Jeff and Elliotte recap All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas, discuss the Gary Bettman and Bill Daly press conference, and news breaks during the recording session that Chicago had fired their AHL athletic trainer for sexual harassment
Las Vegas knows how to throw a party! Jeff and Elliotte recap the Skill Competition and the All-Star Game (00:01), and mentioned a few things that stood out to them from the weekend.
During our recording session, news broke out of Chicago that the team had fired their AHL athletic trainer for sexual harassment. The guys discuss this story (16:15) and give a few of their thoughts. They also provide an update on the teams' GM search as the club has shown interest in a Chicago Cubs executive.
Other topics include the Gary Bettman and Bill Daly press conference in Las Vegas (19:40), NHL tent pole events (33:45), Philadelphia hiring Daniel Brière (36:25), and they take a couple of your questions (37:40).
Full transcript for the episode can be found here by Medha Monjaury
Music Outro: Oliver Malcolm - Rolling Stone
Listen to the entire track by Oliver Malcolm on Spotify
This podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.
Audio Credits: Sportsnet and Turner Sports.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.
OPEN //// Jeff Marek [00:00:00] Still the best one is when Homer turns into a country music star. You remember that one Friedge?
Jeff Marek [00:00:06] Welcome to 32 Thoughts the Podcast, Elliotte Friedman alongside yours truly, Jeff Marek, presented as always by the all new GMC AT4 Lineup. Elliotte, we're gonna get to the Gary Bettman Bill Daly press conference in a second, but park that because going into the weekend in Las Vegas, we said one thing. This has been a very heavy season for all of us, on the ice, off the ice, your life, my life, everybody listening right now, their lives have been heavy. What the NHL needed was a fun one. A celebration of the game, some goofiness, some highlights, a hungover Peter DeBoer. Did they get that?
Elliotte Friedman [00:00:41] You know, I enjoyed it. I like the skills a lot more than the game. I wish we were there, I still haven't gotten over that really, but I enjoyed it. Like, I don't get people who hate-tweet things. I'm gonna watch the All-Star Weekend and I'm going to tweet how much I hate what I'm doing right now by watching the All-Star Weekend. I don't get that. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. You know, I liked it. I thought it was fun.
Jeff Marek [00:01:06] Can I share something very personal on this podcast that I've never shared publicly before?
Elliotte Friedman [00:01:11] What's that?
Jeff Marek [00:01:11] You know what I really don't like?
Elliotte Friedman [00:01:13] What's that?
Jeff Marek [00:01:14] Olives. So you know what I don't have in my refrigerator?
Elliotte Friedman [00:01:19] Olives!
Jeff Marek [00:01:21] Olives! Yeah, you get the message?
Elliotte Friedman [00:01:24] I don't like black liquorice. You know what is not in my house? Black liquorice.
Jeff Marek [00:01:31] I'm with you. Like I've told you this before like my life got a whole lot better when I came to the realisation, albeit later in my life, I went through a lot of pain before this, that not everything is for me, and not everything has to tickle me under the chin and eve--and if it doesn't? Doesn't mean that it should be removed because I don't like it. I'm with you. I don't get people grousing about the All-Star Game. You don't like it don't watch. Don't be part of it. It's not for you anyway.
Elliotte Friedman [00:01:56] There were things I really liked. I liked the Blackjack game on the Strip, and the reason was, the reason I liked it was because it showed the skill of the players. All five players hit 21 initially. And it was because they're great shooters, right?
Jeff Marek [00:02:11] Yeah!
Elliotte Friedman [00:02:11] That's what I liked about that event. It just taught me that all the people on that stage, Pavelski, Matthews, Kadri, Stamkos, Brady Tkachuk, sorry, if I'm missing anyone. They're all really good shooters. They all did what they had to do to get 21 before Pavelski won it because, as Craig Smith says, he wins everything. I really liked that one. You know who also, too, I turned to Kelly Rudy at one point, I think it was after the show on Saturday. Sebastian Aho. I don't think people realise how good he is.
Jeff Marek [00:02:45] Sebastian Aho, who looks like he's about eleventeen? That guy?
Elliotte Friedman [00:02:47] Yes, he definitely looks like he's eleventeen. And I'm working the Carolina-Toronto game on Monday night so I'll be seeing him but, you know I watch him in those skill competitions and the accuracy shooting, things like that.
Jeff Marek [00:03:00] So awesome.
Elliotte Friedman [00:03:00] He's really good. I don't think people realise how good he is. The one in the Bellagio fountain? My constructive criticism of that was, it needed to be shot a little differently. I think there needed to be more overhead shots or something like that so we could get a better of idea of what, how it worked, what the distance was, some of the overall stuff but again, I liked it like, I like the skills more than I like the game. I actually thought one of the games and off the top, I think it was the second one, was actually one of the best All-Star games I've seen. And I thought the final was pretty good, I generally don't have a lot of time for the All-Star Game itself. I'll tell you something too this is probably bad for his image, but I don't really know much about Machine Gun Kelly. I liked his set. I thought it was really good, I really enjoyed it. As a matter of fact, I went and I downloaded some of his music after.
Jeff Marek [00:03:55] Did you buy his nail polish? He has a new line of nail polish out it's very important, do you have--are we going to use some fresh nails on Monday [for the Carolina game]?
Elliotte Friedman [00:04:03] No you will not see that but I, you know, I thought his set was good. And you know, I'll tell you this, the other thing too is, the one thing I was disappointed about and you can talk more about this is, there were rumours that Jack Eichel was going to be part of the show, and I spent the whole skills competition Jeff, waiting for it. And unfortunately, it just didn't happen.
Jeff Marek [00:04:25] Yeah, I had talked to someone who had sort of intimated that that might happen. And it's like, all right, just waiting, like, it would have to be something like someone from the Vegas Golden Knights like Alex Pietrangelo says, like, oh I need help with something and calls someone from the back and Jack Eichel comes out, you know, first appearance in the jersey, the uniform, the whole deal and the place goes crazy would have been a real big, nice, found moment. But obviously, to your point, it, it didn't happen. That would've been a good one to pop the crowd although I'll tell you what, this was one of the first All-Star games that I saw where they tried deliberately to go for pro wrestling style pops. Like they looked for something that was gonna pop the crowd, that was gonna jazz the crowd, even something as insignificant and tiny, although I loved it, I loved every time one of them popped. Even going back to the Styrofoam plates.
Elliotte Friedman [00:05:25] Hmm!
Jeff Marek [00:05:25] How much better was that? It's so much cooler. I know they tried all kinds of different ways and make it real fancy and tech-like and no, no no. The Styrofoam plates. But it seemed as if this All-Star Game or this All-Star Weekend with the skills, they tried to find areas to pop the crowd. And I really dug that and as far as the games themselves?
Elliotte Friedman [00:05:49] Hold on hold on, so before we go to the games.
Jeff Marek [00:05:50] Yeah?
Elliotte Friedman [00:05:50] We're a few minutes into the podcast and we haven't mentioned Zegras yet.
Jeff Marek [00:05:55] Yeah.
Elliotte Friedman [00:05:56] And we should. We should absolutely mention it because I thought it was great. I thought what Hughes tried was great. I thought what Kaprizov did was great. It wasn't on the same level, but Pietrangelo bringing in the Vegas drummers, I thought all that stuff was, was really good. And you know, first of all, you know I know people were upset cause Zegras didn't win.
Jeff Marek [00:06:18] Who cares? Who cares?
Elliotte Friedman [00:06:18] Well it's a case of, the house always wins. Of course, they're gonna fix it. So Pietrangelo's gonna win. I couldn't believe how much reaction there was to that.
Jeff Marek [00:06:27] Hey do you know, hang on hang on, spot quiz. Do you know who won that Anaheim Buffalo game when Zegras and Milano did the little stunt?
Elliotte Friedman [00:06:33] Buffalo won that game.
Jeff Marek [00:06:35] If you asked most people, would they say, Anaheim?
Elliotte Friedman [00:06:37] You're probably right. And Buffalo complained that goal was illegal, too.
Jeff Marek [00:06:41] But here's the point, the point is, no one remembers outside of freak you who won that game. All they remember is that moment. So I'm fine with it. Who cares? I got that the nicest touch. The move that he does is the one that you know, a ton of kids try to do now and that's the Zorro.
Elliotte Friedman [00:06:56] The first time I saw that, by the way, was with Matthews--.
Jeff Marek [00:07:00] Matthews!
Elliotte Friedman [00:07:00] In 2016 at the World Cup of Hockey.
Jeff Marek [00:07:02] Yes. Same. That was the first thing that I saw. But that's the Zorro, that's where he gets blindfolded, that's a great touch and it's a cool visual. And then just what he's dressed up as, all of it were--my kids, again, they're my... they're my focus test. Hey, do you like this? Hey TJ, do you like this, Brody, do you like this? And if they like it, then I go okay it's working.
Elliotte Friedman [00:07:21] You know, it's funny you say that.
Jeff Marek [00:07:22] That's my focus test.
Elliotte Friedman [00:07:23] It's funny you say that because I got a couple of texts from people saying their kids were loving the skills.
Jeff Marek [00:07:29] Yes, same, my kids loved it. Loved it.
Elliotte Friedman [00:07:31] And if you're the NHL, that's a win for you. And from what I hear, the NHL has some reason to be worried about our young kids watching their games. And if there are young kids looking at that and saying, that's cool, that's a win, and I got a few texts like that.
Jeff Marek [00:07:52] So that's what I do with my--here's the thing about games though, here's the difference. Thankfully my kids will watch entire games, but a lot of kids will just watch the highlights and the flashy stuff.
Elliotte Friedman [00:08:06] And that's normal.
Jeff Marek [00:08:07] And now I get it, it's normal.
Elliotte Friedman [00:08:09] Yeah.
Jeff Marek [00:08:09] But you know, the concern about not watching the games is a legitimate one because I don't know how many kids watch the games versus they just watch the highlights the next day and think that and you see it in minor hockey slash youth hockey all the time. Kids that just think that all the highlights they saw are the game. There's a whole lot of, you know what the kids will call boring stuff that happens in between highlights that actually constitute the game.
Elliotte Friedman [00:08:35] But not the intermissions, they're very exciting.
Jeff Marek [00:08:38] Well the highlights and specifically the second intermission on Hockey Night on Saturdays, unparalleled. But no that's my focus. That's like, honestly, that is my focus group. Do you guys like this? Yes we do dad. Is this cool? Yeah. Do you wanna go try it in the backyard rink? Yes I do. That's my focus test. And they liked it so listen, to my further point of, it's not all about me, it's not for me? If my kids dig it then I think I'm with you, the NHL is on the right page and doing it right.
Elliotte Friedman [00:09:00] Another thing about Zegras, the blindfold.
Jeff Marek [00:09:03] It's the Zorro.
Elliotte Friedman [00:09:03] Also did you notice that Giroux and I think Mathews joked that they thought he could really see?
Jeff Marek [00:09:09] I have a hard time believing that he couldn't.
Elliotte Friedman [00:09:12] So this has happened before. We'll go back to the 1992 NBA Slam Dunk Championship.
Jeff Marek [00:09:19] Yeah.
Elliotte Friedman [00:09:20] Cedric Ceballos, who played for Phoenix at the time, did a dunk with a blindfold.
Elliotte Friedman [00:09:55] Now I thought initially it was Dee Brown, but when I googled it Dee Brown the year before covered up his eyes while he dunked.
Jeff Marek [00:10:02] Yes.
Elliotte Friedman [00:10:03] And then so--
Jeff Marek [00:10:04] I remember that.
Elliotte Friedman [00:10:04] Yeah. So Ceballas the next year took it one level further. He actually put a blindfold on and he dunked. And I remember the NBA players at the time, they were like, he could see. They weren't buying it at all.
Jeff Marek [00:10:17] I wasn't buying it either. And here's why. Here's why Elliotte. What is the one thing that teams fear?
Elliotte Friedman [00:10:24] Injuries.
Jeff Marek [00:10:25] Liability.
Elliotte Friedman [00:10:28] That's fair. Yeah.
Jeff Marek [00:10:29] You're telling me you're gonna blindfold Trevor Zegras? And to have him skate at the net, really? This is your idea of a fun trick like, I'm sorry, I have a hard time. Yeah, I have a I have a hard time believing that he couldn't see. But the thing is, it doesn't matter. Even if he wasn't blindfolded, it's still incredible.
Elliotte Friedman [00:10:51] I see, I look at it this way. I went to watch Spiderman on Sunday. I took Max to go see Spiderman. I know that the chances are, that there aren't three Spidermen across multiverses who somehow end up on the same planet together? Sorry if I'm ruining this for anyone. But I choose to suspend disbelief and just enjoy it for what it is. I'm gonna go that way with Zegras and by the way, I just have to say, you know, Hughes. The Devils made the announcement while I was in the movie that he's in now in COVID protocol. I have to say one thing Jeff, we are probably--I know people aren't gonna like to hear this, but we are probably very lucky that players aren't going to the Olympics right now from All-Star.
Jeff Marek [00:11:38] Yeah, this weekend would have been a tough one from, can you imagine sending players from Vegas to Beijing?
Elliotte Friedman [00:11:44] Now I think the protocols would have been different. But all you need is one case and it spreads.
Jeff Marek [00:11:51] A couple of points here. We always look for coming out parties, players that, you know, get themselves on the map. Sure they're popular in their local market, but then they do something at the All-Star Weekend and all of a sudden they're in the, you know, the national spotlight. That's got to be Jordan Kyrou, doesn't it?
Elliotte Friedman [00:12:09] Yes.
Jeff Marek [00:12:10] Like, this was a great, great weekend for Jordan Kyra. For anyone who's been, you know, paying attention you know, the minute he steps on the ice for St. Louis, they become instantly quicker. Like you remember when he first started with the Blues, when they first finally called him up and he got his long stretch. The Blues were a very big straight line, old school, almost like L.A. Kings in their Stanley Cup year, light type team? And then Kyrou would step on the ice and he'd be like, like Marian Gaborik was with the Kings. Just like, who's the one guy who's just got a rocket attached to his back? And now everybody knows, like I'm happy for Kyrou. Now the secret is out, right?
Elliotte Friedman [00:12:47] Yup.
Jeff Marek [00:12:47] And your Spiderman is Peter Parker, to your point. Now everybody knows about Jordan Kyrou.
Elliotte Friedman [00:12:52] Yeah, and I would just say that the player I was really happy for was Claude Giroux, who was the MVP.
Jeff Marek [00:12:57] Yeah.
Elliotte Friedman [00:12:57] It's been a hard year, hard year in Philadelphia. His wife was there, his son, Gavin, was there. You could tell that it was probably the most enjoyable weekend of the season for him. And I was happy to see him have it.
Jeff Marek [00:13:12] I'm sure he was very happy to hear your question on Hockey Night too.
Jeff Marek [00:13:44] It was funny, I was watching that, and I'm thinking, Elliotte's gonna ask the question and, you know, they're going down the line of everybody on the panel and it's getting the Elliotte and I can see you with that smile and I know you're gonna go for it. You got to ask the trade question, did you expect him to give you an answer?
Elliotte Friedman [00:14:01] I did because I saw that he'd been answering the question all weekend, saying we still have a lot of time. I got some interesting reactions about that. Some people were like, that was terrible, other people thought that was very creative. I just figured that, you know, we had to find a way to ask the question. I didn't want to ask it the same way, I wanted to try to maybe have a little bit of fun with it. He wasn't biting, which I understand, but I just didn't think we could not find a way to ask the question there, it just would've looked terrible.
Jeff Marek [00:14:29] You have to ask, and I want to get back to Philadelphia here in a second, I want to talk about Daniel Briere, but the games themselves, we opened up by talking about people grousing about it. Here's how I look at these games. I'm curious how you do. Everything is about, everything in life really, not even just hockey is all about managing your expectations, right? If you expect something to be, you know, at the Game 7 Stanley Cup Final level? Then man, are you gonna be disappointed with what you see at the All-Star games. I go into this one, I'm curious what you think about this, I go into the All-Star games themselves thinking one thing. I wanna see the best beer league game I can see. Like that is the best beer league hockey in the world, period. How do you look at the games? Because that's how I look at them.
Elliotte Friedman [00:15:20] I think All-Star Weekend is supposed to be fun. Do the fans have a good time, do the sponsors have a good time?
Jeff Marek [00:15:26] No but just the games themselves, like the skill set for the weekend is like, the actual games part.
Elliotte Friedman [00:15:31] But the thing is, Jeff, like, I got to tell you, like, I almost don't care about the results. I just want people to have a good time.
Jeff Marek [00:15:38] He's our one man cooling the game. Elliotte Friedman celebrating, have a good time. Let's hit a pause, come back and talk a little bit about Daniel Briere and his new role with the Philadelphia Flyers, wanna get into the Arizona Coyotes situation and the Gary Bettman Bill Daly press conference. All of this still to be debated, dissected, discussed on 32 Thoughts the Podcast, we're back in a moment.
Jeff Marek [00:16:13] Welcome back to the podcast. Elliotte, as we record this news is breaking. Emily Kaplan and Jesse Rogers at ESPN. News breaking of the firing of a longtime athletic trainer with the Rockford Icehogs, that's the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks, D.J. Jones. This was reported to the Hawks on October 27th of 2021, and Jones was terminated November 3rd, 2021.
Elliotte Friedman [00:16:42] Yeah Jeff, it's brutal to hear. I mean, there's really nothing else to say. We talked at length about the Blackhawks and what happened last week it's, you just run out of things to say about it and them, it just seems to get worse and worse. The only thing here on any level that is in any way positive is that apparently the complaint was made the same day that Kyle Beach's interview with Rick Westhead aired. So, hopefully, the person involved felt emboldened to come forward because of that. And you're happy to hear that, you're happy to hear that someone said, okay, I see what's happened here and now I can come forward because of what this report did. Other than that, I don't know Jeff I mean it's just, all the news with the Blackhawks is bad. There's just nothing else to say about it, it's one bad story after another.
Jeff Marek [00:17:42] It is. And this is a team that as we've been talking about over the past however many weeks, months has been searching for a new general manager. And what we've seen, interestingly enough, is the Blackhawks essentially report on themselves Elliotte. We've interviewed Scott Mellanby, we've interviewed Eric Tulsky, we've interviewed Kyle Davidson, we've interviewed Peter Chiarelli. First of all, before we get into some of the names. What do you make of this style of reporting on themselves?
Elliotte Friedman [00:18:11] I mean, the NFL does it. I don't know maybe the Blackhawks are trying to show some transparency? I don't know here. The NFL does it. Maybe that's what they're thinking that, we'll just do it like the NFL does. I don't know if this is gonna catch on. I think there's another name potentially that's part of this group that's a bit out there. It's Jeff Greenberg, who's the assistant general manager of the Chicago Cubs. I think he's part of their list. Jaime Faulkner, who runs the business empire of the Blackhawks, her husband is an executive vice president of the Cubs. So there's the connection there. I've heard he may be involved. You know if you believe they have to go somewhere really different, he'd be different. And you take a look at the group that you've mentioned there, it's an eclectic group. There's no wider spectrum of people they've interviewed than what they've shown but. Again, you know, I've talked about it in a couple of podcasts already. You know, they put Ed Olczyk on their search committee here for their new GM. I think they're gonna have to bring him into the organisation. You know, people in Chicago tell me that he's very popular there in the organisation, the fans really like him. I think you need it. Not the GM, but in kind of hockey slash ambassador role. I don't know, Jeff, it's really tough to talk about them in any positive way.
Jeff Marek [00:19:42] Okay. Let's go back to Friday then Elliotte, and the Gary Bettman Bill Daly press conference in Vegas.
Jeff Marek [00:22:00] Coming away from that presser. It wasn't too hard to come away with the distinct feeling that there's a frustration at Canada. Like Bettman strongly feels about, you know, things like restriction on attendance and, you know, musing that Canadian teams have asked about playing elsewhere. You reported on the Ottawa Senators, talked about the NHL draft in July, perhaps having to find another location. And in an interesting exchange, Bill Daly said it would probably go virtual, to which the commissioner said, no we might move it, we might move it to another location. It seemed as if this was an opportunity that, that Gary Bettman had to really vent at Canada. Not the Canadian teams, but vent at Canada and the restrictions on attendance.
Elliotte Friedman [00:22:47] I meant to tell you this, but I forgot. I got a really angry call from someone last week who I would describe as a proud Canadian, and this was before this happened with Bettman and Daly. I think Jeff, you and I have talked about this, that we're very similar. We have COVID fatigue, you know, we see on the other side of the border with the U.S. right now, you might as well be in two different universes right, with the way that you know, we attack COVID right now. But you and I have both talked about that, we keep a lot of our opinions to ourselves because we sympathise with the many of the medical professionals who are at their breaking points emotionally. And you know, that's how we feel. We say, okay, you know what? These people have sacrificed a lot of their time and lives the last two years to be on the front lines. And at the very least, no matter how we feel, we can generally keep our mouths shut, right? Well, you know, I wrote, I can't remember if it was last week or the week before, whenever it was about Justin Faulk and his point, you know, I just said that there's a lot of players who feel what Faulk verbalised. And I've also written several times and talked several times about how there are players who don't wanna come to Canada right now. And this guy got really mad at me. And like I said, I think he's a very proud Canadian. He said that, I am sick and tired of hearing about this. He says I don't agree with everything either that's going on in Canada, but we have a great country and I would put our country up against any other country in the world, including the United States. I kind of forgot that that conversation happened, and then as I was watching, you know, Bettman talk, you know, I was kind of reminded about that conversation. Look. The commissioner there, he's voicing what his owners are saying. I do believe the most vocal owner behind the scenes has been Eugene Melnyk in Ottawa. I don't think there's any doubt about that from what I'm hearing. Melnyk has been hugely frustrated by what's going on here. The CEO of the Senators, Anthony LeBlanc, has, you know, done interviews where he's kind of talked about it. Bruce Garrioch has really plugged in to the Senators, you've seen, he's kind of written about it. There's not a lot of reading between the lines here. And like I said, I believe at the beginning of January, about the same time the Winnipeg Jets talked about playing in Saskatoon, the Ottawa Senators said, could we go to the states? And I just don't think at the end of the day, it was possible. I don't think it got that far. I think they kind of talked about it. But one of the things the league said to Winnipeg was, if you want to go to Saskatoon, you've gotta pay any extra costs. I can't imagine that Ottawa was told any differently. So it didn't happen but, clearly, Bettman is voicing what his owners in Canada are thinking about all these games that are getting played with zero capacity until the third week in February and not full capacity until the middle of March. And that's why he's doing it, and it's that simple. I did have some people say to me that they were rolling their eyes about all this stuff about Canada and then hearing that Arizona, what they're gonna be, potentially gonna be playing in front of next year. And I don't think there was only one person who thought that, too. But you know what Bettman said was what his owners in Canada are thinking, but they don't want to verbalise it? So he did it for them.
Jeff Marek [00:26:14] I don't think anybody was surprised at that. What did surprise me though Elliotte was Gary Bettman saying that, you know, despite the fact that you know, what was the number that you've reported about what each house is worth in both Toronto, Ottawa, and I think Montreal is--Toronto 4 million?
Elliotte Friedman [00:26:31] Toronto's 3.5, Montreal is 2.3.
Jeff Marek [00:26:35] And Ottawa is in the neighbourhood of 700,000?
Elliotte Friedman [00:26:39] Ottawa's 650 plus, 650 plus.
Jeff Marek [00:26:41] 650 plus. So despite the fact that, you know, the NHL is walking away from all this money, and the players association as well, this is HRR. I'm a little bit surprised that Gary Bettman said that this wouldn't put a real dent into the league's finances and they're still trending around the $5 billion mark. Did that one catch you as much as it did me and some other people?
Elliotte Friedman [00:27:08] No, because it just, all the years I've dealt with him? I'm not surprised he would phrase it that way. By the way, you know who's doing blogs now?
Jeff Marek [00:27:18] Who dat?
Elliotte Friedman [00:27:19] Richard Rodier.
Jeff Marek [00:27:21] Oh! Wow. Um...
Elliotte Friedman [00:27:26] And you know, for those of you who are not familiar with Richard Rodier.
Jeff Marek [00:27:29] You wanna go back to the, the Nashville experience?
Elliotte Friedman [00:27:32] Well he, he worked with Jim Balsillie.
Jeff Marek [00:27:34] He did.
Elliotte Friedman [00:27:34] Trying to get a team in Hamilton. And later he worked for the players association. He's very smart.
Jeff Marek [00:27:41] Oh yeah.
Elliotte Friedman [00:27:41] Not everybody gets along with him. The league doesn't like him, and after he left the PA, there were people in the PA who didn't leave on good terms with him and him with them. But do not underestimate his intelligence. He's writing blogs right now about what he sees as the future of the CBA and revenue in the NHL and, I can't personally validate the exact points he's making, but I've had some people tell me that, do not underestimate his insight. And my dealings with him? I learnt you do not underestimate is insight. His Twitter handle, if you're so inclined, is @NhLplayer123.
Jeff Marek [00:28:25] One more thing Elliotte that I wanna go over with you from the, the Bettman-Daly press conference and by the way, what did you make of the exchange between Bettman and Daly when they were talking about the draft and Daly tried to say would probably just do it virtual, and the commissioner said, nah, I would move it.
Elliotte Friedman [00:28:41] I thought that was pretty funny, actually. I know people who would go absolutely crazy if he did that to them.
Jeff Marek [00:28:48] Yes, I know.
Elliotte Friedman [00:28:50] There are people who'll love to host the draft.
Jeff Marek [00:28:52] I just think that is such a huge event.
Elliotte Friedman [00:28:55] Well especially now that Montreal could have the number one overall pick, right?
Jeff Marek [00:28:58] All of a sudden like, okay, I, whenever you make the decision, March, April, whenever, can you turn it around that quickly? All of the marketing, all of it? Now I'm with you, Montréal may have the first overall pick, too. I don't know. I understand that the commissioner is upset and to your point, the owners are upset as well.
Jeff Marek [00:29:18] Yeah.
Elliotte Friedman [00:29:19] I just don't know if I can, I can see that one. To me it's Montreal or virtual. I think I might be Team Daly on this one. Anyhow. We shall see! One other thing from that press conference I wanna go over with you. The Arizona Coyotes and ASU. There were a couple of things that I thought were interesting here. You know, the idea that, you know, in some of the modelling they did, that they would actually come out better than they do now at Gila River?
Elliotte Friedman [00:29:59] Yeah. You know, I would like to see that because what that says to me is, like, okay, so I heard a rumour that there was a model that they could, but the ticket price was really high.
Jeff Marek [00:30:09] Yeah.
Elliotte Friedman [00:30:10] So, basically, Arizona State put the plan together on the internet. It's a public university they, they have to do that.
Jeff Marek [00:30:19] Yeah.
Elliotte Friedman [00:30:20] And basically what they said is that the original cost was $115 million. The updated cost is $134.7 million, which indicates the Coyotes, and it says in there that the Coyotes are responsible for the increased numbers, so it indicates the Coyotes have to pay about $19.7 million.
Jeff Marek [00:30:37] This is for adding a structure adjacent to it or above it or wherever and arena upgrades. To the cost of 20 million bucks.
Elliotte Friedman [00:30:46] What we haven't seen yet is the attendance. Like nobody yet to me has pushed back on the 3200 number, now, I have had some people tell me it could be higher, but people have told me they have seen information that said that that was a potential scenario. I mean, we'll see, you know, we don't know. So this vote's gonna be on Thursday. Tempe, the City Council probably isn't gonna vote on this until April. But basically, what they say is there's they've asked for three years to play there, and they've also said that the arena won't be ready for the Coyotes until December of next year so you could have an Islander-like trip to start the season now it's been suggested to me that potentially they could start playing there earlier, but that's one of the areas where the players association could step in over quality of player amenities. And I will say this too Jeff, I've been talking to a lot of agents about this. And first of all, they hate the economics of it, but secondly, they want to see the players' associations show some teeth on this issue. I don't know what they can do, I feel like I'm saying this every week. I don't know what they can do, but the agents and the players want the PA to show some teeth on this.
Jeff Marek [00:32:06] This is gonna have to be after they decide who their leader is however.
Elliotte Friedman [00:32:09] I think we're gonna get some clarity on that. They're having, they're supposed to have an in-person agents meeting on April 6th in Toronto. Never mind that. Like while--
Jeff Marek [00:32:18] Yeah.
Elliotte Friedman [00:32:19] Like while even Fehr is there, I think they're saying, we need to show some teeth on this now.
Jeff Marek [00:32:24] To the idea that they'll have to start on the road, and going back to we're just talking about here and that Islanders -style trip to kick off the season, Bill Daly has talked about, you know, there are certain regulations that, you know, he has, you know, he's, he's sure can be sort of massaged or changed or postponed, however Bill Daly phrased it, in order to get something like this done. So that's still in their mind I believe Elliotte, even though it says X, they can still do Y. There are some things that in their mind they can have massaged. One of the interesting questions here was, what does this do with revenue sharing? And Gary Bettman is quick to point out that...
Jeff Marek [00:33:06] But to me, the question is, should they be disqualified from revenue sharing?
Elliotte Friedman [00:33:10] That's gonna come up too.
Jeff Marek [00:33:12] Like I spoke to one person from one team on Friday afternoon. You know, we're talking about, okay what do you think the commissioner's gonna say today, and it came around to the issue of Arizona, and he said, I can't believe that they're gonna do this, and we're all gonna pay for it. They have to be removed from the revenue sharing pool if this happens.
Elliotte Friedman [00:33:30] We've talked a lot about how Bettman on this podcast, the stuff he said about Canada was because of what his owners want. You think that they want to pay revenue share in Arizona while this is going on?
Jeff Marek [00:33:41] No chance.
Elliotte Friedman [00:33:42] Yeah.
Jeff Marek [00:33:43] No chance. So a few other things real quick, Winter Classic at Fenway, that was discussed. Carolina gets the Stadium Series game at Carter Finley Stadium, the Panthers hosting All-Star, and the Global Series returns, games in Czech Republic, Finland, Switzerland and, does this not have Edmonton versus Ottawa written all over it for you, Elliotte Friedman?
Elliotte Friedman [00:34:04] Oh I gotta think Nashville goes to Switzerland.
Jeff Marek [00:34:07] Nashville vs. New Jersey?
Elliotte Friedman [00:34:08] Or San Jose?
Jeff Marek [00:34:10] Or San Jose? That's another good one too, absolutely. Finland's gotta be Dallas-Carolina,
Elliotte Friedman [00:34:15] Carolina, Dallas. I think that makes a ton of sense, absolutely. By the way, I do apologise. I got some direct messages from fans in Czechia saying they preferred to be known as Czechia now and not the Czech Republic.
Jeff Marek [00:34:29] That is my fault.
Elliotte Friedman [00:34:32] No, but I tweeted it out, I was like, here's the my problem: I did a grade three school project on Czechoslovakia, and it was still Czechoslovakia at the time. So that is forever burned in my mind. I'm still getting used to Czech Republic. Now I have to change it, so.
Jeff Marek [00:34:50] When you think Czechoslovakian hockey player, I think of Vladimir Dzurilla. That comes to my mind right away. When I say Czechoslovakia and you think hockey player, is there one that comes to your mind?
Elliotte Friedman [00:35:02] Peter Statsny. Well, I shouldn't, you know what, like--
Jeff Marek [00:35:03] Statsny?
Elliotte Friedman [00:35:04] But you know what? That's not right because Peter Stastny is Slovak, and he would probably identify as Slovak. So I will say I will go Milan Novi.
Jeff Marek [00:35:13] Really?
Elliotte Friedman [00:35:14] Yes, I remember him. And he played for the Capitals.
Jeff Marek [00:35:17] And he was good internationally man, he was fantastic. He was outstanding. So I just go back, I just go back to the '76 Canada Cup.
Elliotte Friedman [00:35:24] Well Dzurilla--
Jeff Marek [00:35:27] Well Dzurilla was great.
Elliotte Friedman [00:35:27] Well you picked Dzurilla so I couldn't, I had to do something else. Remember Dusan Pasek?
Jeff Marek [00:35:32] Dusan Pasek! Yeah, of course, yeah!
Elliotte Friedman [00:35:34] Yes, he was a good player. They were good players, and you never saw those guys, because they played Canada even less than the, than the Russians did.
Jeff Marek [00:35:43] Jan Suchy. This is something for the really super old school Czech fans that are listening right now. Jan Suchy, I just want to get that name on the podcast. He was considered the Bobby Orr of European hockey as far as skilled players, ask any Czech player, I can remember having like super long conversations, oh man, Bobby Holik, and I would talk about Jan Suchy and his dad would always tell him about Jan Suchy. I just want to get the name out there when we're talking about great hockey players from the-then Czechoslovakia. Jan Suchy.
Elliotte Friedman [00:36:18] What a rabbit hole.
Jeff Marek [00:36:20] Jan Suchy baby Jan Suchy here on the podcast. One more thing before we wrap things up. Daniel Briere, assistant to the general manager with the Philadelphia Flyers and as I understand is probably gonna be involved in part of the discussions touching everything the Flyers and Chuck Fletcher do from here on in, true or false.
Elliotte Friedman [00:36:40] True. First of all, I saw everybody's Dunder Mifflin Dwight Schrute teams, and I did get a good laugh about them on Saturday. Anthony SanFilippo was the first person to report it in Philly and, we were expecting this to come. It actually happened sooner than I thought, I thought it might not happen until the end of the season, but obviously it comes now and, it's gonna be interesting there. Philly's going to make some big decisions. You know Ristolainen, obviously Giroux... By the way, when Giroux said, there's still time here. I think that says two things. First of all, I think he wanted to tone down the noise around him, which I completely understand. And secondly, you know, because his cap number is so big, 8.25 ,you're probably gonna have to wait to do it, right? So there you go.
[00:37:26] [Break.]
Jeff Marek [00:37:36] All right, Elliotte, wrapping things up here, a couple of emails at 32thoughts@sportsnet.ca, let's go to beautiful part of Canada that is Whistler, B.C., JP submits this. "Would it be a possibility to include a clause in a player contract that says if a player asks for a trade, his no-trade clause is voided or it becomes open to a larger set amount of teams? It feels unfair that a player who demands a trade holds all the power on where he goes and ultimately lowers a return for the team he plays for. The idea of, if you ask for a trade, does that disqualify your list of no-trade teams?" That's intriguing to me.
Elliotte Friedman [00:38:17] Teams would love it. There's no question about that, teams absolutely would love it. I think that would have to be collectively bargained. For example with Ryan Kesler in Vancouver, Mike Gillis certainly and then later, Jim Benning, certainly did ask for more teams, but Kesler and his rep, Kurt Overhardt, they said no. They kept it really tight, and I know this conversation comes up from time to time, but you'd have to have it collectively bargained or have the player agree. Right now they've got the hammer.
Jeff Marek [00:38:48] And there was a situation like this between Ottawa and Edmonton, where Brian Murray had a trade for Dany Heatley, who had requested a trade, worked out with the Edmonton Oilers. And then Heatley said no. And I remember Murray wasn't exactly thrilled.
Elliotte Friedman [00:39:01] Jarome Iginla. They had a deal worked out with Boston and he said, no, I wanna go to Pittsburgh.
Jeff Marek [00:39:09] Pittsburgh. Matthew from Coleraine. "I'm sending you this email because I'm wondering how the Las Vegas Golden Knights with the comeback of Jack Eichel and Alec Martinez are going to fit under the salary cap." Matthew, we all have the same questions. Reilly Smith may be an obvious trade candidate, but who else? "Keep up the good work, real pleasure listening to you on the podcast and Elliotte, be nice with Jeff." That's a nice touch. How about Elliotte pay attention to Jeff? That might be a better touch.
Elliotte Friedman [00:39:33] No, that's worse than being nice.
Jeff Marek [00:39:34] Okay very good. What do you make of the--it's funny, you know, I had George McPhee on the radio show last week and had to ask, knowing full well, I wasn't gonna get an answer, but he essentially said, you know, the party line, we've heard Kelly McCrimmon say this as well. You know, when we made the trade, we had a plan already in our minds. We didn't make this trade and then say, now how are we going to do this? The only problem is, nobody really knows. So how are they gonna do this?
Elliotte Friedman [00:40:01] I think it's gonna come down to when Eichel is ready to play. Like if you heard Peter DeBoer this weekend, who, by the way, I love that he admitted he was hungover because he certainly looked like it on the bench with his tie undone like that.
Jeff Marek [00:40:14] So good.
Elliotte Friedman [00:40:14] He said that he's not quite ready yet. The next thing is contact. So if you're Vegas, you're not gonna do anything until you know that he's ready to play. And one thing we've seen now is that you think you're going to be okay, and then someone gets hurt, and then all of a sudden you're like, okay we've lost this guy for a little bit of time, we don't necessarily need to rush to do anything. So I think that's gonna come down to how healthy they are and when he's ready. You know right now, they have to answer questions about, is Alec Martinez being held out for salary cap reasons? Because everything they're doing is, is under scrutiny and DeBoer was asked that about the other day and he had to deny it. The other thing I wanted to say about that Vegas situation is, someone had told me that Brayden McNabb got an extension last week, right?
Jeff Marek [00:41:02] Yes he did.
Elliotte Friedman [00:41:03] And he's been a really good player for them since they took him in the expansion draft. But I had heard even he was worried that before he signed his extension, that it might mean that he was gonna be out because they were going to have to just simply trade UFAs.
Jeff Marek [00:41:18] Well what's the thing that we've seen from the Vegas Golden Knights? Like, they're ruthless.
Elliotte Friedman [00:41:23] Yes.
Jeff Marek [00:41:24] Right? They're ruthless. We need this player, so that means we're saying goodbye to that player. Like we've talked about, you know, the turnover, what it does to the room, all of that. I don't think that should surprise anybody to hear just about any of, anyone in that room say, could it be me? Anybody! Why not? We've seen this is what Vegas does like, this is a, and good for them like, listen, Foley wants a cup. This is a ruthless pursuit of the Stanley Cup. Period. That's what this owner wants, and he wants it now, thank you very much. Shouldn't be a surprise at all. Great question Matthew, and JP, great question as well. We'll wrap on that one. Another podcast coming up a little bit later on this week. Thanks so much for joining us today. Hope you enjoyed All-Star Weekend, the skills, the games, the festivities, the hungover coaches, et cetera. So taking us out, Elliotte, a Swedish-born London-raised producer turned musician who recently dropped his debut EP, Are You Living in the Real World? 21 year old Oliver Malcolm has worked with some big names in the music industry, but over the last few years has moved to the other side of the glass. With his latest single, here's Oliver Malcolm with Rolling Stone on 32 Thoughts the Podcast.
[00:42:30] [Outtro music.]