The Steve Dangle Podcast - Donuts | October 5, 2021

Episode Date: October 6, 2021

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes sign their deals and Steve gets donuts (00:00), the first three names on Team Canada have been released (06:30), Robin Lehner speaks out about medical malpractice in the NHL (22:00), the Jack Eichel situation is unreasonable and unfair (31:30), will Pierre Engvall and Nikita Gusev be a Toronto Maple Leafs for much longer? (57:00), Josh Archibald out indefinitely after being diagnosed with myocarditis (1:10:00), playing adult hockey (1:19:00), and trying to make the Leafs opening night lines (1:22:00). Originally aired: October 5, 2021 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/_hzUKZgfCRE Visit https://sdpn.ca for merch and more. We've joined The Athletic and you can too! Hit the link to subscribe: https://theathletic.com/sdp Visit this episode's sponsors: https://betterhelp.com/SDP https://betmgm.com/ http://officepools.com/ Follow us on Twitter:@Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram:@SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

with your host steve dangle adam wilde and jesse blake it's donut day yes it is because we have a winner in the donut contest we also have uh a content a content announcement for you um after we get get out get this out of the way so hughes and petterson have signed with the vancouver connects oh did they for how much uh a lot of money a lot of money do you want to know i would love okay well let's start with the dollar let's start with quinn hughes 7.85 million dollars over the next six seasons 7.8 that's a lot petterson oh i bet it's more it's less three years what 7.35 million dollars what was the original bet steve nagle my bet was that quinn hughes would make more on his contract

than Elias Pettersson. And he is. Isn't that great? And that's only because... I can hear the music. Yeah. And that's only because they signed him for three years. That's right.

The value of the deal is really higher. I mean, when you think about it, less is more. Am I right? Yeah. In a way, He costs more So Jesse bought the donuts

But he will not concede defeat Oh but in a way we all bought them Isn't that how this works Pedersen costs more than Hughes Because they had to reduce his years To pay him less So his value is higher than Hughes So here's what I'm

What else He's eating the donut Tell me that that's not true What's in the donut Is there something in it? So it's a circular donut, right? Like it's not, you would expect a cream-filled one. You might expect that.

You would expect one without a hole to have cream in it, but this has cream in it. Wow. It's got cream throughout. Sorry, I didn't want to like smack into the mic. That's fair. Jesse, you bought really good donuts. Yeah, yeah, Krispy Kreme. I also, I'm putting my foot down.

I'm getting that chocolate glaze donut once the show is done. The reason I'm not having it right now is because there's a lot of people who complain every time we eat on microphone. So I don't want Don't worry You're good Steve We can't hear you What did you do To earn these

I told you guys before I am the winner here Oh right You guys made the bet I win You shook your gut At the camera That's right

You did do that You did earn that So I'm just saying So I'm just saying Pedersen costs more than Hughes He's just being paid less Dom LeCision Made an interesting point

On Twitter About these contracts When they were signed And I thought This was like It's really smart He's like Jim Benning

The only thing Jim Benning May regret here is only being able to get Pedersen on three years. Because if it's 7.3 now and he plays and he's healthy, that's a big if because he's been not healthy. If he plays and he's healthy and he's great, seven is going to be a steal. And by the time that deal is up, that is going to be a whopper.

But do you care in the meantime? So the rumor was it would have been near nine something million if they wanted him on the full eight years. Which is Caprizovish. Right. So Kaprizov was the bar and the comparison for Pedersen there. After that came through, they had like a little benchmark there. So if I'm Jim Benning, I bite the bullet now and I pay that because I think in eight years, Pedersen at $9 million looks great.

If you're Jim Benning, though, Jesse, you wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place. Yes. He can't do it. They have $0 in projected cap space. They do have LTIR projected at $2.21 million, and I'm not sure—I really don't know what the situation with Travis Hamanick is. It's completely up in the air. So I don't know if that counts as LTIR or how that all works on the cap because if it's non-injury but they're not there, I can't imagine he's still on the cap. Well—

Like, was Drouin in Montreal? I don't know. He was on LTIR. Okay, so maybe that's what this will be. Yes, if Hamannik's at home for family reasons, then he'll be on LTIR. Yeah, it— But that situation will solve itself in the next whatever. Also, I don't know if he can be placed on LTIR until the season begins, right?

Because there's off-season LTIR, which I think they have Furland on. Yes, and Furland doesn't look like he's going to play again. Right. So they would have that. But I wonder—you know, that's a good point. I mean, they could have gone— And I'm sure they did consider going to $9 million in six or eight years or whatever it was going to be. I think, though, maybe they were like, listen, we believe that we've got a chance here.

If we're going to have $2 to $5 million on LTIR, if Hammonick doesn't play, it's $5 million all season long, and that number goes up and up and up by the trade deadline. You'd be able to bring in some talent with LTIR space by the time the deadline hits. I don't think Vancouver is in a place to be bringing in anyone. Oh, but don't tell that to Jim Bennett. somebody needs to tell him they continue to buy they will always buy i was shocked by the tucker poolman number and and he's the name that keeps getting brought up here but like they needed help on defense they did they did badly um and as we know we can't expose justin hall because it's

very hard to get that two million dollars you know what that's looking more and more right oh yeah wait till jared mccann scores 40 goals then we'll talk about it it's gonna hurt my feelings yes that's i'm just saying not happening i you're you're underestimating like how cursed the leafs are yeah you would you would rather have jared mccann over justin hall i think it was alex kerfoot for me but i guess they exposed them both didn't they they did yeah so if vegas uh seattle wanted to they could have taken kerfoot right and like the leafs sure seem to think that that's that would be the case if you watch that blueprint video um they thought that you they're gonna take kerfoot yeah hall at two mil is uh it's it's good it's too good like you want that on your

team i'm hoping that some well i know not to make this part about the show about the leaves but i'm hoping that somebody pushes somebody from the system pushes these guys a little bit this year it's time i like lily grin it's time for lily grin it's time for sandin it's time and petterson and hughes yeah and pedersen and hughes so congratulations steve dangle you are correct in your assumption of where the contracts will be the defense market's nuts it is it is kind of crazy now um on the chris johnson show from yesterday we found out a couple of things about the olympics and i have to be honest with you the concept of the olympics like the idea of it is fun but I'm still kind of bored and I don't know I don't know why am I weird I'm sort of

bored with this already and I think it's because I think it's because I think I know where this is coming from but I want him to finish no no yeah I want to hear this I'm trying to I am trying I don't even think there's an argument here I'm I'm trying to search myself as to why this is so uninteresting and I think it's because I haven't been interested since the last gold medal game with Canada in it with NHLers because it was the most boring game of all time. That was boring. That's how long it's been.

We were one year into doing the podcast. Wow. That's the last time NHLers were at the Olympics. So there's that. Wow. There's that. It was boring as hell, but they won.

That's great. I think number two, it's just that there's, I mean, speculation's our business, right? It's what we do. But it's like, I mean,

people are already talking about, well, they had to pick three guys to be on the 53-man roster. We'll explain that rule in a second. And now when people are really upset about Alex Petrangelo making it, I'm like, I don't know. He's one of 53.

There are people who are upset. There are people. They had to issue a response to this. They're asking questions. Petrangelo. Yeah. I'm just asking questions. Yeah, they're asking questions.

Well, you couldn't have picked anybody. How about it's 53 people. They had to pick. 55. They had to pick three. Yeah, you have to pick. This is why I'm bored of this, I think. The short list and the long list.

well you're a short list wow we should explain that yeah so so cj gets into this a little bit more so we don't need to but but what did what is the essential rule here yeah so basically uh canada by october 15th so a couple days into the season there's no opportunity for there to be like a breakout player or something like that sort of how tanner pearson was for the canadian world junior team many years ago like he wasn't on the radar at all at all and then they're like well he's leading the ohl and scoring the 55 no i'm getting there okay so there's no chance for a breakout that's really weird that they did that yeah well he he dude he wasn't good and then got good magically yeah well that happens he's players develop yeah yeah i guess like his case is rare

he went from junior b to like elite it was anyway uh but the 55 rule so canada on october 15th has to come up with a list of 55 guys um for a long list because they got to go into like drug testing and stuff like that in order to make the olympics so they're being those 55 guys are being considered for the olympic team and even the guys who don't make it to my understanding have to go through like drug testing okay and and some of the names discussed were were fascinating you'll have to listen to the chris johnston show to hear them all um but uh i think canada might be good okay well i think that's cool uh i hope carrie price is ready because it doesn't look like he's going to start the season but i i might be a pretty old goaltending group because like how do you

omit flurry you don't goalie of the year you can't like but i'm i'm still not i'm still confused as to why i'm not into this is it that it's too far away i can't figure it out it's it's way too far away you can't get attached to a roster like five months isn't far away i know i know but it feels it feels like it's is it because time's messed up because of covet like i don't know it's i think it's gonna sneak up on you you're gonna be like oh olympics are happening in two weeks i think there's a few things one you don't want to get attached to a roster coming up with a roster right now is pointless because the season is going to happen and guys are going to get hurt like forget guys are going to leapfrog guys that's natural but you know it's

going to be a week before the olympics and stamkos is driving hard to the net and he snaps his leg and all of a sudden you're not going to sochi right um so there's that the other thing i think it's your body and mind have adapted to covid and you will not allow yourself to believe it's happening until it's happening that's probably it that's 100 i've become i mean it's not jaded but you just become a little bit scared of anything good happening well long-term plans are uh oh yeah in october we're gonna be at this event are we yeah really that's a good point yeah This is what I've said to everyone. They'll be like, yeah, I'll see you at Christmas.

Maybe you will. Maybe. Maybe. Because who the hell knows? I live my life a quarter mile at a time now, Adam. And I'm together with family, so I'm at my best. That's great. I'm glad to hear that.

I just, yeah, I don't know. Jesse, are you pumped about this? Is this something you're like? I think the Olympics is fun. I think the Olympics is fun. Why do you hate the Olympics? I don't. I love the Olympics.

We had so much fun the last time, but it was just, you know, ah. It was what? It's just, eh. It's ah. You hear about the Olympics and you're not excited? Well, are you excited about the 53-man list? 55. 55-man list?

I'm excited. I like seeing all the rosters that are being built because I know CJ did one when he was back on .ca, and we debated it on the show. We built our own little roster when he was on, and I think that's an interesting conversation. And it's a fun underline for the season when you're watching everybody play. And even if we have that roster, if it's all released, I don't know if they release the 55 or if that's internal. They'd probably find it.

I'm sure we'll know. But it's fun. Frank Cervalli will leak every name over the course of 55 hours. They're supposed to come out on Monday. There's only going to be five names and their parents. It's supposed to drop on Wednesday. He'll drop it on Monday. Yeah, yeah.

It'll be fun to watch the season and be like, okay who's moving up and down this list okay and building your own line combination so should we do a way too early olympic list next week or tuesday like the next show or tuesday 55 once we get the 55 we do a way too early and then we okay also the americans i think is the most interesting thing because they're with jack eichel out they have matthews and then who's up the middle uh cj said dylan larkin right who's very good which is a substantial drop off like matthew Jack Eichel is formidable. Yeah.

I wonder if Jack – can Jack Eichel, if he's not playing for the Sabres, he can still play in the NHL, right? Or, sorry, in the Olympics. He must be able to. Well, he can't get a surgery. That's the problem. Like, he can't play hockey. Because the Sabres won't let him.

Yeah, so – Oh, my God. He has to – the Sabres have to allow him – I assume we'll have Jack – we have Jack Eichel on the show. Yeah, we do. So, yeah, we'll get into that. But he can't play hockey if the Sabres don't allow him to get surgery because they have the final decision on –

So, he's going to miss the Olympics because this is going to be a long recovery. He's going to miss the Olympics because of this, because of their owner and their GM. The other thing is, like, there needs to be, I feel like there needs to be more drama. Because as Canadians, like, there's two outcomes. Canada wins gold, which is expected to the point where it's not even exciting. And if they lose, it's a catastrophe. Where's Latvia? I want Latvia to storm through everybody and win an Olympic gold medal in the Olympics.

Left or scurfs, left scurfs. Screw it. Yeah, and Christians Rubens, who is probably going to make that team. Man, we went through, Jesse, the first time we had the Olympics on this show. It predates you, believe it or not. Team Austria. Yeah, Team Austria. We went through all the names and tried to pronounce them, and we couldn't.

Like all the Austrian names, it was a mess. It was fun. I mean, those were simpler days. I think there's four contenders here for the gold medal. it's canada usa finland sweden russia maybe five russia's defense always sucks right they never they can't like it's so funny you watch the russian teams that were you know pre-fall of the soviet union and they like system everything's a system the defense is a system they're un unbeatable up close like trechiak and that and it just seems like russia as a country

has produced unbelievable forwards forever but the the defensive side of the puck they're like ah i got me that the russian stereotype is so stoic and the hockey team is anything but oh it's flash it's so much fun when they're losing they're on the bench losing their minds when they're winning they're off the bench losing their minds they're just i i'll never one of the craziest things i've ever seen canada's up three nothing heading into the third period of the gold medal game uh 2011 in buffalo i was there sitting behind zach haskin's family they were it was we were all very sad after the game canada's winning three nothing russia scores two they're still very much losing the game ends right then russia loses tarasenko i think it was skates by

the canadian bench waving his freaking jersey they were losing maniacs and they won five three that's where russia becomes fun though because when they get rolling it's yeah yeah watch out how are you not did anyone on the bench go but but you're losing right and then they won they won and then they won yeah sometimes you have it the most i think the most fun event of the olympics isn't uh men's hockey it's the women's hockey like that's that's gonna be the premier event because it's canada versus usa every single time and it comes down to somebody's screwing up in overtime i'm not do we is is there any i remember a few like years and years ago i can't imagine that this would even be a topic of a conversation anymore but there was at one point a conversation

where it's like oh the the women's olympic program is so boring because it's all it's only the two and they're considering taking it out i think that was a story at one point where they're sitting i remember considering taking it out because only two countries were dominating and i thought isn't that the exact opposite of what you like you're supposed to be growing this right It's going to take some countries a few years. Also, Finland beat, I think it was Canada. Yeah. Heading into the World Championship.

Who was their goalie? Nora Rattu. Whoa. Yeah. Okay. So I wonder who the sleeper on the women's side will be this year. Anyway, will be fascinating to see, I guess, eventually. Did we convince you?

I think I'm a little more excited now. Okay. There's a little more context and color for me now. I feel like, I'm like, okay, I can get into this. And that's why I suggested, like, do we build a way too early Olympic roster? Once the 53 names are out, that's what we'll do. 55. 55.

Why do I keep saying that? Anyway. It'll be great. Anyway, fuck Petrangelo. Am I right? Yeah. Garbage. When I think of bad players, you know who I think of?

Alex Petrangelo. I sure feel like I'm playing. That's the most Canadian hockey thing ever. You lock in Alex Petrangelo to be on the 55-man roster, and that's a problem. The list of three Does not matter Who is the list of three anyway it's Petrangelo and McDavid and Crosby

Have you heard of them do you know them I'm actually surprised it wasn't like Jonathan Taze I want to see the take I want to find the tweet Of somebody saying Crosby shouldn't be On that list because he's injured Do you think that exists

I think it's got to be out there Somebody has had to make that argument Yeah but like like okay but all that comes down to is are there stupid people to which yes there are like i want to know if someone has said yes they have yeah they have come up with come up with an idea in your head they've said it there's seven billion people someone said it to our hunters let's find the stupid person let's find them hunting down interview them how did you get to this point in life what's more on you jackass i want to interview your parents i'm gonna i'm gonna

cancel the search it's like the it's like the the tiktok with alex jones where it's like a motherfucker piece of shit you know like you know the tiktok side listen fuckhead you're a cross why yeah i like the tiktoks where it's um my dad while i'm holding the flashlight while he's fixing something yeah you son of a bitch motherfucker you fucking goddamn fucker man are you even a dad if you don't get at get mad at around the home normal projects like hanging a picture it's you can't be you can't be a dad you have to get mad at the project before it finishes must i like the be a man guy on tiktok too he's like can't figure something out

just throw a wrench across the room i've never seen this steve i've seen be a man i can't even talk i have not seen that guy um uh okay so so um let's talk about what we got going on this weekend gentlemen because it will be a big weekend for the sdpn feeds wherever you get us so if you uh if you're watching um if you're watching on youtube if you are listening on like sdp and on spotify or apple or google play whatever um we have something brand new usually we do like a quote-unquote season preview episode but we figured this time it would be kind of more fun if we did a short preview on every team in the nhl every single one of them so starting friday there's only six going division by division we will have a um we will have 10

minutes on every nhl team so we're going to start with i'm not even gonna tell you which division we're starting with the division friday well it's one of the four and then there will be another saturday another sunday another monday and then tuesday we have hockey that's if you're watching it right if you're listening you're gonna hear the western conference and the eastern conference when will those episodes be out do you think uh when do we want friday and saturday friday and saturday is good friday and saturday yeah because they'll be out of date otherwise yeah let's do friday saturday friday you'll get the west saturday you get the east right and it's really it's actually 10 minutes i even have a stopwatch going uh as we record these we've recorded most

well half of them already yeah you told me to shut up a lot steve we're done we're done we're done wrap it up wrap it up so uh lots of content lots of stuff to consume this weekend over thanksgiving as you're ignoring your family which you know you should do definitely and it's actually it's not american thanksgiving so yeah screw them i know i know they have thanksgiving in the better spot they absolutely there's already halloween in october why is it yeah in october november halloween is dessert november in canada is it is a desolate shithole it's there's no there's There's no happiness in November. No, we've got Remembrance Day, which we need to have,

but it would be nice to balance it out with something. It's cold and wet. No. But it's not cold enough to do anything fun. No. It's too wet to go outside. You can't do the cold things because it's not cold. You can't do the warm things because it's not warm.

You're just uncomfortable always. Yeah, and you're always in Toronto anyway because the humidity is so bad here. I never missed the humidity when I was in Alberta. Alberta's the best for that. You're always sort of wet. you're walking through your house and you're just, you could feel it in your clothes. You're like, something's wet.

I don't know what it is. It's the cold humidity getting into your bones. It's the worst. It would be nice if we had Thanksgiving there at least. Agreed. Agreed, but we don't. You know what? You're selling me on this.

I'm telling you, it's way better. Way better. You got to have something to look forward to every month. November is the blah month of the year. It's the worst month. Now, if, no offense to anybody born in November. Two in five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer.

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This city demands agility, and Optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary. Let's take the Cadillac. Find out more at CadillacCanada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. I want to talk about, so basically all the season previews will happen this weekend. Yesterday, to kick off his new show, Jeff Merrick, which, you know, he now has an everyday two-hour podcast, radio show, rodcast, you might want to call it. What? I like the first one.

The radio podcast. Anyway, he had Gary Bettman on, and that's a heck of a lead for a first show. Not bad. Well, and for our listeners, Adam, who is that? Gary Bettman would be the guy that runs the NHL. Oh, okay. The power behind the NHL is Gary Bettman and his merry owners. And there's a couple of really important parts of this that we should dissect.

So I think the first thing is Robin Linder, and the second thing is Jack Eichel. Which are one and the same. They are. Connected. So we'll start with, and I'm going to quote here directly. um i'm you might be aware of robin lenders tweets but we'll get to them in just a second if you haven't seen them i'm excited to see how many words gary betman used to say nothing he said we take robin's comments seriously and we like in short order to be in a conversation with him

so we can hear his concerns directly and we're going to follow up to see what merit they may have what merit there may be to his concerns you don't have to tweet to get our attention we have an 800 number number people can call you can call us directly we're an open book but if he has concerns we want to hear them and we want to see how they need to be addressed now that's a big mouthful of nothing yeah now now the 800 number when you listen to the because i listened to it this morning it comes off more cheeky than it does so he's just he's is he being a bit cheeky he is because he can be cheeky yes at the end when he's when he's so it's not an actual 800 number no it is that is a literal thing the uh pa has oh the league has like that's a that's a

thing they have but he he says it more tongue-in-cheek but it is an actual thing okay if that makes sense he's he's not trying to be harsh about it in a i didn't think he was being harsh could not call that number right anonymously and not sound exactly like robin leonard yeah there are some guys who could call in and you know maybe blend in yeah and he goes on to mention that like there's half the league is walking around with his phone number whenever a team is in new york he sits down with the team and he talks to them he has a closed door meeting with them if betman does if he if they want to talk with him so he goes on to explain it for okay all right and and that's listen i i wasn't even criticizing the quote it's like he actually came out and said

stuff i think he did i disagree with you on steve i think i think he did say we'd like to address these concerns what else is he supposed to say no he's not gonna be able to say anything else oh but i did i did love this tweet from friend of the show alan walsh oh he said was just listening to gary betman on sports now yesterday where he said regarding nhl players you don't have to tweet to get our attention we have an 800 number of people can call uh we're an open book spit my coffee at my morning coffee all over my desk oh wow that's it's weird that alan's not on gary's it's a real break with uh his traditional practice oh eventually we're gonna have to get them in a celebrity boxing match like it has to happen right uh but yeah yeah no

i'm picturing it but um the tweets were if you missed them robin leonard is it common for workplaces to give out benzodiaphines to employees when they travel and and ambient should that not be done by doctors or a psychiatrist asking for a eyes friend this doesn't happen in vegas to be clear but i know many other teams i have uh i also have been on teams but what to do hashtag philadelphia flyers dinosaur coach treating people like robots not human fire these dinosaurs fire vignot first story i got proof try to shake your way out of this one so and the a lot of people interpreted that to mean alain vignot is giving players drugs no which he's not which he later clarified no that is not what i meant right and we'll get to the vignot thing in a second okay

and and then robin finishes with and they say ambien is a sleeping pill it's funny that rehab told me that's why i didn't have rem sleep i had eight years with no rem sleep great but yeah just sleeping pills wow that's why i wanted to add that one in there so so let me ask you this um first off when it comes to vigno there because those are even the way me you could see how everybody would have misconstrued that although knowing what we know about how an nhl dressing room works there's no way a coach is going to have access to prescription pills it's not it just would not you would think that this would not happen pretty hard to believe that that would happen that said it's a pretty serious accusation and i can i mean let's be honest there's a

prescription drug crisis happening right now uh everywhere even if you're but the problem is is that it's being perpetuated by people who can give it to you it's already an issue with people who are prescribing it doctors we've there's been countless documentaries on this and how terrible it is but my thing is i guess the the the accusation is they're giving this out and there's no prescription here and the one thing i mean i i applaud robin for coming forward here but i i do have to ask the question um i i hope he's got proof because if this is happening we gotta we gotta you got you can't have that but i'm not surprised by it either does that make sense no because similarly to what cj said on on his show um anecdotally there's hundreds of those

stories oh yeah there's there's so many of them but nobody wants to talk about it no and and you know guys who are out of the league like i remember ryan kessler was part of a feature with a few other players and they're just taking so many an unbelievable amount of pain pills um you see the one with kurt angle no recently it was i think it was a year ago kurt angle obviously former professional wrestler and olympic champion i did yes yeah tell the story he was taken 60 painkillers a day he claimed when he won zero a gold medal in the olympics oh that's when i thought it was while he was a professional oh was it okay it doesn't matter like that's no the human body like you can't you can't do that so the nhl like it wouldn't it wouldn't shock me

it wouldn't shock me if it was a cross sports i think of uh jesus how long or how many uh pills i take with with a shitty back but like i'm not taking hits right i when you say across sports i think particularly about nfl players and how that's been long rumored and kind of just known you know what i was thinking about today and like if you work in hockey i always i always get a little skeptical when people who work in hockey call for the season to be shorter because i'm like that's your livelihood why are you doing that fewer games is not good for you but then i was thinking about it like the nba and the nhl have a similar season the baseball season is twice as long the football season is a fraction of it the nhl has an 82 game season in a contact sport

i thought of that for the first time today and and it strikes me as that's an interesting thought unsustainable all the other ones aren't contact sports in a way you don't consider basketball or yeah there is contact but you don't consider them inherently contact sports there's no bot body checking allowed i'm you might take you know a few a season the heavier the blow on the human body the less the sport takes place so boxing and ufc mixed martial arts they they take place once you fight it once every six months if you're on a main card yes and football it's once a week but the nhl that's such a great point it's 82 just like basketball where it's not as heavy contact no like i remember stories and and again this is why this is why people get concerned about

the the way playing through the pain is um lionized like i remember stories uh you know oh there's shane corson on the bench and he popped an advil and he's and he goes right back out there to get alexi yashin in in the in the 2002 playoffs i mean it's going to be pretty hard for me to call for the nhl to have a shorter season but for a contact sport it's you're playing over a hundred games if you win the cup if you lose the cup the worst thing in professional sports is to lose in the stanley camp so i want to continue with this sports journalist drew wheeler indicate sources have told him that the flyers training staff gave nolan patrick now a vegas golden knight non-prescribed ambien and benzodiafine to help with his traumatic

head injury while not disclosing the medication given to him at the time so former second overall pick you know really highly touted and he's sort of had his career he's had major issues with migraines over the last couple of years um and they thought i didn't realize this i didn't know that nolan patrick's career was on the line oh yeah oh yeah i didn't realize that yeah that's that's he's had a very bad time yeah now um robin letter also went out and said he talked about the buffalo situation and he said he's like is this are we really going to do this this buffalo situation and steve i know you want to go off on this but i want to see what i want to tell you what laner tweeted i want to know or i'm gonna i'm gonna give you what gary betman said and less

about gary betman more about the saber situation is where i want you to go if that makes sense so like because again gary is a lawyer gary's not gonna say much no no i know so i've made my peace with that yeah so so here's here's what it is so robin laner basically is like is is the nhl better with jack eichel not in it and i would say to that are the olympics better without jack eichel Hockey is worse without Jack Eichelman. Yes. And Robin Leonard said, they screwed my ankle big time. Then surgery, then pills, no care, almost died.

But hey, after forcing leg press for a few weeks after my bad ankle sprang in the first game, this is a foot treatment. Later, my soul is gone after a surgery. It's not all pretty. And I'm assuming what he means is that they made him do, like he shot a picture of his ankle there. That's gruesome, man. he was doing leg press. Like, you know those big, I don't know what the hell, those weight machines where you're doing leg press

where goalies would have to do that because they're on their legs all the time. Sure. With a bad ankle. I don't know how big a part of the league that is. He's not a fan of the Sabres organization, and that's fair. Isn't that the theme? Well, regarding Eichel,

this is what Gary Bettman had to say with Jeff Merrick. We're pretty up to speed in terms of what's going on, and there's a legitimate disagreement among doctors as to what course of treatment would be best, both in the short and long term and that's what everybody's wrestling with it's a terrible situation hey at least he said something there that's true um and then he said i don't think it's fair to point the finger at anybody in terms of who's right or wrong i think it's everybody's approaching this with the best of intentions uh that the injury is complex both in its diagnosis

and treatment and i think people will need to be a little more patient so people will have to be a little more patient yeah and i'm assuming that's because eventually like here's the here's the thing jack's like he might be like under contract and not in control of his body but he has every right not to show up at the surgery so they can't like handcuff him and make him go right and he'll get paid until then now that's obviously not what he wants Well, so one thing Frege has floated a few times on 31 Thoughts is the Sabres may, could theoretically explore suspending him. With the argument that here is a solution. We've given you a solution.

This player will not get the surgery. So if you have a player who's failing a physical. So I'm taking this away from Jack Eichel. let's come up with jimmy campbell there's a guy named jimmy campbell he cannot play until he gets surgery on his thumb okay but he refuses to get thumb surgery because there's a different kind of thumb surgery that he wants and the team won't let him do that so you're arguing well there's a path forward here though we can heal you we can get you playing and you're refusing to do that so why are we going to give you 10 million dollars to sit at home when we've offered you a surgery

we've offered you a path forward and if the sabers choose that path with jack eichel which they might that would be very ugly well i i think that that would gary's a smart man as much as everybody hates that gary's extremely smart oh yeah and i think i think in this particular situation if they were to go that route if the sabers were to go that route you may as well just fold the team and move it yeah the sabers fans would reject it the uh the the nhl every fan in the nhl would be howling mad and and really might actually stick up for once and i think the pa is weak but this affects money the league itself is being called on to step in and arbitrate the situation i don't think it reached the point where they're suspending jack eichel and they

wouldn't step in before them yeah this well i they're shambles but this is so here's i don't know if you said this on the show but you actually said it was i think it was before the show you said who did they sign no one who plays for them i so like for the season preview like we had to do research i was like who was their leading scorer last year it's like skinner middle stat and it was it was it was um sam reinhardt who's gone he was the only guy who scored rasmus versus line so So their best remaining scorer is Victor Olofsson. Because you can't add Jack Eichel to that. Taylor Hall's gone.

Not that he did much scoring there. They're shambolic. They have two goalies making league minimum. One of them's 40. The other's Aaron Dell. They're a disgrace. They're an on-ice disgrace. Off the ice.

What are you doing? Before the thing, what I wanted you to say is they can't let anyone go through waivers they have to they have to assemble a roster for at least from waivers pierre engvall goes through waivers he's a top five saver sabers forward i mean if you were to talk to leafs twitter and we'll get to this there are some people on leafs twitter that say he's a top five forward on the leafs sure great great like he's he's good uh okay that's a separate conversation separate conversation but but But the Sabres, this is the thing, right?

You know, we talk about integrity of the game, right? We talk about, people talk about that shit all the time, integrity of the game. If you can look me in the eye and tell me that what the Sabres have, forget Jack Eichel, just as a roster, is integrity in the NHL, you're full of shit. You're full of shit. Every year, the team projected to be the worst is able to sign mercenaries. Yes. The Sabres didn't get any.

No one wants to go there. I don't even know if they even try. They're the reason that players have eight team no trade lists. And I promise you, if Canada gets an eighth team, it'll be nine. No one wants to go there. So my problem with the Jack Eichel situation is that there's a path forward here for the Sabres and Kevin Adams and the Pagoulas, and they're holding back this player from continuing his life.

Because you can, one, release the medicals to the other teams. They haven't done that. That's a big issue that was brought up on 31 Thoughts. So here, go through it. So basically, by releasing his medicals to other teams, there are teams trying to negotiate with the Buffalo Sabres who cannot put their best offer forward because they don't actually know his medical situation in detail.

So they don't want to trade him then? They're not serious about trading him? No, they have to. Oh, I know they do, but they're not serious about it. If you're serious about it, you're releasing that. Or they're just bad at this. Like, I don't know, man. Exactly.

So Kevin Adams and the owner, they're purposely not giving the medicals to the other teams so they can't make good offers on Jack Echols, so they can't release them to the other teams. And there are other teams around the league, according to insiders that are willing to let jack eichel get the surgery that he wants if they understand the whole situation so jack eichel's camp is going to these other teams be like hey this is all the information on the surgeries this is why it's safe and this is why it can happen

and they're considering letting him do that if it's four teams five teams whatever they're out there but kevin adams isn't willing to negotiate and make a deal so they are holding up this just for just to have a stalemate in an argument that's just, will you get the surgery? No, I want this surgery. Will you get the surgery? No, I want this. That's not, that's just a circular situation

where you control the path forward and you're not letting him do anything. And again, they would argue we're giving you, we're offering you a surgery. They're not offering it. They're not. They're demanding it without demanding it. They're saying, hey, we've offered you one thing

that's not an offer. So, A, you want the player to get this surgery. He says no. You have a B. Jack Eichel doesn't have a B because he doesn't control, one, his body, two, trading himself. Their B is moving him to a different team that can let him do what he wants. And they're not taking either path. They're just standing in the middle of the road when there's two paths down the road.

And they're saying, no, we're the Buffalo Sabres and we're going to be awful in every single way possible. They're shamballing. It's a joke. That's why I'm saying the Sabres are not serious about trading Jack Eichel. I don't know why no one else has said it. They are not serious. If you are a Buffalo Sabres fan, hear me now. They are not serious.

They want this to continue. This is an ego play. Oh, I think the Sabres. Here's what you got. I think you got owners. Ownership refer to the Sabres as not the Bills. Okay. I think what you got here is you got a guy, Kevin Adams, who is out of his depth.

because if you sign on as a general manager you need to be able to tell the owner no you're wrong and you're acting irrationally and here's why i'm the hockey person yeah he doesn't have that he clearly doesn't have that relationship with savers management clearly and when he was hired i got a text from somebody who's inside hockey who were like the guy's literally just like their neighbor that they're friends with yes i have heard similar things and and and so so beyond that beyond that this is very clearly jesse you pointed it out they're just standing in the middle that means it's an ego play there can be nothing else it doesn't benefit the team at all it doesn't benefit the player at all it hurts the team it hurts the player it hurts the league what it and and what

the saddest part of this is sabers fans are some of the best in the nhl they are they are a plus they love hockey they love the game and the nhl needs to find fans uh needs to develop that and yes listen i get it buffalo is a small market relative to the nhl i get it but you know so is pittsburgh pittsburgh doesn't play or act like a small market team they are a big that's a big boy club they're loyal and the sabers could be that too and it's and you know hockey ratings in buffalo are among the highest in the league always it's it's this is a situation where you have an eagle play and the and steve i think you mentioned something important there now that think about it they're not the bills meaning it's like oh i i could stand on this forever

because i still got the bills all those fans that are mad at me for the sabers yeah they're still going to the bills game though and the great thing about the nhl is the revenue share agreement is so nice for owners that even if you lose money ah we'll make up for it we'll let the rich teams pay for it so let's let's talk a little bit about this because i was i i tweeted about it yesterday and i got some pushback because there are some fans who are like no he's being a uh well there was a show and i don't want to call them out because i like these guys but they said he's being a spoiled brat which really caught me off guard i was surprised to hear that too and i wondered i didn't listen to that clip but i wondered if it caught me off guard i wondered

if they had the insight that maybe elliot came out with later i i don't know that that you know you know what i mean maybe from the out maybe without some of the context i want to give these guys i wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt because i i like them a lot too and it just seemed not like them yeah i was i was i was surprised but so basically so there's there's the neck fusion and there's the disc replacement sabers want them to get the neck fusion which is traditionally how they fix this problem uh he wants to get disc replacement which no nhl player has ever gotten this is probably the biggest reservation that the buffalo sabers have about it because right now he is at very least an asset that can be recovered right like he could if he

gets the neck fusion um which i i guess players have gotten right i couldn't name them but i assume they won't let him get the disc replacement but they will let him get this it's because it's a more proven thing with a longer history and players must have gotten it um and if he gets that he can recover he can be jack eichel and teams will want to trade for him right if he gets this disc replacement surgery and it's this new thing and what if it goes wrong then we've then we're on the hook for paying him forever no you're not though because your contract's insured well okay however it works right but then they can't even like recoup assets or anything and they're out this player right so but people have gotten this and one of the pushbacks that i got was

yeah but a lot of doctors aren't sure about it and that is true but that's how everything in medicine works is there's a way things are someone discovers something new and doctors are people they see something new and they go yeah i don't know about it i want to find out until there's more examples there's more testing like if a bunch of people get this surgery and then in five years uh you know it there's enough proof that it does well and then the sabers would be like oh oh yeah you can do it if some other guy gets it because well someone on the hurricanes and someone on the wild got it and didn't prove them but what he's saying is there's this new surgery that um i should back up the fusion you have to get a surgery you have to get some sort of tinkering with it and

again i'm not a doctor but you have to get basically opened up every 10 years this is a young man if he lives until he's like what 85 that's six surgeries on his neck it's not a permanent fix has to be tinkered with it's not a permanent fix um and you i believe it's mixed martial artists have got this disc replacement uh uh an nfl player it's just it operates the way that your natural discs should and believe me i heard this podcast and i was like can you do it for the back and they can't yet because the neck the the discs in your neck are not load bearing uh it's for movement i don't know all the technical terms your back is load be more rotational than load bearing yes okay and so this is what he wants there are plenty of examples of

it working just not as much as the fusion right and uh so the sabers will not uh yeah and that's where we are and then and then so what does gary betman do he's finally got he's got a strong ownership group with lots of money in buffalo you know that's got to be gary betman's first concern can they can the team survive do i have a do i have a strong ownership group that isn't going to arizona coyotes me over and over and over and over again by the way it's not coyotes fans fault i'm saying but but then after that he's like like what does what really gary's gonna probably try to step in as a mediator here but what real power does he have here think about that i don't know this is he can't he can't literally it's he's a guy who is a part of an

organization going to another organization like a collective there's a collective organization of the nhl but each of these franchises are separate businesses they're linked but they're separate so he's going to go in and say your greatest asset i'm going to tell you what to do with it i don't think so yeah and the problem with that telling the sabers to do anything is that it's written in the cba that the teams get last right of refusal for surgery i'd be curious to know how involved the nhl was during sydney crosby's saga around around 2011 like hey the most profitable the most noticeable guy in the entire sport the most marketable guy in the entire sport is not playing where is he how do we fix this what's it what what injury does he have that

he hasn't played for over a year and he came back and now he's out again i i would love to know where he was at on that this is jack eichel as the captain of the buffalo sabers feels right it always did him uh scoring against the leafs telling leaf fans friggin sit down in buffalo he loved scoring against the leafs which sabers fans hate the leafs and leaf fans it's great i mean you know friendly rivalry and all that and now he's gone and but it's okay we throw the c on sam ryan oh he's gone too well rasmus ristol lines by he's gone too well linus Solmark was a really good goalie. He's gone too.

They got Darlene. Cool. Good for him. I mean. Good for him. He got paid. He's the only one. Is Skinner the new captain?

Is it Matt Middlestad? He probably held off on captaincy for a little bit. Yeah, maybe you do. I don't know. Anyway, it's long. It's exhaustive. But it comes down to the power players here are the Pagoulas. They are the ones who ultimately make this decision.

Kevin Adams, as most GMs do. has to do what they want he can fight and whatever but you know i mean even brian burke said in his book he's like you know i go into every situation as a gm and say uh don't fight me on hockey decisions or challenge me but you but don't override me because i can't fight i can't fight a two-sword battle with one sword behind my back right and and and i think what's what's happened here which is a good point that's such a perky quote and he's my god and he is but but as he says as the years go on they always do they always push in owners always push in of course it's their team it's okay like i don't mind i've always said when your owners get involved you're screwed like

i don't mind them having to say it's when they get in front of a microphone well it's when they get in front of a microphone it's a problem but when they're making decisions suggestions fine or hey where are we at on this where i don't mind them barking at berkey hey our team's losing and he goes well here's how i'm planning on making them not lose i don't think kevin adams has that power like i don't think i think he probably calls gms every day and he's like here's what i want and they go can we have this or can we know about this and he goes my hands are tied really yeah Yeah, that's why I asked CJ point blank. I'm like, is Kevin Adams in charge of the Buffalo Sabres

and CJ should run for office with the very political answer that he gave? So the answer is no. The answer is no. Like the very obvious answer is no. So then, so here's my question for Kevin Adams. If you're Kevin Adams in this situation, you get to finally be an NHL GM.

Maybe you skipped the line a little bit. Maybe you didn't. I mean, he's not very old. No. But hey, young blood in the sport. That's good. We've been asking for that. Now, you get to be the GM.

You're saddled with this horseshit situation. By staying here and continuing this, do you think it increases your chance of being a GM anywhere else? Working in the game anywhere else? John Ferguson Jr. is still an AGM. But he had good AGM experience when he came to Toronto. The difference is that Adams was never the GM. Or was he the AGM for like a minute?

Who? Kevin Adams. like he didn't he just step in from like a it wasn't long like i know yeah i believe you're right it wasn't long okay so so what i'm saying here is is like everybody's looking at this and rightly or wrongly this is your situation like there are gms that manage problematic owners look at what pierre dorian's done in in ottawa right and he's done a yeah like they brought in parameters they brought in they brought in literally a megaphone other pierre and and pierre dorian's like no re-sign me and they did every day you gotta manage pierre mcguire yeah

meldick and mcguire and you managed to put a good team on the ice no wonder i'm surprised he even has time to call brady kachuk all or nothing sentence give it to me now oh give it to me now amazing the structure of the sabers is inherently flawed because i brought up the front office list okay they every nhl team has to publish on their website and it goes owner slash ceo terry pagula owner slash president kim pagula general manager kevin adams there you're missing a slot there where you have someone in between kevin adams and the people who are worth billions of dollars and own an nhl team that every i don't know if every all 31 other teams have this but there needs to be a president there who doesn't also

have a hand in ownership. There's like president GMs like Burke was here and then I think he was president in Calgary while True Living was the GM. Where's your Brendan Shanahan role? Right. Burke's president in Pittsburgh, isn't he? But they don't want to pay for that, guys. Don't pay for that.

Why is it Brendan Shanahan? I call $10 million to do nothing. Right. But they would look at that and this is how corporations are like, well, that's our player budget. That's not our management budget. That's how they look at it. That's absurd. That's how people look at organizations this is our talent budget this is our these are different buckets there needs to there needs to be another step there just somebody can to communicate with owners

and explain to them what's going on here and it's not right over the years we talk about teams and we go god i don't see the path forward to them being good and over time they eventually get good look at the sense it was like whoa depressing how do they do it but look at them they've been good like five different times over the last 25 years yeah but players got to be willing to give you a shot and you're gonna hit on some guys when the least were garbage like clark macarthur hey we hit we hit on them that's who and they hit on a trade and they they no no but you got to be able to sign guys you got to be able to convince people to come to buffalo the oilers you know you might not like all the moves that they've made but they've been able to trade for guys

and sign guys who the frig is going to buffalo right now as a free agent or someone with some sort of modified no move or no trade clause if you have any protection at all if you have a three team no trade list one of your three slots has to be the sabers i don't want to play for that nightmare what and now what if i get hurt because those stories have already been out there if robin lennar's complaining about it lord knows who else is complaining about it and the sabers aren't the only team i mean nikita soshnikov complained about it with the leafs right so they're not blameless in this uh every team has some sort of story but robin lennar's got a story who else has a story well we do know one jack eichel so if i get hurt am i going to be able to continue my career

because they want me to get a surgery that i don't want like think about that like they gotta cut open my neck nothing is happening to my neck that i don't want to happen well that's clearly happening here but here's the other i don't blame them for sitting so let's look at this from the yeah don't blame for sitting let's look at this from the nhl perspective that they're not going to talk about but one last thing i want to hit on here is if the nhl allows jack eichel to do this in buffalo allows jack eichel to determine his own get the surgery he wants well a they never will and the reason is because they cannot set that precedent yeah it's not going to play out like

that but it can play out in a way where you make it seem like everybody came to a decision sure but what i let me just lawyer that up sure but let me just say one more time and it's not because whenever i say this shit people are like you believe this no i don't believe this i do believe that he should be able to choose what neck surgery he wants but what i'm telling you from the cold hard business side they cannot have players deciding their own surgeries because from a asset perspective which is how they look at these players they're going to be like uh we can't We can't have willy-nilly, everybody deciding what their thing. We have medical doctors.

This is why we have this for a reason. We got to keep some sort of uniformity. I mean, if you look at, just look at the vaccine situation, right? You have a bunch of players who literally had to have their arms twisted into getting it because they believe different things medically. And so this is why that part of it, if you're waiting for the NHL or the Sabres to relent on this, they will not. That part of it will not relent. But I think that the key out of this, the way out of this,

is the Sabres release his medical records to another team, and they move him. Sure. And they take the L on this one and move on. It's better for everybody. That is the obvious move forward here. And if it's an ego play and you're waiting for him to just get the surgery, then your leverage is his pain, right? Yes, that's true.

The Sabres' leverage over Jack Eichel is his suffering, and that's wrong. I know the guy makes $10 million a year. uh you know he's probably uh you know living a comfier life than you or i at least financially and everything but it's his fucking neck he's got to be waking up every day driving a car you use your neck for everything everything man and their leverage over him is his pain and suffering they're like and part of me wonders like are they hoping he just relents so last night the leafs i'm gonna move on because i think we've we've had it yep last night the leafs um took on the ottawa senators and what i i found this kind of funny um they the leafs are i guess there's a

stomach bug going around in the dressing room so they asked to they asked to cancel the shootout they're like hey can we not do the shootout because we gotta go to the bathroom yeah we We've got to go do our own shootout. Right. Into the toilet. Oh, boo. Poop. Poop.

Boo, boo, boo. Yeah. Sharp, sharp right turn. But, I mean, there were some things to take from last night's game. First off, Pierre Engvall. Scored. Scored. Yay.

Yay. Pierre Engvall. He scored twice. What? I loved it, though, because Jack Hahn, who worked with the Marlies, that man, I believe, while Pierre Engvall was on it, he was just like oh my god pierre you're gonna get waved and i think and i think he tweeted that after he scored a goal and it was it was basically it was a it was just a path that he took behind

the net in the offensive zone he i've heard he drives sheldon keith nuts um i can see it he drives me nuts he drives me nuts he takes too many penalties for a penalty killer yeah and he scored he scored two goals yesterday and all the hot takes about him being great like there's i've i've seen people go i've seen people come out and say oh what's the big difference skill wise between him and hyman and i maybe there isn't okay okay well but maybe it's maybe it's between the years he's yes he's a great you know who had a lot of skill and and he displayed it and people were like i don't get why so many people are criticizing this player tyler bozak that was an extremely skilled player he made mystifying decisions though jake gardner and played

jake gardner is an extremely skilled player mystifying decisions uh taylor hall is an is one of the most skilled players in the league and a few times a season you just go who disconnected your controller what what happened what happened and engvall is ridiculously fast um strong tall he can shoot we just we just we learned you know we've seen a few times he's he's not offensively incapable so what's the problem the problem is his decision making and uh i'm just i don't think the leafs are going to be swayed by oh he scored a goal in the preseason on the power play where he's never gonna play he's not gonna be on the leaf second power play units he's not gonna be on the leafs i don't think i don't think so either uh they his his contract holds

him back unfortunately they signed it at a time where that was a reasonable cap it he had it was like 15 points in his first 30 games he was humming along and there was also um uh no pandemic so it looked like the cap was going to continue to go up and he never scored again yeah and that's on that extension that was it that's he has to be in like max and 850 uh k cap hit player and he's making 1.25 does anybody pick up angle on waivers if buffalo doesn't i don't know what what they're doing like it's not buffalo does he go anywhere else maybe he's just on the marley's should be him or the man i tell you what like if he goes down to the marley's it's a victory for leaves like he's not horrible right but this is a really hard team to make and he makes too much

money so he could geez he would help the sabers he would help the coyotes he would help a lot of teams if he didn't get signed by the sabers or you know claimed by the sabers you know you'd say you said i don't know what the sabers are doing i know exactly what the sabers are doing and that's keeping cost low yeah the two things that i got from you steve this preseason is that you despise engel and you despise nikita gusso wow yeah those are the two guys you are so low on right now we're gonna call it start a segment called who does steve hate now no you know what it is who does he hate today i uh i just the leafs are very and and and and we got this from the documentary they are very clear about what they want it's a great way to run anything it's a you know the the young

guys might look at keith and go oh he's a pain in the ass yes but he's also clear yeah could tell you here's what i want and engfall over and over and over that's a guy who's really skilled and does not have stanley cuff habits whoa what do you mean by that the decision making the irresponsibility with the puck people talk about like the puck dying on wayne simmons stick because of what he can't do the puck dies on pierre engvall stick because of what he can do giving it away at the offensive blue line taking weird paths behind the net taking penalties when he doesn't need to almost took a couple slashes on on the penalty kill last night like i just i don't i don't hate the guy but it's a really hard team to make and like i just i feel like

keith feels this way because he's trying to run an nhl team day in and day out uh i think he has less time and because of what happened last year uh with the playoffs i just have less time i'm not gonna i'm not gonna worry about it's it's like what we saw in uh in the amazon thing with jimmy vc right but i think it's like i i you know from the you know everybody was hard on babs for being cut and dry but at a certain point you kind of have to be it's like okay i'm done holding your hand you're 24 like what are you in or yeah the babcock's problem is he seemed to make up his mind about players the first day he met them. Yeah, he hadn't even stood in the same room.

No, no, I get that. I totally know what you're saying. Peter Holland butters his toast weird. You're gone. He smells them. Roman Polak exists. First liner. Frank Corrado wears Speed Stick instead of Old Spice.

You're gone. Here's another backstage. It was arbitrary, but I can understand a coach going like, all right, we've seen enough. You either are or you aren't. And like Jimmy Visa, it's funny. I didn't really care while watching the documentary, and then you talked about it.

And I get more mad every time I think about it. Dude, what opportunity would you like? We started you by default on Tavares and Nylander's wing. Oh, I'm sorry. His attitude. I'm sorry. We'll try to set you up next time. His attitude when they're talking about practice.

I was like, he's not fit for this. Oh, boy. It's not there. You know what I mean? And you're trying to get a team with Stanley Cup habits. and he says that he should have been gone that day. Well, I think they probably made up the decision after that. Why are we wasting our time?

And I look at Hosang and... I was just going to bring him up. What do you think? He's not wasting our time. He's got flaws. He had a couple of rough shifts last night. He's falling over. He's getting hit.

There was a defensive zone giveaway. But the effort's there and the skill is there. There's something you can work with. i don't know if the skill is there i think he plays like a player he plays like a player who is josh hosang he was once a really skilled major junior player who has not developed properly notice my wording there i didn't say he wasn't developed properly by the islanders but he has not developed properly there's all sorts of he had this one nifty little thing with his uh he lost the puck but he managed to get it back with his foot like there's there's something there i

don't think it's an nhl player yet so is he a marley or a growler like he clearly wants to stay right that'd be great if he wants to be a marley that'd be awesome that would be and and wonderful look at what they did for gouch yep right yep well unfortunately gouch couldn't do it for himself after but you know yeah good good for uh hosang is not wasting our time there's there's something there but i i just look at gusev and and i'm just like okay like it's coming down to decision time you've given me exactly nothing so i don't care what do you not see in gusev anything like dude he i see i see uh you know what i don't need you know what the leafs don't need a power play specialist and i know that's gonna sound weird because their power play was

dog shit no no that's the last thing this team needs when you have i don't think that sounds i don't think that sounds weird if anybody thinks that sounds weird with it you know that's got to come from within the guys you're spending 40 million dollars on nylander matthews tavaris riley thanks all right you don't need the one million dollar guy to step up in that role thanks i don't yeah i don't need my 13th forward to be uh you know but he he can add bottom six minutes no if you can play a role he's not good enough defensively okay that's the thing right he can't if you don't think that he doesn't play a role outside of that i'll take nylander every day or uh nylander i'll tell you you better take i'll take engvall every day is what i meant to

say i'll take engvall every day if you don't think the defense is there yeah then you then you're wasting our time yeah are you a bottom six player okay can you play defense if the answer is no get the fuck off my team um there's no i don't have time okay i don't have this is this is a no bullshit version of steve i don't have time nick robertson uh can he hang yeah he shouldn't make the team is he wasting the time no he's not wasting the time he's gonna be here for a long time so i don't think he can waste anybody's time is nick how is he has a lot of things that um the leafs uh should covet has a great shot has a great shot and a willingness to use it yeah that's key a willingness to use it uh i love the when he shoved marner in the blue and white game i love

that he can't turn it off i love that the leafs need guys who can't turn it off i love that but there's no point rushing this guy and i think you need to be very careful with him uh to not rush him because again kovid has screwed up everyone's development that kid was supposed to be mangling Major Junior last year. And he was playing in the NHL with the Marlies. He played a playoff game

a season and a half ago. Oh yeah, against Columbus. But then he should have been able to go, well, so that was even a unique circumstance. He shouldn't have been there. Under the rules, he shouldn't have been there. And then they had to come up with new rules and he was allowed

and I think Columbus had Liam Foody. And Nick Robertson should not have been on the Marlies. Quinton Byfield should not have been on the Ontario Reign. There were a lot of guys who, you know, got an experience that they otherwise shouldn't have gotten. Byfield adapted better. I think, well, he was also on a far better team. And Robertson got injured. And Robertson got injured.

And I think on a lesser team. You don't need to rush him. You just don't. On a lesser team, there's like 20, 15 NHL teams where Nick Robertson's on their NHL team tomorrow. well next week when the season starts Robertson will are you going to lose a guy to waivers because you're

putting Nick Robertson on the fourth line but with the Toronto Maple Leafs there's such a gluttony of forwards that you don't need Nick Robertson right now Nick Robertson is what the Marlies are for right but I have a question okay I'm looking into skating

he's chaos it's chaotic right it's all over the place I think you can calm him down Can you? I mean, that's why you have Barb on the call. That's why you have Barb. Yeah. I think that's something you can develop.

That's not, skating isn't a skill that's going to stick or you can't learn. Like, especially when you see, not necessarily how much he cares, but how much of an energy he can be. That's something that you're not really teaching guys. Right. Read Jimmy Vesey. You can't teach a guy to play a role in care. And Nick Robertson cares.

And you can fix his skating. Okay. He is what a lot of skilled young players are. He's inefficient. his stride is inefficient i mean i i know exactly who i am saying this but i don't think this is a if anybody made it about you at this point if we're talking about nhl players versus guy here i will i will i will spoil this um but like i'm not actually spoiling it so on leafs media day i don't know if we talked about this one of the videos that we shot is i i took an ipad and we

got eight of the leafs to review me playing off air we talked about this yeah you're this is revealing it on air it's gonna be it's i cannot wait to see this video it's gonna be really really good um yeah yeah i did one of them in particular chirped me do you want to say the least that you showed your skating uh in order i spoke to wayne simmons jack campbell all right i'm on guy three I'm already forgetting the order. John Tavares, Morgan Riley, Jason Spezza, Alex Kerfoot, William Nylander, Justin Hall. I got them all. Eight guys.

All those guys rated your skating abilities. Yep. Showed them me getting hit, me shooting the puck. I cannot wait for you all to see it. But anyway, getting back. There's a player, man. He just turned 20. That's a top six forward in the making.

yeah he's gonna be fine okay he's gonna be just want to ask the question now lastly uh before we get to the press conference here josh archibald uh oh yeah so i hope i'm spelling this or saying this right but it's josh archibald diagnosed with myocarditis myocarditis out indefinitely and uh that is basically a covid symptoms he got that through by getting covid now you know under a normal any circumstance this is not this is terrible for any sort of person uh let alone an athlete um and the symptoms of this just the overview um if you're in the early stages you have mild symptoms like chest pain rapid or irregular heartbeats short shortness of breath you can see how that would be rough for an athlete of course um uh fluid buildup and swelling in your

legs ankles and feet fatigue and other symptoms of a viral infection such as a headache body aches joint pain fevers uh sore throat diarrhea um complications include heart failure heart attack and stroke rapid abnormal heartbeat like arrhythmia and sudden cardiac arrest arrest excuse me and And there's no specific prevention other than you try to avoid viruses, right? So the thing with this is we know it came from COVID. We know it's an inflammatory condition that he's got. and we know that josh archibald is a guy that has on multiple occasions tweeted out links to far-right anti-vax um organizations youtube channels whatever you want to call it conspiracy

theories all that stuff and and already there were people like nope myocarditis is a symptom of the vaccine your sheep yeah they're hopeless so hold on i need to i need to finish this please just give me one second i know i know i know what you're saying i know what you're saying they're hopeless it's i want i want to caution you if you haven't already to not dunk on josh archibald about this no for so the reason i would say that to you is first off this is a guy that's going through a heart condition and it's and it's an enormous problem he may never play in the nhl again this is a guy that was never going to be a star in the nhl he was on the bubble as it was and now with a heart condition i mean he may you heard it cardiac arrest can be part of this you

You can have a heart attack and you have to understand here that Josh Archibald, though part of the problem by spreading a message, you know, the anti-vax message and all this COVID hoax, all that bullshit beyond all that, he was taken advantage by organizations, profit organizations that profit off medical misinformation, conspiracy theories, and they know, by the way, exactly what they're doing. This is exactly what we talked about with Bodhi Wild. They're predatory. Absolutely. And the whole thing here is, from just an objective perspective, you can't feel anything but sympathy for Josh Archibald, at least in my mind, because a for-profit organization took advantage of a young person who doesn't have necessarily

the education or the reasoning skills to figure out what is true and what isn't and it's unfortunate and it's sad and yes he did make this decision don't get me wrong josh archibald's an adult he made this decision but i am not going to be happy when somebody is less healthy than they were before that's why we're so pro-vax and and i think one more thing i think you got to remember here that these organizations will drop a piece of truth into something and then surrounded by bullshit. And that's how they hook you in. There's a Shakespeare quote about this, I think with Macbeth, where they said, be careful about those three witches, and I'm paraphrasing here because I can't quote Shakespeare directly, but remember, they will give you the smallest truths to betray

you with the biggest lies, essentially. They'll give you something that's truthful to make you trust the trust them and bring them in bring you in and then they'll they'll do what happened here and you know all the people like i saw some so many responsive people like yeah well it's his fucking problem yeah i mean yes it is do not become the worst of us that do not become the worst version of yourself do not become the monster what happened to us like i mean it's been a stressful time this i give people leeway this has been the worst year and a half of most of our lives and yeah i'll give you some leeway but to celebrate that is objectively wrong now i hope that it got people's attention i know i still know that there's a group of guys in the

nhl refusing to do it it's small but they're all under the one agent i'm just curious smoke fire i don't know but i do want to say i i feel terrible for josh archibald i think he was wrong in doing what he was doing uh but now he's really going to pay a price and this will be with him forever and you know we all did stupid shit when we were young now was it this serious maybe not but imagine you're misled in your early 20s which is easy you're an impressionable impressionable adult and it sticks with you forever so many people have to deal with that and josh will have to deal with that. I don't like that. I wish we weren't here. And so if I can ask anything of you, it's stop tweeting at the guy. Stop quote tweeting the guy. Leave him alone. Let him try

to get healthy. And hopefully his example can do some good. As much as this is bad, I hope it shows everybody from the big leadership on the Oilers, a player that flat out did not get vaccinated in Duncan Keith until like the last minute. I hope it shows them all. Hey, listen. And then still complained about it. Two Oilers cannot play this season because of COVID. Who's the other one?

Alex Staloc. Oh, he can't play. Because he got it and I can't remember why, but long-term complications, he can't play. So this is, let it serve as an example to you that this is quite serious. Even for a young man. That was the other thing, right?

Like everybody's like, ah, you're young, you'll be fine. You don't need it unless you're old. You don't need the vaccine. That's the truth I can't stand the most because it's the most insidious, right? Even Rogan said it. He's like, well, like if you're a young man and you're eating your vitamins, what's the big problem? Then you could get it on it. Okay, let's not stray too far.

No, that's not straying. That's the lie I hate the most. That's part of my point. That's the most insidious one. It's only the old people need that. Well, you're clearly not true. NHL player. So leave Josh Archibald alone.

don't fucking dance when somebody gets this and everybody please get your vaccines that's all i'm gonna ask it's uh i i just saw some of the responses and i was of course well reminded of the the little bo burnham aside that he did in inside where he goes can any of us shut the fuck up jesse jesse said something earlier when i was talking about petrangelo he's like people were complaining about that or what was the tweet you were going to search up the tweet about something and and uh crosby's like you can find the stupid person you can find them can any of us shut the fuck up that's good can any of us shut the fuck up i think the answer is no myself included anyway oh can any of us shut the fuck up steve asked into a microphone

so let's get into the press conference two and five canadians will hear the words you have cancer that's why every step and dollar raised matters on september 19th join thousands in toronto for the princess margaret cancer foundation walk challenge yourself friends and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research together we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer register today at pmcfwalk.ca in toronto every arrival is a statement and nothing says it better than this cadillac optic was the number one selling luxury ev in canada for 2025 find your rhythm across a seamless 33 inch display and an immersive 19 speaker akg surround audio system

this city demands agility and optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary Let's take the Cadillac. Find out more at CadillacCanada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. The Presser SDP. The Steve Dangle Press Conference. I just want to say I've been a very good boy.

Uh-huh. And I haven't opened this box once. This Krispy Kreme box. Yeah. Were you going to do that in the middle of the show? Because you probably shouldn't do that. Shouldn't do that. But all I'm thinking about is this.

You're lucky any words have come out of my mouth Like all I'm thinking about is this What have we talked about so far on the show It doesn't matter really By the way I just wanted to point out That the senators are a million Five underneath the floor What

Underneath the cap floor Brady Kachuk will get them to the cap floor I was like wait How are they going to fix that So first question From our discord Hi everyone steve says hello this is from x 22 x as a fellow adult who never really got to play hockey growing

up would steve have any suggestions or tips for how to find slash get into into an adult league that teaches hockey slash skating fundamentals i'm hoping i can finally learn how to play the sport i love to watch that's a difficult one because i never did get into a league i joined i joined this thing that is basically it's the first half is drills and the second half is scrimmage but i haven't done it for quite some time because i don't did you see how the world stopped for a while um but it's it i do highly recommend it and hockey is actually a really good way to learn skating because um so much of learning how to skate is fear uh fear of falling for you know hurting yourself um highly recommend knee and elbow pads because you'll you'll take

bigger risks and dude i was skating at a public skate with a buddy and we were the last two on the ice so i was like oh okay we'll practice stop and start so we'll stop do crossovers and which is not something i'm good at and oh did i eat shit and right onto my elbow and i wasn't wearing elbow pads and my it was sore for a month oh gosh it hurt especially with your body where any little tweaks will throw you out for a year apparently like oh yeah it's great fall down the stairs every so often i really am abe simpson and uh no but yeah it's it's it's better to wear the pads and you're going to be wearing pads if you if you play hockey so um it's a lot of fun i learned how to tape sticks from uh mark savard's youtube channel nice like i was amazed how quickly i was

like yeah i'm okay mark savard also told you you had your elbow pads on the wrong side the wrong side that was maybe that's why i hurt myself um yeah if you look up like adult beginner hockey especially if you're in canada i don't know where you are um yeah you should you should be able to find it no problem ask um ask your friends who play because i mean they probably know bad players no offense like i say that as a bad player a starting player you're a beginning player right i you'll be you'd be amazed how quickly you get better final question i mean i'm still shit but you should see how much better i am than i was when i started this comes from Isaiah WC on our

Discord. If he keeps up the play he's showing us, does Bunting play on the Matthews line or the Taveras line? I, uh... Ooh. Boy, they really are...

I gotta think it's gonna be Matthews because I feel like Kerfoot's gonna be on Taveras and Kompf is gonna be the third line center. I have no idea where Kerfoot's going to play, by the way. Really? No idea. I actually really like the idea of a Kompf-Kerfoot-Kasha line.

What do you like about that line, though? Because Kompf is, he's, you know, Kerfoot, you think, is a 20-20 guy over 82 games, right? Ish? You'd be lucky. Or a 15-20 guy? Yeah, he's more of a playmaker. Okay. Yeah.

And Kasha, if he's playing, he scored 20 goals once. But you think probably, what, 12 to 15? He's going to have to start on the third line, probably. Well, especially, I mean, if you're a right winger and you play on the Leafs, yeah, and you sign there, guess what? Third line. Third line is your Stanley Cup there. But any line that Komp is on is going to be a defensive line. You'd think so.

So this is the problem. That's Mikheyev. But he doesn't want to do that. and there's you know they're playing him with Tavares and Nylander in the preseason which he can do we've seen him do it sure it's not the best use of him the best uh lineup that I can see is Richie with Matthews and Marner because it seems like a foregone conclusion they're going to make it work uh bunting Tavares Nylander Mikheyev, Kompf, Kasha and I haven't even put Kerfoot anywhere, so

Kerfoot goes up on the second line in Bunting's spot. Like, is Bunting going to be on the fourth friggin' line? I guess they'll be moving people around until they find out where they all work, right? This is, part of what I love, actually, is the lineup spots like, all throughout

are completely up in the air. The magnets are full this year. Oh, the magnets are, oh. I, they're wearing the magnets out. they're not even sticking anymore they're sliding down the mckay of one slides down and they're like that's appropriate like they they have a really good team bunting's versatile because he's got a little bit of his goal scoring touch but he's a greasy rat so how about a line of bunting spetsa

simmons oh that's pretty fun and they can score a little bit and they're gonna piss you off all Right, I like that. And so we do Mikheyev, Kompf, Kasha, Kerfoot, Tavares, Nylander, and Ritchie, Matthews, Marner. I think I did it. Okay. What was the question? Is Bundy going to play on the first line? No.

Okay. Is that it for questions? He can. We're all done. All done for questions. Okay, so listen, we're back Thursday. And then, of course, this weekend, look out for the season preview shows. You're going to have the Western and Eastern conferences on Friday and Saturday on audio and video.

We'll just spread them out. There's going to be 32 different 10-minute clips. Wow. Every team. And in all of them, I'm going to be dangling my feetsies under the table because we haven't gotten an apron yet. They can't? No, they can't. Why do I always get tweets about it, Jesse?

They can see, like, the top part. They can see your knee. Why is Crosby garbage? Steve P. The Steve Dangle Podcast. Follow the guys on Twitter. At Steve underscore Dangle. At Adam W-Y-L-D-E.

And at Jesse Blake. Connection complete.