Transcript of Truther Tour | The Steve Dangle Podcast

You know what? You're just going to get the hell out of here, aren't you?

Why?

Because you're going on vacation because the weather here sucks. Okay, I'll do that. Yeah. You should use sailing because you don't want to be paying a fortune for roaming plans. It's crazy. Sailing is awesome because whatever country you're in, or if it's multiple countries or multiple regions, you can buy multiple regions and save money on that. It doesn't have to be just one country, you buy one plan, and one country, you buy another. No, you can buy a region plan, save money, go to whatever place you want to go, and you don't have to come home to those ridiculous cell phone charges. Here's the great thing about Saley, it's backed by Nord Security, which means you don't have to be on some freaky-dicky WiFi, and there's still your credit card information, that thing. You know what I'm saying?

Are you a radio announcement from the '50s?

I might be. Freaky-dicky, that's '70s, man. They can't say in the '50s. That'd be far too conservative for them. Too far back. Now, all Saly e-SIM plans are compatible with iOS or Android devices, so this will make it easier for you. We want to give you 15% off because you're going on vacation after all. Basically, go to saily. Com/dangle, or you can download the Saily app, S-A-I-L-Y, saily. Com, promo code Dangle, or just download the Saily app. Again, it's S-A-I-L-Y. Use that promo code Dangle for 15% off your first purchase with Saly.

Let's start the The Spangeti.

S-d-p-p. The Steve Dangle podcast with your host, Steve Dangle, Adam Wild and Jesse Blake. Let's go. I had the coffee go in the wrong pipe there.

You all right?

I'm all right. I want to start the show by apologizing everybody. Noah Juleson is still a Vancouver Knuck. I got NBA Sentel. I got Frank Survollied. Oh, no, Adam. Anyway, that's what happened to me. So hands up, Noah Julson. As much as Knux fans want him to leave, he's still there.

That man is in Abbardsford.

He's still there. Yeah, he's in Abbottsford. Just down the road.

You big idiot. Is he getting traded for that Hab second round or what?

No, I don't No. Listen, nothing touches that Hab second round. No.

I felt bad for people who were like, I haven't heard this information anywhere else. Where did Adam get that from? And their hopes got up and they're like-That's because I'm an insider. Maybe they did claim him.

He got it from the same guy who broke that there's going to be a new three-on-three lead this year.

That is a red flag. Anyway. Yes, listen. It's crazy that a site known for its misinformation, misinformed me.

And then I was like, You know what?

I'm not going to check that. I trust the site that's untrustable. That's a great smart plan. This is good.

You're a little sleepy, Adam?

I'm not sleepy. I'm fired up, man. I had a great sleep last night. Fired up?

Well, that's good. You know what? I don't want to start the show with misinformation. I'd like to give the people a little dose of the truth.

Oh, give it to me. Give it to me.

The SDP is going to San Jose, baby.

Yeah! All All right. So San Jose, end of March. We'll have more details coming up, but announced on the Barracuda in San Jose Sharks Twitter accounts yesterday.

Two different kinds of fish.

That's right. We are going to San Jose to spend a week. Tuna. And by the way, the leaves are playing. That's three.

Halibut.

The Lefs are playing. It's four.

The leaves are playing in San Josie.

Yeah. I think the Rangers are two. We'll be at that game as well.

No, but the leaves.

There's a whole schedule that they've put together. It's going to be an intense week.

We're going to be so busy.

People are like, Hey, if you have spare time. And I'm like, I don't think we do, actually. Yeah. Oh, man. They're like, You want to go see Alcatraz? I'm like, I don't think we had time, man.

I've seen it an hour away. It is. It's just going San Jose an hour away.

It's a jail. It's a jail in the middle of the water. Yeah, there you go.

You guys went? We've both been there.

I haven't been there yet. It's awesome. I think I got to it once, right?

It's awesome. Steve's underplaying it. It's not just a jail in the middle. When you're walking in there, you feel the energy of the building and you're like, Things It just went down here. It's so cool.

Well, for me, it was the boat because I'm like, Man, we're still not there. How does anyone get off of this island? We're still not there. That's insane. They give you this little, I don't know, I guess, MP3 player and headphones to listen to the tour. Oh, okay. As you walk through. But if you take your headphones off, it's just a bunch of people quietly shuffling through an abandoned prison. Oh, that's cool.

It's so eerie. It's like a silent raid of terror.

The eerie-est thing ever because it's not like you're going through a hauten house and it's created by Wonderland, you're all there being spuked. No, it's the actual jail. When you take it off and everything's silent, you get a little freaked out.

My favorite part about all this is it has nothing to do with the Sharks and Bear. Nope. You brought it up. I did bring it up. You brought up Alcatraz. I did bring it up because I just wanted to say to people, I was trying to illustrate the amount of content there will be, and we will be doing a regular slate of shows, but there'll be extras. So you'll still get your normal Steve Dangle podcast. It'll just be not in the studio. It'll probably be at the rink, which is cool. I don't even think... Have we done a show? The only show we ever did at a rink was an interview with Matt Sandine, and that was in the least practice facility.

Yes, it was. So Absolutely was.

I don't think you gave up the actual date. It was at the end of March, but we will be there on March 23rd onwards. We fly in on that Sunday. And then that week, the Sharks play the Lefs on the Thursday and the Rangers on the Saturday, and we'll be at both of those Plus, all of the Barracuda games that happened that week will also be there from that Monday, so the 24th, to that Saturday, the 29th of the Rangers game.

One of them is against the Knux Farm team, Abbotsford?

Whoever they're playing. Maybe they'll play Noah Juleson.

Oh, my gosh.

Can we arrange a meeting? Can I get an autograph?

Do you think? Man, probably. I think that'd be great, man.

I think that'd be a funny moment if Adam has to apologize Noah Juleson for sending him to Florida.

I thought you were going to Florida. But yeah, anyway.

If you want to come out to any of those games, we'll be at those games hanging out.

Yeah, that's going to be great times. We'll have more details on everything going forward. We're just finalizing everything. By the way, I just want to say it's the first NHL partnership that we at SDP or SDPN in general, the full network, have ever done. I think it's very cool that we have stepped forward in that. By the way, first AHL partnership, too. It's just a lot of truth. It's It's a lot of truth.

It's just so much truth. I feel it flowing through me right now.

What other truth do you have?

Oh, man, just the sharks are the place to be. That's a hot ticket right now. I've been telling you, for some time, the truth is out there, and we're going to go find it in California. There you go. There you go.

Now, Celebrini for Calder.

Oh, 100%. Now, Lane Hudson, Bum, Justin Wolf, Bum. Bum.

Mitzkopf?

Bum. Oh, man. The biggest bum. The biggest bum. Cellebrini never got healthy. He never got bend. No. No.

Mitzkopf did, though.

I saw a stat. Celebrini has more points than any Canucks forward, and he missed the first few weeks of his career with an injury.

I know.

Any Canucks forward? Supposedly.

I didn't bother to check it. I might be getting Juleson myself. But you know what?

Let me check that. You know what, Jesse?

It just felt like the truth.

Cellebrini has 64 points, which is- Holy crap. Yeah. That's why I'm like, everybody's like, yeah, Lane Hudson. I'm like, sure.

The Calder isn't the points trophy. It's the play trophy. It's a crazy, crazy rookie class. Mitchkov might not They have nominated? That's nuts.

Insane.

Let me go again. Team. It's so annoying when you look at some of the team sites because- HockeyDB.

What are you doing? I know. Hockeydb is the easiest and simplest. When you're just looking for counting stats, what are you doing?

Well, why do they not have them so readily available on any of their sites? Because they got to show you all- 59 points for Quinn Hughes is the most.

It shouldn't be this hard to find the truth. That's why we're going to San Jose.

It is. The next closest to Quinn Hughes, by the way, is Elias Petterson. Funnily enough, JT Miller is also tied. Oh, heavens. That's points with the Knux this year. Oh, rats. Yeah, that's rough.

Listen, we'll- You get to see him in San Jose when the Rangers visit.

That's right.

Yes. There you go.

There you go. With us because we'll also be there seeking the truth. Also, I think it'll be interesting.

That's going to be so much fun.

Barclay Goudro versus the Rangers.

That's the truth.

That is the truth.

I'm so excited for The Truth or Tour. I'm so excited for the San Jose Sharks' Truth or Tour.

What X leaf on the Sharks are you most excited to see? So there's Timothy.

Timothy Lilligren.

What other X leaves are on the Sharks? Cee Cee? No, he's in Dallas.

No, they We don't have CC anymore.

I guess that's your only option. Yeah.

There's my answer, Jesse. It's Timothée Lilligren.

All right.

Yeah, it's going to be a good time. We're very excited. I've never been to San Jose. I have been to San Francisco. Me I played once when I was a kid. But yeah, San Jose. Very cool.

Carl Grundstrom.

Oh.

Also on the Sharks. What? I forgot about that.

Carl Grundstrom is on the Sharks. Yeah, buddy. Still making a career of it. Good for him.

Did Did he ever play with the Leifs?

Yeah. He played zero NHL games with the Toronto Maple Lefs.

It feels like he played for the Leifs because we watched him so much with the Marlies when they won the Championship.

Oh, and he was traded with Dersy, wasn't he? Yes, he was.

Yeah, just a bunch of Marlies games, a Championship there in 2018, but no NHL games with the Leaps. But he's on the charts. 39 games this year, two goals, five assists.

Good for him.

Minus 12, though. We're happy for him.

You know what, Jesse? We're going to bring him a little luck.

Yeah, you think so? Oh, yeah. Are you putting a Grundstrom goal on the list?

Oh, him and Lilligrun are scoring same game.

Against the Leaps?

Hopefully not. Hopefully against the Rangers.

All right. All right. So, Jesse, I just sent you, or I sent you before the show started, this beautiful picture, and I want people to see it. It's from a account called Unfortunate Hockey or Hockey Images That Precede: Unfortunate Events.

From Frank Saravalli.

No, this one is not Frank, Souravali. This one is not Frank, although credit to the person that came up with that. That was pretty funny.

Adam, get absolutely shit on. I know.

Throw this photo up here.

It's taking a second to load.

Okay. Listen, Last night.

This screen is too overwhelmed by the truth. Yeah, it's true.

Last night was one of the most unbelievable spectacles of the entire season.

It's crazy that- Now, 12 away, right?

Yeah. Hey, high It's crazy that the red mapleleaf team beat a team in Boston on Thursday last week, and then the blue mapleleaf team or the blue and white mapleleaf team beat them last night. And last night's win, I believe Moneypuck had the Lefs winning the game in the last minute at 1. 9% probability. Wow. Holy shit.

I did not react to that game in real-time like it was a regular season game in February. Really? Oh, I was losing my mind. At the end of the day, no matter what, some games mean more against the Bruins.

Boston's always going to mean more.

In Boston. Because screw that building, dude. Yeah. I like beating the Bruins any way. It actually means more to me to beat them there. Way more. Because that building is haunted, haunted. And Now, two of my most favorite wins of the season have come in TD Garden over the past week.

Do we have it, Jesse?

Yeah.

There it is. Second period, six minutes and nine seconds to go. Boston, 3, Toronto, nothing. Shots on goal, 23 for Boston. Shots on goal, 11 for Toronto. I want to throw this at you. That doesn't tell the whole story because Boston absolutely dominated the Leaps, and the fact that the Leaps even had 11 shots was a gift. Stolers. None of The Stolers, baby. None of the shots that the Leaps had of those first 11 were anywhere close to going in. Matthews had one-off a post, but that doesn't count as a shot.

No, it does not. He had a couple, I thought.

He did, but not to that point. He only had the one at that point. This was a game that was well and truly out of hand. I had people on my stream telling me, Guys, this is a scheduled loss. I said to them, No, you don't be scheduled losses against the Bruins. Okay, fine. You may be Columbus, and I'll accept it because the vibes are good there, but I will not accept scheduled losses against the Bruins. What's hilarious is people were brutal about Matthews and Marner. I got to ask you this, guys, are these people people or are they robots?

I think- Are they people or robots?

Good thing you didn't throw John Tavares in there because that's a different conversation. He might actually be a robot. Yes. But Matthews and Marner, people.

Yeah.

Yes. Here's what I'll say. I'm self-aware enough that when I say this game means more to me than almost all others, that also applies to other people. So when the team is getting caved in 23 to 11 and 3 to nothing in Boston in a game that means everything to everybody, everything is amplified. And Matthews is garbage. And Marner is trash, and the leaves are trash. Listen, I am being a very good boy about not tweeting my every thought and emotion these days. But what did I put in the group chat? I said, If Tanev is out, just sell. I said, Just sell. It's fine. Whatever. Season's lost. It's over. Just sell. Everything was over blown. Now that we're out of the haze of they were getting their asses kicked, I didn't think Matthews had a terrible game. I didn't think he had a great game. It wasn't terrible. Marner was the maestro of over He conducted the entire thing. It is the most leadership-y I have ever seen him, where he just told everyone what to do and theniced it himself on a breakaway.

Did you see him talking to Stollers at the beginning of overtime? No. He was saying something to him. He was like, Hey, hey, Stoli, Stoli, Stoli. And then they got his attention. No. Then right after he scores the overtime goal, he points at Stollers and skates directly to him.

Because he was unreal. Unreal all night. I think emotions were high. They were overblown. I was lighting guys up in the chat. I'm like, Domi is the dumbest player of this team. Just the penalty.

For taking a penalty that he You didn't deserve to take, by the way. That was not a penalty.

No, okay. Well, here, we can have that conversation. Not a penalty. I can have that conversation. He had already taken- Don't always been spectacular since they came back. He had already taken a stupid penalty before that, which means you're on alert. You're on alert, right?

Unless you're the Bruins, then you're not so much- Unless you're the Bruins, then you sign a stick and give it to them and, Oh, isn't that nice?

But you already took a dumb penalty, so the refs are looking out for you. They don't really know who Matt Patra He is. He hasn't been in the league long enough. You know what? It's a Bruin that's Brad Marchand's team. That looks like a penalty to me. What was the stat? The Leaps, the Bruins had more power plays in, I think it was the second period than Canada had at the Four Nations, the entire thing. Anyway, because it's the Bruins, because it's in Boston, we talk about the Leaps not handling those situations well, neither do we. For good reason. I think that's why people overreacted. Matthews ended up, by the time it was all said and done, decent game. Marner, by the time it was all said and done, very good game. I really liked Morgan Reilly's game. You look at the first two goals that make it 2-0. All right, you have an iconic up the ice missile to Posternack. I mean, yeah, you made mistakes that led to that, but Jesus, that's just a really good play. The second goal went off of Jake McCabe's face.

Yeah, but the least didn't play well.

No. They got the luck they deserved.

Yeah. They earned those two plays based on their play. Yeah.

They weren't good, but I thought it was over.

No, they had a miserable first period. I even thought they're and their passing was off, and they got nothing. Oh, my God, it was. They didn't generate anything offensively. It was weird watching them in those first two periods. I was like, okay, it's definitely the case of the Four Nations catching up with Matthews and Marner and the amount they've played in the last couple of days. But eventually, they got their legs back into them. And thank God, they have goal tending this year. That's my biggest takeaway from this game, I think, is-I told you. Besides the depth guys, which I assume we can get into, and the Domi stuff is ridiculous because he hasn't scored a goal outside of three days in December. So he has zero goals on the season. He'll take out those three days. But the goaltending is the biggest thing for me because if you don't have two bona fide starters at this point in the season, you're probably not in this game anymore. It's probably four, five, nothing. But Stollers was fantastic. I am so happy that the least get to go in the playoffs and they have a really tough decision on who to start because they have two fantastic goaltenders.

It's Swayman and Allmark. It's great.

Yes. Maybe not to that degree, but like...

It's been as good. Look at the numbers.

Yeah, the numbers are similar.

You look around the league, so few teams have this. What a luxury. What a crazy luxury.

But it's been an organizational push to value that. The Leaps, after Freddie Anderson, had a good year and a bit of Jack Campbell. Then Jack Campbell pivoted to being bad and then signed at Edmondson. Then they had Isaac, and then they had Matt Murray on half a hip. Then they had Ilyas Samsonov, who gave them a good year.

And a good play-up.

He was good in the play-ups. Joseph Wall was coming up, and you're like, Oh, this guy's actually... He's legit.

I've been saying the leaves goalie situation is on the come up for a long time. I have been. It wasn't, though.

It really wasn't. That's the thing. It took a while to get there. Yeah.

You might have been saying that because you're so glued in, but I don't think the general consensus was that. No. Yeah, why you had to trumpet that.

I was like, Wait, no.

The cavalry, it's coming over the hill. It's not here yet, but it's coming.

The problem was last year in the playoffs when Samson off goes in for game seven, no, it's not. Even though he only allowed two goals, that's the issue that was facing them. I think the Leaps made a really smart move in bringing in Anthony Stollers. This is a guy with injury history. This is a guy who's maximum games in a season I think was 27 before this year. He did have a slight procedure done this comes back and is absolutely on fire. Now you've got one of the most money-efficient goaltending situations in the entire league. I don't know if there's a better dollar-in/dollar route goaltending pair in the entire league.

It's less than 3. 5?

It's less than 3. 5? Yeah. It's insane. Now, next year it goes up to six. But even then- It's super reasonable. Who cares?

It's super reasonable.

So the Leaps put a value on that that they hadn't before.

Now- Dollars, by the way, He needs all qualified goal tenders and save percentage. As he did last year, he's ahead of Connor Halebuck.

Wow. So the fraud watch is well and truly on.

Yeah. Halebuck can't finish in first and save percentage. Anthony Stollars makes this. Damn, fraud.

You're like, skip Bayliss on LeBron. You picked the best player. You're like, no, actually bad.

I didn't pick him. The numbers spoke to me.

I also want to say that I thought it was amazing that despite First off, Tanev goes down in the first period. He walks out of the rink with a sling. He's going to be reevaluated today. We don't have any information on it. But it's not a cast, so that seems good.

No. This sounds stupid, but a sling for him is not a sling for us. Hopefully, it's just part of the treatment and precautionary. This is me coping 100%. Cope hard. That's okay. Yeah. No.

Hopefully, he's Jake McCabe had a double threat last night. He had his worst game as a leaf, and he had- He struggled. And he had his worst luck as a leaf. Because you're talking about goal number 2, if you guys didn't see it, went off of stallers and then hit Jake McCabe in the face and then landed directly on Brad Marshan's stick who put it home. That doesn't happen. You can't repeat that. No. He also did have a terrible giveaway to David Pastr Cunach.

That was awful. As soon as he turned up the boards, I'm like, Bad decision. And then he turns back and yeets the buck there.

You're better to ice it at that point.

I mean, I don't know. It was so bad that I'm like, Is Timman supposed to be there? Did someone else make a... Sometimes you see a mistake so bad. You're like, Surely someone else dropped the ball. Because players in the NHL are not stupid. They're very smart. Frank Corrado His breakdown of the golden goal for Canada against the States, he's talking about Adam Fox and Noah Hanifin and that whole defensive breakdown. He's like, Keep in mind, these are the smartest players in the world. I was like, That's such a good thing to note on this play, right? Sometimes we forget. Boy, Jake, tough. Real tough. I'm glad the leaves won for him because emotionally everyone was angry. They tie it, you're floating, and then you blow it anyway because of that. Yeah, this might have been an ugly morning for him. Now no one cares.

In that game, it felt like there was four instances of people doing that because I look back to the Mitch Marner, I'm going to pass the buck through my legs and drop it for Connor Timmins.

Then he had to go race back to stop his own breakaway that he had a boss to have.

If that one goes in, then we have Mitch Marner doing the Jake McCabe's instance. So I feel like they were just so uncrisp last night.

Even things like, okay, so I'm the Alex Steve's cheerleader club. I'm constantly looking for things to keep him in the lineup. Hey, you want to stay in the lineup? Don't put Matthew's offside. Just very little things. There were a couple offsides in that game where I was like, Come on, guys. Yeah. Not a lot of little things going right for the lead, but in the first 60% of the game.

But what Mike Johnson said. So Morgan Reilly scores with about six minutes to go or five minutes to go in the third period, whatever it was. Who's who? Who's who? Robbie. Nick Robertson sets them up. And nick Robertson, who, by the way, had a spectacular game against Chicago was pretty darn good against Carolina, too.

In the second period you're talking.

This is the second period. Okay, you said third. Oh, sorry. Second period. But Mike Johnson in the third period said... When they kicked off the third, he's like, It's crazy that That they're having this mediocre of a game, and they're still in it. Oh, yeah. Within a minute, Mitch Marner makes it three, two.

They don't have... Swayman was unreal in the playoffs last year. Their top pair was McAvoy-Lindhoven. Home. The Leaps didn't have an answer for it, and they're both gone. Boston is going to have a really, really hard time to end the season.

So then the game goals, they're able to tie the the game up? How are they able to tie the game up? Could it be in an unbelievable pass from Morgan Reilly through several players, including a Leap, to nick Robertson, who then shoots a bullet for Jeremy Swayze?

You're skipping over Marner, pantsing the Bruince on the power play.

What was that?

That was the second one.

I just talked about that. That was cool, too. You did? Yeah, I just said that. Marner had it tied up. I went to bed late. At 19 minutes, I said. Yeah, right after my time. You did? My bad. Cool. Then Morgan Reilly passes it to nick Robertson. Yes. And what did nick Robertson use the-Oh, man, great to point it out.

That's just great that you pointed that out, man. No, unreal pass from Reilly. I like Mike Johnson pointing out, like Robertson receives that on his backhand at full stride. Is that an awesome shot selection? Not for most players, I don't think.

Angles, meh. Goalie's got you positioned well. Like, Swayman came out, had him-He knows the shot's coming. He knows the shot's coming. Yeah.

He's now done that this season to Swayman and Vasilevski that I can name off the top of my head. Oh, my God. I don't know if he's going to be a leaf in a week. I don't. What a weapon. What an absolute weapon this kid's shot is. He's 23.

Sure seems like it's there a little.

Man, I'm open to a trade. I'm not enthusiastic about it. It better be good.

It's a little sinister of me to look at these nick Robertson goals and be like, Okay, his trade value is going up.

Yeah, but he might be looking at it that way, too. He's the one who wanted out. Yeah.

No, I honestly think you shouldn't move off of the plan because he has a little bit of hot week here.

Maybe you ask for a third instead of a fourth.

You see the shot, and the shot's unbelievable. If you want to pull up the NHL Edge goal, visualize your Matty, we got it on the screen right now. The Morgan Reilly pass, first of all. It's unreal to see where he is and then to just decide. He had a great game. I I'm going to pass this puck here to nick Robertson. So Morgan Reilly has the puck just at the top of the face-off dot. How the hell does that pass get through? There's one, two, three guys in between Reilly and Robertson, and the puck, and you He has a domey, too, so there's four. It goes right through everybody. I love that you mentioned the back-end reception that Robertson has to catch that puck because it's unreal to do that in your back-end. And Robertson here, fast-forward in a little bit, he has no choice He either shoots the puck or he goes around the back of the net. There's nobody there helping him. The defender there is cutting it off. Swayman's right there to save the puck, and he still scores. He still scores, even though the goalie knows he only has one opportunity shoot, and that speaks to his great shot.

I hope another team looks at a play like this and says, Hey, we're going to pay a little bit more for nick Robertson.

Or maybe he scores and is part of the depth scoring option in the playouts for the Leifs.

I think there's more useful players out there for the Leaps in the way their forward group is organized.

Let me offer this. Robertson has 25 goals now over his last 106 games, which is the past two seasons. He didn't play every game last year. He hasn't played every game this year. That's a 19 goal pace. That's a useful player, man. That's a really useful player. It's reasonable to assume he'll get better.

23. Him and Domi are hot right now, but let's be honest, they've not had an ideal third-line center position the entire season. Not an ideal third-line center set up at all. That's where he's played the majority of his minutes.

Yeah, but what I have liked about Robertson over the last couple of games, besides the buck going in, is he's doing everything right. The thing I love the most, I knew he had a shot. We all know he has a shot. So I see that and I'm like, I didn't learn anything about nick Robertson there. The Reilly goal where he's creating Havok in front, all 5'9, 178 pounds of him, and the buck goes off the defender he's tied up with. I'm like, Shit, yeah, Robbie. That's how you stay in the lineup. I'm here waxing poetically about they could use the goal scoring touch of Alex Steves. Yeah, you could always use more goal scoring touch. But Robertson, if he's doing stuff like that, If he's not a defensive liability, which he has been at times, if he's not taking silly offsides, which I think everyone on that line is guilty of, if he's still using his shot, if he's creating offense in new ways that we're not necessarily used to seeing. We could go through the exact same thing this summer, and he's like, I want to be traded. He's an RFA. No. No, we want you.

You're too good. At this point in the season, Robertson or Reeves?

Robertson.

Okay, great. Well, they're not the same player. You're right. Okay, so I know you didn't say that.

Yeah, It's true. But true.

Patcher ready or Robertson?

Robertson is going to give you more offense.

Man. What the problem has been for all those guys, really, is at the bottom of the lineup, there's this crazy logjam of guys who give you different things, and they're all fighting for their spot in their lineup. Kampf, one. Lawrence, one. Patch already is out of the lineup, and when he's in the lineup, it's not going great. It's going okay. Meh. Reeve's lost. He's not going to be on the playoff.

I don't think so.

Maybe the first couple of games, just to use him as a bulldozer. Like last year? Yeah. Well, he played the first bloody five or six. But then when you need your best lineup, he's not in it. And Duer, as far as I know, has been cleared. I like that player. He hustles. He can't hit the broad side of a barn. The main knock against Robbie was, okay, you score, but you're a defensive liability. And then he wasn't scoring. But if he's tidied up the defensive end of his game and he's scoring, can't you use that player?

Surely you can. Also, I think part of that, Steve, is the knock about him coming out of junior was his skating. And what you saw last night on a couple of rushes is he's actually got explosive strides now.

He's a much better skater than he used to be. We mocked his skating in the summer. It's greatly improved.

And so then, obviously, we talked about this already, but Kabe gives up the puck to Posterknock. Posterknock scores the second goal of the game. The least are now down 4-3. And what was interesting, I was thinking, and I was talking about this on the stream was, in a Sheldon Keef era, Sheldon, it didn't matter what line had it. All the same guys, the same customers were going out. And I thought it was interesting. With three and a half minutes to go, they got the fourth line out there, and then they put Matthews, Marner, Nieland, or Tavares out there with whoever, it doesn't really matter.

Was Nielander out there?

Well, whatever. They put the big guys out there, whoever they had available to them. It became pretty clear that Matthews was totally gassed towards the end of his shift. With a minute to go, who do they have on the ice? It's Pontus Holmberg, nick Robertson, and Matthew Nies. Pontus had had a good game. He scored a goal against an actual goalie. God bless him.

His first even strength goal against a goalie this season.

Set up by who?

Nicky Bobby, baby.

With 46 seconds.

Nicky Bobby. And that's one thing that's been down this season compared to last is his assists. They're way down. I don't know if that necessarily adds up to he's a better or worse playmaker.

I feel like it's not that. I think it's because Domi has been ice cold. They've had a succession of different wingers from McMahon to Last Night Nize to Patcheretti, who hasn't been scoring a lot. I don't think that third line... I don't think we've gotten I don't think Toronto has gotten their money out of Max Domi.

No. It's a line that gets you through the regular season. It's a non-option.

I think that nick Robertson hasn't really been... This is a guy I legitimately thought was going to cross 20 goals this year. And But if they had a legitimate center, I think he probably has a lot more assist than currently. Okay. And I think Max is a winger.

Leaps go out there and they get a center.

Like a Braden Chen, like everybody's talking about.

The whole time we've been talking I'm thinking about, all right, McMahon, probably-ish, maybe. New guy, Domi. What if it's Robertson?

Well, what if it is? And what if it's New guy, Yarncrow McRobertson.

Yeah, McMan goes up to the second line. I don't think anyone... Does anyone object? Does anyone... Okay. So he's playing real, real well. We shouldn't suckered into two games, but it's the best back-to-back games I think I've ever seen him play.

I do want to point out that I think that... Keith Acton said it last year in the summertime with us the first time we were at Boston Pizza, Stoville. And he said, with Twenty games to go, you watch. That will be the lineup. You better know about 20 games out what the lineup is going to be, and that's roughly from Trade Deadline on. Almost there. We're almost there. I think there's 23 left to go, something like that.

Oh, God.

I don't know, man. And I think I think you're looking at a situation where the lines are starting to crystallize, and they need to make some ads, and they know they need to make some ads, and we could get into the ads that they might make. But there are guys going, I want that spot. I want to be here.

Well, and I'm talking about Robertson or Domi, but when Baroubi was fidgeting, he had Domi with Matthews again. Right?

Keep saying.

It's an interesting little... They have options here. I'm hoping Tana is going to be back. I'd still like to see them improve the back-end. I think two forwards really ties the room together. I'm not sure how you stop that lineup.

I still think there needs to be so much more to nick Robertson than two games.

I agree. I think it's a really big overreaction to two games because he had a three-game stretch just like Domi did in the middle of December, where he scored three straight games, and then he goes 12 games with one goal in there. Let's let him prove something here. The trade deadline, it's so close, week and three days away. Unless he absolutely blows everybody away in the next couple of days, you should have already known what he is at this point. If you're going to make that move, then make that move. But if you've already decided you're not going to, then leave it. It's definitely a real possibility where he just sticks around because they have him under control. It's not something they have to do. But if that is an asset that a team wants that will allow you to push that deal through, then that's something you have to do.

At the end of the day, there's some assets that are going to really hurt to part with just because they're complete magic beans. When there's magic beans, there's him, and Robertson is a bit more of a polished product. But if they don't get an adequate package for him, what the-Yeah.

Don't do the deal to just do the deal. If Robertson is a part of something that actually your team, then I think you have to do it because I think right now, his skill set, unless he can develop more of those things in the game where we saw one instance of him making a great play in front that leads to a goal, it feels like he's on a trajectory to be like, better Emmanuel Sprung, where he's playing in your middle six-ish. Great shot. Everybody looks at him as a good goal scorer, but what other parts of the game are you bringing to the table? We're not playing you on the penalty kill. If you're on the PP, you're PP2 if you make it there. Then we're asking for middle six scoring, and if you're not scoring, then you're not very useful. I don't want this player to have a couple of hot streaks in terms of goal scoring because that's what we want out of him. Then he sits on your roster for too long, and then you can't get those assets.

I just feel like with Jess, again, I go back to who has he played with? They don't want Max at center. They haven't given that third line. I think they were expecting Kyla Yarncroke to be in January rather than getting the groin injury he got. And then I think he had to have surgically repaired.

Someone told me he's going to play against the pens.

Yeah, I think he's playing this weekend. So that gives them a little bit of time to see what he's looking like. But I don't think I just don't think that his inconsistency is totally on him. Does that make sense?

Yeah.

They haven't given that third line much to work with. They've figured out the other three lines.

Yeah, but what you always want out of a player, even if it's unfair, is to take the opportunity. Okay, you don't have an ideal situation in front of you. Take it. That's what Bobby McMahon did. He wasn't in an ideal situation at all.

How to get waved. Yeah.

And he took it. It's pro-sports. It's not supposed to be fair. This has been part of the problem, being a prospect with the Leaps. There's so clearly roster spots available to you every year, every single year. But the juicy ones, they're taken up. You're not playing with Matthews. You're not playing with Tavaaris. You got to take it. And so few guys over the years have taken it.

You look at coming into this season, that was the opportunity for nick Robertson, and you requested a trade. I didn't like that. I don't like that attitude at all.

No, but I don't know. Part of that was been-relitigate that. You're right and valid and everything.

I think it's a part of this conversation.

It's part of the Sorry. Yeah.

I mean, it has to factor into their decision making, but I think that had a lot to do with Sheldon Keef. Keef scratched him in a game where they clearly needed goal scoring in game seven, and they scored a goal.

That was why. It's a very frustrating start to a career. You're 19, and they think you can help them in the playoffs, and then you actually do.

Yeah. And then you break your leg, and then it's COVID. Yeah.

It's just, how many false starts can you have before you start going, You know what? This place is haunted. I want to-Screw these guys.

Yeah, I get it.

Max is interesting because he's a negative on goal scoring. He cannot shoot. He can't score a goal. And it's not ideal to have a team that's always cap-strapped. We know how they spend the money on their cap to be paying a guy $3. 75 million to not score goals.

Or play center.

Or play center.

Well, sometimes, I guess. What's he at this season for points?

Three goals, 19 assists.

19 assists, and how How many games?

Fifty.

Oh, my God. Not good. No.

It's not good? No. It's certainly not good enough. Betmgm is the official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League and has your back all season long. And guess what? Ovechkin scored again last night. That's crazy. Yeah, it's wild. Now, there are some futures available at betmGM. Com. Just for that, what night it's going to happen, what team it's going to go against. Gentlemen, I'm wondering, do you feel confident in your picks from Monday? Are you going to change them? Are you going to keep them? Are you going to hedge against them? What are you going to do?

Buddy, I was right then. Why would I change it now?

Jesse, what are you doing? I have Carolina, so I got two Carolina games in April. I'm pretty confident in that.

All right. Now raise your game to the next level with Bet MGM, a sportsbook worth a selling and official sports betting partner in the National Hockey League. Betmgm. Com for terms and conditions must be 19 years of age or older to wager Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or somebody close to you, please contact Connect Ontario at 1866-531-2, to speak to an advisor free of charge. Betmgm operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Now, we also found out yesterday that Brad Martian is a big fan of Mitch Marner, especially after being teammates. I just want to read you this quote. Mark Masters had this one. He said, He's always been one of my favorite players as a fan of the game. I loved being his teammate. He said, In the dressing room, the choice of playing Nickelback after every game. He said, Mitch was on music, so he had that blaring, but it was in his recently played, so you know that's what he jams out to. Hell, yes.

Hell, yes. Burn it to the ground. It's a jam. That came out at the height of everyone hating Nickelback for no real good reason.

They were just popular.

Yeah. Then that song came out and we all had to be like, Shit, it's good. Have you heard that new Nickelback?

Pretty good. Marner is likely to test free agency. It's unlikely that he or Tavares sign an extension before before the March seventh trade deadline. The reactions to this have been mixed, guys. What do you guys think about both of these players and the Leaps not rushing to sign either of them?

I would like to go back to the 1800s, place that report in a bucket, and throw it out the window into the cobblestone street below. We've gone this far without knowing Knowing what's going on with the contract. We haven't really heard numbers. We haven't really heard years. We haven't really heard if he's staying. We haven't really heard if he's going. I'm not interested in hearing it now. Things are going too well.

So just enjoy it?

Things are going too well. I'm going to enjoy it. He's playing the best hockey he's ever played. Listen, I don't think it's a coincidence that this came out now. He He's never had more shine on him than he currently has. He scored an overtime winner for Canada. He set up the overtime winner for Canada.

It's no secret that Darren Dregger is connected to his agent, and he's the one with the report.

Oh, is that known?

Is that something people have discussed Just. That is known.

Yeah. Of course, that report came out now. Of course, it did. And of course, he reported it because why wouldn't you? Yeah. He's going to stay or he's going to go. I'm not doing this again.

Jesse.

The Mitch Marner contract negotiations for me aren't really a story until their handshake line that the Lefs are in to end their season. Or a cup. Yeah, well, you still got to do the handshake line, whether you're winning the Stanley Cup or not. I think at that point, we will know what direction the Lefs should go with Mitch Marner. His contract, unfortunately or fortunately, hinges on playoff performance. We know already he is a great regular season player. He doesn't need to play this season to prove that. He's done that and he continues to prove It's about getting it done in the playoff. If you can win with him as a core piece in this team, they'll discover it again this year, whether they can or not. Then you make a decision on the contract because you'll still have a month and a half from when they get eliminated, depending on where they get eliminated. Maybe it's a couple of weeks, maybe it's a couple of days.

Maybe it's a quick turnaround after the parade.

But then that decision is easy. Blank check. You won a Stanley Cup or you went to the Stanley Cup final or you went to a conference final. Blank check. Who cares?

16 mil. Old Steve Dangle He loves a good Jersey number in a contract.

Here you go. Then if you get eliminated early, then you have more time, then you work out those negotiations. I think it's for an after the playoff things. The playoffs will provide light on what to do.

But I also guys mentioned a different player in there, too.

Oh, John Tavares?

I thought you were asking about Mitch.

I asked both, but isn't it interesting that Mitch takes the center stage on that, which he should. Tavares is a little more interesting because he's been great. But there is the age concern. There is the speed concern. Do you guys have any concerns there? Do you have any thoughts on it, or you just go forget it, put it in the back, who cares? Wait, same thing. Do you wait?

Is there a better candidate for deferred salary in the league? Yeah. Think of the CRA stuff, which Has there been a resolution?

No, that'll take years.

Right. Let me get paid forever, Jake McCabe style. We already know the least will do it. They're doing it currently with Jake McCabe. I I think if any team can get creative about a contract with Tavares, who has had a very good year, it could be them.

I think if the number is right on Tavares, I would do that deal. I feel like he's somebody who should stick around here, and I think you can get him on something good, like 6. 5, and that's for your second-line center for next season, that's fucking fantastic.

What I hope doesn't happen is they're not like, We need to wait for Mitch, and then we can do John and then we can do NICE, or we need Mitch, and then we can do NICE, and then we can do John. Good business is good business. Come up with a good deal, do good business.

Yeah, no, that's exactly how I feel about it, too. It's like if that contract for John is sitting there and he's like, Yeah, I'll take 6. 5 for four years or three years. Just fucking sign it.

If there's a good deal for NICE and a good deal for John, but you haven't figured out Mitch yet. Okay, so you have two options. He can walk, right?

Yeah.

Or here's what you do. You load a few other players into a cannon and you fire them into the horizon to get Marner done. There's a lot of moving parts. I don't think it's complicated. I really don't. That's why I saw that Marner report, and some people got upset, and I'm like, eh, fart. When you've been doing the same thing with this player for so long. If he walks, people are going to talk about whose fault is it that he walked. If Marner walks, it won't be because of a mistake the Leifs made this year. That mistake was made 2 June's ago, but by the time he gets to the end of his contract, they let his no move kick in. They're like, Hey, we're going to trade you. He's like, No, you're not. And that was the end of the conversation. We've done this a thousand Sometimes I think it's very simple. They've won three straight games after the Four Nation face off. I'm in a great mood. They're first place in the division. You are not killing my vibe here.

Does how light the Eastern conference looks right now scare you that this could possibly be 2021 again?

It does scare me because I'm damaged. Anyone else is like, oh, opportunity. I don't know. We always talk it on both sides of our mouth as lead fans. It's either, oh, man, this playoff format sucks. We always end up third, or, oh, man, we're playing a team that stinks, which means we're going to lose. My God, just win. Have a deep run.

The way I see some of the guys framing the insiders and stuff, framing the trade deadline for the Leifs is that there's opportunity here with... You look at the East and you say, Washington's really good. Outside of that, you got question marks about every other team, and the Lefs have a serious an opportunity to make a run because there's no real competition that you put on paper and say, The Leifs should lose this series.

Injuries with Florida, too. Matthew Kuchuk, we still don't know. I know Paul Maurice said he'll play for them, but that's nice. Paul Maurice is not a doctor. Coaches say shit all of time. That is not true. John Cooper is a master at it.

Well, he played in the final for the States. Yeah. He played less than seven minutes. But he played- So I believe him when he says he'll play.

It's just how much? We don't know.

Kyle Connor just chilling in press box. Bet the popcorn was good. You got to question that decision.

If they go into the trade deadline, they take those big swings because there's opportunity. Are you guys more confident in them going into the playoffs, or do you just have nervous energy no matter what?

I think you have nervous energy no matter what. But I think they have to take the swing. This is year eight, guys, of Matthews. This is year eight of Matthews, Marner, Neelander. If not now, then when?

Here, let me- That was last episode. Let me mock myself.

No, no. Let I mocked myself a little bit.

You were like, What about the draft picks, guys?

I really like the future.

So that's me with the Leaps. Now I'm thinking about the Washington Capitals, and the first thought that crossed into my brain is they should literally have no pics or prospects by the end of next week. None. Ovechkin is scoring like an animal, and your how many points up on the next closest team in the conference? Sell everything. Sell absolutely everything to get absolutely everyone and go win a cup. That's how I look at them.

So how do you look at the Lefs?

Not the same. What? Now, wait, though.

Maddie's losing it.

Look at that. I know. Listen, I know it's stupid. That's why I'm pointing it out. I know I'm a damaged child. I know. Listen, I get it. I get it. But I look at the Leaps that way because of their recent playoff history. Capitals won it in 2018. Look at them since. Holy shit. That team has stunk. The Washington Capitals, they've stunk in the play-off.

They hung on to some players a little too long, got a little too attached to legacy. But what I found with the Capitals lately is they've been ruthless, and that is why they're good again.

What I never expected after that 2018 series between the Caps and Penguins is that it would have killed both of them.

It did. Yeah.

Neither team, if I'm not mistaken, neither team has won a series since that year.

No, the Capitals have not won since. So, yeah. Neither has the Penguin. Yeah, neither has Penguin.

Well, the Penguins won that qualification firing round. Or no, no, they lost.

It's Montreal. They lost in Montreal.

That whole thing, we don't want to play Kerry Price, even though we're fifth and they're fucking 12th or something like that. Not that we can say much about Sweat by the Rangers last year, didn't make the playoffs in 2022, '23, lost to Florida in '21, '22, lost to the Bruins in 2020, 2021, lost to the Islanders in the weird bubble season, and then '18, '19, lost to the Hurricanes in seven games. They should get rid of every prospect and pick except for Produs's brother, just because I think it's cool.

So the Leaps, you don't believe that they should sell everything?

No, what I'm doing is juxtaposing how I look at a normal NHL team and how I look at my haunted mansion of an NHL team. I should be looking at the Leaps the way I look at the Capitals.

You can't bring yourself to do it.

Well, you two are going to have a difficult time with me. This is better left for a therapist.

Adam, are you on sell everything? I have been.

I told you two weeks ago that if it brings you Brock Nelson with an extension, if it gets you, it sounds like Brad and Chen is the one they're interested in. That's what you keep seeing in the reports, written Chen's name ever since it's been floated is the name that's out there. Megadeal.

Chen, Pareko, Torupchenko.

Megadeal. Well, I don't know why Pareko's name... People, I think Boren put it in one of his Sportsnet articles, and I saw it come up on the stream last night. I'm like, I have not heard a single person go, Colton Parejko is on the market.

But if he is- Yeah, no, it's not happening.

If he is, yeah. You know what Colton Parejko is? He's Colton Parejko. You know what your farm system is?

I don't know. That doesn't make sense for them to trade a little break.

No, it's zero sense.

I don't think Doug Armstrong is doing that.

I don't think so either.

So the Blackhawks traded Hagle, and that didn't make any sense. Yeah, but- Do it.

Doug Armstrong- A little different. No, it wasn't.

It's the exact same. I'd give him the edge.

I'd give him the edge. 31-year-old right-handed defenseman who's on a 6. 5 million dollar contract for the next four years. Yeah. What are you talking about?

Good Lord. What are you talking about? That's so good.

Why are they trading?

I know. They're not going to be an Olympian.

They're not doing it.

Like, what?

But I think- Then I would try to get Shannon Torupchenko.

Well, that'd be great. I think the thing is, though, as far as selling pieces on the farm, you have to give to get. But what you're getting, as Jesse said much earlier in the show, is a player that you know is a player. The least of traded players have traded picks and traded players, and not all of them are Seth Jarvis or Sean Dersy. You know what I mean? You can miss on a pick. You can miss on And let's be honest, that Sean Dersy deal looks a lot better if Jake Muzzin was playing now, right?

Jake Muzzin was also great for the leaf while he was here. He was amazing. Yeah, I don't regret the Jake Muzzin minutes.

I don't either. He made Justin Hall look really good.

It's harder to look back on as successful because of the team. There were so many performances. If you go back and look at the Mother effing Hab series, But the individual performances they got out of certain players and blowing that series anyway is unforgivable. Mazin had two goals and a three goal comeback in game five.

I hate you. Have you thought about spin-aramma backhands in overtime from two different players?

That wasn't even a giveaway in overtime that game. That was frigging Gauch.

No, that's what I'm saying. Gauch and Dermot.

Oh, my God. I'm going to fist fight that hockey team. I want to go back in time for Well, they didn't have- I will trudge through the bowels of COVID just to fist fight that team.

Travis Dermot is a good example of like, Hey, maybe if you have a guy and you can trade him for assets that can help you right now, you do it. Because Travis Dermot right now is on his second stint on the waiver wire being sent down. That's somebody who we'd all look at and you'd say, Oh, my God, he's going to be so good one day. At least a lot of guys in their prospect system that you look at and you say they might be good someday. Go get somebody who is good right now.

So, Jesse, here's the problem. Not true. If you Scott Wheeler. I don't know where he had the Leaps for their ranking this year, but I don't think it was very high. Oh, really? No. Well, okay. Their three guys are pretty clearly Cauen, Mitten, Danford, in some order. Mitten, I think we already know, is a future NHL player. Cauen, we haven't seen play at the NHL level, so we can't say, Danford looks like a nail gun. I don't want them to trade him. I really I like him.

Dregger said on the broadcast in intermission yesterday that the least have a prospect pool that is highly coveted by teams around the league. So I feel like-Yeah, he said that on Insider Trade this morning, too.

Okay, good.

The names you're saying, they can get things back, I think is the point.

Grubenken's name's in there, too.

Yeah, Grubenken in the intermission.

Yeah, I'm just looking through the Marlies. It's not a ton there. Grubenken, like Roni Irvinin is Robertson's age. He's got 18 points in 41 games. It's a former second-round pick. Tobi Niemula evaporated. I don't know what happened.

He's what's known as a bad pick.

No, Adam. Okay, here. Here's why they believe in him.

Here's why they believe in him. He's an undersized defenseman on a team that has one person under the age or under the height of 6 feet in its max domey. Last year at 21...

Mcrobertson is 6 foot?

No, he's not. He's 5'9. Stop.

The paper offer is like 4'12.

Two guys.

Wait, he's 4'12 to you.

Yeah, where everybody's 4'12.

Last year at 21, Tobi Niamala HL undersized in 68 games, had eight goals, 31 assists, 39 points in the AHL. Yes, it's the AHL. At that age, that's extremely good. Agreed. This year, no goals, 17 assists. I don't... Where to go? To me, you strap him to a rocket and fire him to the moon. If anyone will take him, which they won't.

Dubas will take him. You can get a.

I mean, he's the one who picked him, and so is West Clark.

Yeah, listen.

It looked like a good pick.

I agree. But the organization has shifted under this guy's feet because Dubas didn't mind undersized defensemen. Triliving does.

Also, let's not put all that much stock into AHL numbers necessarily. Five goals, five assists for 10 points in 23 games in the AHL. Do you want that player? Logan Shah. Do you want that player? Yeah, I do.

Who is it?

It's Fraser Mitten. Oh. Who we already know is better than that because we've seen it.

Yeah.

It just, I don't know, for whatever reason, hasn't come together. You know who didn't have mind-blowing numbers in the minors here? I'm going to give you another player, Adam.

I want you to- By the way, I have said this since last year. I am totally fine with them trading Fraser Mitten. I will not lose an ounce of sleep. And not because I don't think he's a good player. But I think he is a good player, and you have to give to get. You're trading future wins for current wins. That's what you're doing.

I'm 24, I think this player was. 23, 24. I have 15 goals, 22 assists, 37 points in 59 AHL games. Are you trading for me?

I would send my scouts in and be like, What skill does he have? Because I don't really care what the AHL numbers say. Does he have skill?

Who? Zack Hyman.

There you go.

When the leaves called him up, I was like, They are? And then he turned into Zack Hyman.

And they loved him. Obviously, there's probably a defenseman that they need to get. I think It's the thing that you're seeing Benoît-Timmins not be the greatest together. I think Benoît is the better of the two. I think if you put him with somebody who is like, If you have an opportunity to move Oliver Ekman-Larson or Morgan Reilly to the third pair, Because ideally, you got Tanef Mqab, you have Guy and Ouel or Reilly, and then you have Benoît and Ouel or Reilly. That's the best defense core the Leaps have ever had in my lifetime. In my lifetime.

You have Tanev, McCabe. You put Reilly with someone-I'd love to see Luke Shen back.

I'm going to just say it.

Whose gloves drag on the ice and has ahead the in the shape of a fire hydrant.

Luke Shen. Yes.

Third pair. Is this mean to say I wouldn't miss either guy? Oh, you put OEL there. Yeah. Oel on the right of Ben Haakinpa is an option. Timmins, to me, he's not an option.

Is Hawk and Pan an option? I don't think so.

He fits the mold of dude with a fire hydrant head, but I don't know if he's ever going to play hockey again.

It's worth noting that OEL was a third-pairing defenseman when Florida won the Cup.

And was great.

And has been great in Toronto this year. The guy's making, I think, less than Domi is.

Yeah. Oh, he takes too many penalties. Yeah, well, April is on the way. Yeah.

And so with that, they need a center, clearly. They need a defenseman, clearly. I can't fathom a better time to take a swing. Shana Hansen is last year of this contract. Oh, you're talking me into it. Berube loves the St. Louis blue. Loves his guys. He sure does. I do like to Rob Schenkel a lot as a bottom six option. People keep bringing up Brandon Tanev, too, and forgetting, I believe Brandon Tanev is a free agent this summer. But one guy that has popped onto the radar now, again, on Brandon Tanev's team is Steve's favorite, Yoni Gord, who had a sports hernia. It was supposed to be 6-8 weeks. Turns out he's going to be playing next week. What? Yeah.

I knew he was coming back sooner than expected.

He's going to be playing next week. He's going to play before the trade deadline. And There's a guy who's a playoff animal who might fit what they need on the third line for a lot less than Braden Chen.

Interesting. Four check, four check, four check, four check. Skate, skate, Go to the frigging net, four check, four check. Everyone's looking at his numbers. Did you miss the two cups he won? I watched so many of those games in every shift, I was like, Does he get tired? I want him bad. I love that player. I want him bad. I will not apologize for my thirst for Yany Gord.

If you're general manager, Brad for Living, obviously, they're going to have to make a big swing here. Who do you favor? Are you feeling... Because there was a while there where it was to look like it could only be Brock Nelson or Ryan O'Reilly. Now, Braden Chen's name's up. Yany Gord's name is back in there. What do you think is the fit?

I would love Braden Chen. I think Braden Chen would be awesome on the I think he fits in everything they need. Jake Evans is also, I think, a good option. I think Montreal, I think they have setting the price pretty high.

He's a good option if he weren't a hab.

Yeah, they always love setting the price real high on their guys. So if they could get Jake Evans. I think Jake Evans would be nice. But Brandon Shen is where I'm leaning right now. Definitely over Yoni Gord. That's such a question mark with that injury. I have no idea if he can play.

Yeah, it scares me, too.

But... He also hasn't been great this season. You got an injured guy who hasn't been that good. I'm not going to side with him. If my options are Gord or Chen, I'll go with Chen.

I know that Braden Chen, by the way, has had a bit of a down year points-wise, but he is second on the Blues in expected goals. I do think that matters. Sure. When you're looking at the season as a whole, he's still a pretty damn good player. He is signed for six and a half million dollars for the next three years after this one.

The Lightning... Holy shit. The Lightning had guys who could carry the offensive load. So Gord's job was to be a battering ram.

To play out of his Gord. Here's a question.

Yeah, I need a player like that.

Let's say you get the Ten deal done, gentlemen. What's to stop you from calling Seattle and getting gored as well? We're not doing that, but hell, yeah.

Assets, they have enough to make both deals. That's probably the only thing that stops you. But Trent Frederick It was also another option. They were talking about it yesterday on the broadcast because they're playing Boston, but they're willing to sell Trent Frederick if he's not hurt, then it'd be a good one, too, for the least.

Mike Johnson said, Yeah, he's gone. He's like, Yeah, he's getting ready. That was so funny.

They have fun, eh?

They do. Imagine having fun during a broadcast? No, it shouldn't be me. I think then on defense. Okay, so we're looking at Luke Chen archetypes. One guy that named... For whatever reason, sometimes I'm like... I do follow a lot of accounts on on Twitter because I like to know what people are talking about. I have been blown away by the amount of people who are unironically saying that the Leifs need to get Rasmus for us to line in. I think it's worth noting this morning that Kevin Kerr, who's one of the best reporters in Philly is a guy that obviously reports for the athletic, said this morning that the flyers are shocked by the lack of calls for Rasmus Ristalinen.

I understand how he's tricked, I don't know who exactly X scouts or whatever for this long. You watch Ristaline in play, at least back when he was in Buffalo. I haven't caught as much of him in Philly, and maybe that's what we should be evaluating on account of he's in Philly now. But there were plays where I'm like, Shit, this guy can do stuff other guys can't do. That's a skilled player. And then you look at his shot attempts against, shots against, scoring chances against, goals against. He's a nightmare. He's been a nightmare of a player for the vast majority of his career.

So 5. 1 million this year and next?

No, for two more years.

Oh, two more years after this one.

Fuck, no.

Unless it's 50 % retained. You could probably get better players.

And you're taking Domi.

My dream scenario Give it to me. We brought them up just now, and you said they can't get a deal done with them. But my dream is that they get David Savard from the Montreal Canadians, and you pair up best shot-blocking guy in the league, Chris Tanev, with the next guy who's not afraid of the fuck at all. He's a shot-blocking machine. I think he'd be perfect on the right side where you don't need the offensive help. He's not there for that. He's there to just play great defense. I think in the bottom two pairs, he would be perfect on the right side. He is a tree trunk.

Yeah.

Mekabe Tanev O'Reilly-Sivard.

That's amazing. Plus, he's a UFA at the end of this year, so you just sign him and you cut costs. It's good. Or you resign him. If you want to bring him back. He's great. He's 34. He's going to be 35 next season, so maybe you don't want that old guy to give him a longer term contract, a couple of years or whatever. But I think he'd be perfect, at least for this playoff run.

The Habs, if they wanted to get him last year, I believe the leaves called and the Habs were like, first round pick. This year, I can't imagine it's going to be. I don't think so. I think that because of that expiring deal, because of his age, he's a great player. He's an asset, but I don't think it's going to be... If Marcus Petterson went for what Marcus Petterson went for, you can't tell me that David Savard is a first round pick.

I think it's a good year to be a seller. First of all, there's not many of you.

That's happening quickly, though. That's changing very fast, Steve.

Yeah, but... Well, it is changing very fast, but that cap going up, everyone's just an oasis in the desert. You ever been to a festival or whatever, and they're like, bottle of water is 15 bucks.

You got no choice.

You're like, Here you go.

It's like airport food. Yeah. Yeah, 35 % more.

That's what it's like right now. That's what it's like right now.

I think that will change this weekend. I think that will change this weekend. I think you're going to have a... Because remember, okay, so the Canadians extend David Savard, and they have David Savard. That's great. That's awesome. Or X team, the Islanders, oh, they extend Brock Nelson. That's great. So then the Islanders next year are exactly what they are.

For what purpose?

Yeah. So okay, you're hanging on for what?

That team, nothing leaks out of the island, right?

That's starting to change. It is starting to change a little. There's been a lot of chatter about Mr. Lou Lamorello.

But wouldn't it be something if the frigging Monkey Ranch We're waiting for in this whole thing as the islander is just going, yuppie, and they make some... I think the chances of these things happening are very, very low. But we heard Dobson's name. I know.

Which I think is psychotic. If that's available, you go and you get him.

Any team. You get him. This isn't just a leaf discussion. This is any team. It's like, Shut up and don't kiss with Matt Barzal. I can't help but think. If they're We're looking for major change, that's the move.

I like Matt Barzal a lot.

Should we maybe promote that we are going to be doing Trade Deadline coverage?

Yeah, I did on the stream. We're doing our typical We'll trade deadline. Coverage.

What does that intend?

Every time there's a trade, we will do a video, and you will see the video. And beyond that, we'll do a show at the end of the day. We will also take all the audio from all the trades, put it all into a big podcast at the end of the day, and you will get that. But essentially, instead of doing one gigantic long live stream that's boring until we get snaps of exciting trade news, why not just do a video reaction to every trade, and then you can pick and choose what you want to watch?

No, you can watch us go, here, Wait. No.

We're going to go to the desk.

Is it confirm? I'm not making fun of people who do that. I'm just saying it was not my cup of tea, and we wouldn't do it well. So we're going to do what we do well.

And I will make fun of them. Ha-ha, James Duffy. Who are you anyway? Garbage. Garbage. Trash. No, I think honestly, that's what we do every year, and it works out really well. So you'll get a whole bunch of that. And we got some small surprises this year, and I'm excited. I think next week is going to be very, Very interesting. This weekend should be interesting. Don't you think?

There's going to be some early birds.

Well, okay. So then obviously, Miko Rantin and the $100 million contract is out there, right?

Yes.

Do you think that that deal because I don't think that contract is getting signed one way or the other before the deadline. If you're Eric Talsky, do you take the risk, guys?

Oh, my God. I haven't had the chance to wrap my head around the hurricanes, flipping him. Because if they flip him and they don't get a good return, he's going to get shish-gebobbed.

Well, yeah, I think they wouldn't flip him if they didn't get a good return.

You don't You're very quickly running out of options here. In a week, your options, if you don't move them, are going to be resign them or lose them for nothing. So it's Talski. It's Talski. Dude, I trust him, too. I give him the benefit of the doubt. I think he's killer, but I want to see how the hell he gets out of this one.

Okay.

I would trade Miko Rantzen in immediately because the Carolina Huracanes don't have any retention spots taken up. They can retain 50 % of Miko Rantzen salary, and you're trading Miko Rantzen into a team for $2. 4 million. Oh, what? Any team Yeah, because he's already had his salary retained, right? So he gets it retained even more. Oh, baby. I think that's because the Chicago- Holy shit. Because the Chicago, it'd be double retained, right? So I think you just trade him and somebody gets Miko Rantan for $3 million, and you get the sun and the moon for that, and you go forward that way.

Hey, so what if you're the leaves and you're like, Hey. Wait. What's up, Eric?

What is his pre-retention cap hit?

$9. 25 million.

And he's...

He would be double retained in this interview.

Making what on the hurricanes?

4. 6.

Oh, my God.

You can retain on that again, and then somebody gets Miko Rantan for a couple of bucks.

You could double retain on that, and then he's playing for free, basically. Dude, that's a wrinkle. I have been too focused on the Four Nation face-off to really pay attention to that.

There's an opportunity for the Hurricanes to get a big little haul again for Miko Rantan. Is it big or little? Big little Call.

Canada's favorite contest is back. It's a rollup to win at Tim Hortons, and that means you could win millions of prizes with the swipe of your thumb. You see?

See, I've never done that.

You've never swiped with your thumb?

No, I like chew it.

Or a tap of your thumb on the Tim's app. Because you need the Tim's app.

Oh, I don't chew my phone. You could get a Unforgettable Vacation from Sal off Vacations, $1,000 Rakuten Cash Prize, all new All Electric 2025 Volkswagen ID buzz. Heck, even the simple joy of winning a free coffee or a donut can make anyone's day. By the way, what's your donut choice? Give it to me. Give it to me. Jesse, go.

That's very easy for me. It's Boston cream. Go ahead, Steve.

Chocolate glazed for me.

The Boston cream donut is the best one they make.

Steve, just make it. I do like a Honey Cruelet.

Okay, well, there you go. But listen, you only have- But there's so many donuts I like. March 23rd to win your free donut or any of the other great stuff that they have.

I want the vacation, a week-long vacation, and I want to go to San Diego.

There you go. So open up that Tim's app and get rolling. This is our game, Canada. So don't let this chance at millions of amazing prizes pass you by. Roll up to win on the Tim's app now. Rules apply, Canada only. No purchase necessary. Visit the Tim app, Tim's app for details. Okay, Okay, I'm going to put you guys in the shoes of another general manager.

Do they stink?

This general manager, you are the general manager in this scenario. This general manager has two goalies with an 898 save percentage.

898. Not great.

Not 8, 9, 8. Not terrible, but not great. Right. And this general manager has come out and said that goal tending is really not a priority.

Oh.

This general manager has-What GM says that? Number one and number two best players in the world.

Oh, Edmondson?

Oh. Do you make a trade? So John Gibson is having a renaissance season in Anaheim. 9: 15 save percentage on the ducks.

On the ducks. On the ducks.

And Stan Bowman has said, No, we're good with Stuart Skinner, and we're good with Calvin Pickert. Let me just run you through the last few Oilers games. I believe McDavid is minus nine since coming back from the Four Nations face-off.

Not to make it about the least. Most players from Team Canada have been awful.

Yeah, they've been tired.

Since that tournament, except Marner.

Four goals against last night versus the Lightning. Seven goals against this past weekend on Sunday versus the Capitals. Six goals against from the Flyers on Saturday this past weekend. Before the Four Nations, you had the avalanche hang five on you. So that's the last four games. No team has scored less than four goals. And last night was the best they'd done. Before that, Chicago hung three on them, but Edmonton beat them in overtime. Edmonton beat St. Louis in overtime before that, three, two. The Leaps beat them four, three on February first, and Detroit beat them three, two on January 30th. It feels like the Edmonton Oilers might need a goal tender here. Or do they need a better defense?

I think they have more problems than just the D. Yeah, I think it's both. I feel like they've been playing really sloppy defense as of late, and there's a lot of stuff they can't really fix immediately because there's a lot of money involved and a lot of players. But I think priority is just playing better defense.

Here, what I'm trying to stall to look up is oilers. Well, maybe you could do it. What do you want? Oilers, ice time for their D. I want to look up who's playing what. Instead of looking at what their D pairs are, let's look at how it's broken down this year. Who's playing what per game? And let's try to fix it from there. There you go. Okay. All good. So Average time on ice. Man, they're playing the Skinner and Pickard guy too much. Yeah. So Bouchard and Echholme are up there on account of. They should be. Darnell Ners, up there, Kulak up there. And then your next highest is Klingberg playing 17,21. Ty Emberson is a steep drop off at 14: 56. Troy Stetcher, Should any of those guys be in your playoff lineup? I'm not sure, man. I mean, the oilers are so redonkulously stacked up front. I'm not sure you change a there.

The one thing that changes a lot for the Edminton oilers is if that come the next couple of days, they get some clarity on Evander Kane and that salary that could be available to them. If he's planning to come back before the playoffs, there's an opportunity to trade him. I think as of the first, his no trade clause turns to a 16 team, so it's not a full. Then if he's not coming back, then you just sit on it and you just use that in the cap space. I think right now for the oilers, that's a big thing there, and that they can go out and get a defenseman if Andrew Cade's not playing.

The strategy is just completely overwhelm your opponent, just because...

You mean offensively?

Yeah.

Yeah, I guess. But it's not working. They're not playing well right now. I think Adam had all the numbers there, and they're in a really tough stretch of hockey.

Here's an irresponsible way to look at it, but maybe they should try. You fleeced the Sabers for Matt Savoy. You shouldn't have him. You shouldn't be yours. Former ninth overall pick. But guess what? He is. Goodbye.

Sorry, am I going to... Yeah.

Ship him right out the door and go get yourself someone real good.

This is the first four-game losing streak, by the way, of the Chris Noblek era. They had nothing lost four in a row up until this point. The Matt Savoy thing is the same conversation we had with the Lefs, same conversation we had with the Caps. Who cares about the future assets? You're the Edminton Oilers. You have Connor McDavid. Go win now.

You, more than any of the teams that we mentioned, we talked about the Lefs, we talked about the Capitals. Okay, well, neither of you have had recent playoff success, really. Well, since 2018. The Oilers made it to game seven of the Cup final last year.

Isn't it funny I'm sorry, too, that the oilers might be like, if things align properly, they might just play Cody Ceece in the playoffs this year because Cody's in Dallas now, right? If things go well for both teams. The other thing I would say is that they gave up Cody Ceece Phil Broberg this offseason. They should have kept one. The idea that you go with Jeff Skinner over Dylan Holloway is not looking so hot either.

Yeah. When you put it that way- It was two million bucks for Dylan Holloway.

It was three something for Skinner.

Goodness gracious. Hallway has been very good.

I know. Hey, you know what else he was good? Stanley Cup Finals last year. You know who was scratched in the Stanley Cup Finals and who was playing? Broberg was playing, Ceeci was scratched.

Yeah, but CC's Mr. Game 7. They should have played him.

Maybe they should have. Maybe they'd be champions today. I'm going to put you in the shoes of another general manager, Steve Dangle and Jesse Blake. Now, Jesse, I sent you a video that we cannot play, but we can play the audio. Okay. We're allowed to feed the audio through, but because the video itself features gameplay, we cannot play it. Awesome. And this is a team that is not in the playoffs. I want you to imagine you're a rebuilding general manager. You're selling hope. No. Selling hope.

Wait, am I selling truth?

Well, hope isn't always truth.

Okay. Interesting.

In your battle to sell hope- That didn't help. Someone drops the truth on you and that someone happens to be on your team.

Okay. Oh, I know where you're going with this.

Do you think you know?

I think I know where you're going with this. Okay. I'm not sure how much longer I can stall, but I'm pretty sure.

No, you don't have to do any stall. Oh, my bad.

Here we go. Okay. What needs a change for this, Edward? Seth Jones. Right, it's off. I don't know. I think we're the exact same team right now as we're in game one. And I think it's pretty evident out there. We haven't made any strides to be a better, more simple hockey team. And it shows we don't get a lot of wins because of that. So we can leave. It's an opportunity to gage that since you started here and now 60 games and almost you're back here again. This is in almost four years of bottom of the league, so it's not just this year, for me, at least. Isn't it also hard five penalties? It doesn't help. But like I said, it puts a ton of pressure on Sody. It just kills momentum. If you have one or two good shifts in a row and then you take a penalty, three in the first, two in the second. I don't know if we had one in the third. Ten minutes is a long time on the kill. You don't get the flow of the guys going offensively. Now guys have to sit, and then it's tough to get anything going.

So definitely staying out of the box is key. But I'll say it again, I mean, Sory was unbelievable. We have zero chance of winning if he didn't stay on his head.

I thought the whole thing was really good.

What's that clip that turned into a meme? I am going to create a workplace that is so toxic. I know he's already been like, Yeah, I would like to be traded. And then he comes out with that. It's amazing how So easily, the truth comes out when you want out. Boy, that is a miserable situation in Chicago. And Adam, you're asking what I would do as the GM of that team? You're all going to think I'm out of my mind. Bye. I buy. The Blackhawks have drafted so damn well, I think.

They got a lot of hits on the way.

A A lot of hits on the way, like some real guaranteed blue chippers and some other guys who I don't know if they're going to be unreal, but they're going to be NHL players and they're going to be good. You draft a guy, let's say there's another nick Lardis out there. They have nick Lardis who leads the entire CHL in goals right now. He has, I believe the number is seven hat-tricks this year.

That's great.

Seven hat-tricks in the OHL.

You might Michael Misa to that bunch.

This is what I'm saying. The first round pick you're going to get this year could be Michael Misa. It could be... There's a bunch of really good players in the top five. Schafer could be. Yeah. Frigging, Porter Martone, which is maybe the craziest hockey name I've ever heard.

It's a good name.

Porter Martone. Come on. Great name for a wine, too. If anyone's trying to come I'll get the fifth one. The depth pics, not even depth, seconds and thirds. I think the foundation for the future in Chicago is already set. What is on the ice currently... Connor Bedard looked like he was crying in the penalty box yesterday. They need help now. They need help to insulate. They need They're in danger of becoming the ducks, right? So the ducks who have had a bit of an uplifting season. Great goaltending. Step in the right direction. Great goaltending. And they've gone out and they've gotten a bunch of vets, and they extended some of them, too. The Black Hawks were like, We're going to try that also. Well, okay, you have Soderblom and Morazek, who you just let get shelled every night. And the guys you have in your older leadership core of this team are just not as good.

Felino Hall was there.

Felino is trying.

Dickinson.

Trying his ass off.

Donato.

Yeah, and one, you're going to get rid of Donato, right? If you can extend a player, yeah, get rid of them. I get it. But I'd be looking for... Why aren't they in every Dylan Cousins rumor? I I put together a draft pick package for Dylan Cousins. I don't. How many graphics does Buffalo want? If I draft a player now, in four or five years, they could be Dylan Cousins. Go get them. Go get them. You know who they should be going out? They should be going out and trying to get guys like Brandon Hagle when they traded them.

Yeah. Which was stupid.

It was a genuinely stupid decision.

Jake McCabe when they traded him.

Jake, I think Jake McCabe is a little different because he's older, I guess. God bless them for retaining on him for three seasons.

Thanks.

That was pretty cool. It's such a good trade. It allowed the Leaps to actually win a playoff round. I'd buy.

You'd buy? I'd buy. Jesse, what would you do? Would you, as a general manager, speak to Seth Jones about these comments, or do you go, he's as good as gone anyway. He's asked for the trade. It's very public.

Seth Jones, I in my mind, is going to be there for a while because unless... If somebody wants Seth Jones, you send him there. I think it's ridiculous if any of the other 31 general managers want to trade for Seth Jones. If you get one of them to actually do that, then yes, you send out Seth Jones for just anything. Just take the salary, go ahead, you can have it. But the Black Ops haven't been good since the 17, 18 season. Seth Jones has been a large part of that run since then, since they lost to the preds there, they got swept, and then ever since then, they've been awful. But the rebuild hasn't started since two years ago. We come back to this point a lot. The 2022-2023 season, Jonathan Taves and Patrick Cain played more than 50 games for the Black Ops. Their rebuild didn't start until a couple of seasons ago. Both of those guys were on this team, and then they finally started to tear it down. They got Bedard, and it's been a year and a half. This thing about Seth Jones looking at it and it's like, Oh, we've been losing for so long.

It's fairly recent that they've been actively trying to lose, and there needs to be patience within everybody in the Black Ops organization to know what they are right now, and all of those prospects are going to come eventually, but it's going to take a little bit. The rebuild didn't start until a year and a half ago.

This is what happens when you kid yourself, though.

Yeah, being bad doesn't mean you're rebuilding. That's the big problem with the Black Ops is I said they're bad since that 17, 18 season getting swept. Since then, they've been bad. But that 10 year from 18 through 23, they were just bad not rebuilding. So you don't count those as the rebuilding years. Now that they're into the rebuild, things are actually looking decent when you look at everything that could come in the next 3-4 years. But they got Bedard too early in the rebuild process, which is fortunate but unfortunate. You have Bedard, but he's on this team that stinks. Then now we just need patience from everyone from the top down. Seth Jones isn't giving anybody that leeway. He wants to win, and that's his prerogative. I think you move him if you can move him.

The Blackhawks this draft, okay, they got a six and seventh round pick. They don't have a fifth. Who cares? Two first, two seconds, a third, two-fourths. Throw them over the bridge. Keep your own. That's going to be a good pick. Their other first is the Leaps from the McCabe deal. Next year, a first. Three seconds already, a Third, two-fourths. Three draughts from now. A first, two seconds already. A third rounder. And then you have all your own picks except for the fourth.

Yeah. If you look at that, I think that's great because it illustrates Kyle Davidson has done a fantastic job in terms of tearing it down. The hardest part about a rebuild is building it back up. We can all sit there and be general managers and just trade shit draft picks. That's great. Now it's about weaponizing those assets to go get things that speed up your timeline here. That's what they need to be doing. And this is the hardest task for Davidson. We'll see if he's up to it.

Two players that the Blackhawks have been linked to. Or it's been out there that in the way that I'm interested in buying a million dollar McLaren, the Blackhawks are also interested in these two players. So first one, Miko Rantnett, free agent this year. Second one, Kareel Kaprizov, free agent next year. And what will be very interesting is, people are like, Well, they'll have the cap to pay them whatever they want. What are they selling these guys on? You can't sell those guys on this team right now. So I actually agree with you. I think Steve, you go out and you be competitive in the way that the Blues were in on Timo Meyer a year and a half ago, even though they were clearly missing the playoffs. Get out there and buy something and build this team out so that you might miss Rantan in this year. It's probably too late for Rantan. But if Caprizov hits the market, and he might, I have $120 million ready to go for him.

The last thing you want to be is the Buffalo Sabers, who every single year they're like, Okay, we got to accumulate prospects, and we got to get this young guy. Oh, this draft pick's hit. Now he's on the team. They just have a bunch of young guys who don't know how to play on HL Hockey, and they can't win.

Then they cycle them out because they give up on them.

They just keep coming through, and that's it.

Munch or Reinhardt, Middlestat. Who else have they given up on? Jack Eichel. Can we say that? Wait, Buffalo. Yeah, Buffalo.

Oh, my God, everybody. It'd be easier to name the guys they didn't.

They're a perpetual cycle of too many young good guys who break elsewhere.

You don't want to be in your rebuild forever, the cycle of rebuilding and getting your guys. Eventually, you got to move forward with everything. So I think the Blackhots need to position themselves with all the assets to do that in the near future, but give them time. And as long as they don't get stuck in that sabre's rut, they should be fine in a couple of years.

Dude, Bedard.

It sucks for him. Well, I know, but Bedard.

Here's what I'm selling you on. Bedard, Nazer, Khrchchinsky, Slagard, Vlassik, Lev Shunow, Lardis, Prittam. They're doing really well, I think, on the draft board. It's all magic beans until they play. Yes. But I think they're doing really, really well. So that crazy accumulation of I don't think you need it. You're going to get another star. You're going to hit on a player who's... Before the draft lottery even happens, I bet this player will be in your lineup next year. You got to add to your team. You're not going to have a problem finishing real bad.

Add in the sense that they need guys that are going to help them along the appropriate timeline. Yeah.

Well, there's not a ton of those guys available. That's why I'm screaming nick Cousins from the... Not nick Cousins. Dylan Cousins. I did it again. Dylan Cousins from...

That's why I'm screaming Sam Reinhardt. You know what?

Get him, too.

Why not? Okay. Now, just to wrap the show very, very quickly, worth noting that Elias Petterson, this is a crazy stat from Ryan Mead, who's a... You ready? Matt Rimpey has more goals than Elias Petterson in 2025.

Like the calendar year? Yeah. Where it's February. Yeah. But still. It's almost... It's February 26th.

Yeah, that's two months, Jesse. Petterson should have him tripled up by now. Tripled?

No, Matt Rimpey should have one goal, and Petterson should have like- And he might.

It probably in fewer games.

Do you know what the numbers are?

I don't know what the numbers are. I don't know what the numbers are.

Please tell me you got Santeld again.

No, it's actually Ryan.

Matt Rempe in this calendar year has two goals. So how many does Pederson have?

I guess Petterson's got less.

One or none.

I can tell you in half a second. But in this calendar year, Elias Petterson has... Oh, that's the wrong game.

Did you get the wrong Petterson?

No, I just clicked the wrong-Imagine if it was. He has one goal since January January.

That's not Elias Pederson II, who also plays for the Knux. No, no.

He also didn't play a little. His first game into this year wasn't until January 10th, but since then, he has one goal. Then Matt Rempey has two. Also, Matt Rempey plays six minutes a night, eight minutes a night. You should probably have more goals.

Wasn't he suspended forever?

Yeah.

Elias Petterson makes more than Shesterken.

Oh, Matt Rempey also didn't play until January ninth, so they're on the same timeline.

I just want to say that I think you did the right thing paying their goal tenant.

Oh, no.

All right. Here, you want to get nuts? Chicago. Bang.

Matt Renfe? No. Petterson. Oh, yeah.

You know what? They have the cap space to get both of them. They do.

They, too. You know what? I just wanted to leave it at Let's do the press conference.

That's not great.

This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Now, listen, this is the time of year where, at least outside today, there was actually a little bit of sunshine.

It was nice for like half an hour.

Yeah, it was great. That could grayed on you. Not the sunshine part, the gray part.

No, you know what's even worse?

What?

Everything's wet. Everything is always wet, including my socks, and I hate it.

Do you hit up better help about your wet socks? I do.

No, you get frustrated. It just adds to it. It could be the straw that broke the camel's back, the straw that wet my socks.

There you go. Listen, if you want to give better help, a try, if you've never tried therapy, we've all benefited from it. We think you would, too. You don't have to be in a personal crisis to try therapy out. It's maintenance. It's like going to the gym. It's really good for you. And the great thing about Better Help is it's easy. 30,000 credentialed therapists with a wide range of specialties available to you. You can easily switch therapists at any time at no cost, and we want you to give a shot now. Visit betterhelp. Com/sdp to get 10% off your first month. That's Betterhelp. H-e-l-p. Com/sdp.

The Presser Sdp. The Steve Dangle Press Conference.

You guys don't want to play a game?

Not really. I want to go have a shower after learning that.

All right, we have a game that is brought to you by Stan Bowman. Oh, I like it. The Stan Bowman The wrong game goes, Did he sign anyone good on July first?

I like this one.

I messed up the song.

I like your jingles, too.

I messed up the song.

I like your jingles.

It's very good.

I'm going to read to you this offseason's Edminton of their signings. You have to tell me, did Stan Bowman make a good signing? Sing it. All right. June 28th, Calvin Pickard, two-year deal, $2 million.

That's okay.

That's okay. Good deal? Like a million per?

Yes.

I mean, it's worked out pretty well for them. That's fine. Great deal. It goes wrong.

Let's cap it $1 million.

That's fine.

All right. July first.

Good guy to pick up in spot starts in fantasy.

Yes, yes, yes. He's a good backup to when they're playing the Black Hawks and you want to pick up-100 %. Yeah. Okay. Colin Delia, July first, Edmunds and Orilish signing, 775 grand. One year.

How many games How many games he played?

I can tell you. I have a second.

I think 10 games. Is he doing well on their minor? No, the only two goalies have played for the Oilers this year. They're a rarity in the end.

Yeah, no games played for the Edmondson Oilers this year.

So he's making AHL bucks. I don't know if that even counts.

It's a signing. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to sing it, Doesn't Matter.

Oh, wow. Okay. So we got a neutral.

Yeah.

Next up, July first, 2024. The Edmundson oiler signed Troy Stetcher for two years, 1. 575. So that's 787 per season.

I am Has played 45 games, has six points. What do you expect for 775 grand? I don't know.

I don't believe in him for the same reason I don't believe in the tooth fairy. Like, People keep trying to make that player happen. How did he get that contract?

I'm too old for this. I've seen this too many times.

Hey, Troy Stetcher is about to what? How much?

1. 575 Over two years.

It's 775. You got a year.

787 a year.

That's nothing.

800 grand a year.

That's why I said to you, I'm like, who cares? That point, yeah, whatever. He's played 45 games for you. All right.

In that case, it doesn't matter.

They He also traded for him.

No, that 100 % matters. He played 45 NHL games? What are you talking about? They traded for him last year, too.

So I feel like if they hadn't extended him, whatever asset they gave up would have been too much not to receive.

If he gets this, Steve, stop trying to avoid giving Stan Bowman credit. If it's a good signing, that's a good signing.

It's good value to you, it's bad you're using him this much. Okay.

Yeah, that's fair.

I thought you told me he was making nearly 1. 6 million.

Yeah, I'm reading the total value of the contract in the years. And then I said the cap hit.

He did say the cap hit. Yeah.

I was too distracted by what.

You weren't paying attention. All right, next up. Connor Brown, $1 million, one year.

Well, that's Jeff Jackson's client, so I don't think he had a choice.

No, he didn't.

Also, was Bowman around for July first, or was it still Jeff Jackson? When did Bowman take over?

That's a good question. You know what?

These are Edminton oiler signings, July. I think it was Jeff Jackson. We'll change the name of the game. Yeah. Connor Brown?

How's he doing?

Adam? Connor Brown at a million dollars while he was always going to... Yeah. So Bowman didn't start till later.

Okay. Edminton oiler signings on July fourth. How has Connor Brown done?

Let's have a quick look here. He was not great last year, but you always root for Connor Brown. And the President, that was his agent. 22 points for a million bucks? She's fine. In 58 games? That's fine. That's A-O-K. That's an A-O-K signing. All right. He's doubled up his points from We're actually not too upset with the July first that the Emmanence of Oralist had.

It's not bad at all.

Listen, just because it's not bad doesn't mean it's good.

Yeah. $1. 15 million for one season to Cory Perry.

I don't mind that extension.

That's all right. Yeah. That's all right. All right. Everything is... You got to go up an octet.

20 points in 57 games for Cory Perry. Okay. All right.

They made a whole bunch of signings. Matias Yannmark is He was signed for- The janitor. $1. 45 million per season. I'll start with that for you, Steve, for three seasons.

Yeah. It didn't need to be three seasons. But they made it to the finals. He was valuable, and he's a vibes guy. They love him in that dress here.

By the third year, that's going to be a hair over Leagueman.

Yeah. I don't mind that.

All right, Edmondson, you did decent in hindsight. Next up, Jeff Skinner.

No.

$3 million for only one season.

They're lucky it's one season. 21 points. They got more out of Connor Brown.

Oh, dear. That was too rich of a swing for me.

And for the Leaps who were in on them.

Well, yeah. And just not what you needed. Okay. That's the second summer in a row the oilers have saved the Leaps from themselves because they tried to give Connor Brown 4 mil Bless Connor Brown. Wait, the Leifs?

Trying to give Connor Brown four?

That's what he made last year.

Yeah, I don't think the Leifs were at that range. No, because the oilers did it. Yeah, but I think the least would have signed him to a million dollars. I don't think it was ever going to be four.

Go look. And for Jeff Skinner this year.

That for sure.

Next up, Adam Henrique, $3 million per season for two years.

And they had just traded for him, right?

I liked him.

I like him in the playoffs. He has 16 points. No. Oh. 16 points in 57 games, compared to last year in Anaheim, where he had 42 and 62.

There's almost too much of a vibe around the oilers of the regular season doesn't even matter. No wonder Stan Bowman is like, Yeah, I'm not worried about our goal tending. Because we watched Stuart Skinner be good in the playoffs.

Is it like a Doug Armstrong with Jordan Binnington? It's like, Yeah, he might be a bit chaotic, but I know in a big game, he's going to play well.

I think that's It's 100 %.

So are we giving Adam Henrique a thumbs up, a thumbs down?

How much? Three and a half mil?

Three mil for two seasons. Oh, no.

For a year. That's a one-year contract. The guy's 35.

I'm going to say bad with the right to change it in April.

Yeah.

Next He was good in the playoffs. Victor Arvidson, who signed for $4 million per season for two seasons.

I like Victor Arvidson. I'm going to go, I would have fucking signed that contract in a heartbeat. I don't know how he I'm going to look at...

Victor. God, you could have taken the money you gave Arvidson and Skinner and given it to Montor.

19 points at 43.

That's a dark way to look at that. Yeah, that would have been a much-7 million bucks. I think the accumulation of guys there could have been a lot better, guys. I'll throw in to Travis Dermot, 775, because I brought him up earlier, waived by the boilers earlier, waived again yesterday. The could claim him and then send him directly to Bakersfield. Which would be good. Because he's already been waived by them.

That's probably what they should do. The Victor Arvitz and thing is interesting because his first couple of years in LA were really good. Last year, he was injured, but he still had 15 points in 18 games. And then he signs in Edmonton in his 19 and 43. I feel like all of these signings, maybe they're not like, Oh, it's all trash. But which of these signings, and you look at the accumulated millions that they are You're probably at 15 or 16 million bucks there, right? Which of these guys made them noticeably better? Where you went in the season, I'm confident the oilers are better. I think you take the swing on Skinner, although I know the Leaps were in on him. That's probably why the price was so high. Arvidson, you take the swing on because he's Victor Arvidson, but he was coming off a big injury. I don't go the second year, maybe. Henrique had played well for you and you spent assets to get him. Brown, well, he's worked out really great. That's been a great deal.

How didn't you take a significant swing on D?

That is a good question. You're losing Ceece and Broberg.

That was the move.

That was the move. And they didn't do it. Yeah. If they'd spent four million over three years on somebody on defense. That was out there, OEL.

Didn't you notice you got exponentially better the moment you got Echholm? Okay, so do that again.

Do that again, you win the Cup. Different GM.

Yeah, true. Do that again, you win the cup.

Listen, maybe Jeff Jackson is a great business person. It's pretty clear he shouldn't be running free agency now, whether or not Stan Bowman is any better, but I think we've seen what we need to see from Jeff Jackson in free agency.

Dear. Careful, Adam. You're going to get me blocked again.

By Jeff Jackson? Yes. Did he block you? Did he unblock you?

I don't think so. Okay. Well, I haven't checked in a long time.

I got tagged in this a bunch on everything, but we can't play it. I'm sorry to everybody who tagged it to me. We can't play the audio because it's from a broadcast game. But Mickey Redman, one of the broadcasters for the Red Wings in the Red Wings wild game, got really upset at the official for not dropping the fuck. Did you see this, Adam?

I don't know.

I did not see it. We'll play it for you afterwards. Do you want to play it and then you can react to it? I would love to. But the audience can't hear it. This is going to be taken out of the show. But Adam, listen to what Mickey Redman said about So the official is not dropping the pocket.

He's so right. He's so right. I just listened to it.

Do you want to recreate it?

He said, Drop the pocket for goodness' sake, or something like that.

The first time I heard it, that's not what I thought he said. I thought he swore. What the fuck?

For goodness' sake. He's right. Drop the pocket, guys. We made fun of it a couple of weeks ago when the Four Nations Face-off started. First game. Nine years we've been waiting for international best on best. What's the And it's the ref, not the linesman, because the ref drops it at center. What's he do? Fake drops the fuck.

Adam, what the fuck? For goodness' sake.

And the guy, I love his call. He's like, Well, you got somewhere to be. Stop.

Stop. He's making fun of him.

It's called banter.

It's ba-a. It's ba-a. But it's like, dude, can we just... I'm not here to see the strides, man. I know it's hard for them to believe. I'm so happy that their families are pumped for them. I don't give a shit. I don't care. I'm not there to see the refs, man. Adam.

It's B-A-A. All right? What?

It's just B-A. B-a. No, that was B-A, but Mickey Redman is so right. Yeah.

I will keep banging that drum until they make a rule stopping it.

The refs should get a penalty for that. Take one of those bodies off the ice. You do that more than once in a game, you sit for two minutes. All right? Jesus. It's so annoying.

Anyway.

What did you do, Jesse? We have to answer more questions now? We have to start a new show.

That's good.

A whole new show.

Fire more of them.

No. Put more in there.

Yeah. All right. The Steve Dangle podcast.

Follow the guys on Twitter @steve_dangle, @AdamWYLDE, and @jesseblake. Connection complete.