Jeff and Elliotte break down what was a difficult weekend around the league as more teams were shut down, talk Alex Tuch and his much-expected debut for the Sabres as well as Robin Lehner's return to Long Island, tell us what team isn’t interested in Jakob Chychrun, and discuss potential front-office candidates in Vancouver.
More COVID-19 challenges for the NHL. Jeff and Elliotte break down (00:01) what was a difficult weekend around the league as more teams were shut down, case numbers hit an all-time high, and how the NHL's participation in the Olympics looks to be at its breaking point.
They also discuss the much-expected debut of Alex Tuch with the Buffalo Sabres (17:20), the return of Robin Lehner to Long Island (21:10), take a quick look back at the Eichel Anaheim trade package (24:00), what team isn’t interested in Jakob Chychrun, potential front-office candidates in Vancouver (30:00), Brett Connolly’s hit on Tanner Kero (31:40) and the guys take your questions (36:00).
Full transcript for the episode can be found here
Outro Music: Hot Flash Heat Wave - Where I’m @
Listen to the full single here
This podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.
Audio Credits: AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, Sportsnet and WHL.
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 [00:00:01] That's good.
Elliotte Friedman [00:00:01] Only you would answer that, kind of come up with something I…
Jeff Marek [00:00:08] Welcome, once again to 32 Thoughts: The Podcast presented by the all-new GMC AT4 Lineup. Elliotte, before we go any further at all, I almost feel like I want to apologize to start the podcast. I don't know that we really want to start by talking about COVID.
Elliotte Friedman [00:00:21] Oh God, no.
Jeff Marek [00:00:23] But we really have to start by talking about COVID.
Elliotte Friedman [00:00:25] We are so sorry. We apologize to all of you who are so sick of COVID. We promise we will find something else in this podcast to talk about other than COVID. But sadly—
Jeff Marek [00:00:36] I know.
Elliotte Friedman [00:00:37]We have to start with this.
Jeff Marek [00:00:38] I'd rather talk about, ‘Hey, Alex Tuch is going to debut at the Sabres against the Blue Jackets on Monday. Isn't that cool? We're going to see a piece of the Jack Eichel trade in that.’ But you can't.
Elliotte Friedman [00:00:47] Not possible.
Jeff Marek [00:00:48] OK, so Elliotte, let's start with the Olympic question and one of the things that Bill Daly, deputy commissioner of the NHL, talked about at the Board of Governors, I can't remember the exact phrasing, was along the lines of material damage to the schedule, which would allow the NHL to step in blah blah blah blah blah and cancel NHL participation. Where are we right now?
Elliotte Friedman [00:01:08] I think the announcement could come as soon as Monday. What I was told was that the league made it very clear that all the postponements on Sunday did give that material damage to the schedule. And now I think the question is simply, does the league announce it or do the league and the players announce it together? But I do think the Olympic announcement could come as soon as Monday.
Jeff Marek [00:01:30] OK, so let's end the pod right there so it doesn't sound dated. OK, kidding. You know, it was so much of this going back to the weekend, even, even last week, when it became apparent with all the other postponements of games that this was going to a place that nobody wanted. It almost became a game of chicken. Who's going to call it off? Does the NHL have the bullets to call it off? Do the players have the guts to call it off and say, ‘We don't want to go’ even though we kept talking to, I'm sure you were the same, agents and players who all said, ‘I don't want to go’ or ‘My guys don't want to go’ but nobody wants to say it publicly. The players want the NHL to do it for them, so they don't stand up and say, ‘I'm saying no to my country.’ Did you have the same experience this weekend?
Elliotte Friedman [00:02:13] Generally, yes, I would say that that absolutely did occur. I had a bunch of calls on Friday night, just from people saying, ‘Do you hear there's going to be a shutdown, a full shutdown on Monday?’
Jeff Marek [00:02:27] OK, pause on that.
Elliotte Friedman [00:02:29] Mm-Hmm.
Jeff Marek [00:02:27] OK. So, Saturday morning, one of my first phone calls was with an agent—
Elliotte Friedman [00:02:35] Your biggest source.
Jeff Marek [00:02:36] Not my biggest.
Elliotte Friedman [00:02:37] Here's my question to you.
Jeff Marek [00:02:38] Yes.
Elliotte Friedman [00:02:39] On Saturday morning—
Jeff Marek [00:02:40] Yeah.
Elliotte Friedman [00:02:41] When you make your first call, is it to your biggest source?
Jeff Marek [00:02:44] Sometimes, yes. Sometimes it's someone who I believe may have a story. No, we're not going to play that game.
Elliotte Friedman [00:02:50] No, I'm not. I don't. I don't play guessing games with sources when I'm serious. I'm just asking you, did this person qualify as your biggest source? Was this this person?
Jeff Marek [00:03:02] At times, this person has been my biggest source. Yes.
Elliotte Friedman [00:03:05] OK, fair enough.
Jeff Marek [00:03:06] And one of the things that he said to me was, I hear we're getting shut down on Monday.
Elliotte Friedman [00:03:12] Yep.
Jeff Marek [00:03:12] And I went, ‘Whoa’. And we talked it out a little bit, and he had questions too, and I didn't have any answers, and I had questions and he didn't have any answers. And so I called you in the conversation, and to let everybody in and how the weekend's work for us, I said to Elliotte, ‘Elliotte, I just heard that there's a chance the NHL shuts down on Monday’ and I believe your phrase back to me was, ‘I'm already working on it.’
Elliotte Friedman [00:03:37] You know, you make me sound like an egomaniac when you put it that way. I should tell everybody—
Jeff Marek [00:03:44] Can’t let me have any joy. Like what? Really? Where'd you hear that? It was like, ‘Oh yeah, Marek, like that's 12 hours ago.’
Elliotte Friedman [00:03:48] You make me sound like a total egomaniac. No. Normally what I would do is I would text Jeff and say, ‘Look, I'm hearing this.’ Like we have a text chain that goes back and forth. I'm hearing this. I'm working on this and Saturday, before we get into the office, we will speak four or five times, right? Like, I like to be in the office. If there's an afternoon on game on a Saturday, I like to be in there for the afternoon game. But even if there isn't an afternoon game on Saturday, I like to be in there really early because on Saturdays I really like to be in work mode. Well, if I'm at a morning skate, that's one thing. But if I'm not in the office, I'm probably screwing around at home with Max or something, and I'm just not into a proper mode. But Saturday was late because I was really chasing that one and I couldn't get going, you know, out of the house. And like I said Friday night, I got a bunch of calls saying there could be a shutdown on Monday. And you know, the way I like to do things is I like to collect the information and then go to as high a level as I can get to who's willing to talk to me. And the thing about it was I started getting different information from different people. Some people were saying, ‘No, there won't be a shutdown, but look out for the borders.’ Other people were saying, ‘No, they're going to play as many games as they possibly can, and they're going to try and jam in as many and they'll shut them down one by one.’ And I also think that the story was constantly evolving because all of this was on the table, like one of the best people I talked to on Saturday, who's one of the most plugged in people, they said to me, the reason you're hearing all of these different rumors is that everything is on the table. There's a shutdown on the table. There is a border shutdown on the table. But all the games between two teams from the same country can still be played. There is a ‘We're going to try to get every game in, we can get in and we'll shut them down, team by team, if we have to’, like all of that was being discussed. The other thing was, and this became apparent on Sunday, is that there were two things the league was talking about if there was going to be any kind of mass postponement of games and that was: are the Olympics going to be part of that? And number two, and I know this because a player told me about it, they said that their team told them that one of the things that was discussed was if they shut down the whole league from, say, Monday to January 1st, then they want to know players aren't going to go anywhere. And the players like what they said, ‘Yeah, like if you're saying it's not safe to play because people are getting COVID, we don't want you going to Mexico or Hawaii or traveling on planes to go see families. Why would we want that to happen?’ I think all of this was being discussed. I think also what happened to Edmonton was a big deal, and that was that Edmonton waited till 8:30 local on Friday to fly to Seattle because they wanted to get their tests back, and Duncan Keith got put into protocol. And then Saturday, they had to take tests again, and they were like, ‘Why do we have to take tests again first thing Saturday morning, if we just got our results back late Friday night?’ and they couldn't get out of it. And then Saturday, they got a positive test from Puljujärvi and the worry was getting him back across the border. And all of a sudden, all of these teams that had to go across the border were looking at this and saying, this is another example of how unfair and not right this is. So, I think they decided to just sit with the border, and the one thing I was warned about was don't say a shutdown is guaranteed because it's not, which is what I did. But I hope that paints an accurate picture, Jeff, because it was constantly evolving because everything was on the table.
Jeff Marek [00:07:56] There was only one thing that I found in my calls, and probably you are the same way with yours on Saturday. One thing that wasn't on the table, one thing that wasn't evolving. One thing that was a constant. There was no way the Winter Classic was going to get scrubbed.
Elliotte Friedman [00:08:10] So on Saturday night, I mentioned there were rumors of a shutdown between I don't know if I mentioned Monday, but a shutdown until the Winter Classic. You know, two of the players whose comments went really viral were Nick Cousins and Jonathan Drouin, and we talked about that briefly on Friday's podcast. Nick Cousins was a shut it down guy. Jonathan Drouin admitted that he was nervous about it.
Jeff Marek [00:08:34] He was playing against a team that was having an outbreak. That's what he was concerned about.
Elliotte Friedman [00:08:37] And there are players who feel that way. I will say this, and the one person I spoke to said, ‘You can tell the story, but you can't say the team.’ So I said, ‘OK.’ And he said to me, ‘What are you hearing?’ And I said, ‘I'm hearing rumors of the possibility of a league wide shutdown to the Winter Classic’ and he kind of hit the roof of it. He goes, ‘Well, if they're so worried about the Wild and the Blues for the Winter Classic, shut them down. Don't shut us and everybody else down.’ You know, again, based on everything we've been talking about, like everyone's talking about what Hellebuyck said and what Yzerman said.
Elliotte Friedman [00:10:55] There are a lot of players and people in the league who feel the same way they do. I had one player who said to me that he felt that if, say, Colorado plays Dallas, you shouldn't be tested unless you're symptomatic. And if you're on one of those teams, the other teams in the states, the only way you should be tested if you're asymptomatic is if you're going into Canada. They said ‘Look, like everybody here realizes the players, the Players’ Association, the teams, the Canadian government is not going to allow a situation where asymptomatic, positive players are going to be allowed in the country.’ So, this player’s solution was, and he said he's not the only one who feels this way, is ‘If we're asymptomatic, don't test us in the states until how many days it is before we have to go into Canada. I think that should be the rule.’ And I don't think that's going to happen. I had a doctor on the weekend, and this is a doctor, I think, who has done some work with governments, he told me that at best in Canada, he believes we're six to eight months away from even considering that. Now that timeline could change, but the opinions are all over the place. Jeff, I know I'm repeating myself a bit at times.
Jeff Marek [00:12:08] Yeah, it’s alright.
Elliotte Friedman [00:12:08] I just think there's a realization that that isn't happening in Canada and they have to protect the Winter Classic at all costs. They cannot afford for that game not to be played.
Jeff Marek [00:12:21] So, here then becomes one of the issues, and that is one of the schedule. Now as of Saturday, I'm of the belief, I don't know where they're at right now, but I'm of the belief that as of Saturday, the NHL had the postponed games already worked into a new schedule that was complete. But the NHL could not announce it for the obvious reasons because we don't know how much more damage is going to be made to the schedule. I don't know where that's headed now.
Elliotte Friedman [00:12:55] We have to believe that they were doing the work right?
Jeff Marek [00:12:56] All along.
Elliotte Friedman [00:12:57] Yes.
Jeff Marek [00:12:57] There's not a chance that all of a sudden there is a ‘Hey, we have 110 new games to program here. Hey schedule makers, Steve Hatz Petros, you have to roll up your sleeves and get to work.’ They've been doing this all along just to get that out there. One other point, too, I spoke to someone from a team on Saturday who's, and this person has been banging this drum for a long time, and now this person has more ammunition for their point— I think you and I have discussed this before the idea of doing a baseball-style schedule with all of these games that have to be made up, which is if you're going into L.A. to play the Kings once, yeah, now you're going in to play them twice.
Elliotte Friedman [00:13:39] Well, that's if you have multiple games against them.
Jeff Marek [00:13:41] But hang on, no. Here's the point, if it gets so bad that there are so many games postponed, even if it means that the schedule is unbalanced. Yes, it's a crazy year- we have to do the games. Everyone's got to get their 82. Doesn’t matter if everything evens out. This is a season where you just have to do it.
Elliotte Friedman [00:14:04] You know what, I don't disagree with that.
Jeff Marek [00:14:06] This person was of the belief that may happen now.
Elliotte Friedman [00:14:07] Just get it done.
Jeff Marek [00:14:06] Just get your 82 games- regardless of who it's against Elliotte. Just get those 82 games done. And if it means, hey, we play a disproportionate amount of games against the New Jersey Devils or the Nashville Predators or the Edmonton Oilers, so be it.
Elliotte Friedman [00:14:24] Yeah, you know, I don't see anything wrong with that, Jeff. You're not going to have perfection, so do it. If you have to play somebody 17 times, play them 17 times. I'm with you on this. It's not going to be perfect. I should say too, that usually we’re annoying other people, other people aren't calling us. But I did have a lot of texts and calls from people on Saturday with ‘What are you hearing?’ Players, coaches, executives. ‘What are you hearing? What do you think is going to happen and what are you hearing about this shutdown. Are you hearing what's going to get canceled?’ One player said to me, he said he heard about the talk about players not being allowed to travel around Christmas, and he goes, ‘Have you heard that?’ And I go, ‘Yes.’ And he goes, ‘You have a better chance of lifting the Cup this year as captain of the Stanley Cup champion than that occurring.’
Jeff Marek [00:15:19] I got when you when you, uh, when you mentioned that to me on Saturday, I texted to agents that I'm pretty close with, and I had the same answer, which was essentially two different versions of ‘What do you think they'll do?’ Dummy. I.e., not a chance. Not a chance. That's going to happen.
Elliotte Friedman [00:15:38] I did think, Jeff, that the possibility of just playing the U.S. against each other and to compete against each other was very possible. And that's exactly what turned out to be the case.
Jeff Marek [00:15:48] Do you think this Olympic announcement—
Elliotte Friedman [00:15:51] You know, can I say something else about the Olympics?
Jeff Marek [00:15:53] Of course. Yeah, go ahead.
Elliotte Friedman [00:15:54] I think that the players are praying it gets moved back a year.
Jeff Marek [00:16:00] That the Olympics themselves—
Elliotte Friedman [00:16:00] Yes,
Jeff Marek [00:16:01] The whole thing gets scrubbed?
Elliotte Friedman [00:16:04] Just like the summer did a couple of years ago.
Jeff Marek [00:16:07] Well, the one thing that I wonder about here because so much of this is face saving to some extent, certainly from the player's point of view. Doesn't this have to be a joint announcement?
Elliotte Friedman [00:16:17] I don't know the politics of this. I would hope it would be, but I don't know the politics of this.
Jeff Marek [00:16:23] And then here becomes the other question. We've talked about this before. What happens if all the Russians just say, I don't care, I'm going,
Elliotte Friedman [00:16:29] No, this is the now they have their material damage. It's not going to matter.
Jeff Marek [00:16:35] So let's say Canada, for example, NHL players aren't going. Who's going?
Elliotte Friedman [00:16:41] Well, the Canadian team just pulled back from the Spengler Cup, the one that was supposed to go and play there.
Jeff Marek [00:16:46] So now they're all going to bubble wrap and cross their fingers for February.
Elliotte Friedman [00:16:51] I guess they'll wait and see. It'll be the next group of 100 players or so who were put on the list by all the federations, and it'll be up to them to fill out the teams if they're comfortable and going.
Jeff Marek [00:17:13] OK, so that heavy newsy section is done, we can all take a breath now and pause briefly and move on to a happier story. Alex Tuch makes his debut for the Buffalo Sabres Monday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Elliotte Friedman [00:17:26] Before we talk Alex Tuch, can I make one request?
Jeff Marek [00:17:26] Sure.
Elliotte Friedman [00:17:26] I don't want any Spider-Man movie spoilers in my timeline. I have one request.
Jeff Marek [00:17:33] Unavoidable.
Elliotte Friedman [00:17:34] I was going to take my son to see Spider-Man, and we're going to wait because in Ontario now you can't have popcorn in the movie theaters. So, when we go to movies, my son's a big popcorn guy and, you know, first world problems we can't have popcorn in the movie theater right now— which I'm not complaining about, I'm just kidding about. So, we've got to wait. So, I want no Spider-Man spoilers in my timeline. Please, I beg you all. I beg you all.
Jeff Marek [00:18:07] I believe the term for this is Streisand effect, where you're calling attention to something. And now it will be amplified because you know your timeline is going to be full of like, don't check your mentions now, Eliotte.
Elliotte Friedman [00:18:16] No, I don't like them all because I like when people do stuff like that. Like, I love the byplay, the fun byplay like that.
Jeff Marek [00:18:23] Once you drop that, ‘I don't want any spoilers for Spider-Man’ on a podcast like this. Yeah. Guess where are you going to get your timeline? All Spider-Man spoilers? I'm sorry.
Elliotte Friedman [00:18:32] They're already there.
Jeff Marek [00:18:33] All that's going to be there.
Elliotte Friedman [00:18:35] They're already there. But I'll just like them and laugh at them all.
Jeff Marek [00:18:39] Well, that's the wonderful thing about live sports, Elliotte. We don't know what's going to happen. Alex Tuch is going to play his first game for the Buffalo Sabres on Monday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Tuch, of course, a part of the Jack Eichel deal coming over from the Vegas Golden Knights, Peyton Krebs the other part, along with a first and a second, and just as an aside, does it not feel like about a bajillion years ago that Jack Eichel dominated this program?
Elliotte Friedman [00:19:05] Yes. Yes it does. You know, we should do a poll this year which topic did you get sick of the most Jack Eichel, COVID.
Jeff Marek [00:19:14] Vancouver— what's happening with the Canucks?
Elliotte Friedman [00:19:17] Vancouver. Oh, yeah, that was a big one. Seriously, the end of year poll, which topic nauseated you the most?
Jeff Marek [00:19:23] Like how many notes you guys have on your piano boys like to like I even play and I go, This is like a Neil Young guitar solo one note over and over and over. And like all these folks, boys,
Elliotte Friedman [00:19:34] I really like the Alex Tuch story. Yeah, there's sometimes when moves are going on or trades are going on or talks are going on and you don't realize it. And then when it's over, you kind of realize the backstory and you look at things and you say, ‘Oh yeah, I should have seen that coming.’ And it's pretty clear to me that the Vegas Golden Knights knew that they had a real good chance of making that deal with Buffalo because they had two things that Buffalo wanted: Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch, and Tuch because Buffalo wanted a veteran player who was from there and would be happy to be a saver. I'll say this: I really like Alex Tuch as a player. I think he's a really good player who doesn't get enough credit for how good he is. I know a friend of the pod, Doug MacLean, we once redid that draft and he had Tuch in the top ten. So, if you go back, that's the 2014 draft—
Jeff Marek [00:20:27] That's the Philadelphia draft, that’s Ekblad.
Elliotte Friedman [00:20:28] The top-10 picks are Ekblad, Reinhart, Draisaitl, Bennett, Dal Colle, Virtanen, Fleury, Nylander, Ehlers, Nick Ritchie 10th. And Alex Tuch that year was taken 18 by Minnesota, and, you know, so it's still a pretty high pick. But I remember MacLean had him really high. At the time, I don't think he had him in the top-five when we did this, and this was a couple of years ago, but he had him around seventh. This is a big thing for Buffalo. This is a guy who they really hope comes through for them and revitalizes their fan base a bit. He's a really good player, so I'm looking forward to watching this. I'll tell you, I really think too we should mention Robin Lehner’s return to the island on Sunday.
Jeff Marek [00:21:12] It was fantastic.
Elliotte Friedman [00:21:51] Like, first of all, he handled it so well in the lead up about the things he kept on saying about the Islanders and their fans and the tweets and shaving his beard into the sink, like what a brilliant social media move that was.
Jeff Marek [00:22:06] Lou rules, Lou rules.
Elliotte Friedman [00:22:07] You know the fans’ reaction to him. You may have heard that fan base doesn't always handle leaving very well.
Jeff Marek [00:22:13] What?
Elliotte Friedman [00:22:14] And they were, they were excellent to him. I mean, it was in a really lousy time for just the world in general. I really enjoyed watching that on Sunday afternoon.
Jeff Marek [00:22:29] That was outstanding and good for him. I know the Islanders woes continue as well, but good on Lehner and the shot of him pointing at the tattoo on his neck, it was just a fantastic one. That's going to be a big one at the end of the year when we all do our highlight montages of, ‘OK, what are the things that stood out for you?’ That little subtle tap to his neck for his ink there is certainly going to be top of mind.
Elliotte Friedman [00:22:54] I know this is a tough one to think of off the top of your head, but has there been a better social media post by an NHL player that you can think of?
Jeff Marek [00:23:04] Oh, some of the Luongo ones.
Elliotte Friedman [00:23:08] Luongo was excellent. He absolutely was excellent. I thought about the Kessel line like, ‘I can't put my finger on it, but I could be somewhere tonight’ which I mean for Kessel was an absolute jaw dropper. But that picture of his beard in the sink, it was dynamite. It really was. I remember I saw it and I just laughed. I said, ‘That is just a perfect, perfect social media post from a player.’
Jeff Marek [00:23:34] That was really good. I mean, Luongo had a string when he was going. I mean, listen, Bissonnette rocked all of it and shook everybody up. He was—remember how terrified Arizona was of his Twitter?
Elliotte Friedman [00:23:43] Oh yeah.
Jeff Marek [00:23:44] Remember how many conversations Paul had on his Twitter with the Coyotes?
Elliotte Friedman [00:23:49] But he soon became bigger than the team, right?
Jeff Marek [00:23:49] He did! I know.
Elliotte Friedman [00:23:50] It reached a point where you couldn't do anything with that. I just thought it was so fantastic
Jeff Marek [00:23:58] Getting back to that Alex Tuch debut for the Sabres. So that is, you know, part of the package for Jack Eichel. And you and I talked on the radio last week. We're having a conversation about the Anaheim Ducks and how former general manager Bob Murray was inactive by way of doing anything with the roster in the offseason outside of a flirtation with Jack Eichel. And for those who didn't hear the radio show—I don't know why you would listen.
Elliotte Friedman [00:24:23] You should be ashamed of yourselves, first of all.
Jeff Marek [00:24:26] How dare you, sir or ma'am. Do you want to go over the conversation we had? Specifically what the rumored deal was between Anaheim and the Buffalo Sabres.
Elliotte Friedman [00:24:35] Yeah, so I heard what the Sabres asked Anaheim for was. It was Zegras, it was Drysdale, and it was two first rounders.
Jeff Marek [00:24:41] Whopper.
Elliotte Friedman [00:24:41] And Anaheim wasn't willing to do that. And I think the other thing to mention here is, I also did mention that I don't know that Anaheim ever got to a point where their doctors were comfortable with the disc replacement. And the one thing I do want to be careful about there is that it's possible that might have changed later, but the this was early, like around the draft, right? You know, who knows if that was still potentially on the table later or a deal was on the table later, maybe Anaheim might have gotten more comfortable with it. But, you know, I was one of the guys saying, I really think Anaheim's in there. In the end, I think they were early, but between what Buffalo's ask was and what Anaheim's comfort level with the ADR was, I don't think it was, it was ever close.
Jeff Marek [00:25:35] You know, this Eichel deal or this Eichel auction, rather, much like the Lindros auction once upon a time, I wonder how much this is going to be a white whale for people who try to figure out who offered what. And this goes back to something that we've talked about a number of different times at the end.
Elliotte Friedman [00:25:53] I remember Ron did a big thing on that once when I was at Hockey Night and it was still at the CBC. He did a big pre-game, and he had ‘Here's what New York offered. Here's what Philly offered us. Here's what Toronto offered.’ You know, it was a whole pre-game of ‘Here's what all the offers were.’
Jeff Marek [00:26:12] I would love that just for other famous trades like the Patrick Roy auction, like, I remember Jacques Demers telling me once that Chicago offered Ed Belfour— a straight up boom goalie swap. How the world would be different, right?
Elliotte Friedman [00:26:25] I might have made that deal.
Jeff Marek [00:26:26] The auction trades—
Elliotte Friedman [00:26:28] Wouldn't you make that deal?
Jeff Marek [00:26:28] To me, are fascinating. It's pretty enticing. I would make that deal. Yeah. Well, what did Montreal need?
Elliotte Friedman [00:26:35] Belfour hadn't won a Cup by then, but he was at the height of his powers.
Jeff Marek [00:26:39] The point for me and all of that was, I can recall thinking to myself ‘Hold on a second here. I know you really like Trevor Zegras. I know you really like Jamie Drysdale, but this is Jack Eichel that we're talking about here.’ I stopped saying that about Zegras this year. Now I know that Eichel when he gets back in, watch, he's going to go right back to being one of the top 10-forwards in the NHL boom. But I'm telling you man, Zegras, we've talked about how you've mentioned how he’s must watch TV and, you know, not just for the Dishigan move either with Sonny Milano. Like every game, he does something. I've stopped saying ‘Hmm, yeah. You know what? I don't know why Anaheim didn't make that deal.’ Now I know why Anaheim didn’t make that deal.
Elliotte Friedman [00:27:19] I'm not disagreeing with you. You notice, you notice, we had a goal in the Western Hockey League?
Jeff Marek [00:27:59] Yes, I know, and well now, and like every team, like listen, you know who's, uh, who's hockey team practices that now?
Elliotte Friedman [00:28:04] Who's that, your sons?
Jeff Marek [00:28:06] Every single team, including both my kids. Yeah, of course. I mean, everyone can scoop it now, that's the standard. That's, that's a skill that everybody has. But just to create and everyone can bunt it, like everyone's bunting, and putting the two together, now everybody is trying it in practice. So, no surprise that we saw that in Canadian junior hockey. We're going to keep seeing it.
Elliotte Friedman [00:28:29] The one thing about that play is if you go on and you watch it, the defenseman #3 has the right idea. He sees what's coming and he tries to swat the puck with his glove.
Jeff Marek [00:28:39] Mm-Hmm.
Elliotte Friedman [00:28:39] And he missed. But that's the right play.
Jeff Marek [00:28:42] Get big in front of it.
Elliotte Friedman [00:28:43] He's on his knees.
Jeff Marek [00:28:44] Get big in front of it.
Elliotte Friedman [00:28:45] And you know, the other thing that is going to start happening is forwards in front of the net are going to start getting clobbered. This is going to test the cross-checking crackdown because forwards are going to start getting clobbered.
Jeff Marek [00:29:00] I'll tell you what, if you're the player who bunts the puck in, get out of there fast.
Elliotte Friedman [00:28:04] Yes.
Jeff Marek [00:29:04] Get out quick. Bunt and run down the first base line as fast as you can because something's coming.
Elliotte Friedman [00:29:16] All right, a couple of other stories I just want to mention quickly. I was on Edmonton radio the other day and I mentioned that I thought Edmonton would be around the Chychrun trade. I had a couple of people say to me, they don't think it's going to be the Oilers.
Jeff Marek [00:29:27] Okay.
Elliotte Friedman [00:29:28] I could always be wrong.
Jeff Marek [00:29:33] Even though left shot D is pretty high on the wish list.
Elliotte Friedman [00:29:34] I just heard that it's not going to be the Oilers, not for Chychrun, that they're not in as much as some other teams are. Of course, I could end up totally being wrong and this is a smokescreen. It's happened before.
Jeff Marek [00:29:44] The thing is, though, he, he feels like maybe not just an Edmonton-type player, but an Alberta-type player.
Elliotte Friedman [00:29:50] Yes.
Jeff Marek [00:29:51] When you look at Chychrun, doesn’t he scream Alberta to you?
Elliotte Friedman [00:29:57] He sure does. But like I said, I had people say to me, ‘Don't count on it.’ Like if you're putting your money down, put it elsewhere, OK? And I'm an idiot, Jeff. Because Gary Mason, I said he's from the Vancouver Province and he's not from the Vancouver Province. He's from the Globe and Mail. What was his report?
Jeff Marek [00:30:15] I'm not disputing any of what you just said, by the way…
Elliotte Friedman [00:30:18] That he's from the Globe and Mail and I'm an idiot?
Jeff Marek [00:30:19] Correct. Vancouver considering some new hires, among them Jennifer Botterill, Jayna Hefford— Operations Consultant for the PWHPA— and Angela Ruggiero.
Elliotte Friedman [00:30:30] I don't think Gary's wrong. I think his report is a hundred percent true. It's awkward for us because Jennifer’s sitting right there and you know, you're kind of sitting there, you want to dig into the story and you also don't want to blow it up for her. And some teams get really goofy if the news gets out. So, we'll see where it goes, but I think the report’s accurate. You know, I do think there's a number of former female…like Angela Ruggiero, for example. She was interviewed in Florida last year, right?
Jeff Marek [00:30:58] When Zito got hired, she was- there was a number of people they interviewed, and she was one of them.
Elliotte Friedman [00:31:01] And I think you're going to see a few hires of some former female players, and I'm wondering if there's any who are getting towards the end of their Olympic time, who go through this cycle and become part of this conversation. I don't think this is going to be the last one.
Jeff Marek [00:31:13] Montreal is aggressively looking to hire more women in their organization as well. I think that's going to be part of the shift with the Montreal Canadiens, so that would come as no surprise to anyone. We're going to get to some emails here and we're going to get to some voice messages. Email address remains the same 32thoughts@sportsnet.ca. Phone number remains the same, the Thought Line 1-833-311-3232. In the meantime, four-game suspension for Brett Connolly, the Tanner Kero hit on Saturday night, which looked just horrific.
Elliotte Friedman [00:32:47] Yeah.
Jeff Marek [00:31:48] All of it. It was just pit of your stomach, and it's a reminder once again that this is a dangerous, violent game played by big, strong individuals who, with the speed of the game now more so than ever don't bump into each other but they collide with each other. Like, I look at the Brett Connolly play and I say to myself, ‘I know what he's thinking.’
Elliotte Friedman [00:32:12] There's no history there. This is a guy who doesn't do this stuff.
Jeff Marek [00:32:16] No. You know what he's thinking? He's thinking, I'm going to pinch. I'm going to meet him with body. The puck is going to turn over. We're going to keep the puck in the offensive zone, and it went horribly wrong.
Elliotte Friedman [00:32:22] Yeah.
Jeff Marek [00:32:23] His timing was horribly off. He caught Tanner Kero as he was turning to skate up ice. I don't think for a second that Brett Connolly intended to do that, I don't think he looked at him and said, ‘Oooh, I am going to fill my boots on this hit. Here we go, cowboy time. I think he thought, ‘I can time this. I can pinch and I can keep the puck in’ and it went horribly wrong.
Elliotte Friedman [00:32:43] And you have to pay the penalty.
Jeff Marek [00:32:44] You have to pay the penalty. It all happens in a split second.
Elliotte Friedman [00:32:48] Thankfully, the news on Kero appears to be nowhere near as bad as it could have been. You have to pay the penalty. I have no doubt that Connolly accepts the penalty of four games. I'm watching the NFL on Sunday, and you know, Teddy Bridgewater gets hurt really badly. Godwin got hurt. The great receiver Chris Godwin got hurt in the Tampa Bay game on Sunday night. You know what's happening? We're doing everything we can to make the sport safer, but the athletes are getting bigger and stronger and faster. The risk is just there. In terms of rules, has hockey ever been safer in what we allow?
Jeff Marek [00:33:31] By way of rules and punishment, it's as safe as it's ever been.
Elliotte Friedman [00:33:32] Right.
Jeff Marek [00:33:33] Now, now, now, now hang on a second— the caveat there is people will look at other eras and say, ‘Well, actually the game was played safer.’ But as far as the rules go—
Elliotte Friedman [00:33:42] Yes, yes.
Jeff Marek [00:33:44] It is at its safest right now, absolutely.
Elliotte Friedman [00:33:46] See, that’s what I’m saying, I'm not talking…
Jeff Marek [00:33:48] No problem saying that.
Elliotte Friedman [00:33:48] Yes, fighting's almost gone. There's no more stick swinging— very rare, I mean. And the NFL's the same way. You know, the way you can hit people, especially the quarterbacks, the way they played football in the 70s with the head slaps and all that stuff, it's not even close. We talked about this the other week with Trouba, like the Trouba hits I thought were clean hits, but because we see so few of those, and because we don't really have the stomach anymore as people who see, like, I don't remember who said this last night, but I saw a tweet that went viral about, ‘I'm really getting tired of people watching leave the ice on stretchers.’ And I totally understand that because I feel the same way, nobody wants to see anyone get injured, but we're also seeing people getting injured more by cleaner hits than we ever have, I think. I don't have a good answer here. I just think the rules are as safe as they've ever been, and people are trying to take a lot of the stupid stuff out of the game and make it an honest, tough game. But I just think the players are so fast and so skilled and so strong and so much better trained than ever. It's unavoidable, just like the NFL.
Jeff Marek [00:35:12] It sounds distasteful to say, but if you want a contact sport played at these speeds, you have to accept that these types of things are going to happen. That this is baked into the pie.
Jeff Marek [00:35:28] OK, Elliotte, let's wrap up the podcast here with a couple of emails and a couple of voicemails as well. So, the email address 32thoughts@sportsnet.ca, the Thought Line 1-833-311-3232. Eric submits this one.
Jeff Marek [00:35:43] It's funny, I just talked to David Amber about this on Saturday. With COVID protocols and players missing games due to this, does this affect players Iron Man streaks?
Elliotte Friedman [00:36:00] Yeah, I mean, it could end the streak.
Jeff Marek [00:36:02] What a horrible way to end it.
Elliotte Friedman [00:36:04] I was joking with someone. I don't know if you were joking with Amber about that, that either they're probably not going to allow Yandle to test or if he tests positive we’ll just throw it away,
Jeff Marek [00:36:16] Throw it away.
Elliotte Friedman [00:36:18] Him, Kessel.
Jeff Marek [00:36:20] That's right, he's got the Iron Man going too.
Elliotte Friedman [00:36:22] Who else is up there?
Jeff Marek [00:36:24] Once, once upon a time was Andrew Cogliano, and then that got scotched on a suspension. Yeah. John from Vancouver. Do you think at some point down the road, we'll see a proposal to have a franchise tag in future CBA negotiations? Elliotte, I can't see it at all.
Elliotte Friedman [00:36:42] Not while Bettman's the commissioner. I have asked about this for a long time. I'm a big supporter of it. Kurt Overhardt did a whole proposal about it. The franchise player, whatever he called the agent, I linked to it and it crashed his agency's website.
Jeff Marek [00:36:57] Well done.
Elliotte Friedman [00:36:57] But he had something like that and it didn't go anywhere. I love the idea. I'm a huge supporter of it. But as long as, as Bettman's in charge, I don't see it happening. He's not a fan of it. He sees it as money outside the system and it's just not occurring.
Jeff Marek [00:37:28] Mikey, my question is: what are the methods that the GMs use to communicate? Do they all email, call each other? Or do they utilize group chats for things like their players who are available for trade?
Elliotte Friedman [00:37:30] I mean, some of them are the same as you. They text, they call. I'm sure some of them use WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, pick your privacy app that you like. There is a group. It used to be a group email. I'm not sure if it's still a group email or it's a group chat of some kind.
Jeff Marek [00:37:48] Is that when someone gets put out officially?
Elliotte Friedman [00:37:50] Yeah, that's right. Couple of years ago, they really cracked down on it. They were angry at the amount of players whose names were kind of getting out there like, you know, they'd say, look like I'm thinking of trading, I don't know, name a player who I'm thinking of trading— Sam Bennett for argument's sake, and they thought too many people were finding out about this. You know, as a matter of fact, a few years ago, one GM made a joke about, and it was not like a funny joke, Tt was a really snarky, angry, sarcastic joke, that if you're going to share this with a certain reporter, have him call me on your behalf directly. Sadly for us, they've done a lot better job of keeping those things quiet. But there is a group chat that they will put names out from on, from time to time.
Jeff Marek [00:38:43] OK, Ryan, what do you guys think about raising the NHL draft age up by a year? Has this ever been talked about, and if so, can you ever see it happening? Pat LaFontaine was banging the drum a few years ago, Elliotte.
Elliotte Friedman [00:38:50] Yes, and I think there was a hope to do something big that would have things like teams in the USHL compete for the Memorial Cup. Could CHL players after their CHL career was done, go to the NCAA? It was a grand, grand plan and it does come up from time to time, but I haven't heard anything about it lately.
Jeff Marek [00:39:13] Yeah, 100 percent that pops up everywhere. And that conversation has been had in every scouting conversation, at every rink, all across North America. That is Ryan, a conversation that's, that's happened a number of different times. OK, we’ll, finish up with a voicemail here, Eliotte. This one comes to us from Mike, he has a waiver question.
Caller [00:39:47] “Hey, Jeff, Elliotte, Amil. It's Mike from Wallaceburg, Ontario. I consider myself a knowledgeable hockey fan, but I have no idea how waivers for the purpose of contract termination works. Like who needs to sign off on that? Does the PA have any say? Hope you guys can help me understand? Thanks.”
Elliotte Friedman [00:39:54] Yeah. So the way that works is pretty simple. A lot of the times you'll see that happen with a player, like there will be a number of players actually in the last couple of weeks, a lot of them are in the minors and they don't like the role they're getting. They're not getting enough chance to play. They're not getting the opportunity to get to the NHL. And they'll say, ‘Look like I have another offer overseas, and can I just go back there?’ and the team will do that. They'll agree. And you know, for example, last week, I think there were there were two of three of them. I'm just going through my tweets.
Jeff Marek [00:40:32] We've had a few.
Elliotte Friedman [00:40:37] Provolnev from Arizona. He was unhappy with his ice time and his role in the American Hockey League. And he says, ‘Look, I want to go home.’ The Coyotes said fine put him on unconditional waivers for contract termination, and he's able to go back home. And there was another one last week: Joel Kellman from San Jose, put on unconditional waivers last week, was unhappy with his role in not getting an opportunity to play more, goes back overseas. Borgman, from Dallas, he was back in Sweden anyway. He had, I guess they were reported, some personal reasons for staying overseas. He was on unconditional waivers for contract termination. It's usually that. Now, there is NHL approval and NHLPA approval on top of this, like with Evander Kane his legal situation, it would end up in court papers from time to time that Kane could terminate his contract so that creditors couldn't get to it. And every time that appeared in a court document or a story because it was in a court document, I would check with the league and the Players' Association and get told that's not happening. So, I think there's an understanding it can occur in those kinds of situations that we mention, but other situations it does have to be approved by the league and the players. And nobody wants a salary cap situation. The biggest one where I think there was recent talk was Patrik Berglund. Remember, Berglund was traded to Buffalo from St. Louis.
Jeff Marek [00:42:14] The O’Reilly deal.
Elliotte Friedman [00:42:15] Yeah, he went through a very difficult time. Buffalo put him on waivers to have his contract terminated and the PA wanted to grieve it. They wanted to fight it, they said they should not be able to get out of that contract. And Berglund said, ‘No, I want to leave and I don't want to fight.’ And the PA said, ‘OK, if the player doesn't want to fight, we won't fight it.’ But I know that that one was a real challenge.
Jeff Marek [00:42:44] I always felt bad for Patrik Berglund.
Elliotte Friedman [00:42:46] Of course, anybody who's going through a tough time like that, you don't want that.
Jeff Marek [00:42:48] Oh, but even before that, though, like how many times was Patrik Berglund traded before he was actually traded? He was involved in every single trade rumor coming out of St. Louis. I remember one trade deadline, St. Louis was going on a road trip, not a lengthy road trip, but for a few days and someone called me from there and said, ‘Are you hearing that Patrik Berglund is getting traded?’ And I said, ‘I mean, his name has been out there for a while to the point where we all sort of laugh, yeah Berglund bird was getting traded, we've heard it so many times.’ He goes, ‘No, he's like packed like so many suitcases on this trip. Like he's convinced that this is the deadline that he's finally going to be getting moved that had packed so much to go on it.’ That's, that's my Patrik Berglund trade deadline story. Mike, great voicemail- feel free to use it 1-833-311-3232, it is the Thought Line. The 32 Thoughts email 32thoughts@sportsnet.ca.Taking us out, a three-piece band from San Francisco. Hot Flash Heat Wave gathered great acclaim from their 2019 EP Mood Ring, using unique melodies and influences from all genres. The band continues to create layers upon layers of psychedelic breakdowns and keys that make you sing with their latest single. Here's Hot Flash Heat Wave with ‘Where I'm @’. That's the @ symbol if you’re following along at home, on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast. Enjoy.