The Steve Dangle Podcast - The Thought and The Feeling | July 8, 2024

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, Sidney Crosby's next contract (00:00), Draisaitl's next contract (21:45), MLSE's handling of the Leafs (27:30), Woll & Stolarz (1:04:30), the Leafs D (1:10:00), Domi, Bert, and the Leafs forwards (1:19:00), and off-season winners and losers (1:42:30). 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 Visit this episode's sponsors: Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at https://shopify.com/sdp. Go to https://shopify.com/sdp now to grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. If you want to take ownership of your health, it starts with AG1. Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase at https://drinkag1.com/sdp. Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Join us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/MtTmw9rrz7 For general inquiries email: [e-mail] Reach out to https://www.sdpn.ca/sales to connect with our sales team and discuss the opportunity to integrate your brand within our content! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two in five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire

and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca. the steve dangle podcast with your host steve dangle adam wilde and jesse blake and chris johnston yeah yeah hey it's cj's final show before vacation cj can you give us another woo you're woozer we're trading crosby today he's gone summer vacation steve yeah let's go you know what i mean it is cj's last show before vacation so cj before we really get into the hockey side of this and and you know recap in the last couple weeks first off you did just do a cj show with julian in which julian i believe got emotional it's probably because he's been partying all

weekend at the stampede hasn't had a lot of sleep and it's feeling you know he's in his feelings he's in his feelings that i heard it was quite touching and sweet it was nice yeah i mean i guess you know everyone's brains work differently i think for him he's just like this is the end of something it's the end of season three of our show but i'm also like dude we're just going to be texting like in 20 minutes yeah our group chat no matter what is always going right and we have committed to coming back for some episodes in august so it's like we might be doing this in three weeks like i don't know if we need i don't know if we need like big emotional speeches like it's like we'll just be back on august 2nd i think every season finale though needs some sort of

send-off and that's what it is the season finale yeah and i'm not making fun of julian i just i didn't expect it he caught me off guard i was like i didn't come here this morning expecting to be a little emotional he is a uh he's about he's about the warmest guy when you meet him uh and he's what what i would call a person with emotional depth and i think that's the one of the biggest compliments i can give as a person he feels things he sees things he's empathetic and i'm not surprised that that he came out that way and i think that's lovely and i can't wait to listen to it he didn't put that in the rundown like teary-eyed goodbye no he didn't i didn't know that was coming now now what is on the docket for vacation cj like what do you do in

the summer other than hang at lebron's cottage i haven't uh been to lebron's cottage oh you have the summer i was invited i actually can't go because i'm heading to europe so there is a there's a tsn get together at lebron's cottage this week but i can't make it because i have other plans because you're flying are we allowed to ask where are you just gonna kind of hide i mean you can ask where i i don't know i'm going to amsterdam okay this week right i've never been steve's been steve got high in amsterdam is he yeah the thing is is like i really don't touch the drugs you don't do the drugs but i don't know if maybe i'll except for at flames games that is the last time yeah that is the last time like we like just totally freaking out in the

saddle dome is if you don't know the story cj uh the too long didn't didn't read as cj uh had an edible because it was your buddy's company yeah my buddy like runs a weed company out west and and people in the in the bathroom were chanting cj when they saw you peeing yeah and that's just cool that is that's the high level but basically i just ate one of whatever he gave me and then i was like totally freaking out and people were recognizing me and my i was sitting i got tickets from uh someone who doesn't work for the flames anymore but i bought them but like they were really good seats down kind of near the glass and my it was with my one buddy who's quite muscular and i was like dude you might just have to carry me out of here i'm like you might just

have to like put me over your shoulder and just run because i'm like i was all worried i was gonna get fired anyway i love it that was a number of years ago i've matured since so we won't ask where in europe well i already told you amsterdam does just going on vacation make your runs better because you're like whoa i get to run in a different destination it depends it depends on climate because i really don't like heat oh you don't so when you like like for running i don't mind heat for chilling out on a patio so when you were in florida for the stanley cup final and you got to your everybody doesn't know cj has a run streak going over three years now i passed four years in april wow wow everyday run so four years when you're in florida for the stanley cup final

and you got to do your run in the morning you go i assume super early to beat the heat and it still it was unpleasant yeah that is wild favorite running city in the nhl i think i know this one for him i i'm gonna i'm having have one in my head there's not only one though boston is hard to what i was gonna say boston is hard to beat i mean it's obviously the boston marathon is the most famous running race in the world they got the charles river i think it's a charles right through it yeah i don't know and it's amazing and you go out there and there's just like i know how zidane zidane charles a machine but like it's an inspiring run city because you're just on these paths and like everybody is fitter than you and faster than

you and so like i feel like if you were running there every day it just would like push you to keep going and going and going right boston's one give us the west coast can you give us a west coast oh vancouver is amazing run city yeah do you know what underrated run city is edmonton really they have a river valley there that like seriously it's big it's the only good thing that happened to me the whole pandemic but i spent a month in edmonton and found that running route there yeah because you were there for the bubble i was there for the bubble for like a month just running through the trees and it's so like idyllic and it's not what people's view of edmonton is if they haven't been there before wow okay but i mean it's i'm not saying edmonton is my favorite but

it's a it's a underrated running city I think Edmontonians will like to hear that because there's been nothing but it's funny they go to the game seven of the Stanley Cup finals and all anybody wants to talk about after that is Leon Dreisaitl and leaving and you know I know that Edmonton you may not have noticed this but the day after the series ended I dropped an article on that I'm so like I might have contributed to that I think you're definitely a part of it so it's nice that you kind of get to even Canadian media do you want to know a dirty secret so when you go into a night where the cup can end everyone has a plan right like everyone who's covering that game it's like if the Oilers lose tonight this is what CJ's doing you know I was with Pierre Lebrun

Mike Russo Daniel Nugent Bowman like everyone has an assignment so I had the assignment Oilers lose Leon what happens next for Leon Dreisaitl for like 10 days because because that series could have ended in a sweep right yeah so I had a lot of time to marinate and talk to people about that one but yeah dropped it the morning after game seven you know it's funny every time we do this episode with cj every year every had we've had um you know and we in your normally we do two of them we do one in april uh when the leafs are out the autopsy and they got to may they got to may this year they did they did and last year too uh and then and that's only because the schedule ran late this year i think that they got to me but uh and then they we do one right after free agency

so we're combining them into one uh and there's other things that we need to talk about i think the first thing though has got to be um since we're on the subject two guys that you've talked about dry sidles one of them crosby is the other um the crosby episode last week made some waves especially locally in pittsburgh and uh we're getting subtweeted oh i know i know and and listen didn't even tag reporter chris they just they just went out there subtweeting my ass you are the canadian media all of it all just you uh and i'm the last one working so yeah i want to Yeah, you are, actually. You're still here.

I want to know what you've heard on both fronts. Let's start with Crosby, because he was the topic du jour at the end of last week. He has got a year left. He has been underpaid criminally most of his career. All of his career, I would think. Oh, yeah. He was entry-level deal, too, to start. And so his opinion is, I'm not leaving money on the table anymore.

I don't know if it's that, but I do think he's been superstitious with this $8.7 million, and he's lost his superstition. Right. right unless you sign for like 10 million 87 000 or 870 10.87 million oh i'm not saying i don't know if that'll be the case right uh yeah he's not going to make 8.7 million after making it for 17 straight years what was his number in junior was it 87 he could put that in there i don't know once but i early in his career so his first deal out of entry level is a five-year deal at 8.7 million which because that was pre the current structure right how do you get a

five-year deal out of entry level you're allowed to do that sorry out of his second entry his second contract was 8.7 million and i remember asking his agent you know because that that was one of the first keep in mind the salary cap system was new then like he he was literally born into the salary cap system when he came into the league and i remember asking his agent about the number he said hopefully he switches to 13 by the next deal it was a joke but like you know he was thinking like it won't be 8.7 but then lo and behold you know years later he did a 12-year deal averaging 8.7 million although it was heavily front-loaded at the time he was dealing with concussions we didn't know if he'd play all 12 years it's a good news story that he got to the

end of that 12-year deal absolutely it's one of the only ones we went through it on the other episode it's like him and ovi i think it's two yeah like two of the two of the contracts that like duncan keith marion hosa illegal uh it's crosby and ovechan i can't think of another one suitor parise suitor parise zetterberg uh luongo definitely not was kovalchuk at 12 kovalchuk was 12 yeah none of them made it like even close not even no no like kovalchuk did he play like six of the years or something like i feel like he's been gone for a long time he has been he has man i keep looking at his uh summer is a great time for just dicking around on hockey db and i look at his totals and i'm like he could he could have been an all-time great if he just stopped leaving the

nhl but he was pretty good in his prime and then another problem is he played in atlanta for a lot of yeah when they were kind of a forgotten franchise um so so you know with with you know with crosby now because these things can change day to day week to week um where do they stand well it sounds like they're close you know and my colleague at the athletic rob rossi is reported on this today and and you know look they must not like even the speculation that we had and it was really more a discussion than speculation but you know all i was basically doing is like looking at a clock and going hey wait a minute this guy could have signed on july 1st and here it is july 3rd 4th 5th 6th now we're out to july 8th and he hasn't um you know does that

suggest there was a hiccup no i think it was more crosby being willing to say like okay deal with free agency you know deal they sure did they sure did a lot uh but but you do you handle the the that sort of pressing business which you know obviously in the nhl you know that that it's tied to the calendar almost all the signings happen on july 1st like if you slept through july 1st as a gm i got bad news for you there's not much left for you for you to do yeah um and so i think that i think it was really more just take your time and do this it's still you know I do sense how do I put this I just want to make sure I get my words out right the it's it's difficult to age with a team right sure like all things being equal obviously we all like you don't

need to know Sidney Crosby you don't need to know Kyle Dubas to know that he would want to be a penguin forever you've come this far with that organization you've meant this much I mean Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin put three banners in in the in the top of the stadium you know Lemieux only did two with his group like i'm just saying like these are all-time franchise legends you know lemieux's got a nice statue outside of the console energy center in downtown pittsburgh there's gonna be not pbg paints anymore i can't remember did i get it wrong no i don't know i used i mixed i know it was ppg paints but it doesn't matter okay there you keep going sorry maybe that maybe that's the old name oh man yeah i'm dating myself here all right the build yes

the the new igloo it's currently ppg it used to be console energy yes it did okay oh my goodness listen that's what one of the arenas i actually get the sponsor right you know it's important anyway sorry continue i was just being a dick well don't even ask me what the building's name in florida because i that has had so many names insurance it's an insurance company isn't it fl fla live that used to be fla live now it was emirate bank this year oh it was once known as like the national car rental center or something anyway it's had a thousand freaking names that building in sunrise well they they're like lebron they like one year deals prove it deals there you go um so what so prove it to us ppg paints so what what is so what is what's the plan because

if let's say crosby signs for two more years because he's got another year left in the rumor i bet he'll sign three the what rob rossi wrote in the athletic is a deal within a range of three years and potentially an average annual value of 10 million dollars was possible so that's what there speculating which is still that's pretty good yes uh honestly whatever he wants to sign for you sign it so then what's the plan like are we gonna watch because here's the thing i don't see we called the metropolitan the mid the midtropolitan last year because it was really bad except for you guys are hip eh oh we're very we're working the mid end yeah it was bad it was bad and then you know you got the capitals making the playoffs and the uh who was who fell out at

a lot philadelphia was in a playoff spot until like three weeks ago snuck in yeah like what what is the penguins plan to surpass these guys by adding matt grislyk and kevin hayes and i guess michael bunting at the trade deadline good good pickup they're trying to make the playoffs okay but yeah like it's not inspiring if you we can't sit here incredibly say they can win the stanley cup no no a lot of things would have to go wrong with a lot of teams for that to become like a real but can they make the playoffs yeah yes definitely if they if they fix their power plan it was half decent last season they would have been a playoff team you know and i feel like there's an avenue to be a bottom seed in the east but is that what you want to be is that what sid

wants to be no he wants to win the stanley cup but like here's the thing it's like his the devil and the angel on his shoulder right i think he more badly wants to be a pittsburgh penguin for life than then he wants to win another cup or go to another to chase this guy again okay and he's got three of them and someone has told me that athletes are the last to know so this isn't a comment specific to sid but he probably believes they can be a stanley cup team like he he would probably if he was in this room and maybe if the cameras weren't on would try to give us reasons why we're wrong and i like that and obviously we're sitting in downtown toronto where the stanley cup the only reason it's ever here is because it lives here but like we're a long way

from competing to win a stanley cup like what do what do us four schlubs know really but i mean at the end of the day just it does not look likely for that team you just you look at their birth certificates i mean crosby had an amazing year and they still missed right does that mean if they commit to crosby long term which you know they should malcolm letang what's the future there i would think that they all want to stay together i mean those three have played together more than any athletes in north american sports history wow on any team that's cool like they are they are tied together i mean obviously they're three individuals with different choices to make i mean i can't say with certainty if it gets to the last year of one of their deals and they're like we

missed the playoffs four years in a row i want out like that could maybe happen um but i think the plan is to keep them together and to try to build it into a winner i i think it's an impossible job but that being said i look at like what washington did this offseason and i was like to me the capitals look better on paper they made bold choices though yes that's the thing dubas is listen i'll give dubas a lot of credit for a lot of things he's done but it is not his mo to be bold uh and take risks like that well the carlson trade was pretty bold yeah it maybe didn't pay off yeah and maybe it will he does that you know once a team right so leaves it was stavaris bang and then just basically kick up your feet nibble around the edges uh penguins like i

don't know does he have another carlson in him they're more than one carlson away from being like relevant in the stanley cup picture right i i really did you guys see what brian mcclellan said after his series of capitals moves i meant to look up that press conference because you mentioned it last week yeah i forgot to do that well sorry for anyone who's listening to the cj show because there might be some crossover here but that's what you're dealing with i've only got one brain but um i will say this he talked about that we have like basically where we're at right now we have to take some risks like he wasn't trying to claim yes this pld trade is definitely a stroke of genius but i think his thinking what he would say if he spoke more than what he said

the press conference was how many times can you get a 25 26 year old centerman for nothing i mean they capped up their goaltender darcy camper like you they got him like yes it's a risk because if he comes here and he's terrible then we've got eight million dollars a year for the next six or seven years on the books but i think his thing is it's all upside for them uh when there's no acquisition costs and you're adding the kind of player that's impossible to trade for when they're playing well yeah so i like the the philosophy they took into this window and i think like if if you're alex ovechkin i bet he's pumped i bet he feels really good about that no but that but that's the point chris that's what kyle dubas has to do though is what i'm saying is he has to mimic

that idea is he up for that well he's got no choice like he knew the assignment here yeah he didn't like obviously he signed a seven-year contract did Kyle Dubas when he took the job he's there to see it through to the next what happens next but we're not at the next yet and I know he's thinking about that a little bit he trades Gensel and he's you know he added prospects in that deal he's he's made a few you know trades to add picks like he but like they can't bottom out like there's just no world they can I mean they might do it by accident but they can't do it on purpose i don't know if they'll ever be able to do it by accident with the guys they have like it crosby and letang they would have to be hurt like for the whole

season in order for that to happen well i think this is probably talking about when they retire oh no but i mean short term actually i'm sorry i'm saying like you they have to try to win they have to make some bold trades you don't get you don't retain those guys to lose no you're going for it and like i don't know what kyle really like maybe he would want to speed it up but like this is the job like he knew this is the job he knew the assignment like the assignment all along was you know fenway sports group which owns the penguins and numerous other sporting enterprises around the world wants stars wants to send these guys off the right way wants to keep sydney crosby in the fold for all kinds of business reasons in addition to the fact he sells tickets

man yeah and pittsburgh is a great market but there is a there's a history there when the team is not good that like they almost went bankrupt right like talk about a stroke of like for that luck for that franchise they went right from lemieux to crosby with only like a really brief desert period where they could have died and it's an awesome sports market and hockey market i love going to pittsburgh i'm not i'm not trying to call out penguins fans here but the truth is well the corporate sponsorship dollars 20 years ago when that was the case weren't necessarily the same as they are now too and and they had the economics of the nhl are much different and they had the old day glue which is not the same build like i loved it but it was it was a barn it i

started off as an opera house that somehow became an arena like actually i believe its original thing was an opera house wow i had no idea that's awesome and and you know it was in that one movie what was that 90s movie that it was in oh like an action movie jean-claude van damme yeah it was oh yeah it was in an action movie because because it had a retractable roof oh it was never used for hockey but when i think what is an opera venue you could retract the roof the acoustics in there must have been incredible yeah it was i mean it was like when it shook like you literally saw dust falling out of the ceiling oh that's cool that's kind of cool i like that and honestly the bottom like every rink obviously generally is a circle or kind of a square but like but it somehow the

bottom of the igloo was like it was like you were going through all these trap you know tunnels to who knows where it was it was 1995's sudden death where jean-claude van damme fought iceberg yes penguin and so it's amazing so nice i i love that building like i have good memories of going there like my first stanley cup final that i covered both ends was the i guess what tell me 2008 and like i remember being there in the cup final games like it was cool but it's not it was nowhere to make money like right this new building has all the suites and everything well situated to like it's in the oh i mean it's right across the street from the old igloo yeah they turn the igloo into a parking lot for goodness i know don't that don't they just do paradise isn't that what

happened in the montreal they just wiped it out and could have been a grocery no the montreal the old form actually turned into a movie theater oh it did okay but it's last time i was there it was in like disrepair but you could go in and like still see center ice like they had it marked kind of like maple leaf gardens is like aisle 20 in the lava laws or whatever tuna they have there you go there because it's supposed to look like a puck isn't that cool yeah i thought that was neat i wonder who decides that is it like the loblaws manager is like tuna will always be this aisle this is the non-negotiables list for this store i like that i think that's cool yeah you can also just put pucks there yeah not have like the single stinkiest food are we at the leafs

portion no we're not we're going to drive by the way did you know that you can go to the parking lot at exhibition stadium and see the bases were the original blue jay stadium yes yes yes yes you can do that and like they're literally just in the middle of a parking lot and there's just like a base there's a there's a baseball stadium in uh in old leslieville too like an old baseball like 1880s baseball stadium and they still have it marked where home plate was i went to that stadium as a kid the 1880s one no the exhibition stadium i was actually at the last ever rained out baseball game in toronto because once the dome opened there could be no rain oh but yeah anyway i'm sorry to hear that it was chef boyardee bat day so i know jesse's chomping at the bit to

get to leafs and i know a lot of people are i just want to quickly update on leon dry sidle here leon dry sidle edmonton what numbers you're gonna wear in san jose what yeah what do we think here he's not going to san jose no is he staying in edmonton i don't know they don't know they don't know i don't know if he knows full honor no maybe if anyone would know it might be connor those guys connor know about himself i don't think he's thinking about leaving okay but he doesn't have to think about it yet because like two dominoes have to fall first right he he a just can't make a decision until next july 1st anyway right like he couldn't sign a contract today if he wanted he could say the oilers i would sign a lifetime contract they're not legally allowed to do it

and so this dry saddle situation will play out in full or in part before that happens and this is where i think it's interesting for the oilers and i think that there is some internally i don't know if everybody's in full alignment on what to do but if leon comes back and says i don't know if i want to sign a contract this summer part of the debate i believe is we can't walk into free agency because then next summer when connor's making his decision it's potentially when leon's walking out the door yes whereas if you make a trade and this is still a big if this is we're in hypothetical land july 8th just dreaming four guys in shorts uh it's true yeah we all are wearing shorts but i'm just saying that if if they trade him this summer theoretically at least connor would see

what the world for a year looks like on the other side of leon before he's making his decision right and i'm not even saying it's a decision for connor but i guess it will be ultimately but i don't think there's necessarily a threat of him leaving it's not a direct threat it's an indirect threat it's like it's the it's the cascading like what happens if dry side of leaves and the team doesn't look like it can win then i think it's a different conversation right well i mean if you could get if you do end up having to trade them which i don't think they will um they uh they would get a haul they'd get a lot for him maybe like it'd be like lendros forsberg level i would think mcdavid or dry side dry side i would think too but he's one year left on his

deal like okay for sure they're getting a lot don't get me wrong but how many teams can line up and give you in a cap world i don't sure you could do that unless you know he's signing an extension yeah that's what i would think and then his extension is going to be pricey like he has been talking about criminally underpaid what did you say five five of the seven seasons under this contract he's had 100 points yes that's just unbelievable and unbelievable and he signed at eight and a half million member a lot of people thought it was rich with the day i signed it i certainly because he signed it a year before his entry level ended so like it was sort of a nine year agreement at the time it just seemed like wow and people forget that his entry level didn't go

great like he he got sent back to junior and all that yeah but i mean you're right it didn't the best deal peter ellie ever signed yeah far and away this is why i think like this is like i've come to think this way if i was ever a gm which is not going to be the case unfortunately sorry maybe jesse and i can be gms co-gms somewhere yeah and the pizza bother yeah no i think we do a great job but i would be extending all the players with that level of talent early because i just think you're more than likely to be proven right and it's risky like as much as you say well you got to wait and see what he is it's like by the time you see what he is then you're paying him 10 million on that next deal instead of eight then you're the least well remember people i'm not

saying that but you're saying that people were groaning about jack hughes getting his deal right that deal looks pretty damn good yes and and pretty immediately just maybe not the minute it was signed but about three months later you're like oh yeah yeah yeah good job new jersey even even even uh with how bad the senators were last year jake sanderson's deal looks good you know yes and i hate that both buffalo and auto have made a lot of those similar bets and like i like the bets i know those teams haven't become what the fans would want them to be in the markets but like i the reason i think they're good bets is because if they want to trade any of those players i don't think they'd have any trouble yep yep you know any of the guys making

about eight million on eight year deals which is they both signed a couple players in that range like i i think if they ever want to trade them those are positive trade assets they're not no teams looking at that like oh you overpaid them now you're trying to dump them shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business we talk about this a lot we use shopify daily if you've purchased sdpn merch you've done it through the shopify platform do i know anything about it not really but i know that one day jesse said hey guys i built sdpn.ca we're like no way that's so cool you'd be on shop.ca that's right that's right and then and then he's like here let me run you through it and steve and i were like wow it's the

pandemic and this is the coolest thing i've ever seen i remember i remember the zoom meeting that we had on it and and anyway jesse we've been running on that ever since have you ever had an issue never never once has there ever been a problem because the site is built on shopify and listen perfect uh i have an issue i get so much stuff why why steve because it's it's not just that the products are good but also like what a convenient platform to get yeah it's just so easy to navigate and everything's just right there because of shopify shopify powers 10 of all e-commerce in north america and shopify's global force how much uh 10 wow that's a lot of percentages Imagine making 10% of the cap.

It's a leaf joke, you see? You see? So sign up for just $1 a month. There's a trial period at shopify.com slash SDP, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash SDP now to grow your business. No matter what stage you're at, shopify.com slash SDP. I think 10% of like 88 million is around like 11 points. Oh, stop it.

No, it's 8.8. two in five canadians will hear the words you have cancer that's why every step and dollar raised matters on september 19th join thousands in toronto for the princess margaret cancer foundation walk challenge yourself friends and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research together we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer register today at pmcfwalk.ca so let's set the table with the leaves because everybody wants to know i made people wait because i because i wanted to make you wait you got it sometimes you got to make people you wanted to get people like 25 ish minutes in yeah just get

it now i'm gonna make i'm making you wait all right like you you've worked up a sweat if you're listening to us on your walk yeah out there you listen if your dog's done his business now we're getting down to business yeah so here's what it is i'm gonna read some headlines for you uh nick Alberga tweeted these out and I thought these were great. Maple Leafs leadership sets the tone for the franchise defining offseason. Everything is on the table. Brendan Shanahan to remain as Maple Leafs

president organization touts roster changes. Maple Leafs brass says, quote, everything must be on the table in order to improve. Chris. Who flipped over the table? Is that what you think that they did

this offseason? I mean, they let Ilya Lubushkin walk. true true damn true big moves in toronto he's gonna win the cup in dallas he is yeah get the cup from mason mason march yeah he's probably gonna bring it back to toronto like every other former isn't that mean it's mean they should stop doing that uh especially when they're not from here i love it phil kessel's like i'm partying in toronto i love it i know so and they always bring it to a kid's hospital so you can't get mad so after that it's tyler bertuzzi walks and they got a bunch of new d that's the only changes with the roster notable new d sure yes and and

signed a term and we were just talking about bets joseph wools a bet we'll get to all that and and so you said you they they let labushkin walk is that kind of your summation of how how bold you think they were this offseason yeah they weren't bold at all i mean they made it's not to say i don't like some of the moves they made but it's hard to call any of them bold right they signed a goaltender they feel good about they signed chris tana who obviously has been a long time target you know we all add oel we'll see about yanni hockinpah do you know anything about that is he gonna play i think well i'll i'll alert you to this they have yet to officially announce his signing yes oh boy i don't think that's an oh boy i think that's a like they have

to get him medically cleared before they would do so okay which is not unusual the doctors looked at him though did they not did they not have a look i think they reviewed his records but now they will get their own doctors to look at him okay specifically that's my understanding man one steve simmons article and all of a sudden this whole signing cell held up like it's great i can't remember a free agent signing like this in recent memory well they never announced it right but like that day is so crazy yeah like we report a lot of stuff like they did announce like i can't remember one of their signings they did announce the next day even though we'd already yeah it was uh stole ours yeah i think and even but even when brad true living spoke to the media

on the night of july 1st or late afternoon he he talked about yanni hakapa but like it's you know we all get ahead of ourselves but nothing is officially official until it's filed with the league and so the leafs don't officially have him under contract i think they've agreed to a contract pending physical passing the physical yeah and i don't i don't know if he's going to do so or not i mean obviously there was some doubt in dallas based on steve simmons's reporting It's not a bad bet, though. Like if, first of all, that money, that dollar figure, a million and a half, and big right shot D,

and the Leafs believe they have the best training staff in the league, like why wouldn't you bet on your people getting more out of him than anyone else could? So, okay, so Yanni's great. But I want to, you know, it's important to start from the organizational level here, because Mitch Marner has been the topic du jour for eight weeks, nine weeks.

and to me this situation starts and ends with management it starts last year when kyle dubas said what the leaf said this year which was we need to put everything on the table to to change change this up it seemed like either nylander but he said that four days before he was fired right so nobody ever so nobody ever did anything well that and that's what we're saying is that but it was on the table that was part of the it seemed like that was part of the reason like you may recall i reported when they hired brad true living the first thing they did is phone all the core four guys or their agents or whoever and make it known don't worry everything's okay so what happened this offseason where was there was the conversation at the management level forget going

to the agent i'll ask that in a second at the management level in the boardroom did they ever say this player is out of contract in a year this player hasn't really performed well for us in late rounds in the playoffs we should probably look at moving on from this player in order to support the rest of the group that we've put together have they ever had that conversation did they ever address it well they had the conversation that they'd be willing to move them they did have that internally and i would suppose externally with other teams i don't think they've ever gotten to a point where they had a deal anywhere close to one that they'd want to make and to my knowledge they haven't even gone to his representative and asked him

to waive his no move so they would have a deal in place first before they'd ask him i think that's the way you do it okay i don't i don't know if the processes are so i mean because otherwise you're dealing in hypotheticals i mean look there's two ways you do it you go to the agent or the player or both and say if we were to move you somewhere what kinds of places might you want to play and you hope he gives you a list longer than one because if it's one it's an awfully hard trade to make no matter who the one is it's just hard if you're only dealing with one suitor that's what happened in the Matthew Kachuk deal from Calgary is he had a few teams he was willing to go to at that time Florida being one of them I know Carolina was one St. Louis was one there

might have been more but there was at least three and so at that time Bradshaw Living was able to talk to was it a Carolina Carolina St. Louis Florida there might have was there a fourth I don't know if Tampa was there I don't know I think Natchez was part of that deal potentially yeah I mean it's funny we the same names come up right because it's just like maybe not quite perfect fits for what those teams have and and they're talented players but that at least gave tree living at that time a chance to talk to multiple gms and then pick the package he thought was best and they made the deal that hasn't happened again to my knowledge with the marner situation so here's the i guess what we have to learn is the quote you keep reading there and what is it

everything everything is on the table is this a quote that was just like supplied no that's what they said no no sorry was this a quote that was supplied to them like as a way to manage that moment i think to satisfy everybody but like did they actually act on it that's why i'm asking you because i don't feel like they have i think the team's better but i don't think they've been bold we all showed up to the drive-thru and the ice cream machine's broken like with the sign said you could get an ice cream sundae here and then i get there and there's no ice cream and so yeah i'm disappointed they said everything's on the table and then did nothing remotely sort of what the team needs to do and i'm upset yeah i mean i get it the problem they waited a year too

long like i like well we all know that i hate they have to undo their own i'm sorry i hate relitigating everything but it's actually the truth yes like when where kyle was a year ago mentally was the right place to be at that time he'd seen the team fall in predictable ways he had a window before no trades kicked in for both nylander and matthews but they weren't trading matthews and marner and he was for the first time publicly saying we're going to look at those the options of moving he didn't say moving those players but that's what he was alluding to that's what he's winking at and but they had that window when they could have done it right yeah and it could have been nylander or marner right like they were looking at both 100 yeah and look at i'm

pretty sure and someone can fact check me i'm pretty sure that tampa just traded mikhail sergachev before his no move kicked in yeah like my point is they they were in the same window and they're like this is the last time we can do it where we don't need his permission and and sergachev seems happy in utah but the point is is tampa was going to make the best move for tampa before that no move kicked in instead the leafs opted via brendan shanahan for turmoil at the top and an expiration of that opportunity team with a good track record team with a bad one yes and then and i'm not even second guessing this but that also locked them into giving nylander the extension in a roundabout way because then it's like no trade clicked it kicked in didn't it well yeah

his no trade kicks in so you're not moving him and then he has a great start to the season well you're just going to walk him to free agency it's it's like everything is a cascading set of circumstances but i go back to like when they hired duvis probably at the wrong time yep it was colorado had been pushing to get him well and lou's contract was up lou lamorello his predecessor so it was the right time to hire him for the organization but it was right before going into all those negotiations with the players the negotiations didn't go particularly well from a team standpoint uh starting with even missing Nylander for two and a half months never seemed to so I guess we're back to square one with the same team the same core of the team

why why is the MLSC board okay with this other than the fact that the Raptors aren't going to make the playoffs this year financially it makes sense but other than that I guess the answer to that is they're not so what keith pelly said that day too we didn't talk about that but he said i'm not here to sell sweaters right and so he's the new president that reports to the board between shanahan and the hockey leadership and he sort of made it sound like we're not here just to be a behemoth in the industry we're here to win but they have yet to act that way as an organization going back to preceding keith right i think the reason they've been okay with it is because the teams won a lot in the regular season they do get playoff gates every year i i you know i think that

they're first or second or third every single year in revenues among nhl teams so they are a successful business they just haven't had the kind of success that this is actually my pet theory honestly on why no canadian teams have won in 30 years i think that like there's all kinds of factors layered into this and each market's maybe a little different but in general like speaking high level that these teams don't have to win a cup to be successful no they don't they just have to be kind of okay and and all the buildings can't well i think winnipeg does winnipeg this year kind of showed that even being successful it's not good enough but that was 10 years in for the first eight years or seven years they sold every ticket no matter what and like i look

at florida like that building absolutely sucked to go to i've said this so much for but 10 12 years ago they had to get to a point where they're this good and and look at now it's full they're charging 100 bucks to park in the parking lot wow wow in the cup final anyway i'm not saying every way the but like yeah and and really all that arena is is an arena with a big parking lot so like you're making pretty good money because everyone kind of has to drive there you could drive to sawgrass mills mall by the way park there for free and walk across the street but i'm just saying just pro tip yeah yeah but like the point is is florida has to be that good and now they are incentivized as an organization not just i mean of course everyone likes rings

and they like but they they know that if they go back to that brings money if they go back to mediocrity they're going to be mediocre right to me like tampa i mean it's hard to know because tampa has been so good for so long but my guess is is if they if they retreat and i'm not predicting that they will that they won't sell out every game anymore and but in toronto every game is sold out it doesn't matter what the team does so i think it's anyway i don't think ownership is driven you we have to see more of what keith pelly does i'll put it that way he's only hired in march right yeah but he's now he's how he's in charge and i've worked under keith pelly and i know how decisive he can be you you have all four of us have and and i know that keith pelly not only

likes to make decisions right away to change things up he's he's well planned he's well thought out he's not a shoot from the hip guy but this is a guy who's been really decisive and i am shocked that he's allowed them to go through this offseason and pull this kind of shit because again team's better i i think it's better i think it's missing a third line center but to say that you're going to be bold and then not follow through on that from a guy who in my experience has been nothing but bold is is really surprising well really surprising there's still more than two months till training camp opens so it's like we can't we can comment that yeah this is surprising but it's not fait accompli that nothing happens okay so so next year when brendan shanahan gets

fired and he's replaced with another president and he says i just got here and the leafs are going i just got here for the third straight year do i have the right to be mad you have the right to be mad right now man and you i am yeah sorry i was just gonna say you do not know you do not need my permission to be mad like you have a right to be mad yeah they keep uh losing it's pretty bad i don't like it when they do that it's not they did the other it's not just that they're losing it's that they're losing in such predictable familiar ways with the same every year with the same people i think is the key there and when bradshaw living talked about everything on the table i assumed he went and he looked at the table and he says those moves aren't the right

moves to make at the table but like when we expected bold moves this off season there was only one because you've laid it out a million times steve and the way you you formulate how the salary cap works it was moving mitch marner to make a whole big change to the core that's where you're wrong jesse there were none they didn't even go to marner's representation no i mean like that was in terms of bold moves they could make that was the only one that would have been acceptable if they had made that move but like all all we heard for months is it's in mitch marner's hands it's in mitch marner's hands they never put it in his hands right they never gave him the opportunity to say no they didn't want to go to war with him i know that much why not go to

Or why not just be like, hey, what about this? Give them the opportunity to say. Why not? I think that. Why not? They wouldn't go to like, I have to. I try to understand this. Why are they so afraid of this guy's representation?

They got bullied last time into a bad deal. If Mitch Marner is a free agent this year, is he making much more than he's making now? Guys never had 100 points. Depends who he negotiates with. At 99. Never had 100. did did medano hit 1500 or did he did did he hit 1499 okay that's not the purpose of saying a guy is 100 player when a guy okay and then he got 94 and then 70 something and 80 something this is not

like and it's again i like mitch marner as a player i enjoy watching him play well he enjoyed cheering for him jake cancel he's outperformed jake cancel consistently okay not in the playoffs but in across his career and Jake Gensel got nine million in Tampa okay so that it's he's getting above Gensel on the open market for sure he's younger plays the same position how can but I'm not sure if he's getting two million more a year more than Gensel how can anyone have an appetite for that how can anyone hear this is a hypothetical so Jake Jake Gensel makes nine and you're saying that you're not sure that Mitch Marner is worth two million more which is what he currently makes more than Jake Gensel or will make more than Jake Gensel when that extension

kicks in it just depends but yeah i don't look at maybe genso took a small haircut in tampa to play for a team that you know has a tradition of winning yeah like maybe on the true open market jake genso just went to the highest better maybe he gets nine and a half i i don't know is the better comparison william nylander is his teammate who's had very similar not 100 point seasons but last year was 98 and that extension was 11.5 i mean adam has already said nylander's never had 100 points. He never has. He's never had 100 points. But Nylander, if not me, brings it in the playoffs. Nylander brings it in the playoffs

every year. Every year. And I think it's not about Mitch Marner not trying. I don't think it's about... He might be trying too hard. He might care too much. But I think it goes back to this. Some people's games lend themselves to the playoffs. I've never seen a perimeter

player, and he's a perimeter player, and that works in the regular season. I've never seen a mostly perimeter player hack it in the playoffs and be an nobody's like man he won the consmith because he stayed to the outside but i'll say this it's not a fixed like you don't have a fixed gate like you can change your game but he hasn't right they haven't asked him to but i'm saying that so why are they so afraid of this guy i don't think they're afraid of him or or his his representatives i don't even think it's that i think they're

afraid of the market they're afraid of what are they afraid of why did they take the job i don't know i mean like you take that job you're afraid of the market you'd like to say you'd like to say they took the job to try to bring the stanley cup back to toronto like on it like they got paid nicely and it's a cool job but beyond that like they don't want to do the big and scary things that come with it you think on my job interview at the zoo i said i was afraid of animals all right i think you can't do the deal just to do the deal there also has to be a fair deal out there to make the deal i don't think anybody would have been happy if they just did a deal and they lost it on the surface and then you move forward and you're crossing your

fingers that maybe we win this deal that on the paper we lost you know i feel like there had to be a dance partner for bachelor living well how would you feel if they traded them straight up for martin natchez sounds great that sounds great any really and we know this group we need doesn't work keep in mind you have to sign natchez too yeah but natchez isn't getting 11 no but he might at eight okay no so you're in the camp of like anything works i do it i'm not no no i'm not in the camp of anything works i'm in the camp of this doesn't work we what they're doing what they're sticking to doesn't work we know it doesn't work they're spending seven million over seven million dollars more on the exact same group of forwards they did last year minus tyler bertuzzi there so

they're um maybe playoff nathie nye's returns in the regular season that would be great maybe like but i get it it's not changing vastly what the team is like again like what did you call their defeat at the hands of the boston broods the way that they lost i can't remember but it was a p word predictable yeah dude i was thinking much worse p words no when you first said it no did i say that oh peanuts um no it's every year they lose identically like identically they had the common decency to spice it up last year you remember that they had a lead in the third period of course i do of course i do very briefly three straight playoff series against or no that's not true three out of the four series against the bruins since 2013 they have been down 3-1 come

back from down 3-1 led in the third period and lost that's crazy that's crazy and then they had the common decency in 2019 to simply get their ass kicked um they lose the same way every year that's why i'm like you know what try it because if they get worse oh well at least we're no longer in purgatory i'd almost rather be in hell because this purgatory is hell rather the team be worse because at least no i'd rather the opportunity for them to be better yeah you know but i'm just saying you'd rather the team like even if they ended up worse you're just happy that it's different yes yeah that's correct that's it here this is i always yell at you that's my job everybody what are we new here that's my job it's like jesse why'd you take the job adam i'm sure

was like my friend yells and you were like and if you were like well yelling bothers me then why did you take the job uh yo they're afraid of the market what the fuck are you doing in toronto then don't you they should go work in the real nhl chris go get an office in hamilton the real should move their office to hamilton they might win they might win they if we're so big and scary here i don't get here i do think they overthink it at a certain organization who is a new head coach everybody who's ever worked there it's the it's the same guy it's the president so so so chris you know and i think what steve is re steve is the the feeling um i'm right that a lot of people feel i'm right how are we to feel steve is the feeling how are

we to feel good patient we should get t-shirts the feeling he is the feeling it's a picture and It's just me looking dismayed and disappointed. That's a good nickname. The feeling. You know how Joel Embiid is the process? Yeah. Trust the feeling. The feeling dangle.

Trust the feeling. We might have something. They're going to lose again. My question is, as fans, because literally, even down to my wife. My wife said to me, first off, Tyler Bertuzzi was her favorite player, and she's dying that he left. Hates that he left. What is Chicago doing?

well i don't know but she was like she was like at least somebody went toe-to-toe with marshan on this freaking team finally you know and and and bertuzzi did and she's like and then we're just gonna let that walk out the door i'm like well there's other considerations damn that's crazy why do so many forwards walk yeah um crazy my question is you get a nice toronto shine and then get a good contract somewhere else how are we supposed to feel good about responsible for inflation the lack of following up because you know i i do understand the argument of well there needs to be a dance partner blah blah you're telling me if the leafs really worked hard there wouldn't be a dance partner in a great city for mitch marner you're telling me i just don't

know how many places he would go play vegas nashville one of the florida teams uh like any of the places what no tax states warm country whatever whatever it is he's looking for you're telling me marner also has to agree to that but you're telling me right he would say no to all of he needs to be a leaf so bad that there's not not only can i not find a dance partner but it couldn't be in a city that mitch might want to play in i have i have a hard time believing that mitch is that narrow focused he's been in the nhl a long time he knows it's a business i have a hard time believing that the leafs put 100 into that i have a hard time believing they put one percent into that they just said we simply this simply seems too hard i don't think

people why explore it did we ever hear of any true trade rumors regarding this player because if they'd done their work we probably would have the agents leaked that stuff the gms leaked that stuff the agms leaked that stuff that stuff gets out maybe not from the leaf side maybe not from marner's camp but that's getting out there and i didn't hear one reputable actual real trade rumor from the canadian from from this guy about this guy which tells me they didn't make a lot of phone calls and i think they made phone calls i mean how'd they go well obviously they haven't hey what hey you want me to murder you know what no instead i'm in a weird spot you're right you're right and i think the question chris is i just don't want to be

piling on because i yeah i do here's the thing the feeling is allowed to pile on yeah the feeling the feeling the feeling is this so i'm meant to try to be like the thought well and and i love that i think that's a perfect nickname for you we're not going with that one oh the thot yeah i didn't mean that from that one my point is it's tough being the old over here for us sitting on the outside to go you guys are paid what shanee's making seven mil what's tree three half or good for like these guys are making millions and millions of dollars and you're telling me you can't you can't even look into this well they looked into it as the point i don't know well i don't know that no let him finish the answer let him finish the answer let him finish

the answer go ahead i'll say this in general or broadly you don't lose a trade you don't make well they certainly don't win many of them but like i'm just like i could see why you'd be scared to trade this guy sure but you're gonna lose your job anyway they hired the wrong guy yeah you do have to be bold in this city you do need well it's hard not to like i'm not even sure the lightning are better but it's hard not to see what julian breezeball did with his pickle he turned it into relish the thought strikes again the thought so okay let's move on name of the show by the way So from the Mitch Marner side of things, here's what I worry about with this player.

And this is not a pile on Mitch Marner thing. To me, this is fully on management. Mitch has done nothing but be a good citizen here. He has performed well. Every time he's played, there are playoff, there are spotty playoff spots. You cannot talk about his career here without mentioning them.

He's been great to the fans. But he's not the only one. He sells a lot of jerseys. No, he's not the only one. But I'm just talking about him because he's the one that's out of contract right so then so here's the option that one more reason my last offseason was better because you at least had the alternate universe of kneelander going into last year and you were trading mitch with two years left yes which is a different asset and

and and so my my point and what i want to get to here is with mitch it feels really unfair that that to me anyway that leaf fans are putting this all on him the hate is towards him rather than to the people making the decisions he represents something more than just like his actual it's frustration with management and they're in action that's what he represents so sick of having to explain this it's like the tyler bozak stuff it was never anger at tyler bozak it was anger at randy carlisle for making him the number one center for no good reason yeah and never putting cadre there and never putting cadre there and then when he did or grabovsky yeah punting grabovsky when they did it you know let's not go there but i'm just saying the the point here

Kuhlman, Grabowski, MacArthur for life. Here's what Mitch Marner gets. Next season, he'll have a ton of fans like he always does, but he'll have a gigantic subsection of Leaf fans that are unfairly pointing this at him. And if he walks to free agency next year, which it's looking like he will, at least from this standpoint on July 8th at 1241 p.m.,

and he goes and signs somewhere else, there are going to be riots. It's just another riot. Why? why is that the most likely avenue like how to next off season when we're sitting here on july what is it eight seventh july 8th today eight is that the most likely such a scenario where mitch marner played out the season he signed somewhere else on july 1st or do you see an extension it's probably slightly more likely he walks than signs an extension but like not

but that can significantly so that can change but if we were setting kind of like the betting lines now the the favorite would be walks as a free agent wow and who could blame him then i would the shit he's been then i would say re-signed would be the next favorite i don't know the exact percentages and then trade probably in season trades three so better more likely he walks somewhere that's not toronto than stays in toronto well i'm just not sure they're going to give him the option to stay either like it's it's so you'd rather let him play somewhere else than to trade him for some assets he's gonna have to so he would play somewhere else then one at a time sorry you'd rather let him walk for nothing this is at the end it is you guys are acting like cj

made these deals no i didn't it is cj he is the leafs representative on earth no i'm kidding i am the thought you are the thought cj the thought so cj no what's hard to understand is they don't want to make a trade that they'll lose so they'll lose the guy to free agency more than like jvr hyman like that seems a bit what's the big deal they do it all the time that seems like an odd way to think about this well stam coach just walked a free agency yeah but they did something about that and they and by the way what do you mean well let's they didn't get anything back wanted to get rid he had his mind made up way early last summer that stammer was leaving right but he didn't trade him he didn't get something back okay yeah so there's one right like they

usually and stammer at their value free guys 34 33 34 yeah how old's marner 27 28 yeah bit of a difference it is it is but okay so i i know you guys want to yell more no no no i don't but i will say this so would you rather than re-sign him for 12 million right now absolutely extend him like that's i'm not saying then be the bold team and make him make a move yes and you know you also have tavaris up next year which i know is not nearly as pressing or that i don't mind an extension he's got to take a deal though he's got to take what what tamp offered stamkos the three million times eight or whatever and i feel like he would i don't know if it'll be three million times eight but i feel like he he would work with them i don't know if they're gonna work

with him like i don't know what i don't know how that's what the plan is i like john i like john a lot he and honestly if he's not 11 million dollar player you're gonna watch him totally differently absolutely i still think he's great oh yes like doing maybe close to 80 points he's seriously like underappreciated just because the team hasn't got over the hump and he's he's on the seventh year of seven years of course he's plays gone down a little yeah but he but he's still not like he's still okay yeah like look at the other guys who signed contracts around that time for similar money like Dushane got bought out in Nashville like similar like what he didn't get to 11 million I think it was eight times eight but like a lot of guys that were signed sort of

late 20s on seven eight year deals didn't get close to fulfilling them no he's been great yeah and John Tavares was worth 11 million dollars in every sense of the situation he was worth 13 according to san jose they offered him 13 times i think he lived up to that contract in the beginning half of it and then the second half was always gonna play out like this i got no problem and i'll tell you this he's back on team canada's radar for these tournaments that's nice good for him like i'm talking sort of the patrice bergeron role of yeah the pet like the more lessons learned let's go 12 13th no i'm joking i'm joking everywhere i go it's a grenade like every they haven't they've won one out of eight playoff series i'm not making nothing to do with cj

talking about john that's amazing for him though i'm just saying i i think that there's something to be worked with there but we'll see i agree with you it's not a priority let me say this instead of yelling it okay because i wrote this down so that i could read my words calmly okay i should have texted it to me ahead of time here do you want to read it and that way it comes out no you're the feeling okay bring the feeling steve here's the feeling man the emotional time to break up the core four was 2021 the arguable time to break up the core four was 2022 the reasonable time to break up the core four was before june 30th 2024 2023 2023 i screwed that up and the core force point of no return was january 8th 2024 the day kneelander extended

what defined point of no return i know it seems self-explanatory but i actually don't follow they slammed nmcs on three guys or four guys making double digits right like there was no that i love william kneelander i think he's a great player the team is better with him but like for anyone who thinks it's just Marner and we're picking on the kid everyone's always picking on the kid if they had gotten rid of Nylander it would have been really tough to stomach and I wouldn't have liked it but there would have been some sense there it would have made some sense you can't do this no one in the league is close to doing this no one in the league has a has a group of their their their top four highest paid guys that's within eight million of

the leafs it's psychotic that they're still trying to do this i agree like i was back to 2021 is the first time does the thought and the feeling agree yes damn we found harmony and there was peace but back to 2021 is when they should have done it i think that was their window 19 20 and 21 and they yeah that was the tavars got pretty bold that year relatively speaking oh kyle clifford no i'm kidding no but like and look it doesn't it's not about nick picking the moves it's just like you you felt an urgency with their action that year yep and then i'm not kidding you can go back and watch it it was still the zoom era like the first second of that post-mortem which was like a day and a half after they cacked that series to montreal and like the

first thing is like nothing is changing nothing nothing don't even ask like well and and i think it's too soon to say that though yeah and again i think they're worried about the message so much they're worried about how we're all going to interpret it it's like how about you just do stuff the actions are what really matter like i don't is mlc afraid of the media i don't know if they're afraid of the media or they're afraid of the media by the way but i think they own the biggest media companies i think they're afraid of the market and and the media like obviously distills information or whatever disseminates it for the market i think they're afraid of like they the way they've acted for a lot of years here like a lot of the stuff like

i don't want to get into all the behind the scenes stuff but there's just like so much stuff that it feels like they blame the media for something right like you you could say that potentially there are some some threads of thoughts or or ethos in that organization that i think they so much freaking energy trying to control it like messages and how things come out and all this and it's just like guys just do your business like be above us rise above the fray say nothing and win and like have success like if you have success every problem is solved what is the what was the reason for um players like marner and i i'm gonna point out morgan riley again because i'm still pissed about this game seven those guys not coming out and talking to the media players who

are wearing forget forget just players on the team but players that are wearing letters on this team not coming out and speaking to reporters after the game and it's and it happened a lot this year especially why is that what's going on there i don't know exactly like i'm not around day to day i was there day to day in the playoffs but definitely after the game they only make x number of players available these days and but if you're wearing a letter should not be available for sure i mean i'm i'm old the thought is old but why it is not that long ago that you would walk in a dressing room after game even just game 28 and a large section 60 of the players would all be in there already and you could you know obviously the main player of the day gets a big

scrum whoever scores two goals or whatever but like that's how i got to know leo komarov i just he was always in there i'd always just bs with him about like he wasn't ever the star very rarely was like the main he wasn't the main character of the game but he would always be there and he'd always do interviews and he'd tell it like it was and but they just they don't do it that way anymore like i think that's their effort to manage it a little bit but i don't know that for sure because honestly it would be unfair for me to come here and like smack the process because i'm not there i don't go to a lot of games ag1 tell me how it's a part of your day well um first you take it out of the fridge and then you take the scoop and i like to put a little water in the cup first

then put the the scoop of ag1 in then fill it with more water shake it up real good and then put it in my face do you not put ice in there too jesse what do you how do you know what are you talking about adam no you don't you just agitate the the stuff i think in there if you wanted to get nuts you could you absolutely can't drink it well a little bit ice a little bit ice anybody who's like a big time water drinker like myself knows that if you you don't drink cold water why not you want to drink room temperature water so you can drink it because you can't like drink cold water it's too cold no no this is talking about this isn't in the script ice water this isn't in the script ag one sickle there you go you're you're you're too cold you need to just

drink your ag one it's eight ounces of water what are you talking about could you do could you do an AG1 sickle donor? For sure could. We have the science. But it's ridiculous. You want to drink the whole powder that you put in there.

Jesse, I'll tell you what's ridiculous. Folate, magnesium, vitamin C, zinc. It supports your immune system. It supports your gut and you usually feel better too, which I think you both do.

Right? Right? Right? I'm hung up on this ice water. If you want to take ownership, I was just thinking more of like an agitator, right? Like it breaks the power.

I think you're agitating. You don't need that. If you want to take... It comes in a bottle. You put it in there and you shake it. If you want to take ownership of your health,

try AG1. Ice or no ice, it's up to you. Free one-year supply of vitamin D3K2 and five free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase.

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Two in five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, Join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers

in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know, the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Ciaia and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned.

And today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Don't miss the new season of North of North starting September 8th on CBC Gem. Let's talk about the rest of the moves that they made because obviously let's start in goal. you know we were talking about bets earlier in the show they made a bet on joe wall when you i like it you like that bet i do like it what do they what do you think this organization

sees in this guy do they see a potential number one for sure okay they think he's a star why can't he stay healthy that's what they're trying to get to the bottom of because if you look at his injury history it's not one area of his body or one it's all over one certain movement that's caused an issue like the ankle thing this year came up out of nowhere i think he's had a shoulder in the past uh was his back that that got him in the playoffs it's not a lack of fitness he's ripped actually if you see him he's he's uh he's in great shape but like maybe he's not training a certain way like i think they have to get to the bottom of that even with that the case so i think it's the right bet because you might say well you got to see it next year well it's like what if you

see it next year like what happens if you really see it next year jesse you made a really good point then what do you do we're at 3.6 million dollars if he's an average starter yeah that puts him where i believe it's the 25th air ish uh the highest goalie contract in the league and that's not this year that's next year yeah that's 25 26 one is he's around the 25th highest paid goaltender in league and if he's that like that would be underwhelming like i think fans would be upset so the fact that he's getting paid this little on paper compared to the other goaltenders i think it's a fantastic deal i like that they got ahead of it i i want to see more of this from lots of teams i think it's smart to sign your good young players early yes there's risk there's risk

with literally every single contract you could have the you could sign conor mcdavid to a two million a year contract and there's risk he might get injured and then what do you do with that two million like melul tir right but you know what i'm saying like it's like there's nothing is without risk but i think it's a smart bet um joseph wall when he plays has been tremendous he was great in the boston series he was great against florida in the second no reason to think he won't be better yeah and you hope he's healthier and obviously they're working with him it's more than hope for the leafs because they're working with him on it i just i don't know exactly what that entails another guy who's got almost no play but was a free agent signing is anthony stallers and this

is a guy that when he was drafted by philadelphia they saw him and carter hart as the two guys fighting for the crease in in philly until he blew out his knee anaheim signs him they rehab his career they rehab the knee he goes to florida this year wins a cup steals games from spencer knight what's your sense of of this player he seems confident he's confident he's six foot six or seven and super athletic everybody raves about him that plays with him and knows him i think it's a smart bet again he's late 20s so you might be like whoa so it's wool though right wool's more like mid-20s mid mid um but i i will say that with stolars like you have 25 right and you gotta look at some goalies like three days he's 26 okay happy birthday joe

happy birthday joe play a tune on the piano he's a pianist he seems like a great teammate oh he's the nicest the nicest guy in the small ways that i get to know the players but he always hangs around and chats and is very engaged um but about Anthony Stolarz the goalie people love him they say like he is a great candidate to play more than he's ever played because that would be the only yeah but to the signing he's only you know he's played 20-25 games a year at the top end in the NHL and you have to remember a lot of goalies don't become a more regular goaltender until their 30s it's just a fact of the position like I think Cam Talbot didn't emerge as someone who played a lot of games until his late 20s slash early 30s that's the kind of guy that they're

trying to sign cam talbot before he's cam talbot they're trying to sign him before he becomes you know and i'm not saying talbot's totally washed but he's 37 he was another option they could have had as a 1b type of goalie i think it's smarter to sign this this player that's likely got a still some ceiling to reach and you know let's face it the guys my height aren't playing that in the nhl these days and so you when you have a big athletic goaltender that everyone speaks highly of that has some experience that has a proven track record in a smaller number of games albeit why not like you're not signing him to play 50 like i think they want wool playing 50 yeah 48 yeah um you're hoping that joseph wall is your main guy but i i think it's just i i like the play there it was him

or bwoswa to me and i think stolarz probably has maybe a bit more upside bwoswa has done it more in the past but you're trying to sign the guy before he does this right right like that's that gets lost in all this like the proven commodities unfortunately sometimes on the way down you're paying them for the past rather than the future whereas i think this is a this is a bet on and and the reason stolar is one of the reasons he came to toronto is because he sees hey joseph wall is a good young goalie but i might get to play more there like he's going somewhere like he wants that opportunity and so i think it'll be another year of a bit of back and forth probably one period where we're doing who's if the playoff started today who starts like we'll

be doing that game again and it's probably an open question like obviously joseph wall sitting here in july is the most likely option but stolarz outperforms him run with it yeah yeah and i don't mind i just don't mind the deal when you look at the there are other options like to me it makes a lot of sense one thing is is pretty clear um on on the defensive side of things that's why i'm starting goalie out is, you know, when, when Treliving got here,

it's very clear that behind the scenes, he looked at things and went, what the hell did you guys leave me with? Right. He wanted size, uh, and they needed some puck moving. So last year they tried to get a little bit of both with,

uh, um, John Klingberg, you know, who's tall, uh, and moves the puck well historically and shoots when he doesn't have a point has injury.

Yeah. When he doesn't have a victory shoots from the point, which is something they do not have on the power play, which is still, they still really don't have. What do you think about what Tanev brings? And then we'll work our way down to OEL and some of the other guys here. Tanev's the big one.

He's the big one because he's a right shot, which is what they specifically targeted. And he can soak up, I'd say, 20 minutes. This is where it gets interesting. I've seen a lot of commentary like he's going to play on the top pair with Riley. It's like, maybe. He's 34. I mean, I'm not aging him out here. He signed a six-year deal.

but like there's a chance he's playing on like a second like i will see how the coaching staff games it out but maybe he's playing on the second pair and it's more of a shutdown pair you know so there's still a hole on the right side to me i mean maybe it's hawk and paw like if hawk and paw is healthy steve's gonna lose it if it's lilligran so no that's not true no that's not true riley lilligran he'll be mad if they're if they're scratching him in the playoffs and there's still room for trade maybe like again it's not all settled but i i mean the tanf signing to me is like it's it's smart like why what where's the downside here this guy's consistently and by every metric used to measure these things the best are among the

best defensive defensemen in the league and recently healthy yeah he was he had an awesome season last year yeah yeah unfortunately for dallas he was injured at the very end of their playoffs right right and that's the only real concern with him is that the way he plays his style is not geared towards playing 82 games plus 24 more in the spring listen if the if if chris tanev is hurt in the east final next year i'll be i'll be okay with it uh but you'll be ruined that it happens well i'll be ruining it but the leafs will at least be in the east final right so so then that brings us to the other bigger name is oliver ekman larson who had a resurgent year last year oh sorry well sorry i i do want to hop on one thing go get in there i

I thought he wanted to get in on Dakota Mermis. Yeah, me too. Yes, thank you. So, well, and also Cedric Paré. No, something you just said is there, you know, there could be a trade. And on a recent CJ show, you mentioned there's still a possibility for Lilligren to get traded. And that was one of the things that made me go, what? When I was listening in my car?

Well, they certainly listened to trade talk on him and included him in discussions. like i think when they were still in talks to get markstrom i think lilligren was a possibility in that trade which of course that's the alternate universe that didn't happen because markstrom ended up in new jersey where it always felt like he was going to go of course but yes you know i think the leafs have been open to moving lilligren i think had they been able to get matthew roy which they wanted but i think washington went the seventh year right well and they i just don't think the Leafs could do that financially no and good for him but yeah make his money we're never far from the feeling

getting a little it's just a question but I think what they were priced out and then they signed because the Leafs were scared or whatever mindful maybe a better way to put it of the arbitration case Lilligren would have had so by signing him didn't guarantee he won't be traded I don't believe okay probably more again more likely than not he's going to be on the team next year but it's still i mean it was a two-year deal right yeah and they it doesn't feel like he's our guy forever certainly not but i feel like a lineup with um riley on the top pair oh we all on the second pair if lilligrand is playing on the the third pair where do you have mccabe on the third pair yeah that's the thing right like i i like i like benoit mccabe i feel like they

should be the fourth pair but or sorry the third pair but the what i wanted from the leaf so hockinpah is scratched in opening night in adam's world same with connor timmons oh connor timmons is to the moon um but uh space uh you don't sign hockinpah to scratch him no i don't think you do so then maybe you signed him to he might not be healthy though yeah well yeah but you trade you sign maybe he's not scratched ideally trade ir yeah they needed puck moving throughout the lineup is my is my point so at least having if if lilligren isn't playing and it's hawk and paw that's in um at least you got two guys who are bona fide puck movers back there and i think the other thing that they really need to do this year is they need to spread the talent out on the

power play units because loading it loading up on power play one as much as it's seen overall success year after year right around march it dies because teams figure it out they make no adjustments and the power second power play unit stinks and so the leafs can't play them if we create some competition here and actually have players going you know what our unit's better than your unit i feel like that might be a better solution for them long term and they have the talent to do it at least now it can't be they can't be jake mccabe running a power play right well i think oel would be that's my point yeah he's they have that with him and that's why i want and honestly even if it doesn't work with riley at times on pp1 i think oel could be that

guy like florida did that in the playoff yeah and why did they why did they want oel so bad i like the signing to be honest but i you know i think some people do some people don't why do you think the leafs like him because he's a great skater he certainly improved like last year changed his reputation and it's like you know he was a distressed asset and he played he was healthy all year played on a good team great guy and he was available i mean part of it is just availability too right and they had to give him four years to get it done but i i like again i've seen some people be all up in arms with this contract i'm a little less worried about that kind of term like i think you can get rid of them if you have to meh yeah four years 3.5 yeah i don't i don't like

but like two summers from now like if it's not working out i think there's a way to we've seen i don't know he's not making eight million bucks anymore everybody's always like a nervous spender i think it's because police have made some bad contracts i think the david clarkson thing undid a generation yeah but in the end they traded him for nothing exactly so like it didn't really hurt them like it was not a good decision sure to sign him to that deal but like it didn't hurt the team's ability to build a team they had all they had bigger problems than just david clark at that point oh yeah yeah yeah but you know i just think that it's sort of like at the time like the discussion about hyman if he stayed with toronto i was like you can't give

that guy seven years i was like you give him seven years he's a awesome guy he's a he's a core member of this team and you deal with your five six and seven if you have to right and it doesn't look like you're gonna have to based on what he's done in edmonton yeah just getting better oh man it's crazy adam was listing out the defense lines and they have nine defensemen currently on their nhl page on cap friendly that are signed and three of those guys have to be a healthy scratch come opening night i don't think cap white they're gonna have to send someone through waivers so murmis is probably gonna go no i would assume i think assuming everyone is healthy because like if someone's injured you don't have this but if they're only they're not

keeping more than seven on the opening night roster right so murmus and tim and sir waivers murmus and then he's still and then one is going to be your healthy scratch right hey it seems like they have too many guys right now but that's i think it's good to have too many yeah why is cat friendly still online i don't know i'm looking at puckpedia right now they tweeted yesterday i'm not gonna lie the only thing i've even thought of tweeting in the last few days was like i wanted to go take a picture of like the dead url and be like pour one out for cat friendly but it hasn't been dead no we're never gonna go to like they're just not updating it anymore no they are though like there's yeah i don't know they're still going they can't go offline until

the yanni hockinpah deal do i have to go every day to just try to execute this tweet yeah i don't know yeah yeah i guess you do like i don't i don't get it so do we have an idea of like murmurs and timmons are the odd people out yes and then your scratch opening night is probably one of hock and paw benoit probably one of those two so okay or maybe lily green i don't i mean let's see how camp goes it it would suck to sign your 25 year old for three million dollars for two years just to healthy scratch him on night one so that's the lily green situation i've been yeah yeah i don't think he's like that's what i'm saying it's likely one of the guys making less than three million yeah years ago the leafs wanted roman polak he was not good to go

and then they signed him to a deal after the season began what are the odds they don't make the hockinpah deal official until october oh i think they gotta do it sooner than that yeah i think there has to be some clarity here in the near future okay well i would bloody hope so i'm gonna be in amsterdam watching soccer so i will not no beautiful i won't be the one to tell you about it but uh you can send me an email and i'll get back to you in august um when we look at up front obviously the the only change is the loss of uh tyler bertuzzi the extension of max hey noah gregor oh and noah gregor they didn't tender noah gregor qo um after playing him on the first line several games last he signed in winnipeg i think so gregor yeah good for him good

for him uh max domi's extension it seemed like there's there hasn't seemed like a leaf who was more meant to be a leaf than max domi in a long long time just because he seems to embrace the moment uh whether or not you know sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't what do you think of that extension how much work was that to come together like do you have any insights on that one i think it was a slightly tenuous negotiation because of the reasons you're outlying both sides knew that they needed to be together yes so they kind of both knew they were like they were never really going to break up probably but like it made it but they neither was getting exactly what it wanted as it went along which is a good compromise right and so i'm not saying it was

like particularly hostile but it definitely wasn't smooth uh and and it stretched over a long period of time it was only after the draft that he signed on the 30th of june so i mean they went very late they went right down to kind of the wire where he could dip his toe into the open market and they got the deal done i think it's a sensible deal at probably for that reason neither side truly got what it wanted they didn't keep him in the low threes he didn't get you know five times five or whatever the first number that was floated out there was you know and the truth be told he got what a little bit more than michael bunting got last year and for agency from carolina which feels about right i mean max domi he does a lot for the leafs right i think he's a good

sort of call it dressing room fit culture piece what what have you he's very popular among his teammates which counts for something it's huge of course you know he's liked at work and personality higher i think he he's got a i mean he's got the ties to his dad like he pretty clearly by that once he got comfortable like he felt like he looked great with matthews felt like a leaf he looked great with and he can play with matthews but he can also be your third line center in a pinch like i think he gives some flexibility and he's not making he's not making a silly amount of money for agency so i think was 4.5 by three years and domey is 3.75 by four so that's it's close to the same money right but over one yeah over one more year yeah i know that they were

always kind of a comparable yeah like they were one of that they were i just like that domi play center yes you can do that and so it's like one of these ones i don't know how anyone could be that upset about it i don't think anybody is like you know what do you think about how you announced the contract i loved it the uh the the uh what is it the wolf of wall street thing i love that i love that it was his face too yeah yeah no i i think what i loved his playoff montage before game one too like about what because he seems to understand in a very public way what this means do you know that's it do you know what's funny and i don't say this as a criticism but it's just an observation he's he's a little bit reticent to discuss it with reporters weird

like he doesn't like going into like it's not that he won't take a question about his dad but he doesn't he doesn't wax poetic about it right like he doesn't play along with that but then he he drops these like videos so you know how he really feels right but like for whatever reason And he like, and that's totally fine. Like, again, it's not a criticism. It's just funny. Like he doesn't, because I think especially last summer he signs here, he actually was the Leafs do a golf tournament before training camp opens, like where they, it's a sponsor

event and all that fans, but we get to speak, the media get to speak to a couple of players that they, they handpick. And he was one of the ones that day. And I remember everyone was kind of going there looking for him to be like, I always was only ever going to be a Leaf. And he actually said, I wish I never left the Habs. I love Montreal. all and like like which was totally fine but like he doesn't always give you what you think that way

but then he shows you what he's thinking the real yeah social media wise so so the guy that he played with and that looked so good on the first line with him was tyler bertuzzi and obviously the leafs ran out of money here yeah and we know we know why i didn't say anything we know why i did not say what did the feeling think he felt he felt damn that's crazy yeah uh damn that's crazy How did they run out of money? Bertuzzi signs for the same amount of money that he was playing for last year in Toronto. What was the most surprising part about Bertuzzi

is he was a July 2nd signing. He probably, had he had his way going into that, was never going to sign in Toronto and then plays here and wants to stay. He wanted to stay. He makes the same amount of money. Stop. The cap went up, though.

I know, I know. Why isn't he still here? The cap went up. I know, I know. That's weird. Thoughts? Thoughts from thought? That's right.

that would you be okay with a four-year deal if he had signed that in toronto like same deal yeah i think so okay it wouldn't have been like five and a half gonna do like really if we're talking about oh yeah five and a half between friends well especially in a hundred million dollar cap which is what we're headed towards in the next three four years right well and now i'm looking at the team like okay so like who plays left wing there's nice that's good there's a good answer nick robertson who doesn't who doesn't want to sign mcmahon yeah yeah so we got nice mcmahon good good start right and then like holmberg is he a full-time doer doer doers going to arbitration do or do not there is no try that's right right well and and i i do want

to talk about that but i want to get to robertson but i want to talk about bertuzzi quickly first he did like his time here he did want to stay 100 just couldn't make the money work couldn't make the money like he couldn't this is where it gets awkward as a player yeah you want to stay but if they're not offering you that like can you really leave money on the table no you can't and i think that's just where it got to like there was no again there was no bad feelings there's no like you're crazy for asking for that they just didn't feel like they could give them that well he left money on the table last year too well he might overplayed his hand last year well exactly well i think he was looking for a longer term deal on july 1st yeah that didn't

materialize other teams pivoted in other directions and then july 2nd it's like okay what's what's available what's the best next decision i can make and we saw this year if you don't sign by july 1st you're kind of screwed oh man this year was nuts yeah this year has been crazy it's like dog ate your homework time if you missed that day like like what do you like say what's that gonna be a lot of surprise ptos right like i guess but like what's the best player left now daniel sprung yeah ryan suiter james van reams dyke tyson berry tyler johnson like but it's a lot of guys and i say this because some of those guys have been really good players in the hl but they're they're at the wrong end of their careers we don't know what's left their pto slash one

million one one year deal kind of guys so so yeah all the money got spent in one day the other big headline i think boxing day blowout two and five canadians will hear the words you have cancer that's why every step and dollar raised matters on september 19th join thousands in toronto for the princess margaret cancer foundation walk challenge yourself friends and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear

of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca Trade ice skating at Nathan Phillips Square for ice cubes in your umbrella drink. Let Porter Airlines fly you from Toronto Pearson non-stop to 10

top sun destinations in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Costa Rica. enjoy award-winning porter service toronto has loved for 20 years and start your vacation as soon as you're on the plane book your sunny getaway today at flyporter.com and actually enjoy economy nick robertson is not going to according to his agent not going to sign a deal and has no interest in signing a deal it's not his agent i was the one who reported that oh you report oh it wasn't his agent okay all right so he has no interest i have a theory there don't go around trying to outsource it.

Sorry, I'm sorry. Oh, no, I don't know if it was the age. I assumed it was. I actually don't know that. No, I have a thought on that. Nick Robertson has made it known

he would not like to resign in Toronto. Why? Nick Robertson has made it known that he would not. No, I think I think that

there's a feeling the Leafs have not given him the opportunity he deserves or he thinks he deserves and that he wants to go somewhere and be a regular NHL player. And what do the Leafs

In the real NHL. In the real NHL. The Leafs in the real NHL. Ah! Yeah, New Jersey would be a fit. But yeah, I don't think it's, sorry, I don't think it's about like he hates the city or something like that.

I think it's entirely around his career opportunities, the way things have gone the last few years and a fresh start might be preferred. Do you think that's likely? Because to me, he seems like exactly the kind of guy they need. They need 15, 20 goals lower in the lineup. I don't think they're going to, they certainly aren't going to trade him to trade him.

Like he's got no rights. His only right is not to come to camp, not to sign his deal. And you know what? I'm a big Nick Robertson booster, but there's a couple of big holes in his game he's not fast enough and he makes some boneheaded decisions in his defensive zone he dekes when he should just chip and it's little things like that that are going to drive a guy like berube nuts and he gets killed twice a game and it felt like

okay nick robertson wanted wants out to go play in a regular role but like you could have earned that regular role here because of how i lack of forward depth on the lead yes but i think he would argue and i dangerous speaking for him but my understanding is he might argue that he felt he earned more of an opportunity than he got he scored 13 five on five goals last year no he was i i again really and it gets to the playoff games he's playing eight minutes a night yeah and and with matthews and neil andrew out but there's a new head coach he reminds me of a guy like i don't know if you watch so much but like that victor olufson in buffalo like he's got a cannon of a shot like he can score and he can definitely be a weapon in certain ways but he's

like you don't trust him in every area of the game. And so you, you almost need to, it's like Tyson Berry actually. And some like, obviously Tyson's a defenseman, but you almost like you needed to define a very specific role for him and let him thrive in it.

But you can't just roll them out there on a top line or something. Not, not at this point. Anyway, all of a sudden had that one season where his shot was like a touch of death. And then, I don't know,

just hasn't done a whole, but he could still even like, what do you have last year? Like, I know he not a lot, but he still scored like 20 goals or close. Oh, did he?

What's the likely outcome here? because the Leafs need 20 goals deep in the lineup. This guy had 15 last year, and as you said, 13 five-on-five. That's huge. I think he's likely back. Yeah. They can mend that, right? Yeah, I mean, I would assume if it really is just about opportunity,

give him the opportunity. And the opportunity also seems to be there for the reasons you're talking about. That's what it seems like. I don't think it's outrageous to be like one of Nye's or Robertson, you know, they split each of the top two lines. mcmahon can play third because he's better suited for that role than robertson so it's nice no it's not like it makes sense yeah like what's i i just feel like if he might not be a brube player though

too that's possible that's true well like i i just look at you know if we're looking around the league for candidates like all right nick you want a job all right let's look around the league the leafs would probably be a top 10 candidate yeah that's why it feels a little premature at 22 to be demanding you want a spot when you can look from the outside and say hey there's a spot here and you can just go and earn it and your next next season you're 23 yeah so cj what's what's breaking it's a breaking news what's happening oh oh what's happening it's all good okay good so so like there's a lot of crap on my phone what happened oh man me too actually is there did we miss anything it doesn't look like it no okay not not news wise i'm glad you're checking

I am. I got Twitter open just in case. But so so I guess I guess that kind of brings us to this. What is going to be a success for this team? What do we how do we because, you know, we're going to be watching for 82 games and then and then we'll get to the playoffs. We can't do what we did a couple of years ago, which is none of this matters until the playoffs. There has to be some stakes this year. What do the Leafs under Berube need to show in the first, say, two months before we get to American Thanksgiving with that? you know that noted playoff cutoff that people always talk about you know what is the first

two months of this team look like where we go okay there's some change in the air here well old u.s thanksgiving is now like january 10th so the way the schedule has been moved yeah yeah so true so true so you gotta wait till winter solstice uh no i don't know what they can show us in a regular season they've been a really good team in the regular season they've been one of the most successful regular season teams in the last five years i think if you look at it They're, like, fifth most in wins and points combined over those. Like, they have been an objectively elite team in the regular season. And never won a division.

Canadian division. They did win one. They did win one. Okay, fair. Then what happened? Exactly. Whoa! Freaky Friday over here.

The feeling and the thought. They have aligned for a second time. Lightning just struck the studio. This is incredible. I can't believe I'm here. Yeah, they haven't won a division. They haven't won a President's Trophy. But, like, does any of that...

I'm not saying it doesn't matter. Like, it would be nice. Mm-hmm. But do you think anyone in New York who's, like, hitting the table for a Trouba trade right now cares that they won the President's Trophy? It'd be nice to have

guaranteed home ice advantage, I think. Or mostly go guaranteed. Do you know the record when they've been playing on home ice? The Leafs? Or it's actually really, really, really shit. I don't know it off by heart. I don't either,

but I know they won one out of five home games, I think, or one out of six the previous year. Oh, my God. keith had like he it's on it's wild how many losses he had because most coaches get fired before they reach that amount of losses like on home ice i mean not saying that to diss the guy it's just the truth well and you're expecting on home ice that the coach is tilting was making decisions and taking advantage of last change and all that to try to not have that happen his record was like it was like 8 and 16 or something right but then he could probably be like yeah but

Look at our road record. Oh, yeah. Also mid. It's Stevie Roll. Because they keep losing in the freaking... I did only from 2018 onwards. So since the 2019 playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs at home are 7-16.

Oh, my God. So that's one year of Babcock. Because Babcock was there 2019. Well, this isn't just the coach. No. It's also the players. What else might it be? Oh.

Like, well, okay. Let's think about who's been there the whole time. No. it can't be many guys because that's a long period of time right so i bet it's uh so since 2020 if you want to move a year they're 6 and 14 so that's even worse pretty bad yeah yeah oh yeah it's even worse so yeah i'm just saying having home ice advantage through the playoffs might not be what you think it is um you brought although florida just won the stanley cup in game seven on home ice after nearly for that series away yeah yeah so you brought up craig bruby and you know robertson

might not be a bruby guy or whatever i'm thinking back and you're such a good historian when it comes to this stuff like you're you not in real history just to whatever asterisk you're gonna say no no like you remember playoff runs especially of the champions like you you do yeah because i usually covered them and so like it's more seared in your memory yeah you do an incredible job of being like here's the beginning middle and end like the 72 bruins i can't remember what happened on their playoff run that was a bit it was a little while ago but like who were who were the horses that berube depended on in 2019 well o'reilly was the big one ryan o'reilly okay petrangelo you think braden shen yeah and shen so like this is what i'm trying to figure out

like they had like jay bomey serves playing a big role on that team joel edmondson was the less compromised version of what he is today but like he had like alex steen at that time as a fourth liner like he was not a horse um but i'm trying to like what are you trying to pull out of me here well what i'm trying to figure out 27 as well oh yeah that's pretty good what i'm trying to figure out is who on the leafs can can uh replicate those roles oh somewhat you know what i mean well who's tarasenko for example and who's like o'reilly i suppose you make matthews they're different players yes yeah i mean he never had the thing is that blues team won a cup without anything close to a matthews right like they they had very very good players but they didn't have

like a singular star um well i look at someone like bobby mcmahon i'm like i could see having pretty big guy you know we'll see where he comes back from his injury but like i think he could he's like if i was predicting like someone who could outperform what people are expecting i think he could be one okay i know that's gonna be tough last year he had a bunch of goals remember one of them came in a hat trick game he scored in an empty net yeah like yeah like i'm not just saying goals like i could just see him playing a more important like he started last year not really factoring into the team he didn't factor into their defensive structure at all and then he became like a guy right but i think this year he could be like a legit like this guy's on the

team he's an important player uh where if he got injured next year you'd be like uh-oh whereas like you know this year i didn't hear too many people saying that i mean it was like too bad that he got injured i was thinking that were you i was well because then once again the feeling is ahead of the curve the the leafs with him in the lineup uh like he really uh tied the room together yeah um and when they lost him it felt like they it felt like the best they could do is be the best regular season version of themselves in the playoffs um well they need some playoffs to score some big goals right yes and no one well oh nice nice scored a big goal like they need a bit of that like it can't all be on like the the main offensive player's shoulders like i'm just saying

you have to win the odd game um you know like in the in the final sam reinhardt scored the game winning goal but wasn't that his first goal to final good question i believe that was his first goal to final in game seven he's a 57 goal regular season player but and who had success earlier in the playoffs but like they florida got to the point where they could win because other players had scored like remember evan rodriguez said he had three or four goals in the final like it can't all just be the top players all the time reinhardt did not have a mind-blowing that's not to excuse the top i'm not saying that but like it's just the fact if you look at it even conor mcdavid everyone was losing their minds he didn't have a point in

last two games but like no no star player has a point in every game in the playoffs and no team wins just on the back of goals from matthew like the equivalent of matthew's on their team like you do need someone to chip in and that's what i thought bobby mcmahon could be for the leafs and i think he is again that's why when you're looking at the lineup now you're like who else could be those players well i think cali yarn croak healthy can be i like him he scores 20 everyone's down on him all of a sudden i don't know i think it's because he's a player that makes over two million bucks that's that's the only reason did you know two million is like nothing it's just because of though they don't need world it's a lot like his they don't need

to get rid of his contract i was he's got a big shot though like for a surprisingly lethal shot i just i i feel like i like that line so much down the stretch and then the playoffs came and i was like oh they just didn't do a hell of a lot yeah i just so i look at this and and i think you're right chris which brings us to david kampf david kampf uh two and a half million or 2.4 million and um you know is a centerman and was bradshaw livings i think first contract extension with the lease yeah just before the draft in nashville so like you know seems like he probably needs to slot into the fourth center they tried him at 3c it didn't work great is that a guy that's still here in september october probably but like certainly they would move him i just think for the

reasons you're highlighting it might be tough right now and he took a step back last season i actually think he was pretty strong by the end yes but certainly early in the year he you know he gets scratched for a game broke up his own personal iron man streak at three or four hundred games his wife instagrammed about all that all that none of us realized he had the iron man streak until his wife instagrammed about it i mean not to you know wasn't top of mind um i mean he's a really useful player the question is are they devoting too many resources to him on a team that doesn't have a lot of resources that that to me is like the beginning and end of the discussion right like he is without question a useful defensive center but some useful defensive

centers get paid 1.2 million not 2.4 and you might say well what's the difference in this case well the differences leaves her down one 1.2 million dollar player with him there and so i i think that they could move him but i i don't know how many trades we're gonna see yeah what are you gonna get yeah and and well and it didn't happen like if we were doing this in january 25th or june 25th oh man where am i you're almost done uh july 8th yeah but if we were doing this before the draft and everything i might have said hey like that's among the players lilligran's among the players they would move i think yarn croak they would have looked at too but now it's just i mean if let's say they trade them for nothing just for just for sure who are they signing for

the they got to fill that hole right this is the point is like now honor doer now you've missed the window to really sign players so unless you're trading them in a i mean that'd be a weird trade fourth line center for fourth line center maybe probably not i think i think he's here um okay so so let me ask you just won a gold medal for check yet world hockey championship what's the best deal the leafs were not able to pull off marner for dangle yeah like is it matt roy is it is it you know like what what was the what was the thing that we're like oh we think we got this and then it didn't happen it would have saved them more than 10 million dollars if they pulled that trade off i think i i think matt roy was the was a

little bit of the one that got away like they were interested in brady shea but i think it was pretty clear early on that that wasn't going to be it i don't like they called on pesci but i didn't get the sense that was ever but i i feel like roy was was a big target and if you look at what he does like if you had have added tan of n roy like that's significant for your top four like that's literally two guys that play the right side that really can eat minutes and not a lot happens defensively when they're on the ice and we're talking about a different blue line like the leafs defensively we haven't really hit on this but like they it's been a problem yeah lack of resources and so weirdly because didn't you like how they played i will say this didn't you like

how they played games five six and seven i did very much i'm sure you didn't like the outcome of game seven fabulous yeah little run they very much you know much like finally played like a team that could like lock out a big game yeah yeah they played playoff style games we should base the whole future of the team on those three games like we did in 2019 with babcock no but i'm saying i think that that's the vision that management has for them and some will hate it they haven't changed the look some will hate it but it's hard i don't know edmonton was as close as you could be to being a team that's pretty high scoring that nearly won the cup like but they played some team defense in there oh for sure they didn't win every game 8-6 but they could yeah they would if

you wanted to do that yeah and remember they won was it 8-1 game four in the final oh jesus it was over fast they were capable of scoring a lot of goals and they like look at edmonton's offseason was good it was very very good yeah like the guys they kept at the money they kept they kept the guys in my opinion they add arvidson arvidson is a sleeper by the way they add jeff skinner to that group yeah and there still might be an evander kane trade coming who knows about that yeah i mean they just uh they dumped some money there with the mcleod losing mcleod hurts getting savoy in there holy shit fabulous asset management by the boy savoy savoy he's from saint albert he's a he's an edmonton boy and they just cut his brother like a week ago oh really yeah that

carter savoy they they didn't uh resign him or anything and then they bring in his brother so some drama going on in the household damn i'm guessing i'm guessing though like you know matthew savoy only played one game for buffalo he's he must be pretty pumped that he might get a chance to play for his hometown team and actually play in the nhl yeah absolutely okay so edmonton had like a sneaky good offseason who's who's your biggest offseason and i'm i'm including draft i'm including trades i'm including free agency biggest offseason winner biggest offseason loser nashville nashville biggest winner yeah and and like it's sort of obvious i guess because they signed the highest profile guys but they signed two first line wingers

yeah sure and they're good money too and they signed brady shea who like on a normal team i would say would be a first pairing guy when you have yosi there maybe you're able to spread it two pairings they already have sorrows who they just extended this offseason and they still have ask her off if they want to make a trade yeah like i usually winning like usually when you sign all the names that like you you get all the hype and then it's disappoints i don't think this is going to disappoint well i gotta tell you having watched as against my will watch that first round series between vancouver and nashville which was the most boring playoff series i've ever seen it was boring because nashville controlled it it nashville couldn't score last year couldn't score if i kept

saying if they're gonna i'm telling you they could win the division this year they're that smothering well they're that good and they didn't just get two first line players they got two first line players with a gigantic chip on their shoulders do you do you know how proud steven stamkos is i don't i've never talked to him but tell us i would love to know like no matter what he ever said publicly he i'm not saying he ever lacked for motivation but he has got so much fire in his belly right now jonathan marshes so didn't even hide it he called vegas out for not making a legitimate offer to him yeah he called vegas out for doing what vegas always does right but he he is a golden misfit he won the cons my trophy two years ago and he just had his best offensive

season in the nhl i know he's older so like this isn't gonna last forever but i think nashville had the best offseason i think they're going to be a force to be reckoned with who had the worst carolina yeah everyone out the door no one really in and no nature's trade and a top five team for a number of years like similar to the leafs in the regular season unsimilar to the least they've won the playoff year right around every of those years but i do think that they lost the most and i don't see a path to recovery i don't even know if it was avoidable like i think the die was cast like eric tolski just took over i'm not blaming eric per se but like they they didn't sign pesci a year ago they didn't sign shea a year ago they let teravine and go um i don't know carolina

of somehow though just as always good so maybe i'm missing something it definitely felt like waddell went hot potato and just yeah yeah you know he left the writing was on the wall yeah right at a strategic time and and well it's all well and good like i do appreciate they do things differently they they and there's some like there is some smarts behind that this might be the time where it's like okay it was a little bit too much to hold the line on everybody so i think carolina to probably you know la i don't like their offseason like they lost roy and replaced him with edmondson at a bloated price that's a crazy price and that's mark bergevin effect taken seattle may come to regret montour and chandler stevenson on seven-year deals at big money

like i don't think they're bad players but i those both of those like the clock starts on like how long till we're talking buyout yeah wow well just because they're seven-year deals for guys that are 30 like it's not this is again i'm not i'm not hitting at the players here it felt a little desperate like it felt like they really i mean i think in seattle they didn't i mean they missed the playoffs this year after making it around two last year they're feeling the pressure from their fans right like they well they regressed significantly and they charge a lot for tickets there and and they've had a great start as a franchise but like they they need momentum so like i think that they they were highly motivated to make a big swing so i'm not

gonna call them losers of this deadline but in three years if we're doing a retrospective we might be like oh yeah that was that was not the right decisions i'm just confused so there's there's a team that what where do you where do you think i'm going the feeling is confused again when he says it i'm just confused no i just know feel it feel it feel it bring the feel they're afraid of the expectations from their fans so they were compelled to make a big swing and do stuff in this case i've raised it as like i think that those are swings they'll regret oh yeah fair enough you know what fair enough like if the leafs traded marner for what the leafs cj not everything's about the least

all right all right all right all right i i i think uh i i do think um those are great picks the nashville one is going to be fascinating to watch i just picked them to win the cup on my pod did you really i think they're great i i i i sure was was critical about the u2 thing i'm like that doesn't make you a better team but it they sure won a lot after that and i just loved how they just made you look like a fool oh it's just because you took that stance early and then it just kept winning and i had to keep doubling down i can't walk it off the previous year it was new jersey right like i just you know cj who are they up against out of the east in the stanley cup final oh

i don't want to pick a boring pick rangers why not the rangers okay sorry all right cj i like i like patrick i like the idea of what chris jury's gonna do there okay yeah i think i don't think they're done i like that about them too like i think that they're so close as they get into like next season i could see them being aggressive in season okay all right all right well we'll see where the truba stuff lands it sounds like he really doesn't want to be moved this year but maybe next year well and and you know what you said on your podcast that it's uh uh it's a luxury to have fox schneider and then truba that's a

great luxury two or three right shot defensemen might as well take that and if shisterkin's good and their forward group it's not like we're poking a lot of holes in their line no i know they didn't all like they again if this was a rangers centric podcast we'd probably be raging about who didn't perform in that third round but there's a pretty good team there but it's like yes yeah hey so cj you've been really gracious with your time steve and jesse any extra one last question for cj or we are we good are we are we through the feelings a little bit i'm gonna hit the button we're never over the feeling hey do any of you have advice on what to do with a raccoon uh my grandfather used to catch them and then release them i'm at war with

a raccoon right now and I need some advice. Apparently, choco-lacks because they'll eat it, it won't hurt them, but they don't go back to a food source

or a location where it gives them diarrhea. I know I got it. Don't worry. Steve Dangle Podcast. Follow the guys on Twitter at Steve underscore Dangle at Adam W-Y-L-D-E

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