The Steve Dangle Podcast - Kirillions | September 10, 2025

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, 00:00 Gannon! 06:00 The Ridly Greig Bobblehead night 20:00 I CAN! 25:00 Crobsy and his agent speak on Crosby's future 49:00 The Hughes brothers want to play together 59:00 Craig Berube speaks 1:34:00 Kaprizov turns down a lot of money 1:47:00 Will Vegas acquire Rasmus Andersson? Join Drew & Stew Pick Em' ➡️ https://app.sparc.fun/point-spread/dspe Join us at The Course & The Clubhouse: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thecourseandtheclubhouse/1836083 Visit this episode's sponsors: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at http://betterhelp.com/sdp and get on your way to being your best self. Subscribe to the sdpn YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@sdpn?sub_confirmation=1Join Check out https://sdpn.ca/events to see The Steve Dangle Podcast live! Subscribe to the sdpn YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@sdpn?sub_confirmation=1Join - 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.BlakeJoin 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

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download that. TaskRabbit.ca. Code Dangle. Wayfair's Labor Day clearance is on now. Right now at Wayfair, you can get up to 70% off everything home. Shop Wayfair's Labor Day clearance now through September 7th at Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. You know, I can't believe they ask these players questions about their future. Why don't they leave them alone? Why don't they just leave them alone? Hi, I'm extremely interested in this sport,

and I want you to leave all of them alone. Their job is not to talk to you. It's written in their contract. No. No. Anyway. Hi. Welcome back, Gannon clan.

It's great to see you. Steve's wearing his Barracuda Gannon LaRock jersey, which he got directly from the Barracuda when we were there in the spring. Yeah. And we did not know what a piece of history it would be. You should wear that in Montreal the next time we're there. I should. Well, I don't know.

Leaf fans might turn on me because I'd be wearing a Habs jersey. Ah, true. Technically. Good point. I think we should send it to him and get him to sign it and then send it back to us. Legit. I think it'd be awesome. That would be sick.

Do you think we can have him on the show? Yeah. Yeah. What's your third question? My question. That's what I want to hear. hey that was pretty cool um yeah listen what's what's next what's your third question that's a great shirt you know what that's very good i've always thought a good read or a good book for

somebody like ken ken read to write would be i was traded for an for a superstar so so like you know ken read has like the one night only book or whatever but there were guys in like the wayne gretzky trade that didn't play very much or at all you know the peter forsberg eric lindros trade that didn't play very much and it's sort of like or at all so I would love to like okay so you got the news and whatever and that's not enough for one person to write a book on but it is enough for a chapter you guys

combined just shout it out have 10 seconds to name the guy the Vegas Golden Knights traded for Marc-Andre Fleury go oh my gosh no I know you're asking the wrong people 3 2 1 I don't know either

oh my goodness He's a Finnish guy. No, I don't think... Oh, there was a Finnish guy? I thought it was literally just future consideration. No, he's a Finnish guy. Well, that narrows it down a lot. There's not that many Finnish guys.

Hard Kainen. Hakkanakkanen. Yeah, I think you're close. I'm not even kidding. I think you're close. Are you saying to the Golden Knights or to Chicago? He was traded from Chicago to Vegas, I believe. It's Mikael Hakkarainen.

Hakkarainen! Oh, you were? That's insane. Yeah. That's not even ridiculous. That's so ridiculous. Hardikainen is close to Leaf Legend. Do we have his name?

There's the, yeah, there's the trade there. Hacker. I want to know what that guy's all about. Can we find out what Michael Hackerinan's doing? Yeah. Let Jesse find it. Just give me five or ten minutes so I can type his name. Yeah, don't.

It's difficult. Once you get used to the double Ks, Finnish is not that hard to spell in English, like Finnish names. like listen pronounce yes let's be honest uh speaking finnish is a whole different thing they might have the best patience with us of any uh nationality oh yeah every name that we pronounce is wrong yeah and they'll reach out and just be like that was incorrect yes yeah but everybody's incorrect yeah all right so hacker ryanan has not played hockey we can go through his elite prospects page has not played hockey since 2022 what uh just playing over in

finland played a little in sweden trade or that in 2020 2021 played for the indie fuel of the uch of the echl that's fun the rockford ice hogs and then yeah went back and forth there played a little providence college but yeah it looks like not playing hockey right now muskegon lumberjacks yeah yeah i want to know what their jersey looks like the minor leagues and junior leagues have some really good this is somebody who got to say that i was traded for mark andre flurry i think that is it i do not think that's an interesting yes yes i do oh and read if you're listening and i know you are there you go all we ask let me do this for one free copy yeah because adam doesn't want it because no i want the audio bug it would take up space in his house

yeah that's true maybe jesse no i thought the copy was for me i thought you wanted the audio one i want you know what shit i'm not sitting around reading a book i got the audio book i do hey so one thing i forgot to get to last episode and i think this is horrific and wrong and i did you a disservice i'm gonna beat you up the sdp audience and that is the ridley grigg bobblehead night oh yeah for the Ottawa Senators now I have to say that this this drew a lot of attention as it was meant to and Ridley Grigg the specific moment that they're using is the slap shot on the empty net against the Leafs which then led to Morgan Riley cross-checking him in the head and Morgan Riley got five games suspension yes and uh you know I think uh I think personally

Like a lot of people like, oh, that's loser, blah, blah, blah. Especially because it's not going to be against the Leafs. But I think this is exactly what the Senators ought to be doing. So this is brilliant marketing and good for them. Not doing it against the Leafs is actually brilliant. Yeah, because there'd be a lot of Leaf fans there smashing them. Yes. The ice would be littered with the things.

Yeah, literally dangerous. Like you can't do it. Yeah. Along with about two dozen Leaf jerseys after the Leafs lose the game. See? I did the joke for you. There it is. um but this is listen let them have their fun whatever i don't care listen the senators need

to embrace what they are and in ontario population wise fan base wise in terms of size they are the little brother the other one yeah okay i'm glad you said it because i was gonna take the low road also well i don't think that's the low road i think that's just statistically statistically true and uh you know the the fact is that that arena has not sold well for years it's also in a weird place it's also too big i get it i get it i get it we've done the bretton flats which we're still not quite sure actually exist when that arena no no that's a figment of everybody's imagination yeah they just like that doesn't exist yeah nobody in ottawa has ever seen the bretton flats either no if you say you know where the bretton flats are you're lying okay it's all

part of who is labretton yeah yeah have you ever met him yeah pierre labretton writer for the athletic oh well if it's the media then you can't trust it certainly not but i i think the senators need to embrace the ridley grigg mentality because ridley grigg is not the biggest guy but he's a fucking pain in the ass yeah and the senators the last time they really had swagger was when they were those pesky sense 2017 maybe even before that i mean that team was amazing that team was they weren't pesky they were dominant i wouldn't call that team pesky yeah but remember like 2015 2014 they should not have made it that the hamburglar years where they made it and like you know that those were the pesky senators right do you know people don't understand

how special the hamburglar run was it was cool i was checking the score like i was earnestly cheering for them because it was so absurd it was and i mean i didn't i mean what was i going to do for cheer for the leafs yeah maybe paul ranger gets some norris votes well the the leafs the leafs sort of walk into every situation at least that's how the organization has marketed itself the last 10 years like their royalty and they are uh and what the senators should do is go ha ha and throw eggs at them and that is how you get that's how you galvanize a fan base and start selling out arenas and getting people on board and excited again like it can't be overstated how damaging the late eugene melnick years were and so to get people back on board you got to

have an attitude and you got to embrace what you are which is you're always going to be a lot smaller but you can be pissy and funny and it allows you to take sort of risks i love this promotion and i'm a leaf and i think this is awesome i wish the leafs had a tenth of the personality in their marketing you also just can't let a loss define you which is what i think the leafs do very often but yeah the sense lost to the leafs three four months ago yeah in the in the playoff and imagine if you know the i mean the easy chirp back is okay but you lost um and the sense went oh you're right let's not do it get them next year we've learned a lot of lessons you know what we'll do this when we beat them like what what no just do it be dicks do your

fans think it's good do your fans think it's good they love it great then do it that's that's what you should be doing steve's a changed man i know at least in september because i think if this is january and they made the announcement then and we're in the middle of the season and you're in full leafs fan mode you're doing the thing where you're yelling about hey we're in your walls we're in your fucking wall like how many times how many times have you hopped on here where somebody does something that's about the leafs because they've made this bobblehead justin you want to throw it up it's there they've made this bobblehead that they're giving away on jan 10th i guess the florida panthers which i think is a double troll because they're doing it against the team oh yeah

that beat the leafs right so you wouldn't do it against leafs you would do it against the team that's that i gotta say that's clever right so and i think if you're in full fandom mode you're coming on here saying you can't stop thinking about this thank you for making your big promotion of the year about me you know what you're i think because it's september impression we don't even it wasn't very good at all me i think because it's september you haven't done an lfr yet the Leafs haven't even spoken yet all we've gotten is Matthew Nyes you're not in the mode to get upset about this yet can I can I tell you this this season is going to be incredible yeah uh and I already know it's going to be incredible um but I I I go through this process every year but it's

begun earlier than I think it ever has I have full-blown September scaries what do you mean okay so you know the sunday scaries yeah like before monday you gotta go to work go to school that sort of thing i get them every september that's back to school though isn't it lasts for weeks no i'm not in school i know but that's ingrained from when you were august always feels like a sunday to me man i had nightmares about not turning in homework long after i graduated that's what i'm saying but no the september scare i because i'm noticing all the habits i'm getting more nervous i'm thinking more i'm thinking quicker and i stop going in the blue room unless i have a reason to because you're going to spend that much you're going to spend

so much time in there it's a big no it's because like i i i don't know how to explain it i leave it alone jesse is i leave it alone until it's ready jesse is this like when steve wouldn't come hang out with us and watch a playoff game because his couch was lucky and the Leafs lost the series anyway? No, that was just kind of weird and idiotic. You were doing a superstition that's never worked?

I didn't understand how the superstition was successful in any way that you had to keep doing it because all they did was lose. So how was the couch lucky? Listen, a factor into that decision was, I've got to make

the LFR after. And I want to be home for when that happens. What would February Steve say about this bobblehead? Oh, friggin' Shelbyville, enjoy your friggin' bobblehead. The other one, the little brother, Ruggie Odor. I can't wait. I can't wait for the Texas Rangers to make a bobblehead of Ruggie Odor punching Jose Bautista,

ignoring the fact that they got eliminated by the Blue Jays before and after that punch happened. You had this whole conversation with Adam and didn't bring up the fact that Morgan Riley cross-checked him in the face. Yeah. That would be the first thing you would go to if you're in full Leafs mode. If the Leafs had a funny bone in their body,

this is free advice. You go ahead and take this. They don't. All I want... No, they're changing, hopefully. I hope so. All I want is a free one. you take this idea and run with it they need to do a morgan riley cross check bobblehead night

right they have to make a bobblehead now the nhl would actually have a because the nhl has no sense of humor you're glorifying a suspense harry batman would call and get that shut down okay then do we do what what from the series that we just saw do you commemorate here's what i think Neil Anders empty net Neil Anders empty net Pats Reddy's game winner No Donnie's OT winner

Benoit's OT winner Benoit Benny's game winner Or what you do is Simone Benoit bobblehead night Would be incredible In an NHL He doesn't make the lineup

That night No He has to No he's gotta be healthy He's gotta be No He's Craig Berube Puts him in the starting lineup

Oh yeah Damn it He's 1C that night 1C Oh yeah Have him take Fuck yeah have him take the face off absolutely absolutely so here okay so here's that here's my my thing

with that you know the Leafs could and should respond you got to have fun with this right so what the Leafs need to do other than other than doing the boring shit which you know I get why Shanahan did what he did that you have to understand when he stepped in here the culture was a mess the players were a disaster they had to suspend their own guys like it was a bad it was a bad time but as this group has grown they've the the organization did not grow around them and did not have that flair for hey this is a show and we should be entertaining people and so what i think the leaf should do is uh uh when paul ross who is their announcer uh or mike ross excuse me uh when he ross follows us on twitter yeah yeah yeah yeah uh mike ross rossi on the mic who i love

really nice guy uh when he gets out there for the first leaf senators home game he should just be like and here's your you know the center is trying to make beliefs and a reminder that the playoff record between these two teams is five oh for toronto that's all you need to do like because i remember one time the senators when they were actually bad beat the leafs and they played um the hall and oats song that the leafs always used to play and i thought that's damn it i hate it but i respect it and they didn't double down on it at that time and i feel like now they're embracing that they need to be that you can't have the madman i don't think about you at all approach no no embrace way more fun if we start taking like harmless shots at each other yeah because

it would be a lie like the where your arena is filled with us you can't say you don't think about us at all yeah you know so they have to take the approach where we see you and we don't care we're the same i also think i don't think about you at all doesn't work in athletics i think about you obsessively and your demise and you're going down. I think that's way better than I don't think about you at all. A hundred percent. I dream of ways to kill you in my sleep.

That is sports. I think about your downfall first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I hate you with every fiber of my being. Is that what you want to hear? It's the same

mentality as the MJ doc where he's making up ghosts to fight you know it's a dude in the parking lot said i couldn't hit that jumper i'm gonna go drop 50 tonight tom brady it's tom brady winning again and going the whole world thought we couldn't do it we're like tom everybody thought you could do it yeah and at the time he's married to a super model he has five super bowls he's like nobody thinks i can get six like what everybody thinks you can get six we're annoyed that you keep getting super bowls what are you talking about tom brady we felt like it was inevitable tom that was the problem every year you win i'm still not

convinced he's retired no no no he's still he's still rostered on a bunch of dynasty leagues two percent of leagues still have him just in case which i think is amazing he might he's still in great shape too but he owns a team he can't go and yeah he has a statue outside the stadium now you know he's really going this guy's wife was like stop playing or we're getting divorced and they got divorced like i guess and you're like oh but he has other obligations get out of here And she's like, I have a yoga instructor. Yeah. Come on.

Come on. Yeah. Tom Brady bobblehead night coming to Toronto. I love it. I love it. Yeah, I know. The Sens need to think about the Leafs all the time. And I just wish that I had a Leafs fan next to me to yell at the Sens.

But apparently I don't. Maybe one day. Maybe one day. You know what? I think it's cool. And I respect it. And I hope that the Leafs respond and do something fun back. That's all I'm saying.

I want there to be, if the NHL is truly serious about rivalries, it's not about jerry-rigging the playoff format so that you have to play the same goddamn team every year. It's about teams using marketing to fire up the fan base. Michael Anlauer has done a very good job. He's awesome. Awesome. He's done a very good job with the Sens.

Toronto's own Michael Anlauer. Yes, right. As Eugene Melnick was, Toronto's own Eugene Melnick. Sorry, that's our fault. No, he saved them. He saved them. Don't forget that. Got it.

That's true. I think, yeah. Yeah. No, it's good for the Sens, which, believe it or not, is good for the Leafs, and it's good for hockey. Yeah, absolutely. Now, sometimes life throws you curveballs, and you don't have time to get to them, and that's where TaskRabbit comes in, and I think you should check this out, because here's

the deal. one of the things one of the weird quirks about my condo building is that they use my floor to repel down and clean all the windows but they never clean my windows oh and they're way around on that it's like well it's a patio window you can do that yourself and i'm like well hang on a second what if i don't want to i don't have the stuff because you gotta have that scraper thing and the and the washer thing chemicals you gotta have the right chemicals see what i'm saying And that's why I used TaskRabbit and I employed a tasker. Here's the thing.

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Taskers across Canada book up fast, especially for same-day tasks. Get $15 off your first task right now with the promo code DANGLE at TaskRabbit.ca or the TaskRabbit app. You should download that, TaskRabbit.ca, code DANGLE. The other big news this morning that I wanted to make sure we hit before Crosby, before Jack Hughes, before Craig Berube, you know, talking about the Leafs and the Dustin Wolf extension and Rasmus Anderson and all this stuff.

the group chat is exploding and i'm ignoring all of it adam you you throw at me whatever you need you'll never guess this and neither will jesse okay and it's not in the group chat i didn't even know the group chat was exploding i'm not watching oh yeah i haven't even looked at the group i don't know what steve's which is rare for me because i'm always looking at something i don't know what steve's referring to because i didn't read it what is adam trying to say here there's a legend back in the booth a legend back in the booth are you ready who who's been missing from the hockey discourse who's been missing steven a smith no no he says the same thing every time all i know about hockey is the puck is black yeah so this is a legendary hockey broadcaster

yep who left hockey broadcasting and is returning to hockey broadcast correct come on guys come on don cherry no what no no that's a good guess i i think don's like 86 man I don't know. He might be older, honestly. I would hope he's, yeah. Guys who have retired and are now back. Joe Bowen's on TV. Not retired.

He didn't retire. Oh. I don't know. The rights just switched. The rights just switched? In America? That's where the rights switched. Help me out, man.

You guys ready? Yep. Pittsburgh, I hope you're ready. Because Pierre Maguire's back in the booth, baby! Oh, no way! Pierre Maguire has officially joined the Penguins radio network. He will join the legendary Paul Stegerwald and Brian Metzer for pre- and post-game coverage, appearing on 41 games this season, as well as select episodes of Penguins Live Weekly.

That's a crazy duo, actually. Yeah. Pierre Maguire is back. Paul Stegerwald? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I pronounced his name wrong.

I apologize, Paul. that's i'm i apologize uh so pierre mcguire back in the booth baby listen i can the one thing i'll say listen pierre i've actually worked with pierre i've done some like nhl network stuff where he's been on very nice fellow sure he's he said some crazy shit in the past like i remember when carrie price was drafted he was like that's terrible that's a bad thing that wasn't even the worst thing he said on that broadcast no no uh but when we talk about entertaining it's undeniable pierre mcguire is entertaining he is polarizing he is frustrating to some but i and i and i say this about who's the who is the super biased guy with the bruins who just retired and and i all of

them oh no no the the play-by-play guy oh um oh my god why am i a garbage it's escaping me right Jack Edwards? Thank you. I always thought, I'm like, Jack Edwards is perfect for Boston. Oh, the Bruins! He's amazing. He's amazing. And he drives people nuts from out of market.

You know why? Because you're not from Boston. No. You don't cheer for the Bruins. He felt that like he got shot. Oh, my God. Sirhan, Sirhan. The greatest hits.

I think it's good for the world that Pierre Maguire is back, and I think that it's kind of cool that it's Sidney Crosby's swan song in Pittsburgh, and Pierre Maguire is going to be around for it. And what will the postgame be like when Sidney Crosby is traded to the Canadians at the deadline? what will every broadcast be like when the guy who's doing color commentary for the pittsburgh penguins is covering kyle dubas's team that it got to a point where every second sentence out of his mouth what like so pierre what do you prefer sunny days or rainy days and he would just go analytics are fucking dumb yeah that that was like it was a little much yeah pierre shut up And now he's doing Kyle Dubas' team. That rules.

I don't know if he still has it, but I know he had a podcast at some point called The Eye Test. You're making that up. No, I think he's making it up, and you should take it back. Him and Jimmy Murphy, I think, did it together. It's called The Eye Test, which is just so on. Heavens to Betsy. Whoever came up with that damn name is very good.

And also, the pairing of those personalities, that should have worked holy that should have worked yeah um it's it's actually a return home for mcguire because pittsburgh is where he got his start in the nhl he was hired as like an assistant way back he won cups in dickity 2 with the penguins and then eventually worked his way up with that team and won a cup as i think assistant coach it was uh with the penguins but yeah that's that's where his cup is and so it's it feels very fitting that he's going to do this for the penguins so let's and i and the reason i segued to the penguin one cup is because i think the biggest news yesterday was the penguins and um pierre mcguire got to speak

to pat brisson who is the one of the biggest agents in the game and has been sydney crosby's agent and crosby spoke on this too but we're going to start with pat and pierre pierre lebrun said uh hey why is speculation growing and pat said well it's a reality first of all he's been so consistent for 20 years he's had another great year last year he just keeps going the comparison is tom brady i would agree with that uh we want sydney to hopefully be in the playoffs every year we want him to hopefully win another cup or two each year the team he's playing on fails to make the playoffs it creates a lot of speculation in reality he's not getting any younger we're here to support him it's the beginning of the season here let's see how things are going hopefully

they have a great season and the speculation will go away. But at the same time, the reason we talk about this is because he's such a great player. Still, he continues to be such a difference maker like Tom Brady. That's how I look at it. Um, and you know, to take it further, um, uh, Brisson said it's been three years and they haven't made the playoffs. It all depends on how, uh, on how Sid is going to be and how the team is doing. I maintain the same position that I do every year that he should be playing playoff hockey every year in my opinion and then the last that's everyone's opinion unless they're like a caps or flyers fan well yeah uh and or or you know local media who told us actually it's great that he's missing the playoffs no you guys just wouldn't

understand and then the last one is i mean i'm answering something that let's put it this way it's always a possibility you know as in him moving so the agent said it now crosby talked about it too and he said as someone who loves to play in environments like that i grew up a montreal canadians fan to have an ovation like that was very special and something i always remember when he was talking about going to play in montreal was that the four nation faceoff yes yeah and he said i get it when it comes to the speculation this is specifically about the montreal canadians oh trust me growing up a montreal fan and being from not too far from there i understand how passionate they are you know whether uh you know whether it's those

experiences or guys that i've played with that have played there or playing there in the playoffs or four nations all these different things i get it and so he gets the speculation as well so don't worry it's okay to ask sydney about it because he gets it so uh i thought that that's the first public admission from the crosby camp that it's possible because what we were told cj brought this up two off seasons ago off season 2024 and then we talked about it again this spring and everybody's like you're full of crap you don't know what you're talking about and all we said is listen if we don't address that it's possible because they're not making the playoffs then i think we're lying to ourselves right we're doing it a disservice we should talk about it this is the

first time where his agent who is i think the biggest agent in the game in terms of clientele yeah i'm pretty sure caa it's like it's an enormous agency look him up on puckpedia the amount of contracts it's not it's not like him attending to all the players right no for caa no of course he couldn't do that he could not physically possibly yeah you got young guys under you kind of like you know like uh what judd uh moldaver was under jeff jackson and that's how you know he had austin then he inherited connor right um so uh that that said guys um what do you think about the first real public admission that hey it's always possible all right nearly every pittsburgh writer get him sick him here we go here we go let's keep the energy up

right let's keep the same energy he talked about the possibility of sydney crosby leaving pittsburgh get him sick him oh you're not gonna that's that's so fucking weird that's just so strange it's so weird that he that pat brisson said pretty much all the same shit that we have and everyone else has and gently was like hey it could it's could be a possibility and crosby didn't say it's a possibility he just said i get it yeah yeah but he didn't refute it who gives a shit he didn't The guy who works for him said it. All you had to do was say, it's not going to happen. The guy who works for him said it.

That's good enough for me. Because he pays that guy. What's Crosby going to say? I would never expect Sidney Crosby to utter those words from his mouth. Ever. When a player does it, which will happen and does happen, it's news. Or a player's dad. Yeah, or...

Not the player you think that we're talking about, Leafs fans we're talking about the Habs one the other one who we just talked about and is going to get talked about more I imagine the guy's agent talked about it now he was asked about it

but there's a million and one answers you can give and well we're focused on winning with the Pittsburgh Penguins and we could get on our little show that's what Marner said about the Leafs I'm focused on winning with the Leafs this year yep it was a perfectly fine answer and he stuck to that forever and by the way he was always testing or going to free agency darren

ferris said that on on the john shannon show he wants his players to go to free agency yeah reality doesn't have to match the things you say that's oh and we've got a player coming up that we're going to talk about where reality is not matching oh that's fun oh i love it good tease adam but listen you revere this is for penguins writers and penguins fans you revere sydney crosby everyone else also reveres sydney crosby even as even the people who hate him the most respect him you know what i mean he's been around for so long and been through so many wars and so many battles you have to respect him for god's sake when he's on his retirement tour i think the city of philadelphia is going to give him a standing ovation i is their version of a standing

ovation pelting him with batteries like i i don't i don't know what to expect from the city of philadelphia but uh he's gonna get something sure right he's he's gonna get something uh i think it'd be funny to have like on the jumbotron uh claude geroux comes on the screen and you know gives him the middle finger or something something like that'd be very philly and great yeah thanks for breaking my arm you piece of shit yeah dude i i think that would be extremely philly and extremely wonderful extremely great i to me do we have your permission now is is it no longer disrespectful like i had people say it's disrespectful to to talk about crosby and the idea that one day he might not be a penguin like he might play somewhere else stop it stop

listen if it's not his wishes uh if he never wants to leave pittsburgh fine but if his agent is to be believed that door is ajar even ever so slightly i don't think he's looking for it but if you think he hasn't thought of it i think you're kidding yourself if you think dubas hasn't spoken to teams about it and listen here's what it would look like i think you're out of your mind kyle kyle's a very prepared individual he'd be he'd have a deal in mind for every player and his agent has certainly thought about it and now we know it for shit sure it's a possibility and i get that that hurts. Jesse, what do you think? I think now that they did this interview and Pat Brisson does not have to give interviews. He does not have to sit down with Pierre Lebrun. This is an effort by

him in a very direct way to get a narrative out there. And I feel like after these words have been said, there is now there is now permission from these gentlemen to move this conversation forward. When Pat Brisson says, it all depends on how Sid is going to be and how the team is going to do. I maintain that the same position that I do believe he should be playing playoff hockey every year. That's Pat Brisson's, his agent's opinion. He thinks Crosby should in the playoffs. And then there's an admission from Crosby that with the way the Penguins play year in and year out, where they're struggling to make the playoffs and they're not in it, that's hard on him. He says it there. He says it's the unknown, the uncertainty, the question

marks that's the stuff that's tough Crosby said that is tough it makes you appreciate all those years that we were competing going after the big acquisition every trade that every single trade deadline I don't think I took it for granted but I definitely appreciate it now uh much more so Crosby says the hard part is losing he said it to the media so now we can go forward and have the speculation conversations of where's a good fit is if the penguins keep losing are they going to move crosby because i feel like before yesterday there was a little bit of you shouldn't have those discussions you shouldn't be talking about if the penguins you know they they end up in last again should should they trade crosby there's so much pushback when you do that now it's like okay

everybody exhale we can speculate and it's fair because there he is himself admitting it is tough on me in my life losing this much nobody likes it jesse and like i don't i don't think it's a great use of energy to to have that discussion now like i think it is low no but like right this very second be like all right where are all the team you could do it you could do i think it's actually great i think it now would be the perfect time you could do it but but what i'm saying is if the penguins start the season not so good which we kind of expect and if by christmas it's even worse which we kind of expect and then january and the olympics and then the trade deadlines right there i'm sorry i'm sorry like we got to if the penguins continue on this trajectory

every single trade deadline there is a possibility that before three o'clock the hockey world gets clobbered over the head with the sydney crosby trade that may never happen it may never happen but we have confirmation from the biggest agent in the game that it's possible And I think them going out there and talking to the media about this possibility, it plants the seeds to where if something like this were to happen, it doesn't come out of nowhere. They're explaining, hey, if this is a chance, it's Crosby wants to be in the playoffs. He doesn't like losing. He thinks the environment he's playing in right now is tough. Those are his words.

It is tough in Pittsburgh. So if this happens eventually, we know why. And it's not out of nowhere. where, oh, all of a sudden Crosby's traded and it's a sin against Pittsburgh. Or it's a surprise. It will be less of it. It's almost like, hey, let's just plant the seed.

If it happens, then nobody's surprised. This isn't like we need a public hanging of Cal Dubas. It's something Crosby wants. And it's going to be up to him. But now we know that this situation could be too difficult and he wants to move on to somewhere else. And we can talk about it now. I feel free.

And Dubas surely wants it. We could always talk about it, by the way. But when you talk about it before in the before times in what do we call it a few weeks ago before Crosby in B.C., now that we are A.C. after Crosby talks it now there's a freeing sense because you have something to back up that conversation. his agent said he wants to see him in the playoffs every year and crosby said it's getting hard to lose every year i have something to go with now when i do hey crosby should land with the colorado avalanche of montreal canadians or whatever little segment we want to do the buffalo sabers i can say because x and y he wants this his agent wants this crosby wants this this is the situation that fits everything makes sense there's no pushback there now we can move forward with the next conversation

on the fun stuff of hey where could he go so i feel free it's awesome so let me let me throw a wrench in there because here's what i believe i don't know this to be true but i believe this i believe if you gave kyle dubas truth serum right now veritas serum uh for harry potter fans out there uh he would say yes i want to trade crosby because i think a million percent because i think he wants to uh he wants to reset this franchise and we all know that a sydney crosby trade and a Gino Malkin trade, which could happen this year too, because it is, we now know, and Josh Yohi of The Athletic reported this, they're not re-signing Malkin. If he's back next year, he's not with them.

No, no, no, no, no. I think what Dubas wants to do is start from rock bottom three years from now. Exactly. Where the value of both players is completely exhausted, and maybe Chris Letang too. Forget value, they're simply retired. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, if Sidney Crosby's name isn't Sidney Crosby, he's probably like, it's not even a discussion that he's getting traded, right?

if this is just oh we got a really good center who's not really useful on our team because we're not good i'll trade him for assets and that like what is is a an enormous compliment to sid yes it's an enormous compliment to sid i understand his place in the pantheon of hockey but specifically his his place in the pantheon of the pittsburgh so he's gonna get a statue he might get several let me continue with my point here sure uh the pittsburgh penguins just sold and so it's fair you know we've been hard on people that have been hard on us about talking about this it was fair when fenway put them up for for sale to say yeah that's not freaking likely because fenway can't sell this franchise for as much without sydney crosby they haven't sold yet

but it's it's basically agreed to in principle that's what i've heard okay this summer but just Just to clarify, they haven't sold. They haven't sold, but I think it's the Hoffman Group or something. They're going to be, it just has to be approved. And there's, you know, hey, it's a billion seven or something, the deal. So like, yeah, there's a lot of things that need to be checked. Once that deal goes through, the question will become, what is Kyle Dubas told by his new management group?

Because he was brought in by a guy from Fenway Sports who left like a year after Kyle got there. And then Fenway Sports was like, yeah, no, we're not going to spend any money on anything except for Liverpool. And then they hated the way the NHL ran things.

They stopped sending representatives to the Board of Governors meetings. Can you believe that? That's disrespectful. We're talking about disrespect and all of this? Your owners don't give a fuck. Yeah. The fans are the only ones who do.

The owners don't even show up? That's pathetic. Well, and it's out of anger towards or antipathy to Gary Bettman. And so with that said, Mike, what I'm curious about and what I think a lot of this hinges on is what's the new management group want? Because right now, what our understanding of the league as a whole is that Pittsburgh is the only team that's willing to sell. Rust and Raquel are the two names that keep coming up. I don't know why Letang's name's not out there, but Carlson's is. and and i feel like if kyle wants to tear this down dude do it before the sale goes through but

here's the things they could get if crosby wants to go they'll trade him you know what's funny about the penguins you look at the assets that they have to sell and you they're amazing you wonder how they're that bad well because they have no goaltending and nothing beyond those assets the d is it's awful it's atrocious and they have bad contracts back there you can't you can't get to stop so my point in all of this uh is the ownership situation will play into this and it's a question of can kyle dubas uh do this do some of these things maybe not crosby but malkin or whatever before uh the ownership group fully takes over you know do the penguins pull a detroit red wings from 2023 and go on a tear in october and everybody's like ha ha screw you well you guys

and then missed the playoffs by a couple of points like Detroit did in 2023-24. That's always possible. To me, that's a little different because you had a shot. You had a shot and you blew it. But that's where the Penguins were in 2024 as well. 23-24, they had a shot and they blew it. No, it was 2022-23 when they blew it against Chicago.

Was that that long ago? Yes, it literally gave birth to a Panthers dynasty. They win that game, the Panthers do not make the playoffs. damn and then the boston bruins had an opportunity to shut down the panthers and they choked that away and the lead with uh was the goalie pulled and they couldn't get a fucking empty of all the things in hockey that should have never been this iteration of the florida panthers should have never been it's a miracle it is a miracle life uh finds a way and like You can't even say they found a way because they backed into the playoffs

because the Penguins fucked it. Yeah, through no fault of their own, they got into the playoffs. Right, well, they went on a heater too. But anyway, all that to say, like, obviously this quiets down the better the Penguins are. If they start the season, great. And they've got some interesting pieces. Like, I mean, obviously, Raquel Crosby-Rust is a great first line.

And if you're practical, you say, well, you should sell high then. But they're just not going to do that. As of this point, Malkin's going to be playing between Vili Koivunen and Anthony Mantha. Koivunen is, there's some Calder chatter around him. He could work out. Rutger McGordy, it was announced this morning, has an injury and will miss rookie camp.

That's already not great. He had to work on his skating. He really struggled at the NHL level last year. But they also have two former Predators centers, Novak and Tomasino. And then there's Conor Dewar. I think those are both really good acquisitions. I really like them, too.

They are very Kyle Dubas acquisitions. Connor Dewar, another real Kyle Dubas guy. I like Connor Dewar. Blake Lazotte and Justin Brazeau, who we love. They got Brazeau? Yeah, they did. Oh, I love O-Yah season. I forgot all about that.

Here's an O-Yah. Matt Dumba is a pen. Justin Brazeau is on Kyle Dubas' team? Yes, he is. Of course he is. If this table wasn't bolted to the floor, I would friggin' flip it! That Matt Dumba one is a big O-Yah. from me yeah i didn't i didn't remember that i don't even know when that happened their right

side carlson clifton dumba and letang letang on daily face off is listed on the left behind ryan shea and in front of owen pickering who has a good future you asked about letang being a trade asset his deal is really weird because it's going on forever yeah three more seasons but with the rising cap i thought it wouldn't matter it's still six million bucks so you're gonna have to if you want to retain on that you're gonna have it for three seasons you know so the penguins need tristan jari to be good you ever heard the term uh position to succeed oh oh yeah he's gotta play behind that yeah and and they're they'll put up points but jeez and and that's awful who's their backup uh we talked about it quickly last oh um archer

silas which is i like that he was like the ahl goalie of the year last year or one of them he was amazing they were in the finals like i like him i think he's very good uh i think he might end up being the starter yeah you think they're not drop they're not do you know what to expect out of tristan jari well that's what i'm saying he's gonna give you like three four weeks of 925 before giving you $830. No, Steve, he is going to be the starter. I don't know. He is.

Like, look at what happened with Tristan Jari last year. Look at how bad it got. And they still have him. It's Archer Silov. Silov says more recent experience playing in front of an AHLD, which is what that is. Holy shit. This is the point.

So it'll be interesting to see how Dubas, for lack of a better way of saying this, stick handles this. Not going to be easy. um and with an ownership situation flux um i think kyle dubas himself like if you're wondering about the future of his job i don't think he's been and i've been very critical of him i don't think he's been allowed to do the job he wants to do at any point in his career well i specifically here though because it's like fenway is like no no but you need to keep winning and when he signed on

there they said we're going to give it a couple more years and then we'll talk about what we're going to do right well now a couple more years has happened and i'm looking at the pittsburgh penguins and they're only getting worse and you know maybe they do go on a heater but that that's not a stanley cup roster we all know that uh raquel and rust if rumors are to be believed will move at some point yeah but if the new ownership group's like no double down then they won't it's i know this is a crosby topic and not a dubious topic but it's it's alarming where you look at them up front and you're like all right that guy doesn't know how to build a decor no like i mean you saw that with with the leafs too oh i mean one thing i'll say tree in calgary built

a bunch of studs on the back end they he left them crazy with well they're not doing anderson but tana yep who else uh uh uh shillington had a lot of promise he did um fox was there for a hot minute am i forgetting oh it's like like they had brilliant defense there and the leafs defense is the best we've seen hannifin hannifin yeah i forgot there you go there you go adam i think pittsburgh will be upset with you for putting letang on the left side there well that that's where that's how he's listed that's how he's listed i don't think he is but yeah he's uh by the way uh ryan graves is not listed there where's he i'm looking at he should be that he should be in the top left slot on the defense he's still in pittsburgh it should be graves letang like

shay carlson not make the opening yeah because you got the right-handed dealer tan carlson clifton dumba on the right side there on puckpedia um you'll be sad to hear that this is there's only four years of ryan graves's deal left oh my you're three of six oh that's including this year that's a thing huh sure is oh dear yeah he's not a d builder no not at all i could have phrased that better um i wasn't gonna say it i'm glad you did now this episode is brought to you by better help give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com slash sdp and get on your way to being your best self jesse steve how are you your best selves because of therapy because we've all been oh my goodness um i don't say slow it down

because nobody knew what that meant no i know oh really well i have a better time analyzing myself an easier time slowing it down to figure out why i am feeling the emotions and feelings that i am feeling jesse was that better i like your theory about how september is the new year as opposed to january it's like hey in the middle of the winter like all this change like no it makes more sense where it's summer to fall and everything comes back and it's it's old and it's new and school and all that so now's a good time for the reset portion of your life and therapy should be a part of that absolutely make time for it it's it's actually extremely valuable uh i've done it a lot myself and what's the amazing thing about better help

is it's fully online it makes therapy therapy affordable convenient and they serve over five million people worldwide the thing with therapy in the past one of the barriers was when you needed therapy it's like great uh so glad that you've signed up for therapy uh we'll see in six to eight weeks when we can match you with somebody and then when you got matched with somebody you might not vibe with them i've had therapy where um the therapist and i just we didn't click and sometimes you need that and what's great about this is you'll be matched with the therapist in 24 hours or less in some cases and there's over 30 000 credentialed therapists with a wide range of specialties based on your needs so and you can easily switch therapists at any time like i said

no cost either uh so visit betterhelp.com slash sdp today to get 10 off your first month we want you to give therapy a shot that's better help help.com slash sdp let's talk about jack jacuse jack hughes who the is he a d builder he doesn't build a strong straight d he's a d struck jack is trying to build a d with his brother yes he is uh pure lebrun i asked jack hughes about whether he talks to his brother quinn about possibly playing together in the future uh and jack said this is the headline you know i love the hughes when they talk great quotes uh all of them the hughes i the hughes is uh he said honestly i'm not afraid to say it yeah i would love for quinn to and then he paused eventually i'd love to play with him and whether that's in new jersey smart

kid yeah or at what time that takes at some point i want to play with quinn but yeah that's the question going around they talk about it all day up in vancouver you know but i'd love to play with quinn at some point now quinn eligible for an extension suit has not signed one vancouver influx although i do really like their goaltending tandem if they're healthy uh this will be and and And the rumor out of camp, by the way, because I asked around, is Mr. Pedersen looks like he's in great shape, which is a complete, yeah, Elias the forward. I will never, I will never buy that story out of any pro athlete.

You won't. I'm sorry. You're in shape and you're looking good against pylons. Yeah. But you are literally on the ice with maybe, I don't know, a parachute strapped to your back. You haven't taken a hit in months. Going 10 miles an hour down the ice.

wow you're speedy yeah you haven't taken a hit in months you should be conditioned to the peak of human form that is your job for 10 million dollars a year i'm sorry that you look good on the ice that's your job i don't care i every athlete sells that story oh they look so good people forget that oh yeah season runs concurrently with best shape of my life best shape of their life season is in prime form and taller than actual like they're enlisted as taller than they actually are yeah like they're not actually listen if i'm a canucks fan i read that and i go oh but like it means absolutely nothing well and we'll talk about the austin matthews in shape stuff too like because yeah no you you hear that across pro sports like nba players are the worst

for it like every year ben simmons who's doing some stuff with his agent right now he's like the the peak of this stuff because he can't play basketball but every time he's out and he's injured he's rehabbing they're like ben simmons looks so good he might play double digit game He might shoot within the basket. He might come to practice. He might be within the lane and actually take a shot. It's crazy. Well, that would be bad, though.

We don't want him taking shots. No, no. So in hockey players, too, it's peak form. They look so fresh. Ben Simmons is one of my introductions to basketball TikTok. Because there was this one time, it was him right under the net. And the guy guarding him is Trey Young. And this guy is just losing his fucking mind.

And he's like, who are you passing the ball to? Yeah. Yeah. Bentham is seven foot tall and he refuses to just take a layoff. And yeah. So everybody looks good against shooting targets. I'm sorry. Everybody looks good against the AHL goalie who they paid to put on the ice for $10 an

hour to take shots. It's the off season. I don't care that Pettersson looks good. Well, and the one I saw was he gained 13 pounds. Oh, yeah. That's, I mean, maybe. Yeah. Okay.

what kind of pounds that's what they're all though that's a lot though listen i mean it i mean he makes 11 million dollars like i'm sure he has everything the best whatever whatever but like it used to be a lot worse like i i want to say the worst example was uh remember when luke shen was really young with the leafs and it's like he put on 20 pounds this summer that's not hard for luke shen to do it's not he's a beefy dude what kind of 20 pounds 100 20 pounds of muscle of muscle in less than half a year that's impossible it's not that long right like i don't know how you put on 20 that's impossible without taking the kind of drugs they give horses yeah or the rock yeah or the their equivalent you know it's horses and the rock the kind of drugs you give horse

yeah yeah no no he's clean it's just hard work and eat your veggies yeah no it's by putting hot sauce on flaky fish and rice and eating a bunch of sushi on Instagram I'm the rock

here's my sushi on Sunday this is my cheat meal fuck you cheat meal I eat a platter of sushi on Sunday this is how I'm the rock this is my fucking healthy meal you dick also when the family guy bit fat guys think this is health food that's a fat dude eating sushi also like in shape out of shape guy from the 50s oh yeah that was funny wait a sec could you breathe out for a

moment yeah um okay let me get to quinn sorry oh sure we heard what jack said he's like i'm not afraid to say it i would love to eventually play with quinn quinn was asked this morning so the jack hughes thing was last night quinn is today pierre lebrun again he said i mean he's my brother what's he supposed to say like like i don't want to play with him right i love quinn hughes yo the hughes brothers are the best quote in the game like matthew and brady kachuk are like the funny ones they're they're uh they're like i don't know if you guys ever watched the uh there was like an old cartoon where there's a bunch of speed racer and there would be these two guys that would hit each other on the head and that's how the car moved that's what the kachuks are to me these

guys are funny they got a personality effortless effortlessly funny deadpan i i spoke to him when i think he was still 19 and i i immediately was like i love this kid that's so funny god bless him you were you were like one sentence in and i'm laughing so i love him he said i mean we have contracts and whatnot he's on a different team would it be fun to play with those guys at some point and he's talking about not just jack but his brother luke as well uh he said quinn hughes the media day yeah why he said would it be fun of course but i think if guys have brothers you guys would if you guys have brothers you would say the same thing but we do have contracts i'm excited to be in vancouver and i feel like last year was a little bit of failure so i feel like we've got

things to do and i know jack he loves jersey and he's got stuff to do as well worth noting that the Hughes brothers all spent a ton of time in Toronto and there are pictures of them as kids in Toronto Maple Leafs. They went to the outdoor game, right? And they were all Leafs gear. Wasn't that the Detroit one where the picture is from? I don't think that's

in Toronto theory. They want to join McDavid and Crosby here. That game that happened three years ago actually happened 11 years ago. I know. Isn't that insane? We're all babies. yeah uh that hurts my now i was uh i was talking to drew about this because he read the jack hughes

port portion of the quote and then he read it and he's like yeah what do you want him to say yeah it's great yeah i want to play with my brother and then quinn came out and said that and i was like yeah that's probably the right reaction to all of this is of course they want to play together they're brothers yeah but drew has a similar sense of humor i think to jack yes like hey man can you believe he said he's stupid yeah he is stupid yeah that is something i could easily see quinn andrew say josh clipperton who is a uh writer for uh the canadian press said uh he said this is the the quote quinn hughes on if he's surprised about all the chatter about his future two years out from ufa and jack's comments yes and no obviously jack wasn't the

first one to bring it up in fairness to him and then uh quinn hughes to a group of reporters at the nhl media day on jack's comments on wanting him to play together one day uh i don't care at all i think it's just him being authentic and if a fan base can't understand why he would say that that makes no sense to me yes spicy no but he's talking to people who are like oh there's something going on well i'm all guy because they're they're literally brothers and if you ask a brother who's good friends with his brother do you want to play together his answer is going to be yes it's not like he initiated this is like i want to go i'm demanding a trade request to make over He was asked the question, and he's being honest.

I'm surprised no one took the low-hanging fruit of, yeah, I'll see him in February at the Olympics. They're going to play together at the Olympics. Pending injuries. Pending injuries. Like the Four Nations. Right. Right.

Did Jack play at the Four Nations? I don't remember. I don't think he did. He was listed on the roster when I was coming up with the team. I can't remember. Yeah. I don't remember if he played. That's what's scary about Team USA is Quinn did not play.

McAvoy. I don't think Jack played. McAvoy got injured. Matthews was fighting a wrist injury literally all year, we think. Matthew Kachuk. And Matthew Kachuk will not be healthy again until a year later. They're preposterous. Yeah, Team USA is going to be crazy.

They're going to be crazy this year. They're preposterous. So anyway, I just thought those were fun quotes. Jack was in every game. He played four games. 17, 18 minutes a night. Sounds like he lost. That's so nuts.

Sounds like he lost, though, didn't he? Did he score? He had one assist on the tournament. 11 shots, 17.55, Jack Hughes. And Jesse, he had zero points in the playoffs, and I would say that means he can't perform under pressure. He didn't play, David. I know he didn't play in the playoffs.

Geez. All right. Now, let's talk about Craig Berube and how he feels about the Leafs. Now, remember, this is happy season. This is positivity season. Everybody's in the best shape of their life. How can you not be happy? Everybody's so fucking tall and so fucking in shape.

Yeah. and uh matthews is feeling a lot better than he has which is a very good sign that's the direct quote from craig brube now matthews said that last week uh brube acknowledged he said matthews basically wasn't healthy for all of last season remember his 33 goals are a career low that's the worst he's ever done and in that's pretty crazy uh 60 i think it was like between 66 and 70 he scored people don't realize and jesse maybe you can check this but i'm pretty sure matthew scored at a 90 point pace yeah so like he's still he's still pretty great perform pretty well matthew's 67 games played 33 goals 45 assists that's 78 points in 77 games yeah there you go

pretty good clip i the expectations for him are so sky high because people are like oh you know like i i know his goal scoring obviously went down but like he was otherwise a-okay yeah played great defense the problem was in the playoffs we needed more goal scoring yes now yes uh consistently the we had never gotten a good answer on the shut him down in february and have him return for the playoffs that's because on the leaf side that's because they were wrong jesse like we we asked about it made a mistake and they won't they won't walk it back We also don't know exactly what it was. Listen.

The time between February and the playoffs is the same amount of time, basically, from the Leafs ending their season to right now. What else do I need to say? They made the wrong call. They deferred to the player. The player, because he's a player, said, no, I want to play. Because fucking of course. And they didn't go, you know what, Austin? i know you're a player i love that mentality my job is not to push you my job is to corral you

and we need you for the playoffs yeah us in the media we asked about it several times like when the season was over and all that stuff and then we got the news of the injury and what that is and he confirmed all the trips out there to the other side of the world to go fix it and steven adam are doing things he gave me the finger he went to germany he went to germany We went to Germany, and we asked, like, okay, so why didn't you shut him down? And the answer was always, Austin, week to week, wasn't sure about, like, if he'd be able to play. And when he was ready to play, you don't want to not use Austin Matthews. They were never willing to go, we're shutting you down and not using you, even though you're available to us to play.

And their center depth was ass. What's that? Their center depth was ass. Yes. They wanted the division, even though Tavares was playing really good. No, no, but beyond him. Below that. yeah so they don't want to make themselves uh weaker on the ice when austin can play

what is it 10 out of the next 15 games yeah you know so that was their mentality about it but i'll always sit here for the rest of my life because we'll never get a solid answer on what happens if you just shut them down and you can see that we're gonna make the playoffs like the panthers kind of did down the stretch where paul maurice rested the panthers and they were pretty bad going into the playoffs if you remember everybody was injured playoffs hit shoot them up and they're all fine again shit jesse no one cares it's an all-time overthinking pick picking the lightning yeah like just yeah can i can i just so i i wonder i wonder if the leafs had that mentality shut them down concede the regular season the playoffs are what matter well

they wanted to win the division to avoid the panthers lol but also uh let me throw this at you jesse you will know you don't have to wonder i'll tell you why you don't have to wonder you know why you have you don't have to wonder about what would have happened because you're about to find out this fall okay it's the same amount of rest time as february to april it's the same so if he comes out on a tear you'll fucking know dude imagine you'll fucking know we'll all know puts up 40 goals in october and we're like oh man he might man i wonder what the leafs could have done come on now again i will say playing austin and still having him have 33 goals is always beneficial it's crazy when great players play that's good for you that's how they looked but

they also had to go into a trade deadline where and that was right after four nations and you're not keeping austin out of that and i get that okay even if it's not even if it's the right thing for the team you're not keeping austin out of that i get it fine but then after trade deadline like Before trade deadline, you can't rest him because if you do, Scott Lawton's cost goes up, right? And it already wasn't cheap. It already was a pretty high price. It can go up from there.

Yeah. But March 7th was trade deadline. March 8th, you could have arrested him. And it didn't matter that Scott Lawton was struggling or they couldn't- They didn't even play him at center. Exactly. Exactly. My point is, we'll know this fall.

We will know. And I hope he's great. And I hope they were wrong last year because it's not last year anymore. It's this year. And that's what I want them to be right about. Now, number two on this list, and this is Jonas Siegel's, you know, interesting things that Craig Berube said in his interview because they sat down. Berube said, I think Matthews talked about maybe he thought he was a little too lean last year. So that's good.

So Siegel says it's noteworthy that Matthews decided to bulk up after last season, feeling the need for extra strength after a season that saw him playing hurt from training camp. What's interesting is that Matthews weighed 217 at the start of last season, which was more than in the previous four seasons. So 2021, he weighed 211 pounds, 21, 22, 205, 22, 23, 208, 23, 24, 215. and then last season, 217, which tells me, A, he probably lost a little bit of weight throughout the season, as they all do. Secondly, when you get to those playoffs and you see a guy like Brady Kachuk, who is a battering ram, and then you see Matthew Kachuk, if he's healthy, who's a battering ram, or Sam Bennett, or those guys,

you need to have old man strength. And he's now getting closer to 30. You need to have a little bit more weight in order to be knocked around or not be knocked around so much that was uh that was a shack thing with uh was it phil jackson they they the the plan they came up with for him i remember him doing an interview about it they're like over the course of the season like we gotta we gotta bulk you up you can't come in at your playoff weight we're gonna build you up so that when april arrives you're a certain weight well and then he went to miami and pat riley told him to lose weight and uh and he said no

i think i think shaq's career i'll always side with kobe and that shaq's career could have been better if he took training a little more yeah i think like shaq's an all-time great he's probably top 10 player ever and he could have been like top five you know and there's a little bit extra he could have had if he just like exercised i don't know that i feel like top 10 was good enough for him though yeah i know 100 he's satisfied with everything that happened but like maybe you take your diet a little seriously to heal O'Neal. Not if you ask him, hey Shaq,

how do you think you stack up against X player? The fuck you just said. Yeah, no, he thinks he's the best. Unless there's like, unless there's I don't know, five guys he'll allow you to say he might fight you. Yeah, yeah. By the way,

I think he's my favorite sports personality of all time. Oh, really? I love Shaq. I think he's fucking hilarious and also a winner uh mine's pierre mcguire pierre mcguire oh yeah listen you won't be missing those penguins broadcasts will you now number three on the list is talking about who's going to play on matthews's line and one of the things that i called for all last season and they refused to do was put max domey there because they were good the year before that's what they're going to do i think and uh uh what berube said was he's going to hold auditions throughout camp he seemed according

to Siegel, he seemed to hint that Domi's going to get first crack, which makes sense because they had success in the past. I've heard they're on the ice together, like have been on the ice together this month. But, oh, that's interesting. Yeah. There's a picture of it. But, oh, okay. Well, that's interesting. I did not see them. Just seen it. I heard.

He saw. And I... Even better. I got neither. So it's good for me to know too. But Berube did say, I think Max has to change his mindset a little bit playing with those guys on a consistent basis. What Siegel says is Berube wants a different Domi from the one he got last season if he's going to play with Matthews.

A Domi who doesn't always default to passing the puck, which is what we pinned on Mitch Marner because we know Mitch Marner's capable of 40 goals. Turns out Max can shoot. And he's a great shot. Domi takes care. He wants a Domi to take care of the puck a little bit and probably be better defensively.

Here's Matthews and Domi on the ice. Daryl Belfry is the performance coach. Belfry, sorry. The performance coach that they work with in the offseason This was in September Are they allowed to do that? Is the NHL allowing that? Or are they going to stop? I think they're going to shut down the Leafs

For their players hanging out together So yeah, they're working out together I think, Steve, you're on the right line I think they're priming to get ready to play together Yeah, like, Michelli Might work with him We've watched Max Domi work with him Michelli makes a lot more sense with Nylander and Tavares

To me Yeah, maybe i do think so because i think it's a lot of pressure to step onto that matthews line i think you got to have some attitude and i think it's a lot to be like hey you struggled last year with utah here's austin right and and domi's got that i like where i thought max really sean and there were warts uh was in the um was in the playoffs he has a don't give a shit mentality in the send series i was surprised by how well he took care of the puck and there wasn't a ton of game seven where it looked like the leafs might have a chance who scored the only goddamn goal

it's max they needed to score they needed to score early he got it and there was a brief moment where i was like there's one and the panther said here's four and uh and what i also like about that line if it works, is the mix of personalities. We'll get to Matthew Nise's quotes in a little bit here, but Austin is understated to the media, but we know off camera, he's pretty full of personality, a funny guy, really liked in the dressing room. Matthew Nise is very quickly going to become

the most popular Toronto Maple Leaf we've seen in 20 years. Oh, yeah. This guy is like, his quote about, hey, it would be weird if fans weren't pissed that we lost. I'm gonna If you don't like Matthew Nise I'll beat you up I'll fight you and your dad I'll fight your dad and I don't necessarily agree with

The I think it was Overdrive had it the other day Where they're like well that's your Mitch Marner Replacement I'm like I don't think that's fair If you don't like Matthew Nise I'll fight up to Three of your uncles there you go I think The Overdrive discussion was more about the Personality standpoint

Here's your next star Of Mitch Marner not that He's like on the ice production it exactly yeah and i and i think that's also true and i think that there's a uh there's a guy who every time he's in front of a camera and this matters in toronto says what we need to hear and that is what you do that's part of the game yeah i think you guys were actually saying the same thing you know i think you agree with what we're great yeah i only saw like a minute clip But I'm curious about Max in that position, too, because what it does is it gives you a battering ram in Matthew Nyes, who is unbelievable in the playoffs.

Max elevated his game in the playoffs. And you then have no one's going to take a run at Austin Matthews or they'll try it once. And with Nyes and Domi on there. No, Matthew, if he's going to have Jamie Ben. cross check to the back yeah it ruined his whole season good night jamie bent it it it matthews needs to be able to stick up for himself i think that's really important yep um what's what's tricky with matthews like you know something crosby did early in his career is he is he fought and i don't know if he's a great fighter but he proved that he'll do it i don't think it's a great

idea for matthews to do that just because of the wrist the promoted wrist wrist thing i wouldn't mind seeing them tomahawk chop someone in the ankle or throw an elbow here or there take out someone's teeth i don't give a shit you have full license and guess what it's the beginning of the year do it even better pre-season go ahead and get suspended for some pre-season games room nice make room yeah nice domey yeah you have green light beat up whoever the whoever you want i'm sorry like hurting your opponent after watching the panthers go to three straight finals boy i really effective way to do it i just can't get worked up about it um i i i'm supposed to feel bad for you if if you see it break it if you see it smash it if you if you if you see it hurt

it um i don't care now nick robertson is an interesting one and it's it's so fascinating because all the line charts we've sort of talked about we haven't done a lot of that yet because i don't want to jump into that right now like i feel like um especially the mid-august line charts thing i'm just over that uh but i am excited about it because now we're getting to camp where the rubber hits the road uh jonah siegel asked about nick robertson and the only quote berube would give him was there's a lot of competition at camp i'll leave it at that i have no idea where he fits well especially when you've hung on to conf and yarn croak yeah it seems like throughout nick robertson's entire tenure as a leaf no one's ever been the

biggest fan of him and that's not a i think berube likes him that's not i don't i don't think he does i think him saying that there's a lot of competition is him saying that he doesn't have a spot guaranteed did you get he doesn't believe that did you get the sense from that last year when you were talking to them like what is there anything you could deduce from that i don't even think it's it's a sense of uh from like talking what they say to the media i think it's from what they've done with nick robertson and playing him he's scratched in the playoffs in the most important time of the year even though he starts the playoffs off well even though when he's scratching you bring him back in he usually scores they don't trust this man in the highest

leverage point of the entire season i think year in year out this guy is somebody who has to earn their way back into the lineup because there isn't just a blanket confidence that this guy should make the team the only glimmer of hope he has so beginning of the send series i thought he looked good um then he gets scratched for patch already and i was like okay first of all max hasn't played like what are you what are you doing there was a time where that was a crazy decision and then max was awesome um but the to me it wasn't as the series went on as the playoffs went on it wasn't about taking max out and putting nick back in i'm like i i would watch more and more often and i'm like you're not in over yarn croak you at this point like the one

glimmer of hope is they might trade that guy but for god's sake at this point in your career like the natural gifts that you have as a goal scorer you should be able to be in the lineup over cali yarn croak at this point in his career for god's sake with injuries and everything too like cali people gave cali a hard time last year uh and i get he doesn't score in the playoffs i understand uh i liked him in the sen series and then in florida he was useless he was because he's not he's not that same chippiness that you kind of need against florida um no they just swat you away 100 but i do think cal yarn croak's a good guy you can slot in in the bottom six in the regular season trade him and he's on an expiring deal he might be all right like as a because his

regular season performance is typically way better than it was last year but anyway and imagine he had a camp he missed six months so right but nick robertson's never had a permanent spot in the Leafs lineup their entire NHL career here's here's the way I see things shaken down remember the Leafs signed Lilligren to his two-year three million dollar per contract and we all went

oh and then and then now what do you wear and we went to go see him in March yes yeah we did that was why the Sharks invited us down they're like hey we got Timothy yeah I know you miss him come on down it was one of the Lilligren trip yeah I noticed that they couldn't defend a lead but

no wait timothy lilligren was not to be trusted on defense i was told and the stats backed up that he could actually but i remember your point about them signing and then trading yeah well i remember saying like okay well it's a new coach though so we'll see the impression he makes any i want to say he played two preseason games and was dog shit he was he was the worst player on the ice he was terrible and it became very quickly and they made the assertive quick not like let's give them until november or whatever they're just like this is bad gone uh i think that might happen this preseason if you have a tough couple first games you're gone at 1.8 million dollars though he is going to make sense for a lot of teams that are extremely young extremely thin i mean

tell me that Kyle Dubas wouldn't at least put in a phone call and go hey uh or San Jose where they've done business before Nick Robertson also might make sense on the Leafs yeah like that's a thing that could happen at that price like everything you're saying is something the Leafs might be able to use it's just Nick Robertson still hasn't proven enough that we know going into camp he has a roster spot extremely frustrating player and that's yeah that's a frustrating he's exactly the kind of player where you're like I don't know if he has a spot in this lineup and then and then you're like oh yeah let's maybe trade him to the penguins and i'm like we're gonna play him 82 games we're gonna and he's gonna end up playing with like crosby

or malkin or raquel a couple games and we're gonna be like oh shit like yeah they'll play with malkin why not put up 20 goals and we're gonna look stupid well he put up 15 the last two years without a regular lineup spot he can score he can but again he's gonna go to a team probably where there's a spot for him and i don't know that i think brube just said it i don't know if there's a spot. Now, when it comes to Easton Cowell... On Lilligren, one second. He played one game for the Leafs last season.

Do you remember that? Wasn't it game three or something? It wasn't that bad. He played game number four of the season against the Kings. They won that game 6-2. And it was him. He played 13.55,

had two penalty minutes, 25 shifts, and the rest cardio. Two blocks. 25 shifts is a lot. For 13.55, yeah. But after that game, did not play again

for the Toronto Maple Leafs ever in his career. Basically, 30 second shifts. That makes sense. So he got that one game against the Kings. Good for him. And then they pulled the chute. One guy I think they're going to keep, if he has a good camp,

one guy I think they're going to keep at least for the first little bit is Easton Cowan. And here's what Berube said about it. We need him to get the trust of the coach by playing a simple north game and being that hounder and four checker and being a difficult guy to play against being defensively responsible managing the puck things like that so basically like i keep saying travis connect me you need to that's got to be his north star a guy who is not big has never been big will never be big played for team canada plays big well just plays asshole

yeah like it's i've i've said this for years like you do not need to be a brute the panthers are not like overly huge no dicks they have some big guys big big that like there's no zidane ochara on that team big and dick big and well i guess nico micola but they they didn't win the stanley cup primarily because of nico micola you know what i mean like just play like a dick play like an asshole play like doug gomor was like one of the most svelte leafs of his era 5 11 yeah yeah On a good day. And probably like 120 pounds. And a fucking maniac.

And a maniac! He was nuts. Yeah. Did get killed every now and then. Yeah. Yeah, that's... That's what happens. You go back and look at Gilmore's stats when the Flames won the Cup, too.

He was third on the team in scoring in the regular season, third on the team in scoring in the postseason. And... Because I think Al McInnes went off. He had like 45 points or something on that run. It was insane. Might have been goals. Yeah.

Yeah, Al was nuts. But the... He was... If you go and actually watch the games, which are available on YouTube. He's nuts. He's crazy. He's a lunatic. I love that outdoor game clip, Philly versus Pittsburgh,

when Gensel was on the Penguins. And he's just yipping at everyone, and he says, take those ear cuffs off, because he should have said earmuffs. He goes, take those ear cuffs off, you nerd. You nerd. And Gensel just goes, shut up. Why can't you be shut up, guy? Yeah.

we need someone to be shut up guy now i'm not expecting you to come in as a rookie and be shut up guy but it's yes like you said that's your north star that's who you can be i'm excited that eason cowan it just gets the ability to play on the marlies i still think the ahl rules are ridiculous with prospects and i'm glad that he's finally graduated to hey we can play him with some adult men and see how he actually is so i'm excited for that little tenure it reminds me of like the kneelander days when he was down there with the marley kneelander cadre a little bit we got a little cow and marley's it'll be a fun season down there and that'll be a great reason to go see the marley's i think i think he'll get a few games at the start of the year and then

they'll go easton we're gonna get you a million minutes of ice time in the a and then come march they're gonna post trade deadline they're gonna have a real hard look at him and go is he good enough they'll try him again and then he'll either be on the playoff roster or he won't i'm not too interested in him being a healthy scratch too many times that's the point no i think like it's been a little bit since least fans have had the young prospect on the marley's that you can go see and you're like oh i'm i might get a easton cowan marley's jersey you know i'm taking my kid to that game and i'm gonna sit there with leo and we're gonna watch the marley's and cowan's gonna yeah you would you would know like who's the last couple ones that went out there you know because

i remember willie and being there and that was awesome but that 2016 marley's team was so it was a good team so special i know they won it in 2018 but like those were with it wasn't with a ton of prospects no the process their their champion prospects were travis dermot and andreas johnson um but yeah the 2016 team had a freaking connor brown zach hyman william neilander um uh casper recappanen i want to say was a healthy scratch oh no nikita sashnikov was on that team uh yeah Conor Carrick. Oh, yeah. Oh, Conor Carrick.

Yeah, they had so many guys. They did. Exciting times in the organization. One thing that the Leafs did not do under Dubas and Shanahan, part of this was just insane contract logjam they were in, was they couldn't have competition for spots. They had everything every year was locked up, and you knew where everybody was going to play,

which made the roster projection so boring, right? It's like, well, we know. Yeah, the salary cap was down to a literal dollar. Do you remember when we did that? it was a dollar so of course there's no roster move that has to be perfect is going to be a leaf we just don't know what his contract is yet because we have no idea how much money they're going to have exactly um berube said there's jobs available and again it's a competition you got to come and play your ass off and earn a spot and jonah siegel says there's 11 locks up front

matthews tavaris kneelander michelli uh domi nize joshua nicholas wa scott lawton steven lawrence and bobby mcmahon but remember yeah i bobby mcmahon he's wrong i think i think bobby mcmahon is not a lock i think he's wrong and and michelle was a healthy scratch for how many games last year yeah i think that i think that he's probably a lock for an nhl spot i i oh he's going to make that's what he's talking about oh okay well yeah like you're going to be in the top 12 yeah like mcmahon is going to make the team but he might not play opening night um really and he didn't last year he did get i love bobby mcmahon but i like bobby mcmahon uh i like bobby mcmahon too i think he just had to adjust to craig berube style versus sheldon keith style right which was

a big adjustment for certain players look at morgan riley i don't think he ever fully adjusted i wanted more from him in the playoffs and it wasn't just offensively well because he's got the size he's got the speed and he could score yeah and you wonder throw it around where is the like the the bottom six power forward archetype that they expect him to be in those games yeah yeah you need to throw it around so and then obviously there are you know there are two or three spots for robertson cowan conf and cali yarn croak and maybe somebody else who emerges out of camp who surprises some people we don't really know um and then patch already well so as a i think patch ready wherever he goes is not signing until january because alan alan was the one to say it

and he said you're gonna see this a lot with older guys some of them are just gonna sit on the sidelines he's like what do they need to play the first three months for alan's good at saying stuff without saying stuff yeah and he said i think it's going to be a league-wide thing not just alan clients like i think it's going to be guys like that like i can see when patrick kane gets to like 38 39 years old does patrick kane need to play october november december hockey probably not probably not well and even patches like not every player can just walk in and do it patches is an incredible shape yeah like i was i was like really you're putting them in a playoff Oh, he's sick.

Okay, never mind. He was a standout for them. And then I thought the last one. Adam, Patrick Kane will be 37 in November playing November hockey. That's crazy. Okay, fine. 38 then. Does he really need to?

Next season. The cap is there to do it. I use Patrick Kane as an example. That's a bad example, but I think your point is correct in that it's such a great strategy by Pacioretty. You sit around, you stay in shape, and then you go join a playoff contender and you play playoff hockey. He doesn't care about 82 games. he needs 10 at the end of the regular season and then the playoffs.

He also has 40 kids. So he might want to be at home with his 40 kids. And they all play hockey. Yeah, rather than, hey, Max, we're going to need you at the arena this morning in Toronto and you're probably going to get healthy because we want to give this young guy a shot. Like, no, he's probably like,

eh, I would rather take my kids to hockey, go work out, watch the games on TV and see who's got a really good shot. Between him and Tavares, they have a full line, a goalie, a ref, and a linesman. this is crazy um yeah uh and then the last one and i thought this was also very interesting i like frank berube as a coach like i like the way i like what he says i like that the organization and sheldon keith gets unfairly got unfairly pigeonholed with this because sheldon every

time he said something that was remotely interesting you could tell the the you know from on high came down and said uh don't you don't you dare and you go apologize to that player for telling the truth about which player every player and and ruby i want i want you to imagine which player steve i want you to imagine uh probably jimmy vc uh yeah i want you to imagine trying even brendan shanahan trying to tell craig berube that mm-hmm like you know what craig berube looks like he's an intimidating man and i he also seems extremely friendly but i feel like all he has to do is say nothing if you tell him that and you go you're right craig i was wrong it was not an accident that when keith pelly did one of his

least press or the only least press conference he did last season that he talks about how he spoke directly to craig berube when he landed and he's like ratchet living was away in calgary and i had dinner with craig berube like he said uh i'm the new guy in charge and craig said do you feel in charge that was the uh brendan shanahan has fired press conference and like berube has a lot of clout in this organization and yeah nobody's really going around telling them what to do uh everything's done in collaboration yeah uh so then that uh what was it what did i want to say here it was ah yes and this is something that i hit on last year uh with you guys especially after martyr left i have thought it for years that it's ridiculous that the leafs had three

assistant captains and the reason they named three assistant captains is because the organization was bending over backwards to not show favoritism to one star over another because it might have hurt someone's feelings i don't want to hurt your feelings it doesn't mean that the player was a bad player oh my god it doesn't mean that they're not a good person john he got an a i want an a it's literally how this team was run that was how we're gonna go you're talking about morgan no that was how it was gonna go so so so and it's again it's not that the player was a bad person it's not that they weren't a good leader it's nothing but that happened person morgan riley and john tavaris will be the assistant captains there you go and and berube said whether or not

that changes it could but right now it's not and of course it's not morgan riley's the longest tenure to leaf and as much as i was like hey i think it might be time to move on from morgan riley he's here he doesn't want to go and maybe i should appreciate that more because i believe my understanding is they may have asked him about it and he said no fucking way man i'm staying here um and he likes it here and he usually steps his game up in the playoffs yeah and he had a bad moment i think games have but he did have morgan had a terrible uh end of playoffs i mean let's let's uh here do you have like a a fortune cookie fortune that we can write the list of leafs who had a good game seven that's fair fuck my point is with morgan riley what if he can i

could i tried to think of the smallest piece of paper i could why don't you just say why don't we take the smallest piece of paper out how about we take out no piece of paper and write into the air no name tattoo on your body how many people had a great game set no let's see that doesn't work my body's big it's a big canvas yeah oh i guess you wouldn't have to get a tattoo is my point um oh you see uh good uh good so all i'm gonna say here is i think the leadership group sounds pretty good uh mccabe and tannev are clearly leaders in the dressing room as well and i don't think they give a shit about having a letter a letter does not make a difference and all of the guys on this team

who have a letter have been here for well, Morgan Riley's case over a decade Tavares and Matthews coming up on or just about a decade. So, you know, that's a that's a stable leadership group, which has not happened since Matt Sunday. Is it still weird? Tavares

is a leaf a little bit. Yeah, right. A little bit. It's a miracle that we're at this point where he makes so little and he's gone through everything with the team where they taken the captaincy away from him and all that and the big signing and we sit here today and everything's kind of fine yeah it's it's a testament to him as an individual and a person yeah that is a stand-up man yeah that is he's a good dude we're gonna take the sea away well i'm

leaving oh you want me to stay well then i'm basking for less even though i could have gone a free agency and made like eight yeah have you ever seen the the meme where it's a dude he's like i asked my landlord to raise my rent so i can hustle harder that feels like john pay me less take away my captaincy i need some motivation this year i doubled the kale salads this summer yeah the kombucha keg in my house like john tavarez he's such a he's such a great guy to have in this organization i love him and you know what his career arc with toronto i think went as it should he was the top guy in terms of pay for a long time and then when he wasn't it was time for him to take a step back to a lesser role and his pay is not reflective of his play last

year let's just be honest he took i know he took a hometown disc take a lesser role okay do you do you mind if i score 39 yeah yeah or 38 or whatever well i could have got closer to 40 i'm sorry but i love and respect this man. Here's another guy like Morgan Riley. I'm not, I ain't fucking leaving. And we need, after the playoffs last year and the way the Florida Panthers trolled the Leafs afterwards, the way that

Yandel, former Panther, is trolling the Leafs now. Oh, they ran Marner out of town, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever you want to say. You need guys who want to be here. This has been an extraordinarily stable organization which has seen a ton of regular season success. The leadership group has been intact like I said for a decade. That

is something the Toronto Maple Leafs could not do for 20 years and they've done it and that is excellent would love to see some more success in the playoffs I think everybody agrees on that but I do feel like if there's a couple of players available next summer who are looking to come to an organization that's got a pretty good culture you could sell that and it brings me to this which you guys do not know because it just broke oh okay Frank Cervalli is reporting that Minnesota Wild superstar Kirill Kaprizov has not signed a contract but instead turned down an eight-year $128 million.

Holy shit! That's $16 million AAV. And need I remind you all that eight-year contracts very, very soon are going to be illegal as in this year, in a few days. Five days. in five days he turned down what that's what the sources are saying he would have been the highest paid player in the in nhl history by a wide margin well i mean i didn't joe sackick make like 12 or

13 million uh i want to say 17 okay so maybe not the highest paid player in nhl history uh in the cap era but it was like a one-year thing regardless that's the highest paid player in the league uh But if that's true, and again, that's the sources that Frank has, I feel like that means that Kirill is maybe taking a page out of the shorter-term, higher AAV notebook if he doesn't care about an eight-year, $128 million contract. How old is he? I think he's 29. I'm going to look it up. and just a correction the cba rule about these seven and eight year contracts goes in effect next oh it does okay so he's got all year to do not it is not september 16th this year it's

september 16th next year he's 28 he would be 29 when this contract would kick in so what it shows you is the caprizov camp's not screwing around and there's another guy and edmonton fans i've i had some in my dms going how come you're not talking about corral well because it's not edmonton and it's not the best player in the world but it's a story now one of the top 10 best players in the world easily he doesn't get hurt last year he might have won the heart of course and what happened to the minnesota wild when he left i would say nothing good they were they were right neck and neck with winnipeg until he went down they were very yeah yeah no him him getting injured in december made his heart case even more apparently uh valid like the way they

were destroyed by have not having him in the lineup it made it clear that he was one of the best players in the league well and jesse doesn't that also make his negotiation power better yes yes they need him desperately okay and i know there's a team in their division who are dying dying dying to play him with conor bedard oh the blackhawks want this guy so fucking bad and of course they do i mean everyone yeah but the blackhawks yeah you talk about a franchise changing signing what do you want carill we'll just fill in the blank what do you want wow and bill garren's got to contend with that that's tough so here's what i got to say about that so it's a 128 million dollar deal i wonder if you're him are you just saying like well yeah but in a

couple years 16 million is not even going to be top five in the nhl yeah but how long are you going to be worth that amount of money time comes for everyone yes but if the cap goes up the way it's been going up yeah you know because the nhl is making more money proportional like percentage wise on the cap i would imagine that that's a fair deal all the way through even if his place falls off because his percentage against the cap is going to shrink every year of that deal uh I don't think this is an insane thing to say because he is legitimately that good of a player. If he's turning that down, you need to seriously look at trading him because that's a shitload of money for a long number of years for a player with an injury history. That's a really sizable commitment.

I understand the logic. I get it. um there's no guarantee he takes the the two-year deals or whatever for the rest of his career and recoups that 128 million 100 agree and one guy i think about when i think about this situation is vladimir tarasenko because remember he had that big monster deal he signed in 15 16 for seven and a half million per year for eight years with the st louis blues when he went after 21 22 He had 82 points in 75 games, 34 goals, 48 assists, right? He was able to sign a contract that summer and didn't,

and then got injured the next year. And he has made good money since. I'm looking at, you know, he made 7.5 with the Rangers and then 5 with the Senators and then 5 with the Panthers that same year, obviously, because he was traded, and then 4.75. But it ain't anywhere near where he would have been had he signed the extension early afterwards.

John Klingberg. Oh! John Klingberg signs the extension that he was offered by the stars which i think was rumored to be eight times eight they do they make it to the three straight conference finals that they've been to i think all since he's been gone i can't remember if he went to any of those i think he was part of the cup final team he was he was and he was a big part of the cup final team yeah oh wow wow wow wow because and this is a player with guys injury history he does have some injury history and you're not

the back half of that deal could be a nightmare you don't know wow i think that's very fair i mean this is 2025 this clip could age terribly but uh in 20 uh like in eight years is he going to be worth 16 million bucks is he going to be worth close close to it and how much more by turning down this deal do you really think you're gonna get that's what wow jesse what do you think oh man what do you do if you're bill karen what do you do it's interesting that he says that they turned down the deal yesterday i think if frank was reporting that the deal was turned down maybe earlier in the summer it'd be a little a little different but considering they turned it down yesterday it's quite shocking and i think it reveals that

no matter how much money they're willing to pay i guess i guess there is probably a number but if the market and the team isn't a fit like they can't convince you to stick around yeah and if he wants a shorter term deal and in a different city then you can't just say hey here's 16 million dollars over eight years and just say you have injury history take it if karel kaprizov wants to play somewhere for five seasons for a lot of money in new york or in nashville or florida or wherever it is like just because the minnesota wild want him at this number it's a goofy number and it's all that doesn't mean like carill's motivations outside of money are there for him to stick stick around and you look at some of the teams and there's no insight on that with this no

but you look at the teams that might be available i said chicago i mean florida is in on everybody but I feel like they've made their commitment to be pretty hard to fit him in, but they'll figure it out. Bill Zito's a madman. One team that I, I am looking at a lot, uh,

is San Jose, uh, because you've got a window here with San Jose where Celebrini Smith at Eklund's already signed his extension. Uh, you, they just signed Michael Misa to his entry level contract today. Um,

if, if you're, and then if they're bad this year, potentially Gavin McKenna too. Um, and then, Hey, uh,

Kirill, come on down. And you've got a window there. Before all those guys sign their big fat extensions, and frankly, they're probably still going to be able to afford them, where Kirill could jump into that. Imagine he signs for one year. Just, eh, we'll see.

Let's try it. If I'm a Minnesota Wild fan, I'm really disappointed at this news. Because if he wanted to be there and he wanted to be a Wild for life, this is enough money to do that. This is the contract you've been asking for. Here it is. And him saying no to that speaks volumes about his thoughts on sticking around long-term as a Wild.

This is the clearest indicator we've received that we now live in a different world than we did a few months ago. Some of those deals that were signed July 1st for not top-tier players, we were like, oh, wow, okay. The highest-paid player in the NHL makes $14 million this year, and that's Leon. And we went, oh, wow, holy cow. Now, Kirill Kaprizov, who is one of the best players in the league, but is not year in, year out the best player in the league, that's Conor McDavid, turning down being the highest paid player in the NHL this year

by two million bucks. What on earth does he want? Well, could he be waiting for McDavid to sign his? What on earth is Conor's? Well, I don't know if Conor's got the same... Remember, different team, different priorities. I don't know. Connor has said it's winning.

Kirill hasn't said much. We don't know. Those are the questions I'm asking right now on turning down this deal because the money is there. You know his motivation can't just be money because the money is being offered to him forever. Eight years is a long time to make $16 million. So there's got to be other motivations,

and it might just be not playing in Minnesota, or it might be I want to just be on a shorter-term deal so I can re-sign for more money later. Maybe it's for more money. Was Leon's contract eight years? Yes. Oh, my God. He went from being on the best contract in the league

to maybe being on the best contract in the league. I feel like that contract is going to get Nathan McKinnon. If that's where this is going. Look at what Nathan McKinnon gave up. You think 12 and a half is fair for Nathan McKinnon? Oh, God. What do you think Kale McCarr is going to get? Because he's doing extension here in the next year.

like who are the best players in the league like for me every conversation obviously has connor mcdavid in it sydney crosby mccarr mckinnon i i don't crosby's not in it anymore the best player if matthew's healthy matt if he's 70 goal form or 69 goal form he didn't get to 70 you know like like kale is in it that was really that was really disrespectful to sydney Crosby. Yeah, I know. You think he's the best player in the world? He's in the conversation. If Pittsburgh was not going to come for you now, then now they're coming for you. Top five player in the world today.

Sidney Crosby's in that conversation right now. I love Sid. If you saw him in the playoffs, if you saw him in the playoffs, I feel like it might change your life. I saw him at Four Nations. He's in the conversation. And he was injured at Four Nations, and he was amazing, right? He's in the conversation. You've got to include him in the conversation. You know what? It's an Olympic year, so

therefore, you're right. Sing the anthem. You're right. Yeah. I'm going to sing the anthem. Go Sid. He's got a t-shirt with Mark Carney's face on it. Why not? Why not? Elbows up. Elbows up. This is a new world.

Did you know he was a goalie? Sorry. I thought Brock Besser... Does he like the Oilers? He does. Yeah. I thought Brock Besser was going to set the market for wingers a little bit last year because I thought he was going to market.

And I thought he was going to get eight and a half, which is probably what he could have got. He'll just turn down more than double what... But what I'm saying is they would have said, well, if Brock's worth this, then I'm worth this much more, right? And Brock Besser as a UFA could have got more than he got, but he wanted to stay in Vancouver, and I respect that. But I also kind of look at Brock and I'm like, Brock, I don't know if you recognize the world that we're living in here, partner. You didn't have to do that. Seven and a half is great. It could be eight and a half, nine come next summer.

You could have signed short term. uh and i i think because it was and i i used brock besser's name because last year's free agency after marner was guard it was a dud who's the next best player well yeah eelers in carolina or besser like it's not it wasn't like an all-star thing tovaris carill just set the market a new market ironically adam that's where connor mcdavid is from new market oh hilarious so it all ties back hiss and boo okay dustin wolf also set a market seven and a half million dollars as a uh a goaltender that's a seven year 52.5 million dollar extension you know a lot of teams are not spending seven and a half million dollars on both goalies right and right dustin wolf is worth every

penny oh my god that contract should age like wine yeah um and i think the reason there's not a ton of guys who you should sign to enormous money on their second contract you should sign him to enormous money on the second contract especially goal is you just never know but he's to be their next meekery kipers off yeah like the only damn that's high praise the the only reason that number is as low as it is is because you're buying so many rfa years unreal contract. Unreal contract for a guy who might win you a Vesna trophy.

He was second in Calder voting last year. At some point. Relax. Second in Calder voting last year. If the team could score, they'd have made the playoffs. Oh, he was the only reason they were even sort of competitive.

Yeah, yeah. And what's interesting is that it's probably for the Flames going to get harder before it gets easier because Rasmus Andersen's name is out there, has been out there. He's not staying in in in Calgary. I don't know. You know, it depends on who you ask. Some people will say, well, he just wants to move on from the Flames organization.

Other people will say the Flames don't want to pay him what he thinks he's worth. I don't know what it is. OK, because I've heard both. But what is interesting are his comments to Eric Francis and Salim Valji yesterday in media. So Salim Valji says, on reports that Rasmus Anderson only had eyes for a small number of teens to sign an extension with, he said he'd never handcuffed Craig Conroy and denied those reports. Now, Eric Francis kind of dove a little bit deeper, and I'm just going to pull up the clip here. Yeah. Here's what Anderson said. He said, the thing that bothers you is fake information that comes out.

I saw some reports that said I would only sign for one team and this and that. I mean, nothing could be further from the truth. Connie and I, I'm assuming that's his wife, have had a few... Oh, no, Connie. Connie as in Craig Conroy. Craig Conroy. I thought he was my name, Connie.

Connie and I have had a few conversations over the summer, and I would never handcuff him and only give him one team. So here's the problem with what he's saying. Bless you, Adam. That was awesome. Here's the problem with what Rasmus Anderson is saying. Rasmus Anderson, everybody said he'll sign an extension with one team. which hurt his trade value at the deadline last year enough

that the Flames were like, listen, we're going for it. We should make it. We can make the playoffs. Let's not trade him. But in the long term, not trading him there with a year left on his deal at a really respectable, it's like $4.5 million. It's crazy.

Preposterous. Not trading him there will hurt his value this year. Wait, what was the one team? Did I miss that? Vegas. Vegas. Oh, sorry. Of course it's Vegas.

He wants to sign in Vegas, or at least that's... And by the way, who can blame him? And they got a giant old vacancy on Wright D because they don't have Petro. Yeah, now they can't fit him this year, but they probably could next year. And so what he's saying is... They have a blueprint for very obviously wanting a player

and just simply waiting until he becomes a free agent and then getting him anyway. Yeah, and I think probably, hey, I wouldn't be shocked if he ended up there. But I think the idea that he's saying, well, I never handcrafted Craig Conroy Rasmus Anderson would have accepted a trade. He would have accepted a trade. He would have been traded. But the acquiring team wants to be sure, as you would expect, that he will sign an extension.

And it's pretty clear with a guy at four and a half million bucks for a playoff round or a few playoff rounds last year and hopefully a few playoff rounds this year because that's how you're looking at it if you're a playoff bound GM. hey that's a great fit but if he's not going to sign here that's going to be hard for me to pay what Craig Conroy wants so maybe Rasmus Anderson isn't handcuffing Craig Conroy maybe Craig Conroy is going

I'm trying to get maximum value and I'm handcuffed by the situation and it's not Rasmus going screw you Craig only trade me to Vegas it's always so damn noisy in Calgary it is it has been since Conroy took over it has who's their agm dave notice dave notice yeah that's a leaky ship there's no question

but i think i think what what rasmus anderson's saying here is objectively true but i still want people to understand that i don't believe that craig conroy isn't handcuffed i don't think rasmus anderson is doing it i think craig the way craig conroy is looking at this handcuffs him this is going to be yes i agree with that i think this is going to be an enormously noisy september yes and i don't think he gets traded till the trade deadline if at all if they go to the playoffs but they gotta get something right you gotta get something right he's talked too openly like remember like very uh early on in the show we were talking about sid and like oh he opened the door and he opened the door by saying almost nothing yeah like the

that's a lot more than almost the captain of the flames is like yeah he's gone yeah he's gone he's gone where is he going i is this should we do a 32 part series is this i think we should 32 things i'm gonna say one rd he fits on he fits at one rd i i are we being softened up to the very shitty return the flames are going to get for this person that's kind of what this reeks of doesn't it i mean he's going you have to listen to what we've been told by the player by his friends and if you're a general manager and you know he's going you're like yeah craig unless there's some sort of guarantee he's signing here i'm not giving you much unless some outrageous competition you know enters the well no again it's up to the

player i tell you what it's not it's not really though like they can trade him if he ends up with another team we owe rasmus an apology if he ends up with vegas he has to shut up forever okay that's fair i think that's fair and then you can stare at us like he does after he scores a goal yeah um because i mean one thing vegas is so shit at is keeping anything a secret oh can you guys just shut up and kiss yeah i i think this is craig conroy doing i it's almost pre-damage control is what this i i'm wondering though with vegas's cap situation how how i just don't think they can do it this year so they're already cartoonishly over the cap yeah once they put um petrangelo on ltir they're fine but then you add anderson and they're like three million

dollars back into not fine and he has a six team no trade list so it's basically the rest of canada and or buffalo yeah so he can be traded anywhere he's going to vegas guys like what are we doing well and if he doesn't go to vegas then we'll apologize but you have to sign there wherever you go you got to sign someone other than vegas before you get this apology right looking at vegas is cat friendly or cat friendly puckpedia right now i'm gonna do that forever um they when do we start the jack eichel conversation if we're doing corral if we're doing mcdavid if we're doing crosby when we start jack eichel as ufa at the end of uh this season so frank had a rumor about that i think it was frank that said they think it'll land somewhere in the 13 million dollar

range so if that's the case really that's only three more million than they're already paying him so you have to look at that against the cap and go well it's only an extra three million and The cap goes up to X percent. And hey, how long is Mark Stone going to play? That Dorofeev contract, too. That guy's going to get paid. Yeah. Mark Stone, I'm telling you.

I said it before. I wouldn't be shocked. Does it not smell of Alex Petrangelo maybe after this year? Either that or they just trade him. Can you imagine? But he's got a no-move. He's got the anchor. He's got the no-move.

He might move, though. Yeah. Because it'll be like, yeah, you're just... The way Vegas plays things is like, that's nice. You're just not welcome here. Cool, we'll waive you. We'll find a way. We'll find a way.

If Vegas time and time again gives up pennies on the dollar for players, if I get to keep Jack Eichel in his prime and ditch your nine and a half as a diminishing asset, they'll do it. They'll waive him. I still think he's an all-world player. He's probably going to be at the Olympics if he's healthy. That's the big key, though.

If he's healthy. But if you're doing the shuffle game that the Golden Knights have to do to make this cap situation work, I mean, that's the obvious answer to me. I agree. Like, I don't think you're ditching Hannifin. I don't think you're ditching Theodore. No. We already know they don't want to ditch Theodore.

You're sticking with Hurdle. i mean hurdle at that dollar amount which which is under seven with with kaprizov turning down 16 um is pretty good like to to me i i mean i don't think he's gonna get traded now obviously but justin throw that back up because like the the ford group it's getting i guess with the cap going up you're not so concerned about the 5 million 5.9 6.7 million dollar forwards you got there but that's that area that i'm not comfy with yeah you know alexander holtz isn't even signed it's the it's the unimpressive middle yeah i guess always been a thing in the cap for the hurdle hurdle is going to play up to that value at 6.75 like i'm not too concerned and i guess

william carlson's been so good that they've done a decent job but then we're getting to the you're paying mitch marner 12 and then you're getting jack eichel um at 13 you're paying the high end guys i don't know there might be there might never be cap trouble in vegas because of how willing they are to get rid of guys so i guess when you look at their cap page and you're like oh how do you fit all the money it doesn't really matter because they're willing to move off a player Can you scroll down to their DMs? I don't even remember who... Akira Schmidt.

Oh. Oh. Oh. I could see them claiming a goalie off waivers. For anybody listening, it's Petra at 8.8. It's Shea Theodore, 7.4. Noah Hannafin, 7.3. Brayden McNabb, 3.6.

White Cloud, 2.7. Lozon at 2. Hutton at 9.75. And Lozon's retained from Nashville, isn't he? Like, wasn't he making four and he's making two now? I'm not totally sure. Or they got him. I honestly, that is a downright reasonably priced decor.

Especially with Petrangelo never playing again. Yeah. And you could afford to add Anderson to that decor, but you're spending so much up front. Man, Hill at 625, huh? Till 2031. Oh, boy. Well, he won the cup.

Yeah, he did. And that was ancient history if you're the Vegas Golden Knights. Sounds like, you know what? How about you play and pack your shit, Bill? Dustin Wolf got more than that. Yeah. Yeah. But you could always call the Buffalo Sabres and say, do you need a goalie?

No, he's probably got a no trade. But I look at some of the more depth forwards that the Vegas Golden Knights have. So Eichel obviously will probably make, what, 13 or 14. although if Kaprizov is turning down 16, maybe that number just changed today. It would change for me. Wow. With Saad, and who's the other guy they have?

A lot of $2 million guys. Brett Howden. And Brett Howden had a good year. Colasar 2.5, Howden 2.5, Riley Smith 2, Saad 2, Dorofeev 1.8. Without Nicholas Waugh, you can't move on from Brett Howden because Brett Howden had 23 goals last year. No. You're looking at Colasar or Saad, I guess?

Well, Sod's going to be gone after this year. He's a UFA. Yeah, but if you add Anderson, you're in trouble this year. No, you're not. I don't think they're moving. Like, I don't know how they would do it this year unless somebody's on LTIR all year. I think they're doing it. And the LTIR, Jesse, I know you did a video on this.

Are the LTIR rules officially changed now? Yes. This season, the LTIR rules are going to be different because of how the playoff salary Do you know, and can you re-explain them, how the new LTIR rules are? It's sort of like you can only get 50% of a player value unless they sit the entire season, is my understanding. Yeah, you can't accrue cap space on a player's salary the same way as you could before. So Brad Marchand's cap hit, it was $6.1 million, the best example, the way Florida got him. you wouldn't be able to get him at that cap calculation where it's like hey his percentage

of salary from march 7th to the end of the season is what now counts against the percentage of his cap it's now just the full cap hit got it now what they are making is the i don't know the simplest terms okay okay yeah i i think he's a golden knight within the next month i do i'm telling you they're gonna move on from one of those guys so incredibly easily who do you think they okay i i'm i'm on steve's side if they build a rasmus anderson to vegas trade where the extension's done because i would imagine both sides know what the extension is going to look like who comes off the roster do you trade a brett howden yeah the extension yeah that's difficult because you need well no it's not that difficult you figure that out but but you need to you need

to have that done yeah before vegas does that but like calgary is going to have to take money back so you need to work probably you need to take i mean what anderson's making four and a half you need to take four and a half million or more don't help vegas unless they pay you a lot well yeah like why don't help them doing them a favor well because they could probably get whatever great assets plus some players now plus you know like if you're helping them and you're doing them a favor and you're preventing them from going over the cap then maybe you can maybe a divisional rival you might play in the first round of the playoffs if you have aspirations of making okay and that's great yeah but we can't run our team and our five-year projections based on this year

if you're the calgary flames vegas can they're trying to win the cup now but i like is it you know like riley smith just signed there are you trading riley smith all right brandon sod just got there are you trading brandon sod are you trading a brett howden who is a center who's under contract for the next five years at two and a half million bucks that's pretty valuable scored 23 goals last year man yeah and the way the ltir stuff works with petro is you're not just getting that 8.8 million dollars unless he doesn't play the regular season and the playoffs if he's done done for both of those then you get that full cap hit but if he comes back in either of those instances you only get 3.82 million dollars that's the league average is what they

give the team so that's the new rule so it's not like you just throw him there and you get 8.8 million dollars and then he comes back for the playoffs he's got to be done he's like done though he is not playing but like there there's no hack here for mark stone go on ltir because you're only getting 3.8 million dollars but maybe there's enough for vegas right then i don't know if they they can use that to then move off of a player and then get at anderson uh so that might make that might be enough for them i hope tom parashka's stanley cup ring is the size of a sewer grate he deserves it yes general fanager for anybody that doesn't know yeah that's a deep cut you You got to...

General Fanniger was like seven years ago now, so you have to tell people that, Steve. So before CapFriendly, there was General Fanniger, and then it went offline. And hey, what happened? One word for the Golden Knights. Vegas bought it,

just like Washington bought CapFriendly. They took it offline. Right. You sons of guns. And he experienced unprecedented failure. Wait, no, they've been great pretty much the whole time. Stanley Cup for the Capitals this season

because they have CapFriendly. Yes, of course. We love those guys. I hope they're having a good time behind the scenes there. Okay, so you know what? We've done two hours here. Let's wrap it up. Oh, that was a fun show.

I told you Monday was going to be light, and then everything else was going to be bonanza. I didn't expect a pre-zopto. That is the most alarmed I've ever been by the end of the show. I did not know. I thought we were going to do another half hour. Nope, we're done. Why not?

Till Friday. We'll be back Friday. Oh. S-T-E-V-E. The Steve Dangle Podcast. Follow the guys on Twitter at Steve underscore Dangle at Adam W-Y-L-D-E and at Jesse Blake.

Bottle connection complete.