I want to talk about the Leaps game on Saturday night. The Leaps are on their mandated Union break for five days, so we don't have another Leaps game until Thursday. But what I did want to mention, there's a couple of things. The first thing is the lineup decision. People are like, Oh, don't overplay this. It's not a big deal. I'm having an issue, and I've had an issue with this since Mike Babcock, of the Leaps not dressing their best six defensemen. And of the eight regular Leifs defensemen since the All-Star break, Timothée Lilligran is last in expected goals, or most against. Labushkin is number one. And I realize it's somewhat of a smaller sample size, but I do think at this time of year, you do have to look at the smaller sample sizes and go, What are we trending towards here.

The playoffs are entirely small sample size.

Simon Benoît has come in, earned his spot in the lineup. Is he Victor Headman? No. But he's a useful piece on a thin defense. And the Lefs decide, You know But I'm sorry, you were not born shooting the correct way. So guy who is, eye test and numbers-wise, not been great. I don't think he's the worst defenseman we've ever seen, but I think he's not been great. And he admitted that in an interview a couple of games ago. I haven't been right. Which is great.

I respect that. Self accountability.

I just wonder, just to get Joel Edmondson in the lineup, did you have to pull Simon Benwa? Do you have to put Timothée Lillegren in? Can you give this guy a break? So he can figure it out?

First of all, I agree with that. They're not putting Timothée Lillegren in a position to succeed. The second thing I would say, it is unjustifiable that the Leifs went out this deadline, spent two-thirds, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, two-sixth, maybe. I can't remember what they all were, and Dmitriov Chinnikow. So they spent six draft picks and a prospect. They went out and they got one right-handed D, and it was Elia Labushkin. If you needed a right-handed D that bad, the fuck are you trading for Joel Edmondson for? I think he'll have value in the lineup come playoff time. We've seen it. But you obviously had a priority here.

And it was a right shot D.

And you didn't even address it. I mean, you got Elia Labushkin, I guess. But how are you building that guy's confidence up? Basically, going to the media, your head coach is like, Yeah, but he shoots right.

How are we still having this problem?

He said, It kills me to take Simon Benoit out of the lineup. Which that's what he said. Understandable. But Lilligran shoots right.

We need that right-handed shot in there. And that's not Sheldon's fault, by the way.

That's the organization. I mean, the lineup call Sheldon's fault.

The lineup call is Sheldon's fault, for sure. I agree with that. It's Benoît getting benched in a game in Montreal. Supposedly, friends and family were going to be there. And it's a coach, indirectly, undermining his general manager in the media. There are a lot of Babcock parallels here. There are. We're just not really talking about them because they won the game. It's a terrible game.

Yeah, You could tell they were about to take a break.

Well, I mean, flu, injury bug, guys out of the lineup, five games in eight nights, just got through the trade deadline. They looked beat. Except for Max Domi. Except for Max Domi because he's like, Fuck these guys. I want to stick it to the Habs. There's so many pictures of him in a Habs uniform, and he's trying to erase all of them. So many. I don't know. The performance on Saturday, I said it in the LFR, two points is two points, take them and run. I don't understand that lineup decision.

And maybe you do that because it is the Montreal Canadiens. They just lost Jake Allen, who was a big leader in that and Shad Monahan. They are depleted.

It would look... It would be a better- Laisse at stake. It would look better on Sheldon if Lilligran didn't go out there and then proceed to be the worst out of the six.

That's the other thing. And it's not like, Listen, I'm not saying Simon Benoît is Victor Headman here, but I do question that. I know that they see what we're seeing. I know that. I know that. Because Sheldon Keefe doesn't come out and say, It kills me to take this player out of the lineup, but I got to address this guy.

He's made some really unpopular decisions this year.

Well, I think he's been allowed to.

He's been allowed to, which is important. It's not about being all these guys' friends. It's about making the right decisions. Scratching David Kempf in the middle of a 300 plus game Ironman streak, I'm sure that didn't sit well. I'm sure that didn't sit well. Difficult to argue he didn't deserve it a little bit at the time.

There was another player who deserved it more at the time, but it doesn't mean that David Kemp didn't deserve it.

Right. Benoît has done nothing to deserve that.

Exactly. He's been exemplary. What message does that send? That's my question. It's like, okay, so here's a guy that's come in-No one's job is safe. Even when you do well, we're going to screw. That part, that's a bad message. It is. You can't tell me that, Hey, you've performed extremely well, and that's why we're going to sit you.

The message is, Brad, you've done a bullshit ass job. I need guys who shoot right. You know what's funny? He's even complaining about the same thing Babcock did.

Yeah.

I need a guy who can shoot, not just play right. Shoot. Shoot right. And by the way, they lost a guy who can play right, who shoots left on Wavers.

Laguison. And William Laguison.

Now they're in a position where Where you get one injury. It's probably Giordano. You get two injuries. It's Timmins.

Well, at least Timmins shoots right.

Max Lajoie? Marshall Refay? Refay shoots right, doesn't he?

I think so.

So if you need a right-handed shot, you're putting Connor Timmins in the lineup. And if you're not satisfied with him, the next guy up is Marshall Refay, I'm pretty sure.

Or Max Lajoie.

Lajoie is a lefty.

No, he shouldn't. Refai shoots left.

Oh, for fuck's sake. What can they do?

It would have been nice to have William Laggison.

Why did they do that?

Why did they do that?

I assume they had reasons.

I assume cap reasons. It hurt their depth. They bolstered it only to lose a guy for free.

Did they get too many bodies? Did Bradson Liffing get too many defensemen?

No, I think Maybe got the wrong one. Like, Labushkin.

Labushkin had a bad game on Saturday. Yeah. Not even 30. Ten seconds in, he's the one who caused that play at the other blue line, and then it goes the other way and there's a goal. Did he have a bad game or a bad first 30 seconds? Both.

Okay.

Well, you lead directly. Well, they won, I guess.

You needed a guy. I still think you needed a guy like him.

Sure. Could William Lagos not do what Ilya Labushkin is doing right now?

I I would say he could do...

Listen. The only thing he can't do is be that tall.

I think he's a seven. I think he's a seven. Labushkin. No. Well, I mean, probably both, honestly. But if given the choice, If Lagoson was still here, I'd have him out of the lineup.

Sure.

But it'd be good to have him, for God's sake.

I wish Brad did more to get better players instead of just a bunch of seven Well, if you're going to spend six pics, I know, okay, what's the big deal?

They're all late pics. No, they're not. Two of them are thirds. Those are not late pics.

How did you combine all of those pics together and not get somebody who solidly has a lineup spot.

Yeah, dude.

That's crazy to me.

You got Labushkin, who could theoretically be a healthy scratch. You have Joel Edmondson, who could theoretically be a healthy scratch. You have Connor You have Kade Webber, who could theoretically be a healthy scratch. You have Kade Webber, who's not under contract yet, and you lost Lagoson in the process. That's not a good deadline.

You got a bunch of guys who could be in the press box for a whole bunch of pics.

It's not a good deadline. I'm glad they won.

So here's what happens. It would have been nice to just have a defenseman that could play every day.

Here's what happens, guys. A bad free agency then can necessitate bad decisions at a trade deadline. Because I know whether or not they knew about Klingberg's hip injury, I hope they did. I hope they knew that there was a ticking time bomb there. If this right shot, left shot thing was so important, Matt Dumba was the guy. And Matt Dumba, listen, I'm not saying... No, no, don't... Matt Dumba is better than any right shot defenseman the least currently have. And he has- I don't know if Dumba is better than Lilligran. You don't think Matt Dumba is better than Timothée Lilligran?

No, I'm unsure. I think he's absolutely better. Matt Dumba, I think a lot of people still think about him in his Minnesota Wild days. Sure. And his days in Arizona have not been pretty.

And that's what I want to say. I agree with you, Jesse. I think there has been a lot of overrated hype about Matt Dumba that I think you're absolutely warts in the defensive game, doesn't move the fuck like he used to, not sure about the mobility. But we're talking about $4 million here.

I would have moved back 50 or 60 spots for Matt Dumba late in the draft, which is what the Lightning did.

I probably would have done. The reason the Leaps couldn't do that, though, is because the Lightning could take the whole salary and the Leaps couldn't. That's why Arizona didn't want to pay the dollar.

There's a cap management for you.

Yes. Great job. And that's my point is, okay, so Matt Dumba cost them nothing because they wanted the real dollars off the books, right? The Leaps were not in a position to be the rich guy and go, got it, baby. You got it. Whatever you want. Arizona, don't worry. We'll bail you out. We'll bail you out.

You remember we were talking about winners or losers, and I was like, I want to say the least, but I don't remember who it ended up saying. That lineup decision made me go, oh, never mind. They lost. Oh, never mind. They had a shit trade deadline. That was brutal. Again, in a vacuum, Joel Edmondson Ilyabushan.

Cool.

I understand. Ilyabushan.

I think we like Joel Edmondson and Ilya Bush. I have nothing bad to say.

Connor Duhre, as a- Through some hits? Rfa.

I don't like Labushan in the lineup. No? I We've seen this. I don't think he had a good tenure the first time around. I love a breakaway- Yeah, but he had a different...

Oh.

I love breakaway Labushkin, where I'm never going to forget Labushkin coming up the rush and scoring on a breakaway. That was all It was a full-time moment, but I don't think he was great. And this time it's like, Okay, we got more of it. Got another average defenseman.

We've talked about how this could work out. The early returns on Labushkin, numerically, are good.

They're fine.

Yeah, they're fine. They're at least fine. I like Joel Edmondson's first game as a leaf. They won. A lot of things in a vacuum are good. Boy, you spend that amount of pics. You better... Jesse's so right. How do you spend all that? We're not going to spend a first. That's too much. But we'll spend six pics on guys who aren't even going to be in the lineup every night. And I just don't think that's a good use of assets.

I'm much higher on Edmondson. I think there's a chance Edmondson is going to be like, Hey, there's a solid guy in the lineup and everything works out. He's in playoff game day one. They go up against Florida, and he's out there banging bodies. Yeah, I like that. Or Boston. Which way is he shoot?

Which way does he shoot? Even from an asset management standpoint, there were some people, I think it was Kevin Pipetty, and he took a lot of shit. He talked about trading Simone Benwa at the height of his value. And I responded to him, I would rather die, and I still would rather die. But if he's going to be a healthy scratch, maybe that was the move. Go do something. Maybe that was the move.

It's so rare that a GM looks at a player at their highest value and says, Yeah, I'm going to take advantage of this. Adam Wild made the case on Friday, and he yelled and screamed about trading Easton Cowen, or Fraser Mitten.

Fraser Mitten is at the top of his trade value right now.

Fraser Mitten right now because he's a bunch of magic beans, and you can get a lot for Magic Beans, and you can get a solid player who you know what's going to be in the mystery box. You don't have to wait for the box to eventually be a boat. You can just take the boat. You can trade Fraser Mitten and get your boat.

People talk about Fraser Mitten like he's going to be John DeVarce. No, he lived in John's house. He's going to be probably tops out at a... Maybe he's a Connor Duhre. Maybe he's a David Koff.

I don't know. That's what the projection is. We don't know. He could be a first-line-But right now, he's the captain of the Colona Rockets.

He was the captain of Team Canada World Juniors. No. Yes, he was. Kamloops Blazer. Kamloops Blazer. Excuse me. Sorry. Very different. Apologies to all the WHO fans.

Jerome McGinla co-owned and Shane Doane co-owned.

All I'm trying to say is that Fraser Mitten, this was the time.

Yeah, he could turn out to be a 10-time All-star. First-line center for some team. But right now, he's just a pile of stuff you can get for assets that can help you win the Stanley Cup in 2024..