The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Kirill Kaprizov Signs Largest Contract in NHL History ft. Greg Wyshynski & Hart Levine

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

On this episode of The Sheet, Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski break down every angle of the Kirill Kaprizov contract saga and his record-setting deal with the Minnesota Wild — the largest contract in NHL history. From months of speculation and behind-the-scenes negotiations to the Wild locking in their superstar, Marek and Wyshynski provide insider context on how it all came together.Later, Hart Levine joins the show to explore the long-term implications of Kaprizov’s deal, what it means for Minnesota’s salary cap, and how it could set the stage for future UFA mega-deals for NHL superstars like Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, and others. This episode is your one-stop shop for expert analysis on the Kaprizov contract, the state of the Wild, and the ripple effects across the league.If you’re an NHL fan tracking contracts, free agency, or the future of hockey’s brightest stars, you don’t want to miss this.#NHL #KirillKaprizov #MinnesotaWild #TheSheet #NHLContracts #ConnorMcDavid #JackEichel #HockeyReach 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/@Flames_Nation🚨 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NVSW Tuesday, and welcome to it for this Tuesday, September the 30th, and the big news of the day. Greg's article and peace and interview with Trevor Zegroos of the Philadelphia Fires. But first, you know, it's funny. It's funny. I literally said to my wife before the Krill Kaprizov contract was announced, it was a good three hours, a good three hours of the Zegris story leading the site, people talking about it, and then someone had to go sign the richest contract in an HL history, and there you go.

It was like when this was a dark tweet after Ozzy Osbourne passed away, like two days later, Hulk Hogan passed away, and someone tweeted, man, Hogan wouldn't even let Ozzie keep his heat for two days. That's right. So if couldn't even let Greg Wershinsky keep his heat for 45 minutes or an hour or a couple of hours. And it will dominate the conversation today. It will dominate the conversation today. You're going to let me say my darkest Hulk Hogan joke? Sure.

It was a picture of his funeral and someone labeled it the only time Hogan allowed anyone to bury him. Again, it's just. I thought it was going to be a kickout joke or something. No, no, no kickout. out at three foot on the road. Well, there you go. Well, we've hit our wrestling quota for the show, as everyone's come to understand. Now we'll get right to the puck talk.

Thank you very much. And as Mike Russo reports with the Caprizov deal, the structure is interesting. 20% of the $95.5 million cap in salary signing bonuses 19.1 in his first four years. Like, it's a special contract here. And there's a lot to get to. But first, before we start diving into what this means for Connor and Jack and Kyle, and Martin and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and great day for the Minnesota Wild.

And congratulations to the Minnesota Wild. Hart Levine from Puckpeda is going to stop by a little bit later on. We're hoping to have someone else join us here that Zach is trying to coordinate as we speak. But in the meantime, before we get into the Pacifics, as we say in the Atlantic about this deal, congratulations to the Minnesota Wild. They got their guy. It's a little bit more sugar in the coffee that I'm sure Bill Guerin wanted to splash around. But nonetheless, the Minnesota Wilde got Kapril Kaprizov locked up for the next eight years to which Greg Wischinski says what?

I mean, there are different kinds of wins. I think this is a huge win for Bill Garan. He landed the plane. Any general manager that's in this level of contentious negotiation that can land the plane, it's good. I was talking to you before the show. I am stunned. shocked, flabbergasted. Okay.

That Kri-Soff wanted to stay in Minnesota for eight years. I really thought when he rejected the first contract offer that it wasn't about the money, but it was about him wanting to remain in Minnesota. We talked about it last week with Mike Russo, the, let's call them nefarious overtures made by other national hockey league teams with regard to your plans for free stuff. This is like, this is like Glenn Garry, Glenn Ross. We're talking about this? Are we talking about this?

What are we doing? We're just talking. We're just talking. He may not have known where the grass was greener, but he sure is shit new. The grass was growing other places. And I'm a little surprised he decided to commit to Minnesota, to be honest with you. But the part of the win, you like you just declared a win for Minnesota.

It is. The one that really, well, let me ask you this, because this is also the caveat I'd give to Garen and the caveat I'd give to the Minnesota victory, which is that they clearly were. negotiating against themselves. I don't think anybody goes this high with Caprice off on the open market. And I don't think, I think that this contract, as I was texting with an agent before the show, because, you know, big deal. I think this contract is commiserate to the idea that it's not a destination market and that the way that the wild are built does not guarantee that he's going to win a Stanley Cup in the next several seasons.

I mean, they've got some great pieces. They're maybe on their way. Obviously, him being there is a foundational reason why they could maybe win a cup one day. But they've never done it in franchise history. And there are other teams built stronger in the West at the moment. And so the commitment to the team, the commitment to the market, they had to go well above their already record offer, Merrick to sign this guy. And one of the things that they always said was. we don't want to negotiate against ourselves.

The only other team involved this negotiation was the Minnesota Wild. They completely negotiated against themselves. But what was the option? Like this is what I come back to. Like this was as far as agenting, this was a brilliant performance by Paul Theophanos, who recognized in this situation, this is the first year at the Minnesota Wilde get out of cap prison. And if your first move when you finally get out of cat prison is to lose the best player

of your franchise, with all due respect, Mary and Gabrick, the best player, your franchise ever had, that's a bad look for the organization. And he recognized that. And that was a leverage point. Like, there's a lot of leverage points that Cabral Caprizov had here. This is going to be a tough one for Bulgarian from the beginning. And how many times have we said? Like, it's, it's the old Yarmou Kekeleinen saying, sometimes the team has the hammer, sometimes the player has the hammer. When the team has the hammer, they have the right to use it. And when the player has the hammer. The player has the right to use it. And in this situation, much like with Connor McDavid, much like with Jack Eichel, et cetera, the player has the hammer here. And clearly

he used it, and we should not fault them whatsoever for doing a couple of things here, resigning in Minnesota, and B, resetting the marketplace to as what one agent referred to me, because I'm a big deal to. I talk to a couple agents before I'm a great idea, said, you know, this is, this is a resetting of the marketplace. And what did we talk about last week? Nobody wanted to go first. No one wanted to be the first one in this pool. Well, now Kareil Kaprizov has done it,

specifically in those first four years, as Rousseau points out. But he has effectively reset the marketplace here. And now everything that happens afterwards is a reflection of this contract. So this contract isn't just a Minnesota contract. This is a Winnipeg contract. This is an Edmonton contract. contract. This is a Vegas contract. This is a Colorado contract. And it might just be a contract that gets some players traded. These are all the things we're going to talk about on the program

today. We are. On the caprice, I think, like the other thing about it, too, and I, again, there's no way to predict this stuff. I don't want to have a sassy Jack Hughes coming after me about talking about the potential health of players in, in future situations. But you have committed this money and you have committed this years to someone who has played 80 games once in his in his career um that's a fact that when he plays he's incredible when he plays he's one of the maybe a generational goal score in this league let's let's be honest i mean with the the amount of talent that he has uh in the way that he shoots the puck but you know that's part of it too is you're investing this amount of money in a guy that might not always be there based on his previous

five seasons in the league the other thing that i think we need to factor into and i hope it doesn't discourage other owners from speaking this way or being as candid and open as Craig Leopold was last year when he said look no one no one can offer them more than we can and we're we're paraphrasing here and we're prepared to do so don't forget here too part of the motivation like all these things that Theophanus would have gathers together you have the owner saying no one's going higher than us no one's offering more okay let's test that like all those things like this is why attorneys don't want clients talking outside of the courtroom. This is why it's just like, it's always a good time to shut up. Because all these things, you know, Paul Theofanus,

the agent here brought to the dance. And it all worked in his client's favor. So congratulations. And in the process I mentioned, we set the marketplace. Yeah. Again, I can't say this is a loss for the wild or a loss for Geron. I mean, they've managed to retain. And once again, ladies and gentlemen, as we saw during the summer, the talent was retained. because the cap is going up. They've managed to retain one of the best offensive players in the league. And a guy that would have lit it up in several different markets had he been able to escape. And you were now the Kilkerra...

You're now the Krill CapriSoft team. And again, if you want to take the optimistic view, again, I think there are a few pieces away from being an actual cup contention. But it's not like they don't have some good young defensemen. It's not like they don't have some decent forwards. You know, there's something there. and you just hope that, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the other part of this too is, and again, this was another pressure point. Um, if you don't sign curl caprice off, how much of a step backwards are the Minnesota wild taking here? And this is a team that, I mean, how long did we? you said. I know I keep coming back to Suter and Paris, like get the handcuffs off and all of a sudden we'll see, you know, finally Bill Guerin can chew on some real cap space, et cetera,

et cetera, et cetera. We have a lot to get to here on this program about this contract and as I mentioned Hart Levine from Puckpedia, the conceptual genius of Puckpedia, as we like to call them. We'll join us coming up just after the bottom of the hour break. In the meantime, here's coming up on the program today, daily outline powered by Fanduel, make every moment more with North America's number one sports book fan duel. And as I mentioned, Hart Levine will be dropping by in a couple of moments. We'll talk more about Krell Caprizov and the setting of the bar, the new high watermark in the NHL.

We'll see how long this one lasts. We will talk about your piece with Trevor Ziegress. And it was funny. When I woke up this morning, I said, because I'm curious, like, okay, Greg's on. I got to, what are we going to talk about today? And I go, we got to park some time talking about another Matthew Schaefer. back check, which all seems so small right now. And I know

it was against Matt Rempey, but if this is this guy's calling card, who is that guy? Who is it beat the freeze in baseball? Like Matthew Schaefer on the back check is going to be like, beat the freeze. Was that his name? Beat the freeze in baseball. I didn't even know which team did it.

But there was one guy in an intermission feature who would give people like a head start and he'd be all dressed up like a spaceman. And he would catch people who had this insane head start running around the outfield wall. Was it beat the free? Anyway, that's what these Matthew Schaefer back checks are.

Now, really quickly. The Atlanta Braves. Oh, is Atlanta Braves? There we go. Was the Atlanta Braves that did beat the freeze? Thanks for chiming in, Zach, because I was really worried the mushrooms are kicking in. You never saw beat the freeze? I probably did.

I just didn't recall it. Everybody. You're also the person who made a max headroom reference before we hopped on the air. So, I mean, you are on a different wavelength. You referenced your headroom in the camera shot. So you can just take it while about that one. But those Schaefer backchecks, I know it was against Rempe, and I know it was against Beechoff,

and I know neither of those two guys are the fastest in the NHL, but it's still fun to see nonetheless. Okay. Hold on, did I see a video last night if the Islanders trying to hold up Rempay so he couldn't absolutely pancake Schaefer when he had the puck? I think I saw a clip of that as well. Yeah.

Wouldn't surprise me. Okay, so as we continue on with the topic of the day, and that is a Karel Kaprizov record-setting contract with the Minnesota Wild. What's the next domino to fall here? And what does it mean, given there is a new reality and a new standard set here? There's a new bar set in the NHL. Is it the obvious? Well, now all eyes are going to be on Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.

What is Connor going to do? Is it Jack Eichel? Is it Kyle Connor? Is it Martin Natchez? Like, who's next for you, wish? well the one I'm most interested now is Kyle Connor the other two McDavid's going to sign for whatever McDavid asks for and his resigning in Edmonton I don't think is commiserate with any dominoes falling behind him okay it's commiserate on thinking he can actually win there beyond this season so we all know that in Jack Eichael's case the sense I get is that it's less about the money than it is about the term what how long do they want to commit to Jack Eichael in Vegas and also ultimately you can never really tell when you're dealing with Vegas what their plans ultimately could be

like what are they keeping their powder dry for down there one never knows so Kyle Conner is the one I'm most interested in because he's a winger who scores goals and a winger who just scores goals just signed the richest contract in NHL history and if we're doing winners and losers Merrick yeah I'm not quite sure how anyone

can't view Kevin Shevoldeoff as a gigantic loser today based on how much Kyle Conner's price tag just increased. Yeah. One other thing that I want to throw on the, one other log I want to throw on the fire here of this conversation, speaking with one agent this morning and we were trying to figure out, okay, what does this, like translate this contract from Minnesota to Florida.

And it sounds like if this were the Florida equivalent, it would be just over $14 million. And how different a conversation are we having right now about Jack and Connor and Kyle and Martin and all that if the contract that he signs wasn't in Minnesota but was in Florida and it was $14 million because that is the commensurate the commensurate price for this player if he wasn't in Minnesota or this I think only California and New York I mean you're an American you can tell me otherwise are the two states that have higher tax rates than Minnesota look man all I know is a bacon egg and cheese that's me back like seven

bucks now which is tough to do but you know what kind of god would allow that this the the screaming about the floridian teams getting crow caprice off would uh would would would would over uh overshadow any any math being done on the deal like that's obviously what would have been the bigger story here but again you you got to pay the guy to retain the guy um this is just like well beyond where i ever thought they'd end up with them is is the honest answer uh Okay, Canadian-based program. How does this affect Connor McDavid? How does this affect the Edvinton Oilers?

I don't think it does. I think he's going to have to decide how long he wants to commit Edmonton and at what price he wants. And the other thing about it, too, Merrick, is that we've heard from people that if he does re-up for another, say, like, three years. And again, three years gives him this year, three more. It puts him on the same contract trajectory as his good friend, Ryan Nugent Hopkins, and also Evan Bouchard with the Oilers.

So if you're looking for the window to win, that might be the window to the win, we've heard that he might not take this kind of money to stay in Edmonton because he wants the Oilers to have the flexibility to do other things. Based on what you just saw Kupresov sign, do you still believe that to be true?

Geez, I keep going back and forth on this one. And the Oilers have been consistent, and most recently and most publicly, Jeff Jackson, who said, like, look, this is it's not really a it's not really a negotiation Connor McDavid has a has a place in hockey where he's going to say what he wants and we're going to say okay like that's the way that's the way this one is going to go so this is now more attention on okay Connor McDavid what do you want like once upon a time like we talked the other a couple of weeks

ago at the passing of Bob good now and in that era there was no way no chance that Conne McDavid was going to sign for less than Carrell Caprizov. Not a chance. Stanley Cup final twice, Concemi's trophy, Hart Trophy, like go out of Ross, like on and on and multiple All-Star, like Hall of Fame position is already secured, like all of it. There's no way he's coming in lighter. But the feeling that everybody has about Connor McDavid and the drive to win and the Stanley Cup and get the name scratched and all these types of things for Connor.

is that to your point the money isn't as important as the winning but if the winning was the only thing that was important he would come in at a ridiculously low number and i don't think conna macdavid wants to do that and again like this is why this is why i keep saying to myself this is one of the most incredibly sensitive needles that connor macdavid is trying to thread here between uh how many Sometimes you've heard an athlete say something along the lines of this. It's not about money. It's about respect. And the way that I judge respect is money.

So at the end of it, it's always, it's always about money. But still, like, Connor has like this internal, you know, this internal tug and this internal push and pull that's going on with them. I want to win, but I also want to take care of myself and do what's right in a lowercase here in a minor key. for what's right for the Players Association. Now that, Capri's office at a new bar. I was going to say, like, you don't have to worry about that anymore. Others will take care of that for you. I just think he's painted himself into a corner, to be honest with you, rhetorically.

You know, if you decide to stay in Edmonton, you're deciding to stay in Edmonton to allow them to try to win a cup with you there. The only way that they're going to win a cup with you there is to get better. The only way they can get better is to have open cap space. The only way they're going to have open cap spaces is if you don't take a $17 million dollar AAV. So I actually think McDavid's kind of put himself in a situation where if he does get a dollar more than Caprice off against the cap, we'll all believe he's worth it, but it may not necessarily

serve the purpose that he has stated, he wants to stay at Edmonted for it just to win a Stanley Cup. Yeah, I get that. But on the other hand, I always go back to, you know, what the player is thinking here. And again, I don't know the answer to this, but I wonder how much in terms of, Or maybe, like, in conversations with Stan Bowman, Connor and his representation at Wasserman, Jud Moldaver, are saying, like, look, why should my guy pay the cost for mistakes the last general manager made? How come my guy's got, how come my guy's got to pay for it here? Because we haven't been able to put this, put a, put a, put a team around him. Why does my guy?

Why does my guy have to suffer here? Like, once part of time, like, what, once in a time, that was the conversation. No, I know that. I know that. I know that. But like, once upon time, like, that. That was the conversation. And I don't know if that's still going through the mind of someone like Connor

McDavid. Like, I'm sure at various points. And this goes true for every player. Like, there's a lot of players on teams that are, like, I think about the Buffalo Sabres, and I really think about Tage Thompson all the time. What's going through his mind and how much longer he wants to keep doing this if this continues. But if you're Connor McDavid, at a certain point, you have to say, how come I'm always the one that has to be more understanding?

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for easy returns, exchanges, or replacements. Go to bambas.ca slash the sheet and use code the sheet for 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot-C-A slash the sheet and use the code the sheet at checkout. You got, you just, you crammed a burrito full of nonsense. Listen, there's no comparison between Connor McDavid and Tage Thompson because Tage Thompson can't make the play. and Conner Mc Davis went to the Stanley Cup final twice. So although that roster may have financial mistakes, it's still one that got him within a few wins of the Stanley Cup.

Second of all, Stan Bowman's a GM now. And while, you know, obviously the team has its financial mistakes in the past, you can easily say those weren't mine. I mean, he's got different mistakes in the past, Merrick, but not the ones on the Oilers. No, but what, no, but what I'm saying is like there's a, there's a history of squandered opportunities here for the Edmonton Oilers. And then now that they're right there and ready to make, and we assume ready to take that next step.

And if you're, if you're dread mold, they're like, why does my guy have to make the sacrifice? What does, what does Stan have to do, give him reparations? Because Ken Holland mismanage the cap. Like, he's in there because they needed a change. And he can easily just make the argument, give me three years. I'm not going to make the same mistakes in the past. Hey, by the way, here's three standing cup rings that tell you that I won't.

And the reason that Connor McDavid has to take less. is not because, you know, he's the one who always is sacrificing for the sins of the past. It's because he's one of the highest paid players in the sport. And if you're one of the highest paid players in the sport and you're at the top of the salary a ladder, then you're the one who has to decide whether or not you're going to take less to help out the rest of the team. It's something that Crosby had to do. It's something that others had to do. It's something that Kane and Taves decided not to do.

And it's something that obviously Matthews and Marner decided not to do. And so that's when you're the best and you want to win, sometimes you can't also be paid like the best and still win. That's just your lot in life in a salary cap league. So obviously, Merrick, the ultimate answer is stop being a bunch of wimps and fight for a luxury tax. So you wouldn't even have to have these conversations about the cap. That will never happen. The other thing that I've been going back to 0405, just as a quick aside about, you know,

the luxury tax fight. That won't happen as never will my idea happen. This goes back to 2005 and that is cap cash. Hey, at Trade Deadline, we find ourselves with $5 million worth of cap space that we're not going to use. Why can't I trade that for a draft pick or a player? That will never happen either. Even though all the money is still accounted for, still, and I understand that salary caps are magnets

and you're using up all your cap space and you're treating like a commodity, but players did sign off on linkage. That's also the other thing, too, with Minnesota we didn't talk about, like, you know, obviously nobody on that roster is Caprisoff, but now you've, you've, the ceiling is quite high now that Faber's looking at. The ceiling is quite high now that, you know, William's going to be looking at, and anybody else they bring in, that's also part of the salary cap math as well with, with Krill.

Vegas with Jack Eichel on this one. I want to, a couple more, a couple more moments here. up the conversation with Hart Levine from Buckpeed in a second, but the other big one here is Jack Eichael. And I don't know if there's still any residue from the draft and those comparisons, and they played in different conferences for a long enough time. But I wonder if it's important for Conner to make more money than Jack Eichael. Like, I'm wondering about part of this too is, like, listen, part of this too is, and you know how players are competitive like this. First of all, are you surprised to

Karel Karprizov went first. No. Look at the money he just got from Minnesota. Oh, I get it. I get, I get that. Like the Jets aren't going to be the first because they're not going to want to set the market with Kyle Connor. They want, you know, and Kyle Connor, I should, I should rephrase that. Kyle Connor wants the market set before he goes back to the Jets.

That's pretty obvious. You know, McDavid, as I said, I don't think he's part of this conversation. he's in a different stratosphere. Eichel, that's one I didn't think was going to happen before Caprisoff, just because I think there's more at play there than simply we want to retain the player. I think that the Wilde made absolutely no bones

about wanting to keep krill. And I'm not entirely convinced that Vegas, Vegas wants to keep Eichol, but I don't think they have the same level of enthusiasm him as the Wilde did. Does that make sense? No, because, you know, he, no, I agree with that, although I do think that when you look at, look, look, down the middle of the Vegas Golden Knights, Jack Eichael is clearly number one. And then you have William, is this the year they trade him Carlson?

and then you have Tomash keep the hospital bracelet off hurdle do we sort of undervalue how important Jack Eichel is to this entire organization this entire operation because he's the center you can't afford to lose if there's a 1% chance that the Vegas Golden Knights could end up with Connor McDavid next summer how do you commit 15 million a no a no move clause to Eichel because it is a risk that unless you're tampering and that doesn't happen in the NHL, it is a major risk because you might not get the player and you may lose your number one center as well in the process because there'll be plenty of teams, Boston Bruins, I'm looking your direction,

that would open things up for Jack Eichael. I believe that, by the way. So, I mean, they're going to be, they're going to figure it out. But there have been a situation that players have wanted to stay, but like, there's just flat out more money available somewhere else. But if there is even an inkling that Connor likes a dry heat and would mind playing next to Mitch. Because Connor's going to want to go to Dallas. Like Connor's going to want to dry heat. It's other places too.

Connor's going to want to go someplace where there's a Mitch. Just like he's got a Leon now. He's going to want a Mitch or something. Oh, I see. Okay. I'm not saying that that's what's holding it up. Yeah. But I am saying that when you.

have a situation like that in Edmonton you kind of have to keep your powder dry a little bit and I think if you committed the money that's going to keep Eichel there and by and easily the no trade clause that'll keep there is he have one now I forget

if he has one now I think he's got to have one now right let's see here Jack Eichel no move clause so he's got a full of no move clause now he'd have one on his next contract so you got to be sure because you can't have all three I mean, Vegas could probably find a way

what, you know, one hurts Is any team before the playoffs and all of a sudden you can afford all three. But, you know, you probably need to not have all three if you want to have a successful team. Okay. Brackett the contract conversation.

We're going to pick it up here in about 10 minutes with Hart Levine from Puckpedia who will sort of, you know, drill down on what this means for the entire marketplace. I do want to talk about your Trevor Zegra's piece. Please. What, first of all, I think we'd all be on the same page. The moment that really put them on the map was the Sunny Milano play against the Buffalo

against the Buffalo Sabres. That was tremendous. To the point where I, and this would have been the 2022 NHL All-Star game where the league really went and pretzeled themselves to try to get Trevor Zegris in this thing, even though Troy Terry was representing Anaheim, but like Ziegress gave them the best highlight of the year that everybody played on a loop over and over and over again, he better be in the All-Star Games

so he became a special guest in the skills competition. Invented an event for him. It's so good. But I loved it, but I loved it. Like, oh, yeah, you got to get him. So that's, that's exactly why I wanted to write about him is this idea that at one point by his third season in the league, the idea that this guy isn't amongst the biggest stars in the NHL,

the idea that this guy isn't in the conversation for Team USA, the idea that this guy isn't even an Anaheim duck anymore is kind of staggering to think about. You know, we all know what happened in the last two years in Anaheim with the injuries and all this other stuff. And so, you know, I wanted to talk to him about Anaheim. I wanted to talk to him about, you know, where he wants to go. And so the two things I want to share is like,

I rarely get knocked on my ass as an interviewer. But the last question I asked Trevor was at the end of this season with the flyers, what would you like people to say about you? And I'm thinking to myself, they did a good job. And he shot the puck good. Team makes loved him, worked hard on his stafford. He comes back with,

I want people to say that I'm not a guy who plays hockey, but that I'm a hockey player. I'm like, what? The philosophical answer. from from the the 20 you know what that is hang on you know what that is i always tell okay can we just park this for one second i always tell like youth hockey minor minor hockey coaches the exact same thing that plays off of that and i always say like this is a sort of like let's like kids have

fun like remember that when you're yeah let the kids have fun i always say like the mistake that youth hockey coaches make is they think they're coaching hockey players they're not these aren't hockey players these are kids playing hockey and that's a major major distinction i always try to pound it into them you are not coaching hockey players these are kids who play hockey big difference and you become a hockey player much later on life which is why you see that Trevor zegra's answer that you're referencing and yeah at that point you want to be a hot you're no longer a kid playing hot you're playing hot dog hockey you're not that anymore it all yeah it you're absolutely right it's a great answer it also speaks to the narrative that's been established about and

which is that he isn't anything more than YouTube trick shots, that he can't play a 200-foot game. Everybody I talked to, Lucas Dostal, included, his goalie back in Anaheim, said, look, this kid works really hard on being a complete player. And so far, the Flyers, I think, like what they see, but he's going to have to prove it to stay in the middle. And that brings me to Anaheim. Like, I really wanted to talk about Anaheim with this kid.

And the first thing he said was it was probably a seasonal disaffective disorder being in the sunshine for 365. And I thought he was kind of joking, but a lot of people have kind of seasoned on that, say actually that's definitely a thing you wouldn't want to deal with if you were somebody that has it um you know the two thing that struck that struck me first of all the anaheim thing i think boils down to the injuries the fact that he missed his first camp with greg cronin because of the r f a contract negotiations and i think groan let's just say he got off on the wrong foot with

gregg coronin which is not the foot you want to be on with greg cron and the third thing is the fact that they had Leo Carlson and Mason McTavish playing the position that Ziegers wanted to play. And and yeah, so I mean, he was out of place. Pause on that. Pause on that. He wasn't the general

manager's guy. He was a general manager's guy and he's also not he's not built for the wing. He's built for the middle. He wants to play the middle and that was the problem. The thing that really struck me though, Merrick was this is a guy who, again, in his first three seasons of play would be the

last one of the last players you'd expect to hit trade boards you know one of the last guys you expect to be on the block yeah and the last few years put him there and and i talked to him about how much anxiety that created like he kind of all these guys know more than we do like when they when i put them on a trade board or you know chris johnson puts them on a trade board what took you so long we're doing it because we're looking at their contract situation where the team is in the standings and talking to some people inside the league to kind of formulate these trade boards But to see his name on there means that all of a sudden his phone's getting blown up by friends. All of a sudden he goes on Instagram and he's seeing the same meme accounts that we see talking about.

You know, Trevor Ziegers traded, question mark. And he talked about how hard that was for him to deal with. It's something that he, in year one, really messed him up. In year two, it didn't get any easier. And it gave me a little bit new perspective on sometimes when these guys' names get out there, especially a guy who thinks he's going to stay in Anaheim really can mess them up a little bit. But that's the things that players, again, like young players need to prepare themselves for. And I guess there's no really preparing them for seeing their names on trade boards.

But like, nobody makes it to the NHL and doesn't understand that that's part of the game, that they are now going to be talked about as commodities and potentially traded. They will be, you know, forever married to their salary cap number. You know, I'm surprised we haven't seen that, you know, on a consistent basis on alternate feeds where you have the number on the back of the jersey. And also there's an overlay of how much, how much that player is making as they skate down the ice and turn. Oh, look at that. There's a $15 million turnover at the blue line. We're going the other way.

But don't you think that if you're that young and if you've been kind of, you know, consecrated as being one of the foundational players of a rebuilding team, and then you don't expect that. I think every player should expect that. Obviously, it's the nature of the beast, you know, rent, don't buy, all that stuff, we're always here. But I think when you're Trevor Zegreis and you're that young and you've become, he's on the cover of a video game wearing a duck's jersey. Like, he's part of the solution until he's not.

And I think that was a real world rocking moment for the kid. Yep. And listen, I think that, I think he does really well. First of all, he's going to help that power play for one. You know, when they made that move, that was. after they had fired John Totorella and Rocky Thompson. Rocky was in charge of the power play. And I would imagine if you're John Totorella and Rocky Thompson,

you're saying, oh, now you go and get the shooter for the power play. Okay, great, great. Thanks. Where was that last year? We were dying for that. We tried Michkoff in the spot. And I didn't. Thanks for doing that now after you put it.

He's been spending time on a line with Mitchcoff during the pretext. season and like there's fewer things that I want more in this league right now than to see those two kids and maybe somebody who can kind of uh keep the heat off them on the same line that'd be a lot of fun uh that would be um anything again I always sort of temper what I see in the preseason and just with a simple fact that it's preseason it's not NHL games and even stuff that I see in the first couple of weeks of the of the regular season I say to myself ah no one's really we haven't And no one's really hit their stride yet. You're still going to get a lot of sloppy games,

and they'll be some glorious games, and some bad games, and the coaches don't have the screws in the players yet. But you know, he's really caught my eye every time I watch Carolina, Niketian. I don't know how many Carolina Hurricanes games you've watched. I don't know what you're viewing habits are for preseason.

Like ever? A lot. Like this year, trust me. I just do it out of habit. Like last night, I'm like, hey man,

Berkeley Cat. I watch a Brooklyn Cat and Squarespace. that goal. He has the 1-0 goal in the Seattle-Callegroo game. And I'm just like, I think Berkeley Catton can make this team. Holy smokes Berkeley Catton. It's like his first goal in the pre. Now, it was a beautiful shot. But I get carried away with myself and I got to catch

myself all the time and remind myself that Merrick, like, calm down. It's preseason, man. What do you like about Neketian? I think that, first of all, he looks, first of all, he looks better than he does last year. He's physical. He's not shy. He is, he's got a shot from the point.

and in a system where, like put it this way, that is a system that shines up defensemen, right? Like, you look at, like, look at how Colorado was talking about Brent Burns. Oh, it's underlying numbers are tremendous. That's what Carolina does to defensemen. Like, if you are, I know we talk a lot about what Sylvan Lefeb has been able to do with, with the defensemen with the Florida Panthers. Look at what the Carolina hurricanes have been able to do for blue liners.

Two words, Brett Pesci. there's there's a there's a there's a there's a long list of defensemen that have been really shined up by the by the Carolina Hurricanes and even though Brent Burns is a you know the back nine of his group more than the back nine he can see the clubhouse you know they're glowing about his underlying numbers right now it's like that's what that's what Carolina does that's why he's in a great he's in a great spot to maxim to maximize his most positive qualities that's why the Keandre Miller situation was a huge win for Carolina. Like, the idea that that could reach heights that he never reached in New York or maybe would never reach in New York with the hurricanes is a pretty good bet. I want to say something about Carol. I'll give you another one. I'll give you one more, Brady Shea. Brady Shea.

Yeah, totally. And Lake Pesci made bank off playing in that system. A lot of bank. I will say that I haven't watched a lot of preseason hockey because I was watching the last gasps of a dying met season and then wasted my time watching the new york watching a terrible new york jets team get buried even more by the worst officiated game i've ever seen uh at least this season and you don't pick on officials that's rare for you to say that that's you know my time has been in abject misery and i and i probably would have benefited by watching more preseason hockey

but i will say this about carolina one thing that caught my eye is they still remain a team that needs to find a solution at number two center. And there was some talk earlier before camp that they might actually try Seth Jarvis there. But it seems like what they're trying is Logan Stankoven. I don't, I can't say it. So I can't,

I can't see it. You don't see it. You don't see it. I can't see it. Why? I cannot see it. He is, he is a winger. Just to be blunt, he's too small.

And right now he's not strong enough. I know you're a new judge. Listen, you're at, as someone who loves and has always adored the New Jersey Devil, as you look at Jack Hughes and Nico Hesford saying, excuse me? What about the 19s? Go look at outside of Mahavlich. Go look at the 77 habs and that dynasty team and look at the under six footers that they have there. It's a different era, Greg Wichinsky. Listen, I, I love it.

Is not going to be the second line center for the Carolina Hurricanes. I love, unless they can get a second line center, it's going to be a spary cut Kenemi. It will be. I love a second line center. I mean, I love an undersized center. Granted, if he can get you 60 points in 41 games, that's all he'll play. But, no, I just find it interesting that they're trying to find an internal solution. They are.

Because I think Kokiami is kind of shown that he's probably not it. So I give him credit for trying some solutions within their lineup. Ultimately, it's probably where they're going to have to go out and find somebody. Boy, you know, listen, I'll throw two names out there into the ether. that'd be a real gnazum cadre spot for me would be second line in Carolina that would be real sweet even sweeter that's a good call hey uh sit it's me jordan just wanted to let you know about carolina barbecue at taste it is remember me remember when i was on to your team remember that for that first one rocking cups and you called me grong and then they traded me

And everybody's like, what the, why? No, they never gave me the Selky. They never ended up giving me the Selky. I don't know why. Yeah. Let's get, let's back on the contract talk here. Hart Levine is standing by. The conceptual, brilliant genius of Puckpedia.

Hart Levine joins us here on the sheet on a very special day where, Like, I'm curious, like, Hart, when you see the biggest contract in the history of the NHL, that's where, like, Operation Puckpedia, that's when like Puckpedia HQ goes into overdrive. Like, describe what happened there, I guess, like, in your living room, wherever you have your, wherever you have your computers. What happens when, when that hits the wire? Yeah, you know, those commercials where the, like, the Budweiser goal light goes off? That's, that's what happened. You know, who scored? What happened?

No, no, just a new contract. No, I mean, it's exciting, you know, a lot of times the contracts after mid-July, they're not that interesting, right? So it's good to have something that gets people talking and interest, and you wonder what that means for the upcoming guys, and hopefully we see some domino because it's been pretty quiet since, like, early August through now, really. What did you make of the contract?

and the percentage of the cap that it'll eat up next season? It's a big number, but we have to just get used to us living in a world where the cap is going up so much each year. So it's going up 9% between this year and next year. So we have to think about things like in cap dollars in specific years. So it seems like going from Leon Drysaddle's top cap hit of 14 to cap cap-chap's number of 17 is big. But if you take 17 for next year and bring it into like today's dollars, that's only 15.6. So, I mean, it is an increase over 14, but, you know, it's not as dramatic. You know, if you think about like Leon's 14, what would that be worth in next year's cap dollars?

That's 15.25, right? So it's a big number. It's a big jump in the percentage of the cap. And I think it's going to make a big difference to these other big UFAs that are out there because we see comps, even if they're not direct comps, Comps are like a magnetic pull, right? And it pulls guys up or if it's a what we would call a bad comp depending on what side you're on, it pulls the new one down to that. So it's definitely, I think Eichol's happy, you know, Kyle Conner's happy.

I think Connor McDavid doesn't matter what anyone else signs for. He's going to do his own thing. But it's going to have an impact on all those other deals and it'll be fun to see the dominoes. So once upon a time, the saying was you can't win the Stanley Cup with a, no one's won a Stanley Cup with a $10 million player. Now everybody makes $10 million. So what is, from your experience here, everyone makes $10 for you, Tim.

It's the new Oprah. What is the new $10 million? Like you can't win a Stanley Cup if a player makes $15 million? $16 million? Is there a new comp for that cliche? I mean, I always thought that cliche was a little lame because it's not about those players. It's about what you do with the rest of your roster, right?

Because whether, you know, a guy who makes $10 million, $15 million, we're going to have, you know, $85, $90 million of other dollars that need to get spent. And it's about how many other bad contracts do you have or really efficient contracts. So I think, you know, I think it depends. You could have a player, you could have a successful winning team if you had a $20 million cap hit as long as you didn't have too many other ones that high. And all your other ones are really efficient. I think what we're seeing is you can have contracts that are sort of in that mid-range

which used to be sort of in the 5 to 7, which I think is kind of moving up to like 7 to 10. You can't have too many in that range, which are duds, which are just like, you know, the player is not living up to it at all. You can survive if you have a guy overpaid by, you know, a couple million.

But having, you know, five to seven to $9 million guys when they're playing like two or three million, that's what's going to kill a team, not necessarily the top end. Now, if you have like, you know, the core four with Toronto where you have a lot of guys that are potentially

in that high range and maybe overpaid at the time by a couple million times three or four that starts to add up but I think any team could win with a player close to the max depending on what they do with the rest of the roster I think the answer is you can't win with a goalie that makes 11 million you can win one with 10 in fact you can win two of them if you have a guy that makes 10 but 11 is too much that's the new bar I think right um this is yet another guy heart that is uh re-signing with his team I was mentioning to Merrick before that after the summer of retention, we have yet another guy that is not going to market nor forcing his way out of a market via trade.

Really the only big name, I think, that move was probably Marner, and we know why that happened. Do you think this is just a new normal in the NHL with the way the cap has gone up, where, you know, whether it's Eichel or McDavid or Kyle Connor or now CapriSo, they're all just going to stay where they are? I think like this class, just those specific names, you know, it sounds like those players are most likely to stay. But I don't think that's the trend going forward for a few reasons. One, you know, now with the term limits going from seven to six years and eight to seven to retain your player, you know, in terms of total dollars, like I think when players do the math of like if I don't sign, I go to market, maybe I can get another deal out of it. I think that has an impact.

And we're seeing shorter deals. And that's not going to impact the free agent market like this year or next year. But if we kind of project a few years out, you know, look at a guy like Mason McTavish. That used to be an automatic eight-year deal, right? Now it's a six-year deal. We're seeing a lot of deals where it's five, six years for these guys instead of seven or eight and even shorter, more bridge deals. I think that's going to mean, you know, a few years from now.

We're going to have such a glut of players hitting the open market that it's going to make it interesting and there'll be more musical chairs like we see you know in the NFL for example players are just moving around so much every offseason because there's so many free agents the deals are so much shorter I think eventually we'll get that way in the NHL it's just going to take some time and we still you know you still have that thing in the NHL where players are loyal and it feels in some respects potentially like a betrayal if the team wants them and the player you know thinking about leaving so they have to overcome that but like I said when we get like you know let's say three four five years from now and we have more good players hitting the market it's just going to leave

more teams with more money available and then we'll see i think the the chair shuffling around like we've seen in other sports so i think what you meant heart is that their stuff is there that's my mantra for 20 years doing it's really bad their stuff is really there the uh the good thing the teams have people to do that for you it's it's not it's not like the three of us are pulling up stakes like you know, Hart's moving from Edmonton to Los Angeles here. Like, it's a little bit different when players go from market to market. Let me, we are sort of flirted with the cascading talk early in this conversation. Let me see if I can drill down with you a couple of seconds here, Hart.

As far as who does this contract affect most? Like the cascade here is going to go initially to whom. Is it Kyle Connor? Is it Martin Naceous? Is it you sort of like looked at Connor McDavid and put him in a separate file? Is it Jack Eichael, like the cascade here, like hits who first on the beach? I think the most obvious one is Kyle Connor, another winger. And then I think Jack Eichel just like, you know, in the non-Connor McDavid division of reading guys that need to sign,

he's going to probably be the next highest paid guy, like the next contract that will be the highest. So I think those two. And like I said, it's a magnet. So, you know, Jack Eichol, I don't think he was going to say he should be the same as Capri's of or even the same as dry sidle, but dry sidle is 14 million, like I said, is over 50 next year. And I think the argument is going to be, okay, I'm not the same as those guys, but I'm not X amount less, right? I'm not, you know, five million less or four million less.

And it just pulls guys towards that. So, yeah, I think those two are obvious ones, you know, in Kyle Connor and I call. I think the other interesting thing is contract structure. Like we saw, for example, when Stolar was just signed with Toronto. the cap it maybe seemed a little light, but then when you look at the contract structure, he got lots of trade clauses and he got basically all the money paid in bonuses.

That does have an impact for guys. And so even like Capriza, if you look at it, because he's only getting a million dollars of base salary, I would bet you are right on the show right now. He's going to actually make more than what his contract was announced today because when the league minimum salary goes up, everyone has to make the new minimum wage. And so after this CBA that was just signed,

And the next one, I'm sure the minimum will be over a million because that's where this one ends. And so he's going to actually get a little tick up on his contract, just like a Schisturkin. Well, he's going to get a raise next year because he's only supposed to make below the new minimum of $8.50 next year. So that's another, like it's not a lot of money when you're making hundreds of millions. Like what's a few, you know, $100,000 between friends. But that's another thing just with contract structure. It's like another, it's like a little tip he's going to get, you know, when the next CBA comes a little increase. And so structure definitely impacts that.

You look at like Anaheim, they don't mess with structure. You know, that was a flat seven million each year, right? And with a little bit of clause, nothing, not like a full no trade or anything. So that's the other thing, teams that are willing to give whatever structure you want, that can impact the clause. We've seen like, you know, St. Louis in the past that's bit them where they didn't want to give structure. Where Vegas, you know, I think they'd give Ikel whatever he wants to get the cap at as low as possible. So two things.

So first off, Anaheim, Maybe played a little bit with structure on the deferred payment deal that they did, you know, previous. But the thing at the, I find fascinating, it's like, I never realized that if your base salary is a million and you get $12 million in bonus money, that that base salary could actually increase if the NHL minimum wage, say, jumps by $500,000? It will. Yeah.

That happened, like in the last CBA, Austin Matthews actually got a raise. I think Mitch Marner as well. you have to you know they don't count signing bonus as part of like the towards the minimum and hey everyone's got to make minimum wage so even these guys making big money i know like shesterkin's one i think um sean walker's another one next year that we'll get small bumps and their cap it as a result will get adjusted up i was going to say that but so it does impact your cap it though if you oh yeah yeah yeah we didn't know they were going to raise the minimum wage like oh no hang on yeah let me let me let me let me jump in the one thing and heart'll echo this one the one thing that owners like

we keep hearing about the hill that they will die on. No outside money. No outside money in the system. This all gets, this all gets accounted for on the cap. Yeah, unless, yeah,

so basically it's like you take the contract and you're revising it a little. So you've got to recalculate what the total comp divided by the years and so it changes the cap it. You know, not a lot because, you know, if Caprizo is at a million, let's say by the end, the minimum is going to be like 1.3, you know,

it's not a huge increase, but it will definitely adjust the cap it. And you see some guys, like Austin Matthews, the deal he finished previous, he had a funny cap hit number because he got like a bunch of $25,000 and $50,000 raises in the later years. And Hart, were you surprised they didn't just go $125 million and then have Caprisoff take a job with a tree planting company somewhere in California? Yeah, I mean, it's something to consider, you know, maybe in Minnesota it's like does something with lakes. They already have so many trees. They don't need more trees.

I've no aspiration in Minnesota. I've been telling Greg, like, honestly, like the CapriZoff or McDavid or Eichl or Kyle Connor meme coin, I'm telling you, like, that's the way around it. Just start a meme coin and, you know, get your owner to dump in $10 million. It's how you get around things now. It's funny, but it does raise the question, like the famous Stamco's meeting in Toronto where the Canadian tire CEOs, they're talking about endorsement deals. Like, obviously, you know, allegedly with Kauai Leonard,

the clippers put money into that business, but like, they kind of did it clumsily, right? And also if, if, if, if, if, if, if Kyle Leonard's company didn't have like the name in it, you know, it would have been so obvious that he was a recipient, like you could, there could be some real gray area here, right? Like, what's to stop a, a good friend of Craig Leopold, you know, making Capriza of a big endorsement deal to sell, you know, forward cars at the local dealership? And who knows, maybe 20 years later, you know, he gets his money back but like it we're entering a gray zone and we'll have to see what happens in the NBA and how hard they'd come down on it or if they say hey this is like you know it looks fishy

but we can't prove it is it is interesting for like the future of the salary cap and what does that mean i just it was one of those deals where it was so sloppy that you're just like yeah they weren't trying to really do this worthy because it's just so obvious well that's mark Cuban's argument. That is Mark Cuban's whole argument. That is Mark Cuban's argument. Come on. Hart, you and I are probably the same level of junkie to this whole quiet thing. I've consumed every piece of media and everything about it. I'm just utterly fascinated. Not only by how Pablo Torre has been like doling out the information, but just by pushback in Cuban, what

the Clipper said yesterday, it's really, I mean, it must be like crack for you. I mean, as far as being a guy running. And I'm ready to subscribe. I'm ready to subscribe to the Wish Finds Out podcast where You uncover things in the NHL. That's right. You let me know when you're ready. The Wish Minds Out podcast is just like what happened to the Buffa Slug logo. It's not like anything that's going to win me a pull it's for. You know.

You never know. What happened? What happened with the mandatory, the mandatory two minute penalty for the jersey talk? Get to the bottom of that. It's still in the rules. But when have we ever heard that one called? Is that collusion? Why are we measuring sticks anymore?

Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're fine. You can use, you can use whatever you want, except for length. right, except for length, which I've always wondered, like, if, who's the, who's, who's, who's, who's the smallest, like, let's say, um, apparently Logan Stankhoven, Logan, like, let's say, Logan Stankhoven, loses his stick and goes by the bench and whoever is the tallest player, like if it's like Charra was playing on the Carolina Hurricanes and handed Logan Stankhoven his stick. Now, Chara has an exemption. He could, he was allowed to use a longer stick than allowed. If Logan Stankhoven used Sedano Chara's stick, Would it be a penalty? No, because it doesn't have the exemption.

It's not a, it's not a penalty because there is a, this is hilarious exemption to things in the NHL where if something is funny enough, then you don't get a penalty for it. And so I think that would probably fall under it. I want to ask you real quick, I know we're almost running out of time here. We are, yeah, what surprised you in the new CBA with the contracts? Like, is there anything that really you were like, I can't, I can't believe either the players or the owner's off on this? Yeah, why are we getting rid of double retentions?

That's in the bucket of who wanted this other than maybe a couple guys at the league office, but teams sure didn't want that. The players, I don't think they knew really what that would be. Can I jump in? I think there was at least one team that did because I think that there was at least one team who sort of wanted to force smaller market teams. Like if they're going to spend money, that they were going to spend money to make their teams more competitive.

It's actually the idea being that if smaller market teams improve in the standings and have success, that their franchise value will grow. And if that's true, and it is, then other larger market teams franchises value will grow. And it's a way just to make sure that small market teams don't just bank all this dead cap space. And it's such, it's an incentive to get those teams to spend money on players. That's the way it was described to me. Kind of my rebuttal would be, sorry, go ahead.

My rebuttal would be, you know, another way to grow league revenue is have lots of interest in trades and trade activity and speculation and then actually having trades happen. I don't disagree. Again, just the messenger here. That was, that was the, that was the reason that I was told. I kind of remember there being somebody at the league and I don't want to say who it was. I'm not quite sure I'm right on this, but I remember somebody saying that the league wanted also. complicate trades like some of the the machinations that we're having with with these with these with these trades with the with their attention and everything else was kind of like complicating the trade deadline and

they didn't they didn't like it being that complicated but I don't want to I don't want to say that for sure but I remember hearing something at the time about that those those were complicated because they're typically they're actually three different trades and it would take a long time to make them my one little quick rant though that I know teams are complaining about is with the playoff cap so you get a cap charge for players that were buried in the minors during the year, right? But if that player plays for you in the playoffs, you have to take his full cap hit. So let's say Utah has Connor Ingram in the minors all year. They're going to have an $800,000 playoff cap charge for him.

And then if they dress them in the playoff game, he still has his $1.95 million towards the playoff cap. So you're actually playing extra in the playoff cap if you have a guy in the minors during the year. That doesn't seem right. Do you do you believe James Myrtle theory, the team? will dress like Joe the plumber as a backup goalie in order to free up cap room in the playoffs. That was Myrtle's new theory is that teams will just dress whoever making league minimum as their backup goalie in a playoff game.

Can you dress a cow? Can you dress a cow as a backup goal tank? Can you, can we dress livestock? Team's, team's been talking about that. The cotton candy. Get your ass out of here. You're backing up Robowski tonight. But you know in the playoffs,

if your backup gets, if a goalie gets hurt, your third goalie can come down and get dressed and get on the bench and play if there's another injury, right? So it's not to say that your real backup who is up in the press box can't still get in that game if you have some injuries. So yeah, that's a very viable solution. I think that's going to happen.

This is so, this is more than. I mean, this is actually what, I mean, like, I'm surprised if the Florida Panther said you already thought about this, to be honest with you. You think they haven't. Hart, we got a boogie. Thanks as always for stopping by.

I know this is a catnip day for you. This is big around puckpedia. Enjoy it and there are more coming. Thanks for always being on the watch. Thanks so much. There is the great Hart Levine. From Puckpedia. You know what?

You know what's it? You know whenever I talk to it's a heart and he's a brilliant person when it comes to. Have a heart to heart. I have a heart to heart. I always think about Matthew Weist, the late Matthew Weist and Capgeek and how that site, that idea, which just started out as a Pet Project, Matthew Weist, was a reporter in Halifax, covering the Halifax Mooseheads, his favorite team with the Detroit Red Wings, and he wanted to figure out how they used their salary cap, and he put together the very primitive website, just documenting what the

Detroit Red Wings were doing with their money and how they were allocating it, and it turned into Cap Geek, which spawns so many different salary cap sites. I always think back, and I used to talk to Matthew all the time, as did you, just like such a wonderful guy. And he has, just cynically, Matthew Weist made a lot of people rich. I gave a lot of people careers, because the whole foundation was all based on what Matthew Weiss did,

just as an independent and a guy that was curious online built an entire industry. I don't think I have a more fundamental disagreement with Gary Batman in the NHL outside of sociopolitical disagreement. then the idea that they shouldn't have a salary cap site on NHL.com. Like, Batman has steadfastly said through the years, he doesn't believe there's enough interest for it, that it doesn't, you know, the juice isn't worth the squeeze, whatever. You know my theory.

My retort is not. You know my theory now. Your theory is setting up easy wins for the next commissioner. I mean, that's great. If that's the case of Bill Daley wants to have an NHL salary cap site, that would be a slam dunk. That's my theory. a Michael Jordan from the foul line windmill.

I'm just saying that like the logic of that argument always completely fell flat. Put aside the traffic the Puckpedia gets in place and a cap key guy in places like that. They put that aside for a second. The entire basis for every transaction in your league is whether or not the money works under the salary cap that you guys established. Like if the entire idea, you know, if you've got all this information on your site about how fast a guy skates per 60, but you don't tell us whether or not his team could make a trade? Like, what are we even doing? So I, that's my biggest fundamental argument with the NHL, like the idea that they don't have that, that stuff publicly available to every fan

to check out because it is the thing that allows your team to either do business or not do business. It's the entire basis of the trade deadline. Like, that is insane to me that they don't make that information public on their own site. I, I don't disagree. And that's why I think Like, that is going to be an easy win for whether it's, you know, part of whether Gary Betman wants to make that part of his sort of legacy position before he pieces out or he's just setting that up for the next commissioner. I don't know. But it's, to me, it's a tap in. How about this? That one is a, I am so on point with you on that is a complete layup for the, for the NHL.

You name it daily cap, D-A-L-Y. You brand it to bill.com. And then it just, it just redirects to NHL.com. Perfect. Done. Done. Simple. And that's it.

Closing thought for you before you bid you good afternoon. This has been a long one. And we talked a lot about numbers and contracts and had some last long way. I'm trying to think if there's anything that happened since we last. Oh, geez. Get this. Oh, there's Austin Matthews playing with a goalie stick. Oh, that's fantastic.

Yeah, all good. Totally fine. I'm happy J.T. Miller didn't have a bark-off thing. Yes. Did you speak of to J.T. Miller. I got to find this. Did you see the, mentioned this on the program yesterday, the Dan Rosen piece on J.T. Miller and the quotes at NHL.

Oh, no, I saw that he wrote about J.T. Miller's time in Vancouver, but I didn't see the quotes. This is the money one. Go ahead. Give me what's my quote. Here's the money quote from J.T. Miller, Dan Rosen, great piece at NHL.com. This is talking about, you know, how things happened in Vancouver. And he said, quote, I don't think it's ever going to be perfect, but the emotion I play with, it's in me. So it's managing that, keeping it to five to ten percent of the time that it's bad, Miller said. We all know that, here it is, we all know that guys who play with emotion, you're not going to be 100% good. It's easy for guys who don't have a heartbeat to say, hey, calm down. That's kind of empty to me, but I just think it's about keeping it to

5 to 10% of the time. It's easy for guys who don't have a heartbeat to say Hey, calm down. Now, I'm just a simple country lawyer. Greg Wosinski, I don't know who my client is talking about here.

Let me translate that quote to you. You're damn right. I ordered the code red. Great piece by by Dan. Like it's it's by Dan Rose in here. I go and check it out. It's a really, it's a,

bluntly, it's a really good piece. And some interesting quotes. Real quick. Well, the Barkoff thing is super sad to see him get injured. I,

I got to imagine they're not going to fill those. They're going to keep their, they're going to keep their hopes alive that he comes back to the playoffs. I think so too. Yeah. I think,

I think so too. I think that's the, but the problem becomes then, we've seen players come back from this before. And just because you're healthy enough to play, and I know that like 70% of if you have Alexander Barkoff at 70% he's better than like 90% of the NHL but what are you getting in Alexander Barkoff

of like the moment he's cleared you jump into playoff hockey I know what you know I know what you mean and I'm with you I think like you have a chance you have a shot of keeping Alexander Barkoff in light you do it and you don't take the you don't take the salary cap kiss off for the whole year but again even even that's a risk too. I think you're fine because I think he can come back.

He can focus on defense as your third line center. And, uh, and, and Yvgeny Malkin has got all the reps at, at, at one C. You fit him then. And then you're, you're golden. All right. Keep banging on that drum. We'll see where that one heads. All right, you, uh, go, go waller in your Mets misery.

Yes, sir. And we'll, uh, sorry, it's the last time I'm going to bring it up. What are you going to do? Pete Alonzo opted out. The shit wouldn't even dry in the bed yet. Pete Alonzo opted out for free agency. It was just a really bad 48 hours. The people I feel the worst for,

Merrick, are what I imagine were thousands of New Yorkers who went to Miami to see the last Mets game against the Marlins on Sunday and then stayed in Miami to watch an absolutely terrible Jets team the next day against the Dolphins. Those people, they ain't enough little liquor bottles in that plane on the way back to New York to skew that pain. We'd say what to round off the corners. What did you say, Zach?

And the Jets. I was just rubbing it in a little bit more. Thanks. Yeah. The Mets and the Jets. Listen, when the shining light of positivity in my life is University of Maryland football, you can pretty much tell where the Mets and Jets are right now. All right, be off with you.

Enjoy it, and we'll talk on Thursday. Bye. There he is. Greg Woshenki from ESPN. We had a lot in that one. And thanks to Hart Levine for stopping by from Puckpedia as well. Boy, we chew on a lot and chew up your time, too. So let's wrap things up the way we normally do are on these parts, shall we?

The sheet is powered by Fandual. Home on the same game parlay, make every moment more on Fandual. Fanduel, proud to connect fans to the major sports moments and matter to them. Do we have something about contract signings, Zach? Do we have anything about McDavid and Kyle Connor and who's going to sign next and where players are going to go? Do we have anything like that today from our friends at FD? No, there's a no, we don't. Unfortunately, that would have been pretty good though.

Who signs next? Who's the next deal? Why not? What's the highest deal? Those would have been good ones. Maybe we could see if we can get them to do something like that for an upcoming show that we've got. We'll leave it there. No, I just kept it in the theme of who signed and what they could possibly do this year.

So we kept it with the Kirill Kaprizov contract topic of the day and what he will do this season. So for Karil Kaprizov, his goal line on Fandul this year is set at 42 and a half. Over on either side is even minus 110 on either side. Jeff, I just didn't know if you had an opinion on Karol Kaprizo. season he could have this year where he might be at I always want like I don't know maybe it's just like a

sign of aging although most people like as they age they get more cynical but I'm I cheer for people to do well like I want him to get 50 I want that fan base to have something to significantly

cheer for so I'm going to say 50 goals and he stays healthy plays 82 games I know that doesn't happen. I know, like, I get it. We all know Carl Caprizzav when he's in the lineup, like he's monster and we're talking about the heart trophy

and then he's out for 20 or 25 games. I'm going to cross my fingers for Caprizov, say he plays pretty much the entire season, scores 50 goals. Because that's what I want to happen. That's what I want to happen. That's just, I'm trying to be more positive in life and not just be cynical like,

yeah, get the hospital bracelet off and then we'll talk. Nah. Yeah, I'm going with. that as well i also think that there's an element of like the pressures off of you've signed your contract we don't have to discuss this anymore you're just a member of the team for the next well eight plus years right because he's got this yeah because there's no there's no stress in having the the the largest contract in the history of the n h i don't pressure there whatsoever but i mean i i feel like these other cons at least one more is going to come and i think it's

going to happen before the end of the season i think icel's going to sign before he gets the next summer and i feel like once that happens it's like okay well it's a little more breathing room like that guy signed so stop looking at me but i also just kind of feel like there's going to be that motivation from him and he kind of seems like the kind of the player who would thrive off of that where it's not so much like the pressure but it's like i'm worth this watch why yeah you know what's you know what's going to be just as a quick aside here um you know what's going to be really interesting to listen to now the caprice office signed all of our oilers programming all of our oilers programming is going to be mint right now anyhow uh all right thing i want to remind you of

as well the daily face off survivor pool is officially live and if you think you've got hockey knowledge to go to the distance then this one is for you it's a game of elimination strategy and a $2,500 grand prize for the last fan standing. Here's how it works. You start with two lines. Each round, you pick one winner from the slate of NHL games, but here's the twist. You can only use each team

twice throughout the entire contest. Get a pick wrong, that's one life gone. Lose twice, you're out. The pool runs until there's one person left standing, and that winner takes home $2,500 bucks. So, are you ready to outlast the rest?

Sign up now at dailyfaceoff.com or hit the link in the show notes and may the best fan survive and a quick note as well. I want to play the video tomorrow. DFO Live returns on October 1st with Tyler Yeramchuk and brand new co-host, the great Carter Hutton. Monday to Friday at noon Eastern DFO Live returning on October 1st with Tyler Yeramchuk and Carter Hutton. Do not miss that. That should be an outstanding show. Yes, sir.

Also, tomorrow. 9 a.m. Eastern. Morning Cup of hockey returns. Oh, is that tomorrow? The boys are back? Oh, yeah, I guess so. Yeah, look at that. All right.

The Impact players, Johnny Lazarus, Colby Cohen, just in time for Gavin McKenna. They finally decided to go and play. I think it's Penn State playing ASU this weekend, I think. So just in time for that, just for the Gavin McKenna tour. So I look forward to that 2.9 a.m. Morning Cup of hockey. All right, there we go. Thanks to Hart Levine for stopping by from Puckopedia.

Can we announce that guest that we're having tomorrow alongside with Brian Burke for our weekly chat with Berkey? Just hold on to it for now. Hold on to it. Okay, we have so working through something. Stay tuned to the socials. Our man here, Zach is currently navigating some waters and try to get someone on the program tomorrow. Stay tuned to our socials and you'll find out who that is. In the meantime, Tip the Zamboni driver, as always, enjoy the rest of your day, and we're back with the sheet tomorrow at 1 o'clock Eastern.

Enjoy the rest of Capon. I said 16 hours last night every day this week, every day this month. I can't get out my head, lost all ambitious day-to-day, because you can call it a ride. I went to the dark man. You try to give me a little medicine I'm like, no, and that's fine. I'm not against those methods, but new. It's me and myself

and how this is going to be fixed in my mind. I do want to back in it. I turned on the music. I do want to beckers. Turn on the music. It's turned up there about a bit. I don't think you sometimes lose it. Have been on the days that we're wrong

In the dead dark night