Hello, everybody, welcome to Episode 301 of Spin Chickens presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam, but got here on the barstool sports podcast, Family.

Well, boys, obviously the draft is the big news since last episode. We're going to bring on a former NHL who also happens to be an expert on prospects and a little bit. But let's just say hello. Catch up a little bullshit a little. First, I produce producer Mickey Grenelle. What's going on, big guy? What's going on, guys?

Draft is always disappointing for me. Another year, no calls. So just trying to get by.

How mad were you at that giveaway. Right there are ready to go Renaldi. You kind of fall. Shook his head. I felt bad. I was like fuck just narrowly just I wouldn't have noticed it until you really showed the true disgust. All right.

Yeah. And I hate three to one. And because I'm going to say something else wrong later in the show because I have a fucking problem. Also, I hate to give more work for Gradoli, but whatever, not even a minus one. I just tripped off the blue line.

That's all right. Back. I'll get back. You know, that was like coming out pregame ceremonies. They got the laser light show in the fog machine and you can't see where the carpet ends and you fucking stumble out of the gate right in front of all the fans just waiting. Kind of like got of like semipro style.

Oh, it's up there. Buis, Paul Business-to-business it nothing much.

I was doing a little prep for for Emran coming on in a little bit here. Realize that he was traded from Pittsburgh to Boston for a fourth round pick in 2003 and sure. Shit that ended up being the fucking draft pick that the penguins and the pick and be with in the fourth round. And I figured, you know, it's the draft episode, so bring it right back there. And it's just crazy how the world works. And now we're going to be getting this guy on.

So he changed the course of my life. This guy pretty funny.

Imagine imagine you in Boston. I don't think you want to ask the two to hang up here because of the respect.

I would have been on the fly. I would have been on the second program. I would have been on the second program when a quick cup and get my dick wet and I'm out of town. Piece homies.

I love that you think you would have made that Bruins team that won the cup? You wouldn't, but you could. Snarf making the Penguins and they got the same as me. Yeah, I kind of and and to think I would get laid as much as Tyler second do it for crying out loud.

Just very naive here in that last voice of course is Ryan lawit. Doug Ryan Whitney. What's going on buddy. What's up guys.

Great to chat with you. I watched your fishing video because you were pathetic. You had nothing in that video just snoozing down there. Aaargh! You were crippled by the end of it.

But the the the the handoff from Fedoruk to you not being staged was actually hilarious to see on camera. You had described it to me when I ran into the next day, but pretty, pretty entertaining video. I like that he caught a fish look like a bitch trying to hold that thing. Have you ever held a fish before, Mike?

I have not. Oh my God.

I haven't done any sort of fish and I've still held a fish.

But nonetheless, the entire time I was just laughing at Donny. Does that guy is like, was that just a random go out and save you move by him?

Or were you actually struggling?

No, I was we were playing it up mean I'm actually a pretty good swimmer, but we would, you know, look for content pieces. I definitely wasn't drowning. And for my pasty skin, the people comment on it like it's first off, it's September. We made the video. We was swimming in Boston Harbor on September 2nd. My ancestry is from fucking Donegal, the northern part of Ireland of the Republic of Ireland, where pasty people were prone to skin cancer.

That's why on that pale, I don't even take my shirt off in the summer. Oh, I don't want to see it anyways.

No, no need to explain here. And you go and you go in the dark. But let's go to why got so crippled. And that's kind of my fault because I didn't expect to get sick.

I took tartans. Those don't like what do you call it, the chop you nothing else.

Your big swells. Yeah.

Oh, my goodness. It was like we were getting air every time. And I'm like, I'm not used to this. I'm used to kind of the inlet where we go on the boats in Vancouver and Victoria to where it ain't that choppy. So I was like, oh no, I'm going to last night, even before we start rolling the camera here and then Grindley goes up to areas, we've got a man down. We need we need you to step it up.

And he just started cranking drinks and turned into an electric factory. So thank you for battling through that. Aaargh! You're right back to even you went minus one first shift tonight. Now you're back to even.

Yeah, well, retroactive plus one, I guess. Yeah. He said, hey, we need a big one for me today. So I said, all right. With those pink Whitney nips with Bud Light, Seltzer's just started chugging and I'm glad everybody enjoyed it because we did. We really had fun. I know me and Gee were the only two kind of fish all day. Just a couple, not even keep it. But like I say, the old bumper sticker, a bad day.

Fishing is better than a good day's work. Even if we were working and fishing at the same time that. Absolutely.

They also because we want to give a big shout out to Tim Stapleton and boys, those guys took care of us on the fishing trip. Hopefully everybody checked out the video. If you haven't yet, it's on YouTube.

It's fantastic stuff. A lot of fun, lot of laughs. Most importantly, check. It's the best of biltong you can try out there, you get your pink breast cancer shirt on, was selling T-shirts, sweatshirts, Barstow's obviously a hundred percent of the proceeds is going to breast cancer. Obviously, after the costs. If you don't have any of that swag yet, you tell them what they got.

Yeah, roots and wings. It's a great foundation to help raise awareness for breast cancer and pink Whitney and chocolates. We have tons of sweatshirts, t shirts, everything in the barstool sports store. So it's just barstool sports, dot com slash check, which you can find in 100 percent of all net proceeds go to roots and wings, not ours.

That's great news. You fuck cancer. Everyone, everyone check those for cancer.

Yeah, I can't say that enough. What I didn't see too much of the Paskin the other night was as much of a disaster as Twitter made it sound like it was an absolute gong show.

I had just finished up golf and then stayed down a road sandwich, watched the game. I took the chiefs minus eleven.

Yeah, minus negative minus eleven and a half. I did and I didn't, you know, I don't care, like I want the Patriots to win.

But in my mind I was like this Patriots team flew today. They have to, they're going to get blown out. The Chiefs team's amazing. They had no business covering that game.

It was such a pathetic performance by Brian Hoyer.

I can't like I know what do they call it, the armchair QB or the Monday QB? Monday morning quarterback.

Monday morning quarterback, dude. I mean, fuck, it's not an easy position, but he's played forever and before half. But it's the only thing this guy can't do to make sure he gets three points to take.

Sack gets sacked and then later in the game, they're driving down that the only thing he can't do is fumble. He draws back and fumbles. So I covered I was happy and then I gandelman at an awful job. But that Patriots team has some swagger to law to prove Belichick.

Now Gilmore's got covid. That sucks. I don't know what the NFL is going to do. It seems to be coming an enormous issue, but yeah, good win for me gambling wise, but horrific loss if you're a real diehard Patriots fan.

As far as what's going on in the NFL, you just mean all the different cases on different teams that are popping up right now. Yeah, yeah, because it's getting a little closer. Well, I mean, I think the Patriots lose their QB and now they lose their best defensive player, like when can they play again? And it's just I don't know. It just seems it seems like it's it's right. I mean, that league, it's not going to stop playing.

There's no chance that the NFL will be putting us out there in uniforms to play the season before they cancel it, but replace losing guys left and right.

Shane Falko, his favorite movie ever, the replacements that he would play, he would tie down Vitaly, just like what position would you play if you played today?

And right now me like debark. I would probably have to be the mutant that runs and tries to tackle people off kickoff all night. And, you know, Guy Thorpedo, the kamikaze, they're like, go get go get Qty every single play you play. And then just like fucking sit there and don't lose your helmet.

A bad day is way better than a good day. Torpedo guy.

A Belichick would eat me up and spit me out if I played there. He kind of reminds me of the Lou Lamoriello of the of the NFL.

But I think steroids was a slap in the face of Bill Belichick, like. Well, yeah, Lou Amarilla. I mean, I titles the both, but.

Yeah, but I just think Bell checks out a totally different level success wise. But I think back Lamoriello, obviously he's done this forever and the devils were such a wag and he he's got but Bill Belichick is had a way different level. Yeah. OK, fair. Yeah.

But I say but I think Scottie Bowman's closer to Belichick than, than like Lillemor and I don't think he necessarily ran a tight ship like you think McCarty would have flew on, on the Patriots. I mean I don't know Baron. Yeah. I don't know.

Like you don't think Scottie Bowman ran a tight ship, you know, as tight as not as tight as Bill Belichick.

I don't think Aaron Hernandez on his team, he murdered people.

We're talking about Darren McCarty's went out and partied, OK? Bowman was an absolute fucking die hard like sign sticks. Come in after midnight, get caught by a bell boy. OK, fuck, man. I'll take your Hernandez comment and I'll double down on the fact you did. Do you think Bill Belichick would have ever got vetoed out of practice? No, that wouldn't happen. Well, there you go. But as far as I know, I think this is a good battle because I think it's not playing for Belichick.

No, I'm not even saying Scottie. I think Belcher said the next he's the coach and the GM.

He may he does both. So we're talking about Lamoriello as a coach, Tom Bowman as a GM.

Combine them and maybe you got Bill Belichick.

I'm a Patriots fan, though. Yeah. I meant full body of work. So anyway, but I thought that was a little good discussion there and it was a great comparison by me. So you're welcome. Good stuff.

And besides, you did mention Ian Moran a few minutes ago. We're going to have him on in a little bit. But we did want to mention the first three picks of the draft NHL draft, round one the other night. No surprise, Alexis La Franjieh went to the Rangers. He was the first Quebec born player to go number one overall since Marc-Andre Fleury back in 2003. The number two pick, Clinton by field went to the Kings, becoming the highest drafted black player in league history of Keenan.

Seth Jones both went forth and they got taken in number three, which to me was the coolest pick of the draft, Alex Trebek coming out. He's been obviously battling cancer, still doing Japanese, still work on his balls off. Did the Senate, his number three pick, Tim Stotts, like try to pronounce fifteen different ways. So I don't know if I'm butchering it, but the way they set it up, like like Japanese style, it was just really cool the way.

OK, so the Trebeck thing was unbelievable. And then some senators like Fan Account tweeted out now the now the senators are officially bankrupt after having to pay back to the Senate. So I'm going to say this, guys. I had a blast watching the draft, much like the bubble situation. I thought they hit it out of the park, given the circumstances, the Morgan rally thing, Roman, you always see coming out to fucking flood watches, flood warnings and all NHL cities when that guy came on screen with I don't I think his last button done up was right at the bottom of his chest.

And he looked like he was ready to do my my dry Sitel cologne advertisement for me.

Wouldn't he be the perfect bozo can do that because he he's from Mannheim, Germany. How about also you mentioned before.

Well, we started a record.

We got Mel Kiper, I mean, Craig Button screaming, screaming in your face all night. Jeez. Bob McKenzies Palek. Oh, he's just no wonder they were separated. It wasn't Kazakov, but it was because he knew Botten be yelling at us all night.

I was loving it because it had that like very slow pace to it because they were stretching out every time. So then when he would get back on on air and he would give his opinion on something, it was like that you going it was like the jolt, the coffee and eat it. It's like apparently at least Tony Robbins conferences. They play music every twenty minutes. I get everybody back up, you know. Yeah. All right. Let's get the energy back of the room here.

Now, Tony Robbins is kind of a guy that's a little sketch in my mind. He charges like six grand to go to one of those daily shows.

I'm not saying he doesn't help people, but I yet I haven't even read one of his books. I'm not I'm not making an opinion on that. But I'm saying is like he was like the jolt, the coffee in the room that we needed to last sister in that draft. So shuttlecraft button, great to see Bobby back involved again. And I thought I thought pure Maguire was bringing the juice too. So I got to watch the American feed, although there was one really funny thing that happened on the Canadian feed that went viral.

I don't know if you guys want to talk about it quite yet.

Oh, on with Columbus is big with Columbus pick and this guy was ranked one sixty.

Yeah. So yeah. Yeah.

Yeager Sannikov.

I think he was he was announced as the selection from Yamal Kirche Line and they go back to the sports that does Sam Cosentino, who's an expert, knows everything about every draft pick. He's shuffling through his papers 100 miles an hour.

They go over Brian Burke, he goes, he's a Russian winger.

And then Elliott starts saying, I just saw the panic in everyone's eyes.

So an off the board selection that now you could talk about people like Dog that pick, it's already doing like you feel like you have guys that you know way more about, you know, way more to expect.

But this is a guy you can't really judge how he's drafted.

I think that that they they have an idea of a player they're going to get now the argument and they're happy to take a risk on him early.

The thing is the. You look at who the Bruins kind of remember, that's the risk they took with a couple of those guys, you know, they could add Basel. What you was that all right?

Oh, man. Like, I don't know.

Sometimes these first round reaches there, they're a little sketchy. Like if I'm a bluejackets fan, I'm not loving it. But at the same time, they probably none of them could really name who went after them. So it really is a crapshoot. These guys are 18 years old, but to not have anything down on the kid shows that this is way off the board.

I think they have. Boston had three picks within that area of Berzina row. Yeah. Three in a row to the Brosque ended up being like he's he's a solid player. But the other two, I believe, were misses. Going back to your point, like, yeah. I mean, I love this situation as a non Columbus fan because I'm like, wow, like, what's this guy seeing? And was our scout seeing that nobody else says this is like an insane move for the fact that if he was at 160, how much later do you think that this guy would have dropped most teams like you saw Calgary do twice.

They just pumped back their pickworth. They don't see him as being a threat. I don't know how many other teams had this kid on the radar, but now all of a sudden, like this guy, within the next two or three years, you've got to hope is like going to at least has had to make some type of noise. So I guess he's he's in the cage all this year.

I mean, he's he has five goals in twelve games already. So, I mean, that's pretty impressive. He's on a good team, Omsk.

So listen, there's there's a Finnish guy on that team. Maybe he's talking to the GM in Columbus and said this kid is legitimately incredible and people don't know about him. You never know.

But I hope the kid makes it would be exciting to see a person that's that kind of not not lowly rated, but somebody that nobody thought they'd be a first round pick to be picked in the first round and then light it up.

A good story. I want to also mention to differentiate the number one pick what a future sub we have on hand. I'm sure Ian Moran could tell us a little bit more about number one pick in the Quebec league draft CHL Rookie of the Year. Call the player of the Year, then CHL Player of the year again and then player of the world, best player in world juniors and the number one pick in the NHL draft.

So a full blown prodigy on our hands. And I think that he is so perfect for New York City. I love the fact the Rangers got a first overall pick at just the Rangers and I should kind of hate the Rangers.

I was on the penguins. I hate the islanders, but the Rangers, Madison Square Garden, I love. And so I think that they should have a first overall pick. They should have a superstar in the league.

They're the New York goddamn Rangers. And I think from what I'm hearing to boot, he's got that like extra, you know, where he's hyper focused on it, like he's, you know, kind of like that Sidney Crosby mentality, the ones who, like, they want to be great, Nathan McKinnon, those types. And then, of course, another Canadian and a one and two combo first and second overall picture Canadian. So that's that's a proud moment.

A couple other moments, too bizarre, Delilah, Chuck's widow, Crystal, announced the Winnipeg Jets pick at number 10. Of course, he wore number 10 there in the 10th year of the second stint in Winnipeg. Just a really nice touch to bring her on. And also, Doug Wilson Junior, he used sign language to make the shots pick. I believe it was the last from the first round Aussie while we splat splat. His mom is deaf.

So he actually signed out the pitch to her. And I read up on that family man. That family's really struggled quite a bit as a single mother. The father's no longer in the picture. They're divorced, I should say. She's deaf and she's got five kids. So they all had to learn sign language. They all had to learn on their own. Now the kid's deaf. Four of the five kids are boys. They all played hockey.

They've had I guess you call anonymous benefactors, people who know how good these kids were and how nice some kids they were. They would anonymously donate these kids fees so they could go on a plane of the year or get equipment. So it was it was a really nice touch. They added that.

I just figured we throw that we cannot forget.

Jake Sanderson, you guys ever heard of him because he's probably going to be a superstar NHL defensemen or maybe have a podcast in 15 years because it's an American born player, former NHL Jeff Sanderson son picked fifth overall, a smooth skating defenseman with monster ears.

So I must've had four thousand tweets to me. Holy shit. Here he is. He took over for you. You no longer are the fifth overall pick with the biggest years of all time. Now, this kid skates way better than I did.

He's way more physically mean now. They got him with Thomas rebought in Ottawa. What a player he's going to be. But the similarities and look between men in this guy who he's got to be a little bit wary. Hopefully his ankles don't hurt.

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No you cannot. And aaargh! I just remembered one more funny thing that happened towards the end of the draft. Yannick Piros son was drafted and Yannick parol was probably getting a little bit nervous because it was getting later in the first round and this guy wore a gray dress shirt with this guy had the biggest petter's I have ever seen in my entire life. It was they were worse than Lando's when we did that sit down interview in Boston. I bet you the the circumference of a basketball, maybe even larger.

Just had just a natural human sweat. You're you're legit. That's like saying what a sweat this game is. What a sweat. The first rounders my son has been picked.

Maybe he's a natural.

Swear you can't go with the gray water. Look, though, you texted me immediately, there were giant. They were like the pancakes Uncle Buck made in the movie.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't I don't think I've ever seen them. Not big. But of course, Janik Prall had a pretty good career. Would they call no panic Janik. That's a great nickname. And if that was his nickname, good on face offs. I think more of a defensive minded player, but apparently this kid's a stud offensively. All right, gang, well, I think we should all just about start over Emerin of his draft expertise.

It's now a pleasure to bring in a man that's been requested on this show many, many times, former Belmont Hill stud went on to play a couple of years at Boston College, where he won Hockey's Rookie of the year, and he went on to a 15 year pro career play for the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Boston Bruins, the Anaheim Ducks.

He played in Europe.

Ian Moran, who now helps run Neutral Zone, which is a scouting service, will get into that along with helping a player, Agent Mac cater in player development. Thank you so much for joining us. Ben chuckles Hey, Ben, great.

Thanks for having me on, guys. A little nervous after that intro.

Oh, yes, I do. Really and truly. I do a good job of doing the intros.

Usually it's not my thing, but I try to step up for a challenge once in a while when I was a tough one that was going on right now and people wondering home hours, I had a little power outage.

We don't know if he had 45 beers or the power actually did go out, but he got struck by lightning trying to get struck by the Bud Lightning. So NHL drafts going on right now.

First, before we get into that, why don't you tell us what the neutral zone is? Quickly, what you guys do when when was it started? And and how is this a couple of days gone for your team?

So Neutral Zone, it's a scouting service. You can have NHL teams, major junior college, USA, all teams, prep schools all the way down into individual subscribers. We more or less Batdorf Arrival's with football. So you get the you know, the five star kid that was going to Georgia, the, you know, quarterback who's going to Tennessee or whatever it may be we started doing with hockey. So this year I run the NHL draft for them and they go to birth year.

We have four years of notes on these kids. We have the trajectory. We have the background of where they've been, where they've come from. You know, you fourteen. It seems like it's really young, but our class to be a prep school, they're looking for kids that are coming in and want to know, you know, where they go to boarding school. They go to Shaddick where they want to go to Mount St. Charles. Now, that kind of thing where they look at Selex academy.

And then from there, we have all the levels of juniors where you could have USA Child and all else. You have tier one, two, three, NCDC to a certain extent. No, you major junior in the colleges. And we have a lot of Division one, most division threes because they don't have the resources. And then obviously we have the individual subscribers. So we don't just watch and try to pick out the stats. We're trying to add value to the Division three kids, to the kids that are playing high school hockey or, you know, maybe a kid who goes to a tournament absolutely rips it up.

So it's a little bit different than rivals where we would go down, where we do, but we figure it out is a five star would be like J'accuse from last year's draft. And a two and a half star would be a kid who's kind of hanging out in my club in college.

But we might get a pretzel right now. I might get a fucking pretzel.

I don't know how you even remember it explained all that you'd be at three, seven, five, you'd be a division one kid might have to pay some money, but you'd be able to play. You contribute. OK, in the locker.

I thought what was wet? Well, it was a start. What would be a four seven five fuck off. Once you get five, you're giving him a five four seventy five point above you.

But you would have been a four seven five. He was big move. Well, great first touch contribute offensively. He was going to improve his game defensively as he turned pro is going to play for Parker at BYU. He's a kid. We would have watched we would have watched a lot. We would have that. We would have known a ton about them. Did know a ton about it. But yeah, you'd have been a four seven five for sure.

Would you want to know when he got kicked out of his building house, would you would you have known how they would have liked that?

Jan, I actually the my background and all that kind of stuff. I have a pretty good idea what's going on with these kids and where they are, where they get in trouble.

They feel like I can be a good resource for you got like you're like stalking them by finding out with their groceries.

Ah, yeah, I know. Yeah, I'm very aware of what they what they do, but I, I don't really want any of the kids get in trouble. I took care of that for them. I just want them to if they do get in trouble I kind of, I can be a resource for them. It's all about I get their feedback under them and get head in the right direction, you know, just that kind of stuff.

But as far as where the stars would be, where would be a force of five, you would have a three seven five.

You would have been a five if you didn't have that fucking sale on the side of his face, sort of down out there. That's probably what messed up his ankles.

He was just like, look, four years ago when we knew we knew it, but I knew he had foot problems before I was turning pro. So I knew it was going to be something going on with it.

But it definitely definitely we're we're just I was just gonna say we're just messing around because it kind of how silly the whole draft was and all these funky little storylines. But as far as this year's draft, like, what do you know about some of these guys that there weren't a lot of background on? Like, let's talk about maybe the fifteenth pick, I believe it was for Columbus came out. I don't know that.

No work it. Nobody knew anything about him. I can tell you that he he started playing in the cage. All right. Now he's an old one and playing and he's got five goals in twelve games. So I don't think if there's not the delay over here, I don't think he's a first rounder. But I know that and does a hell of a job with Columbus. So they knew what they were doing. My calling on him last night, when that went through as he had natural hair right now, he looked confident in his profile picture and so forth.

So there's there's a reason why he was the first. Oh, yeah. I would have been horrified. It was like they're like, wait a minute.

He doesn't wear Abercrombie tracksuits to the rink, guys. I think if we're going straight Brada, he's all right. Like like Malkin.

Right to the Levertov before we even get into the maybe the unknown guys like Furnier like. Are you talking about a guy that four, four, four or five years has been a five star dude? I mean, in a sense like who can you compare him to in the NHL?

Well, the frenzy begins every year he's added something to his game. He came in, scored a ton of a ton of goals, his first year playing the cue that he started and he was the nicest guy this year is more physical. Last year, he would you would have been in the debate to be a top couple in last year's draft. He's a little one. So he would fall in line with those guys. But to me, there was really no doubt that he was going to be the first overall this year's MVP of the world juniors.

He missed games with injuries. You led the tournament scoring. He's a kid. He's going to go to New York and he's going to have a blast. He's going to do great. He's he's a big Kati's French. He's a good looking kid. He's exactly what what the Rangers are looking for.

When you said he got physical. So would you compare him more to McKinnon than, let's say, a Krosby? Like what? Like, what's his style of.

Yeah, he's definitely he's he's elusive. And you make guys miss one on one. But he's a bigger kid than Crosby. He's stronger. You know, I think he's Crosby's brain. You know, I don't not many do. But as far as his type of play and what he can do, he's not afraid to go to the mat. He's not afraid to bang. If a guy comes across the middle and he's got his head down, he's he's going to hit him.

He's not going to look away. He's not going to try to steal the puck. He's going to send a message. He's that guys for multiple years and Major Jr trying to go after him and he stands up for himself. You know, he's not a fighter, but he's not he's not afraid by any stretch. He's he's to me, he was the number one pick all along and he has been for multiple years. So awesome.

What about the German that went third? And I don't want to skip over by Phil. We talked about him quickly with that German. I mean, I know everyone's kind of talked about him for a long time now, but what type of player is he? And were you surprised he didn't go second? Because all the mock drafts I had kind of had him there.

See, I had him going later. So I so I don't know. Did you guys ever go over and play in the deal? I never did. All right. So I did. For part of the year, I was in Berlin. You know, there are three German kids that end up going in the first couple rounds. Studios is the one he went that he went third. Overall, I thought he was going to drop to about ten.

I know he's an eighteen year old playing against playing against men and all that. But I think about myself. When I went playing the deal, I wasn't the most physically fit kid. I was having hydration issues, you know what I mean? And I'm sure that some of the pros that he's playing against are taking it the same as they did when they or the American League trying to get to the NHL or NHL. I know in our five year league is what you're saying.

Well, it's more than that. But it's there's there's definitely I mean, here in Germany, it's it's great beer. I mean, I was drinking, crystalizing with lemons on top, and it was it was glorious. So it was it was good stuff and not taking anything away from them. But he was he was playing against guys that have been in the NHL or had been in the American League. And I don't think they were training as hard as they had been if they were still over here, over here doing it.

And I don't think that's good, bad or indifferent. I think that's just fact. And I think there's other kids that are playing in the NHL or the Western League that are competing against kids, that are playing their balls off every night and trying to get out there and trying to earn a deal and earn a contract and earn a draft pick. And, you know, I think he's going to play I think he's going to play in the NHL.

But I wouldn't have been shocked. I hit him at him later than that. I have a ten, but it was I think he's going to I think he's going to play. I just it was more that I think the DL is and isn't what whether you're making it out to be? You could I know you're saying you can argue you're playing a game. I was. I was. But it's not the child.

Yeah, it was, PRUs said it was officiated weird and it was just like a weird style of hockey.

It is. There's there's if you hit you hard, you get a penalty. Any any contact to the head was a five. They played a style. We played his style because she was our coach. You remember Darren Quent winner. So Quaner was the basically if you played Lefty, you could play the entire game because you never did anything other than go back and retrieve a dump. And then you went to sign me up. Yeah, pretty much.

Basically set back starts now in Robinson Zone.

And it was the the center, the left wing and pinched from the goal line all the way, goal line to goal line in the right D one goal line to goal line on the other side in the left you just hung out and played in the middle. So was the Swedes who play this torpedo type type four check in what we were doing there and everyone in D was doing was the left. You just hung out. And Quinter, as far as I know, he could still be playing over there.

I mean, he could barely break a sweat. You get these great passages, little tiny stick. But, you know, it's it's just a little bit different. There's definitely not as physical is not as clutch and grab is not as grinding and not taking anything away from those kids. I just think it's it's a little bit different.

Who was a guy that that maybe you're going to look at is, wow, I can't believe they got him that late in the first round.

A team that's got to be thrilled getting the guy maybe way later than they had him ranked.

I'm going to go with the Russian goalie, ask her out. You know, he's a kid that could be could easily be in the top three. He has a chance to be special. He started out OK. They get a shout out to one goal game right away. He is playing a couple international tournaments, has been unbelievable. But he's a kid that people might look in a couple of years and say, how the hell was in this game in the top couple?

What's happening in Russia that all of these kids are coming out now? There's been like a crazy wave of dominant young Russian goaltenders.

I have honestly, I have no idea. I think that the money in the KHL, maybe it's keeping kids around longer and there's more motivation to stay in play. They know they don't have to come to the states or North America to to to do it. But, you know, there's I mean, there's a ton of kids. There's also another Russian kid named Amirov who who Toronto took. It was a school kid. You could be somebody like Koocher.

He he's a little lefty, Katie. Strong in the pot. He's somebody that you guys know exactly what I mean. When you have a draft pick and you see a kid, there was a first rounder. You get your first day of training camp. You think, oh, this gets done. The water, he he doesn't have a chance, but they you see a kid who might have been a second or third rounder and, you know, you do the drills and all this and he's handled and passes that are crap and he's got it smooth and there's no issue with it.

And everybody's like that. He's a he's a Russian Cady's he's got a really quick release. He can protect the puck forever. And he's only about a hundred and sixty five pounds and the Leafs got him in the first round. So he's a kid that also could be questioned. Why wasn't he up higher.

Oh my God. The Leafs fans listen to this right now. We're going to be stroking themselves.

OK, so the beliefs also went on to run a fence like they went with the second round, right. The third round, maybe second round.

And then I think they win. I think they've had four or five wins overall who are like I think the fans, you know, they play in a hybrid sheet. It's not as big as an Olympic size is not as small as NHL. So there's a little more grinding. But they I'm not sure who Toronto's Finnish scout is or who had European scouters, but he's got to be a hell of a salesman because I think when I walked out of the room there still a couple of weeks left, I think that I think that Toronto had taken four or five Finns.

You know, they're all, you know, what the Finns are like. They're going to be hard to play against to protect the puck. Well, they might not be huge, but they've got good skills, good feet. And that's kind of what Toronto's got right now. And they're in their picks.

Are you saying for the hybridise as far as like they're just able to adapt to the North American game better?

Because I think they can, because I think there's more grinding, you know, like everywhere else in Europe, they're playing the Olympic sheet. It's just a bigger sheet. There's every good in Sweden. If it's a lefty or broer, it's like a football field, you know, like you. It's just so damn big. It was unbelievable. But in Finland, it's it's it's in between. It's not as big as as Olympic and not as small as NHL.

So there's a little bit more creativity. But, you know, you get the kids like like Sakuko, who is in our age group that was playing, you know, he's five nine two as quick as how to protect the puck as he used to battle and was competitive. And, you know, those are those are the kids I think Toronto is just trying to get right now.

It's funny, I think that that Finns had the reputation of being so hard to play against. And then over time, you play the Swedes the same way. But yeah, Finns have always had that edge to them. I remember the same thing.

It was Tomaru to me. Koivu playing against them is Eighty-three. I was like, oh my God.

There was no one who was the one you play with in Pittsburgh or was he not there yet? Yaka Karuta is in Pittsburgh with man.

He was after me but yeah he was, he, he had a fucking edge to him. I bet you a lot of people up there probably hate that fucking guy. He was the guy to play against the Finns.

Personality wise, they're much wider than the Swedes. The Swedes are so stoic. And just so you know, they don't they don't get after it, I mean, the friends that I played with, you know, they were, you know, Johnny Johnny, Johnny Conan was hysterical kid. And really Neimann and would be curfew's at midnight. He'd walk in every day at 12 01, just like Miss Curfew would stand in the lobby and see if anything happened.

Know, just like the fans were dramatically different than than the Swedes that I played with was tough year for in the first round guys like us players. Huh. Do you think it's just kind of one of those? What was it? Was it two kids picked in the first round?

Yeah, I think it was Sanderson and son. Yes, Patterson's kid. Sanderson is Jake Sanderson is Jeff right. Jeff Sandersons kid.

He's got big ears like me. We talked about this monster years on them. Yeah. You know, I don't know. I think last year's class of 2001 class, they were so dynamic and so skilled that they were kids that were going to be first rounders and just they were going to they can do things to be creative that the other kids did. And I think it's interesting, you talk to the guys who are coaching college this year and they played against the two national team and they they thought that this team was much more difficult to play against because they were physical and they played a much more grinding role.

You know, traditionally, those guys aren't the are the top high. Yeah. The standard Sandersons. I mean, he is he controls the game. Every game I saw him play, you control the tempo. You controlled the pace. He's got great feet. He's he's a leader. He's he doesn't skate. He's not as fast as father, but he's equally as smooth.

And then give us just a little breakdown because I Papasan been a legendary agent in hockey for a long time.

Sidney Crosby age and his son goes in the first round. What type of player is he? I think he's in the USA. Chelsea. He committed anywhere for school yet.

Yeah, we should go into Michigan. He started out at Shaddick and then went to USA to always play in Chicago, Chicago out of Wagin last year in the NHL. They were just running through everybody. And he is a kid that is improved every year since he was at Shaddock. Is you fourteen into his draft year. He's also competitive, full, regretful, grimey's, spunky. He's got skills. You taxand that he is not the biggest goodbody get in there and he jams.

He's, you know, I'd say at the beginning of the year probably that he's going to be a third rounder. And then as the year went on, went on, you can see that he was going to have the potential sneak into the first round. He's going to Michigan. Michigan has a hell of a class coming in. And it's amazing how many kids they've got. They're all all high end kids, high school kids that have the potential to have an NHL career.

He wasn't picked as a patty. He was he was picked as he earned it on his own. And he honestly, hysterectomies, how he's improved over the last couple of years has been unbelievable. And he was the real I said that that Chicago style team, the USA Today, they were the best team by quite a bit. They were the deepest and he was the heartbeat of that team.

The German was supposed to go second. A lot of professionals had him there. But that Quinten by field and he glanced over my shoulder, played in Sudbury. I think he's the highest pick in subsequent wolves history, highest actually black player ever drafted. Right at second overall. Is this kid the real deal? Yeah, he's big.

He's a study skates really well to me to be somebody like Keith Primo. I don't know if he's if he's going to be a guy who gets fifty goals, but he's going to be a guy who's reliable to a guy. He's got he's got good he's got good agility. He's strong. He's going to get stronger. He's an athlete. He had he was a real difference maker on Siberry. Without him, that team really struggled with him. They were competitive every game and he was playing against the other teams, you know, top guys, the draft picks, all that kind of stuff.

He he's got a chance to be special. There was talk of the beginning of the year that he could maybe, maybe go one. Overall, I thought about it for a little bit. But just when it came down, I think it was the Franjieh, no matter what, just because of what he's done in his body of work. But I feel there was a chance in a couple of years to to be a kid. It is like, holy crap, he's big, strong.

He makes plays.

He's got like a catalog type. Yes. Yes. Hardtack good, though. I don't know if he's like that. So you got to. He was. Talk to me honestly, the guy that I think he's like Keith Primo, he's big like that. I think he's bigger than gutsy. I think he might be. He has a potential to be stronger than Gatsby. But, you know, I don't I don't know leadership wise, but he's going to be the way we got to is or not.

But he has a chance. He's a big kid. He was a target. He responded well, every night he answered the balloting and he always, always played well. He's going to have I don't know what will happen with him this year, but he's going to play. And I would imagine they're going to let him go to the world juniors and he's he's going to put on a show of it.

Well, I also want to get into your career a little bit and think you guys played a long time with a lot of legends, but you have bcuz kind of those lean those tough years. Is that why you were only there for two and you and you turned pro or were you just ready.

A little bit of both. So we went in at that time there was a 92 Olympic team and then in 94 Olympic team because they condensed it and B.C. had had 11 kids left for that, that 92 Olympic team, whether they turned pro or not. So we were playing 11 freshmen my my freshman year, we were fine. We were five hundred, which is what you'd expect with 11 freshmen. And then my sophomore year, we had a goal.

You turn pro the day before school started and, you know, no excuses. It was what it was. We didn't win many games, but I know we swept you that year, which is which is really all I remember from my college life.

You know, I wouldn't approach this outside. I'd be there for me. It was nice and easy. And then that that spring there was a world championships and I was going to college because I was selected to play and, you know, went from there to the 1940s. And then I end up getting gas from the ninety four team at the end and not a couple of days later with that. Yeah.

How many days before. So, so there's like Ralph Cox on the eighty team and they didn't when I was in the box and belligerent and it was myself and Christopher Ferraro.

They, we had, we had had, we had a really good team going through the, the preliminaries. We had a great record to we had a winning record against the NHL teams with no U.S. team it ever had. And we were a tight knit group of guys. We've been living in a hotel in Cornwall, Connecticut since July 1st and traveling. And that was our base. And then they caught me and they cut Chris Ferraro. And I remember Chris had a twenty year and they were Chris Peter and Todd Marshawn or a line.

They were leaving scores. And when Chris got cut, that line kind of fell apart. And, you know, I was me. I certainly wasn't a wasn't a big shot like like those guys putting up the points. But I think just the cohesiveness of the team was kind of dead. And they added in Teddy Drury and Peter Zabaglione, and then they struggled and they went over there. But that was a great group of guys like John Lilly was on there.

David Chacal LaViolette was my roommate.

We had just known Mike Dunham, where the goalies, all these guys are mess now, just the black players.

There was a ton of guys. It was it was it was a good group of guys. I honestly, I think when Chris and I got cut, not that we were the difference makers. I think just the your gel guys was was kind of broke and they went over this the pre tournament finish finish in last place. And I know there was I heard afterwards that some of the guys went and talked about trying to get Chris Knight back as Peter with Peter was lost without Chris was the first time they'd ever really played a part.

And it just didn't happen. And the team went into the Olympics and it didn't do well. It's really too bad. It was a great group of guys and the team have done well all year. But Chris decided to go over to Lilyhammer, Norway, and watch his brother play. And, you know, I signed with Pittsburgh a couple of days later and finished out. You're playing in Cleveland.

Wow, that's pretty. How do you break up two twins that lit it off in college?

I gather that's confetti lit up in college. Was the coach then? It was Tim Taylor and John kind of guys. You know, it was it was to me, it was shocking that you had cut Chris just because he's with Peter and they were playing on that. They were the most offensive line with Todd Marshon. They had done well and they were draft picks and all that, all that kind of stuff, you know, but doing it, however, broke and broken, that was that that was the way it went.

Like the Sateen brothers can't break up the Syrian brothers. Yeah.

I mean, to me, just if I'm building a team and I'm going to add Teddy Drury was playing and he had knee surgery with Calgary, so they assign him to the team of players. Fabulous playing over in Europe. And I think I'm going to guess if I've got a guess. Two kids are Ian's one of them. Who is the other kid? Well, I'm not going to guess a twin.

You know, it's like, you know, they might as well cut them both. Yeah.

Which really makes sense. Or you get somebody else and it's just it's one of the other guys.

It's going the good news is you would have been back on the team though. Yeah.

Then that would have been I would have been something else. And then who the hell knows what happens from there.

But yeah, you've played with some pretty legendary players early on in your career in Pittsburgh, I guess your whole time there. Like Ron Francis. Yeah. Yeah, I like that was that was a little bit after when they'd won their cups, correct.

Yeah. Yeah. So I turned pro in ninety three. Ninety four season. Was, was the fan base dwindling a little bit at that point or because I was still able to sustain like that. Like it was, it was a nuthouse when those.

Oh it was, it was still, it was still good that we saw a good team. You know, there's still guys that were left over from the cops that were playing, we saw Mario and Yagur and Ronnie and, you know, it was there were guys there that were drawer's that were potentially weepies or, you know, outros, you know, scoring guys, all that kind of stuff we had to draw. I think it was always interesting playing in Pittsburgh that we couldn't play at home in the fall on a Friday night because high school football would outros you know, we'd have a light crowd.

And then on Sundays, we couldn't compete with the Steelers in the fall. But we could we could play on Saturday because nobody really gave a crap about football at that point, you know, moreto was done. And you been playing in the NFL for a while, but we still had good crowds at the Severina was jammed, was packed. It was it was loud. They had good music, all that kind of stuff. And then a couple of years later, we had Howard Baldwin, who was the owner.

And I'm not exactly sure how it all played out, but I know through state legislation, Pennsylvania was going to build build buildings and they built the three arenas or stadiums in Philly and they built new football and baseball in Pittsburgh. And Mr Baldwin said that the Penguins didn't need the new arena. They just needed these custom seats. And I'm sure when you got there right, though, the blue seats over in the middle, basically from blue lined the blue line.

That was what I said. You could take the place of the luxury boxes. And from that point on, it was just kind of a circus. We had multiple bankruptcies and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, you were there. You saw the end of, like the dynasty, and then you got into the beginning of the really dark years.

But I'm curious, what is this way with, you know, the you know, the practice facility in Pittsburgh? We were there last year for the Fall Classic, which is the USA, and they've got all the banners up at one end and we're looking and it's got all the Stanley Cups and then there's a dead period. And then there's all this down cups. And I'm standing with my buddy and he looks up at me and he's looking at the bandage, like, when when are you in Pittsburgh?

And I was like ninety three to ninety three to three.

And he's looking up, he's like, so that whole stretch there's no banners when you well you got to go in afterwards and it's just perfect. But he took a picture of my head in the middle with the banners and he said, well no, you were done in 03.

And then I came in and then I was gone before any cops came up to Boston.

Tradition going, yeah, we just albatros that, like, you know, you're you're a rookie. I think you played maybe a year or two in the minors, but what are your kind of first memories of like Lemieux and Yagur playing with these two guys is you kind of coming in and trying to prove yourself as an NHL?

Honestly, my my first thing ever was I flew in the pit and I signed and we had to do a passing drill and they made me go at Mario just to start it out. And I was absolutely terrified, nervous. And I couldn't do anything. And I was holding my stick so damn tightly. It was ridiculous. And then we did that practice, got sent to sent to Cleveland. Cleveland was a great group of guys. Our record, we were absolutely horrific, I think.

No shit. I think we were mathematically eliminated February. Twenty third like it was we were horrible, I think. Including Christine and I think we played Cincinnati twenty six times and lost twenty six times. It was something unbelievable. And then, you know, played to play the next year and I started playing that. That's playoffs. They started playing. I remember my first NHL shift was on a power play, and it was at that point I was still an offensive demon.

And I remember the face off looking around and I was playing the off point. It was I looked down and I got Mario on the midway. All right. Francis taking the draw jogger and Larry Murphy. I literally remember thinking to myself, holy shit, I got to figure something else out or I won't be here long enough.

I don't fit in with these. For somebody that doesn't belong here, I don't know who it is.

Maybe it's because he's older, but oh, God, I did a drill one time in the D on like a breakout one. And I miss Mario with one and they blew it down, made me restart. I was fucking my heart rate was like one and it just when you're making a play to him it's like not perfect. You feel like the biggest tool.

Yeah, we were it was later. It was when either was right before he retired in ninety seven or when he came back. But I was playing right DOGTV in the neutral zone and he curled through and he was going for a stretch to the middle and he wanted to pass on his back in as a righty and I gave it to him on his forehand or he could pick it up and I thought he could pick it up on his right hand and curl in between.

And he picked it up on his forehand, curled back at me and took a snapshot into my stomach and kicked me. And I had to settle and I went Daddy again. We jumped in. I went to the bench and get it to the bench. And he looks down immediately, going to the back end of a stick and gives me a thumbs up and then spins a stick around to the forehand and shakes his head. No coach is Randy Hill.

Your friend is like it's at the end of that bastard, right? Yeah. Yeah. Mark on my chest. He just literally middle of a game turn and gunned it right into my chest so it could have gone in a breakaway. I think they're good at one.

Yeah. Oh, man.

Hey, you had a breakaway there. I didn't want it there. I want to make an example when you want to make an example of this young buck, when did you realize, though, that because you're an offensive guy that maybe wasn't going to be your role like in the NHL?

I mean, I know you realized it on that power play, but when did it kind of switch over to you being piqué guy defensive, just like so, so hard to play against?

Pretty much. That's not what we got. We got knocked out of the playoffs that year and I went home and basically changed my mindset. When I was growing up. They thought there was no way I could feel penalties. There is no way that I would be that kind of guy, you know, that I basically just went home and said, screw it. I'm going to learn how to block shots. I'm to learn how to be in the lanes and learn how to be a tough guy to play against all that kind of stuff.

And I just said, I'm I'm playing and I don't give a shit. You know, it was to me, it meant more to to play in the NHL and be a role guy and block shots and break free and all that kind of crap then than anything else. So it was it wasn't a tough decision. It was buddies. It asked, how the hell do you do it? And I just like, you know, if I could lay down and block the shot that, you know, it's it does suck, though.

Like, even I like fighting better than blocking shots. That's how I proved my toughness. Like, that is like it's not it's like getting in the lanes is something you can learn. But having the willingness to do it is really it's like you said, it's a mindset.

Yeah. You just got to go down and eat it. And it's weird because, like, you know, a lot of a lot of the superstars that you play with, they think they can do that kind of stuff, you know, like. But Yagur is a shot blocker. Like you guys understood everybody's role on a team. He understood that he had no interest in blocking shots. He had no interest in being grimy. So and when you block a shot, it was a you know, blocking the shot can change the momentum.

I know it's obvious, but you come to the bench, guys, the first guy giving give me a high five. He's talking in between periods. He just loved it, you know. And for me, it was a way to to carve out a little niche and be able to stick around and stay. So it was it was a pretty obvious thing for me to to make the changes. I knew I couldn't stick around as a as an offensive demon.

And you guys didn't have no shot blockers back down. What do you think of these new guys with these shot blockers?

I broke nine balls of my feet blocking shots, so I'd love to have those things. But you really you must have missed, what, 200 games?

Yeah, almost on a shoulder surgery. I had four or five knee surgeries, ankles done, broken bones, my feet, two bones in my hands, all that kind of crap body. Now, I got a fake left knee and a fake right hip.

So we already got both of those replaced. Yeah, yeah.

I got them done. I waited too long. I was stupid. And what went first? My hip, my knee. I knew I was going to have to have it done. So I ended up having seven surgeries out before I got it replaced by my my hip fell down. It went downhill unbelievably quickly and it got to the point where I couldn't I couldn't move. So I my hip done that. I had my knee down about eight months later and it wasn't easy.

Recovery didn't hurt. It was just you felt uncoordinated that you couldn't move. And then the the knee was dramatically different than knee. I was like I was walking 18 holes, you know, a month later and I was laying in bed. Thirty five days later, I had a hell of a time with the knee. Sam, and I think it's fucking up my hip now to it sucks. Without a doubt, yeah. It's yeah, but hey, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

You know, I'd go back in a second. I take twice as much. Bring it on, bitch, you know.

Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. That would be more than 200 games though. I wouldn't feel like you're not a sleeper, you know. Oh yeah. I just go down and eat one job down and eat it. Yeah.

I'd love the chance to go back in time and just flamingo one more time.

Make sure I have. Right. Oh yeah.

Hey what you saw, I mean you saw your eggs in the in the most dominant, some of the most dominant HL years in history. Like in in practice I kind of always heard it was it was a different ball game for him. Maybe you guys are doing a drill that he not partake in. Was that ever the case?

Oh, yeah. He my first two years in Pittsburgh, you didn't have to wear shoulder pads or helmet and practice and that he actually where he was at Duke, he'd come out with it anyways. And then you do drills and if you didn't want to do it, we didn't we didn't do it and we did breakouts. You would just I'm sure is doing when you're with him, he'd go out and you just yell red line and you just fire it out to the red line.

He'd pick it up for us three on two and never come back in. But as far as a kid, there are players who love scoring and love, love the limelight of all. There is nobody like him. I mean, he loved to score. And I think about somebody his size, his speed and what he could do with a park in the rules. Now, I don't think you could stop him. I really don't. And he loves to score.

Loved it. You know, I loved it. I loved it.

I'm surprised to hear he wasn't taking practice very seriously. Never got to play with them, by the way. I mestinon know. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What am I thinking. Yeah. Yeah, I just got I just ran my show in New York after the lockout.

I think he won MVP that year, which is jus a joke.

Yeah. He's he was unbelievable. He was so much bigger and stronger than people people think and he he put in the heat, they, he put in the work. That's the thing that he might in practice, he might have been half assed and and dicking around, but he would go back to the rink at random times and shoot parks and skate and work out and left. I mean, he was useful. He was a big, strong fucking guy.

His legs were massive. His was like two different body types, like his belly button up. He was like a wiry, lanky kid and then belly button down. He had a massive ass and massive thighs and he was just a big, strong kid. And, you know, I think when he got traded to Boston, I honestly think that version of our shot at no idea how to play with them because he doesn't want anyone near him. He wants everybody to get the hell away from them so he can send guys off and find them and virtually no chance of being in his pocket.

And he was like, just get the fuck away from me. I'll find. Yeah. And it just was a bad fit for him, you know. But he was nobody like scoring more than him, the other guy to that.

So I played I got the chance to play with Patty Davis at the national program. Then he went on to be with his father. Mike, I.

Was he coaching you in Pittsburgh then? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was telling me that he'd get to go on is, say, seven or eight years old. He's like Alexi Kovalev was the most insane player I've ever seen him practice. Like this stuff he could do.

He's he'd say he played keep away with like the kids and just have 45 minutes.

He'd play keep away with us never before. She was unbelievable. The thing with him was Kobe like making people look stupid more than you like scoring. He'd he'd come in and beat somebody, turn back, beat him again and then beat him again and he'd come to the bench. You'd be like, fuck, Al, you could have scored there like, I know. But he looks so stupid. And you think that was good. You know, he was the most skilled guy that I played with.

Wasn't even close. He would he could he could take a brand new net and put a put a black mark on the post about ten inches up, twelve inches up the pipe. And he could he could sit and you could hit it over and over and over and over. And I don't mean like to it within two inches you get at the mark over and over. And he was just he'd come down and he'd do it in practice. I never saw doing a game where he'd fake and drop pass and drop it to a squat.

You would spin on the puck and then kick it back up to himself. And as a team, anyone know what the fuck he was doing? You know, he's like, you just do and you keep going. And he is big and he is strong. And he was a real short stick that was ultra stiff. And it was you like you both. I mean, you couldn't touch and he would just laugh with you the whole time.

The Popeye, they called him because his wrists were so big, he had that short little stick and he could just, you know, just hold the pass. It's it's crazy. And the fact that he could get it even get it off the ice with that short and that is nuts. They said he used to do those one arm drills to, like, just fuck it over the net, like like probably harder than my slapshot and that fucking New Amsterdam commercial.

You remember when he was in Montreal and I was in Boston at the time and the Bruins are up on Montreal in the series and someone said something about Kobe. And I try and and then somebody went after him and all of a sudden he was walking on a mission. And I just remember thinking we should just let him sleep, let him sleep. They might win a game. We win the series. And it pissed him off. And he wanted to say, do you want to make a difference?

And then we're done. I mean, his skill level is incredible.

Oh, I thought was it the year member he went down with, like the fake injury? Yes, and he ran into Sarah and you guys won, and then all of a sudden he just everyone was like, what the fuck are you doing faking a wrist injury?

And I was like, oh, yeah. He got pissed. He was. And that was it. We could have just let him sleep. There is no issue.

I mean, it did look bad, though. He did kind of take it without a dollop. I mean, Glenn Murray went in and sniped when I remember that.

Yeah, he was probably getting ready to go golf, but it was he got pissed off and decided something to prove.

Was it true he wouldn't skate all summer? He'd just show up and throw his gear on to.

I'm probably I have no I mean, he was he was just a big fluid kid. His hands were ridiculous. So, I mean, even if he wasn't skating, had been doing something because he is he would get on his knees at center ice and have a bunch of pockets and he wouldn't flip the pocket drossos and they would land consistently on the top of the net from the red line, like over and over like that.

That's the jet like landing on the top.

Yeah. You get on his knees with the red line and, you know, everybody else would be trying to flip it to get it there, take shots to go off the glass and he'd be throwing shots that would go up near the ceiling. It would come right down on top. It was he was foolish what he could do. Absolutely not. That's totally true.

To end up getting his pilot's license to fly himself around. Was he doing that then? Was that was in the process of trying to get it? Yeah, I don't know if he had or not, but he was definitely flying. I know he was able to do solos then, but he was definitely flying.

Was he a showman like that off the ice, too? Was he always like you like walking in with, like, weird outfits and shit?

No, nothing. Nothing crazy. He was just a normal, normal guy. He, he, he didn't have crazy suits or anything like that. The Russian guy that had the the electric suits was like Morozov had had the Versace stuff. But Kobe was Kobe was pretty, pretty normal, pretty tame even coming from New York. But he he was just what he could do with the park with nobody. I didn't I wasn't with anyone that could do anything with like you could do.

Jeez, you play with Joe Thornton, too. Yeah, it was not even close. Joe is different. Joe passes. Joe Joe is more like Rodney Francis than than anything else. Kobe Scola was the bottom of the stick. Look like a field hockey stick. It was like there was no lie to it. You know, like you and I would use a five or six and he had like a stick at his toe would be like seventeen is he will be like two.

So he could handle the puck and put his hands where we wanted to. All sorts of weird shit that none of us could do.

When you ended up moving on from Pittsburgh to Boston, were you surprised by that fired up to go back to the hometown team? How did that all go down?

So was basically that that team at Christmas time? We were in first place in the Eastern Conference and we were at a team party. And, you know, it's pragmatic as the GM and Craig called everybody in the back and said we were about to go in another another bankruptcy, if we had any any anyone that any value was going to be gone by the deadline. And you were there at the time. The first or second we were we were pretty good.

And then the next day we traded a bunch of guys over the next couple of days, we traded guys with the Rangers and got guys back. And from there it was a it was kind of everybody knew that we were we were going to get dealt. And I think that I think that deadline day from Pittsburgh, there was like nine of us that got traded and everybody was kind of expecting it. And I had heard church stories going into the day that I was going to go to St.

Louis actually never happened, obviously. So I don't know. The deadline was at three or four o'clock. But my my phone rang and I saw it was great that you're going to answer it. And I honestly thought I was going to ask me to go go to the airport and pick somebody else that we had traded for. And I was out out in the driveway playing hopscotch with my with my daughter, who at the time was probably two. And and he said, hey, we weren't going to do it.

But Boston called the last minute. You're Boston kid. We're going to send you home. You got a chance to win it. And I literally wrote down O'Connell's number and chalk in the driveway. No, see, and that a flight and flew out about two hours later. So it was you know, I was I had a good thing going in Pittsburgh. It was it was fun. It was it was a great place for me to play.

It kind of grew up there. I got there. I was twenty twenty one. I got traded out. I was thirty, you know, I, I loved it there. When I think about it, I think about myself as a penguin more than anything else. But getting on the plane and flying into Logan to Boston was, was pretty awesome, realizing the team and the group of guys that that Boston had and the chance to win a cup in Boston would have been pretty awesome.

But that was fun was Dana McGillis and I came in together and that deadline deal, they came in from San Jose. He played at Northeastern and he yeah.

You and I have the same same age is a big strong I don't know if we I don't know if we mentioned it in the interview so far, but you actually went over to Boston and Pittsburgh, got a fourth round pick and that and they picked me that next summer.

Yeah.

I've always thought if I had stayed in Pittsburgh, I could be sitting there doing the penguin yards.

No, you'd be fucking begging people to give you a swipe up and like, yeah, I'm around twenty. Got them around twenty swipe swipe ups.

How did you end up going? So you went over to Sweden and in that year you played in Nottingham where I think best played in that league. Right. Wasn't that Nottingham team where you played the EIA challenge.

Yeah. I don't know how it was at the time. I'm actually going to interview. Soon, one of my old teammates, the one knew he was a doctor as well, but that leak has made tremendous strides. I don't know what it was like when you were there.

We went over in the lockout, went over with Steve McKenna and Nick Boin, started out in Sweden, just didn't work out there. I was in town called Carlos Ghoga. It was it was I went alone, a wife and two kids. My wife had just said our third. I really like our son, who just turned 16 yesterday. He was just born. And I think I left the next day for six weeks for Sweden. So it was it was a tough grind.

I thought they were going to be able to come over. I was in a one bedroom apartment. It just wasn't going to work. So I ended up going from Sweden to England and had a different set up there. It was it was a good day. It was fun. We had a great time. There's a ton of fights. I was shocked at how many fights there were. And are you fighting?

I got a couple of times, you know, turned into a bit of a gladiator league there. Yeah, sure. It was fun, though. The crowds were great. Nottingham's crowds are great. Sheffield's crowds are great. Remember, London played in a weird ring, but they had like er Curran's was there and they had a bunch of lunatics, but it was no it was fun. I had a great time. It was there was a bowling alley attached to the rink and we go to practice then go bowl every day.

So it was good to go, I had a blast, there were great drinking culture although they get banged up, I let them, they let them sleep anywhere all over the bar. They just pass out just chilling.

Just semis, bitches, Malone says. So then they move on to come back the next year. And that's what Thornton got dealt. Were you injured that season?

Yeah, I had ankle surgery. I was an ankle surgery when he got dealt. But yeah, I was there when that happened. It was shocking. Shocking, shocking, to say the least. He was he was Joe. He was he was there. He was the captain. He was everything. You know, we were never having a meeting with management and they were saying we thought in the long run, the team could be better and it was tough for all of us to process.

I got rid of a kid who could win an MVP and, you know, midseason and say that. But I think bandsmen at that point decided they were going to go with Bergrin is the number one sniderman and try to win with him. And O'Connel did it and made the deal. And, you know, he wasn't he wasn't around for the long term for that, but. You know, it was it was definitely a messed up trade, but I had dealt with the Oregon trade and dealt with Joe getting traded, it was just seemed like it was just kind of part of it.

And you had to move on. You know, that's the game. Now we're talking about we're talking now about.

Do you think it's weird now how you see so many buyouts?

And you just like I was saying earlier in this episode, like I think deals guys are signing deals for teams almost. No, at the end, this probably won't work out or just sign them for the first three or four years of this.

Yeah, I think it's it's almost has an NFL mentality where the guys sign and they know they're going to if they get a six year deal, they're know they're going to be there for maybe maybe for the last two or buyout. And that's just the way it is. And, you know, it has guaranteed money, but the teams are willing to take that risk that the caps are going to go up. And, you know, it's you know, when you see a guy signed a long term deal like, you know, right away they're not playing the last two, it's the same as some of the guys are like, well, that is not going to last.

Yeah. I mean, even even guys that are that are studs that are having career years for a couple of years, you can look at and say there's no way they're keeping this up for four straight. And then you got two more after that. It's not happening. So you're going to see what they can do and they're going to have young kids coming up and they'll take the buyout and the cap goes up and then they'll deal with the ramifications then, fuck, I'm not buying a team if that's what the Gemzar think.

I've wasted all my wasted all my goddamn money, it should be coach. Yeah, you could be owner and you go, I'm so cheap. Could you imagine me with a bottle tourists? If I was the owner of a team, I would have been hot.

How does crazy like save the million on it? At least you save a little bit of bucks.

That's true. That's true.

But that's a short term pain for a long term gain right now. So you got to look at it, but also on air, Miles.

So with Neutral Zone, like, can can kids, like, work with you guys on their own or is it teams like if you're a young player looking to get better, I mean, somebody like that calling you guys know.

So how it works is you go to you go to different you go to different tournaments, you go to a college game, you go to. So primarily we focus on kids that are under 18 up until this year. And then the draft it's previous that we've gone to kids that are maybe playing the USA childhood or 20 year olds with Major Junior. We stop once once they're drafted into this year, we change that. We started tracking the draft eligible kids or maybe maybe later on free or a free agent type kid.

But, you know, we go to a tournament, we've got guys that either coached in college or they coached Division one, coach Division three. We've got guys who are in management. The child we've got guys are in management in the Western League, guys who played in the Q So we've got guys who played and everywhere, everywhere. So they know they're not going to say they know what it takes. But it's somebody made a comment the other day that we're it's pros that what we're doing, it's scouting, it's pros.

That's part of the for the pros because we we have a pretty good idea what's going on with these tournaments. So you and I around Boston, we go watch the you know, the you fourteen or fifteen kings play. We were a pretty good idea that those kids of their studs or they're playing for the Eagles, they're going to end up in there. They're going to end up at St. Sebastian's. What's their track from there? How are they going to go?

How is that going to work? You know, our guys in the Midwest or the Midwest, the guys play, you know, they're playing you sixteen for Caesar's and then they're playing are you sixteen for honey big? Then they're playing eighteen. If they're still playing eighteen, you know, are they late bloomer. Are they. Yeah. That's going to be in for their eighteen year and be able to play in the USA or in the Midwest. Go play in the NHL.

So we have guys that know kind of kind of the path and the track and how it works and how it does and where, where they fit in and how a kid looked who's a stud at nineteen.

How he looked at sixteen because you were seeing them three, four years.

Yeah. I mean, we have like these guys getting getting drafted right now, like I've got nothing in front of me so we could go through names or anything. But like we've got, you know, twenty plus reports on all these kids from when they're playing at 240 nationals. Did they go to national camp to they're playing their freshman year wherever they go. Attitude involved. Yeah. Everything has to go.

It's kind of wild because it's I mean when I was playing, I don't think I would have ever believed it. But I when I go to the rink, I honestly, you look almost I'm wearing a hoodie and I, I stand in the Zamboni door and I don't want anyone to know I'm there now, these massive at the mass up over my face. I just stand there and I watch. I don't really want to talk to anybody. I just want to watch and see how kids interact.

And it's amazing how many times I end up getting college coaches that will say, you know, can you just can you go to the parking lot, sit in your car and watch how they warm up with their teammates? I just want to see how this kid warms up or go. What's really interesting, and I've told some kids this, is that you have the coaches say just go hang out in the lobby and see how they treat their mother if they're, you know, their college coach and the kids adding to his mom, odds are he's going to get on campus, he's going to be a dink, and they're going to deal with headaches that they don't want to deal with.

And I told that to kids, you come out, you could have a shitty game and I'd be in a bad mood. But you better be respectful. You can be a pain in the ass, in the locker room, in the house, in the ice. But be respectful coming in and out. Don't you know there's a kid a couple of years ago is highly touted kid. Everyone thought he had a questionable attitude. He's bitching and moaning comes out, you bitch, and moan to his parents about his tape in a skate.

Suck it just right in the middle of the sidewalk where there's a there's I guess it was a grandmother. And finally just turns and proof toxicology and, you know, that's it, and it's like, what the what what the hell are you thinking? Like, you know, just just that kind of stuff where we see the kids in different settings and we're not we're not trying to to put a kid down. We're just trying to put them put them in red guidance to where where they are.

So if you're a five star, you're a star. If you're a three and a half star, you're going to be a borderline Division one Division three kid, primarily an associate kid if you're in the Northeast. But you could be a Division one kid. You know, below that. You got to figure out where you are. We can we don't help you and say, hey, you should go to uni instead of going to Boden. But we can say that you're you always your honesty.

Read it. The guys that we have, we have guys who coach the next guy or coach Division two or three. They can tell you, you know, for me to go watch the North American Hockey League game, I have a real hard time differentiating between the kid who's going to end up in a Division one in our Division three school. But we have guys that can pick it out right away, you know, but, you know, you and I go watch the USA, all we can pick out a kid who's going to be a draft pick and you can pick out a kid from there who's got a chance, you know, but I.

I have a real hard time picking out and differentiating between Division one, Division three kid, as simple as that sounds. But it's it's harder for me. It's really hard.

The old saying. It's like I just remember my father saying, you never know who's watching. It doesn't matter if there's one guy in the. It's packed. That's so true. Thank God. Neutral wasn't around when I was like mom, I said I wanted a cold Gatorade.

I want to go out. I've been drafted after bears. Well, and we want to thank you so much for coming on.

It was a long time coming. It's pretty cool work you guys got going on. So thank you very much. You're our man. I love this. And how many guys are working working with you? They're going into covid.

We had seventy and then we had to we had to shut it down. And we don't have a whole lot of full time guys, you guys that were, you know, coaching and they retired and they like being in the ranks and they know how it goes. But we had 70 guys. We've got a women's side that has right now about twelve, twelve, twelve people working for me on Heath Gordon. Yeah, he'll go Saguaros. Gordon just got direct named director U.S. Women's Scouting for us.

So that's a big get because he was coach and his coach, the pride of polymeric. So our goal is to get out there and see as many kids as we can, whether they be studs or kids, and just help them find out where they're supposed to be. So our owner here to get a kid that ended up playing that play, I think was in college and he had an experience where he quit after his sophomore year and he more or less said what would happen if he knew where he really, really was and where he lined up.

He had a different experience. Could he have got to something else been different from there? And we started four years ago this our fifth season. And we're you know, we are we are we're hats. We go in the ranks and we bullshit with everybody first.

First one's a quick answer. Who had the biggest steal in the first round and want the kid going to Toronto?

So that's I think you already talked about that in detail on the last one coprophagia out of Saginaw. I used to play for the spirit. I don't know. People were surprised to see him drop the ten. You think that's a steal?

There he is. Is smart and clever offensively as anyone in the draft, the knock on him is going to be his skating to to me, though, he may not have the breakaway speed on the blue line, the blue line through the neutral zone. But as far as being able to maintain and gain speed off a contact, especially in tight areas in the corner, and keep his head up and his eyes up and finding lanes and finding guys, he's as good as anybody.

He we talked about it with our guys are in Ontario and when he gets stronger through his core and stronger legs, he could end up being unbelievable. I mean, his his vision and where he can put the puck is is exceptional and he's pissed off to something else.

I will be pissed off and will be assessed often. And what has the attitude he wants to prove people wrong?

Well, that's what you did a long career. We thank you so much for coming on. I'd love to catch up and grab a beer with you sometime. We appreciate it.

Thank you. I want to send a big thanks to Ian for joining us with his expertise and stories. He's he's a funny guy, actually. I met him years ago. I'd been trying to get him on the show for a long time. So it was nice to finally get him on here. There's a couple of the notes to a little Drapht related. You were the 16th guy from the 003 draft to become a, quote, legit. Any Jela that is the most on brand thing before you.

Even a brand I've ever heard of. I believe it was Jason Gregor who wrote this article.

And I mean, I don't know what it signifies is a legit and HLR. I thought he had a pretty good breakdown, especially as a fourth rounder who ended up playing over 200 games. And what the percentage of actually being able to accomplish that and how many guys have he kind of had a full breakdown of like how many guys for each draft drafted in each round played how many games? And it was it said that that 003 draft that I was a part of it.

I've been harping on this. I think it's the strongest draft of all time. He backed it up with a lot of numbers. So very, very unique article and fucking right. I'll take being the sixty ninth legit and HLR from that year drafted. I would have never considered myself a legit NHL.

Were you the last one to do that, he said in the draft or was there people after you was the final number.

Sixty nine. He has the sixty nine to accomplish it. Maybe, or maybe because maybe he kept moving the bottom of his ranking to like where I just get it at sixty five.

I think that's an appropriate number because you are indeed a team player and there's probably no better number to signify that than your six.

And give a little. Give a little. Right. All right.

I'll run. You're back. You're a minor little reciprocation. I give a little. Get a little isn't it. I don't fucking know dude.

It's whatever we want. I know that right now. Give a little. Give a little.

The NHLPA in the NHL announced that they're going to target January 1st of twenty twenty one for the start of the next season. Again, that's just a target date. The estimated timing for the start of training camp will be communicated at a later date. Obviously, everything is very much touch and go wait and see here, but it wasn't official word, so we want to pass that along. Whether it actually happens remains to be seen. I do want to let you know, though, football season is in full force right now and you're probably crushing a few bears or a few pink witnesses while watching the football games.

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So I always double bag it with the DH. I think they say one bag, one bag with just two pills for each ten drinks. I like how many even have five. I just do two bags. And you don't got your own promo code do you. There like a twenty or.

No, I don't haul myself out to every company and force them to give me my own promo codes and then scream at people when I don't get them correct.

So no, I don't have my own detox. Yeah, the detox is legit. The first time I had it on one of these golf to people like does that work?

I mean, it works for me as I don't know, I put I try it out, I put in these drinks, I go out, I have a bunch of them and I don't feel bad the next day.

And when I don't do it, I do. So dhv detox bugs like these don't work. I'm like, you're not supposed to start them bugs.

You just buckled playing golf somewhere. I don't know where. The cargo bay, Chicago themselves.

We actually got Bugsy right now hunting down Minnesota four for the best part hockey place to throw an event because if everything keeps going good and maybe we find a vaccine and you know, the rules are a little bit looser, we're we're going to definitely try to throw through these few of these pond hockey tournaments this winter, maybe in February, March.

And then we're going to Minnesota.

I've only I've only been in Minnesota for like maybe forty minutes. And that was just catching a flight out. A blonde. With the airport to catch a flight from Minneapolis to Vancouver, and so you'll have you've been in the state but never left the airport. Yeah.

So I don't consider you ever been there. No. I mean, right. I'm not saying it was a visit, literally. I'm telling you, I change planes there. That's no, because I'm saying I want to go there to actually this great spot.

Great spot. Winter and summer. Yeah.

I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully sooner rather than later. But anyway, boys, lots of news, lots of sirens, lots of shit to get to. Brendan Deal and his stand put in DC signs a four year, fifteen point six dollars million deal, just under four million dollar average annual value kapit he's going to be thirty in November of course. Washington picked him up at the deadline back in February for a couple picks. One of them was conditional.

He must have liked it there. Obviously it's a marriage they're both comfortable with so he he re up for four years.

There anything on this one wit just type of defenseman that's going to be on your team? You can win a Stanley Cup with this guy. I mean, what he did in San Jose's, he's just very solid on his own and he's hard to play against.

He's mean. I like the hit the carpet. I mean, and he.

Would you say he's turning thirty. So, I mean, you're not he's not signed till he's 36, 37. I like the deal. I also mentioned. Sure. To stay here. Well, I'm not going to jump ahead, but he could be playing in front of a goalie that that we know his name.

Oh, no. We could jump ahead for Henrik. I mean, is this going to go down King Henrik to Washington where he would. Be the back up on paper, right? Or are you looking at that like he could go there and become the starter? I mean, I would imagine they're probably thinking mentor backup right now, but as soon as I thought Washington, I pictured him in the jersey in the white one on the bench, just like with his nice tan.

The good contrast always I had I could always have had on the bench.

They can pay his salary was selling the seats right around where they were. The backup going hangs out. Just make it the ladies section sell.

Hey, get the ladies night every time. He doesn't start right around the glass there. Yeah. You get the fuckin beer vendor selling dildos in that section. All of them are fucking jamming themselves. 101 course being a backup, Tandi. Get your turbo nitrate here to get the cluck cluck three thousand.

I mean, I know Washington obviously the high. I'm Bryan McLoughlin. The GM said we're looking for a backup veteran goaltender. I mean, he's a really solid candidate for us and did tweet. I still love to compete. I still love the game. I still want to win. And there was a translated tweet from Sweden that said he is going to sign with them on Friday. Obviously, that's not official yet. But also to I mean, you know, you're talking about a young kid here in Simpson off was only played, I think, twenty two NHL games.

And, you know, that's a pretty small track record. If this kid comes out of the gate slow, I mean, how could I guess theoretically end up being the starter in Washington if things were to go south with what, this young girl?

Yeah, I guess that is interesting. The quote by McCloughan saying, you know, the sign of back, a veteran back up. So they they have high hopes and rightfully so Simpson off.

But I do think, like you said right there. Henrich goes in and catches fire. I mean, it's like the Rangers were very good the past few years is a better team in Washington in front of them, and who knows what can happen. But I would love it any anyone who signs him that's got a younger goalie with a high upside. It's a great sign. It doesn't matter the team.

So you're basically saying he's the hockey version of Cam Newton. He's on a revenge tour. He's going to sign for cheap and then he'll probably end up being the starter, given that they. But I just look at the how deep the goalie market is. I would imagine they would have somebody. But do you think the Sampson kid is going to be there for sure? I mean, Washington is very high on him. OK, he's he's legit and they're giving these young guys the net like crazy now, not just football hockey analogies and making me, like, turn in that gear for the guys.

Like, yeah, I'm I'm I'm going a little hard on the football. I'm trying a little harder.

It's all it's all good.

Well, the first round pick, though, like five years ago, because I think it's time and he's he's proven himself.

Jason Spezza going to be back in Toronto for another year for 700000 dollars. He had nine goals, six assists and 58 games played last year. And I love this quote from Kyle Dubus. If you're a major league in the baseball movie, he said, quote, I think the image of Jason is he's a veteran in the mold of a Roger Dorn. But I view him more as a Taylor because Major League Jagdale was the the gritty, grimy catcher who loved playing for the team.

Roger Dorn was the cocky third baseman who was teammates hated. So, I mean, I never I never knew people thought of Spitzer as a Roger Dawn type, but it was speaking of cross sports references, because I thought that was a pretty good one from Dubus.

Oh, he's great. I was I was barking at them to do something crazy because they had the pick after the TV commercial break. And what does he do? He he captures Morgan, Riley and Mitch Marter hostage, and they can do this Jersey presentation. So they came back with some fire. Morgan Riley looked hilarious with his mustache. Pretty sure he shaved that into that, knowing that he was being forced to do it. But I don't know, they had a surprise pick as well.

But I do Miss Dubus doing his thing small, skilled forward. Let's see, maybe it's an next mix, you martyr, but you got to address the toughness. And apparently they're talking to Wayne Simmons.

Yeah, you could be you could be finally getting one right with the Simmons. Call Baze. But back to Spencer. I love the signing and the Roger.

Roger Gordon's not who you want to be compared to.

Look, I think I would have been compared to Roger doing, you know, he's like a whiner and stuff. Jake Taylor, ultimate leader. And if you don't know what we're talking about, I don't care if you're eighteen years old and you don't know what Major League is, it's one of the best movies of all time. Yeah, it is so fucking funny.

I was actually watching this movie, probably was on maybe a month ago, one of the movies that if it comes on, I'm watching the rest of it best. You know, Bob Ukr, you know, the famous he was a comedian, right? IRA was the guy who was the announcer.

Was he a real announcer? Right. Baseball player slash announcer. Yeah, but he was also like, funny as hell, like basically a comedian. So I guess I had that one wrong. But he's funny.

So he's the Yankees in the in the movie. They're bringing in a reliever at Bob Yuko's like, oh, they bring in this guy, the Duke. And he goes for the quote, I had to look it up.

The Duke leads the leagues in, saves strikeouts burning and hits batsmen. This guy threw in his own kid and a father son game.

So it's one of a million one line. Check it out. Don't be like call Annibale.

When I was telling him about great movies that they didn't know about, Tommy Boy, they wouldn't watch Tommy Boy because they'd never heard of it. Don't be the young guy who won't watch an old movie.

Yeah, no, that's that's a great one. And I know sometimes I get rambling on, but going back to the Spezza resigning, I feel it's like kind of like that Patrick Marleau vibe, other than the fact you don't got to pay him five million or paying him seven hundred, he had a fairly good year last year based on numbers. And now if he can repeat that at making seven hundred and to be that mentor that all these younger guys like in the locker room, I mean that's a that's a steal.

People people were ecstatic from Toronto who had watched them all year last year, seeing they got him for that cheap resigning then. So he gets to go home and hey, maybe they can make a little noise and he can potentially bring a cup back to his home city.

One of my followers made the joke is that said that Morgan really looked like Todd Poca from Boogie Nights when they were about to rob the culture.

The only thing you can open the fucking safe on the fucking floor, give us all the fucking money, because he had the fucking mustache.

It's a pretty like him. That's a pretty good comparison. Somebody said a lot skinnier version of mall cop. Who's the guy?

King of Queens guy Paul Blart. Oh, yeah. That was I thought that was good. So Morgan really bringing that sex on fire after Roman, you see just one up on them.

Little stash action are another sign in the fly signed defenseman Justin Bronto to a two year, three point six dollars million deal. Basically the reason this happened was matinées going and decided to retire. He had told the flyers a couple of weeks ago and they said, well, you know, take some time to mull it over. Apparently, he didn't change his mind. He was scheduled to make five point seventy five million this year. Now, I don't know if he officially put in his paperwork.

Obviously, you can say you retired and not put your paperwork. And so, you know, I know the team can suspend you so they cap that money won't count against the cap. They haven't got to that. But either way, they brought Justin O'Brien in two years, three points to. Million dollar deal, kind of, I guess, a stopgap measure busway, you're losing a guy of miscounts, quality. I mean, I can respect the guy who can walk away from that much money.

I know that with the uncertainty that's going on. And I think he's just like I've made over 40 million dollars. I've played just under 900 games. I don't want to beat up my body anymore. 100 game because. Oh, did I say I thought I said just over 900 games. I think he's at 948, maybe closer to 950 anyway. But I mean, he's got a Stanley Cup. I think that's a wonderful career. He's had an unreal career.

And I think that he he went to he was in Dallas and then he went to Pittsburgh, really kind of blossomed there and went to Washington and was great Philly.

And then it shows, you know, you're giving up that much money and you're also giving up getting to a thousand games. It kind of proves that when the mind's done, you know, it goes the body falls.

It's he probably just didn't have what it takes. You start thinking about what it takes to go in to getting ready for a season. And just mentally, a lot of guys are over it. So congrats to him on an amazing career and a Stanley Cup and plenty of money.

Here's here's another football analogy. Who's is a Talib to lead?

The guy told he got offered a deal by the Patriots at the beginning this year, and he just was like, he's looking at the other tight end. So he's going to have to play against these. Like, I'm just a little bit mentally checked out and I don't think I can compete at a high level. And I think they were offered him like six million and most of it was going to be guaranteed. So, you know, to I commend guys who can walk away when they just know they're not into it.

And and now that team gets to go save money and spend it somewhere else on guys who actually, you know, have their hearts into it. Very commendable.

Well said as well said. But for me. Next up, Winnipeg Jets signed defenseman Dylan DeMello to a four year, twelve million dollar deal. The 27 year old was obtained from Ottawa prior to the deadline for a third rounder. He wasn't making a ton of dough before this, but I'm guessing Winnipeg liked what they've seen of him for year 12 million dollar deal with. Did this surprise you at all with that number? Maybe a little bit, I mean, let's cap it was three or was it over that was it.

It wasn't even three.

It's three now, but before I'll double check on, it was before it was significantly smaller, less on his last.

You saw them. And they look at him as a guy who's going to be in the top six. I don't think you're breaking the bank at all.

And you obviously acquired him in a trade. So you have your scouts when you're thinking about trading for pieces and you look at players that you're possibly talking with, you know, their teams, the GM vote, and that was a guy they like. So then he came over and gave them 10 games. He had no points or anything, but he played in the playoffs in the four games for Winnipeg.

And I don't know that much about him, but I know that he's he's obviously doing enough where they think he can be in that top six for the next four years. I don't that breakdown, I mean, pretty good for not knowing or not knowing anything about them. Yeah, I don't I don't know one thing about this guy, you know, I know I'm not even sure I'm going to watch now. Good fucking deal for him. Congratulations. That's a payday.

So I'm not sure there's only so much storage up in this noggin of mine. I think I actually might have played against him when he was playing with the San Jose Barracuda named here.

He got a nice raise. He was making 900 grand the last two years. So going from that to three million, three days.

I remember him in San Jose because they're playing like meaningful games and he's with Ottawa. You know, we didn't mention, by the way, the difference in the second overall pick to L.A. in the third to Ottawa, talk about a fight to want to go number two, overall, forget the entire L.A. or Ottawa.

Yeah, that's a yeah.

But Ottawa Ottawa did get a couple really good picks like they are doing. All right.

Yeah, I think those are going to be guys are going to be able to jump in the lineup in the next few years from what they're saying, from what the experts are saying for Craig.

But gelling to be on television credit after playing last season in Finland, after previously requesting a trade from Edmonton, the Oilers brought back their number four overall pick in the draft. Yes, Paul GRV. He entered two year two point thirty five dollars million deal. It's one point one seven five AFV. He's on loan to Kopacz over in Finland, but he can rejoin the others once next season's details are ironed out. So it looks like these two had a little bit of a pissing match on both sides.

Get over it and they're going to bring them back into the fold whenever the NHL starts back again. Busi. All, baby. Do I fucking love drama in the Battle of Alberta and this is like another thing that like I know it doesn't have to do with each team playing each other, but who knows what this kid's going to be? They were very high on him. He could end up being a very big piece. Some of these guys take a little bit later to develop that relationship.

Obviously not a great place. They finally met on contract and what he wanted. Well, I don't even know enough. Does he have. So did he, like, not burn a year off his deal because he went and played a year overseas? Oh, look, he's still going to be restricted for the same amount of time he would have as it just got bombed back here, so for me it's yeah.

Yeah. Oh, age wise because he's older.

Well, the thing is, is he he left because he wanted more ice time. He was like he basically wanted things that he hadn't earned yet, I thought.

And there's tons of talent there, but he certainly wasn't doing anything that was like warranting him being on the first line, playing with McDavid.

So maybe he went over there and kind of I mean, last year he had a great year in the Finnish league. But you still don't know if he comes back and he's going to make a difference. What's weird is that they were seem to like men, like men do the issue. They fixed the issue pretty quick between the team and the play. I don't know if they said you're going to get every chance to plan on top to line. And that's what pleased him enough or the money was enough.

I just I don't know what he's going to give because there was times he looked great. There was times where like, I don't know I don't know about the hockey IQ there. So I'd love to maybe talk to some Oilers fans.

Maybe you can reach out to us like are you are you fired up about this kid still or are you thinking, oh, my God, we had the fourth overall pick in 2016 in which, you know, Matthew Kucuk went after.

It's like Magikarp one after him. Are you more thinking like, fuck, what did we do? So if you give him the chance and he succeeds, great for him. And if he doesn't, it was a total whif on a very high pick and a good draft.

I mean, if you're the Oilers fans or you just got to be like you got to see this as a positive because, you know, you could end up winning the lottery. It's like a scratch ticket at this point. And they need they need another piece. I know there's a couple of guys there that they're not going to bring back. Anthony see or I saw that that they're not going to qualify him. It is right now in the NHL, man, you are going to see so many talented players not get caught on qualifying offers just given with what the cap situation is.

It's a bloodbath out there right now. Yeah.

In the pandemic, everything is caused such uncertainty with everything and the issue of trying to get under this flat cap.

And it certainly sucks the year that you're a free agent when this is all going down. And then also, I don't understand how teams are going to approach, like all these RFA that I saw, there was a long list of the guys. Torontonian didn't qualify.

And you never would you never would see this many this many players by each team not receiving their qualifying offers. But you just got to make tough choices. And I'm glad I'm not making them.

I think that we're just judging them. I think even given those, there's a there's a hard cap in the NHL now. It makes teams able to compete in a quicker amount of time, like you can have quicker rebuilds because of it. In this case scenario, I think you can see teams who are like bottom feeders, like Ottawa, become like an unbelievable team and like two years just because, like, so much of the so many of these young guys are having these impacts.

And like, I don't Kyle Turistas is not a player he once was, but like guys like that caliber, like all of a sudden they miss they lose a step. And these younger guys coming in are like even faster than what they were before. And it's like guys like that are just going to keep getting bought out and weeded out like crazy. Yeah.

The thing is, the buyouts, they're so common and people want oh my God, why are so many people getting bought out now?

And they're given these contracts, GMs knowing there's a chance they're going to get bought out.

I'm for I firmly believe that guys are like, listen, like you've got to pay them this now. They're not going to be worth at worst case, we buy ammo. It's just going to be happening more and really more.

Yeah, OK, that's fair. Now, tourists young enough where they certainly none of them are hoping the guys are going to be bought out.

But you understand now in this in this age with what the cap is and where you need to get as a team to maybe try to win a Stanley Cup if you think a player can help you do that.

You know, the last few years of this deal with some of these got this certain deals with some of these guys is is the guys are either going to retire, which probably isn't going to happen unless you're Nischan and you just don't give a fuck about six million or we're going to have to buy them out.

Yeah, I just, I guess encourage tourists in case you've got to think. And with Nashville being a smaller market, like they probably have a lot less leisz in order to like sign these guys.

Are these risky deals where they say, well, here's the thing.

I think that Nashville, they traded Bonino. We'll get into that. And they and they bought out tourists because that's a sign to me they want to go after somebody like Art Hall. Maybe they want to go after Taylor Hall. So they're just freeing up room.

But in the end, they're probably going to go after and sign somebody to a deal that in fucking six years it could be the same thing. So. It's a weird time, it's definitely a tough time to be an older player. That's kind of been happening for a while now, but this is only added to it.

Yeah. Yeah. To your earlier point, yeah. He actually did finish his entry level deal. This is only a two year deal he signed. So he will still be Arafeh after this contract is up. So the Edmondson will still have his rights after this current conflict. Thank you, sir. Absolutely.

And we do have some trades, like you said, with some trades going down. San Jose obtained both goalie Devin Dubnyk and Ford Ryan DeNardo from Minnesota. In two separate deals, the Sharks got Dubnyk and a seventh rounder and twenty twenty two for a fifth round in twenty twenty two. They got DeNardo for a third in twenty twenty one. The thirty four year old goalie Dubnyk is in the last year of a six year deal that pays him four point three three million.

Twenty four year old DeNardo has one year left at a one point nine million dollar deal. He'll be an RFA if the next season Billy Yarran sheds over six million in salary. He had about twelve and a half in Caps base. Obviously these moves happened under different GMs. But the organization again, this is pick on Garrett at all. But they ended up getting rid of Charley Coyle for a fourth and a third. And after seeing the way he's performed in Boston the last couple of years, that's just that's tough management asset.

Again, it's not Garance fault that it preceded him, but that's not a lot to get for a guy of a player. His his caliber for sure.

Oh, that's a tough one for making. Minnesota's getting a little noisy. Billy James. Billie Jean has been a busy guy. Yeah. Yeah.

I said it a couple weeks ago. If we want to change, there's got to be change.

So you knew I was coming after the stall deal and I still think grinding can be a good player and they that I really do. So we'll get a bigger probably a better chance to have a bigger role in San Jose and Dubnyk. They needed to go that. We talked about the possibility of this because the rumor mill was flying. I think the last episode, unless that was us just talking on Zoome, but they needed help and goaltending.

Right. And Dumex been able to have a career where he's bounced back from from a time when it looked like he'd never be a full time NHL starter. And he went on to just be one of the best for a few years. So I think he goes to San Jose with a lot to prove and also in a competition to win that starting role.

Those weren't the only moves Minnesota made, they also traded Lou Coonan in a fourth round pick to Nashville for Bones Nick Mannino in a second and third round picks. The 32 year old Bonino is in the last year of deal, paying him four point one million, twenty two point four in actual dollars, though that meant he has to pay him. Of course, he won two cups with Pittsburgh. The twenty two year old Goonan just finished his entry level deal.

He's a restricted free agent, had 15 or 16 assists in 63 games last last season. So again, it just seems like Garance trying to make a culture change in the locker room.

Yeah, Lou Koonin took over our Facebook page. I don't know if you guys remember from the World Juniors and like 2016, he did a Facebook page take over for us.

No way. Yeah. Was it was he on screen doing anything or was was later Charlie McEvoy and Colin White from the World War.

That's a nice threesome, right? Take a rat drink. So should we get them on again? Come on the show. Maybe I was surprised by this move. I think that Garen brings in a veteran has won two Stanley Cups. I love Bones, Nick Bonino. He's got one year left on that deal.

But Kuhnen, I mean, he's young. He's first round pick four years ago now.

Maybe he kind of was asking for more money than Minnesota is willing to pay and they figure they'll get a veteran. And what were their draft picks in the Stelara?

Coonan and a fourth to Nashville for Nick Bonino in a second and a third round.

OK, so yeah. Then Goran thinks I'm going to get up. I'm going to I'm going to get an extra pick in the draft, both of them higher than the one I'm dishing out. I think you can't judge this trade at all yet, which is normal.

I mean, who's going to say you can judge a trade the day after? What a fucking stupid comment.

But Coonan could go and light it up and be a really good second-line player in Nashville for a long time. And then the trade could be like, oh, Minnesota gave up on a kid. Young or bones has a ton of value next year for Minnesota. And then they use that second and third pick the draft some studs as opposed to the one fourth they gave up. So it's going to take a few years to figure this one out. But it certainly makes sense if Garran wants to make changes and maybe can't sign a guy that's a young kid looking for too much money or more money, he thinks than he's worth speaking.

I can't wait. Can't wait. Does that make sense? Can't waiting to. See something play out this Matt Murray deal out of Pittsburgh. That's like the one I'm most because Rutherfords made a few bad moves, the Jack Johnson signing, Wolf, that's a tough one right now. As of late, he hasn't made the best moves. What like I mean, I know that bringing bringing Murray back probably wasn't likely based on what he wanted at Madeira. And I would imagine we would have been already going over to that subject, correct?

Yeah. Had it done a little further. But it's on the trade. The trade. Yeah. The Penguin sent goalie Matt Murray to Ottawa for forward Jonathan Gruden in a second round on Wednesday. Will, which is the fifty second overall pick in the draft. Murray, of course, currently Arafeh he made three point seventy five mill the last three years. Gruden is a twenty twenty year old forward, taken in the fourth round of the eighteen draft played in London last season.

No NHL experience yet, but curious to see what kind of number Murray ends up with. Not a man. I mean, I don't.

You've got to think at least five million dollars for starters, I read online, so it must be true. I think he was asking for. Yeah, north of five and I want to say it was closer to six. So it's obvious that Pittsburgh wasn't going to be willing to pay him that thinking that Jaris, the superior goalie and you mentioned higher pick younger and has been far better as of late. I just I don't know, man like Fleury with Murray, maybe even.

Did Otto even find out if he like it? I guess he has no option. He's RFA, but it's kind of a ballsy move by Ottawa. If they don't even know if the guy wants to be there or like what he wants for money, unless they're just thinking, all right, we figured out, we talked to people. We know what he wants.

This is what will give them. But still, yeah, it is weird to see how that's going to play out and not to shit on Ottawa, but also getting a goalie where you're going to be able to sign a starter within reason because he is restricted. Right. Because when you're making that trade, you're trading over the fact that, you know, he's going to have to side with Ottawa and I don't know, like not to shit on Ottawa, but maybe a lot of these Fresen goalies are like, yeah, you're not on my list.

Right. So I'm just just taking a huge, massive sky dump on the Jets.

Sixty shots, a game just sent over for my Hailie Selvi. And she covers the sense for the athletic. And it's from Dorien. He said, Without a doubt we see Matt Murray as a number one goal in this league. So I don't know. I think what he can can easily convince the guy, hey, if you don't want to second sign there, he's an asset. I'm sure somebody would grab and give up something for him.

Some nice New Jersey's in Ottawa, too. Those things are pretty fresh. They went to the old school, I believe they went to their original jersey. So, yeah, it's when they picked Brian the Berard, an old school.

Well, some of these GMs, man, they get a lot of holes to fill right now.

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Still got a lot of, a lot of personal stuff here to get to the Habs. They sent Max Domy in a third rounder in twenty twenty to Columbus for Josh Anderson. They were both restricted free agents. They were actually golfing together when they got word of this trade, which is pretty crazy. Two guys out golfing together and get treated for each other. The twenty six year old Anson's coming off a three year deal worth one point eighty five million per year.

But he battled injuries last year after scoring twenty seven goals the previous season. Domy had seventeen goals, twenty seven assists in 71 games for the Habs last year. He just finished a two year deal that paid him three point one five mil. And he's got to get a nice little raise. This just come over the wire. He signed a two year, ten point six million dollar deal with Columbus, five point three a year. That deal will take him to unrestricted free agency.

This is a very serious deal, wouldn't you say? Yeah, I wouldn't say curious charges dropped my mic, but I would say that it proves, and especially the Domy quotes after that he and Julien did not get along. There was no love lost between those two. I don't think Julian liked him as a player. And I know Donmar didn't like playing for him. I think when asked about it, he said no comment or it wasn't great or something where he's kind of open that he wasn't happy with his role in Montreal and Josh Anderson's exactly what Montreal needs.

I think he's physical. He's fast. And I was a little surprised at how much money Max told me got. He's had one huge year. He's been consistent. Other than that. Well, he had kind of a tough playoff this year for Montreal. And, you know, after that, it wasn't a surprise to see him get moved. I'm sure he didn't want to be there anymore. And Anderson was a guy who I kind of felt like he loved Colombus.

Now, I don't know him. That's totally me guessing. And maybe that's just how hard he plays and where he would do that anywhere. It wouldn't be surprised. It'll look like he loves wherever he's playing. But I like to trade a lot for Montreal. I think if Max if Max told can can have a year, I think what was it, two years ago? He had over 70 points.

So you notice times where he can be dominant out there and the way he can kind of. Especially in the power play like Control the pocket a half wall guys got great vision, great skill, but Josh Anderson is such a completely different player. I mean, he's in your face. He's running you over. He's more of a power forward. So, yeah, much of the first year with Montreal, Domy is great. So I forgot. I thought it was the Arizona the last year there.

So I guess it was a little surprising.

I was more surprised that Anderson was out of Columbus, that I was the Domy was traded from Montreal, though. Yeah.

I mean, I'm going to take nothing that happened last year just given with the injury and the no production.

Jesus going back to the year before. Twenty seven goals like you think this guy, given his size and the way he can skate and score goals, it's evident that that's Montreal type of player that they needed. They needed to address size because the minute they get in the playoffs, they had a lot of small forwards. As far as Max, don't be concerned. He's got to be ecstatic with that number. I mean, especially after having an off year.

I think he's being paid above market value for what he did, as you mentioned the year before, that plays into it. Now, we talked about his, you know, his ability and and maybe adding that physicality of his game. I'm going to guess that's not going to be much of an option going over to be to play for talks like I'm sure that's one way he's going to want to mold them more into a full 200 foot player who has a bit of bite to his game.

And I'm interested to see how that relationship goes, because, I mean, he's not he's not in any easier to play for than Claude Julien. So very interesting trade. Got shit popping online yesterday. So interested to see how this one pans out as well.

Our no doubt no doubt they were golfing when they found they were golfing together. Yeah.

Golf buddies found out they get traded for each of the I'm pretty sure they play jazz together. A&M that is pretty random, huh?

One of the trade. No, too busy boy. All of Eckmann Larssen Larsons set a Friday deadline for a trade to either Boston or Vancouver. The agent said if there's no deal by free agency, he's staying put in Arizona. I don't know if he's bluffing or whatever, but either way, that's what his agent said of no deal. By then, he's staying put in Vancouver and Boston, the two teams that were hot for him.

So keep an eye on that for me right fucking now. We had symbiotes man, like you said a few minutes ago, biocidal all the rage this week. A lot of these deals that team signed off. He has built a little bit of regret right now. The Habs bought out Col Karl Alzner. He had two years left that a little of a four and a half left per year. He's going to get eight hundred and thirty three K for each of the next four years.

And the capsule capsule have various cap hits for the next four years as well. I can read the numbers, but they get pretty boring. After a while, Jack Johnson was bought out by the penguins. He had three years left at three point twenty five million per. The move is going to save about two million in cap space for each of the next two seasons. For the team. Johnson will get roughly five and a half million of that contract, so he'll get some of that dough back just in.

Abdelkader was also put on waivers for the purpose of a buyout. He had three years left on his deal at four point twenty five per I. He'll get just over a million for the next six years. The Redwings will have carpets of varying degrees over the next five years.

And Nashville guys that all guys that losing a step, you know, the skating isn't there anymore. The skating wasn't what it was when they were at their peak. And that's exactly what Bill and I were talking about. That's when that's why it's surprising that some of these guys said that many years left on their deal. That's when you really wonder when a deal is signed. Can you tell right away?

Oh, I don't know about this one.

And a few in a few years from now, the NHL buyouts, like the cash for life scratch tickets get bought out. You fucking the Bobby Bonilla special.

It's probably like that Alonzo Mourning.

But Giftware, he's like out and he's like, yeah, but but Turistas buyouts. Insane.

What does he. Oh, he was the next one. National Putera. Same thing on unconditioned waivers for the purpose of a buyout. He had four years left at six million per year. He's going to get two million a year for the next eight years, will take a two million dollar cap that as well. But it gives the press four million and cap savings for four years remaining on his deal.

So the last eight million Sox. Oh, my. Are you kidding me? With as much as he's made, I'll see on my fucking island by this deal.

So he's got what we saw before this one. Hey, look him up right now.

I bet she's got at least 35 million made already. I've already estimated career earnings list is 34 on oh oh oh. I mean, that's going to drop that's going to drop to twenty six.

Not getting to the million that's probably included, I guess. Oh, that's not up to up today. OK, well, my apologies, but I still think that that's a boatload of money that you'll never run out of.

And he can go live it. He could find an island in Canada somewhere to live on. I didn't say where.

What island you were thinking Bahamas. Where you. Well, that's your own fault.

Assuming makes an asset.

Are you also two guys? I know you talk about losing a step, but some of these guys could also be potential Steeles for teams next year because they made their money. They're not going to be looking for big money. Shady. I mean, exactly. A guy like Tarus, man. I mean, you know, I knew he wasn't too successful national, but you plug him in on a top nine on a contender and he could have a productive year.

He's not be worried about the dough because he's already made it. So I don't know if we've seen it happen, could happen again. So anyways, these transactions have been brought to you by Bud Light. Zeltzer, you've heard us talk about it before, but it's the delicious hard seltzer from Bud Light. Just one gram of sugar, 100 calories and five times filtered for no aftertaste. Bud Light Seltzer just launched three new flavors in the Variety Pack remix edition with Pineapple, Cranberry and Grapefruit.

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Get that Bud Light, Bud Light seltzer delivered right to your door because you mentioned Ken Hall in a few minutes ago, said he's not going to be making it. He doesn't think he'll be making qualifying offers to advertise. See you. He's also not going to the mat. Benning, like you said, the feeling around the league is going to be a lot of these guys not getting qualified. So there's going to be a lot of USA is probably out there.

We also want to send best wishes to our Palkot McDavid. He tested positive for covid. It sounds like he's doing all right. He's a young, healthy guy. So hopefully he'll get get through it fine.

But I texted him. I texted him till I come on the show. I'm like, what's up, bro? Man, come on the show, we can rip on your contractor again. And then, you know, two minutes later I'm scrolling through Twitter and then I think I got a text from you Grindley about it, about the fact that I Korvettes on my call. This guy probably thinks I'm trying to, like, beat him into an interview about his fucking diagnosis.

I sent him a text right after I was like, dude, I just found out you had covid. My apologies. We're not trying to gouge you for an interview. So get well, Carter, sorry about that. But if you want to come on after your healed up, we can rip on your contract or feel free.

The story will be bit gives covid to McDavid via text stook eleven. Well, I mean, hey, not the first time. Yeah, I'm still waiting for my idea.

You can send somebody a tax relief effort to bury them right in the face when you like the smell.

Yeah, they smell it. Oh yeah. Yeah.

We just mentioned the scent going back to the old uniforms. Old Calgary Flames are doing the same as well. I've always said before, I'm a huge fan of the old Atlanta Flames jerseys and they're going with them full time, basically pretty much all red. None of them like the black and the flags and all the other kind of bells and whistles they had on it. Just a nice, clean, neat looking jersey. So looking forward to seeing Matika check on that next jet next season.

They did all contact video to release him. Did you guys see it like like a back to the future retro night style thing with like a Thunderbird? They rolled then? Certainly no more. Johnny Hawkins. Johnny Content is the new contact.

He's doing it all there and he's looking slender, bezzle. What dog?

He had a puffy jacket on. I will say that more rumors. Hey, now, by the way, by the way, we're going to revisit this Johnny Gujral like more talk about him on the trading blocks. Ari, could you back me up on this, please? I mean, it depends who's saying it. That's my thing, always is, is it? Is it like one of the big guys in Canada? Where did you hear from?

Because you're doing this again, the end of this last episode.

Where did you read it? On Twitter, you know, what the fuck is this like we have is this Groundhog Day? We did this last week, so, OK, listen, I'm going to always on the whole, I'm going to eat it, OK? I'm going to eat it. But I'm saying if it happens within the next year and a half, I was right. If he goes over to Philly.

Yeah, I mean, you were right, but yeah, yeah, OK, you're right, 100 percent, you will be right. But who did you who tweeted at this time and I think I said this last time you saw Twitter and there was no there was no tweet.

No, I don't want to reveal my sources. Is that what they say? Is that the is that that's the line on the line. You're an insider. Yeah. OK, well, we'll see.

Well, that's been the rumor mill corner brought to you by a business that we're going to we're going to end this one up because we just lost our power, went out of his hotel. You said you got a storm going on in your neck of the woods as well.

Right. With winds howling through Massachusetts right now, it's honking wind.

Yeah, that's the that's the term honking when you're back in the day you were partying. Last thing we'll say before we end the episode of golf, I'm going with Taylor Pietje on Friday. We're going to start going once a week. But I'm OK, Baze.

But I'm playing where I'm playing the ball out ball and cup. I'm going to find out my actual handicap. No fucking gimmies.

You know, all the rules don't stuff. Absolutely not. All right, man. Fair enough. Fair.

And we just we just released some new driver head covers, some wood covers for on barstool sports, dotcom chick lit, some chick lit branded stuff. Again, we'll be having some more golf stuff coming out soon. And premolar sandbaggers coming up.

Holy shit. We got like beer pong tables. We got flasks. We got those. We are jammer's for at the four at the Washington Capital Games where you're sitting right next. The question becomes they come signed to sign Lundquist Jammer's mold of his cock.

So we sell chapstick, we sell like fucking pencils, the one stop shop.

It's like going to Staples, but it's worth Checketts because we got we got we got we got staplers like the office space.

That was my staple with my stepfather was my step in that movie.

Last thing actually will say, speaking of the office, the Anaheim Ducks draft room looked like, oh, that was pathetic.

How angry did Bob Murray look making that selection? Oh, my goodness. Like it's just a ball of anger.

That guy. Yeah. Oh, my. Between that and the hostage situation in Toronto, that was that was pretty funny as far as setups. Anyway, guys, we went long enough, hopefully enjoyed the episode and Coyote and Johnny's John is going to Philly. Have a great weekend, everyone.

This guy worked with so fucked up Falvey work with people who are completely tapped in the head. Send me a message. That detox.

Yeah. Best twenty promo code swipe up. Oh, and one last note, guys.

I wanted to add Tuesday was a very sad day for music fans, for rock and roll fans and for guitar fans is the legend. Eddie Van Halen succumbed to cancer just sixty five years old after battling the disease for over a decade. Quite simply, Eddie Van Halen was an absolute wizard with a guitar. He inspired generations of kids to pick up and acts like he did. And I've said it before, I'll never be a music teacher. I can't tell you who who's playing what at the time or what's going on, but I can always tell.

And it was Eddie Van Halen. He had that distinctive sound like Jimi Hendrix or Chuck Berry before him. Eddie Van Halen created his own sound. And it will be copied for eternity and it's been copied for forty years now. It's going to be copied for another hundred and forty. Like a lot of rock fans, I was a Van Halen fan until 1984, dropped the album, and then everybody was a Van Halen fan, a superfan. Everybody in the middle of Jump Panama hot for teacher.

I mean, those are still songs that are iconic today. And, you know, Eddie Van Halen was the pulse behind all of them. So I guess the best part about them, we could say it wasn't just playing. It was the fact that seemingly everybody loved the guy. I mean, everybody who tweeted about him, I know when people pass away, everybody tends to say good things. But these are a lot of people who might not otherwise say nice things about people.

All had good things to say about Eddie Van Halen. He was well-loved in the best part was every time he played the guitar, he was having a blast out there. He looked like he was a fifteen year old kid, just having genuine fun ripping up the guitar. And that's the image I'll always have and playing that white light black and red vintage guitar you always had. So our sympathies to his friends and family, Eddie Van and all of the hell of a legacy, both as a musician and as a human being.

So we wanted to acknowledge that.

So, again, our condolences to his family and friends are a gang that should wrap up Episode 301 once again, big thanks to Ian, Iran, for joining us for draft expertise. And a reminder, we are back to one episode a week, so we will see you a week from today. Have a great week and a great weekend, everybody.

As always, we'd like to thank our sponsors here on spin tickets. Big thanks to everybody over at New Amsterdam, vodka and pink Whitney. Big thanks to everybody over at FUBU TV. Huge thanks to our friends over at DHS and detox. Big thanks to everybody over and Zippy Crew and a huge thanks to our friends. Everyone likes pizza. From across the river? Yes, it's in the third degree. Dad's old enough dad's.