The Sheet with Jeff Marek - New York Noise ft. Brian Burke

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

Jeff Marek is joined by Brian Burke to discuss the Kevyn Adams press conference, chaos ensuing in New York with Jacob Trouba and the Rangers, and the firing of Chicago Blackhawks head coach Luke RichardsonConnect with us on ⬇️Daily FaceoffX: https://x.com/DailyFaceoffInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailyfaceoff/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoff/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dailyfaceoff?lang=enWebsite: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/The SheetX: https://x.com/thesheethockeyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesheethockey/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thesheethockeyDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. I mean, honestly, Paul, like, this is not a time. We're not a destination city right now. We don't have palm trees. We have taxes in New York.

Those are real. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and guess that that's one that Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevin Adams is going to want back. It's a really newsy day. We've got Trouba, we've got Kevin Adams, we've got Chicago, and we've got Brian Burke. Welcome to The Sheet for Friday, December the 8th. Glad you're aboard today. Glad you're aboard for this edition of the Sheet to round out the maiden voyage week of this program. Thanks for joining me the past four days. We have a lot to get to. And every now and then you sort of stumble into something you refer to as a general manager's day, where all the

topics of the show, all the big, chewy, meaty stories are all GM stories. Like sometimes there are coaches days, sometimes there are players days, sometimes there are fans days, etc. And then some days there are general manager days so it's perfect we kick off Berkey Fridays today with Brian Burke former general manager and now the executive director of the PWHL's players association because he's been there as a manager he's been there as an agent he's been there as a longtime hockey observer and he's going to join us each and every Friday today, the Maiden Voyage. Oh, I should point out as well, he's also an author of Burke's Law, A Life in Hockey, which I recommend every hockey fan has on his or her bookshelf.

Please welcome to the program for the first time, Brian Burke. Berkey, how are you today? Good, Jeff. How are you? I'm good. I understand you're at Mattamy Athletic Center, the former Maple Leaf Gardens. Before we get into all the Trouba and the Adams and Luke Richardson and Sorensen and Chicago stuff for today, what's it like being at the old Maple Leaf Gardens?

Well, it's very noisy until just before we went on the air. This is amazing. They must have exams. There's so many people in here. It sounded like the Okanagan Hockey School. And now it's nice and quiet. So I love coming here. It makes me think of my old boss, the late, great Pat Quinn.

You know, over the course of these Fridays, we're going to get a lot of stories in about Pat Quinn. I believe, really quickly first, I believe, wasn't Pat Quinn somehow involved in your no-tie tie look or the tie around the neck look that was mainly because i worked with pat i went there early i went in at six in the morning pat would come in around seven he'd tell me what he wanted me to do for the day i go downstairs work out put on a suit and i run up getting back to work i never tie the tie i would tie it when i had my first meeting, sometimes at 10 o'clock in the morning, sometimes before the anthem. And I just gave it up out of sheer laziness.

So yes, Pat was, he was at fault for that. He wouldn't have approved though. Pat was a very neat man. He was, he was a very buttoned down guy and he had a very specific way of doing things. You know, we always talk about, we'll get into this at a later date, managers who leave a legacy of other managers that follow after. And when you look at Pat, whether it's yourself or George McPhee or Tambolini, et cetera, like there's a

legacy of general managers that Pat Quinn left to populate the NHL. Okay. So the news of the day is an interesting one because you were involved in a situation like this back in 2005. And before we get to your trade with Doug McClain, Columbus and Anaheim, I just want to get your thoughts on this Jacob Truba situation. So it's not exactly a secret that in the off season,

the Rangers were trying to move Jacob Truba. He has a modified no trade clause. He was able to block it. So it got to a point this season with the New York Rangers where I suppose Chris Drury felt like this was untenable. Something had to change. And the threat was if you don't agree to waive your no trade, and he did, he's now a member of the Anaheim Ducks, we're going to put you on waivers.

First of all, how do you feel about that move by Chris Drury? Well, it's within the rules. I did the same thing with Thomas Caberle. When Thomas Caberle wouldn't waive his no trade when I was in Toronto, I told him he's played his last game here. I can't trade him, but I don't have to let him play him. I don't have to dress him. So I told Thomas, you either wager no trade

or you sit next to me in the press box and wave at the cameras. And so we got him out of there in a hurry. And Thomas Cabral is a great kid. This is within the rules. People might not like it, then change the rules. Let's trade this for the four-year college rule. That would be an interesting bargaining chip, but that's the point that I've been making

along with this one. Like a lot of people know Aaron Ward on Twitter was very vocal about this one. Like the big story here is I don't like the word fair. I don't think the word really exists. Nothing's fair. You only get what you negotiate. And I look at this Rangers situation with Trouba

and I say to myself, no one did anything wrong here. Chris Drury was well within his rights to put the player on waivers or indicate to the players, the player that I'm going to put you on waivers unless you waive your no trade. I don't have a problem with any of this. I know that Trouba may be sour. Maybe this upset the room more, but it's not as if the New York Rangers are, you know, lighting the NHL world on fire right now, Berkey. I don't think it hurts anyone. I think it's within the rules, so it's okay.

It's like people complaining about guys being on LTIR. Within the rules, it's okay. And Jacob Trubb is a good kid. He's going to find out. He's going to think, oh, Anaheim, they don't win. They don't do this. He's going to find out it's a marvelous place to live and work. And a good coach, a good GM, he'll like it there a lot. You may not think that's the best place for him to go. Wait till he gets up and walks down a beach instead of sitting

in a cabin on 7th Avenue. Well, I'll tell you, like all of a sudden that Anaheim blue line, we always talk about, and I know you like defensemen like this. We talk about crushers on the blue line. Think about a blue line that has both Radko Gudus and Jacob Truba on it, Berkey, for one second. Well, you'll keep your head up. I know that. The other teams are going to keep their head up. You've got to know when guys like that are on the ice.

And he's more than a crusher. He can move the puck. He's not a power play guy, but he's an elite penalty killer. He's a good player. He's physical. He's a leader. He's captain than a crusher. He can move the puck. He's not a power play guy, but he's an elite penalty killer. He's a good player. He's physical. He's a leader. He's captain of the Rangers.

This guy brings a lot to the party. I like this. I like the fact that Chris Dury got back that much cap room and Anaheim managed to get a player this good for this low a price. You know, one of the things here to this one is, and I talked to one team this morning who said, like, don't be surprised if the Rangers get something for Trouba. I think a lot of us were under the assumption that this was just,

they just wanted to move Trouba and get the cap space. So Chris Drury had some more wiggle room. I mean, Anaheim took the full freight, Eurovac and Aynan goes back the other way, defensive defensemen making just over a million dollars a pick going the other way as well um they it's gonna sound weird but they got something for jacob truba and they got something for and and still unloaded the entirety of that contract like that that to me is a stunner in all this that the rangers didn't have to eat any part of the deal well it's a win-win because they didn't have to eat anything other than 1.1.

They moved back. Yeah. So they saved that much. I think he just had a year or two to go on the contract. This has seven years left, if I'm not mistaken. So, but I think it's a win-win. I really believe Chris Derry needed the cap room, was not happy with the way they were playing.

Jacob Trubin might not be a guy he likes, maybe not, but I think it makes sense to move him and keep Chris Kreider. Now you have cap room to go get another defenseman. And Anaheim added a player. So let's say you say, well, he's not worth $8 million. Let's say he's worth $6 million. The cap's going to go up. He's worth $6 million, and pay overpay a little bit to get a quality guy. Everyone in the league does that. So when, when let's move on, let's play.

Is part of the, if you're Pat for beak and listen, you had Pat for beak when you were, when you were running the heart for whalers. If you're a Pat for beak in this situation, is there not a concern that this player had indicated, I don't want to go anywhere else, that this is not a player that's going to Anaheim or would have been going anywhere else, rumored Columbus, for example.

He's not going there. He's not going there with a smile, essentially. Does that matter at all? I mean, listen, the Rangers did this with Barkley Goudreau, right? With the San Jose Sharks. Is there a concern from the manager's point of view that Trouba pretty much indicated to everybody that he doesn't want to go anywhere? Well, part of it is Jacob Trouba has a complicated situation with his wife, who's a medical student. So they've got to work out a medical school solution for Jacob Trouba's wife, which, by the way,

one of the Samuelis, they probably did that while they were flying there. They have great ties to the community and the medical community in Southern California. They would have been able to put something together for Jacob Truba's wife in about an hour. So relieve that issue. Let's see how much he likes it now when he starts walking on a beach and his wife's in a new medical school.

So I think, I think people, I've had players say, I'd never play there. And I get them. They're like, I'm glad I came here. I want to get into your time with Anaheim here in a couple of moments,

but let me ask you about a, a deal that when we started to hear the sort of the, the threats of I'm going to put you on waivers and you'll lose all control of any process. I immediately thought of you and Doug McClain. Doug, when he ran Columbus and you when you ran Anaheim and the Sergei Fedorov deal and putting Todd Marchand on waivers to see him go through. Back on waivers again to see you claim him. What was like that was the beginning, I believe, of that, that was the genesis of the no movement clause. But what are your recollections of the Federoff

deal and Todd Marchand? Well, I took, when I was talking to Doug McLean about, we wanted to move Federoff and Sergei Federoff was a great player, but he was done with us. He had just given up playing hard for us. So it was time to move on. And when Doug McLean called and said, that's what we wanted. We put the deal together, put Francois Beauchemin in the deal. The last part was, he said, you need to take Todd Marchand. And we love Todd Marchand as a player. He was a key part of our cup team, but we didn't, we couldn't afford it. So we said, no.

So he said, I'm going to put them on waivers. I said, I'm not taking them if you put them on waivers. So they put them on waivers. We didn't take them. Everyone thought, oh, the league threatened them. The league didn't threaten us. They just said, if you take them, we're going to investigate. We didn't take them. I told Bill Daley, we're not going to take them. They put them on a second time. I said, we love this guy. Why can't we take him? We're taking him. So we took, we looked into it. No problem. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands

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Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. At the same time, too, like that was the beginning. All of a sudden, like players and agents around the NHL, like the no trade was one thing. But this was the sort of manager's way around it and taking control away from the player. Like, did you at that point, to your recollection, was this not the beginning of players no longer asking for no trades, but negotiating no moves in their contract. I think it was the first case where teams started to respond by doing that. Yes.

I think that Todd Marchand was the reason for this change. How was Marchand when he got there? Because I know that he reluctantly went, but at the same time, he won a Stanley Cup with you guys in 07. Well, not just that. He went from Buffalo or Columbus, which is a lovely place to live. And he loved it there. You get a half acre in Columbus for $400,000.

Half acre is a ranch in Southern California. So it was very different for him. The cost of living, housing. He had about 18 kids. So they were reluctant to come until they got there. Again, you start going to practice in the morning. Keep in mind, go to practice in the morning in Columbus. It might be cold.

It might be dark. That doesn't happen in Southern California. They have in January in Southern California, they have what we call jacket weather. You have to wear a jacket when the sun goes down, a jacket. There's no such thing. No one has a snow overcoat. No one has snowshoes. No one has galoshes. So you get to Columbus, you leave Columbus, you're happy,

and you move to California, you're thinking maybe it's not so great here. You walk on the beach for a couple days and you're like, I can get used to this. Do you think New York is done? Getting back to today, do you think New York is up? Do you think Chris Drury is done? Or do you think there are still more moves to make for the Rangers GM?

No, I like about Chris Drury, Billy Guerin is the same way. I like some of these younger guys that they're getting after it. He's going to spend that money first chance he gets, in my mind. There'll be a cap team again probably in two weeks. As soon as he can spend the money intelligently. So, no, I think they're go-for-it guys. The profession's becoming that anyway because there's so little time and patience for GMs. The profession is tipping that way anyway.

Make moves quicker. Make bolder moves. Take bigger chances because you're going to get fired if you don't win. You know, that's an interesting comment. So I was having a conversation with someone today about managers. And we know the GMs that make their moves early. I mean, Jim Rutherford won a Stanley Cup in 2006 making moves early. And the whole league has sort of followed. And this person said to me,

I wonder how much the Four Nations Tournament might complicate things. And I said, what do you mean? He said, well, this is going to be like a highly competitive, very physical series, the Four Nations. And he said, I wonder if there are teams that won't make major moves until they know that their players have gotten through the Four Nations with a clean bill of health. Like the one team that I thought of when he was talking to me about this this morning were the Winnipeg Jets. Like the Winnipeg Jets flying high. It's great.

You know, they're they're going to talk to put it together enough points now. They'll probably make a playoff spot based on what they did early in the season. But what if they lose Connor Hellebuyck? Like we all remember what happened in 2006 at the Olympics when Dominic Haschuk, after about 10 minutes, got injured. And then that completely scotched the Ottawa Senators chances of winning a Stanley Cup. Do you think the Four Nations tournament complicates anything? I.e., are you going to make a big move knowing that you're going to have players going to the tournament? Or are you going to make a move for a player who is going to the tournament, knowing there's a chance they might get injured?

Well, at every Olympics, there's been a player who had a serious injury that was a major player. Tavares one year, Mattias Olin one year. So at every tournament of consequence, we've had at least one major injury that impacted our team's ability to win games. I don't think that factors into it. I don't think you can think like that. Besides, a large number of players in this tournament will studiously avoid contact at every opportunity. Really? You think so? Because I kind of look at this one and even just putting too much into Canada versus USA and thinking about 1996 and, you know, Kachuk and Guerin and Lemieux and Primo and thinking to myself, they put the jersey over the shoulders. You forget about the NHL and you're just doing this for country.

You think it's going to be no contact hockey? No, I think there's going to be a lot of both, but there will be players who seriously avoid contact. I'm not saying the tournament's going to be like that. But it's not a – look at these rosters. They're not a bunch of crushers. These guys are all quality players. And there's not a lot of size on any of the rosters comparatively. So it's going to be a – there's going to be plenty of hitting.

That's the way the league works. That's the way a tournament like this works. Everyone will be happy with the amount of hitting. But it's going to be based on, you're going to win based on skill. I have a question for you from our chat from Aaron Slattery. Berkey, this one's for you. I'd like to hear Berkey's thoughts on the offer sheet boys in St. Louis. St. Louis, by the way, traveling to Edmonton this weekend. We think of Philip Broberg, of course.

Like there were, there were Dylan Holloway is the other one. So Dylan Holloway and, and Philip Broberg on their way to Edmonton as members of the St. Louis Blues for Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday. They went as a pair. There were two other teams that were prepared to offer sheet both of them. I'm very much of the belief that Calgary was one, which would have added a whole new wrinkle to the Battle of Alberta that has not been denied by anybody. How did you feel about how the St. Louis offer sheets went down in the summer? Really put Edmonton in a tight spot.

Well, they could have matched on one of them. They didn't have to say no to both of them. They made an intelligent decision based on their of them. They didn't have to say no to both of them. They made an intelligent decision based on their cap decision. What I thought when it happened was creativity has value. Doug Armstrong was creative here. He put two, by putting

both players in play, he put them in a tough spot in Edmonton. And they took advantage of that and walked on both players. But it's very easy now. Broker's having a really good year. It's easy to say now, well, look, they should have matched. This is a guy that played part-time up until this year. Played part-time in the minors, didn't play big minutes.

He was a real iffy player. I liked him, but Doug Armstrong loved him. And he's turned out to be a much better player in St. Louis than he was in Edmonton. So the value there is that the team did their scouting, not that they used the money to advantage maybe over an unsuspecting player. They just had a lower assessment of this player than someone else did, which is the GM, that's his credit, good for Army. Dylan Holloway, to me, is a player that's a good player,

not worth that money in their mind. So they decided not to match. I don't think it's hurt them not having those two players. I think they both played well for St. Louis, but they didn't have an impact in Edmonton. Do you feel that you've gotten this sort of, that you've been misinterpreted on how you feel about offer sheets over the years? I don't really care. I've never thought about it. I'm lost by imperviousness.

I don't really care what people think. I don't really care what people think. So if they misinterpret, say, Brian Burke's all wrong. I was upset about the offer sheet because it messed up Getz Laff and Perry's contract. By overpaying Dustin Penner, it messed up my cap situation. For a player I didn't think was worth that money. I think history wore me out on that. The personal stuff about not calling me, that was just being crotchety.

Let's get ready to grumble. Is that what you're saying in that case? Kevin was the guy that started that whole thing about fighting. So I want to make that clear. Kevin was doing the interview. He said, Brian. Now we got Brian frozen. He's just telling the Kevin Lowe story.

We'll try to get a bricky back. Is it the, uh, Matt and me athletic center in Toronto, the, uh, the former home of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Maple Leaf Gardens. We'll get Berkey back here. But the news of the day, just to recap, we haven't even got to Kevin Adams yet. We're 22 minutes. And by the way, thanks so much, Aaron,

for the question there in the chat. For Brian Burke, lively chat again here on YouTube at the Sheet at Daily Faceoff. We haven't even gotten to Kevin Adams yet. And the situation with the Buffalo Sabres and another loss last night, albeit they pick up a point over time against the St. Louis blues, Bo Byram, not exactly thrilled about how that goal went in or what happened in the,

the slash across the goalposts. But nonetheless, we should also address at some point today, the Luke Richardson situation, dismissed last night as the head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks. But in the meantime, the big story of the day is still the Jacob Truba news. He's now a member of the Anaheim Ducks. And I'll tell you what, the reason why I was having a conversation with someone this morning and this person brought up the Four Nations is we're just throwing around the idea of like, which teams are out there swinging for the fences this year. And it very much feels like, like there are always teams that, you know, every season go big game hunting because they feel it's

their year. This is the year they're going to do it. Maybe because they have players aging out or they have contracts expiring, but the way things are lining up right now, I really feel the main team to watch leading up to NHL trade deadline are the Dallas Stars. Very much of the mind that they are open for business at every single position except goaltender. Jake Ottinger is their guy. Jake Ottinger is their Carey Price. And that's why I brought up the Four Nations. What happens if something happens to Ottinger at the Four Nations? Is that completely scotched the Dallas Stars?

Did they wait until after the Four Nations to make what we believe there to be big moves by that team. Like put it this way. When there are names that are out there, I think the default for all of us this year needs to be, is there a fit in Dallas? Like Dallas are going to go out this year and they're going to get at minimum one, maybe two big name players. So all the names that you've heard that are out there, whether it's Crider, and I know Jim Rutherford dismissed it, but JT Miller, Nazem Khadri, all the big net, Brock Nelson's

name has been bandied around as well. Maybe Rasmus Anderson, all those names. The first thing I think you ask yourself when you hear them may be available, ask if there's a fit there with Dallas, because there is the belief within the Dallas organization that this is the year. This is the year they have to go for it. And complicating all of it is they want to go big game hunting, but they still want to protect the big three kids, Dankoven, Bork, and Bischel. That's going to be the major challenge

through all of this. They were able to keep them last season when they made their moves. And their big move is, of course, bringing in Kristanov. I think this year is going to be massive for Dallas. You're going to see probably a couple of headline names uh join the dallas stars uh i believe that the the belief in dallas is that some of the older players are aging out they have ltir uh

cap space slash money with tyler sagan and his situation with the hip surgery. Does that allow Tyler Sagan to return in the playoffs? A la Stone, a la Kucherov, discuss amongst yourselves. I think we'll all be having that conversation all season long and we'll see how that goes. But again, I look for Dallas to be one of the major players here in all of this. Also, Oh, do we have Zach aboard? Zach, are we trying to get Berkey back, Zach? I got a split screen right now with Zach, our producer, Zach Phillips.

Let's see. In which case, we can get Berkey back. So Dana in the chat, everybody wins the Trouba deal. Rangers move them, retain a deadline. Rangers clear cap is a big win for the Ducks.

Flexibility it gives the Rangers is more profound because they are in win now mode. Yeah, Zach, you're muted, by the way. Can't hear you, bud. Anyhow, the other thing that we should probably go over as well is a Chris Drury press conference. Now, I'm going to tell you a little story here. So one of the things that Chris Drury talked about at his presser today was how he had a trade on the table.

They were negotiating, getting closer, I suppose. And then the trade went away and the player stayed with the team. And everybody made the assumption, and I've been told to be careful on this one specifically. Everybody made the assumption that that meant Martin Natchez of the Carolina Hurricanes. Now, the interesting thing about Natchez and the Buffalo Sabres is he was almost a Buffalo Sabre. And here's the story. So it is the 2017 NHL draft. Now this isn't with

Kevin Adams. This is a previous regime. This is, this is Botterill and Saxton. And the scouts all agree. The Buffalo Sabres are selecting eighth that season. And everyone's in agreement on the Thursday before the Friday first round that if he's available, the Buffalo Sabres are going to take Martin Natchez. If he gets there. Okay, here we go. Nico, he sure goes first overall to the New Jersey Devils. And we go down. It's Nolan Patrick. It's Miro Haskinen. It's Kale McCarr at four. It's Elias Pettersson at five. And Cody Glass, Pittsburgh Penguin, Cody Glass. And that leaves the Buffalo Sabres open and available to take Martin Natchez. And most of the people around the table thought that's what they were going to do.

Everybody except Botterill and Sexton, who stood up and said, we're taking Casey Mittelstadt. And that's who they selected at eighth overall. And there were some people that I've talked to in subsequent years about that particular draft. And a lot of people that were there that are no longer with the organization kind of said, what are we doing here? I thought we were all in agreement. We're taking Martin Natchez. And instead, they took Casey Mittelstadt. Now they turn Casey Mittelstadt into Bowen Byram. And we'll see what happens to Bowen Byram in this offseason, albeit a restricted free agent.

He does have arbitration rights. And we all know what that means when teams go to pay. But still, the Natchez thing. And again, I don't want to pour salt on an open wound for the Buffalo Sabres, but when I first started to hear the rumors in the summer about Martin Natchez, I said to myself, they almost had Martin Natchez. The agreement was that they were going to take Martin Natchez at eighth overall. Detroit took Michael Rasmussen at nine.

Florida, Owen Tippett, Gabe Velarde went 10th or 11th, rather, to the Los Angeles Kings. And then the Carolina Hurricanes grabbed Martin Natchez. And he's been great so far this season for the Carolina Hurricanes. But I always kind of sort of sideways chuckle to myself when I hear the rumors and the reports about Martin Natchez and the Buffalo Sabres, because he was going to be a Buffalo Sabre. Now, to the other points of the Kevin Adams press conference. You know, I talked to someone this afternoon who is a former media relations director with an NHL team

who watched the Kevin Adams presser. And we're having a conversation. I'm always curious, you know, when you're sort of handling a GM or, you know, talking to a general manager, you know, before they go out to do the press, like what are the notes you have to hit? And what are the things you have to say? And, you know, it's going to be a tough one if you're Kevin Adams, because things aren't going great.

We all know what happened against the Colorado Avalanche earlier on this week. And sure, they got a point against Winnipeg getting into OT, but still, it's another loss for the Buffalo Sabres. And the players are talking about feeling panicky. And this is just no good. This is just no good for the Buffalo Sabres. So Kevin Adams, and good on him, first of all. He knows he's going in there. He know he he's going in there to to face the tips of the spears he gets it right he understands like this isn't going to be a everything's great press conference but i think that there's only so long a manager can just allow the coach or the players to answer all the questions at a certain point point, the manager has to appear and take some questions.

Like that's NHL standards. So first of all, good for Adams for doing that. The one thing that this media relation, former media relations director told me was, you know, in a lot of ways, Adams, even though he's getting roasted for some of the things that he said what he could have done very quietly just before the game yesterday he's just called an impromptu one and just taken questions

in the media gondola all right take just taking questions before the game there wouldn't have been a big production with cameras set up and everyone you know time to sharpen their pencils just impromptu okay i'm taking. But he didn't do that. And good on him for doing it the way that he did. I get, I think we all understand what he was trying to say when he talked about the Buffalo Sabres. And I really do think that this is where it kind of went sideways. And this person I was talking to kind of agreed. Where it went sideways was when he talked about Buffalo not being a destination for players right now. Look, he's not lying, right? He's telling the truth, but at the same time,

there's what they say in the Simpsons, there's the truth and the truth. The other thing, like, listen, when, when things are bad and you're losing, probably not a good time to, to go after the city itself to say that, you know, we have taxes here and we don't have palm trees. It's probably a better idea to put an accent on the great things about Buffalo that when this team is good, there are, you know, only a couple of buildings that are better. Like I know it's been a long time since the Buffalo Sabres were good. I get that. But I do remember, I'm old enough. I'm old enough to remember a time when the Buffalo Sabres were actually good and how much hockey means to that community and how good those fans are and how much those players loved playing for the Buffalo Sabres.

But to talk about no palm trees and to talk about taxes, probably not the right thing. I mean, there's only a handful of teams that play in no-tax states. Here they are. Tampa, Florida, Nashville, Vegas, Dallas, Seattle. The overwhelmingly, the overwhelming majority of teams in the NHL play in states that are taxed. So that one's going to ring pretty hollow for a lot of people. All right. That one's going to be a tough one.

It's like, okay, I get it. And we'd seen the Florida Panthers when the Stanley cup. Okay. I get it. We've seen the Tampa Bay lightning when the Stanley cup and we've seen the Vegas golden Knights when the Stanley cup, we've also seen the Colorado avalanche when the Stanley cup, we've seen the St. Louis Blues win the Stanley Cup. And I don't know that you want to bring up no palm trees.

And they just lost the game to the Winnipeg Jets, where I don't know if you've ever been to Winnipeg, but I can assure you there are no palm trees. And the other thing that I thought of when I listened to this one this morning was this. I can't imagine Stan Bowman in Edmonton, Kevin Sheveldayoff in Winnipeg coming out and using the city as an excuse. We all know that the challenges that certain markets have in attracting players. I just don't think that other Sheveldayoff or Bowman would go out there and say like, we get it that it's cold here. That's why we can't compete for free agents. Not a chance.

Like we've made the point before that the most difficult, the general manager in the NHL has maybe the most difficult job is Kevin Shevelday off in winnipeg right it's um as much as it's a great hockey community and the fans really can make the argument the fans are the best certainly the most creative certainly the most creative fans in the nhl you love it it almost becomes like a sideshow to the game itself right it's uh kind of like the

chat here on this program on youtube or kind of like the chat on morning cup of hockey is its own show that you follow along while the show is going on sometimes you go to winnipeg jets game and the action is great and that's awesome and look how fast healers can skate and oh my god i can't believe shafley did that and conor Hellebuck is stopping everything. And part of the fun is hearing the chants and hearing the roasts of the other team, whether it's silver medal with Ryan Miller or the backup chants at Jake Ottinger.

Like they're awesome. The fans here are just the best. But I can't imagine Kevin Sheveldayoff going out there and saying about Winnipeg what Kevin Adams said about Buffalo. I get that it's tough. I get his point where he says we're not a destination right now. I understand that you can ask, you can negotiate and call agents like the top free agents or talk to agents that represent free agents in the off season and try to lure them. But right now they're not coming. It's not a healthy situation there. And it hasn't been for a long time. I really did find it interesting when Mike Harrington

specifically mentioned Owen Power now and Kevin Adams defended him as a good general manager should. Understood totally. But Harrington's not off the mark, right? Like there are some significant defensive holes in Owen Power's game. I think the Colorado game probably exposed them. You know, when I mentioned a couple of weeks ago with chasing, was that with Gregor? I can't remember where I was. It might have been with Gregor. That, you know, the whisper, oh, was it Zacharias and Price? One of the, just all run together in a lot of ways. You forget where you said what.

I mentioned like the whispers are out there about Owen Power. Like, I don't know if they do anything, but it's not as if like right now on that roster, whether you're Dylan Cousins, whether you're Owen Power, whether you're Kulich, like take your pick. Like, I think, like, honestly, I think that Kevin Adams is open for business to try to improve his team. I don't necessarily know. And this media, former media director that i was talking to this morning said the same thing i don't know that it's the wisest thing to go out there and talk about trades that have fallen through like i don't know how much i don't know how much you can or you should or you do coach managers before they go out to deliver press conferences.

Because they're the bosses here. You can sort of advise them. But at the end of the day, the manager is going to go out and say what the manager is going to say. But coming away from that presser, how did you feel? How did you feel about that one? Did you feel like you understood the Buffalo Sabres more? Or did you walk away from it like I do and say to yourself, that's Kevin Adams complaining that he's not able to do what he wants to do because of the city and because of the taxes and because of the palm tree, there's no palm trees.

I want to get to some of these clips here that Zach has put together from the press conference today. So let's start with the trade comments. Let's go there. This is Kevin Adams. I'll play a few of these. Kevin Adams earlier this morning on trades. Kevin Adams earlier this morning on trades.

Yeah, I guess, you know, I'd have to go into specifics, which is, which is tricky in these situations. But if you go back to the summer, there were, there were a short list of UFA guys that, you know, we, we had targeted and fortunately we were able to get Zucker. Cause I think he's really stepped in and been a stabilizing player and been a we had targeted and fortunately we were able to get Zucker. Cause I think he's really stepped in and been a stabilizing player and been a good leader and mentor and played well on the ice. There were other guys pursued, um, chose other places. That's what happens in the UFA market. And, uh, in terms of trades, I mean, there was, uh, in my mind a trade that we worked really hard at this summer that we went all in on.

You guys probably would have roasted me, said we were going to overpay to get the player. And they ended up not trading him and he's still on that team. So it's not from lack of want, but we're not going to go, Mike, and just make a trade so you guys can say we've spent to the cap if we don't think it makes sense for now and into the future. And that's just, you just can't help it. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you.

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Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. So that's part of Kevin. Now we'll play a couple of more here in a couple of moments, but that's on the trade situation. I think that sometimes managers might confuse, just do something with the idea that we're not going to be frivolous and just make a deal. But at a certain time, you get to a point where it can't keep going on like this. Like you need to make a move and they've already made about a million moves. Like you run down like all the different coaches that this team has had.

For example, you just can't make another move behind the bench when you go from Lindy Ruff to Ron Rolston to Ted Nolan to Dan Bilesman to Phil Housley to Ralph Krueger to Don Granato and now back to Lindy Ruff. Like, I don't think that that's a bullet in the chamber anymore. We're going to get to Luke Richardson here and Kyle Davidson in a sec. So what do you do at this point? Because what have we seen? Like this has been the ultimate bunny hop team. We just saw this.

Three wins in California. Buffalo Sabres turning it around? Are they? And then bam, come back, lose three games, the Colorado nightmare, and then a squeaker against the Winnipeg Jets. And all the while, you're watching your fans find something else to do. Just go away. Not go to games.

You see it. You see the shots. You see the pan the crowd. Empty spaces. The bald patches all over the key bank. So I don't think it's necessarily make a trade for the sake of making a trade. And that's where general managers, I think, get confused. They think media is saying just make a trade to just make a trade.

No, I think what they're saying is like make a trade to improve the team. Because right now it's not happening and it hasn't happened for a long time. It's 13, maybe going on 14 seasons with no playoffs. So it's not just make a trade for make a trade. Let's play the own power comments as well, because I thought this was, this was interesting as well. This got a little bit fiery. This is Mike Harrington and Kevin Adams. I mean, Harrington went Adam hard. Lance Las, Harrington went at him hard. Lance Lasowski did as well. Let's play this.

There's comments about Owen Power. Hard at the front of the net to actually use his size and be aggressive and not just stand there and do nothing, which we see over and over and over again. You see some of the good things too? I see a lot of the good things offensively for sure. His offensive numbers are near the top of the league in certain areas. But he's a defenseman you paid $8 million to.

So the guy, like, you have to look at the whole body of work, Mike. You know, like, I'm sure you're referring to the goal against the Islanders where the guy slips in and the redirect and the game the bat and no game winning goal against Colorado where yeah, like those are obvious. And of course he's a, he's a work in progress. I would tell you that I think Owen played just under 30 minutes last night and was, I thought he competed hard last night and did a lot of good things and you could see him looking to engage physically.

When we drafted Owen Power, we knew he was not bringing Scott Stevens. Like that's not his style, but do we want him to become more physically imposing and harder to play against? Yes. And I think that's a, there's a, there's a daily work that's going in right now. All right. So that's the, uh, the comments and the reporter in question is Mike Harrington there and, uh, and, and Kevin Adams, Zach, anything that you took away from that one? I mean, those were my thoughts on this thing. Like, I know it's not going to be good.

And Kevin Adams knows it's not going to be good. But man, not a time to go after Buffalo. No, this is it's interesting because I mean, what is he going to say? Right. He has to defend the player. But I heard you talk about it not too long ago. Not great defensively. I when he came into the league, I thought he was going to be incredible, but there was obvious holes and they just kind of never developed.

You look at a big guy who could have an ability to play a physical game, be imposing, it just has never really developed for him. And it's one of those things, Jeff, I don't know how to kind of put this into words, but it's one of those ones where it's like, hey, even if he's taking steps, even if it's slower, we can accept that. That's fine. This is not the case with him.

It feels like the defensive side of the game has never evolved. It's a fair comment from Kevin Adams. He basically just said, hey, we're trying. We would like him to play better. We're trying, but it's also tough what like what do you do if you're kevin adams go up there and say yeah he stinks defensively no like oh no that's what i'm saying like he he had to defend him like yeah and that's like gm gm 101 well i mean gm 101 is also don't go out for the city but gm 101 is always defend your players right and defend your

signings like jason zucker like nice. Like, good. Okay. Yeah. Not the same player he used to be, but still like serviceable player. But I don't know. I think most Sabres fans probably walked away from that one not feeling any better about their team. But I will say this. No. He could have taken the easy. Kevin Adams could have taken the easy way and just before the game yesterday said, just popped up

and said, okay, I'm taking questions and caught everybody off guard and did it that way. Instead, the Buffalo Sabres announced that Kevin Adams will be having a press conference 11 a.m. Eastern, etc., etc., etc., etc. So kudos for him for not taking the back door approach to

getting over what was going to be a really tough hour for the general manager, because it's been a really tough couple of months for the Buffalo Sabres. Anything else on Rangers you want to do? You want to move on? On Sabres there, the only other thing that I was kind of curious about is your thoughts about his comments about Jack Quinn. He talked about his early performance. He was asked about that. And I thought it was kind of interesting because it was part of the theme of his conversation here today, which I feel like is probably a little like, uh, not the greatest timing, but he's talking about development and development. And I get it because he's trying to calm people down to an extent. He seemed calm up there, but, uh, he kept pushing the point of development and Jack Quinn was one of the guys

that he ended up having to touch on. So to the point about development, who did I talk about yesterday? Conor McMichael. And when he was rushed to the NHL, there was that one year that he played, what was it, Zach? Like 67 or 68 games.

And anyone watching him knows. And he had to because of injuries, other factors. They needed him there. Okay, first round pick, 28th overall. But you can't, like, thankfully his career wasn't destroyed by being rushed to the NHL. And he's playing great for the Washington Capitals. But I look at the Buffalo Sabres and one of the things that jumps out at me right away is, did these kids spend enough time in the American League? Like, all these guys.

Like, did they have enough – like, were they so good that after 30 or 40 games, they'd be ready for full-time NHL duty? Like, that is like the overwhelming majority of these young players. Like you can have one or two guys that make it in there quickly, but how many guys like really spent significant, like significant time in Rochester? Not a ton. Yeah. It's a one thing though, I would ask you,

and it's a conversation I've been having with myself here watching these Leafs kids playing, Grabenkin, Minton, et cetera. They're playing in third and fourth line roles, right? And oftentimes people will say, hey, don't stunt the development. Kind of similar maybe here to the situation we're talking about with some of these kids in Buffalo

or Connor McMike when he first came up. But I also think that there's an element of the kids the players personality that can be a massive change uh or or a difference maker in this and one thing that keeps coming back to me is robert thomas in st louis the year that they won the stanley cup he was a kid who was not playing that many minutes, but he got NHL experience. He got to see Stanley Cup playoffs. He played with Pat Maroon there down lower in the lineup,

and that seemed to benefit him, and he was also capable of making an impact on the game while he was playing. So I keep having this mental battle, Jeff, of like, are some of these kids being held out for too long when they could have made that jump? Or should some of them be allowed to kind of sink or swim in the NHL? I think it goes case by case. My main point with Buffalo is there are just too many kids that were allowed into the team before they were ready.

Like the Robert Thomas example is a good one. And that line with Pat Maroon, who was on the other side on that line? That was a really, really good line. Great down low, great in the offensive zone down low. But the thing about the Sabres is like, how many of these kids were ushered in right away, quick, fast? Maybe in some cases it's out of necessity,

but a lot of times it's not. And again, like development isn't linear, make a ton of mistakes at the American hockey league level, right? What did we talk about the other day with the Buffalo Sabres? The old saying in the Oilers dressing room, earn not given. Yeah, you can say that about the Buffalo Sabres as well. Like there's some big ticket contracts that were handed out to players who haven't done anything yet. Right? I understand the idea of identifying your core

and betting on your future. But did you need, although, and I think it was a Herring, was it Harrington or Lasowski this morning say, yeah, well, Jack Quinn's not getting

that monster deal that has been handed out to a lot of other kids. But did you have to hand all these deals out to all of these kids? because whether you like it or not like the salaries compound the problem completely compound the problem out of all this again i've said it before and i say the beginning of every year i don't cheer for teams but i really want the buffalo sabers to be good like it's been far too long it's been far too long like please just let the buffalo sabers be

good let the buffalo sabers finally turn the page on uh on on all of this uh okay we did a lot on the swords and a lot on truba and we'll get brian berkey with a better connection next week and uh and get berkey aboard for the uh for the entire compliments and i do encourage everybody to pick up his book if you haven't already. It is excellent. Chicago, what do we got, Zach? Well, last night we saw the Chicago Blackhawks fire Luke Richardson. They end up appointing an interim coach

in the meantime there. And I saw it tweeted out by Frank Cervelli, our very own right here at the daily face off i think he ended up being the first european there was something i'm trying to find the swedish that's what it was yeah head coach yeah um i i actually i have a question for you here jeff because i don't like i get it there were expectations for the Blackhawks to take a step. Right. And I, I agree with wish the other day where it's like, Hey, you don't want Conor Bedard playing in this terrible,

like losing environment, maybe terrible is not the right word, but losing environment for too long to start his career. Is it really Luke Richardson's fault that they're losing? Like, I know that that's kind of your bullet in the chamber that you get to fire there where it's like, Hey, we got rid of the coach. Like we did the big move or a big move, but the roster is not constructed to wit to be successful. And I think that the expectation should have been, it was going to take a little bit, but I'm just kind of surprised that it was so early that Luke Richardson fell on this sword.

So let me ask you this question. This was going to be the intro, by the way, before, before everything happened with Kevin Adams, this was going to be the intro. I was writing up this morning, but for the cold open before I had a cup of coffee, what do all these coaches have in common? And now you can add Luke Richardson to this mix. Denny Savard, Ed Olchuk, Jeff Blashill, DJ Smith, Bruce Boudreau. Are they all have in common? I'm not sure. They all started, they all started rebuilds. And now you add Luke Richardson to that, to this mix. And the one thing, and this is true, go look through like the days of Al Arbor being there to start a rebuild. Well, start really from square one with the New York Islanders and seeing them win four Stanley cups and ushering them through those days are gone. Those days are rare. Coaches who start rebuilds don't finish them.

coaches who start rebuilds don't finish them. It's hard to say no to a job. I understand it. If you're a coach that gets offered an NHL position anywhere, you take it. It might not be the ideal situation. Look at Cronin and Anaheim. It's not ideal, but how do you say no?

How do you say no to an NHL job? Sometimes you're just a victim of circumstance. And the truism around the NHL is if you start rebuilds, you don't finish them at all. Right? Ed Olchek started the rebuild with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He wasn't there for the Cups. Denny Savard started the rebuild in Chicago. He wasn't there for the Cups. Cups. Denny Savard started the rebuild in Chicago. He wasn't there for the Cups. Blaschel started the rebuild in Detroit. That's still going. I ran through the Lindy Ruff and Rolston and Nolan and Bilesman and Housley and Kruger and Granato and Ruff again for the Buffalo Sabres. You know, that started, when can you say that started Rolston? Certainly with Ted Nolan by then, but the coaches that started don don't finish it they don't well why the timing what like do

you know what i mean like why now because i think it's honestly i think it's bedard because i think the one thing like two things the old saying as well is in sports you can sell two things you can sell wins or you can sell hope and chicago's not selling wins that's a bad team it's okay like by design they're a bad team i know davidson brought in a lot of um some more veterans in the off season you're hoping that things would be better hey here comes bertuzzi here comes sarah vinen we're gonna take another step here this is great and it hasn't happened so bracket the idea of selling wins, not selling wins. So if you can't sell wins, you got to be able to sell hope.

And who represents hope on the Chicago Blackhawks? Conor Bedard. And how's Conor Bedard's season gone? It's not gone well. Sophomore season has not been good for Conor Bedard. If at least Conor Bedard were producing, I don't know, Richardson should shuffle them off to the wing as well. But if Conor Bedard were trending, let me ask you this one, Zach.

If Conor Bedard, actually I'll throw this one in the chat. If Conor Bedard were trending towards 40 goals, would they still have fired Luke Richardson? Knowing this is still a rebuild here. I think the problem was that Conor Bedard had kind of hit a wall and you couldn't sell wins and you couldn't sell hope anymore. So what do you sell? Come see the games because things. I really do think it's,

but yeah, it's the Bedard stagnation. That's fair. Yeah. I mean, that that's fair when you put it that way, especially pointing out Bedard, the lack of success that he's had to start this season.

So you know what? I'll take that one. Maybe that was just not thinking of the whole picture myself as to why that happened. I just kept looking. I'm like, man, 20-something games in, it felt like it was an undeserving firing. I agree with you.

He's not the coach who wins. He's the coach who did the rebuilds. I just was sitting here going, 20-something, how? Why? So I had a conversation with an agent this week about one specific word. And it's a word that I tell my kids never to use. Maybe you do tell your kids to use it. Or you want to tell your kids that this word actually has meaning.

I think that there's one word in the English language that sets everybody up for disappointment. And that word is fair. I really don't like that word. So I was having a talk with his dad. He's like, yeah, you know, I hate the word fair. You know, you don't get, I always tell my kids like fair doesn't exist. All you get, all you get, all you get is what you negotiate. Fair is not a word. And he said, and this was like a senior agent at one of the major agencies. And he said, I tell all of my guys, don't ever use the word fair in a negotiation. He said, you can say to a manager that you're speaking to, where have we treated you unfairly, but don't ever use the word fair in a negotiation

for a contract because it goes like this. You either have the hammer or you don't. You know, Yarmulke Kalainen used to always talk about this when he was running the Columbus Blue Jackets. And he understood that he would say like, look, sometimes in a negotiation or a situation, any situation, trade, no trade clause, waivers, whatever, like Jacob Trubis going through, sometimes the manager has the hammer and the manager has the right to use it. Sometimes the player has the hammer. The player has the right to use it. Like we've seen it both ways, specifically with Yarmulke Kalanen in Columbus, that first

Josh Anderson contract had the hammer. Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky walking away, the players had the hammer and they used it. But I've always sort of used that as a reminder in the NHL. You never get what's fair. You only get what you negotiate. And as this relates to Luke Richardson, I'm with you, Zach. If you do subscribe to the word fair, then yeah, it doesn't seem right. That doesn't seem right at all. But you do understand, and Luke Richardson gets this as well, that that is one of the bullets that a manager has in his or her chamber when they're going through a rebuild. And now Kyle Davidson has used one of those bullets.

You know, I always, maybe this is cynical of me, Zach, let me know what you think. And Chad as well, let me know if you think this is too cynical. Whenever a new manager takes over a team, I always laugh when I hear this. I'm going to take some time and get to know the organization before I really make any moves. I think I don't want to rush in here. I don't want to be too hasty. And I always look at that, Zach, and I say to myself, okay. So new manager is buying himself some time.

Buying himself some time with the excuse of I need to have a look under the hood here. Meanwhile, when you interviewed for the job, you had to pretend that you knew everything about this organization. You could hit the ground running. It's almost like when, you know, when a new coach takes over a team like mid-season, one of the first things the coach will always say is, I can't believe how to shape this team is. Oh, you're going to have to give me a few months to get this team. I can't be held responsible now for this team because I have to get in shape. And this is terrible. Like you're buying yourself time.

I get it. I know why it happens. I know I say it, but like, don't you sort of snicker to yourself? Like, okay, you're just allowing yourself this period of time before you're saying, don't judge me yet. Give me a period of time before you start pointing the finger at me. But for every manager in a rebuild, after every firing, the finger starts to point more at the manager. And so now Kyle Davidson has pulled the trigger and used one of his bullets that he has before you start looking at the roster. I don't know if Anders Sorensen is going to work out long-term. It sounds like he's going to be given a pretty long rope here to see if he can help turn this thing around

or at least take the Chicago Blackhawks another rung up the ladder. I don't know if it's going to be him long-term for that position, but all I do know is as this rebuild continues, and make no mistake about it, Zach, things like what's happened in the Chicago Blackhawks, it terrified teams around the NHL who might think about, oh, we got to strip it down and go full rebuild. Man, that takes a long time.

Right. And you're seeing it now with Chicago, Chicago Blackhawks. They make it the first overall pick again this year. And by the way, they can, because last year picking second overall, there was second last link. So that doesn't count as a win in the lottery. They could still select end this year and by the way they can because last year picking second overall they were second last link so that doesn't count as a win in the lottery they could still select first overall again and pick up porter martone or matthew schaefer or james hagens or michael misa whomever they still might have like another franchise guy on the horizon for the penguins okay um but all i know now is is cal davidson's used another bullet another bullet here is used by by that manager you know what i'm glad at least doing the production

of this show that i not only get to learn more about hockey history but i get to have life lessons from you every time here jeff dude you do not need do you not listen my the you know what i realized a few years ago tell you what I realized a few years ago? Tell you what I realized a few years ago, Zach. You know what my purpose on this earth is? I finally realized. To serve as a warning to others. It's the only reason I'm here. Don't do what this guy did.

That's all I am. This guy should be like a warning signal to everybody else. Don't, don't, Don't be like this guy. Just don't. Just don't. Chat today was fun. Chat today was big again. What do we got in the chat today?

Anything jump out to you? Well, you pushed the chat to a point where people started suggesting Bedard come play for their city when you started talking about inspiring hope. So now there's people looking for him to go to pittsburgh uh chicago uh those leave chicago go to vancouver sorry those are some of the ones that came up yeah can we pause on pittsburgh for one second hey rachel dory wrote a really good piece uh on the pittsburgh penguins at espn.com today and it's and it's it's something that i've been um talking about for a while and and Dory really put it together. Did you meet Rachel at the party last night, by the way, Rachel Dory from ESPN? Did you get a chance to talk to Rachel? Briefly, yeah.

Okay. So she's got a really interesting piece where, and I agree with this, that this actually is the rebuild for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Like I know there's a hue and cry of, oh, the Penguins need to totally change direction and tear this thing down and trade everybody and take it down to the nuts and bolts. Listen, Chicago will show you, like, how disastrous that can be.

San Jose is the same. Like, these teams, as much as San Jose is fun to watch, and they are. Like, San Jose is cool to watch, man. Tough one against Tampa. San Jose is a lot of fun to watch. Rebels take a long, long time. And fan bases, a lot of them don't have the patience for it.

And owners don't have the patience for it. I think what Kyle Dubas is trying to do here is he's trying to really thread a tough needle. thread a tough needle because on the one hand, he's got to keep Sid around and Malkin around and Letang around. So there's some Pittsburgh familiarity there, but at the same time, rebuild everything underneath them. And the way that he seems to be doing it, it's funny, I was on Sakaris and Price today, and we're talking about Nils Hoaglander and the interest there, which would fit the MO of what Dubas is doing. And that is, find guys that need a second chance, right? That's why Phil Tomasino is there. That's why Cody Glass is there. That's why, as Friedman reported, there's interest between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Vancouver Canucks around Nils Hoaglander. I did talk to one team about Hoaglander. I mentioned this on Securus and Price as well. I mentioned I talked to one team today about Hoaglander and they said, we looked at it, but that contract really scares us.

Now, the contract still hasn't kicked in on Hoaglander three times three. Now, the contract was signed when he was coming off a season where he shot like a million percent. And now he's not shooting a million percent anymore. Yet the three times three is out there. That one scares him. But the one thing, and this goes back, like honestly, Zach, this goes back to when Crosby,

Jeff confirms Crosby to Jets, T. Mackey. Very nice. Yeah, go with that. Go with that. Go with that. Big rumors out there from Merrick. Yeah, tweet them all. But the one thing about Dubas is he's a big second chance guy.

And this goes back to like when he was the general manager of the Sioux Greyhounds, hiring Sheldon Keefe was a really controversial decision. Now Sheldon Keefe is like a former head coach at the Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, and it looked great. Like it's all past, right? But bringing Sheldon Keefe back into the Ontario League after how he exited was a huge deal. I can remember there were a lot of managers around the NHL that really didn't like it and didn't want it to happen. And like lobby today, branch commissioner of the OHL not to

allow it, but Dubas stuck by his guy. And he's a, again, he is a big second chance guy. And if you look at, you know, the, a lot of the deals that he's done, it's based on, okay, this hasn't worked for this player in this situation. Maybe he just needs a change of scenery and something else. I know he's not the first to fall into this. I mean, there's always been, and the Rangers understand that we're always like this. That arrogance of the manager that sort of falls along the lines of, well, this player's not working out in this market, but wait till we get him into our program. Oh, with our people and our staff. There is the arrogance of that. And I think that is healthy too,

and a certain belief in yourself. But I think the way that Dubas is going about here is like the needle that he's trying to thread here is a real tough one because he's saying, give me your 23, 24 year olds that didn't work out in their previous market, but were drafted high for a reason. Like your first rounders that didn't work out. Maybe they just need a change of scenery. That's how Duba seems to be doing it in Pittsburgh. So I don't expect there to be a for sale sign.

Everything must go outside PPG Paints Arena at all. I think what they're doing right now is actually the rebuild. It's not easy. It might be one of the hardest rebuilds to do if you're a manager. So to try to target seventh or eighth in the conference, that's tough. And still have draft picks and prospects and pick high enough in the draft that you give yourself a really good chance to do some damage. Like I do want, here's another one. I was having a conversation at our launch party last night about this one specifically.

And again, I'm just basing this based on, well, there's some familiarity there. You know, Wes Clark was responsible for drafting Nick Robertson. Doesn't seem like there's a whole lot happening with Nick Robertson and the Toronto Maple Leafs. We know he can shoot. We know he can score.

We know he can skate. We know there's an NHLer in there. Is that a guy that needs a second chance? You're a Maple Leafs guy. Does that work for you? You're twisting that thing in the Maple Leafs fans because that is a pretty divided player. Yeah, I mean, this is not knowing anything.

It's something that I have thrown out there. I do agree with you 100%. Kyle Dubas loves those types of guys. He also seems to be fairly loyal to the people that seem to be his guys. Michael Bunting gets brought back there after he goes to Carolina from Toronto. That was something that he looked for.

I wouldn't be surprised. Um, if I'm not going to say to Pittsburgh, if Nick Robertson was moved on from, and yeah, I mean, they obviously saw something in them when he was here, they kept trying to give them opportunities and that would be an interesting one. Uh, for sure. Now you're, you're not going to let me run with like the evgeny malkin going to the dallas stars stuff i saw something on twitter no no zero zero zero zero that no no uh-uh no way no how now hang on again dallas is going big game hunting jim nill is is coming back at deadline maybe before with big game in the bag but i it's not gonna it's not gonna it's not

gonna be mulligan again like they're like honestly dallas is the team to watch they are gonna be in on all of it like would it surprise you again here we go i'm gonna get radioed we always talk about you're gonna say something just speculative and it's gonna pop but would it surprise you if like both cadre and anderson ended up on Dallas. Bam! And Matthew Olivier if he doesn't re-sign with Columbus. Need some toughness on the fourth line. Matthew Olivier. Wouldn't surprise me. Yeah. At all.

Nothing would. Nothing would at Dallas, but I can't see Malkin going there. No, no, no. By the way, Brody Brazil in the chat, represent. there no no by the way brody brody brazil in the chat represent our chat is buzzing today here jeff i don't know if you saw we're the chat the sheet heads they're she has are awesome active right now uh people want more story time with you oh Oh, God. You don't need more stories with me.

More life lessons. No, you don't need that. Again, again, my service on this earth is to serve as a warning to others. Hey, you know what's going to be fun tonight? What's that? Watching Pittsburgh and the Rangers. Yeah. You know you're watching.

I'm watching. I am. That's one of those one of you think the rangers roll over or do they they they have fighting them does this spark them at all like this is one i'm that's a lot of them watching dude like that is such a good question they just saw what happened to their captain and how he got dragged by the organization that's a really, really good question. Where do they come out with tonight? That's a great question. So the thought that's going through my head is this.

The assumption is, okay, that he goes, their captain just got dragged like this by the organization. This turmoil happens here today. He's gone. He's traded. There's a lot of people who are of the mind that they're going to come out fighting. They're going to be fired up. They're going to be not for the organization, but for their captain.

There's going to be something sparked. The flip side, which is where I'm kind of leaning towards, and I'm curious if you you agree is he's been dragged for the last week like this is not out of nowhere where this has occurred this is something that's been going on shouldn't that fight have started already shouldn't the rangers if they are supposedly fired up by this have been turned like the heat turned up like why now would this be the case that's what makes me start to think this could be a rollover situation and it goes the opposite way i i'm very curious about this game so you're right and i would have thought that the fight would have happened when truba although his name had already been out and more specifically crider's name right we're on the memo of players that we are entertaining

offers on or willing to discuss or have been made available um please see our manager drury comma c chris that's what that's what i thought once those names come out then i would say okay these guys are gonna grow a spine and like no way uh-uh the defiance all of it but now the troop is gone i don't know and even you saw crider right you saw crider after the skate sale i'm not gonna talk about trooper right now i'm not gonna talk about four nations like you know these guys are you know these guys are pissed at watching what happened. Like, I'll remember, like, it's not as if this, the idea of your captain being threatened with waivers, like captains have been on waivers before. Dave Anderchuk was on waivers in Tampa. Ethan Moreau was on waivers in Edmondson. Not to keep harping on the Buffalo Sabres, but like one of the most uncomfortable times in Buffalo Sabres history is when Craig Reve was scratched.

I think it was exactly like 17 games in a row. 17 games in a row. That's a lot. Yeah, I don't know. It's just interesting. It's like that I thought would have happened already. And now it's not quite. I mean, now that this is the final straw, he's gone.

This was an ugly, ugly, ugly day. Let's call it what it was. It ends up in a pretty decent situation for both parties. But just how it happened. Let's be realistic. It was ugly watching this unfold on social media. And we're at an age where players see and hear all of this. Okay. Sorry.

I was wrong. Thought it would happen. So I was wrong. 16 games. You were scratched and then put away. Yeah. That one less. I was bad.

God, how bad that was. Captain. Yeah. Okay. CTV. All right. Captain. Yeah. Okay. We must see TV. All right. Fun and games.

All right. And by the way, we had a launch party for the show yesterday at a spot in the west end of Toronto. A lot of fun. Great to see everybody out there. Really nice of Sarah Nurse to pop by. Had a great little chat with Sarah. The PWHL star with the Toronto Scepters. Thanks to everyone who popped by

a lot of agency people which was great whether it was uh campaign pettinger was there retired agent anton fun popped by um elliot friedman remember him and me once upon a time frege was there great to see frege uh some people from the old shop joel darling speaking of buffalo sabers his dad the legendary play by fl-play voice of the Buffalo Sabres. Joel was there, was my boss for a number of years at the old shop and CBC before that at a hockey night. His son Noah is there, is a wonderful guy working with the Toronto Maple Leafs now. And they have a billet kid from Stouffville who plays in Oakville, my hometown Stouffville. So a great time by everyone.

Thanks to the entire TNN staff that put together a really great event. Everything that I've been experienced here has been first class. So thanks to everyone for popping by. Zach, did you have a good time last night? I had a great time. The other thing, this has been joining the Nation Network has been one of the coolest opportunities for me ever. I was a kid yelling into the camera on YouTube with no network, no nothing. I was just doing it on my own. And then I was lucky enough to get a message, as I told you last night, from Amal one day out of nowhere. And from that day on, it has been very eye-opening getting to speak with people in the industry,

getting to learn. Like that's one of the coolest things for me is just learning and trying to figure out how to get better at everything I'm doing, whether it's the production or on air, whatever it is. Uh, and the nation network has been so supportive of that. And then last night, uh, just getting an opportunity to just continue to meet some of these people in the industry. Very, very cool. And a lot of fun. So yes, more More to come, bud. More to come. Your future is really bright as we were talking about last night.

So thanks to everyone who came out and Will Soligeron. Thanks for joining me this week. It's been a fun first week here on the program. We already have a great, it's growing on me, sheethead community in the chat.

Thanks to people who have come over from Morning Cup of Hockey. I encourage you to go back there as well. Anyone who's new at our chats, that's such a great show. Laz and Colby, Monday to Thursday, nine o'clock Eastern on our daily face-off YouTube channel.

On behalf of Zach Phillips, Merrick here signing off. Have a great weekend. We are back Monday. Who knows what's going to happen? Zach and I are both really curious about tonight with the Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins and what this thing looks like.

And the unfolding saga that is the, you know, the, the Buffalo Sabres, the drama in Chicago with the new bench boss. We'll see the new look Hawks or the new look Hawks bench anyhow this weekend and whatever ends up happening with the Jacob Trubelis New York Rangers. Who's the next captain there, by the way? I don't know if it was up to Johnny Lazarus. It would be Alexi Lafreniere. We all know that.

All right. Thanks for joining me. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We will talk to you Monday, 3 o'clock Eastern, right here at our daily Faceoff YouTube channel. Have a great week. Thanks for making my first week here. Feel so good. That's everyone in the chat, everybody listening and everybody tuning in live. Thank you. Thank you. A million. Thank you. We'll talk to you on Monday. This week, every day, this month. I can't get out my head.

Lost all ambitions day to day. Guess you can call it a run. I went to the dark man. He tried to give me a little medicine. I'm like, nah, man, that's fine. I'm not against those methods, but I knew. It's me, myself, and I that's going to be fixing my mind. Bye. I don't think you're sometimes losing. Have been on the days that went wrong.

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