Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Hello, everybody, welcome to Episode 302 of Spin Check, presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka. Here in the Bar Stools Bullets podcast family. We are back to one episode a week and there is lots and lots to discuss. But first, it's been a week. We got to say hi to the boys first. Mike ITG looking good.

NITI die early this morning, guys.

You know we're back to one a week. We should be happy but I just, I can't, I can't smile right now. The Bruins, I don't know what the fuck they're doing so I know we'll get into that later. But I'm rattled by the off season moves by the Boston Bruins.

I'll see one of those Bruins fans who thinks they have to sign every free agent and trade for every guy available on the market until the team beats him in the company.

Raises the cup with said team, basically. Yes.

Oh, aye. To Whitney. Holy shit. Is that the show?

That's the real Whitney. Where are you right now, buddy? That's not the usual homestead.

I didn't think it was that bad chirp for my buddy Mickey. I'm in Pinehurst, North Carolina. It's a beautiful day in Pinehurst. I want to shout out this place.

What a sport. We have 12 guys here. We get the next three, four days of golf. So I'm fired up. Plenty of us. Plenty of things for us to chat about.

I mean, what happened this weekend? The NHL was a complete gong show. I think I'll leave it at that. But it's a pleasure to see you guys once a week. I know some people. Where's the episode Monday worship. So we know what guys, we need a little break.

We're going to one episode a week. The show's better one episode a week either. Also should deal with it. And I'm very happy to be here, so I'll leave it at that.

I mean, this is literally the fifth season. We've taken a little bit of a break out of the season. It's standard operating procedure by this point. And by the way, when you leave Pinehurst wait, don't forget to take the tissues out in case you get a little more moist at the place for a Rigsy cried on the way out.

Yeah, yeah. He's going to be OK. All right. I have a hard time keeping track.

Last but not least, a little dirty dug out in the desert. Paul business. Steve Bissonette.

What do you mean? What's up, buddy? What do you mean by craziness with the fact that half the guys in the league changed teams over the last seven days?

Just an absolute hodgepodge of trades and signings and people upset and people happy and tears and just an absolute mess. Yeah, NHL free agency.

Now, granted, it was going to be different. We knew it was going to happen. We knew nothing would be similar with what's going on with covid and the salary cap and all that.

But I never expected it to have happened. What went down. So why don't we get into why don't we get into some of these big ass deals?

All right. Absolutely.

And it's funny, putting the outline together was like that always sunny Jeff with that one.

He's like all the things in the board together because you've got to cross-reference the trades and signings and all that. So, yeah, let's jump right into it. The big fish on the free agent market landed where you can find a bunch of whales.

I speak, of course, of Vegas. The Golden Knights signed Alex Pettengill, the thirty year old defenseman, to a seven year, sixty one point six million dollar deal comes up to eight point eight million per year and a cap hit in an average annual value because it's a bonus laden deal, more than half of the money. Thirty five million comes in the form of bonuses. He also got the all powerful no move clause for the full Monty.

Let's go to you first before you take really the high, high flying defenseman who gets the big bucks. You're going to come to the city forward on the podcast. Well, I'll say this. You know, there was obviously some talks with St. Louis, especially late. I just think they were unable to match anything as far as the bonus is concerned. I was also hearing rumblings that there wasn't going to be a no move clause in it as well.

Now, that might just be rumors, but I think the writing was on the wall when Torrey crew sign with with the St. Louis Blues. It's unfortunate Pietrangelo will not be going back to St. Louis. But as he said, he's very, very excited, you know, to to see if he can take a run at it with this Vegas Golden Knights team. And another thing, no state tax. I don't know if you guys heard that Vegas is one of those states where you don't have to pay that extra percentage of your salary.

So I would imagine that that helped him and helped in getting him over there. But he one of the last things he said was he says Vegas is known as like the best place in the league to play right now. He said that I mean, that's that's how quick they made a name for himself over there. They've made a name for themselves over there. So they are a juggernaut in the West. And there's probably one other team that can match them right now.

This whole this whole deal was nuts because St. Louis and Petro, they were talking right up, right up to the end. But when you bring up is that there wasn't I think, Ari, you mentioned the no big bonus and the no no movement, cause those are things Doug Armstrong doesn't really want to be a part of. And and the no the no move cause is the that's the ultimate that's the dream for any player.

The player becomes more powerful than the owner when they get a no movement cause you can't be bought out, you can't be sent down, you can't be traded.

You are getting everything. All of that money's coming your ways. And you're going to be 37 years old by the end of it.

We've talked what happens at the end of these deals, but Vegas looks at it like this.

We are ready to win a Stanley Cup and we're going to go, well, we're going to get that big fish. And this is a guy I believe McCrimmon mentioned.

This is a player. Not often are you able to go out and acquire a defense like this, a true number one. Now, the whole issue is that Petro, I think he wanted to remain with the blues.

He brings him a Stanley Cup. He's a captain. And he felt disrespected, I think, when they went out and they got Falke last year. And while that money was. All right, well, where's where's my money going to come from? And then this year, all of a sudden you start hearing that it's not necessarily dead leading up to free agency, but then crook signs that deal and boom, it was over. And I think no doubt about it, Petro's made it clear that Vegas was his number one choice when if he was to go to free agency, that's where he wanted to be.

I have a tough time believing that he didn't want to be in St. Louis if he really could be, though. And so once you start figuring out I got 35 million in bonuses coming my way with this Vegas deal and I won't really have much at all in St. Louis, along with the no state tax and along with the insult of really them not doing whatever it took to bring him back, to bring their captain back their number one defense team back, it makes sense that he's moving on.

I don't think that it was easy for either side. But in the end, Vegas gets an unreal player who for at least the next three or four years is still in his prime. I believe the way he plays, the way he skates his presence on the ice. It's a great signing now.

Vegas, holy shit. This team, since they came into the league biz, has just immediately made impacts on the ice off the ice.

And now here's the crazy thing. You hear a lot of rumblings, a lot of things going on. There are some Vegas players who are not happy and were not happy as this process played out. You got guys whose names are thrown out and rumors who signed their four deals. And all of a sudden you hear Pat Shreddies name out there. You hear Marshall's show's name out there.

Schmidt ends up getting another Alan Walsh situation. Oh, yes.

There is no Alan Walsh, his client's part of the whole situation. Well, what do you know that that's now been said? That that's going to be their tandem? Flurry isn't going anywhere now. Partly, that has a lot to do with the fact that Leonard, he had shoulder surgery. Right. So I don't know how long he'll be out. They say it's nothing serious, but still until he's back healthy.

This team. This yeah. This team. And then Fleury could take a seat on the bench.

This team, though, they they a lot of times in the in the past few years, it was like guys the teams didn't want that came together and showed how good they were. And it's really changed.

Now you can look at it from the side of the Vegas ownership and GM says, hey, I could do your job, maybe get traded.

That's the business. Or some of the players are thinking, like, God, I signed a deal here. Am I going to get Delts?

Schmidt Schmidt was one year or two of that deal he signed.

God, I don't know if we're going to get into that right away, but I'm not talking I'm just talking about overall Vegas and going there. It's really it's really showed Vegas has become one of those places where. You're you're going there and you by no means are going to be there for your entire deal unless she got the NMC. Yeah, you're legitimately a piece of meat, so just shut the fuck up and put the puck in the net.

And therefore, they're more willing and they're more willing to kind of really buy into like where this is not a stable area as a player.

Well, it is for Petero because he's got the no move. But I'll throw this to you. It kind of reminds me when Burki, as a GM said, you know, we had one big missing piece and it was that Chris Pronger type defenseman. And I know he's probably not as mean as Pronger, but as far as he is, nobody is better for the game.

Yeah, yeah. He was he was in medieval times dinner and tournament. But to today's standards, like he's kind of like the Chris Pronger the league. And and I'm sure at the end of this deal, it might be a little bit of an overpayment, considering those types of bigger guys tend to slow down. But I think for for the next four or five years, he's still going to be, you know, a top a top 10 to 15 defensemen in the NHL.

Now, you want to talk? Sorry, Ari, just quickly, because I wanted to bring this up even before the first deal we chatted about.

But the difference in signings this year, I mean, you look at the first ten first thirty minutes of twenty nineteen free agency. Two hundred and fifty million was given out. It took ten hours in two to twenty, twenty four, 300 million to get be given out. So it just shows that when you want to talk about the bonuses and what had happened with players just really lining their pockets with bonus money every July 1st, it's changed. Pietrangelo, I believe, got 35 million.

The next highest was Malmström, who got five million in bonus money. Then Taylor Hall got a million and then went Holtby. Five hundred thousand. So this bonus money's going away. And the amount of money that was kind of like. People are people are thinking, oh, well, this guy is going to get this and players, I'm going to get this going here next year, and everyone quickly realized, like, not only are they not going to get what they think, but a lot of guys have taken pay cuts.

You know, you're a UFA and you're not you're not out of the league yet. You have to have good years ahead of you. And, holy shit, there is no money available. So Petro was the biggest fish in this market, the biggest fish in the sea. And you see what he gets. But no one else, no one else was treated the way he was.

I think it's like a lot of industries is not a lot of people getting raises and a lot of people have taken pay cuts. So I guess it's a matter of count your blessings with some guys. And going back to Vegas, they kind of remind me of the glenzer, the New York Ranger days, just constantly wheeling and dealing. No guys feel safe. It's you know, they're a huge market team and they're acting like it. And you did mention Nate Schmidt and unfortunately, our buddy Nate, he was the one ship, one of the ships Vagas used to pay the salary cap Piper, so to speak.

Vegas sent them to Vancouver for a third rounder and twenty twenty two. And I say, unfortunately, only because, you know, Nate has to leave this incredibly unique and successful foundation that he had a key role and build them, not to mention the teammates he's become brothers with. That's just a little different than I think your typical trade. You know, you're there from from day one and you helped build that culture, build that winning culture. So I'm sure it sucks for him.

But at the same time, other side of the coin, he's going to have fun wherever he goes because he's Nate Schmidt. And he had a quote about Elias Pederson saying, I remember Pederson's spinning me into a top last year. Fortunately, I won't see any of that anymore. Another thing that suckerfish medy, like you said, because the state income tax, he's going to have to pay whatever he's going to and he's making just under six mil for another five years or so.

And they're all getting twenty eight percent of their money withheld next year. Yeah. So let me tell you, we can get when he gets to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Yeah. That fucking rains every day. Stay hard, man. The winter in the winter. Vancouver sucks, dude. In the summer it's amazing. Let's be honest. It rained seventy five degrees and some rain. You go to the Roxy in Hawthorne.

You're all right, you guys rolling around in the sheets for 48 hours, missing a game with three Vancouver women. But listen. Vancouver was possibly going to burn down for the second time if they hadn't at least gotten Schmidt because they lost Taneja, they lost stature, they lost Malmström, they lost to Foley.

They are not as good of a team next year. Right now, the Vancouver Canucks have taken a step back. So they bring in Schmidt and. Right. I mean, they're paying him a lot of money, but only having to give up that draft picks. Nice. But Vancouver took a little bit of a beating this year and free agency.

I think they were like Detroit and the fact that they made wise moves with what they had, they didn't they didn't go crazy. They're still I still think they're trying to maybe take advantage of a few situations. I'm not going to be too critical of them because last time I was they shoved it up my hoop by going to the second round.

I know they were fighting those guys in Britain and good. Our I think our rights is RFA, so they for sure have money that needs to be paid.

But it was a weird day to see, you know, Tanavoli, what a conduct that guy felt like.

If you're a Canucks fan, just this. Yeah.

Misleader, he's all of a sudden gone. And so it was a tough day, but schmick going there. I know we're kind of running ahead of some of the other bigger deals. But Petro, congratulations. Big money. You deserve it. Vegas gets a good one. Yeah.

And going back to your commentary, Schmidt, he took that like a champ. His interviews are awesome. He was smiling the whole time, joking around like usually is, and talk about a talk about a very positive human being on the overall scale. Absolutely.

We got to get him back for round two. He's a pleasure to interview. And also, Vegas treated Paul Stastny in his contract to Winnipeg for defenseman Karl Dahlstrom in a conditional fourth in twenty twenty two. I will see him in that trade to Vancouver. That almost felt like a fable like I have this top four top flight defenseman for just a third round.

I mean, I don't know what everybody knew that they were in cap trouble. I was actually surprised. They still are right. Vegas in cap trouble. So I'm I'm surprised maybe there weren't more takers and give it up more value. But he does come with a six million dollar cap, as you said. And once again, that's why I was critical of Vancouver giving up as much as they did for four. Is it JT Miller?

Oh, I wish you said TJ for the fall. I got it.

I got it home for the twentieth time. Get it was because everybody knew that Tampa was in deep trouble. So I mean, in this situation, I think that that was a very I think that was a good fair price and good for Vancouver for getting for a third rounder. Yeah.

And good luck to Smitty up in Vancouver. And one other quick Vegas move. They had unrestricted free Agent Thomas Noshaq. He is staying in the desert one year, one point twenty five million.

So he's not going anywhere.

Let's go. The next big move, Taylor Hall. This was probably the biggest surprise in a week of surprises. The biggest forward on the market went where I bet not many people had known bills. Mafia country, Taylor Hall. He's going to have to go to Home Depot and stock up on some trashy tables to smash himself through what in Thailand and his eight million dollar deal with, huh?

Yeah, just a shocker here for pretty much everyone around the hockey world now. Here's kind of how I think it all went down. There was a ton of teams that showed a lot of interest. Right. And I think Columbus is one that maybe would have offered a lot of term.

But I still think that all of a sudden, you know, you hear teams willing to do a year, willing to do two years. But the problem was a lot of these teams, Vegas was one, but they were way less money, I think.

And on a one year deal, the Bruins are there and the Bruins are telling them and stringing them along. What we want you for this. We want you for this. But they're not giving them any answers. And they tell them, listen, we have it's not going to get done yet. We have to move pieces to bring you in if that's going to happen. And in the end, Halsy doesn't want to wait anymore. He's got Buffalo.

He sees Jack Eichel. He's looking to prove he's going to prove it to himself. He's going to he thinks Buffalo is a better team. And Ralph Krueger had a ton to do with this. It wasn't just the opportunity to play with Jack Icko and now Chippewa Street. Holy shit, you got halls, these big lips and motha, fuckin fast wheels flying down the wing.

You're going to be shitfaced, rootin this guy on if you can ever go to a goddamn game again in the NHL.

But listen, Ralph Kruger, Ralph Krueger was Hall's coach when I think he had his best year besides his MVP or the best year of his career, just a dominating performance in the lockout shortened year.

He loved playing for him. And I think it was really meaningful to talk to him and him to tell Halsy how much he wants him there. And I'll tell you this. I remember Taylor all telling me when we played together how good of a player he thought Jeff Skinner was to Skinner signs that monster deal and has a horrendous year last year. But all of a sudden, that's a guy you look at their top six looks pretty good on paper.

Pretty bad. Pretty. Not too bad. Pretty. Not too bad. Pretty, pretty. Pretty. Larry David good.

I think I think that Hall will have a big year there. Now, it was shocking because Buffalo has just been so pathetic. Right. They've been so pathetic.

You're like Jesus Christ now. I said, oh, now I know why we couldn't get them on the podcast. We've been ripping their organization for ever. Told me ever. They told me one a couple of years ago, I'm not resigning with the islanders. And Halsy is like, I just want to go to an unbelievable team, all three sides with the islanders. And he goes to the Sabres. Suck on that old roomie, you big eared fuckwit.

Thanks for the insider info. Now, I think.

I think. I think he's going to go there and I think Buffalo is going to be much improved now, they need to get goaltending and there's a lot of things they need to fix. But talk about having a lot to play for. You remember when Marion Hosa took the one year deal from Detroit after losing to Detroit in the Cup finals and ironically, Pittsburgh then beat him?

It's not crazy to think of a great player taking one year, especially with what's going on now. He goes out and lights it up. And I think his goal, and I know Kevin Adams mentioned their goal is to get him in signed as a sabr long term.

I don't know what's going to happen, but I truly believe he will have like, no, I'm just using you. Well, people like you're my sidekick. I'm just going to let you make sure you're on the fucking birth control. And yeah, OK.

I saw Buster. So you're like, no, hold on, hold on.

People said that, like, we don't know, maybe the Sabres do struggle and he gets traded halfway through the third. He doesn't want to get traded anymore. Guys, the first overall pick is he's not going in. That's looking to maybe get dealt that the deadline. He wants to make Buffalo a good. So we're saying he's the sidekick.

He's the one who keeps moving around anyway. I like it. And he seems excited to be there. I know a lot of people are taking it like his his past comments, the fact he wants to go to a winner and he's already made his money. He wants to go somewhere where he can get a champ a chance at a championship. Listen, he feels like he can go there and make an impact and make them into a playoff team. Do I think they're anywhere near competing?

No, but, hey, you know, you know, maybe he goes there. He has very good chemistry in that top six moving around the powerplay and of course, with his old coach and he just finds it comfortable there. And maybe he does sign long term and and some of these pieces that they do have ended up working out. Who's the one kid that popped off a bit last year?

Was it Victor Olsen? Yeah, rookie. Great player. Six shot. Yeah. Good player. I mean, of course, some middle stats. Another guy they need to to all of a sudden blossom and come out of his shell. So listen, who knows? All of a sudden with the addition of a heart trophy winner and now, now a rejuvenated Eichel, he said, oh my God, I'm going to get to fucking play with this guy.

This is unbelievable. Now, the more the pressure has been relieved off my back. So I love the situation. I hope he goes and flourishes. And I hope that it ends up working out much like there with Skinner and he gets his fucking payday. And I know he seems happy I hung a hungry dog hunt.

Is that the saying that the saying. No, no, no.

I think that I mean, well, there's more to it, but I forget the phrase. It's a fantasy. I love you. Why am I singing a song?

I don't even like your dog tunes. So I'm in the game but.

But you got ickle and you got hall to professional guys who are so driven at this point, they want to prove everyone wrong. And so I think that you got a lot to look forward to if you're a saber fan. Finally, Paul is still always in the crease.

How we're going to get them on for this podcast to talk about it. But we got cock blocked. He's been he's been doing a lot of press. He's been doing he's been doing the selfie videos to promote those big, juicy lips of his for the Wall Street.

Hey, Chip Ostry, welcome these details in my flying speed down the wing, ladies, I thought he had been to the Sundowner. An interesting quote, though.

He said, quote, Buffalo is a team that when the guys realize it or not, everyone around the league kind of pulls for them. It's a good city. They have passionate fans. They have a fan base that's striving for a winning team and hasn't had that lately. I thought was interesting just to hear a player say that the rest of the league is actually pulling for one team.

Well, he kind of means you're just like, oh, the same as the they're down five one in the third off fucking Buffalo. You know, that's kind of deserved better. Yeah. It's like, oh, fucking hey, those poor guys.

A couple other quick notes. Buffalo did have a couple of their own UNFPA's that stayed Zambia Zambonis Jurgensen and Brandon Montoya, they both re up. And Cody Eakin was unrestricted played for Vegas before he signed with Buffalo two years, four point five mil. So moving right along, the other big name that went well, Torrey Crooge rights were never dealt the some ray.

So he went to the market and St. Louis was the one to land that, um, obviously they got him, like we said before, Petrof seven years. Forty five and a half mil comes out to six and a half mile per year. Those I feel like there was a little bit of a PR war going on. Elliott Friedman, at the time, Bruins didn't make an offer, said that its previous offer was no longer on the table. I don't know the Bruins.

I didn't I didn't catch the oppressive ability, but I don't think anybody really challenged Sweeney on those particulars. But either way, Greg's gone, moved on to St. Louis. He's not a Petrelis, but he's a pretty nice player as well.

This is getting uglier than drays divorce right now. This is fucking just the mudslinging in the media. Whose divorce?

Dr. Dre. Oh, he isn't here because he's got to he's got a nasty crazy that W wants crazy, she wants two million a month. And actually she just apparently this is the new news that she just got caught and embezzling, as I said. Yeah. Oh, nailed it like she wants to.

She's a month, a month when the ex is worth about four billion. That's not her life. Like to I'm sure you deserve it. Her like Ryder list of like what she spends money on was me.

Right.

I mean, you got to chuckle if you're if you're a judge and you see this, you guys, she's like twenty grand a month pussy waxing forty five thousand a week or so on triple pool boy action.

I like green Eminem's only which are charged extra. What a joke. I like.

It's a dre. I have no clue. Crude divorce. Oh yeah.

The kids are going to be divorced ugly right now.

I think the Bruins to line their dicks right off their body. That's what I was referencing at the beginning, the podcast. And I said I wasn't happy with the Bruins. I just don't like how they're handling.

So so let's put it this way and let's just be honest about the situation. Bruins were like the cock blocks of free agency. They were apparently they were talking to Hall and they were dragging things out with them a little bit.

And then they would talk about Anderson. When he went for Domy, they had interest in trade for him.

Yeah. So they're just they're just tickling everybody's balls.

You they asked about what's going on in Boston. I do like Greg Smith a lot, but let me tell you right now, CROOGE So maybe you guys could tell me this. Is it definitely official that he was offered the like six times six five deal last December apair.

Oh, OK. So it was in December. He got offered that.

Well, September eight, he said it had been about a year since he had talked to them. Now which way know. So he's never said he did get an offer.

But he he he said that he hadn't heard from in about the last day off, last off I got was about a year ago, that's what he was quoted as saying. And again, Eliot Friedman. So Bruyn's did not make an offer and indicated its previous offer was no longer on the table, which.

So OK, so let's let's be fair here. So what they're essentially saying is they might have made that six times six offer in September, assuming everything was going as planned, the cap was going to go up. And but then obviously what happened happened. And considering he turned that number down, then that number was no longer on the table. So I don't know. That could be very well. And considering the circumstances of the cap situation, maybe they feel that his market value had dropped and all the power to to for going to freeagent free agency and taking advantage, that I think he's a great player.

I think it's a shitty situation that he's not going to get to play for a place that he truly wanted to be. But I feel that that he probably would have gotten close to, I would say, at least seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars less per year if he would have stuck with the BS. That's even thinking if he would have gotten an offer at five and a half, which seems to be wasn't even there with with what happened with the cap situation.

Yeah, I don't saying that no one was going to run the Bruins power play. Maybe they're looking MacAvoy could take that step. But it was it was interesting to see him end up going to St. Louis.

And I think that was pissed off at the Bruins and what he thought lack of loyalty and maybe a lack of kind of thinking. He's the player that that he thinks he is. Right.

Obviously, there is something there that the Bruins didn't want to invest in and then Petro's going through the same thing. And then he gets his heart broken by St. Louis.

When Krook signs there, it's a wife swap, musical chairs of just being treated like meet while also making millions of dollars.

So I love Craig on the blues, though. He competes that that that who sent that tweet?

Robert Thomas are best friends now of Krubera running him over in the great tweet. Robert Thomas, great action there on Twitter.

Now what I want to ask him, maybe I go to you because, you know, he doesn't know shit about signing big deals.

That's me. All right. Don't want to just jump in. I think with crew, I think the safe to say there was a lack of communication between him and Boston. And in my blog the day I compared it to this girl, I took on a date a few years ago. And, you know, it was no spark there. So I didn't call anymore. And I ran it to a bar. And she says, what's the matter?

You're not going to call anymore? And I says, Well, I wasn't going to call you to tell you I wasn't going to call you anymore.

So I wonder if with with the NHL situations, if it's if it varies team to team, is it standard operating procedure for a team to say to a guy who gave him heart and soul for a decade, hey, buddy, we're going to move on. Thanks for everything.

I'm sorry I don't play out. I love the comparison. And I think that a lot of think is a lot of things are built up internally and when not communicated sometimes like what you thought and wasn't a reality actually transforms. And yeah, it just seemed like it kind of like one ugly domino fell and it got uglier as it proceeded. And there was never really any good, solid communication. I don't know. It seems like Torrey Craig would have been willing to take a discount to me.

So maybe they're looking at it like they did offer him that deal, you know, a year ago. And that's kind of like what Marshawn and them are making. So, like, if you want to be here, sign that. So then maybe they're pissed off or they look at me or they look at his play and they think that he's not like the player they want to invest in, which I think is kind of crazy. He's so good on the power play, so good offensively, and he competes like a motherfucker out there.

So it is a good point.

I mean, it's hard when it's hard when you look at like you never going to get inside a GMs.

True thoughts on what he thinks about a guy. And you're never going to really have a player, a GM open up usually in this league, especially in terms of like why they did or didn't do something now. And this is a similar topic to Chicago and what's going on there. Let's get into that later. But it is very true that I think a lot of players feelings are left hurt and a lot of GMs are left thinking, I don't really give a shit.

Yeah. Or or or, you know, they were just as hurt as he was when when he turned down the six time six, if in fact that was offered a year ago.

And instead of a good old fashioned hate fuck, you end up a crowd in St. Louis.

Yeah. Yeah. With a really bad analogy. Not too bad. They boys. Well, some of these deals are long term and some of them are quickies. But guys, listen, you don't want all quickies out there, believe me. And most guys have tried different ways to last longer, but memorize in free agency rules doesn't always work. That's why the folks at Rollman, an online men's health company, got change in the game with Roman swipes.

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You just take the swipes out of the packet, swipe it on, let it. Right, and you're good to get good to go, that's it. So we've got to get Roman dotcom slash check, lets you get your first month of swipes for just five dollars when you choose a monthly plan that's get Roman dotcom slash slash check. Let's see. I see. Let's because we haven't mentioned I guess we're not going to them right now. We still have a lot of news to get to, but we were very fortunate to get Dallas Stars head coach Rick Bonus for a close to an hour.

And what a great interview. Again, we're going to bring on a little ledge. Just want to give you a heads up that we're going to be bringing them on. Good stuff.

Such a nice man. Big thank you to Ryan Bonus, his son, who's a scout, and he passed along this information and he said, you know, he's just one of the boys. And I said, any any any coach who incentivizes players or are from the beers, if they win, just give him coach of the year every year. Yeah, like I said, a little.

A little, a little bit before we get to that. But another team that made some big news. Colorado Avalanche, I mean, they were looking like a wagon in the playoffs till they got banged up. And I don't know, man, Joe Sackett is starting to get a reputation as a GM who's starting to swindle guys a little bit. So the avalanche, they obtain full Brandon Sard, an odd defenseman, Dennis Gilbert from the Blackhawks, defenseman Nikita Zadora and defenseman Anton Lindhome in Colorado also got Devon Davis from the Islanders.

He's restricted free agent. They give him a second round with twenty one in a second in twenty two. Colorado also free up restricted free agents Andre Bartkowski, Ryan Graves and Ballerina Institution. So this team is already awesome. They got a little better. Let's go to you first for your take on these multiple transactions.

Let me tell you right now, DeVonté is a hell of a player. He skates like the wind and it's a great acquisition from Colorado.

But he was probably happy playing for the honors, a team he loved his first team.

And then Frank fucking Borrelli wore that outfit to his goddamn wedding.

And next thing you know, poor bastard gets shipped out of town.

Frankie Borrelli looked like a James Bond villain in the 1960s.

Who was the Scottish James Bond on Colaneri? Sean Connery. It was one of the like I don't know what he was wearing. I think he was trying to look hip. I mean, it was just the poor guy got dealt. I said on Twitter, I think that was the final straw. I think Lou saw his best buddies outfit at his wedding.

He's like, shit, I'm out of here, get under to the avalanche for nothing. And I do think, though, that Joe Sakic has figured this out.

He's got and what what a change in times and how the the NHL landscape moves and changes. And you look at Colorado and what they just did, getting Brandon said, and in the door of back to Chicago. Oh, what a sad time to be a Chicago Blackhawks fan or an elite player on that team. So as much as we want to blow Sakiko in which he deserves it and what a player.

And now he's doing it on the GM side, tough life. He's probably fucking nasty at everything else like Pawelski to prove he's going to be the guy goes nasty GM someday.

But the Blackhawks, who can we not? Can we talk about did you see this Tab's article? You see there's nothing to it. Yeah. Oh, my God, Jonathan Teves, I don't think The Strogoff really ever. Who do I want to stroke off?

You could stroke off Joe Stroke while I was going to say we went from the wife swapping to the cooking, and he's just cooking all these games over the airwaves. OK, sure. That will make that trade. I don't know how he swindled that one, but he what's the the the guy on Twitter who always has those awesome tweets, he basically summed it up perfectly. Filipovic, Filipovic. He's like like they didn't make any drastic cat moves. They still have plenty of space left there.

They didn't give up any first rounders or any prospects. And they have a better team than they did going into last year. And and as far as far as like the one question mark at this point, it would probably be goaltending. But they think Grube power is a number one. Of course, he gets injured in playoffs. But I would imagine if they if the team is now kicking the way it should be with that top six and just even looking at their depth, who can produce and securing the the the good solid 60 is you have enough cap space to wear if you need to go at the deadline and get a goalie, considering there's a zillion of them now, you can do so.

So for what? For what he's done with that team and how considering in this cap, er they're going to be a very good situation moving forward to be very solid for the next four or five years, like as in a top three going in every season.

Pasos sportsbook before free agency had the Colorado Avalanche is the favorite to win the Stanley Cup next season. Oh nice. So and they got better. It's, I mean it just goes to show how good they are now.

Sakic the old Cookie Monster. So now I can go to Chicago. Yeah. Jonathan Caves doesn't really do much media. He'll do media that needs to be done.

But in the summer especially especially guys, I'm getting better.

He stays like under the radar, you know, he's not he's not necessarily involved, he doesn't want to be in the media landscape. But for him to do that interview and to mention nobody ever told us we were rebuilding and nobody ever consulted with us about any of these deals is shocking. And it shows how pissed off some of these guys are. And you can look at and argue that a GM doesn't owe players anything.

You've got a guy like Jonathan Teves and Patrick Kane who run formed a dynasty at one point in Chicago with an original team. I don't think you necessarily have to listen to the guy and what he says, but a player like that deserves to be brought into the mix. Yeah, player like that deserves to be talked to and and and discussions about where the team's heading and and what the GM believes is going to happen and what he thinks is going to happen.

And talking to a guy and after what's happened in Chicago and after Dave's giving that interview, there's Lazarus or something.

Who did it at the athletic? Honestly, I would not be that surprised if at some point tapes and came in or out of there now, because are they going to sit through just like the doldrums of the Blackhawks, like before they got there? Again, I just if you're a Blackhawks fan and you know what type of person Jonathan Davis is, you've got to be shocked to see him do that interview and say the things he did is they aren't happy there.

And by no means are they expecting and cool with just a total rebuild right now.

I would I would imagine the big spark is the fact that they didn't consult them or not. Bring bring in Corey Crawford back.

Correct. That was that was the biggest issue. Yes, that was the biggest spark.

And and as you said in your Steeg actually took to Instagram on a story and he was like not only for what they've done for the organization, but if you're considering that your core group and that you actually have respect for for them and a guy that's already helped bring the organization of Stanley Cup and they've won with him. The fact that they weren't consulted is like it's inexcusable and it just shows the separation. And sometimes in this business there's egos involved and like it's kind of like all the players just fucking play.

And we joked around about it earlier on about the Vegas situation. Well, they also haven't provided that organization through stay on the cops. Like, this is not we're not we're talking about like a last dance scenario to like the new the new hot blonde in town. And it kind of reminds you of that documentary and how out of touch sometimes when the the GMs are making these moves, they actually forget it's the individuals on the court that are getting the job done.

And I mean, how fitting that it's in Chicago as well. So I don't know. And even the sort the Sadiel I'm sure there are probably sick of like seeing another one that at least from the start, is like a massive swing where it's like, is this guy consulting anything, anything that he's doing at any point? Is there any type of pushback or other voice in the room, maybe talking him off the ledge? And that's where their concerns should be.

And and listen, I don't know how this this trade is going to pan out. I'm not going to be critical of this individual move as far as the Zadora thing, the Corey Crawford thing and some things in the past that haven't looked so great on the resume.

Yeah, this is this this could be the straw that broke the camel's back and they gave me a broken stick and stay with me. I mean, I boy, chiefs done a great job. I love a good Chief Wrage Blood, but he is right on. You know, when there's a quote from BOEM, I think it was written years ago on the unpadded manage their paid to play. And it's like almost like, like you just said, because these guys won this franchise three, four, three, put them back on the map.

You'd think they'd have some to offer. Yeah. I like to come out and say, bottom line is I want to win. The expectation for the other leaders on this team and myself is to come ready to training camp every year to be a playoff team. This has never been communicated to me, for that matter. A lot of this comes as a shock because it's a completely different direction than we expected it.

Sad the fact that Jonathan Tay's went on the record with those quotes, given his history, it's a guy who let's not forget let's not forget the firing of Quinn Carlinville, too. I would imagine that they probably weren't happy with that as well. So there's been like there's been numerous dominoes at this point. And I know business.

He likes to cross cross reference with football. But I'm going to make a basketball analogy here. And like I know you, a young, younger, but it's almost like when Larry Bird and Kevin McHale was sort of at the end with the Celtics and the Celtics are starting to get bad and they wouldn't trade them. They refused to trade them. And then they ended up terrible for for a long time. And I think there's a similar analogy to in game there.

If they hang onto those guys just because they made the legacy that they could end up losing the value of them, you know, I mean, like so it's going to be it makes so much money.

So it's a weird situation how quickly things can change in this in this NHL.

And I guess it was a long run, but Chicago looks horrendous going into next year.

And they trade teams and Kane, it's going to be back like when a coin was on and he said that he could yell across the stadium to his kids to sit down and shut up.

His kids were doing his homework at the games.

So. Yeah, exactly. And be careful what you wish for.

And while we're on the Hawks, they did free up a couple of their restricted free agents. Dominic Kubelik signed for two years, seven point four mil. Malcolm Schubin two years, one point seven million. Mathias Jean-Marc was unrestricted from Dallas. They signed him to a one year, two point twenty five dollars million deal. And just going back to St. Louis briefly, I forgot to mention Kyle Clifford ended up in St. Louis as well in a two year, two dollars million deal.

He came from Toronto, of course, in Toronto, of course, is another team that made lots of noise and free agents. Oh, baby. Let's take a look here. They brought in TJ Brody, four years.

Twenty mil. Wayne Simmons, one year, one point five mil. Zach Bogosian, one year, one mil. Jimmy Veazey, one year, nine 900000. Of course, they did have to move some money because they at Toronto they lost twenty goalscorer when they sent Andre Johnson to the Devils, the Joey Anderson Johnson Johnson. I'm sure he has three years left at three point four milk and as soon as an Arafeh not signed yet. I know you want to talk about Tobi's.

Go ahead, Will Johnson. That's a tough loss. And that's where they thought they could replace somebody cheap. They brought in two guys who could potentially do so, Jimmy EVC. He's got to be licking his chops right now at getting inside that that second left side role.

And they got him at nine hundred. And, you know, he's he's one of those guys. I wouldn't say he's gambling on himself because, like, you know, I would imagine that the considering where the market is, he probably could have got much more somewhere else. But now he gets to go play plan a top six like that where that's his style of game. So they also have that Robertson kid who who I'm not sure he had I thought he had a solid playoff, ended up getting taken out in game five one.

Sure as shit. Johnson came back and they thought he was ready to go. But Johnson was just kind of the the odd man out where they thought they could save some money. He was making three and a half and they see that roll. Bringing the other guys they brought in is. At least one of those guys will be able to step and do that at a cheaper cost. One of the criticisms of Robertson is maybe his skating at this point.

He's still young. I think he hit a 50 all season the year before in the fall. So this guy is like, you know, he's he's elite. So maybe he'll be, in fact, even better playing on those skill lines. So it was the right move. But but that was a tough loss. And a proven guy who comes in, Johnson, who blocked shots, who is a mad man on the four track, he can retrieve POCs.

I believe he's a fairly good penalty killer. So you're losing a very solid piece. And we're not to take a shot, just kind of like a Kunitz type.

He's just a honey badger out there, just like I don't think I think comparing him to Christianities, like, yeah, that was a shame. I don't no, it's not even just a shot at me. It's like a horrible comparison. Like Chris Coons is ten times the player that that guy is right now.

Well, maybe not at the time he came over. No. How many want a cop in Anaheim and like had like 60 points and shit? It's not. It's all because they're coming after me.

I'm coming after you for your bad call. Had twenty three goals. What was true. I like the guy's game.

I like the guy's game. But is the most interesting thing I'm hearing in Toronto is that a lot of guys are just calling Joe Thornton. Come on over Joe. Come over for a year. Who knows. Right.

They got Spezza they get the vets win Semmens. I don't know how much he has left in the tank, but how hard is he going to play? He's going to be where he grew up, bringing a lot of jam to that team. Same with Bogosian.

So you see these moves Toronto makes?

None of them are ever huge deals because they've paid like six guys their whole salary cap.

But you need these you need these deals and you need these guys on good contracts to have huge impacts for that team to win. They'll never win unless the guys they're signing for a million bucks are really, really good. That's pretty much how important it is. So Veazey had a really tough start to the year in Buffalo, but he's a great player and I think that he could be awesome there. And I just I, I understand where that team is and where they need they think they need to improve.

And they went out and they tried to do it. Now, granted, they don't have a ton of foot speed. A lot of these guys that they grabbed and Bogosian and Simmons are a little older, but they're tougher and they're more and they're tougher to play against. And it is an improvement for the for the Leafs.

I think Will Browdy was probably the biggest guy they brought in is to solidify.

I love him. I love how he moves. That always skates.

That's a guy who deserves, what was it, four years, like four and a half or something? Yeah.

So basically you're swapping out Tyson Berry for him. And, you know, we'll talk about Tyson and him gambling himself in Edmonton this year. But just Brodies, just a guy who can play a 200 foot game. He could provide a bit offensively and he's very confident in his own end. And now when you have a solid piece like that, you've brought in Muhsen the year before.

And now that we talked about Bogosian and Simmons and adding that toughness, much like we talked about with Tampa Bay and how they added some guys listen, this I think this is the the the most confident I've been in a league lineup going into the season. And I think they, in fact, will will make some noise and get out of the first round next year with the lineup like that. All right, we shall see another king and team that made some noise, ladies, how about Montreal Canadiens?

They, of course, had already traded for Josh Anderson and they hadn't signed them as of our last show, but they did. A seven year deal worth thirty eight point five million, comes out to a five point five Kapit. Of course, they traded for Max Domi. And they also got Tyler to Foley, who had finished up the season in Vancouver. They signed him to a four year, seventeen million dollar deal, just four and a quarter mil.

That's a bargain for a player like him. Vancouver fans not too happy that franchise coughed up a second round in a prospect for 17 total games on up to Foley. But either way, Montreal beefing up the offense a little bit.

Abey's I really like the offseason moves and Tyler to Foley is the type of guy he's very opportunistic. Always finds the back of the net. He did have an off year the year previous in L.A. but that whole team, the whole team took a massive dump. But yeah I think, I think you're guaranteed getting 20 goals out of him. We mentioned the size of the added with Anderson. They've beefed up the back end by getting Petrie back with that nice contract and Edmondson.

And then, of course, you got Shea Weber. So, I mean, my criticism of Montreal going into last season as they were probably just too easy to play against given their size. They just were there were all tiny. And I still believe that you need to beef up and you've got to be able to throw teams around when it comes to to playoff games. And and Burgher Vann's taken that approach. And I like the moves he's made.

He hasn't gone too crazy. And to lock a guy up like that with with a very fair term to where you're basically getting it guaranteed twenty talks, I think it's a very solid move. OK, so much for all they need to go on the run, they need to have a good year. Bergmann's job could be Gonzo, right, if they're right yet. So they need to have a good season.

Now, the Andersen stuff is crazy because, Anderson, he got I'm not going to say bone, but call Columbus had all the leverage on his last deal, which was like one six one seven or one eight a year for three years.

And then so this year he went to him and he said, hey, give me a one year deal or give me an eight year deal. That's it. One year gets me the UFE eight. You lock me up and call it Columbus.

I just I keep confusing them.

Columbus was was not cool with either. They were not cool with either. So they go out and they and they trade that guy and they bring in Domy and they sign up for not as much money as Anderssen wanted I don't think or at least term. So Montreal makes some changes that they had to make. I like to folie, I think that you're you're saying maybe it's a little bit of an underpayment for. But he's not a great skater.

Yeah, I shouldn't, I'm not going to say he's not a great skater.

Skate. It's not a huge issue, but it's not like the strength of his game. And in this league it's like I thought that was a very fair number, especially with this year what's going on.

And like I thought it was a nice contract when I saw Mike still out there.

I mean, that's the scorers that are still not signed. So I respect Montreal having to try to make some moves to get get some stuff done.

I still don't know if they have the team to how are how are they going to, you know, beat beliefs of the Bruins, the lightning. There's so many teams, I think that they're just behind even with these new deals. But you got to respect it for going out and trying to get something done.

Are you OK with the Anderson deal? I see. Yeah, it's kind of like the Tuck formula, assuming he's going to turn into that power forward. Mind you, I thought I thought it was a I think it's a bit of a gamble. And he got twenty seven the year before. Then he had shoulder surgery, like, you know, I mean, if you're if you're a goal scorer, that's a you know, that's going to be a question mark.

And if you can get back to where you were previous that because in order for him to play up to what he's getting paid now, he has to have years where he's getting twenty five to thirty, thirty every year.

Oh, free. If he's not getting 25 a year with that deal it's, it's something.

So yeah he's, he's got a lot to prove and I'm interested to see how that one plays out because there was a bit, there was a bit of criticism surrounding it and coming off surgery that first year is very tough to be really good.

And you've got to take the risk is that he'll be healthy enough to be an elite player and show what he did two years prior.

I'll say this. I'd be more confident giving it to to Foley, given that there's a lot of of years where there's twenty and in the goal column, rather than a guy who's done it once and then it's coming off a situation like that, where now he's going into a new environment where the amount of pressure to play in Montreal and Columbus, like there's no fucking comparison, especially when you're being paid the big bucks. So that one should be an interesting one to see play out.

I well, we had a lot of musical chairs with the goaltend. There's lots of that going on. This was a bit of a surprise. I thought it looked like Jacob Moxham after his excellent playoffs. There was a lot of positive talk about him in Vancouver. Well, that's not where he ended up. He ended up in Calgary six years. Thirty six million of six Mandorla Kapit. That was a big surprise. I know. Like I just said, everyone thought he was going to stay in Vancouver.

I see. I didn't I didn't the whole time with with Demko coming up, I thought there's no way that they're going to give him the money that he's going to get and demand out there with, with a future what looks like a future stud coming up and making way lost.

So I'm not surprised at all that he left.

Now, if you're Ken Holland and an Edmonton Oilers fan, you know, there was a moment you were very upset, I think, that Edmonton had that guy and figured it was a done deal, seven years, five million a year.

And all of a sudden at the last minute, that that final hour boom, he goes to Calgary to not only not only not what, that's that's how it all went down.

That's what Elliott's saying. He had a seven year deal at five million a year with Edmonton. And then and then Calgary came in and cockblock them.

But I don't know if they came in last minute, they might have been a part of it the entire time. I don't know how that went down, but in listening to the you know, Elliott, just one of the most trusted sources in.

Oh, yeah. Elliott Freeman I'm mentioning.

Yeah. I mean, Edmonson's right there and they think they got him. And boom, last minute he goes to Calgary. So it's Battle of Alberta. Twist it up another notch.

All band and the Oilers are looking at it like, oh, we're taking, we're getting, we're getting Markram.

And all of a sudden they re signed Mike Smith, right?

Yeah, they got them one year, two million bucks. Well, so I think I think Mark Ingram is going to be awesome in Calgary. I think he he's really figured out what it takes to be an illegal in the league. I was so happy I got to see him as a younger guy. Florida trades and it looks like, I don't know, is this kid going to make it?

He's so big, so skilled. Like he's he has every tool in the book and he figured out how to get it done. So Calgary gets a really good goalie and the Oilers get screwed.

I've played against that guy in the Caulder cuts, not a shot. I don't mean get screwed. And Mike Smith, that sounds like a complete shot against him. But if you could choose who you want, right. You're looking at Markram is a really, really good number one goalie in the NHL.

I was just going to say I played against him in the Calder Cup final about, what, three or maybe four years ago. And this guy has earned every penny he just signed for. He has to be thrilled about that deal and just given with the uncertainty of free agency nowadays. But well-deserved. I think he's a tremendous goalie and I think he's with his type of character in that locker room they have in Calgary. I think he's going to fit in like a nice glove and everything is going to be all peachy and rosy, especially in the Battle of Alberta, one of the SINEM by Calgary to Christian have signed four years, 18 million.

Nice little payday that he earned.

Well, they brought Renaldo back to as well, the little wrecking ball, little Lucas Jr., a little Blondie, Blondie Jr..

Well, of course, marks from leaving Vancouver left a vacancy there. And that was filled by Braden Holtby. He took a two year deal worth eight point six million to four point three dollars million cap hit him and Demko will make for a nice one to Demko at a bit of a coming out party in the playoffs 06 for goes against 95 percent that she was otherworldly. But yeah, I mean, Vancouver, if you're a Vancouver fan yet sucks to see from Gulbis, but you're bringing in Hopea.

You've got Demko, you know, in the weight waiting in the wings.

It's not all that bad I think where they're going to have to spread the money out. I think they made the right play and it sucks. The marquee situation sucks. I know some fans are going to be disappointed, but as you said, you don't have to lock in to a long term contract. I think he's getting paid a very fair number. And listen, if let's say the hope, he doesn't perform up to standards. You have a guy who they're basically trying to groom as the next starter.

And and that's a great one two punch at an extremely good value. They said, sometimes I do that with you because sometimes you just take a fuckin 85 mile an hour fastball right over the fat of the plate, just put it four, four rows deep into the second balcony.

I, I like I like these one episodes a week. You get to soak in these trades, you get to give them a little bit of thought and dissect them and then overthink them and then second guess yourself.

It's great.

And again, if I can sell it online and then yelled at home and then read the comments about yourself online and just fucking jump off a bridge, he's getting bullied by people.

Yeah. And call it and be like, fuck these people.

It's OK.

Bears now model forget Vancouver also really restricted free agent Tyler because he had a nice little playoffs for himself two years, two point forty five dollars million contract. So he'll be back with the Canucks and of course hope he left Washington. He's ostensibly going to be replaced by Iliya Simpson off, but they brought in Hank Lundquist presumably to back them up. Hank, of course, was bought out by the Rangers. He signed with rival capitals a one year, one point five million dollar deal.

I know I am praying that we get capitals ranges one of the next playoffs come. I think that's it's pretty intriguing that he went to a division rival. Washington also signed an unrestricted free agent, Justin Schultz, to a two year, eight million dollar deal with Dog, what he got on the Hank move.

I was just going to say, if Florida is getting a knife or sword in the back, what's Hank getting? Hank getting a sword stuffed with a bunch of money, but.

Oh, yeah, exactly.

And I think that his salary with Washington gets him right back to what he would have made in New York. I thought I read that I love that move.

I think that that Sampson office for sure shown that he can be a starter.

But to have a guy like that as the backup who in New York, as we said on a bunch of episodes, he wouldn't have been able to, I don't think, go in being the backup, whereas here he probably knows, you know, I might play, you know, 25, 30 games if I'm lucky. And it's a lot easier mentally going in knowing that. And he's not going to go in and not try to win that starting job and not try to outperform himself.

No chance. But mentally, he knows. You know, right now on paper, I'm not their number one guy.

But what a backup to have a veteran who could teach a young girl who can look phenomenal doing it.

And Washington's right back there. I mean, they they won that cup. And it's been a little awkward, right? They got a new coach. Everything's changing. And they're they're looking to make that next step after a real, real setback.

I can't wait to see all these. Tamme once long course teaches on the real Ovie of you.

Good luck ripping a high one te in warmups now would he say something to OVP.

Probably not though I guess all we can do that. I don't know if they were playing Tommy Sticks on Twitter the other day about because they posted Ovechkin seven 100th goal and it was on Hanks' or Washington was like oh on this day in history Ovechkin scored and he's like, hey, let's put this. Let's let the past me in the past, please.

I'm going to be all good until fucking over. Ovechkin zips a Swedish meatball into marinara sauce.

Then all hell's going. Oh yeah. Oh, jeez. I don't know what to think about the cross in the sausage. Bring some. What's that, Grossi? What's the gross white sauce. I hate it. What's it called.

Gianaris No marinara sauce. Gradle Alfredo. He brings a side of Alfredo to IKEA when he's getting some new furniture.

I think Ovechkin would ever get furniture at IKEA and put it together himself.

No, no. I'm not going to go somewhere else and pay someone else to do it. Of course, you just mentioned my went to Calgary, which meant Kim Talbot is on the move. He ended up in Minnesota because Dubnyk had already been traded to San Jose. Talbert's signed a three year deal worth eleven million dollars, comes out to three point sixty six dollars million kapit Minnesota also re up through restricted free agent Jordan Greenway, two years, four point two mil.

Corey Crawford, this was we just talked about the Blackhawks in Bendigo. This was a, you know, surprise. Another one, New Jersey, two years, seven point eight mil, three point ninety. Yeah, not a surprise. They went to Jersey, just surprised that Chicago let him walk, considering the role he had in the history there. Because any any take on Talbot or Crawford. No.

Other than the goalie carousel, just it keeps going. It's like, you know, it's deep state right now.

I thought there was that gif. I try to find it. It was like, yeah, this explains the goalie situation. All they did was move the names over the logos and every goal he like corresponded to that new team.

I, I couldn't find it. I tried to if I can find it sick, take Gary.

But it was just pretty cool. I'll be fine. Hey, guys, he tried to find it. I did.

Well, it wasn't like a keyword, but if you start you're like, OK, it actually really simplified a bunch of fucking moves.

Another goalie, Matt Murray, of course, he had been dealt to Ottawa. He was a restricted free agent while he agreed to a four year, twenty five dollars million deal of the six and a quarter per year after the trade from Pittsburgh. Interestingly, only six penguins remain on the roster from the twenty seventeen Cup team Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Ganzel, Rust and Duemling.

Quite a bit of turnover from a. Cup team, hey, guys, I yeah, but I don't know, like I wouldn't have paid Murray that if I was Pittsburgh. Do you like what do you think? Well, I couldn't agree more. I totally everything they did goaltending was made total sense. I think Jerry showed that he's he's just as good, if not better right now. He's not as much of a concern injury wise, and he's costing less money.

So they move.

Murray and it was busy. I think you said you guess what he'd want. It ended up being right around what he signed for. I thought he wouldn't get that. But Auto is a team who needs to they need to spend money. They're horrific. And so they don't really mind their getting a guy who they truly believe is number one. And he's won two Stanley Cups. I know it sounds like he's dog meat, but it's just his health.

It's so questionable and his inconsistencies the past couple of seasons. But in terms of Pittsburgh, I understand where they were, why they went with that move in terms of going with ya.

Well, you mentioned health, too. And like, he's probably going to be playing a lot more games in Ottawa, especially now with what he's what he's being paid. Whereas like if health is the issue, like normally like spending time in, then that's going to benefit you because you're not you're not you're not enjoying yourself while fatigued if you're playing every fucking game or at least 70 or 65 of them, you know, with with the injuries in the past that could come into play.

So congrats to him. No, dude, he's gotten paid off what he's accomplished. And I mean, it's been well earned. 25 sheets. How are you? And also to I think this is worth noting, to talk about health and we talk about mental health, he's a guy who lost his dad not too long ago. I mean, that's something that some guys just don't you know, you don't just get over things. I mean, you always know you're always grieving and you wonder if maybe a change of scenery will just be the right thing for him and kind of get kind of get his head back on.

That's that's a big fucking loss for for a guy to go through. So one of the going. OK, before we move it along here, Cory Schneider was bought by the Devils on Thursday. And then on Monday, LeBron tweeted that the Isles would be signing them as of press time. He has not been signed, Lou, of course, traded for Schneider back in twenty thirteen when he was the head guy, New Jersey. And Lou gave him the seven year forty two million dollar extension that Tommy Fitz just bought him out of, which is pretty funny, assuming he ends up on the island.

He does have a pair of Russians ahead of him on the depth chart in Varlamov and Sorokin. As far as his money, Schneider will get eight of the 12 million he had coming over the next four years. The Devils will save four million against the cap for two years before it cost them two million for the next two years. What you got? I'm interested to see what that goalie whisperer and what the islanders can do to help Christiania get his game back.

Is it Mitch, you said? Yep. Yeah.

So I don't know, playing in front of a team who doesn't give up anything.

Yeah, it would be a nice way for him to find his game back, and I couldn't be happier for him. And a very, very low risk 700 K. How are you. That's the I only made what I signed for seven twenty five. That was the highest I ever got paid. Now he's on the back end of his career so still make it as much as I did at my prime. You want.

What are you trying to kick a dog when he's down and the guy gets bought out and signs for seven hundred and you're reminding them that he's making what you made?

Yeah, no, I did kick him when he was down there or I should just be happy. That's the worst deal he ever got before that he was making it hurt.

It's just, like I said, ironic that Lou signed onto the deal. He ends up getting bought out and then Lou brings him back with a different team.

I call Belichick shit. Oh, Belichick. I love it. Oh, hey.

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Lots more signings obviously folks. We can't list every single one of himself. We mentioned or we don't mention one of your favorite players or favorite teams. You know, these names are very easy to find.

You go to head up, get on Twitter and complain about it. Yeah, on go to Twitter and bitch about it. If we don't need another place, I'll give you his number.

Just hit me up a direct line.

Now, this one's significant for a reason. We get to win a second. 41 year old Patrick Marleau is back in San Jose for seven hundred thousand dollars. And the reason this is significant is he needs just 45 games to pass the legendary Gordie Howe and the all time wageless.

Yet, you know, when you're that close, I know he's, you know, on the back nine to put it nicely. But you're that close man, and the teams want to give it to you. You got to take that shot at it. No. Oh, no, no.

No doubt he could play another three or four years the way he skates. And if he got into new skates. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, that's that is just wild. The longevity. I know I mentioned it before. I don't know if that gets you in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but like I mean, sure. You've played the most NHL or professional hockey league games of all time. Because they do. They do.

They include the the what was the other league that Gordie Howe played in? Oh, they don't include those games. This is strictly NHL.

This is just an NHL record. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

I mean that's fucking incredible. Congratulations, Patrick Marleau. And I hope you get a couple all the deals you want to mention here.

Kevin Chaton. Kirk switching costs going from Florida to California. Signed a three year deal with Anaheim, worth eleven point seven mil, comes in at a three point nine dollars million Kapit. What was your take on this one guy? Well, I love Shaddai.

So first of all, congratulations, you win the Stanley Cup. Well, this just shows, you know, you get bought out, you sign with a great team and he goes on and it's the ultimate story of success when they win the Stanley Cup. And he played awesome.

And then you see, like you go from the lowest moment ever getting bought out by a team you grew up rooting for, and you get to play for your hometown team. And then all of a sudden you're winning the Stanley Cup. You're getting a three year deal for close to twelve million. So it's like never stop believing in yourself. And it also shows players who are bought out.

I mean, in a lot of times it can be a good thing for you. I know it sounds crazy at the time, but for him, look at where he's at now. He's going out west. He's playing for a team that is going to need help, but in a great spot. And I think that he deserves it because he did so much good and helped the lightning so much in terms of how he played. He wasn't forced to play a ton of minutes.

So I think Anaheim should know that the most success you're going to get out of him is he's playing twenty minutes. He's playing on the power play. They're not going to try to force him into roles that maybe the Rangers did.

Wow, nice dismount at the end. They're got all out, you know, gum in my mouth, under my tongue. It was just amazing, unreal.

And to summarize what you've all just said there, Ryan Wilson on Twitter posted this. Thanks for sending this over. How great is Kevin Shot and Kirk doing? Stanley Cup champion earns a raise of three point nine million Rangers, paying him six million to not play for them this year. Kevin Shot and Kirk will make nine point nine million this year. Kevin and potentially get your bag boy.

But you just mentioned tongue tricks will be one of those guys who could tie a cherry stem in your mouth without without your fingers. Oh, yes.

No, I don't have an only fans account. I could kill us both. I could never do that. What could I do with my ear?

I'll give you 500 to take the emojis off with one of my baseball. Baseball moving right along.

Anton who? Dobbyn. He was once again an unrestricted free agent. But Dobe Dobbie three, a 10 million dollar deal, comes out to three point three three over the life of the contract. In a restricted free agent, Radek Foxo, Dallas agreed to a five year deal with six and a quarter million comes out to three and a quarter mil. He's a he's a key player for them, I think, in their top nine. Obviously, Audobon got them all the way to the cup.

And one other deal, Tyson Barry, because I know you want to talk about him, he ended up signing a one year deal in Edmonton worth three point seventy five million because he was down from Colorado to Toronto to get himself the free agency. Which your take on that one business?

Yeah, you know, he didn't have a great year last year. And then the reboot happened and he you know, he struggled inside the bubble. You know, I don't think him in Babcock necessarily got along early on and not that slow start definitely killed him and maybe some of his confidence he's going to go play with two of the best powerplay players in the world, if not to the two best on. That's what he does and that's what he brings.

I believe Tippit will be able to instill that confidence, saying, just go play your game, don't worry about anything else. And I think that he's going to be able to get back to where he was the year before when he was playing with Nathan McKinnon. And he was a sixty point sixty point offensive defenseman. And he's doing so at taking a discount. I think he's making three and a half this year. This I know jokingly our number kept going up.

I think I had him making Tenere at one point in free agency ten million a year. But, you know, this was probably a guy who was looking at probably, you know, a six time, six type of deal. And now he's on a one year deal at three point five. So, you know, I hope like I said, I hope he kills it. I hope he goes there and does what he did the year before.

And he any secures his own bag like Chaddy.

Absolutely, I think that it was it was it was a combining factor of what's going on in free agency, what's going on around the league in the world, and him just having an off year. So it's just tough timing.

Yeah, a couple of still out there. Well, I was actually going to bring up because I was watching football this weekend and off the Dak Prescott injury was was terrible.

And I saw Dez Bryant turned down one hundred and seventy five million.

OK, so that's what I was going to get to. And I saw Dez Bryant tweet something out and I don't have much idea what's going on with these contracts in the NFL. I know that NFL quarterbacks are getting paid more so than like a e pitchers now.

So I, Dez Bryant treats out like you better take care of him, Jerry. And I'm like, oh, shit. Like, are they going to, like, cut him or something? So I look more into it than people are like, what are you talking about? He's like they offered him like one hundred and fifty, one hundred and seventy five million dollar deal where I think he was going to be making like twenty eight million a year as a quarterback in the state of Texas.

No state tax by the way. I don't know if you guys know that. And he turned it down to gamble on himself because I think that he thinks by the time next year he would have signed, he would have been one of the highest, if not the highest paid quarterback in the league. So to me, that is like that is a fucking ego thing. They tried to take care of him.

They try to sign him to one hundred and fifty million dollar contract. So if you're going to gamble and now he's injured and I imagine that he makes a full recovery and hopefully he's quarterback again. But like, is that not just flat out greed?

I think that's yeah. I mean, that's what maybe a difference of five million per year over the length of a four or five year deal, which is like I get that it's twenty five dollars million, but you're you had a hundred I think there was over one hundred million and guarantees the contract that they offered him.

Yeah. There's no there's no argument for, for trying to go out and trying to prove yourself being worth more money.

But in the end, like that's what can happen in the world.

But in that circumstance and in that league.

And it's just like I don't know if you're his agent, are you not? And I know the agent, the more he makes, the more the agent makes. If he takes a deal that that that is undervalued, then all of a sudden he's screwing other quarterbacks. You look at it like that.

But I look at it like I'm set I'm setting my grandkids, grandkids, grandkids up for life.

And what can happen if I if I what can happen if I don't sign this? I can go out and I can make, like you said, another forty million dollars on a deal. And I and I make to ten instead of one sixty. One seventy.

I think it's OK, man. I can't reason with you as a person. I don't feel like I know if you want to gamble.

Sure. But like in no way, shape or form I feeling sorry for anyone who like like jeopardies. Maybe these guys have insurance out of themselves, but like at what level is it. Like I was kind of like I didn't agree with Dez Bryant tweet. I'm like, well they, they, they literally tried to do what you're saying. They tried to secure him with one hundred million dollars and one hundred million dollars in guaranteed money. And my name is exactly a rocket scientist.

Oh. I mean anyway I know I'm rambling here, but I just thought that that was ludicrous.

After reading what they offered an awful to see though felt so bad for the guy felt so bad. I made mine as you go on. I just. Yeah.

I can't even look at those injuries because it is horrific to see. But yeah when you when you hear certain people saying they got to take care of, it's like, no they don't.

That's the whole point of this, this business. Yeah. Yeah. It's not greed. It's shitty advice from someone business by law. Stay hot NFL keep killing it with those fucking drug delayed games and fucking postpone games and whatever else they've been fucking up with or taking shots.

You got the two games. They're getting the games played.

Yeah, I just I think the other day, like someone tweeted out all was Chris Mortensen said a couple of executives had said to me, like, the way Goodell has handled the pandemic and racial injustice should sealed his fate for the Hall of Fame. It's like, are you fucking kidding me, dude? You're talking about carrying water like you think the way he's handled the pandemic and racial justice like he that's going to get him. I mean, he's going to get the Hall of Fame because that's a fucking joke anyways.

But like, I was like the NFL man, I don't know. I'm I have my issues with him. But anyways, moving along, some free agents out there, Mike Coffman of Getty Danoff, our caller, Corey Perry, Michael Granlund Anthony declare who's going to rep himself, defenseman Sammy, that number dangerous still out there? I don't imagine he's going to go anywhere else other than Boston if he comes back for another year. Jimmy Howard, Greg Anderson for veteran goalies.

What's up?

This as if this free agency wasn't crazy enough. There's a few situations here on the back end declare representing himself. I think this is awesome because I don't know when the last time this happened.

This is the biggest get it all.

This is to me the biggest contract of his life and the most important time. And, you know, he's hopping on the phones to hopefully going to cut a nice deal for himself. I think it's a risky play just because, like, you know, there's a there's there's so much about the business that a lot of us don't understand. And like, I don't know, sometimes the communication directly can, you know, be a negative thing. Anyway, I wish him the best.

He had a great year. Twenty three goals. He was an all star. It's unfortunate that the season got canceled when it did because like, you know, when you're a when you're a 30 goalscorer, I think it's like it's a nice title to have. And he was he was on pace to do so. The other thing is Hofman. So he's a guy who's he's he's waiting in the weeds. Right. Normally, he was probably one of the biggest free agent forwards as far as what he's been able to produce and how consistently he's done it.

Now, he's probably he's definitely the biggest name out there right now. But sometimes you wait a little too long and the money's just really not there. So to see how this one's going to play out, I would imagine that he's going to secure himself probably five and a half, six minimum a year. And he's probably going to get a fairly, fairly decent sized term to where this is. This could be a major piece for someone.

Yeah, he's definitely talking. He's talking to teams who are saying, hey, we we like you. This could work, but we need to make moves before it happens. And like Halsy, it's like, yeah, I mean, some people don't mind waiting, but at some point it's like, well, what's going on here? Like Camp Camp starts in two months.

Yeah. This Hoffman's coming off a four year deal that paid him a little over twenty dollars million, a little over five million a year. And yeah, he's been I mean his last few goals. Twenty nine. Thirty six. Twenty two. Twenty six. Twenty nine is a guy who puts the puck on the net. Someone's going to pay him. I don't think he's going to get underpaid. But I boys I think that wraps it up pretty much for free agency.

We ought to send it over to Rick bonus right about now. Yeah, for sure.

Bonus been around the game forever. Great guy. Friendly person. We really appreciate him coming on to right now. Enjoy this. Rick Bowen as head coach.

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It's an honor to welcome our next guest to the show. His coaching career began 38 years ago when he was a player coach for the Age Sherbert Jets, or Reg Dunlop style. He's been behind the bench for more games as a head coach or an assistant than anyone in NHL history. And of course, he just led the Dallas stars to their first Stanley Cup final appearance in 20 years. And he also played 173 NHL games after breaking in with the Atlanta flames.

Thanks so much for joining us, Rick. Bonus.

Gentlemen, how are you doing tonight? We're doing good now that we're talking. First off, we want to say hats off. Congratulations on the run. You guys had come up a little bit short, but it was a hell of an effort. Everybody was rooting for you. And second, where you unwinding after this ridiculously long season?

Well, right now we're back in Dallas. We're going to spend the month of October here. We've got a summer home up in Nova Scotia, Canada, and that's where we're going to head for November. Of course, it's not a summer home now. It's a fall. So anyways, we're going to get up there for November. But listen, it was a great run, very proud of the guys going into this whole thing. You had to prep your players an awful lot of of the obstacles that we were going to face in terms of your living conditions.

So the players had to buy in before we even got there, that you're living in a bubble, you're going to be very there's going to be tough constraints on what you can and cannot do. So the players had to be in the right frame of mind going into that bubble. And our guys completely bought in. They did so here in the three weeks of training camp prior to going to Edmonton in terms of looking after themselves and staying out of restaurants and staying out of clubs, whatever, so they wouldn't get the cold and they were coming back committed.

So that carried over into the into the bubble, into the playoffs. So we didn't have a great round robin, there's no question. But once the playoffs started, our guys again, they had completely bought in and we got an awful lot out of them. I'm very proud of their efforts, very proud of their commitment, because, again, people don't understand how tough that was living in that bubble for nine plus weeks. And the team that can handle it the best was going to be the team that can keep advancing and hats off to our players handling it as well as they did.

And that huge commitment for not only them but their families. A guy like Corey Perry has a two month old boy. Griffin didn't see him for like over almost 11 weeks to care, left his family in Slovakia middle of June to come over. Doesn't go back until this whole thing is over. So it's not only the players that made sacrifices, it's their families and their children that made huge sacrifices as well. So, again, I couldn't be more proud of our team.

Rick, I loved your philosophy of saying if you win, we'll give you a beer. And I just I considered a genius. It really worked. I brought it all the way to a couple of wins away.

Now, at what point did that click into incentive incentivize them with al-Qaida in 1995?

Oh, yeah, exactly. Exactly. No, we hope they were sure could do much away from the team. But again, we have this big sweep. There was card tables and ping pong and golf simulator in there. So the guys really did a great job hanging out there. I don't think they were. I know they were drinking in there. If they were having the only place they can have a few beers in their room, you couldn't go to a bar.

There's nothing open. So so they had a few beers in their room. Good for them. Whatever it took to get through that man, you had to do it.

Rick, I'm curious, as the game's changed in the past few years and you've seen more player coach relationships where it's not necessarily the hard ass coach that has as much success anymore.

You've seemed to always be a guy that's been very close with players you've coached where there is a head coach as an assistant. So I'm just curious, like when you stepped away from playing and became a coach, did you know right away you were going to be a guy? I mean, I want to say players coach while also holding guys responsible. You were very friendly and didn't ever make them feel like threatened, like some coaches have in the past.

Well, and it wasn't a good player, and I admit that. But there was one game and I, I sat on the bench the whole game. I didn't get a shift to take place. I went into the coach the next day and said, Coach, give me something that I can work on so I can actually get on the ice and play a little bit. And he looked at me and said, well, you've got to work harder.

And I looked at him and I said, Listen, man, that's all I've got is a work ethic, so I can't work any harder. So I kind of said to myself, you know, if you're going to and I wanted to get into coaching, there's I knew that when I was twenty five. Twenty six years old. I want to stay in the game, but it's going to get into coaching. You're going to be honest with the players and you're going to have uncomfortable conversations.

You're going to have to tell them things they don't want to hear. But listen, you're going to be honest and upfront. They don't like it. They don't like it. They get mad at you. They get. AdAge, but it's better and and Ryan and Paul know this as well, that a player wants to know where he stands and they know if you're BSN them and just be honest, look them in the eye and just tell them the way it is.

Don't don't make things up and don't hide behind ugly things. If there's an issue with the player, you've got to deal with. So I'm not a guy that gets labeled a defensive coach, offensive coach players, coach hard, but I've never been one of those guys. I just said I'm just trying to be me and I'm going to be honest with my players. I've always believed and even in the 90s and 80s when I started, there was a lot of hard line coaches that do it my way.

And I was never believe that either. So I'm always trying to build a good rapport with my players. I've always tried to have open communication is probably cost me a couple of jobs over the years being like that, but that's OK. I'd rather do it my way and verifier me, they're going to fire me, do it my way. So I was just trying to be have an open line of communication. And again, Paula, I know you've got to have uncomfortable conversations.

You've got to tell players things they don't want to hear and then you hope they can handle it like a man, like a true professional. So that's kind of been my philosophy the whole time I've been a coach, is that I'm going to be a good communicator. The door's always open. I'm going to talk to them every day as much as I can and will let it go into place now. That being said, you always have guys that don't like you could be a little upset at you.

And that's all part of the program. That's what we all signed up for. So that stuff doesn't bother me either. As a coach, if you're honest with your player and you're telling him exactly how you feel, then that's all you can do, then it's up to the player to deal with it.

I would say you probably got put to the test right away, Rick. I mean, you were twenty seven years old, player coach in the NHL. How awkward would it kill your teammates? I mean, when they fight with you on the ice time with like, how do the personalities clash when you're doing the player coach thing?

You know what? When we did that was the first year Winnipeg, we put a team in the American Hockey League. They've been in the old central high threat for years and they decided to put a team in the American League. Well, honestly, we weren't ready. We didn't have enough players to go in there. We were actually bringing the guys out of the Quebec Senior League and retired from playing pro for a couple of years. What we needed bodies.

They were just thankful to get a job and playing hockey again. So it honestly, it wasn't that big a deal. I had been the captain of the team the year before. So as a player, coach was always supposed to be for a couple of months. It ended up being the full year. And then the next November I was twenty eight. And they fired Tommy while in Winnipeg. They asked me to come up and be an assistant coach then, and I was younger than some of the players, so but I really didn't have any issues with the players.

I was again, I was a captain being the leader of the team. So I just kind of took that role and just went with that. But really no complaints about this time.

I enjoy myself more than I probably shouldn't give other guys I time.

So but it was funny to come off the ice and just go stand behind the bench and give. Given the coach, there's one story. I share this with everybody. So in Sherbert, the penalty box was right beside the players box. So somehow I didn't tell him misconduct or whatever. So I'm actually standing in the penalty box, leaning over the glass and coaching the team and the referee comes over. He's yelling and screaming out, You can't do that.

You can't do that. You got to sit down and shut up. I said you should be in the rulebook where I can't go to the penalty box. And he looked at me and he had no answer and he skated away and that was the end of that one. So when a player coach, they pop up for sure.

You got the megaphone across this big voice. What part of you drop? You're drawing up plans from the box. I was I was going to ask you the opposite. If you're like Jackie Moon, like right now plays where all the guys who do all the work to find your back door for Tappan's, that's what I would like. That would have been what is a had coach for sure.

The first power player on the half ball, second power player up to a point eight in the minors.

That wasn't good enough to give the power play. So I wasn't going to get by. So I wasn't put myself anywhere near a power play because then I know I would have taken some a little fun abuse from the guys, but I stayed off the power play the club.

You mentioned golf earlier, the simulators. Your son Ryan tells me you're you're like a junky golf junkie.

Yeah, no, I love the game. I think most hockey players you get the summer know, I really enjoy the game. I used to be really good. Then we had kids and I stopped playing. And then Ryan and Ricky, my older son, got older. We started playing again. So you know what? The best times of my summer I mean, I've got my boys on the golf course. There's four hours out there, just the three of us and whoever else is playing with us and no phones trying to talk to.

It's quality time, so that's the highlight of my summer when I get to golf with my boys. So no, you're not golf. Tick tock.

Tick tock on the golf course. No, Tiger, not on Instagram.

Rick, no. First of all, they'd have to explain exactly what that was.

A couple of holes, but here's my Twitter feed. None of that.

Yeah, well, I just like I just started shaking when you said you you became bad when you had kids. I got a young guy, so. I know. Oh, man. It gets a little tougher, but I'm a golf junky as well, so I love hearing that. I want to get back into the into the coaching the questions about just the beginning. I mean, I think you were 36. Thirty five years old. You get the Boston Bruins hejab.

Ninety one ninety to a nine year old. Ryan Whitney was loving that Bruins team Raybuck and what a first year you had. I mean, it was just an incredible run. I think you guys lost in the third round. But take me through how excited you were to get an original six job that young with some of the players that were on that roster.

Yeah, that was a big thrill. It was my first real head job, I spent nine years in the jet organization from eight years of playing and playing assistant coach and all those things we went through. But in the spring of eighty nine, they had fired John Ferguson, senior in Winnipeg. There was big changes going on. I could have stayed in the organization, but I had a chance to go work for the Boston Bruins and I had always been a fan of Harrison.

So really, I went to work for the Boston Bruins because of Harry. I coached two years in the farm team up in Portland, Maine. So that was a great experience. But think it was a big thrill for me to coach the Bruins because growing up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, we were always closer to Boston than we were Montreal. And my mum's brothers had lived in Boston. So every winter dad would take me down, we'd go to a Bruins game.

Every summer, we'd go Red Sox game. So New England in the maritime provinces and Canada, pretty much the same great people and friendly people and lifestyle, the whole thing. So to go and actually coach the Bruins was obviously a big thrill for me. The only bad scenario was Kamela only played nine games for Sagheer and that was the year he had his big hip issues or thigh issues and he only played nine games. I think we went seven and two with Cam in the lineup.

That was Bug and I see him camp. Maybe if you had been hurt so much, I might have kept that job a little bit longer. It didn't work out. We had a great year. It was a thrill. Coach and Ray Bourque never seen a guy like they're still having coached anyone like Ray that could play and dominate the game as much as he could and would come off the ice after a tough New Hampshire. He rest twenty five seconds.

Look at is not an easy ready to go again. Just a great player, great captain, and just an outstanding person. He was a big thrill for me to coach Ray and Cam Eurocentrism came in, had a big year. Stephen Lynch had a big year for us. But that was the year I think we went through. Fifty six, fifty seven players. We had a ton of injuries. We just kept bringing guys in and out the lineup, trying to find something to work.

We really didn't become a good team until after the Olympics. And as an adult, Joey, journalist Steven Hines came in and then we really took off a as a really good team. So and then they carried us through the playoffs. And and that was a big thrill. But, you know, I mentioned earlier probably cost me a job and doing things the way I was. Well, prior to me coaching the Bruins, it was terrible rally.

Long time Bruin, big, tough guy, fan favorite Mike Milbury after him, long time Bruin, big fan favorite. And then I came in and nobody knew who the hell I was. And I did it. I was in the yelling and screaming at my controller and I just did the quiet way so that, again, that's the way I wanted to coach and that was the way I was going to do it. It probably cost me the job there.

And that's fine. I get to do it all over. I do it the same way. We got to do things your own way. But for me, growing up, a Bruins fan growing up, Red Sox fan, to actually have a chance to coach the Bruins even for only one year. It was a huge thrill and a big part of hour of my career. I'm very proud of that year we had with them and wish we could have been longer.

But that's irrelevant to questions, right? Yeah.

I always wanted as a as a Bruins fan, why are you only we're only here for one year considering the success you had. I didn't say you weren't a Bruins type coach, basically because you weren't to yell and scream was that is sort of synopsis of it.

Yeah, basically, that was it, and they wanted Brian Sutter to come in as soon as Brian got fired in St. Louis. I know Brian's career, I think was always trying to trade for him. He was your typical Bruen player. And I played with Brian. Samel is a great person, great captain. And they wanted to come in and coach the team, and that's fine. I wasn't going to change the way I do things. And again, Brian was more like Mike and Terry and just is a better fit.

So that's if that happens, you go with it.

And I know he didn't have them all that long, but Atomos came out to that team. He was another addition. Did you know how good he was before you got him? Did you realize what this guy is? Even better than I thought.

He's better than I thought. And a great person, again, just a great passer and composure with the and smarts and the ability to see the ice to play with him is just great. Great year playing without him. So we had great we traded Greg Craig Jeanny and Stefan Kantele to St. Louis for Adam, and that was a great trade. Eric made great trade, bringing Adam in a big part of the success of that team, just a small little blade, but just a tremendous pass through the park.

And all you gotta do is look at those numbers and play with Adam. But Adam was a huge help to us. Great leadership in the room, great leadership on the ice, just a very calm demeanor. And again, with all the players that we had coming and going that year, Adam was a perfect guy to come in and just see would settle things down. And he was a great guy to coach. And he was a big part of the success of that team for sure.

Ottawa Senators, were you there? Their expansion, your. Yes, it was long.

Yes, with a sigh, that was you're probably the reason they changed the rules to make it so much easier for all these expansion teams, considering the start that you guys had was at one hundred percent, the most difficult year as a head coach you've ever dealt with. Yes, and that was without a doubt, that's why they changed the rules the next year, I think when we dropped, we came in with Tampa ninety. Every team could protect two goalies, I think six, seven defensemen and basically 10 or 11, 12 forwards.

So you were getting everyone started strangling. You were getting there eight to nine defensemen in depth chart and the 12 to 15 forward and the depth chart. So we were so bad that they did change the rules the next year when Anaheim and Miami came in. Now, the one thing Tampa did right away was they went out and they tried to get their improver. They solidified the goaltending situation right away. We didn't make any trades going into it. They said we're going to have four or five tough years here.

We're going to build through the draft. If we lose, we lose. But we want to build through the draft. And so that philosophy is fine. If you're in there telling everyone, don't worry, you're going to be here. You know, when when this thing turns around, you're going to be here. Well, they fired the gentleman. They'll Bridgman, the general manager when you're into it. So that kind of change things in a hurry.

But they get Ottawa was so bad that year that they did change all the draft rules the next year and Anaheim, Miami. And they certainly loosened up a lot for these teams. We paid out of our paid fifty million, I think, to get in the league now with a six, seven, six, six fifty seven fifty. So the teams that are paying that kind of money, they deserve to have a good roster. And just look what George with the biggest of the obviously three years ago.

So good for them. But yeah, we were bad. That was a tough year. I think we didn't win on the road until just about the end of the season. At that point in the league, you would even if you got into overtime, if you lost, you did not get a point. So we getting the overtime was a thrill for us. But we weren't getting points for losses in overtime. But it was one of those scenarios.

And Paul Ryan, you guys are allowed long enough when you're looking at your lineup and then you're looking at the lineup on the board and you're saying, oh, my God, I hope they see me tonight. They bring their game. We've got a really good chance. But that's that was a tough year. But it was challenging personally from a coaching perspective. I had Ellington with me and I had AJ Maguire with me. And it was a challenge every day.

I said, listen, guys, this is going to be tough. We're coming in with a positive attitude every day. So no matter what happens, you're coming in the next day, be ready to go and be energized. And Ali was great and AJ was great. We again, we did with the best we could and we were just a bad hockey team as simple as that.

Yeah, I was on I was on a couple of Oilers teams. It's in the coach, you know, they they come in some days and they're just so upset and then they think, all right, well, two weeks later, we got to maybe try to be the nice guy. I guess you understood from the beginning, we're so overmatched. It's it's no point just ripping guys heads off.

You know, the guys are working their butts, you know, when they're working, you know, when they're competing, you know, when they've given you everything. OK, that's all you can ask for is a coach. Now, if they're dog and they're not doing things that well, that's one thing. But we had the guys worked their butts off that year. I got to say that we really we just were not very good at that. And when you take that approach that's out there, that's what that's the problem.

And all the trash buckets around the league in the roster, you imagine what's having to watch me watch our work the half hour excuse me, fucking R.A. would have been a backup goalie on that team. You should have been a player coach on that team, too.

I should probably go to help that. Unbelievable.

It wasn't just the first to you with this a three plus season and it was a struggle to get any better.

How frustrating. What a gift for you. And B, did it affect your confidence in your job at all?

It for sure, you know, and I think you look back on, it's easy to second guess I take the Bruins to the conference finals and my dad always told me, you know, he probably jumped a little too quick because I think I got fired in Boston on a Monday and then was hired in Ottawa on a Friday that same week. So I probably jumped a little quick. But you know what the problem is? What? Everyone's going to be here five, six, seven years until we get better.

And I had a young family and I wanted my family. We had moved to Portland for two years, Boston for a year. I wanted to get them in an environment where, OK, we're going to stay here for four or five years and that it ended up happening that way. But it was more from my family. I knew I was going to be a struggle, but it was more to get the family settled down. You always feel bad when you're moving around every couple of years.

So it was important to me and my wife, Judy. OK, we got to get them in a little more stable environment here. So that's really basically the big reason we took that job. I had another year in Boston. I could have said I out, but that's not the way I want to live. I want to get right back into coaching. But again, it was a challenge made me stronger. Maybe you should doubt your competence at times.

Absolutely. When you're getting pounded today to every night, you take a good look at yourself. And I know now I'm a much better coach than I was then. I probably wasn't ready for that job in terms of I was a young coach taking over an expansion team with that kind of talent. I was probably I look back, I know I could have done a much better job. But that being said, that would have probably meant another three four wins.

It certainly would have meant 10 or 20 more wins. But it helped me to your question yourself, you take an honest look at yourself every day, and it probably made me stronger in the long run. Probably made me a better coach, right?

That's right. When I ask you next, what kind of lesson or lessons does a tough experience like that teach you over the long haul?

Well, again, you're looking at yourself every day, like when we lose, the first person I look at is me. I don't point fingers. I say, what could I have done? Better preparation, sister tactics, whatever I always look at myself for. There is a lot of that going on here. So but again, it challenges you and it makes you look at yourself and it makes you look at the way you're doing things and it makes you look at the way you're playing the game and it forces into those situations.

And you're not going to sit there and say, well, we're not we're not very good, so we're supposed to lose. We never took that approach at all. And that's why Alan was a big help and he was a big help when we challenged. We challenge ourselves as coaches every day. OK, do we do the things here? Are we taking the right approach with this player? We take the right approach with that player. We're using them in the best of their situations.

So it was it was a lot of soul searching and taking a deep look at ourselves every day. And again, I think that's why down the road I'm probably better off for it, although that was a living hell. I got to tell you, that was tough.

I would not want to wish that on anyone to tell you that, given your personality and we mentioned those expectations, when you're your head coach, maybe to be a little bit louder and firmer, did you settle right into being an assistant for those long periods of time when you're in Phoenix and Vancouver? Very well. And Mike, were you able to connect even more so with the players, given that kind of how that's allowed to happen more naturally, being the assistant?

Yeah, I enjoyed that.

I actually did when I went to Phoenix, you know, Bobby Trance's as a rookie coach in the league. So I helped him a lot. And I really enjoyed our six guys I got to worry about here, what with the goaltending in the penalty kill. So I really did enjoy that. You built it. You build, as you guys do. The more time you spend with your players, the better the report you have with them. And when you have this, a small group like just running the defense and working with the goaltenders, I really enjoyed that.

I really enjoyed my time in Vancouver doing that, working with young guys like Tattoed and Edler and watching them develop a young Kevin Bieksa, helping them become good pros and real solid players for the team and helping them with their careers. So I really enjoyed that. And the same thing when I went to Tampa working with Victor and the young defenseman we had there at the time, and Sawaguchi came in a couple of years later, so I really do enjoy that role.

Just working with the young defenseman, working with the penalty killers. And again you're working with a smaller group and you, and you do build those bonds with the you are, you do become closer to that smaller group than it is with the twenty twenty five guys. Yeah.

Your son said you became very close with Tesler and Bieksa was Bieksa. One of those guys, like every game he do something to make you laugh. Just Turpan guys on the bench.

They were the best friends and I think I had to break up a fight one day in practice between the two of them. So those two would keep you on your toes. But I'm playing just great competitors. And Kevin Bieksa, I'm not a big winner, but a huge, hard and we're tough competitor, absolutely fearless. He would take anybody on. He would take a run at anybody if things were going good for the team. You can see chase the game all over the ice to get big hits and get everybody going.

And cash was the same way, like he was a hard nosed guy, great skater, big strong guy who loved to compete and loved to annoy people. So the two of those guys playing against you every night, it was tough for the opposition. But again, just great competitors and great guys, again, working with young players. You see them get married, you see them as kids, and you see them going from young players anxious to grow and watch them grow into men with families like that's all part of the process.

As I age. I am. So I've really enjoyed that. But I love working with those two guys. They were they were a handful, but a lot of fun. I I'll tell you that.

I can't imagine the things you get to see the twins pull off, let alone in games. Also in practice. I mean, what was it like being around two guys that were that perfect together and that able that able to dominate in a way that really hadn't been seen before, just knowing where each other were the entire time there on the ice.

You know, as a coach there certain guys you stay out of the way, you let them play, right. You don't them the twins or that you just stayed out of their way. And they're going to play the game their way and play and try to make some changes here and there. And they're going to play that way. They were so much fun to watch and those blind passes. And that was the worst thing you can do when you're playing against them is chase them.

They want you to chase the puck. Right, and chase them because then they're just going to make it look so bad. Let's listen to two of the nicest kids in the world. Just a great, great players, great confidence, great poise with the puck and Henrik. Unreal passer Danny. Unrelated issue, but just to watch them and frustrate the other, the opposition with their blind passes and no one looks and put them into areas and all of a sudden that is their home.

It was a lot of fun to watch them. But again, certain guys, they're so good, you just stay out of their way and let them play. And that's the kind of approach we took with them. And just like it was fun to watch them play, but if you're a father and you have a daughter, you would want them to marry someone like the twins, just the best people in the world and true competitors. And they showed up every night like it was your leadership just on the ice and practice showing up every day, ready to go like you never had and get out to them.

We never had a challenge and they were ready to go every day in practice. They were ready to go every night in the games. And they were just fun to be around just because you just before the game started, OK, they're going to be OK. They're going to help us win this game tonight no matter where the matter. Four games in six, like back to back. It didn't matter. They showed up and played just a real, real thrill to be around those guys.

And again, watch them play and frustrate the opposition so easily. And they made it look so easy because of their ability to read off each other so great.

You'll recall when you said that you would you wouldn't want your daughter to marry was pointing to me on the Suzume chat saying, oh, yeah, he's going to chime in there.

This is heard that a lot. You sort of that guy.

Yes, that's right. That's that's the kind of shit that's going on behind the scenes here. If I could switch to this guy. Just drags on me nonstop.

Rick, anywhere in your commercials, on TV all times more to go and have fun with those.

The type of heart is sword, that commercial that be and how painful it is. Let's be honest, Rick. You can just lay into us right now. Been nice to one of you. Now it's your time to listen to us.

No, they're pretty good. The Mister that in the overpower you with the what was eighty four Miloslav shot all the muffin man. Brian. Wow.

I shot four tips Rick. You know coach a tip.

You had your eyes open and you're looking for sticks. Yeah. You were this unselfish guy back there trying to find the open guy in the paper somewhere that where he can deflected. Yeah.

OK, hey I've actually I've actually mentioned you before because, you know, Shane O'Brien guy played for you and we got together one night. We got together one night and van after after a game and he's eight, which is unbelievable for the game bonuses.

Torkanowsky says watch out for this witness on the powerplay. He's a great pass pumping your tires. He loves you. I was like, oh, my God, I have a new favorite coach in the National League.

Yeah, well, I'm sure I showed him the clips of you do that, putting sticks in your eyes up and moving across the line. So you were very good at that.

Yeah, but he got kicked out of his Billett house and when he was doing this and based on this anniversary, there's many, many men who would want me to marry their daughters as well.

Oh, let's talk about the Dallas stars. I mean, we kind of want to start off with it. I would imagine spending all that time. There was such a special group. And coming up short, it's probably been hard, but what have you dissected from it now? After after there's been a little little bit of time to kind of just what happened. Yeah, no, you guys been around long enough to know that everyone who has always win the Stanley Cup, they say you've got to be healthy and you've got to be lucky.

We wish the Tampa one baby, this is where they were the better team that sure, we wish we had been healthy and taken a real good run at them. And we took them to six games. But we feel with a healthy lineup that we could have done even more damage. But again, give them credit. They they had last year, we lost a lot of key guys. It's unfortunate to get to that stage that you're not healthy just because, again, all the sacrifices you make and you get to the finals, you want to be able to put your best team on the ice and give you the best chance for it.

But then you roll with the punches. That didn't happen for us. But again, it's a coaching perspective. You can't ask for more than what our players gave us. They gave us everything they could. That Game six, you could tell for two years we had nothing left in the tank. We got we crank it up to the third, obviously facing elimination. And it was great for them. But again, from the coaching perspective, I couldn't ask for more than our players gave us.

We wish we'd been healthy, but that's again in playoff hockey. You're going to get your injuries. We had our share, but we we walk out of there, we're holding our heads high that we went as far as we did. We're all disappointed that we can come that close in two games away from winning the cup. So hopefully that's the motivation for next year that we can take this team and take it to the finals again and take another run at it.

Now, as you guys know, this league is tough. There's no guarantee you're going to get in the playoffs, for starters, especially this Western Conference. A lot of great hockey teams out there. But if we get the commitment from our players that we got in that nine week bubble, then I like our chances of getting back in the playoffs and have taken another good run at it. And I know if we can get back into that finals, that will have better this time around.

But again, I couldn't be more proud of the guys from a coaching perspective. We got everything we could out of them. They were out of gas and that's happened. So, again, we will take that motivation into the next year and we're hopefully we can build on that one guy.

I think I mean, we were familiar with me in Boston, but maybe a lot of people want was the WHO Dobbyn. I mean, he's kind of been a one, a one B a backup. He's been in a bunch of different roles. And he really rode this team, I should say. The team brought him to the final. Which type of character does he bring to the locker room? Every team he's on, he seems to be like the most popular guy in the room full of anthrax.

Our experience with them like to say, listen, he's a fun guy. He doesn't take it too seriously. He was on the ancient practice. He has fun. He's got that Russian accent. You never know what's going to come out of his mouth.

So he has he enjoys the game like you want your players. You're playing. We all know the grind. We go through regular 82 game schedule, everything else you've got to enjoy coming to the rink. That's a big thing for me, too. As well as a coach. I always wanted our players to look forward to coming to the rink, that it's not a job. And Dobi never looked at it as a job and just comes to the rink.

He's in a great frame of mind. He's ready to work. I talked to him getting off the plane when he landed back to Denver to the like a great job. And we had a great run your computer. He said I on a computer, they can cut my leg off, but I'm still going to compete. That's the kind of attitude. Yes, but he's just really well liked by the guys. He's a lot of fun. And, you know, you go as you like playing in front of he's certainly at the top of the list.

The guys love playing in front of you because they know you'd be a hard thing to describe his style. And I'm not a goalie expert in terms of style, but his style is is his job description is stop the puck. So whatever it looks is unorthodox or he just he'll dive in front of shots. And that's just the type of personality is that's the type of competitor he is. But he's got a great sense of humor. The guys love being around them.

And that's all that matters, that they love playing in front of them. And he competes and does everything he can to give you a chance to win the game.

At the beginning of last season, Jamie, Ben and second got called out by the was it the CEO or the president?

Excuse me. Yeah. Yeah.

Were they aware that that was going to happen? And how much of a 180, if in fact you thought there was, you know, validation and what he was saying from their play, how much of a 180 did they make after those comments? And was it something they just chuckled off or did they take it extremely personal? They did not know what was coming. None of us did. They had been off to a slow start. They would be the first to admit that.

I think on the surface they chuckled enough. Deep down, it really, really bothered them. I think anyone who gets a call like that from the president of the team, it's going to bother them, especially with the notoriety. That whole statement that we brought out would be brought to them and to the team. So that was uncomfortable. But again, I think on the surface, that bothers deep down, if you're a competitor, which they are, it has to bother you, has to bother you.

When you get called them like that, you get singled out like that, that you're the air. You're the reason the team is struggling. You've got to give a lot more. So it was unfortunate. I give them credit because it didn't it didn't really affect the way they played. They kept working until they got things going. But I know it hurt them very much. And you would talk to him and you'd never know that. And that's you know, that's been true.

Professional, OK, we just got dumped on. OK, we've got to deal with it, but we've still got to be there for our teammates and our team, which they were. So a tough time for them. I give them credit because, you know, you don't remember any complaints from them or attacking back at the president. So they dealt with it internally. Didn't bother them? Absolutely. Would you have known it was going to bother?

No, not by the way they handled it. So just being good good pros and good teammates, putting the team first and they again, they just had to move on from that.

I mean, you talk about getting the chance to coach Reebok and how close you became with Victor had been in his rise to becoming the best defense in the league. And now you get a chance to work with this mural has taken on.

And I can't imagine, you know, seeing somebody that there is this quick, this fleet of foot at this young of an age just come into his own, especially this year and in this playoff run. So how exciting in his coaching and how exciting is it excuse me, coaching a guy like this. And what is what is this what is the ability here that he could have in the future? What's his ceiling ceiling. Great. Nice, nice guy.

Got Samarai daughter.

Why are you guys on the show together. You got to got each other's back. Mural's got neurosurgery written all over you. I remember he's twenty one. It's a victory. Six, seven years to figure it all out. And you know, as a defensive end young defense, it takes a long time in this league. But the one thing about a couple of things. First of all, it's his. He knows how good he is and he's very, very humble.

There's no arrogance. There's no cockiness to him. He's coachable, but deep down, he knows how good a player he is and how good a player he's going to be, which always struck me about me when I notice that last year in Nigeria is his poise with the puck, he handles the puck like he's should in the league seven, eight years. It's unreal, the poise, the confidence that he has with the puck. He's totally different player than Victor.

Different size is far more physical because of the size. Will is not the biggest guy, but he learns the angle. He's like Nicholas instrument that way. Just angle the guy, use your stick, put him in a bad situation. And that's a mirror was so good defensively. But when he gets that pocket he wants to take off just it's unreal what he can do and he can make something out of absolutely nothing. And sometimes the power play breakout is completely out of sync.

You pull the goalie, it's completely out of sync. Also, just give him trouble figuring on going up the ice. That's how good he is. But he's such a humble, humble guy. And but when I was coaching with him, just when I was focusing on the last year and for the first couple of months of this year, he's one of those. When we're watching the game, I'd say mirror. Did you see that? Yeah, got it.

And you don't have to show a video because he sees it and he memorizes it and you takes it and he come out. It's a miracle I got it. And some guys some guys need a lot of video. They've got to see their mistakes. They don't because the game happened so fast. Mirel knew every time he made that, you know, exactly what had happened and whether we're know, we point out individuals to remember. They certainly play this guy.

Watch for that movie. I got it. And he does is hockey IQ is off the charts. This is just a great, great kid. But his ceiling is North Shilpi, and at some point after two years, he's not getting the recognition that he should be because of because irregardless of I don't think, you know, we just don't get a lot of recognition down here. Last year in the playoffs, I had a bunch of me when we played St.

Louis, that secular bunch of media texted me after a while, God, I should have voted for me or I didn't know he was that good. And now we go here again this year. Is your shopping all turned back until the playoffs and then they're all saying to me again, we should have brought in more premier, but he does have a Sharpie written all over them. And again, you're looking at a kid is 21. He's only been in this league for two years and he can be a dominant player.

You look at that game six against Calgary, we're down three nothing. We're not playing well at all. If you look at Mirror Mirror, we need something you don't get to power play goal gets us right back in the game. That's the impact he can have on a player when you need a big play, whether it's defensively or offensively helping the power play. He delivers and he wants is another thing. He wants to be on the ice and got a lot of guys, good players.

But in the pressure situations there, 20, 30 seconds, they can't wait to get out. Mirror wants to be on the ice and when the game is on the line, he doesn't want to come off. He wants to stay on the ice. So he wants the ball. And I love that about him. He's just so he's far more competitive than his physical play will tell you. But again, he wants to be the guy he wants.

It's his team. Basically, he will take this team over and it'll be Merrill's team, Rick Natasja.

But that's got to be music to your ears when you out on the iPad. I remember that. Well, please remember that plays are going on, right?

Oh, yeah, right. Yes. And I was when I started coaching this league, I was younger than some of the players. Now I'm old enough to be mural's grandfather. Just happens all the time, I guess.

Exactly. You guys got some pretty good young players up front, too, who's like the one guy that surprised you, where you're like, oh my God, this guy's like game is accelerating at an insane rate because, you know, there's a few household names now that you guys made it as far as you did. As far as the heavy rock doesn't give you that. Excuse me, Gorgie, I believe. Is that how you pronounce the Russian's last name can carry on our carry on our Gary Arnold?

Jesus Christ. Sorry about that.

That I know those two guys. So Dennis is with us all year. He scored 20 goals. So, listen, we're the fastest guys in the league right now. He's a threat going down the wing and he's able to be the defense and wide and cut into that. He is serious that way. So tremendous upside with him. Kelly came up from the minors. You only played eleven games for us. He scored one goal, but he had an impact on every game that he played.

In fact, there was one game in Colorado. A member for Belski grabbed me between periods that give me QB. I want to play a TV show. The players on the bench, his teammates, see he's very effective for a little guy, very effective on the boards, makes plays. He's fearless. That game. He scored three well, you know, we were expecting him to score eighty. So that offense was nice and won the game for us.

So there is a lot that Dennis has far more offensive upside in TV. He will be a much better to a player, but they're both young kids with great futures ahead of them. And a big part of this team moving forward.

I want to bring up two guys who came over in the off season are Corey Perry and Joel Pavlovsky. How important were they have a sense of where they are not just on the ice, but in the room as well during the cup run?

Well, their impact was really in the playoffs. It really was. And you can see you can see the experience and you can hear the experience. So in the locker room between periods, you'd hear Corey speak up, you hear him speak up at the right time saying the right thing, and just as importantly, the right tone of when to get after them a little bit or when to calm things down. So the tone of what they were saying and the words of what they were saying were very important, then they would get on the ice and you can see their experience.

They weren't panicking with the puck. You put Corey top of the circles down in the offensive zone. He still has the great and still has a great poise. And he made a lot of good plays. So you can. And so that's good from your perspective that OK, in the heat of the playoffs, you still have to make plays. You still have to have a voice. And Corey, did that, as good for Belski, as we all know, is raining forever to love playing with him because shooting for tips, he's great around the neck.

Try getting that stick on pucks and rebounds and tips and deflections. He's the best at it. So we scored a lot of huge goals for us because of that ability around the net using a stick, but also the poise of where to put the puck on the goalie to get it in behind them. You didn't panic with the puck around the goalie slamming into his pads. He put it in the right spot, scored huge goals for us. But that's the experience that they have.

Then that's the value that they brought to us for this playoff run. So we wouldn't have got as far as without the two of those guys for sure.

Well, Rick, I know it's kind of been made a story that I'm not exactly sure what's going on next year. If you wanted to come back and earlier in this interview, you made it sound like you would be in trying to get back to the finals. Do you know what's going on? Have you even thought about how much longer you want to do this? You're a dinosaur in the league. You've just been here forever. I don't think anyone ever wants to see you go anywhere.

That's a compliment, by the way.

I'm a dinosaur as a compliment, OK?

Yeah, I was I was like I was a minnow. I was a cup of coffee.

You've just been there forever. Can't get rid of you.

I'll take that as a compliment. Consider the show the company. I'm with you right now. I'd certainly take that as a compliment, but I will I will be back next year as the head coach. Jim, Jim and I had talked about that. We talked Monday. I needed some time after I did develop a draft because we had went to the finals and I really enjoyed that whole experience of being a head coach. Again, I haven't had that experience so for so long.

So I really enjoyed that. When I took this over, we just said, look, we'll talk about it at the end of the year. As I said, then maybe I go back to being the assistant of the job I really enjoy as well. But I really did enjoy this whole playoff run. So you and I talked on Monday. They want me back. I'm willing to come back. We're going to talk next week about the contract.

But at this point, I will return next year as the head coach. How much longer we're going to go? Who knows? As long as I was tell the kids, listen, the first day I wake up and I don't want to go to the rink, that I don't want to retire, but I still love getting up. I still love going to the rink. I still love the practices. I love the games. I love everything that comes with the job.

So as long as I'm enjoying it, I'm going to keep as long as they want to hire me, I'm going to keep coming back.

But you forgot to mention Bud Lights in there and that you like. Yeah, well, that keeps you going. That keeps your sanity.

And congrats. I'm glad to hear you're going to be back from the plus a little bit easier when it's not the 93 senators out there either. Right.

Then he had nine thousand bud lights. Yeah. Yeah. That might be undercutting that.

You're right. Thank you so much for joining us. Sorry you guys fell short there, but a magical run. You guys will bounce back. You got some young studs in the pipeline and and you're going to get your star goaltender back to. We certainly hope so, you know. Thank you, guys. Really enjoyed the show and really enjoyed talking to you. So all the best to you guys going forward as well.

Thanks. I appreciate it. Have a great offseason.

I meant. Want to send a huge thanks to Bones, man, that was a fun interview, just talking to me a little bit on here, you get a real sense why people in the game love him so much. Sweat just a lot of fun. The guy just lost the Stanley Cup and he sounded like he wanted he just had such a joy in his voice.

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Visit earnest dotcom slash licenses for a full list of license states. More numbers. More numbers. Exactly. Mail, lots of numbers this week. Significant trade, you know about New Jersey picked up defenseman Ryan Murray from Columbus for just a fifth rounder. Twenty twenty one Columbus dumps four point six million in salary. New Jersey improves the D for at least one season anyways. What was your reaction on this one?

I was surprised. Ryan Murray is a good player, man. This guy, he was a really high draft pick, maybe hasn't necessarily lived up offensively to where he was drafted, but a solid defender jersey definitely could use.

I think that there was there was rumblings that Columbus was trying to make room to try to sign Petro because, you know, they traded this guy.

And it was just it was it was very surprising when I when I saw that. But I think the devils love that trade. I think that's a great defender, a true top for NHL defensemen. And Brian Murray has got to be a little surprised himself, I think because he found a role in Columbus, the team had success and all of a sudden he's gone. So it's exciting, but probably a little rattling at the same time. Wow.

Could you imagine Seth Jones, Petro and we're Wronski on the same blue line. That is fucking nuts, imaginal, unless you're just making that up. When I had to bring this up to you, I don't know if you've ever been there for sure. For sure.

You had to have been in this place are Wayne Gretzky's Bar and Grill is closing down all up in Toronto.

Yeah, I have a contract or very unfortunate where they used to have this place on top called Oasis Patio or Buddy, if you're a hockey player, you went through unbelievable.

It would be like it was kind of like the patio version of the Roxy, like impossible to leave alone in that place. And sure enough, like to make to I got a chuckle out of this one. I got a text from my mom and she goes, Hey, Wayne Gretzky is closing down. Remember when Dad took me there for my 20th wedding anniversary, my dad took my fucking mom to Wayne Gretzky's Bar and Grill on there.

I mean, that's a first certain. Yeah, it's like I'm getting it in tonight.

OK, the ultimate like, well, 20th anniversary package is the fact that we also stayed at the Skydome Hotel.

And so we got to watch the Blue Jays game while we were in our hotel room because the room six thousand feet, this was one of those guys beating off watching the game.

They had to control my old man's fucking teeing off on my mom next door. And I got fucking Joe Joe Carter teeing off on fucking fastballs on the field.

If you get a nosebleed, the blood actually just floats because you're in space. You're so high up above the game.

How's that for the. Hey, and how about we are just getting dragged around in a 20th anniversary wedding? Yeah.

Like a weekend. You should leave the kids at home. Like, he's probably like, fuck, I'm going to get Paul Paul Gretzky's restaurant. I'm going to show him this is. Where are you going to wheel broads in here.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I thought that was classic Camille. I lost my my old man Wayne Gretzky's Bar and Grill for the 20th wedding anniversary. How are you liking that one, Mom? How that's how the fish and chips.

I was up there a few years ago and have.

It's actually pretty cool. It's almost like a winglet. Museum, they have tons of shit on display and they have his old helmet to this thing was like a fucking peanut shell, like there was nothing maché basically like a piece of plastic on his head.

So a couple more notes moving along. Both David Pasternack and Brad Machon had surgeries they could miss the start of the twenty, twenty one season. I don't know how are making that proclamation, considering we don't know when it's going to start. And as you did mentioned, the Smithsonian will Boston, the three year, nine point three dollars million deal, little over three million dollar carpet. And Boston also brought back unrestricted free agent Kevin Miller, a one year, one million dollar deal.

This poor guy, he's been such a warrior for the team, his fucking knees all banged up. He hasn't played since even before the Stanley Cup. So ideally, this guy will come back and have a significant presence on the Bruins.

Once again, these media members that have to actually keep track of all this shit that we just talked about, this whole podcast, it's fucking insane. There were so many movies made about it.

You need to eat Adderall for breakfast to keep in line with all these trades. I like Craig Smith going to Boston. These plays, that style is hard. He is twenty goals five times in his career. Yeah. Yeah.

And then so one of those signs, it might not blow your socks off, but if you've seen him play well he's all about he's he's a great addition to that lineup.

We've got a couple of significant retirements as well. Justin Williams retired at the Boston NHL Seasons three Stanley Cups. He also had a very nice statement, which he thanked basically everybody who helped them succeed along the way. Twelve hundred and sixty four regular season games, one hundred and sixty two playoff games, which is essentially two more seasons. Of course, you won the contest back in twenty fourteen with twenty five points in twenty six games in Sochi. He played a nine game sevens.

He had fifteen point seven goals and eight assists. I will not call him that nickname because he doesn't like it. But what a career went from the juniors to the NHL. Never played a day in the minors. Unreal stuff. What.

Yeah this guy did it all love seeing that he had a chance, Mike, to that second cup in L.A.. He was a beast and just did it all with class, did it all with professionalism and never ever wavered from like showing up every single night and doing his job.

So you look at I think he played 82 games, eight times or seven times, like I mean, the stamina, the ability to stay healthy. And like a lot of it is luck, but a lot of it is just how smart of a player he was. So, yeah, I remember playing against him. It was like somebody that like everyone around the league had so much respect for over twelve hundred games. I know he said that all in the Three Cups and just really did it also form a first round pick that ended up doing all the damage with the team who didn't pick them, so teams who didn't pick him.

It was Philly who took them late in the first round years ago. So congratulations on an amazing career. I'd love to get this guy on and shoot the shit with him.

Perfectly set. Where can can't touch on that. All right, well, we have another congratulations on a retirement at Danvers, Mass. Is on Megan Dugan.

She retired from the game. She was part of the national team for 14 years. She won mean as a quite a list here in Olympic gold. She was the captain of the team in South Korea, two silvers, seven world championships, three national championships and Wisconsin, a Patty Kazmaier award, which is sort of the women's hockey equivalent, the Heisman Trophy, Clarkson Cup for the WHL championships, left Wisconsin as its all time leading scorer. And Megan, she was instrumental to the unprecedented, unprecedented success that the American women's program has had over the last two decades.

She was also huge when it came to taking a stand for equal pay, when the ladies basically put their asses on the line and did the higher ups to replace them on which they won that contest. So kudos to Megan. She had tremendous impact on and off the ice.

What just amazing went to Cushing Academy where our boy Keith Yandle went and she did it all. I have so much respect for her and I think that she'll be remembered forever as kind of a legend in USA women's hockey, no doubt about it.

Fuck and resume. Jesus, seriously, huh? I know I'm looking at this shit that's like one gold, two silvers in the Olympics. So many golds in the world. Just telling everyone to suck.

Is she the Hayley Wickenheiser of American hockey? Oh, no, but she's right up there.

Camp Cammi Granato not. Oh, yeah. OK, I'm going on a couple of Ginzler I know we touched on earlier Frankie Balis wedding duds when we talked about the trade. Honestly, man, I thought he looked fantastic.

I mean, I know he didn't have a him. You just got to torture him. He didn't look that bad. It's just a little awkward. He didn't have a collar on on a wedding. He's trying really hard, but I didn't hate it. It's just you got to bust Frankie's balls, you know, to me.

Oh, awesome. I just thought it was funny that your opinion on what it looked like looked like kind of like how Drake dresses now when he dresses up at the mock back on and and you look like a gangster.

Now, before we finish up, boys, did you happen to catch any of Bilborough on Saturday Night Live fake commercial? He did.

Amazing. Not giving a fuck. I thought the Sam Adams commercial was funnier than than the monologue. But is that what you call it? The monologue? Yeah.

Sam Adams, he's like, is today the day to get the Section eight cornflakes? Yeah.

Yeah, it was perfect because, like, that's how most like typical Bostonians react. Whatever Sam Pumpkin's, it's like, what is this? But then by the end of this, not let them drink your fucking swill.

Fifty bucks if I can finish the bus off. So it's so funny.

And the monologue was great because everybody was crying about it. It's like do to hide a comedian to do comedy on a comedy show and are you going to fucking cry about it. People just need to learn how to change the fucking station. I boys, any final note you want to add before we close up shop for this episode?

We just drop some driver. Hey, cover some some head covers on the barstool sports story.

Also all the pink breast cancer awareness march and we have a sandbagger coming out next week.

So stay tuned for that question. Gee, as far as the head covers, by the way, they're gorgeous. People are asking if we're eventually going to do different colors than the OG and Chilcote's colors. Would that be a possibility?

Oh, yeah. Dress up with a with an awesome guy. It's all very big stuff. Come and go. Oh, yeah.

We got some big stuff in the pipeline big time.

And it's the last thing I was going to say as far as branded content. Here is Boykin's The Boat Ride. I know we've settled a couple of times. Check it out on our YouTube channel. We're going to be having those sandbaggers rolling out. So we're going to try to keep you guys occupied when we're on our break in November with just interviews and and other things coming out to keep you entertained in the off season. Well said, boys.

All right. I have a fantastic weekend and we'll catch you next week.

Love all your listeners except for the people who don't like me. Fuck off. I love you guys.

Bye, figures. As always, we like to thank our terrific sponsors here on and triplets big thanks to our long time friends at New Amsterdam, vodka and Pink Whitney. Big, huge thanks to our friends over Rohlman for taking care of the fellows. Big thanks to everybody. It's simply safe for keeping us safe during these crazy times. Huge thanks to our new friends at CrossCountry Mortgage, hopefully taking advantage of them in a big thanks to everybody over at Earnest.

Hopefully you students taking advantage them to have a great week. Everybody get up.