The Steve Dangle Podcast - Luke Fox | August 28, 2018

Episode Date: August 29, 2018

On this episode, Luke Fox (@LukeFoxJukeBox) is here! and he heard Seguin say he was disappointed today (00:00), when's the Karlsson trade happening? (14:00), McDavid wants to score more goals (19:30), Max Pacioretty's golf tournament (38:00), Auston Matthews' next contract, 4th line centre, Nylander, the goalie situation and the rest of the Leafs story lines (50:00), OHL teams are telling players to stop playing Fortnite (1:22:00), Brodeur left the Blues (1:29:00), and the Leafs hire Noelle Needham & Hayley Wickenheiser (1:42:00). Originally aired: August 28, 2018 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/fMcBQXwUObg Merch: https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/fancydangleshirts Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Subscribe to us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/steve-dangle-podcast/id669828195?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Panago Pizza presents S.D.P. The Steve Dangle Podcast with your hosts, Steve Dangle and Adam Wilde. It's that part of the year where we kind of start to feel like, OK, now I'm ready. I'm ready to get back. Man, that was me three weeks ago. Well, yeah, because you were watching Austin Matthews highlights on like the August long weekend, like a maniac. Did you see that goalie scored at a charity tournament?

I'm jacked. I'm jacked. He's going to do that to NHL goalies. Shirty tournaments are just like NHL games. That's how it works. It's the same. He's also wearing a C like he might do in the NHL. Be still, but not this year. Not this year. We'd like to welcome a guest to the show.

Obviously, if you've downloaded it, it's probably the title of the show. You already know that he's here, but I'm going to introduce him anyway. Mr. Luke Fox, thank you so much for coming in. Thanks for having me, gentlemen. We have this huge audience that are all applauding you right now. Just crazy. You provided me with coffee, which is nice. Yeah, well, we do our best.

We want to make our guests feel welcome. We're great guys. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. We're really nice. you had an eventful day you had a big day yeah i did yeah like bio steel camp which you know because we're doing uh i'm filling in for jeff blair with ashley dogging this week on the fan and we're getting like jordan suban and uh we talked to davante smith pelly today and you were talking to tyler sagan when he announced that he was disappointed that his extension hasn't been

signed yet with dallas yeah that's a big moment well it was all all the reporters who were in the scrum who weren't many because uh well i understand we have like two and a half four hours so i'll tell you the story originally he wasn't supposed to talk today uh he was supposed to talk tomorrow okay and then last and i this is the conspiracy conspiracy theorist in me well we're like alex jones of hockey so go ahead go on for it so just go ahead kipper tweeted last night that they're at a stalemate in negotiations, the Stars and Sagan. So then the PR guy at BioSteel said,

okay, he's going to talk today. He wants to talk today. All right, change of plans. These things happen. And then he came back and said, no, he's not going to. He's got a thing. And then all of a sudden he walks in.

He's like, okay, yeah, he is going to. So his availability changed like three times over the course of an hour. And right away he was asked about his contract. and four times he used the word disappointed, that nothing's done. And, you know, he answered, you know, he kind of avoided getting into specifics, but he did say there was a conversation around the draft, but it sounded like just a very informal touch-based conversation.

And then silence. Yeah, nothing. And when you look back, you know, two summers ago, Jamie Benn, their other franchise forward, It only took him until July 16th of the summer prior to his contract year to knock it out of the park within eight years. You know, I forget that.

Nine and a half per. Nine and a half per, yeah. Is it? It's a big one. And that was two summers ago. So nine and a half at that time was even bigger, right? So I wonder if he's, you know, him announcing in front of Sportsnet

and some other networks cameras that he's disappointed if he's just kind of giving Jim Nill a little poke, you know, and saying, let's, let's get things going here. Or if maybe he's really a bit, you know, maybe he's caught some feelings and feeling a little bit bad because the stars were all over the John Tavares, you know, they were all, they're right there in the mix for Eric Carlson and have been all summer reportedly. And he's their best forward franchise,

top line center, and he's not getting conversation or traction on, his extension. I wonder if maybe he's kind of like, where do I really stand here? Where's the love? You've got a guy. Yeah, you've got a guy. Now, in saying that, he said that it looks great on the organization that

they're in the mix for these superstar players. You look at Dallas' track record. They went out and got Alex Radulov. They don't sit on their hands in the offseason. They're very aggressive. But I looked it up. I think he's played seven playoff games

since he's been there and he's been there five years and he's played 42 playoff games in just three years with Boston. So he's also like

I mean that's not his fault. It's not his fault at all. I mean their goal is terrible. But you got to understand how competitive these guys are. Especially guys who are

like right at the top. You know McDavid it's still eating at him. Their Oilers last season. So there's that out. You can tell on everything

he says yeah so there's that element too right he's a competitive guy so he wants to win but then tack on that maybe he feels like he hasn't been getting enough respect in the in the negotiations room you know well so i wonder about that you know i'm trying to figure figure out from jim nill's perspective why you would do that and i wonder if he's kind of going okay i don't want to have the say again conversation until i figure out taveras okay we lost taveras i don't want to have the sega in conversation until we figure out the carlson trade slash extension because if you you figure if you're going to do that trade uh you're going to have to figure out an extension too unless like i mean i can't see them taking on the bobby ryan contract so they're going to

be giving up a lot and then they're going to have to commit to eric carlson if you give up that much you're you're going to have to do that so maybe the whole reason is that he's been trying to get these other guys get them figured out first because you got to deal with the biggest fire in front of you. However, isn't that a phone call you make and go, listen, Tyler,

we know that you're great and I just want you to know that we're trying to surround you with more stars. We'll pick this up. It's the dog days of August, guys. Like, gimme up. Do you not have to

get a move on? Is that not what you would want from a manager? I would hope. I would hope. But there's, I don't know, it's like a cat and mouse game,

right? And there's still, like, I think it's over 10 months until he's actually UFA. and I think Neil has a sense you know and I think

we all got that sense today that he does like Dallas you know he loves having Jamie Benn as his winger

like you know and I think it feels good knowing that A. they have money you know B. there's that

whole tax thing which probably gets talked about a bit too much but they have they're a stable organization

especially for a Sunbelt team and Every summer, they are actively trying to make that team better. I think he likes those signs. It's interesting. I just love this stuff because it was around this time where we started talking about Tavares.

We're going to have to go through that whole timeline with you. No, no, no. But your mind automatically thinks, it's hard to picture him in any other sweater, right? Not anymore. yeah once things turn and the fact that Tavares actually went through with it you know maybe he broke

the mold and maybe other guys are like you know I'd like to sit in a room and have you know five or six of my favorite teams or teams I think I can win with you know make powerpoint presentations does it signal a change?

well I was thinking if you're like forget Tyler Sagan like I think what John Tavares showed is players can control their own destiny so if you're Jim Nill you got to be the one sweating like

you're not going to be caught in the same position you're not going to lose him for nothing so if you can't get something done you're going to trade this guy and say again

who loves Dallas maybe realizes that and I wonder if that's what's making him nervous he doesn't want to get traded somewhere in February yeah I mean even Ottawa's not going

to make the Garth Snow mistake right right they're going to trade I mean they might no they're going to trade it it might not be before camp I kind of think

it will but it'll be before the deadline like they're not going to be that foolish I mean if I were to

cap an over-under on that Ottawa is the team I pick to be that foolish it is you were going to say something

at some point I was going to ask do you think Dallas should be worried that Sagan's value is going to go up

to start the season because won't it be Sagan Ben Radulov now on that first line I think it was last year it was last year

oh last year yeah it's gonna be that same first line he scored what 40 goals last year I mean they have a new coach maybe he wants

to try a different tactic than stacking the one ridiculous power line like that was Dallas's biggest downfall probably was

there's no depth behind those guys if you could limit or contain or shut down that top line or sorry

shut down all the other three lines then if you know that line scored a couple goals on you you could still

win the game now the other thing is Spezza finally comes off the books so there will be enough money to get Sagan done and it's going to be double digits for sure oh I would think so he's going to be 27

I think Tavares is a pretty nice comparable in terms of centerman 27 years old top of his game yeah maybe a little bit more if the cap keeps going up it's another summer. I don't know.

Damn. The other thing, I never really feel sorry for these guys because they live the dream, they make tons of money, but he hasn't been very far in the playoffs since he got to Dallas.

He was one of those guys that would have been a star for Team Canada in the Olympics they skipped. That was his chance to make the Olympic team. A year ago, i talked to him about it and he was really bummed about that like because he was just coming in into his prime and he would have made that team those players that make that team i want that's a good

sales pitch for them like that's a big marketing opportunity missed if you're especially if your contract expiring in a couple years right like you there's the it's it's funny it's it's like a an all-star game that they care about and they're playing with other all-stars and you really get to see them fly even the world cup was a great like when we what we had no idea what austin matthews was going to be right when we when when he was playing with mcdavid though was like i was absolutely stunned it was like a relief like okay everything's going to be okay because what the the initial prognosis was going to be well it'll take him a couple years to adjust to the game i thought he was going to be like nz kopitar remember i kept saying that i'm like ah he'll float around

20 goals a year probably be a playmaker defense uh defensively responsible nope 40 goals a year and and that's the i feel like for for sega and this probably doesn't happen if they go to the olympics like it's probably he's probably an all-star standout at the olympics probably if he's not the top line guy you know he's right behind sydney crosby and he gets or he plays with sydney crosby whatever they can have the whole team be centerman it doesn't matter um you know i wonder if i wonder if that's part of it too if they get a little bit like that as a player that's why i want to go back other than you know the ability to play for your country see now you got me thinking because the wheels are turning because this is this is strange right it's a little bit

strange that there appears to be a lack of communication. Sagan wants to get it done. The Stars... And he was very like he wanted to put that message out there. That's... Yeah, for sure he did. That's the sense I got. Spezza coming off the books is something I had forgotten.

Are they one of the teams that could potentially finagle a little Carlson and Ryan thing? I would have to crunch the numbers, but I would think so. The one thing that I don't think ever gets talked about when they talk about the Ryan thing

and I agree that for Ottawa to maximize the Carlson return they should stop trying to tie him to it is when Bobby Ryan is healthy he's a really good player still he's not this massive anchor that can't play

he's actually really dynamic just pat up those hands and stop getting hurt how many broken fingers was it or something like that? No, too many. No, that was brutal with him. But now I'm going, okay, what if there is something in the works?

Because you mentioned, so you think Carlson's going to get traded before camp, potentially? I think it would be in the best interest of everyone. Right. And if I had to make a bet, I think so. But by the same token, right, Dorian can't lose this deal. He can't look like a, I mean. I don't know if he's got a choice, man. He's the face of the franchise.

He's got a, you know, if he pulls a Joe Sackick and waits a month and a half and gets a nice return, he's got to get a first rounder plus plus, right? I mean, yeah, the example of what to do happened to you. So, yeah, maybe you should wait. But it's just amazing to me that, you know, a little over two weeks from now, like a little over two weeks, that's all we got. and potentially this pipe bomb could go off that just turns the NHL on its head.

Whoever gets Carlson, that changes the makeup of that team's division entirely, depending on who that team is. So how do the Leafs get them? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Okay, if Tampa gets them, they're probably already favored to win the division.

Forget it. They win. They win the division. End of story. Who else in the league is a team that's already going to make the playoffs? They got Carlson. They win their division.

Vegas. I guess yeah Vegas free yeah they've been too quiet I don't trust

them they're another team low key I thought that Stasny pickup for them was pretty good

like that's not a bad pickup at all I thought the Tatar pickup was pretty good I think they only gave him

three years Stasny I thought it was one of the best moves on July 1 not a bad deal at all

you got the wheels turning I think Dallas could maybe do this I'd like to see Spezza go back to

Ottawa I was thinking that like go back It's like Carlson Spetses. It makes some financial sense. Yeah. I'm just saying.

And then you bring back a fan favorite who people love. And Dallas is one of those teams, they're kind of like Ottawa, where they could be really good and still not make the playoffs. Like Ottawa last year, we thought was going to be good. They thought they were going to be good. They pick up a Matt Duchesne, and Colorado probably hopes, oh, this pickle, it'll be somewhere in the 20s, right? And next year, it's going to be a lottery pick.

Probably. I don't think we'll ever see a GM not lottery protect. Again. Really? How did they not do that? But that's the thing. If I'm trading Carlson, I want it to be to a team that at least I feel like maybe they won't make the playoff.

Maybe they're on the cusp. Maybe some things could go south for them. Did Dallas make the playoffs? No, I don't think they did. So obviously you would expect that if Eric Carlson's in the lineup for Dallas, They're making the playoffs But just in case The goal tend to go south

On them again There's a chance That that pick moves up A little bit Right You don't want to trade it To a bona fide contender And you know you're going to

Get the 31st pick Like ugh Ugh You just got to do What like Tampa did And be like Alright if we win the cup You get something else

Yeah Yeah Maybe in the next year's First round or something like that I don't know Noted Carlson destination Tampa I don't know how they're

Going to fit him in I don't get it Well see okay For every team Like Dallas is a good example I think We talk about Carlson Like if he resigns

I don't think Tampa cares Like Tampa If they get him Go for it buddy Like that's That's your shot To win the cup

It's like the Caps Getting Shattenkirk It didn't work out for them But they shot their shot And ironically Won it the next year But like I couldn't Blame them for that rental

And I wouldn't blame Tampa for any rental I just think There would be a discussion Of okay We'll let you talk to him About resigning and if he agrees in principle,

then maybe we'll give you a little extra. Like, in order to maximize your return, I think maybe those conversations are had. Isn't it interesting? Oh, sorry, go ahead. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes. Yeah.

Like, Ottawa would get more back from him if the team knows that they're going to get him for eight years, not one. Absolutely. Like, yeah, you, and I just think, I think that's probably what's holding this up, though, is there are probably lots of teams that put together all these cool offers, but they don't have a, will we get this guy?

And, you know, you may be, you look at what you're giving Ottawa, and you go, yeah, I can stomach this if he stays. Yeah. If he doesn't stay, can you still stomach it? And I'm sure the answer in pretty much every case so far has been no. Right. But what's interesting to me is this Biosteel Camp, right? So it's one of these events.

Biosteel Camp and Smashfest kind of started around the same time, within a year or two of each other. And now there are these like, almost like, how do I even say it? Like calendar moments in summer hockey for when players can release stuff and say stuff and cause a stir. well they're available so little right they're in wherever they're traveling they're hanging out

with their families and also reporters kind of also after the finals not the final after free agency's done they kind of peace out for a while too so it's like alright finally here's like an availability with you know a dozen guys maybe

one will create some news well both of the events though you had two Nylander tweets that I think were like around a thousand retweets or something like that from Smash Fest.

Well, I think it's because I got the dangle bump. That's a big one. I got the dangle bump. I think I literally have 400 followers, so. But then there was this second thing.

So it's just interesting. Like, there are these events that are like, you know, Biostill Camp. I didn't even know it was happening. But like,

next year, like, I want to be at that thing. Like, I want to be because, I don't know, Something might pop off. Sagan might say something. Is that all he said?

Because you said he was like silent and awkwardly quiet after. Well, he was asked, would you negotiate in season? And he said, I don't know. I didn't even expect to be where we are now. I expected to come to BioSteel and have some good news to share with you. Oh, wow. That's very parental. And there was another question about, you know,

could you envision yourself going the Tavares route and exploring to see what's on the other side of the curtain? And he's like, I just envision going to Dallas and trying my hardest, and I got one year there, and I'm going to give it my all. Dallas is home. Let's get Dallas is home. Let's win.

He said he envisioned going on deep playoff runs in Dallas, and I think they've won one playoff series since he's been there. the Islanders won one playoff series in the John Tavares era so it was definitely Sagan's agent

who tipped off Kipper to tweet that out a day before BioSteel hey it was it was beautifully executed

beautifully executed because here we are talking about and I'm looking at his number 575 if we went into LTIR protection

he'd be a pretty good fourth line center for the Leafs that's all I'm saying or you just put him on right D alright second for

Levo there you go do it put him fourth line left wing Connor McDavid you said earlier

you mentioned this that he seems stung yes I've talked to him twice in small scrums

this summer and this was the first one was at the Power Edge camp up at Scotiabank

arena I don't know or Scotiabank pond it's up it's up at down's view it's a small small ring and it was another like biosteel was a skills focused mini camp with nhlers from various teams mcdavid being um the kind of the de facto face of this thing. I think it was like a three day camp

and Dylan Larkin was there Jack Hughes and Quinn Hughes were there. It was pretty cool watching three on three. It was Scott Lawton, Connor Brown and Connor McDavid versus Larkin and the Hughes brothers three on three and like half

ice. It's just mesmerizing. When no one's hitting, it's just skills. They're just trying to score and it was yeah it's a treat and there's like

40 people in the whole rink how did the Hughes boys look oh man really good yeah really good I mean it's under different circumstances right

you don't have Brooks Orpik trying to run them into the boards right take out their ankles it's all it's all skills

but yeah Jack Hughes looks really good amazing and Alex Debrinket said

unprompted that he he reminded him of Connor I was like how did he look out there and he's like kind of reminds me of Connor yeah

wow yeah so yeah no Jack Hughes is going to be the I just need to sorry

that's a guy we could have drafted anyway I think I got this so yes McDavid

so that was a really small scrum and it was myself and I think Mike Zeisberger

and Mike Tricost were the only ones there if I recall correctly and we had McDavid for a good I don't know

eight to ten minutes or so just the three of us and yeah he just he just seems very intense for a guy who just came back

from Europe and should be chilled yeah well I mean they had a bad season but like his whole life he's not

accustomed to losing all he does like all he does is win right have you seen that short clip of him coming off the ice when he was still with the Otters and the second he crosses

the threshold of the locker room he just goes fuck as loud as he possibly can yeah and so I think it's like

that last season really aided him and he said that it's basically a tie from like the worst hockey seasons of his life

or most maybe not worst but like most frustrating probably with his first NHL season would be the one where he hurt himself

right clavicle clavicle yeah clavicle missed 40 games yeah that one

because the frustration with dealing with the injury and it you know essentially cost him the calder and this most recent one and he's kind of like

we need to shape up and Darnell Nurse said something interesting. He said that hunger was an issue and it's rare to see guys admit that which it's not a skill thing there. There's still

something off about the culture in that Oilers room and McDavid's been really big on some of the veterans they brought in I asked him about Scotty Upshaw that was weird how he was like jacked that oh he signed him to a tryout yeah and he was also

jacked about Kyle Brodziak and he's like both the guys he's like these are veterans that they work hard we need that we need more of that and that's interesting and it's kind of one of those things like unless you're there in the moment you don't might not be able to pick up on

but I think yes he's the captain but I think he's like I need more guys helping set an example in there. He didn't say that, but that's what I read. That's interesting. Well, it did seem to like, they did sort of underperform their skill. I mean, they were going in the last season, the Vegas favorites

to win the cup. It's not like they don't have the talent. It's just everything went wrong. And I wonder, I mean, does Darnold Nurse even have a deal yet? Nope. So we're waiting on that. And Andre Sequeira is out for like six months? Yeah, months. Something like that.

He might be back at trade deadline. maybe and they just picked up somebody on a PTO from Vegas Jason Garrison Jason Garrison which

well I don't think that's going to move the needle even if he makes the team I don't know could be like a power play specialist they need someone

on the damn penalty kill yeah and that that's why they picked up Tobias Reeder right that's their PK guy but for crying out loud

they had one of the worst what was it road or no home PK it was like NHL history some really odd stat where it was fine

they were I want to say we talked about this at length on the show I want to say they had the worst penalty kill at home the best penalty kill

on the road but the home penalty kill was so bad that they were still like last or something like that through about March

or February they had the worst home penalty kill in the history of the NHL stat tracking that stat like you might

just be bad but some of that's gotta be in your head I think it is Nurse was asked what was one of the biggest things he learned because he was like, just kind of vaguely said

a lot of lessons learned and he's like you can't believe your own hype so I think that that's a big thing to say to admit and it's like I don't think McDavid falls into that category, I mean he should believe it

but as a group if you think okay, we're going to make the playoffs so let's conserve some energy or oh yeah we bounced out of these slumps before but you know

you get in a hole and forget about it wow were you there on Monday when he said he wants to score more goals I was that was what I was

going to bring up next oh yeah absolutely yeah I was amazing what's terrifying about that is he's just going to

if he wants to he will this is the Crosby playbook right yeah Crosby sets out every summer he's like

okay I'm going to score more goals okay I'm going to improve my backhand and it's going to be ridiculous or I'm going to be amazing at face-offs

whatever it is he fixed his face-offs in one summer yeah he was bad as a rookie yeah oh did we? he wasn't good as a rookie

and then was like never bad again yeah it's funny Connor McDavid in his three seasons has exactly 87 goals so it's funny

it's right out of the Sidney Crosby playbook just throwing that out there looking that up he's already played 200 NHL games 209 can you believe that?

that's insane to me like it feels like he was just drafted but maybe that's just me well not to bring it back to Morgan Rielly but remember like earlier

sorry not to bring it back to the Leafs I don't think we're at Morgan Rielly yet my bad he's like not enough not enough Leaf talk

not enough Leaf talk don't worry my bad no but he's played like 350 games there's someone 350 games I'm all flustered

I don't jeez Connor McDavid and the Leafs Luke you fit right in You know exactly when Steve's off, when to laugh. It's beautiful. You never have to worry about doing a bad job on our podcast.

I'm always the worst one. I'm always the worst one. Not to bring it back to Dimitri Timoshev, but do you think McDavid's going to do it? Do you think he's going to score more goals? How'd you land on him? Sorry. I'm not going to doubt him. Yeah.

Well, I think where he's going to make it up is power play. Euler's power play was awful. I don't know how many power play points or goals he had but I believe that's the area where

you'll see him go up the other thing he's talked about in you know it's it's very thinly veiled is

there's amount of frustration the fact that he doesn't have solid line mates and that it's constantly been in flux sorry I knocked the mic over

yeah so he's never no he never has he never has it's always been like it was what was it the

we were the line the Yeah, we were reminiscing about Pouliot and Yakubov. And then what was the year they were good? Was it Eberle? Maroon he had for a while.

Yeah, Maroon, right. Lucic was the trial last year. Yeah, Lucic was, I mean, that's why they paid Lucic all that money. Because on paper, they were thinking he's going to defend him a little bit, give him a little bit more space because he's rugged, go and get the puck, whatever. And he has hands, or he did have hands. so

he's another guy where I'm like alright he's not what he used to be I don't think he's this bad like what do you get 10 goals nah he's better than that

come on he must be Connor McDavid weirdly this is weird on the power play in his career guess how many he's had

3 years points or goals 209 games how many goals has he gotten over that 209 games 18

18 25 Jesse 21 11 wow 11 11 power play goals

in 3 seasons yeah see there you go there you go and I'm sure he knows it's 11 can you guess the assists probably a lot more

30 43 44 Luke's oh Jesse's closest 50 Price is right 50

so he's feeding it he's feeding it he's driving the play on that line just based on that and then of course I'm on reference so you can see

you know that he clearly is driving the play on every line he's on but it makes sense I'm sure if you're on the penalty kill and McDavid's on the ice

you're like get a focus I wonder I wonder if they like I mean that whole Luchich trade thing

kind of died off like it's it's almost like it didn't happen because that was it seemed like it was close it seemed like they talked to his agent

that they were ready to go was it that they couldn't find a taker or is it they couldn't find the return they were looking for I think

I think takers would be hard unless they retain salary right and they don't want to do that yeah i i think that's the that's the big thing and maybe they're just like let's give it one more year i mean look at troy brower right he got a couple chances before getting bought out maybe it's one of those like let's just try one more year put the screws to them and say look at you need to have a good summer you need to gain a step um i don't know it was a example of that right exactly yeah it can it can turn yours it can turn around yeah some brown was it blew my mind that he did what he did oh i but how much is that killing people how much of that is the coach though like i mean that was

that took a coach change and then stevens comes in last year and completely changes the way la plays and all of a sudden Dustin Brown's a top six guy again well and ice time too right yeah like line mates but Luchich kind of had his shot does he get another shot I

don't know I mean that I think the Oilers will make some adjustments system wise I know Tom McClellan's still there but they gutted the the assistants and made a ton of changes there and Glenn

Gullitson was talking about how they want to be faster and he's got some ideas already for how they can adjust Glenn Gullitson's gonna bring it against the Flames like big time like he's just gonna

make those guys pay for that's a guy that I felt as much as he seems just bitterly morose every time he does a scrum like just like I like his scrums he just seems

upset like we also great for reporting yeah for sure he's just like they're like I hate this I hate everything about this and and yet I feel like now when he

goes into when he goes into Calgary like those I feel like the Flames should kind of watch out like they They hung him out to dry. They're the reason he's not a head coach anymore. I don't think Glenn Golitsyn's the reason he's not a head coach anymore.

Well, what I do like is that Trey Leving didn't just fire the coach. He also changed the players. Right. You know, the Dougie Hamilton move. It wasn't like the token, let's throw the coach under the bus and blame him for all our problems. Now, would you trade a top five right-handed shot defenseman in the league because he didn't join your team at Moxie's?

Or Is that No it was the museum The museum thing Well he went to the museum He went to the museum You're right Because they didn't go

Top five Right handed shot D In the league I wasn't going to focus on it I think he might be One of the best Right handed shot Defensemen in the league

Like I don't I don't know Would you trade him For Panarin Or would that now Be the worst trade Can we ask Ask Luke about this

About what About your trade Being the worst trade In history since okay my theory is this since

the one for one day and we all know the one for one day Subban and Hall and all that since that day the worst trade in the league

has been Panarin for Saad like no ah 100% the worst trade name a worse trade it's Duchesne for Carl

to Ottawa yeah but at least there was some like there was some reason behind that the Panarin Panarin is

are you going to curse you up no Again, we're straight. Sorry, Luke, so what do you think? That is a horrible trade. Thank you. Thank you. It's terrible.

Now, okay, fine. I can give you Carlson. Maybe it's not Carlson. Duchesne, yeah. Duchesne. Maybe Duchesne's worse. Maybe Duchesne's worse. That first round pick makes it really bad.

You're right. Second worst trade. Well, wait. So you're saying Ottawa really blew it because of the first rounder? Well, I think they blew it because they... Because Matt Duchesne, he had a really slow start, but he actually played quite well for Ottawa. Kyle Turris was awful

in the playoffs for Nashville and I like Kyle Turris and at the time I thought they were pretty even but seeing him in that Winnipeg series I mean I didn't see him in the Winnipeg series he was a ghost

he was really exposed and I was surprised because he looked good the previous postseason and he had such a hot start I think he has a lot to prove that first that first is what does it for me

well it depends what happens but if Ottawa wins if that first is Jack Hughes then yeah if Ottawa's winning I don't think

that's a conversation right oh no and I don't think that's the reason they lost either I think Panarin leaving

the Blackhawks had a noticeable effect on that team instantaneously you have a guy that plays so good with one of the most skilled players

in the world why mess with that Panarin especially when he's got two years left well that's the thing I think they got I think maybe Stan Bowman

was almost too smart for his own good kind of thinking too far ahead and thinking we're not going to be able to afford him so maybe we should sell him now

when maybe you could have got one more year out of him I mean that's my thing and I understand that they love Brandon Saad

there's a there's cost control there and they wanted to get Taves going that's the other thing and Taves who knows maybe he went and said

you know who I really like playing with well that's what we heard that was actually the rumor was that it was a it was a Taze and Kane had a meeting with

Stan Bowman after the season that's what we heard whether that happened or not who knows I'm sure we'd have to ask Mark Lazarus or something like that

but it's a like worse than like Rask for Raycroft or worse than Rask for Raycroft it probably was the Leafs were already bad though

see the Hawks were at least a playoff team so yes then I don't know anyway I think it's No, I'm going to stick with my point.

Adam might have taken a little flack for this take. Well, and it also was posted on one of the most popular Blackhawks blogs. So there was Blackhawks fans. Not only were they coming back and saying, disagreeing, well, it's not the worst trade. They would come back and try to explain why it was a great trade. Yeah. Oh.

Yeah. Like, you know. It's a little far. Yeah. It was like, hey. They also got Anton Forsberg, who was not in the lineup when Corey Crawford went down. like come on

is Austin Matthews favorite goalie yeah I remember the overtime game yes that's right that one regular season game

and they got to Jomerson that same summer too oh and I wanted him to go to the Leafs so bad yeah wanted him here

um I just had one of those summers where they let a playoff series ruin their whole damn team yeah and they

and they teamed up their head coach at the same time right yeah cause that was that was the it was the

Jomerson thing that made him storm out of the meetings right it was well it was like it was the draft

and Chicago was hosting the draft and it was draft day I think it was the Friday day before the actual

thing and he left angry if you're Connor Murphy like how many times do you get to host the draft like well maybe

Chicago gets it a lot but most how many outdoor games do you get to host outdoors every year every year

have you seen the New Jersey oh my god I want to talk to a Chicago fan that's got all the outdoor

jerseys and it's probably there's probably fans have been to every outdoor game it's just like yeah it's a slight tweak on the logo oh this time it's black and white so another event that happened today that i know you were not at but eric angles did a huge write up on it at sportsnet.ca patch ready yeah yeah so molson and bergman showed up at his at his golf tournament and it's funny because patch ready said listen uh this was sort of thrown together last minute because we really weren't sure we really weren't sure if something was going to happen he actually said that in the scrum and he said obviously there's been no negotiations that he's going to go into camp and handle things the way he normally handles things

however we know they had a deal worked out with los angeles and it fell through because he couldn't get the extension signed what do you think happens with max patch ready is that a is that a pre-season trade as well or is that a guy that they have to go okay you know play the first three months with them and then some team needs scoring, probably LA even though they got Kovalchuk or maybe San Jose who swung and missed on both Kovalchuk and Tavares

I still think Carlson might end up there imagine him and Brett Burns you know what if which do you think is more likely for him I think much like Carlson it would be better settled down

but I think Bergevin is more likely to hold on in hopes that Pacioretty lights it up for a month because his trade value couldn't be any lower than it is right now. He's coming off his worst season in, I don't know, maybe ever.

Years. I think he had five 30 goal seasons in a row before. And it's 17. Yeah. So his value's low and, you know, when you think of comparables, you look at Jeff Skinner and what the return Carolina got from Buffalo

on Skinner was not good. and I think if Bergevin blows another trade with a star player like the one he did with PK and then also I'm not a fan of the Drouin deal giving up Sergachev

oh no exactly the kind of player they need yeah so if he does another one it's like his job is probably on the line whereas I think Dorian is there a question of the job security for Bergevin no

No way He's got naked pictures Of Jeff Bolton somewhere Whereas I think Norian Is just like I'm gonna get fired Before Mark Bershman No

Yeah For sure I think he needs He needs He can't lose Another trade Like obviously The way he's lost

The previous two So I think As much as he knows Things are tense Maybe play it out And see if Pacioretty can't You know

Come out of the gates And look like A 30 goal scorer again And maybe Pacioretty needs to be a little bit inspired to step it up and say

I'm going to play my way out of this mess yeah well okay they're one of those they're one of those damn teams I think they're going to

just capture magic out of the gate I think they're going to have a hot start Montreal? no they're one of those stupid teams

that don't believe in fall off a cliff there's no way they're not a good team when's Shea Weber coming back? that has nothing to do with it

mid-December mid-December and he's like 33 look at their defense I forgot about that look at their center depth chart who's this who is there's that adam yeah like is it gonna be they talked about max domey maybe well i asked max and he's like i don't know where they're gonna put me he said i

can i can play wing i can play center and he's like i can even play a little defense and it's like like he's making a joke but at the same point it's like you know yeah that's that's hilarious That's an amazing idea I will use that Oh my god No I wonder Okay this sounds This is going to be crazy

But if you're Sod for Domi Sorry No sod for Panarin No if you did See Ottawa's in a tough situation too With a couple other players Obviously Mark Stone

And Matt Duchesne And Matt Duchesne Everybody's like Well you can't trade him Because you'll never get the return that you spend for him, you're a big proponent of that. No, and he's also,

he was good. He was good. But if you can... Guy who's playing well. And he's that rare player who, you know, wanted to come there. Yeah.

Like at the time, he was like, yes. Sign me up. I'm ready. I'm ready. And you know what? He was having a blast at the outdoor game.

This is pre-Melnick's speech, but I remember he was at the family skate with his girlfriend, like hanging out with all the fans, posing for photos. Like he looked like

he enjoyed being there. Well, I wonder if if because montreal in or sorry ottawa in the right mind can't sign them unless they want to sign them and keep them but i wonder if there's a deal to be done where i.e what maybe not as sneaky as what doug wilson did to pierre dorian earlier this year but if you can flip if you're montreal and you can somehow figure out a way to get matt duchesne who they've been trying to get for years uh off of ottawa and maybe it's a patch ready in a three-way or something like maybe they work a three-way deal out which has not worked out for Ottawa in the past but you know is there

a way where and I don't know who the other team would be Montreal ends up with uh Matt Duchesne the center they need desperately and then all of a sudden now we're now we're talking now that's a team where I'm like okay there's a they're a threat again because then you can put Drouin and Domi and whoever else you got on the wings um and then you know somebody picks up Max Pacioretty because I mean who doesn't need a 35 goal score and then

Ottawa ends up with picks and prospects and everybody's happy if you can work that out the thing that was in my head but I wouldn't let tumble out of it

but why not here it goes Sagan to Montreal don't get out and maybe Pacioretty maybe Pacioretty goes to Dallas

I believe Sagan has some trade protection in the last year he does he's not he's not going there he just said

how much he wants to win so man I wonder if too if Montreal Montreal thinks they can win I mean he would have fun in that town

I think so yeah would you have given up on Galchenyuk do you think it was time I think it was time yeah I think it was time

I think things had soured to a point I didn't know too much about the Domi situation in Arizona but it seemed like

let's both just swap our problems yeah like I don't think and I don't want it to come across as Domi was a problem but it was like

there was a bad fit there and I've heard headache rumors so it's kind of like let's just you know

both get fresh clean slates and see if things can't work out okay because I always I always look back and go

hey there's the center you could have had if you had groomed him that way the weird thing is all the coaches in the gym they were like

he's not a center he's not a center instead of we want to make him instead of being positive and saying we think he can be a center he needs to work on this

let's do this it seemed like they had already made up their mind. They hated that person. They just really didn't like him. Let's not pretend that Michel Tarion being the coach of that team

for that long didn't have a harmful effect. When Marc Bergevin took over that team he had Piquet Max Pacioretty and Carey Price

all entering their prime. But he had a coach who I'm like everything we've heard about Michelle Terrian has been negative everything and that's not just

because they didn't win while he was there they did win they had a lot of skill they actually were I mean they won he's not a player's coach they won the division

two years ago right it's not that long ago that they were the top team in the division where Tampa missed and the Leafs squeaked in so this is

this is a guy I feel like the Michelle Terrian era had a really negative effect on some of the players that they had I don't think pk gets traded if michelle terrian's not the coach i if michelle terrian's not in mark bergevin's

year every day going trade him trade him trade him trade him i don't think that happens and then you're looking at a completely different franchise on a completely different trajectory and i think that we'll look back in 10 years and go that was one of the most disastrous three four year spans in in a storied franchise with very little very little blemish and we're at least fans yeah and we can everything's been a disaster for us so the the thing is build from the net out you have the yeah the arguably the best goalie in the world and you have one of the best up-and-coming rising defensemen in the world and it's like let's build around this and somehow it fell into pieces and you know i just look at the weber contract and even the carry price like i like carry price

but just do you like him at 10 million exactly starting now well any goalie at 10 million Starting now. It's too much. With injury issues. So those two deals could hamper them for like a long time. And really, Bergevin put himself into that corner. If they were a better team, and we always say this, you have to pay more for your star players when you're a bad team

or you're a cusp team. When you're a good team, you actually end up paying less because everybody wants to keep the good team together. Look at Tampa, right? Yeah. I mean, Toronto's a good team. Connor Brown took a... Connor Brown is, yeah.

John Tavares is a great example. Austin Matthews might be as well. But then you look at Edmonton, pretty thin. Had to pay Conor McDavid what they had to pay him. Probably shouldn't have paid Leon Dreisaitl what they did end up paying him. Well, and Tampa, I just keep fawning over them. Like, everybody took a discount. Almost everybody.

Like, Stamkos is unbelievable. Isn't he under nine? Well, and he kind of, he set the tone, right? And like, that's what Dubas is probably hoping Tavares just did, right? he set the tone and then Hedman quickly went just a shade under

and then Kucherov basically worked for free for a couple years oh my god Alex Killorn got his day for some reason

I don't figure that one out Stemko's at 8.5 wow get out of here Kucherov this season will make 4.7

and his deal doesn't kick in until next year when he makes 9.5 and Hedman's at 7.8 so And then Vasilevski

Was also really cheap When he re-signed 3.5 Yeah You know what I was about to say For one of the best goalies Oh yeah

I was about to say Hedman wasn't as much Of a discount as Stamkos No yeah he was No Like Carlson's about to get 11 or 12 I think Hedman's that

Hedman's close to that He's at least A 10 million dollar defenseman It's so funny I see He's the reigning Norris Trophy winner Yeah

He is literally The best defenseman In the NHL by the standards of the trophy that hands out for the best defenseman in the area.

Writers like me who vote on this thing. It's funny, there are a lot of people, every time Hedman comes to town though, you'll get people in the stats community,

they'll actually say, well, he's not as good as everybody says he is. Oh man. Yeah, that's one guy that's come up. I thought they defended him. I don't think so.

Well, maybe, is that part of the war wars? I don't know. I can't, I don't even know how to calculate wars, so I wouldn't know, but it's interesting

that they... I'm on team Hedman. I think he's... I am too and I'm like am I dumb am I missing something here he seems pretty great to me

he's pretty sick and they're winning do you have a vote oh yeah yeah you got my number one you got your vote did you release your votes

yeah do you know what position every player plays well this yeah they send us reminders good reference oh just to make sure

what is the number so that you can play a goal no it was like center mid-marter according to the NHL account you know Giroud right switch positions like there's a couple

tricky ones did you vote for Yeah, so this is the first year that they were released. We voted on whether to release the votes, and that passed. What side were you on? I'm pro-reveal. Okay. Yeah.

Why? Well, the baseball writers do it, and I feel like it's not that big of a deal. And if it's public, you should be able to defend your position anyway. You should have a reason. 100%. And then I don't think anyone read it, but I wrote an article defending my ballot. the morning after the day after

it got released so it's out there that's why I asked you about the positions you know yeah the positions are correct I like triple checked

but it I honestly it's like one of my the funnest things about my job is like I think it's three years now

I've actually got a vote and that's awesome that's pretty cool yeah because I mean like politically you get a vote but you're one of

you know 200 something like hundreds of thousands right but in this there's you know your vote actually has a little bit more sway yeah oh yeah like how many people are in the pwha it's not oh i should know 150 it's not a ton it's it's yeah it's 100 it's amazing wow um

you know we've we've sort of referenced it so let's get to it austin matthews next contract he said and it wasn't at bios it was the other tournament so there's been a lot of events lately that we're referencing here but you know the the was it the us us showcase yeah i think yeah he sunday um he he said listen i'm open to signing a contract whenever i know they're talking what's your set because the leafs are still hard to get anything out of and i imagine they'll remain so although now they actually released the figures so we can update cap friendly a lot easier um but from your sense of things you cover the team very closely how do you think the kneelander matthew's thing is going to roll out and how quickly are we going to have an answer on both

of those guys i think nylander is the kind of guy that it might go down to the wire for when camp opens but i think both of them want and and dubas has always said like he seemed to pick that up from lou like that whole if you have time use it so dubas is preaching patience so i think it's kind of a staring contest until they get to right before camp. I don't think either side really wants, especially the Leafs, want that to be

the story at camp. Nylander's not here. I think it should be Tavares is here and yeah. That's a great point. You know, if it's, but you know, like I said before, I think the Leafs are going to really go for let's all take a little bit less here

guys and get all three of you re-signed And like Let's Let's have a dynasty here You know Let's win one cup first I don't mean a cup dynasty I mean like

A long stretch A long window Where you Where you can contend You can't guarantee Championships But you can guarantee Yourself

No just A pretty good job You can guarantee Your relevancy Yeah Yeah Like I'd Man I'd say like

The Sharks have had A pretty sweet deal Over the past like Decade When they've had You know a few runs At the third round Stanley Cup final

can you look at what the Sharks have done over the last 10 years and been like they screwed up no they

they were in it they've been in it for a decade and made the finals and just didn't didn't work so that was Logan Couture's

pitch to Tavares is like look exactly what you said we're always in the mix you're never in the playoffs come over here we're always in the playoffs

we're always ready for a little bit of a run and that's why Couture and you know signed instantly with the Sharks

I asked him because he's another center that's going to be in the second class or was going to be and I said look at what Tavares

just did look how much money he got were you at least tempted and he's like no look at my team

we're always in the mix and he's like and we have a lot of fun they live in San Jose and Joe Thornton's making PG-13 jokes I'm sure and snapping towels

walk in the streets shirtless with a giant beard that picture of him in Burns is so ridiculous I love it he seems like he really lives the life out there do you do the

the Nylander deal first do you get that sign do you think do you have kind of like a wink agreement with Matthews that's the

well the maybe maybe like we know what we're going to do we just have to get Nylander done first maybe I think it would be weird

like we're so late In the summer now It might feel A little weird If you come out With a big Matthews press release And Nylander's

Sitting there Right Right I just I don't know I keep having this fantasy That Even though we've heard

Zero reports To suggest this Dubas is just Going to come out Just slam dunk Guess what Here's 8 year deals For Matthews

Nylander And Marner Not Marner Good luck No one can you imagine Marner waits Marner waits Because he should wait

but imagine bam just one day be the ultimate PR coup here's these three contracts don't bug me

for another eight years you could do Matthews that's what Chicago did with Tays and Kane it was same day

same press release I think but they were making the same amount of money too yeah I mean I think

there's going to be a four or five million dollar discrepancy and I think there's going to be a year's discrepancy too so you think

six for Nylander Five, six. CJ came on and kind of convinced us last episode that five, six actually kind of makes sense. Yeah, and I think it might be good for him. I look at Dylan Larkin, and he's a guy who did successfully make the jump from wing to center, which was kind of the thinking for Nylander until the Tavares signing

that with Bozak gone, maybe Nylander would have to be a center. But Larkin, you know, kills penalties. He was the team's leading scorer. He kind of did everything. and he took five, and he's going to be a UFA at age 27. Same as someone else, right? Going to make a big old pile. Yeah, so maybe Nylander goes for kind of like the double dip,

like a pretty good one now and a really good one at age 27 when presumably his points go up or at least maintain. And if you're playing with Matthews for five years, that's pretty good. Your resume might look pretty good. And beloved. because you're just killing it

and people look at your number and they go great and Leafs could always say at year four of that deal

alright let's talk extension let's get this done because the cap will be up I liked Kadri anyway

the cap goes up four years five times you know whatever I would say 10 million every three

and a half years right because three years ago it was 71 72 and we're at 79 now

it was 69 once upon a time I think it was it was nice easy with Nylander I like Kadri anyway

but now that he's making 4.5 I like him a little bit more if he's making 8 I don't think I like him as much those are really good deals that offseason when they got

Riley and Kadri extensions done those are really nice numbers like Lou did a little bit of nice work in his short oh yeah

there were some questionable moves but also like they did nothing assuming Nikita Zaitsev I like contract extensions, though, which kind of sneak under the radar because they're guys that are already there. Yeah, but.

Those were great. You know, you can mess those up. You sure can. You sure can. Mark Stone, right? Yeah. That was. I mean, we're just going to keep talking about the Sens all year.

I don't want to rag on the Sens. No, but we don't have a choice. We have to talk about it. They did it to themselves. Exactly. Their three best players are all expiring. What do you want us to talk about? Oh, Craig Anderson's going to have a bounce back here.

And their number one goalie wants out, right? Yep. So has he said that? So this is the latest I heard because he's also American, so he was at that thing Sunday. And don't quote me on this because I haven't watched the video, but I heard through someone that basically he said, I'm too old for drama, and until they clear that, you know,

if they clear that up, you know, I love Ottawa. My family loves the area. I love playing for them, but I'm too old for this drama. So that leads me to believe that there is some drama that's unsettled still. And it's like a sickness, right, that's spreading. And Mark Stone, I asked him, I don't know, it was maybe a month left in the season about re-signing, and he said, I want to be part of the solution here,

not part of the problem. And now he's down to one more year. So, okay, is that one year? it's like everyone's kind of like and then if Carlson does get traded then you know

you lose hope like if you're in a room and you're captain and best player and one of like this ungodly hockey talent

leaves you know it's discouraging see you know what it is discouraging but part of me is a little heartened by that

and I'm hanging on to hope if I'm a Sens fan because if Melnick leaves if they finally get rid of him I think

all those dominoes start to fall in your favor Carlson extends his contract then Stone then it's easy to convince

Shane Anderson stays those buys take like two years they're not going to get him out before Carlson's deals up

well then they're boned because they take those things sit in escrow for like nine months it's not like players you don't just sell a team

right we have acquired even buying a house takes four or five months right you know this is a multi-million dollar

franchise why did you adults to explain that to me I'm like come on I'm just

in it for the heart isn't Milnik expiring soon yeah his contract's up yeah grown ups

to explain that to me on the flip side I think Brady Kachuk was an awesome draft pick yeah

people I do I'm a little weird I'm weirded out that they didn't pick Zedina though I have to tell you when he's available

yeah he looks pretty sick too but there's something what is it about Brady Kachuk that makes you think it was a great pick because I think

you and I might be thinking the same thing I think there's so few like Brady like Matthew like Wayne Simmons like

you know Wayne's not so much a pest but just like nasty like you know the stereotypical

hate to play against him but you love having him on your team like Brendan Gallagher a little bit yes yeah a little bit of that maybe premium

but he's bigger right yeah that wasn't what I was thinking it's a great point what I was thinking is like he just he seems like happy about life he just seems like an extremely confident guy oh he is he is I feel like Ottawa needs that so damn bad and they should probably keep him away from the team this year but I feel like he could if he comes into the Sens starts all right I think he infects that team and starts to take it over well and you also

have to sell hope to your fan base right yes so you need and it's a familiar name right and

and you know we'll see like maybe Thomas Chabot takes some huge steps like the the prospect pool isn't bad there

um I it's improved yeah I'm not as convinced like Belleville is just that's a rough sell to me

like just what they have there but no you're right they have guys in junior guys they just drafted whatever Brady Kachuk I like that pick if he goes to London

and lights it up for a year it's only looking better it's like what Marner did go to the World Juniors it's a basically a big

Sens billboard the whole time clear the decks try to get some guys around him that are going to be in his age range I don't even think

it makes a lot of sense to extend Mark Stone to be honest with you because he's going to be 27 he's going to be a UFA so you're buying UFA years trade him get something for him

because you can you could get something pretty good for him I would think. So go and then that's your like it's like you know the Leafs got a little lucky right? They won the Austin Matthews lottery right? But at the same time they also stripped it back and said we're going to have

a bunch of kids in this age range within this three or four year period that are going to be great together. If I'm Ottawa that's what I'm looking to do and all those guys will be super cheap so Eugene can save some money, put it away and then sign their extensions when he needs to. If the Sens sell everyone at this year's deadline

they might give up the first overall pick but then have the remaining 30 picks of the first round and just be totally fine like they'll probably get a couple first rounders

at least for Carlson for like each of those guys man like Shane Stone and Carlson imagine they could be really good in like three years

if they just committed to just eliminating and they'd have to find a goalie they'd have to find a goalie I think Chicago got a first

for Ryan Hartman they did they did from a divisional rival and Ryan Hartman was a healthy scratch in some playoff games there were two guys

traded for first round picks at last year's deadline there were healthy scratches in the playoffs it was Hartman and Thomas Tatar I even thought

the price I thought the price that Boston paid for Rick Nash was insane at least he was good yeah he was good even a second

for a Placanix is a lot that was a lot sure was okay if the Leafs win that series we go great worth it

and he was one of the better players he was but he took a while to become that in the series he was great but other than that

he was pretty bad and right now we have nothing to show for him nope no he's a center for a divisional rival

that's what we have oh perfect so yeah that's great that's pretty great what do you think the gap in talent

or effectiveness between Dominic Moore and Thomas Placanitz was zero absolutely nothing I don't know about zero but I liked

more more played what two games in the playoffs or whatever he looked great in both of them I never had a problem

with Dominic Moorman yeah me neither that's kind of the point I was getting Babcock did from camp Babcock never wanted this player

Eric Faire played the season opener in Winnipeg he never wanted this player and Eric Faire played well in San Jose when he was traded there

he did play playoff games yes he did if it wasn't due to cap restrictions because they had to bring back

Roman Polak I think Faire would have been the fourth line center all year last year Well, no, they could have just not signed Dominic Moore, and they'd have been fine. Yeah, there you go.

Or let him play. Or let him play, yeah. But, I mean, like, if you wanted to have, you had your fourth line center. Eric Fair was the guy. Yeah, yeah. That was perplexing to me. I didn't understand.

He's making $2.5 million. You can't fit that in? Come on. I like Babcock as a coach, but, man, when he makes up his mind that you're garbage, you're out. It's really hard to convince him otherwise, man. And it's funny, going into, and we've got to ask about this, Cause like literally Dominic Moore seems like the perfect guy to bring in to

fight off or fight with Perlin home, you know, with that, for that fourth line job, right? Yeah. That's a, that's a job that you're going to play five to seven minutes a game.

If we're being honest, maybe get some penalty kill time, hopefully. And Mike Babcock said, you know, this is the, this is the guy we think this is the guy. And Miro Alton,

maybe, maybe could have given him a little bit, but are you surprised they haven't PTO at anybody else and said like, let's at least give this guy some competition. we've never seen him on North American ice yeah a little bit because Babcock likes

internal competition especially in those fringe spots so yeah I guess a little bit surprised but the other thing is who's out there Nick Shore

Nick Shore is the guy that keeps coming out oh yeah you're right but like that's it and maybe they signed their guy Josh Joris Ennis maybe could

play some center I don't know he has in the past in the past for sure so I mean like what hit I know it's not a disaster if he comes into camp

and can't play I get that I know it's not a big deal Who cares But what happens If one of those guys Goes down Is Patrick Marleau

Flipping to center Or is William Nylander Flipping to center For Well I think Patrick Marleau Would be a good guy On a third line center role

I actually do He played quite well At center last year He just doesn't want to play it This is the hypothetical Hypothetical injury If Kadri Matthews

Or Tavares goes down Yeah Oh okay Okay I was about to say That problem solved No I know But if there was an injury

You know That's and I know I know that that's a what if and that's basically a who the hell knows but don't you have to

sort of plan for that yes but like you can't always have you know one or two I know it's not you know NHL team

not everyone can always have the backup that's a but PTO guy whatever who cares and you gotta think I mean I don't have

in front of me but maybe a Marley you know rises the way like No one was talking about Andreas Janssen at this time last year, right? There could be some internal growth as well.

Hopefully Adam Brooks. I don't know. The Leafs, I'm bringing it back to food because I'm a little hungry. Make sure dinner is on your plate. And the Leafs have dinner. Matthews, Kadri, that John guy, and Lindholm, whatever. He's the piece. Having a fifth or sixth guy, that's dessert.

and if you don't have dessert you'll live you're fine you got your nutrition you're leaner if you don't have dessert in fact you know

under the salary cap I'm fitting a little tight under the salary cap right now maybe I should stop with the desserts if you don't get Nick Shore that's alright

you have dinner Nick Shore is ice cream I also think the conversation is just a little ridiculous because dinner hasn't even been cooked yet I don't even think

we've decided on what we're having no no it's in the fridge it's in the okay It's in the fridge But we're still at work

If we're under contract We're texting our partners What's for dinner tonight What should we do Let's play a game at least Let's get to the fridge I think defrosting is camp Are you of the

Mike Babcock Kyle Dubas Party which says The Leafs defense Can be good enough The Leafs team defense If they decide to play it this year can be good enough the way it is?

Or are you of the camp that says, they're going to probably have to make a move? I think they're going to be good enough to be a great regular season team, and that's fine. And then I think they'll make a move at the deadline. That's kind of what I'm thinking in the back of my head. Unless something great pops up earlier. I mean, even Washington went and got Michael Kempney

and people kind of shrugged. That was a great pickup. But he was very valuable in their playoff run. He played an important role. So that's the kind of move maybe they make. And then maybe a guy becomes available that we don't even know yet. I mentioned this somewhere else, but who would have predicted the Rangers would all of a sudden

have a massive fire sale and Ryan McDonough would be available a year prior to him hitting free agency, right? This picture's trade deadline was great. Yeah, and then Tampa sweeps in and picks him up. We don't know who's going to be available besides Eric Carlson, and that's not happening. We don't know which team is going to randomly implode. Yeah, because it happens every year.

Or there's some sort of dispute, and a guy you didn't expect becomes available. So I think they're fine enough, and they're going to score a lot, that they can be in the hunt for that. It's kind of like the Red Sox, just outscore the problem. We don't have any relievers, but hey, let's outscore the problem. Be in the Atlantic Division top race and then see what shakes out at that time.

I've always thought Chris Tanev would be a great addition. And Vancouver has to figure out at some point if he wants to stay long-term or if he wants to get out of there. I hope they sign him to a long-term deal, preferably four years at $3 million per, like everybody else they sign. They have to figure it out. Counterpoint, no, they don't. It's Vancouver.

They don't have to figure out a damn thing. Their asking price has got to be sky high for him. Yeah. Well, apparently it was sky high for Branson as well. I'm so glad the Leafs didn't do that. Oh, my God. There was no righties available. But then you don't make the move.

Yeah. Then you don't do it. Yeah, but they didn't. They didn't. Like, we're yelling at them for, well, how could you? Well, they were in on it, right? And the idea that they thought about it bothers me. But it's a different administration.

I also feel like maybe we can move a left shot over. Another one, in addition to Hainsey. Yeah, maybe you move Hainsey back to the left side and let him play the left side and let him be the third-pairing left-handed guy, and you move Dermott over, who's played a lot of writing. Not a lot, but he did play with the Marlies quite a bit. Yeah, he has had some experience writing.

So that's like right under the NHL level, and then you've got Jake Gardner, who is so fast, and if you can put him with Morgan Rielly, Like, what's the big, like, and then you've got Zaitsev or the ghost of Nikita Zaitsev with Travis Dermott, and then Ron Hainsey and Martin Marincin, Justin Hall, who cares? Like, they're not playing as much. You're probably going to stack a lot of minutes on those first two guys.

But, I mean, if you can get Nikita Zaitsev going again, that doesn't look so bad. Connor Carrick, there's another guy who, I mean, he wouldn't have to switch over, but that's a guy that's a pretty reliable guy, and it seems like Kyle Dubas has really been pushing the Connor Carrick thing in in management they wouldn't have signed him at 1.3 million if they didn't believe in him right yeah they also extended josh levo right well that was under lew though that's right you're

right you're right and he took his money because he would have had a two-way but i mean that was one of the first things kyle dubas did was re-sign connor carrick um man i i don't know i i wonder i wonder if we've gone a little too far on the left hand right hand thing does it make that much of a difference if your right side is so weak is it going to make that much of a difference you're right we probably make a big deal about it but we make a big deal about it because the coach makes a big deal about it right but that's what i mean i would say to mike mike is this is this helping you at this point which is strange because like the coach always makes a big deal at a left verse right thing but over babcock's career he's almost never had that there was the

one year where there were injuries on Detroit and they had six left and then whenever he has his pick of the litter with Team Canada he overloads on right and he's got righties playing on the left so freaking ice the six best guys Mike I'm getting annoyed. Well I

just think there's going to be you know kind of one of the maybe category B storylines is going to be Zaitsev because we're going to find out if that was you know if it's a bounce back year or if this is looking like a really bad contract I think he has a lot to prove and I also think you know his confidence took a

hit with it with the injuries and then he felt he wasn't playing very well and I think it got in his head a little bit so you know with a summer to clear his mind and you know people aren't talking about him right now because you know game seven all anyone wanted to talk about was Gardner So maybe Zaitsev comes back, but I think him taking a step beyond what he was as a rookie needs to happen. Or it's going to look like a really bad deal just because of the term they gave him. Do you think he can do that? It's possible. I don't know. It's a question mark. One thing I saw spoken about on Twitter yesterday, I think it was Bobby Cappuccino who brought it up,

was a lot of guys who are leaving or who aren't with the Leafs anymore who were last year had negative penalty differential here's my favorite stat everybody uh just I love that stat so much uh but two of the guys who are still here who just had terrible seasons in that regard just took way too many penalties compared to what they drew were Zaitsev and Carrick and you know Carrick was a minus 7 in 47 games there's just no excuse for that and Zaitsev was a minus 8 in 60 so on top of the skill level improving hopefully with taveras and those guys aren't thugs right so that that means they're out of position exactly yeah exactly right so their skill level has gone up some guys who take too many penalties i'm polak took way too many but like jvr like i didn't

realize he was that bad at that and it's not like he played a ton at even strength so with the skill level going up if they can stay a little bit more disciplined especially like I harp on Carrick more than Zaitsev

because Zaitsev went into the lineup confident that he had that spot Carrick like buddy keep your stick down if you know

Babcock's not going to play you man like be extra cautious and he was taken more than most that's a tough one yeah

go out but play cautious you know exactly you're right and that's not in his game he's not a

class player hopefully he takes fewer penalties the thing I always say about Carrick is he's actually like a

low-key nasty bastard other teams don't even like him he's objectively better than Roman Polak

was objectively so I'm pretty excited about that and he's got the thing that they're

looking for back there which is mobility are you mobile it's not that Roman Polak's

a bad player it's just they had better ones he's got an excellent shot I wish he would use it

more you know he could be he could be again one of those like B storylines like you said do you think

Justin Hall makes the team I think he has a good I guess it comes down to Hall and Carrick like I think

maybe that's the battle since they're both righties and maybe they platoon in and Hall you know he's two for two

in NHL games right and his confidence is sky high right like he played a lot of minutes for the Marlies

like he was he carried a lot of the load for that defense and they won a championship. Guys like him and Garrett Sparks, they're like, alright, I'm ready for the next level. And you know what? It's rare because he's a late bloomer.

Is he 26? 26, I think, or 7. So what? That happens. Sometimes guys find their game a bit later. I like Hall. That's not a Babcock bottom pairing guy.

That guy, he's like a rover out there. He just takes the puck for a long time. Why don't you put him with Jake Gardner or Travis Dermott? Well, now you're putting him up the lineup, right? But if he can do it. Ron Hainsey shouldn't be on that. That's the thing. Someone's got to come down the lineup, right?

Yeah. And Ron Hainsey's the obvious candidate just because he's 37? You can't do that. 38. He's 38 now. So this is what I'm super excited for with the The whole Dubas thing is the new things they try. Maybe they freak you out with, guess what?

Justin Hull's in our top four. I want to see. It's disappointing to me. It's good that the lineup seems so secure right now because that means they have a lot of talent and they have things figured out. But I want to see some monkey wrenches. I think we'll see some things that we're surprised about.

Yeah, I'm interested to see, like, I mean, the top six has already kind of been revealed, or at least what they're going to roll out at the beginning. But I think the bottom six will be interesting. I think the deep pairings will be interesting. And I know for a fact, like, okay, the lineup is up to the coach. I think the GM offers his opinion. No, I just think it's funny that, like, this is where we're at. And you talk about this.

Good teams, you start to obsess about the little things. I talked about Brendan Leipzig for six months before the expansion draft and we're like oh it really sucks to lose him and now that's gone to Vancouver by the way I saw there was a poll like who do you want to play left wing on the first line and most of the answers that I saw

were Leipzig. Why not? Because try it. Why not? Leipzig let it ride forever Now do you think that they're going to lose Calvin Pickard on waivers? Is that just because it seems like Curtis McElhinney probably wouldn't get claimed and I know they're

shopping Calvin yeah you'd like to think they get something back for what'd they pay for a sixth Pickard a sixth

in Lindbergh yeah so maybe they want to get back at least a fifth like okay so now we're now we're on the

fourth string goalie right yeah although I think he's the best fourth string goalie in the NHL

oh yeah he played for Team Canada right yeah they got three guys who I think are of relatively similar skill pretty much. McElhaney maybe the least. Okay, so here's

the one thing I'm interested in. Babcock has always kind of been of the mind. McElhaney does his job. He knows his job, which is you're a backup. You're never going to be anything more than a backup. We'll call on you every six weeks and hopefully you get a win two out of three times.

Right? Which he did. But, is he thinking you know what, maybe I gave Frederick Anderson a few too many starts the way Washington gave Braden Holtby a few too many starts the year before they won the cup.

Do they need a Philip Grubauer, i.e. Garrett Sparks, to push them a little bit? Play 30 games. And Sparks has a good relationship with Dubas. Like you said, it's going to be interesting how Dubas puts his fingerprints on the

lineup. McElhinney, absolutely. He did a fantastic job at his job I think they should eliminate the position we are terminating the position

of goalie who plays 15 games and we are now posting the job for goalie who plays 30 games you know what I mean

yeah well that's what I'm saying I think this is kind of a turning point and then we're also a few years into Freddie's deal maybe it's like

you should feel secure now because that was like it was a transition for him splitting the crease with Gibson to all of a sudden every October

Oh, now it's just me, and they say it's just me, and so I've got to get my mind right. And it's in Toronto. Yeah. Big difference, right? And he handled it well. And through stretches, when he's on, he's one of the best goalies in the game.

Yeah. When he's on. And imagine going from playing behind Anaheim's defense, which is one of the deepest in the whole league, to playing behind the Toronto defense when he first arrived here, especially. Like, that's got to be a rude awakening and something we don't always talk about

when we talk about goalies is who they're playing behind and he covered up a lot of mistakes sure did yeah so

okay I'm going to switch gears completely off the Leafs for a second why? are you okay? you know that reminds me of Morgan Rielly

because we're beating all these topics to death because we have to but also because there isn't really much else to talk about and that's why I saved the Leafs stuff

until a little later in the show because thankfully Tyler Sagan talked to you today and not tomorrow because then we would have been like

damn it now all the good stuff broke after the show was recorded but Rick Westhead who has Steve Blocked on Twitter we still don't know why

oh really? I don't know why man I don't know what I did I can't imagine that Rick Westhead said or did anything that would have made you say or do anything

to deserve the blocking I'm the leaf yelling guy I think it's entirely possible I came across his timeline too many times and he was like I hate this guy's face and he just blocked me

I don't know he just seemed like a hateful guy but anyway Rick Westhead has Steve Blocked so Steve didn't see this I had to text people who then told me

and then were like why are you blocking like that's gotta be rare like you got Rick Westhead to blight he's probably got it's not like

max a dozen people it's not Steve Simmons it's not you know what I mean like you didn't go at Steve Simmons for something and he blocked you actually he probably wouldn't

he probably like just I think he still follows me for sure as he should so what Rick West Westhead that Rick Westhead said was this

an OHL team employee tells me some players have been advised to scrub Fortnite references from social media accounts. Some NHL teams consider these video games a major distraction slash obsession. Yeah, it's big in the Leafs' room, isn't it, Steve? It's big in every room, man.

No, they love Fortnite. The Leafs, don't they have, or no, I was about to say they have commercials on their YouTube channel of them playing Fortnite. It's not Fortnite, it's NHL 18. Oh, okay. Which, that video game is fine. That does not have any addictive properties.

No. It is this particular video game. Wait until NHL teams find out there's not just one video game. It is the most popular and addictive game currently. Currently? But like Call of Duty is five years ago. There's another one coming. Yeah, for sure.

Is it the old guys going, we're old and we're worried? Because like old guys tend to do that. And we don't understand. We don't understand, right? Like they probably saw the David Rice story and were like, oh, he got carpal tunnel. And it's hockey being very image conscious. And there was that story or rumor in the summer about one prospect, unnamed prospect that came out, had an addiction.

And they're probably just like, we don't want any part of people speculating. Like, you know, the hockey higher ups kind of just think worst case scenario and damage control. And so they're probably just like, guys, play your video games, but don't gab about it so all the fans and media know that you're obsessed

with video games that said I remember talking to Marner in Boston after the morning skate

of game 7 and it's like what are you going to do like you know you got to be nervous like how are you going to kill your time

he's like I think I'll watch Fortnite videos on my phone not play Fortnite no he didn't say play watch Fortnite videos that's the

yeah or he could have said practice the Fortnite dances in my room, I don't know, but it's like... If there's anybody in the Leafs that can do that. But, you know, by the same token, it's a communal game, so a lot of

guys are using it as a form of team bonding, right? Yeah. That's how I keep in touch with several of my buddies. I never see them. We play Fortnite. Yeah, and the other thing is, they kind of need to get their mind off the game and have some other interest. But you're right, there is,

I mean, there is the odd case that gets addicted to video games but people get addicted to other things in any walk of life. And all those guys who are now the higher-ups in hockey, what were you doing during the 80s on your days off? Oh, yeah. Reading. Oh, yeah, for sure.

Reading the back of a bottle. Moxie's. Moxie's with my brother. Reading cocaine for dummies. I think that's what they were reading. Yeah. Well, and it's like, well, yeah. Sorry, did I say that?

Did you say that? I don't know. I mean, but seriously. are we going to pretend that they weren't doing mountains of cocaine now the players they just want to play

video games yeah just think about your life back in the day when you're just on the road and there's no social media or cell phones and you're just free

it seems like just image control so that's all it is it's not like they're actually concerned so okay read guy who blocked me's tweet again

like exactly how did he word it because I had a bit of a different once I actually read it an OHL team employee tells me some players have been advised

to scrub Fortnite references From social media accounts Some NHL teams Consider the video game A major distraction Slash obsession So this Yeah

It's their image conscious Right Like OHL players Like this is big for them Why aren't they CTE conscious You don't have a job yet You want to get drafted

Exactly It's different than NHL players You don't have a job I've told this story before But I interviewed a prospect Before their draft This was many years ago And

They told me about Something went awry At like a prom party They went to like the story wasn't about like oh they got so wasted it was like someone basically they they paid all this money for a keg and this guy just took off with the money or whatever he was he was just you know telling a weird story he as soon as we're done recording he goes can i can i record that again can i say that differently i go yeah okay fine he records it differently does it again

about a half hour after i leave the arena he calls me up he's like talk to my parents and like could you not use that could you take that out you'd be doing me a huge favor and what did he do he went to a party

after prom but he was worried NHL teams would judge him for being which they probably would 17 or whatever

well it's like risk reward right like what benefit is there to you know posting that you're playing a lot of Fortnite

there's no benefit to that so they're probably just like you know what just don't do it well it's like why have it like why have any social media for any other reason other than go hey great season

with the leafs thanks so much to the fans like because like look what happened who's the pitcher in the in the mlb who was like straight up uh during the all-star game he's pitching and people dig up a bunch of his racist tweets and he like you know what i mean and then jd martinez had that that uh a couple like like um he was like quoting hitler on his instagram from like 2012 and like anti-barack obama's it wasn't really that bad i must have missed no no it wasn't pro-hitler it was just something about the first and second amendment or something like that like he's pro-gun well he didn't quote hitler he did quote hitler oh okay well he wasn't pro-hitler it was josh hater by the way josh hater okay he's a hater uh but no it wasn't pro-hitler

he quoted hitler is what i said oh okay sorry sorry sorry anyway i misunderstood you anyway I think we're a little off track The point No The point I'm trying to make is Was there a point Your social media Should really just be like

Hey Sure was great to do This charitable event Hey Sure is great to be back At training camp Hey Sure is great to be a hockey player

It's too bad It's too bad I am good I think it's It sucks Slowly changing I hope With hockey

Like hockey's so conservative About that stuff And it's I wonder How much of that Is the Lou Lamorello effect Like when Lou finally Retires or dies

I'm not sure what Comes first Let's be honest No I'm serious What happens first Lou retires or dies When that goes away How much of

How much of that Lou effect I feel like that's Actually had an effect On the Leaf Like I think he is That influential That's a guy who can

Get away with blatant Tampering Which he did with John Tavares this year See I don't know I don't know if that's Lou I don't know if that's Lou I think he's been in the

Business long enough To know that humans Are human And even though He's a hard ass You know he'd probably Prefer that you didn't talk about the video games.

I think it's probably other guys who think they're a little bit more clever than they are. You know what I mean? I couldn't tell you who it is, couldn't tell you examples.

I just think that there's that conservative element that's... Oh, it's definitely that element. Yeah. So I wonder if, and rightfully so,

they're taking cues from that guy. He's pretty successful. I think it all goes back to sort of what you said, like OHL players, they don't have a job yet. You know,

if you're an NHL player and you maybe screw up a contract you know because you talked about something whatever at least you've you know you got your signing bonus

you made your money you played in the show for a few years OHL players man if you don't make it to pro because you had a couple dumb tweets about Fortnite or

whatever yeah man I hope you studied yeah it's it's not the way it should be like you shouldn't be punished for a tweet about Fortnite obviously but you know I think I

think it's that this is where we're at like the NBA is tweeting like they're like tweeting at each other and talking about like trash talking each other

online and the NHL is like please don't mention Fortnite. We wonder why the league has an image problem. Counterpoint tweet

about Fortnite so dumb teams don't draft you. Yeah there's a good idea. Wait you mean all of them? Oh well and

then that's the rub Jesse. What if it is all of them? If it's like six of them tweet about Fortnite. It might be all

31 though you're right. Martin Brodeur has left the St. Louis Blues for other opportunities. So when is he signing with the Devils? Oh, he is. He's going to the Devils. Oh, there you go. That's what I heard.

Is that a thing? No, I don't think that's official. Oh, that's not official. I think it's just we all accept it as truth. Sorry, I thought I... Or I thought maybe the Islanders were also another theory. Oh, for Martin Brodeur. Oh, under Lamarill.

From Andrew Strickland, Martin Brodeur told me several weeks ago that he will keep his family in St. Louis as he takes on a new role with the New Jersey Devils. Oh, it's done. The role of New Jersey will be more focused on the business side than the hockey side. So he'll be an ambassador for the team, which makes a lot of sense, right? You know what was so weird is when I think the Blues held his retirement conference and maybe retired his number.

They were the ones that announced his retirement. Like if, you know, the Flames did such a good job with Iggy. Yeah, that was a year after the fact. Yeah. I'm wondering if New Jersey's kind of race year was probably going, we should write this we should figure this out yeah

it's just such a weird way to end your career I wonder what happened was that not Lou as well was Lou not there at that point or was he with the Leafs I wonder what happened

I think that was like one of his last things actually with the Devils it was so unfortunate you know we I made this video

a while back about records by players who spent their entire career with one team and what's interesting is once you get traded

or ask for a trade or whatever you remove yourself from that list so Brodeur was far and away the wins leader and then he got traded

and the guys I was about to say you know who I think is top 5 is Marc-Andre Fleury no not anymore

he's on Vegas so I think I want to say the active leader is Henrik Lundqvist and like the all time leading scorer or something

for guys who stayed with one team is like I want to say it's Heiserman? Or no, Lemieux? Or which one of them has more points?

It's one of those two. I don't know. It's one of those... This is what I think of in August, guys. This is one of those things that they get in August. It's a good list.

It's interesting. You should actually do an article on that. Have you done that? Yeah, I just did the video. Oh, you did the video? You just said that? Okay, so I was trying

to dig up more Martin Brodeur information as you were... I don't blame you for not listening to me because it wasn't interesting. I mean... Anyway.

No, I was trying to see if there was more there isn't so Andy Strickland in with the scoop on that one but did you see this story

Russian billionaire promised his biggest hockey arena in the world of course he did no I didn't now tell me if this is too big

yes doesn't Ottawa have the most seats who's got the most seats I thought they have the most seats blacked out yeah

they do but they had wasn't it like 18,700 or something don't they have like the biggest I want to say the Bell Center

for some reason aren't there like a couple arenas in the NHL that have over 20 it's not Scotiabank Arena they're the most expensive Bell Center 21,000 that's a lot it doesn't even feel like that when you're there

I mean I've never looked around the stands and gone there must be 2,000 extra people here the Bell Center you feel like you're there it's alive even though Montreal sucks right now the air vibrates it's awesome

now this billionaire says the SKA St. Petersburg he owns the or he's the president of SKA St. Petersburg he says that the new arena

will be 22.5 of course because they need to that just a little bit more they just want to have just a thousand more that claim is that too big?

is there a size that it's like it's okay now we're too big now it's too much to see Pavel Datsik's last days though that's true

you could easily fill your arena with healthy scratches because last year SK St. Petersburg had like two teams that was the big issue with Ogiganov

I think and they didn't play they were like the first place team in the league by far and then they added

Vadim Shipachov who was one of their best players the year before and it was absolutely ridiculous but St. Petersburg I think is one of those

teams that can afford to do this because they can afford to do anything because they're owned by a gas prom gas company over in Russia

well it's only going to cost them 295 million dollars somehow that's weird what currency it's a 20 billion rubles

it's 295 million that just sounds so silly when you say that how many rubles 20 billion rubles that's amazing

now if I said 20 billion you'd be like oh okay well that's the biggest arena in the world I guess whatever

but like when you consider that how much did Vegas pay for theirs wasn't it five wasn't it like a huge huge number 295 million

arena is it's in Las Vegas. You know, this is in St. Petersburg, Russia, and I feel like there might be different circumstances that make it slightly cheaper. Oh, as in like what they pay people? It's also not that big. You're building a regular arena and just putting more seats in it.

Biggest in the world, Jesse! It's the ACC, except you just put more seats in. You squeeze it in somewhere in the corner. It's not really the biggest at anything. I mean, if you're a cartoony billionaire, I won the biggest. It's best

Yeah Make biggest And they go okay And then they make biggest And now you bet Why You know what If they can afford to have two teams

They might as well just like Tag team it Like they do in F1 And have SKA 1 and 2 And so they have They have two playing In their current arena And one playing

In this new bigger arena Why not And they can just Tag team the league together And one's in the western conference And one's in the eastern conference That's right It's the KHL

It doesn't matter It just doesn't matter Wasn't there Someone said Someone posted something on our on our reddit page about like oh one of the teams avant-garde avant-garde omsk or something uh they're one of the teams in the siberia region their arena like there's a critical problem with the foundation so they can't play there so they're going to play somewhere just outside of moscow

which how is that going to work because moscow is a western conference city and avant-garde omsk is and the Eastern Conference, just nothing matters there. Like, they bring up new teams and teams fold all the time. It's very difficult to pay attention to. The league that I covered in 2013 looks nothing like the league

that it is five years later. The makeup of it... Well, except for the fact that the same team is still winning. Except for the fact that the same team... It's four teams. Like, it's... It just...

It doesn't matter. No, but it's rigged, remember. Oh, yes. Remember that whole thing. I saw it, yeah. I saw that. It's rigged. They lose.

Ah, they lost to prove it's not rigged. I said things don't matter there. I didn't say it's rigged. I mean, there's a difference between... They probably tried to rig it and didn't do it right. Like, I just don't have faith in that league. And maybe faith in some of those tweets. And maybe no in that as well.

I'm just throwing shade. Should we do the press conference? Yeah, I think we should. Let's do it. One question. Press conference? Yeah, that's where we question period is at the end. It's from our red page.

We filled you in on nothing before doing this show. He sits down and he's like, so how long is this? I'm like, oh, like two hours. He's like, really? What? No. Luke, you can go first. Who's the first coach to get fired this season?

Great question. Coming up. Yeah. And no coach was fired this past season, too. During the season, yeah. During the, yeah. No, wasn't it like the day before the season ended? Who lost their job?

it happened on the second last day of the regular season oh yeah they didn't set the record or whatever they were trying to do because this coach I'll try to look it up a team that's

basically has expectations to contend but is going to stumble hmm let's go with Joel Quimble oh very

wow that's a big name if I'm an okay team I fire my coach and hire Joel Quimble on the spot yeah yeah

he's a great coach I just think there's always been there's always tension there right and whenever there's been some assistance

fired from underneath a guy I think that's a sign he's on rocky ground Tom McClellan also falls under that category although I

yeah I think Connor will put on a cape and make them a little bit relevant for the first couple months what about Ottawa's head coach

whose name escapes me right now oh yeah well it's not it won't be his fault will not be his fault if I'm a

if I'm a team that needs help on defense I hire Guy Boucher right away but I mean it will not be his fault but it might just be like

here distraction shiny thing was it Golitsyn? who got fired? Golitsyn Alan Vigneault was fired on the second last day

of the season why? but Rangers it was the last Rangers finished their season though right?

but do we count it if the regular season wasn't over yet? their season was over I think their season's over I think it's done that's very interesting

did he get picked up? Vigneault? yeah that's stupid I don't know he'll be the first guy picked up that's another guy

I fire everyone for if I'm Edmonton that's a guy I pick up his record of making the playoffs is ridiculous insane yeah

but I'm with you if McClellan if the Oilers aren't above 500 by like American Thanksgiving you're gone well because if you're

Chiarelli you're probably thinking it's him or me yep now does he have the power to fire the coach that's another question

so speaking of places where things don't matter like I just don't understand the power structure at Edmonton yeah I know I don't understand

how many ex-players from the 80s can we get oh and they just jammed Paul Coffey in there didn't they What's his role? I don't know I don't know we I think they can brew coffee into the mix I'm embarrassed. You know what it's the it's the French press conference

I'm sorry I got nothing don't look at me I got nothing and just as we start talking about team executives I realized we didn't talk about all the

Leafs moves because I think it happened right after it happened right after our last show so it's been a week so that's true

we haven't I thought we forgot I guess I have on the radio so I feel like I've talked about it but yeah yeah you've been talking about it

I did a video on it it was a week ago I don't know like do we bother no we definitely bother we should bother but like it is

sort of old news. So this is the problem with one show a week. Two thumbs up for Haley Wickenheiser. Two thumbs up for Haley Wickenheiser. I'm just looking for something here before we move from Haley Wickenheiser. Tell us.

What do you, I mean, this was, we thought this was coming, right? She was sort of already a part of it. Yeah,

so I was there the first day of rookie camp and she walked by me in full gear and I was like, oh, this is kind of strange. You didn't know?

I didn't know she'd been invited because I was there the first day and then she walked out And then it was like, you're not a rookie. I guess Haley Wittgenstein was here. It's kind of cool.

And then, yeah, she was. And then they said, yeah, it was Dubas' idea. And I guess the year prior, she had done the same thing in Edmonton. And it's kind of like, okay. So she did it with a couple teams. But the Leafs, you know, obviously, you know, were impressed by her and went for it. The interesting thing is she's doing medical school at West,

I think in Calgary or around there at the same time she's a superstar from Navin Vaswani who is the managing editor at The Score, the Toronto Maple Leafs and how they hired the other name

that we got as a scout when those hires were announced because obviously there were some promotions that sort of thing, Noel Needham nobody really heard of her at least in our circle and the most interesting part about this is how they hired her so i'm going to read this out to you directly and it says as an organization

uh sorry as the organization sought to add bodies to its scouting department dubious introduced an extra layer to the hiring process candidates filled out scouting reports to an online system that masked their identity this anonymity gave dubious and his advisors the latitude to sift through the reports and flag the most qualified candidates without being influenced by things like gender appearance ethnicity and age among the top scores was noel uh needham and i don't know if it's noel or noel so i'm i think it's noel noel needham uh former minnesota state university women's hockey player who'd never held an official scouting position in the professional or junior ranks the report she filed anonymously elevated her status and ultimately helped her earn a gig

with the leafs which is pretty cool pretty cool man this is awesome this is this is the kind of stuff that i think you know is so great about kyle dubas the fact that he's he's not thinking like the old boys network and another example is he went to Masai Ujiri before pitching Tavares like like just kind of like we don't have to just think hockey we don't have just have to think how would you do this uh men in our office we can we can think well it was Masai that said hire women yeah hire women if I can give you any advice it's hire women yeah and what what gets me about this is you know we went from and I'm sure you remember this Luke having covered the team very closely um you know with in in the nonus era and also in the burke era too let's just be

straight it seemed like you had a guy and then he had his guys and they all agreed on stuff yeah and there was no tension and one thing that i loved about when luke came in when mike babcock came in when kyle dubas came in before when mark hunter came in they acknowledged that there was going to be tension they acknowledged that there was going to be spirited debate and that and if I've said that too. No, but these guys, they weren't tight. No. You know, Dubas didn't have a relationship with Babcock or Lou

prior to Shanahan bringing them all under one roof, right? And, I mean, there's still an element of, you know, people like their guys. Like Dubas has Wes Clark and Victor Carnero. There's this great video from the Sioux Greyhounds, I think 2014, because I was like, I could have swore Victor Carnero was in a video with Dubas click on the video it's Dubas going

well myself Wes Clark and Victor Carnero I'm like wow okay five seconds into the video there's like a bunch of the Leafs

front office right there I mean Carnero's not in the front office he's a scout but you know what I mean

he brought in some of his guys but that little snippet there is a good sign that he's not just

doing that I think it's okay to bring in people you're familiar with as long as you're looking outside of your circle

and yourself as well well yeah and you're going to have some degree of people that you're familiar with but when i was so actually docking made a really good point when we were talking about it yesterday on the fan and i'm going to do her a disservice by paraphrasing her but what she said was no matter what you do in life you're going to have biases right you're going to have things that you gravitate to she said if you were looking for someone who was bilingual and uh she used she used um uh somebody she's like and somebody with the name juliet popped up on your resume you're going to automatically assume that that person's

really good at French, even though they could have heard, there could be Juliette who dropped French in grade 9, right? Like, it's, you don't know. The Habs are trading for Tyler Sagan right now. Well, anyway, I think it's kind of a cool way to do it, and I wonder

what else he's got cooked up that we haven't heard of yet. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's exciting times, and I've talked to a number of the players over the summer about the switch. What'd you think of, you know, Lou leaving it and kyle stepping in and usually if you ask players about stuff that happens at the management level they just give a cliche answer oh yeah you know he's a good guy and and we'll do our best or or

they even say like it doesn't really affect me every guy got excited and um you know like i know he's had one-on-ones like morgan riley told me that you know when he was in town for cadre's wedding dubas made a point to meet with him one-on-one and explain his plan like he's very communicative and Morgan Riley doesn't need a contract or anything right it's just like he's a bit more if there's such a thing as a players GM I think

Toronto has got one now not just communicative but like involved in the community as well yeah and feel like you're part of the vision and you know not just what my own contract situation is but where this whole team's going

Lou I mean he's a very old man He's like 77 or whatever, so I don't expect him to be out at every event and whatever. But the only thing I ever heard about him outside of his GM duties is he had a car dealership commercial on the radio. That's the only thing I heard about him. But I already know about stuff Dubas has in the works that I'm contractually signed to not talk about. But it's going to be coming in about a month. Dubas wants to be involved with Toronto, not just the Leafs. Okay.

What do you think he does, and this is a press conference question for me, how do you think he handles the Levo situation? Yeah, that'll be interesting. I don't think he's going to tell Babcock who to play. Pretty hard to do that. I think he has suggestions. Oh, yeah. I mean, the suggestions are made by the moves, right?

Do you think it's that hands-off? Or I guess that'd be hands-on. I think there's conversations all the time. Yeah. But if you think, I'd be shocked if, you know, Dubas went into Babcock's office and said, I'd like you to play Levo, and Babcock said, okay. I think Levo's kind of like, you know,

in a battle for a fourth-line spot, and unless he wows, then he might be where he was most of the time. Now, do they keep him in that position, or do they trade him? What's his trade value? you yeah oh player to be named later they have there's basically three guys where you could say oh the Leafs should trade yeah for what Pickard what are you gonna get McElhinney what are you gonna get Levo what are you gonna get and that's why he's he's of more use to you um in case of injury than he is for a seventh rounder in 2021 or like I think there was a point in time where

he held some real value but he hasn't played enough that I don't think GMs are like oh I I wonder what I'd have to give off my roster for Josh Levo right now. I'll trade you a six-rounder for the mystery box. If they do go for a big move, maybe he's part of the package. Well, it would be interesting, too, if they won the Cup, Josh Levo's name would be on it, and I think then that all the trials and tribulations in the last few years would probably be worth it at that point, right?

If you get your name on it, you get a ring. Why would it be on the Cup? Doesn't he have to play 42 games? Yes, he went there. When's he playing 42 games? Or one in the final Yeah Or one in the final

Dude, Carrick barely made it To 42 games Yeah Like I don't think it's on the cup Levo doesn't have 42 games Over the past Like two or three seasons

Like I don't think it's happening What about What if he Injury Scores 20 goals No, no But what if he just dominates

In relative comparison To whoever Ennis or Someone else Which he could Yeah And then he Wins the job outright

Just dominate for 42 games Okay Josh That is your job That is your job And then you're a free agent You can go And you can do what you want But get your

Get your name on there man That's all I want that for him Question for me What do you Okay so I'm gonna flatter you right now I look forward to your stuff

Probably the most Out of Almost anyone in hockey I just Think you really get it And your stuff is great It's what I read the most regularly So because I'm looking forward to you

what are you looking forward to the most from this hockey season oh I think I think the Tavares stuff I think the fact

that the Leafs are going to be fun to watch and I get to go see the games live oh you bastard I saw like I saw

the games live when they were trying to be bad on purpose and it's like you know it's I'm not complaining

but there were some where you just know they're phoning it in and the players don't really want to talk to you because what are they going to say

yeah we're bad and it was just like a tense situation because that was the point where they were getting guys and then selling

them off on purpose and no one was ever relaxed but there's a real palpable excitement among the players and in the city and I've never

really sensed it this early and I also think July 1st yeah and then you know also the fact that

it's go time there's no more free passes like if they bow out of the first round again that's going to make for a great story too like I root for good stories Tavares leading the Leafs

out of the doldrums is a great story but oh my goodness we're going into the 2019-20 season and Babcock hasn't got this roster

of magicians out of the first round that's also a good story I don't know if it's a good story I agree that it's a story It's a juicy story I don't I'm going to remember this conversation

In the 7th game of the first round Against Boston this year Side note, I've started soundproofing my room In the basement If they're bad, I'll be prepared I'm calling you People are going to overreact to that first week What?

And that first game Remember the first game against Winnipeg where they just dominated and clobbered them? That's why Steve Mason did his job.

Yeah. That's the reason Steve Mason's no longer working. It was 3-0 after the first. They just murdered them. Yeah. So either that happens or...

And I thought the Jets were going to suck. Or they get shut out or something and then it's like, oh, this didn't work. You know? We needed JBR's hands

in the crease. The first tweet about we need Bozak back. When will we get him back? Maybe JVR was worth it for the

time. We should have made him. Oh my god. Look at his offensive zone starts last year. Unstoppable 5-on-5.

Listen to the fan on the first night they lose. Oh the call is oh my god. Yes. And I can feel Gord Stelic and

Todd Walischko's eyes rolling from here. Just like the post game show going yes. I want to hear that.

Gord just goes and now we're we're going to the phones they don't pay me enough for this it's like I don't know if you ever listened to Jay's post game

or any I think it's any bad team's post game but like literally but Mike Willner just you know having to be

in the past few years you know he was he's so good at shutting down college now he's got to be a little more

political these days but he's so good at going no you're wrong see you later he knows a thousand stats but doesn't know the word polite

get off my phone line you idiot but he is polite when you meet Mike in person he's great it's just like it's just you can tell

how could it not affect you a little bit right they shouldn't make him be nice to callers I want old school Wilner I want I want pre I might be the play-by-play guy

Wilner back just call everyone stupid I love it Luke it's been a real pleasure I'm going to ask you one more question okay

one more question alright what is your and we asked Chris Johnson this and he's coming back on the show just to answer this question and I didn't think

it was that big of a deal but he needs time he needs time what's your crazy thing that you think is going to happen this year

your crazy hot take that you in your bones you go this is going to happen it doesn't have to be about the Leafs but it can be

NHL related I think this is going to happen no one expects it like Mike Oshiello Mike in Buffalo came on the show last year said Hawks

oh no it was Gus or Mike it was Gus Katsaros Gus Katsaros came on said Hawks are not going to make the playoffs and we're like whoa

and then they didn't oh that okay that's a year ago I want to scorch your heat Scoville Caliente let's go PK Subban

is traded again that might happen that might actually happen I wouldn't be stunned hey don't start piggybacking on this I

I know a team that can use it I'm glad Luke agrees with me no I'm glad Luke agrees with me welcome on board Luke I know a team that has his brother that could

use him but enough about all right hey thanks so much Luke really appreciate it follow him on Twitter at Luke Fox jukebox look for his quick shifts call him on sportsnet.ca along with a

billion other stories you never stop you find NHL stories in the middle of summer that is hard work it's amazing thanks for making time for us thanks for having me guys this was a lot of fun

follow the guys on Twitter at Steve underscore dangle at Adam, W-Y-L-D-E, and at Jesse Blake. The Steve Dangle Podcast. Brought to you by Panago Pizza. Order at Panago.com and stuff your face with deliciousness.