The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Messier “HORRIFIED” By Oilers’ Mike Babcock Hire ft. Greg Wyshynski, Jason Brough, and Mike Halford

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski are back for another edition of The Sheet, breaking down the biggest stories from around the NHL as the 2026-27 season approaches. The guys lead with Mark Messier’s stunning criticism of the Edmonton Oilers’ decision to hire Mike Babcock, including his concerns over Babcock’s history, the stories he’s heard from former players and the unusual involvement of Edmonton’s leadership group in the hiring process. Jeff and Greg discuss what Messier’s comments mean for Babcock, Connor McDavid and an Oilers organization entering the season under an even brighter spotlight. Then, the guys head to Detroit, where Dylan Larkin’s return to the ice has created another talking point around the Red Wings. Jeff and Greg react to the viral footage of Larkin in battle drills, the conversation around his compete level and effort, and the continued uncertainty surrounding his future in Detroit following his offseason trade request. Plus, Greg dives into his latest ESPN bold predictions for all 32 NHL teams ahead of the 2026-27 season, Jeff and Greg take a look at some of the wild new arena food being unveiled around the league, and Mike Halford and Jason Brough join the show! Halford and Brough discuss launching their new weekday morning show with Daily Faceoff Vancouver and The Nation Network, making the jump from traditional sports radio to digital media, what they want to build with the new show and, of course, the latest surrounding the Vancouver Canucks. All that and much more on today’s edition of The Sheet with Jeff Marek.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!! 👍🏼Coca Cola: https://www.coca-cola.com/ca/en/offerings/coca-cola/hockey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You'll be very proud of me, Greg Wistrinsky. Be very proud of me. I just put out, join the MVSW slash curtain bloggers crossover here live now. Like if you feel like you're in a time warp today and it feels like 2012 in about 30 minutes here, don't feel special as Halford and Brough will stop by the program at the bottom of the hour. Looking forward to that. Should be good. I'm so excited those boys are part of the Cavalcade of Fund.

100% because like they first of all, they, fit in perfectly. Yeah. Second of all, like, and I truly mean this, that I've done many radio hits on a weekly basis for many, many years. Yeah. And I truly, truly, truly treasured my 20 minutes with them every Tuesday. They're the best.

They're informed. They're smart. They're funny. They like to goof around. And they appreciate a hot take, which is the way to my heart. And they enjoy an argument. and when I was at Rogers 2, and by the way, bottom of the hour, again, I might have to ask you to leave.

It's only people that have been fired by Rogers that are allowed to be on the program at the bottom of the hour. So it might just be me with the boys. Hold on. In fairness. Yeah. You've been fired by Rogers too? I did two or three trade deadlines.

And they didn't ask you back. And they didn't have me back. So I think technically I've been fired by Rogers. That's like just letting a contract expire. That's not fired. They're like, sir, you are where? tearing diarrhea pants on the air. We cannot have that.

Please, please move along. No, I used to go, like, honestly, the guys are awesome because they make everything an event, right? Like,

Halfren Brough, make everything an event. When I used to go on with them, when we used to, but we both worked at Rogers. They gave me a theme, like out of nowhere, they made this, like,

German Euro trash-inspired theme song for me for the odd time that I'd come on. Like, I'd come on like once or twice a month. And they gave me a theme song for it. The thing that they would always do is they would find obscure covers of the

NHL on ESPN theme. And they would play them as I came on, including the one that I believe we play when there's an injury. Which I always really like, you know how when you're watching the NFL and like there's an injury on Fox and all of a sudden they're trying to pan away

from the Jaden Daniel's injury and they're just like do do do do do do do do like the planetary piano music that they're playing. They would play that version of the NHL and ESPN theme song when they came on. I like that. I like that. Okay, so that's coming up at the bottom of the hour. In the meantime, speaking of ESPN, making headlines, one Mark Messier.

And there's a couple of different layers to it as well. Zach, do we have a board? I mean, listen, by the time this happened yesterday, so anyone watching or listening to this program knows exactly what we're talking about. But if we want a reference point, we can throw up the quote from Mark Messier yesterday, talking about how he was shocked and horrified at the decision to bring in Mike Babcock, not just the decision to bring him in, but how it was done as well, fueled through players.

There have been a lot of people that right away started to point at Vancouver and Mike Keenan and Mark Messier's situation. But nonetheless, as I read it, like as soon as you tweeted it, out wish, I was like, jaw hits ground,

bam. And pretty much everybody in the industry, I think, had the exact same reaction. Yeah, I was trying to figure out what places like the Edmondon Journal were going to do with this. So if they were going to call Messier a cuck soy boy for not being down with Big Burley, Mike Babcock being the coach. They went in the other direction, which is the last bastion of, woke Mark Messier. The last bastion of rhetoric in our society, which is what aboutism. Whenever you go to what about isn't, you know that you've effectively lost the argument. And the one aboutism here is Mark Messier, when he went to the Vancouver Canucks, went to ownership and said, I want Mike Keenan to be the coach.

And so Mike Keenan became the coach and also the general manager. Now, I guess my question on that one, Merrick, is that one, do we know for certain that Mark Messier didn't say what he said about Connor McDavid and Leon Dreisland and Zach Hyman hiring Bank Babcock without the benefit of hindsight that maybe what he did in that situation in Vancouver wasn't the right thing to do? That's what I want to get to. That's what I want to get to. Because we all evolve and we all grow. I wonder how much of that is Mark Messia. Like if you catch him and ask him about it now. Like we all do this.

Go back and review your career and go like, that's a misstep. That's a misstep. That's a landmine. And if I had a chance to do it again, I would do things differently. But if you erase all the mistakes in your life, then essentially you do erase yourself.

But I wonder how much of that is just like, that doesn't disqualify you from having an opinion. on what happened in Edmondson. I'm so glad you mentioned that. Because I've seen a lot of like, well, I can't take a messier seriously because of Vancouver.

No, no, no, no, no. Quite the opposite is a matter of fact. Because the other part of it too, Merrick, like even if he didn't learn his lesson, like, how was that situation at all applicable here? It's the late 1990s. We all knew Mike Keenan was an abusive shit healed.

They all were. It was the late 1990s. With the benefit of 2026 hindsight, we know that it's not great that Mike Heenan kept on getting these jobs. And by the way, Pavel Burry also got him hired in Florida. So it's not just Messier that's getting this guy gigs

around that time in the NHL. Mark, correct me from wrong. Mike Heenan, ever fired with the general manager saying that his coaching tactics were not appropriate anymore, ever hired for a job and then never coaching a game because he invaded the privacy

of players and was summarily dismissed before the season. I mean, the things that have happened to Mike Babcock, as Mark Messier basically said in his statement, are disqualifying. That's why we're all having a real problem with McDavid and Drysiddle and Zach Hyman being this tribunal of players that gave him a pass to get hired in Nenbenton because the things that he has done, his transgressions in this era of hockey are disqualifying.

And that's all Mark Messier is saying. He's surprised this guy got out of their gig because the stuff that he's done and has been put forth by reputable players, whether it's, Johann Franzen or Daniel Winick or whoever should be disqualifying. And yet when these three guys sat down with this guy, they're like, we're in the Mike Babcock business. And that's a really weird thing for players to do because that's not usually how this thing works.

Just as a quick aside, we'll get back to Mike Babcock here in a second. And a lot more to get to you all. I love some of the predictions that you had. And I want to add on to a couple of at ESPN.com. But all of this happened because Vegas wouldn't let Edmonton talk to Bruce Cassidy. That's right. Okay, like, let's not lose sight of that, too.

I think, by the way, I think Bruce Cassidy is going to end up doing something with Hockey Canada on the women's side. I don't know whether it's coaching or consulting, but I think Cassidy is going to be involved there. I don't know what the title would be or when the announcement would be, but I think Cassidy is going to be involved there. But here, but here. That's going to be, that's going to be a really exciting time for him before he ends up in New Jersey. I was going to say, like, is Vegas still not letting people talk to Cassie? Or is it just Western Conference? Was it just happening?

Like do we like, remember that was like the dominant conversation and we all dined out for weeks and weeks and weeks. And then the summer happened. And the Bruce Cassidy, Vegas, Edmonton discussion seems like it was about a million years ago. A million life times ago. That whole thing, I'll tell you how that whole thing played out though. It was like, we were all like, where is he going to go? Where is he going to go? Because we all assumed that what Vegas was putting out there was just maybe Edmonton specific.

but then we're just like, oh, wait, no, you guys are, you guys are for real? Like, you're really not going to let him coach anywhere, are you? Holy shit. And then we all just moved on to the next thing. Yeah. The Babcock Messier thing is, is fascinating for a number of different reasons. And one of them is, I think, like, the main beef that you take away from it, like, sure, it's a shot at Mike Babcock and Mike Babcock's past. and the transgressions and the things that he's done.

But it's also a shot at McDavid and Dreisdell and these guys as well. And this is very unmarked Messier-like, which makes it even that much more profound, that he's going after a player, going after an organization, going after the coach, all in one fell swoop. After prefaceing all of it with,

my mother always said, if you're not going to say something nice, don't see anything at all. However. And then just with the chainsaw. But that was the other remarkable thing about the MESSIA comment,

dude, was like the venue in which he said it. I have been on so many preseason conference calls with announcers for different networks before and after I've worked at ESPN.

And every single one of these things is simply just like, here's Steve Levy saying, hey, Buffalo's got some upside this year. It's the first time I can remember any news coming out of one of those things. And on top of that, like the story of the day, maybe even the week for Mark Messier

popping off on Mike Babcock on what should be a conference call about the upcoming ESPN and HL schedule. 100%. Anything from today jumping out of your, because I want to jump into some of your predictions because I do want to add on to one significantly because I get the sort of roundtable about it the other day here. Anything from today, particularly salient. And by the way, like Andre Kuzmenko's father's story, like Volcan Dolan.

to the to the to the to the Andreikizmanko's family father passing away after a bear attack it's just horrifying and our condolences there and everyone the Pittsburgh penguins organization as well but anything from today you want to get to before we move on to some of your 32 predictions I just think the whole messier thing with the fact that this guy's a franchise icon like he still shows up and waves to the crowd and where's the jersey and does the whole thing like it's not simply just like a national analyst who stands at the desk between periods and talks about the game saying this about Mike Babcock. It's one, it's Messier adding his voice to the chorus of other NHL players that say this guy

shouldn't be in the league. And two, it's him with the mantle of being at Edmonton Oilers legend commenting on the current state of the organization. It was a really fascinating moment on several levels. Oh, I do want to say something else. Like, if you're talking about what caught my eye, I don't know, did you talk about how the Rangers are doing ticket deals now? Zach and I were talking about it off air a little bit. We haven't had the whack at the pinata here on air.

Go for it. It's kind of a neat concept. It's a neat concept. Absolutely. And it's something that if I were a Ranger fan, I'd probably explore. Because for those that don't know, it's like, it's like a, almost like a subscription fee you're paying each month to get two lower bowl seats for games at MSG. You're paying a retainer. You're paying a retainer.

Yeah. And yeah, so $150 a month, two games a month every month. You're actually paying that for a full year. But, you know, and again, these are the games that probably they are struggling a little bit to fill seats for your Winnipeg Jets on a Tuesday night type situations. And I got to be honest with you, like, as much as I'm not a lower bowl guy as a fan, like give me last three rows in the mezzanine as like my. ideal place to watch a hockey game, Center Ice. It is pretty cool to be able to get a perspective on what the game looks like in different parts of the arena. And MSG is not an arena that is financially accessible to a lot of people otherwise,

and this deal would give them a shot. The two things about this I want to mention, though, Merritt, that really caught my attention. One, any time that you offer a ticket discount, you have to explain it to the person that will be sitting next to the discounted ticket people. And in this case, it is your dedicated lower bowl season ticket holders. Now, some of that might be corporate. A lot of it probably is corporate. So there won't be those discussions. But it is kind of interesting that like this person is getting in on a discount and sitting next to somebody who's paying premium for those seats.

The second thing is, this is a more important thing. I don't know if this is a function of the rebuild or a recession that the New York Rangers have had to do this ticket deal. Because I've got to be honest with you, man. I've lived in Jersey and New York practically all my life. The devils would do ticket deals. My beloved New Jersey Nets would basically say, here's four tickets and a full White Castle dinner for $40. Please come to watch our games.

I have never, in my lifetime, seen the New York Rangers offer a ticket package like this. And I do wonder what that is a function of. So I was on a show the other day. And one of the questions I was asked was, what's the first hockey game you were ever at that you can remember? Oh. Okay. And it was actually probably WHA, Toronto Toros, Calgary Cowboys.

But the first NHL game, I remember specifically. It was Maple Leaf Gardens. It was a midweek game. It was a Toronto Maple Leafs against the Atlanta Flames. Oh. And I remember, like, it was one of the reasons why I got hooked like, boom right, right away. because I fell in love with Daniel Bouchard, who was a goaltender. And I think maybe Phil Meere might have come on in Relief,

even though Atlanta won, 3 to 1, I can't remember exactly the details. But I remember seeing both goaltenders are going like, this is the coolest thing ever, and Bouchard's mask was elite, and it was fantastic. And I'm like, this is so cool. And I always remember that for one reason. I thought about it when I saw this ticket special from the New York Rangers. I think that there's a real sensitivity,

and there should be about waves of season ticket holders and where do they come from? And if we can't get kids like me, once upon a time, going to see the Maple Leafs in Atlanta, freaking flames. How old is that? In the building,

where's your next generation of season ticket holder going to come from? See, I looked at that and said, okay, so they have inventory. What they're going to do here is invest in the future season ticket holders for the New York Rangers. It's not going to pay off any time soon. but you get a kid in the building.

You know, mum or dad takes their son-daughter to this game. $150. They're on retainer for every month to get a pair of tickets here. And that somewhere down the road, that plants the seed, so somewhere down the road,

that person becomes a season ticket holder for the New York Rangers. Like teams go through this, like, on it's like Chicago went through this. Toronto has gone through this. When your building is full and you've squeezed every single dime out of it, but you're not rejuvenating your season ticket holder base.

You've got to find ways to get new people in through the turnstiles. That's what I thought about when I saw this Ranger special. You think I'm off base on that? I mean, that's why, oh, more teams need to have kids days. Now, there's a lot of teams that do it on afternoon games, on school holidays and stuff like that. But there needs to be more outreach to getting younger fans inside the door and then catering to them once they're inside the door with stuff going on inside the arena. That's a really good point from you, from you, America. because when I look around Prudential Center at a Devils game,

I see a lot of people my age, maybe 10 years younger, that I know that their parents took them to Devils games. They, you know, were watching them and had Zach Perise-A jerseys and shit like that. And now they're all like finance bros that live in Hove Open. And they have money to go and buy season tickets and come back to Prudential Center and watch the team. And that's, that's absolutely right. Like it needs to be, there needs to be a self-suitable. sustaining cycle of season ticket holders, and the way that you do that is to, you know,

enrapture them by attending a live hockey game and too many places are pricing those kids out of games. That's absolutely right. Get kids to the games. Okay. Your predictions. I always love when you do stuff because every now and then there's one that I'm like, oh, and there's a few in this one.

ESPN.com for Greg's piece on predictions for this season for every single. NHL team. Can we jump to Tampa? I just want to get this one out of the way. We're talking about this. I have a theory. It's kind of like a wild please aggregators.

Don't radio me on this one. Don't say that I'm reporting this. Blah, blah, blah, blah. There's your disclaimer for all of it. So my thought for Nikita Kutjurov, if he does not resign with Tampa,

and there's a chance that he doesn't, the team that I could see him signing with for the aforementioned $20 million because this is a team that has really minded their knitting when it comes to the salary cap and we're all giving them flowers for it and has $29 million cap space starting next off season the key to Kutjaroff don't forget the agents Dan Milstein here to the Montreal Canadians there's more Russians on the horizon Ivan Demadoff is already there we know how Montreal Canaan Canadians fans loved

Kovalev and he only played once every five games really and then took four off and they still loved him. He was the artist and they adored him. Can you imagine what Montreal Canadians fans would do with Nikita Kutjaroff? Playing with high IQ

Nick Suzuki. Mm-hmm. Remind me, how many face-offs has Nikita Kutriov taken? No, I understand they need a second line center but like let's just indulge me here in like this little fantasy on the horizon. Michael,

Michael Hage is coming. Michael Hage is coming from Michigan, sir. There's your second line center. Whoever Nikita Kuturov plays with is a great center, right? He's going to make them great. He's one of the best playmakers that we've seen in the last 50 years of this league. My bold prediction was that he stays in Tampa. My bold prediction obviously is based on the fact that his stuff is there.

My bold prediction is that I think the key to Kuturoff. And Montreal might, offer this too. But I think the thing that Kedukutrov wants more than anything right now is to continue to live the life that he's led, a life of statistical success, a life of contention. And you can argue whether or not that'll continue in Tampa, although I would argue that their core is of the right age that it'll least be good for the next five years. They can't get out of the first round.

And he wants a life in which he doesn't have to talk to people like you or you. And he doesn't want to have to talk to sponsors. He doesn't want to have to go and do appearances at the local show. Chevy dealership to gin up ticket sales to the lower bowl. Chantel is one of the finest media relations coordinator. She can make sure he's shielded away from all of that, Greg. So if he can get that in Montreal, great. And obviously one of the benefits of him playing in Montreal is there's going to be

half the media knowing he won't talk to them because he doesn't speak the language. But I do think ultimately he stays in Tampa, four to five years. I think he goes less than 20 million because of the income tax thing, but also because he wants to keep the team competitive. I think he probably would like to be the highest paid Russian, which means it'll be north of Caprisov's contract. But bold prediction. Nikita Kutriov remains at Tampa Bay Light.

So the other thing that I look at here is, and again, like this is a team that now all of a sudden, like Maple East fans know what this feels like. Can't get past the first round hump. Yeah. All of a sudden, like Tampa can't get out of it. Is Zach behind the glass is throwing his arms up in the air and saying, please, can you just stop with the references?

And, you know, you look at like Tampa is not, sorry Tampa fans, this is not a team that's getting better. This is a team that's trying to hold on to what they had. And there's still, to Greg's point, a lot of talent there. And they might still be able to do it for a couple more seasons. But the team that's on the rise of the Montreal Canadians, I think we can all see it. And now they add Chris Kreider as well into the mix. But you can see, like, they're not rushing anything right now. we'll see what happens this year in the regular season,

see what happens this year in the playoffs. But at a certain point, and you mentioned, you know, Yarmulikik Alainan and making a blockbuster on your deadline and one of your predictions as well, at a certain point, Montreal is ready for the big trade. You know, teams always get to that point where it's like, okay, we've hit as high as we're going to go here,

now we're ready for that trade that puts us over the top. Could that be this summer? I'm not saying trade, but big free agent signing in Nikita Kutrov. That's all. I know that playing in Montreal, is not necessarily playing in Canada writ large. Henceforth, that's why Cole Cawfield remains happily ensconced to Montreal

while others want to leave. It's a great place to be. Montreal's a major place to be. Do you think the key to Kutchev wants to play in Canada? You know what? I just remember him during the playoffs last year talking about how much he loved Montreal,

and how beautiful it was. Because it is. Like, Quebec's a beautiful province, Montreal is a beautiful city. You've been to Montreal. You know what Montreal's like. It's gorgeous. Like the one thing about, again, like,

it is the only place in Canada where they believe that beauty matters. Everywhere else is money matters there. It's like beauty matters. Underrated trip from New York is making the drive to Montreal. And we did it, my wife and I around Christmas time one year. And that was just like, spectacular. Just like fireplace in the hotel room. You walk out on the streets.

It's gorgeous, snow covered. You see your breath. Every restaurant looks adorable. Yeah. You can't get a bad meal. You know, there's some cities you go to, you can't get a bad meal. Anyhow, before Halbro joins us here in a couple of moments.

A couple of things. Minnesota trades Jasper Walsat. We're talking about him the other day. And I think you and I have had the conversation about like salary bans and players are getting, Ford's getting paid and defensemen are getting paid. Are the goal he's going to be the ones holding the bag here? saying where's the money for us?

We've never seen a goaltender offer sheeted. Wallstatt's an RFA with arbitration rights. Yeah. A, does he get paid this offseason as every player that hits RFA is getting paid right now? And B, could you see someone offers sheeting Gesper Walshatt? Edmont. I mean, sure. It's a handy way to acquire a goaltender of the future without having to trade any assets, which is what every team should be trying to do.

So the thought behind this one, obviously, first is that his name was in circulation. Now, his name was in circulation before the playoffs where he was phenomenal. But it was in circulation when Billy Guerin was big game hunting to try to acquire a center. And so we know there's that in the back of Billy's mind already. Congratulations on the contract extension, by the way, Bill Garron. for more years in the NHL. But we also know as a fact that there's zero, zero chance the Minnesota Wild are going to be spending upwards of, what, Merrick? $14, $15 million combined on their goaltending?

It just doesn't happen in this league anymore. And, you know, unless you've got one guy earning it all, I guess, at some point. And so it's. either Gustafson or Walshstead that's going to go. Gustafson, I think, has a little bit of trade protection in his deal, and he signed through 31. And so, you know, this organization still has needs roster-wise, and they're not going to pay both goalies. And so if they're going to be proactive about it before he could potentially be offer sheeted, they're going to trade Walshead, which I don't agree with. I think he's the guy you hang on to.

Yeah. But I think ultimately it's an easier trade to make than the other goalie. Cats win the Stanley Cup. According to Greg Wosinski, they're back like a vertebrae, and they win the Stanley Cup in the process. I just, I don't, look, I hate to be boring about it, but I mean, who has that roster? The only way they don't win, Merrick,

is that if Marstrum is atrocious, in which case they'll just trade for Hellebuck, or they, yeah, like you said, the miles on their tires from three very long journeys to the Stanley Cup final and two victories, are such that you can't roll the odometer back. Remember in Ferris Bueller when they try to roll the odometer back? Oh, in Ferrari.

It's not working. It's not working. It's not working. Yeah. So there's a chance the Florida Panthers could crash out of Cameron's dad's giant window at some point. Yeah. But if they don't, no one has Brady and Barkoff and Reinhardt. No one has Matthew and Verhegey and Bennett.

No one has a third line as good as Lister Ryan and Lundell-Marshan. I get all that. And no one has a top four defense as good, in my opinion, as what the Panthers can throw at you. I look at that roster. I remember how dominant that group was. I remember teams flailing about trying to find a response. And listen, there's good contenders. Carolina is a good contender.

They have their rings. Washington's a good contender. They've got the size and the skating. They don't have the next up tier players that Florida has compared to their roster. Like instead of Pierre-Luc Dubois, Florida has Alexander Barkoff. And then Montreal obviously is the one that I think is on the come up and could present a real challenge. But Florida, man. I want to get to our guess here in a second.

Really quick. One final point on the Florida Panthers. Let's not forget how many teams now are going to have really tough games against the Florida Panthers deliberately. Ottawa games now are spicy. than ever. The Tampa rivalry is going nowhere. If you had a look at preseason, Bokanji Amama and Bryce Montgomery

are throwing down two minutes into the game. Yeah. Like there's a lot of teams that Florida is going to have a lot of really, really hard games against. And with the age and to your point, the tired tread on the Florida Panthers, we always talk about what's the team

you're going to look like after the playoffs. What are they going to look like after the regular season? It doesn't matter. They're going to, they're the team that wipes away the blood from their chin and Axol Steve Rogers. I could do this all day. I hope they do because they're a lot of fun to watch in the process.

Let's get right to our guest. Crossover time, MvSW versus Curtin Bloggers. Mike Halford, Jason Brough, Hal Bro, starts Monday at 7 o'clock Pacific on the DFO Vancouver YouTube. It's a preposterous setup for the video people. It's 2012. It's 2012 all over again.

It's MVSW versus the Curtin Bloggers. here. What's up, gentlemen? How are we today? We're good. I love all the backgrounds. They're so creative. Wish, hey, listen, I just, I just moved. So I don't even have my ship behind me, my little toys behind me yet. I don't know what you guys' excuses are. I do. This setup means we're either going to start debating Dak Prescott or Alice the maid is going to be in the middle of this grid at some point. One of the two. Oh, happy to be back. Wish I didn't know you'd be joining us here. This is awesome to see you. Jeff. Great to see you, pal. Yeah. Hey, you know what we're just talking about? We're just sort of gushing about what it's like coming on your program.

And the one takeaway that I, because it's always fun conversations, great and all that. But if I come back on, like if you guys are kind enough to invite me on your program, do you still have the Jeff Merrick intro that you guys made for me back at Sportsnet from a million years ago with like that Euro trash German style? That was so good. I'm not sure. Put a real smile on my face. We'll have to find it. Is Halford just a lot? frozen in fear right now. No, he's stunned. He's stunned. He thinks he's in a time machine and it's 2012 all over again. He finds it peculiar. Yeah, he finds it bizarre, the whole thing. Go ahead. Jason, Jason, how exciting, you and I are both very online. How exciting has it been to

revisit Mark Messier's time in Vancouver along with Mike Keenan in the last 24 hours? Have you seen a lot of that on your timeline? Man, that was that was kind of during my checkout time on the Canucks. They were such a disaster. And I had gone off to university. So I actually don't even like share the same disdain that a lot of Canucks fans do for for Mark Messier because it was kind of just in the background of my life. But those comments, I couldn't figure out what Messier was more disgusted by.

Was it, was it the hiring of a guy with the history of Mike Babcock or was it the the fact that the players had a say in it. Which one was he more disgusted about? I think he was going up and down the ladder trying to hit as many rungs as possible. Honestly, didn't he take it away? It's like, he was like, okay, I got this finite amount of time here. How many punches can I throw while I got the boxer up against the ropes?

That's kind of what it felt like. It's like, body shot, body shot, you know, water in the basement. Now I'm going to the head. Now I'm going back to the body. And it's all sort of wrapped up in a cozy 90 seconds. summing it up as horrific was great. First of all, great from a headline perspective. But also just like the summary of his feelings on the whole thing.

Listen, when I saw that quote in the transcript, I had to first of all check with my PR person to make sure that that he actually said it on a phone call because it seems to my character. But the second of all, I'm just like, I can't believe how hard he went. Like it's not something you'd ever expect. And also, I'm being honest with you, man. Like, we're talking about the Mike Kiner of it all. Messier doesn't always have the most thrilling reputation as being like, you know, an empathetic guy as captain.

I've seen some references to his father being a hard ass. Like, like, it's not as if this guy is cut from a cloth where you'd expect him to be the guy to speak up about Mike Babcock. So the fact that he did is, I think, part of the remarkable part of this thing. Well, that's why I was wondering, was he more. horrified by the fact that the players had a say in it. You know? And I think that's, you know, the Mike Babcock hiring by itself is interesting, but the way he was hired makes it even more interesting.

Now, I don't know if this is just narrative, but the way I understand it, the players were clamoring for it. The leadership wanted it. Were they tired of yelling at the players themselves? and I'm talking obviously about McDavid and Dry Settle where they thought the coach wasn't yelling enough at everyone. You know, I guess we've all seen that video of Connor freaking out in the dressing room a couple of years ago,

but like was that happening every night? And he's like, I'm losing my voice yelling at this team, so I can't do it anymore. And maybe it's affecting my relationship with some of my players. I don't know. So we got to bring in a guy who's going to do that for me. And I mean, is that the understanding that you guys have on this? I think part of it is for Messier, the idea of essentially players interviewing Mike Babcock for the role.

Right. Right. I think that was your Mark Messer like that doesn't happen. That can't happen. You know, it's funny too because the other layer to this is if you're Stan Bowman, right, General Manager of the Edmontoneman. Oilers. If it doesn't work out, this is what the players want it. Like at the end of it, it's like, guys, like, I don't know that, like, you guys have

followed this game for a long time. Can you think of another group of players that are and have been actively looking for someone to yell at them? No. More so than this group of Edmonton Oilers. Like, we need someone to hear that accountability. And they want to bring in someone who's like yelling and nasty and, like, yelling and nasty. and like the complete opposite of what they just had.

I mean, coaching hires are always that way, right? It's a pendulum swing, right? It's the quiet, thoughtful coach, and then it's the, you know, fire coconuts off the wall guy. But I think, I think part of what fueled Messier's outrage about this was the idea that it was the players interviewing the coach for the position. But you're right, though. I mean, like, when usually the disciplinarian is hired,

it's management throwing it at the players because they're pissed off at the players. But the players like, scream at me. Scream at me. You've got, you've got McDavid Hyman and Drysidal, you know, self-flagellating themselves like Paul Bettney and the Da Vinci Code with a cat of nine tails in their back. Yes. And you're just

like, this is not how it works. Those Thor's, what's going on, guys? Yeah, by the way, the fact, I was going to ask you guys this and and, you know, we're, we're hard to we've been hired to do a show on the Canucks. Is anything interesting about the Canucks?

Yes. What is the most interesting thing for you guys? Is there anything juicy that you guys are looking forward to? Yeah, the Elias Pedersen story doesn't stop. It doesn't matter. Oh, God, I know. It doesn't. I hate to say it again, but like this is marching to some conclusion here eventually, right?

Like that will Elias Pedersen will never stop being a story there Yeah I know but again like it's it's like I this has been this is my my life for years now And it's like it's like even to the point where like I'm I'm bored of it right I'm we're not bored of the store yeah I know but like well here's the thing like it might just Be him on this team for a few years It might might and like what what? What are the options? And the story is going to continue.

They would have traded them if they could have. We got Mike involved here. We got his tech issues all sort of. Mike, first of all, on behalf of everybody here at the nation, welcome to the network. You guys have got plenty of flowers already. It's so thrilling to call you guys teammates as well. You have a thought on this one,

what's interesting with Vancouver right now? Or if you want to go back to the previous conversation, how did you greet the Mark Messier story yesterday? Your choice. First off, this is a pretty hot start for a web show. I'm really impressed with my tech abilities. It was good. Yeah.

Okay, I'll take a stab at the Kinnock's thing. We talked about this yesterday with quads and harm on West Coast. Yes. I've got to get my branding right. I'm really curious to see how the team is going to be received in market, given everything that's going on with the industry, media industry, of course. And then we talked about this a couple times already,

but the bar is so remarkably low for this team for what success looks like. And I think we kind of identified two things. It was try hard and be nice. It's participation ribbon season for the team. And that's all they really need to do because last year and a couple of years prior, there was hate watching from Brough in particular. There was the race to the bottom to see how many losses they could compile to get to the top of the draft standings.

And now you've got a team where, like this year, this season exists so that other seasons are better. And the Kinecks haven't adhered to that practice for really forever. So in a way, like it could be, that could be a boring premise for a team, but I am really interested to see how they're received. And if vibes and community service and trying really hard can win over a fan base,

and quite honestly, is pretty jaded right now. Mike, when you guys were doing the morning show, how did the reaction to, to Pedersen change like over the last couple of years. Because I remember coming on and there was certainly a contingent of true believers that helped that they can turn it around and you extract J.T. Miller from the situation and maybe things can be better for for Elias. But like where do you think the temperature on it is now?

Like is there still a vocal group of supporters that still believe this guy is going to turn it around? It's shrinking, right? I mean, on ice play. It is. It is. Like there's fewer and fewer people. that firmly believe that it's coming back and I'd say there's even less people

who believe that this is just a temporary funk like it just might be what the player is there was like so obviously Lou Eriksen's contract was far less onerous and you know he didn't have as much riding on his shoulders but there are parallels there where by the end people just were apathetic towards the deal and him and it was like this is what he is now he's a you know six million a year above average penalty killer who's not going to provide anything else. And I know he's been in the news recently. And I mean, I think it was far worse for him personally than what we kind of glean from

the public. But we're not quite there with Peders and yet. Like, I don't think people are willing to just sort of wave the white flag. But I heard Brough before we came on. Like there is a resignment that it's like, he might be here for a while. He might just stick around and, you know, have a shift and maybe score 40 to 50 points because I don't know how easy it's going to be to move them elsewhere. and he still has the hammer because he's got his no movement clause.

I mean, that's a whole separate dynamic to the thing where the temperature is dropped considerably because the expectations for the team are low. But I think once they get back on the ice and games kind of start to matter, that could get ratcheted back up, especially if it's the same sort of,

what I expect to be, another sort of flatline performance. I want to add one more thing to the, you know, play hard and be nice vibe about Vancouver this year. The other thing is, are the kids getting better? like again like this is going to be like regard like at home you hope it's a close game they win a couple here and there lose every game on the road like it's it's the chase for land in dupont so go get on the road and those are where your stinkers are at competitive games at home they're all close you win a couple here and there and that's great and the only question is did coots improve this year and we're going to watch be you to see what malhotra is up to and are the kids getting better the thing about rebuilds like this is you and we're going to watch buchre is up to and are the kids getting better the thing about rebuilds like this this though too is fans always say that they want it and they'll put up with it.

I'm really curious to see at what point that changes. Jeff, I lost it of one period of the preseason game. You sucks. Wait a minute. This is a real. These kids, none of them are good. You know what I mean? Like what, again, this is, I always love.

watching fan bases go through this because you learn a lot about them with how they behave through a rebuild. It's here's the medicine. Here we go. I know I got to take it. How long do you think it lasts? Okay. So real quick, on home ice is going to be a fascinating dynamic because last year we put

together a Mount Rushmore of embarrassing home losses. And then there were so many. We were able to do a second Mount Rushmore of them. And that was like before the Olympic break. It was crazy. Like they were racking them up left and right. And I was like, I was like, okay, you can't do this to your ticket buying public with this frequency. So there's something to be said.

And brought up a good point the other day about maybe you find those games that means something extra to you. Like maybe it's an Edmonton game or maybe when Florida comes to town. You're like, this is an important game for this group. Not to say that the other ones aren't, but maybe there's an extra on those games. and that's where the kids can really learn something going up against a cup contender or someone that's going to push them around all night. And you're like, this is this.

See what you're made of, right? Where's your medal on this one? I think if you can get those at home and there's some real fight and resilience to the group, that'll win over the fan base. The fan base will take it through this year, I think, for sure. Because they've been clamoring for a rebeau for so long. They almost have to.

What you're talking about, Merrick, is maybe like next year or the year after. What it feels. Or are you going to use of Broughton out four weeks. I get to rebuild four weeks. That's what they're allowed. It all depends on your draft lottery look. I mean, look at Detroit.

The Izer plan would look a hell of a lot different if they ever had snagged a first or second overall pick during that time. They didn't. I was thinking about though with rebuilds, because I speak as you guys, we always talk about this when I came on the show about being a New York Jets fan. Like, the four

major sports, right? I think the NFL you rebuild pretty quickly. If you get a bunch of draft picks for your good players, you can repop it. Alford and I are Cahawks fans. Yeah, exactly. You can you can reload real quick. I think the NBA, it's still a league where you are importing talent more than you are drafting

talent in a lot of ways. And so that's kind of a weird one. MLB, obviously the hardest one to rebuild because it's just so hard to figure out who good players are via the draft and things like that. That's why you see teams like the Mets go and spend, you know, the gross national product of Belize on pre-agents to try to fucking turn things around. And then hockey is kind of, I think, one where I really think that there's a, as long as you can give the fan base some level of hope, something they hang on to. And that's usually going to be a first or second overall pick, right? Then I think you can buy yourself some time because I think there are more examples of teams going in the tank and emerging as contenders than there are teams going in the tank and emerging as contenders than there are teams going in the tank.

and it's just not working. I mean, we all have like your Buffalo Eichol situations and Detroit, you know, for a couple of those years, although they were never really that bad enough. But then you look at Edmonton, you look at Colorado, look at the teams that devils, the teams that really kind of, you know, went in that direction and emerged as contenders with, like, franchise players. Well, I think a huge challenge for the Canucks and their marketing group is, look, you're excited about some of the young kids, but you need more.

And Coots is probably going to play in the A&A. I think he should play in the HAL. They send Navati back to Junior, which is definitely a good idea. So you know, and Mahalja might not be on the team for a couple of years. I mean, he could spend some time

in the HAL. Who knows? They're not going to rush those guys. This is something they are definitely not going to do. They're going to err on the side of keeping them at a level where they can dominate as opposed to really struggle. Who are you selling on the Vancouver Canal?

for Canucks fans going to the rank, who are you excited to go watch? The Sadiens. I'm like, I'm not trying to be glit. The Sadiens would be glib here, but like that's, that's the selling point. The selling point is that your organization

is in the hands of the people that you love the most. Oh, I thought they did it sell. That's tough when you're at the game and you're, you're looking at the ice and you're like, where are the Siddines? I thought you meant they were going to do like a skills competition and the intermission to try to get. fans in the door in Vancouver here wish like like for me I think Zeev

William is the guy that I'm going to be watching closest this year because I'm still not a hundred percent sure what what he is and what his level is like he's a he's a beautiful player to watch because he skates so well and he just moves really well out on the ice I don't know how good he is at defending I don't know how good he is in heavy situations against heavy players checking you know like he's still young so he's going to get stronger but that's that's something i'm going to watch right i mean that that's that's pretty interesting to me you know they got a couple other young defensemen vlander and and and and and elias peterson that that'll be watching i don't know like i'd be i'd be thrilled if either of those guys

became a three or a four defenseman, but Bouillon is the guy that has the highest upside, but then other than that, like Lekra-Macki, I am not super bullish on, but prove me wrong. You like Ogren? I like Ogren. I like Ogren. I really like

Ogren. I really do. I actually, I love the way he plays. So that's another guy. I don't know what his ceiling is, but I just really like the way he plays. And I think he's becoming a fan favorite. it. So those are the things that Mike and I are going to be digging into. But there's no, you know, to your point, there's no McDavid, there's no Eichel, there's no, there's no celebrini, there's no baddard, right? Like there's no bluest of the blue chip that you can be like,

oh, I'm going to go watch that guy, which is why the Canucks fans are going to be hoping that win the draft order, just one time, just one time. Get a guy like Landed DuPont in the door and that that you can sell. Hey Wish, to your earlier point about the NBA being a league of import talent, which I think is accurate, do you think that we're slowly starting to go that way in the NHL just based on what's happened over the last 12 months with Cichuk, soon to be Hallibuck, Lark and Hughes, maybe Hughes twice, the player empowerment era, whatever happened with Team USA at the Olympics, guys willing to call their shots.

I wonder, I wonder if we might be at a, I don't want to like overstated, but an unprecedented level of star player movement in the league. And maybe the, the, the guy has been cast. Like more guys are going to be like, yeah, I'll call my shot. I kind of want to move now too. Yeah. No, I, I hesitate on that, Mike.

And I hesitate on it because I do think that there are specific circumstances behind a lot of the stuff that we've seen. seen in the last year or so. You know, in the case of Quinn Hughes, probably hoping that that trade was going to end up with him in New Jersey, in the case of Brady Kachuk, wanting to play with his brother, in the case of Connor Hellebuck, the fallout from the gold medal thing, which is something that none of us really could foresee. And in the case of Dylan Larkin, wanted to play with Quinn Hughes, probably, and get out of a

situation where he's in a perpetual rebuild. the one that has me hopeful as a guy who does like to see star player movement that we could be getting to more of an NBA landscape is Leo Carlson who put pen to paper on a mega deal that his team had to match but nonetheless put pen to paper and you know we still have a league where these guys are beholden other teams from their draft year through you know usually the age of 26 or 27 depending on what kind of leverage they wield. But we need to, if we get to a point where the 23-year-olds

are finding escape pods to come and play on different teams or on different teams to play with each other, then we're in the NBA landscape. Should we be watching for a Leo Carlson trade? Like, remember when Shay Weber signed that offer sheet? Yep. And then it wasn't too long after that he was dealt away. And you did hear the odd chatter about the relationship,

I'll give you a better example. I'll give you a better example. I'll give you a better example. Ryan O'Reilly. So he signs the offer sheet with the Calgary Flames. And Flames almost lost it. He always had to go through waivers and Columbus would have had him for free. But Colorado matches.

God, that would have been something too, hey? That would have been, anyway, Colorado matches. Jake Easter's finest moment, right? So Colorado matches. When Ryan O'Reilly went back into that room, It wasn't all sunshine and lollipops from the other players. It was, you try. So, again, not the majority of players by any stretch the imagination,

but some guys were like, you tried to leave. You quit on us and you tried to get out. And it wasn't that much longer after that that he ended up getting moved to the Buffalo Sabres. So I'll respond to this in two ways, because there's two reasons why I don't think it's that kind of situation with Carlson. The first is that everyone in that, that room is probably buying him in edible arrangements. Right.

Because he just raised the fucking price tag on all of those. First of all, yeah, you stuck around. But then also, like, you raised the, like, Cutter Gautier should be in servitude. He should be washing Leo Carlson's car for how much money. No, no, you know who should? No, pause. You know who should? Pavl Minchikov.

Yeah. Pavl Mentjo, who right away with the threat of another offer sheet got seven change. That's the, that's the guy right away. Yeah, you're right. But the second thing, too, is like, who's going to be pissed at Leo Carlson the most? In theory, it's going to be Pat Verbeek. Well, guess what? Like, there's a better than good chance the view within that organization is that Pat

for Beak fucked this up. And so I don't know, he's not the ducks. Like, Pat Verbeek is the general manager of the ducks, but he is not like a David Poil type, right? And so, you know, the real question is, how upset will Ryan Getslaff be when he takes over as general manager in Anaheim. Will he be upset at the office? I don't know, but I don't think Pat Rebeek's opinion on this really matters all that much. You know what's in having a conversation with someone about this not too long ago,

about what just happened with the Anaheim ducks with Carlson, with Minchikov, and with Cutter Goce as well. And if you sort of track back to like, I think Carlson has said something along the lines of, you know, a year and a half ago eight times eight would have been great or whatever. And then how much more you had to pay for Minchikov as well? and then what you had to pay for Cutter Goce. You know, all of that probably cost Henry Samuel an extra $40 million. Like if you're like, imagine, like you're the CEO of a company and you cost your company

at just a casual extra $40 million. Yeah. And not only that makes you make it harder down the line to build a competitive team. Yeah. like this like Henry Samuel Henry and Susan Samuel have to be the most loyal owners to their staff in the entire NHL who just looked at that you know took that pill that went down sideways

and scratched both sides of their throat and went okay yeah Pat that's good we're good an extra 40 million we're good we're good we're good carry on I think that call was like to, from, you know what? From Pat for big to ownership. I'll say, you know who's thought about that? Every single other general manager.

Chris Patrick mentioned this at NHL.com in the summer. It was like, you know what? That's sent to scare through everybody. And so now everybody is terrified. The whole, the sort of mantra for the summer was, I don't want to be Pat. I don't want to be in that position. I don't want to see that offer sheet. I don't want to see that number.

And I don't want to make that phone call to my owner. Everyone was terrified. Like, again, like I was saying the other day on the show, I think it is, like you look at the history of NHHL contracts. Bobby O'R was the first to get a million dollars. Bobby Hull famously, a million dollars, WHA, Chicago offered a match. He said, do you bet I'm going to the WHA. There was a Colvichick rejected contract.

There's been some big contracts that have really, you know, changed the game significantly, but none like Leo Carlson. There's been no, it is the most consequential contract in the history of the NHL I maintain, just because of the cascade effect that it's had everywhere. including the next offer sheet. Yes. I mean, it's, yeah, absolutely. All right.

Enough on the Leo Carl's a thing. I just want to see how long, uncomfortable silence can go. I want to see. As I age, I'm more in love with silence. No, no, no, I'm in love with awkward. You got to know this about me. As I get older, I'm in love with awkward silence.

Boys, what do you, you guys are Quinn Hughes experts. What do you think is going to happen in Minnesota? Do you think he's going to sign there? Do you think he's just going to let it wither and die on the vine and then go play with Jack in New Jersey? What do you think he's going to end up doing? Oh, man. That's such a good question.

If history is any indicator. Any frame of reference here, boys, for this? I was actually thinking earlier, Wish, when you were talking about draft lottery luck and, you know, the Eiser plan, if they'd had a first overall pick, how different things would have been. how different would it have been if they had just drafted Hughes when they had a chance?

Yeah. Like he was, he was there for them. I mean, I've always wondered about Hughes to Detroit. And I wonder if that could keep larkin in Detroit. If that could change his mind or totally change the situation there. And it's Michigan. So it's Michigan.

So that could have been a dinner bell for other Hughes boys too? Yeah. But I think it all depends how strong is the pull for Quinn to go play with his brothers. I mean, is he like, well, Matthew gets to play with Brady. Like, you know, is he going to want to do that too, right? Quintz his impression lacks an accuracy. It makes up foreign capture the forlorn nature of his. Well, that's why he's hard to get a read on.

he just looks like every interview is like did you wake up five minutes ago or four minutes ago you know it's just I've never seen anyone permanent bedhead before but he's managed to accomplish it so like I again the reason I brought up the player empowerment I feel like Hughes is the one that he's like I still didn't really get to call my shot

and you know kind of dictate where I wanted to go he knew where he didn't want to be and that was Vancouver but there was obviously an underlying sense right from the get that Minnesota wasn't it. He said all the right things when he got there, you know, that it's a great hockey market. And, you know, he's somewhat closer to where he wanted to be like slowly migrating east. But the cut that Garron took at it was so massive that you just kind of assume that he either had some sort of unspoken or handshake agreement or he knew that this guy was going to commit to Minnesota. Otherwise, why would you give up the bounty that you did for a year and a half of them? But it's starting to look more and more like that was the gamble,

that that was the risk he was willing to take. And I know Garen's ever been afraid of big swings, and sometimes they've worked out in his favor. But this one, I mean, this one has the possibility to just end so terribly and really tarnish and otherwise pretty strong legacy, I would say, or the last three years of what he's been able to do internationally. And then you could still get a pretty, but you could still get a pretty good haul for a Quinn use trade though, right?

For sure. I mean... But the question would be like, what did you accomplish? What did you acquire? You took a swing. You took a swing. But they didn't go anywhere.

Like they didn't go, they didn't do anything, right? They're still bowing out in the second round of the playoffs. Like, yeah, right. It's like, we did the same thing. We did back with Willie Mitchell and Mary and Gabbrick, right?

It's a real, real Jake, real Jake K. Simmons at the end of Burn After Reading vibe here. What did we learn? Nothing. Nothing. We're the same team. No, you know what?

No, hang on a second. because I'll push back on that too because if you're a Minnesota wild fan, like, okay, it didn't work, but my guy took a swing. What's the thing we've all said about Minnesota for the, the longest time,

too? I mean, they had, they were in salary cap jail for the longest time, but they took a swing back in free agency in 2012. Big swing. They took a huge swing when they got sued. They took a huge swing when they got sued and they were still the same thing.

But don't you want that from your ownership slash management? For sure. I'll take that. It's almost like, it's almost like the organization is determined or jinxed. it's always this is what they're going to be. I don't know why, right? But there's always a speed bump or a roadblock

along the way that prevents them from being anything more than what they are. The Seattle Cracken would love to accomplish what the Minnesota while. They tried to. They tried to. They tried to. They tried to. But to Jason's point about Detroit, though, like the underrated aspect of the USA group chat thing that's been going on,

I think, is that these guys all won. And so Brady goes from, Ottawa to Florida. And Helibuck's like, I don't want to be stuck in the, in the mushy middle with the, with the, Jets. I want to go someplace else. And I'm sure Quinn is like, like when he talked about, I'm not making decisions solely on the, on the fact that I want to play with my brother, it's because he's probably like,

fuck, man, like Minnesota's probably in a better position than either the devils or Detroit, you know, at the end of the day. That's fair. I think, I think going to Detroit and hoping Jack shows up in 2030, you're going to probably have to spend a couple years maybe out of the playoffs before that. And I don't think it's where Quinn wants to be at all. Yeah. Guys, before we go and wrap up the program here,

I want to ask you sort of an inside baseball question, a little bit about broadcasting. Really quickly, when I got punted at Rogers, I was off for three months. And the one thing, and I'd always wondered about this too while I was employed there, am I doing this because I like it or am I doing this because it's a habit? Do I really like this or am I just on the trolley tracks?

and then eventually when you have time by yourself, you realize you either love it, like it's a passion, or like, you know what, maybe it's time to do something else because they don't have that draw. Did you, I know you guys were like off for like a cozy five minutes, but did you guys have that internal conversation at all? Like, is this still something that we want to do or is it just been a habit?

Yeah, Jeff, you know, it's not something I want to keep doing, but I'm not qualified to do anything else. So, you know, the mortgage's got to get paid, buddy. I know. No, I hear you. I was, I was bored. I got bored over the summer. I was like, I need, I need to go and have these conversations,

get your brain going a little bit. I love having conversations. And, yeah, it's just, it's, it's, I'm super lucky that I've got this gig. I'm super lucky that I've got a partner like Mike, where we can go in, have good conversations, have lots of laughs. I talk to guys like you. and yeah i can't wait to get going again mike yeah i'm a man of very very few and limited interests

in sports is it's like sports and then after that it's like maybe secondary sports and tertiary sports so i just was he didn't is that high lie i can gamble on that and then when uh when we got when we got whatever fired laid off terminated i just didn't stop paying attention to anything. I just kind of I was like I'm just I assume that I'm going to do this again and it was just the same thing the summer months we're slow with the World Cup was on and that was great and I told this story on the podcast that we did the mini one but we went to England at the end of August the beginning of September for the start of the Premier League season and we went saw matches all the way

from the Premier League all the way down to League one which is the third division and it was kind of invigorating to see the passion of the fan bases we went up to Middlesbrough which is it's a tough city. And like they've got the football club and then crime. And those are the two things they do really well. So that was the one where I was like, and we went to a match and it was amazing. It was so electric.

And it was just it really, I mean, not to get like too wax, too poetic, but it just kind of got me like reinvigorated to go back and talk about this stuff because I cared about it as much as they did. I was really into it.

I'm like, yeah, that's the passion and the energy that I've got for this stuff still. And it never died and it never burnt off. So I'm happy to be doing it again. thrilled all of us that you're on board and under the tent here looking forward to monday seven a m back at it halford and brough dFO vancouver let's go boys thanks guys there they are bye isn't that great they are they are not awesome i've done those guys for a very long time uh same we go even even during

curtain blog the curtain blogs but they also i don't know if you remember this they had a they had a run where they were sort of doing a sort of like a their their blog on NBC when NBC had the NHL rights here in the States. And they would like, I think they popped on television too now and again. It was an interesting time. What a fun time. Really quickly. This fan moment is presentation of bring it in Coca-Cola.

Being a hockey fan as a commitment. This is superstitions. Sorry, first day with the new tongue. The superstitions, the chance, the pacing, the standing through overtime because sitting somehow feels wrong. Whether you're making the climb to the nosebleeds, rallying your section to start the waiver, keeping one eye on your game and the other on the out of town scores, true fandom puts in the work.

And every shift deserves an ice cold Coca-Cola fan work is thirsty work. Anything from your, because I got a few more that I want to pull out if you got a couple of minutes here. You hit me. Sticking with Vancouver after talking to the boys.

Marco Rossi number one center? Yeah. Now, is that, let me ask you this. Because I read it and I'm like, okay. Marco Rossi emerging as a number one center, just a number one center in Vancouver or because it's not it that is not a by default prediction that is a this guy was the is now the guy that we thought he could be prediction I hope you're right because I've loved them going back to junior with the 67s but you realize that like I've always looked at center in the Western conference right now as like the hardest position to play like number one center

Ikel McDavid dry sidle celebrini McKinnon Bittard Carlson Shifley Thomas and you think think Marco Rossi is ready to join that group? I hope you're right. If he clicks the way he clicked last year in a, you know, a limited run with Brock Besser, then I think the possibility is there. One name you didn't mention, and this was one that I don't know if I ended up writing about him or not. I don't think I did. Is Quentin Byfield?

Fingers crossed. I hope so. Well, fingers crossed because he's going to be probably playing with Panarin, you know. either Fiala or Kempe. But again, as much as the Peter Lobulet magic usually leads to teams making the playoffs in his first year in any situation, like that's like a one-line team. And, you know, like they're going to have Eric Quala probably playing in their top six. And like that makes me very nervous about the leap that we all hope that Byfield makes this year,

playing with a couple of really talented dudes on the wing is teams are just going to key on it. him. Like there's no other reason to worry about the L.A. King's offensively other than the line that Quentin Belfield's going to be on. Just waiting for him to emerge, like that guy that we all saw going into his draft, where he's just big, strong, guys bounce off him, makes play, scores, all of it. Just waiting, waiting. What I found endearing about, and by the way, at the player media tour is he had his dad with him. And I'm just like, more players that should like bring family along to see what this stupid car wash looks like, to see what they have to do as as hockey celebrities when they fly to Las Vegas for a day or two

and have to do this whole thing. Like, family should be part of that, I think. And also it takes the edge off of those guys when they're there, you know, just with a PR person. True. Okay. One thing I want to get your thoughts on. And I'm like, I used to see his family all the time in Newmarket.

He played York Simco Express and Philly played there too. And it's a great family, wonderful family. So do you saw the Winnipeg Jets News? I thought about you. I thought about you and all your little history of hockey organization nerds that are probably freaking out about this. Whatever it's going to be, I get it. And listen, it does seem weird that Howard Chuck isn't part of the history more than Covalchuk that always felt wrong. I get it.

We're making up a lot of the stuff as we sort of go along. So fine. If that's what they want to do, that's great. I got no problem with it. Go for it. more power to you. But if we are going to incorporate, let me see if you're with me on this one or not,

if we are going to incorporate OG Winnipeg Jets, new Winnipeg Jets, can we then put the Winnipeg Jets in their OG colors? Which looks better? To me, it's the lighter blue as opposed to the darker blue.

Can we go back to those, that Jets look there? If we're bringing back that, history for the stats. Can we go back to that, Craig Wyshinsky? I'm more of a, I'm less concerned about the color than I am the crest. I think,

I think one of the major missteps of this organization was, was whatever they decided on when they returned, that weird plain crest thing is such an inferior, uh, uh, logo compared to what they used to wear back of the day. And they obviously remedied that with their, um, you know,

reverse retrojuries and things like that. Um, Here's what bothers me. Uh-oh. It bothers me that Shane Done no longer played his entire career with one organization. Like now, conodically, he was a member of the Winnipeg Jets, and then he was a member of some other defunct team that has no bearing in the history of the Winnipeg Jets statistically anymore.

That's kind of a bummer for me. This was always going to be awkward. This was always going to be roller skating down a gravel road. Like as soon as the Utah, Arizona mess happened, and then we had to sort out history, and we've been trying to sort out history too with Winnipeg and the Jets. Like, this was never going to be smooth.

That's why I look at this and say, if that's what you want to do, okay, fine. Like, I do, I do like the fact that it is Howard Chuck, not Colvochuk, with the Winnipeg Jets history. And that's what Mark Shifley is chasing here. That felt right to me.

I understand that. Give me one second as I go to... Okay, so if Atlanta gets an expansion franchise, can they reclaim that era? No. They don't want anything to do with the thrashers. The players on the first year, Phoenix Coyotes of 1996-97, Eric.

Keith Kachuk. Okay. Tepo Newmanen. Okay. Shane Dohn. Yeah. Who was the goalie? You remember the goalie.

It was Nikolai Hobby Bullen because he was the goalie in Winnipeg. The idea that all of these guys that are clearly Winnipeg jets wearing a Kachina jersey no longer have their stats count towards the lineage of the jets because they happen to be playing in Phoenix. is bothersome to me. The expunging of the Phoenix, the Phoenix years is bothersome to me. And I would feel the same way if a team came back to Kansas City

and said the New Jersey Devils no longer have any claim on the Scouts' legacy. Can't change history. I mean, you would think that I'd be really passionate about this. I'm just not. Because it was, it was, it was, to be sloppy either way.

It was going to be messy either way. And if this is the way that they want to do it, like listen, and I will admit my bias because I had all the time in the world and he was someone that I would talk to on a regular basis for Dale Howard Chuck. And I always associate Dale Howard Chuck with Winnipeg. Sorry, Philadelphia, Buffalo, etc. And, you know, that's why, you know, I have a strong affinity for Cole Perfetti because that was the Howard Chuck pick with the Howard Chuck family after he passed too.

So I got a lot of time for Dale Howard Chuck and Winnipeg. So if this is the way that this awkward phase of hockey history gets counted, I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. Again, all we can do, Edward R. Murrow will always say all we can do is we all have a bias. We throw them all out there. That's my bias.

It's default to Dale Howard Chuck. Congratulations to David Harlock, 65. games in the second year of the thrashers existence a minus 28 sir yes you are still part of the fabric do winnipeg jets legacy um do you have a quick thought on why now the nchel is trying to tamp down this idea of expansion i do i do we've talked about this before uh the reason is one the owners of the prospective texas team are still trying to figure out where they want to put it And it could be Austin, it could be Houston. And two, there are owners within the Board of Governors that have their preference as to where they want the team to be.

And also, there are owners within the Board of Governors. And I asked Gary Bettman this question at the Board of Governors meeting this week in New York, and he, you know, confirmed it. There are owners who don't want to expand. I think that's the big one. And which is crazy when you think about how many billions of dollars. Gary Betman said it would take $3.5 billion for the, you know, a freaking family to build their arena and gain entry to the NHL by an expansion fee. Do you think that that number, that 3.5B scares people off?

That they take a second look. What I'm thinking of specifically are the Atlanta groups, not free. In what sense that it's too much money to spend? Well, when the whole talk with Atlanta started, it was around $2 billion all in. and now that's grown to $3.5 billion. I have no reason to believe that the financial entry point for the teams at Atlanta is the issue. Maybe you've heard different because they're still getting the approvals of the municipalities to build these arenas. There's a bigger game at play for the groups in Atlanta, which is that they want to use a team to get the arena to then get the massive mixed use community around the arena.

Yeah, that's the play. That's always the play. Yeah, that's the play. And in Houston, I mean, who knows? Is there a casino involved? Like we had, you know, with the whole situation with the Mavericks, who's to say? No, I think the issue is that you've got, you've got some people that want to make sure, A, they get it right by choosing the right location for a new NHL expansion team.

And then you have some owners that are just like, you know what? It's really, really fucking hard to win right now is one of 32. And then it's going to be one of 34. And there are some owners that are kind of like a little bit worried about the state of the game and whether the talent pool could survive. I mean, it's no, there's, it shouldn't be a coincidence that every time expansion comes up, Bill Daley is the first one to say the talent pool can handle this. Yeah. He's speaking to us, but he's also speaking to the guys that are on the fence. So the framing of my question of Batman, Merrick, was, is this as smooth as it was for Vegas and Seattle?

And the answer is obviously no. Yeah, no. The answer is you have a group that is still trying to figure out where they want to put a team. You have three competing groups in Atlanta with one that hasn't really emerged yet as the frontrunner. You have the Phoenix thing on the back burner where that's where the NHL would love to go again, but they've got to get shovels on the arena before that even begins to have a discussion. And so the NHL has been very careful to say they're not in an expansion cycle because they're treating this as, hey, this is a bunch of people coming to us and saying they'd like teams.

it works out that they've got their ducks in a row, maybe we can give them a team. It is not the NHL trying to go to these places because, God forbid, these bids fail, then it's like, well, what happened? Like, why did this, why is Gary Betman taking an L on maybe the last big thing he does as commissioner? Okay, well, we'll bracket the conversation there. You enjoy the rest of your day, and we will catch up next week. Indeed. How is the home studio coming along, by the way, before I let you.

you go. Well, again, it still looks like I'm in purgatory. There's an AI version of Greg Wischinski that you're speaking to. By the way, somebody wondered if AI had written my bold predictions column. And I would love nothing more than if AI could write my bold predictions column because that's 6300 words that I had to gin up for your enjoyment. But no, it's coming along. I got to get a rug. I've got to put some shit on the wall. Hopefully within the next two weeks, it's going to look. look more like a good background like you've got there, Merrick. I want to put something forward because when I think of AI as a long time hockey observer,

I think of Ally Afraidy. From now on on this program, when we refer to AI, can we refer to AI as ally Afraidy? I just want to note to all the people listening and watching that this man right here said the AI in sports that he thinks of his ally everybody else. I know, I know, I know, I know. No, no. It's hockey. It's ally afraid.

It's not Alan Iverson, sorry. That's right. We're talking about skullets? We're talking about 105 miles slap shots. Scullets? Yeah, he did have the good one. He's bicked it. Okay, you'll be good.

We'll talk soon. Take care. Greg Wischinski. Quick, before we wrap, thanks for joining us today. Thanks to Hoffman and Brough for stopping by. Also, want to congratulate someone who put in a double shift yesterday, and that's Zach Phillips.

How was after dark? It was fun. It was good to be back talking about Leafs, hearing people get mad about seeing Darren Radish and Moran Riley play together. What? I was like, you know what? We'll take it easy. We'll get into the season on a light note.

And then by, you know, 60, 70 minutes into the thing, we had callers who were saying, you know, this pair is going to be the death of me. I was like, well, we've only seen them twice. A long season. I sure you'll find something else. But it was a lot of fun. And people liked it. People loved it.

There was a lot of people from the sheet chat who were in there. So I appreciate everyone who jumped over there. So, yeah, it was fun. It was good to be back. So you're doing Leafs after Dark and I believe you're picking up Marley's after Dark too, right? Are we going to confirm that now? Let's pump the brakes on that. Oh, if this thing inevitably falls short.

You got ECHL after Dark affiliate. Who is it right now with the Leafs? It is South Carolina, I believe. Stingerer. Sting rice? Yes. Is their ECHL team. Coach Factory.

Okay, great stuff. I actually have something we should do before we get out of here. We don't have to spend too much time on it. What's up? Don Waddell was speaking on the Rothman and Ice show in Columbus here today. Mark Shagg, I believe that's what you say. Yeah, Mark Shagg. He put out a couple of tweets recapping some stuff from it.

Okay. Don Wadell spoke on the Rothman and Ice show. He said on Adam Fantilli, quote, we're getting close. I know that's not much of an update, but he did say, Jeff Waddell hopes something comes quote in the next few hours said term is the issue at hand. They're not there on the term. He also said regarding Adam Fantilli that he admitted that Fantilli has come down on his ask. So I just wanted to make sure we threw this in here because we don't have a show tomorrow.

And knowing how things work in this world, we would have not said anything about this. and then at 221, Finale would have signed a deal. So I just wanted to make sure we slip that in. This is going to be 14, right? I was thinking when I saw comes down on his ask, somewhere between 13 and a half to 14, 14 to 5, something like that. And the term is going to be five years, right?

Yeah, that's where I was kind of landing on it. I mean, I'm sure they're probably, they probably wanted eight, can't do eight anymore. saying let's get to seven, probably meet at five. Okay. And with our luck. He probably wanted four, right? He probably wanted 15 at four.

I could see that, yeah? So I could very well see five at 14. I'll give you yours, you give me mine. Hmm. With our luck, a cozy five minutes after we go off the air. Exactly. Get a note from Columbus. Yeah.

Well, this is why I wanted to make sure we set it. No, no, no, no. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. Listen, get it done. Great.

I want to see Adam Fantilly play. And this is a sensitive season for the Columbus Blue Jackets. We all know that. We all know the expectations. I know we're handing spots one and two in the Metro to Carolina and Washington. And maybe three is the only spot that's going to be available if we're going to be five from the Atlantic as many people think. And they're going to be in tough.

And this is a season where they can't take a step back and how many different fires are there and Mike Priest pieces out on the whole thing and how many different battles are going on and then there's this situation. And again, I've said it before, I say it every year. Usually I say it about Buffalo and they finally got there.

I just want Columbus to be good. I want Columbus to have a good season because more than anything else, that fan base deserves it because, man, that fan base always shows up. And they cheer and doesn't matter of like where the team is, it does,

but I mean, regardless of whether the teams in the playoffs or not, like they show up on mass and they cheer for the team, like they support the team. It's not like a bitter, aggrieved fan base.

I don't know why I'm bringing that up around you, Zuck, that comes to the ring pissed off all the time. I do preseason shows where people are yelling at me. But you know what I mean, right? I've never seen those before.

I just want them to be good. I know. Oh, Rosie said it on Tuesday, right, when he joined the show. He said, you go to Columbus, it's a beautiful place to spend time and golf and go out and go to restaurants and be around.

And, you know, like the fans show up. The arena's full. They're great people. Yeah. They just, they haven't won. Like, that's the piece they're missing. They haven't won. Win games.

Win games, win games, win games. It's easy as that, Jeff. Like, why don't go win hockey games? Just win games. Easy as that. Best marketing. Winning. All right.

Thanks to Greg Wischinsky. We're stopping by. I think the Halford Buffer popping a doubt by. Don't forget. Monday, 7 o'clock Pacific. It all kicks off on the DFO Vancouver YouTube page. So make sure to check that one out. That is 10 a.m. Eastern.

Glad to have the boys aboard. Thanks to Wake Wichenski. Thanks to Zach Phillips, everybody here at the Nation Network. And listen, it's been a big week. And the season's on the horizon. And we're back to a full-time schedule after this weekend. So enjoy that. Tip the Zamboni driver on the way out, please.

We'll talk to you again on Monday. Check that out. This month I can't get because you can call it