Trading Futures, Keeping Faith: Rangers' Offseason Strategy

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Oh, it's early morn.
Tax is waiting.
It's blown its horn Already.
I'm so lonesome I could die.
So kiss me and smile for me.
Tell me that you'll wait for me, hold me like you'll never let
me go, cause I'm leaving on ajet plane.

(00:45):
Don't know when I'll be backagain.
Oh babe, I hate to go so manytimes.
I've Good evening, everybody.
Two Guys, one Cup.
We hope that Keiondre Millerhas been listening to that song
on a repeat for the last twoweeks and that there's a

(01:07):
resolution coming any minute nowor any day now, or hopefully
while we're on this show.
Two guys, one cup.
June 26th 2025, the draft Eveedition, where we have no first
round picks.
So no Steve Corneano, so RussCohen or any draft guests,
because it just didn't make anysense.
I've spoken to Steve the otherday.

(01:29):
He said he would love to comeon and do like a post-draft show
with us and kind of go overwhatever picks that we do make
and go over those guys, and I'msure we'll do three hours just
talking about the Rangers withhim.
But Brock, how's it going?
Buck, what's going on?
Draft Eve?
Always exciting.
There's always some kind ofanticipation.

(01:51):
I don't really know what toexpect.
The Ranger land is eerily quiet.
I don't know if it's quietbefore the storm, but if you
base it off the last twooff-seasons, I wouldn't expect
much, unfortunately.
We will, uh, we will soon uhfind out, as the first round

(02:11):
will commence tomorrow night,starting at 7.
Pm and sometime around midnighton, uh, saturday morning
forever.
But, um, no, I mean it's, uh,it's exciting.
I mean these, these, let thesenext few days leading into july
1st, into july, which prettymuch will end on july 3rd, uh,

(02:33):
we will have some kind ofunderstanding of what this team
is going to look like.
And, yep, it's exciting, it'sexciting, it's.
This is the most exciting, themost excited I could be about
this team.
And then we're gonna probably dowhat one show next week, maybe
one the week after, and thenwe're probably going to close up
shop until until September.
Yeah, yeah, we'll, we'll figurestuff out.
You know, we'll see what thesummer looks like.

(02:54):
We're bored or we havesomething going on and we have
nothing to do.
One night We'll, we'll jump onand kind of see what goes.
But, yep, it's been a roughseason.
Sean, this kind of puts a bowon it.
Yeah, uh, again, those of youwho are following us.
Uh, first time long times.
If you haven't already, pleasesubscribe to the show.
Um, hit the smash the subscribebutton on uh.

(03:17):
On youtube, uh, those who arejoining us from twitter, you
know.
Feel free to check out theYouTube channel.
Patreon link should be in ourYouTube now, so check that out
as well If you want tocontribute.
We do a bunch of differentcontent.
I've done a few things thisweek.
Rock has done a couple as well.
We're going to do more.
We're going to start doing more.

(03:41):
I think we need to do more ofthose.
Some of you guys have beenreally loyal and we we really do
appreciate it.
Um, and the money's going rightback into, yeah, back into the
show.
So, thanks a lot, guys.
So, yeah, so, uh, chris drurymade the decision to, yes, uh,
give up this year's first roundpick as part of the jt miller
trade instead of next year's.

(04:02):
So I'll jump right into myopinion on that.
And it completely goes againstLarry Brooks.
Larry, I know you listen to theshow.
I just totally disagree that.
This was a cowardly move insome sort of way.
What about giving up the 12thoverall pick?
Yeah, it was Brooks.

(04:24):
No, oh, he, oh, he's the one,oh, but he was saying to get rid
of it because I was he callingit cowardly.
You know he's he called itcowardly.
Well, I I don't know if it washim I think he's afraid that egg
on his face.
God forbid we suck next year.
I mean, I personally think thatthe whole reasoning behind this,
if you really sit back and youthink about the logic behind it,

(04:48):
it makes a ton of sense to justgive them this year's pick and
put this season to bed.
Let's just move forward.
It's apparently not the deepestand best draft.
Give them this pick and moveforward.
I mean, I don't really careanything else about next year or

(05:11):
this, that and the other thing,I just care about moving
forward.
And if you look at the bigpicture, it makes a ton of sense
.
A ton of sense for them to movethis pick.
A ton of sense.
A ton of sense for them to movethis pick.

(05:31):
A ton One.
It, like I said, it alleviatesthe thought process of this
season.
We kind of move forward.
But the big picture two, partone if they happen to somehow
resurrect from the ashes off ofthis season and bounce back and
have a great year, that 26becomes, that 26 pick becomes a

(05:51):
trade chip If they fall on theirface and now we're in the
lottery well, they probably madethe right choice.
So either way, it's a win-win.
However you cut it up, I agreeand from all the counts and we
hear this all the time the 26draft is apparently a better

(06:16):
draft than this year's draft,and I hate that, and I'll tell
you why I hate it.
The 2017 and 2018 drafts was theexact same scenario.
All we heard throughout the2017 draft season is that the
brady shea draft to 17 no, no,no.
We drafted uh heidel and leahsanderson.

(06:37):
I'm sorry, I'm, I apologize, noworries, that was a brave fire
on my back.
Um, that was the year.
That was the two-year stretchwhich I actually followed
prospects.
I watched a lot of Europeanhockey Again, those of you who
are new to the show I used tohave my own business, so I had a
lot of time on my hands duringthe day.
I used to watch a lot ofdaytime hockey back then, so I

(06:59):
watched a lot of these.
Prospects followed a lot ofthem.
Would make my own little list.
Not that I published them, butyou know, just on Twitter.
Stupid shit, yeah, and becauseI was so bad at it.
In hindsight, I refused to everdo that shit again.
But, yeah, all you had everyonesaying was that the 2017 draft
was not deep at all and that the2018 draft was going to be

(07:23):
loaded.
And if you go back and you looknow at those two drafts, 2017
had 10 times the amount oftalent that 2018 had.
Yeah, 10 times.
There are so many busts in 2018and so many guys who weren't
highly touted that turned out tobe great.
I mean, heiskanen and McCarrdidn't even go ahead of fucking

(07:46):
Nolan Patrick and those are twoprobable.
I mean, my car is already goingto be a whole of him.
I think it was probably goingto be a whole of that.
That is.
That is incredible to thinkthat it it really is.
It's.
It really is incredible tothink that the two better
players didn't even go top two.
And, like you said, with thesedrafts and we're going to talk
about drafts and the history isyou could just be the year guys

(08:10):
picked.
You know Kako was the consensussecond overall pick and you
know he just might turn out tobe an average NHL player.
Right, and you can't fault theRangers for drafting them.
It just is the way.
It's just the draft.
It is what's disturbing, Ithink, where a lot of fans are
just disgusted and you broughtit up and Vince kind of

(08:32):
piggybacked off this that therebuild was a failure because
they did not come away with onegenerational player, not one
cornerstone guy.
I brought that up on the showthree years ago.
You did, 100% did Three yearsago.
And the problem is is theRangers thought they had Kako

(08:53):
and Lafreniere and there's nocornerstone player on this team
that they have developed anddrafted.
I know Fox he was a free agent,could have had him without the
letter, exactly 100% drafted.
I know fox is, he was a freeagent, so could have had him
without the letter, exactly 100.
And I think that's the biggestproblem I have when they when
these people gotta hold on toprospects, gotta hold on, you

(09:14):
gotta hold on.
Name me the last prospect therangers traded that turned out
to be a absolute, absolutesuperstar.
I mean, even if you want to goback to wait in a Monty, you're
talking 31, 32 years ago andneither of those guys were Hall
of Famers.
They were both great players,don't get me wrong, but neither

(09:38):
of them were Hall of Fameplayers.
I mean you kind of it is what itis.
They just they do this tothemselves every time.
We had to hold on to these guysuntil they're useless.
I mean, look at the trade and Iknow we'll get into Paterka,
but they gave away Phoenix, hadUtah.

(09:59):
What the fuck they are now?
You know they.
They had a plethora ofprospects josh doan and whoever
else is on that and, uh, kesselring are b to b plus prospects.
That's not what I heard all daytoday.
Uh, well, you know, of coursethey get it from people.

(10:19):
No, no, of course they're gonnascratch from people that I.
I always kiss the ass of theCoyotes.
Haven't you known that?
Don't you know that they feelfucking sorry for this franchise
?
Always, not anymore.
They do Small market teams win,sean, you know that.
That's all this league caresabout.
They're one of the richestowners in the sport.
Now, I'm fully aware of that.

(10:39):
Yeah, so they feel sorry forthem because they've been kicked
around for freaking 20 years.
So there's a lot of people.
I was in the car.
He's a nice defenseman, but ishe an A-plus defenseman?
He's 25 years old, he's not 21,22.
He played his first seasonshort.
He's played in 82 games.
It's a pull-up.

(11:02):
He's not a stats guy.
He's only been around for threeseasons.
He had a decent year.
This year he was a plus player.
I looked up his numbers.
He played.
I believe he played 82 games orclose to it.
Yes, 82 games, 30 points andbefore that 100 penalty minutes.
Right, and before that hebarely played.
Takes defensemen a while, andI'm not disputing that.

(11:24):
Yeah, takes defenseman a while.
I'm, and I'm not disputing that.
Yeah.
But this is what pisses me offwith the rangers and their
prospects.
We don't make trades like this.
We don't trade a guy a year tooearly.
We trade a guy a year too late.
Keandre miller should have beentraded three years ago.
No, three years ago.
You were hoping he blossomedinto your number one defense.
What did I tell you three yearsago?
I would have traded him threeyears ago for chicken.

(11:45):
Did I not say that on this show?
And I would have traded him forchicken?
Yeah, and I disagree.
I would have.
Yeah, I would have traded himfor chicken at the time.
Chicken said how many seasonswhere he's actually been healthy
?
Sean, I'm aware of that.
I'm just playing a.
That's why I wouldn't have doneit.
You trade a guy and millMiller's had one good season.
He's been awful the last twoyears.

(12:05):
Oh, I mean, you want to?
Just right, if you want to talkhindsight, I'm just saying,
well, I can't, I can't say thatI wouldn't do it now If I said
it then I mean, I, I listen, I,I was hoping that and he just,
and I don't know, it's just allupstairs with him.
Are they waiting for Byram andfor Dobson to get traded?

(12:26):
Is this what these teams arewaiting for?
I think they're the first twodominoes to fall.
Oh man, the Islanders, whywould they do that?
Why would they not give Dobsonjust give him $11 million?
It doesn't make any sense.
I mean, what are you savingyour money for?
Oh, for who?
Honestly?
So I've had this conversation.
I don't want to bounce around.

(12:47):
I know we're bouncing all overthe place.
I've had this conversation witha Island defense that I'm
friends with, that I play hockeywith.
You know bar conversations,yeah, and you know they still
think they have like a team thatcan compete these two guys that
I'm referring to Right, like ateam that can compete these two
guys that I'm referring to right.
And I look at them.
I'm just like you don't have.
What are you?

(13:08):
I mean, when you were in theeastern conference finals two
years in a row, you had anidentity.
You know you were the barrytrots you had, you know, your
matt martin, clutterbuck,suzika's, like you had an
identity.
Before that you had to virus.
Now what are you?
Matthew barzell's, your bestplayer, bo Horvat these are nice
players.
These are good players.

(13:30):
You don't have anyone on yourteam that's a game-breaker at
all and you don't even have gooddefense anymore.
Unless they just think theDopp's in that one season was an
outlier and that he's nevergoing to live up to that.
But you have the number oneoverall pick right now and
you're drafting Schaefer, whoshould be a cornerstone player.
If you have the opportunity toget back into the top five again

(13:52):
and take another guy, thatshould be your cornerstone
center.
You now have two main piecesand you drafted Cole Iserman
last year, who everyone's ravingabout.
I don't mean to turn this intoan Islander podcast, but I'm
just like mindset-wise.
You should be building for thatteam to be the successful team,
not signing Noah Dobson toeight-year deals right now.

(14:15):
I'd be trying to trade NoahDobson to Chicago for the third
pick.
That's what I'd be trying to doand I think they've tried,
haven't?
They Haven't?
They put that out there, Idon't know.
But do the Islanders reallywant more futures?
I mean, are they really doingit?
They should, and so they'regoing to give up on Dobson.
What is he?
20?
He's in the Kratsov draft.
So what is he?
25?

(14:35):
25.
It's not give up it.
Third overall pick in thisyear's draft.
Is the third overall pick inthis year's draft a guaranteed
NHL player?
Yes, this draft is so muchbetter than people are giving it
credit for.
Probably, you're probably right.
See, here's the thing.

(14:57):
At least we think it's a 99draft.
People want to compare draftslike the 2015.
And you go through the 2015draft.
It's like hall of famer.
Hall of famer, hall of it'sjust like it's.
It's stupid.
It's like the uh 2003 nbadrafts with lebron and carmelo
and dylan wade.
It's stupid.
So there's no draft like that.
You go through this draft.
There's a lot of guys in thisdraft that are going to be first

(15:23):
line players and second lineplayers 15 deep.
I'm looking at the draft and I'mlooking at each player and,
again, I have not watched theseguys play.
So take everything I say withjust.
I've read steve corneanos.
I've read russ cohen.
I've read I I've listened toshane mulloy every week on the
radio talk about these kids Likeright, it's just for me

(15:46):
trusting people that I trust andwhat their views of these
players are.
This is nothing that I'veobserved and said.
That guy is going to be this,so it's.
It's really and it's acombination.
When you see this, differentpeople you trust saying the same
things about a certain guy.
It gives it some levity.
It gives it some levity.
So that's really what I'm kindof going off of.
There's guys in here thatthere's a lot of top six talent

(16:09):
in here.
There's no Austin Matthews,there's no Bedard.
So that's why these people arelabeling this draft as being, eh
, nothing great, because there'snot that the unquestioned
number one overall pick is atwo-way defenseman.
So there's nothing sexy aboutthat.

(16:31):
Again, this draft.
You go back and you look at the2017 draft and you look at how
many top six forwards MartyNatchez, velarde, robert Thomas,
nick Suzuki I mean, these arethe guys that went all after
Leos Anderson Middlestat,middlestat, sucks, fuck him.
I'm just saying Cody Glass,middlestat these are the guys

(16:54):
that are all still playing inthe NHL.
Sean and Leos Anderson hasn'tsit in the NHL in four years.
No, I get no.
No, leos Anderson was the worstpick of that.
Michael Rasmussen is coming aclose second right now.
Cody Glass has become a closesecond.
What's his name?
Yamamoto.
Another one, kali Yamamoto.
But he went late.
He went after Hedl.
Yeah, I'm talking about the top20 of the draft.

(17:14):
Yeah, of course we missedRobert Thomas by one pick and I
wouldn't be surprised if theystill picked Hedl.
They were in that whole Europeanthing at that point.
Right, right, they were on thatwhole European team.
But when you look at just howmany guys are just and none of
those players that I mentionedare superstars, no, but they're

(17:36):
all really fucking good players.
They're all players.
Well, that's the thing.
And this brings me back to thiswhole prospect thing.
Like the Rangers with theseprospects.
It just brings me back to thiswhole prospect thing.
Like the rangers with theseprospects.
It just they just boggles mymind.
I mean, you know vegas who, Iunderstand, stepped in it with
this, with with this expansionand uh, and you know the way
they handled everything and thegm's not knowing how to deal

(17:57):
with it.
But you know, they went out andthey got, they traded eric
branstrom and branstrom at thetime, at the time when he was
traded was a highly toutedprospect.
They traded Eric Brandstrom,and Brandstrom at the time, at
the time when he was traded wasa highly touted prospect.
They traded him, they tradedhim, they traded.
I know that's what made methink of it.
Oh, okay, they traded him early.

(18:18):
They didn't wait.
This franchise waits.
I mean, sean, it's not just now.
They've done it forever withprospects, forever.
Okay, but you got to take thisall with a grain of salt here.
They had a clear objective vegasto not worry about prospects.
They had a clear objective theytraded suzuki right away for

(18:40):
patchy already.
They traded branston right away.
Their objective was to taketheir picks and and win now,
because they needed to establisha market.
They needed to establish hockeyin vegas right away.
They didn't have five years towait.
I know these kids to besomething.
The rangers issued a lettersaying we're going to, we're
gonna suck for the next fewyears and rebuild.
So they their whole reason forthis was to get these draft

(19:06):
picks and build with kids.
They had just a totallydifferent mindset on what they
were doing with these draftpicks.
So you can't compare the twobecause they were going in a
different direction.
Here's the problem.
You drafted Kako, who was awinger.
You had Kreider, who was awinger Right, you had Kreider,

(19:26):
who was a winger, right.
Then you go out and you signPanarin, who was a winger.
Then you win the lottery andyou draft Lafreniere, who's a
winger.
Yeah, hindsight, again, again,it's all hindsight.
Yeah, I get it.
They should have traded backand I know it would have been

(19:48):
blasphemy at the time Tradedback, took out the byfield of
Stutzler, gotten more assets.
You didn't need Lafreniere.
You didn't need him at thatpoint.
You didn't.
Again, I'm saying this speakingout my ass now, but in
hindsight you didn't need him.
I could agree with you on thismore with Kako and this is not

(20:12):
even hindsight I'm talking aboutat the time.
So who would you have taken atthat point?
Zekras, I mean, who was thenext best netter?
I did love Zekras in that draft.
I wanted us to trade back in toget Zegers.
I got to go back and look, Imean I know Mo Seider was in the
top 10.
Zegers was what 10th, 9th?
Phillip Proberg was in thatdraft, I believe.
Yeah, dylan Cousins, seider,alex Turcotte, who I liked also,

(20:35):
who's a little bit of a bust,we don't fully know.
Yet Matt Boldy was a guy thatSteve Corneanos loved in that
draft.
Loved him he did, and look atwhat he turned into Again.
You just say to yourself, youshake your head and you go they

(20:56):
just didn't have a plan.
They just didn't have a plan.
I don't think.
Well, you never expect to winthe lottery and Lafreniere falls
to you.
What are you supposed to do?
And I'm not knocking them forwhat they did.
All 31 teams would have takenit 100% Both times.
The problem is Lafreniere is nota cornerstone player, because

(21:16):
I'll tell you right now, ifBrady Kachuk or someone of that
magnitude would come available,you'd shoot Lafreniere into the
sun to get him.
So to me, a cornerstone guy isno matter who's available,
unless they're Gretzky in hisprime, or Lemieux, you know, or
someone like that, or McDavid.
You're keeping them Right.

(21:37):
If a player like someone elsebecomes available, like Kachuk
or you know just name the guyeven Jason Robertson, maybe to a
certain degree, you'd probablytake a lot from the air and you
shoot him into the sun.
He's not a guy like he's not.
I'm definitely not trading him,no way.
I don't care if he's 23 yearsold.
I'm not trading him for theright guy.

(21:57):
You're trading him.
So that's my problem, that's myproblem with this team.
Yeah, I'm so.
You know what it is with him,man, it's such a he's coming.
The only other player that Icould think of that was drafted
as high as lafreniere in themodern era.
I mean, you know I'm nottalking.
You know, larry bird going tothe celtics so they win a

(22:20):
championship yeah, we're talkingabout that shit.
But, like um, tyler sagan, youknow, being taken second overall
by boston on and coming into acup winning team.
Yeah, yeah, he was never goingto be asked to play in that top
six and so, as you speak, andwhat a terrible trade that was.
Oh, my god, you know what Imean.

(22:41):
But that was.
You want to talk about tradingsomebody too early to fit a need
for a veteran player?
Right, and that backfired.
They were playing with housemoney at that point.
That's the only guy that Icould think of.
But they've been to two othercup finals after that too,
boston, but not because of him,no, I'm just saying they did
make it to two other cup finals.
Yeah, it wasn't like theytraded him and the whole world

(23:03):
stopped.
No, but Louie Erickson, oh, hewas awful, and then didn't he
get another contract fromsomebody else?
He had one good year and thenVancouver gave him a contract,
right?
Yep, oh my God, that was likeAlexander Semen.
He used to do the same thing.
He'd have a great year and thenhe'd get a big contract.

(23:29):
Who else was taken first orsecond overall to a team that
was trying to win?
I already had establishedveterans in those spot.
Like they were blocked.
It's it's.
It's such a rare.
It's rare because the draftreally curious.
I'm really curious now that itvery much, it very much seems
like drury has turned the pageon that, on that core, like and
we'll truly, truly know withPanarin.
Is Panarin brought back?
Is he re-signed, or has Panarinmoved at the deadline?

(23:50):
Has Panarin moved thisoffseason?
That'll really tell, becauseKreider's now gone, mika's going
to be here, but it's only goingto happen if they're out of
contention.
They're not trading himotherwise.
That's my opinion.
So they're going to MitchMarner it, they're going to walk
him out.
So if they walk him out, theywalk him out.
But it looks like Drury isgoing to start handing the keys

(24:11):
over to these guys.
I think Lafreniere is going tofinally get the chance to be an
alpha on this team and we'llsink or swim.
He's being paid.
And if he's the guy that we saw, you know, two years ago and in
the eastern conference finalsthat year and the beginning of

(24:34):
last year, I'm fine with it.
Let me ask you a question.
A really, really good player,if he doesn't sign that
extension, yep, what does hemake in this offseason?
You still think he's makingseven, five.
No, I think he's making five.
I still think he's making five.
You're probably right.
He stepped in shit and if hewas a restricted free agent, you

(24:57):
know what, honestly, you'dprobably have a team out there
that would offer sheet him.
Ah, I don't know, we'll get tosee.
It would be, sean.
We're going to see about thisoffer Sheetum, nonsense.
We're going to see.
We're going to see.
We're going to see if teams doit.
It's possible because the freeagent class is so bad and it
looks like everybody's resigningin Florida.

(25:17):
You know Well, not Ekblad.
Ekblad already told the waitstaff at a Strong T frequented
Thanks for taking care of mewhile I was here, gave him a
$500 tip on his way out.
Okay, I don't want anything,but you do no.
No, I mean, don't get me wrong,I would love Eckblad if we had
room for a right-handed shotdefenseman.
If he was a lefty, I'd take himto Hartfield.
You're giving him $7 million.
Yes, you're giving Eckblad whatI wanted.

(25:40):
Always hurt, sean, always hurt,and that's a contract that will
not age.
Well, you know it.
But he was awesome.
He was awesome.
I know that he had 40 gamesabreast during the suspension
they were talking about that tooon the radio but he was awesome
in the playoffs.
He was so good.
Okay, I didn't watch a minuteof the playoffs, so I have no
idea, sean.
Rangers are eliminated.

(26:01):
I don't care who wins.
I know I don't want to watchthe celebration.
It makes me sick.
It makes me sick to my stomach.
It's easier for me to watchwhen we don't make it.
No, it's not.
It's not easier because itmakes me angry to watch these
guys celebrate when we're nowwaiting.
You know, 31 years since ourlast chat 31 years.

(26:21):
Yeah, it's bad, but it's easierfor me because I don't have any
heartbreak.
No, I get it.
Yeah, no one eliminated myseason like that.
I'll be honest with you.
I could not see McDavid win.
So weird that that's a guy.
You know why this is for me andI'm going to be bluntly honest

(26:41):
with you.
I am a big Hank guy and itpisses me off that he did not
win.
No, it does, and I'll be honestwith you.
It bothers me because he hasgone down.
He's the greatest Rangersgoaltender of all time.
He's probably, like they said Idon't know if you saw the Post
article what the third or fourthgreatest Ranger of all time

(27:05):
after Rod and leach, and thenmaybe you could put messier and
him kind of like 3a, 3b.
He doesn't have a cup and thatbothers me.
It bothers me about mattingly.
It bothers me and I hatewatching like I hated ovechkin
winning.
I wanted that guy to never wina championship.
I don't want other team starsto win because my guy didn't win

(27:29):
.
My guy didn't win.
So I don't want anyone's guy towin.
Fuck him Got it.
I know that sounds ridiculousand stupid and petty, so it's
better that Barkov wins.
I know, yeah, better thanBarkov won.
No, I'm serious For you, it'sbetter than Barkov, better than
Barkov one.
No, I'm serious For you, it'sbetter than Barkov.
Barkov doesn't bother me, why,I don't know.
He just doesn't.
Mcdavid's a great player.
Alexander Barkov, he's a greatplayer.

(27:52):
If Alexander Barkov wasCanadian, the way people view
him would be totally, totallydifferent.
I don't know he is, he's great.
But I mean, yari Curry was agreat player and he's not
heralded the way.
Yari Curry was a complementarywing next to Wayne Gretzky.

(28:13):
Yari Curry had 600 goals Nextto Wayne Gretzky, oh.
So Yari Curry ain't doing that,it's fine.
Yari Curry ain't doing that inHartford.
So I'm going to tell you whoLafreniere is, who His career.
He's Kevin Stevens.
Sure, I'll take Kevin Stevens.
That is who.
Lafreniere is A good player whoneeds a great player to succeed

(28:34):
.
That is the only way Lafreniereis going to put up points.
For me, sasha Barkov is thethird best center in the NHL.
He probably is.
He's Kopitar.
Does Kopitar get the respectthat he deserves?
He's better than Kopitar was,in my opinion.
Probably Kopitar was a littlebit better offensively.
Kopitar's one of the besttwo-way centers I've ever seen.

(28:58):
Oh, he's a Hall of Famer,undoubted Hall of Famer.
Is he better than Bergeron?
Yes, because he has betteroffense than Bergeron, and I
think the same Bergeron, betweenthe dots, is one of the best
centers.
That's what I'm saying.
I think Barkov is every bit asequal defensively.
Again, that's what I'm saying.
Unless you, until they find thatelite center.
I think you're just spinningyour wheels.

(29:20):
So what you need then to win isteam buy-in and and an identity
, and the identity has to bewe've only seen one team do that
, la, excuse me, st louis.
Okay, but here's without thecenters.
Can I?
Can I give you the path?
Yeah, I'm gonna give you thepath.
Okay, we still have more talentand if we do establish this

(29:45):
identity, we have more talentthan any team that's in the
metro.
Do, right or wrong, that thirdline showing is pretty bad.
It's Carolina's third line.
They don't have one Better thanours.
It's not Parsonin, brett,berard and Offman or Kaliev,
which I like, kaliev, by the way.

(30:06):
I hope they give him a chance.
But the top six on Washingtondoes not come close to competing
with our top six on paper.
Again, they have to establishthis who's in our top six?
On paper?
Again, they have to establishthis who's in our top six right
now Lafayette, trochek, panarin,right, cooley's, abanajad,
miller.
Oh, so Miller, cooley andContract.
Okay, sean Dude, I'm sorry, I'mjust so angry with this guy, I

(30:31):
can't get past it yet.
All right, so we're going toget into this later, but me and
you are placing away John, theBen and Jed season.
Ok, am I 0-2?
Did we place one last year, theTrochek one?
I don't remember what it was.
I'm going to tell you how mad Iam.
Trochek one was open by October.

(30:54):
It's November.
I was going.
We're going to talk about Mikalater, promise.
But the path To winning a cupStarts with winning our division
and right now the Metro Is incomplete like Changing Not
changing of the guard, butthere's a lull right now.
The Devils are not that good,carolina is just.

(31:14):
They're not that good and inthe playoffs they're even worse.
We own them in the playoffs.
Washington is not that good.
They were a paper tiger lastyear.
I called it during the season.
I said, once this Ovechkin thingis over, these guys are nothing
in the playoffs.
You can't tell me that DylanStrom is your number one center,
is going to fucking win aplayoff, is going to win in the
playoffs.
It's not going to happen.

(31:35):
No, nobody in the Metro, noneof this.
No one down the middle of theMetro.
I mean, the devils might be,they're not.
What do they got?
He's your Hughes.
And uh, they just traded EricHolla, right, no, I'm so I,

(31:56):
until they get Quinn Hughes here, they're not going to be that
good.
Columbus will be good one day.
Columbus will be very good oneday.
They're not there yet.
I'm not worried.
Pittsburgh obviously has alreadywaved the white flag on the
season.
They have no interest in evenplaying hockey.
The Flyers are the Flyers.
They'll always be somewheretoward the middle slash bottom.
They'll be in contention for awhile Looking for a goalie again
.
I heard Always Always CarterHart's available, isn't he?

(32:19):
I said that the other day.
I know I started laughing sohard when I saw that, like hey,
why not?
I want to say Robichick,monique, no, no, no.
Rest in peace, rest in peace.
I forgot he passed away for aminute.
So the path to the EasternConference Finals itself is
right there.

(32:39):
It's literally right there forthem, right.
So is Florida going to do itagain?
Are they going to go that farfor a fourth consecutive season?
I'm not saying that they can't,but statistically I think the
Atlantic is much better than itis and it's going to beat up on

(33:04):
each other.
Well, they didn't beat up oneach other this year.
I mean, you know, floridamanhandled friggin' Because
Carolina sucks, they suck, thegoaltending sucks and they're
yeah, they don't have they.
The way that I describe theislanders, that's carolina.
They don't have it is.

(33:25):
I listen, I am I'm fully awareof that, but you gotta say you
shake your head and say you knowthey lose nature's, they give
up ranted, and all they get backis Logan's stank COVID, who's a
young player, who's, I think,going to be a decent player,
yeah, and they still make it tothe third round, Because the
rest of the Metro was wasterrible this year.

(33:46):
Who do they beat?
The devils?
And uh, and Washington andWashington.
So they beat nobody.
The devils that they didn'teven try.
They didn't have Jack Hughes,they had nothing.
I saw Washington this year, sean, and I'll tell you they looked
completely different.
I don't know if they just got.
They were on the OVHQ run, Idon't know.

(34:10):
It's more than that.
It had a lot to do with it.
All right, he was hurt, though,and he was still winning.
But again, you can't winwithout centers, and they're,
you know, dylan Stroman, who wasthe other center that they had
this year.
I was like you can't win withthose two guys as your top two
centers.
I can't even think who theirother center was.
Why am I blanking on it?
It was Stroman.

(34:30):
Oh, pierre-luc Dubois, that'sit.
I'm like that's a bunch ofscaring.
They kind of stepped in it thisyear with the trades they made.
They got rid of Kemper and theybrought in Logan Thompson and
they brought in Dubois,obviously in that trade, and
they brought in Logan Thompsonwho was all-world for the

(34:50):
majority of the season.
They brought in Chikrin, whichwas a gift of a trade.
I mean a gift of a trade.
No, no, give them credit.
I mean they made the rightmoves, give them credit.
But again in a playoff series,rgm keeps rolling back the same
freaking guys.
I mean, but again in a playoffseries, dylan Strom and PLD were
your top two centers and thatjust you saw the outcome and

(35:19):
that just you.
You saw, you saw the outcome.
That was it.
Yeah, so just get to the easternconference finals and then
anything happens, whether it'sflorida, whether it's toronto.
I mean toronto is going to havea total makeover.
You know marner and uh, what'shis face?
Tavaris are probably going tobe gone.
I heard they.
They offered Tavares four yearsat $5 million per Right, which
he's not going to take.
I mean it depends.

(35:40):
What do you want to do?
Do you want to win or do youwant to make the most money.
I mean, have you made enough?
Take a one-year deal, but it'salso been well.
What has he won there, though?
So maybe it's.
I want to win.
I don't want to stand for all.
I don't think he wants to leave.
Maybe he'll sign back with theIslanders.
I said that they already tookhis captaincy away and gave it

(36:02):
to Matthews.
Listen, he's got seven years.
Crazy that he was there forseven years.
That's incredible.
Think about it.
Panarin's going to be hereseven years.
That's crazy, and it's so funny, though, these guys normally
don't last, especially for theRangers.
There are just guys that justnever seem to last their

(36:24):
contract, and the guy thatshocked me, that lasted his
entire contract was BrendanSmith.
I joked about that.
He thought he was going to getbought out right away.
He signed that contract and hewas going to get bought out.
He, he, he.
He signed that contract and hefelt he was great for them
against Ottawa and Montreal,yeah, and he fell off a cliff,
and I'm like this guy is nevergoing to last, and he lasted

(36:46):
that whole fucking contract.
Meanwhile, everyone else aroundhim gone, gone, gone, gone.
I'm like, oh my God, I couldnthem.
Gone, gone, gone, gone.
I'm like, oh my god, I couldn'tbelieve it.
Someone else signed that summeranother defense.
I want to say it was anotherdefenseman, I can't think of who
it was.
Brandon smith signed andsomeone else maybe, maybe
shattenkirk, yeah, andshattenkirk was gone.
I was like these guys don'tlast.

(37:08):
Yeah, they don't last, andthat's why you got to build
through trades for you.
I kind of feel for shot and kirka little bit, because, man, he
left seven times seven on thetable from the devils.
Yep, god bless him.
I mean he has to wake up atnight in a cold sweat thinking

(37:28):
the amount of money.
But, sean, I mean, come on, weall know hockey players' careers
are very short.
Yes, you know, to leave thattype of money on the table, I
mean that is incredible.
What did he take?
Five, four or five, four years,four years, I know Six and a
half, six and a half, all right,the money wasn't that big.
He left three years on thetable.

(37:50):
The money was in a huge threeyears and five an extra two
million bucks, you know, I meanit's, you know, 21 million plus.
He left 20, left 20, he left 22million dollars, 23 million
dollars on the table.
That's not, that's not a littlebit of money.

(38:12):
Yeah, god bless him.
God will keep you up at night.
I bless him.
Unbelievable and kevin weeks.
I remember that was the firstguy.
I remember him truly breakinglike.
That was the first guy he saidshattenkirk signing and he was
like it was like an hour laterhe, two hours later, he signed
right.
But, um, let's see shattenkirk,from us got, yeah, six points,

(38:37):
six, six, five, six, six, five.
Okay, yeah, all right.
So we still left significantmoney on the table, bought out
poor guy.
Then got 175 the next year fromtampa.
He got what he got paid by,paid by Anaheim.
What did he get from Anaheim?
He got four, three, nine, threeyears, one year, three years.

(39:01):
Yeah, Wow, in the end he gottaken care of.
He did all right.
He still left money on thetable.
I get it, I get it.
Plus, he was being paid by theRangers.
It's all good, the buyout.
I'm not saying these guys areeating cat food, but it's uh to

(39:23):
do all right.
I'm just saying it's just.
It's just.
You think about that.
You're like wow, their careersare so short.
Yeah, I remember my dad.
There used to be a book.
I don't remember it was uh, itwas a media guy, but for the nh
it was a big, thick book.
They used to sell it at Cosby'sand in this book it had every
team and it broke down likeevery retired player in the back

(39:46):
, like what years, theirstatistics and everything else.
And my dad, one time he goesgive me that book for a minute,
he pulled out 10 guys at random,like 10 straight guys in the
book that retired and he pulledup, he added them all together,
their years they played, anddivided it by.
You know uh, I forgot.
I've got the math.

(40:06):
He did the average, the averagetime the guys played, and I
think the average career for annhL player is three seasons or
three to five seasons, somethinglike that.
That's the NFL's three.
I got to imagine the NHL's alittle longer Depends NFL's
three.
So maybe it was because guysare coming in younger.

(40:26):
So this is maybe when they wereolder.
Okay, remember, guys didn'tbreak in at 18, 19, 20 years old
.
No, no, this is 21, 22, 20years old.
No, no, this is 21, 22, 23years old.
You know, I remember JoeThornton was the first guy me
personally that I remember thatwas 18 years old playing in the
NHL, and I may be wrong.

(40:48):
Was Pronger 18?
Who Pronger?
Did he come in his first year?
Was he that young?
I don't remember.
Joe thornton was the first guyI remember coming in at his age,
as an 18 year old.
Well, the game was just so muchmore physical back.
So maybe, maybe, maybe I'mwrong.
Maybe it was six years was theaverage year.
Now that I'm thinking about it,I forgot.
It was a long time ago.

(41:09):
It was a very long time.
They haven't made the book,probably in 20 years.
So Chris Pryor came in at 19.
Okay, he came in the year afterhe was drafted.
Yeah, okay, so he was fairlyyoung too.
I remember Thornton's the firstguy I really remember coming in
at 18.
And you know so.

(41:29):
Or Dague Dague came into theleague at 18.
Oh, yeah, I forgot about him.
Yeah, I guess those expansionteams which he credits with
killing his career ProbablyJovanovsky.
Jovanovsky was 19.
Yeah, I guess those expansionteams.

(41:52):
Yeah, right, they just neededsomeone to sell tickets.
They needed to sell ticketsexactly.
I don't know if Olin Nolan camein.
Oh, no, he was right at thebike.
Quebec, never mind.
Yeah, yeah, but a lot of thesetype picks during the 90s.
They were coming in at 19,which is still pretty crazy.

(42:12):
Yeah, no, I never realized that, because I guess back then,
when 90s, they were coming in at19, which is still pretty crazy
.
Yeah, no, that's I, I never.
I never realized that, you know, because I guess back then,
when you know these guys are 19,I'm probably like 10, so they
seem like they were 35 to me.
Thornton was 18.
Was marlo or marlo stay in theat faloon?
Yeah, marlo was 18.
Also, it's pat faloon, 18.

(42:33):
I don't want to go back to the91 here, so that might.
I'm just saying all thoseexpansion teams brought their
first-round picks in, I believeright away, I think Roman
Hamerlich, he was 19,.
Pat Falloon, roman Hamerlich,yashin I don't know if Yashin
played right away, he was 19,but he was just September.
It must have been late.
So he was 19, but that's just,he was just September.

(42:53):
I don't know.
He must have been late birthdaybecause he was in the 91 draft
and he played in 91-92.
Alright, so then he was draftedin June and then he played and
he played.
Yeah, that was a big rookiecard back in the day.
Paffaloon, that was a big deal.
What was that set with thegreen?
All the rookies were in likethat green pinnacle.

(43:14):
Was it pinnacle?
Yeah, I had that.
I have a close one.
We all had those.
Yeah, and of course, the greatScott Lachance was in that draft
.
The great going to be betterthan Brian Leach one day.
Scott Lachance, too funny.
That's why I hate IslandDefense.
Scott Sissons in that draft.
Scott Sissons in that draft.

(43:35):
Scott Sissons so you saw thatthing I sent you about.
Have you ever?
Has anyone ever heard of MorrisTitanic, a draft pick from the
70s that played for?
Did he play for Quebec orHartford or St Louis?
That is a real name.
I thought it was a made-up name.
No, it's a real fucking guy.
He played 19 games in the NHLFor Buffalo, buffalo, sorry,

(44:00):
that's what it was.
Morris Titanic.
That is amazing.
I thought that was a made-up.
I'm like I have never heard ofthis guy.
I mean, you would think, sean,you and I, who have been around
hockey all our lives, just as aname, someone would have brought
this up.
You would have heard of thisguy.
I have never heard of this guy.
Morris Titanic.

(44:21):
Tell me if anyone in the chatroom has ever heard of Morris
Titanic.
Do I have to name the episodeMorris Titanic?
Well, you might have to.
I, I saw that it was like that.
It's sometimes on Instagram.
These things come up like 10worst draft picks of all time.
Of course the Rangers have tohave one guy on there.
It's a foregone conclusion.
But I'm like who the fuck is?

(44:42):
Morris Titanic?
I've never heard of this guy inmy life.
It's a bad movie character name.
The name sounds made up.
I say there's no way this nameis real.
But he played 19 games for theSabres.
It's a porn name, never scoringa point.
Incredible, it's a porn name.

(45:04):
Incredible name.
Incredible name Morris Titanic.
Scott Sissons was on there.
Ryan Sittler Was he DarrylSittler's kid?
I don't know.
Scott Sissons was on there.
Ryan sitler was he dad?
Was he daryl sitler's kid?
I don't know.
Maybe scott scissor was onthere.
I said, uh, who else was onthere?
Brian finley was in there.
I didn't know that 99 draft.

(45:27):
Brian finley was in the 99draft.
I went back and looked at that99 draft.
Sean, other than the Sedins inthe first three rounds you don't
have another half-decent player, like not half-decent, but not
another star player.
You had some nice piecesBarrett Jackman, marty Havlad

(45:48):
had a solid early career.
There were a few other guys inthere but I was like, oh my God,
it has to be one of the worstdrafts I've ever.
It's the worst draft I've everseen personally.
But yeah, it just goes to showyou that you never know, like
you said, I mean you could havea first round pick and obviously

(46:11):
you said the drafting back thenwas different, but you could
use the draw.
The Rangers unfortunately hadthe first round pick in a year
where the guy's just not goingto be a cornerstone generational
talent by no fault of their own.
It's just the way it is.

(46:31):
Or is he or is he JonathanChichu?
The book is yet to be written.
Or is he Jonathan Chichu?
The book is yet to be written.
Or is he Jonathan Chichu?
Let's see what happens.
Why isn't this?
Letting me open this now,trying to open Steve's draft

(46:52):
thing?
So tell me about Mika, what's myproblem with him?
You were, I told you on thelast show what my problem with
him is.
I don't want to hear about hiscontract.
I don't want to hear what he'sfelt he's earned and and that's
really what bothers me when didhe say that?
Just, oh, I'll.
I'll have to go back and findthe quote.

(47:12):
He said it when they weretalking about waving his
no-trade clause and he said Iknow what my contract says.
I don't know anything about itno one's asked me anything, but
I just know what my contractsays.
Instead of saying I know I wantto be here and I want to win a
championship, I got to hearabout your contract and I just

(47:37):
he just rubs me the wrong way.
I just the mopiness that I justdon't think you can win a
championship with him.
I don't, I just don't thinkhe's a big game player.
I think he's just here for theride.
At this point.
He's here.
We're playing out the stringfor the next five fucking years.

(48:02):
You know, I just you felt thatwatching him down the stretch,
yes, yes, I just wasn't.
I wasn't impressed, and youknow it's funny.
I meant to pull up his numbers,like the last 20 games.
I understand he had a greatjanuary, but I mean he can't get
, he can't, doesn't get theone-timer off at all anymore.
He doesn't score on that shotat all anymore.
I mean zero.
Now is that more towardsscouting?
How come Ovi and Stamkos canstill score from there?

(48:24):
That is true.
Well, stamkos didn't last year,but yes, in general, correct.
I mean I don't want to hearabout these.
But why is it?
When it comes to the Rangers,we have to make excuses for
these guys?
I'm not saying you, but just ingeneral.
It's just very frustrating whenyou see these guys.
I just don't like what I sawthis year, and it's a lot of

(48:46):
guys.
It's not just him, right, it'shim, it's Lafreniere.
I don't like the.
There were games upon games.
You didn't even hear his namecalled.
So would you want them to know?
The last 20 games?
Yeah, what was Mika's points?
The last 20 games, subtractingthe last two where the team
didn't?
The two teams they played inFlorida and Tampa didn't even

(49:08):
give a rat's ass, they just weregoing through the motions and
I'm sure he had four points inthose two games.
If you want to know what he hadfor the last 20 games, he had 18
points in the last 20 gamesSeven goals, 11 assists, three
power play goals.
So he scored on the power playjust fine.
He was only a minus two inthose 20 games.

(49:30):
So he was nowhere near as badas what he was before that 50%
on his face-offs.
18 hits in 20 games.
So it was nowhere near as badas what he was before that 50%
on his face offs 18 hits in 20games.
So he was a hit, just about ahit a game for those 20.
So, yeah, I don't know, I getit Sometimes, the numbers, just

(49:50):
I look at the numbers and youand I talked about this.
Well, sometimes you look at thenumbers and you say to yourself
how, in God's name, whenLafreniere, after we pulled up
his numbers and signed hiscontract and I broke it down per
month, he's a point of gateplayer.
How is he a point of gateplayer since he signed his
contract?
At that point I don't think itwas full, like I think it was.

(50:11):
Whatever his contract was upuntil the date we said it and it
wasn't the end of the season.
Obviously it was probably, say,I don't know, january.
They're like this guy has beeninvisible, oh, but he's put up
15 points in the last 20 games,like where, from january 1st to
the end of the season was 46games, he had 41 points.

(50:34):
So that's an even bigger sample.
After the team dug aninsurmountable hole where there
was no pressure on them to doanything.
That's not true.
Not in January.
There was no pressure, sean.
Of course there was.
That's not fair.
They went 4-15.
What pressure was there at thatpoint To turn it around?

(50:55):
And they did.
And then they brought in Miller.
You want to tell me the lastfive games of the season when
they lost to Philly and theyblew all those games?
I'll give you that.
How about the Pittsburgh gamewithout Crosby and Malkin?
How'd that game go?
That was terrible, terrible.
How about Buffalo after theWorld?
All terrible.

(51:16):
I'm making zero excuses forthem.
I'm just.
If you compare the first half ofZibanejad, where we also both,
with the eye test, noticed hecouldn't move on the ice and we
were concerned with what sevenyears of him not being able to
six years of him not being ableto move was going to look like,
compared to what he looked likeboth on the ice, the last half
and his production.

(51:37):
It's fine, I don't.
It bothers me.
Where he was also a plus, hewas also a zero.
You know what, sean?
I get it.
I get it that players negotiatethis in their contract.
I'm fully aware of that.
But when a team says we don'twant you and you choose, who
said that?
The team never asked him aboutit?

(52:00):
How do you know that A beatreporter did?
The team never asked.
You don't think the Rangerstried to trade him.
There has been zero report everthat they have asked him to
waive his no move clause or thata trade was being discussed and
they needed him to waive it.
That has never come out once.
I think it was vince or arthurstable, one of the beat writers,

(52:21):
asked him if he would waive hisno move clause if he was
approached by the rangers.
He said he had never beenapproached about it and he said
I have the clause in my contract.
I have no interest in leaving.
That's it.
There's never been anythingelse.
That's ever been mentioned thathe's turned something down.
To be fair and Frank Cervellibrought this up no one wants him

(52:45):
, and multiple guys.
I also don't agree with that.
Nobody wants him.
Would you want that contract,his contract's buyout proof and
five years left for a 32 yearold player on the decline?
Would you want that contract?
We'll see if he's on thedecline.
We're going to find out thisyear when we make our bet.
Mika will not score over 70points this year.

(53:07):
That's my bet.
That's exactly where I was.
I was going to put it at 75,but I'll take 70.
He will not score over 70points this year Worst year of
his career.
He had 62.
And how old was he at thatpoint?
Was that the year he broke hisankle?
Or whatever he did?
This is the worst year of hiscareer.
The year that just passed wasthe worst year of his career.

(53:27):
What was the year?
He got hurt with the Rangersand he broke his ankle?
He didn't put up 60 points thatyear, did he?
No, he only played in 50 games.
What was he on pace for in an82-game season?
It wasn't great.
That year he played better downthe end.
He was also just.
I think he was 23 years old.
That was his first, his secondyear with us, right?
Or first year?

(53:48):
First year, he had 37 points in56 games.
What does that come out to?
Points in 56 games?
What does that come out to?
37 times 82, divided by 56.
54 points?
He's 23 years old, playing inNew York for the first time.
Alright, okay, you know thehuman beings, right.

(54:09):
And what did he do in theplayoffs that year?
I don't remember he had 9points in 12 games in the
playoffs.
Is that when he scored theovertime against Montreal?
Yep, I don't know.
I just don't think we can winwith him.
I don't care how many points hescores.
He can score 100 points thisyear.
Sean, I don't think you can wina cup with him in your top six.
That's my opinion.

(54:29):
I don't think he's tough enough.
I don't think he's tough enough.
I don't know if he's big enoughto go up against top six
players, tight-checking guys onother teams.
And you want to know the coolpart, if he's playing on the
line with Miller and Cooley, hedon't have to be.

(54:52):
He could be tacticaldefensively and be really
fucking good at it.
Would you ever tell me whatpisses me off with this team
more than anything else?
Is there knee jerk reaction toeverything?
Don't get Eichel.
Okay, let's give this guy africking, unsurmountable 78
years, seven or eight yearcontract with a no movement

(55:13):
clausemovement clause at $8.5million.
Meanwhile they were trying toget rid of him.
Didn't they offer him forEichel?
No, no, we talked about on theshow, about how awesome it would
be to have him and Eichel as aone-two punch for that one

(55:33):
season, and then we wouldn't beable to keep Zibanejad after
that because of the cap, but forthat one season we would have
them both.
So no, that wasn't the case.
And once you didn't get Eichel,you couldn't just let him go
and you wouldn't have 91 pointsthe next year.
So what do you mean?
I'm just very bad.
I know you hate the guy.

(55:54):
You want him deported.
I don't know, I wouldn't gothat far.
Listen, I'm not Sean.
I love him, but he's a littleover the top With all that.
I just don't think you can winwith him.
I don't like what I saw.
I don't think he's mentallytough Enough to play here.
I'm surprised he wants to stayand I don't know, I don't know

(56:17):
what, and I just don't think hehas any trade value.
I wouldn't trade for him.
I wouldn't trade for him.
I wouldn't touch that guy witha 10-foot pole.
If the Rangers waived himtomorrow, he'd be claimed by who
.
Someone would take it.
Someone would take it.
First of all, no one would dothe Rangers the favor.
That's not a favor.
They'd be getting a good player.

(56:37):
For what?
One year, maybe two years?
What is your fascination withthe age with these guys?
They're not 35.
You can't see guys fall off acliff when they reach 31, 32, 33
years old.
No, I mean Canaris.
Next year is his age 32 season.
He's only 32?
.
He just turned 32 in April,they're even more trouble.

(57:01):
Why, if he played this poorlyat 30 years old, he didn't play
that bad in the second half ofthe season.
That's my whole point.
I truthfully think that he waslaboring with something in the
first half.
Oh my God, always a fuckingexcuse.
It really is An injury is anexcuse.
He played through it.
Did they say he was injured?

(57:21):
You're assuming he was injured.
My eyes tell me he didn'tescape.
You know what the problem was,sean?
He was fucking butt hurtbecause his boyfriend was
fucking injured and becauseKrydo's name was in the fucking
memo.
And why did he have an anxietyattack on the ice then?
Why did he have a panic attack?
For what reason?
What reason?
Because they were asking himwhile we were trying to get rid

(57:41):
of him.
Why other way would this guyhave him lose it on the ice?
A lot of pressure, I don't know.
Pressure of what?
They're 14 and 4 and 15.
Pressure of what?
That's?

(58:02):
A lot of pressure when you,when you can't figure out how to
play your game.
First of all, on the list ofimportant players on the rangers
, it's igor, it's panarin, it'sfox, it's crider, and then it's
him.
He's the fifth most importantguy on this team.
I've said for years he's thesecond most behind the bully.
No, I've said that for years.
I've said for years that he wasmore important than panarin.
He's not more important thanPanarin.
Panarin puts up 120 points.
How is Mika more important?
Because he's a center.
A center will always be moreimportant than a wing, I don't

(58:23):
care Will.
You also said that Panarinplays like a center because he's
a distributor.
He drives the line, yes, but hedoesn't play defense the way
that Panarin plays defense, thatway Zibanejad plays defense.
Was Zibanejad play defense thisyear?
He was terrible the first half.
He's the fifth most importantperson on this team.
So Mika Zibanejad, for the year, was a minus 22.

(58:45):
From January 2nd to the end ofthe year he was a zero.
So he was a minus 22 the first40 games of the season and he
was even the rest of it 22, thefirst 40 games of the season and
he was even the rest of it.
Until I see a difference.
Sean, this is not.
I don't like what I saw fromthese guys and Lafreniere's on
the same boat.

(59:05):
I would shoot him into the suntomorrow if I could.
I think he is a nicecomplimentary player that plays
with good players.
He cannot drive a line himself.
He cannot drive a line himself.
He's not a line driver, he's agood player.
He's Glenn Anderson.
He is, that's who he is.
Wait, glenn Anderson scored 500goals.

(59:25):
Let me ask you a question WasGlenn Anderson a great player?
I didn't see Glenn Anderson'sheyday.
I didn't see him with Edmonton.
I'm too young for that.
Okay, how about you've seenKevin Stevens play?
Right, kevin Stevens was like aJohn LeClair.
He stood in front of the netand he played with Lemieux when
he scored 40 points.
How about Rob Brown?

(59:46):
How many 40-goal seasons did hehave playing with Lemieux?
We don't have Lemieux, we havePanarin.
Panarin is our Lemieux, panarinis our Lemieux.
We have a great player thatmakes everyone.
That is the makeup of a greatplayer Crosby, mckinnon,

(01:00:11):
kucharov.
What is the common denominator?
They make every player aroundthem better.
Brian rust, you know, uh, connorsherry, when they play with
crosby, they were money gensel,I told you I give cancel.
I take back everything I saidabout him.
I take back everything I sayabout that guy.
Same, but I believe Lafreniereis a nice player who can play

(01:00:36):
with great players and put uppoints, but he's not a guy you
take.
We saw him away from Panarinthis year.
He was a ghost.
You didn't see him on the ice.
He was nowhere to be found andwe'll see.
If he doesn't play Panarin thisyear, we're going to see.
This is going to be the test.
But here's the problem, sean,here's the caveat.
He's done on year one of thiscontract.

(01:00:57):
He falls off a cliff again thisyear and you look at another
season with 40 points.
You won't be able to give thisguy away.
I'm telling you now.
Tell us how you really feel thisseason has soured me so much.
Even Fox, I would get rid ofhim tomorrow too, but at least

(01:01:18):
Fox was hurt.
At least Fox has an excuse.
He gets the excuse, but he hasa legitimate excuse.
He got hurt.
We know he was hurt.
So because of Benajad andKreider played through their
injuries and Fox, you know theywere fucking wrong too.
Why are you playing throughinjuries?
The season was over.
Why is Kreider still playing?
Why is the?

(01:01:39):
They're injured?
Why are you playing?
Wanted to get everything hecould as a Ranger man, he knew
he was done.
Play.
If you're injured, don'tfucking play.
See, I disagree.
I respect when someone playshurt.
It's a playoff series, play,play, I get it.
But a regular season game, whatdo you care?

(01:01:59):
In march against the seattlekraken, I don't need you to play
.
If you can't beat them.
Without the guy, there's nobusiness.
We gave away the draft pick.
Who cares?
None of this hurt us.
We gave away the pick.
It's not the point.
It's not the point.
Maybe that you don't.
Maybe they would have had thefirst overall pick.
And then what are you doing?
I'm None of this hurt us.
We gave away the pick.
That's not the point.

(01:02:19):
That's not the point.
Maybe they would have had thefirst overall pick.
And then what are you doing?
I'm just not throwing it outthere.
They lose those last two games.
How do you know they're notfucking trapped in first overall
?
What would we do with it?
We'd squander the player anyway.
So what's the difference?
They probably would.
Again, this season hascompletely, completely what.
Let me ask you a question whatfor some, for someone who plays

(01:02:43):
on a top power play unit?
Give me a guy around the league, a wing, that plays on a top
power play unit.
How many power play points youthink they get a year?
Who?
Oh God, that's a great question.
I'm not talking about theKucharovs 20?
20.
That's what I was thinking also.
Okay, but Lafreniere, when theytried Lafreniere on the power
play, it was fucking terrible.

(01:03:04):
The whole power play in generalwas terrible.
Well, maybe now David Quinn'sback, all the problems will be
solved.
Maybe you never know all theproblems will be solved.
Maybe you never know.
Apparently, mika was a bigcomponent to Quinn coming back.
He trumpeted for Quinn to comeback.
I forgot where I heard it, butI'm going to find out and I'm

(01:03:26):
going to let you know I've heardit.
I listen to so many podcastsand read so much stuff that I
don't know where I hear stuff.
Sometimes and I apologize ifI'm not giving somebody credit
and it's not intentional, but Ilisten to everything Because I'm
a glutton for punishment.
Lafreniere had 41 points, fiveon five, this year.

(01:03:48):
You know what Pierre Maguirehad the audacity to say
Lafreniere reminds me of JeromeMcGinley.
I was like you have some.
Lafreniere isn't a speck onJerome McGinley's rear end.
As far as talent goes, look atJerome McGinley's first three

(01:04:13):
seasons.
He was a beast His first threeseasons.
Look at his first three seasons.
I believe he put up 60 pointsin his first or second season.
50, 32, 51.
28 goals was his high.
What was I looking at?
28 goals was his high, which iswhat Lafreniere's high is.
Maybe I was looking at hisyears.

(01:04:35):
The fuck was I looking at?
What the hell was I looking at?
He was great.
So there you go.
Jerome McGinley's first year ofgreatness like pure, pure
greatness was 24 years old.
He had 52 goals.
That's leading up to that.
He was building towards that,yeah, and Lafreniere, up until

(01:04:58):
last year, was improving everyyear too.
And then last year the wheelsfell off.
No one's saying they didn't,they did.
And I don't know if it was thecontract, I don't know if it was
the influence in the lockerroom.
Again, I would love for thiskid to be able to just be his
own man now and not just, youknow, ride the train of the of

(01:05:23):
of these veterans.
Unless he's going to ride the,unless he's going to ride the JT
military, then he can, becauseat least that guy's got his
priorities in the right spot.
I don't know, I just I don'tknow what to expect.
Yeah, I don't, and I don'tthink Lafreniere is not the
player Jerome McGinley was Atleast not the player I saw.

(01:05:43):
And again, I didn't watch a lotof Calgary Flame games.
But but I think he's I don'tthink the comparison is fair
Very similar.
I think there's a lot ofsimilarity.
Again, jerome mcginn was a hallof famer, so, but a kid's taken
first overall, he should bealso.
So we will see.
I mean there's a lot.
I mean he dom the back-to-backchampion.

(01:06:03):
Florida panthers had no answerfor him in an eastern conference
final.
He was our best player.
Now goudreau was our bestplayer.
But I get what you're saying.
I get what you're saying.
No, I get what you're saying.
Um, but that what you're saying?
No, I get what you're saying.
But that was Panarin too.
I thought Panarin was very goodin that Florida series.
He was good.
You know again.
You know just because Panarin,you read it as that and it was a

(01:06:24):
good.
It was a very good and well putout statistical thing that you
did about Panarin's points andLafreniere's points in the
120-point season.
But Panarin does little thingsthat don't show up on the score
sheet.
He attracts players, he opensup space for everybody.
He opens up space, he doesthings.
It's just a shame that if hewas bigger he'd be.

(01:06:49):
I don't know how much better hecould be.
I mean he'd probably beKucherov.
In a lot of ways Kucherov's abigger, just a bigger guy, right
.
But you know he's not small.
To open air, people make it seemlike he's he's wiry, but he's
not.
He's six foot but he's strongas shit.
The games get tight in a lot oftimes, like you see, he

(01:07:12):
struggles against, like LA Rightand those bigger teams that he
just can't.
You know the Devils in 2000,.
You know the year they got theseven-game series.
You know he just struggledagainst those physical teams but
a lot of guys do and that's whyyou see it a lot of the time

(01:07:35):
it's great players that score,but great players figure it out.
So Sam Reinhardt is a greatplayer.
Now we're putting him in theclass of and I'm not saying that
we're not Based off of whatwe've seen the last four years.
He's a very he's.
I don't know if he's, I don'tthink he's a Hall of Famer, but
as far as a playoff performer,you know, I mean, like they said

(01:07:56):
, you make your money in theregular season, you make your
name in the playoffs and he'smaking his name in the playoffs,
there are just guys that arejust playoff performers and
there are guys that wilt underthe pressure of the spotlight
and and and.
Unfortunately the Rangers havea lot of guys that have wilted
in the big moments.
And unfortunately the Rangershave a lot of guys that have
wilted in the big moments.
Now, kreider, unfortunatelyKreider was the one guy that you

(01:08:19):
knew you could count on in theplayoffs.
You knew for sure.
You know, mika, you're talkinghow many years ago was that
overtime winner?
You know you're talking 10years ago that that goal was
scored.
What was the last big goal hescored in the playoffs?
You know you can count on.
You can say, oh, trochek has abig goal, panarin has two big

(01:08:42):
goals.
You know you've got Kreider hasa hat trick.
I mean, you've got guys thatyou can say, all right, these
guys have had this.
Carl Hagelin had a big momentin the playoffs.
Mark Stoll had a big moment inthe playoffs.
You can go back in time.
Mika has not had a signaturemoment in the playoffs.
So Mika's big thing was scoringearly in games.
Truthfully, I mean, how manytimes did Mika score the first

(01:09:03):
goal?
I thought Mika was good in theTampa series in the first two
games and then after that he wasgoing, and the Pittsburgh
series before that, that wholeplayoffs he was very good.
I don't remember him as much.
Sasha Barkov stopped him andagain, third best center in the
league.
Sasha Barkov stopped him.

(01:09:25):
But he also did a great job onBarkov.
In return, barkov did nothingin that series either.
Barkov doesn't worry about it,he's still a point-of-game guy.
He didn't put up a lot ofpoints against Edmonton either,
did he Barkov?
Yeah, I don't think he evenscored a goal in that series.
He had five assists in theseries.

(01:09:48):
So it's less five games.
Let me see Playoffs.
Still had 22 points in 23 gamesin the playoffs, barkov.
The way Florida beat these teamswas with their depth.
That's how they won these games.
I mean, I know Kachuk had acouple of goals.

(01:10:10):
You know Bennett.
You know Bennett was the bestplayer.
Bennett was the best player 15goals.
And then Marshawn was the bestplayer 15 goals.
And then and then Marchant wason the third line.
Right, didn't?
Didn't Marchant play on thethird line?
Pretty sure he did.
Second, I thought it was on thesecond line.
I don't remember, it doesn'tmatter.
But you know Lindell, you knowI mean, you're talking, you're
talking.
Look at those, look at themdown the middle.

(01:10:30):
Lindell's your third linecenter.
No, they're insane.
It's just a perfectly.
And they lost Ekman Larson, theylost Montador and they didn't
skip a beat.
Sean Barkov played 23 and ahalf minutes a game in the
finals.
Yeah For a center.

(01:10:52):
Reinhardt played almost 25minutes a game as a center in
the playoffs.
Reinhardt's a center.
Yeah For a center.
Reinhardt played almost 25minutes a game as a center in
the playoffs.
Reinhardt's a center.
Yeah, I thought Bennett playedcenter.
I thought Bennett was a centeron the second line.
Reinhardt no, reinhardt's awinger, isn't he?
He took 500 face-offs this year, did he so?

(01:11:19):
Did he so he played some center?
You know Reinhardt finishedsecond in the Selkie.
Let's either go into eitherUtah or Dallas as possibilities.
Did you know Sam Reinhardtfinished second in the Selkie
voting this year?
Did he Second?
I didn't know that.
So the top two guys were Barkovand Reinhardt.
Wow, that's crazy Teammates.
That tells you everything youneed to know right there.
How do you win, how do you beata team where their two top

(01:11:41):
centers are also the two bestdefensive centers in the league?
It's just an absolutely.
I can't think Other than theword stellar.
I want to use a different word.
It's just an absolute clinic.
Hey, joe, benninger.
Clinic, I know Clinic of GMingby Zito Trochek with votes.

(01:12:07):
I saw that 18th.
He was awful this year, but Idon't expect him.
Listen, I'm happy with himwinning face-offs and playing
good defense and being a pest.
I don't even have to put uppoints, play on my third line
and just be a pest, not play 22minutes a night.

(01:12:30):
Well, I mean, if he's killingpenalties, he might have to,
because they might have to now,because now, with Kreider not
there, that's a huge penaltykiller.
They're losing, and he was athreat on the ice on shorthand.
I'd like to see Edstrom get achance at killing penalties.
I know me too, with that lengthand his speed.
Block a shot, poke, check apuck.

(01:12:51):
He's gone.
I'll tell you, though, thatwould save some of these other
guys' bodies too, right, becausethen you got Miller and
Zbigniew and Trocek all playingin every facet, and I honestly
Fox shouldn't be killingpenalties either.
No, I've said that for twoyears he shouldn't be, but he
might.
You know, I don't know whatthey're.

(01:13:12):
Listen, this defense is adisaster, and I'll tell you,
sean, get ready.
I hate to say this to you.
I think Carson Susie is on thisopening, not on this opening
night roster.
I'm telling you that'll beanother wager.
I'm telling you right nowwhat's the wager.
So again, I'm just going bywhat I heard.
I know you don't want to hearthis and from the source I heard

(01:13:33):
it from, which is obviously nosecret Vince's podcast I
listened to the other night.
His understanding no, Ishouldn't say that His opinion,
so let's leave it there.
His opinion, let me rephrasethat His opinion that he felt

(01:13:57):
that it would be bad optics on ateam that's already had so much
drama and so much circulatingaround the team that if they
brought back Soucy if theydidn't bring back Soucy, they
traded him and took a loss onhim that it would make the
franchise look bad.
I'm paraphrasing.
I don't know exactly how weworded it.
That is so dumb.
The guy was here for 18 games.

(01:14:18):
He was not part of the fabricof this team.
They had to freaking massage.
I mean, that's the other thing.
You had to beg this guy to comehere.
Who ever said that?
They had to ask him to nomovement clause?
Yeah, and he waved it.
He had a phone call with JTMiller and that was it.
He didn't unwave it right away.
They had to kind of convincehim to come here.

(01:14:38):
Apparently.
I don't, I, I, I, I'm sayingthat that sounds very overblown.
I don't know if it is overblownor not.
Yeah, but what they could do ison July 1st, when his no trade
kicks in, you throw the guy onwaivers and you say see ya,
because if they need the capspace which I don't know, listen

(01:14:58):
, this team has shot themselvesin the foot again.
I don't know if it's on purpose, who's leaking shit out, but I
also wonder if this whole Millertrade holdup thing is.
Teams are now holding them upbecause they know they're trying
to get Gavrikov.
So they're like well, you needto trade Miller, so we'll give
you whatever we want, because weknow you don't want him.

(01:15:21):
So we know you want a Gavrikov,so we're going to give you less
because we know you don't wanthim on the team.
So again they shot themselvescompletely in the foot all over
again because miller was whitehot, white hot.
12, 15 teams interested.
You haven't heard shit sincelarry brooks's article.

(01:15:43):
You have not heard a pin dropon on keandre miller, anything
from nobody, not even ecklund.
Or the the obscure freaking youknow national inquirer type
that's what jim, jimschmiederberg, his credit for
that in Eklund.
Or the obscure, frigginNational Enquirer type.
That's what Jim Schmiederberggets credit for, that.
He's the one that called himthat the National Enquirer

(01:16:03):
insiders.
Nobody has anything on this guy.
It's gone quiet and you're likewhat the fuck is going on.
What do they want?
Every year they can't getanything for these guys.
They give Kako away for athird-round pick and a

(01:16:25):
bottom-four defenseman.
They give Kratsov away for aseventh-round pick in 2030 and
Will Lockwood I mean it's justthe only one they got anything
for was fucking.
Nils Lundqvist and LeoSanderson.
We got the draft pick for WillCooley they did.
Hino was essentially thethrow-in because they needed to

(01:16:47):
give him back his center in theMiller trade.
Well, that was a salary dump.
I'm saying you know what guys,you know what guy might come
back to kind of bite them in theass.
He may not be a superstar,emerson, no, mancini, nah, I
think he's going to play 15years in this league.
Sean, you watch, I'm not sayinghe won't, but he's going to
play at least 35, that guy, okay, we had Ty Emerson here and

(01:17:10):
he's good enough to play on theteam that's gone to the
back-to-back finals.
They lost them on waivers, right, was it waivers?
No, they lost them on waivers,so all the defensive issues that
we have, and let the guy walkout the door.
Well, they had no choice.
Can't win them all Because ZachJones is still on the damn team
.
Yeah, I mean, could you sithere, right?

(01:17:31):
It's presently constituted, youand I may be doing a show next
Wednesday or Thursday and wemight be sitting here and there
might be nothing done.
We might be sitting here withKeonji Miller and Zach Jones
still on this team.
So, zach Jones it's funny, he'sstarting to almost remind me of
what's his name Lee Moore Hayek.

(01:17:52):
Yeah, where, like you have norole, but we're just not getting
.
They just don't want to get ridof him.
We're not going to get rid ofyou, they just don't want to.
That's again another example ofa prospect that just gets held
on and held on, and held on.
Not that there was ever amarket for Lebor Hayek.
He's not the one that got hurtand was never the same it.
It just goes to show you him.
We saw it happen to Lundmark,pruka, daniel Thomas Klocek.

(01:18:17):
It's like these guys get hurtand they never recover.
They're never the same.
They're never the same.
It's like they're hurt.
You might as well just givethem away because they're never
the same player.

(01:18:37):
It's so frustrating with theseprospects, but don't you do you
kind of agree with you, kind ofunderstand what I'm getting at,
where these guys go from beinglike these stud prospects to
being garbage, to beingessentially garbage that nobody
wants.
Oh, that's why you have to.
You have to.
You have to shitter, get offthe pot and be one team or be
the other, like.

(01:18:57):
You can't do both.
No, you need to.
You need to have a set offucking balls.
When a guy on a good playerbecomes available, you got to
say you know what, I'm rollingthe dice, I'm rolling the dice.
They did it with those I knowquestion.
Let me ask you a question.
So and so jeff Fortgang broughtthis up to me, I think three
years ago now, three or fouryears ago.

(01:19:19):
Right, where he goes, listen,these GMs, it's a club.
These guys are all part of aclub, right, you know what I
mean.
And Drury might be on theoutside of that club, so there
might just be other GMs thatjust don't want to deal with him
, they may not want to deal withthe Rangers, but when Sather

(01:19:42):
was here, sather just had enoughrespect that it was all right
we're.
You know what about Jeff Gordon?
I think he was very well likedby everybody, so, and then John
Davidson came here, and he'svery well liked by everybody, by
everybody.
Then John Davidson came hereand he's very well liked by
everybody.
I think it took a little bit ofthat fuck the Rangers thing
away from dealing with us.
Drury is just who he is, Idon't know.

(01:20:06):
He's got a few guys that'llwork with him.
Billy Garrett will probablywork with him.
Seattle, ron Francis, seattle,well, ron Francis, seattle.
Well, ron Francis, is he stillthere?
Don't they have a new GM?
Don't they have Bissombatothere?
Now, I don't know?
Seattle's one.
Mike Rear was his assistant inSan Jose, so Mike Rear works

(01:20:27):
with him.
That's another guy.
Rabik seems to work with him.
Well, rabik, yeah, rabik'staking all his crap.
Yeah, yeah, rabik's taking allhis crap, yeah.
So it seems like you know.
But like, are the DougArmstrongs going to work with
him?
Yeah, when they give awayBucinevich for nothing?
Yeah, I'll work with you.
Oh, you want.
Well, you want to set her up.
Oh, sure, sure, chris, jorySean has been here.

(01:20:50):
But Jim Neal, he got a firstround pick for Neal Zonquist out
.
Jim Neal, he got a first roundpick for Nils Lundqvist out of
Jim Neal, who never traded afirst round pick before that.
He did 10 years.
That's probably his best trade.
It's one of them.
As Ranger GM, that's probablyhis best trade.
His best non-trade deadline fordraft pick nonsense, right?
Chris Drury has not made asignature trade as the Rangers

(01:21:11):
GM yet.
You mention it on every show.
I can't help it.
I'm still waiting.
I'm still waiting.
I'm waiting for him to make atrade where you say you know
what you need.
Wow, here we go.
You know what you need.
You need to have like awhiteboard behind you.
I know sure, with how many daysit's been since he's made a

(01:21:31):
hockey trade.
It's not even a hockey trade.
How about a signature trade,signature trade, and then you
just count how many days it'sbeen the GM of the team.
You know, no GM is perfect,other than maybe Sather with
trades.
I don't know another GM thatnever lost a trade other than
Sather.
Zito seems to be just doing justfine Right now.
Yeah, and I'm sure we'll findone down the road.

(01:21:52):
But every GM has that.
What are you doing?
But every GM also, every goodGM was like okay, we got one, we
got one over on them.
We did it.
We got what we wanted.
He has not had that.
He has not.
And you want to say, well, theygot JT Miller.

(01:22:13):
No, jt Miller forced his wayhere, had nothing to do with
Drury.
They wanted to trade JT Millerto Colorado and he said no.
So I have zero.
I'm sure I have.
I hate to.
I say this every show.
I have zero, zero, zero trust inthis guy, correct, and you made

(01:22:38):
a great point.
I don't think he's liked.
Why else would that memo havegotten leaked?
You mean to tell me that thatdoesn't happen in the NHL all
the time that memo got leaked tothat extent?
Yeah, I mean that that's agreat.
Tell Jeff, when you talk to him, that that was absolutely true.

(01:22:58):
That was a great point by him.
I do not think that.
I don't think it's not.
I'll rephrase it I don't thinkthat it's necessarily he's not
liked.
I don't think that it'snecessarily he's not liked.
I don't think he's one of them.
I don't think he's one of theclub.
I think he's too much his ownguy to be an elbow rubber and be

(01:23:24):
one of those guys.
Think of Chris Drury and thenthink of Doug McClain.
Think of the personalitydifferences there.
Well, I mean differentgenerations, but think of all
these GMs.
They all have a little bit of apersonality.
There's a lot of young guys inthe GMs though, now I know.
But I mean Verbeek has apersonality, but I've heard a
lot of you know, maybe that'swhy him and Drury get along so

(01:23:46):
well, because maybe they're bothon the outside, they might both
be on the outside.
I mean, let's just sit back andthink of the GMs that.
You said it.
I mean Seattle, anaheim, theseare all new guys.
I mean I'm trying to think ofother GMs.
He's dealt with.
It's all Western Conferenceteams Colorado, joe Sackick, no
teammates, they were teammates,right.
So there's at least somethingthere.

(01:24:07):
You know Dallas is they madethe one trade with Dallas, right
, you know?
I mean you know Florida.
They did make the Toronto trade, I mean.
You know, cop, I mean, butthose were all draft picks.
So I don't know, we're going tosee.
We're going to see.
I mean, I don't know.

(01:24:27):
People don't like to get screwedby the Rangers, because people
see it.
When the Minnesota Wild get oneover on you, no one notices.
Maybe in the hockey community,sure, but publicly no one's
talking about it.
Well, we know for sure thatBuffalo was never making a trade
.
They're not, they're not.
So everyone who's butthurtabout the Paterka thing they

(01:24:48):
couldn't afford him anyway, sean, it doesn't matter, he was
never coming here.
They couldn't have afforded himanyway.
And giving $7 million toanother wing they couldn't do it
Made no sense.
They couldn't do it, not unlessyou trade a lot, a lot of less.
You trade a lot for a year.

(01:25:09):
Defense and centers is wherethey need to invest their
resources, resources right now.
And I'll tell you, I you knowthe thing I don't understand and
and don lorque record broughtthis up and it's, it's a fair
point why were they in such arush to extend?
Like, what was the hurry?
Was he a ufa?
Yeah, and, but you're not, I'mjust.
I'm just, I'm just saying, like, what was the big rush to sign
him, to have have people undercontract, so you didn't have

(01:25:30):
your feet held to the fire,trying to scramble and get all
these different things done.
It takes time, you understand.
It takes time to get peopleunder contract, right, it's not
a video game.
Again, instead of bringing inthe right guys, they're bringing
in guys to justice for the sakeof bringing guys back.
I like him, though he's nice.

(01:25:50):
As a bottom pair defensemanhe's fine, I'm just so.
Over last year he was able toget rid of Trouba's contract
without holding a penny and gotan asset back that can play here
.
He's young.
Can you win a cup with him asyour third pair defenseman?
I'm just throwing it out there.
Can you win a cup with him?
Absolutely, absolutely.

(01:26:12):
We'll see.
I don't think they're goinganywhere this year.
I think they're punted thisseason.
But that's me.
There's no way he's going to beallowed to punt two seasons.
He'll be out of a job.
Well, they're not.
Maybe not punting?
You tell me how.
So again we're going into ourfourth coach with the same court
, with the majority of the samecore players, the majority of

(01:26:33):
the same core.
Half the team is different fromopening night, from the Eastern
Conference Finals, from gamesix of the Eastern Conference
Finals to today, half the teamhas changed.
Okay, but it's still the sameroster that ended last season.
It's been two months.
The same roster that ended lastseason.
The same roster at the end oflast season.
You can't change anythingbecause you can't trade anybody.

(01:26:53):
So they're going to bring ifthey bring in Gavrikov or a
replacement for Miller in 10months.
They've changed half the rosterover in 10 months.
How do they end the season?
They haven't played theoffseason.
How did they end the season?
They haven't played the seatthe off.
How did they?
And they've already traded oneof their guys.

(01:27:15):
My point, you're missing mypoint how did the season end
when they, from the time theygot miller till this way, the
season ended?
Okay, how did they play duringthat time frame?
How?
How would you suggest that theyplayed it?
I would suggest that theyplayed it.
And Kreider was hurt.
And Kreider was hurt.
You can't say well, he was inthe lineup for the majority of
the time.

(01:27:35):
He wasn't.
They didn't put him back in thelineup after the trade deadline
, so you can't blame him.
And Lindgren was traded a weekbefore the trade deadline.
So they're fighting for theirplayoff lives.
And what did they do?
How did they play?

(01:27:56):
That's my point.
15, 14, and 3, since JT Millergot there.
15, 14, and 3.
So some good, some bad, as Isaid.
So a 500 team, yeah, withterrible defense, terrible
defense, and we're acknowledgingthat they need to redo the

(01:28:17):
defense, do we not?
Okay?
So I'm asking you this question?
I'm asking you this question.
They get rid of Miller, theybring in Garikov and they do
nothing else.
Is team making the playoffs?
Well, susie's going to be gone.
I'm telling you You're going toget it.
I'm telling you you want tomake that a bet too?
I said, yes, what are webetting?
We didn't decide what we'rebetting, so what's the bet?

(01:28:39):
We're not going to do it formoney, because I expect you to
pay me.
What can we do?
Let's let the fans decide.
Okay, we'll let the fans decideWithin reason.
Gentlemen, it's going to besomething ridiculous.
No one's blowing anybody else,so shut up.
Yeah, nothing stupid, nothingdumb.

(01:29:02):
If you want me to wear a Trochekjersey or a Mika jersey, I have
a Mika jersey.
Do you have a Fox jersey?
I have a Mika jersey.
So who do I?
Do you have a Fox jersey?
I don't.
I don't really buy jerseysanymore.
I'll have to see if I canborrow a Fox jersey from someone

(01:29:22):
or something like that.
To me, even wearing a Trochekjersey, I wouldn't care, because
it's still a Ranger jersey.
I think you really have to dosomething bad, but I guess it's
fair.
I mean, we'll think ofsomething.
I don't think.
I think Susie's on this Lester.
I think the only, the only, theonly way he's not is if, for
whatever reason, they can'ttrade Miller.

(01:29:44):
But then again, I don't thinkyou can afford to bring back
Miller.
We can do one.
The other one takes the otherone.
You and I, we're going to do acandlelight dinner, just the two
of us.
We have to go to a steakhouse,a steakhouse of our choice.
Oh man, that would be funny,though that would be freaking

(01:30:06):
hilarious to see you and me at acandlelight dinner, steakhouse
dinner, somewhere, with theloser wearing, with the loser
wearing, the jersey of the guy.
They.
Well, we gotta wear like, likeI'm gonna wear like a, like a
leisure suit from the 70s todinner, like a, like a, like a

(01:30:27):
light blue, like dumb and dumber, like leisure suit.
That would be funny, sittingthere bright, sitting there
bright and cooper, yeah, yeah,but we'd have to figure that out
because we have two bets going.
So we have the, the mika bet.
We'd have to do three.
We'd have to do three differentthree bets, yeah, and then we'd
have to do two out of three.

(01:30:49):
Yeah, one will be Susie beingon the roster.
I have a pride of Jersey, so doI Take out the Patreon viewers.
Are you in New York, mike?
Take you out for a beer, thatwould be funny.
It's, susie, being on theroster Advantage adds 70 points.

(01:31:12):
So we'll need a third.
We don't need to know right now, but we'll need a third wager.
So if you guys could think of athird wager so that Sean and I
could do the best that you knowwe'll be adversaries on yeah,
yeah, you know what I mean.
I mean we could do anotherTrocheck one if you want.
I mean that would probably aneasy one, I guess, if we can't

(01:31:33):
think of anything else as a fail, so yeah, but I'll say I don't
know what the team's going tolook like this year to really
make that, if you know, is hegoing to center panarin and
lafreniere?
You know it's fun, it's funny.
It's funny you say that.
So I I submitted a question forvince two weeks.
He read it on his podcast.
I said to him about thepossibility of running it back
with the same top six that endedthe season.

(01:31:55):
He says I can't see thathappening.
They're not running it backwith the same top six.
They definitely want to add atop six forward, a defenseman.
Where's the money coming from?
But it's funny because then hebacktracked Not the next show.

(01:32:16):
He said to them well, they haveabout five holes, but they'd be
lucky if they could fill two orthree of them.
I mean, they're not, they'renot replaced.
If anything, they're bringingin a Nick Bonino type guy to
play to fight with Parsons for athird center spot.
That's what I'm bringing in, aConnor.
That's what Florida does.
That's what Florida does Buylow.

(01:32:39):
Here's the problem.
Find the next guy, stop paying.
The only problem, sean, now, isthe cap is so high that you're
not finding that guy for you.
Cap is so high that you're notfinding that guy for you're not
finding 800 grand.
You can yeah, not for 800 000necessarily, but the same way,
vegas was able to find theseguys when they did their, their
expansion draft.
They they looked forundervalued guys around the

(01:33:01):
league, well, like oscar, andgave him a shot.
Well, you gave william carlson,jonathan marches.
So they found under byundervalued guys and gave them a
shot.
Right, that's what you need tofind.
You need to go find that guy.
A perfect example, right today.
And it pisses me off people see,here's the thing people are

(01:33:23):
pissed off about.
We didn't oh, jury was sleeping, you know for jj peterka today.
Well, I said that.
I said that because, no, notyou, I'm.
The trade happened.
I literally saw someone saysomething about sleeping I don't
think it was you, though thatif you posted it, okay, I posted
a jury sleeping.
He's all tucked in.
I just said it because it washappened at 10 30 at night.
Frederick grudro, that was goingto seattle for a fourth round

(01:33:46):
pick.
That is the guy I would haveloved.
Yeah, no, I agree with you.
I agree with you.
That pisses me off way morethan JJ Pitter.
I meant to text you that and Iwas like man, he'd be great on
the third line, big fast.
He'll score 20 goals.
He'll knock you.
I don't understand.
I don't understand why theyDoes.

(01:34:11):
He have a bad contract.
No, $2.1 million over the nextthree years.
I looked at it, great contract,trust me, I looked at it.
I didn't give it a third $2.1million.
If they give the third rounderfor him, I would have been, and
the range is eight draft picksin this draft.
They don't need anotherfreaking fourth-round pick.
No, I agree with you.
That's why, to me, like again,I don't.

(01:34:34):
I'm trying, I'm trying to be,I'm trying to use kind of
reverse psychology, and maybe,by saying this, I'm not thinking
the Rangers are going to donothing, so I don't get upset,
but you got to think thatsomething's got to be, bro.
I mean, it has been fuckingcrazy quiet, like scary quiet,
like you hear nothing out ofthem.

(01:34:55):
But, to be fair, I haven'theard anything out of the Devils
.
I haven't heard anything out of.
I'm trying to think of someother teams.
Carolina I haven't heard muchout of them.
There's been a few teams.
Carolina has $25 million in capspace.
I heard much out of them.
There's been a few teams.
Carolina has $25 million in capspace.
I heard nothing out of themthough.
Yeah, you know what, mitchMarner won't go there.

(01:35:17):
No, but my point, though, isit's what the Rangers always do.
It's not happening because he'sgoing to stay in Florida, but
everyone's like, oh, sam Bennetton this team would be great.
Yeah, once upon a time, samBennett was available for
nothing.
I know, go find the next SamBennett for nothing.
Tampa brought in Blake Coleman.

(01:35:37):
Tampa brought in BarclayGoudreau.
They brought in these guys.
They overpaid with first-roundpicks to bring in these guys
that were undervalued on theircurrent teams and turned them
into champions.
Wouldn't you love to have knownwhat I know.
They weren't trading D'Angelofor Bennett.
You knew that trade wasn'thappening for multiple reasons.
I want to know who in God's nameCalgary wanted for Bennett from

(01:36:04):
the Rangers?
Right, because we?
We saw the diets that weretraded.
Right, they didn't even get afirst round pick for him.
They got a third second, athird second.
What are we doing?
Mind blowing.
But again, but here we are in2025.
Now there's just there is a SamBennett on someone's roster

(01:36:24):
right now that's struggling toget ice time.
We'll find him and he'll go toflorida next year.
But that's my point is be pro,act, go find the underutilized
guy and give him, give him ashot.
Thing too, sean, is you need tohave cap space and you need to
have some kind of asset.
Not with that, we're, not witha guy making a million dollars.
No, was sam better making amillion dollars when he was

(01:36:45):
traded?
No, he's probably making twoand a half back then, costa adam
fit.
Could you imagine if we offersheet adam fantilli?
Oh, I'll tell you right now.
If they offer sheet adamfantilli, this would be the year
to do it, because the bonusthing I don't know if columbus
can can afford that.
Well, they're putting.
They're putting a stop to that.
That was a comment today.
But they won't put a stop tothe no state tax thing, only a

(01:37:08):
big market thing.
When is Gary Bettman retiring?
I mean, seriously, I've hadenough of this guy.
I really have Him and hisfucking small market bullshit.
The devil, I know, is betterthan the devil.
I don't.
I'm a petri-part of it.
Hopefully it's Bill Daley.
I like Bill Daley.
I don't mind that.
I don't want this to.
I don't want this league to go.
Adam Silver Even Twitter rightnow, like there's nothing going

(01:37:33):
on.
Yeah, it is like really quiet.
Who were we just asking about?
Bennett, right?
What was Bennett's contractwhen he was trading?
Yeah, I have fuck PDO.
Yeah, I'm still trying tofigure out how to use that site
sometimes.
So I was looking at I'm bettertrying to figure out how to use
that site sometimes.
So I was looking at, um, betterat it, the Rangers.
So what year was this?
Uh, so, uh, god, let me seewhat year you so?

(01:37:59):
21 or signed by Florida?
Was that okay?
So can you go back on that?
Yeah, 2.5.
So 2.5.
So Florida signed him for 4.4.
They signed him for 4.4?
Yeah, okay, and that was whatyear 17?

(01:38:21):
Oh my God, you're so off onyour years.
I'm sorry I'm wrong.
I'm sorry, 21-22.
All right, yeah, yeah, really,I'm sorry I'm wrong.
I'm sorry, 21-22.
All right, yeah, yeah, reallyI'm losing it.
The 19-20 season and the 20-21season.
He was making 2.5 with Calgary.
I can't believe they didn'ttrade for him.
I wonder, because I rememberthe trade deadline.

(01:38:46):
I believe it was the tradedeadline where he got traded,
where Bennett got traded,gordonordon supposedly they made
no moves and that's why gordonwound up getting fired, because
because dolan wanted them tomake a move, right.
I'm wondering if that was theguy that we're trying to get,
because he said he was trying tomake a hockey trade.
You remember that.

(01:39:06):
I'm wondering because that'snot really a hockey trade for a
second round pick.
No, but he probably wasn'ttrying to trade draft picks.
He was probably trying to tradesomeone off the roster.
I guess Maybe they're trying totrade Kraftstop for him.
Who knows?
Who knows what it was.
I don't think they were tradingTrasov at that point In 2021?

(01:39:30):
He was already four years deep.
He'd already gone back toRussia the first time before he
came back.
Are you sure?
No, kratsov wasn't four yearsdeep.
Kratsov was in the 18th draft.
So three years deep, threeyears deep, jury had already
kicked them off the Wolfpack.

(01:39:50):
By then it was between him goingback to Russia and coming back
again.
I'm surprised they wouldn'thave taken that trade then.
But again, it's find the nextguy.
That's why I loved hearing thetalk about Columbus with us
trying to get Voronkov.
That's a guy that I would loveto have on this team.

(01:40:12):
Yeah, good, third line guy.
That guy mashes 6'5".
He can score.
Yeah.
So find the guys that areunderutilized in other areas.
That's how you build a winner.
That's how Florida's done it.
Right, because if you have togo out there and buy your Sam
Bennett, buy your BarkleyGoodrow, you're going to overpay

(01:40:34):
.
Well, they were joking aroundthat.
The Rangers' fourth line is nowstill less than Barkley Goodrow
played.
Yeah, it is, and that's how youhave to build a roster.
You can't have a third.
First of all, I'm not really100% sure if Goodreau was
brought in to be on the fourthline.
He might have been brought inoriginally to be on the third
line, which is what he was whenhe played with Tampa, right?

(01:40:57):
So you know how do you feelabout giving him.
He was on the fourth line withTampa.
No, it was third line withGordon and Blake Coleman.
They were on the third line.
Oh, that thought there was afourth.
All right, no, yeah, but darn.
Um, what do you think of this?
Get this possible.
Gavrikov's contract of almost 8million.

(01:41:18):
You think that's legit or doyou think that's high?
Um, I think it's a little high.
I think that's what he's tryingto get.
I don't think he gives enoughoffense to warrant that type of
deal.
I'll tell you, la has a lot ofcap space and I know they're
trying to get.
They're in for Mitch Marner,right, I think Mitch Marner's
going to go to Vegas personally,more like here.
But Vegas or Anaheim are thetwo spots I think for Marner.

(01:41:42):
But you know, I looked at LA'ssalary cap and they have a lot
of guys under contract.
They got like 20 or 21 guysUnder contract and they have $20
million.
So I'm not really sure whythey're not.
And Dowdy I mean Kopitar'scoming off next year.

(01:42:03):
Dowdy only has two years left.
It's a little misleading Becausesome of these guys are not
really Like NHL players when itsays that they're under contract
.
Oh, really Like who?
Jeff Mallett, andre Lee, akilThomas, these are all guys that

(01:42:25):
are being counted toward thatnumber.
So they need guys.
Still, they need players.
Samuel Helanus hasn't playedyet.
Honestly, to be fair, I don'tknow enough about their roster.
So they still have to sign.
Trevor Lewis I didn't even knowwho Mikey Anderson was.
Really, you didn't know Mikey.
Oh, he's very good, I know himnow.
I know you said he's Arlingren.
Yes, better.

(01:42:47):
He's better than Linger, butbetter.
You did say that.
Alex Ferrier, they got himre-signed.
I know about him.
Taylor Ward Kuzmenko If they'regoing to keep Kuzmenko, he's a
free agent now.
Tanner Jeannot, I'm surethey're going to let go.
That's a guy that I would sign.
Tanner Jeannot, I saw that.

(01:43:11):
But is he a third-line guy oris he a fourth-line guy, didn't
he have?
He scored 24 goals in a year.
He had a 41-point season withNashville this year, 21-22.
Yeah, and then he went to Tampaand LA and he did nothing right
, correct?
So how do you score 41 points?
Ryan Boyle had a 20 goal season.

(01:43:34):
Sean, anyone can score 20 goals.
Once it's following it up mightbe an outlier.
Bob Kudelski scored 20 goals.
You know it happens.
I mean, sometimes everythinggoes in.
I'm not saying I hate it Again,but how much is he going to

(01:43:55):
possibly get paid?
One and a half One.
Is he going to get a PTO?
Is he a third-line guy or is hea fourth-line guy?
That's really what you need toknow.
Let me look at his minutes so Ican tell you where he played
what you need to know.
Let me look at his minutes so Ican tell you where he played.
So with Nashville he wasplaying either second or third

(01:44:16):
line.
He's young, still right.
Was he 28?
, 27?
He'll be 28.
He will be 28.
He just turned 28 last month.
I saw him on the sheet when Iwas yeah, so his usage has a lot
to do with it.
So in Nashville he was playing15 minutes a night and 16

(01:44:38):
minutes a night.
His big season.
He played 16 minutes a night.
Everything was even strength.
He had three power play pointsout of the 41.
So all even strength.
As a rookie, 16 minutes a night.
He goes to Tampa and plays 11.
So you took him out of playingthe role he played in Nashville

(01:45:00):
and that's possible, much betterteam, right.
But then you weren't asking forhim to do anything.
You weren't asking for him toplay his game.
You know what guy shocked mewhen he got traded and exploded
even more.
Brandon Hagel, when they tradedtwo first-round picks for him.

(01:45:20):
I was like that guy and he'sanother guy that just went down
there and was like he just blewup I'm like, is he that guy?
I don't think anyone saw himscoring 40 goals.
No, I didn't see that.
No one saw that.
To me, I thought he was likeAndrew Shaw.
I thought he was that type ofplayer.
That's who he reminded me of.
Good count, but he's muchbetter than him.

(01:45:42):
So Gavrikov, this was.
So he had 33 points four yearsago.
So he had 33 points four yearsago.
He got 30 points this year,didn't he?
Yeah, playing 22 minutes anight for Columbus this year was
30 points.
Playing 23 minutes a night forthe Kings.

(01:46:03):
He is 6'3", 220.
He'll be 30, basically, whenthe season starts.
So you're going to sign him forages 30 through whenever.
It's tough to give that guyseven years, it is.
But he could be like BrettBurns, sean, and play until he's

(01:46:24):
38 years old.
I mean, he didn't come up untilhe was 24.
So you got to do a lot ofhomework on his skating and his
training.
He's never been fast, just likeBrett Burns has never been fast
.
So if he's defensively soundand positionally sound, then I'm
okay with it.
Yeah, but I don't want JackJohnson three years from now.

(01:46:45):
Well, I don't know how do youthink Brett Burns every time I
saw brett burns he was blocked.
Burns is a freak.
Well, you saw the body issue.
The guy is a physical freak.
I know he is.
Yeah, that's not everyone'slike that.
No, no, we also.
Chris cried.
I'll be 42 years old and beable to skate 26 miles an hour.
I think chris cried.
I was back in and scored 35goals.

(01:47:05):
His next contract he comes back.
He comes back to the rangersthere's, he comes back.
If he comes back to the Rangers, there's no chance in the world
he comes back to the Rangersever.
You don't think so.
No, I think the bridge isburned.
Maybe if Drury's gone, maybe ifsomeone else is here and not
Drury, sullivan might still behere.
Drury might be gone.
I think Drury's here, I thinkDrury's going to be and we'll be
still waiting for a Stanley Cup, because nobody likes the guy.

(01:47:31):
I had a point, I had a point.
Sometimes I apologize.
That's kind of why I cut youoff.
Sometimes because I'm afraidI'm going to lose my thought,
because my brain only is wired acertain way.
Keep a pen and paper next toyou.
I know I should do that.
Was it about Gavrikov?
Oh, this is what it was.
I had a crazy thought, and Idon't know how this would fly

(01:47:55):
with the fan base.
I would get rid of Miller, getrid of Soucy, sign Gavrikov or
someone along those lines.
Sign Gavrikov or someone alongthose lines, and instead of
signing another defenseman, Iwould sink or swim with Matthew

(01:48:17):
Robertson to start the seasonand Vakhanidin on the left side
See what you got.
See who shakes loose Guysalways shake loose in training
camp and on waivers and signanother forward.
See, this is why I would go forProvorov, though Provorov's

(01:48:38):
younger Provorov's still only 28.
He's two years younger thanGavrikov.
Well, when did he turn 28?
Give me his birthday on hereKravikov's 29.
January.
Kravikov will be 30 in November.
Yeah, and Provorov will be 29three months later.

(01:49:00):
It's half a season.
It's a year difference.
That's half a season.
How old was Provorov when hecame into the league?
How many more years he's nevermissed games?
I'm not opposed to it, sean.
I don't want to sit here andtell you I'm opposed to it, but
does Probroff need to play thepower play.
Does he need to to be effective?

(01:49:24):
Let me see, because you know asmuch as you want to shoot Fox.
No, fox only needs to play onthe power play and listen,
unless they trade Schneider andthey sign D'Angelo.
That's another thing.
That's another point I want totalk to you about.
What are they doing with thisguy?
He's untradeable.

(01:49:45):
No, excuse me, he's untouchable.
Yet he's on your third pair.
So Provorov had 33 points thisyear and 30 of them were 5-on-5.
Okay, so he's not a power playguy.
No, wierenski ran the powerplay.
Oh, that's right.
Listen, I'm good with eitherone.

(01:50:05):
What are their underliningnumbers, like what's proverob's
defensive metrics?
I don't know these things, norwill I pretend to.
No, I don't even know what.
I wouldn't even know which onesto look at.
I know nothing about analytics.
I don't agree with analytics.
I heard I I heard again this isthrough a podcast that
gavrikov's defensive metricswere outstanding with laA, but

(01:50:31):
they were not as great withColumbus on a worse team.
So take that for what it is,but I do think that goaltending
plays a factor.
Maybe Rangers have a bettergoaltending than Columbus and in
LA, right, even though I knowKemper had a good year this year
.

(01:50:51):
You, you, you're the one thatbrought brought that to my
attention.
I didn't know.
No, he was having that greatseason that's in a finalist, um
and uh, um, I was trying tothought again.
I think he's a type ofdefenseman that you could win a

(01:51:15):
cup with, like, I think he's,he's the type of defenseman that
, guys, that you, you could winchampionships with.
That's my opinion.
Then you're, you're, you'rebanking on him.
Again.
This is, if you're signing himfor seven, what's the window?
What's the window to win?
What's honestly, right now,what is what would?
So let me ask you this, okay,let me ask you this point.
Let me ask you this questionthree years is their window to
win?
Why?
Why is it three years?
Panarin's going to be goneafter the next season, so why is
it three years?
Because of Miller, because ofMiller and Shosturkin, I mean,

(01:51:36):
at 33, that's what I'm saying.
After 33, that's when Hankstarted to go downhill.
Not everyone's Bobrovsky, Imean, he might be, I don't know,
but after 33, hank wasn't thesame and to me, hank was as
prepared and committed as therewas.
Do you need to be?
See?
That also is my other point.

(01:51:57):
You don't need to be allworldly, you just need to make
the timely save.
You've seen inferiorgoaltenders up until the last
two years win championships.
Up until the last five years,only one in the last five cups
Aiden Hill.
Yeah, vasilevsky won two who'sall-world and now Bobrovsky's

(01:52:21):
won two who's all-world andKemper I forgot about Aiden Hill
, and Kemper wasn't good, andAiden Hill but three years.
Well then, I think you just ifthat's your game plan, then I
think you need to get who'savailable when they're available
, right.
So I don't know, I wouldn'tfeel comfortable at $8 million,

(01:52:44):
but so the money, the AAV, isless important to me right now
with a guy like Yadav Rakov thanthe term.
Well, I heard the term is thatthey said apparently LA was he
wants seven years and from LAhe's going to want eight.
He's going to want the mostthat he can get right now.
There's no reason for him tosign a contract with LA right

(01:53:06):
now unless they're going tooffer him eight years, because
that's the only advantage la hasthat other teams don't.
Well, I heard the term wasn'tthe problem with la, it was the
uh, the aav.
Okay, I mean that that's whatthe last, that last, I heard on
him.
I just think you know, if, ifyou're, my personal opinion was,
I understand the defense hasn'tbeen great.

(01:53:29):
I'd rather see what robertsoncan give you.
And you got robertson.
You can spot in if you have to,if another veteran type guy
making a million bucks and you,you and you see who shakes loose
instead of throwing money atsomebody.
I'm not going into a seasonwith robertson, but then you're
going, as we are going in amillion dollar guy.
Well, let me ask you this thingthey're not trading Carson Soucy

(01:53:51):
to bring in another $5 milliondefenseman.
They're not.
Yeah, they are.
They're going to ride out withSoucy.
They're going to reapply his $3million to somebody?
I don't think they are.
You think they're going tobring in two brand-new
defensemen?
Why wouldn't they just keepSuse?
I think Robertson has a chanceof being here.
Oh no, he's going to be here.
I think he's going to be.
Oh no, I know that.
Yeah, but the question is wherethey're slotted.

(01:54:13):
Is it 6-7 or is it 5-6?
Or yeah, or 4-6.
You know what I'm saying?
The left side, yeah, just 1, 2,and three on the left side.
So they don't have a one onthis roster right now.
I mean, unless they're going tosign Miller to a two-year deal.

(01:54:35):
I wouldn't even give Miller twoyears, I'd give him a one-year
deal, whatever it is, and rideit out.
I'm just saying, whatever it is, if Miller's still here, then
he's going to be your top pairof defensemen.
Has it ever happened I'm trying,I was trying to rack my brain
about this and maybe you canremember has it ever happened
where the Rangers wanted to getrid of somebody, like a RFA

(01:54:58):
specifically, where they had tobring him back?
They had no choice.
And and Jacob Truba?
No, it wasn't, but it'll be asimilar circumstance the guy was
all betrayed publicly.
And next thing, I know he'sthere, he is in training camp.
Yeah, I don't think.
Yeah, I don't think that's good, I don't think they're gonna

(01:55:18):
want that, and that's why you,that's, that's why you almost
can't do it at this point,because you can't have, they
can't take a chance of therebeing one negative vibe in
September for training camp.
No, that needs to be the mostpositive training camp that
anyone's ever been to.
Plus, it's already been put outthere that Sullivan is not a
Miller fan, right, so that that.

(01:55:40):
So he's gone.
So that's not even consideredthat, right.
So Miller's gone, susie's gone.
You have back in nine, and Jonesand Robertson are the three
left-handed shot defensemen thatare under contract.
Braden Schneider can play theleft side.
I think he should at this point, because it's time that he
plays for you tonight.
Why did Borgen have to be yoursecond pair defenseman?

(01:56:01):
Why can't he be on your thirdpair?
He was for LaViolette.
We don't know what order that'sgoing to be.
Well, that's my other point.
Everyone keeps crying, and thatmade me think about this.
Why is it automatically assumedthat Will Borgen is your
second-pairing defenseman?
Because he played that under,because he played that under La
Violette, right?

(01:56:21):
But that's why Let me get backto Vince for a second, because I
didn't want to cut you offbefore.
Right, you're not a fan.
I know.
I am a fan, but I'm also not.
I give the guy credit.
I mean, he does his podcastevery week.
He never takes a fucking weekoff, unless he's having a kid.
Unless he's having a kid, thenhe takes six months off, but

(01:56:42):
other than that, he's got tobreastfeed himself.
There's a lot of things.
He's got to breastfeed himself.
You know, there's a lot ofthings he's got to do.
You know, fraternity leave 2025.
Anyway, believable good for him.
I don't think that the chrisjurors of the world have an
ounce of hockey respect foranyone that covers his team

(01:57:02):
besides brooks not professionalrespect.
I think they have professionalrespect.
So when they have to speak theywill be courteous, they will
answer the questions, they won'tbe dismissive in a professional
sense.
But this is the offseason.
Drury doesn't have to speak toanybody.
There is not one ounce ofinformation that Vince

(01:57:26):
Mercogliano, that Arthur staple,that anybody else who covers
this team besides Larry Brooksunless Larry Brooks is being fed
something, cause that's theonly outlet that they will give
any information to Molly Walker.
There's not one ounce of ofthem giving any information or
any inkling of thoughts to thosepeople in the off season.

(01:57:47):
So when any of them come upwith something, it's just their
own, their own thoughts, anyinformation or any inkling of
thoughts to those people in theoff season.
So when any of them come upwith something, it's just their
own, their own thoughts, thesame way me and you were giving
our own thoughts.
We're not tied into anythingGames.
Listen, the minute thattraining camp starts.
You don't think they have somekind of sources though?
Zero, none, zero, zero, zero.

(01:58:07):
I think that that None, zero,zero.
I think that Drury is Fort Knoxwhen it comes to information.
He's Fort Knox during theseason with information.
That's terrible.
You think during the offseason,when he doesn't have to be
around, these guys Just like saythey used to address Gordon was
better, say they used toaddress the second day of the

(01:58:29):
draft, and then he would do apress conference if they signed
somebody, like on July 1st.
Jory does one or the other.
I don't think he does both.
And no first round pick thisyear he's not going to be
inclined to talk during thedraft.
Well, he might talk on day two.
Sometimes they talk on,sometimes at the end of the
draft they do talk, but again hemight not say anything until

(01:58:51):
something shakes loose.
From the second training campstarts, from the second that the
beat writers are given theiraccess.
He works his ass off and I'msure he's very likable and so he
gets his information there andthe players like him, the
players, I think, trustable.
He gets his information there.
The players like him, theplayers, I think, trust him.

(01:59:12):
They can relate to him.
I'm sure they go to him beforethey go to Brooks with anything.
You know what I mean theplayers.
I'm sure they're morecomfortable talking to Vince
than they are talking to Brooks.
Yeah, because Brooks bashes theplayers too.
But Drury, I think he knowsBrooks has been around for
almost 50 years.
Well, he knows Brooks has beenthe captain of the Rangers,
right, that could be a goodthing or a bad thing, I don't

(01:59:33):
know.
It's true, I got to remember.
Yeah, I don't remember if hecrushed Drury.
I'm sure he did.
He probably definitely did,maybe not as bad as Dan Boyle,
yeah, but that's why things arebeing broken by the Dave
Paniotas and the Elliott Freed.
You're getting more from thembecause they're tied into the

(01:59:53):
rest of the league where they'rehearing it from everyone else.
Frank Cerebelli was the firstguy.
That's what I think of.
Frank Cerebelli was the firstguy that had the credit trade.
He's the only one that hadPanarin back in the day that the
Rangers reached in on Panarin.
The only one, not McKenzie backin the day that the rangers
were in on panarin.
The only one, not mckenzie atthe time, not dregger, who?
Dregger was the one that brokeit, though.

(02:00:14):
Uh-huh, dregger's is good withthe rangers too, right?
Um, and then, uh, he was theone that had the teresanko trade
.
Cerebelli, he was the first onethat had the teresanko trade.
See now elliot friedman.
On the flip side he works for590 with with Vancouver he had
the JT Miller trade.
So you're kind of starting tosee where all these connections

(02:00:35):
are.
So I connect the dots with whosesources are, where Our beat
writers don't know a goddamnthing, they're retweeting what
the national guys are doing.
No, brooks gets fed.
Brooks has broken stuff Becausehe gets fed.
When Jory wants you to knowsomething, he goes to Brooks.
So I'm wondering if that'swhere that story came, that
Keiondre Miller story that wasplayed.
Of course it is.

(02:00:55):
It's posturing, though.
Right, there's no way he couldbe back here If it's already
been public that the coach isn'ta fan of him, if it's already
been public that we're shoppinghim after what happened last
year, you cannot have somebodycome back that you've already
openly admitted you're shopping,can't?

(02:01:17):
Here's the other flip side ofthis.
Then, could they?
Could they commit to a contractwith gabber cop without already
having militrated if they havecoolly already signed?
Yes, see, where I struggle withthis is if you don't have
Cooley signed and you signedGavrik out to the long-term deal
and you still also have Miller,you leave yourself open to an

(02:01:39):
offer sheet for Cooley that youcan't match, because then what
are you going to do with Miller?
He's still a prime asset.
You can't just let him, like,walk for nothing.
No, yeah, I don't know, they'rein a tough spot.
It's a very tough spot.
Well, that's where, at thatpoint, then, you probably have
to, would have to put Susie onwaivers.

(02:02:00):
This is why I'm hoping, this iswhy I'm hoping Cooley gets
signed sooner than later.
I'm waiting for this MatthewNyes thing to get done.
I saw them posting about that.
How much do they think he'sgotten?
It depends on the term.
I saw that $7 million for fiveyears.
He might God, they can't affordthat.

(02:02:24):
Well, I don't think Cooley'searned that.
But Nyes had a better season,didn't he?
Yeah, I think he's had multiplebetter seasons and now he's
going to step into.
You know, mitch Marner's role.
Yeah, he had Nye's at 58 pointsthis year and 35 last year.

(02:02:47):
Yeah, he had almost 30 goals.
So not, he went up to playing18 and a half minutes.
Yeah, what a cool he had.
This year he had 20 goals.
I know that, right, right, yeah, great podcasting.
45 points, yeah, so what didNiles have?

(02:03:12):
58?
58.
Yeah, and he had 30 last year,whereas Cooley had 21 last year,
mm-hmm, yeah, and the seasonbefore that doesn't matter.
He's like a year behind him inthat progression.
Mm-hmm.
Listen, if I'm Cooley, maybe Ionly sign a one-year deal.
It'll either be two or it'll belong-term, I don't know two,

(02:03:36):
five or eight, but you're gonnahave to pay him a lot more money
on an aav the longer you wantto go.
Yeah, I don't know what they'regonna do.
It seemed like they werestarting to lock up everybody
quick, I mean, I think.
I think it's just, they onlyhave three RFAs left and one of
them is Kaliev, and if they do,if they do qualify him, he's

(02:03:58):
going to probably be, you know,the minimum anyway, right?
So I don't think he's comingback for a big deal.
No, he's not going to get morethan a million.
He'll get nine.
I don't even know if he's goingto get that.
That's what I'm saying.
He'll get like nine to five orsomething like that he was.
He was waived last year.
He might get the league minimumthey might give him, whatever
his qualifying offer was.

(02:04:18):
Yeah, but there's there's.
There's an example of utilizedasset that has some upside.
You need to work on thatskating, though, but you see
what it is.
They need to get him to bephysical.
I don't know if they can.
I don't mean physical like tofourth line player, physical,

(02:04:40):
just someone who's willing to goforward and battle in the
corners.
I'm wondering if what I cantell.
I think they're going to leaveone spot for sure on that third
line and say, okay, perotHoffman, berard Kaliev, which

(02:05:03):
one of you are taking it?
I don't think they're leavingboth wings open.
I think they're going to signsome other fringe veteran.
I can see them going for thecenter.
I don't know if they can getthe center.
What free Asian centers are outthere?
You want Charlie Coyle?
I would love Charlie Coyle.
No, seriously, I would loveCharlie Coyle.
I know Fucking kills us too.
That's the only thing niceabout Paterka going to Utah, we

(02:05:25):
about Paterka going to Utah.
We don't have to fucking facehim anymore.
He can't fuck us anymore.
He's Charlie Coyle out there.
The guys that I would beinterested in seeing is Pia
Suter.
Who's the other one?
Christian Dvorak.
I'm not asking him to play topsix roles here, I'm asking him

(02:05:46):
to play a third line.
Dvorak's been hurt, though.
What's his?
Andrew Mangiapane, that's a guythat I would bring in.
I heard a lot of teams ran onhim.
Right, I'd kick the tires onMason Appleton, I'd see what he
wants.
He's someone that I wouldn'thave minded.
I think he's going to get acouple of million too.
They need a guy like around amillion, maybe two, the max, two

(02:06:11):
, the max.
Sean Corrali I think he's moreof a fourth line guy at this
point, though.
Frederick's going to get signed.
Nico Sturm Any chance, is there, any way possible, that Johnny
Brzezinski is penciled in forthe third line center spot?
No, different regime.

(02:06:34):
That's another thing.
Johnny Brudzinski found a role.
Well, they needed a center.
That's the problem.
They needed a guy that couldplay center, yeah.
But now look at how manycenters they have in Hartford,
young ones.
Well, they got the guy Terrance.

(02:06:55):
They got Terrance.
You have McConnell Barker, youhave Todd.
He just signed.
What's his name?
Your draft pick?
Noah Laba is going to beanother guy.
They have centers in Hartfordnow, brandon Brisson.
Brandon Brisson, he's an RFAalso, I believe.

(02:07:15):
Yes, or God forbid, you find bytrade.
You find an underutilizedcenter somewhere.
I'm wondering if they would useParson as the 13th forward.
Maybe that's the plan, maybe,maybe that's the plan.

(02:07:37):
He's a younger version ofBrzezinski.
I'll tell you right nowBrzezinski, I'll give that one
guy some credit.
He fucking makes it very hardfor them every year to get rid
of him, because he's a SwissArmy man.
He does a little bit Becauseyou can skate.
If you can skate and play hard,you can play in the league.

(02:08:00):
And he plays center.
That's a big thing.
Suter had such a nice year lastyear.
Yeah, I heard they're notbringing him back to Vancouver,
so he's going to be 30.
He just turned 29, so it'll behis age 29 season.
But 25 goals for Vancouver, 46points, that'd be a nice third

(02:08:26):
line.
He's a little small, but he's5'11, 175, so it's a little
small for what we want.
I guess we already have Trochektoo, who's small, right similar
.
No, I don't think Brzezinski'sgoing to be the.
He may not even be on the team,I don't know.
He might be the 13th forward orhe may not make the team.

(02:08:48):
Every time I think that guy'sgone.
He just crawls.
He's like a cockroach, hecrawls right back in.
He does.
But he wasn't a Gallant guynecessarily.
He really found playing time,playing time on the La Violette.
Well, they couldn't send himdown anymore because they had no
center depth.
They had no choice.
They had to play him Right.

(02:09:09):
We'll see, we'll definitely see.
But to be fair, if theydesperately do need a center,
they could move Mika back tocenter If they had to for a
couple of games.
They would.
I mean, one of those wingswould need to show you, bang on
the door to play top six.

(02:09:30):
Then, whether it's Othman,berard or Perrault which I don't
want to rush Perrault, I wanthim to play in Hartford.
I'll be honest with you.
Berard, to me, was the mostimpressive of the two.
So was I.
I agree.
I don't think Perrault wasready at all.
I don't think Othman was ready.
I loved what I saw from him.
I know he didn't score, I getit, I get it, but I loved what I

(02:09:52):
saw.
He went to the places you wantto see him go on the ice.
Maybe it gets better.
It's a very big season for him.
Real quick before we wrap up.
So obviously, steve Corneanothe longest show we've ever done
, two hours and ten minutes.
We've gone longer than this.
We have gone longer.

(02:10:12):
We've gone two and a halfbefore.
Friend of the show.
Steve Corneano put out hisoff-season draft, his whole
draft thing, here, state of thefranchise and all that fun stuff
.
So here's the list of all ofour prospects and he lists them

(02:10:32):
in order.
This is order of age.
I think it's just like a depthchart.
So, left D we got RobertsonScanlon, jackson Dorrington,
drew Fortescue and Rasmus Larson.
Where's the right defense?
Just EJ Emery.

(02:10:54):
That's it only right defensemanwe have in our system wow
centers this is how deep thecenters he has Edstrom here.
So forget Edstrom.
But Jake Placision will say he'san RFA, whether they keep him
or not.
I don't know how much room hegot for all these guys.
Bo Gruhl, dylan Rubrick he ledHartford in scoring.

(02:11:19):
Isn't Bo Gruhl a UFA RFA?
Him and LeCision are both RFA.
I thought he had to pay acertain amount of games for him
not to be an RFA anymore.
He shows him here as an RFA.
Okay.
But Dylan Rubrick led Hartfordin goals last year.
He was up there.
This is another guy.
That's I like him.
He's 6'6" Big body.

(02:11:41):
He won't be physicallyintimidated coming to the NHL.
And if he can score, yeah, he's20 years old.
But if he's that big, you canscore.
Yeah, he's 20 years old, but if.
But if he's that big and canscore both rules of UFA corner
group six.
Okay, he didn't play.
He didn't play enough and hesaid Steve Corneanos doesn't
know what goddamn thing he mighthave, just rubric McConnell,

(02:12:07):
barker person, noah Lava, carrieterrence, zachary carpa, who
they haven't signed yet.
Uh, rule bullyard, the thirdround pick from uh last year,
they haven't signed.
And we have carl henry season'srights till uh 2028.
Nice, cool to say.
But yeah, I was just.

(02:12:31):
I'll read the what he has to sayabout Gabriel Perot, and don't
confuse me with being who's theguy that reads all the books on
tape.
Is that Liev Schreiber?
Oh, yeah, confuse me with himwhen I read this terrible shit.
The loss of Will Smith didn'tprevent the crafty playmaker

(02:12:52):
from delivering a standoutSophomore season for the top
ranked Boston College Eagles,who relied on Perot's creativity
and vision to help guide anoffense that lost key pieces to
the NHL.
Although his NCAA title hopesWere dashed by Denver, the 2023
first rounder joined the BlueShirts toward the end of the
campaign and is expected topropel Hartford's attack to

(02:13:13):
begin next season.
So Steve even thinks thatBurrow will be in Hartford to
start the year.
I also asked both Russ andCorneanos both about EJ Emery.
Is he an NHL player?
They both still think so.
So good to know that our first.
He's probably going to playabout EJ Emery.
Is he an NHL player?
They both still think so Goodto know that our first.
He's probably going to playLike they said.

(02:13:33):
He's just not going to put upany points.
He's going to play strongdefense, he's just not going to
put up any points.
Listen, jacob Slavin doesn'tput up any points.
Might be the second bestdefenseman in the league.
Right, not to put that on Emery, but right, no, I know a guy
could literally just be a shutdown guy.
You get, you got a role.
It's the 30th pick in the draft.
Yeah, it's.
Yeah, there's no difference,usually from 22, 23 to like 50.

(02:13:58):
So whoever you took at 30, youprobably interchangeable someone
.
You could have gotten at 50.
Right, so is what it is.
Uh, rubric edstrom rempe, fourthline, not this season, but I
don't.
We'll see if Rubrik's a center.
That's what we got to find out.
Well, he's played a lot ofcenter in Hartford.
Yeah, I don't want to havethree guys that are all that big

(02:14:21):
.
We should try to get toHartford this year, but, yes,
like a road trip, let me do,like a Sunday afternoon game or
something like that, yeah good,good luck at my wife to agree to
that one.
Yeah well, yeah, all right, Ifeel the pain.
Anything else you want to dobefore?
No, this was this was reallygood man.
If, like I said, we telleverybody um, if something pops

(02:14:43):
up before we do our next show,we'll, we'll definitely, it'll
be in the patreon, it'll be inthe patreon group.
So, yep, join patreon, help usout.
This way we can continue to.
You know, add the uh, the funstuff to the uh, to the show.
All right, yep, talk to youguys later, later.

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