The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Red Wings Still Without a GM, Bruins Extend Minten + Hughes & Hellebuyck ft. David Pagnotta

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

The Sheet is live from the brand-new Nation Network studio in downtown Toronto as Jeff Marek is joined by David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period and Daily Faceoff Insiders to break down the biggest news, rumours and storylines around the NHL — beginning with a major situation developing around the Detroit Red Wings.With the season quickly approaching, Detroit still does not have a general manager in place, raising major questions about the direction of the organization. Jeff and David discuss where the Red Wings GM search stands, why the process has carried this close to the start of the season and what the uncertainty could mean for captain Dylan Larkin, unsigned RFA Simon Edvinsson and the rest of Detroit’s roster.How difficult is it for the Red Wings to make major roster and contract decisions without a permanent GM? What does the uncertainty mean for Edvinsson’s negotiations? And could Detroit’s front-office situation have a broader impact on Larkin and the future of the organization?They also dive into the ongoing Quinn Hughes situation in Minnesota, including whether Hughes will re-sign with the Wild, what could be standing in the way of a long-term deal and where things could go if the two sides cannot find common ground. Jeff and David also discuss Hughes’ desire to potentially play with his brothers and whether that factors into his long-term future.Plus, the latest on Connor Hellebuyck and the Winnipeg Jets. Which teams could emerge as potential trade destinations, what could Winnipeg receive in return and how important is it for both Hellebuyck and the Jets to find a resolution before the season begins?Marek and Pagnotta cover all of that and much more from around the NHL as The Sheet officially debuts its new downtown Toronto studio.Subscribe to Daily Faceoff for daily NHL news, trade rumours, insider information, analysis and conversations from around the hockey world.#NHL #QuinnHughes #ConnorHellebuyck #DetroitRedWings #MinnesotaWild #WinnipegJets #NHLTradeRumors #NHLNews #TheSheet #DailyFaceoffReach 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.

Welcome once again to the sheet for this Tuesday, September the 8th. And as you'll notice, I am no longer part of the Merrick Broadcasting Empire, which is my basement, Dave Panjota, DFO Insider here. But we are at the brand new Nation Network Studios in downtown Toronto. This has been a culmination of the handiwork of a number of people going on pretty much all summer long. So this is one of the big reveals. Glad to have you aboard here for the Made VIII. voyage of the sheet here on the program, and we have a lot to get to, and there's a lot on the Detroit Red Wing situation. I think a lot of us have a lot of questions. By the way, welcome

in the new studio here in downtown Toronto. Get used to this look, because there may be some tweaks along the way. Certainly there will be, but this thing is a thing of beauty and glad to be in a professional studio here, as I mentioned out the top, Dave, unlike my basement. DFO Insider from the fourth period is our man, Dave Pena. Dave, how are you? I'll tell you. I think I mentioned this one of the times we spoke in the summer, every time I saw pictures of your vacation, this summer I said, we're losing Dave. There's no way he's coming back. How many different times during your summer vacation did you say, do I really want to go back and talk about offer sheets and trades when I can just dip my toes in the ocean, get sand between the toes? Have a nice little peroni.

Yeah, I saw you had a couple of those. Couple beverages. I look nice. I'm thinking about how to get back now, to be honest. Don't blame you. NHL expansion. Let's go there. Yeah, come over to, let's go to Italy. I got a few spots. Great time.

Nice little unwind, get everything going again. It's funny, the day that I arrived was when Macklin Celebrini signed his deal. So I sent a couple messages, thanking a lot of people for doing it at that moment. It's always the way. Isn't it? The minute you leave was a boom, the biggest contract in the history of the NHL, and then Kail McCarra does his. So I wanted to ask you quickly, just sort of set the table for,

for the program today because we are going to talk about Fraser Minton. We're going to talk about the Detroit Red Wings. We're going to talk about Zeeve Boyam. There are other things that are going to come up in today's show as well. But just to sort of set the table here, Christmas. Okay? Think Christmas for a second. Got it.

Personally, I've always wanted to see something called reverse Christmas. Do you know what reverse Christmas is? What's that? So June 25th is the six-month point away from December 25th. Wouldn't it be great instead of where on Christmas Santa Claus shows up and drops off a lot of presents? Someone showed up six months later and cleaned everything up. And just like got all the junk out of your apartment or out of your house or out of your condo. Right.

That to me as I get older is more valuable than Christmas with people dropping off stuff. But this was a players and agents Christmas. Yeah. This summer, not so much general managers, certainly not owners. But this was, just to set the table here, this was Christmas. This was a new Christmas and we're seeing the ripples and the Cascades and the Frazier Mitten deal and we'll probably see more. So much of this was set, was set by Santa Dany.

Yes. Breyer in Philadelphia. Do you see it that way? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he really, and the flyers took a lot of time trying to figure this one out. Like they spent weeks determining internally if they should even go this direction. And they did.

And Anaheim matched it. But to go 18 million for Leo Carlson, talking to a lot of people at the time, it was, we knew this was coming, but we figured we've got a year or two before we get to that point. A year, best case,

or two years' best case scenario. And it happened this summer. And it did shift things. It shifted a lot of things. And, you know, it's, look at Cutter Goce, his teammate. Oh, boy.

He's looking for. Oh, boy. Yeah, he's looking for similar. So you've got to deal with that. You've got to deal with the 20.4 now to Cal McCar and everything that we thought we might get next summer or the summer after happening a year or two in advance from when some of these managers and teams optimistically

projected when those numbers would come into play. And the guys are cashing in. And we're seeing, we talked about this in July, early July, about Adam Fentilly. Yep, and that's still out there. We're still waiting. Where's the decibel point there? You know, once upon a time, what Danny Breyer did and what the Philadelphia Flyers did,

like there would be fistfights at GM's meetings because it raised the price tag for everybody here. And now it seems as if managers across the NHL and Chris Patrick, the GM of the Washington Capitals, mentioned this on NHL.com a couple of weeks ago. What the Flyers did affected everybody. And in a sense, it threw a real chill. through all the managers in the NHL, we're going to get to what Boston just did with Fraser Mitten here in a second.

But managers right now are terrified right now. They don't want to be Pat Verbeek. Like they're all saying themselves, whatever you do, don't be Pat. Don't go through what Pat for Beak went through this summer. Get your work done early. And there was an opportunity. There was a potential for him for Beek

to get Leo Carlson done early about 11 months ago. And it didn't happen. They prolonged things. And now he's got 18 million bucks that he's got to give at least one player on his team. So, yeah, I mean, and then that's kind of what I mean. Like a lot of these guys thought, okay, we still have 12 months. We still have 24 months.

Somewhere in that range before we really got to bite down hard on some of these numbers. And it's now. So get your deals done early. Get your extensions ironed out as quickly as you can. else you're going to risk with the cap going up to 13.5 next season. Yep. Roughly. It projected to anyway.

123, 123, 123, 124 in two years from now, these numbers, this 20% that gets applied in certain circumstances is just going up. Just as an aside, since we're talking about the Philadelphia Flyers and the cap going up, does the NHL, and this would all have to be done through the, in the CBA, does the NHL need to recalibrate compensation based on how much is in each contract. Because the $18 million right now for Dale Carlson, two years from now, is going to be massive, but the compensation is still the same. Does that need a recalibration, you think?

Offer sheet compensation. Do you think we get there? I think after this next round of this next CBA, which kicks in in two weeks. I was going to say, we're already past this CBA. What's in the next one? How do we fix this? Yeah, well, I think it's going to be a topic of discussion because with the influx of money that's going to be injected into the league with the U.S. TV rights coming up in a couple of years with the E-word expansion being as realistic as it's been as it's ever been based on where we're at. We're waiting on the board of governors, the NHL is the board of governors meetings in a couple of weeks.

There will be an update on where the status is on the levels of interest from not just the Freakin group, which is determining Houston or or Austin. What's going on in Atlanta? What's going on in New Orleans? What's going on in Scottsdale, et cetera, et cetera. Yep. That means more money into the league. Doesn't affect HRR, but nevertheless, that kicks in.

TV rights kick in. Sponsorship deals kick in. Everything they're doing in Europe, they're expanding. They already got the global series games for next season in Germany locked up. All this money's coming in. All these salaries are going up. Compensation, to your point, on RFA deals. and offer sheets, they have to be addressed.

And I think talking to some people, it's funny you mentioned, talking to some people, I think it's going to be something that's going to be a topic of discussion going into the next CBA round, which we've got four more clean years. Okay, so what is happening right now with the Detroit Red Wings?

So we saw that Jeff Greenberg pulled out. So he's the Detroit Tigers general manager. He pulled out. I'm of the impression that that was a surprise. at the Detroit Red Wings and they were surprised that that happened. How much of a surprise? I don't know.

I was just told that they were a little bit surprised that he pulled out. There are names that we still have, whether it's Brett Peterson, whether it's Scott White, whether it's Jeff Kilty, whether it's Sean Horcough who's still part of the mix,

Chris Draper as well. Training camp is five minutes from now. Yeah, yeah. Edvinson, Larkin, Training Camp. The Brinket. A few other... The Brinket's another... Yeah, De Brinket for sure.

Yeah, a lot of other... Well, it was... I can't remember that. It was Thursday or Friday where I was led to believe that the expectation was the wings were going to have their guy in the hopper at the start of this week.

Whether it was today or tomorrow right after Labor Day, at some point after Labor Day. And then Sunday, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, is when... Yep. We found out that Greenberg's out. And... I don't think there's an announcement just yet.

So, yeah, I think the wings were anticipating going in that direction. And then shifting or augmenting part of the front office staff a tiny bit. But obviously that's no longer in the cards. And now the wings have to not necessarily go back to the drawing board here by any stretch because they've been doing their due diligence. They've gone through, I believe it's at least two rounds of interviews to this stage. But now they've got to maybe not necessarily go after their top guy because he's out, but they've got to make a decision here in pretty short order.

Like you said, 15th, everybody's back. When you look at what Chris Silich talked about, about what the next general manager that a threat ratings was going to be all about, the word analytics was used quite liberally. Now, I know a lot of people throw that around right now, and I don't know about you, but I've really enjoyed watching a lot of veteran people in the industry, old school, rebrand themselves as proponents of analytics suddenly. It's amazing what happens when there are jobs available.

But by the definition of what we heard Chris Hillwich talk about, I mean, that to me screamed Andrew Thomas, who's the assistant general manager of the Detroit Tigers, has a background working with the Minnesota Wilde as well, but he handles analytics for the Tigers. By that definition, I said to myself, okay, I could see Brett Peterson in the mixer too, but by that strict definition,

that's who that description screamed, no? Right. And you've got your, you know, you can bring in your analytical leader at the top of the charts and then you supplement it with and cushion everything with the hockey people.

They've got the hockey people. They've got that element of it. Like when the change happened here in Toronto, you brought in Matt Sundeen, you made some additional changes here and there. You've got your analytics-driven GM and you've got the hockey element that's there as well. You've got that in place.

Like you just rifled off Draper, Horkoff. They have Lidsstrom in there and they have others that are part of the mix in some different capacities and whatnot. But this is the trend. You know which, by the way, just as an aside, you know which trend I hope continues? I've really enjoyed seeing this, whether it's Vancouver with the Sedeens, make beliefs with Matt Sundin and Daniel Alpherson. if the if the chart rubber you can carve out a more significant spot for Nick Lindstrom

sign me up for for Swedish managers that would be all day long right that'd be that'd be pretty good because he's he splits doesn't he yeah he does yeah he goes he goes back and forth and yeah bringing I mean well Matt's did it he's now here we we think but he's he's here and then Danny's now in the mix and everything. And yeah, to bring these guys over, sure. Because they also have, like, Cronwall's part of the player development and everything like that. So you've got the hockey element down pat.

Now it's a matter of figuring out, you know, who's going to lead this charge. Do you think that there's any way, Ansar Khan mentioned this in his most recent piece, that perhaps they would go into this season with Sean Horikoff remaining as the interim general manager? Like we all assume that training camp starts They have their full-time general manager Who's been hired? Right.

Do you think there's a chance that they still say Hang on a second here We're still not done with our search? This search has taken two months now. Yeah. Do you think there's any chance That it's work off at least to start? It wouldn't be overly shocking

But then you're going to have like you need There's business that has to happen now. That's the he can do that. He could do it. But you're just saying to the new general manager we've had to do these deals, we had to do this business, you deal with it now.

I mean, well, from the business perspective, it's not the direction you want to go in. You don't want to make these changes and then bring somebody else in and say, okay, here's, we had to do this so you figure out the rest. You want to have your guy come in and be the one that's making those changes

because it's going to be, I mean, these are long-term effects. Whatever happens with Dylan Larkin, by whatever happens, I mean, wherever he goes, the return is going to affect the immediate to a degree, but the more so the long term. What they have to deal with, and then the trickle effect, how does that affect the brinket? How does that affect others that are on this team?

What are they going to do in goal? They don't have a goalie sign beyond this season and so on and so on. So, NHL caliber at the moment. So there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. You need to have your main guy in there. I think in theory, yes, you can wait this out a little bit longer, but with a little bit of pressure being applied from Larkin and his camp to try to get something done over the next couple of weeks, and then, which I don't see being realistic at this stage, you need

somebody manning those conversations. The problem that I do see with it is the other candidates, and I'll think of, I'll think of Brett Peterson, for example, the Florida Panthers. At a certain point, Bill Zito and the Florida Panthers are going to say, yeah, we'll take him back now. Yeah. You had your chance. Scott White in Dallas.

Same thing. Okay, you had your shot, but we need him back here now. Like how many candidates you take off the board if you just go in with Horkoff as the interim general manager? That's a great point

because, yeah, okay, I've given you permission to interview. The longer this goes, I still have to sign off on you leaving the organization if you get the gig. Yeah. So this is taking way too long.

Forget about it. This isn't happening anymore. You're sticking with us. It's a great point. It applies. pressure from their perspective, from the candidate's side of things, and then it also applies pressure, even more pressure to the organization to make some kind of call here, make a decision. Again, camp is the 15th, or officially everything opens up the 15th. I think most players are

official camps and reports or whatever. Like here in Toronto, everything starts at 16th. Players and everyone's avail is going to be around that. So Detroit's got to figure this out pretty quickly. And the other thing, I'll throw another log on the fire here. Did you see the Pierre-Lebrun report about Simon Edvinson saying, like, don't be surprised if Edvinson goes to camp without a contract. Whenever I see that, I look, once in a time, 19, was it, 1987, 1988, 1988, I think Trevor Lyndon went to, as a rookie, just been drafted, went to camp without, without a contract, and he said, you know, I got, I got drafted, you know, not so I can get a contract, I got drafted so I could play in the, in the NHL, that's what I've played for.

And there's a sort of rah-rah element about that. at the end of the day, like, this is business. Like, hockey's dangerous. Yeah. If anything happens. How many guys get hurt in camp? Right? Like, I don't want to, I don't have any wood here, so knock on wood, this doesn't happen.

But that's a, it's a risk. Now, I mean, I've also got to believe that there's some kind of conversation that's happened within, whether it's with Horkoff or whomever, to say, we're going to do this on good faith. But you're going to push for this type of. of deal. There are certain, like, you know what? I'll give you an example.

You know who is someone who always stuck by his word? Like, if this manager gave you his word, you didn't really even need the contract. You didn't need the formality to send it in. But this person's word was gold, Doug Wilson. Yep. If you had an agreement with Doug Wilson and you shook hands and looked at each other in the eyes, done. Yep. No matter what change, it takes two weeks to file, whatever, that deal was not going to change.

I don't know how many Doug Wilson's there are out there because at the end of the day, too, you really need to protect your franchise. You do. And for a franchise that doesn't even have that position in the way, they don't have that GM Doug Wilson position. So it makes it that much more complicated. So there has to be a lot of faith in whoever J.P. Berry had been since agents talking to. There's got to be a lot of faith in those conversations that they will get to in the ballpark of what they've been discussing

once the new manager is put in place. How are you feeling about Dylan Larkin? Does he have to play his way into a trade? Is there any way he doesn't report? Yeah, that's the one I'm wondering. I can't see him not reporting. Me too, but I feel like between that and Connor Hellebuck, I'm more concerned that it's Larkin

that may go in that direction. I don't think he will. But if I'm picking between the two, I'm going, well, this isn't just something he woke up to and decided he wanted to go. Like, this has been frustration built off the last 16 to 18 months. Yeah. And okay, Stevie's out as GM. Great. But they're still in the same boat.

And Patty Kane's back in Chicago. De Brinkett wants a big ticket that if Larkin's not there, I don't see them doing it. I mean, maybe. It depends on what the philosophy of the new GM is. can you afford to give up a guy like the brinket? For me, no. And goals are expensive. Right.

But at the time, when the first conversations took place and the C.V. Eisenman was there. The number was balked at. Let me throw one other thing out at you here about, and this is, I'm glad you brought up Halibuck too, because I think it does apply to him as well. Players who suspect that will be traded at some point this season. Exhibit A and Exhibit B, Dylan Lark and Connor Hallibuck. I had a conversation with someone this morning here who said what you might want to consider at this time of year specifically, as guys are now starting to make their way back to camp,

the wild card in all of this is who shows up to camp healthy? Yeah. Who shows up to camp dinged a little bit and that might pump the brakes on any possible deal. This person said like, look, you might want to think about just throwing this in as part of the conversation. and that is we don't know the discussions about players. We're not going to know they're healthy until they show up at camp. Right. Yeah.

And how much does that complicate? Like if you're making a move for Larkin and the guy who shows up to camp, oh yeah, it's going to be four to six. Right. You know, you're looking at some teams that made some summer decisions that already know some of their players. And you look at their cap situation going, well, they still need to be under the cap.

Well, there's some massaging that can be done there, at least for the immediate, because some players are going to be on LTIR to start. things off and things like that. But other players that are coming into camp, you don't know what their situation is like. Yeah, that can affect the Larkin situation. It could affect the Helibuck situation

or whatever else is going on behind the scenes right now that everybody's back to school and out of hibernation, right? Yeah, it's interesting. Do those players, like these GMs that have had these conversations that have laid some foundational work on potential deals, when you come back to the drawing board and say, okay, we're back, camps are getting underway, see if we can hammer this out. Okay, great, but we can't include that guy or this guy because

something happened in the summer. They're a little dinged up. Yep. It affects talks. It does. Anything else on Detroit that you want to get out, anything else? Or do you want to move on here? Have we exhausted it for the time, knowing full well, like, you can pick this conversation up tomorrow and there'll be something else to talk about. Yeah, I mean, of that, like, I would be surprised. I'll put it, I'll add this. I'd be surprised based on the fact that there's no GM in place, that if we see anything happen on that Larkin front before camp. We just talked about Hullabuck briefly. I think there's significantly greater chance that it happens,

a move happens there before camp versus Larkin. But even that needs a lot of work. Do you have another thought on Halebuck while we're there? Why not? Like that's the low-hanging fruit right now. As we like to say around here, Dave, low-hanging fruit is still nutritious. Yes. What do you got on Halebuck?

Well, they're supposed to pick up. this week. Right? Those trade conversations. They're supposed to pick up this week. When you make that type of public request or this request public, your trade request public, and we talked about this back in April and May and whatnot. Everybody kind of knew this was there. But now that the player admits it, the fact that he comes out with that information when he did three weeks before camp at the time, that's a big, I don't want to say you're trying to apply a significant amount of pressure, but you're pushing a little bit here to make something happened before camp. Because you're doing that so all the fans know, and I think if

you're Kevin Shevolde off, you're anyone in Winnipeg ownership too. Like the last thing you want is negative energy in that building. And I think about, because you've seen the Red Wings fans online. Oh yeah. They are hot about Larkin, man. Yes. Very. They are pissed about Larkin. And you know that there is going to be, first of all, you're going to have to do some major massaging of this situation by the new general manager if he's going to at least start. the season of the Detroit Red Wings. And we know that that rank's going to be, this can be a lot of negative energy

because as fans are going to let them have it. Is it the same way with Hallibuck in Winnipeg? I don't get that vibe. I don't get the vibe either. But then when you really sort of break it down, it's got a contract. Yeah, five years to go, including this season. There's term on it.

Larkin's got a contract with term two. How much of a difference is there really? I think that by making, his trade request public, what he's done is essentially lob this into Winnipeg's front office by saying, if you don't do this, like, Winnipeg is, we all know, like, this is a sensitive market. They have to have a competitive team. Very. You have to have a competitive team.

Do you want this distraction, negative energy, this vibe in the building when the Winnipeg Jets start a season where playoffs are the expectation? Right. And this was supposed to be a revival season based on what happened last year. They're hosting the Heritage Classic. They've got other things that are tied to this season that they want to amplify organizationally and market-wise. And you've got one of the best goalies in the last, however long, wanting out, it's a bit of a kick.

But the difference here with Larkin, the messaging in that letter that he sent out was so Jets positive. How much he appreciated the organization, what they've done. He tried to massage it as best he could. Let's be honest. You request the trade, there's going to be some negative pushback. You know what? That's a good point.

What we heard from Larkin was, I got no time for Steve Eisenman, essentially. That was a couple of years, and then we saw the dueling press conferences between the two. We know where the animosity is. And in this scenario, it's a little bit different. That being said, I'm with you. think they want to start the season. I don't even think they want to start camp with this situation still still there. But, you know, is a Buffalo going to step up? Is a Carolina going to step up? Somebody out of left field that we're not talking about. Are they going to step up and try to make

this happen in the next seven days? I don't know. I don't know. It's, it's tough, man. Okay. So here's the latest. Okay. Fraser Minton, seven years. Big money. 50.4 million dollars. Big things expected out of Frazier Minton over the course of the next seven years. Greg Landry, Merry Christmas. That's the agent. Fraser Mitten, Merry Christmas. 7.2 a year for what was believed to be just a third line center. Yep.

And you know what? Right now behind Lynn Holm and Zaka, he is. But if you look at the future of the Boston Bruins. Yes. I think we're looking at Minton and James Higgins. Yep. Up the gut. Now, Lid Home has a long-term contract. Zaka is in the last year. Last year of his deal. Of his deal. But you're looking at the future of the Boston Bruins, Minton, $50 million worth of them is a big part of it now.

100%. And if you look back on how that happened, Brandon Carlo goes to Toronto. Yep. He's now in St. Louis. Yep. Fraser Minton and his $50 million deal. And a first round pick. Oh, how did that work? that is now unprotected. What could you get? Just as an aside. Just think about this as a little sort of exercise.

Everybody watching and listening right now. This is the Toronto Maple Leafs, first round pick. And jury's out. We'll see how the Maple Leafs fare. See the Maple Leafs do. What could you get for an unprotected first from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a deal? If the Bruins were of the mind to look to shop that pick.

And the longer the sea, season goes. Let's say the Leafs are you know, bubble wild card team. Okay. Let's say, hypothetically, let's say. And you have a potential for a top 12 pick,

top 15 pick. That's a pretty decent asset to have going into the trade deadline if you're the Boston Bruins and you're definitely in the mix. They're going to want to improve on last season, clearly. Everybody wants to. But that is a nice

little carrot to dangle if the Leafs somewhat improve on last season. I think this is one of the reasons why there was so much confusion around that pick and who had it. Was it Philly's pick? Was it Boston's pick? Right. Like Philly wanted to know that for

similar reasons. Because hey, we've got a chip here we can use if we're trying to improve this team. We can move this pick. So who's got it and when do we get ours and whatnot? So, like, Philly wanted to know, Boston wanted to know, they figured it out. But the Bruins now have this unprotected first round pick. And correct me if I'm wrong, is Philly, when they get their pick from them, that's unprotected too, isn't it? I believe so, yeah.

Yeah, so you've got back to, now, by then, you're the Leafs, you better hope you're... Is the Philly one? I got to go back and lower. I don't remember off the top of my head either. But there's a potential of back-to-back because they had to shift the... Anyway, regardless, first of all, if you're the Leafs, you're hoping that's a non-factor. It's not really a point of discussion because you're in a hell of a better position than you were last year. But from the Bruins perspective.

But again, like I'll swing back to the conversation we had initially at the beginning of this podcast, and that is, this is the Breyer effect in the NHL. Yeah. This is like the fear of letting someone get too close, even too restricted free agency. Like once upon a time, you know this. Like managers could say they have, we have, you know, fiscal discipline and we're going to, we don't have to sign this player yet. So we're going to wait. We're going to take our time.

That's gone. You know what? Oh, Kenny would never do this. Oh, Dougie would never do this to me. Like, this would never happen. It's not going to happen. I can have this discipline and let guys get to free agency, make them sweat a little bit. Right.

That's gone. Not anymore. That's gone. 7.2 for Frazier Minton. And look, I go to, I give the Montreal Canadiens and Ken Hughes. hell of a lot of credit for getting all of that business done as early as they did. Even going back to this summer, you got Ivan Demadov locked in before. Did you see Milstein's quote about that one?

You know what if it's up to me, it would be a different deal. Oh, no, I missed that one. Yeah. Oh, okay. But the point that I think he was trying to make is that's what the player wanted. Right. That's what the player. I know I grouse a lot about how, listen, players aren't general managers.

They're not in charge of the cap, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. but if that's what he's fine with and if that's what he wanted. Bless him. Go back to... Goddleton. Connor McDavid. Yeah.

12.5. That wasn't Judd's idea. That wasn't Stan's idea. That was, for the most part, Connor's idea. I have a theory on that one. My theory is that is, in case he does leave afterwards,

he has enough ammunition to say, look, I tried. I left millions on the table. Yep. And try. I wonder if part of that was a parachute. Part of the McDavid 12.5 times two. Was it was a sort of PR parachute?

You supply yourself with enough ammunition if it does go south. No. You can take that out of your bag of tricks, your arsenal there and utilize it. I do think though, too, I should mention this. I do think that McDavid wants,

I don't think McDavid wants to chase it to win. Right. I think he wants to win where he is. Yes. Oh, absolutely. That's primary. I don't think he wants to. wants to be the guy that chases it.

Right. Doesn't work out in two years from now or less than that now. Then, okay, fine, I'll sign for my... You know, and to take it one step further, you remember the Fort Lauderdale draft? Kahnna Bikava goes number one. Yep. Jack Eichl goes number two.

I don't think he wants to do what Eichael did. Because Ikel, before all the ADR stuff, Eichl had asked for a trade because it wasn't working out. Right. I don't think Connor wants to do that. And just jump to a loaded team. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And it's going to be interesting to see how that season plays out with them.

But again, going back to it with getting these guys locked in early, the Habs to me did it from the start. It was Suzuki, it was Coughfield, it was Hudson. Hudson. And I'm totally blanking on the dude's name that they, from the Islanders. No Adopsin. No Adopsin. To make that trade happen, getting him locked into that nine and a half. and then Demidov and so on. Even, even, I'm blanking on everybody's name, who was their goalie just now?

Oh, Jakob Dobish. Yes, getting him locked into it was three years. You know what, Dave, because I'm with you 100% on that. And part of me, I sort of flip-fall on this, like, well, maybe they won't need to do this. But here's what I still wonder about, because still at the end of the day, it's a high-tax province. Yep, well, that too, yes. That's why I wonder about, like, do they have, they'll have the space. We suspect this is going to be a strong team and a winning team for a number of years now.

Will it be enough to attract a high price free age? You know, like that final piece? And that's got to be what's next for them, right? I've got to imagine. That's what I think. Are they there? You always look at winning cycles. Yeah.

Okay? Like they're on their way up on the winning cycle. And at a certain point, you're at a place where you say, okay, pull the trigger on the vet. I think that's why a lot of us look at the Buffalo Sabres and say, maybe it's time to pull the trigger on Connor Hallibuck. They're that close to top in their winning. winning cycle. And we know he'd go there. Is Montreal? Yeah. And we know that Terry Pagula and USA hockey, et cetera, et cetera. Right. Right.

Is, will the Montreal Canadians have it to attract the high-priced help? And this goes back to what, and I've talked to over the years, over the last, however many, 15, 20 years, last year, this summer, 10 years ago, etc. When I talked to a lot of, a lot of players, would you go to Market X right now? and let's use the example for me was when I started doing this when Toronto was before Austin got drafted and whatnot when the Leafs were down below

way down would you be part of the salute would you want to sign with the Leafs and get this team back on track it's going to take you a few years but do you want to go through that the answer across the board almost full like I'd say 9 out of 10

would be no not now when we're if if it's winning and they need me to come in there and be that next exactly to your point? Yeah. 100%. And the same was with Montreal, the same was with New York,

the same was in Chicago and Detroit. Who wants to go to Detroit right now? With everything going on, right? Winning changes everything. And I think for the HABs, you've got all these amazing young pieces and you've got some really good young pieces still coming up.

Like they've got, their cupboard is still full. Yep. To potentially add, you know, a veteran piece free agency or via trade someone's going to take the habs off, they're no trade, or they have a full no trade or no move,

I'll waive it to go to Montreal. I think we're entering that period where the habs are one of the more attractive spots in the league, even with the high tax situation in place. And there's some obstacles where you can kind of get a little

bit of that back, if you're a non-Canadian. But I think the habs are right there right now. That part of the window of their cycle is just starting to open, I think. Yep. Because with all the talent that they've got locked up, Slavkovsky too, I forgot about. I could definitely see a lot of guys going, that's a spot I can win it.

I can win it. Steve Boyum. Another guy. 76 games. Like, when it comes to, okay, so here's my bias. I'm going to admit my bias and throw it right around the table. I don't make my mind up about goaltenders until I see 100 games. and I don't make my mind up about defensemen until I see 200.

Yeah, I was going to say. 76 games. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so it's an eight-year deal. It's $75 million. $9.38 is the A.AV. Kurt Overhart, the agent there, enjoying Christmas early.

Yes. He's got that wait until the Gocee deal comes. Oh, no, trust me. It's going to be a wonderful off-season for Kurt. Yeah. I don't, I mean, I think, I think he's going to be a stud. But to your point, I think so. But again, the three-air cascade.

Right. Getting that done early could be a big win for RJ and the Canucks. But he hasn't done it yet. So there's always that risk, right? There's always that mitigating risk where it's like, okay, I believe in this player. I'm going to give him the contract. he hits beautiful. We're good for the next six years beyond because now that that's a sweetheart deal.

Or you go in a different direction. You go, I'm signing this player to an eight-year deal and then halfway through the contract. You're going, oh, crap. We swung and we missed on this one long term. And you've got to deal with an $8 million, $9 million, $10 million player and they're just eating up that space on your cap.

Okay, so here's what I wonder about. Right now, he will be measured him by Vancouver will be measured against Quinn Hughes because that was the deal if and we'll use this a dovetail into Quinn Hughes

if Quinn Hughes doesn't resign with Minnesota it's a cent does that does that soften the blow for Vancouver that it's only the one year of Quinn Hughes and then whatever Bill Guerin can get for him we suspect from New Jersey right yeah assuming it doesn't work out

Because worst case, Steve Williams is second pairing defenseman. Right. And most would look at that and say, if you traded Quinn Hughes, I know there's other pieces too. But your main piece on the blue line is a second pairing defenseman, you lose that deal. Now, you trade someone like Quinn Hughes, you're going to lose that deal anyway. You go into that knowing you're not going to replace Quinn Hughes. But nonetheless, if he's gone after a year in Minnesota, how does that feather the bed? Yeah, it definitely cushions the blow.

it definitely does because then you look at it then you then you then you zoom out a little bit you go okay we have we have the second pair defenseman but we also have a second line center and we got a depth in our bottom six and we've got another first round pick that we got out of this who knows whatever that's going to be afterwards so quality through quantity yes right yeah you're trying to go in that direction how do we do it quality through quantity but if if quinn leaves mini yeah i mean if quinn signs a three-year deal If he signs any type of extension and it doesn't work out with Zeve as a top pair defenseman, then that hurts.

But assuming he's only a second pair defenseman and they get all these other pieces, and Quinn leaves, then you look at this and go, okay, well, he would have left anyway. At least we got this. Yeah, I can't tell you, and you probably have the same, how many Vancouver Canucks fans I have in my timeline saying essentially this, this is just what he did here. Do you love it here? I love it here.

Do you want to play here? Yeah, I want to play here. It's great. Do you want to sign an extension? Yeah. I'm sure you're getting the same. Yeah. Well, look, we're going to know from Quinn today or tomorrow, right?

Are we? I hope so. Well, we'll get, at the very least, we'll get a better indication as to what the hell he's thinking, whether he answers these questions or not, because these questions are coming to him. He's in Vegas right now for the media tour. Someone's asking him that. Of course.

So if he gives us that answer, then we're going, oh, uh-oh. Billy's getting on the phone. Honestly, I think there's the brother thing and that's obvious. Yes. Like, as I mentioned on Secaruson Price last week, like there was like Jim Rutherford. This is still the fumes of, Rutherford in that famous press conference.

That's still playing itself out right now. What's the old line? You may be done with history, but history is not done with you. Rutherford history is not done with Quinn Hughes yet. Or the Hughes family, for that matter. I just think that part of this too, complicating all of it is,

the question I would assume in Quinn Hughes's mind is, does Minnesota have the team? Yeah. Do they have the team? And, you know, you look at this team, you look at the roster, you look at their goaltending, and, like, this is a deep team.

Not so much up front, though. Back end? Yeah, I love it. Goaltending. Are they going to make another? Because they tried to take a few swings for top six guy, right? Of course. Vinny Trochecks,

exactly, yeah. They tried, they weren't able to do it. Does Quinn look at this and go, I don't think you can do it? I don't think you have the pieces. I don't, like, whatever him, and Pepperzon, their whole crew are analyzing the situation going, there's potential to win now versus the potential to have potential to win,

if that makes sense. Like, we're a piece away from really putting this over the hop and going after a championship. And there's enough in the tank for us to potentially do it this season ahead of the trade deadline at some point before the trade deadline. We can compete for a cup right now. we feel Utah's not there yet we feel Dallas is regressed

we feel we're better than Colorado like that's the mindset that they would have to have in order for them to be like yeah we can do this this season but I don't know where Quinn's at on that I'm surprised I'll be fully transparent I'm surprised that we don't have a deal done because at the start going into the off season

there was so much talk around the league and around Minnie and around the Hughes camp that this was going to be a short-term deal and that it's he'll worry about the future stuff later with the brothers afterwards and then Craig Leopold came out and said what he said we're going to get this done

caprice off as it yeah like we feel you know we're hoping for five years but this is going to happen and then that sparked things even further but we're a week from camp and that guy hasn't signed yet and the conversation really I mean they've had conversations I don't

think they've really negotiated negotiated. Like I think there's been some back and forth, but I don't think they've actually... It's between Sellebrini and McCar, right? Yes. Like that's... I've got to imagine 19. 18... Before McCar signed, I thought he would be...

Quinn would be in the 18-19 range. Three years. Maybe four years. Probably closer to 19 now. Maybe. I mean, I don't know how they evaluate that based on it being only three years versus KL taken 20.4 over 8. Yeah.

But it's not less than Carlson. I'd be shocked at this stage. So even at three years. Yeah, no, it won't be. Yeah, even at three years, you're going... Do you think Minnesota's at the point where... Because there's so much... And Garon, we saw the media rounds that Garen made, and he still plays it off.

Like, hey, everything's cool, no problem. We're talking, me and Pat and Hughes family. We're all bros. Like, it's all good. Right. But do you think you're at the point now with Quinn Hughes that, like, if he comes back and says, I'll do a one. Because a one makes it look like. Oh, I know.

Yeah. I know. I get it. But I'm saying, like, if you're Minnesota, what do you do with that? It's tough. Because part of that is just kicking the decision, kicking the can down the road. Yeah. Let's do this next year.

Like, I don't feel we're that good, but maybe we are. and then I'll commit. I need to see here what you can do this year. Right. And then with the cap going up next year. My argument to the, my rebuttal to that would be, well, the best guy in the league did a two year to see what's going to happen, so give us at least two.

At 12.5? Yeah, yeah. We'll give you more than him. You're better than Connor McDavid now, Quinn? Really? The widen the door frames, get your head in here. We'll give you more. Yeah, right?

But I don't know if he's, talking today. I don't know if he's talking tomorrow, but once that happens, we should, because again, he could turn around and just kind of deflect it all. And if he deflects it, that's bad news for the wild. Yes. If he deflects in any way, that's bad news for the world. I was making this point last week, too.

Like so much of this is like put on your Quinn Hughes, Dakota rings. Like we had to do in Vancouver as well. Oh, he's followed Chameas Casey on social media. Oh, what is that going to do? Oh, it's more family pictures. Oh, there's another one that, like, it's non-stom. I know. And we, like, this crap gets blown out of proportion daily with all of this stuff.

Of course, all of us do. Yeah. Because. Hang on. We're not, it's not just, quote unquote, media. It's social media, too. Like, let's, let's, let's not pretend. It's the Twitter box.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Instagram. It's TikTok. It's all that stuff. Because you're seeing all that, like, I have a sister. I don't have brothers. But if I was, if I was playing a sport and I was playing with my brothers or had the opportunity to play my brother's,

my brothers, I'd probably be like, yeah, that'd be cool. I'd love to do that one day. And we're going to hang out all summer because we're millionaires and we're athletes and we're celebs and we're going to go to the U.S. Open or go here or go there. Doesn't mean I'm going to do it necessarily in it now. Like, I can see a scenario that plays out where Quinn signs a three-year. They win in Minnie or they come close. He wants to keep it going and waits before joining his brothers in Jersey or wherever. And then how does Quinn coming in affect Luke? It takes power play time. Yeah.

So are they okay with that? Do they care? I haven't heard it as an issue. I'm just bringing it. I'm just saying like, you're not wrong. You know, I'll tell you what,

you know, I was mentioned this a while ago with Wysinski. This has been the summer of drama. We all understand that. This has been like NHL soap opera and it's been great. Things to follow,

things to pay attention to. Like it's great. It's a lot of fun. The NHL used to run away from this kind of stuff and now here we are. Bring it. You know it would be the ultimate move to cap off the summer. The Detroit Red Wings hired Jim Hughes.

That's perfect. Perfect. I love it. To wrap it all up. Boys, we're going home. Yeah, we're going home. Okay, so I don't know what you have circled on your calendar for hockey. But October 21st is a big one for me and a big one for the Ottawa senators.

And a big one for Canadian hockey fans, I think in general, it is Florida Panthers. it is Ottawa senators. And sentence speaking today, and most specifically, Thomas Shabbat, who I kind of feel is going to be the next captain. Like, it feels that way to you too. Like there are others, Sanderson. Yeah. Could be Stutzelah.

Don't ask Brad Moshan. Yeah, yeah, there you go. But Stutzala, but like it feels like Thomas Shabbat. And the fans are behind that. Fans are behind it. Loyal guy. I love being a Sen. I can remember that Memorial Cup, 2017.

He's playing for St. John and all those. whispers are as soon as this thing is done he's scoring the American hockey league affiliate for the Ottawa senators like this guy's turning pro right away and they love him and he wants to be there now do we have the audio of this Zach we have audio here's Thomas Shabbat today commenting on Brady Kachuk well I mean we always do you want guys to be here you want you want guys to want to be part of this team and part of this city so when you see something like that obviously I'd be lying if I said I was happy when he decided decided to leave. No, that's not true.

He's a heck of a hockey player and you want guys to stick around and we felt like we're on the verge of kind of starting to make playoffs and building some. Okay, first of all, did you see the smile on Buscariak as Thomas Shabbat wound up? Because he's like, I got my story. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I got my story for the day. Nice coming in a hot placement too. You like that?

Do you see their new wheels? Oh, no. I missed, oh, okay. She should see what Wally's driving around in Ottawa. It looks fantastic. Like, first of all, that sounds like guy that's going to be the next captain of the Ottawa centers. Does it not to you?

And I'm sure that that vibes felt like there was no, you know what, it's business. We understand he was a great leader for us here. Things happen in hockey. That's up. That's between him and the agent and our general man. There was none of that. No, no. This is like, yeah, we're disappointed.

We were right there. We were right close. All these things we're talking about. And he decided to pull shoot. Yeah, no, there's authenticity there. Right? Like there's no sugar-coding stuff. I mean, he probably did sugar-coding a little bit compared to what he might have wanted to say.

But there was, he was real. He was real about it. And I think this is part of the allure from a fan base as to why they love this guy so much. Because he's willing to just tell it like it is to a degree. But you're right. He is speaking like he's going to be the next guy to kind of lead this team. Now, he's got two years left on his contract, including this season. He just did a nice bit of business for himself.

Yes. Because Sands fans are going to love that. Yeah. And so will Steve Steyos. I don't know if Anlaw is going to love it that much. Well, listen, Michael. Michael Anlaw is going to like, he's just saying like, can we have Florida in here six times?

Well, that, yes. Because that building is going to be packed. Yeah. I met on Shabbat's next contract. Oh, yeah. Get ready to go to the pay window. But, yeah, exactly. But, yeah, I mean, you're,

Let's spice this up even more, right? Like, this is, I don't know if it's at this level because it was free agency versus trade, but this was reminding me a little bit of John Tavares. The out, the leaving islanders. After saying, no, I'm happy here. I'm happy here. I'm happy here.

Defend the, defend the logo and all of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of similarities there. I've always said I love being here. I always, and he did. He said, like, but he, He never, it was always the past tense. So maybe things got jumbled up a little.

But it was all, the messaging always seemed to be, I loved it here, I want to be here, I want us to win. I'm on board. I want out. And the Islander situation with Tavares was same, similar, similar messaging. And then he signs, he signs with the Leafs. And they lose their, you know what? I was there for the first game. Oh, yeah, I remember watching that one.

I can't imagine what you were at that game. I was at that game. I was walking through from the Marriott, walking through the parking lot into the rink with mannequins and be on with nooses and like burning jerseys and all kinds of stuff. Calm down everybody. And that kept, I haven't been, I don't think I've been, no, I've been to One Leaf game there in the New Barn. It was still rowdy.

Tamed a little, but still pretty rowdy. I've got, I don't, I wonder, if I'm going to try to court. relate to two, this seems like very similar to me in terms of messaging, leaving via trade in this case, and the fans just being like, what the hell? Well, you know, and that's a good point because part of it too, again, like put yourself in an Ottawa senator's fans place or as Dave points out, an Islander's fans place, they've spent so long defending the guy. Yeah. Where everybody, remember all the Rangers rumors? Yep. Yep. Yep. With the late Leray Brooks, with he's going in the Rangers and this the team trying to get him. There were other teams.

They were trying to get Brady Kachuk this whole time. Oh, yeah, absolutely. You don't tell me that All-Stars weren't in on Brady Kachuk? They were in on Matthew Kachuk. Yes. Right? Like, tell me that that owner doesn't want Brady Kachuk. Yeah.

There were other teams that were in on Brady Kachuk, and they called numerous times. But those fans had always defended it because Brady Kachuk always said, I ain't going anywhere. Yeah. I'm the captain here and I'm staying. I'm tired of these questions because they keep coming up. I don't know where they come from. That was the only thing that I was like,

Yeah, that one... Brady, you're a second generation hockey player. Yeah, yeah. Stop. You know where they come from. Like, yeah, and... Everything else, cool, I get it, but like the... I don't know where they come from.

Yeah. Okay. Like, this is a... And, like, I... I sympathize with Sen's fans because of that, because of how this situation was kind of handled. Like, we had a good... And we talked about this during the season and whatnot.

We had a good inkling that this was going in that direction. But he kept saying all the right things. things, right things. Yeah. And then it turns out that, you know, he wants to be out. So it's a tough, that's it. Like, I, if I was a fan of that team or any team where that situation happened, I'd be pretty pissed off at that guy.

So I get it. I get why there's this much animosity and going to be this much animosity towards him when he does come back on October 21st. And then you have Shabbat coming out here, presumably the next captain, talking about how they were upset about it, basically and it irked them a little bit and this that and the other let me get way ahead of myself here with you okay October 21st okay Florida is in Ottawa Paul Maurice puts his lineup is Brady Kachuk the starting lineup and if so what happens opening how many seconds

two how many yeah because here's the thing sack and I were talking about this earlier if they're doing the welcome back video for Brady Kachuk. Yeah. Is he still in the game by the first TV timeout? Or are we going to see the first welcome back video for a player who's been kicked out of the game? Right. I mean, that'd be something. If I'm Paul Maurice, well, I'm going to Brady.

I'm so you want to do this? And he will say yes. He'll say yes. He'll say yes. So you'll have Brady, Matthew, and whoever's would Bennett to start that out. who's going in that starting lineup for the Sends if there's a little bit of message sending? I just think it's everybody on Brady.

Yeah. Just the five on one. It sounds goofy. But like I'm just trying to think like if you're, well, I mean, there are, Dylan Cousins for sure, right? Yeah, Nick.

Nick, cousins, perhaps. Clevin. is pretty tough. These are the guys that will be in the starting lineup if Brady Kachuk is in. But I don't even think that it needs to be someone that goes in there and wins a fight. No, you just got to do it.

Someone's got to do it. Because you've got those three as your starting line. Then you've got Goudis in the back end. And doesn't matter who the other guy is? That's right. Yeah. I mean, that would be, yeah, that would be entertaining. And maybe we're sparking it a little bit.

Maybe we're starting this off. Maybe we're starting this off. You're starting to. We're having the same conversation everybody's going to have as that game approaches. Oh, 100%. What are the Ottawa Senator is going to do?

And all eyes are going to be on that opening shift. It's like that Carolina series, right? Like the way that it was described to me, I'm not sure if you've heard elsewhere, otherwise. Brady Chuck went to Jordan Stahl and said, we're fighting this game.

And Jordan said, sure, let's do it off the draw. Yeah. And then Jordan Stahl being Jordan Stahl, like he's a horse. and then Brady got going to the penalty box said the official. I had no idea he was that strong. Right. But that was Jordan Stals saying like, sure, okay, yeah, let's go it off the opening draw.

Yeah, get it out of the way. I'm sure there's going to be someone from Ottawa who says, let's do this on the draw. Yeah. And let's see, let's look at the pregame. Let's see how that skate goes. Everyone's going to be watching. There's going to be a hard camera on the line. The Fletcher is going to be right on the line.

Yep. We'll see. What was it? It was Stahl's daughter, wasn't it? It was like, why did you fight that guy? During the cup win? Yeah. Why did you fight that guy in the beginning?

He said, we were going to fight. He said, okay, let's do it right away. Yeah, that's going to be, that's a game. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Everybody's circling that one. Okay. So that's where we're at right now.

That's where we're at with the big stories and the stories that happened and why they happened. And I think on behalf of everybody in media, like everybody, Dave, needs to have Danny Breyer on their Christmas card list. right now because a lot of this and a lot of what we're seeing by way of massive contracts and speculation of big deals and eye-popping numbers right now are because of that offer you. By the way, just hasn't said, do you have a gut feel on Cutter-Goche? You mentioned him earlier, Kurt Overhart client as well, 41 goals.

Last time I checked goals were not cheap to get in the NHL. You have a gut on this one. It's going to be closer than we think to 18. Wow. Like when it happened, there was talk after the offer sheet back in July. It was, we might be in the 14, 15 range now because of this. Yeah. And then like five days passed and it was like, you're not getting 15.

Yeah. I don't know if it's 16. I don't know if it's 17. I don't know if it's the 18 he wants, but it's going to be close. The only mitigator is term. Right. If they go shorter term, it'll be less dollars. So taking, but just from a comparable side, eight years, it's going to be around that.

I can't see it being an eight-year deal. Me neither. No, no, no, I don't. I cannot. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't.

I don't. But I'm just from comparable purposes at an $18 million clip, eight years, that's what he wants, in terms of dollars. But I think, I think this is going to be a shorter term deal. I think it'll just be closer to, I think it'll be closer to what a lot of people would anticipate on a three, four, five year deal. Anaheim got more expensive, but I don't think anyone's going to argue

that Anaheim got better. Oh, yeah. For this season. I mean, there's still... Specifically on the, like, the back end is an issue. Yes. Bluntly, the back end is an issue. Yes. Well, they were telling people,

while we were doing the free agency show, once they signed, whoever they signed, I can't remember who it was, They signed a defenseman. Was he on Ottawa before? Anyway, they signed a defenseman. You are thinking about Nick Jensen.

Yes. And thank you. And they started telling everybody else that they were talking to, we're not signing another defenseman. We're not signing anybody else right now. And it was because of what they anticipated to be the offer sheet, which eventually came in. And then, you know what, another big contract

that I don't think gets enough. or got enough conversation, but was a slam dunk here for the player and for the agent too. And it was all because of the threat of another offer sheet. And that's Pavel Minchikov at 7.2. Yes. Did you think that Pavel Minchikov was going to be getting paid $7.2 million right now? No one.

No. And if he didn't sign with Anaheim, he was signing his offer sheet with whatever that other team was. Right. There was one team ready to go. Wild. And not the Minnesota Wild. No. No, no, no.

Not the Minnesota. They need help up front. They need help in the middle. They need help, and that's, and I think they'll figure that out. That's what McGarron needs. But yeah, the ducks, I mean, and cap-wise, with whatever this number is going to be for Goce, they still have to make a move.

Oh, yeah. At least one. So whether it's Colorn or Crider. That's Exhibit A and Exhibit B. Yeah. Colorn. Yeah, Coler and Crider, somebody else. You don't think that there's any way that they move him, do you?

Goce? Yeah. I mean, I haven't, I guess it's possible, but I don't know if you'd, because then what? Well, I mean, it depends what you get back. But I'm just saying like for, for cap purposes, like if that is his number, like at a certain point, unless it's the proverbial one-year deal, wink, wink, with the bigger deal when the cap goes up next year. Right. Well, that's, and you better have a lot of, this is no, I'm just saying.

You need to have a lot of trust in that GM and that staff, like with Verbeek and with Solomon and everybody there. You better believe and Kurt better, and he's going to make sure that they honor this discussion, this not negotiation discussion for next year. But the Ducks, I mean, yes, depends what they get back, but I've got to imagine the Ducks. You're looking at this, a 40-goal score at his age

with what he's already accomplished with this group, with Carlson there and everything. That's the guy you want to keep, obviously. Of course. But financially, can you do it? Now, we talked about caps going up. It's going up nine and a half next year. It'll be another $10 million, give or take the year after that.

So you'll have that cushion, but you've got to move one of three guys, at least one of three guys. For sure. I had one manager say internally, they believe that in five years is $150 million. Two years, it's $1.23, or five. $150 is up. That's insane. In five years, so three years after that. Then you're going to really start to see the haves and halve.

But if it's $150 million, I've got to go look at this. Can the Carolina hurricanes hit the floor? Are we going to have like a $8 million third pairing defenseman? Yeah, third pair D, fourth line fighter or something like that. Just to get to the floor. Nick DeLoree, $10 million. So Carolina can get to the floor in a few years. I mean, that's an aggressive, it's an aggressive, but like, and now you're talking about,

and now there's more jobs coming in. So there's more money going out. You know, the offset there, even though there's no HRA, is here's our 33rd team, here's two billion to split amongst your 32. Yeah. Well, here's another 25 man roster. Here's another 50 jobs that are out there. So you got to start allocating the money there too.

It's, it's, man, 150 and 5. How many teams are right now saying, are we allowed to dress our e-bug over our backup gold tender to see if we could accrue cap space? Yeah, really. You got hurt, right? You had stuff. Something with your neck, I believe.

I saw that you might want to take the night off. That chicken on the plane ride over. That was a little rough on you, wasn't it? That was a little tough. You might want to wear a suit tonight. All right, we're going to punt. Thanks so much for joining us here. The Maiden Voyage at the new studio here in downtown Toronto.

Hope you like it as much as we like being part of it here. Great job. everyone putting this together. Trust me, we watched it all summer long, them pulling pieces out of downstairs and bringing them upstairs and setting everything up and everything so far has run smoothly.

It's been great. And so congrats to everyone here at the Nation Network and Daily Faceoff for putting it together so Dave and I can bark our goofiness out here about Jim Hughes being the next general manager of the Detroit Red Wraise. I mean, really, game. Okay, on behalf of Dave Pan Yodd,

America signing off. We'll join you again. I'll be in Washington for a couple of days, so I'll join you Thursday in D.C. Have a great rest of you. We'll see what happens with Quinn Hughes by that. We'll talk to him Thursday.