The Steve Dangle Podcast - Aaltonen Fax | September 28, 2017

Episode Date: September 29, 2017

On this episode, the audio on this episode is going to be terrible, please tweet @Steve_Dangle about it (00:00), is poutine good? (5:30), Josh Anderson is trying to bail on Columbus (9:00), the Leafs' pre-season victory vs Montreal last night (24:00), who's starting at 4C and on the final D pairing next Wednesday (36:00), is Uncle Leo's time coming to an end? (1:03:00), Erik Karlsson has a bionic ankle (1:09:00), and the audio died (1:13:00). Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/rmq7CDKbj98 Follow us on Twitter: Steve Dangle: @Steve_Dangle Adam Wylde: @AdamWylde Jesse Blake: @JesseBlake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi! Hi. Oh, what a day. Yep. Oh, gee whiz. We recorded a full show. It's done. We did. You're about to hear it. It's just not going to sound great. And the reason is we're dealing with a studio that is on its way out. And you have to imagine, like, if you've ever had a terrible car that is on its last leg that you literally ran into the ground and you were like a month away from the lease starting. But you know, you're not really sure that the car that you did have is going to make it. That's where we're at right now. I drove a 1995 Ford Taurus station wagon until it was about 16 years old, and it died in the middle of a left turn.

There you go. I was scared. Are you okay, Steve? I am. Is that why you have so many issues? Did you get hit? Was it an accident? I need to know what issues you think I have.

I was talking to Steve earlier, actually. He called me, and he's like, I'm stopping at a gas station. I'm like, okay, I mean, don't speed to get here. And he's like, no, don't worry, I won't. And I'm like, no, I knew you wouldn't. Yeah, but I have an Italian mother, and that's how a lot of phone calls end. It's okay, be safe. No sweet.

She doesn't sound like that, but one day she will. Couple things we didn't get to throughout the show, because the audio quality is going to be good, but it's not going to be great. We're going to have to use the camera audio. Yeah. Couple things. First thing is Marley's stuff. Marley's stuff.

Sorry, it sounded like you were in the middle of a word, and then you quit. Well, I was, and what happened was my tongue got caught in my mouth. Merlith Merlith So October the 22nd Featuring Nikita Sosnikov That's

Probably Probably And we'll get into that Or Kesky Swamp I'm just pulling up the email here Because of course I wasn't prepared for it But I want to let you know

That And we're gonna We're gonna release this promo code That we are having A Steve Dangle night Again with the Toronto Marlins And what's cool about this Steve Dangle podcast night

It is Sunday October 22nd Steve Dangle podcast night Officially That will be the name Of the night They are naming the game After the Steve Dangle podcast

How cool is that Like are they actually Going to say Welcome to Yeah Steve Dangle podcast night Get the That's awesome

Yeah I didn't know that And there is a There's a We're going to put this out But the promo code is SDP Oddcast

SDPodcast SDPodcast Yeah SDPodcast So anyway It says Steve Dangle night Steve Dangle podcast night

Exclusive post-game skate With Steve Dangle, Adam Wilde, and Jesse Blake So bring your skates Not only are we going to watch The Charlotte Checkers Take on the, I think, dominant Toronto Marlies But we are also going to skate On the rink afterwards, just to ring in the hockey season

We wanted to do it earlier, but we couldn't So that was the night, October the 22nd Keep that in your calendar Also, next Tuesday Well, so here's the adventure We're going through right now So the computer crashed So we lost this episode

Well, on these microphones You're gonna hear it Also, one of the microphones isn't all that good The wall mic, you're wondering what that humming was coming from It was a wall mic It literally, yeah, like it does not work Steve, talk into the mic Jesse, do the

No, the shit doesn't work That's a problem And it's happening at the worst possible time Because booked for Tuesday, October the 3rd and we've had them booked for a very long time now, and we had to reschedule them as well, and it just sucks that they're rescheduled for this time. So get ready for the adventure of a lifetime

as we try to find a studio for Ron McLean! Ah! I just hope you'll be able to hear him. Me too. It's like being caught in the middle of an intersection in a 1996 Ford Taurus with Ron McLean. Station wagon. Station wagon with Ron McLean in the backseat.

So that's what we're dealing with right now. Listen, it's a podcast. It's not like people are making big bucks here. So we are... Do you know how fancy Adam is? What's that? How fancy is Adam? He makes Ron McClain ride in the backseat.

Not up front. See, I think... When was the last time Ron McClain rode in the front seat? Because he's a fancy man. He doesn't drive. Yeah. He doesn't have to drive. And also, I mean, a Ford Taurus station wagon.

There's room in the back. There's junk. There's room for junk in that trunk. There's a little bit of room. Ron McClain had junk in his trunk. I am the physical embodiment of a Ford Taurus station wagon. That's what my body looks like. I have a huge ass.

So that's... It's like a shelf. Yeah. Like a shelf. It's documented. Something you can place things in or on. So... Well, maybe not.

Oh, my goodness. Anyway, anyway... Doctor's fingers is something. Ron McClane is coming on this show. I know. Anyway, so Ron McClane will be on next Tuesday. Yes, we will have a studio. We'll figure it out.

But in the meantime, don't tweet us. we know and we feel bad enough about it or or do tweet us to be annoying hey guys

I don't know if you know so please everyone tweet Steve and tell him that there's mic problems you know what you need to do hey guys

listen here tweet Steve directly actually just Steve though talking to the mic because we know Steve doesn't read his mentions all the time

you know what I've been getting in my mentions for the first time ever speak up I'm sorry man Anyway If you love this show You will tweet Steve

Hey Did you know There's audio problems No No Anyway Get ready for the start Of the Steve Dangle podcast

Right now Even if it is a little messy Alright Enjoy your food Panago Pizza presents S.C.P. The Steve Dangle podcast With your hosts

Steve Dangle and Adam Wilde Wow! Wow! When was the last time the three of us did a show just the three of us?

Uh, I meant to look that up. I can look that up for you right now if you want. How about Jesse looks that up? They're saying that like it's a bad thing. Well, I mean,

I think we've had a great run of guests but I've just missed you know, sometimes you need some intimate time with your partners. You know? Yeah.

You just want to like you want to hang in and watch movies rather than hang out with all your cool friends. Yeah. I think that's that's what I feel like

this episode is. We just got our We got our friends We're all back together And it's great That the season's starting But you know I needed a little us time

It's like when I went To Halifax Mrs. Dangle was like You get one night Where you can hang out With all your friends And talk about hockey The rest of the time

It's us Getting drunk together Yes You and me time Sorry yeah Yeah Seafood Seafood and drunk

And fried pepperoni Mmm I did What did you think? You know You know what I've Started to discover the more places I travel, is every

place's thing is not necessarily good. You don't like fried pepperoni? It was alright. I was sober. I feel like that is a very drunk thing. Where did you have the fried pepperoni? Oh. Oh, what was the name of the place? It wasn't the Lower Deck, was it? No, it wasn't Lower Deck. If you think you need to be

drunk to have it, then it's not good. No, it is good. You don't need something to enhance the food if it's good. I don't know. Who fried pepperoni? How hard could that be? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's good. Have you ever had poutine from a certain place Sober and then drunk

Poutine is good regardless If you need to be drunk To enjoy poutine Then you're not eating good poutine I've had a lot of bad poutine So I've been a little turned off I've had a lot of bad poutine too Poutine's not very good

That's wrong It's just a lot of places make it shitty Yes, I think that's what it is I think if we were to go to Montreal And get it for real Yeah It would be good I've heard that with corned beef sandwiches

Apparently they have like Street corned beef sandwich vendors So like if you're drunk in Montreal And you want a sandwich They'll give you And it's the best deli Deli ever Last time I went to Quebec

We just We went to the convenience store And we just bought a pack of cheese curds And just ate them They're the best Out of the bag And they make like a squeaky sound Yes

In your mouth Because they're like Oh my god They're so good You know what's the best Is the white cheddar cheese curds I think that's what we had those are the best ones

it was really good it's just like white cheddar mac and cheese man marble also our friend Nate if you guys have tried white mac and cheese

and I know many of you have every time somebody tries President's Choice white cheddar mac and cheese they're like I just wanted to let you know I'm trying this and then they've always

followed up like 20 minutes later with oh my god that was so good oh my god that was so good like Panago pizza too Nate said a good friend of ours named Nate

who's on the Full Strength podcast said try it with a little parmesan on the top he said you will not regret it I'm like I have not tried that but I will try that that's like everyone's favorite KD recipe.

They're like, hey, you know what I do? I add a little green onion. Green onion's amazing! I add a little green onion. Alright, hey. Josh Anderson has requested a trade. This is breaking news before we actually started a show. How about that?

There's a lot going on. So, Josh Anderson, 17 goals, 12 assists last year with Columbus. Took a big step forward. But, you know, I think that they were really counting on him. He's a young guy. Really, really counting on him to be a big part of the future and to take another step forward

with the team this year. Can you say that total again? 17 goals, 12 assists. Really? Yeah. Now, I know that doesn't sound like... Remember they're playing... Remember their coach, right?

Joe Tortorella. They're playing Tortorella hockey, so everybody's numbers go down a little bit. But he was a... They were a 100-plus point team. I know. They were one of the top five teams in the league. I'm not saying that the team points go down.

I'm saying that the scoring goes down, right? Like, look at the Sedins even under him. I guess. But he's a third-line player. Why is he? Like, that is... I think... Connor Brown is holding out for a new Gauntlet.

Like, no. Well, I think that he's one of the guys that they really see as the future. I'm going to check the stats one more time, because I always feel like I'm going to get them wrong. I don't think he played a full season, by the way. He played 78 games. 78 games. Pretty full.

Full-ish season. He played a full season. But I think, you know, we're looking at it as Toronto fans as... Well, what do you mean? Only 17 NHL goals What do you mean Only 12 assists We're a little bit

Spoiled here If any Toronto player Ever got that Before Austin Matthews William Neylander Mitch Marder Connor Brown

Lock him up Six years Yeah He lost his money He's a fourth round pick The year before He played 12 games And had one goal

And last year He had 17 goals Why So Why does he deserve To hold out First off I don't

I don't think there's a dearth of Great news out there right now There isn't a whole lot that isn't White House, Sidney Crosby, Penguins making a statement Mike Sullivan saying they're not You know, that sort of thing Which, by the way, we're not touching on today We're done

I felt we said an adequate amount last show I read the positive response And felt like we did a good thing I read the negative response And felt like we did a good thing I'm done with it if you guys are Yeah, I think we're done But Josh Anderson and the team

this is a part I love about this contract negotiation. So, he has a less than a 20 goal score, and I know, listen, I am not trying to sell you guys on 29 point score Josh Anderson. No, I'm just asking the question, what's going on in his head that he thinks he's so good that he can demand a trade? Well,

this to me just sounds like a player who's not totally in love with Columbus, based on the article Elliot Freeman released. So, John Tortorella team, you know, we kind of alluded to, it's got a style. Outside of Sergey Bobrovsky Who was the best goalie in the NHL last year

Who's Columbus' star? Like, big star Zach Wierenski's an extremely good player I think he's going to be that Nick Foligno Yeah, like, Nick Foligno Like, they're a cast of very good players Like, that's a committee team

Seth Jones Seth Jones, that's not like a star But he's not I see what you mean He's not like a Conor McDavid, Sidney Crosby yeah yes i get that um so after the original publication columbus gm yarmo kakalainen reached out this trade request is news to me he said and we are not looking to trade josh anderson now beyond that the article goes i'm just going to skip over the next part of the article because

this is my favorite part my favorite part of this is that they are as little as 150 grand a year apart they're looking working on a three-year deal yeah that's a guy who just wants out and no well columbus is not moving and his team is not moving his people are not they won't they will not settle on 75 000 more because that's the columbus didn't request a trade right and what's interesting okay so if yarmo kekalainen comes out and says the trade news is required the trade request is news to me does that mean it is or does that mean he's just playing ball because all of this the fact that this even leaked is a negotiation tactic a trade request in itself makes the player look bad always uh the gm coming out and saying it's news to him

makes him look even worse so if we're gonna put on the tinfoil hat there adam yeah i think you're absolutely right a little gamesmanship maybe a little bit of gamesmanship and what else was interesting that they mentioned in there supposedly there were some trade negotiations going on with the Colorado Avalanche regarding Matt Duchesne. And the Avs inquired about Josh Anderson being a part of that trade, and the Blue Jackets said no.

Wow. So is Josh Anderson trying to go to the Avalanche, or...? I'm just going to say, imagine you're going to go from one of the NHL's top teams to the NHL's definitely worst team. Over $150,000 a year I mean, it's a lot of money But when we're talking

Hundreds of thousands of dollars a year How much money is it? Something stinks It sounds like he doesn't like Ohio Yeah, something stinks What's not to like about Ohio? What's wrong with Columbus? LeBron

Yeah If it's good enough for LeBron It should be good enough for everybody No No And Dwayne Wade Certain things are legal in Denver That aren't legal in

Yeah, but I don't know if those... I don't know, dude. I don't know if those things are legal in the NHL. I know, I'm joking. Anyway, it's a... What's the state? Denver or Colorado? It's Colorado, right?

Colorado's the state. Okay, thank you. But Denver's where they play. Ignorant Canadian. Yeah, so I think... I find it interesting, and Jesse, I think you make a good point. Who is this guy? I don't get, like...

Who is this guy? How many points did Zach Hyman have last year? That's a good question. And I'm not... Like, for all the Columbus fans that are going, Whoa! Right now, listen. Listen, I get it if, you know, this is a guy that you watched and you love.

But remember... 28. 28. 10 to 19. So Zach Hyman... So he's a point off. Zach Hyman, who we complain about, didn't score enough points. And Josh Anderson, oh, up and coming right wing.

We played with Austin Braxton. We played with Austin Braxton. Come on. Like, work with me here. They're on different teams. They don't play on the same line. Austin Matthews was 19. We played with Austin Braxton.

That's hurting my head. I'm going to stop that. um i don't yeah that's very strange and what's great now is most teams uh start training camp with very few surprises right the Sens are without Eric Carlson right now for example that's not a surprise though they knew that was coming and by the way later on in the show i've got some quotes to read from Eric Carlson about his new bionic angle and oh my god it might it It might make you cringe so hard. So very hard.

At what point is he, like, not allowed to play anymore because he's half Borg? Yeah. Like, it's not fair. He might be the real Borg man. Ah, you see, because, well, Swede, you know, because, right. You know, what's with those Swedish ankles anyway? It's like, what's the deal with Swedish ankles? That's some very niche comedy, Adam.

Sorry, I was going to say, anyway. So there's no surprises when training camp starts. now is around the time where wrenches start to get thrown into the cogs and here's one for Columbus Josh Anderson requests a trade

there's been a wrench in the cog the whole time so I guess it's not a surprise for Colorado Matt Duchesne badly wants out St. Louis a team that looked like again a cup contender like they are at the beginning of the year

right but they're hurting personnel. So you're seeing all these little stories develop. And with a few more preseason games left to play, you never know. Kasperi Kapanen last night he took a spill in the offensive zone going into the end boards like if he's going five kilometers an hour faster that might be an ankle in the next three to four months. Right. And actually when we were at the Rico last Friday

watching the Leafs play, my friend, Philippe, who I was with, said, every single time Austin Matthews got on the ice, he's like, I don't like this. I said, what the hell is the matter with you? We're watching Austin Matthews three rows from the ice. We paid $100 for preseason tickets.

How can you not love this? And Austin Matthews had a great game. And he's like, I just, I can't. I can't. And then there was one point where Austin fell, slid into the corner that we were in. He was like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Because he doesn't want him to get injured. preseason. Some Johnny

tryhard trying to make the team wants to be in the show is just going to elbow him in the face. And you never know. You just never know. So I'm looking at the Columbus Blue Jackets roster. And it says that Josh Anderson

is a right wing, right? I think so. So here's what we have. Nick Foligno can play left or right wing. Cam Atkinson, who's actually Cam Atkinson's up at the end of the season. 35 goal scorer, Cam Atkinson. At $3.5 million, so that's like, what is that, $10,000 a goal? So maybe that's a reason for Columbus to dig in, right?

Yeah, maybe. You've got Boone Jetter, who can both do center and left wing. And then you've got Calvert, Milano, Sonny Milano, Artemi Panarin on the left side. I forgot about that. Oh, man. Marcus Hanakakananananananananana. I don't know how to pronounce Marcus. I mean, that was so bad, I don't even know who you're referring to.

Hanakakanan. Hanakakanan. I've never heard of him. I'm coming around. Come on over. I am coming over. Henna Kekinen? I'm embarrassed, but I don't know, man.

I never heard of it. Henna Kynan. Henna Kynan, thank you. And then... Which is still probably wrong, by the way. Well, I mean, here's the thing. They've got one... My point is, they seem to have some depth on the wing.

Oh. And it's... Obviously, you feel 17 goals, but you can replace 17 goals. You can replace 17 goals. You can replace 20, 25 goals Um, what's his What's his what's might make the team this year Who's that? Um, he was the third overall pick

Uh, Pierre-Luc Dubois? Thank you Yeah, um, who can play, who will You know, he can play center, but that's a guy that can You know, as we've seen with Mitch Marner and William Nylander, centers in the minor leagues Tend to work really well in the wing And wasn't the whole thing with him, like he started Playing center halfway through the year he was

Trapped? Yeah, just to boost that value Like, um, let's just, yeah But, I mean, that's the thing, he's a He's a very, very talented player. They've got a pretty good, deep system. So I wonder where Josh Anderson's leverage is going to come on here. And it's like at a certain point, you're missing training camp. You basically missed it.

Now you're going to start the season behind, so you're already going to look bad. I mean, he's supposed to be going over to Switzerland to train. I just don't know at this point in your career. Why Switzerland? I guess there might be a connection with the agent there. I don't know if it's him or his agent. like you might be getting bad advice here what are you doing what are you doing i don't understand

like when you're digging in over that little amount of money it's two guilty parties for sure what are you doing what are you doing you're fighting over over the course of three seasons we're talking an amount of money that is not even league minimum salary for one year yeah and it sounds like a lot of money to us people but to us common folks us common folks But remember, if he has three great years, if he signs this contract and let's say he loses out $150,000, $150,000, $150,000, $150,000 is $450,000, okay? Yeah. So he loses out on that money over the course of that many years. How much does a second line, let's say Josh Anderson's a second line right winger who is a perennial 20 goal scorer.

Yeah. Which is a pretty fair, what does a second line right winger in this league make? I'm all for players going out and getting their money. But at some point, read up on history. players don't come out on top in these scenarios no like almost ever well but but my question what you do is lose money what is a second line right winger worth in this league the second line right winger well it depends because like teams find a way to get guys on the cheap like here's a good example what is connor brown he's going to be on the fourth line to start the year

that's a 20 goal scorer who at times played on the quote-unquote first line sometimes on the shutdown line like i would call him roughly a second line winger 2.1 million he makes 2.1 million so if you're already making let's say you're then there's jvr who makes four and it's a sweetheart deal yeah so the answer that is stupid is somewhere between six and two million i'd say at least four let's go with four there's an average so if you make let's say you lose out on that 450 grand over three years yeah but first off but you're probably still making two million bucks a year i would imagine i imagine about two million that's another thing like i don't i don't think that number's out there even if it's 1.5 yeah you will if you perform well get all that

money back in your next contract i would imagine just get to the next contract i would imagine so every player that has sucked it up and gone ah screw you it's come back to them yeah i think the best example is suban that's that is primo i told you my number was nine when you signed me to this beautiful deal. Why are you surprised that I'm asking for nine? I told you the number was nine. Went out and won the Norris Trophy.

Nine. If you agree to that deal, come back that year when defenseman of the year. Sign on the line that is dotted. Too bad. I said nine. Give me nine, stupid.

Curious how it works. I want to hear your thoughts on this because he made, what, $3 million on that bridge deal each year? It was less. I think it was 2.9. Okay, so $2.9 million on the bridge deal for two years.

He wins the Norris in, I believe, the second year, right? First. First year. First. It was the lockout short in here, which he missed the beginning of. Right. And still wins the Norris. And he still won the Norris.

He won the Norris before Drew Dowdy won the Norris. He sure did. How about that? Now, let's say they come to a better agreement. Let's say Montreal had said, listen, I know you want nine, but we'll give you six over six. So we'll give you 36 million dollars Over 6 years Is that not one of the best contracts in the NHL today

He's probably still on the Canadiens He's probably still on the Canadiens Jesse Blake everybody Excellent point Not only is he still on the Canadiens They probably look at Andre Markov's Money request And they go yeah sure

And they just give it to him What a tremendously different looking team They probably don't sign Carl Alsner To the big money they signed him to Like, I'd rather throw $6 million at PK in 2013 than $5 million at Carl Alsner now. Just to throw it out there. Now, speaking of the Montreal Canadiens, last night... I'm trying hard not to get excited.

Last night, the least AHL team and a couple NHL players played against... And our backup goalie, who's an NHL player. Roughly. Roughly. We'll get to that. We've got to talk about that. Yeah. That's an issue.

Played Montreal's, a good chunk of Montreal's veterans. Yeah, so people were telling me what? Montreal was missing this guy and this guy and this guy. Shlemko hasn't played? Fine. Weber was in the lineup. Drouin was in the lineup. Shaw was in the lineup.

Galchenyuk was in the lineup. Pacioretty was in the lineup. No Petrie. No Jeff Petrie. Oh, yeah, and he scored in that other game that they lost. So, like... Hey, at least someone's scoring for them. look yeah totally look uh it is the preseason well documented colorado avalanche were six and

oh in the preseason last year it means nothing and they have matt duchene sort of but yeah if you're a jerk if you look at it um in the context of each individual game that's an embarrassing loss especially when you factor in price was in there too um now babcock pointed out after the game and i thought it was actually a really interesting point sometimes the guys who are bubble players who are trying desperately to make a team the young guys they're gonna try harder than the vets i think that's a hundred percent what happened a hundred percent true the vets try harder or sorry the the bubble bubble guys the young guys. And there are three players,

especially, right down the Leafs' center, who are trying for that one spot. Fair, Altonen, Moore. But who needed an A-plus performance more than the Montreal Canadiens forwards right now?

I don't know. I think you need an A-plus performance on game one of 82. You've got to warm up to it. You're probably right. But Austin Matthews gave us, you know, this thing is that Sidney Crosby's still out there giving A-pluses. Austin Matthews is out there give an A+. And Drouin did. I thought he was great. Drouin looked great. He looks amazing.

Shaw looked pretty good. Gallagher, who was also in the lineup, looked pretty good. Galchenyuk. And again, they had so many posts. Who looked bad? I guess you're right. We just ran through and like, oh, they look good. Maybe it was the other guys. You know what? Maybe this is an example of, because if we just went by the results

for Mitch Marner last preseason, he wouldn't have made the team. Might have gone back to junior. But he looked so good. It looked so good, the puck just wouldn't go in the frickin' net, it was hilarious. Yeah. Sure enough, first home game, second game of the season, boom. Kind of what happened to Zach Hyman last year, too.

Like he, there were so many, oh, so close, and he missed. It's weird, like so many people who scream about shooting percentages, like, they're giving Zach Hyman, like, such a hard time. I don't think he's gonna shoot 6% again. I'm not saying he's gonna be a 13% sniper, but... But if Zach Hyman shot 9%, 10%, it's like, it's like Kadri's really bad year. Which then let Was that what you were about to say?

Do you remember that your cadre shot 0.2%? Yeah, it was ridiculous Honestly, I think it was like through Christmas It was under 2% It was ridiculous Did you ever play Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey? I think so When the goalie would make a bunch of saves

It was for N64 It was the first hockey game I really got hardcore into And it was 3 on 3 Which is why I love NHL 3s and the new NHL game Because it kind of reminds me of Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey So when the goalie would do a bunch of saves You'd fire it at him And he'd become a brick wall

And so it would build up an actual brick wall And I just feel like that was Nazem Khadri that year It was like brick wall, brick wall, brick wall The offensive version of that Every goal he's just got In 2015-2016 Khadri shot 6.5% Scored 17 goals

He still scored 17 goals He shot a lot This past season he shot 13% And scored 30 goals 32 points And he's probably Like 13 is high It is

Isn't Matthew Matthews was a little high Last year too Matthews was a little high Like the best players In the league Are a little high Shoot around there

But Like that For the average player No Kadri's done it Four times in his career What's that like He's had

In 11-12 He had 17% 12-13 He had 16 12 13-14 He had 13%

And then last season So it was a 13-14 What was it the lockout year again? 12-13? 12-13 48 games 16% That doesn't shock me at all

That year was crazy The puck wouldn't stop going Well he was also playing Third line with Joffrey Lupel And Leo Komarov And Randy Carlisle Had them sheltered

And used them in all Offensive Situations And it was a great I get to give it to Randy In that season He used that line properly I think

All the Leafs were in Defensive situations that year Because they never had the puck That's true But every time they did Have the puck It went in the net. It did.

It was ridiculous. So, yeah. So, I mean, it's interesting that, you know, of course, young guys, guys that want to make it, guys that want to show you that you're Andreas Johnson, you've got Carl Grunstrom, you've got great young players who on a lot of other teams would probably make it. So, you know, what it did show me is a couple things. Number one, and I hate this sounds morbid, but it's kind of the truth. If someone goes down with an injury Like let's say Remember a couple years ago

The Leafs when they were supposed to be Hora off Okay And they were When they were supposed to be TRBL Yeah Terrible

When JBR Terrible plurts When JBR When JBR went down They were in a playoff spot Or they were close to it Right And then

They just fell off again It was just bad They were never going to make it They were never going to make it But they were close They were sniffing They were Yes

And that was the year they finished dead last. Yes. So, if JVR goes down again, let's say it's JVR. Same game, same injury, out for the season, broken ankle, or out until the playoffs, broken ankle. If you have a guy step in like Andreas Johnson, or a Carl Grunstrom, or a Kasperi Kapanen, and there's a few other guys that you could name. Sashnikov. Sashnikov, Levo.

So, you know, these are guys that I really feel can step into the lineup and can produce. And maybe not at the JVR cliff. I don't expect that. But if you can get 70% of JVR with one of those guys. For less than 70% of the price. Still doing pretty good. So, basically, what Josh Anderson is risking here is, like,

as a barely established player, you're losing your establishment. and like you might get traded to a team like the colorado avalanche which i'll just say it for abs fans i expect them to be better they missed a bunch of guys last year coming back it's better borderline impossible to be as bad as they were last year what was it 47 points yeah it was bad borderline impossible however with the guys that they had injured last year, that team chewed up players and spit them out. Joel Colburn? Karl Soderbergh played 80 games, had 14 points. What? What? Go and look at his career. Nothing about his career suggests he's a 14 point player, but he scored 14 points. What happens if you go

to that team, Josh? Wouldn't you much rather be on the Blue Jacket? There's got to be something Do you remember the bloggy-salming bit where they're talking about, it was when Dustin Bufflin was still with Chicago, and he's, it's basically, it's this hilarious YouTube video where he's trying to teach Chicago's management how to say his last name. Bufflin is. Yeah. Yeah. And they're like, by Fuyu Jillian, and he's like, Bufflin.

Bufflin. Buffuglin. Yeah. And they finally are like, I forget what they said a lot. We'll trade you to Edmonton. Yeah, they're like, they're like. Buff when it is. So that's basically the same thing.

It's we'll trade you to Colorado. Remember when that was an insult? We'll trade you to Edmonton? Yeah, man. Now people are... It's amazing. You're leaving a... Just roadrunner trail.

Yeah, I'll go to Edmonton. Cool. I'll buy a parka. I'm cool with it. I don't really care. So with the game last night, like for Montreal fans that are listening to the show, listen, let's be fair here. We had a bunch of guys who were on the bubble who really want to get in to the team specifically.

So we're not going to be gloating Leafs fans over that. No. I don't think there's any need to. It's a preseason game. However, I don't think any team wants to go 0-6 in the preseason. I feel like Montreal doesn't have the confidence right now. It's kind of a failure becomes itself, you know, or starts to consume itself sort of thing, right? It's like the 0-7 in fun run.

Oh, that was fun. Oh, don't you remember? I remember. And when Matthews couldn't score a goal. Well, that's when he hit the wall. That's when Austin Matthews hit a wall. With his entire career. It's over.

Yeah, it's over. 40-goal score. God, that looks so good. Yeah, certain articles, man. They just don't age well. I tried to look at last night from the perspective of both teams. Leafs fans, I don't think there was much to take from it, if I'm honest. Like, as a Leafs fan.

Well, but as a Marlies fan, there might be tons. Sure. Like, yeah, they're okay. Their depth is good. Yeah, I guess that was the main takeaway. Their depth is good. If you're Mike Babcock, the takeaway is, like he says, well, you know, the situation is as clear as mud for me. I think based on, like he said that multiple times now, he genuinely doesn't know who to pick out of Alton and Moore and Fair. looking at it from the perspective of Habs fans though and many of them who tweeted me last night you're looking at it going my fear heading into the preseason was they wouldn't be able to score and we're six games in and they can't score they've hit a lot of posts they've hit so many posts so that that to me is the big hope and Curtis McElhinney man something about Curtis Curtis McElhaney makes me feel nostalgic. Like, I feel like I'm watching, like... Like Cujo?

Yeah, like, hockey fans. Forget Leaf fans. Hockey fans. Watch Curtis McElhaney. They don't make him like that anymore. They don't, like, he might be the last one. Just stop the thing, tumble around... That Holland stop, when Holland was on the breakaway and he stopped it with his skate blade? Yeah, the blade. But my, like, there was one I think he, like, head-butted, like the, like the Junkyard Dog old WWF days, and, uh, what was the other one? He reached behind himself. Yep.

Wasn't even, like, a fancy glove save, he just kind of shelved it, made a nice glove save, but it didn't go in the glove, it just bounced off of it. It's just, like, that is what every goalie looked like 15, 20 years ago, except they were all a foot shorter. and even more chaotic yeah i love when curtis macalini's dialed in like he was after it was two nothing it's so fun to watch because it reminds me of an older time when we did hockey night in cinema last year and we saw macalini's first game with the leafs against the sens like that's all it reminded me of like just stop the puck he's such an ugly goaltender yeah in terms of style. But it's so, it's fun.

I acknowledge he's not the greatest option for backup, but he's fun. So, I guess going into the game, you know, the big question for Leaf fans was 4C. And I can't believe that that's a big question. Do we

know? Do you have a, do you have a, because I felt like going in, it was Miro Altanen. Yes. But then after watching, that's not that Altanen was bad. It's just that it looked a lot more even between Moore and Altanen. And And actually, Eric Fair, the one game that Eric Fair played with the Leafs last year, he seemed like, well, that's a good option at 4C when we really had an issue there.

This was the kind of conversation I was having with myself. Jonathan Drouin burned Miro Altonen on the 1-0 goal. And I'm like, well, that's Jonathan Drouin and that's Miro Altonen. But if Altonen's playing on the fourth line, that's going to be, like if I'm Claude Julien, that's the matchup I'm going to try to target when the Leafs come to visit. Or if I catch Mike Babcock slipping. That's the matchup I'm going to try to target. So I made my roster prediction video yesterday.

I predicted Altonin's going to make the team. And I said Moore's going to be the spare center. After watching that game and kind of listening to what people had to say about it and Babcock's comments, I thought out of the three, Eric Faire was the best. Well, and wouldn't it be interesting if, you know, you have Moore and Eric Faire? And, you know, because again, those are both defensively responsible centers. Miro Altonen, for as great as he's been, and he really has, he's been a real surprise.

Because, like, I remember reading the scouting reports for people when we first signed him, and it was like, we don't really know. Like, we don't know what we're getting here. He might be a winger. He might be a center. Sure, didn't seem to stand out last year in the finish league. He has definitely come into camp and definitely stood out and definitely been a great surprise.

If he goes to the Marlies, that's not a failure to me. No. I had a phone conversation yesterday with Cap Friendly, the cap friendly first name cap last name friendly I thought his last name was dot com

that is his middle name it's just it's a it's an error it's a clerical error the internet he screwed it up at the hospital

yeah fair enough Mrs. Friendly actually it's dot com ooh um so I learned a thing uh

you can send a player down to the American Hockey League like forget the fact that they have to clear waivers and all that let's assume

any one of those guys clears waivers you can send a player down to the American Hockey League any player whose cap hit

is less than 1.025 million dollars so what's that 1 million and 25 thousand dollars yeah right

any player whose cap hit is less than that the cap hit for burying them in the minors is zero dollars zero dollars because the rule is whatever league minimum is plus 375 000 is covered

i don't know why that's a rule all i know is league minimum went up this year compared to last right so the dollar amount is more so if more goes down to the marley's for example doesn't count against the cap. Here's waivers. No cap hit. He's an extremely wealthy AHL player. They have to pay him all his money, but he doesn't count towards the cap. If they send Eric Fair down to the minors,

he's a $975,000 cap hit. So he's still counting against the cap? Because he makes $2 million. So we still get that charge against the cap, even though he's on the Marlins. Part of it. Less than half of it, but about half of it. Yeah, it's still there.

For a guy who's not playing for you. Right. And if you send Miro Altanen down, not only does he not have to clear waivers, but obviously there's no cap hit. So that, to me, is working against Miro Altanen. Yeah, why wouldn't you keep the guy who's going to be against your cap hit?

Unless he is clearly better. Yeah, that's the exact reason why they're sending Kasperi Kapanen down, other than they don't even have freaking room. He's waiver exempt, and you can keep developing him in the American League. Why not do that now in terms of cap hit for like fair and more uh because that's three million bucks total

um oh where was i going with this fair more alton and cap hit 1.02 million right sorry the leafs can afford it so this was another fun part of our conversation that we had the leafs Cap shenanigans is so complex that CapFriendly.com's algorithm in Armchair GM can't properly calculate it. Wow. All of the Leafs' cap hits are correct. They're all correct. The players who are on the team right now, their cap hits are good. Yeah, so, and then if you go to Armchair GM.

I'm sorry, I don't understand everything. Right, I'm sorry. So the team you see right now is like four million bucks over the cap. but if you look it has like 17 forwards like that's not the team it's like literally illegal they can't carry that many players so i went to armchair gm i sent down fair called alton and up called rosen up uh kept marincin though uh so when i went to drag this is this is the crazy thing so the ltir that horton gets put on and the ltir that loophole gets put on if they use it are different whoa so i don't remember why this is but horton will get put on opening day ltir so

chris johnson just tweeted this tuesday at 5 p.m is when all the cap compliant rosters must be released by nhl teams by the way we should also have an answer on by them too the independent investigation that's what elliot freeman said hopefully And, I mean, I assume it's going to turn out, oh, look, he's not healthy. He said he didn't expect much. Yeah. It's probably going to be the same way it is. That's for each, right?

So let's assume it is the way it was last year. So Horton gets put on opening day LTIR, right? The second the puck is dropped, then Leupold is put on LTIR. So when you throw Horton on opening day LTIR, the Leafs' cap hit immediately drops to $75 million, and their cap space drops to from owing 4 million bucks

to zero dollars. Zero cents. The second you throw loople in there his cap hit comes off. So then you get an extra 5 million. Right, but the problem was in Armchair GM it didn't

calculate it properly because the algorithm doesn't understand the difference between the two different kinds of LTIR. So I don't know what the exact number is. And they're working on fixing that, by the way, and they're hoping to have it fixed within the next week or two. God bless them, though.

Jeez. Anyway, sorry, this is a very long way to get to this point. The Leafs will have in the neighborhood of $5 million in cap space. So when it comes to nickel and diming, sending Eric Fair down or sending Moore down, they don't have to do that. And they can still pick up $5 million throughout the year if they need to. Right, roughly.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of that. So if they wanted to go with fair more, sorry, one of those guys makes the lineup, one of them is a spare, and then the other spare is Levo. They can afford to do that. And send Ultanen down. They can afford to do that.

So they can make a purely skill-based decision. They don't have to make a money decision. Which is 100%. And like another place they could nickel and dime and save like 150 grand, something like that, is they could send McElhaney down to the minors. again at no cost he would have to

clear waivers but it would be at no cost and call up Garrett Sparks who makes ever so slightly less right

but they don't have to do that and they don't have to put Garrett Sparks back on waivers I dedicated a lot of time to this

I didn't know that there was a difference I didn't know either how is that a thing yeah so something I saw

what I loved last night was watching Rosen and Carrick as much as possible because it seems like that's going to be pair three

and did you see the lineup today no I didn't see them. It's Riley Hainsey, Gardner, Zaitsev, Marins and Carrick. Oh my god. Because, of course. And who got a goal?

Who needed it more than anybody else? Space. He got a goal from space. Marins' goal is not a goal. It's like a pinball machine. Oh, that's so funny. On the price. On carry price. I gotta tell you, I just don't think that... And I'm not one to trumpet the Leafs

depth at defense, because quite frankly, it's not great. It's okay. Yeah, so Actually, I was tweeting... Marincin is... He doesn't look like he belongs. No, but here, let me clarify what depth means. Because I was saying how the Leafs have defensive depth.

And someone messaged me like, what the hell are you talking about? They have depth in the sense that they have an abundance of NHL-ready players. I think Borgman can probably play in the NHL. I think Dermott can probably play in the NHL. I think Rosen can play in the NHL. Well, Marincin wouldn't be very good, but I think he can play in the NHL. But Steve, zone entries. Oh, I know.

But depth doesn't necessarily mean you have an abundance of all-star players. I'm just saying they have an abundance of guys who can play in the league. Step in, yeah. Right? So what I loved about watching Rosen and Carrick was, first off, Carrick on the power play. That first goal was a bullet. That's what I was used to seeing in the American Hockey League. He's got it. He has it.

It's just a matter of can he find the space to use it. And you know what? Quite frankly, he was put in a position last year that was pretty tough. He walked into the NHL and they put him on a second pair. That's not easy. His development's been a little wonky too. He was kind of up and down with the caps and then he was

on the Leafs but they were bad and then he gets into the minors for the playoffs and then he gets called up and he's immediately expected to, yeah. He got injured too. That's right. And that's why Mitch Marner was less effective Because he also got injured And he was sick

Yeah So the I think that Watching that with Carrick There seems to be Confidence With Rosen And that was what

I didn't see as much Last year I saw You could see In flashes That there's a There's a player with Carrick There's a player

But what I saw last night Was chemistry Which I didn't see Last year And Rosen has a He's got feet He's got feet But he's got an ease

Of what she plays the game you know what i mean there's just like he's got like a rhythm it's like how uh we talked about players who work hard with gus cassaro so i think this was the first time he came on the show and i was talking about you know who looks like they work really hard out there nikolai coolman and he's like well that's because he can't skate i was like what like his speed seems fine he's like look at how he skates he skates like a kayak yeah like he skated like with his stick he honest to looks like he's kayaking there's an effortless jake gardner like ease to the way rosen moves around the ice which i think in the way he passes i love his first pass like his pass out of the

zone is always it's pretty good on the money and i just like that that takes some of that pressure off connor carrick i feel like they're going to work really well together i think so too the other thing that i've seen and again because i'm a marley's fan as well as a leafs fan i'm very excited about what the marley's going to look like this year they're going to be stupid good stupid good andreas borgman has continued to blow me away and the reason it's not the big hits because the guy's an animal he's huge um there's pictures of him at like a leafs golf tournament and he's just he's just a big boy yeah chris johnson was saying he looks like an mma fighter he's one of those guys who when he's barreling down he just doesn't i don't get the impression

he's going to be stopped or scared i mean if someone's bearing down on him he's not a unstoppable A couple of fours, yeah. What I was blown away by last night was there were certain things. So let's, you know, when we're talking about like X's and O's here. So let's say the puck comes into the Leafs zone and Montreal presses. Boardman gets the puck first. And what I saw him do a couple of times was normally a guy will just throw it up the boards as soon as possible. Boardman sits, looks, and sometimes he's able to go,

I'm going to sidestep this player coming at me 100 miles an hour because they're not going to be able to turn very well. and I'm standing still or I'm I'm just hooking around so what I saw him do a couple of like inside moves inside his own zone and have to the confidence to do that the poise yeah against NHL players and there were a lot of NHL forwards dressed from Montreal last night I was really impressed genuinely impressed there was a play last night and I think this is the difference and I hate to pick on the guy after years of defending him but um like Marincin again there was a chaotic play in front of the net McElhinney just stopped the puck it's in the crease and he Marinson got the puck and just went gotta get rid of it without taking the split second to

analyze the options he had is that like confidence well he just gave the puck right to the Canadians like some I don't know if it's a lack of confidence or even a lack of poise necessarily but it's like mentally the game just moves slower for certain players the game moves slower for conor mcdavid you know it's like it's like those commercials where uh you know you see everything slow down and the and the guy's having a conversation in his head oh yeah he's gonna go this way he's gonna go that way i got a guy open up here and he's talking at normal speed everything's moving slowly. I don't know if Marty has that. I'm perfectly confident with Marty being a seventh guy. Yeah, I think he is and I don't think

expecting him to be anything else is fair. Yeah, in the unlikely scenario that he's sent to the Marley's, by the way, I don't think it's gonna happen. His cap hit would be like, I think it's... Doesn't he make like a million bucks? 1.25 so It would be like $200,000 on the cap. $200,000. And you know what? Okay, so explain this for me, because from what we're hearing from...

I'm hearing a lot of what I just echoed, which is it doesn't look like he belongs. But there is still a mathematical case to be made for Martin Marincin. Well, he had his best game. Yeah, so try to... But he still didn't look great. The numbers may say something different.

He's not supposed to. Like, I just don't... Like, that's not who he is. I don't think so explain to me the disparity then between those who

still adamantly defend him and those who go I don't see it where is it what is he in there what's the because I guess

you know especially the zone entries thing because he's got a wide wingspan and that sort of thing he definitely limits zone entries which is a big deal

I don't have the numbers in front of me look there are players who are good at certain things he's good at preventing

zone injuries and the eye test confirms that we saw he was good um honestly down the stretch and in parts of the playoffs last year at that and there were times on the penalty kill where he looked good at that too it's when the puck got below the hash marks and he has to handle the thing i'm like oh jesus marty now i don't know if that mathematically resulted in more chances for the other team more goals for the other team i just know from what i've seen and maybe my eyes are liars because your eyes are numbers tend to be a little bit more honest but god he just knows how to put that thing on the other team's stick he just knows how to do it do we track giveaways in the defensive

zone yeah it's so it's so subjective giveaways like even hits are subjective you know what is a hit a hit is when you make contact with a player and remove the carrier of the puck from the puck well how many hits actually result in a change of possession right you know what i mean and sometimes it just comes down to does the coach have confidence that this player can execute the system that the coach wants and that'll be up to mike babcock yeah you know what it is with marty is we know what he can do we also know what he can't do with the exception of last night so don't put him in a position where he can't succeed right seventh defender you know right we know he's good enough to be at least that right okay i'm i have enough confidence in him and the numbers

suggest this is at least what he is and i think the eye test even says this is at least what he is he is at least trustworthy enough to be your backup option to be your stop gap Fair enough What if you fall out of love With Carrick at some point During the season Or he gets hurt We know that

Marincin's played The right hand side You can put him there What if you fall out of love With the rookie Callie Rosen Put him in What if someone gets hurt

Put him in Like it's not a crisis If Marincin has to play And if he doesn't look Utterly fantastic Well yeah He's not being paid Like an utterly fantastic player

I don't understand What the confusion is what's he supposed to be i think the confusion is a lot of people talked him up like it was better than he was yeah but rather than just being serviceable i also think that's a thing of the past like there are still some people who defend him like vehemently but i i think it's like down to maybe half a dozen people okay and a lot of the people who have the numbers in front of them will still be like look i get it i get it he does this well he does that well i mean josh levo is a wicked offensive player.

Why isn't he in the lineup? If he's so good, why isn't he in the lineup? There's obviously something with his game to Mike Babcock. Doesn't see. Or it could be that they're just too deep. Right? Yeah. Because that seems to be... Levo, I think, is not in the lineup for the same reason the Kapanen's not in the lineup.

Might be just too deep. There are just better players ahead. What was interesting, I saw the line rushes today, and two of the lines were potential leaf lines. It was Alton and Brown and Levo, I want to say.

And then I think it was like Fairmore-Kapanen. Something like that. I'd have to go check it again. That'd be a good one. I'll put it this way. There are so many things going right for the Leafs that we're spending way too much time worrying about. Zach Hyman being

on the first line. Marty Marincin and whether or not he makes the team. like you know what when it comes to worrying about the leafs we're so used to doing it i think it's time that fans of other teams start worrying about the leafs whoa that's what this is time for it's time for that do you think look at them their shutdown line is marlo cadry brown or kamarov So it's Marlowe

30 goal scorer Nazem Kadri And either 20 goal scorer Connor Brown Or All-Star Leo Komarov Come on That's the shutdown line

Personally I'd rather have Josh Anderson On my shutdown line There you go Yeah I want Matt Martin for

Josh Anderson $4 million Josh Anderson Let's go 17 goals Josh Anderson I want a million dollars A goal

$17 million Josh Anderson Let's go Find out what kind of Blue is Sadly yesterday That Robbie Fabry news Was such a bummer

The guy missed Half the season last year Is going to miss another year Speaking of teams That Josh Anderson Could go to Right Well

St. Louis Blues So the St. Louis Blues Doug Armstrong Came out today and said We might look at Signing Yarmir Yager now Which would be great He did say that

Yeah he came out And said we're looking at it Publicly said that I thought that was interesting Do it I think they should Why not Do it

Beyond that though Is that a is that another team where I mean like Robbie Fabry losing him affects them but is that another team that may look strongly at Josh Levo yeah I think there's a variety of

Josh's they could look at I think Anderson is an option Levo is an option but what CJ said on last show which you may or may not have heard because of the mic issues which we'll get to what he said on the last show was wait what was it

What was I getting to? Shit. I lost it because I looked down. Levo? Oh! The Leafs... Sorry. The Leafs trade...

What they won in return for Josh Levo was restrictively high. I see. Prohibitively high. Prohibitively high. Thank you. Yeah. I just don't understand what that could possibly be. Like, they want a player in return?

What? They don't... They don't need one. They don't need a player. Or a pick. They have three fourth line centers right now. Maybe they're asking a second round pick. That's the only thing I can think of, but CJ didn't say that.

And also, I mean, for a guy that probably would, I would think Josh Levo's worth 20 goals. A second-round pick's fair value. If you get a second-round pick that scores you 20 goals, you're lucky. We think he's worth 20 goals. Sorry, I wanted to look at waivers today. So I went to... Some interesting names on there.

Bo Bennett, Hunter Shin-Kerrick. Renaud Lavoie. Yeah, so I guess, I didn't see if anyone got claimed, though. I haven't seen that either. Because, like, Bo Bennett, I would assume, would be a guy that the Blues would look at, for sure. Actually, you know who's on waivers today? Is former Leaf great, Steve Alexi. Wow, and Zach Sill was on, too.

Was he? Yeah. Holy smokes, that guy still plays professional hockey? He does. Where is he? I guess he was on... He's right at the bottom. He was last year.

Tom Sestito, too. I mean, if you have a chance to get Tom Sestito, you've got to pounce for him. Oh, my. Yeah, there's lots of options for the Blues. Unfortunately, none of those options are Robbie Fabry. That's a bummer. Or Zach Sanford, who was, like, a big part of the Kevin Chattenkirk trade. Is Petrangelo out?

Did I see? I think it was. They're a banged-up team, man. Yeah, Berglund and Zach Sanford are both out. and then the Blues have gone the update route before with Alex Petrangelo in February 2016 and he'd be re-evaluated

after suffering an injury he was back in the lineup 22 days after getting hurt I think he might be and Jay Bollmeister is scheduled to return at the start of the season Alex Steen is out so Steen's being re-evaluated at the start of the season

and Jay Bollmeister is one week after the start how long is Berglin out? Steen will be re-evaluated at the start of the season as he's not playing Berglin's out in months Berglin and Sanford are out in months

so I would suggest that's tough I would suggest if a guy like Eric Ferrer or a guy like Dominic Moore ends up on waivers a team with an abundance of forwards like the Leafs I would suggest that anyone they put on waivers

might not make it so they probably know that Although Eric Fair At two million dollars I'd have a hard time Believing a team Would pick him up Right

Maybe there's Maybe there's a deal To be made here But this is exactly The type of Time of year Where you don't want To panic

It's very interesting This is a very interesting Time of year And I love it And it's all Going to be solved I think By Tuesday

5pm October 3rd Yay The day before the season Well and remember The first ten games Will happen And then a whole bunch

Of other changes Will happen Because they'll send People back to the CHL I mean, Milan Mihalic was sent back in game eight last year. Just like CJ said. So we just don't know. But the first ten games are always fun.

And every ten games, they say, every ten games, it gets harder and harder and harder. So for the first ten games, I think we'll see one incantation on all these teams, and then it'll change again. So, Adam and Steve, if somebody put a gun to your head and said, who starts at fourth-line center for the Toronto Maple Leafs next Wednesday, who do you pick? Altman. Is that who you would pick

Or who Babcock You think is going to pick It's both I'm going to say Babcock smarts The way he agrees with me Right now Dominic Moore

And Miro Alton And I see as a dead tie And Eric Faire Bringing up the rear I think Eric Faire Is on the team So who do you pick So this one

So in the Just give me a second To explain my answer So I'm going to name All three guys And say they're a tie How about That's my pick

How about I explain my answer Because Dominic Moore and Miro Alton are a tie I think the winner goes to a guy you don't have to put on waivers Yeah Which is why After I released my video It's funny, I made a 20 minute video

Talking about Leafs predictions And there were so many things I could have mentioned and didn't Waivers is a factor I never mentioned Roman Polak's name Like that guy might get a conscience He said he's hoping to get into one preseason game But they're awaiting doctors From what I heard he's going to be in pain all year

Yeah I don't see how that makes sense And you know what Keep him around Pay him something Do something with him But I just don't understand He's not a fast guy

And then he's going to be sore Let the knee heal Keep him around the organization Because clearly he's a great guy And do something with him that's productive So maybe he mentors Marley's defense. Maybe he helps out with the... I don't know what he does.

Maybe he's a guy in the gym with them all. Like, I don't know. If you're so keen on him, keep an eye on him all year. Help him develop. Let him practice with you. Yeah. Let him go to the Olympics. There you go.

Have him come back. There's your trade deadline acquisition. That's exactly... Polak is exactly the type of player you would give up some kind of middle round pick for. Like around the trade deadline. even a bust 5-6-7 a grizzled old vet who can thump around and be a leader and he put on a really good you know last 20 games and first round with the leafs last year and you can get him for free i'm not saying that's a wonderful option i'm just saying if you want him so badly but it's

clearly not meant to be starting to seem that way keep an eye on him help him get better let him play a little bit of hockey somewhere and have him come back for free for free and I mean then his cap hit

is like peanuts you can probably sign him like what a million dollars and then it's pro rated so it's like

400 grand and yeah come on it's nothing yeah but he seems like as Chris Johnson said

a real character to have around so and those do matter good guys matter yeah like I've heard guys

even like the analytically inclined like Scott Wheeler who's over at PPP for the longest time i think now he's at the athletic uh like he said like polak's a character he's hilarious and he's a he's actually a really funny interview which is weird because i don't see a ton of these so maybe he's just one of those guys reporters like to talk to off the record yeah it might be

i don't know but um he seems like a good guy to have around yeah you know what i've done some thinking about the last couple days is so the idea of Carl Grundstrom being a Leo Komarov replacement down the line and then Chris talking about how he's the United Nations of the Leafs dressing room and how important he is and how liked he is how important is that factor because what if the Leafs lose Leo Komarov and replace him with as much skill, if not more? But what if they

lose him? Does that team's identity change? I think the identity of the team is going to have to change. There have been people who have put forward the theory that you might be able to get James Van Riemsdijk in an affordable contract and keep Matthews and keep Nylander and keep

Marner. Sorry, I don't think that's possible with Marleau especially under contract. One of those three has to go minimum. One of JVR, Bozak, Leo. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. One of those guys. I thought you meant Marner, Matthews.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Mine. Those are mine. But I think that's the natural progression. I think Leo was important the last two years and will be important again this year. And by all means, if you can get him on a respectable contract and you think he still produces at Leo Komarov level, then that's great. However, remember that this team, like a couple years ago,

It was sort of like he was like one of the captains, right? And he wore the A. He was a leader on the team. He still is. He still is. But those guys are going to have to make way for the guys like Matthews and Marner and Nylander and Riley that are going to be the next group of leaders. And I'm not saying they're there yet, but at a certain point, that's what's going to happen.

It's like taking the training wheels off. You can't stop that. That is going to happen. So, at that point, to me, I go, okay, yes, we would miss Leo Komarov. But is Leo Komarov the only good guy in that dressing room? Yeah, you're right. Right? And that's the thing, is that financially, it doesn't make sense to me that you would re-sign him.

And it doesn't make sense to me that you sign JVR. It just doesn't. And listen, I love them both. I'm so excited to see what JVR does this year. To me, Bozak's the guy you re-sign. Because he's a center man. You re-sign? See, I think developing Nylander at center and then moving him into that slot

answers so many of your questions. But you have that option of Bozak. Put him on your fourth. Who cares? Oh, dude. For four and a quarter? No way. For a season or two?

Then trade him. That's the point. It's funny. I was driving here today, and I'm like, we can't just talk about Leafs all episode. We had CJ on. We're just going to be repeating ourselves. Nope.

We're not. There's so much little. Well, with Bozak, you have options. It's not like a centerman can't play the wing. And that's the thing. When is Bozak ever? JVR is going to be very expensive, and some team is going to pay a lot. No, he's going to be worth it.

He's a perennial 30-goal score, if he's healthy. 30-ish. Yeah. So that's worth money in this league. Leo Komarov is one of the best defensive wingers in the league, bar none. The numbers support it. The eye tests support it. And he's a great guy, and he speaks a billion languages.

That's awesome. There's so many tools. Exactly a billion. Exactly $1 billion. Aliens are going to invade Earth, and they're going to be like, summon Leo. With Centerman, yeah. Listen, I want Nylander developed at center, too. I think that's great.

But then, here's the thing. Okay, you lose JVR, and then you pull William Nylander off the Matthews line. So now they're severely affecting two different lines here that have played together for a couple years. Connor Brown, for sure, can move up into that spot. But splitting up Matthews and Nylander, man, that sucks. Yeah, you know what you throw at that problem? A dozen wingers. Yeah, I was going to say, we have too many wingers already to fill all those slots.

Bracco, I choose you. Kapanen, I choose you. No one talks about it, but Jeremy Bracco was cut early. Janssen, I choose you. Yeah, because there's so many other experienced wingers who are also good who are ahead of him. Let Bracco, who's a pretty small guy, get used to the professional game. He's not going to make the team. Let him get used to it.

He looks like a monster from the very little that I've seen of him. He looks like a monster. Let him prove that. They have also got Adam Brooks coming up, and if he's ready, then you don't need to re-sign Bozak. And Greening, I think, is a really good depth option at center. And Gauthier is going to come back. Like, guys, the Marlies are going to be something to watch this year.

I wonder if they are able to beat their point total from the Nylander year. Which was the third best AHL point total. They should be a better team. I think they might be well and that I think it's gross the with the

that's why I feel like I feel like we might see Bozak Komarov and Van Riemsdyk gone all of them yeah I think that's the most

likely scenario because Kadri's signs are 20-22 so for the next how many years is that five years

your top three setters should be Matthews Kadri Nylander and then whoever the hell you want in the fourth seed

well and also you gotta free up cap space for Joe Thornton this summer, so. That's happening. You think so? That's happening. Oh, man, I don't know. I don't think he can play with the pace.

Do you? Yeah, we'll give him Milo. There's your pace. Yeah, I guess. All right, well. What winger do you want? We'll give you any. It doesn't matter.

Anyway, there is some depth. It's good. It's a good thing. Let's move on, though, to Eric Carlson's Bionic Angle. Yeah, okay. I need to hear about this grotesqueness. So I guess, you know, he's going to be out for a while. He wore a non-contact jersey

And he said he was noticeably Short of breath when addressing the media So they talked to him about this ankle Noticeably short of breath Well because I mean he hasn't skated for a while So he was probably just panting Yeah he wasn't allowed to skate his own ankle He says

It feels like I have a leather piece in one ankle You can't really move it It's going to take some getting used to They took half of my ankle bone out And the part that is still there Should be as normal as possible it's a good sign that i'm finally skating even though it feels strange and it feels a lot different i wouldn't call it pain i just can't say it feels normal with the achilles injury in 2013

i had more trouble skating in a straight line not so much side to side which is the issue with this one going straight forward and straight backwards is no problem it's uh it's more being on the edges and being a little bit unstable not something i would publicly admit so that's something that i'm going to have to figure out and learn how to deal with it's uh the feeling is that it's probably always going to be there i'm just gonna have to give it time you ever seen uh there's a viral clip of uh an mma fighter in some like amateur organization some big bald dude and he gets he takes a shot right to the face no effect and he puts his hands down and he lets lets the other fighter punch him in the face no effect so he slaps his face twice like that like come on

bring it and then the guy punches him in the face again knocks him clean up i wonder if i i hope it doesn't even though he plays for a rival i wonder if one day soon that's going to happen to carlson achilles slash wham no effect still the best defender in the league plays all playoff long with a broken foot. Wham! No effect. Still the best defender in the league. Removes half his ankle bone, can't skate side to side. Wham! Look at you. You're a second line defender now. I can't imagine that. Me neither. Me neither. But I'm just saying, that might be hard to recover from. What just happened there with the computer? Nothing. Okay, sorry. Don't worry about it. The disc filled last time. It's all good. We're good. Should we talk

about that at all briefly whatever we had because people were like what the fuck well it was a bad microphone yeah we're in a decaying studio uh we'll be in a new studio in a matter of weeks steve talking to the mic i don't think it was anyone's fault it was just the hissing you heard is from the fourth mic that we had um normally we plug it into a wall outlet um but the wall outlet is uh well over 20 years old and a lot of the equipment we're using is about 20 years old and the new equipment which the the the company that we work for is so so wisely investing in is ready but uh they forgot and this is sort of funny they didn't really soundproof some of the rooms yeah they're working on it yeah so there's gonna be a new studio so anyway um yeah yeah we're

looking into other options it's it is what it is right we are not done with guests no um okay the internet's frozen that's great um good so the next thing i want to talk about is the calgary arena deal oh Adam let's not bring politics into sports well that's specifically what I wanted to talk about I find it a little bit funny no how many people are talking about that hold up we got a problem and then it died it died right there and then the show died we were gonna do a press conference too all right press conference no that's that's the first question can I go I gotta go Yes

So we gotta go Is the show over? The show is over Yes Yeah Here's a question Jesse Blake everyone Woo

Man Jesse You give intense high fives That was Man I'm hurt Wow I'm injured I'm gonna have to

Recover from that One to two weeks Trade Josh Levo for me Bionic hand coming soon Yeah Sarah Carlson Let's end the show Oh remember we were Talking about that

And nobody could hear it That was Man I don't know if you heard or not But I felt really bad For Robbie Fabry But you probably Couldn't hear it

Did you? Yeah I don't think Anybody heard it Are we still going? We're still going I don't think Anybody heard that

Also I also I think We're not sure about The Leafs 4 center Situation But I'm still not sure We didn't dedicate

Nearly enough time to that Listen We have not had a moment To just be us Okay So Perfect then Because we didn't get that moment

I haven't farted Should have farted Should have farted For sure Anyway Love you guys. We'll be back Tuesday. Ron McClain.

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