The Steve Dangle Podcast - Contract Eve | September 16, 2026

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, 00:00 Leafs media day 37:30 Connor Hellebuyck 49:00 The new CBA rules 1:06:00 All the contracts that were signed yesterday 1:24:00 Staal and Nikishin 1:32:30 Is Kuch's extension coming? 1:38:00 Habs make a couple deals 1:44:00 What are the Blue Jackets up to? Come see us at The Course and The Clubhouse!: http://sdpn.ca/events Visit this episode's sponsors: Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans! Use code DANGLE at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/dangle Join us on Tuesday September 22, 2026 for a live stream on our YouTube Channel in partnership with the The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Road Hockey Event. All the proceeds raised during the live go to one winning team, helping them hit their fundraising goal or climb the draft board for a celebrity player on Game Day. There are two ways to get off the bench: register a team at http://pmcfroadhockey.ca/, or just tune in on the 22nd! Watch all episodes of The Steve Dangle Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk7FZfwCEidkgWpSiHVkYT7HrIzLPXlY Watch clips of The Steve Dangle podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk7FZfwCEieOJuIrqWyZPWSIJtVMCbLz Buy SDP merch https://sdpnshop.ca/ Visit https://sdpn.ca/schedule to see when our next live stream airs! Check out https://sdpn.ca/events to see The Steve Dangle Podcast live! Watch hockey with us! Live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk7FZfwCEifCTX0vkKEaGg9otrW4Zl2k Subscribe to the sdpn YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@sdpn?sub_confirmation=1Join Subscribe to SDP VIP!: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0a0z05HiddEn7k6OGnDprg/join Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/thestevedanglepodcast Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sdpvip/subscribe - Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Join us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/MtTmw9rrz7 For general inquiries email: [e-mail] Reach out to https://www.sdpn.ca/sales to connect with our sales team and discuss the opportunity to integrate your brand within our content! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spanaganie. Woo. S. D. P. The Steve Dangle podcast with your host, Steve Dangle,

Adam Wild, and Jesse Blake. Let's go! We got a monster show today. There's no way around it. Lots of stuff. So hang on to your hats or whatever that's saying is. Hang on to your butts if you watch Jurassic Park.

And I want to just quickly mention that Cors and Clubhouse is coming up awfully quick. September 26th. It's a Saturday night. St. Catherine's Hub for indoor golf and also wicked-ass live podcast like this one. Yeah. I actually don't even know if they do any other podcasts, but I know that they do us. And this is our fourth year.

Uh-huh. This is golf, you see. And every year, not only do the live show, but Jesse Blake hits a very long drive. Longer than Drew, he's so much better at golf than Drew. And you know what? That's not true. That's not true. That's not true.

Is it not true? There's a better golfer than I. I don't believe it. You can hit the ball further, though, can you? Yeah. It doesn't really help. In a measuring contest, you win. It's a great tradition we have.

I set the longest drive on one of the Sims. And then everybody comes through. They get a chance to beat it. We give the winner a prize. They got a full kitchen and bar made from scratch food, elevated. And also Ontario craft imports and beers and delicious. The ticket sales are officially live, as we've mentioned. 25 bucks plus tax.

200 available. It's sold out. Every year. Yep. I don't even know what the ticket sales are. Me neither. And here, let me dangle a little carrot for you. So we usually do a little fundraiser for Easter Seals when we're there.

I'm going to bring, we don't know the specifics yet, some jerseys for my own personal collection that people can bid on. Oh. And the reason I'm going to do that is I have a big bar of jerseys in the blue room. And I have so many jerseys on it that it snapped. So it was time. It ripped right out of the wall. Okay.

So I need to get rid of some. So let's kill two birds with one stone here. Absolutely. It's a great idea. And here's the deal. Doors are at five. Shows at 7th, September 26, St. Catharines, we're coming for you.

Now, the first thing I want to do is, and I hate doing this, I must compliment. Who's a good guy? Paul Maurice. Oh. Now he was asked because obviously training camps open, but they don't actually hit the ice till tomorrow. And Jesse, we'll talk about the Leafs thing in a second here.

Paul Marie says he doesn't want to give everybody what they want. The two Cichucks and Sam Bennett, this is according to Alex Baumgartner. They'll be in jail before the puck drops. So he will not start them together this season, but you know as soon as they hit the playoffs, those guys are playing together. He's charming, gosh. That's a damn good quote. He is funny.

He's always been funny, too. The other thing I want, Jesse, if you could, the second item on our prep sheet here, I need you to bring up this picture of this player because this player decided to lose 10 years of age. Oh, I hate this. You hate this?

I've seen this. Yeah, that's a jump scare. This is, this feels like I'm watching, I'm looking at NHL 2012. Like EA Sports NHL 2012. Look at Brent Burns looks great. Wow. All the teeth are back.

The beard is shaved. The haircuts fantastic. Nice. Steve, you are Mr. fades over here. I think he's got a better fade than you do. Well, right now, certainly. And you know what? Brent Burns has been toothless, like, Forrest Man for so long that people forget that that's a dashing man. That's a good looking boy. That's a dashing guy. Yeah. They're going have to redo all the Lays commercials. Because he has teeth now. They've got to figure it out.

Hayden, do you have any thoughts on how hot Brenz is? Or what? Man, he could have been great when I saw this photo, I had to like rub my eyes. I'm like, those are Av's logos behind him, because that looks like young Minnesota Wild Brent Burns. The forward. Yeah. It's like Ford Wild draft. He can play right way. Get a gander.

Like, Jesse, zoom in. This is the oldest player in the National Hockey League. 41. He's very near. He doesn't look 41. Pension? 32 maybe. He's very near death.

Let's just say he's that. Are you saying he saw the back nine? Like, what are you telling? Oh, Adam. I think he's about to tap in the final put. You're the one who loves that meme about here comes the old this athlete alive. He's 32 years old. 32 years old.

A miracle. How is he out there? It is a miracle. And then you stare at that meme and you're like, I'm 36. Yeah, well, 38 now. 38. When I discovered it, I was like, ha, ha, ha. No, breadburn is still a young man.

That's, yeah. Damn. Dude. Damn. Can I just say this? He looks like he was a forward. Jesse is still younger than we were when we moved into this studio. Shut up.

Crazy stat. Don't you hate him a little bit? That's a weird way to context. No, I'm just saying. I'm just saying. You know what? He's a lot younger than us is what I'm saying. You're right.

Like, that is a weird context. Why does it bother me? But it does bother me. Yeah. Bothers me too. I don't know. I feel like we've been here forever. I do sometimes sit in the studio and go,

We've been here a really long time. Then I realized, it's like, well, it's not that long, actually. I don't do that. I'm too focused on increasing shareholder. Is that what you're doing? Oh, that's nice. I don't think about those things. Okay, so we're going to do the show like this.

We're going to do the leaf stuff because we have not done a lot of leaf stuff, because there wasn't a lot of leaf stuff to do, to be honest. Then we are going to do the rule change stuff. Then we're going to do goofy contract stuff and stuff that you might have missed when the goofy contracts were signed because there was more than just goofy contracts yesterday. It's a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff. So that's the lineup for the show today.

Let's talk about Leafs Media Day. And it's sort of funny, Jesse, because there's like a couple of media days. Like Chris Tannave already spoke to the media, like a couple days ago, whatever. What you're, where you're getting quotes from is the Gulf charity event. That was yesterday. They had them speak at the event. So that's where you're thinking. Right.

And there was something today. And then there's something tomorrow? Oh, tomorrow's training camp. Oh, tomorrow's training. Yes. So today was the opening media day. where all the players are doing their Leafs media stuff like on the ice where they're taking the photos

that'll be like their photos for the year. They're doing all the little vignettes that'll be on the scoreboard. And then sports nets there, the rights holders are there doing their things that'll be on the broadcast where Austin comes up and he does some stop and there's ice that flares up and they do the little skits where they draw pictures of logos.

All that stuff is happening today. Steve Dengel asks you if you believe in aliens. Exactly. Yeah. The goofy guys that they roll out, ask the funny questions. And they gather their content for the years. This was literally the media day for the players. And then also they have a couple guys speak at the podium.

Today it was McKenna, Tavares, and Austin together as a trio sitting up there. And then before them was the management who spoke to the media for the first time after the summer. And that was Chica, Hiller, and Sundeen. Okay, now, I'm going to run through some of the things we learned. Because in previous years, and I think we sort of said this, and the Leafs kept not listening, things got stale. Every year was kind of the same And none of it mattered until April Now everything matters

Because we didn't see April last year Or basically didn't see the back half of April Which is the playoff half I cheered harder in April this past April Than I typically do Because the Leafs actually won something Yes They won a guy

Actually they won him in May Though I'm pretty sure I think the draft lottery was May Was it not? Rats, well then even more rare Yeah That's true Now what do we learn from the Leafs today

Well, first off, Matthew said, Jesse, that he's happy. He said his intention was always to stay in Toronto, which I think is nice in this context. But if he didn't like the move Shika had done, then he probably wouldn't be here. John Shika. Oh, Adam, let's just take him at his word. Let's end the segment at, oh, okay. Yeah, Matthews is happy with the moves John Shika made. Jesse, did you get the sense in the room that there was a genuine feeling?

Because sometimes people say stuff, but you can sort of infer it and feel it. If you're next to them, what did you think? You know, his full honest answer, well, his full answer, I believe was very honest in how he explained how every, all of that noise came out in the springtime where he said, he said verbatim, the GM was fired and there was a lot of movement. And he needed to wait and see what was going to. happen. Yeah. And he did wait and see and he was on the fence at that moment. And then once he was happy with everything where the Leafs came out of it and now he's happy. The Leafs were going through

a lot of change and none of it was good. Well, there's that. And but the league is going through a lot of change as well. I don't blame any player, including him for being like, let me look at this for a moment. You know, there are more specifics than that and we talked about them a lot. in the spring. There are reasons to believe in him. There are reasons to be grumpy with him. But he's here. He's got two years left.

It was a little weird that the Leafs weren't a part of the shenanigans from yesterday because they don't really have any players who are in a position for an extension. Like this guy, up until his health-related drop-off in production, health-related slash Craig Barubi related was the greatest goal scorer in hockey and there was not really a credible debate about it. He's on a better pace than Alexander Ovechkin. Yeah, I can't wait for the comments to go,

what the hell's this guy talking about? It's stupid. It's actually like mathematically true? Well, no. That's all right. People can say whatever they want. Yeah, they can. Here's the numbers.

His is the largest. So anyway, and then you move on. If he returns to that, I'm sure they'll be good. If he does not, you know, beatings will continue until morale improves. Now, Jesse, on the Matthews track,

he's healthy. Yes. A hundred percent healthy, they're saying. Yeah, I think he's very confident about where he is at the start of the season in terms of his health. He feels like he's the best he's been in quite a while, because I know a couple of years previous, we've had questions even going into training camp how healthy he is.

But he says this time rolling around, he's healthy 100%. So that's good news for everybody. Now, the last thing, and I'm going to read directly from a reporter named Jesse Blake. Austin Matthew says he and Jack Roslavik have been skating together this offseason and adds, quote, I'm really excited to play with him again. He's really fun to be around, definitely a chattier guy, which is great in the locker room. I tweeted that last part out specifically for like my own sake of just a note in that we might

have the next locker room guy that we can go to and the little scrums and get good quotes out of. Because now that Lawton's not there, you know, I don't really know who's going to be the guy. Bit of a dry room. Yeah. I don't know who's going to be the guy now who I'm going to be like that that guy. I know he gets all the boys riled up and I know Lottin was kind of that guy. Lorenz is always a great quote.

But now I'm excited to see what Roslovick's going to. Rossovic's going to play every day, unlike Lawrence, right? Yeah. And I know it's respect to Lawrence, but that's good. You have depth and Lorentz is a fourth line guy. I expect him to be rotated in. That's okay. Totally.

So, yeah, Roslovick. Matthews gave us the info that he arrived like three weeks agoish or a couple weeks ago and since then they've been skating together and they're good buddies. So I don't know. I think we got a little sneak peek at the lines there. Now can I side chat this one? I want to ask you guys something. Do you think part of the annoyance that Austin Matthews had last year started when the Leafs were like, yeah, we're going to sign Jack Roslavik and then they didn't? And they were, oh, no, we're going to make them wait. And then he finally signs with the Oilers. I mean, I mean, clearly they were this close. And they were in action haunted the Leafs all last year.

a calendar year and in some ways for a very long time the Leafs have been defined by what they almost did. Yeah. Like on the ice, you know, they almost beat Florida. And they let that define them. We almost beat them. Maybe we'll actually beat them next time. And they violently didn't beat them. Right. Well, you know, we almost got Jack Rozovic.

We almost traded Matthew Nyes several times, including on video with Montreal. and they're just like, uh, they almost, almost, almost, almost, almost. Like, love or hate Chaka. He's doing stuff. Right. Like, I, I've been through this a bunch of times and I'm sure I'm going to bring it up many times this season. I did not like the job Brennan Chanahan was doing by the end of it. And it was time to go. But they replaced a leader who you could argue is bad. So you let's let's, let's, or stale perhaps. Because he did do a lot of things at the beginning. Perfect.

We, the Leafs replaced a stale leader with no leader. And a stale leader is, as we learned, far better. Far better. Look at the Red Wings. And I know we're going to talk about that. Oh, yes, we are. What do you mean? There's no one at the wheel. That's crazy. At the winged wheel. That's crazy. Well, there's three people there at least. Right. There was nobody at the actual winged wheel. There's more people at the winged wheel podcast. That's true. It is. It is. Just counting the numbers. They do have more people. Straight up more people. Than running the Red Wings.

And, you know, Rogers is weird. You're not allowed to be called the president because... That requires a bigger paycheck. And they don't want to give that. No, because Ed is odd. But also, like... So they cut that job across the board. Yes, it's so silly.

But now you have this two-headed, okay, there's some sort of dynamic there with Chica and Sundin. And they've actually been able to get stuff done. We're about to find out if it's good stuff Exactly But they've done stuff And that's good What is on

There's cobwebs on my shirt I thought it was boogers Jesse has a weight bar That he put in the garage Did you pick it up? Yeah I did Why? You ever do a quick

You ever do a quick Free podcast pump? No I haven't Do we want to set it up in the basement We could just have a little workout room It's Jesse's I don't think Jesse would mind How much

Did you put any weight on it? No it's just the bar stacks of weight and now you just pump the bar? No, it's very, I have ADHD. I got out of my car and I walked and I went, ooh. Oh, do you curl? You did curls with it.

I did curls, shoulder press and a couple little squats. Actually? Like over the shoulder? Yeah, I was here five minutes early and I decided to be late. I didn't know you're doing all this. I wish I wish I could see it. Yeah, where's that? You got to get your swole in.

You got to get cameras in the garage just to see what Steve does every day. I was doing it like, do we have cameras in here? Yeah. We have cameras everywhere else. Now, okay, so that's the Matthew stuff. That's all good. Number two, and I don't think that people rate this highly enough. That's why I put it at number two.

Chris Tandiv's healthy. Yep. I told you that last year. I know you did. I know, but there was articles written as well that were saying, well, you might not be ready. And listen, I believed you, Jesse, but I do like the confirmation that he's in fact healthy. And listen, when Chris Tannov was playing last year, the 10 games that he played, I think they went six, three and one.

I don't remember. I believe that's what it was. They were more watchable. I remember that. The previous year, defensively, as much as they hemorrhage shots in Burubei system, that was the best defensive defenseman I've ever seen them have. I don't know how much better it would have made them, but unquestionably it would have made them better.

And maybe they never fall off the cliff. Maybe they don't sell. And McKenna's never a leaf. Like there's a crazy butterfly. effect there. Yeah. So Chris Tannave did us a favor. Maybe.

But he is. Well, Matt Veit Mischkov. Well, we were wondering about that Blankenberg PTO, right? Like, does that mean that, you know, maybe Tannav won't be ready to go? Well, now it sounds like it's Morgan Riley insurance. Well, there you go. And we'll get to that in a second. So I just want to say, like, or I want to talk about for people that have forgotten

because you have lives, what does Chris Tanev do to this lineup when he's in it? How does it change on the ice? Go. He leads them in probably DZone starts along with Jake McCabe. He leads them in blocks along with Jake McCabe. He's a zone entry denial demon. He is big in front of the nets. He is paramount on your penalty kill. He is everything when it comes to stopping. I would love to know what the save percentage of the goalies was in the games that he actually played. last year. Like, Stollers and Wool, you could have easily argued, was the best tandem in hockey two years ago.

Right. Numbers wise. Like, you have guy who's an incredible starter, he goes down, followed up by another incredible starter. More and more often, as we enter this high-scoring age,

are you able to do that? A lot of teams don't even have one, right? Last year, they had zero. Except for Dennis Hild be oddly. Yeah.

And then they chose not to win any of his games. Right. But he was good in them. He was good in them. Crazy high save percentage. Don't look at the record. No, Tannav's vital to this team. Like, you know, you go and you get a guy like Rattish who's going to make you so much more lethal

offensively. But if you can't keep the puck out of your net, it's kind of all for not. Ask the Oilers. Ask the, yeah. Last year's, that is. Now, third thing. Well, I don't think you needed to qualify for. brand, I guess. Yeah. Max Domi came in, failed his physical, and we've, you know, it's been

basically reported that it was back surgery that he had. There was a complication there. He's not ready. And they're not putting a timetable on it, but as of July 1st when they made all the signings that they made guys, we assumed with the cap picture he wasn't going to play all season. Now, they won't say that yet, but it seems like that's the case. So, Cheka said out indefinitely and that Max Domi will have an update on his status later on. Okay. So he did not give a date when Domi will speak on his status.

It could be, I don't know, tomorrow. Could be a week from now. It could be a month from now. But at some point, he's going to volunteer the information to us about the future of his hockey career. I respect that. I like, okay, I like the way that you worded that, Jesse. Like the future of his hockey career, I don't think it's out of the realm of

possibility he's done, which would be an enormous shame. Yeah. Like, you know, for all his faults, like as a player, like, he brings it every night. You're never like, ugh, I wish Max Domi would try tonight. And he would stand up for his teammates and he brought the physicality. I also would like to see him in the Hiller system, not the Barubei system. I'd be interested, sure. His best season was in the Keefe system next to Austin Matthews.

That was the 69 goal year. Mm-hmm. And that worked out pretty good. He looked good there. But when you're asking Max Domi to play like hard defensive minutes, I think you're asking a fish to climb a tree. It's just not what he's there for. Right. And Steve Simmons, I actually, I'm going to

quote Steve Simmons, who said it best, which is you can replace that player potentially, but you can't replace the spirit. No. Yeah, no one cared about being a leaf more than Max Domey. Like that, that heart and soul that he brings, like it's going to be so hard to replace that. Yeah. Yeah. I hope in some capacity he gets to stick around the team,

just if it's like some sort of community role as a leaf, you know, who's still going to be under contract for a little bit. I hope just he's around to bring that energy that he does because he gets it. Oh, big time. He gets being a leaf and he cares. For as long as he's been a leaf too,

like there's, yeah, there's some nights where you're like, Max, like, you could have got two points tonight, but Max. But then he goes through long stretches where you're like, he was a large part of why they won tonight. Yeah. Right? Like his vision, especially like, you know, you're trying to replace

obviously the playmaking ability of Mitch Marner and they went out and they got Matthias Machelli but like Domi's role was supposed to be elevated in that. He was the one skating with Matthews early and he was the one who was supposed to be in that role coming into camp and there was a proof of concept

with the Tyler Bertuzi here like you said and then they didn't have him. They lost their fourth line center and they were like changed the whole lineup. That should have been forfeiture of your job right there. Scott Lawton goes down. Well, let's destroy the rest of the lineup. And then late in the year,

they call a Bogrew and he's great. And you're like, oh, yeah. Frigan could have tried anything at any point. And you landed on ruining the lineup. Yeah. Out of the gate. Sick.

That's okay, though. The Js were in the finals. Oh, my God. Oh, dude. It was so funny making videos when the Jays were still in the postseason. Because I was like, man, people are going to,

come out of this haze and they're going to be like oh and the leaf suck. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, what happened? I'm like, oh, sit down.

Little did we know the peak of last season was Jesse's 18 inning game. And I call it Jesse's 18 inning game because Jesse did seven hours or four minutes short of seven hours on life. Hey, the peak of the season was the minute before Jeff Hoffman stepped on the line.

Oh, I don't, I don't want to talk about it. The second before he's walking out of the bullpen was the peak of life. The minute. And then he steps out of the bullpen and you're like, oh, here we go. No, the review, I was watching it with my wife. And they show IKF sliding.

And there was a certain angle where I went, did Jays just won the World Series? Yeah. I said it out loud. Oh, no. Steve's fault. That was tough, too. Steve's fault. It was all tough.

And if Max Domey was in. Right winged. Max Domey would have made it. They would have won. Max Domi, if he was on third base, he would have hit that. Now, Morgan Riley. is dealing with a viral issue. There's another guy under Barube

who just had his two worst years. Matthews, Domey, like all these guys. Morgan Riley, dealing with a viral issue, nothing to worry about, but he may miss the first preseason game, which is this Saturday. Yeah, I didn't realize how quickly the first preseason game is.

It's in like 72 hours. I'm going. They're going to be just on the ice. Yeah, I, uh, yeah, it is Saturday. Is that the Habs one? Oh, okay, yeah, I'm going on. I'm streaming that. Oh, have fun.

Because it's a split squad game, but I'm going to do whatever game in McKenna is in. Probably the Leafs one. Yeah, well, they're both Leafs ones. No, they're not. I imagine there's the veteran ones at home. The Morgan Riley situation, it's very fluid in that, like, you don't know how. Well, he's got a viral infection.

He better be drinking fluid. He's better. But I think there, I think Chica sounded unsure about how that goes because it's not just like, hey, he's got a bone that's four to six weeks or whatever. This is something viral. So I think they're playing it day by day and how it's going to. how he's going to recover and if he'll be ready for how much training camp he'll get in if he's going to be ready for actually game number one.

Right. So I think they're unsure. So I think, you know, CJ and Jonah Siegel have come up with two really interesting articles. I think they had obviously a pretty big interview with John Chica. Really encourage you to read that. We talked about it a little bit on the last show. And then they talked about how is Morgan Riley still a leaf?

And Chica said, listen, we didn't really have any substantial trade offers for him. And we talked about this at the end. of last season and people are going to be like now that's revisionist history adam you were really hard on morgan i was and i and i've been the one going trade him trade him trade him but i did say and you guys back me up on this with the cap going up as much as it has seven and a half million dollars for what morgan brings in a system that isn't burubes okay and with a deeper defense healthy tannive added radish to that amel andre could be a factor too um i don't hate the contract any of more. So the sharks

went out and got Darnall Nurse and Jacob Truba and we seem to agree that even if you don't like the contracts, they became a better hockey team. We would not have said that a year ago. Right? And then, so you're going to trade Morgan Riley, you're going to either get nothing or have to pay to get them out the door? No.

No, that doesn't make any sense to me. No. Not anymore. Like, listen, listen, I would love to go back and listen to some of the stuff that we said in the spring. Yeah. Because we did think, oh yeah, Drake Batherson is going to get like $11 million. What? I wouldn't have agreed with that.

And then yes or two days ago or whatever, I'm like, oh, he might get 12 and a half. Yeah. Yeah. He signed for 10, 7, 5, and I'm like, that's a good number for Ottawa. Danny Breyer just taking a grenade and leaving it behind for everyone else. Yeah. Kind of. Right?

So seven and a half, what he brings to the team? I'm totally fine with it. Cade Weber, Will Vilnoev, I believe both have elbow injuries that will require some sort of reconstruction and surgery. They'll be missing. No, Villeneuve's ACL. Oh, that's a long term. He's just out for as long as ACL stick the heel, which is forever. and then other ones.

Cade Weber's the elbow. William Villeneuve is such a riser in this organization. That's devastating for the kid. I feel awful for him. Maybe that's why Blankenberg's in. Could be. Well, because Villeneuve, like, his Calder Cup playoff run, he had a good, he was good all season in the H.L,

got called up finally at the end and did not look out of place. Was even better on the playoff run. They win a championship. and you could have easily justified him being the first call-up. And, well, ain't going to happen. Jim Hiller is being shy. This is the fourth thing we learned. He will not tell us where he plans to put Gavin McKenna, Jesse.

When do we get to find that out? Tomorrow, training camp on the ice part opens and we'll see some opening lines. Who knows how long those lines will stick? I assume those will be the lines he goes with on Saturday. But tomorrow, look out because you'll be seeing some lines on the internet. I like that. They are reported. And to Steve's relief, Matthew Nyes, according to John Shika, is an important member of the team.

Steve Dangle. Important member of the team. And he did mention in the press conference, Jesse, if I'm not mistaken, quote unquote, the previous administration trade. Yes. He was talking about, I guess. Yeah, he was asked a question about all of the Matthew Nise trade rumors over the summer. and he said that he's like a lot of that's left over from the previous regime and they're dealing. So that's that's a part of the excuse for why there's so much noise around.

This is Joe Biden's fault is what he's saying. Yes. Okay. Well, Yes. Sleepy Joe. The reason why the price of nyes is so high. Sleepy Brad.

Sleepy Joe ruined the economy, not me. So I think, listen, Steve, are you relieved to feel that? Because Steve in our group chat, I was listen, if, if, It was going to get them a Zach Rorinsky when that was on the table for, you know, 24 hours. I was down with it. But it came out that the Leafs didn't even offer Matt Nyes in the Zach Rorinsky trade that they had for Columbus. And that's why Columbus was like, well, Dallas has got the best offer because it apparently included Tom Harley. You spent all summer watching Matt Nye's highlights and sent to the group chat multiple times.

I really don't think they should trade this guy. every highlight I saw his mixtape is nuts I did he does not like score like oh it went on off his elbow that doesn't happen it's him fighting off three people at once and then scoring which makes me think Matt Sundeen saw that and went I've seen this movie I like that and you're kind of doing it all by yourself I've seen this movie I like that um he's such a unicorn and with every passing contract that is signed. I'm like, I'll commit crimes if you trade this player. Well, remember that he has 66 points just last season. And people forget that. I mean, and he was injured the whole season and was playing on the injury and had 66 points.

43 of those are assists, which is crazy. And here's the thing. He makes $7.75 million. There are people that have signed contracts forwards that have signed contracts this season that don't have 66 career points. And they're making 12? Like it's crazy. You want to have him or for like a million dollars cheaper you can have Sordif or sort of from Washington? I'll kill you if you trade this guy.

I'll like crime, jail, prison. It could, it's one of the deals of the NHL, like one of the better deals I think. Not the best one, but pretty good. It's, yes. Like in the spring, we, we, we, we. had many a conversation where it's like, would you do Nise for Werensky? And I'm like, well, I'm not sweetening it. Why, you're nuts, you're nuts.

You're not. You're not. You're not. You're nuts. No, don't trade this. Do not trade this player. Blue Jackets fans are going to clip this. You know you're in trouble now.

I don't get a good, gosh darn. You have Werenski and you still stink. At least you can get them and they might be good. I don't know. But you can't have Matthew Nyes. Jesse. Any other things from the media day that kind of stood out for you, anything Jim Hiller said, anything Shika said, anything, the, what are they, they're calling

the McKenna Matthews-Tavaris at the press conference. They're calling them the father, son, and holy ghost. That's what they're saying? So, anything else that stuck out to you? I'm excited for training camp, one, because it's so short. This year, like, it's just going to come and go and all of a sudden it can be the regular season, which I think just puts more pressure on every single day of training camp. Two, vibes are always high around this time because 32 teams can win the Stanley Cup.

It's a lot of fun. I think this is the best time of the year in terms of just the anticipation for the season starting and how nobody's lost a game. It's really fun. And practice is where players get good. So like over the course of the summer, that's where you see the development curve of these players. And maybe one day, if I'm lucky enough, I'll be able to see one of these skates that these NHL players always have amongst themselves where they're practice.

all their skills. So I love from like an athlete side of it, I love training camp and just watching them do the things that make them good for the season because they've kind of already done their training. And then now it's like to ramp up our legs to get ready to play 84 games. And I think that's just so much fun. So these next couple weeks are going to be, I think, a blast to just watch. And then you get into it and the actual games start counting.

That podium that had the three first overall picks on it, McKenna, Matthews, and Tavares. there were 953 career NHL goals on that podium and one of those players has not played yet. That's crazy. That's a crazy stat. Okay. Lastly, I want to offer some Leaves Play-by-Playing notes

because I think this matters. Terry Coshun of the Toronto Sun reported that David Bowen, son of Joe Bowen, will take over play-by-play for the majority of the Marley's games. Ben Shulman from the Blue Jays broadcasts. And Matt Cullen will also share responsibility of some of the remaining Marley's games too. Ben Shulman? Yeah.

Isn't it Dan Shulman? Yeah. Ben is his son. Oh. And they do play by play together with the game. So Ben, his son does the radio games for the Blue Jays. And occasionally he fills in when Dan's off on the television broadcast. So Dan Shulman's son and Joe Bowen son are on.

Yes, but they'll share responsibilities. No, this is very interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And someone they may. Matt Cullen and I'm like the Matt Cullen? I don't know if it's the hockey player

Matt Cullen? Yeah. I don't know if it's that. I don't think so. No. I remember Matt Cullen. I had his hockey cards but no I don't think it's that. It's just a guy named Matt Cullen. Okay. Do you know that Adam Dennis is on this podcast? Yeah. Whoa. And listen, nepotism, I far be it from me to criticize. I didn't criticize. I said my implication was isn't that neat. I thought that's what you were getting at my bad. No.

Man, how is I doing fill-in-work at Chum FM this year? It's so crazy. No, no, those guys are talented. Like, they've earned those jobs. Extremely talented. And this is something that Rogers does with their play-by-play guys. Eric Smith, he fills in on the baseball side for the Blue Jays on the radio broadcast. If people don't know, he's usually the guy who calls the Raptors games on television sometimes,

and he'll do the radio calls as well. And he fills on the Blue J side, turn on your radio on the fan every now and again. So this is something that Rogers does where they cross sports. with some of their play-by-play guys. So, yeah, good for them. And that means that Todd Crocker, long-time Marley's guy, has moved up to doing the Leafs Radio broadcasts. Scores!

Yeah, Todd's great. Yeah. And well deserving of this. Earned. Earned. He waited a long time for this. He probably had other opportunities. It was like, no.

I must try to outweigh Joe Bowen. Which was tough. He's called two championships. Yeah. Maybe he could take some of that. I would like him to call the third. Yeah, me too. Now,

the Leafs ever reached a Stanley Cup final. Do you kick Crocker out and let Bowen call it? You're insane. No. You wouldn't give Bowen the job. Hayden's laughing. I think you got to have a segment with Joe. Maybe let him do a period.

You let him do stuff? Why not? You got to let. Come on. Come on. Especially it was this year. Like, there is a point at which you can't physically do it anymore. It's a very demanding job.

If it's this year, you got to do it. You got to consider. So you just Vegas, Golden Knights, Tampa Bay Lightning, the broadcast booth, you're like, oh, Nikita Kutrov's fine now. Yeah,

bring her back in. Well, no, you just, Steve, it's not. Mark Stone's great. Don't worry about it. It's just got to be like, Joe deserves a period. I mean, 40 years of this.

If this is the year, God forbid the Leafs did the thing. And they're in the Stanley Cup final. What do you mean God? Don't. Do not forbid this. Don't forbid this. I think just.

for the sake of the whole thing, you need Bowen to do a period. I think that's a great point, Jesse, and I think you're right. I don't know why Steve immediately went to know, but, you know,

okay. I don't know why you immediately went to taking someone's chair. He's not taking his job. He took his job. He just filling in for a period. He just got the term. Skeeter,

he ain't and hurt nobody. Hey, next Tuesday, we're going to have a live stream with the three of us right here in the studio. And I think the last live stream we did was, free agency.

Yep. And I think the live stream before that was Gavin McKenna Leefs. That was the lottery. No, the draft.

The draft. The lottery, yeah, the lottery draft thing. Oh, no, we did the draft. Yeah, we did the draft. Listen, when we do live streams in here, what I'm trying to tell you

is the vibes are great. And that's why we're so pumped about the Princess Margaret Margaret Cancer Foundation Road hockey event. Fueled by Longos, it's the biggest in the world. And you need to come out and be there.

It's in Vaughn on October 3rd. But Tuesday, September 22, which is next Tuesday, Right here on this channel, it's going to be part telephone, part variety show. And remember, five teams, one winner and every dollar on the broadcast goes towards that team's fundraising goal. So all the... Steve is also fueled by Longos. Yes.

He is. My body. The chicken strips they sell. Oh, buddy. Longo's chicken strips from the Ready Hot? Just the hot food? Yield by Longo. Absolutely.

Now, we're also, so we're hosting this, obviously for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, Road Hockey event fueled by Longos, 15th anniversary. Chirps, challenges, celebrity guests, real money on the line. That is SDPN live September 22nd. Make sure you tune into that because remember, the Princess Margaret is not just about treating patients. It's about outreach to the family. Everybody that walks through there goes, leaves feeling like this is maybe one of the

worst things that's ever happened to me, but at least the Princess Margaret has made it just a little bit better. And Jesse and I, we have a ton of experience with that, dating back to our radio days, and also they also have, like, cancer research that is some of the best in the world. This is an incredible organization. We're so pumped to be partnered with them. Join us next Tuesday. Now, let's talk about this.

Before we get to the new rules and everything that necessitated all the insane contracts yesterday, unlike Dylan Larkin, Connor Hellebuck will not report to camp. At least, that's according to TSN's Darren. He is on the training camp roster, but he's on the training camp roster because he's under contract. If he doesn't show up, he will then be suspended by the team and not paid. And I think everybody kind of knows that. Jesse, we already recorded the Jets preview, huh? We have.

Yeah, good, good. We might want to redo that one. I think it comes out tomorrow. Can we redo that one? No, so I had them bad, and I was feeling not good about it. And now it's fine. Yeah. So Murat-Attis, who obviously is the Winnipeg reporter for the Athletic, said that,

Yes, he's on the roster, but we do not expect him to be there. Listen, something really went wrong last year. Not just with the team, but with Connor. This is a guy who they surprised at his cottage with the Hart and Vesna Trophy literally what now, 14 months ago, who signed an eight-year contract. What happened? It's not just that he went to the Olympics and won. And won.

He's won a lot in Winnipeg. They've gotten far in Winnipeg. Arguably the great. greatest hockey game of his career. I'm not really sure how you argue against it, frankly. So I don't know what it is, and we don't have to spend a lot of time speculating on it, but one day we're going to know what happened here. And I don't know if it's team, if it's coach, if it's, I don't know what's going on, but this is, there's something here and no one's talking and I'm, that is very suspicious to me. Does that not strike you as weird?

We don't have any insight on this publicly. That's bizarre. Well, I think we're reminded of so before the Jets won the president's trophy and Connor Hellebuck won the heart and the Vesna they were a mess they were a catastrophe and they were on the verge of losing mark sheffley on the verge of losing Connor Hallibuck and they locked both guys up and you know this is where I think some people are rubbed the wrong way like Halibuck had the option to pull the shoot. And he's like, nope, I'm taking the money and I'm staying. And now, not only is he asking out, but he's turning the screws.

And I, you know, Larkin swallowing his pride and getting back out there. Like, listen, he looks like an idiot for requesting that, uh, giving them like three teams. And then having to show up to camp stripped of the sea. with his hat in his hand. Yep. He does not look smart for doing that. But you have to respect the, yes, it is the bare minimum, but you have to respect the bare minimum that at least he's going to show up to work.

Halebuck's not doing that. And that sucks. It's not, the Jets aren't trading them because they're not getting value for them. What's this going to help that? Well, whenever it comes out publicly, it always hurts the value of any potential trade offer. It does. And like, they have trouble. selling tickets when they win.

And if you come out of the gate and you don't have Hellebuck and you stumble out of the gate, no team would be more justified in pulling the shoot on their entire season than the Winnipeg Jets. And if they make that decision, all right, sit at home.

Like $8.5 million on fire. We don't care. This could get ugly. And if he missed his training camp, this is if. This is either going to get resolved very fast or turn very ugly. Well, that's the thing. think more likely it gets resolved quickly because I think a team, an acquiring team might be like,

well, if everybody else's offer sucks, if we up ours a little bit, what happened with Alexei Ashen doesn't happen? Well, so people who are not old enough to remember that, Alexei Ashen refused to report to Sends Camp, I believe, because he wanted them to cancel his deal and give him more money. And so we see that in the NFL a lot, but those are non-guaranteed contracts. The NHL has always had the guaranteed contracts. And this is pre-salary cap. This is like the late 90s. And the send says, how about no, and you can sit and he missed a whole season and then he had to come back. They ruled that his contract actually extended further and he had to play another year with the senators before the senators traded him for Zadano Chara and Jason Spetsa to the New York Islanders.

Crazy. Like that's the biggest win in Sends history off the ice. And you need to understand what an absolute rock star this player was. Oh my God. The fact that he's never talked about is crazy. 98. Well, because if he actually played and stayed in the league,

he would easily be in the Hall of Fame conversation. Yep. And he's not because he left early and also missed an entire year of his prime. In 98, 99, I don't think you understand. 98, 99, he had 44 goals and 94 points. Do you know how stupid that is? In the dead puck year? Do you know how stupid that is?

Then he missed an entire season comes back. 40 goals, 88 points. Do you know how stupid that is? This is one of the greatest offensive players of at least like a half decade span. In an era where, in an era known for nobody scoring,

this guy shot the lights out. And then said, I will not play for you. And he lit an entire year of his career on fire. And then had to come back and play for the same amount of money. Yeah. And then went back to Russia to become a general manager. Oh, that's great. Now, I don't think,

Jesse that Connor Hallibuck's going to be sitting out the whole year. But what I would be worried about if I'm an acquiring team is a goaltender missing training camp. We saw Jeremy Swamen. Jeremy Swamen's a lot younger than Connor Hallibuck. And you can work out all you want, right? On your own. Training camp's training camp, Jesse.

Totally. And I don't understand why Connor Hellabuck is being, like, I don't have a better word for it, being such a baby about this. Because the best thing for him to do is show up and play well and somebody will want to acquire him. And there's is nothing, there's no indication from the Jets camp on like what they did to deserve this. All Kevin Sheldayev has done is support Connor Hellebuck and trying to put a good team on the ice. They've never committed to a rebuild. They've built their team around him as their star and he delivered in the regular season and couldn't in the playoffs. And then now he's

quitting on them in the middle of this seven year deal. And not just quitting in that he doesn't want to be there anymore, quitting in that he won't even touch the ice for them. Yeah. And to me, there's just no public reason for him to take this that far. And it's such a shame that he's doing this to a good organization and a good fan base. I like, people are talking about this being the, like the player empowerment era. Like, CJ's sort of touched on it on the CJ show. And I understand all that.

And I'm on the side of, you know, good for them. Yeah, of good for them and players can kind of do what they want. But these are the rules you collectively bargained. You have a union of hundreds of men. You agreed on all these rules. No one forced you to sign that contract and accept millions and millions of dollars. And you did. I'm sorry.

I don't like I don't rah, rah, let's go little guy with that. Like, I know there is a much bigger guy at play, and that is owners in the NHL, but I can't do that. I also didn't know this about his contract. God bless Puckpedia. This upcoming season, so his cap hit, Halebuck's cap hit is $8.5 million. He's actually only owed $7.5. But next year, it's 10. And the year after, it's nine.

How much of that is bonus, by the way? None. None of it? None. It is 7.5 base, 10 base, 9 base. He doesn't have any bonus for the entire rest of his contract. It goes 7.5, 10, 9, 7.6. And this isn't a situation where the contract's coming due, and he's making it clear to them that he won't resign, so he's moving on, they're going to move on from him. This is just right smack in the middle of it, and he just is refusing to play. At least Dylan Larkin, who doesn't want to be in a losing situation, is willing to play. play for the team. They take away the captaincy and he's going to show up and be on the ice because he knows that the best way to get out of here is to play hockey.

He's going to take his lumps. Yeah. He knows he's going to get booed. And Connor Hellibuck's just taking his ball and going home? And like, that's, Jesse, that's the thing. How long is this damn going to be able to hold back whatever happened last year? I'm shocked that we don't publicly know. I am.

It's been four months since he made the request. It's got to be more than that. got out in the spring. He didn't even have to issue. We knew he wanted a trade in May and June. And he stayed quiet. Like, I understand the frustration.

It's not going to stay there for long. It's coming out eventually. I understand the frustration, but like, buddy. And listen, maybe you're like, fine. I'll eat $7.5 million. That's your prerogative, I guess.

And there's no guarantee you return to what you were. And then next year, you're owed $10 million. And so you just took a year off. and you're owed $10 million. Who the hell's trading for that? This, this, like I said, or like you said, and we agreed, is I think it's more likely

this gets solved quickly, but there's the potential that this is, you know, the ugliest contract holdout we've seen in 25 years. Yeah, but Connor Hellebaugh can't force the Jets to make a bad move. No, we can. They can, like, if I'm running this team, I make them sit and I never trade them ever. Screw you. Like, what are you trying to do here? Well, it's a shame, man.

I think he certainly, by not showing up, has given the Jets the power here. Like, if you don't show up and they know that they can just, they'll just wait. Listen, seven and a half million bucks is seven and a half million bucks, no matter how much money you have in the bank. Yep. I just, to me, now Kevin Shavell, Sheld-Da-off is more in the driver's seat than he already was. The statement in the summer at the end of the summer didn't work. This holdout gives the Jets more power.

It gets you further away from your goal. If you come in and your fucking lights out for the Jets, guess what happens to those offers to trade for you? Dude, outrageous. They become bigger and bigger and bigger and they hold it. And then the Jets can be happy and you can move on. Tristan Jari had a really good first 13 games of the season last year. And he was traded for a package that I think Pittsburgh is pretty happy with.

Yeah. Surely that's out there for you if all you do is get back to being you. That's another thing. There's no guarantee you get back to being you. Like, yes, he was great at the Olympics. His last season stunk. Yes, I know Sergey Bobrovsky had a similar season. But people are asking similar questions.

Yeah. Right? And Bobowski's showing up. Yeah. If the Jets are bad this year, it is not the end of the world. Okay. And that works against Connor Hellebuck. And also Jets fans are pretty pumped about Vuego.

Bjork. Okay, I'm going to move on. What is Saly? It's an ESIM service. And what is that guys? Jesse, when you downloaded Saly to your phone? Yes. But what did it tell you to do? So I download the app and then there are instructions that anybody can follow. Even, even you listening and even Stephen Adam here. You install the ESIM, you buy your gigabits with your discount code from us, which is Dangle. And then you get cell service data, I should say, in another country. And it's encrypted. That's a big deal. Remember, this is back by NordVPN. Big deal. Yeah, 200 destinations it's available in.

I know when Maddie was here, she used to use it all the time. Jesse used it. Well, when she was not here, she would use it. Because you use it when you're traveling out of the country to save money. This guy's making dad jokes. He doesn't even have a kid. What's up with that? Anyway, I have a dog.

Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saly ESIM data plans. Download the Saly app, S-A-I-L-Y, or go to Saly.com, and the promo code is dangle. So it can be saley.com slash dangle or just use the code dangle at checkout for your 15% off. Now yesterday we saw an absolute torrent of crazy-ass contracts. Like it was, was it better than the trade deadline? Was it better than July 1st? July 1st was crazy. It's better than any normal September day.

That's for sure. We've ever seen. And it won't happen again. No. But we woke up today in a different NHL than what we had when we went to bed last. night. Did we ever? What changed that created all the insane amount of contracts that came in under the wire yesterday? Well, let's start with the rule changes. I'm going to give you everything that changed because the new CBA rules have kicked in. Now, the contract term limits, this is the

major part of this guys. Max deal length is now seven years resigning with your own team or six years resigning somewhere else. That's down from the eight and seven. September 15th, yesterday was the last day for old eight-year extensions. Obviously, you know, there weren't a lot of eight-year extensions yesterday, but there were bonuses, and that's the next thing. So the year-over-year salary swing is capped at 20% in the year-one of the salary, obviously. No year can pay less than 71% of the year's highest compensation, and they're going to kill basically the front-loaded bio-proof superstar contract

that guys like Tavares got when he signed here, Well, everybody got them. I think McCar got the league. Basically, the philosophy was a dollar today is better than a dollar, is better than a dollar a year from now. So front load these contracts while these players are good. Pay them a fortune and bonuses. And that means their base salary is low.

And then by the end of their contract, there's very little real money sitting on it. So if you're past their expiration date, you want to trade them, well, they become valuable because the acquiring team's not paying that money. It's not even by the end of the contract. It's by the end of the year. Like Matthews and Marner, and I'm not sure about Nielander, but definitely Tavares,

we're getting like 15, 16 million on July 1st that you can now do whatever you want with. Instead of getting it spread out over the year, you can invest in real estate. You could invest it in the in the market, anything you want. Whatever you want. Go out and get a ski do. Wee. You can do whatever you want. So that was teams throwing their financial weight around.

and the whole point of the salary cap is to stop you from doing that. Right. But don't worry about the taxes. That's not a thing. Nothing to see here. Now, so that was the major part of why the contracts happened yesterday.

I'm going to explain some of the other rules, though. For those that don't know, emergency backup goalies, every team must now have its own ebugs, so we are not going to have a, that Leif's lost to their own employee situation ever again as fun as that was, Steve.

They lose to someone else's employee. The eligibility, no NHL games on a standard contract, max, 80 pro games, anywhere no pro hockey. What, that's way better. We can agree, right? Like, that's way better. If you want to be an eBug, you can't have ever played an NHL game on a standard contract. The maximum pro games at the AHL or ECHL or anywhere else is 80.

No pro hockey in the last three seasons either. So you got to probably be old and you got to probably have played a very little bit of time in the E or the A or in Europe or in Russia. Like it's, it's bizarre. I love that they had to get together, whoever they is. They had to get together and have a complicated conversation about, no, no, no, no, no, he's not allowed to be too good. No, no, he can't be good. You can't have Mark Andre Fleury going to your games.

As the e-bug. And be in your e-buck. Yeah. Okay, what about A-HL? No, E-C-H-L. No, and you know someone was like, really? Yeah. Really?

S-B-H-L then. Okay, fine. All e-bugs. Do you know who the e-bug is? is now for the Carolina Hurricanes because they have named theirs. Oh, no. Is it, is it? No.

It's not, they didn't do the thing. They should have. They should have. Arters Urbe. No, no 80. Oh, right. Yeah, but he's like in his 50s. No, it doesn't matter.

I don't know. His name is, I believe it's Jorge Alves. He is, he is a one-time Carol. line of hurricane. I believe he got into one game in 1617. He's their equipment manager. Yes. That's it. Yeah. They named their equipment manager their eBug because he has goaltender experience at the university level. And then yeah. Look at that. SPHL. So that's, that's who the Leafs are going to lose to. That's great. Now every eBug must wear. He's also

47 years old. They're 47 year old equipment manager. Start yelling. He's a 47-year-old equipment manager who works for the other team. Anyway. Okay. Still got it. Also, all ebugs have to wear the number zero zero. Love that.

No, not just one zero, two zeros. Don't be cowards. Sell their jersey. I want it. I want to do a power ranking of all 32 ebugs. And who on paper is the best. ebug. That's so good. Wouldn't that be fun? Like that'd be a fun. That's so good. You have fun video. Well, this guy has the best resume. This guy's that 79 career

games. But he's 51. So we're not sure. Are we sure he can bend over or get up off the couch without going, oh. Yeah, this guy's career stinks, but I don't know. He's 28. Yeah, I like that. Oh, he's spry. I'm waiting to see who the Leafs announces theirs. I think it'll be fun. They don't have one yet? No, yeah. They haven't revealed it yet. Every team will eventually by the time season starts, but Leaves haven't revealed theirs yet. Let me. Look at this. Look at this.

Peter Engel. Sell it at real sports. Oh, no. Sell the jersey at real sports and then give it to the guy. I thought you meant Keith Pelly is going to sell this job to the public. Oh. You can pay on the Maple Leafs app. No.

Do not give it any ideas. The ebug today. Oh, my God. Because I feel like Keith Pelly would try to monetize it. Yeah, only tiny children, though. Yeah. You can wave the fly. and be the e-bug if you give us $1,000.

Yeah, we understand you were all very upset about us charging $900 for a kid to wave the flag. And that's why we're announcing we've increased it to a thousand. It's a much more round number and we thought that would be more aesthetically pleasing to all of you. Sell the e-bug jersey at real sports. Keith, you're not here to sell jerseys, but you are here to sell that one. All right? That's the one I'm giving you permission. Double zeros and whoever the guy is.

Sell the jersey. Minimums. The roster emergency exception rule. Man, this is, we're getting deep. Emergency recall cap-exempt threshold rises from the league minimum of 100K to league minimum of 375K. You get a little bit of extra room to maneuver when you do an emergency call-up. God.

Okay. Like, remember the Matthew Nye's thing and how complicated that way. Yeah. So it's a little less complicated. Minimum salary. I'm thrilled for this for the people that are coming in. rises from 775 grand to 850,000 stepping up to a million by 2930. So you can imagine if you're in the HL make an 80 grand, which some of those guys are.

Big deal. And then your minimum salary in 2029 is a million and you get to play 10 games. Well, there's like roughly a month. And remember that million is only paid over six months, right? So that all of a sudden becomes a nice $150,000 month. Some of those guys. That's not bad. Some of those guys, when they get called up, their salary increases by 10 times.

I did this years ago with Ben Scrivens. He was making like 60,000. And then he gets called up and he's making 600,000. And yeah, he was up for like a month. That's like life-changing. Absolutely. You could buy a new truck, Ben, and he said no. You can tell that story, by the way.

I will keep the old one. When you stopped at a stoplight in Ben Scrivens' truck? Yes. It's been a long time as I told the story. No, tell this one. No, so I was covering something. at the Leaves practice facility and I was walking to the subway and he recognized me as he was driving by and he goes, hey, do you need a ride? And I was like, yes, I do Ben Scrivens. That would be

great, Ben's Grivens. And he stopped and I got in his truck. His truck, this old red, I have no idea what kind of truck. Like older, probably than. Probably a Ford Ranger. Most of my cousins, like, it's a very old car. We pulled up to a red light. All the gas in his tank went to the front the tank and his car shut off. And we had to wait for it to level out in order for him to be able to turn his car back on. Car behind him. It's like, it's green!

The West End, professional hockey player. Yeah, and we had him on the podcast like five years later and we're like, do you still have that stupid truck? And he's like, yes, I do, Steve Dangal. I bet he still does. Ben Scriven's, ridiculous. No more paper transactions. Kyle Dubus and

Brandon Pridham hate this. This is an old trick, okay? So you would have find a player to the AHL for a day to free up cap space without him ever physically reporting, then he keeps traveling or practicing with the NHL club, then gets recalled a day later. Carolina also used this a lot last season. The new rule is the player must physically report every day of the AHL assignment and must play at least one AHL game before being eligible for a recall. Now, for teams with their AHL squad in the same city like Toronto,

that's pretty easy to pull off, especially with, you know, with like players that can go back and forth without waivers. I think it's silly. I think it's a silly rule change. I think it's fine if it's a paper transaction. But it's, it's, I agree with you, Jesse, but it's Gary Betman taking fun out of the sport. Like the double retention thing, right? Gary's like, no, it's got to be 75 days.

There's no real reason that that didn't benefit everybody. No, they're trying to take away your financial advantage. Nobody was upset. How is the double retention taking away financial advantage? It's not. All it's doing is slowing down transactions that could happen. The whole point of the salary cap is to save teams from themselves. All they had to do, imagine if heading into 2004, they just went, hey, just spend less.

They all said no. No, but we're going to shut the league down and shaft everyone. You still haven't explained how double retention benefits a rich team. It doesn't. It doesn't. It was mostly rich teams who did it. Chicago did it a lot. Leifes did it a lot.

And the reason, though, it benefits smaller market teams, though, is that if you do take on that salary at the trade deadline, you get a pick out of it. And as we saw with Vegas, those are worth a lot. And this, I don't see, Carolina's not a big market team. No. How does this benefit a big market team? I don't think it matters.

Carolina was 12 million under the cap last year. Yeah, and they're going to be like 20. Yeah, I know. That's what I'm saying. This is not a big market. This is just Gary going, Nah, let's take fun out of it. So, yeah, I didn't like this because it feels like the smart teams were able to forecast their cap and manage it and have people day to day making these transactions with the league and sending guys up and down through the paper, like, not actually.

And then they would save money on the cap so that they'd have more. And then the dumb teams just weren't doing it. And then they're like, no, but the smart teams can't have an advantage because they got more resources and they're doing smart stuff. So all the dumb teams are like, no, we got to get rid of this and make it equal because the smart teams are outsmarting us. That's how I felt when I saw this real change. I know who complained about this too. It was the same babies who didn't like that the Leafs were flying their prospects from Russia, like literally just to the practice facility so they could practice. They're like, no, the player has to buy that plane to get out of my face.

Yep. That's it? When we get to the LTIR loophole. as a fan of a smart dumb team, which the Leafs have been for a decade. They've been smart but also dumb. Are they a dumb smart team or a smart dumb team? Well, we'll talk about that with the LTIR thing.

The exception, by the way, of the call-up, call-down paper transaction would be goaltenders. At the NHL club, would be short, a healthy goalie, fewer than two available, they can do this. Now, the deadline day carve-out,

teams can still send down and recall same-day-on-trade deadline day to make an AHL player playoff eligible because you want to be AHL playoff eligible, so that's possible. And then related a non-emergency recall limit

after the deadline rises from four to five, but only four of those can be on the NHL roster at once. That's only for the deepest of nerds, but I wanted to put it in there because if you're listening to this show, you're probably one of those deep nerds. Now, the playoff cap counting,

which is closing the LTIR loophole, as we kind of know, the Leafs are a dumb, maybe they are a dumb smart team because they never took advantage of this where all the teams that won did. Remember the Tampa Bay Lightning won and the HAB fans in 2021

were like, but they're at $92 million dollars and the Lightning got $92 million t-shirts made? It was 17 million over the cap. Or whatever it was, yeah. Here's the deal. Take advantage of the loophole.

The Leafs were like, no, we don't want to do that. The Hurricanes. Vegas did. and Tampa did and Colorado did and what did and Florida did guess what they all won cups. Tulski should have been on a float at the Hurricanes Parade

with a shirt that said 12 million under the cap. He should have because he's the first one and a way funnier. First one and a half a decade to do it. Now the new rule, already in effect for the playoffs, but I will mention it again. By 3 p.m. local or five hours before the playoff game, whichever is earliest.

Teams submit the 18 skater to goal tender list. League calculations and average club salary. some of the average salary and bonus for each player plus one cap charged amount whatever you know it needs to be under the upper cap limit who cares how many hours before the play five or 3 p.m. local or five hours before whichever's earliest okay that's fine LTIR repositioned

I'm like they're not going to know we already saw this last year replacement players average salary can't exceed the prior season's league average salary which is 3.82 million based on 2425 and the combined Replacements can't exceed the injured players AAV. Example, Kuturov on LTIR at $8 million.

Replacements capped individually and collectively at $3.82 million regardless of the available cap space. So essentially, you got access to half of the cap space when they're on LTIR. And then unless somebody's declared

ineligible, which we think might happen with Max Domi, and then that it becomes all available because they're not playing again, kind of like Florida tried to do, I think they did it with Barkov last year. Did they ever declare him ineligible? It didn't matter. It didn't matter for Florida.

Florida, so because they didn't make playoffs. But Sagan did in Dallas. That did because he got injured early, I think, and then they declared him out. I'm pretty sure. Am I right? I'm not sure. Anyway. The one you're thinking of that I think matters is Petriangelo.

Ah, yes. Yes, because they threw him on season ending IR and then freed up all the catap space for Vegas. Right. Because there was a time where we're like, is he? Well, because he's exactly. He said, well, I don't want to rule anything out. And then Vegas is like, we would. Yeah, because it was very helpful to them.

Obviously, the 84 game season, short and pre-season. season mandatory neck guards now for players with zero NHL games. That includes your Ivers Denbergs and your Gavin McKenna's. And then obviously we have the deferred salary ban, the relaxed player dress codes, the double retention trade ban, the tightened LTIR replacement, which we talked about in the playoff cap counting. All that came in. And that led to this.

Drake Batherson, who we talked a lot about on the last show and we're going to get to all the contracts, signed the biggest contract in Cents history. And I think we were pretty darn close. eight years, $10.75 million, including a $6 million signing bonus in years one and two, $6 million in year three, $2 million year four, $3 million in five and six, and then $7, $7, $7,000, and then he's obviously got some base salary in there, too. Isn't it the most signing bonus in Sun's history? It sure is.

Full no move, years one to four, 20 team no trade, five to seven, 15 team no trade, year eight. Not bad. And I thought this was a really important one because this kind of tells you what a player who is a point of game-ish player is now worth in the NHL closing in on, and this is an important caveat, on restricted free agency. Yes. Because restricted free agents different. He's a very dependable 30 to 40 goal score. Every year he's going to score somewhere in there. Yep.

Every year. Yep. And there's a price to that dependability, and that's what he's been for. them. He's a really good player. And I liked our conversation from last show where we talked it out and we ended up landing somewhere to be close. Like did he end up at the Kyle Connor number? No. I would not be shocked at all if somewhere during negotiations he asked for it, which it's 12, right? 12 flat. And he came in 1.25 under that. Yeah. I don't think that's ridiculous at all. He came in overtuck.

I'm trying to think of some of the other 10-ish numbers. That's a great number for Drake Batherson. Yeah. For both sides. He's rich. Sends get pretty much money in the bank, 30, 40 goals every year. What's not to like? Well, and I, you know, he's still making more than Ryan Leonard.

So, man. We'll talk about that in a second, but I want to say there's a $250,000 gap between Ryan Leonard and Drake Batherson. I know Ryan Leonard's got a high ceiling, but holy shit, the Capitol's contracts yesterday. Now, the other big, big, big contract was that of Cutter Goce, which we've been waiting for all year long. Chris Johnson reporting, Carter Goce signs a six-year deal with the Anaheim Ducks. Remember we said it can't be five because Leo Carlson's at five.

You can't have them both walking away at the same year. Dumb, dumb, leaves, dumb. $13.5 million a.A.V. and I thought, and I think we thought, the average value would be higher, guys. But this comes down to signing bonus. Are you guys ready for this shit? I am.

Because upon signing that contract yesterday and every July 1st from now on, he will get a bonus. And this is completely illegal now today. The bonus for signing that contract yesterday. That's, yeah. The check the Samuel E's wrote him yesterday was $18.651 million.

Well, that's part of how you get the number down. July 1st next year, it will be $13.75 million. Man. July 1st, the next year, 28, 29, 10.7, and then 10.7, and then 5.8 and then 9.7. Those are just the signing bonuses. The only year he makes more than $2 million in basic salary is $2030, $2031 where it's $5.8 million. You ever wish you were better at sports? I do.

Man, me too. Holy cow, man. And he does not have any trade protection because he's not allowed under the CBA until the final year where he is a modified no trade. It's a good deal for both parties. You know, we all thought it would be 15-ish. It's a 40 goal score. Well, it would have been 15-ish.

I think that would have been the number if it was eight years. And it's not. This is great for him because he gets a boatload of money. It's front-loaded in terms of. of every year he gets the bonuses. And he's going to get out of the contract sooner than if it was eight years. And I don't know, by then he'll be making, I don't know, 40 million a season. And all those signing bonus years, those amounts he's getting are still significantly less than

Leo Carlson gets in terms of bonus each season. Yeah. So they're paying a lot of money in Anaheim and they're not afraid to spend it. Hey, Jesse, can we do a thing? Can we bring up, so Cutter Gochase is 13.75. What's Leo Carlson's bonus next July 1st? Can we look that out? I believe it's 18. 18 or 19?

So they're going to pay roughly 30 million. They've just paid $30 million of bonuses. They're going to do that again next year. It's 181. So 19, 19, 181, 17, 15, 2, and then 15. That's the signing bonus he gets every July 1st. Now the Samuel is with how rich they are.

Who cares? Who cares? But to see a team like the Ducks, paying $30 million to two players every July first is encouraging. It tells you where the league is at. Yeah, because they wouldn't spend that money if they didn't have that money to spend these sports teams, their evaluations just keep going through the roof. The amount of money they make every year goes up and up and up. They have this money. They can spend it. I'm sorry to sound like Alan Walsh here, but the players are making like

a tenth of what these owners are making on these franchises. Do not worry about the pocketbooks of billionaires, please. those those the ducks and flyers becoming this random rivalry is so good but I think the biggest most vicious fight we're going to see next season is in the press box I think all their executives just freaking duke it out oh for the offer sheet and everything if you're pad verbiq you'd hey Danny you know how to fight you better learn I'm a big fan of the ducks and flyers rivalry because unlike when you have a same conference rivalry, they don't see each other a lot.

So when they do see each other, it's firework. It can't miss. The first meeting of the season between them happens in Philly, which I think is exceptionally awesome. So we're going to see a lot of hatred there because it's not just Cutter, that situation, it's Zegris, and then it's also Leo Carlson. So we have a trifectar and Jamie Driesdale, which is a part of that whole thing, too, but I should name him, you are correct.

So we just have a whole bunch of different storylines going up. on and they only get to me twice, which I think makes it even better. Philly, admin, hear me now. Make a tribute video. To cut her go, Jay? No. No, to Leo Carlson. To have that offer sheet, he had to sign it.

He agreed to become a flyer. That is a fact. Yes. If I were a Flyers fan and I felt like being insufferable, I'd be like, he chose to be a flyer and the ducks took it away from them. I want to see a jersey.

I want a Carlson Flyers jersey. Philly fans are cranky enough to be nice. Yeah. Throw it on the ice. With batteries. At Santa Claus. Same brain.

Same brain. I was just about to say sew batteries into the jersey. Yeah. But we need it. Dude. Please do it. Somebody.

No, not the batteries part. Oh, yeah, maybe. Yeah, don't do it. No, no, listen, like, we got to ask them. Should we, should we call up cousin Chunis one afternoon as like callers? Like, we'll pretend we're local and be like, this is what I'm going to do. I'm a local guy Cameron. Yeah, and then rile up the Philly audience and get them to do this.

I like that. And if you don't, you're not, you're not really from Philly. I know. Oh. No, like you're not tough enough to be here. I'm sorry, that's the devil's. That's New Jersey. Yeah, that's.

Oh. The Cousins. Now, Ryan Leonard signed a very, very close deal to, I think, Alex Tuck. And almost identical to Alex Tuck. They're both 10 and five. And Alex Tuck's got to be like, man, I should have held up for more. But Ryan Leonard, who really let me down in fantasy last year, I'm not going to lie, $10.5 million, eight years.

Elliot Friedman said they locked up their young Cincinnati. and I would agree with that except he has not proven that yet. And I believe the ceiling is there. Absolutely. But to say that Ryan Leonard, who had 30-something points last year, getting $10.5 million for the next decade wasn't a surprise. I'd be lying to you. So here's what you didn't have to do for a long time, right?

You didn't really have to take any risks. Yep. because the cap was not going to go up. Knowing that the cap is skyrocketing, you have to take swings. And that's what the capitals are doing with two really big ones yesterday, and they acquire Cairo and they acquire Tuck.

They're throwing all this money out. What's funny is with Tuck's cap hit, his challenge is going to be remaining Alex Tuck. Yep. Because he's older. Because he's older. Ryan Leonard's. challenges becoming Alex Tuck.

Yeah. Like I think they could be similar players. But like you can't just be like, all right, yeah, we're going to in the NHL to create a winner. And this is just a fact, you have to pay players less than their worth. Do we not agree that like all these contracts should be going up? NHL players should be getting it. Okay, great. Jack Eichel, I believe, is still the highest cap hit for a Stanley Cup champion ever at 10 flat.

Yeah. Flat. The hurricane, look at the contracts on the hurricane. Look at some of the contracts in the final four. Right? Obviously, Vegas has a couple guys over 10. Hurricanes are $12 million over the cap. They're paying guys pennies.

And then it's the habs, right? Now. And who am I missing? Oh, the avalanche. Yes. I mean, even the avalanche, McKinnon's at 12.5. 12.5 is like on the cheap end. Oh, no shit.

And now McCar's making 20.4. So you're looking at, you're all looking at this wrong. Like, yes, some of these are going to age like milk. That's a fact. But you have to take the swing. And I've said this, and like some people think it's salty. It's, I think an objective. fact. A large part of the reason the Blackhawks had the dynasty that they did is they had two

contracts on the roster that for a long time were illegal. But they got in there and they got those deals before they became illegal. Duncan Keith, if I'm not mistaken, never had a cap hit over $6 million. Yeah. He is already in the hockey Hall of Fame. And the other guy who was on a 12-year deal was Marion Hosa, who's also in the Hall of Fame already. Yeah. Right? You have to take these swings. And that's what the capitals are doing.

And just to correct you, Barkov and Bobrovsky also made $10 million. Oh, there you go. So I call Bob Barkov, but it's all, it's still 10 flat. Right. Yeah. Now, yeah, that will change. Now, looking at Ryan Leonard's deal and Justin sort of, who we're going to get to in a second.

Sordief? Sordif. None of, neither of them, it doesn't kick in this year. It's next year. Yeah. But Ryan Leonard, next July 1st, we'll go from making, you know, 950K plus bonuses, you know, and rookie bonuses are insane. Like, it's like, well, you've got to finish top 10 in Art Ross or you got to get an award

or whatever. It's crazy. And we know Schedule A's and Schedule B's don't we? I wasn't going to bring it off. We don't schedule B's here, don't we, Steve Dang. No, we don't. That was the whole problem is we don't. Yes, Adam.

Ryan Leonard will be written a $14.7 million check July 1st. Isn't that crazy? Now, Justin Sort of, who was a third round pick of the Panthers a couple years ago. Well, I think four years ago now. Five, six years ago, 2020. What? He was kind of a late bloomer. 15 goals, 20 assists last year.

10 less points than Ryan Leonard, which got him $6 million less. But still not bad. $6.35 million over eight years. And yeah, a lot of that's bonus too, especially in the beginning. On July 1st next year, he goes from making $825 grand. I don't even know if he gets any bonuses. Probably not because he was a third round pick and he's not getting schedule A's and Bs and a third rounder.

I would doubt it, yeah. They will write him a $7.3 million check. Man, how do you not take the money? You take the money. If you're hand. Like, even if you end up being a tremendous discount, it's like, fellas, I had 36 career points. And he'll be...

And I... What was it, 53 mil? He'll be 32 in the contract's up. So if he has a good career, he'll still make money. He will be, yeah, just... Justin Sordief is going to earn like $70 million in his... I think the contract is totally reasonable if you're Chris Patrick, and you're just trying to make the bets where all the good teams get into these situations

where they're paying good players under their market value. It's the bet that you made with Nathan McKinnon many years ago when you were the abs and you ended up paying Nathan McKinn's $6 million to be the best player in the league. So with Ryan Leonard, you're just hoping he grows a little bit into that $10.5 million winger. And that's about what's going to cost for a really good second line winger. So that's kind of the floor with him. And with Sordif, like, you want him to be a third line center.

Because in a $120 million cap world, $125 million cap world, $6 million is about what a third line center costs. So you're asking this 24 year old get good enough to be our third line center and the value for that contract will match what we think you are. And then anything past that has found money for us. So you're just, Chris Patrick's just making a bit of a bet here. But I think it's a good bet because you're trying to win the Stanley Cup and this is how you can do it.

You're probably, if you're him looking at the Fraser Minton deal and being like, I want something like that. Which is what? Seven. Yeah, a little over seven. and I think it's for fewer years. I think it's for seven years. Sort of is like, okay, maybe my ceiling isn't mitten ceiling.

But I'm not bad. And also I'm signing for more years. Let's say he's a top six player for them eventually. That's ridiculous. At $6.35 million and Jesse, no trade protection. Yeah. Like if he grows into a top six option, you're laughing. Then you're in one of those funny situations where it's like this,

elite player is making no money. But like, I don't know, the bar is so reasonable for that cap bit for this player that I think it's a good bet to make. Ryan Leonard, there's a little bit more to grow into. You know, obviously you have higher expectations for him. But one thing I think I've taken from Caps fans is that these are two players they really like. And I think that's important when a fan base is really behind guys.

It's not like they freaked out about this number and they're looking at this whole thing as ridiculous. they can see these two individuals growing to the bottom of these numbers. And they spent a second, I forgot the trade. It was a second round pick and a sixth for Sortif, who's a player a year later. They're like, yeah, we'll give you over $50 million. Yeah. That's a good trade.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Right? That's really, that's really good. Also, it's my favorite Quebec person from Burnab, BBC. I know. We keep saying Sortif. I say Sorif because I think it's cute.

I thought it was sort of. I've been saying sort of. He's from BC, right? I'm pretty sure he's not. Hey, you can be Francophone from BC. It's true. It's true. It's rare.

Sourdough. Let's just, I've been saying sort of insur d'if and I'm waiting for someone to come in. Yeah, we'll pick one eventually. We'll listen to a play by play. There you go. Now, those contracts were surprising. But I get it, right? It was sort of like when we first saw Jake Sanderson's deal, which was the first of these,

I think, of this era of young guy gets crazy contract. But we're taking a bet. And the Jake Sanderson deal has worked out pretty damn great. for the senators. Jack Hughes, yeah. Yeah. Now. Jack Hughes.

Jack Hughes. That numbers is crazy. I guess, kind of, Tim, I guess Quinn Hughes a little bit too, but they kind of knew he was a stud. And Quinn Hughes, he's expiring this season. So like, that was an early bet. Was it not the Quinn here? Yeah.

Yeah. He was still pretty spectacular. Yeah. Anyway, it's a long. I feel like he made about what he should have. Yeah. Like, I don't think he made a steal. Like right now it's really good under, for the wild, like under in their cap situation.

But in his growth trajectory, you mean? Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it's about right. Yeah. Now, this contract might be the most shocking and no one's talking about it. And it was signed by the Carolina Hurricanes. According to some guy named reporter Chris.

Not to be confused with reported Chris, which we're going to talk about in a second. The Hurricanes signed Captain Jordan Stahl to a one-year extension that could be worth as much as $10 million. $4 million signing bonus, $900,000 in salary, $5.1 million in possible performance bonuses. Now, do we know what those are? Well, this is where I want to go with this. Got it.

Now, that's a lot of money. He's 38. But he also did just win the cons smith. So you're thinking, hmm, that's not so bad. Now, the performance bonuses, I don't think that they, I actually don't even know if they're available yet. Well, so it doesn't matter.

No, they're not. It doesn't matter. So let's say he hits them all. Carolina is not going to hit the cap this year. They are not. Yeah. And if Tom Dundan would vomit if they hit the cap. If he hits all his bonuses and they do go over the cap,

it will then be a penalty that gets tacked on to next season. No, no, because this contract is for next season. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. It's an extension. This is an extension that. Sorry,

I should have said that. Oh, well, then even better. Yeah. So they have even more just time to figure out like, oh, maybe we will pay Jordan's doll $10 million or whatever. And I don't think they're ever going to be a cap team.

No. My question, though, is how easy of the bonuses? Because remember, it's like, with like Jamie Ben, it was like,

well, did you get out of bed this morning? Right. Or Patrice Berseron. Yeah. Play six games. Whatever. So silly.

They could make those. I think it's the Carolina Hurricanes. So I think the bonuses will be tough to achieve. Yeah, what if it's like win the Stanley Cup? And then who cares? We won the Stanley Cup. We'll give them a hundred million dollars. Yeah, exactly.

But I think it's nice too because they're known for being, I mean, everybody that plays in Carolina and likes it, they're very close. But Tom Dundon is known for being real tough with negotiations. And therefore, Eric Tulski is too. And I'll be honest with you, from what we've heard around the league, they are not a popular front office with just a, about anybody else. Damn, that's crazy.

Because they believe, I think, right, the impression that we've been told that people are left with is they think they're smarter than us. And weirdly enough, they probably are. It's chiseled into metal that they are. Yeah. They just showed us that they are. So that pisses people off. Their rings should be the size of sewer grates.

But it's nice to see them reward a guy like this, not just the captain, not just the Kahn-Smith winner, six goals in seven. Stanley Cup game or six goals in six Stanley Cup games, wasn't it? Or is it five? And whatever. It was stupid. It was crazy. And they're going to extend to me a year in advance just because. I think that's a really nice feel good story. It's also a wild contract.

I kind of feel like the Hurricanes are sitting around going this is too easy. This is too easy. I need a challenge. The hurricanes... What are they supposed to do? Steve Dangle, the hurricanes are going to have to probably run into the Florida Panthers in these playoffs. Yeah, that's fine. That's the one boogeyman

they've never conquered. Sure. Forget the Stanley Cup. I'm on Steve's side with this. I think Eric Tolski is putting his own guardrails on himself so that he can make it more difficult because he's too good at this job. And like they have all this space. And like they have like Alexander Nekheesian who is on the third pair for them going,

I want to trade. And they're sort of like, you do? Nah. All right. What does that mean? Like what? Suppose we could do that. And then we'll like, we'll try to.

Well, I don't know. We'll just get something for him. Like, he was good, and he's a Stanley Cup champion. Like, I'm not trying to take anything away from him. But, like, for what he was to them, they'll survive. Like, they'll be able to do this. It's not really a problem. They, like, for the money that kid probably wants and for how desperate a team might be to get them,

I think the hurricanes are definitely going to come out on top. Like, they're going to get good value out of that. I think for what they are. The cap floor should be the same. ceiling for the hurricanes for competitive balance. So their cap ceiling should be 81 million. There's, there's, I think that'd be fun. Tulski would take that better.

Yeah, I think you'd be up for the challenge. The hurricanes are just always up to weirdness. Like they make the NHL compelling. There's, there's a tweet. And I was like, this is the Carolina Hurricanes in a nutshell. It's a conversation, a made up conversation between Daniel Radcliffe and Daniel Radcliffe's agent. Okay.

His agent starts, Hello, Harry Potter. And Radcliffe goes, hello, would you like to be in a movie? Is it very strange? Yes. Then yes. When can you get here? I'm in your yard climbing trees right now.

Like, that is the Carolina Hurricanes. Like, can we sign Jordan Stahl? Hmm. Is the contract very strange? Yes, it is. Okay, well, then yes, let's do it. Should we trade for Miko Rantan? And if it doesn't work out, trade them again?

Yeah. Just flip them. All right. Let's just figure it out. Let's just, they're so silly. And they, we do not put enough stock in. Like, we spent so much air and energy whining about all these teams that won the Stanley Cup way over the cap. The Hurricanes were 12 million, holy smoking dollars under the cap with Yisperi Cocheney in the press box, by the way.

Yeah, did not play. Yeah, guys who were. making like decent money, just there's wasting away in the press box. They were closer to $17 million. Oh, yeah. Now they're not. And they currently have the ninth most cap space. Yeah.

I counted that backwards correctly, which is $8.18 million. Jesse, you want to freak Steve out even more? Click on their page and look at their draft picks. Yeah, they got two first round picks next season. Get out of my face. They got all their friggin picks, dude. Yeah. Plus extra.

They have a full draft class, this upcoming draft plus an. extra third and then in 2028 full draft class plus an extra first round draft pick. They are smarter than you. So what if they're snooty about it? They're right. They also have 43 standard

of a 50 standard limit for contracts. So they've got a lot of room to bring on people if they want to. Their steak is too juicy. Their lobster is too buttery. And even if they were to approach the cap, I think Seth Jarvis is on IR for a little bit here.

Oh, is he? Yeah. So I don't know. They're just They're just swimming in it, man. Good time to be a Keynes fan. Now, Eric Tulski did just announce that because Alexander Nickasian or Nekishin has not signed any contract. And his number, by the way, has absolutely ballooned. Whatever it might have been in June, it's going to be enormous. Now, you think he's asking for Byron?

He will not be in camp. Same agent. Well, I would have said no, except, you know, he's a young defenseman and people like those. I'm a young defenseman. I won the cup. I'm good. I won the cup and... Pay me.

Yeah. I don't know. Well, any team that gets, because he's not going to sign in Carolina, so any team that gets him will have acquired him and therefore you lose leverage. Yeah. What I need everyone to do is like before you leave a comment, let it breathe. Let it breathe.

Because I think your instinct when I say that number, you're... No. And that's going to be every number that gets thrown out for every... No! Well, I mean, that'd be like, oh, And also like, oh, is my opinion of what Caput should be out of date? Yes. But just a few months ago, yes.

And it would have been crazy if we had this conversation a few months ago, but we're not. Yeah. That player is, that player could be easily justified in asking for double digits. Now, yesterday, a report went out from Chris Johnston. Expect Will Smith and the Sharks to come to terms of. an eight-year extension today, AAV in the ballpark of 13 million tidy business for Mike Greer

in San Jose. Except no. Oh. That came from the reported Chris account. Oh, sort of a gun. But over 1,200 people liked the tweet.

200,000 people saw it. It's worth mentioning. What's wrong with you? I was waiting to talk about the Will Smith extension. Yeah. Oh, you got reported Chris? Well, I didn't share it or anything. Oh, wow.

No, because news was happening so fast and curious, and I was doing stuff last night. I'm like, I will talk about it tomorrow. I just want to say respectable that you would admit to that. I was duped. I just didn't blast it out to everyone. Chris has a Twitter subscription. He's got a blue checkmark. So if you see Chris Johnson come up and it doesn't, it has a blue, well, I don't think

the dupe account wants to pay for the. The blue check mark. The blue account can just pay for checkmark. They can, but this one has not. Oh, okay. Okay. So I'm just saying that's the differentiation point right now. Right.

Does that report it's... One day you're going to see like, oh, yeah, there's a big trade between the Leafs and Flyers, and it's going to be CJ with just a massive honkin pair of... Anyway. Yeah. That is Twitter these days. Dan Milstein had us all going last night. He posted a picture of a bear, and we weren't sure, is that a Kucheroff extension?

Is that a Marchenko trade? Neither yet. No. But Dan does love to stir the pot. Was it a bear? It was a bear. What kind of bear? A brown bear.

Hmm. It's a very one. Bruins? Does he have any Bruins? Zedoroff, doesn't he? I don't know. I don't know. Zedorov.

No, he's client list. I think you're reading too much into the bear. You kept asking about the bear. Yeah, you asked what kind of freaking bear was. I am going off the information you were just giving me. You know what? We're looking it up. Jesse.

If there was a bird, I'd have it. He turned on you so quick, Jesse. What am I supposed to do? Yeah, I learned from the best. That's true. No loyalties. No, it's not just like a brown bear. It's a brown bear cup.

You don't find that bear in Canada. Also, I'm pretty sure that's an AI. Well, but yeah, of course it is. But Russia, the Russian bear. But he's got a million Russian clients. He's Dan Milstein. So I don't know. But maybe he was just going, wow, these contracts are crazy, bro.

With a bear? I don't know. I don't think that's what he was doing. Although he does. He does have a habit of jumping the gun. What do you mean? He has a habit of jumping the gun. Remember Nikita Zedorov leaf legend?

Toronto, are you ready for Nikita Zadurav? I think he was just stirring the pot, man. I don't think, I think they were close on a deal. But then the Calgary Flames were like, oh, yeah, it's Brad for Living. Fuck that guy. And let's trade him to the Bruins. Watch this. Or Vancouver.

End up in Vancouver. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, he's got a lot of clients. He certainly does. He has a ton of clients. Why? Yeah.

It could have been a lot of these guys. So I organized his clients. clients by expiry, and there's a lot of them. So Kuzharov would be fun. He's doing extension. I assume that's going to be for a bigillion dollars. Oh, that Lepshinoff deals going to be easy. No, Demadov's got a contract.

Askerov, maybe something. Like, I don't know. Kuzharov is a good answer. But Lev Shinov too, man. Lev Shinov in the defense-starved Chicago Blackhawks. Oh, yeah. I am. He's going to make.

what Dan's client in Anaheim made, at least. I'm Inchikov. I am annoyed that Dan didn't do anything yesterday. Come on, Dan. Yeah. It was probably something of Borea Valis, and then it just fell through. That's Calder Cup champion. By the way, we love Borea Valis.

Yeah. Borealis rocks. Yeah, we do. Oh, yeah. Thank you for reminding me to get going on the prospect pyramid. I did not know Borea Valles was a Milsstein client. Yes. Also, Arder Akhtiomov.

Yes. That is the official name? Yes. Okay. I feel like we'll have to really learn it this year because, um, because, you know,

I respectfully, I hope not. Steve refuses with the extra syllables. You hate them. Actium Huff. I don't know where that is. Oh, I'm a guy that worked for the KHO first.

I didn't freaking do that. I hope he doesn't play in the country. He already did that. The Habs re-signed Alex Newhook who had a really good playoff last year. He was unbelievable. Uh, ever, consistently injured.

The only person who's more injured than him is Kirby Doc, also of the haps. Hayden Goalie's going to go. No. Oh, Katie Goalie won't be in camp. You're right. No, Adam.

The injured crown goes to Patrick Linae. Oh. Mr. I got into a game. But he was hell for her. They do very well considering, like, that is a tight race. That is not a, you do not want,

you're, you've just filled up half the track in this heat. That's not good. What's insane about that is the haves are just phenomenal too. Like just such a well-run organization. So New Hook signed for four years, 5.5 AAV. According to Pierre LeBrun and also Puckpedia,

he would have been an RF8 next July. So this contract does not even kick in until next year. If New Hook is anything like he was in the playoffs, which was phenomenal, this will be a steal. But we just like... I think it's a steal if it's him in the regular season. thing with Alex Newhook is that I just want to see more in the regular C. The regular it's it's part of this stuff and I guess at 5.5 million dollars in today's

NHL you were actually not paying for consistency. He's fine. 25 points in 42 games last year so that's half a point of game. That'd be like 40 something points if you played 8 to 2 but he did he could have been healthy because he played about half the season yeah you said the 42 games if he's healthy you're projecting it out and like that's a 20 goal score yep like easily you cross it 13 and 42 and then the point. playoffs when he was around he has what is it 10 nine goals in uh i should just looked it off

nine goals in 19 games well and winners too like like the the quality of the goals was seven goals in 19 games 10 points yeah like he i don't think could have gotten this kind of security based on the regular season he had because even though he was okay uh yeah are you showing up to work because you keep getting hurt and holy smokes that he show up to work in the spring now when he When he's healthy, that is a useful player for the habs, and I think it's a good contract. It's a good bet to make. Now, Arbor Jackie. Arbor Jackie also re-signed, $1.5 million.

This is the one contract that wasn't a, hey, we need to get this in real quick contract because we need to pay him a bunch for a bunch of years. If Arbor Jackie turns out to be better than people think Arbor Jackai is, then you're going to have to pay him, but I don't know if the expectations are that. Adam's making a giant face at us. That guy's, he's got a... Can I just say, no, let me say it. Okay.

Let me take this one. I like Arbor Jack. I like the vibes that he brings. Fans love him. When a team gets better, the rising tide. That's the kind of guy you cut. Yeah. And I think he's a valuable piece to teams.

I don't think he's not an NHL player. But let's be honest about the limitations that he has. And Montreal is so good. But they're talking about moving him to the wing this year. I don't think that's crazy. He has to become a better skater. But it's in the modern NHL, you have to be a better skier. And they love him.

Like this is a great person with a great story. No one's, no one's saying that he shouldn't be in the NHL. Montreal is not just trying to make the playoffs. Montreal are trying to win the cup. 10, 15 years ago. You can't have, you can't have a guy on this roster that, you know, like, remember the, I hate saying this because they,

And again, another great vibes guy, Ryan Reeves. When the Leafs played Ryan Reeves, what happened? They could only roll three lines because whatever line he was on was an instant issue. It got to a point where his line got scored on every night. And he wasn't fighting. And I don't think Jack Eyes did that. No, no, no, no. He's also 15 years younger than Ryan Reeves was.

I know. If this was 10 or 15 years ago, I think he'd have a spot in the NHL no problem. But he was a child at the time. So, like that is the. The days of Patrick Colleta are kind of over, and I think you got to... Colletta could skate. Yeah. Man, so you got to move.

I think if Jack Eye does not establish himself is at least a rotational guy on that bottom line, if he's playing forward this year, then he's gone next year. Got into 65 games last year. Really impressive. 11 minutes a night. Did score a playoffical. He can be a useful utility guy if, like, you have him playing some nights on D, some nights up front.

If Gully's not hurt or if Ryanbacker comes in, like he's not going to make the defense. He's not. Gully is hurt. I think he's for the three weeks. Regular Habs line up a healthy one. Like on the way the player he is today, he doesn't crack the lineup. Which is unfortunate. But he's making 1.5.

And it's how many games this year? 84. Right. There's so many games. And so you need people. Yep. So I don't mind that, but I don't see, I don't think he's going to play a lot in the playoffs. Obviously, do we do we tell.

talked about Zach Bulldoch's extension too, right? I know. 4.8. Hayden's saying, yeah. We did. Sure. Sometimes I just forgot. Because we talked about it during the Crider discussion, I think, after it.

Right. Briefly. I believe you. We did. We've recorded a lot of shows. Now, it's worth noting who's without a contract. Okay. Frank Saravali, with all the players due to report for medicals, six NHL restricted free agents

remained without a contract. We mentioned Nikitian. We mentioned Edvinson last episode. and we're going to talk about Detroit in just a little bit here. Adam Fantilly. No contract. We're not talking about an extension. He is out of contract.

Yeah, it's bad. Brennan Offman of the Flames, Ethan Del Mastro of the Blackhawks. No, he signed. Oh, Brennan Offman did? No, Del Maristrar. Oh, he did. Okay, that must have just happened then. Okay.

And then... Why did you look at your watch? I don't know. I was like, what time did this? I was like, what time is it now? Because it was a 907 tweet. My analog watch didn't tell me, Del Mastro. signed. I'm like, that was this, how old is this tweet is what I was looking at?

You're staring at a computer and you look at your wife. I know, I know. For the Domestro signing. Just so anybody wants the information on that, two years, 950 is all Domastro is making. So there you go. And Matthew Poultris in the, with the Bruns. Potra. I can never get his name right.

Matra. Trade target. He's often talked about in trade. Now, I want to talk very quickly about Fantas. because I'm wondering if Don Waddell is losing his fastball. So his, so Merslikens is not. Don Waddle is more of Tim Wakefield.

Yeah, okay, is he losing his knuckle curve. I don't know if he's got a fast. You're right, because Waddell, he was a big part of bringing the team together in Carolina that has now ultimately won the cup.

He brought those guys, managed those guys, and then left and they won, okay? Good at surrounding himself with pretty smart people. And I thought him going to Columbus would be a good thing because, man, they need somebody, they needed a new guy to look at the picture,

and they needed some smart young people around him and stability. And literally this morning at 1145, he said, we're going to send something to Fantilli's camp in the next 24 hours. Now, I don't know if that's a knife. I don't know if that's a horse's head. Is it a contract? Like, what a...

I'm sorry, but don't. That is an Italian stereotype. And I wonder if you'd make that joke for someone not named Fantelli. Oh, I didn't even think about that. Oh, yeah. Oh, I think you didn't. I don't, you're one of those. I don't care if you're green or purple guys or whatever.

I know that the Columbus media spotlight is different than Toronto. But if a general manager stepped up here and said, are the greatest young center we've ever had, ever had. Best draft pick since Wurinsky and then before that Rick Nash. Out of non-first overall picks. Like, yeah, pretty high. Okay. You're going to send him something in the next 24 hours?

I'm going to go a step farther. You missed an opportunity to get this guy locked with bonuses and bring that AAV down, Donnie. That's bad. I'm going to go a step farther. Like, I know we'd all be losing our minds and running around with our hair. on fire if this happened in Toronto. I'm going to go

farther and say that would happen in almost any other market. And Blue Jackets fans are not thrilled. By the way, I just want to say that too. And I'm going to say it is happening in Columbus. It's not about the fan base. The fans are dialed in and the fans are upset.

The organization bluntly has no standards. Like Bill Simmons, I think, took a lot of crap or whatever because he said... He said they're the most irrelevant franchise in North America, any sport. Right.

Any of the four majors. Okay. So that is, that's a nasty thing to say. All right, let's list the teams who are worse. How are we doing, folks? Like, it's, even if you can name teams, it's not a long list. Like, we talked about the fiasco of the Babcock thing.

Like, a professionalism of an organization isn't defined by wins and losses. I know I'm a league fan. Shut up. Like, I know, I know. And the standards, by the way, we should know. Our standards has flipped here in the last couple years. Yeah, are you kidding?

That's why Sundeen's here. Yeah. Standard is fallen. It's bad. Stop shouting at Lee fans that they suck. We know. That's what we're so mad about. We know.

We tell it funnier than you also. Yeah, that's true. You know? Our jokes are better. Yeah. Than anyone's. But anyway, they have a real, how do you not have this done? Are you joking?

Well, what about when the Leafs had it? Yeah, it didn't work out for them at all. All the times they went through this and they like signed Marner in camp and they had Nylander go to December. Neither of those situations worked out well in the short or long term. It was bad. Right? It's always, why is it always you?

And like there's still like, did, here's an example. we've talked about Hellebuck's trade request ad nauseum we've talked about Larkin's trade request do we just not care about Carol Marchenko well he's going to be in camp

and he said he wants to kick ass for the team while he's there but he will not resign next year stop yeah and he's the person who's under contract and playing Fantilli like can't play right like right doesn't have a contract

so it's even on the ice but like what I'm saying with Marchenko is like like okay Werenzki is staying and like you have some term there. Marchenko very clearly would like another opportunity. And then, yeah, Fantilli,

if he was chomping at the bit to play for you night one, could not do it. No, it's not an option. And I don't understand why these negotiations had to be grindy, string-em-out negotiations between the Blue Jackets and Fantilli. Because where the organization,

is in its development curve and its winning curve right now, they should be begging a player like this to stick around for as long as possible. It should be a blank check 24 hours ago to stick around for eight years. We need you from age 21 to 29. This is a team who is desperate for players like Fantilli, and you're not going to get people to come to Columbus if this is how you're treating players like Fantili. You can barely get them to stay.

Exactly. It's bad, man. So you have control here because he's an RFA, and this is the only place he can sign the contract. It should be such an easy negotiation like it is with a badard or a Macklin in their situations, because that is, he is that to you. And Don Weddell not having that perspective with Fantilli is just shocking to me. I want to say that Wadell before the summer was quoted as saying that they would match any offer sheet. But I actually think, unlike- What about your offer?

Unlike the Leo Carlson offer sheet, I think that you would be doing Columbus's work for them if you sent it. Exactly. Like Montreal offer sheeting Ajo. There was a legitimate chance. Anaheim does not move and resign Leo Carlson. There's a legitimate chance, right? That offer sheet was structured so perfectly by Breyer that there was a legitimate chance they might just steal him. The reason Breyer didn't turn around and go, okay, Adam Finnelly, because he's,

He is eligible. He's not like Cutter Goce, who was not eligible, is that that would just take Don Waddell's homework off his desk. And I think teams kind of know Columbus, the way they have treated young prospects in the past, Rewinsky being an exception. You look at guys who've come in there, like, listen, Pierre, Luke Dubois had his own issues,

I think, you know, regardless of what you think about the player who actually has turned it around and has, having a great career in Washington. There were questions about him in Winnipeg, questions about him in L.A. The common denominator is the Columbus Blue Jackets. It's always the Blue Jackets. What they did to Line A's career.

And I know that Line A also had issues there. And he has documented them and been forth. But you're like, let's take the 40-goal winger who doesn't play defense and play him at center. Well, a history of finding the wrong player. Like, it goes back to like Ger-Dev. But this is my point, Steve, is that, and I'm sorry, it's long. let that relationship poison itself.

Right? Why do I need to help Columbus screw this up when I already know they will? And then I can move in. Because here's the thing. Fantilli might get to the point where he goes, I'm just not going to sign here. Yeah, I'm just not.

Trade me. And they can't afford him to have him sit, Jesse. Don Waddell, he's screwing up the franchise royally here because I think you're very correct in bringing up Marchenko in it. because it's not just him that is going under the radar of not wanting to be in Columbus or them mismanaging the situation. Denton Matechuk is eligible for an extension, not signed a one.

That is a 12th overall pick from a couple of years ago. And then they also have Kent Johnson, who is not signed, who is eligible for an extension. And smart organizations would be resigning this kid who was the fifth overall pick a couple of years ago to an extension when you could manipulate the bonuses 24 hours. ago and now you can't do that. Same with Matejuk. And then so they have these three young stars with no assurances that they're going to be here for any length of time in Columbus. And then like talking about oh, we're going to KJ all this opportunity when you messed with the first couple of years of his career as well. Well, and there were rumors with him like, okay, well, maybe they just move on and they trade them. They haven't done that either. No, they've done anything. So I don't, I don't want

this to be misconstrued by Blue Jackets fans. Like, like, I'm cheering for all of your. teams to at least be competent. I don't like sitting here. I don't think Blue Jackets fans are going to be like Steve Dangle hates us. They're pissed, man. Oh, I know. They're pissed about the coach hired. I don't want you to be mad.

They've been pissed since Babcock. Because the guy that they, even the guy they hired before Babcock, they were pissed about. Like it's, it's like there has never been, I don't think in the NHL, a longer, slower division of what the fans want and what management does. There's such a disconnect there. It's crazy. You like the, by the way, just one more thing.

Merslikins also had made several trade requests before last season and he ultimately got injured. And obviously Columbus has not been able to trade him. But well, he was also bad. Yeah, he was also, um, like they got to pray the Oilers don't win the cup.

You're going to look like idiots. Like, okay. Why, though? Tell people why. What's the connection? You should not have signed Babcock in the first place. Okay. But you did, though.

Mm-hmm. And then you walked away from him. There was this investigation. They're like, okay, fine, whatever. And then he's just able to move on and go to Edmonton. And then what if he goes and wins a cup there? Like my argument was just keep him. you already made the mistake, right?

And they lit millions of dollars on fire and had upheaval during their training camp because they're rudderless. We're hiring Babcock. We're firing him before camp. We're going to go out and get this guy. We're going to extend a 72 year. What the f?

What are you doing? Or no, Bon, no, Boness is with the Blue Jack. Yes. Yeah, yeah. He's still the head coach now, yeah. Guys. And who plays for you? Okay, who plays for you next year?

Like, is your captain committed? If they're bad this year, I can see that whole situation blowing up again. Or they're, like, their big, their big replacement for Mersleikins is not Kenna Conna Conner Hellabuck. It's Cam Talbot, who's 39. For basically their entire existence,

the Columbus Blue Jackets have either been bad or inexplicably good. Like, good. There's been a small handful of seasons in their existence where they were just good. Right? And what do they have to show for it? This sucks. This sucks. Like, you know, I think we can talk about Waddell and the job he's doing and fine. Their ownership's a joke. Like we've, well, their ownership apparently will fund anything, but they don't get involved. We often criticize owners for getting too involved. Eugene Melnick. Yeah. The thing with the owners of the Columbus Bluejack is that they're not involved at all.

And they, owners do set the standard a little bit. Yes, they do. Like, I think there is a huge difference between like Francesco Aquilini and do absolutely nothing. You know what I mean? Owners, like, we were talking about Tom Dundon and, you know, I was dissing him. And you made a good point. You're like, well, you know, he did assemble this crew. And no, that was Don Waddell. Well, who paid Don Waddell? It was Tom, right? So if Don is capable of doing that in Carolina, like even if it was Tulski doing the legwork, you know, he was he recruited him.

He found him. He's not able to do that in Columbus because the organization top down doesn't know what they're doing. It's sad, dude. It's sad. How, what is their path to relevancy? Like, let's talk about that. Without Fantilli in the lineup, it's going to be very hard. Their best case scenario involves Werenski, Marchenko, and Fantilli staying.

They already have those guys and stink with them. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. This is bad. Jet Greaves is emergence, I think. As a Vesna winner? You would have to be. That's what I'm saying.

So we're still in the era of either bad or inextimate. inexplicably good. Steve Mason wins the Calder out of nowhere. Oh, okay. We made the playoffs and got her asses kicked. Like, what they have to hang their hat on is, again, a near inexplicable win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in round one and a qualifying round victory over the leaves.

Jesus wept. It's rough. Their fans deserve so, so much better. And speaking of fans. fans unless just you have more to add on the Columbus thing no if you're going to Detroit I am do that Friday oh really yeah yeah why almost at two hours okay I think that's well are we 40 minutes segment okay we got three more hours though yeah okay well let me just say this Dylan Larkin it's just announced will not be at camp there you know and because he's

hurt because he's hurt yes yes we think Simon evitson deal uh we will get we will get in this but Simon evison contract negotiations underway he will be at camp tomorrow. I'm okay with pushing Detroit because it feels like we're going to learn some things in the next 48 hours. And the devil signed a guy but no one cares, so let's wrap up the show. No, I don't know if they did anything.

Well, they got Brian McCabe and Jessica Campbell. Oh, hey! Add to their management staff. I didn't know they got McCabe as well. Yeah, those are the people they signed. It's a shame she got fired so soon. Yeah, that was that fun. I was like, wait a second, they fired Jessica Campbell. They just hired her. But it was a missed print on a text Twitter. And she's going to help develop

that guy. um