The Steve Dangle Podcast - Napoleonic Wars | December 30, 2024

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

On this episode of The Steve Dangle podcast, it's time to be wrong! Steve, Adam, and Jesse make their bold predictions for the NHL in 2025. Visit this episode's sponsors: For all the odds and to learn more visit https://betmgm.com/DANGLE Any opinion expressed is not advice, a promise or suggestion that increases the chance of winning. Gambling can be addictive, please play responsibly. To learn more, visit: https://igamingontario.ca/en/player/responsible-gambling Or if you have concerns about a gambling problem, call ConnexOntario 1-866-531-2600. Must be 19+ or older to play. Find your push. Find your power with Peloton at onepeloton.com/en-CA Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at https://airbnb.ca/host Subscribe to the sdpn YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@sdpn?sub_confirmation=1 Join SDP VIP: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0a0z05HiddEn7k6OGnDprg/join Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/thestevedanglepodcast Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sdpvip/subscribe Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Join us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/MtTmw9rrz7 For general inquiries email: [e-mail] Reach out to https://www.sdpn.ca/sales to connect with our sales team and discuss the opportunity to integrate your brand within our content!Reach out to https://www.sdpn.ca/sales to connect with our sales team and discuss the opportunity to integrate your brand within our content! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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download that. TaskRabbit.ca. Code Dangle. December 30th predictions episode. because you know what there's nothing better than being wrong is it gentlemen oh yeah we get to be wrong in the future oh how exciting is this i love this and i love how militantly people remember what our picks were and you know it's funny because you usually get you might get one and it's not about the failures it's about the successes when you get the one you're like i'm fucking brilliant i'm so smart you should listen to me yes yeah so uh so jesse how do you want to roll through this do you want to just roll through it by award i think you just hand You got the rundown in your hand

You guide us through this We'll take your hand And you'll walk us through this forest of predictions Forest of predictions You guys ready? You got your axes ready to chop it down? Ready to grind If you could be a general in any war

What general war would you general? I'd like to be In the last part of the Napoleonic Wars When he snuck off of Elba And back And his troops confronted him And he said, you wouldn't shoot your general, would you? And they cheered.

And then they all got back to... And then it was Waterloo. That's what I would do. What's the Napoleonic War? The Napoleonic Wars? There were many Napoleonic Wars. Was Napoleon in them? Yeah, he was.

He was. There are like... So there's the wars that happened over the French Revolution, which were the 10 years leading up to Napoleon being emperor. And there were like eight wars of the coalitions, as they were called, because it was France versus everybody. Because all the kings around France were like, hey uh we don't like that you got rid of your king and killed him screw you guys we're putting

his cousin back on the throne or something like that whoa and and then france was like no you're not and then they fought a bunch and then changed governments a bunch of times and then napoleon takes over in like 1799 1800 something like that and then goes don't worry guys there will be peace and then proceeds to conquer all of europe wow over the next 15 years so yes there were a ton of different it's it's all how historians categorize them but there it was almost constant war for 25 years in europe so you which which one of those the last one where he's a little bit less dangerous doesn't have the cavalry to take it really at waterloo and makes a mistake and sends one of his generals off to fight some silly battle when he should have just kept the whole army

together all right and tried to reclaim the the emperor or the empire the french empire you want a general that one yeah i want to be i want to be on the british repression side on that side oh that's cute yeah that's right fight with the redcoats man yeah yeah against oppression and tyranny that's cool i should make that happen for you well listen i i have i there is nothing once you get into it in history that's more fascinating to me than the french revolution it's the most important unbelievable event of our of wasn't there 300 years a napoleon movie that came out there was recently there was was it good or bad it was it wasn't walking phoenix it wasn't great yeah it wasn't great it was that it was napoleon yeah yeah you didn't see that

weird scene where he dances on the stairs no people were upset they used that song oh the joker yeah no no no the joker that wasn't it it was it was good you know what was really good about that movie uh no it was that that was a folly where uh napoleon has a bunch of prisoners and he does the thumbs down oh well how was the napoleon movie with joaquin phoenix um incoherent oh i think it would have been what here's what really i think it's really scott that did it uh he what he nailed was the battle scenes uh they were absolutely period accurate crush everything was great what he didn't nail was all of the storyline and some of it was a little bit fudged he's like when they asked him about it he's like well it's not that big of a deal and it's like it's kind of

an important thing and there was a couple things that were made up but the idea was not that you got a accurate historical representation of napoleon but more you got a sense of the person there has been nobody else i think outside of jesus christ i think in the english-speaking world pardon no no no this is where are we going listen to this listen to this all right no i'm listening outside of jesus in the english-speaking world there has been no person who has been written about more adam that is an actual that's not true that is true that's not true historically for the class who's jesus or the listeners adam it depends on your adam has never heard of lebron james that's right that's right or connor mcdavid no no lebron lebron let's get it okay well anyway

let's get into this predictions maddie you had something to say about napoleon for the nhl yes maddie have you guys ever seen that movie of napoleon dancing in a gym he also did that I also did that. And he voted for Pedro. I get it. Holy and dynamite. Welcome to fatherhood, Matty. Welcome to fatherhood.

That was excellent. All right, let's go. All right, I'll shut up. Now, we're about 30, 32 games in the season, so this is way too early. But let's give me your way too early heart trophy winner, MVP to his team. Let's start big. Well, so this is the thing, right? MVP to his team there are players who I think are I mean year in and year out better there are

players who are this year better than this player okay but no one is more valuable to their team no one not one uh Leon Drysaddle's putting up MVP numbers he's great I disagree uh Nathan McKinnon MVP numbers he's great I disagree it's Kirill Kaprizov to me he's the clear front runner he has 18 at the time we're recording this episode he has 18 more points than his next closest teammate uh he has 47 points on a team with two other guys above 20 points he lost his robin who was matt zuccarello who was scoring still only at a roughly a point a game for a period of time his line mates completely changed and his production was uh fine uh kirill kaprizov to me is the mvp of the nhl i don't have anything to add to that that was also my choice i think he's he's phenomenal um

i i you know i was gonna throw down jack eichel's name for sabers fans uh just for fun but i it's hard to it's hard to disagree with kaprizov you didn't have any former penguins you could have No, I can't. Jesse, what about you? Yeah, this is going to be a pretty boring segment. I also had Kirill Kaprizov. I really thought this was going to be a hot take. How?

He's clear the best player to his team right now. What Minnesota's doing, I don't think anybody really expected them to be at this point in the season this high in the standings amongst the top one, two, or three teams in the league. And the way they're dominating in goal and offensively, the offensive part starts and ends with Kirill Kaprizov and there isn't really like anybody there next to him on this team that can say they're doing as much as him so that is the nature of the award that is what is intended for for players like this having this kind of season on outstanding

teams so I think Kaprizov's got to be front runner right now for the Hart Trophy and I think he keeps it up and he wins it by the end of the season next one I'm gonna go Norris Trophy gentlemen Norris trophy um very very tight race again uh Zach Wierenski has found his way into this conversation shockingly to me first defenseman to hit double digit goals uh at the time we're recording this leading defenseman in scoring uh points is actually Kale McCarr but how your team performs matters in all this and out of the three this guy's team is far and away the best uh this is quinn hughes year oh quinn uh quinn hughes year he's the captain of the canucks um they've faced ridiculous uh adversity uh even before christmas they didn't have their starting goalie

basically the whole time um they just threw it together with kevin lankanen who was magically incredible they didn't have jt miller for a huge chunk of it they essentially didn't have Elias Pettersson he was in that lineup he just wasn't very good um Quinn Hughes is running the show in Vancouver and he's why they're one of the best teams in the NHL wow yep I like that I like that bad no I'm still struggling with that uh I'm still struggling with the everything bagel I had this morning when I had a poppy seed in it well um okay Jesse what's yours I also had Quinn Hughes um Steve says it's Quinn Hughes's year was also his year last year um if you forget he is the reigning norse trophy winner yeah yeah so to phrase it like that was a little odd i think he

hasn't he hasn't relinquished that post as the best defenseman in the league right now and you the way you outlined it with vancouver like that's that's the the main point of emphasis here is that he's been the one stable part of this very good team everything around him seems to be chaos and and floundering and talking about trading petterson and jt miller needs his leave and and the goalie situation just kind of stabilized with demko coming back and quinn hughes has been there this entire time keeping everything afloat keeping this team great defensively and i think he deserves to be rewarded for that again and last season no now it's his year and then this year um mccarr's ahead of him in points and i believe last year he didn't finish

first in points either uh from a defenseman and once again i don't think that needs to be the bar that we set the norris trophy from eric carlson um because adam's gonna love this eric carlson when he won the norris trophy probably didn't really deserve it that year because defensively he was a disaster but that 100 points round number is what swayed the voters and this year i don't think you can look just at the points quinn he was even though he's back in the points race deserves the north show well i mentioned i mentioned uh um demko being out of the lineup miller being out of the lineup how about uh the dude who was acquired to be quinn hughes defense partner yes in philip ronick like the fact that he's still doing this is pretty crazy yeah i'm

going with kale mccarr uh and i go not a bad choice i go with mit kale mccarr because when the colorado avalanche had like nine guys injured and just to correct myself um quinn hughes did lead defenseman in points last year had 92 camel car had 90 well there you go right there a little two-point difference um i'm just looking at my fantasy team right now which kale mccarr was my first pick and this guy has 38 points in 33 games as of this recording and so you look at man you look at that kind of point production from a guy who lost just about all the finishers in his lineup uh and they were already sort of limited uh you have guys on long long term injuries i'm thinking new guys like drew and who still isn't back and uh and they were able to survive bad goaltending

tons of injuries and he miko ranton and nathan mckinnon basically saved their season if they're gonna have a season it's because of those three guys no land of scog yeah i feel like that matters someone posted something today that uh land of scogs been out so long that he was never actually a teammate with alexander georgia that's nuts that's insane it's a crazy stat insane i had no idea it'd been that long does it uh ruin your argument that quinn hughes right now as of this recording is on a better points per game uh scale than uh i still think who's played three more games i think kale mccarr has had his team's gone through more adversity and he's handled it better because there are some adverse times here in vancouver and not that quinn's a problem he's not

but uh he's actually the solution to the problem the caducks problem was they didn't have their starting goalie the avalanches problem is they didn't have any goal yeah exactly and and i think that there's a little bit of tent intensity in the vancouver dressing room a little bit of drama but like they'll figure that out i still i love quinn hughes if he wins great for him doesn't sound like it kale mccarr is my pick yeah you're a piece of crap i was like you hate that man ate uh all right here's an interesting one jack adams really oh man really struggled with this one uh to me there's three there's a bunch of teams that didn't make the playoffs last year that are some of the best teams in the league yep um and usually i would defer to those coaches for me i'm gonna go

with the guy whose team made the playoffs last year and they're elite this year um spencer carberry great the washington capitals are fantastic um they're i mean they're improved in basically every regard um and they dialed back the clock with ovechkin lost him and didn't even like break stride like this is one of the best teams in the nhl and they have not changed a whole hell of a lot um like they did some things on defense that definitely helped for sure like logan thompson was their big swing and net um i think carberry is doing something that a lot of coaches struggle with and that is icing the best team possible game in and game out and also developing young players on the fly so for me it's spencer carberry uh same thing uh for every reason

that steve mentioned and i i say spencer carberry because the washington capitals are playing a game i've never seen them play before which is hockey we're gonna fight for every puck all the time until it gets annoying uh that's that's the weirdest thing about the capitals right is like they used to be more a little bit more free flow uh you know defer to ovechkin they had their stars kuznetsov backstrom all those guys uh john carlson still there um and who was the guy before it green well who was the guy that scored 30 goals for them mike green my green yeah yeah um they're not that anymore and they've been able to take some risks like the pierre de luke dubois deal spencer Carberry deserves to a ton of credit for the way Pierre-Luc Dubois has played this season not the

21 points in 30 games that is a salvageable contract yep and a salvageable player and he's got a role right they're not you know flipping to the fourth line because it's like you need to you need to be better the way that you know he was handled in LA and listen some of it's on him but I think you need to have a coach who sets your mind right and gets you back to where you were and I think that's what that that organization with Spencer Carberry's done I give him the Jack Adams in a wash not even close Dubois only got four goals but 17 assists like he doesn't need to carry the goal scoring burden for Washington no Strom McMichael Protas uh Ovechkin even though he's injured and Wilson all have double digit goal totals and Chikrin maybe by the time uh this

is released we'll have 10 wow which is i mean maybe he should be in like the outer norris conversation because that's crazy it is crazy jesse uh for me the way this award works is there's a team that was uh further down in the standings last season the washington capitals and they are further up in the standings this year than the washington capitals they didn't make the playoffs last year and only finished with 87 points and on november 27th 2023 the world changed because that was the day creed bratton i'm sorry was let go of his job oh dean evison was fired and the minnesota wild brought in john heinz and from there you know they struggled all season long they missed the playoffs as i said and with only 87 points the capitals made it so

i don't know how you can give spencer carberry the jack adams and this season they to me are the best team in the league and i think they're going to finish at the top of the league and that right there that going from that position the standings to the next one with essentially the same core of players to me is the definition of the jack adams he's coached them to this next level with elite play from kaprizov and their goaltending can i give an honorable mention because i'm surprised none of us mentioned this person but i thought about it sheldon keef yes yes he's my pick preseason to win the jack out the yep the devil's stunk made a bunch of additions yes and now they don't stink it's great that's often how this award works I feel like I he was gonna be my second

choice but I feel like John Hines has less uh to work with from this offseason I agree then Sheldon Keefe who got everything from uh the Tom Fitzgerald uh to to make this team good you know this offseason and John Hines didn't get as much yeah people people were like oh yeah the devils are going to be good now i i didn't really hear a ton of that with the wild right nobody said that and look where they are so that's my pick for the jack i wonder where i put the wild because i've always liked their system but i wonder where i put them in the season previews i can't even remember they've been so milquetoast yeah they have a decade in the conversation ish yeah they'll make the playoffs i think yeah uh all right uh vesna trophy jesse i want to start with you i got i got

theme here what was wrong no nothing i just thought that was a great choice i just wondered i just wonder what jesse's gonna i got a theme here philip gustafson ah okay i don't know if you're following along but um the way he's played with mark andre flurry who is in his elder years you know gustafson has to take the reins there flurry can't start all these games so gustafson i think is gonna backstop the best team in the league to uh very high up in the standings and what he's doing with this team in front of him who we've all admit isn't the most impressive roster yeah i think he's currently third in the league amongst goalies who um have started at least uh five starts and save percentage i think you reward that player um because he's not a fraud

like connor halibut no steve who's eventually gonna fall down the safe percentage list oh is he yeah uh i disagree i am gonna go with um what's his name uh connor hellebuck oh that that that guy who's gonna finish with a 9 uh 19 save percentage oh yeah because it's got to be under 920 right jesse i tell you what he better play every game for the rest of the season and be ass while he's doing it because he is currently 19 5 and 1 um he has he has fewer losses than his backup goalie has games played um he which is stupid he's a 926 which is notably above 920 seven seven points to falter for the rest of the year it's gonna happen the the jets are trending down in general because of strictly goaltending but he is the reason i think that

trend will stop um he was a 921 the year before 920 the year before that and uh before that oh it doesn't matter it might be jesse's toughest take no it might be a toughest day hey it's not over yet jesse i don't know i don't know i know they call games at the second intermission they say oh no it scores three two at the end of the second intermission let's call the game he's gonna he's gonna finish with a 919 and jesse's gonna lose he's gonna have a party oh my god confetti in here again or i'm gonna throw a live show the 919 hellebuck's a fraud party the hellebuck is over partying hellebuck could win the vesna and jesse could still win his bet yeah that's the whole point crazy um i'm gonna say connor hellebuck as well we man we've matched up a lot

connor hellebuck because a he's my favorite goaltender in the nhl uh b because he's awesome uh c because the winnipeg jets uh he is there listen if somebody is going to win a heart trophy that isn't a forward, it's going to be Conor Hellebuck. And it should have been several times. And the Winnipeg Jets got out to an almost historic start this year. Not quite.

The Leafs are still better. But I think it's pretty important. You know, this team was like 18-1-1 for a while there or whatever it was, right? Like they have a crazy record. I think Conor Hellebuck's play has been amazing. The fact that they got him at seven and a half million bucks

is amazing he you know here's a guy that wants to stay in winnipeg wants to build something uh they had ticket selling issues they're bringing the people back like man got vesna trophy please connor hellebuck you deserve it remember the vest is always like a reputational award too because it's voted on by the gms and so you could have a goalie that does like a crazy job but if they don't do it for two or three years then they don't win the vest nobody nobody has like a like the reason i didn't go with philip gustafson is because philip gustafson this is he's been good but this is his first year at the top and nhl gms don't watch other teams they just don't they straight up don't and so they'll go with uh the guy that i know and i remember seeing him who has

the best record that one yeah that's kind of how it is i don't know how seriously they take it to be sometimes uh while while we're here with who votes on trophies i still don't understand why broadcasters vote on the jack adams uh the award we just talked about i don't know like they got involved them in something do you the broadcasters don't maybe the journalists broadcasters i think maybe it was like they threw the journalists something so they threw the tv and radio people something you know the newspaper people got something it's just it's a little odd i think they just want everybody to participate but i agree you know i just i just don't know if they're the the the experts on who's the best coaches like why the guys in the booth the the thing is is that

it's either that like it's either we do it this way with these awards or it's some shadowy political committee like the grammys where you know robert no you mean the hockey hall of fame robert plant and and allison cross when when uh uh album of the year when it should have gone to like 50 cent or something like that you know what i mean like it's just that is that's a thing that happened oh that was like some weird country album nobody listened to and so as much as i agree it's imperfect i'll take this one thank you very much if that makes sense right and there's very little campaigning that goes on right like behind the scenes and some of these award shows oscar committee grammy committee they all have like you know there's like presentations given to them

they're giving gifts they're given yeah the nhl has like award courting like you never get to the end of the year and you're like oh i just i didn't think that guy was getting nominated like it was there's campaigning that starts and it starts very early oh you think so oh yeah like if you spring zach warrensky on us in in april or like in june rather we're all gonna freak out but so you got to give people some runway and be like zach warrensky's having a great season and you go what no way and you look into it and you're like oh gosh gosh darn it he is like you can't just You can't just spring that on people. Right.

Kirill Kaprizov is better than Leon Dreisaitl. What? You can't just spring that on people, and then you've got to look into it and, oh. Maybe he is. I just think if you are designating the Professional Hockey Writers Association to vote on the most prestigious awards, like the Kahn-Smythe and the Hart Trophy, why not just give them the Jack Adams II? Why not give them the Vezina II if they're in charge of the most important awards?

Why not these other awards as well? that's my opinion it's a good question it's a good question it makes a good point sometimes life throws your curveballs and you don't have time to get to them and that's where task rabbit comes in and i think you should check this out because here's the deal one of the things one of the weird quirks about my condo building is that they use my floor to repel down and clean all the windows but they never clean my windows oh and their way around on that is like well it's a patio window you can do that yourself and i'm like well hang on a second what if i don't want I don't have the stuff

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the Calder, Rookie of the Year. What do we think, guys? Well, who do you want to start with? Or Steve, do you want me to start with? I could do it. Yeah? I think he wants to. I think he's dying to start.

Who are we going to start with? Is it me? No, I just got to... Well, since you asked. I just got to know if you guys want the popular pick. Yeah. Or if you guys want the truth. Oh, God.

Because Shark's Truthers rise up. Macklin Celebrini. We matched again. I can't believe that. It is Macklin's year. Matvey Michkov. He's doing the fancy plays. The Michigans.

The Michigans. Macklin is doing the Macklegans having more goals per game. He's also doing the Mackle points. He offers Mackle more. He has more points per game than Michkov.

He's second tied for second in rookie scoring, despite missing time to start the season. Eight less games than Mischkoff. Eight fewer. Learn words. Eight fewer games. Is that such an egregious grammatical error? Sorry.

It's a tendency as an author. Best selling. Sorry. Best selling. Twice. um eight fewer games than matt k matt v uh fraud cough and uh i i think the the sharks will have the truth etched on the calder trophy yeah i also have celebrini uh what i think i think it's an easy pick here he's he's unbelievable for the time that he's played like it like is that eight less games

and um you can you could look into some of mitch goff's numbers if you really want to go to the fraud watch uh 12 power play points well they don't count you know are you feasting on the power play you know the kucherov didn't get the heart trophy because everyone said he's a power play merchant so if we're taking away awards also he didn't deserve it but no no no don't go to that argument um no i think what macklin's doing is so impressive in his rookie season he's gonna end up with like 25 goals if he keeps this pace up and as a rookie um i think he's just been more impressive on a lesser Sharks team than what the Flyers got.

So, yeah, I'm going to celebrate. What those guys said, I'm Macklin, and I also like the fact that he throws some punches, too. The guy doesn't give... As CJ keeps saying, the guy is box office.

Oh, I didn't say who's more fun. No, no, no. Macklin's more fun. Well, that kid is going to sell tickets on away games. There are going to be Sharks fans that are following the team around. Oh, yeah.

You know what he's more? What? Truthful. Stop. More minutes. two on and a more important role on the team i get they're worse but he's playing he's playing heavier minutes than than mitch goff i think he gets the edge yeah and it's funny to say anybody's worth worse than the flyers but the flyers are actually pretty good this year they might make

make the playoffs they might almost make the playoffs again i don't know but uh yeah uh okay and then so the last uh the next one guys is we're gonna go to division champs all right let's start in a western conference here who do you think has the pacific the pacific features teams if you don't know uh like the knights the kings the oilers the canucks the flames the crack and the sharks and the ducks um the la kings have surprised a lot of people this year the oilers have surprised a lot of people with how they've been lately uh division's pretty tight who do we give it to uh i actually hate how tight the pacific division is because it later down the line we're gonna talk cup and it just makes that decision so frustrating but the hockey's gonna be unreal

yeah it's crazy uh to me the team that wins the pacific division is the vegas golden knights um like you gotta be hot you're gonna be cold um you know you just hope that you're hotter more than you're cold the oilers are hot right now when do you make your move like in in any race at like any distance race they go okay here's where i pull ahead right how do you pull ahead of the vegas golden knights because they just keep winning i just unless they have some slump in them that they've shown zero sign of um no one's passing them jesse blank the vegas golden knights are an interesting team because i don't know if you're aware of their goaltending steven I am quite well believe me this was my big hesitation Aiden Hill right now they're starting

I won't even start there let's start with Elias Samson let's go we all know Elias Samson's numbers who started well he's seven and seven three and one on the year 11 starts same percentage 897 which is insane because I want to say through his first five games he was like a 920 Aiden Hill their starting goaltender 20 starts 13 5 and 2 very very good in 899 save percent whoa just about league average below 900 it's below 900 of their goaltenders they're getting awful goaltending goaltending and despite that they are currently first in the division and that is why they are going to finish first in this they are a full team that is able to play in front of awful goaltending and they've proven that consistently over the years that no matter what type of

goaltending they get they can win games and this year more than any other so i think the vegas golden knights uh have proven that they can do this and who cares what kind of goaltending they get and then if everything regresses to the mean in terms of their goaltending and it's above a 900 think about how much better they will be at that point so i'm picking vegas uh i am going to be the third guy to pick vegas i'll tell you why mine's a little bit different i'm looking at the home and away splits and the oilers have a really positive home and away split vancouver is there are ways they're 10 2 and 1 away they're sub 500 at home by two games as as of this recording actually by by five games they're sub 500 at home um vegas is good at home 11 and 3 and they're good

away 9 5 and 3 this is a team that is consistent they continually do this and here's the problem And this is what we've re-ran into in the Atlantic division for a while with Boston and Tampa. Once these teams figure it out and they're all sort of entering their prime together or in their prime together, they just know how to do it. They just know how to win. The lightning at the beginning of this decade coming out of the pandemic just

knew how to win regular season Atlantic division titles. The Boston Bruins the last couple of years, they just kind of knew this is how we're going to do it. Oh, we had a slight little, nope, sorry, we're back.

And they're doing it again, by the way, in the Atlantic. We can go back to that. But the Vegas Golden Knights know how to do this. I'm really impressed. Their LA is way better than I thought. I think Vancouver will turn it around. I know that they've been very good, but they're, you know, they had some injuries. You know, Lankanen is now out.

Hronik is out. You know, you got Demko back. So there's been a little of uncertainty. And apparently TJ Miller and, or sorry, JT Miller and Elias Pedersen aren't getting along. Whatever. They'll figure that out. the Oilers start, I think, puts them behind. I don't think they can

catch Vegas if Vegas just continues to be solid as a rock, which they always are. So let's move on to the Central Division, featuring teams like, and not everybody knows the division alignment, which is why I'm going to give you all the teams. The Jets, the Wild, the Stars, the Avalanche, Utah HC, Blues, Blackhawks,

and Preds. I just want to let you know that I believe I picked the Nashville Predators to win the division and they are in last place in it. Do you need a towel? You got some egg on your face that's a bad it's a bad pick it's a bad pick so at this point in the season who do you have to win the division gentlemen uh this is wild because they are not the wild and also not the jets either uh i have the dallas stars oh they've had a bit of a rocky start

yeah robertson's a little underperforming and then he's not getting the thing they have i would i I would categorize the Stars as a team that is good year in and year out that has room to grow, right? Sort of like Tampa in recent years, like we've talked about. They hit their stride as the season goes. I expect the Stars to get better as the season goes. They have ground they need to make up. The Jets are trending down.

the wild are so wildly good that i wonder if they can keep it up like i still expect them to be very good and make the playoffs and be competitive and all that but even if they trend downward a bit again how do you make your move if the stars make a move i could see them passing both those teams and win the division jesse blake this is an easy one for me uh as you can see i have a theme throughout this episode is the minnesota wild are going to be very good i think they win this division they overtake the fraud jets uh very easily come the middle of the season and they don't look back because of great goaltending because of great coaching because of kareel caprizov uh the minnesota wild win the central for all those reasons uh and more i will take uh

i will i will agree with jesse i think that no the away i wanted to get one where we had three different uh the minnesota wild especially their away record 12 2 and 3 outrageous and they don't have the goal differential the goofy goal differential that the jets do which is like plus 36 um but they've got a sustainable one and their points percentage as of this recording is actually higher than winnipeg this team is solid all the way through they're going to survive the injury to jacob middleton and then he's going to come back and he's going to be great um i'm curious for the wild what they want to do with the trade deadline because i think the jets are going to be very aggressive uh and i'm curious as to what the the wild are going to do in response that in fact

you could say that the stars and avalanche too will be extremely aggressive um but it's going to be a dogfight between the two of them i just give the edge to the wild because i do think they are a more solid team all the way through even without that crazy winnipeg start that they had the wild are within a point of the mess of this recording which is kind of nuts hot damn yeah it's crazy it's crazy um okay next one we are going to do the metropolitan formerly known as the mid-tropolitan not anymore featuring teams like the capitals the devils the hurricanes the Flyers, the Rangers, the Penguins, the Islanders, and Le Blue Jackets. It's the

have and have not to Paulism. It is. It sure is. This is for richer or for poorer. And let me ask you guys, who do you think wins this division? Currently, the Capitals are in first as of this recording. I'm going to stick with the Capitals because they've

shown no sign of slowing down. 12-3 on the road. They're pretty good at home as well. nine four and two but that road record is absurd at the time we're recording this episode they are i believe the hottest team in the nhl at eight one and one they uh are tied for the highest goal differential in the nhl at plus 36 um and they've played fewer games than all the teams in the metro around them they can weather injury storms they have two good goalies they have a real

solid decor uh why wouldn't i say the caps jesse blake i i my pick is gonna go with the wild my pick is the caps but i want to give some love to the devils i just think i just think the the caps are a little deeper at this point and seeing some of the devils games i i don't think they can be as consistent throughout the rest of the season as the capitals have shown that they can but i think the devils will make it really close to the top of the division and then just kind of uh fall a couple points short but just for everything steve said i trust the goaltending a little bit more uh the defense looks spectacular jacob chikorin uh has been an unbelievable uh having an unbelievable season crazy when you leave ottawa what happens he's one of the best you know ottawa and arizona

he's one of the best uh off-season acquisitions this summer who's better who's a better summer acquisition and for the price they paid was just like not money uh something dubious did uh definitely so i'm gonna go with i'm gonna go with the pittsburgh penguins win the division so there you go uh i'm going with you i am i want to go i'm gonna go capitals and and really the points percentage difference is almost 80 points percentage or sorry 0.80 percentage points at this time so i'm gonna i'm gonna just go with the safe bet the washington capitals i do want to shout out the carolina hurricanes who um really did have a um a loss of talent this offseason and one of the things we talked about in the previews were like who plays for them and you look at the

emergence of a guy like marty niches uh you look at other guys that have stepped up i want to shut out their system but again when you when it comes to the washington capitals they are such a pain in the ass to play against teams are going to be like oh this is you know how you have bad days at work the washington capitals are a bad day at work they're not a fun team to play against this is not going to be something that you enjoy and I think um I think Spencer Carberry's just spectacular as I said earlier in this episode I just think he's a fantastic coach and um Washington Capitals all the way they've got the right veteran talent and when Ovechkin comes back watch out watch out uh can I remind everyone of uh the Jacob Chikrin saga coming to and leaving Ottawa sure please

bro uh from hockey db uh jacob chikrin traded from the arizona coyotes to the ottawa centers for a conditional first round pick in 2023 a conditional uh second round pick in 2024 and a second round pick in 2026 traded out of ottawa to the washington capitals for nick jensen and a third-round pick in 2026. Wow. Dude. Wow. Holy shit.

That is every bit as bad as the Dabring cat shit. Yeah. That is horrible. Yeah. Bad asset management there. Good for him. I'm going to take us to the Atlantic Division. For those who don't know off by heart,

the Maple Leafs, the Panthers, the Bruins, the Lightning, the Senators, the Red Wings, the Sabres, and the Canadians, I'm going to start this one off. I'm going to go with the hometown favorite Toronto Maple Leafs. And the reason I'm going to go with the Toronto Maple Leafs is this. They figured out how to win at home. As of this recording, they're 14-4-0.

Watch, they're going to lose their next three games. But what's amazing about the Toronto Maple Leafs this year is they have transformed their style of play, much to the consternation of people that loved the way they played before. I got tired of it. I see a Toronto Maple Leafs team this year that gets a lead and keeps it. and i yeah i remember generally generally speaking yeah i mean every team gives up a lead but with the leafs in previous years it was like they're gonna get a three goal lead and they will give

it up how many it better not happen before the start of the third period or they're gonna lose it like like through the first 30 ish games they i think they've had a lead and choked on it in a loss once yeah they've had a few bend but don't break games they're they're they've held on they're tied for third last in the division in in goals for this season hilarious and which is hilarious when you consider and i think with guys getting healthy mcmahon healthy tell me healthy matthew's healthy uh patch ready healthy that is going to change and the one thing that will not change is their strength on defense and their goaltending and i know anthony stallers is out for at least another month with the four to six weeks with a pebble on the knee announced

today but uh uh i'm talking about this as if it was a December i know you know what i said i'm giving context here what i didn't have to chime in yeah well i did let him go i'm kidding i think the Toronto Maple Leafs are freaking due they've only won six in their entire history and the last one was that stupid Canadian division during COVID uh so Toronto Maple Leafs division winner Steve Dangle you're next uh this team uh won the Stanley Cup last year and they like to let you know it um they have not been great all the time they've had some points of the season where they've been downright mediocre to bad yep but every time they come face to face with a divisional rival who is challenging for their crown they remind them where they belong right and that's the

florida panthers um they're hot right now um they're the leafs have been so much better than i think most people thought and they're playing unbelievable and they're winning games that they deserve to win and they're winning games that they don't deserve to win and that's all led to they're tied with florida uh florida's gonna win this division folks okay all right i like that jesse blake i also have the florida panthers and it's not that i don't believe in the toronto maple leafs and that they've played a great style of hockey this year and i love what craig brube has done creating this team that loves low event hockey and they can just slog out games they don't need a bunch of goals but they can they can win two one hockey games it's beautiful stuff but

i think there always comes a time in this in the least regular seasons where they drop a couple where they shouldn't and it's proven consistent year in and year out and i don't believe the florida panthers have that in them i feel like yeah they are all win aren't they are just more consistent of a hockey team the starting dennis hildeby scares me it's not a great thing that they got to do this for a month with wool and hildeby like that's not that's not a recipe for success from what we've seen from hildeby so so far this season so i think they drop a couple their games there because the goaltending is not going to be as good as it was through the fall through the winter so i think florida is just a more consistent and overall uh better built team

uh for this regular season stretch so i'm gonna go florida eking out the atlantic do we see matt murray back up matt murray can't play hockey okay he's injured right now all right so if he gets healthy there's a job waiting for him can matt murray stay healthy for a day do we see the best goaltender in the ahl order act him off uh come up uh nope they called up hildeby he was okay after starting off. Terribly. I could easily see the Leafs claiming the first goalie put on waivers.

Really? Yep. Why not? Why not? If Murray's hurt and you have two kids who you're not too sure about. Claim a goalie. That's a good idea.

Claim a goalie. I would love for Matt Murray to be healthy. Like, for everything he's been through. Yes. Everything has been injury troubles and not being able to play. But once again, he's injured and they don't have a timeline

on when he's going to return as of when we're recording so we'll see as of when we're recording again four to six weeks that's 14 to 19 games that's a lot it's a lot so okay how many of those games do you expect like literally you're looking for someone to pick up half a dozen games yeah right maybe more you just need somebody to go basically 500 in those games eight yeah yeah eight yeah if someone is on waiver like i literally don't care what their name is if they're a living breathing human being who's played more than 20 nhl games claim them we shouldn't spend too much time on this because now this can matter yep no need to go into that i i like it though i'm excited about that idea

i like that idea yeah um future all right bold prediction bold prediction for the trade deadline gentlemen i can go first do it go i think at this 2025 nhl trade deadline the pittsburgh penguins will buy i think we see them win a couple games here through the later part of december early january kyle dubas looks at the roster he says i got sydney crosby i've got you genny malkin i got to do this they're playing decent oh is that michael bunting playing well what's going on here maybe i don't necessarily sell the futures but i swap pieces in this lineup for guys who are good right now so i could see him totally getting to the trade deadline looking at the situation maybe picking up a couple picks for expiring or whatever but also flipping some expiring assets for players

he thinks are going to be good this year and next year to try and keep this window open for Crosby. That's my trade deadline. That was well thought out. All right, golf claps. Did you guys not think out your... No, I just thought I hadn't thought of that

perspective. I think it's good. No, it doesn't mean we didn't think of ours, Jesse. It means that we're giving you a compliment. God damn it. You thought I better think. He can't take a freaking compliment. I better think of mine. Compliment Jesse when you see him.

He's going to die. Adam. Die of embarrassment. I just hope you did your homework. Go ahead, Steve. Jesse said his hot take is the... Bold prediction. His bold prediction.

Sorry. I'm thinking of another episode that I'm not prepared for. His bold prediction is that the Pittsburgh Penguins will be buyers. You stole the words right out of my mouth. Except I'm going with another P team. The Predators are going to be buyers. at the trade deadline. And there's a couple reasons for that.

Number one, they are built to be buyers. They bought this offseason. They have, what is it, three first-round picks. They are set up to be buyers. They put themselves in a position to be buyers this season. Number two, and maybe a more important reason than that, they don't know what they're doing. they have no idea what they're doing so either they buy because they've all of a sudden gone

you know skipped a u2 concert and gotten hot and they're actually doing well and they think they can do it or they buy to try to be like what doug wilson not doug wilson doug uh armstrong yeah did a few years ago where he was trying to get guys like timo meyer yep um even though the blues weren't going to make the playoffs they're trying to do stuff to set them up for the future um the preds may have a fire sale okay of sorts but i think they're gonna buy more than wow yeah wow okay all right i like that steve i like that a lot okay mine is uh a two-parter that will come out a little bit later in the show but this is the first part uh the rangers will be sellers at the trade deadline and and there's more to this but the rangers will be sellers and the

reason the Rangers are going to be sellers is they sort of have to be if Chris Drury is going to stay there these guys don't like them and they're going to have to move some guys out and at least bring in some guys who are somewhat neutral towards Chris Drury otherwise you're going to have a full-blown mid-off between general managers and players that don't want to play for him so I think the Rangers will sell but there's a second part of this coming on now hmm that brings me to the next thing which is who that is currently in the playoff picture will miss who that is currently not will actually get in and uh i am telling you for my second half of this this is why i structured it this way that the rangers who will be sellers are going to make

the playoffs this year make they're gonna make it oh wow they're currently out but the seller they're gonna sell and make the playoffs this year and they're gonna get some good stuff back too wow so which which one are you doing sorry he skipped to the i skipped it don't worry he wants to do the who makes the playoffs who's currently yeah and then who's not in a playoff spot yeah and i will say that the senators will miss i'm still not i'm happy for them they're in the second wild card right now this isn't a hate on for the senators i'm still not convinced so you're hitting us with both yeah yeah so you can do go ahead do both i would like you to do both um i actually had the same answers as adam oh wow i thought the senators are the easiest free square on

who's in a playoff spot and who won't make it i don't trust that the senators are good i don't believe that um the goaltending they get is is gonna hold up because it every time they have a goaltender who's good and he goes to ottawa it's the defense in front of him that falters i don't believe this team structure is good enough to to uphold an 82 game schedule and keep this team in a playoff spot so i think the senators who are currently in a playoff spot are gonna fall off and i think that rangers despite everything that's going on in manhattan and all of the controversy around their front office and on the ice and the coaching staff that they'll put it together and get into a playoff spot there's too many good players in that locker room for them not

to make the playoffs so rangers in sends out i have flip-flopped uh several times and i had that exact thing and i deleted both teams wow um the uh let this be a little time capsule this could be really funny by the time people listen to it last five games for lena solmark 5-0-0 five goals against 0.99 goals against average 966 save percentage one shutout those are amazing there's a reason i said what i said oh yeah i don't believe the goaltending they're getting right now is gonna stay oh yeah so let me hit you with this non-playoff team that makes it give me the Philadelphia Flyers nice they started really poor um Mitch Kov wasn't performing yep Fedotov was awful yeah Olisav was awful everyone they put in net was awful they're a very competent team

they're in the mix right now they're in the conversation despite being really bad okay you don't need to get yourself back into the conversation after being bad we've seen that right there's lots of teams around the league were bad and they decided you know what let's stay here let's just keep being why don't we simply be bad yeah so let's go with the flyers wow this is the reason i wanted to go last current playoff team that misses this team has a minus 19 goal differential i like that you're backing this up with stats and not just gut feel like i did this team is a minus 19 goal differential this team has fired their coach this team's best players are getting old and a lot of them have retired

i'll never learn i will never you're not gonna ever learn and there's a bunch of teams nipping at their heels too oh you're not gonna say it the boston no way no way boston bruins tampa is challenging for that third spot and after that it's up to the wild card and there are too many eastern teams in the mix and the metro well the metro too is is i think strong the atlantic the metro team is or the the metro is strong the sends are at on the day we're recording this in a playoff spot with their goalie playing immaculately. The Flyers are tied with the Sens. The Rangers

who couldn't be playing worse are still just one win out from being right back in the playoffs. Pens are there on their way up. The Islanders are there. There isn't really a team out of

the mix, truly out of the mix in the East right now. Boston. Wow. i'll never i'll never ever ever ever ever ever ever learn now uh the next question and this is a big one do the leafs make it out of the first round uh perpetual question in toronto a question we ask every day that we wake up every year who wants to take this one to start i'll do it uh i so i have to look at what the matchup is going to be yes based on what i just said yes

right so it's not going to be boston that's for sure it's not going to be boston if it is they're in trouble you said tampa i think it's going to be tampa i think it's the two three leafs ideally have home ice advantage there um so it would be a repeat of i believe the leafs had home ice in 2022 when they lost yep and in 2023 when they won i think this leafs group is a better version of the one that beat tampa in 2023 i think they're more set up to i mean geez even through the regular season they've been torturing this team so i'm gonna say yes they do they make it out around one i will say the leafs also i i agree i think they're gonna make it out around one and they're gonna be playing the boston bruins uh and i think the leafs are gonna win the division

as i said they're gonna win the division boston will be in the wild card because i look at tampa's gold differential right now and it's way better it's not way better than boston so i think they're they get some more wins in their future plus 30 um i think the boston bruins for the leafs to do it and really do it they have to beat the bruins they have to beat the bruins i mean it'd be better it had it has to happen at some point and even though the bruins might be a little bit older might be a little bit you know some of their better players have retired whatever they've traded one of their great goaltenders to a divisional rival and really didn't get that much in return uh the boston bruins are a weapon in the playoffs you cannot deny it all they got

to do is get in and if they're playing the toronto maple leafs man it's going to be a great series but i think the leafs can take them they could have taken them at any point they just didn't and i think this is of the years to take them this is the year the most satisfying stanley cup win in recent memory is still the 2018 capitals yeah i guess they beat because they had to beat the penguins oh penguins i mean sorry uh i like the the shot of the st louis one because brad oh i like that i mean yeah no i enjoy it well uh if anyone's team was historically if anyone had a boogeyman historically i guess that would be st louis with boston yes absolutely beat boston hey a lot of fun jesse blake i imagine uh yeah why not uh try something

for the fifth time you know i think the toronto way of beliefs go up against the boston bruins once again and they finally do it you know this not the first time not the second not the third not one not the four three but maybe the fifth time they finally do it so i think the least make it out of the first round like i said they're playing playoff hockey this year i think that's something we can't say about least teams of the past where they're just they're running gun they're doing a bunch of they're getting a bunch of goals and they're not getting a bunch of stops i think by the time the playoffs roll around and Stallers and Wall are full health and this team

can complement their great goaltending and great defense with a little bit of scoring, they can take this Boston team and win a round. I think at least win at least four games this playoffs. I like that. Yes, Jesse Blake. That's three that believe it. We believe. using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows

to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. Okay.

We will never... Four Nations Finals. Who wants to take it? Who's playing and who wins? I don't think we need to overthink this. Canada versus US and Canada wins because we've been

dumping on them for months and we've been talking about the goaltending and they're going to get immaculate goaltending out of whoever plays because it's hockey and hockey's dumb and I again have shown a complete unwillingness

to learn. Ah, you know what Steve, I love your picks. They're not similar to mine, but I will say that I hope what you say happens go ahead adam uh you want me okay i think it's going to be usa sweden i think sweden has thrown away a lot of opportunities in international play lately that they'd like to have back uh i think the team usa is absolutely stacked and i think uh hockey canada needs to learn a lesson from some of the picks that they've made i i just think that they've uh it feels a little bit like torino again uh and that's to me right now and listen i'll be rooting for them the

whole damn way uh but i think the u.s and sweden made much better picks given the talent pools available i think sweden's got something to prove and team usa will win i got sweden canada as the final matchup i think uh defense wins championships and i look at what sweden's got on the back end and it's rasmus anderson jonas brodine rasmus dalin matthias ekholm gustav Forsling, Victor Hedman, Eric Carlson, and then in goal, you got Philip Gustafson. Wow. I love what Sweden's got on the table. I think Canada makes it to the finals, but

they fall short against Sweden, who picks up the victory. Oh my god, that'll be good. That'll be good. I will say this, best outcome story-wise, Canada gets absolutely smacked at this tournament, wins the Olympics. Yep. At the end of the day,

that's the only one that matters. And we will be coping hard as Canadians if they do lose the tournament okay uh second last question super bowl winner and what will the matchup be i'm gonna ask steve first because he might be taking jesse and i's answers so i'll go steve and then me and then jesse because we don't want to give steve any help no uh the team that helped me the most in fantasy this year even though they let me down uh in the playoffs you friggin bums the baltimore ravens wow uh are gonna be taking on a team that according to the standings is doing

very well the detroit lions um and i think the ravens win okay all right uh i also i just didn't want to pick the chiefs i say a rematch of this past weekend's game based on this recording but detroit and uh buffalo makes too much sense it'd be way too much fun it's two rust belt cities that have had terrible recent histories and all of a sudden we'll be back like you know it's it's Yeah, it's cool when you get an L.A., New York or an L.A., Miami or, you know, something like or Vegas, this or whatever. How about two blue collar teams who, by the way, their main color is blue, who work hard, come from hard working cities and have had shitty, shitty franchises forever. They always pull up that bootstrap. As a fan of a blue team who's had a shitty recent history.

Yeah. I hope for you, one of you two wins, and I'm going to give it to the Detroit Lions. i like people who drive their trucks to the football yeah yeah they play backyard pigskin on thanksgiving and buy dirt um i got the philadelphia eagles making the super bowl uh the detroit lions sorry what was your the philadelphia eagle okay okay and the detroit lions are fantastic team but they have a little bit too many injuries right now yes that's true they just lost one half of their amazing starting running back duo they have a i think they have like eight starting defensive players who are now on on the injures list i think they've just

a shell of themselves who they were in the mid part of the season and they don't have enough to muster up a super bowl run so the eagles come out of the nfc because they are peaking at the right time despite all this infighting on the team they just keep winning and their win against the pittsburgh steelers this past weekend when we're recording it's very impressive yes i don't know if you saw some of that game i did and the steelers all season long have been able to get these wins that they don't deserve and the eagles just went in there and took care of business so Good stuff from them. So Eagles and Super Bowl.

And then the other side, my favorite player to watch in pro sports right now, he's got to make the Super Bowl, Josh Allen. He's amazing. He's the most electric player in any sport doing it currently because the way he plays is like backyard football. He's doing stuff where it's like, oh, that guy's just better than everybody else on the field

and he's just playing with his food. So I'd love to see Josh Allen in the Super Bowl. So I'm rooting for the Bills-Eagles matchup. Nobody said the Chiefs. Nobody said the Chiefs. Because we don't want... I think we've seen that show. Yeah, I think we have, too.

We don't want to. No repeats. Jesse, do you have a list for us? I do. Jesse's got a list of where will they sign, listing upcoming UFAs, and Steve and I have to predict where they will sign, where he signed, who he played for next year.

Who will he play for? Give me a moment, and I'll pull this up for all of you. um was the detroit lions coach the dude who randomly evoked al-qaeda no that's the bills that was bills oh really yes oh they were prepared say what you want they were prepared yeah that was uh they sure were i don't like sean mcdermott and his coaching style and i think he's the awful decision maker but i think josh allen can overcome an awful head coach you do not as it turns out gotta hand it to them all right so we're playing a game to end this episode we are calling it where will they sign i have a list of the upcoming 2025 unrestricted free agents

fellas you have to be off your phones and computers okay i'm ready i'm ready i'm ready unrestricted free agents all right i have a list of the upcoming unrestricted free agents for the 2025 offseason. I'm going to give you a name, and you must predict where they sign and for how much come July 1st. What did he sign for? At the very top.

There's no way we couldn't start with this name. He's from Ontario. Local boy. Played in the GTA all his life. I think he played a little in London. Then he came back to the GTA as a pro!

Alright, John Tavares, got it. So, Mitchell Marner, where will he sign? Where he signed for? Toronto. Oh, okay. I just have to get a calculator out. 13.1. 13?

For how many years? Eight. Damn. Because it's a hair under Matthews. 13.1. Reasons? What's that? That's the reasons?

Yeah. Do you have any other reasons? uh yeah he's not going anywhere do you think it's the right decision by the toronto may police oh god um there's no way it'll depend on the playoffs okay it it depends on the playoff like okay i will say my opinion is shifting a bit for two reasons one this is the best i think he's ever played uh the other is like i was sort of on board with his first contract like the one that led to all this um because i'm like yeah well the cap's gonna go up and then it didn't now it is like all this recent that's not even it's not a conversation yeah it's going up it's already set

in stone to go up by 10 million dollars unless a once in a century event happens twice twice it'll it'll be going up and like okay we're gonna get rid of this guy even though the cap's going up because why uh he's yeah it'll be 13.1 times eight adam uh i'm gonna say he will be the first uh leaf to sign a 100 million dollar contract on the dot 12.5 over eight years mcdavid and i say that because the least will say mcdavid uh and i know he'll say but matthews and they'll be like yep and he's a center and the difference really between him and matthews will be 750 grand a year which is uh nothing for these guys i don't think so well i 750 grand is nothing for the dude who got mad about schedule because because he's gonna he's gonna make this is what's gonna happen he's

been assigned for a reasonable amount of money i'm not wrong a reasonable amount of money they've been nothing but predictable am i gonna finish this or no i'm gonna sign for he's gonna sign for a more reasonable amount of money which is still high that's a great point and he is going to re fans are going to like it and he's going to be able to do more endorsements and he'll be able to out endorse matthews endorse no never never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever mattered in a contract negotiation with i don't remember talking this much over your mitch is never gonna have oh really none of the tape no no mitch is never gonna have the rbc commercials that austin has that's right those are he's got a yellow wear a yellow turtleneck

Those are so good. I think Mitch is... I think he signed in it for 12 and a half. If he signs for 12 and a half or 12.75, I think that this guy, people are going to go, wow, okay, that's not the maximum he would have signed for. And we really appreciate that. And by the way, he's played his balls off this year.

And hopefully in the playoffs, the results actually happen for him. Because as much as we have been hard, we're hard on anybody that doesn't perform in the playoffs. it just happens that he for a couple of series was a guy that didn't perform to what they needed him to and you can go back and you can look at oh total points blah blah blah yeah but what games did he get the points in and that's yeah that's the key the tampa series specifically i'm talking about it's unfathomable you have to explain that every year it's not though because people just you

know they have their hockey db open whatever that's fine i'm fine with that yeah hey darren here's a new year's resolution shut your mouth and i and they have and that tells me it gets done in toronto eight years 12 and a half i think he's going to see a renaissance in popularity not that mitch martyr's not the most popular if he could be he's he's one or two but i think mitch before that contract was signed was hands down the most popular leaf and i think that his relationship with the media and the fans will normalize and it will be less contentious and this is a guy ultimately leaf fans that wants to be here he's a smart guy he wants to play in the not real nhl i think that matters man he's a smart guy he's been saying less his agent has said nearly nothing

nothing and i think that's by design learn from your mistakes john tavaris uh yeah toronto for how much how many years six point five times oh five that's a little heavy i'm going five and a half times four i like that i like adams better yeah but that's what that's what you think you think it's six ah i mean listen if he signs for less than that it's out of the kindness of his heart because he's been great yeah and i like listen he probably deserves what you're talking about is the Giroux contract, what he has. What I would say to him is like,

listen, John, we want to get you that cup. Mitch was a little flexible. Can you be a little flexible? And we expect some regression in your play over the course of this deal. And I, yo, man, I'll give you this. What if it's five years? Five and a half times five.

People will be like, ah! I know people will freak out. But I will not care about the amount of years. I don't care about 2030 right now. I don't. I don't care. Do not care. Don't care.

Win a Stanley Cup. John Tavares is going to stay in Toronto. It's going to be four or five years. It's going to be five to five and a half million. Miko Rantanen. Let's speed through these. Oh, that's a good one. 14 mil.

Oh, shit. Seven years. Oh, ho, ho. New York Rangers. Whoa. Jeez. They're going to make some trades, man. Jeez.

Holy hot shit. Shit. And I have a second team lined up if it's not the Rangers. Who is it? Minnesota Wilds. who have an absolute boatload of cash ready to sign. They got like 30 million bucks to spend this offseason. Avalanche fans might like Islanders burn his jersey.

You think so? Just because it's Minnesota. Yeah, exactly. He didn't win a cup, so I guess that changes it. He's out to get his money. Yeah, once you win a cup, you're pretty much free to do whatever you want. 14 schmil. I think he stays in Colorado.

13.5. Okay. I like that. And they got to get that Gabe Landis-Cogg thing sorted out. I think they will. They cannot let this go on any longer. It's really affecting the team now. You can't.

I think they get an answer from Gabe before they have an answer with Miko. Adam's, I think, onto something with the Parise and Suter deals coming off the books for Minnesota. That is literally $14 million they no longer have to pay to guys who don't play there. It's going to be a big offseason for Minnesota. And you've got to show Kaprizov that you're serious. and also maybe have a replacement for him if he decides to sign somewhere else also a lot of that money's uh going to him yep so uh next up nick ehlers oh i like nick ehlers a lot and i don't think he's staying in winnipeg 28 years old makes six million dollars on the cap right now ufa at

the end of the year he's got a look at his points 25 points in 24 games nine goals 16 assists right now where does nikolai ehler sign next season personally i think he stays in winnipeg seven times seven oh i like that it's a good number that's only a pittsburgh oh wow that's only a million dollar raise over what he's currently making in his last deal his last deal was seven by six yeah i think it's going to be a shorter term deal where he gets a better opportunity because like bones didn't really like him and arneal's giving him a little bit more of a chance but again his ice time over the last three years has fallen from 1804 to now it's 1539 1552 and this year it's 1533 he wants a place

where he's going to get an opportunity to sign a mega deal which is why i'm looking at san jose i could see that or anaheim where it's a short i don't see that as much higher end deal yeah where um i so the reason i say anaheim is they need some more goals and they've got this young core and i think ehlers uh ehlers can score you 25 30 right something like that yeah ish um i i like that and i think especially specifically with um san jose like toffoli's off the books if they don't resign him and absurdly consistent goal scorer just looking at his number yeah and i think like hey you can play next to celebrating hey you can play next to leo carlson that's a yeah i said i just i don't think he's ever reached his full potential with the jets i think this guy

is a better player i said uh pittsburgh because he is a smaller uh feisty winger uh with solid underlying numbers who everyone says is underappreciated that is the most kyle dubas player i've ever heard that's so true yes next up he's got 19 oh and a terrible playoff numbers that's very funny that's funny he's got 19 points in 23 games eight goals 11 assists he's 27 years old making 6.65 million dollars his last contract was a three-year deal brock besser of the vancouver canucks is a ufa this upcoming offseason where does he play next year and for how much and for how long i just i need to check something because it affects my answer oh yeah yeah yeah brock besser of the minnesota wild oh is that because he's going home burnsville

good call i thought about the rangers because adam's got me all titillated about the rangers but bring the hometown boy home. I agree with Steve. I'm not even going to add to that. That's a great one. Jacob Chikrin, in his just stellar season, he's got nine goals, 12 assists, 21 points in 25 games, currently making $4.6 million.

He's coming to the end of a six-year deal with the Capitals. How old is he? 26 years old. Wow, he's only 26? It feels like he's been in our lives since 1952. yeah um jacob trick and where does he play next and he shoots right no left he's left i believe he plays both but he's a left shooting defense here's i this is an easy one for me he's signing for eight plus and it's going to be eight year or seven years and it's going to be the new york

rangers lingren's gone uh they're going to need some guys on the left side they do have some young guys going up i don't know that k andre miller has played very well this year enough to uh talk about a gigantic extension i think they'll probably go bridge deal and it'll actually probably be a nice little discount um because he hasn't played great he's been really soft i think they need help up the left side um chikrin makes so much sense on broadway it's just a question of can you eat raw liver in new york state if i can insert my opinion into this one i think the washington capitals look at how important this man is to their roster yeah i get a deal done before he ever reaches for you i hope that's the case that's my pick here he what a fit

and and sometimes you don't fuck with happy man exactly i think he's gonna recognize like i'm having such a good season right now and i'm gonna be my best here yep yep oh boy i'm really struggling i'm really struggling even going with one of the other 31 teams no you're probably right i'm gonna say like this dude i think he makes like nine yeah he's gonna make a lot of money oh yeah Would the cap go in the way it is for a defenseman who's this important? He could make. Now, it completely depends on how he looks at it. If he looks at it, don't mess with Happy.

He'll sign for somewhere between seven and a half and nine in Washington. Or I can pin two divisional rivals with a lot of money against each other. And he could play the caps off the Rangers. and I think the Rangers 205 pounds, 6 foot 2 and he scores a shitload of goals and think of how much better he'll make Adam Fox. Well, and so the question

too becomes, Adam Fox apparently is available for a gigantic amount, but he's available. He's not untouchable. I'm sure McDavid is too. Well, no, I don't think he is though. You know what I mean? Like for... Like the Rangers are like, yeah, you could call us about Adam Fox at this point. Well, then they're stupid. Yes.

But man, chikrin fox would be insane we got a couple more we can do caps caps for chikrin 13 goals in 31 games 27 points in 31 games darren ferris client 28 years old sam bennett oh okay uh i'm gonna be the first to say it uh seven times seven toronto maple leaves he wants to play in toronto that i know i know for fact at some point in his career he wants to be a Leaf. What about John Tavares? Winger?

Yeah, I mean, listen, it depends on what they do with the third line center situation. But I think Sam Bennett will be a Leaf at one point. And I think this is a perfect opportunity to be a Leaf at the point

that matters the most. Not when you're at Joe Thornton level of your career or Patrick Marleau level of your career or Wayne Simmons or any of the other guys that came back.

You get to play a consequential role and you get to be behind Matthews. And then you got Tavares also backing you up as well uh so one of those guys gonna be the third line guy and i think he's exactly what tree wants as a centerman exactly i i agree with so i think sam bennett 40 50 million bucks if you're bringing sam bennett to the leafs john tavarez doesn't have a role no you have both you have both use your third line center that's fine that's center there's a if you're gonna

spend money that's where you do it sure definitely but there's a cap um we keep trying to send one of these guys to the rangers there it is that's a good one eight eight eight it's ferris uh what does he want dollars money dinero that is what he wants he needs it because he takes a lower rate than all other agents and he's got a shitload of deals that age poorly because he's just like yeah go out and get that money son uh so he's gonna go to the highest bidder and that bidder will be the new york rangers who need that kind of player bad yeah they do brad marchand i mean who doesn't need that kind of player brad marchand staying in boston yes see yeah agreed yeah and i think for roughly the amount he makes now six and a half or whatever it is yeah six point one two five i think

he's gonna stay coming to the end of an eight-year deal and he's the captain and he's a legend and they're gonna raise his number to the rafters one day i think it would be a crime if brad marchand were to sign somewhere else if boston lets him sign somewhere else aaron akblad um oh that's a good question i think i think the panthers are at the point where they need to keep him because you've lost montour uh you need you need to keep one of those guys i think but i think akblad is like the other guys and takes less than stays see taking less for him would i think be a raise or yeah it would still be a slight raise yeah he makes what seven and a half uh aaron akblad currently makes 7.5 well what if he just continued to make 7.5 i can see him signing for

exact same amount or eight taylor hall oh baby uh where does his career go next he's been all over the nhl two million bucks edmonton oilers oh it's kind of cute that's a fascinating reunion yeah i think i think that that reunion is due it seems silly that they traded him in the first place to be honest with you um i'm gonna go okay how's he performing this season i know it's the answer is not good and it's on the black ox you know it is on the black seven goals seven assists 30 games it's okay who is the i can fix him team i think he's done that he's gone through boston chicago buffalo chicago can't fix nothing buffalo buffalo can't fix shit what played well in boston played well in boston isn't that funny um not that well but well uh vancouver oh how much

i think it's a one-year deal in edmonton by the way three mil for one year in vancouver to fix his shit wow and then you figure it out from there i like that damn steve dang i'll hit the button because we are very over time we are way over time we'll see you again in 2025 yes our next episode is new year's day look at that all right badville bananas and water oh oh for hangovers really the steve dangle podcast follow the guys on twitter at steve underscore dangle at adam w y L D E and at Jesse Blake connection complete