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September 18, 2025 • 43 mins
Training camp has started at the Prudential Center for your New Jersey Devils!

By Sam Woo and Nick Villano

https://pucksandpitchforks.com
https://www.LetsGoDevils.com

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Happy Devils Thursday.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is the State of the Fan Address Episode three
point fifteen, titled twenty twenty five. Devil's Training Camp has begun.
I'm your host Sam wu Here with pucksopitchforks dot COM's
editor in chief, Nick Milano, streaming live on Facebook Live,

(00:43):
YouTube Live, X live, and Twitch on the Let's Go
Devil's Network. Tell Me Live live from the Primetime radio
studios undisclosed locations North and South Jersey inside the bunk
her As training camp has started. There was a presser,

(01:05):
and all I have to say to you, Nick is
take me out to the ball game. Softball questions galore.
I'll let you take over because I got texts and
I was wondering why because I was actually at Costco

(01:27):
in Flemington, because I just looked at my Twitter account,
that or x account that people were wondering where you
get all the Devil's merch, which Costco is actually in Flemington,
New Jersey, and you know I posted out there. I'm
now responding I should probably respond on X but I
kind of missed got parts of bits and pieces of

(01:49):
that press conference. But let me tell you, Nick, the
podium is yours because I know it's still baseball season
or whatever. But that that was just like, come on.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
I just wish there were some follow up questions, you know,
like there's they asked the right questions on the right topics,
but they just took all his answers and face value
and like, I'm sorry, but like Fitzgerald failed this offseason.
I was, I've been nice about this and I've been

(02:28):
giving him the benefit of the doubt. I was saying, no,
like listen, like we gotta like him this time, Like
he's setting X, Y and Z up. He's putting this
team in a position to win. But that was all
predicated on you get Luke's signed long term, and you
didn't do it by training camp, You're a failure. You

(02:52):
failed and it might work out, Sam, It might work
out Luke. He's miss training camp last year and he
eventually got going, you know, and he missed the first
month of the season. You know, he did fine. It
was his best season, but I think it was better
than people are giving a credit for. This is supposed

(03:13):
to be the year where Luke Hughes gets into that
top ten defenseman conversation. And if he doesn't get into
it this year or at least close. You know, now
you're looking at more of a top to oney guy
for the rest of his career and not a guy
who's gonna get up to that. Quinn. He used Camra
car Adam Fox, rast Man stalin conversation. Right, this is

(03:36):
the year he's supposed to take the step if he's
gonna get there, and you have to know that, and
maybe he's using that as leverage. But like when you
come in and say, I'm paraphrasing, but to the effect
of we're upset that it's not done, and Luke's upset
that it's not done.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, whose fault is that?

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Sam? I've seen guys walk up to a baseball card
table and do one hundred and fifty thousand dollars deal
in four minutes? Do I need to get King of
Cards out here? To shouting out random YouTube pages that
I want like, like do I need do you need
to get like these dozens of huge negotiations, Like you

(04:24):
got hostage negotiators who saved people's lives in thirty minutes.
You can't get a contract done with the guy who's
star player is his brother. Again, I've defended this. I've
defended this because I said, it's we gotta be patient.
We gotta be patient, we gotta be patient. I that

(04:48):
patience was not rewarded because he didn't get the job done.
And they asked one question on it and took his
answer at face value. Nobody said, well, what's the hold up?
Is it money? Is it term? Ryan Novazinski had the
report it's and maybe I missed this in the press conference,
and I apologize if I did. Somebody can hold my

(05:09):
feet to the fire. But Ryan Ovazentsky had the report
that Luke Qes was looking for five years. I don't
I don't understand what. Like, here's what I'll say, Tom

(05:35):
Fitzgerald at one of the better starts that a GM
could possibly have. Luke Hughes deal was insanely good. That
Jesper Bratt deal was insanely good. All of his trades
were really working out those first couple of years. He
took a couple of chances, some work, some didn't. You know,
he was really but he was changing the culture. He
did a lot of really good things since the team

(05:59):
more trade, which I still think is a win. I
haven't seen this man go after something that's either not
a clear win or just giving up on a player. Right,
you didn't win the Tys Thomson trade, but neither did
the Islanders. You didn't win the Riley Wall straight, but

(06:21):
neither did. I mean, honestly, they might have won that
Riley Wall straight, but like you know what I mean,
Like he's like, you didn't win the Pablo Zaka trade,
but they were just kind of trying to change some
things up. And honestly, like it wasn't as big of
a loss as people think because hollow was was good
in the year they made the playoffs and won the round.

(06:42):
I think this man is trying to win and there
are certain times where you just had to be like
it might look like an l but this is what
my team needs. And I think of that with you know, again,
there's some bad luck in this, but I think of

(07:04):
how long the team looked terrible last year and he
didn't get the deals done until the deadline day and
this team needed help in February, and you know, and
I get it. I get it that, like that's how
business has been working. These things go down to the wire.

(07:25):
And he said that in an interview with I think
RG it's like, oh, this is kind of how these things. No,
they don't have to go like that. You got Jack
Hughes signed a year early or whatever, nine ten months early.
You know there there was always a kick took out.
We'll wait till you know, Uh, you know, we haven't

(07:46):
really started talking yet. We'll talk after the new year.
Oh we you know, we haven't really like it said that,
we'll talk after the you know, the memorial the weekend.
It's like, ah, we you know, we're gonna give it
the fourth of July holiday. But this is my number
one priority. And I've celebrated Fourth of July. I've celebrated

(08:06):
Labor Day, I've celebrated my birthday. I've celebrated all these things.
And Lucius is not signed. And Pierre Lebron is Fitzgerald's guy.
I trust everything that Pierre Lebron puts out because it's
Fitzgerald's guy. I think it's coming from fits. Maybe it's not,
but that's that's how I take it. So when Pierre

(08:28):
Lebron comes out this week and be like, yeah, they're
gonna get the Lucius thing, non, it's gonna be long term. Great,
it's fantastic. I thought that it was imminent, and then
you come out today and be like, you know, he's
not happy. We're not happy. That tells me you're not
close or maybe not not that it's not closed, but
like you're not imminent, and it needs to be imminent,

(08:49):
like you can't miss any more training camp, Like what what?
What is the hold up? Is the hold up that
he wants ten million dollars a year if he's wanted
to sign for eight years, tell mellion dollars give it
to him. I wonder why Sam, because then it ends.
This conversation ends, the conversation about Jackie was leaving in

(09:11):
five years, and it shuts Paul passing it up with
that nonsense bait report that meant nothing that now people.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Are right.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
The fact that people wrote about that. Listen, I write
about bait. I get, but I clearly in the headlines
say this is bait. It is stupid. Don't be stupid, Like,
don't be stupid and listen to this report. I might
write that, don't be stupid and listen to this report.
I might write that tonight just because like it's annoying anyway.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
I they do that to Devil's fans all the time,
the whole.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
But if you had him signed to an eight year deal.
There's shut up there like to stand on it's or
even the seven year deal if they if that's the
breaking point. But the fact that this isn't signed, and
the fact that Vancouver is hemorrhaging media reports about Quinn

(10:08):
Hughes and just they're putting their name into face to
saying like, yeah, he wants to pay with his brothers,
we gotta figure something out. Like that conversation, you just
have to be like, we don't have the leverage, but
we could get it back. Like here's the thing, you

(10:28):
don't have leverage with Lucius, but if you settle the Lucues,
he get the leverage on Jack. Because they don't think
Jack's gonna wait till what's Jack twenty four? I think
he's twenty three three, maybe turns twenty four the season
either way, I don't think Jack's gonna wait till mid

(10:49):
thirties to get the three brothers together. They don't. So
I don't think Quinn's gonna sign in Detroit for three
years and then he's gonna connect to Jack Hughes and
they're gonna wait another three years. Luke, I don't think
that's gonna happen, I think what's gonna happen is Quinn's
gonna come here and then you're gonna have the three
Hughes brothers for the middle to end of the primes,

(11:11):
and that probably means a Stanley Cup. I don't wanna,
I don't wanna go overboard on it.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
But those are three, like theoretically, they should be three
of the best players in the league in their prime.
If you got Jack Hugh signed to eight, you know
you got you get Quinn Hughes signed a twelve, and
you got Luke you signed a ten? So what if
you overpaid Luke? So what just get it done. It's insane.

(11:48):
It is insane that they didn't get this done. Is
insane that they don't sound like they're close. It's insane. Sam,
if we wake up tomorrow morning we still don't have
a Lucy's contract, you're you're really putting yourself on the
hot seat if your shits. I was because I have

(12:10):
other stuff, But I want you to respond.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
To that I was wrong about the whole family because
I thought for sure this deal was done and it's
just the Devil's pr just playing the fans during the
off season and then as.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Soon as training camp comes, Luke is in camp.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Eight year deal whatever, five years, whatever the deal is,
it would have been great.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
I thought might announce it on his birthday or something
like that.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah, I thought it was gonna be something corny like that.
But when I saw that roster come out and I
don't see a number forty three on defense, Luke u'es
uh oh. Then then we saw the strategic post or

(12:55):
tweet from Pierre Lebron around that time that they're getting
they're making progress, but they're not they're not there yet.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
But I I'm.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
With you, Nick, I don't think that just by logic,
I don't think they're close. I think they've got some
kind of framework in, you know, some common ground. But
the longer this drags, the long it's not gonna end

(13:26):
up well. And I hopefully this doesn't have any collateral
damage when it comes to Jack Hughes or Quinn.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
And it doesn't sound like it will, but if it
goes into the season, then it will look.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. If Luke Hughes is
not in the lineup, or he misses training camp, misses
every preseason game, and he's coming in cold on Game one,
October ninth against the Carolina Hurricanes and he gets hurt.

(14:05):
That's I'm making up fictitious scenarios. But the optics don't
look good right now, and I'm kind of pissed about
it as well.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
And this was a much more prevalent situation back in
the eighties and nineties. Do you remember Sean Berk skipping
an entire season? Mm hm, you know, like this, this
isn't unprecedented. It's just unprecedented today, right And back then

(14:38):
they were they were fighting for Nichols and dimes. You know,
now they're you know, a couple extra million dollars. But
the difference between back then and now is this is
the greatest devestment in America. The sports teams. You get

(15:00):
four and five dollars back for every dollar you put in.
Like they always go up. They are shooting to the mood.
Josh Harris and David Blitzer have tenfold their investment, right like,
you just moved the decimal point. I think. I think
that's what they spend three hundred and forty million dollars

(15:21):
something and forty seven.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Most of it was just debt. It was paying off debt,
you know, Yeah, it was basically paying off the debt,
the team hitting the hard reset button. I mean the
amount of money that they've the cash flow through all
the events outside of New Jersey, Devil's.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Hockey, the center in the debt. I think they're worth
three point five billion, I think the right.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
I don't. I don't think it's that high. I would
say one. But the.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
Team itself is worth two.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
Billion, is it really? Did they go up that fast?

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Inflation. I'll blame inflation.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
But that's what the problem is, is that these assets
have been brought up by people who don't want to
sell them. So now they don't go for sale anymore.
You know, these were you can buy a team like
once a year. Is felt like a team was going
for sale. Yep, and we'll get a really good because
I think you can. You can argue that the Devils
and the Penguins are worth very similar in their current state,

(16:21):
because I think the Penguins are going to lose crossby
at least. That's like the conversation. But let's say it's
two point five billion. They spend three hundred and forty
million dollars to get a two point five billion dollar
team in less than twenty years and every team is
like that. Every team was a billion dollars five years ago,
now it was two billion. You know, like the Utah

(16:43):
team is worth over a billion dollars. I think, you know,
like you're you're looking at teams that are in small markets,
that are that are worth an arm and aig. You
know this this this Atlanta team, I think they're gonna
get one point five billion dollars as a ancient fee.
So like, spare me with the like the money part,

(17:11):
which this is. And this is why I'm mad, Sam,
because like why did anybody ask, like what's holding it up?
I just I don't. I don't understand, and it wasn't there.
And I'm gonna be at press conferences this year, so
there's I'm gonna have opportunities, you know. I I don't
think I'll be able to go to a FITS one.
It was they were like in the middle of the
day of a job. It is what it is. But

(17:36):
so I can't you know, so you can hold my
feet to the fire when I ask a softball question,
But I I I just don't understand how because Fits
will talk, That's the thing.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
He will talk.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
He will and he'll tell you. But if you give
an opportunity to give you give him, give him NHL
level answer. We'll give it. But if you if you
press him, he'll talk. So that's all I got on
Luke U's it's it's pathetic that we're here. And I
hate using the word people get mad. I want to
use that word, but I'm using it right now because
it is this team is better than this front office

(18:21):
is better than this. But that I think they they
won too many deals and that sounds insane to say,
but it's true. You got so used to It's like
a guy in fantasy football who somebody traded him Jamar
Chase for Defonte Adams in a first round pick, like, well,
every trade should be like this. So I'm not making

(18:42):
any trades unless you match DeVante Adams in the first
round pick for Jamar chasey. But then never, you're never
gonna get a trade done. And I think that happened
with the top six last year. I think that happened
with the top six this offseason. I think that happened
with the goalie two years ago. I think that happened
with you know, I I will say he got his

(19:04):
guy in Sheldon Keef. That's the guy. He wanted, the
number one guy, and he talked him out of taking
a year off and getting paid for it. So I
give him credit there. That was the one big movie man,
and I like it. I love Sheldon keep as a
coach here. The guys really like him. But man, like
it's this is now three years in a row, but

(19:26):
the Devils have needed their GM to really hit it
out of the park. And he's getting singles, and he's
getting singles because he's waiting and the market is dictating that.
But sometimes, and he did this with Mark Strump, sometimes
you just had to overpay. He did overpay for Mark Strum,

(19:47):
and it was a good deal. He overpaid from a
position of power because they were signing Peshi and Dylan,
so you could trade ball on top of the first
round pick. But I don't know, like if if I'm
fits and like like a lot of like I'm looking

(20:08):
at just the roster, and he vests so much on
the defense that now you have too many defensemen and
you got Sillyev who's still coming. And that was a
mistake because you should have taken to Ze boyam. But
that's fine. It's that draft fell and it's in the
strangest way, So I'll give him credits there, but I

(20:31):
still like Sillia. But again, you have Sillia here. You
have all these guys on long term contracts, the were veterans.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
And.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
You know, I I just look at it. And the
other part is is that you know they didn't trade
for a top six far this off season, and I
don't think anyone was available. So again I've been trying
to give him the benefit of the doubt, be like, well,
who got traded that you wanted? There were a couple,
but not a lot. So I was like, okay, like
it takes two to t and go whatever, Like he's

(21:01):
waiting for the middle of the season, but now you
lost Stephen dayson and again nobody followed up to ask
how long is he out? Unless I didn't hear it,
And if I didn't hear it, I apologize. You know
it's it's it's when you're listening to it on YouTube,
you missed some things. So if somebody asked it and
he just ignored it, or he didn't answer it correctly,

(21:22):
or or he answered.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
I'm gonna ask AI right now, he had a procedure,
what is that is a procedure surgery, I assume, so.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
You know. And he was very open about Johnny Coovi Savage.
But Sam I wrote an article last month it said
Johnny Covid Savage is gonna be un till January. And
I have everybody in my comments be like we knew that.
No we didn't, No, we didn't. Like, I have not
seen anyone say he is out till January. Say have

(21:57):
you seen anybody talking about that him being out till January. Besides,
I've been saying on this podcast, you're.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
You're you're the one that actually when when I tell
friends that, they're like, really, I didn't realize that. By
the way, AI is telling me that he is. Uh.
I missed some time in the opening weeks of the
season due to agg aggravated groin injury.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
That's according to last season. Yeah, I aggravated training sometime. Uh.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
News was announced Uh after the second day of training.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Can I will say, and I don't want to speculate,
but I'm gonna a little It sounded kind of annoyed,
said he made a personal decision to get taken care of.
Weird wording. Then, right, it's like you say, I think
said something effective like you don't love when it happens
as slate, something like that. I don't that's not the quote.

(22:53):
Don't quote me. He said something a little bit different
like that, but that was the essence of what he said,
like don't love that is this lateness off season and
maybe maybe I'm reading too much into it and he
just means like the timing sucks, but that Like some
people are like, well, maybe he'll be back before that.
I don't think you even hear about this like this,

(23:15):
Like I think if it if he was going to
be back sometime in the preseason, I think, just like
you know, Nasan's out with a groin injury, we expect
him back before the start of the season. I think
he's out. I don't know if he's out for a month.
I don't know if he's out for the first two
or three weeks. I don't know if he's out till December.
I don't I don't love. Like how long was Plot

(23:37):
out when he got his groin surgery? Three months?

Speaker 2 (23:40):
Wow? Yeah, three months.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
And he was He's still isn't the same today. It
was three years ago that groin injury messed Plot up.
Now you're looking at where now. I'm worried because before

(24:05):
you had options. I had all these options. I could
try this in top six, you can try that, and
top six. I didn't love those options. They weren't ideal options.
I would have rather had a Jason Robertson or Jordan
Cairou or Mitch Marner or you know whoever, whoever you
you know, Nicholas Nicolage, Heelers. I would have loved to
have one of those in the top six. Actually I

(24:27):
didn't really love Valers, to be honest, But again, I
would have just loved to have a top a true
top six forward, so you at least had five. You
have five top six forwards right now you have four,
without a doubt, top six forwards. Problem is, a team
of Meyer doesn't play like a top six forward all year.

(24:50):
You need him to play like a top six forward
all year this year. There's no excuse of me like
you just gotta wait till March. No, like he needs
to be the guy from the start or they might
miss the playoffs. And I'm not trying to like I
think the Devils are gonna make the playoffs simply because
the metro stinks, which about the division stinks. The Devils

(25:12):
are the second best team in the league and then
doing that division on paper, they didn't do anything this
offseason besides, you know, upgrade the bottom six. And I
like the moves that the Fitz Joe Mane about six.
I like Connor Brown, really good player, really smart. He
gave him the right contract. It's maybe a slight overpay,
but I think he's the right player at the right time.
I liked and awful lot, But you know, I, you know,

(25:34):
I like convincing grit Sick to be here and getting
him in the starting lineup right away. I like the chance.
You know, this kid looks like they might have hit
a home run with this This kid looks good. This
kid looks like an ACIL player. Looked really good in
the prospect challenge he got. You know that came out
today that him and Hamy Naho, the two guys who

(25:56):
might fight for spots with Nason out, got injured in
the prospect challenge. Like it's the luck of this team
is insane. The luck of this team is insane. But
beyond that, and that's that's always been my excuse for fits.
But the Luke Hughes negotiations. Not luck. The not getting

(26:18):
a top six forward is you know, you could have
forced the issue, you know, I I and again I think,
I think, I think, I think you're gonna go back
to that Nashville. Well, I think Nashville is gonna stink again,
and you're gonna go to Nashville and be like, you
got these three guys Ryan O'Reilly, Steven Stancoast, Jonathan Marsha

(26:40):
Salt who aren't worth anything to you, Stop putting the
sane prices on them and let's make it do. I
think Marsha Salt wants a similar tax situation, so he
might be off the table. But you know, maybe you
can get stam Coast to reinvigorate his career here. But
really like the number one guy on my US to

(27:00):
get with you, Ryan O'Reilly. But again that's neither. That's
not the point. The point is that right now you're
playing with it. You're playing a game where you have Dodanov,
who's on a one million dollar contract, solidly in your
top six, and I don't know who else could go
there because or the person who I think could go
there is in the other top six winger position. That's

(27:20):
Dawson Mercer. I think Mercer is gonna be in the
top six. I think they him being the third line
center is out the door with Nason Hurt. I just
think that's what it is. I think the competition you're
looking at is are you gonna keep Lemiko? I think
it's how you say, you know jul Lemiko, are you

(27:41):
gonna keep him as your fourth line guy? Because you
got the lines today and they're interesting. I like them
for what it is. I don't love that Dodanov has
to be next to Hughes. And I don't love that
Mercer is the you know, is the guy not next
to Hughes but in the top six. I just haven't
loved that he Schermeyer Mercer connect. I think that he

(28:01):
makes more sense of Hughes, but I trust keep to
kind of figure that out. I like how he you know.
I kind of wish they move they you know, and
and again it's early, so this might happen. I kind
of wish they switched grit Sick with Palot, you know,
because plot is playing with Cody Glass and Connor Brown.

(28:22):
I think Gritzick would do really well in that line.
And I just don't love grit Sick in that fourth
line role. I think if you're gonna do that, here's
what I would do. You have options if you're the Devils.
Ideally I'd like grit Sick to be on the third
line or above. So flip Plot and grit Sick, and

(28:46):
then I think this is a really good lineup. If
you're not. Instead of putting him on the fourth line,
say you're going to the HL for one month. I
will call you in November first to bring you back
play first line minutes in the EHL and dominate down there.
I want you to score ten goals in October. Go

(29:08):
dominate that league because you can. And then I'll call
you up and then put Hallanin on the fourth line
because I think Hallenin makes more sense as a fourth
line scorer than grit Sick. I don't think grit Sik
is gonna do well with ten minutes tonight. I think
Hallanden will make the most of his minutes. So these

(29:30):
are just the things. That is the first day camp.
A lot of things are gonna happen. It's gonna change
before the first pre season game, and then it'll change
to the third preseason game. There's a lot of moving parts.
There's a lot still needs to be decided on.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
I just.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
I came in today wanting to be optimistic about the
season and wanting to be excited about hockey being back.
I wanted to, I really really, really really wanted to
in that press conference, and what he said about Luke
was like, oh, we're not close? How how how did
we get to a place where we're not close? And

(30:13):
it just kind of like Bubba I turned into a doomer, Sam,
I'm a doomer.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
Now you're a doomer.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
I'm a doomer.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Oh, trying to keep a positive Nick, We're only two
days and.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
I listen, we have Donald records are played by play guy.
I Gotta, I gotta. I've been saying that. I I
you know, I had to bring up my inner Donald Greco.
So yeah, I had to bring that energy, bring the
Donald grect energy.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Well, I just hope this Luke using is not gonna
be a big distraction down the road. Hopefully they can
wrap it up within the week. You know, it is
a distraction. Every single day. They're gonna get asked every day.
I would ask every day if I was there. Well,
they didn't get asked today too much. I mean, if

(31:16):
you're not if you're gonna.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Throw you knew the Fitzgerald. You know they we're gonna
push the fitz Jow. But now that Fitzjow's spoken every
day like, I don't, why is Fitzgerald not sitting in
a room with Pat Person. I would. I would be
at family dinner with Pat Person. I would be at

(31:38):
his kids soccer game. I would be you know, I
would be honest investor calls. You're doing an all hands
call with your team, Tom Fitzgerald online. I'll develop a
PowerPoint presentation just so I could be in your presence
at all time so we can get this done again.
I unless the five year thing is real and they're

(32:04):
just we're not signing anything that's not five years, end
of story. But again, every report says that's not true,
every single report, including Jack Hughes himself. Jack Hues himself.
I listened to the thirty two Thoughts interview he did,

(32:28):
and it sounds like Jack Hughes wants him to sign
long term because when he said he said something to
the effect of if he signs for eight years, that's great,
or he said if he said he signs for seven
or eight years, that's great. If he signs for three,
it is what it is. That doesn't sound like a

(32:51):
guy setting up his exit plan, but sounds like a
guy who wants to set up his family for good.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
So let me ask you this. Do you think this
has anything to do with it? I'm just throwing it
out there. I'm not speculating it. A report came out
that the RFK stadium site, Uh, Joshua Harris obviously owns.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
I don't think. I don't need to cut you off,
but I think it's something to do with actual cash.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
That's a lot of money spending. Uh you know what,
six billion to buy the team one point seven billion
plus covering the cost of overruns all that? Are they look?
You said it, You said it yourself. The CFO jumped
ship went to the New York Rangers. All right, are

(33:48):
they cutting costs? I'm just bringing it up.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
He went to MSG Networks or MSG maybe it was
he went to MSG.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
It's the same thing, Nick, it's a dump.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
I understand, but it's it is a different organization. I
don't think it has anything to do with money as
far as cash. Have you seen money?

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Have you seen the prices of tickets. I mean.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
They're making money.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Well, they're making money, I get it. But you know, again,
I don't want to be the fan that's funding it
that stadium. I'm again, I'm just argument.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
I mean, I just got to tell you saying, like
there's a salary cap.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
So like there's a salary cap, it doesn't mean you
have to spend to it.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
You'd rather them not spend to it.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
No, No, I'm just saying with this Luke Hughes saying,
because what could be the hold of it? It's got
to be money.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
If you want a title, you have to spend the cap.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Spend the cap. But of course, but do they want
a title? Everybody wants the title, but nobody wants to
pay for it.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Why are you doing this title?

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Well, I'm just throwing it out there. I mean, because
we're trying to find out what the hold up is
with Luke ces. If it's not the years if you
go buy your.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
I think it's the years. I mean, it has to
be the years.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
But you were saying that Jackson eight years, you know,
or do the devils don't want to give it?

Speaker 1 (35:29):
Things that have clearly come from the negotiation, right that
part is right, I think the devils are coming in saying,
you know, we'd rather just they like I think the
devils are coming in here and saying I kind of
want to keep it under the six million dollar number,
which again is seven million dollars. They have seven million

(35:49):
dollars in cap space because they can just send Curtis
McDermott down and play with twenty two and they hes
to have six point five if they want to play
with the full twenty three man roster, they have twenty
you know, they have six point five. But again, you know,

(36:10):
maybe Lucas like if you're doing six point five, like
I'll only SIGD for like a year, and then they're
like no, like let's do three years, Like well I
don't want you know, it sounds like the player wants
seven or the eight. Sounds like the team is open
to the seven or of the eight, but once the
price to be like what they should be the three

(36:33):
and like your fight, I get I get it, I
get it, But there's all like this all comes down to,
like get screwed up on the Pilote deal and he's
just not worth he was never worth six. That was
always a mistaken contract.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Can can you banish him to Utica?

Speaker 1 (36:56):
It would only say, be a million dollars? That's it, Hm,
that you could bury like whatever. I think you could
bury one point dollars per contract.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
It's not like the good old days.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
No, No, you can mat with mcgilney's like.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
Where Scott Goahamas. Didn't Scott Gomes get banished at one point?

Speaker 1 (37:18):
I don't remember that, Yeah, I don't. I remember happened
to mcgillney. He played with the river Rats for a while. Anyway,
I kind of we went on a rant. I wish
it was more positive, Sam, I do I've been. I've
been trying to be positive all off season. I just
had to. I had to be very straightforward. But yeah,

(37:45):
that's all I got.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
Yeah, well again, been getting questions all night. Where did
you find all the yours? My hat that I got
from Costco, My Devil's hat, that's one.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
I think I've had.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Beanies they have all that. It's that time of year.
I love that time of year. You go to Costco
and it's like Devil's merch. It's always good.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, Unfortunately mine's gonna have flyer as much.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
But why don't you come up north a little bit.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
I'm gonna are you a costcomember? I am you are? Yeah,
I love Costco.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
I love Costco too.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
So when when when the baby is angry, it's taking
a Costco, get myself a hot dog, do some samples.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Uh Now, it's like the samples that come out now
are like during the weekday, weekday, afternoon hours. Is never
on the weekends anymore.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
Will fight you for a hot sample?

Speaker 2 (38:58):
Uh, totally, totally and and and they give me every
single time. I'm like, oh this is great, So I
buy it and then forget about and don't eat it, and.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
Oh I eat it. The frozen stuff sometimes it's hard
you forget it's there. Yeah, like a sixteen pack of
chicken melts, Like, oh this is great, it's delicious. Like
I gotta gotta either set up a toaster oven or
turn the oven to four hundred degrees and middle of summer. Yeah,
what are we doing?

Speaker 2 (39:29):
I love the hot dog. By the way, they switched
to coke now they're no longer with PEPSI. Yeah, they
got actually a better selection and they got mini made
lemonade and all that.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Anyway, yeahous, all right, I'm gonna plug if that's okay,
go right ahead, Okay, poxepittricks dot Com is buzzing today.
We wrote about Stephan Nason. We wrote about Johnny Covi.
Savitch is gonna be out till twenty twenty six, like
I said, but we wrote about it again, or about Litques.
I wrote about Jack Hughes's line with getting data off.

(40:02):
What do you think about that? John Bailey is gonna
come out with one on someone Nemetz. We have a
new guy. Ryan wrote about Connor Brown. I'm gonna get
that up in the morning. It's his first article, so
go read that one. We have articles on I gave
my line predictions for both the defense and the forwards.

(40:27):
That's Pucks and pitt Tricks dot com right now. I'm
gonna have something on Jacob Markstrom either tonight or tomorrow.
Just the fact that I don't think they have to
be careful with the contract extension. They just have to
be careful, so I will uh, I'm gonna write about that.
But there puckspitch Tricks dot com. He got articles on
articles all day all night.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
Well, that's great. I have nothing to plug other than
we'll be at American Whiskey for the upcoming season. As
per usual, love American whiskey. I'm gonna I'm trying to
convince them to put the sam salad on the menu,
which is a nice piece of beef sprinkled with some lettuce.

(41:12):
Devil's Heaven, asked U. Who grew up with the home
phone with the huge cord wrapped around the house. Lol,
I did, I did before.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Course, Sam's real old, but I'm old.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Oh, let me tell you. Back in the day, you
know those cordless phones. You go to radio shack, you
buy a scanner and you can listen to the entire
in the entire neighborhood. Yeah, that was. And then I
remembering bringing the scanner to college in the dorms, and
I knew everything. I could write a gossip column.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
Yeah. No, I'm old. I'm so old, Sam that I
just I just turned a year older.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
Oh I have today. No, I said, I said happy day,
you were day late. It doesn't matter. I said happy birthday.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
But you didn't even say belated, So you're unaware of
the date.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
No, I was aware of the date. I knew it
was a daylate.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Tisk task. Now, I'm just kidding. But I did remember yours.
But it's okay.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Yeah, Now, you're making me feel bad. Now you're making
me feel bad, So I've got to puckso pitchforks dot com.
Then now you're making me feel bad.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
You gonna have to click on pucks and pitchork. Just
click around the site like a hundred times. Get me,
get me some views.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Yeah, just fresh all day.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
Yeah, let's click around. Just keep clicking and don't even
like pay attention to where you're going.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Just keep clicking, especially especially Nick's article on Vinnie PERSI.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
My article on Vinnie.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
No, both of your articles. You know.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Oh, I was like I wrote an article. I mean, listen,
I've written a lot of articles. I write fifty a month.
This website does one hundred a months.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Well, I can tell you ted. Ted texted me earlier
today and said, softball questions. Let's go Tolls podcast needs
to be at that presser. Yeah yeah, alrighty, Well, we're
gonna get out of here, dropping the podcast at midnight Sunday.
Podcast Back in Action, season nine. Nick as we're head

(43:26):
towards a million downloads. Alrighty, so we're gonna get out
of here till next time. Let's go to use
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