting point is 00:37:18 To say nothing of how much their family wishes that they were still along too. But Herb's a fascinating guy. Like still to this day, I don't know if you still get this, but every now and then when a coach loses it on a team, like NHL coach loses it on a team, I'll be talking to someone like blah, blah, blah, what happened after that game?

Starting point is 00:37:38 And it's always, oh man, he went Herb Brooks. He went Herb Brooks on the team. Like, oh yeah, they just lost their ninth game in a row. He's peeling paint and going Herb Brooks on these guys. I just love that Herb is still a huge part of the vocabulary around the NHL. Okay, so something I mentioned on the show yesterday, and I'm serious about this,

Starting point is 00:37:59 and you may think it's, oh, America's another stupid idea, but here we go. I really do want this to happen one day because I think it gives sort of a new perspective on the Hockey Hall of Fame, might give them a new wing, gives them something new maybe to sell as well. Maybe there's a revenue stream attached to this. There is a theater there after all.

Starting point is 00:38:17 How about we also nominate games? Individual, like Miracle on Ice, you just mentioned Herb Brooks. Does that game go into the Hall of Fame? And then you have a wing where you can go to the Hockey Hall of Fame and watch that game. You can go and watch. I think it should go in first, which is a Summit series, not game eight, the one where

Starting point is 00:38:37 Henderson scores, but game one where the Soviets win. And everything changes in hockey. That is the game that changed hockey in Montreal at the Forum. Maybe it's that Saturday night in Montreal this year between USA and Canada. Is that a Hall of Fame game? Maybe it's Darrell Sittler's 10 point night and poor Dave Reiss who has never heard from again after. Is that a Hall of Fame game because there are Hall of Fame moments in there? How would you feel about the idea of there being a separate wing in the Hockey Hall of Fame for games? We have players, we have builders, we have

Starting point is 00:39:09 broadcast awards and writers. What about we keep hearing the game's most important thing? Damn it, put a game in! Put a game in the Hall of Fame. I think it's a cool idea what I'm envisioning for the Hockey Hall of Fame and again you'd have to probably build a little bit of, maybe you can convert the food court next to it into this theater. But like the idea that you do a theater that's kind of like an Alamo draft house. So you have yourself some beers,

Starting point is 00:39:35 and you have yourself some dinner, and you have a big screen in front of you, maybe like four or five rows of seats. And then you're like tonight, seven o'clock, we're showing the miracle, we're showing the summit series, we're showing game seven of the most banger Stanley Cup final ever. And then you buy tickets to it,

Starting point is 00:39:57 and then you watch it like a movie. And you couldn't find 60 people in Toronto to do this three times a week. It could be a cool day. It would be such a cool idea for the Hockey Hall fan to do that. And you have someone come out to give a, maybe like some like pretentious podcast host. I don't know, to come out and do like a presentation. Oh my God.

Starting point is 00:40:19 Oh, I'm trying to find myself work after all. That's what this is about, finding you another gig. This is getting another gig. Unbelievable. This is all about merit. Kelly Massey at the Hall of Fame if you're listening. But then you can expand, we just talked about Herb Brooks for like five minutes,

Starting point is 00:40:36 like you can expand it to movies. You could do a miracle night, you could do a goon night, a bear show up there to talk about goon. Like you could do a number of different things in that theater. I think it's an awesome idea, especially, you know, like I said, in the center of the hockey universe, you could probably find people to populate it.

Starting point is 00:40:52 Hall of Fame thought number three, class of 2026. I'm thinking, I mean, Bergeron's a lock. You know, he's, you know, should be in there already if he were eligible. I think Bergeron, Carey Price, Ryan Getslav, I think they keep it at three next year. Do you think, so the question is, if it's not three, then do they, do they go Kachuk? Do they do Elias? Do they do Zetterberg?

Starting point is 00:41:21 Do they do Ganshard? Do they go off the board? What would they do for the fourth, assuming that those guys are the three? And do you think those guys are the three for 2026? So one of the accents that the Hall of Fame has put on their selections the last couple of years, they've tried to clean up the goalie issue for one, as I'm sure you've noticed. Goalies have been woefully underrepresented. Your Lundquist got in, like a hundred goalies got in.

Starting point is 00:41:46 I know, they tried to clean up for lost time. Oh boys, boys and girls here, we gotta clean up the goalies, people are talking, people are talking. So I don't know, do you start to have a closer look at Curtis Joseph? I have always been banging the drum for defensive defense when you and I have had the Rod Langway conversation

Starting point is 00:42:04 countless times and how that type of player is woefully underappreciated and underrepresented. To that point, I will always submit Adam Foote. I don't know, you know, I really do. I think that in that classic defensive defenseman mold, I think of the last generation. I think that Adam Foote was an defensive defenseman mold, I think of the last generation, I think that Adam Foote was an incredible defenseman. Rob Blake got all the headlines on that team

Starting point is 00:42:30 and that's fine, but man, was Adam Foote a great defenseman. Like for somewhere down the road, like to essentially to create a path for one day, a player like, or maybe even him, Jacob Slaven, to get into the hockey hall of fame, just to have an appreciation of that type of skill. Um, I don't know, do we start to have now that he's a general manager of some repute

Starting point is 00:42:50 now, more of a conversation about Pat Verbeek getting in the hockey hall of fame. You know, as someone pointed out, but someone pointed out to me yesterday, they just sent me a text and said, someone quote unquote in hockey, oh, the hall of fame got it wrong again. I said, what do you mean?

Starting point is 00:43:04 And I said, another year, no pad for Beak. He's got similar numbers to Cam Neely. You know how like Pavel Bury opened up the door for Eric Lindros? I know it's different. It's different. You know, Neely and those guys, it's always like that's resetting the box.

Starting point is 00:43:19 Now you bring up Bury and Lindros, and I'm glad you did, because it's almost like you read my mind. Because if you're talking about goalies, right? I wrote about this today on ESPN. Lauren Shabbat talking about goalies. No, no, no, no. So Buray and Lindros are both in the Hall of Fame for having been dominant for a particular

Starting point is 00:43:39 stretch of seasons. In Lindros' case. Peak performance. It was, yeah, peak performance. And then obviously it tapered off and Burys was more like, you know, a limited number of games. So if we are to allow the induction of of skaters for having peak performance for a certain number of years, then the rest of it might not necessarily rise to the level

Starting point is 00:44:01 of Hall of Fame. What do we then make of Ryan Miller and Tim Thomas? In particular, Tim Thomas. Tim Thomas. Who had to wait until he was 28 years old to make the NHL because he was a journeyman bouncing around every league you could name before that. But in the, from like, what was it, like 2008 or nine

Starting point is 00:44:22 through like 2012, he was, he was Hasek, like he was Hasek, like he won He played like him too. He played like him as well. Yeah, two Veznas and a Kahn Smythe. And so, and Ryan Miller again, like you know, there was a time in Ryan Miller's career right around 2010 when he was the US Olympic goalie, where he was sort of the peak of performance for—for goaltenders and he was seen as being Haseki in—in the sense that he was making the Buffalo Sabres infinitely better than they should

Starting point is 00:44:56 have been. But Thomas is the one that I—I always pause on because, man, like, the numbers he had in that stretch are godlike. But he doesn't have the longevity and everything he did before and after that is not Hall of Fame worthy. But if we're going to have the peak performance argument about Lindrass and Burri, I wonder if you could make it about a goalie too. Okay, then I think we should probably have the conversation then. If you're just looking at peak performance for a few years, Pete Peters. Because Pete Peters was that guy.

Starting point is 00:45:26 Um, I'm trying to think of other goaltenders. Look, Mike Liot in the eighties. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. You could probably do it for a few goaltenders here. Those are the two. Pete Peters and Mike Liot would be the two that jump out to my mind right away. Boy, it's tough because longevity is such a thing too, right? Like that's such a thing that everyone

Starting point is 00:45:51 sort of hangs and players pride themselves on that. Oh, this guy played 18 years in the show. Whoa, 18 years? Regardless of production, like he played that long. Like when guys talk, when players talk to each other. For Patrick Marlowe's sake, you know, like that's the entirety of the argument for Patty Marlowe. Oh, by the way, when Thornton got into this year, I was like, oh, are they gonna do it? Are they gonna do the cute thing when they put in the teammates? Yeah, put in the... yeah, I know. But alas, it did not happen. Okay, a couple more things before I wrap here.

Starting point is 00:46:20 Do you have a thought on yesterday, one of yesterday's big news stories, Trevor Zegras to the Philadelphia Flyers as, listen, we've seen it coming for a while, but finally pulled the trigger. And I, listen, I felt bad for John Toterell and Rocky Thompson, who have been screaming for either that player or someone like him for the power play, which absolutely crushed the Flyers last year. They get dusted and they fill out a few Flyers, bring in someone to help them on the power play right away. Over to you, Rick. I love it.

Starting point is 00:46:53 I really do. Like for the Flyers, I should say, I love it. The Ducks clearly like Carlson and McTavish more than Zegras. And I think Zegras' life in Anaheim is probably spent on the wing. And now he has a chance to play his natural position in Philadelphia.

Starting point is 00:47:14 He has a chance for a fresh start. You know, there are definitely flaws in his game. And I think that some of the attitude-mill stuff that was going on in Anaheim just gets fixed by no longer being in Anaheim. He was always a bit better defensively than he was given credit for, if you look at the analytics in Anaheim.

Starting point is 00:47:37 And so then he comes to the Flyers, gets to play his natural position, gets to work with a coach in Rick Tocket that I think is gonna really drum in fundamentals without being someone who's gonna crush his soul like Greg Cronin did. And has a chance to sort of like have a star shine a little bit in a big market. I think it's great.

Starting point is 00:47:57 It reminds me of the kinds of trades the teams should be making. And I specifically think about our two time reigning Stanley Cup champions, making an aggressive bid to acquire a, what was it, fourth overall pick out of Calgary, who didn't actualize the way they thought he would in Calgary.

Starting point is 00:48:16 Although he showed promise at times. And then was imported down to Florida and became a ConSmithe winner. I'm not saying that's the path for Trevor Zygres, him and Sam Bennett are two very different players, but I am saying that teams should do more of this. Find the distressed asset, pay the price for him, and then expect that hopefully he can kind of get back

Starting point is 00:48:39 on track and recapture the magic. It doesn't always work, but in the times it does work, then you look back on it after you've won the Eastern Conference and you say, this is one of the moves that we made along the way that got us here. You know who's trying to do this and has for a couple of years now? Dubas with the Penguins. Second chance guys between the ages of 22 to what do you figure 26? Right in there, maybe 25. Like that's that and it's kind of been a revolving door of them. Let's see if other teams have missed here.

Starting point is 00:49:13 And let's see by putting them on a team with, there's another one, Seattle. What did you make of that trade, by the way, Burakowski, Villano. Villano, I was saying this the other day, Villano stuns me because I look at all the things that go into making him play like skating, size, shooting, all of it. Guys got a laser of a shot, he's a big good skater. Like by all accounts, if you look at all the individual skills that Joe Villano has, how is that not better? Like how is that player, I cannot figure it out.

Starting point is 00:49:44 Like how is that player I cannot figure it out. I don't get it reaction My reaction to that trade was the reaction the same reaction as an NHL executive. I spoke with had which is to buy out candidates What is Kyle Davidson doing? Like what are you? What are you doing? You're you're desperately casting a way to try to find some veteran scoring talent for your team and you end up with Andre Barakowski and it's just like What are we doing? mean, the cost was low and it's just whatever, but it's just, it's not, there's nothing that has happened in Chicago recently that inspires confidence that the path is good for Connor Bedard and company at this point.

Starting point is 00:50:21 But hopefully that changes in the off season. I like, I like Kyle, I wish him the best, Davidson I should say. I wish him the best, but nothing's really impressing me much in so far as the building of that roster right now. ["The Roster"] Okay, really quick, you wanna stick around for the Crispy Inbox? Of course I do.

Starting point is 00:50:47 Will this get two seconds? Okay, because I think this might be fun. Do I have two seconds? Like what else are you gonna do? You don't have a game to go to. In the Crispy Inbox? What are you doing now? Just hanging out for the Crispy Inbox.

Starting point is 00:50:56 Time now for the Ninja Crispy Inbox presented by the Ninja Crispy 4-in-1 portable glass air fryer, Zach. Meet the first of its kind. The Ninja Crispi portable cooking system. The power of a full-sized air fryer in the palm of your hand so you can cook big or small batches. Just prep it, crisp it, serve it, and store it all in one. This is an all-in-one system that includes four quart, six cup tempware glass containers and two storage lids. The Ninja Crispy is thermal shock resistant and can go from frozen to crispy in minutes. With the Crispy Power Pod, you get the power of a full-sized air fryer in the palm of your hands. The four quart container fits four pounds of chicken or veggies. Cook a personal-sized meal

Starting point is 00:51:37 in seven minutes in the six cup container. Max Crisp, bake, air fry, and re-crisp with the Ninja Crispy. You can prep, cook, and store anything from crispy favorites to one dish meals. And by the way, in this week where everybody lies to you or everyone deceives you, I'm sure we've all heard some whoppers leading into the draft on Friday. You know what someone mentioned to me today? One of the things that they had heard from a team. Go ahead. Would it be possible for the Islanders

Starting point is 00:52:06 to trade the first overall pick and get two other picks in the first round like this? Trade the first overall pick, Matthew Schaefer, trade the first overall pick to a team that's lower than them, get their pick plus players, then use those players to get another pick that you trade to that team in exchange for their pick, which is also in the top 10.

Starting point is 00:52:27 This is the level, like, as you get closer to the draft, like the goofier stuff comes out, because everyone's just talking. Everyone's just talking and speculating right now. So on the Islanders part, so on Friday, I'm gonna be at the Islanders draft party. That's my bit of the NHL draft coverage this time because like there was no reason for me to go to LA because it's decentralized, yada yada yada.

Starting point is 00:52:53 I wrote about this on ESPN recently. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that they do trade into the top 10 like after taking Schaeffer to take Hagens. To take Hagens? I think this is a... I just can't seem to get, I can't see Nashville looking at, unless Caleb Desnoyer is there, maybe they go, I think Nashville's got to come away with a center. And there are so many centers in this draft.

Starting point is 00:53:15 Yeah, no, I don't disagree. But like, so, I mean, they're clearly dangling Romanoff as a trade asset. And we'll see what that can conjure up and how much else they have to throw into a package to trade it to the top 10. But they're in such a mode right now of trying to move so far away from the Lamarillo years into an era of not only marketing and offense and pizzazz and let's fill the building, but also John Collins, their co-owner and the guy who ran their GM search, mentioned community outreach.

Starting point is 00:53:53 Like they want, when people say hockey on Long Island, they want the first thing to come to mind to be the New York Islanders. And that connection with the community has atrophied a little bit over the last few years, which is insane because they just built a new building by Belmont Park. Hagen's has clearly become a cause of the celebrity for the Sub Islanders fans who are driving around with bumper stickers, one of them in which he saw by the way.

Starting point is 00:54:22 Bring them home. So I do wonder if they find a way to not only make people at their draft party super happy by drafting Matthew Schaeffer first overall, but then finding a way to get Hagens to the island. And I'm not putting it out of the realm of possibility that it could happen on Friday. I don't disagree.

Starting point is 00:54:40 I, listen, they're the stars of the draft because they get Matthew Schaeffer and their fans are rightfully so are gonna go bonkers about getting Matthew Schaeffer and and they should and then I think to your point if you want like the John Collins sizzle what's the one thing we know about John Collins she loves the sizzle this is a team that needs some... Honestly, like, I'm like pretty excited for the Islanders now. I really am. Now that all of a sudden it's gonna be Matthew Barzell unleashed, right? And here comes Matthew Schaeffer and there's a lot of intrigue about what's

Starting point is 00:55:21 happening with Noah Dobson, what's this lineup gonna look like, how good and when is he gonna debut, Cal Richie. Like all of a sudden there's like little desk markers all throughout the schedule here where Islanders fans get to have, and I guess like have a peek at the future, the one big thing you have to figure out is whose timeline are you doing it on? By the way, if I were the Islanders right now,

Starting point is 00:55:42 I'd trade Casey Sezikas. That kind of player is in demand right now. Two and a half million times two years. I go higher than that. What's that? Oh, I know. There's others you can trade, but I'm saying like- I trade Bar- I would trade Barzell. Jim Rutherford, are you listening? You want to talk about bringing him home? Jim Motherford, are you listening? I think that you could sell so high on Barzell. I don't disagree.

Starting point is 00:56:11 Yet get at least two two roster players and then futures for him. I'm not saying that they should. I'm not saying it makes sense. I'm just saying that if you really wanted to kind of flip the script on this team and this franchise, like I would kind of look to do it right now. Could you imagine just sending him to Buffalo, get Paturka back and like, I don't know, like Owen Power? No. Barzell? Vancouver for Elias Pedersen. Peterson Horvath up the gut. You're rebuilding the 2023 Canucks?

Starting point is 00:56:49 Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. Actually here, so I was on with Steph Rosner on his podcast yesterday, the Bellmontres, and I think it's coming out on Friday. A couple clips are already out there. Great name. And so this was my idea. So Matt Martin retires. Great, wonderful career. Man, was he crazy enough to always invite Zidane O'Chara to fight him? Always fighting a Hall of Famer. I was really happy to see that. Wasn't that Zidane's first fight with Matt Martin?

Starting point is 00:57:20 Oh, was Matt Martin his first one? Wasn't that the fight that he had in the outdoor game? Zach would know. Like I think that was the outdoor game in MetLife. I think it was Matt Martin and Rempeh. Wasn't there a preseason Ross Johnston? Wasn't there a preseason Ross Johnston fight with Matt Rempeh? Even though it wasn't technically? There probably was, but preseason doesn't count. In my world it does. It was a hockey game. Oh, can we talk about preseason for a second? One second, yes, here's my idea. Here's my idea, quickly.

Starting point is 00:57:49 To my point about Casey Sazekos and mentioning this with Steph, how do you feel about this? So, Matt Martin comes in as a special advisor or whatever his position is going to be with Matthew Darsh. Great move by the Allenders. Special assistant to the general manager not to be confused with assistant general manager,

Starting point is 00:58:06 as we learned from the office. Perfect. So, welcome to management. Here's what we'd like you to do. We have traded your former linemate, Casey Sazekis. You wanna become one of us? You make the phone call. You go tell Casey Sazekis that we've traded him.

Starting point is 00:58:31 Wow. You make Matt Martin make the phone call. Then you become one of us. Trial by fire. I want to mention this at the, I should have just went earlier, but like- Go ahead, pre-season. I don't have a podcast, as you know, like I don't have a podcast as you know, like

Starting point is 00:58:45 I don't have really a show outside of this one. The door is wide open. You come in with me. No, no, no. I have this podcast, but I don't really have like one of my own anywhere anymore. I don't really have a chance to say these things. So I'll just say this here because this is our podcast. Next CBA.

Starting point is 00:59:02 I would not be surprised if we are short to preseason games and plus two regular season games I don't think a surprise. Yeah in the next So is everybody that's as this but does that does that mean the season starts a week earlier Well, those are the details that I haven't reported out. But I again, like the two things I'm pretty sure of is that it will get 84 games. And I'm pretty sure that we're going to get the the playoff salary cap. I think I think the end of playoff salary cap will be a thing where you can literally have a billion dollars in player salaries on your extended roster.

Starting point is 00:59:44 But by saying what you put on the ice has to be cap compliant. Yeah. Yeah. I can see that. So that's good. Having said that, are we going the wrong way with games here? Yes.

Starting point is 00:59:59 As everyone is screaming, get your game out of June. That's the part that I find really fascinating is because I. A couple of people I've talked to are like, you know, the players are going to absolutely love a lot of the CBA. There's going to be a couple

Starting point is 01:00:15 little things maybe they don't like and how much attention will be paid to the things they don't like because these are players. These are this is a labor union. You know what's going to happen ultimately, which is that the focus will be on the things they didn't get.

Starting point is 01:00:29 An 84 game season is one of those things where I think a lot of people are kind of wondering what the reaction from the players is gonna be because it ain't like all of a sudden they're getting you know, extra money for those games and their current contracts. It's gonna be fascinating if, from what I gather, it's going to be part of the deal.

Starting point is 01:00:47 But it's part of the deal. It's going to be interesting to see what the reaction is. You know what I think of when I think 84 games? Load management. Get ready for teams resting players. I know they already do down the stretch. Get ready for it to happen more. I, this has been cooking forever.

Starting point is 01:01:05 The two additional games have always been kind of framed as being ones where you can throw an extra Edmonton Calgary game on the calendar or an extra, you know, Penguins Flyers game on the calendar. And if that's the case, like it makes total sense. And obviously, you know, these teams know they can get more revenue out of a regular season game than they can a pre-season game, which is also part of it too.

Starting point is 01:01:25 Um, but, but ultimately you're right. Like we are going in the wrong direction right now. We're going to, we're, we're going, a lot of people will say we're going in the wrong direction with number of teams and we're going in the wrong direction with the number of players. But baby got to keep that HRR flowing. But here's the thing, once they signed off, once a player's signed off on linkage at 50-50,

Starting point is 01:01:52 there ain't no going back. There's not, because anything that grows the pot and contributes to hockey related revenue and knocks down their escrow etc etc etc they're all about it because they have this limited window so for the aggregators, gregwyszynski colon wouldn't be surprised if 84 games is official in the next cba for you, nhl watcher, nhl rumors get it right

Starting point is 01:02:20 that's a proper aggregation of what i've just said wouldn't be surprised wouldn't be surprised Okay, very good Listen great piece on McDavid enjoyed every line of it. I encourage people to go check that out at ESPN Calm the one and only Greg Wyshinski here on the sheet Enjoy the Islanders party and all the surprises that that may come along with it as well spoiler Matthew Schaeffer is very good. Matthew Schaeffer, Greg, skates like Jay Bomeaster. Check it out, he's freaky.

Starting point is 01:02:54 And the best part about Matthew Schaeffer doesn't talk like Jay Bomeaster, is one of the best personalities that I think I've ever come across for a draft prospect. And that's gonna be one of the coolest things about him for the Islanders Matthew Schaefer talks you could have just ended it there J-bo like that like when you think about like a longest career and fewest words said in a career J-Bohmeister's got to be number one

Starting point is 01:03:22 Yeah, I mean it's it's it's it's I I, I'll nominate Chris Crider for that award too. Not like Jay, not like Jay Beaumister. Words, words, words you can hear from a decibel standpoint. Maybe that's, that's Crider, but yeah. Phil Kessel, maybe on that list. By the way, Hall of Fame eligible next year. Kessel maybe on that list. By the way, Hall of Fame eligible next year. I would love it if he went in just to hear the speech. He's not. Ah, make it happen. Can we just will this thing into happening? I want Jo Malach to go in. I've been banging. I want Lauren Chabot to go in. I've been dying for this for my

Starting point is 01:04:01 entire life. A Phil Kesselhau? Yeah, so yeah, great. Yeah, great honor, so thanks. Walks off the stage. Yeah, it'd be great. We'd all love it. All right, you enjoy the the Islanders party. You'd be good.

Starting point is 01:04:24 Bye. Greg Wyszyns the Islanders party. You'll be good. Bye. Greg Wyshynski from espn.com. You can check him out on that fine website. In the meantime, as we wrap things up here, anything stand out there from that goofy conversation with me and Wysh? We didn't even get to the crispy inbox question, by the way, which was a really good one too.

Starting point is 01:04:40 Let's save it for tomorrow. I think we're doing crispy again tomorrow. Save it till tomorrow, cause it's a good one. It's about benches. We are. I think we're doing crispy again. I'll save it till tomorrow because it's a good one It's about benches. Yeah, it's about benches Just the conversation about McDavid I'm not even saying that from like the Toronto perspective but the approach that he would take a free agency or Signing the next contract and how that would go and how wish kind of envisioned things potentially going

Starting point is 01:05:06 term Av and what the things are that he's looking for and it being beyond just well My friendly Andre settle has signed here which I think is something that was first discussed on this show and was Scoffed at spat on maybe kicked run Run over, forwards and backwards a few times. A few times. Shoot up, spat out, ridiculed. Yeah, and the fact that we're here and having the conversation.

Starting point is 01:05:35 Yeah, I know. I mean, kudos to you guys. But I just think that that's one of those spots where it's... Whatever that thing is, you yeah but I just think it's interesting like maybe we don't know sometimes about players not just what what we don't actually know these things and I think it would also fit in by the way not not providing anything new here but it just fits in with the mo of what a lot of these new players and agents are doing given the uncertainty of the cap in a positive light oh well the cap may go up by some extreme number

Starting point is 01:06:25 some extreme number in the next three years. Okay, well, I could get a ticket in three years that I can't necessarily hit right now. I'm Connor McDavid, Austin Matthews, Leon Dreissel, William Neal, blah, blah, blah. Take short term, take short term. Nathan McKinnon, Kale McCarr. I know injuries are a concern. You're going to be some of the best players still.

Starting point is 01:06:42 I know hockey's a dangerous game, injuries a concern, you want that security but Take the short-term deals Yeah, and it just killed me a lot one of the reasons why it's so interesting is it's a it's a more of a comment and a conversation about the bigger picture of the NHL and the landscape of the contracts and where these could go and Something I had always wondered, or I guess with the CBA coming up, had wondered more so, if there would be conversations about the term

Starting point is 01:07:12 on these contracts, and if we could see those change, and we could go towards MBA lengths, but. If you wanna knock contracts down, and I'm a player, like, okay, then I'm just like, we're not gonna be able to flatten cap down, I'm a player, like, okay, then I'm just like, we're not gonna be able to flatten cap out, that's fine. There's no way to flatten things out then.

Starting point is 01:07:37 Okay, I'll, what do you think about this? If you return to a team, you can sign an eight year deal. Right? If you return to a team? Return to your team, right? Like the max years that you can sign is eight year deal. If you leave,

Starting point is 01:07:57 the max that you could sign is a six year deal. Well right now it's seven. Yeah, so we're taking another one off. So if you leave. Okay, so you're taking one more year off? One more year off, yeah, one more year off. And just bumping that down. So the players who decide to move, okay,

Starting point is 01:08:19 even when you decide you're going to do it, or you're gonna go to free agency and sign a long term deal, the max that you can get is six.'s not that different than the seven but I what I wonder is does this make the sign-in trade and the importance of the extra years that much more meaningful to players this has no relevance to anything. I just was thinking about it when I was thinking about the contracts and if they could change the years. But then I started thinking about it like okay how does that benefit a team or GMs or whatever. Well what if it's more incentive

Starting point is 01:08:59 to both? Okay you're gonna leave. Maybe it means a little bit more to us to trade at the draft for x pic or next year's fifth round pic even just so that you could go somewhere either two years out of it. Either way, like this, this sort of winks at something we've been talking about all year when it comes to the salary cap. And that is like it's like it's is like it's time to take the training wheels off the cap. Right? Like this goes back to 2005. Like, okay, now we got this. Now let's do something with the salary

Starting point is 01:09:36 cap. Let's like evolve this thing to reflect as like the league is bigger, the league is different, the league is worth more, you know, billions more dollars than it was back in 2005 when the salary cap first came in. Let's, you know, let's let this, the league has grown up but the salary cap is still in the crib. Like, let's let the salary cap get out of the crib here. Let's do some things here with the cap. I know it might be more, make it more complicated, but that's fine. Give your team the ability to do stuff.

Starting point is 01:10:11 Yeah, it's one of those, like I know you don't follow it as much, but like the NBA and the NFL salary caps, nobody ever knows what the hell they mean at any given moment. Like you will see the biggest contracts you've ever seen in your entire life, the numbers thrown around for these guys. I think that's like, wow, how does the team have that room?

Starting point is 01:10:32 And then it's just like, they just do. You know what that is? And I've seen teams do that. I think that Chicago did this with Brian Campbell once upon a time. There are some contracts that teams will look at, and maybe the league will look at and say, that contract's great for marketing because it makes us look big.

Starting point is 01:10:52 Like, do you not, aren't you like, every now and then like, kind of like, mm, about hockey when you're seeing like, oh wow, this guy's getting $5 million, what an overpay. You know how small that makes hockey look. I know. You know how often hockey gets dunked on on social media by people who are outside of it, who are just like, here's the seventh player

Starting point is 01:11:15 on the worst team in the NBA who makes 18 million a year. And we're like, did the Leafs overpay on Nylander at 11.5? He's one of the top whatever in the Leafs overpay on Nylander at 11.5? He's one of the top whatever in the Leafs. And then we're like. No, I know, I know. Oh my Lord. Like, yes, in the context of hockey,

Starting point is 01:11:34 that's an important conversation, but big picture, it's always just like, ugh. Look, what put the WHA on the map? Rival to the NHL back in the 70s? The Bobby Hall contract. The million dollar contract. Made them look big. Anyway, I just sorta lobbed that out. We got one more thing to do here

Starting point is 01:11:54 before we hustle off into the rest of our evening. The shoot is powered by FanDuel. As you know, our good friends there, home of the same game Parlay, make every moment more on FanDuel. FanDuel is proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. Zach, what matters to us right now?

Starting point is 01:12:14 I am really, really glad FanDuel put this up because I didn't see it before. What'd they do? And I think you're gonna like it a lot. Let's see. In the spirit of the PWHL, handing out awards and the draft and the expansion draft coming out. We're not a fast, defender of the year, love it.

Starting point is 01:12:28 Including, we got some PWHL futures for next year and there was something that caught my eye and I'm gonna present it to you and I'll see if it catches your eye. How about Abbey Rock getting, how about Abbey Rock getting traded to Montreal? Kristen O'Neil goes the other way,

Starting point is 01:12:44 KO is done in Montreal. That whopper. These are the favorites to win the Walter Cup 2025 2026. What do you notice about this list? Yeah, listen, that's what everybody is saying. There are co they are juggernauts. Right? Yeah, that's what happens when you have an expansion. I know. I know, but anyone who follows it looks at that and goes like, oh yeah, Vancouver's already built a juggernaut. But now with it comes the weight of expectation, of course. But yeah, like the two expansion teams,

Starting point is 01:13:18 and that's what they wanted. They wanted them to come in as winners. They want them to come in. Because the other thing you have to consider here too is the league still owns all these teams. And I don't know that the league is gonna start selling off teams to be honest with you until they hit 12. That's what someone had mentioned to me a while ago. Like they want the TV contract. And that's why I think like all these different waves

Starting point is 01:13:44 of expansion are gonna hit different time zones so they can do things like if it's ESPN you can do double headers and you hit different marketplaces because the first thing they'll ask you is okay which markets do you have in which time zones do you have and this is by the way one of the reasons why and I know people like get out of the desert get out of the desert. So why Phoenix was always important? Whether it was quote-unquote working in the desert Anytime you go for like a national buy or a national TV package or whatever The first question is okay. Tell us the markets you have. Oh, why don't you have Phoenix?

Starting point is 01:14:17 Oh, we find that hockey doesn't work there. We want Phoenix. Okay We just want to know that we have coverage in that area So anyways, I don't think that the PWHL is going to look to sell these teams until they hit a dozen. So maybe even as crazy as this might sound, and it's right after an Olympic cycle where you're probably going to lose some athletes too, could we be talking about expansion again next year with the PWHL as they try to get to 12. Looking for a TV contract and looking for probably NHL teams to buy some of these PWHL

Starting point is 01:14:54 squads. Anyway, long, this is a side trip that I'm going on here, but none of that's surprising, especially Vancouver. Vancouver looks amazing. Vancouver looks awesome. You're right. Like this could be an expansion team winning the Walter for sure. none of that's surprising, especially Vancouver. Vancouver looks amazing. Vancouver looks awesome. You're right, like, this could be an expansion team winning the Walter, for sure.

Starting point is 01:15:09 Yeah, not surprising, but just like, it's kind of one of those ones where you go and look at it at the odds to see who's favored to win, and you're like, wow, both expansion teams. Again, like it's right now, and they haven't played a game, but I think FanDuel is bang on on that one. Vancouver looks good. Vancouver looks really, really good.

Starting point is 01:15:35 It's Olympic year next year, so we'll see what happens after that Olympic cycle and kind of getting ahead of myself here. You wonder how many veterans come back afterwards. How many just bluntly go off and start families after the next Olympic cycle as well. Or, you know, park it for the Olympics and maybe that's it for the career. Who knows? There's a lot of, like, there may be a significant drop off in superstars after the next Olympics. We'll see how it goes. But that is the conversation that's happening,

Starting point is 01:16:08 certainly amongst athletes. And if it's happening amongst athletes, it's happening amongst everybody. That's why I wonder about, the league may want to expand quickly. I just don't know that the athletes are gonna be there and the star power is gonna be there to replenish as quickly as some,

Starting point is 01:16:24 either just take time off or peace out on the career. We'll see. All right. I think it would be interesting to watch. Yeah, the Olympics and everything thrown in there is just a very interesting wrinkle in both leagues right now. So just continue to watch how teams will handle that. Talking about more games,

Starting point is 01:16:50 like Wish was bringing up less preseason, and now all of a sudden we're gonna have. 84 games. You're gonna be, you have to rest, guys. All of that is. Hockey's hard, man. Yeah. Hockey's hard.

Starting point is 01:17:02 And then at the end of the 84, then the real season starts yeah I don't know how these guys are rocked man that's why no one gets so clean I don't know that's why no one gets so clean everyone's got something by the time they're done okay Zach great job thanks to Greg Wyshynski from ESPN for stopping by the program as he does every week Rocky Thompson is gonna be one of our guests tomorrow. Bridgeport Islanders head coach, as announced earlier on this week by the Islanders.

Starting point is 01:17:31 So Rocky's gonna stop by as well. More on the NHL draft on Friday. Don't forget our draft watch along me and Pierre McGuire with a slew of guests all throughout the entire evening. That goes Friday at seven o'clock Eastern, right here on our daily face-off YouTube channel. Do the likes, hit the subscribe, do the favorites, all those things that we love, whether it's on YouTube, whether it's on your favorite podcast platform, leave the reviews,

Starting point is 01:17:55 say kind words or throw darts. It's fine. It's all good. It's all engagement. I love it all. And thanks to you for paying attention for over an hour here consistently and specifically on today's show. Talk to you tomorrow at three o'clock eastern. Don't forget morning cup of hockey at 9 a.m eastern, DFO live at noon and then me, Zach, Rocky Thompson and at least one other guest tomorrow on the show. Deal? See you tomorrow. Bye-bye. I slept 16 hours last night Every day this week, every day this month I can't get out my head Lost all ambitions day to day Guess you can call it a ride I went to the dark man He tried to give me a little medicine

Starting point is 01:18:40 I'm like nah man that's fine I'm not against those methods but you It's me, myself and how this gon' be fixin' my mind I do wanna break it I turned on the music I do wanna break it I turned on the music It's enough to help out, but you're sometimes losing

Starting point is 01:19:10 Helping on the days that went wrong Mmm, in the dead dark night Hockey fans, mark your calendars. The daily Face Off Live free agency special is coming on July 1st at 11am Eastern. Join me, Tyler Yaremchuk, alongside former NHLers Carter Hutton and Matthew Barnaby, plus analysts Jeff Merrick, Colby Cohn, Johnny Lazarus, and Hart Levine of Puckpedia, plus a full lineup of insiders from across the network. We're bringing you three hours of comprehensive, real-time coverage of the NHL free agency window.

Starting point is 01:19:46 We'll be breaking down every major signing, analyzing team-by-team impacts, predicting what comes next for the league's biggest names, and delivering you the latest news as it happens. If you want expert insight, live reactions, and a front row seat to one of the most exciting days on the hockey calendar, this is the show you don't want to miss. Tune in live on July 1st at 11 a.m. Eastern on the Daily Face-Off YouTube channel for the Daily Face-Off Live free agency special brought to you by The Nation Network.

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