Transcript of The Hockey Show: Training Camp Is Here, McDavid And Kaprizov's Contracts Are Not

Training camps have opened. Preseason starts on Saturday. Hockey is back. You know what that means? It's time for the Hockey Show. We got David Drucker, The Hockey News. In the other room, in the shipping container, we got Rosie and Ethan. Welcome back, Rosie. You are not bothering Lucy for College Football this week. Thank you very much.

I'm bothering you now.

Yes, unfortunately, you are. Well, very much, fortunately. Thank God you're here. The Hockey Show has a new YouTube page. You can follow us there at thehockeyshowdls. So please go ahead and search for our content on YouTube. We also have TikTok at The Hockey Show 7 and on X, Instagram and threads @hockeyshowdls. Rosie, am I missing anything?

No, you're not. We're just live right now on TikTok while we do this.

Excellent. We are live on TikTok while we are recording this show. Thank you very much. Anyway, you know the season has started as far as preseason training camps are concerned when this happens. That's right. Brandon Tanev has his headshot. The new Utah Mammoth player looks like a complete lunatic. It is a yearly tradition. We are ready to go, David.

It almost looks like the logo, the mammoth logo, is looking down like, he's doing the face again.

What's that like I got to deal with this guy over here.

I love those jerseys, guys. I think they're going to look really good when they're on the ice. They've got great colors. Their jerseys were good last year, but now they have a nice official logo on the front of their uniforms. I think they're going to look great.

Also, something that looked really good came out of Buffalo, David.

Are you complimenting Buffalo? I thought I was going to have to set that up. You said something nice about Buffalo.

Buffalo is one of my favorite teams. It's been one of my favorite teams since-I was going to say, didn't you grow up a Sabers fan?

Yeah, it was the Black Hawks and the Sabers.

Yeah, it was the Black Hawks, the Sabers, and the Panthers.

You've been holding their feet to the coals for a while now, though. You're very hard on the Sabers.

Yeah, I should be because it's not as hard as the Islanders. Not as hard as the Islanders, which is not one of my favorite teams and haven't been and never have been.

They're giving you good reason not to be.

Absolutely. But yeah, take a look at this mask, Dave.

So this goalie mask from former Panther and just all-around great guy Alex Lyon. This is a mask that pays tribute to Dominic Hachik, best goalie in Saber's history, one of the best goalies in NHL hockey history. So just a little love to Hachik on the mask. I love it. Training camp is here. I love that. Maybe the Sabers are going to be good. I guess that would make you happy.

All right, Rosie, you said Sam Reinhardt coming out of Buffalo. Thank you for that. You're welcome.

Great call, Rose.

Thank you very much. Great call. Now I know.

All right. One of the biggest stories that we have is a couple of guys dragging out contract negotiations. Let's start with the first one with Kareel Kapritsoff. The situation in Minnesota, there's an update. Apparently, they don't want to talk about it. All right, let's Let's take a look at the Michael Ruso tweet that he made, Michael Ruso of the Athletic. He treated a quote from Minnesota Wild GM Bill Garen, These negotiations are private. I can't really get into it. Things are fine. The most important thing is that we want to sign Kareel. He's our franchise player. We want to keep him here. He's a big part of our team. We're working towards that. We're doing the best we can. Meanwhile, Kupritzoff himself He said some things to the media. He said that he loves playing in Minnesota. He wants to stay at this moment, and he has to focus on hockey.

So-saying all the right things.

Refer all questions about his contract situation to his agent. David, where are you making us?

It does not sound good. It sounds like the next statement that they're going to make is just going to be that gif of the dog sitting at the table surrounded by fire saying this is fine. That's what the situation feels like. Reading between the lines, it doesn't sound like CapriSoft wants to have a long-term future in a mini. It sounds like when Mariko Rantan went to Carolina. This is a great place, but get me the hell out of here. Minnesota is offering him top dollar, and he's hesitating.

Literally top dollar.

That should tell you everything you need to know. What else could he be asking for? Less money? No way.

You guys already know I find this situation fascinating. One, because I think Kaprizov is a great player. I love him. He's one of my favorite players in the league, to be honest with you. But also just because of all of the things that go into this that could make the situation really sticky, especially if he waits out McDavid. That is not always sticky. What happens with McDavid, and we'll get to that in a minute. But I think the big thing here is, first of all, Garen's quote, if we can put that back on the screen, sounds like a guy, like you said, the this is fine meme, David. This doesn't sound overly confident at all. This is a lot of sentences, very choppy speaking ways. So when I read this, I wasn't very confident. Now, if you're a Minnesota fan, you have to feel better when you hear that Kaprizov's agent, showed up unannounced to camp yesterday and met with Garen and one of their other executives as well. So it seems like they're still open to negotiations. I think you have to be happy that Kaprizov says, I like Minnesota. I'm inclined to believe him there.

So I think that it's sticky right now, but I do think there are some encouraging signs if you're a wild fan, but also at the same time, that Garen quote did not sound overly confident at all.

And I read something, and I'm going to sound very intelligent right now. No, very good. Yeah. Because they don't want to say anything also because it's starting camp. So they don't want to create an environment within Minnesota and the players to get down.

Well, you got to keep in mind that all this happened during the captainscape. Yeah.

And apparently, he was very embarrassed when it got out there that he turned down that offer, and then he had to face his teammates in the locker room that he turned down the highest big contract in any show history.

That's the worst. Rosie's absolutely right. That's the worst. You got to deal with your teammates over here. You don't want to sign.

It's a tough line to walk. It really is because you've got to take care of yourself, but you got to take care of your teammates, keep them happy. You want the team to win.

I also think we forget that a lot of guys are just like, Look, that's his situation. We're going to stay out of it, and we want our guy to get his money. They probably believe he deserves that money or even more. I don't know that it'll be as awkward as people make it out to be. I'm just interested to see how this next situation we're going to talk about affects the Caprizoff situation.

Well, you don't want a pocket watch as a teammate. You want to probably use this contract as a comparable, but you don't talk about another teammate's contract. Correct. Yeah, you don't do that. No. As you mentioned, there is another contract situation that is going on right now in Western Canada. The all is Connor McDavid continued to slow the roll on contract talks. Connor McDavid said some things. He talked to Elia Friedmann on the 32 Thoughts podcast, and he invoked his family on his potential decision. Here's what he had to say as far as what his family has to do with.

My wife and I obviously love being here in Edmonton, and we have every intention, as I said, to win here in Edmonton and have all the faith in the world in this '25, '26 season. And beyond that, still remains to be seen. We have time. It's our decision, basically. We've earned that, and we're going to take our time with it.

He was also asked, what do you want the Oilers to do to make the team a little bit more competitive and be a viable option for him to stay? And his answer was this.

Nothing. All the pieces are here for '25, '26. It's going to be a feeling. It's going to be When the time's right, the moment's right, I think it'll just be a feeling. But as of right now, just excited to get season going, really.

Terrifying if you're an oilers fan.

As uncomfortable as that's making us, imagine being an oiler's fan listening to that. It's like, Yeah, my wife and I, we love our house. We have a great house here in Edmondson. We don't want to leave our house. The city, we don't want to leave our house.

This is going to drag on for a while, and I'm already annoyed with this, just like I'm annoyed with the Sydney Crosby Trade Room. I'm tired of it.

This is going to drag for a long time. You better get used to this story because it's going to stick all the time.

I'm with you, Dave. Sorry, go ahead, Rosie.

We're going to have an entire show just on Sydney's- No, no, no.

Croswalk. I like that. Croswalk. That's good. I think the thing here is, what is going to happen? Is McDavid just going to wake up one morning and be like, All right, we've got enough. That's not going to happen. He's going to play out the season or at least a portion of the season, or maybe they're going to trade for a goalie, and then all of a sudden, he's going to wake up and be like, All right, I'm ready to sign my contract. I don't see that happening.

They're going to play out this season, and then they're going to go into the offseason, and that's where it's all going to have to happen. Edmondson is going to have to empty their bank account, figure out a way to make it work with however much they're going to have to give McDavid because he's going to get a lot of money.

Let's be clear, I don't think this is anything about money. This is clearly about, can he win in Edmonton? Does he think he has a chance to win in Edmonton? And from what he's saying, when he keeps talking about 25, 26, he made it very clear in that quote right there. We have all the pieces for 25, 26. Beyond that, remains to be seen. I wasn't even by that comment. If I'm hearing that as an oilers fan, I'm freaking out. That's terrifying. That's the last thing you want your star player to hear or to say.

Can't you argue that the oilers are worse today than they were at game six? Yeah. So then when he says all the pieces are in place, I don't think he's saying all the pieces are in place to win. I think he's saying, literally, the pieces are in place. We know what we have.

Mcdavid and Dreisaitl are here. That's what he's saying. And he thinks they're probably enough to get him as close as he'll ever be. Right now, if you're Conor McDavid- He'll beat the Kings in the first round again. You have to assume this is as close as you'll get. You can't just assume that you'll ever get closer than you are right now. You've been to back to back Stanley Cups. You have another chance to go to a third one. This is terrifying if I'm an oilers fan.

You got to keep in mind, is that environment is not going to be in the lineup until November. He's got that wrist injury that he sustained in the Western Conference final. This is going to be rough, man. This is going to be a bad start to the season, Rosie.

And they're not good starters. They haven't gotten off to good starts the last few years.

I actually like David's take. He should go to Florida if he wants to win because- Oh, for crying out loud. The only one that- He's got a point.

He's going to take us money.

Everybody goes to Florida. Come on.

Exactly. Why?

Because that's the only team that cares to win. Why have they won two times?

I'm trying to be objective here.

No, you're objective. No, I am objective. Two-time champions. They don't care about the money. There you go.

Rose is paying attention.

Rose is-I've been killing it today. A salary cap that you have to deal with.

Yeah, but Bill Zito is going to do something there.

They have a lot of cap room Next year, Bob's contract comes off the books. The cap is going up. They have space. I don't know if they'll have enough to do that. And realistically, they're not going to. But I think the bigger point here is it doesn't seem like McDavid signing this year. And if you're an oilers fan and you play out the season, that's a lot of pressure to be under, where we basically have this year to get it done. And if we don't, he's gone.

All right. Media Day for the Panthers as well as across the NHL happened. David, you were at Media Day. The biggest takeaway for me was Bill Zito given a timeline on Matta K No-tax injury. He won't be returning until sometime in December. Tomas Nosek will be out for a few months as well. What did you learn at Panthers Media Day?

I mean, those are the big things for Media Day. I think some of my takeaways, Brad Marshan is awesome. We've talked a lot about the whole no-tax thing and whether it's an issue or not. Martian just basically said, Yes, it plays a big part. However, the team has to not be garbage. Just looking back, I looked at the Stanley Cup matchups. We've had a No Tax team in what? Five of the last six Stanley Cups. Before that, none from 2004. Before that, only one, the Dallas stars. Before this little block of No Tax success, there was nothing for decades. Let's all just pump the brakes. It's not so much about the No Tax. It's about the fact that they've got competency in the front office that makes people want to come. Anyway, I did like that Marshan got into that. He's a very smart guy, and we love Brad Marshan now. We did not so much a few years ago, but we love him now.

It's still crazy to me that he's on this team.

For a long time?

I'm over it. He won a Stanley Cup.

He's part of this team. No, it doesn't matter, Ethan. It's crazy that he's on this team. It's crazy that he's starting the season with this team.

If he wins two Stanley Cups, does he go down as a panther more than a Bruin? No.

If he plays out the six years of his contract, if he plays till he's 43 years old and the Panthers win one or two Cups in that span, and he retires with four Cups, three with the Panthers, and what, seven seasons with the Panthers?

I'm just saying.

It's not crazy. Three?

Three of the Panthers.

Three. Okay. If he plays another six seasons- And they win two more, that would be three. This Florida team winning two cups in six years is not far fetched at all. So yes, I think that if that happens, it's very possible. I'm just saying. But I think also he would be smart and he would play the card that Luwando played and say, I'm going to wear a Canada jersey, especially if he goes to the Olympics this year.

It's a gold medal. We can't assume that they're going to win a gold medal.

I'm saying if they do. They're not going to win the gold medal.

We already know that.

Greg Wischinsky already told us they're not winning the gold medal.

We can place our bets on Team USA, and Wyshinsky's got us covered.

Yeah, that's what happened out over there in Panthers training camp. It's pretty positive coming out of a lot of her right now on Sunrise, so that's a good thing. A little bit. Finally, this upcoming season for Anze Copetal will be his 20th with the Los Angeles Kings and his last of his career. So that's automatically numbering the rafters. Might just very well be the greatest Los Angeles king of all time. Not the greatest player that's played for the Los Angeles Kings, but the greatest Los Angeles King of all time. It's the same argument that we've had with Dwyane Wade and LeBron James with the Miami Heat. Lebron James is the greatest player to ever play for the Miami Heat, but Dwyane Wade is the greatest Miami player of all time. This is the same situation here.

Yeah. Well, it's because Wayne Dretzky played a few years for the Kings. It weren't even his best years. But I know. I think you hit the nail right on the there. You're not going to say that Anze Kopitar is a better player than Wayne Dretzky, but he's a better king. He is Mr. King.

Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, the Western Conference should be interesting. I think maybe the Kings might do it. Maybe they might beat the-We were so sure they were going to do it last year?

Were they up 2-0 in the series? They were up big in game three in Edmondson, and then they came back, and then Edmondson just didn't lose until the final, basically.

Rosie, there is a question from a fan of ours.

Yes. So now that we have YouTube, Klaus Hisler is saying, I love the DLS and I love hockey. Really rooting for this show. What are the chances that Florida can three-peat? And the second question is, do you think the stars will be any better this year?

Yes and yes.

Yeah, yes to both questions. Or chances are the Panthers-I don't know about the stars. They're definitely getting to the conference final. Now, the biggest competition will be Carolina. They might be aggressive with the roster come trade deadline time.

The stars, I don't know how I feel about the stars, guys. Their defense is- He's got that Michael Rantan sign long term. They've got Rantan for a whole year now. They might be better in the regular season.

They're going to end up signing him.

Well, they did already sign him. He's got an eight-year deal for $12 million a TV. I don't know. I don't love their defense. I think they might be a better regular season team, but I don't know how far they'll go in the playoffs this year, to be honest with you.

All right, let's go to Wins & Fails brought to you by Jagen Meister. Serve cold or don't serve at all. Jagen Meister, damn, that's cold. For more, visit jagenmeister. Com. Drink Responsibly. David, what's your win of the week?

My win of the week. All right, well, don't get mad at me, Roy, but my win of the week is-Yeah, I know.

I'm a sousayer. I already know what's going to happen. This is about the island, isn't it?

It's about the New York Islanders. See, I already knew. But I think this is something that you can get behind. Okay. With Lou Lamerello gone, the current Islanders players are leaning into the fact that they can now grow their facial hair out. They can have beards, they can have goatees, they can have mustaches. Last week, a bunch of players were a team golf tournament or something in their golf bullos, and pictures were shown. There's Anthony Duclair. He's growing the hair back out. He's got the beard growing strong. A bunch of the guys were there. Their facial hair was showing. I just love this. Good for you, Islanders. Enjoy it, beard it up. That's the dumbest rule ever. I'm so glad it's over.

So am I. I'm tired of stuff like this. You agree with this. I'm glad the Yankees did the same thing. I'm glad that's all done. I agree with you.

The Yankees did it before the Islanders.

Yeah.

So you agree? I agree. A positive Islanders endorsement from Roy Bellamy. I agree with you.

I didn't say anything about the positive Islanders endorsement. I just agree with you. That's it. I'll take it. All right. I've never seen this in the National Hockey League before. This came in a prospect game between the Maple leaves and the Senator. Senator's prospect, Jibril Torres, had his helmet taken off during the skirmish, and it revealed that he was wearing a durag. This is the first time I've seen a durag on a NHL playing surface. That's great. That's great for me. That's great for the Black community to see that. I say this because Julian McKenzie of the Athletic talked to him about it. Tori said, As a Black player, I just want to bring in my culture. I should showcase that for future kids to come. I was happy that I did that. It's a good thing to hear. I like it. By the way, Tori, he's 6'8. Oh my God. 6'8 defenseman.

Can we get a CCM sponsor, Durag? Can we get those mass-produced now?

Yeah, a CCM Durag outward, and I don't wear Durags at all. I've never seen that before. Maybe I've seen it on the Mighty Ducks or something. That's the closest thing.

That was cool in real life.

Ethan.

Bunch of good jerseys coming out around the NHL are my win of the week this week, boys. Starting with the Red Wing centennial look. Hundred years of the Detroit Red Wings this season, and this look is beautiful. They already have great uniforms. These might be even better. Now, our friend Sarah Sivian said in the Hockey Group chat, these are the best jerseys that have been released in the last decade. And then these next jerseys that I'm going to show you guys came out. And I said that take didn't even last for 15 minutes because look at these Washington capital sweaters. These should be their permanent home look. Love their colors, obviously red, white, and blue. And I love the Screaming Eagle in the red, white, and blue look here. That is delicious. Now, these aren't as good as the first two, but these are still really good. I like this look a lot. The Ranger Centennial, it's also their 100th year. This year, celebrating it with a bit of a lighter blue, simplified uniform with the classic Rancher's diagonal text. I love all these uniforms that have come out recently. These are three absolute beauties.

The Rancher's one, I don't like the collar.

No, I don't like the collar. The collar is-It's a little weird.

It's basically the floating NHL logo with nothing around it.

The Screaming Eagle jersey in this situation for the Capitals, as you saw, the tail wing, the wing, it's forced the captaincy designation to switch from the other side of the jersey to the other side of the jersey. So you saw in that picture with Alexander Ovesken, the C for his captaincy is on the wrong side of the jersey. That's what the Red Wings had to do a couple of years ago. It's just like an annoying pet peeve uniform thing that I had to go through. Rosie, you don't have a win of the week, do you?

I have a win of the week. Oh, I was glad to. Yeah. Actually, it's that we have the YouTube channel. I said that already. I know, but that's my win of the week.

This is the promotion that she's been trying to push on.

Exactly. I think it's something that we're very excited about. We already have like 226 subscribers in six days, so that's very exciting. And thank you for everyone that's following us. And whoever wants to go subscribe, go subscribe.

Thank you for everybody who's subscribed to our new YouTube page. That's awesome. David, what's your fail?

My fail of the week goes out to California. Anaheim Ducks prospect goaler, Thomas Shoshana Goaler? Goaler. Oh, wow. That's a nickname for a goalie.

I've never heard that before.

Goaler. So this goalie, this goaler, he went out to play the puck at his face off dot and accidentally shot it into his own net.

You should call that a goaler.

I had to. A goalie goaler. A goaler goaler. I feel bad for the guy because I hate playing the puck as a goal tender, too, but I'm 5'8 with 5'8 size arms. But that's a major fail in the definition of the word. Thank God, it was just a prospect game, but the poor guy was hanging his head.

If you remember last year, the New York Islanders were a disaster, and I made fun of them, and I continue to make fun of them to this day. I'm not going to bring up why I usually make fun of them. That's for whatever you already know. Anyway, remember when Patrick Raa lit up the performance of Anthony Duclair, who you mentioned as your win so far this week? Raa said that Duclair was God awful not playing up to what we expect from him following a loss near the end of the regular season. Now Duclair took a leave of absence and did not play another game. Well, there's an update to the story because Raa had drove to Duclair's house in Montreal to apologize, and both men have agreed to move past what happened this season. Duclair ended up telling Waal that the extent to his groin injury, the same injury that forced him to miss two months, had hampered him. So My fail in this situation is, as the head coach of the team, how could you not know that Anthony DeClaire wasn't fully healed? Obviously, he's not going to play 100%. You're over here calling him God awful and not playing to what we expect from him because he's hurt.

It's a guy whose game is predicated on speed and he has a groin injury. Yeah. Like, hello. Yeah.

And he was out for a major, major portion of the season, and he publicly called him out.

Yeah, not cool.

That's not cool at all. And you have a racist on your team. It's just a bad look. And hopefully, Duke does better this season. And I'm sure he will because now he's fully healthy.

He's healthy. He's growing his beard. He's a happy guy, hopefully.

Yeah, hopefully. Ethan.

My fail of the week, guys. It's been a rough few weeks for me. He's a football fan, and it's about to get a whole lot rougher this weekend. My teams are 0-5 in their last five games, and now the Gators are coming down to Miami off a game in which DJ Lagway through five picks. And Matthew Kuchuk is going to be the guest picker, which means he's obviously not going to pick the Gators. He's going to pick for the hometown Canes. So this fail of the week is for me.

That's the only reason he's going to pick the Canes.

He's throwing up the U in this video where he says that he is going to be the guest picker.

Yeah, he gave it away.

Going to have to watch him pick the Canes over the Gators, and then going to have to watch the Gators get their asses kicked by Miami. So fail of the week to me. It's been a rough football season so far.

Rosie, do you have a fail?

I don't have a fail.

All right, well, there you go. That was the one thing that she didn't have. There we go. All right, great. So if you are watching on DPN, we are going to have David Pinota to talk about the story lines that has happened so far and what happened in this upcoming season. David Pinota, The Four Period, it's coming up next.

This episode is supported by FX's The Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawk.

Allow us to introduce you to Lee Raybon, a quirky journalist/ rare bookstore owner, Unofficial truth seeker who's always on the tail of his latest conspiracy. This time, his most recent exposé puts him head to head with a powerful family that rules Tulsa. Meaning only one thing, he must be onto something big. Fx's The Lowdown premieres September 23rd on FX. Stream on Hulu.

We are joined by NHL Insider David Pinola of the fourth Period, and Last week, we mentioned that the five players who were acquitted for sexual assault will be eligible to play in the NHL later this season. David, you heard that a team has kicked the tires on looking at Carter Hart. Who is that team and why?

There's a few teams. There's a few teams that have been engaged and have reached out now to varying degrees. There are a lot of teams that are now denying it publicly. But there are There are a number of teams that have, in some capacity, reached out to inquire about Carter Hart's availability. I know Cal Dubis with the Penguin said he hadn't. I know the penguins have, so maybe somebody else in the organization has. Utah has been engaged. Carolina has been engaged. Philly, although they were told, no, he's going in a different direction. Other teams that have reached out, Minnesota, Nashville, Vegas, they've poked around as well. There are other clubs. I also mentioned, I thought I had San Jose was one of those teams as well, but that's not the case that I was able to later confirm. But there are a lot of teams that have reached out on Carter Hart to see what the availability is like and just what type of contract he'd be looking to get. I don't anticipate this being a one year, $1 million contract. You're probably looking at a couple of years and probably going to be three, $4 million a year thing, maybe even higher, depending on how things get negotiated.

But there's interest in Hart. I anticipate him locking into a team or committing to a team by October first. And then players are able to do that. Those five guys are able to commit to a team and agree to something in advance of the 15th, and that's when they can formally sign.

Where do you expect him, Carter Hart, to be in terms of his physical abilities? Because he hasn't played a game, really, in over a year. I know he's been training and doing what he can, but let's just say he signs and he's with the team pretty quickly. Is it feasible that he could play and be productive this season and lead a team potentially into the playoffs?

I mean, if he comes into any environment that he comes in, at best, it's going to be a platoon scenario. And it's going to take him probably half a season to get into that game mode, into game shape. Like you said, he's been practicing, and he's been skating, I think, in Nashville for most of this, most of his time away from the ice. But to get to game readiness, it's going to take more than a regular training camp, which he is not able to partake in. So he can commit to a team by the 15th. He can't join that club for game day practices and things like that until November 15th, and then obviously eligible to play December first. But it's probably going to take him, again, platoon type scenario, probably going to take him at least half of the season. So for him, you're probably looking at February, March, well after the Olympic break before he gets into his stride.

The capital is at placed, assistant Coach Mitchell Love on administrative leave as the NHL investigates improper behavior from love. He was supposed to be a potential head coach somewhere. He was doing interviews. What information do you have about that?

Yeah, you're right. He was interviewing for a number of different vacancies for head coaching roles. The issue that's related to him, and I don't know how much I can really say, to be honest, because there is an ongoing NHL investigation, and I don't know the full facts of everything, but I do know that there's an individual from a previous relationship that he was engaged in years ago that started to contact some of the teams that he was interviewing with, and that caused, obviously, a bit of a stir. The league started to investigate. This goes back to the spring. The league started to investigate things, and that's been ongoing up until that point. I think letters were sent to Pittsburgh and Seattle to places that he was applying for. And the Capitals were well aware of that situation as well. So I think as the investigation has continued, the Capitals I felt it was given the circumstances in the best interest of everyone to put him on leave until the investigation concludes in the league and everybody involved in that comes to some type of conclusion.

Pags, I want to ask you about the two most interesting story lines, I think, in the NHL right now, the Kareil Kaprizov situation and the Connor McDavid situation. So one thing I'm really curious about with Kaprizov, specifically, is let's say McDavid does eventually sign, which It doesn't seem like he's going to sign anytime soon, in my opinion, maybe even at all this year. And let's say he takes a team friendly deal around that 16 million mark that Kaprizov just turned down, reportedly. How is that going to affect Kaprizov? And is he possibly risking himself out of a lot of money here by passing on this 8 by 16?

I don't think so. I'm of the belief that Connor is going to resign in Edmonton, and it'll be a shorter term deal. I don't expect a full eight-year term. I don't expect six or seven. If you go six or seven, you might as well just go the full eight. So I'm not expecting that. I'm expecting two, three, four years as a bit of a feeling out to see how this team is going to do and how they're going to reshape part of this roster in the coming years. So I anticipate that being around that 17 million dollar mark over a shorter term deal, more term you get, more dollars are attributed, certainly. So I don't think Caprizov screwed himself out of this big ticket. He's still going to cash in heavily. He spoke the other day and was just saying, Look, this is my second home. I like it here. Everybody knows I like it here. There's plenty of time to figure this out. Now, which leads me to believe one of two things. One, maybe he's considering short term. Is he wants to see how this team does moving forward before committing to a full eight, which will eventually be a max of seven years, or maybe they are fighting for more dollars.

With the way that the salary cap is going up, it's projected to go up to... It's at 95 and a half million now. Next season's cap is projected to go to 104, and the following year is projected to go to 113. 5. I keep saying projected because there's a good chance that based on how revenues go over this season, that that may increase. If that continues to increase and the numbers continue to go skyward, and with the prospect of the league expanding, which doesn't contribute to HRR, the expansion fees, but everything else does, the cap may jump significantly more within a five-year period, within at least this next CBA. So he may say, well, okay, I'm willing to commit long term, but if I'm taking 16 million bucks now, that's going to be equivalent to like 19 million bucks in six or seven years. So let's find a happy medium. There's a possibility that that's part of the equation as well. And that's what his agent, Talithia Fanos, may be fighting for to say, look, yeah, 16 looks big now, but in a few years, not so much, given the caliber of player. And if they believe him and the team believe he's going to be around 100 point guy consistently, maybe 17 that they're pushing for.

So let's say they can't get a deal done in Minnesota. I'm looking at Carolina, and they seem to want to be aggressive with the roster. Could we see... No? No, they're not going to... Are they going to try to trade?

No, I was agreeing with you.

My apologies there. Do you see Carolina possibly trading for Caprizov?

I think so some teams have reached out to say, Hey, if you get to a point where you want to trade them, give us a call. And I think Carolina is one of those teams. So I think there's an appetite to do it. It comes with an extension. I think they've learned that from the ranked in scenario, where if you're trading for that caliber player, it's got to come with an extension. So we'll see, I mean, obviously, where this unfolds first. They got to figure out if they can get a deal done. If it's concluded that they can't, then I think Billy Garen, their GM, and everybody in Minnesota has to go on the offensive in terms of trying to move this piece out. But I think Carolina would definitely have significant interest Now, you trade Kareel Caprice off, you're going to want a premium back. The premium is probably a home run, even though they'll want a grand slam. And I don't see a team willing to give up a grand slam because they can just say, Well, the hell with it. We'll just wait a year and try to sign him as a free agent.

Now, there's risk that he gets traded somewhere else and commits to another team. The point is, Minnesota, if they do decide to trade him, we'll get a good return, but it won't be an astronomical return because of where he is contractually. So not the greatest, the most optimal of situations for the wild if it comes to that, but it's not going to be detrimental to the organization if they do decide that they have no other choice but to go this route. But I think Carolina would absolutely have interest. I think the New York Rangers would definitely have interest. I think You're looking at 20 teams that would probably have legitimate interest in at least exploring the possibility of getting their hands on Kareel Kaprizov.

Ten words or less, Pags. You said you expect the Oilers to resign McDavid. When does it happen?

I don't know. Honestly, it's up to him, man. It's when he's comfortable, he's ready to go, and the oilers are just saying, You tell us when, and we'll figure it out.

Dave, I want to ask you about the Rangers. Kind of surprised by how down of a year they had last year. Not a very busy offseason. They lost Keandre Miller, they lost Chris Kreider. However, they have a big decision coming up with Artemi Panarin, who's going to be UFA after the season. What's going on with the Rangers? Are they turning it around? Are they going to maybe blow it up and let Panarin go? What do you foresee for the Rangers happening?

I don't think there's any blow-up scenario there because I don't think Jimmy Dolan would let that happen. They tried going through their little quasi-rebuild, and then they got the lottery, and then they won that and got Lefranier, and they related things. I just don't see that type of scenario. Now, I do think they'll wait a bit to see how the season goes before they determine whether or not they want to lock in Panarin long term. I know they'd love to keep them, but some people believe they may wait to determine how the season goes before they make that determination. For example, if they do get in on Caprizov, if the Wild decide to trade them, well, they have the same agent, him and Panarin. So I'm sure that's going to be a bit of a factor there. And it's probably going to cost you a package that includes Lafranier. So they're going to have to decide what route they want to take. I think they want to, in terms of making big impact, and I'm saying this, and they may make a huge trade tomorrow, But the incentive I've gotten for now has been they want to wait to see how the season goes, at least in the first half, to get a good indication of where they're at.

Is Panarin going to go back to a 90, 100 point form? Is the Banajad going to rebound and have a good season? Is JT Miller, now their captain, going to be that 80 to 100 point player? Big gap, but a point of game, at least, caliber player now that he's restarting a full season with the Rangers. How's Will Cooley going to adjust? Is he going to take some next steps into his game and enter a more offensive, albeit, physical role with that club. How's the blue line going to look? And it's just Sterken going to rebound after a subpar season, performance-wise, for him last year. There are a lot of factors here for the Rangers that are going to dictate ultimately what they end up doing as the season progresses. But again, preface this by saying if a player like Kaprizov is available to them, I think they take the opportunity to pounce as soon as they can.

That would be awesome. Kaprizov, MSG. That'd be fun.

There are some other holdouts coming into the preseason. What team should be most concerned about their player not showing up?

It sounds like Mason-McTavish. I think Luke Hughes and the Devils are figuring out an eight-year deal. Luke Evangelista in Nashville is going to be a two-year deal once they figure out the numbers. They've been so off on the contract. And the demand, from my understanding, hasn't even been that significant. But it'll start with a three on a two-year I know Nashville offer three times three. That wasn't going to get it done, but I think they're trying to focus on a two-year. But it sounds like Mason Marchman, unless there's a significant change of mindset there from the Ducks, it sounds like that's the one that could linger more than I think. He went back home. He's in Ottawa. He's training with the Ontario Hockey League, Ottawa 67s right now. Evangeliste, I think, is still in Nashville for the time being, but depending how long that goes, we'll see where that ends up. But I think right now, the trickiest one seems to be McTavish because it's a combo. It's not just a contract of money, and they're far apart on both term and dollars, but it's also just usage. He wants to know, is he going to take his game to the next level or be given that opportunity to claim a second-line role on that club as a two-see and cement himself in that position?

Is he going to get more power play time? What's it looking five on five? What's his usage? He wants to develop and take the next steps in his career Whereas with some of the additions the Ducks made, there may be some barriers, at least optically, for him to do that in the next season or two. And that's part of the concern as well from his camp.

All right. So the Maple Lees have lost Mitch Marner, okay. And had they made any suitable replacements for him? Or what is the season going to look like?

Yeah. I mean, you can't replace a 102-point player. That's for sure. And I'm just outside the practice, Frank, right now. And the last couple of days have been a combo of, Look, he's gone. It's a business. He made a decision, and we got to move on, which is the right mentality to have. I think the structure of the Leifs has shifted a little bit. I think a lot of their success is going to be their big boys. If Austin Matthews has a 50 goal season, 100 point season, Tavares is in and around 30 goals. Willy Nylander is 90 to 100 point player. Matthew Nye takes next steps as a 70 point guy, cements himself as a first-line player. Then that offsets what Mitch brought to the table. Plus, you got a lot more physical. They're rolling out a third line right now that's centered by nick Wa, has Dakota Joshua on it. They're trying to find another winger on that right side. That could be a grindy energy type line that could fit well for this club. That's what they're trying out right now. They're deep in their bottom six. They're more physical. They're bigger.

The decore is the same as it was last year. Gold tending is the same. They were happy with that as they should have been. But it's all going to come down to what happens up front. And it's a combo of the big boys providing the offensive flare and the third line and the fourth line doing their jobs in a two-way shutdown capacity while also providing some energy to spark this group. It's a different structure right now. I don't mind it. We'll see how Matias Michelli does on the first or second line, how Max Domi does on one of those two lines. But I think Toronto positioned itself decently, assuming the big boys do what they're supposed to do.

They need to stop low-balling their goal tender. Okay, the last question- The goal tender's Union. Last question for me, Roy, if you'll- He's getting there. Dave, when we get to April of this season, what color jersey will Sydney Crosby be wearing? Because it won't be black and gold and white. Crosby. Stop that.

Stop it.

Where's Crosby playing when playoff time rolls around, Dave?

Where's he playing? Whatever golf course is close to Pittsburgh, maybe he goes home to Halifax, he's not getting traded. I'd be surprised. Okay. Very, very, very surprised because there's a few factors here. One, it hasn't been official yet, but the strong belief is that this is Gino Malkin's last season, and I can't imagine that he's going to play his last season and Sid not be a part of that for the whole ride. The other factor is there are going to be a lot more changes coming out of Pittsburgh. More guys are going to get moved out. They're going through a full rebuild, even with Sid, and Littang's got more term on his contract. Sid has one more year after this one. If they finish last and the balls drop where they do and they end up winning the draft lottery and get another potential generational player in Gavin McKenna. Oh, God. I mean, to have Sid there for one season to usher Gavin along is very reminiscent of when Mario did the exact same thing with Sid 20 odd years ago. Bullshit.

Bullshit. They're going to do this again? They were the worst team in the league, though, when they got that lottery ball, first of all.

The NHL will make it happen.

Sidney Crosby is going to get the benefit of it.

It's just hard to imagine Crosby and Malkin, especially if it's supposed to be Gino's last season, going through a we're trying to get the best lottery ball situation. If that's what they're doing, fine. But it's just like, really?

I think they know. Look, these guys, they've got three rings. They've got a gazillion dollars. They're gods in the city. Just ride it out. I think they're comfortable. Sid said this the other day, and I even tweeted. He was given out like the penguins do every year. He's given out a season tickets to season ticket holders. And he goes, Look, I don't know how many more times I can say it. I want to be here. This is where I want to be. This is where I want to finish my career. This is where I want to play. It's not going to stop people from speculating, but he's genuine in when he says that. Now, they don't win the lottery. Gino's out. Maybe things change for next season. Maybe. But I think this year, I would be very surprised if anything happens with Sidney Crosby.

All right, there you go. So we don't have to ask about Sidney Crosby ever again on this show. Thank you. David Pignola, thank you for joining us. David Pignola, the fourth period. Please check him out. He has all the scoops in the National Hockey League. Thanks, David.

Thanks, guys. See.