The Steve Dangle Podcast - Luke Evangelista | September 9, 2026

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, 00:00 Join Drew & Stew Pick 'Em!: https://app.sparc.fun/point-spread/dspe 04:30 The new Sportsnet Monday Night Hockey 29:00 NHL 27 58:00 Ducks terminate Krieder's deal 1:09:45 Remaining free agents list 1:17:00 Oilers sign Alex Formenton and Babcock quotes 1:31:00 Brandon Carlo, Tavares, and Leafs news 1:41:00 Connor fraud watch 1:56:00 Marchand comes for Stützle Come see us at The Course and The Clubhouse!: http://sdpn.ca/events Visit this episode's sponsors: Get Exclusive NordVPN deal here ↣ https://nordvpn.com/DANGLE It’s risk- free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee! 👍 Airpura makes every breath count! Call toll free 1-866-505-7872 or visit airpura.com to speak to their air quality experts and don’t forget to use promocode SDPN10. Watch all episodes of The Steve Dangle Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk7FZfwCEidkgWpSiHVkYT7HrIzLPXlY Watch clips of The Steve Dangle podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk7FZfwCEieOJuIrqWyZPWSIJtVMCbLz Buy SDP merch https://sdpnshop.ca/ Visit https://sdpn.ca/schedule to see when our next live stream airs! Check out https://sdpn.ca/events to see The Steve Dangle Podcast live! Watch hockey with us! Live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk7FZfwCEifCTX0vkKEaGg9otrW4Zl2k Subscribe to the sdpn YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@sdpn?sub_confirmation=1Join Subscribe to SDP VIP!: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0a0z05HiddEn7k6OGnDprg/join Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/thestevedanglepodcast Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sdpvip/subscribe - Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Join us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/MtTmw9rrz7 For general inquiries email: [e-mail] Reach out to https://www.sdpn.ca/sales to connect with our sales team and discuss the opportunity to integrate your brand within our content! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

What? What? What? What? We didn't get our camera angling. I had a eight times two. Oh. Did Hayden mess up?

Wow. Boo. Oh, son of a gun! Second show of the year he's not even focused. What is up with that? He's in preseason. I wanted an ISO. on my golf shirt

that's going to throw a lot of people off. I'm still figuring out the whole setup back here and I forgot to plug in my headphones. Yeah, it's funny. I was like Steve's dancing but I can't hear anything. He had the whole summer to figure that out, didn't you? The whole summer to plug in his headphones. That's crazy. Unbelievable here.

Corset Clubhouse, just a reminder it's coming up soon and we are already 75% sold out. So yeah, that is kind of nuts. September 26th, which is a Saturday night, probably, I think, yeah, the last Saturday before hockey actually starts, come join us in St. Catharines, but get your tickets quick because they're going quick, as I mentioned,

75% gone already, 20 bucks at the door. Now, tonight on the SDPN YouTube channel, it's the return of the live stream, but it isn't us, it's Drew and Stu for the 49ers and Rams as we kick off the NFL season. If you haven't checked out Drew and Stu, I think you'll love the show, even if you hate Drew's Twitter persona. It is actually a blast of a show. And their live streams are awesome. Jesse, there's also pick-em for this, and there's some prizes associated. Yeah, last year was our first year doing this with Spark, Andrew, and Stu.

But we have a weekly pick-um contest. Hayden, you can throw it up there, where you go through and you pick every single NFL game that week against the spread. Link is in the description to join. Play along with us every single week and all season long. And this week for week number one, the winner of the weekly. pick them, whoever has the most points, will get a $50 gift guard to Amsterdam brewhouse only if you are Canadian and excluding Quebec. So if you come in first and you are those things, the Canadian excluding Quebec, you will get that $50 gift

guard to Amsterdam Brewhouse. So play along with us. Link is in the description. Play pick them. Pick them. And at them. Pick them. It's always fun when you see Steve's picks that week because sometimes you just do really well, even though you don't know what you're doing. Yo, buddy, that's his fantasy football season. Last year he won the championship on the back of Derek Henry. So, you know what's funny? It's very often.

So, like, I'll see Drew's picks. I'll see Stu's picks. But I look at Jesse's picks. And very often I just go, nah. Oh, wow. And I just do the opposite of what Jesse. Do you think he just overthinks it?

Do you think he overthinks it? I guarantee you all overthinking. How did I win? How did I win? I mean fantasy football? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and the pickum.

No. Well, Derek Henry. You did kind of smoke us. I finished top five last year in the pickum ahead of Drew. I'll never let him. You ended up to beat him. Yeah.

He beat him for the season. He had a bad year in fantasy, too. He had a bad year. He had a bad year. He think it was last. Yeah. He had four wins. Couldn't be me.

We got to have a last place punishment. Yeah, we do. There was somebody in my neighborhood who posted on Facebook that they sucked in fantasy football, so they had to do a lemonade stand right on Queens. street. It was great. Oh, I saw that. That was awesome. Okay, so who will be back with SportsNet this year? We know. We also know what it will cost you because, you know, it wouldn't be Rogers if we didn't make an announcement that cost money. And some of you are already paying that money. Some of you are not. So we'll get into the good stuff first, which is hockey fans will be able to fill their hottest, fill, get their fill of the hottest game on ice when Monday night hockey and Saturday night hockey come to Sportsnet for the 26, 27 season, lifting 100. 150 regional blackouts. Yes, Steve. This was a PR masterclass. Yeah, because they shoved the price increase in there.

It was, hey, we're getting free agent BXA bag. We're lifting blackouts. That's something that, that's objectively a very good thing. That's also a national night thing. Whatever. Come on. They're doing it. Right?

They're doing. Yeah, but okay. They're doing it. And then sandwich right in the middle. It's going to cost. 500-plus games, accounting for 35% jump year over year, although you couldn't watch all those games because it'll be on concurrently. Why?

Ron McLean, Kevin BXA, Elliot Friedman, and I love this, Colby Armstrong. Hey! We'll be on the Saturday Night Hockey panel. Can't say enough good things about Colby Armstrong. He was on our team last year for the Easter Seals tournament, and also Steve, you worked with him a lot at Sportsnet, and the guy just is, he's as awesome as you think he is. he I would love to see you work with him like me yeah just because um I don't know what prep you could do with Colby because he's just gonna go in this direction somewhere oh and randomly come out with a story about like Sydney Grosby you've never heard of he is a story factory yeah and I think wasn't he the one that was was he not the one that was making fun of Ryan Smith when he got traded out of Edmonton and then uh oh I told Horks I wouldn't do this and he

was like making fun of Gretzky, remember? Yes. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. He got into some trouble for that story. It's a great story. So anyway, that group again, McLean, BX of Friedman, Armstrong, October 3rd.

And they will have games like Ottawa and Toronto, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Connor McDavid taking on the Cracken. And everybody's like, wow, Crackett sure stand a chance in that one. And it will also be concluding with the Flames and Vancouver Connect. Yeah, it's hockey. They're going to win 4-1. Edmonton hockey in October, right? And then there's Monday nut hockey, which is a new national night.

Last year, it was Wednesday night hockey. Now that belongs to Amazon. Last year, technically, Amazon's Monday was also a national night. Yes, I know. But that's what I mean is they've traded. That's what I was trying to say. Right. You said it incorrect.

Okay, sorry. All right. Well, now you know. Saturday, Monday and Wednesday, still the national nights. There you go. For broadcasters. Monday night hockey, which is, this is the important part, exclusive to SportsNet Plus

kicks off October 5th with games between the Senators and Bruins as well as the Jets taking on the penguins. Okay. So that will have David Amber, Luke Gazzick, and Justin Williams, which Justin Williams is actually very good on air whenever he decides to be on air, but from

what I've heard, he's like, eh, I don't need it. But I guess they said, we need you. And so he will be a part of it. So that's a good panels. I will leave my place in Coburg. I don't know if he actually lives in Coburg, but he's from there and everyone who's from there has to let you know he's from there. They will also have the things, some of the things you haven't heard of yet

because the NHL refuses to promote them. The Heritage Classic, what date is that, Steve? No idea. No idea who's in it. October 26 or fifth? You got it. Fifth. I'll give it to you.

I'll give it to you. Okay. So, Jesse, I don't even know because the answer isn't here. Who's playing in the Heritage Classic? It is Montreal against Winnipeg at the Bomber. stadium. I was going to say... Prevented by Tim Hortons. Oh, all right. I was going to say Winnipeg by default because I'm like, where the hell is cold

enough in October to have an outdoor game? Right. Winnipeg. Yeah. Now... Winter like kicks off like mid-October and last through April. They ain't playing it at BMO. If you're in Winnipeg, you know this. It's either minus 40 or it's plus 40 with mosquitoes and there is... The summers in Winnipeg are amazing except for the mosquitoes. All right. Now, Winter Classic. What date? New Year's Day.

Jesse. New Year's Eve. Correct. It is the Utah Mammoth against the Colorado Avalon. Now Jesse's cheating. He did a video on his channel about all the great games that are can't miss. So Jesse knows all this. I've done research for this upcoming season.

All-Star weekend is Feb 5 and 6. Stadium series. What day, Steve? Oh, January 20th. between the islanders. I'm going to give you a heads up. I already said All Star Week in is February 5 and 6, so we're not going backwards.

It's between there and the end of the season. Oh, sorry. Did I say January 20th? February 20th? February 20th. You! Between the Islanders and Devils. Yes, no.

I have no idea who's playing. The stadium series this year is the Dallas Stars against the... Oh, my God. I forget their opponent. It's at Jerry World. Oh. Yeah, they're playing at Cowboys Stadium.

They're playing the Cowboys. Didn't we? Yeah, we talked about it when it was announced. Isn't it the abs? It's pretty cool. No, the abs are in the Utah game. Oh, stay. I'm disappointed myself.

I'm just, he's stupid. Yeah, he is. You believe this? Vegas Gold Knights. Vegas. Dallas. Dang it.

That'll be good. That'll be real damn good. I'm interested to see how they maneuver the outdoor, indoor. It's hot in Texas, but February won't be that hot. I don't know. I don't know how cold it gets in Texas and February. I mean, they've had an outdoor game in Mexico. I think they'll be okay. Yeah, yeah.

They'll figure it out. They did Florida last season. LA. Yeah. Now, in the press release on Sportsnet.com, you can see all the Saturday Night Hockey games for your team, all the Monday night hockey games. But I want to go back to a very important sentence, okay? Because there was two press releases, and this is what makes this a PR Masterclass. And Rogers loves to hide a fee. They love to hide a fee. And you, you know, you will be charged more unless you're already paying the max. Okay? So Monday Night Hockey, comma, this is almost a comma splice, you might say.

Monday night hockey, comma, which is exclusive to SportsNet Plus comma, kicks off October 5th. Now, what does that mean? So for anybody that doesn't know, the current price of your Sportsnet Plus premium account is 32499 a year. That's the premium. That's where you get all the out-of-market games and even that's, Some of them are blacked out, but whatever. They're still trying to sell you on it. Okay.

And we've always said that's ridiculous, but we've also mentioned that these prices are going to spike in the next three years and they're going to graduate this. Now, this has already somewhat been announced from my understanding. The new price will be 34499 per year plus taxes. Okay. So that's good. Okay, fine. All right.

A $10, $15 increase. If you're already paying $3.24, I think the calculus is, what's another $15? bucks, 20 bucks, come on. Over the course of a year? Come on. Now, interestingly, in the other part of the press release that Rogers released first, but they knew

that everybody would click on the who's on the panel piece, this is a Rogers Sports and Media link. All SportsNet Plus subscribers get this exclusive content as a part of their subscription package. So if you're paying the $3.50 a year, you get this. Fans who currently subscribe to SportsNet

through a TV provider can access Monday night hockey and more than 100 additional U.S. team matchups by signing into SportsNet Plus with their TV provider credentials and upgrading to add this package for $13 a month. So it's $12.99 a month. The add-on package for TV subscribers will be available for purchase September 15th, meaning that if you have a basic Rogers package and you just watched hockey on, like you have Rogers, but you have also the Sportsnet bundle, that's not enough now. Now you need to pay the extra $13 a month, which is roughly $150 a year to add on to your subscription in order to watch the game. They will not be available on cable. It's, I'm telling you, it's the best PR they've done in a long time. Yeah, because nobody's mad about it yet.

I was reading through it and I'm like, oh, wow, people really don't know. No, like I'm watching Twitter this morning. I'm like, I expected, you know, fire and brimstone and I'm not seeing it. Yeah, but I believe, unless. you are a Rogers Xfinity customer. Yeah, that's what I mean. If you're Xfinity, you're fine. You're set.

So if you have cable, like the highest Rogers cable, you already get it. Yes. Okay. And if you have SportsNet Plus premium super duper version, you also get it. But if you're anything below VIP status, go fuck yourself. And I think that is going to bother some people considering what's going on in the economy in the world right now. They're just delaying the inevitable, right? because no one's upset today

or not a lot of people are upset today but then the first Monday of the season's going to come people are going to flick on the game or what they thought is the game. No, they're not. Yeah. Where the hell's the game? Yeah. And you know what they're going to do is they're going to frantically fumble on their phone to sign up immediately? No, they're just going to be pissed off and not watch.

Well, so is this interesting? It reminds me of something that happened. I think it was 2010 or 2011. I think it was 2010. Whenever year Jose Batista hit his first, 50 home run season with the Toronto Blue Jays. I think it was 2010. And the reason I say that is I remember my girlfriend at the time worked for the Blue Jays. And this is like several CEOs ago.

But the CEO at the time, Nadir Mohamed, came out to honor Cito Gaston. It was his last season with the Blue Jays and they were doing this big thing. And what SportsNet, in their infinite wisdom, decided to do, and this is again 15, 16 years ago, was take every Blue Jays game that was running, and they would get about 4,500,000 people per game, and Batista hitting 50 home runs was a big deal. And then they said, why don't we take that and put that on our new channel

known as SportsNet 1? And this is before they bought the score, so there was no SportsNet 360 yet. But SportsNet 1 was just at that point, a premium cable channel that you had to pay an extra whatever a month for. And the ratings for the games went from $400,000 a game to $40,000 a game.

And when Nadir Muhammad, and that was just for September, and when Nadir Muhammad walked out on the field, he got booed mercilessly. And I think what was interesting is the next season, they didn't do that again. Most people didn't sign up. The ratings took a dive. The advertising dollars fell off.

They just didn't do it. Now, you can get as a part of a bundle now, SportsNet 1, but has anybody ever said to you, God, I need SportsNet 1? So what they're doing 15 years later for a lot of people, unless you have like a business like we do and we need we need these things and we have to we have to buy them a lot of people are going to see this and go it's the exact same thing they're not going to remember that story but blue jays fans were pissed off enough that rogers backed off and now you get blue jays games on all the normal sports net channels right and you always have yeah but i'm curious about hockey

fans and if they will be pissed off enough because that was one fan base for the entire country right this is eight different or seven different fan bases. Are people going to be pissed off enough that Rogers backs off this? Or are they just going to suck it up and buy the extra channel? I'm curious about that. Also, like, I don't know if I'm the Oilers. Okay, maybe I'll pony up. I get to watch McDavid every day.

What if I'm the Canucks? What if I'm the... The Leaves look like last year's Leifes. I can wait till Saturday to see Zeve Bouem again? Yeah, you know what? I'm good. I'm good. no no no i want to watch that killer forward group in calgary knocked the puck around for a little bit

you know what i mean man what if we miss a joel fairby highlight what if i mean listen it's i i we joke and like we love our team we love the leaps we're fans that are at the level that we would find a way to watch it's a business right off for me and it's a bit and it's a business thing for us but like i do wonder about people who are like yo man what do we ever do to you we're already paying your table. This isn't, I'm fascinated to see how this goes. Just because we don't live in a world where the family is gathering around a radio the size of a refrigerator anymore.

Which is too bad. Which is too bad. No, like we're, there's other stuff to do. Yeah. Some people are going to sign up for this because they're hardcore enough fans. Other people are going to be like, I'm going to watch Love Island. Yeah. And what they're, what I think they're trying to do, because last year, the Monday night games,

like the Leafs game was on Monday night. it'd be on Amazon and right and if you had cable you couldn't watch it and that's where it was so what they're trying to do is okay we now took over the Monday night will you already couldn't see those games so we're putting it on our app just like Amazon did it to be fair though a lot of people have Prime and Prime has a lot of other benefits other than just watching TV yeah but like that doesn't work because everybody looks at Rogers and they say you're Rogers you already have all these cable channels where you show all your other games, you can't act like Amazon

and just throw things on your app because that's the only medium that Amazon has to show a game. They don't have a television channel. You have six of them, and all of your games are there, and you're taking them away from the people who already pay for your television service,

and you're trying to act like Amazon and throw them on your app, and I think that's a bad switcheroo that they're trying to do on the consumer. Question. When it's not on, Sportsnet on Monday night. What are they showing instead? I assume the other games or whatever else they want to show.

Oh, cool. Yeah. The other games that Sportsnet knows no one cares. Right. No one cares. Or just plays of the month. Well, you tell me you don't want to see a Tuesday night blues and preds game. People like, okay, so people are going to take that the wrong way. There are blues fans and there are Preds fans. I'm just not sure how many of them are Canada. That's the point. I think Blue's fans and Preds fans are smart enough to know that. It'd be like, hey, who in Tennessee wants to watch Ottawa, Winnipeg on a Tuesday night? I don't know

that there's many. In the 14-15 season, no Canadian team made the playoffs, which was hilariously bad timing for Rogers because that was the first year of their multi-billion dollar national deal. And what they grossly overestimated is, hey, you guys excited for Flyers Rangers tonight? And the vast majority of the country went, no, no we aren't. Most of us aren't Flyers or Rangers fans. And not enough of us like hockey enough,

I guess, that we're going to watch this game. Because it's not the NFL. The games in the NFL are so limited. That every game matters a lot. Right? But there's so many hockey games that are just throwaway games. There's, yes, there's 804 now. Games. That's even more games.

You change the shirts? We got to change the shirts or not. Even more games. By my count, Steve, because this will affect you personally. And I think a lot of people listening, because you probably are a Leaf fan, Monday night is going to have five Leafs games on their schedule. Yeah. Sportsnet Monday Night hockey.

And then Amazon Wednesday night hockey has six Leafs games. Wow. So we've gone up to 11 games that will be exclusively on. streaming platforms for the Leafs. That's a lot. Well, I remember, didn't it used to be that high for Leafs TV too? Remember that was a premium channel that used to run the games? So it's basically like the return of Leafs TV.

Yeah. Kind of. Kind of. Except that was two separate streaming services that you'd have to pay for. It's the return of Leafs TV if you already had Leafs TV and then Leafs TV was like, can you give us more money to continue being Leafs TV? Right. They're taking the product they already have and making it, putting it, packaging,

it in a new way so that they can get more money from people. That's how I'm looking at this. To prop up this digital product that they put no resources into for like a decade because they're a cable company at the end of the day and they don't want people to cut the court. Yeah. And I have the SportsNet Plus package like the premium premium one because it's our job to do that.

And like I throw on one game here and like one game there. of times I have to like reset the app. Oh it's a terrible app. It's so unbelievably annoying. It's yeah. The audio like because I'll throw on my phone too if I'm like on the go and just watching it wherever and then the audio on the on the phone app just doesn't work sometimes and you got to reset it like three times and then it kicks in. It's so buggy and annoying. Here we are talking about the principle of like hmm I don't know should they really be charging more and but I don't use sports net plus so you're the one bringing up the problem maybe the most important point with Will it work?

Yeah, down to the consumer level, it's like it fails sometimes. Yeah. And that's unacceptable if I'm paying all of this money for this, for this product. And I just want to watch the game. Say what you will about cable, but like it usually stays on. It always does. You know, like I'm not usually like, oh, I missed the whole second period. Yeah.

Because the cable wasn't working. Yeah. Um, I don't know. I don't, I'm not a fan of fans having to pay. more and we're in the era of fans having to pay more. Now it turns out the salary cap going up is not free. The, uh, the, the alternative. Don't relate it to that.

No, but like, don't do that. What? It's in large part because of TV deal. No, it's, well, it's because it's large part because the TV deals because Rogers decided we're just going to double the price of the thing we never made money on. Right. Because we want to block Amazon from having it so we can lease it to them.

The, The NHL wanted Amazon in on this. And the NHL got Amazon back by giving them all the teams in the States that they just gave them, right? And made the Dallas Stars back out of Victory Plus to do it. And I think when you look at the Rogers way of doing this, they're literally buying, they're not buying this to make money anymore. They're buying this to make sure no one else can. No, they're buying this to deliver the best product possible.

No, they're not. On Monday night, you're going to see all the stuff they captured at the European NHL Media tour, which they were confirmed not therefore. Yeah. I don't know, man. I don't. Ladies gentlemen, I don't think you're getting more is all I'm saying. You know what? Colby's a big

highlight for me. I like that. But I like Colby. I think, uh, we already had Colby. No, we didn't have them we didn't have them on Saturday nights. Now we get Colby on Saturdays. All right. Because somebody at Sportsnet was like, huh, he's pretty good at TV. I'm going to wait six years to make this call. You know

the saying, fucking brilliant people. Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining. Yeah. Rogers went, that's a great idea. I'm going to do the opposite of it. Exactly. You know what? Take that and take out the first word.

That's going to be our whole business model. That's right. So anyway, that's what it looks like. It's going to be. And I believe that there is an alternative option that some people are probably considering out loud in their cars right now. But, you know, but I mean, I, I, maybe they're not concerned about. favorite actors.

Kieraniteley. Orlando Bloom. One thing about this story is that we are a month early on it. Like I feel like we're talking about this now and then come the first Monday somebody can't watch a Leaf game. They're going to be like, oh shit. What the fuck? No one told me.

It's like that person and this would be me who like shows up. What do you mean there's a test today? No. Yeah. No, Rogers did tell you in like the third or fourth paragraph. Yeah. Yeah, well, they're not going to lead with that. So let's talk about air quality.

And on the desk right now, if you're watching this, you're seeing an air purifier, okay? On wheels. On wheels. Now, that's helpful because it's quite large. But unlike air purifiers that you're used to, this one is one that actually makes a huge difference in your life. One of the things I struggle with,

first of up, we had some air quality issues here in Toronto this summer because of the wildfires. But also, I'm in a condo. And so I don't control when my HVAC gets cleaned. And in my condo's case, it's never. And so what's happened ever since I've moved in is that I, for the first time in my entire life, get asthma attacks overnight. And as you can imagine, that's a little dangerous because that's where a lot of asthma-related issues come from because you're not awake. And I was waking up.

My lungs felt heavy. I was wheezing and that sort of thing. So I put one of these in in July. It's usually through the AC system that this happens. It's usually a summertime issue for me. I put one of these in in July. And since then, haven't had one. And now I'm not saying it will work necessarily like that for every person.

No, you said it's magic. But I'm telling you, air purifers don't waste your money on air purifiers that are going to do half the job. Here, I'll go a little simpler. Are you a sweaty sleeper? I am. It makes your room not stink. That also helps. You can either call the toll-free number 1866-505-7872 or visit Arupura p-U-R-A.com to speak to where they're air quality experts.

And by the way, when we did this, they made us fill out like a questionnaire. So we had them all specifically made for each, because they want to ask you, okay, do you have pets? Are you allergic to those pets? How old is your house? You know, are you in a condo or a house? Like all these things matter. New tagline, Air Pura. They don't screw around.

Now, use the promo code SDPN10. You can always save a little money, and that's our gift to you. Clean Air for a better price. AirPura.com. You gotta try breakfast at A and W. You gotta try Brett A and W. And what better way than with a delicious Pratt organic coffee, starting with just $1 all day, every day now until December 31st?

You gotta try breakfast at A&W. participating in W locations in Ontario. Now, another thing that's really, really been interesting, and we talked to people were, it's funny, I was going through some of the comments yesterday, people were like, I can't believe you wouldn't talk about the Luke of Angelista trade, or I can't believe you miss this,

or I can't believe you miss that on my buddy. We had 90 minutes to fit a whole summer in. Yeah, we took a whole month off. Give it a second. That's why we have some stuff that we have to get through today, including the Luke of Angelista trade to that one person in New Jersey, who's real pissed, we missed it.

Now, NHL 26. Oh, we're not starting. Oh, yeah, I was like, I was ready to get into it.

Full of Langell? Did you know Shia to Hans his cousin? No, I was gonna go into, I'm making them wait. No, I'm making you wait. You can,

you know what? We're not even going to mark this episode. We shouldn't get to it. You're going to guess where the evangelistic segment is. No, we should just not do it. Just not do it? Yeah,

it's like, it's like Jimmy Kimmel with Matt Damon. Sorry to Matt Damon. We didn't have time to get you on tonight. Like, You should time stamp it, Jesse, with something else. Something else. Don't see what it is.

Something else. So, Shanahan's cousin. Shanahan's cousin. NHL 26's video games here. And I believe it comes out. And I believe it comes out today. There you go. And I believe it comes out today.

Friday. Friday. And here's what's so great. IGN did a review on this game. And usually NHL games that, that IGN does reviews for don't get a ton of traction because, you know, in terms of like the video game landscape, especially the sports video game landscape, the NHL would be lucky to be in the top 50. Like there's so many other great sports games.

NHL used to be very high up. It did because they used to put this thing called effort in. Well, there's that. But also hockey is an incredible video game sport. Yeah. Oh, you can have crazy stuff. Yeah. Now, the headline for IGN is, nothing is worse than last year, but very little is better either. EA sports. It's in the game. That's pretty damning. They said, there are no new modes to speak of this year.

Staples like franchise, Build a Pro, World of Chell and Hutt serve as the main options, alongside smaller modes like ones and threes, plus tournaments like the World Juniors. Similarly, from past entries, that even extends to menus, which look exactly the same as they did in NHL 26. everything looks so similar, in fact, that people might think that they just booted up last year's game by mistake. There's an argument to be made for not fixing what isn't broken, but when a sequel doesn't look any different from the one that, like, right from the startup screens, it feels like a bad sign, especially for a series that is often critiqued for its lack of differentiation. I, it is dismaying to me that people are like, yeah, well, like, why would they put the effort in not a lot of people buy it? why do you think not a lot of people buy it?

And I'm going to pay over $100 for this? Yeah. And I'm just staying with IGN. There's other shit to get to. Don't you worry. Oh, okay. Because I have a conspiracy theory. Give it to it.

You want it now or you want it after you read? Well, okay, I guess I'll get a little more in. Yeah. No, no, keep going. Is it that there's civilizations in Antarctica? What? D.K. McHaff. Steeler.

Oh, Jesus. Anyway. Hey, you can throw this up. Crowds look like, crowds look, and move like they did multiple console generations ago. Like, here's, there's, we got it on the screen. I don't know, man. It doesn't look that different.

So, like, we're playing this because I want people to see that if I played this video and then also played NHL 20, probably two-ish, you probably couldn't tell the difference if the scorebug wasn't different. The games look the exact same for like four or five years now. I guess the playbooks are one of the new features where you can make changes. in terms of like on ice action. Yeah. What percent of the user base of this game is doing that shit?

Now, uh, none, because who cares? There's Babcock. Yeah, the Babcock actually looks like Babs do a little bit. And that's rare for this game. We'll get to that in a second.

The commentary, according to IGN, is one area where NHL 27 definitely feels stuck in the past. Wow. Look, look how much ever they put into the graphics of the pre- thing that everyone skips over so that they can play the game. Who's sitting there taking this shit in?

Sorry, Adam. No, it's fine. The commentary. The commentators often refer to checks as a crunch. And during one game against the HL Syracuse crunch, that exact phrase was used. It seemed like a perfect opportunity for some wordplay, like a perfect crunch from the Syracuse crunch. It wouldn't be all that clever, but at least would have made things sound.

distinct from all the other things. No such luck. That's the kind of clever quip. I would expect John Butchie Gross to make. We'll get to that. And he, well, he was grinding in the booth at him. Somebody said, you can only hear about a quote, really exciting tilt so many times before you contemplating shutting off the banter

altogether. And it's not just the audio commentary. That's kind of broken. Be a Pro Mode shows news headlines between games based on your performance. And they regurgitate the same critiques ceaselessly. If your team wins a blowout, but your character didn't score, it's, quote, rough night with an image of your player looking downtrodden. Even if it's not a great night for an individual player, it doesn't quite match what happened

on the ice. Additionally, there seems to be even less variety in these headlines than there was in 26. And then they go into a lot of the details about, okay, I love this. There's a lot of small elements that hurt the immersion in NHL 27. During one game in Bea Pro, I was pressured to have. I was being pressured to head to the bench late in the third period, but I didn't have a good opportunity to change up. A whistle stopped play with 1.5 seconds left in regulation,

and I assumed I'd still be on the ice for this small leftover amount of time. Instead, I found my custom player sitting on the ice or sitting on the bench for the next face-off, which would never happen in a real hockey game. EA Vancouver may have put a lot of effort into making the arenas look real, but the games that play out within them don't always match that level of care. for example, home crowds will eventually turn on their team during a blowout. Sorry. For example, home clouds will eventually turn on their team during a blowout if the home team is getting blown out.

But it's not immediate. That means you'll sometimes see fans dancing and enjoying hype songs when it's an early 3-0 deficit and nothing is as if nothing's gone wrong. Yeah. So basically, so not great. Now, John Bucci Gros. Now, Jesse, I've got that going up. Let's talk about this because I think this pissed a lot of people off. And I think it was inadvertent on John's part,

but I think it's important to hear how some of this commentary was put together. I kind of wonder if EA Vancouver was like, hey, man, don't friggin tell people this. Yeah. Yeah. But this isn't the first time John has gone on a podcast and said something that I was like, hey, I'm not sure that you want to be admitting that about the NHL Awards and how you're voting. This one is, I'm not sure that you want to be admitting this is how the commentary came together, go ahead.

But they also are, they're using some AI stuff now. They played me some stuff back on my voice. It's like, well, that's pretty good. You know, if it means less work and the same check, I'll take it. But sometimes AI will get something wrong. Like, and they were one of the guys were playing it back. And a lot of these guys are not maybe hardcore sports fans. They're, you know, their video game.

Extraordinators. That's what they do. They're not always up on the vernacular. And so they were playing me back, some of my AI voice. And it's, you know, and they're playing it and like, SCAR! And the crowd gets out of their chairs. And I was like, no, they're not chairs.

I know AI, they look like a chair, but we call them seats. So like little things like that, you've got to go back and listen because, you know, those words matter in sports fan. You mess up a word. Yeah, like you can't say. And the final score is four to six. The Red Sox lose. You know, like, you can't.

say four to six. You got to say, right. So I think what bothers people about this, but there's several. Yeah. But, uh, you know, some people are bothered by generative AI. Some people are not. And I think what bothers people about this is that, hey, you're charging me this. And I'm not even getting the full effort that you used to make when you previously charged me. You might be getting the same check for less effort, but I'm paying the same price. Yes. Or even more. Yeah. For the for a game that's not as good. Yes. It's just for someone who talks for a living,

like, holy shit, you got to put some more thought into your words. John, I know. That was rough. So these video game guys, they like don't know the sport. Oh, gosh. John!

Like, listen. That was shocking. I hadn't watched that before. That was shocked. You've never seen that. Everyone knows everything about everything. Obviously. You didn't need to say.

it. I help these guys unfuck my own words that they generated with AI. John! What part of that is going to help sell the game, man? Yeah, no, if I was EA, I'd be pissed.

I'd be pissed. You shouldn't tell us that the people making the game aren't hockey fans and don't understand what they're making. The AI part, like a CEO would want that, but the freaking, that's shocking. These guys don't really like the game. Well, here's the thing.

Have consultants on site who do and help these guys. I think that's what he was trying to say. Like, I had to help them fix the commentary because clearly they're not hockey people. But just knowing that like the guys who are at the base of this game editing it and creating the environment for us don't understand simple things in sports. It's like it's not a chair in an arena. That's crazy to me. I also, listen, AI has improved like through leaps and bounds. It's also not good enough yet to be doing this.

No. And also I can't get over the irony of being like, no, I wouldn't say this. I would say this instead of just saying it yourself. Yeah. I remember being a kid and playing like Madden, I don't know, like 2000. three and they have like behind the scenes videos you can go into the menu and see everything and like one of them is al michael's sitting there recording all of his lines in that california studio for EA and just him going through everything saying to the mic i remember thinking like that's so cool

and now boochie gross just kind of says a couple things and then they AI the rest of his voice that's the effort going into these things is so much less yeah no but it's here's what's great though And this is what you haters don't get about AI. The game is now $25. No. Even more. It's not. I actually don't know how much they cost it.

They put so much less time and effort into it. Of course the game costs less. Or am I mistaken? It's actually going up in price. What? Yeah. Because I... Oh, people are going to be so pissed when they find that out.

One thing the consumer never got. And I include myself in terms of, consumers with all of you out there in terms of the video games. When we had this digital revolution where all games are digital now, they never put that money back to the consumer where they don't have to create disks and ship them around the world and then you've got to go to a store and buy them. We never saw that money back to us. The price has just gone up consistently and we just get a worse product.

The size of yachts has increased tenfold, though. Well, yeah, I think that. like, I mean, we talked about this in the spring when it came out that like in, what is it in, you know, franchise mode or whatever. If you want to play with your buddies, they don't keep stats. They don't keep. Yeah, it's one year only for connected franchise. Then it resets. Well, and like supposedly Gavin McKenna is not even on the Leafs.

Like there's been footage of like players getting stuck behind the net. Oh, hold on. Oh, no. Stop. What? What? Get to that. What?

This is discontinued. I don't know that. Standard edition. $89 to $99. we think in Canadian and then Deluxe edition 99 US which would be like 110 115 Canadian

also I always wonder now now that they don't ship those CDs everywhere what does the point the cover athlete thing does it matter as much I suppose I guess for the menus and the marketing it's the marketing yeah right that's always what it's been

now the other thing the NHL or the EA NHL crew standard edition at Best Buy right now is 8999 okay that's that's a great amount of money, especially for a game that's pretty much the same as last year. I mean, don't they keep updating rosters? No, no, they end roster updates

like in the springtime, after Stanley Cup. That's enough money to get fans up out of their chairs. Sorry. EA also was like, well, this year, they're going to look realistic. Now, Jesse, I have a whole bunch of, and if you're on Twitter,

you've probably seen a lot of these. But it is absolutely incredible to me the how these face scans turned out because I'm going to show you some that look a little bit like and then I'm going to show you some that don't look a lot like. So we're going to start with somebody.

Steve, we're going to see if you can guess who this is. You've probably seen them. Throw it up on this. Yeah, but still, still. Worth mentioning. That is Kratos after getting his wisdom teeth removed.

Who is it supposed to be, Steve? I'm going to go. William Nealander. That is correct. Okay. All right. Next one, Jesse. This is, it's like I and this might not be the best listening experience. No, I know. And Steve, if you could go ahead and explain like you did what these guys actually kind of think you, what you kind of think they look like. That's Austin Matthews. Yes. This is a screenshot from a documentary, a docu-series about Nick Offerman as a 20-year-old. It is Austin Matthews

with the bushiest mustache and I think a trip to turkey. I think that mustache is not the same color as his eyebrows or hair either. No. That's why it's so weird. It's, I don't even know how to describe his hair. He looks like a Ken doll,

but with like Joey Crabs' Movember mustache. Right. It doesn't look like Austin Matthews. The next one is one of my particular favorites because they get a little goofy. Like those two aren't bad. William Nealander does look like he had dental surgery. You're absolutely right about that. Austin looks like he had a weird, bushy mustache.

But have you seen this one? Okay. Can you even, I wonder if you can even guess who this is. I think you'll be able to get it. Oh, it says the name. Oh, it says the name. Canada's starting goaltender. Have you seen Jordan Bittington?

No. Bring him up. that is that's jordan bittington with his ears that doctor earman i can hear you what did jordan bittington do to deserve oh fair enough okay all right maybe why why yeah that looks nothing like you know what's funny it does it looks like the frame of his head where it runs into problems is when you get to the face. Yeah. Which I believe is the whole

crux of this segment. Let's bring up Will Smith. Will Smith of the San Jose Sharks? Uh-huh. Not that Will Smith. Oh, different? Yeah.

And this is we're going to get to start, we're going to start to get into like some of the worst, the worst moment. There are some people that need to sue. Yeah? Yeah. I texted an agent, one of their

client's pictures, and and you know who it is. And he said, ooh, that's rough. I won't say which client. So that's, that's Will Smith.

That's not so bad, actually. I don't think. The chin's a little weird. What's up with his chin? The chin's a little strange. That looks like, that looks like the,

the main photo from like an article about like some looks maxer you've never heard of getting surgery that went wrong. He is clavicular's friend for sure. Yeah. Yeah. You're right.

You're right. All right. Now, the next one I think is everybody's favorite. Mason Lurie of the Boston Bruins. Have you seen Mason Luray? Do you know what Mason Lurie looks like? Can I show you? Yes, actually.

Okay, so Mason Lurie, you can Google this. I'm going to go out in the limb and say. He should be one of the easiest faces in the NHL to do. That's Mason Lurie's face, right there. It is just a plain face. It's a face. It's just a face. Yeah.

nose mouth eyes and ears right do you want to see what mason lorai looks like in n hl 27 yes why oh my that looks like now okay I was like many children a toxic child

when I made my own creative player did I make them handsome and gorgeous no it was far easier to just mess their face all the way up Yeah. My creative player looked like this. What did you do to Mason Lurai? His eyes aren't.

That's the last thing you see before you die in the forest, I think. He looks like a skin walker. What did you do? Yeah. What did he? A Leaf fan did this. I'm going to go out of the lame. Yeah.

Yeah. It's definitely a horror movie, Mason Lurie. Or Lee perhaps. If you were going to be Mason Lurai for Halloween and he's an axe murderer, that's how you'd want to look. Poor Mason Leroy. Yeah. Adam, one more. One more.

Okay. Shall we do Kiefer Sherwood and Seth Jarvis? Okay, that's... Sure. Because they're in the same tweet from Gino Hart. So we'll see this one.

I love these. Kiefer Jarvis. And I'll show you some gameplay issues too just after this one because the McKinnon face thing you need to see. It's pretty great. Go ahead, Jesse. Oh, no.

They, first off, Sherwood and Jarvis look like they've been in the woods in a post-apocalyptic movie for at least 10 years. Like look how old Kiefer Sherwood looks there. He looks like there's an old horror movie from the 80s where like a mummy comes back to life

and sucks the life force out of the doctor that revived him. That's what he looks like. Is it the mummy? I don't know. Why is his skin so wrinkly? I don't know. Like Kiefer Sherwood has very smooth skin by the picture I am currently looking at. And in this one he's just all wrinkly.

Drinkly and old. Yeah. It looks like they put him in like a dehydrating machine that you use for fruit. Yeah, they sucked everything out of his face. It looks like he's cutting weight for a fight. And then Seth Jarvis looks like a woodland character. He looks. You'd run into him in some fantasy novel, the recreation animation.

Both. That's amazing. If you're a Red Dead Redemption 2 fan, you will know that both of them look like characters you would find in Butcher Creek. which is where people who live in a village with poisoned water are in that game. He looks a little bit like, you ever see there's this show? I have no idea what the name of the show is, but it's basically in New Zealand. And they were like, what if Reacher was skinny and had a New Zealand accent?

That's what he looks like. Got it. Okay. Okay. I like that. Now, Jesse, can we run up the, uh, uh, uh, Can we run the Nathan McKinnon face stretch? Because this is also interesting.

There are gameplay issues that are already being reported. And I will summarize all of this as Jesse kind of puts this on screen. But Austin Hockey at Austin Hockey, YT, said, NHL 27 uses generative AI for the commentary. Watch Nathan McKinnon's face here. It just kind of. Oh, go. So here's the thing.

We're in, this is NHL 27. What happens? If you've ever seen when the mask, Jim carries the mask first lays eyes on Cameron Diaz, this is what his face does. These games have been around since I was a little boy. I've never once seen this glitch. Ever in my life. So, Asinaki, it uses generative AI for commentary.

Advertised accurate goalhorns and goal songs is selling future. Goalhorns and goal songs are not accurate in-game. Likely uses generative AI for other aspects of the in-game development. has the worst face scans of any NHL game we've ever seen, still has legacy glitches from previous console generations, which is crazy, not previous games, previous generation of console games. They made EASHL pay to win

by locking player attributes, points, and skills behind battle passes. I don't know what that means because I've ever played it, but I'm assuming that really annoys people. I'm getting to the point where, this is a game I used to play three or four hours a night. Yeah. A few years ago.

Into the 2020s. And then I had kids. But I'm getting to the point where I don't know if I can intelligently talk about this game. They brought back connected franchise mode, but obviously, as Jesse mentioned, no progression, no entry draft, no fantasy draft, no free agency. Stats don't accumulate, nothing matters. Be a Pro is the exact same from NHL 26 untouched. So that brings me to the conspiracy theory. They're punting.

They're just punting on this year. I think the issue is that they don't have... Oh, sorry. Go. Go. No, no, no. And the reason... Sorry, my bad. The reason they're punting is November 19th, Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming out. You think, though?

You think so? Yes. I think... Can I offer an alternative theory, but I really like your theory. Okay. My alternative theory is once the NHL licensed their video game to only one make-up that's when the game's got shitty. Because EA realized, well, we own the market on this.

And there used to be two NHL games a year. And they're finding out, though, this is what we were talking about earlier with the streaming. People aren't like, well, I guess I have to pay the money then. No, they just won't play it, guys. And they're like, well, the player base doesn't support us reinvesting in this. And it becomes like a downward cycle where you've got, oh, our player base is less than last your game. Didn't sell well so we can't put any money behind it. Stop treating customers like their assholes.

Make a good game. But, you know, maybe this game's so bad. And then next year they're like, hey, so remember how shitty last year's was and the GTA came out a year ago? Well, it's revamped. We put a person in a booth to say words. You know what formula...

The faces don't pop out. Do you know Formula One did? What? And I really respected this because I've been saying sports games should do this, certain ones anyway. They skipped a year. They just said,

that F-125 is going to, we're not doing an F-126. And we're going to come back with a whole bunch of things that are going to make the game so much better, so much truer to form. What would be the problem with EA doing that and having a new game every two years and just updating the rosters and keeping the game as it is? If you really are that resource strapped,

then why are you releasing one every year? You don't need to release one every year. Pride? Hockey fans, well, I mean, I think it's probably part of the licensing deal that they signed with the NHL that you will produce a new game every year. But my point to the NHL would be, well, we're not seeing the returns that we need to see on this. Why don't we just hold tight and do two-year cycles and then come in with real tangible benefits to buying the next round? Have we not been asking this for at least half a decade? Yeah, that's the, I think that's the plan everybody would love if the NHL game was just called NHL.

and then there's no year addition on it. And then they just provide you with a, I don't know, they have to charge something. So it's 1099 roster update every September and then you get the roster update and then you get the rest of them for the rest of the year. And then every two to three year cycle, there's a feature update as well. Because all of this can be done just through updates. The GTA game, the last one, has lasted this whole time because there's constantly new things with GTA online.

13 years. And you're still releasing stuff like now. Exactly. Like to this day, there's still stuff coming out and all these side packs and everything. Some of that you got to pay for, obviously. But if they just updated one game and just kept adding the features and refining everything, everybody would be a lot happier. But they are just stuck in the sports game cycle and it's ruined it for the consumer.

Cool. Yeah. That's pretty. Listen, I'm not, I don't know if I've bought it the last few years. I've had it though. I have not played it. I've played games. I haven't played it.

I'm just like, ugh, this sucks. Yeah. Some of that's personal circumstance too. Some of its personal circumstance, but mostly it's just, it isn't good enough.

Right. It hasn't earned hours of my life. Other games have. Other things have. Like, obviously I got work. Obviously, I have children

and a family. family. And those take up a lot of time. You know, I'm not a robot, though. I'm not yet, well, I was about to say I'm not yet, you know, standing on the front porch looking at the grass. I am very much doing that. But I still have time for video games.

I don't have time for this one. No, no. This won't make the list. No. No. And consumers are like, sorry, my time's more valuable than this piece of shit. Yeah, it's too bad. It's a shame because they,

They used to be like can't miss events. And, you know, I know that they haven't been happy with us for a long time because we panned one of their games like seven or eight years ago and said it was awful. Pan it. Yeah. But it hasn't gotten a lot better. Yeah. Well, do you think we're saying it's a bad game to be dicks or because it's a bad game? I promise you I'm not.

No, no, no, no. What's far more likely? Is it the game I've played since I was a child? and we have at times been invited to events and done promotion for it. Are we just being mean? We're being the devil. Or does the game stink, dude?

It's poopies. Get better, get good, skill issue. Yes. You got to be gamers about this. Skill issue, get good. Hey, so listen, when you're traveling or even when you're at home, you want to protect your internet security,

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Great news. The federal EV rebate is back. Eligible customers get up to $5,000 with the federal EVAP rebate on select 2027 Volt and 2026 Equinox EV models. Visit your local Chevrolet dealer today for more details. You gotta try breakfast at A and W. And what better way than with a delicious Pratt organic coffee? Starting with just $1 all day, every day now until December 31st. at participating A&W locations in Ontario. Now, we have some breaking news. Chris Kreider and the Anaheim Ducks are walking away from his contract. He is on waivers right now for the purposes of contract termination. He wants to return to the east.

I guess they tried to figure out a deal this summer, but nobody was going to bite on the $6.5 million he's owed. And the Ducks are not in a position to demand anything for anybody. Right. So they got him for basically for free. They got him, they had him for the year. Their forward group now becomes a little bit less good. But he wasn't a huge factor in the playoffs last year, scored some big goals or whatever.

He wants to finish out the rest of his career, I think, in the East. And that's kind of what it comes down to. And I also wonder if we're now getting a Cutter-Goce extension. So, I think that's the domino, right? Yeah. Didn't we talk about it yesterday when we were running through things? It might have been on the Ducks preview. Yeah, we did the Ducks preview yesterday.

This is lovely for this to happen today. But anyways, I think they needed the cap space, right? So this was the odd man out that they've determined, right? Yep. Oh, interesting. Okay, so here's what I'm trying to figure out is, because Chris Kreider is not agreeing to do this if he's going to lose money or significant money, right?

So what I'm trying to figure out is, yes, he has a $6.5 million cap hit. what is he actually walking away from? So according to Puckpedia, his base salary goes down this year from last year. Last year, his base salary was $5 million. This year, he has a base salary of $4 million and a signing bonus of $1 million. Now, I don't know when that $1 million signing bonus

is paid out, but it's a fair assumption that it's already been paid. Yeah. So he's walking away from $4 million, in order to be made whole on his next deal, he needs to make at least $4 million. And my guess is that's probably out there for him. He had 22 goals last season and 50 points.

22 goals, 20. It's definitely out there. That's worth five. And you know what? What if you spread it over a couple of years? What if he gets $6 million, but it's three and three? Like why? I mean, would you have an upset?

Like Chris Kreider's 35. Or it's performance bonus. Yeah. And it's confirmed, Steve, Elliot. Freeman in his article said it's four million dollars due in cash for this season. The 1.5 million is paid out on July 1st. There it is so uh four million bucks. This is a a sensible solution here to a very large problem that the ducks had that uh Pat Verbeak walked himself into. Oh yeah no he just straight up did not prepare honestly honestly it. Honestly, it

If he gets cut or done, you could argue he got out of this situation better than you could have expected, given how it started. Like this, I mean, I'm grading on a curve. Yeah. I'm grading on a curve. I'm trying to be as nice as possible. I was about to, ah, I was about to be even nicer and be like, ah, you know, Chris Crotter, 6.5 mil. What's the? Ah, no, you can't afford that luxury.

No. I was trying to explain to someone like with how fast the cap is going up. Like it used to be so easy to walk yourself into cap hell or find yourself in cap hell for reasons that had nothing to do with you. Like people got hurt or whatever.

Now the cap is going up so fast that if you are in cap hell, it's because you made mistakes. Like, you made significant, very highly avoidable mistakes. And that's what Pat Furbik has done. I mean, we already recorded the preview, but like, I'm trying to think of something I would take back. Like, they are not better.

If they get, the only way they're going to get better is if they improve internally, which is actually a decent bet because they're such a young team. But, like, what are they going to do? go out and get a bunch of pieces. Not a lot of room to do that. All of a sudden, they're capped out. They have more room now. Yeah.

Well, I think it's to sign Go-Chic. My guess is Cutter's about to take it all. Yeah. And CJ was saying, I think he said yesterday, it was something we were around $15 million. They had $9 million available yesterday, six and a half off the cap. There's your money.

And that's about it. And so it's going to be a very young defense corps and a goaltender that you hope can just, steal everything. You're gonna, I think he's gonna have to be active throughout the fall. What do you mean, the goalie? Or the, well, the goalie for sure.

But no, no, uh, uh, Verbeek. He's gonna, yeah, I would expect them to like buddy, if you're putting a defenseman on waivers, yoink, if I'm the ducks. But you'd have to have the space to do that, Steve. I think they do now. How? Well, it's not gonna be a good defense.

Oh, okay. Relax. Like, I'm talking about, like, someone making, like, 900K. Okay. Who you know can play 50, 60 games. Well, that's all of a sudden extremely valuable. 900K? Oh, yeah.

For 60 games? Steve, that's such a bargain? You think the ducks who went to the second round last year in their waiver order? You think a player makes it to them? I don't think so. Yeah. Oh, shit. You know, if they could just pick up McDavid on waivers.

Yeah, man. For 900K. 12 and a half. Big David, I am talking about Philip Myers, Jesse. That's what I'm talking about. I might imagine they just got kale McCar on waivers for 900K. Oh yeah. That would be such in a good spy.

You know, you know, Cail McCar, Dakota Murmiss. I'm trying to make it about the Leafs. Just let me. If they just got them, I have two destinations for Chris Crider. Let me know if you guys think these are plausible

because I think I'm going to nail one of these two. Number one, the Carolina Hurricanes. Oh, yes. Yeah, that's a good thing. Yeah, that's a good one. Great fit. Look what they did with Taylor Hall.

Would you not feel like, man, I'm stepping into that? That's what I want. This is the exact guy I think Eric Tulski would target for a one-year bet. If it's performance bonus, that's even better. But they have the cash. They don't need to do that. They could give them $4 million today, and it wouldn't affect their cap situation at all. They could give them six.

They'd still have like five mil on the cap if they gave them that money. And they can always use four depth. Every team in the league can. Here's a guy who can play in your middle six. And I think it fit right in in that hurricane. system. Yep. So that's my one destination. My two destination is a team that is under the 23 man roster spot currently. Oh. They have cap space and can always use forward depth just like the hurricanes. The Montreal Canadian. Interesting. Oh. Oh. Oh. And they've been looking for a

winger. They've been looking for a left winger. I think that can fit right in their line up there. I'll pull up their depth chart here. So those are my one and two destination of Crider. I don't know if I'm going to be right, but I think I might be right. Jesse, can I give you one that you have not considered, but they would have the money to do this? The current left side of the Montreal Canadians, according to Puckpedia is Caulfield, New Hook, TechCeer, and Bullduke, who's unsigned. Kreider's going to go perfectly on the ending. And who would know Crider very well? Maybe a really smart man who's running the operations over there. Jimmy Altiery. What?

What? Jeff Gordon. What are you talking about? Jimmy Altieri. Who the hell is Jimmy Altieri? He looks like Jimmy Altieri from the Sopranos. Oh! Jeff Gordon looks like Jimmy Altieri.

We've done that bit on this show. Jimmy Altieri? We've done that. I think we have. You're right. Google it. They look identical. One is slimmer.

Jimmy Altieri was some strength and conditioning coach. No. I'm like, who is this guy? But that would be very you. Breaking my bucket. As junior coach who now works in the equipment room. Can I would be? Now, Habs fans, I think, would riot.

Yep. No. Well, yeah, he did end Kerry Price's career. They would want Carrie Price to hit him with a steel chair. I think they would be like, you know what? It would be worth it to sign him just to have Kerry Price assault him on opening. Or scratch him. Well, Cory Perry's been in L.A. King twice now.

We can get over things. Yeah. Yeah, true. That's the guy who's not supposed to be on that franchise. Ever. You know, and now Crider can go to Monday. Do Cory Perry end Paul Korea's career?

Adams got a team. I got one. Are you ready? Yeah. The New York Islanders. Left side is Holmstrom, potentially Shen, Matthias Machelli,

and Andre Polat who is in the last year of this deal. And they have the money. Call me crazy. That's not horrible. It's pretty bad. And especially if you have Crider playing with Peugeot and Heinemann on that third line, because I'm going to tell you something about Mattias Machelli.

Don't believe the hype. Don't even believe the stats. Is there hype? You're the number one Machelli hater in the universe. The fact that there were Leaf fans who were like, no, I think we should retain him when he only put up points in garbage time, are you guys all out of your minds? That guy does not show up to win. you need Chris Kreider shows up to win every night

the Islanders missed by a little bit last year and they're all old grizzled vets come join the old grizzled vets and Matthew Schaefer I don't think we could throw out a team that doesn't make sense but New York to me makes sense for a guy who loved New York

and didn't want to leave New York you know who could use them like the Rangers yeah they could use the leadership and the depth I'm gonna go with the Rangers I was gonna say because I assume the Rangers

are off the board what about the Flyers that would be a great pick too that's close enough to New York and he plays that I'm gonna kill you kind of style sometimes and I think the Flyers need that Here's the thing with good players

They fit I wish I do If you have the cap space If you have the cap space If you have the cap space Yeah Oh I pulled the flyers out of my butt I have no idea what they

That is one of the teams I do wish the Leafs had cap space Because I would love to see him be a leaf I think he'd be a fun player We're eastish yeah Yeah, but we don't have the cab space. Yeah. And we are east-ish.

And don't forget the contract slots as well, even though that's kind of fluid with the event, with training camp happening guys going up and down. But I'm sure they could create space, but it'd be weird if you're cutting guys right now to bring in Kreider. Yeah. Yeah, no, for sure. I just really like Criter. I'm selfish.

I'd be like, here, please. Good player. Please join my team. You scored 22 goals last year. You know who this is annoying for everyone who's already a free agent looking for it. Oh, yeah. If you're the guy who's like, I need a deal. My name's Michael Bunting.

And I'm like, Happy for you, Chris! Oh. Piece of crap. If he ends up signing a team, I'm like, cool. Here comes a flying elbow at your head. As soon as we play, I'm assuming he plays.

There are a lot of free agents still available. I'm trying to pull it up on... Yes, can I retract my Logan Stanley prediction, please? What was it? Yeah. Oh, I was like, that guy's going to make Nikita Zedorov. I thought he was. And he is currently making none money.

Where is it on Puckpedia? I'm trying to find free agents. It is on the screen. Ah. So Tolviden got signed by the Rangers. But, oh, yeah. I thought that was a great pickup. Taze is retiring.

This is the free agents currently available organized by games played last year. So the rumor was with Logan Stanley that Pat Morris was asking the sun and the moon for him. And it looks like the chairs, there are not enough chairs and the music is stopped. Do you want to read the top 10? The old Cody Friends. So I'm going to say not Jonathan Tase. Logan Stanley, Carson Sousy, Marcus Johansson, who left and went to Europe. Vlad Tarasenko is injured.

but he's always a late signing. 23 goals, 47 points for Vlad, eh? Michael Bunting, James Van Riemstike, Evander Cain, Luke Glendening, Riley Smith, Tyson Yosted. If we could go down one more just to add, why not? It's Matt Griswick. Oh, it's Matt Grislyke. Oh, it's Matt Grisly.

Yeah. And then Sean Coffey is his agent, but it's really Martyr's agent. That's who he is. They're associated with. So Sean Coffey's the guy that works underneath. What's his name? Martyr's agent? Darren Ferris, yeah. You forgot Darren Ferris?

Yeah, I just sometimes randomly forget names. Oh, that's okay. What a privilege. Matt Rislik, who had like 40 points with the Penguins a few years ago and had the worst defensive metrics we've ever seen. Can you scroll down like two spots? Yeah, you want more? Who's that who had 13 goals?

Dave Perron. Oh. I actually didn't know that. I promise I'm not doing a bit. I was like, oh, that's an appealing player. Now, he had surgery last year, and that ended his season. And I think he also got traded to Detroit and then never, I don't know if he ever played.

I think at the very end. Yeah. But yeah, it's, these aren't bad names. No, I don't mind Adam Henrique either. Riley, Seth is, like, I thought he would be back in Vegas by now. There's a bunch of very NHL capable players in this list.

Bunting, like, I think is number one for sure. What is it with him? He's become a suitcase. Was it the amount of money he was making? Like, the Leafs were, The rumor at the time was that the Leafs wanted to keep him when the Trilliving Era started, but then they asked some of the players on the team, and some of the players on the team said,

I don't know if that's the best idea. And it was probably, it was right on the heels of the referees basically calling him for everything. So I don't think it had anything to do with his personality or anything like that. It was more like, this guy is a target. Can we try something else? I'll just go out and say the Leafs were wrong. That guy.

But he made four and a half mill. Like that was pretty high. That guy stuck up for you and you wouldn't stick up for him because you're a bunch of soft losers and you have proven that by being soft and losing ever since. So there's that. But if we go and look at his career, so he was with the coyotes. He did all right. Ends up going to the Leafs as a group six UFA. They sort of lucked into him.

They got him as a UFA and he was still technically Calder Trophy eligible. It was weird. He does the two years in cash out, which no one was surprised by. He signs the big deal with Carolina, and that's where things start going wrong. Ends up in Nashville and Pittsburgh in there, too. They trade him the same season they signed him, which doesn't really happen, right? Went to Pittsburgh. Then he went to Nashville?

Yeah. And then was traded to Dallas last year and I think got into like one playoff game. Dallas had injuries, Dallas didn't use them. Well, and I think that sort of speaks to where they're at. I think it scared people.

I think it added a buyer. Listen, he had attitude and he scored goals, but his defensive metrics were bad. Like awful. Okay. There's other players in the league. I agree,

but my point is that I think if Michael Bunding had never been a leaf, we wouldn't be opining so much about him, right? No, that's probably. He would just be guy. Some guy. He would just be a guy. If you don't have that personal lease connection. And we love that.

He's from Scarborough. He's a fun guy. Like, how do you not like him? The man's adorable. No, he's pretty. And he's a funny guy. He's pretty consistently scored half a point of game for his whole career. Yes.

Those players are useful and don't grow in the trees. And has a snarl. But there are players like that. And I'm not in any way making a comparison here to this particular player. But you remember Daniel Sprong, who scored everywhere he went. and found himself on a new team every year. Boy, is that guy looking like an arsehole online?

Yeah, like he looks like a dick in the KHL and all of his teammates. Remember his teammate was said to the ref on camera, I don't like this player. I'm so sorry. Oh, no, that wasn't him. Wasn't that Sprong? No, that was Maxim Comtoe. Oh, Tomtoe.

Okay, interesting. Coming up later. Yeah, I, okay, so listen, it's not that I'm saying that Michael Bunting is sprong, but what I'm saying is there's something there that we don't fully know. there's a reason this keeps happening. And wherever he ends up, because he'll get a PTO at least this year,

he's got to be aces in camp because it's two weeks long. You've no chance to prove yourself. And then you get into camp and let's say you make the team. Whatever it is that's held him back, he better manage that. It might not be his strength, but he better manage it.

It is objective. Sorry. No, go ahead, go ahead. Well, I was going to say it is true that like even when he was on the Leaf's top line, like if they're up a goal they're not playing them right right that's a problem and i think skill wise if we're honest about his game it might not just be there anymore considering how that dallas run when adam i'm glad you brought up the one playoff game he got into they played him

for nine minutes because they couldn't trust him out i had heard he was battling an injury too but even healthy that is a reality of his game yeah and with the stars during his uh How many games? 13 games. They played him 1248 a night. And I just, if he couldn't hang on a playoff team there and couldn't get into the lineup, maybe a lot of people look at him.

They're like, hey, we'll take a shot on a 22-year-old instead of Michael Bunting, who's 30, and might be an HL or at this point. Michael Bunting's 30? Yeah. That crazy? 148 career games. Damn.

But we had. But everybody's career comes to an end eventually. Yeah. I interviewed that guy, but like, hey, you excited to get drafted? Wow. 30. Yeah. That's crazy.

He was a really fun player, though. He was a fun guy to watch, really liked him, liked what he brought. And when Hyman left, he's still alive, eh? Like, no, but no. Just not, like, we don't, like, he was, there's some really good leaf memories there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He turns 31 next week on the set. Shut up!

I don't think it's over for him. I just think whatever it is that's dogged him the last few years, he's got to take care of. There's plenty of guys who have rebound years and then all of a sudden cash in again. I'll find a landing spot. Absolutely. I don't have any doubts about that. I just don't know that, like, I don't know if he's the player we thought he was in Toronto.

Like, I think maybe being on a line with an all-world defensive center like Austin Matthews can cover some things up. And all-world winger like Marner. Sign in Vancouver and have Brennan Gallagher be like, here's how you actually make a paycheck as a shithead young man. Yeah, that's true. Good point. So the Edmonton-Oilers have signed Alex Formanton, has not played since 21-22. and was obviously a part of the hockey candidate of five that were on trial last year,

along with Michael McLeod and Carter Hart at all. So he is signing with the Edmonton. I was one of these guys that was always known for his speed and obviously played in Switzerland a lot of the past few years. And, yeah, I mean, listen, the Oilers fans' reaction has been mixed, to say the least. And I do think it's interesting that they are locked in on this. guy that has not played in, or at least played in the NHL, I guess, since 21, 22. We also have a Mike Babcock interview from Oilers now that we're going to go through a little

bit after this, which kind of speaks to where the Oilers are going this year. But, you know, listen, talking about any of the players from that scenario, that situation, just, I'm just going to tell you straight up, it sucks. And, you know, our thoughts on it. We don't need to go too damn deep. But I'm from a hockey perspective, just not sure. I guess the Oilers have some significant injuries with Yanmark and, you know, some of those guys out. But like is he making your team better at this point?

I don't know. I don't know. We just went through a list of NHL players who haven't been on trial who you could probably try and sign. I saw one reaction that blew my mind. I was like, huh, that's an interesting way for a brain to work. They were just like, if you're going to sign one of the five, you should just sign Michael McLeod because he's better. Oh, jeez. I don't think so, man.

That guy's on the road with you. He's in the car next to you. I just want you to know that. Yeah. That's crazy. Listen, we've talked about the five. I know what the judge said. I don't think any of them should be in the league.

I don't think any of them should be playing for the team. and it's not even that they shouldn't be allowed. I just think your team should have enough of a backbone not to sign them. Let me read you an excerpt because again with this story, I just get very annoyed or frustrated with people who read one thing once skimming it while half asleep. And they're like, well, I know everything. odds are you did not read as much about this story as the people who have covered it. You're not informed.

You're not. This is from Rick Westhead's work that came in August of this year, actually from just a little under a month ago, August 12th. Hockey Canada investigators also considered the full contents of a text exchange between, a number of players after they learned of an investigation. At one point, McLeod, as in Michael McLeod, wrote to the group, What should I say if they ask why I took the videos, though? Maxime Comtois responded, Police is not involved in it, just erase them, all the bad video.

McLeod wrote, no, no, this video is her saying she consented. Comtois replied. keep the consent one. That text exchange was redacted and never read into the court record because the police or because police could not prove there was quote unquote bad video,

a person familiar with the matter told TSN. The five accused players have all returned or made attempts to return to pro hockey. So since that story was written, who do we got? Dylan Dubay has a contract. Obviously Carter Hart is a contract. contract.

Nolan Foote returned to North American pro hockey last year. Alex Foremanton has a deal. Michael McLeod, I think, is still in the K. I'm not sure. Yeah, I know what the judge said. Yeah, I do. But Brett Howden had a text exchange with a teammate, and he's like, oh, my God, this guy slapped her so hard.

It was crazy. And the judge was like, yeah, I don't care about that. And then there's this text exchange with. with Maxim Comtois, and again, in court, they were like, yeah, we don't care about that. So real life is not the courtroom. I've read enough material that I don't think these guys should be playing on a national hockey league team.

Frankly, I think that should be your opinion too. Right. And whether you're satisfied with what the judge is determined or not, morally we are all allowed to have our opinion on these people. Like as Adam thinks everybody is a nice guy, I'm allowed to think somebody. Well, not everybody. Not everybody. He's a nice guy.

But blah, blah, blah. I'm allowed to think about people involved in this scenario and be like, yeah, that guy's kind of gross and I don't really like him. And I hope he doesn't play for my team. Yeah. Like that's, I'm allowed to have that free opinion of these people because I've read what they did in that hotel room. I'm like, yeah, that's ugly.

And you know what's crazy? I'm fucking done justifying it. Why am I justifying it? justifying it to these people. Oh, no. I'm not justifying this. So let's move on. I don't think you should be playing. I think it's super weird that the same team keeps doing it.

Yeah, dude. So I was going to say, at the beginning, when they were, when the, was it not guilty or acquitted? I can't remember the exact term. I'm not a lawyer. Whatever it was,

once the ruling was ruled, everyone's like, okay, so now they're going to sign in Edmonton and Vegas. Guess where they are? Yep. Yeah. You didn't need to live up to your reputation. So add a boy on doing it.

Mike Babcock did an interview with Oilers now. I guess he was elk hunting because, of course, he's a... Elk hunting. I'm glad I wasn't the only one. No, no. Okay. Elk hunting. There we go.

Got it. Got it. Now, the Edmonton Journal's website is continuing... just continues to freeze my computer. It's probably because we've made fun of them. You're a few times? Probably, yeah. Well, Hayden, what did you say before the show? I said that they're tracking your IP address. They know you're part of the Toronto media. Yeah, they are. It's crazy. So I'm trying to bring it up here in time. They're sending you propaganda. You want a piss in a sink. You want a piss in a sink right now.

The place everyone should be pissing is in the sink. I literally just opened the Edmont to Journal page and it's freezing my shit again. but Mike Babcock did a, man, why do I want to piss in a sink right now? It's so crazy. I don't know. You should piss on the sink. Tired of hearing about this. Just pissing the sink. Funnily enough, David Staples is the one that wrote this article.

Face to face with another man. Piss in the sink. He said, look up. You can throw it up there. No, but you're face to face with him. The headline is, we just stole everything. Edminton Oilers coach, Mike Babcock, spent the summer thieving, the best ideas from NHL competitors.

He said, the bottom line is, until I'm out there, oh, sorry, that's not the one I want to do. He said, theft is a process. I thought this is interesting. He said, we just stole what he did, speaking of Don Hay from McCamblews at the WHL, and tried to make sure we beat them in the end,

and I think you do that at every level. You just try to grow. And basically what he was saying is, you can't come back into the NHL and go, I did this five years ago, so therefore it'll work today. And I think Oilers fans are, kind of encouraged to hear that because

he said, Babcock said, you have to continue to embrace lifelong learning. You got to continue to grow. Keep reading that part. See, and a huge part. Start there.

You have to continue to embrace lifelong learning and you got to continue to grow. And a huge part of that is the people you hire to be around you push you to be better. Every one of our players, including our leadership group,

know they can grow as players to be better. And that's the challenge for them. I'm slipping into Obama. Okay. They're going to get to know me. I'm going to get to know them, and we're going to try to make each other do better. How's that?

Tell everybody you want change. You want change for America? I want, no. Wait a second, I have free will. I don't have to do that. You do a good Obama. Why would you know what I don't? You just half did it.

Now, I want to warn Oilers fans. Tell Michelle, she looks great today. Oh, Michelle, you look great. How's that? Now, what do we think about Tristan Curry? Michelle, you look like one of the sausages at Bimo Field. Unfrikin believable. No one remembers that one?

Yes, we do. Jesse, go to the injury situation part of the article. please. I want Steve to read another one. Because Matt Savoy and Frederick Anderson are injured so that he was asked on Oilers now. Are we getting Obama to read this? No, we're getting Babcock. Obabcock.

Go ahead. Right there, the highlighted part. Obama cock. There's your episode title. There it is, yeah. We're going to need... This is something he actually said, by the way. We're going to need to bounce back in jars for sure.

Who the fuck is jars? Trustin Jari. Oh. Because it was about Freddie Anderson. We're going to need to bounce back in jars for sure. He's going to do that. Or I'm going to hit him with a crowbar and make him write a list. I added that part.

That's not an actual quote. He's done an unbelievable job this summer with his fitness level. Freddie is going to be ready to go. Isn't. Oh, Freddie isn't going to be ready to go. Thank you, Adam. Gives rookie goalie Devin Levi a real good opportunity, which is good too. And, you know, everyone talks about injuries.

and stuff like that. But all injuries do is give someone else an opportunity. And that's the way I look at it. We're going to find out more about other players. How's that? Now, David Staples gives his take at the bottom of the article. Yeah, yeah. He said, I got to love the way the colorful way Babcock talks.

What NHL teams do in plain sight isn't necessarily stealing. It's open season for their competitors to learn and copy if they can, blah, blah, blah. The key part there is got to love the colorful way Babcock talks. And Jesse said, hey, you go to, yeah, this is what he does. everywhere he goes. I told you guys. Nothing from his failures. I told you guys when he was hired.

A, he is not a stupid hockey mind. No, he's not. And he's charming. Yes. You're going to like this person at the beginning. Most of his mistakes, whatever you want to call them, his misgivings,

his missteps were not made in front of a microphone. He is charming. Oh, no. He's going to have the Oilers Media wrapped around his finger by Halloween. I think not Mark Specter. in the way the question. I think Mark and Ryan Roshog went out

him pretty hard. I feel like he will try, but I feel like they're going to be like, hmm, Adam, if they have, if they're one of the top two teams in the Pacific by Halloween, they'll have friendship bracelets.

Yeah. What are we talking? Well, we would be the same, I guess. But I feel like I look at the, I look at the way Babcock's doing it, and he's running the same playbook he did here in Toronto.

And by the way, I felt for it. And the, It takes years for that veneer to sort of wear away. I'm not talking about the Mitch Martyr stuff that he did or whatever else. I'm talking about rolling Zach Hyman on one knee out on the penalty kill against Patrice Bergeron and expect him to win a face off and for the Leafs to win a playoff series. That's the kind of shit I'm talking about.

That's the kind of shit in Edmonton where I feel like guys, like maybe I'm wrong, often him. But I have seen this movie. and Detroit fans have seen this movie and this guy he's going to come in and the first year's probably going to be great maybe even the second year but I'm telling you

you're going to start to see weird things develop and he will make up his mind and that is the way that it is despite all evidence to the contrary it's not going to change Edmonton does have a habit of fast-tracking things though you never know yeah it is a hot market

or they just win the cup man or they just win the cup I don't know would anyone be shocked if Edmonton won't know because they've got the two best players on the face of the earth. Yeah. They should win.

Zach Hyman. Yeah. Screw that whatever his name is. Ryan, Eugene Hopkins. Screw him. Yes. Anyway, it's going to be a fascinating season there.

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Where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. While others follow the noise, we follow the money. Learn more at Bloomberg.com. On to the Leafs. Actually, no. I just want to mention the draft will go remote again next year. People are upset about that.

It is a bummer. but it is remote again. I like media party day, a.k.a. day two of the draft. Like, we don't get that anymore. You mean where Julian and Dom get out for a few drinks? Where Julian hits the down.

Yeah, listen, I miss Julian hit in the town. Yeah, we don't get that anymore. That's just a personal problem. I just remember being in Nashville, being at a rooftop bar, and recognizing everyone being like, it's 1.30 in the morning. Yeah, and everybody's got to be back tomorrow.

We all have work tomorrow. Yeah. Day one's the party day. It's after round one. Sorry, yes. After round one heading into day two. Jesse and I were there with like maybe 50 people for the day two yesterday. Oh, yeah.

Every reporter returning from day two of the draft is Randy Marsh. Like, uh, they, uh, they do serve for freshmen. Yes. Uh, now, Brandon Carlo was on a podcast, uh, this off season. He talked a little bit about how the, uh, the leadership group for the Leafs, uh, delegated throughout. He said, I think it was more. delegated throughout it. But there were definitely some voices. This is the Camadstrick podcast,

by the way. I felt like Jake McCabe was very well respected within the room and he would speak up quite a bit. Morgan Riley as well. I think he's one of those guys. And Austin, it's so much more, it's more than just when he says something, everybody listens. It's not like he's going to be harping on you every single time. But when he does speak, you know, and the whole room is going to listen. He's your captain, amazing player, amazing person. He's definitely one of those guys. And it goes to, last year when the Leafs were not doing well, as with any team that falls off a cliff unexpectedly, because I really don't think anybody expected that precipitous a fall.

Not that. Maybe you thought, ah, there'll be a wildcard team or something, but not like that, not first overall territory. Roughly where they were in January, I think is what people thought.

Yeah. They were fighting for a playoff spot. Yeah. And then they fell off a cliff. Yes. And one of the things that people said was, uh, Austin Matthews is bad.

He's a shitty captain, blah, blah, That's usually what happens in any market. Like if the bills are bad this year, it'll be probably Josh Allen's fault. Sure. And, you know, they won't be, though. I know who that is. But I think what's interesting about Carlo saying this is that, like, we have to remember Matt Sundeen's captaincy.

And most of you don't. I was just going to say that. Everybody harped on how quiet Matt Sundeen was. And the media often, you'd see it in the newspaper because we used to get those. And they'd be like this Sunday leader, he's nothing like Gilmore, he's nothing like Clark, he's not loud, he's not in your face. Turns out he was, but we in the media were not aware of it. And if you ask the best reporters for the Leafs, most of them will tell you, I simply don't know because they're not in the room. But here's somebody who is.

And I keep saying, and there was that one video last year when they actually won a game in October. And he's like, this is the team we are. Remember they posted that? And I was like, that was the first time I've seen what he might look like. in the dressing room when he talks. Right. I think this guy's actually a good captain. And he could be a great one if the team actually turns it into something.

I mean, he was captain of the American Olympic team. And that team had at least a couple candidates, eh, that you could have made captain. It's funny. Like he dresses like Gilmore and acts like Sundin, at least public facing. That's interesting, yeah. But he has a higher profile than both of them. Like neither of those guys won a heart trophy.

neither of those guys scored 60 goals. He is the best player that's ever put on the jersey. Yeah. Period. End of story. And the expectations come with it. I don't think that's a Toronto thing. If your team has a 60 goal score who then doesn't do that, is your team in trouble or better for it? Some coaches will tell you, probably in trouble.

Some coaches will tell you better for it. John Tortorello would be like, I want to see him block more shots. Yeah. Cool. Hey, he went to the finals last year. You know what? What are you going to say to John Toro? And where it was Austin?

Exactly. He was not there. Also today. Your uncle, shut up. The Leafs had their initial media stuff, which unfortunately Jesse had to miss to be here for this silly show. But John Tavares revealed that Gavin McKenna will live with him, much the way that Easton Cowan did last season,

and said so far he's been very impressed with Gavin McKenna, the way that he carries himself. And that tracks with David Alter, who's one of the only leaf reporters who's actually got the chance to talk to Gavin McKenna one-on-one went to some random event in like Chicago in July.

David Alters had an incredible summer. And McKenna was there and he came on this show and said how great he thought Gavin McKenna was. He's like, I was really impressed. He's 18 years old. This is crazy. I think the fan base

is going to fall in love with him real quick. Yeah. Real quick. Here's the Tavaris quote via Michael Traikos. He's an unbelievable kid. I've been very impressed with how well he carries himself I'm living through it through his eyes again.

I really enjoy whether it was Easton Cowan last year and now Gavin this year, even when Nyes came on board. It's fun to see that enthusiasm, that energy and that excitement. I told John Chica that if whatever they decide to do, I kind of threw my hat in the ring, as in like, does he want to live here? And it worked out that, yeah, he's going to stay with me and my family. And I think that's cool. Like, John Tavares, we've said it on this show forever and ever. He's the best free agent signing they've ever had. and it's not just the performance on the ice.

This guy gave up the captaincy, didn't bitch about it. This guy put in an unbelievable performance. Remember, John DeVars only makes $4.5 million a year or just shy of that. A lot of my never forget. And he's taken rookies in, and he's got, what does he have,

three or four kids too? Like that, I'm sure he has a big house with the money he's made, but my point is like, that's a lot of responsibility this guy has taken on, and his wife. He's integral to the team in so many ways.

He's going to go to the Hall of Fame, fight me about that, and be wrong, be so, so wrong. And, you know, one thing with Gavin McKenna that I saw Frank Carrotto get absolutely shish kebab for

is he said, oh yeah, he's like a 50 point player. And people were like, cool, I'm going to beat you up, Frank Corado, for saying that. Do you know how good 50 points for an 18-year-old rookie is?

It's very hard to do. It's very rare. Yeah. Maclin had 63 in his rookie year. Yeah, and how good's Maclin? Maclin's crazy. Yeah, Austin had more, obviously. But he had 60.

He had like, it was 40 goals and like 25 assists. Yeah, like people, dude, no, if you score. Fadard in his rookie year, 61 points. If you score 50 points as a rookie, you are in the Calder conversation. Yeah. you got to remember not everyone in the Calder conversation is 18 years old. Like these guys are in their 20s. Yeah.

Some of them. They're college graduates. In Panarin went at like 23. 24. Yeah. That's crazy. Right? That's a huge difference.

Yeah. And that's after they put some parameters on it. They stopped having guys winning it in their 30s. Like I think it was Makarov. Sergei Macro. Right. Yes, he did. Right?

Because he was a rookie, but like, that's just the, that's just a, grown taxpayer. Yeah. With like a family. Yeah. And everything. No, 50 points for, I'd be thrilled. I'd be thrilled.

If McKenna goes out there and throws up 20 and 30, awesome. And also, that means he's scoring once every four games. How many teams went out there and signed a free agent who is going to provide them with 50 points? Well, whoever signs Chris Kreider. They.

But it's a lot less money. And he's 18. Yeah, man. Now, if he remains a 50 point player, oh, no. Yeah, they picked wrong. They picked wrong for sure. If he's 25 and doing that, uh-oh, SpaghettiOs, that's a problem. But as a teenager, that's amazing.

That's really, that would be great. Yeah. That would be great. Imagine both him and Cowan give you 20 and 30. Yep. Awesome. Great. Cool.

On John Tavaris, first of all, I'm not missing anything because I'm not in Las Vegas. Oh. where he's doing the NHLPA player media tour. Well, you're not in Las Vegas, are you? I am missing it technically because I'm here and not in Vegas. But I think it is a little bit of a sign just in terms of how important he is to the organization still, that he is the representative for the lease. This is where you're going and you're sending one of your top guys to do, hey, here's the rounds with all of the media. And I'm going to give the quotes for the year.

And John Tavares is still one of the guys. And I feel like everything he's done for this team over the course of signing here is so underappreciated. And it's so above and beyond everything that we already even know. Like he takes in players every single year. The money he's left on the table by signing this $4 million deal is absolutely ridiculous. And then the little stuff like going down and being the representative for the lease at the player media tour, he's such a gem. And he needs to be appreciated. The players don't want to do by the way.

No. And this is a guy who's been to a million of these and has a family and doesn't need to do this. But yeah, he's going to raise his hand and go. He's an absolute beauty. Part of the job description is going down and drawing pictures and playing games with Steve Dangle. Who the hell wants to do that? You got to leave your family to go talk to this. Dingus.

Cool. No, I could be chilling with my wife and three kids, but let me play games with Steve Dangel. Draw a picture of the logo. We'll cut it into an Instagram clip Every once for now. I think John Tomaris wants to do that? Yeah, cool. Let me take a five and a half hour flight

to have this jerk off ask me if aliens exist. Sounds great. Ask me about my kombucha keg. No, hey, that was at the practice facility. Oh, sorry, sorry. Yeah. No, the Henderson one, like, I felt bad.

Every time I was a part of the media day, someone walks in the room, I didn't want to say, hey, my name's Steve. I wanted to go, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You got to deal with me today. I'm sorry. This is so beneath you.

A couple of big other things that we have still not talked about. We will get to Luke Evangelista maybe. I was kind of, but we need to talk about Jesse's guy, Connor Hellebuck, who got absolutely torched on part in the interruption about two weeks ago this summer out of nowhere. I was like, what?

Go to hell. Go to hell, Connor Hellebuck. I think fraud watch is back on. Well, the Jets still have not. not traded him. And CJ kind of pointed this out, and I think this is very, very interesting. He said one key difference with the Connor Hellabuck trade request compared to the others around the NHL is he's willing to waive as no move for a variety of teams. This isn't a, hey, I only want to play for a team if they miss the Stanley Cup by a whisker. It sounds like most of America

is open. I don't know about Canada. But Buffalo was in on that, but then they decided to go a different direction. They don't need him. They don't need him. But he's Connor Hellebuck. They had one of the best team save percentages in the league last year. Yeah. And they have a trio of goaltenders. And they just got rid of a goaltender because they couldn't send them down on waivers, Devin Levi, so they had to give them over to Edmonton. I think they're good.

Saves were scarce in the Montreal series, but they do have a real good thing going on and you don't want to necessarily overreact. That's quite the thing to go from, here's a tandem of like two somewhat promising guys to let's get Connor Hellabom. Yeah. Like, it's quite the jump. It's a completely different strategy. Yes.

Yes. Yeah, great way of putting it. Yep. And I think the, so they had some of the Winnipeg players out for like a media day yesterday. Talk to like DeMello and a few of the other guys. And they all say the same thing. Like we love the guy, you know, don't know if he's going to be here. I'm not going to ask him about it.

I'll just say, how's your summer? But it did, this did kind of all start because Connor Hellebuck started it. And we knew he had asked for a trade in June. We knew that. That was out there. But he put this statement out on August 27th, and it said, Winnipeg has been my whole,

my entire NHL career. I'm grateful. I always be grateful for my time. Several months ago, I privately requested a trade, and I've tried to handle the situation quietly and respectfully, while giving the organization time to explore its options. With training camp approaching, I felt it was important to publicly confirm my request.

My position is not changed, and I believe the best path forward is for me and my family to move on. on. Now, he says he appreciates Jets fans in that too, but like you guys know that. What we talked about yesterday with when you make these requests public is it puts a ton of pressure on the team and actually kind of can devalue the asset themselves. I also think that Connor Hullabuck knows that his general manager who has been the GM the whole time is not exactly known for quick decisive movement. He's known for sitting on his hands. There were years. Kevin Shevolday off didn't make a trade.

But it was like, there was like a did, did Chevy make a trade today? It was like two years. But Kevin Chaville's weird because he'll, he's like a cicada. Like he'll just lay dormant for 17 years and then be like, here's an 11 player trade. Like just drop it in an order. So I think he would make a hell of buck trade. Oh, I think he wants to. But I think part of what he wants back is a goalie that will fill out their tandem.

And I just don't know that they're going to get that. Right. So he wants more than what teams are offering. and Hellebuck just devalued himself. You know what I mean? To try to put pressure on the team. To take less. All it does is make things more awkward for him, I think, going into camp.

Because if he's got to go to camp and play opening night, kind of like Dylan Larkin, you're sort of, well, I mean, I don't think Carter Hellebuck's about to get booed. Adam, that's ridiculous. It's also going to make things awkward for his teammates. Who, like that, who exclusively all TSN ran this morning were clips about Connor Hellebuck. Well, yeah. Of course they did.

But there are other things with the Jets that are important, but Connor Hullabuck is the one that everybody wants to know about. Yeah. But some reporters, if it's just rumors, they'll shy away from it. But putting out the statement, well, green light, everyone go for it, right? It's the number one story heading into this year for Winnipeg. Who'd they draft in the first round? Who cares?

Connor Halebuck. Connor Halebuck. That's what we're talking about. Are we hoping Cole for Fetti takes a step forward? Of course. Cares. Connor Hellebuck. That's the number one story.

I don't think the return's going to be great. It's a goalie. Well, and it didn't get better. No, it didn't. I think they missed their musical chairs moment in early June, or late June, right? When everything was moving. Now, we do know, as we saw today, there's going to be a lot of movement going into training camp, but I still don't think your prices are going to be as high as they maybe perhaps could have been, Jesse.

Oh, totally. Like, they may have missed the perfect window to make the trade where everything's, shuffling in the off season and people actually have cap space because this is something where you're going to have to give up significant money off of your roster unless you're one of the lesser teams where they have a lot of cap space already and like Connor Hellebuck doesn't want to go there. I assume he wants to go to a winning situation unless he's just willing to go to a team that's not really contending and then hopefully turn it around in a couple of years. But to

me like we're we're looking at Connor Hellebuck's career as a whole now and I think the PTI guys had a really good point. He's a large reason that they have. haven't been successful in the playoffs. He's been unbelievable in the regular season. Yes. No doubts about that. Especially the season where you called him out. Yes.

And he won the Vesna and Hart. And Hart. And I think it's three Vesna Trophy. And Hart. A Hart trophy. He's been unreal. But like they finally squirt through in that first round from that Vesna heart trophy season.

Then they flame out in the second round. And that's kind of been it for the last few bit years. And in terms of playoff performances. He hasn't been that Vesna Trophy winner in. the playoffs. So if he goes to another team and they also don't have playoff success, then he's a fraud forever. Is that not what it is?

Yeah. Well, because it's not the Jets's fault and the guys in front of you if you go to another team that's also supposed to be a contender and then you show up again and fail in the playoffs. I'll tell you what shocked me about the PTI thing is I thought winning a gold medal bought you a little bit more than that. I thought I was just shocked that they're because essentially what they're doing is they're going to bat heavy for Winnipeg Jets fans. And yeah, American media are known for doing.

Right. Going to bat for Canadians. And being like, yeah, the gold medal, you know, whatever, that's its own thing. You've been a playoff choker. Go to hell. God, we're so coddled up here, dude. To make it this. I understand that.

reaction because guys usually don't release memos to the public about like, I want out of here. That's a reaction. Like, go to hell. Like, what are you talking about? I don't know. Yeah, but we'd never do that up. You have to ask if this is going to make players hesitant to sign in the United States. Sorry, did that sound stupid?

Interesting. Elvis Mersleekins in Columbus will not be ready for the start of camp. And Adam Fantilli is on record saying, where, sorry, not Adam Fantelli. Don Waddell said, we're going to add a goalie to at some point along with Fantelli, meaning the Fantelli extension, which needs to get done. Why is that taking so long? I don't know.

There's an outrageous amount of business that still needs to be done. Columbus would be a very interesting landing spot for him. They just missed the playoffs a couple years in a row there. And that, you know, with Zach Rowinsky, and he did want to leave, and then got cold feet and now doesn't, you have to look at that if you're Don Waddell and go, okay, if I don't go out and get a guy like a Connor Hullabuck, Zach Rowinsky could always change his mind again.

Maybe we don't foresee that coming or maybe it's not likely or whatever. But I can guarantee you, if the Columbus Blue Jackets sucked this year, that will be a question again. Jet Graves is part of a package. Phoenix Copley is also there too. I don't think you're trading him. I don't think the Jets are like, give me some Phoenix Pli. No, yeah, that'll get it across the finish line.

What are we doing? but yeah like maybe there's something there and if merzleikins misses a good chunk of the year or he misses the year the caps a wash he makes like five something I think hella bucks at what seven something is he eight okay so then he cares

three million bucks is there something like a jet grieves Kent Johnson draft picks for hellabuck I think you'd be lucky to get that if you're the jets goalies go for nothing nothing I know he's the best goalie

but they go for nothing. I think that's a really good destination. Jesse's on to something. I'm trying to think of the highest price a goalie has gone for in a trade in recent memory. A couple picks.

Like the Hildeby trade was... Honestly? Holy shit. Disappointing. The wall trade was a milanre plus Benoit, or Wall and Benoit for a milandre

and whatever. Like I'm going back to 10 years to like the Leafs getting Frederick Anderson from the Ducks. And that was like a first and a second. That's a lot. Yeah, but the first was like 30 first overall. So two seconds.

Or something. Yeah. Like it was, it was, you don't get a lot for goalies, man. And what? This guy won the hook. It doesn't matter.

No. Doesn't matter. Go look at what the Montreal Canadians got for Patrick Waugh. Go look at that. Yeah, they weirdly weren't good for a while after that. It's really difficult to have a knockout of the park goalie trade. Yeah. You just don't see it.

The Hildebee trade was sending Hildeby a third and a fourth for Nick Paul. So that's like a player with reduced value in Nick Paul, who essentially in the new cap environment plays for free. 3.1, yeah. Yeah, for a backup goalie, a third and a fourth. I mean, the jari-stuart-Skitter deal happened last year. Oh, yes. And then what were, like, the Blackwood and Wedgwood deals, I would take a look at, although neither were, like, when they got to Colorado.

This is marginal. It was margin. They were marginal deals, but they turned into great players. Goalie trades also very often involve a goalie, right? Which is why I'm showing. Jetgreaves. That's why the Jetgreaves thing is. Yeah, Adam.

Like, even, like, it was Wedgwood or Blackwood involved Eustace andon. I think it was Wedgwood. Yeah, it usually involves a goalie. Even the Ascroft deal, what was that? Was that a first? Was there even a first involved? It was a very late first or like a former first. Right.

And that's also a, like how old was he 20? Yeah. Like that, that's a great point. Like that I would consider the high end of what you're going to get for a goalie. And they might be kept up a goalie. It was Magnus Crona going to the Nashville Predators. Magnus Crona and what? and a first?

And David Endstrom and a first round pick that was originally Vegas. So Edstrom's a late first. Yes. And then going back the other way was a third, Nolan Burke and Ascaroff. Got it. So that is, I think, at the high end, what you get for a goalie. And then when you're comparing, like, they also had to swap these prospects here. They had to swap a first for a third.

It's not like that much for Ascarov. And let me say this. Columbus does not need the second round. They need the playoffs. Yeah. And Connor Hallibuck can get you the playoffs. What he does in the playoffs, who cares? Right?

Like, listen, I mean, if you're a Blue Jackets fan, you care. But they have been to the second round once in their entire history. It's almost 30 years. Like, you've got to get to the playoffs this year. Werenski almost left. Fantilli's extension's not done. You've got to do this. And another team that I would hope at least made the phone call would be the San Jose Sharks.

because, listen, no disrespect to Ascarov, who I still think they totally believe in, but they signed like Ilya Sampsonov yesterday. They have a wild amount of goalies going to camp. Well, their goal setting was awful. I'm sure they're capped out for it, but like, I think if you bring in Truba, Nurse, and Halibuk, it's a very different back end than you had last year. Nadelkovich, Ascarov, and Comrie. So can you, Ascarov was an 884?

Comrie was already once a jet. Huh? You need to, that'd be a great spot. It's weird. Like, we're not yet at a point where, uh, even though the sharks have this promising young team in a bunch of cap space, everyone's like, oh, yeah. Like, they're not in a lot of these conversations where we're like, that's an obvious destination. Like, you know, a lot of teams have Canada on their no trade list, but it's still California also. Yeah. Very high taxes. Sanos, ah, I mean, that, I don't know you might even say. That'd be a good destination. Columbus, like you said, I mean, who doesn't want a Vezna contending goalie? I know he wasn't very good last year.

The Jets were bad. That, okay, listen, nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody wanted to say it at the time. That Tay signing was a disaster. Yeah, but we knew that from day one. That's it, and everybody, like, I know it was feel good. Total disaster. Five million dollars base.

They're signing up. Oh, okay. Five million. Ooh, that's too much. We think he's going to be our two-seat. Okay, yeah, you're on drugs. Yeah, no, you're on drugs. You're on hard drugs.

And he was forced to be two-see, if I remember correctly, because of injuries. Yeah, like, that wasn't the plan? But it was an injury they knew they had. No, no, it was, it was, wasn't it Lowry? Yes. Who was, and we were all like, what's the illusion here? He hasn't played hockey in three years. And you're going to, you're going to have him be your two-see?

Guy, I know this is Jonathan. Taves, but like, he wasn't even Jonathan Taves by the end of him being Jonathan Taves. Right. And now he's three years removed from that? All right. It's a miracle they didn't finish last. It's a testament to some of the guys that Shifley had an unbelievable year that not a soul cared about. Barely sniffed the Olympic conversation.

You know, interesting situation, Winnipeg that Halebuck, frankly, did not make better with statement. Yeah, no. I want to see what he does in the next place. It's $8.5 million, by the way, what he's making. It's going to be crazy

when he wins a cup in Vegas. Four more years under that contract. Oh, man, do they trade Aden Hill to the Winnipeg Jets? That's going to be crazy.

Yeah, it was crazy. Last thing, Sends may announce Tim Stutzel as captain. Obviously, they wouldn't say it yesterday, but when they talked to the media. But I thought it was interesting

that Brad Marchand, who left surgery to too late in the year and now is going to start the year late was on social media making fun of him for it. And Stutzel, it was weird. When he was talking about it, he was like, yeah, like, no, I still respect him as a player.

It's like, you don't need to say that. You don't have to say, he's not going to say that about you. Like, I know Stutz has tried to be like a cap or whatever, but like Brad Marshane is not going to be like, I respect you as a player. He's chirping, you trip back. Give him some of it back. And this is all under the guise of,

because obviously, with Winnipeg, everybody wants to talk about Hellebuck. Yesterday, who did they want to talk about in Ottawa? Brady Kachuk. Naturally. And what's that like? And how is that going to be? And some of the guys were like, I think Thomas Shabbat had a really good answer.

He was like, you know, we wish he was here. But he's not. We're going to go forward with the guys that are. And I do think some of the answers sort of hinted at, we knew he wanted out and we wanted him out because finally this can end and we can move on with our lives, right? Do you think Tim Stutzel will be a good captain of the Ottawa senators? because I think that's what's going to happen.

It's an interesting picture into what the senators are because I would say outwardly he doesn't really present that way. You know what I mean? And like I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, but like I think of the guys who have been there longer, like at Tom Shabbat. Yep. I think about a guy who has an incredibly high profile in the sport

and Jake Sanderson, right? I thought it might have been those guys. But Stutzelah is signed to a sparkling deal. He's arguably their most entertaining player. 83 points last year. He's very productive. Maybe he has the highest ceiling out of anybody. Yeah, it's as good a pick as any.

But I do think it's interesting that, you know, one thing, Lee fans, we're going to help you out Ottawa fans right here. One thing Leaf fans got to know about Florida, when the Panthers beat the Leafs in 2025, remember how weird the post-defeat victory lap in the media was? That was odd. Oh, yeah, well, because they knew Marner was leaving

and they were saying Toronto sucks to play in and they're too hard on Marner and it's not his fault. The Florida Panthers are ahead of the curve on something. And that is that competition doesn't end at the final horn. they waged like a media war against the Leafs. And I'm not saying that... Especially after the games were over and the Leafs couldn't respond. Yeah.

And I'm not saying... Well, and like, what are you going to say after you lose a Game 7 like that? 100% jerseys on the ice you get in booed. What is there to say? And the Panthers went, actually, there's quite a few things. And just turn the knife. They're already rattling the cage. And Martian, you know, you were talking about the surgery.

Oh, I can't start the season on time. how can I contribute? Book. That's a divisional rival. Yep. They already don't like us because of the Brady stuff. They didn't like us

before the Brady stuff. Book. Yeah. It's competition, especially for a team that plays the way that they do. They don't exactly win games by being your best friend.

They are waging psychological warfare. Psychological warfare. And honestly, we should all. be here for it. Didn't they say that about Ali and Tyson too? Like they'd beat you before they'd even stepped in the ring.

Like it was just because they were constantly going, right? It's a contact sport with an 84 game season. We don't spend enough time on that. That's insane. That's completely insane. And two weeks or two months of playoffs. And then you read and some guys, oh yeah, he's entering his 23rd season. What do you mean?

Yep. What do you mean he's played 1,500, Contact sport games. Plus another 200 in the playoffs. What are you talking about? Yeah. Hockey's insane. Jesse.

I think they're missing, and he was suspiciously, I did not see him come up on SportsCenter this morning. Maybe he was interviewed. To me, the entire Senator's season does not hinge on how Zetterlin bounces back or Eklon fits in. It's about Linus Allmark. It's A, B, and C.

I think where we left off last season was. was the old Linus was there and that he had a fantastic playoff against the hurricanes. And you can't win a game where you can't score goals. And the Ottawa senators completely fumbled a lot of opportunities to score some goals against the hurricanes, especially when they had five on three advantages in that series. And I don't point to Linus Allmark as a reason that they failed in the playoffs. Maybe if they have a better position in the standings and they finish a little higher in the regular season, and if he's there and playing well throughout the regular season,

they finish a little higher. They don't have to face the hurricanes right away, and they have an easier matchup. Who knows? But I think you left that season, that playoff elimination with a good taste in your mouth about Allmark. So hopefully he's just able to build on that starting this year. I was just looking, you know,

everyone else can pick up their socks a little bit too. Allmark had a 28, 12, and 8 record with an 8-91, which is remarkable. It's also remarkable he got up to an 899. I'd like to see his numbers from February. Yeah. Yeah. Those are probably like through the roof.

That was Vesna Linus. By the way, the senators also, you know, if you look at that playoff series, they cut the deadweight, right? They cut their worst player who now plays for their divisional rival. He was brutal. He was brutal. Spin it positively, folks. I don't know why the senators haven't done this yet. They're their worst player.

You mean Brady good job? Their least productive player who was. useless in the series. No, Adam, in his defense, he got injured because he had a staged fight with one of the oldest players in the league and lost. Yeah, that was odd.

Did he get injured in that fight? Is that confirmed? Or was he just bad? He got KTFO? I know that, but is that where he got injured? Or was he injured after that? Do we know that? Well, he began the season injured.

Yeah. I believe. But he played in the Olympics and stuff. He was bad. man. And if you had given his ice time to anybody else, something better could have happened. He was brutal on those four days.

Can I give you guys two things about the goalie situation? Please. One, Allmark was out from December 27th to January 31st. Upon his return on January 31st through the end of the season, he played 21 games. He had a 14-4 and 3 record with a 904 saver. Man, look at that. That is a crazy record.

Fantastic. And an assist. Buddy. And an assist. If he has a season like that, they could win the division. Exactly. So that's what you're hoping. My other caveat, though, with the goaltender situation, when Allmark isn't in, the guy that they are relying on is Sam Erson, who might be the worst regular NHL goaltender in the league right now.

He could bounce back to, you know, what he was a couple years ago. No, you had to give him a raise. But, well, yeah, that was wild. But the Sends, so I was just looking this up, got more points. out of their non-Lenasal Margoleys, then I thought. Yeah, because James Reimer won a few games. James Reimer straight up saved their season.

Yeah. So he was 7-4-2, which isn't an incredible record, but it's adequate for your backup. 886 save percentage. Now, what do you mean 886 saved the season? Brother. Hunter Shepard played one game,

had an 833. That's just one game. Mad Sogarde played two games, had an 833. Oh, that's just two games. Wow. Levy, Maryland had an 860 flat, played 20 games. So 19 results.

So he played in 20 games. 19 of them ended in a result that got attached to Maralinen's name. How many did he win with an 860? 860, 19. 7? 8. Hey. That was higher than I thought.

8, 10 and 1. Dude, that's crazy. That's why everyone was like, if the Sends get goaltending, they might win the cup. That's why people were talking about them that way. I mean, I picked them to win the first round

because of that hot. Same here. You're down 1-0 at opening puck drop with an 860. Ew! That's so garbage. Not a good handicap. Nope.

No, that's terrible. So, like, he might, who knows, like, Erson could be great for them. Yeah. Or whatever. Marilyn and most teams end up having to use their third goalie.

Like Maryland is probably going to have to play games for you. He was fine a couple years ago. So if he bounces back too. Yeah. I just need Linus to not start camp. Even if he is feeling this way, don't start camp with it's the worst day in camp I've ever had. Don't do that to Senators fans again. That's not fair.

No. Just keep it to yourself. You're talking about an 860? Can I raise you an 856? through the first 24 games of the season in terms of his starts last year, Samerson was 8, 11, and 5 with an 8.56 save percentage. Brother. The lease got a draft back for that guy. Yeah, they acquired him in the Emil Andre trade.

And then they flipped him to Ottawa because Ottawa was like, that's our guy. And he took a penalty. What the hell was the penalty for? Being bad. What? Yeah, two minutes for bad. Rick Toggett probably said, please, just penalize him. Now, the second half of the season was better because Philly turned it on and he was a little better.

Yeah. But that start is just so bad. Brutal. That's a fascinating one. It is crazy. Whoever's in charge of goaltending in Ottawa, get ready for a raise if that shit works out. Two teams that if they had just been more consistent throughout the year last year would have, I think would have surprised a lot of people, Philadelphia and Ottawa. Like Philly legit in a bad division-ish.

had a flippant great second half. Sen should have won the division. Sen should have won the Atlantic Division. If they got league average goaltending. Yep. It's going to be fascinating. They will be a fascinating team this year. True.

Yeah, either way it goes. It's interesting. Anyway, so we'll leave it there because I think we did everything on the list. Yep, nothing. Nothing. We left nothing on the table. Yeah, yeah.

So I'm sure everybody who made a comment about the stories that we missed yesterday will be satisfied with the stories that we went with today. Definitely. What do you think of the devil's forward group? To be honest with you, kind of bored.

Wow. The Steve Dangle podcast. Follow the guys on Twitter. At Steve underscore Dangle at Adam W Y, L-D-E. And at Jesse Blake. Connection complete. This family is on the brink of civil war.

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