The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Jarmo Kekäläinen Takes Over in Buffalo ft. Greg Wyshynski & Steve Werier

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski break down a wild few days in the NHL, starting with the full fallout from the Quinn Hughes trade and what it means for the Vancouver Canucks, Minnesota Wild, New Jersey Devils, and the rest of the league. Then, the guys shift to Buffalo where Jarmo Kekäläinen takes over from Kevyn Adams as Sabres GM — reacting to his first press conference, what his priorities should be, and how quickly he can turn this roster around. Later, former Florida Panthers AGM Steve Werier stops by The Sheet to share front-office insight on the latest NHL trades, signings, cap maneuvers, and under-the-radar storylines shaping the season.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Bauer: https://www.bauer.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff#TheSheet #JeffMarek #GregWyshynski #SteveWerier#QuinnHughes #Canucks #Wild #NJDevils#BuffaloSabres #JarmoKekalainen #KevynAdams#NHL #NHLTrades #NHLRumors #Hockey #DailyFaceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Okay, so today, and welcome the program for this Tuesday, December the 16th, this is the sheet. America along with Wyshinsky, it is Tuesday after all. I always enjoy days like this where you have to put on your general manager decoder ring and try to, and it always happens at the opening press conferences when there's a new general manager in town. This is, of course, Yarmokekekeleinen, newsbreaking yesterday. Kevin Adams out. Yarmokkeleinen is in. You kind of have to read in between the lines and try to figure out what exactly the general manager is trying to tell us here while making sure that politically he still protects himself at the same time.

We're going to, first of all, how are you today, Greg? I'm sort of jumping right in here with all the content. Let's have a nice friendly, hello, sir. Nice to be joined by you again. Lovely peace with you and Rachel at ESPN. Com about Quinn Hughes. Really enjoyed that. How are you today, sir?

I'm good. I'm good. There was a, I received a note from someone who was very excited about the hiring with the Buffalo Sabers, because it meant that I could break out the old Yarmulkekelein an impression and say. His voice, his voice sounds deeper, though. The first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to probably fire Linderuff and hired, his voice is deeper now his voice is deeper now it wasn't going for accuracy it was always just a character the whole point was that he would call the gms and go it's me yarmal so what you

say of artemby panarin on the blue jackets it's kind of a illegit brjolov meets grew from the minion i was going to say i don't know that that's really finnish i don't know you may have to you may have to work you may have to work that's the joy of fins though is you no one knows how they sound we know how speed sound we know how russian sound but you can no one really knows what a fin sounds i don't know i had the best time when i was at the olympics in 2008 the two who are who are sort of come this is in media village at the olympics in Beijing the two that competed for who's going to burn the hardest were the fins and the Australians and there was one tradition that the fins had at every single games that i didn't know about until i actually worked the games

and you know what it is this is just media folks i'm not sure if it's any of other profession. But in media, a lot of the Finns all brought guitars, okay? And it was great and it was fun. I mean, there'd be like this little courtyard at Media Village and everyone would have beers and hang out and everyone had to work in the morning. So it really didn't stay out late except for, again, the Finns and the Aussies. And they have a tradition of on the last day of the games, they all smash their guitars

and make a bonfire so they don't bring them back home. It was the coolest night. And the Finns were the best. They were the best people to hang out with. There's so much fun. Oh, yeah. They're the best. I love fans. So, so I'm, I know we'll do a close reading of what he said in a second, but like, I'm a Yarmow fan. I think that, you know, it's interesting. His predigree when he was hired in Columbus was at as this like genius talent, talent evaluator.

Yep. He did amazing jobs with the St. Louis Blues drafts, uh, Bill Armstrong, the GM of the Utah Grizzly is Jesus, the Utah mammoth. Wow. Wow. I know. Water League hockey creeping into the system is a type of your head coach Bob Bourne But the thing that he did in Columbus that I loved was he never met a bold swing that he wouldn't take Totally true

We talked about this before in the context of the Buffalo Sabres In that it's not so much that They need to go out and tank And do all the things that you'd expect a team That's missed the playoffs since 20th 11 to do what they need is someone with the cahones and i don't know what the finish word for cahones is maybe rootos someone with the rootos to go and uh and and turn owen power into something and turn jack clean into something like like do the things that's required to turn

this team into a winner but do it smartly and not acquire jobs Josh Norris. You know, like, that's what they need. And I think Keckleinen has a real knack for doing that. Here's the thing about a veteran general manager as opposed to, as Kevin Adams was, a first-time general manager. When you're a first-time general manager, you tend to get pulled in a lot of directions by a lot of people in the organization. And everybody in every organization always has an agenda. Okay, like that did make sense.

You want to have your people in their organization. people that you believe in, whether it's players, whether it's assistant, it doesn't matter. Like everybody, and this is true in every profession as well. And that's why I think people get nervous when it is an inexperienced general manager who comes in because you say to yourself, okay, is this just going to be, he's going to make a decision based on the last conversation that he had. And I think sometimes we can look at what the Buffalo Sabres became over the tenure of Kevin Adams. And you say, okay, so who's pulling him this way? Who's lobbying or over here.

Well, here's the thing that I like about Yarmo. He is very cut and dry. Yarmou is very much, this is the way that it is. And the other thing that, and he references too,

like I will tell you to your face how I feel. And I believe that about Yarmou Keklanan. The other thing about Yarmokakalana is, and he's been consistent with this probably even before his time with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He would always say this.

I mean, how many times I've interviewed him? And he has always said, said, look, in every situation, sometimes you have the hammer, sometimes they have the hammer. When I have the hammer, I will use it. Just as I expect, when the other person has the hammer, they will use it. That's the lens that Yarmokeke-Gelanin sees the hockey world. Who has the advantage? And if you have the advantage, use that advantage, whether it's salary arbitration, whether it's contract negotiation, whether it's anything. He has an advantage, he will use it. Like, there's a very sort of black and whiteness about Yarmou

Kekalena. I think that, for those that may not be familiar with him, I think that came, that came to light in this press conference this morning. Yeah. So, and that's what they need. And if he can, if he can create a personal firewall between himself and ownership, uh, and gets the level of autonomy that I think he kind of sold that he'll have, then it could be okay. Look, I don't know. I know.

Again, there's one constant in the last 14, 15 years of this nonsense. It's Terry Pagula. And so, like, we have to take that into account. You know, some of the immediate moves that he's going to make, including with the coach, we imagine, it's going to be interesting.

We'll immediately know whether or not he's got a chance to put his stamp on this team or if it's going to be Terry helping to make the call on who the coach is because Terry made the call on the last one. So we'll see where it goes, but look, we've talked about it a ton of times, right? This market is a powder keg. You just need someone to like the fuse.

If they get anywhere near convention, if they're in the conversation for multiple seasons, it's the best. Yeah, you're going to have people diving through flaming tables like you do a Bill's games. We're both old enough to remember a situation where the national rating in the United States could be moved simply by how many people in Buffalo were watching hockey.

So, like, that's the situation that presents itself to Kekylline. And he knows that. And the other thing I want to say about him, too, is that, you know, he was there as a senior advisor. I think that was a really smart move by the, by the Sabres, because he gives him some plausible deniability in the way that the team has been run since he got there. One of the things he talked about in his press conference was somebody asked him about Quinn Hughes. And the Sapers have had some, you know, had reportedly had some conversations with, with, with a Vancouver about, about the acquisition of Hughes, maybe had some conversations

with other teams about potential salary dumps. And he said, I was overseas, obviously lost his father, condolence is there. I was unaware of any of this stuff. I was kind of out of the loop. And that's great because what he gets is a chance to survey the landscape of the organization, get to know the players, get to know the staff. without having been part of the problem. And honestly, even if he was part of the problem, even if you considered him to be an extension of the previous regime with Kevin Adams,

I will go back to a little piece of heaven called Washington, D.C. I will note how skeptical I was when George McPhee was fired and Brian McClellan was hired, that anything would change with that organization. And the man used his institutional knowledge and had a chance to make the calls he couldn't make as a subordinate and built a Stanley Cup champion.

So Justin Borg, our friend from SportsCent, was one of the people yesterday kind of saying and be like, well, you mean, you're staying within the family to solve this problem? Sometimes you should because it means that they understand the dynamics. They didn't have a say what was going on.

And ultimately, the knowledge plus the opportunity could lead you to where it led when Washington made that decision. All right. We have a lot to get to. And yeah, I want to go through some of the clubs from today and try to put on our Yarmo de Kof

order ring and we'll get a nickel and dime finish impression, I'm sure, along the way from Greg Wichinsky, about what Yarmouquet was trying to tell us. In the meantime, the blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Download the app today and play your game on Fanduel. Here's what's coming up on the program today. Please do it, Zach, please do it, Zach, please do it, Zach, please do it, yes, Greg Wischinsky is coming up on the program. Greg's already here, of course, Yarmokkelaan, we'll talk plenty about the new general manager of the Buffalo Sabres. We'll talk about the swords. We'll talk about, we'll talk. about Quinn Hughes, a really interesting piece at ESPN.com with Craig and Rachel Kreichick

sort of going through the landscape of what this whole deal looked like from a lot of different teams' point of view and also former Florida Panthers assistant general manager for a snapshot from an actual manager's chair. Steve Weirier is going to stop by the program here coming up in a couple of moments towards the bottom of the hour. Look forward to that conversation with Steve. I have some breaking news from producer Zach who tells me that the finish word for testicles is kivikset and the childish slang it's not roottoes the childish slang finish word for testicles is kikolit or which is is we whiz and he says that can be used in a joking manner i'm still going with root twos i think i think i think i made a coin a phrase right

there personally man i thought toomo root two is going to be such a star too i thought he was going to be like the next me i thought he'd like the finish rick tocket i really did man i love to womo Covering the playoffs this year. I'd be like, look at the Rootu isn't that Barkoff. Oh, my God. Actually, I think it was speaking of Barker, I think it was Kekeleinen's brother who was the one that that scouted Barkoff and sort of did the sort of pound on the table to get the Florida Panthers to draft them. So what were, so for those who might not remember, like the highlights of Keckelan in in Columbus, the Panera. move right was him oh yeah massive um drafting dubois over polyarvy i believe was him was

the the the order of things and making and making and making him a center because let's not forget too when he played in uh in in junior he was he was a winger and his whole thing was like that was that again that was you are not going to change um you're not going to change his decision everybody was saying pull yurvy pull yurvy pull yurvy actually a lot of things happened because of that because the Rangers had a deal on the table with the Edmonton Oilers because they wanted to draft like Clayton Keller fourth overall, something like that

and it was like crazy names, like Crider's name was out there, McDonough's name was out there to flip picks like there was and there was all the stuff about P.K. Suban and the Vancouver Canucks and all of it blew up when Yarmou Kekalana went up there and said Pierre Luke Dubois and where

was that draft? Hang on, here's another one. Here's another symmetry for you. Where was that draft? I don't remember I remember being outside Hang on Hang on Greg Where was that draft

I don't remember A jersey No where was it? Greg where was that draft I don't I don't remember Buffalo Oh okay

I'm surprised I was outside then The The Then he had He said he had Panarin He had the Dubois thing The Dubois thing Obviously then became

The line A thing which you know It didn't really work he made the Seth Jones Ryan Johansson trade which is again like we talk about the kinds of trades massive buffalo sabres should be looking to make it is that

kind of trade Duchesne bringing him in I mean the crowning achievement of his yeah the credit achievement of his tenure in Columbus was the upset of the of the lightning in the first round probably and that that shocking moment

they lose Bobrovsky obviously can't do anything there if he wants to go play South Florida. I mean, he, he made, he did some really big things. And again, he did some really big things in a market that is not original six. It is not a glamorous place. It is just a midsize NHL market. And he ended up taking some big swings. It didn't always pay off. But the boldness is what you need if you're the Buffalo Sabres right now. And I think that this guy has, has shown to be one of the boldest executives we've had in the NHL in like the last 20 years. By the way, just as an aside we did an mvsw meetup and there were two people that came to that event who are now

managers in the n hl not going to ask you to betray who they are but i think you know who they are but anyway that was one of the more interesting ones there were two uh that buffalo draft was a lot of fun that buffalo draft was incredible that was a fan that was the austin matthews uh patrick line all the all the drafts just kind of like i know like mush together at this point now so let's let's get to the way take I know, please, you need an event where the whole hockey world gets all together. Anyhow, for another show. Okay, Zach, we're going to start off with some clips here.

So, Zach's going to spit out some of the clips here from Yarmu Kekkeleana this morning. And we'll do our best to sort of try to figure out what Yarmo is really trying to tell us. Zach, Kekka, oh, yes. What you're going to hear, you're going to be like, is that, Greg, just doing his impression again? No, trust me, this is actually the Yarmu Kekalainen in speaking. A proper, a specific difference. Proper distinguished finn. All right, Zach.

Well, Lindy's resume speaks for himself itself. He's been a great coach in the league for a long time. I've really enjoyed my interaction with him day to day. He works. He's tail off every day. He's early. He's watching tape. He's analyzing.

He's talking to the players. He's got a good line of communication with him. And he's looking for ways to get better. So, you know, I've really enjoyed my time so far with Lindy. What does that mean? There's no changes in the coaching staff. We're going to evaluate everything moving forward, whether it's a scouting staff management, coaches. Everybody is under evaluation at this point.

But there are a lot of good people here that are great at their jobs. That was the first moment that I laughed. Lindy's great. He does all this work. He's fantastic. Does that mean he's safe? Well, I never said that. For those who are listening on the podcast

He's wearing this little Sabres pin on his lapel Why does everybody see Everybody is so I know It's like politicians where you have to wear the flag You know I know I know We get it man You're sitting in front of a giant thing

With a bunch of Sabres logos on it We understand your field teeth to the organization Everybody does it now It's become It's funny he had Luke Robitai's draft. He went like, you know, a 12th round or something like that. And he got down to the floor and there's nobody at the table.

There was one person there. And he had to like, I don't even know if security let him on the floor. Finally they did. And he went to the table. And he's like, hi, I'm Luke Robitai. He just drafted me. He's like, oh, we don't have like a hat or anything. Robatai says they looked around and one guy just like pulled the pin off of his jacket and said, here, here, welcome to the team.

That's like one of the best of the history of the game. Anyhow. So when, when do you think Lindy gets fired? You know what? The hardened cynical guy that's followed hockey for way too long says, I don't know that he's coaching Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers. Because don't forget, too. Well, because later on he said, like, listen, the purview that I've had here and the experience that I've had around the organization, the actual line, you know,

there's some things I can do sooner than later. I have that clip if you want. Oh, do you have that clips? Oh, go ahead. So this one could answer that question. Greg is answering you. Thanks, Zach. That's great. Let's roll that one. Is this something that could happen in the foreseeable future with your evaluations, or would this be something you would wait until the end of the season? As I said, I have a pretty good head start with being here for seven

months and being very closely with the team for basically the whole fall. So I have some things in mind that might happen sooner rather than later. And then there's going to be some things that we need to evaluate a little bit longer. And we're going to take all the time. We need to need to make those decisions. Lindy, it's a D. Yarmel. Pack of your bags. Maybe.

Well, although hang on. See, I don't know that it's pack your bags. There's always been the belief that eventually, yeah, that eventually when Lindy is done coaching and his coaching contract expires this year,

that he was going to have a job in management. I don't know if it's president of hockey operations or something like that. But hang on a second. It's not. Hang on. Hang on. We don't know that. Honestly, I would not be surprised if at the end of all of this, Lindy Ruff fell upwards.

I would not be surprised at all. I'm completely confident that he'll fail upwards because Terry Pagula loves Lindy. He's a Lindy fan, like back when he was a fan of the team before he owned it. And the idea that he'll stay with the organization, I don't think is outrageous. But Yarmu himself spoke to the structure of the team. and said that he's quite comfortable with the current structure. The current structure is that Yarmou is the top of the food chain with the direct line to Terry and no one's above him. So I would be surprised at this point if there was a president of hockey operations as a buffer between Yarmo and Terry, wouldn't you?

I honestly, at this point, I don't really know. I'm just, I'm basing this off of, the reason I'm saying that is, and I know it sounds like I'm hedging here, But there has always been the belief, and it has been talked about openly in the Sabres organization, whether it's players or other people, that when he's done behind the bench, there is going to be a management position for Lindy Ruff. Now, unless things have completely changed, and they might have, I've always been under the impression that that is what was going to happen to Lindy Ruff. And again, again, like, you're doing that thing that you do, you're doing the thing you do where you're probably know more about this and you're letting on. And I think that what you're trying to say, and I'll just say the quiet part out loud, I think you think that there was some sort of handshake agreement to get Lindy to come to Buffalo in where he would then become part of

management when his tenure was done. Just nod, yes. I do think that when Lindy Ruff, to your point, which is the right one, Terry Pagula has always loved Lindy Ruff, didn't want to fire him. and I don't think it wants to fire him twice. I think that the long-term play was you're going to coach for as long as you're going to coach and then when you're done, you're going to stay in the Sabres family.

I think that's important to Terry Pagula. I really do. I don't disagree. I just think that, you know, it's hard to fathom Yremot taking this gig and then having someone above him.

By the way, has never been a GM before. I never been at President of a hockey. I don't disagree. Perhaps it's not the president of hockey operations position, but I think somewhere along the line here. And who knows? Like we may find out as early as, you know,

who's behind the bench on Thursday when the Buffalo Sabres face off against the Philadelphia Flyers. I think that he stays in the Sabres family. I don't think this is, here's your hat, what's your hurry? I really don't. Not for Lindy Ruff. I don't. I think he stays.

But I do agree with you, though. like in order for to do what he wants to do, which is to make the playoffs this year. Like that was Jarmo stated goal. They need to change the coach. And, you know, clearly changing the GM is the first thing you need to do so he could hire the coach that he wants. So.

And not get anything with somebody he didn't hire. So here's the first, like the first thing out of Kekeleinen's mouth this morning was character and work ethic. We have enough, not we have enough. but he said we have skill on this team our problem is character and work ethic that's what we need on this team right now yeah that is more than just a wink at the coaching staff that is a we need to bring in someone here who's going to crack the whip and that's why everyone is drawing

exactly where you're going with this everybody has drawn that line between a former between that comment and a former Buffalo Sabres assistant coach. And it would be delicious if it was made his debut against the Philadelphia Flyers. Are you talking about John Totorello, the broadcaster? The broadcaster between gigs to keep the persona out there. I've always admired, I've always admired John for that, by the way. Not every coach does it. Paul Maurice has been known to do it as well.

but in the in-between time between gigs keeps himself on television to keep his I actually think I actually think Paul Maurice doing what he did with NHL Network and others during his brief time away from from the NHL after leaving Winnipeg was so wise like super important like yep to because the thing about Paul Maurice is that he needs to be the smartest guy in the room but he also needs to show that he's the smartest guy in the room and I think that he was a great I think he can be. I think that was a great, like, infomercial for teams that way of ended up hiring him. Yeah, listen, if the stated goal for the Buffalo Sabres is to make the playoffs this year,

then you need someone who can get you to the bubble. And much like when Detroit hired McClellan last year, like, what is he good at? He's good at getting teams to the bubble. They don't do anything when they get the playoffs, but they get there. And John's teams, for the most part, outside of, you know, when his team is, unfortunately have been stuck in a rebuild, have been competitive and near the bubble. And, you know, if you're the Sabres,

that's all you can ask for right now. So if it ends up being torts, and I, again, he's a co-worker. I don't have any inside information about any of this stuff because Yarmo was just hired. Is his name still on the group emails? Can you check the other, the group emails? Is John's name still alive?

Yeah, does it bounce back? Does he still have access to the Slack? I don't know. Listen, he's, he's one of my favorite people. And so I would see, and he did great things with the Armowing Columbus. So, you know, maybe, maybe not what, like, Cage wants to hear because he'll get scrapped at some point. But good for the rest of them. That's, there is that sort of keen and a factor of, like, find the power base and attack it.

One thing that, and I use the analogy on DFO Live today, something that Doug McClellan, and I talked about once upon a time and that was when you're a general manager and you're watching your team and it's like 10 minutes into the period start of the game, 10 minutes into the start of the game, 15 minutes in the start of the game and your team hasn't registered a shot on net yet

and all you can do is look at that zero on the board like what do you think? He's like it burns every single general manager. You just start screaming and spitting and you want to call the coach and you say tell at them all the minute they get the puck, fire it on the, get that zero off the board right now.

We are not going into the intermission with a zero like that on the board. And that's why maybe a strained analogy here, but let's see if it lands with you. That's why, as much as Yarmouquetelan went out of his way to say, no one's thinking about the number 14 here. No one's thinking about the

playoff drought. No one's talking about that. We're just focused on today. You know who cares about 14? Terry Pagula. And that's why, as much as Yarmokickelan wants a talk about building for the long term, I think they just want to end the drought. Of course they do.

Not that you're going to make moves, like just a hot shot this season. But still, like, Yarmal went out of his way to say, we can still make the playoffs. We can still make the playoffs. There was nothing novel about what he said. I'm sure everybody who's come into that organization has said the same thing, which is don't think about the drought. Don't think about the drought. Yet the drought gets longer and longer and longer.

Well, you're essentially arguing for. No one in Toronto has ever said that. No one in Toronto has ever said. What you're essentially arguing for, I believe the colloquial term is a slump buster, and that might be exactly what they need, is a slump buster. Go to dictionary, folks. Pause. Resist. Don't take the show off the road.

What's the finish term for slump buster? Slump buster? Can you get chat GPT? No, you know what, Zach's not going to worry about how you say slump buster and finish. Zach right now is going to grab another clip for us before we get to Steve here who will be joining us here in a couple of moments. What are we serving up next, Zach,

from the Yarmu Press Conference today? I think we've all talked about it pretty much every day that it's not the ideal situation to have three for the workload they get in practice, for the rotation, and the amount of games they get

if there's three goalies. But we also picked up Ellis for a reason because we felt that there was upside there to become a real good NHL goal We had a little bit of an injury situation back then that we needed to protect ourselves depth-wise. So now we're probably to a point we're going to have to start making decisions

to get down to a two-goly rotation. That's good for the two goalies that remain here. But we're going to look at the situation and right now Ellis is hurt. So we've got two goalies here and two goalies ready to win games. Okay. Is there a team you,

can think of that recently tweaked its goal tending situation that may want to completely revamp said goalie situation by the acquisition of someone like Alex Lyon and would trade Matias Yanmark to get there no well she has Myanmar's on the oilers I know you're talking about what what or David Tomashek to get there what what do you conspiracy capital what Alex Lion and and Tristan Jari is better than soort Skinner and Calvin Pickard because Calvin Pickard's not part of Alex Lyon and interest in Jari. I still don't I still can't really make up my mind on Skinner Jari. We'll have to see how that goes.

But no doubt that like Lyon would be an upgrade. And so if that ends up being the situation for Edmonton, good on them. A little baby version of what Colorado did last year. Yeah. And listen, the avalanche were applauded for doing it for recognizing the issue and getting it done right around the same time too. Like the timing is is almost ideal. identical to how McFarland did it last year with the Colorado Avalanche. I think McKenzie Blackwood was it like December, was it 17th?

I think when that, it was like right around. So if that is going to happen, how complicating things with the Buffalo Sabres is the health of Colton Ellis. But I don't think anyone would be surprised if at the end of it, the two goaltenders that we see here are Colton Ellis and Oukapeka-Lukinen. You know who must be losing his mind right now is Devin Levi. My God. Talk about like the forgotten man in all of this, right?

You know, again, we haven't had the look back at the Kevin Adams era and sort of done the full tear down of what happened there, the debrief. But to me, the thing about Adams was like how many players were rushed into service. And you remember how they rolled out the red carpet for Devon Levi, social media campaign, all the start. Like right out of college. I was talking about this yesterday on the show, right out of college, he steps in. Now, we've seen other players step in from college, defenders, certainly, Kail Makar. We've seen forwards jump in right from college. Happens all the time.

It'll happen this year. And you can do that, the one place where you can't. And history is very specific about this. You can't do that in that. The gap is just too big. The jump is just too far. I don't care who you are in college hockey. You are not making that jump full-time to the NHL.

But Kevin Adams was convinced that was his guy. That was his starter. That he could buck history, completely buck history. Guess what? And look no further than the two rookie goalies that are lighten the world on fire this year. Wollstead had at least three years percolating in the H.L. Askerov's been in the pipeline forever. Like the longer you give these guys to gestate and understand the craft and understand what they need to do to be successful on the pro level, the more they'll be successful on the pro level versus Devin Levi who was thrown to the lions in his like first week in the league.

I feel awful for Devin Levi because he went like from the bell of the ball like really to like he's become the forgotten bullpenter. I know. Yeah, he wasn't even mentioned today by Keckleinen. Yes. Yes. So are we all in agreement then that Alex Lyon will probably, when Colton Ellis is ready to be the odd man out on this one? Yeah, I would assume so. I think that that makes sense. You know, he's sort of a, he was a stabilizer.

He's kind of like a better version of like James Reimber was a few years ago, where he just bring him in and hope that the situation kind of coalesces a little bit And then, you know, he's never the guy. You know, even when he was the guy in Florida, he wasn't the guy because they were all just waiting for Bob to take the crease back. So here's the other one. And this was addressed too. And this goes back to my sometimes you have the hammer.

Sometimes they have the hammer and they expect them to use it. I firmly believe that the Buffalo Sabres want to resign Alex Tuck, that they want him in the mix here. Now, if I was Alex Tuck, I would be considering I have the hammered. So you're like July 1st, he can walk away. away. I would be looking at the Adrian Kempbe deal and saying, you know what? My numbers are more similar than different.

You want me? It's just over $10 million per year, eight year max. That's what we're doing. So we're looking at an $80 million investment here if you want to keep Alex tuck. That is going to be one of the decisions that faces. And Kekyllian talked about it. There is that desire.

on the scale of importance for the Buffalo Sabres, coaching, goaltending, Owen Power, Jack Quinn, all of it, Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlane. Where do you put the Tuck decision? I think it's really important, to be honest to you, because I think that he's the type of player that you need as a building block to be successful in this league and is the type of player, as we'll probably see at the trade deadline,

whose intangibles make him extremely desirable to contending teams. And so while the price seems high, it's going to be the going rate for keeping someone like that around. Yeah. And ultimately, I don't think Tuck's part of the problem. It's part of the solution. And he's shown that to be the case. And it goes back to something that he said when he went there,

which is that he wants to be there. And at this point, Merrick, finding the I want to be in Buffaloes should be paramount for, you know, We'll get a line into the Sabres. Absolutely. Okay, let's get to, you know, here's someone who can talk about this with, with more authority than we can,

because he actually sat in these chairs. He is, Steve Warrior, he joins us now, former assistant general manager with the Florida Panthers, who joins us now. Okay, first of all, Steve, thanks so much for hopping on today. Here, okay, I could never work at a triage desk in the hospital. I would have a hard time sort of prioritizing. You're more important than this other person,

but when it comes to hockey, I can do this all day. So, Steve, let's do a little game called hockey triage. Your Yarmokalainen, new general manager of the Buffalo Sabres, it's your first day on the job. You're doing Buffalo Sabres triage. What goes first, second, third, fourth,

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And thanks for joining us today. Hey, you guys. How are you? I couldn't do the hospital thing either, but if I could, I'd probably walk in and ask to whatever right-hand guy I trusted the most.

What's going on here? How do we fix things? What do we mess up? So like if I'm Yarmal, I'm blessed. I'm walking in and like, he's got a good crew. And one thing that always fascinates me from teams I'm not on the inside of is like matching the inputs and the outputs. So it's not really interesting to say, okay, there's a managerial team that maybe doesn't have experience or skill and they aren't doing great. There's not much to talk about there.

But there's a lot of teams where you're like, I know some of the folks in there and they're really sharp. And they'd had success before. So why aren't they having success here? which is all to say if I'm Eremot, I'm walking in and I'm going into Sam Ventura's office and I'm being blinded by Sam Ventura to Stanley Cup rings as my assistant GM from Pittsburgh. And I'm thinking, Sammy, what's up? Like, where are we? What are your thoughts?

And same with, you know, everyone else in that group. And I'm ruling from that because Buffalo is like an interesting one where they've made some good decisions. They've made some bad ones. They've made some sort of low states extension decisions lately that haven't been maybe totally optimal. but there's room to grow and there's room for optimism and I think there's always that lazy analysis

that we see time and again when things go badly of like, well, there's a tough owner and like, yeah, that can be true but managing up is this deal and there's a reason NHDMs get paid millions of dollars to their job, that's what the money is for

and like we also see a wide range of results from different managers with the same owners. So yeah, I think that's right start at take a lay of the land and get moving as fast. as possible, because they have a lot of a, you know, a lot of things to do. What do you think of Yarmro as an executive?

I think he's a good stabilizing choice of them, honestly. I'm not always the biggest fan of sort of like, let's go with the last GM who's out of a job, I think. Teams can be more innovative, more progressive. There's lots of, you know, women and men on the sidelines who haven't had that chance, who are well deserving of it. But, you know, I know a few folks who have worked with Yarmu before, we've worked with them for a long time. And they have good things to say about him. You know, he works well. He collaborates. He's not afraid to take the type of big swings that we saw this week that

Bill Guerin made. And I think it's, yeah, I don't think it's the worst choice. That's probably one of the best choices they could have made it. Do you think right now considering we're going into, because I think about what Bulgarian just did. And you know, you mentioned, you know, Yarmu's not afraid to make big deals. Do you think considering that that taking those swings now might be easier than ever, considering everybody is walking into an expanded salary cap situation where once upon a time, when it was flat cap, taking big swings means, man, you could really set your franchise back

if you make a mistake. A little bit of a softer landing now if you make a mistake. Like, is essentially what I'm asking is, is it easier for Yarmo now to take a big swing? Yeah, I mean, on one hand, you want to say there's a rise in cap and teams can keep their players and exciting things won't happen. but I think some pretty exciting things that happened in the last few days.

But I'm following along, right. So, like, there's always big opportunities. The thing I like the most from what Billy Guerin said this week was that he mentioned that, like, he was sitting at home making meatballs when one of his assistant GMs called him and said, hey, what about this idea of this package? You know, like, that sounds crazy from the outside. If you haven't been on the inside to be like, is that really how it works? Like, is that how a big grade can be made?

But, like, the answer is totally yes. And I, like, I still lose sleep the time I remember walking around. He was, you know, walking on the Lowery Side of New York, middle of the off seasons. And sort of when you're working for a team, you always try to make calls to see what's up. And I called up one assistant GMs in Edmonton and said, hey, what's going on this morning? How's your Sunday? And he replied, like, sort of flippantly, oh, you know, nothing interesting to just trying to trade a 40 goal score. I was like, oh, yeah, me too, have a nice date, you know, went about my date and got my breakfast.

And my phone buzzed 20 minutes. It's like Edmonton's traded Taylor Hall for Adam Larson. And I think I had to call Apple in order, oh, since that's the one I had. I was like, I'm, yeah, like, you know, we might have had something there. We might not have. But like there's 32 teams. There's going to be more. They're always doing wildly different things.

There's always massively different interests within teams based on, you know, owners and GMs who are trying to do things you may not think. You have timelines that may not match up. So I think if you're super opportunistic and super flexible and we, seen that this week, you know, allegedly with Jersey being a team who might have been a little hands tied behind their back more than they wanted. But you want to make sure you have that flexibility, either by having players who don't have, you know, there's no move and no trade tie-ups, or just having good players on good deals. Or even if you're a

cap team, you can monetize those apples quickly. I think you'll see that. Let's talk about our sweet friends in Vancouver. I swear to God, we've done 40 minutes on the Buffalo Sabres today. I think I'm sabred out. not me i can keep going it's one of my favorite topics but yeah okay we'll park this for we have we have talked about the sabres on days when we shouldn't even be acknowledging they're in the league and we talked about the same that's all right this is this is fine this is sabers lunch um jim rutherford said that for a year and a half they had an inkling that quinn was going to leave and patrick alveen said for about a year they had an inkling that quinn was

going to leave. In the year that followed, they extended Brock Besser. They extended Thatcher Dempco. They gave Connor Garland a contract that hasn't even started yet. They hired Adam Foote ostensibly because he's Quinn Hughes's guy to replace the guy that was Quinn Hughes's guy that didn't want to stay because of how badly they screwed up the team. I think they did pretty good in this trade with Minnesota, but I feel like they really did some malpractice in trying to hail Mary. something for Quinn Hughes. It feels like someone who watched their girlfriend get engaged and then still bought her a car.

What do you think about the Canucks in this situation? Wow. What kind of car are we talking about here? I mean, it's like, probably like a Kia. It might not have all the hills. Anyway, I have two very different thoughts about this. The first one is, I think, under the situation, under the, you know, the time pressures and everything else.

Vancouver made the right deal. They made the best deal. I think Zeeb Boullium is a awesome hockey player with an awesome upside and that is what you want. I think the only way Vancouver could even consider how to recover from losing a Quinn Hughes with years to go is by adding a Zb Bouillam and ideally also adding a Keaton Veerhock, who I saw play, you know, live in U&D a couple weeks ago, who's phenomenal. So if you can land yourself a lottery pick and those two defensemen, I think that is the best Vancouver could have done on a Quinn Hughes trade. having said that, if you find yourself in a position where you're trading Quinn Hughes with two years to go on this deal is time for introspection. And I think this whole narrative that's been, you know, leaking out slowly and but steadily over the last week or so about, hey, Vancouver really had no choice here. Hughes was giving signals years ago that he wanted to leave is a smote screen. And even if it's true, is completely beside the point. And it's sort of reminds. me of, you know, sorry with switching wish from medicine to law here, but it reminds me of like the first year law school fact that everyone gets on an exam, which is a guy walks out of a bar

having way too much to drink, walks down the street, someone pops a hammer from the third floor of an apartment, hits the guy in the head. The guy walks into the road, can't really see, and a drunk, distracted texting driver speeding, runs them over. And the question is, like, who's to blame for murder? And the answer is, I forget what the answer is. It's tricky, but either way, the point is managing your organization for half a decade, didn't help Vancouver keep Quinn Hughes, which is the takeaway. And, you know, I think that is probably what you should be looking at if you're in that organization going forward of how do we sort of course correct. And sort of like what we talked about earlier, there's lots of really smart, sharp folks in that org. And how do we match the outputs with sort of the people we have in there?

Let me stick with the Quinn Hughes situation here, but take it from and close your ears here, Greg. I know you're probably not going to like this, but here we go. Take it from the New Jersey side. Actually, you probably won't mind this. A lot has been made, and rightfully so. Like, look, first of all, New Jersey is capped out. They're right up against it. One of the big issues is they can't create any flexibility here.

And I understand that, you know, when one of the best players in the game says, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, I really want to come to your team and you can't make it happen. That's a problem. I get it. And there's a lot of no trades here. But I always look at no trades and don't look at them as if they're no. I have a no trade clause, so I'm not going anywhere. All that no trades are essentially is players having some type of power

and decision-making power as to where they end up. Players wave no trade clauses all the time. Players waive no-move clauses all the time. This isn't so much just they have too many no-trade clauses. It's players from the New Jersey Devils who may have been asked to waive their no-trade clauses, who under other circumstances might are saying,

no, I'm not going to waive my no trade clause to go there. And we can look at because, you know, the situation with Miller and Pedersen, the situation with Bohorvad, Rick Talk, I mean, I don't know how many times a coach has refused to go back to a team.

Like that just doesn't happen. Like that is a massive one as well. Like there's a litany of things that have happened in that chaotic organization over the past few years. That is not just Devils players saying, no, I'm not going to waive my no trade. It's, I'm not going to waive my no trade to go there because if it was, hey, you know what, we have a deal for you here with Florida Panthers, with Tampa Bay Lightning, with like,

in a certain Colorado Avalanche, like a really good hockey team in a desirable market. I'm guessing the player will say, okay, I'll listen to it at least. But is the issue here, the no trades, the no cap space, or just players saying, I'm not willing to go there? it's a bit of everything like as a manager you have to expect that when you give out a no trade or no move especially one of those no trades that's like onerous if it's hey a player can give a five team list where he doesn't want to go then maybe realistically else not going to pop up as much but you have to you have to expect that that type of scenario is going to arise that you know there may be a destination that is impossible for the player either because you know that team isn't doing greater or that player or his family don't want to go to that city so You know, that sounds a bit of a cop-outish. You know, I think your general point, like, holds. And this is something we, you know, we talked a lot about in Florida that, like, having a player signed to turn, having a player signed to a big money contract, having a player with a no move, it's not a problem. It's not cap-constraining if it's the right player, if it's the right amount of money.

The problem is you are, it's the wrong player, it's the wrong term, it's the wrong AAB. And I think Jersey, you know, some of their players, and we could all point out if we had to, you know, our players. players sort of in that basket of there's going to be a limited number of suitors willing to take on that player at that point in their career with that cap hit and everything else. And it, you know, maybe could have been foreseeable at the time that finding some of those deals could cause edicts one way or the other, whatever they may be. And some of the problems they may be putting them down the road to the year's playoffs where you have an day-by-day cap. There may be some tough decisions

for some of these teams on some of those athletes. But yeah, it's not sort of like Novel in this scenario, like, oh, wow, it was a Vancouver. And at this point, some guys wouldn't want to go there. That happens all the time. Yeah. It's, what did you make of the aggressive nature of Billy's move here? It's interesting to me that they went and got, they got Quinn, but it does feel like, kind of like the first move of a few that are going to need to be made in particular.

Like, it's great that you've got a defenseman on the caliber of McCarar and he's going but you still don't have McKinnon. You might not even have Wyatt Johnston, right? Like it seems like it's the first of several moves to maximize the window here for Minnesota. Yeah, it's funny. I sort of disagree with the law of the analysis. I think like what Billy Gehrin did

is the least risky of all moves because he acquired like, you know, like you said, Kill McCarr, one of the two best defensemen in the world for two years. And he has a good core and they're playing well. And like those aren't the types of decisions that managers usually get beat up on down the line. Trading players like that, sure, not acquiring players like that, maybe.

But I love the move. I love the creativity. I love the risk. Quit and say he sat up or whatever, like good on him. That's a great thing. And it's the right swing. And I think Darry back in the day in Houston said something like anytime you have a team that has better than like a 5% chance of winning it all, you should go all in because

those seasons and those opportunities are rare. So good on. Colorado is good, but Nate McKinn is not going anywhere. Dallas is good, but, you know, their core isn't. So if you want to get out of running that gauntlet, this is the only way to do it. And even if, you know, you lose in seven in the first or second round to one of those teams, it doesn't mean it was the wrong move. It means probably it was the only chance they would have had that fall.

Let me pick up on that a little bit here, Steve. And the idea of making a trade like this, not being risky for the Minnesota Wild. I say the same thing about the Detroit Red Wings. Let me coach this in one. one very specific way. We all thought that July 1st was going to be crazy. Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel and Kyle Connor and like, oh, this is going to be fantastic. This is going to be Adrienne Kempe.

Like all these guys are going to be available. And now it's looking like, you know, Tuckomania. And everyone's looking at who's going to sign Alex Tuck on July 1st? Given that there are no franchise changing players available on July 1st. I wonder if we're going to see more massive trades like this. Listen, I don't think Vancouver's done, obviously. I wonder if we're going to see more massive trades like this. And I think of Detroit because there's no one that you're going to sign on July 1st

that's going to move the needle. And the analogy I've always used is green bananas for young players and prospects. Like, if you're Steve Eisenman, is it not time to get out of that business and package up some of your youth to bring in some. someone that's really going to move the needle, not just overpaid middle six wingers. You know, if you're not going to get them on July 1st and you're the Detroit Red Wings,

the time to make a big deal is now, no? Like I think the general principle there is right. I don't know if I totally agree with Detroit being that team who's ready and is like one piece away. They might be. They might not. But like there's lots of other teams we could substitute in and agree on. But I think you're right for like another reason,

which is just that there's so much more money involved in the. game, both the cap going up, valuations of teams going way up, you know, bigger money owners coming in rather than sort of like the little groups that used to run teams back in the day. And with that, like with the stakes being that high, people are going to realize, hey, if we, you know, go all in or take those big swings, we're talking about adding potentially like a billion dollars of franchise valuation. And if you're a group who's looking at, you know, exiting in three to five years, doing something like that has such massive upside as opposed to saying, let's do a, you know, 9, 10, 12-year rebuild.

So I think we'll have excitement from that. I think it's, you know, hockey, hockey like all sports is a bit of a copycat league. So the last big deal is probably a good predictor of another good deal. And then just like, there's more teams are getting smarter. I think like the people in front offices are generally trending, like more creative and innovative. You know, I always like to say no one is too smart for hockey. Um, so, you know, I think it's a great line, but it's the only reason why I came on today was to drop that line. No, that's good. There's the clip. There's the clip.

Eddie out. Yeah, I don't. I think all that is a perfect storm to just see more excitement and more creativity into your point. Yeah. As guys get locked up longer, you got to find the spots where you can grab them, whether it's soft or sheets or anything else. All right. Last one for me. Let me get your expert opinion on this. Of these three scenarios, which one do you think comes to fruition? Quinn signs with the Devils in 27. Quinn signs a long-term deal with the Wild and Jack joins him in 2030. Quinn signs an extension that takes him to 2030. And then him and Jack are a package-free agent deal that probably Android. Which one is the most likely scenario for you?

I think the third one. I think if you were as agent, you might advise him, on the third one. I've argued for some time, like, you know, teams players should walk themselves to free agency as many times as possible and line themselves up for those mega deals in a rising cap. And I think that would do that. For Quinn, he'd still be in his prime. He'd still easily be able to get an eight, I guess, six or seven year deal potentially at that point. But a max deal where you're not sort of devaluing the later years on his contract. But yeah,

far to hand. I can see that one coming in. I think the other ones of you know, Jack and Luke make their way to Minnesota is a little more far dash, but who knows? And maybe they'll all sign. Then we can talk in Vancouver about how Z. William is one of three hockey playing brothers and maybe they're reunited too. You're nice to Williams. I love it.

Listen, my, William's awesome. Okay, let me close in this. You know, on the on the Puckpedia hockey show, you talked about content when you were with the Florida Panthers, contemplating an offer sheet for Nikita Kuturoff. I think you expanded that as well and talked about. Jared Spurgeon and everyone always finds that interesting. I'm going to go on a fishing trip here.

You were with the Panthers. Were you with the Panthers at the 214 draft, the Philadelphia draft, the Aaron-Eckblad draft? Yeah, I was with the team since 2013. Okay, 2013. Okay, so good. So I remember being there and the rumors were always, and obviously, Dale Tall and general manager said no to all of it.

But I understand the offers were pretty significant. What I was told on the floor that day was Philadelphia, who were hosting, wanted to make the big splash and wanted the first overall pick and they offered a package. I think the Tampa Bay Lightning, which would have been interesting too,

Tampa and Florida making a significant deal. I think Tampa offered Florida something significant as well. Am I on base or off base with these? And what do you remember about the hours leading up to, you know, walking up on stage and selecting Aaron Eckblad from the Barry Colts. I think you're totally on point. I can remember all that.

I wasn't the AGM role then, but I was sort of involved with hockey ops in one way or another dating back at that time. I can tell you, like, I don't recall there ever being much doubt about taking your neckline with the pick there. And I would talk to if anything other than that had happened. But yeah, I think your sources are good and one of those what ifs. And you hear that on the floor like, you know, every year, even the Austin Matthews. trap. There's whispers. There's bad whispers, right?

But there's always sort of a scubble about it of like, oh, who's offering this? For sure. Things don't. And things don't. But yeah, that one, that one I don't think was too close to to becoming real. I think Erud was pretty, pretty entrenched. And it turns out theoretically. So never close. To your knowledge, never, never close. Not the best source on that one, but not something I remember being, keeping anyone up at night.

Thanks for indulging my fishing trip. At least I'm right about the two teams. Yeah, sometimes you catch a big old grouper, and sometimes you grab an old boot. You know, that's the joy of football. Full of seaweed. And that's where I got it at the boat for you here today, everybody. That's what my fishing trip has produced. But listen, this has been a lot of fun. Let's do it again.

Steve, thanks so much for taking time out of your day and spending it and, you know, parking it here with us two goofballs. We really appreciate it. You got it. Thanks, guys. Talk soon. There is, Steve Warrior, former assistant general manager with the Florida Panthers

and, like, flat out, full stop. Like, first of all, follow him on social media. And second of all, really highly intelligent guy. Super smart. Like, I do love his line. Like, never too smart to play him to be in hockey. Never too smart to be in hockey. Never too smart to be in hockey is a good line.

No, that's a really good one. I don't, I want to say one more thing about Quinn. I know we unfortunately had the Yarmu thing to kind of suck up all the time. So the people that tuned in to find out with the sad double fans' reaction to the Quinn Hughes thing were probably a little bit short change. But I will say this. I thought the most interesting thing that happened in the last 72 hours of the Quinn Hughes was his line on Sunday about Billy Guerin anteing up the package that he did to get him, how much that meant to him, how much he'll remember that. And conversely, how much he'll remember the teams that didn't ante up. Now, I think the, I think a lot of people interpreted that as the devils.

And I'll be honest with you, since the story came out this morning that Rachel and I wrote, there's been a little bit of pushback on the idea. I think Red Wings, too. That, well, hold on, I was going to say there's been a little bit of pushback from sources on the idea that it was their inability to clear the contract. was what was keeping them from making the deal. I think there's a little bit of pushback that it was probably the personnel involved in the package that was preventing them from making the deal.

I don't know. I've heard different things from different places regarding that. So we'll park that for a second. But to your point, Merrick, when Quinn said other teams didn't ante up, well, you know, it's been reported by our friend Elliot Friedman that the Red Wings package, what wasn't as deep down the rabbit hole as we thought because of their refusal to include someone in the trade.

Everyone assumes that Simon Edvinson is the guy that he didn't want to give up. Quinn Hughes says in his press conference on Sunday, I'll remember teams that wouldn't push in all their chips basically to get me. Yep. I don't think there's any secret that Quinn Hughes would have liked to have been a Red Wing. And he wants to live as close as he can to his family in Michigan.

At last check, Michigan is closer to Michigan than Minnesota. I personally believe that he was talking about the Red Wings in that situation. Do you feel the same? I thought both. My initial thought was Devils because the way that we're all, the way that the waters have been chummed here was this is going to be a devil's deal. But then upon further review, the Detroit side of it made a lot more sense. Again, like there were just players on the New Jersey Devils who wouldn't waive to go to Vancouver.

And again, I'll make my point again. No trade clauses just mean the players have some decision-making power when it comes to where they're going to go. And they said no to Vancouver. Can we pause on that for a second? Are you sure it's just Vancouver? Because one of the things that I heard ancillary, I can't prove it.

I don't have it on concrete was that it was also potential deals to places that weren't Vancouver to clear space. Again, the pushback is that they didn't need to clear space. The pushback is that it's that they didn't have a strong enough package as someone like Minnesota to get them. But ultimately, like, I have to believe that part of their, part of their math is that they're trying to get rid of a contract. And part of the problem is that they have 11 guys with trade production. I'll be blunt.

You know who the star of the trade was? Who no one has mentioned. Although you guys mentioned it in your piece today. Jed Brackett is the star of this trade. Because. And Jeff Brackett, for those I don't know, is the draft guru who is in Minnesota. now that was in Vancouver and told them to draft Quinn Hughes, seventh overall. Correct.

And other picks that really hit. He's the real star of this trade. And if you ask Bill O'Garren, like, okay, so walk me through, like, what made this possible, he will tell you about the brilliance of Judd Brackett. For putting Bill Agarren in a position where he had all those assets, he had all those things that they could move because they hit on them and they developed them as well. And that's where I'll give a tip of the cap

to someone like Matt Hendricks who runs the HL team for the Minnesota while. I'll also tip cap there. And bluntly, New Jersey missed on too many picks. Oh, we cover that too. They didn't have the package.

They didn't. They've had, I think it's like two guys basically that have, that have played over like 50 or some odd games and like you look at their draft history in the last four four years i know and it's it's bleak and like one of the guys that they hit on i mean if you can call it that was alexander holts who you know they moved over to vegas and even he is not of the caliber of a rossi or abuliam and so yeah no i completely agree i think the fact is if you want to say part of the i mean if you want to say part of the problem is they didn't have the kind of package that minnesota

it could give part of the problem is drafting and honestly if you look at their plate now where they have basically their hl team field you know as half the roster i mean part of the problem right now is that they don't have a lot of reinforceance behind the guys that are injured that being said again i keep on telling people at full strength this team was the second best team in hockey behind colorado before jack hughes got hurt so when these guys start to come back and rep pesche is back at practice now jack skating with a stick I still think they're going to be okay and then there's the other part of this too

which is interesting I had an NHL player tell me this like is part of the Quinn thing that he doesn't want to like Bigfoot his brother because the minute he gets in New Jersey I've been saying that from months I've been saying that from you and I talked about this going back to like when the the chauffeurs

came back on the air this year which is like okay that's great and now guess what Quinn's coming in Luke and he's taking all of your power play time Can I play bumper maybe? No. No, Quinn is coming in to take care.

But how about all three of us on the power? No, Quinn is coming in. But Luke, Luke himself pushed back. Like, we had that in the story, too, that Luke pushed back on that himself and said, look, I wanted Quinn here. And so I, you know, it is kind of, I guess my point is that not necessarily like, does it, would he not come to Jersey because of, out of deference to his brother? I don't know that for sure. But I do know that, like, of the needs of. this team.

Like, everybody needs Quinn Hughes. He's the second best defenseman of the world. 100%. But of the needs of this team, is Quinn Hughes really the primary need? I just saw before I was, you know, on, on social media, like, some noise about Alex Tuck. Like, that is clearly something the devils need more positionally than they need

Quinn Hughes at this point. And so you wonder now what their direction they take is, as they know, they'll probably have to wait two years to even re-engage on the Quinn Hughes thing. Yeah. Do we leave, I mean, I did want to get to Quinn Hughes here today with you specifically. I'm glad we cover that off. I encourage everybody to go read your piece with Rachel at ESPN.com. It is a really interesting piece about this deal from other teams' points of view as well.

Is there anything else that we're leaving off here before we punt? There's a lot of Yarmo, I know, and there was an impression in there. There's, the sense I get, there are a lot of people who have been talking about the Seth Jones hit last night on Hagel. And I think two things can be true. One, they clearly target Hagel every time they play the lightning. Totally. It's pretty obvious. It's never going to say.

It's because he went after, listen, you went after Barkoff. But this is what we keep talking about. Like, okay, you go after our top guy, we'll go after yours. And not just for one game. Yeah. This will forever be the Florida Panthers versus Brandon Hagel. Get used to it. They shan one of yours to the hospital.

It's Sean Connery and the untouchables. That's right. That's Chicago Way and that's a good Hagle. It does give Minnesota, I'm sorry, Winnipeg Jets, Croker-Preeceoff vibes, where every time these teams play, they just like pound one guy. But again, the other part that can be true, though, is I don't, I think the Seth Jones thing is like it kind of looks really bad on that one angle where it looks like he's trying to chicken wing the guy. I don't think he's trying to take the wing the guy. he's skating over the blue line.

I know, I know. But I don't, I don't think that's what that was. Again, like, I go back to the rant and in situation earlier this year where everyone and their mom was like, he's going to get 20 games for, you know, doing what he did to roam it off in the back. And then, and then, like, people get a second look and Gulletson says, oh, actually, he tripped. I'm like, oh, I actually didn't trip. I think the Jones thing looked worse than it was.

Again, I'm not saying that the Panthers aren't trying to injure or, or, you know, beat up Brandon Hagel every chance they get, that's for sure. But I kind of see the way that player safety saw it as far as what that play was last night. And maybe it wasn't as malicious as the reaction was last night. And again, I understand why people saw it as malicious because it's part of a pattern, but maybe that play itself was not necessarily rising to the level of suspension. It was close, but it wasn't quite there. I agree with the OPS on this one, too.

Like, everyone looks at it and says because of the history, but if you're the departmental player safety you can't look at the history you just look at the event itself regardless of oh yeah the panthers of chase brandon haggle all over the ice every time they've played you can't do that you just look at that event as an isolated event then if it rises to the level of a suspension then at that point other things come into it but if the event itself doesn't rise to the level of suspension the history doesn't mean anything i didn't i didn't make time for that battle of florida game by the way like not with Kachuk missing with Kachuk missing with the lightning banged up like it just didn't rise so the usual heavyweight fight for me but I was happy to see that there was still

chicanery involved every time those team teams teams is he Gensel go after Mikoa? Gensel I know exactly I was watching the game I'm like wait a wait is that Jake Gensel throwing punches at Mika like part of Mekal has got to be Miko is going back to the penalty box he's just like Jake Gensel I don't okay sure like part of part of Nika Miko Mika must have been like doing a double take like you really yeah you want to do do they with me I'm like seven feet tall obviously the other problem with the game last night is I believe it was on NHL network here in the States so I needed a fucking Sherpa to find out how to watch the game you know but like it just happens you know it's just we need to get

rid of these games on NHL network I'm sorry that's my that's my pet pee for today you know I've always thought what's that um i don't even know if the nchl could do this but this has always been a belief of mind because as a hockey fan when i go to the united states i wherever i go i want to be able to watch hockey and i want to be able to watch the nchl network and i don't know if you could even do this or mandate this from the nchl but you're a professional sports league and so you spend a lot of time in hotels. I would mandate, and maybe they do, and I'm just unaware of it, that if we're going to use your hotel, you have to make the NHL network available.

I will let you know that they do mandate it. And the funniest thing is when you go to, yeah, when you go to like the draft, or let me use a different example, when you go to like the All-Star, we have any events anymore? When you go to an NHL event. Winter Classic. And you're in the official hotel room of the league that has all the signage event. You will go on your television and you'll be like, oh, oh, cool. Let me see what's on CNBC.

I wonder if there's a rerun a shark tank. You'll go to CNBC and all of a sudden it's the NHL network. It just appears on your television taking over the slot that would formally be for another station. They've been doing this for years and I think it's actually pretty clever. But ultimately, the idea that there are games on this thing. like let the people why have like a Battle of Florida game on a network you can't get if you have like

YouTube TV it's insane one day this will all be solved one day this will all be solved today is not that day you want to hang out for the next segment or you got stuff to do no I got a bolt I got to do a radio thing what are you doing radio today

what are you doing radio today I think it's in Carolina I think I'm on with Adam Gold in the second or two but yeah it's good times uh everybody check out the queen hugh's piece that me and rachel wrote already getting lots of feedback from different places and then i believe tomorrow will be a uh a nice visit with uh with morgan with morgan geeky um about uh about the season that he's had not just season but like last season too like i was making the point a while ago like this is because he could could have got way more money on the open market.

Way more money. But like when I used to work with Bob McCowan at the fan and everyone who would talk to Bob have the same conversation about like, oh, I'm getting this offer over here, I'm getting an offer up there, should I go? And he always say the same thing. Are you happy here? Well, yeah, there's more money over there. And he'd always say, don't fuck with happy.

If you're happy, find a reason to stay. Don't fuck with happy. And you know what? more geeky it's not fucking with happy and he's I blame myself for us great

I blame myself for us working blue at the end of the show I dropped an F bomb and I open the door for you to do the same the thing about geeky that I found fascinating the reason I wanted to talk to him

is because like every year there's a regression candidate and like he was clearly the guy and then he goes out and scores like 22 goals and 30 games and he's a higher shooting percentage that he had last year

and it's just like you know has a feel to spike the football so it's about that and also just like he's a really fascinating guy. So I'm happy to add a chance to chat with him.

Does he have any idea why Seattle didn't qualify him? Is that part of this? Because that's the one that I said. Like I give Carolina a pass because Carolina made him available for the Seattle expansion. I'd have to go back and see what the options were.

But I kind of give Carolina a mulligan on this one. But Seattle, I can't figure out. I don't know if we actually got into why do you think this happened but we did get into like how does it feel to be unwanted that kind of feeling well listen and as like you said the reason they in boston is because you feel wanted as as as as an adopted child this will be very very interesting for me is my my therapist watch this one with me all right Craig be off with you then we'll look for that

this tomorrow spn. yeah thanks pal brilliant thanks everybody there is Greg Wyshinsky dropping by here on Tuesdays and Thursdays for action pack. And by the way, Steve was awesome as well. Steve's a super intelligent guy. Glad to have Steve aboard on today's program. We have one more segment, Zach. By the way, do you want to weigh in on anything from Yarmow today, who was the headline maker? You watched the press conference this morning.

Anything that you and your sharp new haircut noticed, they wanted to comment on? It must be Christmas time and you have to see family. All of a sudden, he's discovered scissors. Yeah. My barber's back. He's healthy. We're all good to go. So I got everything cleaned up. Yeah, I got my guy. The biggest things that just stood out to me was a lot of the stuff you guys touched on, but it was the character conversation that he had. And I thought it was kind of funny because he talked about the skill, the skill in the room, the talent in the room, the skill in the room. It's like, wow, there's a lot of skill in the room. And then he was like, well, we got to figure out about the character. He dropped it, I think, three different times. And two of them were more pronounced. Once was at the beginning. once was a little bit later on i just found that interesting because he opened with it later on he was asked about it uh meeting with the guys he said yeah i met with the guys trying to figure out what the character we have in the room um i don't know i'm not going to try

to make anything of it about what happens in the future i just thought it was really interesting he made it a point in the 20 something minute sit down he had to bring up character as much as he did work ethic too work ethic yeah yeah all right my favorite one of my favorite lines by the way

and I've been using this a lot doing my post game show but it's from Miracle whether he use this in real life or not I don't know but the movie it is a great line and he's like he tells them you know you think you have enough talent to win

and you don't have enough talent to win on talent alone he says you can't do that there's a lot of teams in this league who probably feel like they have enough talent, but when you realize, hey, we got to do more than just have enough talent, that's when you can start to push yourself over the hump, I think. You know, you look at teams that just kind of get walked in certain situations.

Well, do you just rely on talent or do you have character? I heard a great line a couple of years ago, and it's always stuck with me. And it had nothing to do with sports, although in this context, it does. We're just talking about careers. And this one person said to me, you don't the best skill you can have for your career? I said, this is true of everybody. This is advice for everyone.

This person said to me, the best skill you can have in your career is having the ability to manage your skill. How many times have you seen someone like so skilled at what they do, but they can't get out of their own way? or they don't know, like, that one extra thing that they have to add. And it's so obvious to everyone except for them

because they just think that they're going to surf on their skill and everything is going to be fine. Yeah. Having the best skill you can have is the ability to manage your own skill. Oh, man, that made a lot of sense to me. Anyhow. By the way, general soreness, the other man from Miracle, that's applicable to the Buffalo situation.

Right now it's everybody's net. Are we going to watch that when we go to Minnesota? Are we going to watch Miracle? Is that what we're going to do when we get there, Zach? I probably will. I'll probably find a way to watch it on the plane. I'll watch it when we get there. I will watch it on the plane home.

Yeah. You know where we're going when we get there. Have I mentioned? We're going to Lou's restaurant. We're going to Lou Nanny's restaurant with Lou. And you're going to watch me be like a 12-year-old asking Mr. Nanny a bunch of hockey questions. That would be cool. For hours.

That will be cool. That's going to be a lot of fun. We can watch Miracle if you want. Okay. The sheet is powered by Fandul. I think there's a couple of people that are coming down from the chat that are going to hang out with us when we do our meetup as well. The sheet is powered by Fandul.

Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season and Fandul is your home for all the action on the ice. From Blue Line to Betslip, we've got you covered all season with unique promos, live offerings, and more features to let you play your game. Miss Puck Drop, no sweat. With a live same game parlay, you can build up your bets until the final buzzer. Download Fandual Sportsbook today and play your game. Please play responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario.

If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. We got a lot of game tonight. Yes, we do. What's your theme tonight, funny man? I source the chat and the sheet heads on this one. So we have some contributions from them to put together a themed parlay for tonight. And this one specifically comes in from our guy John Bankert in the chat who's here every day.

And this one, it's going to be, it might bother you a little bit because it's like, oh, wow, look at this guy. He's going for the layup. This one is called the Return of the Mac, Connor Mac David. Obviously, it's not a name. I'm overdoing it, okay? Macklin, Celebrini, Nathan MacKinnon. Wow, what are the chances of the goal scores? Connor might score.

Celebrini. Nathan, wow, geez, look at you. Yeah, you're not waiting. Wow, you're not waiting into the pool. You're going off the high diving tower. Wow, this is risky. A little layup in there. Oh, here we go.

Oh, is that the triple indie? That's a back-to-school reference, right, danger field. And do you get that reference, by the way? Okay, so McDavid's celebrate you don't, eh? Oh, God, I weep for the future. McDavid, Celebrini and McKinnon to score a goal for you tonight. $5 pays 57. We're going.

Theemed, first of all, lots of games. We're picking stars. We got to market the stars. I mean, I've been thrown out, like, Yakov Trennan, and I don't even know who was the, I had somebody on a, I had a fourth line combination the other day of three different guys on fourth lines. I don't even remember at this point who was in it. But we're going to go with the stars tonight. We're marketing the stars.

It's a stars-driven league. All right. Low-hanging fruit still nutritious. Why do I always cough at the end of the show? It's two days in a row. End of the show. That's because I'm like drinking like coffee grounds here by the end. Have a look at it.

You can see that it's like just by the end. And then I start coughing. Yeah. right to finish clean show good show I was great that you guys awesome and then my my coffee betrays me I got to stop drinking so much coffee

I've been doing better ain't like I shut down like this would be my last cup of the day I had I had a stretch shut it down at the end of this show how many are you at then this is really not important stuff six yeah okay I was doing five a day every day for like two months straight I had, I built up to that point, and then eventually I was like, I can't do this.

Like, my body is going to hate me. I can't drink enough water to counteract the dehydration that takes place and taking the coffee, too. And then, or I just pee myself all day, which I'd rather not do. Keep going. Anything else you want to confess here to? No, we're good. Shows over. Trough underneath your laptop there for, well, Maple Leaf Garden style.

Just, here we go. Or I could put my feet up On the desk Oh man One of my great stuff I had the CEO of a team Text me When you put that out

I would say Is that really true about Ballard? Like yeah People around the league Are paying attention These clips you put out, Zach It's quite something All right

Thanks Greg Wischinsky for stopping by From ESPN.com He's back on Thursday We do Tuesdays and Thursdays With Wish Thanks to Steve Warrior for stopping by former Assistant General Manager of the Florida Panthers.

Thanks to Steve for coming on and being smarter than everyone and giving us a great line about smart people in the NHL. Thanks to you for watching. Thanks to you for listening. Thanks to you for subscribing. Very much appreciate it. Thanks to everybody in the chat who helped Zach crowdsource his bet for the end of the program here

from our friends at Fanduel. We're back tomorrow at 1 o'clock. And I think even though we've been sort of ships passing in the night the last couple of weeks, various reasons, mainly travel. I think Berkey's back tomorrow. Actually, I'm almost pretty sure that Berk is. He is back tomorrow.

You know what I still want to do? Okay, so he's good to go. He's good to make it. I still want to do a show where we do Brian and Patrick. Burke. Maybe we should do that around Father's Day. Not a bad idea. Smart guy, Jeff.

Or to pay you the big bucks. No, dude, that's too cliche. Like, I'm embarrassed to even say it. We'll do it on Father's Day. Okay, thanks to everyone for taking part in the program today, whether it's lending your eyes, lending your ears, lending your fingers as well for the chat. We appreciate it.

Please subscribe and like and do all those fun things that keep us employed here. We're back tomorrow. 1 o'clock Eastern for the shoot. I'll sweat 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 because you can call it all right i went to the dark man

you tried to give me a little medicine i'm like now and that's fine i'm not against those methods but new it's me and myself and how this going to be fixing my mind i do on the back i turned on the music Back in the days I turn it on the music It's to melt Yeah I'm going to sometimes losing