The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Morgan Rielly's Future, NHL Expansion, Avoiding Offer Sheets, and More ft. Dan Rosen

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

Jeff Marek is breaking down everything happening around the NHL on today’s episode of The Sheet, beginning with NHL.com’s Dan Rosen for a wide-ranging look across the league. Marek and Rosen check in on the latest surrounding the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils, discuss Morgan Rielly’s future with the Toronto Maple Leafs and what could be ahead for the veteran defenceman, and dive into the NHL’s new partnership with FC Bayern Munich as the league continues its push to grow hockey internationally, particularly in Germany and across Europe. Then, Jeff reacts to Washington Capitals GM Chris Patrick’s recent comments about getting his upcoming restricted free agents signed before they become offer-sheet eligible and what that could tell us about the changing RFA market around the NHL. From Toronto and New York to contracts, offer sheets and the league’s international growth, Marek has you covered on all the biggest NHL news, rumours and storylines today.#TheSheet #NHL #LeafsForever #MapleLeafs #Hockey #NHLNewsReach 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.

The one thing you should all know about me by now, anyone that's followed my career going back to 1994 when I first started is I am very petty. And I was reminded of my pettiness. Oh, by the way, welcome to the sheet once again. Thursday, August 20th. There's your time and date stamp just after 1 o'clock Eastern here as we broadcast live from our downtown Nation Network Studios. Dan Rosen from NHL.com will be stopping by here in a couple of moments. I am very petty, Zach. You probably already know that from working with me for a couple of years now.

But I was reminded how petty I was about 15 minutes ago when I walked across the street to get a coffee from Tim Hortons. And I can't even remember when this happened, but I remember I got all into a lather about Tim Horton's once. And you want to know what it was about? I'll give you a guess. What do you think I got myself all worked up about? And this has something to do with hockey, folks.

What do you think I got all worked up about, about Tim Hortons, a number of years ago? A mislabeling of somebody's number that was on something, but they didn't actually wear that number for said team. Okay. I like the way you're thinking and it does very much sound on brand for me. No. I don't even remember when it happened, but when I noticed it, I got all upset. and that was when they dropped the possessive apostrophe from the S because it was no longer about the player.

And then it just became like a general brand. And it was supposed to be about Tim, man. It was supposed to be about Tim Horton, man. It used to be about the defenseman man. And the Tim Horton bear hug, man. It used to be about that guy. And then they dropped the possessive apostrophe. And it no longer became about the guy anymore.

Okay. So I am. Check's out. No, like honestly, dude. that really does check out for like how my brain works. But today, in that spirit off the top of the program here before Dan joins us, and then I'll probably get Dan to weigh in on the minutia of this thing. I want to talk about.

And if you can throw the tweet up here, it's really awesome. The Anaheim Ducks put out just a banger of a tweet. Okay, so they acquire Cruz Lucius from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for future considerations. Hold that tweet there. Hang on. because Penn's Empire DM'd me, a great one. Future Considerations is named Cutter Goce for Maximum Chaos, by the way. That's a wink back at our show on Tuesday, thanks to that one, Penn's Empire.

So this is Anaheim announcing the trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Cruz Lucius for future considerations, more on future considerations in a couple of seconds. But then here's the follow-up. What else do we get from the Anaheim? Ducks. Oh, hang on. I'm getting the weight finger from our producer. I'm getting the standby finger.

I'm getting the hold on. We're getting it queued up here. Do you have it? I do have it. It won't go up on the screen. Oh, no. Why don't you read it out for us? It just says,

Mr. Considerations, you were a joy to work with during your time with us. Best of luck to you in Pittsburgh. Yes, there you go. That is the follow-up from the Anaheim Ducks to which Penn's empire says, future considerations has got to be cutter gocha. I'm going to ask Dan Rosen about cuttergocha here

coming up in a couple of moments when he joins us. But what it does, and we've got a lot to get to on today's program, and trust me, it's going to be more newsy than frivolous, but we're going to start off with frivolity here and future considerations. My favorite, and I think we mentioned this at some point on the program, and I actually called Lou Nanny to verify the story. My favorite future considerations,

was from 1982. Oh, there you go. He got it up there. Oh, hey, that's okay, man. Technology's our friend. Mr. Considerations, you are a joy to work with during your time with us. Best of luck to you in Pittsburgh. So future considerations, I think for some fans, kind of leaves in one night. What does future considerations mean? And sometimes it just ends up meaning nothing, right? Like sometimes it's just there as a sort of placeholder and then everybody forgets about it and nothing happens.

I remember Mike Keenan told me, him insert Savard when they did the, they did the Chelyos Savard trade. At the end of it, even after the trade was done, Savard said my owner still wants a second round pick. And Keenan said, well, do another trade. I'll throw in a second round pick and that'll even out this deal. Then both of them got fired. To which Montreal Canadiens fans can justly say, hang on, Chicago still owes us a second round pick going back to the Chilios deal. But I digress. So my favorites, my favorite future considerations is from 1982.

and it's Bill Torrey, legendary general manager of the New York Islanders and Lou Nanny, one of my favorite human beings in the world than manager of the Minnesota Nurse Stars. And Lou was looking for a little bit of toughness and looking for some increased ticket sales with the Minnesota Nurse Stars. And he made a trade for the rights to a guy by the name of Frank Beaton. Now, Frank Beaton was a legendary tough guy mainly in the WHA from Nova Scotia. I believe he is a piper now, or at least a part-time piper. And someone sent me pictures of Frank Beaton piping in a pub. Anyway, so they pick up Frank Beaton, who once upon a time when he was young and was a gunslinger,

his nickname was never. And then after about five or six years, his nickname turned into seldom. And then towards the end of his career, his nickname turned into always. So Tori doesn't want anything for beaten. So the deal they work out is Lou says to Bill, send me Frank Beaton and I'll buy a steak dinner at the Palm, legendary steak restaurant. And Tori says, okay, you're on. Lou filed it with the NHL. Like filed, the Minnesota North Stars acquire Frank Beaton from the New York Islanders for a steak dinner at the Palm.

That was filed and then rejected by the NHL. and he was instructed to put future considerations. I asked me if he ever ended up having the dinner with Bill Torrey, and he said, yes, it was around, I think, $200 or $250. And he got the rights to Frank beaten. Frank never, Frank seldom, Frank always, the three stages of that tough guy's career. Anyhow, there's a number of interesting future considerations

that have gone on through history. one of my favorite ones outside of the steak dinner at the palm in the Frank beaten deal with Lou Nanny and Bill Torrey. Dale DeGray, who's now the general manager of the Niagara Ice Dogs of the O HL, former NHLer. When he played in, this would have been the International League, was traded from Cleveland to Indianapolis in exchange for hotel bills that Cleveland had racked up in Indianapolis. as a way to get the hotel bills off the books, they sent Dale DeGray defenseman to Indianapolis. There's a number of them. I remember there was one team that did a future considerations deal

and what they ended up doing was doing an extra exhibition game in that team's town. And of course, that team got to keep the gate receipts, etc, et cetera, et cetera. For more on this exciting future considerations conversation, and we'll actually get into hockey talk here, here's Dan Rosen from NHL.com. and also the NHL at the rink podcast with Sean Warwick.

Dan, first of all, thanks so much for being aboard today. I don't know if you want to sort of jump on the frivolity train of future consider. I mentioned before he came on. My favorite one was Lou Nanny and the late Bill Torrey in 1982. And it was actually filed with the NHL but was rejected the famous steak dinner, which Lou did have with Bill. It was like a $200 dinner, but it was actually filed. It would have been John Ziegler then.

The NHL said, you have to save future consider. We're not allowing a trade for a stake for a hockey player here. Do you have a favorite future considerations story? Well, like, not necessarily a story, but there are times where I wish we could go back to some of those days because those are incredible stories. They're just legendary stories that we just don't get now. You know, like now it's business, now it's money. And it's big businesses. It should be as it should be.

Don't get me wrong. But like, I love that story. And like, okay, so maybe my favorite one that I, that are just, you know, I actually had to, I had to refresh my memory on it because I couldn't remember exactly what it was. But it was the Winnipeg Jets getting rid of Chris Draper to Detroit Red Wings for a dollar. Yep. Which is what. Maybe, you know, maybe that is the equivalent of $1.75 today. Yeah.

And all he does is go have a legendary career with the Detroit Red Wings. you know, makes Detroit, Michigan at home and, you know, stays there for a long time and everything. So that's a great, that is a great one. But of course, another Red Wing one that, you know, the Toronto Maple Leaf's future considerations for Larry Murphy. And Larry Murphy goes a cup twice with the Detroit Red Wings for future considerations. I wonder what those considerations were.

I don't think they help the leap. Well, you know, as I was saying, like a lot of time, future considerations just sort of off into the ether. It's just something to have there for the trade tweet. But you're right. But that's the thing about, and maybe we'll use this. to dovetail to Morgan Riley here for a couple of seconds. The Maple League, like, different fans.

I'm always interested in, like, sort of what position fan bases get on. And for Toronto, it's always a defenseman. And you mentioned the big one in Larry Murphy, and he goes on to Wednesday, only Cups Hall of Fame, all of it. But whether it's, you know, I mean, take your pick, like, you know, Jake Gardner, Corey Cross, who else, Thomas Cabberle for a while, Aki Berg. Like you can run through a sort of

a litany of if Brian McCabe had it for a while. Although he had, you know, the thing about McKay was he always had the slap shot so he could always get the fans back because like he just pumped one in and the fans will be right there with them.

Right. But like the history of Toronto and defenders, like Maple Leafs fans will pick one defenseman and that defenseman will be emblematic of all the problems that that team faces. And for the past couple of years, that's been Morgan Riley. And I'm not sure how you look at it, but I look at it more like

Morgan Riley wasn't going to work with Craig Barube. His game is to gallop. His game is to skate. Craig Barrube likes his defenseman around the net. So as we saw at the Hockey Night and Brampton event last night, Morgan Riley essentially saying, you know, I'm happy to be here and stay here. I'm glad to still be a Toronto Maple Leaf. Do you have a thought, Dan, on the Riley situation in Toronto?

Let's start there. Well, the one thing I always think of when it comes to this type of stuff is, okay, if you didn't have him, who would replace him, right? Who would you have that would do what Morgan Riley does or whoever that might be, that other player? And then when you don't have that player, it's when you start to recognize the value of that player.

I always, I'm a firm believer in that. When that player is no longer there, you don't get fair value in return for that player, and then you kind of try to moneyball it, if you will, right? Yeah. Oh, well, we don't have that guy who can gallows. up down the ice. We don't have that guy who can help us on the power play. We don't have that guy who's going to contribute off, you know, 50 points offensively from, you know, from the,

from the back end, 50, 60 points, right? We don't have that now. We did, but we ran him out, right? And so I always think of it that way. And I look at the Leafs and I don't think Riley is a, like I look at Morgan Riley and I say, is he a top 16 number one defenseman in the National Hockey League? no I don't think so but he's he's a good defenseman in the league he provides you a lot he needs to be in a system

that works for his game Jim Hiller's system works for his game Craig Barubi's system necessarily didn't work for his game and so we look at it in that way and I think that this is another fresh start for a player like Riley and for a team like the Leafs

with some familiarity like and I wasn't blown away I mean to be honest with you like I wasn't blown away when they brought Jim Hiller back, I was like, okay, you know, like, that's not blowing my hair back. Like, blowing my hair back would have been pulling John Cooper out of Tampa Bay to bring it to Toronto. Well, you know what I mean? Like, that's a little bit different. Yeah.

But it could work because the players are familiar with them. Yes. The coaches, the coach is from his time with Babcock. Yeah, absolutely. Right? The players are familiar with the players. And it could be the simple change that the Leafs need. need to get back to what people believe the Leafs could be.

But then I'll bring another question into this. Okay. What can the Leaks be this season? See, okay, you got us to the magic question. I think that everybody is asking, who's a Maple Leafs fan or just a hockey observer. And the way that I've, the way, because the real answer is a terrible radio slash podcast answer. And that answer is, I don't know.

Like, it's awful. We live in the attention economy and hot take economy. me and I'm given the worst possible answer. I don't know. And the way that it's sort of framed with Dan is like this. I don't know whether what we're seeing or what we saw from John Chaka is just motion or is it actual movement? Like there have been a lot of things that have happened.

Like they've done a lot and shuffled in. Here's all these names. And you recognize this guy. And it's remember playoff Bob and right shot radish helping the power. Like there's been a new name. And the whole bottom six is different. Personally, I think it's still going to come down to. Can Austin Matthew score?

What's William Neeland are going to be like? John Tavares, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Sure, Rattish on the power play, we all suspect will help. But I think it's going to come down to some of the usual suspects. My question is, was it motion or was it movement? Did it move it forward? And we're not going to know. At the end of the day, too, and I know there's a conversation turns quickly too.

Well, he's in great shape and he doesn't play his age. At the end of the day, like, they just went out and got the oldest goaltender in the NHL. Well, that's it. And the team that we've always, we've looked at for the past several seasons is being the team that makes all the right moves. They decided to move on from him, right? So if they decided to move on from him and go get a, like, Bob's got a three-year deal, 21 million, they picked up Markstrom on a two-year deal, six million per, right? So a year less, a million less per. Markstrom's not another one, not blowing my hair back, but he could be really good for that team if that team stays healthy. And, you know, that team looks low.

it again and we'll see where they're at of course but from the Leafs perspective they went out and got the oldest goalie who was available gave him a three-year deal and he's coming on his worst season yep so all of those things like so what does that mean for Bob like is bob coming off his worst season because he was exhausted and the team was exhausted and they lost park off on day one and it just blew up from there or was Bob coming off his worst season because he's 37 years old and at at some point a goal he hits a decline right like that we're not going to know we're not going to know the answer, but I know for a fact that the defense he's going to play in front, a bit behind in Toronto is not as good as what he had in Florida. That's still the issue there with the Maple Leafs, right?

Who's going to get the puck to Matthews? And can they still improve this back end? And the other question I have with, listen, Darren Radish, what a great story. An incredible story comes kind of out of nowhere does what he does. Nikita Kuturov's not feeding him the puck anymore on the power. right so bomb from the point but kutrov's not feeding him the puck who's feeding him the puck how many there's only one who's shooting everybody wants to shoot right so there there are questions so right now to answer your question and give like i guess a semi hot take i would say you know

it didn't really move the needle forward it's kind of just motion at this point but i i i i you have to leave room obviously because we haven't seen anything yet the hardest part for turan for me is the division. Where do they stand in the division? Now, I'll go to bat on this and say five teams from this division are going on the playoffs, right? To me, it's loaded. There's five. The Metro is going to, you got to finish in the top three in the Metro to make the playoffs.

I don't think you're going to be good enough at fourth in that division to make the playoffs. I could be wrong because maybe the Atlantic just beats its other. That's possible. That's possible. That's possible. I love Florida where they say. stand. Tampa's still going to be right there. I love what I've seen from Montreal

all over the past couple of seasons. They're going to I'd be shocked if they don't continue on an upward trajectory, especially now their goaltending seems to be somewhat figured out, right? Yep. What's Buffalo? What's Boston? What's Ottawa? Like there's questions there and you ask

the same one with Toronto. What's Toronto? Right? So they could be that team that finishes fourth or fifth in that division, but they could be the team that finishes last again. The dovetailing that is this. If the Leafs are in, because we all suspect strongly and I think sanely, that provided they're healthy and the Brad Marchand surgery, which I have won by surprise, is a factor, but probably only for 10, maybe 15 games to start the season,

if the Maple Leafs are in, who's out? If we're putting the Florida Panthers in, who we've taken out? And if we're putting the Toronto Maple Leafs in, who are we taking out? I think one of the, Just a quick thought on the Metro too. I think a wild card here is if there's a team in the Metropolitan and whether it's Philadelphia, whether it's Pittsburgh and one of the candidates that people are looking at and saying, I'm not sure they can do it again. If they can stay healthy all year being the ultimate wild card here, maybe we see four coming out of the Metropolitan, but I'm with you.

It does very much look and feel and sound like it's going to be five. But if the Maple Leafs are in, provided Florida is in, so who are the two teams that are coming out? Yeah, I mean, you look at Ottawa is the first one you look at, right? I mean, they lose Brady and, you know, where are they at right now? That's a big loss. They still have some guys who are in or entering their prime, right? So that, that, that, they have a lot of guys who are in or entering their prime. How do they respond?

What kind of identity are the senators going to have without Brady Kachuk versus what they had with Brady Kach? So that's a question. Otto would be the first team I'd look at. And obviously, like I, considering I said, Tampa, Montreal and, you know, Florida, you know, I got to look at the next one I think I would have to look at is Boston. Like, they kind of did things last year that were Pittsburgh-like. Like, I didn't see Boston being that type of team that they were last year. But a 100-point team.

So do they have a drop-off? I don't know. And the biggest question, though, can Buffalo do it again? Right? Like did Buffalo figure it out and they can do it again? I don't think. I think it would be foolish to say or suggest that Buffalo is going to be the same team. Obviously, they lost Byram to Chicago.

They lose Alex Tuck to the Washington Capitals. So I don't think it'll be the same team, but I still think that there's enough there that that is. I'm looking at Buffalo. I'm not saying like that's like a fluke or that's the blip on the radar and then they're going to go back to being a mediocre slash bottom end team. I still look at Buffalo and say,

that's still a playoff team. Like as far as like Lox go, I look at Buffalo and go like I'm not worrying about the Buffalo Sabres being on the, I am about Ottawa. I'm no longer about Montreal. I'm with you. I think we look at Montreal and say like,

okay, more than have already turned the corner and they're there. Oh, hang on a second here. We had a quick one. This just handed to me this breaking. Elvis Mers-Likins underwent successful shoulder surgery on Monday. No timetable has been set for his return at this time. He's on the last year of his contract.

Jack Reeves recently re-uped, of course, as we all know, got into the arbitration office. I don't think both sides ever got into the room together before that deal all came together. but just a quick thought since we are in the East here on the Metropolitan and where Columbus figures into all of this. And of course, the big question now is what's happening with Adam Fantilli? Yeah, listen, I think Columbus figures in probably towards the bottom again. Like I just, I don't see enough of their guys taking that next step to be real impact, you know, guys. But, you know, and Fantilli is a great question.

he's one of a couple obviously that we've got to see where this goes and he hasn't exactly lit the world on fire but he's been a good player on a team that hasn't been all that that good and there's a little bit of a pressure point there now with the Zach Werenski situation this summer although they've tried to walk that back they've tried to run that back I should say

like you know sprint backwards on that one for a while I don't know I don't know where Columbus sits but I But again, they're sort of a team in that same mix. Like, what are the devils, right? I mean, with the goaltending that the devils have, are we relying on that? Can Jack Hughes stay healthy?

Is Esper Brat going to be that impact score that we believe he should be and always will be? What are, what's going on with Dougie Hamilton? Can Brett Pesci stay healthy? Like, what are the devils? What are the Islanders under Pete DeBore? We saw him for four games. Four games. We know what, we know what Schaefer is.

right we know that shen is there now we know they got horvatt and bars out and whatnot and you know their goaltending is really solid but what are they under pita bore because we really didn't see it you know we don't we don't really know and then another great one is for me the rangers like the like they they made some moves that you would say addressed issues that they had second pair d yep looked much better right with peter with marcus peterson and sean derzy and you have lad gaverkov and adam fox is your top pair I mean, that's a top, it's a really solid top four. They lost Trocheck. How do they, you know, they traded Trocheque to get Derzy to answer that question.

So now J.T. Miller slides back to the middle. Okay. Well, that means you're replacing somebody on the wing and you're maybe a short, a top six forward. Somebody's going to have to step up there. There's questions there for the Rangers. They can take a jump. They can make improvement, but maybe they don't. I don't know.

I'm of the mind that Carolina won Washington 2 after that. It's jump ball. And again, we'll see how it plays out. Injuries, of course, the ultimate wildcard here. But it seems as if there's just like this group. Like there's Carolina, there's Washington. And then there's that group, that mix. And can Pittsburgh do it again?

Can Dan Vlodar channel his inner Yuri Holichek once again? Boy, that's a dated reference. Going check goal this year. I just loved him. He was great. He was better than Tretche. Yeah, come on. I'll throw that one out there for the hot take.

But, like, honestly, Vlodar was incredible last year. Can he do? Like, is that really Dan Vlodar? Like, there's a lot of questions in the Metropolitan. That's why I look at those, like, that third spot. And if anyone else is going to qualify here, who stays healthy? Like, that's it.

And you can, you can, I mean, you can say that about Washington, too, because as much as we, like what we see from Washington, from a short-term perspective, right? Long-term, this is not a team that's sustainable for five to ten years, but on a short-term perspective, it looks pretty good, but there's guys who are 30-plus here who've got a lot of miles on them. Can they stay healthy? Logan Thompson, can he do it again, right? I mean, there's questions less so. I also think they're so well coached the Washington Capitals that they can, that they can handle injuries here and there and still be a team that stays quite competitive

because they're just, they're very, very well coached by Spencer Carberry and his staff. But there's some questions there. To me, there's no questions about Carolina other than Seth Jarvis. Is he going to be all right? And can they do, you know, or is there going to be a Stanley Cup hangover? But they've been a machine. They're the same type of team. Expect the same things from them.

They should be the favorite to win that division. There shouldn't be any question there. Just swinging back to Washington here because Chris Patrick at NHL.com, that's really interesting comments about how essentially the offer sheet for Leo Carlson change the universe. And if you can throw the quote up here if we have it,

essentially the Washington Capital's general manager is saying, look, I'm trying to do things as quickly as possible here. We've had some discussions this summer talking about SIRIF. I'm hopeful we can continue to have some discussions here. That's not something I want to let play out. I'd rather get something done if we can. It makes sense for both sides because I do think what happened this past summer is definitely potentially a harbinger of things to come in the league.

So I'd like to have something done sooner than later with him if it works for their side. Everyone's scared of RFAs now. Yeah. Managers are scared of RFAs. I do wonder, I wonder how Danny Breyer is going to be treated at the next general manager's meeting, right?

We, okay, can we pause on that? So I had a conversation. So Tuesday show, Me and Wish, I was driving in and having a conversation with someone who asked me the question. He said, is it going to be tough for Danny to work with other teams this year? And the old school me said, yeah, of course.

Yeah, you do something like that. I think of Bob Ganey and Serge Sivard in that feud. And then the new school of me says, no, because you can't think like that. You can't. Like if it's right for your team, you can't worry about how, you know, Danny Breyer, like, rise the salaries, rose the salaries for San Jose with Celebrini and rose it for, you know, for Columbus and Chicago and their guys. Like, you can't think like that anymore.

It was going, it's going to go there anyway, right? The cap's going up. It's going to go there anyway. Maybe it's going on for guys that we didn't expect it to go for right away, right? Like Quinn Hughes is going to get there. Kail McCar is going to get there. Caprizov got there. We know McDavid's eventually going to get there, right?

We didn't expect it for Leo Carlson maybe because he's off of the entry level, right? Okay, fine. So it's getting it. You're basically doing that and it's skipping a step. But Danny Breyer did that because he felt it was in the best interest of the Philadelphia Flyers to do that. And he should walk into any meeting that he goes into and go, yeah, with his chest out going, yeah, I did what's best for my team. And you would do the same. You would and should do the same.

And if I'm every single owner in the NHL, I'm saying, why aren't my guys doing that? You know, the Carlson thing is interesting because I was talking to someone in Sweden towards the end of the season. And the feeling there amongst a lot of a hockey people and Swedish agents was someone is going to offer sheet, Carlson. And as we find out, there were four teams. There were four teams that were in on an offer sheet for Carlson. And listen, I mean, you slow play it with some of these guys who, who, like, you're going to, you're going to run into that. And Carlson is one of those guys, right? I mean, because, look at the guys, look at the teams that are winning the Stanley Cup.

They've got that two-way, now, Carolina has a couple of them in that way. So they don't have, like, the one Bergeron or the one bark of, you know what I mean? but they've got a few of them, okay? But like Carlson's that guy who you just like put him down the middle. He's my number one center. He's going to take care of everything. He can run 22 minutes a night if I have to run him 22 minutes a night. And you know what?

He's going to win the Selke. He could should win the heart. Boom, he could win the cup. And it's going to happen in the next 10 years. Right? So I get it. I get it because he's one of those guys. He absolutely is one of those guys.

Cutter-Gote is a little bit different. He's an elite goal score. but he's not one of those guys, right? He's a different guy. He's a 50 goal. He could be a 50 goal scorer. He certainly, we know he's already a 40 goal score. But you slow play it with some of those guys like Carlson.

Those are the guys that everybody looks to and says, I need that particular guy. If I get that guy, my entire team builds around that guy. Let's get to Anaheim here and Cutter Gochi, as you mentioned, like, look, you pay for goals. Like that, at the end of the day, ask any manager, goals are expensive and you got to pay for goals. Where that number ends up, that's going to be fascinating because the only leverage that Cutter Goce has is I'm not signing. And if I don't have a contract, I'm not going to, like that's the only leverage that he has

here, as we all know, not eligible for an offer sheet. There's a couple of things here. Everyone with Anaheim is so focused on, and rightfully so, the number that Leo Carlson got because that was a jaw dropper. You remember, Dan, like everybody, that was a ball. Holy stop what you're doing. start making your calls. This is insane.

But maybe not so quietly at the time, but it's kind of gone away. The Pavel Minchikov deal is an absolute terror for managers around the league as well. 7.2 times 5. I don't think that we thought, I don't think anyone thought that Carlson was going to be an $18 million player,

and here we are. And I don't think that we thought that Pavel Minchikov was going to be a 7.2, but here we are. Here we are. Yeah. And now it brings it right to the Gotei thing. And it is interesting to me because this is a – I'll say this is a league because

this is what we know. But I would say that in sports in general, probably, but I can't speak in general for it. So I'll speak to just the national hockey. It's a league that operates sort of on deadlines and on pressure points, right? Yes. Completely. Right? It operates on deadlines and pressure points.

And there will come a point here. with Cutter Gotei with somebody's going to have to budge. At some point somebody's going to have to budge. And the team, in my opinion here, from a player with limited options, the team holds

the cards. Because it does not benefit, it certainly doesn't benefit the ducks if Cutter Goteer doesn't play, but it absolutely does not benefit Cutter Goteer if he doesn't play. Right? I mean, there's just no benefit at all for him. So, pause on. that I was thinking about that coming in.

I'm like, okay, and I talk to Dan about Anaheim. Like, where can we go here with Cutter Goce? Here's what I wonder about. If he didn't get his way or force his way out of Philadelphia, like we've seen players do this before. Okay, it's not working. I'm going to whatever leverage points I have, I'm going to do it, I'm going to get.

Here we are five minutes later. And already there's, like, you know what I mean? Like, if he didn't go through what he went to to get to Anaheim, could he have more easily said, I have some grace that I haven't used up. I can still do the withholding services and it's not going to damage who I am. But he already went through the Philadelphia thing.

Potentially, but I also, you know, I'll look at it from Cutter-Goti's perspective where you only have so many years to do this, right? Completely true. You don't know what happens tomorrow, right? You step on the, ice tomorrow, something happens, and that could be it for you, right? It's a, it's a dangerous sport. You know, I remember once I had a conversation with Brian Burke and he's like, listen,

we play with hard boundaries and knives on our feet, okay? So like, this is a dangerous sport. Yeah, right, right? Right, exactly, right? But from a cutter, so it's athletes today more than ever before are they're not discounting the team aspect of it because hockey players innately are team guys but they're still saying I got to get mine I got to do what's best for me they should as they should as they absolutely should and listen that what you know Connor McDavid did what's best for the oilers for a couple of years right and now we'll see what happens but then he's going to do what's best for Connor McDavid no matter what happens He's going to, the next thing he's going to do is what's best for Connick Day, right?

Yep. But Cutter Gautier, like, this is who he is. He's going to do what's best for Cutter Gautier. And his, and I'm putting myself in his mind, but his belief is what's best for Cutter Gautier will be best for the Anaheim Ducks as well, right? So, like, that's how probably he thinks. So you offer him, what was the deal? Four years, 52 million. That was the reported deal.

Right? Like, I think he's saying no. you want to give me 13 million a year that 13 million a year two years from now I'm going to be a 60 goal score that's what I'm going to be so I'm going to be worth way more than that but at some point he's going to reach

there's got to be a point here and it's whether it's day one of training camp day 15th you know start of the regular seat whatever it might be where somebody's going to have to move on their position and more than likely it's the player who moves on his position

and it's still going to become Very wealthy, by the way. Of course, certainly. The pressure point then becomes, like, let's say camp arrives, and it's quick this year. We all know, like it's 84 games, and it's a quick camp. Oh, it's so nice. Quick camp. Here we go.

By the way, it's crazy because I actually had a conversation. I was talking to Mike Sullivan about this. He said, we have basically 12 days where, and we have preseason games take up four of those days, I believe. You have to have mandated days off. We have like six practices. Yep. Oh, yeah. You know how I feel for.

The guys on PTOs because vets can only play two games. Like, okay, good luck. You're distinguishing yourself. Good luck. So quick camp. Okay, let's say nothing happens. Gochie still without a contract. Their pressure point becomes is Anaheim good out of the gate?

Because expectations are high now. They've made it to the playoffs, right? The Samueli family got the return on investment. Okay, Pat, enough for this. Develop, develop, develop, development. Let's show the horse. And they got to the playoffs. And they won around.

They beat the Edminton's Stanley Cup finalists. Like, great season for the Anaheim Ducks. But if they come out two and 12 and they can't score, then it changes. It becomes, it's a dangerous game to play. It's a totally dangerous game to play because you're right. At a young age, it doesn't not benefit the player whatsoever to be out at that age and that stage of his career. but if it's not there and the Anaheim ducks stumble out of the gate. Well, that's the gamble.

That's the game you play on both sides, right? The other thing I'll say, too, especially with a team like Anaheim, is if they come out of the gate 2 and 12 and Cutter-Gotee, their 40-goal score is not there because he's not signed, and attendance drops, well, now there's some other issues that are being looked at, that ownership's going to be like, we need to get this guy in because our return on investment is going to be better than what we got right now.

Yeah. Right. So. I can't remember seeing maybe you can, a team that did so well, like upward, upward, upward, upward, upward, finally get in there. Just get like hammered with contract situations.

Like Carlson, Minchikoff and now Goce. And they've had to completely redo that blue line. I don't think anybody loves the blue line. Like the blue line has been decimated. And like all of a sudden the Anaheim ducks after building for so long, boys should take a step back. I know I was spending a lot of time here on Anaheim. Yeah, well, listen, that is the dangerous game you play

when you try to get top five picks for a couple of years in a row, right? Like that you, if they work out, you're going to have to pay them. And they're all going to come up right around the same time. And that's the dangerous game you play. And, you know, Montreal has found a way, around that a little bit because they've spread it out a little bit more with what they have. You know, Chicago hasn't had the same impact, you know, with some of their guys as Anaheim's had. And obviously San Jose's had the impact certainly with one guy and a couple of more.

They're hoping, you know, make that type of impact. But it's, it's real interesting with the ducks because it all kind of came to a head. And they had such a good season, too, that all these guys now all gained. more leverage as well. True. Okay, a couple of things quickly here. And I want to get to Germany in the global series. No general manager in Detroit.

Still, no interviews, as we understand from our friend, from our friend Bob Duff. I wonder, like, look, Tyler Dello, assistant general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes is, I believe, currently cycling through Europe. Could that be the holdup? I'm just trying to start an August conspiracy theory here, Dan. But we know that they do want someone with an analytics, quote, unquote, slant. So that becomes an obvious one. Tim Barnes and Washington would make sense, Sam Venture, Buffalo, et cetera, et cetera. And there's the situation with Dylan Larkin, which sort of

hangs out there as well. Turnkey is the company that's been hired, Len Perna, former executive director of General Sales with the Illich family. So there is that familiarity between the search firm and the family, but still, it's August 20th and Detroit doesn't have a manager. It's a little weird. It is. I was asked about this not too long ago, and I think my answer at the time was, well, it's a dead time in the league. So if you're going, we always hear, you know, and the Red Wings did this as well.

We're going to take our time with this search. We're going to make sure that we do this in a methodical way to get the right person in, which, of course, you never know if it's the right person until you actually, that person is actually in. but if there's a time to do that, it's right now. Right? I mean, like, there's nothing, there's nothing much going on. So there is a pressure point for the Red Wings.

I think that's the start of training camp. I can't imagine a team entering training camp without a general manager. That would be a little weird, right? I guess you can technically do it. You'd be even stranger if you didn't have a coach. That'd be even weirder. I guess technically you can do it, but it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me. So I guess that's the pressure point.

But if you're going to take the, time to do a methodical, deep dive type of search? Well, July and August is the time to do it in the national hockey. You know, mid-July to August, the time to do it in the national hockey league. You know, like, why not do it at that point? But eventually you're going to have to land on somebody. And they're really quiet there in Detroit. I mean, that's kind of the nature of the way it's been.

So I wouldn't, you know, tomorrow we could wake up and there could be a press release for all we know. Right. So, we're Shinskin and I were talking the day on the podcast. I think for maximum chaos, because it's been one of those summers. Yep. What do you think the reaction would be if the trade hire Jim Hughes? Ooh.

Well, that would be maximum chaos. That would be very, very interesting. I just cheer for, like, a media 101. Cheer for the great story. Cheer for the great story. Get Papa Hughes. Absolutely. Let's close on this.

I was happy to see this this morning. NHL Global Series 2027, going to Germany. Edmonton and Boston announced so far. Those are obvious with, you know, Driesidal, Paterka, and of course, Marco Sterm, the head coach. You mentioned Brian Burke a couple of seconds ago with the hardboards and knives. When he was running the Toronto Maple Leafs,

the Maple Leafs had an association with Mannheim. And I remember asking him about that. We had a Marley's game we were talking about it. And he said that is going to be the rising power in hockey once they clean up their import rule. It's an athletic culture. There's a lot of money there. They love hockey.

Again, they need to have more Germans actually playing and not just Canadians and Americans going in there for the end of their careers. But here we are. And every year, and we're going to make Max Calchay this year, maybe a first round pick. Might be late, but Calchet may end up being a first round pick. And there's another German first round pick

going into the NHL. Do you have a thought on just the rise of German hockey here? And I can't help but want to bring up that, you know, Bill Daley was on with Jimmy Murphy and Pierre McGuire the other day on their podcast and saying the word was inevitable. It is inevitable that the NHL expands into Europe. No time frame, obviously, but the word inevitable, I think, got on everybody's radar. Well, I mean, all of the major pro sports leagues, in my opinion, are that that has to be the next look. you know you're at some point you burst there's not enough cities that would that would be markets right and you burst out of the north american market and you burst across

overseas right because they they could be very strong markets and we know they have historically you know in sports that they love have huge markets you know um munich is a perfect example of that you know with with FC Bayern um i i i remember years ago uh ice back Berlin, I think, had an association with the L.A. King, same ownership, I believe. Yep. Yep. And, you know, there was years ago, the NHL started to dip its toes into the waters there. And then you hear about, like, the development of, you know, in Mannheim, right? And what they have and what they're doing. And then you're seeing the fruits of that come across the league now, come into the National Hockey League. So to me, it was always a matter of time for the German market to, to hit in that way.

and now it is hitting, and the league obviously makes a big investment announcing that big investment today. I was in Munich a couple of years ago with the Buffalo Sabres when SAP Garden opened. It was the Sabres with Peturka went and played their preseason. They had finished their training camp there and played a preseason game there. And literally they were installing seats at the morning skate for that building. I'm not kidding. They were installing seats at the morning skate, and they filled the building that very night. And I was really not, I don't want to say I was blown away, but I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw there.

I expected a sports crowd and a knowledgeable crowd. And then you saw that. And on top of that, you saw an activated building. You saw liveliness. You saw interest. And I was like, this is where we're going. Like this is this is going to be a place we are playing regular season games soon enough. And here we go.

Soon enough we are. So it's a big market with it, which is growing. And we needed to expand beyond Stockholm and Prague. We needed to expand beyond, you know, Sweden and Czechia and Finland to, to have more of a more business within the European market. And here it is. You know, I can't. And maybe this is just like cynical business, you know, it all comes down to the mighty dollar here. But like, bluntly, like there's a lot of money in Germany and a lot of money for sports.

And when you look at, you know, I'll look at the San Jose sharks and their owner, Hasel Platner, you know, partners with, you know, Dietmar Hop, who now owns Mannheim and has for a long time. And his son, Daniel founded SAP and you mentioned SAP. Like, it all starts to make a lot of business sense too. But here's what I want to close with. one of the things that I love about European hockey and the Latvians are the best of this. Let's just be clear. There's no fans like the Latvian fans.

They love their best, absolutely. The chanting, the singing, the scarves, like all of it. I don't know how to do it, but if someone said, if you could import one thing from European hockey culture into North America, that would be it. What would it be it? What would it be for you?

It would never happen, okay? I'll just put it out there right now. never happened. The first time I ever went over to Europe in this job that I'm in, this was now, we're talking 18 years ago, okay? I went to Switzerland. And I was in Switzerland with the, who was, I was with the Tampa Bay Lightning, I think. You'd be honest, I can't even remember, but I remember, Romaniosi was playing for SC Burn at the time. Okay. And I went to a game at SC Burn, and I'm thinking, maybe it was the Rangers. I think it was the Rangers, right? SC Burn against, I believe it was the Rangers, the standing room only crowd.

No seats. Just they took all the seats out and it was just you stand there and the chanting and it was nonstop. And I was like, this is amazing. Let's remove seats in NHL buildings and just stand there. Listen, one of the, we can all recall 2007 Stanley Cup final, that game seven in game seven in Carolina. Everybody stood for three periods. Yes. Everybody.

Look at all the cutaways. Everyone's standing. Everybody was. So just get rid of the seats. Get more people in there, by the way. One of the great traditions, too, is for the leading score to wear the gold helmet. Do you think that would ever fly in the NHL to have like cut? Oh, so Zach Phillips by a producer just shaking his head, heart.

Is that too much? Is that two euro? Two euro for the, for North America? Yeah. There's some limitations. Like I don't need our guys in the NHL wearing ads all over themselves. What we have right now is enough. But the ads in the face off circles, you watch the game.

You're just like, oh, my, what is that? Where's the puck? Where are, you know, what am I watching? But there are some things. And the chanting and the chance and the fan, like, that to me was so special when I first saw it. And you're 100% right about the Latvians. The Latvians are absolutely terrific. Yes.

So every game. And it's the football. soccer football culture that's there and they have that there. I would love to see a little bit more of that. I mean, listen, in North America, we don't grow up with that. So we don't do it. We don't know it. It's not in there.

They grow up with it. It's what they know. If we can bring some of that culture over here and have one or two teams start that, you know, one or two fan bases start that, it might catch on. And all of a sudden, 20 years from now, we're getting a lot more of it. Vancouver tried to do this with like a, you remember this day? like Vancouver tried to have like that section of the rink like where it was sort of actually and it didn't end up going anywhere. But like if you really sort of profoundly tried to do it, I don't know.

I just I just wonder if we ever get there. But then I remember like, look, I'm Canadian. I go to hockey games here and every hockey game that you go to just because it's Canada and so protected, there's this element of like anxiety that comes with every game or like impending doom about something. Just go and enjoy a hockey game everybody. I can't believe he made that pass. I know, right? There is that.

There is that. So it's still supposed to be fun. We got to add a little. Remember that? Yeah. Yeah, I think it's still fun, but you know, add a little bit more of it, a little chance have, you know, but then you know what's going to happen. As soon as you do that, you like take create a section, everyone's going tarps off and it's

going to create complete chaos and it's going to be in the news for all the wrong reasons. Probably, probably. People have having the nerve to have fun of the sports game. All right. Listen, you spent way too much time with me than you bargained for, but I appreciate it. Always good catching up, Dan. You'd be well. We'll touch base soon.

Absolutely, thanks, Jeff. Appreciate it, man. There he is, a great Dan Rosen from NHL.com. Also, you can listen to him on his excellent podcast, NHL at the rink with Sean Rourke. The last one was just after Free Agent Day, but I'm sure they'll get that one cooking in short order. Anything there for you, Philly, other than, you know, you don't want the gold helmet? No, it's not that I don't want the gold helmet. I think it's entertaining.

I just think it is definitely too much here. It is too much here in North America. Come on, gold helmet. Put a target on a guy. My perspective has kind of changed a little bit and not necessarily that I've swung the other way of thinking that we have to do all these crazy different things, but just a little bit more open to it. Like my girlfriend, she had no idea about hockey. really like she'd gone to some games or whatever growing up here but her family's not from

Canada so they didn't watch hockey at all and her dad's trying to watch it to quite honestly very nice of him to like be on the same page as me to understand what it is that I care so much about but he's like yeah I don't know these things are what to watch okay I kind of think that if you threw somebody out there who's wearing a gold helmet it's like an indicator that's the best player on the ice or maybe it isn't the best player in the league top score in the league Right, or like some teams have it on per team where every team has one, depending on what league you go to. Like I think my buddy was playing in Switzerland. Every team had their own guy who had one, like that kind of thing.

And it's an indicator. That's too much. That's, okay. What's that line you say about the clown and the dog? Oh, well, it's Jack Handy. If you're a, if you're a performer, if you're a clown and in your act you have a dog is part of your act and you dress the dog up like a clown, people will say that's too much. My point being, and I agree with you that's too much,

but my point being is that there's an indicator and it's something to maybe connect to people who aren't as aware of what's going on, you know, okay, there's the best player. There's somebody I've got to watch out for every time they go. There's other little things, but it's kind of open my mind a little bit. My thought was, and I think this is probably

where you were going into Vancouver thing, and I didn't know they did this. Yeah. My suggestion was they, you open up a section behind one of the nets, preferably the net that the away team would be at for two periods of the game. Yeah. Where the tickets are first come first serve, max price, $10, cannot resell them above $10. And maybe it's not $10, maybe it's $20, maybe it's $25, whatever. You find the price that works.

Yeah. But you get the people in there who would die to be in those seats who will like live and live. and breathe the cue to wait to get in line to get those $25, $30 tickets. Because I think those are the type of people who will get into those seats and who will go nuts. They'll yell at the goalie. They'll do chance about the goaltenders, about the away teams. Like I think those are the people who go nuts. And it's a blocked off section.

And I think if you can get one section of the arena to start to bring animosity maybe. I think what you're saying is if you can get that one section to be, that way, it'll bleed. Yes, exactly. It'll bleed to the rest. It filters out because then the person who's sitting in the section directly beside, they might look at them and be like, well, I'm kind of lame for just sitting here while this guy is, as Dan said, tarps off and screaming and yelling F you at the goalie.

It's all the fault. Okay, I'll do it. Now I stand up and the person beside me, and maybe it doesn't have to be everybody's jumping and blowing smoke and waving flags the whole game, quite like European games. But I think it brings a different element. And I think that helps introduce it to the North American game a little bit more. It's hard to implement, and I get it. And money is definitely different when you sell tickets at Scotia Bank for like $1,000, you know, face value for the lower bowl.

A little hard to be like, right, I'm going to sell these for 50 bucks a ticket. I don't know about that. But they're going to have scars and they're going to sing songs. Yeah, that's wonderful, son. You do realize that we're running a business here and the most important people. are shareholders and I don't think they care about the scarves, as much as they care about the dollars. I get it.

Coming in the building. But good idea. Yeah, it was just, I was thinking about like, how do you get more European energy into the arenas here? Because that's, you know what? It's almost like it has to be organic. Like there has to be like a section that takes it upon themselves.

Like there's a group of like, you know, that are like, you know, 50 people from like the booster club that have season tickets and they're all together and they decide to do something. You know who got clown for it? And I wish that they didn't because I think that it could have potentially sparked there is the Utah fans. Utah's social media account put out a, it was more or less like a guideline on social media of like here's how to cheer. Yeah. Which I get it.

Like I get why people were clowning on them to an extent. It's kind of like, well, you're supposed to be hockey fans. Like why do you know. I hate that. I hate that. That's fine. Like they're new fans, man. Stop.

Right. Just don't get keep. Like leave it because they had. come up with all these different things about here's the Utah chance and here's what to do when we score and here's what to chant when we go on a power play and it's kind of like if you can allow a base level maybe the Utah fans could have evolved off of that and taken it to a new level because they are new Jeff like they're not they're not conformed to traditional hockey norms.

Coasque expansion teams right like it is not the NHL has had situations where with an expansion team, after a play, the PA announcer explains something like what just happened, i.e. icing, i.e. offside, something like that. That's important. I'm sorry, it just is. And like, sports in general is not just one specific demographic. It's a family reunion. It's all ages. It's all interests. All of it. So is it annoying for someone maybe who's watched hockey for 40 years to hear someone explain offside. Yeah. But once upon time, you didn't know what offside was.

You just happened to be younger, but once upon time, you didn't know what icing was. You didn't understand why puck over glass is an automatic. You didn't understand that. So just accommodated. I'd be fine with all that. I got no problem. You're a new team in a new market,

even though Utah as a hockey market does have a history. I can no problem with that. I wouldn't clown that for a second. Good for them for doing it. As a matter of fact. No, I didn't have a problem with it. I just, that's what I was thinking like, all right, leave these people alone.

We have a chance to kind of maybe go into a new direction. Make new fans. Help them understand the game. Yeah, well, I mean, that aside, I was thinking even beyond that, like, okay, you've brought those people and you've got people understanding the game. No, let them bring something to it. Exactly.

Let them bring themselves to it. That we don't have. Yeah, I don't like the, this is how we do it here. Yeah. Because I think, you know, you want to do something different, how you celebrate whatever, you know, the Utah mammoth, do like go for it. So that part I'm not a big fan of. I like telling people how to cheer.

Yeah. Not a big fan of that, but like explaining what icing and offside is and how this sort of, all of it works and how there's three periods and flooded in between all. Yeah, sure. What line changes are. Why you can change while the play is going on, unlike any other sport, by the way. which is unique, which is why I hate when players firepucks online changes at the bench and then complain. It's like, you don't take away something that is so unique in this sport.

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It's who you are. Head to nationgear.ca. Follow nationgear on social and subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to shop new products, limited edition collections, and exclusive drops. Nationgear.com. We leave anything on the table today? We actually just got a tweet come in here that I think you'll like. Oh, no.

This comes in from our first. friend Kerry. What do you got, Carrie? Girl on Twitter. At UBS Arena, we have a section in the upper bowl where the blue and orange army are for the game. It's Euro style seating. They have the thinner fold up footprint for seats so they can stand the whole game

and they very much do drums, cowbells, chanting, etc. More of that, Carrie. And thanks for bringing that up. Yeah, have you been to UBS? I haven't been yet. You know that whole thing? thing you do, but like the travel that I don't do. Oh, yeah, yeah.

That I guess I'm going to decide. Like you are my tour guide on NHL arenas and cities. Oh, no, don't sell yourself, sure, like CHL too. Right, right. Except I've been to a lot of the CHL arenas. I haven't seen a lot of teams play, but through tournaments and lacrosse and stuff, I've been in them and played in a lot of them. Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right.

Okay, that's great about you. More stuff like that. Carrie, thanks for sending that in. Carrie works there, by the way, outstanding person, frequently chimes in and corrects me on things, which is always, I got a lot of people that correct me on things. I see some tweets from Carrie after our shows wrap up.

Yeah, she's great. I'm like, yep, missed that. Yep. Or, yep, got that one wrong. She's like our ombudsman for the program. Okay, not bad, gents, not bad, but, okay, so here's what you could have, this is what you should have probably done a little bit differently.

I think that's awesome. Did we leave anything? Because we're not going to be back until Tuesday. Anything from today or yesterday that Spiced Yo chili? No. I think we pretty much covered everything there with Dan. The only thing I just want to circle back to with you on this is the FC Byron Munich partnership. Yep.

Not that in particular, the partnership itself, but but do you think we're, let me rephrase this. How close do you think we are to expansion into Europe where a team is stationed in a European country? An NHL team? And NHL team. We're a ways away. And I don't think it's going to happen massively and suddenly. I think, and it's the right thing to do, I think it's going to go slowly and gradually.

Again, like, I think when we look back, because at the time it wasn't a massive story, but as we look back on it now, I think when we go back to this generation of hockey, the NHL very quietly for the first time opening an office in Zurich. Yep. Is it going to turn out to be one of those like, ah, we should have seen this coming. Kind of moments. So I do think that, like, listen, Bill Daley is openly talking about it on podcast. now. So once, you know, Bill Daley is comfortable, and this has always been Bill Daley's file as well,

international hockey, once Bill Daly starts commenting on these things publicly, you know it's already down the road. And they already have at least a loose idea. Like, again, like this isn't anything new. The idea of the NHL going to Europe, I mentioned I've got in my house in my basement a bunch of pro formas from the NHL and what it would look like to expand into. And it's, again, it's not just like Stockholm, Helsinki, like, Prague. It isn't just like the heavyweights. It's like Lisbon, London, right? Like it's sort of the not the normal cities,

European cities you hear attached to hockey. So it is inevitable. It is going to happen. What is it going to look like? I have no idea. All I know is I hope that it does very much feel like. European hockey. I don't want a European knockoff of the NHL game.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Yep, yep. Like give it its own personality. And don't try to just like force how the game is either A played or be presented on the European market. Because that could be really cool. Yeah.

What does it look like? I have no idea. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's a ways away as well. My big thing is, you know, take care of the weeds in your own garden before you. There is that element to, I know, I know, yeah, mow your own lawn before your neighbors.

I get it all. I understand that and it's not as if there aren't. But the thing is like, there aren't like the massive problems that there were before. Like, again, I'm going to sound like, you know, the old man here. But pre-204, 205, like there were some massive problems. Were some of them exaggerated? Yes. Of course.

but at the same time, I don't think any of it would have been possible until, even just thinking about expanding into Europe until there was the stability that this CBA provides. And by that I mean like stable ownership with fixed costs.

You can quibble about what that means and what that entails, but it's nothing like it used to be before. Yeah. Look, I just more so like even come at it from the perspective of you just had a franchise in Arizona. You tried really hard to maintain there. And I know that we could talk about why it didn't work.

Go back. They're going back. They will. They're going back. And we can talk about why it didn't work. But my point is you had one there. It didn't work. You had to move.

Now you're going to go to a city that likely you're going to go to a city that you also had a team in that didn't work. And that would be Atlanta. And then you're going to try to go to Houston here now. Okay, what happens when you go to these places? Do those ones work? because I'd rather personally make sure that in North America, like we're growing the game to the max capabilities where the game currently is. I think you could do, but I understand that.

I get it. I don't think it has to be an either-orough proposition. I think you can do both at the same time. And again, I'll come back to the idea about growing the game. There's a couple of different ways to do it. One is just the Admore fans. That's the obvious one. And collect up, man, all of a sudden, this person's a fan,

And that person's a fan. Like, that's like growing the game too. But also taking established fans you have and make them fans of other elements of the game or other big events or the Stanley Cup final, as we talked about with Wachinsky a couple of weeks ago. Just make them fans longer. Like in radio, there you go. In radio, there's two different things, right? There's TSL, time spent listening, and there's QM, which is the volume of people that are listening at any given time.

Both are valuable. but I think what we've always focused on when we talk about growing the game is QM. How many more people can we get under the tent? And I think what we've done is neglected, in radio terms, the TSL, the time spent listening. So your team's out of the playoffs, you're a Philadelphia, a Flyers fan.

You still have some reason to keep watching because you know about this, that, and the other thing. And it's going to lead to the Stanley Cup where normally a person may just check out. And I think that that also qualifies as growing the game. If all of a sudden it's like, oh, and the flyers are out in the first round, but you're still watching, that still qualifies as growing the game to me. And I think we've neglected that part of it. Fair. Well, final thing for me here before I let you close the show, you want to talk about growing the game and something that I

enjoy here before I send people off to the weekend myself. What's that? DFO Edmonton tweeted out that viral video of Connor MacDavid where he's skating backwards and doing crossovers and going forwards and receiving a pass at the same time. You know the one I'm talking about? They tweeted that and they put caption, genuinely, he's the only human human on the planet who can move like this. Somebody quote tweeted this and said, Pavel Datzuk is on this planet as well. The person who quote tweeted that would be none other than Chad Johnson, aka Ocho Singo. No. Way. Yes. Our very own DFO Edmonton account, quote tweeted by Chad Johnson, Ocho Sinko, saying Pavel Datsuk is on this planet as well.

I thought that was fun. I just popped up on the timeline here. I wanted to get that in before we wrapped up the show today. I was reading yesterday about not that it's necessarily a controversy, but like the Red Wings I kissed and made up with Sergey Federer off. I don't know it didn't end up, didn't end greatly with the Detroit Red Rings and Pavledosig. But like he's getting his number retired, right? he's got you yeah like it's gonna happen right like that's that okay

yes it has to you okay he was I remember at the oh god what was it which which which camp was it it was the first time I had seen anyone do this he had a bunch this is what he would have been like 11th um like a bunch of pucks lined up at the blue line and he was doing this thing where We've all seen, you know, the Robbie Shrimp scoop and fire it over your shoulder.

Yeah. The Robbie Shrimp special. But he was like doing, like skating in circles and picking up the puck and they're all hitting the cross, like at the blue line. And they're all hitting the crossbar. There wasn't just like flailing him into the stands or off the glass. And I'm just like, what is this? Who is this little Russian guy? And he's grabbing it, spinning, firing it with the spin.

It grabs another as he just like does circle of a. What? is. So when I was in elementary school, before the Leafs had traded for him, and we used to get computer time in class, this is like when I was like going, you'd go to the library and I had to sign into the things. There's two videos I used to watch on YouTube. One was Dionne Funuff hit compilations. I don't know why, how that came across my desk. So you watch the old-ish video, about a million times probably. Basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the other one was, all you'd search up was Pavel Datsuk Magic Man.

And there would just be a billion videos that would come up and like 20 minute long compilation. This is the generation gap between us because my magic man was Kent Nilsson. Right. Which we've talked about the original. The original Magic Man. Also. And the original Forthburg. Right.

Again, John Van Biesburg of the World Championship. Yes, absolutely. Greatness, boroughs, but genius steals. Greatness boroughs, but genius steals. With that, we'll wrap things up. Listen, thanks so much for joining me here today. Thanks for all the attention and sticking with the property throughout the summers. You mentioned we're keeping it hot.

We'll be getting to a full-time schedule at some point in September. That date still to be determined in the meantime. Have yourselves a wonderful weekend. And we'll be back on Tuesday, I believe, wishes with us. I'm not. Philly has given me the maybe, yes, maybe. I think so. Okay.

So stay tuned. All we got is four days to book a show. So we should be able to cobble something together. Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for listening to us on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for watching us on our daily face off YouTube. Thanks for being in the chat. Thanks for interacting as well.

I appreciate all the DMs. All of it. Keep them coming. And we'll talk to you Tuesday. Have a great time.