So on Twitter, we've got Papa's Mind, who's writing, Congrats on this news being dropped on the day of your podcast.

We have high expectations for a good show now. Well, Papa's Mind or Papa le Frère, Arpën and I are going to do our best on this special edition of the Basu and Godet Notebook. Special, not because... I mean, it's Friday, so we were supposed to record a podcast, but it's special because of the circumstances with Sean Monahan being traded to the Winnipeg Jets. The timing, the fact that it's done so quickly after Lindhome, might be surprising. The fact that they were able to fetch a first-round pick might be surprising to an extent. But the destination, Winnipeg, is not a surprise.

No, it couldn't be less surprising, honestly. Ken Hughes, we just finished listening talk to him talk, explain and said that the Lindhome deal that sent Elias Lindhome from Calgary to Vancouver, accelerated this process and the teams that were in on Lindhome now shifted their attention. Basically, how we all thought it would play out So really, again, the Canadians, it's worth mentioning, and I tweeted this after the Lind home trade, but the Canadians really should send Jim Rutherford a gift basket of some sort. His tendency to jump the market and get things going early allowed the Canadians to make this deal when they did. Sean Monahan to the Twin Impact Jets for their 2024 first round pick and an unlikely but possible third round pick in 2027 if the Jets happen to win the Stanley Cup this year, but really the first round pick. There's a lot of angles to this that we'll get into here. But Jim Rutherford doing what he did when he did it, which is what he always does whenever he's in a position to buy, he usually is the first one that sets the market on whatever team he's running, did it again with this Lindhol deal, sending the package that Vancouver sent, which was obviously a far more robust package.

Just to recap for the listeners, maybe we didn't catch that, but the Flames got the Knux first round pick this year, two defense prospects, one of which is a bit more alluring than the other. Hunter, Bruce Devich, am I saying that right?

Bruce Devich, yeah.

Bruce Devich, yeah. So he's ripping up the OHL right now, fuck moving, right shot defenseman, and another pick, a fourth, if I'm not mistaken. So a bunch of assets. And, oh, sorry, I forgot about Kuzmenko. Kuzmenko. Who scored 39 goals last year. So Lindholm was obviously a far more attractive option despite the similarity in their numbers this season than Monaghan was. But I think we made it clear in the last episode how unlikely it might have been, based on past history, for the Canadians to get a first-round pick from Monaghan alone. Last year, a similar trade would have required some package leaving the Canadians. That didn't happen. They still got their first round pick. So I think Ken Hughes, again, owe some thanks to Jim Rutherford, but deserves some credit for pulling the trigger when he did because he got what he wanted.

The first thing that popped in my mind when I saw the deal is the Jets must have been on Lindhome, obviously, and Monaghan was considered plan B for all those other teams that were looking to add at the center position. But I wondered if a team says, Okay, we want to improve. We want to get better at center, and we're willing to give this and that. And for all those teams that are ready to give up a first-round pick, mentally, were they at a point, or Kevin Shalveld, was he at a point where he says, I'm willing to give up my first to get better. And even if it's not for Lindhome, but it's for the second best, if I want to make sure that I'm going to be the one getting the second best option, I'm fine with giving it up because it clearly It clearly set the market for more now. At least it helped define the parameters in which it would be... That trade could be done.

Well, I think every general manager in the league has a basic understanding of the laws of supply and demand. And so when the supply goes down, the demand or the price goes up. It's pretty so with Lindholme off the market, Monaham Monahan quite clearly was the most attractive center option out there. Adam, Henrique is out there, but at a far greater cap hit, which even if the Ducks were to retain 50% on Henrique, it's still more than Monahan is being paid or Monahan's cap hit unretained by the Canadians, which we'll get to in a sec. It's an important factor of this trade. When the center market is so thin, because after Henrique, it's It's basically nonexistent as we speak right now. I think Ken Hughes was good to point out that at this same point last year, Matias Ecclom wasn't necessarily on the market, and so the defense market didn't take him into account, or Dimitri Olaf wasn't necessarily on the market, and the defense market didn't necessarily take that into account. Both those players fetch first round picks prior to the deadline. But late January, early February, that wasn't the case. So with the market being what it is right at this moment, Shevolv obviously had to make a decision.

It had to figure who could become available between now and the deadline. That would be a better alternative to Monaghan. Maybe someone will. Who knows? Or let's take the guy that's available right now because right now, he's the best possible guy that we could get to help us out. I think the Jets have had their eye on one hand for a while. It's been something that they've been monitoring for quite some time, and I think his character is something that's appealing to them. I don't want to overstate it, but part of the reason the Jets have turned around this year is not only what they've added, but what they've subtracted. Blake Wheeler had become a bit of a source of negativity, let's say, in Winnipeg. Obviously, Piaflic Dubois, we don't need to talk about what source of negativity he had become. In Winnipeg. I think by bringing in someone who has demonstrated in Montreal an ability to integrate a new dressing room and be well loved as a teammate, which he clearly is and was by his Canadian teammates, was probably a factor here as well, I would think. For a franchise that's sensitive to that, that's been through the Evander Kane situation and with Dustin Bufflin and Wheeler and Dubois and all these things that have messed with their chemistry, I think that was probably an important factor for them to consider.

We've heard a lot about people saying, Well, if you want to make Sean Monahan your second-line center at this point in his career, then you might not be a true Stanley Cup contender. But I think that the Winnipeg Jets are in a particular position because their set of wingers is so strong that if you put Monahan in between Cole Perfetti and Nikola Eelers, you've got a lot of A lot of guys that... A lot of health risks in all three cases, but a lot of raw talent. I think it's an interesting bet because they could not have remained Especially in the playoffs, going Shifly and then a collection of Adam Loury, which I like him a lot, but not as a second-line center. Namestikow, I think he's been used more on the wing these last few years, but he's not a top six guy.

Well, I think him and Perfetti were rotating at center on that line because neither of them can really win a draw. So it was a bit of an issue.

That's right. And Kupari just came back, and he's not a solution either. So not Monehand really fits the bill there. So I can understand why they were willing to pay this much. And for Montreal, look, it seems so... At this point, we enjoyed seeing Monehand in his contribution to the Canadians. But let's not forget, the Canadians got a first-round pick to bring him on board, and they got another one to ship him out of town. So that's quite savvy.

Yeah. Well, they now have four first round picks in the next two draughts. Two of them are courtesy of Sean Monaghan. So it's really something. But I want to talk because I think this is really the most crucial part of this trade. And Ken Hughes, we should mention, was pretty forthright in a lot of things. He mentioned that there was no... He didn't really have the possibility of adding a first round equivalent prospect here. So that would suggest that... Excuse me. Someone like Kolby Barlow was off the table, or Chaz Lucius was off the table in Winnipeg. Whoever else he was dealing with wasn't going to... What's that?

No, I didn't say anything. I was just reacting. I mean, you Could you add Rudger McRority to that list.

Well, I think, yeah.

That goes without saying. But many of those teams did not even have a lot of interesting prospects that were the equivalent of those first rounders. You can think of Colorado with Callum Richie. But I think that the Jets also had the most interesting pool of those first-round equivalent type of prospects. But they were denied.

But all of those prospects, arguably, well, just based on their draft position, but even where they are now, are still worth more than wherever the Jets pick will land, which is likely to be in the mid to late '20s. Anyhow, that option wasn't available, according to Ken Hughes, in any of the talks that he was having. So it was going to be a first-round pick. But the salary retention part is important here. I think really the trade somewhat hinged on that in He sensed that... Ken Hughes suggested that maybe some of the teams he was talking to would have needed him to retain salary on Sean Monaghan to make the deal. Maybe that would have upped the price a little bit. But choosing to keep Their last salary retention slot, their last salary retention slot until July first, he said they deemed that to be more valuable than whatever they could have gotten for retaining salary on Sean Monaghan. So the Jets, Among the rumored teams who are out there looking for some help at center, Boston, New York, Colorado, obviously, Winnipeg. I mean, of those teams, there are maybe a handful of others, the Devils, Carolina, maybe.

We don't know. But the Winnipeg was one of the few that had the space to take Monaghan and not only absorb his whole salary, but still have room to do other moves afterwards.

Yeah.

So Now the Canadians, if people are like, I think you were reading a tweet earlier off there when you were like, Well, now what do we do? Kind of thing like, What do we have left to do now? Sean Monahan's gone.

Look at Jake Allen.

Look at Jake Allen. Look at a lot of other people on the... There are possibilities that remain open for Montreal that would have closed had they had to retain salary on Sean Monaghan. And so the fact that they didn't to allows the possibility of a Jake Allen trade, allows the possibility of a number of things. There's still five weeks till the deadline. Things could shake out. And where if you want to I don't know. I mean, if you'll army, it keeps playing like that, although I can't imagine he will without Sean Monet in there. But if there's any... Ken Hughes was asked about David Savard at the end of the press conference, Mike François-Gaño. And to me, The market seems ripe for the Canadians to get a haul if they were ever to put David Savard on the market. And Ken Hughes deftly answered the question saying, I can't say at this time that we are actively looking to trade David Savard, but things change. He began that answer with a preamble saying, Well, I'm always open to anything and gave the hypothetical of, If Connor McDavid became available for a trade, I'm going to try and put together an offer.

But the fact that he's not Shopping David Savard. I'm just using this as an example. They might not wind up trading him, but if Chris Hanf gets traded, for instance, and there are a number of teams around the league that are looking at him, the teams that don't get him are going to start looking around and seeing what's out there. And I wouldn't be surprised if teams started calling about the willingness to trade a David Savard. And now that you still have that retention slot, even though it's not an exorbitant amount for David Savard, it's 3.5 million, but it's 3.5 million next year as well. If the price were to get high enough and you have to retain on him in order to pull it off, the Canadians don't have that option. And again, I'm not saying they're going to do that, but it's a possibility that's open to them, and you can apply that same logic to a number of players on the roster.

Right. But I think that when he says that the retention slot is more valuable being used on potentially another player, I think that it would earn them more benefits to use it for Allan than for Savah, because you could keep Savah and still get an interesting return for him next year, bearing any significant injury.

Plus, they need him right now.

And they need him right now. Whereas Allan, if they could move him, that'd be good. There are plenty of teams that are looking for help between the pipes. If you don't have a robust enough market just by offering him and shopping him around, well, say, absorbing 50% of his salary all of a sudden makes him a lot more interesting because some of those teams, let's say LA, well, they could then add Allen and still have some money to do something else afterwards. I don't know. I'm not the GM.

Pretty awkward that Pretty awkward that LA has Cam Talbot at the All-Star Game, and he basically just lost his job to David Riddage in LA. I know.

My God, what a tailspin for that team. They fired, obviously, the other big news today with Tom McLaren losing his job But it's crazy. That whole Pierre Lougebois thing has turned into a shit show over there. But we had discussed that issue about salary retention slots, and I think it was something that, considering the low salary of Monaghan, this was a tool that the Canadians had that we can offer you a quality sentiment without him being a burden on your salary structure. The fact that Hughes was able to get a first-round pick without retaining any money, that's even more impressive. Because getting a first pick, but having to retain some of the salary would have been... It had been floated around. I think that Pierre La Voire had mentioned that. But now it's the best of both worlds. They get their pick and they keep their retention slot open.

So that's great. Yeah. I was actually wondering, it was Pierre Le Brun who broke it this morning that John Monet was going to Winnipeg without any terms. So there was this void of a half hour or something where we didn't know anything about the trade. And I was wondering the extent to which the Canadian's own second round pick in 2024 was involved, because in order to present an offer sheet, the Canadians need that pickback. Now, I'm not saying the Canadians are going to do that, but maybe... I would imagine that's what the Jets were initially offering, because really, you're looking at a difference of maybe 10 spots in the draft between the Jets' first rounder and the Canadian's own second rounder. It wouldn't be that dramatic, 10, 12 spots different. Maybe the Lindhome deal pushed the Jets up to their own first round pick instead of giving up that second rounder. I don't know. I guess the Canadians don't consider it all that important to be able to present an offer sheet. Maybe they don't intend on doing that. But I did think if that was... Maybe that was the pivot point. When Lindhome got traded, When they accelerated things, maybe the Jets, and I'm just speculating here, I don't have any actual knowledge of this, but maybe they moved off trading Montreal their own second back, which, ironically, they got in the Pierre-Luc de Bois trade, which the Canadians avoided, dodged a bullet there with that one.

But yeah, so getting the first as late as it is, is a significant development, and I wasn't convinced that they'd be able to do it. So kudos to Ken Hughes. And listen, the last two drafs, the Canadiens have acquired NHL roster players in return for first-round pics. Granted, the doc trade was the Islanders pick, which was 12 or 15, something like that. Was in that range. Thirteen? Thirteen, yeah. Thirteen. And required moving Romanov and all that. But I mean, Newhook was a late first and an early second that got the deal done. So This front office has already shown a history in their first two draughts of being willing to part with Picks to acquire young roster players that fit a certain age category. So even though the Canadiens weren't able to get that player now for Monaghan, it doesn't mean they're not going to be able to use what they got for Monahan, and perhaps even what they got for taking Monaghan to begin with in order to acquire a player like that. Because, again, I don't know just how... The Canadians aren't going to trade away all their picks, but they're definitely open to trading away picks for players at this stage because they have a lot of prospects and they have a lot of pics.

Well, if you If you made two first-round pics, one in 2024, another one in 2025, then it's a different quality of player that you get. And they can be looking at guys that maybe are a couple of years older than Doc and New Hook or guys that are earning more money. But I think we're going to enter a territory now with all those picks where they're going to get aggressive in trying to make themselves better rapidly. The first-round pick of the Winnipeg Jets being a late '20, in itself is not going to be worth a ton, but you package it with something else, then it might become Well, I mean, that Flames pick in 2025, basically the only way the Canadians don't get that pick, and again, the conditions on that pick are mind numbing.

I don't know how many people refer to the site pro-sports transactions, but they have a registry of all the pics that are traded. And for this pick, the Flames pick in 2025, the header is, Pick may or may not transfer depending on absurdly complex conditions. Really? Yeah, absolutely. That has a whole paragraph to discuss the conditions. But basically, my understanding is... Anyhow, it's highly likely that the Canadiens will either get the flames or the There's first round pick next year in 2025, most likely the flames. So that pick with what's going on in Calgary risks being decent. I don't know how far down Calgary is going to go between now and the 2025 draft, but that pick probably won't be in the '20s or might not be in the '20s. So you're looking at some pretty good assets here. And if you look at the Canadian haul of draft picks, yes, it's a lot, but now they have two first, two-thirds and two-fifths in 2024 to go with two-first, two-seconds, two-thirds, and two-fourths in 2025. I don't really care much about the three seventh rounders they have in '24. Even if you take out the fifth rounders this year, but you have two first and two-thirds plus two picks in each of the first four rounds next year.

That's a lot of ammunition to be active on the trade market. And I think that's exactly what the Canadians intend on doing.

If we go back to the trade itself, and I mean, 24 hours earlier or 36 hours earlier, it was Elias Lindhome going from Calgary to Vancouver. Obviously, it's easy to say, Well, this led to that. But To which extent do you think that it was correlated? Was it more in the value that the Canadians were able to extract for Monaghan, or is it more in the timing of it? Because I find it very interesting. You started by saying how you should send a basket of flowers to Jim Rutherford for doing it so early in the season. It gave the Canadians the luxury of time to build a market and make sure that they get the best value that they can for Monaghan. And yet they didn't waste even a day, and they moved on right away. I think that the timing of the whole thing is really interesting.

Well, and Ken Hughes was asked, was Sean Monahan's injury history a reason why you did not wait? He denied it in the sense that they had no questions about his injury history. That's when he mentioned the fact that Edmondson was injured for most of the deadline period last year, how Echholme and Orlov presented themselves as options late in the game and how that affected the market. He gave all sorts of reasons why this had nothing to do with Sean Monahan's injury history. I would take him with a grain of salt on that. I think it's fair to say, and he said, Listen, there's always a risk of injury with any player. It's fair to assume that there's a bit more of a risk with Sean Monahan than there is with others, just because of his history. Even though last year had nothing to do with his hips, and I talked to him about it early this season, his hips have never felt better. He really does not have the hip issue. The hip issues are behind him as far as he's concerned. But It just happened to be that he broke his foot, the foot led to a torn groin, and the torn groin is actually what prevented him from being traded last year.

I think there is some of that, some of last year's experience that stuck with Ken Hughes and said, Do I really want to push my luck? Because how much more was he actually going to get for Sean Monaghan? He was going to get a first-round pick. It was going to be in the similar range of pick. The teams that are involved are all probably in the top five to seven in the league standings. We'll probably finish somewhere in that range. It's probably going to be a similar pick in terms of value or quality. What How much more could you possibly get? And counter that with who else might present themselves on the market that would actually diminish that value and prevent you from getting a first-round pick. So I think the fact that the timing turned out the way it did is there's a lot of factors here. I think the injury risk was one, but just getting the price that I think Ken Hughes had in his mind that he wanted. At a certain point, if you get it, you just got to be like, All right, I got what I wanted. Let's move on.

And not retaining salary, again, as we mentioned, allows them to further continue to collect assets between now and March eighth.

Yeah. I think had he waited longer, maybe that continual showing the level of play that he's shown in the past month, let's say, probably would have enabled the Canadians to get a B-level prospect on top of a first-round pick, maybe.

Maybe, yeah.

But the risk of seeing him injured in the meantime, and we brought up in past episodes how recently he's been out of practice, he's been getting treatment instead of showing up for practice. It becomes a red flag once it starts happening too often. The risk was there. And probably at some point, if you don't want... Are you going to be greedy and risk losing the option of that first-round pick in order to get the B-level prospect that the Canadians might not need, really?

Who has more B-level prospects than the Canadians? That's it.

Yeah, exactly. I think they had, at this point, determined that if they were not able to get the type of prospect that they were looking for, that they had moved on. But it's not just the Canadians that pulled the trigger at this point. It's also the Jets that decided to be aggressive to say, This is our offer today. I look forward to hearing from Kevin Shevelday off in about an hour and a half from now. He might shed a bit of light on that, but I think there was also probably pressure on the side of the Winnipeg Jets to act quickly, to make sure that they wouldn't fall behind and they end up empty-ended at the end.

Who else was interested in Sean Monahan? Has been interested in Sean Monahan since last season. It's the Colorado Avalanche. And who has their first round pick next this year? It's the Colorado Avalanche. Colorado Avalanche, the Winnipeg Jets, and the Dallas Stars are fighting to finish first in the central, with the prize being that you don't have to face one of the other teams in the first round of the playoffs, that's going to be whatever that 2-3 battle is in the central division, that's going to be a tough series. That's going to be the best series of the first round, I would think. And avoiding that has a certain value, and there's going to be an arms race. So they jumped up. They had to be decisive here. So good on them. And Kevin Sheveld has a reputation of being a highly methodical, perhaps overly patient general manager, but didn't hesitate in this instance and probably recognized, again, that the market as it stands today, this is the best option that's available. Could that change in the next few weeks? Because teams are going to fall out of the race. And if some of those teams decide to throw someone else in the market that no one expected, then, yeah, maybe you could get.

But now, excuse me, the Jets have Monaghan. They give him an extra five weeks to acclimate himself to his new team. I think it's a good move for Winnipeg. And it's not like they're bereft of prospects. That's the thing with Colorado is that if they give up their first-round pick, they don't have a second, they don't have a third, and they don't have many prospects. So it's probably a tougher decision for them. So Winnipeg recognizing that and saying, Listen, we have a decent prospect the pool, considering where we are in the standings. We can pay this price. Let's just do it and get the guy that we want. I wish more GMs were like that. Stop waiting for the deadline and waiting and waiting and waiting, hoping to extract that one little extra asset, turning a fourth into a third or something. When you get the guy you want at the price you were willing to pay, just do it. And so kudos to Sheryl Deha for doing that.

The Boston Bruins are probably in need of another sentiment, but they don't have their first-round pick. They have a depleted covered of prospects, and they've got a hard money on the cap.

And they have no cap space.

It will be very difficult for them to get better, to improve at the deadline in that situation. So it might be a money in, money out type of situation. Other teams probably would have been in the mix, too. You could easily find six or seven teams. Colorado could improve. Sorry, Carolina could improve down the middle. Washington, if they think that they have any chance of making the playoffs. Toronto, the Rangers, obviously. But those are all Jersey. Those are all difficult teams to deal with.

Money is tight. And money is tight. Yes. I think I thought maybe we'll just close on this, but Ken Hughes made a point of mentioning that he spoke to Sean Monahan, basically, when all the rumors started flying around, to call him and say, Hey, the rumors are true. Everyone, even Sean Monahan himself knew he was going to get traded, even wanted to get traded, according to Ken Hughes talking about the contract negotiations over the summer to bring him back. For a year. He's going to be missed in that room. I think you just need to speak to the intangible qualities of veteran players on a rebuilding team. Any time you ask Yuraislav Khodski about Sean Monahan, his eyes would light up. It was really just how much he enjoyed talking to him on the bench, asking him questions about certain things and their discussions of their previous shift, especially when on the same line together, but even when they weren't. Yuraislav Khodski loved that guy. Cole Caulfield took 10 minutes after the trade was announced to give a shout out to Monahan on his Instagram story. He was a really, really well-liked presence in that room.

And in that sense, he's going to be missed. And just from a pure hockey sense, he's going to be missed. Ken Hughes mentioned that Alex Newhook should be back shortly when he was asked about the current center depth on the team, which suggests that when he does come back, Alex Newhook is going to be back at center, which was not a very good experiment at the beginning of the season, obviously necessitated by Christian Dvorak's injury, and he's also injured again now. I guess we could expect Alex New York to come back as a centerman, which is not ideal, but we all knew-It will do.

It will do.

It'll do.

For now, I mean, his longer prospect with the Montreal the Canadians to be a winger. But I think that for the time being, the fact that he's got that versatility, this is a situation where they need him at center. That's where he will play. Basically, he's not the same centerman than Monahan is on many aspects, but it's going to be a status quo. They'll have the same number. It's not as if they lost a centerman because they'll have a new hook as third-line center, and they'll keep rotating those guys brought up from the Laval Rocket, probably for the rest of the season.

I don't know if it's always going to be- He'll be second-line center, really. Yeah, of course. Obviously, Evans is there. But again, just It speaks to just the lucid nature of this front office. When Ken Hughes, at his midseason thing, said, Our plan won't change regardless of what what the team does. We're going to continue on our plan, our long-term plan of making this team better in the future. It's difficult to hear, but nick Suzuki watched that press conference that day. And while much of it was in French, and I think that specific line from Ken Hughes was in French, I think Suzuki understands enough French to understand what Ken Hughes is saying in French. And I spoke, speaking to him after the game that night, it's hard for him to hear that we're going to be sellers. I hate selling at the deadline, but it's up to us to put management in a position where they decide not to sell. No matter what happened between now and March eighth, that wasn't going to happen this season, and Hughes made it clear. That night, the Canadians beat the avalanche, for crying out loud. It wasn't as if they went out and beat a top of own it, but the plan was going to remain in place.

Now they've executed one part of it. And by not retaining salary on Sean Monahan, I think they left themselves open to execute another part of it between now and March eighth. All told, two first round picks. Tom here, thanks to Sean Monahan, and the Canadians remain open for business between now and March eighth. So I think on all levels, this is a win. You can quibble over whether they could have gotten more for Sean Monahan. I personally don't think they could have gotten much more. And now you don't have to worry about him getting hurt between now and March eighth. So I think there's a lot of things to like about this deal for the Canadians.

That news, though, makes nick Suzuki He's weekend even worse than it had already started to be.

Do you see his sad face during that draft? I know. He's just sitting there. He's like, Am I going to be the last pick? Am I going to be in that group before?

Sad puppy face.

Sad puppy face. All my buddies are on a beach somewhere, and I'm here waiting to be picked last.

Yeah, I think he would have taken the beach after a few appearances at the All-Star Game. I You put on a brave face yesterday because I was in Toronto for Media Day around the All-Star Weekend. But I'm sure that for some guys, it's clearly they're super happy to be there. Others, they could do without. Sydney Crosby skipped the draft and decided to go skate on an outdoor rink in Montana and show up in the very last minute possible.

In full equipment. I found That's not weird. He's alone on an outdoor rink in full equipment, but that's besides the point. But anyhow, so I think Nick's reaction that night is probably echoed among his teammates in the sense that they hate being in this position. But you know what? I mean, if Ken Hughes and Jeff Gordon play their cards right, maybe this time next year, they won't be in that position. But it'll be up to them to show that they merit that. But for now, this is a good return on Sean Monahan. And for Sean Monahan's sake, let's hope things go well in Winnipeg. He can have a strong play-off for them and come out with a really good contract. But the other bit that Ken Hughes mentioned is that, based on where they are, to all the people who said, We'll just sign Sean Monahan, Ken Hughes admitted, based on where we are, we could not offer him a reasonable contract with our future being cloudy as it is right now. They don't have a clear vision of what they'll be in the future, so they couldn't offer him a reasonable contract, which, again, to me, is going to be somewhere...

The floor for that contract is four years, $5 million a year, probably higher than that on a money basis. Now, Sean Monahan That's an opportunity to go and get that contract somewhere. So good for him and good for the Canadians.

I didn't agree with you at first on that, but then I went to look at the comps and yeah. That's what he's looking at. He's definitely at a 5 million You look at the other guys that were in this position in terms of age and becoming a UFA. That's a lot of those sentiment who had roughly... If you look at all those that were, let's say, that were able to get between three and a half million and six, and between four and six years, it's all guys like Brock Nelson. You had Pajul that was some time ago, but he looked favorably compared to all those guys.Cop and comfort.Cop and comfort. Yeah. My God, that's a law firm.

Monaghan, cop and comfort would be a good... Yeah. Lllc.

He looked favorably compared to those guys. That's why it would be too rich for the Canadians and actually would make no sense at all.

Probably it won't make sense for the Jets either, but that's the price of doing business. But I think, honestly, from everyone's standpoint, from the Jets standpoint, from the Canadian standpoint, from Monahan standpoint, this is a win all around. Of course, Monahan has to perform for the Jets for it to be a win for him, but I'm pretty confident he will, and he'll be a welcome addition to that dressing room, a veteran presence that will contribute there. So, yeah, win, win, win is what you're really looking for in any trade, and I think this is that.

Lose, lose, lose is what Canadian is going to do the rest of the season, though. We're going to see a lot of sad faces towards... There's 32 games left. It's going to hit the morale of that group. Martelly, I think St.

Louis has got a lot. 33 games left.

33? Yeah. I think St. Louis has got a lot of work to do to keep the spirits high and make sure that his guys stay on message and they stay with their eyes on the prize.

All right. We're going to wrap it up there. This is a quick because obviously, Marco Antoine and I have to write about this right now, so we wanted to get this out of the way. But thank you for listening. We'll be back on Monday. We'll bring Future Friday back next week, and maybe between now and then, we'll take a look at the NHL draft and see what this pick might mean if the Canadians decide to use it to draft a player. But until then, we're back on Monday. A reminder that Monday, it will be our Mailbag segment. So if you have questions for the mailbag, you can email them to basuandgodet@gmail. Com, or you can send them to us on X or Twitter @basuandgodet. Until then, have a good weekend. Mark Antoine, we're going to talk to you again.

Yes. Always a pleasure to be talking. Always a pleasure. Yeah, talking to you is always fun.

All right.

See you, everybody. Bye-bye.